Chapter 134: Class Changing And Another Slave Settlement

POV Cornelius

I still remembered well how we were called to our first mission many years ago. Like today, it was to clear out a settlement of freed ex-slaves, escaped criminals and deserted soldiers. The first time, we mainly wandered around in the forest looking for fugitives, but apart from a lot of traps, we found nothing. This time it had to be different.

We took the opportunity to practise with the recruits who were on the spot and train for group combat. I had couriers sent out to deliver messages. They said that the recruits should be here in 10 days. Of course, they were free to use the garrison's facilities to train and prepare.

Before the mission, the four of us had changed our classes. I chose priest, Ansgar rogue, Javier druid and Eleonore healer. This increased my Charisma by 5 as a base value, Ansgar's Agility, Javier's Intelligence and Eleonore's Agility. With Ansgar, we now had our own skilled trap disarmer and were also much more flexible. No ex-soldier of the slaves could compete with us.

The four of us went about our own training after our class upgrades. For the upgrade itself, we went to the cathedral to get the peace and quiet we needed for meditation. The first to improve his class was Ansgar. He sank into his thoughts and quickly began to grin. Then he opened his eyes again.

“Great, I've become more dexterous with my new class. It should also make me faster in battle.” <Ansgar>

He raised his thumb and made way for the next one. It was Javier, who went into the meditation pose. It took much longer for him. But then he also opened his eyes and stood up.

“Hmm, I'm done.” <Javier>

“What took you so long?” <Cornelius>

“Hmm, I tried various options. In the end, I decided on the druid. I still wanted something magical and the druid gave me that. Unfortunately, there were hardly any other alternatives, but at least it increases my intelligence. I can put it to good use.” <Javier>

“Sounds good. Eli, it's your turn now.” <Cornelius>

“Yes, Corni.” <Eleonore>

Eli took Javier's place and went into meditation. It didn't take her long to rise again.

“ I became a healer. It seemed to make the most sense to me.” <Eleonore>

“Then it's my turn now.” <Cornelius>

I sat down and sank into meditation. I had already planned my path. I wanted to become a paladin, so it made sense to become a priest first. That would give me the opportunity to learn light magic.

“So, now that we've all improved our class and are much stronger, let's take the next step. We round up our recruits and ingratiate ourselves with the church by digging up the slave settlement. Then we'll travel north with them and visit the Lightning Dungeon. Let's go.” <Cornelius>

We left the cathedral and went about our preparations.

Over the next few days, more and more of our recruits responded to our call and in the end there were 10 who arrived at the palace. Among them were 5 warriors, 1 archer, 2 scouts and 2 wizards. Two of the warriors also had what it takes to be leaders, so I gave them each a group consisting of the other recruits. We split up the scouts and wizards and distributed the rest. We were joined by several more soldiers. We formed four groups in total. We heroes formed another one. Another group was made up of soldiers only.

The destination was about 10 days to the west in the middle of the forest. Due to the remote location and the large number of wild animals, only a few people lived there. There were only a few villages and towns along the few main roads, which were heavily fortified. The forests were home to an unknown number of old abandoned logging camps and charcoal kilns. All kinds of scum gathered in these. There was even the possibility that the refugees from back then had found refuge in one of these camps. As I hadn't seen them back then, I didn't recognize them anyway.

Our convoy set off shortly afterwards and it took just under a week to get to the next major town. It was also the closest settlement to our destination. From here, our destination was four days away. We traveled two days further along the road and then two days north through the forest. There used to be a path through the forest, but there wasn't much left of it. So we had to make our way through the forest.

On the second day in the forest, we set up camp in a small clearing. According to our information, we were about three hours away from our destination. We held a final strategic meeting and went to bed early. At the first sign of dawn, we set off and surrounded the camp. Two of the groups went around the camp and cut off their escape route. The other two groups came from the front and waited. As soon as the sun was fully over the horizon, we attacked.

In the first light of day we got into position and waited to give the signal. As soon as the time was right, I gave the signal. We stormed off and shortly afterwards saw a large clearing with a settlement in it. It was surrounded by a palisade. The settlement lay quietly and peacefully in front of us and showed no signs of resistance. It was almost too easy.

“Ansgar, break through the gate.” <Cornelius>

“With pleasure. Wuargh!” <Ansgar>

Ansgar aimed his large axe at the gate in the palisade and simply chopped it down. A single blow was enough for it to come off its hinges and land on the ground with a loud thud. We stormed in immediately and expected a counterattack. But there was no attack. The settlement was completely quiet and looked deserted.

“Soldiers, take a look around and then report back to me. Look for the wanted men. Come on!” <Cornelius>

This couldn't be right. Was our information wrong? Didn't the people we were looking for live here?

“Noble hero, we have found signs that people were still here recently. But the entire settlement is deserted. We couldn't find anything of value, nor any animals.” <Soldier>

“Then they managed to escape in time? Looks like they were warned. Check our sources and our informants for leaks. We may have a mole on our side. Summon all available trackers. Tell them to search the area.” <Cornelius>

They got away from us, just like they did back then. Damn, nothing goes as planned. If this had been a computer game, I'd load a save game and start over because too much was going wrong. But this wasn't a game, so all we could do was carry on.

One of the scouts actually found a trail, but it was already a day old, so it wasn't worth pursuing. We headed back to the next town. There we asked the group leaders whether anyone from their group had left the camp unnoticed at night or whether anything else had happened. But according to their statements, no one had behaved conspicuously, so the mole was not to be found among the recruits.

In the town, two of the recruits asked if they were still needed. It was the archer and one of the warriors. I gave them permission, but memorized their names. When the other recruits realized this, more wanted to stay behind. They were the two wizards. One was a native of the village and the other said his reason was to improve his Herbalist skill here. That left four behind. I then gave one of the scouts the task of keeping an eye on the four. The rest made their way back with us.