Shaman seemed to age a decade as she read the letter from Eileen. She pointed at a goblin standing near the entrance to the tent. “Summon Frog and Vorg, we need to form a strategy and make preparations.”

“How bad?” Og asked.

“A silver team and at least two bronze teams will be here in two to three days.”

“Why are they sending Silvers after us this early?” Vorg asked, “We’ve barely shown our presence. They should have no idea of our relative strength.”

Shaman sighed, turning towards Raymond. “It seems that our esteemed guest defeated two of the bronze parties single-handedly. The silver team is probably for her.”

“Silver is only one rank higher than bronze, right? Is it really that big of a deal?” Raymond asked.

“A team of silver rankers is more than enough to kill every goblin in this camp in just a handful of minutes.” Og answered.

Raymond paused, a sense of trepidation welling up inside of her.

A few moments later Frog and Vorg burst through the tent flap and then the group started to discuss strategy.

***

Raymond and Lexi followed behind Og. After the several hour long strategy session, Og had asked them to follow him. He led them into the forest, a good distance away from the camp. They reached a small open area rimmed with small heaps of snow as if someone had moved it.

“First, I will answer your questions and then you will train.”

Raymond nodded in appreciation.

“How powerful are silver rankers? While I wouldn’t say taking on a team of four bronze rankers is easy, I also wouldn’t say it was all that difficult compared to my brief exchange with you.”

Og frowned. “The difference between each tier of adventurer is like night and day. bronze to silver shows the largest disparity. One major difference is that most bronze ranked adventurers rely on the default inputs of their class skills for movement and attacking which creates very simple patterns.”

Raymond recalled fighting Bill the Ranger. Every time he had used that Disengage ability, he had jumped slightly backward and to the right. It had been easy to see through and exploit. Raymond honestly wasn’t sure how she would have beaten Bill if she hadn’t been able to read his movement pattern.

“Another comparison would be that my group of assassins has yet to succeed in taking down a solo silver ranker let alone a whole team.” Og said grimly, “Silver ranked adventurers are hired to deal with threats like powerful tribes or small incursions involving a few hundred mortal monsters.”

Raymond whistled in appreciation. “Sounds like some big shots are coming our way then.”

Og shrugged, “Not really. There are still gold, legendary, and mythical ranked adventurers even above them.”

“If a silver ranker suppresses entire tribes then…?”

“Gold rankers can solo mortal monster armies and as a team can take on isolated weaker immortals. Legendary rankers can solo a country comprised of mortals or as a team can take on a few dozen immortals and mythical rankers can solo an army of rank-and-file immortals or as a team they can fight on even terms with the most skilled and most powerful immortals.”

Well then, that... definitely gave Raymond a little perspective. Granted, she didn’t actually know how powerful an immortal was yet but still.

“What makes immortal monsters so much stronger than mortals?”

“Time and stats. Immortals don’t age. If they aren’t killed, they can level up forever. They also have much higher base stats in general than the mortal races. They are much faster, much stronger, and much more durable.”

“Are their racial pathways better as well?”

Og gave her a confused look. “What the hell is a ‘racial pathway’?”

“Huh?” Raymond said, confused as well. “Like, I unlocked a unique racial pathway for becoming a True Vampire Lord when I got my first class.”

Og shook his head, “I’ve never heard of racial pathways. Must be another thing that only immortals get.”

Raymond filed that away to look more into later.

“If Mythical rankers are so strong, why do mortal monsters still exist?” Raymond asked.

“We don’t know.” Og replied honestly.

“Wait, seriously?” Raymond asked, “Don’t monsters have a champion or someone who fights off the Legendary and Mythical rankers?”

Og smiled sadly. “We did, though we were still losing because she couldn’t be everywhere at once. It was Evelyn. She killed the last three parties that managed to become Mythical rankers. There are currently none that hold the position, to my knowledge.”

“Oh…” Raymond said, her voice small. “What about other immortals then? Are there not very many of them?”

Og shook his head. “Not on this continent. Nathea was the homeland of the Fairies. There’s only one known Dragon, three Slimes, and a handful of True Vampires left here. The rest have all been killed over time. There is the Elven Dominion far to the south but their territory was isolated from the rest of the continent 1602 years ago when the Mad God emerged from the Abyss, slaughtered half the continent and established his realm.

She didn’t know what to say. There were apparently a few major players left for the monster side and a very powerful individual known as the ‘Mad God’, but for whatever reason Evelyn had thrown away her position as their champion and created Raymond. Though it hadn’t been her choice to take their champion away from them she couldn’t deny that she had come into being by usurping their paragon’s place.

There was a really simple solution to that problem though.

Raymond grinned, baring her fangs. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to be the new champion.”

