BlackFlame Online Vol 1
Page 37
“Even I didn’t expect it. But the human is full of surprises; he claimed the site of the fire dragon by defeating the two guardian snakes. Only a human player could do it.”
“Those are the puny obstacles my love, but can he conquer the next obstacle and reunite your empire?”
“Time will tell.” She paused, thinking. “But the strangest thing is he found friends in demons. Two girls, and that wasn’t in my plan. I never asked Varuna, the lower god of the Zedusania empire, to steer the things in that direction.” That was unexpected, and the way Noah had made his way into those two women’s hearts was astonishing.
“Is he making a harem or what?” Lucifer chuckled, fixing his eyes on her face.
“Not at all. He calls one of them his daughter.”
“If I were you my love, I would have kept him away from the women. Love or lust are not good for our mission.”
“Maybe you are right, my lord. I do need to keep him away and focused on the real task. Killing two pieces of code is nothing for a god.”
33. Town Management
Noah walked through the grimy hole of the council hall. It was hot and moist that day, making Noah wary of his thin shirt. The surface of the ground was still red, painted with the high priest’s blood. But the shattered pieces of his body had been cleaned up by someone. He could even see an attempt to clean up the blood, as the residual water reflected the lights from the torches lit across the council hall walls. It seemed a bit brighter today. Not daylight bright, but I-can-see-well-enough bright.
“My lord, welcome to the council of the town of Sumara. I’m your assistant and will help you with civil matters.” A demon wearing a bright white fur coat stepped in front of him and handed him the golden diadem he had retrieved from the Xamphala cave. The demon sounded odd, like he was talking with something in his mouth.
Noah wondered how the demon could wear such a hefty piece of fur on his body despite the warmth of the air. “What is your name?”
The demon in the white fur coat bowed in front of him. “I’m called Troy, my lord.”
“Troy, call me Noah. And tell me where the demon girl is.”
“No, My Lord. I can’t. Goddess Sumara will curse me. I can’t dare to call the lord by his name.” Troy stepped closer, so close that Noah could smell the food he’d eaten today, some kind of nasty smelling meat which he couldn’t identify clearly. “Lord, we have a problem to discuss before I call upon other council members.”
Noah’s nostrils flared in annoyance, in part due to the filthy smell Troy was giving away, and part to the work problem. “What problem?” He was here to save Thia, not deal with problems. “First tell me: where is the girl?”
“She is doing well, my lord. I came here after I got the notification of the fall of the high priest. I was shocked at first to see a girl. I knew she was special. I asked my assistant to take care of her.”
Noah chuckled. “Assistant for an assistant. That’s funny, Troy. Anyway, what’s the problem you were talking about?” Thia was all right, so he could check on the issue the fur-coated-assistant was bringing up now.
“We have a food problem, my lord. I tried to tell that to the previous lord, but he didn’t listen. I know the lord prior to him was trying to set up a trade agreement with a nearby town. I know it failed.”
“Food issue? Doesn’t every demon in town eat meat? And there is plenty of that in the forest.”
Quest Alert: Feed the town
Your town is hungry, and there is no quality food available for more than 3 days. They are not able to sleep because of the tension. Get your townspeople out of the rough patch.
Reward: +2000 reputation with town of Sumara. 100 BP points. Failure: -2000 reputation with town of Sumara. Demons will die. Demons will flee to other towns.
“I know not everyone eats meat. I know some eat grains and bread. My lord, one hunter died last week. I know other one is injured.”
Noah found demon’s speech pattern a little odd. He was mostly using sentences starting with “I”, but then demons weren’t humans to speak perfect English. Heck, he himself didn’t know how to speak a perfect English sentence. Who am I to judge a demon by his language? Maybe the game translation is bad.
So, he ignored fur-coat-demon’s language patterns and accepted the quest. What other option did he have? “Okay, so what do you want me to do? Ask someone else to go and hunt. Demons are strong, and anyone should be able to hunt an animal.” He was hoping to solve the issue this way. Just send more demons to hunt.
Troy retrieved a paper from his pocket. “My lord, no. I know only hunters can hunt.” He pointed at the paper. “We have only two hunters. I think you don’t know about professions yet. I ask you to check your town management sheet.”
Noah knew what he needed to do; he willed it. He had learned it with lots of struggles.
A screen popped in front of him with various tabs and details. He willed to search for the people tab. A list appeared in front of him.
Demon Town of Sumara Level 1
Total Population: 50
Adults: 30
Children: 20
Houses Available: 20
Then there was a profession tab. He selected it.
Total Profession selected people: 16
Blacksmith: 0
Cook: 2
Hunter: 1 (Injured)
Leather worker: 0
Merchant: 0
Vegetable gatherer: 0
Builder: 2(1 Novice, 1 Adapt)
Iron Miner: 4
Stone Miner: 4
Herbalist: 2 (Including the head man)
Healer: 1
Wood workers: 2
Non Professional assigned residents: 32
“Why do we have non-professional workers? And what do they do?”
“I know it’s a low number. My lord, most of them are children. I know a few people are old. Both can’t work,” Troy replied.
