The Oath Breakers drag the prisoners in their burlap sacks all the way back to town, not picking them up even when they cross the small oasis ponds that line the edge of the city, causing the captured to splutter and swear as they're unexpectedly dunked and then dragged through the brush and onto the road.
"The mercenaries surrendered and were given terms. They turned over their employers to our custody." Cain smiles at the Mayor, pointing to the burlap sacks.
One of the bags suddenly bursts into flames, its former occupant leaping to his feet and beginning to cast a spell in his desperate bid to escape before being knocked unconscious by the flat of an axe to the back of the head, courtesy of a nearby Dwarven warrior. The Oath Breaker ties him up again, this time using a warriors chain flail before grabbing another sack from a nearby fruit cart, dumping the former contents into the cart itself.
The annoyed look it is giving the prisoner is making the crowd laugh before they stifle themselves, not wanting to laugh at a condemned man. It's pretty clear to everyone that these prisoners will have one of two fates, either lifetime imprisonment for raising an army and attacking the city or public execution.
The mercenaries from the desert have caught the interest of Kone and Misha though. Not because they're interested in learning more about the Lizardmen, but the notion of traveling to more new places intrigues them both. Across this desert there's supposed to be an ocean, with multiple large modernized cities and fresh seafood. According to the locals, they're known as First Advancement cities, so between level 100 and 200. After level 200, all transfers should have had the chance to upgrade classes at least once, so that's the informal division between first and second advancement.
Once you get into higher level cities than that, you'll start seeing much more advanced classes for pretty much every transfer, and almost all of the citizens born in a second advancement area will be born with an interface. That's also where the more obscure and powerful races start becoming common. With the second class change, transfers who meet the prerequisites will have the option to change their character race. It's uncommon, but some human Druids will become Beastkin or Fae species, and the occasional special case will find a way to become what they want.
But mostly the races you meet that one can't directly pick in the character creation screen are born here on this planet.
"What do you think of going to the ocean? We could expand our guild house network and buy a vacation home?" Misha asks, hitting Cain right where he's softest, in the urge to lay around and relax. Even with all the effort he's put into becoming a better person, the idea of laying on the beach all day is still insanely attractive.
"We could give it a few days to prepare for a long desert journey, then go. I asked the trade manager and he said it takes two weeks by camel caravan, and he even gave me a route map with directions to the closest ocean front city." Kone adds.
"Alright, but we've got to get Misha through her first advancement before we leave. The power jump can be huge, plus it unlocks a bunch of new crafting related skills." Cain agrees. They're just preaching to the choir at this point, Cain wants to go too. But he's practical enough to at least plan for the essentials.
His plan is simple, Vala, Laura and Nemu have an ongoing contest to see who gets more books, so he'll encourage them to keep going for now, while Misha and Kone are in a party with him and head to the dungeon to get Misha to level 100. He's not sure if being in a party with him will grant the others experience from the independent adventures of the Companions, but if it does, this will be very quick. If it doesn't, they might have to lead a couple groups through the raid before they go.
To test the theory, Vala leads the groups out for an overnight attempt to take a definitive lead while Cain, Kone and Misha are grouped with the originals. At the least this might give them all experience from one of the teams, despite not being in the dungeon. Fifteen minutes later the answer is clear, only Cain is gaining experience from this. The others are out of range and are gaining nothing.
So, they decide to change the plan. They'll lead a group into the raid in the morning and get the needed levels. Misha is almost level 98 now, so it shouldn't be too horrible to get her up to level 100.
Waking up early Cain finds a very smug looking Vala sitting at the table, sipping coffee and humming a happy song about overcoming your limits.
"I take it the winner of the library competition has been decided?" Cain tries to hide his amusement, for the sake of her twin.
"We found a Demon library on our last run. Seven F and D ranked books in a single go. Nothing overwhelming in power, but the library is well stocked now. As the losing side of the wager, the other team is making copies of every skill book we collected over the course of the competition. With the help of an Inscriptionist of course, or they'd be totally worthless."
