Some "small" adversaries

The group continued walking towards the nearby kingdom of Illumus with it still being late at night.

Sir Williams-"(yawn) why couldn't we have made shelter somewhere"

Adam-"we tried Sir but that went very poorly"

Sir Williams-"yes, your right it did"

Julius-"he's back to being nice again"

Joe-"Williams could just not end up paying for the revival might as well not keep him upset with us"

Julius-"so are you sure you're quitting being an adventurer"

Joe-"yeah this is far too stressful it seemed like it would be cool at first but the constant risk of excruciating death wore me down"

Julius-"yeah I could understand"

Joe-"I'm surprised you were able to make it out alive"

Julius-"hmph that wyvern stood no chance against my special moves"

Joe-"yeah I'm sure it was shivering in fear of the pebble it was looking at"

Julius with a blank stare-"don't call me pebble"

Joe-"uhhh ok..."

Julius-"hey Adam are we going to get there soon?"

Adam-"yes it's just a few minutes away now"

Julius-"nice I'm glad we didn't run into anymore trouble after we exited the forest"

A tall cloaked individual walks towards them from the direction they are heading. The group walks past the cloaked figure until when the pass them the cloak figure stops walking. The cloaked figure jumps up taking off the cloak revealing three goblins that were sitting on each other's shoulders. The goblins hop off and draw their daggers.

Goblin 1-"you better hand over all your money right now"

Goblin 2-"you'll do it real quick if you know whats good for ya"

Goblin 3-"you don't want to mess with us we'll tear you-"

Elise-"fire skill: fire ball"

A large fireball created and blasted at the goblins causing a big explosion. This leaves a large crater in the ground with all three goblins collapsed. One of the goblins is in the yamcha death pose.

Goblin 1-"I can't feel my legs"

Goblin 2-"I can't feel my arms"

Goblin 3-"I can feel everything and it hurts"

Julius-"are they going to be ok, should I heal them or something?"

Elise-"I say we leave them"

Julius-"that's a bit harsh"

Adam-"they were trying to rob us"

Sir Williams-"these foul creatures tried to rob us I say you should finish them off"

Julius-"I think that's a bit excessive sir, it's not like we were in any danger"

Joe-"let's just hand them over to the kingdom's guards"

Sir Williams-"fine then round them up"

Goblin 1-"please spare us"

Goblin 2-"we we won't rob anyone ever again"

Goblin 3-"we'll even be your servants please"

Julius-"we just said we weren't going to kill you, we were just handing you over to the kingdom guards"

Goblin 1-"no anything but that"

Goblin 2-"we'll do anything you want"

Goblin 3-"just put us out of our misery"

Julius-"I feel like they are overreacting"

Adam-"they are just trying to trick us into letting them go"

Elise-"don't trust anything they say"

Adam-"nature skill: binding vines"

Several vines appear and wrap around the three goblins along with covering the goblins mouths.

Goblin 1-"mph (muffled x1)

Goblin 2-"mmmph (muffled x2)"

Goblin 3-"MMMPPHHH!!! (muffled x3)"

Adam places the three goblins on their coat from earlier and drags the coat long the ground bringing the goblins with them.

A minute of waking later the group arrives at the kingdom walls. There are four guards standing at the gate.

Guards-"halt who goes there"

Julius in his head-"I can't believe they actually said that maybe I'm actually in a video game and these guys are npcs"

Sir Williams-"I am Sir Williams the third of house Williams, I sent message one week ago of my return from a town across from the forest"

Guard 1-"and those beside you"

Sir Williams-"the adventurers I hired to assist me on my travels"

Guard 2-"what about the three goblins the elf is pulling around on the ground"

Sir Williams-"thieves who attempted to rob us forcefully on the way here, go ahead and take them away"

Guard 1-"is there any mention of a Sir Williams the third coming to the kingdom today"

Guard 3 looks in a list.

Guard 3-"yes, a thy Sir Williams the third was set to arrive between tonight and tomorrow morning along with a small adventuring party that he planned to hire"

Guard 1 points at the goblins and signals another guard to come over and grab them.

Guard 1-"take those thieves to the dungeon for their crimes against a nobleman and his adventuring party"

Guard 4-"yes sir"

Guard 1-"now there is just one more thing to ask"

Sir Williams-"and what is it?"

Guard 1-"why is that golem carrying two dead bodies"

Sir Williams-"aw them, they were adventurers in our group that got killed in battle with a monster in the forest, we are planning to revive them in the kingdom, the reviver is still here correct?"

Guard 1-"yes, one of the holy revivers is still in the kingdom and isn't set to leave until a week from today"

Sir Williams-"good can we pass now"

Guard 1-"you may proceed"

The group walks in through the metal gate after it was raised with the three goblins being taken away by Guard 4 and brought to the kingdom's dungeon for their crimes.

Goblin 1-"MMMMMPHHH"

Goblin 2-"MMMMMPPHHH"

Goblin 3-"Mph(removed the vine from their mouth) it's just a big misunderstanding you didn't even get our side of the story, wait noooooo-"

The goblins are drug out into the distance towards the inner part of the kingdom.

