by John Nest
"It was all thanks to Ledur. He was all over the place, impaling golems left and right with his earth spikes. The rest of us were mostly just cleaning up after him," chuckled Sierra.
Ledur then went over to Adder. "Thank you, brother. I saw the Centaur children that were rescued earlier."
"We should have gotten here sooner," replied Adder somberly. "I can't even imagine what they must have been through."
Smoke placed his hand on Adder's shoulder. "They are safe now. In time, the new memories they make in Verbrannt will help them lead normal lives again."
Quickly, he scanned all the Vagrant Vigilantez present and found that all of them had over 50% on their life bars. He then looked at his gathered friends and said, "There's still one room left.”
Sierra, Adder and Ledur nodded in agreement.
They soon arrived in front of the door of the last room in the black mansion. Smoke could sense at least two hundred monsters on the other side of it. He told Ledur to get ready to seal the door, in case the monsters look too tough for them to handle.
CREEEEEEEAK
He opened the door slightly and took a peek inside. The room was as spacious as the other three, but instead of casting circles with monsters or children strapped inside them, there was a massive cage with one-meter tall green monsters inside it. The cage was filled with Gobble Goblins.
The goblins instantly looked at the DarkElf. Most of them backed away from the cage door as he slowly walked over to them. Only a handful of elderly goblins were prepared to confront him.
"Greet you me. I Smoke. I friend you," said Smoke in crude Gobberish.
One of the goblins answered him, "You must be one of Crucibelle’s underlings. She also used our lovely tongue and deceived us with her words."
Smoke energetically shook his head and waved his hands. "No, no, no. I kill Crucibelle. I friend you."
He then showed them the Berserker's Ring of Flames.
The elderly goblins looked at each other and nodded curiously. Then, one of them spoke in Lacerta, the most common language in Zectas. "Please stop talking in Gobberish. My ears bleed from your poor attempt to speak in our intricate language."
Smoke was taken aback, as he didn't know that Gobble Goblins could speak normally. "I'm sorry if my poor Gobberish has offended you, but what I'm saying is true: I am not your enemy. I’d even be willing to release you from this cage if it would help convince you of that."
"Release us? Or will you just put us in a different cage?" asked the same elderly goblin skeptically.
"No, you'd be free to go. However, it'd be dangerous for you to leave on your own, with Horrabelle still out there and all," Smoke answered sincerely. "If you would come with us to our village, we'll be able to protect you."
He then remembered the other Gobble Goblins left in Verbrannt, the ones that still didn't trust him. "You could also help me convince the goblins we freed from Crucibelle’s clutches that we mean no harm."
The elderly goblin spoke in Gobberish to the other goblins before he turned to face Smoke again. "There are others of our kind in your village?"
"Yes, and it would be a great help if you could make them understand that I'm just trying to protect them," said Smoke in an imploring voice.
"That remains to be seen, but I suppose leaving this horrible place would be better than staying," replied the elderly goblin. He then spoke with the other goblins once more. After a few minutes, he faced Smoke and nodded in agreement.
After giving a nod in return, Smoke told the Tikbalangs to free the goblins. While they were waiting to be released, the goblins were spreading the word to the rest of them who were hiding in the back portion of the cage.
While waiting for the goblins to be liberated, Sierra spotted a desk filled with papers. "Smoke, over here."
Smoke walked over to her and found that the stack of papers was similar to the one in Schrecklich's chamber.
"Thanks, this could be helpful," said Smoke and gave her a smile.
He grabbed one of the sheets of paper and found an expected notification window.
+ Acquired Knowledge: Horrabelle's Gargantuan Goblin Transmutation [Page 12 of 20]
[BLOCKED: Information Window will not display until all pages have been read.]
In less than a minute, Smoke read all twenty pages and the Information window finally popped up.
+ Horrabelle's Gargantuan Goblin Transmutation
Step-by-Step Ritual:
1. Gather 250 Gobble Goblins in a confined space.
2. Inflict Berserk status on them (Terror Spell works fine, too).
3. Watch the magic happen.
Smoke sighed. He thought it would be something he didn't know already. He was familiar with the ritual because he had observed Crucibelle perform it near Banal village a while ago.
Sierra noticed his disappointed expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I just thought I'd get some new information," he replied passively.
Unwilling to give up on getting what he wanted, Smoke took out the parchments Schrecklich dropped earlier. He immediately started acquiring the knowledge of the parchment entitled “Ultimo's Request - Three Troublesome Villages.”
After a few seconds, an Information window popped up.
+ Ultimo's Request - Three Troublesome Villages.
Salutations,
My Brandals have tried occupying the villages of Tatlong, Lugar and Pinagsama.
