Governor Ven composed himself. He calmly sat down, smoothed his hair and looked over at Selal, “And you!? What do you say, Selal?”
They stared at each other with scowls. Selal’s fist tightened around a knife. The governor reached for a fork and looked at Lady Blades. She wasn’t sure what Selal’s move would be, but there wasn’t much either of them could do against a level 19 mage.
Selal and Ven burst into laughter and looked over at Lady Blades who didn’t get the joke.
“You are a fool, my old friend. But let’s see what Lady Blades has to say,” Selal said jamming a fork full of lettuce in his mouth.
Governor Ven looked over at her, “But I already know what she has to say.”
Lady Blades raised an eyebrow, “And what is that?”
“You are going to offer me power,” Ven leaned forward. “You are about to offer me the ability to wield mana. Become Mana-Born. You are here to fulfill the prophecy of the Book of Elias The First High-Born. ‘And the warrior and the priest shall give birth to the first Mana-Born daughters; and they shall be ruled by the first Mana-Born king of the land.”
Selal laughed, his mouth full of food, “You believe in those mythical stories, Ven! I’ve seen you break too many of Elias’ commandments to repent now, HAHAHA. A Wild Lander is the warrior that brings the Mana-Born to the Elven Reich?!”
“Where she is from,” Ven said leaning back. “It is quite possible.”
She nodded, “How did you learn of my powers?”
Governor Ven smiled.
“The servants told you,” Lady Blades said.
“We the ‘uninitiated’, the low-born, stick together,” Ven said. “We have a common struggle.”
Selal laughed, “Common struggle?! You are the son of the King! What do you have in common with servants?”
“My dear, privileged magic user,” Ven said. “Low-born is low-born. No magic is no magic. Do you think I would be the governor to the low-born without being my father’s son? I don’t really rule First Town. My advisors do. I am a figurehead. The first non-magic user to hold this station. And right after the low-born uprising? Do you think that was a coincidence?”
Selal shrugged and stuffed his mouth, “You speak the truth, old friend.”
“As a Mana-Born,” Lady Blade said. “You could rule First Town and other parts of the kingdom.”
“Mana-Born?” Selal stroked his beard. “A low-born given the ability to wield magic? You would have the full support of the people. You are also the son of the king. With magic, you then have a right to the throne…” Selal looked at Ven and nodded.
Governor Ven looked at Lady Blades, “What can I offer you in exchange for your services?”
Chapter 39:
A Portal Diverted
Priest stood up next to Samantha, “Before we start, I’ll need to add all of you to our group so we don’t lose each other. I’ve already added Noelle and Mela. I’ll add everyone else right now starting with Sam and Gina,” Priest reached out his hands to each of them. He closed his eyes.
Samantha saw and heard a system prompt, “Priest has invited you to his group “Family Cult”. Do you accept?”
“Family Cult,” she got the joke but didn’t laugh. She accepted.
Priest looked at both of them and sent them a thought, “Can you both hear me?”
“I can hear… your thoughts?” Gina said out loud.
“What about secret thoughts… privacy,” Sam thought turning to Gina and turning red.
Priest laughed and said, “You can control who you send your thoughts to and what others hear. We can only hear what you send to us. It takes a conscious effort of will and focus to send a thought. It’s not a broadcast of any and all stray thoughts that enter your head. It’s a messaging system called GroupLink.”
Priest added the other 11 elves.
In her peripheral, Sam could see a drop-down menu of all the members of “Family Cult”:
Priest - Cleric 1 (GM)
Gina – Fire Mage 1
Samantha - Fighter 1 (PM)
Noelle - Shapeshifter 1
Mela - Shapeshifter 1/Rogue 1
Gem - SpellSword 1
Sena - Wizard 2 (PM)
Fawna - SpellSword 1
Tas - SpellSword 1
Por - Wizard 1
Tell - Wizard 1
Dolla - Wizard 1
Sosh - Wizard 1
Nona - Wizard 1
Lel - Warrior 1
Bora - Wizard 1
“Xavier’s not in the group,” Noelle said shaking her head.
