Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  “I have an idea,” piped up Kira, who looked like she was trying not to grin. “How about we take a bunch of those Freezing Bombs and hit all the gate guards with them? They don’t damage the person, but the guards wouldn’t be able to do anything. We could then slip someone in who could spread the word that the elves are attacking and some of the locals have chased them back to the forest. Hopefully, we can get them to take the bait and come and attack us again. With enough time to prepare, Mikael and my group can get plenty of traps down that will take people out of the fight, without killing them.”

  “I’m happy to volunteer to go into Ratters Town,” Allion declared. “I’ve been seen in there several times since Andrew declared war on us. Always with my hat on, of course,” he pulled his hat out of his inventory and put it on with a flourish. “What I mean is that I don’t think anyone would suspect it was a trap if I was the one telling them.”

  “That sounds like it might work as a distraction,” I said. “How long would you need to prepare all the traps, though?”

  “Probably the rest of the day,” Mikael’s shoulders slumped.

  “In that case, I have some ideas for something I can work on that might help you pull it off,” Arik stated, refusing to elaborate any further.

  “Well, we still need to work out how to get out of their guildhall once we’ve gotten inside. Plus, we still need at least four XP Release potions, so I think this rescue just got postponed until first thing tomorrow morning,” I declared. “We’ll need to go straight to Goran Thedgate after we’ve gotten them out, though. I just hope I’ve set enough time aside for that.”

  At least Resurrect would be off cooldown, I thought.

  55

  Just Us

  After Kira secured Baynor back in the hunter’s hut, she, Mikael and her group of hunters all left with Allion to go and set up traps around the edge of El Silvam.

  Arik took Kaylin with him to introduce her to Suri, while Aliz and I headed back toward the Alchemy hut.

  “So, how far have you gotten on the XP Release potion?” I asked.

  “I’ve got the ingredients ready and that’s it,” Aliz replied. “There’s a bit of a problem I didn’t want to share in front of the others.”

  This didn’t sound good.

  “To make any of the guild related potions, you have to infuse your mana with some stored Guild XP. There’s a description of how to do it in the journal, but unless you have access to a guild, you can’t make these,” Aliz said. “I’m sorry, and I know you want to help these people, but we’re not going to be able to help them leave the Dragon Hunters. You’re going to have to settle for rescuing them and having them hide out here for a while.”

  It was looking more and more like I needed to start a guild. Something I hadn’t really considered until the King had suggested it. The big question was, could I find four others who’d want to join? For that matter, I also needed another four florins and a good name.

  “You weren’t here when the King offered,” I said, “But he suggested I start a guild and put the entry gate here in El Sanctum.”

  Aliz’s eyebrows shot up.

  “I need five starting members, is there any chance you’d be interested in joining? I need to find an extra four florins somehow, as well,” I looked down at the floor as my heart beat out of my chest.

  “Of course I’ll join,” she declared. “But what’s all this about you needing four more florins? How many florins do you need in total to create the guild?”

  “Twenty,” I replied shyly. “I have sixteen.”

  “Nonsense. The five members each need to contribute four florins. I should imagine your five starting members will most likely end up being the basis of your guild leadership. If they can’t come up with four florins, they can join later as a general guild member.”

  My mouth formed a little ‘O’.

  “So, who else do we ask?” she said. “Obviously, as the leader, it’ll be down to you, but I can think of a few people that would be good to have.”

  “I know I want to ask Mikael because he’s been helping me ever since I got here,” I said, feeling hopeful that this might actually come together.

  “Good, because he was one of the ones I was going to suggest,” said Aliz. “I think you should ask Arik and Kira too. There aren’t many people who know as much about the world as Arik does, and Kira is one of the best elven hunters around and used to commanding large forces. Of course, there’s also Suri, I know she’d want to be a part of this. Same with Damir, but I don’t know if the King would let him join. You can’t ask Allion, though.”

  “Why not?” I asked. I had no idea why people kept having an issue with Allion, he seemed nice enough to me, if a little misguided at times.

  “Because he’s still in the Dragon Hunters, of course, and you can’t be a member of more than one guild at a time,” she looked at me like she couldn’t believe I’d already forgotten that problem.

  “Oh, good point. Well, let me message Mikael and Kira before they get too far away,” I said, pulling up my messaging system and trying to hide my red face.

  I sent a quick private message to each of them, asking if they’d be interested and if they could please keep it quiet for now. I also told them I’d need four florins from them and that I’d like them to be part of the initial leadership if they wanted. I also told Kira I was going to ask Arik as well, in case that affected her answer.

  Within a matter of seconds, I got a message back from Mikael saying that he was definitely in and would have been offended if I hadn’t asked. A minute later, Kira replied. She wanted to join, but only if Arik agreed to it as well, because she couldn’t face being separated from her twin brother.

  “Mikael is in,” I informed Aliz. “Kira is interested, but only if Arik joins too, so I need to go and find him.”

  “You don’t have to look too far,” Arik jokingly stated, walking into the hut. “What did you need me for?”

