Therim Riverbell seemed to be in deep ption, prompting Liam to give him a hint:
“The demon’s st word. ‘Crow’. What could it have meant?”
“Crow… seven…”, murmured Therim. “There is an infamous group of bandits called Seven Crows. They have been wreaking havoc around the capital, always esg capture, leading the guards by their noses.
But why would bandits cause such destru? What could they be after?”
“Someone must have paid them.”
“Seems reasonable. But after meeting a demon in the forest they might not be alive to tell us more.”
“Don’t fet that the demon seemingly escaped the forest. He might not have been the bandits’ match.”
“Bandits strohan a demon? Strange. And why allow the demon to live until now?”
“It would’ve served as a great scapegoat.”
“Well, we only have guesswork now. Our priority should be to find the Seven Crows.”
“But with them being so elusive, we find them?”
Therim pondered Liam’s question for a moment before a fsh of wisdom came to his eyes.
“Usually, those bandits are full of tricks. But if even the demon was corrupted by the void, those bandits were surly afflicted as well. If they want to keep their lives they o find a healer.
In our surroundings there is only one healer who save them and would be willing to keep it a secret. It’s that annoying wood elf, Teunaoh!
Adventurer, we must move swiftly! Seek out Teunaoh. If you find the Seven Crows there, gather answers. If not, we sider the bandits deceased.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Don’t worry advehe kingdom won’t be stingy in remuion.”
“I never doubted this.”
“Mhm.”
Therim nodded with a demeanor befitting of someone guarding a kingdom. He was just about to dismiss Liam when something came to his mind:
“Right, adventurer. We shouldn’t uimate the Seven Crows. I advise you not to go alone.”
“Thank you for the warning.”
Liam nodded politely ahe room. He g his ring in satisfa. Therim’s warning was a sequence of the NPC’s appreciation, mostly facilitated by Liam’s high charisma stat.
He didn’t igherim’s words, messaging his friends on the way out. Most of them were quite busy.
Cye and Balm were still taking care of recruitments. Silver Bde and Fortune were questing together, having discovered the joy of expl aboul.
The rest were either buildiionships with various NPCs hting in the PvP arena. Most of them agreed to meet up with Liam, though.
However, looking at their current bination of csses caused Liam to frown. Without Cye and Fortuhey were severely g in magic damage.
Thus, he asked Cye to reend some promising mages. If they proved reliable these mages could be directly sidered for their uping dueams.
Liam entered an inspicuous tavern waiting for his friends. They gradually arrived one by one, joking around until Cye sent a message that the chosen mages should have arrived.
The friends looked up and found two young human meer the tavern wearing fshy mage robes. Their faces appeared surprisingly immature, but Cye reassured her friends that the two mages were both 18.
Although their faces didn’t resemble their age, they couldn’t hide another fact. The two mages were brothers without a sliver of doubt. Although one could ge one’s appearan the game, who would want to look exactly like someone else if they weren’t brothers?
When Liam waved them over, the two mages affirmed this guess during their introdu:
“Hi, I’m Overbearing Zen and this is my brother Dominating Zen. Our csses are Magus of Harmonizing Fme and Magus of Harmonizing Ice respectively.
Thank you for inviting us, you won’t regret it!”
Overbearing Zen spoke with a strong voice, seemingly quite fident. His young face showed a faint smile unlike someoing to know the stro pyers in the game.
His brother was the same, greeting the party with a nod.
Liam didn’t dislike their fident demeanor but expected their skills to match their tone.
“Well then, wele to the group. I guess you know our names.”
“Sure.”
Suddenly chaos broke out in the global chat, catg everyone’s attention.
A wave of disbelief ran through the pyers as the information spread that of Fmes quered the dungeon. No one doubted that Phoenix Feather’s team would eventually be successful, but no one expected them to take sed pce.
Many pyers went offlio tact their friends of the chaos fa, firming that Wave of Bones hadn’t succeeded yet.
Even Phoenix Feather herself was surprised but didn’t let aice. She graciously thanked everyone gratuting them and annouheir desire to officially found their guild as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, Phoenix Feather wouldn’t recruit random pyers as her guild already existed from past games.
