After leaving the barracks, V headed toward the edge of town to inspect the area. He moved quickly through the streets, he had to meet back up with L in short order. He arrived at the outskirts of the town, back where he had first entered it. As the Captain of the Guard had said, it was mostly warehouses and a few workshops. Ideally, he would be able to lure O into the alleys and small spaces between the buildings. To be honest, he wished he had both the time and resources to come up with a better plan. Unfortunately, sitting around inside the town only worked to O's advantage. She could, and probably was, attempting to raise her level even higher, fighting the things in the forest, or perhaps those unlucky enough to be caught by her. Considering that O was only a woman, it was highly likely he could simply escape the area, leaving the forest, town, and O behind him. However, Ls words had convinced him this was a bad idea. If this place was really the "starting area" for champions, he could only figure it would get more difficult if he moved on to someplace else. For all he knew, the next town or location would have monsters of level thirty, or he might find some other murderer even worse than O. No, getting rid of O was the only way he could safely try to acquire, and level, a class like swordsman, running was not going to help him.

Finished with his inspection, V started heading back to "The Lanced Luskit." As he traversed the winding layout of the Town, he examined the daily goings on. Obviously, all anyone could talk about was the arrival of the "new age." He observed a few people who seemed to be building an addition on a shop as he passed. "Well, I heard this is the Age of Champions, I suspect there is going to be another great war. That's the only reason you would need a bunch of Godly Champions, right?" One of the other men responded. "Oh... I thought my brother said it was the Age of Campaigns." The first man replied "Are you daft? Why would you listen to a word your brother says? Remember the time he took that soup ladle and....." V moved out of earshot as the man recounted some tale or other. V had wondered why the Gods decided to be rather unsubtle about the whole thing. Declaring a new age, and being rather blatant about the existence of their various champions. He wondered if they wanted the people of the world to be ready for a war, maybe they intended for the game to bring the world as a whole to strife.

As he approached the door to the Lanced Luskit, the door swung open. Or rather, was slowly pulled open by the innkeeper's daughter. "Hello Mister! The pretty samurai lady and her friends are waiting for you! I was looking out the window. I wanted to help her wait for you!" The little girl bounced on her heels in excitement. "Well, thanks for opening the door, I’ll tell her you did a good job." The little girl bounded away, the last thing he heard before she disappeared into the back room was her telling her father that she "did a good job." V walked over to the table that L and her companions were sitting at. What a miserable group. The first was clearly the guardsman that the Captain spoke of, a man of middling stature, though he clearly had not been caring for himself. His eyes were sunken and his face looked strained. Sitting next to him was a woman who somehow looked even worse. If he did not know better, he would have guessed she was already dead. She was pale, her hair was a wreck, her lips thin, and her gaze was distant. V shot a doubtful look L's way. Across from the woman sat a man who looked quite a bit better than the rest of them. Large arms, alert eyes, determined gaze. V was surprised by the last man, his clothes led V to believe he was part of the local church. He was at-least fifty or sixty years old, V hoped the man could even keep up a walking pace.

"You must be the last of our crew!" the large man boisterously welcomed V. "Well, I suppose that is true, the name's V. I trust L has been laying out the plan while you have been waiting for me?" The gaunt guardsman nodded "It's not going to work, that woman is a monster, but if I can at-least, scar the woman, so that she never forgets what she did to my wife, that is good enough..." The woman did not say anything, her wild, dead look was a bit off putting. L spoke up "I got myself some new weapons. Not my preferred style, but it’s not like I could easily replace my blade. L displayed two well crafted looking short, bladed weapons. They sort of looked like a mix between a stiletto and a scimitar. "They are similar to something I once used... in the past" V nodded as she displayed a third blade, this time it was basically a long sword. "This on the other hand, is vastly different than my normal weapon, but it’s going to have to do. I will be unable to fight for very long with it. I will be outmaneuvered quickly."

