CHAPTER II: REINFORCEMENT
Though I thought the meeting would be over after the map briefing, the Murktalons insisted on giving a formal introduction of who they were personally to those present. Sasha started first, explaining with pride her upbringing as a red-headed farmer on the outskirts of E-Rantel before wanting more out of life and joining the Adventurer's Guild. Her parents still stubbornly managed the farm and she started to cry a little when she described their feeling of joy at their daughter's return from imprisonment. After she didn't come home, they assumed that adventuring had claimed her and mourned her loss but never gave up hope that they'd find out what happened eventually. I didn't really want to visit her homestead but seeing as she wasn't giving me much of a choice, I reluctantly accepted to visit when I had time. Of course, Aura is quick to correct me by replacing I with us.
Oliver was an arrogant looking man with short, brown hair and brown eyes that was the child of a thief, growing up in the streets of E-Rantel. His lack of guile and agility made him a poor street urchin and he was cast out of what little family he had, forced to try and survive alone until Sasha found him and let him join her team of adventurers. Though he hated to admit it, if it wasn't for her kindness, he would have been a street urchin for the rest of his life.
This was all before the coming of Lord Ainz and the restructuring of E-Rantel into a more prosperous cityscape and he openly wondered how so much could be so rapidly changed in such a short time. I reminded him of the army of undead that both protected the city and performed much of the manual labour, the explanation enough for him to understand how things changed. He admitted that he had skills in marksmanship but was terrible at using bows, lacking the strenght to draw a decent string and preferring the more advanced crossbow weapons if he could afford it. Arrangements were quickly made with Bormu to get him equipped once the stories were done.
Next came Liara, the wild tribeswoman from the Great Forest of Tob who boasted about her ability to take down any animal with her bare hands. She admits that she was captured at the hobgoblin camp because that skill didn't extend to humanoids and sentient creatures, the entirety of the Murktalons underestimating the foe and paying the price. Something about her manes of wild, golden hair and her fiery red eyes reminded me of a lion, proud and noble but with a ferocity underneath that had no equal. There wasn't much of a story for her to tell beyond that because she didn't think it was time, something that she kept saying to the Murktalons when they asked about her past.
Last on the list was Fanklith, Liara doing most of the talking while pulling back her hood to show her face. Upon closer inspection, her features were normal except for the long ears. The explanation from Liara was that she was a forest gnome and a spellcaster who didn't fit the profile of her kind. Most of her kind are outgoing and charismatic but Fanklith was an outcast for being introverted and quiet. The only reason she met Liara was being lost in the Great Forest of Tob, something that Liara finds suspicious but something that Fanklith hotly defends as what happened. The gnome asks me quietly if I have a problem with having other races in the group but I can only laugh lightly, telling her to look around and count the number of humans she sees. It's enough to put a smile on her face but the smile retreats as embarrassment exerted itself and she puts her hood back on.
For courtesies sake, the rest of us gave our brief stories and pasts to the Murktalons, some of it fabricated to hide the true nature of Nazarick and those that dwell in it. It was already too late to undo some of the things we already said but we were able to express that the information we discussed is a guarded secret. Each person present agreed not to tell of such things outside of the Knights of the Sorcerer Kingdom and once everyone was in agreement, the Valkyries updated me on what I missed while away.
It made me happy that they returned the adventurer plates and the treasure marked for retrieval to the Adventurer's Guild, the guild rep even offering to let us keep some of it but Bormu refusing based on principle. Though we were no longer official members, the Adventurer's Guild still kept us on their roster as honourary adventurers. Krat had made a full recovery with no known medical issues thanks to the attention of Demiurge but Demiurge added that we couldn't have him as our doctor and that we would need to find one for ourselves eventually. Bormu had a full inventory of the metals we had in stock for the smithy and recommendations for materials we might need, her hand already producing a parchment scroll from her waist pouch and passing it to me over the table. Rassah had settled the Murktalons into their new lodgings and made sure she had a list of things they might need and asked for, another scroll passed to me as I start to frown at the sudden responsibility increase. I'll give these to Lady Chagama for recordkeeping later. She did say she'd handle our financial needs.
Mare had a few things for me as well, producing a third scroll from his personal inventory that he said contained a list of the staff we would need to run the castle efficiently. I give the last scroll a glance and note some of the positions we haven't filled such as chef and carpenter, nodding my head and agreeing with him to keep an eye out for such talent as we adventure. What caught my eye the most was the name on the scroll for the castle, my head tilting in confusion as I turned to Mare but Mare smiling back at me in reply. Shrugging, I decided to go with the name on the scroll since I couldn't come up with anything else, intoning aloud to those assembled what Mare had decided on.