Og frowned. “That may be possible in the future but I would steer clear of the topic until you have more strength. The knowledge that ‘Evelyn Raymond the Monarch of Ages’ is gone has not yet become well known. Let’s get through the current threat and address the ‘champion’ issue when you are much stronger.”

“Now,” Og continued, “Let’s talk about training.”

Raymond and Lexi both nodded in agreement.

“I’ve seen Lexi practicing her aura. However, I believe she is rapidly approaching the limit of her abilities as a level 1 Acolyte. We need to get her some levels. As for Raymond, I have seen little of your skill but it is abysmally low compared to the stats you’ve displayed.”

Raymond frowned, “It’s not like I’ve had the chance to learn…” she mumbled.

“Which is precisely why this is necessary. There is a cave over that way with a hibernating Cave Troll. I want you two to work together to kill it. Show me your skills.”

Raymond and Lexi shared a nod. Raymond withdrew her sword from her bag.

“Anything I need to know about Cave Trolls?” Raymond asked Lexi, deferring to her larger amount of experience.

“All variants of Trolls have Improved Regeneration which allows them to heal injuries and regrow lost limbs rapidly. They can’t regenerate from their racial weakness. For Cave Trolls, their skin is very hard but their insides are highly flammable.” Lexi supplied.

“But since you’re still level one you probably can’t pierce the skin with your fire, right?”

“Right.”

Raymond smiled evilly, “Then I’ll beat it down and you burn it so that it doesn’t get back up.”

Lexi returned the grin, her ears flattening forward while her tail swooshed back and forth.

“Let’s go!” she hissed.

They followed Og’s directions and quickly found the entrance to the cave. Og entered ahead of them and a minute later they heard an enraged roar coming from within. Og came running out of the cave and then disappeared into the shadows. The Cave Troll was right behind him, raging. A small blade sticking out of its rear end was most likely the source of its agitation.

The beast was maybe six feet tall and had thick, craggy gray skin that was various shades of grey and black. Its upper body was bulky, causing the creature to hunch forward and drag its incredibly long and thick arms across the ground as it ran.

Greater Cave Troll - Level 30

“Power Strike!” Raymond promptly leaped forward and stabbed her glowing sword into the creature’s chest where she assumed its heart would be. The beast roared, looking down at the small girl as if surprised. Raymond twisted the sword as she withdrew it, attempting to widen the injury.

The Cave Troll showed no sign of pain. Raymond thrust her hand into the open wound and grabbed the edge of the beast’s stone-like skin as it swung an arm as if to grab her. She jumped back, tearing a chunk of stone off while Lexi ran forward, ducking under the arm and ramming a fistful of fire against the open wound. She pushed the fire with her mind, shoving it inside the injury before it could regenerate.

The ground shuddered as the Cave Troll roared in agony. It reached up and started swinging its arms wildly, beating at its chest as the flesh inside of it started to burn.

Raymond sidestepped its flailing arms, stabbing another Power Strike into the side of the creature. She pulled the sword out and punched the wound with Devastate to test her strength against the beast’s skin. The skin on her knuckle split against the rocky surface but the skin caved from the impact, crumbling the outer layer to dirt and dust.

Lexi ran forward but the creature recognized her as the greater threat and swung a fist at the catgirl. Raymond jumped in front of the blow, catching the arm that was twice as thick as her whole body. Her shoulder immediately dislocated and knees were forced to the ground but she managed to stop the blow. Lexi moved around the arm and stepped up to the open injury, filling it with flames.

The Cave Troll stumbled backward, roaring in agony as it fell to the ground and started to roll back and forth in a futile attempt to put out the flames. A few minutes later, it was dead.

Og appeared beside Raymond at the same time that blue notifications started to appear.

Level Upx2

Congratulations! You are now a level 15 Guardian!

Guardian Skills: Regeneration and Oppression Aura have been learned!

Immediately, Raymond felt the effects of the new Regeneration skill taking effect as her dislocated arm popped back into place and the skin on her knuckles started to regrow.

“How was that?” Raymond asked.

Og gave her an appraising look as he watched her injuries mend themselves.

“Not the worst I’ve seen. To still be aware and coherent after deliberately taking a blow from a Cave Troll though… your Endurance stat seems to be quite a bit higher than I was expecting.”

Raymond chuckled. “Yeah, my Endurance is pretty high. That thing was a lot more impressive than Ye-ti-ra though, think we could tame one?”

Og shrugged, “Maybe. Not before the attack though… it’d be a disaster if one of those things started rampaging behind our defenses.”

Raymond nodded, acknowledging the point.

“Also,” Og said, smirking, “Its name isn’t Ye-ti-ra. That’s its species. The Mountain Yeti language is monosyllabic and the ‘-ra’ part means mountain.”

“So they do have a language then? They’re capable of reason?”

“Every living thing has a language. Some just speak with actions rather than words.”

