Lyonel couldn't help smiling as they approached Elstree. There were changes everywhere. They had left for their mission of clearing dungeons shortly after Alan announced that everyone would be getting classes. As someone born outside of the Network, that act wasn't as shocking for him as it was for Gaf. Their healer had taken a while to fully process what Alan was willing to give up to make the village stronger. It seemed that self over others was a common concept in this universe. It was very different from the Corellian point of view, where harmoniously living together was the expectation.

They had been gone for quite a while so it was no surprise that the village looked different now. The most noticeable change was the tall wooden walls around the whole thing. It encapsulated both the village proper as well as a significant portion of the current working farms. There were signs of a few fields being developed outside of it, but everything else was protected. There were two larger gates on either side, centered on the current village road.

Looking closer he saw that the wall didn't actually run all the way around the village, the river acted as one side of their barrier. There must have been a wall-walk because he could see groups of villagers patrolling around the top. His smile wavered as he realized that this increase in defensive measures was probably a sign that something bad had happened. The gate his party approached was propped open, and there was a group of five guarding the entry point. An attractive young human woman waved for them to stop once they were close. There wasn't any antagonism in her gesture, it was just her job.

"Welcome back sirs. We've been hoping you would return soon. The mayor would appreciate it if you could check in with him as soon as possible."

The others in what was probably her party, stood at ease, so whatever had caused them to build a wall probably happened a while ago. If the mayor wanted to talk to them, they would most likely be getting the full story soon, but it wouldn't hurt to see what he could find out first.

"Thanks for the welcome! I'm sorry I don't know your name, but I can't help noticing this impressive wall. When did you put this up?"

She smiled at him as she offered her hand to shake. "The name's Jenny, and we finished the wall just yesterday. Having access to storage items made getting the wood here so much easier, which let us build the wall much higher than we would have otherwise."

Up close it was impressive. It rose more than five meters in the air. Carrying that many logs of that size from the forest would have been practically impossible for the villagers before they got classes and apparently storage items. Still, the engineering involved in the construction was nothing to scoff at, either. Now that he was at the gate he could properly see the scaffolding and walkway that had been set up so that defenders could man the walls. The gates were also made from thick planks and hung from massive hinges. They wouldn't be easy to move unless you had a strength class. Looking at the two large golemoids standing with Jenny, Lyonel was pretty sure they could handle it.

"What made you guys put them up?"

Her smile slipped as she answered. "There was an attack, a dungeon leaked and the monsters killed three people before we managed to take them out."

That confused Lyonel. Alan was supposed to be making sure the town dungeon was kept reset. It had a timer of ten days, so why would it have leaked? Rather than taking up more of this party's time, Lyonel led his group inside and over to their boarding house. It didn't seem like whatever the mayor wanted to talk about was all that time sensitive, and his party had been looking forward to getting a bath. Hector especially needed one, since he had ended up caked in mud after fighting both an earth and water elemental at the same time. He had tried to get himself clean in a river, but the ferret man was still complaining about it rubbing on his skin.

Someone must have sent word because the landlord, Jessica, was standing outside when they walked up. Lyonel caught Samson standing up straighter and trying to smooth out his fur. He had a serious crush on the bunny woman, but Lyonel thought the lady was a lost cause since she and the mayor seemed to be an item.

"Welcome back boys. I've started making a snack for you all, not sure if you would like something more significant, though."

Lyonel's mouth started watering. He had been spoiled by Alan's cooking and while Gerry was trying to learn how to cook himself, their meals recently hadn't been anything to talk about. A home cooked lunch would be nice, but while he was willing to put off the mayor to get presentable, he didn't think they should make him wait too long.

"We would appreciate the snacks," the rest of the group echoed that sentiment. "But I don't think we have time for a full meal. We were just stopping by to get cleaned up before going to see the mayor. He asked to see us." The rest of his party groaned at that.

Jessica's face lit up. "Oh, that's no problem. I'll send word to Roger and he can join us for lunch."

"That's perfect, let's do that!" Gerry shouted out before glancing at Lyonel with a guilty look.

"Like he said, we'll do that. Thanks." Lyonel affirmed.

The party went inside while Jessica stepped out into the street to flag someone down to let Roger know. It wouldn't have been much of a walk for her to do it herself, but she probably knew that if she went in person that it wouldn't be a quick visit. The enthusiastic landlady might also just want to get started cooking right away.

There were two bathrooms in the house, but each had a couple of bath tubs. That still left one person having to wait. Lyonel could have taken one of the spots as the leader of the group, but he made the decision he thought Alan would make, letting the others go first. While he waited for his turn, he checked over his status sheet.