These three places are close to and support each other, making the task difficult for us.
Each time one of my battalions attacks one village, the other two send reinforcements to it.
Perhaps you could assist me in conquering them?
I hear that there are a little over a thousand people residing in each village, a fair part of them being children.
Here are their Map Locations:
Tatlong: Latitude: 95°23' N, Longitude: 234°54' E
Lugar: Latitude: 93°23' N, Longitude: 232°54' E
Pinagsama: Latitude: 95°23' N, Longitude: 232°54' E
I believe cooperation would be mutually beneficial to our endeavors.
May the bloodline of Vinceretus rule forever!
Respectfully,
Ultimo Maire
The date on the parchment was from four days ago. After processing the information he read, a worried Smoke turned to Sierra. "They’re targeting three villages this time," he said and quickly shared the contents of the parchment with her.
"This was sent four days ago. We know that Horrabelle’s Therianthropes were still patrolling the area around Braucht Hilfe two days ago, because you encountered a group of them,” explained Smoke while holding his chin. “Since the werewolves that escaped must have notified her of their failure, it’s possible that she has reassembled her army since then and is on her way to the three villages as we speak."
He continued, “We need to hurry and stop her from capturing any more children. We might be able to get to the villages before she does.” Sierra nodded in agreement.
"Do we need to send for the others? Because we better call them now if we do," she asked.
"No, there’s no time. It would take too long for everyone to organise and travel to the villages.” Smoke paused, deep in thought. “Ledur and I are the fastest. The two of us will fly there and try to convince the village residents to evacuate. The rest of you return to Verbrannt with the children.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sierra gave him a worried look, clearly not fond of his plan.
"It’s the best chance we have,” he replied, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “Can you please tell Adder and Ledur about this? I still have one more thing to read."
"Sure," answered Sierra and went to them. Smoke then took out the parchment entitled “Horrabelle's Notice on the Red Scamp.”
In a matter of seconds, he acquired the information and a window popped up.
+ Horrabelle's Notice on the Red Scamp
Subordinate
s,
As you may know, a red Werebear, the last one my sisters and I created together, has gone rogue.
Her body contains information that is vital to improving the effectiveness of my Werebear Transmutation.
If you find her, bring her to me.
In the event that you are unable to capture her alive, bring back a piece of her flesh.
A small enough piece shouldn’t disappear with the rest of her body.
Your Creator, Horrabelle
A grim look appeared on Smoke’s face as his eyes dilated and his eyebrows met. He angrily crumpled up the parchment and stored it in his backpack window.
He stared at the cursed form of the red-haired girl he held dear. He feared for her safety.
Chapter Three:
To Heed a Warning
A bright sunny morning greeted Sherry's neighbors, who were preparing to go to work or drop off their kids to school. It was time for them to start a new day.
However, in her house, it was time to get some sleep. It was night time in Zectas, at least for the next three hours in the real world. A red game pod opened and she grabbed tight onto the ergonomically-designed armrests. She stepped out with her eyebrows raised and lip curled.
"Argh! Why does he do always do this to me? One minute he’s all sweet and charming, the next he’s flying off somewhere," she said, voicing out her frustration.
She had just logged out of Zectas as her character was safely riding on Gandiva's war carriage. Flustered, she unfurled her ponytail and let loose her curly red hair. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and tried to get a hold of her emotions.
Sherry knew that Nash's decision to immediately head to the three villages was the right one, but she was still upset about how little time they got to spend together.
'Is he doing this on purpose?' she thought to herself.
After another deep breath, she stopped trying to clear her mind and stormed out of her room. Her footsteps echoed loudly as she headed for the kitchen.
There, Sherry prepared the ingredients for her latest Zectas-inspired dish: her own version of the ancient bison stew. She stretched her hands out and cracked her knuckles.
She poured a cup of water and some cooking oil into a large pressure cooker. While waiting for the water to boil, she started chopping garlic, onions and tomatoes.
‘When he gets back, I’m definitely going to—ouch!’
Sherry stared at the blood flowing down her finger.
A year ago, she would have made a commotion over a cut like this, but after diving into the world of Zectas, she got used to seeing blood and gore. She rinsed her finger over running water and waited for the bleeding to stop, after which she continued cooking.
She sauteed the chopped ingredients in a pan and left them to cool down. She then added a whole ear of corn into the pressure cooker, along with salt, pepper and parsley. For the final ingredient, she added a whole beef shank.
Sherry excitedly sealed the pressure cooker and left it alone, as the stew needed an hour to cook. After putting a Band-Aid on her finger, she thought about doing some light yoga exercises, but opted to read posts on the Zectas forum instead.