Priest sighed, “He left before I could add him. And before he was fully trained.”
Noelle looked down. Priest gripped her shoulder, “Don’t worry,” He said. “We’ll find him. If he ever accesses the shared tutorial, I’ve left a message for him there.”
Priest turned to the group, “You can disband from the GroupLink or turn off the messages anytime with your intent.” Priest said, “We are going to open a portal and step through it. We’ll only have one hour once we go through. We’ll take two fighters: Samantha and Gem. And two long-range strikers: Gina and Sena.”
“What about us?” Mela said referring to herself and Noelle.
“Yes, come with us, we need you to level up your fighting skills. The rest of you wait your turn.”
The other ladies and gentlemen seemed very disturbed. Fawna stepped forward and spoke on their behalf, “But Master… Madame Mela, what about us? What if you need our help? If you don’t return… what do we do? Gem isn’t enough protection! I’m sure I could do better—”
“Fawna, you poor child,” Gem’s dark eyes flashed. “I am clearly the better choice. Master and Madame Mela chose the best! As the master did last night...I had him up very late taking measurements to come up with something for him to wear. I gave him something amazing. Took us until morning. Had to keep trying over and over. I needed help from Sena. As you know, her skills are legendary. It’s tight on the seams, but we got it to fit after a few attempts, right Priest? Did you like that tunic? We can do it faster next time, but I prefer to take my time to do it right.”
Priest looked away and cleared his throat. Gina, Noelle, and Samantha turned slowly to see his face turn red even through that perfect tan.
Fawna growled, “ooooh, you little ball fondling, tassel plug—”
“Ladies!” Mela yelled. “That’s enough! Airing out your grievances in front of our guests? We will call you if we need your help.”
“Uh, yes. Yes,” Priest stammered happy to steer the conversation, “You’ll be able to hear us on the GroupLink. Please, keep the line clear and only come through the portal if we ask for your assistance. If all of you begin sending messages on the link, you can make us confused and get us killed. Also… Mela, do you have a watch?”
Mela cocked her head, “Sorry, watch? Watch what?”
“Oh, umm... something to measure time?” Priest asked.
“Aw, yes,” Mela went behind the pub’s counter and grabbed a large hourglass full of sand. She flipped it, “It should run out just before the sunsets on the Forever Forest, which is not too long from now.”
Priest nodded, “Perfect. We should be back before this sand drains. You’ll have a link to us as long as the portal is still open. Gem will take the front. You’re the toughest.”
Gem looked over at the jealous ladies to wink and run her tongue over her top lip. They sneered but said nothing.
Favoritism aside, Gem was a natural warrior. Priest had awakened a spellsword class in her. She was 4’8 and had two scimitar swords that seemed as long as she was tall. She wrapped her long black braid around her neck three times.
Mela and some of the ladies brought up a bunch of weapons to choose from.
Samantha, Mela, and Noelle grabbed short swords. Priest had a polearm while the magic users Sena and Gina grabbed daggers just in case they were out of mana and something or someone got too close. Samantha found a strap for an arrow quiver a
s a sling for her portal gun.
“Once Sam opens the portal, the system should give us a quest. We’ll have to complete the quest within about 45 minutes and get back or we’ll be stuck in whatever world we step in. Everyone, stand back,” Priest said. “Samantha, open a portal against this wall.”
Samantha aimed the portal gun and pulled the trigger. A shimmering fractal pool rippled against the wall, and if she looked through very carefully, she could just make out a blur of sand spread out as far as the eye could see.
Bits of sand blew through the portal and into the pub right into Gem’s face. She squinted and then went to grabbed a towel from the nearby bar and wrapped it around her mouth and nose. The rest of the team followed suit after peeking through the portal.
The gun’s interface spoke, “You have opened a portal to Universal Set .00552; Earth Host; Don’t you want to get away? Now you can! Visit the quaking Sands of the Forsaken in the Deserts of Wrym. Meet the nomadic descendants of the first and last Wyrm rebellion. See the marvel of the living world Earth Host and be one of the few to witness the sheer wonder of the City of Wyrm.”