Sir Williams-"so, (coughs) here is your payment"

Sir Williams hands Julius, Adam, Elise, and Joe their 10 gold pieces each.

Sir Williams-"and I'll be on my way, I don't need you to help unpack my things since well, they are all gone now"

Sir Williams turns to leave.

Adam-"ahem (clears throat)"

Sir Williams stops and looks back at the group seeing them all looking towards him with blank faces even Julius's rock golem went from a smiley face to a blank stare of -_-.

Sir Williams-"fine let's head to the reviver, but first I have to get the money at my estate"

The group starts walking towards Sir William's house.

Julius-"it's a good thing we caught the reviver before they left a week from now"

Adam-"it's no different if it was a week from now or a year"

Julius-"why is that"

Adam-"it takes three days for a soul to be reincarnated so you have to cast the revival spell within that time"

Julius in his head-"so everyone gets reincarnated and not just me, well I'm guessing nobody gets reincarnated as an atom"

Julius-"so only holy born are able to cast revival magic, does anybody else besides holy borns even have holy magic"

Adam-"other people if they spend their entire lives in devotion and follow strict codes for decades they can unlock holy magic but so far nobody who has unlocked holy magic though devotion has received the revive skill so it seems to be restricted to holy borns"

Julius-"I guess it makes sense that getting somebody revived is so expensive if there are probably only several people who can do it in the whole world"

Adam-"exactly, however sometimes there are holy born people throughout history who revive people for free but we weren't so lucky"

The group got to another gate that was deeper inside the kingdom.

Julius-"what does this gate go to?"

Sir Williams-"it's to where nobility like myself live"

Gate keeper-"hello Sir Williams it's wonderful to have you back with us, who are you accompanied with"

Sir Williams-"an adventuring group who I need to assist with something but I need to head back to my home first"

Gate keeper-"and what about the bodies that the golem is carrying"

Sir Williams-"they need money to revive them, that is the thing I need to assist them with"

Gate keeper-"I see well good day to you sir I'll go ahead and open up the gate for you all"

Julius-"he seems nice sir, what is his name"

Sir Williams-"I have no idea"

The group arrives at Sir William's home which is a rather large mansion in the upper section of the community, Sir Williams walks up to his front door and knocks.

???-"who is it"

Sir Williams-"it's me go ahead and open the door"

Servant-"ah Sir Williams it's wonderful to have you back with us again"

Julius in his head-"he said the same thing as the last guy, is this like a script or something"

Sir Williams-"hello is my family home right now by chance"

Servant-"yes sir your wife is asleep upstairs while your daughter is still working at the church"

Sir Williams-"good well I'll head up to bed now"

Adam-"Sir Williams"

Sir Williams-"I haven't forgotten about that, servant I promised them I would pay for those two to get revived so if you may please grab them the one thousand gold pieces"

Julius-"it takes a thousand gold pieces"

Adam-"yes in this kingdom the price of revival is five hundred gold pieces per person"

Sir Williams-"I'm heading to bed, my servant will grab you your gold pieces you wait here"

Sir Williams and the servant head inside closing the door behind them.

Julius-"I don't understand gold pieces aren't there people who can make gold"

Adam-"a golden coin is worth a lot more than it's weight in gold"

Julius-"why is that"

Adam grabs a gold coin and shows it to Julius, it has a face on one side and a pattern of lines on the other.

Adam-"the face is of the ruler of the kingdom the particular coin is made in, the pattern on the back is what really matters"

Julius-"what's special about the pattern"

Adam-"for whatever reason no skill is able to replicate this specific pattern and the fine detail makes it very difficult to hand carve as well"

Julius-"that's fascinating"

Julius in his head-"so it's similar to how dollar bills in my world have a bunch of details on them that makes counterfeits exponentially harder to make"

Servant-"here you all are, your gold pieces to revive your friends there"

Adam-"thank you sir"

Julius-"is Sir Williams certain he doesn't want to accompany us"

Servant-"the master is very exhausted he went straight to bed and fell right asleep, now have safe travels"

Joe-"finally almost over"

Elise-"it's about time to move on from this quest it dragged on for too long"

As the group leaves Sir Williams's house they notice the neighbors are watching them closer than when they walked in. The group almost feels like they are being followed. They eventually get back to the gate.

Gate keeper-"where is Sir Williams?"

Adam-"he decided to stay back at his home"

Gate keeper-"I see"

The gate keeper opens up the gate again making direct eye contact as the gate raises very slowly.

Elise-"listen dude it doesn't matter how suspicious you are of people but raising the gate that slow is just pathetic"

Gate keeper-"ok good point"

The gate raises at its normal pace. The gate keeper continues watching the group as they go past and head to the church for the revival.

Julius-"the tone definitely shifted after we weren't next to Sir Williams anymore"

Adam-"yes, maybe we should be careful where we go from now on"

Joe-"we finally got to the safety of a kingdom but right now this place almost feels creepier than the forest"

Adam-"agreed, lets hope it's not even more dangerous too"

End of Chapter 8.