《Irregular (Rewritten)》


 Chapter One

    Chapter One


    </a> The boy woke up screaming, muscles tightening under a pain he couldn¡¯t even begin to describe. A brief respite let him open his eyes, he saw a woman sitting in front of him. She was wearing well made embroidered clothing. She had a grave smile on her face and small streaks of gray in her hair. Her face tickled memories he couldn''t quite reach. There was a sadness in her eyes, a grief that tore at his heart.


    He wanted to ask her what was wrong.


    He opened his mouth to make a sound of comfort, he himself was not sure what, only to find that nothing flowed passed his lips.


    Before he even finished his attempt at comforting the woman, she pointed her finger at him, and pain coursed through his body like lightning, his muscles rapidly twitching, flexing for all their worth. He flopped around on the floor like a fish, the pain searing all thoughts from his mind. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally had an opportunity to catch his breath. Tears pooled on the floor next to his face and he could feel himself drooling, a pungent odor pierced his nostrils notifying him that he had lost control of his bladder.


    He opened his mouth once more and tried to convey something to the grief-stricken woman, a single question. One simple word, why?


    She smiled at him a pained expression upon her face, her gaze hardening as she stretched her finger, pointing the dreaded digit in his direction. In a desperate attempt to dodge the boy tried to jump to the side only to hit an invisible barrier. The pain hit him once more taking away any control he had of his body and he blacked out.


    It took him a while to wake up. To his relief the woman was nowhere to be seen, he struggled to sit up, aching muscles refusing to cooperate. It didn¡¯t take him long to notice that he had barely any room to move. His cell, comprised of strange invisible walls, wasn¡¯t even large enough toallow him tolie down. He looked around, seeing others like him lying in crunched together forms or sitting in similar cages. Four girls across from him with three boys to his left, all sitting there terrified, teary-eyed. Some had ripped clothing, others had fancier clothing at some point. The fear had degraded them all to the same feral foundation. A panicked child, a helpless situation.


    He tried to ask them what was going on, yet as soon as he tried to convey the question, he was forced to swallow it. Once again the words could not cross the threshold of his lips. He glanced over at the boy closest to him, barely a foot away. The boy had dirty hay coloured hair and high-quality clothes, there were tears in his eyes as he looked at him. The blond boy pointed to his throat and shook his head. He pointed to his own throat and nodded his understanding then they both sat back against their wall. Eventually, all the children woke up, yet the room was shrouded in an eery blanket of silence. The forced silence was a dreadful pressure on the mind, accentuating the boy¡¯s lack of memory and understanding of the situation. No matter the desperate grasps he made towards his mind to remember something, anything. He was given nothing.


    The door to the boys¡¯ right opened and he saw the lady enter again. All the children scurried away into the corner furthest away from the evil old hag, as he had decided to call her. He, however, refused to back away, he did his utmost to glare the evil hag to death. Not that there was any merit to his attempt at courage, the hag only returned another of her sad smiles. It did, however, have the unwanted effect of making the hag head his way. She stepped right into his cage, slowly raised her arm and stretched her finger. The boy tried to jump at her only to be smashed into the wall behind him. The back of his head crashed into the invisible barrier, his sight blacking out for the slightest moment till the pain coursed through his veins. Muscles tightened and his eyes felt like they would pop out as he struggled on the floor, clawing at the concrete, desperately trying to dig his way out. Fingernails tearing at the attempt, that small token of pain eclipsed by the magical lightning coursing through his body. The torment lasted seconds, minutes, perhaps more, until the world faded out and he lost his consciousness.


    He woke up to the near exact same sight as before. This time, however, the other children were lying in their own magical cages, passed out. They slowly woke up one by one, and as soon as the last girl opened her eyes the door opened again and the witch entered. Once again the children shied away, once again he refused to. He noticed one particular girl with dark hair reacting similarly to him, glaring at the woman and refusing to back down.


    Even he himself could not have told anyone why he refused to back away. Once again, the hag entered his cage and once again he tried to attack her. Once again he failed and the pain flared through his body until he passed out. The pattern repeated itself multiple times until at one point they all woke up and the witch did not enter. He supposed even the hag needed her sleep. He could really use some himself. He tried to move, yet his burning muscles betrayed his desperate attempts. He managed to roll over, collapsing onto the floor in a slightly more comfortable position than his last.


    He looked at the boy next to him and their eyes met. Struggling to lift his arm he eventually managed to point at the boy and shrugged, then lifted an eyebrow. The blond, presumably noble, boy understood the gesture and started painstakingly signing with his hands. It took them a few minutes to get it figured out, various gestures were coupled to words they knew, then redone when they realized the other didn''t understand. It took them a while to manage something concrete. A name, Klostum. The boy thought it peculiar that he did not know the words the boy meant to convey yet he still managed to somehow reach an understanding.


    Klostum pointed at him and shrugged and raised his eyebrow, the boy answered with a shrug for he could not remember his own name, he could not remember anything other than the dreadful cage they found themselves trapped in. Klostum stared at him and frowned, tapping his chin. He raised his finger in delight and made a sign with three fingers at the boy. The thumb, index and middle fingers were raised and the others were curled into his palm. The boy stared at Klostum, not understanding what he was trying to tell him. Klostum pointed at him and made the symbol again. To confirm, the boy made the symbol for the third time and pointed at himself. Klostum nodded in excitement.


    The name Three? Why should he take the name Three? After giving it some thought he shrugged, it was a name just as any other, it was an improvement upon being nameless.


    Three stared at Klostum for a while longer before nodding, Klostum grinned and they sat together for a few more minutes, slowly but surely creating their own sign-language. He noticed that around the room the others were doing the same with their neighbors, once in a while everyone would glance around and copy gestures from the others that they understood. Soon enough all of them gave into exhaustion, despite the time they spent unconscious, and fell asleep, dreading what they expected the next day to bring.


    ¡®There is always the hope the hag will die in her sleep.¡¯ Three thought wistfully, for it was a dream that even he thought unlikely. Yet it was a hope to cling to, however small.


    Morning came and the hag had yet to show her face. Three figured that she was just the type to sleep in, he was strangely sure of this fact. Making eye contact with the others, they decided to resume their previous effort of making their own sign language. A few hours later, the hag entered the room once more and her torturous spell was aimed at the girl across from him. Seeing the spell hit the others before it made its way to him was somehow worse than feeling it himself, he felt connected to the others, seeing them spasming on the floor left a seed of anger growing in the pit of his stomach.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    He glared at the hag as she went from girl to girl, pointing her finger at them, and that was when he noticed something. Any fluid that left the girls, be it blood, tears, or something else, was absorbed into the runic markings that laid the foundation for the invisible barrier that surrounded them. Did they get their energy from whatever exuded from their bodies? Or did it simply absorb anything it could? It left him thinking before his thoughts were interrupted by Klostum collapsing to the torture. He glared at the hag before she did the same to him.


    Three started noticing more and more peculiarities about the runic markings and he shared them with the rest of the group. Everyone did their utmost to notice new things about the markings, understanding them might give them a chance to break or disable them long enough to make their escape. No such luck, things got even worse after the first day because everyone started getting hungry, their captors did not bother feeding them.


    The second day passed, then the third and she had yet to feed them or give them any kind of sustenance. When they woke on the fourth day to their aching stomachs and sore throats, a strange message appeared in their visage. Strangely enough, he could understand the words although he was sure that he did not have the ability to write.


    {Skill : Pain-Tolerance acquired}


    {Skill : Pain-Tolerance Level one}


    He looked at the others and they also seemed to be thinking about the message in confusion, he did his best to ask the others if the same had happened to them, and they signed back that each of them had gotten a similar message. He tried thinking about its significance before his thoughts were interrupted by his rumbling stomach, the hunger was growing worse. It had turned to pain, the lack of food gnawing at his stomach, begging for food. The thirst was more prominent, a burning sensation in his stomach. The dry throat begging for liquid, his lips crusted in blood and split from dehydration.


    The hag appeared through the door and the torture continued, the pattern repeating from hour to hour. More torture, sometimes they would gain a level in pain-tolerance which eased the pain they felt by a sliver. Yet each time the pain tolerance leveled up the hag seemed to know and changed her spell so it hurt them even more than it did before. Their hunger and thirst reached the limits of what a human could endure after the fifth day, Three and the others went to bed not expecting to get up in the morning.


    Unfortunately, they weren¡¯t that lucky.


    {Skill : Lesser-Regeneration acquired}


    {Skill : Lesser-Regeneration Level one}


    {Perk : Mana-Sustenance acquired}


    Three was confused by the announcement, but he no longer felt hungry or thirsty so he counted that as a blessing. Even if it did prolong the time that he had to live under the torturous treatment. That was until the hag arrived that day and noticed that they had acquired the new skill and perk. She smiled that sad smile that made Three want to rip her throat out and entered his cage. This time the torture was not a simple finger pointing however, he was slammed face first into the invisible wall opposite of the hag. Then she slashed at his back and he felt something slice through his skin. He attempted to roar and struggle in pain, fear and pure undulturated rage. The enchantments kept him from wiggling even a finger, his voice was muted just as it had been from the first day. This new torture method went on for longer than the other one, soon enough the blood spilling from his back would have created a pool below his dangling feet if the enchantments hadn¡¯t sucked it all up, Three collapsed to the ground too tired to even remain standing.


    He glanced at the witch to see her nodding to herself, for some strange reason it seemed to him she was encouraging herself, he thought he saw her shiver but he had to be imagining it, before moving on to Klostum. The rest of them all went through the same treatment. Even though the actual pain was less than the finger pointing spell, the presence of physical and lasting damage was exhausting. Once more a pattern appeared, the hag entered the room, if their wounds from the physical day had not healed enough yet she used the finger pointing pain spell if they had healed enough she used the slashing spell.


    Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, but Three had long since lost count. His pain-tolerance had leveled up to eleven, and lesser-regeneration to nine. The group had one small silver lining however, they had finally finished their own sign language. They could communicate with each other and that small bond of connection kept them sane. Three wondered what it would have been like if the hag had separated them, leaving them alone in the dark with nothing but pain and torture to look forward to. So the group bonded, like only a group of children under the most terrible of circumstances could.


    Then the hag once more upped her experiments, she walked up to Three with a black globe of something in her hand, the ball drooped like a thick black liquid, and although its black drops of whatever it was hit the floor every now and then, the sphere did not reduce in size. The Hag pushed Three against the wall, then he felt the liquid core of darkness push through the skin of his back and he screamed, screamed like he never had before. Even though he made no sound, it was obvious to the others that whatever the hag was doing now hurt more than anything she had done previously. Three collapsed onto the ground unmoving.


    He woke up. Struggling with himself, he tried to get up, but he could not move. He just lay there, staring at the wall his head was facing, not having the energy to move. It took a while for him to gain control over his body, until he finally managed to he sit up, only to stare at his hands. His fingernails were black, not a regular black, not the simple darkness of a night, it was somehow deeper, darker than even the blackest of nights.


    Then he noticed the veins running below his skin. The normally prevalent blue was no longer there, instead, black lines snaked over his arms in place of his veins. Then he noticed his skin, it was much paler than it had been before, an ivory he had not seen elsewhere. He was studiously staring at his own body when he noticed motion from Klostum¡¯s cage. He glanced over only to almost instinctively shrink back. By sheer effort of will on his part he managed to suppress it to a flinch. The somewhat large and previously chubby neighbor of his had changed dramatically.


    Klostum¡¯s skin was now a dark gray, thick and rough. Thicker plates covered his elbows, knees and perhaps other parts of his body. Most importantly the boy had grown, and not just a few centimeters either, he was at least a good foot taller than he had been before, and almost twice as broad. The hair on top of his head was no longer the dirty hay blonde, but a shimmering silver. He looked around at the others as they started to get up, each and every one of them had changed.


    The boy next to Klostum, who called himself Strem, had grown thin, skeletally thin even, and he had become near transparent. His skin was azure, a strange ethereal color that made him slightly hard to look at. The boy at the far end had turned into goo. For a moment Three thought Jer had been disintegrated into a puddle until the goo started coming together and forming a person very similar to Jer, except that his eyes, pupil, eye white and anything else, had become cerulean and he was drenched as if he had just jumped into a lake.


    He looked at the girls. The girl directly across from him, named Valana, had gained bulk and had gray fur with stripes of red and a darker orange here and there. As she woke up she reverted to something resembling her previous self, the thick dark braid she had and the amber eyes staring at her hairier than normal arms in confusion. The girl next to Valana, named Sumi, was made from string, actual string and cloth, that was knitting and sewing itself together to form a person, one that when finished, stared at her own arms and body in horror.


    Yinta, her neighbour was running her hands over her body in panic, bark having replaced her skin and her hair had turned to grass. The last girl, Fli¨ªt, was switching from normal to a being made of fire and back to normal, looking at herself more in interest than horror. She had been the one most aggressive and resistant towards the hag. Three could not help but be slightly awed by her calm reaction.


    They had all changed, some more than the others. Before they could panic and discuss more about their changes, a whole group of people entered the room, not just the hag but seven other individuals with similar clothing, age and bearing as the hag. Each stepped in front of a cage and continued their torturous patterns from before. This time however, there was no break. Each day, when the hag slept, every few hours the group of individuals would switch and their torture would commence until they had passed out. Weeks turned to months turned to years. Three did not know, for he had lost all sense of time. There was only closing your eyes after suffering through agony only to open them to more torture.


    He was no longer lucid enough to remember if he had gotten any notifications. He spent every waking moment he had thinking about ways to get out of the walls binding him, knowing in his heart of hearts the others were doing the same. He pinned most of his hopes on Jer, he was easily the smartest person in the room and that included the evil hag troop that was governing their lives. Three noticed more and more how connected he felt to the others, so every time they pointed a finger at him or cut open his skin he repeated the names of his friends, his comrades, even if that word was not strong enough to depict the bond he felt shaping. It was more like... family, yet even stronger still.


    The names Klostum, Strem, Jer, Fli¨ªt, Sumi, Yinta, Valana. He held them close to his heart, taking courage and strength from their presence, their very existence. At the same time, a dark and festering seed burrowed into his heart, a hate aimed solely at the evil hag troop and whatever purpose they had. He allowed the festering seed to grow and flourish under the torture. Deep roots grasped his heart, growing ever more from his resentment and fury.

 Chapter Two

    Chapter Two


    While protecting the core of what he deemed to be his spirit, a small corner of his mind was guarded by the powerful presence of his companions, the names of his family forming a shield to protect his true self. Then strange things started happening. He felt Kolstum next to him, felt his emotions, his being, then he felt Valana who was closest after Kolstum, Then Strem, Sumi ,Yinta, Jer and finally Fli¨ªt. No longer were they simply a mantra to protect him from the evil that was outside his cage, he felt an actual connection to them. Then, suddenly, he felt a tug on his very essence his soul was being pulled, dragged out of his own body.


    Three looked around the strangely endless white room. What shocked him more than the vibrant white room itself was the fact he wasn¡¯t alone, the others were staring right back at him. Sumi tried to speak but no sound came out, she grabbed at her throat in confusion, her cloth skin rippling with yellow before returning to its normal skin tone. Yinta stepped over to her and put her hand on Sumi¡¯s shoulder. Or rather, she tried to, but the hand passed right through. She stared at her hand and started waving it back and forth through Sumi, who in turn jumped out of Yinta¡¯s reach and wiggled her arms at her.


    [Stop doing that, it feels weird!] Sumi signed, her skin rippling a dark blue this time.


    [Sorry, I could not help myself.] Yinta answered. She stared around, looking at the others, eyebrow raised.


    Jer stepped forward. [I think the connection between us is deeper than any of us thought. It¡¯s likely that we did not just feel connected to each other, we ARE connected.]


    Three scratched his chin. [Whatever it is, I''m glad we get a break from the torture.]


    Although the kids didn¡¯t actually know the word torture, they had a sign for what the hags were doing to them. The sign was basically holding the index finger with the thumb and extending the three others.


    Klostum nodded. [We finally get to talk to each other again, I missed our conversations.]


    The rest nodded in agreement. Jer was scratching his chin, still deep in thought. [What I want to know] he signed [is if we can use this to our advantage.]


    Fli¨ªt answered [I doubt we can do much with this except protect our sanity, we can''t interact with anything, the only thing we can do is talk to each other.]


    Jer shook his head [We have gained something very important... time to think!]


    Three sat down and the others followed his lead, except Fli¨ªt who was content running around and stretching her legs. Now that he thought about it, he hadn¡¯t been able to move like that in years or ever really, if his memory was to be trusted. He got up as well and starting jogging around a bit, before breaking into a full sprint with a wild grin on his face. The others lost all semblance of order as they started sprinting around, enjoying the movement they otherwise couldn¡¯t. They started playing a game of tag, some people cheated due to the fact that they couldn''t actually be touched. Acrobatic spins and jumps, various silly looking manouvers, anything they could think of. Spirits were lifted due to the moment of childish freedom. After what felt like hours, they finally calmed down and took a seat in a circle.


    Strem flopped down, his face losing the grin and turning serious. [How long have we been in those cages? I lost count¡­]


    [Same.] Three responded, the others answering in kind.


    [If we judge by how much Klostum has grown we are at least 70 years old!] Fli¨ªt quipped, grinning.


    The others laughed as they looked at Klostum, who was easily half again as tall as the rest, and twice as broad.


    [I¡¯m not THAT big.] Klostum signed, frowning.


    [I doubt you can even fit through a normal door!] Valana retorted.


    Jer clapped his hands, the sound surprising everyone as they stared at him. He looked at his hands before nodding to himself. [I figured out why we can''t hear eachothers¡¯ voices. We have no idea what the others sound like, so this room, whatever it is, can¡¯t replicate the sound. Everyone has heard a clap before in their lives however, so it CAN replicate that]


    The rest nodded, his theory did make sense. [I also found out more about the runes that they placed on the floor, they use our own Mana to fuel the enchantments trapping us.]Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    Everyone started signing about that angrily but Jer clapped his hands once more to ask for their attention. [I think I also found a weakness.]


    Now that REALLY caught everyone¡¯s attention, they scooted closer. [The height of the enchantment is its weakness, it has to cover up at least fourteen feet up to the tall ceiling. If we cut off the Mana supply, it will lower slightly after a while ,and we might be able to crawl out the top. Once someone is out it will be easy to free the rest, the runes can be changed from the outside of the cage, you could just wipe them away. The question is who will do it. They will need to shut off their Mana, pulling it all inside to deny the enchantments access to the energy. The problem is that whoever does it will also turn off the Mana Sustenance perk, meaning they will go hungry. They might even starve before enough Mana has been depleted. Nor will you regenerate from your wounds.]


    Three didn¡¯t even hesitate. [I¡¯ll do it.]


    Sumi stared at him, biting her lip. [Are you sure?]


    Three nodded. [Someone has to, and I have been able to feel the Mana inside me for a while now, I just haven''t figured out how to touch it yet. I think that gives me a head start on learning how to shut it off. If I do it, we will probably be able to get out of here faster.]


    Sumi reluctantly nodded and accepted his answer.


    Three signed. [This is where I step out, the sooner I get started the better.]


    The rest waved goodbye as Three cut off the connection. It was easier than he had expected, he simply had to imagine stepping out of the room.


    He lay on the ground, aware of the closed off area around him, he closed his eyes and focused his attention inward. He spoke truly when he told them he could feel the mana, he could almost see the blue lines of energy coursing through his body, writhing around in their own chaotic patterns. Now that he payed more attention to it, he could see the enchantments absorbing small parts of his mana. He took a breath and started trying to force the energy to stop flowing out of his body. It was difficult to suppress the flow, the energy had a mind of its own and did not want to cease. Still, he kept trying to press and mould the energy into a ball. That was when he noticed the black, coiling energy near his heart.


    In a sudden burst of inspiration, Three started sending the mana into the black core. It sucked up the energy like a sponge, expanding, swirling. The mana was being sucked out of him, turning into a vortex. Soon, not only the mana inside his body, but the mana outside of it was being sucked into the core as well. He roared in pain as the energy started spreading through his body. He started spasming, clutching and clawing at the floor, then his sight went black.


    -¡ªKolstum POV¡ª¡ª


    Kolstum returned to his body, feeling satisfied with the conversation they had, hope had found its way into his heart after a long absence. He had faith in Eltoo, he would find a way to cut of his mana, survive long enough to climb out his cage and free the rest. Eltoo had always been the mentally strongest of the group, or perhaps simply the most stubborn. He smiled slightly as he remembered him trying to attack the hag every single chance he got, even though his torture worsened every time because of it. He glanced over to the side, then he backed away into the wall, his eyes glued to the scene before him. Black energy was swirling around what was supposed to be his friend Eltoo. The boy looked nothing like he used to, the normal stubborn gaze, dark eyes and even darker hair were nothing like before. His eyes were a pit, deeper and darker than anything he could have imagined, his hair was floating around his head as if underwater, but the biggest change by far was his musculature. Kolstum was the tallest and broadest of the group by far, but Eltoo had turned into something else entirely. His muscles were bulging, writhing, growing. It was... frightening.


    There was a madness in his eyes that had not been there before. Eltoo smashed his fists, which had grown to the size of a dinner plate, into the invisible wall. He could almost feel the enchantments shaking under the pressure. It didn¡¯t take long for the hags to run into the room, pointing their fingers at Eltoo. The agony they set upon him only caused his fury to blow out of proportion. He smashed his fists against the barrier repeatedly, and even the hags could feel the enchantment giving way. A few of them dropped on their knees, brows dripping with sweat as they poured energy in the enchantments to maintain them. And then he heard the hag that had been torturing them from the start scream at Eltoo. Her hair unkempt as the panic on her face made her voice crack.


    ¡°Calm down my son! This is not the WAY! Have patience! I will make you stronger, I will make you the strongest! CALM DOWN! Remember that you chose!¡± she yelled at the hulking monstrosity that used to be his friend. The words only seemed to outrage it even more as it pounded and smashed against the barrier. Visible cracks were appearing in the enchanted stone now.


    ¡°I order you to stop! YOU WILL LISTEN TO MY COMMANDS, I AM YOUR MOTHER!¡± the woman shrieked, spittle flying from her lips as she pointed at Eltoo in brows drawn in concentration, teeth clenched.


    Eltoo roared in rage, and this time the enchantments could no longer suppress his voice.The vibrations shook the very foundations of the building, he folded his hands together and took one huge overhead swing at the barrier with both hands. The barrier smashed into pieces, the hags screamed in panic as they summoned all sorts of magic to deal with the monster they had created. Some of the magic looked strong enough to level a village yet it was simply absorbed by the monstrosity cloaked in it''s terribly dark inky aura, factoring in the torture they had put all of them through had given them strong regeneration, the pain had become a lot easier to bear from the experience. As a result, he took the powerful magic head-on, disregarding it as they had been throwing pebbles.


    The shallow wounds that they had created were visibly healing. For some reason the physical attacks that summoned spears of ice or earth did manage to penetrate his skin. Eltoo¡¯s fist smashed into the the nearest hag, A barrier bursting into shards as she flew through room and straight out the door. Valana stood up, eyes glimmering in excitement as the hags were overwhelmed by their brother''s sheer power, even Kolstum himself could barely contain the excitement and the sheer joy he felt as he saw those who had harmed them being thrown around like ragdolls. Eltoo did exactly that, he smashed through barriers and other protective magics that the group had desperately summoned to slow him down, then he smashed into the group, Throwing them around. His mother and three of the other hags sprinted for the door, mumbling magic that slowed the giant and picked up their unconscious compatriots. Eltoo grabbed the nearest one by the foot and smashed him, against the wall, turning him into paste. The rest off the hags that were still conscious summoned a stone wall from the floor, blocking off the door as they sprinted through to whatever lay beyond.


    Eltoo glared around the room in blind rage looking, for anything he could tear apart. His gaze fell on who happened to be closest at the time. Sumi was the one nearest him, and she stared back, her skin rippling white, then blue , then white again. Eltoo started smashing her barrier, cracks appearing far sooner than on his own barrier. He tore the enchantments out of the floor and slung the bricks at the stone wall, shattering them, the debris exploding through the room. Then Sumi did something that Kolstum was sure he would never forget. She stepped forward. His jaw dropped as he stared at her. He had not expected the tamest out of the group to show such raw bravery/ He saw her hand trembling in fear, no matter how one looked at it, this monstrousity was not the same person they knew and loved. Then she whispered in a voice barely audible above the falling dust and debris.


    ¡°You did good.¡± she gently placed her hand on the hulking brute''s cheek. ¡°Leave the rest to us.¡±


    The hulking creature froze, then shivered. It put its hand over Sumi¡¯s it''s muscles reverting shrinking, pulling themselves back into his body., transforming the monster into the boy. Eltoo collapsed onto the floor, body back to its tall yet reassuringly human form. White shimmered through Sumi¡¯s skin as she took a deep, shaky breath and she sunk to the floor.

 Chapter 3

    When Three woke it was to a world he did not remember seeing, a vast blue opened up before his eyes, stretching further than even his enhanced eyes could see. For a moment he just lay there, marveling in this never before seen sight, then he heard a squeal, something flashed from the corner of his eyes as he felt like a hammer hit his stomach. He coughed, struggling to take a breath as he looked at the offender. Sumi sat on his stomach looking at him with sparkling eyes, she sat back a bit and signed to him while giving him a gentle smile


    [I¡¯m glad you woke up, how are you feeling?] A flicker of yellow rippling over her skin.


    [I feel great now that I can see the outside world! It means we did it right? What''s all that blue!] He asked with his jaw slack as he stared at the seemingly never ending blue expanse.


    Sumi¡¯s skin turned decidedly orange as she helped him up. [Welcome Three, to the real world!] she said spinning around gesturing at the vast area surrounding them.


    All around him were things he had never seen before, he looked below his feet at the strange green softness that was tickling them. He experimentally lifted his feet up and down and marveled at how the small green things bent below his feet yet refused to break the sensation of the thin green stalks underneath his feet was something he couldn''t even begin to describe. He dug his toes in, feeling the dirt beneath it. He grinned and looked around, gazing at the tall sturdy looking things in the distance, with a skin of brown and covered by even more green, then he looked back up into the sky marveling at the sheer vastness of it, then he saw something white and fluffy floating overhead he stared as it slowly floated by. Then further in the distance he saw gray things sticking up towards the sky making even the fluffy things flow around them.


    Then he gazed at his friends who were all staring at him with a grin.


    He blushed [What?]


    Yinta grinned at him and threw her arm around his shoulder, he marveled at the somewhat rough sensation of her skin. It resembled the sturdy looking brown things in the distance, trees. [Welcome dear brother, to freedom!]


    Valana stood up grinning, her chest expanding as she sucked in all the air she could, then howled at the sky. The rest grinned and joined her with their own howls, Three howled at the sky listening for the first time to anything beyond the crackle of magic, or his own skin grating against rock. Then Klostum tackled him to the ground and they started wrestling, enjoying the physical contest, and the fact that they could actually touch each other now. Soon enough the rest piled on as well and it was a free for all wrestling match. After a while they started breathing heavily and collapsed onto the grass. A grin so wide it was hurting his cheeks spread over Three¡¯s face. They just lay there for a while nearly piled on each other staring at the sky. Then Jer stood up and looked at them.


    [We still have to figure out what we are going to do next]


    Fli¨ªt leaped up performing some acrobatics. [Don¡¯t be such a spoil sport Jer!, we go wherever! We do whatever! Lets just walk and see what happens!]


    [I would prefer having an actual plan so we can..] Jer stated


    Strem put his arm around Jer¡¯s shoulder, [stop worrying you old fuzzy bucket, for now lets just walk in the opposite direction as that blasted mansion and see where we end up, its not like we know were we are going anyhow!]


    The rest nodded, Klostum gave Jer a pat on the back almost leveling the poor boy, [Forward we go for there is nowhere else!]


    Jer sighed in exasperation but followed them regarddless as they headed towards the gray things in the distance.


    [So what happened after I turned off my mana? My memory is blank from that point onward, I just felt... agitated] Three asked.


    The others glanced around. Valana scratched at her chin. [Well you changed, then you splattered hags all over the wall, by the way the main hag was your mother.]


    Yinta smacked Valana on the back of the head. [Show some delicacy you mut!]


    Valana growled, [Who are you calling mut!]


    The two got into a fast signing contest as they argued, interrupted by a question from Three. [What is a mother?]


    Everyone froze as he asked the question, they all scratched their chin or head. [Doesn¡¯t really matter] Klostum answered as he patted his back. [Because of you we managed to escape and you even squashed some of the hags, now we walk.]


    Three shrugged then nodded, and turned his gaze over to the large gray in the distance. He wondered what they would find there, with a jerk of his head Three remembered something.


    [Do you guys know how to make sound and sign?]


    [You mean this?] Strem asked, he made a squeaking sound, The ethereal boy almost flinched at the sound then massaged his throat, after a few tries he finally got a proper word out.


    ¡°You mean like this?¡±


    Three nodded, [I don¡¯t know what you said but yes that]


    The others froze for a second and stared at him, then Sumi gingerly asked [Do you not remember how to talk?]


    Three answered with a scratch of the chin, [I don¡¯t remember anything other than the cages and you guys.]


    The rest shared some glances then Sumi grinned, [That gives me something to teach you! Keeps me busy!]


    They did exactly that while walking, the group started teaching him the words that were connected to the signs and images in his head. It took some time before he understood HOW to make the proper sounds. The words where there in his mind, somehow just beyond casual reach, with a bit of effort he could bring them to the tip of his tongue. It would still take him a good amount of time to become fluent but they had more than enough time now and the rest enjoyed teaching him how to talk, they enjoyed being free even more. Relishing the movement, the feeling of exertion, the stretching muscles.


    Jer suddenly changed the subject [Did you guys check your perk list, we probably weren¡¯t conscious enough to keep up with the announcements it¡¯s probably been years seeing how we have grown, so who knows what happened to our skills and perks]


    Three gave Jer a blank look, he vaguely remembered something about receiving skills and a perk but he couldn¡¯t really remember what they did.


    Jer saw his confusion [Just think about yourself and the things you can do it will give you a list of skills and perks, normally children at the age of ten get summoned to the nearest adventurer¡¯s post, mage¡¯s guild or warrior¡¯s school. That opens up the status menu, including all kind of information about yourself, they also use it as an identifier and the government uses it to keep count of the amount of citizens.]


    Three nodded that he understood and Jer continued his explanation of how the system worked. [Skill¡¯s are something that grows with you, for example someone who hits people with his fist might get the skill bare fist fighting, if he gets better at it the skill will level with him up to a maximum of a hundred, every twenty-five levels the skill alters a bit, gaining a bonus. If you actually manage to reach the maximum level, the skill evolves into a new skill. Once you gain your status you also gain a base level, starting at level one. At level ten,twenty-five,fifty seventy-five and a hundred you get the choice to evolve a skill of your own, lesser mana manipulation can be involved into greater mana manipulation for example. The skill levels you have aren¡¯t reset if you evolve this way, they are divided by half instead.]


    Three was having trouble remembering all of it but he thought that he understood what Jer was talking about. He though Status to himself and watched his own list open.


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    He blinked at the notifications and told the others what he saw, Strem reacted [Yea all of us have the same four skills, although your regeneration is the highest, our Pain-tolerance is higher than yours, probably because the hag preferred to physically torture you instead using the pain spell]


    Fli¨ªt followed up [We have the same perks aswell, including the Inheritant-Core, I don¡¯t know what it actually is but its probably the thing they pushed inside our body that changed us, ours are of unknown origin just like yours.]


    Yinta added some more information [You can also focus on one of the perks and it will give you more information, you should do that to all of them to see what they do]


    Three nodded and focused on the first Skill


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}


    {This Skill speeds up the regeneration of your body.


    {Level-25 Acquired : Disease Immunity added


    {Level-50 Acquired : In-combat Regeneration added


    {Level-75 Acquired : Smaller extremities can be regenerated}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {This skill decreases the amount of pain you feel from wounds


    {Level-25 Acquired : Localized Pain Removal}


    {Level-50 Acquired : Pain-Transferal : Self}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}


    {Increases toughness of bones,organs, and muscle tissue


    {Level-25 Acquired : Dense Skeleton


    {Level-50 Acquired : Internal Shock Absorption}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}


    {Toughens the skin, the higher the level the tougher the material.


    {Level-25 Acquired : Leather Skin


    {Level-50 Acquired : Wooden Skin


    {Level-75 Acquired : Bronze Skin}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {This perk absorbs a portion of the users mana to replace food sustenance


    when other sustenance is not available}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Your body has seen more abuse than most, for surviving


    thus far you receive a 50% bonus to total health pointsl}


    {Inheritant-core : ????}


    {Information unavailable}


    It took Three a while to read everything, strange enough even though he did not understand some words or what things did the meaning of it came to him regardless. Pain-transferal : self for instance meant that he could take the pain someone else felt onto himself for as long as he touched said person. The list gave him a lot to think about as the group slowly headed further towards the tall gray, meanwhile discussing with each other about skills and perks.


    They had traveled a week orso before coming across a road. Then another two days of travel in the direction furthest away from the hags mansion. Finally after crossing the umpteenth hill Three saw something he had never seen before, a scattering of buildings surrounded by a wall, In truth it wasn¡¯t a large village but neither was it a small one, it was large enough to house about three hundred families and the wall was about sixteen feet tall. He could even make out some men standing on ramparts near the gate.


    Strem looked down on the village ¡°Well lookie here, we finally found some civilization, and we got lucky they even have an adventurers guild!¡±


    They had been traveling for a little over a week now, the first night beneath the naked heavens had been something magical to Three, those glittering beads of hope and dreams called stars shining down upon him. He felt showered in the favor of some older greater beings than himself, they had lain on their backs in a circle heads together watching the stars speaking of dreams, and the vast stretch of sky that belonged to the gods. The week and a half had been productive for Three at any given time when they were traveling there had always been someone at his side teaching him words and the meaning behind them, slowly but surely he had gained some mastery in it although he was still not at the level were he could speak properly he could at least somewhat understand what people were talking about.


