“Very well.” She walked to the exit. “Take me to him. Let us not keep him waiting.”
The two armored faes escorted Nijana through the corridors and up onto the top deck. A rush of high winds blew her red skirt about. She stayed ahead of the two men as they climbed the stairs, knowing full well that the wind should expose her panties to the guards as they followed behind her.
One guard gasped. It did, and she was positive her charisma would only make him easier to control. She looked back at the guard, smiled at his flushed face, and winked at his partner.
“You can leave me now,” Nijana said. “I can find Serzax from here.”
“Of course!”
The two men hurried down below and out of sight. She wondered how long it would take them to realize they ran down to the lower decks for no reason.
Now, if only I had that kind of control on these fucking Rangers.
Nijana eyed each of the Rangers on the deck as she walked to Serzax. Dealing with them would be harder. Serzax stood at the forward end of the ship, peering at the Sirocco with a handheld telescope.
Nijana cleared her throat when she approached him. “You wanted to trade?”
“Yes.” Serzax lowered the telescope from his gaze and glanced at Nijana. He waved his hands ahead of him, created a screen, and pushed it to her.
Nijana stared at the screen with one thin cherry red eyebrow raised. “What the hell is this?”
“This is a trade screen,” Serzax said. “Few know, but when using it, you can trade items with another. Simply put Asteria’s Sword and my son’s soul crystal on the screen, and then on my end, I will place my payment in it. If you are happy with what I offer, and I am happy with what you offer, then we both hit the confirm option.”
“Then what?”
“It will automatically place the traded items in our inventory, and we can bid one another thank you.”
Nijana opened her Inventory screen, made it float beside the trade window, then scrolled through the items she had. She found Asteria’s Sword and the Nox Knight soul crystal.
She hesitated to act. “So I just . . .”
“Put the Paladin’s sword and the soul crystal into the trade screen.”
Nijana retrieved the soul crystal first and placed it into the trade screen. She saw its presence float within it. She reached into her Inventory screen for Asteria’s Sword and stopped with her fingertips seconds away from grabbing it.
“Question . . .” she mumbled.
Serzax groaned. “What is it now? Was my explanation not adequate?”
She faced him with one hand still raised to the Inventory screen. “Why would this sword kill you?”
“Because it is light-based,” Serzax said. “And my class is weak to that element. Did I not explain that already?”
“Then why not switch to another?”
“Because that class will inherit the traits of Nox Knight.”
“Because you’d be using it as a subclass?”
“Yes.”
“So use a different subclass, then.”
“I cannot . . . Nox Knights do not have that luxury . . . as well as—”
A pause came, then a grimace on his face. Serzax was trying to resist her charisma’s ability to make him talk.
Nijana pressed on anyway and changed her tone to a more pleasing one. “As well as, dear? Another class faces that strange restriction?”
Serzax peered into her eyes. “Enough questions.”
Something isn’t right. Why would Serzax want a sword that could kill him? What use would he have for it? If he’s just collecting it and has no plans to use it . . . then somewhere is a buyer who’d want to use it and would pay more money. Someone like Remy. “Sorry, darling,” Nijana said. “I just don’t want to sell a product that would harm you. I would hate to see you die because of this trade.”
“As if you care,” Serzax snorted.
“Your cock was great.” She threw in a smile, hoping it would twist his mind more. “I’d like you to put it in me again one day. But I need you alive and well for that.”
“I shall be fine.”
“By purchasing a sword that will kill you once you hold it?”
“In time . . .” Serzax said, his face twitching. He was trying to resist her charm.
He failed.
“In time,” he continued. “I will wield light and darkness, two elements that should not exist together but would, regardless. I need that sword to make it so.”
She was closer to the truth. “What exactly do you plan on doing? Is it part of your quest to find Earth?”
His lips shook like they were going to speak without him making them do so. “Put it in the trade screen, and I shall show you.”
“Payment first—”
Serzax grabbed her face and pulled it toward him. Even as a level 21 Bard and with her new gear, his strength was too much. “Do not tell me what to do, woman.”
