by Scar, Rick
Daltaro smirked. “I’m dying to hear it.”
Chapter 102. A Surprise
R aven told his companion everything he’d been through, without omitting any details. They’d had a lot of history together and pursued the common goals of restoring the adventurer’s past experience, knowledge and strength—and rescuing his daughter. That made Will absolutely confident in him.
“So you are saying you’ve met a legendary hero’s servant? And you’ve had a heroic item in your own hands?” Daltaro’s eyes blazed with excitement, his whole adventurous nature craving to go looking for the tablets and exploring the great mysteries.
“Yeah.” Will nodded.
“And you fought a Destroyer of Worlds?”
“Exactly,” the rogue confirmed.
“…met an exiled prince and united the legendary Emperor’s Obedience Crystal?”
“You’re absolutely right, sir.” Will nodded, again and again.
“Have I left anything out?” His companion finished raising his fingers.
“No, you haven’t.”
“Please correct me if I am wrong…For all that, you’ve only got this baby animal to show for it?” Daltaro pointed at the pet with a finger that was almost as large as the puppy. “That and a piece of cloth and a passage to another floor?”
“No. I got skills, gold and…” Unsure if the archer knew what influence points were, Will decided not to mention them. “Hey! You forgot the crystal.”
“Oh, yes. The crystal that will make you wanted by all humans and non-humans in this world. A really, really useful item. No offense,” the archer commented sarcastically.
“We’ll see.” Knowing better than to argue or explain, Will just hid the crystal and glanced around. The Horghs Are The Best (a modest name indeed) Bar was rather roomy and popular with locals.
“So. What are you going to do next?” Daltaro asked, taking a gulp of strong, dark beer.
“I actually have so many options I’m struggling with the choice.” Raven winced. “Did you know the princess is going to marry me?”
Daltaro, who was just taking another gulp, coughed badly, squirting his beer over Will’s face. “Sorry. I was unprepared for that.”
“I see.” The rogue wiped his face with a napkin. “Didn’t you hear our talk when we found that Nagi pyramid?”
“I’ve heard the princess protest against your impudent proposal and that’s all.”
“It was not impudent at all.” Will waved the archer’s comment away. “So. Now I must choose among several options. Marry the Princess, find the Shadow Order, locate a tablet, or search for the device that amplifies the crystal’s power. I’d rather not go to that mountain hole, though.” He frowned as he remembered the monster sitting there.
“That mountain hole? What are you talking about?”
“Haven’t I told you?”
The archer shook his head.
“Oh well. Then…”
***
Daltaro whistled at hearing Will’s story. “Hey. I’ve lived a long life and seen the world, but you messengers are literally showered with opportunities and secrets.”
“Yeah. We are. And about the passage…I think we must separate for a while. When I leave to open the tunnel, we’ll negotiate a place to meet each other in three months. I hope you won’t intrude into another tomb and get cursed again in the meantime.”
“Um. I learn from my mistakes. If I bump into any interesting thing, I’ll wait for you to explore with me. You’re not afraid to die, are you?” Daltaro laughed.
The rogue smirked. “I’m in. It’ll be much better this way.”
“So where are we going?” the archer asked again.
“I need to think it over. For a start, I think we’d better finish cleaning up the forest to help the dryads. Perhaps we’ll come across something useful for you as we do that. By the time we’re done, I think I’ll know our next destination for sure.”
“Let’s get started then.” Gulping down the rest of his beer and crashing the empty mug onto the table, Daltaro stood, tossed down the coins to pay their drinks, and headed for the entrance.
“You’re right. I’ve relaxed too much.” Raven smiled a wry smile. “We’ve been chattering away for an hour! Time to get down to business.”
***
A few days before Insanity’s imprisonment.
Just as Mollie guessed, White Raven did not linger among the mortals. Shortly, he was back to his well-deserved heights. Level 66! And his influence points? One could earn that much only by completing several epic quests. He couldn’t have done that! Or…
Raven seemed to have hacked the game shortly after his fall, climbing to the 1st position with a speed even more terrifying than before. Crimson Berserker was Level 49, just a step short of receiving his specialization.
Although the floor was still abundant in unexplored areas, leveling up was growing more and more difficult with every new level you achieved. This process was similar to climbing a mountain slope that had fewer and fewer hand grips with each passing foot.
Rumors about undiscovered portals into other realities, placed across the floors, spread across the web. The proof was a video showing one such portal, filmed by a player nicknamed Warrius shortly before entering it. The portal looked like a small gateway, blocked by a dim-red membrane, with multiple question marks showing in place of its name. No one knew where that gate was located, or what Warrius had found in there. No one even knew which floor it was on. Many believed the video was nothing more than a well-made fake, crafted to get a ton of views and likes.
Mollie was happy with already reaching Level 40. The guild’s business was excellent: its players had already landed two epic quests with lavish rewards and plenty of hidden quests.
