Chapter II: Equipping The Heroes!

"Alright, so, now that I have all of your attention once more, allow me to first introduce myself again, I am the Goddess, Shiva, the current Goddess of Atlas, and I have summoned you all here to defeat the Demon King." Shiva declared after letting out a slightly exhausted sigh.

She had spent the last ten minutes trying her hardest to get her heroes to stop fighting with one another, for it wasn't long ago the five of them came to the conclusion of needing a leader for their group.

She, at first, tried to tell them that she would be handling all of the important talks and whatnot, and that she would be leading them, but none of them paid her any attention, and basically ignored her. They were all adamant about becoming the leader of the group, except for Brendan who was asked by each and every one of them if he would support them and not their colleagues.

"Just the thought about how they were all willing to kill each other just to be the leader of the group makes me wonder if these guys are actually villains instead of heroes." Shiva thought with a shudder going down her spine.

Indeed had she not used some magic to gain their attention, she would have bear witness to her heroes killing one another for almost all of them were smirking viciously and glaring at one another while leaking out a tremendous amount of killing intent.

None of them said anything upon hearing this information once more from her except for one.

"How many times are you going to introduce yourself? It's getting kind of old and stale."

Angel, the one Shiva found to be the rudest of them all had said this to her, all while maintaining that straight face of his that she sees as annoying.

And it was because of him saying this, Simon also spoke his thoughts on that topic.

"Agreed, it's kind of getting old, just like Evan and his attempts of picking up girls."

"Oi, are you wanting to feel how hard I can punch, Simon?" Evan questioned while shooting him a glare.

As Simon was about to respond, the Goddess clapped her hands together and said in a loud and stern voice like how a mother when dealing with her two misbehaving children. "Enough!"

This had gained their attention once more, and upon having all their eyes back on her, she put her hand on top of her forehead, and said in a slightly tired/irritated tone. "Can you guys please stop going at one another's' throats, and start taking this seriously? An entire world rests on your guys' shoulders and seeing you act like this troubles me greatly."

"Well, I mean, I'm not trying to be mean here, but like, you haven't exactly told us anything important," Baun told her with only a hint of apology in his voice. "all you have said so far really is that you're a Goddess of the world and that we need to defeat the Demon King."

"Yeah." Brendan affirmed.

"I mean, he's not wrong." Angel agreed with some reluctance.

"Yep." Simon assured.

"Mmm, that's pretty accurate of what we've been told so far." Evan declared with a few nods of his head after giving it a little thought.

Realizing that what Baun said was nothing, but the truth, Shiva exhaled softly, and said in a much more relaxed voice. "I see, well then let us move onto the next thing, your status windows. Everyone say, status."

"Stats."

"Attributes."

"Properties."

"Statistics."

"Status."

Upon the five uttering these words, only one them had a 3D window pop up in front of them that displayed all of their stats for her to see, and that was Brendan. He was the only one that said the word she told them to say.

"... I said, status, sta·tus." She said to the four after silently staring at them with a look of annoyance. She had assumed they were going to finally stop messing around, and get serious, but it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

"I mean, I don't see why mine didn't pop up, I basically did say that. I just shortened it." Angel told her with a shrug.

"... I just said attributes so you can look at me like that." Evan revealed with a toothy smile. "Your annoyed face is kinda hot."

"Yeah, I just wanted to mess with you, and see how you'd react." Simon told her with only a bit of amusement in his monotone voice.

"I was just wondering if it would appear if I used a synonym, you know? Because properties is a synonym of status." Baun explained in his defense.

Shiva said nothing at this, and did her hardest to maintain a neutral expression, but underneath it, she was losing it.

She could understand Baun's reasoning, and surprisingly Angel's, but both Evan's and Simon's reasoning was triggering.

Feeling like they needed to get a move on and actually start being serious, Brendan said, "Come on guys, let's just listen to what she tells us to do, I kind of want to see this other world."

"Brendan!" Shiva practically cried with tears of happiness. "I'm so glad you're at least taking this serious! Honestly, if you weren't here I'm not sure what I would do!"

Meanwhile, as she finished this thought of hers, Evan curtly told Brendan while shooting him a sharp look. "Shut the fuck up Brendan before I beat you like how I beat your whore mother."

"Oof." Was what Angel said upon hearing this declaration while Baun said, "Damn, Evan was a little savage there, not gonna lie."

"Alright well that's a little far there, Evan." Brendan told him while friends said that stuff.

"You think?" Shiva thought while looking at Brendan with surprise in her eyes. She couldn't help from being a little amazed by his somewhat unfazed attitude, for had she been in his place, she probably would have snapped at him.

