The women who were part of the fight against the wave were not happy with her. They were sent to a tent and made to strip down while a female physician examined them. The same went for the men in another tent with a male physician. No one had the dark sign and Sonya's wounds were wrapped in bandages. Her burns being made by a type of magic fire that healing magic did nothing to help. She had to heal normally. And the scars woulds remain there.
But that was fine with her. She still had complete function to her arms. They were just in pain. More than what here shield would be able to nullify. After the examination was over and the quarantine was ended, the king had summoned them to the castle to report the battle. A few injuries and a number of soldiers were missing. Most that had been reported fallen. There was no trace of their bodies left. The few things anyone could loot weren't exactly worth much. Even Sioc's black knight sword was 'purged.'
Sonya sighed. " Ah Dark Souls. How cruel of you." She muttered while the king stared at her. White bandages wrapped here arms from the middle of her forearms down while she wore her gray dress.
" So then. What do we know about the enemy?" The king asked having everyone sit at a series of long tables with the heroes being the closest to the center.
Arashi-san scratched his chin as he pondered. " All of the enemies are difficult to kill and they reanimate themselves if you don't use the 'purge' spell... I'm not exactly sure how it is done though." The sword hero said as he glanced at Sonya. Sonya simply cradled her arms.
"It seems you must use one of their world's weapons against them... However I think they must be defeated once before we are allowed to activate the spell." Uta-san offered.
Ishiku-san shrugged. " They aren't exactly hard to beat. Getting them to stay down is a problem." He said arrogantly.
" If you hang onto the weapon which becomes an ingredient for the 'purge' spell you will get burnt. The longer you hold on, the more burnt." Sonya said with a grimace. " I'm glad my worries were groundless. For now anyways. But this presents another problem. We can't really get much from fighting them and the more waves of them we fight the harder it is going to get... Eventually we might be fighting things we can't really handle... At least not as we are and not with our numbers..." Sonya said.
The king rested his head in his palm. " I like that you are cautious Lady Brint. But I think we can prepare unless the level of the enemy spikes far beyond reason and what we can anticipate.." The king said calmly. " However, I think it goes without saying that those who fight these enemies should be wary of using the purge spell." The king said and had food brought to everyone.
"Can we also remember that these things don't drop much of anything but junk let alone stick around to be absorbed?" Ishiku-san said with his arms crossed. Everyone agreed with this one. The first invasion did not give much. Or so it seemed.
"Um-uh... None of you have noticed?" Uta-san asked.
Sonya looked over at her and then went wide eyed. "No... Way!" Sonya said and pulled up her menu. She looked at a counter she did not realize was there until now. She had 5,700 souls. "Did anyone notice fluttery lights flying towards you when you killed the enemy?" Sonya asked. Everyone shook their heads. Sonya sighed. Things were not quite adding up.
"This is screwed up. We have people's souls?" Ishiku-san yelled once he looked at his menu. Sonya Thought about it for a moment.
Arashi-san raised his hands up defensively. "Hey, calm down... I'm sure there is an explanation to this... Birinte-san?" Arashi-san said thankful that Ishiku-san sat down grumbling about the sick world Sonya came from.
Sonya sighed. " Lordran is a very... Convoluted world. I honestly don't quite know what exactly souls really are. In Lordran they are used as a currency as well as for leveling up... But you have to have a Bonfire for that... And we really have no means of doing that..." Sonya said calmly.
Ishiku-san laughed. " Are you an idiot? Bonfires are easy to make! All you have to do is have a lot a fuel and start burning it!" The spear hero scoffed. The others simply looked at him knowing is wasn't that simple. Even the king himself was shaking his head.
" I-I don't think that is what Birinte-san meant Ishiku-san." Uta-san said as she fiddled with her fingers.
" Bonfires are not normal fires you can simply build. They are enchanted fire that Souls and Humanity are fed into to keep lit... Some of which can not be sustained without a Firekeeper... They heal you of all damage and allow you to upgrade your stats... But the thing is, every time you 'rest' at a bonfire the world is reset. And as I said, Lordran is VERY convoluted. Undead respawn after resting at a bonfire and I am pretty sure you have to be undead to use bonfires. So unless there is another way... I don't think we will be able to use the souls we collect." Sonya said calmly.
