World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins
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Rose accepted the license then hesitated. “I have an ‘Enchanting’ quest I could use some help with,” Rose started, pulling out the enchanted scroll. “This scroll has been enchanted to make it unreadable without the password. I have been tasked with breaking the enchantment. I have learned the subskill ‘Break Enchantment’ but I don’t think my profession level is high enough to break it on my own.”
“Let me have a look at it,” said Giggle-Bella, holding out an open hand.
Rose hesitated for a second, looking at me for reassurance.
“I trust your judgment,” I said.
Rose took a breath and placed the scroll in Giggle-Bella’s open hand.
Giggle-Bella studied the scroll, with the loupe covering one eye. After a few minutes the gnome whistled, whether it was out of appreciation or awe I wasn’t sure. “This is a mess. Whoever enchanted this should hang.”
“Can you break it?” Rose asked, hopeful.
“Without destroying it, not alone,” said Giggle-Bella. “Lucky for us, there is an entire building full of adventurer enchanters just begging for a quest and this is one quest they will all love to take part in.”
Rose seemed to be reading something only she could see. “Of course, I’ll help, I brought the scroll to you, didn’t I?”
“I have to offer it to you just like I offered it to every enchanter in the building,” explained Giggle-Bella.
Clearly, I was missing something, but I assumed it meant Rose had gotten a quest, and if my guess was right, it was one heck of a quest.
“I am sorry, sir, but we will have to delay your meeting with me until after we get this quest resolved.”
“It’s fine . . . as long as I can watch,” I said, grinning a little as Giggle-Bella rolled her eyes at me.
“Yes, that is fine, come along,” Giggle-Bella said, leading us out of her office.
Chapter 19
Rose and I followed behind Giggle-Bella, we were barely out of the office and into the hall when a procession of players, led by Stephanie came rushing down the hall.
“Is it true?” Stephanie called, loudly from down the hall, still rushing toward us. “Is there really a grand enchantment quest?”
“It is true,” said Giggle-Bella.
“Where did it come from? I’ve never heard of one before,” said Stephanie, finally standing in front of Giggle-Bella.
“This young enchanter brought it to me,” said Giggle-Bella, motioning to Rose.
“What?” one of the other players yelled, an elf named
Rose for possibly the first time ever, looked really uncomfortable with all the attention on her.
I don’t know why I did it, but I stepped up. “We found a quest chain in the city that led to it.”
“And who the hell are you?” Baxwell asked.
“Her friend,” I replied as if it wasn’t obvious.
My answer was apparently unsatisfactory as the mob began yelling out questions all at once.
“That is enough from all of you,” snapped Giggle-Bella, silencing the group of adventurers. “You will behave, or the quest will be cancelled, and I will take it to one of the other Universities in the World Tree. Am I clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” chorused through the adventurers.
“Now, shall we go upstairs?” Giggle-Bella asked, getting an excited whisper spreading through the crowd and like the parting of the Red Sea, the adventurers parted to either side of the hall allowing Giggle-Bella to pass along with Rose and I right behind her with Stephanie taking up position between us.
“What’s the big deal about going upstairs?” I asked quietly to Stephanie.
“It’s sealed off, only to be used for special events, or so the rumor goes. We’ve all asked the staff about it a few times, but no one has ever gotten a straight answer. The best I ever got was from Master Fitzle and she told me it was beyond my ability. You would think ‘Enchanting Rank VIII’ would be sufficient for most things,” explained Stephanie, also complaining a little too. “Anyway, this is super exciting. I’m totally going to broadcast this when we’re done.”
Part of me was instantly worried. That was a lot of publicity and events like this tended to go viral very quickly. I knew we would need to wrap up whatever resulted from this event very quickly or risk having someone ruin our quest chain.
Giggle-Bella stopped before a massive stone door that reminded me strongly of the door to the Hidden Norse Temple in Hurlig Ridge, but the symbols were very different. I didn’t recognize the language at all. It didn’t seem to matter though, as soon as Giggle-Bella placed her hand on the door the symbols lit up and the door slid forward toward us then to the left, revealing a stone stairway that looked very out of place with the other wood and brick accents in the building.
Giggle-Bella stepped forward then turned around to address the crowd of enchanters. “Now, you have all received the quest for the ‘Grand Enchantment: Breaking the Cult’. This is an enchantment breaking event, it will be difficult. The enchantment has many safety precautions, including at least one boss class monster. You will not only need to be able to break through a complex enchantment, but it is likely you will also need to fight several figments. Now, before you think you will just be able to put the highest level among you into the fight to make it easy, you can forget about it. In this kind of fight, level doesn’t matter, everything gets automatically balanced. In other words, if you are level 100, the boss will be around level 100 for you, and if the person next to you is level 1 then the boss will be around level 1 for the person next to you. Do you understand?”
“It’s scaling,” said Stephanie, putting in gamer terms for the players.
“Scaling, yes, I suppose that would be a good term for it,” commented Giggle-Bella. “Now, before we begin, who among you does not know ‘Break Enchantment’?”
