Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 43: Ritual

While Yunan ,Reina and Leol were lazing around in their beds after breakfast they heard a familiar urgent knock on the door, however this time before Leol made it to the door, it swung open and Fae burst inside the room grumbling about the kids. Meanwhile Lucian just issued the standardized apologetic "good morning" to the residents as he followed Fae inside the room.

"Get up, come on, we need to get going, time is of the essence, move move move, we have so much to do and no time at all". Fae was doing this as if practiced hundreds of times, she threw away blankets, delt a few sobering slaps, brought out plain clothes for the groggy children and helped them dress up."I thought we were supposed to rest today to be in top shape for the test tomorrow" said Leol while fumbling with his clothes " Is there something we missed or you forgot to mention? Could you at least tell us where we are going"

Fae sighed heavily and patted the half dressed Leol om the shoulder "you are taking on a nest tomorrow, you need armor, weapons, first aid kits, storage items and plenty of other stuff to buy and prepare, you used to be so smart before, sigh". Yunan was rather perplexed "What is wrong with our training armor, you bought it for us so it should be good for a level 1 hunt, the same for the weapons we usually train with, they are sharp enough to hunt with right?"

"No" Lucian answered him. "There is never enough for the sake of safety, you need at least level 5 armor to make sure you end up with all your limbs, as for weapons, we gave you standard issue weapons, they are useless and you need something more personal that would feel just right in your grip. You need also to learn how to treat wounds without magic, cooking and camping, butchering beasts, which monsters are edible, how to loot, and what to loot, basically you know nothing and you guys are going in blind, so today we need to at least prepare you for a one day hunt. Understand?"

"Yes sir" answered all three of them and got ready post haste and soon they ran outside the room with elated expressions and the five pranced their way to the academy gates and reunited with the rest of Debauchery party who seemed as excited as the kids when they saw them coming. Yunan felt a weird vibe from them and his heart skipped a beat, but before he could find what is wrong Dustan took out a throne like chair that was standing on a rectangular box with an offering table set up at the feet of the throne.

Dustan then proceeded to pick up Yunan and seat him on the throne and kneel in front of the offering table. After him came Balin and Bai with offering incense and scented candles which they placed on the offering table before the frozen Yunan, then joined by rest of Debauchery who knelt down under the sacred throne and offered their prayer as one voice "Oh lord of luck, bless us the unlucky ones with a sliver of your immense and boundless energy, for we are believers in thine divine powers an endless luck. Oh lucky lord bless is with your favour and fortune. Amen"

Once the ritual was over Yunan was discarded from his throne while the throne itself was reverently put away. Yunan looked back at his roommates and saw Leol face palming and Reina giggling to herself and enjoying the show. Leol walked to Yunan and removed the hat he has been wearing since Tuesday "how lucky can he be with this". The bald patch dawned out and almost all were on their knees laughing, "if he is lucky his hair should have grown enough to cover this patch since then" then he returned the hat back to Yunan's head.

After every one calmed down Dustan made his counter argument "On Tuesday we made a half assed ritual for the jokes and ended up with more than 25 million golden dragons 5 days later, 25 million gold!, we can buy a few kingdoms with that kind of money, now we are taking this bastard of lady luck to a market where treasures are everywhere, we need the luck he gives off passively to gain a treasure or two".

The giggling Reina finally chirped out a few words with a tinge of laughter in them "if you want to get lucky take him to barber, he could not go to one all week since you guys were all eager to leave after the lessons". Which was followed by hushed voices "how did we forget about that?". "That must be why the luck took 5 days to manifest". "Let's do it then, we need all the luck we can get". Suddenly Dustan put Reina on his shoulders and said "the prophet of fortune has spoken,forward to the best barber shop in town"

Debauchery and their student made their way into the busy streets of Mar sara city and after asking around found and old rickety shop that had the simple sign of "barber". All the shops around it were newly renovated and had a rich and classy feeling to them. Besides the door of the barber shop sat an old man who seemed to have lost interest in the world many years ago. Debauchery felt tricked, well in all honesty the title of best barber was with the old man and his shop since the days of old, those who led them here, led them because they grew up hearing that that shop was the best in town, although time took its toll and new barbers opened shop who were more popular than this one, the reputation stuck across generations, so it became like a tourist prank that was unintentional.

When they wanted to go find another shop, Yunan walked up to the old man "good morning sir" he said. "Do you still offer hair cutting services in this shop, i badly need a neat haircut" he then removed his hat to show the bald patch on his head "Is there a possibility to make this look a bit less embarrassing, my friends laugh every time i remove my hat". The old man looked at his head and cracked a toothless smile then he pointed at the chair "the price is very expensive, ten gold coins, no matter how long you stay on the chair"

Yunan walked back to the party and asked for money "i have a feeling it is going to be worth it" leader immediately took a pouch full of coins and strode over the to the old man and told him. "Not all of us need our hair done, but we would like to watch you work and then decide if we would like you to work on us, is that fine?" She placed the pouch filled with 100 golden coins into the hands of the old man who brightened up and ushered the party inside "welcome to my humble shop, the best barber in town"