by Adam Horne
Critical hit!
A white mist diffused into the air from the spot where the bottle had shattered. The magical barrier flickered when the mist touched it then went out. At the same time, Galahad let out a cry of pain and collapsed on the ground. Kelath and Elora looked at each other, shock in their eyes. They’d not even discussed who should grab the lamp and make the wish, so they stood frozen in indecision as the minotaur stomped across the pit towards them.
“Make the wish count,” said Elora before running down the stairs and yelling to get the minotaur’s attention. She cast a spell and a barrier appeared around her, then she dashed across the floor of the arena, barely able to stay ahead of the monster as it chased her.
Kelath ran over to the table and picked up the lamp. It was made of gold, long and thin with a handle on one side and a spout on the other. He rubbed his hand along its surface, and a stream of smoke spilled from the opening and coalesced into the shape of a genie. The being wore a red vest and striped pantaloons, and gold rings adorned each finger along with piercings in its ears and eyebrows.
The genie bowed. “What is your wish?”
Kelath’s mind raced as he thought of what he should ask for. This was his chance to become rich in the game, but he didn’t know the limits of what he could request. Obviously, he would like an unlimited supply of money, but that could also break the game and might not be allowed.
“Are there rules I have to follow?” asked Kelath.
The genie smiled. “A very shrewd question. You can ask for anything, although I’ll ignore you if you ask for more wishes. I will interpret your request and attempt to fulfill it in the way you desire.”
“So I could ask for a million gold?”
“If that is what you want.”
“And there would be no unintended consequences?”
The genie smiled. “There are always consequences, especially of the unintended kind.”
Kelath thought it over. The reason he’d started to play the game was to earn his own money to pay back his mother for the charity they’d received. If his wish was fulfilled, he would have as much as he wanted, but that felt like a cop out. More than the money, he’d hoped to prove that he could take care of himself. It was only luck that he happened to be the last member of his party left to benefit from the lamp. Although the game had allowed them to defeat the barrier, it was too close to cheating for him to be comfortable. He didn’t feel right being rewarded for that.
A scream from across the arena drew his attention. Elora had somehow gotten trapped behind one of the gates from which combatants entered, and the minotaur struck her down. The monster turned and plodded heavily towards the stage. Kelath was the only one left. He looked at his friends’ bodies lying in the dirt and imagined their spirits hanging over their corpses, watching to see what he would do. Galahad lay sprawled, face down on the ground. Througar and Bandit were next to each other, his hand on the wolf’s head.
The genie glanced at the minotaur as it ascended the steps to the stage. “You might want to hurry.”
“I know what I want.” He voiced his wish and the genie nodded before slipping back inside the lamp.
The minotaur charged, knocking him backwards into the table. It pounded him with its fists until he fell and could not rise.
You have been slain. Resurrecting at the nearest graveyard in 5 seconds.
* * *
When the screen cleared, Kelath was standing in the forest graveyard surrounded by his friends. Yorrick and Zafira were both still there, along with Througar, Elora, and Galahad. Througar grinned as he stepped up and clasped Kelath by the arm.
“What did you do?” he asked, his tone somewhat awed.
“I asked the genie to make it so guilds couldn’t charge their members money to join.” Kelath examined Througar and saw there was no longer a guild tag after his name. He smiled. “You already left Noblesse Oblige.”
“Actually, I didn’t have to leave. There was a system message saying I’d been removed from the guild, and that was that.”
Kelath smiled. “We’re always looking for new members, if you’re interested.”
“You know I am.”
Kelath opened the guild window and sent Througar an invitation to join. When the new name appeared on the list, he promoted his friend to be an officer. “Welcome to our guild.”
Everyone cheered and clapped Througar on the back. Yorrick enlisted Galahad’s help to boost him onto their shoulders and paraded around. While they were celebrating, Elora approached Kelath and stood somewhat awkwardly beside him, a stark contrast to her normally ebullient mood.
“That was a nice thing you did,” she said. “You could have wished for anything, but you chose the greater good.”
Kelath rubbed the back of his neck with one hand in embarrassment. “Considering the circumstances, I didn’t feel right asking for something for myself.”
Elora didn’t respond. Kelath watched as Througar was carried off because he was too nervous to look her in the eye. She suggested they follow since the others would soon disappear amongst the trees, and they walked together in silence for a couple minutes.
A question still bothered Kelath, so he asked, “Do you think we’ll be able to negate magic barriers like that if they come up again?”
“I doubt it,” said Elora. “The game grows and adapts based on how players act. I have a feeling the next time a magic lamp appears, it won’t be so easy to get close to it.”
After a while, Yorrick lowered Througar to the ground, and they waited for Kelath and Elora to catch up. Galahad told the story of their fights inside the dungeon to the two who had stayed outside, so deeply in character that at points he was imitating their voices and pantomiming their actions. Zafira laughed at his antics and played along, and even Yorrick cracked a smile.
While the rest were listening to Galahad’s story, Througar approached Kelath. “Thanks for what you did, but I’m surprised you didn’t ask for money. You could have paid back your mom’s book club and had as much left over as you wanted. What gives?”
