After a night of sleep, with Kurose being the last one to keep watch, the trio moved forward with their journey. It took them another half a day to finally leave the forest they had seen the Aphelisk in, but once they had left it, they could see a village in the distance, with a mountain a fair distance behind.
"Any idea where we are?" Kurose asked Sera, who shook his head in return.
"Nope. I think I lost track of where we are after spending so long in the forest." He admitted. "It's fine now though. We can just go there and ask where we are! Then we can make plans to get moving towards Palinfa."
"Plus we can sleep on an actual bed!" Eorna spoke cheerfully. "And eat food that doesn't taste average every single day!"
"Yeah, that's definitely going to be a bonus." Kurose spoke with a nod.
Whilst the food wasn't bad by any means, it also wasn't good. It was just average, as Eorna had said.
"Though, we should probably keep our hoods up, just in case." Kurose added on. "We aren't sure if the king actually spread word about us to the further towns or not."
"Good point." Sera responded. "I guess we'll just have to keep our guard up until we get out of town. But we definitely need to go there, if not for a place to sleep, then to get armor before the wave. How far away is it again?"
"Two weeks." Eorna answered quickly.
With that said, the trio began their walk towards the village. Kurose ran his hands across the Giant Owl Feather scarf, fiddling with the ends of it.
It was much bigger than the other scarfs he had, but that may have been due to the strength of the weapon. It was enough to wrap around his neck fully, as well as covering the gem itself, which Kurose was thankful for. He could have swapped it to an amulet or ring, but he had already unlocked the new rings, and he had yet to unlock another amulet or necklace, strangely enough.
The path they followed towards the village was silent. There were no travellers on it, nor were there any signs that any wagons or merchants had come by, with the path remaining free of any sort of tracks that would have been left by the wheels. Instead, there were unknown tracks, and plenty of them.
"That's odd…" Sera spoke with a frown as they moved closer. "Usually you can see at least some people on the outskirts of the village."
"Maybe there's some sort of celebration going on in the village?" Eorna suggested. "I know my village did celebrations for stuff, and no one left during those days."
"They could have something going on." Sera conceded with a nod. "But then surely at least some merchant would have turned up. People tend to be looser with their money during a celebration, and any somewhat decent merchant would try to take advantage of that."
Kurose thought about it for a moment. They were still pretty close to where they had camped for the night, and they only moved a short distance away from where they had seen the Amphelisk after all.
"Where do Amphelisks usually live?" Kurose asked, throwing Sera off with the sudden change in topics.
"Well… from what I know, they prefer more mountainous areas." He answered. "Like I said yesterday, they only really move if they get pushed out by something stronger."
"So, do you think the lack of people on the path could be because of the Amphelisks?" Kurose suggested
"It could be actually. Though, usually such a thing would have been reported immediately to the King, who would have sent a group of guards to eliminate the threats."
"Maybe it happened while we were in the forest?" Eorna suggested. "I mean, it's not like the current king is doing a good job, is he?"
"You're right, even if I don't like it." Sera admitted. "The current king could be more focused on finding us instead of focusing on other matters. But even then, the lord or lady who manages this region should be sorting this out as well."
"Maybe they are trying? Or they are busy with something else?"
"There's no point chucking out all these what ifs." Kurose spoke, shutting down the conversation. "Once we actually get to the village, we can ask about, see what's happened and form a plan from there."
"Alright, that's fine by me." Sera spoke with a nod of his head. Eorna didn't answer, but she seemed to be fine with that as well.
As they got closer towards the entrance of the village, a voice shouted out.
"What the hell are you three doing out there?" the voice spoke. "Get inside! Before they notice you!"
The group of three looked around in confusion until Sera pointed to the top of the gate.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" The person shouted again. "Get in!"
The trio looked at each other before moving towards the gate. Once they were in, and the gate shut behind them, Kurose spoke up.
"Well, there's definitely something going on."
He got nods of agreement from Sera and Eorna as the same voice spoke from above them.
