Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"You look weird, it's unnatural," Yang says as he stirs awake.
The first thing he sees is Welf sitting in front of Thalie as she dyes his hair black.
"It's not that bad," Welf says.
"It really is that bad," Thalie admits. "The whole Crozzo Blood, red hair thing means your look like a weirdo with black hair honestly, but people are gonna focus on the scars more," she says.
"Scars?" Welf asks.
"Uh-huh, take a dagger or something and cut up your face, hurry the sun is almost up," she casually says.
Welf and Yang share an uneasy glance, "she's the boss here, get to it," Yang says as he stands up in the tent. "So why exactly is all this happening?" he asks.
"Because we're just outside the first little trade town in Rakia's territory. Ares should have Welf's face plastered across every wanted board. Not to mention he was a celebrity and minor noble before his treason," she says.
"Yeah that makes sense," Welf says as he starts making small cuts in his face, unlike Thalie who was used to this. His hands were trembling as he was hesitant, wincing in pain at the feeling of metal parting flesh. "This is insane," he bites out.
"Get over it, anyway compared to how fast word spreads in Yang's world, at least from what he told us our world is nothing like that. It should take at least another day before everyone is looking for us since we've only been gone two days so far."
"Mhm," Yang considers her words as he prepares his clothes for today. "But one question...we just fucked up the strongest fighting force in the world, well, 'we', as in 'me'. Why would the other city-states be hunting us down, the empire is the only other place with a level-7 and I don't think they'd be dumb enough to have him leave the capital right?"
"The arms race," Welf says as he takes a deep breath between cuts.
"Arms race?"
"You know how everyone treats Orario as the only thing between the dungeon and the world?" Thalie asks.
"Yeah, if Orario falls the world falls right?"
"Yes and no. Rakia wanted Welf to wipe out their enemies, but part of it is that every country is stockpiling weapons. And by weapons, I mean actual weapons like Crozzo magic Swords, and adventurers. If Orario gets divided lots of familias will just head back home, like Take familia taking Mikoto and his other brats back to the far east. Then the dungeon becomes free real-estate with an empty city around it ripe for the taking---"
"Then most likely the Empire since they've got a level-7, can come in and clear the board. Position themselves around the dungeon and suddenly their unified armies can get stronger than anyone else and hold the world hostage," Yang finally puts the pieces together.
"Exactly," Thalie says. "That's why the guild refuses to have any employees with Falna. That can be seen as a standing army forming and would probably get the swords that the world is pointing at Orario to start swinging. The world trusts Orario to fight the monsters, but they don't trust people with the power to level a city to always do the right thing...you basically proved that," she finishes applying the dye for Welf and removes her gloves.
"So instead of just Rakia or The Empire... it's every country in the world against Orario, and people from those countries will probably jump ship," Yang says.
"Can't expect familias sponsored by The Empire to turn on them after all, none of them are key players in Orario but nobody wants to start a war either way. That's why Royman is probably already sending every capital in the world a full breakdown of our treason, making sure they know the guild didn't consent to it and Orario isn't turning on them, Within a week our wanted posters should be up everywhere," Thalie says as she begins rubbing a grey ointment on her hands.
"So you two gotta do this too?" Welf asks as he turns to them, his face now sporting a dozen gashes.
"Nope, we look pretty standard, in Rakia you're gonna be the main focus," Thalie rubs the grey mixture on his cuts.
"AHhhh! Fuck!" he cries out as his cuts feel as if they're burning, roughly healing, and leaving massive scars. He was almost unrecognizable, but to people who don't spend much time with him, they'd never be able to tell.
"Right," she wipes off her hands and begins packing up. "No Mosoka, no magic from Yang, and let me do the talking." she orders.
"Ok, and how am I supposed to make this go away after...don't think Hephaestus is gonna like the scarred-up look," Welf says as he looks at himself in a small mirror.
"Just cut the skin off and use regular elixir after," she casually says.
"Oh, of course, just cuts my face off," he shakes his head and breaths a deep sigh. "You're something else you know that."
"Yeah, I was built for this remember, now pack anything we need into your bags, we need to carry our stuff for a change since we won't have Yang's inventory from here..."
Later that morning The Trifecta is walking into a small town. With farmers moving along to their fields and donkey carts carrying produce through the sparsely populated streets. The small wooden buildings and dirt roads are muddy from last night's rain, quickly drying as the sun shines down on this cloudless day.
The three adventurers were in casual wear, with Yang wearing his custom coat over a regular black top with the pants and boots from his Battlemage Outfit on. The knife was holstered behind his back. His companions were sporting more intimidating weapons however. Thalie had Liberty across her back, the spear was just another jet black spear without her actively triggering it after all. Welf had his unnamed greatsword across his back once more.
"We really need to have more regular weapons next time," Yang grumbles as Thalie leads them to the tavern.
"Most people would kill for our arsenal...most countries actually," Thalie points out.
"Yeah but I'm stuck with this knife, wanted a sword," Yang whines.
"Well sorry I focus on making awesome magic stuff instead of standard weapons," Welf rolls his eyes as they round the corner to see a building. Judging from the sign being shaped like a pint they felt confident this was the place.
"Think we'll find a mysterious stranger with a quest from a mage in the corner?" Yang asks.
"Huh?" both his allies give him a strange look.
"Ya know, classic adventure start. A mysterious person sends your party a quest and eventually it snowballs into fighting a demon or something," he says to their confused faces. "Nevermind I guess."
"Maybe don't say weird shit like that when we go inside," Thalie says as they walk up the wooden steps and push the door open.
