It was a solid speech. Decent in tone and feel.
Chase nodded his head, speaking: "we are new here, so it's nice making new friends so early" Chase said in an enthusiastic tone.
"We've nothing to lose, but I'm confused, is this not what we're being paid for?" Andrew asked.
The old man replied "I see I was not straightforward enough, I would like you to stay longer than the contract would usually allow, help me build up the village, and you will be rewarded much more than what was shown, you can ignore it for all I care"
Everyone looked at each other hearing this.
Nobody was refusing more money. ""We're in.""
——
walking out of the house, they traveled further down the village, and only then did they see the reason they were called here. as they walked down the dirt roads further down the village, destroyed houses, broken gates, occasionally even dead bodies came into view.
"It is mourning now but when night comes, they strike. We had a small military, who were quickly poisoned, outnumbered and overwhelmed" The older man said, walking with his hands behind his back.
As they got to the edge of the village, what was visible was a forest and a large wooden gate that was broken, with holes and slashes littering the gate, making it see through while in some places it was just completely bulldozed. tens of men in brown tunics were at multiple parts of the gate, making efforts to rebuild it.
"The goblins seem to be causing a lot of trouble for you guys. Good thing we're here."
Damian said, his usual arrogance once again being placed at the worst time.
As he turned to see the old man giving him a death stare, he coughed nervously, the clouds looked heavenly today.
Earl closed his eyes, sighing. "Well you are correct anyway. For now, I need you to rest a while and protect these people come nightfall. They need reassurance that they are safe building it even during the night, otherwise the gate will be a glorified game for the monsters to get past."
Chase replied "why can't we just kill them now?" A reply was swift. "Be careful adventurers, confidence like that will lead you to death faster than you think."
With that the man turned around and began walking away, saying his final words. "find a place to sit down, defend your post, and by tomorrow, I'll have assembled a fighting force big enough to drive the hoard out for good."
As he started getting further away, Chase smacked his hand over his Half covered face.
"I forgot he still thinks we're just f ranks.."
"it's not all bad, now we can introduce ourselves to the locals" Andrew exclaimed, walking towards the group of men fixing the gate.
Donnie looked at him for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders. "Aw what the hell?" He began walking towards the group as well.
"Surprisingly I'm the one not in the mood."
Chase said, walking over to a nearby rock before sitting on it, intending to rest until nightfall.
Before he got comfortable enough, Damian interrupted his rest with his voice. "Chase…y'know how you and I and…Andrew are what we are? How does it affect you?"
"Not much actually. The most has been that I've had to hide my face more in two days than most of my life. But other than that if feels… like it was supposed to happen. When I look at what I've become I sleep like a baby."
"Well yeah. Im also interested in seeing how my body and my flames have changed for combat." Damian added.
Chase was also interested in his own strength and how it had increased. His body was already stronger than average, now he has the ability to use mana with the already impressive strength of his body on top of that.
"Now lemme get some rest, we have to protect these people in a few hours and I don't wanna wait them out" Chase said looking at the floor, intending to end the conversation.
"Alright alright but be warned, we are gonna be gassing ourselves up, so you're probably gonna look like the group loser." Damian said with his hands to his sides.
Chase chuckled as Damian's footsteps began getting more and more silent. His eyes got heavier, before closing entirely.
——
He was transported to his spirit sea, laying down. Jasmine was sitting next to him.
"Your day seemed interesting" she said smiling.
Sitting up, Chase put his right hand on his neck. "Yeah, first mission as an adventurer"
"Are you nervous?" She said, her voice was far too nice for him to act anything less than like a true leader.
"Of course not. I've been through worse already. luckily you were here to help."
She chuckled for a bit "a hero already huh?"
Chase sighed "Alright. seriously I need to know, how are we tied together spiritually. Where did you come from?"
Jasmine's face turned serious for a moment.
Completely gone was any sense of humor.
"It is a long story. I'll tell you when the time comes. You might even figure it out as time goes on."
Chase was now both intrigued and a little scared. Whatever made jasmine this serious was not something to be taken lightly.
"But you have bigger issues now" she said, regaining his attention. At Chase was confused.
"Huh?" Then he realized.
He was waking up.