Time: Year 1739 Beginning of Month 8
Location: Riventra in the Derigan Kingdom
The Wooden League
Riventra was a city growing alongside the kingdom's main water source, the Silver River. Just as it was in Shinora, Riventra had a Post Office where they could receive requests. But the best part had to be that they didn't have to walk through the forest to go back to Shinora just to complete the quest. They simply brought the quest to the front desk workers who used mana to communicate with the Shinora Post Office and have them paid.
Since he was cataloging their inventory, Emerald tasked the ladies with getting new quests. They agreed and marched away almost immediately as he wondered how to spend two hundred coins wisely. He bought enough bread for each of them to have their own loaf, as well as another shield for his own protection. He didn't have any other reason to spend more money but a quick glance at apparel merchandise a merchant was selling made him doubt his sowing skills.
"Is there anything here that fancy's your eye?" The merchant grinned welcomingly.
"I'm looking for something durable," Emerald replied.
"I sale clothes, not armor," the merchant said, crossly.
"Do you know where I might be able to find a merchant selling armor?" Emerald asked.
"Good afternoon! I must say, sir, you have fine taste," the merchant said, turning towards another customer.
Emerald frowned and walked off. He'd just have to find the guy himself, though with all of the merchants looking somewhat similar, it was a pain to see them brush him off rather rudely when they realized he wasn't a paying customer. Though, the good news was that once he saw weapons being sold, an armor merchant wouldn't be too hard to find and eventually he found his guy.
The merchant was in a sea of young adventurers, like Emerald, buying all the new, better armor they could afford and leaving with arms full of protection. When it was Emerald's turn, the only armor that was available was used or torn. Still, Emerald wasn't opposed to sewing them up and as a result, he got a little discount for their usage. He backtracked his way to the entrance of the marketplace and went looking for his female partners. They were actually sitting on a bench close by, watching the kingdom's soldiers make their rounds. Their uniforms were shiny, gleaming in the sunlight and making a lot of female citizens gush at them.
"You ladies want a snack?" He asked. The ladies obliged as they watched the soldiers in silence. Once they passed, it was time to see what quests they got their hands on.
"Take a look at this," Diamond said as she opened the quest for them to see.
"Nice, another quest for protection," Emerald said as he skimmed over the quest.
"Not just any quest for protection, Rolly," Diamond pointed out. "It's a town takeover quest."
"What? Is it more bandits?" Emerald asked.
"Yes, but it's a bunch of them," Sapphire answered. "They're trying to take over a small town near here so the city is asking for help to fight them."
"But... what about the soldiers?" Emerald asked.
"Apparently, the town isn't big enough for a garrison to be stationed here," Diamond replied. "Those soldiers were the governor's protection force for he and his family."
"Well, what are the rewards?" He inquired.
"Gold, of course," Sapphire replied. "But, although it's not specifically stated, the people in the Post Office were hinting there might be some bigger reward for those who've stood out amongst the others."
"Yeah, I've been trying to figure it out," Diamond said. "What if it's a new sword? A secret ability? Or maybe even an ancient item?"
"Slow down, when and where does this event take place?" Emerald asked.
"In about a week at one of Riventra's towns called Aboen," Diamond said. "We need to prepare and possibly recruit another person before it starts too."
"Then we don't have time to spare," Emerald replied. "I got food and armor, for you Diamond, so we shouldn't have any issues in that regard. But we're going to have to improve our teamwork if we're going to be dealing with a large amount of bandits."
"Are we that bad?" Sapphire asked.
"Yes," Emerald said bluntly. "Diamond is getting injured over and over again. I'm running around getting abused until the Malevolent One is bored of me and I can miraculously swoop in to heal Diamond so she can continue to fight. Sapphire, you're good, but you're not experienced enough to be on the front lines."
"That's... brutal," Sapphire said as she took in the criticism.
"And these aren't going to be our average joes either," Emerald continued. "I'm certain we'll find a couple of big guys coming at us or a bunch of weaker bandits trying to cut us off. And then—"
"We get the picture Emerald," Diamond smiled. "You're worried about us."
"Yeah, I guess I am," he sighed. "But that's because you have something to prove. And to prove it, you have to win your fights."
"Then let's get this training underway," Diamond said. "If we use the map, we should be able to locate the Training Grounds pretty easily."
With their task now confirmed, the group of three walked the streets of Riventra, looking for the Training Grounds. Upon finding it, they saw many people sparring together or fighting earth dummies and using most of the field. Nonetheless, the group found an open spot to use and chose to use earth dummies to train with. Without so much of a preamble, the group split off on their own to fight their opponents.
Diamond blindly cut through the dummies, cutting off their body part with ease as they moved slower than real bandits. Sapphire created spears of ice and shot them at her enemies, piercing some on a single spear. They were doing pretty good, but if they did get hurt from a dummy getting too hurt, Emerald was already racing in to heal them after dodging the dummies attacks. However, the dummies soon became a little more resilient, a little more evasive. They became increasingly aggressive and even tactically focused on targeting Emerald. It became even more apparent when they tackled him, forcing him to yell in pain.
Hearing his distress, Diamond disengaged from her false opponent and rushed over to defend him. She sliced his dummy assailant apart but was pulled back her dummies advancing from behind. Sapphire had come to his defense as well and made a large wall that split the group of dummies in half. But there was still dummies putting pressure on them as the army started to be completely immune to their attacks. Unable to see her partners, Sapphire launched parts of the wall of ice at the dummies, knocking them back a considerable distance. As however, she was only able to keep up the barrage until her wall of ice was gone.
And then they all were fighting for their lives. There was no way they could help anyone else when they couldn't even help themselves. They were literally being buried alive and there was very little they could do... until the dummies sunk back into the ground, leaving the trio covered with all sorts of external physical damage.
"I take it you three are training for the event, right?" The group heard as they struggled to stand.
"Yeah," Diamond said, wincing from her injuries.
"Well, you won't last long fighting like that," the person said. "If you want, I can help you guys train and give you some pointers on how to fight better."
"How much would it cost?" Diamond asked as she gingerly dusted herself off.
"Only a handful of coins," the person replied. "My name is Peter and I'm a veteran adventurer. So what do you think?"
"A handful?" Emerald asked.
"Did you forget you were buried alive by practice dummies?" Peter smirked. "Besides if you take my words of advice, it'll be a lot better for you than finding it out the hard way."
"What do you ladies think?" Emerald asked in a hushed voice.
"I guess we could use some help," Diamond whispered back. "Although, if it's just some rudimentary common knowledge bullshit, I'll get my money's worth out of his ass."
"Okay, Peter, we'll take you up on your offer," Emerald said as he dumped a handful of coins in Peter's hand.
"Thank you," Peter replied. "Now, off the top of my head, I see a lot of things that needs to be corrected. For one, you guys are too far apart. Being in a group is all about watching your partner's back. You can only do that when you're in close proximity to each other. Unless you're Crimson Craig and can mow down enemies with one swing of your sword, you need to be mindful of your position and move forward in one direction together."
"He's not talking out of his ass, I'll give him that," Diamond muttered.
"Well, sticking together is important," Sapphire said.
"Second," Peter continued, "your fighting style is erratic and full of openings."
"Now that's a potful of shit, you little—," Diamond jumped up.
"Whoa, Diamond!" Emerald exclaimed.
"I'm not going to let someone criticize me just because I swing my sword a certain way," Diamond vehemently said.
"He's just giving advice," Emerald responded. "You paid for his advice. You can disregard what he says later but if we force him to leave then we just gave him money for nothing in return."
