《RETURN OF THE SHADOW》 Chapter 1 - The Theft April the 7th. Year 2689 A.D. Fatigue and exhaustion washed over Balthazar as he slowly opened his eyes. He was in a wooden chair in a cold long room, mildly lit, the only source of light being a reading lamp on a table to his left. He could hear the someone screaming nearby, muffled by a soft ringing noise in his ears. The feeling of cold metal burnt against his trussed-up wrists and ankles as blood trickling down his forehead into his left eye. After a few breaths, he looked around on both sides checking for captors and then, started fumbling his fingers at his wrist to untie himself. "Don''t bother." came a raspy voice from the shadows behind him. Light footsteps sounded walking towards him. "Glad you finally came to. Been waiting a while." he heard as he felt the garrote tighten around his wrists. He saw a dark, bulky silhouette move towards the light as he spoke to someone through the device on his wrist band and seated himself on the table. "I am Dave. A minute or so, you will have your questions answered and would be answering a few yourself." As he waited, he wondered where it had all gone wrong. Leaving his family and its business as soon as he came of age, he worked tirelessly till he managed to become a military Colonel at the young age of 22 being on the fast track to fame and power. He had managed to keep at bay the invasion for more than a year, till he was wrongfully, disgracefully discharged from his post for failing to hold ground and letting the invasion take over a moon. That incident cost the lives of many people on the moon and the planet PK-170 and crippled his mentor. Till today, he never understood who framed him or why? Being a disgraced military veteran, he had very few options of employment. Thus, he began to provide freelance assassination and security services and this dark chapter of his life prevailed for a couple of years. A bunch of odd jobs later he found himself, in a virtual reality gaming club owned by a friend and continued in that position for over 5 years. He found his way back to wealth and happiness. Then, one day, out of the blue came Sophia telling him that she had proof of the people who framed him, plunging his life into the cesspit of blood. The patter of soft footsteps pulled him out of his thoughts. He noticed 3 shadows walking towards and a body being dragged along by one of them. "Did he say anything" asked someone. "Could you get us a few chairs, Dave." a high-pitched feminine voice sounded. It belonged to a blue-eyed, blond woman in uniform, just short of 6 feet. "Get them yourself." "Is it you Jane? Thought you were on my side all this time. So did Sophia. No wonder, all attempts to absolve me failed. A bloody good actor you were. Never did it occur that you would involve yourself with a bunch of thugs like these." "So, the Knights of the Old Republic, is it? The Civil war has long been concluded. What manner of idiots you are, that would assume that the loss of a few colonies on the border would be of any benefit to your cause?" asked Balthazar glancing at the rest of them. Suddenly, a fist came ramming into his stomach and then his jaw, knocking him down along with the chair. He felt the bile rushing into his mouth as heard another voice. "Get him up, Dave. Also, I would be much obliged if you could arrange us a few seats and do something about the light in this room." He spat out the fluid in his mouth as he was pulled up. Disoriented, he looked around trying to recognize the rest. He saw someone taking the body behind him and the dull thud as he released it. "Give him a minute, he looks a bit groggy" said the voice as the room began to fill up with light. He could hear the shuffling of chairs as someone splashed water at his face. Sitting in front of him was a middle-aged man, red-curly hair, dark-colored, green eyes, 6 feet tall, lanky build with a square-jawed chiseled face with a short-cropped beard. He wore a dark blue suit, white shirt with a red tie, looked like a typical businessman. "Mr. Balthazar Blyth, I am Raymond Rowley. Glad we could finally meet. Albeit the circ.u.mstances, I hope we could have a civilized discussion rather the other way. Either way, we would obtain what we need, and I would rather have it done without much fuss." he said. "You can name your price for the disk all we need is for you to keep quiet about this. You can name anything you need. Your virtual game club needs sponsors. Done! A billion credits without even needing to smile at a stupid camera." "You want to get back into the military. Done. You can go back to be a colonel or even a brigadier general, if you so desire." he said waiting for Blyth to reply. Despite Rowley''s continued offers Balthazar remained unresponsive and calm, giving neither care nor regard to his words. "Ok. I have been talking to you for a while and am new to a negotiation of this kind. It would be the best for both of if get this going along." "Can you hear me?" he asked slapping the tied-up man. "Mr Rowley." Balthazar asked smiling with his teeth wide open. "Mind telling me who punched me before." "Of all things to say, you go with this?" said the man exasperatedly. "You do understand that we are a bit pressed for time. We have a general idea on where you have been the past few days and have search parties clearing through them. The only reason we are even talking to you is so that we could speed up the process along. We might not need if you end up taking too." "I repeat, who punched me?" Balthazar shouted. "It is me, kid." came a familiar voice from behind. "It has been a long time, uncle Max.." said Balthazar looking at him dispirited. It was suggested to him a long time ago that his uncle was working against him, but he blindly ignored all such talk. "I really hoped you weren''t with them." "I have always known that you are a stubborn, self-righteous prick just like you father and mine". "Always meddling in affairs that don''t concern you." said the person taking a seat beside Raymond. He had dark-brown unkempt hair, olive-green eyes, 7 feet tall, built like a gorilla. He was a longer, more heavily built version of Balthazar. Today had been a very trying day for him. First Jane and then, his uncle who raised him since he was 8. His parents lost their lives in an accident. His uncle had been his prime source of comfort, thenceforth, guiding him. Max was the main reason, he didn''t take up his family business as his grandfather desired, rather enrolled himself in the military. He also avoided his grandfather after his discharge from military. Right now, he felt like he had been brainwashed by his uncle all his life. He felt angry. He didn''t feel so agitated since his parents died. He calmed himself down. He understood that enraging him was part of the interrogation. His training took hold and he took a few deep breaths. He looked at his uncle and asked, "Were you responsible for their deaths?" "Well, yeah! I am responsible for you parents'' deaths, Bel. Hardly any point in hiding it. I own the family business now and you, even if you go tell something nobody would care for it. You are a disgraced joe. It would be shocking if anybody in the family considers you trustworthy. And would you even believe if I said no, after the way I talked of my brother?" Max replied smiling. "Oh! Enough with the family drama!" Rowley cut in "I get it. He screwed you over. But let us put the past behind us and first get done with this. I sympathize with you and I understand that. But the only way you have a chance at getting anything you want including revenge is by co-operating with us." "The drive is worth trillions of credits. But it''s value decreases as the time passes by. We are even willing to forgive any and all indiscretions on your part. I doubt anybody else can offer you a better deal in these circ.u.mstances." He pressed on. "Mr. Balthazar, time is of the essence. You need to decide now. You either join us or you are against us. Don''t throw away your life for something as trivial as patriotism." "Now you speak a good game Mr. Rowley, but I am sure it won''t be that simple." Balthazar replied. "I need to know a few things to even consider the offer. First, I don''t know where I am. Second, I came here with Sophia and I would like to leave with her. So, I need to know, if she is included in the deal." "We are in the cargo hold of a ship, on the way to the frontier. But we would need few DNA signatures and mental confirmations from both you and Ms. Sophia to safeguard our interests. So, that even if you go ahead and publicize the details, we would all be in the same boat." The sudden buzzing of a phone interrupted as Jane took out her phone. "Yes, speaking." "No, it is secure. But. But. Ok. I will be there in a few." she said into the phone. "Seems like an alarm tripped over at the fort, they detected an ape ship nearby. Probably, a false alarm. Had a bunch of new recruits over. They are a bit over enthusiastic. Will be back in an hour or so." "In that case, do you really need to go?" asked Dave. "Hey, it is protocol. Failure to be there would raise questions, we don''t need people looking into. Right?" "Hmm" "Third." Balthazar continued undisturbed. "I have caused a substantial damage to your agenda and I know that there isn''t much that can be done to mitigate it. I have killed your finance guy, the Banker. I and Sophia killed enough to push back your plans for a considerable period. Why, the assassination of the Banker itself put you back for at least 5 years." "I am sure that we will not be allowed to let go. Doing that would be detrimental to the faith, confidence of your confederates." "I told you, he wouldn''t be giving it up after a few words. Men like him need to be trussed up a bit before to inspire them. Let me and Max have a few rounds with him. We can loosen him up for you." said Dave as he walked toward Balthazar and threw a punch to his liver. "Wow." Balthazar coughed. "The stuff, I read through isn''t worth all this. You would just put a bullet through my head and consider it handled. Now, I wish to know what the drive has that makes you guys so desperate." "This is getting us nowhere, Raymond. Let Dave and Max have a go at him. They might be more successful." "As you can see Mr. Blyth, my companions are a bit anxious. If you continue this way, I would be forced to consider doing this the bloody way." "Oh please! You guys need to up your game. What is this supposed to be "Good Thug, Bad Thug"?" laughed Balthazar. "Honestly, you guys, when is the last time you interrogated someone? Seem to be a tad rusty." "In that case, Bel, I will leave you in their capable hands. Dave?" Dave dragged the chair along with Balthazar into the ship''s bathhouse. "Ever drank soap, Bel? Don''t worry, we will wash it out with water. Can''t have you poisoned." said Max smirking. After a long time, Bel found himself on a cold wet floor, injured, drenched in water, his throat burning like it was being corroded. His eyes smarted and vision was cloudy as slowly came to look upon the wet injured body of a woman, hands and legs tied-up. It is Sophia. She is currently, a lieutenant colonel under Jane and had always been a good friend. She was the only one, who considered him innocent despite the evidence. He was aching all over, could hardly move but slowly pushed himself beside her. He gently pulled her towards him and checked her for pulse. "I am not down, yet" she giggled weakly. Her face was pale, eyes beaten black, blood dried and caked on her face. "Looks like we got the short end of the stick." she said as they started to hear people coming towards the bath house. "Don''t worry." he comforted her. "The rescue is on the way. We are going to be safe." It was a long time since he cared for someone other than himself. For the first time, since he was 8, he prayed for a path to survive with his friends. "So, any word from Jane." said Dave. "None. Unable to reach her. Seems that emergency is a credible one or she is being held at the fort." "I suspect it might be the later. Best we move the ship immediately, somewhere secure, some place Jane has no knowledge of." said Max. "I understand the need for cause but let us not be hasty here." "I would rather err on the side of caution than risk staying here." "There is a high chance that the drive is on the planet PK-170, she is posted on. She is the best chance, we got for retrieving the drive." Raymond calmed them down. "Another ten minutes, then we will move towards the nearest warp station." "So, any progress?" Raymond asked. "I will have a chat with him. If it fails, it is time we use the girl." He walked into the washroom and calmly crouched before Bel and Sophia. Just as he opened his mouth, the speaker rang. "Mr. Rowley. The captain requests your presence at his cabin." "I am busy. What''s the matter Mr. Kimbley?" "It seems to be some issue with stranding the ship in this position. Apparently, it is in a no parking space. We have been hailed by a defence vessel and it is requesting a preliminary scan." "Show them, the merchant license and tell insist that the Rowley Trading Firm cannot accept a scan of the ship on account of volatile materials," replied Raymond disgruntled. "Sir, we already have but their Captain boarded over, looked over the shipping manifest and is requesting to meet you." "He doesn''t care about annoying your family, Rowley. That is either one tactless captain or they suspect something." said Dave. "Don''t worry, I will clear it up. Dave come with me. Max you stay here." said Raymond and they both walked away. Dave came back in a minute and calmly pulled both Bel and Sophia and seated them against the bath house wall. He crouched in front of Bel, took out his gun and said, "I have a surprise for you." He quickly turned around and shot Max in the head. "He has lived long past his use. The original deal with him was to kill John Blyth, wife and their kid. But the idiot decided to spare your life. Had a soft spot for children this one." said Dave as he retrieved a gun from Max''s body. He started to feel dizzy. He braced himself against the wall with a hand and tried to aim the gun. His vision felt foggy as he noticed Sophia fainted. He could hear someone running towards him from behind. He took a shot at Balthazar. Dark red matter splattered the wall behind Bel as he fell to his side. The bullet struck the wall behind Balthazar knocking the shrapnel into the back of his head. Bel felt a sharp pain as he realized what happened. He wouldn''t survive much less feel pain, if he was shot in head at such a close distance. He fell to his side, waiting for the rescue to arrive. He had waited a long time for a second chance. He lay bleeding from his head, waiting in hope against all reason that he would be alive and finally, get a chance to do right by his grandfather, friends and Sophia. Chapter 2 - Rewind? The blaring sound of an alarm pierced his eardrums as Balthazar woke up in a daze. He found himself in a warm bed, wearing his jammies in a room with table and chair to his left, washroom to the right and screen in front of him. It reminded him of his old quarters during his service. As he pulled himself off the bed, he noticed that his injuries had been healed. He washed his face and tried to remember what happened. He was with Sophia, when the ship was pumped with knock-out gas, Max was killed and then he fainted. Seeing that he is alive and well, the general received the package and sent for rescue. But there is a lot that doesn''t make sense. He should be a hospital ward, waiting to be a debriefed or in counselling. Not alone in this room. Opening the wardrobe, he saw his old uniform, badges, firearms and his wrist band and standard military issue communication device, WK-81 which attaches to the band. "That is odd." he thought. "It is the year 89 now. These devices are updated every 5 years, at very worst. But WK-81 was released 8 years ago." "Either I am in simulation or went back in time 7 years." he smiled stupidly as he donned his gears. He checked his guns, and his WK-81. "Well, they did put some effort if it was a simulation." he thought. But to what end? He failed to understand. The whole thing gave him a headache. He didn''t know how to respond or what to do. Everything, he saw gave him a creeping sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. "January 8th, 2682." the device showed. "It was 3 days before the incident, which had him discharged from the force." he thought. His device buzzed as received a message from Major Jacob. Jacob was a fellow trainee along with him, when he enrolled at the military. It was regarding his return from an exploratory mission. He remembers this specially as Jacob was a bit agitated and repeatedly kept saying that there were some glitches with the long-range detection systems on the base on the moon. Sadly, Jacob didn''t survive the invasion which happened on 11th. He messaged Jacob to meet him as soon as possible at location in the CECME complex. "That would put an end to his dilemma." he thought hoping that he really did go back in time. Wistfully, he started to walk to the location as he took in every single detail around him. Along the way, he was greeted by many personnel, his peers, many who used to be a part of his daily life. Their faces surfaced memories he thought were long lost to time. It was as if the world was a tape and by some miracle, he managed to rewind it. He was sure that he had been given a second chance by god or whatever power deigned him worthy of it. Just, it wasn''t the way he expected. He now has a chance to undo his mistakes, save a lot of people and his family. Being an atheist, he never was one to pray nor did he ever ask for help before. But, the sheer enormity of the unforeseen circ.u.mstance he was in, made him to consider the existence of god, a supreme existence for a moment. "Damn! Almost had me considering of religion for a second." he laughed inwardly. "No matter, how or why, I cannot waver and only follow through." A large cast-steel door with semi-circular arch atop it, loomed into view. "CORPS OF ELECTRICAL, COMMUNICATION AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS." This place held most of his memories during his first 2 years of service. At the early age of 17, he graduated as an engineer and involved himself in his family business. He was the oddball in a family of medics. As soon as he crossed the eligible age of 18, he enrolled at the protective forces. The invasion of the apes created many opportunities, for the able and ambitious. These scaly humanoid creatures were in war with humanity, since their first contact in late 26th century. This war for resources and territory only escalated in 27th century with hardly any signs of peace. Within 6 months, he got posted as a Lieutenant and on the planet PK-170. Young and ambitious, he seized every chance he got, travelled multiple planets, successful in repelling multiple intrusions, gained the recognition of his superiors and was considered one of the most strategic minds on the planet by the time he was 20. Be it fortune or fate, two years later when his commanding officer retired, he was recommended and thus, ended up being the youngest colonel on the planet. He walked past the arch swiped his id across the sensor at the guard station and entered a five-storeyed complex, the size of a football field. He currently commands a regiment of about 3500 personnel divided into 5 battalions. Two of them permanently stationed on the moon base, provided engineering, support and security services across the moon PK-170-B and the remaining were exploratory in nature and would be the first to realize any other forces entering their space. In the 27th century, the great age of planetary colonization and terraforming, not all terraformed planets can be made life supporting as it requires a minimum composition of certain elements and compounds on it. PK-170 was one of the rare planets, which was life supporting, habitable for humans and abundant in natural resources. It provided abundant food sources. As such, all celestial bodies revolving around it like PK-170-B are considered strategic military resources in defending against the invasion and he was responsible for most of the security of PK-170-B. As he went to the posterior of the complex, he passed by Jane''s cabin. He felt a surge of anger realizing that she would betray the alliance and frame him in two days. "I won''t let it happen again. And this time I will catch you in the act with proof." he thought as he continued to the back of the complex. It was a deserted corridor on the ground floor. He found Jacob waiting outside an equipment room, holding a thin blue report file. He greeted Jacob as he motioned him to get inside and quickly closed the door behind him. "Major Jacob, I was notified that you had some concerns regarding glitches in the detections systems on the moon base. Could you please elaborate?" said Bel, taking the report from Jacob. "Col. Blyth, I was contacted by Capt. Jones on one of his routine checks around PK-170-B. His ship accidentally went a bit out of the designated path and found a cargo ship. He tried to hail them, but they quickly moved out and jetted away. He contacted the services at the base, but they informed him that the space was clear, and no vessel was observed." Jacob replied. "If it really was detected by the system, it would be noted in the automatics logs of the navigation interface. You could just check the nav logs and forward a report. It would be immediately investigated, if you provide that bit of conclusive proof. So, why did you request to meet me?" asked Balthazar. "The navigation data doesn''t show it. So, it was considered as an instrumental error on the ship and there was no cargo ship in that area. Despite that Jones insists strongly that he had triple checked the instrument himself during travel and requested me to investigate it, suspecting data tampering on the navigation systems. I found that a similar vessel was observed by another captain a month ago, but a report wasn''t filed for the same reason." "It seems a bit suspicious. I know the circ.u.mstances in which you joined the force. If you were interested in transactions with merchants, you would have stayed in your family. I trust you will investigate it?" "It is definitely suspicious. There should either be an issue with the installation on the moon base or the instruments on the sh.i.p.s. Let me check a few things and come up with a plan. Keep quiet about this and keep a few trustworthy personnel from you squadron ready. We might need to take a vessel to check the situation. Convene with me in my office after lunch." he replied. They both left the cabin and Balthazar went to his work space on the third floor. He had been a colonel for four months and he learned that his job mainly consisted of paperwork and drills, making sure the resources from the moon. It felt like the same job, he refused to do in his family. In these four months, he never boarded a ship, went on mission, went for an inspection or anything which attracted him to a job in military. Being promoted to colonel he thought that he was very lucky but taking on the post made him realize the responsibility and monotonous paperwork that came along it. These were the most boring months in his service. Fatigue crept over him daily as he went on with his work, signing agreements, planning drills, requesting more personnel and new security proposals. The boredom eating at his brain, neglect slowly began to take root and maybe that was the reason, he was easily fooled. But, the second time around, he had the advantage of foresight and he also got used to the monotony of it when he was working at the club. Once, inside his work cabin, he immediately started to shift around his schedule to accommodate a meeting with Jacob after lunch. He went on to compile a list of people, whom he should monitor. First on it would be Lt. Col. Jane, he was sure that she was involved in tampering of the navigation data of the Jones'' ship. But he had no idea, who was working with her on the moon base. He quickly set to work on his computer. A ship''s nav data can only checked and changed by accessing the ship manually. He checked the security footage on the hangar for any personnel accessed Jones'' ship after it was parked. He also did the same with the other case which was not reported. By lunch time, he managed to identify two personnel who made unscheduled visits exactly when the sh.i.p.s landed. One was from Jane''s battalion, the other was from Sophia''s. That put him in a dilemma. Sophia was a special case. She was ten years elder to him and they shared a romantic past. In the 27th century, the medical advances helped increase the general life expectancy to 180 years and the a.d.u.l.t phase of a man lasted for about a hundred years, a young man of 20 and his grandfather could be mistaken for brothers. As such, the relationship between him and Sophia could be considered commonplace. She was a good friend to him even after his discharge. He trusted Sophia had nothing to do with this as she was the one who brought the proof against Jane in future. After much deliberation of the pros and cons of including Sophia, he decided to pull her into the loop. He owes her a lot more than that. She gave him the chance to redeem himself. He sent a message requesting her to meet him after lunch. He can keep watch on his personnel on the planet, some way or other, without letting them know, but he can hardly do much about the moon base. Though he was the commander, he was very young and there are many who consider him too young and inexperienced for his post and he wouldn''t have the same level of control of the moon base. They wouldn''t respect him and probably seize any chance they get to undermine his authority. Both lieutenant colonels on the base come under this category. There is a high chance of his plan leaking to unwanted parties if he directly contacted them. There are two things which occupied Balthazar mind. First, in order to catch Jane in the act he needed to know, who are the other parties outside the military working with her and when would the next cargo ship make the trip near moon base. Second, he needs to set the detection systems back in working conditions regardless of whether it would lose him the chance of catching Jane. If he fails it would result in the same catastrophe, he was responsible for the first time. He realized that he could only hash out the details of the operation after consulting with Jacob, Jones and Sophia. He walked himself down to the mess in the ground floor. He ordered a couple of sandwiches, gulped them down as fast as he could, returned and waited for them to arrive. Sophia, the early bird that she was, arrived a couple of minutes before the scheduled time. She knocked at the door and opened it. "Col. Blyth, may I come in?" "Yeah! Sophia. Get in. Have a seat. Major Jacob and Capt. Jones would be here in a minute. So, let me get you up to speed. Jacob and Jones observed that someone is allowing unauthorized cargo sh.i.p.s near the PK-170-B moon base. The detection systems of the base failed to detect the ship, which could detect on their rounds. I have observed the security footage from the hangar and noticed two personnel making unauthorized, unscheduled visits to corrupt the navigation logs of the sh.i.p.s." said Balthazar showing her the security footage from the hangar. As she was looking over the footage, Jacob and Jones arrived. "Get in guys. Was just discussing your concerns with Sophia, here." said Balthazar as Sophia rolled her eyes. He was always a bit informal with the personnel, which Sophia being a stickler for rules and rites frowned upon. "Col. Balthazar, do you have any idea who they are? Whom are they working with?" she asked. "One of them is in Jane''s battalion and the other in Sophia''s." said Balthazar with a smile. The atmosphere in the room abruptly changed. Jacob and Jones looked at Sophia with shock. "Don''t get so tensed. He recently transferred for a better position into you battalion." continued Balthazar. Sophia looked angrily at Balthazar as she asked, "I hope you got a plan about this." "Still in work. The most important thing which we need to do is to first make sure that the detection systems on the moon base work. We need to have surveillance on them without knowledge of any other parties. Emphasis on keeping it secret. Regarding the personnel who is in contact with the cargo ship, the prime suspect is Jane." "Just because you found one guy from her battalion doesn''t make her guilty. How can you consider her a suspect without any investigation on the two personnel?" asked Sophia. "I am not blindly considering Jane a suspect because of those two. To convince a cargo ship to fly in unauthorized entry requires the men to have a certain level of assurance against the risk involved, which someone like a Major or Captain can''t provide. Thus, my first guess is Jane. Then, the Majors in her battalion. I have other sources too for considering Jane, but for reasons I can''t explain we will leave it at that." "Sophia can we count on you to keep the discreet surveillance on Jane and the rest. Any permissions, equipment you require, I will try my best to provide" said Balthazar. "Sure, will be done." "The second thing on the agenda is to fix the detection systems without letting others know it. If we let them know, we lose our advantage. The best scenario is one where they attempt to get another cargo ship near the base with the detection system working and we capture them in the act. But the most important thing is to get the detection system working as it is a high-level security issue." "Irrespective of whether they realize it or not, we need to get it up by tomorrow. Else the consequences could be disastrous, if the apes attempt another intrusion. That is priority one" said Balthazar. The room went silent for a few awkward seconds as none of them expected the fix to be done in a day. "Now, all suggestions are welcome. Don''t hold back." smiled Balthazar. "Any hardware changes to the system would be clearly noticed by many personnel, especially for systems like these which are used all day long. But a software patch, system updates would be done in a few minutes. Hence, the only issue is with the system would be because of an unauthorized software patch. We would just need to change it to default factory setting and update it to the latest authorized software version." explained Sophia. After further discussion, they decided that Jacob could arrange someone to get onto the base to fix the detection systems. Jones could captain a ship stealthily to verify if the detection systems are working. But they got stumped at one issue. They needed someone on the moon base to let them dock in quietly to check and fix the detection systems. "I will try to get someone to assist you at the moon base. We shall convene again in four hours. Just be ready for the mission by tomorrow. Dismissed." concluded Balthazar. Both Jacob and Jones were confused. Balthazar was very young, and he just took the colonel post four months before. He hardly had any influence or rapport with the personnel in the moon base on PK-170-B. They were concerned about this and immediately consulted with Sophia. "It is not that we doubt his intentions, but he was in the service for less than 5 years and he didn''t earn much favors during his tenure. We are just worried that something untoward might happen if he is not careful." expressed Jacob. "I understand why you guys would be worried. But it is unnecessary. He has the means for it." smiled Sophia as she left to her office. Following their departure, Balthazar changed out of his uniform and left the building. He went out of the military campus and continued along the road to west in his hover car. The campus was situated on the north side of the outskirts of the city K4 like most of the military installations. He crossed the border of the military grounds and continued along the desolate road for more than half hour, till he reached a recently constructed township. He drove through, to the north of the township till he reached a large gate between 9 feet stone walls. The words "BANDERAS GYM, SHOOTING RANGE AND WARFRAME TRAINING GROUNDS" were etched on the gate in a large and bold font. Confirming his id to the guard at the gate, he drove to the complex inside. Chapter 3 - The Trap Technology is a sign of how man''s knowledge of nature increased and how his wants diversified. Its growth is an efficient way to measure mankind''s progress. Technical inventions changed the ways of human life cultural, social, economic and political in many ways both beneficial and adverse. By the late 22nd century, the medical advances increased world population resulting in wars and inspired mankind to search for planetary exploration in search of new lands and resources. Terraforming lead to new colonies on celestial bodies. Soon, the technical advances have resulted in new energy sources and shrinking of technical equipment. In the 24th century, small-scale nuclear batteries have become common place. By the late 25th century, the travel at warp speed was realized leading to the advent of the great age of planetary exploration. By the 26th century, the medical technology had undergone further changes resulting in higher life spans and increase time of a.d.u.l.t phase. The life span of men in general reached 160 years by the end of the 26th century. This had a great impact on the society of man. The social norms, lifestyle and behavior of men changed a lot in the following century. Rodrigo Banderas was one of the people who experienced this change. He was born to his parents in their late twenties. When he was born, the average life span was still less than a century. By the time he reached 22, he took over his family''s weapons business. War was always a part of human history. Be it due to difference between ideas, culture and religion or just for resources, wars would never complete cease to exist and this held true during Rodrigo''s time. Rodrigo was a talented man and the weapons business boomed under his guidance. He married at the age of 31 and flourished under these circ.u.mstances. Then, came the apes. Caught unaware by a new species as intelligent as them, humans realised the need to provide a united from towards them. But the greed of men wouldn''t let them unite that quickly. There were many coalitions and alliances formed between the planets. Even as the apes invaded the humans, they continued with their battles and wars. These wars continued for a period of 20 years before the wars among human ceased and finally a strong alliance formed between the various powers of the humans, which managed to effectively reduce the infighting among human powers. These 20 years was one of the darkest periods of mankind. But as always humans named this time as "Age of Unification" putting a positive spin on it. For seventeen years of age of unification, Rodrigo''s life was busy, and he lived happily. After five years, disaster struck. The planet he was on came under attack and he lost his wife in the attack. Grief stricken and angry, he chose the path of revenge. Thus, he began his military career. Though the life span had increased to 160 years, he joined at the age of 54 in a time of social change due to increase in life span. He joined as a cadet in a time, where the retirement age was still 70 years. He left his business to his 21-year-old son and went into the force. He always volunteered to be on the front lines. Being in the fifties he was considered to be past the prime of his youth by most, but due to the medical advancements in that period he maintained his health and continued to be effective in his military career. Being in the business of weapons supply for a long time, he had a lot of contacts and influence in the military. His knowledge of the various powers and interests of various parties allowed him an advantage in the military. With the support of his contacts, he was successful in most of his endeavours. He successfully took over many planets from the apes. Rodrigo being a former businessman had a different perspective than the typical commander. His talent in strategy and his adaptability to the social changes garnered his support not only from his cohorts in the force but also in the world of politics and mercantile society. A man who came to be known as an unrelenting spear against the invaders. By the age of 100, he became lieutenant general of the protective forces of the alliance. He became one of the pillars of the military. Though he had a firm and unshakable will old age crept upon him unawares. He also slowly came to realize the same, he was ready to retire when his time came and choose a successor. It was in his last year of his service that he encountered Captain Blyth during an attempt to capture a moon. This man reminded him of himself, a strategic mind and zealous to kill the apes. Piqued with interest he decided to observe the man. But he thought that he could be a very able commander with a little bit of advice and chance to perform. And so, Balthazar gained a mentor by the time he had become a major. Though Rodrigo supported Balthazar, he kept his relationship with Balthazar a secret to avoid any possible adverse effects. After Rodrigo retired, he moved to planet PK-170 and stayed in the military retirement home. He lived there as a representative of his company, currently being led by his son. Bored and missing the action, he had started a shooting range and spent most of his time there. In this way, he spent his retirement without much excitement, enjoying his well-earned moments of peace until today, when he saw Balthazar walking towards him. "How are you, sir" greeted Balthazar "It looks like you are not yet done with the guns and machines." "Of course, I still have a lot more time left with my babes. Would have started a nice aerial combat training centre, if I could own a decent chunk of airspace nearby. Just that the alliance doesn''t allow privatisation of airspace at the edge." "Settled in your new post, yet?" he asked. "I am good, sir. Still working on it." "Why don''t you send in a few squads to the grounds here. You probably go a few recruits this November. I will train them. Would also provide a good discount on your account," said Rodrigo trying to make a sale. "Sure, we can do that. But first, need a small favour from you. Best we talk in private." Balthazar replied. "You don''t usually go asking small favours. What did you do?" leading him to his personal office. "I never asked you any favour. What are you talking about?" "Yes, in these past 3 years, we have known each other you never asked any favour. Even when I thought you would seek my help. You preferred to do it on your own. Hence, my unease." Rodrigo replied teasing. "We have noticed that the detection system on the moon base has a problem. I believe that certain rebel forces have managed to infiltrate the military and managed to install a patch causing the system to not detect, any vessels in certain regions. Need someone trustworthy on the moon base to help my team to patch it up covertly, as I intend to catch them unawares." "Ha-ha, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. How did you come to know of this? Which force do you suspect?" laughed Rodrigo. "It is knights of the old republic. Have my eyes on the suspects. I can''t properly explain my reasoning due to some exigent circ.u.mstances, but I am certain they are planning something with the week. Of one thing, I am certain. The detection systems on the base are faulty and we need to rectify this security issue." "Knights of the Old Republic?" stammered Rodrigo in a shock. "Are you sure? It has been a few decades since they were heard of." "I too hope that they have not resurfaced. Though they haven''t been active after I was born, I heard enough to be more wary of them than the apes." replied Bel. "Yes, you better be. They have always been very ruthless. They even attacked the alliance forces which were under attack by the apes from behind. They have been in hiding for a long time. If it is them, we hardly have any information on them. It is best you don''t take any unnecessary risks." Rodrigo cautioned him. "I got an old friend who can help. He can find someone on the moon base to work with you. Will send you the details by two hours. Be prepared, kid." "Sir, it is best you take shelter, somewhere more secure for a few days. If this goes sideways, it might get extremely chaotic." "What are you talking about kid. I am coming to the moon on 11th for the exhibition to explain a new warframe concept. Would be glad if you support me in my pitch to councilman Armstrong." "Sir, is it really necessary to do it at this time? Especially since the situation is like this." "I''ll be fine, kid. You take care." Nodding, Balthazar bade farewell to Rodrigo. He was sure that Rodrigo will get someone to contact him as soon as possible. He went back to his office. As soon as he went to office, he received an encrypted message from Rodrigo. "That was fast." thought Balthazar as he opened the message. It mentioned a major Shareef, who had been stationed on the moon base for two decades. He worked as a maintenance engineer, when he was a lieutenant and has good understanding of the detection and targeting systems and would be an asset in their mission. "This went better than I hoped." thought Balthazar and contacted Shareef. There was still the issue of his uncle allying himself with the knights of the old republic. He messaged his grandfather implying that he wanted to meet him a couple of days later. An hour later, he met with Sophia, Jacob and Jones at the appointed time. "We got someone to help you dock at the moon base. He can also assist you in sneaking you into the server room and can assist you in patching up the detection system. I already set up for Jones to take a stealth craft for an inspection tonight. I have discussed with Shareef and set up an encrypted channel to contact him." said Balthazar giving Jacob a sheet with the details. "Memorize and destroy it. No need to inform Shareef of details. Nor is there any need to contact him after you verify the systems working using Jones'' ship." "I have set up another encrypted channel for the four of us. Any issues, we notify immediately. Sophia, I am not expecting any issue in fixing the system. It is you has the most important part to play in this mission. It would be best if we can determine all the guilty parties." concluded Balthazar. Balthazar stayed over at his work space that night. He booked a warp transport flight to his home planet DH-4 also known as asklepian. He could hardly sleep till Jacob confirmed that the systems on the moon base were fixed. He had laid the best trap he could for them. A trap which could not miss and was just waiting to be sprung. Now all he had to do was wait for the attack. Chapter 4 - The Best Laid Plans January the 10th, Year 2682 A.D.: It was an unusually cold day for this time of the year, and it was very early for Jane to be awake in her chambers. Jane was seated on her bed, livid and worried. Jane was a 62-year old military veteran. She has a 14-year old boy and had lost her husband to the war. She held her post for more than 7 years and was one of the candidates who competed for the colonel position along with Balthazar. The plan was made many days ago, but she received an encrypted message informing her that it would be held by mid-day today. "Tomorrow early morning would have been the best time to attack. As I informed, there was a large-scale drill and games involving both the battalions on the moon tonight. As such, many personnel would be a bit tardy and tired after such an event and would be considered the best time for an attack," she sent in reply The response time would have not been that quick and she could have easily had some men to delay the targeting and attack systems in that chaos. She also intended to have her son sent somewhere safe today night. She couldn''t understand their reason for the sudden change of plans. But the reply stunned her. "Colonel Balthazar may leave to asklepian today evening and we need him to not provide any further hindrances to our agenda." "Was Balthazar really that important?" she thought. She only considered his assassination attempt to be something that was optional during the chaos of the attack. Little did she or Balthazar know that a couple of their previous plans were delayed by Balthazar unintentionally. "Is his death necessary to the mission?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed. She always considered him a bit of trouble but never enough to change their plans. She only decided to help them as she thought their influence in the military would be of help to her. Ever since her husband died a year ago, she just wanted to get away from the front lines. She just wanted to avoid a scenario where her son would become an orphan. She was a classic case where ambition and fear resulted in loss of rational thinking. She had never thought that knights would take such a risk to kill Balthazar. "Balthazar was a rising figure and was considered a very intelligent personality. The knights wouldn''t prefer him in the opposition," replied Max. Max needed both Balthazar and his twin sister dead to inherit his family and Jane also considered him an obstacle to her promotion. Max just wanted to get rid of him and make it appear as a war casualty. So, once Max came to know from his father that Balthazar intended to meet him, he was very afraid that Balthazar would come back to the family and all his work to divert Balthazar from family business would be in vain. Since, Balthazar became famous in the military, his father considered Balthazar to be a very capable leader and he feared that his father would insist that Balthazar would return to the family and lead it. So, he couldn''t have Balthazar talk to his father and was the main reason to prepone the attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few miles away in a hotel room in a neighbouring city, two men were discussing the same issue. "I agree with Jane. Even though she is the latest addition, she speaks more sense than Max. It is just ridiculous to even consider this. She has been of more use in this last year than he has ever been," explained Dave to Rowley. "I agree. I hardly like him. But the family heads insist on helping him. For some reason, they consider the Blyth family to be very important. They don''t even consider the failure of the mission. I can''t see what is so important about that family." "There is a high chance of failure of the mission in this case. If we fail this time, then the chances of taking over another time would be very hard. It is a waste of resources. If we want to have him killed, we could just send an assassin rather than all this deception," said Dave confused. "When I suggested the same to them, Elder John told that he would rather kill me than have him assassinated. The elders seem to be quite concerned about the Blyths. Ever since John Blyth died, we have no clue where Walt and his old man are? Under no circ.u.mstances, they would like to have the public think that another Blyth was assassinated." "Even Max doesn''t know where Walt is? He is Walt''s son!" "No, he doesn''t. The elders don''t want us in the Blyths'' purview." "Fine. We will do as they want," said Dave reluctantly. "You just make sure your man is successful in killing Balthazar. I will go and help to convince Jane," said Raymond as he went out the room to meet Max in the adjoining suite. Just as he opened the door, he saw Max ending the call with Jane. "Is she convinced?" asked Raymond. "Yes. She was a bit uncertain and wanted to use the best possible time like Dave. But I managed to make her agree." "Even I was against the change. But I am just following orders." "You don''t need to worry much. We made sure that an entire quadrant is invisible. The surprise is enough to take care of the base. The main concern was always my nephew," said Max as he checked a message he just received. "I just got the confirmation from Jane that Bel did apply for leave from tomorrow. It is best we handle him as soon as possible. Any more delay would be detrimental to the plan. Contact you brother and tell him to depart. Lie to the apes that the glitch would most probably be patched after tomorrow''s drills. It is best that we don''t delay any more." "He knows what to do. He is already on the way," replied Rowley. "Keep in mind, if under any circ.u.mstance, your brother, Jane or any of our men there come under doubt. They are to be killed. Can''t have any loose ends." