by Rick Scar
Her words reminded everyone of the other things they had to do. Raven stood up, but decided to check one more thing before he left. He came up to Telisssa who was listening to one of her guards’ report.
“May I interrupt you for a minute?”
She looked at the guard, and he took two steps back, leaving them. The bodyguards, however, remained standing behind her.
“Speak.”
“May I have a look at your level?”
As she frowned, thinking about why he’d ask such a thing, Raven hurried to explain himself: “I just want to see how strong Sansel-Ti-Mitz had to have been if she could control you. May I?”
She nodded after a pause.
“Considering our future cooperation, your request is appropriate.”
Name: Telisssa-Am-Lorr
Title: Queen of the Swarm
Level: 120
I didn’t think she’d be that low of a level...
“Thank you for letting me see it.”
“Goodbye, Your Majesty. Excuse me, but I have business to attend to.”
Raven nodded and left her. After parting with the Order’s members, and asking them to give his thanks to the survivors, he went to see Sansel-Ti-Mitz’s corpse.
Unfortunately for him, the loot was poor and included only two items. He assumed that it was so probably because he had had no part in killing her.
Astral Chain Link
Rank: Rare
He already had one such Link. He hadn’t really expected to find another, but here it was.
The other item was a strange yellow liquid splashing inside a glass ball as large as his fist.
???
Rank: ???
Description: ???
To get more information about this item, you need Identification, Grandmaster rank.
I need Daltaro to identify that. Raven hid the items into his bag. Now the Heiress quest.
However many talks he had had with Nanel since she had killed Sansel-Ti-Mitz, the quest just wouldn’t mark as completed. He was probably missing something, thus, he decided to give it another try at home before leaving the game.
Thanks to his name being removed from the blacklist, he got two Endurance Points and the standard amount of Influence Points as a pleasant bonus reward for vising the Swarm’s Hive. Besides, he got to use the local teleport.
Once they came back home, Nanel had arranged for the corpses to be collected and brought back to Adamarona, and then went into the garden. Raven walked by her side, wondering about what she needed there, and then he recalled that it was here that the grave of her adoptive father lay.
Lit by the night flowers, the garden felt like a different world. A serene world untouched by any evil. Its quiet was only broken by Nanel’s whispers and sobs.
“I… I killed her... I’ve avenged you. I’m sorry it took me so long. Forgive me. Now… Now you can rest in peace. This world now has less evil in it… At least a little less than before.” She kneeled and, plucking a rainbow flower from the grass, put it down next to the grave. As her hand ran over the tombstone’s edges, tears finally broke free from her attempts to subdue them, emitting a blue glow as they streamed down her cheeks and dropped to the ground.
Raven crouched by her side and put his arms around her. He knew how heavy of a burden had been removed from her heart now that she had avenged the man who had loved her as his own daughter.
Attention!
He preferred not to get distracted by reading the message, so he swept it away. His neck was wet with Nanel’s tears. He patted her head and caressed her hair, thinking of the words she had just said.
This world now has less evil… At least a little less than before.
I wish she was right. But evil doesn’t sleep... It’s like a hydra: you remove one head, and two more appear.
Chapter 270. Exploiting the Situation: Lesson One
A ttention! Your relationship…
Attention!
Congratulations!
As he followed Nanel to their chambers, several more messages popped up, but he swept them all away. With Nanel clinging to his arm, he walked down the hallways. The guards straightened their backs and saluted, the patrols stopped to follow them with their eyes, and then moved on. Soon, they reached the bedroom door.
“I have to go.” Raven looked into Nanel’s wet eyes and opened the door for her. He was about to log off when she pulled him inside.
“Don’t… Don’t leave. Stay with me until I fall asleep. Please?” She looked into his eyes and held his hand, a loving smile on her lips.
Attention!
He swept another message away and, casting a brief glance at the time, gave a weak nod. I’m already late. Two minutes won’t make any difference. Although he had planned to spend no more than an hour in the game, he just couldn’t leave the meeting. He would’ve looked ridiculous.
It was one-thirty in the afternoon. Closing the door behind him, he followed Nanel obediently until she started to undress. Her leather jerkin with metal plates fell to the chair with a rattle. Then her expensive boots with a rare animal’s fur. The next moment, she removed her chemise and pants, staying in her underwear. She then vanished into the bathroom, saying: “I’ll be back in a moment.”
Having been left alone in their bedroom, Raven tried to calm his suddenly racing heart. The sight of half-naked human Nanel was drastically different from what he had seen in the Hive. Then again, ogling her while her life was hanging by a fine thread wouldn’t have been appropriate, but now... Now he was aroused. He slowly put a hand to his chest.
What the hell? Do I… Do I really want her?
His heart raced even faster as he thought about it. He groped the bed edge behind him, and slowly placed himself onto the soft mattress. This realization took him aback; as if a shroud had been pulled off his true feelings.