"Sorry, I was still a little upset with you ditching us yesterday, so I couldn't resist the temptation of telling you to shut up." Evan apologized while laughing and scratching the back of his neck.

Shiva couldn't believe the logic she had just heard, and had to fight off the urge of calling him a jerk and so much more that were pretty vulgar.

Meanwhile, Brendan exhaled loudly and said to him with the tiniest bit of irritation in his voice while shooting Evan a glare. "I already said I was sorry for that."

"I know," Evan revealed as a shit-eating grin took form on his face. "but that doesn't mean I forgive you for it."

Finding it harder and harder to not call Evan terrible things, Shiva began to shake uncontrollably.

"You guys," She started in a low voice that was just loud enough for the five of them to hear before taking a deep breath and calming herself. "are really starting to get under my skin, so can we just get the explanation of the status window and your status' done and over with so we can move on?"

While not entirely sure what it is they were doing was wrong, Evan offered her an apology. "I'm sorry, had I known we were agitating you this much I would have never done it."

"No you wouldn't, you're a piece of shit." Angel stated as he shot a scowl at Evan.

"Yeah, who you trying to fool, nigga?" Baun questioned.

Not wanting to hear any more of it, the Goddess said to them all. "Anyways, let's go over your status'."

Once finished with her explanation of the status window, what happens to them when they die, and why she will be accompanying them on this journey, Shiva let out a slightly relieved sigh.

She had feared they would interrupt her, and make fun of one another's stats, but to her surprise, they did none of that, and instead listened to what she had to say, and kept their comments down on the low.

"While, I'm thankful they didn't interrupt me and start another argument with one another, I can't help but feel like I"m just going to have to get used to how they act." Shiva thought as her lips curved down slightly.

She wasn't a huge fan of that idea, but seeing how they were all in their late teens to early twenties, she found it highly unlikely they would change their attitude and behavior for her, which was something she saw to be very unfortunate.

Nonetheless, she was just happy that they had some sense in them, for had they continued to be immature, she probably would have just given up then and accepted the fact that her world is doomed.

"Alright, now that we have all of that out of the way and done, let me open up a portal to Atlas, so that we may get you all some equipment." She told them after feeling like there was nothing else important she needed to tell them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the phone, we haven't even talked about rewards, so we can't leave yet." Angel declared in a serious tone.

Shiva wasn't the only one confused by his declaration and said in unison with Angel's fellow heroes. "Rewards?"

"Yeah," He affirmed. "I had asked you earlier about what's in it for me, and you still have yet to answer the question, so until then, I'm not moving. Not until I know what I'm getting out of it."

"Dude, are you for real?" Baun questioned while giving him a dubious look. He wanted to believe that he was just joking and messing with her, but because it was Angel, he wasn't sure if he was or wasn't.

"No, I just brought this up because I wanted her to look at me with disgust because I'm a weirdo like Evan." Angel sarcastically answered which earned a surprised and offended, "Hey!" from Evan as he rolled his eyes.

"Of course, I'm being serious here, I want something out of this." He finished in a voice that was more along the lines of annoyed now and not even bothering to acknowledge Evan's outburst.

At this, Baun was a little flabbergasted and had to resist the temptation of smacking him upside the head.

Meanwhile, Shiva was at a complete loss of words. She had, without a doubt, planned on rewarding each and every one of them should they prevail and defeat the Demon King, but after hearing this from him, she was tempted not to reward them at all.

"Yeah, I also wanna know what we're getting out of this," Simon admitted with a nervous chuckle. "like we're going to be putting our lives on the line here, so I also want to know what we get out of this."

"Wow, and they call me the piece of shit." Evan declared with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, for real." Brendan agreed with a look of disappointment in his eyes.

"Look, you guys know me, I'm not somebody that does something unless I'm getting something out of it." Angel proclaimed. "Yeah saving the world might be fun and all, but unless I'm getting something cool out of it, I see no reason why I should do it."

"I agree." Simon declared with a nod of his head. "Unless we're getting something out of it, we're not gonna do it."

"... Okay, do you two have something in mind?" Shiva asked after several seconds of staring at them.

At this, Angel gave it some thought before smirking viciously and saying. "I want the power to kill a God."

"Not happening." She rejected instantaneously.

"What? Why not!?" Angel asked in a surprised manner.

"Are you really asking that?" Is what everyone in the room thought except for Simon and Angel.

Deciding to ignore his question, Shiva shifted her gaze to Simon and said to him. "What about you? What would you like as your reward?"

