by D Wolfin
The guard walks around the corner to the rear of the building just as we manage to catch our breath. I slowly tilt my head and peek around the tree to see what he is doing. The guard has stopped and is standing in place while eyeing the surroundings, an action that the other patrols I observed never did.
The city guard’s helmet doesn’t cover his face and I can see his nose twitching.
‘He’s sniffing the air?’ I say in my mind with a stunned expression.
I suddenly realize: Koga City is home to the dog-kin beastmen. Dogs have an excellent sense of smell. Of course the guards have this kind of ability.
If the guard can sniff us out, then all our previous planning was useless. Sweat starts forming on my brow as the guard follows his nose and cautiously walks in our direction. I pull my head back behind the tree as he reaches the five meter mark. His footsteps continue to get louder and just as I am nearing despair, another guard in the distance loudly calls out about an attack.
The guard stops at just the other side of the tree... but rather than continuing to search for the source of the scent, he rushes off to aid the other guard.
I wonder what happened over there, but am not about to pass up this opportunity. Throwing aside my curiosity, I signal Verde and Fen and we rush to the rear door.
“How is it? Will five minutes be enough?” I nervously ask Verde as she inspects the lock.
“Not good! It’s a six pin lock. There will definitely be a trap or two as well. I would estimate it’s going to take me a good twenty minutes to open it without alerting the guards.”
“That won’t work. They will find us before we have a chance to get inside.”
This development dashes the tattered remains of my previous plan to unsalvageable pieces. I rapidly try to think of a solution – anything that will get us inside.
I happen to look back at the trees that we were hiding behind, and notice that most of them are taller than the museum. They are too far away to climb up and jump onto the building, but the perspective does give me an idea that I quickly latch onto.
“We will go through the roof! Partial Draconic Transformation!”
Wings sprout from my back and the transformation is finished in a blur of white. Without warning, I grab Fen and Verde and fly up toward the roof. The weight of the two surprised women overburdens my flight, and I only manage to get halfway up before sinking back to the ground.
“Damn! Fen, can you make footholds of ice?” I ask, hoping to instead reach the top with an incremental process.
Fen shakes her head softly, letting me know that it isn’t possible. I also voice the idea of an ice pillar half as tall as the building to use as a rest point, but apparently Fen’s ice manipulation is more constrained than I thought.
“To the trees, then! Fen, Verde, climb up as high as you can.”
Following my directions, the two girls quickly move to the nearest tree and ascend it. Fen’s agility is much higher than Verde’s so she shoots up it like an arrow. Verde, on the other hand, displays a rather sad performance as she scrambles up it.
I take to the air and fly up to the top of the tree where I wait for the two to arrive. Once everyone is in position, I grab the two and fly across to the roof. I can’t get enough lift to fly them up from the ground, but gliding across isn’t a problem.
We land on the roof of the museum just as the guards suppress the disturbance on the other side of the building and return to their patrol. If they were any quicker, or I slower, they would have no doubt seen my white form flit across the sky.
The top of the roof is a flat surface, with several large glass domes and skylights to brighten up the interior. The windows don’t open, unfortunately, so the only way in from here is to break one.
Picking the largest window that I could fit my wings through, I extend one of my clawed fingers and scratch the edges of the window. A shrill sound is produced from the scraping, so I work quickly before pushing the glass into the building.
The glass falls from the roof toward the floor of an empty atrium but I am quicker, jumping in after it and pumping my wings to catch the glass before it hits the ground and shatters.
Gently laying the glass on the ground, I fly back up to the roof where Fen and Verde are waiting. I won’t be able to fly back up with them, so I set up a rope for later before gliding back down with the two girls.
“We need to move quickly, I made some noise getting through the window,” I hurriedly whisper to the others before getting my bearings and choosing which direction we need to go in.
To all Players in the vicinity of Koga Heritage Museum:
Koga City Guards have been notified of a potential break in at Koga Heritage Museum. A large troop of guards is en route and will arrive shortly to suppress any burglars found.
A strange notification flashes in my vision, which I skim over before dismissing and moving faster. Verde starts to fall behind, panicking. She must have received the same message, which is apparent as she is appearing just as nervous as me.
I hear loud footsteps approaching from a different hall. It sounds like at least ten guards running toward us.
I reference my mental map of the building and quickly direct the other two to take a different route in order to evade the guards. We run down a few corridors and pass through several rooms. At the same time, the sound of more guards start approaching from different directions behind us.
The guards are capable of following us even if they can’t see us, another situation where they are tracking via scent. After passing into yet another stone corridor, I briefly stop and throw several ‘Minor Dire Flames’ at the entrance to block off the passage and prevent the guards from chasing.
We reach the room housing the stone tablet and find it to be empty of guards. I feel relieved and exhale the breath I have been holding. Now more relaxed, I walk up to the display with Verde and Fen.
Verde steps forward to inspect the glass case and find a keyhole, though she quickly turns around and gives me a quizzical gaze. I approach the glass case and instantly see the dilemma – there is no lock or other mechanism to open it. As she checks the back of the case for a hidden latch, the familiar echo of running footsteps reaches our room.
