As Kyle walked out of the house, he just looked forward in confusion.
'I mean, yeah, an Archer Knight would be cool, but…'
'I don't know…'
'That guy looks pretty important.'
'Why is he just joining my team? He doesn't even know me. Doesn't that guy have like a million people trying to assassinate him?'
'What if I'm one of these assassins?'
'Yet, this guy just goes, yeah, sure, let's go. I don't know you. Let me lay down my life for you. Yay!'
'I am so confused.'
Kyle scratched the back of his head as he walked past the luxurious gate.
'He's probably quite strong, though.'
Kyle said goodbye to the door guards and went to the city's exit.
"Hey, how did it go?" one of the guards from the wall asked, and almost immediately, ten other guards peeked over the wall as well.
"I'm… not sure. I think it went well?" Kyle answered with uncertainty.
"What happened?" the first guard from earlier asked.
"I'm genuinely not sure if I'm allowed to tell you or not," Kyle said.
'I mean, do I have to keep this guy's location secret from potential enemies? I have no fucking idea.'
"Ah, that sucks," the guard said. "Anyway, if you join another tournament, tell me. I want to see you eat another guy!"
"Yeah, tell us!" another guard shouted.
"Sure," Kyle shouted back.
After a bit more talking, Kyle left the city and went on his way back to Starkhold.
He traveled past the dangerous wilderness, the huge mining operation, the long tunnel, the small wasteland, got another boat over the Ocean's Life, went past Deep Cove, went past the fiery domain of the Sandsuns, and finally reached the Stark Brotherhood's territory again.
Ten hours of running was not a lot of fun.
When Kyle came back, he told his team about their potential new member.
After they heard that they got an Archer Knight, they were surprised.
"Didn't you say you would get a Beast Tamer?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, well, I got an Archer Knight," Kyle answered.
"Didn't you say you would get another chick?" Falk asked with furrowed brows.
"Well, we got a guy now."
"What's his name?" Michael asked.
"… I have no idea," Kyle answered.
Michael and Falk just looked at Kyle with raised brows.
"Well, where is he?" Falk asked, looking around.
"He will be here in a week," Kyle answered.
"Not a lot of information," Falk commented with a skeptical expression.
Kyle just shrugged.
"It appears there is not a lot we can do for the next week," Michael said. "Lily will probably only join us when we are complete."
"Yep," Kyle said. "One week from now, we will officially form the new Dwarves."
"Speaking of," Falk said, "I don't think the name is accurate anymore."
"True," Kyle answered. "We need a new name. Let's decide when everyone is here."
After planning a bit more, the three of them split up again.
'Falk is an Early Fighter. Lily is an Early Artificer. From what I could sense, our new Archer Knight is also an Early Knight. Michael has been an Initial Sorcerer for years now since he had to keep his Realm suppressed to join the tournament.'
'I think I should chow down and tell Michael to advance. It would be better if everyone is in the Early Second Realm.'
The next day, Kyle told Michael to advance, if possible.
Within three days, Michael became an Early Sorcerer.
Now, only Kyle needed to advance.
Because of that, he hunted a bunch of beasts and ate the local Hunter Guild out of house and home.
It even went so far that he got a letter of summons from the local city administration.
He was hunting too much for a non-hunter.
They wanted him to become a hunter or give them a good reason for why he was hunting so much.
Kyle told them that he was a half-dwarf and that he simply ate all of the beasts.
He was making (almost) no money from the beasts he was killing.
When the city administration heard that, they gave Kyle the special status of powerful dwarf.
Until now, only Bonk had had that status.
Thanks to that status, Kyle didn't need to get a hunting license, but he needed to report every single one of his "feeding" kills to the city administration via a form.
Additionally, any inedible parts needed to be given to the city administration for 10% of the usual price, which was straight-up just exploitation.
But, well, at least he didn't need to get a license.
After five days of hunting beasts, Kyle finally advanced and became an Early Warrior.
His new team was now comprised exclusively of people in the Early Second Realm.
In terms of Realm, his team was in the lower-middle third of power when compared to the other teams of the Stark Brotherhood, but in terms of actual power, they were definitely above average.
The reason was Lily's accumulated power, Kyle's Aristocrat's Body, and their team composition.
Having a team that was more powerful in reality than on paper was very useful and could save their lives in the future.
If someone tried to lay a trap for their team, they would look at their Realm and send a force that would definitely be able to win in a fight.
However, if the team were stronger than their accumulated Realm, this would turn from an assassination into a battle.
After six days, Wyveria approached Kyle.
"I need more ideas," she said.
"Have you tried blackmail?" Kyle asked.
"Why blackmail? I don't have anything on him. He seems clean," she said.
"Codeword: Seems," Kyle said with a smirk. "Everyone has dirt. Just say you know his secret and ask something stupid of him. Something like licking the seat of an outhouse or something. You don't know his secret, but he doesn't know that you don't know."
Wyveria's eyes brightened before she nodded.
For the past few days, she had been torturing Michael's former coach.
In general, she checked the Guild once per day to see if there were missions.
For the remainder of her time, she just made that coach's life hell.
Wyveria left again, and another day passed.
On this day, the last teammate of Kyle's new team showed up.
As soon as he showed up, Kyle gathered everyone, including Lily.
Finally, the team was complete.
"Who's this weakling?" Lily asked, looking at the newest member with annoyance.
The Archer Knight looked back and furrowed his brows.
'Oh boy,' Kyle thought. 'Here we go.'
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