Noah gawked at the food tab.
Food Available:
50 meat pieces
50 wheat pieces
50 vegetable pieces
Days remaining to starve: 3
“What the heck? Why do I see only 3 days of food?” Noah groaned. This was bad. “And what am I supposed to do here?”
“My lord, you need to bring food,” Troy said in his mushy voice.
It was a nightmare. How was he supposed to feed his people? This was a disaster. Life was so simple before he became the lord of this town. Mathial and Roderich used to give him so much better food. Damn!
34. gamisha
Tia
Tia watched the planet they hovered over from the glass window. She pressed her nose against the cold glass, trying to view more of the beautiful sheets of clouds. Soon, the beauty would be replaced by the concrete jungle the planet was known for. Gamisha was its name. Five moons rotated around it, providing a 24/7 light source. The planet rotated around a dead star, so there was no light. Someone had stupidly invented the idea of creating moons to provide light, giving rise to the never-sleeping cities of the gaming planet.
The layer of clouds vanished, and the bright lights of their target city winked at her. The intense light evoked the memory of when she first visited Thema, the academy planet. It had an academy building visible from space, and she was flattered to see it for the first time. Here, on Gamisha, even a city with few million population had multiple buildings taller than the academy tower. The huge structure of her academy building seemed a lot smaller against the skyscrapers this planet had.
As the craft descended, the air around them grew colder. The temperature dropped suddenly, and she pulled her hands closer to her chest and crossed them around each other, trying to cope with the cold. Emanuel put his jacket around her shoulders.
She wrapped it tightly around her hands, inhaling his familiar scent. "Em, tell me once again, why we are in the transportation craft?" Laxania had offered them space on the transportation craft, which was cold, odd, and didn't restr
ict the sounds of the planetary atmosphere penetrations that sounded like metal crushing against metal, only 100 times louder. The craft was clearly not made for human transportation.
Tia was adamant to go on Gamisha, but Em had persuaded her.
“Ten more minutes, love. We are almost there.” he said, in an apologetic tone. It was he who dragged her with him. She didn't want to get within even a few thousand miles of the Laxania offices.
He rubbed her shoulder, easing her with a familiar spell. He always did this when she was angry, and his actions made her relax and just agree with his thoughts.
She closed her eyes; the jacket smelled of him and the faint perfume he regularly used mixed together. It was a comfy feeling. She inched closer to him, and Emanuel wrapped his arms around her. He was the only comfort she had, and if it wasn’t for him, she would never have agreed to visit Laxania’s main office.
The insulting journey finally ended, and they landed at the private starport of Laxania Corp. The starport was huge. Her whole academy building could fit inside it. There were about fifty different sized cargo ships parked in it. All were carrying one thing, white pods. She had seen them in cable ads; they were used for the full immersion VR-MMORPG games.
A message popped on Em's PC, asking them to wait for the escort to arrive, so they stood in the parking bay, watching the operations of the various ships through a huge glass wall. Tia had traveled on space crafts, but she had never seen so many ships in one place. And the way the ships moved without hitting each other was next to a miracle.
She inched closer to Em and slipped her arm in the gap between his torso and arm, brushing her nose on his shirt, smelling his familiar scent. “Em, you never told me the reason behind your brother’s motive for entering the game. Why did he do it?” She looked up into the blue eyes of her love.
Em’s face darkened. It was his usual reaction, to shy away from the reason for his brother’s actions.
“Welcome, guys.” A man in black suit entered the parking lobby of the starport. “Tia Maddison. If you had told me you were coming, I’d have arranged a special VIP craft for you.”
Tia turned in shock. It was the same man she had met a few days back with the proposal to meet her father in the game. She knew the black-suited man worked on Gamisha, but she never thought she would meet him here.
Her forehead creased as Balthazar extended a hand along with a fake smile. She hated her dad, and now she hated this man too.
Book 1.5
RIHALA
Table of Contents
blackflame online Vol.1
Book1
CONTENTS
1. Forty Years
2. The Room
3. Class System
4. Respawn
5. Goddess Sumara
6. New Class
7. Cursemancer
8. Demon Tongue
9. Blacksmith
10. Spells
11. Spirit Cycling
12. Critical Strike
13. Skill Book
14. Level up
15. Demon Girl
16. Close Call
17. The Fun
18. Temple of Sumara
19. Chance
20. Companion
21. Demon Crystal
22. Dream
23. Goblin
24. Fock the goblins
25. Goblin Town
26. The God's Realm
27. The Offer
28. The Answer
29. Curse of the Boiling Blood
30. Showdown
31. Expansion Site
32. Curse of Sumara
33. Aftermath
Book 2 She Demon
1. Bounty
2. Reluctance
3. The Antidote
4. Merchant
5. Armor
6. Herbalism
7. Rihala
8. Ice Shot
9. Final Nail in the coffin
10. Zombies
11. Collar
12. Killing ground
13. Dark Crystal orb
14. New Quest
15. Skeleton House
16. Sacrifice
17. Curse Acceleration
18. Seducing Demon
19. Past
20. Goblin Commander
21. The Promise
22. Cave of Xamphala
23. Raining Fireballs
24. Well of Healing
25. The Boss
26. The Kiss
27. The Quest
28. Curse of Raise Zombie
29. Sacrifice
30. Revenge
31. Head Man
32. First Pillar
33. Town Management
34. gamisha
Book 1.5
1.Weaponry
2.Druid
3.Decision
4.Jethro
5.Red Scroll
6.The Human
7. The fight
8. Good Bye
9. Collar of Slaves
Weaponry
Rihala hovered in the doorway. The room beyond was pitch dark, and she couldn’t see anything from where she stood. The air itself felt gloomy and stale. She had seen this room only once in daylight. It was a small, ten-by-ten room filled with racks full of weapons. The high priest had called it the town’s weaponry.
