He pulled the two Marauder’s Axes from his inventory, then placed them into Xanthe’s Inventory screen.
She tapped the close button, shutting it. “Aww, you are such as sweetheart—”
Xanthe spotted Rachael walking toward them and released Guy from her embrace. The shadow angel walked backward and out of sight while waving goodbye to Guy seductively.
Rachael came to stand with Guy on his right, smiling as her hair blew about. It didn’t seem like she saw Xanthe. Henrietta joined Guy on his left, yelling her excitement as the three enjoyed the flight with front-row seats. Whenever Rachael saw something in the skies she liked, she would tug on Guy’s arm, dragging him over for him to watch it with her. It was almost as if she were trying to drag Guy away from Henrietta and the millions of questions she had about other planets.
After an hour or so of flying through the clouds, the Sirocco arrived at its first destination in their search for Nijana, a small city called Alita, sitting smack dab in the middle of a flat expanse of land. The terrain was level for landing the airship as the town lacked any airship docks. From what Guy learned, Alita was the place to go if you were a light elf stuck on a level 1 class.
The Sirocco’s propellers slowed, allowing the hovering airship to land near the city. The aeronaut crew tossed rope ladders down for Guy’s party. Guy climbed down first, and then one by one, the rest followed and entered Alita. Somewhere behind was Remy keeping silent. Tempeste walked shoulder to shoulder with Guy. He could hear Remy scream internally as she did that.
The citizens of Alita stopped for a moment to observe the crowd of visitors who entered their city, led by a human Paladin from the stars. Whispers and murmurs echoed among the elven folk, periodically looking at Guy and his party as they spread out to search the city and ask if anyone saw Nijana.
“Never seen her,” was the typical answer.
Requests to fetch apples from the trees outside in the plains or gather ores from mining points were also common. Evidently, the PKers were on the prowl and prevented the city’s population from retrieving resources. Once they clued in that Guy was a star-dweller and a Paladin, the elves flocked to him by the dozens with hopeful emotions on their faces. They threw various fetch quests at Guy.
I don’t have time to get all this done. And how the fuck does killing ten rats benefit anyone?
He shared the quests with everyone. At least that way, they could also share the experience point rewards.
It took three hours, but eventually, Guy and the others returned to Alita to hand in what they gathered in the field and deliver proof they killed ten rats. The rats were things you’d find in a nightmare. The experience points rewarded were nice, though. Guy, Rachael, Zuran, Kam, Xanthe, and Henrietta all gained one level each. Ulysses, being the lowest level, got two levels. Guy wasn’t looking forward to the grind to level 19. That required a total of 5054 experience points, and he was currently 511 into his level.
Unfortunately, they were no closer to finding Nijana, which was a shame. Guy hoped to have run into Nijana leveling her Bard out in the Plains of Alita. The only people they encountered were the PKers, who Guy and his companions put down pretty fast since they traveled in such a large group.
Guy took a break and sat on a bench in front of a water fountain. He sighed and facepalmed. “Apart from leveling up, I think coming here was a bust.”
“Agreed,” Tempeste said. “Let us return to the Sirocco. Hmm, where did Remy go?”
Guy looked behind, but only saw Rachael, Zuran, Kam, Ulysses, Averyl, Xanthe, and Henrietta wandering about. Remy wasn’t with them, and the more he thought about it, he didn’t recall seeing Remy with them when they went out into the field to run the fetch quests and pop PKers.
He stood from the bench and went to his companions. “Hey, have any of you seen Remy?”
“I think I saw him head to the pub,” Zuran said. “Probably getting a drink or five, considering the time wasted.”
There was only one pub in the city, just a five-minute walk down the road and a left turn.
“I’ll get him,” Guy said and walked across the stone brick road.
“Guy . . .” Rachael snorted at him from behind.
He spun to her, laughing. “What?”
“Do you really want to fight Remy in another duel?” Rachael asked, holding her hip with one hand.
“No, and that’s why I need to get Remy before he gets drunk and unapproachable,” Guy said. “We’re all on the same team, and I want to make sure he knows that.”