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 600000km away from PK-170-B: There was a merchant ship, the cargo hold ripped off, full of scorch marks and holes. There were a lot of bodies in the passenger cabins, men, women and children all died of asphyxiation. There were four men in the c.o.c.kpit, two arguing with one another and the rest watching the show. "You told us that we would be driving into the base after the event. Now, you just want to have it done during the event. We might even be fired upon if we go into the base during the event. I am not willing to risk my crew and myself any more than necessary," shouted a man. He was black with a crew cut, 7 feet tall and had a sturdy build. The merchant he was speaking to was livid with fury. "Damn these greedy thugs to hell!" he thought. "I am paying them more than 10 million credits and supplied the ship, weapons and consumables. Now, they are arguing and threatening to delay just because we preponed the flight. It is not like there will be much difference in the plan. They are just trying squeeze more credits off me." "Captain Ode!" he said raising his voice. "Delaying the flight could cause the entire plan to be scrubbed. If the target gets away, there would hardly be any point in the entire mission. Then neither of us would be paid. And we would also be hunted down by my employer in that case." "I don''t care. I am more concerned about the military being on our backs than your employer. We are putting ourselves at a high risk and what you are paying us isn''t worth the risk," he replied. "How much is it worth then?" asked the merchant. "At least double the present amount." "That is ridiculous. I am paying you an amount north of 10 million credits. You want to double it?" "Yes, at least 20 million." "I will give you 15 million. Don''t be so shameless. You don''t want to be on the bad side of my employer." Ode signalled to the remaining to come to him. After a few minutes. "Ok, we agree for 15 mil, but need to transfer 5 mil now and the remaining you can do it afterwards." "I already paid you 5 million. Another 5 million before hand is giving you the entire sum, we initially discussed without you doing anything. How can I be sure you wouldn''t just take off after I pay you?" "It is your call. This is the minimum. We can''t go below this. Take the offer and hire someone else." He didn''t have the authority or the permission to transfer such an amount to them. Frustrated and helpless, he informed Raymond of it. "Just pay them, Rick. I will provide you the amount. We will take care of them after the mission. Just get them moving," came a reply followed by the details for the credit transfer. He immediately transferred the amount. "It is done, get moving." "We are ready to move. Just give me the co-ordinates of the ape forces. I hope they are also ready." "Start on the way to the moon now. The location will be sent to you in a few minutes. I will be leaving the ship in my shuttle now. Just don''t be late and you need to convince the military that you are being pursued by the apes." A few moments later, a small shuttle left the ship and it soon it docked into another ship. This ship was headed directly to the planet PK-170. As Rick got out of his seat, he saw a hooded and masked petite figure waiting in his shuttle near the door. Shocked by the sudden appearance of an unknown person in his shuttle, he asked in a stutter. "Who are you?" "Not to worry, I am just additional security for your trip. Come on, the captain is waiting." Came a soft voice Rick was directed to a small cabin near the c.o.c.kpit. A red-eyed lanky man with a small moustache wearing a tight fitted black suit was waiting for him. "So, how did it go?" asked the captain nonchalantly. "It could have gone better" began Rick in a hurry. "Keep you men ready. We need to ¡­" "Wasn''t asking you." "Everything as told. The explosives are in place and the Ode and his crew have no clue," replied the masked figure. "Don''t worry. The team is moving to the base now. The papers are ready. They will be there well before time. We plan to handle both Balthazar and Ode together. Let''s get to PK-170 and meet up with Rowley." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PK-170, Military Base: It has been more than a few hours since Ode started on his way to the moon and the games are scheduled to start in two hours. The moon base is lively and active. The streets are filled with people and many new stalls have been opened for the day. Various powers of the alliance set up stalls to advertise their new products and inventions and training centres offered several programs as their stalls. The PK-170 base was lively and active. The personnel were all busy. Today, the games on moon base required various personnel to help the men on the moon base to continue the general operations and functions on the moon base. It was a busy time and several men were deployed temporarily onto the moon base for the event. Balthazar was in his cabin on the base. He had Captain Jones take a leave for the day but secretly patrol the sector near the moon in stealth. He was talking to tall blond man with dark brown eyes, while waiting for Jane and Sophia in his office. "As I have just told you, I might need to stay at the moon base for a few more hours after the inauguration and meet with a few delegates, especially from Rodrigo''s group regarding some training programmes. So, I would like to you hold the fort in my absence," requested Balthazar. "Sure, it is no problem. You have applied for leave and I am going to be doing it anyway for a few days starting tonight. What is a few more hours." "That''s good. Sophia will be assisting you with anything you require today. I am taking Jane to the base to assist me. She is better acquainted with few of these men than me and would be helpful." As Balthazar was discussing with Jacques, Jane and Sophia entered the cabin together. The four of them discussed the various organizations that would attend the games and the new tools and weapons that were being displayed in the base. In a few minutes, they made a shortlist of few prototype weapons and war frames from the exhibition in the base. "I will be leaving to the moon base in a few minutes. I have a shuttle waiting for departure. I will be leaving Lt. Col. Jacques in charge of the happenings here. Jane could you please prepare for the meeting in the moon base. We will be leaving in 15 minutes. I will be waiting for you in the hangar. Meeting adjourned." After the Jane, Jacques and Sophia left his cabin, Balthazar immediately called Jones to find out, if he noticed any sh.i.p.s heading towards the moon base. Confirming that there are no unexpected visitors, he asked Jones to continue monitoring in stealth and inform him on any external forces presence without engaging them. Being done with all the preparation he could do for the attack, he left for the hangar. As he was waiting in the hangar, Jane was extremely frightened. Balthazar suddenly decided to have Jane accompany him to the moon base which was extremely coincidental. This sudden change had her wondering if Balthazar had already known about the attack. Chapter 5 - The Attack Being a military base on the outskirts of the alliance occupied area and one of the prime relay points, the moon base was one of the most secure establishment on the frontier. Though it had a small size with about 1500 km diameter, the entire moon was a high resource area with about 70 percent of the lithosphere made of Titanium and most of the remaining being strong alloys of iron and nickel. This allowed the entire moon to be developed into a fortress. The entire moon had only military personnel and contractors with hardly any normal civilians living on it. The entire moon had only 3 kinds of areas: Mining area, Military area and Residential areas. No agricultural areas, commercial areas or any other kind of industrial areas exist on the moon. All the necessities including food are supplied to the moon from PK-170. The entire moon itself is a government space without any private area belonging to any private mercantile/industrial organization. It also had several anti-space large scale munitions installed on the it, making it an impenetrable citadel safeguarding the alliance-human territory from any external forces. Today, the annual games and drills celebrating the defence of the PK-170 planet and the affiliated alliance-human occupied aerospace is being held. There would be exhibitions displaying the might of the technical installation on the base as well as several personnel displaying their skills. It was a day which allowed the personnel to convince the alliance force, the advantages of having the installation, how to improve the performance of the base and how advantageous the improvements on it would be to the conquest of the alliance. To the personnel posted on the base it was a rare opportunity to show their skills and talents. In a well lit dining hall over-viewing the training grounds in the military area of PK-170-B, Balthazar and Jane just met Rodrigo and a few other delegates who were engaged in a discussion regarding the new warframes being provided by the banderas weapons ltd. Rodrigo quickly pulled Balthazar aside from them. "Kid are you sure about the knights of the old republic''s infiltration in the military. I put around a few feelers but couldn''t get anything to support your theory. There is an old sub-ordinate I trust looking into it. I hope for both you sake and mine that you are wrong," said Rodrigo. "So do I, Sir. But I would still be prepared for the worst. I believe the night after the celebrations would be the best time for any attempt. Especially, when they believe that their patch in the installation makes us blind to their movements. Don''t worry, I won''t let you down," replied Balthazar. Suddenly, a thin Caucasian man dressed in a dark blue 4-piece suit, along with a couple of other delegates caught up to Rodrigo. He had a small rectangular emblem depicting an open book with a galaxy on both pages pinned on his lapel. This implied him to be an agent of the alliance council "Mr. Banderas, the new warframes, the Pacifier-A is a very attractive. One of the main drawbacks we face from the apes is our inability to capture and experiment them. Even though we have many options of body enhancements these days, these aliens are twice our size and have always had an advantage. Your concept allows men to fight and capture them without much loss and would be a very valuable addition to the growth of mankind," complimented the Caucasian. "Thank You, Councilman Armstrong. I believe these would allow us unprecedented advantages in reconnaissance against the apes. Unlike the other aliens, we encountered these apes are extremely intelligent, strategic and technologically advanced. This is the main reason we needed to communicate with aliens for the first time in eons. We can''t just go ahead and clear the planets as we did with other aliens and actually treat the warfare with these aliens the same way, we treated the Knight of the Old Republic or any other human enemies. Hence, I believe we have a need for these kind of war machines at this stage of the war more than ever," said Rodrigo. "I agree completely with the practical use of these war frames, Rodrigo. But your specs on the warframes and the general movements of the apes we observed require extremely precise and high speed movements on the part of the pilots. Though the medical science has had many advancements, this is a bit tough to achieve, except for the best of our experts. So, I suggest that we limit it and not have any large scale production of them," said Armstrong. "I would like to inform that this project is being done in collaboration with Apropos medical laboratories. They have been working on a system which could improve the reflexes and inherent body movement. Only together we have been able to confirm on this project. I just want to emphasize the fact that it would be a very useful to operation on a border planet such as PK-170," replied Rodrigo. "If that is the case, it definitely is a worthwhile investment. While the alliance prime council''s main warframe research team, the Scions of Minerva are working on bio-feedback warframe design, it would still take a decade or so for the system to be implemented. Though such warframes would be the mainstay once they are achieved. It would be very prudent to have warframes suggested by Gen. Rodrigo in the immediate future," supported Jane. "But, I am skeptical about new medical procedure to improve human speeds to the value required. It is not an easy thing to suggest this to the council and military and get their joint approval," pondered Armstrong. "We can have the asklepian certify the procedure and only then go ahead with it. If required, we can have them collaborate with us on the project. I as a Blyth can assure that they will definitely be interested in such a venture and will definitely help with this," suggested Balthazar. "If that is really the case, convincing the council wont be an issue. But are you sure Colonel?" asked Armstrong. "Haha! I am positive about it. The Blyths never turn down an opportunity in any medical research. I would be travelling to asklepian today evening and will most definitely inform my grandfather about this when I meet him. If councilman Armstrong insists, I could call and inform my grandfather about the proposal right now," replied Balthazar "No need, Colonel. I will also be going towards the asklepian after the event. I hope we will be meeting again soon," said Armstrong. "Haha! Let us toast to new and successful ..." "BEEP! BEEP!" The communication device on his wrist band started ringing, displaying a call from Capt. Jones. "Excuse me, gentlemen. I need to take this. We shall continue this soon," said Balthazar excusing himself from the matter. He cut the call and said "Anything regarding the moon base could be discussed with Lt. Col. Jane in my place. She has been here longer than my entire tenure in the military and is definitely capable and authorized in representing it''s interests." Walking out of the dining hall, he immediately drove himself in a military hover car to the command central. On his way, he called back to Jones. "Capt. Jones. What is the situation up there? You notice any movements from the apes?" he asked. "Colonel Balthazar, Sir. I was afraid when you cut my call, that how I would have to report this to Lt. Col. Jacques and inform him of our plan. Glad to see that it is not necessary," he said in a frightened manner. "What happened? You seem to be very shocked for some reason," inquired Balthazar knowing very well about the ape fleet. "Sir, we have wrongly estimated the cargo sh.i.p.s purpose. The glitch was never meant to be serving the needs of smugglers. It was all just a ruse. We have witnessed a cargo ship leading an ape armada to the moon. If not for the fact that we been using a stealth shuttle and never engaged, we would have been dead by now," said Jones. "Size and description of the fleet?", Bel further inquired. "There are more than 150 war sh.i.p.s similar to our destroyers being led by a huge ship. There seems to be a cannon attached to it. Looks like a weapon to break through planetary defences," replied Jones. "I am glad that I decided to send you there Capt. Jones. I am headed towards the command centre now. Please, stay in stealth and continue reporting the movement and direction of the armada and also the vessel directing it. Please, continue to stay out of their sight. Go back to PK-170 and report to Sophia once we start attacking them. Thank You." "Sir, requesting to engage the ape armada after the attack starts. The crew men don''t want to be left out the tussle, Sir," reported Jones. Being a proud military man he couldn''t agree to sit himself out of this battle. "Captain Jones, the shuttle you are aboard is primarily a reconnaissance vessel. It is not meant to fight battles. I am not suggesting you and your men to sit down. Just report to Sophia, who will be leading an armada from the planet. I don''t intend to have loyal men lose their lives in stealth shuttle for no good reason. Over and out," snapped back Balthazar. "For heavens sake, just do what I ask you to, guys. It is hard enough to guess, what my enemies are planning and now I have to deal with overenthusiastic men. Best I let Sophia deal with them," thought Balthazar. "Now that all my men are ready. I would just have to convince the Lt. Col. Chang Biming and Daisuke to let that merchant vessel enter our aerospace safely before we start firing at the ape armada," he thought. "It is best that I catch them and interrogate them." He reached a tall building shaped like a hexagonal prism. This was the main command centre for the moon base. Any and every order executed by the personnel on the moon must pass through the offices in the building. He immediately seeked out Daisuke who was the person presiding over the centre at this time. As, he entered the central communications centre, he was greeted by Daisuke. Daisuke was a short dark haired man. He had small beady eyes that seemed to notice everything around him. He was the most experienced veteran on the base and held complete respect and authority of all the men on the base. "Col. Balthazar. Was just about to call for you. We noticed an unauthorized vessel heading towards the base. It hails for support and it''s captain says that it had been ambushed by the apes and that it is one of the Rowley''s vessels", reported Daisuke. "I have come here for the same issue, Lt. Col. Daisuke. One of the experimental stealth sh.i.p.s from the planet base has accidentally noticed the same. It also reports an ape armada heading towards the moon base. You should be getting reports of it on your systems, too," replied Balthazar. As if to prove his words right, the alarms suddenly gave off. The detection systems noticed the ape armada behind the merchant vessel. "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! UNKNOWN FLEET OBSERVED! ALL MEN NEED TO REPORT TO YOUR POSITIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK." This sudden burst had all the men in the room confused. "How could the Colonel get such information before us. We are supposed to be the forefront of the entire defence of this sector," they thought unanimously. The sudden display by the Colonel had various effects on the personnel. Some were impressed and other still found it hard to believe. But all of them had their pride hurt, observing the effectiveness of the new Colonel. This bought a sudden change in how the viewed his orders. Now, they finally considered that their new Colonel is no less adept at command and war than his predecessors and boosted their confidence in him. Noticing the change in the expressions of his personnel, Balthazar decided that it is his time to step up and take charge. "Wait for the merchant vessel to safely enter the moons atmosphere and beyond the line of fire of the cannons and artillery before we open fire," commanded Balthazar. He immediately established a state of emergency all over the moon and the planet PK-170. "Today, I shall establish my name over the galaxies," he thought. "Get me the mike and make sure every person on the moon listens to this." "The apes have been in a state of war against humanity for the past century. They have been threatening the territories established by our forefathers and continue to fight us without any intention to converse or negotiate us. Their behavior implies how greatly they underestimate the human kind. Today, we don''t attack us again unprovoked at our citadel which is equivalent to trampling on our pride and honour. We shall lay waste to their forces and save the men they dare to attack." As soon as he was informed that the merchant vessel is out of the firing range, he announced war. "ATTACK!! SPARE NO ONE AND DON''T LET ANYONE OF THESE ALIENS ESCAPE. THOSE WHO DARE TO INVADE OUR LANDS SHALL STAY HERE FOR ALL OF ETERNITY." Chapter 6 - A Sentinel In Silence A military red alert had been suddenly issued all over the moon base and PK-170 planet a few minutes ago. Immediately afterwards an emergency was declared over the moon base. The festive atmosphere that prevailed all morning had suddenly been replaced by a grim tone. For the past two days, Salazar had been at the PK-170 military base disguised as a new private recruit. Since, Balthazar had contacted his grandfather, a bunch of people began to move in the shadows. Once, Salazar used to work for Balthazar''s father, John Blyth, now he works under Max''s father, Walter Blyth. Salazar owes a life debt to John and was his confidant. He became one of the Blyth family''s secret members. He was one among the few who was not a Blyth, but cared about Balthazar. When, Balthazar left asklepian, he promised Walter that he wouldn''t set foot in asklepian until Walter himself contacts him. Walter taught Bel many things after John''s death and knew Balthazar wasn''t one to break his promises for no good reason. When Walter came to know about Balthazar''s message, he could only assume that he was in some kind of danger and Salazar was sent to PK-170 among a bunch of about 50 recruits on an interplanetary exchange program. Entering a military base filled with fighters was almost a suicide mission for an assassin, especially if one''s target is the someone like Balthazar. Balthazar was almost always surrounded by many personnel. Impersonating a recruit new to the base was the best kind of disguise an assassin like himself could ask for. He wouldn''t be judged on losing his way in the base and he could also request and enter a few restricted areas portraying the attitude of diligent recruit interested in operations of the personnel. This allowed him to silently eke out the location of Balthazar most of the time without standing out. The same disguise allowed him to get onto the moon base today. Many personnel from PK-170 went to the moon base to take part in the festivities and Salazar managed to get aboard one of the shuttles to the moon. When the emergency was declared, the situation at the base rapidly changed. All the regular personnel dashed to man their respective posts and the visitors either found their way to secure bunkers or found their way to the hangars to participate in the war. As soon as the emergency was issued, Salazar messaged Walter of the situation and found his way to the largest hangar and docking station along with the rest of the recruits. By the time he reached the hangar, a fleet of about 30 warsh.i.p.s just took off. "Anyone who is not a personnel posted on this base, please don''t involve board any ship or shuttle. This is an emergency, any ship or shuttle which doesn''t belong to the military flying above 2000 ft of surface level would be considered a hostile air craft during this time and the turret guns at the top of the buildings would auto target and shoot them out of the air," sounded a voice from the speakers. "Any military personnel who are visitors can either seek refugee or can request for land-based combat weapons, warframes and support our efforts. Our personnel at the west end of the hangar, near the supply station would allot you the associated tools and co-ordinate you efforts. Kindly don''t try to go air-born as it will be extremely dangerous and also hamper our efforts," continued the same voice. This was kept repeating for a few times before it stopped. Hearing the message, Salazar with his group of recruits decided to join the resistance against the apes and went ahead to the supply station. The lieutenant charged with allotting and co-coordinating their efforts was at a table busy with a bunch of papers and computer. "Kindly write your name, designation, technical skills and experience in less than 50 words and submit it. Once we verify your identity, we will allocate you firearms and commandeer your services as necessary," said a fully armed and armored soldier handing out leaflets. "Need mechanics urgently. If any person has experience in spacecraft maintenance and repair could immediately verify their identity and please stand to that side. You will soon be guided by one of our personnel," he continued. Being a bunch of new recruits sent recently to the moon, they could only provide their identity and provide it. "Let them reinforce the hangar guards and our personnel here, we will be able to spare some of our men to other places," he thought. Being a veteran who always was on the frontier for the past 4 years, he felt that his men could be of more use than babysitting a bunch of volunteers. He immediately assigned a few of them to verify the identities of the volunteers and others to guard around the hangar. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PK-170-B command centre: "Location of Lt. Col. Chang?" asked Balthazar to Daisuke. "He was at the supply station by the hangar 1, Sir. On his way here," replied Daisuke. "No need. Direct him to the hangar. We recently brought a vanguard battleship to the hangar from the planet for the showcase today. Let him commandeer the vessel. It will provide great advantage against the aliens. They seem to have a similar vessel in their armada. Have the rest of his battalion board the destroyers and commence attack," ordered Balthazar. "Lt. Col. Jane has also come to the moon with me. Have her assist in securing the merchant vessel at the dock. A merchant vessel like that escaping such a large alien armada is extremely unconventional. There is a good chance that the armada managed to somehow reach very close to our territory. We need to know everything about them. Have Jane secure and detain them near the merchant ship in the hangar. Don''t let them out of the docking station. Once, the situation has settled down a bit, I will also join the interrogation. The faster we would be able to counter-attack and patch any security issues we overlooked. We have several dignitaries and other higher officials we need to explain how this happened. Inform the rest of the military on the planet and Major General, Brixton also be aware of the incident," continued Balthazar. "Yes Sir, as you said we need to provide them with an explanation. Also they have brought many personnel along with them to provide them security. They have been contacting us and insisting that their men and sh.i.p.s support us in safeguarding the moon. These forces alone could add on a fleet of 30-40 sh.i.p.s on our side. I would suggest we send them to support and co-ordinate with Lt. Col. Chang Biming," suggested Daisuke. "Fine," said Balthazar. "Make note of all the personnel and let them join our efforts. Inform Lt. Col. Sophia to immediately prepare available forces from the planet to support Daisuke. Enable the shield-fire protocol to bolster our defence and announce that any non-military vessel will be fired upon. As we are including other personnel, let us also ask for volunteers from the visitors. It is best that we co-ordinate them than have random incidents. This would also enable our forces involved in repair, rescue and other operations on the surface." "Volunteers? Sir, asking for volunteer would put our reputation at stake. We have more than enough to defend the moon. It is unnecessary to take such drastic measures. Shouldn''t we reconsider this?" asked Daisuke. "No. It is best we ask for volunteers. The intent of this base is not just to establish a secure relay point but also to increase the alliance interstellar territories further. The enemies have trapped themselves trying to attack us here. We can defend the base for sure. But, we need to seize this chance. Moreover, our requests for reinforcements have always been delayed. An ask for volunteers would emphasize our cause and hopefully they would take our requests much more seriously," replied Balthazar. "As for repute among the rest of the alliance force. HAHAHA. I have been a colonel for only 4 months and it is my first time commanding a force of this size. I know many consider me to be inept and young. Our achievements today would speak for us. I care for my personnel and the safeguarding our territory not the my reputation. I have take under consideration your concerns and it would be noted, but relay the request for volunteers as my command." The battle at the moon which was supposed to be disadvantageous to the alliance forces from the start didn''t go as planned. The alien forces which expected a mild resistance were bombarded by the citadel from the start and had great casualties. They couldn''t get near the moon, being incinerated by the intense firepower of the various interstellar cannons and bombardment weapons affixed on the moon. They could only retreat in defeat but their return was being covered by the fleet from the moon and this hampered their safe return. Also these were only the forces from the moon. They would soon be reinforced by the fleet from the planet. Meanwhile, at the hangar, Jane led a squadron and managed to secure the merchant vessel. The vessel had a lot of holes, burn marks and was hardly operational and many of the passengers had been dead. It had all the signs of a vessel that had been ambushed by an alien fleet. But, Jane knew better. She was informed by Rowley that there were assassins stationed as passengers on the vessel and also on the hangar. Nothing went as she expected. The alien forces were being easily routed and the merchant vessel was secured and detained and Balthazar was coming to the hangar to interrogate them. She quietly messaged Raymond Rowley for further instructions. Their plan had failed miserably. Raymond was currently seated in a hotel room in city K4 on planet PK-170. He couldn''t understand how the alien forces failed so miserably in the attack. It looked like the alliance forces were attacking a stray alien armada rather than the apes attacking the moon. Somehow, the detection and targeting systems on the moon perfectly identified the alien armada and rained fire on it. Right now, the only thing that could salvage this mission was Balthazar''s death. He quickly messaged back to Jane. "Don''t let the men on the ship be injured or tortured right now and wait for Balthazar to come to the hangar. There my men will handle him and make it look like he died in an accidental explosion. Just make sure you get out when it is time." Immediately after that he turned to Dave. "The only reason the alien invasion would fail would be because somehow the systems worked. There is a high chance that she is either compromised or that she wasn''t with us from the beginning. Either way it is best, we have her also handled," he said to Dave. "I agree. I will inform them to make Jane''s death look like an accident too. It won''t be much of an issue," agreed Dave. Dave immediately messaged the assassins to inform that Jane is a secondary target along with merchant ship''s passengers and it is best to blow them all up. A few minutes later Raymond received a message from Jane informing him Balthazar''s arrival at the hangar which was also confirmed by the assassins he deployed. "Maybe we judged her too quickly. She is still diligently updating us," he asked Dave. "I informed them to consider Jane secondary target and to kill her, if the opportunity should arise. I won''t change that there is not much advantage in keeping her alive. She is of not further use to us and this will remain as such," replied Dave. Meanwhile, at the hangar, Salazar who was in guard and patrolling over the hangar heard that the merchant vessel in ruins which managed to escape the armada was docked at the hangar and detained. It was announced that although the red alert wasn''t lifted, the invasion was successfully averted and the state of emergency has been lifted and that all volunteers could either help in the handling the wreckage and rescue efforts on the moon. Once, it is confirmed that there are no foreign forces by the military, the ban on the space travel from moon would be lifted and the visitors would be free to travel back to the planet or anywhere they desire. There was a rumor going around that they were about to identify information about the attack from the merchant vessel and plan a counter-attack on the alien forces and that the colonel in charge of the moon is going to personally interrogate the crew of the vessel. "A suicidal attack by the ape forces on such a strongly fortified citadel followed by a colonel personally interrogating a couple of refugees?" wondered Salazar. "There is definitely something peculiar afoot. I need to get near the merchant vessel. I might finally be able to find out something about all this mess." Since, he arrived on the planet two days ago, he couldn''t get close to Balthazar nor could he get a hint of what he was supposedly involved in. Balthazar kept everything secret and suddenly today, they were fighting an invasion. It never felt good to be in a mission without any information. At last, he got a chance to find out something after the past two days. Salazar quietly managed to get into the hangar till he could see the merchant vessel along with a group of personnel guarding the hangar. He sneaked behind a crate of mechanic boxes and crouched behind them. He had a clear view of most of the crew being held near their ship and interrogated on how they came into contact with the alien forces and the military personnel were checking the ship. The captain of the vessel along with a few of his men were seated a bit further away from the ship and being interrogated separately by another group headed by Jane. After a few minutes later, the ship was thoroughly examined and an all clear was given. After that a few more personnel entering the docking station of the hangar. They went past him towards the ship. Salazar quickly noticed Balthazar among them and that they were directly headed towards the captain. He quickly pulled out a head gear and mechanic box from the crates and also silently followed behind them towards the direction of the ship. As soon as he neared the ship, Jane sent the signal forward that the Balthazar was in place. "BOOM!" The shock of the explosion blew one of soldiers onto Salazar. His vision went in and out of focus for a couple of seconds before he regained it. He noticed that he was beneath a large dead man. If not for all the physical augments that the Blyth''s have provided or the soldier who cushioned the shock of the explosion, he definitely wouldn''t be able to walk around. As he pushed the soldier off and got up, he slowly took in the scene in front of him. A majority of the lights were out. There was a lot of smoke and a part of the docking station had collapsed the bright light from outside the hangar filtered in. The crew and the personnel near the ship were all in pieces. Many others were either knocked out or beneath the debris. None of the personnel were standing. There were three men who were neither injured nor shocked running in the debris, as if they had known beforehand about the explosion. They were holding few sharp objects which looked like they were pulled out from the debris. As, they were searching in the debris, a dark looking man suffering a number of burns on his torso came running at them from the smoke. "You sc.u.m. You killed them all. I will kill you," he shouted as he tried to attack. It was captain Ode. Even burnt, injured and limping he was strong enough to retaliate against the assassins. One of them engaged Ode while the other two went into the smoke. Salazar could hardly hear any of that over the buzzing noise in his ears. He only cared about the safety of Balthazar. "I can''t let him die," muttered Salazar beneath his breath as his eyes searched for Balthazar. Salazar silently retrieved a firearm from the soldier who fell on him and unable to find a blade, he took something that looked like a long drill bit from the mechanic box, put on a mask and moved towards the other two in the smoke. He stealthily made his way to the place where he saw Balthazar before the explosion. One of the two men suddenly move towards a burnt body and checked her. "Secondary target confirmed to be dead. Verify identity," he said pulling out Jane''s ID. "Confirmed and verified," replied the another. Salazar silently followed them in the smoke. "They are definitely heading towards Balthazar''s location," he confirmed to himself. A few seconds later, one of the two dragged out another person from the debris. This victim had a long peace of metal protruding from one of his arms and the was his legs were soaked with blood. "Primary target found. Verify identity," said the man trying to check the target''s vitals, when the victim suddenly coughed and tried to grab on to him. "Who are you?" asked Balthazar coughing out blood. The man calmly looked at Balthazar. "Do all men ask such stupid and useless question before they die," he thought as he pulled out a sharp piece of metal to plunge into Balthazar''s head. Suddenly, he realized that his fellow assassin hadn''t verified his find yet. As he lifted his head, he saw a bright light flash before his eyes and he fell back dead. Salazar calmly holstered his firearm as he pulled back the drill bit from the head of the second assassin. He looked back towards captain Ode and noticed that captain Ode was dead with something sticking out of his neck and the third assassin had disappeared. The survivors were getting up one by one and the rescue services were headed towards them. He took the gas mask off the assassin in front of him and put it on Balthazar and proceeded to check him. "The left hand and legs are injured heavily and the internal organs have been shocked. Nothing that can''t be fixed," thought Salazar. Balthazar tried to talk but just coughed out more blood. Salazar signaled him to stay quiet. It hadn''t even been a minute since the explosion but the rescue efforts were already nearby, else the situation could have been a lot worse for him. Salazar carefully pulled out the metal piece from Balthazar''s arm and made a make shift bandage out of his uniform. He gently lifted Balthazar up away from the assassin''s body and out of the smoke. "I found Col. Balthazar. He is alive but heavily injured," he started shouting. Balthazar who could hardly hear or see anything, fainted when the metal piece was pulled out of his arm. His consciousness wavered a few times as he was transported to the medical facility. He could hear his savior beside him during the trip. When they reached the medical facility and he pulled out of the transport, did he finally get to see his savior,s face. "I have seen you before," he thought just before he was put into sleep by an anesthetic. Chapter 7 - Aftermath The attack on the moon was successfully defended and the alien armada had been annihilated. Though it had been a thorough rout of the alien forces, it wasn''t without its losses. More than 300 personnel had lost their lives. In this age of medical advancement any injury including loss of limbs bones and even injuries to spine and nerves could be treated and successfully rehabilitated as long as the person is still alive and not brain dead. A loss of 300 personnel at such a time would be considered a significant setback. Of these 300, less than 50 were during the defence of the moon and the remaining were due to the explosion in the hangar. Once Balthazar reached the medical facility on the moon, he was immediately take to the intensive care unit. The bones in his legs and a few of his ribs were broken. He also had few internal injuries and internal bleeding. He was quickly operated upon, any broken bones were patched within the hour and he was put out of any sort of immediate danger. But PK-170-B being a military citadel that had just suffered an explosion, had a lot of patients coming in and wasn''t the best environment for a man with such injuries to recuperate. He was immediately transferred to the medical facility on his military base on the planet. The very next day, Major General Brixton Bones had him transferred to the military base under his direct jurisdiction as Balthazar was an important link in the investigation. The sudden attack which had all the typical signs of attacks by the knight of old republic happened soon after Rodrigo friend started making silent inquiries regarding them. This caused a few quakes even among the top brass of the alliance forces. The situation was probed into and soon Rodrigo had to inform about his conversation with Balthazar. Then, Sophia, Jacob and Jones were also interrogated and soon the information about glitch in the defence systems of the moon came into light. Based on the information from Sophia, Jacob and Rodrigo, the military came to a conclusion that the person responsible for the attack can only be found out by tracking the merchant vessel involved in the explosion. After an extensive search, the military managed to track the vessel to Raymond Rowley within three days of the explosion. When the military investigators questioned the Rowley Firm, the Rowley family informed them that the Raymond Rowley in question had been expelled from the family on 8th January, two days before the explosion for commercial espionage. Their spokesperson, John Rowley also provided the emancipation doc.u.ments of Raymond Rowley and also informed announced an award for his whereabouts. They announced their intention to support the investigation in any way possible and that they were never involved in Raymond''s activities, thus unburdening themselves from any blame. This put the investigation at a dead end. The only lead they had left was Balthazar who was in a comatose state. The medical examiner informed that he was severely injured internally and that he would wake up within the week. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been 5 days since the attack. The red-alert on the planet had long been lifted. A lot of military personnel have been moved to the planet post the attack. During these 5 days, Balthazar''s family had come to the planet and were waiting on him. It was early morning and a lady was sitting beside Balthazar''s bed browsing through the new on an expandable screen of her wrist device. She was a thin lady wearing a tight black-suit with matching leather boots. She had green eyes and wore her waist length in a ponytail. She wore a pair of thin, black rimmed tinted-glasses. She kept giving occasional to the man on the bed. This had been her daily routine for the past three days. Today after three days, she finally saw Balthazar move. She immediately moved towards him and began examination. As Balthazar came to consciousness, he immediately noticed that he was hooked to a couple of machines, one was to monitor his health and vitals and the other fed him supplements required to keep him alive and healthy. His eyes slowly fell upon the lady. He immediately closed his eyes and stiffened his body acting like he fell unconscious again. "Quit acting idiot. You might be a good actor but you could never fool me," she said tapping him on his forehead. "You know that I am a medical practitioner right?" she continued. "Good morning, Bolena. How are you?" asked Balthazar smiling widely. "Far better than you, my dear brother. So, how is military life treating you now," she replied in a condescension. "Enough with the sarcasm. Didn''t expect you here. How long have I been asleep?" he asked his sister. "It has been about 104 hours now," she replied. "Do you have any idea, how many people came looking for you in these few days? Both grandfather Winston and granduncle Walter asked me to get you asklepian as soon as you are permitted to leave," she asked him further. "The minute I saw your face, I knew that my days of peace were over," said Balthazar smiling. "Even Walter asked for me? You have any idea why?" "No clue. Like I would even know where he even lives," she said rolling her eyes. "Grandpa sent me to get you. On route, Walter contacted me and told me that he had arranged for you to return as soon as possible and whether you would continue to serve in the military or not would be decided after you meet him." "Anyways you best be careful little brother. Walter sent a couple of men to bring you back safely. They were very concerned about you safety. You had really severe injuries. If not for Salazar, you would have lost your life," she said. "I never expected it to happen this way. It was as if they were downright suicidal. There were no signs of such behavior from any of them," said Balthazar as he pushed himself up into an upright position. "Nevertheless, you are to follow me back home. Your vitals all seem to be fine. You just need a bit of rest. I will get the medical examiner to draw you discharge papers. No more stupid business," she As she left the room, two men walked in. "Don''t let anyone other than Rodrigo, near him," she instructed them. These men both wore masks and silently stood guard over him. Balthazar slowly observed the room. Find the remote control to the screen opposite him, he opened an app and started browsing through the news. The first thing he checked was the local planet news. As he quickly surfed through the headlines over the past few days, he came to know about the number of casualties and the state of the planet. There was also some news about the military finding out about some new alien technology and new species among the apes from the wreckage of the alien armada. Though nothing was substantial in the report and the military hadn''t confirmed anything some journalist seemed to have managed to find out some information about it. As Balthazar was going through the news, Bolena returned along with a medical examiner, Rodrigo Banderas and Brixton Bones. Brixton was also a good friend of Rodrigo and had known Rodrigo for more than 30 years. "The paperwork for the medical facility is all done, Sir. It is suggested that you take some time off to recuperate," said the medical examiner unhooking the supplements from his arm. "Please consume solid food within the hour. There is an electronic pad affixed in a panel on the wall beside your bed. Anything you require can be requested through it," he sad and left the room. "He just woke up. I would suggest to keep it short and not to agitate him," said Bolena as she moved to a corner of the room. "How are you doing kid?" asked Rodrigo. "They patched you up well." "Not bad. But might take some time before I am back to my prime," replied Balthazar. "Good! Good," said Rodrigo with a vacant expression. "Major General Bones wanted to have a chat with you." "What can I do for you Major General?" asked Balthazar. "Colonel Balthazar, you have been through a severe trauma, lost many men and managed to avert a severe crisis on the planet within a short time frame. For that let me offer you my condolences and gratitude," said Brixton taking a seat in the room. "But, duty requires me to gather any and all intel regarding the incident. This isn''t a formal investigation. You will be asked to submit a report later. I am just here to speed things along in the investigation. Rodrigo has filled in some details, while your subordinates Sophia, Jacob and a few other filled in the details about you operation. So, this will be a short talk." What about Lt. Col. Jane?" asked Balthazar. "If he talked with Sophia, he would definitely heard about the suspicions we had on Jane," thought Balthazar. "Also if they talked to Rodrigo, they might have also known about the knights of the Old Republic. I need to find a plausible explanation now. Else I would probably be detained for raising false rumors and trying to cause panic." All of Balthazar''s plan was based on capturing the merchant vessel and Jane. Without interrogating them, he would have no basis for suggesting the knights of the old republic. He would be completely lost without Jane. "Sadly, we don''t have Lt. Col. Jane among us anymore. We came to know that she was a suspect. We would also like you to confirm on this," requested Brixton. This caused no small amount of panic to him. His heartbeat visibly raised on the heart monitor hooked to him. Both Rodrigo and Brixton immediately got concerned about him. They knew that Jane was along with Balthazar and was closer to the plane compared to him and didn''t survive the blast. This caused them to misunderstand that Balthazar was worried for Jane. "Calm down, kid," said Rodrigo. "It was an unfortunate accident. Sometimes, we lose our men and friends not only in the fight but also in some incidents like this. Jane''s death was unfortunate. But you must let go of it," he comforted. This completely calmed down Balthazar. He was worried that Jane might also have been hospitalized, might wake up and be talking to them later. Now that he had no one to interrogate, he could simply put the burned on the dead Jane. Thinking of a plausible story he began in a sad tone. "When we first investigated the glitch and the personnel surrounding it, considering the merchant vessel and the personnel involved in erasing the evidence on the navigation data, she was put into the suspect pool. This was before, I contacted Rodrigo. I was still discussing the matter with Sophia, Jacob and Jones. But later in the day, she had come to me. She herself had the two personnel under suspicion for some reason and had them followed discreetly and thus, discovered the personnel I had tailing them." "She was the one who had informed me that the knights of the old republic had been involved. Her personnel had overheard them talking of it and were trying to collect some hard evidence. In the meantime, I had my men secretly patch the glitch as it was a very dangerous security issue and we didn''t deviate from the plan we had before the conversation I had with Jane. Sophia should have provided you with the details of the personnel we were tailing," he continued. "Yes, we have been informed of them by Sophia. But, they also died in the blast. There was nothing we could get from them. We never knew about Jane tailing them. Do you have the details of the tails she place on them?" asked Brixton. "No. She never told me till she found out about the Sophia''s men tailing them. I was angry about it. She was extremely afraid and didn''t want to take any action before she had anything concrete. I verbally reprimanded her for not doing anything to rectify the glitch and asked her to consolidate her finding and submit a report. It was her collar and that is the reason, I let her take the lead in their interrogation. But unfortunately, that ended in an unexpected way," said Balthazar. "We have a lead finally. We can make inquiries into her staff immediately. Jane had someone tailing them and this might get us some decent intelligence," said Brixton in relief. They had finally got a direction, the investigation can head towards and that relieved the pressure on Brixton. "But, I would suggest that any investigation should be held extremely cautiously. It is highly likely that there might be other traitors among them," said Rodrigo. "The formal investigation would have long started into all the personnel under Balthazar. I would make the suggestion to them to focus on Jane''s men," said Brixton. "If that is all, then we would take our leave Colonel. I wish you a quick recovery," said Brixton getting up. "WAIT!" shouted Balthazar stopping Brixton. "This is a good chance to have the military investigate into Raymond Rowley and that man Dave," thought Balthazar. "Though Jane didn''t provide me the transcripts on her investigation, she did let out a couple of names she gleaned from tailing those two. They were Raymond Rowley and Dave. That Raymond is probably someone from the Rowley Trading Firm. The merchant vessel also belong to the same firm. This would definitely provide some leads into the investigation," said Balthazar. "Sshhh," sighed Brixton. "Raymond Rowley is already a suspect. We tracked him through the merchant vessel. What you said also matches with our intelligence. But, the Rowleys disowned him. We are trying to get a hold of him. Atleast, we got a new name, Dave. We will look into it. Allow me to thank you again, Colonel," said Brixton as continued on his way out. "We will leave you now. Take care, kid.," said Rodrigo as they left the room. After they left Bolena approached the bed and asked "How much of that was true?". "All of it," said Balthazar furrowing his brows. He always hated this aspect of his sister. As long as he could remember, she could always detect it, if he lied or hid something important. It was a very vexing to have a sibling from whom he couldn''t hide the smallest details. He had no idea how she does it. It never was the other way around. She always caught his lies and told his parents. They also always trusted her. This caused no small amount of conflicts between them. "Hehe," she giggled. "Don''t lie to me little brother. There definitely was something missing from what you told them." "Keep your trap, shut. We are not kids and they are military officials. If somebody hears you, it would cause no small amount of trouble for me," said Balthazar sullenly. "Why do you trouble me like this. You are sadist!!" "I am a sadist!? You are the sadist," she burst out. "I''m the sadist? You were the one who always put your nose into everything I did. When did I ever even trouble you?" he asked back angrily. "No, you hardly ever even talked to me. What trouble could you cause me?! Huh!", she replied angrily. "Idiot, you have been gone for 5 years. No phone, no message, no contact info. Do you even care if I was alive or dead. You think I don''t care about my brother. I would have beaten you up were you not in such a state already. At least you put me in as you emergency contact. Shameless idiot! Shameless, careless, stupid idiot. Why don''t you say anything now? Huh!" "It wasn''t my fault. Walter said," started Balthazar glumly his head lowered in shame. "Shut up! I don''t want to hear you lame excuses. Just take rest for now. We are leaving for asklepian tonight. Walter had already arranged for your travel and also talked with you superiors. You are taking a leave for a minimum of 3 months to recuperate and medical examiner also has submitted the same to your superiors," she continued in the same tone. "Three months! To recuperate? That is stretching it a bit isn''t it?" he asked timidly. "You don''t get a say in it. Walter''s orders. He also seemed to have talked it out with Brixton and his superiors. Just finish up with the necessary reports within 4 hours. Anything else can be thought of afterwards. Hmph!" said Bolena as she walked out huffing. "Maybe I was wrong," thought Balthazar. "But Walter would definitely have known if he contacted Bolena during his service." "Well. It is all in the past. All I can do now is to finish up some paperwork and leave to asklepian." Balthazar took the electronic pad near his bed, ordered food and started on his work. In a few minutes, hot bread, soup, broiled meat and some juice was delivered to him by automaton. He finished his food and continued with his reports. Finishing the reports, he sent a couple of mails to Sophia, Jacob and some other comrades in the force informing them that he was leaving today and couldn''t meet them for a considerable period of time. He also sent a couple of mails to Brixton. One summarized the details of the operation and the other was recommending Jacques to handle his responsibilities in his absence. After that he laid down on the bed and dozed off. A few hours later, Bolena woke him up. She had already gathered all his belongings from his quarters. They both boarded a shuttle on the roof of the hospital and took off. After a period of 12 years he was finally going back home. Chapter 8 - Back to Home Once on board, the shuttle it docked into a huge spaceship. The spaceship was a personal vessel which had been sent to get him home. It is the personal property of the patriarch Winston Blyth, but has been temporarily borrowed by Bolena. Majority of the compartments which usually tend to be living compartments or cargo rooms were turned into laboratories in this ship. There were only about 10 rooms furnished as bedrooms. In essence, it was more of a mobile laboratory than a spaceship. The spaceship was filled with a lot of research personnel wearing an circular insignia with an @ symbol on it. Bolena led him to his quarters in the ship. "There seem to be a lot of personnel wearing that insignia," said Balthazar in an attempt to find out about them. "Oh, these personnel are the employees of apropos medical laboratories. Grandpa bought them out last year. They are now a subsidiary of ours. They have some project in collaboration with some warframes company located on this planet. They are trying out some new enhancements and also using nano-technology to transfer some data from their body to the warframes for further improvements. I think grandpa wants to increase our presence in the war efforts. Also this project''s main purpose is to create a warframe that could capture the aliens alive. Grandpa probably wants to get hold of a few specimens," explained Bolena. "Anyway enough about them, you have been away from me for 5 years. There is a lot that happened to you that I don''t know nothing. What have you been doing these 5 years. Where have you been moving around. Any special friends?" asked Bolena smiling. "Well! I enrolled into the academy in DH-17, spent about 6 months in training in the engineering division," started Balthazar looking up in reminiscence. "After that I was sent to the CECME corps in PK-170. I participated in a few ventures as maintenance worker and there I got my chance to get into warframe division. Then, I" "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.." Bolena interrupted him. "Quit your rambling about what you did in the force. I wanted to know if there was any special friend, you idiot. Special friend." Balthazar was immediately reminded of Sophia. "None of your beeswax," retorted Balthazar angrily. "Aaaw, my little brother is shy", giggled Bolena. "Fine, its not like you have been in contact with many girls in these 5 years. I can find out on my own." She gave a small gap and continued "It is not a guy, right?" Balthazar slapped his forehead. "I beg you sister, please, just leave me alone for sometime. Am I not supposed to be resting. Didn''t the doctor ri" "Nah, you don''t need any rest," said Bolena. "You have slept for more than 4 days. I was the one who was awake all these days and looked after you. If it is anyone, I am supposed to be taking rest." "Ok. You take rest. Go to your room. Take a nice bath and sleep. Please have some well deserved rest," requested Balthazar smiling in an awkward way. "Ok, since you insist," said Bolena as she walked out of the room. "You ran away from home and now after 5 years you decide to come back. I am being a good sister and taking you home, trying to get you to talk and you don''t want to talk back to me. Wait till we go home. I will teach you some manners," she thought as she went into her room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ January the 17th, 2682 A.D. Balthazar woke up due to the sharp knocking on his door. "Wake up, you idiot. We are back in our solar system. It will hardly take 15 min to land at home," he heard through the intercom. "It is 2 a.m in the morning. What''s the hurry. Can''t we sleep till 5 like other normal people?" replied Balthazar from his bed. "No, we have only 20 min after landing. Once the ship refuels it is leaving. Winston want''s the apropos personnel to head back. ," answered Bolena and went to her room. "Aargh," shouter Balthazar as he woke up. He quickly dressed up and began to think about what he would do back at home. Calmly enjoying a holiday was never allowed in the Blyth household and was not something he liked much either. He did work as an security professional/assassin for two years taking all sorts of random jobs. He also worked in a gaming workshop and was quite well known in the virtual reality game, vita nova. He was good at both. Though the family had no fame in either of these professions, Walter was always involved such security services. After a couple of near death experiences, Balthazar had a kind of unexpected longing for his family. So, he finally decided that he would try his luck with Walter. Moreover, the only game he was familiar with hadn''t even been released yet. There was a specific pre-release for beta testers that happened on this new years eve. But, the public release would be held two weeks from now. Thus, the only option he had was to go to Walter and work under him. He had made quite a notorious name for himself in his past life and thought it would be a good change to do the same for the benefit of his family. After the ship landed, he waited for Bolena at his room. A couple of minutes later, he got out of his room and went to the adjoining room for his sister. There was note left for him on the buzzer screen informing him to meet her in the cargo hold. "Couldn''t she just message me on my wrist band (the common means of civilian communication). Always has to be unnecessarily cryptic," he thought as he made his way to the cargo hold. There, he found his luggage and went down the cargo ramp. Bolena was talking to someone at the ramp. It was Salazar. He had come to asklepian on the same vessel as them. "You!" shouted Balthazar point at him in shock. Both Salazar and Bolena looked towards him. "He finally comes down. We have been waiting for you," said Bolena looking at him weirdly. "I thought you were going to come to my room and was waiting for you," replied Balthazar. "A girl never comes to pick up a guy be it her brother or anybody else. You have forgotten the basic tenets of being a gentlemen being a battle hungry nomad for the past five years," she replied. "This is Salazar Troyard, he works for Walter," she continued introducing him to the man who saved his life. "Glad to finally make you acquaintance, Mr. Troyard. I owe you my life. I can''t begin to thank you for your timely assistance in that unforeseen situation," said Balthazar holding out his hand. "It was my duty, young master", said Salazar shaking his hand. "I will be back in a minute. I need to convene with my associates," he continued as he left them and went into the cargo hold. "Good. Now that the introductions are done, Salazar will be taking you back to the mansion. He will be your bodyguard for the next few months," said Bolena. "Your are not coming with me? Wait. wait. wait. Bodyguard? I don''t need a babysitter. I can take care of myself," replied Balthazar "I beg to differ. Times might be a bit perilous. And you always needed a babysitter," replied Bolena. "Ah! Ok. But you didn''t say where you are going?" "Me? I am going along with the apropos staff. Can''t do my work, sitting in my ass talking with you. Need to be in my lab," she continued. "I thought you still worked in the hospital here are asklepian. When did you join apropos? Thought you were happy being a medical examiner. What''s with the new found interest in medical research?" he asked. "It happened more than a year ago. I guess I just got bored and grandpa suggested some kind of research. So, I found them. Grandpa initially tried to persuade me to work on something within the family ownership, but I insisted that it was an interesting research and wanted to go for it. I got there as soon as they accepted my application. But, during my travel grandpa bought it and made me the majority share holder. Since, then I led the research." "Damn! The old man really dotes upon you," said Balthazar in surprise. "That old bastard! He told me to go get a scholarship when I said I was into electronics. Now he buys her a bloody labs because she was bored," he thought. "What are you talking about? He just doesn''t want me out of the family business. After your running away he became a bit critical on everyone else," said Bolena. "That is not true. Is it? Please, don''t joke like that. We were not on such great terms to begin with and cousin Robert, he always was a bit rough. Please tell me it is not true," said Balthazar weakly. Being a high-profile family, it was a very competitive atmosphere, especially among the siblings of the younger generation. This competition was also encouraged by the elders of the family. This cause a lot of conflicts among them. Even though most of them competed in the proper spirits. There are always some people who differed. "Robert? He is the least of you problems. Though he was always fighting with you. He was definitely the one who benefited the most from you running away. But, he will never stop competing with you. It is Jack and his idiots that you need to be look out for," said Bolena. "Jack? Hahaha. Those idiots were always like that," said Balthazar. "So, when will you be back?" asked Balthazar. "When it is convenient. When I have time. You don''t get to ask such questions. Shameless idiot," giggled Bolena in an odd manner as she hugged him. "Take care, idiot," she continued. "You take care. I will be fine. I got an excellent bodygaurd. You should be more concerned about yourself," he replied. "I got bodyguards and also a body double. And unlike you, I don''t go finding trouble," she said. She kissed him on his forehead and got onto the spaceship. As he waved her goodbye, Salazar arrived behind him and stood there. After the ship departed, Balthazar turned towards Salazar and signaled him to lead the way. They boarded a large hover car and in a few minutes arrived in front of a huge villa. There was a light blue-colored, hemispherical force field having a diameter of about 4 kilometers. They parked the vehicle near the gate, identified themselves, had their belongings checked and went in. Once in, they got into the grounds, nostalgia hit Balthazar causing his eyes to tear up. The large grounds where he used to play around and the huge mansion where lived, played and roamed around all brought lots of memories to him. He followed Salazar into another car inside the grounds. The car took him past the mansion and behind it. This was where the training grounds were situated. Behind this was a large forest. This was grown specially. There were few herbariums where special medicinal plants and herbs are grown. There are also few areas where specific creatures which were grown and researched upon. These specimens were collected from various planets and celestial bodies. These didn''t have any relation to the medical empire maintain by the Blyth family. This was just the personal collection of the patriarch and the elders which could be accessed by only those permitted by the patriarch. The car went past these herbariums and holds and went towards a dark secluded area. Balthazar always remembered that this area was always a forbidden zone. It had an extra dark-blue colored hemispherical force field covering it. Even the patriarch, his grandfather couldn''t give him access to this without consent from the elder council or the grand elders. As the car approached the area, a small area barely large enough for the car to pass through opened up, allowing them to get into it. This was Balthazar''s first time in this area. As long as he remembered Walter never even allowed him to talk about this place. The entire area was filled with long trees and the occasional boulders between them as far as he could see. The car stopped as soon as it entered the area. "This is as far as the car goes," said Salazar. With Salazar leading the way, Balthazar followed him out of the car into the woods. "Remember the way," said Salazar walking through the area. "How am I supposed to remember the way in these woods?" asked Balthazar perplexed. "There are no signs or road in this place," he thought. "How can he remember the way like that. It was like exploring through a completely new area or planet. There we put in signs to mark the way to their destinations. Maybe I can do the same," he thought. "Can I put in some signs to mark the way," asked Balthazar shyly. "You''re kidding right?" came the reply. Seeing the expression on Balthazar''s face, Salazar understood that such woods might be a bit confusing to a man in his first view. "I will show you the way another time. Just keep a track of the shapes of trees and boulders, their alignment, etc.,. They are all the signs you need. They tend to remain constant for the most part. You just need to get used to it," said Salazar trying to assuage his concerns. Salazar quickly took him to a large grey boulder. It had a slanted face to one side and there was a small picture of a man sitting down with a snake coiled around his neck. The snake had it''s head lifted, its mouth open and bearing its fangs at the man. Salazar made a small cut on his finger, let it trickle down into its mouth and then whispered something to it. The boulder made a slight sizzling sound and the symbol slid to the side showing a small screen. He typed in a password into the screen. A small trapdoor opened revealing a staircase below the ground. "Come on in. Walter is waiting for you," said Salazar walking down the staircase. Chapter 9 - Walters condition As he walked down the staircase with Salazar, the trapdoor behind them closed and the lights on either side along the corridor lit up. It was a long corridor decorated with wall brackets in the shape of snake coiled around a torch and dim green lights in place of the fire. The entire corridor was made of some dark slate like rock having a ghastly ambiance. There were a lot of lanes to the left and right and some doors on the walls occasionally marked by various symbols. There was an entire network of rooms hidden below the ground. "So, Walter is not the mansion?" asked Balthazar. "No, he hardly is ever in the mansion. That is just a place of residence for the members of the family. Some of the doctors, researchers and elders have their offices there. Even we have alternate offices there, but most of we security personnel and most of the secrets of the family are held here underground. Walter manages all of this from here and only goes there when he needs to make an appearance to the family," explained Salazar. A few minutes later, they reached an end to the road. The same symbol seen on the trapdoor rock was etched on the wall. Salazar tapped on the symbol and announced that he had arrived with Balthazar. A moment later, a vertical slit appeared at the center of the wall and it slowly opened up into rectangular entrance, 7-feet long and 4-feet wide. Both Salazar and Balthazar walked through the door entering a large dark semicircular room with them at the center of straight side of the room. There were only four of the small green lights in the room hardly providing any light in the room. A few metres in front of him there was a table and behind it there were about 10 men sitting opposite him in the shadows. "Stay here," said Salazar and walked away from him and stood silently. "Mr. Balthazar Blyth, I am Arthur Blyth," said one of the person sitting by the table. "I was one of the elders in the family. Now, I serve as one of the advisers of this table. You have been recommended by Walter Blyth to join our ranks. We are here to inform you about it and confirm the same. You are a probationary member for now and you will not inform anyone of us or the forbidden area. You will be assigned a mentor who will make all the necessary introductions and provide you the required information." "Once, the probationary period is over, we will convene again to determine if you are qualified and conformable to be an agent that serves this table. If you fail to meet our standards, you will forever lose the qualifications to ever enter the forbidden area. You may take your leave now," he continued. Salazar walked back towards him and led him back through the door into the tunnels. "Come with me. We will now meet Walter", said Salazar. "Is Walter supposed to be my mentor?" asked Balthazar timidly. After his parents death, Walter had him train physically for two hour everyday in the morning. The week after the their death, he met Walter for the first time. Walter introduced himself as his granduncle and he repented for being unable to save Balthazar''s parents. Ever since that moment, Walter took care of him. From that day, Balthazar became Walter''s apprentice in every way but name. Walter taught him the basics of the human body and how to fight. His days began with fighting Walter for half an hour in the morning, followed by Walter personally teaching him physics, engineering, biology, finance, society, history and many other stuff that would help him be an independent person. In essence, Walter had raised him in place of his parents, but was far more severe and tough than any family member would be. Thus, Balthazar had a lot of respect for Walter, but also was extremely intimidated by Walter. Hence, the thought of being mentored by Walter made him extremely queasy. "Walter mentor you? That would be extremely improbable. He hadn''t taken an apprentice for a long time and I doubt that would begin now," said Salazar confidently. After a few more minutes of walking silently, they had finally reached a tunnel which was unusually large. "These corridor holds the Walters office and a few other elders'' in the family," he said. The corridor had large doors on either sides. A few metres later, they stopped in front of one of them. This frame of the door was adorned with the sculptures of a snake coiled around a rod with its hood raised above it on the left and right sides. Salazar knocked on the door and went to the side. As the door slid open, the light from the room almost blinded him. Salazar gestured Balthazar to go in and remained behind. After the past few minutes spent in the dark and dim corridors, Walter''s room seemed exceedingly bright to him. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that the other then a table, chairs in the center of the room and a large row of file cabinets behind, the entire room was filled with large number paraphernalia arranged neatly on racks. The varied from modern combat armor to weapons that were centuries old. "There are some really old stuff here," he thought. "I have only ever heard of such stuff in history books and old videos." "Do you like the collection" asked Walter appearing from behind a suit of combat armor. Walter was a tall man just a little under 7-feet, with sculpted muscles and a thin handsome face. He had dark-brown cropped hair with a set of green and red eyes which gave of a subtle feeling that he was looking through a persons thoughts and soul. "How did you manage to collect all this?" replied Balthazar in wonder. "Oh. It is not all my work. These have been collected for over the past six centuries by the family. These are some of the most significant weapons and arsenal in their times which were famous in the entire known world. But now most of these are obsolete and impractical unless in extreme circ.u.mstances. Most of the new weapons can be considered improvements on some or the other of these old ones or combination of a few. Every head kept these to remind them to not forget the past and that all our present achievements wouldn''t have been without the efforts of our predecessors." "You always loved to talk about history and the past. I guess it runs in the family. Huh," said Balthazar. "Maybe. You grow old enough, you might also tend to appreciate it. Sit down," said Walter pointing at a chair by the table. "So, how was work at the frontier?" "It was not bad. Had a few good moments. Lot of work and opportunities. Got to see new places and different kind of folks. It was entertaining and maybe a bit educational. It had a frightening aspect to it. But, I guess I kind of got used to it now," replied Balthazar smiling. "Wow! Now even you learned how to talk. What happened to the silent boy who never spoke until spoken to. One hour, every day for ten years you trained with me daily, but never did you talk so comfortably in my presence," said Walter. "Come on, Walter. I am no longer a kid.I am still frightened of you. I still am a bit reserved and don''t talk much. But, I learned to talk when necessary. Gone was the time, when I thought that a man should stay silent at all times and only show his intentions through his acts. Sometimes, a single word can have more effect than a hundred actions," replied Balthazar. "Now you are almost as talkative as your sister," said Walter with a coy smile. "I''m not that bad," said Balthazar quickly. "Just have a bit of charm compared to my time here," he added looking at the roof as if he was pondering over his state of existence. "Haha. Definitely. I agree. Now let us address the elephant in the room," said Walter. "You remember why I asked you to join the alliance military force?" he continued in a serious manner. "You told me that I am not ready to work alongside you. So, sent me out to go and experience the world a bit," said Balthazar. "And why did you wan''t to work for me?" asked Walter. "Because I wanted to avenge my parents and you were the best option, I could find," replied Balthazar. "Do you still want to join us for the same reason?" asked Walter. "Yes and No. I want to avenge my parents. But I also learned that I was also meant to be dead on the same day. I intend to avenge my parents not only for revenge but for my peace of mind. The less number of people that want and dare to kill or harm me the better. As for being the best option for this purpose, I don''t know if this is. But, it is the one I choose," said Balthazar. "Well, at least you learned to care more about your own life," said Walter. "That is what I wanted you to understand. You were the best fighter in the younger generation of the family unarmed and armed combat. But you always had an attitude where you didn''t care for your life or those around you. A dead man can never avenge their loved ones." "So, what now? Am I ready to join you guys?" asked Balthazar. "Yes and No," said Walter imitating Balthazar voice. "You are on probation. We will test you occasionally and decide if you are worthy of being one of our agents. You wouldn''t be given most of the privileges of an agent nor their clearance to information till such time." "I was hoping you could have a little more detail than the shadows at that table," said Balthazar in disappointment. "Salazar took you to them?" asked Walter. "I guess they would have called for you," he continued. "Who are they?" questioned Balthazar "They are somewhat similar to the council of elders. But they hardly get their way around anything important. They are a bit of sticklers to unnecessary formalities. If not for the occasional intervention of the advisers on my behalf, they would be extremely tiring. As you have already met them, you are to be considered formally joined us and that is good," said Walter. After that he got up and walked towards Balthazar and sat on the table with in front of him. "In the last report of your recent adventure at the moon, you mentioned the knights of the old republic, but all your sources that could verify it conveniently died. Also this person Dave, he appeared out of nowhere," said Walter. "I can''t tell him about uncle Max before I know how he would react. At the end, Max is still his son. Even if tell him, I need conclusive proof to convince that Max is a traitor. Especially, since Max is on the council of elders," thought Balthazar. So, he could only stick to the what he mentioned in the report. "So, was the explosion at the moon. Clearly, I misjudged the situation. If Jane was alive, we could have gotten more details from her," said Balthazar with a passive expression with no trace of guilt. "He clearly lied and by his expression, he knows that I know it. He has no regrets in the death of Jane and is openly expressing it. She couldn''t be his source and is probably just a patsy. He is still keeping his source confidential. I guess, he has no conclusive evidence and is just playing it by his hunches. Well, at least he trusts me and that is a positive behavior, I guess," thought Walter. "Salazar would be your mentor during your probation. Any doubts, you can contact Salazar," said Walter. "Also another thing, this can be considered your first mission. In the family, we always laid emphasis on the fact that one needs to earn his keep and every child would be encouraged to get a job once he becomes an a.d.u.l.t. You have a successful career and have become colonel at the age of 22." He got up and walked around to a rack of weapons. "That is good," he continued. "But, to serve this outfit, you need to have a source of income in this sector of the universe that would provide you cover for any operations here. This is usually a simple issue for most. But, you also serve in the alliance military and have moderately strong presence at the frontier. By the rules of the alliance military forces, you wont be able to seek alternate employment. That leaves you only one option. By three months, you should be able to own at least a part of a minor legally recognized organisation or firm. Failure to do so will result in the immediate expulsion. Though you can ask your sister for help. You have strong fighting skills and also no small amount of contacts. I would strongly suggest you to rather create something of your own." "You may leave now." Balthazar got up and went through the door. "Best of luck, Bel. You chose a path similar to your father. I hope you live longer than him," said Walter talking to himself. Chapter 10 - Homecoming When Balthazar came out the room, he saw Salazar leaning against the wall reading something on the screen of his wrist band. He was completely immersed into it and didn''t notice that Balthazar was out till he got near him. "Do you research genetic improvements and stuff?" asked Balthazar. "Though I never have involved myself in it, I have seen my sister reading similar simulation reports." "No, I don''t. My work is more along the lines of poison, reactionary agents, their antidotes and stuff. I might be using a framework similar to that you had seen," said Salazar hiding the report. "As Walter would have already told you, I will be you mentor. We will meet frequently from now on. I don''t need to know all the things you do, but I will be evaluating your performance over this three month period," he said. "I am basically an assassin, I specialize in poisons, bio-agents, etc. I would suggest that you spend at least an hour with me every day for this period." "Come on, I will take you to my lab. Though you have a basic knowledge of the human body, general poisons and harmful agents. You are quite lacking in the way of assassins. There, we concoct new ways to eliminate the threats and also ways to protect ourselves from the same," said Salazar as he started to move through the tunnels. "The first thing you need to learn is the various symbols and signs, we use here in the forbidden grounds. You cannot accidentally go into places where you are not allowed into. I will provide you with the required information," said Salazar. He soon stopped in front of a door and typed in a password. "Maybe, you haven''t noticed but your wrist band hasn''t been able to connect to the network outside. There is a separate network running in the forbidden area, which connects to the network outside. The usual wrist bands cant access the internet from here. We make a special modification to them that allows us to access the internetwork and also to connect among us securely. We first need to have your wrist band set up. Then we can move on to my work space," said Salazar taking him into the room. The room was filled with a lot of equipment. But there was no personnel in the room. There were many automatons present beside the equipment. Salazar had Balthazar remove his wrist band and place it around a cylinder and then handed it over to an automaton. He then proceeded with giving it a couple of instructions and it began it''s work. After a couple of minutes, another wrist band which appeared the same as his was handed over to him. "This is the modified version. This will work both inside and outside the forbidden area. It has a special memory device which syncs and stores information on to our servers. It also allows us to track you location. But it is not advised to wear it an a few secure places in the world. I will inform you of that later on. So, keep the original one also with you and don''t lose it." said Salazar handing over both the wrist bands to him. "From now on, you will be injected with a solution containing pico-technological bots once every month or so. It is mandatory and is not standardized by the alliance. It will be a personal make of the Blyth researchers. There would be regular updates of you wrist band and also the nano-tech. Your wrist band allows to keep track of this too and it the access pass for both. These modified bands can only be worn by someone who has our specific pico-tech in their body, else their special functions can''t be accessed," explained Salazar. Soon, they went to another room of automatons where Balthazar had the pico-tech serum administered. Once, the serum was administered, Balthazar could finally equip the new wrist band. Later, Salazar had taken him to a dead end. There was a sculpture of a large snake with its fangs bared at the end. Salazar went to a corner beside the sculpture. As he went past the sculpture a small hatch appeared by the corner. He opened the hatch and together walked down the stairs into a narrow tunnel about 30 meters long. "Come quickly. The defences are disable for only 20 seconds," said Salazar as he ran along the tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel there was a platform and few small hover cars. They got into one of them and Salazar instructed it to go to their location. "My work is quite sensitive and requires to be done at a certain distance away for safety purposes. We are going beyond the forbidden area about 5 kilometers underground.," said Salazar as the car was speeding through the tunnel. "You are temporarily given access as my apprentice. Once we reach the lab, I will introduce the rest. I will provide you with materials regarding the basic signs and symbols and various places of the forbidden area. Most of the labs and offices are marked by sculptures or symbols as you have seen. Even the waypoints and warning marks are in a similar fashion. It would be a bit hard to keep track of it all for now, but in a month''s time you will be as comfortable as the rest of us," said Salazar. A minute later, they reached a stop where they got down. "Finally, I am out of the cave," thought Balthazar as he got out of the car into a small, well-lit modern lobby made of poly-synthetic materials instead of stone. They got into an elevator at the lobby, which transported them a few floors up. "Where are we?" asked Balthazar. "This is the Manasa research laboratory, it is one of the laboratories under the Research division of the Blyth Medical. I work here at the capacity of one of the administrator here leading a group of pharmaceutical researchers. But, my actual work is done underground," explained Salazar. They soon got out of the elevator into a corridor and soon reached Salazar''s office. Once in his office, Salazar connected Balthazar''s wrist band to the computer there and transferred a few manuals with no names to him. "These manuals would allow you to navigate through the tunnels at the forbidden region. There will be a lot of censored information in the manuals which you wouldn''t be able to view. It can only be viewed if you have the right clearance level. These can only be viewed through your wrist band and can''t be transferred to any other device. Any such attempt would damage you wrist band and make it useless," said Salazar. "These can''t be transferred to any other device?" thought Balthazar looking at the computer from which he got the manuals. "Whenever there is a new member, a software package is sent to his mentor that allows to transfer the manuals to his wrist band," said Salazar as if he read what was going through Balthazar''s mind. Salazar sent a few more books to him. "These explain the basics of poisons, antidotes, the human body and also the biological details we managed to gather about various aliens including the new threat of the apes. Failure would be a common occurance to an assassin who doesn''t know how his targets bodies function. There are a lot of scenarios where we intend to make a kill look like an accident or an ailment. Go through the contents of these and you will be more effective at it." "You have the access to my labs as my apprentice but no one of the regular staff above the ground can know about you. Every morning from 5 a.m to 6 a.m will be your physical training and evaluation. This will be done at forbidden region. I expect you to remember the basic symbols and signs of the forbidden region by tomorrow morning. For another hour, we will discuss about your knowledge and techniques. That is all for now. Now get back to the forbidden region and out of it. You already have the maps and information on your wrist band. At the border of forbidden region there is will always be a transport that we use to get to the mansion grounds," said Salazar sending him out of the room. "See you tomorrow morning," he said as he closed the door on Balthazar. Balthazar immediately checked his wrist band for the map and the manuals. He quickly followed it and went back to underground tunnels of the forbidden region. Once, in the forbidden region, he decided that it would be the best time for him to get acquainted with the area. He spent more than two hours wandering the tunnels before he finally got above ground. Above the ground, there was no network coverage for even the modified wrist band. He had to check the manual and soon managed to find a few signs on the surrounding boulders and finally an hour later, managed to get to border of the forbidden region. As Salazar had said there were a few hover cars parked there. Balthazar could access them with his wrist band. He immediately set off to the mansion. The mansion was white in color and housed almost all of the family, except for those who decided to have a live separately due to their work. As he reached the mansion, he was greeted by the old butler, Thaddeus Crane. Thaddeus had been serving the family for more than 20 years now. He was as old as John Blyth, Balthazar''s father and was a veteran fighter who used to coach at the family gymnasium. Balthazar had known him ever since he was a little kid. He was the only butler in the mansion. Most of the housework was done by automatons. He was just there to maintain and command the automatons. "Good Morning, young master Balthazar," he greeted. "I have taken the liberty to move your luggage to your old room. The breakfast is ready at the dining room. Please, do wash yourself before you go. Patriarch has requested your presence at his office after breakfast. Do make haste. He would leave the premises by 9 a.m," continued Thaddeus. "Thanks, Thaddeus. It sure is good to see a familiar face," said Balthazar as quickly moved to his room. On the way, he was greeted by few family members who were on their way to the dining hall. The Blyth family was very big. He had a lot of cousins and uncles. A large number of them were the involved in the administration of the planet and its associated celestial bodies. They had their executive offices at the east wing of the mansion. Every person had his own work and breakfast was the only time when there was a chance for all of them to meet. As a result, the dining hall was like a large conference room during breakfast with many of the family engaged in lively conversion with each other. The incident on the PK-170-B moon base was still a topic of gossip among the majority of the alliance and the alliance had just provided official comment on the ape wreckage at the moon. It was noticed that the aliens were more technologically advanced than they had previously assumed. It was informed that two bodies of a new species of the aliens were recovered from the wreckage and it provided enough evidence, that the black scaled apes that humanity have encountered for the past century were a lower tier of being among the species and that there would definitely be more variants mostly stronger ones among the alien hierarchy. This caused waves of turmoil at various levels of the alliance administration. It was unanimously decided by the various powers of the alliance to provide more funding and manpower towards the war effort in order to better understand and defend against the alien forces. A list of martyrs at the citadel was announced, declaring that their valiant struggle had resulted in safeguarding humanity''s freedom and managed to provide valuable intelligence about the alien threat. Balthazar who was the colonel at the PK-170-B moon base and almost died in the attack was already considered a celebrity. The new report on the invasion made him a rising star at the military. The dining hall was abuzz with discussion on the aliens, when Balthazar had arrived. The members of the family could check the menu and order the food on their way to the dining hall and it was common for them to order on their way to speed up the process. This caused some of the family to notice that he was arriving. Balthazar who had been hoping of silently having breakfast and meeting his grandfather was surprised by a large ovation from as soon as he entered the dining hall. He had become a celebrity at the alliance military and many members of the family who had never taken much interest in him gather to make his acquaintance. To Balthazar, who after his parents death was considered as a plague most of the family, this was a welcome and heart-fulfilling surprise. The family had always members who worked in the military, but most of them were as medical or research personnel not at a post who had administrative authority. Balthazar was already a young colonel and his merits at the recent invasion ensured him a surefire way up the career ladder. Even some of the elders who knew about the rivalry between John and Max and supported Max after John''s death came to greet his and wish him well in his endeavours. He never expected his homecoming to be on such a happy note. Balthazar who had never been noticed or talked to by most of the older generation of the family had finally began to find a sense of belonging to the family. He who just wished for a chance to be able to not disappoint his grandfather and sister has some how managed to garner the good will of most of the family. He politely conversed with every one who approached him and more than an hour later, he finally exited the dining hall. Having been an outcast before the miracle he could hardly contain his happiness, the smile stuck on his face and was almost giddy. Though he was elated at the turn of events, he knew that it was all possible because of a miracle and not because of his personal strength or capabilities. He knew that he had to quickly gather enough power and connections to maintain his state at the family and also to protect his loved ones. He understood that this was just the beginning of his new life and his fame both in and out of the shadows of the world is bound to surpass that of his previous life. He seated himself down on the furniture at the main hall and a few moments later managed to steady his bearing. A small reminder on his wrist band made him realize that he would be late for the meeting with his grandfather. He immediately set off to meet Winston. Chapter 11 - Geneaology Winston being the patriarch of the family was one of the busiest men on the planet. He had to manage all the assets of the Blyth family. As the family owned more than 80 percent of the entire planet, he tried to moderate and keep all the denizens of the planet satisfied and happy as he believed that it would be more efficient to be in control of the planet in this manner. He also held the position of the director of the alliance interplanetary health standards organization. He was considered to be man of honor and was well respected throughout the alliance. His position required him to have frequent meeting with various delegates and officials of several organization and forces. This made him a very busy man and it was very difficult to meet him. After Balthazar was done with his breakfast, an alarm from his wrist band reminded him that he had to meet his grandfather. Winston Blyth along with all the advisers and grand elders had his office at the sixth floor, the topmost floor of the east wing of the mansion. No person could enter this floor without an appointment or permission of the residents of the floor. Balthazar had never been to this floor before. This would be his first time on this floor. When he got into the elevator and selected the sixth floor, the screen immediately prompted him to enter the password. Not knowing what to do, he immediately messaged Thaddeus. He soon got a temporary password from Thaddeus. He was soon at the sixth floor of the mansion. He went along the corridor checking the names of the rooms. At the far end of the corridor there was a large plaque with the words "PATRIARCH" written in large bold letters. It was a long time since he met his grandfather. Winston was his role model when he was a kid. He was very proud of his grandfather and always wanted to be a great medical professional at that time. But his father''s death had caused his perspective to change. His grandfather wanted him to continue his previous goals. But after John''s death, he wished to know what prompted his parent''s death, he wanted to know more about what his own father did alongside Walter and slowly his life goals and aims changed irrevocably. When he was 14 years old, he had angrily refused his grandfather''s goodwill and completely gave up his studies in the medicinal field and picked up engineering. Balthazar still wondered on occasion whether he chose the right field of study at that time. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door. The door immediately slid open and his grandfather came out and hugged him. A couple of seconds later he released Balthazar. "Come in. It has been a long time since I have seen you," said Winston pulling him into the room by his shoulder and shut the door behind them. "Get onto the table. Let me inspect you," said Winston. "Don''t joke grandpa. I am no longer a kid," said Balthazar remembering his childhood. He always used to play the doctor-patient game with his grandfather as a kid. "Hahaha. Glad you grew up. How are you? How''s your career?" asked Winston. "I am fine. Work isn''t bad. Lots of opportunities everywhere I see," replied Balthazar. "You have become quite a celebrity among the younger generation and you rate your career as not bad? You sure have great ambitions," said Winston appreciatively. Although he was sad that Balthazar hadn''t followed the path set by him, but chose a different career path, he had always been worried for his grandson. Now, that he had seen him well and successful, that worry had also been relieved. Being the patriarch, he had many responsibilities and he couldn''t show any weakness even to his own family. After John and his daughter died in the accident, Balthazar and Bolena were his only surviving descendants. The past fourteen years had been very restless for him. He finally could consider have a little peace of mind. His grandson had shown his capability and even Walter had approved of him. Bolena was groomed by him specifically and was even considered by many to be capable of handling his post after him. He could finally leave the well-being of both his grandchildren to themselves. "So, what did you want to talk about that you requested a meeting from me?" asked Winston. "There are many things I wanted to talk to you about. First, I want to know if you have ever actually had any clues or suspects for my parent''s murder. They were murdered even though they had one of the highest security level in the family without any evidence left behind. This implies that the involvement of moles or traitors. Was anybody ever suspected by you. Second, I can understand the intent in killing my parents as they were considered that generations leaders and the immediate heirs but what would be their reason in attempting to take my life?," asked Balthazar. The question stumped Winston. He hoped that it was something related to the military or wanting to return to the family. He didn''t want it to be this. This was extremely troubling matter to the family and was something the upper ranks of the family wanted to stay hidden as it could potentially cause a split in the family. But now he had no options than explaining it all to Balthazar. The question drained the color and happiness out of Winston''s face. He quickly sent a message on his wrist band to his assistant to inform him that he would be a little late to work today and to delay his schedule for half an hour. He also sent a message to Walter about it before he began to answer Balthazar. "I hoped that I wouldn''t had to have this discussion so soon. This began 70 years ago when Walter was on a mission. He was a member of an alliance black operations group who was tasked with suppressing the rebels including knights of the old republic. Those were very chaotic times. The knights of the old republic were actual knights in service of a sovereign family, the godspeed dynasty. The godspeed dynasty was annihilated and the victors named themselves as the knights of the old republic. Thus, began a scourge which plagued mankind from within." "Walter was considered an engineering genius. He somehow tracked a signal, a call for help from within the presumed rebel area. They were promised valuable information about the knight in exchange for safety. He along with a small team of four others followed the instructions and arrived at a desolate moon. Soon, they saw a shuttle crash nearby them. There was a woman in a near death state in the shuttle. She had just given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Walter promised her that he would take care of her children and she had given him all the information she had. She had just escaped from a hunting party of the knights and she was your grandmother. That baby boy was John." "So I am not a Blyth?" asked Balthazar in shock. He always thought that his father''s side of the family were in seclusion like several other old man of the family. Never did he think that his father could be a bastard. "Don''t you ever say that!" shouted Winston. "You are my grandson and Walter treated John as his own. You are my flesh and blood, the only son of my beloved Emma. You are as much a Blyth as me." "Sorry, grandpa. I wasn''t thinking. I just blurted it out in surprise," said Balthazar apologetically. Winston also understood that he had overreacted and it was expected of Balthazar to be shocked at the revelation. He calmed himself down and continued to speak. "Walter decided to stick to his promise and brought the kids back to the family. He later became the head of our shadow organization. The patriarch and the elders decided to raise them as Blyths. The girl was Robert''s mother Jordan. It was all well and fine in the beginning. Both Jordan and John were very promising young individuals. Walter even took John as his apprentice. John had been Walter''s only apprentice other than Walter''s eldest son, George. George and John were as brothers. Even Max wasn''t as close to George as John. Later John got married to my Emma and Jordan got married to George. George was set to be Walter''s successor and Jordan mine, and everything was peaceful." "Robert was one year old when an attempt was made on George, Robert and Jordan''s lives. George managed to save their lives at the cost of his own, but Jordan lost her sanity watching George sacrifice himself. More than 6 members of the family were killed during that attempt. It was at this time that we first suspected a mole or traitor. John was distraught and inquired personally into his death. Both Walter and John suspected someone, but due to lack of evidence they both refused to comment on it. Everyone expected Walter to take Max in George''s place and train him. But Walter chose John instead and somehow even convinced the grand elders and the old men in seclusion to support his decision." "Seven years later, when everyone almost forgot about the incident, John requested a meeting with the council of elders claiming to possess evidence against George''s murderer. Even Walter had given up, but John never stopped his pursuit. But, John and Emma had the accident before the meeting. It was after this that Walter confided in me about his suspicions." "Was Uncle Max the suspect?" asked Balthazar suddenly cutting into his story. "How? How? How did you know?" asked Winston flabbergasted. He was so shocked that he almost toppled backwards in his chair. In both the cases, the actual culprits were foreigners with no connection with anyone in the family. Max always wanted to be Walter''s heir. He had the motive, but Max had neither the power nor the wealth to hire them. Unless an external force offered to do serve him for free, there was no way he could have orchestrated this. So any claim against Max had no proper basis or foundation. But Walter had always suspected Max since George''s death. "So, it is," confirmed Balthazar. "I guess you had no proper evidence as you couldn''t find any trace of transactions of him or any of his acquaintances involved. It was always like someone just had done it without any proper motive. But among all the people that had the information required to do it only Max had any sort of motive for it." "Yes. You are right," said Winston shaking all over. He got up grasped Balthazar''s shoulders in both his hands and asked, "How did you know? Do you have any clues about it? Max is one of the few remaining heirs of the core family. We can''t prosecute him without strong evidence. The grand elders wouldn''t allow it." Emma''s death had not been avenged. Her demise caused his wife to lose all hope in life and resulted in her death 5 years after Emma. He wouldn''t give up any chance to bring them to justice. Hearing Balthazar had him thinking that his grandson had managed to find some tangible clue to it. "I submitted a report to the military after the explosion in which I mentioned two names in connection with the knights of old republic. There was a third name which I hid. It was Max Blyth," answered Balthazar. "That is ridiculous. We must inform this to Walter," said Winston. "Are you sure? Max is his only remaining son after all," said Balthazar. "You don''t know Walter well enough. He would kill Max personally the instant he has any sort of evidence proving him guilty. He considered John his son more than Max and George was always his favorite. He almost went mad and hunted assassins crazily after George died. If the grand elders hadn''t intervened, he would have killed Max. If not for John, we would have probably lost Walter too," said Winston trying to convince Balthazar. "OK! I will leave you to it," said Balthazar. "But that would only help to the answer the first part of my question. I still need to get a lead on the second part. Why are they after me? Before last week, I was a person who ran out of the family. Max has no reason to attack me. All these days, I have been completely stumped about it. But, after you told me that my father might have other ancestors, I must assume that the people providing Max are related to them. I have much more confident of it as they are related to the knights of the old republic as the ones that tried to assassinate me are the same." "The only reason, I suspect they were involved in George''s death was to eliminate Jordan. George was just unlucky to be with Jordan," thought Balthazar. "They would surely attempt to kill Bolena and Robert too," said Balthazar. "Don''t worry. After the explosion when we came to know about the knight''s involvement in attempting to assassinate you, we improved the personnel guarding both Robert and Bolena," comforted Winston. He got off his chair as he had to inform the rest of the family on the floor about what he learned from Max. If, the knights managed to have infiltrators in the family, it would be a very severe issue for them. "I will try to investigate about the knights. Do you have any information about my paternal grandmother?" asked Balthazar "We don''t even know her name. Walter kept a tight lid on it. He might inform you about it. It is best that you consult him," advised Winston. "Let us leave it for now. About Max, keep it a secret. I will talk to Walter and a few others. This is something that even my father would be interested in. We will consult and decide on what to do with Max. At the very least, they would wan''t to put him under observation and confine his movements. Don''t tell Bolena anything about this. I will inform you of what we decide," said Winston signalling Balthazar to leave the room. He immediately sent a message for an emergency meeting with the grand elders and Walter. Chapter 12 - Prospecting Friends Balthazar finally had a lead on why the knights of the old republic wanted to kill him. He knew that they tried to kill him first as the Blyth''s didn''t have him under supervision at the PK-170-B moon base and an accidental death was the best way to get rid of another of one of their targets without arousing suspicion. After he got out of his room, he immediately headed for his room and decided to spend his time going through the manuals that Salazar provided him. He mainly focused on the ones about human body and zoology as Salazar had suggested. It was soon lunch time and he had ordered his lunch to his room. During lunch he got a message from Winston that Walter would be contacting him sometime today regarding Max. After lunch he decided to take a walk around. He took his dad''s old hover car and went around to his old school, the university he studied in, the market and other familiar places. As he was going around, he realized that the attacks always happened only when the target was considered someone of importance, and nothing ever happened to them as children when they were most vulnerable. The person targeting the descendants of his grandmother made sure that he could mask the attacks as attempts on the influential personalities in the Blyth family. This implies there is a high chance that this person has also made sure that none of the other in the knights would suspect the attacks to be made on members of his father''s lineage and not the Blyths. Also Walter already suspected Max but in the time frame when the attack on PK-170-B base was successful, he hadn''t contacted Balthazar or for the 7 years after that. This clearly showed that he wasn''t Walter''s priority and he was left out as bait. Thinking through all these, Balthazar realized that he couldn''t depend on Walter completely either. He had to set up an organization or something that he could use as a cover to come here occasionally. He immediately parked the car and used his wrist band to call his sister and asked if there were any properties or lands, he could use. "The very day you are back home, you are searching for properties?" asked Bolena on the call. "Looks like you have become very materialistic brother." "I need to set up a base here for the times I work with Walter," said Balthazar. "I have never checked dad''s will nor did I care about it when I became a legal a.d.u.l.t. But now I need to know what I inherited from him and I need to make good use of anything that is available." "Ok, I get it. But I don''t have the details," replied Bolena. "Grandpa was our guardian and I let him handle it all. Most of what mom owned and used were from grandpa and as we were not legal a.d.u.l.ts at that time, I think he took back most and are already at use for something or other. Dad apparently had managed to acquire quite a number of them, but most of them are off the planet. It is best to ask grandpa, if he can help you." "I will do that. One last thing. I got some information regarding the attacks on me. There is a high chance that they might also try to assassinate you. Just take care and don''t go anywhere without guard or informing grandpa," he warned Bolena. "Ooh! You are worried about me? Aren''t you all caring and ," started Bolena. But Balthazar cut off her call in the middle as he knew that his sister would go one a rant and tease him. He went on ahead and called his grandfather. The Patriarch didn''t respond and sent him a message asking him what the call was for. A moment after Balthazar told him the reason, he received a list of properties and lands that John owned. As Bolena told him, most of them were not even on asklepian. Only two properties and one large unused plot of land were on the planet. One was a major mining and processing company and affiliated plants on the other side of the planet. He owned more than 70% of the Vulcan mining consolidate and it was involved in handling many resources from surrounding celestial bodies. "He really was a person who kept a secret life. That would be an ideal place for having an office and a good excuse for random travels," he thought. The other was a small complex nearby. There is an electronics and electrical instruments shop loaning the bottom half of the complex and the remaining is left unattended for the past 14 years. There was also a large plot of land in the neighboring city of Entora which could be used to develop something useful. It was in a large city and the land was large enough to be developed into a training center or stadium. Considering the recent attacks by the aliens even a warframe training centre at a peaceful area was viable. The mining company would be a perfect choice for the first mission, he was given by Walter. But he thought it best to create something of his own as Walter suggested. He had hardly used his earnings and it would be best if he could use these to create something. Given the past few days, his mind had been focused on stuff such as planetary security, warframes and weapons. He went back to a state of mind when he had been a shadow on the walls and assassinated more than anything else. Asklepian was in a very peaceful part of the human territory. It was far from wars very close to the centre of alliance in a galaxy nicknamed elysium for its peaceful atmosphere. He had to consider different options suitable for a peaceful area. A mining industry like his father established was definitely a good option. There were various kinds of industries that could be established in a such an area. He also had to check the availability of various resources, the competition and other factors that would enable a successful industry. Considering these options, he realized that he had also been the vice-commander of a moderately large virtual-gaming workshop. He slowly developed from a complete novice to that post in a time period of 2 years and held that position for 3 years. He had a lot of knowledge of the game vita nova, that would release in 15 days for the public. He contacted his grandfather for details on the three properties and requested them to be transferred to his name. He got a message to go the alliance registrar office in the city and he would send someone called Alfred to help him along. As he reached the registrar office, he was greeted by Alfred who helped him through the procedures. Alfred was the manager hired by John Blyth to handle the mining industry. He was an old friend of John and informed Balthazar to come to the head office tomorrow to meet with the board of directors. He also needed to plan a trip to the Entora city to examine the land there and determine a plausible and profitable use for it. For the rest of the day, he decided to meet up old friends in the city. First, he decided to meet Robert. Though they always competed and fought as kids, there were rivals and good friends. Due to the relationship between George and John, John always insisted that he be friendly with Robert. It wasn''t a most harmonious relationship at first, but later at teenage they somehow bonded. He went to meet Robert who was currently serving as surgery researcher in the city hospital. A few minutes after waiting at the reception, Robert came out to greet him. Robert was about 7-feet tall, had shoulder length blood red hair in a ponytail, broad shoulders and a pair of blue eyes perfectly socketed in a handsome shaved face. He quickly pulled Balthazar to his office. "It has been a long time since I have seen you. You could have called sometime in these 5 years. What happened that you ran away?" he asked Balthazar. "That is a very long story. Walter may not be pleased if I ramble on it. I would have definitely called you, if it wasn''t a risk. Bolena was also really angry about it.," replied Balthazar pushing the blame for his antisocial behavior onto Walter. "Of course, she would. She complained to me a lot of times about it. Walter is always like that. Everything is a conspiracy or trap with him. You better not do something like that again." "It wasn''t this time. The past week I learnt a lot of stuff. You wouldn''t believe half of them. The knights of the old republic are trying to kill me. If not for Walter''s doubts and precautions I would have been dead." "Well.. He has a few good points. He came to meet me today. We actually talked about you. Something related to attempts on my parent''s lives and also yours''. Says they actually have a suspect and that he would put in a protective detail for me. He tried to convince me real hard." "That is a good thing, right?" replied Balthazar. "It might be considered a good thing. But he always restricted me because of his fears. Why would someone even want to kill me?" asked Robert lifting his hands up in exasperation. "Because you are George and Jordan''s son." "So what? Father''s long been dead, and you know about ma. Walter refuses to even tell me how he came to know of the threat. I want to take Max with me to talk to Walter about it. Maybe he could talk some sense into him. Walter has become very paranoid since dad''s death." Max had always been a very helpful uncle. He had supported them both after their parent''s deaths. They never understood why John was unfriendly with Max. He provided them mental support in those dark times. When Walter secretly told Balthazar that if he wanted to work alongside him, he had to leave the family to temper himself, Max was the only one who in contrast to others supported his decision. Only when it was too late, did Balthazar learn that it was all a mask. He was like that just to keep a close watch on them and be their confidant and it worked very well too. He was the perfect mole. "I am the source of Walters information," confessed Balthazar as he worried that Robert may confide in Max laying waste to his efforts. "You! You told Walter to improve security on him. Why would they want to attack me? I can understand them trying to attack you. But I hardly have any influence. Even Bolena is a better target than me." "It is a very long story. Bolena is also a target. It is not a matter of influence or power in the family. Do you have some way to contact Walter?" "Yeah, it is an emergency channel he set up for me. But I use it quite frequently." "Tell him that you are with me. And that you wanted to talk to Max about this." "He wouldn''t agree. He already told me to keep it a secret. Don''t you have his contact?" "Neither Walter nor Winston give their contacts to other easy. It is not like you can have a video call with him. Is it?" "Yeah. You''re right." "Ok. Message him that I intend to explain you the reason you are a target." "You know about it? Why can''t you just tell me. You actually need his permission?" asked Robert. He never expected that Balthazar had a proper reason he was a target. But now it feels like it is some kind of confidential secret as he wants Walter''s permission before he reveals it. Now, he was unsure if he wanted to know it as it might be something confidential. "It is not that I need his permission. It is a courtesy as it is as he promised someone that it would be a secret." "Ok," said Robert sending a message. Immediately he got a call from Walter. "Is Balthazar there?" asked Walter. "I am right here," said Balthazar walking into view. "It isn''t necessary to talk about that. There are a lot of other things you could talk about," came Walter''s voice sounding frustrated. "He wants to contact Max, as he thinks their targets are members with influence in the family," said Balthazar coming to the point. "Ok. Go on ahead," said Walter reluctantly and cut the call. Soon, Balthazar summarized everything Winston told him and also all that he could to convince him that Max was the mole and against them. "You must be mistaken. Uncle Max couldn''t have done that," said Robert in shock. "Believe me, I first wanted to contact Max when I first heard about it. But the further I looked into it, the further I was convinced of it. We even expected that the glitch in our systems would be used right after the event. The only reason it would be suddenly preponed to a point during would be to attack someone, who wouldn''t be staying till the end of the event." "That is a lot to take. Max wanting to kill us." "Max probably doesn''t have any reason to kill us. But he did get involved with them to kill our parents. Then, he couldn''t get out of it and continues to provide intelligence to them." "Are you sure that he is responsible for my parent''s death!?" said Robert agitated. "All I know is that John managed to find some evidence and we had intercepted Max talking to the knights saying that after my father, I am next to be killed. He wanted to kill me for sure. The only reason for killing my father at that time is for someone who is involved in the attack on you parents," concluded Balthazar. As Robert was digesting it all, Balthazar got up. "I wanted to have a simple talk with you. But it went far away from what I had in mind. Max is already under observation. The best you could do is to increase your influence as much as you can to safeguard yourself," he said. "See you later," he said as he left Robert''s office. He had another person he wanted to meet. The one who gave him the chance to become a normal civilian with a steady job enabling him to escape him a life of assassinations and to find some amount a peace in his life. He was a very good friend and the person whom Balthazar felt most obligated and owed to. He always used to stay at the cyber cafe nearby, cyber drome. He was always into games and movies. It was filled with kids and teenagers most of the time. Rudra became friends with Balthazar at college. Chapter 13 - Prospecting Friends 2 Balthazar being an over achiever got into the electronics engineering division at Asklepian University at a young age of 15. At that time, everyone around him in his classes were at least 3 years elder to him. In such a situation, everyone tried to bully him except for Rudra Powers, who like him was younger than the rest. Although Rudra was two years elder to him, he was considered in the same bracket as Balthazar. Rudra was about 6-feet high with thick limbs and torso, with orange spiky hair. He had a heavy frame with bulging muscles like he was some kind of professional wrestler or fighter. But he was least interested in such jobs and hated to go workout. Rudra wasn''t the typical over-achiever who had a lot of focus and interest in studies. He was a happy-go-lucky guy who was very free-willed and did whatever he felt like. He was more of a genius who manages to be successful at what he gets interested in. Rudra was from the Powers family, a family name which became a brand in the metal processing industry. He was never interested in the company and got into the college in asklepian, away from his home planet just to escape from his strict disciplinarian parents. He got addicted to playing games at the nearby cyber drome during their first year. He and Balthazar had many good memories at that place. During those times, Rudra involved him in many gaming competitions and became a well-known personality in the gaming circles. He knew that Rudra was the manager and captain of the team representing cyber drome in a bunch of competitions in the virtual game industry. He also knew that Rudra would leave the team in a few months later to establish his own workshop. This was an age where virtual technology was the norm. Any video or picture which wasn''t in VR (Virtual Reality) mode would be considered ancient. Even lot of video call and entertainment services are provided in VR. Headsets in general only allow a person to see and hear the video. Most VR games and interactive services had used a VR headset with a console to interact with the virtual reality. But this has also started to become a thing of the past. Special suits which can allow the customer to interact while allowing a range of moments when confined in a virtual reality box were also very common. Attempts were made to create VR technology which would allow biofeedback by wearing a small device or helmet but were so far not very popular. All the customers of a cyber cafe would use VR. The only reason that a person in this age would use a cyber cafe was because of VR and the high bandwidth that is required to support VR interactions is still something that is a costly affair. "If I could just convince Rudra to leave his team earlier to join him, he could have another great asset with him," thought Balthazar as he drove to the cyber drome. He had spent a lot of hours at this place and even knew the people working here. On entering the cyber drome, he noticed that there was no change to it over the past five years. He went to the receptionist, who immediately recognized him. "Hey! we got a celebrity returning," shouted Nancy, the receptionist. Other than a few who didn''t wear headsets, none of them even moved their heads. Among the five, who looked towards him, only two actually knew him and the remaining went back to what they were doing. "Hi Nancy, always so energetic. Huh," complemented Balthazar. "Rick, Harry, how are you guys doing," asked the other two. They always used to play along with Rudra and Balthazar. They also left the cyber drome along with Rudra. "Were all good man. Lizzy and Slaine are also here. We just had a match." "I thought Rudra also is with you guys. Where is he?" "Manager Rudra? He is on a call with the boss." answered Harry. "He became the manager of the cyber drome?" asked Balthazar feigning ignorance. "Well, he did always want to do something in the VR industry. It is a good start." "Yes, but he deserves better. He is the captain, technician and the manager. Any other owner would treat him better. But David just takes him for granted. It has been three years since we had a raise," said Rick. "Don''t bother him with all that. He came here after a long time," said Nancy shushing them. "It''s no bother. It had been such a long time. I just wanted to meet you guys. We will have a good talk over dinner. My treat!" said Balthazar to improve their mood. "Barbeque!" "Barbeque!" "Barbeque it is. How about Tilda''s? Let us book a table," said Balthazar as he made the appointment through his wrist band.. "Shall we play a game in the mean-time? You still remember you Fight club account details?" asked Harry as he pulled Balthazar to a couple of headsets and consoles. "I haven''t played it over six years. My character wouldn''t stand a chance against yours," said Balthazar. "Well you do you have an account in any of the new games?" Balthazar could only put up a sad face in response. He really missed the fun these small things had provided after he joined the force. Playing virtual reality games and the like were considered childish by most of the society, but the entertainment and fun provided by them had their own value. Balthazar and Rudra always used to say, "What worth is such a long life, if it doesn''t have such fun and entertainment?" "Haha. He must have worked his ass off that he became a colonel this young. It would be shocking if he had time for games," said Rick logging into his account from the console and handed it over to Balthazar. They played a couple of games with Balthazar, the opponent alternating between Harry and Rick. But Balthazar couldn''t even win, a single game against them. "Dude, you''re horrible," said Rick. "I am not familiar with the character or your controls" "Yeah. Even Nancy could beat the pants of you the way you are now," said Rudra joining them. "When did you come out?" "Two matches ago. You really lost your touch." "Come on. Our shift is done. The night shift guys are here. Let''s go to Tilda''s," said Nancy joining them. "This early? It is only. Holy crap! We are going to be late for barbeque." "Always lose track of time when playing," said Nancy shaking her head. All seven of them got into Balthazar''s car and they started off to Tilda''s. Tilda''s Barbeque was quite a famous restaurant. It was a prime spot for many youths and for professional outings. They place also had a noise proof room for karaoke. They got into a noise proof private room. "So, what brings you here? Especially after an attack on your citadel." "I was injured and took a well-deserved break. I missed you guys and just decided to drop in." "You were that seriously injured!" asked Nancy genuinely worried about him. "No. The family just wanted me here. Grandpa wanted me here till the storms over. The sudden attack by the apes and the reports have them worried a little." "So what game are you playing these days. War god''s tempest is the most popular one. But vita nova is coming, and it has partial bio-feedback. The talk is that we can control the character however we wish in it. It would be game changing. We are all eagerly waiting for that." Soon, the food and drinks were served, and they got into talking about old time, the teachers, the times the got away from classes to play games. They all got drunk, sang, talked about old times and soon they fell down inebriated one after the other, until only Rudra and Balthazar remained. Balthazar never drank before he became a legal a.d.u.l.t. So, he never drank with them. Though they weren''t lightweights, compared to Balthazar who had trained persistently in the military and had the pico-tech serum running through him, they couldn''t hold long enough. Balthazar was surprised that Rudra hadn''t been downed yet. It looked like Rudra''s natural physical endowments extended to his capacity for liquor too. Only Rudra and Balthazar were still awake and were loaded. Balthazar decided that this would be a good time to ask him about the workshop idea. "So, what are your future plans?" he asked Rudra trying to get the point in a roundabout way. "Future plans? They were always the same. Establish my own workshop, cyber cafe, keep playing and maybe finally be able to put my name in the VR or entertainment industry. You know." "How are you going on about it?" "Whoa! Did my father possess you? What''s with all these questions?" "Nothing man. I thought that with your potential and a bit of help from your father, you would have established your own cyber cafe by now." "I could have done it a year ago, if my father supported it. David doesn''t even give me a decent salary though I manage the cyber drome. I took on responsibilities of the technicians too, but he refuses to raise wages. Shameless." "Why don''t you join some other cyber cafe if he is that bad?" "Another one? In this city? Dude cyber drome is the biggest one in the city. Someone in your family also owns a share in the establishment here. No sane cyber cafe would poach me into their team." "There are other cities you know?" "I know. There are a few that would offer to take me. But, what about my team. They won''t be willing to accept a completely new team. I can''t leave Harry, Slaine or the others behind. I am not that strong without them either." He quickly gulped down a pint and burped loudly. "I am stuck at this place. My only hope is to get my dad or someone to sponsor me." "No worries then. I will sponsor you. Get out. Live your dream," said Balthazar through his drink. He was suddenly shaken by someone holding his shoulders. It was Rudra. "Are you serious?" "Of course. I am. I can sponsor a workshop and also got a place that could be used to start it up. We just need to get the equipment and set it up." "Are you for real? You are not joking, right?" asked Rudra whilst continuing to shake Balthazar "Stop shaking me. I am sober enough. Not joking." "That''s great. Really great. I am going to resign immediately. I don''t need to listen to that shithead anymore." "Now you sober up. At east have a look at the place before you go ahead and do something like that." "Hahaha. Yes. You are a god send. When shall we go?" "No hurries. We are all quite out of it, right now. We can go there tomorrow afternoon when the team is awake." A few drinks later, they decided to call it a night and booked a room in a motel nearby for the inebriated team. Balthazar insisted that he had to return home and would meet them in the afternoon tomorrow. He got into the hover-car and set it into auto-pilot mode and left for home. As soon as he reached home, he went for home. "Today, had been quite productive," he thought as he set his alarm and dozed off. Chapter 14 - Working out and Wolf It was a new day at the Blyth mansion. Now, there were more people, he knew about the crisis he was in. He was going to be trained by Salazar and was already set on a path which would enable him to know, the reason for which he was being targeted. He also managed to get into the gaming world and if he paid a decent amount of attention to it, he would be able to get quite financially successful too. It was 4.30 a.m when the alarm buzzed in Balthazar''s room. He groggily went to bathroom to clean himself up. He drank a bit of citrus juice from the refrigerator in his room to get rid of the remaining effect of the drinks. He dressed himself in a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt and got himself to the gymnasium to meet Salazar. The Blyth family gymnasium was a very big in the west wing of the mansion. It spanned two floors. The first floor had the basic equipment for everyday training along with a couple of fighting rings. There were also a bunch of automatons which assisted in the physical training. The second floor had all the testing equipment, a few heavy weight training apparatuses and three special combat rooms. These combat rooms can be customized, and it required the special permission to enter and use them. It was 10 minutes to 5 a.m. and Salazar wasn''t there yet. None of the younger generation he knew were there. It only had a few elders and men of the older generation, working out. With nothing to do, he decided to warm himself up and joined them. He went to a tread mill beside Elaine Blyth, one of his aunts. "You guys are here early," said Balthazar with smile trying to strike conversation. "Well, we just came back after a long trip and it was already sunrise," replied one of them without looking at him as if it was something he was used to saying regularly. "Oh. It''s you," said Elaine. "Glad to see you have returned." "Glad to be back." "Heard Salazar would be training you." "How do you know about that?" "Old colleagues. Salazar and I were on the same team as John." "Is he John''s kid," asked another man who just came to stand beside Elaine with a vitamin drink in hand. "I am," said Balthazar extending his hand. "Marcus Price," said the man as he shook his hand. "Price? As in the Price family? One of the seven most influential families in the alliance," asked Balthazar surprised. The Price family was considered the most powerful family in the alliance. Even the prime director of the alliance, who was elected had been a Price for the past 9 decades. "He doesn''t know?" Marcus asked Elaine. "Of course not. He is still a kid," said Elaine rolling his eyes. "Marcus is my husband, Bel. We have been in collaboration with the Price family for a long time," she told Balthazar. She took the bottle from Marcus as she got off the thread mill. "Hope you join us soon. Be careful. Salazar has no patience with apprentices." "If you are done badmouthing me, you can f.u.c.k off," said Salazar from behind her. "Always sneaky and silent. Can''t even come to the gymnasium through the main door," teased Elaine shaking her head. Salazar calmly walked past her and asked Balthazar "What are you doing here? I was waiting for you at the second floor." He didn''t wait for a reply and just gestured Balthazar to follow him. "He was very nice yesterday. What is with the sudden change of personality?" he asked Elaine. "He is always like that when it comes to physical training. He was considered a hardworking freak when he first joined us. Even John, who brought him aboard didn''t expect that. And he is always a bit candid." Balthazar ran after Salazar, who was already at the second floor. It was completely empty except for the pair of them. He was standing by the machine which measured punch strength. "Punch strength? Do we actually ever even punch our targets?" asked Balthazar. "Don''t be foolish. What do you think we do here? We don''t just go killing people. Many times, we need to interrogate them. What if you are attacked in public or if you end up in a brawl or if you must provide a distraction? Complete physical strength has to be above the required standard for being an agent," said Salazar in admonishment. "Come on. Be quick about it. Today, we test your present capacities. Based on that we will continue as required," continued Salazar. Balthazar had spent a decent amount of time in his past life on martial arts. As an assassin, he mainly focused on escaping. Head on long fights was something he was not that good at. Moreover, due to the tough situation he used to be in after he lost his job at the military, he focused a lot in developing his body physique. He continued it even after he started a civilian job at Rudra''s workshop. But now, he hardly was the same man. Though, he had been working to improve his physique by habit, it hadn''t even been ten days after the miracle with him reverted to his old weak physical self. "I shall try my best," he thought as punched the machine as quick and hard as he could. "532 kg? You can do better than that. Put your back into it, have a running start, show me the best you can." Balthazar took a few steps back. He suddenly accelerated leaping towards the machine, put his foot down half a metre from it and using it as a fulcrum put the entire weight of his body behind his punch. A couple of pops sounded off him as he struck the machine. "612 kg. That''s better. You got decent strength, but your form is not that good. You heard the pops when