“Anyways, there are a few more caves nearby with Greater Cave Trolls in them. You two should take them out to get your Guardian class to at least level 18 and her Acolyte class to level 10. If you have any other skills or abilities that you’ve been neglecting, try to use those in addition to your normal tactics.”

Og turned to Lexi. “You dealt the killing blow so you should have gotten most of the experience. How many levels did you get?”

Lexi was staring at something in front of her. Her ears were perked up, but she didn’t react to the question.

“Lexi?”

The catgirl turned and looked at Raymond, her tail beginning to twitch with excitement.

“What happened?” Raymond asked, slightly concerned.

“I completed a requirement to unlock a Unique Job Class…”

“A Unique class?”

“Yeah…”

Og started to laugh. “I suspect the two of you are going to do accomplish some really interesting things.”

Raymond looked at the distant sun setting behind the snowy mountain peaks. Their surroundings were slowly darkening as they were talking. She walked over to the Greater Cave Troll corpse to see if there was some part that had escaped the flames. Specifically, she was hoping to find some of its blood. Since racial pathways were so exclusive, she figured it would be a good idea to focus on progressing hers as fast as she could.

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much but a charred husk remaining. Maybe with the next troll she’d try to sever a limb before burning the body…

“Let’s get going.” Raymond said, “We have stuff to kill.”

***

Level Upx6

Congratulations! You are now a level 7 Acolyte!

Acolyte Skills: Mana Crystal and Arcane Wisdom have been unlocked!

Acolyte Spell: Mana Barrier has been unlocked!

You have met 3/4 requirements to unlock a Unique Job Class!

-Live as a slave for more than half your current lifespan

-Kill your master

-???

-Defeat an opponent by exploiting a fatal weakness

Lexi closed the screens happily, humming to herself softly as she followed Raymond to the next cave.

***

Lord Mortimer’s request two days prior day had been a simple one.

“Legion and Lady Raymond need eyes and ears in this city. Will you serve and pay back the debt?”

After being saved by him, Kelsey really had no qualms about following the Overseer who brought about such a miracle. She suspected that her brother and one of her friends might be willing to follow Legion as well... with a little convincing. Especially if she told them about her recent experience. First, however. she had to take the plunge herself and see how it worked out.

Which is how Kelsey found herself returning to the Temple to see Eileen. She walked into the holy structure with the black Raven Lord resting on her shoulder. At first, she’d been worried about how big he was but it seemed he had the ability to make himself smaller. She received a few odd glances from her fellow priestesses but nobody stopped her or asked any questions. Familiars weren’t exactly rare, after all.

She approached the elegant double doors that stood between her and the new path that she was about to choose. As she raised her fist to knock, she hesitated. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest and her fists were clammy. She lowered her fist, wiping the sweat on her robes.

“Am I really going to do this?” she whispered to herself.

While technically she could always change allegiance as long as she had access to a Temple with a terminal, the decision she was about to make was not a small one. Legion was still a mostly unknown quantity. He hadn’t yet declared a domain… logic would dictate that the only people who would pray to him before knowing what kind of god he was were those who were either desperate, stupid, or exceptionally odd. She actually wouldn’t be surprised if he was receiving a large number of prayers already - the monsters races would certainly be desperate these days.

The fourth category would be those like Kelsey who were saved from a terrible situation by the god himself or by one of his followers.

“You seem to be troubled. Might I inquire as to the reason?” Lord Mortimer asked.

Kelsey snorted. “I’m only about to betray the ideals held by the human race for over a thousand years. I wasn’t exactly planning on helping pioneer a new era at 16, you know.”

Lord Mortimer laughed. “Age has little to do with my decision. Rather, your youth and inexperience only work in your favor. You are much more malleable and therefore will be much easier to mold into an excellent servant.”

Really though, for Kelsey the decision wasn’t as hard as she was making it seem. She truly felt like the teachings of the other Overseers were inconsistent and she liked the little glimpse of Legion that she had seen so far. She would take a bet on Legion and place her hopes in the new era.

Also, it was the logical choice. Legion was willing to accept monsters as his followers and the monsters vastly outnumbered the humans. If he could get consistent access to a Temple, the perk system and respawning... then it would be a bloodbath.

And she would be the catalyst.

While she didn’t particularly want to be the cause of the suffering of tens to hundreds of thousands of her fellow humans, she was smart enough to recognize which side was the right side to be on. The ‘being saved’ part had a pretty big impact on her decision as well.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t complain a little bit. It was a pretty stressful decision after all.

Kelsey took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She reached out and knocked, tapping the door twice.

Eileen’s ever-present bodyguard, Gerald, opened the door.

“Yes?” he asked.

Kelsey shivered as she met his dark eyes that seemed to penetrate the soul.

“I’d like to speak with Eileen.”

“About?”

She took another deep breath, making sure her voice wouldn’t waver.

“I’d like to convert to another Overseer.”