“Let me be the one to retrieve him,” Tempeste offered.
“It’s fine, honestly,” Guy replied, holding his hands up to Tempeste. “I got this. But, thank you.”
Guy had to do this. He knew what kind of man Remy was; the former lover who couldn’t get over the one that got away. Guy was confident that Remy would try to guilt-trip Tempeste if she went to grab him. And if Guy and Tempeste went together, then Remy might act stupid again. If Guy went alone? Remy’s pissy attitude wouldn’t tarnish Tempeste’s upbeat personality.
That, and Guy wanted to settle things with Remy face to face, man to man, ideally without weapons. Just words. Guy wasn’t there to steal Tempeste from Remy or anyone. Guy was there to find Nijana, take back Wylume’s soul crystal, and keep the empire’s hands away from Averyl. Oh, and save the elven people from the empire, dark elves, and sentinels.
Why do I go out of my way to help people? Guy thought as he walked to the pub. Because if you don’t then, they’ll end up like the innocents slaughtered on Mennaze and Faeheim. People died on those two planets because I wasn’t strong enough to save them. Never again. I’m not letting the elves suffer that fate.
Chapter Thirty
Serzax viewed his Mage’s Status screen.
Serzax Sheer
Class: Mage LVL 15
Subclass: Nox Knight LVL 7
HP: 486/486
MP: 968/968
AP: 0/100
LP: 10/10
EXP: 3701/3797
His Mage was close to level 16.
And not one occupant inside the one pub in this backwater city, Alita, knew of Serzax’s Mage subclass, Nox Knight. When examining another individual, you can only view their primary class, never their subclass. It was safer for Serzax to travel this way. Few elves would pester him about being a Nox Knight and ask why nobody else had a class like him. That and he needed to level his Mage subclass, and the plains and dungeons near Alita were the ideal places to do that. It also allowed him to scout out potential light elf cities to harvest.
Alita was ready for the crystal harvest.
Too bad it was under the protection of the Lumière Kingdom. Though, that was due to change soon.
Serzax grinned at the elven Berserker, likely using an Assassin subclass, seated at the bar alone, and sipping on his third drink. He walked past the elves in the pub, who paid no mind to Serzax. Serzax was just a traveling human to the elves, a Mage dressed in a black-caped cloak, his exposed chest decorated with an array of sigils. Serzax grabbed a single elven franc coin from his cloak’s pocket and slipped it across the bar and toward the seated elf.
“Enjoy your drink, Mr. Larrivée,” Serzax said to him. “The mines are to the east, right?”
Remy Larrivée took Serzax’s coin and looked up at the human Mage standing before him. “Yeah,” Remy said. “Cannot miss it.”
“Thank you,” Serzax said. “You have given me much to think about.”
Serzax sat at an empty table at the pub’s far corner and waited for Leafblade, Emeraldal, and Veronis, the other members of his party. They had left to post wanted posters and notes in neighboring villages, asking for anyone to offer information about Averyl Autumnfall. By now, word traveled to the light elves of the empire and their desire to tear apart the kingdom unless they got Averyl back. There was bound to be at least one frightened elf who will kidnap Averyl and offer her to Serzax with the promise that the fae would leave the light elves alone after they took the princess
back.
Of course, posting such notes was pointless now. Serzax had just received some valuable information on Averyl’s whereabouts. If his sources were correct, there would be no need to waste money to pay for Averyl’s abduction.
As Serzax waited for his party’s return, he watched a man sit with his son and drink. From what Serzax overheard, the man’s son had just become an adult. The man celebrated his boy’s name day by buying him his first alcoholic beverage. Serzax thought back to the day he did the same with his boy, Wylume. When Wylume became a man, Serzax took him out for a night of drinking, then on a trip to the Night Order’s most exquisite brothel. The brothel’s madam offered Wylume their most pleasing whores who were available that night, with Serzax paying the coin. His son learned what it was like to stick his cock in a woman that night. He was so proud of his son. Two years later, some fucking star-dweller Paladin killed Wylume and as a final insult, took his soul crystal.
