Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

30. Training in the Dark Forest

Calloway and his party had made their way north into the forest. They didn't follow any set trail and walked for almost an hour.

"Here we are!" Calloway dropped his bag and breathed in the thick forest air.

"Huh? But we haven't even seen any monsters yet." Naomi protested.

"Well ya, you guys aren't ready for the dark forest yet. We need to raise your stats a little first."

"But we can fight!"

"With what?"

"Uh..."

"Exactly, we need to go through basics." Calloway started laying out the weapons that he brought, they were all low to mid-levels since those were the only kinds that they could use. Once he had everything set out he changed his attire.

With grimy precision Calloway redonned the equipment of a druid. He no longer needed his eyepatch, instead he had a plain wooden mask that sat on the side of his head and when he wore it, he resembled the faceless Calloway druid statues in the city.

His equipment consisted of brown robes littered with various teeth, wooden trinkets, and feathers. He had a thin wooden club as long as a cane with a large knot at the end. It was engraved and finely polished with various enchantments.

Once they got over the shock of seeing change from a callous pirate into a dignified Archdruid he spent the remainder of the day testing Naomi's and Yvette's natural talents with various different weapons and magic.

Ophelia showed the highest aptitude for magic which was no surprise with her dryad bloodline. When Calloway had done some research through Silvia, he found out that her biological parents were innovators in the guard. Her mother was a member of a probationary Dryad guard unit, while her father was the liaison between that group and the main guard unit.

Dryads are naturally pacifists so when the unit was developed there was a lot of controversy over the offensive use of Dryadic magic.

It was allowed and so her mom developed the dryads offensive magic it was only good for one occasion where both her parents risked their lives to protect a small district in the city from the assassin's guild. The entire unit was wiped out along with the assassins.

Calloway was suspicious of their mysterious deaths in the city and discovered that they were of the mindset against deifying Calloway while maintaining the ideals of the City of Perils in the time of the Pearly City's peace.

It seems that there is a faction in the city that desperately wanted to stop the progress of the city, especially when it came to aggressively leveling up the city's residents.

The faceless enemy of the city of Perils.

"Naomi, you're going to do drills." Calloway handed Naomi a bow and 200 arrows and pointed her at a dummy target he had Tiki set up. "Alea, you're the camp and training monitor."

"Aye, Aye cap' you can count on me to babysit." Alea mock saluted.

"Yvette, I want you to have a little more experience with the knifes that you are always near. Tiki is going to run through some Knife drills with you." Yvette looked at the kind-hearted girl in the maid outfit and grimaced.

"Don't give me that look, it may not look it but Tiki's maid skills come in second only to her ability to her combat prowess as a weapon master." Cal winked.

"You never know if you're going to have to fight off burglars with a halberd or a dustpan." Tiki giggled.

"And Ophelia, we are going to play catch the fox." He bent down and ruffled her hair.

"Fox!" her glittering eyes looked back and forth.

[Animal shape] Allows the druid to become more familiar with the beauties of Gaia by seeing through the eyes another one of her creatures. Combat prowess is increased or decreased based on animal form taken.

Calloway shrank to the size of a large silver fox, his shoulders were as high as Ophelia's, but he was about twice the size of Calico.

They spent the rest of the day training while Ophelia chased Calloway around. Calloway was surprised by the speed and agility that Ophelia naturally possessed. Tiki was constantly healing Yvette even after they started using dummy wooden knives.

Naomi was a big disappointment, her form was alright but she couldn't manage to hit the target more than a handful of times.

** ** **

"Cal, what's wrong?" Naomi asked when Calloway stood up from around the campfire. They were just sitting down for dinner and everyone was tired, physically and emotionally.

Calloway was facing the empty forest, "I know you're out there. Reveal yourself before I reveal you!" Calloway slowly pulled out a handful of throwing knives.

A moment of quiet passed and fifteen assassin class Elves appeared in front of him on one knee bowing to him. The Sylvan knight Fauna stood at their forefront her silvery hair mostly hidden by her hood and her face half obscured by her mask.

"Hey, Fauna. Did you miss me?" Calloway smirked, Fauna was the first of the sylvan knights that he had met when he invaded the castle. She was the knight over the kingdoms clandestine affairs as well as their elite assassination squads.

"Nobody has ever discovered me before, we mean you no harm." Fauna didn't raise her head.

"Obviously. You may rise." Calloway petted her head like a condescending brother.

"Yeah, I heard you got your ass handed to you at the castle." Alea laughed. Alea was hands down the kingdoms best swordsman. She had a reason to feel superior than the rest but she wasn't very tactful about it.

"But when did you know that we were here?" Fauna said when she stood up and looked him in the eye.

"Just now when you revealed yourself."

"Huh?" Fauna face lost all color.

"Come here." Calloway brushed her cheek and placed his hand behind her neck to bring her closer.

"HUH?" Fauna's surprise burned through her mask. Everyone watched as Calloway pulled her closer. The entire camp was on the edge of their seats.

Then in one swift motion, he pulled her around and flung a knife into the woods behind her. A moment later there was a bodily thump on the ground.

"Bring him here." Calloway commanded the assassins as he set Fauna back on her feet. "As for you Fauna, I had suspected that the princess would send you to protect us when I told her we were going to the dark forest. Sorry about that stunt, I've been tracking this other guy all day."

Fauna and Calloway's party had collected themselves by the time Fauna's men brought the dark clad assassin.

Fauna pulled back his hood showing off the male elf's short silver hair and dark skin. "Dark elf, highly trained, there are no identifying marks."

"Now that Fauna is here, our party is complete." Calloway clapped his hands. "Gentlemen, return him to the kingdom for interrogation. Tell Shayley his target was Ophelia and to not kill him till I get back. The knife had enough poison on it to knock out a team of horses, he should be fine if you only bind his arms and legs."

"Huh?" Fauna was stuck on the party comment.

The assassins mobilized and left Fauna behind.

"Huh?" She couldn't make any other noise.

"Let me explain, I knew that the princess would send you, I just didn't know when you'd get here so I waited for nightfall. I'm going to commandeer your aid for the rest of the journey. I can't exactly monopolize a Sylvan knight in the middle of the city, can I?"

"Huh?"

"You'll catch up," Cal patted her on the back and led her to a seat around the fire. "Eat with us. Everyone, noobs, Ophelia, this is Fauna, the unsung hero of the Sylvan knights. She's my co-instructor."

"Huh?!"