The castle would be called the Sorcerer's Fortress.
Everyone's free to do what they want once we adjourned our meeting but all of us end up in the Fortress Armoury, Bormu already syncing herself with the magical furnace as Oliver takes first dibs at the selection of equipment. "Why do all of these items seem...boring...lacking flair or...I don't really know how to describe it," he says as he watches the selections scroll upwards on the menu in front of him. Sasha is standing next to him and groans in frustration at his words. "You're so picky! Just pick something!" she snaps at him but he holds up a hand, most of his focus on the list scrolling by. "This is a big choice, Sasha. I can't rush something like this-"
"That's horseshit!" she snaps in reply but Oliver ignores her and keeps looking through the selection. I hear Mare make a humming noise and look over to see what's wrong, making the same noise myself when I see Liara start to approach Sasha from behind with a wide grin. "Don't rush the boy! Let him pick his toy the way he wants it!" she exclaims as she slaps her hard on the back with enough force to make her slam into the ground. Sasha growls as she rises back to her feet, dusting herself off angrily but not bothering to respond or look back at her teammate. "They have an...interesting dynamic," Aura whispers into my ear but Liara laughs as she turns to us. "Thanks! We try and be unique in how we are! Aint that right, Fanklith!?" she shouts behind us and I know from the shuffling of feet that Fanklith is still in the doorway.
I tense when Liara keeps smiling at me and approaches us, walking right up to me and confirming that she's taller. I look over her shoulder and ask Krat to come over and do a height comparison, the gruff warrior obeying and standing next to her. She's taller than I am but not as tall as Krat. "I see you aren't into big women considering who you're with but how did you get two?" she states nonchalantly, my eyes rolling at how casual she is with discussing such things. I can sense that Aura and Mare are paying more attention to me, their gazes now fixed on me as I think carefully on my answer. "They don't belong to me, for one. If I had to be honest, I think it's the opposite."
Aura and Mare hug me too tightly around the neck from the words, a rough gasp escaping me as they force my windpipe half closed with their affection. I have to use my hands to gently push them away as Liara laughs again and Krat moves away without a word. "I hope you know what you got yourself into. Your...people...are known for being...promiscuous. Try not to ignore their needs for too long-"
"I'm well aware of that," I retort as I turn my head to Mare, his face smiling gently at me but with plenty of hidden meaning. I feel it too...the needs...they altered my libido with the change in race... "Just a friendly reminder," Liara states while turning around, her form already walking back towards the other Murktalons and particularly towards Sasha. "Any way to make this go faster?" Aura states with a groan of boredom, my shoulders shrugging but my mind already trying to think of something to do.
Class Skill: United Purpose
My eyes snap open without knowing they were closed as a wave of magic bursts from my body, the entire room flashing for a moment as I glow brightly for a second. Everyone turns to me in surprise as I gently move towards the forge, my hands pushing Bormu aside as I start to manipulate its menu. "I can...I can see things..." I say aloud, knowing that I won't make much sense but needing to find some coherence to my thoughts. I start removing items from the menu without knowing I could, selections of lower quality weapons disappearing until only a single selection remaining.
Without thinking too hard on it, I put the item into production and go through the process of forging until the item is finished in a cooling chemical burst. "Oliver, I think these might work," I state as I move aside and gesture towards the forge door, everyone still staring at me in confusion as he walks gingerly forward and pulls on the forge door. "Uh...I think it's stuck..." he says as he keeps pulling, my right hand going to my face at his lack of knowledge. I look up and ask the Murktalons, "Do any of you know how to sync with magical items? Show of hands."
The only one who doesn't raise their hand is Oliver who stops trying to muscle the forge door open and smiles at me awkwardly. "I'm...not good with magic...I'm just not talented at it-" I interrupt with a simple hand gesture, the forge door opening as he jumps back in surprise with a yell. Sasha tells him to calm down and get his gear, Oliver now embarrassed as he reaches into the cooled forge and takes out the items.