"Sorry for shouting at you all. Just wanted to get you behind our walls as quickly as possible, yeah? Just gimme a moment to come down,"
As they waited for the person to come down, Kurose looked at the wall, as well as the gate. The walls seemed fine enough, but they weren't like the capitals walls. Where they were made of stone and obviously fortified over time, these walls were made of wood.
The gate looked a bit flimsy as well. Unlike the capital, the gate here was made of wood which held bite and claw marks on it, as if something had been attacking it.
"Right. Sorry again." The person spoke, flashing the trio a smile.
"It's fine." Sera spoke, waving it off. "Can we ask why? We haven't exactly been around this area much, you see."
"Of course. A pack of Amphelisks have been displaced a while ago you see. Usually, they live further up that way, closer to the Roschi Mountains." She explained, motioning towards the mountain just a while away. "Honestly, we aren't sure what monster caused them to move, but it's been a pain trying to hunt with them in the forest."
"I see. And isn't your lord or lady doing anything? As far as I'm aware, they should be the ones you take this issue to, right?" Sera continued to ask questions.
"Aye. We did. It takes a while for issues to actually reach the king, and our lord was originally waiting for an audience with him to request assistance, but the circumstances have changed and our lord had to go to the capital, to attend the ceremony for the new king. We all hoped that he would be able to acquire some assistance for clearing out the Amphelisks whilst he was there, but the lord didn't seem confident in his abilities to do so."
"How long have they been around here?" Kurose asked, adding himself to the conversation.
"About a couple of weeks, give or take." She answered him. "Usually, for any other sort of monster we would have sent our men to wipe them out. It's not that the Amphelisks are high level monsters or anything. It's just the fact that they usually tend to fight in groups. They are deceptively smart,"
"I see, I see." Sera nodded his head. "As I said before, us three didn't know this, so thank you for telling us all of this."
"It's no problem." She shook her head. "I just feel sorry that you chose now to reappear. Either way, I'm sure our village will endeavour to make your stay a pleasant one, or as pleasant as it can be under the circumstances we are in. I have temporary control over everything until Lord Brandt returns, so If you need me, I'll be in the barracks, at the easternmost point in the village"
"Of course. Thank you again for having us here." Sera spoke politely.
The captain did not respond, instead being dragged into another conversation with another guard about some issue that was plaguing the village.
The trio walked further into the town before Eorna spoke. "We are gonna help them, right?" She asked.
"If we can." Kurose confirmed, getting a small smile from his two companions. "Before that though, we need to actually get ourselves sorted first. You and me need armor, while Sera needs to get his armor repaired."
"Sounds like a good starting point for us at least." Sera agreed. "We just need to find the right place."
"Well, we can always ask around, right? Plus, we can find other shops that might actually buy the herbs and all that from our monster drops." Eorna spoke up. Kurose nodded at that, looking at his own drops menu.
"Well, if we are gonna be taking stuff from your… drop items, we should probably be somewhere more private. Maybe book a room at an inn first?" Sera suggested.
The spearman still wasn't sure of how their weapons actually worked, but he wasn't going to complain about something like that making their lives easier in the long run.
"Yeah, that makes sense." Kurose answered.
He hadn't really thought about it, but seeing someone take a ton of stuff out of their weapon was probably a way for them to get certainly recognised as heros, which was the last thing they wanted at the moment.
"Then let's get going!" Eorna spoke excitedly. "The sooner we get this all sorted, the sooner we can get out there again!" She spoke with a grin.
Kurose hid a small smile in his scarf at his friend's excitement before following behind Sera.
As they walked, Kurose noticed a couple of things.
Despite being a rather decent sized village, there was barely anyone out and about. The few people that were out and about were busy delivering things, usually knocking on doors and giving parcels out, to which the people on the other side of the door seemed to be thankful for.
Kurose wasn't sure what it was being delivered, but if they had been like this for a while, then it was likely rations, and if it had gotten to the point of them needing to ration out the food for everyone in the village, then the situation was definitely bad.
There second thing Kurose noticed, which mainly confused him, was the existence of a singular bell in the center of the village. It only had one person beside it, who looked like he would rather be anywhere than beside the bell.
He wasn't sure why they were there, but he didn't question it, instead chalking it up to some sort of job they had put the person there on.
