“The Heart of Chaos?”
“The very one. Geranika needed to incapacitate Altameda’s guards, and he accomplished this. By the way—how? That question is still bothering me. Although, no—now I have a more interesting one. Tell me, who are you anyway? I’ve never seen such an enormous player before—particularly one who’s immune to the Siren’s charms.”
“A Titan,” Anastaria replied for Kreel. “He’s a Titan. The only thing I don’t understand is how this race even appeared in Barliona.”
“A Titan?” I asked baffled. “I thought your race was exterminated or something?”
“By your ancestors—that is true. Only, one of us survived, as you see,” Kreel said with another smirk as if he was relishing the fact that our conversation was following the script he had imagined for it. Me being a Dragon is no great secret. And Anastaria being a Siren is no secret either. And yet to find this information you do have to search for it. Kreel knew, so consequently he had researched us and is letting us know as much at the moment. I wonder why he wants to kill that Dragon. Hmm…If the Titans and Dragons were enemies…Does Kreel know the history of his race? What would happen if I improvise a little here?
“Stacey, do you know anything about the Titans?”
“Very little…I was never interested in them…We need to buy time…”
“Ancestors come in all kinds of shapes and colors,” I shrugged to Kreel. “Some are good, some not so much. For instance, I don’t blame you for that time eons ago when Chronocide—someone’s son I believe—almost wiped out Barliona. He got bored and wanted to have some fun. So the gods had to get involved to stop the Titan…so, well, why dredge up the past?”
“Chronocide?” Kreel asked once again, clearly puzzled by the name. No wonder that—I’d just made it up. I knew there was a Chronos, so why not someone with a similar name?
“Dan?” Anastaria immediately asked. “Where are you getting this from?”
“I just made it up! If he wants to lecture me on history, I’ll do the same. Hah!”
“Maybe we’ll get down to business, Kreel?” Alisa interrupted our argument about nothing.
“Why Baroness—what’s the rush?” smiled Kreel, spreading his arms in a gesture of peace. “For the first time in ages we’ve encountered a pair of players who have reached high levels on their own merits, and you don’t seem interested in them one bit. But all right, let’s talk shop.”
“Let’s,” I replied. “Tell us, Earl, what is the problem with your quest?”
“You said yourself you wanted to know how I delivered the Crystal to Altameda,” smirked Kreel, ordering another round.
“Well—go on then,” I admitted and leaned back in my chair. “The Crystal really is more interesting to me.”
“I reckoned as much, and so I went out on a limb and prepared a video for you. It details everything related to the Crystal—both how I got that quest and how I did it. For me, at the moment, it’s more interesting to discuss the Dragon quest…I hope no one’s opposed?”
“Stacey, I could be wrong but are they one step ahead of us?” I said aside to Anastaria telepathically. “I get the impression like they know what we’re going to say in advance and have a response prepared…”
“Yes, this is called ‘doing your homework.’ It works better than your preferred approach of ‘we’ve got five minutes, let’s wing it!’ If only I had had a little more time…Oh well, it’s too late now. Just keep in mind that Kreel is a very dangerous opponent…”
* * *
“What do you think?” Anastaria inquired once we had returned to Altameda.
“I think that Renox owes me yet another explanation,” I shrugged, getting comfortable in my rocking throne. A strange item by the way—it was like it didn’t even exist for other players. I mean, they could see it, but even Anastaria who had my permission, couldn’t actually use this peculiar piece of furniture.
“Dan, I’m interested in Kreel…”
“Stacey, it’s already clear as day that we’ll take the quest. Kreel needs three weeks to get ready. It’s not a big deal, we can wait. I’ll go see Renox in the meantime. Better tell me—how did a player manage to select a Titan as his character?”
“The same way you selected a Dragon, I a Siren and Plinto a Vampire. Simply lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.”
