Unique

E and Bean finished up there conversation and began to surevy the room. Mae continued to bury the remains of the churches dead outside. E had finally noticed that his combat status disappeared. He hadn't fiddled with the rest of his menu quite yet due to the rest of the churches dealings. E and bean began to play a sort of hot and cold game in the church as they attempted to find the source of the soothing warmth. Eventually they found it to be the warmest outside of a locked door to the preacher's office. With a swift kick E broke the old door open to find a fairly dusty but hardly tampered room. The room wafted a large amount of warmth onto them as they entered.

" Something in here is the source of this heat." E gave an obvious deduction vocally. " Alright let's begin, search everything."

They began to try and feel for the warmth again but in this room the difference in temperature alone wouldn't allow for the subtle increases to be noticed. The room wasn't quite full of many things beside a desk only a coat rack, a bookshelf and a open trunk were in it. E decided to check the bookshelf whilst pointing Bean to the desk.

E found several books of different religious faiths on the shelf some books he found were in different languages. The books in languages he didn't know varied wildly in symbolism. He eventually found one book in elven. He had only been tutored just a bit by his mother but he was able to read it's cover. " The Green Maiden" E fell into thought but didn't remember anything of the sorts. He put the book in his bag and continued to search through the remaining books. Shortly afterwards Bean yelped out in pain.

E turned around to see Bean standing over a drawer sucking a cut on his hand. He came over and they looked inside. A dark leather bound book with an ornate metal framed edge and spine lay in the bottom. E looked at it and then to Bean.

" How did you cut yourself on a book?"

Bean shugged and then look at his hand. To his surprise the cut was gone. He showed his hand to E and they both raised their brow. E looked closer on the book there wasn't any words only a strange hexagonal shape inlaid with random scribble like markings around it's edges was tamped into the leather on the cover. E picked up the book and turned it around a few times being careful with it's sharp edges. He opened and flipped through it's pages only to see that it was blank! The book was obviously not an ordinary notebook by any means but it's secrets remained a mystery. The boys then noticed the room grew colder as the heat dissipated. E tossed the book into his bag and they rejoined Mae outside.

Mae placed a large stone over the now covered grave and look on to her two companions in there approach. She smiled when she saw Bean, internally the two guys earned a good amount of respect from her today. Whether she made a huge fuss about the quest and it's preparation and it's execution, she really had to give it to them for their guts. She briefly summerized her blunders and felt extremely unlucky but lucky still to have her fellow party members. The haul they made from this battered church more than made up for everything that she endured. She put her sword on her back and reached down and picked up the chest full of goods. Standing by the torchlight she simply said " Let's get warm" and took the front on their way back to the inn.

.....

Elsewhere in the kingdom a dark cloaked man rode his horse hard in the chilling winter air. Light snow fell around him, as three persuers gave chase not to far behind. Arrows fly by him as he weaved his horse betwixt trees and shrubbery. After a few minutes a break in the treeline lead him to a main road just outside Carth. The road was busy enough even late in the evening with carriage and caravan on the move inside the city walls. Winter was here and it was coming in full force, the time for family and home life was in full swing, many events including the winter festival were soon to begin.

After joining a gaggle of men the man quickly pulled back his hood and flipped his dark cape inside out revealing a leathery green reverse. He then calmed his horse for it to catch its breath. Moments later his pursuants rode by at a full gallop blaring whistles into the city gates. " Tch, dumb guards" he muttered under his breath. He rode his horse into town and hitched it at the nearest pub. He entered the establishment to see it bustling with men and women alike all in their stupor dancing or singing in glee. He quietly went to a table in the far corner were a lone woman sat.

" Did you find it?" She spoke softly to him.

" No, but I have other news.. The dukes son says a young man disgraced the royal family by mouth stole his armor by force and fled the town before he could find reinforcement. After a chat with the onlookers in town it seems to be false rather that he lost a bet and wishes death on other individualp. If they persue the matter further it will be more evidence of the over reaching abuse of power these so called nobles express upon the citizens. I did however lose my disguise in the process to many questions put me under suspicion, guards are meant to guard not ask questions. So I stole the brats coin purse and made way here."

" Hmm I see. Well I guess you've done enough gathering of information in that vein anyways. We should have enough to take them down legally. Your next assignment is to take a break. Enjoy the festivities for the remainder of the month, I'll contact you when I have another task."