you struck. That is your body telling you that you can do better. Your ligaments failed to properly handle the stress of your movements," said Salazar. "The attempt was good though. But the movements were not suitable for your musculature. You should either change your style to suit your body or improve upon your body. Don''t repeat that again in your workout or training." "OK" "Before we continue through the rest of it. Let me first tell you how to disable the recovery function of the pico-tech serum using your wrist band. Always do it when you work out or train. It would hamper your body growth and development as it always helps to quickly repair any muscle strain or stretch. That kind of beats the entire point of training doesn''t it. Keep it disabled for two hours after your workout and supplements intake." "Now let us move on to the rest of them," he said directing to another machine. Twenty minutes later. They were sitting on a bench discussing the results. "Your kick strength peaks at 781 kg with an axe kick. Both punch and kick strength averages just cross the mark. Your throws of light weapons have a max range of 7 meters. Can improve on it. Max running speed is 32 mph. That''s not bad. Weightlifting fails to cross the mark. I have your shooting results from the force. It is decent but can actually be improved on," said Salazar marking things on his wrist band screen. "Damn! Are his standards too high or am I that disappointing?" thought Balthazar looking at dissatisfied expression on Salazar''s face. "Your speed and shooting skills are the only good thing about you. Let us check your reaction time," said Salazar as he took him to a combat room. Here, he made Balthazar wear a sensory suit and he set the standard to advanced. The combat room had a bunch of machines which fired rubber balls with varying sized from that of a bullet to a football at the subject. He would have to dodge them as the machines would slowly increase the rate and force of the balls and would be graded based on it. This kind of machine would be present in most of the well-known gymnasiums. The user would have to select the standard of the test - Amateur, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert. They would be graded - unqualified, barely qualified, Qualified, Excellent or Over-qualified. Obviously, unqualified and over-qualified results recommend using another standard. After 15 minutes of dodging and jumping, he was finally graded advanced-qualified. "You have good reflexes and your main focus was on speed. You also have good observation and senses. But you need to improve on your physical strength," said Salazar summarizing the results. "Now only endurance is to be checked for today. Come with me," said Salazar leading him out of the gymnasium building. They went behind the mansion, past a couple of herbariums and found themselves in an area filled with trees. This was a large ground, where they usually trained the animals. It had a large racetrack filled with various hurdles. A large dark-blue furred creature suddenly jumped on to Balthazar, pinning him on the floor and started licking him. It looked like a wolf but had a couple of horns with bony plating on either sides of its head. It was An old man who seemed to be the grounds keeper came right behind it. "I am very sorry. He never behaves this way," he said to Salazar. "Leave him and come here, Anubis." But it didn''t budge and stayed near Balthazar. It was when he heard the groundskeeper say Anubis that Balthazar finally recognized it. It belonged to John. It was a pup when he was a kid and he used to play a lot with the pup. As a pup it didn''t have the horns and he always thought it to be a wolf. He slowly touched its muzzle and pushed it back. He sat up and started to brush it with his hand. Anubis put its tongue out, lay down beside him and started to enjoy it. "It belonged to my dad. It must have smelled me," he explained to the groundskeeper who looked perplexed. Anubis belonged to a very-ferocious species of amphibious canines called Grypa found in a different solar-system. It was a regulated species. John brought its mother to the mansion somehow and a few years later it birthed Anubis. It was Bolena who named it Anubis. The groundskeeper was naturally afraid as Anubis'' breed itself is considered a dangerous one and it never pounced like that on a person before. "Oh good. Then you know your company," said Salazar. "The track is 4km long has a few hurdles and other obstructions. You have about 30 minutes left. Just go around the track as many times as you can. I am expecting at least 10. I won''t be monitoring you. You will keep track of it yourself and report to me your daily progress." "This is an animal racetrack," said the groundskeeper to Salazar. "I know Elric, consider him one of them during his runs." "You are not to disturb any of the other creatures using the ground. This is a training area for the animals we rear, and you are just using it. You are to meet me at the main hall by 5 p.m in the evening," he added looking at Balthazar as he left. "10 rounds in half an hour. That is about 80 kmph for half hour. That is very hard," thought Balthazar. "I thought rearing animals didn''t require such extensive training grounds." "That''s for the domestic animals kid which are usually reared on large scale for their meat. These are all rare wild ones, which are being reared in seclusion. They need the exercise they usually have in the wild for their biological development. Without it, they would become useless specimens." "You can start now. I will inform the others of you. Don''t worry all the creature loose here are tamed and wouldn''t hurt you unless you bother them." "Thanks. I''m Balthazar by the way," said Balthazar extending his hand. "Lucian Elric. I maintain the grounds here along with my sons," replied Elric shaking it. "Can I come here occasionally to meet Anubis." "Sure." "OK. See you. Bye Anubis." Balthazar started a stopwatch on his wrist band and started running along the track. Twelve rounds later, he was completely exhausted. He went to a large tree and rested in the shady area beneath it. Anubis walked upto Balthazar and sat beside him resting it''s head in his lap. A few minutes later, Elric came with a water bottle in his hand. Balthazar immediately took the bottle and thanked Elric. "Don''t sit down beneath the trees or some random place to rest here. You can come to the cabin," he said pointing to a cabin more than a kilometer away. "Though the animals here are tamed, it is best not to take chances. Even if Anubis is guarding you. That is why we cave a small cabin for every few square kilometers." "Oh! Thanks for the advice and offer." "No big deal. You weren''t the first nor will you be the last. Even Salazar was here doing the same." He made his way slowly to the cabin. There was plumbing and fresh water available, along with a few weapons and first aid kit. A few minutes later, he decided that he better go back to the mansion and have some breakfast. Anubis also tried to follow him. "Can I take him with me? I will take good care of him." "Uh! I am surprised that it is willing to follow you. Were you there when it was born?" "Yes. Both my sister and I were there beside my parents," said Balthazar. It was a dear memory to him. He remembered the good times when they played around with the pup every day after its birth. "Well that explains it. He must have imprinted upon you. The first few faces a creature sees when it is born are considered by it to be its closest allies by instinct. It probably considers you on the same level as its siblings." "You can probably take it. But not out of the mansion. You need to leave it here or secure it some place safe when you are not with it." "That could be done. I can have Thaddeus look after it, when I am off the premises." "There is pet shelter right behind the mansion. I will send you the details and also how to feed and take care of Anubis." "Thanks," said Balthazar receiving the information from him and left along with Anubis. He soon went to the mansion. After breakfast he put Anubis in the pet shelter behind the mansion and left to the board of directors meet at the mining company. Chapter 15 - Seeing Max again. Having left to the Vulcan mining Co. that just came into his name, just after his breakfast, Balthazar was quite early to the board of directors meet. It was still an hour before the stipulated time. He decided to have a look through their operations and understand what they were involved in and how they could improve. A quick look through the doc.u.ments provided by Alfred gave him a clear picture of it. They were only involved in handling the mines and ores and production of raw ingots, smelting and refining activities. They have access to large number of mines over few moons and planets in their solar system and a few neighboring ones. "Supervision of mining operation can be used as an excuse to visit a large number of celestial bodies nearby," thought Balthazar. He also noticed that a few attempts were made previously to collaborate and compete with other firms in metal fabrication, steel making, etc., but were unsuccessful. All in all, it was quite successful with a high production and getting an yearly revenue of more than 200000 million credits. Of it more than 70 % was retained as profit, making it a prosperous company. The board soon convened for the meeting. The most part of the meeting was to introduce him to the board. He learned that majority of the shareholders of the firm joined it when their own firms were bought and merged into the firm. The recent tussle at the frontier caused a natural surge in improvement of war efforts, increasing weapons production requirements and in turn any mining industry would see more opportunities. The meet continued to discuss a few plans toward these efforts before being dismissed at lunch time. He immediately boarded a shuttle home and had his lunch in route. He was very excited about meeting Rudra. The previous day, he hired a service to clean up the upper floor of his complex which were abandoned. It took nearly two hours for the travel back home. He immediately met with Rudra and team and they went to the complex in his hover car. He hadn''t seen it before either. They soon reached the street in which the complex was. Being the market street, it was quite crowded. The complex was a bit toward the far end of the street which was bad. But right beside it was a famous restaurant. The main issue they noticed was that the cyber drome was probably within a kilometer radius from the complex and would be their competition. "It has more than enough space," said Slaine as he got into the complex. "Yes, enough for about 50 spaces for common V.R. consoles on each of the three floors and also for a few VR interactive rooms," said Rudra walking around. "The internet coverage is quite good in these streets and the same for power supply." "I can see only two thing which might cause an issue. One is that our space is from second floor to 4th and the only entrance is from the first floor or the lift. It is just a convenience issue. Second, it is quite close to cyber drome. They have been popular for ages now." "You are always worried about the silliest things, Lizzie," said Rudra. "Yeah. Those aren''t even problems. We are getting out of cyber drome. So, it will oppose us wherever we set up shop. And we can always have a couple of detachable escalators setup by the sides of the entrance on the ground. Those are easily operable, and we can maintain them ourselves," said Slain calming his sister''s worries. "Yes, we also publicize our shop a bit before the opening, set up a discount on the first few days to rake up customers," added Harry. "I will get the equipment required. My cousin can get them at a discount," said Nancy. She had a brother working as a shift manager at a supermarket nearby. "We first need to make a proper list of all the items that we need and decide a proper and viable floor plan. We need to have it done for at least for the main floor and can decide on the remaining two later," said Lizzy. "Yes, we need to do that first sit down and decide on that." "I can also get the required stuff from the electronics and electrical store below. He rents my complex. I can see if I can get some discount off him." "Cool! We also need a proper name for the cyber cafe. Something catchy and interesting," continued Balthazar. "How about the Bel''s Cafe." "That''s a horrible name," said Balthazar before anyone else could comment on it. "Cafe V.R.?" "That already exists and is quite well-known franchise. We would be sued," said Rudra. "We need to make sure it is not already in use." "Maaan! That reduces the options by a lot." "How about cyber club?" "Exists" "V.R. club? V.R. lounge? Cyber lounge?" "Let me check? Exist, exist and yeah, exists," replied Rudra. "How about Dreams Cyber Space?" asked Balthazar referring to Rudra''s shop''s name that he remembered. "That is possible. Dreams with Z, Dreamz," said Lizzie. "Ok. Then, the name is Dreamz Cyber Space. No issues?" "Yes. Let us stick to it." "If we can open it up by 21st, we can sync it along with the release of vita nova," added Lizzie. "I thought the game was going to be release on February 1st," said Balthazar. "Oh, that is the main game. They are bringing their bio-feedback equipment to operation from 21st. Most of the V.R. features, like the V.R. hubs, online shopping, etc., other than the games can be done from 21st itself. They want to let the people have an interactive experience without using console before the game is launched." "Wow, that is quite considerate of the company." "You don''t know?" "What?" "There is a rumor that this is actually tech made by Scions of Minerva for bio-feedback warframes. But they are having trouble to make a bio-warframe that can perfectly mimic humans. There seems to be some kind of espionage of the tech by the V.R. company." "Yeah, I also heard something similar. It was that it is being used by military for warframe training." "No. There is no such training on warframes in the military," said Balthazar putting an end to the gossip. "Let us stick to the task at hand. Before all that, we need more manpower. Any flier or advertis.e.m.e.nts must include that." "Furniture should also be taken care of. Some food and drinks too." "Wait you guys. Before all that we need to do a bit of financial planning. Bel is our sponsor here. How much can you put in right now?" "I can spare up to 50 million credits right now," said Balthazar. He had received more than 500 million as his inheritance plus he also saved up to 20 million in his service. But he couldn''t place all his money into the cyber cafe. "Oh! We might be a bit underfunded," said Lizzie. They have already had plans of going independent before and made enough calculation. They need at least 70 million to have a decent start by her estimates. "No. No. No. You are adding up the rent of the complex too in your calculations. We get that for free. We can have the first floor up and running by 21st," corrected Rudra. "Well, submit your resignations to David. We start work right now," said Lizzie pulling in Slaine and Rudra with her. They immediately submitted their resignations to cyber drome and started to work on the floor plan. In an hour, they managed to confirm on a proper plan and list of equipment required for the cyber cafe. Balthazar transferred the 50 million amount to Rudra and left them as he had to report to Salazar by 5 p.m. today. Every one of them had distributed the work among themselves and proceeded with it. They wanted to setup the shop before tonight so they could start on publicizing from the next day. Balthazar left them and quickly made his way to the mansion. After reaching it, he quickly made his way to the hall. He met Robert there who seemed to be waiting for someone. "Hi Robert. How are you holding up?" "I could do better. Heard that Max is going to be coming to asklepian today." "You waiting to get a look at him?" "No, it probably would be night by the time he comes. I am waiting for Walter." "Oh! I need to talk him too. I will sit along with you here." A few minutes later both Walter and Salazar came together from the dining hall. They immediately noticed both Robert and Balthazar were chatting together on a couch. As soon as Balthazar saw Walter, he directly went to talk to him. He wanted a talk with him for a long time. "Hi Walter, can I talk to you in private for a moment?" "Come with me," he gestured to Balthazar. "You too," called Walter to Robert. Walter along with the three of them went to the sixth floor of the east wing. They went into the Patriarch''s room as Salazar waited outside. Winston was waiting for them inside. "Finally, here," said Winston as they came inside. "What is this about?" asked Balthazar looking at them. "Max had been summoned to come to the mansion by tonight." "Robert told me." "If he comes back, I need you both to be calm and not let out any signs that we suspect him." "That''s a given," replied Robert. "You both need to behave with him the same way as you usually do and act friendly and trusting towards him." "Hey, I spent 5 years without talking to him. I can easily act a bit distant towards him and still pull off that everything is fine between us," said Balthazar. "It is Rob that needs to be careful and nice to him." "I will take care," said Robert. "Is that why you brought us here? To tell us this?" asked Balthazar. "That is part of it," replied Walter. "We also decided that Robert would join you with Salazar." "That is, unexpected?" said Balthazar confused. "OK, fine. I actually have something to talk to you about," said Balthazar to Walter. "You have an information about my grandmother? Name, picture, anything?" "Yes. Winston told me about it. But I think it is for the best if you don''t make any inquiries." "I just want to know it. I won''t make any inquiries till you deem me capable of handling the dangers associated with it. But I want to know." Both Walter and Winston looked at each other helplessly. They knew that Balthazar had a right to know about his grandmother. But they believed that John''s probe into it is what led to the attacks. There were two things that linked to the knights. One was a dark-blue stone locket shaped like an eye that was on baby John''s neck and the other was a picture of their grandmother taken by Walter. "I have a picture of you grandmother. I will forward it to you, but you cannot make any inquiry into her," said Walter as he sent a picture to both Balthazar and Robert. It was a picture of a dead women. She had blood-red colored long hair and looked like John for the most part. "Also keep this a secret from Bolena." "Of course," said Balthazar as he got up. "Anything else?" "No. Both of you can leave with Salazar." As they both left the room. Salazar lead them out and started towards the forbidden area. "Are you going through the tour of the area for him?" asked Balthazar as he didn''t want to go through the tunnels at night. "Oh! You can skip that. Off to the racetrack you go." "What? Racetrack again?" "Yes. You are really low on stamina and strength. You need the workout. At least for 30 minutes each time, twice per day." "You''ll be joining him from tomorrow morning," he added to Robert. "I thought we would have a study session in the evening," inquired Balthazar. "Oh! About that. I decided to give you some weekly or daily assignments. You have permission to my lab. Just try finish them in the lab. I will check through my cameras. Now, off you to the racetrack." "Ok." "See you tomorrow morning at the gym." Balthazar was really irritated by Salazar''s attitude towards him. "I guess it is just like Elaine told. He is a bit crazy about working out." He went to the pet shelter got Anubis and proceeded to the racetrack. He ran around the track for 30 minutes again along with Anubis. Later, he had a quick bite and a drink and left to meet with Rudra and the team. By the time, he reached the complex, they already setup up few banner and the detachable escalators by the entrance. He quickly got into the second floor and saw the furniture and woodwork already in place. There were a bunch of unpacked cases on the floor. "Wow! You guys set it up quite fast," said Balthazar appreciatively. "Oh! We planned to put up the V.R. systems up too. But the electrician told that he would be a bit late today. So, we decided to put them up tomorrow," said Lizzie meeting him. "Security systems? Food and drinks?" asked Balthazar. "The complex already had the security installed. They will be activated by tonight. Anyways I would be sleeping here in the manager cabin," said Rudra from the manager cabin. "Help us move these crates into the cabin." "You are sleeping here?" asked Balthazar surprised. He didn''t expect that Rudra would be sleeping at the shop. He never expected that Rudra didn''t have a place to live. "Of course. Lodging and food were provided at cyber cafe. The same is the plan here. A certain portion of third floor is reserved for the same purpose here. The entire team would be staying here. It is convenient and efficient for the team." "We do need more personnel for the club. It becomes more important as you guys are going to compete as a team. Probably another couple of managers." "Yeah, few more guys are leaving the cyber drome along with us. We also put in some fliers and a few advertis.e.m.e.nts that we are hiring." "Ok, we can have the fliers sent at the supermarket and also few advertis.e.m.e.nts at the local media," suggested Balthazar. "That is going to cost quite more. We are almost out of money." "Just send me the bill. You guys just need to make it a successful and famous. We are to be next cyberdrome, the better cyberdrome." They continued to setup the food dispensers, refrigerators as the electrician came to the complex. Soon, they had the established all the general electrical appliances required. The complex was now good enough to be a cafe all it needed was a proper internet connection and the V.R devices set up. They cleaned up the trash and decided to go for dinner and then, Balthazar bid them farewell returning to the mansion. As he returned, he sat in a couch in the main hall along with Anubis and started browsing through the assignments that Salazar sent him. It was mostly about poisons, their extraction or creation. Majority of them had him extracting poisons from various kinds of plants and creatures. He was given access to the herbariums and Salazar''s lab. "I will have to spend tens of hours in the herbariums to do these," thought Balthazar. He messaged Robert to ask him about his time with Salazar. Robert seemed livid about Salazar. "That guy is making us do so much the work which his assistants at the lab usually do. He is just freeing them up, so that they could help speed up his research." "Haha, he does have us do a lot of such work." Thaddeus suddenly came into the hall and was walking towards the entrance. "Hi Thaddeus, what''s up?" "Elder Max is here." "Max is here?" came Robert''s voice from the call on his wrist band. "He is coming into the hall. I will go greet him. Talk to you later," said Balthazar to Robert as he cut the call. As Max came through the door, with Thaddeus and a few others, Balthazar felt a hot anger rising in his body. Max spotted him and greeted walking towards him. Balthazar had a strong urge to strangle Max as he hugged him. "Long time, uncle Max. How are you doing?" asked Balthazar with a smile. "I am the one who should be asking that. You went through a lot the last week." "Ah! It was nothing. Part of the job," said Balthazar. "Where have you been the past two days. Nobody would tell me." "Just some work aboard. I will be here from now on." "Oh. That''s good. Glad to see you," said Balthazar as he hugged Max again and left to his room with Anubis. Unbeknownst to them, Salazar was watching Max ever since he entered the mansion. He was shocked to see someone he knew in Max''s company as Max''s bodyguard. He couldn''t believe his eyes that Max managed to employ Abel Santiago. He was one of the famous security professionals he knew. He once killed a member whom Abel''s group was protecting. So, he knew that they were very proficient. As the group began to move towards the living quarters, someone came forward and blocked their way. It was a grey-haired man who was dressed in all black and was wearing a hood. Elaine followed behind and stood by him. "Hi Arthur, what do you need?" asked Max. "What are you doing?" asked Arthur. "The council called for me." "Yes. You are welcome to stay here. But your company isn''t approved." "I applied for permission for them to reside here." "And it was rejected." "You are pushing it old man," said Abel joining in their conversation. "You don''t have any lines. You talk again you''re all dead," said Arthur not moving his eyes from Max. Max was frightened by Arthur''s display. He always saw Arthur to be someone who was polite and good to everyone. There were rumors about Arthur among the Elders, but he always doubted them. Today, he thought they might actually be true. Caught in a bad situation, he told Abel''s team to return. He left to his room immediately after worried by Arthur. "They have nothing that ties me to the recent attack. But I think they just want to be sure." Once at his room, he decided that it is best if he keeps calm and stays at the mansion for some time and wait till everybody cools down. Chapter 16 - Visiting Entora city It was early morning the next day. Balthazar left his room with Anubis to the gymnasium. At the gym, he found Salazar and Robert already at the testing equipment. Robert seemed livid at Salazar, but Salazar had the same unconcerned expression. "Hi guys. How is it going on?" asked Balthazar. "Go down and work on your arms. You need more upper body strength," said Salazar dismissing him. About 30 minutes later, Salazar returned with Robert and took them both to the racetrack to begin the usual. The only difference was that Robert was accompanying him. A few rounds later they were at the cabin with Anubis. "So, how was Max?" Robert asked Balthazar. "He was the same as always. He brought some people along with him to the mansion yesterday. I haven''t ever seen them before." "Yeah, I heard about it from Salazar. Arthur really put him in his place, didn''t he?" "What!? Where did Arthur come from?" "Oh! You didn''t stay till then? Arthur stopped them before they could get near Max''s quarters. He refused allow them to be sheltered in the mansion. He actually threatened that he would kill them if they talk back to him." "Really! He seemed to be a polite and smooth-talking guy, not aggressive at all." "He was always like that. Except for stories of his adventure during his youth. They say that he had once fought the Patriarch of the Rothschild Family in public." "That''s ballsy!" "You don''t understand the half of it. The Orthrus Guardian Group which sent the security team is rumored to be supported by the Achaemenid family." "Well, I guess he is the same fiery man." "So, what have you been doing the past few days." "Took ownership of dad''s properties here. A mining company at the opposite end of the planet. I have started a cyber cafe at the market street nearby. I also got a large bit of land at Entora city border. Got to have a look at it today." "Oh! You are the one that started the new cyber cafe. Dreamz Cyber space is it? I like your logo. The man in V.R. suit in the dream bubbles." "You heard about it already? We just had it all done yesterday. I let Rudra handle all the business end of it and also decided to let him own 20% of it." "They have been advertising over the local media. Never expected you to be its owner. So, you are establishing a place of work here." "Yeah. You have a job at the city hospital, your mom''s pharmacy. I already am enrolled at the force. So, I need to own something here. Also, I have been thinking what to do with the grounds at Entora. Want to join me." "Yeah, sure. I have a hardly taken a break for the past five years. It would be nice to go to Entora city. It has been a long time since we went to fair. It is always exciting there. I just love the scary house." "Yeah, that would be nice. Good thing Bolena is not here. She was always a spoilsport. She never allowed us to go to the warframe grounds." "Also, the combat coliseum at the fair. Watching them fight and capture alien beasts live is something I always wanted to see." On having decided to spend their morning and afternoon at the Entora city fair, they left to the mansion to clean up and have breakfast. As they reached the mansion, Robert suddenly asked Balthazar, "You know Oliver is a partner of David at the cyber drome, right? Jack might make a fuss about you poaching his men." "He is always overreacting. What would he do? I didn''t force them or anything. They came on their own volition. There were genuinely dissatisfied by cyber drome and we are ready to pay the severance on their contracts." "You are quite optimistic. Jack hardly ever had logic on his side. He has beef with someone, he would just talk rubbish and wail that he was being mistreated. He and his brothers were always like that. And it would hurt your business cause people don''t want to go against our family." "Let us just have breakfast and think about it when the issue comes up." "Cool. Just wanted to you to be careful. He hardly ever liked us. Best warn your pals about it." "Yeah, will do that. Probably best to have them announce that I co-own the Dreamz Cyber Space." "That''s a good idea. Will meet you back at dining hall in 15 minutes and we will leave to Entora after breakfast." Soon, they had breakfast and left to Entora on a shuttle. Entora was quite close to home city of Adontus. It was about 2000 km away from their mansion and took about 10 minutes to reach it by their shuttle. Entora city was the very new city which was considered a city since the past decade. It was initially a town which was established quite close to many others like the Adontus. It was a circus or entertainment town that was set at an ideal place for being hub, which caused it to slowly develop into a city that became mercantile and trade hub. The fair at Entora had retained its fame even after it developed into a city and some consider it to be even improved. Many famous industries had whole-sale shops at the fair which allowed many retailers to be well-informed on the new products on sale. The main attraction at Entora fair were the combat coliseum where fights between animals made the visitors go crazy. They also allowed fights between aliens and human in some circ.u.mstances. As Robert and Balthazar reached Entora, they first visited the scary house. It took more than 20 minutes to pass through it. Unlike their previous experiences when they were extremely, they were hardly surprised this time which made them realize that they had changed quite a lot in the past five years. The went ahead to the combat coliseum after the scary house. There they noticed that although the city was usually crowded, it was very tightly packed today. Today there were many fights scheduled at the place. The bets placed at the combat coliseum were one of the main sources of income to the city. Both stayed and wagered on the fights. The best one they got to view was a bunch of wolves against a large horse like animal with a couple of horns and a bony plating all round its torso. All the wolves except one were impaled by the Bicorn which finally lost it to the remaining wolf. Robert was among the lucky few who bet on the wolves and won good odds. After the fight, they decided to have a look at Balthazar''s land before they go entertain themselves more. The land was near the outskirts of the Entora city. At an expanding city like Entora, the land''s price would increase by the year. It has already quadrupled in value since John bought it 6 years ago. There was a colony that was established nearby and there were quite a few shops and establishments nearby. There were shop large complexes and tech parks that were amid construction too. Only this land was empty and was being used a parking space for hover cars. Most of it was covered by trees which had to be first cleared before some use could be made of it. "Well, if the borders of the land you specified are right, about 90% of it is covered by trees. John had a real brain for real-estate if he bought such a big land here," observed Robert. "Hmm. Any ideas? The area seems to have a residential area. Some business ventures also seemed to have been interested." "Using it as a paid parking space, would be a good plan. Considering that it is a residential area and the new complexes that seem to be being erected." "Oh! come on. We could do something better. Just the 10% cleared could be made into a proper complex. At least 8 tiers, if planned well. Maybe we should get a map or find out about what the development plans are for the areas nearby. We might get a better idea then." "Ok. If you want to build up for a complex or industrial space and rent it, I can be of some help to you." "You know people in the industry?" "Yeah, got some college friends. Got acquainted with them when I tried to develop some land, I own at Gilligan city." "You got land near Gilligan city? That''s where the mining industry I own is." "Ya, I think our fathers did buy some financial planning together." "So, what now?" "Let us park the shuttle here. Check the maps from it a bit and we will decide." A few minutes later, they checked the maps and also came to know that the lands around would soon be cleared of the trees. They have already checked the land and decided to go for lunch and decide on the use for the land later. They sent for the land to be cleared and had raise up a wall surrounding and cordon it off so that the land wouldn''t be used by others as a parking space. They went to the warframe grounds and noticed that a small part of it was turned into a museum. The museum was a new addition and had become quite famous. It had various warframes from the some of the latest ones spanning to the past century. Though it was a decent collection of warframes, they were too old and experienced to admire it. They went ahead to the main part where they could train and fight in warframes. There were simulators too which could be used to fight instead of using actual warframes as it was extremely dangerous to fight in actual warframes. They soon got to the accountant in charge of setting up the fights. They applied for a fight using actual warframes instead of simulations. But they were denied saying that they would need a no objection from their family members if they want to play as there is a very high risk of accidents. They were definitely not going to get no objection from their grandfathers or sister, if they wanted to play around with warframes. So, they had to settle with the simulators. All in all, they were just disappointed with the trip and wanted to go and spend the rest of their time at the combat coliseum. "You know the accident rate near the fair is quite high. I never realized that," said Robert. "Yeah, that is true." "I don''t believe I have thought about this before, but I could just establish a building for a hospital in the land. The 10 percent that is devoid of trees is quite enough for a decent sized one. It would be great from both business and an ethical point of view. We could even expand the hospital and have new wings on the remaining land as required." "That is not a bad idea. It is easy to get support from the family too. The university at Adontus would also be pushing out new graduates in the next few months. If we are fast enough, it would be easy to employ a few of them here." "Yeah, I am already putting forward the idea to Gramps. You can also work here. You want a job?" asked Balthazar "No thanks. I already have one which I like and is much more flexible than that of a typical medical professional," Robert replied quickly. "Glad we are done with this thing. Anything else we got to do here." "The warframe grounds were a bust. We can go have a look at the industrial products and then back to the combat coliseum." "That''s as good a plan as any." On concluding that they made their way to the various stalls and shops at the fair. As they were going through the various stalls, they took a look at few medical instruments to check out and later made a purchase of a couple of handguns. As they went towards the combat coliseum, they saw a banner at a supermarket nearby indicating that special pretrials of the new V.R. headsets with bio-feedback released by the Metis Technologies. Balthazar had already had the experience of using the V.R headsets and also the V.R. cabins which came out later. The helmet used would be register an account to the brainwaves, retina and ear lobe of the person to protect the account so that it couldn''t be used by others. This was considered the best way to bind one''s identity and was the most common and efficient standards used by various forces across the planets. But Robert was very interested in them. It was groundbreaking technology and was completely new to Robert. They applied for the trial and 30 minutes later Robert got his chance at it. Robert rested himself on the bed in the stall and put on the helmet as soon as he got the chance. The helmet had soon been plugged into the electric supply and the internet IPv16 port. As soon as the helmet powered up, Robert felt a sense of tiredness and numbness due to the mild electric current that passed through his body. His consciousness soon became hazy and it was a feeling akin to a dream. Chapter 17 - A preview at V.R. He was standing in an empty space. A beautiful and pleasing voice sounded in his mind. As he turned to he saw a wavy shadow of a beautiful woman looking at him. "System check-up..." "Retina scanned, ear lobe scanned, brainwaves analysed, identified as a new user. Account created for the new somnium technology." "The identity and bank account information have been bound to your account. You need to have a thought password set to the account to modify any of your personal details. You can do it right now or later at any registration office of the alliance." "Do you intend to set it now?" "No", sounded his own voice as he thought about it. "No issues detected in brainwave activity until now. Running a small test to confirm that there are no issues with brainwave activity." He felt drowsy and the world around him went in and out of focus. Then, everything went back as it was. "Test completed. No issues found. You are free to browse the alliance virtual reality network. All kinds of purchases are allowed through the helmet." He was immediately transferred to a large circular hall. It was quite spacious with a large number of counters. He walked to one of the stalls. "Hi, this is the somnium technology''s introduction hall. Temporarily the game vita-nova can''t be accessed. Other V.R. games don''t support the features of the somnium technology. All other facilities available. This hall is similar to the alliance virtual reality hub. Any queries or specific location you want to be transported to?" asked a pretty female attendant at the counter. "I would like to explore the Blyth medical technologies," answered Robert. The V.R. technologies of the alliance had advanced to a state where every organisation which had a website also had a V.R. site where they could explore the options provided by the organisation and even explore many locations virtually. A display immediately appeared in front of him with the search results for Blyth medical technologies. As soon as he selected the official V.R site, he was transported to it. It was different than the traditional V.R. experience of a console where it was really hard to find a good angle of view they wanted or a V.R. suit where one had finer control and feel the world. But this had a much more natural feel to it. "This is just like I am actually standing in such a place. This is what virtual reality is actually supposed to be," he thought. As he was exploring V.R. site, he was suddenly informed that he was being logged out of his account externally and then, he got up as his helmet was removed by the attendant. "So, how was it?" asked the attendant. "It was very immersive. I thought the V.R. suit wouldn''t be much different from this, but this is definitely more natural to feel. I would definitely recommend this to others," said Robert to the attendant. He was really impressed by the technology. "I am glad to see that you enjoyed the experience. The new somnium technology is not only employed in the V.R. helmets but also in the V.R. cabins going to be released on the 1st of January. The cabins have better sync with the game and as all cabins have, allow you to consume nutrient fluids through them providing you a longer gaming experience," said the attendant. "I am not really into gaming, but thanks for the offer," said Robert understanding that the attendant was trying to make a sale. "Oh! Are you interested in the gaming helmet? We are having a special offer today. We provide you warranty for an additional two years on the usual three years. Also, the ones bought here can connect to the internet and access all V.R. sites from today," said the attendant. Balthazar knew that the somnium technology would become extremely popular. Most online software services, educational and training services, interactive videos would become somnium V.R. technology in the future. Even some freelance operations and software development would use the somnium technology for daily work. He decided to best get a cabin as soon as possible. "Any offers on the V.R. cabin?" asked Balthazar who was right beside Robert. "The V.R cabins could be pre-ordered with the same offer. They will be delivered to the address you specified by Metis technologies. It is considered to be excellent for gaming and it also monitors your vitals during use." "I would like to buy a cabin. Could you please quote the price," said Balthazar to the attendant? "The original price is 5 million. We are having a discount of 10 percent for the pre-order. So, you can have it 4.5 million credits," replied the attendant. He quickly conducted the transaction, providing his home address to deliver the cabin. Robert was extremely surprised that Balthazar had bought a V.R. cabin. He knew that Balthazar had dabbled in V.R. games during college but didn''t expect it to be to an extent that he would purchase a V.R cabin. "You bought a cabin? You plan to be an active player in the game, when you are serving in the military?" "It got three months of recommended leave and I am not planning to be joining till May. When I leave, I can just leave it to the workshop for Rudra and the others to use," explained Balthazar. "You know what? Seeing you even I am tempted to get one. I am going to buy a helmet myself." Robert got a headset and they left together with it. They carried on to the combat coliseum like they planned. The combat coliseum didn''t always have aliens fighting one another. Its original owner were pet trainers and they were the ones who organized the fights. More than half the time, it was them having their pets perform tricks and feats. Both Robert and Balthazar weren''t that interested in these as much as they were in the fights. On finding out that there would be no more fights for the next two hours, they went to the shuttle. Soon, they were back at the Blyth mansion. "Entora city wasn''t as fun as I expected it to be," confessed Balthazar. "Maybe we had very high expectations of it since childhood and now that were have grown up, we were kind of set for disappointment." "So, what now?" "We have about 2 hours till 5 p.m. meeting with Salazar. We can try out his assignments before the evening runs." "As good a thing as any. We need to do it sometime." They headed off to the herbariums and soon found themselves searching uprooting plants and separating the bark, stems, roots and other parts and packed them up. They needed to move them quickly to Salazar''s lab and work on removing poison out of them and also refine them. They managed to quickly put them up in their backpacks and reach Salazar''s lab in 15 minutes. Processing these materials to extract the poison could be done with automatons, but Salazar had specifically asked them to do the entire extraction manually so that they would have decent amount of practice and could be able to do it even in isolated and unfriendly environments. They spent more than an hour repeatedly doing the same. They extracted enough to clear off their assignments for the next couple of days. After they were done, they quickly went back to the mansion and went to the racetrack. They finished their daily exercise and decided to call it a day. As Balthazar reached his room, he got a message from Salazar informing that he would be having direct combat classes for half an hour daily from tomorrow onward. "Well that would actually be something useful and might quicken up the pace of the training," thought Balthazar. "It had been awfully boring and monotonous the past few days." He contacted Robert and came to know that Robert go the same message from Salazar. The sun has set, and he was decided to go check up on the cyber cafe. He soon reached the cyber cafe and was greeted by Slaine at the complex. "The network technician from the nearby internet service provider had just finished updating the optics and ports of the place to match the internet requirements for the somnium V.R. headsets," informed Slaine. "We could have had the 3rd and 4th floor also done with, if not for the hassle that man caused," said Lizzie coming from behind Slaine. "Yeah. But Rudra came, informed the crowd that you owned the place and go talk to you. He managed to quell the crowd," said Slaine. "Who came here? What did he want?" asked Balthazar. "It was as you warned me. There were a Jack and Oliver Blyth, who lead the crowd claiming we were using their employees. If I hadn''t come over to inform that you have paid the severance and informed them that the civil force would prosecute them, if they didn''t stop the ruckus, it could have gone worse. The internet technician was quite fl.u.s.tered when he saw that a Blyth was against us. But we managed to convince him that as a Blyth owns the cyber cafe, it wouldn''t be much of an issue," said Rudra coming out of the manager compartment. "Even Oliver came here? I only expected that Jack would try and make some unnecessary trouble. Don''t worry I will handle it," said Balthazar assuaging their worries. "Not an issue at all. We already expected a bit of trouble from your family when we decided to get out of the cyber cafe. Moreover, it is all good publicity for our cyber cafe," added Rudra. He spent a few more minutes at the Dreamz Cyber Space and played a few V.R. games. Then, he spent some