Whelp, I was right. The meeting got real stupid real fast. So stupid in fact, Will launched himself out of a cannon to avoid it. I don't know why he wanted to leave though, watching the stupidity is the most hilarious thing ever. I guess with Will abruptly leaving the meeting is over. That doesn't mean the stupidity is.
"Anybody else want to get shot out the cannon?" Ryder eagerly asks all of us.
"Oh fuck yeah, shoot me!" Nerva exclaims, climbing her way into the weapon.
"Where to ma'am?" Ryder asks like he's a taxi driver.
"I don't care where. Just shoot me so that I fly for as long as possible!"
"Wait! I wanna go too, it sounds fun!" Nazuko states.
"Come on, bitch, let's go!" Nerva says, even more excited than before.
"Yay!"
Nazuko celebrates, jumping in as well.
Both of their little heads stick out of the cannon like they're sharing a sleeping bag.
"Hmm I never shot two people out of a cannon before. Well there's a first time for everything!" Ryder reveals.
"W-wait isn't that dangerous?" Adam asks Ryder.
"Nah I shoot people out of cannons all the time. Besides they're so small it's like shooting one person, I think," Ryder justifies.
"That logic makes little to no sense," Azura admonishes.
"Adam chill the fuck out we're gonna be fine. Warren, you give permission right?" Nerva inquires.
Warren has been looking at the table in deep thought. He glances up.
"Sure, go ahead. Just be back by nightfall," he replies disinterestedly.
"Yay!" Nerva and Nazuko cheer.
"Blast away!" Ryder yells.
His cannon goes off, making Nazuko and Nerva fly in the same direction Will went, albeit fired at a higher angle.
"Weeeee!" Nerva and Nazuko cheer as they fly off in the distance.
"Ah youth. I remember when I got shot out of a cannon when I was that age," Luther fondly recalls.
The more I listen to Luther the more I want to follow him everywhere. He sounds like he's had the strangest life. Someone should write a book on him. Maybe I will. It'll be the official Luther biography. I shall call it Luther: The Ultimate Gentleman Volume 1. He deserves at least a trilogy.
"Elisa! You and I shall make preparations for the upcoming journey. I suggest you all rest. You will all need it for the upcoming battle!" Luther proposes.
"Very well," Elisa concurs.
After everything that's happened, I could definitely go for a nap. Watching stupidity is hilarious but tiring. I think everyone else feels the same way. We say our goodbyes to Manchester and Scylla before heading to the airship. I wasn't paying much attention but I think Remi told Scylla something about punishing Will.
I also overheard Manchester tell Adam to get better pants or otherwise he's going to yank them off again. Both things I heard could be interpreted as lewd which is weird to think about. I need to think about something else now.
"Hey Warren, do we need to pick up any supplies?" I inquire.
"That depends. Adam, how many healing potions have we used up so far?" Warren questions.
Adam rummages through his bag to count our inventory.
"Quincy and I used up four potions. We have 3 left," Adam informs.
"I'll pick up some more later. I have to pick up some other things anyway," Warren tells us.
"What do you have to pick up?" Adam asks.
"Knives. Bartrem is a war veteran, no doubt he was trained to resist normal interrogation techniques. It's going to be tough to make a man like that talk. I'm gonna have to take drastic measures."
"W-wait are you talking about torture again? No, no more torture. We can make him cooperate in another way," Adam argues.
"Yeah we can just set him on fire. That's bound to work. Or I could keep punching him until he talks," I suggest.
"No! That's also torture. Warren I-I'm worried about you. You're...becoming quite violent. It's unnerving. It's not you. I'm afraid you're going down a dark path. Promise me you won't torture Bartrem," Adam orders.
Warren stops walking, making Adam and I stop in our tracks in front of the airship. The others haven't been paying attention as they head inside. Soon it's just the three of us.
"Ok. I won't torture Bartrem. Don't worry about me ok? I'm perfectly fine," Warren assures.
Adam looks relieved upon hearing that.
