As Eldrian approached the mass of people, he looked over at how they were gathering. It seemed like they were classed into different groups, based on their armor and arms.

The entire mass of people could be classed into three types. With medium/light armored and heavily armored soldiers making up most of the people and being two of the types.

The lighter armored troops wore studded armor. Eldrian believed that it was leather armor, while in fact, it was brigandine and some studded leather. The leather armor was worn by the more elite troops and thus far less common since it was far more expensive. This was because leather armor normally used the hides of monsters, which was difficult to get. Or rather getting it involved a lot of risk to the hunter. Much more than killing animals.

These lightly armored troops also all had a sword on one of their hips and a quiver on their other hip. There was no universal side for either of these two items as it was up to the soldier’s preference. All these soldiers also had a bow with them, either slung over their shoulder or in their hands.

The other group, the heavily armored troop, all wore metal-type armors. With some being equipped with full plate armor, while others had mail or a mixture of these two types. Most of these soldiers had a large shield with them, slung on their backs. If they did not have any shield then they would instead have a large sword on their back. These swords were different from those the guys with shields used, since it was generally far bigger.

Eldrian also saw another group, the third type, with seemingly no dressing code. The only thing similar with these guys was that they all had a staff with them, either in their hands like a cane or slung onto their backs. They also all had a type of close combat weapon, with again no prevalence. Some had swords while others had axes or maces or daggers, it seemed like anything went.

This group’s dress code was also all over the place, hence why Eldrian felt they had no dress code. Some random person in a group would have full plate armor, while the others only wore robes. In other cases, a random person had a robe while the others all had mail or padded armor. It was very queer to look at.

‘What is going on with them?’ Eldrian asked himself as he saw their bizarre appearance. He suspected that they were part of a magic casting group since they had staffs and it was the only connection he could find from his knowledge. Yet he had no idea what staves were meant to do in combat. ‘Maybe it amplifies magic.’ Was his only guess.

When Eldrian neared one of the booths set up around the gathering army he was interrupted by a soldier, who clearly had seen better days. This soldier looked filthy like he hadn’t bathes in weeks, while his mail armor was also badly battered. Their was a gaping hole on his left side and a massive slash like opening across his chest.

“What are yoou doing heere?” The soldier asked, stumbling over his words. Eldrian smelled a strong alcohol smell from the man as he had spoken.

“I am here to signup for the expedition as an adventurer.” Eldrian said and immediately tried to circumvent the drunk soldier.

The soldier didn’t take kind to this action and stepped in front of Eldrian to block his path, almost stumbling into Eldrian.

“Who do you, hick, think you arrre ignorrring me.” The soldier said in a slurred speech as he tried to grab Eldrian’s shoulder.

Eldrian easily read the guy’s movements and stepped back, causing the soldier to almost fall. The soldier then glared angrily at Eldrian before he tried to punch Eldrian.

Eldrian again easily read the drunk man’s moves and dodged the punch with ease by just stepping to his right, since the punch was going to the left side of his stomach.

“Do that one more time and I will fight back,” Eldrian said as he glared at the soldier after having dodged the punch. He didn’t like how the guy had just picked a fight with him, randomly.

“Oh, oh. We have a badddass over herre!” The soldier cried out as he tried to kick Eldrian. The kick was very sloppy and slow, but clearly aimed at Eldrian’s groin. Seeing this action Eldrian decided enough is enough.

“I did warn you,” Eldrian said as he proceeded to grab the guy’s foot, pulling it up. This simple action caused a yelp to escape from the soldier as the soldier felt his hamstring being stretched past its limit. Eldrian quickly followed up this action with a sweeping strike with his leg kicking the remaining leg out from under the drunk soldier.

“You bastard!” The soldier yelled as he landed on his ass. The soldier then started to groan on the ground after his yell as he felt his leg burn and his ass becoming numb.

Eldrian simply walked past the moaning drunkard and heading to the booth again. The guy at the booth sighed as he saw Eldrian approaching and reluctantly stood up. Eldrian saw this action clearly and grew even more perplexed.

‘Seems like the drunkard wasn’t alone in his dislike. This seems to be a running thing.’ Eldrian thought as he looked at the guy who was now standing behind the booth. The guy wore simply armor and would quickly be lost in the crowd of soldiers if he were to leave the booth.

The booth was a simple structure, a rough old table with a roof made of old materials, likely old blankets. Still old or not, the roof allowed the soldier on signing duty, to sit in the shade while he wrote down the information of the volunteers.

“Hi, I would like to sign up to join the expedition,” Eldrian said as he observed the clearly cranky soldier.

“Guess you are also one of those foolish Chosen, right?” The soldier asked rhetorically before adding, “Yeah, only madmen like you would volunteer for such a dangerous job.”

“Why then are you here?” Eldrian asked. It was something he could not understand. Why was he a madman and the soldiers normal or even great people?