The hint about the flying island she’d gotten from one of her subordinates before conquering the Lost Time Labyrinth turned out to be useless. Kingmaker and her closest allies were ready to attack the Rukh, but the problem of reaching it still remained. No one had yet come up with a solution. Fortunately, the other TOP clans on Floor 3 remained unaware of that place; the rival guilds’ spies could not obtain any information since it was kept secret even from most of the Rollin’ Dice’s members.
She’d sent four messages to Raven, reminding him of their deal since the week’s deadline had long since passed. The messages remained unanswered. Every day when she checked the rating, her heart missed a beat at thinking he could have been outbid, but there was no evidence of that.
“What is he doing?” the girl grumbled. She started to think he was doing it on purpose, just to make her angry. She could not even begin to imagine what a hell of a companion he’d been travelling with.
“Hasn’t he answered yet?” her girlfriend asked.
“No! Can you imagine that? I’m feeling like a schoolgirl waiting for her date to…” Flushing, she stopped herself and covered her face with a menu. “Er. What will we have today?”
Her girlfriend laughed. “Ahaha, Mollie. What a metaphor.”
The two of them were discussing the pressing matters at the guild’s restaurant. The past updates had given start to an epic race for in-game real estate, with crazy amounts of money being paid for patches of land and buildings.
The Ascension’s mental interface conveyed all the sensations of eating your favorite foods in-game: it felt just like having them in the real world. Any foods—from French fries to those only served in the most famous and expensive restaurants of the world. But the main thing was that most exotic meals could temporarily boost your stats, from Damage to Luck.
Novelty seekers could also have sex in the game, with members of any race, feeling exactly the same if they were doing it in the real world. The easy availability of all imaginable joys was attracting many new residents to this world, while others were already making money here. The guilds opened and ran a variety of entertainment venues, hotels, and shops selling potions, weapons, gear, or magical items.
Everyone was
after development sites in capital cities, but only TOP guilds supported by wealthy corporations could get those—not easily either. The most lucrative properties, such as auction houses, could only be purchased by nobility. No player had yet attained a noble rank or even approached it. Getting a noble title was extremely difficult; it could be described as an epic quest of bureaucracy. The guilds had located several influential persons who could assist with that, spending lots of money to try and win their support.
So far the clans would only buy the land to construct properties from scratch, or purchase small, one-storied buildings in the outskirts of capital cities and promote them. Those with real-world marketing experience could apply it to win human customers from NPC vendors.
***
Now, shortly after Farris’s imprisonment, Mollie was in the same restaurant, discussing the next step for the guild to take, when a message popped up.
Her heart skipped a beat at guessing who it could be. Raven?
The girl opened the message immediately. Reading it several times, she experienced a crazy range of emotions: from a lust to kill this brute to astonishment and then utter bewilderment.
Ahoy, my brave captain and former Clan Leader=)
Sorry for not answering for so long. I was running business so fast I could not even stop to take a breath. Send me 2000 gold/week for your clan’s name to shine in its full glory on top of the list again. That’s the first thing. The second is: what do you know about the north forest of Dla’Khree? I will generously pay for any useful info you can provide. And the last: I’ll probably have a surprise for all of you very soon.
“What’s going on?” the puzzled Kingmaker whispered.
Chapter 103. Show Me to the World
“W ho’s there?” Katharine asked, sipping her cocktail through a straw. She was thrilled as Mollie’s face became angry and confused in equal turn.
“Raven.” Kingmaker snorted. “Laying out crazy terms for advertising. Even crazier than the last time. And asking about some north forest of Dla’Khree. Do you know of such a location?”
“Er…No.” Struggling to recollect at least something related to this name, the assistant eventually had to admit she knew nothing about it.
“The weirdest thing he’s left for last. He’s saying he’ll soon have a surprise for us all.”
Katharine was just as surprised at hearing that as Mollie herself. “For the clan or the whole floor?”
“Who knows? It sounds pretty weird, anyway.” She pondered over the possible options when another message signaled its arrival.
Is he writing to clarify at least some of his riddles?
Mollie opened the message. After a moment, a blow of cold came from her.
“Is that Raven? Again?”
“I wish it was him. No. The Faceless Army is done with their quiet grinding. They’re always itching for a fight. Wild barbarians.” Mollie winced.
“Their reasons?”
“Dunno. They’ve just attacked our players at the Ranalie rock—the griffin dwelling.”
“Ah. I know that place. Why there?”
“Who knows? Our spies are not that close to their leaders. Our clans are travelling among games. The commanders and the guild elite are long established. It’s very hard for new members to make all the way to the top, you know.”
“I know that. Where are our elite squads?”
“Just a moment. One is in the Dar’Kokh steppes, in the explored south. Two more are in the vicinity of…what’s its name? Ah, yes! The Path of Giants!” Mollie finally remembered.
“Who’s the closest?”
“I won’t be re-locating an elite squad. A group of good players has volunteered in the chat. Let’s see what follows. It could be just a distracting move, with their real target being somewhere completely different. That’s what we have done more than once. I’d better ask Raven if he can join us in this conflict.”
