Ascend Online

by Luke Chmilenko

  “After reaching the northeastern edge of the Crater, the forests cleared away into a huge plain filled with creatures.” Cerril shook his head. “I don’t know if you’ve explored that far?”

  I shook my head. “No, not yet. We’ve only taken the most direct route to the Webwood. We haven’t gone in that direction at all.”

  “I see. Well, it’s kind of a higher leveled version of this area, ranging from level six to ten.” Cerril waved his hand in a circle to indicate the outer edges of Aldford. “Practically every step we took we found snakes, beetles or other critters. We even saw a bear in the distance!”

  “Hmmm, good to know.” I nodded at the half-elf, hoping he would get to the point a bit faster. “How about we jump ahead to the goblins? When did that happen and where were you?”

  “The goblins happened a few hours later, once it started to storm,” Cerril quickly answered. “We were caught out in the middle of the plains hunting when it started to rain and quickly ran towards the tree line towards the south to take shelter.”

  “We made it into the trees without getting too wet, but we barely had enough time to catch our breath before the goblins attacked,” Cerril said. “Over a dozen of them came charging out of nowhere, with a handful of them dragging nets between them. I didn’t even have a chance to move before I was tangled up in one.”

  “I think they may have been watching them,” Constantine told me.

  “Yeah, while the plains do have a few small hills here and there, it’s largely flat, with waist high grass everywhere.” Cerril explained, indicating the height of the grass against his body. “In hindsight… it would be easy for anyone to hide in the tree line and have a clear sight for anything mile or two away. Probably even further if they climbed one of the trees.”

  “If they were so intent on capturing you, how did you end up dying?” I asked with suspicion.

  “With how many goblins that attacked us, we knew pretty quickly that we were fucked. I saw one of my other friends get caught in a net seconds after I fell to the ground,” Cerril explained with a slightly haunted look on his face. “Jordan, one of my friends, must have remembered what you said about the Goblins. Because one of the last things I remember him doing was stabbing me in the neck.”

  “Hold on! Your friend attacked you?!” I exclaimed with surprise, seeing Constantine nod with a grim face. “Why?!”

  “Because he wanted me to get back here and tell you what happened!” Cerril visibly flinched at the memory of what happened. “He didn’t kill me on the first stab though, which gave me enough time to see a half-orc and a handful of other Adventurers come running out of the woods, shouting for someone to stop Jordan, but they were all too slow.”

  Fuck, I don’t know if I would be willing… or even able to kill one of my friends. It’s one thing to spar, another to brutally murder them, even if they don’t die for real! My mouth was open and I was at a complete loss for words for a moment before I finally managed to reply. “You recognize any of them?”

  “You better believe I did!” Cerril scowled as he spoke. “The half-orc was Carver.”

  All the Adventures in the hall, who had been calmly listening up to this point now jeered with anger. I even noticed the scout in the chair wincing as the name was mentioned.

  “You saw Carver?!” Freya’s voice echoed through the room, as she and the rest of her party bullied their way through the crowd.

  “I-it was him!” Cerril stuttered, taken aback at having so many people shouting. “I’m sure of it!”

  “Who’s Carver?” I asked Constantine, just to see him shrug with confusion. “Freya, who is Carver?”

  “Carver… is a broken man.” Freya’s voice was laced with anger. “Graves may have been a colossal asshole and completely selfish, but there was a reason why he did things. Carver on the other hand…”

  “Iss a sociopath.” Helix hissed, quickly followed by words of agreement from the Adventurers in the hall. “He tormented people for his own amusement.”

  “He extorted food and supplies from anyone and everyone he could,” Thorne added. “If you so much as looked at him the wrong way he’d shank you, just once, and walk away.”

  “Or hobble you, so you couldn’t walk,” Cerril said softly. “Which would then get you beaten once you started to fall behind.”

  “He paid attention to who could and couldn’t regenerate.” Freya fists were clenched as she spoke. “If he noticed you ran out of food, he would find you and hurt you, giving you a wound that would always be there, day after day.”

  “I see,” I whispered after a moment of silence, feeling the anger in the room beginning to boil. I had only seen a small piece of everyone’s experience in getting here to Aldford. I couldn’t imagine surviving in an environment like that, day after day. “Is there anything else you can tell us about the Goblins?”

  “It all happened so fast, I really didn’t notice anything else.” Cerril shook his head. “All that I have in my combat log is that I was immobilized by a level seven Goblin Stalker.”

  “Well, at least they aren’t higher leveled than us,” Constantine commented hopefully. “Are you still grouped up with your friends? Can you tell where they are?”

  Cerril nodded as he pointed to the east. “Yeah, we’re still grouped, and I can feel that they’re over that way, somewhere. But I’m not quite sure how far.”

  “We’ll go looking for them, right Lyrian?” Freya asked me. “And try to rescue them?”

  “And maybe kill Carver?” Helix added hopefully.

