by Andrew Novak
Jack put the bastard sword into the scabbard, drew the Shadowslayer, and slit the wolf's shaggy throat. The growling cut off as its blood gushed over the black blade.
And an instant later, a message slid in front of Jack.
Attention! You have completed the quest "Rid the town of Narim of the wolf". The reward of 50 gold can be retrieved from the mayor.
Attention! Quest progression in "Service to the Dark"...
The lines scrolled, disappearing and dissolving at the bottom of his field of vision, but Jack didn’t read them. He was staring at an apparition of a woman that had materialized on the road in front of him. A statuesque figure, three times taller than Jack. It was difficult to distinguish the giantess's facial features – she was too tall. Her face was lost in the darkness; the silvery sheen of Shadris barely outlined the silhouette of the giant figure. And the most surprising thing was that she was transparent. Well, almost transparent. In any case, he could see the outlines of the trees behind her, as if through clouded glass.
"Jack, my son," the apparition began, "You serve me well. The sacrifice is accepted."
Her voice was also strange, simultaneously ringing and hissing. It slithered into his ears and reverberated into a slowly fading echo.
"You will walk the entire path," she buzzed in Jack's skull, "For this, you will need strength and so I give THIS to you. This sword, which contains the Shadow of the Demon King Azeroth, will serve my faithful acolyte. Locate my temple, forgotten by all, in the realm of the otherworldly forests near the dark city Dargoth. The temple alter is a closed lock. You understand what this means. Your sword will serve as the key..."
Sword? The hand gripping the Shadowslayer had begun to tremble slightly. Something was happening to the knife. Jack squinted at the blade. The dagger was lengthening and all the while, it remained black, darkness still flowing from it. A sword, indeed. And above it read:
Shadow of the King Sword
Weapon of the servant of Necta.
Level: Epic
Wow! His legendary dagger had become an epic sword! The goddess said something else, but was interrupted by a loud shout from behind Jack:
"Jack, get rid of the sword! We need to talk!"
It seemed that the apparition existed only for Jack, and that those present on the road neither saw Necta, nor did they hear her sibilant, ringing, reverberating voice. And the goddess had already disappeared, her apparition melted into the darkness. Jack slowly turned his head – on the road behind him stood several Gravediggers. Weaver was among them. The mage stood closer than the others, his right hand raised with a hot red ball burning in his palm. Weaver was keeping a spell at the ready. The Gravediggers couldn't see Jack's right hand, which was holding the black sword. So Jack slowly and deliberately unfastened the scabbard with the bastard sword and tossed the weapon onto the road.
"What do you want?" he called out.
The Gravediggers slowly moved forward. There were four of them, their weapons held ready in front of themselves. But most importantly, the fire in Weaver's hand extinguished. At this close distance, the spell could hit the mage as well. That meant that they would be, more or less, on equal footing – Jack and the four guild members.
"Jack, it's best if you tell us everything," Weaver began, drawing closer. "We will find out anyway what was in there, in the black city. Tell us yourself, and a share of the prize is yours. You’re wasting time for nothing. You can see it yourself, you can't hide from us"
Jack didn't care for chit-chat. It was a common problem of all slum dwellers. It's how things were done with them – before the start of a fight, they traded threats and boasted about their own coolness for a while. It was a waste of words. When the distance between Jack and his opponents had been reduced to three paces, he turned, sending the sword out in front of him in a wide arc. He had been hoping to simply knock aside the sword blades pointed in his direction, but hadn't expected what actually did happen. The Shadow of the King passed through all obstacles without stopping, cleaving their bodies and chopping their blades in two. Jack hardly felt resistance and, because of it, nearly lost his balance. Three Gravediggers, including Weaver, dropped to the road and a wide puddle, looking black in the darkness, quickly spread out around their crumpled bodies.
