Chapter 5

They had traveled a week orso before coming across a road. Then another two days of travel in the direction furthest away from the hags mansion. Finally after crossing the umpteenth hill Three saw something he had never seen before, a scattering of buildings surrounded by a wall, In truth it wasn't a large village but neither was it a small one, it was large enough to house about three hundred families and the wall was about sixteen feet tall. He could even make out some men standing on ramparts near the gate.

Strem looked down on the village "Well lookie here, we finally found some civilization, and we got lucky they even have an adventurers guild!"

They had been traveling for a little over a week now, the first night beneath the naked heavens had been something magical to Three, those glittering beads of hope and dreams called stars shining down upon him. He felt showered in the favor of some older greater beings than himself, they had lain on their backs in a circle heads together watching the stars speaking of dreams, and the vast stretch of sky that belonged to the gods. The week and a half had been productive for Three at any given time when they were traveling there had always been someone at his side teaching him words and the meaning behind them, slowly but surely he had gained some mastery in it although he was still not at the level were he could speak properly he could at least somewhat understand what people were talking about.

One of the funnier things to happen in the past week was a moment when Kolstum had referred to Three as Eltoo, causing everyone to look at him in confusion, who is Eltoo they had asked. Kolstum had looked at them in surprise and made the symbol with his hand, then pointed to Three. "He is Eltoo, he did not know his name so I named him after one of the bravest warriors in the history of my family."

Three stared at him with an arched brow, [I thought you meant the number three?]

Kolstum stared at him in apprehension, "Why would I name you after a number?!"]

Then Strem interrupted, "You know what Eltoo sounds like? A pigeon! A Royal one at that!Eltoooo Eltoooo." He said imitating a birds wings with his arm, "Eltooo Eltooooo"

"My ancestor is NOT A ROYAL PIGEON!" Kolstum's face heating up, blood rushing to his face.

Fliít chuckled, "Guess he must have been a royal cock then, Eltoodilidoooooooo!" She screamed at the air imitating a cocks cry.

The rest collapsed in laughter as they saw the face that Kolstum made to that, he struggled to speak as Fliít ran circles around him shouting Eltoodilidoooooo!

In the end Three decided to keep the name Three and not become a royal cock, amusing as that would be. He smiled at the memory as they got closer to the gate, armed guards came out on top of the gate bows drawn as they warily eyed the group that approached the village, in all honestly he couldn't blame them, most them didn't resemble humans anymore. Jer stepped forward to do the talking with his hands up, "Could you let us in we wanted to head to the Adventurer's guild."

One of the Guards leaned over the gate and took a good look at Jer then swept his gaze over the rest of the group. "Some of you don't look human nor do any of you resemble a civilized race I have heard of, who says that if I let you in you won't go around harming people. We see some weird monsters and the like out here. You could be one of em' shape shifters tryna be human!"

Jer spread his arms in an attempt to appear non threatening, "We simply want to get our statuses recorded and want some information about the area, we have been traveling for a while now yet we have no idea where we are, as for the changes you see on our body are the effects of a perk, I'm sorry but its not something we can prove without a status plate, and that is why we need entry!."

The guard scratched his head sweeping his gaze from one to the next he glanced down as someone talked to him. He frowned but turned back towards them. "Would you guys agree to an armed escort to the adventurers guild until we get your status checked?"

Jer smiled at the guard, "That would be fine, thank you."

The gate opened and twelve guards stood at the entrance waving them inside, the formed a circle around the group as they headed deeper into the town. The guards kept some distance from the group to be able to utilize their weapons in time in case we tried anything. The villagers stopped and stared at the odd procession as we made our way further across the rode, kids were pointing at us and mothers walked their children further away from us, it was a hurtful sight to see for all of us. It seemed to affect the girls the most, even the usually jovial Fliít had a small frown on her face and was looking down at the dirt. Kolstum drew the most stares, even now he was easily half again the size of the largest guard.

After a few minutes of walking, we finally reached the Adventurers post, it was a mainly wooden building with a solid stone foundation, three stories tall and identifiable by a sign of a staff, a bow, a dagger and a sword. They entered the building stepping into what Three assumed was the reception area Kolstum had to really bend down to fit through the doorway, inside it was mostly a larger open space with three desks on the left side of the room with signs that he couldn't read, and another three desks on the other side of the room with even more signs he couldn't read. Of course the fact that he couldn't read at all played a large roll here.

One of the guards stepped forward and walked over to a receptionist having a brief conversation with her before returning to us, "Which one of you wants to go first, if your story checks out we will go back to our posts afterward."

Jer stepped forward taking the lead as usual. "I will." He glanced back to us giving us a nod and stepped forward.

