Chapter 29

  On the third day after the meeting, Theo got out of bed and took care of his business. He ate at the bar at the inn, then went out of the inn into the street and walked towards Lucy’s group. Theo was wearing the leather armor he had bought, along with the short sword at his side. They all gathered, and after 20 minutes, they left the city and headed in the direction where he had first arrived in the group tutorial. After a while, they saw smoke rising from the distant grassland. They headed off in that direction, and 45 minutes later, they entered a camp where at least 1000 people were. The camp itself was made of tents. Theo saw that the fire pits from which the smoke had earlier come were on the outskirts of the camp. There were no walls. Lucy’s group, plus others who tagged along, including him, got settled in the camp. Theo was basically wandering around for a couple of hours when a man came up to him and said,

  “Hey, are you the guy with the Warden profession?”

  “Yes, I am,” Theo said.

  “Come with me. All the other groups have arrived, and the leaders want to see you actually perform this ritual and ask you a bunch of questions,” the man said.

  Theo sighed. “All right, lead the way.”

  Again, he went through the song and dance of explaining how the ritual worked and showing off his old Warden status. Then he was given some paste that was semi-sticky and, from his senses, gave off a faint sense of mana. Theo used the paste, spreading it on the ground as a medium of the ritual to send the prisoners to Gehenna. All of the leaders came together and gave him a list of how the prisoners should be treated.

  The contract basically stated to treat the prisoners fairly, that after the tutorial was done and they were no longer brainwashed, they should be sent to Earth or another planet of their choosing. After the ritual was complete, they brought out men and women who were bound; they were all put into the circle, and Theo channeled his mana through the ritual. The paste really sucked it up, and a faint blue light glowed from the ritual. Theo felt the presence of many different prisons and genius locorum accepting the offer. He thought of Gehenna and sent them on their way there. As both parties agreed to the contract, the blue light brightened into a blinding light, and when it was gone, all the prisoners were gone as well. The leaders were happy with the results. One of them asked,

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  “Is it only you that has to activate the ritual, or can it be anyone?”

  “It can be anyone who can activate it, and anyone can actually draw it, but without the innate knowledge that comes from the Warden’s knowledge skill, I would recommend that I draw the ritual,” Theo said.

  The man smiled in an oily salesman way and said, “Very good. All we need from you is to draw the ritual when required. What is your class?”

  “Healer, and I picked up a skill book on Short Sword Mastery in the solo trial,” Theo said.

  “Very well, we'll have you team up with the group to be their healer,” the man said.

  With that, Theo was dismissed. Theo spent the rest of the day just meandering around. That night, he pulled out the sleeping bag from his storage ring and slept. The following morning, all the groups and factions gathered together. A group of four guys approached him; they were all white and looked like they were in the military.

  “Are you the Healer?” a man with blond hair and a crew cut said.

  He was wearing plate armor and had a hand-and-a-half sword hanging from his waist. The other three men were dressed similarly.

  Theo used Identify on the four men:

  Human Level 25, Human Level 25, Human Level 25, Human Level 25.

  With a raised eyebrow, Theo said, “Yes, I am the Healer.”

  “What healing spells do you have? I know each class is a little bit different than others when you hit level 25, and how the hell did a Healer get so high of a level? We also heard that you were in a solo tutorial. Care to elaborate?” the man said with an eyebrow raise.

  Theo smiled with all his teeth, “Easy. In the trial I was in, my healing magic worked like combat magic against the undead. And to introduce myself, my name is Theo. As for the spells I have for healing, Healing Touch, Cleanse, Common Target Healing, Healer's Intuition, and Clean Common. I also have a sword mastery skill.”

  “My apologies, my name is Blake,” pointed out a guy who had a crooked nose and black hair. “This is Jace,” he said, pointing to a guy with a square jaw and brown hair. “This is Jack,” pointing to the third guy with blond hair and blue eyes, who looked straight out of a fantasy novel. “This is Joe,” and the last guy, who was average looking and even out of the four of them, all wearing shining plate mail, faded into the background. “This is Gordon, and we are all warriors or a variant of them,” he smirked.

  They talked for a bit, then the six group leaders got up on a platform, and the oily guy Theo had spoken to yesterday stood up and gave a long-winded speech. After that, all the groups set off towards Tim’s settlement, and Theo walked with the guys.

  Blake pulled out ropes that were enchanted and handed them to each of them.

  “All right, the goal is to capture them alive so we can help these poor fools, but don’t hesitate to kill them if you’re in a bind. No heroics were just here to do a job,” Blake said. Everyone nodded, including Theo.

  As they continued, they got closer to the settlement, with over 1,500 people beside and behind him. In front of him, off in the distance, they could see people on the walls, and the gates were shut.

  “Mages used stun and sleep spells,” someone yelled

  Waves of shimmering lights, consisting of mana, were shot off to the town. As that was happening, they were given the order to advance

  “Reminder, try to capture, but don’t hesitate to kill if you’re in a bind,” someone bellowed.