Pebble was still kneeling in front of the King. Fred, Bard and Phil were all nodding in approval at Pebble's new title.
"Sir, Pebble…" The King continued, "...normally Knighthood comes with a set of expectations, but given the current situation, I'm going to skip right to the important parts." Pebble looked up and nodded. "Good. First, you will now have the right to form an Order. That means your party will be an officially sanctioned asset of the City of Aegis, which means you will be able to benefit from our success and we will be able to benefit from yours. However, this also means you represent our City in the deepest way possible. I'll leave what that implies to your imagination."
The King then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a coin. It was a Coin of Communication, but this coin was silver instead of gold like the one Artia gave to Pebble. "This coin will allow me to contact you and explain more when times aren't so hectic. I'm very sorry to cut things short, but we have many preparations to attend to. Please visit the Royal Commander located in Devil's Gouge, a mining City to the south. It's a bit dry, so we will provide you with plenty of water and supplies. Once again, this isn't how we would have preferred to do things. Normally we would have a parade for you and the citizens would get to meet their Heroes, I'm sure you understand why we don't have that luxury right now.".
Pebble quickly opened his inventory and pulled out his Coin of Communication, "We understand, and I already have one of these coins." When the coin was mentioned, it glowed and the silver coin that the King was about to hand over turned into light and was then absorbed into Pebble's coin. The King eyed the coin in awe.
"The gods truly have taken an interest in you." His voice sounded breathless.
"It can be a bit much if I'm being honest, your Majesty," Pebble divulged earnestly, which reassured the King that he didn't bet on the wrong metaphorical horse. "Oh by the way, I totally accidentally destroyed my bathroom floor. I really didn't mean to and I'm sorry. Is there any way we can get that fixed? The bathroom voice really didn't appreciate it."
The King smiled and nodded, "That spirit has been around long enough to know that these things happen. I'll make sure he's spoken to about his temper. We will have a court mage fix it up for you."
"Perfect, thank you! Also, we met an old Hero named Puffy. Would we be able to invite him to our party?" Pebble asked.
The King looked surprised, "Huh, Puffy you say? I'm happy to hear he's reconsidering his role in this world. There is a stipulation that only Heroes can be a part of an order, but Puffy's a Hero, so this won't be an issue!" The King elbowed his attendant and he pulled out a pad and wrote a note on it. The King signed the note and handed the paper over to Pebble. "Here's a quick Royal Decree announcing your Order's existence. I've included Puffy and you four. I left the Order's name blank, so you can fill that in when you're ready. You have an inventory system so I know you won't lose this. When you're ready, sign the Order's name and burn the page. When you burn it, we will document it as an official Order in our books."
"Again, thank you, your Majesty." Pebble grabbed the page and put it and his coin back in his inventory. "You said I can only invite Heroes to my party, but what if I wanted to bring someone else along?"
"Well, anyone who's in your party would be seen as a member of your Order. However, you could bypass this by hiring whoever you wanted as a squire. As a Knight, you're allowed to have a few squires. Squires will report directly to you and you're responsible for their actions, so make sure you use discretion when hiring one." The attendant tugged on the King's sleeve and the King waved him away.
"It looks like we have to get going, Sir Pebble," the Queen said.
"Indeed," the King nodded. "I apologize for giving you the expedited experience. We have faith that once you meet our Commander Keith, everything will sort itself out. When you're ready to leave, please use the coin and I will provide a care package for your travels." The King gave a tiny bow and waved to the crowd before leaving with his Queen and attendants.
Pebble returned to his friends and sat back down in his seat with a serious face. He felt the stares of many people in the room the whole time and took a deep breath to collect his nerves.
"Listen guys, we have to get Puffy and get out of here. I want to get started on getting experience for you guys. Level 80 is going to be a big goal and we should start getting serious about this." Pebble said.
"Agreed, let's finish eating and get him, get our package and leave." Bard replied.
"Guys, we should all use our inventory and store some food in there. I don't know how bad Devil's Gouge is going to be, but he said it's going to be dry." Fred suggested, "When I first started going camping when I was younger, the first lesson I learned was the benefits of preparation."
"Sh*t, that's a good idea!" Pebble said as fisted some cheese and began twitching his eyes.
"Bro, learn to be subtle." Phil said with a horrified expression. A few patrons that were still staring made a disgusted sound and stopped watching. "You're not setting the best first impression here, Alain."