Kelath thought about it for a moment. “We retrieved the lamp together. I couldn’t have done it alone, so I didn’t want to ask for something solely for myself.”
“You could have shared the gold with the rest of us.” Througar winked. “I think I like this better though. It means I don’t have to spend a year paying all that money to someone I hate.”
They exited the forest and proceeded across the plains towards Stockton but stopped at the sound of a voice yelling behind them. Two figures rushed into the open and hurried to catch up. When they were close enough, Kelath recognized Itrix in the lead with Brill following him. It took a few seconds before they could make out what was being said.
Itrix glared as he marched forward and yelled, “What the hell did you do?”
Chapter 27
Itrix seethed as he charged after them. The tabards both he and Brill had worn were gone, along with the guild tag that should have been beside their names.
Itrix approached Kelath and yelled in his face. “We fought that minotaur ten times over the last three days and never got it below twenty percent health. How could you possibly defeat it on your first try?”
Kelath shrugged. “I didn’t have to.”
“Didn’t have to. Do you hear this?” Itrix asked of Brill but didn’t wait for a response. “You cheated! It’s the only way you could’ve won, and I want to know how you did it.”
“No cheating. We used the tools the game provided.”
“Liar! I know you did something, and then you wished for my guild to be disbanded. I’m going to contact the administrators, and when they figure it out, they’ll have to do a rollback. It’ll be like your wish never happened.”
“The whole guild was disbanded?” Througar laughed. “That’s awesome!”
Itrix spit at Througar’s feet. “I’ll deal with you in a minute, traitor.”
“You would do well to watch your tone,”
said Galahad.
“You’ve lost this time,” said Kelath. “If you’d treated other people with some decency, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Itrix moved backwards, and Kelath thought he was going to beat a retreat. Instead he began casting a spell, and Brill sprinted forward, pulling the great sword from his back as he charged. Just before the heavy blade came down on Kelath’s head, Througar jumped in front and used his shield to block. A fire bolt erupted from Itrix’s hand and hit Kelath in the chest.
After the initial shock of the attack wore off, his guild mates jumped into action. Zafira drew her dagger and circled around to stab Brill in the back. Yorrick charged past them to get at Itrix. Elora targeted Brill and periodically switched to Itrix to cancel a spell he was casting. Galahad tossed heals on whoever was the most damaged.
Despite the fact they had a three to one advantage, the fight was not easy. Kelath didn’t have time to examine their opponents, but he assumed they were at least five levels higher, possibly more. He threw daggers to keep poison damage on both of them and also dropped healing elixirs when Brill swept his sword in a circle and hit everyone nearby.
“Keep focusing on Brill,” yelled Kelath. “He’s doing the most damage.”
Kelath ran out of elixirs and retreated so he could summon more. Brill stunned Througar by bringing the pommel of the great sword down on his head, then chased after Kelath. Kelath’s health hovered below twenty percent, despite Galahad’s continual healing. He pulled an ice bomb from his bag and threw it on the ground.
Critical hit!
Kelath put some distance between himself and the frozen fighter. He threw a knife to refresh the poison then proceeded to create more healing elixirs. With only Itrix doing damage, Galahad was able to raise his health back above half.
“Go after the healer!” yelled Itrix.
Fire bolts streaked across the plain at Galahad, and Brill slid awkwardly across the ice in his direction once he became unfrozen. Througar followed behind, screaming obscenities in place of an actual taunt. Kelath attacked with his dagger, causing more poison and bleed damage. Slowly Brill’s health bar shortened, and despite using a healing potion, he fell before he was able to kill Galahad.
A look of surprise crossed Itrix’s face, and he turned to run back into the forest. Yorrick bashed him from behind, and he wavered back and forth from being stunned. An ice bolt from Elora struck Itrix’s hip, causing one leg to be frozen in place. The rest of them crossed the short distance from where Brill had just fallen and resumed their own attacks. Panic showed in Itrix’s eyes as large chunks of HP disappeared with each hit. As a caster, he didn’t have as much armor or health, and he only regained control long enough to cast one final fire bolt at Kelath before he succumbed.
“Man, it feels good to get some revenge!” yelled Througar.
“I can’t believe he attacked us,” said Zafira. “Even with the level difference, he should have realized they stood no chance without a healer.”
“Good job, everyone,” said Kelath.
Yorrick bent down and checked the body, his mouth dropping open in shock. “You should see this, all of you.”
Everyone placed a hand on the corpse, and several of them gasped. Kelath couldn’t believe his eyes when the loot window opened. There was over fifteen hundred gold and a number of rare items in Itrix’s inventory.
“Why was he carrying so much?” asked Kelath.
Elora spoke up. “I would guess it had something to do with his guild being disbanded. Guilds have bank vaults, and whatever is inside has to go somewhere. It must have gone into his inventory because he was the guild master.”
Througar laughed. “Oh, that is sweet! How are we going to divide this up?”
“There are only five rare items in his inventory, but there are six of us,” said Zafira. “One person won’t get anything.”
