“What is the bad news?” I asked as my stomach filled with a chill.
“I told you that I would do my best to try and get you access to this treasure you wanted. When we first spoke, I had thought to myself that I might be able to convince Sharles to allow me to gift you it no matter the outcome of these events. However, the royal treasure trove and all the assets of the kingdom are frozen until a new queen is elected. If I do not win, you won’t be able to have this treasure that you seek. I do not even know for sure if it is in my father’s special vault, no one is allowed inside.”
“I see,” I said. In truth, I hadn’t expected that Chrysa would be able to get me the relic before I finished helping her, but it would have been nice to know I could have gotten it even if she didn’t become Queen.
I looked at Cornalic, and his yellow eyes met mine. I guessed we were both thinking along the same lines: There were a shitload of guards in the palace and stealing the relic was going to be a pain in the ass.
But nothing was impossible.
“We’ll just have to win this then,” I said as I looked back to Chrysa.
“I am sorry for not telling you sooner. I was weak and thought you might want to quit. It was foolish of me, I know now, you are a man of great honor,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. I won the first round. How hard can the second round be?” I gave her my smirk.
Cornalic cleared his throat, and I turned back to my friend.
“Dearest friend, your combat skills are quite amazing. I would also like to say that I am somewhat skilled in the art of using my blades for the purposes of honor and justice. However, I did watch the entire match today from a high up viewpoint.”
“Okay…” I felt as if I knew what he was going to say.
“The beautiful Moryana and the minotaur Tia’tor Barta fought like nothing I have ever seen. I believe they used nearly every trick on each other, and you faced the victor after he had been significantly weakened. Lady Cesnie Kayleic was also incredibly skilled, and she managed to keep you and Sir Rodin Worred at bay for many minutes. The knight might have been an even match for you, but I am somewhat familiar with the ability he used at the end on the lovely lady. It is not a skill that just anyone can acquire. The man must have studied for many years to learn it. I do believe he held back during most of the fight, but I do not believe you did,” Cornalic shrugged at the end.
“You are saying I got lucky?” I asked.
“Dearest friend, I do love you tremendously, but yes. You were lucky. At the end, when Tia’tor had to decide between Sir Rodin Worred and you, I believe he figured the knight was the bigger threat and didn’t want him to heal. I do not know what the next round will bring us, but I am worried that there is a good chance we will place last.”
“Ugh,” I moaned and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Damn, I was tired.
“Please do not be offended, dearest friend. I have a wondrous respect for your talents as a warrior, but our opponents are incredibly skilled.” Cornalic shrugged and his brows came together with an apologetic look.
“Even if you lose the next round and the third, we still have four points to show for your efforts. If I can get the majority of the council and the other girls, I might still win,” Chrysa said.
“All we can do is our best. We should have a strong team with Cornalic, Bolverk, and I. We might not be as strong as the others, but anything can happen. What are the rules about gear? Can we bring whatever we want?” I asked the half-orc.
“Yes, dearest friend. This is also a worry though. Our foes have significant funds and are long time adventurers. As you know, I have some nice items, but you only have a few and Bolverk…” Cornalic turned to the tattooed gnome as his voice trailed off.
“Bolverk, I think I should buy you some new gear. You only have that sword and axe. We need to get you some armor and maybe some new wea--” I started to say, but the man interrupted me.
“No.”
“No? Ahhh. Why not?” I looked at Cornalic, but the half-orc winced.
“The god of strife demands that I take all of my armor and armaments from the broken and dead bodies of my enemies. It is the first step toward my ascension,” the gnome said. His blue eyes were closed now, and the way he said the words made it seem as if he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“But I can buy you new gear. It will help you--”
“The path of the warrior is one of pain, death, and then rebirth. The weapons will be born again new in my hand after I slay their previous owner. Then they will make me stronger. Then I will destroy more powerful enemies. Then I will fight against the dragons and gods to take their Throne of Ascension.” The man nodded as he spoke, as if what he told me should have been obvious.
“But you’ll still help us? You just don’t want me to buy you any new gear?”
“Yes, Leo Lennox. We will rise to ascension when--”
“Dear friend, this is a bad idea,” Cornalic whispered to me. Bolverk was still speaking about his stairs, throne, dragons, gods, and half-orc women harems, and he didn’t seem to notice that my attention was now on the green-skinned man.
“Yeah. He has an axe too big for him, a sword that is even more awkward, and no armor. I don’t know how he is going to be in front.” I sighed.
“He does handle himself well, even with the larger weapons. He also seems to avoid any significant injury.” Cornalic shrugged.
“Are you thinking we should just go with him?”
“I can go!” Allurie said over the sound of Bolverk’s monologue. The short man was currently describing the features of the half-orc warrior women that he wanted in his harem.
“No, Allurie. We need someone up front,” I said.
“But Leo, you are so big, and vigorous, and strong. I’ve seen you fight all sorts of evil bad guys with your veiny muscles. It is really sexy. Can’t you be in front?” she asked, and it kind of looked like her mouth was watering as she looked at me.