The fourth adversary shrank away as Jack ran up to him and raised his sword. The remaining Gravedigger hadn't a hope of winning and blurted out,
"Hey, don't! I'm here by chance... I was just nearby when Weaver was gathering anyone he could catch... I really don't know anything."
"Okay, alright," Jack nonchalantly waved his sword. At this movement, the last Gravedigger startled and stepped back.
"Alright, you don't know anything. Got it. Fine. Just tell me one thing – how did you find out that I was here? Why exactly did you look in a crappy little town, what's it called... Narim?"
“We sent people out to all the locations they send players from Vecta's temple. The ones who came to Narim died and resurrected together two minutes later. They couldn't explain how it happened. But Weaver decided that we needed to come here."
"Good call," nodded Jack. "He's a clever one, that Weaver Lund. Then, that's how you convey information in the guild, through the rez points. Let's send them another message."
One long, sudden step forward and a thrust of the black sword, from which streams of darkness spilled out... And the bodies of all the Gravediggers were melting slowly in the dust, going transparent and fading. Jack lingered at the crossroads only as long as necessary to collect the drops. On the wolf, as expected, was a tail.
The goddess didn't make another appearance, and why would she? She had already given him his mission. Jack headed back to Narim. He had to get his gold and find a local Wanderer. And if he came across a weapons merchant's shop, then he would sell the looted weapon. He was going to need a lot of gold now. There were going to be some serious costs associated with the quest. Then he would need to register a guild, and that wasn't even for the ship. That was just for the privilege to get the ship. It was at least five thousand gold to register a guild. And the ship itself would set him back a considerable amount. Not to mention preparations for the expedition, supplies, and the crew!
It was daunting to even estimate. Jack pulled up his wallet.
You have 532 gold in your account.
Do you want to perform a transaction? Yes/No
Teleports weren't cheap and if the Gravediggers were planning to be difficult, then teleports would be a necessity. It definitely didn't make sense to go back to Svetlograd. Particularly since one of the items looted from the dead Gravediggers turned out to be a very nice little Necklace of Veneration with +10% to health. Of course, it belonged to Weaver himself. The mage was going to miss this little trinket. Best not to cross his path.
Jack decided to keep the Necklace for himself. On the way, to save time, he opened his Quest Log and checked the new notifications of received and completed quests for the ones that he didn't finish reading because of Weaver and his buddies. Now he had the time to take a good look.
You have completed the quest "Rid the town of Narim of the wolf". The reward of 50 gold can be received from the mayor.
You have successfully completed one achievement of the quest for Shining Vecta and Dark Necta. You are the first player to reach this achievement.
You receive +5 XP.
You have 39 XP. Earn 1 XP to unlock new skills.
Attention! Quest progression in "Service to the Dark".
Find the forgotten temple near the dark city Dargoth. Use the sword Shadow of the King at the altar.
Chapter Five. The Best Men of Maxitor
JACK DIDN'T FIND a Wanderer in Narim. He'd have to continue on foot. The country’s borders were still pretty far off and, of course, a teleport would save time, but Jack was almost glad that it hadn't worked out. Wanderer services were expensive and if he was going to establish his own guild, he would have to shell out a pretty penny.
You have 582 gold in your acco
unt.
Do you want to perform another transaction? Yes/No
No, not yet. For two hours, he just walked along the moonlit road and mused. Naturally, people didn't play in Alterra just to take long walks. There were all sorts of adventures here, skirmishes with players and mobs. Here was a different, more beautiful life. And there was no lack of walking in Jack's real life. But he needed to think and the forest road was conducive to contemplation...
So, what had happened? The black dagger didn’t kill the Shadow but rather absorbed it: swallowed it up. Necta's meddling turned the dagger into a sword. For what? The goddess had an objective and to achieve it, she needed a servant with this sword. Weird. This was incredibly different from the usual adventures in the virtual dreamworld. The gods had left Alterra, according to the official version. And here Necta had appeared to Jack in the flesh – well, okay, in the form of a ghost, but she still appeared!
