Monster Hunt NYC 2
Page 7
What had come from the chimera and the satori was an undead warrior in a Viking helmet with a stringy beard.
“Yep,” I said as I quickly sold the Nordic zombie man for a measly 1,500 Proxima dollars, bringing our bank account to just over twenty thousand Proxima dollars.
Proxima Dollars: $20,250
Spent: $61,500
Loan: 0
“That was weird,” I finally said.
“It was.”
“Why does doing this bother me?”
Iris shrugged. “Hopefully, we'll have better luck next time.”
“Yeah, hopefully.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
We took the winding staircase to the top, and moved to the cafeteria to find the Huntresses straight up feasting. Aya had no less than five empty plates before her, and Lady C. wasn't far off with a plate stacked with all sorts of meats, vegetables, desserts, and bread.
“You have to try the roast beef,” Lady C. said with her mouth full. Her cheeks grew red with embarrassment, and she painfully swallowed what was left and gave us a faint smile. “Sorry, how was the fusing?”
“Uneventful.”
“They eat like slobs too, at least Chase does,” Aya reminded her. The Thulean stood from the table and wiped her hands together. “So, what will it be now? Are we finally going to explore EverLife?”
“That's the plan, and I'm thinking we should bring just a little bit of muscle with us.”
“I’m interested in going,” said Altsoba as she stepped into the room.
The dark-skinned shapeshifter began to morph into a stronger version of me. She still had the dark hair and glasses, as well as my indie fashion sense, but she also had some muscle, which Aya immediately liked.
Toying with me, or possibly toying with the skin-walker, Aya moved over to her and placed her hand on her muscled arms.
“See, Chase? This is what you could look like if you spent more time going to the gym and less time playing your little bass guitar.”
“Okay,” I said ignoring her, “Altsoba will come and – Fujin or Sun Wukong, who wants to go?”
I had the feeling that just asking this question aloud would elicit some response, and I wasn't wrong. Both men were in the kitchen, and as if they'd been listening all along, they peeked their heads out, Sun Wukong wearing an apron with a splattering of flour across the front.
The Japanese Wind God and the Chinese Monkey King exchanged glances; Fujin bowed slightly, allowing for Sun Wukong to pass by.
“All right, so Altsoba and Sun Wukong. What about you, Iris, who are you bringing?”
“I'll tell you who the fick she's bringing,” Spew Gorge said as he stood from the table. I hadn't even seen him in the far corner. “I have some experience with EverLife, more than anyone else here, and my uncle still lives in Kingdom Ignis. Well, we don't have to go find him, because he's a fickered asshole. His name is Hiccup, but like I said, we don't need to find him. In fact, I’d prefer if we don’t.”
“Okay, Spew can come as our guide,” I said, not sure what he was going on about.
“Fick yeah,” the goblin whispered, silently celebrating with a fist pump.
“You said there were lightning horses, where do we get them?” Iris asked.
“Follow me.”
We left through the back door, our mythcrea and the Huntresses not far behind us. Once we were in the field, I looked up at the sky, put my fingers in my mouth and whistled.
As soon as I did, lightning cracked above us, and I heard the sound of galloping horses, which was odd because the sound wasn't coming from any particular direction. It was all-encompassing, a circular wave of noise around my head.
“Wow!” Iris said as the horses appeared in the distance.
Something about it reminded me of Santa and his sleigh, the way they twisted and snaked through the sky. It was afternoon now in EverLife, and the sun was blue. A quick look at the famous Steeple of Litur and Industria, directly north of us, and I saw that the top of the steeple was also blue.
Interesting.
The lightning horses landed, and I approached them, a little cautious at first because I thought there was a chance of getting shocked. The first horse whinnied, and lightly tapped its foot against the ground as I approached.
It lowered its head, and locked on to me with its electric eyes.
All the horses were off-white, their manes yellow. This one in particular also had a yellow diamond on its forehead, and as I slowly reached my hand out to touch it, the lightning horse lowered its head even further.
“I love riding horses,” Lady C. said as she mounted hers. “Metican warriors are famous for the horses they ride.”
“I’d prefer to ride a dragon,” was Aya’s reply.
“Thuleans ride dragons,” Spew Gorge told Altsoba as they each went to their horses.
The Skin-Walker, twice the goblin’s height, merely nodded at him. We were already mounted up by the time Sun Wukong greeted his steed. The monkey king opened his palm toward the horse, revealing a handful of diced carrots. He laughed as the horse ate from his hand, its tongue lapping against his fingers.
I liked Sun Wukong.
He was genuinely cheerful, and there was something about the way he fought that reminded me that he had thousands of years of combat experience.
It wasn't the same type of gracefulness that Magnus had; it was more of a fluidity, like he had gone past Magnus' gracefulness into an almost Drunken Kung-Fu Master fighting style.
“Everyone ready?” I asked as I grabbed the reins of the horse. After confirmation, I pulled the reins once and the horse lifted into the air. Iris and I were in front, followed by the Huntresses and our mythcrea.
We passed the small, troll-guarded entrance to our Dojo. Schnoogles, or maybe Mitchell, waved at us; Lady C. waved back.