    One of the funnier things to happen in the past week was a moment when Kolstum had referred to Three as Eltoo, causing everyone to look at him in confusion, who is Eltoo they had asked. Kolstum had looked at them in surprise and made the symbol with his hand, then pointed to Three. ¡°He is Eltoo, he did not know his name so I named him after one of the bravest warriors in the history of my family.¡±


    Three stared at him with an arched brow, [I thought you meant the number three?]


    Kolstum stared at him in apprehension, ¡°Why would I name you after a number?!¡±]


    Then Strem interrupted, ¡°You know what Eltoo sounds like? A pigeon! A Royal one at that!Eltoooo Eltoooo.¡± He said imitating a birds wings with his arm, ¡°Eltooo Eltooooo¡±


    ¡°My ancestor is NOT A ROYAL PIGEON!¡± Kolstum''s face heating up, blood rushing to his face.


    Fli¨ªt chuckled, ¡°Guess he must have been a royal cock then, Eltoodilidoooooooo!¡± She screamed at the air imitating a cocks cry.


    The rest collapsed in laughter as they saw the face that Kolstum made to that, he struggled to speak as Fli¨ªt ran circles around him shouting Eltoodilidoooooo!


    In the end Three decided to keep the name Three and not become a royal cock, amusing as that would be. He smiled at the memory as they got closer to the gate, armed guards came out on top of the gate bows drawn as they warily eyed the group that approached the village, in all honestly he couldn¡¯t blame them, most them didn¡¯t resemble humans anymore. Jer stepped forward to do the talking with his hands up, ¡°Could you let us in we wanted to head to the Adventurer¡¯s guild.¡±


    One of the Guards leaned over the gate and took a good look at Jer then swept his gaze over the rest of the group. ¡°Some of you don¡¯t look human nor do any of you resemble a civilized race I have heard of, who says that if I let you in you won¡¯t go around harming people. We see some weird monsters and the like out here. You could be one of em'' shape shifters tryna be human!¡±


    Jer spread his arms in an attempt to appear non threatening, ¡°We simply want to get our statuses recorded and want some information about the area, we have been traveling for a while now yet we have no idea where we are, as for the changes you see on our body are the effects of a perk, I¡¯m sorry but its not something we can prove without a status plate, and that is why we need entry!.¡±


    The guard scratched his head sweeping his gaze from one to the next he glanced down as someone talked to him. He frowned but turned back towards them. ¡°Would you guys agree to an armed escort to the adventurers guild until we get your status checked?¡±


    Jer smiled at the guard, ¡°That would be fine, thank you.¡±


    The gate opened and twelve guards stood at the entrance waving them inside, the formed a circle around the group as they headed deeper into the town. The guards kept some distance from the group to be able to utilize their weapons in time in case we tried anything. The villagers stopped and stared at the odd procession as we made our way further across the rode, kids were pointing at us and mothers walked their children further away from us, it was a hurtful sight to see for all of us. It seemed to affect the girls the most, even the usually jovial Fli¨ªt had a small frown on her face and was looking down at the dirt. Kolstum drew the most stares, even now he was easily half again the size of the largest guard.


    After a few minutes of walking, we finally reached the Adventurers post, it was a mainly wooden building with a solid stone foundation, three stories tall and identifiable by a sign of a staff, a bow, a dagger and a sword. They entered the building stepping into what Three assumed was the reception area Kolstum had to really bend down to fit through the doorway, inside it was mostly a larger open space with three desks on the left side of the room with signs that he couldn¡¯t read, and another three desks on the other side of the room with even more signs he couldn¡¯t read. Of course the fact that he couldn''t read at all played a large roll here.


    One of the guards stepped forward and walked over to a receptionist having a brief conversation with her before returning to us, ¡°Which one of you wants to go first, if your story checks out we will go back to our posts afterward.¡±


    Jer stepped forward taking the lead as usual. ¡°I will.¡± He glanced back to us giving us a nod and stepped forward.


    -Maia the receptionist POV-


    Maia was having another simple yet boring day at work as usual, the drone of everyday work was numbing her mind. She had been appointed to this post far out in the boondocks so nothing interesting really happened, or so she thought when a large procession suddenly entered the office, a group of guards was surrounding something and she saw what seemed to be a huge teenage boy sticking far above the guards she stared at him in awe for a moment before one of the guards approached her. She recognized the guard, it happened to be guard captain Tulo, he came around often enough, one of her regulars was his daughter, when the captain spoke she was snapped out of her thoughts.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ¡°Maia, these people claim to have a perk that has granted them these... peculiar appearances, they wanted to have their status cards issued and to be safe we accompanied them to take a look so we could confirm their story, would you mind helping us out?¡±


    ¡°Sure, of course, no problem! It¡¯s my job after all.¡± She hurriedly answered.


    Captain Tulo nodded and headed back to the group, she saw him ask them something and one of the group answered. The captain walked back to the desk with a young man in tow, and the poor boy was absolutely drenched, she wondered if he had fallen into the well or something, maybe in the nearby river? She should get him a towel she realized and she ran back into the store and came back. The captain and the boy both staring at her, the boy even looked a bit hurt.


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, and you''re so wet! I didn¡¯t have a towel on hand so I went to grab you one. Sorry it took so long!¡±


    The young man stared at her for a moment before he burst out laughing, ¡°It¡¯s quite alright, thank you for your kindness, but I am afraid a towel won''t solve my... problem, I¡¯m not actually wet because of any outlying circumstances this drenched look is permanent I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    She looked at him tilting her head sideways confused, the boy wasn¡¯t that tall although neither was he short perhaps 5,10 , short blackish hair plastered to his skull simple linen cloth shirt sticking to his body that was, ¡°oh my,¡± she thought, ¡°he is quite... toned.¡± Snapping back to attention she looked into the young man¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Oh.¡± She dumbly mumbled, before recovering. ¡°Right well this is the status plate!¡± She said pushing a small metal tag towards him, ¡°I just need you to put a drop of your blood on it, then I bring it to the press and boom, done! The captain also told me about the circumstances, normally the plates are private but we would need to check the plates of you and your friends if that is alright with you?¡±


    Jer nodded, ¡°That is perfectly fine.¡±


    She handed him the tag and a needle, he pricked his finger and let a drop of blood well up and drop onto the tag. She took the tag from him brought it to the press, put the tag in pulled the lever, the usual crackling of whatever magical energy the device ran on and she pulled it out and headed back to the desk and put down the tag. She looked over the tag together with the young man and the captain


    Name : Jer Summalfren


    Age : 17


    Lvl : 1


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 64}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 84}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 66}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 69}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    She stared at the tag, eyes wide. The captain looked just as troubled as her. She couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What happened to you? How did you get these skills and perks?!¡±


    Jer looked at her pinching his nose, brows drawn down over his grey eyes ¡°Lets just say that we did not get these skills, perks or bodies of our own volition, its a story we would currently prefer to keep to ourselves.¡±


    The captain looked at tag flexing and unflexing his hand, ¡°Do your compatriots have similar skills and perks?¡±


    Jer glanced at the stern man, ¡°Yes sir.¡±


    ¡°Then I am afraid I cannot just let this go, the things that would have to be done to you and your friends for this to happen is not something I can turn away from! By our laws and my very sense of justice something has to be done! My kingdom sure as hell wouldn¡¯t stand for whoever did this to get away unchallenged!¡± The man said clenching his jaw.


    ¡°I understand the need for you to do your job sir, but we ourselves do not know the group or their names, we could only tell you a single persons features. I speculate their power to be well beyond average, we do not know where they come from or which group they belong to, they might be royally sponsored for all we know, making ourselves widely known this early would leave us defenseless should they come looking.¡± Jer answered.


    ¡°The guard would protect you!¡± The captain answered with a voice full of resolution.


    Jer clenched his jaw staring down the captain. ¡°This is our own problem, we will have our own justice. You have no proof to act upon nor will I give you any. This is our war to fight captain and I intend to fight it well.¡± He softened his features, ¡°Regardless the information we have would do you no good if they are even remotely as dangerous as I expect them to be you will find nothing based upon what has already happened.¡±


    The captain begrudgingly nodded his head, and made his way back to the group, he barked an order to his guards and they headed back out the door. The man was clearly frustrated but Jer knew he had no ground to stand on. Maia was still sitting there trying to process what she had just heard and seen, before she could worry about it more her thoughts were once more interrupted. ¡°Madam, is it alright if my friends get their tags as well?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± She asked blinking, ¡°Uh, yes of course!¡±


    The first to step up after Jer was another young man named Strem, now he was strange to look at. His very skin was translucent, and his eyes glowed, she was pretty sure they glowed! And his HAIR! It floated, like he was underwater, and it was WHITE, like not the old people silver, but an actual white, like Ivory Ore once it was melted white. He was about as tall as Jer had been but a good deal thinner, she tried to do her job like a proper professional yet couldn¡¯t but stare. A glance at his tag told her that this poor boy had gone through a similar experience as Jer. Once she handed him his tag the boy added with a wink, ¡°Thanks for the effort, OH blooming rose, if all guilds have such lovely ladies as you working at the reception then I shall have to visit more often!¡±


    Maia was to stunned by his words to even react as he walked away, the next one to step forward was a girl that was just as strange as her predecessor. She had bark for skin, making her skin a darkish green, it looked as if it was bark covered in a thin layer of fresh moss, her hair was like grass, but not at all green, it was pale, almost silvery but without that silver shine to it, very strange, she wore her hair in a loose braid and there were flowers pinned in her hair making her look a bit like how she imagined a dryad to look like. The girl really had a noble presence to her, carrying herself with natural grace. She gave her the tag, and saw that her name was Yinta. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that flirtatious fool, he really has no sense of etiquette.¡±


    ¡°That''s fine!¡± Maia quickly answered. ¡°I¡¯m used to it!¡± She flinched mentally almost as soon as she said it, she felt like she was bragging, but the girl just took it at face value and nodded.


    The next girl to step forward was hairy, hairy might not be the right word as this did not seem to be the same stiff hair she had seen on some particularly hair adventurers, she had the weird urge to run her hand over her head, the girls hair was matted and untended giving her a wild appearance. Her eyes glittered a near golden amber color She wasn¡¯t much for conversation it seemed, as she simply took the needle dropped a bit of blood on the tag, waited for her to return it then walked away.


    ¡°Sorry about Valana,¡± A deep voice said ¡°She is not a sociable person, only with us she feels somewhat at ease I guess.¡±


    She looked at the person the voice had come from, she expected to stare into his face when she turned instead she ended up looking at his stomach, she leaned back to look at him, then leaned back some more aaaand a bit more, before she finally saw his face, this boy had to be at least ten feet! He was tall, seemed armored plated, but at closer inspection it seemed that was his skin. She looked back at the boys face only to find that it was surprisingly, child like. His face still had some of that baby fat that rounded it out, he was surprisingly cute despite his size. She gave him his tag after telling him it was alright, she was polite compared to some of the people she had to work with.


    The next one to step up was a cute looking girl with blond hair, she had a loose pony tail, with her bangs falling down at both sides of her face, She near bounced up to the desk. ¡°Hi!¡± She said, eyes glittering as she gave Maia a dazzling smile,


    ¡°Uuuh hi?¡± Maia said, slightly overwhelmed by the girl''s energy.


    A ripple of orange ran over the girl''s skin, Maia had to blink to make sure she wasn¡¯t hallucinating. ¡°So now I have to do the blood prick thing right? I wonder if it hurts, I bet it hurts, probably doesn¡¯t hurt so much as a knife though! A knife really hurts, but spells hurt more, so its fine!¡± The girl kept babbling about this and that, as Maia got her tag made and gave it to her, the girl''s name was Sumi apparently. She bounced off back to her group, talking animatedly with the others.


    The next one to step up was a tribal looking girl, with one side of her hair shaved and the rest falling loosely over one shoulder, her skin was slightly dark as one might become if they worked their lives in the blistering sun, her eyes shone with a fiery red. The girl did not say much and simply smiled politely as she took her plate and headed back to the group. When she walked away Maia gaped in awe as she saw sparks and flashes of fire travel through her hair and across her body.


    The last boy to step forward had middle long hair, blacker than anything she had ever seen. His skin was as white as Strem¡¯s hair, his eyes unnerved her to be hones, no eye white, no pupil no nothing, just black. The boy stepped in front of her and just stared. She handed him the needle and the tag, the boy just stared at them and then back at her. ¡°You need to drop some of your blood onto the tag.¡± The boy kept staring from the tag and needle back to her then back to the needle, he turned around to his friends but Jer was already on his way. ¡°Sorry madam, he doesn¡¯t know how to speak properly yet, he understands some of what you say but doesn¡¯t know what to do with it yet.¡± Jer made some strange movements with his hands toward the boy, causing the boys eyebrows to raise. He dropped some blood onto the tag, and she took it to the press, and thus the last plate for their irregular band of misfits had been made.


    Three looked down at the status plate he had been given, then back to the confused receptionist. She was telling him something about the status plate, but he couldn¡¯t understand so he looked over to Jer. Jer explained to him that there were some things she didn¡¯t understand about the status plate, Three couldn¡¯t read what it said anyways so he let Jer take a look.


    Name : ???


    Age : ???


    Lvl : 1


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    Jer took a look at the status plate and frowned, ¡°Well his age is the same as the rest of us, as for his actual name neither us nor he himself knows what it is, we have taken to calling him Three and he refers to himself as such.¡± Jer signed what he was telling the receptionist at the same time to Three so he could understand what they were talking about.


    Maia nodded taking out a strange device like a needle but larger, She pressed the point of the needle to the status plate and Three watched with interest as the needle-shaped the metal on the plate, Jer explained that she was adding his name and age. Three nodded and smiled slightly as she gave him the status plate, now including his name and age. He ran his thumb over the plate, a content smile on her face. She then spoke to Jer about some other things, Three couldn¡¯t understand them anyways so he headed back to the group. It took a while for Jer to return, he had a thoughtful look on his face.


    [I think we should split up] he signed.


    The rest stared at him frowning, a lot of people disagreeing at the thought that they should separate, they felt safe and comfortable as a group and saw no reason to change that.


    [Let me explain,] he said stroking an imaginary beard [the hags know of us as a group, and the eight of us really stand out, we stand out even more when we are together as a group. We need to gain some strength in order to properly defend ourselves should they come back. We need to make connections, allies and hopefully even friends, most importantly we need information, if we spread out in different directions away from the hag lair, it would be harder for them to track us.]


    [I don¡¯t really want to split up but I get what you¡¯re sayin] Fli¨ªt answered, [Well at least tell us how you plan to split up, in 2 groups, 3? 4? Each on their own?]


    Jer shook his head, [I plan to split us up in pairs, I¡¯d like to avoid putting girls together, we might be very hard to kill but we have no offensive capabilities or strength what so ever, besides our natural abilities. The girls are pretty, and a lot of people would consider making coin from it, some might prefer to have, fun¡­ , so I¡¯d propose one of the girls be paired with one of the guys.]


    Three, pulled on his earlobe, [I still don¡¯t want to split up, I barely understand anything, I can¡¯t read or write,]


    Jer nodded, [Actually I had already thought out the pairs, Three and Sumi would stay here in the village, learning from the nearby Adventurers post, I heard they have a competent mage here, there is also a small chapter of the warriors college, giving you guys the opportunity to learn. The other pairs would leave the village, Kolstum and Fli¨ªt would head to the east, Yinta and Strem to the west, Me and Valana to the south.]


    Strem stretched his back, folding his hands behind his head. [I don¡¯t mind setting out in pairs that much but I still don¡¯t understand why you think it¡¯s necessary.]


    [I assume all of us want to go out exploring,] Jer answered [The best way to do that would be to join an adventurers team, these teams consist of five members, meaning as a group we are too large for one team, if we did make a team composing of only our members, I fear we would become infamous within a short amount of time.. If we join teams in pairs we will learn different things from different people, the goal is to make the people in our respective teams our allies, if we grow together with our team we will grow stronger, not just us but our potential allies as well, meaning the hags won¡¯t have to go after just us eight but twenty trained adventurers in total. Perhaps most importantly, it''s just a feeling i have. I have had the feeling for a while and tried to think about it logically myself. I give you the same answers i found for myself. It''s necesarry, although i couldn''t tell you why]


    [Alright,] Yinta said folding her hands, [You have convinced me, there are probably multiple other reasons you have for doing this that you won¡¯t tell us, but we shall rely on your intelligence as we always have]


    The rest of the group grinned and nodded.


    [We should at least meet each other every so often! Perhaps in this village every month?] Sumi quickly added.


    Kolstum shook his head, [Every month does not seem feasible, every six months might be do-able however. We could always meet in the whiteroom whenever we want so even that might not be necessary, meeting up once a week or month to check on progress in the white room might be a good idea however.]


    The rest agreed, now they realized that even if they did split up and moved different ways that they would not be as far apart as they had thought at first, the whiteroom was indeed always available to them. Because of this they split up without any further ado as they each headed in a different direction, Sumi stood next to Three as she waved them goodbye, Three turned back to the Adventurers Post, Before he completed the turn Sumi hopped on his back and put her head on his shoulder. Sumi barely weighed anything, with her new cloth body he doubted she weighed more than thirty pounds, That and he himself was rather tall, 6,6 the only reason he didn¡¯t stand out so much was because Kolstum had been large on an entirely different scale.


    ¡°So, what are we going to do?¡± Sumi asked


    [Join team] Three answered. Sumi giggled at his response, ¡°Well you¡¯re right, then let''s go back to the receptionist lady and ask her how we do that.


    Three nodded, returning to the building with Sumi on his back, he walked up to the receptionist, letting Sumi do the talking.


    ¡ª¡ªMaia POV¡ª¡ª


    Maia was still reeling from today''s events, her stomach in turmoil because of the information on those status plates. She realized that each of those kids had to have been excessively tortured to get skills like that, she had never even HEARD, of anyone with a regeneration skill above fifty. Those kids had a strong defensive set, she pictured them as adventurers and realized they would be very hard to kill, even if their offensive skills were severely lacking at the moment, she assumed that even a rank D team, could overpower the group simply by the advantage in levels and stats. Thinking about stats she realized another odd occurrence, they were all still level one, their stats had not even been unlocked yet, they had to level up at least once first. She wondered what kind of stats they had.


    She blinked as the tall dark-haired yet so very pale young man came in through the door, she had somewhat noticed that the group of them was splitting up, yet she had not assumed they would be back so soon. She straightened up ready to do her job when her mental state was once again knocked off balance, by the cute dazzling smile of Sumi who was peering over the dark boy¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°Maiaaa,¡± Sumi said in singsong, ¡°We need to join a team, preferably a nice team, with fun members, positive energy! We don¡¯t know how, or what to do, or how, so we came to ask!¡±


    Maia gave her a smile, ¡°Well since the two of you haven¡¯t reached level five yet you would have to go to the warrior''s college first, normally you would have to choose between either the warrior¡¯s college, the hidden camps, or the mage¡¯s guild. But this village is on the smaller side so the mage appointed to this outpost moved in with the warrior¡¯s college if either of you want to go to the hidden camps you would still have to contact the warrior¡¯s college.¡±


    ¡°So how do we get to the warrior¡¯s college?¡± Sumi asked.


    ¡°Just head out the door to the right and keep walking down the road, you will recognize the college when you see it.¡± Maia told them, before she had even completely finished her sentence Sumi was pulling Three towards the door, the slightly intimidating young man surprisingly turned around before he left and waved her goodbye. She blinked before quickly waving a goodbye of her own.


    Guess you shouldn¡¯t judge a book by its cover, the boy is surprisingly polite. Well I¡¯m interested in what they will get up to I¡¯ll make sure to keep tabs on them! Maia said sinking back into thought.


    ¡ª¡ª Three POV ¡ª¡ª


    Sumi was holding his hand and dragging him down the road, the glances he got from the villagers was still somewhat unnerving, but they were no longer hiding their kids so he would count that as a win. The village was indeed not that large, compared to the stories he had heard from the others about cities larger than the eye could see. He had never seen this many people out and about before today, he hadn¡¯t seen any other people other than his friends and the hags actually.


    A few minutes of walking down the dirt trodden road through the rustic, yet well crafted wooden buildings and they ended up at a much larger building, with a lot of open space around it. He was pretty sure this was the warrior¡¯s college he had been told about. Sumi kept dragging him straight to the wooden door, he had wanted to knock as it was the polite thing to do, but Sumi seemed to have other ideas, being patient not one of them. She pushed open the door and marched in. Three followed behind her only to enter a room, with a bunch of other younger people. Children ranging from ten years old to teenagers past their twenties were sitting paying attention to a short, squat man with short black hair and sharp dark eyes.


    Sumi ,having no tact what so ever walked up to the group staring at her and announced. ¡°We are here to join a team of adventurers! Who wants to team up with me and dark and brooding?! How do we team up, actually what does a team do, what does an adventurer even do.¡± She stared back at Three, ¡°Why are we doing this again.¡±


    Three massaged his temples then signed at her, [allies and information].


    ¡°Ooooowh right!¡± She said clapping her hands in realization, ¡°So how do we do that?¡±


    The man with sharp eyes looked at her, ¡°A good start would be introducing yourselves. I, for one, am Cilestius, the head of this college.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you I¡¯m Sumi!¡± Sumi said giving the man a wave, ¡°And this overly-large-and-scary-but-secretely-very-nice-guy here is Three, he doesn¡¯t know how to talk very well yet, but I¡¯m teaching him!¡±


    ¡°Yes you do seem to be well versed in the art of speaking.¡± The man said, gaining chuckles from around the room. Sumi didn¡¯t even notice the jab at her expense and simply took it as a compliment nodding enthusiastically. ¡°Regardless, if you would join the rest, we are having a short meeting before we return to our duties.¡± Three not understanding the words but understanding the man¡¯s body language, nodded.


    ¡°OK!¡± Came the energetic answer from Sumi.


    Sumi headed and sat next to a somewhat older seeming girl with a dark, braid drawn over one shoulder. She gave the girl a dazzling smile and introduced herself. The other girl answered with a kurt nod and a nice to meet you. Three walked over and silently sat down next to Sumi, keeping his eyes on Cilestius. The meeting what little he could understand from the words, was about the results of last week and what the groups should focus on next week. The meeting went by rapidly with Sumi being surprisingly quite and paying close attention to the man¡¯s words. When it finally ended Cilestius called them over with a gesture, he also called over three others. They followed him further down the hall between various training areas, ending in what Three assumed was the man¡¯s office.


    Cilestius sat down at the desk and faced the group, ¡°Status plates,¡± He said holding his hand out towards Sumi and himself. They handed the plates over and the man glanced at them, eyes widening slightly then narrowing as he read through their status.


    Then the man smiled, ¡°You have come at the right time!¡±

 Chapter 4

    ¡°There is a low level dungeon nearby, we send the virgin adventurer groups there for training. These three-¡± He gestured towards the three who stood with them, one was female the other two were male. ¡°Have been part of my class for a few years but they have yet to complete their team, I would like you to join their team, you haven¡¯t reached level two yet, so your stats are not yet available but with your skills and perks the dungeon should be of no danger for you.¡± Cilestius told them.


    Three having no idea what the man had said tapped Sumi on the shoulder for a translation, when she started signing to him she drew weird looks from the others but Three was too focused on Sumi''s translation to notice.


    [It would not be smart to join these people.] Three signed.


    Sumi blinked asking aloud, ¡°Why not?¡±


    [The sharp-eyed man pointed out that these guys have been following his classes for a few years, yet they do not have a team. There were plenty of others at that meeting around their age, that they do not have a team yet, indicates they are weak or have other deficiencies, our goal was to find strong allies was it not?] Three signed, staring her in the eyes.


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t matter that much should it?¡± She retorted.


    Three sighed, [At least use signs, and yes it matters. We should not join.]


    It was hard not to notice the two were having an argument of sorts, Cilestius swiveled his gaze between the two. ¡°Is there a problem?¡±


    ¡°Three does not want to join the team.¡± Sumi replied,


    Three narrowed his eyes at her response, but switched his gaze to Cilestius and gave him a kurt nod.


    Cilestius looked at the two¡°Why do you not want to join?¡±


    Three folded his arms, frowned but answered, ¡°Weak¡±.


    Cilestius blinked, ¡°You don¡¯t think you''re strong enough for a dungeon?¡±


    Three shook his head, pointing in the direction of the three people they didn¡¯t know. ¡°Weak.¡±


    The three of them started shaking, the girl with the dark ponytail stepping forward with trembling fists, ¡°I am NOT weak!¡±


    Three signed at Sumi, [They are the leftovers, either weak, clumsy, or terrible teamwork. Tell them.]


    Sumi glared at him, ¡°I don¡¯t want to.¡±


    [Tell them!] Three signed.


    ¡°Just tell me what he¡¯s saying!¡± The dark haired girl told Sumi.


    Three nodded in agreement, Sumi grumbled under her breath. ¡°He says, since none of the other people picked you guys for their teams, you guys are either weak, clumsy or have terrible teamwork. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t be left over.¡±


    The girl trembled but glared at Three with tears in her eyes, ¡°I am not weak¡­¡± She mumbled, then she regained some of the fire in her eyes. ¡°Follow me and I''ll show you!¡± She stomped out the door heading to one of the nearby training halls.


    [Why did you hurt her feelings like that! Why are you being so mean!] Sumi asked glaring at him.


    [I do not want to hurt her feelings, but our task is more important, Jer has trusted us with finding strong, capable, and loyal allies, he has a plan, he always does. I¡¯m trusting him and I will do what I believe to be necessary to complete the task he has given me even if I have to say some things I would prefer not to.] Three told her before following the dark-haired girl. Sumi stood their with a puffed up chest watching his broad departing back before deflating.


    ¡°So that is why he is being like that, now it makes sense. He¡¯s usually such a softie but he takes tasks and promises very seriously, this is so like him, the idiot still has no tact what-so-ever.¡± she muttered to herself, sighing she followed hoping to be able to repair the damage that would undoubtedly be done.


    They ended up in the training hall, following the two out of either sheer curiosity or necessity. The two young men whose name they still didn''t know, were friends of the dark-haired girl. Telling Emmi, supposedly the girls name, to send three crying into the arms of his mother.


    The word mother had an effect on Three, He glared at the other two, his muscles rippling, his already large size seeming to increase a notch as he stepped forward dark murder in his eye. Sumi quickly jumped in front of the two [They don¡¯t know her!] she quickly told him, [Mother is someone else to each person, they don¡¯t know the hag, calm down!] She signed in near panic before she placed her hands on his chest and tried to push him back. He noticed what she had signed took a deep breath and let the tension flow, his muscles deflating as he returned to his normal size, his actions had an effect however, the two boys had backed up as far as they could until their backs were against the wall, Cilestius had his hand on his sword and was standing protectively in front of his students looking ready for a fight.


    Three snorted and walked up to the dark haired girl, she looked afraid yet still had a determined glint in her eye. Three grunted, he atleast respected her determination. She grabbed a wooden greatsword of the rack and headed to one of the dummies, she took a stance holding the sword low and to the side, then in a burst of motion, she swung towards the dummy roaring ¡°Slice!¡± Her sword had a slightly red glow as she hit the dummy and left a sizable dent in the iron thing. The two boys clapped in excitement, even Cilestius had a pleased smile on his face.


    Three just frowned and shook his head, he walked over to the rack and grabbed a very real knife, then he stalked towards the black haired girl, who was still smiling proudly about her achievement until she saw him walking up to her with a knife in hand, her eyes went wide and she backed away, holding a now trembling great sword between them, she stumbled over her own feet landing on her backside. Three stood over her without even having really done anything. He pointed at her dealing a blow to her confidence, ¡°Weak,¡± He said, the girl got tears in her eyes gripping the hilt of her sword with white knuckles. ¡°You fear, stop think, make wrong, will die.¡± He told her as best he could with his small understanding of the language. Then he smashed the knife blade through his own hand, blood splashing over her face as she stared up at him with wide eyes. Three then pointed to himself, ¡°No fear, no weak¡±


    Cilestius stepped forward this time and helped his student up, giving her a pat on the back. ¡°It was a good swing Emmi, you have improved a lot since I last I saw, I bet you were constantly practicing even when I wasn¡¯t watching.¡± The girl sniffled, hair hanging over her face as she stared at the floor, she nodded slightly. ¡°As for you big man, First of all you should get that checked out and there is no need to go to these extremes to prove a point." He sighed as he made an effort to calm his trembling student. "Though I understand what you mean, you think my students are weak because they will freeze up and make mistakes when you are in an actual battle, which may cause harm to either you or your friend in the future, should you team-up with them, correct?¡± Sumi was quickly translating as usual.


    Three looked at him and nodded, meanwhile the other two boys had stepped next to Emmi and were glaring at him.


    ¡°They lack experience, it is indeed possible they will freeze up, which is exactly why I want you to join them, you have killed before right?¡± Cilestius asked.


    Three grunted his consent.


    ¡°Monsters?¡± Cilestius carefully inquired.


    Three hesitated a moment then shook his head.


    ¡°People?¡± The question seemed to hang in the air, Sumi saw Emmi and the two others freeze as they stared at Three waiting for his answer.


    Three remained silent for a moment then nodded. Sumi saw Emmi and the boys back away from him quickly, she glared at them angrily, ¡°He had no choice!¡± She yelled at them, ¡°He did it to save us! You have no idea what he has done for me!¡±


    ¡°He murdered people!¡± Emmi screeched, ¡°How is that okay!¡±


    "You don''t what kind of people they were!" Sumi screeched, her hands balled into fists. Fingernails piercing her skin at the memory.


    "They were still people, PEOPLE!" Emmi countered, pointing an accusing finger towards Three.


    ¡°He did it for us! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE HIM!¡± Her voice cracked as she screamed at the girl, tears falling from her eyes onto the ground, her voice switching to a barely understandable screech. ¡°YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT¡¯S BEEN DONE TO US!¡±


    Sumi started trembling, various colors rippling across her skin, she saw it, froze for a brief moment, then started tearing at her arm, prying loose her arm string by string, sobbing, screeching incoherently. Desperately trying to tear apart the body that was hers , yet not hers. Three quickly stepped forward and wrapped her tight enough in a hug that she could no longer move. Soft sobs and a whispered sentence was barely audible from the small girl, ¡°I just want to be normal again¡­ why can¡¯t we just¡­¡± The rest of her words were drowned out by soft sniffling as Three held her to him, using one of his large hands to softly pet her messed up hair.


    Emmi and the others stood their frozen, unsure what to do. They seemed horrified by what they had seen, but what they had heard had enough of an effect to shut them up. Cilestius walked up to them and carefully phrased the next sentence. ¡°The people you killed are they the ones who¡­¡± He hesitated, then continued, ¡°Are they the reason for the skills the both of you possess?¡± Sumi had recovered enough from her outbreak to do some half-hearted translating for Three.


    Three nodded grimly, Cilestius scratched his chin. ¡°I understand why you think the way you do, but I think you teaming up with them will be an important learning experience for both sides involved. I would still like you to work together with them tomorrow, for now I suppose you need a place to sleep. Follow me.¡± Cilestius told them beckoning them to follow, ¡°Emmi, Davis, Talin, you guys know the way out, go home and think about what you heard.¡±After a brief hesitation, he added, ¡°and saw.¡± They stared at their teachers back as he walked through the hallway the giant with his contrasting skin and hair colours protectively carrying a trembling girl covering her arm.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡ª¡ª Emmi POV¡ª¡ª


    The three of them sat there shocked for a moment recovering from what just happened. ¡°Wh-what IS she?¡± Davis stuttered as he stared at the girl being carried away in the distance, ¡°Her arms were made out of cloth and strings! STRINGS! I''ve never even heard of a race like that! What kind of freak is she!¡± Talin nodded and bit his thumbnail, ¡°The giant guy is odd, with his black eyes and his extremely pale skin, but you hear of a lot of weird people in stories, walking-talking animals, people with three eyes, or four arms, but people no longer made of flesh and blood? What kind of a monster did they pair us up with...


    Emmi wiped her eyes, stepping towards the two. Grabbing Davis the closest to her by the collar. ¡°Weren¡¯t you idiots listening to her?!¡± She glared at the both of them, ¡°She wasn¡¯t born like this, this was done TO her.¡± She gave each of them a glare and started walking to the exit. ¡°Gods, boys are so insensitive, if I ever hear the pair of you calling her a freak I will smack you from here to the third moon!¡±


    Davis and Talin ran after her, Davis spoke up ¡°You can¡¯t honestly say that didn¡¯t freak you out.¡± She almost glared a hole through his head when he used the word freak, ¡°I mean it was strange to you too right? Her arm was made of STRING.¡± She heard Talin mumble ¡°Makes you wonder what else is up with that giant, his muscles did seem to wriggle... when we mentioned his mother.¡± She glared at the both of them, ¡°Well I for one am glad to be paired with people as unique as them, they are obviously legends in the making and I will make sure I¡¯m a part of it, I''ll also take the lesson the giant taught me to heart!¡± She nodded seriously then started mumbling about new training schedules, and sword moves. ¡°Lesson she said,¡± Davis scoffed, earning him another glare from Emmi. Not much later the three of them parted ways, heading to their respective beds.


