《Cardmancer》 chapter 1 Jeff could do nothing as he heard the strikes of metal nearby as he lay on his back in the mud. Above him, the grey sky rained heavy drops onto his face covering the tears he was shedding to himself. With great effort, he used his still attached arm and grabbed the arrow in his side, and tried to pull it out. ¡° Don¡¯t bother Jeff. I used a particularly nasty head filled with poison. Of course, if you want to bleed out instead.¡± Jeff tilted his head to look at the girl who he use to have a secret crush on. Then behind her four others from his school appeared. ¡° You know Lindsey, you were always a bitch.¡± Jeff then turned to face the clouds again, letting go of the arrow. Feeling a slow death more worth his time. ----- 6 months ago ----- Jeff Trever looked out the window as he watched the heavy rain pour. The midafternoon mood of school getting out soon was killed by the spring shower. Not even the teacher had any work for the class as most others were in their social groups chatting. A few like him, a loner, or without any friends in this particular class were looking out of the window as well. Jeff then heard the bell and looked at the clock seeing it was in fact time to let out of class before reaching for his bag beside the window. That is when he noticed streaks of fire falling from the sky. His brain barely had time to tell his body to run before one of the fiery rocks landed in his classroom. As it did, Jeff and the other room inhabitants went white.
Welcome lost soul, please select a class type
Hero
Saint
Royal
Tycoon
Commander
Artisan
...
Jeff could only stare at the notification, not exactly sure what it meant, His memory was foggy before this but decided to worry about that later. As he felt he should make a decision quickly. Instantly Jeff disregarded Hero. Being an overpowered protagonist sounded cool, but realistically, looking at it from an outsider''s perspective of years of manga and other media. It just sounded like a pain in the ass. Saint sounded like he would become a figurehead. Lots of responsibility but no freedom. Royalty also got ditched almost instantly as well. History shows enough problems with that without adding in politics and family into the mix. Tycoon sounded interesting, but he soon thought of what he heard of the problems with money. Easy come and easy go is one. Then the fake friends and effort to always grow your financial empire. It was not for him. Commander got him interested. His first thought on this was some kind of general or mercenary commander. Allowing him to be in charge in a conflict while not being in the conflict itself. Artisan also caught his attention. After all, crafters were normally not in a fight. However, that took effort and skill he was not sure he had. Giving himself a few seconds to consider he begins to go for the Artisian choice when it greyed out. Unsure what that meant, he tried to select it but nothing happened. Going back over the list, he also found hero and royal were also grey. In a panic, he quickly chooses commander. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Commander selected.
Commanders are considered military leaders that use charisma and example to lead. From bandit leader to warlord. Commander types increase the morale and efficiency of those under them. As long as they make logical decisions.
Select commander type:
Troops
Summoned
Magic
Subtype:
Army
Tactical
Squad|
Already magic and troops were greyed, so he hurried to select troop and found the squad already grey as well. Only hesitating for a moment, he selects the army.
Congratulations on selecting your class parameters. Based on your choices and personality, you have become a Cardmancer. Cardmancers have increased intelligence and boosted luck stat. At the cost of being physically weaker than average.
Name: Jeffory Terner
Class: Cardmancer
Level: 1 Exp: 0
Stats:* S-4 E-4 D-4 I-7 W-5 L-6
* (all humans unlock their class with an average of 30 stat points in main stats) All previous skills and abilities will translate into new skills and abilities related to your class.
244 skills and abilities have been combined and translated into:
Abilities (passive)
Greater Math Tier 3 Level 41- Mana cap increased by .01 % per level (3.41%) and cp cap by .005 %) (1.705 rounded down)
Greater Learning Tier 3 Level 16- exp gain for skills and abilities increased by level/20 % (31.6%)
Physically Fit Tier 2 Level 34- Stamina drain decreased by level/100 % (2.34%)
Basic Tactics Tier 1 Level 73- Increase the effectiveness of your charisma-based skills by level/20 % (.0365%)
Basic Crafting Tier 1 Level 63- Increase the effectiveness of your dexterity-based skills when crafting by level/20 % (.0315%)
Poison Resistance Tier 1 Level 07- Poison damage and duration are decreased by level/100 % (.07%)
All other abilities are under Tier 1.
Skills (active)
Class skills have no level.
Card Draw- Create a new card. (unit only) cost 10mp every 1cp
Card Convert- Convert an object (or set of objects) cost variable. Converted items can be restored by others for 10x mana used to convert objects. Cost based on object(s)
Card Equip- Equip item cards to units. Items are destroyed if the unit is destroyed.
Card Storage- store unused and important cards in a dimensional vault. Limit to cp total +10 (can not store elites or bosses)
Non-class skills
Cleaning Tier 1 Level 37- Clean level/100 % more efficiently (.37%)
Cooking Tier 1 Level 25- Cooking food had a level/100 % quality boost (.25%)
Fistfighting Tier 1 Level 09- Fighting unarmed costs level/20 % less stamina (.45%)
...
Jeff could only blink as dozens of other tier one skills appeared. All appeared barely the tier 1 and hardly gave practical use. He did not have to think about it long, however as his vision soon returned to being full white. Chapter 2 Jeff was unsure how long had passed as he opened his eyes, blinking the glare from his eyes away. Recalling what he last saw, he began to look around and saw the room covered in a blue glow that was rapidly fading. All around the room were men in medieval getups forcing everyone on their knees. ¡° Fuck me, were we isekaied? I hope they are not trying to take our freedom away.¡±
Command ONE priority changed from ¡®safeguard summoner¡¯ to ¡®safeguard summoner and freedom¡¯
Jeff did not have time to read the popped-up message as he was knocked to his knees the girl in front of him was next. Unlike him, she tried to get up afterward and was forced to bend over on all four with her ass sticking up in the air. That is when Jeff noticed they were all naked. ¡° You can¡¯t do this to me! Do you know who I am...¡± She did not get much further as the midevil era dressed man placed his spear point first in front of her nose. ¡° Silence woman. We do not need you newly summoned to talk till all has been explained. If you continue to be a problem...¡± The man did not have to continue as a bloody scream came from across the room. Jeff and the woman looked to find one of the players of the school''s football team getting cut on the arm before being bound in chains. That brought the fight out of her. After a few minutes of seeing everyone being brought to their knees, the blue glow finally vanished and a new green one took its place.
All skills have been suppressed. Certain rights have been sealed.
Jeff blinked at that as a loud cough smothered all sound from the room. Showing on a pedestal a rather aged man in a well-tailored suit. The scars on his face told a story of conflict. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡° Welcome summoned champions to the world of Fridel. This is the country of Oceanrim, and the capital city is called Nigal. I shall keep this simple, based on the summoning ritual we used, you all are dead. And before you ask; we do not know how we do not know when we do not know why, where, who, or anything else. All that we know is, YOU DIED!!!¡± That last part was like a statement from god and what little Jeff could remember supported that fact. The meteor or whatever on the collision course for the school was clear as day in his head. ¡° Now, that is out of the way, I am Duke Randolph Hamelton the 3rd. I have been given the prestigious honor of... what is the otherworldly term... coral the sheep before they get bright ideas. As such it is my glorious honor to tell you exactly how much each and every one of you owes the continental alliance.¡±
A new financial marker was added. Summoning debt: 50,000 gold crowns
¡° All of you should have just had a popup telling you you all each owe 50,000 gold crowns. Now for an economic lesson for you all. One gold crown is worth one thousand silver crowns, and one silver crown is worth one thousand bronze. A crown is worth a hundred tip of the same material to go further. And the average loaf of bread costs ten copper tips. Which will feed you well enough for a day.¡± Jeff started hearing murmurs about how much they owed as the Duke raised his voice. ¡° QUIET!!! Now, that is the price WE paid to bring you back to life. Fortunately for you, we are not charging interest.¡± Murmurs start to spread again and the Duke looked to his side and nodded. A large screech soon vibrated through Jeff and he fell to his face holding his ears hoping to make it stop. After a few seconds it does on its own and Jeff struggles to go back to sitting on his knees, noticing the girl in front of him still fully bound to the ground. ¡° And let this be a lesson on manners. DO NOT INTERRUPT ME! As I was saying. We are not heartless fiends. There are a multitude of ways to pay off this debt. The first is serving twenty years on the front lines. What are the front lines, I will explain more in a bit. The second method is going the public service route. Become an adventurer and pay half your earnings toward your debt. Become a craftsman and pay half your earnings toward your debt. Become a mercenary and well... you get the idea.¡± The Duke then waved his hand and a tall woman in tight leathers stepped forward. On her back was a large ax and the only other noticeable feature of her is the collar around her neck. ¡° This is Matilda, In her youth, much younger than the lot of you, she was a bandit and made the mistake of attacking a noble in transit. For that crime against me, she was made a slave for life. Except, unlike her, your debt will not be limited to just you. Your children, and their children, and so on will be as well till the debt is paid. The good news is there is a catch-all method to blanket cover the cost of everyone''s debts. And that is to end the war with the demons.¡± Chapter 3 Duke Randolph paused to look around the room. It was a cruel thing he and the people of his world just did to the near thousand newly revived, but he has seen what happens when the demons get ahold of the people of a village. He has seen cities fall to their hordes over and over till the defensive line was established after half the continent was lost. And he knew, if something did not give them an edge, then all was lost. He closed his eyes to remember when he was a boy over half a century before. He and his father watched the hero summoned to fight the demons when they were more contained and less powerful. The young man in gilded armor marched from this very city with an army at his back. Knowing what he does now, he knew the hero was young and overconfident. The last summoning they did they sacrificed whole countries to train up the heroes they summoned. A group of six. Four of them could actually fight, and only three of them are alive now. The two crafters revolutionalized technology and magic items but fell into the trap of self-indulgence and nepotism. They now make trinkets for nobles instead of helping the war effort. The last one, the mage, left the war after the other three died fighting the neverending hordes. Locked themselves in their tower they have earned and foreswore the world. Realizing he might have paused too long in his momentary reminiscence, he opened his eyes again to see several of the reborn in less-than-ideal sitting positions. ¡° Right, as I was saying, we are in Nigal. More accurately, we are in what we call The Resort. A special compound outside of the city. Inside you will have access to the best elite trainers and resources we can offer. Take note, that we have granted each of you an allowance as part of your debt. Go under that allowance, and it will be removed from your debt, go over and add to it.¡± Randolph started looking around noticing a lot of naked faces in thought, many others just angry or despairing. He took a moment to look at the boy that was chained up. ¡° We will be giving you all six months for training. Most of you... those who squander this new life will not be given any choice but to be slaves. And you will be of use to us. Those who try hard will have their freedom. Even with your debt. Those who volunteer will be rewarded even greater after their term of service. Land and title, riches and fame, glory and eternity. All yours.¡± Randolph closed his eyes again. Remembering the lessons hard learned from the second hero summoning during his lifetime. They were selfish pricks. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ----- Jeff and the others were soon given simple robes to put on. Which was nice except they were itchy. Then led into lines where their basic information was asked for. Name, age, sexual preference, class... Jeff was unsure what he should give them, but it seemed that the clerks taking the information did not really care if they lied or not. Just writing down what they were told. He has no doubt the teen that called himself something 20 words long and was total edge lord would regret it later. When it was the girl in front of him turn, he learned her name is Rachael. From a country, he did not know the name of. Which allowed him to learn there were people from more than his world summoned here. In fact, other than the football player who caused the ruckus, he only recognized two others from his school here. One was Lindsey Leuis, the senior prom queen. Who he had a secret crush on. Then again half the school had a crush on her, including the girls. The other was Jared Wainwright. He only knew because he was his lab partner last year and the reason why he failed that class as well. ¡° Next.¡± Jeff stepped forward, scratching at his side where the robe was rubbing against his thigh. ¡° Name?¡± ¡° Jeffery Trever.¡± ¡° Age?¡± ¡° 17.¡± ¡° Previous home?¡±... On and on the questions went till about the twentieth, then the clerk said he was done and told him to move to the group with the red banner. Of the five others set up, his had the most women in it. As the blue banner seemed to have bigger and stronger men while the green banner had smaller and skinnier people. The purple banner seemed to have a mix of everyone, while the black and white banners looked almost deserted. Lindsey was in the white banner one. So was the football player. As Jeff took a seat at the bench with the others of the red banner he saw Rachiel get up and move beside him. The act caught him by surprise and he could not help but blush remembering seeing her on the floor. ¡° Well, that answers my first question.¡± He could see he was not the only one blushing. Instead of just trying to ignore it, he extends his hand toward her. ¡° Jeffery, but my friends call me Jeff.¡± She takes a moment to look at his hand before taking it with her own and shaking it gently. ¡°Rachael... healer... sorry, last thing I remember was headlights and a truck horn... then this.¡± He chuckled hearing that, realizing the ¡®classic¡¯ method most stories use. ¡° Meteor strike... or space debris that did not break up. Doesn¡¯t matter now. Also, Cardmancer, whatever that is. Seems like some kind of summoner slash commander.¡± She looked at him questioning how much she should reveal when a man in a colorful robe and a bandolier of potions stepped in front of them. ¡° All right red group. You are those that we call support. Or utility if you want to get technical. You do not interact with the enemy directly, but you are also not crafters or laborers. Which means you are the weak link in the team. Now, if you follow me, I will bring you to your dorm.¡± Jeff stood and offered his hand to help Rachiel up, and she took it as she smiled. Chapter 4 It turns out, Jeff found, that they each got a room, His is room R28 while Rachiel got R27. Inside the room appeared to be a rather large apartment. With the roof over twenty feet high and well over a thousand square feet. The open door to the side showed a rather comfortable toilet with what appeared to be toilet paper right beside it. On the far side of the room was a bed. On one side of it was a desk with some paper and a quill and ink bottle and some dressers and on the other side were empty armor and weapon racks. Opposite from the bathroom door was a kitchen table with several plates and bowls of food ready to be eaten. In addition to the table was a note on the wall beside three levers. Finally, on the wall of the entrance, there was a blue stone he quickly found was used to dim the lights and reverse the effect. He noticed a similar stone on the desk beside the bed. There were several notices, message boards, and instructions on the wall as well. Gathering all the notes and instructions only took him a minute, including the ones in the bathroom telling him how to use said bathroom¡¯s amenities. This was done at the protest of his stomach, which he realized was empty seeing the buffet. He did not bother reading anything till he chowed down two plates of greens, a rather sizable t-bone steak well cooked and seasoned, and half an apple pie. They did not skimp on the wine either. Which was cool and soothing helping everything else go down. Considering what to do with the other half of the meal left untouched he decided to look at the notes. ¡® Greeting Champion, If you are reading this, you got reborn in a new world. Like I was. Okay, maybe I skipped the ¡®death¡¯ and ¡®rebirth¡¯ part, but I was isekaied as well. My name is Master Artificer Travis and then add a few titles and such... Yada yada I been here for over twenty years. I know what going through your head, and it was my idea for the Resort and everything that goes into it. First, if you are one of those ¡®selfish pricks¡¯. You know that asshole that always messes over everybody else because ¡®they have it sooo bad¡¯ and whatnot... poser, please. You all are in the same boat. Take the stick out of your ass and use it as a fucking paddle and contribute. I am telling you right now, these demons are the real deal. There is no succubus wifu for you to woo (who is secretly the demon lord¡¯s daughter) and marry. Somehow changing her ways and yada yada... you know the deal. These are semi-intelligent beings who have a murder boner that makes any homicidal maniac back in your home world would envy. And those are the grunt and file cannon fodder. The stronger ones are much MUCH worse. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Now, to you clever idiots who are thinking about bringing gunpowder, laser weapons, or some other future sci-fi bullshit. Don¡¯t bother. I tried, previous summoned heroes have tried. (Records show one was a fucking genius chemist. And he could not make black powder. Magicing that shit does not work either. SORRY, not sorry!!!) Besides that stuff gets super expensive and works up to about level 50... before you need national strategic resources levels of material to just make something that does damage. Believe me, I paid off my summoning debt within a year, and I can barely afford some of the good shit at times. We are talking millions of gold crowns. Just to get your foot into the door. Moving on to the edge lords, you know who you are. If you take this seriously, and I hope you do, then what you want to do is pull the middle rope and call a servant to tell them that you messed up on your information sheet. And hope to whatever god you believe in that they have not said screw it and started processing. Then you really are screwed. Best case, you just lied about your name and did not give much else detail. So your name will officially be whatever you told them. Worst case they collar your ass just to skip on the headache they know you will cause. And believe me, they will. This is their lives, homes, and families we are dealing with. Next, supports, this part is specially written for you all. Everyone else will get their own version based on what group they are in. Anyways, supports. I hope you picked something with some kind of combat utility because you will not be in the rear with the gear safe with the supplies. They can and will put you right behind the front-line fighters. Your best bet is to find a front liner and become subservent to them. Because no one is going to give two farts about you otherwise. That being said, you have the most important role as well... because screw them, that''s why. Healers kinda get a priority break here. Ten guardians will give their lives to keep a healer alive, why because they are a DAMN HEALER. Healers are literally the angels of life and death on the battlefield. A screwup of a healer could at least keep one person standing for a time. That is time for a meatshield to be a meatshield while someone more important catches their breath or recovers from a nasty blow. Next in the priority list buffer. People who increase defense or decrease an enemy''s attack for example. If you are smart you will make one of these people your friend. Because, if there are no healers nearby, these pricks will be your best bet to making it out of whatever shit you are in... The list went on for another few class types before Jeff got to the last one. Last, but not least, summoners. Long story short, these people are wild cards... Chapter 5 Last, but not least, summoners. Long story short, these people are wild cards. No matter what, always remember this fact. Summoners are flat-out force multipliers. Falling short of golemmancers, who make permanent drones, summoners bring numbers to the fight. An example of a summoner is a dragon conjurer. Basically, for a short amount of time, they have the power of a dragon at their fingertips. A dragon¡¯s breath wipes out a horde of enemies while up on the battlements. A dragon¡¯s scales can fill in for a frontline while their skill is active. Even a dragon¡¯s libido can be used by them to guarantee strong ofspring. Of course, you have to get the approval of a dragon first before they can be of any use. That is the flip side of wild cards. There is always a downside. Considering how willing dragons are right now to have extra help guarding their nests, getting one to agree to help will not be too hard. Just make sure you pick a young one. Getting bonded to an older one set in their ways sucks, or so I hear. Anyways, more onto summoners. They come in three categories. They are powerful initially but have almost nothing in growth potential. Basically, they start 50+ levels ahead but they earn 1/2 what they should every level. So someone equal level at 75+ destroys them. Turn around on this is, they will get there first. Because while your sorry rear is killing stuff on your level, they are skipping to the big kiddy pool. The second is conditional growth, the dragon conjurer, is one of these. They have explosive potential and starting ability, but they need a kickstart from someone else. A dragon, a god, an eldrich horror (side note, bad idea... just no.), and there is always a price to pay for the power. Become the servant to a dragon after a hundred years, donating half your earnings to your diety... Your sanity and soul... (I will never forget you, Todd) Is the price worth it, usually yes... usually... The last kind of summoners is the exponential growth hax. These guys will lag behind everyone else for who knows how long, and then bam, they start to snowball. Necromancers are the go-to example of these. (side note, if you are a necro, ask for a reclass potion RIGHT NOW... No joke, they will not even collar you. They will straight up rip you apart.) Right, moving on, Necro snowballing. They start with weak zombies and skellies. (personally, skellies are better) The main problem here is resources, aka dead bodies, and no it does not work on demons. It has been tried... Soooo... the undead are weak chaff, their power comes from numbers early on... and guess what, your command point limit makes that kinda hard to do. Hence the early bottleneck. Now... assuming they get to a decent level and have not caused a catastrophe or gotten themselves lynched (in more than one term) then they start to grow more powerful rapidly. Better summons and larger hordes. Eventually, they can get to the point of undead dragons and zombie demigods. Now they are a force to be reckoned with. Of course, there is a reason we are all living, breathing people. The last necro to rise to power was ten thousand years ago, and well, the gods (the one that made this dirtball) dropped a small moon on his head. Ever since necros are hunted literally religiously. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Now that you have read all that, you should be about finished with your dinner. (or about to start) So do not worry about the cost of ¡®this¡¯ meal, which is one of the best they will serve. (cost about 1 gold tip) it is covered this time. But from now on it will cost you. For the love of god, do not be a cheap and go bread and water. You will need a balanced diet. Once you are done, I would go to the desk and write out a list of immediate needs. You know a few changes of clothing, maybe something else to calm the nerves, ring the right most bell and take a bath. A servant will come in, clean up your sloppy mess, and set out a change of clothing. Jeff could not help but put the finished note down and look through the papers for the prostitute list but only glanced at it before deciding not to partake. There were a bunch of humans, about as many beastkin, and a few exotic choices such as elves and dwarves. He even spotted a one hundred and eleven-year young dragonkin. Putting the paper back into the stack, he finishes his glass of wine and goes to the desk as recommended and writes out a full set of clothing then decides to have three brought to him. As well as a notebook that would end up being his future journal. Afterward, he pulled the correct rope, went to the bathroom and took a bath in the hot tub-like bath, and dried off before collapsing on the bed without bothering to dress. Chapter 6 When Jeff woke up he found himself facing the biggest bed he had ever been in butt naked. Seeing the light blue glow, he slowly reached over to it and tapped it to brighten the room up again, finding he slept on a set of clothing set out for him. Feeling a little embarrassed, but more shameless, he soon bolted toward the bathroom to relieve himself, and wash up again, just so he can wake up faster. When he left, he dressed in the provided simple pants and a shirt and found a new note left on the kitchen table. This one had a list of breakfast items. Feeling less extravagant than the night before, he settles on some eggs and toast with ham strips and fresh milk. Giving the middle rope a tug, he got on a call to one of the staff to place his order. He was writing in his new journal when the bell over his door rang. ¡° Come in.¡± Jeff could only stare as what could be described as an eight-foot lizard person with wings and an equally long tail pushed a food cart into the room and started setting the table. When she was done she looked at him and bowed slightly. ¡° Will that be all, sir?¡± Jeff took a moment to pick up his jaw from the floor before stopping himself from dismissing her. ¡° Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?¡± ¡° I will not sleep you...¡± Jeff¡¯s mind goes blank for a moment contemplating the statement. ¡° I... ah... meant your name, or... well more about this world...¡± This time it was her turn to be slightly taken back. ¡° Oh, apologies good sir. It just, the last three I attended to lead with...¡± ¡° Fuck me?¡± ¡° In the literal context, not the ironic one.¡± Jeff takes a moment to think before standing from the desk and moving to the food. When he sat back down he looked at her and cleared his throat. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡° Sorry, I just never...¡± She nods in a certain understanding. ¡° I get the surprised look a lot in human lands. Not many of my people venture this far south.¡± ¡° Ah, so... your name?¡± ¡° Apologies, sir, my name is Xilna. I hail from the Everyburning Peek, which is in the Dragon Lands, on the northern reaches of the continent. Do you wish for a full geography lesson?¡± Jeff thought about it as he took a bit of ham and egg on a fork and bit into it before leaning back again. After the bite, he had his answer. ¡° I think a book about it, and about a bunch of stuff, if they are available would be nice. So why are you so far south?¡± ¡° Well, there is a long version of the story, but you get the short one. I got drunk and gambled too much. Mom bought my debts and sent me here to work it off.¡± After another bite, he looks at her. ¡° And what were you before a maid?¡± ¡° Oh, the maid is one of my secondary classes. This will be explained later by a tutor, but in short, my main class is swordsman and my first secondary is medic, so I can treat my own injuries. I got my maid class when I started working for the Duke. Since my mother is a close friend of his.¡± ¡° That... um... neat. What else can you tell me about secondary classes?¡± ¡° Secondary classes normally have rapid growth but are temporary. For example, my maid sub-class is determined by my having this job as a maid. By the way, I will only have it for another month. Then I get to go home.¡± Jeff thought some more as he nibbled on some toast and decided he did not have more questions for her, but definitely had more questions. ¡° Thanks for your time, if I could borrow a few books about common sense things I am sure were prepared, I would appreciate it... Also before you go, will I be seeing you again?¡± Xilna nods. ¡° Of course, we are assigned to you Champions for the duration of your stay, or in my case my employment. That is unless I do not like the attitude of the attendee. Which I think I will not change right away. You have been very courteous despite my uniqueness and stature.¡± ¡° Thanks... I guess... Anyways, if you can get those books, I should be done when you come back. I do not imagine I will need you till dinner afterward.¡± ¡° Of course, sir. If you need me beforehand just call with the middle rope.¡± After that, she took her trolley and left. Only to return later with about a dozen books. Taking the emptied plates, then leaving again. Deciding the seat at the desk was far more comfortable, he moves the books over there and opens the one labeled ¡®Recent History¡¯. In short, the demons appeared about eighty years ago from some kind of rift in space. Back then only one appeared every other day. Ultimately, it became an adventurer farm for the experience. Unfortunately, after a few years of easy farming, someone finally died. The others killed the demon and everything seemed to be fine... until the next day, the second demon wiped out the farming party in a surprise attack. Then ran rampant in a small village and the farmlands before they were ultimately stopped by a soldier patrol. From there the adventurers sent a more powerful team to contain the tear, unfortunately, they did not learn about the second one opening till days later. From there it just snowballed. Quickly turning from hundreds to tens of thousands within weeks. Forty years ago, the reborn hero at the time, was raised from an infant. Left to seal the demon lands for good. He was initially successful until he was ambushed, cut off from his supply line, and eventually overcome by numbers and exhaustion. Twenty years ago, a party of six heroes was summoned alive, very important to note that, and told their woes. Two of them became crafters, originally supporting the war effort. About fifteen years ago when they started competing against each other for power and profit over the war effort. Leading to a lack of crucial supply failures during a critical operation to retake a strategic chokepoint. Leading to the swordsman, archer, and healer heroes to perish. Leaving the mage behind. Later she constructed a magical tower at that chokepoint and the swordsman hero, her brother, son live with her and a small army. Cursing the name of the two crafters for their egos and greed. Chapter 7 Jeff spent over an hour reading in the book. Learning a lot about the current situation of the war. In short, not been a lot of hope going around since the last heroes effectively retired. The dragons to the north were holding the line just fine but were not doing any more than holding their territories. The dwarves further south were in the best shape outside of the dragons because the mountains were natural fortifications. That is to say, they have had losses, but not as badly as humans. Everyone else however seemed to be holding on by a thread. One bad famine or major breach could mean the end of everything. As Jeff was engrossed in his book, reading about how the elves have been fighting, he hears the bell over his door. ¡° Come in.¡± Expecting Xilna for some reason, he was a bit surprised to see Rachael dressed in a white robe. ¡° You busy?¡± Jeff turns back to the books and sighs. ¡° Just some light reading. You want to talk on the couch.¡± She blushes and nods as he bookmarks his page before sitting on one side as she took the other. It was well over a minute of awkward silence before Jeff realized she wanted him to open up first. ¡° So, have you decided what you are going to do?¡± She balls her hands together and looks down as she shakes her head. ¡° No, it just seems...¡± ¡° Yea, I know, but based on what I been reading... Things are bad... Not every man for themselves bad, but close. One bad turn and people are going to stop working together and start turtling up. Maybe the dragons and dwarves can hold out indefinitely, but I doubt it. Something needs to change, for the better, and soon... Otherwise,... we might have been better off remaining dead.¡± ¡° Oh, that is bad. I mean, I do want to help... but...¡± ¡°Overwhelming...¡± She only nods to this and Jeff closes his eyes. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡° I think I will fight, but on my terms. I... I think I was going to join the military and try to get to be an officer. But I don¡¯t remember. I do not remember much from my previous life. Except for tidbits or the final hours before... you know.¡± ¡° My father is a doctor. A neurosurgeon I think. My mom was a business executive. I wanted to heal people like my dad, but my mom did not relent in my education about the family business either... I was already halfway through med school when my private car was...¡± Jeff considered that and raised his hand for five cards to appear. On top was a skeleton with a gold border, while the rest were plain. ¡° Oh, crap!¡± Rachael looked over just in time to see Jeff rise from the couch and go to the middle rope. All she could make out from Jeff¡¯s panic talk was something about a reclass potion. He then started pacing around the room for about a minute before the front door opened where the Duke and a dragonkin maid entered with about a dozen soldiers. ¡° Good, you have not summoned any yet. Lady Rachael, I must ask you to stand behind my guards.¡± Not understanding what exactly is going on, but left with no choice as she was forcefully raised from the couch and pulled behind the guard. ¡° Right, Jeff was it? I understand you are a cardmancer. Please summon your weakest summon.¡± Taking a moment to blink then nods, he took one of his plain border skeletons and it seemed to evaporate in a display of lights before a crystal bone-like skeleton appeared in the middle of the room. Xilna stepped forward with her hands on a longsword at the ready and relaxed. ¡° Level one mana construct. The bones are the only thing dense enough to be visible. How it is so clear however is miraculous. Normally, they are tainted by some element.¡± The Duke coughs into his hand to catch the attention of the room. ¡° Master Jeff, I thank you for your caution. I shall personally see your records updated.¡± He then snaps his fingers and gestures toward the door. Causing the soldiers to leave in a timely manor. ¡° I just wish the necromancer we found earlier did not already kill three of your fellow champions.¡± This comment caught both Jeff and Rachael by surprise. ¡° What? Why? When?¡± Jeff takes the chair at the table and sets it in front of the couch, As an offer for the Duke to sit and explain if they wanted to, and they did. ¡° Xilna, my dear, will you get me some tea, you know what I like. I will not be long, however.¡± Jeff returns to his seat and Rachael returns as well. ¡° Right, we found a necromancer this morning, He basically rang the bell, asked to talk to another champion, and then proceeded to kill them then add them to his arsenal. Normally the maids check in on the champions, but unfortunately, because of all the shuffling. It was missed till the last victim invited the killer in after she ordered breakfast. Luckily, for her, in the context she was still alive, he decided to force himself on her first. When the maid delivered the meal... well... he was stopped.¡± The Duke shifted slightly noticeably uncomfortable with how Rachael was reacting, to draw attention from that Jeff spoke up. ¡° I was reading a recent history book. Is it as bad as the book says?¡± The Duke looked slightly grateful before shaking his head. ¡° Yes and no. It is bad, but we could fight for another hundred years before we were truly desperate. If that will be all?¡± As if on queue, Xilna opens the door and the Duke stands and takes the teacup from her after he does and looks back toward the two. ¡° If we were that desperate, we would have thrown you lot into the thick of it instead of giving you six months. Most of the books are there to pull at your patriotic heartstrings as well as be educational. Now if you excuse me, I must go. I hear there has been a fight over at blue ward. Damn muscleheads and their ego-measuring contests.¡± After he left, Rachael and Jeff could not help but laugh out loud as the mana construct watched it all with observing eyes. Chapter 8 ¡° So, with that out of the way. Here, I wanted to give you these.¡± Jeff turned toward Rachael with three skeleton cards with plain borders in his hand. ¡° I was going to give you four, but as I had to summon that one...¡± Jeff gestures to the still-idle skeleton before taking a seat. ¡° Man using mana really takes it out of you, anyways, I remember what that long note said. We are vulnerable weak links. I have my summons, so I can hopefully defend myself, but you...¡± Rachael blushes and turns away thinking about it. ¡° I am a soft target. I played games where it is standard practice to target the healers first.¡± Jeff nods and offers the three cards to her, and she takes them.
Cardmancer- subcommander secondary class offered.
  • Subecommanders take half the cost of cp from shared cards to maintain. (rounded up)
  • Subcommanders can maintain cards and issue new orders to units under their command, change out equipment, and direct the growth of units.
  • When a unit under their command is destroyed, they may resummon the unit at a 20x cp mana cost once twenty-four hours have passed since the unit was defeated.
  • Subcommanders can not use equipment cards
  • Subcommanders can not make new unit cards (outside of upgrading a unit)
  • Subcommanders can control elite units they evolve themselves. (elites controlling subcommanders take the full cp cost instead of half)
  • Subcommanders can not control bosses
  • You can only have one subcommander every 25 levels rounded up. (current limit:1)|
Jeff read the message as Rachael took the cards and had one pop up in front of her as well which revealed the same information, but only that pertaining to her. ¡° Well, that¡¯s interesting. I did not even know there were subclasses.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Jeff decided to keep the fact he did quiet. ¡° So what can they do?¡± ¡° No idea let''s look at the one I summoned first.¡± To his suggestion, they both move to the still construct that had been watching them the entire time. Feeling cautious, he slowly reached for the arm of the construct and found his fingers stop short of the bone, Where his fingers stopped seemed to appear some kind of plastic or glass skin. ¡° You were trained to be a doctor right?¡± ¡° I was in med school, but I get what you are asking. You want me to give it a physical?¡± ¡°Yeah, if you could.¡± He backed away as she took his place, Starting with the construct''s hand before moving up to the shoulder then feeling around the neck, and after working her way down. On the construct''s chest, she squeaked in surprise when she cupped a couple of mounds as she blushed before working her way down. Only stopping to examine the hip area. ¡° Well, it is a she, in the context that it is a woman¡¯s body type. Slim and lith. She lacks nipples, a belly button, or well... those other things. However, her muscle and bone structure is surprisingly human-like. Her internal organs are a mystery, however.¡± Jeff thought on that a moment before nodding. If the construct was like a human then he could in theory treat it as a blank slate. Which by what Xilna said before, was already true in an elemental aspect as well. With a thought, he brings out his last card, the one with the golden border and it starts to evaporate in lights as another skeleton joined the first. This one was easily six inches larger and had denser bones. ¡° Can you examine this one as well? It is my starting boss.¡± Rachael nods and begins her examination like the last one, this time only pausing at the groin for a moment. ¡° Well, that is a guy, who does not have the equipment like she doesn¡¯t. No nipples, belly buttons, or genitals. His muscles are way denser, however. She would be something of average for an adult twenty-year-old, while he would be an athlete.¡± Jeff rubs his chin in thought hearing that. ¡° Interesting, why don¡¯t you try summoning your three as well?¡± Agreeing with him, Rachael takes her three cards and raises them up to be displayed. As she did all three evaporated and three new constructs appeared. Jeff could make out a faint outline of the skin of the three, as they each appeared to have some kind of white mass to them. Rachael then examined them as well, which revealed them as two women and a man. The women were like the one he first summoned, but the man was smaller than his boss. Both in height and muscle size.
Factor added to existing and future cards ¡°gender¡± Genders can change the characteristic of units summoned. Males tend to be larger and stronger while females tend to be smaller and more agile. This is the norm and not a rule. Evolving a unit will change its physical aspects further.
As if the notice did something the males of the constructs seemed to grow an inch. ¡° Well that was cool, I guess they evolved since we figured out their genders. I think I can even summon each gender specifically if I want to, which I don¡¯t right now. I am just over half mana right now and my head is killing me. ¡° Oh, that sounds bad.¡± ¡°It''s like having a small migraine. Making it hard to focus on minor things. So the rule of thumb does not go under half if able.¡± Rachel smiles at that as the doorbell rang. Xilna was at the door. Chapter 9 ¡° Excuse me, sir and madam. The Duke is calling an assembly soon to discuss what you were told earlier about the necromancer. I shall wait outside while you get ready so I can lead you there.¡± ¡° Wait, what about them.¡± Xilna pauses half closing the door and turns back to look at the five constructs. ¡° The staff of this dorm has been informed of your summons... unique characteristics, but not the rest of the staff. Which should be done by tomorrow. They should be fine if left here for now. If there is nothing else. We really should get going.¡± ¡° Alright, we are coming then. I guess you five should remain in this room for now. Rachael will pick up you three before she returns to her room.¡± Having received their orders, the five constructs put a fist to their chests before wandering to various parts of the room. The boss and one of Rachael¡¯s female constructs move to the desk full of books, while the rest pick more random places, like a corner. As the three left they missed noticing the boss construct picking up one of the books and started to read it. The same book that Jeff was reading earlier. ----- ¡° So, I think my skeletons need clothing, Xilna, can you have some simple commoner garb arranged for them.¡± ¡° Of course sir, I shall see to it.¡± ¡° Also tomorrow, I would like to arrange a wake-up call. Halfway between when I ordered breakfast this morning and dawn. I want to be woken up and have the same breakfast I had this morning. I will need to be led to a workout area after I eat, so I begin exercising and other training. Maybe arrange someone to help me with that as well.¡± ¡° Very good sir. And what about you madam? Shall I pass a message to your meander?¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Rachael thought on it a moment before shaking her head. ¡° No, I still have to think about my future. But clothing for my own constructs that Jeff gave me would be nice as well.¡± This comment caused Xilna to pause briefly, barely noticeable to the other two. ¡° And may I ask, how this occurred?¡± ¡° I don¡¯t mind. It seems I can give a secondary class similar to my main. I am at the cap for a while, however.¡± ¡° Oh, wonderful news that is. Being able to give secondary classes means you can teach others the class, and it is inheritable. As a summoner, you will be very sought after by those that do not like being on the front lines.¡± Jeff blinks a little surprised to this news but does not comment on it further. The rest of the walk to what appeared to be an outdoor training yard went in silence. Xilna lead the two to the red banner where several of the other reborn were already chatting amongst themselves. Jeff did not miss the look of a couple of guys in the back who were eyeing Xilna hatefully. One of which had a rather large red imprint of a hand on his face. Wisely, he decided to avoid those two. After leading them to the banner, Xilna left to tend to her errands. ----- Duke Randolph was quite annoyed when he reached the podium, after giving a wave of his hand the pair of trumpet players brought their instruments to their lips and blew. He never learned the intricacies of wind instruments nor had he ever cared, however, he always did enjoy when they silenced the masses. Especially, when they knew how to carry a tune. ¡° Greetings champions. If you noticed, we have a few missing from your numbers. Before you all start to try to figure out who, I will make it easy. The entirety of black group has either taken a reclass potion and has reclassed to be in one of the other groups, or well, made to be not a future problem. Unfortunately, one clever idiot decided to respec right back into his original class and lied to us about it. Unfortunately, three of the red dorm were killed because of this deception. Amy Fisher, Carlos Karmel, and Steve Lewis. In addition, two more are not among us. Zack and April Walker. Both are from blue group. April because she took the easy way out and Zack, because he thought it would be a good idea to get what he wanted from the staff, and found he is no match for a maid whose main class is a level 86 swordsman. Overall, most of you have been found to have the basic decency to follow some common etiquette. However, I have heard complaints from the staff listing over half of you. Those on the list will either offer an apology to the offended staff member or members, or I will send you directly to the front lines. No detours and no appeals. In addition, I have sent for some etiquette trainers to help teach you all some manners, if you need it or not. These lessons are mandatory. Next, I would like to address the issue of fighting in the halls. This is both destructive and disruptive. The next time it comes up fines will be levied and punishments enforced. The least of which would amount to lashes. We have training arenas and professionals to help for a reason. Use them. Finally, word has reached me that some of you are trying to skip out on your debts.¡± Randolph makes a gesture and two guards lead five individuals naked and bound in chains. ¡° Three of these five individuals tried to break out last night. Hoping to use their newly acquired skills to escape as a level one individual. The fourth individual is Zack, who tried to force himself onto one of the staff and the final person is someone very special. The killer of three of your own. These five have graciously volunteered to show you what it means to become a slave.¡± Chapter 10 It shook Jeff to his very core. Seeing what the Duke made the five do. First, he had them cut off their own pinky on their left hand. If that was it, he might have been able to stomach it. Instead, he had thetake it a step further. This was a wake-up call telling him exactly the kind of people he is dealing with, and how desperate they are. He would learn later this measure was only implemented within the last decade to ensure there is a next generation to fight the demons. After that demonstration, they were dismissed and he took Rachael back to his room, where they found the constructs standing around. All except the boss, who seemed to be reading a book. ¡° Right, clothing for the constructs, then I am thinking about dinner.¡± ¡° Yea, I will leave you after we get the clothing on them... I have a lot to think about.¡± Jeff closed his eyes and accepted this, which he would later regret doing instead of insisting that she stay for dinner and talk. It was a unique challenge for the two to get clothing on the constructs. Ultimately they forewent underwear for simple pants and a shirt. Boots were impossible as well so they put them with the underwear and Jeff thought they needed either full facial masks or balaclava. After about twenty minutes Jeff took a step back as Rachael plopped herself onto the bed exhausted. ¡° Seriously, it¡¯s like dressing a child.¡± Jeff ignored her as he read his pop-up.
