yeeeeeee
Waking up that day had been wonderful knowing we didn't have to fight another wave for at least a month, taking a look at the timer it now read:
43 days 11 hours 32 minutes 12 seconds for Eosphoros Wave of Catastrophe
Sweet. 43 days of prep time for the next one. What confused me was how the battle was not as hard as I expected, then again… Perseus is level 57 meaning he was more than 10 levels higher than my party and I. Perhaps the next one would not be so easy which worried me. We had to grind hard if we wanted to survive.
Looking around, Prostatis was nowhere in sight. After changing into my armour, I left the room and knocked on the girl's door. They didn't respond so I slowly opened the door and realised no one was there.
Figuring that perhaps they had already woken up, I headed downstairs to grab some breakfast and my party was already sitting at a table with a chair reserved for me.
"Mornin' guys. Sorry I slept in." I apologised.
"Don't worry about it, we all woke up less than half an hour ago." Hecate responded.
In a few minutes, our server arrived with breakfast. The sweet smell of the bacon and eggs woke me up and with the rest of my party we began to eat. As we ate, we discussed our next plans and where we could head next.
Then an idea came to my mind.
"Are mounts and wagons a thing here?" I raised a question to my friends.
"Yup. The crazy rich people literally have small dragons as their mounts for their wagons. Lucky bastards." Prostatis replied.
"Hmm… we could get one then. It would make travelling to other villages easier and if we have a mount, fighting in waves will be better as we can get to areas in danger faster." I said while chewing on bacon.
"Might be difficult, wagons and mounts aren't exactly cheap. And everyone here knows we aren't exactly rolling in dough after the class-up session…" Circe pointed out.
"Shit."
As I thought about how to pull us out of our debt, my mind was interrupted.
"Sir Asahi, you have been summoned to the castle." Spoke a new voice.
All our heads comically turned as we realised a knight had shown up from god knows where.
"Why?" I was a bit worried as being summoned to the castle didn't sound like a good thing.
"The King would like to hand out rewards to you and Sir Perseus for your efforts during the wave." Without another word, the knight gave me a salute and walked off.
We hurried our pace and finished our breakfast quickly. With that, we paid for our breakfast and left the inn. On our way there some people recognised us and waved with smiles on their faces. We waved back yet I felt extremely uncomfortable with knowing that everyone in the wholeass kingdom knows what I look like.
When we got to the castle entrance, the knights gave me a bow, unlike the first time I saw them where they just pretended I wasn't there. I assumed they had learned that I wasn't completely useless in a wave and had done something useful for once.
We walked down the large and grand halls of the castle, a few servants roamed here and there with a few nobles. However, when we marched down the hall where I had seen all the paintings of heroes doing cool things. I noticed a ladder and servants working on a new painting. Taking a closer look, I recognised one of the things within the portrait to be the minotaur. Realising that the portrait must have been depicting us, I felt a surge of pride rise in my chest.
I must've been staring however, as a hand tapping my shoulder brought me out of my daze.
"Dude, quit staring like a buffoon and let's go." Prostatis joked.
When we got to the entrance of the throne room, Perseus was already there at the entrance, waiting for me.
"Sorry I took a while, did I keep you waiting?" I hastily apologised for my tardiness.
"Not at all, I just got here myself." He waved a hand in dismissal.
We walked through the grand doors and this time both the King and Roxana were sitting on their thrones. Both appear to be in good moods.
"Greetings, Sir Perseus and Sir Asahi, as most likely told by the knights, we wanted to thank you for your efforts during the wave by rewarding you." spoke the King. Roxana didn't say any congratulations or anything but nodded in agreement.
He waved his hand and a servant came forward carrying four bags. He handed me two and the other two to Perseus. I took a look instead and realised there were silver pieces.
"Hey, Your Majesty, how much money is this?" I said in awe of the funds I had now.
"2000 silver pieces for each of you. Please do not think in such a way we are overpaying you, Sir Asahi. The people truly believe you both deserve this." he had a comforting smile on his face as he said that.
Realising I had that much money, my previous idea could actually be carried out.
"Roxana…" I started, feeling nervous.
"Hmm?" She didn't even look at me in response.
"Where can I get a wagon and an animal to pull it?" At my question, she turned to face me, with a smile on her face.
"That, Asahi, you can find on an island going by the name of Erytheia. Look for two men going by the names of Eurytion and Geryon, they are the beastmasters on that island and can get you a monster plus a cart to go with it."
