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nAfter a good while of waiting, something finally seemed to happen. Eldrian first saw the soldiers forming in neater lines and groups. Instead of the loose formation, they had been in, which had allowed them to still relax while also being quick to form up.

nCurious about why they all acted at the same time Eldrian looked to the gate and saw a small party of around 50 people walking towards them.

n'Guess the leaders are finally here.' Eldrian thought as he waited for everything to officially start. It was now almost 8 am, which meant the quest should start soon. Or at least it should according to the developers' post, but Eldrian felt certain it would differ depending on the developments in the game.

nEldrian turned his gaze to look at the approaching group. They all had very fancy-looking armor, well except for three people in the group. The rest all had shining armor of varying colors and shades. Looking more like fancy clothes than actual armor. They also all seemed to have very expensive-looking weapons and other trinkets on them.

n'Most likely nobles.' Eldrian thought when he saw the group. He also recognized two of the 'not so fancy dressed' people.

nThe main leading figure was Old Sword whose armor looked worn yet sturdy. The armor had clearly been damaged many times, with repairs having been done onto it when needed. The armor looked more battered than whole, yet Eldrian felt certain it would still provide excellent protection. He felt so since the armor seemed to have been repaired with different materials each time.

nThe other he recognized was Vivian, who was walking in front of the nobles with a clear divide between her and them. Her armor looked extremely clean as if it had never seen a fight before. Yet the armor was completely different from the others in the group's armor. Her armor was clearly made with the intent to not look outstanding while their armor seemed to be made for just that one intent.

nEldrian felt Vivian's armor design was a great choice, since it would limit the number of people who would want to target you. He had often heard that armor was the way to identify the identity of someone. When your armor looked like everyone else's then you would escape detection, which could save your life many times over.

nThe other person with a 'not fancy' armor was an old guy with white hair. Strangely the guy had a long beard and very short hair, which resulted in a very weird look. Eldrian was used to seeing both long hair and beard or long hair and short beard, but never long beard and short hair.

nEldrian was happy and surprised when he realized that Old Sword would likely command the expedition. It did not mean much, but it meant he should not be harassed by the soldiers later on.

nAs the group neared the army, the soldiers made way for the group to pass through. Old Sword and the other old guy walked straight in heading to the center of the army, while the nobles looked smugly at the soldiers. Seemingly feeling prideful that others were making way for them.

nVivian on the other hand did not follow her dad and left the group when they entered the army. She then started heading towards Eldrian.

n'Wow, did she spot me too?' Eldrian asked himself as he looked around. He then realized that he had chosen to wait off to the side, being near the army but clearly apart from it at the same time. He shook his head as he felt dumb for forgetting that he was standing alone a good distance from the nearest squad of soldiers, thus clearly in the open.

nAs Vivian approached Eldrian she asked,

"Also can't stand the stupidity?

" Hearing this Eldrian nodded since he felt it was correct. Mostly.

nThe soldiers were set on alienating him for him being a Chosen, while he did not want to join the players, due to their uncoordinated manner.

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"Yeah, I just feel like I don't fit with the other Chosen. And the soldier doesn't want me with them, they had made it very clear.

" Eldrian said, which surprised Vivian. Since normally the soldiers would welcome anyone who was not a noble.

nShe then remembered that they normally quarreled with adventurers until they had fought together. They would then realize the other party's worth and make peace. But only more experienced troops would know of this worth system.

n'I hope the soldiers will learn to not group people after this expedition.' She thought to herself as she joined Eldrian and turned to observe her dad, who was currently standing on one of the booths. The booth had been moved to the middle of the army to allow him to look over everyone and be heard and seen clearly.

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"Everyone please listen carefully, I will now be conveying our mission for this expedition.

" Old Sword said, strangely his voice was carried through the air evenly making it easy for everyone to hear, while he did not need to raise his voice.

nWhile Eldrian was fascinated with this amplification part, likely due to magic, the players started to stop talking and look at Old Sword to hear what he had to say.

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"Alright, we have received a report that a huge monster pack had passed the border of Tauras into our kingdom. Our mission is to find them and kill them, we must do this before the monsters start attacking the villages in the area.

"

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"To fulfill this mission we will set out in a short while. First I want to establish if everyone here is willing to follow military law and order.

" As Old Sword said this he looked at the players, who had started to talk again.

nThe players talked for quite a while before a few stepped out from the disorderly bunch.

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"What will be required of us in the fight?

" One player asked.

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"You will be treated as a reserve unit to lighten the load where the expedition army is struggling.

" Old Sword answered.

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"We don't want to be a reserve unit.

" One player called out, to which many others voiced their agreement.

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"I don't care, I will be treating you as reserve troops. If you do not want to follow orders, then you will forfeit your rewards for coming on this mission.

