We had just left the castle gates, we where talking about what we should do during our travels. "I think I'm going to explore the town for a few days to get used to the place, I'm going to see if I can recruit some trust worthy companions, buy some armour and I'm probably going to try and level up a bit." I exclaimed. I heard Nate whisper to themselves, "I wanna figure out a way to ditch these guys, they give me awful energy," I gave a confused but understanding look because I knew how bad Nate was at adjusting to new people. I whispered to Nate, "Hey, once you have ditched these guys, you can come party hunting with me to try and find people who seem easy to get on with," Nate nodded and we both ran off from Nate's party, and just like that, Nate removed everyone from there party and bolted it into the medieval looking town. We heard Nates party members trying to chase after us but they where stopped and I heard some giggles from Jess and Mariam while they where watching us speed into the town.
"huf, huf,...... WELP THAT JUST HAPPENED," I said still catching my breath, "yep, that was funny," Nate replied. This probably looked really strange because there where a pair of teenagers dressed in strange outfits, our uniform but they didn't know that, with weapons. As soon as we knew it, we got a bunch of confused stares in the streets so we quickly got out of there without causing much a commotion.
We did some people watching a found out where we could get some good armour, we approached this weapon shop, and as we entered we stumbled across Mariam and the red haired girl choosing some armour to start off their travels. The guy at the counter greeted us and this caught the attention of the red haired girl and Mariam. Mariam seemed happy to see me and Nate but her face turned to more of a smirk, as if she was about to giggle, "What was that all about outside the castle, we didn't even get to part ways, you guys just ran off into town," she said trying to contain her laughter, "Haha, Nate wanted to find their own party so we ran off in order to get away from the people who chose Nate, because Nate got bad vibes from them," I stated awkwardly, "Hello, sword hero, bow hero," said the red haired girl giving off obvious two face vibes, "hi......" I said quietly while looking in another direction, Nate stayed quiet, Mariam gave an awkward smile, "We have just finished choosing out my armour, also I can't wield a weapon other than this shield so that's a bummer," she sighed. "Anyway, we are going to go grind some levels, so I'll probably see you later, because Ash, you said u where going to get used to here for a little bit, so I'm assuming that Nate is going to stick with you until they find some teammates, byeeeee," Mariam waved goodbye while leaving the weapon shop, "Byeeeee," Nate and I waved her off.
We approached the counter where the weapon shop guy was stood, he looked happy because it seemed like he was happy to be serving the legendary heros. "Welcome!!!" the weapon shop guy said from behind the counter, I replied awkwardly "hi...", I'm going to assume you two are 2 of the four legendary heros due to your strange clothes, just like the young lady with the shield," he exclaimed happy to help. "Yes," I replied. "So are you guys looking for some armour to get you started on your adventures," He asked, this guy seemed warm and welcoming, "Yep, do you have any armour that could go just under 200 silvers that is still of decent quality?" I asked, "Yes, you two can have a look over there are see some armour you like," He said while pointing towards some nice looking armour. I looked at some and picked out something that looked a little bit like a hoodie with short sleeves, it was white with blue stripes around the arms, but it was padded with some armour around the breasts and shoulders, I also picked out some pants that looked similar to lose black jeans, they where padded with some armour, some armoured gloves, a scarf that reached down to my knees and some steel toe cap boots that reached around half way below my knees. While Nate chose out some gloves that had a skeleton pattern on them that reached all the way up their arms, they got a long sleeved black hoodie, padded with armour, they chose a chocker and some chain accessories, some black leggings padded with a little bit of armour and some platform boots that looked hard to walk in but I'm sure they will manage. "Ok, for the sword hero, that will be 190 silver pieces, and for the bow hero, that will be 200 silver pieces," the weapon shop owner said, "okie," I said with a happy tone, I handed over the 190 silvers and Nate handed over the 200 silvers so that left me with 410 silvers and it had left Nate with 400 silvers, we got changed into our armour, thanked the weapon shop guy and we set off to go look for some party members.
As we where walking down the streets of Melromarc, I had noticed these big ostrich looking birds, "They look like they could be used for traveling," I excitedly said while pointing to the ostrich looking bird, they looked really cute, I just wanna pet one forever. ok, Ash time to put on your social boots, though this is going to drain my battery a lot. Me and Nate approached the owner of this creature, "em, hi, what is the name of this species of bird, and is there anywhere I can get a bird egg to hatch and raise," I asked happily, but nervous, the guy noticed our weapons, "Oh, you must be some of the heros who had been summoned. These birds are called filolial, I got this one in a egg picking draw run by a slave trader," he said, wait a slave trader, isn't that illegal, "Ok then, where can I find this 'slave trader'," I asked uncomfortably, I was only going to go get a filolial, so I didn't see much of a problem, but I feel bad for the slaves, I might get one and then set them free so they can get out of slavery, but if they wanted to join my party they could, "You can find him in a tent, just go down that ally way," the owner of the filolial responded. "Thanks," I said and me and Nate went down the ally way towards the slave traders tent. "This doesn't feel right," Nate said in a worried tone, "I know, but if we manage to get an egg each we will be able raise the filoial into one of those birds, we will be able to get around quickly," I stated, "Ok then, welp I guess we go to this slave trader and buy a bird, very normal, 10/10, NO IT'S NOT NORMAL AAAAAAAAA," Nate shouted.
