Next morning Rahz was back to normal. He was a little sad that he barely got 3 copper from all the beast he killed. His dad decided to take the whole body of the bear to create a nice leather armor for him. For somebody like Rahz's dad that was an intermediate blacksmith, it was really easy to buy higher level leather for his son but he found it important for his son to wear the skin of such a strong foe and be proud of his achievement.
Rahz picked up Mr. Choppy and left his house toward the training grounds. He had been laying down for a few days and he was eager to get back to hunting. Rahz was hooked, he had a new goal and it was to be the first in his class to achieve the first evolution.
With renewed motivation, Rahz made it to the training ground and quickly joined Bhirl and Blaire on the field.
When Rahz arrived on the training grounds everyone turned to look at him. Since nobody had seen him recently there was no indication if he had pass or fail. But their doubts were quickly dispersed when they felt the level of his energy that was a little higher than theirs. After he slain the Bear he was already halfway to LVL 6.
The Fact that he was also joining Blaire and Bhirl on their team filled them with jealousy. If looks could kill, Rahz would have died over and over again. Rahz loved every minute of it. He was usually the center of attention but never the source of envy.
With a grin on his face Rahz walked up to Bhirl and said " I have a great name for the team, How about the Killer Squad".
" Hmm... No".
" BBR Will Kill You?".
"HELL NO!"
Even though Rahz's names didn't hit home with the team, it was a fact that the team need it a name. As the team leader, it felt on Bhirl to make the final decision. With a little embarrassment showing on his face Bhirl said to both of them, " We would be the Elite team".
Immediately, Blaire looked at Rahz sneered and said, "How can we be the Elite team if Rahz is in it".
HA HA HA!
Everyone around it let out a hearty laugh. When Rahz was prepare to retort with a challenge to Blaire, the Elders came in and they all took their positions.
This was the moment the ten new trainees were waiting for as they finally would get to pick up tasks and train with the main group of fighters from the village.
The elders looked at the new batch of recruits and felt proud. It was without a doubt one the best groups they had trained in a while. It meant that if the children were allowed to grow, the village will continue to prosper under a new leadership.
The elder recorded the team members and explained their duties. The teams of the village were required to contributed to the village by doing tasks in addition, they needed to patrol as a team at least once a month.
If they were not responsible for any task, they had to train in the morning as they had done previously but at a greater pace. This regimen was done to ensure that Helgahvall's fighters were always progressing towards higher levels. There were a lot more dangers than the beast that roam the forest around the village.
Having capable fighters was in a sense a way of life. The economy of the village revolved around hunting. The meat of the beast were distribute or trade it for other wears and the majority of the pelts were taken to the nearest town in order to sell them. Other task were scavenger ones to look for rare herbs and even look for ore in the west side of the village.
Helgahvall's task system was actually fairly new. It was implemented by the higher ups of the village after listening to Rahz's parents when they move to the village. It was modeled after the adventurer organization they used to belong to when they were at Silverwing city. The system made use of all the available hands present in the village.
Since Rahz parents arrived to the village, Helgahvall had experience a rapid growth. They had extremely good weapons for their warriors and the task system ensure that their warriors had constant training. By trading with the nearest town they also had access to many new products that were not available before.
After the elders finished explaining the system to the trainees they left the training grounds towards the Chief's place. It was time to Continue the discussion about attacking the Frostwolf Clan. Aya had returned and was about to make her report.
After the meeting was adjourn; Bhirl, Blaire and Rahz started to discuss which task they should take. Rahz wanted a hunting task to exercise his muscles and Blaire wanted to look for Rare flowers as they were the highest paid task in the village.
It was up to Bhirl as the leader to choose and he chose to compromise and pick a task that allowed them to fight and it was fairly profitable. It was the Kobold task on the west side of the village. For low levels it was probably the best spot to accumulated energy and experience towards the next level. As an added bonus they could collect copper ingots from the Kobolds earning quite a bit of cash at the same time.
" That is an awesome spot, would it not be too crowded?" said Rahz
" I was told that the Kobolds had an extremely fast birth rate and we never go too deep into their tunnels. So the levels that you could earn are limited, after LVL 7 the energy acquired is so minimal that is better to go to another place."
" OK is settled then, lets head out"
"LET'S GO!".
In the biggest hut in the village, the must influential people of Helgahvall were seating in a circle listening to Aya's report on the situation with the Frostwolf Clan.
" For what I could see the Frostwolf Clan was restless. It seemed that something had happened over on their side too. They were in an extreme state of alert so I couldn't find out much without kidnapping one of them. I thought that if I were to do that and was spotted I might have made things worst. All and all it didn't look like they were getting ready for war".
The report was very short but it did in fact show that there was something strange going on behind the scenes. If the puppeteers also made it look like the Barbarians were the ones trying to start something, the Orcs might act and attack without thinking of the consequences.
Cerdic look at everyone present and requested advise.
The First to take the floor was the elder responsible for the Warrior division. " I don't think we have anything to worry about. With master Rhaen's weapons there is nobody that can defeat our army. I think we should use this as an excuse and claim their territory."
Elder Bear did not agree with that suggestions so he stepped in and said " I disagree with Cynric. I believe that we are in a period of growth. Our Fighters are young and inexperience. Fighting another warrior is completely different that fighting a beast. Orcs are savages and they shine in battle is not the time for us to act".
Listening to the split decisions of his elders, Cerdic turned to the Highest Level individual in the room an asked " I would be very happy if I could hear Lady Etta's opinion on this matter".
Rahz's mother nodded and stood up.
" I agree with the first Elder, I believed that our fighters need more experience. I am not saying that they lack courage but War is a completed different animal. Most importantly we don't understand the people in the shadows. If a War between the 2 Clans is what they want, then what do they win by doing so. As far as I can see, we don't have anything that can attract some devious forces".
"What should we do them".
" I think we should sent a small party to the FrostWolf Clan with two purposes. One to understand what happened on their side. The second is to let them know what happen in our side and show them the arrow. If we do this, we can confirm if they did it or not. If we are going to war let it be for the right reasons. Finally, we need to push the group in the darkness to show more of their cards".
The chief looked around the hut and put it to a vote. To some elders discontent the suggestion of Rahz's mother gather a lot of support.
Chief Cerdic nodded and said, " It is settle then, Lets talk about who should go".