  I told him about the guild and that Kira was interested if he was. A huge grin split his face.

  “I’m definitely in,” he declared and promptly sent a quick message to his sister.

  A second later, I got a confirmation from Kira that she was also in. I had my five. It had been a lot easier than I’d thought it would. I figured I could always ask Suri and Damir once I had a bit more time. I seriously doubted there was a limit to the number of people we could have in the guild leadership.

  “How do I actually start a guild?” I asked as my insecurities started welling up again.

  “You need to go to the King since you’ll be putting the entry gate on his lands,” Arik replied. “He’s the one you give the twenty florins to.”

  We quickly traipsed off in search of King Faelyn.

  “I need a good name,” I said. “I want one that means something, too. A name that shows we stand for something.”

  “Well, you could look at the runes and their meanings,” Arik replied. “What do we stand for, though?”

  That was a good question. All my life, I’d been longing for freedom and the ability to stand up to the nobles who treated aberths as if they’d crawled out from under a rock. And now that I was in the game, Andrew was doing the same thing.

  “I think it’s time someone stood up for the underdogs,” I said. “You know, the locals like you guys, the aberths like me and the travelers who don’t automatically think the entire world is theirs to push around however they want. Someone needs to stop people like Andrew from simply having their way, no matter who gets hurt.”

  They both nodded.

  “I think travelers who arrive here shouldn’t be told they can’t become magic users or crafters. If they want to solve the riddle and advance, they should be free to do so as well. I’m so sick of people telling me what I’m allowed and not allowed to do. Why can’t everyone just fulfill the role they’re drawn to? I love being able to do magic, but I wouldn’t force it on everyone. People like Andrew only see their own skills as bein
g worth something. They simply see rangers as weak warriors, instead of letting them play to their strengths. I’m not going to stop anyone joining Andrew if that’s what they want to do, but I think people should get a choice and know what they’re signing up for.” I took a deep breath. “I think it’s down to us to give them that.”

  They were both silent. I guess they didn’t feel the same way. Maybe I was too biased from having grown up as little more than a slave whose life depended on the whims of a spoiled noble.

  “What about the Justice League?” Arik interrupted my morbid thoughts.

  “Or the Merry Men?” chimed in Aliz. “I remember a childhood story about Corbin Wood and his merry men protecting several villages from some evil overlord. I know it’s just a story, but I always wanted to be like that. Helping people that were getting pushed around and actually making a difference.” She paused and looked down. “I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that’s what my mother was like, deep down.”

  “So, something about justice and being a group of underdogs trying to make a difference?” I asked with a hopeful smile.

  “Yes,” they both said as we arrived at the throne room and council chambers to find King Faelyn seated and talking to Damir.

  “You’re back already?” King Faelyn asked with a look of surprise on his face.

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m here to take you up on your offer to start a guild with an entry gate in El Sanctum. It turns out we can’t craft the potions we need until we have a guild.”

  “Ah. Well in that case, I think you owe me twenty florins.”

  I reached into my inventory to get my sixteen florins out, hoping that either Aliz or Arik would supply the rest, but they beat me to it, each handing over their four florins. I pulled out the remaining twelve to hand over.

  “Since I know you’ve reached level 10 already, all you need are five members, ten Reputation Points and a name. Once I create the entry gate, you’ll have a guild. I’m assuming you have ten Reputation Points, correct?” The King asked.

  “Yes. Well, I actually have twenty,” I replied.

  “In that case, who are your five starting members?” King Faelyn asked.

  “Myself, Arik and Aliz. Mikael and Kira have also agreed to be founding members, however, they are currently out in the forest. I hope that’s okay,” I said, a little worried they would have to be present to start the guild.

  “Unfortunately, they have to be present to make the contract,” the King replied.

  “If it works for you,” Damir interjected, “I would be honored to join and become one of your founders.”

  The King raised an eyebrow.

  “That is, if you’ll allow it, Faelyn,” Damir added quickly.

  “Of course I will and I think you’ll make an excellent advisor to our young leader here,” smiled the King.

  “I can go and find Suri, if you’d like?” Aliz turned to me.

  “She would be another fine advisor,” King Faelyn stated approvingly.

  Since I’d wanted to ask Suri and Damir anyway, this seemed like a good compromise. I nodded and Aliz hurried off to find her aunt. Hopefully, Mikael and Kira wouldn’t be too upset, and I’d promote them both to leadership as soon as they got back. While we were waiting, Damir passed me his four florins with a smile.

  “This will be the first guild in history that has both humans and elves in it, if I’m not mistaken,” Arik said eagerly. “Rather than simply reading about history, I’ll get to be part of it for a change. It’s quite exciting.”

  “Well, it’s definitely the first one I’ve heard of that will have an entry gate in elven lands,” replied King Faelyn.

  “I’m going to have to take a lot of notes, which means more books,” Arik grinned.

  “Just don’t give away any elven secrets and put us in danger, all right?” King Faelyn let out a sigh.