The tent came into view, and I could feel the ominous vibe radiating from it, we approached it and entered the tent and we where greeted with "hello, what can I help you with," a small figure approached us with a creepy smile, ugh this guy gives me the creeps, Nate looked to be scowling at him from the get go, "We are looking for some eggs, filoial eggs to be exact," I hesitantly said, "Right this way, young heros." He took us to the back and started showing us some salves that seemed like his pride and joy, "hey, this isn't what we asked for," I said in a rather annoyed tone, it seemed like some sick way of trying to get us to spend a bit more. He proceeded to show us some animal looking humans, I had read about this in fiction novels, I believe they are called Demi-humans, he showed us the strongest to weakest and as we got to the weakest, I noticed that he also had children slaves, how horrible can this guy get, I wanted to help them, but I only really had enough for 2 and a filolial egg, I felt bad that I couldn't help the rest of them. "Ah yes, I see these Demi-humans have peeked your interest young hero," he said in excitement, I think Nate had a similar idea to me because he was looking sorrowfully at a slave, I looked down to see 2 small Demi-humans, one of them looked like a Tanuki mixed with a racoon, she didn't look in the best of shapes, she needed medicine before I set her free and 3 cages down there was a leopard looking Demi-human and she also looked weak, and looked like she needed medicine again. I picked these 2 Demi-humans out and I had to put some of my blood into a dish, what kind of ritual was this, and they both looked terrified, I gave them a reinsuring look and the slave trader completed the ritual, they screamed in agony, I hope they are ok and I picked out a filoial egg quickly, Nate had gotten an coyote type Demi-human, he looked like the kind that would be very playful but at this point in time he looked gloomy and sad, the slave trader finished the ritual type thing and now this Demi-human slave was Nates. Nate had also chosen an filolial egg, "That will be 90 silvers, for the one with the sword, and that will be 70 silvers for the one with the bow," we handed over the money and we where on our way, I had 320 silvers left and Nate had 330 silvers left. Me and Nate had parted ways once we had left the slave traders tent, me and 2 new party members walked back into town, "So, are you ok, you both seem in pretty bad shape, we need to focus on getting you two better and maybe level you up, could you tell me your names," I said in a calm tone, the first to talk was the leopard type Demi-human, she looked nervous but she spoke up, "m-my name is Charlie," I looked towards the racoon-tanuki looking Demi-human, she looked hesitant to speak, but she spoke up quietly, "R-raphtalia, my name is Raphtalia," "alright, young Charlie and young Raphtalia, I am going to train you to fight, so we can raise your levels, but first we need to get you two some armour," I went back into the weapon shop and the guy noticed us, "welp, I see you got yourself some party members," I took out the filolial egg and showed it to him, I spoke up, "ye, and I got an egg to," "Nice," he stated. "Could you two keep it at 50 slivers each, because I want enough to buy you some food and medicine," they both nodded, Raphtalia came back with a small sword and a breast plate and Charlie came back with some gauntlets and a breast plated hoodie. the price came up to the price of 60 silvers, it was less than I had expected, I paid the old guy and I had 260 silvers left, I again thanked the weapon shop guy and we went on to get something to eat.
I walked into a tavern type restaurant, Charlie and Raphtalia seemed weary and I said, "you are going to starve if you don't eat, come on," and they followed along, I ordered som salad with a steak looking thing and Charlie and Raphtalia got a kids meal. When our food arrived is started eating and I felt a gaze fall on me, they where both looking at me as if they needed reassurance to eat, "its yours you can eat it," they had little shocked expressions on their face, as if they thought I would take there food, Raphtalia took her flag off of her kids meal and she looked really happy that there was a flag, Charlie looked confused but joined her as if it was a little game, the dug into their food and, Oh no, they where eating to fast, I gave some water to them just in case they started to choke, Raphtalia did and I got her to drink her water and she finished her food, Charlie had also finished so we paid one silver piece then I had 259 Slivers left, we went to a medicine shop and paid 10 silvers for quite a lot of medicine, I gave it to them and they drank it but gave a fowl face, probably because of the taste but they drank it and they seemed a little bit better. I keep on counting down how much money I have cause I wanna save as much as possible for when we needed it, I could probably make some money while adventuring, I have studied business studies, but I wasn't the best, but I could set up a little shop for monster parts of just sell some of them in town.