He knew that he and Nanel would have to become a real couple sooner or later; that was what he had acquired the Royal Legacy skill for. But he had done it only because he wanted to use Nanel’s Latian heritage to get skills that a human character couldn’t normally possess. He also wanted the free skill points and XP. But as he worked to win her heart, he had missed the moment when he fell in love. He had failed to keep his heart shut.
Attention!
He couldn’t care less about the messages. Distracted by his thoughts, he missed the moment when Nanel crawled into the bed. He realized it only when her delicate arms embraced him from behind, and her warm breath and wet hair touched his neck.
“Thanks for waiting,” she whispered in a slightly trembling voice. “Why are you in bed with your clothes on?” Her voice excited him, and Raven turned to face her.
The moonlight pouring through the grated window illuminated her naked body. He couldn’t take his eyes off her delicate but still strong form and firm breasts. Nanel bit her lip and looked away, but made no effort to cover herself. Rare drops of water were running down her curves, framing them like jewels.
His throat suddenly dried. He swallowed and, without fully realizing what he was doing, began to put his things into his inventory, blue sparks dancing in his eyes like distant fires. Another message came, but his mind was entirely captivated by Nanel.
***
He woke up in the capsule the next morning with no recollection about whether he had left the game. He frowned as he looked at the ceiling, his hands behind his head, as he tried to understand why he couldn’t remember that. It was weird. He used to have such problems only after spending a very long time in the game. But he was sure that he hadn’t spent more than four hours this time. The last thing he remembered was walking with Nanel to their bedroom. All he could do was hope that whatever happened next wasn’t bad.
Could it be the lasting effect of playing too much? He sat on the capsule edge and, stretching, put his feet into his slippers when he heard a knock on the door.
“Will?” Darius opened the door and, seeing his son’s sleepy face, looked down at his watch. It wa
s a rather old model, and a worn-out one; its second hand had long stopped working, but he still loved it. “Hey, it’s eleven. I have a meeting with the estate agent. Leah’s left already... If you can, cook dinner, okay?” He was about to leave but stopped, and added with a sigh: “Yes. Yesterday’s talk. Could you please talk to Leah about it? She won’t listen to me. I can’t explain her that… That it’s better to let it lie.”
Having stared at Will for another couple of seconds, he waved and left.
Will barely remembered the last night’s dinner. Leah had mentioned finding their mother. He had to do something about it. But first…
His stomach grumbled in protest, demanding food and threatening not to leave him alone until it has been fed.
After a nice shower and a tasty breakfast, Will sat down at his PC. The final results should’ve long been posted. After a brief hesitation, he decided to check who the winner was. To his surprise, the news about the finals was overshadowed by another piece of news flooding the forums: a passage between Floors Three and Four had been opened!
He immediately typed Floor Opening Video into the search box, but all the videos he discovered only showed players speculating about this event. No official, or even unofficial, video had been posted by the Rollin’ Dice clan so far.
“That’s really, really interesting. I’d better talk to Mollie,” he muttered as he searched for the finals video. Even though over a hundred thousand had already been posted, finding a high-quality one wasn’t easy.
Crimson Berserker had surprised everyone. His final battle with Perdition was trending, and being discussed by millions of players. Will could understand the excitement as the fight was truly spectacular; so much so that it made him eager to return to the game and finish all the things he still had to do.
When everything was done, the devs came to congratulate Berserker and hand him a small, leather-bound book that looked like a prayer one. According to the devs, each of the book’s thirty pages could create a personal teleport. All the player had to do was rip out the page they needed, and the book would disappear and the page would transport them to the selected Floor. Unfortunately, the attributes of this small item that held tremendous power hadn’t been disclosed.
At least I’ll no longer be distracted by the tournament. He sighed and looked back at his capsule. He was about to turn the PC off when a call came through. Seeing the caller’s name, he picked up, and welcomed his friend: “Hi, Pak. Any news?”
“Hi, rogue. Sort of.” He smirked into the phone. “Just curious: why haven’t I seen you in the last two rounds? Did you forget that you asked me to bet fifty grands on your victory?”
Will winced as if got a sudden toothache. He had made peace with losing this money when he chose to rescue Nanel, but it was still a large sum. So large that it made him want to beat his head against the wall.
“Thanks for reminding me. I don’t know what to tell you... Shit happened. Maybe I’ll reveal this secret to you if you behave.”
Pak laughed.
“I’m not the only one who’s dying to hear that story. The media’s gonna come after you.”
After chatting for two more minutes, Will tried to reach out to Curtis but he was unavailable; he was probably in the game. Having sent him an e-mail, left a note for Leah, in which he mentioned the peace treaty but avoided the topic of last night’s dinner, he eventually came back into the game.