Dominating Zehe chat, frowning slightly:
“This guild of sed-rate mages took sed pce? Is the duhat easy?”
A heavy cough rang out. The young mage turned his head towards Radiant Shield and noticed everyoaring at him in annoyance.
“It’s not a good look to badmouth others, but you are even insulting your own teammates…”, reminded Quickstep with a displeased voice.
“Oh… sorry.”
Dominating Zen’s apology sounded quite awkward, prompting his brother to quickly deliver an expnation:
“My brother didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that Phoenix Feather tried to scam us before, so we are obviously not on good terms with their guild.”
“Oh, what happened?”
“We tally fought a boss together with her and her sister and they pocketed the best loot, g that they tributed more to the fight.”
“Ok, so it’s at least not a life ah grudge.”, ented Silent Acacia.
“What? Naturally this is about life ah!”, excimed Dominating Zen. “ime we meet them we will see who deals more damage!”
“Well, save it for the arena.”
“Good idea!”
“Your flicts be solved at a ter date. Let us focus on our quest. Time is tight, after all.”
“Sure.”
Liam agreed with Radiant Shield, expining the progress of his quest so far. When everyone to date, they didn’t waste more time ahe inn.
A horse-drawn cart brought the party to a smaller town from where they entered a forest made up from t trees.
They hadn’t gone far when a group of animals came out of the foliage blog their way. Looking at them, Liam could only raise his brows.
[Red-backed tall boarRank: on
Level: 23
HP: 7300/7300]
The group of five boars didn’t grant the party much time to talk about tactics, rushing at them with violent eyes. Final Fend and Radiant Shield immediately took the lead to defend.
Final Fend’s sword swept across two enemies, drawing their attention.
[-218!]x2
The other three boars were attracted by Radiant Shield’s [A padin’s challenge]. Swinging their massive tusks, they crashed into the tank, causing his body to tremble.
[Stance -14]x2
[Stance -16]
The tank’s shield served him well, blog any damage from reag him. The two fighters bravely secured the aggro, allowing others to start attag.
Immediately a sound came from Melodious Edelweiss, boosting the party’s damage. The two newly joined mages made use of it, firing even before Silent Acacia.
[-325!]
[-301!]
The brothers proofed their great tacit uanding, attag the same target without discussing it beforehand.
They weren’t do, however. Domineering Zen waved his grand staff, gathering a rge amount of mana. He aimed it at the boar, apanied by a loud shout:
“Ice spikes!”
A ess spread as sharp spikes made from sturdy ice broke out of the ground. Taking the form of a rge circle it was tricky to aim them in a way which avoided hurting one’s allies or to avoid trapping the enemy in the ter without damaging them.
But Dominating Zen was obviously well practiced. Three of the rge spikes erupted below the boars, shattering upon impad dealing massive magical damage apanied by some ice damage.
[-241!]x3
[-38!]x3
The instant his brother waved his own staff gathering a suppressive amount of mana.
Pointing his on at the ehe tip of his staff erupted with a red spark. Simultaneously a fiery explosioed in midair above the boars, shaking the surroundings.
“Fming Explosion!”
[-372!]
[-248!]x2
[-46!]x3
Fmes spread searing the monster’s skin, dealing additional fire damage. At the same time a small symbol appeared above the boars’ heads indig that their defense was reduced.
Liam’s eyes lit up as he finally remembered some details about the brothers’ csses. The harmonizing mages had passives which triggered effects based o element which affected the enemy.
The brothers showed great synergy, allowing them to make much use of their csses. However, if they were paired with pyers mastering various different elements, they would prove even more versatile.
Liam’s friends didn’t know about these peculiarities. Silent Acacia was surprised to see the sign appearing above the boars’ heads when his first arrow nded.
[-551!]
A momehe melee attackers appeared o the boars. Sharp ons stabbed at the monsters. Bleary Mirage, Quickstep, and Bloody Edge focused on the same animal, pushing its HP below ohird.
