by Aaron Oster
Just a bit closer, and I could…
Arthur yanked the eye back, feeling sweat break out on his brow. Talia hadn’t been kidding when she’d said there was a compulsion on the item, and he’d been an idiot to assume he was immune. But he seemed to have a bit of resistance, at least. Deciding that he wanted to know what the item was before shoving it into his empty eye socket, Arthur examined the eye.
Item Found!
Name: Eye of the All-Seer
Durability: 1,009/1,500
Rarity: Legendary
Item Type: Prosthetic/Buffer
Set: 1/10 of All-Seer’s Regalia
Set Bonus: Requires 3 items to be equipped for the first bonus
Effects: +10 Intelligence & Wisdom, Max Level in Perception and Truth-Seer Skills (If the user does not know the skills, they are automatically bestowed), Hidden Classes are 50% easier to discover.
Quest Available: King of the gods
Long ago, the All-Seer ruled the Animal Kingdom as the King of gods. But, as with all things, corruption and greed took hold, and the King was overthrown. The All-Seer was a seeker of knowledge and prized it above all. So it was that he removed his own armor and dropped it into the world below.
Only those that are worthy can claim the whole set as their own. The items cannot be stolen, only passed on willingly by their bearer. Now, after millennia of searching, you have discovered the first piece of the King’s Regalia. Will you take it upon yourself to restore his former glory?
Objective: Collect and equip all 10 pieces of the All-Seer’s Regalia (1/10 Collected)
Failure: Die
Difficulty: Monstrous
Rewards: 1,000,000 XP, 500,000 Gold, Gatestone to the Rainbow Bridge
Will you accept?
Yes/No
Arthur could hardly believe what he was seeing. An item this rare didn’t just fall into one’s lap, let alone a quest of this difficulty. Monstrous level quests were above even S+ and were reserved for special events. Though, for an armor set like this, it was no wonder why. The rewards for completion were staggering as well, showing that the Monstrous difficulty wasn’t exaggerated.
And those rewards were on top of the already Legendary set he’d be acquiring in the process. If the eye was anything to judge by, the rest of the set would be truly amazing. He didn’t know what the Gatestone was, but he could guess it was an opportunity to meet one of this world’s gods. If anyone could tell him what was going on or how to get out, it would have to be one of them.
Thus far, he hadn’t heard any mention of gods. The old AKO had had gods, though they didn’t take an active role in the game. They were merely there to serve as figureheads for religious organizations, cults, and various other parts of the game. But here, he hadn’t yet heard any mention of them.
He immediately accepted the quest, and the message window vanished, leaving him to stare at the eye once again. He knew that he would be equipping it. The bonuses were definitely worth it. He didn’t know if it would restore the sight in his right eye, but at least he wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything to equip it. Had he still had both of his eyes, he might have hesitated. Now, though, he practically slammed the eye into the empty socket.
A searing pain bloomed from the right side of his face as the eye began heating up, growing hotter and hotter by the second. Arthur tried to hold back his screams, remembering well that he was technically still in enemy territory, but after the eye began feeling like it was going to burn a hole in his head, he couldn’t hold his screams in.
He writhed back and forth on the bed, screaming in agony as the sphere of metal burned endlessly. He could feel something extending from the eye, worming into his skull, but the pain from his eye socket was so horrific that it completely overshadowed the uncomfortable feeling. The pain went on for what felt like hours, but by the time it faded, he somehow knew that it had been exactly nine minutes.
He didn’t know how he knew. He just did. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling and panting hard, his entire body drenched in sweat and the right side of his face tingling as the eye swiveled around in all directions.
When it finally settled, he found that he was able to move, though he didn’t think he had the strength to do so. He blinked a few times, noting that his right eye felt a bit strange. His vision hadn’t returned in the sense that he could ‘see’ as he did with his left. Rather, his vision was overlaid with a corona of color.
Everything was made of colors, some solid, others mixed, and others still looking faded and wispy. He could see straight through walls, seeing solid colors moving hundreds of feet in all directions. There was so much going on, that it threatened to overwhelm his mind, and he immediately closed his eye.
He’d been afraid that the eye would give him the ability to see straight through his eyelid, but thankfully, the mass of confusing color cut off as soon as he closed it. He let out a sigh of relief as the pounding headache that had begun immediately after opening the eye began to fade. He now understood why White would wear an eyepatch. The vision of the gods was clearly not meant for mortals.
Arthur wasn’t sure what the eye had been showing him, but he suspected that it had been trying to show him everything. It was something his mind just wasn’t capable of handling. At least, not yet.
He had a feeling that White had been able to use it, at least somewhat. Perhaps the other items in the Regalia would help mitigate the backlash, or perhaps he just needed to be a higher level for his mind to be able to handle it. Or perhaps there were more skills he’d need to be able to utilize the eye fully.
For now, though, he’d have to keep it closed and learn to fight without it. Though, now that he looked, it seemed that his left eye was more than enough to give him all the information he needed.