We set off the the outskirts of the city to go fight some monsters, finally, this was my time to first use my sword, I had a general idea on how to use them, but I'll most likely have to ask for some training, Raphtalia could also train along side me for experience. I had come across some orange ballon looking monsters, I swung my sword at it and it popped, leaving behind some orange ballon bits, which I had put into my sword, and we all got some exp, we didn't level up yet but we where already close to level 2 just from that balloon. I looked behind me to Raphtalia looking scared and Charlie looking worried, they needed to get used to this in order to survive, so I had picked up one of the balloons and held it still and shouted, "Alright, Charlie, punch this balloon with your gauntlets," she gave a scared expression, however she broke through her worry and punched the ballon in the face, we got some exp, me and Charlie levels up to lv 2 but Raphtalia was just skimming right at the top of lv 1, so she was close to lv 2 so I decided to pick up another balloon and said, "stab this balloon," she backed away from the balloon and tried to resist, however her slave crest activated and started hurting her, she pushed past the pain and stabbed it. Nice she had levelled up the lv 2. I went to her and asked her if she was ok, she nodded, ok that was good, we continued to grind, by the time it was sun set I was lv 8, Raphtalia was lv 7 and Charlie was lv 7. I asked, "what should we do, go stay at an inn over night or camp out?" "THE INN," they said loudly, welp I guess its the inn, they decided with absolutely no hesitation, what so ever, "Ok, fine by me, lets head back then."
We had arrived at an inn restaurant type of thing, and we checked in at the inn, we got some dinner, we pretty much had the same thing as earlier, and we headed up to our room, Raphtalia and Charlie shared a bed and I was going to sleep in the other bed, I had sat down at the desk and I placed the egg in a little nest that I had made out of my uniform, I didn't have any use for it now so it could make a warm bed for this egg, I opened my school bag I had taken out my pencil case and one of my many sketch pads, and I started to do some drawing. This had peeked Charlie and Raphtalia's attention cause I could hear them approaching to watch me draw, I let them watch as I sketched out some of my original characters and then I was nagged to draw them so I did, and they looked really happy about it, they had left me alone, I let them have a look at some of the things from my world, it was just a bunch of revision, they rummaged through my bag and they had found something, I heard a "oooo, whats this, it has weird clicky thingies," I turn to looked what they where inspecting, and as I suspected it was my phone. They had opened the camera app and they ended up accidentally taking a picture of themselves. I took my phone off them and showed them how to use the camera app and I don't even know how it ended in this but we ended up taking selfies with all 4 of use, Me, Charlie, Raphtalia and the egg, I don't know why they wanted to take a picture with the egg but I didn't see the problem is. Anyway, I look my phone off of them and put all my belongings into my bag, I locked the door so no thief's could steel any of my belongings, I had put them under my bed for safe keeping, I climbed into my bed and fell asleep.
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a worried Charlie, she pointed to Raphtalia who was clearly having a panic attack in her sleep, I comforted her until she calmed down and I ended up keeping watch of her for the rest of the night and by the time it was morning I was clearly tired, I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. Charlie had woken up and I asked me if she could watch over Raphtalia, as I tried to get some sleep, she nodded and I tried to sleep, and I was conscious sleeping cause I couldn't sleep due to the light form out side, "Wow, you can't sleep I'm surprised you where up practically all night," she said as I got up half and hour later, I went over to the egg and I noticed a little crack in it, "OOOOO, its hatching," I excitedly said while watching closely, with that Raphtalia flung up out of bed and hurried over to the egg, where me and Charlie where sat watching it hatch.
I watched as a little chick emerged from the egg, he gave a happy feh noise, and jumped on my head, I thought 'welp I have a clingy one, he's cute though.' "awwww, he like you Ash," Raphtalia said happily, Charlie looked mesmerised by the filolial chick. "So, what are you going to name him," Charlie asked, "I'm going to name him Lee," I said still half asleep but happy, "That's a cute name for him," Raphtalia inputted. I had put the shell that Lee had hatched from into my sword since I didn't know where to dispose of it.
We packed our things and went down to go get some breakfast, I ended up spending a bit more than expected because of Lees massive appetite, we usually spend around 1 silver piece for all our meals combined, but now we where spending 5 times more because of Lee, though he is just a baby really. We finished off eating and left the inn, there seemed to be some commotion happening and one of the soldiers said that I needed to come to the castle immediately, "o-ok," I said in a confused tone, we had rushed to the castle, Charlie, Lee and Raphtalia had to wait in the hall along with the other heros party members in the castle. I approached the throne room to see the rest of the heros and just from the look of things I could see something serious was already going on.