[Fred] Chapter 4: The Dark Ravens of Miyang

[Throndir]

"Ehehehe... Well... it's not much, but we do have food!" Deng Lin《The Bloodied》said, "I caaaan give it special flaaavoring too, if you'd like some? Hehe." The girl named Deng Li giggled, as she pulled out a knife. Her clothing was dirtied with brown spots, though there were hints of dark red too on them. It looked suspiciously like dried blood. You noticed too that she had various bandages on her hands and arms, some of them were stained red.

"My lord hero, don't mind her. Her 'flavoring' isn't what you're going to expect. Please allow my sister and I to handle bringing you something worth eating..." Moliane Hudson《Dark Raven》said.

The new girl then glanced at another girl who was dressed similarly to her. Both of them had frilly outfits with a black and white color-scheme.

"Yes, my sister and I will please you, my lord." Oliana Hudson《Knife Juggler》 replied. Both of them bowed, then began to exit the room.

"Wait for the others, mmm, we should... wait for the others..." Duan Jun《Dark Raven》said. She wore a black outfit with a high turtle-neck shirt, which muffled her words a bit.

"Which I agree with... I do have some announcements to make, but it's better if we wait for the others to show up, and see who we lost during the attack." Lai Fen said, cutting straight to the business, her words seemed to have sombered the mood in the room however. "Don't forget a couple of us lost our lives both storming the palace, and escaping. We killed the bastard emperor. But there's just a bit over half of us here, which means more should still be on their way, or are held up somewhere else."

Lai Fen then glanced towards one of the demihumans in the group.

"Han Tu, you were the first one back, right?"

"... Yes." The girl, Han Tu《Covert Ops》, said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I thought so. You and Eris are the fastest and quietest among us all, I want you to take her then search the area above, then come back in 30 minutes. Try to help out if you see any of us in a pickle. But remember, your first priority is keeping yourself safe, got that? The Red-Hand group we had fought earlier was a joke, maybe new recruits, but if you see any of them, retreat immediately."

"... Yes... boss." Han Tu said. She seemed to breathe in deeply, and when she exhaled she seemed to simply vanish from sight.

"Bethany, take Eris' place at the entrance. Tharielle and Filliane, go to our two other outposts connected to this one. There could be some of us over there. I doubt any other intruders had found any of our outposts yet, but if you find one that is compromised, lock it out. Come back in half an hour."

"Everyone else, help out Oliana and Moliane with food preparation. If anything else, it would be for our hero here." Lai Fen glanced towards you, as she threw you a bag. She had a smirk on her face.

"Bird feed. Small little seeds. Maybe it would hold you over until dinner." She smiled almost evilly. Her sister, Lai Ju, looked trouble. Everyone else was simply confused.

[Linwelin]

Fred was excited at the prospect of special flavoring in food, until he recognized the emphasis and saw the bloodied bandages. He then had a slightly disappointed look on his face. Blood? That's hardly special. Heck, I've already had human blood before... He thought to himself, thinking back to his carrion days, not even a day ago. Fred just nodded along with the two women that advised against blood-girl, and calmed.himswlf down.

"Ohhhh!" Fred couldn't help letting out a surprised noise in praise, seeing Fen Fen give out orders. She really is a leader, huh? He was impressed until he saw an evil smirk appear on her face. Really? You're gonna play it like that, huh? Alright, Fen Fen, let's see what you got.

"If you've got some, I'll eat it. I don't mind at all. Sounds good, actually." He just said bluntly, waiting to see her response.

[Throndir]

"That bad I just threw at you has them, lots of them!" Lai Fen frowned, not getting any sort of interesting reaction from you. She spoke in a quieter voice next as the rest of the Dark Ravens began to prepare the late dinner. Most of them had gone out the same way Oliana and Moliane went, a few others lingered, while a remaining few began checking out the various crates and barrels in the room.

"Personally, I still find it hard to believe you're a bird..."

Let me know if there are other specific actions you want to do in the next 30 minutes when everyone arrives. Feel free to spark up dialogue though if you really wish. To specifically gather information, either roleplay it out, or roll Diplomacy, with specific things you want answered.

[Linwelin]

Fred immediately starts digging into the bag once people have mostly filtered out, gnawing on the seeds with a bit of difficulty. He originally tried swallowing them whole, but realized that it wouldn't work, coughing a little. "Huh, this is much harder than I thought." He recalled watching humans eat, where they took their time chewing before swallowing, giving it a shot. He experimented with eating the small seeds until he finally started getting the biting motion down right. "Now I see why everyone gave funny looks. Eating seed as a human is strange."

To Lai Fen's response, Fred could only shrug, "Well I can't believe I'm a human. I hadn't even exactly asked for this, it just happened. This body is so weird."

Fred then turned to Lai Ju, after everyone else was out of earshot. "Hey, Ju, can you show me that 'meditation' thing while we wait?"

[Throndir]

"O-of course... Fred." Lai Ju said, blushing slightly at the use of your first name. She hadn't looked at you when she said your name, but she realized something instead: The entire room went silent.

A couple of them glanced at Lai Ju. This of course only made her cover her face.

"Ohoho, my, my." Abrielle commented noting both her informal way of calling the hero, along with the blush on her features.

