by Edward Brody
It took the compass from his hands and had a look at it.
You’ve received: Basic Compass. Durability: 99/100. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.2 kg. A useful tool for determining your location.
There was the typical north, south, east, and west, but at the bottom of the compass was small dial with several numbers surrounded by a square. The numbers looked like they were permanently etched in metal, but when I moved my hand in any direction, the numbers changed. I rubbed my finger over the numbers, and they felt the same as they looked—something that seemed impossible—and again I was reminded that Eden’s Gate didn’t operate by the same rules as Earth.
“Will you settle for 75?” I asked the man. I had no idea what the compass was worth, but I figured I’d at least make an effort at haggling.
“I’d usually sell it for 125, but since you just paid me for the map, I’m giving you a deal. 100 gold is quite the price.”
I gritted my teeth. I planned to buy a few items in Highcastle to bring back to Edgewood, but I was burning through my gold fast. Still, I needed a compass and hopefully it would pay off. “Fine.”
“Are you planning on becoming a treasure hunter or is this a one-off thing?” the man asked as I handed him the coins. “I’ve got a few unused treasure maps in the shop if you’d like to buy a couple. “They’re expensive, but I’ve already got the coordinates.”
“How much?” I asked.
“2000 gold for the ones nearby, and I’ve got a couple across the Serpent Sea I’ll part with for 1000.”
I raised my eyebrows and coughed. “I…. think I’ll have to pass for now.” The prices were way out of my budget.
The man shrugged. “Alright. Well, enjoy your hunt, and if you find any other maps, feel free to return if you can’t decipher them on your own.” He tilted one of his eyebrows. “Just be sure to open the door normally next time.”
I smiled. “Got it.”
When I exited the shop, there was little foot traffic in the area, but I immediately caught a glance of a shadowy figure dipping into a small alley beside the building.
What the hell? I was getting the same sort of shady vibes that I got when I was in Knuckle Bay with Adeelee, but there was nothing shady about Inner Highcastle. I couldn’t be for sure, but it seemed like the same suspicious guy I had seen earlier.
I made a quick jog for the area beside the building, but when I looked down the alley, there was nothing but a dead end.
Am I just imagining things? I wondered.
A couple of soldiers walked by, and one of them smiled at me when he passed.
I bit my bottom lip and sighed before turning back around to focus my attention on the Arena. Whatever the shadow was I had been seeing, it didn’t seem to be anything of concern. Thus far, no one in Highcastle had caused me any problems.
And what could anyone do to me with all the guards patrolling the city and keeping it safe?
There was nothing to worry about, I thought.
Chapter Seven
1/19/0001
When I stepped into the wide entrance of the arena, I was immediately greeted by a large wall, forcing me to turn left or right. To the right was a large, closed, wooden door, and to the left was an open hall.
On the side of the hall was a small wooden desk with a burly bearded man standing behind it. A person was just walking away from the desk and exiting the building as I entered.
“Over here,” the man called as I hesitated.
I walked over to the desk and scratched the back of my head as I spoke. “This is the arena, right?”
The man raised an eyebrow. “First time in Highcastle?”
“Yeah.”
The man smirked. “You’ve found the right place.” His eyes scanned me up and down. “You don’t take you for much of a fighter. I reckon you’re looking for a ticket then?”
“I don’t really know what the ins and outs of the arena, to be honest. Can you give me a run down?”
The man jolted his head back. “Don’t know about the arena? Where have you been living your whole life?”
Earth, I wanted to say, but I just lifted a shoulder and smiled.
The man sighed. “Well, if you’re just looking to watch, it’s 100 gold for a ticket.”
“And it’s just people fighting?” I asked.
“I guess you could say that. Every day, the arena hosts battles between anyone who has signed up to participate. Sometimes there’s special battles against beasts.”
“Who are the fighters?”
“The participants are anyone who wants or is willing to fight. After the battles, the winners are paid and ranked according to their wins. Every three months, the top ranked of each Arena in Eden’s Gate gather to fight for the highest title of Grand Champion.”
“Grand Champion?” I pressed my lips together and smirked. “I guess that usually goes to whoever has the highest level then.”
The man squinted one of his eyes as if he didn’t like what I had to say, but then he nodded. “Indeed, Grand Champion generally always goes to high level fighters, however that doesn’t exclude people of lower levels from fighting. Tier 1 combatants are limited to level 20, Tier 2 combatants are limited to level 40, and Tier 3 combatants are level 40 and above.” The man turned to the wall beside him and pointed to a plaque that was on the wall. “Our current grand champion is level 53, but that doesn’t mean the lower level champions are not honored.”
The plaque read, “Grand Champion: Miska Redfeather.”
“The Grand Champion isn’t from Highcastle, but our fighters are good. We’ll get the glory back again.”
To the left of the plaque were two other plaques that were labeled as Tier 1 and Tier 2 with the names of each tier’s champion, and below each plaque was a long parchment that contained a list of other names.
“What are these?” I asked, pointing to the names.
