A Path of Bone and Poison 67 Morningstar Shadow Corps

The goddess appeared before us. It was not her real body, rather it was an astral body that had descended to the shrine. The projection was filled with holy energy, the pressure of which forced the boys and the two new squad members to their knees.

The Goddess's projection looked over the newcomers. She showed no expression as she observed them, but did nothing to criticize. Her voice sounded in my mind. "You're sure about this? You will be responsible for them. All of them."

"Yes your holiness. They will be essential to our upcoming war. The bug god will not stand idle, and we need a force to counter them."

I could feel the goddess nod in my head, aloud her voice filled the room.

"Rise Sierra Evergreen. Rise Leisha Wolfbane. Do you two swear your loyalty to the Goddess of War, vow to never take another god, and never betray me, my champion, or my concubine."

Both of them bowed in unison and spoke the same words as they confirmed the vow in the system.

"I do so swear your holiness."

The Goddess's avatar nodded. "Then recieve my blessing, and grow powerful."

The Goddess's gaze landed on the four children who were still trembling under her might.

"This goddess has no room for the weak. If you want to survive then you must grow stronger. Do the four of you, John, James, Chuck, And Nate swear your loyalty to myself as well as Yuri Morningstar. Do you swear to become stronger, never resting until you surpass the pinnacle. Do you swear to never betray myself, my followers, my champion, and My concubine. Do you swear to Follow all of the rules of the Morningstar Shadow Corps, and strive to become the example for those that follow you. Do you swear to follow all of your orders, even at the cost of your own life, and treat the corps leader as the highest authority after myself?"

The boys were stunned at her words, and perhaps even more stunned as notifications from a system they should not have had access to appeared before them. They knew the words were binding. That they would forever lose the freedom they had before. But the cost was worth the gain. The did not have to think long before they responded.

Surprisingly John was the first to respond. "I swear my loyalty now and forever to The goddess of war, To the Morningatar Shadow Corpse, and to our Leader Yuri Morningstar." His eyes had taken on a fanatical look as he spoke, but this was only apparent to the goddess as his head was still bowed.

The others followed shortly after. Each of them repeated his words, and could feel something changing in their souls. The system before them became fully active, and each of them was given a class and blessing.

Their classes were the same. [Shadow Assassin]. The class was basically a weakened version of my own class, and had four different paths to develop. Their paths had already been chosen.

The first was the mage path. This path focused on stealth and Magic. They were limited to shadow magic, but were rather adept at it. (James)

The second was the path of the archer. They would focus on skills related to archery, and more specifically sniping. (Nate)

The third path was the path of the warrior. They focused on melee combat, but would have to choose a specific weapon to focus on. (John)

The final path, hybrid, was a mixture of all of the above. They were capable of basic shadow magic, archery, as well as melee combat. They were not specialized, more of an all rounder. (Chuck)

Each of the four paths was focused on one of the boys. And each of the boys had a teacher available to them, namely the four members of our squad.

The blessing they recieved was a mixture of a blessing and a curse.

[Shadow Corps pact]

A blessing from the Goddess of war that endures absolute loyalty. Any action that is deemed unloyal will result in death. Promotes fanatical thinking towards the corps. Increases stat growth depending on path. 2x agility growth plus 2x strength(warrior) 2x wisdom(mage) 2x dexterity(archer) +1 strength wisdom and dexterity (hybrid).

Leisha and Sierra did not lose out either. Leisha recieved [War Goddess's Warrior] and Sierra recieved [War Goddess's Mage]

[War Goddess's Warrior]

As a result of an irrevocable oath made with the War Goddess you have recieved her blessing. ×3 strength growth and x2 constitution growth (retroactive)

[War Goddess's Mage]

As a result of an oath irrevocable oath made with the War Goddess you have recieved her blessing. x3 wisdom growth and x2 intellegence growth (retroactive)

Needless to say they had recieved a substantial growth in power. I did not escape from this however. I recieved a new hidden title.

[Leader of the Morningstar Shadow Corps]

Grants absolute authority of the members of the Morningstar Shadow Corps, and Ultimately control over their life and death. Grant's the ability to teach members your own skills, limited to 1 skill each.

I immediately chose to use the second part of the skill and taught the for of them a skill. I taught [Silent Casting] to James. [Short Sword Mastery] to John. I granted Hylia Vice-guild leader status and had her teach Nate [Bow Proficiency]. Chuck was the hardest to to chose for, but I eventually ending up giving him the skill [Shadow Movement]. He would not be able to use it for awhile, but it was the only skill that I felt was suitable for him.

With the skills granted, the corps hand officially been created. A new function had appeared with in my system group, which I used to add the other members of my party to the corps as well. Our new group only had 8 members at the moment, but it would eventually be the start of something big.

Chapter end