Kurose and Eorna simply stared at each other for a moment in shock. Kurose was still trying to get over how bizarre the interaction was, along with that strange squelching noise. Just what had the bishop done to the child?
Eorna however, was just confused by the Bishop. He had seem oddly focused on her weapon, but she guessed it made sense. They did follow the Dagger hero after all. But Kurose was still there! He was the holy hero! Surely he deserved a bit of the attention, right? Eorna decided to speak up about it.
"You know…" Eorna began slowly. "That bishop kept staring at me a lot. He acted like he wasn't even interested in you!"
"Well, that is expected, you know. It is a church for the Dagger hero. And I don't think I'm wielding the Dagger, am I?" He replied, mirroring her thoughts.
"I guess… but I still didn't like it. It just felt wrong for people to be staring at me like that."
Kurose smirked at that. "Well, you're going to have to learn to deal with it, aren't you? I mean, you are holding their god after all. Plus, now that you're a hero, you are probably going to have plenty of people looking at you like he did."
"Ehh? Do I have to? Can't I just… I don't know, hide away and become a hermit once the waves are over?" She asked.
"As if they would let you. Not even I would let you. If I have to be shown to the world, you're going to come along with me. You can't escape your duties like that." Kurose spoke with a smile.
Eorna's response, showcasing just how mature she was, was to stick her tongue out at Kurose.
The Accessory hero laughed as he walked down the hallways of the church, back to the entrance with Eorna at his side, sulking the entire way.
"We are back." Kurose spoke simply once they exited the church.
"Lady Dagger, Accessory Hero!" Their guide spoke in surprise.
"Did you link to it?" Matthias asked.
"We did! We're now linked to all four hourglasses!" Eorna spoke with a grin, her previous sulk having been forgotten.
"There are only four, right?" Kurose added quickly. He didn't want to be blindsided by any surprise waves because they forgot an hourglass or two.
"Yes, Yes. There are only four. The one that used to be north of Dajero was moved here. I already know you're worrying about extra waves, but don't."
Kurose simply nodded his head, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Anyways," Matthias continued. "That's all I really had planned for you today. You reached level 30 faster than I thought, and you linked to the hourglasses. We've got… 50 minutes or so until we can portal back to Palinfa, so what do you want to do?"
"Hmm…" Kurose thought about it, whilst Eorna spoke up.
"I mean, we could always go hunting for a bit?" Eorna said questioningly. "There are different monsters here compared to Palinfa and Ortensca, right?" She continued, directing the question to the man who had guided them to the church.
"O-oh yes. There is certainly. For example, whilst Ortensca has its Spinlings and Palinfa has its Sprites, the weakest monster in Dajero would have to be Slimes, which are the main monsters that would reside around here."
Kurose perked up at that. That was a fantasy creature. Not to say Spinlings weren't, but it was still nice to know things like slimes could exist in this world.
"I see. It could be good to do that." Matthias spoke, nodding his head. "I haven't been able to hunt anywhere else other than Palinfa since I became a hero and king. Political reasons and all that." He spoke, waving his hand.
"Is that what you wish to do then, Lady Dagger?" The guide prompted, injecting himself into the conversation.
"Uh… yes?" Eorna responded, slightly confused about where he was going with this.
"I see. Then I will be dispatching two of our finest guards to come with you to ensure your safety!" He declared with a smile on his face.
Eorna blinked at him before turning to face Kurose. Upon seeing his blank expression, she turned back to their guide. "But… we already have people here?" She spoke slowly, gesturing towards their current party.
"Indeed you do. But they are not loyal to you Lady Dagger."
"Um, I'm loyal to all three heroes!" Osvien spoke up. He was quickly silenced by a glare from the man, shrinking down to hide himself as much as he could with his armor on.
"As I said. None of them are loyal to just you. I wish to ensure that you have two people who would be willing to lay down their lives for you." He explained.
"Well, laying down their lives for me is a bit much, right?" Eorna responded with a nervous laugh.
"For Lady Dagger? Not at all!" he declared.
"I'll be fine, trust me! I don't need anyone else in the party, it will affect the experience we will get otherwise!"
Kurose turned to Matthias. "Is that true?"