Congradulations, you have unlocked ¡®clothing¡¯. Clothing offers no tactical application. You can now create cards with ¡®clothing¡¯ pre-equipped for 1 additional mana per card. Mana-created clothing is destroyed when unequipped.
¡° Jeff! You zoning out on me?¡± Jeff jerked slightly as he heard Rachiel calling for him. ¡° Sorry, I... just unlocked clothing to be pre-equipped to my cards now for an extra mana.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Rachael squinted her eyes at him before thinking better of it and sighing. ¡° Fine, I guess since we put clothing on them that unlocked it. Wish we only had to do one though...¡± Jeff looked at his elite before shaking his head. ¡° Be glad it was just four instead of forty or something like that. Can you imagine?¡± Rachael smiled at that before looking toward the door. ¡° I really should get going.¡± She motions for her three to follow her as she stood. As she did Jeff hesitated as he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. As soon as she and her summons were gone Jeff sighed and shook his head. ¡° Right, back to reading then.¡± ----- Rachael closed her door and took a deep breath to calm herself down. ¡° So he saw me naked, but everyone saw me naked. He is not a perv. Which is nice, but... does he not find me attractive? Is he gay?¡± Rachael slaps her cheeks before looking at her three summons. She points to the male one. ¡° You stand outside as a guard. Let the maids and other staff pass, but block access to other otherworlders, unless they are with staff as well.¡± The summon nods and leaves the room.
Your ¡®nameless (M)¡¯ card has unlocked ¡®guard¡¯ class. As this class is untrained, it is locked till trained. Exp will still be earned toward the class for the unit to be applied when the class is unlocked.
¡° Well, that is something.¡± She points to one of the females next. ¡° You will guard inside the room. Same restrictions apply as well.¡± This time she did not get a notification. ¡° I guess you can come with me, I am going to take a bath and you can guard me in there, and attend to my needs.¡±
Your ¡®nameless (F)¡¯ card has unlocked ¡®maid¡¯...
Rachael quickly dismissed the pop up before sighing and going to her desk. She pulls out a paper and writes down a list of books she hopes will help her before thinking about her own future. After she is done with it she hand it to her ¡®maid¡¯ card. ¡° Take this to the one outside, inform him to hand it to the maid when she comes. Then return to me.¡± The summon does so, and as it does Rachael goes to the bathroom and strips down, and walks into the bath. ¡° Seriously, is he gay? I mean I¡¯m hot. A bunch of guys at school ogle me all the time. Maybe he''s just the shy type.¡± Her train of thought is broken when the door opens and her ¡®maid¡¯ card enters the room and took her spot beside the door. ¡° Still, I am grateful for the helpers. But what to do with them? What do they call the front-line fighter... Tank... Yea, that will definitely be the guy. Front line with a shield. What else was there in that party synergy they talk about in video games? Damage guy... or girl in this case. Then some kind of utility. I guess I am a healer. So I got that covered.¡± Rachael looks over at the summon guarding the door. ¡° I think you will be an all-rounder. Able to do a little of everything. But how to get you to that point...¡± Chapter 11 Jeff only got a little done before going to bed other than reading more history books and child books that taught the masses some common logic about things. He read till it got dark then turned in. Xilna waking him up did no favors to his nerves, however. After arranging for her to escort him to the training area after an hour for food and a bath, he felt ready for the day. She leads him to a training area already half full of people training. Sadly not as many otherworlds as he hoped. ¡° Sir, this is Sargent Mar. a twenty-year veteran fighting the demons. He has been assigned as a general trainer for those needing one.¡± The sergeant looks at what he considers a kid before looking at the two summoned mana constructs. The female one seemed to be in a relaxed stance only paying attention to their creator while the larger male seemed more stiff and ready for action. ¡° So, I guess I should hear what you think you need before I tell you how wrong you are.¡± Jeff lowered his shoulders and sighed as he shook his head. ¡° Honestly, I got no clue what I am doing. I am here as a starting point and I have a general idea of an end goal, or at least a goal. There is a saying in my world. Officers give orders and Sergeants make it happen... if they can keep those same officers from screwing it up. Tell me that is true in this world too.¡± Sargent Mar broke into a rare smile as he looked at the kid in front of him. ¡° I guess that is something they got right where you come from. So tell me lil¡¯ commander. What is your goal?¡± Jeff pointed his thumb behind him to his boss. ¡° Teach this one to fight. And maybe learn a little myself. Because I am sure I will need to learn.¡± Jeff then turns toward Xilna. ¡° And I was hoping you could teach the other one. Either that or have someone better teach her. No offense.¡± Xilna opened her mouth to speak but paused and then looked at the construct. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡° And I take none. Very well, I shall take your construct under my wing. Come along, there is much still need doing.¡± Xilna turns to leave and the female construct follows her. ¡° Now that that is done, lil¡¯ commander, I ask you this. How do you plan on getting your summon to fight?¡± Jeff looked over his shoulder and thought about it for a moment. ¡°The first thing needed to be done is to find out what he is capable of. And myself I guess. From there create a plan to work toward my goal.¡± The sergeant nods and points toward the track where others are running. ¡° I will go easy on you today. Just run in circles till you collapse or throw up. When that happens just sit on a bench till I get to you.¡± Jeff looks at his construct and makes a motion for it to lead before the two take off. ----- Sargent Mar kept an eye on the Cardmancer and his summon as he arranged the next task for the duo, all the while dealing with other otherworlders that were brought to him. Half of them were idealistic idiots and those were the better ones. One arrogant kid had the nerve to throw a punch at him. The damn idiot broke his hand on the sergeant¡¯s chin. Only the Cardmancer admitted he had no idea what he was doing, and had a decent first step to his goal. So much so, that he gave the kid a pass, refraining on sharing his own thoughts. After all, his method would have been much worse otherwise. The Sargent watched the otherworlders as the trainee squad he called in arrived with the spare gear, he nodded in acknowledgment to the work, but nothing more. Better to not let the rookies get a big head. It did not take much longer before Jeff could no longer keep his balance and half stumbled from exhaustion. ¡° Private, fetch the Cardmancer. He is the one with the mana construct that looks like a skeleton.¡± One of the privates quickly broke away and soon returned half-carrying the kid as the construct seemed fine. To the Sargent however, he could tell it was mana drained by how sluggish it was moving as well. ¡° Right, first off lil¡¯ commander. I have seen summoners like yours before. So I can give you some general information about them. For example, your constructs do not have stamina like you and me but run purely on mana. If I had to guess, they also have it as their life gauge. How much mana would this fella take to summon?¡± Jeff coughed and wiped his mouth with his arm. ¡° Ten points...¡± Sargent Mar nods to that. ¡° Sounds about right. Since you probably spent about fifty stam in running. What''s your mana at now?¡± ¡° Ninety-three.¡± Mars nods and does some quick math. ¡° Spend at least forty of it but no more than sixty.¡± Jeff raises his hand and makes four more cards with clothing and summoned them and immediately after went to his knees and threw up. ¡° That is what we call mana drain. It hits a lot harder when your stam is low as well. Get used to this feeling, because when you fight the demons you will be in this state a lot. Private, get him to the bench and some water.¡± The private that was holding onto Jeff led him to the nearby bench as the sergeant followed. ¡° I see they can wear clothing. What about armor? Can they use weapons? I would hate to hear I have to train a bunch of martial artists.¡± Jeff shook his head. ¡° Won¡¯t know till I can get some to turn into a card and equip them. Unless someone wants to put armor on him.¡± The sergeant looked at the boss before pointing to a bag containing a set of training gear. ¡° Why not both, we got to test the limits of your class.¡± Jeff nods understanding fearing turning the armor into a card. Just to waste it. Chapter 12 As it turned out, using ten mana when under half mana hurt a lot more than using over forty to get to that point. So much so that Jeff felt blood leaking from the corner of his nose and the Sargent laughed seeing that. ¡° Well now, a good thing to know our saviors can bleed. The way the nobles act, you bleed gold and crap mana crystals.¡± Jeff could only shake his head as he wiped the blood from his lip. He had already equipped the armor to one of his spare cards and summoned the unit.
¡° Well, good news and bad news. The good news is I won''t have to take more of your gear for my other summons. The bad news is, my boss, can''t make use of the armor they just put on him.¡± To emphasize that point, the gear started turning to dust and faded away as mana particles, which left it a bare skeleton for all to see for a moment. To everyone¡¯s surprise, those particles turned into a set of common plain clothing, similar to the other summons. Except it seemed a little more well-made. Seeing this caused the sergeant to whistle lightly. ¡° Now that is something you do not see every day. Matter to mana and back to matter in an instant. Not sure why your mana constructs are so pure, but I imagine that helped with the conversion ratio.¡± Jeff blinked at that comment. ¡° Conversion ratio?¡± Sergent Mar nods. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡° Yep, we mere mortals are poor conductors of mana. All the squishy bits and all that. At higher levels, we start turning into mana. That is one reason why high-level individuals go sterile. Mana has replaced the extremities first. At least that is the reason for men. Women... well... mana does not take too kindly to interference from a new life.¡± After that, there was an awkward silence and all eyes gradually drifted to Jeff¡¯s makeshift squad of summons. With the pause another otherworlder approached. ¡° You the trainer? If you are done with this scrub I need to learn how to use my sword better.¡± Jeff takes a moment to look at the man who seems to be dragging a sword made for a giant, or maybe Xilna if she was being adventurous. Instead of addressing the idiot, Sargent Mar looked at Jeff again. ¡° Right, first, you take the rest of the day off. Order some food to help with mana recovery. Since you are a summoner, which is an auxiliary mage subcategory, you qualify for it. Come back in the morning and I will have someone here to make a daily schedule for you and another for some gear. If you want you can leave your summons here to observe and learn.¡± Still feeling sore, Jeff decided to save whatever energy he had left in order to walk back to his room and only gave a nod to the sergeant before doing so to his boss before leaving. The sergeant on the other hand looked at the squad of summons and noticed all but one watching the rookies while the boss was watching him. ¡° Private, take the new recruits to one of the corporals and get acquainted. Don¡¯t make them do anything they don¡¯t want to do, but feel free to be a little rough. Dying is a learning experience for them. So pain and injury is a minimum with them. That said don¡¯t push them too hard either. They are untrained and untested. And make sure they are suited up.¡± The sergeant watched one of the private¡¯s solute before the others grabbed the sacks of training armor and gestured the constructs to follow. Only the boss paused to watch the sergeant a few extra seconds before leaving behind the others. With his current work out of the way he turned his attention to the increasingly annoyed otherworlder. ¡° So kid, you want to say your peace before I tell you how wrong you are or do I just get to say it now? Either way, I know what I am doing and you are wrong.¡± The otherworlder grew more red in the face as he lifted his sword to have it rest on his shoulder. Obviously, a move made in misguided pride. ¡° I ain¡¯t giving up the buster.¡± Any joy and amusement the sergeant had with dealing with Jeff was gone now and he looked at the slab of wagon armor. ¡° Well kid, I hope you enjoy strength builds because that is all you are going to be able to have lugging around that monster. And even if you do ever get to the point of swinging that damn thing you be lucky to hit a stationary target with your dexterity being so low. On top of that, you will not have the stam for a second swing. You¡¯ll be a one-and-done failure.¡± ¡° I will repeat, I ain¡¯t giving up buster... Now what I need is a giant mech suit and...¡± For the next ten minutes, the sergeant endured a childish rant of grandeur and expectations. For a second he entertained the thought of a warrior who could use that quarter ton of metal as described and had to admit if the issues of mobility and stamina were fixed, it would be a huge addition to the front lines of the war. Unfortunately, such a project would far exceed the budget of one of the otherworlders. After a minute he decided to kick it up to requisitions to send it to the crafting hero¡¯s organizations. Maybe something will come of it one day. Chapter 13 As soon as Jeff got back to his room he called Xilna for dinner and then went to take a bath. While he was gone Xilna and the summon he had her teach, unload the trolly of reading material and his dinner. Half a book of reading later he decided to call it a night. The following day, Jeff knocked on Rachiel¡¯s door wanting to know what she had planned later but got no answer, so awkwardly after a few minutes of waiting, he moved on with his day. After a brief hello with the Sargeant from the day before, who immediately directed him to a corporal. Then moved on to his next otherworlder problem ¡° Right, I am Corporal Shang. Any comments about my height; no, good. You otherworlders keep pointing it out. Now, I have been voluntold that I need to help you arrange training for yourself and your spawns. I watched them yesterday and found them adequate... for new runts. You are not big enough to want heavy or even medium armor. So, medium-light. Hard leather with metal reinforcement at key points. Chain mail under armor at most...¡± As Jeff listened in rather shock, he was manhandled by a dwarf half his size. The Corporal kept grabbing parts of his body as if measuring him. ¡° ...Normally, I would suggest a spear as your primary, but seeing you as a commander type, such a commoner type weapon would be wildly inappropriate. So sword it is. Any preference on type?¡± It took a moment for Jeff to realize that was a question and was about to suggest a rapier as a joke but paused to really think about it. ¡° You are the expert, but I picture some kind of short to medium length one-handed sword. Perhaps either a dueling dagger or a buckler or even both as an offhand.¡± ¡° No, no shield. Does not fit with a light armor noble. I know stupid, but being an officer is as much leading as being seen as able to lead. So you want some kind of blocking. A dueling gauntlet. Yes, I heard stories from outworlders about this thing called a duel disk...¡± Jeff backed up shaking his head. ¡° Nope! My cards do not work like that. I can maybe store cards in it...¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Corporal Shang grips his beard and thinks for a moment. ¡° I think we can make something that will allow you to quickly cast four cards and still maintain a high defense rating. Let me see one of your cards.¡± Hesitantly, Jef complies. Creating a new rookie card for 13 mana. Which did not make him feel very well since his mana was still fairly low. Shang immediately ignored the teen and instead focused on the card. ¡° I can work with this. Mind if I take this back to the shop? I promise not to lose it.¡± Jeff holds his card protectively as he eyes the dwarf trying to gently but forcefully take the card away. ¡° I want a receipt.¡± Stang pauses a moment before grumbling and gets out a notepad. ¡° Freaking otherworlders... messing with a dwarf''s good time. I am about to make him some cool gear and he wants a freaking receipt. Next, he going to demand his gear in a timely manner, well made, and on the cheap. Freaking nobles.¡± Jeff listened to the dwarf grumble to himself as he wrote out a note of requisition. Which he did not even know was a thing. ¡° So, now you got official paperwork. We should have a prototype in about a week. Since I now have your measurements, I will be off...¡± It takes Jeff about thirty seconds to realize he was left alone and another thirty to further notice he did not get a schedule made. Looking around he found the Sargeant from the day before busy and his summons with a squad of rookies being instructed already. With a sigh he went to the track and ran for about half an hour until he felt tired and decided to spend the rest of the day studying. ----- The next book Jeff read was about the races and their history. It became abundantly clear right away that it was written by a human supremacist. The very first sentence was in fact stated that humans were superior because of their culture and technology. Beastmen were stupid savages that did not know how to do anything but fight and breed. Dwarves were nothing more than molerats who knew how to drink and breed. That dragons and their kin were oversized horny lizards. Mermen were overstimulated fish... In fact, the only entry he found that did not have a race as overstimulated primitives were the elves. Who the writer called abstinence-loving tree huggers who come closest to humans'' level of culture. Except for the fact they presumably never have relations. After glossing over the rantings of a racist hypocrite, Jeff had enough reading so he decided to check on Rachiel again but found her still not in her room. Not having any idea of what else he could do he called Xilna who suggested then lead him to the auxiliary commons room, or the red dorm comune room. Where he found about a dozen others he recognized from the first day they were summoned. Unfortunately, no Rachiel was seen here either. Not wanting this to be a waste of time, he decided to sit in a chair with a deck of playing cards and started playing solitaire while listening to a few uninteresting conversations. After about five minutes a female voice spoke behind him. ¡° So, another one crawls out of his hole huh? You''re lucky, there are still a bunch of hero teams looking for aux¡¯es.¡± Jeff takes a moment to move a newly flipped K to an empty spot and finds a joker in the deck. Ignoring the card he sees a dark-skinned teen clearly showing off her chest with her arms. Chapter 14 The first thing Jeff sees turning to the speaker is her barely covered chest. As in two small triangles being held together by leather cords. If their purpose was to keep modesty, then they were barely succeeding. Next, he noticed the blue tattoo on her highly exposed skin. Being familiar with magic by now with his own abilities, he easily guessed this had something to do with her class. Then he saw her eyes and immediately frowned. Something told him that he would not get along with this woman. ¡° I got my own plans right now. I am waiting to see how viable they are before looking for a group.¡± Jeff then frowned even more before turning back to his cards. ¡° And just for an FYI, summoners have a naturally higher charisma stat, so charm effects do not work as easily.¡± He then leaned forward to move another card as the woman behind him growled angry at his statement. One of the resort guards overhearing his comment took out a stone and the entire room was bathed in a pink glow. Before anyone could do anything else another grabbed the woman and several others were subdued as well. ¡° Just great, more paperwork. Going to have to get a contractor in here now and break a bunch of charmed-induced contracts.¡± Jeff could tell that was said out loud enough to be heard by several others in the room without it being too obvious it was a warning. Jeff on the other hand continued to flip cards. A stray thought of wondering if there was some kind of gambler or cardshark class that could synergize with his cardmancer one. |Exp awarded: 17 (17) level-1 individuals had been subdued due to your actions. Bonus Exp awarded: 10 Expose a plot of charm and contract abuse by bluffing and intuition.| Jeff read the message before dismissing it. Apparently lying about being charmed was not actually a lie. He looks at his cards and sighs as he starts flipping them over to all show their back before mixing them together. A skinny kid with acne and glasses walks over and sits down. ¡° Hey deal a hand of five card stud. We can play as we talk.¡± Jeff shrugs as someone else motions to a guard and sits down as well. A teenage girl dressed like she really did not care about appearances. ¡° Deal me in as well. I asked the guard to bring in a bunch of copper coins so we could bet with them. We all owe a ton of gold so some pocket change will not matter.¡± Jeff looks at the other teen and he shrugs his shoulders as well. As he was about to deal a fourth individual, a man in a full suit of armor sits down across from him. At least he thought it was a man till she spoke. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡° Count me in as well. It seems only us four were unaffected, except the guards. But they did not notice.¡± Jeff sighs and deals out the cards. ¡° Since the money not hear yet. We doing a free round so we all know the same rules. The game is five card stud. We bet, toss and redraw, and bet again. Face cards low to high is Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Jokers are wild and considered high card. Any questions?¡± They each shake their heads and take up their cards. Jeff¡¯s is C7, S7, CK, H4, H10. The teen girl sat to his left and tossed two cards. ¡° Names, Janice, I got a class related to communications and surveillance.¡± She then blushed. ¡° I use to... stream online.¡± It takes Jeff a moment to realize what she meant and dealt her two new cards. ¡° Amanda, buffer... shutin artstudent. My apartment building caught fire and...¡± Jeff nods at this as he tosses her new cards. ¡° I... some creep got my IPN and well.¡± They each turn to the last member of the circle. ¡° I was a pro civ sim player and streamer like Janice. Well, not like her... but you know... anyways, administrator. I was on a plane when terrorists hijacked it. Names Bobby by the way.¡± Jeff pauses before dealing Bobby his new cards and taking three himself. He frowned at seeing he traded a K high card for a 9. ¡° Jeff, I got isekaied by a space rock. I am a summoner.¡± Bobby whistles at that. ¡° Nice, monstergirls?¡± Jeff shaked his head and raises his empty hand to create a rookie with training gear. Taking a moment to show the others, he then puts it into his card vault. Glad he was sitting down as his mana was near half again. ¡° Mana constructs. You see the bones because they are not tainted by mana attributes. Do not know how that happened.¡± Janice rubs her chin hearing that. ¡° What would happen if you did introduce an attribute?¡± Jeff just shrugs and shows his cards. ¡° Pair of 7s. That is something I plan on testing later.¡± Janice nods to this and shows her hand. ¡° Three 3s.¡± Amanda just tosses her cards in the middle and Bobby follows suit. After that the guard brought them a hundred coppers each. ¡° Right, do you want to pass dealer or?¡± Bobby shakes his head. ¡° Naaa, we good. You keep dealing.¡± Jeff nods and shuffles before gesturing for Janice to cut before dealing again, starting with Amanda. ¡° So, you all got any plans? I definitely know I do not want to be some idiot underling. I mean who tries to charm people in the middle of this place to sign magical contracts that would be sketchy in any world.¡± Amanda gave a sharp laugh that echoed in her armor. ¡° You be surprised. Unfortunately, we are the auxiliaries. Sure we are important, but we are nothing but a red smear on the ground where it counts. Well except for you, Mr. I got minions.¡± Jeff just shrugged as Amanda opened with a 2 coin bet. Bobby matching it a moment later. ¡° Give me something to be the administer of and I could make a city run like clockwork. Could probably do a decent job at defense too.¡± Jeff thinks on that as he raises the bet to four. ¡° I will be something of a general, or rather a mercenary captain. Boots on the ground as it were. Janice, if you could communicate long distances, could you keep in contact with Bobby to help with logistics?¡± She nods as she matches the bet, followed by Amanda putting in two more. ¡° Normally, people think I will be best buffing the front line, but I would do better keeping the supplies moving. Get more goods to the front faster and all that. As well act as a force multiplier for any caravan I am with. In case they are attacked.¡± Bobby then puts two coins in as well. ¡° We need a map.¡± Chapter 15 After the third hand, the game was abandoned and a map of the front lines was shown, which caught several others'' attention. It became clear to them all right away they had a lot of work cut out for them. Only seeing the pieces in play, it painted a fairly clear picture of those closer to the front were giving their all while those further away were building up their own strength instead of helping and clearly preparing for the collapse of the front line. Expecting the demons to soften up their rivals before swooping in and taking everything. The problem is the demons just restore their numbers after a single day. In addition, they become stronger than ever with every kill they make. Not only growing that demon who makes the killing blow but adding a new addition to their numbers. Seeing this, those on the front hold desperately to the status quo. They do not dare fail, because that would mean death to the demons. In the opposite side is they have greedy neighbors to their back that would at best take all their credit and spoils for themselves and worse just kill them all and say they found them in a mutually destroyed state. Except, everyone would know it would be a betrayal because demons come back. But there would not be any real proof and there would be no one to replace those nobles forces anyway. At least until the next major victory when a different noble would pounce on them in the same manner. By the time midnight rolled around over half of the unaffiliated and uncharmed auxiliaries were in the common room listening to the conversation. Not only that but many of the maids, guards, and trainers were there as well. Including Duke Hamelton, who had a huge grin on his face finding the so-called weakest of the bunch to figure out the state of the world. Not that all their guesses were correct, nor their assumptions, but it was close enough to paint a respectable picture. He could only nod at this as he thought about the otherworlder terms of statistics. Over seventy percent of the total number of gamers became auxiliaries. And not the casual gamers that might play for an hour or two with some friends, but those that spent a fair amount of their hours a week on it. Much more than some as a normal job. Ironically enough, it made most of them the most predictable and unpredictable at the same time. Those who chose hero or royalty-type classes were either the popular people or those who wanted to be the popular people. Or just plain idiots with dreams of grandeur! Most of the fighters were those naturally gifted with athleticism but not so much in the brain departments while the crafters and merchants were the opposite. Naturally, auxiliaries were the opposite of the hero classes, as royalty was a bit in all of them and all of them a bit of it. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. After him hearing the reason for this impromptu meeting reason, he nodded to one of the guard captains allowing it to go on for a little longer before moving on to the real reason he was here. Dolling out punishment to the charmer and her group. Naturally, he knew about there being charm effects being used. In fact it was a very weak school of magic with a very niche situational use. Mainly because it requires the victim to be weaker than you. It was allowed now because it is both useful as a training tool and not strong enough to really matter. Except, a group of thirty power leveled their charmer by volunteering to be put under her and being released over and over. Making her level 2 that very morning using this method. Making her more powerful than most of the other summoned otherworlds. It put a smile to his mouth learning it was the cardmancer who outed the seductress. Considering his whit has been much greater than many of the heroes and royal-type classes, He just hoped one of the most promising individuals of this group would survive to be of use in this eternal stalemate of stupidity. After walking through the halls till he got to a holding area where thirty-four outerworlders were being held. Those who have been charmed were put in another area while their contracts were broken for breaching the laws of the land and rehab. He ignores the groans of pain from the questioned prisoners as they are ¡®asked¡¯ for more information. He soon comes to the door of one hero class who he thought had promised. An archer with a knack for poisons. ¡° Linsey Leuis, what exactly were you thinking you would do? Making many of the auxiliaries and fighters into your servants then doing whatever plan you considered doing. Gods forbid if you thought of rebelling because not even I could have saved you from the guillotine. You''re lucky we caught this scheme early. Because this is the least of punishments that I could give. Now, do you have anything to say?¡± She looks up as her head raises before spitting at the Duke. A glob of blood seemed to freeze halfway between them before dropping to the ground and sizzling as it was destroyed by the magic ward in place. ¡° I was thinking if those idiots were going to die, it would be for a good cause. I know you know most of them are nothing more than cannon fodder. At best, they are meat shields to buy time for those truly important.¡± The Duke frowned further at hearing this. ¡° You are both smart and clever for a hero new to this world. It always surprises me to see how powerful those with the class quickly become. But I have long stopped being surprised at how arrogant you are as well. I have seen too many heroes already humbled permanently. So what happens next I hope humbles you a little.¡± With that said the duke turns away to allow the interigater to ask his questions again. Chapter 16 It was near dawn when Jeff got back to his room and he did not wake till past noon. After a brief run and bath afterward, he returned to the common room to talk to the other auxiliaries again. Many of them are still there in deep discussion. It did not take long for him to find out they all started to make a guild charter like this was some kind of MMO. He chuckled as he put his name down as a provisional member till the whole thing was sorted out. Not realizing many of those there before see him as one of the original founding members. Over the next week went like this. On occasion a surprise interaction with another otherworlder from a different faction. Yet Jeff could not help but worry that Rachael has not been seen during that entire time. On the morning of the tenth day after their summoning Xilna left a note for Jeff with his breakfast. To ¡®Commander¡¯ Jeff Trever You are asked to present yourself to ¡®Armory 3¡¯ at 10:30 or earlier. This is in regard to your combat gear becoming ready. Take note that 317 gold crowns of your allowance were used and are nonrefundable. Corpral Shang Jeff squinted his eyes at that in rage and almost tore apart the note before remembering the receipt he was given. Taking it out he read the writing on it. Requisition issuer- Corporal Shang Gear request- 1 dueling gauntlet that can double as a protective guard. Able to hold cards *labeled item 1 Gear recommendations- light-medium officer armor. No major specifications were noted. Weapon recommendations- 1 short to medium sword. 1 dueling offhand dagger. Comparison item 1- A roughly three-inch by seven-inch card with modest thickness (Precise thickness to be determined. One side has a mana construct in low-grade training gear. (descriptors provided magically) The back side has a six-point (double triangle) diagram of the four basic elements and the elements of light and darkness. Arranged to have their counters across from them. One triangle has fire, air, and light as the other has water, earth, and darkness. (further descriptors include magic script bordering the card) Seeing as it was still fairly early, he decided to do a run first. When he got to the courtyard however he found Sergent Mar waiting for him. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡° There you are, little commander. I noticed you have been working on your legs, but I have not seen you do any other training. No one wants to follow a commander who only knows how to run away.¡± Jeff fails to suppress a sigh. ¡° I was not told what else I could do from the good Corporal. We only had a short discussion about my gear before he ran off for a week. Actually, I got this this morning.¡± Without thinking anything of it, he takes out the note he got earlier and the receipt. The Sergent frowned reading the newer document first before reading the receipt. ¡° Freaking dwarf, neglecting his duties again before he half efforts his own vanity project. Tell me, did you specifically ask for this gear, or did he just dominate the entire conversation?¡± Jeff takes a moment to remember how overbearing the dwarf was. ¡° I remember the gauntlet, sword, and dagger were my ideas. Nothing else, however.¡± The Sergent nods and calls for a private. ¡° Go to Captain Lews and request her presence. Mention a certain lazy Corporal has earned some lashes. And there is no daddy to save his hide this time. Then mention we are on our way to Armory 3.¡± The private solutes before running off. ¡° I hope you do not mind if I join you.¡± Jeff shakes his head. ¡° How about you lead the way? Other than my room, here, and the auxiliary common, I have not been exploring. Too busy reading about the different peoples and history.¡± The Sergent nods to this and starts walking. After about ten minutes they reach the basement beside a door labeled ¡®Armory 3¡¯. There Jeff saw a rather beautiful elven woman with half a dozen others handing her papers or filling them out as she spoke. ¡° ...denied because such a project would take years if not decades to develop. In addition, the expense would not condone such outside a century or more of use. However, it is approved if third parties want to pursue such developments. As such the state will retain the value of 5,000 gold crowns worth of initial development at a minimum due to the nature of the source of the development inspiration.¡± The scribe finishes writing and the captain presses her ring to the document before taking notice of the two new additions. ¡° Sergeant Mar, this better be good. You know I''ve been wanting to deal with this thorn for a while. That is the only reason why I am here.¡± Instead of saying anything he just handed her the two documents he himself was given. Due to the recept being first, her face did not scowl till she read the second one. ¡° What the hell! Three hundred gold crowns are insane. I personally know my lord grace did not spend a fifth of that on a full platemail of enchanted mithril for his youngest son''s coming of age. That is with a freaking griffin mount and an entourage to care for both.¡± Handing back the documents to the Sergent, she then takes out a crystal orb and follows the magic signature of the receipt to when it was made. Seeing Jeff railroaded by the dwarf did nothing for her frown. ¡° Gods damn that dwarf. You''re lucky you asked for that receipt. If not he could likely say anything and use it as an excuse to do whatever he wanted without recourse. I swear, if that idiot managed to get ahold of the limited supply of adamantium we got...¡± She did not say anything else as she put the orb away and walked through the door. Chapter 17 As soon as the door cracked open, Jeff and the others were bombarded with the smell of molten metal and the ringing of metal hitting metal. Of course, what he saw was a young female dwarf behind a reception desk looking at some paperwork. That is until she looked up from said papers and saw two senior officers. Far faster than Jeff could himself, she was on her feet and saluting by pressing her right fist over her left breast. ¡° Captain Sargent, I was not expecting you. What can I do for you?¡± The captain shows the two papers of Jeffs and gives the dwarf a death glare. ¡° I have here a receipt and notice of goods completion for inspection. Naturally, since I did not receive a requisition for any project over a gold eagle I am quite curious how this otherworlder is charged over three hundred on a project that is supposed to be at cost.¡± The lady dwarf opened her mouth in shock but quickly composed herself and entered a parade rest. ¡° Above my paygrade mam, all I know is I am supposed to direct this particular otherworlder to office C.¡± With only a nod in acknowledgment, the elf moves to the door to the right and walks through it. Soon followed by the sergeant and Jeff. It was not long till they found the office and walked into it. The few seconds Jeff trailed behind meant he missed why the sargeant bolted into the room and armlocked the corporal whom he met before. ¡° ... the gods name did you do? Stuff as much mithril into an auto repair enchantment? Why in the world would a new otherworlder need over a ton of mitril in repairs for his gauntlet? There is only one thing I can think of. You were expecting the naive otherworlder to ogle at the gear and think nothing of it. Then when he finally is out in the world you would have someone kill the kid and claim the prize in metal. It is not the first time some crafter has done something like this you know. I remember...¡± She pauses then sighs. ¡° Sargent call some guards and personally escort this thieving piece of crap to dungeon six.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Sargent Mar nodded as he started talking without saying anything. Jeff could feel some sort of magic was being used but not what that magic was. Captain Lews then turned to the armor stand with the over-stylized suit of military dress. ¡° It is decent armor, for a low-ranking officer going to a party. Worth maybe twenty silver. Sword and dagger. Maybe a gold. More ceremonial than functional. If you do not mind I will have some people I trust go over it. No extra expense.¡± ¡° I, yeah, sure. That''s fine with me.¡± The elf nods and turns to the polished silver-looking gauntlet. From appearance alone, it looked like a giant wing that would cover Jeff¡¯s entire arm. How practical that would be, he had no idea, but it was beautiful. ¡° A master definitely made this, measurements are taken precisely to be able to block arrow strikes as you raise the wing to cover yourself, but not too large to be unwieldy. Just enough motion to be effective without excess bulk to slow you down. An item that would take a lifetime to master. And greed ruined its chances of ever seeing its purpose fulfilled. I will have this one melted down to break the auto repair enchantment. You are looking at about a twenty-present loss in returned material, however. The good news is the former corporal will be charged for that. So what do you want to do with the arm brace?¡± Jeff looked at the winged armbrace and sighed while shaking his head. ¡° Honestly, I have no idea. I like the design, but not the price tag. Is it possible to keep the design...¡± Before he could continue the elf shook her head. ¡° Maybe to a degree, but it would be an imitation at best. Who did this, did this with plans on seeing you dead. I have no doubt there is a built-in weakness somewhere.