Whelp, I was right. The meeting got real stupid real fast. So stupid in fact, that Will straight up launched himself out of a cannon to avoid such stupidity. I don’t know why he wanted to leave though, watching the stupidity go down is the most hilarious thing ever. I guess with Will abruptly leaving the meeting is over. However that doesn’t mean the stupidity is.

“Anybody else want to get shot out the cannon?” Ryder eagerly asks all of us.

“Oh fuck yeah, shoot me!” Nerva exclaims climbing her way into the cannon.

“Where to ma’am?” Ryder ask like he’s a taxi driver.

“I don’t care where. Just shoot me so that I fly for as long as possible!” Nerva says excitedly.

“Wait! Nerva I wanna go too, it sounds fun!” Nazuko states.

“Come on, bitch, let’s go!” Nerva says even more excited than before.

“Yay!” Nazuko celebrates jumping into the cannon as well.

Now both of their little heads are sticking out of the cannon like they’re sharing a sleeping bag.

“Hmm I never shot two people out of a cannon before. Well there’s a first time for everything!” Ryder reveals.

“W-wait isn’t that dangerous?” Adam asks Ryder.

“Nah I shoot people out of cannons all the time. Besides they’re small so it’s like shooting one person, I think.” Ryder justifies.

“Ryder, that logic makes little to no sense.” Azura admonishes.

“Adam chill the fuck out we’re gonna be fine. Warren you give permission right?” Nerva inquires.

Warren has been looking at the table during the whole conversation, probably in deep thought. He looks up to take in what’s happening.

“Sure go ahead. Just be back by nightfall.” Warren replies disinterestedly.

“Yay!” Nerva and Nazuko cheer in unison.

“OK BLAST AWAY!” Ryder yells.

His cannon goes off, making Nazuko and Nerva fly in the same direction Will went. I think Ryder aimed higher than when he shot Will because they look to be higher in the air.

“WEEEEEEEEE!” Nerva and Nazuko cheer as they fly off in the distance.

“Ah youth. I remember when I got shot out of a cannon when I was that age.” Luther fondly remembers.

The more I listen to Luther the more I want to follow him everywhere. He sounds like he’s had the strangest life. Someone should write a book on him. Maybe I will. It’ll be the official Luther biography. I shall call it Luther: The Ultimate Gentleman Volume 1. The volume 1 is there because Luther deserves a trilogy.

“Elisa! You and I shall make preparations for the upcoming journey. I suggest you all rest. You will all need it for the upcoming battle!” Luther proposes.

“Very well.” Elisa concurs.

After everything that’s happened, I could definitely go for a nap. Watching stupidity is hilarious but tiring. I think everyone else feels the same way as we all head out the tower together. We say our goodbyes to Manchester and Scylla before heading to the airship. I wasn’t paying much attention but I think Remi told Scylla something about punishing Will. I also overheard Manchester tell Adam to get better pants or otherwise he’s going to yank them off again. Both things I heard could be interpreted as sexual which is just weird to think about. I need to think about something else now.

“Hey Warren, so do we need to pick up any supplies?” I ask in order to think about important non-sexual things.

“That depends. Adam, how many healing potions have we used up so far?” Warren questions looking at Adam.

Adam rummages through his bag to count our inventory of healing potions.

“Quincy and I used up four potions. We have 3 left” Adam informs.

“I’ll pick up some more later. I have to pick up some other things anyway.” Warren tells us.

“What do you have to pick up?” Adam asks.

“Knives. Bartrem is a war veteran, no doubt he was trained to resist normal interrogation techniques. It’s going to be tough to make a man like that talk. I’m gonna have to take drastic measures.”

“W-wait are you talking about torture again? No, no more torture. Warren, we can make him cooperate another way.” Adam argues.

“Yeah we can just set him on fire. That’s bound to work. Or I could keep punching him until he talks” I suggest.

“No! That’s also torture. Warren I-I’m worried about you. You’re...becoming quite violent and scary looking. I’m afraid you’re going down a dark path. Look, can we find another way? Promise me you won’t torture Bartrem.” Adam orders.

Warren stops walking making Adam and I stop in our tracks right in front of the airship. The others haven’t been paying attention to us as they converse amongst themselves. Soon it’s just the three of us outside the airship.

“...Ok Adam. I won’t torture Bartrem. Don’t worry about me ok? I’m perfectly fine so just relax.” Warren assures.

Adam looks relieved upon hearing that.

