"I won't kill them, but I will get them out if I have to hogtie them and send them off in the wagon, but do you know why they are bothering you? Are they even bothering you or is this just you not wanting them in your city?"
"Ah, you see, they are trying to subvert my pretty patrons! Giayadel is a pig and a Lecherous beast. The men he sends are the most handsome that he can find and they are offered wonderful lives, but they are all lies. You know just as well as I do what a god can do to a moral, I can tell, mind-reading, annoying, I know right? Anyway, the moral of the story is, well I don't have to say what he is doing to my people, but If I attack his followers, then he will go crying to the other gods, and they love to start shit," Dyster explained.
"So, then If we do it is just an act of war for Healia against Giayadel?" I asked rhetorically.
"Only if you kill them, and you said you wouldn't. So, it doesn't matter, look I gave you ten rings and knife boy the other Belt Knifer, so just try okay? I will talk to Granvel at the Ground Pounders Guild, you will like him and the boys! They are a good bunch, and I'll let them know about your situation and they will know not to jest! Dyster said while tossing Tim the other roll and then handing us all the boxes.
"What do you mean by our situation?" I asked, glaring at him, forcing my eyes to glow red, but then I stepped back.
"That you don't like dick. Now, remember K, I am not Healia. Watch your mouth with me and don't try to use your cheap party trick on me!" Dyster said in a deep and loud voice that did not match the body that it came from.
I stepped back because both his eyes were completely filled and spilling with a liquid green fire that rolled down his face.
Suddenly tree's started to fall, and the ground started to shake; what was going on? Gloria grabbed both Lesha and me and pulled us back from the angry God.
Then it all stopped, and Dyster's face was normal again.
"Sorry, but I like to get the pecking order in line when it comes to your type! I control disaster, remember that, but I have taken up enough of your time, you still have a couple days to travel! See you back in the city!"
With that, Dyster pulled a flat white stone with a blue circle on it. Dyster touched his wagon and then whispered something, and disappeared. It was almost like he had never even been here, except for the fallen trees.
"That was stupid, K. Why did you accept those things! Now we have to stir up Trouble with Giayadel!" Gloria complained as we got back in the wagon.
"It will be fine, we aren't killing them, but Giayadel is killing girls. Are you okay with that? We aren't nearly strong enough to challenge any one of them right now, but if what he says is true, then I would have done it for free."
That seemed to cool Gloria, but it got me fired up. What a pig of a god, he would be the first one I killed. Lesha put a hand on my arm, and I cooled a bit, but I was still bothered by what I had just heard from Dyster.
It was just past midday and we ate some rations while talking about the new rings we had just got. I went and handed one out to each of the girls and I had given one to each of the boys. I had offered Mark and Kevin one each, but they had both declined and bowed their heads in respect to me.
"No, that wouldn't be right, we should be the ones giving you the rings, hehe. You all have been the ones protecting us, we are only the cooks and night watch! Thank you for the offer, but you should keep them, your Guild will grow large soon. Plus you have those rings so you can get experience for your class outside of the dungeon," Kevin explained.
I wanted to ask him another question, but I was too embarrassed, so I went to Tim instead. He already knew that I was pretty new to most things, so I didn't mind asking him.
"What is experience, like what it means for our classes. I mean I know that I am a tank and I'm supposed to draw the attacks of who we are fighting, right? But, then you said there were skills, and…" I was going to keep asking, but Tim put his hand up to stop me laughing.
"Hold on there! One at a time! Okay, experience is what you gain from fighting monsters. At low levels, it has no effect on you, but after you get into emerald, your Guild Leader should help you get one. Since you skipped a couple steps, I will explain."
"Can you come inside and explain it to everyone?" I asked, and he nodded.
Soon even Corbit was in the back with us as we all piled in. The wagon was moving and the two men sat in the back and the four of us sat in the front, almost. Mei was laying across the three of us, sleeping again, with Gloria playing with her hair.
"Okay, so most of this is pretty straightforward, and K, since you have already used the Guild System, this won't come as much of a surprise to you. For the rest of you, when you put the ring on there will be a blue border that surrounds your vision, don't worry this is normal. Let's just start by putting the rings on," Tim explained to us.
I opened my box and poked Mei in the side to wake her up. Once I had the top of the box off, I pulled the small silver ring band. There was nothing descriptive or notable about them, they were just plain silver bands.
I slid mine on my finger.