¡± Jeff, upon hearing that nods sadly. ¡° Melt it, make me a functional replica for combat and one for more ceremonial purposes. Then training ones as well. I am also going to need someone to teach me to wield it.¡± Captain Lews nods hearing this agreeing. ¡° I am sorry this had to happen to you. I did not realize you were the cardmancer that was getting so much attention until I saw you. Normally, I do not take to watching a person¡¯s requisitions personally but in this case, I am going to make an exception. In addition, Sargent Mar will become your personal trainer and will arrange for proper trainers.¡± Hearing this Jake shakes his head. ¡° Mar is a good guy, probably a great trainer, but what I need is not foot soldier training. It is leadership, tactics, and self-defense. He has been perfect for my cards, but I have no intention of being in the front lines with my summons. Do not get me wrong, I totally understand I will be fighting... just...¡± The elf looked at him and smiled lightly. ¡° You know your limits and have an idea of your path. I have heard most otherworlders have far superior ideas in war but lack in common sense. I am glad to see exceptions to the rule.¡± Jake could not help but rub the back of his head and grinned. ¡°Yeah, well know yourself is half the fight. I need to learn a lot and get a lot stronger. Because I have no doubt that when I see my first demon. I am going to need every gain I can get before then.¡± Captain Lews looked gently at Jake like he was a young child with dreams of grandeur. ¡° Yes you will, and a lot of luck as well.¡± Chapter 18 Xilna looked at the human woman bundled in the fetal position in her bed in the recovery ward. She was one of the dozens of victims who were freed from the charmers the day before. Most of the others were in similar states. The male victims had it a little bit better as most of them were not as abused in their short enslavements, unlike most of the women. Feeling she has seen enough she turns to the guard that led her and Jeff¡¯s summon here. ¡° I had heard the rumor... but why am I here? As I understand it, my charge is the one that stopped this.¡± The guard gestures to the door in the back. ¡° She asked for you by name.¡± With that, the guard took station nearby leaving Xilna to sigh and move to the door. On the other side was another otherworlder that looked familiar. This one had three cards in her hand as she sat in a chair looking at them with a hollowed-out look in her eyes. Looking up she saw the dragonkin and smiled meekly. ¡° Xilna, thanks for coming. I... I need a friendly face right now and...¡± Without bothering to listen anymore, she takes to a nearby stool and sits while the summon stands to the side of the room, waiting to be called upon. ¡° I had heard rumors, but...¡± ¡° It was my maid. She... she sold me to those...¡± Xilna gently took Rachael¡¯s hand and shook her head. ¡° I will be honest with you. One aspect of us being maids is to be spies, informants, and thieves. We are there for those with, let''s just say less reputable classes to gain experience, practical not level based. We are an information network and syndicate built into one. We can take bribes and do some less-than-pleasing things. But we were explicitly told we could not do certain things. Some pervert wants your used underwear. The right bribe and they would be his. However, anything that would harm or jeopardize the future of the otherworlders. This... this was wrong.¡± Rachael did not move as she stared at the cards for a moment. ¡° I was naive, believing these would give me an edge. I guess... I guess they did. They bought me a few seconds when they first tried...¡± Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Rachael squeezed her hand tightly and her nails dug into her palm, drawing blood. ¡° It was the day after the Dukes presentation. I... I decided I didn¡¯t want to become... breeding stock. So... I... I asked my maid to take me to where the others otherworlders were gathering. I am a healer, I assumed I would always be in demand.¡± Rachael paused as a white light came from her bleeding hand and the self-inflicted injury and blood were both gone. ¡° And I was right. There were a bunch of smaller groups. Parties of three or four. All of them wanted me in their party. I tried to get their plans and...¡± Rachael shook her head saddened. ¡° Most of them did not have any concrete plans. Nothing about logistics or even methods of getting to the front lines. They are... a bunch of kids with dreams of grandeur.¡± Rachael closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before releasing it slowly. ¡° I was in school to be a doctor. One of the first things they teach you is about emergency situations. They tell you how important it is to not be wasteful with possibly limited supply. How slow is speed and fast is waste. Then I was approached by the ones with the hero rank. As you know, I am the saint rank. They focus on individual strength while I focus on healing in large numbers over a wide area.¡± After another deep breath, she looks from the cards to the dragonkin. ¡° They wanted me to be a figurehead for publicity. Heal some people for free. Then lock me away and charge money for my service to ¡®select clientele¡¯. Also known as those with influence, money, and power. I told them I did not want to do that and left. As my maid was leading me back to my room. I should have realized something was wrong when she took a different route. I was ambushed by their charmer and...¡± Rachael shakes her head to get the memory out of her mind. ¡° I... I was not a ... I had some romantic experiences before coming to this world. But my magic is passive... It was not only me but the others as well.¡± She closes her eyes and sighs before looking at the cards in her hand again. ¡° I don¡¯t want to feel that helpless again Xilna. I want to be stronger... And I need these three to be stronger too... Can you help me? The only person who showed me kindness trusts you and... I need someone I can trust too.¡± Xilna looked sorry at the saintess before focusing on the cards. She noticed they were starting to emit a slight glow just like the healing earlier. ¡° Dragons do not believe in gods. We view ourselves as the mightiest of beings in the world. Huberous you can call it, or pride. But the fact remains, a saintess is not about a higher power but about what those around her believe in. Dragons believe we are the strongest in the world, and so this fact is made true. Tell me, what is it that you want to believe in? What is it that you want others to believe in?¡± Rachael did not acknowledge the questions but Xilna could tell they had the desired effect. ¡° I will help you the same I will help Jeff. My time here is nearly up so you must trust others as well. Even if it means opening yourself up to betrayal again. Because like it or not, it is a fact that no one can do it alone.¡± Xilna then raised up to leave but Rachael held her hand keeping her there. ¡° Can you stay with me for a little bit? Not long... just till I am ready.¡± Reluctantly Xilna nods and sits back down. Pondering when she first was romanced or lack of memory due to it being done in a drunken state after losing a bet. Chapter 19 Jeff took the rest of the day to come up with his own thoughts for the future. To really think about not only what he plans to do, but how he plans on doing it, and how he would be seen doing it. For starters, seeing the uniform made him think about his own cards cosmetics. An army is not an army if it has no uniformity. They call that a mob. An army had to have a dress code, standard procedures, and more importantly a symbol that represented them. From rebel forces in some forgotten corner of the world to the mightiest armies. His mind focused on the back of one of his base cards and saw the six-pointed star with two distinct triangles linking three symbols of an element in each corner. On the top was a white gem and going clockwise it went white, red, green, black, blue, brown. Rubbing his chin, and finding some stubble there, he could not help but shrug and put the card back into his vault. After an hour of reading into a noble''s introductory guide to heraldry, he could not help but nod to his idea. It did not take Xilna long to arrive. ¡° You called, sir?¡± Jeff nods and lifts the book he had been reading. ¡° This is a book from the noble academy to teach young nobles the differences between the banners of different species and factions. I noticed a lack of any fixed notifiers for otherworlders,¡± Xilna nods and reaches for the book. ¡° Most otherworlders do not understand the rules set in place for heraldry. For example, something involving a tree is usually reserved for those of elven bloodlines. A hammer or pickax is often added to a dwarves. The shade of a dragon¡¯s scales color is the main color of ours. Now there are exceptions to every rule and rule to every exception. A mining company in example will also usually have pickaxes even if there is not a dwarf in the company. A horse trading company and centaurs will often have something related to horses Now otherworlders often use something from their homeworld they recognize but we natives do not. Usually some weapon or such. And they have no qualms about ignoring standard conventions. Which in itself could be a sign you are a otherworlder.¡± Xilna hands him back the book and Jeff takes it and puts it on the table then grabs the card he had there. He showed her the back of it. ¡° Would it be possible for me to get one made using my card as a base?¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Xilna takes the card and looks at the back of it for a moment before flipping to see a basic clothed skeleton on the front. ¡° The design on the back could be easily be recognized as a magical-based heraldry, which is accurate with your summoner status. Obviously, a skull or skeleton would be frowned upon. I shall be honest with you. Other than that, I am not the right person to ask. I am a lesser daughter of my line. Close enough to have a direct connection, but not high enough rank to be in contention to lead the family. Because if I was in that position then my family would mostly be dead.¡± Xilna shakes her head before handing back the card. ¡° If you wish I can arrange for someone to come that is more knowledgeable. In fact, it would be wise to also get someone to teach you proper etiquette in the proper setting, beyond the basic lessons you are already being provided. Technically, you are behooved to every country and none of them at the same time. That is till you pay off your debt.¡± Xilna then looks to the side to consider something. ¡° In fact, I believe I shall message my mother. If you are serious about your plan on becoming a mercenary captain...¡± Jeff looks at her confused as he interrupts her. ¡° I never told you...¡± She cuts him off in return. ¡° It is obvious by your requests. You seek knowledge of all the races. Looking up prices of goods enough for a small army. Pay rate for mercenaries. Believe it or not, this is one of the lesser taken paths we have prepared for.¡± Xilna pauses to scratch her chin. ¡° I mean over half of the blue and green dorms are calling themselves adventurers or some nonsense. I mean we do have those, but real ones would eat them for breakfast.¡± Xilna notices Jeff turn his gaze back to his card. ¡° I am going to need levels too. Before I start making a mercenary company... maybe I should raise my level first.¡± Xilna shook her head bring his attention to her again. ¡° You should learn how to fight first, which is the whole point of this place. Hero¡¯s and otherworlders are known for their rapid early growth. In three months, most of you should be able to fight a low-level demon one-on-one at least. It not a matter of stats or level but skill.¡± Jeff considered her words before nodding. ¡° What was it about your mother?¡± Xilna sighs and hunches her shoulders in disappointment. ¡° I was going to suggest she be your sponsor. My co... I mean the Duke knows I am here looking for people to help on the dragons and dwarves front to push. She told me to offer to buy out your debts and offer better terms than many countries. But, if what I am guessing is happening between you and the other otherworlders the other night with your guild, and it works. Well, it could still be a fall back plan.¡± After that, she could see Jeff wanting to go back into deep thought. After promising to arrange the people they discussed earlier, Xilna promptly left with the still-learning mana construct. Chapter 20 When Jeff woke up, he began his day with a wash and breakfast, followed by two hours of physical activity to build up muscle before another wash. After that was six hours of mentors. Two hours were devoted to etiquette training, two more to educating him about how to lead an army and logistics. The final two were about magic. All of this begins at the crack of dawn and over some time around three in the afternoon after that was a two-hour training session to use an arming sword and parry dagger. Sometimes in conjunction, but more often than not, individually. He had to admit, he was picking it up fairly well. It helped a lot that he did not have any bad habits to drill out of him. Since most of his exposure to sword fighting amounted to movies and video games. That and a kid swinging a lightsaber around pretending he was one with the force. At around six, he finished his exercise for the day and returned to his room for another wash and his dinner before moving to the red dorm common room and meeting with the other supports. Usually, it acted like a big college dorm for many of the unusual kids. Like himself, many of them were loners and did not quite fit in for one reason or another in their past lives. Most of them are gamers or avid solo room heroes. Just like every day for the past week, the big four sat at the central table playing some copper tip poker. ¡° You look good.¡± Jeff lifted his AS and 3S and tossed in two copper to the pool. ¡° Thanks, this is the casual dress I helped design after that debacle ten days ago. A few less layers than the other two sets.¡± Amanda could only nod at this as she put in her coppers to stay in. ¡° Yea, heavy armor is a pain to get in and out of, but the defense is no joke. What is your rating plus 3?¡± Jeff shakes his head. ¡° Two, but my formal dress has that and my war attire has five.¡± Amanda and the other two whistle to that as Bobby calls as well. ¡° Nice, this getup only grants plus six, and has an encumbrance of forty percent till I am used to it.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Jeff chuckles to that as Janice tosses her cards and the next three cards are shown. ¡° Well, yours is made out of steel over steel over heavy leather. Mine is mithril over soft leather. The cotton actually weighs more than the metal if you can believe that?¡± Jeff tosses in two more coppers and Amanda matches again. So does Bobby. The fourth card shows and Jeff privately grimaces still only having a high A. ¡°Yeah, and how much did that cost you? Ten gold tips? I only need one set to last me for a fraction of the cost.¡± Jeff nods to this but also puts in yet another two copper. Which causes the others to do the same again. He almost smirked as AD shows as the fifth card. Not wasting a halfway decent bluff. He tosses in five coppers. ¡° True, but at least I have something practical to wear if I ever get invited to a dance. I start lessons on those next week by the way. As you all will be mingling more with nobles than I am, I highly recommend it as well.¡± The girls wince at that as Bobby looked horrified. ¡° They wouldn¡¯t force us would they?¡± Jeff sighs and looks at Bobby in the eye. ¡° Medieval society, skill levels, and stat sheets, my maid is a literal dragon''s spawn. How can they not?¡± Bobby turned white as a sheet before Janice put a hand gently on his arm. ¡° Relax, you got time.¡± Bobby looked at her and began to blush. ¡° I... yea... we got time still. Socialism is just one of those things I never did in sim games.¡± ¡° It will be all right. Just picture yourself in a dating sim. I mean you used to stream. You should know how to craft a persona.¡± Bobby relaxed a little more as Jeff could not help but laugh as he lost the hand to Amanda¡¯s strait. ¡° Fake it till you make it. I feel I will be doing a lot of that myself. So down to business. Did you all see the draft they put on the wall?¡± After Amanda claimed her winnings she could not help but sigh. ¡° All good intentions and hot air. The idiot that wrote that will make whoever follows it broke in a year and worse the next.¡± Jeff and the others nod to this. Leading Janice to take the lead in the conversation. ¡° First off, we can not compete with the established juggernauts. They have decades of head starts on us. I mean we probably have a few ideas and things they do not from our own worlds we could bring over, but more than likely it has all been either tried and failed or too expensive to be practical.¡± ¡° Agreed, I like the shared ownership idea, but it does not talk about inheritance nor equal sharing but unequal contribution. I would be more than willing to put in a thousand gold talons to the venture, but I would want an equal worth of the company in return. I know I will not be the one to acquire or produce any of the products, but I am fairly sure I will be one of the early primary consumers. And I will be putting my neck on the line showcasing their work for other potential clientele.¡± Amanda could not help but chuckle at this. ¡° And I will be using it too. I will be damned being caught on the front lines like you might, but I have no disillusion that I do not see myself in convoys taking my path through every greedy bandit and noble between home and the front and back.¡± Jeff offers her a fist bump and her gauntlet collides with his leather glove. ¡° Then there is the slavery clause.¡± Chapter 21 With Jeff¡¯s words the room seemed to go dead silent. ¡° Let¡¯s be realistic. Abolishing slavery is all good, but it isn''t going to happen overnight. Hell, we all are literal slaves without collars at the moment. So I do not think our ¡®benefactors¡¯ will like it too much if we try to skimp on our debts due to technicality. Next let''s look at the rights of the slave owners, and from the perspective of a native. You take their property and pay them a ¡®fair price¡¯ for them. Yeah, I can see scams and grudges starting from this on day one. Then you have to consider the slaves that are like that for a reason. I am talking about hard-core criminals. Kill entire villages just to power-level kinds of people. You do not want them free to resume their killing sprees of innocents. Also, factor in those willing to be slaves. Sometimes some people just want choices taken out of their lives. It is a lot easier when you do not have to think for yourself for half your major life choices.¡± Jeff pauses seeing half the room still against what he said when Janice gives her opinion. ¡° Personally, slavery is wrong. And I am not going to argue for the morality or justification for it or against it. I am going to say this from the viewpoint of practicality of the now and future. Anyone of us who is a founding member of the guild will should be allowed to own slaves, but we are not going to be able to stop it. There will have to be certain terms and rights applied. Like having sex with your slaves. Forcing them to fight to the death for entertainment. Working them to death or not providing at least a decent living condition. In addition, we will not be in the business of buying and selling people. We will have contracts, strict but fair. Agreed to both parties.¡± With that, the room erupted into a heated discussion about the topic. Ideas were written down and shared and it took three months of heated debate and compromise for the final draft of the Guild 88 to finally be complete. Named such for having a total of eighty-eight signatures of the original otherworlder founders. An event that will have far-reaching consequences for the future. In the center of the chaos, the orchestrators ignore it as they pick up their card game again. Their intent to forward the draft of the guild charter. Which did not help much for Jeff¡¯s mood as he lost the next four hands. With him down to less than ten coppers, he decides to call it a night. As he walked back to his room saw a message from Janice. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. [Coms: It as we thought. This method is being tracked as well. Back to the drawing board.] [Mayor: Damn, I was hoping we would have some kind of method to talk about our future plans so we do not get screwed over.] [LC: I know. I do not mind someone who wants us to succeed against the demons, learn about our plans. But I do not want them to stab us in the back afterward once we deal a serious blow. Look, you all will be all right but it will be me and Amanda who will get caught holding the bag if they decide I am too successful. They will target Amanda¡¯s caravan of supplies and effectively cut me off after they deal with her. Leading to a similar scenario to the last batch of heroes.] [Truck: You got that right. If I make it out alive, big if, our front line rep will have to either barter with the devil or die. That will set the guild back as a whole. Recoverable yes, but we will lose friends and face.] [LC: Gee, so glad you are worried about your friends face.] [Truck: You know what I mean Jeff. How many of us will be there with you when the knife comes for our back?¡± Jeff pauses and closes his eyes a moment. Rereading the message in the darkness. [LC: As many as possible who initially come with me. Xilna made me an offer for my first contract that I agreed to. So her mother bought my debt so I am only bound to one individual instead of a bunch. As I will be fighting demons it will also work to pay off everyone else''s debts too.] [Mayor: That¡¯s good, what are the details?] [LC: Don¡¯t know too much. We will be acting as a reinforcement unit to one of the outlying dragon settlements. But I suspect it will be more than that. Anyway, I am about to my room. Night!] [Mayor: Goodnight!] [Coms: Nighty night!] [Truck: Night, I think I will be heading out too] Jeff smiled a little bit as he turned the corner to find several mana constructs and a young woman beside his door. In addition there are two swordman that were clearly from blue dorm. He was about to speak when one of the swordman noticed him and put a hand on his sword. Seeing the aggression, his boss construct matches the move. Seeing the shift, Rachal raises her hand to ease the swordman off. ¡° I... can we talk.¡± Jeff nods and moves to the door to open it for the group. Inside had changed in the two weeks as now there are armor stands for his dress uniforms as well as a weapons rack. The bookcase had been filled with books about the different races, geography, politics, and so much more. He even had a picture of a sunset on the wall. Which caught Rachal off guard. What surprised her most however was the five soldier constructs stationed around the room as guards and the two maid constructs. After a good minute for those outside the room to enter Jeff turned to Rachael wondering what was going on and where she had been. Chapter 22 ¡° I would like to begin to say, I am sorry I have not come by earlier. I been in the recovery ward with many of the other victims of the charm incident.¡± Whatever Jeff had in mind to say died as he looked at the two swordmen. ¡° Oh...¡± ¡°Yeah, this is Terrance and his twin brother Tyke Baster. They are two of the blue dorm victims who decided to stay and protect the others.¡± The one that was referenced as Tyke stepped forward and bowed slightly. ¡° I had heard you were the one that uncovered the charmer. For that, you have my and my sibling''s thanks.¡± Jeff nods in acknowledgement and before he can ask the other brother steps forward and slightly bows as well. ¡° Our sister, has a gardening class. While me and my brother have holy warriors. We, um used to play DnD. Pali for life.¡± With that the brothers raised an arm to each other to bump them. ¡° Pali for life.¡¯ Then the two stepped back. ¡° They first charmed their sister, a girl of fourteen. She was one of their first targets. Then they used her to get these two. In all, there were about fifty of us. Two-thirds of us women.¡± She then pauses there leaving the rest unsaid. ¡° I... well, healed them during the charm... passively. I... It was bad. Someone from the outside was involved. I don¡¯t know much more, but this place... there is rot...¡± Jeff sighs and leans back in his seat to look at the ceiling. ¡° I was set up with a ton of mithril for my initial set of gear. They were going to hunt me down after I got out of here to kill me for it. There is another where one of the trainers decided to train pain tolerance over everything else. They did not realize they died till that evening when someone decided to check on the body seeming to be asleep on the training field. There has been a few others that I know about, and most of them have resulted in a death or to be set up like I was.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Rachal and the twins blanched at that. Without warning Jeff raises his hand toward one of the construct maids and was handed a small goblet of wine. Who then offers the other three one as well. ¡° Look, I get it. You don¡¯t feel safe. I bet you''re thinking you want to leave.¡± Without hesitating Jeff downed his drink in one large chug. ¡° Think on this. If it is this bad here, where they are at least trying to keep us safe like we are a bunch of six-year-olds. And make no mistake, a six-year-old can kick most of our buts. Then what do you think will happen after you leave? Our only protection is what we can do for ourselves and what we offer to the cause.¡± Jeff pauses giving them a moment of pity before making his point. ¡° Thirty-four had left early, thinking they are ready or not wanting to extend their debts further. Want to take a guess how many are alive now?¡± Rachal, seeing Jeff¡¯s point froze before she could answer but that did not stop Tyke. ¡° I would guess less than half by your tone.¡± Jeff looked him dead in the eye. ¡° Three, only three are still alive. Half of them died when they wandered from their handlers. Thinking of probably running away or some other stupid thing. Half of those remaining died in ambushes by bandit or fighting monsters way too strong for them. Then there is the group that went to the front on their own right away.¡± Jeff shook his head not wanting to elaborate further. ¡° So, yea, we are in between a rock and a hard place. Me, I am doing what they want me to do. Get stronger, get prepared, and get ready to fight the demons. I just wish I had a way to stop the backstabbing I know is coming.¡± Rachal blinked in surprise to that and she was not the only one. ¡° What do you mean backstab, by who?¡± Jeff sighs again and gestures for the maid to come back so he can give her the goblet. ¡° Some noble or another. Look, it is not hard to see why the front tries to maintain the status quo. Those who have their homes on the line have it hard, but it is a maintained constant. They are probably more than able to push, but those they are protecting will move in while they do that. To maintain the fallback or some other stupid excuse. This is actually how they lost so much territory early on. People kept stabbing eachother in the back to steal the gains of others. I just do not see how we can prevent that from happening when the time comes for me to push.¡± Jeff lowered his head to between his knees while putting his hands behind his head. ¡° I just do not know what I can do. Since any plans I make will be leaked the moment I speak them. This whole place is full of recording implements.¡± Rachal begins to ask how she and the others could have been charmed for so long if that was true but paused. Someone on the outside was helping a select group of otherworlders, probably handpicked, for some unknown reason. Remembering it was a hero who helped design this place, she can picture him wanting a piece of the personnel pie. And what piece is more important to an entrepreneur than crafters and support personnel? Realizing this she raises her hand to stop the twins front talking about this further and sighs seeing how royally screwed they are. ¡° So, what can we do?¡± Jeff raises his head to look at her again but kept to his low stature. ¡° Me, I am doing what I can. I and a few others are working on making a guild for the support and crafters. Their main purpose will be to help provide me and others with gear and necessities. What you can do I am not sure. I hate to say this but you are a few weeks behind. And time is on none of our sides.¡± Chapter 23 It was not long after that that the three left with Rachal¡¯s constructs and return to the recovery ward where the other charm victims were. The talk with Jeff made her realize that they were not the only victims here. All the summoned otherworlders are. They all might not have been brainwashed, but they all have a sword over their heads. After they arrived the twins split off to see their sister as she went around and greeted several of the women who were barely responsive to anyone but another victim of the charm. Most of them have weaker classes not suited for combat, such as seamstress or cook. The few that did were more support roles like engineer or shield mage. After meeting with a dozen of them, she felt tired and went to her own bed to lay down and rest. She must have dozed off as she was shaken awake by the smell of cooked eggs and other breakfast items all around her. ¡° Wacky Wacky sunshine. I got your favorite.¡± Rachal blinked the sleep out of her eyes a few times before seeing a woman no older than her in bikini armor and twin swords on her back. Remembering who she was looking at she smiled at the spellsword woman. ¡° Becky, I didn¡¯t know you came back. Where have you been... and give me that.! I¡¯m starving.¡± Without surprise, Becky let Rachal snag the breakfast burrito on the plate she was holding before offering it to the maid construct. By the time that was done, the burrito was already gone. ¡° Damn girl, you were hungry. I take it that meeting with your friend went longer than expected?¡± Rachal blushed a little before shaking her head. ¡° No, he was not in his room till it after night fell. He was with many of the other red dorm members talking about forming a guild.¡± Becky paused to fully understand what was said and her cheerful smile faded. ¡° If you told me this yesterday, I would have laughed. But last night the big four were talking and they looked at the joke of a draft for their guild. I left well after midnight and they were still talking about all. Did you know they convinced those idiots to make slavery legal? Those pricks.¡± Rachael opened her mouth shocked then closed it. ¡° Explain!¡± ¡° Well, I wasn¡¯t there when they first brought it up, but from what I heard on the rumor mill is something about because we are essentially slaves, it alright for us to own slaves of our own. Mind you the guy who told me this could not stop staring at my chest the entire conversation... and he was a little drunk.¡± ¡° Becky, facts! If the guild is going to turn into a bunch of slavers...¡± Before she could continue a young woman in a witch outfit hits the spellsword over the head with a crooked walking stick. ¡° If you went back this morning you could have grabbed a copy of the first draft, you would better understand what is going on.¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Becky whips around pouty and the witch girl ignores her as she hands Rachal a stack of paper. ¡° Is this?¡± ¡° Yep, and I already circled a few interesting pieces. What you are looking for is the bottom of page three.¡± Without hesitating she shuffled the paper till she was looking where she was told Subsection A: Property owned exclusively by guild member or stockholder will not be subject to guild tax or oversight, but subject to local law and tax customs without guild protections or benefits. Exemption of Subsection A surmount to trades between guild members, stockholders, or make use of guild assets. Including but not limited to, advertising, transportation, storage, branding, personnel, and products. ..... Subsection F: The definition of nonliving property will be the lawful ownership of land, any tangible object that can be touched, and anything that is defined as intellectual property as defined in Article five. Subsection G: The definition of living property will be the lawful and where possible consensual ownership of any living being. Nonsapient property includes but is not limited to, plant life such as harvestable crops from a farmer''s field, trees from a forest, or allergy from a water source. Sapient but nonsentient property includes but is not limited to, animals of burden, monsters and constructs summoned, and artificial beings such as golems. Sapient and sentient property includes and is limited to, any being who is able to communicate and ¡®voice¡¯ their willingness or reluctance to servitude of their free will, if they have it. A special board will convene that must include one senior stockholder or an appointed representative approved by three board members and a specialist who can define an individual being or object that meets these criteria. In addition, a specialist or someone of the best qualification must be present to back or attempt to disprove criteria that would normally exclude an individual or object from such criteria as mentioned above. This board must, to the best of its ability, have the review be performed as soon as realistically possible. With at most a month passing. See Article ten subsection C for further details. Subsection H: if the property is deemed to be sapient and sentient, then all former agreements will end and a new one will be formed in its place. Servant contract: A contract of servitude between the previous owner and the previous property. This contract is a contract of equals giving knowledgeable consent only. One must give in order to take. The exact terms are flexible but must include a balance that both parties must consider equal and at the end of the contract both parties will be free of all servitude and duties as defined by the contract. Enslavement contract: A contract of servitude between the previous owner and the previous property. This contract is unbalanced and can only be made if there has been an imbalance due to previous debt via special circumstances. As defined in Article fourteen Subsection F, G and M. Do note this contract, if chosen, can be in favor of the former property. The Enslavement contract is defined by a master and slave. The ¡®master¡¯ of the contract has the right to demand services of the ¡®slave¡¯ based on the arbitrator scale. (See Article seventeen related to divine artifacts and rituals) The ¡®master¡¯ of the contract can demand goods and services up to the limit of the fairness of the arbitrator scale of any nature except for the following. Chapter 24 Rachal started reading page after page of the guild draft and about halfway through she got frustrated about references she skipped over in the very beginning, so she restarted from there. When she did Becky moved behind her and started reading as well. They both read quickly as Rachal¡¯s training to be a doctor gave her the ability to comprehend information quickly and Becky as her class needed both high awareness and intelligence to work properly. After about half an hour Rachal lowered the stack of papers after reading the last page. ¡° That... how did they come up with something in less than twenty-four hours?¡± The witch chuckled and nabbed the papers from her hand and stuffed them in her cloak. A cloak without pockets. ¡° That is the benefit of high-level contractor they called in. That and scribes and a lot of coffee. I was there two hours ago when one of the kids was working with an elf leveled up three times just making this draft. I mean I read the entire thing twice before I understood half of it, but I think it is a good start. It needs a lot of fine tuning to account for local law and such but I think it is workable.¡± Rachal nods to this a Becky leans over her shoulder. ¡° So, Alice are you going to join?¡± The witch, Alice, shook her head. ¡° My class is not made for big groups or so much organization. I might be a provisionary member or a client, but it puts too many restrictions in place. The biggest thing is the fair deal part. Deals I make I should be getting out ahead, based on what my class is telling me.¡± Becky stands up strait and starts nodding. ¡° Makes sense. I might join as a guard or something.¡± This caused the other two look each other and smile amused. ¡° What? Did I say some inside joke or something?¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Alice shakes her head and turns to walk away as Rachal answers her. ¡° You sitting still for five minutes is hard to imagine.¡± Becky seeing the joke now smiled wide and shook her head as well and left in a different direction. Seeing her confident stride made her think when they first met her two newest friends. ----- Rachal blinked as the haze cleared from her eyes and mind as she started to take in the dimly lit room. Before she could do more than that however she heard a scream of horror and rage and as she turned to look at who caused the scream and why; she was sucker-punched in the side of the jaw by another naked young woman. Lucky for her the follow-up punch was not so well placed and grazed her elbow. Her passive healing was already healing her newly fractured jaw, just at a much slower rate due to her already overdrawn magic reserves. ¡° You..., do you know how much they tortured us because...¡± Before the hysterical woman could continue some twinkles of light went over her eyes and she fell to her knees and was out like a light on her side a moment later. ¡° Sorry about that. You don¡¯t deserve to be punished for what your class does naturally. Rachal blinked surprised again as she wiped the blood on her chin away and she began to stare at the open hand. After a moment more to compose herself, she took the offering. ¡° Names Rachal, healer class, obviously.¡± The young petit woman probably no older than sixteen nods and looks around at the other girls just as puzzled and scared as they were. ¡° Nice, I¡¯m Alice, a witch in class and nature. Though I think this world has a slightly old-fashioned idea of me. Casting word spells went out of style ages ago.¡± Rachal smiled at that before she began looking around at the others, who were starting to gather on the two. ¡° All right, are any of you red or green dorm? Anyone who can fight seriously needs to get ready because whatever they had us under just wore off on all of us at once. Which means either they are going to be coming through that door any moment to rescue us or subdue us and put us back under again.¡± This caused most of the women there to back away but three steps forward. Including her new witch friend. It turned out rescue did not come for over half an hour and by that time the four had worn themselves down with their hypervigilance. Luckily it was the Duke¡¯s guard that found them and later they were given blankets to cover themselves as they were herded to the medical ward where they found Becky sitting spread eagle on a bed as a healer worked to fix her arm. She was still covered in the mess from what they were doing to her when the charm wore off, but more noticeable and numerous was the amount of blood covering her bare body. Rachael could not help but move next to her, and so does Alice. ¡° So, I guess you would like to know how I got these scars?¡± Rachael smiled at that somewhat getting the reference, while Alice drew a blank. ¡° Yea, by the mess you are covered in. I bet it is one hell of a story.¡± Becky nods happily to this as Alice can still only stare. ----- AUTHOR NOTE: due to the nature of this statement, I have to remove it. ----- Rachal and Alice could not help but fail to hold back giggles glad at least some of those who took advantage of them got their just deserts. ¡° Names Becky by the way. Your that healer girl they can''t shut up about aren¡¯t you? Wow, I can actually feel the voodoo you do doing work.¡± Rachal felt happy for a moment before the reality of what happened over the last few days hit her like a truck. Chapter 25 Jeff woke up one morning not to the gentle glow of the crystal-made light in his room but to a glowing box he could not immediately blink away.
All Soldier units come with a natural +1 to all combat characteristics. In addition, they gain an additional +1 per rank they hold over rookies.
Your boss has gained the modifier [officer] they now can sub-command units equal to 5x (base) their cp. All units led by an officer cost 1/5rd their cp cost on the summoner.
