Bethany and Arinya were sitting at a bar in a small village just outside what people were calling the capital of the safe zone, Ghost city. The village was small with maybe 30 small buildings, all of which seemed to be occupied by monster hunters, spies, and information brokers. There were many such smaller places outside the city sprouting up since it gave them a bit more freedom while still being close to what passed for civilization so far. It seemed that the only people who lived there were those that ran the bars and inns. There was one place to eat but it was just soup, bread, milk, water, and beer. It seemed like there were more people learning how to make beer than those learning the cooking profession. They had traded some meat that Bethany had from a monster for drinks, a place to sleep and some information.
They were at the bar waiting to meet their latest recruit, or at least an attempt at a recruit. It had been 3 days since the event had ended and everyone seemed more relaxed and safe, so most people wanted a break. They were recruiting for danger and adventure and most of those people already had their own thing going on and were not eager to give up any free will to join a bigger group, at least not at this stage in the new world. The only way they were able to get people to show up was because they were offering free food for an evening of conversation and a chance to hear their recruitment pitch.
Currently, the two were waiting on a young couple to join them at the bar as the next people they were going to try and recruit. The girl was some kind of water caster and the guy was a rare class that was similar to a shaman or nature mage using earth and order, he was who they were really after. He could encase himself in hard stone giving him incredible strength and defense, as well as conjure a wooden totem with tribal markings that when placed in the ground gave beneficial effects to all allies. The girl with him was just part of the deal, he said he wouldn't leave her behind so they agreed to speak with both of them.
"Let's make this quick, I really want to get back to training. I think if I can level my body again before he gets back I have a chance of training with him," Bethany said after taking an appreciative sip of this place's finest alcohol. With all their kills during the events, they had enough money to live like kings, at least for a while.
"You are already so strong, why keep pushing so hard when we have more time to relax before the next event?" Arinya asked.
"You can never be too powerful, and if I want to keep him in my sights, and more importantly, keep me in his sights, I need to keep pushing," Bethany said.
"I'm not sure I understand," she said quietly, seemingly ashamed of not comprehending her.
"I'll put it to you this way, how do you think I would treat a level 10 man right now? Do you think I would see him as someone I should socialize with? Be seen with? Maybe even date?"
"I think you would not even notice him," Arinya answered.
"Yes, I'm level 66 and have killed thousands of monsters, fighting monster hordes up close, we wouldn't even be living in the same world for all practical purposes. That level 10 guy and I are as far apart as I am with 'him'."
"It doesn't seem all that severe, I've seen how you two interact and he respects you," said Arinya matter-of-factly.
"That's only because he doesn't really pay attention to concepts like status, and he doesn't really know how much stronger he is than everyone. I thought he was playing some game, but I think he is just really that naive. People who pay attention to status always know who is above or below them in any room."
Bethany took another sip, smiling at the aftertaste while she thought about what she had seen Eli accomplish so far. Impossible feats of strength and power. Even while they are sitting here he is absorbing part of a volcanic eruption and redirecting the ash cloud into his home village that he made in an hour by forcibly claiming a chunk of the planet from inside a crater he made when he exploded. It was a lot of incredible things and it made her body react in certain ways, but lately it has been making her heart react as well. He was not like anyone she had met in her previous encounters with powerful men, they wanted power, needed it. They were insecure, self-centered narcissists, even the good ones were status-obsessed womanizers.
Before she could continue her thoughts about how amazing she thought Eli was and how she would have him one day, making her status the highest, the people they were waiting for arrived. They sat down next to Bethany, the young woman, who introduced herself as Chris but Bethany immediately thought her name would end up being Chrystal and not Christina, was in the seat next to her while Beau was in the next seat down. Beau looked like he should be speaking with a french accent, in Bethany's opinion, except that the system makes everyone sound like they are speaking your language perfectly, so no one had accents.
For the first minute, Bethany and Chris just stared at each other, feeling out the situation to get a grip on how this conversation should go. Chris was all sharp angles, sharp jaw and chin, skinny boney appearance, short brown greasy hair and looked at everyone with sharp eyes that hated everything they saw. Bethany then turned to Beau who was the picture of average, his height, weight, and face were all average with his hair and eyes being brown. But after a few seconds of inspection, she could see his calloused hands, the intelligent and playful glint in his eyes, and his confident posture. Bethany was sure that this conversation was going to be fun.