“Me, well, honor and duty calls me here.” The soldier replied with pride.

‘Same hypocrisies as always it seems. Soldiers are laden with praises while mercenaries are despised and adventurers are despised by both the previous. I guess we would be after adventurers, actually.’ Eldrian thought as he sighed from the stupid reply the soldier had given him. He also realized why the NPCs saw them in such a negative way, after he thought about it in such a stereotypical way.

“Still I would like to sign up. I might not be doing this for something bigger than myself. But I feel myself is plenty enough to consider.” Eldrian said.

“Ha, why do you think you are so special to be enough of a reason?” The soldier countered, seeming set on arguing.

“Isn’t it simple?” Eldrian asked to which the guard shook his head.

“Because I live my life and I will god, damn, choose what I want to do with it! Now, can I sign up or not!?” Eldrian asked, raising his voice towards the end, trying to convey that he was serious about his simple reason.

The soldier was left stunned when he heard Eldrian’s reasoning. ‘The hell he means he will choose what he wants?’ The soldier asked himself as he started getting the paper.

He did not do this because he felt like it, but more out of instinct. It had been ingrained into him, that when someone yells an order or rhetoric question, then he better get to action before shit happened.

“Alright then, it is your funeral.” The soldier said, trying to win back some pride after he had taken out the papers. He then asked, “Name and fighting style?”

“Haru, and I will be fighting with a polearm,” Eldrian replied, the soldier wrote this down as he heard Eldrian’s reply before looking back up.

“That is it. You can now head to the adventurer section. You will be put in an emergency unit. Actually, I don’t think you Chosen are going to be placed in any unit.” The soldier said.

He was being quite truthful about the last part. The reason for this was that the Chosen were far more unorganized and undisciplined than adventurers. No captain would try to lead them.

Eldrian was naturally quite shocked with how little information the soldier had asked for. But this did not last long as he had received the quest.

[Quest Name: First Expedition; Story quest]

[Quest giver: Phallos kingdom, city of Agosstead]

[Quest Rank: A]

[Quest Progress: Eliminate the threat to the kingdom – 0/1 huge beast pack]

[Quest time limit: None]

[Quest Limiter: 50% of the expedition must survive, current 4985/4985 soldiers]

[Quest reward: 10 000 XP, 10 Silver]

[Quest Achievements: 0 kills; 0 rescues]

[Accepted]

[Quest Party Size: 1573 players]

Eldrian was distracted seeing the massive wall of text from the quest. ‘Why did the developers make it so detailed?’ Eldrian asked himself, half loving the detail it provided and half hating all the info it was filled with.

Eldrian then started heading to the location he was told to wait at. He found the location quite easily, since the difference between the professional soldiers and players was massive. The soldiers were grouping with their troops, forming squads by now. While the players were just a bunch of groups composed of friends. No uniform size or any type of order could be seen at the players’ side.

Seeing this Eldrian shook his head as he thought, ‘I get some of the reasons why they dislike us.’ As he walked towards the clear gap between the two groups, he heard broken shouting from behind him.

“Jackass, come and figghttt, me! Come off, your high-horsse, you just got a cheeeep shott, on meee!”

Eldrian sighed and turned around to see the same drunk soldier walking towards him, almost falling over every few steps. The guy was even limping now. Seeing this Eldrian decided to just walk to one squads and ask them for some help.

“Can you get the drunkard to leave me alone?” Eldrian asked as he approached one of the squads, he pointed to the drunk man as he asked this.

“He’s not from our unit.” The nearest soldier replied and proceeded to ignore Eldrian’s presence.

‘Really?’ Eldrian complained to himself as he shrugged his shoulder. ‘Guess I have to knock him out.’ Eldrian thought as he looked over his shoulder at the stumbling guy.

“Come at me!” The guy screamed as he was just 2 meters away.

“Fine…” Eldrian said as he turned to face to guy. “You first.” He added and indicated for the guy to come at him.

Hearing this the guy rushed at Eldrian blindly, looking as if he wanted to tackle Eldrian. Eldrian simply stepped to the side and tripped the guy. The drunk soldier didn’t manage to stop himself and fell face-first onto the ground.

‘Seems like he is out.’ Eldrian mentally said as he looked at the guy lying face first. The guy seemed to not be moving much or at all really. Eldrian shrugged his shoulders again and walked towards the players, leaving the still man there in front of the squad.

‘They should deal with him now, right?’ He complained before asking himself, ‘Drinking should be banned before an expedition or any military action. I wonder what the guy’s punishment will be?’

Eldrian soon reached the area which was between the soldiers and players. He chose a spot to the side, allowing himself a clear view of anyone approaching from the gate, while he would not be bothered by anyone.

Unless the person really wanted to bother him specifically.

Eldrian stayed by himself, not joining the players, since he felt the event would be a major fight and he would rather have to fight alone than with an un-orderly bunch. He felt certain it would lead to more problems than it would bring him support.