It didn't take them long to find an inn, and the person at the desk was more than happy to take their money in exchange for a room. They decided on two separate rooms, one for Kurose and Sera, and an individual one for Eorna.
Eorna tried to protest it, but Sera refused to hear of it. Kurose wasn't bothered by it. They could either save some money, or give the Inn a little bit more cash. Both were good options. Eorna eventually relented, and they were given two rooms next to each other.
They quickly made their way to the rooms, with all three of them entering the room Kurose and Sera would be sharing.
"Right, we need to sort out what we want to sell." Eorna spoke to Kurose, who nodded in reply.
"Whilst you do that, I'm gonna count up the money that Woodrow gave us. We never actually did that." Sera spoke, holding a hand out. Kurose gave him the entire bag.
"Right. Well, I'm not against selling the gems we have, but…" Kurose hesitated.
"Yeah, you need them for your method. And we wanna be at our best for the wave so the gems are off the menu for now." Eorna spoke with a nod. "We can sell the herbs, probably to an apothecary. They gotta have one here."
"That's true. The basic swords and all that can be sold when we go to get our armor sorted…" Kurose noted.
"Hey wait a second!" Sera called out, grabbing their attention. "Don't you think they are going to be a bit suspicious if three strangers who had one bag between the three of them came out of here with… I don't even know how many weapons you guys have in your drop menus."
"He has a point." Eorna spoke with a nod.
"Yeah. We should probably figure out what we can reliably fit in the bag and sell that stuff then." Kurose agreed.
And that's what they did. Whilst Sera counted out the money, Kurose and Eorna took out the important things from the bag and laid them on the desk, before filling it with various herbs and a couple of spare weapons, mainly daggers as they were the smallest thing that could fit comfortably in the bag,
Once they were done with that, they made their way out back into the streets, but not before asking the person at the desk where the nearest apothecary was, as well as if there was a blacksmith in town.
They got answers to both of them, as well as directions, but she urged them to go to the apothecary first. Seeing no reason not to, the group of three obliged.
It didn't take long to find the apothecary with the guidance of the kind person at the desk of the inn, and as they opened the door, a voice called out.
"If you are here for Healing Salve, I'm afraid you'll have to wait! Running incredibly low at the moment, and the guards need a majority of it as i can make"
"We aren't here to buy?" Kurose spoke, with the sentence coming out more like a question than a declaration.
The woman at the counter stopped whatever she was doing, setting a small bowl to the side before turning to them.
"Then what are you here for, if not to buy? There's not much an apothecary can do for much else, unless you need to be diagnosed, I suppose" She added the last part, humming as she looked them over.
"We have a ton of herbs! The person at the Inn said you might have some use for them." Eorna spoke cheerfully.
Kurose was glad Eorna was there at least. She had a way of explaining things easily, as did Sera.
"Herbs, huh. Well bring them here then. Always need more herbs, especially recently." The pharmacist spoke with a sigh.
"Because of the Amphelisks, right? The captain told us." Sera asked her.
"Ah, of course Liera mentioned it. You're probably travellers, adventurers if I had to guess, right?" She didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "Of course you are. Never seen you here so you must be. She was probably hoping for you to help out."
"Well… That was the plan." Kurose spoke slowly, almost jumping back as her eyes locked onto him.
"Huh.,," She considered him, and then the other two for a moment before speaking once more. "You're either brave or stupid. Either way, the help is appreciated. Now put what you got on the counter. Need to sort them out, determine the quality and see how much I have to pay you for them…"
Kurose and Eorna got to work, quickly taking out everything important, and the Pharmacist began to quickly sort them. After a few moments, she nodded her head.
"Average quality for a majority of them. Where did you get them?" She asked.
"We just gathered them on our way here. Been in the forests for like a week, mainly just picking up any interesting herbs and that." Eorna lied, shrugging her shoulders as she did.
"That's fair. I can definitely make a decent amount of healing salves with this. Maybe something to numb injuries with those…" She trailed off, separating several items into different piles as she muttered to herself.
"My bad. Tend to mutter when I'm thinking things over. I'm willing to give you, let's say 75 Serena. I would give more if you had turned it into Healing Salve, but this is still fine." She spoke with a nod.
