7 Sentinel

Connor had a stupified look on his face.

'Serve and belong to me? That sounds... little awkward there. I mean I understand the serve part but...' Connor thought.

"I am sorry, I asked which faction. Private Miles, not who." Connor repeated his question.

Miles had a face that one could interpret as 'What's wrong with it?' He got into position and saluted once again, just to repeat his words.

"I serve and belong to Private First Class Connor Ironheart, sir! It is both who I serve and my faction!" Miles replied.

Connor sighed. 'I don't want my faction to be called Private First Class Connor Ironheart... What should I call it...' he thought for a while before finally speaking.

"Miles, from now on you belong to Sentinel. This faction that will be under my command from now on." Connor said.

Suddenly, several notifications that he had never seen before showed up on his screen.

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You have successfully created a faction called Sentinel.

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Congratulations! You have earned the title - Commander of Sentinel.

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'What the hell! Faction creation?' Connor quickly tried to remember the features of Warzone he read before starting the game. 'There should be a guild system and land system which can be created or managed by players but... factions? There should be only two.' Connor kept contemplating. He didn't even mind the title he had gotten.

"Miles, what is our current location?" Connor asked the critical question.

Miles stopped and looked around the room.

"We are in... some sort of a wooden shack, sir?" he replied, completely innocent.

Connor facepalmed. He couldn't retort at all. He was tired and wanted to sleep. Today was tiring. He actually found it interesting to 'feel tired' while he was in the game.

'Anyways, I guess we'll head to Westland tomorrow or something.'

"Miles, I am really tired. I need some sleep." Connor spoke.

"Understood sir! I will stand guard until you wake up!" Miles said as he readied his rifle.

"That wasn't really my intention... You don't need to stand guard." Connor replied.

"Impossible! Your safety is important sir!" Miles replied as if it was a fact.

'Argh... I can't deal with this.' Connor thought as he laid down on the bed to sleep.

"Whatever, thanks Miles."

As the morning arrived, the sounds of birds and people outside was easily heard in the shack. Connor slowly opened his eyes and got up from his bed. When he looked towards the corner of the room he saw Miles leaning on the wall looking somewhat tired. He wasn't as tired as he looked, however, standing at one spot for hours would definitely make you feel tired.

Seeing and hearing Connor stand up from his bed Miles quickly fixed himself and greeted him.

"Good morning sir! The night has been really quiet!" Miles saluted Connor.

"You don't have to call me 'sir' all the time Miles, just call me Connor. Our difference in rank isn't that much, also. Good morning." Connor replied.

"Understood sir! I mean, Connor."

After getting up from the bed, Connor prepared his gear and equipped it. And got out of the shack. He saw James's wife working in the courtyard, fixing the garden as he walked towards her, Miles was following behind Connor. As Lucy, James's wife saw Connor she smiled, then glanced at the man behind Connor. She didn't know who this young one was but before she could say anything Connor started talking.

"Good morning, Miss Lucy. Where is James?" Connor asked.

"I believe he went to the barracks to handle the matters about yesterday with Matt. You can find him there." Lucy replied.

Connor thanked Lucy and headed towards the barracks with Miles following behind him.

'Who is the man with him? He looked like his brother.' Lucy thought looking behind their backs.

Connor and Miles quickly arrived at the barracks. They got in the building and saw James and a guard member sitting in the resting area and talking. James saw Connor and Miles going in so he quickly got up to greet them.

"Good morning, I hope you had a good sleep." James said towards Connor before turning to Miles. "And who is this friend?"

Connor looked at Miles only to see the latter looking around inspecting every detail of the building, he had been like that since they got out of the shack.

Noticing their gazes Miles suddenly turned to James and introduced himself.

"I am Private Miles, member of Sentinel, serving under my commander here." Miles replied.

James looked at Connor and Miles back and forth until Connor started speaking.

"Don't mind him that much, he's my subordinate." Connor said while lightly pointing at Miles.

Seeing Miles nod in response James introduced himself. Although he had some questions about the situation, he decided not to ask.

"Hello, I am not sure if Connor told you about me. My name's James. I am the Village Chief of Ludhom."

Miles only nodded.

Connor started speaking to break the awkward atmosphere.

"James, our plan is to head to Westland as we spoke yesterday. Do you have some sort of a map? How can we go there?" Connor asked.

"We don't really have any maps. But don't be afraid. There are only a few roads leading outside Ludhom. If you follow one of the two that goes west, you'll end up in Westland. The other one goes to the forest." James answered.

"When are you planning to leave? Have you had any breakfast?" James smiled as he asked.

"As soon as possible, like right now. We can eat on the road so we don't really need breakfast." Connor replied.

'It is important to find out more information about this place. Looking at Miles, it seems like even he doesn't know anything. Gotta talk with him on the road as well.'

James was not surprised. "Alright, come, I'll show you the way."

The group left the barracks and headed towards the gates, no one but the guards around the gates really paid attention to them.

James led Connor and Miles to a crossroad not far from the village. And pointed at the road.

"If you follow this road, you will see a fork. Follow the left one. After about half a day's walk, there should be a small inn. You can rest there if you need." James quickly took a few silver coins out of his pocket. "Here, 2 silvers. This should be enough for some time." James said as he gave the coins to Connor. For a villager, 2 silver was not a small sum. It was about 2 weeks worth of food.

Connor took the coins and thanked James before starting to walk towards the road with Miles.

One thing James didn't know that Connor had never thought about walking to their destination. He had a secret weapon after all.

After ensuring he got far enough from the village and no one was following them. He thought about the 'Vehicle Hangar' before a menu showed up.

Looking at the menu, he only had one vehicle. All Terrain Vehicle, ATV. Which was basically a militarized quadbike. With special spots for hanging military backpacks. Although Connor wasn't wearing any backpack as he had access to his inventory, Miles was wearing one.

He quickly went over the menu to see how it is used. After grasping the usage he clicked on the button "Create" that was located right below the ATV. Same as Recruitment, he saw a vehicle appearing out of nowhere a few meters in front of him. If someone saw Connor and Miles doing this they would probably think that Connor was a Legendary Mage.

The duo got on the ATV with Connor driving and Miles riding in the back. With that, they started heading towards their next destination. The city of Westland.

Throughout the way, they discussed about the world they were in. Well, it was mostly Connor asking questions to Miles. Unfortunately, it appeared so that Miles did not have any knowledge of this place. This finally confirmed one thing that bothered Connor.

'Even the 'NPC' created by the game system doesn't know about the world we are in.'

'This is not a game.'

'Did I get teleported to another world?'

'Did I die?'

Connor had all sorts of thoughts running through his head. It wouldn't help to panic. He was here for more than a day already. The world, the feeling, the situation... It was all similar to the fantasy books he had read before.

'It will be really amusing if I see any kind of 'Adventurer's Guild' at Westland.' Connor laughed which resulted in Miles giving him a weird look. They were still driving towards their location as Connor planned his course of action both in case this was an event and in case... it was not.

There was a place called Adventurer's Guild in Westland.