To this day, Serzax never learned the Paladin’s name or how he looked like. Leafblade, Emeraldal, and Veronis’s vague descriptions of the Paladin painted the image of a generic-looking young star-human man. If Serzax had his boy’s soul crystal, then that could change things. Using Wylume’s soul crystal, Serzax could receive faint traces of Wylume’s memories, such as what the Paladin looked like and the things Wylume discovered during his campaign on Faeheim and with the sentinels.
Depression burned his chest, forcing Serzax to look away from the father and son enjoying their drinks. It was something he could no longer do. Serzax bellowed for the pub’s staff and ordered drinks, lots of them. Alcohol was the only thing that would wash away the burning feeling of grief and its constant whispers echoing in his head.
Serzax’s boy, his only son, was dead. So was Serzax’s wife, so having another child with her was not an option. And the worst part of it all? Wylume never got the chance to sow his seed in Averyl, siring a half-breed fae to strengthen the alliance between the sentinels and Autumnfall. That half-breed was to start a new generation that would help secure Earth and give it back to its rightful owners.
Ideally, before the cosmic burn destroyed the Asteria galaxy.
Serzax requested more ale to quell his bout of depression. He hoped his party would not mind his drunken state when they returned. If they returned. He looked about the pub, but his intoxicated vision only spotted blurry elves. Something happened to his party, he assumed. Serzax paid for his drinks, stood from his seat, and wobbled drunkenly to the pub’s exit to find his party—
He walked into three elven men on his way there, their faces red with rage.
“Oy,” the elf said. His breath smelled of heavy drinking, just like Serzax. “Do I look like I have fucking tits?” The elf pushed Serzax back. “Do not touch me!”
Serzax stumbled backward and shook his head to shake off the intoxication. It did not work.
“Was not trying to,” Serzax mumbled. “I, er.”
“I what?” The drunk elf said. “You think I looked nice?”
“You know what,” Serzax said and pointed his waving index finger at the man. “You can piss off. Was an accident.”
“Then apologize, human.”
Serzax snarled at the three drunken elves, now clenching their fists. “Fuck off,” Serzax barked and stepped to their side.
He made it outside, and so did the three elves. One of them grabbed Serzax’s shoulder from behind and forced him to their face. “Fucking apologize, or else!”
“Or else what?” Serzax sneered. “You know I am a Mage, right?”
“So?”
The elf socked Serzax in the face.
The punch hurled Serzax backward, and he hit the brick street back first. It knocked off a lot of HP, too.
Serzax | HP: 396/486
Serzax struggled to get up. His drunken limbs refused to cooperate. That only made it easier for the three men to grab and hold him steady while taking turns punching and kicking Serzax. They hit him in the face, in the chest, in the gut, and once in the balls. His HP went down.
Serzax | HP: 213/486
If it were not for his Nox Knight subclass, they would have done more. But the subclass gave Serzax extra HP, vitality, and strength. It just was not enough strength to fight back. The drunken elven men broke out with laughter when Serzax broke free and punched one of them. Mages were not particularly good for barehanded fighting, regardless of their subclass. Serzax’s fists removed 1-3 percent of their HP with each hit. He tried six times to reach for his spell casting tome and missed. He had stored the tome on the inside of his cloak.
“Hey!”
A concerned voice called out.
The three elves ignored it and resumed their assault, punching and kicking Serzax into a nearby ditch.
“Yo!” the voice called again, this time louder. Whoever they were, they had run to Serzax’s aid. “Leave the man alone!”
His attackers ignored him. Serzax could not ignore the injuries soaking his face with blood—
Everything turned white.
An intense bright flash of light had gone off. It left Serzax screaming as his eyes burned with searing hot pain. Someone had cast magic imbued with light elemental energy, his weakness. Had they cast that spell again, they would have killed Serzax. Instead, whoever used the spell did something to the elves because they stopped kicking him.
“My fucking eyes!” One elf cried out.
The flash of light blinded his assailants, too.
“Ha! Another fuckin’ human,” said a second elf. “Go help your kind before we decide to finish him when this blind effect fades.”