“Payment first, or I walk,” she mumbled. His grip was making it hard to speak. He pushed her free, giving Nijana the ability to speak correctly. Big mistake.
Nijana sprouted her wings and made them buzz, demonstrating to Serzax that she was serious.
About a dozen Rangers around her nocked arrows. She forgot about them.
“Fine,” Serzax said, and pulled two sacks full of elven francs from his inventory. He placed them into the trade screen and the amount of money he offered appeared in the corner, 250,000 francs. It was a generous number. When converted to denars, Nijana could buy a ship, a new pirate crew, some equipment, and be free once again.
Nijana dragged Asteria’s Sword from her inventory with both hands. The weapon was too heavy for her to lift. She lacked the vitality and strength required. It took all her might to lift it up to the trade screen. Now both items were available to trade. Serzax tapped the confirmation button and waited for her to do the same.
She inched her right index finger toward the confirmation option—
A quest appeared in front of the trade screen, and its accept command also floated in the same position as the confirm button on the trade screen.
Nijana stopped to read the quest.
The Counteroffer
Objective: Refuse Serzax’s offer, find Dianna’s soul crystal, and escape with the items.
Issued by: White Dragon
Reward: 3000 Experience Points, 500,000 francs
Accept quest? Yes/No
The experience points and money reward were better. And she’d be able to keep Asteria’s Sword and sell it to someone else.
Nijana made her choice.
She accepted the White Dragon’s quest and the Quest screen vanished. Immediately after that, she tapped the reject option on the trade screen. The screen disappeared, and the offered items fell to the deck with a thud.
“The White Dragon!” Serzax raged. He saw the Quest screen too. “Someone! Have the sentinels track where that quest came from!”
Her Inventory screen was still open. With half the fae running to carry out Serzax’s order, Nijana found Asteria’s Sword and dragged it back into her inventory. That was the most essential item to secure. Once done, she reached for the coin sacks and soul crystal—
Serzax stomped his foot, bringing it down on her thieving hand.
It hurt so much Nijana lost 60 HP for it. She looked up to discover that he wasn’t sharing the smirk she had.
“Our partnership is over!” Serzax booted her in the face. The blow knocked her up and down on her back, bringing her HP down to 765. She got to her feet, just in time to see him retrieve the soul crystal and coin sacks, yank the Nocturnal Blade off his back and point the blade of darkness at her. “Kill her!”
Arrows flew to Nijana from all directions, most of them sticking into her chest and thigh. Nijana sprinted to the staircase. Six arrows sank into her back; another four pierced her wings. She wasn’t going to be flying anytime soon—
Nijana collapsed down the stairs and hit her head on the floor
when the roll stopped.
Her actions came at a price. Nijana was down to 221 HP and bleeding. She pushed up, screamed at the pain and blood leaking out of her body, and limped through the corridors. Nijana remembered she used a Cleric subclass and cast Starlight Recovery to restore 110 HP. The spell soothed the pain and kept Nijana standing longer. She cast the spell once more, and it left her MP dry. That was the downside to rolling Bard Cleric. She needed a lot of MP gear to make it work. The Rangers found her down below and continued to shoot arrows into her back and legs, crippling her right leg. She’d sleep them with Lullaby if she had the AP.
Nijana ended up running into the armory again, shutting and locking the door behind her as she entered. A minute later, several boots banged and stomp on it. They’d be breaking the door down at that rate. She limped to the storage chest, leaving behind red dots on the floor. There had to have been something for her to use in the chest. Potions, AP potions, perhaps? Ginseng tea? Something. She pulled item after item out from the bottomless chest full of loot.
She came across a collection of soul crystals. One particular crystal drew her attention.
Dianna’s Soul Crystal
The crystallized soul of a land-human named Dianna.
Class: Bard Level: 8 Rank: D
The White Dragon knew it was on the ship. Nijana took the crystal in her bloody hands and her quest screen updated.