He waved his hand before his eye, and though he still couldn’t perceive depth with the eye alone, his senses told him exactly how far it was from him. In addition, it told him how much distance there was between him and all the objects in the room. His senses now even covered his blind spot.
Even though he couldn’t see out of his right eye, he could perfectly sense everything on that side. He assumed it had something to do with the maxed-out Perception skill and the new skill he’d acquired, due to the eye’s effect. Quickly pulling up his status, Arthur checked out the two skills.
Perception
You notice things that others do not. Aren’t you just a creeper?
Skill Type: Sensory
Skill Level: 100 (Max)
Effects: You notice everything within a 50-foot radius, seeing with all five senses as though with your eyes. No one can sneak up on you, as your sensory field will alert you instantly to any threat in your vicinity. It can, however, be overwhelmed if too many people attack you at once.
Mastery Bonus: All senses increased by +50%
Truth-Seer
You see the truth in all things. Guess you’re a super creep now…
Skill Type: Sensory
Skill Level: 100 (Max)
Effects: You can see through all disguises, lies, and deceptions. No items or living creatures can hide their properties from your all-seeing eye.
Mastery Bonus: -5% Mental backlash from using the Eye of the All-Seer
Arthur closed his status, his mind racing with all the new information. It seemed that there was a skill to help mitigate the damage the eye would do to his mind. The two maxed-out skills were also insanely powerful. No one could sneak up on him, and he could sense everything within fifty feet of himself. He could instantly tell when someone was lying and see the properties of any item. And on top of that, the debuffs for losing his sight had vanished, likely mitigated by the new skill.
He would also be able to fight without having to worry about attacks from his blind side. While he still thought he’d prefer both of his eyes, this was the next best thing. Rising slowly from the bed, Arthur flexed his knees. It would probably be another hour or two before Talia and Hopps returned.
> He’d have plenty of time to test out his body to see how he handled combat. Despite his recent hardships, Arthur felt a grim smile spread across his lips. He might have been weak before, but with these skills, he would make the Baron pay for what he’d done. He would still need to boost himself a few levels before he was confident enough to take him on. But once he did, he was confident he’d be able to kill him.
All he needed was a little time. And right now, time was all he had.
38
Talia and Hopps returned from their scouting mission two hours later, to find Arthur – now fully clothed – sitting in a meditative position on his bed. He’d fashioned himself an eyepatch, and it rested across his right eye. There was still a visible red line peeking from both sides of the piece of cloth, showing where the sickle had damaged him, but aside from that, he looked perfectly healthy once again.
Arthurs's eyes snapped open as the door closed behind them, and Hopps shivered theatrically.
“Right on, mate. Very dramatic.”
Arthur simply rolled his eye and unfolded his legs. He’d felt the two of them approaching several seconds before they’d entered the room. It had been the strangest feeling, as though he could see them, but not see them at the same time. It would definitely take some getting used to.
“What did you guys find?” he asked, rising off the bed and stretching out his sore back.
Despite his outward appearance, his body was still sore. It seemed that it would take more than a full HP bar to signify how healthy he was.
“The palace is in turmoil, as we expected,” Talia said, taking a seat in one of the chairs and leaning her hammer against the wall. “The rioting in the city is only getting worse, and from what I hear, the guards are losing. They’ve been cut off from all communication with the outside, and any messengers attempting to leave the city are killed on sight.
“The palace is severely undermanned right now, perhaps two or three contingents’ tops guarding the Baron.”
“Do you know where he is?” Arthur asked.
“Yeah, mate. Little kitty’s holed up in a panic room,” Hopps said with a snicker. “Locked himself in there and refuses to come out until the situation is resolved.”
That was good news. It meant that there would likely be no guards in there with him, which meant an easier fight.
“How did you find him?”
Talia smirked, patting the handle of her hammer.
“I’m very good at getting people to answer my questions.”
“Any idea what level he is?” Arthur asked.
Talia shrugged, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Level 22, maybe 23?”
“I can find out, but we’ll need to get close, and by then, it won’t help us all that much,” Arthur said. “I’d say we all need to be around level 20 if we want a chance at beating him though. Ideally, we’d all have a Class, but I’m going to be waiting until level 21.”
“Why wait until 21?” Talia asked. “Don’t you think you’ll find anything good at 18?”
Arthur then explained the properties of the item, now hidden by his eyepatch, including the ability for an increased chance for a rare or hidden Class.
“The longer I wait, the better my chances will be,” he finished.
“That’s not fair! Why do you keep getting all the cool items? I want an eye that lets me see through walls!”
“You don’t need a special eye for that,” Talia said, giving the frog an exasperated look. “All you really need is to learn the Perception skill and raise it high enough.”
“Oh,” Hopps said, snapping his mouth shut.
“Now, back to the situation at hand,” she continued. “We all need to boost our levels. The quicker, the better. I think we can do that by killing off the remaining guards before taking on the Baron. It should give us a few levels each, but we’ll have to be careful. The guards here are between level 14 and 18, meaning we can only take a couple on at a time.”
