Cody and Stevens were hiding in a building about a third of the way up the mountain. They had spent the last day fighting and sneaking around to get this far, the people who ruled on this mountain were all some kind of vampire with bat-like demon wings and short pointy horns. So far, they have been able to avoid killing anyone, this was in a safe zone so the penalties applied, which explained why they weren't trying to kill them either, just get rid of them. It was weird, neither side could kill the other so it was just a matter of not getting trapped, and so far they had been better than the demon people at avoiding that. There were non-winged people on the mountain too, and after they found one in a building they were hiding in they got some details before they were attacked and had to flee.
All they know so far is that the lord of this mountain, and probably the whole safe zone, has the life, death and shadow nodes at least, he chose a rare class type that has something to do with his transformation. Every class upgrade the guy achieves the more his body changes, and all of his followers have to be bitten by him and transform in order for the system to recognize them. Everyone on the mountain that isn't transformed, is a prospective servant or minion etc. it appears that they can drink the blood of others and steal their experience to level and that was the deal with the town. They got protection during monster hordes but they had to pay for it with their experience.
The people in the close town didn't seem to mind since they got powerful allies and it wasn't like they killed anyone. Also they seem to be strong enough to greatly assist with the monster hordes and allowed the townspeople to stay high up in the mountain where it was safe for free. Stevens noticed what was happening right away after talking to this guy and while they were resting he started explaining it to Cody while also sending a few messages to Tara and Bethany. They had figured out that if two of them were together, they could send more complete messages by splitting it between the two people, which allowed for more complete thoughts to arrive at almost the same time.
"These people, or monsters, or whatever, are keeping the people of this safe zone like cattle, it is subtle but it's not going to end well." Steven explained to Cody.
"I don't think so, I think it's more likely that there's just a bunch of people drowning in fear at the new ways of the world and are clinging to any kind of power like a life-jacket."
"There is a clear delineation between people who live on the mountain in nice places in safety, and those who are kept outside the gate, it's basically a caste system."
"It's not that bad, I mean, we are holding try-outs for people to join us."
"But we are just a small group and we don't control a safe zone."
"What does that matter? We control a place of safety and resources and we keep them to ourselves and only let those we choose and who can contribute to join us. But we could only let in people we liked, or charge people to get in if we wanted. We have the same power these demon people have over others."
"It doesn't feel that simple, but you are making more sense than I want you to."
"I think we should leave, no one is being forced here, the fence is to keep people out not hold them against their will."
"I want to try and talk to one of them before we go, so far they have just attacked and we defended. Just one more try, then we leave."
"I'm good with that, as long as you don't try and tell them how to live. We are not here to force people into anything."
"When did you get so wise and cool-headed?"
"I think my head is getting clearer the more I raise my stats, but that is something we can discuss on our trip back."
Stevens and Cody went out into the path that led up the mountain and just stood still, defensive but not overly so, waiting for one of them to find them. The path this high up was a drop-off on one side and buildings built into the mountain on the other. They had already learned their lesson of getting trapped in a building or jumping down, since the demon people could fly, jumping was bad. Also, when trapped in a building they had to hurt them more than they wanted to to escape so running and hiding had been their strategy so far.
It only took a few minutes for one of them to fly over and see them, but it didn't attack, instead it made some kind of noise to call others to it. A few more minutes and there were five of them in the sky looking down at them. Three flew down a little closer and stopped discussing with each other in a whisper that they couldn't hear. They didn't seem aggressive, the vibe was more curiosity and confusion than anything else so Stevens and Cody stayed still and just watched them while they talked, making no move to be more aggressive or defensive. After a while they were getting impatient but knew better than to speak to each other while they were being watched. Eventually they came down and stopped a few yards away.
"Why are you here?" the one in the middle asked.
"I am Steven and this is Cody, we are here representing our Lord Ash from the east and wish to deliver a message to your lord."
"Give me the message, and I will relay it to him," the middle one said with a smile.
"I apologize, but we were given specific instructions to only deliver the message to the lord of this area and take his reply back with us."
The one in the middle whispered to the one to his left and he flew off up the mountain. It was hard to tell them apart because the transformation gave them all the same eye and hair color, the main difference seemed to be size so that's how Stevens chose to keep track of them in his head.
"I have sent one of my members to inform our lord of your message, he will show up, or not."
"Can you tell us your name sir?" Cody asked.
"Forgive me, my name is Heath, it is a pleasure to meet you. Especially since you have not killed anyone or caused too much damage." Heath said. Speaking more relaxed, his voice had a hoarse raspy accent, like a snake with a cold.
"Then I would ask that you forgive us, our group is small and we aren't familiar with the organizational challenges of a group as large as yours. We are sorry if we have caused any inconvenience," Cody said with more formality than Stevens thought he was capable of.