Three pairs of footsteps thumped across the stone road. Then a single pair of footsteps strode to Serzax’s position. He was still blind and unable to see who it was. Was it the human who came to save him? Or an elf running to finish the job?
A hand gripped his.
“Easy there, I got you,” the man said.
The man helped Serzax up, then sat him at the edge of the ditch. Serzax felt the man push a glass bottle into his hands.
“That’s an HP potion,” the man said. “Drink up. I think you need it.”
Serzax drank the potion, and it restored his HP. He wiped his lips clean, then faced the man who helped him. Serzax’s vision slowly cleared up. He could make out the shape of the buildings in the city, but that was it. People, such as the fellow who helped him up, appeared as a fuzzy figure. Serzax’s astral circuits could not display the man’s name, class, level, or rank.
The man leaned his face closer to Serzax. “Hey, you okay?”
Serzax nodded. “Yeah . . .”
“Here, let me help you stand.”
The man tried to help Serzax stand, but his legs would not cooperate and wobbled. Serzax fell to the ground and tumbled into the ditch.
“Sorry, I have had too much to drink,” Serzax said. “But I thank you, mister . . .?”
“Guy,” the man said. “Just call me Guy. You?”
Serzax peered closer at Guy, narrowing his eyes. He still couldn’t make out his face or his class. His best guess was that Guy was the human the elves had yelled at. A drunken grinned spread on Serzax’s face. Guy was the first human he had seen since his arrival on Alfheimr. Star-dwellers probably brought him there ages ago, before the corruption changed the planet.
“Serzax,” he finally answered Guy’s question.
“Serzax, eh?” Guy said. “That name doesn’t ring a bell. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“No, I do not believe we have.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Guy viewed Serzax’s info again.
Serzax (Mage) | LVL: 15 | Rank: A
Serzax was a land-human Mage dressed in a black cloak that showed off his chiseled chest covered in sigils. Guy started to get the impression that Mage’s wore a lot less as they needed so many sigils to cast spells. The more their robes and cloaks covered, the fewer spells they had, but as a tradeoff they would gain slightly more defense.
Gu
y sat with Serzax and waited for the man to sober up so that he could go on his own. He had a feeling the elves who picked a fight with Serzax might come back to finish the job. No way in hell was Guy going to turn his back on a vulnerable Mage. Fetching Remy from the pub could wait. That and it seemed Serzax wanted a chat partner. Serzax kept rambling on about stuff that made no sense to Guy. Typical drunk man. Guy just smiled and nodded, not that Serzax could see. He was still blind. To save Serzax, Guy had cast Blinding Flash. It was for the three elves kicking Serzax’s ass, but as it turned out, Serzax had looked up and got blinded too.
Perhaps that was the true reason Guy sat with Serzax, guilt.
I need to be more careful about using Blinding Flash in open spaces like this. Only people in my party won’t get blinded.
Guy opted to not tell Serzax he was the one who used Blinding Flash. Better to let the effect fade on its own and hope the drunk man would forget.
Serzax seemed like a nice man, though. He was older than Guy, maybe by twenty years or so. It was hard to tell since Serzax’s chest was so fucking ripped. He was an older man who kept in shape. Too bad having muscles did fuck all for your strength if you were a Mage. Guy wondered if his dead father would look like Serzax. And, come to think of it, Serzax looked familiar, too. Guy just couldn’t put his finger on the reason why.
“It is good to know a fellow descendant from Earth is on this world,” Serzax slurred his words at Guy.
“Earth?” Guy raised his eyebrow as he stared at Serzax. “You mean that fairytale place where humans came from?” He chuckled.
“It is not a fairytale,” Serzax replied. “It is true. Earth is real, and it was a beautiful place. A vast blue ocean covered over 70 percent of the planet.”
Guy tried to envision a planet with that large of an ocean. “That’s a lot of water for one planet . . .”
“And one incredible disaster took Earth away from humans, forcing us to leave Earth and find a new home.”
“Let me guess, those humans arrived at that new home planet and became the first human land-dwellers?”
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 24