The weapons were called Pistols, projectile weapons that shot fast moving, enchanted metal propelled by electrical charges created by magic. Oliver now held two such items, a large piece of silvered metal in each hand that he rotates in wonder. Without moving anything on the device, the right Pistol's sheath slides forward to reveal the internals, pale green light contained within glowing ominously. "I don't...what are these?...I've never seen a weapon like this but...it feels like I have-"
"As a commander, I can use a class skill called United Purpose. All I did was combine all of the job classes within the room into myself and use the furnace. Those devices, those Pistols as they're called, take a combination of blacksmithing, enchanting, alchemy, and a host of other skills, time, and effort to make. I simply compressed that into a single moment but mind you, those aren't the most elaborate weapons we can make." It made me thankful that even though Yggdrasil was gone, the now dead land still helped me understand the vastness of the power it granted the New World and gave me the knowledge to explain my actions. Still, Oliver isn't fully listening to my explanation, his entire attention on the devices in his hand even at the shouting of his name by Sasha. "I've seen these weapons before...someone I knew...he used a single weapon but close to these..." he mumbles mostly to himself but he suddenly becomes animated, the Pistols slowly spinning along the triggers in his hands and increasing in speed.
He starts to show his abilities, the Pistols spinning on his fingers as he moves them around his body. I'm entranced at his control and am reminded of how Krat handles his blades, a calm and focused discipline at play that made a person into a warrior. After rapid spins and several movements, he tosses both weapons into the air but doesn't bother to look up as they ascend and descend. His hands raise casually to catch both weapons without effort. "I need to try these out," he states while turning towards me, a serious look in his eye and a steely confidence in his voice that wasn't there moments ago.
My head turns to the left to look at Aura, our faces smiling as we share a similar idea.
"Begin!" Aura shouts next to me with a snap of her finger, the entire group around me in one of the skyboxes of the Arena to watch Oliver test out his new weaponry. Oliver is alone on the sand and his weapons are in leather holsters at his sides as the monsters form, a host of orcs roaring into being around him and charging at him with fury. I tense as the orcs close, their swords and clubs raised and their dull armour clanking as they roar battle-cries at Oliver who remains motionless. "What the hell are you doing!?" Sasha shouts at him in concern but he remains motionless, his head downcast and his hands at his sides as the orcs get within striking distance.
His head snaps up and he moves with incredible speed, drawing his weapons faster than I can see and fire them at the oncoming orcs. The Pistols are unlike the other projectile weapons I've seen, the loud boom replaced with an electric hiss and the tongue of fire replaced with an electrical discharge. All it takes is for him to point and shoot at each target, not even looking at each target, to punch holes through armour and flesh. In a span of seconds, a dozen orcs are lying dead or dying on the ground around him as he slams both pistols back into their holsters and looks up at us with a calm expression. "More targets," he shouts up at us, Aura already moving her hands in gestures to dispose of the bodies and bring out more enemies for him to fight.
Aura summons an armoured ogre, a single strong enemy that growls at him and stomps towards him with a massive polearm. The monster moves three steps towards him before he drops the creature with a single shot, the projectile going through the creature's forehead and out the back of its head along with most of creatures brains. Oliver calls for more targets even as he sidesteps to falling corpse, Aura looking at me in concern as I return her gaze. I nod slowly to her and she nods in reply, her hands moving again to summon more targets. We have to test his skills...no holding back now.
Another creature spawns, an undead with a rictus grin of bone dressed in a black cloak with a strange hat and glowing red eyes. A skeletal hand is holding the hat's rim and the creature turns it's head towards Oliver who's squaring off with his new opponent. They share a knowing nod to each other, both of them moving their hands to their sides and flexing their fingers in preparation. A silent signal is given and both combatants draw their weapons in a flash of metal, Oliver holding both his Pistols and the undead holding a single, double-barreled firearm. Both of them are firing at each other rapidly but their projectiles are colliding, the pieces of metal falling on the ground like rain as their momentum is robbed and their shapes are warped by a similar force.
The skeleton eventually runs out of shots and dodges to the right by turning into a puff of black smoke. Oliver doesn't run out of shots and chases the undead with his weapon fire but the shots go through the strange mist and hit nothing solid. "Jackpot," I hear Oliver state aloud as he stops firing and brings both of his Pistol hilts together with a slam of metal. His wrists cross as he holds the combined device in front of him, the weapons vibrating and increasing in pitch as it builds up a charge. The skeleton comes out of its smoke cover and has its weapon out, its finger already tensing on the trigger when Oliver fires his charged weapon.
Twin shots spiral outwards towards the skeleton, blue contrails hitting it with the force of a lightning bolt and leaving nothing but ashes.