Matthias simply nodded his head, as Eorna and the man continued to argue.
"Then simply leave two of them behind! It's a simple solution!"
"No! Why would I do that? They came here with us! There's no way I'm leaving them behind!" She shouted back.
The argument continued to grow louder and louder, drawing some strange looks towards the group.
"Hey," Kurose butted into the conversation, hoping to try and stop them. "Me and Matthias will be there with Eorna. Surely that should be fine right? Plus, we have been fighting with the other three for a bit now. And if we are fighting beginner monsters like you said, then it should be fine! We are both level 30 as well, so it's all good!" Kurose spoke with a smile.
"But still…" The man seemed hesitant to let them go off without taking any of the guards, but he finally relented. "Fine. I suppose if you have the other two heroes with you, then they should provide sufficient protection. Though I ask that I be allowed to come along. Even if I am not in the party, just to witness how the Dagger hero fights if that is acceptable with you?"
"I guess so." Eorna relented, nodding her head.
"Well, there is a way to solve that," Matthias spoke up. "You two have read up on your help menu, right?"
Eorna began to whistle, not looking at Matthias, whilst Kurose gulped.
"Well, I read part of it? I mainly focused on the methods really." He admitted.
Matthias nodded his head, not seeming frustrated at all. There shouldn't have been a reason for Kurose to worry about that anyway!
"Well, there's a feature for heroes called battle formations. Really useful for taking people to waves and all that. Experience isn't shared between everyone in the battle formation and the main party, but you can still have him in there. It would stop this argument."
"Wait! Why didn't you bring other people to the wave then? Wouldn't that have made everything easier!?" Eorna shouted out.
Matthias simply shrugged. "I mean, it would have but I'd need to organize them, decide who was the leader of each small group, and then there's the issue that I would have dragged a group of knights into the center of Ortensca, which would have probably caused some sort of conflict."
Kurose grumbled at that but nodded his head. He could see his point, but that did raise another point. Since both he and Eorna were on the run, and Matthias had taken them to Palinfa, wouldn't that cause some sort of issue between Ortensca and Palinfa? He would have to ask Matthias later when they were away from the guy who was guiding them around.
"But yeah. You can add him to a battle formation, and when it comes to it, we can just disband the formation and portal back to the castle." Matthias explained simply.
"That would be wonderful. Thank you for explaining that feature, Jewelry tools hero." He bowed towards Matthias, completely serious.
"I will need to discuss this with others of our faith then. I imagine this will be useful in combating future waves, and ensuring the safety of Lady Dagger." His gaze wandered over to Kurose. "And the Accessory Hero, of course!" He quickly added on.
Kurose simply sighed but did not pay it any more attention. He was expecting this sort of thing, especially here, so it didn't affect him. It was more tiring than anything.
"Well, shouldn't we get going then?" He proposed.
"Oh, yes of course! Please, follow me, everyone!" The man declared once more, proceeding to lead the group away.
Kurose looked on. They were currently a decent distance away from the main gate of the city. Whilst they had been traveling to where the slimes were, Kurose had noticed several farms on the outskirts of the city.
When he had asked about them, their guide had said that they helped supply food to the city. He had said that whilst they mainly relied on importing food from other places in Dajero, he had revealed that the farmers sold whatever excess they had for a good price.
Kurose nodded at that blankly. That knowledge likely wouldn't help him in the future, but it was still nice to know.
Though, as of right now, Kurose was standing on top of a small hill. He was watching over Eorna as she fought a slime. She didn't look like she needed help. Eorna wasn't struggling, simply taking a couple of steps back each time the slime came within a certain range of her.
To Kurose, it looked like she was inspecting its attack pattern. Once she had enough, she raised her dagger. With a simple movement, she sliced through the slime. It seemed to pause where it was for a second before exploding. Its body seemed to turn into liquid, forming into a puddle. Kurose noted the experience it gave, but it was a minimal amount, not even something worth mentioning.
Just how far had they come? It hadn't even been long ago that something of this level would have given Kurose issues. He could still remember the Spinlings and Aransilk spiders in Ortensca that would have given him a fight, but now? He felt like he could take them on easily with what he had. Eorna hadn't even had to use a skill to defeat it! It was just one simple strike!
