Beautiful World

They continued bantering for a while, letting the team in the back reflect on their failures until another group of monsters came in sight. This time, the team approached with more caution and diligence. They fought slowly, making sure each enemy was dead before proceeding. Daren and Zale watched. "I wish we could take back our land," Daren suddenly said while the team fought their third group of monsters that evening.

His gaze was transfixed on the sun-bathed horizon visible only through breaks in the forest line. "Where's this coming from?" Zale asked.

"Just a feeling. We got pushed out of the Piedmont twenty years ago. It's kind of frustrating. I mean, I wasn't there, obviously. But my father always talked about it. I guess it stuck with me. With how beautiful the world is, I sometimes wish I could see more of it," Daren fantasized.

"Why don't you? I dunno, take a vacation and fly somewhere or something. "

Daren sunk back to reality, looking away from the sunset. "No can do. Not with recruits like these. I do miss traveling around the south with the raid teams sometimes, but this is more my style. Besides, tensions with China, Japan, and Korea being what they are, it makes me uneasy."

Zale shrugged and put his hands in his robe pockets, staff resting snugly in the crook of his arm. "I don't think war is likely. We depend on each other too much for aid and resources. Every country is just trying to look threatening and powerful. Egypt, with the whole pharaoh thing. Japan and its emperor. Britain and their queen. You might as well join the raids again and travel when other countries need help."

Daren scoffed. "Yeah, as if. Only the big guys go international. Though, the small raids did take me all over the countryside. Good comradery, good food, good sights. If only it was easy to just go whenever."

Zale nodded. "True. I've seen pretty much this whole state, minus the restricted territory. Can't get near a 10th tier gate."

They both sighed. The team cleaned up the monsters and returned to the van with minor spoils. The night closed in, and the patrol ended without further event. Daren praised them for their effort, then doled out a few more pointers. The last thing he informed them of was the patrols over the next two days. "Will you be joining us for that as well, Zale?

"I'll contact Effie and get some kind of schedule, I suppose."

That night, Zale sent off an email to Effie requesting anything resembling a schedule for the coming weeks, then put his mind to research. Sat at his computer desk, he delved into the question he'd asked Daren. The answers online were quite clear. There was no limit to how many times they could use a blessing. There was no side effect, either.

"'Mana' talks about mana burnout. That settles it. Blessings and mana MUST be unrelated. That means I shouldn't think about it in terms of how to make blessings work in my favor. That's my mistake. Then, what about the old gods? I wonder if any of that pagan shit is related."

Zale pondered about the nearly two millennium and older pagan religions. Ones whose origins were so steeped in obscurity, he could only find Wikipedia articles and scholarly articles locked behind a paywall. "China, Japan, Norway, Egypt. Interesting, I think."

"Egypt? You planning to jump ship to Egypt?" Meru said, popping up behind him. Having not heard her enter, Zale jumped and slapped his desk. "Shit! You scared the piss out of me," he proclaimed, hand on chest.

Meru spun his chair around and pushed a big hug on him before retreating to the living room. "It's been a while since I came here. Thought I'd surprised you. Had dinner yet?" she called from the other room.

Zale walked in, smiling to himself. "not yet."