The garrison's training has been going very smoothly for the past couple of weeks, there was still no news of neither Phoenix nor Thaddeus, but Cedric and the rest of the soldiers increased significantly, besides the specialization in the garrison and the different branches that existed now, the average level for the soldiers increased from 30 to 45 over the past month and a half.
Cedric received an official letter from the capital stating that the first knight Robin of the Order of Knights would be visiting Oakbrook by the beginning of the next month, giving them two weeks to prepare.
"Alright we have two essential things to do here, make Oakbrook look like a proper town, and show Valerian's position as a noble" Cedric said to the rest who were all gathered at his office in the town hall.
"Well, we can't build a clan house here nor can we make the garrison bear our crest, we don't want to be mistaken for trying to take over the town, I want to appear as a proper guest, an important guest would only increase the town's standing and how Cedric looks in front of the first knight" Rage replied to Cedric before turning his head to Varon, "Varon who can you summon from the clan house?" Rage questioned.
"Well my lord with my level rapidly increasing lately I focused a fixed quarter of my points on my wisdom stat which allows me to summon one of the seven knights and some of their elites, or I can summon 120 sentinels" Varon answered.
"Hmm" Rage rubbed his head thinking to himself for a moment, "If we summon one of the seven knights, we can't send them back, however summoning 120 sentinels would not be a normal number of soldiers for a simple entourage" He continued.
"Why don't we call Sylvora and her guards? they were the throne room guards and were definitely fit for an entourage, she protected the final floor of the clan house and wouldn't have any trouble protecting whatever place Rage would be staying in" Jimmy said.
"Uhh Cedric, can we have a word in private?" Sensei said to Cedric who politely nodded and headed out of the office.
"Are you fucking dumb?" Sensei's muffled shout scared Jimmy as he gripped his shoulders, "Sylvora despises humans, she'd rip the first knight into pieces"
"Not if Rage commands her to stay put, he's the clan master and the overlord of all the clan knights, she can't disobey him, also the only reason she hates humans is that a certain idiot.." Jimmy pointed to Madeen who was distracted by a bird that was flying around the window, "Put that into her personality description when we were creating her"
"Huh, what'd I do!" Madeen exclaimed with a pout before Jimmy let out a disappointed sigh.
"Alright, but we can't summon them here, let's go out into the forest"
The group met Cedric on the way out saying that they would head to the forest to summon Sylvora, Cedric offered to come with them but Rage awkwardly declined saying that Sylvora is shy and wouldn't be pleased with seeing a stranger so suddenly, Cedric said that he understands and let them on their way as they made their way out into the forest.
"Alright Varon, all you" Rage said to Varon who raised his hand in front of him and summoned Sylvora.
Before them Sylvora appeared, a beautiful woman with the same eyes as them, slightly taller than Rage, clad in heavy black and golden armor, behind her 20 elites were summoned, all baring the clan's crest on their chests.
Sylvora was startled in the beginning thinking they were being attacked, she drew her sword only to realize she pointed it at Varon, "Commander I'm so sorry I-" she said before she interrupted herself thinking that it was an illusion before she could lift her sword Rage called out from behind "I'm glad to see you, Sylvie"
Sylvora quickly turned around to see Rage, before she hid her red cheeks and kneeled to the ground "M-My lord I-" She tried to say before Rage put one hand over her shoulder lifting her, she closed her eyes fantasizing out loud "My l-lord we c-can't we're in th-" She said before Varon smacked her on the head.
"Have you gone mad, woman?" Varon yelled before Sylvora snapped back to reality.
"Kyaa- commander Varon I'm so sorry" She said holding her head where Varon smacked her.
"God, were she always like this?" Jimmy questioned rolling his eyes.
"I don't know chief but I'm going back to town before I puke" Sensei replied before heading back towards the town's gate with Jimmy and Hunter.
"Don't worry Sylvora we have summoned you here since we no longer have access to the clan house, so your duty protecting the throne room is no longer needed, you'll now be my escort alongside Varon and the elites"
"My lord there is no greater honor" Sylvora said before returning to her soldiers.
"Attention throne guard, from now on we will be the lord's personal guards, your useless lives won't be but tools used to protect his lordship from any harm, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am" The guards answered in unison.
