Down the road was a fork. I looked on the map and saw our options. Going left would continue our trek through Chegow by the shortest route. Going right would take us a bit out of our way to a fort that we could shack up in and rest for a while. The map had many forts that NPC and Player factions could take over. Mostly bandits of the higher levels or militias with aggressive stances would take them at the start of the game. We could easily take one and use it as a base of operations in the country. The ability to stay and see what happened was very tempting. Being tracked and chased because of one slaver was pissing me off. If I utilized Paul's child strategy, I could probably take the republic down. That would cause some very unwanted attention however. I might not be a Devil, but I aided and collaborated with one. He even gave me these ridiculous buffs. It would not be hard for a Sage to take one look at me and determine I should be kicked from the game. Until I had finished the dungeon and had my children, I should be doing my best to keep a low profile. Even doing that might be hard.
Exactly as I thought that, my taunting of the commander came to mind. I almost hit myself as I realized how dumb that was. Not that they had our names and faces, we were going to be public enemy number 1 in the republic. It might actually be a good thing to lay low for a bit. I looked at the centaurs and told them where we were going to rest at. They looked thankful that they could rest soon. With all the walking, we were almost out of the republic anyway. It was just another town and large city left on the main path before the border. We turned right at the fork in the road and headed to the fort. Just as I thought, the fort was occupied by bandits. We took care of them and claimed it for ourselves. I decided to rest in the main hall of the keep. The centaurs stayed in the stables. Ossie and Kyoko had the barracks all to themselves. There was no one to disturb us as we waited in the fort. As such, it was time for the game to spawn mini quests. First the food ran out. Then the other realized that the furniture and equipment were all old and in need of repair. I was not planning on staying, so I ignored it.
Finally, it came to a point that my party members were begging me to do something. We had been idle a bit too long. I decided that it was time to go. Everyone got ready and we set out for the fork in the road again. When we got onto the left side of the fork, I sighed. Checking my party, I saw there was some improvement. Because of the buffs of Ossie and Kyoko, they had leveled up a lot. Ossie was level 19 and Kyoko was at level 17. I saw that both Xenios and Korenio leveled up as well. Xenios was at level 12 and Korenio was at level 10. They did not get as many kills, but the cumulative exp, divided by the party after the battle was more than enough. Because they were companions that were not related to me, I could not change or influence what they put their skill points in. I could only hope they would put it into useful things. The success or failure of our quest was at stake. We met a merchant carravan moving from Hesa to Strane City. That happened to be the last city before the border. We decided to join them. As a mercenary, it was not hard to convince them to let us tag along.