"Would you speak with me for a moment?" V beckoned L over to another part of the room. "Sure, the guard and the man I can understand their use, and why they are here. But what about the old man? he looks like he can barely walk. Not to mention the woman, she clearly is not ok." L looked back at the group, where the large man was attempting to engage the other three in conversation, to absolutely no success. "Well the women deserves the chance. Her children were literally stomped into the ground while her husband, a town guard, desperately tried to stop O, I don’t know the details but apparently it was his day off, and they were outside the city on a picnic of sorts. They were the first recorded victims of O's cruelty. I am unsure why O let the parents live, maybe she simply thought it was fun, perhaps it was her first kill and she wanted to be careful. Either way, a day later her husband killed himself, leaving a letter apologizing for his inability to save their children. Even if the woman is of no help, she deserves a chance to take revenge. And if we fail and die, I doubt she will get another one before she dies of self-neglect." She nodded toward the clergyman "As for him... I’m not really sure. I was looking for the guardsman over there, when the priest stopped me in the road. Said he had a vision from his God, the first he had ever been granted in over fifty years of service to the church. Said that in the vision he witnessed a great battle, and that he was to aid in the fight. He is sure that the vision indicated that he would die, but his sacrifice would bring peace to the Town, and he would be rewarded for his service in the afterlife."

V pondered that for a few moments and spoke quietly "Are the Gods allowed to interfere in the game? And if so, is there a reason that the God of Honor would not have had his entire congregation aid you? I'm sure if you were to slay O, it works to his advantage, being a rival in the game and all." L shrugged "I was not told explicitly if the Gods could interfere or not, but I would guess that it is not a free for all. The Gods have demonstrated enough power that I can only assume they could easily kill any one of us on a whim." V folded his arms, thinking "That is true, I suspect that there is limited intervention allowed, otherwise, why would they have the game on a world that actively has major religions dedicated to most or perhaps all of them? If it was entirely hands off, they would have done it on a world like mine, where they basically have no social influence, at-least I don’t think they did. Either way, let’s hope his vision is correct, and we succeed." V took another look at their allies "And the big one?" Shrugging L responded "To be honest, I did not even know much about him. The guardsman said he might be interested in helping. Apparently his brother was a part of the punitive force put together by the Town. Needless to say, they did not survive."

"As for the location of the fight, I scouted it out. It’s going to be near the warehouses at the edge of town. If I could find a way to lure O into the alleys, it would be way easier to ambush her, though I'm not sure how I would go about that. The only thing I could think of is if I revealed my class to her and taunted her over being tricked by my bluff; hoping that and the lure of killing another participant in the game, makes her abandon her good judgment and approach the town." L sighed, "It’s not the best idea, but O is more like a wild animal than a person. A wolf would normally avoid fire, but make it angry enough, and hang a big chuck of meat in front of it, and the wolf will abandon its fear of fire, at-least until it kills you." As V responded he pulled out the throwing knives he bought. "Ya I suppose. If that does not work, this whole endeavor is going to fail. So about these throwing knives. I’m going to need someone to help me learn to throw them in the next few hours. It’s not even going to count as a distraction unless the knives fly in her general direction." L gestured toward the guardsman "He is best suited to teach you something like that. The "Guard" class is fairly generic, leading to a wider array of usable weapons." 

As V recruited the gaunt man to assist him, L sat back down with the others. The guard spoke, in his weak voice "Lets practice out back, it would be rough if you were bad enough to hit someone here." V followed him outside "Depending on your class, even learning the basics of throwing a knife might be a big ask. We only have a few hours before nightfall, even a class that is very well suited to throwing knives will only be able to throw at a short distance. As the throwing knife is a popular tool of the criminal elements of the town, we all have at-least basic familiarity with the technique. Can't avoid what you don’t understand." He stood V a few feet away from the wall of the Inn. "Whatever hand you’re going to throw with, its best to put the opposite foot forward. Then you’re going to need to grip the knife right around the balance point" The guard examined the knives "Well, you’re going to have to sort of wing that part. These are rather low-quality knives..."

Inside, the priest spoke with L "As a champion of our God, do you find it difficult to work with a man of so little honor?" she turned her head, in a small amount of surprise. "You just met the man; how could you know of his nature?" The old priest smiled "Never met many priests have you? At a certain point, most of us gain a certain sixth sense about these sorts of things. Some of the higher ranked priests can even read a souls aura. To be honest, if you also bear the blessing of our God, you may develop a sense for it yourself." L nodded. "Tell me, what do you know of the God's blessings?" The old man smiled "Precious little. Only a handful of people have held a blessing in recorded history. It is said that the effects of a blessing are based on both the God which the blessing comes from, and the person being blessed. Perhaps as a warrior, your blessing responds more to the field of battle, rather than to the souls of others." L nodded, that seemed sensible.

