Chapter 10

PANG

TANG

DING

"Wake up, you sorry bunch!"

I was jolted awake by the old man banging a bunch of pots together. Before I could protest, everyone was hurried out the door and lined up as we were briefed on our duties for the day.

"Noah and Olivia will stick with me. You other two will go do some land clearing. Any questions?" The old man spoke quickly, waving me and Lily off as he led Olivia and Noah away. I just smiled, glancing at my inventory space, then over at Lily, who I waved over to follow me to the land we were supposed to clear.

"Here." Turning to Lily, I wasted no time taking out the corpses of some goblins I had killed during the mission last night, surprising her. I even handed her the EXP gems and had her use them, which she did, raising her skill level to 3. This allowed her to control a total of 10 skeletons, much to my joy, as I then had her send them to begin clearing the land.

"Now what?" Lily asked as we sat back and watched the skeletons, all armed with tools from the shed, begin clearing the land at a blinding pace. However, I wasn't focused on that; instead, I was looking through the two remaining missions.

One mission was to clear a graveyard of two dozen shambling corpses, a quest that would net me 250 gold and two armor tokens. The other mission was similar, but instead of being in a graveyard, it was in a dead forest and would earn me four petty EXP gems and 300 gold.

Both quests seemed perfect to take on with Lily, so after explaining the details to her, I was surprised by her next words.

"Can I go alone?" Lily asked, sounding confident, which left me severely confused. I quickly tried to talk her out of going alone, citing that there was no reason for such recklessness. However, I swallowed my words when she pointed out her staff's affixes and said she would take half the skeletons with her.

"Duke don't worry, we can't all keep going on quests Right now they are easy and we can't all waste our time on a quest when just 1 of us is enough, don't think I didn't notice you disappearing twice last night" Her last words left me kinda speechless but with little else to argue I quickly began the first quest for armor tokens.

"Bye du—" Before she could finish her goodbyes, Lily disappeared, leaving me alone with a handful of skeletons that continued to clear the land even in their master's absence. Deciding to join them, I began felling trees at an accelerated rate, thanks to my upgraded axe skill.

'Oh yeah, the hero summonings.' Suddenly, I remembered that I still had two hero summonings sitting in my inventory. I immediately decided to use them, realizing that delaying any longer would be pointless.

- - - - -

"Dad slow down!" Screaming this I stumbled forward my mind on high alert as in my trembling hands I held a bolt action rifle which I occasionally pointed towards the pitch black darkness that wasn't illuminated by the light of my fathers torch who marched ahead clearing a path through the jungle with his large machete.

"We cant son, if we don't leave this area soon we wont be able to escape the blaze" The booming voice of my father echoed as he continued his swift march reminding me of the reason we are running in the first place.

'Of all places, why the hell did I have to crash the plane in the most flammable spot on Earth?' Yep, I'm a pilot, and I crashed in the middle of this jungle while my dad and I were returning from another conservation mission. The power suddenly cut out, the controls locked, and the plane—now a heap of metal—went up in flames, miraculously we escaped unscathed. Now, it's on the brink of igniting a massive wildfire that could overtake us if we don't move fast enough.

Sadly it did

- - - - -

As the light faded, a man of clear Hispanic descent appeared before me. He had a thick, scraggly beard that bordered on unkempt, and deep black eyes that regarded me with a sharp but respectful stare.

Behind the robust man stood a young adult, likely in his 20s, who bore a strong resemblance to the older man. However, unlike the elder's mature and sturdy physique, the younger man was leaner, with a slight stubble on his face. His slicked-back hair gave him the charm of an old-school biker.

"We greet you, Guildmaster," they both said in unison, prompting a nod from me. Unlike with Noah and Lily, I immediately asked for their classes and abilities, which they both shared happily.

"I'm Alejandro Castillo, a druid. My one ability is [Nature Communion: Lv1]. It allows me to communicate with plants and have them assist me in combat. Though right now, I can at best summon a vine or two to restrain an enemy," the older man spoke first, his voice confident and clear. He then stepped aside, allowing the young man—whom I quickly figured out was his son based on the shared last name—to introduce himself.

"I am Miguel Castillo, a priest. My current ability is [Weak Heal: Lv1], which heals someone for 2.5% of their health every 10 seconds it is in use."

Their classes and abilities made me nod in approval. I stood up, gave them a brief overview of the current situation, and told them to follow me. The old man had mentioned that if I found anyone willing to work with him, I should bring them to him. With that in mind, I led my two new allies around in search of the old man, whom I soon found standing in front of the cow pens. A ragged Noah and Olivia were standing before him, looking worse than they did after our battle with the Hobgoblin.