There were other groups traveling above the road, and some still traveling through traditional means below us. Once I got used to riding the horse, I found that I could swoop down to the ground, gallop for a moment, and then, with a tug of the reins, lift back up into the air, the wind whipping past my face as we increased speed.
I’d never ridden a horse before, let alone a lightning steed, so for the first ten minutes or so I was mostly just laughing and trying out as many cool tricks and stunts as I could pull off.
This seemed to entertain Lady C.; Aya, not so much. She was now riding at the back with the other mythcrea, who were all riding in a more well-behaved way.
Iris tried some things too, but she also kept it low-key.
I saw that our Dojo was connected to a main road, and this main road was connected to all the Dojos at the center of the Kingdom Lume, which then moved to the center of EverLife.
Sprouting off of the road were the paths that led to the various Dojos, some of them behind hills, others with high walls and turrets, a couple were even floating Dojos, which looked awesome, especially with the aurora borealis background, the blue sun, and a twinkle of stars if you looked close enough.
The further north we road, the wider the road became.
The Dojos in this area were set a lot further off the main path. I had this notion that each time a Dojo was added to the kingdom, space was made at the end of the main road, and an entrance created that led up to the Dojo’s front gate.
The Dojos closer to town looked like they had been here longer, that they'd had time to grow into the landscape, modify it, utilize things like the mountains in the distance and some of the gnarled trees that sat before their gates.
It really was like going into an old part of town from the new part of town.
I had to behave myself as we grew closer to the center of the kingdom.
No longer could I ride aimlessly and try to ramp off things, or move up and down from the ground to our sky lane. This was fine, I had gotten that out of my system, and it was a good thing too, because the sky and the roads below were a lot busier as we got to our destination.
As we started to desc
end to the ground, I saw Lady C. charge ahead, her body low to her horse, the fact that she was a seasoned veteran evident in the way she rode.
She touched down lightly, her horse rearing onto its two back legs as she pulled back on its reins. I landed next to her, and the others followed behind me.
“That was exhilarating,” she said, offering me a cute smile.
The Center Dojo was amazing.
Surrounded by huge walls, there were sculptures everywhere in front, city gates big enough to fit two giants through, and once we got inside, I noticed that the terrain was uneven, the homes and buildings were stacked along the hills in a way that reminded me of the pictures I'd seen of San Francisco.
Everything was colorful too: green buildings, red buildings, yellow buildings, orange buildings, all the colors of the rainbow, all the colors of ...the sun.
As if the Center Dojo was reading my thoughts, a banner flashed before me with the words ‘Information Center’ on it.
“Bingo,” I said as we turned to the building.
As we walked, Altsoba, Aya and Lady C. kept stopping to look in a few of the shops.
I wanted to get info first, before we started spending money, but they made it pretty hard to get to the information center. Especially when Aya started pulling on my arms with her ghost limbs.
“Chase, I don't care about your wishes right now, I'm more interested in this armor. Do you see this armor? It is beautiful. It is powerful. It's sexy. You must let me shop.”
“You can stay and shop; I'm just trying to get some information,” I told her.
“But if something happens to you, there will be no one to protect you. Iris will not protect you.”
Sun Wukong stepped forward. “I will do my best to protect him,” he said with a comical grin.
“There are way too many fickboys in this city,” Spew Gorge added. “I wouldn't worry about him. If something happens to them, well, as we goblins say: it's on you.”
“So, if something happens to you, regardless of what it is, goblins believe that it is that person's fault?” Iris asked.
“That's right, and it doesn't matter what fickin’ happened.”
“Let me get this straight,” I questioned the goblin, “if I'm lying in my bed and someone breaks into my house and shoots me with a gun before I can get out of my bed, it's somehow my fault?”
Spew Gorge snorted. “Yep, you're catching on.”
“Okay, that's fine,” I told the goblin, realizing quickly that arguing with a goblin was an exercise in futility. “If you all want to stay here and shop, please do so, but I need to get some information. I want to know more about EverLife and the Steeple of Litur and Industria.”
Lady C. and Aya exchanged glances. “He really does need protection.”
“No, I don’t.”
Lady C. nodded, biting her lip as she looked up at a bookstore. “But there are so many books in there.”
“He's a mean Alpha; he won't let us shop,” Altsoba said, a sly grin on her face as she continued to stir the flames.
I chuckled at the Skin-Walker. “Nice try. How’s this for a compromise? Let's go get the information we need, and after that you all can shop until we run out of money.”
“Chase,” Iris whispered.
“Why not? We’ll get more money, but everyone will have to work for it. That includes brawls, tournaments, and captures out in the real world.”
“Real World?” Aya asked. “This is the real world.”
“You know what I mean. New York.”
“And you promise on your family's life and your own virility that we will be able to shop for the rest of the day?” Lady C. asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at me.
“Sure, I promise on my family’s life and my own virility. Happy?”
Lady C. looped her arm in mine and hustled me forward. “Let’s go then. Quickly. Because the sooner you get your info, the sooner we can start shopping.”
The information center sat in a three-story building sandwiched between a florist and a shop that sold armor and upgrades for lightning horses.