“Oh thank goodness. I’m glad you listened Warren. Now I’m going to go enjoy my room since Nerva won’t be in it. I can see it now, a peaceful nap. Then later today I will go get new pants because that muscular pants man scares me.” Adam declares as he makes his way into the airship.

“You know what? I’ve changed my mind, I’m gonna go get the supplies while the sun’s still out so I’ll see you later Adam. Also I’ll get you your pants. Quincy, you want to come with?” Warren asks me.

I am tired after watching all of that stupidity earlier and really do want to take a nap but I want to ask Warren some questions.

“Yeah alright I’m down. See you later Adam.” I say as Warren and I walk away from the airship.

“Oh wow thanks Warren. I’ll see you guys later.” Adam says fully entering the airship.

“You lied to Adam just now didn’t you?” I question.

“Yeah. Adam means well but he’s naive. Bartrem won’t talk unless it's through force. That’s why I’m gonna knock out Adam before I begin interrogating. I can’t have him making a fuss.” Warren discloses

I follow him and say,

“Knowing Adam he’ll probably get knocked out during the fight anyway so I wouldn’t worry too much about him. Does Nerva know your plan?”

“She doesn’t. I’ll tell her later. I already know she won’t have a problem with it.” Warren replies.

We walk for a few minutes without saying anything. I’m ok with this because that meeting involved a lot of screaming and a cannon being shot so I enjoy the silence. But Warren decides to break it as we enter the village.

“So do you think the same as Adam? That I’m going down a dark path?” Warren inquires.

“Nah, I don’t think so. You’re doing what’s necessary in order to save your friends. Sure you’ve killed people but they were all criminal scumbags. The world is better off without them. You’re good in my book.” I tell him.

Warren’s facial expression doesn’t change. It still looks as serious as ever. I have no idea if what I said made him feel better or worse. He is tough to read. I would ask but Warren doesn’t seem like the type of person who talks about their emotions. Which is fine, because then that would make him like Adam. We eventually make our way to the front of a shop and I look up to read the sign. It says “Bane’s Armory”. Warren and I enter to see there are a bunch of different types of swords, hammers, and bows on all four walls. There are also mannequins displaying different types of body armor throughout the shop. I look at the main counter and see a somewhat skinny guy with a bald head and a short black beard wearing thick black glasses. Definitely not the image I had of the guy who owns this place. He’s polishing a sword with a rag.

“Welcome to Bane’s, where I help you bring the pain. What can I do for you gentlemen?” he asks while still keeping his eyes on the sword he’s polishing.

“I’m here for knives.” Warren states.

“Knives huh? Anything specific? Knives, like all weapons, come in a range of sizes.” Bane explains.

“I’m looking for a set of knives. I want them to vary in size.”

“Ok then you want a knife combat set.” Bane replies reaching under the counter and taking out a rolled up rag. He unfurls it revealing five knives laid out. They increase in size going from left to right. The one on the far right looks like a bowie knife while the one on the far left looks like a butterfly knife. How in the world is a butterfly looking knife made for combat? I would ask but that would make me sound stupid so I won’t.

“This good enough for you?” Bane asks.

“Yeah. These will work just fine. I’ll take them.” Warren answers.

“Mind me asking what you’re gonna use these for?”

“I’m going on a hunting trip”

“Ah I see. Where at?”

“Infinite Morass Swamp”

“Heh, then you will need these knives. That’ll be 200 gold”

Warren takes out one of the bags of money we didn’t give to the informant and gives the guy his money. Warren takes the bundle and instead of putting the knives into a bag he starts to put each knife into a slot on his outfit. Wow Warren’s outfit can carry more weapons than I thought. Warren is now decked out with knives as he has the bowie knife on his chest, one knife on each of his arms, two more knives on his waist, and finally has the butterfly knife on his left wrist. Warren looks more threatening than before, which I didn’t think was possible because a guy walking around with a machete and the eyes of an extremely angry homeless person is already threatening.

As we make our way out of the shop we see a strange scene. Well actually it’s not too strange because I’m not surprised. I see Nazuko and Nerva running down the street being chased by a bunch of goons with swords. They seem to be carrying bags full of something. If I had to guess I’d say it was money. They seem to be having fun, they’re laughing like crazy.

“Come on you pussies! I can do this all day! And all night! And all the shit that’s in between! Nazuko what’s that shit in between night and day?!” I hear Nerva scream.

“Ughhhh, afternoon!?” Nazuko guesses.

