Elemental Accords 1-6 (Patreon)

Good Morning!

Chapter 6

I learned the skill and as more of a test I tired to use it before Rai used her skill. As I expected, her book started to glow, but I also noticed that the spot under the throne was putting off a glow as well. I used my spear to push the goblin out of the way, then to pivot the chair up.

A roughly fresh dug spot was in plain sight. I pushed the throne out of the way, and used the butt of my spear to dig into the ground. When a yellow shine met my gaze, I got excited. Reaching down into the hole, I grabbed the object and immediately felt my strength increase. It was a bar of gold.

“Nice!” Rai said when she saw what was in my hands.

“It really is! It is giving me as much strength as about half the spear.”

“So what, between two and three kilos?”

“Yeah. At least.” I checked to make sure, but I didn’t find anything else in the hole. Dusting my hands off, I turned to Rai. “Come on. Knight only has a few more minutes left. We should get back to the women.”

“I agree.”

We looked at the large armored goblin one last time before we left the goblin den. We moved at a jog to get out a bit faster since the smell was considerably bad. I couldn’t resist taking a deep breath once we reached the surface. As soon as Rai was out of the Den, there was a rumble before the tunnel started to collapse in on itself.

“At least we don’t have to worry about it being permanent,” Rai said taking in the scene.

“What do you mean?” We killed all the goblins inside. Why would it still remain afterward? I mean I was surprised it collapsed as soon as we got out, but it wasn’t constructed very well.

“In some of the games I’ve played there are things called dungeons that continuously pump out monsters. I had been wondering if that was the case with this.”

“I see. That is a reasonable worry, with how game like the world has become.”

“Well then, what should we do now?” Rai asked doing some stretches. “Are we going to take those women around with us? Most men would love a harem situation like that.”

I coughed at the ridiculousness coming out of her mouth. What happened to the scared girl I found in a closet two days ago? I looked at Rai, but only shook my head. Her arms were covered in goblin blood and bruises covered her exposed skin. It would be weirder if she was still scared after what we’d gone through.

“While I won’t deny that a harem sounds nice. If I’ve seen anything, then it’s a very large pain in the ass to make one work. I think I’ll avoid that for now,” I replied.

We left the small crater and went over to the house. I noticed one of the women peeking from the top floor before she took off. Just as we reached the door, it swung open. “Thank god you’re alright!”

“We got a bit bruised, but nothing too bad,” Rai said making a fist and punching her other hand.

There was a popping sound, and I turned to find Knight bursting into a cloud of light. In a matter of seconds, he was completely gone. Knight was a major help and was the only reason that things had been as easy as they had been.

“Let’s go inside to discuss what we’re going to do next,” I said pushing Rai and the woman inside.

The woman, Lara, took us to the top floor of the apartment complex. Inside, we found the women from earlier, though they had calmed down to a degree. After barring the door, I took a seat in the small living room. There was a large mix of race and age, but they were all decent looking. From what I’d seen on the emptier streets, the goblins tended to kill the ugly, as sad as that was.

“We wanted to thank you for saving us. We all saw some of our friends get… get eaten by the goblins. I just know that was what waited us or… or worse,” Lara said speaking for the group.

“I’m just trying to help out in this trying time. I couldn’t just leave you there to die,” I replied shaking my head.

“Still… thank you!”

“You’re welcome. For now, let’s talk about…” I started to say when a booming voice interrupted me.

“Puny humans! How did you enjoy the first day of your hell? I was quite entertained. Some of you pathetic beings actually proved quite resourceful and have been given just rewards! But no longer! The tutorial is over! Game Start!”

Everyone in the room grabbed their head as the voice rang out. I recognized it as the second voice from the day before. Before I had time to think about it, a screen appeared in my vision.

--

Tutorial Results

Missions completed: 1

Dungeons completed: 1 (Increased rewards due to being the only one to have achieved this.)

Enemies Slain: 540 – Rank S – Leaderboard: 7th place.

Skills Gained: 12 – Rank SS – Leaderboard: 1st place.

Reward: Legendary skill – Ark – Summon a flying ship. The ship can grow.

Knight Summoning upgraded to Knight Order Summoning.

--

Damn! That was the tutorial? No wonder the monsters didn’t get stronger. I stared at my enemies slain counter. There was no way I killed that many. Maybe, Maybe! A hundred. Wait. It was possible that Knight’s kills counted towards mine. That might add up if that was the case. I was surprised though that I was only seventh on this leaderboard with over five hundred kills. I did feel some pride in the dungeon and skills notes.

Everyone appeared to have a screen open, so I waited until I thought they were all done. Rai took the longest, but she soon finished. “Did everyone get a reward?”

“My screen said consolation prize and I got a skill called acid generation.”

“Same for me. Though my skill was magic missile.”

All the women had much the same. The skills they gained were all rated as ordinary. I thought it was generous of this god to give them anything at all considering the way he talked. The only one that got something different was Lara, who got a B rank skill called Leadership. If she recognized people as part of her group, they got a small increase in strength. According to Rai, it was very useful skill.

I contemplated telling the women about my skill, but decided it was best to keep it a secret. I had no idea if they would be with me for longer than a few hours and this world could quickly slip down a dark path. It was best to keep my skills close to heart. Rai appeared to have the same idea and didn’t share her gains either.

“Now then, before we got interrupted, I wanted to discuss what we should do going forward. I don’t know what the situation at large is, thus I can’t tell you if there is a survivor camp. I do think the city is dangerous to stay in. I’m willing to take you all with us until you either find a new group to go with, or we find a survivor camp. Now that most of you have an ability your chances of survival are much higher.”

The group whispered amongst themselves. They probably didn’t know each other before today and now their very survival might rely on the person sitting next to them. I glanced out the window, it wasn’t even noon yet, but the days were passing quickly. If we stayed here much longer, we would have to stay the night here.

I still wanted to attempt to reach the next shop on my list. Unlike the first two, it was a gold exchange and I hoped to get a good amount of gold from the location. According to my saved map, it should only be a street away.

Standing up, I popped my neck and looked at the girls. “I’m going to head out for a bit. You guys stay here, and I’ll return in an hour or two.”

Panic went up among the girls before Lara stood up. “We’ll come with you! Like you said we can help now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. At least I am decided. Everyone?” Lara looked at the others. Only a few hesitated before they stood up saying they wanted to go along.

“Alright. Let’s go then.”

There was still about twenty minutes until Knight Order Summoning was over, but I didn’t want to become reliant of the skill. There might come a day that something happened, and I couldn’t use the skill. I needed to be able to defend myself. I made a fist cracking my knuckles in the process then began moving the furniture blocking the exit.

Pushing open the door to the building, I looked around on the street. I didn’t see anything after a good half a minute of scanning the road. I motioned everyone out after moving out myself. I had my bow at the ready, even though I had lost nearly half of my arrows in the dungeon.

“I can’t stand the quiet,” Rai commented.

“I agree. I dread to think about the death count for yesterday,” I replied.

“I’ve been trying not to think about it. I’m barely handling my parents’ deaths, and only by punching those green bastards too death.”

“I don’t plan on leaving you any time soon, so stick with me,” I said with a grin holding my hand out. “End of the world partners?”

“Sure. I could be stuck with someone worse in this shit storm. You aren’t too bad. Even if you are a bit of a player.”

I blew out in exasperation. “Talking is a very useful skill. One that I cultivated for years. Not that it matters now.”

Rai laughed at my expression and I couldn’t stay angry at her, so I joined in. The women looked at us worriedly but didn’t comment. I waved them forward and we headed for the intersection. Time to get some more gold!