“We’ll stay out here,” Sun Wukong said, as he and Spew Gorge stepped to either side of the door.
“I’m going in,” Altsoba announced.
“Good,” said Spew Gorge. “Take some fickin’ notes.”
The shapeshifter looked at him strangely for a moment before turning away and following us inside.
“I have yet to decide how I feel about that goblin,” she said as we entered into a large, empty space.
“Tritanian goblins can be hard to handle,” Aya told her, “but this one isn’t too bad. Trust me there. He isn’t too gassy, either.”
“Gassy?” Altsoba asked.
“They are also known for their flatulence.”
A man wearing a blue, collarless shirt placed his hands in prayer position and bowed. He stood in the center of a three-story-high room, his face a pale seafoam green with deep blue veins running up his neck and the sides of his face.
“What is the information you seek?” he asked in the smooth voice of a salesman. “My knowledge, and the knowledge of all of Kingdom Lume, is at your disposal.”
“Just basic info for now,” Iris told him. “We’re new to EverLife.”
“How sweet,” he said to himself as rubbed his hands together. “I love virgins.”
“Chase does too,” Aya said to Altsoba’s snickers.
I shot the two a dirty look just as the information guy, whose name was Rupert, launched into his spiel. “EverLife is unlike any Proxima world in the Proxima Galaxy. Think of EverLife as a flower with twelve petals, each petal representing a different kingdom, all centered around the Steeple of Litur and Industria. Each kingdom has its own rules and laws, and each grants free access into the kingdom from any of the others, aside from Kingdom Ignis and Kingdom Fumus, who are at war.”
“The kingdoms war?”
“That they do,” Rupert told Iris. “One kingdom has never been to war, and that is Kingdom Psy, who has purposefully remained neutral or, as many in our lands agree, because they manipulate the minds of the other sides before war can break out.”
He cleared his throat as a paper lantern descended from the ceiling. As the lantern floated into place, it began to spin, other smaller lanterns spiraling out of it and moving into place.
“You are here,” he said as a lantern on the bottom left lit up. “To the southwest of the center of the world. We have a bit of a colder climate down here, mostly due to the fact that Kingdom Ignis is up here.”
A petal in the top right quadrant lit up.
“If you haven’t already noticed, the shape of EverLife corresponds to the home screen icon at the bottom corner of your pane of vision. By accessing the settings, you are also able to learn more about the kingdom, from the history of battles to tournaments and travel information. There are dozens of incredible homes you can stay in, quests you can take, and exclusive locations you can visit, such as the Briar Lakes of Kingdom River, or the famous rock formations in Kingdom Terra. There is also a basic layout for you to better understand the kingdom. Do you see it now?”
“I do,” I said as I focused on the icon and it enlarged.
“Amazing,” Iris said as she lifted her hand and started going through the menu options, her glasses lighting up in the process. Iris caught me staring at her and smiled.
“In the center of EverLife sits, as you very well know, the Steeple of Litur and Industria.” As he said this, a purple light appeared in the center of the floating lantern. “You’ve likely noticed that the sun changes color with the top of the Steeple.”
I nodded. “Yeah, what’s that about?”
“That is something even I don’t know,” Rupert the guide said, a look of sadness on his face. “Books have been written about it, however, and there will be many more to come. The secret remains a secret.”
“Secret?” Altsoba asked. “It changes color with the sun. What’s so secret about that?”
Next to float down from the ceiling was a lantern shaped just like the steeple and lit by seven colored lights, only the top light completely visible. The others merely ran along the outline of each level.
“Roy G. Biv,” said Rupert. “I’m sure you heard of this.”
“Definitely,” Iris said.
“Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet: the colors of the rainbow. The top of the Steeple changes with these colors, which coincides with the changes in the sun,” he said as the colors shifted up, red going to the second level and violet coming all the way down from the top. “It’s a pattern, a beautiful and mesmerizing pattern, but no one knows what it means.”
“Does it have to mean something?” Iris asked.
“I surely hope it means something, because the NPCs of EverLife have been worshipping it for ages, and it does seem to be an important part of the Kingdoms. The elders, those who have been here since the start, say that its secrets were buried deep inside. And none of us really know what that means, to be honest. There are theories. There are always theories, some wackier than others, but the only thing we can tell as citizens of EverLife is that the top changes color, followed by the sun.”
“And there isn't a door to get in?”
“Yes, there is a door to get in, but the door is sealed. The door’s color corresponds to whatever color has just come down from the top. So, as I just showed you, the bottom floor was red, the top floor was violet, the bottom floor moved up, and now the bottom floor became violet, also changing the color of the door.”
“And the third floor became orange, and the fourth yellow,” Lady C. said, completing the pattern. “It just keeps rotating, from top to bottom, right?”
“That's right. No one knows what opening the door will do, nor do they know what would happen if you got to the top. People have tried to climb to the top and they've succeeded, but they can't get into the door at the top. Oh, and there have been some wild situations in which people have tried to attack the Steeple with dragons and they've had giants try to knock it over. Some say there's treasure buried in that Steeple, an unbelievable amount of treasure. Others say that solving the mystery of the Steeple will make you king of EverLife.”