Baron Sierra

When the old knight finally arrived, he was wearing a more shiny and polished version of his usual equipment and only his giant sword.

The sun had already started setting just under the very top of the sky into afternoon but we did not linger very long. Sir Beryl spent ten minutes paying respects to Lady Mara and catching up with Mr. Harlow in person before finally reviewing my teammates.

By the time he had picked out all of the people who could join us, which was Go, Merch, Oleander, and Lil as well as only Cweeper and Hermes among the familiars. He himself could vouch for these familiars' pasts because he had been present with Cweeper sidelining Lana's 'sparring' the Elder Oak goblins before Hermes appeared.

Plus, if it ever really came into question, it could be tracked back to the surviving litters of imp princesses we still had as well as the Golden Ferry who bought and sold the excess imp warriors as well as their cave's mana crystal. Creatures like Alpha and Imperial were too big and scary, Duck was unnecessary, and Zekrom or the demons were just bad ideas.

After this brief screening, we left while the sun was only two stars below its zenith in the afternoon. With Sir Beryl's hulking armored figure in the lead, the roads basically cleared themselves for the man who was only rarely scene in the city. He spent most of his time actually securing the peace of the region even just by sleeping under a big-ass tree, this was how they paid him respects.

On time of the silent worship-like parting of the partially crowded streets, many people would call out to the old and famous knight seeking acknowledgment or even recognition. Some NPC adventurers and guardsmen would even call out achievements such as a number of 'city laps' or their achievements in the Elder Oak for the younger ones.

Even some of the bewildered players on the streets would join the herd mentality and make their own claims, ending up with only a few smiles and waves from the knight. He clearly favored his attention on the guards and those over certain ages.

For those people, they either lived here or had accumulated enough experience to be of real value. They were they guys who would take the acknowledgment as morale into potential conflicts on the front lines. As for people who he seemed to recognize as Travelers by their speech or mannerisms as well as the Elder Oak, he knew death was not the end for them.

There were only a couple of times we stopped on our march through the city. One of them was when a small party of players started following behind us and shouting about their clan, trying to literally steal our thunder from traveling with Sir Beryl. At this point the NPC all around grouped up on them and started yelling and lecturing them without stopping while maintaining ten feet of distance from the players.

They probably had no idea these were players or anything of the sort so this was probably their natural reaction to anyone who mocks their city traditions. They were completely nonviolent but they were all screaming and shouting at the same time and corralling them in the middle of an intersections.

By the time Sir Beryl and the rest of us had made it to the next intersections, he actually stopped and turned around to smile and wave at the group as the citizens unanimously went quiet and carried on about their business as usual. It was a shocking and potentially traumatizing brush with mob mentality from the NPC.

Better yet, everything they had been screaming were literally singing the praises of Sir Beryl's youthful military career and campaigns securing this and the neighboring regions. Shockingly, there were more than just a handful of stories shouted out by dozens of different voices. Every ten people had something else to say in the hundred-man intersection.

The second time we stopped was when Sir Beryl came across what appeared to be elf twins but the male was a dark gray dark elf and the girl was a normal elf. In my eyes, I could clearly see they were players even if their information were not on public. As it was, their names were Sun and Moon.

Sun was the dark boy and Moon was the fair girl, contrary to what one would probably expect. Sun wore what looked like a light kobold armor, a pair of short but broad sabers at his hips, and his level was thirty-three. Moon, on the other hand, was only level thirty and carried a long crossbow as well as a pair of long and heavy blunt batons.

Sir Beryl actually spotted them and walked a block out of his way talking to them and then introducing them to my group and I. Mainly me, though. It seemed like he was presenting new students to someone who had already graduated and was somewhat humorous.

Both people were classless like him and had been present bright and early every day at the Elder Oak since they reached level fifteen. The are one of the few dozens of people who actually managed to cycle through the line two or even three times a day which explained their levels.

Even with parties that were forcibly mixed with ten random people and NPC at a time, they still managed to ride the rewards from the challenge and sneak time with the ever bored Sir Beryl to their current levels and abilities. Both were classless players, but Sir Beryl learned early on to be more proactive in their lives while he had the ability.

He had already taught them their basic skills through combat as well as inspired both of them to make signature skills. From these, their Swordplay and Bow Hunting masteries were already more than halfway through the process of becoming dedicating masteries. Just before beasts went crazy in the forest, he was going to send them on a training hike out into the plains to experience at least ten of each of the common level thirty or forty mobs.

Now, though, had had recently spent their time out hunting in neighboring villages enough to upgrade their equipment into the next level brackets. These were not bad skills at all, but I now did not want to have any involvement because of how far along they were already trained.

The only thing I could do was spend the entire walk listening to stories about them and their preferred combat styles. Sir Beryl was obviously seeking insights from me to help diversify their abilities, but there was not much I could do because he had inhibited their learning combat related magic for the time being.

In the end, I simply took some inspiration from his dual weapons and my own experiences the night before. Since Sun had already developed a signature skill based on one weapon defending while the other attacked in different ranges of motion, it was clear what route he could take.

If the skill allowed multiple motions, advance it by incorporating the allowed motions into a variety of combined movements for a combo skill.

Moon, on the other hand, was heavily reliant on her archery even when fighting alone. She had both a stealth sniping skill just like mine that came with an accommodating title as well as a dual-arrow skill. As for her batons, she only had a lesser mastery skill called Heavy Weaponry.