Two hours later, V and the guard returned inside. The large man grinned "Done already? I hope that is a good sign." The guard weakly nodded "He has great coordination, and his ability to follow instructions, and recreate the techniques was exemplary." V also was wearing a smile, for the first time since coming here, something had simply just, gone according to plan. Perhaps because his body was stronger and more coordinated than his old one, or perhaps it was because of his all B attributes, but he was able to pick up the basics of knife throwing quickly enough. No master certainly, but he could reasonably expect to hit things a few feet away. It was at-least good enough to threaten O. He looked at the group, "We should rest up, be at our best once the sun goes down." The large man stood up right away "Good idea! That woman is going to take every ounce of strength we can muster!" The man tried to pay the innkeeper for a room. At this point however, the innkeep had clued in to what this gathering was about. "Feel free to use whatever room is open to rest, and I hope to see you all come back tonight! I’ll be charging you then!" The large man laughed loudly once again, before heading off. The guard, old man, and L followed. V looked at the women, still setting at the table., she needed rest worst of all by the look of things. "Not going to rest at all?" the woman shook her head weakly and muttered "I can’t close my eyes anymore....... child's face.... hanging" her muttering was difficult to understand but V got the gist. Examining her closely, he checked her status, apparently un-hidden.

┌——————┐
Name: N/A
Age: 35
Race: Human
Occupation: Widow
Class: Cook lv 8
Skills: "Enhanced Smell lv 5" "Animal Knowledge lv 5" "Herb Knowledge lv 5"
Available Blessings:
Gift of the Mother Goddess "Mother's Vengeance" [ ]
Gift of the Mother Goddess "Mother's Wrath"    [ ]
└——————┘

V hesitated; he had never seen a box like that on someone else's status. It normally indicated something he could toggle or activate, like hiding his status. He wondered if he could acquire more information. Focusing on the first blessing's name, information filled his mind again.

┌——————┐
Gift of the Mother Goddess "Mother's Vengeance"
A blessing given by the Mother Goddess to her worshipers.
└——————┘

Of course not. That would be too easy. To be honest, in other circumstances V would have left the situation as it was. He had no desire to be ousted as a Divine Class, and messing with things he knew nothing about seemed like a good way to get in trouble. However, the allure was twofold. First, he had a great desire to learn as much about status's as he could, as it seemed vital to his survival. Secondly, this woman was not going to survive through the night. That much was obvious. Even if his interference with her status caused her to learn of his secret, it’s not like she would be a loose end for long. Focusing on the box next to "Mothers Vengeance" he attempted to activate it, the same way he activated the hide option on his own status. After a short moment, her status changed.

┌——————┐
Name: N/A
Age: 35
Race: Human
Occupation: Widow
Class: Cook lv 8
Skills: "Enhanced Smell lv 5" "Animal Knowledge lv 5" "Herb Knowledge lv 5"
Blessing: Gift of the Mother Goddess "Mother's Vengeance"
└——————┘

The women did not react. It seemed that she had not noticed the change. More interestingly, it appeared as if he had been able to change someone else's status. He wished he knew more of the details. What did that blessing do? Why was he able to see it? Was it the power of his blessing? Or was it a side effect of being the Mother Goddess's champion? As none of these answers seemed forthcoming, he decided to solve a different mystery. "Would it be too much if I were to ask for your name?" he gently asked the women. She shook her head "It does not matter, my name doesn't matter anymore" V nodded, as he had started to suspect, various parts of statuses and abilities worked on your own self-awareness. This woman clearly did not think her name mattered anymore; she was basically a walking corpse. Therefore, her name on her status reflected that. L's ability worked in a similar manner, her perception of what is and is not honorable activates her ability, not a pre-established rule set. He spoke to the lady again "Its ok, you will get your vengeance, I’m sure of it." Before he walked up the steps to rest, he asked the innkeeper to give the women a mug of water, just in case she decided to drink something. The innkeep gravely nodded.