This was not good news. Arashi-san raised his hand in the air. "What if we CAN make a bonfire. If we have to kill them with their own weapons then why can't we use what we looted to create bonfires?" Arashi-san asked.
Sonya frowned. "Because you need a Rite of Kindling I suppose. Otherwise I wouldn't have any idea how you would 'make' a bonfire. Only how you relight it... And really, unless we can somehow use an enchanted flame that can stably continue to burn... I don't really have high hopes. I'm sorry." Sonya said.
Ishiku-san growled. " Do you always have to be a downer?!" The spear hero yelled. Sonya simply shrugged.
"I'm just telling you everything I know. Lordran isn't exactly a place of happy go lucky dancing unicorns and rainbows that have fluffy bunnies handing out free candy you know! If we can make a bonfire then it might present it's own problems... Like distorting this world's time and space." Sonya said calmly.
The king stood up and clasped his hands together with a loud clap.
"I think I have a better option. The Dragon Hourglass." The king said calmly.
The next order of business was for them to visit the famed clock tower that housed the hourglass. Sonya placed a hand on it and a menu opened up. That's when she noticed that her stats profile had changed again. She started to read a menu.
'Each Soul Level is dependent on a hero's Master Level. Every Master Level a hero reaches, a hero may gain 7.125 Soul Levels depending on the souls a hero has obtained and spends. The maximum level capacity a hero can reach of Soul Levels is 713. Once capped the Master Level will no longer effect the Soul Levels.'
Sonya took a deep breath an exhaled as she thought about what kind of build did she want. She was free to spend her souls on whatever stat she wanted but that didn't necessarily mean that stat was worth while. She wished she could simply save her souls for later without having to worry about her loosing them...But then again her loosing them meant she had to die right? She thought about it. What if there was other ways to loose them in this world because they were in this world and not Lordran. She quickly searched the help menu for Souls.
'Souls are obtained by killing enemies from Lordran as well as some enemies of the Home World. Souls can be lost by taking excessive amount of damage but loosing them will heal the Hero preventing death.'
Sonya stared at this, not sure what to think about it. She almost jumped when Siorradh poked her. She simply grinned when Sonya jumped. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts about this that she had forgot everyone that was here. She looked at Siorradh and Sioc with a guilty expression.
" I'm sorry... I shouldn't have let this take up all my attention." Sonya said. Sioc simply huffed.
" You are worried." Sioc said simply with a shrug. Siorradh simply smiled. " Don't worry. We aren't going anywhere. But you are if you don't hurry up. Sioc looks like he is ready to eat someone." The cat girl said teasingly.
Sonya took a quick glance at the Stats for soul leveling before leaving to go feed her two hungry subordinates. They had just eaten during the debriefing! The king shrugged. " There is no point in keeping you Lady Sonya. If you have any further information to give that will concern the next wave, I would appreciate it. I will keep you informed. However, I will warn you. This is not the only Dragon Hourglass. Most likely, you will be receiving a request very soon to deal with another wave in another country. Long before you have to fight one in ours." The king said. "That goes for all of you dear heroes. Each country has tried, and failed to summon you. At least one of you. And again, this kingdom succeeded. It is not doing my wife any favors trying to calm the other ruler's with their hurt pride."
"I'll have a more extensive list of what to expect. When should we be looking for the next request?" Sonya asked.
"In three weeks from the kingdom of Siltvelt. I would rather not send you Shield hero. The country and people there are still radicals of the Shield Saint faith... This may become a problem for you. But, I can't deny them aid. Only the heroes themselves can." The king said. "I'll leave it for you heroes and your companions to decide."
There was not much else to say. With that. The heroes and their parties left.