Appropriate equipment card found in vault ¡®Soldier kit¡¯ have become automatically equipped to soldiers ranked private or higher if available. The card is destroyed upon the defeat of unit
After fully reading the message he decided to look at his status sheet to confirm the change in his cp
Class: Cardmancer
Exp: 27
Stats: S-4 E-4 D-4 I-7 W-5 L-6
With that he brought a hand to the bedstand to turn on the lights with a smile on his face. Considering each soldier still only cost 1 cp, then he just got two cp as a discount as his boss automatically took command of the ten that have been trained by the good Sargent Mar. Knowing him, he would know the next step to take them too, so he did not consider that too much, instead he started to think of wanting to try to get two new types of units unlocked. When he thinks of phantasy settings the main one that comes to mind is a mage. Shooting fireballs and all that fun stuff. And on the opposite side of the spectrum is the knight. After considering it a bit more as he started to get ready for his day, he decided to do one of each. With his morning routine quickly behind him, he found himself in the open training field where several other otherworlders were already into their training routines. It did not take long for him to find his squad of summons standing around a Sargent Mar speaking to one of his underlings. A sudden shift of the entire unit at the same time, including his boss, entering a straitened posture and putting their right fist over where their hearts would be caused him to pause then shoo the underling away. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡° I take it this change is your doing? I was expecting another week to beat them into an evolution.¡± Jeff looked at the sargeant and then at his unit and decided to focus on them first. ¡° At ease.¡± In an instant, they shifted to a parade rest stance. Which caused Mar to raise an eyebrow. ¡° So? Are you going to explain or do you think you good enough to do this on your own?¡± Jeff sighs relaxing himself before stiffing back up to the proper posture he been taught over the last weeks. ¡° I got a notice that they evolved into privates. They automatically equipped into the prepared soldier kit¡¯s that I had in my vault. As soon as I woke up seeing the message I came strait here.¡± Mar nods his head understanding. ¡° Sounds like the Dalmas Kin Soldier progression system, which is not surprising. It is the one I was aiming for. I know you been educating yourself about the other races, but this one is extinct. Quite recently too. They are probably the main reason we natives are in this situation we are in. For both the good and bad. You see the Dalmas Kin are lizard kin. They had a small empire about eighty years ago that was built on this system. To skip to the highlights, the Dalmas Kin breed really fast. Usually having dozens of young a year to a pair of them. And they become full adults in two. Now, as you can imagine, that forces a lot of mouths to feed. So they were a right menace to their neighbors. So, as you probably guessed, they specialize in attrition warfare. So when the demons came to them, they held and they held. Until they didn¡¯t. When the hero¡¯s reached the area during their push into the demon lands. They were packed shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see. They used large area tactical skills like a fat merchant eats snacks. Just so they can retreat. Rumor says over five million demons died during the retreat. Most of them nothing more than the equivalent of a level ten to twenty individual.¡± Jeff nods imagining it. ¡° But in those numbers, refreshing every day.¡± Mar nods his head in return. ¡° That area is now known as the Fields of Blood. No one wants to go there. Now back to this system. The reason why I was aiming for it is because as a summoner, your soldiers are infinitely renewable as long as you can renew them. No need to wait a decade for an orphan to grow enough and then be trained. If your evolution allows for returning cards instead of complete destruction of your summons, then I succeeded.¡± Jeff decides to just show the message to Mar and he raised his eyebrow again in surprise before nodding. ¡° Questions, just know I did aim for this does not mean I know the progression of your powers.¡± Jeff considered it a moment then looked at his summons again. ¡° I doubt you know, but where do they come from? What happens when they die?¡± Mar raised his shoulders as a shrug in response. ¡° You¡¯re right, I don¡¯t know. Most don¡¯t.¡± Chapter 26 Jeff rubbed his arm where he got hit earlier when he failed to parry a strike with the dull short sword as he looked at the artwork of the hereditary that he requested, or supposedly requested. To be honest, they were all beautiful designs, but his eyes kept being drawn to the one with the hexagon of gems fading into each point with a center clear one and a decagon background. The elven man explaining what one of them represented quickly noticed him eyeing the artwork. ¡° Ah, one my apprentice came up with that one. After seeing your card design, he was inspired into making this piece. Naturally under such a short notice...¡± The man pauses seeing the playing card with it¡¯s back face up starting to shift and change. ¡° A shame, I see a decision has already been made. Now, have you been told how the hereditary will change over generations?¡± Jeff snapped out of whatever trance he was in and paused to consider the question he was just asked. ¡° The gems. One of the six colors will become dominant as it branches away from the main family line.¡± ¡° Ah, yes, you either were told or you are a good guesser. No matter, you have your hereditary now and I gave you the formal notice and everything. All that is left is my payment.¡± Jeff eyed him a moment not at all amused. ¡° I recall all monetary matters is handled by Captain Lews for matters such as this.¡± The elf nods in acknowledgment. ¡° Very well I was hoping my apprentice would receive a bonus, however.¡± Jeff opens his mouth but pauses then closes it before standing. Realizing forcing the apprentice to actually get paid for the commission might ruin whatever education the individual has. ¡° I see, however, I am not the one who holds the purse strings. Just the one who says what he needs to buy. I wish you and your apprentice a wonderful time.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. The elf takes a moment as well to acknowledge what was just said before standing and leaving with all his artwork. Jeff watched him go as Xilna got the door for them and then leaned back in his chair and released an exaggerated sigh. ¡° Well, that was faster than we anticipated. Xilna, what is next on my schedule?¡± Xilna moves forward so he can hear her better. ¡° Well, we scheduled an hour for this meeting. That was less than a quarter of that. Up next is your etiquette tutor, but they are currently with another. So I guess you have free time to read if you desire.¡± Jeff thought about it then shook his head. ¡° How has Rachal been? I know you been seeing her when I don''t need a maid who can talk.¡± Xilna glances at the maid construct she trained then back at Jeff. ¡° Interaction with others might be a recommendation as well. I know you go out to the commons room in the evening, but you just talk to the other three and usually about future plans and such. I mention this because Rachal has been doing similar. I know the charm incident was hard on both of you in different ways, but I do not see either of you as happy as you once were in each other''s company. If you like, I can bring her here?¡± Jeff opened his mouth to outright refuse but then reconsidered. He takes a moment to consider it then sighs. ¡° No... not right now... but ask her if she wants to have dinner... Whenever she wants, whatever she wants. I know things have been... hard for her and the others. And our last talk was not, how do you say it, pleasant. Tell her no doom and gloom stuff. Just casual or maybe of our hopes for the future. Now, how about I fill this last half an hour on something a little more practical. Since I will be going to your mother¡¯s lands, why don¡¯t I get a little bit of info on the customs of your people¡± Xilna bows her head to this. ¡° Very well, in truth there is not much more you need to know between the human lands and my peoples. Except there is a very big leap in pride and arrogance. When I was much younger I was very proud and arrogant. Thinking with my mother''s backing and my upbringing no one could be my match. So I would often go out and get drunk and gamble. Usually, I would then duel whoever took most of the money that I lost. Offering a greater prize if I lost that too.¡± Xilna takes a moment to compose herself. ¡° The worst part is, I do not remember making the wager nor the duel afterward. I was drugged and put to shame publicly. When I came to my senses I was in the presence of my mother. She was paying off my debt with a small fortune and I was sent here to temper my youth. The Duke has been very generous with me in those early days. So much so that when he asked for those to help him with you outworlders, I volunteered. And here we are.¡± ¡° So basically, arrogance to the point you can back it up.¡± Xilna nods her head. ¡° That is part of it, another is dignity. I... put myself in a position of one shame and another. Because of that, no matter how long passes, I will always be defined by that shame.¡± Xilna took a deep breath and sighed hard. ¡° I should not be saying this, but you have already agreed to my mother''s contract. When you get there, I am one of the promised things you will be receiving. And my mother knows how ignorant otherworlders can be when they have no drive to pursue relations.¡± Xilna looked away a little bit as Jeff realized what is being asked. ¡° Wait, you mean...¡± ¡° Yes, my mother wants you to sire my firstborn. So you better not add any more shame to our future youngling while you are there.¡± Chapter 27 With that Xilna left to allow Jeff to process that bombshell. In fact he zoned out half of his magic lesson before his tutor hit him on the side of the head with a stone shard. ¡° Now that I got your attention. Care to tell me how earth and water affinity mix in a spell?¡± With a frown and rubbing the new lump on his head, Jeff looked at the fading away stone shard he was hit with. ¡° It is based on a number of factors. But the most basic is the amount of each affinity is added to the spell. A spell that has an eighty percent stone to twenty water ratio is more of a wet rock than say the opposite, which is close to a ball of mud. Of course, if you add in other elements as well. Say five percent overall air, then the wet rock becomes a frozen rock that is much harder and resistant to melting. While five percent fire to the mudball turns it into a concussive bomb.¡± The dwarven mage nods his head to this. ¡° Very good, you did do your homework. But I was explaining the structure of the spell. Since I know you are elemental neutral, I do not expect you to be able to cast the spell, but this is more for recognizing spell structure than casting.¡± Jeff nods and tries to recall what he half-paid attention to. Raising his hand, a clear three-dimensional model of complex geometric shapes appears. It took him over a week to get this far and it is something that normally takes the average mage a year of study to get to. ¡° I assume you mean balancing and focusing each element into the key points of a spell. Such as having the core of the spell as earth and water to the coating to having the water in the core to the stone as the coating.¡± ¡° Ah, so you did pay some attention, good. Do you know that we always have the core of a spell at least half the total mana of a single element, or why?¡± Jeff looked at his spell form a moment and took a guess. ¡° If I had to make a guess there are two reasons, simplicity and stability.¡± The dwarf smiles at this before taking a drink from a nearby mug. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡° Good, that is two parts of it. It is simple because this allows you to work with less structure of a spell. Take your cards for example. They take half the mana to form the actual card in a mana-to-mass conversion. The other half facilitates the actual spell. Now as for stability, the core gives a foundation for everything else to work off of. Earth magic does this best because it is literally a rock most of the time. Now tell me what else could be the reason for this.¡± Jeff considered it a moment but after a few minutes he just shrugged his shoulders. The dwarf sighs in disappointment. ¡° Alas, the difference between otherworld theory crafting and native thousands of years of practice and experience shows it¡¯s head again. There are many other factors, but the big one is affinity.¡± The dwarf raises his hand to mimic the spell constructed in Jeff¡¯s own hand. ¡° I am a earth and water mage. Which is why I use those elements as an example. The reason for that is because it is easier for me to work those elements. Naturally, I can add small amounts of other elements as well after decades of practice, trial and error, and a small fortune. And here you children come and do stuff that took me a lifetime to master.¡± The dwarf sighs again as the spell construct finishes being filled with mana and a new stone is formed. This one covered in a layer of frost. ¡° Affinity is the most important aspect of magic. For us natives it comes down to two categories. Single and duo affinity. As you can guess. The duo one is rarer, and harder to master, but those that do are several times stronger. Then you otherworlders come in and add in a bunch of new rules to the mix. Having a perfect affinity for all six elements then your learning bonuses on top of it.¡± The dwarf then grabs the frozen rock spell and crushes it by gripping it in his fist. ¡° Then there are those like you. Those who have no talent in the elemental craft. Still, I teach you, do you know why?¡± Jeff held back a snide remark about he was being made to and took one of his cards out of his vault. ¡° Because knowledge is power. And if I learn about magic I might be able to learn how to counter it if I ever need to.¡± As he said that Jeff tossed the card to the side so it would form where it landed. A scrawny male construct looked at the dwarf with expectations. Who in turn raised an eyebrow to the action. ¡° I suppose it is that point in our lessons. But I wonder, did anyone ever tell you about tier zero spells?¡± Jeff shook his head and the dwarf sighs. ¡° Figures my predecessor didn¡¯t, lazy prick. So, he probably told you tier one spells are those spells that anyone can learn as long as you got the affinity. Like a fireball for the fire affinity. Tier two is those with the affinity learn at level ten and three is twenty and so on. Tier zero is able to be learned by anyone, no matter the affinity.¡± The surprise on Jeff¡¯s face made the dwarf smile. ¡° However do not expect much from these spells. By the hells most mages do not learn them till they hit level thirty.¡± ¡° And why is that?¡± ¡° Money, they either are so rich that they have servants to do the tasks that they need to be done but do not care to have to do themselves, or it takes them that long to earn a scroll of learning that contains the spell.¡± ¡° Scroll of learning?¡± ¡° Aye, a one-use item that allows someone who qualifies to instantly learn the spell. And mind you there is a huge difference between learning a spell and mastering it.¡± ¡° What other items are like this scroll? And what zero tier spell are there.¡± The dwarf squints his eyes and stares at Jeff before relenting. Knowing this is going to turn into one of those otherworlder things. Chapter 28 Captain Lews looked at the human in front of her with a glint of annoyance. ¡° So, let me get this straight. The first thought about hearing about tier zero spells and about grimoires is to come to me and purchase a bunch of them. Are you trying to stress me out? And here I thought you were a half-decent otherworlder.¡± Jeff scratched his chin a little ashamed. ¡° I, well, I know my big purchase expenses are suppose to go through you and while I am at it I thought I could ask if you knew what are the best tier zero spells to get.¡± Captain Lews sighs annoyed as she puts a hand to her forehead. ¡° Look, I get the logic of what you are asking. I spent over a hundred years in one war or another and not a day goes by that I am glad I knew [kindle] through it but I have not been on the front lines in over a decade. Not to mention there are no tier zero grimoires. They are just not worth the money to make them.¡± Jeff nods to this in acknowledgment. ¡° Recruitment bonus.¡± Those two words made Captain Lews pause. Every day she was thankful that she was able to quickly pick up [kindle] from her first commanding senior soldier, who did not know more than that but was happy to try to teach it to everyone he could over their first month of training. Since [kindle] is a water-down and degraded version of the proper tier zero [ignite] she started to consider his request in a new light. First, the choice of one of six practical spells would be a huge boon to any soldier. [Groom] will make living in your armor for weeks on end more bearable. [Ignite] would make starting a fire one of the simplest tasks to do, even in the rain. [Hydrate] would stretch water supplies out and allow washing so much easier. [Quick stitch] would make clothing last a little longer. Not to mention [Temperature Megation] would make more extreme climates more bearable. She now has all six of those and more, but back when she was just a person holding a sword and a pair of boots to take later if she died. She dreamed of having any one of them to make her life so much more bearable. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡° [Groom], [Ignite], [Hydrate], [Quick stitch], and [Temperature Megation]. There are a few others I might recommend, but it would be better to just get them for yourself with a scroll. Such as [Preserve] or [Relax]. If you can not figure out what those do just by the name alone. Well, perhaps we need to start favoring a different otherworlder.¡± In response to the comment, Jeff brought out a notebook and wrote down all eight of the tier zero spells. ¡° Something else, I did not want to leave a record of this for someone to copy, but I also want to try to see if my constructs will learn other evolutions. Blacksmithing, cooking, woodwork, engineering and so on. If my guess is right, it should take between three weeks to three months for them to go from beginners to novice or apprentice level of skill. In addition I need to hire a quartermaster. So I can go to them with my supply needs. I need someone who can look after my support constructs and understand if they screw up it is their fault for misusing the tools he been given.¡± Captain Lews hummed to herself. ¡° A few that qualify comes to mind, but the best for the job I can think of is a dwarf I use to serve with. They kicked him out of service seventy years ago when he broke a prince¡¯s jaw when they tried to pass their own mistakes onto him. He been sitting around getting drunk ever since. If you can convince him to take the job, you will find noone better.¡± Jeff nods and takes the information she is giving him in his notebook. After a few more details they come to the heart of the reason he is there. ¡° With the debacle with the mithril, your thousand gold crowns promise to the guild, the absurd amount for the grimoires to be made, and your eight hundred gold crown reserve for expenses a year for the next ten years. That leaves you with just under one hundred gold crowns to last you till the end of your stay here. The good news is, unless you discover yet another money drain, you should be able to last the duration with ease. Bad news is if there is a complication... well you will have to dip into your planned reserves.¡± Jeff puts his notebook back into his coat pocket. ¡° Well, there is one other matter. Training is all well and good...¡± The elfs shoulders slump hearing that. ¡° But levels are important. So you want to power level. Before the grimoire request, I would have recommended an A rank team. They would have got you to thirty quick enough. But with what you got left...¡± ¡° Yea, at best a bad or desperate B rank individual or a C rank team.¡± The elf nods to this as their meeting stalls out with less than ideal solutions available. Chapter 29 ¡° As an otherworlder one of the most important things you can learn about etiquette is to read a room. Or in terms, of what your kind is more familiar with. Don¡¯t be a pain.¡± Jeff could not help but chuckle at that. He was decent at that. ¡° I swear I remember it was like yesterday when the heroes were summoned and the first words out of one of them was, what the hell is going on? To a full room of royals and nobility no less. But that was then and this is now. So let us continue... There are several things you need to do once you walk into a room...¡± ----- ¡° Today we are going to work on your wing gauntlet blocking of projectiles. And in more detail how to turn your entire arm so that you are not pointing your dueling dagger at yourself, or at the very least it will only rebound off your skull instead of being thrust into your eye...¡± ----- ¡° By divine law, a lord can only claim one emergency tith from their lands yearly. This is usually done when they are... ----- ¡° There are three general categories of elves, there are the isolationist elves, the communal elves, and the nomad elves. Most elves you have or will meet are of the latter two categories. But let''s begin with isolationist elves. In short, they are a bunch of selfish bigots that...¡± ----- ¡° No, we can not compete with the big two. Sure we might be able to squeeze a new idea or two that they do not have a monopoly over but you know as well as I do they will disassemble, deconstruct, and disseminate what they find for their benefit. What we got to do...¡± ----- ¡° The art of riding is not as easy as getting on the back of any old beast of burden...¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ----- Jeff sighed as he slipped into his usual seat in the red dorm community area. Unlike usual, only Janice was present. Instead of a deck of cards, a chess set was already set up. With nothing better to do, he moved the first piece from the unclaimed side. Janice seeing this, moved a piece soon after. It was not long till Janice broke the silence ¡° Amanda will not be here today. She got an overnight outing where she is looking for wagons and beasts of burden to pull them. Bobby, well I have not heard from him.¡± Jeff pauses a moment to consider his move of threatening a rook and bishop with his knight, but that left his queen open to be threatened as well. Without hesitation, he decides the price of two powerful pieces for his most powerful a worthwhile trade. ¡° So when are you two going to start dating?¡± This caused Janice to recoil her hand from a set-up pawn threat and she then decided to reposition her remaining rook instead. ¡° How did you know?¡± Jeff shrugs and advances his pawn to secure the center of the board. ¡° Didn¡¯t, but if you are anything like me. I have not called on the special list of services. Hell, I have not even done a solo yet. Too damn nervous to be in the mood. I was a lonely teen with zero love life. So I can not imagine how frustrated you are. And with the nature of this place... You are only going to do that with someone you trust.¡± Janice did not even blush as she moved her queen to exploit a small opening he left on purpose. Seconds later he takes it from her, giving him a sizable three-piece lead and a dominating presence in the center of the board. Reading the board better than seconds before, Janice tilts her king. ¡° Damn, you are better at chess than you are at cards.¡± Jeff sighs in response. ¡° I have been working on getting the [Noble] and [General] subclasses. Since we are all technically minor nobility, the first is just me waiting for my official designation to be received. Which should happen sometime next month. [General] however has me doing a bunch of wargames with some strategists. Those are a pain in the rear. My best game with them was a ten-minute stalemate of rapid redeployments and feigns. And that is against someone who is a junior aid. I hate to think what would happen if I went against a proper general.¡± Janice finishes resetting the board and moves the first piece. After about twenty minutes of silence except for the occasional spectator, she sighs hard. ¡° Look, I was young, dumb, and full of love with my first boyfriend. He was... on the school sports team. After six months of dating, but not really... I found out I was the side girl. After that, I started streaming. At first, I used the attention to badmouth my ex... then invited one of his teammates for a... victory lap when they won a game. The dense prick did not even realize it till he found out I was why he was denied for varsity.¡± Jeff winced at that guessing that is how she died. ¡° So, I am taking it slow, dropping subtle hints and hoping he did not fall for one of those hunney traps.¡± Jeff winced again before taking a pawn. ¡° Just do not wait too long to become blunt. He was a professional gamer, so he probably got action, but he had to pay for it.¡± Janice winced this time to the comment. It did not take long after that for Janice to give up again. ¡° So what about you? Any girls on your radar?¡± Jeff was about to openly refuse but paused. ¡° There is Rachel. The healer I told you about. I... we were getting close before she was kidnapped by those charmers. Now... we both have endured traumas. I, with the realization of what awaits me even if I do succeed in freeing lands from demons as I plan to, and her... with the charm. I have dinner with her tomorrow.¡± Not a chapter, bonus content my notes Not a chapter, but due to no ac and the weather turning warmer, I have slowed down writing even more than what I tried to maintain as 1, 1k word chapter every 3 days. So I decided to post my notes to help keep info on the story strait. Days since summoned Ch 16 day 5 Ch 17 day 10 Ch 20 day 19 Ch 25 day 22 Ch 31 day 29 Ch 37 day 33 Ch 40 day 56 Summoned types White- hero Black- forbidden Blue- physical Red- support Green- magical Cardmancer rules Card types discovered Basic- the starter card type, no special bonus, cheap Rookie soldier- the first evolution from a basic card on the ¡®soldier¡¯ path. +1 to all combat ability. Comes preequipped with training gear. Private(can not be made)- the second evolution of the ¡®soldier path. + 2 to all combat abilities. Comes preequipped with basic gear. Corporal(can not be made)- the third evolution of the ¡®soldier¡¯ path. +3 to all combat ability. Comes preequipped with basic specialized gear This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Sergamt(can not be made)- the fourth evolution. + 5 to all combat abilities. Lieutenant- the first advanced evolution of the soldier path. Enables sub-commander Maid- First evolution from basic card, Comes with several basic noncombat skills. Maid T2hidden modifier- the enhanced version of maid. In addition, they have spycraft abilities. Sentries- First evolution of a basic card. Can be added as a modifier to soldier class. Blacksmith- Cook Woodworker Driver Laborer Adventurer Palidin Character list Jeff Trever- mc Lindsey Leuis- otherworlder (same world as MC) evil bitch archer, specialty poison arrows and being a petty manipulative bitch Jared Wainwright- stoner Duke Randolph Hamelton the 3rd Rachel- healer saint Xilna- dragonkin swordsman/maid Sargent Mar- human veteran Corporal Shang- dwarf who works in requisitions Janice- otherworlder streamer, the naughty kind, specialty communications and servelance Amanda- otherworlder buffer, likes wearing armor, specialty long term buffs Bobby- otherworlder pro gamer streamer, specialty city planning, management and defense Captain Lews- a female elf who monitors the requisitions related to otherworlders Terrance and Tyke Baster- brother holy warriors Becky- spellsword Alice- witch Wit Cobblestorm- dwarf quartermaster, legend, and usually trying to get drunk. Lord son Weston Parks- human noble¡¯s son of the northern reaches of human lands Place List Base stats Name: Jeffory Terner Class: Cardmancer Level: 1 Exp: 0 Stats: S-4 E-4 D-4 I-7 W-5 L-6 (all humans unlock their class with an average of 30 stat points in main stats) Abilities (passive) Greater Math Tier 3 Level 41- Mana cap increased by .01 % per level (3.41%) and cp cap by .005 %) (1.705 rounded down) Greater Learning Tier 3 Level 16- exp gain for skills and abilities increased by level/20 % (31.6%) Physically Fit Tier 2 Level 34- Stamina drain decreased by level/100 % (2.34%) Basic Tactics Tier 1 Level 73- Increase the effectiveness of your charisma-based skills by level/20 % (.0365%) Basic Crafting Tier 1 Level 63- Increase the effectiveness of your dexterity-based skills when crafting by level/20 % (.0315%) Poison Resistance Tier 1 Level 07- Poison damage and duration are decreased by level/100 % (.07%) All other abilities are under Tier 1. Skills (active) Class skills have no level. Card Draw- Create a new card. (unit only) cost 10mp every 1cp Card Convert- Convert an object (or set of objects) cost variable. Converted items can be restored by others for 10x mana used to convert objects. Cost based on object(s) Card Equip- Equip item cards to units. Items are destroyed if the unit is destroyed. Card Storage- store unused and important cards in a dimensional vault. Limit to cp total +10 (can not store elites or bosses) Non-class skills Cleaning Tier 1 Level 37- Clean level/100 % more efficiently (.37%) Cooking Tier 1 Level 25- Cooking food had a level/100 % quality boost (.25%) Fistfighting Tier 1 Level 09- Fighting unarmed costs level/20 % less stamina (.45%) Notes about money/debt 5,000,000,000,000,000 tips in debt 1,000,000,000,000,000 allowance Notes about otherworlders (general) Notes about weapons, Jeff main armaments is a wing shield and arming sword. Also carries a parrying dagger and a two-handed crossbow. Armor consists of medium mithril scale armor under a dress uniform In combat wears an open face mithril helm. Chapter 30 Jeff didn¡¯t dress up in his new dress uniform nor did he order an elaborate dinner. In fact, he did not expect anything else from the evening other than a nice dinner and a conversation. Will the conversation be friendly or pleasant? He expected not. But this was important. He knew he needed as many friends as he could get and she needed support. So he sat in anticipation. Trying not to think of the near future of the dinner or the fact that this will be the last time he will see Xilna till he arrives at her mother''s. To fulfill his contract. Who was currently with Rachel. ----- ¡° You don¡¯t have to dress up. He is not in his dress uniform. He wanted to appear more as he was to you... before he fully delved into playing the role he has been cast for.¡± Rachel brought the dress she was looking at to the mirror in front of her and then set it down for the next one. Her friends, Becky and Alice watching from behind the dragonkin maid. One with an amused look on her face and the other slack-jawed from seeing the maid being a more worthy fighting woman than herself. ¡° If she is saying that, perhaps just some regular clothing, like he is wearing, will suffice.¡± Rachael turned to look at the witch and she shrunk to the saintess¡¯s gaze. ¡° The last time we met, he showed me his path forward. Everything from his dress to him revealing his vulnerabilities. He is set to learn the ways of war and fight for his freedom.¡± She then relented her stare to go back to picking a dress. ¡° If he is going to be the commander that leads armies to war, then I am going to be the one who brings salvation to the masses that follow. Most of the others, see this as a game. So few of us are taking this seriously. By whatever gods that run this messed up world, Becky looks like she is about to propose to Xelna.¡± This causes the others'' attention to turn to the spellsword, who realizes then she is staring. ¡° What, I¡¯ve had enough men for now.¡± Xilna blinked unamused at that and turned back toward the saintess. ¡° Ignoring the unwanted otherworlder innuendo, if you do not pick one out soon, the food will grow cold.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. This caused her to pause and sigh before going to the one dress she knew she would be wearing all along. A modest light blue dress that went just below her knees. It took her seconds to slip it over her bare body and Becky raised an eyebrow to not putting on any undergarments. ¡° So full commando? Respect that and I have to say, expecting some fast-acting excitement? ¡± Rachel turned to glare at her friend again, but as she did the dragonkin grabbed her hair and started to comb it. ¡° Will you stop stalling like a nervous princess? I will only brush out the knots and then you are out the door. Even if I have to drag you there.¡± Rachael squirmed before she sighed in defeat. ¡° Alright, alright, I get it. I should have never agreed to this stupid dinner.¡± Xilna pulls a rather nasty knot making the woman wince in pain. ¡° You will regret it more if you did not. Believe it or not but I have come to be rather fond of you two otherworlders. Like pets who want to play with each other but were too hurt by their former masters. So you do not know if this is a playmate or your next opponent to the death.¡± There was a notable pause as Xilna continued to comb the saintess¡¯s hair. ¡° Well on that depressing note, I¡¯m out. The all-you-can-eat buffet in the blue dorm comune room calling my name.¡± With that, Becky left and Alice only stayed long enough to help her pick a pair of comfortable shoes that went with the dress. After a few minutes of crunching her face in pain from all the knots being pulled out, and the hair attached to them, Rachel felt relief when she realized it was over. Already she could feel new hair growing back from what was lost. ¡° So, you are leaving tomorrow. Will you have a replacement... or?...¡± Xilna turns the saintess around and licks her thumb to work on the girl''s eyelashes. ¡° No, my term of service here ends in a few hours. Then I am given the next day to settle any lingering affairs and depart. In fact, after I drop you off at your dinner I will be leaving to pack my things and report one last time to the Duke.¡± Rachel frowned in disappointment at that news. ¡° I thought... well, you would at least serve us.¡± The maid shook her head. ¡° I cannot, one, you do not need me to. You and he both have servant-type constructs trained to do such things. Two, I just do not have the time. I should be packing right now in fact.¡± Rachel could not help but look at her maid construct, feeling foolish for forgetting about it. ¡° Oh, there was something I wanted to ask if you knew. Would my cards follow his orders over mine?¡± Xilna paused hearing that. ¡° I believe not. While Jeff would be their primary summoner, he did give them to you to command. Now, if there are no conflicting orders, they probably will follow his orders, because he is their originator and your subclass is based on his main. Then you got to add in their prime directive.¡± Rachel paused hearing that. ¡° Prime directive?¡± Xilna nods in response to the question. ¡° It is their primary set of orders to follow in case there are no standing orders. They are usually something along the lines of ¡®protect my summoner¡¯. Which would be you for your cards and not Jeff.¡± Rachael nods to this and decides to check her subclass for anything like that and finds it was a little more than that.
Command ONE priority: ¡®Safeguard summoner and freedom¡¯
Chapter 31 Jeff sat there in silence as he glanced at Rachel in her stunning blue dress. She was clearly careful as she ate her pasta dish so as not to get any on it. He, on the other hand, felt rather out of place now in his cotton-white shirt and brown pants. She seeing this put down her fork and smiled sweetly. ¡° I am making you uncomfortable aren¡¯t I? I did not mean...¡± ¡° No, you look stunning. I guess I put my foot in my mouth last time being all dressed up as some noble officer and talking about my problems when you have already gone through so much.¡± Her smile widened a little as she shook her head. ¡° And I did not consider you having problems of your own. All things considered. You were right. What happened to me and the others, we survived. And some of us who have the strength to continue will be both stronger and wiser for it. And you were right about something else too, we are behind, not just me and the other charm victims, but all of us. And there is not a thing we can really do about it except keep on as if it doesn¡¯t matter. Even though it does.¡± Rachel then pauses to see what Jeff would say to that and what she did not expect was for him to take a big drink of wine. ¡° What a right mess the two of us are. You know I regret not asking you to stay that day. We both needed a friend, and I guess we both still do. I hope we can still be friends, but our pity and problems are getting in the way of that. And honestly, I was never really that good with the socializing thing either. So what do you want to do?¡± Jeff then noticed Rachael looking at him not with her curious and friendly look but one of longing and desire. It quickly became clear that the dinner was over as she stood and moved the straps of her dress off her shoulders. Letting it fall on the ground showing him as much as he saw when he first saw her. ¡° Let¡¯s do it.¡± Jeff was left slackjawed as she started to move around the table. Before she reached him however he looked away ashamed. ¡° No, this ain¡¯t right.¡± Hearing this causes her to pause and then look down at herself. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°You are not gay are you?¡± This causes him to look at her again and she is far enough around the table to see he is definitely interested. ¡° Is it me? Or is there someone else?¡± In that moment Jeff knew what he needed to do as he stood and slowly embraced her in a hug. The surprise and blush on her face revealed her true resolve for the moment. ¡° This is forced. You are forcing yourself to do this. You want to be my friend... no, I think you wanted us to become more before you were charmed, didn¡¯t you?¡± He did not need to see her face to know she was starting to tear up. ¡° Why do you have to be so nice and caring? I know you want this too, so why?¡± Jeff closed his eyes and thought about the nonexistent memory he had before they met. The lack of family and friends and lessons that are meant to guide him. ¡° Because in this cruel world. Someone has to be the nice guy.¡± This caused her to finally fully break down and start crying in his arms. Her complaining to him about everything she too has lost and what happened to her in detail when she was charmed. When she was done, he found her passed out and he sighed as he took her to the bed to lay her down before sleeping on the most comfortable chair in the room. ----- Xilna handed the final report to the Duke. Behind her was her travel bag she would need in order to return home. ¡° So it is as we thought. About nine out of every ten are useless or worse. What of the Cardmancer and Saintess you have been close to?¡± Xilna shook her head. ¡° They will stay friends but they will not become romantic. At least not right away. You should be getting a report soon about them. As for other details, the Cardmancer will be one of the spearheads of the champions. If he can keep his head on right and recruit the right people, well, I find he has some of the best odds amongst them to actually take some of the demon lands. The issue he is having however is finding a way to hold those lands. The guild is his main plan of support, but as you know as he does, the nobles and elitists are going to capitalize on his success. I feel his plan is to secure a stronghold location, like the Mage did, and become self-sufficient. This will not only fulfill the requirements of his debt in full and more, but also that of the guild. If he succeeds he will become a new power. One that is not only not afraid to challenge the status quo, but the means to change it. The saintess, her traumas weigh her down. She is hoping for the Cardmancer to be one of her key pillars, and I am not sure he can be with everything else. However, she is just as important to the challenge to the status quo as he is. If she can solidify her resolve and fully walk the path she decides on...¡± ¡° We have the making of a new goddess to be born. Already she is forming her order with two palidins and she even has the support of many of the other commoner classes. Between them, they have over half of the red dorm behind them. With more for the saintess from outside that dorm but more with the Cardmancer within it.¡± ¡° And what of the heroes'' classes?¡± ¡° Well, as guessed as well they are going to separate into their own groups. After they train up they plan on joining together in two years after the six-month deadline to make a massive push into the demon lands. If the Cardmancer can secure his holding before then.¡± ¡° Then they will be following his lead. An independent with only ties to grandmother.¡± Xilna nods with a smile on her face. ¡° It will be a position mother can use little of, but it will please her to know that she annoyed the short-lived nobels for a time. In fact, if this scheme succeeds then we might be able to start pushing back against the demons in earnest. Opening the lost riches of fallen kingdoms and empires for those who lead the march. She is taking a gamble here, but not one she can not afford to lose, but the payout will be massive.¡± Chapter 32 Rachel woke up to the dim blue glow of a light stone and she looked at it annoyed before she remembered what she tried to do and actually did the night before. ¡° What the hell got into me. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t sleep with your pansy rear. He just wanted to be your friend.¡± After she says that the room starts brightening up and she finds herself not in the charmed victim dorm, but in one of the private rooms. Jeff¡¯s private room. Who was sitting in a chair with his back to her tapping the light control for the room. ¡° To be fair, I probably would have if you did not rush things. Then we got emotional and depressed. Why can¡¯t being friends be easier.¡± Rachel blushed as she covered herself the best she could with her arms and legs. Which was pointless because he was still not seeing her. It took her a moment to realize she could use the beds blanket to cover up then spotted her dress and felt embarrassed even further picking it. He didn¡¯t say anything as she put her dress and shoes back on and then sat on the bed ashamed. ¡° You¡¯re right again. Being friends is difficult, especially when I want to be more than that. And I am sorry for making you uncomfortable last night. I... I don¡¯t know what came over me last night.¡± ¡° A lot of things, I imagine. Feeling better?¡± Jeff leaned over the chair edge to look at Rachel and saw her beam a smile at him like he remembered she had when they first met. ¡° Yea... and sorry... for crying like a girl. I shouldn¡¯t have forced you to bear my burdens.¡± He smiled in return and stood to move over to her and offer her a hand. ¡° So... do you want to make this a hang-out day or...¡± ¡° Oh god, yes. I am so damn tired of hanging around a bunch of whiny women who can¡¯t get their act together. We have a damn Damocles sword hanging over our heads as we all know it...¡± Rachel pauses seeing Jeff utterly shocked by her sudden attitude change. ¡° Too much?¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡° Just a bit. So, what do you want to do today?¡± Rachael thought about it a moment before smiling again. ¡° What were you going to do today?¡± In response, Jeff goes to his desk and pulls the top paper off a stack. She takes it and blanches at seeing the overly detailed list. ¡° Seriously, I''ve seen athletes with less detailed schedules. You do this every day?¡± Jeff gestured to the stack of papers he took the one he showed her. ¡° My rough schedule for the next month.¡± With his permission, she started looking through his schedule and became surprised at all the classes and lessons in his plans. It appeared he had enough lessons to learn how to be an aristocrat alone that would be required for a native of the world to learn in a year. That is when she realized how serious he was being with his plans. He truly plans to cut a piece of this world for himself. Which begged the question of what she wanted to do and how she was going to do it. ¡° I mean these are all very detailed. Are you sure you can take the day off?¡± Jeff nods toward her and reaches for the blank papers and a pencil. ¡° I just got to give the tutors a notice of absence. For the physical training, I am supposed to take a day off each week anyway. Since I have not done so this week, I can do that without notice. I will write a note to the trainers anyway as a courtesy. After that, I am free all day.¡± Rachel nodded as she watched him write. She never realized he had a flair to it either. At the end of each note, he pressed a stamp on the bottom that was a hexagram with six different colored points. ¡° Like it? It came with my hereditary package. It is a magical stamp that does not need ink. It cost ten gold talons but it is worth it.¡± Rachael blinks as she takes the newly finished note. Instead of saying to one of his tutors he was taking the day off, it was instead written in a manner of someone giving instructions to write out several messages with the same content to several people. She then hands it back and he gestures it to one of his maid constructs. ¡° Take this to the filing office.¡± The construct takes the note and solutes before leaving. ¡° How come your construct solutes you?¡± Jeff turns to look at his boss in thought. ¡° If I had to guess, it is because all my cards follow the soldier¡¯s path.¡± ¡° Path? What¡¯s that?¡± Jeff moves over to his dress uniform and pulls out a notebook from an inside pocket. ¡° It is a defining theme for my cards as far as I can figure. Since I have been focusing so heavily on fighting and well, leading an army. All my evolutions have all been about that.¡± Jeff turned to one of the middle pages of the notebook and offered it to her. To her surprise, it contained all kinds of insights and theories Jeff had made about his own class. Things she never even considered about her own class. For example, the makeup of magic in his cards can be deliberately altered slightly by injecting extra mana into the card in its formation. This forcefully alters the card by adding two positive and a negative trait to the card. Like being able to have extra mana capacity and slightly physically better in return for a reduced recovery rate. This caused her to instinctively try to push some mana into her own passive healing.
Instantly she started to feel the drain on her mana so she cut the extra supply. All Jeff did was raise an eyebrow as he watched her. ¡° Wow, I did not even know you could overload your spells.¡± Rachel then turned the page to find out more about the theories Jeff has for evolving his cards. Chapter 33 Jeff and Rachel arrived in the training courtyard and soon found Sargent Mar overwatching two of Jeff¡¯s summons working with bows. They stood observing the elven corporal fixing the stances of the two when Mar Looked at them. ¡° Good, lil commander, even if you are taking time for yourself, you should never neglect your men. And who might this lovely lady be?¡± Rachel blushed a little bit and Jeff straightened up entering his ¡®commander¡¯ mindset. ¡° May I introduce, Saintess Rachel, one of the otherworlders and my friend. It is with her that I found I can teach my class to others.¡± Hearing this the Sargent made a seemingly random gesture with his hands in front of his chest and bowed. ¡° Greetings holy one. I see you walk a divine path. I assume these are some of your holy servants?¡± Rachael turned to look are her three card constructs. She gestures to the heavily armored one to step forward and it took an honor guard stance after it does. ¡° Well, this is my paladin variant of Jeff¡¯s cards from my first subclass. Honestly, I am not that knowledgeable about armor or weapons.¡± Mar takes a step forward and starts examining the construct. Its white featureless flesh is a stark contrast to Jeff¡¯s floating skeleton version. He walks around twice before looking at the Saintess mildly disappointed. ¡° When you asked for this armor and weapons, was it all together?¡± Sheepishly she nods and the Sargent sighs in disappointment. ¡° Well, from already working with the Lil Commanders constructs, I know that having them change out of something they are already using is near impossible unless they recently evolved. This means you are stuck with a heavy front liner with a two-handed polearm paired with a sword and board. Not to mention the armor is not quite right. For one your construct has no underarmor, leaving his joints completely exposed. Any half-decent rogue would take an arm or leg when they try to swing that monster one-handed. So they need to be taught how to use each of their weapons separately. In addition, they need a long-range attack option. Some light nimble archer will run around and rain down arrows as it chases in circles helplessly.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Rachel blushed ashamed as Mar gestured to the less armored female construct with a crossbow on her back. ¡° I will point it out right away, the arbalist has no under armor again. That being said, this one I can see being used in conjunction with your palidin. An automatic crossbow will ensure four quick shots. Even if you miss most of them, you are likely to hit at least one. However, what are they going to do if the bolts do not work. They have no secondary weapon like the palidin, which can do both short and medium range. You have got to remember to have a short-range option.¡± Mar then dismissed the second construct and raised a curious eyebrow to the third, who brought out hidden daggers from her sleeves. ¡° Rogue is not in my wheelhouse. So I can not really comment on their effectiveness by looks alone, but this one is probably the best of the three.¡± He then turns to Rachael to look at her. ¡° I highly recommend you think about getting some battle garb as well. As the healer, any wise attacker will go after you first. Especially in a surprise attack...¡± Mar then paused realizing something and quickly bowed. ¡° My apologies your holiness, I just realized...¡± Rachel just waved her hand side to side. ¡° I do not want to be defined by being a victim of my circumstance. You are helping me catch up on the weeks I missed due to the charm incident and the following recovery. I have not had much help from the staff since then because...¡± Mar straightened up and breathed easier relieved. ¡° Yes, your grace, as I was saying, I highly recommend arranging for some battle dress such as the Lil Commander normally wears. As he took today to be more casual than a noble should, I can excuse for him not wearing it today. As for you, I assume you have seen his different uniforms?¡± Rachel nods and gestures toward Jeff¡¯s constructs still learning how to use the bow. ¡° I have seen him in much fancier versions of what they are wearing, and I see his even more fancy getup and the more reinforced version I assume for actual combat. I can assume that what he normally wears is his day-to-day while the fancy set is for special events and the reinforced one is for combat.¡± ¡° And you would be correct. His day-to-day battle dress was made with comfort, fashion, and protection in mind. While the other two sacrifice comfort in order to enhance one of the other two aspects.¡± Rachel nods agreeing to this. ¡° So I need the same three things for the same reasons.¡± ¡° Not quite, while the Lil Commander here is often in the spotlight, he is not often interacting with the masses. He is a noble, he is learning how to be a noble, and he is going to attempt to act like a noble. You are a saintess. People are going to want to close in on you and if you put up a strong outer appearance.¡± ¡° I will be less approachable if I am in a suit of armor to say...¡± She then gestured to what she had on and Mar smiled and shook his head amused. ¡° Well, this is a bit too... open for most common folk. You are a saintess and expect at least some protection. And definitely less revealing.¡± She started to blush again but did nothing to cover herself up. Which caused Mar to laugh. Not a chapter Just a brief heads up, I am going to take next week off from releasing chapters. Due to IRL stuff ranging from family matters to a loss of power, I have started to fall behind in my patreon chapters. Which means I am running out of chapters to release here on RR. Fear not however, book 1 is almost done. So, I am going to open a poll during the week off with tomorrow''s chapter. I have a few ideas for book 1 names, but if you have ideas for one as well leave a suggestion in the comments before the release in 10ish hours and I will add it to the poll. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Chapter 34 Rachel and Jeff sat in the red dorm comune room when Janice walked in and saw someone in her usual spot. Without worrying about it she moved to Amanda¡¯s spot since she was still gone on her shopping trip. She watched the two play checkers in silence. It was quite clear that he was taking it easy on her as well. Still in the end he won decisively. ¡° So who¡¯s your girlfriend.¡± She meant it only as teasing, but the girl''s face went red and Jeff took a drink of wine to cover up his own embarrassment. ¡° Hi, I¡¯m Rachel, a healer,¡± Rachel offered her hand to the other woman and Janice took it with a smile on her face. ¡° Hello Rachel, I am Janice. I am in charge of the group''s communications. Here let me do this.¡± Janice twisted her wrist slightly and this caused a message to appear in front of Rachael.
You have been invited to a chat group.
Accept Y/N
Rachael blinked before she mentally accepted and she found herself in a chat room with two others.
Coms: Sorry about what your name is. You subconsciously pick your own.
Rachael blinked again surprised and unintentionally thought out a comment.
Holy: What do you mean?
Holy: OMG! It¡¯s texting... but in your head!
...
Holy: How do I make it stop posting every stray thought in my head?
...
Holy: HELP!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!
Room admin has silenced ¡®Holy¡¯ for five minutes.
Coms: So, we got a texting pro here. Think chat settings and enable thought filtering. I do not know why it is off by default, but it is. Next, set up the rest of your settings. They will save for this and future chat groups automatically. After you are done with that you can watch me and Jeff finish our game of checkers.
LC: Jeff here, LC stands for Little Commander by the way. This is Janice''s class power. Do not mention it out loud or tell others about it. Do not reveal anything you do not want widely known either. From the other otherworlders, this method is secure, but not from the staff and monitoring methods of the building.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Rachel opened her eyes wide before schooling her face to look more natural. In addition, she stopped moving her eyes like she was reading and focused on the checkers game. ¡° She catches on quick. So Jeff, I can see adding a healer to the group is good, but why her and why now?¡± Jeff glanced over toward Rachel before focusing on the board again. ¡° After we got here on day one, we became fast friends. Yet, what happened to us was too... raw. We should have been working closer together, instead we separated to better understand what happened with that demonstration the duke put on with those five...¡± Jeff pauses and all three shudder from the memory. After that, I tried to reach out to her, but...¡±
LC: You do not have to tell her, but she already knows. It not really a big secret of who was charmed at this point.
¡° It¡¯s fine. I was tricked by my maid to enter an ambush set by several others of us and was charmed. If you have not heard about what happened to us...¡± Rachel looked down to her fidgeting hands and closed her eyes. ¡° It was bad. How they kept it hidden for several days, I don¡¯t know. But it was more than them forcing themselves on us whenever they wanted. They wanted details about our classes, our educational backgrounds, and anything that we thought we expected would be useful to make from our homeworlds... Some of the others... they have given up. Next week, if nothing changes, most of them... They will have their cards called in.¡± This was news to both Jeff and Janice. If having their ¡®cards¡¯ was more calling in their debts. Then most of them, if not all, will go from one incident of losing their freedom to another more permanent one. Worse of all, there would be no escaping it this time. Jeff turned to Janice to see her as conflicted about this as he was and he shook his head signaling he could not help them. He was barely in a position to help himself. After some awkward silence, Janice sighed, reset the checkers game, and gestured for Rachel to play her. ¡° So what about the others? Rachel blinked at that and focused on the board. She moves a piece and relaxes her tense muscles. ¡° Right, the others. There is a small group of us that are... recovering. Then there is the family of some of the victims who are picking up some of the slack. Honestly, we have not been thinking much of the future till Jeff pointed it out to me that we have not. Right now, we plan on sticking together for the most part. When we leave this place we plan on roaming the land and helping out others in need.¡±
Holy silence has ended!