  The two questions caused the full attention of all the Adventurers in the Town Hall to fall on me, everyone falling silent as they held their breaths for my answer.

  “Yeah, of course,” I answered with nod, feeling a sense of relief wash over the room. “We all signed up to help one another in time of need.”

  “Thank you, Lyrian,” Cerril said earnestly. “Though, I’m not sure why the Goblins would be willing to work with Carver, or how Graves managed to strike a deal…”

  “Do you think there are other players?” Sierra entered the conversation. “Goblin players?”

  “I hadn’t considered that,” I whispered softly, looking towards Cerril.

  “I don’t know,” the Adventurer replied with a shrug. “Like I said, I only have the logs for the one goblin that netted me.”

  “Damn,” I cursed, the last thing we needed was to have Graves pairing up with an unknown amount of goblins. Especially since they’ve already proven to be hostile towards Aldford and practically everyone else that wandered through this area.

  Hang on. My thoughts ground to a halt as that realization crossed my mind.

  “How the fuck did Graves manage to get the cooperation of the Goblins in the first place?” I grunted. “The Goblins haven’t exactly been all that welcoming to anyone that’s crossed their paths.”

  “Like our expedition,” Natasha commented softly, standing beside a morose looking Donovan.

  “Or Aldford,” Aldwin added heavily, his eyes flitting to scrapes and scratches around the Town Hall that still lingered from the Goblins attack last week.

  “Uh…” The scout hesitantly spoke up with a small voice. “It could be his quest.”

  “His quest?” I asked, watching the scout shrink under the combined gaze of all the Adventurers in the room.

  We should be doing this somewhere private. I tried to keep my face impassive as I made eye contact with the scout, trying to ignore all the other Adventurers in the room. But we literally have no comfortable place to stick everyone, short of sending them out intothe storm. If we did that though, they’d all think we didn’t trust them.

  “What do you mean?” Sierra took a step towards the scout. “I thought he needed to take Aldford, along with all that slave bullshit he subjected everyone to. How do Goblins have anything to do with his quest?”

  “Um, well you see…” The scout started off nervously. “The tomb that we, I mean, Graves found his armor an
d the quest in was Naffarian.”

  “So?” I looked at the scout, motioning for him to continue.

  “Lyr, Eberia is a Naffarian ruin, remember?” Sierra whispered to me. “Both the Orcs and the Goblins revere the Nafarr. That’s how The War started.”

  “Shit, right, I forgot about that.” I rubbed my head, realizing that exhaustion was starting to set in.

  “She’s right.” The scout nodded. “The tomb wasn’t anything exciting grand, it looked like the King was pretty hastily buried, but he definitely was Nafarrian.”

  “And what do we even know about the Nafarr?” I asked aloud. “That they just vanished at some point in this world’s history.”

  “Not vanished.” The scout shook his head. “They were largely killed by the Irovian Dynasty.”

  “Killed?” I echoed with confusion. “Irovian Dynasty? Who were they?”

  “They were the previous Dark Elf Empire,” the scout replied. “But they’re not around anymore, the empire eventually reformed itself as the Holy Ascendancy of Eligos, which is the name of the current Dark Elf Empire.”

  “How do you even know that?” Sierra asked with a scathing tone. “And what the hell is your name anyway?”

  “My name is Hux, well, actually Huxley,” the elf quickly replied flinching under Sierra’s tone. “And I know that because I’m a huge lore guy. While Graves was busy prying open the King’s sarcophagus, I was busy translating the inscriptions that were carved into the walls.”

  “You can do that?!” Halcyon couldn’t help but exclaim.

  “Sure! There’s a skill called Linguistics that helps you do it,” Huxley confirmed with a nod, visibly looking more confident after seeing Halcyon’s interest in what he was saying. “But to answer your other question. The Nafarr used to be a major power in this area, their Kingdom ranged all the way from Eberia, straight up to another coastal city somewhere in the north. From what I could decipher, there should actually be one of their cities in and around this area, assuming it still stands after all this time.”

  Likely it stood where Crater Lake is now. Comprehension flowed through me, as I realized that whatever conflict between the Nafarr and the last Dark Elf Empire had resulted in the large crater to the north.

  “I’m more interested in hearing about this King that was buried in the tomb and how long ago this all happened.” I traded a guarded look with Sierra and Constantine, hoping that they wouldn’t say anything about Crater Lake.

  “Well, the second part of that may be hard to answer. One of the inscriptions in the tomb dated the King’s death as happening in the year 983, but how that translates in game time, I don’t know. We would probably have to ask someone in the Dark Elf Empire about that,” Huxley answered. “As for the King, he was apparently killed at the very beginning of whatever war there was between his Kingdom and the Dark Elf Empire.”

  “Does this King at least have a name?” Drace chimed in, no longer content to just listen to the conversation.

  “Uh, y-yeah.” Huxley nodded. “His full name and title was Slave-King Abdiel, and based on what I understand he was a very powerful Mage or Warlock, the translation uses both of those words interchangeably.”