Sonya tried to resist sighing as she watched the two eat a hole in her coin purse. But they were growing demi-humans after all. She took a glance at their levels and blinked. They were all at level 21. She couldn't believe this. How did they jump so... Sonya nearly jumped when a log menu popped up in her face. Her face turned pale. The enemies may have been scarce on loot but they were heavy on experience. She shook her head and started to laugh when she saw how much the Asylum Demon was worth in experience. It was ridiculous. "Check your battle logs." She said when the wolf and snow leopard demi-humans started to stare at her with worry.
Both of them dropped their utensils. She smiled at them seeing their faces of disbelief. Balloons were worth maybe 1 Exp. A hallow was worth a 20 exp. Hallow soldiers 30 Exp. And it increased so forth. Sonya and her party had earned enough Exp. to jump quite a few levels. They had been around level 15 before the battle? Sonya went back to eating after she closed the menus. The two across from her were still staring at theirs in disbelief... " Are we going to be old and gray in no time? I don't want to go bold!" Sioc whined.
Siorradh rolled her eyes. " That isn't how it works." The Sneg-Kroshka said looking at her counterpart with annoyance. Sioc started grinning.. "Well if it is, at least I'm not going to have saggy boobs!" Sioc teased.
Siorradh punched him in the arm. " Say that again and I swear I will knock your lights out you half wit mutt!" The cat girl yelled covering her chest. Sonya simply shook her head at the two. She didn't want to tell them to stop arguing like they were an old couple. She was pretty sure they wouldn't start aging until much later. That seemed to be the case.
"Seriously you two, stop fighting. If anything I'm the only one that has to be worrying about age. The two of you won't have to worry for another fifteen years right?" She asked recalling a conversation with the cat knight about demi-humans leveling and aging.
The two of them shrugged. Sonya simply went back to eating. The two demi-humans stared at her. "How old are you Sonya-sama?" Sioc asked. Sonya looked at the wolf boy annoyed.
" Just Sonya-san or Lady Brint please. And don't you know it is impolite to ask a lady her age?" Sonya said teasingly before taking a sip of tea. " I'm twenty-four." She took another sip of tea and returned to eating. Siorradh kicked Sioc in the shin giving him a glare before she turned to Sonya with a smile.
" So what will we be doing next?" The cat asked her.
Sonya didn't answer immediately. She looked like she was considering this so both Sioc and Siorradh waited patiently. Sonya smiled. 'They are good kids.' She thought to herself, thankful for having them on her side.
" I'm going to review stats, then we will visit the adventurer guild for the month's support funds." She said and gave a little more thought to it. But something else came to mind. " Do the both of you have soul levels too?" She asked. She was glad when they both nodded.
" I have 4560 souls." Siorradh said.
Sioc had a proud grin on his face. "I have 6,570." He said with feeling proud of himself.
The snow cat girl punched the wolf boy in the ribs. Sonya understood why. The only reason why she received souls was for implementing the purge spell. She didn't kill anything otherwise. 3,000.
"So I guess that is a good thing." She said calmly as she finished her food and paid for the meal once Sioc and Siorradh finished. They followed her silently as she read about the stats on her way to the adventure guild, letting Siorradh keep her her from running into anyone while Sioc followed closely behind. People seemed to have a mix of expressions about her. She even heard a few people arguing about her. About how she plead to the king to instate a quarantine in case a plague was brought on from the invasion. This was, received with a mixture of responses. But she could tell she didn't exactly gain much favor from it. But no one was whispering about her being a man slaughterer. Or murderer...
By the time she arrived at the guild house she had learned from the help menu this:
Vitality increases HP- 10
Endurance increases stamina and bleeding resist.- 15
Strength did not increase her direct damage but allowed her to parry stronger opponents the more strength she has.- 15
Dexterity also helped with parrying but also helped with spell casting speed.- 14 It also increased agility.
Resistance was oriented towards poison, bleeding and elemental and non-elemental magic. - 10
Spell oriented intelligence was oriented towards how effective her magic was- 5
Attunement was for how many spells she could use.-1
10+15+15+14+10+5+1=70
Her soul level was 70 starting off.
She also found out that everyone's stats were specific to each individual and effected each individual differently. Dex increased Siorrahd's agility twice as much as it did Sonya's. Strength not only helped Sioc parry but effected his damage output.