"Oh thank goodness. I'm glad you listened Warren. Now I'm going to go enjoy my room since Nerva won't be in it. I can see it now, a peaceful nap. Then later today I will go get new pants because that muscular pants man scares me," Adam declares as he makes his way into the airship.
"You know what? I've changed my mind. I'm gonna go get the supplies while the sun's still out. I'll get you your pants. Quincy, you want to come with?" Warren asks me.
I am tired after watching all of that stupidity earlier and really do want to take a nap but I want to talk to Warren.
"Yeah alright I'm down. See you later Adam," I say as Warren and I head away from the airship.
"Oh wow thanks Warren. I'll see you guys later," Adam says, fully entering the airship.
"You lied to Adam just now didn't you?" I question.
"Yeah. Adam means well but he's naive. Bartrem won't talk unless it's through force. That's why I'm gonna knock him out before I begin interrogating. I can't have him making a fuss," Warren discloses.
"Knowing Adam he'll probably get knocked out during the fight anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about him. Does Nerva know your plan?"
"She doesn't. I'll tell her later. I already know she won't have a problem with it," Warren replies.
We travel for a few minutes without uttering a word. I'm ok with this because that meeting involved a lot of screaming and a cannon being shot so I enjoy the silence until Warren speaks.
"Do you think the same as Adam? Do you think I'm going down a dark path?" he inquires.
"Nah, I don't think so. You're doing what's necessary in order to save your friends. Sure you've killed people but they were all criminal scumbags. The world is better off without them. You're good in my book."
Warren's facial expression doesn't change. It's as serious as ever. I have no idea if what I said made him feel better or worse. He's tough to read. I would ask but Warren doesn't seem like the sharing type. We eventually make our way to the front of a shop called "Bane's Armory".
We enter to discover weapons of all types. Swords, hammers, and bows hang on all four walls. Mannequins display different types of body armor throughout the shop, as if we were in a clothing store. At the counter is a somewhat skinny guy with a bald head and a short black beard wearing thick black glasses. Definitely not the image I had of the guy who owns this place. He's polishing a sword with a rag.
"Welcome to Bane's, where I help you bring the pain. What can I do for you gentlemen?" he asks while still keeping his eyes on the sword he's polishing.
"I'm here for knives," Warren states.
"Knives huh? Anything specific? Knives, like all weapons, come in a range of sizes," Bane explains.
"I'm looking for a set. I want them to vary in size."
"I have just the thing," Bane replies, reaching under the counter and taking out a rolled up rag. He unfurls it revealing five knives laid out.
They increase in size going from left to right. The one on the far right looks like a bowie knife while the one on the far left looks like a butterfly knife. How in the world is a butterfly looking knife made for combat? I would ask but that would make me sound stupid so I won't.
"This good enough for you?" Bane asks.
"Yeah. These will work just fine. I'll take them," Warren answers.
"Mind me asking what you're gonna use these for?"
"I'm going on a hunting trip."
"Ah I see. Where at?"
"Infinite Morass Swamp."
"There are dangerous beasts out there. Happy hunting. That'll be 200 gold."
Warren takes out one of the bags of money we didn't give to the informant and gives the guy his money. Instead of putting the knives into a bag he starts to put each knife into a slot on his outfit. Wow, Warren's outfit can carry more weapons than I thought.
He has the bowie knife on his chest, one knife on each arm, two more on the waist, and finally the butterfly knife on his left wrist. Warren looks more threatening than before, which I didn't think was possible because a guy walking around with a machete and the eyes of an extremely angry homeless person is already threatening.
As we make our way out of the shop we see a strange scene. Well actually it's not too strange because I'm not surprised. Nazuko and Nerva run down the street being chased by a bunch of goons with swords. They seem to be carrying bags full of something. If I had to guess I'd say it was money. They seem to be having fun given they're laughing like crazy.
"Come on you pussies! I can do this all day! And all night! And all the shit that's in between! Nazuko what's that shit in between night and day?!" I hear Nerva scream.
"Ughhhh, afternoon!?" Nazuko guesses.
"Yeah that's it! I can do this shit all afternoon!" Nerva affirms.