“I have my doubts for some reason…That Kreel seemed a little too…I don’t even know…He’s almost like you but wearing pants. That would be the best way to put it. He’s too smart to simply be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. There’s something else here…”
“I can see that you’ve begun to strike off the quests from your quest list at a faster pace,” Anastaria changed topics. I couldn’t say I envied Kreel—there aren’t many who could blindside Anastaria, but the guy had managed it. Now Anastaria would bend over backwards to discover everything she needed to know about the Titan. I was curious about Kreel. I wanted to find out some more about him too.
The quest in the video that he had sent me wasn’t any different than any other ‘take this thing there’ type quests—with the exception that the Titan had received the quest from Geranika himself. Kreel had activated the Crystal right before he teleported to Altameda, blocking Urusai’s abilities, but Anastaria and I were much more interested in the players who went with him than the actual quest itself. Alisa was there—evidently she was the Titan’s companion outside of the game—as well as a certain Feanor the Merciful. I’d wager my head that Stacey would begin her investigation with him.
Anastaria kissed me in her customary manner and flitted off back to Nashlazar. She had to continue her training. Fleita wasn’t in-game, there were no imminent adventures to be had, everyone seemed happy and content, and for the first time in several months I found myself in possession of the thing I had only dreamed about recently—free time. Free time that I could spend on myself in order to…
“Greetings, as they say!” Pursuant to Murphy’s Law my amulet began to vibrate and when I answered it, I heard a male voice suffused with unheard of optimism. “What are your coordinates? I’ve got a present to deliver you! Ah! It’d be nice if there weren’t any other players around. I don’t care if there’s an army of NPCs there, but players are out of the question. Then again, it’s up to you…Hey! Mahan! Can you even hear me?”
“Gnum?” Even though I was pretty certain who this was, I decided to make sure.
“Well, yeah. Why? Do you frequently get calls from your own amulet?”
“No caller ID in Barliona,” I grunted. “I won’t send you the coordinates, but I’ll have you summoned. Are you ready to go now?”
“Why not? Summon away! Although wait—I’ll throw a shroud over my creation. More suspense that way…something like that anyway. Give me a minute, then summon me.”
Spiteful Gnum was in his element: ‘Hi, I’m ready! Let’s blow up the world! You don’t want to blow it up? Then I have this cookie here—eat it and you’ll change your mind.’
“Viltrius, activate the portal and summon Spiteful Gnum. And by the way, bring me to the teleportation room,” I told my majordomo, getting up from my rocking throne. There goes my free time. It had barely begun. Welp, no point getting complacent.
“Ta-dah!” Spiteful Gnum grinned and pointed at two enormous statues. To my surprise, he really was a Gnome—small, giddy, with violet hair coiffed in such an elaborate modern fashion that a less-discriminating person might have imagined that Gnum hadn’t combed his hair in a week. But I knew that the default styles in Barliona were cool and neat, and if someone wanted to do something out of the ordinary with one’s appearance, one would have to put in the effort. Gnum had put in the effort.
“I take it you haven’t brought a bottle of Champagne? You clients are always like that—you make them something special and they just show up empty-handed.”
“You want to smash a bottle of Champagne against the statues?” I echoed surprised. As I
recalled, this was a maritime tradition reserved for ships, not statutes.
“The hell for? I was going to drink it for, uh, moral as well as chemical fortification.”
“If you manage to surprise me, I’ll take you to the Golden Horseshoe,” I promised Gnum who had in the meantime begun to sound a fanfare…Oh but really—if you don’t have an ear or a voice, but you do have an extraordinary desire to sing, then the sanity of those around you becomes their problem, I guess.
“Ta-da!” Gnum finally finished his song and whipped off the shroud.
“Tiamat the Great,” whispered the portal demon, who was staring at the two two-meter-tall demonesses beside me.
The six-armed ladies, Ashen Elves by their appearance, resembled each other like two drops of water. Gnum had managed not only to imbue the figures with beauty, but also render the statues as if they were in motion. Examined separately, each statue was performing some kind of complex dance, emphasizing the motions with the twists of her body and the gestures of her hands. Together, however, the ladies gave the impression of utter completeness and harmony.
