In a forest on the outskirts of a city—the name of the city isn't relevant enough to mention—a group of three people were seen. One was running while carrying the two others, another was carrying baskets and backpacks filled with a strange fruit, while the other was watching the back of where they were running, holding two pistols in each hand.
Trini: "If you dare fall again in the same place, I swear I'll kill you, Dante," she said, pointing her pistol in a specific direction, more specifically, at the beasts chasing us.
Dante: "It's not my fault I tripped and fell. I'm practically not looking at the road."
Trini: "But nobody falls twice in a row on the same root." You have a good point, but I still say I can barely see. I think it's normal to fall if you can't see well, right?
Besides, we were already tired, dirty, and sore, as this was our third attempt to steal food from those steroid-addicted monkeys. The first attempt was unexpected and they found us empty-handed. It's worth mentioning that while we were escaping, I fell. For the second attempt, we were doing the same thing we're doing now, everything was going well, but I fell while carrying both of us. It's worth noting that not only did they steal our loot, but they also beat us up in the process.
But as they say, the third time's the charm, right? I think the whole situation in general is driving me crazy and giving me hints of schizophrenia. After this, I need to relax my mind and get rid of all the stress.
It's worth noting that Trini is running out of bullets. Since she had the human bullet maker before, we didn't have to worry about that, but he's gone now, and we also have no money, so things are in a tougher place than the first or second time. So we must use the bullets effectively, otherwise, in case of an emergency, the magazines will be empty.
After fighting, dodging, and taking blows like crazy, we managed to escape from the crazy monkeys. This was our last chance, since the drink this guy from the church is asking for is made in two days, because we only had that day to do it or we would fail imminently.
Once we handed it over, Trini began negotiating with the man who made the drinks. In the end, we got 150,000 berris—it's better than 0 berris. I want to destroy the entire thieves' guild, but we have more important things to do.
On the third day, we delivered the shitty drink to the archbishop. He was already more relaxed, so I didn't explode as soon as I saw his face. I feel like he gave us a very complicated mission just to screw us over.
When I entered, I saw his surprise, which confirmed to me that he didn't expect us to succeed.
Dante: "There's your suspicious liquid object, now the seal, please." He didn't say anything at that moment. He just picked up the vase, looked at it, smelled it, and took a glass of it.
Mentecórtes: "It's a very special nectar. I'm glad you managed it. I always trusted you, that's why I gave you this mission." I trusted my balls.
He took a piece of paper from a piece of furniture and began to write a few words. Once finished, he took out a seal and stamped it on the document.
Mentecórtes: "This document requests the release of your friend. There are five sections to place the seals. If the remaining archbishops place theirs, along with the Pope's, you can come and request his release. That way, he will be cleared of all the charges for which he is being convicted." He handed me the document. I looked at it to see what it said. "With all this, you can leave."
With the document in hand, I went to Trini and Sulli's to leave for the next city, which is in the north.
The kingdom of Welliston has five cities, four governed by nobles, but controlled by an archbishop. While in the capital, the king is the leader of the nation. But the one who controls things there is the Pope, and there is a reason why this happens.
Welliston is a kingdom that doesn't belong to the world government, so it doesn't offend the celestial dragons, and by default, there are no marines. Lacking a large force for protection, with only the royal guards, they decided to ask for help from within the kingdom, and the one who answered was the church. With their help, they were able to form a corps of guards strong enough to defend themselves against pirates and bandits, but this had some consequences.
Because these guards were part of the church, it gained relevance and more opportunities to emerge, and the church is currently a body of equal power to the country's royalty. Currently, almost everyone in the country follows the teachings and orders of the church, achieving that practically more than 90% of the inhabitants are believers.
* a day later *
Luckily, the country of Welliston isn't that large, so going from city to city won't be as slow as I expected.
Once we arrived, we went straight to the archbishop's accommodation. Unlike the previous one, this one treated us immediately and with goodwill.
Here, we could say we had an easy mission, as Archbishop Black asked us to go to the city's orphanage and help out there, as he had recently received news of some problems there.