Kelath looked through the descriptions of the equipment they’d found and saw none of them gave a bonus to luck. “Each of you should take one. I’ll pass.” This drew arguments from all sides, which he had to quiet down. “There’s nothing here I can use anyway. Consider it a thank you for all the hard work you did today.”
“That still leaves the question of the money,” said Througar. “I think you should take it.”
Kelath sputtered. “No way! That’s too much.”
“So take part of it and hold the rest for the guild,” said Galahad.
Elora winked at him. “Yeah, use it to buy us something nice.”
“How about five hundred for you, and the remainder goes into the guild vault?” asked Througar.
Kelath was going to protest it was still too much, but the others shouted him down. “Fine, if that’s what everyone wants.”
It took a few minutes for them to distribute the spoils. Not everyone received an item that was useful for their class, but as they were all of rare quality, they would still fetch a good price on the auction house. They looted more money and a few potions from Brill then headed back to the city.
* * *
Word of what had happened to Noblesse Oblige was already spreading by the time they reached Stockton. A number of players, former members who no longer had to pay back the joining fee, were shouting and running around the market. A line of people who wanted to start their own organizations stretched out of the guild registration office. Kelath made a slight detour to deposit the money they had found at the bank because he felt nervous carrying so much.
A cheer went up from the group of people waiting for them when they entered their room in the guild hall. Kelath smiled and spent the next minute shaking hands and receiving congratulations from the guild members who had gathered. Zafira pulled aside a few players who then ran out of the room. Kelath made his way through the crowd to talk to her.
“Did you organize this?” asked Kelath.
“Yeah,” said Zafira. “After we retreated, I told the other rogues to head back and gather everyone here. I figured if you were successful, we’d have a party to celebrate.”
“And if we hadn’t been successful?”
“Then we’d have a party to cheer you up.” She gave a mischievous grin. “I was just looking for an excuse to have a party. I sent runners to buy food and drinks.”
Kelath laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Any time, boss. I need to get everything else set up.” Zafira excused herself and corralled a few idle players into helping her.
Kelath wandered back to where the main group listened to Galahad recount the story of what had happened in the dungeon a second time. They laughed when he talked about how upset Itrix had been and cheered when he was defeated. He mentioned the large amount of money they’d found on Itrix’s body, at which point all eyes turned to Kelath.
“It’s true that Itrix had a lot of gold when we defeated him. It’s safely stored away in the guild vault for the moment, but we should do something with it in the near future. If anyone has ideas for how we could use the money, I’d like to hear them.” The room erupted with people shouting, and he had to wave them down until it was quiet enough to speak again. “Talk it over amongst yourselves for now, and we can discuss the details later. For now, let’s enjoy the party.”
A cheer went up, and everyone dispersed between the two tables. Zafira’s runners had come back while Galahad told his story, and they’d filled the tables with food. Througar tapped a keg and proceeded to get drunk. At one point, he pulled Zafira into the middle of the room and danced with her, his moves better than Kelath would have expected, although he had no idea if it was an animation built into the game or actually under the player’s control. Either way, he clapped along with everyone else and laughed when Througar stumbled backwards and landed on his butt at the end.
After an hour, things began to die down as players either logged out for the night or left in groups to do quests. It was getting late, and Kelath was about to sign off himself when Elora sat on the bench beside him.
“
Hey,” said Kelath, “having a good time?”
“Yes, it’s lovely.” She held her shoulders hunched together like she was nervous. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for earlier.”
“Don’t be.” He reached over and took her hand under the table. “It was nice.”
She visibly relaxed and smiled at him. She didn’t take her hand away, but she did change the subject. “I was talking with the other members tonight, and they have some crazy ideas for what to do with the money we retrieved.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s the craziest?”
Elora giggled. “Someone mentioned buying the shop across from Itrix’s headquarters, tearing it down, and erecting a giant statue of you standing over his body.”
Kelath laughed and checked to see if she was being serious. She nodded and he said, “I don’t think he’d like that. As funny as it would be to watch the look on his face the first time he saw the statue, that would be a waste. I’m surprised he still owns the building since his guild is now disbanded.”
“He must have bought it with his own money, not the guild’s. A large number of ex-members of Noblesse Oblige built campfires on the street in front of it and are throwing a giant party to celebrate their freedom. Someone was even making wooden crowns and handing them out to anyone who asked for one. They have a toast every fifteen minutes, holding their glasses up to the building and yelling, ‘Long live the king!’ Itrix was spotted going in through a side entrance, but nobody has seen him since.”
“I almost feel sorry for the guy. So what were some of the good ideas?”
“A lot of people are in favor of buying our own guild headquarters here in Stockton. There’s also the option of going to another town.”
“What other town?”
“Players can start towns of their own or claim towns that already exist if nobody owns them.”
“I hadn’t heard of that. How does it work?”
“For unclaimed towns, there is a price in gold depending on how built up they already are. You could buy a town like Millville for a couple thousand gold. If you want to start your own town, you have to find a location to establish the town and then buy a title of incorporation. There are restrictions, like a minimum distance from other towns so they don’t crowd each other, but there’s plenty of land around here that hasn’t even been explored yet. Supposedly there are already two or three new towns run by players that started up since the game went live.”