“There’s no other way, we don’t have time!”
I raise my clawed hand and make a fist, smashing it down on the glass display. I had expected the case to shatter, but surprisingly it is undamaged. The only result is a deafening reverberation shaking the room from the force of my blow hitting an invincible wall.
“Damn! It’s protected by the system,” I declare, frustrated after striking the case several more times. “There isn’t even a scratch!”
Before I can explore other options to get at the stone tablet, forty guards rush in from the three entrances to the room and instantly surround us. By the sound of it, there are even more still coming.
“Halt, burglars! You have breached the code of law and are under arrest. Men, seize them!”
If it were just a quarter of the guards here, Fen, Verde and I would have a strong chance of being able to contend with them. But this is currently far too many to fight. I glance at Fen and match her gaze, slowly shaking my head in a way to tell her not to resist them. Resisting will inevitably cause the guards to attack and kill all of us.
The guards swarm us and immediately restrain our characters, placing iron chains around our hands and feet to restrict our movement before dragging us away. We are marched away from the museum and toward the depths of the city. It is late at night, so there aren’t as many players as usual, but the ones still on the street look at us being dragged by the guards and begin to whisper among themselves.
Everyone can tell we have been arrested and they are trying to guess the cause. It is late at night, so the most popular speculation is that we are player killers who brazenly attacked someone within the confines of the Koga City. Surprisingly, not many players seem to think we were actually caught as thieves. Apparently, “Most thieve
s work alone, while player killers attack in numbers”, is the reasoning I hear one player tell another.
A few people trail behind the guards dragging us away, following until we are thrown into an iron-strapped building for lockup.
Inside the prison, Verde and I are put in separate small rooms. Fen, as a ‘Companion’, is placed in my room. There is only the one small bed, and I can’t set up any furniture items while stuck here: if I sleep in the game, we will have to cram together on the rough cot.
Our prison term is for a week, meaning there is little we can do if the other AI manages to acquire the stone tablet within the next seven days. It’s not even seven game days, but seven days in real life. I close my eyes and silently pray that the tablet doesn’t get taken in the next week.
“I’m sorry, Fen. You will have to stay in here for a while, even when I logout. I will come back from time to time to prepare some food for you. I have plenty of ingredients in my inventory.”
I smile at the girl sitting on the bed unfazed before I walk to the door and poke my head through the gaps in the bars. Doing so is a feature of prison, and can allow a player to see others who are doing the same. We players have to be careful, however, because if a guard catches you poking your head out, they will usually attack with whips or batons.
“Verde, are you still online?” I call out into the hallway.
Verde’s head pokes out from the cell next to mine, she looks around for a bit before seeing me and saying timidly, “Yeah. I’m sorry, we got so close yet we were caught in the end.”
“It’s not your fault, so there is no need to apologize. Let’s just hope that the tablet isn’t taken before we get there. Perhaps Sir Laurence and Gladox can protect the building until we get out.”
“Did someone call my name?” A blonde pretty boy pokes his head out of the cell on the opposite side of me.
“Sir Laurence!? What are you doing here?” I call out in shock.
“Lost? My Lady? I see, so you were caught in the end. I saw that the guards were about to change their patrol and possibly find you, so I rushed out and attacked them to keep their attention. What the hell are those city guards, rabbits? Their numbers just kept multiplying until they had become an army and subdued me.”
“I don’t know whether to thank you for helping, or throw something at you for getting caught as well. How long are you in for?”
“Two weeks.”
I curse aloud at him. The idiot prince is locked up for longer than us so even if we get out of the prison before the other AI steals the tablet, he won’t be able to help us get to it first.
An unfamiliar head pokes out from another cell in the prison hall. I don’t recognize him so I choose to ignore his stare, but he looks at Verde before cooing and shouting out in a roguish accent, “Ooh, there’s a pretty lady what got locked up with us!”
Every currently online prisoner in hearing range pokes their heads out to have a look. There are only nine other players in this hall, but it is enough to make Verde terribly uncomfortable and hide back in her cell. There aren’t usually violent prisoners and most players are usually docile when they even bother to login in jail, but on occasion there is the odd obnoxious one or someone who says too much.
Sir Laurence and I stare daggers at the group of heads lining the hall as the guard finally enters.
“Prisoners! Keep all parts of the body inside the cell at all times! Some of you have been warned before.”
The guard brandishes a whip and cracks it at the nearest head poking out of the cell. The player notices this and attempts to pull his head back in a rush, but only succeeds in hitting his head on the iron bars before getting hit with the whip and falling backwards. I hear loud curses of frustration coming from the cell.
Along with all the other imprisoned players, I pull my head back and retreat to the rear of my cell to avoid the whip. There are still a few shouts from troublemaking, roleplaying, and sarcastic players outside and the guard keeps cracking his whip at them, but I pay it little attention.