“Yeah that’s it! I can do this shit all afternoon!” Nerva affirms.

I realize that there’s a building on fire a few blocks away. I’m pretty sure that was Nerva’s doing. I’m impressed, they’ve only been together for an hour and they’ve already got into this much trouble. Nerva and Nazuko run past us without slowing down.

“Oh Hi Quincy. Hi Warren. Bye Quincy. Bye Warren” Nazuko greets before taking a right down some alleyway.

“Y’all want in on this shit!?” Nerva questions.

“Nah you girls go ahead. We’ll see you two later” Warren declines nonchalantly.

“Alright cool” Nerva responds, taking the same turn into the alleyway.

A group of like ten guys then run past us cursing about money or something. Luckily none of them stop to talk to us, they all seem too busy chasing down Nazuko and Nerva. That’s good, I don’t feel like fighting right now. Warren and I continue with the shopping and that’s when it got boring. Turns out buying potions and pants isn’t that fun who would’ve guessed? Buying pants in this world is just as boring as buying pants in my old world. We finished the shopping and if I had to guess it’s about 3:30pm now as we make our way back to the airship. Warren and I talked a little bit more during the shopping and it was mostly small talk. I learned a few things about him. Turns out he’s 23 years old but given how rough he looks like he could pass off as 40. In my world he would have just been starting his career or been in grad school. Not surprisingly, this means he's the oldest one in our group. Nerva is 18, believe it or not ( I thought she was 12 when I first met her), and Adam is 20, like me. I also learned that Warren’s been adventuring since he was 18 so he has way more experience than any of us. Finally, he told me that he wanted to be a farmer when he was a kid. He wouldn’t elaborate on what made him want to be an adventurer. Hooray, learning things. We are now heading out way out of the village when some guy calls out to me.

“YOU! THE ONE OF BLACKNESS!” The voice exclaims.

Huh? Oh great is that name catching on? Dang it, Luther. Warren and I turn around very confused. It’s some guy with a bunch of apples in his hands.

“YOU! YOU’VE DESTROYED MY LIVELIHOOD TOO MANY TIMES! I WILL SHOVE THIS APPLE UP YOUR ASS!” the man threatens.

“Friend of yours?” Warren asks.

“I have never seen this person before in my life.” I answer.

“WHAT? HOW DO YOU NOT REMEMBER ME? YOU DESTROYED MY APPLE CART BACK IN COLONUS. YOU THEN DESTROYED MY APPLE CART EARLIER TODAY!” The man claims.

Wait. Did I do that? Sounds like something I would do, yet I can’t remember it. I think I remember eating a nasty apple back in Colonus so maybe it’s related to that. I definitely didn’t destroy this guy’s cart in this town though. I think I’m being racially profiled.

“Now listen here, guy! Just because I’m black does not mean I did a crime! You racist-ass, cracker-ass, honky-ass fascist!” I lecture.

When I get racially profiled, I have to play the race card. It’s an effective defense mechanism.

“Wait, ugh, I’m not a racist. I just want you to take accountability for your actions” The guy states.

“Wow, dude. You see a person of color and automatically assume that all black people you see are the same one. I thought we progressed more as a society.” Warren admonishes.

A group of people are now gathering around whispering about what’s happening.

“Wait but we’ve only seen one black person! And it’s him!” the guy yells pointing at me.

Warren shakes his head in shame.

“That’s so sad, man. You know, the world would be a better place once all racists like you no longer walk the earth.” Warren declares.

Everyone in the audience is shaking their heads in agreement.

“..W-wait. No, I swear it’s him. He did it . He’s the one ruining my livelihood.” The guy pleads.

“No, you racist. Your own hatred is ruining you.” I announce.

Everyone in the audience is now applauding. The guy looks around all confused and just walks away in shame. The one of blackness is victorious yet again! Oh no, now I’m calling myself that. I might as well own it at this point. There are worse things to be called. I’m also glad Warren caught on to what I was doing despite me telling him nothing about it. That’s it, Warren is now a true homie. We walk our way out of the crowd and we eventually make our way back to the airship. We head inside and I see that Nerva and Nazuko have assembled everyone into the main common area that’s near the kitchen. They have these two big bags of money on the ground with them. Warren just ignores all this heading into his room. I take a seat next to Will.

“Oh hey Will” I greet.

“Oh hey Quincy” Will greets solemnly.

