“Man, the last town that I was with took nearly two years before they were solid enough to field a real army,” Sahara said.
“It’s true, man,” Bidane said as she crossed her arms. “It’ll take forever.”
“We don’t really have time to rebuild,” Sang whispered in Van’s ear.
“It’s not so bad,” Van said. “Let’s put together a task force, call out for some workers and—”
“How about this?” Kylian said, “How about we put together a mercenary company instead? It would be a faster way to raise an army without having to waste time building this town. Then when we’re big enough, we could go seize another town and claim it in the name of Silver Peaks.”
Van wrinkled his face. That wasn’t the worst idea in the world, though. He looked at Sang. “Thoughts?” he asked.
“I say we pick whatever choice is the fastest,” she said.
“A mercenary company is the fastest!” Dolly interjected. “And it’ll let us get in on all of this season’s war action!”
The group heartily agreed to that much.
The more Van thought of it, the better an idea it sounded. Rather than spend all of his energy trying to build a town, he could just put together a killer mercenary team. Why hadn’t he thought of this before?
“Alright, team, I think we’ve got a new plan,” Van said with a wide grin. “Let’s ditch this town and focus on starting a mercenary company. Then we’ll just build an army so we can participate in the war season without having to wait!”
”Hear, hear!” Kylian said. “That's the kind of plan I can get behind!” the rest of the team heartily agreed, as well.
“So, what I’m thinking,” Van said as the plan began to unfold more in his mind, “is that we start off fighting with some weaker nations in order to gain numbers. After we grow enough, we’ll strike at Ceren!”
“That sounds a little crazy,” Sahara objected. “A lot of kingdoms are getting shredded by Ceren’s forces.”
“No guts, no glory!” Van said. “I’m not the kind of guy who settles for second best. Just because Ceren’s being run by a pro doesn’t mean we can’t take them down.
“That seems a little crazy,” Dolly said.
“Aw, come on!” Van said. “Think about it. The mere fact that we’re underdogs means that we have a chance! No one wants Ceren to win this big conflict. And a lot of kingdoms have been trashed by King Lemuel, and people are getting sick of it! By getting these smaller kingdoms’ support, we can potentially take a unified force against them.”
“Well, it’s something high-reaching, that’s for sure,” Kylian said. “I like it. I feel, for one, that it is patently crazy, but who cares? I didn’t survive two shootings to be cautious in some video game. Let’s do it!”
“Good point... I’m in!” Dolly said.
“I’m chill enough to do whatever, really,” Sahara said.
Bidane nodded. “It beats sitting around here and waiting for some timer to go off.”
Capello didn’t say anything. He just sat there and blankly stared forward.
“Uh, are you in?” Van asked.
Capello blinked a few times and moved his head. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was afk. What’s up?”
“We’re going to go kill a bunch of bad guys,” Kylian said.
“Oh, hell yes! I’m in for whatever it is! I don’t even care who it is!” Capello said as he leapt up from his stool and drew his axes.
“Relax, cowboy,” Kylian said. “There’s no one to kill yet.”
“Aw, you got my hopes up.”
Van grimaced at the exchange. It was clear that Capello would be a murder-hobo. The traditional joke from old tabletop adventure games was that, since player characters were usually wandering adventures without homes or jobs, they were hobos. A murder-hobo was the kind of player who wasn’t really interested in doing things like roleplaying or having conversations, but was rather interested in just fighting people. They were prone to severe violence and would kill anyone for any reason. Van made a mental note to keep tabs on Capello in the future.
“Alright, it’s settled then!” Van said, holding up his fist high. “We are united! We shall make the epic journey on foot to seek the blessing of the King of Bikorn!”
“Why do we need his blessing?” Sang asked.
“It officially forms us as a mercenary company and gives us a reputation. It’s super important if we’re going to reach Bloodrock,” Van whispered.
“Cheers to that!” Kylian said as he raised his glass high. “Welcome back, Van. It’s time for us to actually do something fun around here!”
Chapter Four
“This is not my idea of fun!” Capello said as he thrust his shovel into the ground, pushing up the loose dirt.
“Quit complaining,” Sang said. “Everyone has to do something when we’re setting up camp.” She could not believe the sheer amount of backtalk that she received from the new members of the party. They were willing to listen to Van’s instructions, but whenever it came to her giving orders, they’d back-sass or complain to Van.
Van had chosen to delegate camp management to Sang, and she was trying to run things as effectively as she could, but there was a considerable amount of resistance from the others. For some reason, they just didn’t seem to trust her.
“Alright, crew!” Van shouted as he walked into the center of the camp. They had been out in the Windswept Crags for a few hours before it had gotten too dark for them to continue their journey. The campgrounds weren’t ideal, as they were in the middle of a canyon, but Van was confident that the team had the combined skills to turn it into a great area for resting. He strolled towards one of the tables and placed a map on it. “Here’s the deal. We’re going to have to travel for a good distance before we’re able to reach the Kingdom of Bikorn. There are a lot of problem areas that we can either go around or fight through. Judging from our numbers and power levels, I would say that we have a fair shot at fighting our way through just about any area, but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
“I’m dying for a fight!” Capello said as he threw his shovel to the ground. “I’ve had enough shoveling. Three days in a row, I’ve been shoveling!”
“Yeah, and I’ve been cooking for the last three days!” Sahara said as she leaned over a horribly burned pig roasting on a spit. “I’m sick of it!”
Van raised his hand. “Hey, gang, no complaining. We’re all given tasks and chores. If you want to do something different, sorry, but don’t fuss about it; you’ve got to be respectful of Sang’s leadership. She’s the camp leader, so that means that whatever she says goes.”
“Whatever she says?” Capella asked. “All she does is tell us to do whatever we did last night!”
There were more than a few fussy shouts from the crew. Even Kylian piped in, “I’m honestly tired of having to hunt. I thought we’d be changing up jobs every night.”
Van looked at the small group and back at Sang. He shrugged. “Sorry, but my orders stand. She’s in charge. Get back to work before it gets any later. We need to have our rest bonuses if we’re going to be marching through dangerous territory tomorrow.”
There was a wave of grumbling as the party went back to their respective chores. Van walked away from the map and over to Sang.
“Hey, a word?” he asked.
“I know, I know,” she said. “I just can’t seem to get these people to listen to me! All they do is fuss.”
“They’re just not used to you. But no, we need to talk about something more important. You’ve seemed really antsy lately,” he said. “I’m worried something’s up.”
Sang grimaced. “Look, I don’t want to come off as frustrated with you or complaining in any way, but… things aren’t going so well with the brass right now. My latest report informed them that we have to go on some sort of grand quest to become mercenaries, and my bosses are pissed. First off, they don’t really understand how this game works at all. You try explaining leveling up to a bunch of old men who’ve made their careers working in the government. So, they’re putting a lot of pressure on me right now. I think they assumed things would move very quickly, but now that we’ve been playing for almost a week without anything to show for it, they’re starting to get impatient.”