Ch. 26 Beginning The Herald's Journey

We got back to the Guild Base an hour later, I decided instead of making more Animal Companions to replace Bella's sisters, I decided to use the 2 boons from Animal Companion on Bella. She was given 40 Attribute Points to boost her stats, which I put into Strength and Dexterity. She gained a bit more muscle mass as I watched her change, then she grinned at me evilly and I chuckled, giving her head scratches.

Once inside the Guild Base we walked up to the training area we had first used, where a few more of the Guild higher ups met us. Sean walked over to them and motioned me to step forward. I did and he smirked "So, Herald huh?" I nodded with a chuckle "Honestly, I did not want to have it brought out until I had more time to digest what it means. Like I've just barely begun understanding some of my abilities and other parts of them come to me as I examine my abilities while I use them."

He nodded "I believe you, I mean heck, had you not showed us your Perk it would have been a hard pill to swallow without the Dwarves confirming it." I nodded "So what we want you to do is to open a Rift for us." I raised my eyebrows and he smirked again "I know you're going to be travelling to the Dwarven world soon, but I want to see what exactly this Rift Traversal power can do. Make it something like a level 12 or so."

I nodded and pulled at my mana, it took a while to do, since this was a place that had no Rifts opening, but I managed it. What appeared before us was a level 12 Orc Dungeon that I could keep in this state as long as I wanted, even if the boss was defeated, which I told Sean. He grinned "Keep it open for a week. If we can clear the Boss out today that gives us over 6 days to harvest everything from the dungeon." I nodded and put a 7 day timer until it closes on it, which all in all took half of my mana to do.

"That is so fucking cool." Sean said as he walked up to it with one of his devices. "Can you make a bunch of Rifts appear like this?" I shrugged "I don't know what the limit is yet, all I can say is I need to meditate first before I try and open another one." He nodded so I sat down to meditate. It took a while, with my new highly boosted Mana, but I was able to get back up fully.

I pulled out my phone, thinking about the fact we were missing two members, hoping Sean hadn't assigned us any new ones yet. I called both Will and Tyrone, putting them on conference "Ode, my man how ya doing?" Tyrone asked and I chuckled "Better than I did a few days ago. Hey, so I was wondering if either of you have hit level 10 yet or found a guild to join?" They both confirmed they hadn't joined a guild yet. "If I asked my Guild Leader to give you guys a pass to join, would you want to be on my team?"

Sean, hearing this came over and asked me to put it on speaker. We all talked it out for a bit and he agreed they could be on my team, to replace the two members we had lost. They said they'd be there in a bit and I hung up. Sean put a hand on my shoulder "This is going to be a crazy couple of days. You're going to have all of the top Guilds wanting to snipe you out from under us." I chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder "Don't worry Sean, Blue is my favorite color and Dragons are my favorite mythical beast."

He laughed and we both headed over to meet up with Tyrone and Will. As I passed by my team I motioned them to follow "So normally Felicia would be in charge when we raid dungeons, since she is supposed to be the team leader. I don't want you to step down or anything inside of a dungeon, but when we are out in public with the Dwarves, I need to be perceived as being in charge. Their culture values strength more than anything, with me being a lot stronger than any of you they need to see that."

Felicia nodded "Of course. I don't mind taking charge for the raids, but when we're out in public I'll defer to you." I nodded, feeling like I was going to be stepping into a shit show.

Tyrone and Will integrated into the group nicely, with being a Tank and a Ranged DPS, it filled us out nicely. They even traded in their old stuff and were outfitted at a reduced price with level 10 gear, which Will was exceedingly excited about when he got his first assault rifle, it was a Beretta ARX160 with a silencer attached to the muzzle.

We all trained together for a while, then decided to head home and tell our families what was going on. Lynette was flabbergasted at the changes that had happened, even more so when I told her that we would be moving to the Dwarven world. I didn't know how long we would be there, but I knew we would have a place there, which was one of the deals made with the Dwarven Herald. All of us would have a home prepared for us when we went there, as was a custom among the 'ally' races of the Rifts.

According to Galrin it was customary for a Herald to spend a year among each of the races, allowing their Herald to spend a year among our own race. Then we would make contact with another race once the year was up and integrate with them. This was repeated among all the races until they had all been met, then the Heralds would go back to their own homes and delegates from each race would begin traveling back and forth freely once all the races had been introduced to each other.

It was how it had began with the Dwarves and the Elvarin. The same was done with the Aevarii, whom the Elvarin had contacted first. Now that Humans were introduced, the cycle would begin anew. Until that year was up however, none of the other 'ally' races could come to the new race's planet unless there was an emergency. I didn't argue with it, only accepted it as a custom. It was kind of cool though that they had made this a thing, I just wondered if there were other 'ally' races that would be found later down the line.

Lynette was actually kind of giddy upon learning that we would be going to the Dwarven homeworld. She wanted to meet them and see what they were really like, if they were like our books or if they were something else. I left out what had happened in the Rift when I told Lynette, which Bella thought was for the best as well, after all I didn't want her to needlessly worry. I called Claire that evening and told her what was going on and she almost dropped the phone, which made me chuckle. She spent an hour grilling me over the phone, then decided that she would stay here unless her Guild was allowed to go as well.

