There was a brief moment of silence as Misha’s words resonated with the group, everyone turning to look at her.
“Misha,” Sonia was the first to speak, her eyes widening as she looked out from the screen. “That’s brilliant!”
“Damn I forgot about that!” Zach exclaimed while rapping his knuckles on his forehead. “I keep looking for an in-game solution to all of this.”
“We spend so much time playing, Zach, that it’s only natural to,” I replied, completely understanding his perspective. “I mean we’ve spent what? Maybe four days out of the last month in Reality?”
“If no one has any objections, I can put a list of guilds together that we could reach out to over the next few days or weeks then?” Heron asked while glancing between everyone.
“No problem with me,” Deckard answered as everyone chorused in behind him.
“Well, I guess that solves our long-term problems,” I said, feeling a bit better to have a plan in place. “What about dealing with Stanton and Lazarus in the short term?”
“First thing’s first, we should do what Sonia recommended and get him to send us his feed,” Misha replied without hesitation. “That way we can be sure about what Stanton is telling us, and just how much we can or should bring Lazarus into our planning. But in the meantime, I think we should just play along with whatever Stanton wants, but to also be sure to reinforce our independence.”
“And if this Lazarus guy refuses to share his feed?” Peter asked. “Or if the time delay prevents him from being able to?”
“Then we keep them both at arm’s length and do what’s best for Aldford,” Sonia suggested. “We still have a ton of work to do around the town, on top of training the recruits.”
“There’s also the quest I got from Stanton, wanting us to escort him to the Hub and Lake Ruins,” I added. “If we show him the ruins, we might be able to get a better insight into what his plans are, depending on how he reacts to them. We’re also stuck waiting a day for Lazarus and his group to log back in since they’re taking their rest break tonight.”
“If nothing else that’ll give us a day to get more stuff finished around Aldford,” Deckard said wearily while nodding his head at me. “Before we left, Marc, Léandre mentioned that he could use our help for the day tomorrow, he needs us completely dedicated to planning and crafting if we’re going to get everything finished before his rest cycle comes up in a few days.”
“That’s fine,” I acknowledged, silently happy that Léandre was so willing to take over so much of the building and development in Aldford. “I need to talk to him about getting the new forge and smelter in the Foundry finished too. He’s the highest level stonemason we have, and I honestly don’t have time to pick up a new tradeskill to catch up.”
“You really want to try melting that mystery metal from the Tower, don’t you?” Deckard commented, well aware of the troubles I had trying to smelt it.
“It’d be nice to,” I said with a sigh. “We need metal badly as it is. I’m just hoping that with all the trouble it’s giving me, it’ll be worth it.”
“Hopefully,” the big man agreed.
“So, with all that stuff about Stanton and guild recruitment out of the way, is there anything else that we need to talk about for the night?” George asked from the screen, sensing that the meeting was starting to digress. “If not, I may go see about getting myself something to eat before our show starts.”
“Oh, I forgot about that!” Sonia called out from the opposite screen, her expression becoming excited. “We’re on again tonight too!”
“I think that’s everything for now,” I replied back to the pair, everyone else near me exclaiming their excitement for the upcoming show. “We can regroup once we have a list of guilds to reach out to, or get in touch with Lazarus.”
“Sounds good to me! Have a good night, everyone!” George said giving us a goodbye wave before disconnecting.
“Same from me! Good night, everyone!” Sonia joined in as her eyes shifted to find me. “See you tomorrow, Marcus!”
“Good night, Sonia!” I called back with a smile just before she disconnected and vanished from the screen.
“We have thirty minutes before it starts!” Peter called out without missing a beat as he switched the channel to GameTV. “Get yourself sorted!”
Without another word, Zach, Deckard and Heron practically leaped off the couch as two of them rushed towards the washroom and another towards the kitchenette, leaving Peter, Misha and I staring at two men dressed in over-the-top, stylized armor, one being painted blue and the other red.