“The highest ranked for each location,” the man replied. “There are 12 arenas in Eden’s Gate including Highcastle.”
I scanned over all the names, but they were all mostly meaningless to me. Each of the names had a location listed beside them, which also meant nothing since the Highcastle was the only arena I had visited thus far. Two of the names stood out to me though.
Both names were on the Tier 1 sheet for characters below level 20. One of the names was “Ray Ray”. It stood out to me because the first and last names were the same, which was the first time I had seen that in Eden’s Gate. Something about the name tugged at me, but I figured it was just the oddity of the name, and the fact that it was possibly a human from Earth, given that most NPCs I had met had appropriate first and last names.
The second name was “Ronald McFrugal.” Unless Dr. Winston or one of the Nexicon employees had trolled or laid a stupid Easter egg of some sort, that was definitely a player from Earth. And if it was, the fact made me a little bit uncomfortable.
Back when I had played MMOs on Earth, there were always “those guys,” as I’d call them. They weren’t bad people, per say, but they were the type would do nothing but grind in order to excel and ignore the built-in fun that was programmed into the game. Their sole reason for racing to the top was so that they could dominate other players for their own personal enjoyment. Generally, they all had stupid names like “Poppa Douchebag,” “Marilyn Manslayer,” or “Ronald McFrugal” and they almost always played as PKs or thieves.
In all honesty, there were a few times when I was one of those guys. I’d rush to buy a game on release day and do gaming marathons to make sure I remained one of the highest levels on the server. After grinding through most or all of the content in the game, I’d jump into PvP, and the average guy who was playing at a normal pace, trying to enjoy the lore, the game’s story, quests, etc… they would be my lunch.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the players who were enjoying the game at a regular pace were having a lot more fun than me, and that’s when I backed off and started immersing myself anytime I played
MMOs.
It was also one of the reasons why I started playing more FPS game and MOBAs. The curb between a casual player and a hardcore grinder was much lower, and getting ganked [a random, unexpected group attack] by Poppa Douchebag and friends wasn’t nearly as annoying.
What will those kinds of players be like in Eden’s Gate? I wondered. But maybe I was overthinking it. I hadn’t encountered anyone like that thus far.
“So, you want to fight, or you want a ticket?” the man asked.
I pulled my eyes away from the parchments. “When do the fights start?”
“Today’s fight will be in about three hours.”
I lifted my chin and thought about the timing. I’d almost certainly be running into darkness if I waited around another three hours to watch the show, and I still wanted to go out and train my arcane magic before heading home. “I might have to come back to watch the show another day.”
The man grunted.
I took another look over to the parchments that were on the wall. “You win money if you win a fight?”
“Yep,” the man said. “More if you place a wager on yourself.”
“And what happens if you lose?” I asked.
The man laughed. “Other than a swollen noggin’ and a busted pride, I guess that’s all. We’re not running deathmatches here, though there has been the odd instance of unintentional death.”
I nodded and rubbed my chin. “I might just come back for a fight as well.”
Chapter Eight
1/19/0001
I walked out of the arena with my mind racing. There was LOT that I wanted to do in Eden’s Gate, and there didn’t seem like enough time to do it all. I needed to level up and improve my magic skills, I needed to earn more gold, grow my guild, build up Edgewood Village, and I really wanted to get involved in whatever was going on in the arena.
What better way to make a name for myself than to win a championship—or better yet, Grand Champion someday?
Yeah, I thought. Giving the arena a shot was definitely on my list, but I was wise enough to know that it would be better to wait ‘til I was closer to level 20 to improve my chances of winning. At the same time, I was only 25 levels away from being able to compete in the top tier. On paper, that didn’t seem so far away.
Ronald McFrugal, huh? Maybe one day we’ll have the opportunity to square off against each other. Thinking of that name again made me laugh. It made me hungry for a cheeseburger too.
I shook my head and stepped away from the massive arena, surveying a few other buildings I hadn’t seen before. There was a tall magic shop a few buildings down, and I figured I’d step inside to see what was on offer.
“Good day,” a woman said as I entered. “Have a look.” She wore a pair of tight, maroon overalls with a white, long-sleeved blouse underneath. It wasn’t the type of attire I’d expect someone working in a magic shop to wear, but her cheeks appeared painted with rosy-red circles, and she wore small glasses with colorless frames. Her light brown hair fell just below her shoulders, and she had East-Asian facial features. She was one of the most interesting-looking people I had seen in Highcastle thus far.
The shop was huge inside, and there were several glass cases all around the floor. Two men, both dressed in robes with belts cinched at the waists were moving from case to case, looking at the scrolls and other items inside.
I threw the woman a friendly smile and scurried up to the closest case. There were four scrolls inside, all neatly arranged, but I swallowed hard as soon as I saw the prices.