When we arrived at the orphanage, it turned out some children had disappeared, so we began searching. With the help of the other children, we discovered that some nobles had kidnapped them to sell, among other things.
We didn't need to infiltrate to find out what was happening in the mansions; with our Haki, we were able to see that the children were there. So, we went to see the archbishop to tell him our findings. With his help, we were able to enter the mansions and rescue the children.
With this, we were able to save most of the children, as some had been sold and taken out of the country. The men also had their noble titles revoked and were imprisoned.
The archbishop decided to spread the word about what we had done, making our group more well-known and loved. There were already people who recognized us, but very few; now, with this, the number has increased.
Once we had the seal, we set off for the next city.
*In the next city*
Arriving in the city, we were welcomed with open arms, as news of what we had done before had come with us.
After greeting and mingling with the locals, we went to see the local archbishop.
Archbishop Lennon welcomed us with a greeting and a good dinner. The dinner was quite good, as befits the lord of a city or a piece of land.
When asked if he could give us the stamp for the document, he agreed, but in exchange for something. It turns out that a monster lives in the city's forest, brought to the country through the black market animal trafficking of some of the country's nobles. So, unlike the previous beasts, this one is an invader, damaging the forest ecosystem. Furthermore, no one can go there because of the monster's aggressiveness.
In the end, we decided to leave tomorrow morning to defeat the beast.
*The next morning*
Honestly, I never expected this. It was like something out of a Harry Potter movie. In front of us was a giant spider, approximately 8 meters tall, and just like in the books, it also had offspring. This spider has been in this forest for about two years and has already practically wiped out all the wildlife in this forest. We made the best decision possible: flee without looking back. The good thing was that there was no set time limit, but if we leave this here, the moment it runs out of food, it will go to the city to eat, and I wouldn't want to know what would happen then.
We had to return to the archbishop to explain everything that had happened, so he could mobilize the guards to help us defeat the small spiders. We may be strong, but we can't defeat 1,000 "small" spiders plus one giant one all at the same time.
Luckily, he accepted, and the next day he mobilized 95% of his guard army to help us. Together with the guard commander, we decided we would go at the head of the army. The idea was to kill as many of those things as possible before reaching the largest one, but there was a problem: both Trini and Sulli wanted to go. It's worth mentioning that our escape from the spiders was more haphazard and chaotic than the previous one, which caused them a bit of trauma. In the end, I went alone, leaving Hun with them, as I didn't want her to be collaterally injured by the battle.
In the end, it was going to be a 1 vs. 1 between the giant spider and me; the other guards were going to take care of the smaller ones with swords, shields, bows, and fire.
*5 hours later*
We left the forest, me and about 26 guards, mentioning that there were 130 guards, so we won, but at a great cost.
It was horrible. At the beginning of the battle, everything was fine until the giant spider arrived. When it saw we were killing its children, it went crazy, launching poisonous acid and super-sticky webs. Thanks to these factors, the number of casualties began to increase exponentially. I tried to confront it head-on, but it was fast and tended to avoid me. It was more focused on killing the guards than me; after all, they were massacring its children.
I had to use all my skills to get it to pay attention, and let me tell you, I underestimated the toughness of that thing; it was as hard as, or harder than, steel. But I managed to kill it by plunging the Mortal Sword into its head and splitting it in half.
The bad thing is that we didn't manage to kill all the spiders; many managed to escape, so I'll have to stay here until all those residual spiders are eliminated. Honestly, I want to leave this country.
*5 days later*
I finally managed to eliminate all the spiders in the forest. Being like disinfectants, I eliminated at least 99% of the spiders in the area. I could have finished this in three days if only my companions had helped me. Hun doesn't count since it's practically a part of my body. In fact, without it, it would have taken me longer, since I was able to detect all the spiders left in the area. I'd also like to emphasize that I killed all those spiders by myself, all by myself.
Once I informed the archbishop of the situation, he held a celebration in gratitude for me and those who fought, both those who remained and those who fell in combat. Once finished, we obtained Archbishop Lennon's seal and decided to go the next day to the next city to the last remaining archbishop, and then go to the Pope of the Church.