Heath landed and walked up to Cody, "There is nothing to forgive, it occurs to me that this might all be misunderstood from someone outside of our safe zone." He stuck out his hand for a handshake and Cody shook it.
"May I ask the name of your lord?" Stevens asked with a smile, trying not to seem like he was collecting information.
"Drak, my lord's name is Drak. And you? Who do you serve?" Heath asked.
"We work with Lord Ash, who has a base to the east near the safe zone close to the coast." Stevens replied. He then froze, realizing that he was giving more information than he wanted to. There was some kind of magic at work here that was making him say more than he wanted, which would also explain Cody's formal speech. A million ideas passed through his mind in an instant on options for his response. All of his ideas were variations on fight, run, or play dumb. He decided to trust Eli could handle any trouble this brought and play dumb, all those thoughts and his decision happened for him in an instant, but that little pause was enough to make Heath suspicious.
"Is something the matter?" Heath asked as he tensed up the tiniest amount, it was so slight that he would have missed it if he hadn't trained with Audrey who similarly tensed before making a move.
"No, sorry, the travel must be getting to me, I just got a little confused for a moment," said Stevens, rubbing his face with his hands and relaxing his body.
Heath relaxed, "I understand, so many have died and the world is much bigger now, it must be hard to travel such distances, feeling alone in the world."
"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask for a raise when I get back."
"So you are hired to help? You do not work for him directly?" Heath asked, looking confused.
"Sorry, it's just an expression."
Just then the one that was sent away returned and whispered into Heath's ear. This must have been a long message because he was whispering for a long time and even though Heath was obviously trying to keep his face neutral, Stevens noticed his eyes get rounder as if surprised a few times.
"Well, it seems our lord does not wish to hear your message and has asked that you leave this safe zone within one day. I do wish we could work something out, but orders are orders, I'm sure you understand." said Heath, doing his best to look sad about it.
"We understand, we will leave immediately. We just have to stop by a small town and discuss business with a jeweler. We want to recruit him, unless you have objections?" Cody asked, looking perturbed and anxious about the whole thing.
"From an outlying town?"
"Yes."
"No issues, please go in peace and give your lord our apologies."
Stevens and Cody immediately headed down the mountain, out the destroyed gate, past the townspeople who were gawking at them in disbelief, as if being allowed to leave was the craziest thing they had ever seen. They jogged back to the town where the jewelry maker was and went into the shop where they had met him. A different man was behind the counter and his face lit up when they walked in, it seemed that he was happy to have a customer. It was also possible that his brother had told them how much money they had spent previously and he thought it was his turn to cash in.
"Welcome to my shop, my brother told me all about you, I would be happy to help in any way I can." the man said, looking very happy to see them.
"We want to talk to your brother, the guy who makes rings, he said his name was Teddy," Cody said, mirroring the man's smile.
"It's Theodore," a voice said from the back room. The man at the counter literally face palmed.
"You might as well come out now, they know you're here. I'm Herbert, I make potions with materials I buy from the system shop. I would be happy to sell you some."
Theodore walked out to join his brother at the counter, "I don't have any new rings to sell and we won't be joining your cult. If we can say no to the cult of darkness, we can say no to you."
"Well consider it an open invitation, and we would like to buy two more of each ring. It seems while we have been here, there has been some recruitment for our group and we want to use your rings as an incentive to train harder." Said Stevens.
"What is your cult called? Do you need an alchemist?" Herbert asked, a little too excitedly.
"Don't mind him," Theodore said dismissively, "He just wants to get away from his nagging wife and baby."
Stevens got a mischievous look in his eye, "Well, we don't have an alchemist, and since you don't want to join us, maybe we will take him instead. Our trip here has been a failure so coming back with something will help us save face."
"You don't want him, he is lazy and a deadbeat. You will just have to go home and tell your cult leader that you failed."
"I think that is up to Herbert here, if he wants to come along, can you really stop him?"
"I'll go, please take me with you, anywhere is better than here. I'm ready now, we can go now, good, let's go now." Herbert wrapped his arm around Cody and started walking out the door, Stevens started turning to leave with them and Theodore grabbed his arm.
"If I go with you, can you leave him here?"
"If you come with us, we will forget this shop exists and he will never hear from us again."
"Ok, fine, his wife doesn't deserve that, also, he is kind of an idiot and would end up getting himself killed."
Stevens stuck out his hand, "Shake on it that you will come with us to our home, if you don't like it after a week, we will escort you back here, no questions asked."
Theodore shook his hand, "I'll work for you, but I'm not joining your cult."
"Still not a cult, but works for me."