Rage approached the guards who stood firm not moving an inch, he inspected their levels, thankfully they regressed to level 45 judging that Varon was now level 60, and didn't have to start back from level 1, not only that but Sylvora also maintained her aura which was a huge win.
Rage hasn't seen them in a while, and judging that he hasn't interacted with them since phase 2 started, and that they now have a mind of their own, he wanted to test their loyalty.
"You" Rage said to a soldier standing directly in front of him, "What's your name?" He continued.
"I have no name, my lord, I am a lowly servant whose purpose in life is only to obey the commands of the one who created me" The soldier replied.
"Alright then, prove it by taking your life" Rage said.
Without hesitation, the soldier took out his sword and pointed it backward toward his chest before Rage stopped him before he stabbed himself.
"Enough, you have proven your loyalty, I'm proud of you" Rage said before the soldier kneeled before him in gratitude.
"What's with all the kneeling" Rage thought to himself with a sigh.
"Sylvora, I'm currently staying in a human town, you are not to harm the humans in any way, we are their guests and will be treated as such" Rage said to Sylvora whose expression immediately changed.
"Sylvora are you planning to disobey the lord?" Varon scowled.
"No commander, I will do as commanded by the lord" She replied with a defeated look.
"Sylvora I know how you feel, but I will fill you in on the entire situation on our way to the town"
On their way to Oakbrook Rage explained that they were forcibly teleported to this continent by higher powers and how they regressed in level, he also explained that they don't have access to the clan house anymore and will need to build a new one in this new continent that was full of humans, and that any harm to the humans will reflect badly on Rage's image.
"If I see that low-life maggot that dared force our patriarch and the rest of the lords to this filthy place I will rip out their throat and feed it to the hounds the-" Sylvora yelled before Rage stopped her.
"Just focus on making me look good for now, I'm counting on you, Sylvie" Rage smiled making Sylvora's heart race.
In one of Madeen's pranks on Rage a couple of days before phase 1 ended, he played with Sylvora's settings making her have a huge crush on Rage, Rage laughed it off since she was just an NPC that only executes commands and it didn't affect gameplay at all, after all personality traits were nothing but decoration to give the NPCs some depth, but now that she is aware of herself, he's using that to his advantage.
As they approached the town, Varon and Sylvora walked directly behind Rage, followed by the twenty elite soldiers in their back, the gate guards spotted Rage at the front so they knew these were friendlies and weren't concerned.
One of the guards greeted Rage as Rage smiled at him before entering the town, Sylvora glared at him as he tried to greet her too so he took a step back looking the other way, "What's her problem?" He whispered to the other guard who just shrugged as the rest of Rage's escort passed by.
Rage made his way back to the town hall where Cedric and the rest were back at the office, Sylvora and Varon stood guard outside the office as the soldiers scattered in the town hall's garden securing the entrance and setting a parameter.
"Alright step one down, now, Cedric, we need a proper guest house, the town hall is not meant for guests" Rage said to Cedric.
"Well thanks to the adventurers we have a good tax income but it's nowhere near enough to do any upgrades on the town, the wall's upgrade almost emptied our coffers" Cedric replied.
Rage looked at the rest of the clan members knowing damn well they were packed after Rivershade's incident, they all looked at each other then looked the other way In disagreement.
"Hell nah" Jimmy said, "I need to buy my spellbook back!"
"It's for the mission!" Rage yelled.
"NO!"
Moments Later...
"Will this be enough?" Rage asked.
Cedric's eyes were wide at the number of coin bags in front of him that materialized out of nowhere on the table, "How much is this?" Cedric questioned.
"Around 100,000 gold coins" Rage replied casually.
"O-O-O-ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND!" Cedric exclaimed, Rage could've sworn he saw him drooling, "That's more than enough to hire a dwarven hammer and buy all the materials!"
"A dwarven hammer?" Rage asked.
"Not all dwarves are bad, our continent doesn't have racial unity, it's more political, which means that there is no empire for dwarves or empire for humans, there are just nations that harbor a diverse number of races, Dwarven Hammers are specialist dwarven builders who can build and upgrade buildings using a magical artifact called the dwarven hammer in a very short time, which means we can give the city an entire makeover in the span of the two weeks before Sir Robin arrives" Cedric replied.
"Sounds good, then, shall we get to work?"