Chapter one: The Past of the Brave
After George's departure, Maria took her daughter to bed and calmed her down "I know… it is not fair that everybody can rest except your dad"
"I know that it is not fair that everybody are with their families except your dad".
Mona: "all the people in the city are selfish and I hate them".
Maria said to Mona while patting her head: "since you are now 13 years old, how about telling you an exciting story".
"Really!" she got up and sat on her bed hoping.
Maria: "once upon a time…there were three adventurous brave men going every day to the forest of the poor which is the same place your dad dedicate his life now to help the syndicate because of which they were living the best life. His purpose was to repay them the debt and become stronger to let them rest and take the responsibility".
Mona: "we have learned about it, the forest that we gain our fortune from".
Maria: "shortly, yes. In spite of its danger, the forest divided to more than 20 difficulty range. The more you proceed, the harder it becomes. The difficulty range 10 is now the utmost thing the adventurers can reach".
Mona: "but there are people in the city don't fight and go for a walk at the beginning of ranges".
Maria: "of course, nothing separate each point from the other except a wooden plate has the range's number written on it, and at every point there is something called the heart of the range; if we destroy it, the monsters will never come back to it".
Mona: "if the heart exists, the monsters will come back to life after one day, I remember this information".
Maria: "yes, but this doesn't matter now. The most important thing is to be ready to know what your father did in the past".
Mona: "I want to do as they did for my dad".
Maria put her forefinger on Mona's mouth. "The goal of the brave men is to be upgraded to the category of warriors. In order to do that, they have to pass the fifth limit of the forest. Only three people have reached this category, and thanks to them the city is living in its best despite the isolation because of the gate. Those three people were called the pyramid of the city. The warriors are forced to stop at the fifth limit, they didn't want to lose anyone from the Adventurers category which is considered the category of the new or those who didn't pass the fifth limit. And we have the explorers who gather the Loot".
"With time passing, and thanks to the brave and the pyramid, they reached limit 10, and here the troubles start".
"What do you expect will happen?"
Mona: "I don't know, have the creature became strong?"
"Yes, but the problem wasn't here. The pyramid saw that this limit is convenient for them and the city. On the other side, the brave wanted to continue to ensure better life. Their reason behind that was to take a longer break and to encourage people to join the syndicate. The pyramid excuse – which comes out from a long experience – based on preparing the new generation and keeping on the tenth limit. The brave men in their reckless youth had entered limit 11. Till the tenth limit, everything they are facing is Goblin or creatures similar to trees or frogs, and there is nothing difficult to deal with. Limit 11 as well as limit 12 didn't have creatures, and there were a lot of scattered resources. The explorers took off to gather the resources, and the brave men were watching the situation at the front and the pyramid at the end. It kept this way till they reached limit 15. Here, the warriors stopped and commanded everyone to halt. Everybody was on edge and the brave men divided themselves with the warriors again, are we going to get back after walking for hours, or are we going to continue and see what is waiting for us then go back?
The aim from passing the tenth limit is exploring, so after all this effort the brave men didn't want to go back empty handed.
Every day the limits get renewed so the monsters go back to their places in this strange forest. After the division, the warriors decided to go along and keep everybody else waiting.
One of the explorers came screaming "they have wiped all our traces … they even wiped the fires that leading us to the way back".
Before he could do anything, the brave men felt the ground shaking under their feet. When they looked at the side of limit 16, one of the warriors shouted; "RUN, we don't stand a chance here".
They were all trembling… the brave men led the way of escape while hearing the sound of swords, stabs and screams. They remembered the syndicate ultimate word "if you lost control, run to the previous limit. The monsters can't pass their limit for some reason".
They continued until they reached limit 14, and when they glanced quickly to check on the rest, there were no many warriors left… the three became two… the monsters didn't stop proceeding which made every one collapse…
The brave men were still holding themselves together. In spite of the great number of monsters, they were able to avoid any physical injury but the psychological damage was huge which affected their bodily responses. They were wondering why the monsters didn't stop since they had reached the limit 11… here, they have surrendered to despair. There was shouts asking for help, warriors begging to be killed, and many of them have lost their weapons. They have made their minds to kill as much monsters as they could.
It doesn't matter to live, the most important thing is getting back the rest of the warriors. The brave men shouted for everybody to run and then they dashed forward.
The monsters surrounded the two warriors and the three brave men, each one protecting another. No matter how many monsters they kill, there is more.
Despair dominated the warriors and they put down their swords on the ground and sat which made the brave men protect them quickly. It is getting so hard there is no time to talk. One of the warriors said "it is you, you and your ambition led us to this situation. The people of the city don't deserve all this"
At death, the true identity comes out. The brave men are the reason of the continuity and evolvement of the warriors, and the warriors don't want to overpass them. They are stupid youths charged with hope.
The warriors' words burdened the sword of the brave and made them move. The circle became tighter and one of the brave started to put down his sword and get stabbed in his shoulder. The warriors did nothing, just waiting for their end. Then, the third warrior came back breaching the circle screaming "don't give up!".
He was wounded and bleeding, he had the wooden plate of the limit 15 in his hand. He said screaming: "they have deceived us, all the wooden plated were fake. We were at the limit 11 and didn't pass it!!! All we have to do is reaching limit 10 and everything will be alright".
The warriors stood up and the heat of their souls have dried their tears.
"After hearing the trick, I can't make them laugh till the end"
The warriors took out the gem and handed it to one of the brave men.
"This gem is specific to the limit, if you run away with it to the limit 10 we will be the winners".
The warriors looked at each other and smiled. All the warriors carried one of the brave and tossed him outside the circle.
There is no time for thinking; the warriors decided to bet on us, so we need to get out of here alive.
They ran nonstop and dropped all their gear except for the gem specific to the limit (the heart of the range), and here ends the story of the three warriors.
Mona: "why are you telling me a sad story in my birthday" Mona's tears never stopping.
Maria: "the sad story is yet to begin"
Mona went directly to her and held her fiercely "don't continue the story if you are going to keep crying"
Maria said with a mild laugh: "don't worry, I will continue"
Maria continued
"Do you know what happened after this incident, the city honored all the survivors who died for one day. No one joined the syndicate fearing from repeating the same thing. With the warriors, such a thing never happened as they were always cautious.
It was only one month passed when the complaining started… there is nothing new and no merchant is dealing with the city. The poverty invaded the city and the bad aspect of it showed up, if someone is sneaked to the woods to collect the coins and get missed, the brave men are always there to blame.
Every day the brave men go to the center of the city to invite the people to join the syndicate and go to collect the resources. They can't do this alone because the merchant wants 400 coins daily and it has to be delivered every day, so three people are not enough and they need fifty people at least.
No one wants to work and they want everything to get back as it was.
Then, the brave men came up with a simple and effective plan.
Whoever comes with us will get money even if he did nothing.
Their task is just collecting the resources, and if they get anything, they would have money. Thanks to the brave men of the city with the cursed gate, the greedy merchants is living the best days of their lives".
Maria: "do you know now why your father works hard every day?"
Mona frowned: "so in order to be happy, someone has to sacrifice spending time with his family"
Maria hugged her laughing "I miss him too, and we should respect his decision because he loves the city so much".
Mona: "so you are one of the three braves, aren't you?" she peaked at her arm that she always hide.
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Information:
The syndicate consists of more than one category
The warriors
The braves
The adventurers
The explorers
By going deeper into the woods, intelligent monsters will show up.
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