I send Gladox a private message, asking him to protect the museum for the next week and try to prevent the AI from taking the tablet. I then type out a word and hover over the send button, waiting for his inevitable reply… There it is. “REJECTED!” Of course he can’t have a day with Fen as payment. Laughing, he still agrees to the guard duty.
Sharing a few words with Fen, I soon log off.
***************************************************
Three days after my confinement, the longsword ‘Severing Breeze’ finishes selling in the auction; the final bid is a jaw dropping 8,700 dollars. This price puts this sword as the most expensive item in the game for both this week and this month.
I almost can’t believe the immense price that it sold for and check the buyer. The player who bought it is someone who has bought an item from me before: HonourTheLast. It’s hard to forget such a strange name. I feel sour that this person has so much money to throw away on a few game items, but I’m thankful that at least the money is being thrown at me.
The posts under the auction are also crazy, people still posting even after the bidding has finished.
GrainKnight | How can a single sword be worth so much money! Someone buy my level 220 longsword with a boost to attack speed and shielding. It is my main weapon, pay me $8.7k and I will personally deliver it and kowtow to you.
JustForFun | Did he pay for someone to buy it?
EmeraldDesire | Why would anyone pay someone to buy something from them? There would be no point in selling it.
GrainKnight | Anyone! Please, buy my sword! Only $8.7k!
FiendNine | He could be paying someone so he gets the top spots in the most expensive items.
EmeraldDesire | That would be stupid. I have seen videos of this Lost player, he is so dreamy! I heard rumours that he started his own guild, ‘The Wanderers’, look it up!
There are tens of thousands of comments attached to the auction, and the numbers keep on growing. I wonder if I have received more comments on a single auction than Mason has on his videos. The thought makes me chuckle, and my bliss at such a great sale turns that into a slightly maniacal laughter.
As I am expressing my unhinged joy, somebody knocks on the front door. The sound is very faint so I strain my ears to make sure that there is actually someone at my house. Whoever it is knocks again, and I rush to the door and open it.
The person, actually three people, are a surprise even greater than the final selling price of the ‘Severing Breeze’. It is Aunt Jude and my two sisters, Joelle and Shari.
“Girls, you’re here!” I excitably call out and open my arms, allowing them to rush in and hug me.
The girls use too much force and I roll back few meters into the hall, but that is of little concern. Due to the joy of reuniting with my sisters, I completely forget about my Aunt and don’t notice as she enters the house, walking past me. By the time I process that she is here too, I look up to find her not standing outside anymore.
I tell the girls to wait in the living room, then roll myself to the kitchen where I find my Aunt going through the cupboards.
“So filthy,” Jude vehemently says while pulling out cups from one of the overhead cabinets.
“Unfortunately, I have a little trouble reaching up there to clean.”
Jude glances down at my wheelchair, but doesn’t show any sympathy.
“I’ve brought the girls over so you can spend a day with them.” Jude sets another dirty cup aside before ignoring it and sitting down. “The girls are much more manageable when they are in contact with you, so perhaps this arrangement could continue.”
I understand that she is hinting at Joelle and Shari coming over once a week instead of calling, but it’s too sudden a change to be from the goodness of her heart.
“What do you want?” I ask blatantly.
Of course she wants something. That’s the type of person she is. There is no way she would do something to help me, or anyo
ne else, if there isn’t a potential benefit for her.
“Getting straight down to business? Have you grown up? Probably not. I want that girl you are dating at school, Verity Lee.”
“You want her? What is wrong with you? First you take my sisters, now you want to take my girlfriend?”
“Stop speaking nonsense. I took my nieces because this is the best thing for their future. A future you cannot give them, so don’t make me sound like some kidnapper. As for your girlfriend, I want her in the family, or at least her favor. She seems to like you, a pearl liking the swine, so I hope that you’re not as impotent as you are useless.”
I blush half out of embarrassment and half out of anger. I understand I can’t give the care to my sisters that they need, but my own aunt discussing my intimacy with others, and even telling me what to do is beyond my threshold.
“I’m not some tool for you to use. What goes on in my life is none of your concern.”
Aunt Jude frowns while her brow twitches in irritation, but her expression quickly returns to its usual demeanour. I was expecting a lecture on respecting your ‘senior family members’, as she calls it, but for her to drop the matter entirely is surprising.
“We will come back to it at a later time. For now, just stay close to that girl and don’t let someone else get her.”
My aunt stares at me intently, as if to discern something, before continuing her speech.
“As for Joelle and Shari, I will return later this evening to pick them up. Make sure you prepare a healthy dinner and not some greasy fast food. Being unhealthy is a habit, a sickness, and I will not have you poisoning them with such things.”
I feel a flame of anger burning in my stomach but keep my mouth shut as she turns around and walks out the door. Even if I argue with her and speak logic, her authoritative point of view will erupt and the conversation will go nowhere.
Just as Aunt Jude left the house, Joelle and Shari both poked their head through the kitchen door. They had clearly been eavesdropping and secretly hid out of sight till my conversation with our aunt was finished.