There's a building on fire a few blocks away. I'm pretty sure that was Nerva's doing. I'm impressed, they've only been together for an hour and they've already got into this much trouble. Nerva and Nazuko run past us without slowing down.
"Oh Hi Quincy. Hi Warren. Bye Quincy. Bye Warren," Nazuko greets before taking a right down some alleyway.
"Y'all want in on this shit!?" Nerva questions.
"Nah you girls go ahead. We'll see you two later," Warren declines nonchalantly.
"Alright cool," Nerva responds, taking the same turn into the alleyway.
A group of ten men then run past us cursing about money or something. Luckily none of them stop to talk to us. That's good, I don't feel like fighting right now. Warren and I continue with the shopping and that's when it gets boring.
Turns out buying potions and pants isn't that fun who would've guessed? Buying pants in this world is just as boring as buying pants in my old one. We finished the shopping and if I had to guess it's about 3:30 pm as we make our way back to the airship.
Warren and I talked a little bit more during the shopping and it was mostly small talk. I learned a few things about him. Turns out he's 23 years old but given how rough he looks like he could pass off as 40. In my world he would have just been starting his career or been in grad school.
Not surprisingly, this means he's the oldest one in our group. Nerva is 18, believe it or not (I thought she was 12 when I first met her), and Adam is 20, like me. I also learned Warren's been adventuring since he was 18 so he has way more experience than any of us.
Finally, he told me that he wanted to be a farmer when he was a kid. He wouldn't elaborate on what made him become an adventurer instead. Hooray, learning things. We're close to leaving the village when some guy calls out to me.
"YOU! THE ONE OF BLACKNESS!" The voice exclaims.
Huh? Oh great, is that name catching on? Dang it, Luther. Warren and I turn around very confused. It's a guy with a bunch of apples in his hands.
"YOU! YOU'VE DESTROYED MY LIVELIHOOD TOO MANY TIMES! I WILL SHOVE THIS APPLE UP YOUR ASS!" the man threatens.
"Friend of yours?" Warren asks.
"I have never seen this person before in my life," I answer.
"WHAT? HOW DO YOU NOT REMEMBER ME? YOU DESTROYED MY APPLE CART BACK IN COLONUS. YOU THEN DESTROYED MY APPLE CART EARLIER TODAY!" The man claims.
Wait. Did I do that? Sounds like something I would do, yet I can't remember it. I think I remember eating a nasty apple back in Colonus so maybe it's related to that. I definitely didn't destroy this guy's cart in this town though. I think I'm being racially profiled.
"Now listen here, guy! Just because I'm black does not mean I did a crime!" I declare..
When I get racially profiled, I have to play the race card. It's an effective defense mechanism.
"Wait, ugh, I'm not a racist. I just want you to take accountability for your actions," the guy states.
"Wow, dude. You see a person of color and automatically assume that all black people you see are the same one. I thought we progressed more as a society," Warren admonishes.
A group of people are now gathering around whispering about what's happening.
"Wait but we've only seen one black person! And it's him!" the guy yells pointing at me.
Warren shakes his head in shame.
"That's so sad, man. You know, the world would be a better place once all racists like you no longer walk the earth."
Everyone in the audience shakes their heads in agreement.
"..W-wait. No, I swear it's him. He did it.He's the one ruining my livelihood," The guy pleads.
"No, you racist. Your own hatred is ruining you," I announce.
Everyone in the audience is now applauding. The guy looks around all confused and just walks away in shame. The one of blackness is victorious yet again! Oh no, now I'm calling myself that. I might as well own it at this point.
There are worse things to be called. I'm also glad Warren caught on to what I was doing despite me telling him nothing about it. He is now a true homie. We walk our way out of the crowd and eventually make our way back to the airship.
Inside I see Nerva and Nazuko have assembled everyone into the main common area near the kitchen. They have these two big bags of money on the ground with them. Warren ignores all this, heading into his room. I take a seat next to Will.
"Oh hey Will," I greet.
"Oh hey Quincy," Will greets solemnly.