"Huuuhhh, what would I want?" He asked himself out loud as he pondered the question. "Oh, I know! I want a bear! A God-killing bear!"

"Are you, are you being serious?" Shiva asked him after a few seconds of staring at him with astonishment. She couldn't tell if he was being serious or if he was just messing with her due to his voice being so monotone.

"... Yes." He told her after silently staring at her.

"I-Okay then, at the end of this you'll get a God-killing bear." She announced.

She had thought about denying his request, but instead, just simply decided to approve it since she didn't want to hear a much more unreasonable request.

"Wooooowww! Okay then." Angel stated after hearing Simon's request get approved. "You don't approve of my request, but you approve of his? Alright, I see you."

Shiva said nothing at this, and thought. "This is gonna be a long journey."

After listening to a few more requests of his, which were all denied, Shiva told him they'll discuss his reward later, and that for now they need to Atlas and get their gear before the shops close.

Angel, of course, was reluctant to go, but was eventually convinced to go through the teleportation portal by his friends.

Once they went through, the six of them were met by the sight of grassy hills with a town on the horizon.

"Huh, I don't know why, but I was expecting this world to be a little bit more different." Evan confessed with a small frown after looking around.

"And what exactly were you expecting?" Baun asked him with a trace of curiosity in his voice. He wouldn't admit, but he was also expecting the world to be a little different than Earth.

"I don't know, like two suns maybe with one of them being red and the other one being yellow and maybe three moons?" Evan answered as he shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, this world is another world, so I was expecting its sky to be somewhat different than ours."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Brendan agreed.

"Shut up, Brendan." Evan instinctively told him earning a chuckle from his friends.

"Damn Evan, why you so mean to Brendan today? What did he do to you?" Angel questioned with a tiny smirk and amusement in his voice. He was having a hard time holding him back his emotions this time.

"Just because." Evan told him with another shrug of his shoulders.

As they were saying these things and more, they made their way to the town on the horizon.

Once arriving at the town, they began to make their way to the armor/weapon shop, and as they did they continued to chat with one another. Meanwhile, Shiva couldn't help but notice some of the townspeople were sending them some questionable gazes.

She wasn't the only one who noticed the looks they were getting, almost everyone except for Simon had noticed them, and started to wonder why they were receiving these looks as well as talk about it with one another and give guesses as to why they were getting these looks.

Of course, the reason why was because of the tattooed people in the group, Evan and Baun.

Tattoos weren't something that existed in this world, and the only thing close to it was a Demon's marking, so seeing it on their bodies was enough to attract their attention.

Obviously, both Evan and Baun were unaware of this, and simply assumed it was because of the clothing they wore, for it was from another world entirely.

Upon reaching the armor/weapon shop, the Goddess told them before entering to let her do the talking. After that was said, the six of them entered and were instantly greeted by the shopkeepers, which happened to be a large, burly bald man with brown skin and a great big beard, and a woman with fair skin, long black hair, violet eyes, and a slender but somewhat curvy figure.

They both appeared to be in their early to mid-thirties, and the woman had a beauty mark on the left side of her face, while the man had a scar going down his left eye and to his cheek. As for their attire, the man wore a chest piece that protected only his upper torso with a grayish tank top like shirt underneath it, he wore a belt with brown pants, and brown boots that had fur cuffs.

As for the woman she wore a white and red tunic that went down to her mid-calves making it look like she was wearing a dress.

"Welcome to the Iron Maiden, what can we do for you?" The two of them said in unison as the heroes and Goddess moved to the counter.

"I need five of your best sets of armor and weapons." Shiva revealed as she had a large brown bag that was filled with gold coins manifest in her right hand.

She then put on the counter, and as she did this, Evan whispered in a voice that wasn't as quiet as he thought it was.

"Not gonna lie, I'm a little envious of this guy here, his wife is smoking hot."

At this, the woman blushed a little while the man couldn't help from grinning. He knew his wife was beautiful, but hearing somebody say they were jealous of him made it impossible not to smile.

While they did this, Baun whispered something as well, but unlike Evan, he was a little quieter. "I agree, she is hella hot, but if I'm being real right now, I kind of wanna fight this dude, he looks pretty tough, so I kind of wanna throw hands with him."

Shiva said nothing upon hearing them say these things, but she was a little relieved the male shopkeeper didn't get mad at Evan for looking at his wife like that.

After checking the bag, the male shopkeeper nodded, and said as he looked at the six of them. "Alrighty, follow me to the back, and we'll get you all suited up with some of the best stuff we've got to offer."

To Be Continued...