“Knowing him as I do, I can say that will cost us a small fortune,” the other girl said thoughtfully.
“I don’t mind paying him if he solves the problem. I’m dead tired of these faceless ones. They keep stabbing us in the back. Do you remember them failing our Dark Gate tasks?”
“I wish I could forget that.” Katharine winced. “It was an epic quest final. We’d spent 18 months on this mission. If not for them, we’d have definitely reached first place.”
“So what do you think? Should we offer a job to Raven? If he’s asking about some north forest on our floor, he’s probably found a way to travel here. Am I right?”
“I wish I knew how he does that. The Port Scroll only provides very little time for exploring new locations.”
“It does. So what’s that greedy brute up to then?” Mollie wondered, frowning and leaning back in her soft chair.
***
Before setting off to clean the forest, Will solved two issues at hand: he messaged Kingmaker, and he increased his inventory ring’s capacity to the maximal level that could be provided by the capital city wizards. That cost him 500 gold coins: 50 coins per 10 slots added. Anyway, it was totally worth it. Having 120 slots, he would never need to throw any grinded resources away again. He used to do that before, and he had never stopped regretting it.
The looted items and weapons were scarce. Will cursed every time at seeing another portion of loot filled with skins, bones, essences, and other useless stuff. For the whole time he’d spent playing, he had still only got four items and three weapons from dead enemies. And he’d auctioned all those to earn more gold. The Twilight Ring did not count as loot; it was not him who killed the adept. Raven had long since realized it was another of the game’s features: the extreme difficulty of getting really good items.
Now he was going to complete the forest cleansing without getting distracted by any other missions. The seventeen remaining cursed places awaited him; he was ready to invest as much time as necessary to complete this quest.
The Rollin’ Dice leader replied to him, confirming the deal and transferring gold into his account. Her message had a postscript asking if he would join their war against the Faceless Army clan for some additional pay.
Thinking over the answer, Will realized he wanted none of these clan quarrels, but he also knew he’d need allies at some point. He could use this opportunity to find out more about the Faceless Army. However strong he stood among other players individually, the clans possessed the strategic and gaming experience that he still lacked. He’d rather not have any enemies following his steps or intervening with his missions. Meanwhile, he had secrets that could make all the clans hunt him.
He decided to take some more time before he replied.
The last issue he had to solve was the one in the real world: finding a good video editor. Alas, he didn’t have the money to hire a real pro, but there was another option worth trying.
His sister once mentioned her friend and classmate who was seriously into video editing, dreaming of a career in the film industry since she was a kid. The friend’s name was Emma. Leah promised to ask her if she wouldn’t mind editing his videos.
Emma played Ascension too. She said this game was made for great videos.
Yesterday, he called Leah asking for Emma’s contact info. He’d rather see this schoolgirl’s work before deciding if he should give her this job.
Two days later, they’d relieved the curse from two more places. The search was slow: it was not even that the places were that difficult to locate, but the guarding monsters were proving difficult to overcome. Five times they’d barely escaped death and had to run. Even Will’s fantastic skills were of no help. His Dancing of Time was still on cooldown. Even if he had it, he’d rather not waste it on grinding and fighting regular mobs—however strong they were.
At one point, the companions discovered a dark, deep cave, with the sound of heavy footsteps coming from inside—so heavy that they cast a vibration across the ground by the entrance. Knowing better than push his luck and enter a dungeon by accide
nt, Will did not even check its name; he just marked this spot on the map as a place probably worth visiting in the future.
He did that despite his gut feeling telling him he wouldn’t get any outstanding rewards there. Will believed his intuition—it had never failed him before, be it in the real world or the game. It was his only superpower, paving his way as a good soldier. Winning the officers’ trust by proving himself during practice, he’d been granted access to important storming and hostage-rescuing missions.
The next time he left the game, he saw a message from his sister with Emma’s contact info and a link to her Video World channel. He decided to watch a few of the girl’s videos while preparing his meal.
***
“Wow.” Being no pro, he could still appreciate the high quality of her editing and near-perfect continuity, producing a beautiful picture of the filmed events. The girl’s account was followed by several thousand people.
The video material was rather boring, but still her works breathed her love for what she did. The love like that put in by talented artists into their paintings, by musicians into their songs, or by writers into their books.
If this goes well, we’ll make each other’s dreams true. I’ll become rich; Emma will be popular. I just have to start my channel and offer this girl her dream job. I have enough material to make a whole TV season. Hey, girl! Show me to the world for us to both shine!
***
What Will was doing hardly deserved the name of play, but still he would not allow himself any rest. Every time he’d connected to Ascension over the past week, he’d focused on his job straight away. Accompanied by the poor Daltaro (who, as an adventurer, loved exploration and not repetitive monster killings day after day), Raven leveled himself up while cleaning up the damn forest.
The archer complained, but he put up with it—particularly after the day when they’d been lucky enough to find the wisdom tooth of a gray-skinned, slimy earthworm, dwelling beneath a great, century-old tree. The tooth contained another part of the adventurer’s life.