A blue border appeared around my vision, and it was distracting at first, but after looking around the color faded into the background. I looked down at my ring and there was a small bar above it.
[Ruby 28%]
Not overly descriptive, but it said what it needed to. Now, I wanted to know what skills I had, but the second I wanted to see my skills, a menu popped up with a list of five skills.
[Shield Bash] Level 1
Dash forward up to 2 meters and if you hit a creature that is one size bigger than you or smaller you will stun them temporarily for 3 seconds.
[Battle Cry] Level 2
Enemy creatures within 5 meters must focus all attacks on you for 20 seconds.
[Rally] Level 1
Allies within 3 meters from you gain increased Physical Damage and Physical Resistance. This effect lasts for 30 seconds.
[Physical Resistance](Passive) Level 1
Gain an increased resistance to Physical Damage: 20% Damage reduction.
[Magical Resistance](Passive) Level 1
Gain an increased resistance to Magical Damage: 20% Damage reduction.
"How do I close my skills?" I asked Tim.
"Just will it closed. Good to see you already figured it out, how are the rest of you doing?"
Gloria was sitting patiently explaining to Mei, she must have figured it out already. Mei was looking side to side, but I could tell she was paying attention, she was just being Mei purely to frustrate Gloria. They were a cute couple, but then I got a whisper into my ear that tickled and almost made me laugh out.
"How do I do it?" Lesha whispered far too close to my ear.
"Shh, not so close love, that tickles! Just think that you want to see your skills and they will appear," I told her as she looked forward and started to concentrate hard, but then she jumped back in surprise.
She was so cute that I had to slide my hand into hers and kiss her cheek as she looked at her menu. I put my head on her shoulder and then she leaned hers into mine. It was nice to just relax like this, but I knew it couldn't last, but I would take in every minute or second I could spend with her.
"So, now you all know your skills, they should all be at level one, unless you have used them before. That won't be very likely, but not impossible. Sometimes the intent is enough for the skill to work; just knowing what you want to do can also activate the skill," Tim explained.
"I guess that I have used Battle Cry before because it's at level two already."
"Good, that is a very useful skill and can save lives. To use these skills you can do one of three things or all at the same time, it doesn't matter. Say it, think it, or mean it, but if you plan on using intent, I would still get in the habit of thinking it while you do it just to make sure the skill goes off. Nothing worse than going to use a skill at a crucial part and have it not work, that's how people die."
That was true, and I would get used to calling the skills out in my head. Calling the names of the skill out loud seemed a bit embarrassing. I could see some men doing it, and even maybe some women, like Mei might want to call out their spells out loud.
"What about magic? How do we see our spells?" Corbit asked, looking at his ring trying to concentrate.
"Magic is a bit different, and you can't see your spells with this ring. I don't know very much about it since I have no magic. The knowledge that I have is all learned from other people, but I think you have the spells stored inside of you and it is completely different. From what I have heard, magic and classes don't have anything to do with each other, and the only way to increase your power is to increase your devotion to your God, Healia."
"Devotion? What? Do we have to pray to her more or bring her gifts? Tch, typical God," Gloria said as she was ideally braiding Mei's hair.
"No, you will have to talk to Healia about it when we get to Dyster in three more days. Maybe more depending on how things go in the next town. If we didn't need supplies I would say that we should avoid the place, but I can't be helped," Tim said with a sigh.
"What's so bad about the town Greled?" Lesha asked.
"The people of the town don't have taverns or places to stay because they don't like travelers. It has gotten pretty bad since the dungeons appeared. Even before that the people treated travelers impolitely, now it has got to the point where it is almost not safe to go there anymore," Tim explained.
"How far are we from there?" I asked.
"Two days, but we will be okay, only you and I will go into town and get what we need. We will have to walk in, and the girls will have to watch the caravan while we are gone. Some real depraved people will do anything to make some quick coins. Best we can do is just get in and out and on our way."
"Is there anything on the way? Like between here and Greled?"
"I thought you would never ask! We can go and visit my parents tomorrow night, we will be very close to them!" Corbit said with excitement.
I hadn't been talking to him, but he seemed so excited that I could hardly tell him that I wasn't speaking to him. I didn't know that Corbit was from over here, but I had never asked him. I looked at Tim, and he nodded his head.
"Sounds like a plan, but what is the plan for tonight?" I asked.
"Not a lot of sleep, we will have to rest in shifts. This is bandit country."
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