The Gorillian tribe leader, Ranc, stood up. All the forest and life around him had died. Becoming withered and desolate. In a mere 12 hours, his IQ had increased several fold. He had become a emperor with the 35% of the forest (which spanned 500,000 miles squared) as his empire. He had partnered up with the Rodians. A empire of fast,agile lizards. If it wasn't for lack of experience, training and techniques, their harsh poisonous bite, small size and innate speed made them great assassins. After a desperate war through the night, their empires had oppressed all the others into servitude. 75% of the forest was conquered and the whole population of the forest had decreased by 13% the other 25% that was unconquered was made up of territory of civilized races (such as orcans), powerful but small resisting empires, or were where powerful beasts that no one dared to disturb lived.
Ranc looked much better than the old white fur gorillian he was previously. His skin was so smooth and shiny it glistened. His body was several times bulkier. His arms where as thick as 30 year old trees, his legs 20 and he was taller than a 40 year old tree. "Hooo! Hooo! Hooooo!...(My subjects! It is time for war! We shall massacre those who captured us as pets. Used us for food, And hunted us for resources! When they came for our land we could only give in. When they slaughtered our loved ones, we couldn't fight back. But now! With the great Kolorm! We! Will! Have! Our! Revenge!!!!" Ranc raised his staff and all looked up at the might gem. They bowed their heads and muttered prayers.
Meanwhile, back in town.
"It's your fault we're still here! If it wasn't for you, we would have made it midway through the forest by now!" Elis glared.
"How is it my fault?! Your the one who found a gold nugget under a tree and just ha~d to go sell it."
"Yeah but that only took an hour! Not to mention that the profit I made was all almost all used up to buy new supplies when you! drove the horses berserk causing them to fall off a cliff."
"How was I supposed to know horses were such weak creatures?" Originally, I had felt the pace that a horse traveled was too slow, so I had enchanted them to move faster and have greater stamina. I never expected them to go into a frenzy from spiritual oppression and cause them to gallop off the cliff and into the water hundreds of miles down.
"Are you a child?! Horses don't possess any magic power whatsoever. That's why they can only be found on the first realm! Everyone knows this! You then forced me to buy hagurs! While they are considerably faster, each cost me 30,000 commas!! I had to use all the money in my bank account plus the gold, just to buy them! Why would you sign the contract so fast?!"
"You shouldn't be talking! You made me sell my hotel so you could pay for some chocolate!"
"Okay, I admit I have a problem. It's just that when the dealer told me that the chocolate would even make my skin look better for 40 years, I just had to get it!
"So you bought a 679,999.99 comma box of chocolates from an shady, unlicensed merchant just for your skin?!"
"To be fair, the smell of the chocolate made me loss my sense of reasoning and I didn't even look at the price. I just had to eat one even though we hadn't paid yet. But you! You..."
We argued for hours before we stopped. Both of us were seething with rage.
'Should I just kill her?' I stared at her wondering if that would be the best method for the anger to subside. She stared at me back.
'Alright, you can live for another day. If I kill everyone there's no fun in it.'
"Did you hear? All the monsters in the deforest seem to have been killed or are in hiding.l
"Yeah, they say corpse litter the ground and it's a gold mine. If we go now, we might still get some materials to sell."
"Yeah, I was thinking that too. But, what could possibly cause such strange behavior in the forest. I feel that there might be a powerful creature lurking in the shadows now. Maybe we shouldn't."
"Pshhh, if that were true, the guilds would have dealt with them already. Let's go. If we're lucky and stumble across a corpse of a strong creature that's worth a lot, then we can go visit one of those clubs for releasing pent-up desire ;)"
"I'm not sure"
"Suit yourself. I'll go alone then."
"Wait. Wait. I'll go"
"Something wring with the forest? Will this make traveling hard? Should we take a different route?" Elis asked while paying for the new supplies we needed (the old ones went up in flames (don't ask) and we couldn't go back to the hotel and raid it.). How could we afford it? You ask.
It didn't seem that hard. Elis just went into the manager's office and 7 minutes later, he seemed to be willing to give us whatever we wanted for free. There seemed to be higher levels of moisture in that room now.
"It'll be fine. I sense a massive convergence of creatures in certain parts. We can just avoid them, but if we do meet them head on, I'll just obliterate them all."
"Mmn." After seeing my battle prowess in both physical and magical aspects along with my relationship with Eric, where the latter seemed willing to lick my shoes if I asked, she had no doubt that if would be safe with me.
"Then let's set off. For real this time." She stared at me and climbed on a hagur.
"Oh, this again. The math says that you are the one take wasted more time by 10%!" I climbed on my own hagur.
"Impossible! My math says that I'm 13% more intelligent than you!"
"Based off of what data?!"
"Your actions of course."
As we arrived at the city gates we noticed a large crowd had formed.
"Sir, what is happening here?"
The guard took a look at her and said "Due to the disturbance in the forest, no one is allowed in or out until the danger has been cleared."
"Danger? What danger."
"Rumor has it the forest creatures have come together to form a army against us. But rest assured. Just our mage guild head is enough to deal with those weak creatures if worse comes to worse."
Elis frowned. "Is there anyway to get out?"
"Only if your mercenaries or soldiers with a mission."
I pulled out a card. "Will this do?" I asked the guard. Eric had already considerately made me a mercenary ID.
The guard glanced at me then the ID. "Bronze rank? Are you sure you want to go out? Even a gold rank came back heavily injured. You'd probably die instantly."
Mercenaries where also classified into classes. The list went bronze, silver, gold, diamond, and dark warrior. As shown by the guards attitude, bronze was the lowest class. Whenever one moved from one realm to the next, their class automatically reset to the next realm bronze. For example, if I had reached dark warrior, it would officially be known as tier one dark warrior.
I nodded.
"Alright then. Just show me your ID miss and show me your mission scroll."
"I'm escorting her as my mission."
"Oh? Alright. Where is your mission scroll?"
"We don't have one."
"Then with all due respect you can't go out."
"How do I get a mission scroll?"
He looked at me as if I was a idiot. "You take a mission from the mercenary guild and they will give you a mission scroll to prove your on a mission. It can also be used to track you and send messages to the guild for backup. But once you do, you lose the mission and the rewards. Are you sure your a mercenary?"
I looked at Elis. "Can you go set up a mission at the guild now?"
"Are you crazy Yamake? I can't afford that. Especially since the forest is so dangerous now. The cost would be tremendous."
"Then should we wait until the beast(s) are killed?"
"I don't think we have a choice." She sighed. "Wait a second. Yamake. Why don't you just help the guild and slaughter the creatures?"