Well that’s weird. Something is bothering Will. Which is strange because next to nothing bothers him. It must be serious. I’ll talk to him about it later.

“So what’s happening here?” I ask Will.

“I think Nazuko and Nerva are going to explain what happened to them today explaing how they got all that money.” Will responds.

“Oh ok. I do want to know how they got a crowd of angry men to chase them around town”

“You’d think I’d be surprised to hear that happened but I’m not in the slightest”

“I know right? I think we’re getting used to the craziness.”

Nazuko starts to cough very loudly in order to make everyone stop talking. She and Nerva jump onto a table so that they are above everyone.

“Well this is gonna be great” Remi murmurs.

“Alright, bitches! It’s story time! Nazuko, take it away!” Nerva yells.

“Ok so you’re all probably wondering how we got these bags of money. Also, you might have some concerns about the fire that started in the town and I will explain both. So we just got shot out of a cannon (by the way thanks for that Ryder it was great. We have to do it again) and we flew into some hay bales right, Nerva?” Nazuko asks.

“Yep. Still got hay up my ass. No, I’m not taking a shower!” Nerva answers, pointing at Adam before he even says anything.

“B-but I didn’t even say anything” Adam retorts.

“Shhhh Adam. No interrupting.” Nazuko orders.

Adam doesn’t say anything but just looks around confused. Nazuko continues with her story.

“So after we got out the hay bales we started walking our way back. On the way back we saw this shady looking dude. We start trailing him and he eventually leads us into this dark alleyway. The guy then starts mugging a poor woman. Nerva you tell them what happened next”

“Ok so I saw the shit and I knew we had to do something. So I jumped into the alleyway yelling ‘Yo bitch! Pick on someone your own size!’ Then I hit the guy in the balls and the lady ran away. The guy began to talk about how he was part of a gang of thieves or some shit. Upon hearing this Nazuko got angry.”

“Yep I got really angry. Because his thief skills were awful! It was so sloppy! I decided that if the whole group of thieves were just as sloppy as him, they didn’t deserve anything they stole. I decided then and there that we would check out their hideout. After Nerva did some interrogating we found out where the hideout was. I did my thief thing and staked the place out. It turns out I was right. The guys were a bunch of amateurs. Their whole setup was pathetic. We decided to send Nerva in there as a distraction while I stole all of their loot.”

“That’s true I barged right into that motherfucker. With my fire fists I started knocking out bitches left and right. Half of them were knocked out within a minute. Next thing I know Nazuko tells me she got all of the shit so I set the place on fire and got out. Soon as we step out though, we see a huge crowd of the motherfuckers chasing us down.”

“Uh huh, we then led them on a chase across town. We saw Quincy and Warren during it. We eventually lost them and we made it back here, hooray!” Nazuko cheers putting both of her arms into the air.

“Well at least no one died” Adam says relieved.

“What are you talking about? Of course some of them fuckers died. I’m sure not all of them got out of that building. I set the whole bitch on fire.” Nerva retorts.

“Oh..” Adam says dejectedly.

“Well, this is not going to help our image.” Azura laments.

“We have an image? We’re known as the people who blow stuff up right? That’s all I care about” Ryder chimes in.

“Yeah, and that’s the problem, Ryder! We shouldn’t be known as the people who, ‘blow stuff up.’” Azura shoots back.

“The fuck you talking about? That’s a dope-ass image.” Nerva argues.

“I’m afraid it’s not a good image for heroes. We’re supposed to save things, not destroy them.” Lilith rebuts.

“Yeah, I agree with Lilith. We shouldn’t be so violent” Adam affirms.

“Adam, shut the fuck up, your opinion doesn’t count” Nerva admonishes.

“..Yes it does” Adam insists.

“Yeah it does. Nerva, light up on harassing Adam. If our reputation goes down the gutter it’ll be because of you, you little gremlin.” Remi insults.

Adam now has this huge grin on his face. I guess he’s found someone who’s willing to stick up for him.

“Bitch, the fuck you just call me? Bring me your fucking ears I’m gonna rip them off right now” Nerva threatens.

“Alright come on then you little midget!” Remi yells putting up her arms getting ready to fight.

Oh no, now everyone is yelling at each other. It’s hard to keep track of who’s saying what. Well story time ended horribly. I should have done what Warren did and just went to bed. Will gets up to stop the fighting.

“Ok everyone stop!” Will yells making everyone stop and stare.

“Ok look we can be both heroes and people who blow stuff up. We just have to blow up the right stuff.” Will proclaims.