“Oh, I love this show!” Misha said as she leaned back on the couch and pulled her legs in close just as Peter turned up the volume.
“Good evening, gamers!” The man in red armor announced. “Welcome to our second ever Ascend Online segment of ‘Xtreme Deaths of the Week’! My name is Kenneth Spank N’Tank and this is my partner Vincent The Faceroller! We have an awesome show prepared for you tonight!”
“Right you are, Ken! I really don’t think our viewers are going to be disappointed tonight!” The blue armored man picked up seamlessly from his partner. “For those of you joining the show for the first time tonight, get ready to experience the heaviest, bloodiest, and most ‘Hydra-ist’ compilation of deaths we’ve managed to find this week!”
“That’s right!” Kenneth exclaimed as he drew a large foam sword from his side and held it in the air. “For our first hapless Adventurers of the week, we’re off to the dark marshes of the Demon Wood! I bet this group wishes they paid more attention to that name now!”
“Their loss is our gain, Ken,” Vincent quipped as the scene shifted into someone’s feed, revealing a pitch-black bog in the middle of the night.
“Hey, Misha, Marc, you want a beer?” Deckard’s voice called out from behind me a heartbeat before a loud roaring sound filled our small apartment.
“Yes, please!” Misha answered, not taking her eyes off the screen.
“Yeah!” I shouted back, trying to make myself heard as a flash of scales appeared on the screen, followed by a wave of fire and screaming. “On second thought, bring me two beers!”
“I think I’m going to need them after watching this!”
Chapter 15
Tuesday, March 12th, 2047 - 9:57 am
Aldford – The Arena
“Hah!” Alistair grunted as he swung his axe in a vicious swing towards me, giving me barely a second to react to the attack as Helix’s sword slammed into Razor’s edge and held it firm, trapping the blade on the opposite side of my body.
No chance to avoid this, I mentally noted as I reached up towards Alistair’s descending axe while simultaneously preparing myself for the pain that was about to come. My hand caught the haft of the Adventurer’s axe and pushed against it, slowing Alistair’s attack before it could build enough momentum to completely ruin my day.
With a flash of searing pain, I felt the cool edge of the axe graze my shoulder, carving through a layer of flesh and muscle as it bit through my exposed skin, instantly making me regret that I agreed to this bout without my armor.
“Damn it!” I couldn’t help but curse softly through clenched teeth, forcing myself to focus as I yanked sharply on Alistair’s axe while simultaneously lunging closer towards him.
Forced to step forward or lose his weapon, Alistair chose to doggedly hold onto his axe as my grip pulled him off balance and towards me, giving me the opportunity to twist away from Helix and sink my knee deep into his stomach. The blow left him gasping, allowing me to easily step around him and shove him into the tall Arakssi, who called the match, after seeing that his sparring partner was unable to continue.
“Hold!” Helix called as he shifted his weight to catch the now retching Alistair, who clutched at his stomach.
“Hold,” I echoed meeting Helix’s eyes, signaling that I understood that the match was over. “That was pretty good this time around, Alistair!”
“That was pretty g
ood!” Cerril’s voice shouted from the edge of the Arena, prompting me to look up and see that both he and Huxley had been watching the sparring match.
“Should have let go,” the blond-haired man wheezed in Helix’s grip, before descending into a coughing fit.
“Here,” Helix offered a moment before muttering under his breath and touching Alistair with a glowing hand. “Better?”
“Loads, thanks,” the Adventurer acknowledged as he straightened his stance and looked towards me. “I tried for too heavy a hit and should have let you have my axe after you caught it.”
“Maybe,” I replied while slowly flexing my wounded shoulder. “If you were a bit stronger, nothing I did would have mattered. Your timing on the attack was near perfect.”
“Lyrian sspeaks the truth,” Helix told Alistair, nodding empathetically. “Your ssskills have come a long way in a short amount of time, plus, unlike many, you have no fear of being hurt. It is often the mossst difficult thing we need to teach recruits.”