With that question answered, we both thanked them for the reward and left. Perseus and I also parted ways, he talked about being summoned by a country going by the name of Athens for assistance with some quest.
"Well, now that is dealt with, I say we make our way to a dock and set off for Erytheia," I spoke, and they nodded in agreement.
Before we went off, however, we wanted to speak to Daedalus to show that we were still alive and hadn't been killed in the wave.
We saw the familiar hammer sign that symbolised Daedalus' shop and as we walked in the bell rang. There was Daedalus, out front pacing back and forth looking worried, he turned to face his customers, and when he saw us a massive grin grew on his face.
"Yer alive laddy! Good to know! Hope that armour treated ye well." He walked over and to my surprise gave me a "bro hug", I awkwardly returned it and spoke, "That armour you made did wonders, didn't feel any of the hits I took either." I allowed myself to smile despite the awkwardness of the hug.
"Oh yeah, here's some more payment for all the stuff I took." I brought out 5 gold coins and his eyes widened in surprise at the money,
"Where'd ye get this? Last time you came you were paying in silver!" He pocketed the money whilst saying that.
"Being a Hero has its perks y'know." and with that, we bid him goodbye and we left the shop.
We walked around the town, asking a few people where the nearest dock would be that could take us to Erytheia, eventually learning that the nearest dock would be a 4-day carriage ride away. While that would take time, it wouldn't be a complete waste as we could level up on the way and kill different types of monsters to unlock new weapon forms.
The only issue was that we would have to rent a carriage till then which most likely wouldn't be cheap. To our surprise however, due to my Hero status, people were more than willing to give discounts or even take us for free, I assumed they had heard of the success that had been in the wave and felt like being nice or something.
And there we were, on the open road. We had been riding for around 30 minutes and the capital had been left behind, only a small speck in the past. Our driver was a quiet fellow, speaking a few words here and there but otherwise silent. I sat at the front next to him and calmly watched as the scenery went by, noticing many monsters within the forests running through and about.
Eventually, we had been riding for a couple of hours and had settled on a small lunch break, I went out with Circe to hunt any new monsters while Hecate prepared the food and Prostatis guarded the camp.
We did discover a few new enemies but only one of the Flails stood out from the rest.
Luck Flail
Abilities Locked
Equip Effect:
+1 Atk
Equip Bonus:
Monster drops are 5% more common
Excited seeing that, I equipped it instantly as the idea of more monster drops just made me wonder how much money I could make selling drops with the added bonuses. The rest of the flails just gave me small attack boosts.
We made our way back to camp and the food was ready. Prostatis hadn't bothered to wait and was already shoveling food down his throat, fucking glutton. "Dude, you eat like a pig," I called him out for his habit.
"Not my faulf this tastes so goof!" He spoke mid-chewing. To be fair, Hecate is an amazing cook but the way he was eating made him look like some sort of starving savage who hasn't eaten normal food in 3 years.
After we ate lunch, we hit the road once more and before it was completely night. Soon, the sky began to darken and we looked for a village that we could rest at for the night. Eventually, we came across a decently sized village. After bidding our driver good night as he planned to sleep outside in the carriage, we made our way through the gates and into the village.
We walked through the streets. Compared to the castle town this was way less extravagant but it felt cosy in a sense, whereas castle town was all luxury and fancy stuff. Eventually, we came across an inn and were about to go speak to the innkeeper to rent rooms for the night, we heard a scream from outside. Quickly, we moved and ran to see what the commotion was all about and what we saw was shocking.
There was a young boy on a pedestal that appeared to be in the town square, a tall man stood behind him with a whip in his hand.
Crack
The tall man struck the whip across the boy's back, eliciting a shout of pain.
Crack
The man struck the boy's back once more, now yelling at him, "Shut up you worthless squid piece of shit! Your parents aren't coming back, so stop crying about it!" And again he whipped the boy again.
That last sentence is what set my party and me to act, we ran through the group and pushed towards the front of the crowd. Circe began to chant, "Gaea to my aid! Trap my target and let the Earth be their prison, bind their will to thyself, and let them not escape! Earth Prison!"
She finished the chant and instantly, the ground around the man rose and began to converge on him, he began to yell and tried to escape but the ground grabbed him and pulled him back, eventually trapping him in a prison of pure stone. You could still hear his yells of, "Let me out!" or, "I'll kill you all!" within his jail, yet we knew he was stuck till Circe removed the prison.