    ----- Pov End ------


    Three and Sumi were waiting outside the cave, next to a nervous Davis and Talin and an extremely determined looking Emmi. A few other groups stood outside the dungeon preparing their gear, checking weapons, and listening to the supervisor each team had been assigned. For their first dive, adventurers had volunteered to accompany them, each team had a higher level adventurer to watch over them making sure they came out of their first dive more experienced and most importantly, alive. That way the next generation of adventurers would have a proper chance of growing. Not all adventurers agreed with the way things were done, seeing even the younger generations as rivals that might one day take the jobs they themselves were gunning for. The friendlier adventurers rather enjoyed playing teacher for a day, a lot of the adventurers present were regulars that came back each year to help the kids with their dive. Only those above sixteen years of age were allowed to dive, most people vying to be adventurers did their first dive at the ripe age of sixteen, Three and Sumi were a year behind these younger adventurers, Emmi, Talin and Davis being eighteen years of age were two years behind.


    They were waiting for their instructor, who was still in conversation with Cilestius. The adventurer that had been assigned to them was a bald dwarf, with a magnificent rust coloured beard that fell all the way down to his stomache. His head had some dwarven runes tattooed on the sides of his head with a line of them running from his forehead to the back of his head, the dwarf had an imposing scar, blinding one of his eyes, another scar adorned his neck, and claw-marks were visible on one side of his head. The dwarf nodded to Cilestius and headed to the group, Three noticed Emmi,Davis and Talin tensing. The dwarf walked up to them then spoke up with a rumbling low voice, ¡°Which of ya be Sumi ¡®n Three?¡±


    Sumi spoke up meekly, ¡°me and him.¡± She had lost a lot of her usual energy, a slow ripple of white passed over her skin, unnoticed by her but not by the dwarf.


    ¡°Be ya human?¡± The dwarf bluntly asked.


    Emmi hissed and Three felt his own muscles tighten.


    ¡°I-I¡­ don¡¯t know¡­¡± Sumi softly mumbled.


    ¡°Pfa.¡± The dwarf spat to the side, ¡°None here care if ya be human girlie, I ain¡¯t human an¡¯ I be feelin¡¯ mighty fine about meself!¡± The dwarf said patting her on the shoulder, Three relaxed and Emmi¡¯s eyes widened in surprise.


    ¡°Ya kno what we ¡®venturers think be more important? Wether ya can smack a big arse monster upside tha head, can ya do that girlie?¡± The dwarf continued.


    Sumi grinned, ¡°I sure can mister boss dwarf sir!¡± Sumi told the dwarf.


    ¡°Good,¡± The dwarf grinned, ¡°Well then ya need to be speakin about yerselfs, tell me what weapons ya prefer usin n what skills n tactics ya already know, startin with u, pointy ears.¡±


    He said pointing to Talin, Three honestly hadn¡¯t really noticed that Talin was an elf, he had heard about the race from the others but the way they told it they were immensely beautiful, had silver, white or black hair, were thin and elegant, with their overall identifier being the pointy ears. Talin however did not resemble the elves he had heard about, firstly his hair was a dark red, and sure he was thin, but there was no real elegance about him. He had some properly defined musculature as-well which was rare among elves, stranger still was how tan the boy was despite his red hair, perhaps he was a half-elf. Also he was rather tall, not as tall as Three himself but surpassing six feet for sure.


    Talin just nodded and stepped forward, ¡°My specialty is my bow,¡± he unwrapped the bundle he was carrying to reveal a humongous war bow almost as tall as the boy himself. ¡°I received this from my father as he did from his, I have vowed that it will be the only weapon I use, I plan to specialize as a ranger once I reach level fifteen.¡±


    ¡°Cilestius told me bout the lot of ya, said you was a special group with a lot a potential, but each of ya got a quirk n that be the reason ya didn¡¯t find ya self a team earlier, so boy, what be ya quirk.¡± The dwarf said staring him down despite his short stature.


    ¡°I¡¯m not yet strong enough to fully utilize my bow.¡± Talin grudgingly admitted, ¡°I can only shoot about ten arrows per hour at the moment before I start lacking in power. It takes me about an hour to recover.¡±


    ¡°Pfa,¡± The dwarf spit again, ¡°That be no issue, ya should stick to ya vows, just prioritize yer enemies, leave the normal critters to ya team and shoot da mages or the sumwhat more dangerous critters, next!¡±


    Talin smiled slightly at the dwarf¡¯s reaction and nodded. Davis was the next one to step forward, Davis had long black hair that he tied in a bun, with two locks of hair hanging down the front of his ears on both sides, he had some stubble growing on his chin his eyes were a dark brown almost dark enough to be called black, the boy was on the short side being around 5,8 , he had a squat stature, his skin was slightly tan, overall he had what Three could only call a rough appearance, noticeable were the twin axes sticking out from his back, they were short and the handle was made of a darker wood, with the metal being a dark gray with strange tribal markings.


    ¡°I¡¯m a rogue and plan to choose an assassin progression class, I use these two battle axes which also happen to be my ¡®quirk¡¯, I refuse to part from my axes the same way Talin refuses to part from his bow.¡±


    ¡°Tha might be more of a issue for later lad, a lot of a rogues n assassins skills are centered roun'' piercin'' attacks.¡± The dwarf grunted


    Davis¡¯s face soured, Three signed to Sumi, [If he needs to pierce, yet wants to continue using axes, why not add a blade to the top or the back?] Sumi blinked at him then grinned.


    ¡°Oi mr boss dwarf sir, and Davis-bun.¡± ¡°Davis-bun?¡± Davis muttered to himself, ¡°Three said why not just add a blade to the top or back of the axe so you can go stabby stabby with the things?¡±


    Davis¡¯s jaw dropped as he stared at the girl, then to Three, then back to the girl. ¡°I¡¯m an idiot!¡± He shouted, ¡°Why the frogbiscuitunderworldstickdwellers didn¡¯t I think of that, You¡¯re brilliant!¡± He said walking up to Three and patting the large man on the shoulder, ¡°That will do, that will do, brilliant, simply brilliant!¡± Davis continued heaping on praises almost glowing with happiness, guess he must really be attached to those axes. Three was taken aback by character reversal, from stoic to bouncy, way too much like Sumi. Three frowned at the thought.


    The dwarf nodded thoughtfully, ¡°Ya that would work, will need to a bit of tinkerin on those axes once we get back then boyo. Alright next!¡±


    The next to speak up was Emmi, she was tall for a girl at around six foot, only slightly shorter than Talin. Her shoulders were broad, but that did not detract from her femininity, she had her dark hair in a pony tail, bangs hanging on either side of her face. She had amber eyes that glinted in the sunlight, also a somewhat stern face, determined. Her skin was on the paler side, but nowhere near as pale as Three''s. ¡°My name is Emmi Furvenhart, and my weapon of choice is the greatsword, My ¡®quirk¡¯ such as it is.¡± She scoffed at that part, furrowing her brows, ¡°Is that I want to be the party leader.¡±


    ¡°That be ya quirk?¡± The dwarf asked her frowning, ¡°Yes that is my quirk¡± she answered.


    ¡°Why this be a quirk, nothin be wrong with a female leader, no matter, do the rest of you agree with her being the party leader?¡± He grumbled.


    ¡°Me and Talin already accepted her as our leader, she¡¯s actually pretty damn good at it.¡± Davis said shrugging. Everyone stared at Sumi and Three, Three just shrugged, he didn¡¯t want to do it, and he thought Sumi wasn¡¯t well suited for the job so Emmi might as well do it.


    ¡°Fine with us Big Stick, you get to be the boss!¡± Sumi said grinning at her. Three could see Emmi mouthing big stick, furrowing her brows even further.


    ¡°Right then, wha about the two of yas?¡± The dwarf said pointing to them.


    Three stepped forward first, he tapped his chest.¡°I big, body strong, I shield.¡±


    The dwarf nodded with a smile, ¡°Ya want to be a vanguard? Right at the front of the battle facing the wave of monsters and their bloodlust head-on?¡± Three nodded his consent, ¡°Ha, ya be a good fit for that me thinks, I also be a vanguard, our role is dangerous but if we do it right yer party be all the stronger for it, what be ya weapon of choice?¡±


    Three shrugged, ¡°Never use weapon.¡±


    ¡°Ya haven¡¯t used a weapon yet eh? Then how about I teach ye about me own weapon, I be usin this baby here called a Mual, it be a heavy weapon so only strong fellas like you n me wield it, to top it off I have this beauty of a dwarven shield to protect meself and me party, altho I be thinkin a tower shield would suit ye best.¡± The hammer the dwarf pulled out was a really heavy looking war-hammer with golden engraving on the steel head. The shield was a layered square block that was drawn into a point at the bottom, The dwarf explained that he could extend the point with what little mana he had to wedge it into the ground, giving him the extra sturdiness he needed to withstand even the heaviest of charges, he explained proudly that a calvary charge would smash themselves to pieces against a proper dwarven shieldwall.


    Three eyed the weapons with interest and nodded to the dwarf, eager to have weapons of his own.


    The dwarf smiled at his newly found student and told him they could get his equipment from the cart of spare weapons and armour that Cilestius had brought with him.


    Then the dwarf looked at Sumi the last one to speak. Sumi still had her dark-blond messy hair in a ponytail with bangs, bright green eyes, her heart shaped face was almost always glowing with excitement, and her energetic smile could easily light up a room. Her skin was neither tan nor pale and was for all intents and purpose normal, disregarding the fact that she was made from string and cloth or that a color would ripple over her skin if she felt a particularly strong emotion. She was short, barely above a 5,4 , but her presence made up for her lack of size.


    She stared at the dwarf, ¡°Mr dwarf boss sir, you still haven¡¯t told us your name!¡±


    The dwarf blinked, Three blinked, The rest blinked. ¡°Ya be right girlie! I be so into this teacher thing I forgot!¡± The dwarf let out a deep barreling laugh, ¡°Well let me introduce meself, better late then never I always say! I be Grimli Bruntherfust, pleasure to be makin yas acquitance!¡±


    ¡°A pleasure!¡± Sumi said grinning, ¡°I be Sumi, I be havin a body made of strings and cottons and cloths, I be havin a strong body, I have no beauty of a warhammer to call me own, mr dwarf boss Grimli sir.¡± The short girl said imitating the dwarfs accent with a huge smile. The dwarf wasn¡¯t offended in the least and roared with laughter patting Sumi hard on her back. ¡°I knew ya be a fun lil human girlie, Ya still be a bit to tall for dwarves or I¡¯d be introducin ya to me son n the family,¡±


    Sumi grinned down at him ¡°I¡¯d be honored to be introduced!¡±.


    ¡°Well the party be filled with physical abilities, how would ya like bein a mage, throwin fire n thunder around?¡± The dwarf said still grinning.


    ¡°Sounds like fun sir!¡± Sumi said saluting the dwarf.


    Grimli laughed and nodded, ¡°Well head on over to the mage then he be teachin ya a couple spells the quick way to get ya started, the rest of yas get prepared and get some suplies, me n giant over there will be gettin ''im a weapon n shield and I be teachin him how ta use them, in three hours we be headin inside the dungeon!¡±


    Each of them headed off to do the tasks assigned to them, Three had to admit he was somewhat excited about entering the depths.

 Chapter Five

    ¡°


    ¡°


    ¡°


    ¡°


    Name : Emmi Furvenhart


    Age : 18


    Lvl : 3


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill : Greatsword Mastery : Skill level 21}


    {Skill : Ogres Strength : Skill level 5 }


    {Stats}


    {Strength : 23}


    {Agility : 14}


    {Dexterity : 13}


    {Vitality : 16}


    {Endurance : 17}


    {Wisdom : 11}


    {Intelligence : 11}


    {Charisma : 18}


    {Leadership : 3 }


    Emmi tapped on Ogres Strength with her finger, to access the skills information.


    {This skill increases strength by 1% per skill level,


    {reduces weight of weapons by 1/kg per skill level up to a maximum weight reduction of 50%


    {Increases passively, increased growth rate during combat.}


    ¡°


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Age : 17


    Lvl : 1


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}


    [Skill : Stomp : Skill level 2 }


    {Skill : Challenging Cry : Skill level 3 }


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    Grimli blinked at his skill levels, Three himself was curious about his stats but that would have to wait until they reached the village. ¡°I would advise usin the rank ups on any of the three skills you have right now, all of them be extremely rare to have as highest skill. If they still be highest level for your second rank up use it on one of the others, ye can¡¯t be usin it on the same one a second time, unfortunately.¡± Grimly said stroking his beard.


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    Name : Three


    Age : 17


    Lvl : 6


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 84}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 72}


    {Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 81}


    [Skill : Stomp : Skill level 2 }


    {Skill : Challenging Cry : Skill level 3 }


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    {Strength : 28}


    {Agility : 18}


    {Dexterity : 18}


    {Vitality : 32}


    {Endurance : 34}


    {Wisdom : 12}


    {Intelligence : 13}


    {Charisma : 9 }


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 Chapter Six

Interlude : Seed of Darkness


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 Chapter Seven

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 Chapter 8

    He closed his eyes and opened his mind to the connection, in no time he found himself in the white room along with Sumi. They had appeared first, next to appear was Jer. His hair still short and matted from whatever wetness incessantly clung to his body. Dark narrow eyes and a pale skin, he smiled when he saw them and made his way over.


    "Good to see you." He said.


    "And you!" Sumi answered, giving him a flying hug.


    Yinta was next to appear, her dark green bark like skin rippling as she stretched, she had her pale hair with its grass like texture pulled into a braid over her shoulder. Her green eyes matched her serene smile as she stepped forward and nodded gracefully. Sumi ignoring any such graceful movements swept her into a hug. A soft rich chuckle filled the air, "I missed you too."


    Kolstum and Fli¨ªt appeared at the same time, the huge blond boy with grey skin did a series of stretches before walking up to him. His skin had gotten even rougher since last Three had seen him, calloused would be the word best used to describe it, it felt like thick leather to the touch. Fli¨ªt and her glowing amber eyes grinned as she walked up to Sumi, her olive dark skin and even darker hair flowing behind her, she kept the hair on one side of her scalp shaven, let it grow in barely a centimeter. She preferred it this way, called it a tribal thing.


    Strem was the next to arrive, light blue nearly translucent skin, hair white as ivory and the glowing ice blue eyes. He had a smile that oozed mischief as he entered the room, he glanced around. "Well at least I''m not dead last!"


    Yinta rolled her eyes at the remark.


    Last to appear was Valana, piercing golden eyes and tangled hair. Some light grey fur on her arms accompanied her semi long hair of the same colour. She looked like she had been lost in a forest for a week, as she always did.


    The group greeted each other, exchanging hugs and a few words, everyone complimented Three on his new mastery of the language. Jer coughed, "I''m sure all of us have had a lot happen in the past few weeks, I would like to share a useful discovery I made." He paused to add suspense, "Memory Projection."


    "Wassat?" Sumi asked.


    "We can share our memories with the others who inhabit this room of ours, I have entered the room on my own a few times over the last few weeks, experimenting with its capabilities. It will show the memories from the corresponding owners point of view. We can show each other what happened through our own eyes."


    "That''s awfully convenient." Strem muttered.


    "Indeed it is." Jer nodded thoughtfully, "If it is alright with the rest of you I would like to show you what Valana and I have been up to for the past few weeks,"


    The rest voiced their agreement and Jer got things ''set up''. When he was asked what he was setting up he would smile and wink but evade the question, the rest sighed, Jer always did have something of a flair for the dramatic.


    Suddenly walls formed around their endless white space, couches appeared out of thin air and turned to face a single white wall, the wall turned into a field, just outside a village. "Welcome," Jer spread his arms, "To my memories."


    Ooooh''s and aaah''s echoed through the now closed off, livingroom area. The group sat down on the couch. Staring expectantly at the screen.


    ¡ª¡ª Jer POV ¡ª¡ª


    Jer walked through the town, towards the inn he heard they were staying at. Valana was trailing behind him, hands stuffed into her trouser pockets, seemingly uninterested. Jer put his hand on the door and pushed, a cacophony of sound rushed out to greet them. The smell of stale ale, the sound of music, rumbustious laughter and conversation filled the room. Jer let his gaze sweet across , he spotted his targets sitting in the corner of the inn. Short cut hair and beard both light gray, a scar across his cheek and the top half of one ear missing. Most of all it was the sharp, somber eyes that caused the man to stand out. Jer walked on over, "Are you the current leader of the mercenary company The Black Iron Covenant?"


    The man gazed at him, before grunting. "Current indeed, I guess I am the leader for what its worth, not like there''s much of us left."


    Jer got straight to the point. "Yes I heard about the ambush that had befallen your company, I am Jer and this is Valana. We would like to fill your ranks."


    The man blinked, his companion, another veteran mercenary, staring at the two of them. "Why in the name of the fallen gods, would you want to join a band that has been decimated?"


    "Simple." Jer said grabbing a seat across from the man, Valana dragged a chair over twisting the chair around and sat on it, folding her hands on the back of the chair putting her head on the backrest. "You have a reputation already, as trustworthy, professional mercenaries. You just suffered a large loss leaving you with but a few veterans, you need new members. If we join first then we have a larger chance of rising up through the ranks and becoming a core part of the company. While we can help aid its rebirth, we can still use the reputation you have already earned to grow it into exactly what I need."


    "What you need? Who says you will be able to influence our growth that much." The man frowned the movement pulling down his scar.


    "Your captain has died, the other two officers are also dead, you are a sergeant and you have been one for a a good amount of time. Not out of necessity, but choice. You don''t know the inner workings of the system, or how to get your hands on the better contracts. You have no contacts in the nobility or merchants guild." The mans face grew darker as Jer continued the men around him tensed. "You are however, an extremely competent soldier and instructor. If I join this company and manage to become either the captain or an officer, I would have you and your men as a hardened core to build around. I could shape this company into something even greater than it was before."


    Jer could see that he had gained the interest of the men, not even close to their acceptance or respect, but interest was all he needed at the moment. "Why would we give control to a young brat like yourself, we do not know you or your capabilities. Also dry yourself off, did you fall in a well or something. Its not even raining."


    Jer smiled and folded his hands. "I''m afraid this fresh out of the well look is permanent. I should mention that I did not come empty handed, I have gained a contract in the name of the Black Iron Covenant, from the noble Mirsum. To root out a bandit hideout, even with your current numbers it should not prove to be too much of challenge. Moreover, I can prove myself even if I don''t do a proper job you will still be able to complete the contract and make connections with a minor noble."


    "You took a contract in our name?" The sergeant whispered, his hands curling into fists.


    "Yes I did, should you not wish to take said contract, me and my freind will do it ourselves. The payment would still be deposited in your account. You will profit from this conversation regardless." Jer smiled calmly.


    The sergeant shared a look with the men sitting around the table. "Give us two hours to grab the rest and suit up. We will find that hideout, we could use the exercise anyhow. I thought about retiring but I''m not skilled at anything but swinging the old blade and screaming at the new recruits anyways."


    He stood up, the other men shrugged and followed his lead. "Not like we have anything more to lose than our lives, such is the life of a mercenary after all." The sergeant laughed. "Lets go men, we will see you in the center of town in two hours, lets see what you got lad."


    "OH and sergeant." Jer called after him. "No need to look for information, I know were the hideout is."


    The sergeant glanced back and blinked, he then roared in laughter. "Interesting, interesting! I am Rinor, Sergeant of the Black Iron Covenant and I shall witness your potential." He stepped out of the inn still laughing, to the confused faces of the other patrons.


    Jer smiled, "I''m glad he is as peculiar as the rumors stated, I doubted this would work."


    Valana simply shrugged, uninterested. She sniffed at the ale they had left behind and frowned, flinching away from the brew.


    Jer shook his head and chuckled.


    A few hours later he found himself standing in the middle of the town center, with about a dozen of grizzly and heavily armed mercenaries. The sergeant stepped forward, "Well boy you have command, show me what you can do. It''s not like we would get ourselves killed against mere bandits even if we did have a shitty commander!" He chuckled, the other mercenaries grinned, a few of them laughing. Jer shook his head. This was how the Black Iron Covenant found themselves in the clutches of Jer Summalfren.


    Jer looked around the field at the gathered mercenaries. Most of them armed in semi-heavy armour, either chainmail or scalemail. Every single one of them had a shield, most used either sword or mace, with one of them using a warpick. The grizzled mercenaries gaze at him, waiting.


    Jer stepped forward and swept his gaze over them, "Did you have designations or squad assignments previously?"


    "We had a rough outline of sergeants and the cap would assign people to be an officer or sub officer." The sergeant told him.


    "Well with the dozen and a half of us I would like to separate the groups in three squads of four and two squads of three."


    He assigned people to the squads, he put Rinor in charge of a four person squad, he took command of another, a huge individual called Hark was put in charge of the third. He put Valana in one of the three person squads under the command of a grizzled, one eyed mercenary called Red, the last squad was commanded by Leila, the only other female present.


    He taught them a few hand signs, so they could communicate silently, Valana frowned when he taught the others the sign language but kept quiet. He taught them a few simple commands, On me, Move up, Spread out, Circle around, Hit the floor and Rush.


    The mercenaries were professional and payed rapt attention, they copied the signs before nodding in affirmation. He wanted to teach them more so he had shortcuts to call for attack patterns, but that would have to wait until they were firmly under his command.


    He checked provisions and told them it would be a two day journey to the bandit hideout, he was surprised to see that each of the mercenaries had packed food for a week. Most of them had compressed pills they called food packets, it cost a little more than a normal meal but it was about the size of a marble, and had the nutritional value of an entire meal. These were extremely convenient, he would have to look into them later. They started traveling to the hideout, on the way Jer made an effort to learn all their names, ways of fighting and habits. He made sure to teach them more of the sign-language that might be viable for use on the road.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The mercenaries made a game of it, they started holding as much of their normal conversations as they could in the sign-language, asking either Valana or Jer for the sign that accompanied a word if they were unfamiliar it. One of the mercenaries told him that they saw the value of having a silent language that others couldn''t understand.


    Eventually they reached the mountain and came across the bandit lair, they stopped a few hours travel away. Tomorrow they would attack, Tomorrow blood would spill.


    Night was starting to fall as the mercenaries sat between the trees ,checking blades and each others armor. They were going to attempt a night-time ambush, Jer explained to them how they would sneak up to the bandits and attack an hour after midnight. The men were familiar with similar tactics, they put pieces of cloth between armour parts that would otherwise smash together. They used soot from the fireplace to darken the shining steel of their weapons, shields and armour. They even went so far as to cover some of their face with it. Jer swept his eyes over the mercenaries nodding to himself.


    He addressed the group. "The bandits are over the next bluff, it will take a few hours to reach, I want us to slowly and silently move up to their base of operations. Once we get close I want both Red''s and Leila''s squads to search and take care of any look-outs. The other groups with me will get as close as we can to their main camp. Silent rush, as little sound as possible, if we can kill them without them waking up, all the better."


    The mercenaries nodded, the lax atmosphere evaporating in the night air. Red and Leila took point with their squads, he told Red about Valana''s excellent night vision. Red nodded and grumbled that being able to see in the dark would help, they carefully yet swiftly made their way through the underbrush. Climbing up the mountain, they crossed the bluff and the way they moved changed. They slowed down, their movement barely noticeable against the gentle sway of the tree branches and bushes. Red signed that they had found and taken care of a look-out, a few minutes later Leila signaled they had done the same. He would be surprised if the bandits had more than a couple look-outs but made sure to stay diligent as they made their way forward.


    They snuck closer, a bandit made his way out of the cave to the bush Jer and his squad were hiding in. The bandit was sleepily struggling with his belt, Jer signed that he would take care of it. The bandit yawned as he finally managed to get his belt undone, he stepped closer to the bush, Jer tensed. He took a small deep breath and shot forward, he covered the mans nose and mouth with one hand, he used a leg to swipe his feet from under him, pushing him off balance with his shoulder. He guided the bandit to the ground softly letting him fall, he pinned one of the bandits arms with a knee. The bandit was panicking, struggling with wide eyes as he tried to get free. Jer''s eyes hardened, he liquefied the hand he he held over the bandits nose and mouth. Water gushed forward from his wrist as the bandit struggled to breath, the man flailed, eyes nearly popping out of his head, face turning purple from the lack of oxygen. After what felt like ages he finally stopped struggling. He kept going for an extra ten seconds to be sure before he stood back up, he glanced at his squad, they were wide eyed but otherwise showed no concern for his... odd body.


    He gave the signal to the other squads to move forward, the squads converged at the cave entrance. Jer asked Valana and a short man named Kipper, to scout. The two nodded and silently made their way forward and entered the cavern, once in a while they would exchange hand signs before one of them would disappear from sight. Only to return moments later, nodding and moving further, they went deeper into the dark cave, Jer frowned. Valana and Kipper had taken out more people on look-out duty than there should have been. Had his information been wrong, had the bandits been warned of their approach? He signaled Kipper and Valana to be extra careful for traps and noise makers. Noise makers where small enchanted stones that when touched made a high squealing sound. Jer breathed in as he debated with himself on returning. Rinor walked up next to him and looked him in the eye then whispered, "Faulty or incomplete intel is part of the job, deal with it."


    Jer frowned but nodded. He took a deep breath and focused. Valana and Kipper signed that they had indeed found a few Noise makers, he was glad he picked Kipper for the job, Valana had great night-vision, but Kipper could see remnants of magic with one of his skills. After nearly five minutes of walking they entered a cavern, only to be greeted by over two dozen fully armed bandits, showing their crooked yellow teeth in a murderous grin. He heard their amused chuckles and snarled, how had they known?


    "We was waitin for ya, we can use em weapons much better than ya can! Why not just give em to us eh?" One of the the bandits said, chuckling.


    "Shield wall, double line." Jer swept his gaze over the bandits and remained cool, even as inside he was in turmoil, he hated when carefully crafted plans fell through. Had they found his plant?


    The mercenaries moved into a row two thick, connecting their shields, calmly staring down the bandits, a few of the unclean scum nervous now.


    "Boss! They wanna fight!" The bandit that spoke up earlier yelled.


    A hulking giant of a man, nearly as tall as Kolstum walked out of a cavern, he was bare chested, showing a multitude of scars. What worried Jer more than the bandit chief was the two dozen men he brought with him.


    Outnumbered about three to one, Jer would have worried if it wasn''t for the complete calm and ready for battle expression of the mercenaries. It seemed men forged in the flames of war did not fear a few dirt covered bandits, even if they did outnumber them three to one.


    The hulking giant stepped forward, he grinned at the group, showing of his yellowed teeth. "Well hbout ya surrender eh? I see ya have two lasses ya brought with ya, we can make good use of em!"


    The bandits chuckled, a few of them eagerly licking their lips. "I''d love to bed ya." Leila grinned and stared him down, "But ya smell like a pig, an you look like one too, Ya sure ya mum didn''t mistake a farm animal fer ya pa?"


    The mercenaries laughed at the retort, the bandit chief turning red, he grabbed a large ax from one of the bandits. "We be seein how ya like havin yer face cut in half! I''ll still be able to fock yer corpse!"


    Leila rolled her eyes, "Seems ye aint even smart enuf fer sum banter, dun matter anywho, I prefer stickin me blade in an ugly mug like yers any day!"


    The bandits roared, as their chief pointed his weapon and charged the shield line, Jer had the mercenaries pull back slightly so they stood in the entrance to the cave, it was wide enough that they could stand shoulder to shoulder with the eight of them. They heaved their shields forward and smashed them into the first wave of bandits, a quick stab from the row behind them killed about half a dozen. The mercenaries held their line as the bandits smashed and pushed against the shields hoping to break through by using sheer numbers.


    Jer was in the second row and having no weapon of his own focused on shooting drops of his liquid into the eyes of any bandit he could, giving many of the mercenaries the slight opening they needed to end a life. The mercenaries made quick work of the bandits, every time a blade headed for one of their own their would be a weapon or shield to block it, the one attacked wouldn''t even flinch and strike down the offender. Soon enough the bandits started backing away, having caused only minor injuries among Jer''s men. The bandit chief was still alive and looked a noticeably less happy to be here, he rallied his men to him and stared viciously at those who had decimated his men.


    "Is yer commander such a craven that he cant fight! I challenge him to a duel!" He roared.


    Leila stepped forward, glaring at the giant. "If yer want to be challengin our cap, then ye should be more than happy to met me blade first!"


    Jer stepped up next to her, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for the offer Leila, but I still need to prove myself so if you don''t mind I will be taking this challenge."


    Leila stared at him for a bit, then nodded. Jer smiled thankfully at her and stepped forward to meet the giant.


    "Well here I am, I assume you want a fight to the death?"


    "Bet yer ass I do! Stinkin wet under the nose kid, thinkin he be a captain, ill chop yer up into bite sized pieces."


    "That was actually a clever use of the term, wet under the nose, since I actually AM wet. Decent pun, maybe you aren''t that pig headed after all." Leila chuckled, he heard some of the mercenaries snickering as well.


    The giant stepped forward roaring in anger, He swung his axe Jer taking his head off. Everyone paused in silence, the mercenaries inhaled when the axe passed through his neck. Like a burst of a bubble his head popped, drops of liquid flying through-out the room.


    "HA! Yer boss is weak! I bet he¡­" The giants word faltered as the drops around the cavern started converging back to the body, the water flowing up his body building his face back to how it was a drop at a time. He stared at the process slack jawed. He stood there silently for a moment.


    "WHAT ARE YE!" He roared with wide eyes.


    Jer smiled, his bloodthirst nearly palpable in the air. "I am simply the man who was payed to kill you."


    He calmly walked forward, the bandit chief slashing at him in panic, taking off limbs, his head, cutting him in half. Nothing worked as his opponent reappeared undamaged before his very eyes. Jer lunged forward, the bandit tripping over his own feet in an attempt to dodge, he put his hand over the chiefs mouth and nose and began calmly drowning him, smiling down at his opponent. The chief struggled and flailed trying to escape, from the corner of his eyes he saw the cave brightening as a bandit in a tattered robe began chanting a spell with a glance he noticed the incantation for a fireball, a low level wizard then. Unlike simple physical attacks, magic could actually hurt and perhaps kill him, yet he wasn''t worried.


    A grey flash of fur raced through the cavern, a growl echoing through the open space, as a claw tore through the bandits throat. The grey furred beast started tearing the bandit completely apart, muffled cries of panic managed to escape the mages lips. The remaining bandits backed away from the pair of them in wide eyed horror. The chief eventually stopped moving, Jer stood up from the corpse and glanced around. The bandits had backed up to the wall, they had dropped their weapons and stood there with their hands raised.


    Jer glanced over at Rinor, "What do you want to do with them?"


    Rinor frowned, "We should decide after taking a look in that there cavern, who knows what the bandit chief got up to."


    Jer nodded, he appointed Hark and his squad, along with the men from Rinor''s squad to watch over the captives. He took Rinor and the rest with him into the cave, only to be greeted by a sight that would be carved into his memory. Women had been tied and chained to crude contraptions, clothes, if they even had any, torn to pieces. Bloodied and bruised, these people gzed with lifeless eyes, chained to a wall on the far end were men that had most likely been used as stress relief. Some had weapon wounds, others were simply beaten an inch from death. Various races were represented in the room, Jer trembled, fists clenched as still fresh memories bubbled below the surface.


    "Release them and bring them to the center of the room. Treat them as best as you can."


    Jer looked around the room as the mercenaries spread throughout the room with grim looks on their faces. They gently released the prisoners, reassuring them every few seconds. The mercenaries treated those that were heavily injured to the best of their abilities, some of the mercenaries looked over to Jer, shaking their heads indicating that the person in question would not survive the day. Jer clenched his teeth as both he and the mercenaries did what they could to ease their pain.


    Some of the new captives still had a sliver of hope in their eyes, one beastwoman stepped forward, clutching a broken arm. "What do you intend to do with us."


    Jer looked at the woman, he turned to his mercenary, "Give me your knife," He turned to Rinor, the man raised an eyebrow but handed him his knife. Jer went around to all the mercenaries asking for their knives, they looked at him in confusion but handed over their knives none the less. He made a stack of them in the center of the room, his actions closely followed by the Beastwoman, other prisoners were paying rapt attention to his movements as he worked. He took the knife he had received from Allorin out of the pile and walked over to the beastwoman.


    He twirled the knife and held it out to her hilt first, "We captured some of the bandits, they surrendered in the cavern we came from." The beastwoman growled as she stared at the knife then looked up at him. "Take the knife." He let his gaze travel over the other prisoners. "Take the knives and inflict upon them what has been inflicted upon you, carve out your own justice." He handed the knife to the beastwoman and turned his back to her, he walked out of the cave. Hearing the scratch and scuffle of prisoners as they picked up a knife and stumbled after him. Those too injured to move were helped by fellow prisoners, or in a few cases, one of the mercenaries.


    The procession made their way to the cavern, Hark and the mercenaries keeping watch stared wide eyed at the battered prisoners as they marched out ffrom the dark hall. The beastwoman and the prisoners froze as they stared at the bandits that were nervously sitting, backs to the wall, eyeing their former prisoners. With an unearthly screech the beastwoman charged the prisoners with her knife, the people behind her roared in anger as they charged the bandits, Hark moved to stop them but with a signal from Jer he and his men backed off.


    The bandits screamed and struggled in panic as they tried to crawl away from the furious prisoners, begging for mercy that they would never find. Knives penetrated skin, the walls of the cave dyed in blood. The screaming went on for longer than it had any right to, Jer watched in grim resolution as the prisoners took the lives of those that oppressed them.


    As the screaming died out and the former prisoners stood above what remained of the bandits, they faced him, covered in blood.


    Jer stepped forward. "You have seen and witnessed cruelty, you have survived it, you will become all the stronger for it." He softly spoke, the prisoners stood their quietly, taking his words to heart. "You have bathed in blood, your enemies dead at your feet. You have shown yourselves to posses the heart of a warrior."


    Jer raised his chin and straightened his back. "I am Jer Summalfren, Captain of the Black Iron Covenant. Me and mine will shake this world to its very core." He stretched a hand out towards the beastwoman, "But we need those of courage to join us, I offer food, shelter, allies." He gazed into her eyes, "But most importantly I offer strength."