Only a few hands went up.
“You will all be fighting,” ordered Giggle-Bella. “Are any among you a protector?”
Only Rose’s hand went up this time.
“Very well, Miss Thorns is in charge of the fight,” said Giggle-Bella.
“What?” Baxwell yelled loudly protesting, he was one of the few that didn’t know ‘Break Enchantment’. “But she’s only level 7, how is that fair?”
“Dude, she’s the only tank, if she doesn’t know what she’s doing then we’re all dead anyway,” said Jardar, the player we saw earlier.
Baxwell looked like he wanted to protest further but held his tongue.
“Olaf is going to be so mad he didn’t come with us,” whispered Rose to me, laughing a little.
“Olaf is going to cry this time,” I joked. For as often as the man said he was never going to let me go off on my own again without him, he sure did seem to leave me to my own devices on a regular basis.
“He just might,” said Rose with a laugh. Sighing she finally address the mob. “Fighters, let’s group up.”
“Enchanters, upstairs we go,” said Giggle-Bella, leading the majority of the players, maybe 30 of them, up the stairs.
“Grave Gashews,” said the first player to step up, a level 14 dark elf with two daggers. “Rogue and front-line fighter. Try to keep agro.”
I invited him to our group.
“Baxwell Marnes,” said the next guy, a robe wearing human. “Lightning Mage, I won’t hold back so if you can’t hack it, that’s on you.”
“Tough crowd,” I whispered to Rose as I added him to the group.
“Winky McTinkles,” said a short gnome, level 32. “Gunslinger, I’ll do my best to keep him debuffed through the fight. Do you have a secondary agro dump?” he asked.
“Probably Jack here,” said Rose, jabbing a thumb towards me.
“Roger that,” said Winky, winking at us both.
“Tilly Boulderfist,” introduced a dwarven girl in white robes, only level 5, so probably a fresh arrival to the city. “Priestess, I on
ly have a couple heals but if it scales the fight, I should be fine.”
“Should be alright, if anything, Jack can help out. Just be sure to call out when you get low on mana,” instructed Rose.
The last one was the Troll we saw exiting Miss Fitzle’s office earlier,
“It’s fine,” said Rose.
With the pick-up group put together, we were ready to head upstairs and take our positions, wherever that might be.
“Let’s get up there, as soon as Giggle-Bella says she’s ready we can get buffs out. I don’t know how long this event will last but it is best we have buffs up for as long as possible. Any questions?” Rose asked.
Baxwell still looked sour but nodded his agreement.
“Anyone other than Grave that fights in melee?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable with that name.
“Melee or physical dps?” asked Winky.
“You’re right, physical damage dealers,” I corrected.
No one stepped up which was fine, I still wasn’t looking forward to casting some of my buffs as they tended to eat up a lot of mana.
“Okay, so it’s just the four of us including Rose,” I said.
“Why does it matter?” Baxwell asked.
“I have buffs specific to weapons, if you don’t use a weapon to fight they won’t do you much good,” I explained.
“What are you supposed to be anyway? You never said what classes you two were,” said Baxwell, clearly trying to stir up trouble.
“I’m a Vampiric Knight,” said Rose.
Baxwell stumbled back a bit. “You mean that’s real? I thought it was just a troll making stuff up on the forums.”
“Oh, it’s real, and he was a troll,” said Rose, flashing him a fanged grin, her eyes glowing for a second.
“Damn, maybe you won’t be completely useless . . . assuming you can hold agro,” said Baxwell.
“What about pretty boy?” Tilly asked, eyeing me up and down.
“Jack, Jack is special, I would leave it at that,” said Rose, her arm taking mine once again.
“Awe, look how protective she is of her boy toy,” laughed Tilly, teasing and I at the same time. Admittedly, I was beginning to feel awfully objectified with how often I had been called Rose’s ‘boy toy’ lately.
“Anyway, we should probably get up there,” said Silly. “It looks like all the enchanters are up the stairs now.”
Rose led the way up. The room reminded me of Stonehenge if Stonehenge were in an attic and had glowing runes covering it as well as a steepled wood slat roof above it. Spaced out all around it were players, just glancing at the names and level it seemed the lower level players were furthest out and the higher level progressively closer to the center.
“Miss Thorns, you and your fighters in the center, anything that comes out of this will come from there,” said Giggle-Bella directing us to the center.
“What if we fail?” one of the enchanters asked.
“Then we all die,” said Giggle-Bell, smiling way too sweetly.
“Right, so let’s not die,” said Stephanie.
“And there are no second chances here. If we fail, the scroll will be destroyed, and the quest gone forever. And while you all might resurrect, I will not. So yeah, let us not die today, what do you all think?” Giggle-Bella asked.
“No pressure,” grumbled Rose, next to me.
“We’re about ready to start,” said Giggle-Bella, addressing Rose again. “Best to start your final preparations now.”
“You heard her, buff up,” called Rose.
“First up, physical dps,” I called Winky and Grave over.
