by Adam Elliott
Learning to Run
Requirements: Locate the Entrance to the Throne of Tabbris.
Reward: 35,000 XP.
Grand Quest
Find her.
Requirements: Locate and free The White Knight
Reward: ???
"Speaking of lack of progress, you mean." Cayden shrugged, his voice low. He doubted anyone outside of the ring of their table could hear a word they were saying over the clattering din of the inn, but he still didn't like discussing the quest in public. "I'm looking for a location, but I can't find a single reference to it online, or in any library, I've visited."
Cayden left out the fact that he was banned from the one library he thought would be most likely to contain the information that he needed.
“You know, the CFC offer to help does still stand.” Silver hinted.
"And if I completely run out of ideas, you will be the first ones I come to," Cayden replied as diplomatically as he was able.
Luxuria, on behalf of her guild Thermonuclear Box and the broader 'guild of guilds' known as the Coalition for Completion, had been making the same sort of offer through a variety of intermediaries on a near-daily basis. He couldn't blame either of them, particularly in light of Silver's new bluntness, but it was an offer he was getting tired of refusing. It felt too much like cheating, and even if it hadn't, their help would put him in the cross-hairs of their competitors, somewhere he desperately did not want to be.
"Suit yourself. Just try not to get yourself, or Celia, killed in the process." Silver shrugged, turning her full attention to the long-stemmed wineglass that Symbal had so graciously provided.
“What about me?” Shifty chimed in from across the table.
“Hmm? What about you?” Silver replied to a gale of laughter.
The mage played non-nonchalant on the issue of his grand quest, but he was reasonably sure that Silver was chomping just as heavily on the bit, if not more-so, than her guild leader. Silver had dedicated over two years of her life to this game, time spent almost entirely on the bleeding edge of progress, only to get stuck at the halfway mark. That alone would be maddening. But to have to watch Cayden bumble around with a grand quest that might give her the edge she needed to progress, fearing that he might screw it up and fail or get himself killed?
If their roles were reversed, he probably would have strangled her by now.
Shifty and Silver continued to throw shade and ice-cold burns at one another as Cayden's attention drifted from the inn to his display. There were a few new messages demanding his attention, a letter from Sarah sent earlier in the day, a text message from his father reminding him of his mother's upcoming birthday and the usual handful of messages from fans asking if and when he was going to start streaming again.
The last one made him wince. His last live stream had been over a month earlier, back when Immolatus had first put a bounty on his head, and since then he'd done almost nothing regarding content for his channel. First the bounty, then Runemagi, there were just too many things he had to keep close to the chest to be able to stream. Idiots like the Banes might have missed the obvious if they even bothered to look at his class levels, but among an audience of thousands most of them were going to notice that he was level twenty, but only had ten listed class levels.
Which reminded him.
Cayden closed out of his message menu and entered his character information screen. He was immediately assaulted by the cheery victory music and glittering light show that accompanied the shining red Level Up button displayed prominently on the left side of his screen. Killing MEKA had put him just over the top, but in the bustle of Celia's overly dramatic pronouncement, it had slipped his mind to go and level up.
As usual, he was presented with an enormous list of possible classes, and, as normal, Cayden already knew what he was going to select. He'd topped off on Runemagi three levels ago and then switched right back to his original Guardian progression. Runemagi had changed his long-term goals for how he planned to build his character, primarily by forcing him to take levels in classes that had good Energy/MP ratios, but in the short-term his focus was still on improving his primary role as a tank.
You have reached Guardian Level 10
+40 HP
+20 TP
New Skill Learned!
Cover
Type: Active Combat Skill
Skill Level: Novice Level 1
Effect: Increase movement speed towards targeted ally by 300%. While in effect, attacks that would normally be made against targeted ally are made against you instead. All attacks intercepted in this fashion have their damage reduced by 25%.
Duration: 10 Seconds
Cooldown: 1 Minute.
Cost: 200 TP.
Cayden laughed slightly at the skill, drawing a curious look from the companions at his table before he gestured to his glasses by way of explanation. Cover was most well known as a 'someone screwed up' ability, so of course, he unlocked it after he was finished dealing with the brothers and their constant mistakes.
Despite its reputation, Cayden viewed Cover as more of a sustainability tool than one of desperation. With a good party, he could juggle monster aggro to allow him to use Cover whenever the ability was off cooldown, treating it as a combination of a movement ability, a taunt, and a damage reduction skill.
Cover could be even better if he invested his new point of mastery into it, but that would have to come later.
Still mainly ignoring the banter of his friends, Cayden distributed his stat points in the usual manner for a level in Guardian and took a brief glance at his character sheet.
Name: Cayden
Gender: Male
Bloodline: Agares-Tabbris
Class: Guardian 10, Runemagi 10
Experience: 190,697 Next Level: 211,000
Strength: 21
Dexterity: 33
Vitality: 34
Energy: 51
Stat Points Remaining: 0
Mastery Points Remaining: 1
Max HP: 2260 HP Recovery: 6.8/Second
Max MP: 3410 MP Recovery: 10.2/Second
Max TP: 1620 TP Recovery: 8.8/Second
Not half bad, all things considered.