Arthur nodded, reaching down to touch the Bag of Holding at his side. It contained 3 Health potions and 2 each of Stamina and Mana potions. He only had 2 gold and a few silvers, as well as his Poniard that he still couldn’t use, due to his Agility not being high enough. There was also the Cloak he’d gotten from killing Mitten, the first floor Boss of the only Dungeon they’d challenged so far.
He’d decided to forgo wearing the cloak in favor of going unarmored. It would help to keep him sharp during battle and not allow him to grow careless. When he went to fight the Baron, he would, of course, wear armor. But for regular guards, he wouldn’t bother. He’d need to fight unarmed, but that wasn’t a problem.
“Alright, I’m ready whenever you are,” he said, hopping off the bed and leaving his bag there.
“Wait. You wanna go right now?” Talia asked, looking at him tiredly.
“There’s no time to waste,” Arthur replied, tying the patch over his eye a bit tighter. “Our time is limited. We need to use every second we have.”
Talia let out a long sigh but rose to her feet.
“Fine. But you better take me somewhere nice to eat when this is all over. Nothing cheap either, frog boy. I want a good and expensive meal.”
Both he and Hopps stared at her for a long few moments before she seemed to realize what she’d said.
“Not like that!” she exclaimed, going pink once again. “I haven’t eaten a decent meal in weeks, so you owe me some good food. That’s all!”
“Ooh, Tally, do you have a…?” Hopps cut off mid-sentence as Talia’s hammer soared through the air, slamming into the wall mere inches from his head, sending chips of stone flying in all directions.
“What was that you were saying?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Um, nothing!” Hopps squeaked.
“That’s what I thought,” she replied, holding out her hand.
Arthur’s eyes widened as the hammer quivered, then soared through the air, landing back in her outstretched hand.
“When did you learn to do that!?” he asked, more than a little impressed.
“It’s a bonus I gained with my new Class,” Talia said as she slung the oversized weapon over her shoulder.
“You never did tell me what your Class is,” Arthur said. Then he held up a hand before she could say anything. “Hold on. I wanna try something.”
Talia gave him an odd look but did as he asked. Concentrating on her, Arthur willed her status to show up. He was surprised at how little effort it took to bring it up, and he got to see her entire status.
Name: Talia
Race: Humanoid - Crusher Ant
Class: Hammerer
Level: 18
XP: 9,200/18,000
AP: 0
Survivability
HP: 130/130
MP: 40/40
STA: 180/180
Armor Rating: 22
Attributes
Strength - 109
Constitution - 13
Endurance - 18
Agility - 15
Intelligence - 4
Wisdom - 4
Charisma - 18
Luck - 11
Arthur gaped at her absolutely massive Strength attribute. It was more than twice his highest. No wonder she had no issue dishing out so much damage. And though some of her other attributes were low, she still had others that weren’t too bad. Her Charisma, for one, surprised him, though, with her looks, it shouldn’t have. He had to work on raising his own, so his dealings with other people would go more smoothly.
She also had a whole bunch of skills and abilities that he didn’t have the time to look over.
“You done staring yet?”
Arthur was snapped from his perusing to see Talia glaring at him. It was only then that he realized exactly where he’d been staring.
“Sorry, I was trying out a new skill,” Arthur replied with an embarrassed smile. “You mind explaining what your Class and new bonus can do?”
“Yeah, whatever. My Class increases proficiency with hammers and gives me a boost to Strength with each level. My new bonus allows me some control over my weapon, allowing me to throw and retrieve it at will.”
“What’s the distance limit on that?” he asked, intrigued.
“Right now, it’s only fifteen feet. But it’ll improve as I work my way through the Tiers.”
Arthur nodded, stretching his arms over his head and wincing as his sore muscles protested.
“Let’s get going then. It should be easy to avoid too many guards with my Perception. The goal is for all of us to hit level 20 as soon as possible. But the maximum amount of time we should wait before attacking the Baron is 48 hours.”
“Why attack so soon?” Talia asked as he headed to the door.
“Because the attack isn’t likely to go much longer than that. Either the attackers will break through into the main city, or the guards will subdue them. Either way, it’ll be when his guard is down the most. If he’s hiding in a bunker, he won’t be getting much sleep. In 48 hours, he’ll be so tired he won’t be able to see straight. It’ll be our best chance to take him down.”
“Wow, mate, you’ve really thought this thing through,” Hopps said as the door swung open.
“I’ve had nothing but time,” he replied with a bitter smile. “Now I can finally do something. So, let’s stop wasting time and get going.”
Both Hopps and Talia nodded, and the three of them headed down the corridor, deeper into the palace.
***
Arthur threw up an arm without even having to look, using his Parry to knock the Felines blow off course. He’d been using the ability over the last couple of days, deciding to finally utilize the ability so it didn’t go to waste. It had been hard at first, but now it felt as natural as using his other skills or abilities.