Well that's weird. Something is bothering Will. That's bad because next to nothing bothers him. It must be serious.
"So what's happening here?" I ask.
"I think Nazuko and Nerva are going to explain how they got all that money," Will responds.
"Oh ok. I do want to know how they got a crowd of angry men to chase them around town."
"You'd think I'd be surprised to hear that happened but I'm not in the slightest."
"I know right? I think we're getting used to the craziness."
Nazuko coughs very loudly in order to make everyone quiet down. She and Nerva jump onto a table to stand above us.
"Well this is gonna be great," Remi murmurs.
"Alright, bitches! It's story time! Nazuko, take it away!" Nerva yells.
"Ok so you're all probably wondering how we got these bags of money. Also, you might have some concerns about the fire that started in the town and I will explain both. So we just got shot out of a cannon (by the way thanks for that Ryder it was great) and we flew into some hay bales right, Nerva?" Nazuko asks.
"Yep. Still got hay in my ears. No, I'm not taking a shower!" Nerva answers, pointing at Adam before he even says anything.
"B-but-"
"Shhhh. No interrupting," Nazuko orders.
Adam doesn't say anything but is very confused. Nazuko continues with her story.
"So after we got out the hay bales we started walking our way back. That's when we saw a suspicious man. We started trailing him and he eventually led us into this dark alleyway. The guy then starts mugging a poor woman. Nerva you tell them what happened next."
"Ok so I saw the shit and I knew we had to do something heroic. We jumped him. The guy began to talk about how he was part of a gang of thieves or some shit. Upon hearing this Nazuko got angry."
"Yep because his thief skills were awful! It was so sloppy! I decided that if the whole group of thieves were just as sloppy as him, they didn't deserve anything they stole. After Nerva did some interrogating we found out where the hideout was. I did my thief thing and staked the place out. It turns out I was right. The guys were a bunch of amateurs. Their whole setup was pathetic. We decided to send Nerva in there as a distraction while I stole all of their loot."
"That's true I barged right into that motherfucker. With my fire fists I started knocking out bitches left and right. Half of them were knocked out within a minute. Next thing I know Nazuko tells me she got all of the shit so I set the place on fire and got out. Soon as we step out though, we see a huge crowd of them chasing us down."
"Uh huh, we then led them on a chase across town. We saw Quincy and Warren during it. We eventually lost them and we made it back here, hooray!" Nazuko cheers, throwing her arms in the air.
"Well at least no one died," Adam says relieved.
"What are you talking about? Of course some of them fuckers died. I'm sure not all of them got out of that building," Nerva retorts.
"Oh," Adam says dejectedly.
"This is not going to help our image," Azura laments.
"Do we have an image? We're known as the people who blow stuff up right? That's all I care about," Ryder chimes in.
"That's the problem, Ryder! We shouldn't be known as the people who, 'blow stuff up.'"
"The fuck you talking about? That's a dope-ass image," Nerva argues.
"I'm afraid it's not a good image for heroes. We're supposed to save things, not destroy them," Lilith rebuts.
"Yeah, I agree with Lilith. We shouldn't be so violent," Adam affirms.
"Adam, shut the fuck up, your opinion doesn't count," Nerva admonishes.
"..Yes it does," Adam insists.
"Yeah it does. Nerva, light up on harassing Adam. If our reputation goes down the gutter it'll be because of you, you little gremlin," Remi insults.
Adam now has this huge grin on his face. I guess he's found someone willing to stick up for him.
"The fuck you just call me? Bring me your ears I'm gonna rip them off right now," Nerva threatens.
"Alright come on then you little midget!" Remi yells, putting up her arms getting ready to fight.
Now everyone is yelling at each other. It's hard to keep track of who's saying what. Story time ended horribly. I should have done what Warren did and just went to bed. Will stands up.
"Everyone stop!" Will yells.
They pause mid-motion.
"Look, we can be both heroes and people who blow stuff up. We just have to blow up the right stuff," Will proclaims.
