"I'm not a rabbitfolk, I'm a werewolf. You won't get lucky by rubbing my ears." Chronos said with a glare.
Captain laughed while wondering if that was actually true. Ever since Chronos had appeared they had advanced their strength and lost surprisingly few of their brothers even when surrounded by the dark beast army.
Even if he wasn't lucky, he was skilled enough to keep those around him alive. Sometimes that was more important than being lucky.
"I have some business to handle before we leave. I'll see you at the commanders meeting later." Chronos said as he waved goodbye to Captain.
"See you later," He replied.
Chronos made his way across the church grounds until he found the courier services offered here.
"Hello, I need to send a package home. The address is 1234 Wolfgang way in Gra Ulv. How fast can you get it there?"
"Greetings, sir. For 50 gild we can have it there by the end of the week. If you want it there faster than you will need to pay more. Is the regular service fine with you?"
Thinking about it he didn't need to get it there fast and the men of the Rogue Wolfgang could wait a few days for their payment.
"The regular service is fine." He said as he took out a small bag of coins. "Just to confirm, does the courier use an item bag during transfer?"
"Yes, as long as it doesn't surpass the weight limit, we won't need an extra payment." She said as she took the small bag of coins.
She checked the weight on a scale confirming how much weight would be added to the item bag before putting it in and turning back to Chronos.
"That will be 50 gild for the journey. You can pay half now and half upon delivery if that is more convenient."
"No, I'll pay in full now." He replied as he took out 5 coins worth 10 gild each.
"Thank you for your patronage."
Next, he went to the supply's depot and purchased 3 healing potions, 3 mana potions and 2 stamina potions for 50 gild each. He would keep 1 of the healing potions and the others would go to Gregory along with both stamina potions. All of the mana potions would be given to Sariah.
Managing her mana in heavy combat would save many lives and unlike aura, which never ran out, mana had a limit. Aura could be used as long as you had the stamina to continue the fight. It would cause a backlash if you were seriously injured but you could still fight at your maximum potential, at least for a while.
With only 58 gild left Chronos went back to the front yard of the church to meet with Commander Stan and find out what his role in this war was.
He saw Captain ready and waiting for Commander Stan who exited the church just as Chronos arrived.
Looking at Captain, Commander Stan gave his official request. "The Dragon Church serving the Dracon fen swamp wishes to hire your mercenary company to guard the main naga village once we have reclaimed it. The price will be 5000 gild for one month of protection. You will be paid for however long the battle to reclaim the swamp goes on for."
"That's fine but at the moment we are being hired as caravan guards for Brynn's caravan. Is the church willing to pay the cancellation fees for that job?"
"Yes, we are also hiring Brynn to transport goods to the main village during this conflict. Chronos, you and your friends are being hired as specialists during these battles. The price is 200 gild for each of you per week of service."
"I agree." That explained why his group wasn't mentioned together with Captains. "I'm surprised you were able to convince the church to hire us as specialists. We are only in the second rank."
"It wasn't easy. I had to argue with the second commander and the Tri-Goddess' commander for ten minutes before the Matriarch accepted, but after I saw how your group handled the dark beasts in the forest, I believe it is worth it. However, there is a condition, your group will have an additional member. One of the battle priests arriving tonight will be a part of your group until the conflict ends or you decide to retreat." Commander Stan stated with a frustrated look on his face.
Recovering from his frustration he gave one more order to them. "Now the naga village contacted us and the situation has calmed down some since the naga matriarch left her village. They managed to set up defenses to redirect the dark beast, so go to the blacksmith and have all of your weapons and armor looked over for repairs. I don't want either of your groups going into battle with damaged or blunt gear. We will leave in 2 hours."
""Yes, sir.""
Captain went to get his men while Chronos went back to his room. Upon arriving he found Sariah and Gregory waiting for him. He gave them their potions before talking about their part in the war.
"Here, we're being offered 200 gild per week of service, but they didn't say what job we will be doing. Also, we will have a battle priest accompany us."
"That's fine but are you sure we should do this? It is the start of a war." Gregory reminded him.
"True but how often do you get to see events from legends? Besides, I doubt they will ask us to do anything too dangerous. Captains' mercenaries are going to be guarding villages that were already cleared and they're at the same rank as us."
"That's not very comforting." Sariah said.
"If things get bad then we can always run away. There isn't any punishment detailed in our agreement; we were even given permission to retreat. I'm pretty sure Commander Stans' rivals left it that way on purpose."
"Alright but I need to make preparations." Sariah said as she stood and left the room.
"We only have 2 hours before we leave." Chronos called after her. "Come on Greg. We are heading to the blacksmiths for repairs and any spare weapons we can get."
After leaving the church building, they went to the blacksmith forges. On the way they saw multiple groups of paladins and some mercenaries they hadn't seen before coming and going. As they got closer to the forge, they heard a smith swearing at a group of paladins before a man wearing the markings of the second paladin order was suddenly flying through the air above them.
"I don't give a damn if the second commander demands more swords! He's got his own blacksmiths for that; I work with the first order. Now get lost before I call the church guards!"
The air was filled with tension as the paladins surrounding the smith grew agitated. The smith himself looked completely relaxed as he played with a ring braided into his beard. He was much shorter than most humans and had a beard that was as copious as his head was bald. His arms were as large as a man's thigh and looked like he could snap a man in half even if they were in full plate armor.
Chronos' eyes narrowed as he saw him. This smith had a deep scent of charcoal that no human could have. Chronos was certain that he was a dwarf, seeing one above ground was rare but always helpful.
"Hello there smith. I wonder if I could speak with you about some repairs to my weapons." He spoke out hoping to defuse the situation while pulling out his sword.
Seeing the excellent blade the dwarf started shooing the others away. "Move, move, I have work to do. Bring that blade here, let me take a closer look."
The paladins gradually left but before they went far Chronos heard them mutter amongst themselves. "We should tell the commander. He'll sort out that stupid blacksmith."
Once inside he turned to the smith while handing over his weapon. "Are they always like that?"
"Hmm, Yeah the second order is full of noble brats from the plains to the west. Their parents think they can influence the swamp tribes if they are here." He snorted in derision, "Bunch of fools the lot of em. You can't rule the tribes, they choose to follow. The difference is subtle but very real."
While examining the sword he suddenly shouted at Chronos. "Did you really just bring me a sword that doesn't need work!"
"Ah my apologies my good dwarf. I was worried it had been damaged in my last battle. If you're not against it, would you mind looking over me and my friend's equipment?" Chronos panicked as he brought out all of his weapons and armor before motioning for Gregory to do the same.
He had remembered that dwarves had this weird quirk where they felt like they had to work constantly. There were even records of dwarves dying in captivity because there was no work for them to do. That was why every nation that captured a dwarf would have them do repairs to wagons, saddles, or spare armor while they were imprisoned instead of just holding them in a cage.
Seeing all of the weapons come out, including a couple of runic weapons, his eyes lit up with joy, "Now you're talking my language. Let me see these for a few minutes and I'll have them repaired."