Holy: So, what is really going on?
LC: It is a long story, but in general there are a bunch of native factions pulling us into their own groups. Buying out people''s debts, knowingly or not. It is not well-liked by most others that we, as the guild, will be independent of them. The charm incident and it¡¯s following cover-up... was one of them.
Chapter 35 Bobby could not believe his eyes. She was dead, the memory was telling him. He saw it on the news. He could not remember much of the details, but he remembered. She was dead. And yet here she was, talking to two of the other founders of the guild. Bobby hesitated only for a few more seconds before he noticed Jeff looking at him. Curiosity in his strange behavior. Taking a moment to take a deep breath, he decides to confront the very attractive elephant in the room. ¡° Rachel, long time no see...¡± The words barely escaped his lips when he noticed Rachel physically jumping startled and cowering away towards Jeff. Which broke his heart. ¡° Bobby, don¡¯t be a jerk. You scaring the poor girl.¡± Bobby paused hearing Janice chastise him and saw Rachel really was scared of him. Then it dawned on the others he knew her name without being told. ¡° So, you do not remember. We um... met during one of my dad''s political parties. He was using me to curry favor with your parents. Your parents were using you as a shield against me. Eventually, we both snuck off and found each other in the same isolated spot. We both complain about our parents and eventually, we do what teenagers do...¡± Bobby turned his head away as he blushed and as if a memory came back to her Rachel looked at him a little surprised. ¡° I remember it vaguely. Shapes, colors... certain sensations.¡± Rachel blushed a little as well and turned toward Jeff. ¡° I do not remember all the details. It does not matter anyway, it was literally a past life.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She then looks at Janice. ¡° What is important right now is our future. I got ahold of one of your drafts of your charter and I have to say, I am impressed. Not enough to join, but at least associated with you. Bobby realized before the other two this was a power play. A business and political power play. ¡° You have several crafters and laborers in the guild. I have access to most of the healers and buffers. In addition, I have several of the family members that are of blue and green dorms as well...¡± ¡° And what exactly is your plan, Save for Jeff here, you are talking like you have the strongest combat group in the room. To be fair, you do have an impressive roster, but nothing like some of the independents that plan on going merc as well. Chutney, the tamer, for example already has a line for some powerful beasts. No one in the room can deal with a level twenty yet, little alone with a level fifty chimera. Luke, over there in the corner has already arranged to be hired by the adventurer guild when he gets out of here. Since barrier magic is always a nice bonus no matter what level it is. I can even theoretically be stronger than your group because I plan on building a city in the future. So, what exactly is your path after you leave here?¡± Rachel looks at him coldly in the eyes before sighing. ¡° Wow, I really do need more practice. I guess they did not give you the memo.¡± Bobby looked confused as Janice spoke up. ¡° Yeah, a bit of a prick move, we were helping her with her pitch when you showed up. She must have thought we told you, but we didn¡¯t. Besides, her future path is a lot stronger than yours.¡± Bobby raises an eyebrow and looks at her skeptically. ¡° I know she is a healer, but I do not think a hospital will be more than a city.¡± Rachel chuckled at that. ¡° How about a church?¡± He pauses to look at her more seriously. ¡° Oh, hell no, I am not touching that one with a ten foot pole. Me and God go as well together as cats and dogs.¡± Jeff laughed at that and shook his head before taking a drink of wine. ¡° Seriously, you all have not been studying history and culture as much as you should be. Lowercase gods do exist in this world. Think really really strong people who have tons of rules they have to follow. Because there are higher-level gods too that enforce those rules. The system is one of those higher-level gods. And before you ask, why haven¡¯t they cleaned up the mess with the demons, rules? You do not gain access to that kind of information till you hit level one hundred. Which is the first step to becoming a demi-god.¡± All three of them look at Jeff with slightly open mouths not sure what to make of this revelation. That is when he decides to drop another bombshell. ¡°Yeah, the demons have killed lowercase gods too. But that is a future problem we can barely dream of even looking at. So, back on topic. What are your thoughts on what Rachel needs to do?¡± Chapter 36 Rachel was on her bed after the long discussion with Jeff and the other two founders of the guild. The realization she was weeks behind in planning compared to the others became all the more apparent. Not only was Jeff more physically fit than before, but you could tell his mind was sharper too. The other two also seemed to have vast improvement from what she guessed was their base from when they all arrived. With a firm resolution in her mind, she decided it was time to weed out the chaff from her own group and start getting stronger as well. Because she would be damned if she returned to being helpless again. ----- Duke Randolph kept his face straight as he sat in his meeting room with several other nobles. Perhaps one of the few things he was grateful for that came from the hero¡¯s of his generation was the way to communicate with multiple people over long distances. It was not cheap, but that was a fair price to pay to skip days to months of travel. Not to mention being able to reside in your own home after a stressful meeting. Of course, that also made more clandestine action harder as well. In this case, trouble was coming to him. ¡° It has been well over a month, are you telling me that you still have not got these otherworlders ready? I find it hard to believe one such as your renown can not wrangle a bunch of children.¡± The duke raises a finger at this comment. ¡° I shall address this issue in two parts. First, I was given six months to prepare them, which I might re 2mind you, was the agreed-upon time limit. We already have reports that the majority that have left early have already been slain or captured and put into slavery. By some of the nobles who are under the people in this very room no less. So we have factual evidence of how useful these mere children are right now. My second part is the interference done by outside forces. From sabotage to coercing one group of heroes to charm others then forcing them into slavery contracts to them. All this in the first week. Already I have had to put nearly half the staff under high scrutiny as I have confirmed over twenty individuals are working against the very reason this place exists. So, tell me King Jamison, what do you think will happen when a bunch of noble brats show up expecting to recruit...¡± ¡° I would watch your words very carefully Duke Randolph. My daughter, the crown princess, is not some mere brat. She is an acknowledged A rank adventurer that...¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. A cough comes from an elderly-looking elf interrupting the king. ¡° As fascinating it is to hear about your daughter''s exploits once again. We are all on a schedule. The truth of the matter is Duke Randolph, I am afraid you have no choice in this matter. The movement of nobles has already begun. Kickstarted by some human twat too eager to please his spawn.¡± The elf eyes the human king as he smiles meekly like a child with his hand in the jar. ¡° And as you know, when one egotistical brat moves, it quickly becomes a herd of overly hormonal children who do not want to be the uncool one last to the party. Even my lines successor is not immune to this.¡± With that said, there was a pause that allowed the duke to take a brief drink. ¡° Very well, it is not like this situation was not foreseen either. However, I refuse to allow them here for at least a few more weeks. They can stay in Nigal till the first of the cobalt moon.¡± King Jamison opens his mouth, clearly about to protest but a miniature dragon on the table lifts her head. ¡° This is acceptable. Two weeks should be more than enough time for the fledglings to be prepared to meet. Now tell us of the prospects our younglings might meet.¡± The duke acknowledges the request by nodding his head and subtly shifts around his papers. ¡° Of the initial near thousand otherworlders that we pulled, in total we have a confirmed ninety-eight dead, one hundred and forty-four have been deemed to need their debts called in. With an additional thirteen more that have been ruined by the charm event. With the two hundred and seven remaining alive who chose to immediately go to the front lines, that leaves five hundred and twenty-eight still in my care and watchful eye. Of them, there are four groups that have formed. The first group is those who have decided to be independent. The largest and best organized of these is called Guild Eighty-eight. After the total number of original signatures on the first draft of their charter. This group has since grown to one hundred and sixty as of this morning. The newest members are more along the lines of associates, a group of twenty-three led by a saintess and has all the other clergy members under her as well as several others. Another eighty-two members are also crafters or considered nontypical combat classes. Such as miners or blacksmiths. The next largest group is an association of fighters, mages, and auxiliaries called The Association. This group of seventy-seven individuals is led primarily by the hero and royal class holders.¡± The duke eyes King Jamison distastefully. ¡° Needless to say, this group is also the cause of most of the issues we have here at the resort. A group of these individuals was the cause of the charm incident for the first week. There are also reports of other lesser incidents that caused no less than twenty otherworlders to sacrifice their bonuses to this group and enter their slavery debts. As they already claim to have a powerful backer behind them, I can do nothing to them directly beyond the scope of my responsibility.¡± Duke Randolph then shifts to a new page. ¡° Up next is much smaller groups ranging from four to fourteen. For a total of two hundred and thirty-six collectively. The majority of these groups have either deemed to enter the adventurer guild directly or go independent but with an adventurer license. Of those that remain are individuals or pairs working together to try to keep their actions secret. The one double reincarnate we found in this batch of otherworlders has already been taken care of.¡± Chapter 37 Jeff awoke slowly and as per usual got ready as he had the day before. First thing after he left he went to his morning training before doing his etiquette classes, after that however his schedule changed as Sargent Mar called him to discuss something. ¡° Ah, lil commander. Glad you could show up, I would have told you this earlier, but I was just informed this shortly after your morning workout. And gods forbid I break the Duke¡¯s edict about not interrupting etiquette lessons. So, I had someone fetch you after they were done. You see, the potential quartermaster for your merry band of constructs has arrived.¡± Jeff paused seeing the sergeant almost giggity with excitement as he was then dragged to a nearby office where all his soldier constructs were on display as well as a dozen other guards all looking at the one dwarf who had his focus on Jeff¡¯s summons. ¡° All right you tag ons. This here is a private conversation so get out of here before I kick your collective rears out.¡± The room quickly empties save for the constructs, Jeff, the dwarf, and the Sargent. With a gruff and a motion toward the door, Mars reluctantly leaves as well. The next thing that happens is the dwarf pulls out a stone and puts it on the nearby table. |You are under the effect of a Master level privacy ward.| ¡° Alright, that kid Lews said you were a sharp lad, so I shall give you five minutes at first crack at me. Because otherwise, I will have to go to the group I was originally called here to help.¡± With only hesitating a moment, Jeff opens his jacket¡¯s folds and pulls out a few notebooks. Without saying a word he offers them to him and he takes them without a second thought. It appeared to Jeff he just flipped through the pages, without giving any any particular thought, but he knew better from his lessons about those with higher stats. In less than a minute the dwarf was done and handed back the notebooks. Then without much fanfare, the dwarf merely left after taking his stone back. Jeff just stood there unsure exactly what happened when Sargent Mar returned to the room seeing Jeff seemingly starstruck. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡° Whatever he said to you, it is for you only. It is not every day someone gets time with a Legend. Now that I have said my required line, spill it.¡± Jeff blinks seeing Mar still jittery like a schoolgirl who gets a hello back from her pop idol. Shaking his head, Jeff put his notebooks away and shook his head. ¡° He didn¡¯t say anything, just walked out without a word.¡± Concern and sadness appear on the old soldier''s face before he sighs and turns to the constructs. With a simple motion, one of many Jeff had been learning himself, the constructs left the room to return to their individual training. ¡° Well, it''s not all bad, you can brag to your grandchildren that you met a Legend at least. Not many he would give a second consideration to. Still something to be proud of.¡± ¡° I guess, only if I knew who he was in the first place.¡± Mar looked at the young man less than half his age in surprise before sighing realizing he overlooked one important fact. Jeff was an otherworlder and did not know the common folklore of famous people. ¡° Right, perhaps I should start with his name. Wit Cobblestorm, one of three triple S ranks adventurers alive that have broken the fabled two hundred and fifty threshold. Said to be over a thousand years old, but not old enough to be born when the pack of flame and stone was forged between the dragons and dwarves. To end the great war of the third era. You can look that up on your own time. Anyways, Wit became an adventurer when he was young. He had to. Long story short, he was good at it. So good at it that the dwarven king back then forced conscripted him into his army. To summarize what happened from that, that bloodline no longer exists. Move on a few hundred years and you have Wit and the new dwarven nobility and royalty have something of an understanding. In more recent history, Wit served as a staff sergeant because he was tired of killing. He wanted something of a more quiet life while upholding his agreements. Then one day some seventy years ago, some no-name double-digit in-line prince spent his holiday pretending to be a soldier. Not many know the exact details but, the prince accused Wit of theft and had him jailed. It took three days for the king to learn of this, and be released. Naturally, Wit was pissed. As reparation, he asked the king to deal with the prince properly. That led to the first public execution of royalty in hundreds of years.¡± Mar paused to let that all sink in and he could see Jeff contemplating it. ¡° Since then he been wandering from one bar to the next on vacation. On occasion, you hear of him rampaging past the front lines or shoring up a weak point. And now he is here. I wonder if he is giving autographs...¡± Jeff¡¯s only response was to roll his eyes. Chapter 38 Wit Cobblestorm walked into the conference room without a care in the world. Over his long life, he had met all kinds of people. The three seated at the high table meant for five reminded him of the worst kind he knew of, the entitled. Still, the dwarven king and many other nobles had begged him to come to this meeting and so far he was not impressed. Not unlike the kid he saw before. No, that one did not waste his time. His summons were versatile and plentiful, he had a plan for his build and future and was actively doing what he was meant to be doing, even if he could be doing it better. No, those in this room he felt much less impressed with than that kid. So he found a suitable spot and took out the most gaudy and cringe-worthy chair he had just for such purposes as this. Then he made a show of sitting on it before even acknowledging the room. ¡° You have five minutes, impress me.¡± To his right, a young man stood and he paid it no mind, instead only kept watch on his interface timer. Already they were wasting his time. ¡° And who the hell are you to barge in here and demand...¡± The woman on the right instantly pulled out a bow and conjured an arrow then shot the speaker with it between the eyes. Luckily for the speaker, she used a blunt tip to knock the idiot out. He was still not impressed by the show. ¡° Apologies Legend Wit Cobblestorm, some of us have not taken to our etiquette lessons than others.¡± ¡° Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, you have already wasted half a minute of my time. Impress me.¡± The archer frowned at that as the man in guild armor stood. ¡° We, of The Association, humbly ask...¡± ¡° Forty, forty-one, forty-two.¡± The man sighs and takes a crystal out of a hidden pouch under his armor and tosses it to him. The dwarf inspects the crystal contents and then drops it on the floor. ¡° Fifty-nine, sixty. That is one minute now. Impress me!¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The guild armored man frowned at this and looked to the man in a robe to his left. ¡° We need your help organizing and training us beyond these walls. We do not only want your leadership prowess but also your expertise and council. We plan on striking deep into the...¡± Wit took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Always the same stick with these people. ¡° Right, I have given you all enough of my time. You have failed my test. I am not impressed and so I will not be joining you.¡± Without anyone else being aware of it, Wit was now standing where his seat once was and began to leave. ¡° Wait, I thought you said you give us five minutes?¡± Wit paused to look at the archer making a face of utter disbelief. ¡° That my dear was the test. Anyone taking me as seriously as they should would not waste a minute of my time. Because in one minute I could have killed everyone in this country, moved to another country, and ordered me a beer. Instead, you decided to put on a show, give me a speech so bad I would not even be able to fall asleep to it, and give me a bunch of scrambled thoughts stolen from charmed minds. You have no plan, you have no build, you are barely organized if you have some fool talk to me like he did. In order to have even my consideration, I would have needed a reasonable plan of how you were going to achieve your goals, even with or without me in it. A detailed description of what you are asking of me. And the damn respect to not play political games with me.¡± With that, he left the room of protesting children. ----- Captain Lews sat at her desk idly reading a report when her door opened and closed fast enough that neither the guards nor the clerk outside noticed. She however immediately set the paper down and went into a refrigerated drawer of her desk and pulled out a fine bottle of elven wine she picked up fifty years ago for a day such as this. The next moment two glasses found their way onto her desk and she unceremoniously opened the bottle and poured them full. ¡° So I take it it did not go well?¡± Wit appeared from his stealth and took one of the glasses as he sat down. ¡° Bah, a bunch of kids following a greedy prick. Not an original thought amongst them. If he thought I would start working for him via such a roundabout way, he really needs to get that golden stick out of his rear and be more flexible. Now that Cardmancer you told me about. I can tell he listens and learns. He is flexible enough to adapt but will not simply break to the first bit of pressure put on him. Hell, he had a half way decent plan. Not a good one mind you, but given his circumstances, I doubt that was his full plan. But good enough of a framework to work from. It is a bit surprising that I am being told I am needed for a certain role and it is only for that role.¡± The dwarf then upends the wine into his mouth and offers the cup for more, which the elf does. ¡° I think I will stick around a while and watch him. Don¡¯t worry, I won''t interfere with their games, just do the job I was asked politely to do. So tell me, between the Seventh Raid and Raynor¡¯s Downfall, how screwed is he really?¡± The elf did not answer, just drank her wine before refilling both glasses again. ¡° That bad eh? He really did draw the short straw.¡± The elf sets her glass down and pulls out a stack of cards from her desk. ¡° He gave these to me for when I find a quartermaster for him., there is also a list of trade skills he would like to see if they can acquire. Do not give them jobs that require communicating with others, like shop clerks. There are about a dozen extra cards as well if you can think of a job he did not list. And he said and I quote, ¡®I can always get you more.¡¯ so feel free to ask for more.¡± Wit put his glass down, picked up the cards and rubbed his beard in thought. Chapter 39 Lord son Weston Parks sat at the dining room table with his brothers and sisters eating silently as their father watched over them with a discerning eye. The barley stew was as bland as it usually is and he ate it mechanically. The bowl was halfway empty when his father tapped his dagger against his chalice. ¡° Everyone, I have an announcement to make. First off, congratulations should be given to Alexander, your older brother. He has passed his exam and has been fully enrolled in Starlight Academy.¡± Everyone, including him and the servants began clapping politely before his father raised his hand. ¡° Next it has come to my attention that a gathering of noble sons and daughters is gathering in Nigal. It seems they are getting ready to open the summoned champions for partnering much sooner than expected. That means I will be sending some of you as well.¡± Their father then took out a letter that was delivered earlier that day. ¡° We have been granted four places. I have decided to give them to Alexander, Samson, Abigail and Millissa. You leave in the morning.¡± With that said, their father put away the letter and stood from the table. Weston wanted to protest but knew better than to do so. Now that their father had left, his children were free to speak to one another. Samson looked at him sorry as the others started speculating about the otherworlder champions. Yet, none of them longed to join them more than him. ----- All across the lands similar happening occurred. Later this event would be called the great noble migration that was said to begin the next era. But that is for another time. ----- Weston sat in his shared room with his other siblings beside the window that had the setting sun shining through it. In his hands is a book labeled ¡®The Heros'' of the Current Age, The Age of Demons¡¯. It was his favorite book and it spoke about the first hero of the age, the reincarnator, who was reborn on Fridel and raised as the fifth son of a kingdom that no longer exists. Of his journey and fables till his ultimate demise. Then the second half of the book spoke of the transmigrators. Those that were brought here alive from another world. A group of five to help turn the tide against the demons. Sadly, the book was full of stories and fables to inspire the masses and less about the actual truths of the world. Still, it did not help his dreams that he had a middling ability in all things noble. He was adequate at managing people, land, and assets. He only had a basic understanding of strategy and barely passed in both martial skill and magic ability. The only thing he was good at was retaining what he had learned. So he had no real hope of becoming the partner of one of the champions and fighting side-by-side with them as they pushed into the demon lands. No, what he wanted was more to document their journey and add a new chapter to the book he held. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡° Weston, come here.¡± Weston looked up from his idle reading in surprise to hearing his brother, Samson speaking to him. With a smile and an arm around his shoulder, Samson led him out of the room and into his own down the hall. ¡° Now that we are out of earshot of the others, I was told by Father to ask you a single question. What do you have to offer the otherworlder champions?¡± Weston opened his mouth to answer but quickly closed it to think about the question more in-depth. He came to realize quickly that each of his siblings had something to offer the champions other than their company. While not the best, they each had something to offer he plainly did not. He slouched his shoulders and shook his head in defeat. ¡° At best I could be a scribe or lower administrator type role. With how many noble sons and daughters that will be going there, I have no real hope do I?¡± Samson took a pitcher of water and a couple of cups and poured them each a drink. ¡° I talked to Father after dinner. In truth, I do not want to go. In fact, I should not go. Alexander will be gone for at least the next ten years if he even does return. That leaves me next in line, and the obvious choice to become the steward of the land while Alexander is at the academy and following that on the front. If I vacate that spot then that opens the land to all kinds of problems if something happens to both me and our older brother. And there is another thing, none of us, neither me nor our siblings; has an understanding of otherworlder like you do. You grew up reading and learning about them all your life. You have a passion unlike the rest of us that makes you more suited to going. So, Father decided to have me test you. If you had mentioned anything except the fact you would probably get along with them better than us, then you would have failed. Instead, you looked at things objectively and realized you had nothing to offer over me and the others, save for two things. One I already told you, and the other is you would be a blank slate.¡± Weston looked at his brother confused as he took the undrank water from his brother. ¡° You would be able to adapt to become anything the champions need. What if they do not need someone who can manage land and peasantry? What if they instead need someone who just can give advice, in a way they can understand? Do you think you are able to do that better than me?¡± Weston smiled excitedly as he realized where this was going. ¡° Of course.¡± ¡° Good, pack your things, you leave for The Resort early.¡± Chapter 40 It took three weeks for Weston and his siblings to arrive at The Resort. As the children of a viscount, they were not that high ranking, but at least they did not have to wait weeks still for entry instead of the days they had already compared to lesser nobles such as barons and lords. Considering those of a higher rank have already been active here for over a week slightly irked him as well. Once inside he was assigned a modest room a similar size that he shared with his siblings. Being a noble son he knew how to operate the magical devices and how to use the ropes, but there were still instructions on how on the desk as well. As well as a note that he will be seeing the otherworlders tomorrow in the training grounds. After ordering a brief dinner he went to bed. ----- Weston looked amazed alongside the hundreds of other noble sons and daughters as they sat on the observatory stands. There were well over two hundred otherworlders present and each of them seemed to be training in some form or another. The most notable display was the challenges of squad-on-squad combat. Where groups of champions took on twice the number of soldiers likely at least twenty main class levels over them. Next were the duels showcasing individual prowess with even larger gaps in levels. He soon figured out, that these two groups were the castoffs of the main group of otherworlders that they call The Association. The Association held the five hero class holders as well as all the rarer ranked combat classes. They were a small group of nearly a hundred that were working on larger tactics than a mere six on twelve fights. No, their display was of fifty versus three hundred and winning. It was well past noon when that fight was over and Resort staff brought lunch to the watchers as some of the otherworlders were approached, but not toward The Association nor any others that have a child of another noble or royal with them. After the break, less than a third of the observers were missing. Either being picked up by an otherworlder or group or realizing they had no hope and decided to enjoy their time here instead. The second set of otherworlders were not fighters, but crafters, tradesmen and laborer classes. Showcasing their trades despite their lower level. This is where most of those here are here for. To pick up talent for their lands. Weston was half bored out of his mind watching the sixth blacksmith display and trial out an iron sword. Sure it shined, but how strong was it? That is when a hush took over the craftsman and soon the stands followed it. Unexpectedly, three distinct groups entered together. The first, was led by some custom-dressed soldiers with full facial masks with a banner bearer. This banner had the distinct markings of a mage class denoting a rank of lord and carrying a champion mark. Escorting the bannerbearer must have been one of the most heavily armored people he had seen so far. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Weston¡¯s eyes went wide reading the notice, and hearing the murmurs around him, he was not the only one. That quickly died down when they got a look at the Cardmancer himself.
Yet another surprise, but not as big as the banner. Most otherworlders have their info set to private, and Weston had not trained his identifier skill much. With this group passing the stands, Weston¡¯s focus went toward the second group. Unlike the first, who he assumed were mostly summons, this group were all otherworlders. Most of them wearing white, silver, gold, or purple on their clothing and armor. He was wondering where all the religious-based classes were, as none had appeared before, and now here they all probably were. They were led by a clear saintess with three of the summons from before. Which meant the cardmancer could teach his class, making him that much more valuable. Based on the number of nobles that would want it for novelty alone, he could pay off his debt with that alone. After the clear beginnings of a religious order another group organized and uniform as well. The biggest tell of this was the patch on each of their left arms with a simple emblem with the words ¡®Guild 88¡¯ on it. At first, Weston could only make out a mesh mash of non-combat classes, but he soon noticed there were a fairly large number of support classes here as well. It was also clear these were independents who were neither going to directly join the war effort for ten years or try to be recruited to one noble faction or another. Weston quickly deduced that these three groups were here because they had to be, not that they wanted to be. The demonstration these three groups decided to put on was more realistic than The Association demonstration. It came down to three factors. One being the cardmancer pulled out another fifty summons and went into the fight against three hundred like the Association. Except he would constantly rotate his summons to get them healed by the clergy while the guild would resupply them with fresh gear. It took less than a minute for a summon from being pulled from the line to be fully healed and rearmed and back on the rotation of the line. The second difference was their opponents were doing something similar as well as trying to punch through to the back lines while the cardmancer did the same. So it was much more organized than a bunch of independents fighting on their own on a large battlefield. There are actual strategies and tactics in play. The third and most defining feature was the number of buffs on the field. Not only was the cardmancer banner providing them, but several reserves of the Guild 88 also supported. Some provided large group small buffs and debuffs while others were more targeted in key places at key times. In short, this demonstration was not really a demonstration like the others. Weston realized this demonstration was a flex. To show everybody that they could in fact play on the same level if they needed to. It was at this moment he realized this, that he wanted nothing more than to be part of this group. misclick yea, I was scheduling the chapters just now and I accidentally posted it instead of schedule. Luckily there have not been too huge of spoilers for the few who got to see the sneak peek. So the last chapter of the book is ch 48, but I also made a bonus teaser for the next book, which I plan on writing this fall/winter when my brain is not overheating from summer. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. There is also a VERY special poll attached to the teaser. Please read the chapter first. (do note, that I did not censure the teaser because it is very important to the plot.) Chapter 41 Weston sat with his brother and sisters in the dining hall for the nobles. In all honestly to himself, he was nervous. There were not just noble''s children of all ranks present, but also royalty from multiple races. In the very center of the room were the dragonkin and in the middle of other younglings of their kind was a scaleprince. One of the youngest of one of the dragon''s grand elders. Which one he was not sure, but the color of her scales hinted she might be the descendant of the thunder lord. In front of him across the room was two of the elven royal family. Twins as he understood it, a rarity for their people. To his right are the dwarves. The full plate adamantium makes it apparent which one that one was. To his left were the sons and daughters of higher-ranking nobles, such as earls and dukes, while behind him were the royal families of humans. It was also quite apparent that he and his family were positioned to take the brunt of any conflict to keep the higher ranks safe. Dinner consisted of an otherworlder staple, pizza. He found the flavor a good mix of heat and savory with the chewiness of melted cheese. It is a dish he hoped he could have more often, but to make it, he knew, required specialized cooks and ingredients. After dinner, many separated into their own groups. Political alliances and factions were clear here. This was made rapidly clear when the humans left the lesser nobles who were unaffiliated in the middle of a no-man''s land that separated them from the other races. Luckily, and to the shock of many of the senior noble children, a servant called them to a meeting with Guild 88. Naturally, this caused several other groups to send their lackeys without permission, with the exception of the dragonkin, whose scaleprince asked to tag along. Refusing to sully their pride by sending someone else to spy on the meeting. Which she was allowed to join. This caused the elf twins and dwarf royal child to do the same. Only the humans refused to do so and instead sent a few mid-rank lackeys to join as well. ----- Weston and his family, among the other nobles soon found themselves in the training courtyard that was used before. The stands were still there and it became obvious they were to take them again, but this time near the center where they had a view of four people sitting at a table. Even though the symbol of the cardmancer was present on the table as a fifth seat, he was not there. ¡° Thank you all for accepting our invitation. Well, those invited please take a seat in front of us. Those others can listen in on the outside seats. We will address your questions after we hear those we invited first. If you do not agree to these terms I must ask you to leave.¡± The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Weston did not see it, but he felt the sudden shift of acknowledgment from the priestess as everyone began to take seats, naturally the uninvited humans took to one side of the bleachers while the other races to to the other. ¡° Right, I am Saintess Rachel and I am a contemporary member of Guild 88. The reason why I am here is because it was felt to be the best in-between that could be arranged. Starting from my far right and moving left we have Administrator Bobby, Caravan Master Amanda, and Master of Postal Janice.¡± Each stood briefly as they were called before sitting down again. Amanda more noisily than the other two due to her heavy armor. ¡° The why we called you here is that each of you is the sons and daughters of nobles that both run along the border of human and nonhuman lands as well as are considered on or close to the front lines with the demons. In short, Guild 88 is looking to build a town somewhere in this area.¡± Janice unrolls a map that then produced a hologram over it that started showing the entire region of the continent not controlled by the demons and the glowing area on the map represented most of those called here. However, one of the uninvited guests stood in offense to this. ¡° What is the meaning of this? Do you think because you are champions that you can just settle wherever you wish? The destiny of all you champions is the front lines!¡± Rachel was about to speak but Amanda raised her hand to stop her as she stood. ¡° Guards, please escort the speaker out of the area. This is not the time for the peanut gallery to make noise about things we are permitted under the lawful agreement that put us in such debt. After we have made our pitch AND after we have heard the questions of those we asked here then we might entertain the extras questions.¡± Weston watched as the son of a Duke was quite literally dragged away kicking and screaming before a bell on the desk was rung. He then noticed Rachel was sitting while Amanda remained standing. ¡° Right, now that that is taken care of, What the guild intends is to lease the land for a total of ten years. Where we will build infrastructure and trade to support our front-line unit. Considering we are planning on trading with each race and nation indiscriminately, our central location to each is key. This is why we chose where we chose as our primary attempt at securing a home base. To each lord and lady that we will be settling on and their neighbors will receive first a yearly payment to be discussed in private with them as well as possibly several boons.¡± Amanda then sat down with another clang of her armor before Janice stood. ¡° First off, the lord we settle on will naturally receive a tax of the town to later be discussed. In addition, they will receive a discount on goods and services we shall provide, also later to be discussed. Finally, and this is directed at all of you, the lord of the land we settle on will receive a council seat in the guild, to be granted to any of their heirs.¡± Chapter 42 Weston was slightly impressed by the presentation of Guild 88. They knew what they wanted, they had a plan of action, and they were making a more than fair offer. As they answered the twenty or so noble sons and daughters'' questions that they invited here, he could also tell the human higher-ups were not happy. There was a reason why there were not big trade towns on the border between the races and that was because of bigotry and a focus on consolidated power by the leaders of humanity. As the son of a landed noble between different races and technically a front-line holding, he was raised with the knowledge their position was wedged between several factions facing each other. Technically, he was part of the human alliance, but ultimately he and his family were unwilling sacrifices if relations between the races changed to a state of conflict between them. After those who would benefit most had asked their questions, came the human upper noble children, or rather their lackeys, to question the guild representatives. And not in a literal sense of asking about further details but what gives them the right to do what they are doing. This is when they brought out their ace. A soul contract that made Weston see chains binding the champions to it for a brief moment. Even the saintess. ¡° I will end this right here and now. This here is a copy of the agreement that brought us otherworlders to your world. In return for the god''s aid in summoning us, we were given life once more. We were given a task and a debt, but in return, we received life and benefits. We have to fight the demons and retake lands from them. That is our task. Fifty thousand crowns is our debt. Our benefit however is we are free to pursue our task or pay our debts in a manner that has no connection to any race, nation or allegiance save for those we chose. As we are technically bound to them all till our debts are paid. We at the guild, have decided to become a manufacturing base and trade hub to support one of our own, the Cardmancer, as he leads a mercenary band into the demon lands. The guild, as a whole, is not restricted to just the human lands, nor is it restricted to humans.¡± This caused many to pause in confusion, one however decided to ask the question that statement was lead to. ¡° All the otherworlder champions are human and as far as I am aware, none but otherworlders have joined it. So how can you have nonhuman members?¡± The representative that had been quiet so far, Bobby stood to explain. ¡° Not every resurrection that has happened happened to those that were human. There are at least three who were elves, a dwarf, and a dragonkin in the guild that was not human. And those are the ones that have come forward. Besides species, gender or nationality does not matter. The guild''s singular purpose is to take the fight to the demons. And that is what we plan on doing.¡± Bobby then retook his seat so Janice could stand again. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡° Now that that is out of the way let us move onto...¡± ¡° Now, hold on a moment. I noticed the cardmancer is not even here. Shouldn¡¯t he be here to explain his own martial ability to not only command a mercenary party into demon lands but also fight as well?¡± Janice and Bobby of the guild started smiling widely as if the foolish youth had fallen into their trap. ¡° Funny you should mention that. After the demonstrations of the Cardmancer in mock battles, he has been challenged to a duel by several members of The Association. Which is why we are here now. The duel is arranged to be after supper. Naturally, all of you are free to watch as well.¡± ----- Jeff looked at his boss summon as one of the lesser maids straitened the buttons on his uniform. Wearing a heavy jacket over enchanted mithril chainmail was tiring physically, but something he had become quite used to over the passing month. Next, he checked his sword and dagger to be sure they were able to draw smoothly and swiftly. Then he checked the hardened case on his hip behind his dagger. Where various potions and medical items were. He then took the crossbow and hooked it on his back before testing its draw a few times. Gremicing how it took him a few moments to do so every time. Something else he would need to work toward. For the final item, his wing shield bracer, he merely slipped his arm through the hole for it before it tightened magically. This one, while not as beautiful as the original, was modeled after the original mastercraft that was melted down. The main reason for that was this was not his day-to-day wingshield, nor his fancy one with jewels and glamor enchantments. This is his war shield. And right now he means business. With a simple tap on his boss¡¯s chest, he nods to pump himself up before leaving the staging room. ----- In the center of the training field stood over fifty people, which caught Jeff by surprise. The duel was meant to be a one versus one and all spectators in the stands. He expected a dozen members of The Association at most. He only paused a moment however to compose himself before taking a confident step forward. All the while repeating a simple motto in his head, fake it till you make it. ----- Weston¡¯s jaw became unhinged as he watched the cardmancer move toward the mishmash group of Associates. He knows there are both hero and royal classes among them. His own class was telling him this. However, the cardmancer walked with confidence and at his own pace. He could clearly see he thought them beneath him and Weston was not the only one to notice this. ¡° No wonder that old hag promised her youngest daughter''s firstborn to this one. If half my suitors had half the arrogant pride he has, I would not still be single.¡± Weston turned to see the scaleprince speaking to the elven twins. ¡° You are not the only one Tianiania. I dare say, if he is willing, half the ladies here would bed him tonight if given the chance.¡± ¡° Speak for yourself brother. A mere conversation will suffice with me.¡± ¡° Las, that is how half the successful conquests in the bedroom start. Get a woman to gab and show them you listen and you are halfway there already.¡± The elf princess eyes the dwarven prince with a stinkeye for a moment before their conversation moves on. ¡° I would wager this is a mighty big first impression to make. He did well with his summons in the demonstrations, but any half-decent commander can do that. This, this will be his first true test.¡± With the scaleprince¡¯s words, the conversation died as all eyes turned to the cardmancer as he reached those in the middle of the field. Chapter 43 Lindsey eyed her former classmate in annoyance as she and the others of The Association watched him stroll forward as if he owned the place. After being released from the duke¡¯s dungeon, she and the other who were tasked with charming the majority of the support classes learned it was him who exposed the charm. Which put him number one on their hitlist. Unfortunately, the same powers that let her and her team off easy for their crimes also made getting to him much harder. So, they bide their time and prepare for when they are released unto the world. To make matters worse, Lindsey did not even want to be on the charm team, but someone had to steer that sinking ship. It could not be one of the royal class holders either, because that would both put them in conflict with one another and give them too much power. Enough to threaten the five hero class holders'' influence on the others of the association. So, she, as the only woman in the entire group, had to watch as those entitled kids had their ways with their future support structure. By now almost all of Red Dorm was supposed to be devoting themselves to helping them with the demons before they carved out their own piece of this world. Instead, they got competition. Lindsey held her tongue, but not her scowl, as the cardmancer stood across from the association in defiance as Duke Randolph himself appeared from behind the stands and gave a courtesy to the actual royals present before moving the gathering in the field. ¡° The Association, via their representative leader Lucas has challenged Guild 88 in a duel of honor, and their representative council representative, Jeffry has accepted. I have come to be the facilitator of the duel. As the time and place have already been decided, that leaves the terms of the duel and any wagers left to be made. As challenged, Jeffry has chosen the time and place. As the challenger, Lucas has the choice of terms for the duel.¡± Lucas, in his shining gold armor, walked forward and eyed Jeff with a cocky grin on his face. ¡° I heard about you and watched your demonstrations over the last week. So, I know your strengths and weaknesses. Your summons are your carry, which means you are nothing without them. But I am nothing if not a gracious man. I shall offer you a choice, your summons versus an equal number of associates, or fight me one one-on-one without your summons.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Every eye turned to Jeff and he smirked as well. ¡° So that is why they are all here. I was wondering why you gathered your best pawns for a personal duel. So that is your game. As he is giving me the choice of ultimatum, I shall choose a battle without utilizing our main classes.¡± Lucas seemed to smirk even wider a moment till he realized what Jeff just said. ¡° Wait, I said for him to use his summons to battle us, or not use them at all, nothing at restricting class.¡± Jeff smiled a little more. ¡° But that is precisely what you asked. My ¡®Main¡¯ class is my summons, by restricting them you insinuate by restricting my main class as a whole. Ergo, you suggested restricting my main class. In which case, you yourself should be equally restricted. Duke Randolph, might I request the human princess and the equivalent for the other races be impartial judges? After all, it would be best to be judged by those we might consider our peers.¡± ----- Weston watched as the duke summoned several servants with a simple motion of his hand and they each soon moved to the royal children in the stands. Who each nod in agreement before moving to the central field, it soon realized to him they were chosen to judge the duel. But before that, he had come to a decision and also moved from the stands, but not toward the central field but to the platform where the guild representatives sat. With a chuckle, the saintess looked toward the other three with a smile on her face. ¡° You each owe me five silvers.¡± The other three groaned at this before Bobby stood and offered a simple courtesy as a fellow noble before gesturing to the empty seat. ¡° As the first to approach us about our offer, I would like to offer you a seat to watch the duel.¡± Weston courtesy in return as well as to the other three before taking the seat. ¡° Just so you know, I can not speak with certainty on any agreement we make, but I can bring it to my father.¡± Bobby nods to this and brings out a simple contract. ¡° This is a preliminary agreement we wish to make. You may keep that copy. We have prepared to have the first to approach us to have priority contact with their parents as well tonight. Regardless of the outcome, we will also extend a seat to you personally on our council. Naturally, only if you wish.¡± Weston took the contract and decided to read it after the duel. He could not help but glance at the saintess however and blush slightly before bringing his attention to the duel. To his side, he heard the armored woman speak softly to the saintess. ¡° He is a cute one. I bet he won''t reject you like Jeff did.¡± Weston¡¯s face turned slightly red as he felt the cold stare of the saintess on the armored woman. Chapter 44 Jeff could not believe how lucky he was that the face of the Association was an idiot. Not even considering the repercussions of how his terms could be taken. Then he discarded such thoughts. It would be the best-case scenario if that were true, but more than likely it was a clever trap laid out to either cripple him if he did not catch on fast enough or at least make him think like this. With that thought now passed he decided to make this more interesting. ¡° Since we represent two groups, totaling nearly a quarter of those at the resort. So a wager of twenty-five thousand gold crowns is not excessive. After all, we both represent hundreds of thousands if not millions. And as the good Duke here ultimately has our purse strings until we leave this place, he can ensure the wager is paid.¡± After being thrown through a loop with the class restriction, Jeff was sure that was a trap because of how quickly Luke responded. ¡° In that case, how about fifty, and two thousand additional wagered between you and me.¡± Jeff almost hesitated but ultimately nodded in agreement. ¡° Very well, I Duke Randolph Hamelton, have overseen the terms of this duel. This duel of honor shall commence after a brief respite for final preparation. And only after the contract about the duel is signed. SCRIBE!¡± With a raise of his voice a scribe, who no one seemed to have noticed standing nearby appeared beside the duke with a writing desk with a newly written contract. Being familiar with duel contracts, Jeff quickly glanced at it to confirm it was as it was and all the terms they just discussed were on it, the newest part being the wager. Still, he moved over to it and read it a little more thoroughly before signing it and then taking his stamp to it to seal the signature magically. Jeff then moved to his summons as he did a last check on his armor and gear. He also watched as Luke and another of the association looked over the contract. On occasion, they asked a question of the duke, who answered in a neutral but refrained annoyance tone. Clearly not liking them issuing a challenge but do not even understand all the rules to go with it. With only his helmet left to secure, Jeff motioned to his maid for a cup of wine and it was well gone and the next cup as well, before Luke even started his final preparations. He even took so long that both the scaleprince and the dwarf called for drinks of their own. Finally, after over half an hour wait, Luke moved forward to begin the duel. Jeff only smirked as he felt the presence of something similar to Rachel¡¯s healing, but it felt different from her healing. This felt like an emperor about to judge a coliseum battle. The reason why Jeff smirked was the look of shock on Luke¡¯s face as all the buffs his people applied to him were dispelled and both of their classes were sealed. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
Class ¡®Cardmancer¡¯ has been temporarily sealed. Due to circumstances, all summoned cards and attached items have returned to card form and entered your card vault. They will be automatically restored after the duel is concluded. Attempting to use sealed class skills or abilities will result in immediate disqualification and will earn you a divine penalty. Note due to this being a duel amongst groups the erred group will share the penalty. Note due to being otherworlder. You will be more heavily penalized.