    The beastwoman stared into his eyes, stepped forward and took his hand.

 Chapter 9

    After they finished Jer''s memory the group sat down to discuss things, Jer as usual, led the discussion. "We have had a tough time connecting to each other because at least one of us was awake at any given time, mainly to keep watch while the others slept. I propose that we get together bi-monthly, and that one of us share our experiences at said get together."


    The others agreed with his proposal and said their goodbyes. Leaving the white room to re?nter their own dreams.


    Three woke up the next day feeling refreshed, happy to know that his friends were doing well, due to their connection he was sure he would feel it should one of them die. It was still good to know they were doing well and had met pleasant people like he and Sumi had. Having confirmation that his friends were doing okay let him focus completely on the task of the day. Grimli had promised them he would find them a proper monster to fight for their promotion to level ten.


    He put on his clothes and stretched his limbs, he woke up Sumi who was sleeping in the top bunk. She mumbled and tried to roll over back to sleep, he kept poking her until she woke up properly.


    "Wssat who!" She suddenly sat upright, her blond hair in a frizzy mess. "Wash you wakin me up for." She muttered.


    "Breakfast." Three said, "We get to reach level ten today."


    Hearing that, the energy swiftly returned to her body, her eyes glimmering as she grinned in anticipation. "Our first rank up!"


    Three grinned and gave her a slight nod. "Our first rank up."


    She swung herself out of her bunk and started doing her hair. Three tossed her clothes over once she finished with her hair and they headed downstairs together. An excited Emmi was waiting for them, having made breakfast for the two of them in such a way they could eat while walking. She motioned them to follow, outside the house leaning against the wall basking in the morning air stood Talin and Davis. The two grinned and joined up.


    "Mornin''!" Davis said.


    "Good morning." Talin added.


    "Mornin!" Sumi answered. Emmi grinned, and Three bobbed his head in greeting.


    They headed over to the adventurers guild where Grimli had told them to gather. On the way they were discussing what kind of monster Grimli had chosen. It was not standard tradition for adventurers to choose a monster for the lower ranks to breach the barrier. Grimli was the exception, saying that now that he had taken the group under his wing he would make damn sure they reached proper strength. Enough strength to down a barrel of ale in one go and beat a proper dwarf in a fist fight, that was the way he phrased it anyhow.


    The villagers were slowly waking, a few of them setting up shops or heading over to whatever work they had to do, a lot of them greeted the group, the young adventurers born and raised in the relatively small village were well known and liked by most. They exchanged greetings, increasing their pace as they hurried to the adventurers guild. They entered through the wall to see Grimli standing along three other people in full gear, the group was waiting for them. One of them was a balding man, who Emmi told them was a priest. A male elf in robes was chatting in a relaxed manner with Grimli, the elf was bald of all things. The last of the group was a Halfling, a child born of an elf and a dwarf. He was short, slightly taller than a dwarf, but had the thin features of an elf, only to be put completely out of contrast by a most magnificent beard. Only Grimli managed to outdo the Halfling in a contest of beards.


    Grimli walked forward with a grin, introducing the group to the rest of his adventurers team, the priest was called Orma, the elf Bob. When Grimli told them the elf''s name the group stared at him in disbelief,


    Grimli chuckled, "I shit ya not, the bald bugger be called Bob!"


    The elf smiled and bowed to them, "Greetings, A am Bob, resident mage of this particular party of idiots."


    The rest of the party chuckled at the introduction. The Halfling stepped forward and introduced himself with a wide grin on his face. "And I am Tinkman, last of the idiots."


    "So mr boss dwarf sir," Sumi turned to them and showed the group a dazzling smile, "What be our victim of the day!"


    The elf burst out laughing at the way she addressed Grimli, the Halfling chuckling and the priest was doing his best to keep his face tight.


    Grimli ignored all of them and grinned at his favoured pupil, "Why, we gonna go kill ourselves a Jurgor!"


    Emmi blinked in surprise, "Are you sure, aren''t those level twenty rated?"


    Grimli chuckled enthusiastically, "That they are! Which is why we be comin, I think ya can handle it, but we be joinin just in case."


    Grimli lead the group out of the village and further towards the northern wilderness, Three asked Emmi about these Jurgors.


    "They resemble bears in a way but their skin is all scales like a lizards, they have fur running in a stripe from the top of their head to the tip of their tail. The tail also resembles a lizard''s, its head is mostly the same as a bears, except its eyes are lizard like, its snout is slightly elongated actually i wonder why people say they resemble bears... They are easily more lizard than bear."


    "They don''t hibernate either, and instead of giving birth like bears they lay eggs, a single Jurgor can lay upto ten eggs. Thing is they don''t need to copulate to lay them." Davis added.


    "Copulate?" Three asked.


    "Yea, you know, nother word for sex?"


    Three blinked and tilted his head, "What is sex?"


    Davis stumbled and stared at him, then scratched his chin.


    He grinned, "Sex is a secret that unlocks when you are eighteen!"


    The adventurers heard him and chuckled, Three took his words to heart however. Everyone noticed but no one really felt like explaining it to him.


    The halfling took Talin with him to scout, teaching him a few tricks of the trade.


    Sumi had fallen into conversation with the priest and the elven mage. Discussing the peculiarities of her body and the effects on her magic it had.


    Emmi, Davis, Grimli and Three also had their own conversation, They were discussing which weapon was best, each of them had their own specialization and refused to admit that any other weapon was as good as the one they wielded. Three asked them about what was good about each of their weapons, he wielded a warhammer now because that was what Grimli had given him, he had no attachment to that particular weapon however. Before the discussion could evolve into a full blown argument, Talin and Tinkman returned.


    "We found a Jurgor!" Tinkman grinned, "Wasn''t to hard, the creatures are a dime a dozen ''round here."


    Talin nodded in agreement.


    Tinkman lead the way toward their target, Talin fell back with his team to discuss strategy and get prepared for the battle.


    "Jurgors are big, and rather strong, despite their size they are faster than you would think." Emmi looked at the others in turn. "Three will command its attention, then the rest of us will use the strongest abilities we have right from the start on its right front leg, we destroy it, burn it, cut it off or break it! That will severely hinder its mobility, so we can then take our time and kill it, agreed?"


    The rest nodded as they came closer to the clearing, which the Jurgor had claimed as its own.


    When they entered the clearing and the trees parted, they came face to face with a creature that was far more impressive than Three had expected it to be from their explanation. The scales on the nearly two meter tall creature were a snowy white, with patterns of black. The stripe of fur was a deep black, turning into thick looming eyebrows, over the snout that beared rows upon rows of teeth. The jurgor saw the group approaching and instead of the hiss he had been expected the creature roared.


    Three shook away his doubt and charged the creature. the Jurgor maddened by the intrusion, charged him, its paws uprooting the grass beneath, claws digging into the dirt. Its jaws spread, showing Three close-up just how many teeth the creature possesed. The creature smashed into the shield Three had extended, the Jurgor being by far the heavier of the two slammed Three out of its way, knocking him to the ground. Three struggled to get back to his feet, his large shield getting in the way, the Jurgor pounced him, Three managed to get his shield up barely in time, its claws tearing at the hide covered wood. The shield splintering beneath its ferocity.


    "Now!" He heard Emmi scream.


    He heard her yell out other commands but his attention was completely on the the monster trying to claw him to shreds. Another paw slammed into the shield, a crack appearing in the piece of wood he was hiding behind. It stretched its paw back, with a massive swipe it obliterated the already weakened shield. The monster finally having a clear view on its opponent roared, snapping at him. Three could feel the blows from the rest of his team as they slammed into the creature, it roared in rage and opened its massive maw trying to crush Three''s head. He managed to get his arm between its jaws just in time, the raging Jurgor not caring if it was his head or arm, closed its jaws around his arm, its rows of teeth managing to pierce his skin with tremendous force, he felt his bones strain as they barely managed to resist being snapped in half.


    An arrow streaked past, slamming into the creatures eye. It stood up on its hind paws, clawing at its eye in pain. Three took the oppurtunity to scramble away from the creature and retrieving the weapon he had lost in the collision. His arm had sustained heavy damage, he picked up the hammer in his other hand, roaring his own challenge at the creature.


    The jurgor stared down at the people assualting him, Emmi and Davis were striking its paws with all the strength they possesed, Sumi was throwing out an entire firestorm of spells, the air sizzling from her power. Talin was shooting arrow after arrow at its face, trying to keep it distracted from the others. Three stood up, sending the familiar surge of energy into his muscles, He felt them expanding, growing, writhing underneath his skin, he felt himself grow, as he picked up large warhammer as if it weighed nothing, charging the creature to join his friends in combat.


    Another arrow streaked past him as it slammed into the same eye Talin had pierced before, the creature shook, blood spurting from its eye as it sagged, slamming into the ground causing a minor tremor. Everyone glanced over at Talin, who was himself staring at his handywork in surprise.


    He shrugged, "That was more luck than skill, I was aiming for itsother eye."


    The group chuckled as they sunk to the ground, that fight was tough. Three could feel his blood pumping, it had been a good, even if an eventually short fight.


    After they defeated the Jurgor, they made quick work of its hide, Tinkman was showing Talin how to skin the creature while keeping the hide undamaged. The rest was being lectured by Grimli about what they did right and could do better, Orma the priest took a look at Three''s arm but was surprised by how far the regeneration had already progressed, he cast a relatively minor heal spell to aid the progress. The journey back the group was discussing which skills they wanted to rank up.


    "I''m going to rank up my Ogre''s Strength." Emmi told them.


    "It grows passively and I looked up what it ranks up into, it becomes Ogre''s might, granting me double the strength per skill level, it also reduces the weight of worn armour. To a fourth maximum, I think ranking up the skill as early as possible would be most profitable for me."


    Grimli nodded approvingly, "It be a good skill to rank up early."


    "Lesser regeneration for me!" Sumi said, "It restores my mana faster as well, so I can throw infinite fire arrows, like KAPOW!" punching the air a few times she grinned at them.


    "I shall rank up aim." Talin said, "It will become unerring accuracy, it will give me a new stat, perception. It will increase my scouting proficiency and make my shots far more accurate."


    Tinkman nodded proudly, "Yup elfie here is going to become a fearsome shot!"


    "I''m not sure yet, thought I''d rank up sneaking." Davis said scratching his chin. "I really wish we could rank up weapon mastery skills."


    "What skills do ya have." Grimli asked.


    "Twin fang, Sneak, Axe mastery, Dual Wielding mastery and Backstab."


    "Backstab!" Tinkman yelled. "Backstab is a rare skill to have in the top three skills, if ya rank it up ya can teleport behind yer enemies once every ten minutes orso, it becomes a powerful move called Shadow Strike."


    "Teleporting huh," Davis muttered scratching his stubble, "Sounds good to me guess i will go for it."


    "I will go for Iron skin, my regeneration is already effective I want to try ranking it up without using the point I get from leveling." Three tapped his chin, "I''m hoping to find something that I can use to passively level it over time, I thought perhaps I should just put a sharp nail in my shoulder."


    "You want to put a nail in your shoulder, are you insane?" Emmi said staring at him.


    Three blinked, "I can turn the pain of in the selected area should it bother me, pain of this level wouldn''t bother me anyways." He shrugged, then muttered. "Perhaps poison would be more effective, I bet there is a skill for that as well."


    Emmi threw her hands up in the air, muttering about boys and insanity.


    Tinkman walked over to him and they started discussing several poisons that would not bother him with his regeneration rate yet would be effective and lasted long enough that it would increase his skill proficiency.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Eventually they decided on a proper poison to start with, taking out his tools Tinkman started working on it during the trip, gathering the ingredients on the way. Eventually he had a batch mixed up, he called the poison Cotton Wish. It had no cotton, nor anything to with a wish and when Three asked where the name came from Tinkman told him he honestly had no idea, he shrugged and gave him the poison.


    "You feelin it?" The halfling asked.


    "I feel a little light in my head." Three answered.


    "Most people would be puking their guts out right about now so your body seems to be handling it well!" Tinkman said whilst slapping his back.


    They talked some more about the effects of poison and before he knew it they had reached the village again and stood in front of the adventurers guild.


    Everyone ran in to get their rank ups, marveling at the changes it had on their bodies. Three got his upgrade and Emmi and Davis were impressed by his toughness when they slammed their weapons into his back to see if they could do any damage. Emmi managed to make a decent cut using her Slice ability with her new Ogre''s Might, Davis didn''t manage to do any damage at all. Happy with their new upgrades they headed back to their house, the hunting had taken up most of the day and night was falling. Emmi''s mother prepared another delicious meal, Emmi was animatedly telling the story of their fight with the Jurgor, Captain Tulo listening to his daughter with a small proud smile. Soon enough night had fallen, Sumi and Emmi were learning some stitching techniques and such from Emmi''s mother.


    Three told them they shouldn''t wait up for him as he would be heading out, the rest nodded getting back to their needle work.


    Tonight he would go hunting by himself, the fight against the Jurgor had made his lack of strength apparent and he would make sure to grow stronger.


    Three stepped out of the village, letting the guard who always took night duty at the north gate, a man called Lem, know he was heading out and would return later. Lem nodded and let him out, telling him to watch himself.


    Three stepped out into the northern wilderness, he had not yet gotten himself a new shield and had even decided to leave his hammer behind, a foolish idea most would say. He simply wanted to match his power against the creature that traversed the world on their strengths, their own terms. He envied them for this, he wanted similar power, he would take this power, tonight in the darkness under a moonlit sky, he would venture into the world of monsters, in an attempt to become one himself.


    Three made his way through the thickening forest, a good hour or two away from the village. He had asked Tinkman many questions about the species of creatures that lived around these parts, many interested him. For the first time he was glad of his lack of need for sleep, he had hidden it from his family and his party. The others still needed their sleep like regular people, he however, did not. A side effect of his core he supposed. He shook his head, ridding his head of thoughts as he paid more attention to the ground and the area around him. It did not take him long to find tracks, Warmors. He grinned, a good opponent to test his strength on, Warmors were the bottomfeeders of the northern wilderness. Small, covered in white fur, they resembled rats in their mannerisms. Their appearance had more of a smilarity with a small wolf and a sabertooth. Smaller than the a dog they were no threat for average monsters, until they attacked in packs. What he found here were plants and tracks trampling everything into the ground. There had to be atleast a few dozen of the creatures.


    Three clenched his fists as he followed the tracks further into the wilderness. He cautiously made his way forward, eyes sliding from one side to the other, searching for any sign of movement. A hiss made him twist, he stared one of the Warmors right in its beady red eyes. He spread his gaze around to see he had been surrounded by at least forty of the creatures. They all started hissing, the sound melding together into a soft, thrumming whisper through-out the forest. Three grinned and rolled his shoulders, he took a fighting stance and a deep breath, inflating his chest. Once he filled his lungs to capacity he let rip a roar of defiance that caused the Warmors around him to flinch and freeze for the briefest of moments.


    The creatures started hissing louder, agitated by the fact their prey dared fight back. A Warmor to his left took the initiative, leaping at him, its teeth bared. Three grinned, he threw his shoulder back and rammed his fist right into its mouth. The creature, eager at the opportunity clenched its jaws, determined to rip his arm off. Its teeth struggled to get through his newly attained Titanium Skin. Three in a moment of psychotic genius twisted his hand, wrapping his fingers around the creatures spine. The creature squealed as his fingers penetrated innards to wrap itself around the spinal column. Its brethren raced at him to help their hurt pack-mate. With a squeeze he shattered its spine, the creature going limp. He retracted his hand, covered in its dark crimson blood.


    Its brethren hissed enraged at seeing their brother fall, their fangs snapping at his arms and legs. They did not have the power to pierce his skin, he curled his fingers making a fist and started smashing into anything that moved around him. A Warmor jumped at his face, he grabbed both sides of its jaws and ripped them apart. Another lept for his neck, he spun around, twisting his body, his left heel gaining speed and smashing into the creature. Another gnawed at his ankle, he smashed its spine with a stomp. Another was closeby, Stomp, its brains splattered over the grass. He spun around throwing his fists and feet, even using his teeth at one point to devastate the ranks of creatures attacking him. Soon enough the creatures started backing off, hissing now not in anger, but in fear at the blood soaked creature they had mistaken for prey.


    With a screech they scattered back into the forest, leaving a blood soaked maniac smiling, eyes surveying the destruction he had caused. It felt good to fight those who attacked him, to squash them as they tried to harm him. It felt right! He rolled his shoulders as he wiped the blood from his eyes. It was not yet enough, he yearned for more, he needed stronger opponents. He walked deeper into the forest, searching for monsters that would prove more of a challenge.


    So lost was he in his search for battle that he never even noticed the announcement that appeared.


    [Skill: Aura of Fear gained]


    [Due to users genetic compatibility Aura of Fear has evolved into Dreadfull Presence]


    Not even knowing of the aura that wrapped itself around him, so dark it was nearly palpable, he headed deeper into the forest. Searching for something he knew would be a true challenge, he saw tracks of more Warmor packs but disregarded them. They had not provided him with a proper fight, that was when he came upon familiar tracks. A Jurgor, an opponent that had proven itself to be too much for him earlier today. He smiled, unaware of his fearsome appearence with his blood soaked clothes and dreadful presence.


    He followed the tracks through the wilderness, not bothering to hide his presence. His steps cracked twigs, and rustled leaves, he was loud enough to be heard from far away. He did not care, he was not here to hunt, he was here to challenge. The noise he made daring the Jurgor to come and protect its domain, he saw the claw marks on the tree, proving that he had indeed entered its territory. A roar heralded his next opponent, as a Jurgor even larger than the last approached him from across the clearing. It sported white scales yet instead of the usual black fur, this one had crimson fur, with crimson patterns framing its scales. Once he read the tag he new the difference.


    [Crimson Jurgor, Mutant ? Lvl : ???]


    A rare mutated version, its level had to be atleast ten above his. He grinned, licking his teeth, just the opponent he had been looking for.


    The Jurgor roared at him, angry at the cocky intruder that was challenging it. Three filled his lungs and roared a challenge of his own. He flexed his muscles, sending the familiar flow of power into them, his muscles rippled and flexed as they grew. He smashed his hand into his fist and charged. The Jurgor roared and raced forward to accept his challenge, the two smashed into each other, a mesh of teeth, fists, fur, scales and flesh. The jurgor managed to cut through his skin, leaving shallow cuts wherever it slashed. Three''s fists were doing damage as well, leaving dents and small bruises on its scales. It snapped at his neck with its teeth, Three used all the strength he could muster to keep it at bay, he worked his legs underneath its stomach and vaulted the creature over him, where it smashed into the ground. It rolled back unto its feet and growled. Three jumped back to his own feet and snarled, flexing his hands. The Jurgor charged, Three rolled his shoulders and met it fist first, his fist smashed into its jaw, the Jurgor shook its head to recover from the blow. Three not giving it any reprieve smashed his fists into whatever he could reach.


    The creature howled in pain but recovered, spinning around and slamming its tail into Three''s stomach with enormous force. He sailed through the air his back smashing into a tree, its bark splintering upon impact. He spit onto the snow, red splatter marking its flawless white surface. He looked up, surprised to see it was snowing. The Jurgor growled at him, angry that its opponent was taking his attention off it. The monster roared and charged once more, its claws flinging the newly fallen snow into the air. Three shook his head, getting his senses back and smashed into the creature. He lost the battle of momentum and was smashed into the ground, where the Jurgor was doing its utmost to turn the snow crimson with its foes blood.


    Its claws tearing first shallow, then deeper furrows into his skin. Three hissed in anger as he started smashing his fist repeatedly into the creatures ribcage, he felt the bone slowly giving way to his blows. His regeneration working overtime trying to close up the wounds. His tough body and skin the only things keeping every attack from being a fatal one. Three, disregarding the danger he was in, smashed his fist into the creatures rib cage time and time again, finally after a series of punches, so many that he had lost count, he felt the bone snap, the creature howled in pain and jumped off him, glaring. Three scrambled to his feet, the snow colored crimson beneath him, he pawed the snow with his bare feet feeling the cold ice and the dirt beneath it. He glared in challenge at the Jurgor, the Jurgor met his gaze with a glare of its own. Soon enough the two were at it again, trading punches for slashes, kicks for tail slams. Both of them biting and clawing at each other, Three was starting to get the upper hand, his regeneration showing its worth as his foe tired while he did not.


    The creature backed of, huffing in exhaustion. It glared at him but refused to back of, Three roared at the creature once more, the creature returning the gesture with a roar of its own. Although the roar was still impressive it had nowhere near the power it displayed when they first met. Three, not caring for its plight, charged the creature, the creature not willing to admit defeat faced down his charge with one of its own, its exhaustion fueled leap easily dodged. Three slipped past its maw and swung up upon its back, he wrapped his arms around its neck and pulled, cutting of its air supply. The creature yelped as it clawed the ground, Three refused to let go, It twisted in the air, slamming Three into the ground. Yet still he refused to let go, it growled and tried twisting and turning to get Three of its back. Suddenly it stopped moving, holding perfectly still. A sad rumble filled its chest, on instinct Three decided to let go. He jumped of the creatures back and walked in front of it. The jurgor stared at him with its lizard eyes, it flattened its ears and put its head on the snow. It rumbled again softly, the sound almost resembling a purr, Three walked up to the creature, the once mighty Jurgor staring him in the eyes, unmoving. Three gently extended his hand and put it on the creatures snout.


    [A Crimson Jurgor, Mutant ? Lvl : 31 has submitted to you, Accept it as your companion?]


    Three stared at the message wide eyed, he tapped it, checking for more information.


    [If you accept a creature to be your companion, you will receive ten percent of its stats, while it receives ten percent of yours. This does not remove any stats of your own, simply adding them to your own maximum. The highest level skill will be exchanged at 50% efficiency, neither party will lose any efficiency of the original skill. Companions loyalty is based upon actions and strength of both user and companion]


    Three smiled at the message, it would strengthen both him and the Jurgor. He would have to earn its loyalty though, at the very least he had proven himself to be the Alpha, that should be enough for now. He clicked accept, he now saw the Jurgor''s tag in green instead of the usual red.


    [Name companion?]


    Three stared at the message, scratching his chin. He thought of name, it was simple but he thought it fit his new friend.


    [Companion has been named Crimson]


    [Skill received, Heat vision.]


    [Your companion has received the skill, Lesser Regeneration]


    Three grinned at the messages, he looked towards his new friend.


    "Well Crimson, I will be heading back to town, I will come back tomorrow night!" He told the creature.


    It flattened the ears on its head, giving him a gentle nudge with its snout. He scratched its ear, heading out of the forest.


    With a last glance behind him, he left the forest. A pleased smile decorating his face.


    Three walked up to the gate, Lem''s eyes widened slightly upon his return. Three looked down at his clothes and saw he was covered in blood, most of it dried.


    "Good fight?" The guard asked.


    Three grinned and nodded "Good fight."


    Lem gave him a small smile and opened the gate, "Might want to wash up a bit before heading back to the house, there is a public bathouse not too far from here, you know where to find it?"


    "Yea Emmi told me about it before, it would be impolite to show up in this state, thank you for the advice."


    "No problem, ya have a nice night!"


    "You too." Three answered.


    He made his way to bathhouse, wondering if he could wash his clothes there as well. He entered the wooden building, it was a good deal larger than most other buildings in the village, the entire complex was based on the ground floor however. He entered the bathouse to be greeted by an elderly lady, she eyed him up and down. "Eight coppers for the bath."


    Three blinked, scratching his chin. He checked his pockets for money and frowned. "Its fine if you don''t have any on ya, just pay double next time." The elderly woman told him, waving him through the door.


    He entered the room, another woman had just finished taking off her clothes and was heading for the bath. She spotted him entering and her eyes widened when she noticed his clothes, Three nodded to her politely and took his clothes off. He put them into a device Emmi had called a MagiPress, It heated up both the cloth and the water, evaporiting it, the steam created soaked into the cloth, which after a few seconds the magic would reassorb, releasing heat and drying the clothes. An extremely convenient invention.


    He turned around to see the other woman had already entered the bath, he followed her, pulling aside the curtains to enter the steam room. The woman stood there, wiping off her body, his gaze lingered on her form. Her black hair matted, clinging to her body. A drop of water ran down from her hair, over her side, down a curve, then over her leg. He watched it flow, the woman turned around to look at him. Her sharp icy blue eyes sending a shock through his body. She was beautiful he realized. His body was reacting to it, he had never felt anything like this before, he rolled his shoulders uncomfortably.


    Trying to shake the feelings, he entered the bath, he felt the womans gaze linger on his back. He heard footsteps approaching him from, he tightened his muscles, trying to control his breathing.


    "There is a lot of blood in your hair, its awfully caked." Her silky voice split through the air sending a shiver down his spine. He tried to hold still, breathing in deeply.


    "Let me clean it for you." She whispered.


    Three tried to speak, to refuse her offer, but the words refused to come out. The woman pushed him forward a bit, deeper into the water. She took a seat on the bench behind him, he felt her warm flesh pressing against his hips, then his back. He was paralyzed, unable to move. She backed off slightly and ran her fingers through his hair. She took pluks of hair into her hands and meticously washed them clean. She ran a gentle hand over his shoulder, taking another pluck of hairs into her hands. The process continued for a while in complete silence. Three paralyzed by indecision, this was different from how he felt around the other girls. It confused him, these feelings, his... bodily reaction. He would have to ask Emmi about them.


    The silence stretched, the woman finally finished her work, cupping her hands and letting the water she gathered fall over his now matted hair. She moved back a little, tapping his shoulder. "If you would be so kind as to help me with my own hair?"


    "U-uh yes, of course." He muttered, feeling an unfamiliar heat rising to his cheeks. He turned around, the woman facing the wall, her hands folded resting on the ledge, she placed her chin on her hands, her back facing him. His breath caught as he saw the dim light reflect on her pale, moist skin. He saw the little curves from her spinal cord, the lines of muscle from her shoulders, the silky black hair clinging to her back. He saw the way her body thinned from the chest down, to widen slightly at the waist. Another jolt through his body, he waited a brief moment to calm himself.


    He took a deep breath and tried his best to copy what she had done to him, he scolded himself inwardly for his shaking hands. He took her hair in his hands and gently, carefully, set about cleaning them. A gentle sense of ease washed over him as he worked, it felt familiar, right. Different from fighting, it was... peacefull. Soon unbeknownst to him he was sporting a smile.


    Sooner than he would have liked he finished. He told her so, he watched her slowly get out of the bath, his eyes glued to her figure. She turned to face him, his eyes captivated by her gaze. "I have a farm of sorts in the northern area, ask Lem to point you you to it, I could use the help of a reliable young man like you, if you have the time drop by tomorrow." She smiled, the curves of her lips, the small gesture somehow sensual. Three quickly nodded his agreement, as she left the house. He couldn''t help watching her departing figure, he sank into the bathtub, struggling to comprehend what just happened.


    --- Vyria POV---


    Vyria left the bath behind, walking back to her clothes, she was panting now, her cheeks almost unnoticably flushed.


    ''What is wrong with me!'' She tried to still her heavy breathing.


    She thought back about the tall, muscular young man, his ivory palor, the crimson of dried blood clinging stubbornly to his skin. His confident, calm stature. The way he exuded strength, she remembered the way she wanted to flinch, the way she got goosebumps when he walked past her. Fear briefly slipped into her mind, replaced by an... unknown emotion.


    Then she had asked if she could wash his hair! She hadn''t even waited for him to respond, she had pressed her body against his and! She still struggled with the memory, she was a scientist! She spent her time figuring out problems, learning about monsters. She struggled with people she found it hard to talk to them, then what in the name of the seven fallen gods was that?! People called her cold, she didn''t feel any of that so called cold now, she felt her body heating up.


    She wondered if he would come to visit tomorrow.

 Chapter 10

    Three slipped back into his now clean clothing, he ran his hand through his hair, reminiscing about earlier events. He sighed, first he had to head back to the house, sunrise was coming and he did enjoy the food Emmi''s mother made for him.


    Making his way through the village, the few early risers gave him a wave or a nod. He responded as politely as he was wont to do. His mind, unlike what he wished focused, on the woman in the bath, he realized he never asked for her name. She had a farm? She didn''t look like any of the farm hands or owners he had seen before, she was skinny, her hands were soft. He shook his head trying to rid himself of such thoughts.


    He was looking forward to hunting with Crimson tonight, he bet the two of them together could get a lot done together. Maybe he should take Crimson to take a look at that farm, lost in his own thoughts , with little control as to where they slipped off to, he reached home. The others were slowly waking up and Selicia, Emmi''s mother, was already up and about making breakfast.


    She smiled as he walked in, then she eyed his clothes with a critical glare. "Drop the clothes on the desk in the tailory I''ll get them fixed, There is a spare set in the wardrobe in your room. Wake up Sumi while you''re at it would you dear?"


    Three nodded, "Yes Ma''am"


    He walked into the room, woke up the sleepy Sumi, her hair a mess and her eyes dreary and sunken as they were every morning. They headed to breakfast, people having small discussions about what they would do that day. Three wanted to tell them about his nightly escapade but decided to wait, he would go check on the woman''s farm then hunt for a night with Crimson before he introduced him to the rest.


    He wanted to ask Emmi about the events in the bath-house and what they meant but for some mysterious reason he could not bring himself to ask, he felt slightly jittery, he had spent all day rolling questions in his head. Before he knew it night was falling and the rest had already headed to bed, he could sparsely remember the day, everything a blur.


    He looked at the clothes he was wearing and decided to leave the shirt, wearing only the pants. The shirt served no real purpose, the cold never bothered him anyway. He kept the pants on only because of Emmi''s continued insistence that he wear pants at all times. He made his way back to the north gate after he told the others he was stepping out. He walked up to Lem.


    "I was told to visit a farm on the northern outskirts, a woman asked me to visit." Three told him.


    Lem grinned this weird grin like he knew some secret. "A nightly visit eh?Just head straight from here, then you''ll see a hill over yonder on the eastern side, that should be the farm ye be lookin for."


    "Thank you." Three bowed politely as he exited the gate.


    "You have fun now!" Lem shouted after him.


    Three nodded, he did enjoy hunting. First, however, he needed to find Crimson. It turned out he didn''t have to look hard, he could feel the presence of the Jurgor nearby, waiting just beyond the treeline. He could feel that it had waited for night to fall, for him to exit the city.


    "Before we go hunting," He told the approaching Jurgor, "I have someone I need to visit."


    For some strange reason he felt like the Jurgor understood the intent behind his words.


    The two of them headed towards the farm, after a few minutes of walking he saw the hill Lem had mentioned and made his way towards it. The closer he got to the ''farm'' the wider his eyes got, the so called farm had tall stone walls surrounding it, at least ten feet tall each and by the looks of it a few feet thick.


    He walked around the wall tracing his fingers over the thick stone, it was harder than he had expected, he rolled his shoulder and threw a proper punch at it. His fist smashed into the wall, to his surprise it had little to no effect on the wall, he even felt a dull ache in his fist. Crimson was testing the wall with its own claws, scratching at it with no results.


    He walked further along the wall until he came to a gate, not knowing what else to do he knocked. He heard a familiar voice from beyond the wall. "I will be there in a minute!"


    Three stood there waiting, almost an exact minute after she had called out the gates opened. In the entrance stood the woman he had come to see, she was wearing a beautiful tight fitting dress, its deep black accentuated by silver-white embroidery. He felt his gaze gravitating towards certain curvaceous areas but quickly pulled himself together looking her in the eye. His eyes flickered to her ears, only now noticing they were slightly pointed. He wondered how he had missed that before.


    "So you came to visit." She said a small smile on her lips.


    "I did."


    Her eyes floated over his companion. "And you brought such a beautiful creature with you."


    Crimson slightly bowed her head towards the woman. Much to the surprise of Three, he glanced from Crimson to the woman and back.


    "A Crimson Jurgor, quite a rare species. The Jurgor''s themselves are rare, they only live in this local area, but a Crimson Jurgor is a variant. It is special from birth, they are stronger than the average Jurgor. Their evolution potential and pathways are unknown. Truly an interesting specimen."


    She mumbled eyeing the creature with obvious interest. She started when she realised she lost herself in study of the Jurgor. A slight blush spread over her cheeks.


    "I realize I am being rude to my guest. I am Vyria, Monsterbreeder and evolutionary scientist. I moved to this area only recently so I could experiment in relative peace."


    Three bowed slightly, "I am Three."


    "Simply Three? You were named after a number?"


    Three scratched his neck. "I have no memories prior to a few years ago, I do not recall my own name or my past. Those I feel privileged to call family have given me my name and so I wear it proudly." He stated, straightening.


    She smiled reassuringly. "A name given by those who care about you should indeed be treasured, please enter, let me show you around."


    With a wave of her hand, she assured him inside, leading him into a place he would be spending more time than he would ever have thought.


    He followed Vyria into her home, Crimson following close on his heels.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, when did you and the Jurgor bond?" A gentle smile appearing on her face.


    "Yesterday."


    She blinked at the answer, "Did you save it from predators? Or approach it by slowly feeding it untill you could get close?"


    Three looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Nothing like that."


    She frowned, "Then how did you get a proud Jurgor to bind with you?"


    "We fought, I won." Thee shrugged.


    She stared at him incredulously, "You fought? A Jurgor would never acknowledge an adventurers party as an alpha, it is unheard of."


    "I wasn''t with my party, it was just me."


    Her jaw started dropping before she caught herself, "You fought a Crimson Jurgor alone and won? It still should not acknowledge you as an alpha for something similar as that, humans have the advantage of equipment, magic, potions etc. It is odd that a Jurgor would submit, I have tried delving into the monstrous mind before and I suspect they have some inborn loathing against potions, equipment or any magical means. It is impressive none the less but I wonder why it decided to bond with you."