I still needed to meet with the IRBA to figure out the logistics of which guilds would be going and which ones wouldn't, so I told her tomorrow we would see. Lynette and I went to bed shortly after the kids were put to sleep and I slept like I hadn't slept in years.

The next morning I woke up and had breakfast with Lynette and the babies, then headed out with Bella on my heels after calling Jonas to set up a meeting with the higher ups. We got to the IRBA offices shortly after, to a bunch of press standing outside. They all tried to swarm me like a pack of rats, but were stopped by men and women in black suits. The biggest question everyone wanted an answer to was how it felt to be the Herald for the human race. I turned after a minute of trying to wade through them and spoke aloud "I will be holding a press conference later, I'll have the IRBA set it up and we will answer your questions then. Until then please allow me through."

At that they started to part, with only a few of the younger reporters and journalists trying to bar my way with questions. Bella growled at them and they quickly backed off 'Sometimes I wonder about you humans.' She said and I chuckled 'You still love me right?' she grinned at me 'Yes, you're my silly stupid human and I wouldn't trade you for the world. Hmmm, maybe for a nice bag of jerky.' I rolled my eyes and she giggled in my head.

I met up with Jonas in the lobby and saw what seemed like every Rift Breaker in Ohio standing in the lobby as well. All of the Guilds were represented, with all of their leaders at the front. Jonas walked up and shook my hand, smiling as three more men and two women came up behind him. "I'm sorry about the mess outside, but you were right in saying we needed a press conference about this. We will be setting that up for tomorrow, until then I would like you to meet some people."

He moved aside and motioned me forward, where I was met with the five unfamiliar faces. "Richard, this is Sung Jon, Head of the Japanese Branch of the IRBA." I bowed to him and he bowed back with a smile. He was a handsome man with the traditional features of the Japanese. His eyes were brown, hair was black and cut short enough that it was just long enough to part. He was about half a foot shorter than me, but he was ripped.

"This is Vanessa Chapman, Head of the England division." I smiled and shook her hand. She was an older lady, with a grey bun pulled tight to her head. She had the wrinkles of age, but had a powerful magic aura to her, which made it apparent she was a mage type. She was almost as tall as me, just an inch shorter and had a very slim figure.

"This is Tony Evicii, Head of the Middle European division." I smiled and shook his hand as well. He was a tall man, at almost 6 foot with a slim, but muscled figure as well. He had longer hair, just above his shoulders that looked like it was heavily greased daily. His magical aura wasn't nearly as strong as Vanessa's, but it was stronger than Jon's. His face wasn't truly remarkable, just like the others and I realized I couldn't really put exact details to their faces.

"This is Victoria Anderson, Head of the Australian Division." I smiled and shook her hand. She smiled back, the first of all of them to do so. She had long hair kept tight in a ponytail, it was brown and curly. She had a more muscular figure than Vanessa, her aura showing her more as a Physical Breaker than a Magical one.

"And last but not least, this is Robert Westler, Head of the American Division." I smiled at him and he chuckled, pulling me in for a hug. This man was bald as he could be, but with a build that would put an Olympic weight lifter to shame. "Well met Mr. Hundai, or should I say Herald." He said and chuckled as he let go and I could finally breathe. I chuckled too and punched his arm, breaking decorum, but also not caring.

"As you all know, this is Odellin Hundai, Herald of the human race." Jonas said and they all nodded, eyeing me up and down. I got a bit nervous with these people standing around me, some of the most powerful people in the world were here and it was definitely oppressive.

Jonas continued "We will be meeting in the conference room, discussing exactly what we will be doing with the Dwarven invitation and who should be going as well as a few other logistics that need doing." I nodded and followed them out of the lobby. I watched as each of the Guild Leaders put their fists to their chests, making it even more embarrassing for me, but I returned the gesture.

Once we were all seated I stood up "I know what most of you are thinking, because I've been thinking about it myself. I'm a level 15, heck I was a level 10 when I became the Herald. How can someone so weak be the Herald for the human race." I got a few nods from that "Well apparently the Council of the Collective of Worlds picked me not for my strength on my stat sheet, but for strength of character."

I explained in detail everything that was discussed with the Council member I had seen that day. Vanessa was the first to speak "So if you die, another will be chosen to be Herald?" I nodded "However, from what I learned from Galrin who is the Herald of the Dwarves, it could take years for another Herald to be chosen, sometimes up to a decade or two. The Council is very picky when they choose replacement Heralds, so please don't try and kill me just yet."

That got a laugh from Robert and Jon, with Victoria just smirking. Vanessa nodded "So what we need to discuss is this. I have an open invitation for me and my team to go to the Dwarven world. I also have an invitation to be able to bring with me up to 9 other teams as well, whom will all have accommodations for them in the Dwarven world when they go. Before anything else, we need to decide who will be going with me, because frankly I know nothing of the strength of your Guilds, let alone half of ours."

They all nodded and we began discussing it at length.