“Alright, what have you got?” Grave asked.
“Daggers out please,” I requested. I started with ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ giving the physical damage dealer a bit of a boost.
Lesser Holy Imbuement
Level: 31
Experience: 98.14%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 50
Spell Effect (Active): Imbued Weapon now deals holy damage causing an additional 15-17 damage per hit.
Spell Effect (Active): Imbued Shield now deals holy damage causing 16-18 damage per block.
“Not bad,” said Grave.
Winky stepped up next with his pistols, “Thank you kindly.”
“Get me last, I need to make sure they last,” said Rose.
“Sure,” I replied, she had a point and I would do the same for my spear. Next, I started casting ‘Lesser Holy Barrier’, spreading it quickly to each member of the fighter group and then to the enchanters closest to the center as a precaution.
Lesser Holy Barrier
Level: 39
Experience: 55.51%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 97
Spell Effect (Active): Create a thin barrier of Holy energy around a target that absorbs 39-points of incoming damage.
I followed that up with ‘Lesser Combat Blessing’, once again getting the enchanters in the inner ring, if only to give them a boost to their health pool.
Lesser Combat Blessing
Level: 30
Experience: 97.41%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 50
Spell Effect (Active): Increase Stamina +10, Increase Strength +9, Increase Dexterity +9, increase Endurance +9.
And finally, I spread around ‘Lesser Mental Fortification’, which with so many casters would be very beneficial.
Lesser Mental Fortification
Level: 30
Experience: 13.21%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 50
Spell Effect (Active): Increase Intellect +9, Increase Wisdom +9, Increase Resistance to Fear 7%, Increases Resistance to Mind Control 7%.
Then I gave myself, ‘Edda of Light and Dark’ as it was the most expensive buff I had.
Edda of Light and Dark
Level: 6
Experience: 5.25%
Spell Duration: 10 minutes
Spell Cast Speed: Instant
Spell Mana Cost: 350
Spell Effect (Active): Your next attack will slow your target attack speed 1.3% and increase your attack speed 1.3%. (Stackable x10) (Personal use only).
With the buffs all out except for ‘Lesser Holy Imbuement’ on Rose and myself, I sat to drink and replenish my mana.
Grave cussed loudly and in shock as he stared at me. “That is so OP.”
“What?” Baxwell asked, exclaiming his disbelief yet again and sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.
“This buff, ‘Edda of Light and Dark’, it increases his attack speed 1.3% per hit stacking up to ten times. I want this spell, holy crap. Hey, where did you get this?” asked Graves.
“I found it,” I replied.
“Damn, I would pay through the nose for this spell. If you find another one of them. I’ll pay, 10k Gold,” Grave offered.
I think every eye in the room was suddenly drawn to the rogue while I was paralyzed. He just offered me about 1-million dollars for a single spell.
“That goes for anyone, anyone finds the spell ‘Edda of Light and Dark’ and brings it to me, I’ll pay them 10,000-Gold,” Grave offered again.
“I’ll pay 15k,” shouted Winky, upping the bidding.
“20k,” said Grave, countering.
All I heard was the cha-ching-cha-ching of money in my head.
“Jack,” Rose hissed to me. “You sshould sseriously consider taking that offer. Hell, you sshould take both offerss and make them both a sscroll.”
“I don’t know, do you really want t
hat sspell getting sspread around? You know jusst how powerful it iss. What if the wrong ssort getss their handss on it?” I hissed back to her.
“What kind of J.K. nonsense is that?” Stephanie asked, staring at us with her mouth hanging slight open.
“The World Tree has many skills,” said Giggle-Bella with sage wisdom that was broken a moment later by her giggling. “Focus people, we are about to start. Finish your preparations.”
“Holy . . . dude, you forgot to mention the debuff it leaves on your targets,” shouted Winky, after looking closer at my buffs. “My offer just doubled, 30k if anyone comes across the spell.”
Rich people must live such boring lives if throwing around 3-million dollars on a game is such a little thing.
“Sseriously, Jack, you have to conssider thiss,” hissed Rose.
Believe me, I was considering it. “I’ll think about it, I’ll decide after the fight. Let’ss get through that firsst.”
“Alright,” said Rose. “Alright, buff my shields,” said Rose, equipping her dual shields, each half of the tower kite shield hammering into the stone floor.
“What is with these two noobs,” growled Baxwell loudly. “Seriously, what the hell? First a Grand Enchanting Quest, then a vampire, then a freaking ridiculous buff spell and now dual shields . . . what the hax man?”
Rose looked at me for help, but I could only shrug, she could handle the ponce.
“Dude, you may not have completely figured this out yet, but if you talk to the citizens, they tell you stuff. Stuff, that often leads to quests and quest chains, quests like this one,” explained Rose. It was much harsher than I would normally be but that was just Rose. She generally wasn’t one for mincing words.
Baxwell turned a little red, I wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment.
“One last bit of advice, find a lore hound. If you want the big quests, they are who you need,” Rose added.