A black bow had caught her attention.
Now she stood in the doorway, dressed in black leather armor that was molded in a jacket format. It was the best way, she hoped, to mimic the sneak skill she hadn’t learned yet.
She contemplated her options; this was the first time she had ever stolen something. But this was her last chance, as everyone from the council hall was busy enjoying mushroom and honey filled steaks in the main hall. Starting tomorrow, there would be a fat guard stationed here.
A shiver tickled her spine as a cold breeze coming from the outside passed over her sweat drenched armor. With her heart beating loudly in her ears, she stepped inside, trying to remember where the bow rack was. There were some unlit torches amongst the weaponry, but she couldn’t risk lighting them, so she would have to rely on her weak dark vision skill. Right now, she could only see two feet ahead with 50% proficiency.
Calm down.
The strong odor of old and dusty leather took her by surprise, making her sneeze suddenly. The sound of the sneeze echoed in the room. Fear froze her legs, and her heart stopped. She quickly slipped behind a weapon rack filled with useless magic sources. Mages, a weak class, used them in battle. Mages could be easily killed by a ranger before they conjured their magic. Rihala was a ranger, a sacred archer, and she was proud of it.
When no one came looking for the source of the noise, she moved to the next rack. It was filled with one-hand melee weapons.
Today wasn’t her day. Clumsy, she tripped over something and hit her head on a wooden stool. The stool fell and struck a weapon rack with a loud bang.
Hearing a foot step in the passage outside, she crawled behind another weapon rack, hiding herself as best as possible.
A shadow peeked inside the weaponry.
She held her breath. This was bad.
Light illuminated the room when a guard with a protruding stomach lit a torch above the doorway. It was the same guard she had spotted sleeping next to an empty bottle of ale and a bowl of half-finished pig meat at the start of the passage connecting to the weaponry.
Adjusting his stomach in his black pants, he walked in with his tail hovering over his head. He looked to his sides and then pressed forward in her direction.
Her breath froze in her lungs when the guard came within two steps of her. One more step, and he would catch her. Catching a slave stealing would bring said slave and her family severe punishment.
Thanks to Zedusa, the guard looked at the wooden stool lying next to the rack, cursed an imaginary cat, and left the room.
Rihala continued holding her breath until the sound of his footsteps reduced to nothing. When she was sure the
guard wasn't outside and planning to ambush her, she stood and stepped out from behind the rack, then moved straight to the ranged weapon rack. The guard had left the torch lit, so the rack was now easy to spot. It was filled with bows, crossbows, sling throwers and a couple of advanced weapons she couldn’t identify. Though she knew nothing on the rack would be magical, she still checked a couple of bows.
Crude short bow
Durability 10/10
Damage 5
Attack speed 1.0
Tracing her hands over the cheap wood, she remembered the first time she had seen a bow. She was twelve when Magadha, daughter of High Priest Jethro, had shown her a bow. It was the most beautiful weapon she had seen in her life. It was made of yew, and the grip was padded with soft leather. The string was made of soft and durable silk. She didn't understand the names Magadha had used when describing the beautiful weapon. But Magadha had said it had been commissioned for her by her father to learn the ranger class.
Rihala couldn't even hold that bow, as it had a level requirement of 9. She was disappointed about not being a ranger that day, and by early the next morning she had decided that she would become a ranger. She even learned some lessons on a small bow while playing with Magadha that summer. Unfortunately, Rihala's bow training stopped when Magadha left the palace for further studies. Magadha did return a couple of years back, and she continued teaching Rihala the sacred art of archery, but once Magadha was gone Rihala’s training again halted until Magadha’s next visit.
Unfortunately, without proper training it took her 20 years to reach level 5. But no more. That was going to change today. She was out of Madurai, the capital of the Zedusania Empire, on a long trip with High Priest Jethro. They were going to stay in this small border town for one month, and she had planned to utilize this time to train herself further and reach at least level 7 or 8 before going back. She would get a bow, walk into the wilderness around the town, and hunt some animals.
That was the plan. The high priest also allowed her to roam around the town and do what she wished, something not allowed for slaves and their children in Madurai. Also, being the high priest's helper gave her respect and authority over the small-town guards. So, she was planning to utilize her newfound freedom for a few days.