The crowd was now silent and some began to cheer at the justice that had just been served, however, not everyone was happy.
"Oy, why'd you stop him?" The crowd parted a bit and a few armoured and dangerous-looking groups of individuals came forward, their faces were angry. I realised this could get dangerous and counted there were 5 people.
Glaring at the man who had spoken, I said, "Is letting someone be whipped a new custom or something? If so, I sincerely apologise." Sarcasm laced my tone
The man's expression got angrier, "He is a slave, it is perfectly legal to allow this to happen, you must be from Eosphorus, slavery of trash like that boy is legal outside of there, this is neutral territory lad." That last sentence surprised me, how had we left the country so quickly? I realised that perhaps Eosphorus was not a large country but more of a powerful country instead.
Then I realised something, if I freed this boy here, they couldn't throw me in jail either. As a neutral territory, I could flee to another place that said slavery was illegal and they would have to first destroy that place before punishing my party and I.
"Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of laws." I gave a grin, I had checked their levels and knew that they didn't stand a chance. While a bit high for the average individual, our Blessing boosted stats were way higher.
The group of men drew their swords, I changed my Flail to the basic form, as I did not wish to hurt them. The change in weapon caused gasps to rise from the crowd watching, however the men did not seem to care.
"Faking to be the Flail Hero, eh? We aren't afraid, dipshit!" The main guy yelled and the rest of his goons laughed and jeered. They then drew their swords and began to charge at us and we readied ourselves for the "fight" that was about to happen.
The leader went straight for me, he swung his blade down from overhead. I sidestepped and slammed my flail into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could recover, I punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. Embarrassingly enough, despite these buffoons having swords, even Hecate and Circe had no trouble. Next to them laid a man each, both knocked out. I turned to check on Prostatis and had to stifle my laughter, he had bullrushed the two men that targeted him and sent them flying. Those two probably had broken ribs from that one…
Within two minutes, the whole group of idiots was down for the count, all knocked out with bad concussions most likely. Circe had removed the prison on the guy who we assumed was the local lord and had knocked him out as well.
I walked up on the pedestal where the boy was being whipped, what shocked me were his… fish… features? While he looked relatively human, instead of skin, he appeared to have blue and green scales going across his body, and where he had hands, there were flippers instead, a single blue fin was on his head. It appeared the whipping had knocked him out, so I undid the binds and began to check his body for wounds. I checked his back and felt the rage simmering, ready to erupt.
"Give him a health potion, he has wounds all over his back." I commanded Hecate. She nodded and slowly let the red liquid drip into the mouth of the kid, before we could make our next move, Prostatis raised a question.
"Yo Asahi, you sure you wanna stay here? I feel like this place is dangerous after that scuffle. Let's sleep outside in the carriage instead." Prostatis spoke.
"You're right, you and Circe take him there, I just realised something." My voice was low and dangerous.
Circe and Prostatis took the child to our cart, and Hecate must have been sharing my thoughts.
"Are there any more slaves here? Be honest before we walk straight into that manor and break them out ourselves." She spoke with so much venom that I figured some of the crowd probably pissed themselves in terror.
"Tell the truth or we burn that place down to the ground." I threatened the crowd.
"He is the only one, there are no more!" What appeared to be a servant said frantically, and the rest of the crowd nodded in agreement. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, we began to make our way to the entrance we had gone through, before leaving however, I gave a few last words, "You best appoint a new lord, if you let him stay and I hear a word of another slave being beaten, I will come for him." I switched flail to my Purgatory Flail. Without another word, we left.
When we got to the cart, there was a fire going and the boy was feasting on whatever he was eating. My mind wandered elsewhere thinking about how slavery is legal in some areas and also wondered about why tritons are so hated by humans here.
We all were sitting around the campfire, the only noises were the child going to town on food.
"Hey guys, why are tritons so hated?" The sight of seeing someone actually be beaten was gonna remain in my mind for as long as I live.
"Long story short, the thing about tritons and other similar species such as nymphs is that they are all bound to their "area" in a sense. So for example, wood nymphs or dryads are bonded to their trees, meaning if their tree is cut down or dies, they will die as well. Not every tree, in this case, has a dryad, but every dryad has a tree." spoke Circe, early on I had learned she was our source of knowledge.
"And I assume since we humans need to remove trees and other similar objects to survive, many dryads are killed in the process or other nymphs such as naiads with things such as water of small ponds and such we cover-up." I realised that essentially the two races interfere with each other directly.