The Shi Twins—castle security system. Description: Shi’Li and Shi’La are demoness twins who distinguished themselves from birth with their immense proclivity for weapons and dance—and in the end found a way to combine these two desires. The dance of arms integrates 12 melee weapons to up to Level (18 x Castle Level). Restrictions: The twins may be activated only in a castle of Level 20 or higher. The system may be activated only after all 12 weapon slots have been filled. Further functions of Arch-essence: Hidden until activated.
“A pair of beauties, wouldn’t you say?” Gnum was relishing my reaction to the statues, or that is, the castle security system.
“I’m speechless,” I exhaled, coming to my senses and sending Viltrius to the storehouses to get some weapons. It didn’t matter which ones as long as they were melee and the highest level possible.
“One, uh, thing…They come with two dongles,” Gnum added, producing two shining wedges. “You could get by without them too, but the result will be worse…The wedges should be inserted last—the red one is for Li, the blue one for La.”
“Gnum, I can’t help but ask—what’s the catch?”
“What do you mean?” The gnome was taken aback by my question.
“You just gifted me an insanely expensive security system for my castle. It’s true it has several drawbacks—there’s no long-range effect—yet inside the castle, the twins will be a nightmare to any trespasser. This immediately begs the question—if such an expensive item is given for free, then there must be some mousetrap somewhere. I’d like to know this—where? Do I need to make sacrifices to them once a week or something?”
“Bah! What a thought. The girls require no sacrifices—they are self-sufficient. As for ‘why all of a sudden’—by creating the twins, I increased my Craftsmanship, and did it at your expense. The idea of selling them…Well, what kind of moron would spend so much money on a security system? And anyway, I promised to give you the result if you gave me the resources without any strings attached. I was curious to see if you’d trust me or not…Here, let me help you activate them. I’m interested to see myself what they’ll do.”
“Interested?” I echoed, beginning to smell where the cheese lay, as it were. “Should I call the guards? Am I to understand that you can’t guarantee they’ll, uh, be on our side?”
“Ah it’ll be all right!” Gnum said, not quite as confidently. “But yeah call the guards—who knows…”
“Security system activated.” As soon as the 12 blades were handed to the twins, the castle resounded with a metallic, female voice. “Castle assignment completed. Current castle—Altameda. Current owner…Error—the castle has three owners…Determining ranking owner…Owner identified—Anastaria. Please confirm the owner identification.”
“The ranking owner is Mahan!” I almost lost my voice from this humiliation on the part of the system—yet I found the strength to express my disagreement.
“Desired owner is Mahan. Warning—in terms of seniority, Mahan is the least desirable of the owners. Please confirm the selection.”
“Confirmed!” I didn’t yell or anything but certainly raised my voice because, beside me, Gnum began to giggle.
“The current owner is Mahan. Security system initializing…Arch-demonic essence identified…Do you wish to upgrade auxiliary security system functions?”
“Yes!”
“The following auxiliary functions are available: Improved magic resistance, improved poison resistance, improved fire…”
“Magic resistance!” I selected right away, doing away with this one Achilles’ heel of the twins.
“Improved magic resistance added. Arch-demonic essence identified…Do you wish to upgrade auxiliary security system functions?
“Yes!” I cast a puzzled glance at Gnum, who was beginning to rub his chin with a pensive look on his face. Two essences?
“The following auxiliary functions are available…”
“Improved Durability!” My second selection granted my security system more Hit Points. If we were attacked, the extra 5–10 points of Durability would come in handy.
“Security system activation complete. The security system is now in operation.”
The twins’ eyes came alive with a red and blue flame respectively. The demonesses spent several minutes coming to, stretching their muscles as if they were ordinary players. Then, gracefully, silently and to some degree charmingly, the two left the chamber.