Either baton were three feet in overall length with eight inches of grip and guard. They were made of a not bad steel, either and the shade of the iron was more gray than black which implied tungsten or something similar, but they still probably weighed about twelve pounds apiece. That was heavy for a sword of such measurements but for a blunt weapon it was even more unwieldy.

However, she had finished so many mobs crippled by her archery that she developed a mastery that increased her character's ability to handle manage burdens which effectively lightened her weapons the same way the one-hundred-Strength perk lightened Character Inventory and equipment.

With that, she devised a 'Blunted Critical' after achieving her own Crit Learner which increased attacks on undefended body parts with blunt weapons by fifty percent and increased critical hits with blunt weapons by fifty percent. She finished arrow-crippled mobs with nothing but homerun slams in the head, that was cheating for skill management!

For her I simply told her to train her rate of fire as well as ability to fire in different angles and movements before giving her the same combo skill suggestion.

After this we spent the better part of an hour wandering back on course and to our destination before arriving at what was NOT the small castle-like building in which the city's baron lived. Instead it was a giant squarish building like the Guild but instead with a tall domed roof. Inside was a large lobby of sorts while the rest of the building was divided by half a dozen hallways with large and small rooms in between.

Down the middle hall we went with little obstruction except for a few young people who came up more to present some larges boxes or directions to Sir Beryl. In the middle of the middle hall, we turned into a large doorway that lead to a large open meeting room with solid walls.

In the middle of the room was a rectangular shiny wooden table about twice the overall size of the average dinner table. At the very end of this table sat a tall but very fat middle aged man who looked like he had seen much better days in his youth. To either side of him sat various older but healthier figures not unlike the current night foreman at the smithy.

Sitting down at the empty end of the table, Sir Beryl opens one of his boxes to reveal an assortment of small pies and baked goods which he begins unceremoniously eating. After consuming a six-inch tree nut pie to himself, he looks around the otherwise silent room and says, "You kids, sit down already. Anybody here want some of this? You all know I can eat it."

At the mention of what was surely a tall-tale worth appetite, some of the otherwise official looking people at the other end of the table caved and started pointing at the boxes.

By the time all of us had taken a seat with Cweeper and Hermes in the very middle on either side of the table, the boxes had been opened to reveal one small case of wine, some toasted unleavened breads like giant crackers and cheese, and various forms of paperwork that I never got a chance to look at.

After everybody had received something to eat or drink from Sir Beryl's catering service, he briefly gestured to me and says, "Everyone, this is Hack. Hack, this is everyone you need to know. At the moment, this is Baron Sierra."

Disarmed and disgruntled by Sir Beryl's generally casual attitude, I simply bow my head low to the baron like someone unaware of customs would do before saying, "It is an honor to meet you, Baron Sierra."

"I'm told you have something to tell me," The middle aged fat guy stats with a simple honey glazed sweet bun missing only a single bite sitting before him. "Let's start with outlaws."

"A scattered community of outlaws numbering in hundreds below or around five hundred are currently controlling the natural wildlife in the area to weaken villages and townships," I reply quickly and professionally with a slight monotone from boredom. "To what end I am uncertain, the flow of information cut itself off after getting several large camp locations and this general population information. For certainty, though, their leadership is separated into different camps separated from the other camps controlling the forest."

"Can you prove any of this?" Baron Sierra asks bluntly.

"I and mages of your choosing and ability can escort you to the ends of major highways and show you groups similar to what we encountered," I suggest with a shrug at the end. "Or you can send teams of such capable people to scout out more outlaw groups like the one I encountered, which I now feel like you had already done."

"Indeed," he replies, taking the second bite from his bun after his brief acknowledgment. Once he was done he said, "I sent scouts out the cardinal directions and discovered not just two out of four highways with waylay teams but also uncovered one such camp as it people were gathering for the evening."

Taking another bite without looking away from me, I just start to wonder if I should ask for his thoughts for some etiquette reason before he swiftly finishes the large bite of sweet bun and says, "This proves you're willing to share important information with me, good marks for you. Now, what can you do for me?"

"It was suggested by Sir Beryl that I prepare a gift with which to pay my respects," I reply while paying such respects to Sir Beryl with a grateful nod in the old knight's direction. "Considering the tumultuous times I returned to my first visited city in, I have prepared enough materials and recipes to craft one thousand heavy longswords and one thousand silk armor standards.

"If you are interested…" I trail off and add, opening my menus and briefly pulling out a stack of treated and enchanted silk canvas as well as a single ten-pound bar of ancient alloy.

Sir Beryl himself took the materials I placed on the table, simply sliding them over to him with something like Telekinesis at cracked out speeds. There was even a faint puff of dust from the table that preceded them when the silk canvas came to a stop. However, after briefly feeling the canvas he simply smiled before shoving the stack more than half of the way down the table.

While somebody further down the line took the opportunity to examine the folded-stacked canvas, they simply held out the top end of the canvas to the next person so that it would be unfolded to each man. Everybody else but the baron seemed fairly satisfied with the material.

Baron Sierra himself simply maintained a fairly professional pokerface as if he had no opinion at all about the silk canvas that was nothing more than what it physically was in his eyes.

*