"Our second-in-command...? Oh honey..."

Jed made his way over to you, then placed both his hands on your shoulder.

"You take good care of my honey, hero. ☆"

[Linwelin]

"Yes...?" Fred was a little taken aback by the situation. He hadn't realized exactly how odd calling people by their first name was. It turns out, Lai Ju hadn't been the one that was socially awkward with name etiquette. It was Lai Fen. He couldn't help scanning the room like a deer in headlights at the sudden turn of events.

[Throndir]

"Everyone! It's just a name!" Lai Fen announced. "Even if our lieutenant never really calls anyone with familiar names!" She continued as Lai Ju only blushed more.

"Even if she's never blushed this furiously before!" Lai Fen continued matter-of-factly.

"Sister..."

"She's completely enamored, look at her!"

"Sister!" Lai Ju's voice echoed in the room, everyone was silent still, though this time there was a noticeable air of unease. Lai Fen only shrugged and sighed.

"Call for me when the rest arrive." Lai Fen said, her voice expressionless as she quickly disappeared into one of the rooms.

[Linwelin]

Fred, no realizing exactly what the importance of such pet names was, remained as innocent-looking as possible before calling out, "Will do, Fen Fen!" His face remained unknowing, but he was internally snickering, hoping for some form of reaction. I hope you didn't think Ju was the only one that'd get teased! Remember, 'there's no such rule'!

Without even paying any mind, he turned back to Ju, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Are you gonna be alright?"

[Throndir]

When Lai Fen glanced at you when you called out to her, her eyes were full of emotion. Her eyes had some slight tears to them, and her expression itself was complicated with an underlying icy tone to it all. She disappeared into the next room however, getting away from everyone else's sight.

The moment you placed your hands on Lai Ju's shoulders, the lieutenant blushed even more.

"Fred... I..." She glanced at you, then to the door where Lai Fen had disappeared into. "I need to check up on her..." With that, Lai Ju stepped back, trying to calm herself, then started to make her way to where Lai Fen had disappeared off to.

[Linwelin]

Fred just kind of stood in a daze. "What in the world is going on!?" He mutters to himself in exasperation. Lai Fen is suddenly crying, Lai Ju runs away to check on her, everyone is saying I need to 'take care of' Lai Ju but she runs off before I even figure out how I should do that! Still thinking, he plops down right where he was standing, leading him to realize that the ex-princess is still standing beside him. He sighs, "Well, that's that, kid. What do you want to do?" He digs his hand into the bag he'd been thrown, tossing a few seeds into his mouth. "Have anything that you REALLY like? Food? A certain weather? Shiny things?"

[Throndir]

The girl clutched your clothing, but she didn't say any words. She held herself closer to you when Lai Fen and Lai Ju had left, she wasn't very comfortable with the rest of the crew.

Some of the Dark Ravens noticed her, though they chose not to interact.

[Linwelin]

Fred sighed lightly, giving up on learning anything new. "I can't help you out if you don't tell me anything, kid. Well, just stay there for now, if it makes you feel safer." He whispered in exasperation. It's just death, I would have figured, being this old, she'd be doing her best to survive, which includes getting on others' good sides. I guess there are a lot more differences between ravens and humans than I thought. Well, I suppose ravens ARE much more independent, despite our flocking. Fred was truly confused over how this child was acting so helpless.

Fred decided it was best to just switch to a different topic. "Status." He muttered to himself, waiting for the screen to pop up. I gained levels, whatever that means, and some new titles. I wonder what they are?

[info]Fred looks to see if there are any unallocated points (I think I'm supposed to update my sheet, would like to know how), and the effects of his titles, [The Chosen of a God] and [Quick Destroyer].

Side note, where do I list the extensions of powers on the character sheet?[/info]

[Throndir]

[okay]Fred Pragtige
Summoned Hero
Level 20

Condition: Injured, Tired

HP: 19/36
MP: 22/36
STR: 16 +
DEX: 26 +
CON: 18 +
INT: 13 +
WIS: 14 +
CHA: 10 +
MAG: 18 +

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Status, Destroy

You have 1 unspent ability point.
[/okay]

Going to include extensions on the Blessings page. For out of game updates, you can allocate skill points on your character sheet to reflect your level 20 changes.

[Linwelin]

Knowing how spending ability points more-or-less worked now, Fred put another point into the "Dex". He'd felt the difference in his mobility between the palace and now, so he understood that that was one of the traits this category improved.

[info]+1 to Dex[/info]
Now then, I no longer have a limited time to look this over...what are all these other terms? What other lists are there? Fred, casually moved through the 'Blessings' list to see what each of those phrases meant.

[info]Read through all blessings on my list, even the ones I've already seen, just so I make sure I haven't missed anything.[/info]

[Throndir]

[okay]Focus on『Quick Learner』
Gain 5 times more Experience than normal.

Focus on『Mana Sensitivity』
Ability to see magical glows, runes, and movement of mana.

Focus on 『Translate All』
Ability to understand all spoken languages.

Focus on 『Personal Status』
Ability to pull up the Status screen. Focusing on specific items will bring up more information.

Focus on 『Status』
Ability to see names and title from other people.

Focus on 『Destroy』
Ability to destroy anything worn on the target. Invocation is quicker.[/okay]