  “Well, that explains more about Grave’s motivation,” Freya said bitterly, as murmurs of agreement echoed from the assembled crowd of Adventurers.

  “Yeah.” Drace nodded at Freya in agreement. “And because the Orcs and Goblins have a soft spot for everything Nafarrian, you think Graves might have used his quest to sway them to helping him.”

  “I do,” Huxley affirmed. “But I don’t think Graves is entirely in control of his actions, he hasn’t been quite the same since we came back from the tomb.”

  “We know,” I told the scout, my eyes watching him as I spoke. “During your tomb robbing session, Graves managed to somehow wake that King’s ghost in the process, which promptly latched onto him.”

  “I-it did?” Huxley seemed taken aback. “I knew he was acting differently, but I couldn’t completely tell how…”

  The room fell quiet for a moment as I continued to stare at the elf. Everyone seemed to have difficulty in accepting that Graves may have not completely been in control of his actions.

  “Why are you telling us all this?” I asked after a while. “You barely said two words yesterday until Constantine threatened to drown you in shit. Why the sudden change of heart?”

  “I was afraid Graves was going to come back,” Huxley admitted shamefully. “I figured it was only a matter of time until he regrouped and tried for Aldford again, I didn’t want him learning that I had spoken, in case he took it out on me after. Truthfully I hated being with him.”

  “Why did you stay then?!” Freya practically shouted. “You’re a scout and you were fed! You could have easily snuck away!”

  “You think so?” Huxley stared back at Freya while shaking his head. “I was watched every moment I was with the other scouts. They were, are, all firmly in Graves’s corner. If I tried to escape, the five of them would have easily tracked me down and killed me.”

  “It would have been better than doing nothing!” Freya hissed.

  “Maybe it would have and I’m sorry I didn’t at least try.” Huxley looked towards all the Adventurers with a sad expression. “I was afraid, all I wanted to do was survive. I’m hoping to start helping now.”

  “What do you want?” I asked looking at the elf, sensing the subtle undertone to his voice.

  “Amnesty,” Huxley quickly answered. “Protection from Graves until he’s dead and his quest foiled. After that, I can leave and find my own path if you really don’t want me here. I’d understand if you didn’t.”

  At Huxley’s words, many of the other Adventures called out in disbelief. “After what he did! No fucking way we should be trusting him!”

  “Lyrian…” Thorne looked a bit concerned as he looked over his shoulder to a handful of angry Adventures.

  “Quiet!” My voice boomed over the noise, halting the protests cold. “Settle the fuck down, or go outside! This isn’t a group negotiation! If he has useful information to offer, we would all be idiots not to listen!”

  The grumbling continued for a few minutes, but no one seemed to be willing to challenge my statement.

  “What about the other prisoners?” I asked Huxley after everyone had quieted down.

  “Don’t care.” The elf shrugged. “If you want my recommendation? Hang them.”

  “We may very well end up doing that,” I replied to the cheers of a few in the crowd. “Okay. Say we give you Amnesty, what do you have to offer in return?”

  The room quickly quieted as everyone focused on the elven scout.

  Looking right at me, a small smile crossed Huxley’s face. “Graves is still in my group.”

  My eyes widened.

  “I can lead you right to him.”

  Chapter 41

  Tuesday, February 12th, 2047 - 7:54 am

  Far East of Aldford

  The faint rays of the morning sun poked through the thick foliage of the forest as our group made its way east under the cover of trees. After hearing Cerril’s story yesterday, we didn’t want to take the risk of walking out in the open as we searched for the lost Adventurers and Graves.

  “How are you guys doing?” I asked for the first time since leaving Aldford an hour ago, turning to look at both Huxley and Cerril following me nearby. “Party sense is still okay?”

  “Yeah.” Cerril nodded, pointing straight ahead. “Still a long way to go, though.”

  “Same here,” Huxley replied, pointing in the same direction as Cerril.

  “Good,” I said cheerfully, happy that we had some redundancy between Cerril and Huxley. Right now their Party Sense pointed in roughly the same direction, however, if the kidnapped Adventurers were moved over the course of the day, or if Graves decided to go hunting himself, we would quickly be able to adjust and if necessary split the group to go after both.

  Plus, I liked having Cerril with u
s to help verify where Huxley led us. I didn’t completely trust the elf scout and likely wouldn’t until I physically saw Graves with my own eyes.

  The old expression ‘trust, but verify’ came to mind with regards to Huxley. I was willing to believe the bare bones of his story and the insight that he shared with us regarding the lore of the world seemed to be sincere. But it would take time and a hell of a lot of work on his part to fully cleanse himself of his association with Graves.

  Unfortunately though, with the impending forced logout time coming up tomorrow morning for me and the rest of my friends, we didn’t have the luxury to casually scout out where Graves and the kidnapped Adventurers had hidden themselves, which was why we were out scouting in force and the reason I had dedicated nearly the entire day to training Freya and her party yesterday.