V left the church, preparing to head back to the Lanced Luskit. Judging by the sun's position, it was already late in the day, V was surprised that he slept so long. As he moved through the town, he listened in on the gossip. "L really was sent to us by the Gods! We never would have been free of that murder without her!" Most of the gossip was the same line of thinking, "I heard that only L and two of her team lived, I’m surprised anyone survived..." V nodded, if the town was focused on L, he might yet be able to keep his own status secret. So far, it seemed like the Captain had kept his class quiet, he was sure the Captain would have noticed his status' if he checked both his and L’s. He had not had a chance to re-hide it until he awoke in the church. He would have to thank the Captain for his discretion, and ask for it to continue.
"I heard one of our own guardsmen helped! I hear he is getting a medal!" "Everyone who survived is probably getting a medal, they probably all had Gods watching over them! You wouldn't have survived; I’ll tell you that much!" As V drew closer to the Inn, the gossip he had witnessed had amounted to much the same. People could not believe O was dead, they could not believe that anyone survived, and everyone was either talking about how they could never have faced her down, or how they could have taken O, but were too busy with their son’s birthday, or whatever convenient excuse they could think up. V sighed as he pushed open the door to the inn, idiots in every world. "Miss! I’m so glad you came ba-" The innkeeper’s daughter had ran over to the door as soon as it opened. As she saw that it was not L who had opened the door, she halted "Ah… sorry." The innkeeper looked over, "She has been jumping up every time the door opens, sorry about that. Oh, it’s you..." The innkeeper paused for a moment before continuing. "I can’t believe you survived, and you only have an arm injury to show for it. I see L is not with you. Is she well? News is that she survived, but the news is often not reliable by the time it reaches my ears. " The innkeeper shot a look at another patron, she shrugged innocently.
Nodding, V dropped into a nearby chair. "She is alive for now, although it’s up to the church to keep her that way." The innkeeper’s daughter had sidled over, her large, watery eyes ready to start pouring tears. "The Samurai lady is going to die?!" V responded as he shot a glance at the innkeep "Uh, well, no. The church will help her. She is just beat up real bad so she can’t come to the inn right now." Hoping to distract the little girl, he continued "I don’t know about the guardsman that came with us though! They were pulling parts of his chin out of his nose! The little girl's face scrunched up, looking a little sick. "That’s scary! And awful, and I bet that hurt..." She grabbed her own chin, as if to keep it from travailing up to her nose. "But if you don’t have a chin, you will look scary!" As the girl rambled, her father ushered her back to the counter. "Sorry, I'm sure you want a little peace. L is my girl’s hero, I hope you understand." V nodded "It’s good to have heroes when you’re young. I just hope hers survives." The innkeep nodded "I don’t like you, but you have done the town a huge service, today food is on the house."
As V ate slowly ate his meal, he pondered his next move. According to the man who rescued, or rather, stole, O. Things were only going to get worse once he left the town. The other champions may have been here for months, so not only did the Goddess that sent him here start him off behind, missing a bonus skill, not informing him of how his blessing worked, the purpose of the vase, and who knows what else she neglected to provide him, but he was also the last to arrive. The Gods used the green moon to declare the start of the game proper the day after he got here. V sighed, his situation sucked, but at the very least, he had survived his first real battle.
As he took stock of his situation, the door of the inn slammed open, startling some of the costumers. "Greetings citizens!" A loud, rotund man bellowed as he strode confidently into the inn, two town guards flanked him. "I was informed that one of the heroes of our small town had awoken and left the church! I wanted to be one of the first to congratulate them, and thank them for their service to the town!" The man was far too self-important for V's tastes. The way he talked, the way he carried himself, he was much like the politicians of his old world, however it would be better if he stayed on the man's good side. For now. The innkeep pointed toward V, "He just came in a little while ago. I’m sure he would appreciate a bit of peace and quiet though...." The man laughed with a large smile, "Of course, of course! You don’t win a fight with one of her kind without being a bit exhausted!" As the man chuckled, he walked over to V and grabbed him by the shoulders. V grit his teeth as pain shot through his shattered arm. "Ha..haha, yes I suppose you could say I'm exhausted" The man’s guards lazily found a chair and ordered a drink from the innkeeper as the rotund man spoke to V. "The reason I came is to congratulate you, and invite you to attend a small celebration the town will be having in two days. We don’t have many exciting events out here, so a great victory like yours certainly deserves a town celebration!" The man continued as he walked around and greeted the other patrons "I would love if you and the other heroes would attend. I will be able to present to you a suitable award, and the town can see its heroes standing together in triumph! It is sure to boost everyone's mood after the recent hardship, not to mention it’s a great start to a new age!"