Jeff only acknowledged the message for a moment before willing it away and drawing his arming sword. He also noticed a brief glow over the sword.
Jeff acknowledged this and decided to take a thrusting guard stance with his sword, putting his left hand on his hip. Luke, getting over the divine ¡®pitty you for trying to cheat¡¯ draws his sword as well. A bastard sword that he chose to wield two-handed, forgoing a shield. ¡° Begin when the coin lands on the ground.¡± With that, the duke was handed a golden talon and he flicked it in the air. Jeff watched it for a tense moment before focusing on his opponent fully. He was kind of confused why Luke had not taken a traditional two-handed sword stance to counter his stance and instead only looked like he was casually holding it. Casting the thought about making assumptions out of his head he watched Luke¡¯s eyes focus solely on the coin till it hit the ground before he charged Jeff with a yell like some kind of berserker. Still weary of this being some kind of trap, Jeff decided to play defensively as Luke stepped forward and swung the bastard sword like it was a club. A move he easily got out of the range of by taking a step back and he stepped forward after to exploit the opening presented to him by the overly powerful strike. Allowing him to score a strike on Luke¡¯s arm that resulted in a five to appear over their head. Jeff then quickly retreated again to avoid the powerful backswing of the bastard sword and the two of them soon found themselves back in the same stances as before. Chapter 45 Seeing that the two of them had reset Jeff quickly changed his stance from one that a fencer would use that did jabs to an overhead guard. Seeing him change his stance, his opponent does the same by letting go with his left hand bringing the sword back behind him, and extending his left hand toward him. This, Jeff surmised, was a more traditional sword stance. More importantly, it left him at a slight disadvantage in positioning. If he goes for the downward strike first, Luke could easily capitalize by dodging it and then countering with his longer-reaching weapon. However, leaving the attack initiative would be a bad idea as well. From what Jeff could tell, Luke also held a small speed advantage. Which left Jeff with only one option, to perform a bluff. ----- ¡® That freaking prick! Why can¡¯t I hit that guy!¡¯ Luke swore in his head as he backed away after taking an upward swing to his chest. Luckily, his armor took the brunt of it. In the exchange that just occurred, Jeff led with a downward swing that ended with the sword by his attacker''s right leg. Which Luke easily dodged before pushing in for his counter, only for it to be caught by the joke of a wing shield on his left arm. Jeff then proceeded to step forward and raise his sword in a backswing that caught Luke in the chest. ¡® How is that prick so good? I know I have not focused on my sword training, but I should not be this bad.¡¯ After taking a couple more steps back Luke goes back to the two-handed stance he started with. ¡° Hey, what gives? How is this prick better than me with the sword?¡± Jeff genuinely blinks in surprise at this but does not react otherwise. One of his associates opens his mouth to answer but a strange field, like the one the first day they came here formed.
Field of Mute in effect. Sounds and other forms of communication have been blocked from inside to outside and outside to inside the barrier. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
The elf twins smile pleased with themselves as the dwarf responds to the change. ¡° Getting information on your opponent at this point will count as outside interference. To prevent such, we as impartial judges, have deemed it appropriate to erect this mute field.¡± Luke ground his teeth hearing that and focused on his opponent again. Only noticing the floating ¡®2¡¯ over his head now. Doing a quick review of his combat log, he found that he did take damage by blocking with that joke shield. This caused him to smile a little bit as he figured out that he had both a strength and speed advantage. Now having a proper measure of their abilities and capabilities, Luke stepped forward again to go on the offense. With this closing the distance, Jeff reacted by striking the side of Luke¡¯s sword with his own, but found it unmoving, causing the other man to step back. ¡® Gotcha!¡¯ As Jeff stepped back Luke proceeded to continue his forward momentum, having learned that Jeff could not redirect his steady blow. Which turned into a thrust that he barely dodged, leaving a scratch on his mithril helmet. As expected, Jeff tries to capitalize on this but fails midstroke as Luke lets go of his sword with his left hand and intercepts the other duelist''s wrist. What Luke was not expecting however was for the wing shield to strike against his right arm¡¯s elbow as he went for the dagger on his belt. Fortunately for Jeff, Luke turned his sword so when the wing shield shifted the sword, it hit the flat side of his helmet. Seeing what comes next, Luke lets go of Jeff¡¯s wrist and steps to his right as he brings his sword edge down onto the other man''s shoulder in a slicing motion. It brought a smile to his face when he saw that strike doing more than all other attacks combined. His victory was shortlived as Jeff quickdrew the dagger onto Luke¡¯s extended right arm. Causing the other man to regain the lead. ¡® You got to be kidding me!¡¯ Luke stepped back again to catch his breath and reset his stance but Jeff had other ideas as he rushed him in that same high sword stance as before. Quickly reacting, Luke quickly took hold of his sword with both hands as he guarded the strike with his sword. Using his superior position and strength, he then proceeded to throw back the strike, but he had forgotten about the dagger as Jeff used the push to increase the momentum of his dagger strike right into his kidneys. With his sword raised, however, Luke quickly brought it down onto Jeff¡¯s exposed and undefended shoulder. A move that would have cleaved the mans arm completely off. However, when he checked the numbers, somehow his were lower, by a large margin. ----- The scaleprince watched with mild amusement, the so-called hero of the sword was being beaten by someone of similar level in a weapon that was supposed to be his specialty. By the rule of rarity, the hero should have at least twice the potential of one who is merely only a champion. So the disparity in training between them had become even more apparent. This caused her to be curious as to what the hero was actually doing with his time. At least his physical stats are superior however to the cardmancers. By nearly a two-to-one factor, but such things are not uncommon in lower levels. The disparity in mental stats however is much greater in the cartomancers favor. Probably about two to five. Which showed in the superior technique and tactics. Making sure to come out ahead in each exchange, or with as little loss as possible. As she thought this the duel entered its peak phase, where both combatants were at their strongest and had a measure of the other¡¯s abilities. That is when she felt something was wrong. Chapter 46 The god of duels sat on his high seat in the Colosseum which was where he ascended to godhood. From lowborn slave to godhood was one of the rarest ascensions next to one that attained it through nonviolent means. But like all things, it being rare did not mean it was impossible. All around the Colosseum, however, were several other gods who were interested in the current duel being shown. Even though it was merely an illusion that where they were no longer existed on the physical plane, which by irony was the only existing piece of evidence left of the country that once held the place. His gaze never left the combatants as several other gods moved to his side to watch from the prime seat. ¡° How peculiar this group of summoned ones is. Many of them with their faults, but each with the soul strength to endure a thousand years after death. A few of them appear to be more exceptional than the others.¡± The god of duels did not even tilt his head in acknowledgment to the female elven god as another god responded. ¡° It better be worth it, we each spent a good chunk of our reserved power bringing them here. It is going to take centuries to recover if they fail.¡± A dwarf then steps forward and sets his hammer down to use as a crutch as he too watches the duel. ¡° Worse case, they fail so spectacularly that the line collapses and forces those biding their time to act. Which in itself will be a step in the right direction in my opinion. Still, I have hope for a better outcome.¡± The final addition of the group of gods makes her voice and opinion known as well. ¡° The cardmancer will change the state of the board, I will bet my scales on it.¡± Each of the other gods there turns to the female dragonkin, many with a raised eyebrow. ¡° What? He has agreed to work with my kin. They will make sure he will prove his due. Assuming he makes it there first.¡± The other gods pause upon hearing this but quickly turn to the god of duels when he starts speaking. ¡° I pity the god who takes her up on her bet. I expect him and the saintess will be joining us one day. In fact, I would almost bet on it myself.¡± Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This causes the other gods to pause in surprise, as the god of duels is well known to never gamble on anything. Even sure bets that would pay big. This is largely due to his prejudice against the practice as many of his mortal friends fell to the payouts of gambler''s odds. This however did not keep the dragonkin god¡¯s attention for long. ¡° Something does not feel right.¡± The god of duels sighs as he prepares to use his power as arbiter, as his role dictates. ¡° That human hero is about to perform a taboo. Not that I think he will get away with it.¡± The other gods merely nod at this understanding exactly what the god of duels was leading to. ----- ¡° This is total bull! You are just a support, meant to be our lackey for the true front-line fighters.¡± Luke wheezed his complaint as he took yet another step back. The number over his head almost totaled his total hp value by now and he only barely managed to knock the cardmancers down to roughly half his. If he could only deal one solid hit then they both know that he would easily turn this fight around. Instead, he has been forced to take his small victories with scraped or redirected blows. Leaving him open to further counterattacks as well. This caused him to feel the need to finally pull out one of his trump cards. In fact, it was his only nonclass combat skill. From a time when he was an inspiring professional baseball player. The only issue is, that it is a blunt weapon skill.
Power strike: increase the blunt force of a strike by 300% (+ rank of skill by 100% and level of skill by 1% per rank and level over base.)
Taking a deep breath, Luke quickly shifts into his batter-up stance with the flat of his sword in position to strike instead of the edge. Which causes Jeff to instantly be weary. Still being in with a large lead, he was honor-bound by the rules of the duel to be the aggressor. That did not mean he did not take a moment to prepare himself, which suited Luke fine as he materialized a ball of solid steel from his dimensional storage. As the sphere dropped, Luke swung his sword and it connected hard enough to cause a bell like cling to occur. The projectile went straight for the cardmancers chest faster than any baseball could, but he was already middodge when the sphere arrived at its intended target. Instead of striking Jeff in the chest, it struck him in the right arm. Hard enough to destroy both armor and the flesh and bone underneath. The moments after however caused the cardmancer to lay on the ground nursing his right arm with anger in his eyes. Luke smiled seeing this but turned his attention to his sword, which had a solid fracture where he used it like a baseball bat. That momentary distraction was all the cardmancer needed however as Luke found himself impaled at the knee by a crossbow bolt. ¡° BEEEPS.¡± As Luke lost power under one of his legs, the cardmancer tossed his used crossbow away and began to stand. Taking a bandage out of his side pack, he quickly bandaged his mangled arm before bending over and picking up his sword with his left hand. All the while pain shot through Luke. With his movement hampered it quickly became apparent Luke had lost. As Jeff probed the fallen swordsman for an opening to perform a finishing blow, Luke had a thought. ¡® screw it, no way I am losing like a pansy who can¡¯t even fight back.¡¯ As Jeff performed a lunge to score the last few points he needed to win Luke¡¯s sword began to glow as the restrictions on it were forcefully broken. ¡® Swift strike counter!¡¯ As Luke moved with unnatural speed, he first dodged the lunge for his arm and launched himself forward with his good leg lunging his own sword towards Jeff¡¯s neck. What surprised him, however, with only a fraction of an inch from sure victory, a scaled hand gripped the blade with enough force to cause it to break at the fracture. This caused him to stumble between his opponent and the scaleprince that just saved the cardmancer¡¯s life. Chapter 47 Jeff stood there mid-lunge as he felt his life flash before his eyes. Not his old one, but the one he only had a few short weeks in. Sensing the duel is now over, he drops his sword and backs away from the still glowing edge in the scaleprince¡¯s hand and immediately begins more proper treatment as several of the resort¡¯s staff move to him as well for the same purpose. In addition, they came to the sword hero to treat the bolt in the other man¡¯s knee. What caught everyone else''s attention however was what the scaleprince did next, which was squeeze the sword tip hard enough that it shattered in her grip. A feat that would have been much more impressive if it was not already covered in stress fractures. ¡° Dishonored.¡± With that single word, a significant presence fell upon them all.
A vote has been cast by the gods. With the loss of divine protection, a breach in the summoning contract has occurred. The vote has the majority. Lukas Williams will be stripped of his hero class and barred from ever acquiring a main class again.
Notice: The loss of champion or greater status denotes a loss in noble status.
Conclusion: Lukas Williams has lost the means to pay off his debts.
What came next was a surprise to all the otherworlders, but not the natives of the world, as Lucas began to fade away, leaving his clothing and armor in the shape of a person who was once there. A moment later various objects appeared beside the armor. Ranging from potions and money to several steel balls to even a dirty magazine with an elf on the cover.
As the wronged party, Guild 88, will receive an additional free point upon leveling up for their next ten levels. To be applied anywhere of their choosing on their status, outside of their highest valued stat.
The presence then shifted from the guild and the association to the judges. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Then finally the presence focused on the duke, but no further announcement was made before it withdrew from where it came from.
Jeff did not pay the level-up notice too much mind as he was forced to sit on a chair as a table was brought out for his mangled arm to be laid on and examined. He barely ignored that as someone from the association moved forward. ¡° What the hell just happened? Where the hell is Luke?¡± The scaleprince merely looks at the duke and the old man sighs and steps forward. ¡° Did you think this whole parade of rules and contracts was for show? That we have merely done it for our own amusements? Did you think that your sins will go unnoticed and unpunished? Did you think this is some sort of game where you are the protagonist? Your actions have very real consequences. In breaching the term of not using his class in the duel, he has lost everything. The person who once was known as Lucas Williams is no more. His very being, his soul, has been shredded to pieces to pay off his summoning debt once it became clear it could no longer be paid. Which means there is no Lucas Williams anymore. Just as there is no longer anything of those that have died of you otherworlders that was summoned. Very nearly the same thing that almost happened to every single person you swindled out of their gold crowns. The VERY SAME THING that happened to every single victim of your charm stunt who refused to take another step further in paying off their debts. The gods and GODS take their deals very seriously, and your summoning is one of the biggest ever made. And let me be clear, they will have their due one way or another. Now, I Duke Randolph Hamelton, as chosen host of the resort, command thee to return to your quarters for the night.¡± To the look of shock of many of the Associates, they started moving away, even with the protests that their bodies are moving without their permission. This left the duke alone with the judges and Jeff in the middle of the field. ¡° As your host to your prestigious selves, I must offer apologies for the unsightly manner in which my charge acted. If there is anything I can do in recompense, please name it.¡± The dwarf prince steps forward and shakes his head. ¡° There is no need good host. You can not protect every fool from their actions, and this particular fool has paid his dues in the fullest. If it is fine with you, however, we shall retire on the evening.¡± With this, the young royals left the duke alone with Jeff and the resort staff. With only a nod from each of them, the duke left to attend to more of his duties, leaving Jeff alone to wince as his arm was surgically removed so it could be regrown back good as new. Chapter 48 epilogue Jeff sat in his room with the lights fairly dim as he looked over his notes and plans one more time. Half a dozen pitchers of wine sat nearby was a testament to how desperate he hoped his plans worked. Because the plan relied on something he did not have much faith in, others. With everything revealed outside of one¡¯s imagination known to everybody, there was no other way he could make a plan to succeed other than to entrust other people with parts of the plan that he did not even know about. For his part of the plan was simple. Become strong enough and gather a following large enough to cut into the demon lands. Then all that was left is the gamble that was other people. With the two thousand extra gold crowns, his breathing room for mistakes had opened up considerably, but in truth, he knew even with that they would not be able to hold their ground for more than a year. This is where his trust in others will come into play. In a manner of speaking, he held three cards. His ace being Amanda and her caravans. Then the middle card of Rachel, who he was not sure if she could build up a following for whatever religious path she would be walking. Then there is the complete wild card that would be aid from the dragonkin. It is not something he wishes to count on, nor call upon, but it was an option he had to admit to having. And up against him is The Association. After losing their golden figurehead, there had been several subtle attempts of sabotage and forced recruitment. Luckily for everyone else not in the guild, however, they soon woke up to their strong arm tactics and kept their distance. They no longer truly worried Jeff now, but their mysterious backer sure did. The biggest thing was the oddly timed price increases the guild crafters needed to learn their trades. Another potential rival he has to account for is the human princess, who had been mildly smitten with Lucas. Not in a fair maiden sense, but more as a political backer. And now she had her horse tied to the Association, she was not happy with their hit to reputation. However, it was not all bad. He did get to meet the royals of other species for a time and made fast acquaintanceship with them as well. They will become important later when the town is built and trade between species is opened up. Speaking of the town, Weston spoke to his father who agreed to the deal offered by the guild with a few amendments and negotiations on prices. Many of the guild will be leaving soon, after winter passes, to begin work on it. In addition, he himself will be leaving then as well to find a way to power level while Wit works on getting his mercenary company with actual mercenaries. Jeff had a few ideas for this as well, but wanted to recruit the types of individuals he had in mind personally. With one final guzzle of his goblet, Jeff leaned back and found his seat gave way to his weight and he fell flat on his back. With a simple motion of his legs, he turned it into a roll that allowed him to land on his feet, but soon realized he was too drunk to do any more so he proceeded to fall face-first into his bed. His maid constructs quickly stripped him and put him to bed while the boss looked at the scattered notes before writing a message and using Jeff¡¯s stamp before handing it to one of the maids. Who did not question the action and went to take it to a scribe to distribute. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ----- Jared Wainwright sat in his room as he plucked his guitar. All around him were various types of instruments and stands with sheet music on them. During his first otherworldly experience, he was an assassin, and he was quite good at it. He felt it quite ironic he only got to live in his old life once more for a few hours before the meteor struck. Unlike most of the others, he kept his full memory of both his previous worlds. Not only that but everything that he earned in his first isekai adventure. He and the other four hidden double reincarnators swore to themselves that this life was theirs and they were not going to be used again. Which is why Jared quickly picked up the secondary class of Bard when he discovered he retained his old class. As he tuned the strings, a voice came from beside him of his elven wife from his first adventure, who had been trapped in the demi-plane connected to his soul with the others of her village he once saved long ago. ¡° How strange this world is. The elves here are not immortal. It is quite fortunate for us however that you were brought here.¡± Jared finished his tightening of strings and played what seemed to be a few random notes, but to the elf in his soul, she understood the words behind them clearly. ¡° You saved my people with your pact. Already you have given us years we would not have had otherwise. A thousand and more in fact and now we are in a new land we might call home and not be looked upon as, what did you call it, Star Trek fandom?¡± Jared plays a few more notes, some of them in clear annoyance, but most of them lovingly. ¡° Yes, yes, of course. I merely tease my love. Still, that leaves the question, what will you do?¡± Jared takes a deep breath and speaks out loud. ¡° I wonder if that mercenary band of the cardmancer could use a bard?¡± ----- Jeff¡¯s basic stats at this point. + new unmentioned class skills (relevant to his cardmancer class) Name: Jeffory Terner Main Class: Cardmancer Level: 5 Exp: 50% Secondary Class: Noble (Lesser) Level: 4 Exp: 07% Secondary Class: General Level: 3 Exp: 78% Stats: S-8 E-8 D8 I-13 W-12 L-11 CP- 38 New class skills. Squads- you can group cards into squads effectively reducing the cost to the commanding unit. Has many benefits and demerits. (general lvl 3) Command Presence- your other command classes have increased cp bonuses. Does not effect itself. Improves with noble rank.(noble lvl 3) Battlefield awareness- increase the awareness of yourself and those under your command. (Cardmancer lvl 3) Notes from author I hope this clears up a little confusion some of you might have had when I told how Jeff can field 200 units even though he is so low level. It is important to note, each squad is made up of lvl 1 privates with a more senior card leading them. This effectively made the squads cost from 5 to 1 cp per (with 2 being free for being under the direct command of his boss) with 4 privates + 1 SC, that is effectively 201 cards up at the same time. The rest of the missing 300 come from the clerical members and support from guild 88. It is an unmentioned detail that I hinted at in previous chapters. First off with secondary classes and the fact that Jeff mentioned he was aiming for both general and noble secondary classes. Book 2 teaser She sat on his hips, not yet collapsing onto her new chieftain¡¯s chest yet. This was only the second time they have done it since she forced herself onto him three weeks ago. But he was getting better at using his hands and taking action. Still, it was far better than many of the adventurer brutes that had forced themselves on her in the past. In truth, she would have collapsed onto his chest already if not for wanting to tell him something that was important. |You are pregnant. (success rate 99% after level penalties.) Bonus to fertility achieved due to ¡®mating season¡¯. Bonus to fertility achieved due to partners ¡®purity of seed (levels 1-42). Bonus to fertility achieved due to partners ¡®champion¡¯ title. Bonus to fertility achieved due to partners ¡®otherworlder¡¯ title.| Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. It was hard to believe noone had taken advantage of her new chieftain before she did, nor had he restrained himself for so long, but hearing his story made her deeply regret taking his first without consent. But that is in the past, and she knew the instincts that led her to do what she did was forgiven. So she sat there on his lap as he gently held her wrists. A smile on both of their faces. But she knew the two of them could not stay like this forever. They were only half a day away from their destination and they planned on getting an early start. ¡° Jeff, I got something to tell you. I¡¯m pregnant...¡± For a moment surprise was on his face before worry. ¡° It¡¯s yours.¡± This changed his worry to the hugest grin she ever seen. Which caused her to grin widely as well before she felt a slight sting on her lower back. A trickle of blood escaped her lips as her chieftain¡¯s face turned to worry. |You have been badly poisoned. You have been paralyzed. You have been forcefully ejected from compressed dimensional pocket. You have suffered 118 points of cuncussive damage due to impact with tree. You have suffered a concussion. You have passed out. You have...| not a chapter, update yaa, the summer heat has passed, that means I will soon be writing again. In fact I have already started, on the patreon I have a few chapters already out (available for $1, unless they are the extra naughty chapters). This means the voting is closed. To an astounding 75% vote, (9 for and 3 for other options) it is decided the one in the teaser to live and the child does as well. For some context, the story of book 2 will mainly come from the POV of Lisa, a panther beastkin (subject to change), a B-rank solo adventurer who lives in a civilization where she is a minority. I will not stress this enough and will repeat this several times, I do not condone the way people would treat other people like how I am going to write about what happened to Lisa. You must also remember, this is a world that has been in a war for survival for nearly fifty years. Whole kingdoms, empires, and even races have vanished in that time. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Anyways, I do not plan on releasing on RR again until I have at least a 30-chapter backlog on patreon. This way I will not be on a time crunch to finish the story on any kind of schedule until I feel I have enough time that a 3 a week schedule will not be too difficult to complete. Also, if people have other ideas about what type of beastkin she can be please suggest them in the comments. Do note, the type of beastkin the parent(s) are do not denounce what type they are. This is done around their fifteenth birthday. (an event I am going to call the rite of passage) oh, and if you got ideas for a title for book 2, I am all ears, I was thinking of ''raising the stakes'' or ''the big blind'' not a chapter, another update it is december, and while I am a bit behind where I planned to be, I do plan on starting to release chapters this month for book 2: Small blind. I am going to name it this because it fits the card theme, and it also plays a little into the fact that the MC (from book 1) is going into the world a little blind and ignorant. For those still grumpy the preview from book 1 going to have it''s concluding in book 2. Well, I am going to be a little A-hole and do the same thing again. I am going to have an intro for book 2 happen in book 3. I think I will make it a theme.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. speaking of intro chapter, I think I am going to write that right now and post it on RR as soon as it is done... maybe not... when I start doing chapters at the very least. Do note, like book 1, book 2 will be SFW ''ish'' on RR but purely NSFW on patreon. patreon.com/zalex101001 all chapters on patreon are unedited and uncensored. the true NSFW chapters are only unlocked via $10 subs while $1 unlocks all other chapters. Book 2 Ch 0 Ster, a bull beastkin, looked upon the burnt-out husk that was once a village, a village he once called home from the day he was born until the day he left feeling the call. Over the near year of training he had in the mercenary group, keeping discipline was one of the core tenets he had been drilled on most. This is why even though not even sixteen, he was the leader of a similar aged squad. He could see some of them, not only from his squad but from others, were planning on breaking ranks. ¡° Do nothing until you are ordered.¡± He spoke softly but his broad voice was not easily muffled. Fortunately, several other squad leaders were repeating the comment in one version or another. None moved as a light appeared in front of them and appeared an army much larger than their own. He, among all the others, knew the band leader was a summoner, but none of them knew he could summon thousands in a single moment. The surprise was not clear from them as a general¡¯s skill, [Issue Orders], overcame them all.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡° I want a perimeter set around the village, nothing in and nothing out until we cleared them. Healers and engineers, I want a triage and rest area set up just outside the south gate. Scouts, I want you to find who did this. I want you to track them to their damn hidy hole and let us know. I want you to most of all not let them know we are coming then learn all you can about them. I want information on their defenses, guard patrols, and numbers. I want everything. Everyone else, if you are not on perimeter duty or setting up camp, you are on search and rescue. And I do not give a care how much you want to, do not loot a damn thing. We save who is left then we worry about the rest.¡± ----- Ster sat by the fire while holding a straw doll. His arms were covered in the soot of his family''s home, the soot of his family. In the basement, he found it with the remains of his little sister, who was holding it closely. At firs,t he thought she was asleep, but the lingering smoke in the air told a different story. ¡° Lei, when I find who did this to you...¡± Cardmancer Book 2 Chapter 1
Jeffery Trever looked at his stats after he got his level up notice with a smile on his face. Unfortunately for him, Sargent Mar took the opening and gave him a swift kick to the nads as punishment. ¡° Lil Commander, don¡¯t get distracted by system messages. You should have then turned off during combat.¡± Jeff meanwhile used one hand to signal a pause in their practice while using the other to find out exactly where his family jewels wound up as he caught his breath. After a full minute passed he was still taking deep breaths but felt good enough to at least stand strait once again. ¡° It... it was my level up... ding...¡± Mar sighed knowing it was not the youth''s fault. Level-up notices were one of the few notifications you could not disable during combat. This was also the signal that they were done for the day as well. ----- It was ten minutes later, after a medic gave him a healing ice pack to hold on his marbles, he decided to just sit for a bit while Mar stood beside him. ¡° You know you would be a dead man right now in a real fight.¡± Jeff nods to this as he watches his summons training in the same field he was just in a moment ago. His boss card taking on two corporals as once. Which was the real reason why he leveled, not his combat with the Sargent. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡° I was dead once, apparently it did not agree with me.¡± This made the sergeant chuckle a little bit. ¡° So you really going to do it. Six months of power leveling up all the way to forty?¡± Jeff nods to this. ¡° That was always the plan. I got a few offers from my notice with the adventurer guild. Most of them are like we thought they would be. They offer for me to coast as high-level people clear low-level dungeons till I hit the level. Being pampered like some noble slacker afraid of danger. Honestly, I get it, but I will not grow that way. I need conflict. I need real experience. ¡° And what will happen if you do not find what you are looking for?¡± ¡° How does one get high levels without being a spoiled brat? I do it myself. With no security along.¡± To that Mar could only nod. ----- Jeffery Trever, born anew as an otherworlder three months ago with the class Cardmancer. He, among nearly a thousand others, were forcefully given life anew at the time. The cost however was a staggering debt and a task to clear it. They were however not left hopeless as they were provided a place of safety and learning for six months at a place called ¡®The Resort¡¯. This, it turned out, was not as safe as they hoped. As day one outside forces found their way into their safe haven. Manipulated and convinced many of the otherworlders into giving up the little slack they have and becoming slaves or worse. Jeff sat in the comfortable chair he usually did when he visited the commons of his dorm. Just with an icepack to ease the dulling pain in his family jewels. This did not go unnoticed by the others who were sitting around him either. ¡° What happened? Someone miss with their kick? Jeff looked at one of his fellow guild 88 members, Amanda who likes to wear heavy armor everywhere, unamused at the comment. ¡° No, I am quite sure they hit me exactly where they planned to. I got distracted by a level up message.¡± Another guild member, the only other male Bobby, winced at the comment as his would be girlfriend Janice laughed, After it was out of her system she looked at Jeff seriously. ¡° So, you leaving soon then? We are finally starting?¡± Jeff reluctantly nods. ¡° I need to get stronger and we need a place to call our own. Naturally, I will try to stay in contact with you and give updates where I can. But since I hit the practicality training cap for all three of my classes. I got to go out and get practical experience now. Which means dungeons. And dungeons means adventurers. The average carry to forty takes a year or two, but being otherworlders and champions, I think I should hit it in less than half that time. The adventurer guild should be able to keep you updated on my status as well.¡± Jeff then turned to Amanda. ¡° I also got new gear for myself all the way up to forty as well. At every ten levels the plan is to move on to a new dungeon tier. So I will send word for where you can drop off my new kit at.¡± He then turns to Bobby. ¡° And I hope you have the town ready for my mercs too by the time we are done. I plan on three months of drills before we start heading to the Everyburning Peak. Make sure my men have the proper gear for the journey as well. I know I can call Amanda for an emergency supply, but I rather not. Appearances is a big thing with dragonkin and seeing ill prepared for the journey will leave a bad mark on my reputation with them. Considering my first contract is with the equivalent of a Dutchess. I aim to impress.¡± Bobby raises his hand slightly to get their attention. ¡° Which brings us to the actual job? What is it?¡± Jeff shook his head at that. ¡° The actual job, well, it is to be part of an expedition to liberate some land for the dragonkin. My part in it will be to act as reserves and guard a bunch of refugees returning home for reclimation. This is something that has been planned by them for a few years now, but our summoning put it on hold. I fully expect a few independent teams to be heading up there as well to score some browny points toward their own debts as well. But unlike them, We will see solid numbers instead of piecemeal contributions. In fact, if my guess is right we should be looking at a thousand gold talons knocked off of all those in the guilds debt. As we are promised half a percent in spoils reclaimed. Cardmancer Book 2 Chapter 2 Lisa, or as her status likes to remind her every time she checks it, Milissa entered Nigal¡¯s adventurer guild main office smelling of long travel on foot and outdoor living. It was not a smell she liked and neither did several others as several moved away from her. A new set of low ranking predators took a step forward however until they noticed the iron tag hanging loosely from her neck. Even D rank losers knew not to mess with a B even if they were in a weakened state. It took her a minute to get in line for completed jobs and sighed as she shifted her pack on her shoulder. She was not super late into the evening when all the low ranks would return to get their meager earnings they needed to live till the next day, but she was not early enough either to skip all but the random higher rank completing a job either. The four in front of her were all Cs who probably came back from the same hunt. The one in front of her was probably the one to net the least kills. In truth she did not mind the wait. It was the fact that they smelled of half a day old blood and gore that annoyed her. It took over an hour for the four to go over their kill list and loot distributions before it was finally her turn. First thing Lisa does is set her bag on the counter before going into it and pulling out a dozen and more receipts. The guild receptionist in turn takes out a crystal pad and starts putting in the ID tags of the receipts one by one. Considering each one had dozens of codes on them, it was plain this was going to take a while. Unluckily, after the first few codes the clerk''s face balled up in annoyance. Which means she was soon to follow. ¡° I am not getting any conformations on any of these codes.¡± Lisa squinted her eyes at that before putting her hand into her chest armor and pulling out a receipt with a single code on it. Unlike the others that were mere resource turn ins, this one was for a quest. ¡° Try this one. If it does not work, you better call a manager.¡± ----- It took fifteen minutes before Lisa found herself in one of the guilds meeting rooms. Not one of the bland and boring ones where groups of low ranks are interviewed, but one of the nicer ones with cushioned seats and a few finger snacks with water. Which was all gone by the time a well built elf entered the room.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡° I talked to the guild head in Emberswamp before coming in here. Turns out some smartass was scraping tickets. An inside job. They managed to accredit about thirty silver worth of goods...¡± The elf pauses expecting something, but Lisa has done this before. An outburst of rage would only hurt her position. That had been a bad first month as a C rank. ¡° ... As I was saying. Only thirty silver and fifty coppers. The rest they have either no record of getting the goods or it been skimmed already. As for the quest, they say someone else turned it in.¡± Lisa sighs hearing this. ¡° Of course they did. Those inbred hics probably thought they pulling a fast one on me when they refused to pay me up front the gold crown for the job. Two intact salamander eggs. Fucks probably thought I was lucky just to find those.¡± The elf¡¯s face soured at that. ¡° I would be careful how you talk about others of good repute.¡± Lisa looked him in the eye with a cold stare. ¡° Am I, a B rank, not also one of good repute? It does not matter anyway. The rest of my haul will net me much more than that.¡± The elf looked more annoyed at that. ¡° Explain.¡± Lisa chuckled as she stood grabbing her bag. ¡° Sure, first, I want to confirm what is acknowledged already is accredited to my account?¡± The elf merely nods to this and Lisa checks her guild badge to confirm it anyways. ¡° Right, I raided the salamander nest on the twelfth floor of the Emberswamp dungeon. There were twelve eggs there, naturally, I could not take them all. But I did grab half of them. I gave the two oldest ones, ones that failed to hatch from a previous batch for the job. As it did not give any details beyond that it must be two salamander eggs. The other four I am going to put up for auction for two and a half gold crown each.¡± The elf flicks his finger and the door Lisa was about to leave out of locks. ¡° So what your saying is you did a job and delivered inadequate goods.¡± Lisa sighs and rubs her forehead with the tips of her fingers of her free hand. ¡° Come on Jameson, don¡¯t be a dick and overstep. One, it was an open ended contract, which by their own admission I did not do. And two, it is their fault not stipulating more details. Since I am going to be selling my loot through the auction house at a set price, you can¡¯t swindle me out of my fair share even if the house is. Now, unlock the door and let me go before you make a scene. You know this is being watched by the higher-ups the moment you locked the door and they will not take kindly you pulling shit because I won''t sleep with you again.¡± The elf frowned a little further before the elf flicked his finger again. Before he could change his mind again Lisa was out the door. Cardmancer Book 2 Chapter 3 In truth, Lisa was in a situation. Before she entered the guild she had put up her last haul of goods from the solo dungeon run she did up for auction, which included some lower-rank B salamander parts and four eggs. What she did not add however was the dive''s main loot for clearing the dungeon. Because why stop just short of claiming a dungeon ultimate prize when it was right there for the taking? Sure, it will weaken it for a while but that was not her problem. If she got what she was due then she would have made three gold crowns. Considering she spent her savings of one gold crown on it, she was supposed to make a good return for her efforts. That is after the guild got their cut. Instead, she is looking to make over four gold crowns from the eggs alone, after the auction house and the guild will definitely take their cuts. However, the question is when they will sell. That question caused her to worry as twenty silver was going to go into paying for her room. Leaving her with ten silver until she gets paid, and the predators called merchants have to have heard by now about her big score and are already spiking their prices to cause her to have to borrow against the score which she is determined not to do. But those were tomorrow problems. Right now all Lisa wants is a wash and sleep. After leaving the guild she went to her apartment complex. A place where she had rented a room on a six-month renewable lease. Considering she still had a month left before her rent was due again, she felt no need to pay for the next extension either. At least at that moment. However, after arriving on the fourth floor to room 414 and putting in her key, she found it would not turn. After taking it out and putting it back in again she once again tried but found it did not turn again. Taking a moment to look at the lock and door, she noticed it was different from the one that was on the hinges. Which meant one thing. Someone had access to her apartment unsupervised. ¡° Just fucking great, I leave for two months and I lose all my stuff. Not what I fucking needed right now.¡± The trek back to the first floor was even more miserable than the trek to the fourth but she needed this sorted now. With a pounding on the door of the building owner''s apartment for over a full minute told him she meant business. The fact that the door held without a mark against her frustrated pounding also told her how the owner took his own security over his tenants.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡° Who is it? I am about to have dinner.¡± ¡° It¡¯s Lisa, room 414. My key is not working.¡± ¡° Who? The Lisa I used to rent that room to died three weeks ago in some gods-forsaken dungeon. Her belongings barely paid for the door I had to have had broken down to open up to new tenants.¡± Lisa balled her fists tightly together ready to break the door down before sighing. ¡° So that¡¯s how it is?¡± The voice on the other side of the door sounded rather smug. ¡° That¡¯s how it is, Be thankful I tolerated you as long as I have you damning animal.¡± She took a deep breath before shifting her bag on her shoulder. Her only belonging in the world currently save for what she is wearing. ¡° Enjoy your dinner then, you will be hearing from the magistrate in the morning.¡± She could almost sense the landlord tense up but paid no more attention to him as she left for the magister''s office. Which took her several more hours to file for a breach of contract. The good news is an official would find her apartment occupied fairly easily. Which will be an automatic refund of her twenty silver plus half a gold tip in deposit would give her a good buffer till she found a new place. However, that was again a tomorrow thing. And Lisa was now tired, dirty, hungry, and very annoyed. With left with only one option now, she returned to the guild. Paid a silver for a room for the night and said screw it and deal with it in the morning. In the morning things were not better. She was woken up at the crack of dawn like some rookie E grade and told to find work before she was forced to leave the guild or sate her hunger with noobie gruel. Which she swore to never again eat. The street vendor she got skewers from overcharged her more than she would have liked, showing they were well aware now of her future assets and made what she wanted to do harder. With a fresh change of clothing and a simple kit to replace her stolen one left in her apartment, she hit the bathhouse to finally get clean before heading to the magistrate again for an update. As she expected, they sent someone to her former landlord and got ¡®his¡¯ version of things. Which, via the contract she had with him, was him being in breach. She took the seventy silver for a refund of rent and deposit but her refurbishment of lost goods was in contention based on the needs of repairs for the room. Again, this was not her first outing, nor her first time getting screwed over. She merely referred to the recording crystal she left with her contract before going back to the guild. Because she had her suspicions that if any landlord learned she is looking for a new place then they would try to take a pound of flesh larger than the guild would. Cardmancer Book 2 Chapter 4 It was well past noon when Lisa returned to the guild. Which is usually one of the slowest times for the guild. As most adventurers who stuck around most of the time were forced out by the staff to get out of their way. They were not real adventurers anyway. Just opportunistic parasites. So to see dozens gathered around the front being held back by several soldiers made her naturally curious. As a B rank, she naturally was allowed in only to find the guild hall in a minor panic as strange humans seemed to have taken over. Seeing a new face that was not busy, one of the clerks moved to her and took her arm. She did not resist as she was dragged to a human dressed as a well-dressed noble with two masked figures to his flanks. One is some kind of soldier, and the other is a maid. To her nose, they did not seem like true living beings. ¡° Right, apologies for the wait Lord Trever. This is Milissa, a B rank adventurer. She will answer any of your questions.