Priest smiled, “We can hear the portal device interface. It’s on GroupLink. Alright, let’s go.”
Gem walked through with her swords drawn. The system offered a quest.
New Quest: Explore the Sands of the Forsaken
You have reached the Sands of the Forsaken. Few visit these dunes by choice. Any maps of this part of the world are in the City of Wyrm are valuable. Make it across the Sands.
Reward: All members of your group will gain 50% of the total experience points necessary to get to the next level of their primary class. 100 credits for each person participating in the quest.
Failure: Be consumed.
Difficulty: Medium.
Sand and heat blasted them in the face. The towels covering their noses and mouths allowed them to breathe better.
Mela tried to speak over the sound of wind and sand. Priest tapped between his brow. Mela nodded and sent her thoughts over GroupLink, “Priest, this is a medium quest. Should we try an easy level or very easy? According to the tutorial in the Personal Reality Subset, we should start off easy and work our way to more difficult quests.”
“No,” he responded over group chat, “We can do this. We’ll be fine. If it looks too hard, we’ll turn back.”
The quest had supplied a compass guiding their way across the Sands of the Forsaken and the destination in the distance. It led toward buildings far away. Priest sent out a thought on GroupLink, “Gem, do you see those structures in the distance? Let’s go that way.”
Priest continued on GroupLink, “The system gives us the opportunity to explore the world of each universe it sends us to. It offers us quests. And these quests have different risk levels, from very easy to very hard. The more difficult the quest, the more multiverse experience points that we earn if we complete it. Experience points allow us to level up. More levels mean more access to powers and abilities. This is a medium level quest so we’ll get a lot of experience points for this.”
Samantha caught Gina staring as they walked side by side. Sam looked at her then looked at Priest. She walked away from them to catch up with Gem.
After a few minutes of walking, Sam noticed something. She sent out the message, “Are those buildings getting further away?”
Mela and Noelle were in the back of the group. Mela stopped walking and took a knee. She turned in the opposite direction facing back toward the portal and put her hand to the ground. Noelle followed her lead and took a knee next to her, “what is it?”
Mela addressed the group, “Wait. I feel something. Following—”
Her message was interrupted by a creature erupting out of the sand. It looked like a corpse dressed in rags and covered in sand.
Scavenger of the Forsaken Sands [plagued]
HP: 60
Strength: 8
Stamina: 200
Dexterity: 16
It clubbed Mela in the head and punched Noelle to the ground before anyone could react.
Mela is hit for 20 points of damage. Your party is under attack from scavengers of the Forsaken Sands.
A half dozen sand people jumped out of the sand and charged them with spears and knives made of human bone.
“Shit!” Gina breathed in mana and exhaled flames from her palms engulfing two of the charging creatures in a crackling blaze.
Gina Fuego ignites a scavenger with a fire bolt for 24 points of damage.
Scavenger takes 33 points of damage from flames.
The two flailed around wildly. Sena finished them off with flaming sphere attacks.
Sena initiates a flaming sphere on a scavengers head for 26 points of damage.
Scavenger takes 30 points of damage from flames.
You have killed 2 Sand Scavengers.
Priest ran toward Mela and Noelle to administer healing. A dust storm swept in as the ground began to shake violently.
“Earthquake!” Sena yelled.
A huge funnel of sand swirled around the desert. They could barely see more than a few feet in front of them.
Three more of the scavengers ran out of the storm to grab Mela. Noelle swung a sword at the creatures. From a meter away, she could see that they were disease ridden humans. They looked like leprosy victims wrapped from head to toe in shredded cloth. Gem leaped out in front of the attackers chopping two of them in half with the scimitars imbued with a flame spell. Before their corpses fell, she was already stabbing two others who were trying to run away.
Gem dealt a critical blow to a scavenger’s upper body! Scavenger takes 70 points of damage.