“I will offer a discount on my services if those two can come visit me once a day. Simply as guests, without any strings attached,” the portal demon immediately spoke up, watching with love-struck eyes the door that the twins had passed through. “I’ll take care of everything myself, let them just show up.”
“If the discount we’re talking about is 50%, I’ll give the order.” I couldn’t pass up another chance to save some money.
“That works!” The demon agreed a little too quickly, causing me to feel like I hadn’t bartered as hard as I should have. I should’ve begun at 90%…
“What else do you know how to craft?” I asked Gnum, after the demon departed back to his demonic plane to brag about his new neighbors.
“I can forge. I can not forge. I can make the hammer sing lullabies or roar death metal.”
“And if we’re being serious?” I asked when I finished laughing. It was looking like Gnum was my type of people. I wasn’t sure why Svard had pegged him as a misanthrope.
“If I’m being serious—do you remember when you asked me how long I’ve been playing? Well, back when I started, Barliona didn’t have prisoners. Listen, Mahan, I don’t feel like beating around the bush, so let me tell you right away what I want, and you can make up your mind as you see fit. I really could not care one iota less about all the clan drama—I have my own clan, but I’m much more interested in growing as a craftsman. To do that, I need resources and I need work. A lot of work and a lot of resources. You, as I understand it, have a castle that needs—A) to be fixed and B) to be upgraded. I’m ready to do both, but I won’t spend my own resources on it. If you are interested, let’s work together. If you’re not, there are other castles. Oh yeah! Another thing I need is a humble salary of a hundred thousand gold a month. If that’s on the table, then I think I’ll spend several months here…What do you say?”
There wasn’t much I could say, except agree and glance at the castle’s experience bar. As soon as the demonesses had been activated, it had jumped by 10%, telling me quite clearly that I couldn’t let Gnum go—he was too valuable to ignore.
* * *
“Dragon, I have been sent to you by Eluna in order to bring you to Vilterax.” As soon as the last second of the 24 hours the goddess had given me elapsed, an Angel appeared beside me. Snow white and shimmering like Urusai, he offered me his hand without bothering to find out whether I could fly or not, or whether I wanted to go or not—and in the blink of an
eye I was transported to the frozen peaks of the Dragon world. “Eluna said that you shall return on your own,” the Angel added and vanished.
“You have found a way to come here, after all,” came Renox’s familiar voice, full of sadness and pain. Noting that Draco was not around, which meant he was back in the Anhurs library, I transformed into my Dragon Form, soared up and met my virtual father eye to eye.
“Hello, father. I have accumulated several questions concerning the history of our race, will you answer them?” I said, burning all the various, politic bridges available to me. I could have said that I had stopped by for a visit or that I was curious about the bluewing populations in the headwaters of the Altair, but I didn’t feel like dissembling. I had come to Vilterax with a concrete goal and I wanted answers to the questions I had.
Listening to Renox’s tale, I couldn’t help but slump where I sat further and further. No, I had suspected that the Dragons weren’t white, fluffy bunnies, but this…
In a fit of hatred towards Barliona, Harrashess—the youngest son of the Creator—begat the Tarantulas, who were destined to become the evil rulers of the world and drag it into chaos. However, when the other races of Barliona began to kill the Tarantulas, Harrashess was compelled to create the defenders and servants of the Tarantulas—the Dragons. Since he had already poured his utter loathing and hatred of the world into the Tarantulas, Harrashess could only imbue the Dragons with envy, scorn, conceit and arrogance. Having granted the Dragons the power of flight, which no other race enjoyed at that moment, the Creator’s youngest son calmed down, forgetting both the Tarantulas and the Dragons once and for all. He had lost all interest in them…
Several thousand Dragons served the Tarantulas, destroying all living things at their masters’ behest. Renox had been created as the head of the Dragons, so he was the one who made the decisions about who had to be killed and when. This went on until the time that humans first appeared in Barliona…
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5) LitRPG series Page 18