“Pain is an excellent teacher,” Alistair stated with a knowing nod, before indicating his armor, the very same that Mozter was wearing two days earlier. “But I am still fighting against you being fully geared out, while you’re in a pair of pants and bare-chested.”
“And you’re a Priest with a melee build,” I replied to Alistair despite knowing where he was coming from. Scoring a hit in a practice bout didn’t mean much when your opponent was practically naked, but at the same time, it was the only way to keep the fight as fair as possible while I was personally training the newest member of Virtus. “Plus, Helix wasn’t allowed to do anything more than mess with my guard. If it were a no holds barred fight, the two of you working together would have put me down easily.”
Given what had happened with Mozter, I felt that personal training was the least I could do for Alistair, going as far to give him the Spellsword’s armor that I had won after making a few of my own adjustments to, and crafting him a brand-new axe to go with it.
“In any case, you should have a chance to catch up today while we’re out and about,” I told the man as I motioned for him and Helix to step off the Arena grounds towards where Cerril and Huxley were standing, seeing that there was another group of Adventurers lining up for their own match. “Assuming Stanton and his pet mages ever get their asses moving…”
“They are remarkably late,” Helix agreed as he turned to look towards the Town Hall. “Of coursssse we are just lowly commoners and cannot presume to tell our betterssss what to do with their time.”
“Right,” Alistair snorted.
“Hey guys!” Huxley greeted us as we came off of the sandy field, the man’s face in a wide smile. “I’m surprised to still find you all here! I’d thought you’d have left hours ago!”
“That was our plan,” I grunted as I waved a greeting at the two guild members. “Apparently Stanton likes his bed much more than he likes being productive in the morning.”
“So it seems,” Cerril replied, before giving me a shrug. “But in either case, we’re happy to have caught you. I was hoping to bug you about our new crop of lowbies.”
“Oh?” I asked, suddenly concerned. “What’s going on? Is there a problem?”
“Nothing too critical,” Huxley replied. “But a bit of a long term one we’re going to need help with, especially if we’re going to bring them up to speed and have them contributing to the guild sooner than later.”
“They need new gear badly Lyr,” Cerril told me. “The higher leveled players that you, Freya and the others are minding don’t have it as bad, since they’ve been playing longer and have had a chance to upgrade their stuff. But the majority of the people Hux and I are minding are still using their starter gear, minus whatever scraps we’ve been able to pull together from the guild spares.”
“Damn,” I replied, reaching up to rub the sweat off my face with a hand. “I didn’t realize it was that bad, will that affect your training today?”
“Well, we’ve tried to account for it, so it shouldn’t,” Huxley answered. “But once everyone starts getting their Base Classes and pushing past level ten, it’ll start becoming much more noticeable.”
“And slow us down,” Cerril added.
“Alright,” I said with a sigh, adding another item on my endless ‘to-do’ list. “I’ll try and sort that out in the next day or so then. I have some stuff that I’ve been working on that I can hopefully find the time and materials to finish.”
“We’ll be sssure to contribute whatever we find today to the guild stores,” Helix said to me. “Assuming we ever depart.”
“Speaking of that, I think we’ve waited long enough,” I stated, glancing up briefly at the rising sun, agreeing with the lizardman’s sentiment as I turned to walk towards the newly built stands where I had left my armor for the morning. Amaranth being more than happy to guard it as he dozed nearby, lying in the morning sun. “I’m going to clean up, then go check on Stanton one more time. If he’s not ready to leave, we’ll get our groups together and go out for the day without them.”
“Sounds good to us Lyrian.” Cerril said, giving me a wave as I departed. “Good luck!”
The three of us, specifically, Helix, Alistair and myself, had thus far wasted the better part of the morning waiting for Stanton and the others to finally show up for their tour to the Hub and Lake Ruins, despite being told that we were intending to leave first thing in the morning.