    "I wasn''t using any equipment. I wore the same outfit as I am wearing now, except..." He scratched his head, suddenly extremely aware of his lack of shirt, "I did have a shirt, not that it survived the encounter intact."


    "You fought a Jurgor barehanded?!" She stopped in her tracks and was truly staring at him now.


    Three shrugged, "I''m hard to injure and even harder to kill. My skills make me tough."


    She gazed at him, curious. "May I ask what skills those are?"


    "Here, i''ll just show you." He handed her his status plate.


    Name : Three


    Age : ???


    Lvl : 11


    Occupation: N/a


    Class : N/a


    {Skill: Heat Vision : Skill level 4}


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 87}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 74}


    {Skill : White-Adamantium Skin : Skill level 42}


    {Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    {Stats} {Available : 15}


    {Strength : 48}


    {Agility : 18}


    {Dexterity : 18}


    {Vitality : 52}


    {Endurance : 34}


    {Wisdom : 12}


    {Intelligence : 13}


    {Charisma : 9 }


    Her eyes widened as she gazed at his status plate. She started muttering to herself, she would look at a skill, then back to him. Her eyes trailing over his body. "But no scars... Because of regeneration?¡­ and this core, what does it mean?"


    She kept staring at the status plate, muttering under her breath. Her gaze suddenly snapped back to him.


    "You don''t have the monster tamer class or profession! How did you bond a pet?"


    "I didn''t bind a pet, Crimson is a companion." He said tilting his head.


    "A Companion, yes that makes sense, interesting. Do you mind if I run some tests on her?"


    Three blinked, "Crimson is female?"


    "Yes, these markings." She said pointing to the patterns on her flank, "Are only apparent on the females of the species."


    "I didn''t know that." Three answered, "You will have to ask her about the tests though,"


    "Ask... The Jurgor?" She mumbled, looking at the large monster. "I don''t think she can understand human speech."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Three shrugged, "She understands what I say."


    Vyria''s eyes widened. "The implications of this, how intelligent are they really." she started muttering again, she walked into a separate room, came back out with an empty book. She started writing things down, Three glanced at her shoulders watched them ripple, losing himself as he gazed at her amazed at the subtle movements and what it did to his emotional state. Her writing was tidy. It was orderly, flowing and pressed together to fully maximize use of space.


    He tried reading what she was wrote, only to realize he had no idea how to read. Shrugging, he waited for her to finish. Seconds turned to minutes, he sat down, leaning his back against Crimson who was lying on the floor, uninterested in the scribbling.


    With a sudden jerk of movement, she closed the book. She ran back into the room and came back with a tray full of tools he had never seen before. She walked over to Crimson, softly muttering under her breath. She poked and prodded Crimson with a varied amount of tools, Crimson completely ignored whatever it was she was doing.


    Every time she used a tool she would soon after start writing in her book again, completely oblivious to the fact that she had promised her guests a tour of the place.


    The whole process took upward of an hour, eventually Three followed her into the room she kept entering, Crimson close on his heels. He looked around the room, shelves upon shelves of books. An ordered wall with drawings and notes, a neatly organized clean steel table. Some small cages with creatures to the left, all of them of the same species, yet all of them slightly different. Next to each cage was a leather bound book similar to the one she was currently writing in.


    She walked up to Crimson, telling her she needed a small amount of blood, she would feel a slight prick, Crimson lay on the floor, showing her consent. Gently Vyria pushed a needle beneath one of her scales. The small vial attached to the needle filled with blood, the blood a shade darker than the his own. He watched the process with interest, she carefully removed a small drop of blood from the vial, putting it into a runed circle on top of the steel table.


    The blood evaporated as the runed circle glowed, briefly he could see Vyria reading something that appeared below the runic circle. She nodded to herself then walked over to him, asked him for some blood, he consented and she repeated the process. She read whatever the runic circle had told her, finger tapping against her chin.


    She turned to face him. "You and Crimson are not yet blood-bound are you?"


    "Blood-bound?"


    "It would require a sharing of each others blood, drinking some of it. It will bind the spirit of both companions. The bond will deepen and you will receive more benefits, you will share half of the skill level inyour two highest skills. Instead of ten percent of one, You can only blood-bind to a single companion in your lifetime however."


    Three nodded at the explanation, turning to Crimson. She was the first creature he bonded with, so he felt connected. He wondered if the blood-bond was similar to the connection he shared with the rest of his group. He asked Crimson what she thought about it, she seemed to be fine with bonding, he could feel her urge to become more powerfull, to never be beaten again.


    Three bit his wrist, the blood flowing down his arm. He held his arm to Crimsons snout, she licked the blood then bit in her own paw, and pushed it towards him. He licked up some of her blood and the two exchanged looks.


    A sudden wave of energy rushed through his body, he could feel copious amounts of information flooding his brain, dominating his senses. He could feel Crimson''s emotions, her presence. He could sense the things she saw, heard and smelled. He felt her urge to be out of this building and to hunt, he even felt the loyalty, far deeper than he expected. The sheer amount of trust Crimson put into him was unimaginable, he had no idea why she felt this way, especially after he had beaten her to a near pulp just the day before.


    Crimson was going through a similar process, he could tell. When the sudden surge of energy finished she pressed her snout to his chest, he scratched her ear. He could feel how pleasant it was for her, she enjoyed the ear scratch. He smiled at the sensation, some of it flooding his own system, he was technically giving himself an ear scratch as well. He grinned at the thought.


    "What do you think of the bond?" Vyria curiously asked.


    "It is, indescribable, overwhelming even." Three looked around the room, seeing things in new shades, smelling things he never could before. He was overwhelmed by the sensation, staring around the room with wide eyes.


    Vyria suddenly froze as she heard a bleep from the corner of the room, she rushed over. Picked up a scroll and started reading, her face drawn tight from worry. She walked back over to Three, "I''m sorry to ask this so suddenly, but I need your aid."


    "What is it?"


    "One of the wilderling villages a weeks travel to the north, in the Cambarka mountains has been under undead attack, they are in need of swift aid. Most people would tire from the travel and need a week to reach it, If you rode Crimson you could reach the village in half that time, it might be just in time to save the tribe."


    "I will ride out immediately." Three stated, another emotion he had never felt before swelling, compelling him to action. "I would ask you to let my party know."


    Without further adoo, he started running through the hall, Crimson alongside him, with a swift jump he swung on her back, Vyria ran after them, throwing a crystal at him.


    "The crystal will guide you to the village, it will periodically shine some light in the direction you need to go!"


    Three nodded, Crimson flexed her muscles, sunk through her knees and started running through the snow at full sprint, kicking up snow in her passing. Three hung low, the wind whistling overhead. His eyes focused on something in the far distance, people needed his help, and he would be sure to reach them in time.


    ---- Crimson POV -----


    I run, I run very fast, new friend wants to go somewhere, wants to go fast, So I run fast. Feels strange, friend looks like other two legs, feels different. Strong, no pointy things or shiny things to fight. Still defeat me, new friend strong. Drank some of his blood, now new friend feels strange. I feel his feel. It confusing, I understand new friend. He makes sounds, I don''t understand the sounds, but I know what he wants.


    I get stronger, I bind with new friend, I get stronger. Give blood to new friend, drink his, even stronger. Now never tired, like new friend, want to fight, want to hunt. Hunt together with new friend, I stronger with new friend. Never had friend, others see me different. Color different, treated different, not one of pack, they think I not strong hunter. Now I stronger than even alpha! Maybe...


    With new friend stronger than pack, new friend my pack? New friend alpha? New friend stronger than alpha that make me leave pack.


    Prrrrrrrr, new friend do the scratchy thing, I like scratchy thing, feel good. I scratchy friend? Maybe friend not like scratchy, should try scratchy?


    Friend wants to stop, I stop. Friend jumps of back, looks around, he take shiny. Shiny shines even shinier! Pretty shiny, not pointy shiny, this shiny no hurt. I like shiny shiny.


    Friend look at shiny then look at forest, good time for scratchy? I scratchy friend!


    ------ Three POV ------


    They had been running for almost three days now, they should be getting close. It was time to check the crystal Vyria had given him to make sure he was going in the right direction.


    Three jumped of Crimsons back, he took out the crystal he had gotten from Vyria, it had a peculiar shape, it was flat and had eight sides. A glow would arrive from one of eight points that was closest to the direction he needed to go.


    He focused on the crystal turning it slightly to pinpoint the right direction. Something sharp prodded him behind his ear, he froze at the sensation. He felt through his newly acquired bond that Crimson was trying something, he turned around and looked at her. Crimson''s ears drooped, he felt the disappointment through the bond. He walked towards her, lifted her paw and scratched himself with her claw behind his ear.


    Her ears shot back up, tail wagging fiercely, knocking up snow. Three was pretty sure that the force of that wag had put a crack in the tree over there. He watched as Crimson used the claw to scratch him behind the ear. He grinned as he suddenly understood what she had wanted to do, she wanted to give him an ear scratch like he had given her. Most people would feel apprehensive about letting a two and a half meter tall, five meter long, creature put a claw to their head. Especially seeing as the claw was the size of his head in and of itself. He felt safe however, he felt more comfortable around the Jurgor than he had in a long time.


    Was he more comfortable around the Jurgor than he was around his own group? He honestly wasn''t sure. The Jurgor wanted nothing, needed nothing other than his companionship, he was sure that even if he gave her no ear scratches she would still follow him. Not that he would stop, he rather liked giving her ear scratches. The way she purred and her tail wagged when he did so struck a cord in his heart.


    Although he supposed it would strike fear into the hearts of most others, A Jurgor was a fearsome monster after all. Not his Jurgor though, He scratched her behind the ear again, ears perking up and tail wagging. He grinned, she was like an overly large dog, except cuter. He started using both hands, scratching behind both her ears.


    Crimson''s tail wagged hard enough that it started uprooting the earth, she flopped down on her back and exposed her stomach. He started scratching the scales, jumping on her stomach so he could go at the petting with more force.


    Scratch, scratch,scratch! He started scratching every scale he could reach, Crimson purring, the low rumbling sound sending vibrations through her body. Her skin practically rippled from the sound. He started laughing, more of a cackle than an actual laugh if he was being honest.


    "What are you doing?" A voice interrupted his reverie.


    He froze at the sound, heat running to his cheeks. He turned to see a young girl, her long gray hair falling in loose strands around her fur clothing. She had her head tilted and seemed confused by the scene before her. Three cleared his throat, "I was taming this fearsome Jurgor."


    "You were tickling her." The girl stated.


    "It''s a rigorous training techni-"


    The girl interrupted, "Tickling"


    "For taming fearso-"


    "Tickling!" She stated again.


    He looked at the child, pausing "You saw an illusion, fancy magic."


    "No i didn''t!"


    "Yes you did, I am an extremely powerful mage."


    "LIES!" The girl yelled.


    "It is obviously impossible to tickle a monster as fearsome as a Jurgor." He told her confidently.


    The girl pursed her lips, stomping over towards Crimson. She walked over to a monster more than five times her size. Crimson lowered her snout towards the girl, staring at her in curiosity. The girl curled her fingers and scratched the Jurgor behind the ears. When Crimson purred in response the girl giggled and snuggled up to her, scratching her behind the ears.


    "Good monster, nice monster!" The girl exclaimed.


    "What in the blazes is going on!" A deep voice roared from further in the forest.


    A man stepped out into the clearing where the girl had come from, wearing fur clothing similar to the girls. He had short graying hair and a short cut beard to match it. His eyes were glaring and his face torn in rage as he watched the girl play with the monster.


    "Vila! Step away from the monster!" The man ordered, drawing a large axe.


    Three stepped between him and Crimson glaring at the man.


    "Don''t wanna! She''s soft! Fluffy!" The girl yelled back.


    "It is dangerous!" The man told her.


    "Actually she is my companion, she will do no harm to the child." Three told the man.


    The man blinked, lowering his axe. "My apologies, I thought it was a wild Jurgor, The girl has a nasty habit of going out and playing with monsters. No amount of caution whatsoever, Vyria has been a terrible influence."


    "Well Crimson is harmless to those I consider friends. Vyria sent me over when she heard about your village being under attack, is it not dangerous to leave children wandering around when the village is under siege?"


    The man spat, "Yea it would be, if they weren''t undead. Those rotten fleshbags only attack at night, most of the villagers are busy shoring up whatever amount of defenses they can. The children we leave to their own devices, they know the area and should be fine." He then glared at Vila, "Most of them have a proper sense of danger."


    "Myself and Crimson have come to assist. Tell me more about these undead."


    The man nodded and motioned for Three to follow him. "My name is Firius, I''m the village chief for what that''s worth, not that people actually listen to me. The undead are more of an annoyance than an actual danger, I wouldn''t be worried if their numbers had not been steadily growing. Most are simply zombies and skeletons, all of them so far actually, never any higher than level five."


    He walked through the snow leading Three to the village, Vila had climbed ontop of Crimson''s back and the pair was following on his heels.


    "The average level of a villager is between the twenty and the thirty, we live life out here in the wilderness because we enjoy the sense of danger, the struggle for survival and clawing out a place in the world with our own power. None of those nobles telling us what to do with our lives, freedom and a sense of adventure, that is what we have here. It makes the people tough, hardened. A few level five undead would barely pose a threat. That was until their numbers started becoming a problem.


    Firius sighed, "Last night there had to have been around a thousand of the rotters. We have over eight hundred villagers that are combat capable, so it was no real threat. The problem being the numbers had nearly doubled from the night before. It''s been doubling almost since they started their attacks a week ago, my advisor noticed the pattern and advised we call for aid as soon as possible. You must be a capable adventurer for Vyria to send you over, knowing her she is probably mobilizing others to come as well."


    Three nodded at the explanation, "Do you know where the undead originate from?"


    Firius shook his head, "We have sent scouts looking for whatever ruin or dank tomb they sprung up from but we have been unable to locate their position."


    The man stopped and smiled as he left the edge of the forest, they had been closer to the village then Three had realized. Before him lay a small village with sturdy wooden walls, a few watchtowers, people were milling around digging trenches and placing spikes and similar obstructive items in the fields surrounding the village. The villagers had a determined look on their face, but they did not seem as grim as Three had been expecting.


    Firius swung his hand gesturing at the village. "Welcome to Snowhome, the village in the north!"

 Chapter 11

    Three headed towards the village, close on Firius''s heels. He was explaining how they had been expanding their defenses, preparing for the nightly fights. They had put out scouts, tracking the undead from where they came from but the undead left little to no tracks, puzzling the trackers. Undead should shamble through everything in their path, leaving obvious and easily traceable tracks. Every night however, a mist and snowstorm covered their coming, the trackers managed to get slightly closer to where the undead came from each night yet they still had not reached the point of origin.


    The trackers were kept in the field, every day or two they would send a group to switch out, so they could further track the undead and receive reports on wherever it was they came from. Firius and the rest of the council were getting frustrated, they had become sure that it was a co?rdinated attack but they had no idea as of the purpose. Why throw increasingly large waves at the village instead of combining all the undead they could and wiping the village out in one fell swoop.


    Why go through such an extent to cover where the undead came from, why attack the village in the first place? Too many questions and no answers, the villagers outside of the council seemed to take things rather well, too well in fact. Firius told Three about them not seeing the severity of the situation, the villagers saw it as merely another nightly problem and a good way to train their skills.


    Firius had asked if Three was skilled in magic, anything that could be used to shore up the defenses. Three told him he had no magic abilities at all. He had tried once upon a time to learn one of the fire arrow spells Sumi used, for some reason the spell kept falling apart when he tried to use it. He had plenty of physical strength to go around however so Firius asked him to aid the loggers, the men were chopping trees down around the village, creating a cleared area to give them a line of sight. The chopped down trees were used to create pitfall traps, strengthen the walls, spiked trenches, anything they could think of that would slow down the undead.


    One particularly large logger walked over to Three, gave him an axe, and pointed his chin at a tree. Telling him what to do without so much as a word, Three nodded taking a few practice swings with the axe as he set his sights on the tree. He pulled back fed some energy into his muscles and slammed his axe into the tree, it bit in rather far. With a few more energy fueled chops the tree started falling, yelling the appropriate timber to warn other loggers of the falling he tree he watched the wooden giant crash into the snow.


    A group of woodcutters ran up, picked up the tree in its entirety showing off their raw strength, and took it to their workshop, were they turned the tree into planks or spikes. Whichever project had taken priority, Three soon lost himself in the rhythm of tree chopping, soon enough night was falling and his hands were covered in saw dust, the saw dust clinging to his sweat covered torso, dense enough to make it seem like he had bark of his own. One of the loggers came over with a bucket of water, the man raised an eyebrow as he lifted the bucket. Three nodded and the woodcutter dumped the contents of the ice-cold bucket over him, clearing away the dust, sweat and grime.


    Together with the woodcutter he made his way over to the improvised wall, Firius was giving out commands. Anyone proficient with any kind of ranged weapon was manning the wall, arrows would do little against a skeleton but an arrow to the brain of a zombie would take it out, the other men, most of them with axes, were put in the trenches.


    "What kind of weapon do you use?" Firius asked him, checking him for sheaths.


    Three raised his hands, "Mostly these." He answered waving his hands.


    Firius raised his eyebrows, "I could use you in one of the trenches, if you think you can fight the undead bare handed?"


    "Actually if you do not mind, I will be charging right into their center as soon as i see them. Nothing a level five skeleton or undead can throw at me, will harm me. So it would be most effective for me to thin their ranks."


    "Are you sure, numbers could kill even a high rank adventurer like yourself." Firius said, doubt evident in his voice.


    "I''m afraid i wasn''t clear, they quite literally cannot harm me. They simply do not have the strength to get through my defensive skills." Three showed Firius the status plate, he had taken to wearing it around his neck on a chain. None could see what it had inscribed unless he gave it to them to look.


    Like many others before him, the tribal chieftains eyes widened as he saw the skills on his status plate. The mans eyes widened even further when he looked at the level, his gaze switched between the level and Crimson, who had been playing with his daughter nearly all day. He muttered to himself, but nodded his consent to Three''s battle plan.


    The sun dipped below the mountains, covering the land in shadow. The temperature noticeably dropped, he felt the men around him tense, as he waited with them in the trench closest to the forest. The man next to him gripped his axe, knuckles white, as a fog started rolling through the forest. Three blinked, having expected it to take a few hours before they arrived. The fog clung around the entrance to the clearing, swirling around the trees. For some reason, it held its place between the trees.


    Crunching leaves replaced the eariy quiet, shuffling steps heard beyond the mist, not yet visible. Branches snapped, moaning, teeth grinding, footsteps, some stomping, some dragging, filled the night air. At long last the first of the undead appeared in the fog, its dark form a stark contrast against the gray. More forms appeared beside it, stretching from the far left to the far right. Ranks upon ranks of skeletons and zombies spilled out of the forest, their uncaring gaze locked onto their would be prey ahead.


    Three concluded with near surety that the undead quickened their pace as soon as they laid their gaze upon the living. He stood up, leaving the trench, the men beside him gazing at him with wide eyes. Crimson got to her feet behind him, stepping over the trench. Three marched towards the encroaching army, rolling his shoulders, stretching his fingers in anticipation of the battle. The undead were slow, mind-numbingly so, he was tired of waiting, he could feel the thrum of his blood , the beating of his heart.


    His heart soared as he started picking up the pace, his own battle-lust increased two fold from the sensations Crimson was feeding him. His eyes relaxed, releasing its focus as he raced towards the undead rank, muscles rippling, energy flowing throughout his body, increasing his mass, his size, he roared a wordless challenge as he crashed into the ranks. Smashing through the fragile skeletons, zombies were knocked over, crashed to the ground as they helplessly clawed at his skin trying to rip it from his bones.


    The weaponless skeletons started bashing him with their fists, their attempts futile in every way as they did nothing to harm him, zombies clawed, bit, their attempts meaningless against his defensive skills. He crushed the skulls of zombies beneath the heel of his feet, ripped skeletons apart with his bare hands, tearing through the ranks of the undead with no regard for his own safety, unfettered because nothing was a danger to him.


    Crimson tore through the ranks behind him, her sheer size proving destructive as she mowed through their ranks, the undead managing to inflict minor wounds and scratches upon her scales and hide. None of them anywhere near deep enough to stop the regeneration from closing her wounds before they could exploit the injuries.


    The men behind them watched in awe as they saw their new allies tear through ranks with veritable ease. Firius kept his calm and ordered those with ranged weaponry to make ready. Bows were pulled back, crossbows took aim, slings started whirling.


    "LOOSE!" The tribal chieftain roared.


    Various projectiles whistled through the air, smashing into the ranks of the undead, killing few, but injuring many. Skeletons lost limbs to the pebbles, zombies went down with arrows to their legs, the undead behind them unminding of those in front tripping over the front ranks. The men in the trenches rushed out, crushing the fallen undead, smashing skulls left and right, taking those that were disabled out of the fight permanently. A roar from the tribal chieftain and they dashed back towards the trenches, as a new wave of projectiles smashed into the ranks. The men charged forward again, repeating the process.


    There were over two thousand of the undead rank and file, they were easily smashed apart under the assualt from those higher in rank, intelligence, and fighting skill. Three could still be seen tearing through the ranks in the distance, the occasional flying skull, or torn of limb signaling the others as to his location. Crimson made a fearsome sight, tearing through the ranks, her tail smashing apart skeletons, half a dozen at a time. She bit a zombie in half, throwing the torso into another group of skeletons, smashing their bones apart.


    The villagers watched in awe as the pair tore apart the undead, the creatures instead focusing on those in their midst, their attack on the village forgotten as they tried to surround and bring down the pair with sheer numbers. The villagers did nothing but stare at the sight, bones, limbs, guts flying around. Monsters torn in half from the sheer ferocity the two newcomers displayed. They stood upon numerous corpses, the pile growing as the undead clambered to the top trying to get at the man that was tearing their brethren apart.


    Soon enough an eerie silence returned to the clearing as the last of the undead fell, Three rolled his shoulders, stretching his muscles. He stepped down the hill of dead he had created and walked back towards the village. Aware of the gazes upon him, he made quite the sight, covered in gore as he was. Skeletons made for clean killing, Zombies, however, did not, they were easy to tear apart and their organs, dried blood, splattered as he crushed their skulls, or ripped of their limbs.


    Firius walked towards him. "That was quite the show you put on, seeing as your level was not yet very high, you might have unlocked a class. We don''t have an adventurers guild or anything similar, but we do have a spring, pregnant with world energy, you could use the bath, and it will give you the chance to level up while you''re at it.


    Three nodded, following the chieftain to the spring, behind the village, slightly up the mountain. The other villagers let him through near worship coloring their faces. He walked through the entrance, the village had constructed a wooden building as an entrance to the spring. Giving those taking a bath some small measure of privacy.


    He sank into the bath, completely forgetting to take off his clothes. He relaxed into the warm embrace of water as he stared at the notification he received.


    {Calculating rewards, Three classes available, you may choose one of the following classes.}


    {Warrior, Offensive


    {Warrior, Defensive


    {Monster Tamer.}


    Three let his gaze wander over the choices, as he pondered his decision.


    Three looked at the choices, finger hovering over each of them. The smart choice would be to wait until he had more information over each of the classes yet honestly he did not want to wait, he decided to go with his gut. His finger hovered over the monster tamer option and he pressed, he felt a hum as the information on his status plate changed. He took a look, deciding it would also be a good time to invest his status points.


    Name : Three


    Age : ???


    Lvl : 17


    Occupation : N/a


    Class : Monster Tamer


    {Skill: Heat Vision : Skill level 12}


    {Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 88}


    {Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}


    {Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 75}


    {Skill : White-Adamantium Skin : Skill level 43}


    {Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}


    {Skill : Enhanced senses Skill level 3 (toggled : Off)}


    {Skill : Bind Creature Skill Level 7}


    {Skill : Conscription Skill Level 7}


    {Skill : Challenging Cry Skill Level 4}


    {Skill : Stomp Skill level 8}


    {Perk : Mana-sustenance}


    {Perk : Battered Body }


    {Inheritant-Core - ?????}


    {Stats} {Available : 35}


    {Strength : 48}


    {Agility : 18}


    {Dexterity : 18}


    {Vitality : 52}


    {Endurance : 34}


    {Wisdom : 12}


    {Intelligence : 13}


    {Charisma : 9 }


    Three looked through his new skill, suprised he had four new skills instead of the two he had expected. He thought about it a while before he realised that one of the skills was one he had gotten from Crimson, Enhanced Senses was the most likely candidate. He was suprised it was toggled off, he had never noticed it before. He turned it on.


    He blinked as everything was suddenly clearer, the colours more pronounced, he could smell the spring water, the earth and the trees around it, he smelled the faint odor of death and decay as it was washed off him. He heard the trickle of water, the chirp of birds, he heard so much more than he had before. He understood now why the skill had a toggle, people that were unused to the experience would have a sensatory overload, imagine getting the skill mid combat, it would be distracting enough to get you killed. Three decided to leave the skill on so he could grow accustomed to it.


    He then took a look at the other skills.


    {Skill Bind-Creature, Skill level 7}


    {Bind a creature to your soul, Bound creatures will become a companion, one creature can be bound for every ten levels an individual possesses. Bound creatures receive ten percent of the users highest skill, the amount of percent the creature receives is increased by five percent per ten levels.}


    He nodded, the skill made sense, he could bind a creature like he had Crimson for every ten levels he had, he checked but apparently Crimson had not counted towards the limit, presumably because they were blood-bound. He looked at the next skill.


    {Skill : Conscription Skill Level 7}


    {Conscript a creature into your service, conscripted creatures do not receive a bonus from their tamer, a monster tamer can conscript three creatures per ten levels the individual possesses. Conscripted creatures can still gain levels, and evolve at their level intervals, if their level surpasses the tamer''s they will lose control over the creature.}


    That made sense, if all the creatures received his lesser regeneration he would have a powerful army at his command. He would have to look into this evolving however, he had to admit he was interested in the prospects it promised. He took a look at the last skill, it sounded ominous and he could not remember when or how he had received the skill.


    {Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}


    {Inspire fear in those you deem your enemy, current range, two-hundred meters. Creatures that do not have the capability of feeling fear are unaffected. This skill is the evolved version of the skill Aura of Fear, level bonuses still apply.]


    {Level 25 ¨C Double the effective range of the aura}


    {Level 50 ¨C Creatures below the users level have a chance to panic, attacking allies.}


    {Level 75 ¨C Creatures less than half the users level will be paralyzed in fear.]


    {level 100 ¨C Creatures at 10% or below of the user''s level will die outright due to heart failure, creatures without a heart are immune}


    Three''s eyes widened as he read about the skill, not only was it an evolved version, but he kill could creatures outright if he deemed them his enemies and they were within four-hundred meters of him. It might not be dangerous now but he would have to be careful if he ever entered cities when he was a higher level. He hoped there was a way to control the aura.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    He shrugged, he would have to ask those more knowledgeable about the skill. It had no effect on the undead, and so far he had not considered any human his enemy. He had considered the chieftain a threat for a brief moment, but not an enemy. He would have to start being careful about the distinction.


    He knew what he wanted to do with his stats, he had agreed first with Emmi and her explanation about putting the stats in vitality and endurance. Now that he had been through various battles however, he noted that he was more than sturdy enough, his defensive skill and his battered body perk making him insanely hard to harm. He was basically invulnerable to those around his own level. Instead on impulse, he dumped all his stat points in strength, raising it to a staggering eighty-three.


    He shot up suddenly, the water splashing as he rushed out of the pool, he put on a fresh pair of pants the villagers had laid out for him as he rushed back to the village, he headed to the battle field. He wanted a live skeleton, he wanted to turn it into a companion, he also wanted to max out his conscript limits. The villagers watched as he rushed past them , towards the battlefield he felt the new strength stats influence his body, as his feet pushed the ground, propelling him forward at before unattainable speeds. When he tried to turn a corner however that became much more difficult, he almost smashed right through a building as he tried to turn at full speed.


    Slowing down some he pondered how his straight speed had been greatly enhanced but he still had trouble maneuvering around corners, presumably this was because of his lack in the agility stat. He was probably not going to invest in the stat, he rarely even attempted to dodge an attack, instead trusting in his body to hold out as he fought his enemies face to face. He let his mind wander during his sprint, his regeneration keeping him from feeling even the slightest amount of exhaustion.


    He reached the villagers as they were disposing of the corpses, he ran up to them. "Are there still any of the undead left alive?"


    The men gazed at each other, then one of em turned around. "GUYS, if ya find a live one don''t kill it yet! The new one wants something with it."


    Another voice answered, "Ye called just in time, I was about to stomp this skeletons head in! Head on over."


    Three headed towards the voice, surprised to see the large, formerly silent woodcutter standing over a skeleton, who was struggling as it was buried beneath a small pile of zombies, it was trying to claw at the woodcutter''s ankles, the man didn''t even bother to dodge. Its bony fingers clawing at the man''s skin, to no visible effect.


    "So what do you have planned with one of the rotters?" The man asked as he eyed Three.


    "Just got the class Monster Tamer, I want to bind one, and conscript some others if I can." He told the man.


    The woodcutter nodded as if it was a natural thing. "Do ya know how the binding works?"


    Three blinked, to be honest he had no clue, he assumed not all bindings went the way they did with Crimson. He thought for a moment then shook his head, explaining to the man how he had bonded with Crimson, speaking of the devil she just appeared behind. Slow lumbering steps taking her closer as she peered over his shoulder curiously.


    "I do not actually." Three admitted.


    "Well its not truly that difficult, we have two monster tamers in the village, just touch the creature in question and put your will into it, you will feel some pressure, if you overcome the pressure you win. Just imagine a bond when you do, otherwise it will be a conscription." The woodcutter told him.


    "I see, thank you for the explanation." Three put his hand on the skeleton and imagined the bond forming, he willed it to form, he pushed his energy into the skeleton. As the woodcutter had told him he came across a pressure, it was barely there however, like a bush trying to stop a tidal wave, he washed over it and exerted his pressure into the skeleton.


    The connection formed and he felt the bond, the skeleton had no emotions of its own that passed through the bond, it simply existed. It no longer saw anyone around it as enemies either, nor did it have an undead''s known hunkering for killing the living. All in all the entire bonding process was rather anti-climatic.


    He helped the skeleton from under the small pile of corpses, he put it on its feet and examined it.


    {Skeleton Level : 5}


    {Skill Lesser regeneration skill level : 9}


    {Skill Tough Bones skill level 12}


    Its status page was laughably empty, Three wondered how much it would improve if he leveled it up, or the changes when it evolved, he asked the woodcutter about it.


    "Most monsters don''t have stats like us, they have skills but the stats are the same for each monster of the same species, the only stat gain they have is when they evolve. Monsters like the Skeleton evolve every ten levels, although their evolutions are minor. Monsters like your Jurgor evolve at the same levels as we rank up. The first evolutions for monsters like her," He said pointing a thumb at Crimson. "Are from Newborn to young, and then from young to adult, although it does not point out a creature is an adult in its tag. Their more interesting evolutions happen at level fifty and after, the changes make them a great deal stronger once that happens."


    Three nodded his thanks as he was deciding what to name the skeleton. Vila came running over, "Wassat?" She asked pointing at the skeleton.


    "A skeleton I tamed." Three answered.


    "You give it name yet?" The girl asked cocking her head.


    "No i have not."


    "Name it Sir Kelly Tonn!" She yelled.


    The woodcutter chuckled, Three frowned, "I am not naming it that."


    The girl pouted and pointed, "Sir Kelly Tonn is a great name, name it that!"


    Three pointed his thumb at the skeleton.


    "Naming that Sir Kelly Tonn is!" He started saying before an announcement interrupted him.


    {Skeleton level 5 has been renamed to Sir Kelly Tonn level 5}


    Three cursed as he read the announcement, Vila cheered as she read the tag, with the name she had wanted above it.


    Three sighed, this girl definitely brought him bad luck. He looked at his brand new skeleton, noticing the woodcutter laughing his head off. He sighed again, well nothing to be done about it. He walked over to the other piles, looking for undead to conscript.


    Three made his rounds among the corpse piles, finding another somewhat intact skeleton and two zombies, who were surprisingly whole, so he conscripted them. He decided to hold off on naming them, he suspected that conscripts would not be as strong and at the level they were at would not survive for extended periods of time.


    Vila had taken to following him around, naming his pets regardless of what he told her. The other skeleton was named Bony Bones, the two zombies were named Shuffles and Armless. Armless had both arms, Shuffles did not. He looked at Vila and rolled his eyes. Her naming sense was terrible, he would make sure that his next companion was named with her far, far, far, very far, very very far away.


    Nearly all the fighters that had fought during the night were heading to their houses to rest. The few that had no need for sleep like him helped with the clean-up, he let Sir Kelly Ton finish off any remaining undead that were alive. Pushing the skeleton to level seven. He noticed that instead of its stats increasing its skill levels increased in level. It had gone up a mere two levels but its skill Tough bones had doubled in level.


    It made him wonder if monsters gained their strength between levels through gains in skill levels, while their stats only increased upon evolution, he was curious about what this meant about the main difference between man and monster. It made him wonder about the core inside his own body, over the course of time he had begun to think about it being a core from a monster of sorts that the hags had somehow integrated into his physique.


    Yet his skill levels did not increase with his increase of level, he had the stats per level same as any other race did. Although he had noticed that his increase of strength per stat point was larger than those of others, he also didn''t seem to be as reliant on stat-points for skill-level increase. He had done some asking around and some skills would level faster for people focusing on a certain stat, his stomp skill, for instance, would level with strength. Yet although he had appointed a great amount to strength the skill did not increase in leveling potential as far as he had observed.


