WHEN THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH TABLE EDITOR?! No honestly! I wanted to released this chappy yesterday, but table simply have turned me into a mad man! Simply – I couldn’t load already prepared template and I needed to write em once again (I got a note every time I wanted to load from the file – Invalid bbcode) – anyone had similar problems?

Edited by: KenChi死

When Zari was sitting in the library acquiring new knowledge, the dwarven blacksmith came back to the Blackwood mansion. Or… he actually never left, just “hid” himself in one of many guest rooms, and when the boy left, he reentered the room.

“Tsh, why did you force me to hide from some kid like a thieving scum... My pride was just damaged.” “Oh, it’s because I have something in possession. And I would love, for now, to not show it to the kid.” “You don’t trust him enough, to show him some trinket, yet you asked me to forge him an armor… you are either crazy, or you have some divine item in your treasury” “No, not divine… just convenient. Have you heard about Crystals of Laparas?”

The dwarf became silent for a second

“You don’t have one… do you?” “Their ability to record the events happening around is extremely useful. I am using it mostly to preserve the meetings of the grand families. Within that crystal there is almost every meeting that took place in the past 4 years. Now you know, why I don’t want mages around it. On the other hand, I have a friend on the councils. They were nice enough to record the duel of Zariel. I want you to see it so you…” “Could make armor more fitting his battle style. Hm. Will do. I would rather see it with my own eyes, but…”

Leon snapped his fingers and right after that two servants came in holding big blue crystal, shaped in something between of an egg and ball.

“Let’s see what this little annoying brat is capable…”

And then he watched. After projection ended dwarf was thinking silently for couple of minutes. Leon was not that patient.

“aaand what?” “He is using fire quite aggressively… fire resistant materials… but what confuses me is that ability of his to turn into that… thing… the hell was that?” “…Druids sometimes have… those kind of skills.” “Gwah. That’s bad… There simply is not material durable yet elastic enough to be used in both states. He will be forced to chose if he prefer to fight with that beast form or in armor… Does he uses something in close combat? Or even ranged weapons?” “Does it really matters?” “Oh, of course not! I am asking you those questions just because I have waaaay to much time. Listen brat.” “… I am over 40 years old…” “And I am over 300 yet everyone in my family calls me that for I am the youngest. When you use the bow you are using mostly muscles on your back. If you use swords you need some to have weaker joints binder within your gauntlets, for pole weapons you need to have your shoulder left without burdens… any more questions?” “I am afraid I am unable to give you those informations…” “Fine. I will send a few of my boys after him. Aaand thanks to this little play we will both check him, and teach him some respect to dwarfs and their beards!” “J…just don’t overdo it.” “BWAHA! Did you just ask a dwarf to do something half-assed? Oh-ho, I will enjoy that.”

They were talking for a few more hours, until late evening. Because of courtesy, Leon Blackwood asked the dwarf to stay on for supper.

And, well… you know what they say about dwarfs feasting… it is all true.

I was walking back to the guild. The information I got was overwhelming. Unfortunately within those few hours it was impossible to fully finish one book. Instead I jumped from one book to another devouring parts of the knowledge I thought may be useful.

But it was still not enough! So many races, so many gods, so many… monsters. Very quickly I discovered, that what I took was called volume 7 out of 24. Insane. How many of those bastards are roaming this world?

Yet this is good information for me. The more monsters live somewhere over there… the more skills I would be able to get.

I have opened the door to the guild. Said my greetings to some guyz. Walked further into inn section.

“ZAAAARIIII” guess who was yelling like that “OVEEEREEE HEEEEREE!” “Shut up you stupid midget! Why the hell are you yelling like that? He is not deaf! You are screaming as if he is staying at the end of the town during a hailstorm at the end of the days.”

Marika ignored the greenskinned orc. I walked to their table. Loki was sitting there too.

“We have just talked with Loki, members of our teams are dealing with some kind of personal business and they are not here… but we are running low on coins…” She said with an apologetic smile. “You want to borrow some from me?” “HELL NO! We want to earn it the right way… but somehow we became too lazy to do any serious quests… so we want to ask if you wish to come along with us to a small C-D rank dungeon? With this we would earn some coins, rank you up a little bit faster, and we could understand better our fighting styles for the future!” “…Why would you do so? I mean, you can easily do it by yourself… don’t get me wrong, I will gladly accept… it’s just…” “You are a healer, right?” “Um, well… you are generalizing… but yes, I can do that too…” “Low rank healer means that he can’t take part in harder quests. By ranking you up we ensure the possibility, that we would have a healer in the party! And as this would be mostly easy we could get along with our fighting formation! Like killing three birds with one stone!”