Critical blow! Gem has cut a scavenger in half at the waste with a flaming sword. Scavenger takes 65 points of damage.
You have killed 2 Sand Scavengers.
Gem sent out a message to Sam, “Follow me.”
Gem ran into the sand storm and Sam followed. They disappeared. The rest of the group heard screams of scavengers coming from all around them and flashes of Gem’s blades imbued with fire.
They saw scores of repeated system messages flashing in their peripheral vision:
Samantha has punched a scavenger for 15 points of damage.
Gem has cut a scavenger for 28 points of damage.
Samantha has kicked a scavenger for 13 points of damage.
You have killed a scavenger.
“Is she gonna be ok?” Sena asked Priest who was finishing up healing Mela. A scavenger charged out of the swirling dust. Sena blasted it with a fire sphere to the face.
Sena has hit a scavenger and caused 42 points of damage with a fire sphere.
The creature rolled around until Gina ended it with the ignite spell.
Mela opened her eyes and got to her feet slowly gripping her head where the wound had been, “I’m ok.”
Noelle pushed away Priest’s hand. Her nose had stopped bleeding, “Save your mana. I’m ok. Just bruised up.”
The storm still raged enough to severely limit their visibility.
Priest sent out a message, “Samantha. Gem. Are you ok?”
No response. Sena and Gina walked toward the swarm of dust charging up their mana.
Gem sent a message to the group, “Run.”
Gem and Samantha came sprinting out of the dust passed Sena and Gina, “RuuuuuuUN!” They yelled. A horde of scavengers came charging out of the haze.
Everyone ran. The horde was right behind them, a stampede of screeching psychopaths covered from head to toe in threaded rags waving stone axes and bone swords.
Gina managed to light a few up, but the horde just kept coming. A few stopped to eat their fallen comrade carving off huge chunks of charred flesh but the others were after the main course.
“Fire’s not working,” she yelled at Sena. They could no longer see the group ahead of them just giant swirls of dust and sand. The scavenger horde was out running them. Gina breathed in mana to release a fire bolt that set a swath of scavengers aflame, b
ut there were too many of them. The mob snatched Sena. Gina was surrounded on all sides. Another massive earthquake rumbled but the scavengers kept coming.
The scavenger mob was pulling her in four different directions. Her body was dragged and tugged as they fought over her. Sena was being eaten alive by these diseased creatures.
They were clawing and scratching at Sena’s flesh. Biting large chunks out of her arms and legs. They growled, snarled and snapped at one another fighting for a pound of sweet elven meat.
Chapter 40:
Seek Refuge
Xavier woke up in a familiar dimly lit closet. It was the place that Priest had brought him to before giving him powers. Personal reality subset, he’d called it. He swiped his hand and a few 3D icons appeared floating in the middle of the room. There was a mail icon, a folder labeled Shared Training Modules, Reality Subset App Store icon and another icon that looked like a cloud called RPDream.
He clicked the Shared Training Module and clicked on the only file there. It was labeled, “the Mall”.
A door appeared on the wall of the closet and he went over to walk through it. He was in Alamogordo mall again. It looked like it did the last time, with people walking around and shopping. The large windows of the mall showed a bright noonday.
The only difference was a large kiosk with a large sign attached. It had Priest’s frowning face and it said “X marks the spot. Click this button!”
Xavier walked over and clicked a big red button. A holographic image of Priest appeared.
“If you are watching this then you are still alive and they have more than likely already captured you. What were you thinking?” Priest said shaking his head. “You were not fully trained. I didn’t hook you up with GroupLink, you haven’t even had an actual quest or fight. There are some differences between the world and the training module… Anyway, look, they may torture you or threaten to kill you. Just tell them that we are at the Sister Seamstress. I’ll be, ok. I am leaving. I hope you find Shiori and Ebony. If by some miracle you have not been caught, then send me a message. That’s all I can say without getting you or me killed.” Priest looked up to see if there was anything else he could say, “Ok, I guess that’s it.”
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