"But that's the problem. We don't really seem to care about collateral damage if our last mission was anything to go off of," Lilith recalls.
"That village was full of rebel sympathizers so there was no collateral damage. Blowing up the entire town was the best move," Ryder insists.
"I highly doubt that every single person in the town was a rebel sympathizer," Azura says.
They blew up a whole town? Here I thought my group was destructive.
"You guys have a point. We'll try not to blow up or destroy everything in the future. But explosions and destruction are still an option. Explosions are cool so I will not allow this party to be explosion free," Will admits.
"You're a wise man. But blowing stuff up is always for the greater good," Ryder interjects.
"We really need to have a talk later," Azura mentions.
I have nothing to add to this conversation so I'm gonna stay quiet.
"I think we made a good compromise. We'll try to work harder on keeping a good reputation by not destroying things on a whim but we won't abandon destroying things in its entirety. So Nazuko, no more adventures like the one you just went on," Will orders.
"Aw man. . ." Nazuko says, disappointed.
Nerva gives her a pat on the back to make her feel better.
"Alright everyone, go to your rooms. I'm sure we're heading on our journey tomorrow," Will tells everyone.
They slowly head back to their respective rooms. I'm impressed with Will on how he handled that. Is he growing into his hero role? Hmmm, nah. I enter my room and begin to read one of my books. I still have to talk to Will about what's bothering him but I can save that for later. After reading for a few hours, eating dinner, then reading some more, I go to sleep.
I wake up to the sound of a racket. Ugh I'm getting tired of this. It sounds like there are people moving in the hallway. Still groggy I slowly enter the hallway to find everyone making their way to the common area.
I follow to discover Luther and Elisa with a map laid out in front of them. Wait, how did they get on board? Do we not lock the doors? Wait nevermind, I see a broken window to my left. I'm pretty sure Luther jumped through it.
"My friends! Elisa and I have planned out the specifics for our adventure! Elisa, take it away my fair maiden!" Luther says.
"Don't call me a maiden. Anyway, here is a map of the Infinite Morass swamp. As you can see it's quite large. About 2/5ths the size of Colonus to be exact. Most of it is swamp water with a few patches of dry land scattered about. We expect the meeting to happen here at the largest patch of land in the middle. We're not ambushing here though, we're going to split up into two teams and attack them before either Bartrem or the ghouls reach the area. After we take them out we'll be the ones meeting in the middle of the swamp. The second hero's party and Luther are going to be dropped off outside the main swamp and move on by foot to ambush Bartrem. The rest of us are going to continue flying to the other end of the swamp using steam and clouds as cover. From our vantage point we should be able to find the ghouls quite easily and then we'll strike. Any questions?"
"How do you know where to drop us off? You know which route Bartrem's taking?" Warren inquires.
"We do my friend! We deduced it through logic! There are only a few paths Bartrem would take if he wanted to get to the meeting on time. The good news is that all of the routes are near each other. With our small group we can check them all in no time," Luther elaborates.
"Any other questions?" Elisa asks all of us.
We shake our heads.
"Then let's get this airship flying," Elisa states.
Ryder and Azura lead her to the pilot area and the next thing I know we're off. The journey to the swamp was thankfully not hectic. I think that's because people are still kind of mad at each other. Oh well, at least it's quiet.
The only notable thing was Luther telling me more about being a gentleman by telling me how to approach women. His methods involve jumping through way too many windows. He also kept hitting on Adam but I'm somewhat used to that by now. After flying for about two days we landed at the drop off point for my group.
"My friends! It is time for adventure! It is time to show some fiends what it means to be a true gentleman! It is time… for battle! HIYYAAAAA!" Luther screams as he jumps through another window.
I have no idea why he keeps doing that. Now this airship has two broken windows. The door of the airship was open. We said our goodbyes earlier so my party and I depart from the airship through the open door like normal people.
All five of us stand at the border where normal terrain ends and the swamp begins. Behind us the airship takes off. I'm still kind of worried about Will, he still seems to have something on his mind. Now's not the time to think about that. It's like what Luther said, now is the time for battle.