"That's fine." Sera spoke with a nod. "75 Serena sounds good to me."
"Is it really worth that much?" Kurose whispered to Eorna, who shrugged.
"Not sure… It might be the waves driving prices up?" She offered back just as quietly.
That made sense to Kurose. If anything was going to cause the price of medicine to go up, it was going to be some sort of impending disaster, of which the waves definitely counted from what he had heard.
"Great." The Pharmacist spoke with a smile.
She reached under the desk, only to pause at the sound of a bell ringing from outside the building. The sound of the bell grew in volume until it suddenly stopped, with a voice shouting.
"Everyone who is not a guard, or willing to lay down your life, retreat to the lord's house! Guards! Take up arms, the Amphelisks have broken through the gate!"
"Well damn." Was all the Pharmacist said in response to that. "I'd recommend you all go to the lord's house. Unless…" She seemed hesitant, but Kurose already knew what she would say.
"We'll help." He answered simply.
"Yup! I mean, we're here, so we might as well!" Eorna responded cheerfully.
Sera didn't say anything, but it was clear he agreed as he held onto his spear.
"Alright. Just let me…" She disappeared under the desk for a moment before taking out a staff as well as a few Charmes.
She fiddled with the top of the staff, slotting in one of the Charmes before speaking again.
"Right. Not sure if you have fought Amphelisks, but you ideally want to stop them moving. Whether that be cutting their legs, entangling them somehow, any way you can stop them from moving will be good."
She began to move out of the door before pausing and pointing towards Kurose.
"Where's your weapon?" She asked.
"I have stuff up my sleeves." Kurose lied.
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before sighing. "Your life you are risking I guess. C'mon"
They quickly filed out of the building, pausing for a moment to survey the situation.
The captain was leading a small group of people towards the lord's house. Behind her were three more guards, trying to take away any attention they might have gathered from the Amphelisks. The rest of the guards were scattered around the area, dealing with the Amphelisks in groups or being grouped up on by said monsters.
The pharmacist rushed off, shouting back to them. "Just take out whatever Amphelisks you can!"
Kurose watched her for a moment more before switching to his Aransilk Parasol. It was still his best weapon, namely because of the enhancements from his strengthening methods.
With a nod between the three of them, they moved towards the closest group of guards, intent on helping them deal with their Amphelisks. Hopefully that would free them up to help others.
Kurose thrust his parasol towards an Amphelisk, and it turned its head, letting out a small screech as the parasol made contact with its head. The parasol struck its jaw, pushing its head to the side as a yellow bolt shot out of it.
The bolt fizzled out before it went too far, and Kurose swung his Parasol at its legs. It let out a squawk as it fell to the floor, and Sera quickly finished it off, thrusting a spear through the monster's chest.
He removed his spear from it quickly, moving on to assist against more of the Amphelisks. Kurose gave him a nod as he moved away.
Kurose's eyes turned to Eorna, who was being protected by a guard with a shield as she dashed out from behind cover whenever the Amphelisk made an attack on the shield. The Amphelisk had several small cuts over its body from Eorna, and it was getting frustrated.
Being distracted by Eorna and how she was faring, he didn't notice the Amphelisk running at him until it slammed directly into him. He let out a sound of surprise as he fell to the floor.
Both hands immediately pressed onto the parasol, keeping the parasol against the monster's neck in an attempt to stop it from trying to bite his face off. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the increasingly familiar yellow glow at the back of its throat.
Kurose let out a grunt before he spoke. "Erst Scarf!"
The skill came to life, and immediately wrapped around the Amphelisks mouth, slamming it shut for a moment. It looked surprised by its suddenly shut mouth, and Kurose took that opportunity to push it off him.
Eorna came in from the side, her dagger carving across its side as it fell down.
"Thanks." Kurose spoke with a small smile, getting one in return from her.
"The other guards have already gone off to help their friends. Think it's fine to use skills?" She asked curiously.
Kurose went to answer with an immediate no, but hesitated for a moment. They could continue hiding their skills, but if it came to light that they were heroes, and did not use everything in their power to help, it would just give people more reason to dislike them.