“I guess I could, but then it would be harder to heal.” I glanced between the muttering gnome and the beautiful silver-haired elf a few times. “Yeah, sorry Allurie, we are going to have to take Bolverk this time. I know you want to help, but we need to train you.”
“I understand,” the beautiful elf sighed. “Can I get trained tomorrow? I really like working! I can work all day at learning how to fight so that I can help you next time?”
“We’ll see,” I said to her.
“Dear Leo, you should spend the rest of the money on new abilities or gear.”
“Yeah. Although, Sharles didn’t take back my armor. Maybe he won’t say anything about it tomorrow. The broadsword he gave me broke, but I have the magical one Gratia gave me.”
I stood from the table and stretched my arms out over my head. The movement actually made Bolverk pause his monologue.
“I’m going to wash up and rest for a bit. I know it isn’t even lunch time, but let’s talk tomorrow morning. I’ll spend some time thinking about what to do with our extra money. Part of me wants to save it, but if we lose this contest, I won’t be able to get the relic we need.”
“I understand dear friend, I will watch over things here. Rest well,” Cornalic said.
“Rest. The soldier with the trident will speak words of warning to you while you are dreaming. Then you will return to crush our enemies beneath your boot. The castle in the sky awaits us. We will sit with the gods, or take their place on the throne,” Bolverk opened his electric-blue eyes to stare at me, and the orbs were all sorts of crazy.
Maybe I should just take Allurie.
“Leo, do you need help washing your back? Or relaxing before you sleep? I would be happy to rub your--”
“No, I’m fine,” I said to Allurie. “I’ll talk to you all later.”
I walked out of Chrysa’s grand bedroom without another word and moved to my own room. It took me a minute to get the bathwater running the right temperature out of the copper pipes, but soon I had my armor off a
nd was washing dried blood from my skin. The process felt a bit strange to me. It wasn’t the soothing sensation of the warm water, it was more the idea that I was going to go clean up again after I logged out of Ohlavar Quest.
It really felt as if I was living two lives.
I dried myself off with a thick towel and then lay in my bed.
Then I closed my eyes and counted.
Chapter 17
Twenty seconds later I was swimming through the liquid of the VRIU and pulling the mask off my face.
“Hey, Champ! How did it go?” Ky asked when I surfaced in the real world.
“You didn’t see the match?” I asked him with a smile.
“Oh, no, sorry. Had some other work to take care of. It went well then?” The man had his paddle ready, but he didn’t put it into the black liquid until after I stepped out.
“Yeah. I won the first challenge, but Cornalic thinks I got lucky. I was hoping you might have seen it and could give me some feedback.”
“Ahh. I can watch it later if you want. You should probably ask Ms. Zerne or Jennifer what they thought about it.”
“Okay. Uhh. You ladies here?” I asked the speakers in the ceiling as I put my robe on.
“I’m here, Leo,” Jennifer said. “Ms. Zerne was here up until about half an hour ago. She asked me to ask if you could call her office after you cleaned up.”
“Great. What did you think of the match, Jennifer?” I asked.
“It was good. I’m glad you have such great experiences. Do you have any feedback for me about the gameplay?”
“No, but I was wondering what you thought about Cornalic’s observation that we might be outclassed tomorrow. I really didn’t have an opportunity to watch Moryana and Tia’tor battle. Do you believe we’ll place last?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m not sure, Leo. How do you feel right now?”
“Fine,” I said as I walked out of my alcove. “What about Bolverk? Do you think he’s the right choice for the challenge the day after tomorrow? Or do you think I should take Allurie? How about Artus? Should I take him instead?” I asked the Fenia’s name to see if I could catch Jennifer.
“I don’t think it will matter which one you take, Leo. I know you’ll do a great job.”
“Huh. Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I forced myself to smile up at the pretty blonde woman in the glass room. “Hey, I notice we don’t really need to do the whole ‘sit on the stool and watch my heart rate’ procedure anymore. Why is that?”
“We’ve been making some tweaks to the logout process of the client. It is less of a dump now and more of a slower log out. You may have noticed the music and the logout screen,” she said across the speaker.
“No. I haven’t heard any music or seen any logout screen. I only close my eyes for twenty seconds, and then I am out of the game,” I said.
“Huh. That isn’t right. Let me look at your client. It should be updated,” she said.
“That seems to happen a lot,” I said.
“What do you mean?” she asked, and I caught Ky pause his stirring out of the corner of my eye.
“That I don’t have an updated client. Aren’t I the only alpha tester? Shouldn’t I always get the updated client?”
“Uh, yeah. Hold on,” Jennifer said, and I saw her stand from behind the computer screens and walk out of the observation room. The woman gave me a shy smile and gestured for me to sit on my usual stool. As soon as I did, she sat on the chair and crossed her lovely legs.