Sonya tried to resist sighing even more. It was all becoming a mess of complicated numbers. And the least complicated was that when she finally received her month's five gold worth of coins, she knew they wouldn't last long. They were quickly growing and enemies in this world were not going to be any easier. Nor hunting them.
They needed a means for money. This made Sonya frown. Sioc stared at the floor shuffling his feet. Sonya could hear his stomach growling. Siorradh looked at her sheepishly. Food wasn't exactly cheap either. Sonya groaned. They needed to get out of the city and find a steadier supply of food that DIDN'T require her wallet to be steadily depleted.
It was back to the tavern to buy some food and off to the forest while they ate on the go. Sonya made them hunt while she studied her stats, made an inventory of their belongings, planned out how to use their funds and roughly scheduled the intervals she would be repairing their weapons. She had three weeks to plan for. She considered what the king said and the warning behind it. But people needed help. She felt she needed to do something.
It was late afternoon when the two came back, Siorradh with a smirk on her face while Sioc sat down dripping wet with river water. Apparently the cat girl had pushed him. That was when a carriage pulled up and stopped in front of their campsite. A young man with black hair wearing a leather vest over a green tunic and beige pants hopped down from his driver's seat. The carriage was pulled by a large two legged bird called a Philorial. And they looked like chocobo.
The man himself walked up to Sonya confidently and stopped about ten feet away before bowing with a flourish as he removed a feathered hat from his head while doing so. " Can I interest you in any of my wares Lady Hero?" The man asked giving her a smile.
Sonya stood up and looked down at him with an evaluating gaze. The man was a thin dwarf who looked up at her now with a nervous smile. She was nearly twice his height and was wearing her chimera hide armor.
" I think I'll take a gander at your wares. What have you got on your marry wagon good sir?" She asked while giving the dwarf a curtsy in return. She knew she must look somewhat intimidating. Or maybe it was the wolf boy and the snow cat girl who were right behind her looking at the man with toothy smiles before hearing Sonya try to talk fancy.
The dwarf gave Sonya a 'you have much practice ahead of you with fancy talk ma'am' shaking head before he started to open the sides of his carriage to display shelves and shelves of everything from weapons to magic crystals, to books, pens, paper, maps and so forth. Sonya shrugged. She recalled that she couldn't read... But she could use some books to help her learn. " Do you happen to have anything that can help me learn the written language in this region? The most used ones anyways?" Sonya asked.
The dwarf peddler nodded and climbed up a ladder. " Right here madam." He said as he pulled out a small book. "Ahh. I actually have one for the Heroic language to Melromarkian. These are rather cheap these days... Would you mind buying a blank book for practice? Perhaps some ink?"
Sonya cocked her head to the side considering his offer. " Yes to the small book, yes to the blank writing book and no to the ink. Rather, I would like to have a small bag I can put charcoal in. Or a tin." Sonya said calmly with a smile. The dwarf blinked. He stood there thinking about it for a moment put then started to laugh.
" Old fashioned I see. Alright then, alright then!" He said setting down out a small tin container. "I would also like a book on cooking recipes, one on apprentice level apothecary and basic magic if available."
Siorradh tugged on the Sonya's sleeve and whispered something before giving her a pleading gesture. Sonya sighed. " And a bag of candy too... If you have any." Sonya added shaking her head.
The total surprisingly came to two gold coins. The tin for the charcoal, the bag of candy, the writing book, the cook book, and the language book were all just a few coppers coins each, a silver in total. The apprentice compounding book was a few silver more. The basic magic book was worth quite a lot more. In all Sonya paid two gold coins with a up to date detailed map of Melromark thrown in for free. Sonya waved farewell and gave the 'kids' their candy. She frowned when Siorradh saw fit to tease Sioc but let it go and smiled when she was finally nice enough to give him a little more than half the bag.
The next week would be filled with training, learning how to read, learning magic, more training, learning how to make medicine and poisons, more training, and sleep. And somewhere in between all of this they would fit in traveling and gathering food. Sonya looked at her bandaged arms and sighed. Maybe she should have asked for some salves?