The man dropped the coin purse on the table and slid it over to the woman.

" Mi'lady." She scoffed at him and look to him for the first time since their chat. Her beautiful golden curly hair flung out of her hood briefly before she tucked it back in. She smiled and pushed the coin purse back to him. " You've earned it. My cousin hadn't, it's yours now." With that she stood up and began to walk out from the bar. Her white winter cloak covered her frame gently as she left a sweet fragrance in her wake out of the bar.

" Ha, royals." the man sighed and went to the bar for a drink.

...

Back at the inn The wood knights had all showered, eaten, and got ready for bed. In their room E stood over a chest that was the carcass of a creature called a lesser mimic. He read about it afterwards in his beastiary. By count the group made out with a coffer that must have been an offering box at some point with 68 gold 14 silver pieces. There were religious symbols made of gold that required an appraisal but based on weight and the slotted gems they believed it to be upwards of a thousand gold! Not only that but the adventurers they buried had a few potions, a couple rings and a necklace that seemed to be magical in some way. Their armor had all been sundered and become scraps, if anything they could sell it for it's weight or repurpose some of it another way. As far as their weapons went they barely made the cut, a couple shoddy swords, a mace, and a broken crossbow. They were destined to be in the trash or used for training. However the jewelry all felt magical in E's hand when he held them, the ring he had seemed to resonate with them in some regard.

E had his anticipation peaked but needed to find someone to detect magic on the items before they sold them, they didn't want to get swindled. The last thing was a trophy to them more or less but particularly for Bean. The lid of the lesser mimic hardly made for a way to secure the chest. It doubled now as a shield that in Bean's hands was a tower shield!

Bean kept smiling as they told him the story about how he defeated it. They only felt right to explain what happened, at the end of it all it even gave them a breif insight to his Berserk ability. Until he could read they could only assume it's conditions.

Mae had been milking over some things in her head and decided she would voice her opinions on their situation. " Guys.. First off I just want to say Sorry. I feel like I underestimated your capabilities. I fought with you in so many ways and made a few poor choices and when it came to the monsters we faced... I really didn't do anything but become a piece of bait. I don't think it's right that we spend a good chunk of the money on armor for me until I earned it. I think if anything, we should really use the money to get a magic class member in our party. Even if only briefly I'm sure we can get the support of a healer or something with some coin. We really lucked out by not getting to hurt today and so many things could have gone wrong. Just think if that church was full of live spiders instead of husks! We would have ended up like those inside..."

Bean and E held a smile on their face and listened to Mae ramble on, every once in awhile they rolled there eyes and looked at each other then back to her, passing small chuckles under their breath. E finally spoke out to stop her as it seemed she became to just vent in a depression.

" Mae! Stop. Listen, it wasn't perfect. But I'd say we all filled our roles perfectly! Surprisingly enough you are more correct then not. You were the perfect bait. Rather unintentionally or clumsily, but your role as a psuedo tank was perfect. Even if it was by my misguiding .. we somehow made it out alright. I promise I learned from it so if anything I should apologize. Most importantly I think today we found a good summary of our shortcomings and our strengths! Bean you're courage is amazing, and your reaction speed proves it. I found myself in pause more than in pursuit. You both have my respect. Not to mention... I leveled, I'm willing to bet you guys did to?"

Mae shook her head no. Bean looked at his menu. He tried his best to find anything new. " I see a couple lines of writing that weren't there before. One is a lot of words and another one is a lot of numbers."

E scratched his head. " Hmm. Well I can only assume you did by the numbers, but the other thing could be anything, skills or abilities? I wish I could just read yours for you. But seriously Mae you didn't level? How much more?"

Mae sighed. " Well you have to contribute to a fight! And I just held a damn box and did nothing in the other fight! So i only gained a little bit of experience. I'm level one 46%. It takes as much as ten times the experience for one level between then next usually. That's why those potions you have are so rare. You can gain experience through little daily tasks but it's truly trivial and after level 5 the amount of experience one would gain from those sorts of things becomes unworthy to even account for. Not even a drop of water in a storm's worth really. I do have a solution for you though Bean. You too E. Open your menu and press the level numbers. And boom next level, enjoy the benefits! That's how I got my rage skill."

E and Bean both pressed on their menus.

*Ding*

Level 1 achieved.

*Ding*

Level 1 achieved for a party member adding experience to Seer class.

E had two notifications sound off in his head. What happened next blew his mind!