"Well then I should go see how they're doing. If there's anything useful to me I'll get an extra copy made."
Cain heads for the library with Vala, coffee in hand, to see how the work is coming along. As it turns out, the library they raided was a Lust Demon facility, and almost all the low rank skills are little better than seduction and hypnosis techniques. They do have a few that look useful though.
[Pacify] Rank D. Not usable by Berserker. Calms target on contact. Usable by touch or non damaging object.
[Warming Hug] Rank F. Usable by all species with arms. Negates [Chill] and [Freeze] effects on prolonged contact.
The rest Cain decides to pass on, though they'll have a duplicate hard copy in the library for later.
"I get Pacify, but why Warming Hug? We've got lots of cleanse effects." Vala asks in confusion.
"I'll show you once we get the extra copy made. Trust me, it's a valuable skill to have."
Even the Inscriptionist looks baffled as to why a transfer of his level and talents would want such a skill, but he makes the copy in under a minute, the book being more accurately called a leaflet, as it is only three pages long. The copy he makes for Cain's use isn't even bound, there's just a staple at either corner of the spine and a hastily scrawled name on the cover.
Cain quickly uses the skill book and calls for Kone.
"Come quick, I've got a skill to test out."
She jogs into the room with a big smile "You found something good in the books? What is it? Let me see."
Cain grabs her and activates the Warming Hug skill.
"Oh yeah, this is it, definitely the best skill of the bunch." Kone sighs, making everyone in the room snicker.
"You got a new skill? What is it?" Lickity asks, and receives a hug of her own.
"Oh, I know this one, Warming Hug. That skill is amazing, even if it doesn't actually work very well at removing freeze effects. You have to Hug them for like twenty seconds before they thaw."
"You guys are great, totally made my day. I think I'm going to make myself a copy of that book." The Inscriptionist laughs, putting pen to paper again.
The Inscription skill looks like something Cain might actually be good at. His handwriting was always very precise, and writing out skills and such doesn't seem like it would be too terrible of a profession.
"How hard is it to become an Inscriptionist? Is there a guidebook or base skill training or something?" Cain asks, watching the man work.
"There's a base skill book that grants you apprentice rank and the ability to copy F ranked skill books. You can copy out spell scrolls too once you get a few levels, but only for spells that you know or have a copy of in front of you."
That isn't a problem for Cain, he can just merge with a Summon that knows the spell he needs. Hopefully.
"Where might I find this basic skill book?"
At his prompt the Inscriptionist pulls one from his inventory. "Remember, you can only have two trade professions active at a time. If you've got another it is best to pick one that compliments it, like skinning or weaving to go with Tailoring. Understand?"
"I actually never learned a profession. Everyone around me had all the ones we needed covered, so I just supplied the materials." Cain shrugs and takes the training book.
"I'll just put it on your tab. Fourteen total books so far, mostly Rank F and D, but that Cleave book is a good one, and there was a [Razor Grass] book as well." That's almost painful to hear. Two high ranked spell books, and both are useless to them because the members that can use them already know them. But they'll have an extra copy for later, in case an up and coming member needs a new spell.
Cain decides that will be his job now, to get good enough to copy all the spell books they get, so the Guild always has a copy to duplicate later. He activates the 'Training Manual For Inscriptionist' as it's officially known, and finds that there is a bit more to it than just good penmanship. The inks are a blend of crushed gems and herbs that have to match the book or spell, more so at higher levels, as the F Ranked books mostly just need Metallic ink and sometimes a bit of blood or an Elemental aligned plant base. It's all things he's seen growing abundantly in the wild and in the dungeons, in fact, they've got a lot of the necessary materials up to Rank B in the Guild Bank, because nobody was using them and they don't often sell crafting materials.
That's a ways off though, first, he's got to get this skill up from Apprentice to Novice to start doing D ranked books. A task to pass the time while they're traveling.
