Once the hologram goes quiet no one talks or does anything. A few minutes go by before Griffith says, "I'm surprised the medallion even had that much power left. I just used it a few days ago when he gave me my quest to train Cole." he says the last sentence while he gestures towards me. "I think that the three of you should probably deactivate your abilities now before someone else sees them. This lake is a popular hunting spot for Adventurers on account of the variety of beasts that congregate here."
A minute passes before the three Nords simultaneously deactivate their abilities. They even lower their weapons.
Now that I can see their faces I see that the two male Nords are actually twins. They both have high cheekbones, with fair skin and full lips. Their hair is in multiple small braids that are pulled back into a ponytail. Their faces actually seem vaguely familiar.
I try to recall where I might have seen them before but I keep drawing a blank because they would stand out wherever they went because of their size and handsome features. Then I glanced at their eyes and saw that they were lime green and slightly fluorescent, they were the kind of eyes that could bring a comfortable silence to a room with but a gaze.
Then it hits me, my eyes snap over to the woman who has now lowered her bow leaving her face unobstructed. As soon as I see her features I feel as though someone dumped ice water down my back. "It's you" I blurt out so fast that the two words almost sounded like one word.
I realize my mistake too late as the woman looks at me with guarded eyes and her hands clench her bow tightly. Whether intentionally or subconsciously her bow also moves towards the firing position, before a flash of recognition flashes across her face. "You're that guy from the Flying Dragon who I caught staring at me while sitting at the bar." she says still guarded.
Embarrassed that she remembers me for something so cringy I dumbly nod my head knowing I must have a completely blank expression on my face.
As I see her clench her fists again due to my wordless response, I say the first thing that comes to my mind to get her to understand that I'm not a threat. "Sorry but I was so entranced by your music and overall stage presence that my eyes continued to follow you even though your performance was already over." When I say this she looks away from me and I could swear that her cheeks get a little rosy. I quickly dismiss the thought as being my imagination. " In regards to my words a minute ago, I was just caught by surprise that it was you behind the bow. It had nothing to do with you being a Nord." I say as earnestly as possible.
I don't know if it's my tone, or something in my facial expressions but she loosened the grip on her bow and looked at me directly in my eyes again to say while smiling slightly, "Its ok, I may have reacted in a similar way if it was me who recognized you first. The odds of meeting someone you've only seen once in a bar while out in the wilderness are close enough to zero to be quite shocking.
Besides I could tell by the lost look you showed while your Guide was talking, that you knew nothing about Nords until just a few minutes ago. Rationally I knew that you meant no harm but after all that me and my brothers have been through its hard not to act irrationally sometimes." her mouth formed a slight frown when speaking that last sentence.
That sad expression of hers gives me an almost uncontrollable urge to comfort her, telling her that everything would be okay now. I hold myself back though knowing that I don't know her or her situation well enough, which would only result in my words to have no ground to stand on.
An uncomfortable silence blankets the atmosphere this time though it was tinged with sadness.
Griffith speaks up again and does what I couldn't bring myself to do, "Don't worry, now that we've found you things will start to look up for you guys.
I'm assuming you three have been on your own since the incident. That is no longer the case anymore because now you have us." his jolly boisterous voice on full display as he continues.
"Im assuming that being stuck in that place made leveling hard which is why you're such low levels. I'd imagine that you became adventurers to increase your level so that you could become stronger to defend yourselves.
Since you're hunting in the E rank hunting zone I would guess that you're also working towards raising your tier to D rank so that you can continue leveling up quickly while also avoiding the city's fee.
With that being the case I have the perfect suggestion for you. Why don't you team up with Cole here" he smiles a big grin as he looks between me and the female Nord while completely ignoring the two males.
I'm not sure why he's singling the two of us out but I wouldn't mind joining their party. With them already being on the run for their Abilities they seemed like the perfect party to entrust my Abilities to. Well unless they get caught, in which case i'd run the risk of being caught with them. For some reason though, even though I'm petrified of losing my freedom again, I only entertain that thought for about one second before it leaves my mind.
I look towards the two male Nords to see if they have anything to say regarding Griffiths suggestion, but they're just staring at me and Griffith with placid expressions, they've had that same expression on their faces since they deactivated they're abilities. I make the assumption that they're just the strong silent types and are content to let their sister talk and make all the decisions.
They have to be triplets I think to myself after realizing I'd mentally called the female Nord their sister. They just look way too much like each other, besides the height difference, to not be.
