EGBERI

Chapter Five - Society Is Sick

Having the primary motive of becoming a demi-god had Razan on a new phase. He saw freedom in living, understanding the purpose of their humanity was impressing Yiba with an interesting personality. He was set on a mission of soul searching and self discovery and mastery of skills.

Only problem was "No Gold". After level 6 he was to arrive at job valley and perfect mastery where his strength lied.
If he had enough gold he would have remained at the spirit temple to learn enough skill but even his family was hoping to be relieved from the contributions for his tuition. At the valley he felt out of place. He sought Trivan on what to do.

Trivan advised another way around the situation. Since it didn't matter whether it was a spirit skill or camp skill, that he should try the camp skills. It only reduced the problem by half, there was still no gold even for the camps and Tarja had 4 other children all in camps.

A careful thought in considering an alignment with the " Street Lords" . A dangerous option but at a better cost of immortality having all Trivan's bloodline under compulsion taking his rightful place as king to restore balance to his world.

The street lords were outlaws, thieves in the woods. They moved in packs, campers that had been neglected by the rulers of their clan. Most rulers made their clan pay heavy taxes without differentiation of the rich from the poor. A law stating "All men pay same amount". Majority of a clan where usually in taxe debt. As a show of their leaders modesty they made a decree that he would pardon those who worked for him on his farms and guard stations at shifts until their bodies are too weak to move then he might consider forgiving them.

So the street lords are people who chose to rebel saying "If all men should pay same amount, all men should be paid the same amount".
They hid in the woods and ambushed people favoured by the leaders, put in ranks with reduced taxe debt by the leaders to buy support and avoid breakouts of war.

Most of them were skilled campers and now use these skills to decieve travellers in the woods robbing them of their golds. Due to the nature of their works they were addicted to the king flower. It enhances their skills to the finest. Before they teach you how to use the kings flower to enhance, you most have at least one partner who had made same decision with you......the king flower made the body of normal people fall sick from time to time, eventually dying diseased with sexual revival measured to an averaged rate of 6 times a day.

More problems for Razan as nobody had to see his eyes turn grey without pupils, without calling him a demon.
On the bright side, Koffe was already in a pack . Koffe was skilled in archery, his pack were all archers they manipulated the string of their bows to make hypnotizing tunes while their bodies are protected by outlawed spirituals of good fighting skills, one of the things Razan couldn't afford to learn as a result of having no partner.

Koffe's pack graded 6th (in a grading system of 1-10) in their clan. They were very good. So a faithful citizen would hire spirituals with good fighting skills to try to kill the body producing the tunes and slave fighters that accept to become deaf and defend in reality. Dignitaries of the kings cabinet where at higher risk of being robbed, people he called advisers and paid under the royal pardon to sustain their family.

After Koffe explained this in detail, it was impossible as he had no chances of having a partner. He was left with an option; stay at home and practice spirit kills at the risk of a decree against using the kings flower without permit or license from a camp. Also how his family would come to terms that he is a king in the spirit plane and also knows how to locate Trivan in the spirit plane. It was a lot for anyone to understand.

So he stayed at home, it was the unbecoming of a man looking idle in the eyes of others without getting any gold.
But beyond their understanding and the masking of his royalty the lack of gold made him more idle than the expected spirit plane idle where his body was still on a spot.

Luckily for him, he and Koffe had or so he thought a bond of understanding where Koffe was hoping to entize him with gold hoping to get a spiritual on his pack unknown to him Razan had no fighting skills.

Whenever Koffe shared his spoils, he shared tales of his exploits, and Razan would use it for the kings flower, slowly he kept learning spirit skills from Trivan in his occasional visits on the spirit plane. On the spirit plane, a demi-god could only talk to a spiritual, they could make no contact. And Trivan had no combat skills. He hated violence of any sort and would prefer practical wisdom in getting things done. He warned Razan to never share his identify as a kings spirit to anyone, telling him of how one of his generals betrayed him leading to the fall of his kingdom.

After a while Koffe gets irritated at his reluctance to join his pack and stop sharing his spoils, he had no choice but to try hunting with them.

As a novice, the shadows of other spirituals covered him. At their hidden camps they trained and planned for attacks. He finally went on his first mission. Scored some bruises and had some spoils but had no means of reviving himself. As a spiritual his body lost weight even more.

So he went to Trivan for help and there was another way king spirit could revive spirit energy without sex. He would have to be in Yiba's threshold for days to be revived completely.