No one had ever seen the gods of Alterra. It looked like Jack was the first in this, as well... And how did that happen? By going through Andrew Vigo's account, had he launched a quest chain that no one else had found before now? An old, forgotten questline?
And the sword, Shadow of the King, was now an epic weapon. And a hell of an epic it was! It just cut down the others' blades. Jack had never heard of such a thing. And he figured that he knew quite a bit about weapons. In melee range, the Shadow of the King would be an enormous advantage. Of course, even a fighter with the sword could be beat at a distance. It wouldn’t be a problem, for example, for a high-level fire mage or a unit of archers... but once he had already reached his enemy, then Jack could take anyone down. The goddess made it that way for a reason. Which meant that Necta would ultimately present him with an objective equal to these abilities.
Jack crossed the border separating Havian and Maxitor, a Scand nation. Up till now, he usually played in Havian, the capital city of which was Svetlograd. But there were Gravediggers there at the moment, especially in Svetlograd, where their headquarters was located.
Maxitor was also a Scand country. He could hide there for now. Let the Gravediggers blow off some steam and cool off. He just needed to give them some time. Of course, though, Weaver wouldn't let it go. Any player would be ticked off about being killed. But eventually, they would realize that it was just stupid to send the entire guild out chasing a single player, when they had plenty to do without him. When Weaver no longer had all of the Brotherhood's resources at his disposal, he wouldn't be so dangerous. As a matter of fact, the best thing right now would be to disappear from the game for a few days, just to annoy the Gravediggers. But Jack’s curiosity was already killing him. He'd completed two stages of Service to the Dark, as it was called, in one go. He wanted more, more! Jack knew he wouldn't be able to stop.
Maxitorian soldiers greeted the traveler as he crossed the bridge over the boundary river. Jack answered with a wave. Let them look. Even if they asked, the border guards couldn't tell anyone who exactly had crossed their post in the night. They were NPCs – their code didn't allow for such conversations. The Narimite mayor, too, wouldn't be able to tell anyone that Jack had returned to the town. The wolf had already respawned in the Gray sector and the portly man was offering the quest again. And he was ready to pay another fifty coins for a recovered tail. Curious, how many times in the history of the game had he counted out gold? If he were to add it all up, it would come out to a huge amount. Yep, that was Narim – a generous city! Who would’ve thought it? Because from all appearances, it just looked like a plain, hole-in-the-wall town.
Jack walked a bit more along the Maxitorian terrain, and then turned into the first roadside chapel he found and left the game. Now he could sleep. Settling into his cot, he imagined how furious Weaver Lund was right now... and fell asleep with a satisfied smile.
He woke up late, when the sun was already at its zenith, and reached for the console right away. Before entering the game, however, he checked his messages. Sure enough, a note had come from Shifty Peter:
"Take a peek tonight, the cartridges will be here. And about your other question, I found a lead. There's just such a guy. His in-game name is Egghead. He lives in Maxitown, maybe he can help with your demon artifacts. No one's really interested in them but Egghead might be able to tell you something. If he can't, then no one can. Mind you, though, Egghead sells his secrets for a fee. You'll have to settle it with him, and it won't be cheap. One more thing – he won't deal with just anybody, so tell him that I sent you. You'll find his house on Sapphire Shields road. It's a large green-roofed house with a courtyard and stables. You can't miss it.
“And fine, I won't take anything from you, but you owe me a favor! Well, we'll talk about that tonight. It’ll be a cash transaction; you won't be taking a loss. See you tonight."
Jack even reconsidered entering Alterra. He strapped the virt-headset on and scratched at his nape. This was unprecedented. Peter wasn't charging for a service. Maybe the world had flipped and the sky had fallen? Hmm, no, the sky was in its place – outside the window there was still the gray veil of fumes and the dim, white orb of the sun peeking through.
Jack again wished for a boat. Wished to have no reeking haze in the sky, to have a sun that shone as brightly as possible, to have the wind blowing on his face and lapping waves...