From there he navigated to his skill menu. His list of abilities was becoming expansive, but for the moment he focused his attention on the skills that might make good candidates for mastery. Grasp the World was out, for obvious reasons. Runic Overload was too situational and costly to use often, while its sister skill Runic Empowerment wasn't strong enough to deserve it. Taunt, Shield Bash, Southern Cross, all had their merits, but his attention was primarily focused on his newest skills.
Revenge
Type: Passive/Active Combat Skill
Skill Level: Novice Level 3
Passive Effect: When skill is not on cool down increase damage dealt by 5% of all damage received within previous ten seconds.
Effect: Strike foe for Mainhand weapon damage plus 53% of all damage received during previous five seconds.
Cooldown: 45 Seconds.
Cost: 250 TP.
Find Rune
Type: Active Skill
Skill Level: Novice Level 4
Effect: Highlights any unknown runes within 265 feet.
Cost: 1000 MP.
Ritual Casting
Type: Active Skill
Skill Level: Novice
Effect: The user is capable of crafting more complex and time-consuming ritual spells.
Duration: Variable.
Cooldown: Variable.
Cost: Variable.
All three made for very tempting options when it came to his mastery point. Revenge would upgrade into Justice, healing him a large amount of the bonus damage dealt on hit, which could add a lot to his tanking in tough fights. He'd heard of at least two prominent Guardian players who swore by the skill, and it was on his mastery list one way or the other.
The other two were more problematic. The skill menu didn't show Cayden what a skill
would upgrade into if he invested his mastery points, it only told him if the skill was available to be upgraded. For skills like revenge, this wasn't a problem they were well known and easy to research. The other two, however?
Cayden hadn't had much time to play around with Ritual Casting in the weeks since he'd unlocked the ability, but from what he could see it appeared to be identical to the ability that most focused caster types got around level 20. As far as direct one on one combat, it was next to worthless. There were high-level battlefield magics but unfortunately, almost all such magics required multiple participants, and as of yet Cayden had been unable to find enough willing casters to learn if arcane or divine spellcasting could contribute to his ritual spells or vice versa.
Out of combat, there was a host of possible uses for ritual spells that he could cast all by himself. From alarm magic intended to wake them if someone approached their camp, to divination magic to spy on a distant location, or to ward against specific dangers they might expect, such as petrification. Ritual casting could prove an invaluable resource in the future. Even more so if he mastered it to allow for even more complex rituals. Useful in the future, but he needed a larger vocabulary and some testing to make the most of it.
Which brought him to the final option, Find Rune. So far the skill had proven to be nothing short of outstanding. The ability to know the location of nearby runes had vastly improved the number of words in his Lexicon, which in turn increased the usefulness of the ability overall. He still had quite a distance to go to the next cut-off point at two thousand words, but the boost in strength he'd obtain when he got there would be nothing short of incredible.
The problem was that he didn't know what would happen if he upgraded Find Rune. Babel included a decent number of other Find type skills, but the difference between mastering them was often significant and didn't translate well to Find Rune. Upgrading the ability could do anything from increasing his range to making it an 'always on' passive, to translating unknown runes directly. He just couldn't tell, and that uncertainty was the only thing that gave him pause.
Cayden liked to think of himself as a gambler, a risk-taker. But part of that identity was tied up in the knowledge that he always had an idea of the odds before he did whatever stupid thing that came to mind, even if the odds were poor. With Find Runes he had no idea.
He might end up kicking himself in the backside later, but with two taps of his finger on empty air, Cayden confirmed the choice for his new mastery.
Justice
Type: Passive/Active Combat Skill
Skill Level: Mastered (Novice Capped)
Passive Effect: When skill is not on cool down increase damage dealt by 5% of all damage received within previous ten seconds.
Effect: Strike foe for Mainhand weapon damage plus 60% of all damage received during previous five seconds. User heals for 60% of all damage received during previous five seconds.
Cooldown: 60 Seconds.
Cost: 300 TP.
“What if you get it Cayden?”
The use of his name startled Cayden out of his electronic trance, dragging him back to reality where the table of his friends were all staring at him intently. He returned their gazes, nudging his glasses just far enough down the bridge of his nose that he could see them all without the swarm of menus obscuring their faces. “I, uh-”
“-have no idea what you were asked." Shifty finished helpfully with an entirely too smug grin.
"Don't worry, she should know better than to ask anyway." Silver said sternly over the lip of her wineglass.
"I don't see the problem. We're all here for the same thing, aren't we?" Celia asked.
“I'm here because it pays better than roofing.” Shifty retorted dryly.
“The fact that you don't see a problem doesn't mean it isn't a custom.” Silver continued. “It's no different from the way we ditch our arms and armor when we get back to town. You just don't ask.”
"Okay, I am officially confused," Cayden said in the hesitation between Celia shooting back at Silver.
“She wants to know what you'd wish for if you got the chance.” Shifty chimed in while the two women spoke over one another in an attempt to express the same idea.
Cayden nodded, a slight hint of surprise crossing his features. It was a well respected, if unwritten, rule among most progression players not to ask what their competitors might wish for if given a chance. He wasn't sure where or how it had started, though there were a number of theories ranging from an attempt to cut down on inter-player violence to a superstition based on a number of early player deaths.
