As the Elves and I started walking, I began to ask questions to Arwen. "Can you tell me about this world? And how do people make a living here?" I asked her. I wanted to know how I could make money and the rules of this world.
Arwen looked at me for a moment before speaking. "This world is called Genesis. There are 14 continents, with each continent having ten Empires and a hundred Kingdoms. The world's religion is called the pantheon of a hundred goddesses. It has fifteen major goddesses, thirty-five minor goddesses, followed by fifty lesser goddesses." She said.
So the world must be big—or at least relatively big—to have 14 continents. That was a lot of nations and goddesses. I wonder if a man can have more than one blessing. I need to check that out.
"If you have a gift, you can become one of three things to make an easy living: one, an Adventurer, who deals with monsters and gets resources for people that make things like potions. They also do dungeon and ruin diving to keep places from becoming overrun with monsters: two, a Mercenary. The deal with monsters and criminals; they are the ones you hire to guard travelers or merchants. They can also be called in for ruins and dungeons." She said before stopping for a moment.
"The last one is a bounty hunter. The only focus is on hunting criminals; if a bounty hunter is after you, they are legally able to kill you in the country. Each Job is run by a guild in this world, all of which isn't controlled by the Empires or Kingdoms. That way, they can't order them to fight, so people tend to join them for freedom, as if you belong to one of them, you can travel the world without issue." She finished saying.
"What's the average income for the three jobs?" I asked to find out which paid more. She thought to herself, before finally opening her mouth.
"I would say the income for Mercenaries is the highest, followed by Adventurer, then Bounty Hunter. Mercenaries guard merchants, and they still deal with monsters, so they have the better mix of jobs. Adventurers can get big payments, but those jobs are far in between unless you travel a lot. Bounty Hunters only get paid a lot if they are dealing with terrible criminals." Arwen spoke.
So if I wanted to join a guild, it sounds like the Mercenary Guild would be the best for money and travel. "Can we only join one Guild?" I asked her.
"You can join up to two guilds, but you can't do three. As you have to complete a certain number of Jobs or quests a month, or risk being kicked out. Only high-ranking people can join all three, but most only join one unless they are skilled." She said.
"Is there a ranking system?" I asked, tilting my head.
"You have four groups of rankings. Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Each group is broken down into levels. G is the bottom of the groups, making them the weakest in each group as it increases to F, E, D, C, B, A, then S. S, being the strongest in that group." She said.
I listened to her, making me remember the two Sabor Tooth Tigers, which were Rare B-rank. I see, so I am around Rare B-rank with my lever-action. As I was in thought, she spoke. These forests have a Rare S-rank in charge of them; we tend not to kill all the stronger monsters, as they eat the others. But we do target the lower level ones more often, so they don't raid the village as frequently, as some monsters can impregnate non-monsters." She finished explaining to me.
"What are the laws dealing with men in this world?" I said. She had a place with her hand on her chin as she walked. "Well, I don't know much about non-elves as our people are all females. But from what I have heard, if you live in a human kingdom, males are forced to fight monsters and others, if you live in a village or any city. But on the plus side, Human males can marry more than one woman as long as they make a certain amount of money." She told me.
"But other than that, unless you are a male in power. You didn't have any more power than women, so the only males who had any special laws and privileges were those in power. But females can have those same privileges, as those in power take way more risks than the common person." She said as a scream rang out.
She and I pushed off the ground, running down the beach with the others behind us. I could feel my speed improvements; I could outrun an Olympic runner without breaking a sweat. I take the lever-action off my shoulder as we round a bend.
"The Empire of Warish!" Arwen yelled out. Drawing her sword, her face laced with hatred.
"They are the ones who have been at war with us for the reason of enslaving my kind." She said, making it clear to me now. I noticed Liliana and her friends running from a group, then I saw Mrs. Watson having her hair pulled by a man on a horse wearing a chestplate of armor.
No one else was wearing armor, so he must have been the one in charge. I quickly raised the lever-action and aimed at him. Pulling the trigger as the bullet shoots out, making the horse jump, making him jump out of the way, and slamming into the neck of the horse. He had let go of Mrs. Watson's hair the moment the horse jumped, letting her run as the horse threw him off its back.
Mrs. Watson saw me and started to run towards me; she wasn't the only one, as there were about seventy people who were men. So the moment the gunfire rang out, the women looked towards my way and started to run towards us. It looked like the Warish people were focusing on killing the men.
"John!" Liliana yelled, her eyes lit up. I was about 200 meters away from them as I began to shoot the men chasing the women. "Arwen, focus on the men chasing them. Worry about the others after that." I know I couldn't save the men who were fighting the Warish people, as there were about 150 Warish men.
Saving at least the women was better than not saving anyone. As my lever-action ran out, I started to load up the fire rounds as the Elves were shocked by my ability to kill from such a far way. Arrows could do that, but not with this much accuracy.
As I finished reloading, the women got about 100 meters away from us, and I opened fire, when the fire round hit the closest man to them. It went through him as flames burst out from behind him, hitting the man behind him. I was shocked by this, as the screams of the man as his body was on fire distracted me for a moment before I started to shoot the others chasing them.
My ammo ran out as the girls got fifty meters away, and I quickly reached for the lightning rounds and started to reload. The elves began to open fire with their arrows, doing five that were getting closer to the women, before the Warish men began to hesitate. They already lost a good number of men chasing these women.
I finished reloading as a Horn sounded out, making the men stop chasing. I looked back to see the man with the chest plate holding a war horn glaring at me. The women got behind us finally, the men weren't so lucky, as I could see male students dead on the ground. It looks like they don't take male slaves.
I had killed around twenty men, and the elves killed another thirty men. Meaning they couldn't risk grabbing slaves anymore, as if this went on, they wouldn't be able to travel with slaves, as they wouldn't have the manpower.
"Arwen, send the other elves to walk the group of women back to where we met. I will keep myself between you ladies and them." I said, nodding as I spoke to Mrs. Watson, as I took off the ring the princess gave me.
"Mrs. Watson, put this ring on, and you will be able to talk to the Elves. Follow them for now, and I will meet up with you in a little bit." I said, handing her the ring as she put it on her finger and nodded.
The Elves started to lead them away as I kept my rifle on the closest man for five minutes before he yelled and charged me. I could tell he hated me to the core; I must have killed a friend of his. As he started to move, I pulled the trigger, and the lightning round went through him, exploding his torso and slamming into a man's hip, cutting the second one in half.
The Warish men gulped in shock; they had only ever seen wizards and mages have that kind of power. A horn blew out again as the man in the chest plate looked at me with fear. The group of men quickly pulled back as I watched them walk down the beach with haste.
As I watched them quickly leave, I backed up slowly until I couldn't see them anymore and turned around, running towards the regrouping place.