"As I said before, I'm Bethany, servant of Lord Ash, and we are looking for unique people to join us."
"What does it pay?" Chris blurted out rudely before Bethany had even finished talking.
"This isn't a job interview, you can choose to join us or not, but your fate is your own to create or destroy. Lord Ash does not need you or even me, but he does want a community. And he is willing to spend some of his time and resources to train and protect that community when he is available."
"PFFT, why would people join if you aren't paying?"
"I'm sure that if I have to explain, then you aren't what we are looking for." Bethany said to Chris, but was staring at Beau as the slightest smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Beau stood and whispered something to Chris and she traded seats with Beau now sitting next to Bethany.
"We understand what an invitation like this means," Beau said, "But we would like some more details."
"No." Bethany said as she started to smile with amusement. "I don't have details, just an opportunity."
"An opportunity for what?"
"Adventure, power, notoriety, or anything else you like," Bethany said without a hint of a lie or deception in her voice or face. "You see, Lord Ash is probably the strongest person on the continent. Just being in his vicinity has made me stronger and given me more adventure than I ever thought possible."
"And the cost of that is we don't get details and have to obey, that doesn't sound like a good opportunity, it sounds like a trap," Beau said, still holding that same smile of amusement on the corner of his mouth.
"Oh it can be, you kind of get hooked, but not in a bad way. The only people in the group that have to obey are those who are tied to Lord Ash directly. If you are interested, just come to our home outside the safe zone with us when we leave tomorrow night. Please feel free to give us an answer tomorrow, go ahead and take that table over there, the drinks and food are on us for the next hour." Bethany said with a dismissive hand gesture.
The two looked at each other and moved over to the table with confusion written all over their faces. At first they just sat there thinking, then they started whispering. Bethany was convinced that Beau wanted to join and Chris would talk him out of it, she didn't see anything to indicate if the guy had a backbone or not but Chris was just a terrible person. The only vibe she got from her was that she was the type to live in a trailer park and hate the people who live in the nicer trailer park for having more than she has, as if anything anyone has is one less thing she can have. Bethany was already planning on how to get rid of her, while also planning on how to keep Beau in the group.
"I think we should check it out, at least see what their place looks like, meet some of the people, what could it hurt?" Beau asked.
"It could be a trap, lure us away and kill us outside the safe zone."
"First of all, why, we aren't worth killing. Secondly, she is hot enough that she could lure people away with a much simpler ruse."
"It does seem like a lot of work for something that could be done easier," Chris admitted hesitantly.
"Ok, so we go and check it out then," Beau said, "we can meet up with them tomorrow night, tonight we should ask around about them until then."
"Well, they seem interested." Arinya said.
"Sort of, Beau might be a great find but he isn't very ambitious and he seems to want to get away from Chris."
"From the looks I saw, it was more like he wanted to get closer to you than get away from anything."
"Ok, ok, do we have anyone else to see tonight? No? Ok, then since it's my turn to have a night off I'm going to go train." Bethany said. She then left and took off in a sprint, which to someone without enough perception, looked like a blur sped off into the distance. Once she was back home, which took two hours, she sat on her meditation platform in Eli's hut and worked on her body and soul improvements. The reason she ran back here was that the ash cloud was still being absorbed so the area was flooded with magic. So much so that more of the smaller huts were growing in around the fountain and around Eli's bigger hut as well as the defensive plants getting bigger and pointier.
Eli wasn't even here and he was still doing amazing things, the magic in the ground of this place was strong enough now that she could feel it, like wind on her skin or a smell in the air, but with magic. It carried Eli's intent, which felt like responsibility or duty, she knew that he wanted to protect them. She could already see how his disparate power level was making him feel alone in the world. The only way she could help was to set him up to get his ass kicked, which was unlikely, or to make him feel like his power wasn't as far away from everyone else. That is why she trained, well, that and she loved the feeling of real power that being strong gave her. She would probably become some kind of super villain if not for Eli being there to give her perspective, and she wanted to be his perspective as well.