He watched as Eorna lowered herself to the floor, seeming to pick up a handful of the slime that was left behind by the monster and raising it to her weapons gem. She let the gem absorb it before shaking her hand, attempting to get the rest of it off of her.
Another slime seemed to hop over towards them, seeming not to care about what had happened to the other one.
"Erst Thread" Kurose spoke in an almost bored tone. The thread wrapped around the Slime, restraining it even as Kurose moved over to it. He looked it over, noticing a few small differences. The main difference was that it was a different colour. Whilst the other one had been a light green, almost seeming to blend in with the grassy surroundings, this one was a dark blue. Another difference was that it seemed bigger than the one Eorna had been fighting, or rather, toying with.
"Feather Volley" He wasn't wearing the Harpy Feather Scarf right now, so he was curious about what would happen. Instead of the regular feathers that seemed to come from the scarf itself, light green feathers seemed to appear from beside him, shooting toward the slime.
They buried themselves inside of its body, and it seemed to explode outwards. He ignored the small amount of experience, absorbing some of the slime like Eorna had done.
Blue Slime Scarf Unlocked
He didn't bother reading through the stats for it, his attention focused on Eorna who had appeared beside him. She scooped up some of the blue slime, absorbing it as well.
"Ha!" She spoke with a smile. "Kurose! Absorb some of the green slime! You'll get another weapon form!"
Kurose raised an eyebrow at her but did as she said. He scooped up some of the green slime from the one she had previously defeated, and to his surprise, it unlocked another weapon form.
Green Slime Scarf Unlocked
"Huh. So we can unlock other weapon forms from the same monster if they are different in some way?" He questioned.
"I guess so! Hey, uh…" Eorna called out to their guide, who they still had not learned the name of.
The guide seemed to notice Eorna calling out to him. "Yes, Lady Dagger?" He asked quickly.
"How many types of slime are there?" She asked curiously.
"Slimes… Hmm, let me list them out for you. There's Green, Blue, Red and Purple. They are usually the weaker ones, with Green being the weakest and Purple being the strongest. Those are the ones that live in the forest and get closer to the city. Some usually appear in the mines, though they are also relatively easy to take care of… Now that I'm thinking about it, there are plenty of slime types. Though, there is a rare one called a King Slime."
"A King Slime?" Eorna questioned. "What's that like?"
"Well, it's usually when several slimes combine into one being. It's very rare, but when it does, the knights are usually sent out to deal with it. It's easy enough, it's just more of a nuisance really. It usually causes slime to rain down from the sky, quite obnoxious. It makes clean up a mess once it is done."
Kurose thought about it for a moment. It seemed oddly familiar to him, as if he had heard of it before. Yet for the life of him, he couldn't place where he might have heard it from. He mentally shrugged. It's not like it would be anything major.
"I see… When one does next happen, could you store some of the slime from it? It might unlock something helpful for us." She motioned towards herself, Kurose, and into the distance, where Matthias was chasing around a group of slimes which were obviously terrified of him if their rapid bouncing away was anything to go by.
"Of course, I will ensure they gather slime for the heroes."
Their guide simply nodded his head, watching as the Jewelry tools hero slowly cut down the group of slimes he was chasing after.
The hour passed quickly, with the three heroes managing to unlock four separate slime weapon forms. Namely the green, blue, red, and purple slime weapon forms.
Kurose would have personally liked to go into one of the caves in Dajero to discover the other slime types, but considering how far they would probably have to travel, it wouldn't be worth the effort today.
That train of thought was interrupted as Matthias shouted.
"Portal skill is ready!" Matthias shouted, gathering the attention of everyone. "Are you all ready to go back to Palinfa?"
The group nodded, with the guide seeming to step away. Kurose watched as his name seemed to disappear from the battle formation menu that they had been using. He smiled towards Eorna and Kurose before speaking.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Lady Dagger and Accessory Hero." He spoke sincerely, a smile on his face.
"I will admit, I was… sceptical about letting Lady Dagger fight the waves. I still am, but I see that she will not allow anyone to stop her from doing what she wants."
"That's right!" Eorna declared. "I'm going to fight the waves alongside Kurose and Matthias, and we will save the world!" She spoke with a big grin on her face. Kurose smiled beside her.