The first thing he heard when he logged in was the sound of a wooden sword hitting a dummy. He awoke on the bed, among the crumpled and still warm sheets, with nothing but his underwear on. As he glanced around in search of his clothes, he heard Nanel’s voice: “You put them into your Ring yesterday.”
She was standing over him, resting on her wooden sword, and pouring herself water, looking rather tense.
How long was I out?
“I… I don’t really remember what happened yesterday. Could you remind me?” He sat up and, opening the inventory, started to put his clothes on.
“You... Don’t you remember?” Nanel’s mug stopped mid-way to her lips as she waited for his response.
“Honestly, I don’t. I hope I haven’t missed out on anything important.” He smiled as he passed by the window and took a peek out. It was a bright and sunny day. “How are you?” he asked and opened the last day’s logs to go through them.
“Me? I’m all right.” She took a sip of water, apparently relieved by his answer. “By the way, now that we’ve sorted out that Latian problem, can we go to the Monarch’s Door?”
He was reading through the messages that seemed strange at first, then outright unbelievable, but that then gradually helped him figure out what happened last night.
Attention! Your relationship with Nanel has been upgraded.
+50
Attention! A mental attack has been deflected.
Did someone manage to sneak into the castle? He looked at Nanel’s impassive face. Then what the hell?
Congratulations! You have completed the secret quest chain: The Heiress.
Rewards:
+50,000 XP
+100 relationship points with Nanel
+1 Secret knowledge (an opportunity to learn 1 skill outside of your class)
Current relationship status:
564/800 – Affection
Attention! A mental attack has been deflected.
Attention! A mental attack has been deflected.
Again? Someone was really persistent. He was about to ask Nanel something but the last message provided all the answers he needed… although it also gave rise to more questions.
Attention! You have been subdued by the Obedience Crystal.
Your mind is affected by the Lust spell.
Effects: Arousal, Passion, Clouded Mind
Duration: 2 hours
So it was Nanel... He was confused by this discovery and unsure of how to react. She hadn’t done anything really bad. Just used the Crystal to bed him.
“Um, honey?” He closed the menu and looked at Nanel who visibly tensed up at the change in his voice. She wasn’t scared; rather, she was embarrassed.
“Yes?”
He opened his mouth to ask why she had done that, but just sighed and shook his head.
“Nothing. What have you been saying about the Monarch’s Door?”
Nanel smiled happily and began to tell him her plans concerning the upcoming journey. He had no idea why she had decided to use her magic on him, but he realized that it’d be better if she told him about it when she was ready.
I’ll better take the Crystal back from her. Just in case.
Chapter 271. One in a Thousand
H ow long had it been since he had promised to take her there? He couldn’t remember. But, finally, the two of them stood in the area where he had discovered the Monarch’s Door.
“I find it hard to believe that such a legendary location can be in this…” Nanel took a skeptical look at the small hills and the weather-beaten stone columns, “…this wasteland.”
Their surroundings provided absolutely no hints at the proximity of the place worshipped by all adventurers.
“Do you think I’m wrong?” Raven looked at her, frowning as she observed one of the columns and held her hand to it, apparently struggled to make out what she was looking for. Taking her surroundings in, she changed her pose as she was searching for something.
He paced up and down among the columns and hills, looking for the fucking door. As he made his way among the natural structures, he couldn’t help but remember their talk.
When he took the Crystal from her, Nanel realized why he was doing that, and confessed what she had done, stumbling over words. After he asked her why she had put her power to such a use, she clung to him with her whole body, whispering: “Please, forgive me. I… I just wanted you to stay. Things have been a mess lately. And you… You’re an island of stability and tranquility in the sea of chaos and nonsense.”
No one had ever told him such things before. On
ly his sister would sometimes mutter in her sleep something about believing in him to the very end.
“Raven, are you listening?” Her voice brought him back. Having his attention, she repeated: “As I’ve said, I’ve read a lot about that door. Unlike you. And I think…” She stopped abruptly as she saw Raven’s hand disappear into the air. “Have you found it?!”
“Yeah. Unlike you.” He smirked, mimicking her. “Are you coming?”
She instantly ran up and took his hand to follow him in. But he stopped and, pausing, took out the Crystal.
“I think you ought to have this. Who knows what things await you there.”
Once Nanel touched the item, it got sucked into her palm.
Raven looked at her closely.
“Tell me again: what’s your goal?”
“To come back alive.” She met his stare. Her eyes were filled with focus and resolution – exactly what he wanted to see. He took a step ahead, pulling his wife after him.
Attention! You have discovered a hidden location: The Monarch’s Door.
Enter it?
Yes/No
Absolutely. He was about to step into the unknown but remembered that first he needed to save his game in this location. After doing that, he confirmed his choice, and took a step inside.
Congratulations! You are the first player to visit the Monarch’s Door.
+25 Influence Points;
+3% chance to discover a Magic Phantom.
But that wasn’t all. He had forgotten that completing this location was a part of an epic quest.