“The developers have a lot of projects going on. I left a bit of a vacuum with them when I was asked to work on this assignment.” Jennifer’s cheeks turned red, and she waved her hands suddenly “Not that I didn’t want to work on this! I definitely did. I am so happy you have joined us and I get to observe you. Ms. Zerne just hasn’t hired my replacement yet for my old team.”
“What did you do on your old team?” I asked.
“I was the lead engineer for the client bit of the software. I’m a smidge overqualified to be working this position I’m in right now, but Ms. Zerne wanted to make sure that none of your feedback would get lost if she couldn’t be here,” Jennifer explained.
“Jennifer, you seem smart and talented. If the team told you they had an updated client code, I’m surprised you didn’t realize they hadn’t actually updated it.”
“I can understand your concern. I don’t want to shift blame here because you are right, I should have looked at the code. We are still very new at all of this though, and there are going to be mistakes. It is my responsibility to ensure you are playing with all the updates as soon as the development team thinks they are stable. I am sorry.” Jennifer’s face seemed sincere when she apologized, so I decided to let it go.
“Okay, I get it. There are a lot of balls in the air. I won’t get on your ass like Zarra would,” I said with a laugh, and Jennifer smiled meekly. “I’m going to go take a shower and grab some food. Either of you two want to join me?”
“Naw, but thanks. Can we do it tomorrow, maybe? I have to tune this baby for you,” Ky said.
“I also need to finish the data log and get with the developers. I’d like to do it another time. We don’t get to see each other outside of this room,” Jennifer said, and then her cheeks got a bit redder after she spoke.
“We’ll shoot for another time when you both are free. I’d like to get an early start on the day tomorrow. Seven cool?” I asked.
“Sure,” they both agreed, and I walked into my suite.
I closed the door behind me and went into my bathroom. I jumped in the shower before it could warm up, and let my mind chew on the talk with Jennifer and Ky. Something about the conversation with them was still bothering me. I had noticed it a little during my earlier sessions, but the questions that I just asked them seemed to confirm my suspicions.
No one was actually watching me play in real time.
Ky might have a good reason. Maybe the engineer really did need to calibrate the machine when I was floating in the water, but he also talked about the latest automation Arnacript had figured out for the VRIU. Did he even need to be in the room anymore?
Jennifer was also lying, or at least, she wasn’t entirely truthful with me. I’d asked her opinion about taking Allurie or Bolverk or Artus with me into the next challenge. She should have been confused about Artus’ name being mentioned. My fenia friend wasn’t even in Sanduport, nor was he a warrior. He was a spice trader.
Was Jennifer just extremely busy with programming work? She did seem to have a lot on her plate, but I thought her role was supposed to be documenting what I was doing and passing my feedback to the developers. Shouldn’t she be watching all of my sessions? How could she miss that thing about Artus?
When I thought about it, all of their answers to my game questions had been vague. Neither Jennifer, Ky, or even Zarra made detailed comments about my game sessions. Well, maybe that wasn’t completely accurate, Ky texted me a few days after I first played to tell me about Artus getting executed, but at the time he hadn’t said anything about my session.
Could they not see me play? That didn’t make any sense. There were plenty of monitors in the observation room. I’d even seen my mom’s session in the game, so I knew they could watch me play. Did they just not want to talk to me about it? That was probably the most obvious answer. Zarra had told me she didn’t want to help me with my quest, but she could have told Jennifer and Ky not to say anything either. I’d have to ask her when I spoke with her tonight.
I finished up my shower and dried myself off as I walked out of the bathroom. My suite was starting to feel like home, and I was beginning to appreciate the life out of the spotlight. I missed Sal terribly, but I didn’t miss the endless press conferences, the dinners with business people who wanted something from me, and the hungry horde of fans that followed me around.
Life was nearly perfect now. I was pleased that I won this first round, but I was concerned about the next challenge. Cornalic, Bolverk, and I would
be able to protect Chrysa and get through the dungeon, but would we do it quick enough to win?
A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts, and I walked over to open it. Chip was standing in the hallway with a shit-eating grin on his hardened face.
“Hey Leo, did you know we have a rec room?”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, buddy. I’m talking pool table, foosball, darts, air hockey, and all that real shit. You down for an early dinner? I just got off.” The man’s eyes met mine, and I knew he wanted to talk to me about some stuff.
“Yeah, I was supposed to call Zarra--” I started to say.
“Great idea. Call Zarra up and tell her to meet us there when she finishes the endless mountain of work she’s always doing. The three of us can hang and play some games, eat some food, and maybe drink a beer or two.” Chip gave me a weird smile and then nodded.
“Yeah, sounds like fun,” I said hesitantly. “Let me call her. Come on in.” I waved to Chip, and the ex-SEAL followed me into my suite.
I picked up my phone and pressed the button for Zarra’s office. The phone rang four times, and I almost hung up, but then I heard the click of her answer.
“Hello, Leo,” she purred.
“Hey, Zarra. I just got out of the game. Had a great session. Chip and I were going to go grab an early dinner and hang out in the rec room.” I said as I looked at Chip. “I didn’t know we had one.”
Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga Page 24