Scroll: Desensitize. +50 Willpower for 5 minutes. Requires 40 Intelligence. Mentalism Lvl 15. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 5000 gold
Scroll: Lesser Fire Elemental. Summon a lesser fire elemental to do your bidding. Requires 37 Intelligence. Fire Magic Lvl 15. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 5000 gold
Scroll: Conjure Ice Spear. Conjure and equip a powerful spear of ice for 10 minutes. Requires 35 Intelligence. Ice Magic Lvl 16. Conjuring Lvl 5. Polearms Lvl 12. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 5000 gold
Scroll: MiniNova. Release a small, devastating ball of unstable energy that explodes on command. Requires 50 Intelligence. Dark Magic Lvl 20. Arcane Magic Lvl 20. Lightning Magic lvl 20. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Epic. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 5000 gold
5000 gold each? I thought. They were way out of my price range and probably would be for a long time.
I gritted my teeth and took a few steps back. The scrolls were too high level for me anyway, but I had learned something. There were spells that required even three schools of magic, which meant that the magic system in Eden’s Gate was especially complex. I wondered if there were spells that required four or five schools of magic, making certain spells incredibly rare as people built their characters in different ways.
It made me excited, actually. There were no cookie-cutter, predetermined paths of magic, and I liked that. But damn, I had a long way to go.
The female shopkeeper cleared her throat and stepped close to me. “Is everything okay?”
I smiled and raised a shoulder. “Everything is fine. Just a little surprised at how expensive the scrolls are.”
“Expensive?” the lady asked. She pushed her eyebrows together and frowned.
“Yeah, but I’ll look around for something cheaper.” I smiled and started walking towards a case that one of the other customers was looking at.”
“The scrolls in that case are 10,000 and up,” the lady warned.
I stopped in my tracks. “Oh… so ugh… So what scrolls are cheaper?”
The lady sighed. “I believe the cheapest scrolls we have out on the floor are around 2500 each, but I do have a few in storage that are cheaper. What’s your budget?”
After giving the little girl a gold coin and paying 200 to the cartographer, I had only 799 left in my bag. “I dunno. Maybe 500?”
“Five hundred?” the lady asked with raised eyebrows. “So, you’re looking for the lowest level spells available?”
I shrugged. “I guess so? Just whatever you have in that price range.”
One of the robed characters snickered as he overheard our conversation. It was a little embarrassing.
“Well, let me see what I have.” The lady started for a counter on the far wall and knelt down behind it. She lifted a crate from behind the counter and started rummaging through the scrolls, one-by-one, looking for something to show me. After several minutes, she sighed. “I only have two scrolls that I can part with for 500 gold—a wind magic spell, and a transmutation spell. Care to have a look?”
My shoulders slumped and I sighed.
“Not schooled in either branch of magic? For your budget, you might be better off searching in the thrift shops of Outer Highcastle—they often have low level spells available. The Mage’s Hall will certainly have several low-level spells as well. They may be able to help you if you’re a member of their faction.”
A mages faction?
Every time I turned a corner I was learning something new and processing it all was getting overwhelming. I still wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to build my character. In fact, I was just learning whatever I could as soon as I could, but I already had three schools of magic under my belt and had been using magic a lot more consistently than when I first started. But I was also pretty good with a sword and wasn’t sure if I wanted to give that up. Either way, I’d eventually need to pay a visit the so-called Mages Hall to see what the deal was there.
“Are you a member of the Mages Faction?” I asked.
The woman snickered. “No, I’m not a member. I practice independently and operate my shop here outside of the faction, though I—“
“There’s something strange about this one,” one of the customers said.
I turned my head and looked the man up and down. He was dressed in a similar white robe as the man I had stopped near the fount
ain and was hairless save for a small grey and black goatee hanging from his chin. The only difference between him and the man outside was that the belt cinched around his waist was red rather than green.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
The man pulled his eyes off me and looked towards the shopkeeper. “Thank you, Sephora. I’ll be back soon to purchase a few of your new scrolls.”
“Of course,” Sephora said.
The man casually strolled out of the door without acknowledging me any further.
I stood there stunned, looking at the door. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not by his comment. I mean, yeah… I guess I was strange. But was he just making an observation or was he trying to disrespect me?
“Some of the mages can be a little snooty,” Sephora said in a whisper, glancing up to the other robed man who was still browsing the store’s inventory. “Pay him no attention.”
I twisted my lips. “Alright.”
“I take it that you’re not interested in either of the scrolls?”
“I’ll have a look at the wind scroll,” I said.
Sephora nodded and showed me the scroll.
Scroll: Shrieking Gust. Creates a loud, shrieking wind that slows and disorients enemies. Requires 15 Intelligence. Wind Magic Lvl 5. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg Price: 500 gold
I didn’t know wind magic and had no idea if or when I’d ever pick up that branch, but I was no longer in Eden’s Gate alone and working for myself. I had a guild, and I needed to help make every member of my guild stronger. I wasn’t sure if Keysia had Wind Magic in particular, but based on the spells she used in mine against the kobolds, I was pretty sure that was part of her repertoire. Further, I didn’t know if she already had that particular spell, but I was willing to chance that she didn’t. It would be a nice gift to give and might make her bond to the guild stronger.