After eating, V stood up "I have to get some air. It’s been a long time since I have had the freedom to walk around." L nodded "I’m staying here, the sun aggravates my headaches still. Eika jumped up out of her chair "Eika is coming too! I want to walk around town!" V looked at her critically, "I know I’ve been gone a while, but I hope you have not forgotten to act miserable outside of the inn?" Eika shook her head "Nope! I’ve been practicing!" That was concerning. V sighed and gestured for her to follow. 

For a while he simply walked around town, it was nice to see actual people again: And to use his own legs, and to not be tortured. Really, all in all V had a lot to enjoy about his walk through the town. It seemed as if most of the town had heard about his capture in the forest, many people were gossiping about the rescue in the forest. One woman claimed her husband helped L kill "over twenty of the gorillas!" He smiled; it was nice to be back to normalcy. As he took in the refreshing feeling, he considered what the next move for him, L and Eika would be. Leveling swordsman in the forest was no longer viable, as he had started receiving reduced experience. He could of course try to level another basic class, it would be helpful to have a wider array of classes to call on, however based on his interactions with the other champions so far, setting around increasing basic class levels would eventually find him behind all the other champions. For example, no amount of level three or four basic classes would have helped him against E in the long run. They had to leave this town.

As he continued to wrestle with his own thoughts, Eika covertly tugged on his shirt. Looking down she gently nodded her head in the direction of the main plaza, which, in his aimless wandering, had already almost entered. He shrugged and headed in, when not being used for festivals, celebrations, or some other public function, vendors and hucksters alike set up shop, trying to make a quick sale. It reminded him of a bazaar, or open-air market. It was hard to differentiate the noises in the plaza, but one voice seemed more energetic than the rest, reaching out through the haze of sound. "A hero's relic! Our very own God's Champion! One gold for a shard of the sword that was used to protect the innocent!" V raised his brow in interest. He loved a good snake oil sales-pitch, but if L heard about this, there was certainly going to be an incident. He strode toward the vendor. "They say a piece of our God’s blessing resides in every shard! Take it with you on patrol, give it to your children to ward off bad luck! Place it on your mantel, and you never have to worry about those with less than honorable intentions prowling around!" As the vendor came into view, V was surprised to see that the man was, in-fact selling the pieces of L's sword. No other weapon in town had the same dimensions or construction, so it was immediately recognizable. He had expected the man to be selling a random broken sword. He grabbed Eika by the head roughly, the head grab was for appearances, his words were deadly serious. "I'm ordering you to never tell L about this under any circumstances. For everyone's sake." Erika's collar softly glowed, but the look in her eyes gave V the impressions she understood. He supposed Eika had spent the last month running around with L, the girl probably picked up on L's... peculiarities.

"Hello! Care to purchase a fragment of the holy sword? Only one gold!" The man happily greeted V. It seemed as if the man did not recognize him. Even though he was a "town hero," many people still did not know his face, L was always the center of attention in moments like the award festival. V leaned over the man’s table slightly. "Are you certain you wish to sell a living hero's weapon? An honest man would have returned the pieces to the Champion of Honor right away." The man's smile faltered a little bit "Well sir! You know that we all must make a living, I bought these shards with honest coin. One of the town guard gathered them on the night of the green moon!" V picked up a shard, holding the blade up to his eyes as he spoke. "Buying from a thief does not make you an honorable man. That guard had the good sense to find a sucker willing to buy a time bomb." The man's expression took on a more worried guise, his cheery nature faltering. "Well, if it was her sword proper, I would have returned it right away! But the shards do little to help her in this form. It’s not like she could wield a shattered sword, the shards don’t help her in any way!" V leaned in close to the man, "If the shards don't do anything, then why are you claiming they will bless your household?" The man started to panic. "Look, I’m just trying to make a living. We all have to do something to earn a coin right?" V shrugged "That is true, but most of us try to be a little smarter about it. Now, if you don’t mind, I think I am going inform The Champion of Honor of her sword’s status. Perhaps she will even reward me?" The man’s expression changed in quick succession "No don’t please, is that what you want? A bribe? uh, reward?" V crossed his arms and started the man down, "Look I’ll give you a few gold, and you just... let me sell the rest of these, ok?" V scowled "I have a better idea. You give me the shards, and I don’t tell the town guard you are dealing in stolen goods, and the Champion of Honor that her sword is being used as a marketing device."  The man was clearly defeated, the look of pained worry on his face as he nodded "Sure look, just... please don’t do that. Take them and get out of here." The man hurriedly placed the sword pieces in a woolen sack and handed them to V. Regaining a small fragment of his composure the man loudly called out "Wow good sir! You must be a man of high standing, to revere the Champion of honor so! To purchase all of the holy fragments is quite a sign of devotion!" The man gave V a pleading look. V smiled and left, heading down a nearby alleyway.

Once they were safely out of sight, V transported the fragments to his item storage. He looked at Eika "For now, you are still under orders not to talk about any of this to L." Eika nodded as her collar softly glowed. "Can't that man just report you?" V laughed genuinely, waving his hand in the air dismissively "He was an amateur. The moment I asked for the sword pieces he should have realized I was grifting him, he panicked, let his guard down. Eika, if you ever want to lie to people, you have to be as cool as ice. As for reporting me, why would he? He would simply be a link in the chain of guilty people. He would be reporting himself at the same time." V rubbed Eika’s head "Besides, if the person he bought it from was part of the town guard, I doubt reporting this "theft" would go over very well. There was never any danger of me or him doing that." V left the alleyway, and headed for the Blacksmith.