On the other hand, if they did reveal themselves, there was always the chance they could be driven away from here. It wasn't the worst thing, but Kurose really wanted a place to stay, even if it was only for a few days.
"Yeah, we can use skills." Kurose answered her with a nod. "Better for more people to live than for us to hide, right?"
Eorna gave him another smile before moving away towards another group.
He watched her go before looking around the area. He caught sight of the Pharmacist alongside a few other guards fighting two more Amphelisks. The one at the front was keeping the two guards at bay, whilst the other was running in a circle.
Yellow sparks danced along its body, evidence that it had been building up charge for a while. Kurose began to run towards it, only for the Pharmacist to slam her staff into the floor.
"Sinkhole: Mega!" She shouted.
In a short radius around where the head of the staff struck, the ground sunk.
The Amphelisk, with the solid ground beneath it gone, fell face first into the hole. The yellow sparks dancing around it faded quickly.
Kurose moved forward, intent on helping out as one of the guards moved past the first Amphelisk, intent on taking out the currently downed one.
The one the guard moved past turned, its tail hitting against the other guard's shield and pushing him back as it let out a hiss.
"Thread Trap!" Kurose pointed his Parasol at it, and the skill shot forward, entangling itself around the Amphelisk.
The two guards turned to him, thanking him quickly before running off. The Pharmacist stayed, looking at him for a moment more before speaking.
"Huh, nice weapon. Never heard a spell without the prefix though." She spoke with a light smile.
"...Not a spell…" Kurose murmured, looking away.
"What was that?"
"That's because it wasn't a spell. It was a skill." Kurose answered, clearer than before.
"A skill huh? Isn't that what those heroes have?" She probed.
"Yes, it is." He confirmed, growing slightly irritated. "Are you going to keep dancing around it, or am I free to go and help?"
"Sure, don't let me hold you up." She spoke with a wave of her hand.
She nudged the dead Amphelisk with her staff, making sure it was actually dead as Kurose turned to go assist another group.
By the end of it, no one had died, which was great. The downside was that now everyone knew that he and Eorna were heroes.
A small price to pay for everyone being alive, I suppose… Kurose thought to himself.
He was currently crouched beside Eorna, who was cutting away at an Amphelisk for both of them for all the weapon forms it would give.
She had gotten faster with the cutting apart of monsters, helped by an equip bonus she had gotten from one of her daggers called 'Dissection 1'
He also had a similar equip bonus, namely from the Giant Owl Meat Ring, and that was next on Kurose's unlock list, but he didn't have anything to help her take apart the Amphelisks, so unfortunately for the time being, it was up to her.
"Accessory Hero?" A voice called out. Kurose turned in the direction of it, and saw the captain approaching.
"...Yes?" Kurose spoke hesitantly.
She looked at him curiously before speaking. "On behalf of Lord Brandt, who is currently away, I would like to thank you and the Dagger Hero for assisting us in dealing with our issue. I just wish to let you know it was not our intention for you to be dragged into dealing with this."
"O-oh," Kurose hadn't been expecting that. He had been expecting demands about why they had been hiding themselves "It's no problem. I mean, what sort of heroes would we be if we didn't help out?"
"Regardless. You didn't have to help out, and as such, we are thankful. Whilst I'm not sure how things would have turned out had you two not been here, I can say it would have lasted much longer. Though I do have one question, if you would be willing to answer it?"
"Sure?" He answered uncertainty.
"Why are you here?" She asked with a frown. "There is, if I am being honest, nothing important around here. There are no old legends about this small village, no large monsters that require a hero to slay them, and so, I ask again, why are you here?"
Kurose looked back at her, debating whether or not to tell her the truth, that they were on the run.
As much as she seemed like a nice person, Kurose just wasn't sure if he could trust her to not turn them in as soon as the opportunity came up. And as such, he made up his mind.
"There was no reason." He answered with a shrug. "As Sera said earlier, we were mainly in the forests, trying to get stronger for the waves. There's not much else to it."
The captain stared at him for a moment, and Kurose continued. "There's also the fact that we need armor, as well as just a general place to stay for a bit."