"Then I look forward to that future where the waves are but a memory for us all." He answered, a small smile showing up on his face, as if he truly believed that they could do it. It made Kurose happy that they had people believing in them.
The guide turned towards Matthias, speaking again. "If it is possible, would you please come back here before the next wave strikes our country? There are a few things I would like to help set up to help make the process of dealing with these waves easier."
"Like what?" Matthias asked the guide curiously.
"Well, this battle formation feature that you spoke about was previously unknown to us. It was not in any of the books in our church's library. I must have checked through them dozens of times during my time maintaining them, and I do not remember anything about it! It truly is bizarre…Maybe it could be related to some of the pages being missing..." He shook his head before continuing.
"I believe it would be best if we sorted out groups of soldiers for each of you. I'm well aware of how strong you are," He directed that mainly towards Matthias before continuing. "but it never hurts to have more soldiers assisting you, would you not agree?"
"That is true…" Matthias spoke, tapping his foot on the ground. "But would the queen even approve of it?" He questioned.
The man seemed to hesitate before speaking. "Well, she might do if you were to schedule a meeting with her…"
Matthias let out a sigh.
"I… fine. I'll sort it out. Needed to talk to her at some point anyway…" Matthias muttered the last part to himself, shaking his head.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"Not that I can think of. Please take care of yourselves. Good luck in the next wave, I will be cheering you on from here."
Eorna waved back at him, even as the group moved towards Matthias.
"Alright. Let's go back. Portal Jewelry tools!"
The five people who weren't used to using the portal skill blinked their eyes rapidly, each of them attempting to see where they were. It only took Kurose a few moments, and as he looked around, he realized they were back in Palinfa, where Matthias had bought both him and Eorna directly after the wave.
"So!" Matthias began, a smile on his face. "Like I said, you have already done the few things I wanted to get done today. You have linked to all the hourglasses, we raised everyone to at least level 30, and we got you some new weapon forms. So, the rest of the day is yours. Lea, Sigun, Osvien, you also have the day off, so do whatever you want as well."
"Are we going to be needed for tomorrow?" Osvien asked curiously.
Matthias nodded his head. "You will be. Unless either of you two have problems with them joining your party for now?" Matthias directed towards Eorna and Kurose.
Eorna shook her head. "Nope! I have no problems with them joining us again."
"Me neither," Kurose answered. "But what do you mean for now?"
"Well, I mainly bought them here to join you temporarily. Ideally, I would prefer for you to go find your own party members, but until then, they will have to make do. No offense to you three of course!"
"No offense taken." Lea spoke. Osvien nodded beside her whilst Sigun didn't give a response.
"Not to say that you can't stay with them if you and them decide that it's better." Matthias quickly added on. "But yeah, you will be needed tomorrow. Ideally, I want to get all of you to level 40 prior to the wave, but the issue is that I don't have any portal spots saved with stronger monsters anywhere close by, plus it's only three days away."
"How many places can you port to?" Kurose asked.
"I can have three saved. It will probably be the same for you." Matthias spoke with a shrug. "Unless you get more since you are a holy hero."
Whilst this was going on, Osvien, Lea, and Sigun began to move closer to the door.
"We will be heading off now if that is fine with you?" Lea spoke, directing it towards Matthias.
"Hm? Oh yes, that's fine. Just be here by about midday tomorrow at the latest, if you would?"
"Of course." Lea and Osvien spoke with smiles on their faces. Sigun, who had been withdrawn since his outburst earlier in the day, simply nodded his head.
With that said, the trio began to walk away, waving goodbye to Kurose and Eorna with smiles on their faces.
Once they had finally left, Kurose let out a sigh. He was glad they were willing to work with him, but just being around people was tiring for him. He just wanted to relax if he was honest with himself.
"So, I know I said the rest of the day was for you two to do whatever you want with it…" Matthias began.
Kurose stared at him. Was he going to say that was a lie? Eorna seemed to be having the same thoughts, staring at the Jewelry tools hero with a betrayed look.