The Counteroffer – Quest Updated
Refuse Serzax’s offer [Completed!]
Acquire Dianna’s Soul Crystal [Completed!]
Escape with the items.
Crash.
The imperials kicked the door off the hinges.
Nijana reached for the White Espada, gave it a good twirl, and dashed to the men at the door, swinging and thrusting. They did the same right back to her, spilled Nijana’s blood across the floor, the walls, ceiling, grabbed her by the hair, and hurled her into the corridor. She hit the floor and rolled across it; her wings soaked in her own gore. The imperials laughed as they approached to finish the job. She angled her gaze about, looking for an escape, and saw the two guards she had teased with her panties. They held their drawn weapons but hesitated to act. They liked her too much.
Nijana cocked her bloody finger at them. “Help! They’re killing me!”
Her charisma forced the two men to rush to her aid, using their bodies as shields to protect her. It bought Nijana enough time to get up and limp down the corridor, dripping blood everywhere she ran. She found herself in an observation room with a massive window providing a view of the mists on the horizon and a slight glimpse of a beach below.
Her Quest screen updated.
The Counteroffer – Quest Updated
Refuse Serzax’s offer [Completed!]
Acquire Dianna’s Soul Crystal [Completed!]
Escape with the items. [Completed!]
Use Dianna’s Soul Crystal to complete your escape.
She held the soul crystal, her fingers staining it with blood, and squeezed it hard. The crystal glowed with a bright white flash.
Obtained: 1948 Experience Points
Nijana found that her HP and MP had recovered when the light faded, and her injuries sealed shut. She received experience points equal to the experience Dianna needed to gain a level. Nijana wasn’t sure how she knew that, she just did. The crystal imprinted the knowledge of that into her mind, plus a few other things.
She had a quick flashback.
She was a human girl, just turned 18, living on a farm owned by her father, Laurence. Two star-dwellers came to visit. One of them was Guy, the other was his uncle, and she didn’t know how she knew Matthew was Guy’s uncle. Dianna thought Guy was a handsome man, mysterious too, as he came from the stars. She fantasized about Guy taking her aboard his ship and taking her away from the mundane life as the farmer’s daughter—
And the vision shattered.
The White Dragon wanted Nijana to escape. It guided her to the observation windows just for that. So Nijana kicked out the glass, her heeled boots turning it into millions of glass shards that rained to the floor and blew outside. The winds howled and blew her hair, skirt, and frilly lace garter around her thigh. Nijana buzzed her healed wings, dove out the broken window, and flew to the nearest land she saw.
The beach beyond the mists.
The Counteroffer – Quest Complete
Obtained: 3000 Experience Points
Obtained: 500,000 francs
A sharp pain pierced her left arm.
A new arrow stuck in her body. The Rangers had seen her fly away, took aim, nocked arrows, and sent them soaring through the air. Seven of them tore through her legs, and the other two ripped her upper wings to shreds.
Nijana lost the ability to fly correctly.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Guy pulled his Svartálfar’s Halberd out and away from his most recent kill, a Giant Spider twice the size of him. The eight legs of the monster went limp and it collapsed to the ground, unveiling the sight of Averyl standing behind it, her Flame Priestess’s Scepter glowing white. She’d been spanking the monster from behind—might as well since she was using a Medic subclass. Averyl had evolved into a battle Cleric.
The two had ventured from the beach they had crash-landed at and explored the lively and untamed wilderness beyond. There were no signs of the others at the beach. Guy’s best guess was that they landed in the landscape beyond the shore. Which made sense as they escaped the Sirocco before Guy and Averyl. Their missing friends didn’t crash land on the beach like they did.
Averyl waved her magical scepter and cast Starlight Recovery on Guy, then once more on herself. Tanking as a Spell Lancer was rough but not impossible. Guy just had a lot less HP and defense to work with. The Spider’s corpse evaporated, rewarding them with experience points and nothing else. The two resumed their trek past the twisted trees to the sound of wild animals and monsters roaring. Guy could see fuck all ahead. The fog of the mists was thick. Guy and Averyl were traveling north, that much he knew, and it terrified him with each step they took.