“But, that’s the problem. We don’t really seem to care about collateral damage if our last mission was anything to go off of” Lilith recalls.

“That village was full of rebel sympathizers. So there was no collateral damage. Blowing up the entire town was the best move” Ryder insists.

“Ryder I highly doubt that every single person in the town was a rebel sympathizer.” Azura says.

Wait they blew up a whole town? Dang I thought my group was destructive.

“You guys have a point. We’ll try not to blow up or destroy everything in the future. But explosions and destruction are still an option. Explosions are cool so I will not allow this party to be explosion free.” Will admits.

“You’re a wise man, Will. But blowing stuff up is always for the greater good” Ryder interjects.

“We really need to have a talk later, Ryder.” Azura mentions.

I have nothing to add to this conversation so I’m gonna stay quiet.

“Ok, I think we made a good compromise. We’ll try to work harder on keeping a good reputation by not destroying things on a whim but we won’t abandon destroying things in its entirety. So Nazuko no more adventures like the one you just went on.” Will orders.

“Aw man. . .” Nazuko says, disappointed.

Nerva walks over to her and gives her a pat on the back to make her feel better.

“Alright everyone go to your rooms. I’m sure we’re heading on our journey tomorrow.” Will tells everyone.

Everyone slowly heads back to their respective rooms. I’m impressed with Will on how he handled that. Is he growing into his hero role? Hmmm, nah. I enter my room and begin to read one of my books. I still have to talk to Will about what’s bothering him but I think I can save that for later. After reading for a few hours, then eating dinner, then reading some more, I go to sleep.

I wake up to the sound of a racket. Ugh I’m getting tired of this. It sounds like there are a bunch of people moving in the hallway. Still groggy I slowly enter the hallway to see everyone making their way to the common area. I follow and I see Luther and Elisa with a map out in front of them with everyone surrounding it. Wait how did they get on board? Can anyone just get on? Wait nevermind, I see a broken window to my left. I’m pretty sure that Luther jumped through it.

“My friends! Elisa and I have planned out the specifics for our adventure! Elisa take it away my fair maiden!” Luther orders.

“Don’t call me a maiden. Anyway, here is a map of the Infinite Morass swamp. As you can see it’s quite large. About 2/5ths the size of Colonus to be exact. Most of the place is swamp water with a few patches of dry land scattered about. We expect the meeting to happen here at the largest patch of land in the middle. We’re not ambushing here though, we’re going to split up into two teams and attack them before either Bartrem or the ghouls reach the area. After we take them out we’ll be the ones meeting in the middle of the swamp. The second hero’s party and Luther are going to be dropped off right outside the main swamp and move on by foot to ambush Bartrem. The rest of us are going to continue flying to the other end of the swamp using steam and clouds as cover. From our vantage point we should be able to find the ghouls quite easily and then we’ll strike. Any questions?” Elisa explains.

“Yeah how do you know where to drop us off? You know which route Bartrem’s taking?” Warren inquires.

“Ah we do my friend! We deduced it through logic! There are only a few paths that Bartrem would take if he wanted to get to the meeting on time. I highly doubt he’d want to walk through a bunch of water. The good news is that all of the routes are near each other. With our small group we can check most of them in no time.” Luther elaborates.

“Any other questions?” Elisa asks all of us.

Everyone shakes their heads.

“Ok then let’s get this airship flying” Elisa states.

Ryder and Azura lead her to the pilot area and the next thing I know we’re off. The journey to the swamp was thankfully not hectic. I think that’s because people are still kind of mad at each other. Oh well, at least it’s quiet. The only notable thing was Luther telling me more about being a gentleman. But since it’s Luther most of them were about the proper ways to grab a woman's butt. Oh and he kept hitting on Adam but I’m somewhat used to that by now. After flying for about two days we landed at the drop off point for my group.

“My friends! It is time for adventure! It is time to show some fiends what it means to be a true gentleman! It is time… for battle! HIYYAAAAA!” Luther screams as he jumps through another window.

I have no idea why he keeps doing that. Now this airship has two broken windows. Also the door of the airship was open. Everyone said their goodbyes earlier so my party and I depart from the airship through the open door like normal people. All five of us are now at the border where normal terrain ends and the swamp begins. I turn around and see the airship fly off. I’m still kind of worried about Will, he still seems to have something on his mind. But now’s not the time to think about that. It’s like what Luther said, now is the time for battle.