-Maia the receptionist POV-

Maia was having another simple yet boring day at work as usual, the drone of everyday work was numbing her mind. She had been appointed to this post far out in the boondocks so nothing interesting really happened, or so she thought when a large procession suddenly entered the office, a group of guards was surrounding something and she saw what seemed to be a huge teenage boy sticking far above the guards she stared at him in awe for a moment before one of the guards approached her. She recognized the guard, it happened to be guard captain Tulo, he came around often enough, one of her regulars was his daughter, when the captain spoke she was snapped out of her thoughts.

"Maia, these people claim to have a perk that has granted them these... peculiar appearances, they wanted to have their status cards issued and to be safe we accompanied them to take a look so we could confirm their story, would you mind helping us out?"

"Sure, of course, no problem! It's my job after all." She hurriedly answered.

Captain Tulo nodded and headed back to the group, she saw him ask them something and one of the group answered. The captain walked back to the desk with a young man in tow, and the poor boy was absolutely drenched, she wondered if he had fallen into the well or something, maybe in the nearby river? She should get him a towel she realized and she ran back into the store and came back. The captain and the boy both staring at her, the boy even looked a bit hurt.

"I'm so sorry, and you're so wet! I didn't have a towel on hand so I went to grab you one. Sorry it took so long!"

The young man stared at her for a moment before he burst out laughing, "It's quite alright, thank you for your kindness, but I am afraid a towel won't solve my... problem, I'm not actually wet because of any outlying circumstances this drenched look is permanent I'm afraid."

She looked at him tilting her head sideways confused, the boy wasn't that tall although neither was he short perhaps 5,10 , short blackish hair plastered to his skull simple linen cloth shirt sticking to his body that was, "oh my," she thought, "he is quite... toned." Snapping back to attention she looked into the young man's eyes.

"Oh." She dumbly mumbled, before recovering. "Right well this is the status plate!" She said pushing a small metal tag towards him, "I just need you to put a drop of your blood on it, then I bring it to the press and boom, done! The captain also told me about the circumstances, normally the plates are private but we would need to check the plates of you and your friends if that is alright with you?"

Jer nodded, "That is perfectly fine."

She handed him the tag and a needle, he pricked his finger and let a drop of blood well up and drop onto the tag. She took the tag from him brought it to the press, put the tag in pulled the lever, the usual crackling of whatever magical energy the device ran on and she pulled it out and headed back to the desk and put down the tag. She looked over the tag together with the young man and the captain

Name : Jer Summalfren

Age : 17

Lvl : 1

Occupation : N/a

Class : N/a

{Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 64}

{Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 84}

{Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 66}

{Skill : Iron Skin : Skill level 69}

{Perk : Mana-sustenance}

{Perk : Battered Body }

{Inheritant-Core - ?????}

She stared at the tag, eyes wide. The captain looked just as troubled as her. She couldn't help but ask, "What happened to you? How did you get these skills and perks?!"

Jer looked at her pinching his nose, brows drawn down over his grey eyes "Lets just say that we did not get these skills, perks or bodies of our own volition, its a story we would currently prefer to keep to ourselves."

The captain looked at tag flexing and unflexing his hand, "Do your compatriots have similar skills and perks?"

Jer glanced at the stern man, "Yes sir."

"Then I am afraid I cannot just let this go, the things that would have to be done to you and your friends for this to happen is not something I can turn away from! By our laws and my very sense of justice something has to be done! My kingdom sure as hell wouldn't stand for whoever did this to get away unchallenged!" The man said clenching his jaw.

"I understand the need for you to do your job sir, but we ourselves do not know the group or their names, we could only tell you a single persons features. I speculate their power to be well beyond average, we do not know where they come from or which group they belong to, they might be royally sponsored for all we know, making ourselves widely known this early would leave us defenseless should they come looking." Jer answered.

"The guard would protect you!" The captain answered with a voice full of resolution.

Jer clenched his jaw staring down the captain. "This is our own problem, we will have our own justice. You have no proof to act upon nor will I give you any. This is our war to fight captain and I intend to fight it well." He softened his features, "Regardless the information we have would do you no good if they are even remotely as dangerous as I expect them to be you will find nothing based upon what has already happened."

The captain begrudgingly nodded his head, and made his way back to the group, he barked an order to his guards and they headed back out the door. The man was clearly frustrated but Jer knew he had no ground to stand on. Maia was still sitting there trying to process what she had just heard and seen, before she could worry about it more her thoughts were once more interrupted. "Madam, is it alright if my friends get their tags as well?"

"What?" She asked blinking, "Uh, yes of course!"