Entering the baren tavern, the lone barkeep wiping down the bar as he gets ready for the first set of customers for the morning. With a casual glance, they only see one man sitting in the corner with his hood on eating breakfast by himself.
While Thalie and Welf make their way over to the barkeep, Yang makes a beeline to the man sitting by himself.
"Hey, morning," Yang greets him as he sits down.
The man's hand moves from resting on the table to the dagger on his belt, ready for something to go down.
"Can I help you?" his gruff voice asks.
"You called for me, said something about the mage needing help?" Yang asks, doing his best to avoid smiling like an idiot.
"Right," the man removes his hand from his dagger and continues eating his bread and meat. "Some stupid bounty hunter stole an artifact he wants. Word is your team can get to her before The Empire gets it back," the man says.
Yang's eyes go wide for a moment. 'Holy fuck, that's a good story hook!' he screams internally. Wanting badly to accept this quest.
"Well, I'd ne---"
"BLUE!" Thalie yells out, Yang looks over to see her and Welf ready to exit the building.
"Uh, sorry gotta go," he quickly gets up, leaving the man completely confused.
"Bu-but what about the quest?" the man's question meets dead air as Yang and his team are already out the door.
Not even ten feet down the road they walk past another set of adventurers. A man in full plate armor with sword and shield. a robed figure with her face hidden and daggers on her belt. And lastly a man with a blue magic staff.
'Paladin, Rogue, Wizard,' Yang thinks to himself as both groups walk past each other.
"So why'd you call me Blue?" he finally asks.
"That's your name now," Thalie says. "You're blue, I'm Yellow and he's Red," she points at Welf.
"Right, and what's the plan?"
"Hitch a ride, I'm not from this part of Rakia so got no idea how to get where we're going, we need to get on a small convoy," Welf says.
"He said there was a family heading back to the c---" Thalie's words are cut off as they round the corner to see four horse-drawn carts.
Three of them were covered and one was uncovered but held two crates.
Almost two dozen people were walking around the carts inspecting them. All wearing light armor, red with a green ram on the breastplates and pauldrons.
The cart with the crates was second in the line with an older, at least sixty-year-old blue-haired woman sitting in the front holding the straps for the horses.
An equally aged man was doing the final inspection on the lead cart. At a glance, it was easy to tell that this was just one massive family. All the younger men and women had features from the couple, a family of adventurers certainly.
"Mornin," Thalie greets the oldest man with a wave. The entire crowd moves to get a look at the newcomers.
"Mornin," the man gives them a polite wave, raising his eyebrow at Welf's scarred face but not giving it much thought. "How can I help you three?" he asks.
"We heard you were heading up to the capital, passing through Outpost 17 on the way, was wondering if we could come along. We can work as bodyguards no problem," she says.
"You folks from Rakia?" the man asks.
"Not from this part, more north but we took the long way around, now we're trying to get home," she lies flawlessly. For Welf at least this was the truth, the capital was his home.
"Hm, well I'm always willing to help a fellow Rakian, what level are you three?" he asks.
"One, close to two but still level ones sadly," she frowns a bit. Yang has to use all his focus not to giggle at this bold lie.
"Alright, the name's Gret, you can ride with my wife Jasmine in the second cart. The covered ones are already full," he points to the cart with the two crates and the woman gives them a polite wave. "These are my kids and nephews, we're all level 2 so don't get any funny ideas and we'll be fine, what're your names?"
"Yellow, Blue, Red," Thalie gestures to herself then Yang and Welf respectively. "We're on official business so can't exactly go telling everyone," she fishes into her pocket and pulls up a red piece of plastic. Handing it over to the man he takes a look at it before a shocked expression takes hold of his face and he hands it back.
"Right, well hop on then let's get moving, it's a few days ride to the Outpost 17," he says.
Sitting at the back of the cart with both the crates, Yang gives Thalie a curious look before signaling her attention to him.
"What did you show him?" he asks quietly.
With deft motions, she hands him the piece of plastic.
It was an adventuring license, a Rakian adventuring license. She was apparently a member of the Ares familia.
"What the fuck...how?" he mouths out, handing her the license back.
" 'Persuaded' a desk jockey...licenses update when they update it at the HQ but I never went back, when was the last time you checked yours?" she asks.
"It's not pretty," Welf says with a sad look.
As the carts begin to move Yang puts his hands together and subtly summons his license to take a look at it.
As it leaves the pocket dimension for the first time in months the enchantment device at the guild connects, before his very eyes his level changes from three to seven. Then bold red letters form across the entire thing.
'BLACKLISTED'
Only major cities could ever afford to have Altena build such devices for them, much less operate it, of course Orario had one.
"Fuck... I didn't know they did that," he says.
"How do you think you can use them as money," Welf points out the credit card use for licenses within Orario.
"Good point," Yang puts the card in his pocket to make his magic storing it away as he turns to the woman driving the cart. "Hi uh, Jasmine?"
"Yes dear?" she asks sweetly.
"How long till Outpost 17?"
"We'll be there within three days, there's only one more town between this one and where you kids are going," she says.
"Thank you miss, hopefully this is a boring trip..." he leans back at the edge of the cart looking at the plains behind Thalie and Welf who were sitting opposite him.
"We had enough excitement on our hunting trip, so I'm hoping for the same thing dear," the old woman says.
END CHAPTER---
Gonna post extra chapters this week if we can hit 300 power stones, I want to get through this volume quickly, then we might be able to wrap up this story before new years :)