A thread entitled "Sonstwelters and Zectians" had received a lot of attention lately. It was written by someone named ProfessorXectas and described how the NPCs in Zectas refer to themselves as ‘Zectians’, while calling the players ‘Sonstwelters’.
Sherry thought it was foolish to openly share such information. It must have required a high level of Intimacy for him to obtain it, and he just shared it with everyone else without a second thought.
Next, she clicked on Nash's latest video, which displayed a total of six million views. She took a look at the comment section to see what the viewers thought of it.
CrazyKillaZ: I used to like Smoke. Like, he used to fight tons of bandits by himself, but now he's just being rescued by his guild members. Has your guild weakened you, Smoke?
ProfessorXectas: I don't know. I mean, have you ever faced a monster with that much HP? My level is in the high 80s, but I don't think I could last even a minute against that Witch.
PurrFex: Meow!
Hilot: Be that as it may, I think Smoke and his guild did okay in the battle against that monster. If he had managed to defeat it by himself at his level, I would have seriously sent a letter to the Moderators, asking them to inspect if he has a hack enabled or something.
CatatonicKing: I've got no problem with him. I like the two Lioumereans that are in his private army. Prrr!
DetectiveRonan: I don't think we should judge him based on the ending of the video alone. Crucibelle's life was already significantly damaged before the rest of his guild arrived.
UrLogicSux: Can't say I'm all for this fight as well. Smoke, bring back your deep video tutorials. It's been awhile since you released one of those.
Madara: Meh. He has better videos than this one. Right now, I think Amahan's videos are the best. He’s only one piece away from completing his djinn. Though, I could honestly say that even this is better than Tristan's videos. That guy just delivers the finishing blows and does barely anything else.
SmoKING: I know, right? I even heard talk that the city of Tonaci is about to be taken away from him. He's been in Grand Malodorant Dragonis for so long that his own city is about to disown him. LOL!
TriTank: @Madara and @SmoKING Clearly, you two don't know what you're talking about. The only reason Smoke was able to fight that Witch was because he had a perlite weapon. Where in the world could he have gotten that?! If it wasn't for that weapon, I bet he would have been fried. And FYI, Tristan's city still belongs to him. Those are just rumors being spread by those who envy him.
After reading the comments, she made a mental note to talk to Nash about the type of videos he makes. Looking at the clock in the corner of the screen, she found that she still had forty-five minutes to kill.
Sherry snuggled into her bed and set the alarm clock for forty-five minutes. Her being constantly in Zectas has altered her sleeping pattern. Unlike Nash, who had done research on sleeping patterns, she discovered on her own to take as many naps as she can and to sleep whenever there was nothing to do in the virtual reality world.
BWEEP BEEP BWEEP BEEP BWEEP BEEP
Her hand searched for the source of the annoying sound and finally pressed the clock's button.
Groggily, Sherry went to the kitchen to check her experimental dish. She took a teaspoon out of a drawer and tasted the stew. She cringed at its bitter taste.
'What the...did I put too much garlic?' she wondered to herself. She slumped down on a chair and contemplated on a way to save the dish.
Sherry breathed out a heavy sigh and laid her head on the kitchen table. She was hoping to add another dish to her menu and take a step forward towards her dream of a Zectas-themed restaurant, but now it felt like had taken two steps back instead.
In Zectas, she was the Lady of Verbrannt, a respected owner of an entire village who could command dozens of Werewolves with a snap of her finger. However, in the real world, she was a college dropout whose dream was far from becoming a reality. That was her life at the moment.
She stared hopefully at her phone. Nash rarely called or texted. The only time they talked was inside Zectas. Her uncle was out of town again, looking into a supposed business opportunity, but she knew that he had only away with his girlfriend.
BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT
Suddenly, her phone glowed and vibrated, as it was in silent mode.
Swiping the screen, she excitedly read the digits of an unfamiliar phone number from which she received a message. "Argh! Not another scammercial!" she said out loud and lightly threw her phone across the kitchen table.
She shook her head and proceeded to add more spices to her experimental dish. While doing so, she thought about how her life was going.
'Should I go back to college?' she asked herself. Unlike Nash, she wasn't earning anything from playing Zectas. Even though she could live off th
e money her mother left her, Sherry still felt the need to earn her own.
Then, she remembered something her mother used to say to her.
"Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes hard work, tenacity and courage. The path to your goal will never be easy, but that’s exactly what makes the things hardest to obtain the most precious."
She looked out the window and gazed at the fluffy white clouds drifting across the blue sky. She put her hair in a ponytail again and took out more ingredients from the pantry. After adding the new spices, she took a teaspoon and tasted the stew. Her lips curled into a smile.