Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"A ring?" Taking the ring from Mei's hand, Aria took off her draconic gauntlets and put them on. Closing her eyes, she scanned through her skills before eventually stumbling on the new addition. "Undead's favor."

Studying the ability for a while, she realized that it worked alongside her undead summonings. The more undead that she summoned, the more her strength would grow, and until every last one of them had been defeated, no amount of blows would leave even a scratch on her skin.

A perfect addition to her arsenal, perhaps the best so far. Smiling to herself at that realization, she joined the others in the back and gave way for Erika to step up and get her equipment as well. Surprisingly enough, what the priestess received was a pair of oval spectacles with a golden frame. Putting it on, she instantly gained a rather refined quality about her, almost like a milf sky-high standard for luxury and accommodation.

"Golden sigh, huh?" Judging the ability for a minute, she quickly figured out what it did. Just by looking at someone, she could heal them from afar. No longer did she need to touch the injured part, even for the most mortal of wounds; a simple glance was enough. Not to mention her ability to heal and buff others no longer seemed to require any mana. The same as how Mel's earrings no longer required her any mana to cast any woodland spells, skills, or even summons.

Content with her new ability, Erika took a step back with a smile.

"You did better than I expected, little girl," she said to Meimei, even though she was only little in form.

But before the puffed cheeks on the girl burst into complaints, Raven stepped forward to receive the last of their equipment. Swallowing her anger, Mei turned around and picked up the last piece, a simple-looking glove. Handing it to Raven, she gestured for him to put it on. And as soon as he did, a strange rune on its back began to glow with a dark and misty form.

"What's that?" He asked, squinting at the glove.

"I have no idea." Hearing that, everyone lifted their gaze to the blacksmith with visible confusion on their face. Still, shaking her head, she added. "Your blood was strange; it didn't work out as I expected, but I still managed to make that leather glove. You have to find out for yourself what it does."

"Hmm, let me check if I got something then," closing his eyes, Raven checked through his stat screen, and sure enough, he found something new. "'Duty of The Chosen'."

Trying to make use of the skill, Raven felt a strange draw towards the south of the kingdom. The very same place where the brambles have been spreading from. Even from afar, he could sense the presence of horrors as well as someone far more powerful than the force of the enemy combined.

'Then there's another guy that I can sense but somehow…' Sensing the killer as well, he opened his eyes. 'He's human? The same guy who was after Elowen then.'

Brought out of his thoughts by the many eyes staring at him, Raven explained what the equipment did for him. The ability to accurately sense horrors and other servants of the demon lord, aptly named the Chosen's Duty. However, right as he was done scanning the horrors and the brambles, Raven had felt someone with a closer connection with the demon general not too far from the mansion.

'Another traitor?' He pondered and looked to Amedith in an instant.

"Accompany the Dryad, will you?" Although the magus wanted to question the sudden order, given the fact that Flitza and Melenai were also present in the room, he knew better than to give away Raven's plan to potential traitors.

Nodding back, the magus quickly took his leave alongside his lover. Leaving just Raven, the elves and Erika inside the smithy.

"Reina! You should come too, we're gonna need your skills to repair broken equipment," Raven called out to the busy smith, but she had other plans.

"I have taught the others enough for repairs; you should be fine. I'll wait here for you guys to return." Too engrossed in the process of learning from Mei, the muscular forge-tanned woman, didn't wanna leave.

Clicking his tongue, Raven turned his attention to Flitza instead.

"You're coming, right? Just one question, you won't cause any trouble for us, would you?"

A bit defeated ever since she'd seen the abilities of Raven's group, the paladin's faith was dwindling, and that became apparent in her downcast face. Shrugging her shoulders, the woman simply nodded, feeling torn between her faith towards her god and the fact that he hadn't blessed them as much as Athenia had done for them.

"Whatever, I'll accompany you guys. Maybe Asmareth will aid me and show me the light in that dark forest after all," she replied, placing a hand on her sword's hilt, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"Time to go the–"

"Wait," before Raven could issue another order, however, Melenai placed a hand on his shoulder and drew him closer to her lips by his collar. Leaning into his ear, she glanced sideways at Flitza to make sure that she wasn't listening. "You're right, the dryad is the traitor. There's more in your army, but I don't know who they are. As for that letter, I wanted to warn you at that time, but it wasn't me. I don't know who's betraying Frazer by warning you either, but you need to stay on guard, especially around that dryad as she's definitely planning something."

As soon as Melenai let go of Raven, he was left confused as to how and why the bard knew so much. And even more confusing was the fact that she was telling him all of this when it didn't serve her in any way to save his army once the war was over. Turning his head, he stared at her for a good while, trying to find some reason, some greedy underlying reason for her to reveal the truth now.

But he didn't have to guess for long as knowing full well that the hero could read minds, Melenai grabbed his hand and allowed him to peer into her mind as she relayed the words through her thoughts.

'I don't trust the giants, they will get us killed by your army if you were to find out by yourself. So please, do what you need to, but let Eclanor stand once you're done with your revenger or whatever you might wanna inflict on this land.' Being the only one who truly cared for the kings, Melenai needed no other reason than to see her kingdom stand.

However, that wasn't all. As the way she'd worded everything, she was indirectly pleading for the death of the giants along with Frazer and his harem of monster girls. And on that, Raven couldn't have agreed more. After all, more than himself, he cared for his people and for someone to poison them in hopes of killing them all, well…there was no forgiveness for those monsters past that point, not one bit at all.