Draven woke up to the light shining through the window onto his bed. Excited to see the changes in his town he quickly got dressed and jumped out the window. He spread his wings out and soared high above the town to get an aerial view of Ironforge. The changes were massive the original walls and town were still all there but a new outer layer was added forming a much larger circle around the original now inner circle of the Town. The second Layer came with new thicker and taller Walls. That would do a better job of protecting them if the barrier were destroyed. The barrier, of course, grew to encompass the entirety of the now larger bronze town. The new outer ring was however completely void of any buildings or structures Draven would have to fill it in himself. "AL could you please design an efficient and functional layout for building placements that would suit our needs? Draven was never into building simulators and if he had a super-intelligent A.I. at his disposal then he would use it.
Draven then checked his map and saw millions of bots roaming around to start revamping the town. He was also able to see every building that AL had placed and he was seriously impressed with the design. His town was shaping up to be more like a small city than a town. He had set priority on the Town hall and the Adventurer guild as he had plans with his party today. With so many bots focused on those two buildings, the construction would be finished within 20 minutes. The rest was set to be completed within 24 hours. Much like before people who were in the way of construction were getting teleported around. Draven then saw that his party had just been teleported out of the Townhall and he flew over to their location.
Landing in the middle of Townsquare he saw Ross, Greg, Celine and Rebecca awake and very confused as to why they were suddenly out in the open. While to some miracle or curse, May and Jennifer continued sleeping on the stone floor without noticing the change at all. Draven created two small balls of water and splashed their faces with it. "COLD!" They both screamed in shock as they quickly got to their feet. They then looked around and saw they were in their pajamas while standing outside in town. "DRAVEN! what did you do? this is taking it too far, we are not even dressed!" They both yelled at him complaining. "The town is being revamped you were teleported away because you were in the way of construction." He said shrugging with his shoulders like it had nothing to do with him. "Don't worry in less than 20 minutes Townhall will be done but for now tell me about what happened to you guys.
Jennifer spoke up right away not caring about being seen in public in her pajamas anymore. She talked about how they were ambushed by a group that called themselves the Lost Ones led by Raymond who now calls himself The Alchemist. She then continued with how he used poisonous gas that seemed to kill those of lower level quickly while others closer to level 10 were able to survive a bit longer those at 10 which were only their Party seemed to be ok but they couldn't be sure. She then went on to explain that they had to make camp and slowly cure those who were affected by the gas as moving around was spreading the poison in their bodies faster. Leading up to the point of the Troll attack and how they had to flee after her Illusion faded.
"The Alchemist... what is he some kind of supervillain?" Draven said looking amused. "Well I'm glad you all made it back in one piece. I'll see if I can find them tomorrow by the sound of things you guys killed the majority of their group already so they will be licking their wounds for a bit. Today is all about getting you guys leveled up. Since the mission I gave you guys is mostly the reason why you are still low-level, I've decided to take all of you out for some orbs but first comes rewards. Draven walked with them back to the Townhall which had been completed as Jennifer retold their story. "Go and get dressed and freshen up I will make some breakfast," Draven said waiving them off. "Already on it James called out from the kitchen "I heard your party and that Novice village came in last night so after waking up in the middle of town I came back after our home was completed and started cooking. Come have a seat a few plates are already done." James said smiling as he grilled some boar steaks. Draven happily accepted his cooking and started digging in. In between bites he caught James up on what had happened to his party.
"So Raymond survived out there and formed a little group, did he?" James said looking pissed off. "You guys focus on leveling up today I'll focus on dealing with Raymond." He said as he angrily flipped a boar steak in the air. Draven was happy to pass that task along to his dad he should be many times more than enough to handle anything Raymond and his group could throw at him. One by one members of his party came down the stairs and joined Draven at the table to eat breakfast. It made James strangely happy to cook a big meal for a bunch of Draven's friends. It felt that he had regained a small moment of being a normal family in this chaotic world.