"Sorry, it could be done, but not by me." The Blacksmith dusted his hands off as he spoke "I’m used to forging simple swords and things like nails, horse shoes, and other simple items. If you need a better weapon, I have a few I could sell you. I did not make them, bought them from a reputable merchant that visits the town every few months. V shook his head. "Thanks, but I was really hoping to have these pieces forged into a new blade." Nodding the blacksmith responded "Well, it requires more skill than I have. I’m sure in the capitol there are any number of smiths who could do it, but it is above my skill level. I know how to do it in theory, but you would almost certainly end up with blade that would fail the moment it was swung if I did it." V thanked him and left the smithy. Eika quietly whispered, to V. He could hear the excitement in her voice, she was not supposed to talk when outside, but by the sound of it, she was barely able to stop herself from jumping up and down. "That is why it’s a secret! You are making a present!" V responded lowly "I figure she deserves one. She did rescue me from E. Plus, it would be nice to have a less...tense relationship if we are going to work together." Eika responded, louder than last time, her voice bursting with excitement. "Does that mean Eika will get a present as well! Eika helped in the rescue!" To be honest, he only came up with the idea of a present once he saw the shards of the sword. However, he already could feel that Eika's spirit would be absolutely crushed if he said he was not planning on giving her something. "Uh well, I’m not sure yet. I don’t buy presents often..." Eika nodded and tried to contain her excitement.

Later, once they had returned to the Inn, V took L out into the ally, leaving Eika inside to help the innkeep cleanup. He told L about the "rewards" for killing E, and how he chose the "E." He read out the description to her. "I know you are not going to like this idea, I even considered just… not including you in this decision. However, if it goes extremely wrong, you would have learned about it, and been even more upset. I want to use Eika to test out the "E." If it does something beneficial for her, with no negative side effects, then we know for the future. If it turns her into a gorilla mantis loving psychopath, then we should still be able to control her via the slave magic. I am aware that you will not approve of using Eika as a sort of test subject, and to be honest I’m not happy about it either. However, we have seen what the other Divine Champions can do, and those are the ones who simply have hung around this starting location. How much stronger are the ones who have been here for months? Or longer? We have to get a better grasp on things, or testing an "E" out on a rabbit girl will be the least of our problems." L crossed her arms and leaned back; she did not immediately respond. "It is true, we, and especially you, were thrown into the game behind most of the others. Even so, I am unwilling to comprise on what I believe to be honorable. Even so I do not approve of testing things upon Eika, she may be past the age of adulthood, at-least from my world, but she does not seem mentally capable of making sound decisions, I view her as a talented child. On the other hand, you are within your rights as the head of our... house, I suppose I should say, to act as you see fit. In Eika's case, by the laws of this land, you are even more within your rights to treat her as you wish. However, just as it is the duty of servants to obey, it is the duty of those who lead to care for those in their service. Should something unfortunate happen to the girl, I will see you take responsibility. V nodded, he wondered what type of leader he was in his past life. He could remember giving commands to others in the organization, as well as receiving commands but the details were hazy at best...

Later that evening, L, V and Eika were in their room. Eika sat on the edge of her bed as she listened to V. "I’m going to try and give you...something that I received in our recent battle. I’m not sure exactly what will happen." She looked on in excitement "Ohhh Eika is getting a present!" V gave a sidelong glance to L "Uh, Yaa. That is what I am hoping anyway." Eika's excitement stopped her from recognizing L's barely concealed look of disdain. V opened his item storage, he assumed that much like everything else, using "E" would also be an at-will action. 

┌——————┐
Caution, this action cannot be undone!
If target declines, "E" will be returned to inventory.
└——————┘

Interesting. "You might get a status message. Before you do anything, please read it out so that me and L can hear." Eika kicked her legs in excitement "ooohhh a status message." V was fairly certain he could have said anything and she would have reacted that way... V confirmed the action, and waited. A few seconds later Eika responded "OHHH THERE IS A STATUS MESSAGE!" L held up her hands "Keep it down, we are technically in a public place after all. "Oh...right..." Eika paused a moment "It says "Participant V is attempting to replace "Eika"" O hey! That's me!" V gestured "Yes we know, do continue." She rubbed the back of her head "ahah..right.... "Participant V is attempting to replace "Eika" with "E." If you accept, you will be granted the "Divine Slave" occupation, overriding all other occupations. Additionally, your currently selected class will be upgraded to Divine. You will not be granted a blessing, nor be eligible to win the God's Game" V and L looked at each other, L with a look of confusion, V however, nodded. "Actually, this makes sense. If the God's want ever escalating clashes, allowing for non-champions to become champions, or rather sub-champions, checks out." Eika read it to herself a second time, actually reading it rather than repeating it. Eika's eyes widened dangerously, her rabbit tail and ears stood at attention. "Awawawaw! Eika will be a divine champion?! Mama would be so proud! How did this happen! I’m going to be Eika, The divine tracker! Ill track everything! Everything will be tracked! No escape from Eika, the godly tracker! Eika tried so hard to be a good girl and here we are. Eika has made it! Time for Eika to be AWESOME!"