The female Nord looks as though she is considering the recommendation, before she says clearly confused, "I know that you're both part of Green Lotus who helped our village and helped us find a place to live quietly for awhile, while also helping us get enough supplies to survive while we lived in that place.
You guys always handled our Tribe with a hands off approach though. Why change that now, and Cole why would you even want to be a part of our party knowing that there is probably a bounty on our head?"
Before I could respond Griffith jumps in, " The reason we always handled you in such a way was so our enemies didn't find out where you were living. We didn't want to draw anymore attention to you to your tribe. The way we were helping you with supplies was already risky enough that we couldn't even use our own members to stage the supply drops, we had to do some logistic magic to make it work.
A lot of our members are being watched, especially the ones who would've been especially useful in your situation. We just couldn't risk someone deducing that we were still helping your tribe. That would've put an even bigger target on you back than you already had. It was all for naught though because enemies found you anyway.
As far as your question regarding Cole, he's kind of in a similar situation to your tribe. He needs party members he can absolutely trust with his abilities. He's got several abilities, Active and Passive ones that most factions would literally kill to get their hands on if anyone knew he possessed them.
His skill-set makes solo hunting possible, but eventually his luck will run out and he would run across a group of adventurers who would force him to show his true abilities or otherwise die.
You guys are in exactly the same boat. You will eventually run into a party and be stuck in a situation where you would either not be able to kill them all, which would mean one of said party's members got away, making it back to the city to alert one of the factions chasing you about your whereabouts. Or you'll run into a party who proves to be too much for you to handle because they counter your tribes specific Status Builds.
It just so happens that Cole is the Role that you need filled, he's a Rogue! He'll become quite a powerful one too if he's able to live long enough to hone his skills.
His Status Build almost seems like it was made for your tribes specific conditions.
Now I know late game that your Status Builds will shore up that weakness to a certain extent but that is a long way away. I'll tell you right now, and I'm an SS tier adventurer, that you guys will not make it to level one-hundred with out a Rogue, your tribe needs a Agility/speed build to make it to the late game of World Game" Griffith finishes his sales pitch while crossing his arms, the boisterous happy go lucky Griffith was nowhere to be seen, his demeanor was utterly serious.
After what Griffith said even the two strong silent types had wavering expressions on their faces. As for the female Nord you could see a slight flicker of what I believed to be hope in her beguiling eyes.
The silence is quickly broken this time when she says "Well why doesn't Cole tell us His abilities first and then I'll make my decision." she crosses her arms this time as well, clearly this stipulation is is nonnegotiable.
To which Griffith responds with a slight grin finally gracing his face, "Fine but first you three must introduce yourselves.
Then we can walk over to the tree line to pick up the other Tyrant Swine that Cole soloed. Once there I will have Cole explain his abilities to you and even demonstrate them."
The woman immediately responds "Fine. I'll go first then. My name is Artimis, And I'm a daughter of clan War."
The man to the right speaks for the first time, his voice sounds like two blocks of granite sliding against each other "My name is Argot, a son of clan War."
The man to the left immediately goes after him, his voice a carbon copy of his brothers, "My name is Disel, I'm also a son of clan War."
They all say the last with so much pride that I know that their clan must have been quite a big deal at some point in time. Well at least they believed it to be.
Griffith immediately responds saying "My name is Griffith, a member of Green Lotus" he nods his head to me when he finishes.
I take my cue and say," My name is Cole Johnson, I am also a member of Green Lotus"
Griffith then starts to walk into the forest to where the remaining Tyrant Swine is located. Luckily it is still there fully intact. He immediately stores it into his spatial satchel.
He then turns to me and says "Alright Cole, go ahead and tell them all of your abilities, even your racial ability.
Nervously I tell them all of my abilities and even what my stats were at my current level, I leave nothing out. By the time I'm finished the triplets look completely shocked by what they have heard. They didn't say anything for a long time almost as though they had become mute.
Since they they weren't saying anything I proceeded to demonstrate my abilities. I blasted holes through the smaller trees in the forest with my telekinesis. I jumped to a shadow with Shadow Meld that was at the perimeter of my range, which is about seventy-five feet. I ran at my fastest speed without it being buffed then used Fleet Footed and showed them the comparison between the two. Then finally I made a series of objects for them with my Solid Energy Ability.
When I was done Griffith handed me a C rank potion, which I immediately downed then turned back to face the triplets.
When I did so Artmis immediately stepped forward, her eyes seemed to be shining extra bright as she said "Cole Johnson, we would be honored for you to join our party. Do you accept?
Right away I reply while unable to keep a big smile off my face, " I would be honored to join your party."