The cheese disappeared into Pebble's inventory and he flinched at the mention of his old name again, "Phil, honestly, I know this is a change, but please stop calling me Alain. It's Pebble now."
Phil looked surprised by Pebble's response, "Okay, sorry." Phil scratched his head, "You completely disregarded what I said, by the way."
Pebble looked around and saw he was getting a few looks, "Yeah you're right. Could we just tell them what we're doing? Is this such a bad thing?" he didn't wait for a response and began projecting his voice, "Hey guys! I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be weird or anything. We are just going to take some food with us for our upcoming journey! If you would please avert your eyes as we don't really want you guys seeing this part."
"What the f*ck is wrong with you?" Bard elbowed him hard. A few patrons started booing. Pebble looked around in confusion.
"Why did I do that?" Pebble was dumbfounded by his own actions.
Bard must have activated a skill because his voice was enhanced with mana, "Good afternoon citizens of Aegis. I apologize for my friend here, he's an actual barbarian, but he means no harm. I've seen this man stand up for his beliefs my entire life. He might be slightly dumber with his words lately, but I know he will give his all as your Hero. You can call him Pebble! This beautiful wizard is Fred, the scaly assassin is Phil and I am but your humble Bard! We are all your Heroes and we ask that you bear with us as this world is new to us."
Pebble watched as Bard charmed an entire room of the City's elites. It was quite a sight to witness. In the games they've played in the past, charming an entire room like this would take a strong magic spell or an extra lucky charisma roll. This must be Bard's power as a Hero and it was nothing to scoff at.
Pebble was mentally taking notes, 'These people are eating out of the palms of his hands. That wasn't even a special speech or anything, but some of these folks seem emotionally moved by his words. I wonder if he could convince people to take up arms for him. Bard might be the strongest one in our group in the grand scheme of things.' Pebble began to worry about Puffy, 'I hope Puffy really did choose to join us on his own freewill.'
The team ended up taking all the food on their table and a few extra trays that were rolled in from the servants then they left the banquet hall. Pebble was relieved to be out of that room, it felt like a mess. He had no idea why he addressed the crowd like that. That was an out of character move. He started doubting his choice to keep his intelligence and charisma at level 5.
So far most conversations seemed to actually be going well for him, but those conversations were with gods who could read his thoughts. Now he had a barrier between what he wanted to convey and what he could actually say. 'When I was Alain, I was always a quick witted smartass. Now it seems like I'm just an impulsive asshat.'
He'd have to work on that.
—
The team rushed over to Puffy's and entered the bar. The staff were lined up like soldiers and Puffy was the drill sergeant.
"So that's pretty much it. I'm going to be gone for a while, I'm not sure how long. You all need to man the fort. I'm leaving behind Matilda to watch over operations and tally the books." The staff seemed a little unsure about Puffy leaving, but some of the senior staff seemed happy with the turn of events.
Puffy summoned a floating book that seemed to be able to talk, its voice sounded like a nasally aunt that had too much to drink, "You heard the Gnome! Everyone get back to work!" The book turned back to Puffy, "Get on out of here you rascal! I'll see you when you get back."
Puffy hugged the book, "Okay, see you soon, Matilda!" He let it go and ran over to the team, "Hey guys! Are you ready to kick some ass? Let's get the f*ck out of here!"
"Hell yeah man, that's the spirit!" Phil replied as he put out his fist. Puffy fist bumped him immediately and Fred shoved a lit lighter into Puffy's field of view
"How about we light up these pipes, Puffy?" Fred raised his eyebrow.
"Now you're speaking my language!" Puffy pulled out his pipe and let Fred assist with the light.
"Glad to have you on board. I'll notify the King that we're ready to go. He's supposed to send us a care package for our trip. By the way, we have an Order now, does anyone have any name suggestions?" Pebble asked now that they were all together.
"Don't ask me, that's entirely on you, did you notice what I named my bar?" Puffy replied.
"Fair enough, anyone else?" Pebble asked the team.
They all looked deep in thought until Fred spoke up, "To be honest, he knighted you, I'm staying out of this one." The others pointed at Fred and nodded, choosing to let Pebble figure this out on his own.
"Whatever, in that case, don't b*tch about the name." Pebble wasn't one to dwell on decisions like this, so he quickly summoned the note the King gave him and wrote down, "The Order of Stone."
"Any objections?" He asked, but was simply met with a bunch of shrugs. Pebble shrugged as well and put the page over Puffy's pipe and it ignited.
"What's done is done, welcome to the Order of Stone." Pebble greeted his founding friends..