Draven then told his Party about choosing new classes that would fit them better. He would use the bronze cores of the Trolls to fuel the cost of the class change. "Woah you can change our classes?" Ross said wide-eyed. "So that's the reason why people with the same class, act similarly. Those are negative side effects and personality traits of the being providing the knowledge and racial skills for the class." Rebecca said as everything started making more sense to her. Draven nodded "Glad you all understood. By the way, this information is top secret so don't mention it to anyone. Draven then went on to tell them about the Ten'ok and everything he had discovered about their past. "That's why you don't want anyone to know. I was worried you wanted to choose who could become stronger but now I understand you don't want the Ten'ok to find out because people will talk about how special you are around the terminals." Jennifer said looking relieved. She didn't want Draven to turn into the kind of person the Orb hunters were in their village. "That's right it's also very costly to give them class changes and we shouldn't even know the term Ten'ok as of yet. So it goes without saying the words Djinn and Ten'ok are now forbidden don't ever mention them anywhere. Everything I can do is related to being a dragon and that is it. They all nodded in agreement. "Don't worry I plan on eventually placing filters in all the terminals to make sure it is safe to speak in our town at least. At that time I want all of us to be getting close to Silver rank and can afford to change people's classes."
After repeating the History lesson to his party Draven had Jennifer explain to his Dad where she had last seen Raymond and anything else important she could remember that he might need to know before they left. Afterward, they went to the Adventurers Guild to change their classes. By the time they arrived, there was a small crowd in the Guildhall admiring the new design and size of the building. It was much more comfortable and had a lounge area as well as a bar. The number of Ranking pods had drastically increased as well. not wanting a repeat of what happened during James' class change Draven Spoke up.
"We are currently revamping the entire town and I need to inspect the building and place the final touches on it before it can become fully functional so please everyone leave until I come back out. Draven announced to the crowd. They begrudgingly agreed as they got off the comfortable couches and finished their Drinks to leave. "C'mon you guys it's early in the morning don't turn into a bunch of alcoholics just because alcohol is accessible!" Draven reprimanded the guys at the bar. After everyone left Draven put his hand on the terminal and Let AL take control of it again.
"Okay whos first?" Draven called out. Ross practically teleported to the terminal Draven had no idea he could move that fast. Ross was eager to change his class after learning it was at fault for him almost dying constantly. He slid in his ID card and to his surprise the option Class selection was once again available to him. After Pressing it he saw a few options to choose from.
Ross was overwhelmed with his options. Based on their names they all sounded simple in his mind but they would vastly change the way he engaged in fights from now on. He needed to take his time to decide how he wanted to fight. The Hexer was a pure mage class, the Basher was a pure physical attacking class while the Demon was a bit of both. Versatility is always good as he would have the most options to deal with any kind of situation. But by being versatile he would either lose out on being a more capable magic user or miss out on being even stronger and the regenerative ability from the basher sounded amazing. Being able to plant seeds of fear in his enemy's mind also sounded badass and he would even get stronger based on how much they feared him.
He immediately ruled out the Hexer being a pure magic user was not his style at all. He liked being upfront with Greg and him being a mage would mean Greg would be alone facing the creatures head-on. Greg relied on him to be able to take enemies off of him If there were too many for him to handle. The Basher would be the best option to fill that role. But the Demon class really kept tempting him back to rethink his plan. He wouldn't lose any strength by choosing the Demon and would even gain the ability to weaken their mind. Just the thought of his enemies looking at him terrified as he brutally defeated them put a wide smile on his face. Not to mention who knows what other abilities he would gain in the future as he would level up.
Exceitedly he made his decision and chose the Oni Demon as his new class. A bright light shone around Ross as he gripped his head in pain. His horns grew out a bit more and twirled around and split into many pointy spikes giving him a menacing appearance if one looked closely they could see tiny droplet-like seedlings grown from his horns, tusks, and claws. His eyes became a mixture of red and black and when you stared into them they seemed to swirl around causing a shiver to run up your spine.
Draven was very pleased to see someone having to suffer the pain of an upgrade without the use of a pod regardless of how small it was. Everyone started to surround Ross to inspect his slightly new appearance and bombarded him with questions about what he could do now. "You guys can talk all you want about this later for now I need the next person to step up," Draven called out to break the endless river of questions. This time Celine rushed over and inserted her ID card.