    Skills that were reliant on other stats did not slow down either, his challenging cry skill had leveled despite him putting no points in charisma, the stat the skill was tied to. He wondered if this was the effect of his core. If it was the effect of his core it could mean many things, first of all he could focus his stats on his physical stats without it being detrimental to his skill gain. He could have possibly become a physically strong mage, he remembered trying to learn some of the spells from Sumi, end result was him burning off his eyebrows. Magic went out of control when it was near him, making him a no-go for a mage.


    Then there was the energy he could send into his muscles, increasing their size, toughness and efficiency. He had not heard of anyone doing anything similar and he had taken the time to ask around. He suspected it to be tied to his strength stat, so he poured his points into strength. It did not increase the power of the energy to any noticeable degree. He no longer needed the points in vitality and endurance yet it was a waste to not use his battered body perk to its optimal potential. It would increase the effects of his vitality by double, so he felt obligated to put a decent amount of points in the stat.


    His defenses had become strong enough that it was a waste to invest points into anything defense related besides the few points in vitality he focused on strength, he thought about using agility but all the battles he had been in, he choose to face his opponent, taking their blows head-on and throwing his own in turn. He sighed, the stats and their implications had bothered him for several days, he would have to ask Jer and the others to investigate by themselves so they could decide on a proper use of stats.


    He looked down at the corpse he was carrying over to the burnsite, around him he saw many of the women and children help drag the corpses around. They had won the battle, when the scouts had returned an hour ago they reported they had still not found the origin of the undead, meaning they could not yet put an end to the seemingly endless and evergrowing waves.


    He personally did not mind withstanding some more of the undead attacks, it was a great way for him to gain some levels. It would also increase the strength of his newly gained companion and pets rapidly, providing they managed to survive the night. He was not worried about Sir Kelly Ton surviving the night, he had the feeling that his lesser regeneration made the skeleton the next best thing to invincible since the monster had no core, brain or heart. No vital spot that could be severed meant it could regenerate from any amount of damage given enough time.


    It severely lacked in offensive strength however, something he hoped would increase with future evolutions, he thought he would be able to reach level twenty tonight, meaning he could get his second companion and another group of conscripts. He was also pondering his rank-up skill choice at level twenty five and what his class increase would be at the same level. He was curious and couldn''t help thinking about it despite knowing that it would only jumble his thoughts.


    He worked at cleaning the battlefield with all these thoughts floating his mind. Crimson was playing with Vila, who never got enough of the large Jurgor. The rest of his conscripts were helping him with moving the body, although they weren''t at all effective. The day passed as he worked. Together with the noncombatants he cleared the battle-field, restored any of the broken defenses while reinforcing what they could for the upcoming battle. Time swiftly passes as he helped around the village, soon the sun was setting again and the warriors came outside. They checked weapons and armour, helping others ready their equipment. Archers, slingers and crossbowmen gathered the ammunition they could from the fletchers and blacksmiths that had prepared them. Slingers making do with any round enough pebbles the children had found.


    The fighters took their places in the trenches, preparing for the battle ahead. Three stood infront of them, waiting for the fog to appear, his conscripts and companions next to him. He was ready for battle, wanted it, hungered for it. He grinned, tonight he would get to let loose some more.


    The fog started creeping through the trees once more, the eerie shuffle of undead feet heard. Branches broke underneath their feet, the crackle of rotten bodies stomping on leaves making the lines of fighters nervous. Three stood at the front of them all, his heart speeding up from his excitement. Crimson smelling the undead, growled at the forest. She shifted her massive shoulders, the fur rippling as her muscles tensed. The undead to his left, those under his control stood stoicly, waiting for commands. Soon enough the shapes started becoming visible through the fog, rotten grey zombies shuffling forward, their broken cracked flesh oozing, covered in dried blood.


    Some of the undead had changed, some of the zombies were larger, standing at seven feet. Taller than even Three, some zombies movements were more supple, smooth. Not the jerking movements of their brethren. Some skeletons he was sure had thicker bones, in a slightly darker shade. Some of them had spiked skeletal growths, jutting from elbows, knees, shoulders. He read the tags, level ten undead, those that had undergone their first evolution. Fast zombies, Large zombies, Tough skeletons and Strong skeletons. He grinned, perhaps tonight something might actually be able to damage him.


    He was tired of waiting, the undead could shuffle at their slow pace but he would not wait, with a roar he charged their shambeling ranks, Crimson following him, charging right beside him, to his suprirse even though they had not been commanded to do so the undead were doing their best to make a charge of their own. He smiled, thinking his own battle tendencies were seeping into those he bonded with. The smile grew when he smashed into the enemy line, his fists crushed the skeleton that reached for him, its fragile skull exploding into thousands of fragments.


    He tore an arm of a zombie attempting to harm him, using the improvised weapon to smash nearby skeletons. Crimson tore through the ranks like they were parchment, ripping her opponents to pieces with a imple swipe. To his left he saw his undead smack into the line, he saw Sir Kelly Ton duking it out with a zombie, its regeneration making up for the difference as the skeleton started pounding it''s opponent to the ground. Shuffles and Armless were tearing apart a skeleton together, both pulling on an arm till they snapped the skeleton, its bones collapsing to the floor.


    Three stomped, smashed, punched and threw anything that came within range. Behind him the villagers were fighting the undead, in the same manner as they had before, the undead no longer circled Three, they swarmed forward, only those in his vicinity attacked him, if they were further than ten meters out they ignored him and his bondlings and charged the villagers. Not that he noticed, he was too lost in the flow of battle to consider such perculiarities, he simply smashed his foes to bits, the new and improved undead not managing to even scratch his skin.


    He continued fighting, the roar of battle dieng down as the undead fell, less and less of them remained untill Three stomped on the skull of the last remaining zombie, its brains splattering between his toes. The feeling, while unpleasent, went unnoticed. He was still pumped for battle even though there were no more enemies to fight. He looked around, Sir Kelly was regenerating an arm he had lost, to his suprise Shuffles had also managed to survive the fight the other two conscripts were nowhere to be seen, he walked back towards the villagers, one of them handing him a flask of water.


    "Everytime I see you fight I''m amazed." The villager stated as he looked at Three.


    Three turned his head, cocking it slightly. "Howso?"


    "Well beyond the fact that you smash apart hundreds of undead as if it is the easiest thing in the world and the fact that the creatures can''t even harm you, what suprises me the most is that it does not tire you in the least. You have no sheen of sweat on your skin, you do not breathe heavily. There is nothing to show for your exerction, it is quite impressive."


    Three blinked at the compliment. "Thank you."


    The older man smiled, "You are welcome, I am just happy you came here when you did youngster. You have probably saved a good many of my fellow villagers lives by now."


    "It would have been wrong not to come and help." Three stated.


    The older man smiled, "That may be so, but very few would have rushed into the unknown to save total strangers, you are a rare breed youngling and I do not speak of your race."


    Three''s eyes followed the elder as he walked away, he found nothing strange about going to save people that needed it. It was the normal thing to do, was it not? He sat there thinking about his deciscion to help people he did not know. After a few moments lost in thought he concluded that it did not matter what the reason was, he was positive that he was doing the right thing and he would continue to do so.


    He looked over at Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton as they wandered over, Crimson was somewhat further away, one of the villagers was feeding her meat. Good thing they did because he had completely forgotten that the Jurgor needed sustenance, although he supposed she was perfectly capable of finding dinner herself, she had been on her own before he met her after all. He looked back towards his two remaining undead, seeing a small plus next to their name. Sir Kelly had reached level fifteen, and Shuffles level eleven.


    He clicked on the plus greeted by a notification.


    {Sir Kelly Ton has passed level 10}


    {Choose your Companions evolution


    {Strong Skeleton, Tough Skeleton}


    Three tapped his chin as he read the notification, the skeleton was tough enough due to the regeneration skill, which upon inspection was increasing along with the skeletons levels, the skill had reached level twenty-seven, opposing to the nine it had when he had granted it the skill. He selected the strong skeleton option. Sir Kelly Ton started changing, spikes grew out of its shoulders, fists, elbows and knees, its spine grew into a whole row of spikes. It looked alot more dangerous than it had before, he was also pretty sure that the skeleton had more spikes and was bigger than the other evolved skeletons he had fought today.


    Then he turned his gaze to Shuffles, he was still suprised to see the zombie had survived, although survived might be too big a word, one arm was missing, half of one leg. The way it hopped around and tripped over anything and everything was quite comical. Its chest was torn open, ribs snapped and Three was pretty sure the zombie was missing some intestines. He clicked on the plus next to the zombies name only to be suprised.


    {Shuffles has passed level 10}


    { Rare evolution possible, Rare evolution intigrated into the next evolution. Choose Evolution}


    { Large Zombie? , Fast Zombie?}


    He gave the evolution some thought but decided he would go for Fast Zombie, first thing first he made Shuffles a companion changing its bond. Its regeneration started setting in as its leg started growing back. Its arm also showed signs of healing. He pressed the evolution and watched the zombie change. To his suprise the zombie instantly healed from all its wounds. Its leg grew back in a near instant, same for its arm. Its flesh closed and any wounds it had healed instantly, it gained muscle beneath its previously decaying skin. The skin also did not look as dead as it did before, the skin was deathly gray sure, but the zombie no longer looked actually DEAD.


    It looked like a perfectly normal human being, it had no hair anywhere, and its skin was grey. But nothing was rotting, its eyes upon closer inspection were still the same milky white. He looked into the zombies new status as Three scratched his chin in interest.


    {Shuffles, Smart Zombie, Level 11}


    {Evolution Smart Zombie ? , Fast Zombie}


    Three blinked, the zombie had become smart, he wondered what had triggered the evolution. He payed some more attention to the bond and found that the Zombie was capable of thought, not at the same level as human, not yet atleast. But its intelligence riveled Crimson''s, He smiled at the deciscion, now that it was clever and could learn fighting tactics its speed increase would become much more evident in battle.


    The zombie jumped up and down, it started stretching its limbs testing its new found agility, its movements looked creepily human, although Three supposed the zombie really was human before.


    Three shrugged as he let the zombie do his thing, he went around looking for more left-over undead to conscript, his mind had been present enough that he had only crippled some of the evolved zombies and skeletons, so he could conscript them into his service. He went looking for those and conscripted them, filling the six slots he could now use as he looked at his level. He was at level twenty barely enough for his second bonding and another set of conscripts.


    He thought about his new class and how he was interested in the kind of class upgrades he could choose when he reached the level twenty five mark, he also had to decide what skill he would rank up. He thought he would go for the tough-body skill. The pain tolerance evolved version did not interest him as much, Jer had told him what it did and it simply did not seem like the right skill for him. He shrugged off his thoughts as he helped the villagers reinforce their defences once more.


    The next night was much the same, the wave of undead had slightly increased, and the number of elvolved undead had nearly doubled. The villagers were having slightly more trouble pushing the undead back but the sheer number of kills they got showed across an average increase in level between the lot of them. Anyone who had previously been stuck at level twenty-four had passed over, their strength increasing greatly. Three had leveled twice himself. Sir Kelly Tonn and Shuffles performed exemplary in their new evolved forms, Three had deduced correctly that those under his bonding, even his conscriptions increased in power from their counterparts.


    He and Crimson tore through the ranks with ease, just as they had done before. Shuffles and Sir Kelly Tonn could take on multiple opponents at the same time, Shuffles had taken to commanding the conscripts, he had formed his own little squad and was efficiently taking out his opponents, even Sir Kelly Ton followed the zombies commands, the group of them tearing through their unco?rdinated former brethren. After about a half hour of intense combat the situation died down. To his surprise Shuffles had only lost one of the conscripts under his command, he complimented the zombie on his efforts and he could swear that the monster puffed out its chest in pride. Three found another evolved creature and conscripted it, handing it over to Shuffles.


    He had gained only one level from the battle, the experience increase visibly slowing down. Sir Kelly Ton had reached level eighteen, Shuffles suprisingly had caught up and was also level Eighteen. The conscripts, excluding the new one were between level fourteen and sixteen. Once again Three helped repair any damage done over the day, and once again the day passed quickly and a new night fell. Fog appearing as the new army marched upon them.

 Chapter 12

    As the new undead marched towards them Three noticed that once again there were new types of undead in the mix, he saw several zombie like creatures walking on four legs, their sharp claws and even sharper teeth, glistening in the moonlight. The tags told him the creatures were called ghouls, some of the larger zombies were walking smoothly, similar to the fast zombies from the night before. Plenty of changed skeletons as well, although he barely noticed any difference between the level twenty and the level ten evolutions.


    Once again he prepared for battle, this time he had his bondlings, conscripts and himself pulled back in the trenches. He was in one of three foremost trenches. Three, Crimson and Sir Kelly were in the middle one, Shuffles and the conscripts in the rightmost, to his left was the large woodcutter and some of his bulkier friends. They waited as the undead slowly marched forward, his muscles ached for action, he calmed himself, reminding him that if he went of on his own he could endanger the villagers. He would do more good in the trenches.


    He had expected a different battle, a harder one, yet once again he stood among the corpses barely injured. None of the villagers had been killed, and he had gained two levels. He must have been really close to the twenty-first level to reach the twenty-second. Something that excited him more than the battle was that both Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton had reached level twenty and were ready for their evolutions.


    {Sir Kelly Tonn has passed level 20}


    {Choose your Companions evolution


    {Strong Tough Skeleton, Strong Skilled Skeleton}


    He scratched his chin for a moment as he thought over the decision, he thought it spoke for itself as he selected the skilled evolution. Sir Kelly Tonn was tough enough as it was, if he could survive a battle against near two thousand of his compatriots, both the same and a higher level than he was, then he should be alright. The evolution available to Shuffles however gave him a moments pause.


    {Shuffles has passed level 20}


    Choose your Companions Evolution}


    { Large Fast Zombie? , Smart Ghoul?}


    He thought for a moment, what eventually swayed him was the sheer ferocity that the ghouls had displayed. Nearly all of the ghouls had targeted either him or Crimson, they charged at the two of them with no regard for their own lives, something not that strange in the undead. What was strange however was how they specifically target the few places where Three could actually be harmed. They tried to gouge out his eyes, one of them was nearly successful, his eye was still healing from that one. They went for his ears, mouth, one of them had honest to god actually tried to stick its claw up his anus.


    He sighed at the memory, the woodcutters were still chuckling about that. He had puckered his cheeks just in time to avoid being spit-roasted. He shook his head, focusing back on the job at hand, Shuffles already showed clear intelligence and tactical insight. He wondered what the zombie could do if it had the increased intelligence of the ghouls while being just as ferocious. He tapped the evolution and watched the zombie change.


    Shuffles grey skin turned slightly green-ish. His fingernails elongated into claws, his teeth grew and became sharper, pointier. He also grew an entirely new set of teeth, a new row behind the first. His eyes became colder, his arms longer, giving him the potential to run on all-fours. The ghoul looked at its claws, piercing its own hide to test its sharpness. Then he looked over at Three and nodded. Three blinked. He was sure that Shuffles had just shown its gratitude, His gratitude he supposed, he was pretty sure the ghoul was now sentient.


    He stared over the field and watched as one of the scouts returned, everyone gazed at the scout as the young man grinned happily. The men rushed towards the scout, the chieftain close behind.


    "We found the lair, we are pretty sure a necromancer is behind everything."


    Three made his way through the forest, it gave a disparate feel in the day, not at all as eeiry without the fog and the shuffle of undead. The villagers had selected a group to enter the necromancers lair, Three went, along with his bondlings. The large woodcutter, the young scout and the elderly man he had talked to before who was the best shot with a bow. The large woodcutter''s name was Reg, the scout was called Tillian and the elderly man''s name was Harold.


    The chieftain had wanted to go, the villagers persuaded him that he was needed in the village. The party followed young Tillian through the forest, it took them a good few hours of walking to reach the entrance to the cave, two other scouts stood at the entrance and nodded to them.


    "Anything happen while I left?" Tillian asked.


    "Nope, tis quiet." One of the scouts answered.


    Three swept his gaze over his party, the villagers had placed Harold in charge, to no ones suprise. Three walked over to the man.


    "How do you propose we go about this?"


    Harold scratched his short grey beard, he looked from one of his party members to the other. "You n your Jurgor take the lead, Reg n Tillian take the middle, with me behind em. Yer other bondlings cover the rear."


    Three nodded in aknowledgement. He gestured to Shuffles, the ghoul nodding as he understood his task, he snarled at the other undead and they followed the ghoul. Three wondered how the ghoul actually gave them commands, he had never seen the ghoul actually issue commands, the undead always seem to understand what he wanted from them regardless of what he did. Something he would have to look into after they found the necromancer.


    Three rolled his shoulders and stepped into the cavern. He had to admit that he was nervous, a necromancer that could summon over a thousand undead a day was bound to be powerfull. Who knew what it had summoned or created after all this time in the cave, there might be undead down here that he couldn''t match. Once he started thinking about it his blood started pumping, his mouth curving into a small smile. Crimson let out a low growl as she pressed her snout against his arm. He patted her in reasurrence, as he made his way forward.


    The cave itself was a near pitch black, the only visible light was the flickering flame of the torches Reg and Tillian carried. Harold had strung his bow and walked around with an arrow knocked, Shuffles and the rest brought up the rear. Stalagmites and stalagtites formed at various areas in the cave, the water dripping from them sent echoes throughout the cave. The drips were the only sound that broke the monotone silence of the cave. The deeper they went the more uncomfortable the silence became. Three was tense, his heatvision and enhanced senses working overtime searching for anything of import.


    The hall, such as it was, became broader, making way to a cavern. They entered to be greeted by rows of skeletons. Each and every one of them was level twenty. Their bones dark, the shimmering of the flame casting ominous shadows. The undead stood motionless, the gaping holes in their skulls watching them with unseen eyes. Three motioned with his hand, Shuffles and Sir Kelly made their way forward with him, the rest of the undead stayed in the rear.


    Reg walked over to his right, while Tillian grabbed his spear with a white knuckled grip and stepped towards his left. He nodded to the both of them as he slowly made his way forward, the undead stood silent. Three edged his way forward, step by meticilous step.


    In a burst of movement the skeletons suddenly charged once they reached the halfway mark. Their bones clanking as they charged, Three stepped forward to meet them, he dragged his fist behind him, smashing his right fist into a skeletons face with a giant haymaker. The skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones. Before he could ready another punch the skeletons swarmed him. He heard Crimsons roar as she smashed her paw through the rows of undead.


    Next to him an axe cleaved an undead, that was trying to claw his eyes out, in two. Tillian was using his spear in sweeps, its sharp point not very usefull against skeletons. A skeleton charged at him from his left, only to be intercepted from a charge from Shuffles, the ghoul rammed its claws into its eyeholes, then tore the skull in half. Sir Kelly Ton was in a boxing match with two other skeletons of the same level. The evolution showed its stuff as the skeleton made effort to dodge blows. He was holding his ground against his two foes. Harold was shooting blunted arrows at anything that threatened a party member.


    The undead in the back stood silently, making sure nothing came from behind. Three broke a spine in half as a skeleton clawed at him. He put his hand behind the skull of another skeleton and smashed its face into the stone floor. Another skeleton clawed for his face, he leaned back, its sharpened fingerbones whisteling just above his eye. An arrow shattered its skull, another skeleton was thrown through the air by a powerfull paw swipe from Crimson, it crashed into another skeleton killing the both of them.


    Then as abruptly as the battle had started it ended. They stood their surrounded by bones, the three villagers heaving, their breath making clouds in the cold cave. Crimson stood further to his right, her flanks rising and falling as it breathed deeply. Three and the undead bondlings stood still, no sign of exhaustion. He gave the others a few moments to catch their breath before he continued deeper into the caverns.


    They checked the cavern only to find two different entrances that led deeper into the cave, with a shrug Three choose the one to his left. The rest followed, the hall was getting to narrow to walk abreast with Crimson, she started pacing behind him, her head peeking over his shoulder. They came across another expansion of the hallway into a larger cavern, this one was even larger than the last. This cavern was not filled with orderly lines of skeletons. Instead there were ghouls, ghouls and more ghouls. They were stacked, lying on top of each other, climbing on hills made from their own brethren, everything was wriggling, the stench of rotten flesh penetrated their nostrils.


    Crismon growled and clawed at her snout, Three had to resist the urge to do the same, the sound they made echoed through-out the cavern. Suddenly the mounds of ghouls froze, they beedy luminiscent eyes pointed towards the hall. The whole cavern lighting up as their eyes glowed fiercly, with an earthshatering screech the ghouls charged towards the group, their claws tearing and scratching on the stone.


    "BACK!" Three roared, backing up so he could block the narrow entrance. Crimson roared a challenge, her own mighty roar drowned out by the countless screeching ghouls.


    With a powerfull crash the ranks of ghouls smashed into Three, they clawed and scratched at him. He closed his eyes, trusting on his other senses, he did not want to lose an eye to these ghouls. He was planning to count on his senses, but his sense of smell and the noise blotted out any individual sounds might have aided him. Instead he just smashed and kicked at everything he could. He felt claws scratching on his skin and used that to locate his oppononents.


    He heard curses coming from the behind him, the ghouls were pouring past him and attacking those that were more vulnerable. He breathed in, gathered the energy in his chest and released a challenging cry. It was more of a roar than a cry, regardless it worked splendidly, he could feel the ghouls piling on top of him. His muscles ripled from the effort as he tried to throw them off, slowly but surely he succumbed to the sheer weight of bodies as they climbed on top of him.


    He was pressed to the ground, he tried to get up, his face was smashed into the cold stone cavern. He felt the ghouls crawling and clawing all over him trying to get through his skin. Crimson roared and smashed her claw through the pile of ghouls, killing several. The rest of his bondlings were pressing forward under the command of Shuffles, who tore through a ghoul and pointed at Three,


    The conscripts pressed forward, pushing back the ghouls as best as they could, Harold was shooting arrows as fast as he could nock them, killing a ghoul with each shot. Tillian was using swift short stabs to eliminate his targets. Reg was making large swings with his even larger axe, cutting through multiple ghouls with each swing.


    The group of them tore through the mass of ghouls, their black blood covering their bodies, seeping into their clothes. They stood ankle-deep in the black goo, one of the conscripts went down under the combined force of multiple ghouls. Three took the oppertunity to swiftly bond one of the ghouls assualting him, turning the monster against its brethren. They fought against the onslaught for several minutes before the fight eventuall died down. Three took a deep breath, that had been uncomfortable.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    He checked the others, Reg had a gash over his fore arm and Tillian had a scratch above his ear, no one had been heavily injured. Harold applied some first-aid to the wounds and they made their way even deeper into the caves. Three was worried they would have to fight against more waves of undead, this one had been a close call. Perhaps not for him or Crimson but the villagers had been wounded, a stronger force might be able to kill them.


    The next cavern however, was well lit covered in shelves, scrolls and books. Bones littered the area, marking covered the walls, none of them making any sense to Three. In the middle of the cavern bent over a dark heavy mahogany table stood a young woman, her hair was clitted and bunched together, hiding much of its original frizzles. Her robe, if it could be called a robe, was torn dirty and messed up. She was so focused on the parchment that she had not even noticed them entering. Three softly made his way forward, their attempt at sneaking failed however when one of the conscripts stepped on a bone and it made an audible snap. The young woman twisted facing them.


    Her musty green eyes had prominent dark circles lining them, her jaw was open as she stared at the group of them in fright. She stepped back and stumbled over the bones she smacked into the table, her head started bleeding but she got back up to her feet, holding her shaking arms between her and them.


    "Y-you are them, here to take me, I tried to hide! Tried to get away, moved far, far, very far north! But you still find me!? Go! LEAVE!" The girl shrieked, tossing parchment, an inkpot and whatever else was in reach at Three, Three didn''t even try to dodge, the items bouncing off him. He stepped forward with large determined steps. The girl tried to scramble away from him, her messy blond hair covering her face.


    Three ignored her attempts and gently, but firmly picked her up and held her.


    "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH ME?!" She screeched. "I WILL NO LONGER BE SUBJECT TO YOUR FILTHY EXPERIMENTS!"


    Her words shook Three, who dropped her and stared at her.


    "Hags?" He asked, his face inches from hers


    She tried to back away as she stared into his eyes, "W-what?"


    "Hags? Put you in cage? Poke you with magic, force things into you body?" He asked insistantly.


    Her eyes widened a bit, "Y-yes. A-are you one of them?!" Suddenly she started trembling and tried to crawl away.


    Three shook his head, he pulled the Status plate off his chain and held it out for her. She stared at the plate then stared back at him, he nodded towards her and pushed the plate in her hands. She carefully took it off his hands before scurrying back under the table. She looked at the status plate reading what it said, as her eyes widened she crawled back forward slightly.


    "They cage you too?" She softly asked.


    Three nodded.


    "You are not here t-to take me back?" She whispered.


    "To those hags?" He hissed, "If I ever see them again I will destroy them and anything linked to them untill nothing is left."


    "So you are not here to k-kill me?" She asked tilting her head.


    "Actually we are... were here to kill you." Three told her honestly.


    She scurryed further under the table. "W-why!" She squeeked.


    "Your undead have been laying siege to the village of these men." He said pointing to the men behind him, they had stayed back, staring curiously but letting Three handle the situation.


    "Impossible." She said, her eyes suddenly gaining focus. "I ordered them not to travel more than a day away from the caves, to fight whatever they could and then return."


    "Their village is only a few hours travel from here." Three stated.


    The girl faltered as she looked at the men behind her and then back at Three. "Really?" She whispered.


    "Really."


    She stood up from under the table and peeked past Three at the men behind him.


    "S-Sorry!" She softly yelled.


    The men blinked, Tillian was actually blushing scratching the back of his head. Harold coughed scratching his beard. "It''s not that bad miss, no one was seriously injured."


    She smiled softly, as she peeked past Three at the elderly man.


    "I didn''t kill or hurt anyone?"


    Reg and Tillian tried to not so subtly hide their injuries, the girl was so focused on Harold however that she did not notice.


    "Not a one."


    The girl sagged in relief, before murmering nearly inaudible to herself. "I almost became like them, I almost hurt people." She stiffled a sob as she wiped her eyes.


    "How did you even create that many undead?" Three asked.


    The girl piped up at the mention of undead. "This cave leads to ancient tombs, and there is a large battlefield with many mass graves!" Then she pulled Three over to a table. "Skeletons I made myself! I put a lot of Warmors into a pit, I keep them in a pit and they breed!" She showed him diagrams of skeletons, and drawings and sketchings how to replace bones and create different types.


    "I started tinkering with their bones, and was able to create skeletons from them! Warmors are great, they fatten up from the world energy, they live off the stuff. Then they breed and more and more of them appear, and I don''t need to feed them or anything! Then I just send some undead to gather the bones and I can create more!"


    She started excitedly explaining her undead and their many applications to Three, the young man followed her akwardly as he glanced to the other men for help. They stood there looking as lost as he did.


    This was definetly not how he had expected the day to go.


    Three watched as the girl talked animatedly to Harold, she was dragging the old man around and proudly showing him her experiments. The elderly man seemed to take it all in stride and smiled a grand-fatherly smile and complimented her about all the right things. The girl was positively beaming, she was so excited to show her experiments to people who actually meant her no harm that there was no stopping her. Reg and Tillian watched the two work, they walked over towards Three.


    "Well this day did not go as I expected." Reg said, scratching his thick beard.


    Tillian nodded. "I think she reminds Harold of his granddaughter, she was killed a few years ago, she had the same kind of energy. I think it would be good for the both of them if we gave them some time. This is gonna be a hell of a thing to explain back home."


    "That it will be, who woulda thought that the attacks were on accident." Reg glanced at Three. "We heard your conversation and I don''t mean to pry into your business, but the way she spoke of experiments done on her, you seemed to know what she was talking about."


    Three glanced at the large woodcutter. "If i''m correct, a group of magicians forced a core into her, these cores change who we are, they make us... different. No longer the race we once belonged to, her changes are minor, I see no physical changes. I think that her mind was affected, it might have been damaged."


    Reg huffed running his hand over his axe. "Do you know who these mages were and why they did what they did?" Three shook his head in answer.


    "We know nothing about them, not their reason, their backing, or anything else. The only thing I do know is that one of them is my mother." Three told him, brows furrowed.


    Tillian blinked, "Your mother was the one who did that to you?"


    "If what we heard is true, then yes."


    "That''s rough, I have to admit I am surprised that you are able to tell this story to us so easily," Reg said, putting a hand on Three''s shoulder.


    Three cocked his head, looking over his shoulder at the woodcutter. "What do you mean?"


    Reg blinked, then moved to scratch his beard. "Well most people don''t like sharing things this personal, especially to people they don''t know that well, you can''t even be sure that we are not allied with these hags."


    Three froze, mind racing as he thought of past events, now that he gave it some thought he felt that it was unnatural to share the story as easily as he had. They had trusted people without hesitation, something that should be difficult for people who had been through a situation similar to theirs. He thought about what happened to them and felt a strange lack of secrecy over what should be one of his largest secrets. He frowned, tried to think of it as a secret, but for some reason it was difficult for him to do, even trying to do it made him light-headed.


    Reg saw him acting strange and shook him gently, "You doing alright friend?"


    "It is... odd." Three said rolling his shoulders, "I cannot think of what happened to me as a secret."


    "That''s not that strange, perhaps you are a person who shares easily," Reg reassured him.


    "You misunderstand, I CAN''T think of it as a secret, I want to, but when I try, I get light headed and feel like it''s perfectly natural to share." Three grunted, brows furrowed.


    Reg frowned, "I have heard of mind magic, but I''ve never seen it used on anyone before, nor do I know anyone capable of using it. Vyria might actually be able to detect if you have magic inside your head, despite her focus on monster studies her magical knowledge is top notch."


    Three nodded, "I will ask her to check, perhaps she knows something, worrying about it now will do me no good. I would ask you to keep what I told you to yourselves, however." He looked from Reg to Tillian, both of whom nodded their agreement.


    "Harold!" Three shouted, the elderly man turned around, raising an eyebrow.


    "Perhaps we should take the lady back to the village, so she can see where it is, we could take things from there as we decide what to do."


    Harold nodded, scratching his beard as he thought. The girl looked between the two of them bouncing on her toes. "What about my undead and research?" She asked.


    "They should be safe here, there are plenty of undead left in the caves that will discourage anyone from entering, You could always come back to your research after you''ve met the village, it is better to be on good terms with your neighbors after all." Three told her.


    The girl nodded, she scrambled to pack some more things before they headed back to the village as a group. The girl happily bounced around the groups members, getting excited when she noticed shuffles and his rare mutation. She also took a liking to Crimson, running her hand through the Jurgors fur and sighing happily. She threw a barrage of questions at them during the trip, Tillian was tripping over his words as he tried to answer the girl. He shuffled his feet and blushed everytime she walked up close to him, nearly hanging on his arm as she asked her questions.


    The trip back to the village was lively, all of them had taken a liking to the energetic girl, Three was surprised she had all this energy, she certainly didn''t look like she had eaten properly over the last few days. Then again she could have the mana sustanence perk like him, although that would probably slow down her research, now that he looked at her she did seem like the type of person who would completely forget to eat to favor her research. He sighed, he felt protective of the girl, he wondered if there were others like her out there. The more he thought of it the more he thought that the experiment on her had most likely failed. If there was one there were bound to be others.


    He threw the negative thoughts out of his head and walked over to Harold, the girl was enthusiastically talking with Reg and Tillian. He adjusted his pace to the elderly man''s he walked next to him in silence for a few moments before asking, "What are we going to do with her?"


    Harold scratched his chin as he watched the girl bounce up and down, "I feel for the girl, she is... odd, she reminds me of mah daughter, we are lucky that the attacks have done no harm, nor damaged anything. The only effect it had was strengthening the village defences, which is actually a positive so we have nothing to condemn her for, nor do we care that she is a necromancer, we are not men and women of faith, any power that lets an individual survive the wilderness that does not harm the living is a skill set that is accepted by us."


    "So the village does not plan to do her harm? I was expecting some people to ask for penance at least." Three added.


    "The village doesn''t have much in the way of rules, we moved away from kingdoms and their religions for a reason." Harold said. "As long as they have done no harm, nor taken any property, they have committed no crime in the eyes of the village, it was good training after all." He said with a smile.


    Three nodded, relieved that he did not have to worry about her getting in a trial and being mistreated.


    "How about you, were will you go now that the issue has been handled." Harold asked.


    "I think I will head back, there are some things Vyria and I have to discuss, my party will also need me, they have probably not been into dungeons during my absence." Three told him.


    The girl had heard him and joined the two of them, she looked up at him pouting, "You''re leaving?"


    Three nodded, "I am."


    Her lip trembled, "I can''t come with you?"


    He shook his head, "The villagers will settle things, they will treat you well you do not need to worry."


    She looked at the other men looking at her and huddled a little closer in on herself. "They are nice, but they don''t know." She said softly, stressing the word know.


    "Me and mine will be fighting and searching for the hags, we will be actively chased by them and we will have little to no time for research, then you have the issue of some religions that will target you for being a necromancer. It is safer for you here, trust in me. Trust in these men, Harold will take care of you." The last part he said as a statement as he locked eyes with Harold. The elderly man nodded reassuringly.


    "Doncha be worrying dear." He said, "I will make you hot soup and you can tell me all about your experiments, I bet me old lady will have some advice for ya, she been a monster tamer herself for a good long time."


    The necromancer looked back and forth between Three and Harold, before grudgingly accepting their point. Three nodded, "Well now that we have that settled I guess I might as well leave, it is just as far from here as it is from the village."


    Harold blinked in surprise, "You should at least let us pay you for yer trouble, stay for dinner, we will probly be havin a feast."


    Three shook his head, "I cannot afford to waste time, there are questions that I desperately need answers to. Say hi to Vila and the chieftain for me."