"Indeed, when humans began to build and such nymphs and other species began to die, they declared war and would prevent humans from going near them and would fight back if they tried. Cut forward a few centuries and there are nowhere near as many nymphs as before, however the main sanctuaries are well protected and people would be foolish to attack them." She continued.
"Guess that explains why he called the kid trash and enslaved him. Fucking jerk." my tone was laced with hate. Seriously? You had to enslave the kid for something he can't do anything about? Assholes.
"Then how did they make the sanctuaries? Surely they must have moved their sources somehow." Realising making a sanctuary would be difficult if the life source was outside of it.
"A few centuries after the war started, nymphs learned how to fuse themselves with their life sources. They cannot remain fused with them and must place them somewhere, so many nymphs moved their life sources within the sanctuaries. Thankfully other species such as Tritons and Satyrs are still rather plentiful due to them not being bound to anything. " Circe explained.
"Eosphorus has slavery outlawed, so these creatures and humans live in peace. In fact, some of the plants in the castle gardens are nymphs." she continued.
"Then I suggest we turn in for the night as well, we need to continue to make way for Erytheia." I reminded them.
I turned towards the squid dude, "Yo kid, my name's Asahi, Flail Hero. We're gonna find you a safe place, wake up early next morning so we can get you there."
"T-thank you… my name is Khehles." the boy spoke whilst stuttering, I figured he was still afraid.
"Don't worry,
That night I wondered a lot about the slavery issue and it was rather concerning. Then my second thought was if Khehles had any family we could get him to, obviously his parents were dead. But perhaps if we found a nature sanctuary we could send him there.
Pushing those thoughts away, sleep finally overtook me.
When we awoke that morning, Khehles had already awoken and seemed to be exploring the nearby area. Once more, anger boiled inside of me. The poor sap probably hadn't seen this much colour in days.
"Alright, Circe. Where is the nearest nature sanctuary?" I asked Circe.
She rubbed the tiredness from her eyes and said, "Our nearest one would be The Grove of Dodona, it is well defended, however, we will be going a bit off course from Erytheia then."
"That's fine, let's get this kid to safety. That's a larger priority than a cart and an animal." I said.
We packed our campsite up and hit the road. Khehles sat at the front next to our driver, who seemed a bit surprised at the newest addition to our party, well not really an addition cause we were literally gonna get rid of the dude the first chance we had, but we don't talk about that.
Anyways, as we journeyed and stopped at a few towns to see if there were any similar slave problems, and to our surprise there weren't. However, judging by the looks we were getting, it was obvious some people were not too fond of Khehles and that annoyed me. Like dude, come on… he's a kid.
Eventually, we began to close in on the Grove Of Dodona.
"Won't they attack us if we get near?" I asked Khehles.
"Nah, if you show me we will probably be fine." he replied.
As we closed in, I realised why no humans had been able to get near this place. It was covered from head to toe in what appeared to be tree bark, multiple inches thick yet I had a feeling there was more to it than the eye could see. On top of the bark walls were what appeared to be canopies for watchmen to keep an eye out for attackers from. And if that wasn't enough, the whole thing was separated from the rest of the land by a wide moat.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" I yelled towards the gate.
Two people appeared up top, judging by their appearance, they seemed to be dryads.
"Humans? What business do you have here?" spoke one, tone laced with distaste. I guess that is to be expected considering we literally almost drove them to extinction.
"We come in peace!" I seriously wish we had a white flag right now!
"And by any way can you prove this?" Another spoke with a taunting voice.
"Wait!" yelled Khehles.
The nymphs paused as they noticed the triton's features.
"They aren't bad, they freed me from slavery!" he continued.
"Slavery?" one asked, in disbelief.
"In case you haven't noticed, that man there is the Flail Hero!" Khehles called to them.
"Hero?!" The two nymphs said in surprise simultaneously.
"Asahi Akio, Flail Hero." I gave a bow, my party followed suit.
"Then perhaps we may trust your word and allow you into our sanctuary." they conceded.
Then the strangest thing happened, across the moat, a bridge began to weave itself into existence. Many vines came together and bonded to form a large bridge that after checking with our feet, was safe to cross.
"Alright guys, keep an eye out for whatever can happen. We can't trust them yet." I spoke to my friends. And with that, we made way into the Grove of Dodona.
Hawwwwww
Longer chapter this time, spoke to some of the guys and they said i'm going too fast, will try and slow things down a bit. Sorry for delay, might not upload for a while as IGCSE exams are coming up.