The mists were the borderlands between light and dark elf territory. Go too far north, and you’d end up in the frozen northern lands of New Svartálfar. They were walking into enemy territory and had no choice. Walking south would put them back on the beach. The only direction to go was north until they found a path that could lead them to that tiny stretch of land Guy had seen from the Sirocco. It was their only way back to the lands ruled by the Lumière Kingdom.
The duo encountered several Giant Spiders and strange reptilian beasts during their travel. Guy took the lead as the Spell Lancer tank, used his polearm to parry attacks, observed unguarded moments in the monsters’ stances, then thrust deep into their faces. Meanwhile, Averyl smacked the monsters from behind and healed Guy’s wounds. They slew another pack of monsters, watched as they slumped over dead, and then vaporize. Guy awaited heals from Averyl.
But she had none to give.
“It would seem my mana is low,” she said.
He looked at the Party screen, the one he hadn’t been paying attention to.
Averyl | MP: 12/1120
“Got any potions?” he asked her. “Those monsters we killed earlier had dropped a bunch.”
Averyl hooked the Flame Priestess’s Scepter to the side of her Temple Dress, opened her Inventory screen, and winced. “Not many,” she said. “I would prefer to save those for emergencies.”
Guy opened an Inventory screen of his own, found and pulled out a tent.
“Then let’s rest for a bit,” Guy said as he tossed the palm-sized tent in the air. “We can’t find the others if we’re dead because we didn’t take a break.”
It expanded to a full-sized tent and fell to the ground.
Averyl nodded to him. “I am sure they are fine.”
Guy slipped the tent’s entrance open. “I hope so.”
The two crawled inside and felt the tent’s astral energy slowly restore their HP, MP, and AP. A notific
ation pulsed, informing the duo they had entered a sanctuary and that they could swap classes, not that Guy had any other class to switch to. His Berserker and Assassin were level 1, and his Paladin lacked a sword. He groaned. Guy’s uncle Matthew had trusted Guy with that sword and he had lost it because some cute, thieving fairy smiled at him.
Guy and Averyl ended up lying down beside each other and passed out. It’d been a long and stressful day. Their bodies needed the rest.
Averyl awoke suddenly, later that night. The evening had fallen, silencing some of the wildlife in the wilderness. Guy was still asleep. She shoved him softly to wake him up, but he groaned and spun to lie on his side. That was a pity. She wanted someone to talk to right now. Averyl was unsure of what was going on between her and Guy.
When the two were falling to the ocean, Averyl felt a strange and sudden urge to kiss Guy for holding her safely in his arms. She liked it when he accidentally touched her breast when they had crashed on top of each other, and part of Averyl had hoped he would handle the other one.
Why was she feeling that way about him? Even now as Guy slept, Averyl could not help but watch him do so. Averyl always liked girls. That was the way she was. So what made Guy different? Was it because he was human and not a jerk?
What makes him different?
Averyl pulled Xanthe’s feather from her Inventory to consult it. There was a strange energy in the feather, strong enough to touch her mind or the minds of others when she brushed it on them. Averyl hoped it would shed some insight into her inquiry. She swept the feather across her forehead, felt its blissful aura enter her head, tickle her mind, and release endorphins.
The feather wanted Averyl to leave the tent and take a stroll outside in the forest. There was something at the far end of the wilderness the feather yearned for, and it wanted Averyl to find it. So she left the tent and peeked around. She saw no undead lurking. It would seem the mists did not suffer from that problem at night, oddly enough.
Averyl went for a brief midnight stroll through the mist-blanketed woods, the feather in her hand leading the way. She came to sit at a patch of grass near a river listening to the sound of hooting owls. Averyl sat at the river for a long time, hugging her legs and watching the subtle water flow. There were no interruptions or monsters. It was just Averyl surrounded by nature tainted by the corruption.
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 46