“Hello, little ones. How are you all feeling?”
Nyssi glanced at her three best friends, then briefly wondered what she should have been calling her team now, before answering Colossal Fire Retvik’s question.
“We’re alright! Right, guys and gals?”
Ret and Tanos both nodded. Kayel grinned.
“Wonderful. Now, you may be wondering why you four are here. I would like to discuss a job opportunity for you all.”
“You want us to ki-” Nyssi started talking, but quickly covered her mouth and apologised. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it.”
“It is fine, Nyssi. Elksia does it all the time, and I occasionally catch Litvir doing it too,” Retvik smiled kindly. “But yes, you are correct. We have plenty of Decay Lords now, the Thantir is once again a proper sect. And because we have a lot of new, fresh Decay Lords, Litvir, Arkay and I want to start doing Corruption Purges as well. Yes, the Pentathax are present, but they are going to be dealing with the nasty dark pentacluster next door. In the mean time, both the Kinigian Wilderness and the Ventra Expanse are somewhat lacking in Decay Lord presence in general, and Corruption Purges are a good way to both show our strength and lay a stronger claim on these sectors. After all, the Kinigian Wilderness was once purely Thantir territories, and we want to reclaim the area once more.”
“Do we not control this area?” Ret asked.
“Not quite. When Deathven proper disbanded most of the Thantir, they also removed our claim to the area and marked it as “empty”, the same way the Ventra Expanse was when the Ventra disbanded. Currently, we only officially control the Athata Rift as our base is located here. But if we start doing more duties outside the Athata Rift, our claim to these territories will be renewed.”
“So you want us to do Corruption Purges to assist with this?” Kayel seemed rather interested. “And these purges are just us murdering every single bit of Corruption we see?”
“Well, not quite,” Retvik explained further. “Most areas have a bounty board of some kind, either hosted by Deathven or Life Goddess and Time Drake channels, and these are open to pretty much anyone. The two Voidborns you met, Theocydes and Vekeus, they regularly pick up these bounties in the southern parts of the Ventra Expanse.”
“And I assume we’ll be picking up these bounties?” Nyssi asked. “Makes sense, to do bounties and clean up areas in what will be our area or whatever.”
Retvik nodded. “The plan is, yes, you will eventually spend time going out and doing these bounties. At some point, everyone will have a go at doing bounties, but I want to do a trial run with you four first, because you are all as resistant to Corruption as Arkay and Elkay are. And you are a very, very good team, you work perfectly with each other. I am admittedly very impressed with you all already.”
Nyssi blinked, then glanced at her buddies, before turning back to big, old, fiery Retvik. “How comes?”
“You just seem to work perfectly together, no matter what. Shared experiences, for better or for worse, can unite beings in strange ways. Tenuk, Elksia, Arkay and myself had a similar unique bond, but when Arkay went back to being a death god full time, we stagnated and fell apart, until Psiksi entered the fray and snapped us back to our senses. However, you four, despite only being together for, well, not that long, you are all already bound to each other.”
“That’s definitely true!” Kayel shrugged. “But yeah, killing Corruption seems like a ton of fun.”
“… Really?” Tanos muttered. “I feel like it’s kinda scary.”
“Your blood literally causes Corruption to dissolve,” Nyssi countered. “If we get hit, we just bleed on everything and we’re fine. And, worst case scenario, Kayel can just set us all on fire!” Nyssi then turned back to old Retvik. “So, we heading off straight away? Or are we doing some stuff in advance?”
“We definitely have some work that needs to be done. The first of which is making sure all four of you know the basics of flying a ship. I am aware that, Tanos, you already have most of the required skills, however, we need to make sure that Nyssi, Kayel and Ret can all fly a ship as well, just in case Tanos is unable to do so.”
“Ooooh!” Nyssi exclaimed. “I want to learn! What ship will we be flying?”
“I admire your enthusiasm. Psiksi has graciously offered to help you all learn to fly on his ship.”
Kayel blinked. “What, really? Psiksi loves his little ship. And we might crash.”
“You say that as if ships never crash here!” Ret tutted. “I am sure it is fine, and we will work things out. We are not stupid.”
“Also, learning to fly these magic outside-our-universe ships is weirdly really simple!” Tanos added. “We’ll be fine. And if we’re not fine, we’ll, uh, just help Psiksi fix his ship. Although, I have to ask, will we have our own ship or something?”
Retvik nodded. “Yes, at some point, Arkay and Vikalos will be going on a ship-buying trip alongside a couple of Kal. Depending on how budgeting goes and how much your Deathven-sponsored incomes are and how much space we have here at Savepoint, we will potentially be buying a ship for you four, but more likely, you will be using the Thantir Three.”
“That’s fine by me, I already got to fly the gigantic ship!” Tanos perked up.
“I am certain the rest of you will pick up new skills very quickly.”
“Question though, when do we start?” Kayel asked. “You just going to send us out there?”
Retvik grunted. “Of course not. I have been talking to the Pentathax, and they have found several low risk spots that you will train on. Psiksi will also be accompanying you, and you will learn from him, as he is already a skilled Corruption Purger. But first, you do need ship training.”
As if on cue, there was a knock on the office door. Standing there was Psiksi, and, for a change, he wasn’t wearing his old Alsyr battle armour, but something more simple.
“Hey, guys, you all ready to get started?”
“I think so!” Nyssi grinned. “You don’t need us for anything else, Big On Fire Retvik?”
Retvik shook his head, and, for a change, he wasn’t too annoyed at the name Nyssi had given him. “Not at all. Go and enjoy your training.”
The four best friends all bowed, then raced off, grabbing Psiksi and dragging him with them. Once things had settled down, Retvik allowed himself a smile.
“Hah, very cute…”