  Between Arik’s desire to spread his knowledge as far and wide as possible, and the King’s desire to protect everything, I guessed the two of them probably had this conversation on a regular basis.

  A rather repentant looking Arik swallowed.

  “I will get that book of mine out of the Dragon Hunters’ library somehow,” Arik muttered.

  “I’m sure you will. Now, what have you come up with as a guild name?” the King asked, turning to me.

  Before I could answer, Suri and Aliz rushed in.

  “I would love to join you,” exclaimed Suri, passing me four florins. “It will give me something to look forward to each day, cooking for all of you and your new members. I hope you’ll let me teach others how to cook as well though, if they want.” She looked at me sternly.

  “Of course. That’s really the heart of the guild, not forcing limits onto people,” I replied. “If someone wants to craft, that’s great as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Good. It’s about time,” declared Suri.

  “As for the name… how does Just Us sound to everyone?” I asked. “I took Arik’s suggestion about looking at the meaning of runes, and if you look at each of the letters, you end up with: right action at the right time, healing, guidance, justice, resourcefulness and honor. I think that describes a bunch of underdogs out to make a difference by being themselves. What do you think?”

  The King stood up and his hands moved in a complicated gesture. A second later, a portal appeared at the far end of the room.

  You have created and become a leader of the guild: Just Us

  The entry gate gives you access to your guildhall. You require Guild XP to build buildings within your guildhall.

  See your guild menu for further leadership features.

  You have used 10 Reputation Points

  Smiling, I noticed a little gray upside down triangle in the top right corner of my vision, where the dragon claw emblem had used to be when I’d been in the Dragon Hunters. Within the triangle was a combination of two of the runes our name was made up of. It looked like a vertical line with a diamond across the center for the J, with a little up arrow for the T added to the top. The game had once again read my mind and come up with a guild emblem that perfectly fit my thoughts. I opened up the guild menu.

  As an initial one-time boost, each of your founding members may contribute their available XP to the guild.

  Contribute your available XP Yes / No?

  I looked around and could see the others all getting the same information. Quickly selecting yes, I watched as my green bar shrank back down to 0%. On the guild menu, I was notified that the guild now had 60,000 Guild XP available for use.

  “We need Guild XP to be able to create the guild potions,” I said. “We’ll have to create the potions so we can share our XP with the guild, but we also need the XP Release potion for the rescue.”

  Before I could ask, the Guild XP shot up to 450,000. I was longing to play around with the guild and see what it took to get started on building, but I needed to create these potions, or I’d stall the guild completely with no incoming XP.

  I quickly looked at the guild menu and worked out how to invite Mikael and Kira. As soon as they accepted, I changed their status from New Member to Guild Leadership. From the look of the available roles, I could give each role different permissions and access to things, including who was allowed to define the roles.

  Just in case things went badly over the next day, I adjusted the permissions for the guild leadership role to include everything I, as the leader, could do, except for being able to delete the guild. On second thought, I disabled the use of Guild XP by anyone else as well. I figured I’d better keep that functionality locked until we’d made these potions and had a way to increase our Guild XP.

  56

  Experimental Alchemy

  “I will have to expand Cara’s role as our ambassador once you’ve grown your new guild a bit further,” said King Faelyn. “I see trade agreements in our near future.”

  I guess we had to grow before we could trade, but that did make sense. Still, it was nice to know
he was open to trade agreements as soon as we were ready.

  “As the one most acquainted with the King’s exceedingly effective bargaining skills, I would like to offer my services as the guild ambassador for those trade agreements,” Damir countered with a twinkle in his eye.

  “First guild meeting tonight,” I said as I turned to leave. “Aliz and I will have the XP potions ready by then.”

  “I have an idea about something I read a while back,” said Arik. “I’m going to fetch my compendium and I’ll meet you both in the Alchemy hut. Don’t start on the potion to share XP with the guild until I get there, please. I think some information I uncovered could be useful.”

  He turned to leave, making me wonder how a non-Alchemist was going to improve a Master ranked potion, but I was willing to wait and find out.

  As we walked to the Alchemy hut, I pulled up my guild menu and started to investigate Guild XP. Mentally querying our available 450,000, I discovered that I’d need varying amounts of XP to build the different types of buildings that could exist in the guildhall. It could also be used to stock the arena with generated mobs for practice, although they wouldn’t provide the player XP, only allow them to advance various combat skills up to level 3. After that, the only other information I could find out was that once I’d leveled up the guildhall enough, there were other future uses for Guild XP. Apparently, with a level 1 guildhall, I wasn’t even entitled to know how far I had to level before the information would be revealed.

  Oh well, I thought, it’s not like it’s going to change anything at the moment. I had to get all the members contributing some of their XP to grow the guild first, then I needed to work out which building we wanted to start creating. After that, we needed to define the roles and know what we wanted to do with new members. Plus, before I could invite any new players, Aliz and I had to be able to create the Timer Freeze potion.