    He moved to Crimson, the rest walking up to him. "Ya sure you know the way back?" Harold ask scratching his chin. "Ya won''t have the crystal to guide ya this time, it won''t be a trouble for one of us to guide ya."


    Three scratched his chin, "Crimson, you know the way back?"


    The Jurgor snorted, he could tell she almost felt insulted by the question.


    He smiled, "I think we will be fine, I have to hurry back. Me and Crimson will run." He looked back at the rest of his bondlings and conscripts. "You guys travel in a group, you will catch up perhaps a day after us, you guys might be undead but you will still be slightly slower Shuffles may be able to keep up but I need you to get them there alive. Travel safe!" The ghoul nodded and the rest of the undead circled him.


    He took off waving his goodbyes to the party, The necromancer stood there clutching the hand Harold held out to her, put off by his sudden goodbye, she watched him go, doubt apparent in her stance. He rolled his shoulders, he would have faith in the villagers, the way they had shown their faith in him. It was time for him to go back, There were many things he needed to discuss with the others and questions that needed answers.

 Chapter 13

    During the trip back to Grathum he was confused, he had left abruptly, normally he would have taken the time to say goodbye to the group, he hadn''t even figured out the necromancers name, where she came from or any information about her at all for that matter. It was unlike him very much so, he wondered just how much this mind magic influenced his thoughts.


    It was truly bothering him, the choices he made perhaps not being his own. The more he thought about it the more frustrated he became, Crimson pressed her snout against him trying to reassure him with a rumbling purr. He patted her flank, sighing. He realised there was nothing to be done about it now but that did not make it easier to accept or process the feeling of being controlled.


    He spent most of the three day trip lost in his own thoughts, Crimsons presence was enough to deter anything that thought attacking them would be a good idea. Faster than he would have thought possible he stood in front of Vyria''s compound again, with a deep breath he knocked on the gate, he waited, hands clenched for her to open the door. When she finally did her appearence once more took his breath away. It took him a few moments to get his bearings back.


    "I solved the problem the villagers of Snowhome where having, things should have calmed down now." He told her.


    She smiled at him, "Yes Reginald told me about the necromancer, and how you helped talk her down. After valiantly fighting off hordes of undead, quite an heroic tale the way he told it."


    Three coughed and felt the heat rise to his cheeks, "Yes well, only doing what I can, same as anyone would."


    She stepped closer, a gentle smile on her face. "I think you are of a rare breed Three, not many would have selfessly done what you did, I heard from Reginald that you suspect mind-magic to be the cause of that."


    Three blanched, Reg had already told her about it. "Take a breath Three, the choices you made, no matter if they were influenced by others, were the right ones as far as I and the others you have helped are concerned. Mind magic, no matter how powerfull, will only strengthen certain aspects of yourself. So if you are worried that you are not a decent person, and only the mind magic makes you just, you can rest at ease."


    Some of the pressure left Three''s shoulders. He locked gazes with Vyria, his heart pounding at their proximity, the rush of blood pounding through his ears as he tried to keep focus. "It is dangerous none the less, some secrets are not meant to be shared."


    She nodded, her raven colored hair shaking with the movement, her crystal blue eyes met his once more. "Then allow me to take a look."


    She lead him to one of her rooms, telling him to take a seat in a large leather recliner. She pulled a stool over and sat next to him, she put her hand on his hand, gently squeezing. "This won''t hurt, but it will feel... odd."


    He nodded, rolling his shoulders as he settled back into the leather. Oddly conscious of the physical connection between their hands. He tried to calm his heart, to no avail. She gently put her hand on his forehead, causing his heartbeat to speed up even more. He felt a chill as the temperature dropped slightly, a white haze materializing from her fingers.


    She pulled her hands back and frowned. Three saw the expression and felt his heart clench, "Whats wrong?"


    "I can''t get my magic to manifest properly, it keeps getting... torn apart." She stared at her hands in confusion.


    "Because of the mind magic?"


    "No it''s not the mind magic, it should not be anywhere near powerfull enough to do this, I can''t get my magical sequences to line up properly. It''s comparable to trying to catch water with a net, I simply can not hold on to them, they disperse before I can get them to do what I want them to." She started tapping her chin with a finger.


    "I think this has something to do with that core you told me about, from what I heard from you and Sumi, whom I have had several conversations with over the past week orso, you are the one who physcially changed the least, Correct?"


    Three nodded, "I grew a bit, and my muscles are... odd. But other than my skin becoming pale and my eyes turning black nothing much has changed."


    "My point exactly, the others are made of completely different substances, Sumi isn''t even made from flesh and bones, same can be said for Fli¨ªt and Jer as I understand, yet your body stayed remarkably human, so that leaves the question, what did change?"


    Three folded his hands in thought. She spoke true, he had always felt different from other humans, yet compared to the others he was the most similar to a human. The hags would not have gone through all that trouble for a simple muscle enhancement, it did make him stronger but not enough that it was comparable to the invulnerability that Jer and Fli¨ªt enjoyed to common weaponry. What if his defences weren''t actually focused on the physical as theirs but had been but on the magical aspect. He shared his thoughts with Vyria.


    She nodded, "I was thinking the same, there are few creatures capable of this, the ones that are most prominent in the dismanteling of mana are the Dread Lords."


    "Dread Lords?" Three asked, he had never heard of such a creature.


    "Dread Lords are a mysterious creature, they are humanoid in appearence, but no one has actually seen what one is made off, they wear the shadows themselves as their armor, they incite fear in those around them from their sheer prescence. What makes them the most dangerous however, is how any magic used in their proximity is chaotic, the magic user can lose control of their magic, in some instances the results are disasterous."


    Three blinked, was that the core of the creature that had been pressed inside of him. How had the hags even managed to acquire the core of such a creature. Another question immediatly sprung to mind.


    "If my core dismantles magic cast at me, or near to me. Then how did they plant the mind magic inside of me?" Three asked.


    "I am not sure, the most likely option would be that they planted the mind magic before they implanted the core. Magic that already has a presence might be harder to dismantle, especially if it is tied to the physique, but that is all speculation on my part."


    "So in the end we are left with more questions than answers." Three concluded.


    Vyria smiled gently at him, "While I cannot remove the mind magic, at the least not yet, I can tell you what its purpose is." She grabbed one of his hands in both of hers. "It amplifies your trust, you trust people easily, it also instills in you the need to help people, to save those in trouble."


    Three frowned, "Why would they implant such a magic in my mind? It does not make sense, why destroy our minds to froce us to kindness in the end." He started wringing his hands, uncomfortable with the whole situation.


    "Your guess is as good as mine, you will have to confront these people and ask them yourself, although I am sure that moment is still a while off. For now be sure that the magic does no harm to you or others, now that you are aware of it and what it does, you will find that it has far less of a hold on you." She patted his hand.


    Three nodded standing up, "Thank you for the help, I have to go see my friends. I have been away for a while and need to make up for my absence." He noticed Vyria''s eyes wandering over his bare chest, the scrutiny causing the heat to rise back to his cheeks.


    With a brief shake of her head she focused her gaze on his eyes. "I would love to have you visit again, perhaps we can..." She coughed, "Have a dinner some time to talk about our theories and stuff."


    Three smiled, "I would love that, I will make sure to come by sometime soon to plan this dinner. For now I have some making up to do."


    Vyria walked with Three back to the entrance, she watched him go with longing in her eyes, when he dissapeared over the hill she smacked herself in the head.


    "Theories and stuff?" She stomped her foot, "Smooth Vyria smooth, you are the model of sensuality, al these men asking for your hand in marriage and you can''t even ask a boy to dinner properly what is wrong with you!"


    She stomped her way back into the compound muttering about her incompency.


    ---Three POV----


    Three headed back towards the village, he had been gone for over a week, he wondered how the others were doing, and what they had been up to during his absence. He walked up to the gate, waved to a guard he recognized but did not know the name of and entered the village. It took him a while to get used to the regular hustle and bustle of the village, although small it was still much larger than Snowhome. People were crying their wares on the street and the food stalls spread a delicious aroma through the air.


    He walked towards Emmi''s house, waving at the people he recognized along the way. He saw Grimli and Bob arguing over the fine taste of ale and wine at one of the stalls, seeing the two of them made him smile. He still felt it was a good idea to trust the dwarf, regardless of magical influence. Same for Emmi and her family, he was not sure how the others faired however. He really wanted to hear Jer''s opinion on the subject.


    He stood in front of the door, hesitating, he felt strangely nervous after being away for a time. With a cough and a shake of his head, he knocked on the door. He could hear the footsteps heading towards the door, they were heavy yet feminine, that meant Emmi. The door opened to prove him right, She grinned when she saw him and swept him up in a hug, to his surprise easily lifting him off his feet despite his weight. He was even more shocked when she smacked him upside the head.


    "Next time you go off on a grand adventure make sure to take us with you!" She scolded, "Who knows wh-...." Her gaze slipt passed him as she stared with open jaw behind him. Three confused by her reaction followed her gaze, she was staring a very large, very curious Jurgor in the eye. Three looked at the two of them and smiled.


    "Crimson this is Emmi! She''s a friend." Crimson cocked her head and sniffed at Emmi, then her long tongue licked Emmi''s face. The jurgor nuzzled the new friend she just made happily, purring all the while.


    "Oh my, how did you, she is so... beautiful." Emmi breathed as she stared at Crimson.


    Crimson understood what she was saying and continued happily slabbering Emmi as thanks for the compliment. Emmi giggled and was soon playing and scratching the Jurgors scales enthusiastically.


    "Oh Three you''re back!" Davis called as he walked over, Talin close behind. "Things have been quiet without you here, we mostly did boring training, it''s a lot less fun without the actual fights."


    They both watched with wide eyes as Emmi was playing with the largest Jurgor either of them had ever seen. "W-whats with the Jurgor?" Davis asked.


    "I met her, we fought, I won, now she''s my bloodbound Companion, Her name is Crimson." Three stated, "I have other tames, but it will take them a while to reach Grathum, by what I''m feeling atleast a day."If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "Tames?" Talin asked, running a finger over his pointed ear. "You have a class, and became a monster-tamer then I assume?"


    Three nodded, "Yes, the class... spoke to me, I just realized I should have discussed my decision first."


    Talin shook his head, "Everyone must choose their own class themselves, the class most suited will feel right, natural to you. It is best to pick the class you feel fits you best, few people actually have a thought out level plan. In the experience of adventurers, instinct works best in these cases."


    Three nodded his head, thankful for the reassurance. "Where''s Sumi?" He asked.


    Davis pointed at the house, "She was getting ready for bed, she felt you coming and said that it was high time to ''Gather''." He scratched his growing stubble, "I assume she means that white room and your friends, you should head on up. We can catch up tomorrow, it''s late and you''ve traveled for quite a time."


    Talin smiled and nodded, "You do not have to worry, I''m sure Emmi will take good care of your Jurgor."


    Three smiled, saying his thanks as he entered the house. He made sure to politely greet Emmi''s parents first, apologizing for his time away without notice. Both told him that running off to save others is the right thing to do and he should continue to do so should he ever have the chance. He smiled at the both of them when they shooed him to his room. He opened the door to see Sumi sitting there waiting for him, her blond hair loose and semi-messy as she smiled her enthusiastic smile.


    "Glad your back bro!" She said grinning. "Felt your fluctuating emotions from here, I''m sure you have a lot to tell us so I figured I''d go ahead and make the beds, no need to tell the same story twice and all that!" She patted the bottom bunk as she swung herself into the top one. "Let''s go see what the others have been up to!"


    He smiled and took off his pants, he got into his bed, making himself comfortable under the blankets. He closed his eyes, and felt his mind drift away into the strange room where they gathered.


    He felt the other strings tied to his own gather, turning into a ball and creating walls, a roof, a floor. Every time he did this he had to admit it was an odd feeling. Then once again he stood there surrounded by those he felt most comfortable with, his brothers and sisters, family, kin.


    He stared around at the others smiling. Fli¨ªt walked up to Sumi, trying to give her a hug only to walk right through each other, both of them bursting out in giggles. The rest exchanged greetings and small talk. Then Three stepped up and cleared his throat, the others swiveled their gazes to him, shutting up to hear what he had to say.


    "A lot of things happened to me this week, and although I could show it to you, there are some things I have to talk about first." He conjured couches for the rest of them and motioned for them to sit down. He conjured a chair for himself and placed himself in front of the others, meeting their gazes. "I found another experiment."


    The rest froze, the atmosphere turning colder as they all adopted serious looks. "What do you mean by another experiment," Jer asked. "Someone like us?"


    "Not exactly, I think this girl was an experiment before ours, and I do not think the experiment was successful. She is more powerful than people her age, similar to us. But I am sure her mind was damaged during the experiments, nor did her body change as much as ours. I snuck a peek at her status plate, and she has a core like ours, except hers is shattered."


    The rest muttered at the implications. "So what happened to her, how did you meet her." Strem asked, folding his hands.


    "She has become a necromancer, she holed herself up in a cave to hide from the hags, she created an army of undead and was having them level in an attempt to evolve them into more powerful creatures in the area around where she hid. She did not know however, that a village was nearby and that they had come under attack of her undead. Luckily no one had been killed and the village has decided to take her in."


    The rest relaxed a little to hear that the girl was doing alright. Jer folded his hands, placing his elbows on his knees and resting his head on his fingers. He looked Three in the eye and asked, "There is more that you want to tell us isn''t there."


    The rest focused their gazes on him, Three took a deep breath. He released his breath and spoke. "I believe we have all been infected with mind-magic."


    The rest froze, before all hell broke loose, Most started asking questions at the same time. Others were trying to remember what they had done and if that was unnatural. Jer shouted to clear the air, "Let''s listen! He''s not finished!"


    Three nodded in thanks before continuing. "I went to a friend to have the mind-magic parasite or whatever it is, examined. Unfortunately due to my core, I seem to have magical interference. Magic cast on me or near me, will not work properly. So she could not properly examine what the magic did and what its purpose was. What we have ventured to guess is that it makes us more trusting, it forces us to help people, to connect with people. We are unsure why or how this works but you guys will have to investigate that on your own, as I can''t do it."


    Valana spoke up, "I don''t think I have the parasite."


    All the gazes in the room swiveled to her, Jer arched his eyebrow. "What makes you think that?" he asked.


    Valana stared at him, "When you taught the mercenaries our sign language I thought it was the wrong thing to do, when you brought in the tortured bandit slaves into the fold, I thought it a dangerous decision. Now that I know there are parasites in our heads I think that it is what affected your decisions. Since I don''t seem to be as trusting as the rest of you, either I am resistant to the parasite or I don''t have it at all."


    Everyone stared at Valana for a moment, most of them simply surprised by the sheer amount she had spoken. Jer nodded thoughtfully, "This explains a lot of things now that I have given it thought. The true question is why did they do this to us, we need to get a magician to investigate this parasite. This raises a lot of questions."


    The rest nodded, each of them lost in thought for a time. "We won''t get anywhere just thinking about it." Fli¨ªt said. "We should do what we came here to do, then find out what this parasite thing is first thing in the morning." The rest nodded doing their best to put their thoughts to rest.


    Strem walked forward and spread his arms in grand gesture. "Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to show you my wonderous days of far less troubling affairs."


    He bowed and with a flourish of his arm he put his memories up for projection.


    ¡ª¡ª Strem POV ¡ª¡ª


    "I still do not think this is wise." Yinta said looking at the enormous building in front of them.


    Strem grinned, "Jer told us to get stronger and where could one possibly become stronger than here, it levels us and it gives us experience in fighting, plenty of it!"


    "Jer also told us to find allies, which you will not find in a place such as this." She reminded him.


    "So we split up, I focus on getting stronger, you focus on finding allies. Jer didn''t mention funds but we are sure to need money. If you use that idea of yours to start that merchant guild you keep talking about, you can do both, I''ll even provide some brawn should you need it!"


    With a sigh Yinta swept her gaze over the building, The Colosseum. A monument the yalisian people were extremely proud of, their fighters grew and tested their strength in this arena. Many warriors seeking strong opponents traveled across the world and fought in the Colosseum. Even people from a country at war with Yalisia were allowed access to the arena, Yalisia had a long and proud tradition of warriors and would accept any coming challenger. The fact that they respected any strong warrior made this a gathering place for a great many races.


    "Fine, I shall join as well. I will need some strength myself. Even if I do focus on my guild, I should be able to make time to enter sporadically. I could even use it as an advertisement opportunity."


    Strem patted her on her back ."That''s the spirit." He grinned as he walked through the entrance, towards the many desks.


    Warriors stood in long lines waiting their turn to enter. Tournaments of various levels took place daily, signs above the desks showed were they would need to enter. They stood in line for the level one to ten tournament, these took place twice a day, as many as a thousand participants would join the lower ranks a day. The higher the levels the fewer contestants, many of the lower leveled contestants came here not to achieve glory and fame through battle but to catch the eye of a potential employer. Many such potential employers filled the stands, keeping a sharp eye open for any talent that suited their needs. Contestants would be given a number, the employers could then contact the people of the Colosseum to arrange a contract and a meeting. This system gave the fighters some anonymity, they could refuse to meet anyone whos interest they managed to spike.


    The amount of desks available for the new fighters were by far the most, yet their lines moved the slowest. Yinta and Strem got into their usual banter, the people in front of them and behind them not taking any steps to form a conversation. Eventually they reached the desk, stepping forward Strem put his status plate on the desk, Yinta followed his example.


    "We would like to register for the earliest tournament."


    The receptionist nodded, she was a young woman with dark hair and slightly slanted dark eyes. "Will you be registering for the single, double or group battles?"


    Strem frowned and scratched his chin he looked over at Yinta. "Single combat, if you please."


    Strem shrugged, "Single combat then."


    The receptionist nodded and wrote some things down, she glanced at the plates, her eyes widening a fraction. She said nothing and dutifully wrote down whatever information she needed. She fixed Strem with her gaze before switching to Yinta, then back to Strem. "Are you aware of the rules and regulations?"


    They shook their heads, "I''m afraid its our first time here." Strem said while trying for a winning smile.


    The receptionist ignored his attempts, "Mages will use the inherent mana in your body to create a copy of you, your conscious mind will be transferred to this copy. While a copy of you is active you will not be able to use your mana. This means no spells or abilities reliant on mana will be usable for the fight. Once in the arena it will be a simple straight-forward brawl till one of the copies is destroyed, the copy will have the same status as your own true self, with a slight loss in the transfer. This loss is equal for all combatants so it will not influence your capability to fight. There are no further rules, except that you must listen to the attendants, or face expulsion from the arena. Any questions?"


    "Yes I have a few actually, There are no entry fees but I understand that there is prize money depending on how far you proceed. I also heard there are accommodations to those who make it far enough. For the lucky few in the arena and for others there is a dormitory of sorts in the city?"


    "Correct, if you pass the first two phases of the tournament you will receive compensation for your effort. For a small fee you can enter the dormitory, food will be available in the cafeteria but this you will have to pay for. The rare few who are sponsored by the Colosseum itself will be granted several benefits and will be exempt from such payments, anything else?"


    "Nope, just point us in the right direction!"


    The receptionist nodded politely and pointed them to a door to the far left, Strem looked over to where she pointed, to see another entrance into a deeper part of the Colosseum. The hall itself really was humongous, it was a few minutes walk just to get there, the towering ceiling of dark stone arching far above their heads. They said their goodbyes to the receptionist and headed over, a stern well muscled looking individual was standing next to the entrance. They nodded to the man.


    "First time?"


    "First time."


    "Head through the door, if you need weapons you can choose one in the first room to your left, if you need armor first door on the right. After you have outfitted yourself head to the waiting room at the end of the hall. You will be called upon when you are needed, the man at the end of the hall will give you your numbers."


    Strem nodded in thanks. "Much obliged!"


    Strem entered the weapons room staring wide eyed at the rows upon rows of weapons, neatly in stands. He saw swords of every shape and size, including but not limited to, broadswords, shortswords, greatswords, scimitars,a yalisian weapon called a katana. He saw maces, hammers halberds, even a simple stick. Not a staff, quite literally a stick. He shook his head and perused the wares, he eventually found what he was looking for, a needle thin rapier. He smiled and gently picked the weapon up. He took a stance, lunge, parry, riposte, followed by a few beats, he flowed into a remise, then finished with a smooth passato sotto. He smiled as he ran his finger over the weapon, he had missed having a sword of his own. He would be sure to buy one the first chance he got.


    Yinta tapped him on the shoulder. "You seem experienced with that weapon."


    "And indeed I am," He stroked the blade, "My father spent many hours teaching me how to use it, before¡­ well you know."


    "I do know yes and I understand." She said putting a hand on his.


    He gave her a smile, "How about you, not going to pick a weapon."


    "No, I would be better off without one."


    He shrugged and they left the room, neither of them entered the armory, both preferring their mobility and flexibility over the heavy protection armor provided.


    They entered the waiting room, the man had given them the numbers 427 and 428. They looked around the room seeing mostly younger people like themselves, they spotted a free bench against one of the walls and took their seats. Strem took a look at the competition, seeing both boys he was pretty sure were fresh of the farm, and some who he was sure had been training their entire lives. He spotted what he thought was a half-giant sitting across the room, the young boy stood at least seven meters tall. Strem found himself wondering if his rapier could pierce the giants thick skin.


    He spotted some stranger races as well, he spotted an orc and even a goblin or two. Both had a somewhat civilized society of their own but their kind were rarely found outside their own realms. A decent number of the competitors where red sand giants. He grinned, he had been pretty sure he had a decent chance at winning before he took a look at the competition. He would be hard pressed to win here, his skills might help him, but he knew that his mastery over his weapon was rusty at best.


    Anxiouly he waited for his name to be called, a man stepped into the waiting room from another entrance. A sudden hush fell over the room, "If you hear your number, follow me!" The man started calling out numbers in a seemingly random order. "427!"


    Strem grinned as he stood up, he winked at Yinta. "See you after, if we drop out meet at the entrance."


    Yinta nodded.


    Strem followed the stream of people into the next room, the man called about a hundred numbers. He walked out among them into the arena to a roar of sound and thus Strem Xilivor made his first appearance in the Colosseum.

 Chapter 14

    ¡ª¡ª Strem Pov¡ª¡ª


    Strem walked behind the guide as they headed further into the Colosseum, he glanced around, sizing up the people surrounding him. They were likely to be his opponents, from what he had gathered the first round generally tended to be a free for all, the last twenty five people standing would move on to the next phase, meaning only one in four of people present would move on to the next round. The seven meter tall individual was among his group, standing out like a sore thumb. Strem felt the sudden urge to go and talk with the giant of a man, but never got the opportunity.


    The guide suddenly stopped, he stood in front of a gate leading into a large open area behind him. He could hear muffled roars and shouts coming from past the gate. "In a few minutes the gates will open and you will be able to enter, walk through the gates onto the field, do not engage other combatants, the fight will start a minute or two after everyone has entered, those of you worried, just walk through the gate, it is enchanted it will ''store'' your body and copy it moving your own consciousness into that copy, you won''t even notice the change."


    One of the combatants raised her hand, the guide nodded to her, "How does that work, who created the enchantments, I haven''t heard of magic like that."


    "The gate and its enchantments were created by the S rank adventurer Runic Royalty, not much is known of this S ranked adventurer that is the founder of the Inaho dynasty. He was the ancestor of the current royal family of Yalisia and he created this Colosseum hundreds of years ago, mages still have not figured out how the system works, making this an unique building, which is also the reason why so many warriors come here to test their martial skill." The guide proudly told her.


    The woman nodded, a lot of others having thoughtful expressions.


    The sounds from the Colosseum started dying out, soon after they heard an echoing voice call out. "Congratulations to the twenty-five remaining Combatants, you may now stop fighting and proceed to the resting area!"


    The guide explained to them that the current combatants would leave through a separate gate, regain their original bodies, and could use the resting area until the next phase.


    "The next phase of Bronze combatants, please enter the arena!"


    The gates opened and the guide rushed them through the gate, Strem ran through behind the other contestants, the sun glaring in his eyes. His eyes widening as he saw the area he just entered, the field itself was a simple dirt area, he had heard that it could change into different geographical locations . He looked around and saw the rows upon rows of people looking down into the arena. The Colosseum truly was massive, there were over a hundred thousand people enjoying the event at any given time. The city had thrived around the Colosseum, most of its businesses centered around it.


    Strem shook his head as he focused on the task at hand. He took of in a random direction distancing himself from the many combatants, others quickly did the same, dividing themselves across the area. Some moved in groups others moved alone like him. The giant simply took a few steps forward and sat down, his dark eyes daring any to challenge him.


    Strem smiled and stopped running, he then walked back and sat across from the giant. "Hi, I''m Strem, how''s ya day goin?"


    The giant had an incredulous look on his face as he looked down at the small strange young-man sitting in front of him, "It has been going as well as can be expected I suppose." The giant slowly answered, his deep voice sounding like an avalanche, or perhaps the rumble of a thousand bumblebees.


    "Glad to hear it! So why did you enter this here tournament?"


    The giant stared at him for a few seconds, "I have heard this is a good place to grow in strength, as I can find here warriors that are not intimidated by my size and can beat me regardless of it." The giant moved a bit closer to Strem bringing his face about a meter away from Strem''s, looking him in the eyes, studying his expression, the giant sat back up. "I am Ritka, of the Broken Cliff tribe. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing."


    Strem tapped his chest, "I''m Strem! Fellow warrior, student of the rapier, lover of ladies, and altogether a pretty fantastic fellow if I do say so myself."


    The giant paused, then laughed. The very earth shaking from the sound, "At the very least you are an interesting guy indeed."


    "Well if you don''t mind Ritka my friend, I won''t be fighting you in this round. So make sure you survive so we can match our prowess in the next phase!"


    Strem managed to say before the announcer''s voice drowned out any and all sound. From the corner of his eye he saw Ritka mouthing the word friend.


    "Round Four of the open fielded bronze tournament is about to start! This one looks to be interesting folks, we have a half giant, twins of the Giants of the red sand, and many more!"


    Everybody took a ready stance, "Three, Two, One, START" The announcer roared.


    "EVERYONE!" A tall, handsome blond man shouted, everyone froze and stared at him.


    "How about we team up to defeat that giant, I doubt any of us can defeat him in single combat, if we team up to beat him now we stand a better chance of proceeding later in the tournament!"


    The blond young-man already had a sizeable group of others around him. Other groups started talking amongst themselves before one dark skinned man stepped forward, "We agree! My group will join." Five similarly dark-skinned topless men behind him nodded their consent, soon others started agreeing and they circled around the giant and Strem.


    Ritka stood up, glaring at the warriors around him, an eager smile splitting his face in half.


    "Just so you know, I''m on the Giants side! Fighting against a hundred sounds much more interesting than fighting with a hundred against one!" Strem shouted unsheathing his rapier, and grinning at the warriors around him.


    A roaring laughter was heard from the crowd, as a red skinned man stepped forward, atleast three meters tall, a woman looking nearly identical to him stood next to him. "You have the right of it, I think I''ll join that side!" He said walking over to them. Another figure stepped forward from the crowd, this one probably a girl with a blank mask tied in front of her face, she was wielding two of those katana things. She bowed to Strem, Ritka and the twins, and joined them in facing the rest.


    "What an upheaval! IT SEEMS WE HAVE A GROUP BATTLE, To make things interesting, the Master of Blades has decided that the group that survives this round will proceed to the next phase! If you die but your group wins the fight then you will be allowed to proceed to the next phase!" The announcer took a deep breath, "This is why I love my job ladies and gents, things always get interesting!"


    The audience roared in answer, excited to see the battle.


    The men surrounding them roared in answer, excited at their increased chance to pass the first phase. The blond man unsheathed his sword and pointed at Strem''s group, "Chaaaaarge!" He roared.


    The men surrounding them charged forward, Strem dashed towards the nearest one, using every ounce of his ability in a lightning quick lunge. His opponent tried to react but the rapier pierced through his eye, hitting the brain, the body exploded into a shower of lights, disappearing from the field. Another warrior slashed at him, he slipped past the blade and poked a hole in his throat. The warrior collapsed to the ground hands clutching at his thtoat but did not disappear. Another warrior attacked him, this one wielding a scimitar, he was rather skilled with the weapon as well, forcing Strem to take a few steps back. Out of nowhere a body slammed into his opponent both of them disappearing in an explosion of lights.


    He gave Ritka a thumbs up, "Nice throw!" The giant laughed, grabbing the gigantic ax he had tied to his back and started mowing through the enemies, killing one or two with every swing. From the corner of his eyes he saw the twins both wielding a sword and shield, dancing between their enemies, fluidly moving in to cover each others openings without any sort of communication. Both of them had a huge grin on their faces, screams from the other side drew his attention, as the masked woman floated through her opponents, leaving nothing but floating lights in her wake. For a second he was stunned by the beautiful performance of her blades. This was not simple fighting, he had no other words to describe it, this was art, the battle field her canvas and the swords her brush.


    Strem shook his head focusing back on the task at hand, there were plenty of opponents left to fight, and they were starting to work together.


    A cacophony of roars resounded through the arena as the seventy or so remaining enemies challenged them. "Form ranks!" The blond man shouted, "Attack together, Achieve victory together!"


    Many of the warriors now fell under his command and acknowledged his leadership, two warriors were noticeably separated from the rest, they sat down and were waiting for the battle to reach its end, one of them a large man over two meters tall, he would have been huge in any group that did not include giants and red-skins. He had taken a seat, greatsword across his lap as he sat in a meditative pose watching the rest. A small distance away from the warrior stood a bald man in a robe of Yalisian origin, he had a simple staff, the wind swayed his robes as the young man watched over the battlefield.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Strem''s attention was snapped back to the ranks of warriors now slowly approaching them. "Giant." The masked girl suddenly said. "You break through their lines, Red-skins follow in after, clear the sides, push them away if possible, You and I take down anyone the giant knocked down." She finished pointing to Strem and herself.


    The giant chuckled, "Lass, it would be my pleasure!"


    "Yea sounds fun, no fancy tricks, rush into the middle and smash em to bits, just our type of fight!" The female of the twins said with a manic grin, smashing her sword against her shield.


    Her brother had a similar grin, "Smash n bash! Let''s go!"


    Strem simply smiled, watching the giant take slow lumbering steps towards the enemy ranks, slowly picking up speed. His steps shook the very earth, as his feet smashed into the ground, dust filling the air in his wake, the twins charged shortly behind him, screaming a wordless challenge. Strem and Mask had to try their utmost to keep up with their much larger teammates. Eventually Ritka reached top velocity and smashed into the enemy ranks with the force of a heavy cataphract charge. Men screamed as they were flung aside by the swipes from the giant ax. Shields were crushed, and explosions of light filled the arena. The twins followed shortly after, knocking down anyone of balance with their shield, a swift stab whenever they saw an opening. Strem followed closely behind, a quick pierce from his rapier, a pierce through the chest here an eye there. One of them lunged for him, he sidestepped and swept the opponents legs from under him and another stab vanquished an opponent.


    To his left Mask was a flurry of blades, sometimes taking out multiple opponents at once. Two men charged at Strem, he performed a quick riposte on one, piercing the mans shoulder, the other charged at Strem with his scimitar raised, just as Strem was about to dodge another warrior smashed his shield into him from the side. The scimitar smashed into Strem''s ribcage, the warrior grinned victoriously, until a swift cut along the throat made him explode in lights. Strem pulled on the warrior with the shield, the man stumbled and fell, another quick stab and more lights. He fell into the trance of battle, using every ounce of skill he possessed to fight off the many opponents. His Iron Skin skill saved him time and time again, warriors going in for a fatal attack suddenly realized the attack was not as fatal as expected, their surprise proving fatal instead. Dodge, stab, parry, counterattack, the rythm started coming back, he felt his skills shed some of their rust as he fought off the many skilled warriors attacking him.


    An angry roar resounded through the arena, from the corner of his eyes he saw Ritka collapse to his knees, swarmed by opponents who were finally piercing the giants thick skin. The blond man leaped forward, jumping of the back of another man to thrust his sword through Ritka''s eye, the giant exploded into a shower of lights. The rest of them fought on, slowly being pressed together, soon enough they were fighting back to back. He fought back to back with Mask while the twins were fighting off just as many opponents in the same manner, About twenty of the warriors remained. They had taken out more than three quarters of the opponents, Mask however was breathing heavily, she tried hard not to let it show but Strem noticed the slight tremor in her hands. The twins were covered in sweat, their clothes drenched, their eyes still had a determined glare and they still had the same manic smile. Strem himself felt slightly guilty, he was not tired, he was not even injured, his regeneration was kicking in. He was tough to injure and minor injuries he would quickly recovered from. Stamina was a non issue, his body recovering from the muscle strain and oxygen deprivation almost immediately.


    The stalemate did not last much longer, "Attack!" The blond man roared once more, "Do not give them time to rest!"


    The remaining warriors charged the group, Strem took a deep breath and waited for them to come, He lunged forward as soon as one of them was in range, his speed surprising his opponent, turning their last twenty enemies into nineteen. He saw some lights float past his head from behind, make that eighteen. The twins instead of waiting for the enemy to come to them, twisted to face the same side and both charged forward smashing out off the ranks of warriors surrounding them. The male twin managed to take one down in their escape attempt.


    He once more lost himself to the cadence of battle, strike, dodge, slip past an attack, upset their balance, move in for the finish. The female twin screamed as her brother was stabbed in the stomach, the brother grabbed at the warrior holding the spear, it was the dark-skinned man who was first to join the blond man. The warrior quickly released his spear, jumped back, unsheathed his sword with lightning quickness and stabbed through the heart of the red-skin. His sister roared in rage and tackled the dark-skinned warrior, pounding him into oblivion with her shield. When she stood up, her chest heaving from exhaustion, Strem''s gaze swept the area. All the warriors were dead, The blond man was still alive, as were the two warriors who had separated themselves.