"Wow what happend to you guys?" Turning towards and looking over at the cow pen both Noah and olivia looked at me like I was retarded, but ignoring this I walked over to old man dew who had been staring at Alejandro ever since we came over

"Alejandro it's been a while what brings you here? trying to show your son the place you used to work?" Dews words surprised me as I looked over to Alejandro who quickly walked over and gave the old man a firm handshake.

"No, I came to see if I could get my old job back and whether or not my son could join me. Also, what happened to the farm? It looks like someone came through and destroyed half of it," Alejandro said, his voice carrying a mix of happiness and surprise at seeing the old man, along with concern as he surveyed the farm, which seemed to be on its last legs.

"I'd be glad to hire an old hand like you. And if your son is even half as hardworking, I'd gladly accept him too. However, for tonight, you'll have to sleep on the couches. I only ordered beds for the four of them, which should be here in about..." The old man's voice was lively as he patted Alejandro on the back like an old friend.

"That's fine. I've been sleeping on the hard ground for the last 20 years—a couch will feel like heaven at this point." With that, both Dew and Alejandro laughed, but seeing their conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon, I decided to drag the group away to help me clear the land with the skeletons. Well, it was mainly our new member, Miguel, who helped, while Noah and Olivia quietly relaxed on a nearby rock.

"I'M BACK, BABY!"

A few minutes later, the steady sounds of our work were suddenly interrupted by a shout from Lily, who appeared in a burst of light, followed by ten undead—five skeletons and five zombies.

"Oh, you're back?" I stopped my work and went to greet Lily, with everyone else following behind me.

"Yeah, the mission turned out to be really easy. 'Shambling corpses' was an overestimation—they tripped over their own legs more often than not. Luckily, under my command, they seem to gain much better limb coordination." With that, she immediately ordered the zombies to dance, and they proceeded to perform the choreography for 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson.

"Damn, zombies can dance better than me," Miguel said, sounding comically sad as the zombies took two steps forward, hands outstretched, while releasing wheeze-like breaths that created a weird but catchy beat.

"You can stop now." With that order, the zombies halted and returned to their sluggish state, standing quietly to the side. I took out all the tokens in my inventory and began passing them out, giving both weapon tokens to Noah and one armor token each to Lily and Olivia, who wasted no time using them.

"You're a priest, so you won't need anything too soon. For now, equipment will be funneled to the main attack team," I explained to Miguel, who nodded in agreement as we watched everyone receive their gear.

Noah received a common-ranked rapier with a full silver body and an uncommon-ranked arming sword, which felt quite a bit heavier than the rapier. He decided to wield the arming sword with his dominant right hand, mentioning that he would figure out the best way to use both weapons together.

Lily received a thick gray coat of common rank that provided an affix lowering mana costs. She seemed happy, citing the fact that she wouldn't have to burn clothes stained with blood during missions.

Lastly, Olivia got a single glove of uncommon rank named [Edward's Shooting Guard]. Its two affixes improved hand steadiness and slightly increased accuracy, making it not half bad for the newbie archer.

"Lily, go hide your undead. The day is nearly over, and the last thing Old Man Dew needs is a heart attack. The rest of you, help me put up the tools. We'll head back to see how Old Man Dew and Alejandro are doing." With that order, we quickly cleaned up while Lily hid her undead among the shrubbery. We then gathered and went to find the two older men, who we found sitting on the porch, drinking from an old bottle of alcohol.

"Ah forgot about you guys, hope you didn't run yourselves to ragged now" Old man due said putting down his glass as he spoke causing many of us to sigh as they all found a spot on the porch to relax some taking out their phones while Miguel went and started drinking with Dew and his father who both happily poured the young man a drink.

"Oh, right before I went to bed, I found out that if I paid a little extra, I could get them shipped overnight. So, expect them to arrive in the next hour or two, along with your beds and frames," the old man said, taking another large gulp of his drink. He seemed to be in a good mood, but not wanting to bother him, I quickly left him alone and walked inside, deciding to do the last mission for this week alone. But right before that, I texted Lily, who sent back an "okay."

Nothing notable happened on the mission, except for one zombie whose head I kept missing, causing me to cut off all its limbs instead. With that, I earned 300 more gold and EXP gems, which I had our new members use to level up their skills from 1 to 2.

= = = = =

[Gold: 2340]