"Hey! Don't look at me like that! I'm not telling you that you have to do anything!" Matthias spoke quickly, attempting to defend himself. "It's just that I thought you might want to actually get out and explore the city, you know? From what you told me, you only saw a small village in Ortensca, and a forest, right?"
"It would be nice to see a town without the risk of being captured…" Kurose spoke quietly. Plus, it was also a chance to just relax, like he had wanted a moment earlier. Eorna seemed to agree with him on that, nodding her head.
"Well, why don't you go out there?" He waved his hand towards the city in the background. "You won't have anyone trying to capture you. No one will recognise you at the moment because a majority of people still believe you are in Ortensca, and they don't know what you look like! So really, it's the perfect time for you to explore the city, whilst you are still relatively unknown. Because trust me, when they realize the heroes are here, well… they won't leave you alone. You will have some of my brothers and sisters trying to win your favor, people bringing their problems for you to solve, all of that stuff."
"But… what would we even do?" Kurose asked him.
"That's up to you. You can decide what you want to do. Just take a walk through the city, talk to people, whatever you want. Again, it's up to you and Eorna." Matthias spoke with a shrug. "I mean, if my advisor actually did what I asked, then he should have some Sika set aside for you two."
Kurose perked up at that. He remembered that Sika was the equivalent of gold coins in this world. He could use that for his final method! Now that he thought about it, he had really been slacking off with that one. Not on purpose of course! It was just… difficult to get cash when you were on the run! If only he had some weapon that gave him the ability to get the currency of this world when he killed monsters. That would be super helpful!
But if he had to put in game terms, it would probably be some sort of endgame unlock, when you were close to reaching the final boss. And Kurose was certain they were nowhere near the end of the waves, they were only just beginning after all.
"Oh! We get money?" Eorna asked with a smile.
"Yeah. just so you two can buy whatever you want whilst you are in the city. You will probably want something to snack on, or something might catch your interest. Whatever it is, you'll both have some cash you can use."
"Alright! Let's go then Kurose!"
Eorna grabbed onto Kurose's arm, beginning to drag him, but Kurose managed to stop her.
"Hold on a moment! We haven't even got the money yet! Plus, we don't even know how to get out of the castle yet!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Eorna responded, laughing as she did. She let go of Kurose's arm, smiling at him.
"I'll be back as soon as I can, alright? I'm just going to make sure he got the money. Once I'm back, I'll guide you out." Matthias said to the duo.
They both quickly nodded their head, watching as Matthias walked out of the room, leaving both Eorna and Kurose on the balcony.
"So…" Kurose spoke. He had one thing on his mind, mainly what Eorna had asked about earlier.
"What's the deal with this Porin place?" Kurose asked her.
Eorna seemed to find a sudden interest in the ground, seeming to squirm slightly on the spot before sighing.
"Uhh… what if I said it was nothing?" She spoke, clearly nervous.
"Hmm…" it was clear that Kurose didn't buy it, but he didn't want to push her.
"Well, if you want to talk about that, or anything else, just tell me. I'd be happy to hear you out, even if I can't do much to help."
Eorna nodded her head at that, seemingly eager to change the topic.
"I know, I know! But what do you wanna do in the city once we are out of here?" Eorna asked quickly. "There's so much I wanna do! I want to see what types of food they have, I wnat to see if they have any daggers to copy! Oh and…"
"Hold on Eorna! Please!" Kurose spoke up quickly. As much as he cared about Eorna, she really did speak fast, and that overwhelmed his mind.
"Why don't we wait until we are actually outside to decide what we want to do, alright?"
"But there will be sooo much to see!" She whined. "I'll be distracted, and I'll feel bad just dragging you around all day!"
Kurose actually felt slightly touched by that. Eorna was looking out for him, fully aware of what she would do if they didn't plan things out.
"Well, I don't really mind what we do. As long as we actually get to go out there, then it's fine. I'd be happy to just follow you around."
Eorna seemed to stare at him, but slowly relented, nodding her head as she did. "If you're fine with it…"
Even as she spoke that, Matthias came back through the door, holding two bags. It was obvious what was in them.
"Got it!" He exclaimed. "There should be 10 Sika coins in there for the both of you. Like I said, spend it on whatever you want, alright? And if you have any money left over, well, just keep it. You'll probably find a use for it."