V nodded in a friendly manner "I would be happy to attend. Between putting the townsfolk's concerns to rest, and the lure of a celebration, how could I not!" V lied as he put on a big smile. "I just hope that L will be recovered enough to attend. She was much worse off than my broken arm." V cocked his head "Although, your guardsman, I’m not sure he will want to attend. His physical appearance, as well as his mental state may not allow him to attend." The man nodded gravely. "I’ve heard about his condition, however I’m confident I can convince him to attend. I wish there was more I could do for the man. His service for the town has taken much away from him..." He laughed once again "Even so, I trust even his spirits may be lifted by the celebration!" V shrugged; he never had any illusions that he could sway this man’s opinion. Just going along with him was the best course of action for now. "Well, I hope you're correct. He had a large part in bringing O down, he deserves a break..." The man smiled "I’m sure he will recover, I look forward to seeing the three of you in the town bazaar in two days’ time!"
After the man greeted a few more people in the inn, and also congratulated the innkeeper on hosting two of the towns’ heroes, the man and his guardsman left. The innkeeper let out a massive sigh "The man gets on my nerves, but his tax rates are nice..." V smiled to himself, ah politics. "Well, he certainly is a rather self-assured man, isn't he?" The innkeep grunted "That is one word for it. Although to be honest I should not complain. Our town is given a large amount of freedom, most regions of our nation have a governor appointed by the senate. However, we, sort of, get to choose our own. We are too remote for anyone to pay us much attention." Now that was interesting information, with everything that had happened, and only being here for two days, V had yet to hear about the nation the town belonged to. However, he would have to hold his questions, it would be a little out of place for him to not know about one of this world’s nations, instead he nodded in agreement. "It’s nice that your town has that luxury." V had finished his meal, with little else to do he got up and headed toward to door. "I’m going to take a walk; I trust you have no problem letting me use L’s room when night falls?" The innkeeper pursed his lips, but after a moment shook his head "No, I don’t have any real issues with it..."
Stepping outside, V started to wander around the town. He had no real destination in mind at the moment, but just wanted to wander while he planned his next move. If he could not leave the town, for fear of what may lie outside, his only option would be to try and gain strength here. Considering L had described this as a sort of "starting town" it was almost certainly the best course of action to level up before leaving the area. There was an issue however, to reach level three, he needed a total of two hundred thousand experience. Based on Ekia's words, and his observations up to this point, that seemed wildly unfeasible. On that note, V had not discovered why exactly he had leveled up. It was yet unclear if his experience gained was a total amount, or if he had gained the one hundred thousand needed, and when it ticked over, it reset back to zero. However, even without knowing the exact way the numbers played out, he could safely assuming he had not gained one hundred thousand experience. That left only one option that he could think of. His level up had coincided with L’s surrender. It seemed then, as if his triumph over another champion, in this case, L surrendering, may have caused his Divine Class to level up. Based on what he had witnessed so far, it seems like something the Gods would have set up. Between the rules of surrendering, and the divine slavery rules, it appeared as if the Gods desired an ever-escalating conflict. It would only track that their champions would gain strength as they conquered each other. Another fact that worked in favor of his theory, is that when he first saw O, she was only level one, however only a few hours later she had gained a level, the only thing he could imagine to have happened in that time frame was when she killed that elf, who also seemed to have been a champion.
A sigh escaped V, if he could not reliably level up his divine class, he would have to acquire another class, and level that one. Luckily his "Jack Of All Trades" ability synergized well with that plan. The biggest obstacle at the moment was learning how to unlock a new class, and also surviving long enough to level it up. It was possible L would know more about it; she had been here a bit longer than him after all. Ah yes, L. That was another issue. He was unsure how she would take to the idea of working for him. He was sure that if she hated the idea enough, she would kill him, even if it meant her own death, or maybe she would just kill herself? And he still needed to figure out more information about how the slave occupation worked, again, L might know, but he doubted she was an expert on slavery. The best way would be to ask the man who owned the Shivering Shackle. However, it would certainly be best to simply wait till his arm healed first. The church said it would only take a few days, and he would hate to run into any unexpected circumstances while down an arm. He resolved to take it easy until his arm had healed.