¡± The clerk let go and was about to hurry off but she grabbed him by the arm and held out her guild tag. ¡° Make it official.¡± The clerk sighs and touches the tag before being let go to run off to talk to a trio of drinking strangers. ¡° So, I guess that was to make sure you get paid?¡± Lisa nods and starts looking more seriously at the human. He held himself with impeccable posture and realized he was a good six inches shorter than herself. ¡° Yea, money is a little tight right now as I got largely screwed over recently on a job. I got the last laugh though and are really more personal details than I want to give out right now. Doing whatever this is will ensure I have a roof over my head tonight.¡± The strange lord nods his head as if understanding and that is when she realized he was looking at her like she was him. ¡° You are a B rank based on the badge. So you might know the answer to this. I am looking to get leveled to at least level forty. I am a summoner by class, so what are your recommendations.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Lisa blinked at the unexpected question but really considered it before answering. ¡° A summoner''s rules are different than most people when it comes to dungeons. Which, short of a major war or going to the front, is the best way to level. Most dungeons limit a party to six people. For summoners that translates to them plus one summon then two more summons for each person under the six-people cap. For example, if it is just you and me going into a dungeon. You would be able to bring nine summons. As I would take one, you and your plus one will take up another and the rest will be filled by eight more summons.¡± The lord continues to nod as he listens to her and starts to ask other questions that should be common adventurer knowledge. This means this was not a normal noble with years of education as a noble under his belt. Plus the fact he is not looking down on her also told her all she needed to to figure out this was an otherworlder. Lisa then continued as her words sank in. ¡° So for you, the optimum way to level would be to have just a single overseer while you and your summons take up most of the party experience share. As for the route of dungeons, that will entirely be based on your elemental preference. For example, if you are air talented then water dungeons would be best...¡± ¡° Hell no to water levels.¡± She paused hearing him clearly talking louder than he intended and he realised he said that out loud as well. So he just sighs and explains. ¡° I am elemental neutral. So the element does not matter as much, but if I can I would prefer not to do anything underwater.¡± Lisa merely nods hearing this, understanding no one wants to do underwater stuff. ¡° I see, While I am no expert, being elementalless would actually be a major boon. Not only can your total experience in different environments be greater, you will not be set back by any disadvantage either. I would suggest creating an all-purpose kit that will work in any environment and prepare to raid a dungeon of each type in your climb to forty. This also means that you will need to kit each of your summons as well. The good news is you can train your summons in each dungeon type to let them gain an elemental affiliation as well. The problem I see however would be holy and undead dungeons.¡± ¡° Let me guess, because holy dungeons are highly controlled by the churches and undead dungeons are usually purged.¡± Lisa nods again. ¡° Correct, holy dungeons are a part of a god''s holy domain and are allowed to be visited by their holy warriors to train. Undead dungeons are purged because they are too dangerous just like necromancers.¡± Lisa then noticed he had a notebook and pen taking notes. When he started she was not sure, but not noticing worried her. ¡° What would you suggest for my adventuring kit then?¡± ¡° Rule one of adventuring, always bring rope, at least fifty feet of it. You can never have too much. Rule two, food and water, like rope you can never have too much. You will also want a good backup knife and maintenance tools... in fact, the more you can bring the better. I can go on and on with everything you need, but in general, you need a bit of everything, because you will find yourself in a position to need something you don¡¯t have and be forced to improvise.¡± Cardmancer Book 2 Chapter 5 With a simple motion, the otherworlder closed his notebook and puts it into his inner coat pocket. The glint of mithril did not escape her eyes this time when he did this. ¡° Thank you for the information. I will use it when I get one of the workers to finally spare me the time of day so I can get my job posted.¡± Lisa smiles gently to say something flirtatious but caught herself and realized she was acting a little odd. She quickly realized this was due to his charisma. Even though she was of a much higher level than him, his outstripped hers. Still, she was a little disappointed that their meeting was ending. She could tell he was one of the good ones because he did not even try to use this advantage against her. ¡° No problem, it is not everyday one meets an otherworlder.¡± This causes him to stiffen in alarm a moment before chuckling. ¡° Yea, it was quite obvious wasn¡¯t it?¡± Lisa nods amused. ¡° Well, ignoring the fact that a bunch of strange kids are being escorted by soldiers who act like that...¡± She motions over her shoulder to a group of three otherworlders who were acting like overjoyed kids living in their favorite video game. ¡° Your lack of knowledge of things you should have been schooled in as a noble a decade ago makes it obvious. Not to mention you keep watching my ears and tail more than my chest.¡± The otherworlder chucked at that. ¡° Sorry, I did not get to meet many... beastkin?¡± ¡° It is all right, I am a panther beastkin. Not too uncommon but...¡± As she was about to explain how her people gain their animal characteristic when they turn fifteen a cough came from behind her. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡° Millisa, I am sure you have quite the story to tell, but unfortunately I must sho you away like the stray that you are. Lord Jeffery is already late for his meeting.¡± Lisa tensed up slightly as she balled her fists before loosening them again to push off her seat. ¡° Right, I have stuff to do today as well. I will leave you to it, Jameson.¡± Before he could retort she got up and left. Instead of going to the crowded front desk, she decided to check the job board. As she guessed all the low-end jobs were taken already and there were not many new high-end jobs. There were two A-class jobs she knew she could not do on her own and party hunting right now sounded like it would be impossible with all the otherworlders. Speaking of them, she noticed a new post wanting people to help train the influx of new members. The list of jobs on the notice ranged from three-man f ranks to partner with to an A rank team to power level some otherworlder to seventy-five. She almost laughed at that one. To power level, someone like that would take half a decade and more money than it was worth. Then again it would be regular and secure work. The downside is no one is going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole. Everyone knows where these otherworlders are heading eventually. What catches Lisa¡¯s eye however is two jobs she would be perfect for. The first one is to form a team with a group of otherworlders who were doing the same thing the one she met was doing, but with more people. Essentially, she would be an instructor and overseer for five people. And knowing both adventurers and otherworlders, it would be like herding cats. No pun intended. The other job though is what she suspected was a preliminary notice for the one she met. Unlike the other post that had only gold as a reward, it was varied. Varied which it included the option of several low level spells as well as practical upgrades such as a new gear and free repair or replacements. The kicker, and what will probably draw everyone to this job is training in a new otherworlder class. Lisa did not hesitate to take a job token before putting it to her badge then pocketing it. Signaling to the guild she would be willing to take the job. As the notice said the meetings would start tomorrow she decided to finish up with the guild by renting a room at a half decent inn that was half the price of a guild room that would serve much better food and more importantly would not wake her up at the crack of dawn. Depending on how the next day went she might say screw it to her current situation and move on to another country. ----- Jeffery sat with the elf manager called Jameson as he spoke of some of the changes to his job notice and listening to what that means for his job post. In truth, it was just making changes to his contract with the guild for his job. Minor things. Instead, he had his mind on other things, such as the catgirl he met earlier. He could tell she was very knowledgable and obviously more experienced than him. Even though they were about the same age. As he was reading some boring clause stating that the guild was not responsible for any of his goods while outside of one of their buildings he caught himself thinking about playing with her ears before slowly sliding his hand down her back before gently stroking her tail until he reached the tip and... ¡° Is everything alright, Lord Jefferson?¡± He managed to keep from blushing as he sighs and lays the papers down. ¡° It appears everything is as we previously discussed. I assume the hundred gold crown deposit is enough on your end?¡± ¡° Why yes, Lord Jeffery, though I must point out the price would be much lower if you allowed us to claim some of the spoils of your runs.¡± Jeff just shakes his head. ¡° Unfortunately, guild 88 has need of those resources. Other than acting as a communication intermediary and providing some caravan escorts, which will be discussed in more detail with the member who leads the caravans, it is uncertain if we shall need the guild services beyond this. Naturally, if you have excess resources to sell as well, I suggest getting in contact with our main negotiation team.¡± The elf gently coughs. ¡° Well, thankfully I am more in charge of jobs than resources. So, as soon as you mark the contract I can get those interviews set up.¡± Book 2 Chapter 6 Lisa sighed as she reviewed her reserves. She was lucky she got a room contract for her room for a week for almost all of her silver before the loud otherworlders came in to ¡®live like real adventurers¡¯. She almost scoffed at this thinking they were just a bunch of rich kids. Almost worse than entitled nobles. It did not help one group of three were looking at here like she was some catch. If she did not have any other option, she would have left then and there, but she did not. In the morning they were found by some of the other adventurer regulars laughing and explaining why they do not startle a B rank. In the morning, or rather afternoon after the first proper full sleep she have had in months, she ate a late brunch and left to get as much traveling supplies as she could before getting a notice from her guild badge her interview was in a hour. She cursed at this as that did not even give her time to wash beforehand. Luckily however one of her purchases was a temporary scent remover. When she arrived, the guild was as lively as it was the day before. When she got inside however she was getting some cold stares from one of the staff. ¡° You¡¯re late, you were meant to be here forty-five minutes ago!¡± Lisa looked at the clerk annoyed. ¡° That is when I got the message to show up.¡± As she said this she showed the message she got on her badge. The clerk then went to her own badge and made an annoyed face as well. ¡° Well there is no helping it. Meeting room six.¡± Lisa just sighs and walks towards the stairs, taking less than a minute to get to the meeting halls, and not to her surprise an elf was standing outside the door for the meeting. ¡° Well, well, well, the fleabag shows up almost an entire hour late. Luckily for the young sir, I managed to find a replacement inter...¡± Suddenly Jameson goes quiet as a draconian hand grabs his neck from behind.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡° In all my two hundred years in this position, I thought I saw it all.¡± With a flick of the wrist the elf¡¯s neck becomes bent in an unnatural angle. ¡° The guild is an old institution, founded by ancient otherworlders. We like to think we are above corruption, and usually, we turn a blind eye to it. However, we do have immutable laws. One of which we do not mess around with otherworlders. Adventurer Millisa.¡± Lisa bowed her head to the dragonkin guild leader. ¡° Guild leader.¡± The ancient dragonkin drops the body of the elf. ¡° It is sad to see such a skilled administrator spoil, but when one cleans house, it is best to be thorough. Do not mind the body, someone will be coming later. I believe you are late for a meeting.¡± ¡° Ah, yes guild leader, I was told it was this...¡± Lisa turned her attention to the door for a moment and found both the body of Jameson and the guildleader gone. ¡° Of course...¡± She then sighs and knocks on the door. A moment later it is opened by the otherworlders maid summon while his other one stood guard by the door. To her surprise James had several maps and documents on a table with a platter of food and wine to the side. ¡° Oh, Millisa, did I make you wait too long? I am not quite done with lunch, but I guess if you wanted to start early.¡± Lisa just shrugs and walks into the room. ¡° I am told to show up and I show up. Never hurts to be a little early.¡± The otherworlder then gestures to the table. ¡° This is the progress of a days work so far. Don¡¯t worry, you get twenty silver just for showing up. Now can you write? If not then my maid construct can transcribe for you.¡± Lisa moves over to the table while the maid construct moves to refill the otherworlders wine. It does not take him long to start drinking it and finish what appeared to be a tart with some dark jam. It took her less than a few minutes to find the work done so far had been done by some very opportunistic minds to train the otherworlder but line their own pockets as much as possible. ¡° Well, for starters I would definitely not start with the Juvile Crossways. Yes, it is a major trade hub but that means anyone not a local will have to pay taxes just going in and out of the town. And I will guarantee you any team that says it is a good idea will have ways to make coins out of your coffers. I see a few suggested Highland Passes, and that is even worse. Not because of greed, but because that land is bordered to a high-level zone where creatures often hunt for food in the area. Not to mention the death cults that regularly appear in the area.¡± Lisa then looked over the maps a little more and pointed to an out-of-the-way dungeon. ¡° Lone Field dungeon, recommended level one to five. This is the first place I would go. There is not much loot, just vermin animals, but it is not too hard either. And it will teach you the very basics you need without being in too much danger.¡± Lisa then moves her finger to a nearby dungeon. ¡° From there you can go to the Goblin Cavern. Not much there buy some goblin junk and such, but it will teach you how to deal with traps and ambushes.¡± From there Lisa starts laying out a plan of conquest that spanned over twenty dungeons. Each one would be one that will teach Jeffery something new while helping him level. She did not even notice the maid construct taking notes of this. Bk2 ch7 ¡° I still highly recommend a dive through Twilight Peek. I know it is a forty-five to fifty dungeon, but it will be a good refresher on darkness element dungeons.¡± Jeff looked at the map and the route the two had planned as a whole. The thought of the warning that the contract might be in jeopardy if he reached level fifty before getting to the Burning Peeks came to his mind though. ¡° It will largely be determined by my progress at that point. Normally, I am all for getting as much experience as I can but I want to remain under level forty-five after the contract is complete. I will write it down as...¡± He and Lisa then turned their heads as there was a knock on the door, with a nod of his head the maid construct by the door moved to greet their visitor. Which was a human woman in her early twenties they both recognized as a guild employee. ¡° Sir, your next appointment is here.¡± Jeff sighs and nods to his boss who starts rolling up the maps before replacing them with a fresh set with everything Lisa saw when she first entered the room. ¡° It¡¯s been nice, but times up. It is refreshing to actually meet someone who is not trying to take advantage of me. I swear if one more prick suggests me to go through Left Limb Bog I might just stab someone.¡± Lisa could not help but giggle at that before she realized what she had done and blushed slightly. ¡° Guess... guess that means I should go? We never really did the interview, did we?¡± Jeff chuckled at that and flicked his hand and a strange card appeared in his hand, then it split into four. Stolen novel; please report. ¡° Take these, they are your invites to the final selection in two days at noon. Or you can go to the new town my guild is building, even if you do not get the job. We can always use some help from a seasoned monster hunter like you. These will signal you are under my care.¡± This caused Lisa to perk up a little bit. She quickly snatches the cards and slides them under her chest armor. ¡° Thanks, I will see you in two days.¡± Lisa then realized she was smiling toward him, and he was smiling in return. Their silent stare was, however, quickly interrupted when the door was knocked on again. This time, she turned and did not stop moving as the maid opened the door to see a new team she did not recognize. ¡° Oh, and try talking to some of the other otherworlders. But know we all are not like that.¡± Lisa could not help but chuckle as the new team flinched hearing that. However, she paid it no more mind as she left the room and slowed down to really consider what just happened. ----- Jeff smiled as he returned to his spot to perform the ¡®interview¡¯ again. The next interview was a pair of dwarf twins he thought were an okay pair, but he could tell their interests came before his own. He still gave them a single card and asked the pair if they would be interested in a secondary position of guarding his support people from the guild. Who was going to be at the next stage of the recruitment. Other than them, however, he gave no other cards away. The night after the last interview Jeff gathered all the ruined maps done by greedy and incompetent adventurers and shoved them into a bag for disposal. Next to follow was a stack of notes that he had to pretend to take seriously. As he put the last of it into the bag he straightened up. ¡° Most people consider it polite to knock before barging into another mans room.¡± ¡° Apologies, but sometimes one has to make a dramatic entrance. Lord Trever, I see you are not happy with the selection?¡± Jeff turned to see a dragonkin man he met before his lunch on the first day. ¡° It is your house, that being said, I am more annoyed than displeased. Half the interviews were just greedy idiots that wanted to bleed me of my gold. I bet at least a third of them are part-time bandits and the rest are in some merchant''s pockets or another. Probably family, but still corrupt. The majority of the rest are either old people who never took a risk in their lives or are lucky to be alive. The only ones worth a anything is those dwarf twins and that beastkin Milisa. More than likely I will have the dwarves as guards for my support people and take Milisa with me.¡± The dragonkin nods at this. ¡° Acceptable, so the second meeting is just formality then.¡± ¡° Yes, unless something happens during that time or if they decide not to take the risk with the actual job and move to the guild town or some other reason. I have a couple of alternates in mind of the older people, but that will cost me long-term potential for short-term safety.¡± ¡° Understood then, I¡¯ll have someone come in a few minutes to see you out. I got some house cleaning to do still.¡± Bk2 Ch8 Lisa walked into the tavern where she had a room in and found it packed, not with regular B or A rank adventurers but from several of the new otherworlders. It took her a few minutes to find a table alone before getting her order of food filled. As she waited for her stew a group of three came in and gets directed to her table. Two women and a man. She only sighed to herself accepting the situation. ¡° Hey, it¡¯s a catgirl, I wonder if she will let me touch her ears.¡± Lisa gives the girl the stink eye. ¡° I am right here you know.¡± ¡° Sorry, can I touch your ears?¡± Lisa became more annoyed but paused as the server came to her table with her food and drink. After the server left she sighed and pulled out her guild tag. ¡° Oh, you¡¯re a B rank? You are alone, right? Care to join our group?¡± Lisa looked at the other girl who seemed more aware than the other. ¡° No, and when an adventurer of a higher rank flashes their badge, that usually means you are annoying them.¡± Left unsaid was that meant the lower ranks were meant to leave too. Clearly, the three did not take the hint or had no other options. Of how there was not a free seat anywhere, she took it as the second option. ¡° Neat tip, anything else you can teach us?¡± Lisa rolled her eyes before taking another look at the three. She realized in that moment these were like a couple of beginners but not tainted by the current culture of adventurers. In fact, she began to quickly realize that they would likely reach her rank in the next couple of months instead of the years it took her. ¡° Well, I have a bunch, but nothing appropriate for your levels. What are your level fives?¡± The three looked at eachother a bit nervous. ¡° We were told never to reveal our levels.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Lisa nods to this. ¡° Good, this tells me you are at least a a little educated. Many people associate strength with levels but there is more to it than that. Still, that does not stop idiots from making assumptions. Now, that I got a general idea of your strength, then I am going to tell you how to level like a child, because that is what you are in strength. You are going to go into the sewers and kill rats...¡± The girl that wanted to touch her ears stood up insulted. ¡° What? They stink and will ruin my brand-new armor.¡± Lisa pauses hearing this seeing many other adventurers and otherworlders looking at them. ¡° Oh yes, there are many other ways to level. Are you prepared to pay five hundred gold crowns? Because that is the current rate to boost an individual otherworlder to fifty.¡± The loudmouth woman opened her mouth to speak again but the man finally said something for the first time. ¡° Ashley, take a moment to look around.¡± Ashley instantly closes her mouth and looks at everyone staring at her and sheepishly slides back into her seat. Lisa watched her do this before looking at the other two. ¡° I am not sure who you are, but...¡± Lisa cut the man off by simply raising her guild badge. ¡° I am experienced adventurer with a respectable track record of completing missions. I became an adventurer when I was twelve when I was kicked out of the orphanage onto the streets. For years I crawled through those sewers just so I would grow stronger, strong enough so I can join a proper team. I spent many more years doing that until I could go solo. And I will say this, a solo is one rank stronger than their actual rank. The reason for that is because they take all the risks and come out on top.¡± Many of the proper adventurers cheared to this and one person from the other side of the room yelled something as it died down. ¡° You can come home with me anytime.¡± This caused those nearby to boo and throw food at the otherworlder remarker before everyone went back to their own meals. This means that freed up the server carrying the three otherworlders meals. Lisa took the opportunity to start her own. The four ate quietly but Lisa saw Ashley glaring at her the entire time. Which she did not care. As Lisa did not have any other plans for the night she ate more slowly while the other three ate theirs before she was halfway done with her own meal. It did not take long for the guy to excuse himself to drain the lizard and Ashley joined him. As soon as they were out the back Lisa quickly finished her food. ¡° Look, while they are out back to have fun...¡± ¡° How do you know they are having fun?¡± Lisa gave her a flat look for a moment before sighing. ¡° The crapper is out the front and three lots down on the left across the street. This place does not have public ones, only private ones, and the only rooms they rent are on the floors over this one. Now while they are away, I want to talk to you. You¡¯re a virgin arn¡¯t you?¡± The woman blinked surprised at this. ¡° No need to answer. It is as clear as day by how those untouchable pricks at the bar are staring at you that you are. If you do not know, then the most important unwritten rule is, if they are higher rank than you, then they can pretty much do anything to you while you are alone. I am betting the only reason why you are not being touched right now is because I am here. And before you ask, there use to be five of those pricks, When I was fifteen, just out of evolving into my animal characteristics, we did a job together. You see, I am a scout architect type by class. My first B rank team-up was with them. About halfway through a dungeon they could not hold themselves back anymore and forced themselves on me for hours on end. The next day I happened to miss fully disarming a trap, because of the fatigue you understand.¡± Lisa then stands and looks at the two flush lovers sneaking back into the tavern. ¡° My only advice for you, the best I can give, is don¡¯t become adventurers. Become guards or mercenaries. Because unless you are strong enough to protect yourself from men like those two at the bar looking at you. They will break you.¡± Lisa then left her there as her friends arrived at the table. As she did she mumbled something about them being dead within a month. Book 2 ch 8.1 Julie watched as the catgirl left up the stairs as her brother ordered another drink before sitting down. She merely eyed Ashley a moment before sighing and putting her portion of the meals price on the table before standing. ¡° Not going to join us?¡± Julie shook her head. ¡° I think I am going to bed, I will get a room here and let you two have the room tonight.¡± This shocked her brother but Ashley pounced at the chance. ¡° Leave her be. She is a grown woman.¡± Julie then watched her brother¡¯s eyes melt into the bimbo¡¯s chest and knew he was a lost cause for tonight. A visit to the tavern owner and a pair of silver coins later net her a room for the night. Where she could not stop thinking about the catgirl they met. Based on what she was assuming was the catgirls stats, they were speced for perception and dexterity. As she noticed the men focusing on her as well. Her story made her truly sorry for her and take her words seriously. As she was drifting to sleep she realized she was hearing voices in the room. ¡° You were right Kline, these otherworlders have higher base stats. Good thing I used the strong stuff...¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The next thing Julie knows the sun was shining on her face as she sat up straight out of reflex. To her surprise three of the guards was there as well as the cat lady from before. She was talking to one of the guards as the other two bent over to pick up something off the ground. It surprised her to see it was one of the men watching her last night. What surprised her more was the fact seeing a dead body did not disturb her. The catgirl and the guard looked at her at the same time before the catlady stepped back to let the guard talk to her. ¡° Mam, I know you feel you are in a situation, but before anything I need to ask you a few questions...¡± For the next ten minutes, she spoke to the guard about meeting the catgirl last night and what they talked about in full detail. Afterward, the guard said the catgirl could go before returning his focus on her. ¡° Well, long story short, she is in the room beside you. She heard whispers from your room and knew you were alone in your room with a locked door. Your assailants, a pair of A ranks, broke into your room and knocked you out with an illegal knock-out drug. I assume I do not need to tell you why they were here.¡± Julie just nods to this realizing the severity of what just happened. ¡° Lisa, overhearing them talk about knocking you out after breaking in decided to stop them. For reasons we had to ensure she was telling the truth with your own story. And do not fear any sort of mind manipulation with your story, the guard is trained to detect that sort of thing.¡± It took an hour later and reimbursement for the hassle was given out of the deads belongings, a value of over fifty gold. It took an hour more for her brother to come along with the bimbo and it was then she realized she did not want to be an adventurer like her brother wanted. She wanted to be a guard like her class ¡®sentry¡¯ wanted her to be. So they split up. She used the fifty gold she got to enter guard schooling and training to level twenty and over that month she learned her brother and betrothed joined a pair of adventurers. After the month of training, she learned the two of them were dead because her brother was a rich idiot taken advantage of by greedy adventurers. Ashley was sold into black market slavery and dead a week later as a minor noble¡¯s plaything. The irony did not escape her when she learned the champion''s debts then landed on that entire nobles family because of it. When her training was complete, she decided to work as a caravan guard for a couple of months while she worked her way up to the new town that 88 guild was making. Surely, they needed a good sentry. book 2 ch 9 Lisa got to her room and laid her head on her pillow after taking a quick wash. She could only hopelessly look out the window as the sun shone in her room. She was tired and wanted to sleep but couldn¡¯t. Not because she killed a couple of rapists. She was actually happy she could do it in a legal method. Not even she could stage the scene like the one they found themselves in, and the importance of otherworlders right now makes corruption influencing investigations a very tricky matter. As they are more important than the cast off of some noble. The reason why Lisa could not sleep was she was feeling extremely excited. Not only could she not go to a place for it because she was next to broke, but she really did not want to spend the night with a random stranger again. It took her over an hour before she dozed off to sleep. She soon found herself back in the guild sitting at the table with maps but they were not talking about them. -----NSFW----- Edited out ----- END NSFW----- Lisa considered trying to finish her dream before giving up and going for another wash before ordering her sheets ckeab before her return. This was not natural for her, especially after taking an aphrodisiac cleansing potion, which should have killed her libido for a full day. Seeing as her issue is not alchemical she decided to go to the one place she really did not want to, but it will give her a guarantee if the answer she is fearing is the correct one or not. With it shortly after noon, Lisa walked into the slums of the capitol. She remembered working hard and barely surviving to escape this hellhole. And now she was back and she felt disgusted for it. It did not take her long to find the building she was looking for being guarded by two ursa-type beastkin. When they tried to stop her she merely punched them both in the face before they dropped to their knees before the ground out cold. ¡° That was completely unnecessary you know.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Lisa entered the building to find a deer beastkin sitting on some pillows while smoking a pipe, her looks alone told you she was old. ¡° Elder Tola, I am in a mood and want to know why.¡± The elder chuckled to this and took a pamphlet from a pile of them and tossed it to her. On the cover was a shining full red moon. ¡° Screw me.¡± ¡° I am sorry my dear, but my years of doing that are past me. In about a month the red moon will rise and you are of age.¡± Lisa put the pamphlet in her pouch and dug out the last of her coin and tossed it to the elderly deerkin. Then she left. ----- Elder Tona watched the pantherkin leave after tossing her a few coins. In truth, she expected a silver piece at most, so the information was much more valuable to her than she guessed if she parted with most if not all the money she had. This told her many things. A moment later a ratkin that works at the guild enters and hands her a report of the goings on and she read it before crumpling it up in annoyance. ¡° That old scaly bastard is starting a purge. Has any of our people been hit?¡± ¡° Only two so far. It appears he is starting with the worst cases first.¡± Tona spit on the document before throwing it in the nearby hearth. As she watched the paper go up in smoke an idea came to her. ¡° Tell me of any special cases that have appeared recently, the bigger the better.¡± This caused the ratkin to pause a moment and sigh. ¡° The biggest and highest profile, an otherworlder called the Cardmancer put up a job to grind to forty. I do not have all the details, but word is he is one of the big serious players that came out of their club house. All signs point to him making a real push past the wall.¡± Tona strokes her chin hearing about this before coming up with the bones of a plan. ¡° Get me all the details you can on this Cardmancer and those he is affiliated with. After the effects of the red moon start to wane we shall leave for the meeting of elders. I want to have a solid plan formed by the time we get there. And keep me up to date on Milisa as well. She might be key to finding ourself a new chieftain.¡± book 2 chapter 10 Lisa quickly left the slums and checked in with the auction house and a few other places before returning to her room and began to really think about her future. She read the pamphlet answering many of the questions she already had answers to, but knew less than she cared not to. The blood moon months were an event that happened every five years and for races such as elves, dwarves, and humans, these months did not mean much. For races such as her own or dragons, however, those that are considered monsteristic, it is greatly different. For dragons, it is a time of dormancy. A time for the strongest of the species to go dormant to recover their great strength that is expended by merely existing. While those under level fifty are generally only a bit sluggish and tired, the larger full dragons go into full undisturbable hybernations. After this period is also when the youngest and strongest also begin evolving into their final forms. Changing many of the characteristics including shape, size and even gender. For the beastkin it is their breeding season. For the four and a half years outside of the blood moon months, they were completely sterile. Only during this period can one become pregnant or knock someone up. To be fair to them as well, the chance of success is almost a guarantee. The only thing the pamphlet told her that she did not already know was that using methods to suppress her libido actually made it that much worse. This is a built-in defensive evolution trait when some thousand years ago someone tried to kill off her kind by poisoning them with anti-love potions. Which explained what happened to her when she took the anti-aphrodisiac potion. ----- ¡° Are you sure you can trust them?¡± Jeff looked at the kid no older than sixteen beside the wagon they had bought. He and his partner volunteered to come along on this trip to process all the goods. In addition to the four people who the guild managed to contract to act as guards for them. All of them otherworlders except for the one, who was a dragonkin. ¡° Who, the otherworlders or the natives?¡± The kid just shrugs meaning both and Jeff just returns the gesture. Trust is one of those hard to come by commodities and after everything that happened at the Resort, he trusts few absolutely. ¡° Well, at least the adventurers you picked look reliable¡±Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Jeff turns to look the other way and saw the panther woman speaking to the dwarf brothers as they approached. They seem to be getting along. He was also glad to see they did not skip town with his cards. ¡° So lad, I heard you rejected most because they were either too old or too young. How about you start with why you picked us three?¡± Jeff was a little taken back by the statement from one of the dwarves but did not show a crack in his composure. ¡° I chose you two because you understand risk and reward. As well you have a history of crafting and appraisal. In short you make excellent guards and appraisers of whatever junk I get out of a dungeon. Do not get me wrong, your main jobs is to keep those two alive.¡± Jeff points his thumb to the kid and the dragonkin who was obviously close to him. ¡° After them it is to keep the other four otherworlders safe. They too are guards but are as green as goblin snot. So it will be double duty to training them as well. You will have operational control of the journey. Meaning we get to say where we need to go but you decide how we get there. As for me, that is why I have my own personal guard and trainer outside of you two.¡± He motions to Lisa. ¡° We will be doing a dungeon tour until I hit around level forty five. The expected time table will be between six months and a year. No longer than two.¡± The two dwarves think it over a little/ ¡° Something like that ain¡¯t cheap, and not just in coin. You will have to supply us as well. Me and me brother will have a lot of duties over an extended period. I took that card to an appraiser who specialized in magical artifacts, it is a summoning catalyst. It is rare that non-summoners can use them.¡± Jeff nods to this. ¡° The card is both a bonus and part of the job. The being in the card is a magical construct. It basically a blank slate, and if you need a helper or a decoy. But do try to refrain from mistreating them. They learn quickly and it is hard to break bad habits.¡± The brothers discuss it a little more. ¡° A guarantee of provisions, to the best of your ability, a new set of equipment for level fifties, and a pick of any magical artifact you might pick up, each.¡± Jeff thought about it a little and shook his head. ¡° I ain¡¯t gona pay for an epic fifty set for both of you. Even we are not that rich. Fifty uncommon and an artifact each up to level 40 with the exclusion of rare or better. First pick.¡± This caused the dwarves to talk to eachother for a good five minutes. ¡° We want a fifty rare item each. Even if it is from the auction house.¡± Jeff thought about this a moment and really considered it. ¡° Give me a list of candidates and I will consider it. While you are at it, you can go on a test run, you can take this bunch through town shopping. Get anything we will need for a long journey. Get at least twenty dungeon dives worth of provisions.¡± This caught the dwarves attention and Jeff tossed the two a small pouch full of gold coins. ¡° That is your budget. Make it last six months at least.¡± ¡° Aye, we can do that. We will need to see what you got already and determine what you need. Come on lad and lady, time is wasting. Bring the wagon, we will have a lot to haul.¡± Jeff moved away to watch them leave and found himself alone with Lisa. Book 2 chapter 11 Lisa shifted slightly as she watched the others leave the lot and was a little nervous as she turned to the otherworlder. ¡° So, a few things have come to light recently. How much do you know about beastkin?¡± Jeff looked at her and saw she was rather nervous. ¡° You talking about the bloodmoon?¡± Lisa nodded slowly as she started rubbing her arm. ¡° I will be honest, it completely slipped my mind. You tend to spend weeks if not months in a dungeon at a time and you lose track of what it is going on the outside. Before, I told you I started dungeoning young, but I have spent more time in them than I have outside of them. I am not what many would call a loose woman, I often look at the long term to build my career and rarely spend my money on quick indulgences...¡± Lisa looked away ashamed before taking a deep breath. ¡° Since we are going to be doing this highly dangerous grind which will likely take about a decade or more in dungeons, I¡¯ve got to trust you with this. Every time I have had sex... it was not by choice. I was either young and vulnerable or blackmailed into doing it. But that is in the past and what I want to talk about is the future.¡± Lisa slowly turned back towards the otherworlder and he looked a bit uncomfortable as well. ¡° While in the dungeons I will be my all business attitude. No sex on the mind or anything,¡± ¡° But traveling in between dungeons, you will be exposed to the effects of the bloodmoon.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Lisa nods slowly. ¡° If you know anything about beastkin, then you should know we become... clingy to potential mates.¡± ¡° And I am a highly desirable single man who you will be not letting outside of ten feet of you till we are done with everything.¡± Lisa nods again even more slowly. ¡° Which brings up the problem. I understand you want to be under level fifty before you meet with your client in the dragon lands, I assume part of your contract is to have a child with one?¡± This time Jeff is the one to nod. ¡° How much do you know about how kids are made... outside of sex.¡± This catches him by surprise and he could only shrug not really knowing all that much. ¡° I feared as much. You see, levels give potency for future generations as much as the base stock. The first thirty levels without release gives the kid as much as the next twenty. The ten from level fifty to sixty has the same potency amount as one through fifty. And every five after that follows the same pattern. The thing is, humans can only have children before they hit their fifty milestones. Well, unless they stack ten levels or more then there is a chance as well.¡± Lisa pauses to let this sink in and it does rather quickly. ¡° So what you are saying is, I might not be able to have the children with the dragonkin because we might have sex?¡± Lisa nods sorrily at this statement which caused Jeff to laugh startling her. ¡° Believe it or not, my contract has already discussed this with me. You must not know much about otherworlders legends. Have you ever heard the phrase, the only thing that can have more kids than a goblin is an otherworlder?¡± Lisa thinks on this and briefly remembers hearing something like that before. Then she starts to chuckle. ¡° Wait, so that is true?¡± Jeff just raises his shoulders to shrug. ¡° No idea, but do you know there will be over three hundred otherworlder-parented babies about to be born in about three to six months? All with otherworlder parents who were under level ten.¡± This Lisa was not expecting before she and then they both began laughing hard. ¡° So I think we have come to an understanding of the situation now. I am going to be in deep heat when we travel. So, I am going to have to relieve my libido on occasion. At least once a day. Thats going to include a bunch of...¡± Lisa then blushed and turned away. ¡° But I will try to refrain from going too far.¡± Jeff merely nods to this then looks out toward the street where the others left to to earlier. ¡° Is there anything else we need to discuss? Because I would love to move on from this awkward, but needed conversation.¡± ¡° Yea, how can I summon those things in the cards?¡± Book 2 Chapter 12 When Lisa learned the cardmancer subclass, she found it a lot easier to follow along with many of the concepts that Jeff tried to explain to her much easier to understand. She was not even surprised that after summoning the constructs they took shape as the ideal party team of beastkin. She as the scout and close-up hit-and-run damage dealer. The first construct she noticed was a tall Ursa that instantly became a tank, just without the proper gear. Next to it was a Lycan who looked like someone who favored both ranged attacks with a bow and close-up engagement with a short sword. The last two were a Vorpal and a Niko like herself. A healer and mage respectively. ¡° I did not expect that!¡± Jeff merely chuckled from beside her. His gaze seemingly unfocused as if reading a system message. ¡° I assumed as much. It seems that yours changed into what you feel would be the ideal team to build around you.¡± Lisa turned to him annoyed he was not continuing to explain. ¡° Fine, the card I gave the dwarves is the exact same as I gave you. Literal blank slates that can become anything. Theirs will likely become a dwarf and will be as generic as possible. In turn, they will have to train it up to be what they want it to be. You, however, got my class as a sub-class, which means you get to skip a step. A small one mind you. Your cards became what you thought you needed most out of them.¡± Lisa looked at the four standing backbone straight as if waiting for orders, with only a basic set of clothing on each of them and a different color to each of them. The ursa was a deep brown, the lycan was green, the Vorpa was a light blue and the Niko was a dark red. She quickly decided these were elemental affinities. Then Lisa realized a very large problem.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡° Well, I am going to have to equip them aren¡¯t I?¡± Jeff laughed at this and shook his head. ¡° Not as much as you think. Part of my deal with you will be providing basic gear. Repair and replace guaranteed. Take note that these four will be qualified as bottom-rank adventurers.¡± Lisa sighed annoyed at this. She knew the dwarf brothers had maxed out the number of subclasses and took an alternate incentive instead of the class for the job. Which is why they will be getting a lot better gear than she will. Lisa opened the menu for the four and was a little surprised to find they each had some mastery of their chosen roles. The two mages even had a few spells already, including a healing one each. ¡° Holy cow, I have never seen anyone under level ten this stacked before, little alone constructs.