    Mask, the female twin and Strem regrouped, pulling back turning to face the last three opponents. "These three are the most¡­ dangerous." Mask said softly, breathing heavily.


    "It matters not." The red-skin growled, "They face us, and thus they shall fall."


    "Indeed they will." Strem said smiling.


    Mask took a deep breath, glancing at him. "How are you uninjured and so full of energy."


    Strem''s smile turned into a full fledged grin, he bowed with a flourish. "Lets just say I''m tougher than my frame might make you think."


    Mask snorted, then seemed to freeze as she caught herself. Strem chuckled, "We must still decide who fights who!" he said it loudly enough to include their opponents into the conversation.


    The large warrior stood up, he swung his huge sword around like it was made of air. "Once she is properly rested, I would like to cross blades with the red-skin." He said with a small bow.


    The red-skin surprisingly bowed back slightly both of them taking a seat facing each other.


    The bald young man pointed his staff at Mask, but then made a gesture with his hand and sat down. Motioning for her to do the same, Mask sat down sheathing her swords.


    "It is not wise to let them rest!" The blond man said staring at the other two warriors on his side.


    "I am not here to pass these phases, I am here to fight a battle worth remembering. I will learn, become stronger and continue challenging the strongest warriors I can find." The stern man with the great-sword told him.


    The blond man cursed, eyeing them with his blue eyes. "Well I will not let them rest!" He shouted charging forward.


    Red-skin and Mask tensed, Strem once more unsheathed his rapier. "Allow me ladies." He said calmly stepping forward to meet the challenge.


    The blond man rushed at him, holding his longsword in two hands. He struck at Strem with lightning speed, Strem moved his rapier to knock the blade of track. The swift strike turned out to be a feint, surprising Strem with his speed, the blond man turned his first strike into a smooth second. Strem jerked his head and narrowly dodged the blade. The man launched into a swift series of attack, skillfully flowing from one attack into the other. Strem was hard pressed to keep the man at bay. He made a small mistake causing the blond man to slice into his shoulder. The cut was shallow, the blond man frowned and jumped back, staring at Strem suspiciously. His eyes widened as he saw the cut slowly pulling itself closed, the skin mending.


    "It seems I have underestimated you. I am Castul of Monderburg. May I have your name strange one." The blond man said giving Strem a slight inclination of the head.


    Strem smiled at him, pulling of a perfectly fashionable bow, "I am Strem Xilivor. It is my pleasure to cross my blade with yours."


    "Mine as well," Castul stepped forward to challenge him again.


    The two men had a small smile as they matched their blades together, Strem was losing slightly in the battle of skill, Castul managing to land a cut here and there. Yet because of Strem''s skills his toughness and regeneration more than made up for it. Eventually Castul started slowing down, Strem started landing small cuts. Castul stepped back, sheathing his sword. "It seems I have lost." He said giving Strem a bow. "I will become stronger and hope I will be able to challenge you again, Strem of Xilivor." The blond man then grabbed a dagger from a sheath in his back and smashed it into his own chest. Strem''s eyes widened as the man exploded into more of the floating lights.


    "What a warriors! What a battle!" The announcer roared, as the audience cheered in approval. "True honor on the battle field, today is turning out to be a great day for the Colosseum ladies and gents! Now let us move on to the next match. The audience roared once more in anticipation, cheering and screaming for their favorites.


    The next to fight were Red-skin and the stern faced warrior, their battle unlike Castul''s and Strem''s was focused on power. Great sword smashed against shield, gauntlets smashed aside swords. The loud clanging of the blades urging the warriors and the audience into ever more excitement. Eventually by a stroke of luck the Stern faced man slipped on a rock, not one to let an opening go Red-skin smashed her sword through her opponents face. The audience cheered once more, the last two to step up were the bald man in the robe and Mask.


    Their fight was even faster than Strem''s had been, the staff twirled around in a constant flowing motion. All the blows not finding the female warrior as she flowed through the attacks like a leaf on the wind. She started incorporating her blades into her movement, flowing from one fluid form to the next. Strem once more marveled at the way she moved, she did not simply fight, she danced. The monk held up against her extremely well, his staff twirling, smashing away any attack that might find him. Eventually Mask started slowing down, her earlier exhaustion catching up with her, the monk got a strike in, knocking the mask from her face. The monk froze as he did so, the female swordsman quickly recovering the mask and putting it back on her face.


    The monk started repeatedly bowing, Mask said something but the monk shook his head. Mask spoke again, speaking in a language he did not understand, he did however note that whatever she said was a command. The monk shook his head, obviously in panic. The audience was silent as a hush fell over the crowd, Strem got the gist of it, Mask wanted to continue the fight but the monk refused to raise his weapon against her. Making a quick decision he stepped forward unsheathed his rapier and pierced the monks heart with a lightening fast lunge. The monks eyes widened in surprise before a smile of relief spread across his face. The silence was deafening after his action, Mask stared at him, her fists trembling.


    "I know you wanted to fight him."


    "If you know that then why!" She said, stepping towards him angrily.


    "He recognized who you are, and refused to fight you, if it had gone on any longer people would have wondered about who you are, it would have caused you problems further into the tournament which I assumed you would want to avoid. There will be other opponents to test your blades on, forcing a man to raise his weapon never ends well." Strem said staring her down.


    Mask stiffened, then sighed. A nod and she started heading for the exit, he blinked as he noticed that he had missed the announcement that the battle was over. He rolled his shoulders as he followed Mask and Red-skin to the exit. He wondered who he had been fighting alongside this whole time. A mystery for another day, she was obviously worried that it would compromise the way people saw her. Strem chuckled as he thought of how little it would matter to him and his friends, but for now he would let her keep her secret.

 Chapter 15

    Strem walked through the gate, following Red-skin and Mask. As they entered the room Strem was surprised to see it was similar to the room they had previously waited in. Ritka and the other twin were sitting against one of the walls at the far end. They raised their hand in greeting and everyone walked over, Strem sat himself down next to Ritka, blowing out a breath in relief.


    The twins exchanged a few words and sat down on the bench across from him, Mask joined them, the bench Strem sat on was more than filled by just him and Ritka. Thinking about it he was amazed the benches could hold Ritka''s weight.


    "Isn''t it about time we actually introduced ourselves?" Strem smiled at the rest, "I''m Strem, The big guy is Ritka." He pointed at the giant with his thumb.


    The male of the twins tapped his chest, "I''m Makin and this is Ratisha."


    Everyone looked over at Mask. She hesitated, nodded to herself and answered, "You may call me Naya."


    "Nice to meet all of you, I was wondering if there was a way for us to watch the ongoing rounds?" Strem asked.


    "We cannot." Naya answered. "It was deemed unfair for starters like ourselves to be able to peek at each others fighting style."


    "Too bad, I was wondering how my friend was doing." Strem added, tapping his chin.


    "Does your friend have the same strange abilities as you do?" Ratisha asked.


    Strem raised an eyebrow, "Strange?"


    "You fight many enemies, take many blows, yet you are neither injured nor do you show any signs of exhaustion." Naya pointed out.


    "Well if you call those strange abilities then yes she also has them." Strem said, "They are, however, simply high level skills, it has nothing to do with, this." He said gesturing at his body.


    "May I ask what race you are, I have never seen one of your kind before, nor have I heard of them." Ritka asked.


    "I honestly couldn''t tell you, as far as I know I am the first of my kind, I used to be human." Strem sighed, "This change was forced upon me and a few others, each of us differ in appearance."


    The story naturally made them curious, a human, forced into a new race, it was unheard of. Strem told them the story, he told them about how he and the others were captured, how they had been tortured and manhandled and how that was the origin of his skills. He told them about the core that was forced into their bodies and how it changed the very structure of their bodies. A few minutes into the explanation, Yinta entered the room. Strem introduced her to the others. They marveled at her skin and how a flower seemed to actually be growing behind her ear, Naya pointed out how it was the most beautiful shade of pink she had ever seen. Yinta gracefully thanked her for the compliment.


    After the starter rounds had ended it was announced that the remaining warriors would be spending the night, all the rooms had double bunks however so they would need to find a roommate, the twins had it easy. They were used to bunking up anyways, Yinta and Naya decided to bunk up. That left Strem with Ritka, Strem grinned at the giant. "Just so you know you''re definitely NOT getting the top bunk." The giant chuckled, "I would be surprised if I even fit in the bed at all."


    ¡ª White Room ¡ª


    "And then I was lying in the top bunk, with Ritka taking basically the entire floor." Strem said grinning.


    Jer stroked his chin. "You''ve met some interesting people."


    "That we have, they would make for strong allies, I had a conversation about doing the group tournaments with Ritka, he wanted to enter both the Duo and the Group tournaments as well as the solo ones. Says he''s happy to have already found a competent partner."


    Jer smiled, scratching his chin. "Having a giant as a friend will prove useful, you should know however, that he is not a half-giant as you assumed, he is a full blooded one. He is merely young, giants continue growing through-out their lifespan. I think he is about our age, maybe even younger."


    "Really?" Strem''s eyes widened, "The fella is going to get even bigger? Oh lord save me."


    "I think it is interesting, how all of us have ended up somewhere else, only Three and Sumi have become adventurers as originally planned." Kolstum said.


    Yinta stepped forward towards the projector. ¡°I guess I shall show you my progress, the rest of Strem¡¯s memories is the rest of the tournament. Which by the way Ritka won with ease. Not that it surprised anyone.¡±


    Everyone nodded and made noises of agreemant and watched as she started up the projector.


    ---- Yinta POV ----


    She fought in the tournament, same as Strem, Fli¨ªt even complimented her on her bare handed technique. She nodded gracefully in thanks to the compliment. The others were surprised when she stepped out of the tournament after the all-out brawl, but she had decided that this type of life was not what she wanted for herself. They watched as she created her financial plan, as she went out to the fields and used her magic, core-given ability to succor the fields of farmers, convincing them to join her new merchant company. She would help them nurture their fields, increasing their yield and quality by a large margin. The farmers were exuberant about the results of the first batch.


    She asked for no pay but instead convinced them to allow her to sell their harvest in the city. She set up a store, using most of the money Strem had received for placing third in the tournament. The eventual winner had been Ritka, to no one¡¯s surprise. Sheer size was an overwhelming advantage that the other competitors could not compensate for, given their low levels and lack of stats. Mask had come in a surprising second place, managing to defeat Strem with beautiful sword play- only to be squashed by a body slam from the giant. The reward money Strem had received was not insignificant and Strem had trusted her with nearly all of it, keeping only a small sum so he could eat. She smiled at the memory, as she used the money to buy a store.


    She started advertising, which really made her stand out because Ritka had helped out. Having a giant call out your wares in front of your store really boosted notability. She used that to advertise her organic, fresh and extremely tasty farm produce. Business boomed, and she earned more than she had expected, enough to expand the store and the circle of farmers she received the food from. Her success made her popular with the farmers, who sold more of their harvest and thus earned more. Word spread like wild fire as farmers came to her shop requesting to be part of her circle. After a mere four days she had already earned enough to open a second store, she had to admit this was beyond her initial expectations.


    She was happy with the results and had even hired two employees, one for each shop, so she could spend more time nurturing crops. The people who had eaten the food she helped grow told others that it was tastier than anything they had ever had before. She asked a mage to check out her produce, and it seemed that her magic had actually seeped into the crops. The mage had told her that it even had slightly addicting properties. Nothing harmful, but enough so that people thought it tasted even better than it actually did. By the end of the week she was widely considered an accomplished merchant, Ritka and Strem had decided to duo up for tournaments, with the twins and mask joining whenever the team-based matches were available.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    All of them also signed up for the solo brackets. The strange pair went their separate ways, however Strem kept feeding most of his winnings into the shops, causing her budding business empire to grow even faster than would have been possible otherwise. The rest of the group applauded her ingenuity when they saw how fast her merchant group was growing. She smiled, satisfied at their reactions to her memories.


    ¡°For the rest not much has happened nor have I met anyone that was notable. I should earn enough at the end of the month to expand to other cities in the area. Should any of you need money in the future feel free to ask, that is why I started my merchant company after all.¡± Yinta stated as she sat down.


    Jer nodded to her, ¡°I might make good on that, I will most likely need a decent sum to get my people armed and armoured, it would let me expand a lot quicker if I had some funds beforehand.¡±


    Yinta smiled. ¡°Let me know the specifics, I can make a shared bank account that will be accessible at all banks. You may withdraw whatever you need.¡±


    ¡°Much appreciated.¡± Jer answered. The rest nodded, although most of them were not in need of any extra money at the moment.


    With that they ended their session and returned to their much needed rest.


    ¡ª¡ª Three Pov¡ª¡ª


    Three woke up the next day, feeling better than usual. He could feel his familiars waiting outside the village and had to applaud Shuffles'' sense. He had completely forgotten to instruct the undead to wait outside of the village, but it seemed the ghoul understood it was a bad idea to simply enter a village with a group of undead without needing to be told. Having an intelligent companion really did make life easier.


    He rose, stretching his limbs, not that he actually had any aches or stiffness. It had become a habit he supposed, perhaps from his younger days. He briefly struggled to remember his past but sighed when he came up with a big fat nothing. He poked Sumi. The girl groaned and turned around in her bed. He poked her a few more times until eventually she sat upright with her messy bed hair and glared at him. He smiled before telling her it was time for breakfast.


    ¡°Fiiiiiine.¡± She muttered.


    She dragged herself out of bed and started putting on her clothes. She had been so overjoyed with the clothes Emmi''s mother had made her that she had used their recent earnings to buy a few more identical sets. She put them on and strung some beads in her hair to give it some extra color. She grinned at him and ran downstairs, slapping his back on the way down. ¡°What are you waiting for slowpoke!¡±


    Three shook his head as he paced after her, ¡°You, obviously.¡±


    As he walked downstairs he was surprised to find Crimson laying on the porch. Emmi had opened the front door so the Jurgor could stick her head in and watch as the family ate breakfast. Her mother had even been so considerate as to have a plate of raw meat for the creature. Three smiled as he saw the large creature obediently listening to Emmi as she told her to wait. He bobbed his head in thanks to Emmi''s mother and took his own seat at the table. He grinned as he smelled the delicious aroma of food. He had not eaten in days, and although he did not get hungry he had to admit that he did like to eat.


    After every bit was gone, he tapped his stomach with a satisfied smile. Being full felt odd but the sensation was... good. Much better than the nothingness he usually felt. Emmi got up energetically and nearly dragged Three and Sumi out to the door. Davis and Talin were already waiting for them in front of the house, grinning as Emmi struggled to move Crimson out of the way so she could actually step foot outside. Eventually, the huge Jurgor budged and she pulled them into a circle.


    ¡°Right, so we have some catching up to do. You have obviously gained quite a few levels, so that means it''s time for us to hit some dungeons. The goblin one is too easy and too small for us, so our best choice would be the Abominatable Dungeon.¡± Emmi told them, hands placed on her hips as she swept her eyes over the group.


    ¡°The abdominatablulbu what now?¡± Davis said, blinking at the strange word.


    ¡°The Abominatable Dungeon, It was named that after some adventurer decided the dungeon was filled with abominations. It''s not an actual word, but the name stuck. There are an extremely varied number of monsters in the dungeon, making it a good place to train. More importantly, it has plenty of floors. The monsters on the lower levels even reach into the fourties.¡± She told them sternly.


    Talin rolled his shoulders, ¡°So when are we going?¡±


    Emmi grinned at the question. ¡°Right now!¡±


    The rest of the group sighed but hid small smiles at the expected response. Davis and Talin were already wearing their brand new leather armor with their weapons tied to their hips and backs respectively. Emmi had also brought her great sword with her. She had not yet earned enough to afford a full armor set, but she had managed to buy herself some steel vambraces and greaves. Sumi, as the party mage, didn¡¯t need any special weaponry. She could get a staff or wand to augment her casting ability, but she insisted that feeling the danger of fire and the risk of setting herself ablaze kept her focused.


    Three shook his head at her choice. Her element of choice for her magic progression was less than ideal, given the combustible nature of her body, which was probably exactly why she chose it. She kept talking about turning her weaknesses into her strength, including her inherent flammability. Emmi eyed Three as he walked through town with the rest, ¡°Don''t you need your hammer and shield?¡±


    Three blinked at the question. To be honest he had completely forgotten about the armaments. He frowned, deep in thought for a brief moment, but eventually shook his head. ¡°I prefer fighting without.¡±


    Emmi stared blankly at him for a moment then shrugged, ¡°To each their own!¡±


    They made their way through town, greeting those they knew and getting well wishes from some of the stalls they frequented. As they neared the wall, the guards opened the gate. Each of them greeting Emmi like she was their long lost little sister.


    ¡°Take care of the little captain!¡± One of the guards yelled after them as they left the town.


    Emmi huffed as she stamped away from the settlement, ¡°As if I need protection. Annoying little...¡± She started muttering minor insults and epithets at the guards below her breath. Davis started grinning, opening his mouth only to be interrupted by Sumi.


    ¡°So how far is this dungeon?¡±


    Emmi looked at her and smiled, ¡°Only a few hours away.¡± She then glanced at Three, a mischievous smile forming on her face. ¡°Unless of course, a certain large, fuzzy creature is ride-able!¡±


    Three gazed at her, then shrugged. ¡°Ask her. If she''s okay with letting you guys ride, I can just run alongside. It would really speed things up.¡±


    Emmi walked over to the Jurgor and stroked the creature''s nose, Crimson purred from the attention, her flanks rippling from the sound. Emmi bounced on the balls of her feet, her voice nearly trembling in anticipation. ¡°Crimson, can we ride you? Can you carry the four of us?¡± Crimson blinked as she stared at Emmi for a few moments. Talin, Davis and even Sumi were observing the one-sided conversation out of the corners of their eyes. Crimson bowed her head lower, pushing her nose between Emmi''s legs and with a sweep tossed her onto her back. With a yelp, Emmi flew through the sky and landed, quite ungracefully on the Jurgor¡¯s back.


    The remaining group members grinned in excitement and started climbing onto the Jurgor, all four of them lining up on her spine. Three glanced at Crimson, feeling through the bond that she liked the attention. Her long back had more than enough room for the four of them, and she could probably easily carry Three as well. He wanted to run however, feeling a need for the physical exertion. Three started picking up the pace, and Crimson accelerated to a canter to kept up. Three built up speed until he was running at full sprint. The Jurgor easily kept pace, her paws kicking up a layer of fresh snowfall off the ground.


    They reached the dungeon after a relatively short travel time. Three noted that his other familiars had fallen behind but were still traveling towards the dungeon. They were moving at a decent pace and would arrive in about half an hour. The rest of the party clumsily dismounted the Jurgor¡¯s back, laughing as they tried to tame their windswept hair and remarked on how amazing it was to travel as such a high speed. They patted Crimson in thanks for letting them ride, causing the Jurgor to start purring once more. Emmi really liked the resulting vibrations as she hugged the creature¡¯s side.


    ¡°By the way guys,¡± Three said, interrupting their reverie. ¡°The rest of my familiars will arrive in about half an hour. Do you want to wait for them?¡±


    As the attention shot towards Three, Emmi walked up to him, with Talin and Davis close behind. ¡°What do you mean your other familiars? What other familiars!¡±


    ¡°Well I told you about how I got the class Monster-tamer right?¡± They nodded, ¡°Well I bonded a Zombie and a Skeleton during the fights with the undead. The zombie evolved into a rare smart variant and became a ghoul. The skeleton became a strong skilled skeleton. I also control six other undead around level twenty.¡± Emmi blinked at his calm explanation.


    ¡°So you have eight level twenty companions?¡±


    ¡°Technically two companions and six conscripts.¡± Three corrected.


    ¡°Your friggin followers are stronger than our own party man!¡± Davis exclaimed in shock.


    Talin nodded calmly, ¡°Not to mention the level thirty-four Jurgor.¡± The rest of the group just stared at him as they digested the information.


    Three shrugged, ¡°I guess I''ll tell them to clear the dungeon themselves. Crimson can you wait here for Shuffles and clear the dungeon with them?¡± The Jurgor laid down with a yawn which he took for agreement and turned towards the entrance.


    From the corner of his eye, he saw the others mouthing ¡®shuffles¡¯ with raised eyebrows. Pretending not to notice, he dragged the others into the dungeon. ¡°We obviously have some clearing to do. Let''s get inside!¡±


    Three stepped inside his second dungeon, with his still-arguing team-mates.

 Chapter 16

    Three stepped into the dungeon, as usual, he was only wearing the baggy black pants that Emmi''s mother made him, tied at the ankles. With a red sash to compliment the colour and help his pants stay on. Behind him were Emmi and Davis, Emmi was wearing brown and red leathers, with steel vambraces and greaves. Davis was wearing cured leather, both of his axes in hand. Following behind them were Sumi and Talin, Talin had the same leather outfit as Davis, although his was tailored to fit his slimmer stature. Sumi was wearing the clothes Emmi''s mother had made, the coloured beads stringed in her hair.


    Three had left his companions outside and it was the first time in a while that he did not have Crimson at his side, he had to admit that he missed her presence. He had told her to head into the dungeon with Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton as soon as they arrived. He kept his gaze strained further down the cavernous hallway, his hands clenched into fists as his body was poised to react to any threat. As he meticulously made his way forward he whispered a question to Emmi, ¡°What kind of creature can we expect on the first floor?¡±


    ¡°Mostly wolves, unlike their natural brethren these ones have mutated. They will look... unnatural.¡±


    Three frowned, calling creatures unnatural was a rather broad way to explain what something looked like. He rolled his shoulders as he focused on the task ahead, he was tense. Being alone was easier, if he made a mistake while fighting alone it was no big deal, his defenses were tough enough to cover for almost anything he did. In a group however, if he made a mistake it might cost him the lives of his friends. The realization that is actions would have heavy consequences caused the muscles in his shoulders to tense up.


    He froze as he heard something further down the hall, it sounded like claws scratching over stone. He motioned with a hand, the others behind hem readying their weapons. He made his way forward, using every bit of his newly enhanced senses to seek out their targets. He faintly heard the sound of paws hitting the stone, strangely enough, the sounds were moving away from them. He frowned as he continued to make his way forward, his enhanced senses allowed him to hear many things he otherwise wouldn''t have. This had the unexpected side effect of making him even tenser, he could here the monsters in the cave but for some strange reason they were not making a move, there were no signs that they were preparing to attack.


    He growled as he told the others what was happening, Emmi spoke softly to reassure him. ¡°The abominations in the first floor like to toy with their prey, they stalk them for a while, leading them further down the caves. Causing tension, wearing down their opponents. What strikes me as odd is that you are the only one that can sense them, even Talin with his hearing can''t hear them. I wonder if the creatures know that you have enhanced senses somehow.¡±


    The group sank into thought, thinking about the implications of monsters having the capabilities to sense their skills. A monster that thought, planned, and prepared for battle was far more dangerous in battle than a normal one by a serious magnitude. They came here to train however, they would not grow stronger just standing around. So they moved forward, weapons at the ready, eyes and ears peeled for sound or movement. The cavernous hall they were traveling through started widening, the further they traveled into the depths of the dungeon the more the silence grated on them.


    The hall spilled into a larger area, for some strange reason there was knee-high grass covering its expanse, the whole field was shimmering in the light of dusk. The glowing mushrooms covering the roof of the cavern shading everything in odd red/blue colours. The entire roof pulsed, the colour of the light changing every so often as the mushrooms emitted light in a steady pulse, making them feel as though they walked inside a beating heart.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Once their attention was on the mushrooms, Three sensed movement in the grass. He hissed and the others snapped to attention. He swept his gaze over the grass, further away the grass was even higher, some of it might even reach his chest. He could see some of the stalks sway, then he saw a group of stalks rustling to his left. He saw more of them rustling to his right, he lowered his center of gravity and raised his fists.


    The others noticed his movements and prepared themselves. Davis and Emmi fanned out slightly to his sides, keeping the flanks of Talin and Sumi covered. Talin put an arrow on his bow, his eyes sweeping the grass. Sumi summoned multiple fire arrows, the fire hovering in the air around her. With a sudden howl multiple shapes dashed forward through the grass, they were fast. The creatures charged them with the speed of a galloping horse, one of the creatures jumped towards Three, giving the party its first look at their opponent.


    The creature might have been a wolf, a long long time ago. It had mutated into something else entirely. Its skin was visible in patches as it''s fur burst open showing strange fleshy growths, its teeth had grown, becoming unreasonably large. The creatures couldn''t even close their jaws, the teeth pierced their own flesh when they did. Its tail had split in two, gorey strings of muscles keeping their tails tied somewhat together. Its eyes crusted with mucus, its jaws covered in dried blood.


    They froze for a split second as the hideous creature leaped at Three, Three was the first to recover and lined up a punch, Talin recovered nearly as fast as he did, sending an arrow into its diseased eye. The creature crashed to the floor, still. Three took his eye of the monstrosity as another one charged him from the left. He swung his fist, impacting its jaw as he felt bone crunch under the froce of his punch. Once most of the opponents were within range he inhaled and unleashed a deafening Challenging Cry. The creatures howled in anger as they charged him without regard for their own lives, he unleashed bone-shattering punch after bone-shattering punch. The creatures were drawn towards him as moths to flame.


    More creatures came towards them like a never-ending tide. Whenever he was able, Three released a Challenging Cry, trying his utmost to keep the monsters focused on him. Davis was flashing around the battlefield, appearing behind straggling opponents and finishing them off with a well-executed backstab. Sumi with her near infinite mana was releasing an arsenal of spells, throwing fireballs and arrows at anything within reach. The resulting flames in the surrounding grass fell under her control, Sumi had a veritable firestorm under her command. Emmi was swinging her greatsword in wide strong strokes, cleaving opponents in half. Blood splattering her armor as her eyes narrowed in focus. Talin stood there calm as stone, eyes flitting across the plains. Using his unerring aim to take out anything that tried to pounce undetected on his party members.


    Three grinned as he fought, he had missed his team. They fought as if they had never parted, he knew which creatures he could ignore, trusting Talin to put an arrow in them. Davis was working to keep anything from flanking their formation, while Emmi was unleashing destruction on the largest groups she could find. Sumi was simply targeting anything and everything she could, setting the battlefield ablaze while deftly controlling the flames to spread away from them and out into the field. Clearing it of the knee-high grass, giving the monsters nowhere to hide.


    As Emmi cut the last of the remaining abominations in half the surge of battle died down. He could hear the heavy breathing of the others behind him as he turned to check on them. Emmi had a few scratches, her leather armour torn in a few areas. New scratches covered her vambraces aswell, she was the only one other than him however that had actually been touched by their foes. Three grinned as he looked around at the corpses of the monsters.


    ¡°Well they are a lot uglier than I expected.¡±


    The rest chuckled as they looked over the pile of corpses.


    ¡°As well as a lot more than I was expecting.¡± Emmi added, frowning as she looked at the sheer number of creatures.


    ¡°Makes you wonder what we will find when we go deeper.¡± Talin said, gazing further down the cavern, at the unknown foes ahead.

 Chapter 17

    Three tapped his chin. ¡°So I was thinking perhaps I should get my companions to come in after all. This was merely the first area and we were already swarmed, if there are even larger numbers or they have stronger levels it could get dangerous. I don¡¯t think there are many things below level fifty that can match Crimson. The rest can hold their own and watch our backs.¡±


    Emmi cocked her head and thought about it before nodding. ¡°Let¡¯s do that, the experience share will stay the same regardless since we are in the same party. Adding your companions will allow us to catch up to your level faster, even if you will stay a couple of levels ahead.¡±


    The rest agreed with the decision so we headed outside and waited a few minutes for the rest of my companions to appear. In the distance Three could see Shuffles leading his group towards us, the zombies were a good deal slower. Sir Kelly Ton and Shuffles were actually the only ones so far that had managed to pass the level twenty barrier. Sir Kelly Ton was a Strong Skilled Skeleton, and Shuffles was a Ghoul. The rest were between level sixteen and eighteen. Close enough that they would soon reach the next evolutions themselves. I explained the situation to them, even though Three was pretty sure only Shuffles got the gist of it.


    We headed back into the dungeon, Emmi kept peeking over her shoulder at the shambling undead. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you give them orders on what to do in case we get attacked, or who they should avoid attacking?¡±


    Three blinked as he stared at her, ¡°I don¡¯t need to, Shuffles can do that.¡±


    ¡°S-Shuffles? I wanted to ask about that before, but why is the ghoul called¡­ Shuffles.¡±


    Three felt a bit of heat rise to his cheeks, ¡°Well, I met a girl and she gave both of my companions a name before I got the chance to. So uhh¡­ thats why.¡±


    Sumi bounced up next to him, ¡°So what is the other one called?¡±


    ¡°Sir kelly ton.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t hear you speak up!¡± Sumi complained as she climbed on his back.


    ¡°Sir Kelly Ton!¡±


    Their small procession paused for a brief moment before his friends burst into laughter.


    Davis wiped tears from his eyes as he did his best to remain standing. ¡°Ow, ow my ribs, owh that is so rich this girl must have been a genuis. Sir Kelly Ton. Brilliant!¡±


    Three ignored their laughter and stomped deeper into the cave-system. Followed by his chuckling compatriots.


    They reached the area they had already cleared, corpses and ashes assaulted their noses.


    Three wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant smell as he walked around corpses towards a hall that seemed to lead deeper into the dungeon.


    ¡°How long did you want to spend in the dungeon today?¡± Talin asked Emmi.


    ¡°Honestly I figured we should stay until we couldn¡¯t move on any longer, or until we run out of resources or energy.¡±This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Then I shall lead the way with Crimson, Shuffles and his group can watch our backs.¡±


    Emmi nodded. ¡°Me and Davis take the flanks as usual, Talin and Sumi will be in the center of the formation.¡±


    The rest of the group made some sounds of agreement and made their way to the other side of the battleground, walking through the cave system Three kept his senses peeled even though he knew Crimson¡¯s senses far outstripped his.


    For a few minutes all was quiet, it seemed as if the various monsters had been cleared in the previous wave.


    The smell and remaining smoke tingled his nose but he ignored it and kept moving, it was darker than it was in the previous area. Even Three¡¯s enhanced vision had trouble seeing anything in the eerie dark. Emmi gave a short command to Sumi as a ball of fire rose over their heads lighting up the cavern. Three glanced to the wall, the was a type of¡­ mold covering it. He motioned to it and the rest took a look. None of them had seen it before, Three decided to scrape a bit of it off and put it into an empty glass vial. He knew a certain scientist who could explain the mystery to him. It might even have been a normal type of cave mold, the fact that it slightly pulsated made that unlikely.


    They reached another larger, more open area. Unlike the other room this one had no grass at all. The tree¡¯s barren, dead. A low hanging fog clung around the trees, limiting visibility. It reminded him of the fog that had accompanied the undead he fought up north. He held up a hand and signed his thought to Sumi, who in turn explained it to the rest of the group. The group tensed slightly, weapons at the ready. He glanced at Crimson, who like him was scouring the forest for anything unnatural.


    He rolled his shoulders, if she couldn¡¯t see or hear anything that limited his options. He headed deeper into the forest, the density of the dead trees causing their formation to become single file. He led, with Crimson squeezing her way behind him, after her came Emmi, then Sumi with Davis behind her. Talin was the last of the team with Sir Kelly Ton behind him and then the rest of undead with Shuffles at the rear of the procession.


    The branches creaked around him, the forest silent other than the occasional creak from the trees. He heard Sumi mumble behind him, ¡°I could just torch the entire forest, give us some visibility.¡±


    Emmi shook her head, ¡°I¡¯d rather not, the ceiling isn¡¯t very high here and the resulting smoke might lessen visibility even more.¡±


    Sumi grunted in frustration.


    Three knew how she felt, he himself was not a fan of the forest. He lead them further in until they came across a small hill, the hill unlike the rest of the area was covered in grass. A crimson shade similar to blood. Three frowned, the hill just screamed of a trap. He motioned for Sumi to shoot a fireball at it. She gathered the magic into her hand, the raw mana becoming a blazing arrow. It shot forth, whistling through the air and impacted the hill. A screech caused them to cover their ears, the sound deafening. The hill moved, it stood up on various misshapen legs, it turned their way. Many beady little eyes glaring at them, the creature had more than a single mouth and they all roared at it in anger.


    {Abominable Blood Mound level 29}


    ¡°Bloodyhell!¡± Davis cursed, as he caught sight of the monstrousity.


    Three stepped forward to meet the creature, he grunted. Crimson rushed forward in blur of ivory fur and impacted the creature. She shoved her claws inside, the mound and began tearing it apart. The creature in turn tried to use it¡¯s many appendages to claw, bite and stab Crimson. Few of them having the strength to pierce her enhanced hide. In mere moments the monstrosity was torn to shreds. The rest of the team gaped at Crimson, Three walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder.


    He caught sight of a vial, he picked it up and read the label.


    {Vial of Chaotic Mutation}


    He frowned at it and passed it to Emmi.


    ¡°None of us will be using this.¡± She said as she glanced at the rest of the group, ready to stomp down on any argument.


    ¡°Please! Even I can tell that thing is bad news.¡± Davis muttered.


    ¡°And if even he can tell then you got nothing to worry about, no-one here is that stupid.¡± Tavis added, although he briefly glanced at Sumi.


    Sumi raised an eyebrow, ¡°Don¡¯t look at me, I don¡¯t wanna be that ugly. I¡¯m already inhuman enough as it is.¡±


    Emmi chuckled and grabbed Sumi in a quick hug, ¡°Inhuman maybe, but oh so cute!¡±


    Sumi tried to wrestle herself out of the much taller, much stronger female warriors hands to no avail.