So, you want to end my boredom? Let me see new places? Taste new monsters… I mean dishes?

“I’m in.” “Great! We have already started preparing for the adventure! We had most of the equipments, maps and so on. We just need to get some food supplies, but we will get em’ tomorrow morning so it would be as fresh as possible…. Oh, that’s right! This will be your first dungeon raid, right?”

… well… not exactly… I was already in one… but let’s just say I was kick in it… literally…

I thought and looked at Sebastian that was still sitting over my shoulder. In that moment he looked away in an “innocent” manner.

Yeah, sure. Sebastian-kun… everything and everyone is more innocent than you

“… be prepared to spend a few days within the dungeon, we always take twice as much food ration then we would normally be needed… you never know if some corridor would collapse or if you would lose the map… but as this dungeon is easy we could actually just slaughter our way forward, kill the boss, and use those teleportation glyphs…”

In that moment I felt someone behind me putting his hands on my shoulders. Please, don’t be master Jericho, please don’t be master Jericho, please don’t be mas…

“Eh, so you are taking the boy to the dungeon? For few days? Poor little Zari will need to rest hard for the whole day to have strength for the journey… it would means that he would not train with me today... nor for next three-four days?”

Fuck. It is master Jericho.

“Oh hello m…” “And you left so early in the morning… and you were out of the guild god only knows where… as if you were avoiding me?” “That’s simply not the case! You know I can heal, and there was a very ill woman that…” “Oh, I know where you were and what you were doing…” the grip over my shoulders became stronger. Did I hear bones snapping? Nah, it was probably just my imagination “… you were getting along with nobility… it must be a very nice feeling to be treated so nicely by people of such status and prestige! For what can we offer to you!? We are but a bunch of dirty, smelling brawlers… are we?”

I know he is saying all of these things just to mock me… but he starts getting on my nerves.

“Stop it. No, seriously. Just stop. If you know why I went there you also must know where I went right after. I needed to do it for the purpose of information… And it is not that I am skipping training on purpose. For those next few days I will train in the dungeon. Up until now I was fighting on my own and I have completely no sense in acting as a part member. This is an important thing to learn too.” “Pft. This time I will let it go, brat...” He patted me on the backs “… when you would came back from this quest, you will have one day off. Then you will have a training session. With no excuses.” “Sir, yes, sir.” “Good attitude. And now… these words are to the rest of you…” Marika, Mrogul and Loki started to tremble a little “… I want this kid back. No matter the circumstances, You. Will. Get. Him. Back. Understood?” “Yes sir! If he would fall in battle, we would bring his carcass back to the guild!”

… Really Mrogul? Really?

“That’s the attitude! Now… enjoy you adventure kid…”

And he left me. Just like that.

At the very next day I woke up for about an hour before the sunrise… pretty much like I always do.

I got dressed, washed my face, walk down to the inn section (someone is always there. Just like behind the counter), I ate a small breakfast and once again I checked my equipment I packed a new bag pack. The old one got damaged some time ago when I was hunted by inquisition.

The equipment was but a small piece of blanket, some small emergency food ration, which was mostly meat balls extremely rich in fat, covered in dried herbs to prevent it from roting (small caloric bombs. Not tasty at all. Their only purpose is to keep you alive if something bad would happen), and a few potions quickly cooked in my portable, small pot.

That’s all. I don’t need a tinderbox for I can simply create fire on my own.

The main food ration will be carried my Morgul. Marika is bound to prepare something (talismans or something) to keep monsters away from the camp.

I was told to carry a few herbs and potions, and Loki will not carry a single thing. He is a rogue type so his job will be mostly to scout areas around us, so he will need to be as mobile as possible.

That’s all. Now, I am waiting for the rest of my team.

I didn’t need to wait that long. Very quickly Marika came down from her room, told me that Morgul went earlier and soon he will be back with food so we are now waiting just for Loki.

They also came pretty quickly.

“So! Team! We are about to departure!”

You have joined the partyMembers:Marika Swiftwalker [Enchantress] [Party Leader]

Mrogul Irontusk [Brawler]

Loki the Nameless [Rogue/Scout/Assassin]

Zariel [Dark Hierophant]Each time you would perform a kill you would be rewarded with 40% of base exp amount

Each time other member of your party would perform a kill you will be rewarded with 20% of base exp

There is a quest assigned to the party: [Dungeon purification]Every once in a while the population of monster within a dungeon is reaches its peak,

Because the dungeon can't feed every monsters living inside of it, some monster would leave the dungeon and sooner or later would attack habituated areas

As adventurers, you are ordered to reduce the number of beasts.Rewards: Exp and gold you gather would depend on number of monster you will kill

Ho-ho. It means only one thing to me… something will explode