I had hoped to get a nice and early start to the day, three hours ago, so that we could make the best use of daylight and still have time to do something once we got back. But it seemed that neither Stanton nor Samuel or Quincy were inclined to get moving this early in the day. With a sigh, I walked past the stands and my sleeping familiar to where a large bucket stood and took the time to scrub the dried blood off my nearly healed shoulder before turning back towards the stand to dress myself.
As useful as it may be to train the new recruits, standing around here is a waste of time in the big picture. I couldn’t help but scowl in frustration as I pulled on an undershirt, followed by my gambeson. Drace and I spent nearly eighteen hours crafting yesterday to make sure Léandre had enough building materials for the day today, and the two of us could easily put in another eighteen hours today just to keep up with the fervent pace of construction going on in Aldford. Not to mention the gear that Cerril and Huxley needed for our lowest leveled recruits. But even if Stanton drags his feet in visiting the ruins today, we have to go out anyway… we’re getting damned close to running out of food.
An unfortunate side effect of tripling our population without adequate preparation or forewarning of their arrival was its impact on our food stores. In the handful of days since the new settlers had arrived, we had practically devoured the entirety of our stores and were in danger of not having enough to go around if there was an emergency.
In hopes of solving that, we had decided to split the Adventurers that had been recruited to Virtus into three groups and lead them out into the wild to replenish our supplies. All the while putting them through their paces and throwing them into the most vicious creatures we could find.
The plan was for my group, plus Freya, to take two of the higher leveled groups of Adventurers with us to an area north of the Hub, while Helix, Cerril, Huxley, and a handful the other guild members took our lower leveled recruits to the wolverine filled plains far to the south of Aldford. With any luck, we would be able to bring back a decent amount of meat and herbs to replenish the village stores.
But if we can get Stanton to come with my group while we do that, we can save ourselves half a day in travelling and hopefully show him how we fight. Maybe it’ll make him reconsider any attempt at using force to annex Aldford.
Deep in thought, I picked up the last piece of my armor without looking at it, causing a copper ring and a length of chain to slide off it and spin in the air, before landing in twin puffs of dirt before me.
“Crap,” I cursed softly to myself as I put th
e armor back on the stand and reached down to pick up the ring, placing it on my finger and feeling a surge of strength course through my muscles. “Still not used to having these.”
It had taken me a while to bring myself to sort through all the loot that I had gained from the duel with Mozter, a part of me having subconsciously written off all the gear that he and his party had been wearing as being worthless when compared to my better quality weapons and armor. By the time I had finally got around to checking it, I was standing in the Crafting Hall preparing myself to salvage the pieces outright for scrap. After finally looking through it, I was surprised to find that two pieces of jewelry had been included in the spoils that Mozter and his companions were forced to hand over after his ill-fated duel.
After sifting through the bag, I discovered that there was a single copper ring in the collection of loot, along with a single bronze chain necklace, but it wasn’t until I took a closer look at each of them that I realized that they had been enchanted. Picking up the fallen necklace, I shook the dirt off it and brushed it clean before hanging it around my neck, calling up the item’s stats as I fastened the clasp.
Necklace of Physical Prowess
Slot: Neck
Item Class: Magical
Item Quality: Good (+15%)
Strength: +1 Agility: +1 Constitution: +1
Base Material: Bronze
Weight: 0.0 kg
Class: Any
Level: 12
If I can ever find some time for myself, maybe I could find out how to learn the Enchanting tradeskill, I thought idly while looking down at my hand and playing with the ring on my finger as I checked its stats as well. I have seven more ring slots free, plus two earrings and two wristbands. If I managed to fill up each of those slots with similar items like this…I could end up being really overpowered for my level. Hell, we all could. But I remember Caius ages ago mentioning that Enchanting was an Advanced Tradeskill…whatever that means.
Ring of Strength
Slot: Ring
Item Class: Magical
Legacy of the Fallen Page 18