Celine Instantly knew which class she was going to pick. She understood how strong the Spider Queen class could be but being confined in some room for the rest of her life doing nothing but eat and give birth sounded like the worst thing imaginable to her. Being able to take over the body of her brood made the idea slightly better but it would just be an escape from her own miserable life. The Weaver sounded interesting as it seemed to be a really strong defensive class and the thought of being able to make her clothes sounded cool too. However, Celine liked having the freedom to jump in and out of combat killing things before they even realized she had been there. Making the Arachne Assassin the clear winner.
Draven supplied another Bronze Orb from one of the Trolls and a bright light enveloped Celine as well. Her already sharp and pointy fingers grew even sharper and heavier. Her fangs underwent changes that made her feel like they could pierce anything. Her poison glands evolved and were capable of mass-producing the deadliest venom ever seen on Earth. Celine felt a profound change in her natural abilities she was for certain now that Troll would have dropped dead after receiving her venom.
Before the group could surround her like they did Ross. Draven called out for the next. In the end, each of them received a class specialized and tailored to their race. Greg had the option of becoming a magical Shaman but ended up staying on his path of being a tank and chose Otso the Guardian of the Forest.
Rebecca surprised everyone by becoming an Elementalist Beastmaster. At first, it sounded like something completely different than the ranger she was before. But in reality, this was a major upgrade. After Rebecca came May who out of everyone gained the most in changing her class. Lastly, it was Jennifer's turn, and neither did she disappoint with her choice. Draven had to supplement the rest of the XP Orbs for Jennifer's class change as there were only 5 Trolls but he didn't have any use for the Orbs in his inventory as he had already eaten all orbs from species that would give him SP. The rest he would hand out to the Guards to increase their strength. "Alright now that everyone has a more suitable class let's test out your new powers by taking out the Lizardmen Village and see what lies beyond it. All the Orbs from monsters killed will be split between you guys until you have all reached level 15. Like before you guys are on your own and I will hang back." They all nodded as they headed out of the Adventurers guild with newfound confidence as if they were reborn. When they were with Draven they never had to worry about securing supplies it was so freeing to just randomly say let's go out. Before they had to spend hours getting enough food ready for a journey and trekking with a large backpack with camping supplies in case they got stuck outside. With Draven, they could just leave and he would have everything they could ever need. Like last time they walked the path up the mountains and entered the tunnels leading into Lizardmen territory. Draven entered the shadows to give them some space and walked back out into an area that had no enemies. It seemed even after the invasion they had recuperated their numbers he was curious about how more monsters were made so quickly. Did they have high birth rates and aged faster or what was going on? He asked himself as he pondered the topic. The enemies below level 10 were quickly slaughtered. Everyone was eager to try out their new abilities. Jennifer was having fun with her fox fire that she could control as she pleased. many small balls of blueish fire danced around above their heads as they walked illuminating the path forward. Without her mage class interfering with her innate fire magic, her much stronger Fox Fire was able to come out. She had then entered her Spirit Form and cast a fireball. According to AL that was at the level of Hellfire. This intrigued Draven as the dark blue flames were much stronger and looked cooler than regular fire. But he could only master this flame if he added death magic to his fire as Jennifer did. Looking back into the shadow Draven checked out the Village in the mountain and was surprised to see their numbers had reached over 3000. Where were they all coming from? It didn't take long for the group to reach the village and this is where the real fun would start. Draven stepped out of the shadow next to the group. "Ok, guys in that village are over 3000 enemies. Eliminate them all and then we will take a break while I check out the unknown area. Looking around their levels are between 10 and 15 so be careful not to attract too many at once. If things get out of hand I'll step in." Instead of being scared of the sheer number of creatures around the same level they started getting excited. This was a true challenge to test out all their new abilities and they didn't have to worry about getting overwhelmed. Celine went straight to work unable to contain herself anymore. This was her natural habitat she could sneak up on creatures while invisible and poke them with her poison-laced nails. In truth with enough time she could kill everything by herself without them ever seeing her face. Lizardmen started dropping like flies as Celine giggled like a homicidal maniac in an apartment building. The others went to work as well Jennifer distracted large groups