"I see." The captain spoke with a nod. "Regardless, thank you again. Lord Brandt should be back by the weeks end hopefully, so if you do stay, I'm sure he would reward you for helping us out."
"It's… We'll think about it." Kurose spoke after a moment.
She nodded once more before stepping away, immediately being dragged into another conversation.
"Done! Your stuff is on the left Kurose!" Eorna spoke cheerfully.
"Thanks Eorna." Kurose Spoke immediately. He leaned down, pushing everything into his Parasols gem.
Amphelisk Bone Bracelet unlocked
Amphelisk Hide Scarf unlocked
Amphelisk Meat Ring unlocked
Amphelisk Claw Amulet unlocked
Amphelisk Parasol unlocked
Kurose took a moment to look through the weapon forms, but only two caught his eye.
Amphelisk Meat Ring 0/10
(Abilities Locked) Equip Bonus: +4 agility, Skill; "Erst Ring"
Amphelisk Parasol 0/15
(Abilities Locked) Equip Bonus: Stamina Increase (Small), Skill; "Volt Shot"
Equip Effect: Charge up
Out of the two, the Amphelisk Parasol was by far the best weapon form he had unlocked. It was even better than the Aransilk Parasol with some methods applied to it. That probably wasn't saying much, considering it was from a much weaker monster, but it was still good.
"Ooh! This is super good!" Eorna spoke with a grin, swapping to a new weapon form.
"Yeah, it is." Kurose confirmed. "If it stays this strong, it might be the weapon form I use for the wave."
"Yup! It looks like this is going to be my main weapon for the time being." She agreed with him. "Though, for you, I would probably wait until the day before the wave, right?" She suggested.
"Yeah, you're right. Better to wait a bit longer I guess." He spoke with a nod.
With that said, Kurose and Eorna went around, absorbing any of the Amphelisk bodies that they were allowed to with the guards permission before eventually retiring to their rooms at the Inn.
Brandt let out a small sigh, angrily kicking at the floor as he stood on the balcony.
No matter how many times he tried to speak to the prince- The King he mentally corrected himself, he just had no interest in him. He was much more focused on the ladies.
It wouldn't have been so bad if he had focused on the ones who were clearly looking for a relationship with him, but the way that he was even hitting on the ones who were already taken had earned the young king plenty of glares throughout the night.
No doubt if he kept going down that path, he would find himself having plenty of enemies within the nobility, but he kept that thought to himself. It was his decision if he wanted to make an enemy out of everyone.
"Young Brandt! How nice to see you again!" A voice spoke cheerfully from behind him, and he turned around to see the smile of Orith. "How are you doing my boy?"
Brandt let himself relax. The old man had a way of making people relax whenever he was around.
"Orith, I'm doing fine, thank you. Just taking a few moments, you know?" He responded easily.
"I'm glad, How are your lands doing? Well I hope." Orith responded, standing by the young lord's side.
"Things could be better. You remember the issue I brought up with King Ronald before his demise?"
Orith grimaced at that, but nodded. "I do. If I recall… it was Amphelisks, yes? Were men not sent out to deal with them?" He spoke with a hint of concern.
This caused Brandt to look at the old man curiously. "No? I never got any sort of response, whether through letters or Charme."
"That is odd. King Ronald, may he rest in peace, mobilized a group of soldiers almost immediately after you left." Orith spoke with a frown.
"Do you know who was part of the group that was to be sent to my lands?" Brandt pressed him.
"I only remember the captain, I'm afraid." The man spoke, his frown deepening.. "I'll meet with him tomorrow, see if I can perhaps find out why."
"That would be appreciated Orith." Brandt spoke kindly.
The duo stood there in silence for a time before Orith spoke up once more.
"When do you intend to go back?" He questioned.
"Well, it seems like it is all done, correct?" Getting a nod from Orith, Brandt continued. "Then I will likely be heading back tomorrow. It's a four day journey, and I would much rather get back before anything else happens."
"That is understandable." Orith spoke with a nod. "I hope you have a wonderful journey, young lord."
Brandt smiled at him. "Thank you, Orith."