Whatever the reason, Cayden honestly hadn't ever given the rule much thought. It was arrogant of him, but who cared what other players planned to wish for if he intended to be the first one there? “It's okay. Though to be honest, you'd be disappointed with my answer.”
“Oh?” Celia perked up. “What is it?”
“Just drop it.” Silver warned, her tone growing more unpleasant by the moment.
Cayden hesitated, but a part of him balked at being ordered around. "That's just it. I don't know."
Celia raised an eyebrow at that, apparently surprised, but it was Silver that spoke, her voice icy. "You don't know?"
Cayden shrugged. “Not really. I never gave it much thought. Figured I'd just decide in the moment.”
“Oh my god Cayden, that is hila-”
"-Are you serious!?" Silver cut into Celia's words; her wine set down as the dark-haired woman leaned angrily over the table. "You're going to decide in the moment? Honestly, Cayden, is there anything you don't half-ass?”
“Silver!” Celia snapped sharply. “Cayden didn't mean-"
"-Oh you didn't mean that to be insulting?"The older woman shot back at both of them; her eyes narrowed as she talked over Celia's more uncertain voice. "Well, mission failed."
All three of the table's other occupants exchanged looks with one another in the silence that had followed Silver's outburst. For her part, the mage drowned whatever further words she had roiling on the tip of her tongue beneath another swallow from the apparently bottomless wineglass.
"Silver." Cayden was more shocked than angry; the emotion reflected as much by his lack of words as his tone.
Somehow, that discomfort dug even deeper into whatever wound he had poked on Silver, the woman snapping back before she could help herself. “This really is just a game to you, isn't it Cayden?”
Cayden opened his mouth to state the obvious, that it was a game, but closed it just as quickly as Silver bit into him again.
“Do you have any idea how many friends...” She started, losing her train of thought almost immediately as she pounded her right arm down on the table with a heavy thud. “Do you have any idea what the cost of your little adventure is? Do you even care?!”
“That is enough.” Celia tried to interject.
Silver certainly didn't think it was, but Celia provided a new target for her wrath all the same. “Is it? Maybe if Lux bothered to talk to you at all you'd have some inkling of an idea. You do know why they call me Silver, don't you?”
"Okay, maybe bottomless wine is not in your best interest tonight," Symbal interjected sternly, summoned by the sudden vitriol being spewed at what was usually a quiet table. The snow-haired tavern owner snatched the offending wineglass from Silver. Seeing her libations in danger, Silver abandoned the argument in favor of one with Symbal, then stopped short as something about the older woman gave her pause.
“I don't want to have to cut you off, but you're acting...” Symbal trailed off as she realized that it wasn't just Silver staring at her. Every person sitting at the table was eyeing her with a mix of concern and wonder. “What? Do I have something on my fa-”
The last word was left unspoken, as Symbal, and nearly half the tavern's other occupants shimmered, then burst into motes of bright, multi-colored light.
Chapter Three
The immediate aftermath of the light show was chaos.
Pl
ayers leaped from their tables, swiping at screens or invisible displays to arm themselves against whatever threat had struck the occupants of the Dizzy Sheep. The Elan occupants almost universally bolted, or in some cases stumbled, for the doors, wisely deciding they didn't want to be a part of whatever came next. The tension was everywhere in the room as individual pockets of players faced off with one another, scanning the room with a range of detection abilities, with their weapons at the ready for a follow-up attack.
Eventually, it became clear that there would be no second wave. Whatever had happened, had happened. Fear gave way to confusion and uncertainty as players once again took to their digital devices in search of answers.
"She's alive!" Sarah shouted with relief. "She's still on my friend's list so she... wait. Why is she on the first floor?"
Sarah tapped away at the mirror display in her hand, the tower's equivalent of a modern smartphone, albeit far more advanced than anything humanity had been able to develop on their own. Cayden could see her furiously writing her way through a message, then stabbing at the send button over and over in frustration as the device failed to respond.
“I can't message her. Do you think?” Sarah frowned, leaving the last of it unsaid.
“No.” Silver replied. “I've been trying to message Lux to get someone down here, but it keeps kicking back my messages. It isn't just her.”
Cayden understood the concern in Silver's voice, and why she'd be asking for help so quickly. Safe-zones, such as the one encompassing the entirety of Islo were intended to be more or less immutable. You couldn't attack someone in a safe-zone without a duel request, nor could you steal from another player, or do any of a few dozen other negative things, including forcible teleportation. Players that did so suffered anything from Terms and Conditions violations, to straight up being attacked and killed by the Emperor's Guard if they resisted. Safe-zones were safe.
At least, they should be.
"It is off floor messaging." Cayden chimed in moments before a playfully pleasant tone sounded from Sarah's device as his message arrived. Under other circumstances, the fact that she used that as his ringtone might raise some eyebrows, but high-school level gossip was not particularly high on anyone's list of priorities. "Messaging on floor works, but you can't contact anyone on another floor." He frowned, pushing a few more keys before he added. "Or outside of the tower."