Lyonel Furston

Race: Hamster Man [W]

Class:

Defender (71%) Opal

Man-at-Arms (64%) Opal

Searcher (49%) Opal

Health: 595 (60/hour)

Stamina: 509 (102/minute)

Mana: 213 (21/minute)

Stats:

Strength: 30

Dexterity: 16

Perception: 28

Focus: 14

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 12

Constitution: 29

Spirit: 11

Skills:

Blocking: 115, Blunt Weapons: 128, Harvesting: 3, Heavy Armor: 36, Identify: 78, Leadership: 45, Maces: 103, Pain Tolerance: 47, Running: 37, Sneak: 2, Tracking: 4

Titles: [The Select]

Class Abilities:

Defender: Harden I, Crush I

Man-at-Arms: Unrelenting Assault, Block II

Searcher: Empowered Senses

Talents:

Defender: Block II, Hammer Blow II, Shield, Taunt I

Man-at-Arms: Parry I, Quick Attack I, Bash II

Searcher: 6th Sense, Penetrate

He felt rather proud of what he had accomplished. As he snacked on the small sandwiches that Jessica had left out for them, he thought of how far he had come. When the tutorial arrived, he had been a run-of-the-mill guardian, not to be confused with the quartz class he gained from the Network. His job had been to venture into the dangerous wild that surrounded his town and prevent the creatures there from threatening the civilians. This had given him an advantage in both skills and mentality when the Network chose him.

Many of the others he had met in the tutorial were also guardians, but there were even more civilians that were chosen. There just weren't that many guardians on his world. Compared to the other Corellians in the last tier, he had been one of the best. After coming to this contested zone, he had realized that hadn't meant much, but he liked to think that their work since meeting that confident busboy had done a lot to close the gap with other top contenders. His stat sheet showed the progress.

He now had multiple talents and abilities that had upgraded, some even multiple times. The nice thing about being the tank was that he got lots of practice taking a hit. That was probably also why he had a pain tolerance skill, though. Since gaining the ability Block, he was even more effective in his role. Hits that would have previously left him seriously injured, or sent him flying, now only forced him back a step or two. It came with a large stamina penalty based on how strong the attack was, but he hadn't felt the need to complain yet.

It helped that the rest of his team was similarly improving. Hector had taken on a hybrid melee/range role that saw him as a kind of skirmisher. After Lyonel had their enemies' attention, he would either flank them, or pepper them with arrows. Samson and Gerry were both much stronger mages now. They had picked up a Mana Reading skill and had started modifying their spells to make them fit their style better. Gerry had even created a new spell, Water Darts. It wasn't super effective, but it let him deal more damage than most of his other spells.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Gaf had proven himself to be a critical piece of their team. He had begun as a mage and healer, but since joining their party, he had leaned hard into healing. Alan had tasked Lyonel with keeping an eye on the man, but it truly seemed like he had thrown off his old affiliation, and was now fully on board with team Alan. He wasn't going to trust him completely yet, but Gaf had earned a bit of freedom.

Samson was the first one out of the bath, and Lyonel took his place. Alan had helped set up some kind of runes on the tubs that helped to heat the water. To fill them with water they currently were fed by a large basin on the roof that Gerry was in charge of keeping full. Some of the new villagers would probably be able to take over that duty, but he hadn't been around to see all of the dramatic changes in the people's abilities, so he wasn't sure.

Sinking his body into the warm water was a luxurious feeling. It took a little for the soothing liquid to penetrate his fur, but when it did, it was like being kissed by a warm hug. The house now had some simple cakes of soap, and he used one to scrub himself down. Hector was in the bath next to him and he was still going to town on all the mud. It had penetrated his outer layer of protective fur and was squished into his fluffy inner coat. As Lyonel watched, the ferret man drained his tub and then filled it up again. The water had been intensely brown, so it was probably a good decision.

Conscious of his responsibilities, Lyonel didn't linger too long in the bath, just time enough for his body to regret getting out. Hector was still scrubbing away when Lyonel finished drying off and changing. Maybe Gerry should work on getting some kind of cleaning spell, or Samson could brew up a better soap. Those were thoughts for another day.

Lyonel stopped by the rooms of the rest of his party to make sure everyone was ready for lunch. Samson and Gerry were together, doing something with mana, and Gaf was in his room sorting loot. The many dungeons they had cleared had provided a rather impressive haul. His own favorite items were a chest piece that added to his constitution, and a new mace. It wasn't as fancy looking as some he had seen, or even wielded himself, but something felt right about it.

The shaft was a piece of a very dense, and unidentified, wood. It had stood up to swords and axes without any nicks or scratches. Granted, those hadn't been high quality weapons and the things wielding them had been white grade, but so was he. Instead of a ball or flanges for a head, the top of his mace was a rectangular piece of dark black metal. Along each side of the head were rounded knobs. Alan had once described how his spewn got a boost in power from having a rounded impact point, something about force versus surface area, but that had mostly gone over Lyonel's head. What he knew was that his mace hit with unbelievable force.