Yeah, but what exactly had Peter thought up if he wasn't asking for a percent?
That guy that he mentioned lived in Maxitor's capital, Maxitown. Very convenient. Jack had even just spent all night traveling in that direction. Well then, he needed to continue the journey.
Jack yawned, looked around his shack and noticed only now that a puddle had collected in the corner. He had a quick bite to eat, then climbed up onto the roof to see where the leak was. After a hasty patch job, he switched on the console. It was a long way to Maxitown, but his curiosity got the better of him: what kind of person had Shifty found that could make him so suddenly loosen up? So, in the first city that he came to, he used the Wanderer services and bought a teleport to the capital. Minus 50 gold. Jack checked his wallet:
You have made a payment in the amount of 50 gold.
Would you like to see the details of the transaction? Yes/No
You have 532 gold in your account.
Do you want to perform another transaction? Yes/No
Maxitown was a large, beautiful city, almost like Svetlograd. The only difference was that Maxitor was a kingdom and at its center was the Royal Palace. You could raise your XP by completing quests for the nobility here and later, if you reached the higher levels, for the king himself. Everything else was the same – the temples, market square, the lavish homes of the aristocrats in the center. Except here, each house served not only as a residence, but there were also a bunch of buildings for servants and animals.
Sapphire Shields road was one of the wealthiest. Jack walked along it, looking happily at the outfits of passersby and the villa facades. The house with the green roof wasn't the largest, but fit into the overall picture of magnificence. Egghead lived very well.
Jack knocked on the gate. A servant in livery opened it for him. The banner with his stats was a light turquoise color, which meant he was an NPC. They used this color specifically for official administrative messages and general game characters. The doorman let the visitor into the courtyard.
"How shall I announce you?"
"Tell him that Jack's come. On business. A man by the name of Peter's told your master about me."
"I shall inform the master," the doorman nodded regally, "please wait here."
While the servant took the arrival announcement to Egghead, Jack surveyed the yard, which seemed more like a cozy, little garden. There were flowerbeds, overflowing with blooms in the most vivid colors, neatly trimmed shrubs, and a white-marble gazebo under a sprawling tree. In front of the gates stood a carriage, an elegant piece of work with gilded wheel spokes, carved cornices, and lace curtains in the windows. Nice, Jack thought. It was strange to look at this delicate beau
ty after a fun night spent on a road in the forest and the encounters with the mobs and Gravediggers.
Soon enough, Jack was asked into the mansion. The scene inside was in line with the one he had seen in the courtyard – carvings, braided trim, rich embroidery on the curtains and gilt wherever possible. And where it shouldn't be, in Jack's opinion.
Jack's host met with him in the office. He stood to greet his guest from behind a table with cabriole legs and swept into a graceful bow.
Egghead, Scand
Expertise: 38
Health: 40
Scands were a race of warriors. They were usually bulky, thickset, and broad-shouldered. Something light and ephemeral was standing before Jack. A narrow face with delicate features framed by curls and a slight smile... Put him in a woman's dress and all the women from the trailers neighboring Jack's would just die from envy of his beauty. And an expertise level of 38... It was hard to imagine this personification of daintiness running around on quests and fighting with barbarians and beasts. Having said that, he did live in Maxitown and the Royal Court was here. They had their own ways of earning experience.
Egghead nodded toward a chair.
"Please. How can I be of service? Peter mentioned something about ancient artifacts."
Jack hesitated. It would have been easier for him to pick a fight with someone than to engage in small talk.
"Artifacts, yeah," he stammered out with some difficulty. "Demon."
"Demon," repeated Egghead with that same smile. "A rare thing."
"I need someone who’s familiar with quests connected to these kinds of artifacts, knows where to get them... and, you know... that sort of thing."
"Oh, that's an easy question to answer!" Egghead gracefully clasped his hands, showing his brilliantly white lace cuffs. "Such quests don't exist!"