¡± Jeff could not help but chuckle again. ¡°Yeah, it seems you got some of my proficiency when I taught you the class. Enough to not have to spend two weeks each and a lot of gold to make them worth anything. Just know it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to make them better. If you want the mages to know any spells over the tier ones they got it will cost you a scroll to learn them, or tutelage from someone who knows the spell.¡± Lisa nods acknowledging this. ¡° You said I get a budget to improve them. How much?¡± Jeff brings out a notebook and flips to a central page. ¡° A tier two for each of them, depending on the price, and one single tier three. This does not include the tier zeros you will be getting nor the promised skill of choice.¡± ¡° Then after the armor and weapons shops, that is our next stop. After that, we should hit the auction house to see if we can get any deals there for rarer gear before hitting the general goods store. Agreed?¡± Jeff nods to this and they set out. ----- Malcolm looked at the dwarf construct in front of him. His brother passed on having control of the construct and he was glad for it. Just half an inch taller than himself he looked at the female construct with a full beard that covered most of her face, even her forehead was mostly covered by hair by the most bushy brows he had ever seen. The only thing he could really see was a poke of the nose over the mustache at the bottom of a void area where the eyes were hidden. If he had to be honest he found it extremely attractive. After taking his mind out of his pants, he decided then to treat the thing like a wife he could not remance and resolved himself to being a good husband who had a wife that was fine with him sleeping around. Book 2 Chapter 13 Lisa looked over the tents and shook her head. At most, they would provide a two-hour ward a day, and that was far too short of a rest just for the two of them. She then glanced at Jeff, who was equally displeased by the backpacks on display. ¡° I thought this place had a bunch of high-quality goods. These seem no better than something a D rank would use.¡± Lisa nodded at this, hearing his muttering. The owner of the store, an elderly elf notices it too. ¡° A latecomer, eh? I sold all my top-end goods earlier this week when the flood of otherworlders came in.¡± To this, Jeff cursed and rubbed the back of his head. ¡° I really didn¡¯t want to do this, but I guess we can use my commander tent if these are our only options.¡± Lisa turned to Jeff, fully unsure what his commander tent was. He saw her looking at him curiously as he shook his head. ¡° Give me the backpack with the largest individual item capacity you got left. Porter class compatible. No need for side accessories. It will be purely for item cap.¡± The elderly elf nodded in acknowledgment and went behind the counter before he pulled out a bag. ¡° This is the biggest item hauler I got left. Thirty slots that stack to a hundred. As you can see, there are no side attachments and trades that for extra durability. You are not going to lose anything by a small goblin dagger nick with this.¡± Jeff considers it and nods, pulling out a bank card. ¡° Can you get it enchanted for even more durability and an auto-repair feature? I also need a miner, apothecary, and blacksmith pack. These with accessory hooks.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The elf takes the card and looks at it before handing it back before getting three more packs. ¡° Since these are not quite what you are looking for, I will give you a discount. One gold and twenty silver, an extra twenty silver per enchantment.¡± Lisa listened to this and felt a little envious of how much money the two were discussing. Considering she knew if she was the one buying these items it would be either half as much due to her being in the adventurer guild or just as expensive because everyone knows she had money coming in. After a few minutes of haggling to bring the grand total for two enchantments for each bag to three gold even Jeff gave the elf directions on where to deliver the goods to before gesturing they should leave. Barely out the door, he swore and motioned for her to lead them to the next store. ¡° Is it always that bad?¡± Lisa shook her head. ¡° They will try to fleece you at every opportunity. If you are not an obvious otherworlder you are at least dressed as a well-off noble¡¯s son. Unfortunately, I would not be much better either. Since I have a big payday coming in, and everyone knows I have it coming. There is nothing they want to do than force me into debt with it as collateral.¡± Jeff frowned at this as they came to a general goods store for adventurers. Where Jeff had to spend several more gold for what he needed. The armorsmith and weaponsmith were not much better. The only place he felt not taken advantage of was at the mage goods store, and that is because they overcharge everyone the same amount. This made him annoyed that he had less wiggle room than he had anticipated, but it was well within his budget. However, seeing how pleased Lisa was about getting a new skill relaxed him a bit. Lisa, however, was rather surprised at how expensive full sets of gear were for low-level adventurers. Usually, kids go to the sewers with sticks or rocks to kill rats starting off and working up to better and better gear over time. She never knew how much of an investment it was to get good gear. By the time she was fully kitted, she was already her current rank, and everything she owned was lost when her stuff was sold. It also made her realize that what she got as compensation was nowhere close to what she should have gotten. Even if the gear was worn, it was still good gear that was worth several gold pieces. It did not help that she regretted when it cost Jeff over twenty gold to replace her own standard kit with level-appropriate gear. By the time they had gotten everything they could, the sun was starting to set, and Lisa realized it was time for them to separate. ¡° So, I guess I will meet you somewhere in the morning?¡± Jeff looked at her, a little confused. ¡° You are on the job now after taking the contract. You will be staying with me from now on.¡± Lisa paused at this, and it dawned on her what that truly meant. ¡° Sorry, I normally do not do escort missions. I normally do retrieval or extermination. So where are we going?¡± Jeff gestured to the end of the street they were on. ¡° The Golden Dragon Inn, it is the best I could do with my current rank.¡± Lisa blinked again and remembered that Jeff was a god-granted title of nobility. ¡° Right, I forgot about that too. Since I will be on the job guarding you, I guess I will be staying in your room?¡± ¡° Correct, the wagon will be in the stable there, so if you want to get any of your belongings to take with you...¡± It was at this moment that Lisa realized what Jeff had spent today amounted to pocket change. Book 2 Chapter 14 It was the first time Lisa had entered this particular hotel, something that was reserved for nobles and those hired by them. Of course, she could also enter if she was a rank A adventurer, but her level was not high enough for that, and the one gold a night expense dissuaded her too. After getting a busboy to get her things and return her key to her old inn, she ordered her dinner before following Jeff up to his room. As she entered, she found several constructs idle around. Many of them acted as guards and sentries. Two that were active were dressed in black and white dresses that were popular with nobles for their servants. They were currently in the process of helping the noble undress. ¡° Make yourself comfortable, I am going to take a bath then go to bed after dinner. On the desk are my plans for our route Ask the maids if you need any help. They can not talk, but they can understand you fairly well.¡± With that, Jeff started moving into the side room as he continued to undress, and Lisa looked around curiously. Other than a locked chest, she did not see anything signaling someone of wealth was staying in the room. With that thought deemed unimportant, she moved over to the writing desk and found several notebooks and maps with some scattered notes here and there. She quickly looked through it all and found this plan was a lot more elaborate and detailed than the strategy session they had had a few days ago. She did note some changes to these plans right after those meetings, however. A shift in dungeon schedules, pathing between dungeons, and even some towns being marked off as being deemed too risky to stay in. She could not help but nod to herself as she looked over the changes. She knew firsthand how some townsfolk were just as bad if not worse than bandits, and the only reason why they are not outlaws is because everyone in the town gets a cut. Can¡¯t trust the guard when they are in the criminal''s pockets. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. After going over the routing, Lisa looked at the plans for the dungeons themselves. The first one, the Smokey Gnome Hole, was a fire themed dungeon that had small humanoid enemies that mainly used contraptions and traps. Overall, not very dangerous but annoying. Mainly due to how some of the traps are set up with secondary effects after being disarmed. For example, having a pressure plate that triggers a dart trap, but if you disarm it, then rocks fall on you from above. She lost two friends from one of those traps. After the Smokey Gnome Hole, she sees him planning on taking an air dungeon, followed by an earth then water. She agrees to this path as well and starts looking through the notebooks to find they are each guidebooks for the various dungeons. Except for one, which opened up to a list of names. She recognized the names on the list as her own name was on it. It was a list of adventurers. She flipped to a random page to a human man that was in their fifties. The brief description told of a man who was more safe than sorry, slowly climbing the ranks while taking minimum risk. A careful old man who has no noticeable achievement other than a massive string of low difficulty quests that rarely fail. Next, she went to her own page, where there was a brief history about her, how she went on higher risk jobs as a solo, and that she was far more intelligent than the average orphan from the streets. There were even mentions of her recent large payday and speculation of her retiring somewhere in the country to avoid all the money seekers. Until her new employment changed those plans. Lisa could not help but laugh at that before closing the book as the bathroom door was opened. She looked up and found Jeff leaving the room with a towel around his waist and nothing else. Lisa could not help but blush a little, seeing how handsome he was as he moved to a dining table filled with their ordered dinner. ¡° Care to sit with me? I got to tell you what we are doing tomorrow.¡± Lisa nodded in agreement and moved to the table, while Jeff took a spoon full of cream soup and tasted it. ¡° Bland as I expected, it as if they do not understand the concept of seasoning... Bah, whatever. Anyways, tomorrow we will be leaving early, before dawn, to leave from the south gate. From there, we will circle east, then north around the city and head to the resort. We will be staying there the night while my guild packs the wagon with what we are missing. This will serve two purposes: one, to throw off any pursuers, and two, to get everything we will need for the next three dungeon dives. From then until we go back to the resort, we will be operating under the assumption that others will be watching us, looking for an opportunity to strike. From bandits to other otherworlders, we must keep our guard up.¡± Book 2 Chapter 15 Lisa was having a wonderful dream, the kind of dream that a starving man would have as they are dreaming of a table full of wonderful foods, or a religious man to speak to their god. For her, she dreamed of living in a noble mansion and not having to worry about raising her children. In her dream, she had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was a large and strong teen, she was not sure of what evolution was, but he was large and muscular. Clearly a warrior and a leader of men. Her daughter was younger than her son by five years, not yet finding her own evolution yet, but she had the early marks of beauty not yet fully fulfilled. In addition to that she had an aura of magic about her. A mage of the highest caliber. She also had a glint of childish mischievousness about her a true terror for her friends. --- Jeff awoke to a loud cat purring to his side. It was not that, nor the pantherkin¡¯s grabbing his left arm to her chest while her left leg was draped over his own. It was not even the rubbing of the knee of said leg against his privates. It was the sudden dampness on his hip that awoke him. For a moment he thought someone had poisoned him in his sleep, but feeling his summons not being alarmed and still present put him at ease. Especially when the pantherkin rubbed her chin on his shoulder lovingly. He took a look at his system clock before noticing the pair of eyes opening wide in the dark awakening to probably the same reason he had. --- ¡® Oh no, oh no, oh no... OH NO...¡¯ Lisa panicked for a moment before she realized what position she was in and what she had done in her sleep. The worst part is, that she could definitely tell he was enjoying everything. ¡° Um, morning?¡± Jeff chuckled at this as one of his constructs lit a match to light a lantern. They stayed silent as their eyes grew accustomed to the new light. In addition, he saw her face becoming increasingly red. ¡° Soooo... I am going to wash up...¡± Lisa then sulked away into the washroom as Jeff looked down at himself and whispered. ¡° This is going to be a pain all day isn¡¯t it.¡± Lisa ignored that as she raced to the washroom and found out she had stripped off her clothing before going to bed, making the fact that Jake was just as naked as her even worse. It took her a minute until the blush was off her face and she was looking for the soap in the dark. It was at that moment one of the maid constructs entered and lit the lantern in there as well before setting down a change of clothing for her on a table and leaving. She took a moment more to calm herself before taking some nearby soap and started scrubbing. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. It took her nearly an hour before she was done scrubbing, the majority of it being the hair on her head. Normally she would keep it cut short, but with all the issues with money recently and losing her old place with her stuff, she never had the opportunity. She sighed reluctantly letting the comb go as she finished feeling pampered before leaving the washroom to a waiting Jake, clearly cleaned and fully dressed. ¡° Ready to go?¡± It was a little surprising to her to find the room now full of uniformed individuals, two of which had the locked chest between them to be carried. The summon that was similarly dressed to Jake seemed to be directing them. ¡° Oh wow, I knew you were a summoner, but I did not picture this.¡± Jake merely smiled at that as he gestured toward the door. ¡° No time for breakfast sadly. That and I do not want to spend half a gold for another meal I would be happy to spend half a silver on when on the street.¡± Lisa shrugs to this and starts going out the door. It did not take long for their procession to leave the inn and the only words spoken by the two was to let her know they were leaving via the south gate. Which they get through just as the sun starts rising. The summons with torches start putting them out while others took guard as they soon changed directions to going west. It was another hour on foot before they came to a small clearing in the woods that Lisa had used to camp many times before on her way to dungeons. ¡° We are five minutes late,I could only guess at where they are. They were suppose to be out of the west gate before us.¡± Lisa blinked in surprise to that before shaking her head. ¡° The west gate is the commercial one. It is not every day that a human and a dragonkin will be journeying with two B rank dwarves. You do not have anything truly valuable on them right?¡± ¡° Just all our stuff we bought.¡± To that, Lisa just groaned. ¡° Oh yeah, I forgot about that spending spree yesterday. I doubt we will get even half of it¡± ¡° You will get all your stuff las, I bet my beard on it.¡± Lisa quickly spun around to find the voice and could not see anyone. ¡° So, lil¡¯ commander, I hope you picked someone for more than their looks.¡± Lisa turned around again to find an elderly dwarf standing beside the otherworlder, who had a smile on his face. ¡° Ah, you¡¯re here. I was wondering if I even got the right spot.¡± ¡° Aye, you got the right spot. Mind if I test her, not that I doubt your judgment, but adding a woman makes everything more complicated.¡± Lisa squinted her eyes at the dwarf, and to her surprise, he started fading from her view. It did not take her more than a second to decide to activate her detection skill, but that too failed to find the dwarf. ¡° Hmm, B rank perception, but A rank with an active skill. Lets see how she reacts to...¡± Before the dwarf even finished speaking Lisa dodged to the side and brought out her short sword, but instantly lost it when a powerful blow shattered the back of her hand. She did not even scream as she immediately dodged again to avoid another invisible blow. The next thing she knew she was sitting on her rear. ¡° She¡¯s pretty good for an under level fifty. A little perception and agility stacked, but that ain¡¯t a bad thing.¡± The dwarf appears again with a hand offering to help her up, she scoffs at this before taking it and almost dragged back to her feet. ¡° You can just call me the Quartermaster. I recall you being given some of the commander''s cards. Care to summon them for me so I can see what I am working with?¡± Book 2 Chapter 16 Lisa downed a healing potion as her hand stung from being shattered. This only lasted a few seconds as she was fully healed at that time. ¡° Holy cow, you gave me a greater potion.¡± The quartermaster chuckled at this before looking at the otherworlder. ¡° I got the stuff just past the treeline. I will be back shortly with the others. I know a good deal about equipment, but it will be much better to have someone dedicated to it make the adjustments.¡± Jake chuckled to this. ¡° No argument here. You know the plan was to camp here for the day anyways. Just try to get them here before noon.¡± The dwarf merely nods before vanishing again. After that, it did not take long for them to find the proper noble wagon hidden in the brush and Lisa led the horses to the clearing where Jake smiled seeing a heavy lockbox strapped to it. Having some of his summons doing most of the heavy lifting, they soon found all the storage arrayed around them. Without missing a beat the otherworlder starts going through them and getting them separated into three piles. The first was completely ignored as the second was being loaded back onto the carriage. The last pile, including the heavily enchanted strongbox, was being opened one by one. One box contained a rather large tent that was highly decorated. Another had an assortment of weapons ranging from daggers to halberds. ¡° Care to summon your team?¡± Lisa did not realize she was watching rather slackjawed until Jeff addressed her and she cursed herself before getting the four cards she was given and activating them to be summoned. The drain on her mana became instantly apparent as the ursa, lycan, vorpa, and neko formed in front of her. Unlike Jeff¡¯s summons, hers however were not impressive. ¡° Have them pick out their kits. Make sure to explain why you want them to have what they are getting. Take note of equipment slot limitations. That is why all the armor is arranged as a full set instead of individual pieces.¡± Lisa nods understanding this via her connection with her subclass. For the ursa, she directed it to have a heavy armor kit and a heavy shield and one handed mace taking over the other two equipment slots for it. The lycan got a short sword and a crossbow set with some medium light armor to make the most of it¡¯s speed and variable range potential. The vorpa healer got a water pendant focus to go along with her healer garb and staff while the neko got a wand and buckler with some leather armor similar to the lycan¡¯s but not reinforced with metal like theirs is. In addition, they each got a tool belt accessory that had a potion case and basic tool kit any adventurer might need. With them, as kitted as they could be something strange seemed to happen. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Conditions met Unnamed ursa, unnamed lycan, unnamed vorpa and unnamed neko have merged into [Adventurer team (beastkin, elite)] Total stats and stats growth shall be combined and optimized for each member of the unit. All summoning restrictions have been increased by 4x. All gear shall be upgraded automatically to the appropriate tier upon entering a safe zone. Higher tier¡¯s require extra upkeep, but will not exceed half of class holder¡¯s total mana regeneration...] Lisa looked at the notice even more surprised as she continued to read it. What shook her however is that Jeff received a message as well. ¡° Well that is surprising but not entirely unexpected.¡± Lisa looked toward him confused and he saw this as well and laughed lightly. ¡° I am a soldier-specialized summoner. My units are highly trained and disciplined with mass-produced gear topping out at uncommon. Only my own elites and officer units can be equipped better. You on the other hand seemed to be the opposite. Your units or rather team, is composed of inexperienced adventurers that will get better gear as they grow stronger, as long as you can manage it that is. At lower levels, I clearly have the advantage in numbers and training, but I suspect if your team gets as strong as you then I would have a hard time beating you at an equal level.¡± Lisa blinked at this and considered it. She instantly saw the pattern that it was usually guild enforcers to stop high-ranking fights of it¡¯s members instead of the guard. It made sense because no level twenty-something guard squad is going to stop a drunk level 50 adventurer who just got back from a bad run. With that done Jake gestures to the strongbox that had several magic tomes in it. Which caused Lisa to gasp in surprise. Magic tombs were rare and these were top quality even though they were bottom-tiered. ¡° Here, lets start with this one.¡± Jake grabs a book and hands it to her. When she reads the cover, she found the word ¡®GROOM¡¯ in magic script. Opening it she found the spell¡¯s descriptor a little confused. ¡° Who would spend so much on a glorified hair cut?¡± Jake could not help but laugh to that as she did not stop reading. ¡° A good hair cut costs ten copper, and thats just for your head. Multiply that by a thousand each month.¡± Lisa opened her mouth to counter but found the words stuck. For a regular person, such a spell would be a convenience for the rich. But for a general leading an army, something as simple as keeping their army''s hair cut would cost a fortune. ¡° Plus, it keeps your hair all over your body trimmed, on your head, under your arms, off of your legs... even down there.¡± Lisa started to blush a deep red as she remembered what happened that morning. That however did not stop her from quickly learning the spell. Book 2 Chapter 17 Lisa sat on a small stool as she went through her system menu to tweak all her new menu options when her ears twitched and she took a dagger off her belt and threw it into the tree line. The twenty sentries arranged around the camp instantly became alert as an elderly dwarf came out of the woods twirling the thrown blade. ¡° You need proper training las. Before I send you off I will have a guidebook made for you to go over during his training. I have a feeling you will be sticking around.¡± The summons return to their regular pattern as they identify the dwarf as an ally and the dwarf moved to sit on the vacant stool. ¡° Fine, whatever, I know you are a legend and all, but that does not mean I got to like you.¡± The dwarf laughed to that as he handed her blade back to her. ¡° Heard I signed up with the lad, eh?¡± ¡° Yea, half the city has heard, even before I left before my last job. Not that it is any of my business why you left your old post, but I can see why. He is a special one.¡± ¡° That he is, if he gets his chance he will change the status quo. This world has been invaded by those demons for far too long and if nothing changes we are going to lose that war.¡± ¡° Why do you say that?¡± ¡° I am old las, this is not the first world ending event I have lived through. Just the longest. The nobles are more concerned with preserving or gaining power, merchants and adventurers are more concerned with money than the people. And the people have all but given up at this point. Look at your own people, once mighty nomads now forced to live in slums and work menial jobs.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Lisa closed her eyes knowing exactly what he was talking about. Being outside the walls of the city always made her feel better than sitting inside them. ¡° So, what do you see happening in the future.¡± The dwarf hummed to himself a moment before taking a flask from under his beard and drinking from it. ¡° If he manages to pull off the impossible and establish his own land, and survive... Well, a fundamental shift will occur. Here will be a new noble line who is not cowering to the demon threat. He will draw the masses to him like never seen before in the war. And if he just keeps to his own standards he will quickly draw in numbers that will rival any kingdom. And if I am correct about you, you will become his second wife. Don¡¯t deny it, I know what happens when a beastkin finds their future partners all too well. With potential like his, any pair of thighs would go and say make me yours in a heartbeat.¡± Lisa squinted her eyes annoyed which caused the dwarf to laugh. ¡° Don¡¯t be like that, I was once in his position. I am in that position. Breaking into the realm of demigod tends to show a person just how much they can do when there are few to hold you accountable. Just after me last wife I swore to never take another.¡± Lisa dropped a little hearing that. Hammering home the fact the dwarf has probably outlived any grandchildren he has had at this point. ¡° Any family left?¡± The dwarf merely nods to this. ¡° A few, I keep an eye on them but keep my distance. Best for all that I do. Something I am sure he will learn in time too.¡± Lisa closed her eyes and started seriously picturing her own future. She pictured herself leaving the capitol after she got her money and disappearing. Perhaps becoming a hunter for some village. Or a small town guild master. Now however she recalled her dream. Of living in a castle that did not feel constrained like a city did. Of that of having children. She then pictured herself in fifty years. Her hair had turned grey and eyes have dulled with age. She is sitting in a garden with her young grandchildren. Her oldest home for a period of rest as he told his children of his and their grandfather ongoing campaign against the demons. A time she would have been out there as well, but age had caught up to her before she hit level eighty five while her husband had long ago broken into the realm of timelessness. As Lisa finally relaxed and daydreamed the dwarf turned to Jake as he was looking over his plans and revising them with new information, he knew also Jake was listening in on them as well. He also knew that Jake knew his whisper was heard by him and not paid attention to the pantherkin. ¡° I got to live past the first ten years before I start concerning myself with the next hundred.¡± Book 2 Chapter 17.1 Joshua opened his eyes as he looked at the dragonkin that had become his lover and wife. Yet she was much more, his teacher and confidant. The person he trusted most in this world. As always when he woke up she was already awake waiting patiently with a plate of food ready for him. ¡° You know you don¡¯t have to cook for me everyday you know.¡± She gave him that subtle facial change that her kind does when they smile. Something it took months for him to learn the sign of. ¡° Fortunately for you, someone skilled actually did it this time.¡± It takes him a moment to remember he was no longer in the Resort but in a noble¡¯s carriage large enough to be a highrise penthouse apartment. In fact, it only takes him a moment to see one of the guild representatives constructs over a magical stove frying up some bacon while the pantherkin and said representative were sharing a plate of food while looking over some maps and discussing dungeon diving strategy. ¡° You think it be a good idea for us to dive a few times as well? Sarsa, his dragonkin lover shook her head. ¡° No, learning to defend one¡¯s self is never a bad thing, but there is a reason why common folk do not go to such places, especially crafters like us. It does us little good. We gain more experience failing a common item than would be gained from a full-day dive. What we should do is focus on our craft while the good dwarves guard us.¡± Joshua meekly nodded in acknowledging this as he rolled out of bed and went to get his breakfast, or rather lunch by the system menu. He was half way through it before he blushed and moved to where the bathroom was and got dressed. This got a chuckle from the girls in the room. Even more so when they discover that Jake is deliberately trying to avoid the topic. After a few minutes and the rest of the meal done, Jake called the others to the table. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡° Right, as we discussed before, we will be going to our first planned dungeon, but as requested by our dwarven friends outside, we will be taking the road west first toward the Lurmire Provance until we hit the trade hub of Dirkson. From there we will head straight south until Moonrow. Any questions?¡± None say anything as they look over the map and it stays like that for nearly a minute before Sarsa comes up with something. ¡° As I understand it, one of the reasons why me and my partner are coming along is to seek out materials, so why are we going to Dirkson, their prices are nearly twice of that of the capitol.¡± Jake chuckles at that. ¡° If not for the fact that half of the items we got from the capitol has some kind of tracking attached to it, I would take the direct route, but I need you two to work on making new sets of everything we bought. I know you can do high quality, but I need it to be limited to uncommon quality equipment if that means...¡± Sarsa raised her hand to stop him. ¡° Let me stop you there, we can not guarantee any quality of equipment. I remember the briefing you gave on your summons. This will be a good opportunity for us to focus on the level of gear over quality. I assume you want similar specs or better?¡± Jake nods to this. ¡° Correct, in addition, I hope to sell everything you replicate for as much profit as possible. I hope to unload everything that is tracking us in the trade hub. I am pretty sure most of the rations we have are in some way tainted or poisoned as well. Someone is definitely trying to set us up for failure. If I had to bet, it is the backer of those pricks in the Association, which is why we are making the detour.¡± This caused Joshua to scratch his chin in thought. All he wants to do is make stuff, He knew the concept of level requirements very well in video games but he did not think they applied to real life. Before he could decide to proceed with things further however Sarsa put her hand into his. ¡° We will do what we can, but we will need supplies first, and tools. Truth be told you should have a dedicated leather worker and enchanter here as well.¡± Joshua turned to her a little surprised, she knew he can work leather and enchantments just as well as steel. In fact funny enough, his best work involved the time he added using glass into the visor of a helmet, making it fully enclosed around the head. Add in some clear air enchantments and a simple light enchantment to illuminate at least twenty feet even the darkest caves. An epic that he spent about a single gold on netted him over a hundred times the investment in return. That is with his wife¡¯s merchant skill in play. ¡° We have worked with some of the others in the guild to arrange for those there as well. Pain in the ass to keep it low key. Better to pay two weeks for storage than all the fucking markup. Adventurer guild insurance top notch as well. So learn all you can from the tainted goods before we get rid of them.¡± Sarsa nods to this then looks to Joshua with that gentle smile of hers. ¡° Shall we get started then? It would be a good idea to take a look at the stuff before we start working on our own.¡± Joshua just looked at her and smiled before nodding, going to the storage chests to fish out the first project. It seems today was going to be a long day, but one he would be happy with. Book 2 Chapter 17.2 If you asked Sarsa a year ago she would become a slave in the human lands she would not have believed it. If you asked her six months ago after she was bought to become a maid and escort for a champion she would not have believed it. If you asked her three months ago that her slave contract would be bought in it¡¯s entirity and then released from it from said champion the same day they met, she would not have believed it. If you asked her a month ago if she would fall in love with said human champion she might have believed it. If you asked her if she would have his child. She would have said she would do it gladly but did not think it was possible. On the eve of those of Guild 88 about to leave to build a new home for themselves, she received the news from the gods themselves. In fact she was even told they would be twins. Which made her happy, because twins were rare for dragonkin. Especially since it was a cross species event. Which made it from a once or twice a year for her kind of event to once or twice in a century. But her happiness for the event is paired with an equal amount of fear, because her partner wants to join the Cardmancer in his band of mercenaries. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ----- A year ago Sarsa was the third daughter to a family of blacksmith refugees. She had neither the skill for the forge of her mother nor the business savvy of her father. And dragonkin are not kind to refugees of failed settlements. Seeing the failure as a whole instead of the parts that did and did not fail. However, that is their culture and she both understood and accepted it. It did not help that her parents skills were average at best. Good enough to run a shop, but one like dozens of others that did the same thing. When she decided to sell herself to help out her family, she was unsure what would become of her. As her older brother joined the front and died there and the next oldest, her sister fell into a bad crowd. Ultimately ending her becoming a drug criminal before being caught stealing something and executed the next day. So to keep from becoming another shame on their family she had two stipulations put in her contract. She would not be allowed to take any drugs except for healing of the body, and she would not work in a brothel. She fully expected to be bought by someone slightly better off than her family to be some wife. In a way she was. Her training as a maid not only included her duties as a maid but as a honeytrap. While not actually practicing what she was taught, she learned several nightly services she could do for the champions. She was meant to act as a control element for the champion, but ultimately she was unable to fulfill that service as she was freed from her debt the same day she met him. She was grateful for that as well as that let her not feel like a dishonorable spy. What she then learned is he had a variant blacksmith class. A more general specialized one, but versatile enough to be both. And so instead of being his maid, she became his teacher. Teaching him what he knew of the ways of the forge. Though he had a scrawny body, that did not deter him from trying. And the potential and dedication to the craft surprised her. Within a week he was able to craft common household items, which took her over six months to get right. Within a month he made his first uncommon item, that feat took her years. His first rare came a month after that and just one more month later had his first epic. Both things Sarsa never accomplished. Needless to say, she put some of her previously unused training to practice after the epic was made. not a chapter, new cover art Take note this artwork is AI generated. Here we have Jeffery in his full dress uniform. I tried to get an image of him playing poker... but could not get it to work. This will become the cover of the first book. Here we have Lisa while she is raiding the fire salamander nest. (again, no real control of the ai here so no consistency between them) If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. This will become the 2nd book cover. Book 3''s cover I believe I will go with something a little different. side note: I am leaning on calling the book Cardmancer: The River and the current cover will be the cover of book four, which I have not named yet. Book 2 ch18 ¡° I hate merchant skills...¡± Jake said as he wrote in one of his notebooks, by now Lisa had learned that the booklets he keeps in his vests dimensional pocket came into three categories. The first one is his notes and research on a multitude of subjects. From governance to battlefield leadership. The second set were his personal logs and journals. The last one was his ledgers, which he was quickly making marks in before snapping a pencil in it¡¯s folds and putting it away. ¡° Everyone hates merchant skills. Their whole archtype is all about making money.¡± Lisa snickered as the blacksmith retorted. In truth, they were not fleeced as hard as they could have been because the dragonkin with them had some merchant skills of her own. Not enough to get a fair deal, but enough to come ten percent under the planned max budget for the stop. Which, to say, is a lot in the panther beastkin¡¯s opinion. ¡° There is making money then there is being greedy. It like the entire place says forget long term investment, I want all the short term gains.¡± This caused even the dragonkin to do that grin she does when she is happy or amused, as the Cardmancer continued his rant for the next ten minutes as his summons got the dining table set for dinner. Naturally, they did not spend the night and left an hour before sundown. They would have left earlier, but the stable where they had their horses resting sold them within an hour of their arrival. Naturally, when the ¡®buyer¡¯ tried to take them away, they found it to be one of Jake¡¯s summons. Something he worked on for over a month to summon first as part of a mounted cavalry, then as wagon pullers, scout mounts, and courier mounts. Ironically, this would have been easier to do in reverse order of courier, scout, wagon puller, then cavalry. After dinner, the four separated to their individual beds, pairing and went to sleep. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The next day, Lisa took over the guard position of the dwarves to allow them to sleep as the crafting duo began work on their own versions of all the gear the summons will be using in the dungeons for the foreseeable future. The dwarves Jake noticed had different opinions about the summons he left them. Taking on the appearance of a dwarven woman, she seemed to serve the younger of the two brothers as some sort of servant. Which was perfectly fine as long as neither of them abused her. While the dwarves rested and entertained themselves with minor gambling or reading in their downtime, the blacksmith and his wife started working on the replacement gear. This is when Jake learned Sarsa had a literal [generalist crafter] class, which allowed her to do pretty much anything crafting-related. Just not that well compared to a dedicated class. What he did notice that not even she did was that she was a natural teacher. With this new information, his plans for the future were changed a little bit yet again. It took a week from leaving Dirkson to arrive at the small village on a large plain of open ground, with only small hills to block long-range line of sight. It did not take long for them to get set up outside the Lone Field Dungeon and then to be ready for their first dive. With Lisa¡¯s four summons and herself, that left Jeff with four summons himself. Which he chose to have a porter, a blacksmith, a miner and his new elite in his lineup. Unlike his normal soldiers, this one wore a heavily armored version of his officer gear. Instead of a wingshield and a single sword, this summon had a thick almost as long as the summon was tall sword on his back as well as several shorter blades around their hip. In total they had probably over twenty blades visible on their person. This caught the dwarves'' attention more than anything else. ¡° Right, we are geared up and as set as we are going to get. I got a ton of rations and spare equipment with the porter. We lose him, we end the run, and start over. We''ve all gone over our roles and plans, so let''s get this party started. Lisa, from this point on, you are in command.¡± Lisa nods as she steps forward and faces Jake and the summons. ¡° Okay then, first off, I am the first one in anywhere. I clear the traps and scout out the area before I let you know what is coming. I am trusting you know how to fight on your own and know your own roles. I will be acting as a sapper slash rogue, but will not be fighting directly unless you mess up. This is for experience and a good test run before we go into a harder dungeon. The first room of the dungeon is always safe, so we can go in together. And I will say it again, you do not go anywhere I have not been already.¡± Lisa sees Jake nod to that as she turns around and enters the portal that was the dungeon. The nearby adventurer guild guards and inspector were not even paying attention to the group, more than to note their presence, having heard such a speech thousands of times before. Book 2 chapter 19 Lisa poked the fire with a stick from one of the dungeon¡¯s trees. She was frowning deeply as she thought about her actions over the last few days. Jake, for his part, lifted the stick with a chunk of monster meat on it to see if it was done yet or not. It took a while longer for their meal of monster meat and field rations to be consumed before they moved into the commander tent, which was magically expanded to the size of a forty by thirty by twelve-foot space. By far a lot larger than she had imagined it to be. To one side of the tent was a makeshift smithy where the blacksmith construct was examining all their gear, while on the other, the porter and miner were working on the spoils of their run for the day. In the back was a small bath and Jake¡¯s wardrobe as well as a writer''s desk. While appearing lavish at first, it was actually fairly spartan to most nobles, and nothing but their gear was at risk of being damaged in case of a forceful exit from the pocket dimension they were in. Jake quickly took off his shirt before completely stripping and lying on the mattress in the middle of the room. Feeling a little awkward, Lisa stripped to her undergarments after he was under his bedsheets and got under her own as well. Considering the mattress was large enough for two more people, they had plenty of space between them when Lisa looked at Jake trying to sleep. ¡° I want to apologize again for my... actions while under the blood moon. Now my head is a little clearer. I should not have been so... clingy to a complete stranger. Normally, I am more... distant from people. So, I also want to thank you.¡± Jake opened his eyes and turned toward her. ¡° What for? We have already gone over this.¡± Lisa recoiled a little, pained as her nervousness grew. ¡° I know, but I never thanked you for getting me out of my situation. You obviously knew. I read my entry in your book. I saw what you thought they were going to do to me. I would not be in the total right mind during my heat... It is not right that I can not argue with your logic or reasoning about my future.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Jake closes his eyes and returns to his position of rest. ¡° When setting up the initial contract, I spoke to the adventurer guild leader briefly, he¡¯s seen people like you fall to the traps of the corrupt hundreds of times over the years. A rank is that barrier that they gatekeep with corruption. If you can survive this trial, then you are worthy of attempting the political hell that is the next rank. In truth, you failed the test because you''re going to be linked to me from now on.¡± Lisa opened her mouth to respond to this but quickly thought better of it. ¡° Do you know about records and potential?¡± This caused Jake to open his eyes again, but he continued to stare upwards. ¡° I have heard those terms a few times, but know very little about them.¡± Lisa smiled and turned to have her face looking at the top of the tent. ¡° Potential is easier to explain. It is literally your future potential. Woulda coulda shoulda and all that yadda yadda. Everyone has an ingrained amount of potential. You can measure one¡¯s potential by how much they grow and how fast.¡± Lisa brought one of her arms from under the sheet and looked at it and it¡¯s scars. ¡° Potential also affects things such as luck. That chance encounter that will set you on your path, choosing the path that will lead to a better life, or even those instances where something happens that saves your life. Constantly, our potential is used as we live. I can feel it in my bones, mine is almost all used up. You can choose better than I. I can hardly imagine how or why you would pick me as a partner.¡± ¡° When I look at you, my instincts, even now isolated from the blood moon tell me to be with you to get some of your potential. To start a bloodline as you as a base. That and you are kinda attractive.¡± This caused Jake to choke back a laugh. Which brought her a smile as well. ¡° Seriously, you are hot as hell. At the resort, I saw lots of beastkin, and you come to the top five of everyone I have seen so far. Well, tthe op five who I would swing for.¡± Lisa blinked at that before laughing at the statement. ¡° I guess that goes into the records of my explanation. They are your path that you have trodden, the momentum you have built, and the foundation you build everything else off of. Sadly, I have lost mine when I left my tribe to be an adventurer. What little I have is of that time.¡± Lisa paused to think of a time long ago, when she was barely old enough to walk. A time when she was being carried by a white wolf woman, coming to the city for the first time. She felt she was much happier back then. She then realized she almost feals that happy now. ¡° Well, that is certainly more records than I then. After all, I have only been alive in this world for six months.¡± Lisa considered that a moment. It was probably true she had more in quantity, but she had little doubt the quality of his records trumped hers several times over.