" Old Sword countered, shutting up most of the players.

nThey all connected Old Sword's statement and threat, to failing the quest. Which meant they had no choice but to listen to him. Many players got irritated with this part, since they wanted to be able to voice their concerns. Some stirred but few wanted to ask or say something.

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"Then what must we do until we are needed.

" A different player asked after taking a while to see if anyone else was going to say anything.

nOld Sword was already becoming irritated with having invited the players on the expedition. It should be an easy task where the army will outnumber the beasts 2 to 1 without the players even being considered.

nThe only reason he had accepted the request of the kingdom on taking them with was that he hoped to find more Chosen like Eldrian. Who had the potential to become great fighters.

nBut Old Sword did not like having such a bunch going on a mission with him. They did not even want to listen to an experienced commander's commands which he could not understand. He felt they would be a big liability or in a lighter case, no help. It was just like with the noble brats.

nStill, he had been ordered by the king to take them in. Thus he had no real choice in the matter, the best he could hope for was that they would leave after he made it clear they needed to listen to him. Unfortunately, both the nobles and Chosen had not left after this had been made clear.

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"If there are no more complaints or questions then we will start moving out in 5 minutes.

" Old Sword said as he climbed down from the booth. He then proceeded to give commands to the captains of the different squads, after which he joined the nobles again.

nHe also did not like them one bit, since they were obnoxious and next to no use in a fight. But he was ordered to bring them to the battle.

"To let them experience combat.

" Was the words the king had told him. He believed it was a fool's errand to bring people to a battle when they themselves had no interest in learning how to fight.

nWhile most of the nobles had magic tiered items, they were of a lower tier than the average of the soldiers. With this troop being a newly formed unit, with only a few veteran and elite soldiers to help maintain order. It showed just how little the nobles had cared for fighting.

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"That was quick,

" Eldrian said as he saw Old Sword disappearing from view, after having left his pedestal.

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"Well, my dad isn't one to give speeches. He is more a lead by example guy.

" Vivian said.

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"I don't really care about that, but I feel the other Chosen are feeling quite unhappy now. They most definitely wanted to be part of the decision-making.

" Eldrian said, which resulting in Vivian having a good laugh.

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"Haha, the same happened with the nobles when we first arrived. They wanted to have a say and my dad just cut them short right there. Saying that if they wanted to give orders then they should go back home.

" Vivian said, giggling as she remembered how dumbstruck the nobles had been. 'They had probably never experienced such a straightforward and direct denial.' She thought.

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"I can just imagine that,

" Eldrian said as he joined her in laughing. From what he knew of nobles, from series and anime, they were always high and mighty. 'It must have been fun seeing them denied outright.' He thought to himself.

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"Do you have any more information on what to expect?

" Eldrian asked as he saw the soldiers starting to walk in a formation. The player grudgingly followed behind them, clearly far less motivated than before. Still, no player wanted to fail the quest, since 10 000 XP was an insane amount of experience which would take them forever to get via any other known methods.

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"Mmm, that depends on what you know of the situation,

" Vivian replied.

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"I don't really know anything. I know basically what your dad just told us.

" Eldrian replied back, while also taking a look at the quest info, to see if anything new had happened.

nThe only difference he saw was that the total number of soldiers was now 5156 instead of 4985, and the total number of players was now 1987 instead of 1573. Other than this there was no change.

n'Interesting, seems the statistic changed as it is affected. Quite helpful.' Eldrian thought to himself as he looked at Vivian who was still struggling to decide on where to start.

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"What do you know of Tiers and how it related to us and monsters?

" Vivian asked after they had also started walking, else they would have been left behind. They had ended up at the far back of the entire expedition team, but neither of them was concerned about this, since it did not matter yet. Even more so since there were so many players walking just where they want, making it clear that there were no formations nor order.

nThe players walked in pairs or small groups of less than 10, with a good distance of a meter or more between their group and the next, which was normal since people don't want to bundle on each other. But when going to face an enemy force it was certainly quite stupid. But at this time there should be no enemy yet so it didn't really matter.

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"I don't know a lot. I know that Tier 10 is the highest and that there is a big gap between Tier 4 and 5. Other than this I don't know anything.

" Eldrian replied. He knew a few other things, but due to not having enough information, he felt it did not fit well with anything else.

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"Let me start on how monsters are divided then. Tiers are actually as basic as you said. Except that there is a massive divide between all the Tiers above 5. Every single Tier growth would result in an instant jump in power, while before Tier 5 it would be more of a gradual increase in strength.

" Vivian said after taking a while to decide on how to explain the stuff in an easy-to-remember order.

nEldrian nodded to indicate she should continue.

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