With his man-at-arms class, Lyonel had gotten his strength boosted much higher than he had ever possessed back on Corellia, and he was able to use that with his new mace to cave in the chest of heavily armored warriors. He had tried to identify the item, but he only got a partial description. He knew it was enhanced with some type of mana, and that the materials it was made from were something special, but he didn't get any details. For now, he didn't really care, the weapon let him smash.

Eventually, Hector had to be dragged out of the bath. To an outsider he looked clean enough, but he insisted that there was still mud rubbing against his skin. He'd have to finish cleaning himself later, though, they had gotten word that the mayor was on his way over and Jessica was almost done with lunch. The smell of freshly baked bread had been enough to convince Hector to come out and get dressed. It was a much better smelling, and less rumpled, group that made the trip downstairs to the dining area.

The mayor was already sitting at the long table with Jessica hovering over him. Lyonel pretended not to notice the hand on his shoulder that Jessica had quickly pulled away when she saw them come down the stairs. Their relationship wasn't any kind of secret, but they still shunned most public displays of affection. It made Lyonel consider how long since he himself had gotten any kind of affection, public or not.

"Come on in boys, grab a seat. I've got bread on the table and some oil to dip it in. I'll have the main dish out in a few minutes."

The oil had an interesting flavor to it, and complemented the bread well. Lyonel still would have preferred butter, but without cows or goats, that wasn't a commodity that the village possessed. After everyone had gotten a piece of the soft, hot bread, they directed their attention to the mayor.

"Welcome back gentlemen. I hope you had great success in clearing dungeons." He paused as everyone nodded that they had. "Good, because we are going to need you soon."

The rest of his part was silent, even Gerry didn't speak up, this sounded official so they were deferring to their leader. "What's up?" Lyonel asked.

"You may or may not have heard, but a nearby dungeon leaked not too long ago, and three villagers were killed. Other than that, the damage was minor due to some timely response by everyone. Unfortunately Alan wasn't here when it happened, but he got back to the village just after we killed the monsters. It was decided then that we should build a wall, but in the meantime he went with the mercenary party and tracked the monsters back to their source."

"You said it was from a dungeon."

"Yes, but we didn't know that at first. The mercenaries sent their scout back and she was the one who confirmed they were from the wild dungeon in the area."

Lyonel and the other Corellians shared a look at that. Shortly before Alan had revealed himself as a fellow tutorial recruit, they had tried that dungeon and been forced to retreat to the entrance. They had been at each others' throats when they got back, and it had been one of the low points in their time together. It was before Gaf joined them, so their human member didn't understand what was passing between his teammates.

"Do you need us to help with the dungeon?" Lyonel finally asked.

"Not at the moment. The mercenaries are on guard around it, and Alan went in to clear it. He's been gone for a while now, longer than we were expecting, truthfully. That's a problem, but not the issue I wanted to bring up with you." He paused to make sure they were all still paying attention. Samson was trying to peek through the kitchen door from his seat to catch a glimpse of Jessica. When he saw the mayor, who was also her boyfriend, looking at him he had the grace to look abashed.

Roger continued. "A few days ago, we finally finished building the wall. It ended up being bigger than we first intended, but we are still getting used to what we are capable of now that we all have classes. This is where things got interesting. You may or may not know this, but the Network is all about struggle and growth. That's why it creates so many dungeons, to provide opportunities for adventurers to struggle. Something else it likes to do is set up raids."

Gaf nodded along knowingly, but Hector couldn't help asking. "What are raids?"

"There are all different types, from massive empire spanning raids all the way down to tiny skirmishes. These are Network supported wars, if you will, pitting two or sometimes more sides against each other. They are usually for a limited time, but occasionally a smaller raid ends up creating a large-scale feud which lasts for years. This is important to us, because the Network, or the Tutorial, has decided we are ready for a raid. It looks like we qualified for it when we finished building the wall."

Lyonel took over the conversation for his party again. "So what does a raid look like in this case? Weren't we going to be fighting other villages in the next tier anyway?"

"Yes, that is the most likely challenge when the next tier opens up, but this is a more limited engagement, both in the number of opponents and the time frame. After we finished attaching the two gates, I received a notification that we were now eligible to participate in Village Raids. I think Alan was supposed to get the message, but he was already in the dungeon and was probably not able to be contacted. Wild dungeons can be tricky when it comes to Network messages. The notification asked if I wanted to participate or not, and I was planning on waiting till Alan returned to answer. Unfortunately, two days ago it informed me I only had twelve more hours to decide."

This was all sounding a little above Lyonel's paygrade, but with Alan missing, Lyonel was probably considered the next man up to be in charge. Roger was the mayor, but while he now had classes, he wasn't an adventurer. He listened to the man explain what had happened next.