with illusions of enemies attacking from other directions as she sent hellfire flying into their backs burning them to ash leaving only orbs behind. Greg took it upon himself to attract all the Lizardmen who started noticing the commotion and were soon surrounded by 15 enemies their attacks couldn't cut his thick hide-like skin anymore and with each swing of his sword, a lizardman would die. Ross threw around his seed of fear once they made contact with another being they would attach themselves and burrow into their body. Afterwards, they would be terrified of Ross and he could easily chase after them slashing them to death as they did nothing but run in panic which further strengthened Ross's attacks. Rebecca didn't have a Beast pet yet but she still had her bow and after adding the wind element to her bow and the fire element to each arrow she was able to shoot fire arrows at an incredible speed. But Draven believed that out of all of them, May had the most fun as she was able to help in attacking for the first time since waking up in this world. She transformed into one of the Adult Ironhide Boars she had seen and started to charge at her enemies impaling them one after another on her tusks. All of them stopped for a moment to look at May who had been their dedicated soft and gentle healer all this time completely destroying her enemies. After a large boar appeared in the Village all hell broke loose and the entirety of the town started to launch a counterattack against their invaders. Draven decided to let them deal with the onslaught as best they could before stepping in. But to his surprise, they all came back together and formed a strong team. May had her fun and was now back to her usual self. She firmly planted her roots into the ground to regain lost mana and placed small flowers on her teammates. Draven had no idea what those did and was intrigued. He didn't have to wait long as Rebecca got hit by a flying spear piercing her left arm. She yanked the tip of the spear out and the flower on her body started to glow and her wounds healed. From the 10 petals on the flower, 6 remained. Draven eyes widened this was some next-level healing ability. She could place these flower-healing drones on everyone and they would activate when needed. He had to admit that was an amazing ability. Ross threw more of his Fear seeds into the crowd and they quickly became wary of joining the attack while Celine picked off as many in the backlines as she could. It was scary to think that a small poke was all that was needed and they would die within seconds guaranteed without a cure. Jennifer in her spirit form was completely relaxed seeing none of them was using any form of magic she felt very safe as she created dancing balls of Hellfire that she would send toward her enemies. The balls of fire would burn through their bodies and then move on to the next target this went on over and over again until the ball burnt out and she had to cast another. Greg was in his element plenty of enemies surrounded him and he stopped using his sword as he started to pound his enemies with his bare hands. He had gained so much strength that his fists were like war hammers that he used to crush skulls like they were raw eggs. After some time Ross began to bulk up and steam surrounded his body after so many creatures were becoming more and more terrified of him his strength started to multiply before he joined in the battle and decimated large groups of enemies with every swing. It took less than an hour and the Party had killed the entire village all on their own. Draven was seriously impressed. "All right don't bother wasting time carving all of the enemies I will take care of it and pass out the orbs. This haul should be more than enough to get you all to level 20. Too bad you guys have to use the pod to rank up otherwise you could eat all these on the spot." Draven said as he started to truly believe the Pod Evolvers were at a real disadvantage or maybe he was just saying that to cope with how he really felt. Draven then walked up to an enemy and hit loot all and his inventory filled up with all the items and XP orbs of the Lizardmen. He then handed out Orbs to the party until they hit level 15. Okay, you guys take a break I'm going to check out the next area. They nodded their heads and Draven passed out some food for a well-deserved meal. Unbeknownst to Draven both Celine and Jennifer had gone invisible and followed closely behind. Draven reached the area behind the village and saw a small body of water after inspecting it closer there were man-made stairs underneath that led further down through the water. Maybe an underwater area where the Lizardmen live? Perhaps there is another part beyond this spot that has air? Draven's sense of Adventure kicked in and he dived into the water. He knew he could hold his breath for a very long time and was not worried at all about drowning. He swam along the passageway and sure enough he saw a spot that led back out of the water. Draven exited the water and found himself in a deep chasm inside the mountain that was filled with life. Strange plants grew along the walls and small streams of water could be seen flowing all over the ground going who knows where. And looking further ahead were several creatures Draven had yet to see before. < Draven you have entered a hidden dungeon called "The Dragonewt Den">