"Thank you again." Kurose offered the elder hero, but the man simply waved his hand.
"It's fine. Everyone deserves to enjoy themselves from time to time. Now, just follow me and I'll get you out there, alright?"
They followed Matthias throughout the castle, entering a large, empty room. There were three separate staircases, one on the left and one on the right. They were currently standing on the central one if you were to look at the room from the entrance.
"Right. The guards at the front gate should know who you are, so they'll just let you in. If they do stop you for any reason, just show your weapons to them, and they'll let you in. Oh and also, if you get into any trouble, there will be guards patrolling the streets, so just go to them if you need help. Oh, and…" Matthias went on and on, so Kurose simply ignored him.
He knew he was trying to be safe and cover all his bases, but he was fairly certain he and Eorna could handle being out in the city for a bit! He didn't have to go so overboard with all of this information. They could handle themselves in a fight if it really came down to it. They were heroes after all!
"...But most importantly, enjoy yourselves alright?" Matthias finished off as they stood in front of the entrance.
"We will! Don't worry about us!" Eorna spoke with a smile.
"Yeah. We will be fine. Don't worry about us so much! We will be back later."
"Alright. I'll see you later then. Stay safe and enjoy yourself." Matthias waved them off, with the duo waving back as the guards opened the doors.
The pair stepped out of the castle, and Eorna began to drag Kurose by the arm.
"Come on, come on!" She shouted.
Kurose simply laughed, allowing himself to be dragged by the Dagger hero.
Matthias watched as the duo left the castle, beginning their slow walk into the city. After a few moments, once he was sure they were out of earshot, he spoke up.
"Wydern?" He spoke, almost seeming like a question.
No sooner than he had said it, 5 cloaked people knelt before him. Each cloak had the same symbol on it, one similar to the one that Matthias had on his cloak. It had two swords crossed on it, but instead of having a crown surrounding it, the swords were piercing through the mask. There were small differences between each one, each having a separate number put onto the mask.
"Yes, my lord?" The group spoke in unison.
"I'd like one of you to keep an eye on them. I trust them, but I want to make sure they are safe."
One of the people stood from the back. "I will do that, Your Majesty. I will report once they are back."
The person bowed towards Matthias before seeming to disappear. Matthias nodded his head, looking towards the remaining four.
"Has there been anything from Ortensca?" He questioned.
They had to know they had the heroes by this point. Matthias hadn't exactly been subtle when he used his Portal skill to take them after the wave. Something he was internally beating himself up for. He shouldn't have really done it in front of the guards, but he had to give them a report at least.
"There have been… some things we have noticed." The person at the front spoke slowly. Upon seeing Matthias was not going to interrupt, he continued. "The few Wydren we have in Ortensca have reported that lords from around the region are gathering at the capital. We are still unaware of the reason for now."
Matthias thought about it for a moment before speaking up. "Could they perhaps be holding a funeral for the previous king? He did not perish that long ago. And it would be an event that requires all lords to attend."
"That could be a possibility, Your Majesty." The Wydren responded.
"Still, keep an eye on it, please. If it is urgent information, give it to me immediately, secrecy be damned. Anything else I should know?"
Another Wydren stood up, speaking up. "The Wydren stationed in Dajero have not responded, and I fear the worst for them. Would I be allowed to leave to try and find out what has happened to them?"
Matthias nodded his head. "Go ahead. Just know that if you feel like your life is in danger, do your utmost to escape. Even if you have gathered no information relevant to their disappearance. Your life is not something to be thrown away."
"Of course your majesty. I will return." The speaker bowed their head before disappearing, much like their partner did.
"The rest of you are dismissed. Keep doing what you were doing, and keep up the good jobs." The remaining three bowed their heads before disappearing, and Matthias sighed.
"Hopefully, everything goes fine." He spoke, shaking his head.
"I suppose it's time to send a message to Oleana then." With that said, he began to walk off slowly.
Woo, I'm back after my 4 week break! Bit of a shorter chapter, but it's fine. I hope. Mainly just a setup for the next chapter, where the duo goes into the city!
Also, if I have made any mistakes, just message me or something. Or ping me on the MWP server: disco rd/knz BEjuYdB