"I knew I had to make a decision, so I thought about what Alan would want. He wants us strong, and the fastest way to get stronger is to struggle. With all of us having classes, our village has a huge advantage over any of the others we might get matched with. The only issue is that the main muscle we are likely to run into will be the opposing recruits. Even the new mercenaries we brought in have only quartz classes. If the village we get pitted against has a decent party of recruits, or several parties, then they would likely significantly offset our strength. If your party was here to support us, though, I thought we would have a great chance at winning. I figured you'd be back soon, so I ended up accepting the offer."

As soon as the mayor had said he tried to think like Alan, Lyonel knew that was going to be the decision. That human loved to test himself, and he would probably have wanted to test Elstree against another recruit village. It would also give them an idea of where they stood for the next tier. It was a problem that the man wasn't here though. Yes, Lyonel's party had opal classes and they were gaining power, but he was leery about fighting another top recruit party. The last time that happened, it hadn't gone so well.

"When does this thing start?" Then a terrible thought popped into his head. "Or has it already begun?"

Roger shook his head and Lyonel let out a breath he had been holding. "It won't begin for two more days. We won't get any specifics for how this will work until the day before, though. I have heard of several variations for how this will go, but the general idea is that we will be pitted against another village, and the winner will get rewarded. The conditions that allow for victory change each time, but it is often based on capturing something, or taking a certain number of prisoners."

"What about killing a number of villagers?" Samson asked.

"These things, especially at the village level, usually end up with few deaths. Villages are too small to handle bloody battles. Instead they normally involve some skirmishes and maybe some limited larger battles, but most of the time people surrender before it comes to fatal blows. In some cases the villagers themselves barely fight, and most of the interaction is done through the opposing settlements' classers."

"What are some of the things we could get as a reward?" Lyonel wanted to know how important victory was going to be.

"That really depends. It could be points towards upgrading the village, which would be disappointing since we are pretty much maxed out already. We just need more people to qualify for the next tier. Other rewards I have heard about are upgrades to town dungeons, increased mana density, better resources spawning in the area, or sometimes simply money to be spent in the Network store. They're all good options. Something we do need to consider, though, is what to do if we can take prisoners."

Gaf finally spoke up. He had some experience with such things before, so he hadn't been as attentive to the earlier explanations. The last consideration had sparked his interest though. "What do you mean? What's there to think about?"

The mayor's voice got very serious when he answered. "Taking prisoners back to your village and making them slaves is a common practice across the universe. But I'm not sure how I feel about that. First off, as a former serf, it was usually us that got taken, as the adventurers could buy their way out. It would feel wrong to force other serfs to abandon the homes they had just started making to become our slaves. On the other hand, it would help increase our population and hopefully allow us to upgrade. Becoming a tier five village would be a huge boon for us."

Lyonel had only recently learned of what a slave was. That wasn't a thing on Corellia, for which he was glad. "There's something else to consider. I'm not sure how Alan would take the idea of slaves. I got the feeling that something like that would be abhorrent to him."

Now the mayor was confused. "Is this something you talked with him about?"

"No, but from conversations about other topics, I think the idea of owning other people would be against his values. He might not appreciate returning to the village and finding it full of slaves. Even if it did let us upgrade."

The discussion went on a little longer, but no final decision on slaves was made. It would all depend on how the raids were set up anyway. The rest of the meal was spent on some broad stroke logistics. The first thing they needed Lyonel's group to do was clear the town dungeon. The timer was almost up again and they didn't need to deal with dungeon leaks while also fighting against other adventurers. The decision was also made to suspend the runs through the training dungeon twelve hours before the raid kicked off. They didn't want anyone outside the village in case of any sudden attacks.

Jessica brought the rest of lunch in while they talked over whether an offensive or defensive posture would be more appropriate. It was again something they couldn't make a final decision on until they knew more details, but they worked out some of the obvious pros and cons so they would be able to decide quicker when the time came. Lunch was a nice collection of vegetables with some kind of flavorful white meat. When asked about it, Jessica told them it was chicken. The eggs Alan had provided the farmers had not only hatched, but they had laid eggs for several more batches, enough that they could start culling the smaller ones for food.

By the time the meal was over, they had come up with several contingencies. One thing they did decide on was bringing the mercenaries back from guarding the dungeon. It would mean they wouldn't get any warning if the dungeon leaked, but everyone was already going to be on alert, and the wall should protect them. Besides, while they weren't as strong as Lyonel's team, they were a big step up from the villagers, especially since they all had four classes now. It was too bad that the villagers hadn't gotten a chance to hit the dungeons in the first zone yet. A few more classes for a big chunk of the villagers would have been nice. There was no point in wishing, though, and having the other party here would help ease Lyonel's mind about facing off against the opposing recruit parties. It seemed he was going to see just how much ground his group had made up against other teams soon.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.