time with Rudra, Lizzie and Slaine discussing the possible floor plans of the 3rd and 4th floors. When Rudra and his team were a part of cyber drome, the cyber drome provided most of the equipment from their guild or bought the equipment. But now they had to get them all on their own. This required them to have a proper workshop and gaming studio which they decided to have in the 3rd and 4th floors. He also told Rudra that he bought a V.R. cabin that is going to be delivered at his home and he plans to check it out. When he returned back to the mansion, he had Jack and Oliver waiting for him on a couch at the main hall. Jack was staring at him fuming with anger. "Same old Jack!" thought Balthazar. "Hi Jack," he greeted with a smile. "You shameless coward. Finally, you come back to the mansion. Where have you been all day long?" said Jack in a loud voice. He successfully managed to gather the attention of the people in the hall. But most of them knew him and just carried on with their work after they saw who it was. "I am a busy man, Jack. Where I have been is none of your business," replied Balthazar calmly. Balthazar knew Jack from childhood and knew that as long as he replied calmly it would infuriate him and he would loose his calm and it definitely seemed to be working even after 5 years. "How dare you?" started Jack spewing spittle out of his mouth. "I have been waiting at your complex for a lot of time with Elder Oliver. And all you don''t even tell us where you were gallivanting." "Gallivanting? That''s what you do with your fellow boozehounds. Don''t confuse yourself with the rest of us," replied Balthazar. "You idiot. You are the last person that gets to criticize others of gallivanting," he thought. "Do you think the same of me?" said Oliver joining the argument. Oliver was one of the members of the Elder council. Balthazar hardly knew much about him. But he never expected an elder to join Jack''s pretentious rants. "Frankly speaking Elder Oliver, I don''t know much about you to make any kind of assertion. But I have to confess that I am a little disappointed. If you wanted to actually contact me, you could have simply sent me a message instead manually searching for me like a cave man from ancient ages. Nevertheless, could you tell me why you wanted to meet?" Oliver''s face hardly changed when Balthazar retorted. "He is definitely more composed than Jack. Well, he is an elder that is minimum requirement," thought Balthazar. "I had Jack try and contact you. But it looks like you had blocked his id on your device," said Oliver. "Of course, I make it a point to block booze addled ranting gallivants. You could have surely contacted me directly," replied Balthazar. "Well, Jack is the co-owner of the cyber drome. So, I wanted him to handle the issue. I am just here for support," said Oliver. He hadn''t expected Balthazar to be so calm and undaunted in the presence of an elder. Now, he realized that Jack would probably not be able to force Balthazar to do anything. "Ok Jack. What issue did you have with the cyber drome? What did you want me for?" asked Balthazar looking at Jack. "You poached my men. You are openly recruiting from my cyber cafe. And you think that it is fine to do so?" "One I offered my friend Rudra a job as he was dissatisfied with his current position and salary. I openly offered jobs for my new business. If the applicants were satisfactory, I allowed them to move and work for me. Just like in any other business. If you wan''t them back, offer them something better." "So, you agree that you knowingly caused my employees to work for you, causing me to be unable to run my cyber cafe. It is against the family code to directly fight against one another''s business. I will have to challenge you for the right to.." "Oh! Shut up. Please" said Balthazar cutting him from continuing on with his ridiculous speech. "I never agreed to knowingly cause you to loose employees or fight against the cyber drome. I just setup my own business with Rudra. I never forced anyone to join me. It was all consensual and I can prove it. It is just sad that the cyber drome was maintained so bad, that the minute another business was opened your employees decided to quit it." "But, but,." tried Jack to defend his position but he couldn''t get a proper argument. "Now that we have established that I haven''t broken any family code, let us talk about you. You had a great chance to expand into the V.R. cafe business for the past six years. But all I see is that it had deteriorated to a far worse condition than it was five years ago. Even if I didn''t set up a V.R. cafe, anyone who had an idea to set one up would have caused the same. Just be glad that I managed to keep it within the family." Balthazar clearly specified publicly that he had not forced anyone and also that he had paid the severance fees. So, Oliver as an elder couldn''t reprimand him. But his son Jake, is someone who was not satisfied easy. Balthazar knew that Jack wouldn''t let it be. If Jack couldn''t challenge Balthazar, he would try something or the other to his cyber cafe to force him to challenge. "I had better nip this issue in the bid to avoid any further troubles in the future," thought Balthazar as he thought out a simple plan. If he challenges Jack now and Jack loses the fight. Then he could directly use the family rules to force Jack to not compete with him again. Thinking along those lines, he said, "Cousin Jack, if you really want to challenge me for a fight to stop me from starting a cyber cafe. You can do so. Just don''t search for random excuses but simply bet me for an amount equivalent to the cyber cafe. I put an amount close to 100 million credits into the venture. You can challenge me with something of equivalent value." "I will also earn some money in this way," thought Balthazar as he smiled inwardly. Chapter 18 - Challenge Being a high-profile family, the Blyths handled things a bit differently than most. One of them is when issues creep up among the younger generations of a family. Such issues are common as they promote competition among the younger generation. If the agenda of one of them is found to be directly or indirectly harmful to the family''s influence or power, the elders of the council would quickly put an end to it. The same happens to the cases when one of them uses unlawful or despicable means against another. When the issue has no effect on the family and both the parties were lawful and honorable, they tend to settle it in a much more simple and effective way. They could challenge one another to a fight and settle the issue based on who won. It was common to challenge over monetary issues or bet properties when both the parties willingly agreed. Balthazar preemptively dared Jack to challenge him so that he could avoid trouble from himself and get something from it. Jack was very surprised by Balthazar taking initiative to suggest a challenge. He was always known to be a bit of bully and people hardly ever took initiative to fight him. But he couldn''t just back down out of it as it would be harmful to his reputation. Jack had two other ventures and he could use one of them for the stakes. But he was sure that Balthazar wouldn''t be interested in them. Unable to decide on what to do, he silently moved towards his father and asked him in a whisper, "What should I put in as stakes? I don''t know if he would be interested in either the restaurant or the building." "I doubt that he would be interested in either. But I would suggest not to challenge him. He used to be able to hold himself against you five years ago. Though you are older than him and have your own experiences, he has a certain name in the military. You might not be able to fight him anymore," advised Oliver. "I have the same feeling, but if someone offered to represent me?" asked Jack back to Oliver. "I doubt anyone else in your generation can fight him either. Balthazar also seems very confident in himself and he is was not known to be unnecessarily reckless. Don''t expect me to fight. I am Elder and I don''t want to be that shameless to intrude in the fights of their juniors." "What if an Elder wants to fight and even offered to pay the amount?" "Who would be that generous to you?" "Elder Max. But I suspect somethings wrong. Why would he give me such an offer? I hardly know him. So, I wanted to know if you might have any idea." "Elder Max? He is always planning something or other. He is lucky, he never got caught. But since he is feeling so generous let him be. Don''t interact with him ever again." "OK, I will go on with the challenge." Decided on going ahead with challenging he immediately sent a message to Max for the money. A second later he got a confirmation of the transfer. He immediately called out to Balthazar, "If you are in for the challenge, my representative is ready." "You got someone else to represent you from the family? You afraid to fight yourself?" sneered Balthazar trying to agitate Jack to fight himself as he didn''t know who the representative would be. But Jack was not that gullible a man. He just laughed back. "What? You''re worried about who it is that would be representing me?" he shamelessly asked back in a sneer. "OK. I accept your challenge. Who is you representative?" said Balthazar. He was confident in fighting any member of the family of the same generation as him. He doubted that any family member including Oliver would publicly involve themselves in the squabbles of the younger generation. "It is me," said Max suddenly coming to stand beside Jack. Max had been thinking about his summon back to the mansion for quite some time. He couldn''t find any reason for the family to suspect him of anything. His contact at the knights of the old republic was insisting that he find out why he was summoned by his family. He did get summoned back after the attempt on Balthazar. So, he wanted to be doubly sure that Balthazar has no clue about him ever since he reached the mansion. When he heard about Jack and Oliver waiting for Balthazar at the main hall, he immediately made his way down to the main hall and had been waiting there since. When Balthazar taunted Jack to challenge him, he couldn''t believe that Balthazar would be the one giving him the chance. When Balthazar saw Max stepping forward to represent Jack, he was both shocked and angry but mostly angry. He couldn''t believe that Max an Elder would be that shameless to participate in their squabble. "This bastard! He is trying to test me out," he thought realizing Max''s plans. He quickly managed to calm the rage and managed to put in a face of surprise as he let his jaw drop down. A minute later, he sent a message to Max asking him why he would be doing this. But he didn''t get any reply from him. He immediately approached Max and asked "Uncle Max! What are you doing? Why are you doing this? You realize you are an elder right?" "I am sorry Bel. But Jack had promised me a favor that I need, and I will be representing him for it," lied Max through his teeth. "He had been prepared for this," thought Balthazar when he heard Max''s excuse. "Well, I was just being silent all this time but if you insist on having a fight, I will show you what I can do." "Are you sure you want to do this," he asked Max to confirm that a fight between them couldn''t be avoided. "I can''t back out of this, Bel. I will go easy on you. Don''t worry," he said acting as if to comfort Balthazar. Max also couldn''t explicitly reveal that he wanted Balthazar dead. "Ok," said Balthazar aloud. "I am fine with the challenge. Let us go to the fighting ring." Soon, he along with Jack, Oliver, Max and a few spectating members of the family found themselves in the first floor of the gymnasium. The challenge fights would usually take place in one of the two fighting rings here. It was a square-shaped ring with rubber ropes along the borders similar to a wrestling ring. As he got ready to fight, he received a message from Robert. "I heard you are going to fight Max in the gym. What happened to being friendly with him?" it read. "He initiated the fight. He wants to represent Jack in a challenge," he replied back. "I contacted Walter already. He was very angry that Max is taking sides in juniors'' quarrels. He thinks that Max might take this chance to injure you seriously. So, his suggestion is for you to fight like he was the enemy or have Salazar represent you." "No, involving Salazar would just give him more information about me. I will be fine. Come to watch the fight," he replied ending the conversation. "State the terms of your challenge and wager of both the parties," said Oliver loudly trying to start up the challenge. "I challenge Balthazar for the new cyber cafe he opened and wager a hundred million credits for it with Max representing me in the fight," shouted Jack initiating the challenge publicly. "I accept the challenge. Let us deliberate on the rules of the fight. I propose no use of bladed weapons or armor. Fight ends on acceptance of defeat, knock-out or ring-out," said Balthazar. This confused many of the spectators as they expected Balthazar ask for combat armor to compensate for fighting against an Elder. To become an Elder, one had to show a minimum amount of strength and fighting skills to be qualified. Balthazar''s request made them think if he wanted to lose the fight. It also stumped Oliver, Jack and Max. They looked at Balthazar incredulously as if he was some kind of mad man. They looked at each other as Max slowly said, "I agree to your terms". Balthazar had the experience of about two years of fighting for his life as an assassin. He spent no small amount of time fighting people stronger than him. He also had spent 5 years perfecting his techniques in vita nova. His technique was strong, he could be very fast, and he had an element of surprise. As soon as Max agreed, Balthazar got into the fighting ring and started to warm up. "Could anyone please volunteer to referee the match," he asked the crowd. The onlookers looked at each other but no one responded. Max was an elder who was fighting a junior which was already considered shameless. So, there was hardly anyone who didn''t think that there might more shameless behavior from Max. Usually an elder took over the responsibility, but now they had to referee another elder and they didn''t want to offend him over a junior. The entire area went silent because of this. They couldn''t start the challenge without a referee who didn''t belong to either factions. Elders as a rule didn''t involve them among juniors'' squabble for the same reason. As they were stuck in that situation for a period of time, a voice suddenly broke the awkward silence. "If no one is willing to referee the match, I will take over that responsibility," said Arthur. Arthur had already been in bad terms with Max and he always hated despicable acts. When, he heard that an elder was representing Jack in the fight, he thought that Oliver was doing it for his kid and wanted to give him an earful for neglecting his image as an elder for his kid. But when he saw that Max was representing Jack, he had half a mind to represent Balthazar himself. He was already involved in the investigation about Max and already had the men under him observing all the communication. But looking at Balthazar already ready in the ring, he controlled himself and decided to referee the match instead. He started to admire Balthazar for his courage in attempting to fight an elder. Max knew that Arthur hated him even more and the suspicions on him worsened, but he remained adamant as he was asked to test Balthazar out. "I hope both of you are ready. Please go to opposite corners of the ring," said Arthur as he jumped onto the ring and landed between them. Max and Balthazar quickly went to the opposite corners of a ring waiting for Arthur to start the fight. "Okay, now that we are ready, you can start on the count of three," said Arthur in a loud voice. "Three, two, one, FIGHT", he shouted. As soon as Arthur said fight, Max rushed towards opposite corner throwing a punch with his right hand at Balthazar''s face. Balthazar stood with his hands behind his back and didn''t move till Max''s fist was less than a foot from him. He quickly ducked jumping to his right barely a moment before Max would hit him as something brown came flying at Max''s face. "Throwing your glove to block my vision? The kid is too naive," thought Max as he aimed a kick at the spot where Balthazar was supposed to land while using his left hand to stop the glove from hitting his face. But for some reason, the kick didn''t connect with its target. He immediately jumped back a bit towards his right, away from where Balthazar was supposed to be. As he was jumping back, he felt a thick belt latch around his neck and pull him down further to his right to the edge of the ring as a kick to his lower back lifted his body off the platform. Max wasn''t a fool and quickly understood that Balthazar was trying to force him out of the ring. He couldn''t move his neck either as that would only allow Balthazar to tighten the belt and strangle him. Though his body was off the platform with him facing the ceiling, he quickly threw his arms behind towards the ropes at the edge of the stage. Just as his fingers touched the ropes, the belt around his neck constricted making him dizzy and he felt a strong tug on his arms through his vest along with a sharp strong push upward on his buttocks. The next second he found himself midair outside the ring. He couldn''t believe that he was outside the ring as he fell on the floor. Everyone was silent except for Arthur who announced that Balthazar won the challenge by ring-out. He felt as if Balthazar was faster compared to him who had more than 20 years of experience in fights. His attempt at injuring and intimidating Balthazar to get an idea into Balthazar''s thoughts towards him failed miserably. Only the spectators realized that it was not so. Balthazar never had shown himself to be faster or stronger than Max in the few seconds of the fight. He had only guessed Max''s moves and outplayed him. Balthazar hadn''t even made the slightest show of his strength. Even his kicks were soft and aimed at pushing Max into the air but not actually intended to hurt him. It looked as if Balthazar was a kind elder and didn''t want to hurt Max using just soft moves and experience to throw him out of the ring. Hardly anyone got to see Balthazar''s actual strength which was why a majority of them were spectating the challenge. A good number of the spectators had their mouths agape in astonishment that he managed to defeat an elder. Balthazar had impressed a good number of the elders present including Arthur. Arthur being an adviser of the table of Ouroboros, knew that the feat cleared one of the tests for being the senior members of the table and this achievement would certainly be noted. Balthazar calmly thanked Arthur and went down the stage in the direction of Jack. He quickly settled the bet as he sneered, "If you are not satisfied, you can challenge me whenever you feel like it." He quickly reached Max who was still lying on the floor with a look of shock and a belt lying by his side. As Max heard his footsteps, he realized that he was at an awkward position and quickly sat up. "How are you doing?" Balthazar asked Max giving him a hand to stand up. He put on a glum and concerned look on his face as if he had lost something even though he won. "Could be doing better. Nice moves you got there," replied Max taking his hand. "I haven''t been idle the past 5 years. Couldn''t get to my position without learning a few tricks." "Sorry about the fight. I bet my assets as I thought I would be fighting Jack. It was a guaranteed win. I couldn''t lose the cyber cafe. I just didn''t expect you to fight. I couldn''t win against you head-on and did whatever possible to quickly cause a ring-out," explained Balthazar still feigning a friendly and apologetic attitude to Max. "It''s Okay." "No hard feelings, right?" he asked Max. "None. If anything, it is my fault for underestimating you," replied Max. "Now that I lost the fight, I need to make some arrangements. Will be taking my leave now," said Max putting on a serious face and left towards the exit of the gym. As he left the gym, he looked back a few times towards Balthazar who maintained glum look while looking at Max''s back. As Max exited the room, Arthur approached Balthazar. "You have got good acting skills. You improved your reputation among the family while worsening Max''s without giving up any clues about your involvement in his summons. You are worthy." "Thank you, adviser," said Balthazar nodding his head. "I will take my leave now. It has been a very tiring day. Had to put in a lot of effort the last few minutes." Saying these words Balthazar took back his belt from the floor and affixed it back on his waist. He went to his room with Anubis. Chapter 19 - More training! The fight had a lot of effects which were seen over the night. First, one is that many of the elders have decided to support Balthazar. Balthazar managed to win over an elder which assured that he would be a valuable asset as he grew further. At the same time, the elders who considered Max could be suitable to lead the family and supported him were no longer that positive about his character. The members of the table of Ouroboros (organisation led by Walter) were also impressed and had decided to increase his security and speed up his training. On Balthazar''s side, he realized that he had yet to have dinner once he reached his room. He went back to the dining hall to finish his dinner. During dinner he also realized that he had another 100 million on his hand while successfully managing to intimidate Jack. He could use it further develop his cyber cafe. Though he was thinking of the things he could do at the cyber cafe, he was bored out. He was missing his military life and base always seemed more secure to him than the mansion. He went back to his room and sent an additional 30 million to Rudra, to improve on the workshop. He then decided to call Sophia and talk over a bit about the situation at the base. Sophia immediately lifted the phone as she received the call. "How are you doing?" she asked. "I''m good. Could be back to the base, if the family didn''t insist on my staying here after the assassination attempt," he replied. "Good. It was sad about Jane. To think that she had been on the trail long before us and she was right in front of the blast too." "Ya it was a sad incident. She definitely didn''t deserve it," said Balthazar continuing with the deception. "So, how is it at the family? What are you doing there? How is your grandfather?" "It''s all fine here. Grandpa is the same. There were some troubles. Mostly spend most of my time setting up a cyber cafe here and taking over some of my father''s properties." "You go all the way back to your family and spend most of the time working instead of having fun? What is wrong with you?" "It''s not just me. Both grandpa and Bolena are busy and hardly have any time to meet. The only fun I had is with my cousin Robert and playing V.R. games with my friends. It is not me, it''s how my family is." "I doubt it. You were always a workaholic." "Enough about me. I told everything there is to tell. What are you doing? What is the state of the base? What did your family think about the incident?" "Oh! It is very busy here. Got a decent amount of funding after the incident. I am temporarily handling your duties on the planet. My family''s cool about the incident except for my grandfather who was slightly worried." "What else? You might have acc.u.mulated quite a number of merits. You are probably going to get promoted soon." "Yeah, I heard of it. Grandpa has also recommended me. So, possibly going to get your position. They are also creating a separate position for a Colonel to be permanently station on the citadel on the moon. They also decided to improve the facilities all over here." "Well, Congratulations in advance then. That is good to know. What else?" "What else?! You are being very talkative today. Hardly ever seen you like this. Anything wrong?" "No. I just miss the base, miss you I guess." "Are you drunk?" "No!" "So, bored?" "Maybe. I don''t know?" "Bored, it is." "Hmm," said Balthazar a little depressed. He had been involved with her before but after the miracle rewind, it was clear that she didn''t remember any of it. The worst part of it was he wasn''t really sure how he managed to garner her interest in the first place. "So? What else?" "To tell the truth, even I am a bit bored. Everyone here is always working or working out, planning the next attacks and all they talk about is the same. You were the only one who talked about random things, sciences, silly alien theories and stuff which the Elysians are concerned about. It was a good change of pace." "Oh! If that is the case. You heard of the new V.R. game, vita nova?" "Yeah, there was a circular warning to not play the game, till further notice." "But I think you could use the somnium technology V.R. gear for other purposes than the game right? You can try it out. It is really good." "Oh! You sure. Didn''t hear anything about that." "You can check with the techs. They were the ones who sent the notice I believe." "Yeah. Yeah. Will do. A lot of the personnel would like to try it." "What else?" "Rodrigo''s new warframes in collaboration with the Apropos has also been in highlight the past few days. The discovery of one of the new sub-species of the apes has inspired a lot of effort into it." "Oh! Rodrigo sure is going to follow along the path of greatness." "Yeah. He is always planning to improve. Retirement hardly put a stop to his war efforts." This talk between them carried on for a while before Balthazar decided to call it a night. He had Anubis sleep by his side as he dozed off. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next morning, he went off to the gym along with Robert to continue his daily routine, but was met by Salazar at the first floor stairs. "Today, we shall go the second floor," he said to Robert and Balthazar. As they walked up the stairs, he began "You have attracted the attention of quite a few members of the family with your stunt yesterday. Walter decided to have me give a bit more of personal attention. From today, both of you will spend half-an-hour each fighting me in the combat rooms." "Fighting you?" asked Robert surprised. "Yes, if you idiots are fighting people, it is best you learn how to fight. After breakfast, freshen up and come to the forbidden zone, we need to get you two few weapons, proper ones, not gloves and belts," he said smiling at Balthazar. They soon got into the combat rooms and Salazar had them remove their ties, belts, boots and shirts. "These clothes you removed are usually easily accessible to other and can be used to constrict your movements. To avoid such things, it is best to wear tight fitted clothes tailored and adjusted for one personally. If you got long hair, it is best to cover you head too." "Your measurements will also be taken, and a suit will be given. You guys need to learn how to maintain and modify it as required by yourself. Let us start. Balthazar, you shall be first. Half an hour later Robert will take your place. Watch each other and try to not repeat your mistakes." "OK. Let''s start," said Balthazar as he took a running start trying to punch Salazar. He hardly came close to him when he was thrown on the floor on his back. Salazar was faster than anything he had ever seen. He hardly felt the tug on his chest push him back for a second. He could see Salazar move to his side but couldn''t react fast enough. Though he immediately managed to jump back up on his feet, he could have easily been beaten up if Salazar willed. "You managed to fight an elder because he didn''t expect you to be able to deduce his moves and counter-act. But, if he considers you as an equal, the one lost would have been you. You just got lucky. I know you understand that, and you took advantage of him underestimating you. But you should also know the difference between you and Max," said Salazar. "From today, I will train you hand-to-hand. I will restrict my speed and strength to slightly above yours. Any day that you manage to fight on par with me, you get the rest of the day off. Take this chance to improve your techniques and understand how to move based on the moves of others," he continued before signalling Balthazar to come at him. Being on a flat platform, with no garments hardly gave Balthazar to create any external distractions. He ran at Salazar threw a punch with right hand at him, pushing himself off the floor with his left foot. Salazar easily sidestepped the punch at the last moment. This was all according to Balthazar''s calculations and his posture allowed him to rotate his left foot using his right foot as fulcrum to hit him with his left heel like an axe kick. The manoeuver was perfect with Salazar in the right position for it to connect and couldn''t avoid it unless Salazar jumped with more speed than he said. This time Salazar didn''t try to evade the kick but made a slight push against Balthazar''s right thigh with his own soft kick. This resulted in Balthazar losing his balance just as his leg was about to touch Salazar and landed on the floor his legs accidentally falling in a split position. "AAAWW", howled Balthazar in pain as he stretched in the wrong way hurting his sacred area. "It is good that you plan your moves in order to defeat stronger opponents and surprise them. But there is always a good chance that they also have had similar experiences as you and would be able to predict your moves. So never directly try something like these on your first exchange, even with an opponent at a similar strength level. It can be extremely hazardous to you," said Salazar as helped Balthazar up. "Can you continue?" he asked Balthazar who was still unable to stand up properly. "You''re kidding," replied Balthazar his teeth clenched in anger. "Well then take rest for some time, as Robert will take your place. As Robert came before Salazar, "You are one of the big ones. Most of the techniques even shown in educational video can''t be imitated as they will simply fail to achieve their purpose with a huge body like yours''. You need to understand the essence and purpose of even the simplest moves and modify them to suit you," he said. Robert attacked Salazar and he had better strength than Balthazar, but he failed to hit his opponent as he lacks speed. "You need to try and fight like Balthazar to improve. You''re slow compared to him and your huge body muscles make your next moves more apparent. Observe the hints my body gives out and predict my point of attack to block and counter." A few moves later, Robert was sent back with his arm twisted and in pain. "You need to observe fights a lot Robert. You have little comprehension of fighting. You are a researcher, you ought to know more about human physiology and learn to apply your knowledge in practice," he reprimanded Robert. "Balthazar, it''s your turn again." A few rounds later which alternated between Balthazar and Robert, both were lying on the floor in pain and tired. "You guys are in much worse shape than I expected of you. You will be required to put in more effort from now on. You can''t even continue your daily workout after this can you?" Both Balthazar and Robert were too tired to answer him. They were trying their best to not pass out. "Enable the recovery functions of the pico-tech serum for now," said Salazar as he came by their side and sat down. "I notice that you two are tired and think I am overdoing it. But I am not," he continued in friendly tone. "Your fathers were good friends of mine and I owe John my life. There is no day when I don''t regret being able to same my best friend," said Salazar. "You knew our parents personally?" asked Balthazar. "Yeah, I was in the same team as John. He was the best among us," replied Salazar lifting his head up as he recollected the good times he had with John. "But he still failed to survive. Balthazar, you did something yesterday that made us realize how desperate Max is? He might not be even in control of his actions as he is doing stuff detrimental to his rise in power. For the first time, we have learnt who the traitor amidst us is. You need to be more prepared than ever. Both of you." "But can''t you arrest him in that case?" asked Robert. "We can''t make an arrest or prosecute as the family law and the alliance laws require us to have tangible proof. Moreover, he was never our aim. He is just a patsy being used by the person who is pushing his buttons. We need to find them," replied Salazar. "Thus, we need to have you guys prepared. Apart from this your studies will also be increased. You shall also use V.R. suits to learn few techniques. That would speed up your progress by a bit. Especially you Robert." "Why don''t we use the new somnium V.R. instead of suits? I have a helmet and that is definitely more immersive and natural," said Robert. "Cause it is new tech and we don''t have instructional software for it," said Salazar quickly rolling his eyes. "Your assignments will also increase. From tomorrow, we will have our sessions after your daily workout and running. Scratch that, from today evening, we will have after your runs," said Salazar. "Don''t worry. Even Max wouldn''t dare hurt you guys inside the city of Adontus. Don''t go out of the city, either of you," said Salazar as he left the combat room. They went to their rooms to freshen up and have breakfast. Soon, they received information on the wrist bands regarding their curriculum and the V.R. suits were also delivered to their rooms. A quick look at it, made them realize that they would hardly have time for anything else for the next few weeks. Robert decided to put in a leave for the entire week. Thus, began a daily routine of them working out, being beaten up by Salazar twice a day, along with regular assignments and studies. This situation continued for more than a few weeks, but as intended managed to save their lives when danger came their way. As they finished up with their breakfast, they went on ahead to Salazar''s lab to finish up some of their assignments. While in the lab, he received an unexpected call from Alfred about some business deal with the Powers family. Chapter 20 - Helping out Rudra "Powers family?" he wondered. "Is Rudra helping him discreetly? Or is it some plan of Max? Maybe he is trying to attack my finances." "What does the Powers family want with us?" he asked Alfred on his wrist band. "We have been trying to setup a deal with them for a long time but weren''t really successful. Now suddenly Mr. Manjunath Powers, the CEO and patriarch reached out to us. He says he want to have a talk with you about the collaboration with us before they confirm on it," said Alfred. "He wants to have a talk with me. I hardly know anything about them or the deal. You have been managing the firm all these years. Any idea about what he might want?" "No clue, Master Balthazar. It is extremely perplexing to me and others too. Even the board of directors haven''t the slightest idea about it." "OK. When is the proposed meeting?" asked Balthazar. "He is currently at the city of Adontus. He requested that we meet over lunch at the Ambrosia Restaurant," replied Alfred. "Fine, I will meet him there. Are you coming? Send me the details now. Confirm the appointment with him," said Balthazar. By lunch time, he met with Alfred and together they reached the Ambrosia Restaurant and Hotel. Ambrosia was one of the most famous Hotels at the city of Adontus. The Hotel is close by the city hospital and was the place of residence for most of the patients. Being the most famous hospital in the alliance, it provided the Ambrosia hotel a lot of customers. The Ambrosia Hotel was a very large one with over a hundred floors. The bottom three floors were the restaurant and the remaining provided accommodations to the customers. The went to the second floor where there were private rooms which were often used for business lunches. As they provided their identity at the second floor of the hotel, the attendant directed them to a private room. "This would be your room, Sir," he said bowing towards them and left. They were greeted by a tall almond skinned woman as soon as they knocked on the door. She welcomed them inside. "Hello. I am Sheila. I manage sourcing at the Powers Materials and Manufacturing Ltd. I was the one who contacted you regarding the meeting. We can discuss the plans while Mr. Blyth can meet Mr. Powers at the table behind the curtain," she said directing Balthazar towards a curtain. Balthazar passed through the curtain and saw an orange-haired man, sitting at a table. He was a stout man with a physique similar to Rudra. "Young Master Balthazar, I presume?" the man inquired. "Yes. Mr Manjunath," answered Balthazar. "Yeah. Let me introduce myself. Durga Pratap Manjunath Powers, Powers Family patriarch," said the man shaking Balthazar''s hand. "Please have a seat. Let us have some food before we begin," he said gesturing Balthazar to take a seat by the table. "The Ambrosia served here is considered one of the best drinks in the alliance territory," he said pouring a glassful of dark blood colored liquid in a glass. He quickly ordered a few other dishes to be brought to the table and began eating through them. As Balthazar took in a gulp of the ambrosia, he felt a cold burning feeling down his throat. The liquid went into his stomach and a strong energetic feeling soon spread all over his body to his fingertip and even his senses felt like refreshed and focused. It was so good that he drank another mouthful immediately. He was intoxicated by its taste and the feeling it gave. "I agree. This is one of the best drinks I ever had," said Balthazar nodding to the Manjunath''s comment. "You have been quite famous these days, regarding your adventure at the frontier. I hope you have recovered from you injuries." "Oh yes. I am fine. Mostly recovered." "You are taking this chance to improve your influence in your family and taking over your father''s properties, I believe." "Yes, more or less," said Balthazar wondering why he researched into his life. "Good. Good. I respect that. You are carrying forward your father''s legacies even though you have followed your own path and made a name for yourself," said Manjunath looking at him with admiration. "Thank You, Mr Manjunath. I am but a young junior. Nothing compared to your achievements and experience." "I have been here for less than a week and am hardly acquainted with the business. I am quite surprised when I found out that you wanted to talk to me. I am confused as to what compelled you to talk to a junior such as me out of the blue. Though, it may sound rude. Could you please satisfy my curiosity?" he continued. "Hmm. I believe you are close friends with my son, Vijaya Rudra," said Manjunath decidedly indulging his request. "His full name is Vijaya Rudra Powers? Never knew that." "It is actually Vijaya Rudra Vishwakarma Powers." "I guess having long names is the tradition of your family," said Balthazar with a smile. "Yes, it is. It''s a bit odd to find such large names. That''s why he hardly reveals his full name. I came today to talk to you about my son." "Let me cut straight to the point," continued Manjunath. "I have a daughter and a son. My daughter neither has the aptitude nor the interest in managing my empire. I always had my hope on Rudra. Though he is not interested in it, he has the aptitude for it. He is also good at the sciences and engineering." "I want him to take over after me as soon as possible. I couldn''t convince him to drop his silly plans to develop himself at V.R. and games. He is very stubborn. I want you to fire him. I will provide a very lucrative offer for your company," he said showing an offer on his wrist band. Balthazar looked at the offer and then at Manjunath. "You really want to do this?" he asked Manjunath like he suggested extremely ridiculous. He never thought that helping out Rudra resulted in a meeting with the CEO of Powers Materials and Manufacturing Ltd. "Yes, I would like my son to join me as soon as possible." "You think he would stop with his plans, if I fire him?" "He would have no other options. What would he do?" "He was planning to get away from cyber drome a long time before I came. I just offered him some financial support." "Well that still pulls his hopes up. It will take him much longer time to realize that he is wasting his time on a wrong path." "Now I know where he gets his stubborn, unbending attitude from," said Balthazar with a smile. "Are you calling me stubborn?" asked Manjunath angrily. He was quite frequently called so and wasn''t something that he disliked. "Please, don''t misunderstand. I consider that quality of Rudra to be very admirable. It is hard to find such a tenacious and undefeated spirit. I am sure he gets that quality from you." This seemed to assuage Manjunath''s anger a bit. "You know how stubborn Rudra can be, probably better than me. You honestly think he would stop if I fire him. Also, most of the team would follow him out. He would sooner or later establish himself at some other place. He is also good at it and I am fairly certain he would be successful at it." Manjunath was quiet and was thinking whether he thought the wrong way about his son. A friend of his son was willing to bet on his son''s career than collaborate with him. Maybe he should give his son a chance. "Let us put aside our collaboration for some time and talk about Rudra. You obviously want him to settle into his career as soon as possible. To be frank, I don''t care much about a V.R. cafe. I consider Rudra to be like an elder brother. I wouldn''t have invested in it if not for Rudra. Especially since the cyber drome is owned by my own family." "How about you decide on some target for Rudra in the V.R. like profit margin etc. If he is actually not good at it, he wouldn''t match at it. I am just giving him a good start." "Maybe that is one way, I can go about it. I can talk with him about that," said Manjunath somewhat grudgingly. "Just try it for a couple of years. He already saved up money and was planning to get out the city to establish a cyber cafe. He was already offered a position by other gaming organizations. The only reason he stubbornly stayed behind because he wanted to take his team along with him." "Really? I didn''t know about that." "Yeah, he was considered stubborn by others too." "Hmm, OK. I will reconsider my position about Rudra." Balthazar was glad that he could help his friend out. He owed Rudra a lot and wouldn''t really mind losing the chance of a good collaboration with the Powers Family. But he would have to do a bit of explanation to Alfred and the board of directors. "Forget all this. I hardly met any of his college friends. Let us talk about some other stuff." They continued the meal for more than half an hour and left the restaurant amicably. "So, what happened? Why did he want to meet you?" asked Alfred. "I started a new cyber cafe. My friend manages it and also plays as a profession in V.R. games. He turned out to be his son. So, he wanted to talk about him," explained Balthazar. "That''s it?" Alfred asked him. "Well, he wanted to know more about me. If I had any intentions of misusing his friendship. Also, kind of wanted to understand about the V.R. business." "OK," said Alfred half-heartedly. Although he was sure that Balthazar had left something out, he decided to not inquire further. He had a decent discussion with Sheila regarding a collaboration with the Powers Materials and Manufacturing Ltd and didn''t really care as long as it went through. They parted way after lunch and Balthazar decided to pay a visit to Rudra and the rest of the team at the Dreamz Cyber Space. As he entered the premises, he met Slaine at the manager counter. "Hi man, what''s up?" asked Slaine. "Nothing. Just wanted to talk to Rudra about something. Where is he?" "His old man just came. They are having a talk over in a private room." "Oh! He is already here. Cool!" "You know about Mr. Manjunath Powers?" "Yeah. I had a meeting with him over lunch." "That would have been some discussion. What the hell would you be discussing with him?" "My father had a mining company. We discussed collaboration between them." "Ya, how goes the recruitment?" "It is good. We have managers to maintain it round the clock. There are a total of 24 members working for the cyber cafe now. We can do with a few more personnel. But it is manageable." "We can go with a few automatons if required. I also sent a few million to Rudra recently to improve on the security." "Oh yeah. He was confused but did spend about 5 million on updating the security here." "You are considering the issue far too lightly. You don''t have the cyber drome pouring money into you for the team. You need to get hold of your own gear. Handle the workshop on your own. We will have a lot more work than before." "I thought you would be providing us those stuff in place of David." "Me? I hardly have the connections in the industry to pull that off. With the cyber drome opposing us, it will be that much harder. We need to handle it on our own. Establish a guild and workshop for that purpose." "Man, you have planned a lot." "Well, I am your boss. Need to do at least that much. Also, maybe it is best if we get a few V.R. cabins for the workshop. Even for the guild management, we need to have shifts." "Ya, we already planned that. Rudra, Lizzie and I will plan to make sure atleast one of us is online most of the time." "Anything else?" "None, we even set up an ice-cream machine, a small fast-food stall and another refrigerator in the first floor. Lizzie wanted to setup a small toy stall too. She went out for getting it done. She is very enthusiastic about it." "Oh. That''s good." "Yeah, talk about yourself. The cafe isn''t even open yet and I am already tired." "Haha, get a few automatons to handle the stalls. It would be easy work." "Already bought them. Rudra says he would set them up by night. All the food and toy stalls will have them. Only manager, assistant and technician counters will have people on the 2nd and 3rd floors." "I thought 3rd floor was for the workshop. Why are we having a manager for it." "We still need to gather influence for workshop. In the meantime, Lizzie insisted to setup up private rooms in the 3rd floor." "Not a bad idea. I guess, I can leave Lizzie and Rudra to handle everything here." "Yeah, are you staying for the opening tonight. We are having a small party at midnight." "No, No. I am sorry, but I am kind of busy." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the meantime, at the manager''s cabin, Rudra was in a heated discussion with his father. "You are always asking me to come and work along with you and prepare to succeed you. Now you want to set me a deadline in a field which you are hardly acquainted with? That is ridiculous!" "Well, you have been playing around with this for more than 5 years. You have gotten nowhere. How much more time do you need. Soon, I would be asked to groom someone else in the family if you continue along this way. The maximum I can avoid that is for another 6-7 years. To be successful you need to have a few targets and deadlines. So, we are going to discuss it," said Manjunath sternly. "OK. What do you suggest?" "You are setting up a workshop, right?" "Yeah, obviously" "I learn''t a bit about them. A new game, vita-nova is being released So, let us say that you manage to make it 2nd rate workshop by three years and develop it into a first rate one by five?" "That is a bit fast and is really hard to do so in such a time frame." "I have complete confidence in you. I believe you can do it. And I don''t suggest waiting form more than 5 years for you to start at the firm. I believe if you are a part of good guild, you can have the game as a secondary occupation or a part-time one. So, I think it is a good time limit." "But that is still hard without any financial backing." Manjunath looked at him seriously. Rudra did tell him five years ago that he didn''t want any of his father''s money and would live on his own. Manjunath hadn''t forgotten about that incident and still a bit angry about him. "I don''t want money from you to directly invest into my workshop. I am suggesting stuff like sponsorship of competitions and rental of virtual properties in the game." "That is acceptable. You can always contact me regarding these. We have a deal. I will have someone understand and join your workshop as a liaison." "Sure. That would work." The talked about various things about Rudra''s work in the V.R. and caught up with their lives over the past 5 years. Rudra even managed to convince him to use the V.R head gear and play the game vita-nova to get a first-hand experience at the game. When they got out of the room, they saw Slaine and Balthazar listening halfheartedly to Lizzie rant about the possible effects of the new somnium technology on the economy and various training institutions. Manjunath immediately joined them and started listening to Lizzie with rapt attention. Rudra pulled Balthazar to the side along with Slaine. "So, you are staying for the opening tonight?" he asked Balthazar. Ever since Balthazar had insisted him to increase the security of the cyber cafe, he had a feeling that there might be some security issue with him. "No, I can''t really stay overnight here. It is best I don''t." "I understand." "Also, I have another 25 million in my account which you sent. I hope you didn''t intend to use all of that to upgrade the security here. We already have sensors and automatons around the place and employed a team of 5 guards from Meretseger Security services." "No. No. Just keep it. I think we might need it later for the workshop. Maybe some somnium V.R. cabins or headgear. We can discuss it later." "I heard my dad came to visit you." "Ya, we just had a talk about you and the cyber cafe in general." "Knowing my dad, he would have warned you to not indulge me or something like that." "He did try but I could convince him to give you and cyber cafe a chance to prove ourselves." "Thanks for everything." "It''s nothing. It is not like I am going to loose anything with setting up the cyber cafe." He owed a lot to Rudra. Rudra was going to set up a cybercafe in a few months anyway. He just sped it up a little. He spent a little more time playing a couple of V.R. games while Lizzie continued to discuss the cyber cafe and V.R. world with Manjunath. "Why don''t you listen to her ideas. They are quite impressive," he said looking at Rudra. "I listen to her every day and night. You listen to her. These are new to you," he retorted and went back to playing with Balthazar and the rest. He felt his father telling him to listen to his girlfriend to be quite ridiculous. He left at about 5 p.m. and began his usual rounds at the racetrack with Robert and Anubis. Then, they hit the gym and got beaten up by Salazar. As he reached his room, he found a V.R. cabin/capsule waiting for him by his bed. Chapter 21 - Meeting Leon Balthazar had forgotten about the V.R. capsule that would be delivered to him today. The V.R. capsule/cabin was the size of a bed and could very well be used as a bed. It had a small helmet like thing which was the V.R. somnium technology along with a lot of sensors which monitor his vitals. It had a case which could enclose his body and also proper ventilation to circulate the air in the cabin. It also could be connected with the home and local security systems and the communication systems outside. It could also be loaded with nutrient fluids which could keep a person healthy and functioning for more than two days without getting out of the capsule for food and water. He immediately connected the capsule to the internet port in his room and enabled the security features on the cabin. He filled the water vial of the capsule and used the capsule to sleep in place of his bed. He activated it and found himself in a dark space with a beautiful lady. This was the new artificial intelligence that comes along with the V.R. somnium technology headgear and capsules. It could be used to make calls, set alarms, schedules in calendars. The dark space was called the dream space by the Metis Technologies. The somnium technology put people in a state of unconsciousness and it sent sensory inputs/ brainwaves to the brain causing them to experience the V.R world in a state similar to dream. This also allowed the users to experience a time running much slower than the time in real world. A day in the world outside would be three days in dreamworld of somnium technology. They could have slowed down the speed much further but living at a slower pace in such a state for long periods could have adverse effects on a person''s health and the alliance interplanetary health standards organisation forbade it. It also advised people to not use it for more than one day without taking a break. The pretty lady in the dark which was a representation of the artificial intelligence could be changed to whatever form he desired. He let it be the default and went to sleep putting the capsule at standby and activate at midnight when the Metis Technologies announced somnium technology''s release. He happily dozed off into sleep in the capsule. As the clock struck 12, the capsule activated. Though he expected to get in the dark space, he ended up in some large brightly lit open ground of sorts. It looked like Metis Technologies had arranged for the release announcement through the somnium V.R technology space. The space was crowded and filled with people. There were screens hanging in the sky without any support. A guy in dressed in a powder blue suit appeared on the screen. He had white spiky hair, beige skin and dark-blue eyes. "Hello, everybody," he began. "I am Victor Constantine, the current CEO of the Metis Technologies. There have been many rumors about somnium technology being stolen from the research of the Scions of Minerva. I am here to announce to you that it is right. I was one of the members of the Scions of Minerva and lead researchers that worked on the bio-feedback warframes for a large period of time." "We successfully managed to send sensory inputs to the warframe user which is the somnium technology. But, having the warframe to be moved by the user as parts of his own body is something far off and requires lot of effort and capital. Hence, we decided to put good use of this tech into V.R. and worked together with Metis Technologies for the game vita-nova." "About 40% of the profits from the game and somnium tech would be used for the development of the warframes. This technology is literally a gateway to the world of dreams. Here, a person wouldn''t be restricted by age, injuries or deformities. Only restrictions to this technology would be the software and a person''s imagination." "Wellll.. That is everything I had to say. Have fun and enjoy the experience." He was immediately transported out of the grounds into the dark space back again with the pretty lady again. He bought a bunch of nutrient fluids for the V.R. capsule and continued to sleep. The next morning, he continued with the usual running and getting beaten up by Salazar. "Why didn''t you come to the forbidden area, yesterday evening. Robert did come and we had trained with arms. Come after breakfast. From today, every evening you are going to be training with weapons." "Oh sorry! I totally forgot about that. I will definitely be there today." "You forgot! What the f.u.c.k was so important that you forgot to get weapons for yourself when you are facing a threat on your life?" "Uhhh! I was kind of playing with my friend and got tired." Salazar glared at him angrily for more than a minute and stopped only after Robert interrupted him. "I am really sorry about it. I will be there right after breakfast," said Balthazar. "Yeah. Yeah. You can accompany Robert to the forbidden area." "Robert get him to the weapons training area after breakfast. You would gain to learn a bit from observing him," Salazar to Robert. After breakfast, Robert and Balthazar moved through the forbidden area. Instead of the usual entrance into the underground, Robert led him to another place. It was quite similar to the entrance he had initially seen but there was tree almost leaning on a boulder with a small picture of a sword through a head on the boulder. Robert quickly whispered a code to the symbol and then typed in a password. The tree moved a bit as a trapdoor opened up in the place between the tree and boulder. They went down the trapdoor and found themselves in a small passageway that lead to a large hall with a number of combat rings. There were also quite a number of doors at the side which led to combat rooms. Salazar was waiting for them watching two persons fighting in one of the combat rings. Balthazar could realize that one of them was Marcus Price. He had no idea who the other was. He was about 8-feet tall and very bulky with well-built muscles. They both had worn a pair of dark tight body suits and were fighting very fast without use of any weapons. On further observation, he could see that Marcus was trying his best to make a hit on his opponent but failed to land a single hit on his opponent''s body. He could easily block Marcus without much effort like he was perfectly predicting Marcus'' every move and blocked or evaded Marcus with the simplest of moves at the nick of the time. It was like training fight between Marcus and the large man which was incredibly hard for Balthazar to believe as Marcus was extremely fast that he could hardly notice his moves till the large man blocked them. He walked towards Salazar who was watching them with rapt attention. Salazar looked towards Balthazar and Robert nodded and signaled both of them to come by his side. "Who is the guy fighting Marcus?" asked Balthazar. "Oh! That is the weapons master Leon Blyth. He was one of Walter''s old teammates. He mostly spends his time training others these days. Occasionally if he finds something interesting, he might go researching. Mostly weapons, combat suits the like," said Salazar. "He seems to be really powerful," said Robert looking at the fight. "Well, I can hardly compete with him. Even Walter might find it hard to defeat him. So, yeah. He is really powerful. You can learn a thing or two by watching him," said Salazar. "Wait for a couple of minutes. Leon would start attacking him soon. We can go back to the armory once the fight is over. Leon needs to open it," he continued. As Salazar told in a couple of seconds, Leon started to attack. He landed a couple of punches on Marcus'' limbs to slow him down. He quickly followed up with a dash and caught Marcus by his hand and twisted it and threw him on the ground. Marcus immediately gave up the fight. "Any improvement the past few weeks?" asked Marcus looking at Leon who simply nodded in agreement. Leon gave Salazar a look and quickly moved towards a large door. "Come on. He is opening the armory," said Salazar walking towards the armory. As Balthazar walked through the door, he found himself in a room which looked like a large broom closet. Salazar quickly shut the door and Leon put his hand on the wall beside the door. The floor of the entire room shuddered as it dropped down slowly. A few seconds later the floor stopped, and they got out of the elevator. They found themselves in a large hall with a couple of fighting platforms and many cabinets filled with weapons and armor. "Get on the platform," said Leon pointing towards a platform. He had a loud manly voice and it reverberated in the room. As Salazar and Balthazar got up the platform, he asked Robert, "Are you comfortable with the spear you borrowed?" "Yeah, it is not bad. I think it would be quite suitable for me," replied Robert. "We can have another try after Balthazar to see if we can get you something better, if required," said Leon. "Come on," said Salazar signalling Balthazar to fight. Balthazar was still a bit sore from the beating he received before breakfast and didn''t really want to fight. But he started to fight Salazar. Within a minute, he was lying on the floor thrown down by Salazar. This went on for a couple of times before Leon signalled to stop. "You were right. He is very fast but not that strong. He also seems to be very observant," said Leon. "How are good are you with a gun?" he asked. "I am all right. I had a lot of practice at the army," replied Balthazar. "Range of your best snipe?" "About 6000m." "Good." "So, what do you think would suit me best?" "Well you are nimble and fast for your physique. Got decent reflexes. You would be good with throwing knives, hidden weapons and the like. You can also use a couple of scythes. Let us try a few things out." He quickly pulled out a pair of gauntlets from a cabinet and threw them to Balthazar. "Let''s start with these. Small blades are hidden at the wrists which can be released at a high speed. I think you put them to good use when in a pinch." "Thanks. But these can''t be used in a battle, continuously right?" "Don''t worry. No hurries. I have a belt full of small knives. The belt has small groves to hold these bars," he said pulling out a small metallic bar from the belt. He squeezed it and it opened into a thin and sharp throwing knife. "Hit the bottom of the hilt and it will compress back into a bar," he continued. "Not detectable by the standard security systems. They are made of darlink alloy and are very expensive and hard to find. Don''t lose them." "Wow. That''s great." "You would also need something visible to carry around so that no one expects you to have hidden weapons. Let face it, if they find you without a weapon, they would be on guard against hidden weapons," said Leon pulling out a pair of thick batons. "Batons? Bladeless weapons? Would someone aiming to kill even consider these weapons?" "These aren''t batons. They are scythes," said Leon hitting a button on the handle and a couple of blades popped up revealing them to be scythes. "You can also attach a cord between the handles or from the hands to your belt which can be used to extend your range of attack." "The blades are undetectable too and it is easy to pass them off as batons which are legally accepted to carry around." "Ya, these suit you," said Salazar. "Come onto the platform, Robert. Show me how good you are with the spear." Soon, Robert came onto the stage. He pulled out a stick which when squeezed opened up into a large spear. It had long curved blades at both ends. Though Salazar didn''t have a weapon, he was able to evade Roberts spear with ease. But Robert was able to evade Salazar better with the use of the spear to block Salazar''s path. "Yeah, I think it suits him well," said Leon coming towards Balthazar. He sent a few files to Balthazar. "These are tutorial for your weapons. Best use the V.R. suits to practice them." "From today, both of you will be practicing your weapons with Salazar in the evening," said Leon. "Yes, every evening instead of hand-to-hand combat, we are going to have weapons practice after your runs," said Salazar. After that Leon joined Salazar on the platform to have a couple of bouts. Both Balthazar and Robert seated themselves as Salazar got beaten up by Leon. They really enjoyed the fight now that shoes is on the other foot. Looking Salazar on the lying on the platform made them very happy. A few rounds later Leon decided it was enough and Salazar left along with Balthazar and Robert. Chapter 22 - The Seizure Balthazar and Robert returned from the forbidden zone and decided to go to the herbarium to carry on with their assignments. "We have repeated the process for more times than needed. He is repeating the assignments if we finish prior to the deadlines. I am really bored by this," said Robert complaining about the assignments. "I agree. We need to have better assignments than these. Why don''t we just look over the V.R. lectures instead." "We can also fight each other," suggested Robert. "Yeah. That is a good idea," agreed Balthazar. "But I am thinking of checking my cyber cafe. It did open today. It wouldn''t be good if I as the owner didn''t even visit it." "I will come with you." "Sure. Let''s go." As they reached the cyber cafe. They noticed that the cyber cafe was filled with people. People were even waiting in line outside it, to try out the new somnium V.R. technology. "It looks like the opening was quite popular." "Well, we did do it on the same day as the somnium tech was released. That did boost it up a bit." As they went inside, they saw Slaine at the manager counter, handing out tokens to the customers. It was crowded inside. They had to put in a couple of benches and tables near the manager counter for the waiting customers. "Hi. You guys want to try it out too. I think I can squeeze you in next," said Slaine. "I already have the somnium V.R. capsule at home, dude. I just came to have a look around," said Balthazar. "Got a headgear, myself," said Robert. "Well, that''s good. We had a good amount of people showing up today. The cyber drome also didn''t interfere. We are going well. We have also earned quite an amount in these 8 hours." "Well, I expected so. I have taken care of the cyber drome''s interference. They wouldn''t go troubling us directly from now on." "I notice that the price of usage is more than triple the one in cyber drome. Wouldn''t that effect our business?" asked Robert looking at the leaflets Slaine was giving out. "Oh! No. You don''t need to be worried about that. The prices have been raised due to the new somnium tech even at the cyber drome. Also, these new headgears require more bandwidth and use more memory and power than the previous ones. We need to keep the price at least 1.5 times the ones for normal ones to maintain the costs." "Oh! But would the customers really agree for threefold the price?" wondered Balthazar. "Of course, they would. It is a new product and very exciting. Also, you know time flows three time slower when the somnium tech is being used and also it is very immersive. Some might consider the prices here to be very reasonable," said Slaine. "OK. That kind of makes sense," agreed Robert. "Oh! That isn''t even the best part of today. Most of the customers who are used to one hour are so spend less than 20 minutes and leave spending the amount for half-an-hour. Some are even just trying it out, making an account and setting their thought passwords to their accounts. That hardly takes 5 minutes." "I guess, it will slow down from tomorrow then," said Robert. "Yeah. But I still expect it to be better than the usual profits we had at cyber drome. And once vita-nova is released, the traffic will increase by a lot." "Ya that will be very popular. And I believe that most of the customers will opt for normal V.R. headgear till vita-nova is released," added Balthazar. "Yes. I think that slow down the profits from tomorrow. But they did release a software that would modify normal V.R. apps and games to somnium V.R. apps and games." "Some of the simpler V.R. games and V.R video players have already announced the release of somnium compatible versions in this week." "Yeah, I personally am thinking that the console connected V.R. headgear would soon become obsolete due to it," said Slaine. "SLAINE! THERE IS SOMETHING UP WITH THE NETWORK IN LANE C." came a voice from within. "I think we need to upgrade our internet plan and the get better fiber optics, apparently the last upgrade seems to be insufficient. Once, the vita-nova is released it will become worse. Talk to you, later," said Slaine running off to lane C. "Looks like your decision to start the cyber cafe was at a really good time. This somnium tech would definitely boost up your business," complimented Robert. "I think it was a good idea too. Actually, ever since Slaine mentioned about the software, Samsara, I have been getting better ideas like using it to start a small V.R. fighting platform or arena. We can even create a small fighting arena for practicing our weapons." "You can do that?" asked Robert. "Well I did have some experience in creating small games at college. A fighting platform would just require creating a few weapon objects and a closed arena. I think it is would be a bit hard to imitate the V.R. testing and evaluation of the app, that Leon sent." "Even if that is not possible, there is an inherent advantage of the somnium tech of triple the time to practice. If you are not sure, there would be someone who created the app that Leon sent. He would be able to help you." "I don''t think he would be helping me. That guy could possibly create it without my help and probably would already be working on it. But I am sure I can create an arena to fight against one another," said Balthazar. "Oh! Balthazar, you are here," said a voice calling out to Balthazar. "Manjunath is at the hotel Ambrosia. He wanted to talk to me about some stuff related to the cyber cafe. Care to join us?" asked Rudra. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the same time in the forbidden region in a dark passage, Arthur was furious and running like his life depended on it. He just heard that a couple of Max''s bodyguards who they were monitoring had gone missing. They suspected them to be moving towards the centre of elysium towards the planet BR-64 where Bolena was working at the apropos labs. As soon as the warning came on his wrist band, he had arranged to send reinforcements for the security watching over Bolena. He also arranged for kidnapping of the remaining bodyguards covertly. He opened a door and walked into a group of people monitoring the remaining bodyguards. "Are they still at the hotel Ambrosia?" he asked entering the room. "Yes. They have been quite non-nonchalant about the other two leaving the planet. It looks like they don''t even know that their teammates have left the planet," said a person looking over a screen. "Identities of the remaining two?" "One is Abel Santiago. He is quite renown as a bodyguard and has been the leader of the group in the Orthrus Guardian Group. He is acquainted with Salazar and Elaine''s groups. They were in hostile situations before. The other is Roger Quirk. He had been along with Abel for more than ten years in the same unit." "Who are involved in capturing them?" "Team B4 is handling the seizure while team B5 is serving as backup. As I have said they are both already aware of their capabilities and we quite confident in their capture." "They are already in position near the restaurant. Abel and Roger are having lunch. Salazar, Don and Marie are in position. Showing camera view from Marie''s viewpoint." A second later, a large screen started to display the restaurant mainly focusing on Abel and Roger sitting at a table. A couple of tables behind Abel, Salazar was sitting dressed in weird pink dress like a tourist with a large hat on his head and a pair of pink goggles. "Confirm that no external support is present. Rotate the camera around so we can let the computer check for matches," said Arthur. The camera slowly began checking the personnel at the restaurant. As Marie was almost done with the check. The check suddenly issued an alert of an army colonel on the floor. "Alliance Military? Who is it?" asked Arthur as soon as the alert popped up. The screen zoomed onto Balthazar''s face who was sitting facing Abel. They had another table between them. But were observing each other since Balthazar entered the floor along with Rudra and Robert. Balthazar had immediately recognized Abel as one of Max''s bodyguards. Arthur immediately contacted Salazar to inform that Balthazar was in the room. "We continue with the plan. I doubt he would stop or make a fuss once we inform them. Time is running out. We can''t have any delays," said Salazar as he sent Robert and Salazar messages that they were planning to capture Abel and Roger and asking them not to interfere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Balthazar had just joined Rudra for a meal with Manjunath along with Robert. Rudra told him on the way that his father intended to sponsor his team and the deal he had made with his father. He invited Balthazar as he was the owner of the cyber cafe and workshop and wanted Balthazar to represent the workshop in his deal. Rudra had walked out on his father once and told him that he didn''t want his help. So, his pride couldn''t allow him to directly talk sponsor ship with his father. Moreover, as the owner of the establishment, he thought that it would be best for Balthazar to directly discuss it with his father. Manjunath had been trying to get through to his son but was never successful till now. Yesterday, he finally managed to convince his son to consider that succeeding his business after him. He also managed to connect to him after 5 years after he considered the advice of his son''s friend. He was even willing to sponsor him and had decided to help Balthazar too. For this reason, he called Rudra to bring Balthazar for lunch at the Ambrosia Restaurant. Manjunath was a candid person. As soon as Balthazar, Rudra and Robert joined him. He began talking about his thought for the cyber cafe. He also insisted on developing a franchise of cyber cafes if they were successful and that he would sponsor them, if Rudra owned atleast 30% of the shares of the cyber cafe. "That is ridiculous father. He provided for all the capital, the infrastructure and also handled the pressure we got from cyber drome in the city. We can''t ask that much off him," said Rudra shocked. He felt that his father had crossed some sort of line. "I don''t mind at all," said Balthazar. "I intended to have the same talk with Rudra but in all the excitement of the establishing a new cyber cafe and new somnium V.R. tech and mess made by the cyber drome owner at my home, I forgot. It is best that we discuss this and reach an agreement as soon as possible." "Let me put my thoughts open on the table. Though I provided the initial capital and will be investing in the further development of the workshop and cyber cafe, I have a different career on which I will be focusing. I will leave all the management of the workshop to Rudra and his team. So, I need to have 50% of the shares in my name. The remaining I will let Rudra and his team decide the shares among themselves." "Are you kidding?" said Rudra surprised. "Even if you are willing, we are not. We can''t just accept such a thing. FIFTY PERCENT!! It is like you are giving it away on charity. How the hell did you think, we could accept it? Even if we work ourselves to bring up the workshop, you can''t directly give 50% to us. The most we can consider the entire team to have is 30% of the cyber cafe." "Even I can''t believe that you are willing to give up 50% shares of the cyber cafe. Can you at least inform us why you are being so generous?" asked Manjunath. It was very odd for a businessman to give away shares to friends however close they might be. In his experience, such a person would either have an ulterior agenda or was a fool. "I''m not that generous. I am telling this that under no circ.u.mstances the 50% shares would be sold to any other organization or personal. I am letting Rudra manage the remaining 50% shares. Not asking him to own them. There will be times when we would need to collaborate with other or might end up acquiring other partners or such things which might result in the exchange of shares. I am leaving it to Rudra to manage it all. I want him to evaluate his team and decide on who owns how much in the entire team. I am not doing any favours to him. Rather I am pushing my burden and work onto him," said Balthazar answering Manjunath "Rudra, you are good team leader. But now you are going to lead a workshop. It involves dealing with the business more than the game. I am just allowing you full control over the management with this. Nothing else. I just trust you to do it in my place. I doubt I can participate much in the workshop once I get back to the frontier." "You can do this when you are going to the frontier. Why so early?" asked Rudra. "It is best we get used to this from now onward. It would also allow you to obtain the authority and maintain it with ease once he leaves," said Robert understanding Balthazar''s way of thinking. "Yes. This is something new to you. I just want to make sure you have some experience, so that I won''t have to search for someone with experience later." As Rudra, Balthazar and Manjunath were continuing with their discussion, Robert receive a message from Salazar regarding Abel and Roger. "It looks like a couple of Max''s bodyguards are on the floor," whispered Robert leaning to his left. "I know. I recognized them and had my eye on them ever since I entered," replied Balthazar in a whisper. "You recognize any of our family here?" "To the left, two tables behind I can see Marie and Donatello who are disguised as tourists," he told Balthazar. Balthazar quickly messaged Salazar, "I could see Marie and Donatello to my left. I also know where Roger and Abel are sitting. Where are you?" "The tourist behind Abel with the large black hat," came the reply. "Why are you suddenly attacking Max''s bodyguards. That too when only two of them are here. It would alert them. Unless something happened that already alerted them. What happened?" he messaged back. "You deduced the situation well. But let us handle the situation. Just stay put and get ready in case, they make any attempt at you." "All right. Just inform me of it once you captured them. We will be on guard." A few minutes later, Roger was finished with his lunch went to the washroom. He was followed by Donatello. A few seconds later, Balthazar and Robert saw Salazar move to the washroom as they received a message from Salazar informing that Roger was being taken care of. At the same time, Marie walked towards the door and exited the hotel, so that she would be able to follow Abel in case he directly left the restaurant without Roger. More than a minute had passed since Roger went to the washroom but hadn''t returned yet. Abel was a very observant person. The washrooms were soundproof so that the noises wouldn''t make the customers uncomfortable. He had noticed Donatello entering the washroom behind Roger and also the position Donatello''s tourist partner, Marie took at the door. He had no allies on the planet other than the one that entered the washroom. Just as he was wondering whether, he needs to escape or help Roger, he received an emergency help request from Roger on his wrist band. He quickly made his way to washroom. On entering, the washroom he saw Roger holding frightened tourist wearing a black hat and threatening another person with his life. He looked back at Abel and said "Now that you have come, we can take care of this sc.u.m. They have been quite courageous to attempt such a thing at the Ambrosia hotel." Suddenly the hat wearing tourist, hit Roger in the face with his elbow and put some think into his mouth when Roger cried in pain. "We control the entire planet. Why would we worry?" said Salazar sneering at Roger. Roger immediately felt his muscles weaken as he slumped down to the floor. Marie suddenly appeared from the left side of Abel and struck him on the back of his head. A couple of minutes later there came a loud noise from the washroom and the door rattled as if someone fell on the door. Balthazar worried as he immediately went to the washroom. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Don lying on the floor by the door with pieces of a broken washbasin by his side. Abel held Marie by her throat in one hand and was parrying Salazar''s punches with the other. He also had injuries. He had a deep cut above his left eye with blood dripping into his left eye. His clothes were wet and had few cuts on his legs. He quickly threw a punch at Balthazar with his free hand. "Get out," said Salazar immediately trying to catch Abel''s hand. Balthazar quickly evaded the punch by rolling forwards and came in front of Abel. Salazar quickly held Abel''s other hand. Nevertheless, before Balthazar could stand up, Abel managed to kick towards him. Balthazar jumped back at the right time reducing the force he felt though not by much. Abel saw that his kick that hurt Balthazar only grazed him but felt uneasy as he thought that his kick shouldn''t have hit. It was then he noticed Salazar smiling widely. Marie also started to struggle with renewed vigor. He felt the strength in his arms lessening. It was then that he realized the reason his kick connected with Balthazar. Balthazar threw a couple of knives into his armpits. The knives would cut in deeper if he moved his arms without proper thought. But Salazar and Marie were also held to his arms and weren''t allowing him free movement of his arms. Within a minute, they managed to subdue and knock out Abel. Marie immediately sent the message that both the targets and also Donatello were down. A couple of people dressed as attendants entered the washroom. They quickly took Don out on a stretcher. Marie opened a trapdoor at the end of the washroom and carried out the unconscious Abel and Roger through it. The door of the washroom also immediately put up a sign indicating that it is currently under maintenance. A few minutes later Salazar came out of the washroom dressed as a hotel attendant from the washroom. He walked towards the table Abel was sitting to check if anything was left by them and walked out of the hotel. Soon Balthazar followed Salazar out of the washroom. He and Robert excused themselves that they were being summoned by their family and quickly caught up with Salazar. Chapter 23 - Encounter with Bruce "So what happened?" asked Robert as soon as they caught up to Salazar. "The other two are missing. We tracked them moving to the planet BR-64, where Bolena is residing at the Apropos office but we have no idea where they would go on that planet," replied Salazar. "Good job in the washroom," he added patting Balthazar on the back. But Balthazar was shocked and didn''t even notice Salazar praising him. He stopped walking and stood there in confusion. He was extremely afraid. In his previous life, he was attacked but there were no attacks on Bolena as long as he lived. A lot of random and frightening thoughts began to run through his mind. "Did he saving himself cause Bolena to be the next target. Would Robert or others be targeted now. Why would Max get so desperate all of a sudden?" "Bel. Bel. BEL!" shouted Robert shaking him out of his stupor. Salazar was looking at Balthazar with worry and shame. Even though Balthazar had managed to bring valuable intelligence about the traitor in the family. They still couldn''t do anything about it. "I am very sorry. We didn''t expect the members of the Orthrus Guardian Group to leave their patron and go to another planet. We are already making inquiries and Abel and Roger would also be interrogated," said Salazar. "You don''t need to worry about her." "How about reinforcing her security? What are we doing about it? Is she informed of the danger?" "Additional security has already been deployed. The Patriarch doesn''t want her to know of the danger." "OK. Let us go to the mansion. I need to meet up with grandfather. I will go there and bring her back." "The Patriarch and Walter wouldn''t be available right now. I doubt they will agree to let you go either. It would be an unnecessary risk on your part," said Salazar. "I don''t care. My sister isn''t me. She could never actually fight someone. I am going there. I will talk to grandpa," he said. He immediately messaged his grandfather about it. As soon as they reached the mansion, Elaine and her team also reached them. The escorted Robert and Balthazar back to the forbidden region. They soon went into a meeting hall where they were a number of people waiting for them including a few elders. The only ones among them that Balthazar knew were Walter, Winston, Albert and Arthur. "As we were discussing before Miss Bolena refused to move to a more secure location unless we have a concrete reason. I would suggest explaining the entire situation to her," said Albert. "No, I don''t want her to know something like that. It is best we keep her unawares of the Max''s ambitions. I would suggest that she doesn''t know till we have something concrete on Max. She isn''t trained, can''t hold back her emotions and would clearly let out hints when she comes in contact with Max," said Winston. "I agree with Albert. He could go and get her back immediately. Or at least provide proper security to her. It would get a lot easier if she knows whom to be aware of and why they are after her. It would be easier for her to trust us if something unexpected happens," said Walter. "I have an alternate idea. Why don''t I go there to meet with Bolena. She trusts me more than anyone," pitched in Balthazar. "I am fine with it. He has a good sense of judgement. Especially at hostile situations. I heard how he managed to help subdue Abel. What do you guys think?" asked Arthur. Marie had given him the report and he personally saw that the video stream of the seizure. "It might work," said Albert. "But you need to follow my lead," he continued looking at Balthazar. Winston immediately got up and went towards Balthazar. He couldn''t believe that Balthazar suggested putting himself in harm''s way. "Are you sure about this? It would be extremely dangerous for you to go there." "I would just go there to observe and try to get back Bolena. I don''t intend to stay there for a continuous time. It would only be until we get a hold of them two or get any further with Abel''s interrogation," said Salazar trying to assuage his grandfather. "It is not a bad suggestion. It would be a good experience too," said Walter. "Let us give Bruce an hour or so to get something from Abel and Roger. Then, if we don''t have anything, we can go on with what Balthazar suggested. In the meantime, I suggest Balthazar get acquainted with Albert''s team. Outfit him with a proper combat suit with a few armor and shield just to be on the safe side." Everyone knew that Walter is suggesting that he agrees with Balthazar''s idea and what he told was just code for to leave it to him to convince Winston to allow Balthazar to go along with Albert to talk with Bolena. "Can I also go?" asked Robert suddenly. "What for?" Walter and Winston both retorted immediately. "Hmm. Experience?" "Experience!?," said Walter loudly. He definitely didn''t want another person away on the planet unnecessarily risking his life, especially one that is not experienced and not strong enough. But he couldn''t just directly deny Robert, when Balthazar who is training along with him and an year younger than him is being sent. "How about you observe the interrogation. Abel definitely would have seen you at the restaurant. You might be useful," said Walter in an attempt to cover his outburst. "Come with me you two," said Albert walking towards them. "The old guys are both worried. Let them discuss their plans. Abel and Roger are being interrogated by Bruce. We can go and have a look at how it is going." Albert was one of the elders of the Table of Ouroboros. He was Arthur''s nephew and brought up by Arthur after his father died when he was toddler. He was mostly involved in gathering intelligence over at the planet DH-13 and lived there. He was only here because he was summoned to head the team which was investigating Max. "What do you mean by interrogation? Are they being beaten up or tortured?" asked Robert. "Well Abel is pretty weak and down. He isn''t being tortured or anything like that. He needs to be woken up before we ask him anything," said Albert. "Oh! Cool," said Robert confused. "But he strapped down in the same room where Roger is being is being tortured. Though he is somewhat weak and lightheaded, Bruce insisted that Abel be in the same room as Roger," continued Albert. "Oh! So, they are being tortured," said Robert realizing that Albert had agreed to them torturing Abel and Roger. "Isn''t that illegal?" he asked Albert. "You tell me a way to inspire Assassins and security professionals to reveal about their operations without torturing or doing illegal stuff in such a small time-frame," Albert asked back. "Huh! Ah! Hmm! Yeah, I got no proper answer for that," accepted Robert honestly. "By the way, who is Bruce?" asked Balthazar. "I never heard about him before." "Well, he is a professional. He was called from the DH-6 planet. He worked in collaboration with us quite a few times. Apparently, he used to work with Walter on some black ops stuff when Walter used to work in the alliance military," answered Albert. This surprised Balthazar and Robert a lot. They both knew that Walter had brought home their parents from their grandmother. If Bruce worked on the same team as Walter, he might be aware of their secret. A few minutes later they went into the big training hall through which they entered the armory. They went to one of the doors which opened into a small interrogation room. There was a wall dividing the room into two parts. The wall had a transparent crystal which works as one-sided glass. They could see two persons strapped on a couple of work benches on the other side. There was a man wearing a black mask covering most of his face. He was a little more than 6-feet tall and was holding a couple of instruments in both his hands. One of the men strapped on the bench was half-n.a.k.e.d, convulsing and spitting all around the place. It was Roger. His face was pale with his eyes red and looked very frightened. Most of his upper torso had red and blue. Bruce pulled the gag out of Roger''s mouth. "You feeling a bit more talkative now?" asked Bruce in a gravelly voice. "I will. I will. Please stop," said Roger quickly half stammering. "I have no idea where they are right now at BR-64." "Here we go again," said Bruce taking the gag into his hand. "No. No. I got another way you can reach them. I heard they would be moving tomorrow to meet some guy called Troy Harper," said Roger. "Troy Harper?" asked Bruce. "You sure about that?" "Yes. Yes. I don''t know anything other than that. I swear. I only did it because they had my mother in custody. I got nothing against you guys." "Oh! Is that so? We will confirm that," said Bruce. He immediately came out and asked, "Give me the video of him saying that." His voice suddenly changed to smooth and pleasant tone. "What do you need with the video?" asked Albert. "I know someone at the staff of the Orthrus Group. With the information, we just got we can have them look over his mother''s place. Then, we can get their support." "How sure you are that he is not lying?" "Very sure." "OK. That''s fine. These are Balthazar and Robert, Winston and Walter''s grandsons." "Hi guy, nice to meet you. I have a lot of stories about Walter and Winston which would have you laughing on the ground. We should have lunch sometime. It would be fun," said Bruce with a devious smile. "Yeah sure, we would love to hear more from you," said Robert with interest. People would hardly say no to learning the stupid and silly things their parents/grandparents did in their youth and Robert was definitely not going to be an exception to it. "Of course, you would. Robert''s here to have a look at your interrogation," said Albert. Bruce stared at Albert. "He is going to be observing me?" asked Bruce back in a gravelly tone. For a second, Albert got extremely fl.u.s.tered. Hearing Bruce''s voice tone, he thought that Bruce had misunderstood Robert observing him to be Robert supervising him. "No. No. You misunderstand. He is actually here to strictly observe the interrogation process. You know. Broaden his horizons. Experience new things. No interference of any kind," said Albert trying to explain. "Haha, I was just kidding. You are a lot different from Arthur in this aspect. I know, they would be here to just learn. Walter is not into Filicide," said Bruce with a silly smile on his face. "Ha. You got me," said Albert. "Walter''s going to come here. I will leave young Robert in your care. Bel and I need to go to BR-64." "Young Balthazar is joining you at BR-64? What''s he going to do there?" "We need someone Bolena trusts without needing to tell her about the attacks. So, we are taking him with us." "But he is still a kid. Is he on the same level as you guys?" whispered Bruce into Albert''s ear. "He is not bad, and he did manage to help take down Abel there," said Albert nodding towards Albert. "He helped take down Abel? You might be exaggerating a bit there. Aren''t you?" "No. No. Abel would have successfully knocked down Salazar and his team, if he didn''t interfere. He also managed to take down Max in a combat challenge." "Really?!" "Yeah. It was so crazy. The entire family is still talking about Max challenging him and then losing," said Albert. "Well, they are both Walter''s kin. So, I guess crazy is a given," said Bruce as if it is expected of them. "Anyways, we got to get going," said Albert. "OK. Be careful kid," said Bruce. "Don''t do anything too crazy. I heard you almost died once. If you carry on like this, you might end up with a reputation as bad as Walter''s especially since work in the alliance army." "What? Walter is well known," "Ah. Story for another time. You need to get going," said Bruce waving his hand down. "Come on in, Robert. Let me introduce to the tools of my trade," said Bruce going back towards Abel and Roger. "OK. See you later," said Balthazar as he walked out of the room along with Albert. Chapter 24 - At the armory again They soon found themselves in the armory again. "We got a variety of combat suits here. But let us stick to the ones which are oriented towards defence," said Albert opening one of the cabinets. He pulled out a silver shining suit out. "You expect me to wear that? I would be standing out and be a target. Do you want to use me as a diversionary target or something?" asked Balthazar shocked. "No. No. Hahaha," laughed Albert. "This isn''t it''s color. I mean this is its default color but it is a camouflage suit. You can have it any color you like. In general, we use it in black," he said. "Just connect it to your wrist device and you can configure it as required," he continued. "Oh, that''s cool. I never heard of these at the military," said Balthazar. "Yeah. Not used at traditional military. Can''t have something like this known to the general staff either." "OK. What other features does it offer?" "Yeah, it is mostly a stealth suit but the best kind. You are totally undetectable to most of the detection mechanisms. You can even slip into a meeting with arms when wearing that. It is actually an old one which was used mainly for the stealth attacks. There are bunch of weapons attached into the suit. I used it once a decade or so ago," explained Albert. "A decade ago? How old is this suit? Don''t we have anything new?" asked Balthazar. He couldn''t understand why he was being suggested such an old suit. He thought that he would be given something which would be defense oriented and probably something that would enable him to shield or protect Bolena too. "Yeah, Winston messaged me that they intend to outfit you with a newly developed combat suit. But I don''t have the security access for that. So, Leon sent someone to provide it. In the meantime, I thought it would be good to see what are the equipment that would be available for you once you join us," explained Balthazar. "Oh! If that is the case by all means show me all that you can. Please." "OK then, let me see. There is another combat suit that would allow you take a sniper bullet with a velocity of up to 2.7 km/s even when shot at the joints and vulnerable parts such as neck. it has some kind of force field constantly enveloping the suit. It instantly activates when its sensors detect fast movement or sudden changes within a microsecond. It can also be manually activated," said Albert pulling out a pitch-black suit. "It also works as a flight suit and is extremely light weight. Also has quite an arsenal of manual weapons, garrotte, grapnel, etc. We fondly call it the batsuit," he continued. "Bat? suit? What is that supposed to mean?" asked Balthazar. "Oh! You don''t know. There are these ancient novels, comics and movies you know about an action hero called Batman. That comics were in circulation for more than four centuries. You stay in the organization for some time, you will come to know of many such ancient stories, myth and so on." "OK. Was this Batman like that vampires myth? A vampire wearing a combat suit. I can understand the appeal in that concept," said Balthazar. "Not exactly. But I do understand your train of thought," said Albert nodding pulling out another red colored suit. It was like an inch thick and made of some kind of stone. "This is a total fireproof suit. Has some kind of crystalline exo-skin. Can handle temperatures of up to 3000 K, while maintaining a normal temperature inside. But the main part is not fire-resistance. It is that it has been outfitted with a flame thrower within it. I heard it was once used to put an entire lab under fire," described Albert. "A fire fighter''s suit. Nice!" said Balthazar. "Why don''t the alliance use something like that in the fire department?" "Because the alliance can''t afford to expend a ten million credits per fire fighter." "Hmm. You got an underwater suit too?" "Actually yeah. It is here somewhere," said Albert searching around for the suit. "It provides you oxygen for more than 48 hours and can tolerate a pressure of more than a thousand bars." "What else?" asked Balthazar. He was very interested in the combat suits. Till now he had only seen two different types of combat suits in the military. They were stealth and warfare. But they the warfare ones were not as light weight as the bat suit. Soon, Albert was showing him a bunch of suits of different costs and supporting different features. "So, what do you guys use? You use any of these suits?" asked Balthazar. "Yeah, we all got a couple of regular suits with us. Usually we keep a normal combat suit and a suit with supports stealth," said Albert. "We would go with the stealth ones for majority of the time, we will be at the planet BR-64." "The same for me?" "Planning to have a different kind from our standard for you? As I told before something with a bit more defense features than the usual," said Albert. "I don''t know what is delay with the guy. He should have been here by now," continued Albert and messaged someone. It had been more than 10 minutes since they reached the armory and he was clearly pissed off by the delay. "Ok. Tell me about your team. If I am going to work with you guys, I need to know more about your team." "Sure. There are six guys apart from me. Including us we would be 8 guys reinforcing Bolena''s security. She already has 6 personnel in charge of the security," said Albert. "Cool. So, what do they do? How do we work? What are you guys proficient in? What weapons you use?" started Balthazar. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop there for a second. What do you need all these for? I need you to listen to me. You are just to liaison between us and Bolena. You see anything you run. You take your sister and escape." "I agree. I don''t intend to fight someone who is intent on killing me or my sister. I will run. But I need to know the patterns and behaviors of you guys. We already know about a traitor in the family and two of the targets managed escape from right under your noses. There is a high chance that someone else has betrayed us." "What? You are saying you can''t trust us. Then, why are you joining us?" "Of course, I can''t trust you guys. Even if all of the team members are loyal, two of them under your surveillance managed to escape and these were the same people who managed to kill my parents. There is definitely something that managed to escape your notice," said Balthazar in an open and frank manner. Even if his words hurt Albert''s pride and honor, he had to put out his concerns about it. His primary objective was to make sure that Bolena and he were safe from harm and nothing was more important than that. "I just want to make sure that anyone who approaches me or Bolena isn''t someone in disguise or some traitor," he continued. "You understand, that right? I believe in the fact that you would try your best to protect us. But I would also do the same and I need to know about you guys to not accidentally prevent you from your duty because I became suspicious. I hope you understand." "Hmm. OK. I guess you are right. It is best to be prepared," answered Albert. "Thanks for understanding," said Balthazar. "Hmm, I understand now that I have misjudged you and that you are going to be a member of my team. You wish to be an individual authority and a liaison not one of my team. Am I right?" asked Albert. "Yes, I don''t want to be a member of your team nor do I think I can work at the same pace as the rest of your team or back up any member of your team. I am not capable of working as a member of your team. So, I just want to know them to make my own decisions if the situation requires," said Balthazar trying to explain his point. "Ok. It''s fine. I am willing to tell you as you have asked," said Albert accepting Balthazar''s premise. "So, let us start with you. What is your position once we are there? What would you be doing? What are the weapons you are proficient in? What kind of combat suit would you be wearing?" asked Balthazar. "Well, I would be carrying a life-size force-field shield, a combat suit mostly defense oriented supporting flight and standard issue gun and a portable staff for close combat. I would be beside you and Bolena preferably at all times," said Albert. "Ok. You are the person who is going to be stalking us. Cool!" said Balthazar smiling. "What about the rest?" "There are six others, Lila, Lily, Charles, Jordan, Sean and Nolan. Jordan and Sean would be undercover in disguise as personnel working there. We don''t want Bolena to know of any of my team, except me. Lila and Lily, the twins are in charge of monitoring all electronic surveillance at Apropos. They wouldn''t be seen once we reach the planet. They will always be working indoors. Charles and Nolan would be at vantage points outside monitoring her whenever she is outside in open spaces." "Why specially for open spaces. Why can''t Charles and Nolan just follow Bolena in disguise as personnel. Do we expect something specially in open spaces?" asked Balthazar "No. No. That is just their forte. They are good at observing in open spaces and outside," said Albert. Seeing the confused expression on Balthazar, he said, "Dude, they are snipers." "Oh!" "They will be wearing the batsuit you have seen. A modification which supports stealth and reconnaissance mostly." "Oh! When can we meet them?" "Let''s get you fitted with your suit. Then we leave immediately." "Yeah, the earlier the better I guess." "Yeah! It is best, we don''t have too many suspicious people around her. You are her brother, who came to visit, and I am your bodyguard after the explosion at the military base. So, none other than us would be in close proximity." "OK. The ones who are already guarding Bolena? What can you tell me about them." "They will be leaving Bolena entirely to us. They are mostly a scouting team and not really that good at protection details. If you see them observing Bolena after we take over, you can be sure they are working against us," said Albert. He had also previously had suspicions about the possibility of someone betraying them. So, his team were already informed to take care of suspicious elements. "Wow. Never seen you being that frank about your team dude. What magic spell did you put him under kid?" came a feminine voice suddenly. The person was carrying a large white case with her. "He sent you?" asked Albert turning to look at the person walking towards them. "Of all the idiots that he could send, Leon choose you," he continued with a bit of aversion and what seemed to be a slight amount of fear. "Of course, I am the best there is at weapons design. Pleasure to meet you Balthazar," said the woman extending her hand. She was a little more than 5 feet tall, vanilla faced, had slit like irises and pink hair that fell to her shoulders. She spoke very fast as if she was in a hurry. "This would be Miss Edgerton. She is one of the up and coming experts in designing weapons and combat tools," said Albert introducing her to Balthazar. "Nice to meet you, Miss Edgerton," said Balthazar. "Call me Ellie. Miss Edgerton''s my mother," she said. "Just don''t follow her to any lab or help her with any experiments. Her assistants tend to get hurt periodically," said Albert looking sternly at her. He felt uneasy wondering if she was involved in making of the new suit. He had broken his leg wearing a combat suit designed by her and wary about her designs since then. "He is exaggerating. It happened once. He is just a bit too squeamish. I am really good at it. Else why would they employ me? Huh!" she said to both of them. Albert rolled his eyes. "Just give us the suit. Is it tested?" he asked. "Yes, even Morgan tested it. It is perfectly safe and functional. No need to worry. Your boy is in safe hands," she said as she opened the case she was carrying. Inside it was dark suit. It was clearly armor plated and made of some coarse material. Even the entire head would be covered by it. "Made of vibration absorbent materials that can resist temperatures of upto 1500 K. Has sensors that can detect any projectile near you and create an extremely strong force field about 1 millimetre away from the suit," said Ellie pulling out the suit and showing it off. "Like the batsuit?" asked Balthazar pointing at it. "Batsuit?" she asked looking at the direction he pointed. "Oh, that one! That is made to abduct and assault mostly. That is for a completely different purpose than this beauty. This is made to guard a target unlike that. It is meant to safeguard yourself against the worst possible outcomes. Though it has flight capabilities and has stealth capabilities and creates an illusion to appear as if you are wearing something else. It has a completely different purpose." "OK. Wait is this supposed to protect me or enable me to protect Bolena?" "It is to protect yourself. Although you can protect another person by extending the force field over the usual range in case of an emergency, it severely depletes the energy source of the suit and would last for a maximum of 40 minutes max. I wouldn''t suggest doing it." "So, I am not being equipped to protect Bolena?" "You can carry firearms. But that is all. We have another suit, which we intend to be used for Bolena. It has similar specs. You want to protect Bolena. You best convince her to use it," said Albert answering his question. "You are an alliance military colonel, right? Why don''t you have a firearm equipped already? You have the permit to carry firearms and use it in case of an emergency. Right?" started Ellie. "Let me show you some of my babies," she said catching Balthazar and pulling him. Luckily, Albert stopped her. "We are in a hurry, Ellie. Why don''t you two set a meeting for another time?" he asked. They had to go to the planet and do it as soon as possible. "Yes. I would love to discuss, it with you sometime else. I am extremely interested in any sort of new weapons. Why don''t we exchange contact details?" he said taking the case from her. The quickly took each other''s contact details and waved goodbye as he left the armory along Albert. Chapter 25 - Collaborating with Orthrus They soon reached the flight deck. They got into a shuttle which soon docked into a large vessel. It was a transport ship owned by the Blyth family. They soon got into the vessel and joined the remaining of the team. There were all seated at a few benches with the twins in front of a computer and the rest huddled around her. "Guys, a moment please. This would be Balthazar. He is coming with us to liaison with Miss Bolena," said Albert. "Why can''t we just inform her about Max and the entire thing? It would be a lot easier that way," asked one of the twins. "They are not sure they want to let her know about Max. There might be other traitors or people surveying her and we don''t want her to accidentally reveal anything to them as she isn''t trained for this. So, we have him coming with us. He will be feinting as the brother who has just come to meet his sister. I will be his bodyguard. He will be informing us where she would be going and tailing her," said Albert. "Even as a brother he can''t tail her continuously. He has no background in her field. It would be best if we can tell her," continued the other twin. "I disagree. The project she is leading at Apropos has its first test ground from the military base I used to be at. The warframe company collaborating with Apropos on it is owned by Rodrigo Banderas, who is a close friend and I just discussed about this with him a couple of weeks ago," said Balthazar. "You can get any credentials from Rodrigo or the military signifying your role. There is a high chance that someone could have infiltrated Apropos. So, could you get any credentials from them?" she asked. "I don''t think there is a need for that. A little brother who works in the military and wants to have a look at what is going to be deployed at his base. It is a totally acceptable thing. It would be weird if he gets credentials for his sister''s company. Let''s put a stop at that," said Albert stopping any further discussion. "Fine. As long as it is good for you," she said as she got up. "Lila Jones," she continued offering a handshake. She was a short cute vanilla colored woman with pale white shoulder length hair just like her twin. "Nice to meet you." "So, you must be Lily," he said looking at the twin and shaking her hand. "So, how do I know which one is Lily and which is Lila?" he continued. "We have been with her for more than 10 years, we are still not sure of how to pick identify them," said a tall dark man with a shaved head sitting to the left of Lily. "Nolan Nocktovich," "This is Charles Kyle," he said pointing to the pretty boy to his left. He had shoulder length black hair, wearing a hat with a stubble beard. He just tilted his hat as a greeting. "He doesn''t talk much," said Lily. "With men that is. Find a pretty girl, he becomes a chatterbox," said Lila. Charles shamelessly smiled nodding his head. "I am Jordan," said the last woman in the group. She was a very tall and pretty vanilla faced woman with golden blonde hair. She looked like a typical white-collar worker. "My brother, Sean Connery," she said pointing to the only man who was still looking at the computer and going through the files. He just lifted his head and nodded towards Balthazar. He had short cropped golden blonde hair, neatly shaved beard, blue eyes and was the engrossed in the whatever he was looking into the computer. "Huddle around, we are looking at the floor plan of the Apropos headquarters. Your sister mostly works in the lab and associated testing grounds a mile away from the main building at the headquarters where her workspace is located," said Sean. He was memorizing the floor plan of the buildings in the computer. It was apparent that Sean liked to be completely thorough about his mission. They soon began discussing the plans their positions in case of various scenarios like an open attack, some infiltrator identified, an infiltrator attack or scenario in which anyone was ever injured or even the protection target was injured at different locations and what are the nearest and best possible positions to take in the headquarters. The team were very well acquainted with each other and it was quite easy to remember their plans once they were aware of the architecture of the surroundings and the building. But the same couldn''t be told for Balthazar. He hardly knew their patterns, strengths or habits. Even though they spent more than two hours trying to make sure that Balthazar still had a few doubts and wasn''t really sure about his responses in quite a few scenarios. Finally, Albert decided to compile a list of scenarios which Balthazar was confused about and provided it to him. The flight to BR-64 took more than 24 hours. By the time, they reached the planet, he had become good friends with the team. Both Lila and Lily were a bit aloof and loved gaming more than anything else. They were the typical geeks and loved being it. Charles cared only about firearms and flights. He was the go-to guy for any sort of issues they had with firearms and flights. He was an encyclopedia of sorts when it comes to it. Nolan loved to go to different places and was an adventurer at heart. Sean and Jordan were a very friendly bunch. She was a very bubbly girl and could easily get along with any person. Sean was quite an opposite of his sister. He was always serious and very involved. He hardly made a move unless he considered necessary and slept for most of the time they were on the plane. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile at the forbidden region of the asklepian, Bruce was waiting for someone on a call. He had already reached for the Orthrus Guardian Group with information that one of their members might be compromised because of a situation with his mother. "Yes. So, it is confirmed that she was captured?" he asked the person on the other side of the call. He cut the call and went out the interrogation room. Arthur was waiting for him outside. "So, what does your friend say?" asked Arthur. "They found Roger''s mother tied up along with a couple of mercenaries at the location. Luckily, they managed to track her from her place of abduction. Now that we are sure of the situation, Roger and also the Orthrus Group are compliant with us. They are extremely concerned with how they got to find out about the family members of their agents." "The allowing us to check their communication logs?" asked Arthur. "Yep. They are checking the locations of the remaining two, Wilhiem and William Burns. Apparently, they are brothers. Once, we get their location, we can move and neutralize them. In the meantime, I am going to get Roger on our side." He went into the interrogation room. He quickly removed the gag and unlocked Roger. Roger was extremely surprised by this. When Roger saw him walking back into the room towards him, he thought that these were going to be his last few seconds of life. "What is happening?" asked Roger very cautiously looking around him and then at Abel who was still tied down. It had been a very trying day for both of them. Abel never doubted that Roger would betray him even when he told Bruce that his mother was abducted. He thought that he was feeding Bruce some story. "The Orthrus Group has verified that you mother has indeed been abducted and they managed to acquire her back. You can talk to her to confirm on this," said Bruce ask he made a call to someone. A minute later, Roger''s mother appeared on the screen and talked to Roger in front of Bruce and Abel. It was then that Abel realized that his partner had actually not been forthright with him. "Now that your mother is safe and sound, it is best you tell me everything you know unless you go relish being strapped on to the table," said Bruce. "I will. I will," said Roger. "I was told only to cover for the Burns brothers and keep Abel from checking their locations or have him doubt anything about them. I couldn''t let the Orthrus Group know anything about them if I wanted to see my mother again." "You did say something about being able to locate the Burns brothers. If you talk quickly about that, it would be very nice," said Bruce waving one of his instruments to intimidate Roger. "Well, I can''t actually give you information directly on them, but I know someone with the credentials to do that," answered Roger. "Be quick." "The Orthrus Group has allowed us to employ personnel at other planets whom can help us occasionally. They are being used by the Burns brother temporarily and were the ones who supplied them arms and intelligence," said Roger. "We can remotely contact them as long as Abel is convinced to help us. The Orthrus Group have nothing to do with it. He has the total control over them. Only he can help us. He has the code that allows us to contact them and it is best if he is on board." "Well, then unlock him," said Bruce nodding towards Abel with his head. "Try to convince him while I inform your boss about the same." He immediately went through the door and contacted the Orthrus Group and in a minute later he came back into the interrogation room. A video call was immediately screened into the interrogation room. The person on the other side was someone that Abel and Roger held in high respect and were extremely afraid of. It was Yassin Achaemenid, the one who established the Orthrus Guardian Group. Though the Achaemenid family always denied their involvement in the Orthrus Guardian Group, they had Yassin remove himself from the family to create the group. He was one of the most feared men when he was in the alliance military and fiercely led many infiltration missions when he worked as a black operations agent. "Sir," shouted both Roger and Abel saluting at Yassin. "Both of you shall provide any and all kind of support requested by Bruce," said Yassin. "But Sir, it might compromise our security protocols and,.." "I don''t care. They managed to find out about our assets and agents. I need to know the extent of their infiltration within our organization. This is an extremely critical situation. You two can be up-front and open with Bruce. He is independent from the Blyth family. In case, he determines that you are being uncooperative, he can shoot you dead and I would make sure that there would be no legal intervention." "We will do our best to do find out who managed to gather intelligence from us and how," said Abel. "That will be all. I hope you will be able to find out who were involved in this mishap, Bruce," said Yassin as he cut the call. "So, could you please contact your goons and get them to divulge a few details of what your dear ex-partners are doing?" asked Bruce. "Yes, give me my wrist band and I would be able to connect to them through a secure channel," said Abel stretching his hand. "Just tell me how to access the secure channel, I will do it through my own device," said Bruce as he was one of the few outsiders who had been allowed into the forbidden region and knew that normal communication devices wouldn''t work here. He also had to change his device whenever he entered the forbidden region. "Can''t be done. We have some hardware modification in our devices which make it differ from a standard one. I need to use my own," said Roger. It was common knowledge for them to use special hardware for such purposes. Arthur suddenly came into the room and took out a gun from his waist and fired two shots at them. It was a tranquilizer gun and they both were immediately out of conscious. "Was that really necessary?" asked Bruce. "Don''t need them to know about the forbidden region. Let us take them to the family grounds outside. We can discuss there," said Arthur. About 10 minutes later, Abel found himself waking up on a bench in the Blyth family garden in front of the mansion building. He had Arthur and Bruce on either side and Roger was still knocked out on a bench to his left. "Here is your wrist band," said Arthur throwing it towards Abel. Abel caught it and looked towards Bruce for confirmation. "It is fine," said Bruce nodding his head. Abel immediately contacted his contact at the planet BR-64. "Hello Sir, I hope that you have heard from Wilhiem Burns. He had requested quite an amount of ammunition and details about the Apropos facility yesterday. But we are unable to contact him for the past few hours." "What did he actually request for?" asked Abel. "The usual firearms and explosives. Explosives enough to level an area of about 30 sq yards easy." "OK, Michael. I need you to get me the location on the William and Wilhiem. I hope you can track the firearms," asked Abel. "Yes. of course, Sir. I will get you their location right now," said Michael. "Get him to send the tracking codes to you. We will take it from here on. We already have our men ready there," said Arthur to Abel. "No. No. Bruce I need you to be able to assure me that they find out how them managed to gather intelligence from us. That is the only reason I am helping you," said Able looking at Bruce. "Calm down. They have been attacked and used by these guys for a lot longer than you two. They want to get information from them a lot more than Yassin and you two," said Bruce waving a gun at them. "Abel. I have a long-standing issue with these people and have been getting nowhere for the past decade. Believe me, by the time we are done interrogating them, anything and everything they know, even their repressed memories would be known to us." Chapter 26 - Apropos In this age of terraforming and interstellar conquest, the humans managed to conquer a lot of planets and tried to make them as habitable to human population as possible. But all planets were not of the same size and mass. So, even if the atmosphere and landscape are made similar to earth as possible, the gravity on the planet can only be maintained between a range. There are a number of planets that are so large the gravity after terraforming, they still had a very high gravity that wouldn''t allow humans to live there for a long duration. Such planets were developed into hunting grounds or mining planets and didn''t have any large-scale settlements on them. After a long trip of more than 24 hours, Balthazar, Albert and his team reached the planet BR-64. This was a planet at the core of the alliance territory fondly known as Elysium. BR-64 was quite a large planet. It had about three times the size of Asklepian and had a gravity about 4 times the one on Asklepian. By the time, they had reached the planet, they had already received information from Arthur regarding the Orthrus Guardian Group cooperation and the location of the Burns brothers. Balthazar had already informed Bolena that he was coming to meet her during the flight. As soon as they landed on the planet and they got out of the vessel, Balthazar could feel the change in gravity. His entire body felt heavy and tired. He realized that this is one of those planets which has a higher gravity than the general standard as maintained in planets like Asklepian. As he was thinking about that, Albert came towards him. "Ever been in a planet with higher gravity before? You probably have been to other planets during transfers right?" "Yeah. My base has about 30% more gravity than at home. Though it is a lot more here than that I think I can adapt quickly to it," said Balthazar. "It is not just gravity you need to be worried about kid. Gravity changes a few things which people usually tend not to notice." "Like?" "Higher gravity implies a lot of other things. The air is a lot dense near the ground. Even though it maintains about the same concentration levels. Though the standard pico-tech enables you to adapt to all of these, the mechanics of weapons change a lot. Explosions cover a larger areas, the firearms need to be calibrated for lower explosive force else the kickback will be more and the firearms might also be damaged." "How do I do that? For the standard ones, I don''t think we can do it without opening them up." "Ya that is a bit of tedious procedure and people usually blow up themselves when they try to do such sensitive activities when the gravity suddenly changes. Army bases and the like stock weapons already precalibrated for the planets." "So, get a new gun on this planet?" "Yeah, that is not a viable choice for long term. You can''t keep searching for new firearms every time you land on a new planet. I am giving you a custom handgun and a sniper rifle," said Albert handing him a case. "These are configured to connect to your wrist band and can only be used after your fingerprint is validated on the sensor by the trigger. You can change the settings on it to match the conditions you are in." "Yes, I get the idea. But is this really necessary. I am sure I can handle a bit more kickback than usual." "It is not just about you. Even the gun gets damaged if there is a bigger recoil and it has a lot of effect when you are making long distance shots on a rifle. So, use them properly and use it at the most optimal conditions and get used to using it well." "OK." "Also, the explosives here might have a higher explosive range than what you are used to. So, maintain a healthy distance from any explosive you observe. More than usual radius. You should also learn to gather info about these things in the future. This is the first time so we can excuse you not being aware of such things." They immediately set off to the Apropos research headquarters. Albert and Balthazar went to the headquarters in a hover car to the main building. The rest went to take their positions separately. The Apropos research headquarters had three main parts. The office complex where all the employees convene on regular basis, the labs where they experiment most of their new ideas and the testing grounds where are the dangerous stuff which require open spaces are conducted. The entire research station had a large force field covering it. The testing grounds has its own separate force field and its main purpose is to prevent any dangerous explosions or gases or viruses tested from escaping the area. It actually had several force fields which allowed them to have multiple individual tests done without interfering with the other. The office complex had 7 floors and an area of about 5 acres. There are 6 security towers which generated and maintained the force field covering the research headquarters each about 120 meters tall. Nolan and Charles immediately joined the security at two of the towers replacing the members of the team who were previously guarding Bolena. As Balthazar reached the gate, his identity was verified, and he was immediately given a V.I.P. visitor badge along with his bodyguard Albert and directed to Bolena''s workspace. Behind him he found Sean and Jordan enter through the gate. "Colonel Balthazar," said a pretty lady coming towards them. "I am Mary. Dr. Bolena is in a meeting right now and couldn''t meet you. How about we have a tour of the facility in the meantime." I would be taking you to meet Dr. Bolena. Please follow me." "May I know where she is?" asked Balthazar. "She had just finished her meeting. She is at the training grounds. We will meet her at the cafeteria of the training grounds," said Mary. Soon they reached the training grounds which were covered by a large red colored force field. They went through the gate and soon found Bolena drinking tea along with a few of her colleagues. "Hi Sis, how are you?" said Balthazar taking the lead. "Hi Bel, it''s past noon already?" she thought aloud looking at her wrist band. "Yeah, you busy?" "When am I not?" she asked back rolling her eyes. "Can we talk?" "Yeah. Yeah. Give me a couple of minutes. Why don''t you have a couple of drinks in the meantime?" she suggested. "You got any beer there?" asked Albert. "This is a research institute," replied Mary. "Why don''t you suggest something for us, Mary?" asked Balthazar. "Let me get you a couple of health shakes," said Mary getting them a couple of drinks in disposable tumblers. The sat at a table nearby and a few minutes later Bolena came back. "Come. I got a room for us to talk about this," she said walking them to a small private room at the cafeteria. "So, what brings my dear brother back to this part of the universe?" asked Bolena. She had just met him a few days ago and she knew her brother wasn''t missing her. Visiting to check upon the project she was leading was absurd as the project was just accepted by the military and were going to have a demonstration of it a month later. "I wouldn''t have if you had just listened to Winston and agreed to go to a bunker for a few days while we handled it," said Balthazar. "Come on, I hardly have any time here. We have a demonstration the next month and we can''t just waste any time. It is of extreme importance for us to land this contract and if we fail to do so within the next few months, all of my work would be a waste," said Bolena. "OK. I understand," said Balthazar. He then looked at Albert and said, "Albert, can you give us a few minutes alone? It would be best for our plan." "OK," said Albert nodding his head and went out the room. "You refuse to listen to reason. So, I am going to explain to you exactly what caused all this interference from me and grandpa." "Well, finally someone is going to be frank about this." "You came to get me back to home a few days, ago right? We are expecting something similar." "You expect an alien attack at Elysium? That''s ridiculous." "No. No. The attack was by some rebels against the alliance. They actually pulled the aliens to cover their attempt. It is all a secret and you should never talk about it to anyone including me." "You for real?" "Yes. I accidentally ended up piggybacking a signal of theirs and we have managed to gather some more information about them during the incident. That is why I immediately agreed to return to home." "You got yourself into a lot of mess." "Yes, they have already threatened me, and we managed to find out that they are attempting to attack you to get to me." "So, this is the reason for you guys forcing me to bear all this is your suspicions that someone might attack me." "OK. We already have been interrogating two people, but they turned out to be patsies who were threatened to act against us. We know that two more are on the planet but not sure where. You have to understand that these people didn''t hesitate to blow me up at a military base." "But that is at your base. You probably don''t need to be worried about it here." "There was an incident aimed at me and Robert at the Ambrosia restaurant on Asklepian, yesterday. You still think we are safe." "But, but.." stuttered Bolena checking him for any injuries. She couldn''t believe that an attack was made in Asklepian on a member of the Blyth family. As much as she understood that was just suicidal. "I agree it sounds ridiculous. But they are downright suicidal. They killed my lieutenant Jane where they blew themselves up." "Is Robert alright?" "He is fine. But now that you understand the problem, I want you to wear a combat suit to protect yourself," said Balthazar lifting the case. "You want me to wear a combat suit while I am working?" "Yes. It is a defensive and stealth-camouflage suit meant mostly for protection of targets. Just wear it while they take care of the men who came here. Set the illusion so that it matches your usual wear. We don''t want anyone to be alarmed or alerted." "Is it really necessary?" said Bolena she still didn''t want to try to do it. "Bolena, once you wear the suit, we can be a bit assured of your safety and we will be able to devote more resources towards catching the guys who came here. Once, we get a hold of them, we could reduce your security," said Balthazar. "OK. I will," said Bolena taking the case from Balthazar. "OK. I will leave the room. Show me the results your experiments after you suit up," said Balthazar leaving the room As soon as he exited the room, he saw Albert having a video chat with someone. It was Bruce and Arthur on the other side of the call. "Confirm the locations of the remaining of your team and we will go ahead with the plan," said Arthur. "Did we confirm the locations of the Burns brothers from Max''s communication device?" asked Balthazar joining in on the call. "We never told you this. We tried to get details from his wrist band and home terminal, but we never got any decent information from the logs and think that he might be using some alternate method of communication, which we never managed to identify. That is why, this mission to capture the members is very critical," said Arthur. "Yes. This would be the first decent chance we got to get decent intelligence about them," added Albert. "She agreed to wear the suit and accept the security?" asked Arthur. "Yes, to the suit. Might need to talk with her more about being cooperative with security for a longer duration," answered Balthazar. "OK. That''s still an improvement over what the Patriarch managed to do." "I would suggest we go ahead with the seizure of the remaining two of the Orthrus Group agents," said Albert. "We managed to find out their locations?" asked Balthazar. "Abel and Roger are working with us now. So, is the Orthrus Group. We have Yassin Achaemenid supporting us. They seemed to have somehow infiltrated their organization and Yassin is very adamant of finding out how. They had a method of locating their agents which we are using," answered Albert. "How can we be sure that they are actually working with us?" asked Balthazar. "The mother of one of the agents is being monitored by someone I trust, and Yassin wouldn''t dare to betray us so openly," said Bruce. "Ok. Then, best of luck with you endeavours," said Albert cutting the call. A few seconds later, Bolena entered wearing a combat suit. "I am not able to adjust the suit with my wrist band. How did you do it?" she asked. "Oh sorry! I have an app which enables you to configure it. You can''t transfer the app to other devices," said Albert transferring the app required to configure the combat suit. He also quickly configured the suit through her wrist band. He also explained how to enable the defensive and stealth features of the combat suit. "This is Albert. He would be in charge of all the security provided by the family. He would be serving as my bodyguard as long as I am here following you," said Balthazar finally introducing Albert to Bolena. "Nice to meet you Albert. Did I meet you before?" "Yes, we did. I followed the Patriarch as one of his guards for a couple of years. You might have noticed me at that time." "Oh! Yeah! I remember. How about I show you what I am working on? Come with me, guys." Chapter 27 - The diversion A few miles to the north of the Apropos, there was a hotel called "Aqua Aguida" which was being surrounded by the local law enforcement officials. Somehow, Bruce managed to convince the upper brass of the alliance law enforcement to support them. Alongside the law enforcement officials, there were members of the Blyth family and they were joined by two of Yassin''s most trusted agents. Haseem and Humayun Kasra were brother''s whose father was one of the bodyguards who lost his life saving him. Since, then they were raised by Yassin and had been his trusted enforcers for a long time. Both of them were joined by Harry Blyth and his team who were guarding Bolena before Albert and his team came. "They are still in there?" Harry asked one of the law enforcement personnel as soon as he reached the lobby of the hotel. He was already contacted by the head constable Rajesh and was asked to come to the hotel as quickly as possible. "Yes, Mr. Harry. We have Mr. Haseem at the security video room and is monitoring the video over the past two days. Sub-inspector Gregory is working with him. Let me take you there," said Rajesh. Harry followed Rajesh beyond the concierge station through a small lane and reached a room filled with screens. Haseem and Gregory were concentrating on a screen where air vent was being observed. "What''s happening?" asked Harry looking at the screens. "He is trying to get in a nano camera tube through the air vents of the room," said Haseem. "They entered the room yesterday afternoon since then there haven''t been anyone entering or exiting the room. We also checked the street cameras and haven''t found any notice of them outside. So, we are expecting them to be still inside," said Gregory. "The windows have been closed shut by them since yesterday. We got no way to check other than the air vents," explained Haseem. A few minutes later, Humayun suddenly informed that the air vents were blocked by a closer or something else and they couldn''t find a way to look into the room. "So, what now?" asked Harry. "We have a master key card from the concierge. We will need to sneak in blind," said Gregory. "I got no other ideas. I will inform by brother to get ready. Be ready to handle resistance. These two are orphans and have no family other than each other. It looks like their recruitment was voluntarily unlike the case of Roger," said Haseem. "I think that we should wear up combat suits. We do have information that they have strong explosives with them. Them blocking the air vents is quite unconventional. It looks like they have already known about us and are prepared. Big chance for it to be a trap," said Harry. "Yes, I would like my men to don explosion resistant gear before they follow you and would suggest the same for you," said Gregory. "I would also suggest you evacuate the customers of the hotel at least the surrounding rooms, just in case," suggested Harry. "Already having it done and also ordered my personnel to gather a few force field generators to reduce the explosion radius," said Gregory. "No, that wouldn''t be much effective in a building like it would be in open spaces. Those aren''t made for that purpose. It is best if we could manipulate the air in the room. We best talk to the hotel authorities, find out all the rooms that are connected by the same air ventilation system as the room and reduce the oxygen content in the room. That would decrease the explosion by a lot and also allow us an easy capture of the Burns brothers," suggested Harry. "Yes, that is definitely a better and acceptable solution to our problem," agreed Gregory. Soon, a good number of the rooms of the hotel were evacuated silently by the combined personnel of the hotel and law enforcement and they managed to quarantine the zone. They removed oxygen from the room and the corridor it connected to. Humayun and Harry were leading the personnel who were in charge of the capturing the Burns brothers. They quickly put on suits for safety against projectiles and fire. Humayun quickly swiped the master key card against the door lock and they quickly entered the room. The room had a large bed and a bathroom. The bathroom door was closed. As soon as they entered, they quickly moved over the bed and check the room. There was no one in the room. Only the bathroom door was locked. Harry took charge to open the door, but the sight inside the bathroom completely surprised them. One of the brothers was down in the bathtub and his head was bust open. He was floating dead in a mixture of what looked like a mixture of water and his own blood. The other was tied up on the toilet seat. He looked extremely frightened, sad and his mouth was sewed shut. He was beaten up and hardly had any energy. He was continuously pointing at the dead body of his brother with his eyes. Harry immediately set the goggles on his suit to scan the toilet seat and noticed that it was rigged to explode if William moved or was untied. He immediately called for the demolitions expert Kevin in his team. Kevin was a relatively young person in his late thirties and had never before seen such a pitiful sight. William was still constantly pointing his eyes towards his brother''s body like a robot. Having worked around explosives for about a decade he had developed some keen senses. He was the first to think that William''s behaviour might be something other than grief to be repeating that in a low oxygen situation. He also noticed a slight sweet smell almost completely covered by the smell of the blood. "Something''s not right here. There is some inflammable substance here. He is not looking at the tub because of the body." "Move away from the tub", Harry said to Humayun who was right beside it. They could see William stop his eyes and they almost looked grateful. As Humayun moved away from tub his firearm accidentally struck the towel on holder by the tub and something fell down from the top of it into the tub. It was like a small white crystalline cube. Humayun quickly noticed and tried to catch it but it crumbled into smaller pieces and the fell into the tub. As soon as the pieces touched the liquid in the tub, it started to boil and sputter. "Shields up and get out," shouted Kevin as he jumped out of the bathroom. Harry also enabled the force field on his suit as he pulled out a red high frequency blade* and a portable shield from his back. He slashed at the toilet with the blade in an attempt to pull William from the toilet. The liquid exploded and it fell all-round the bathroom burning whatever it touched. Though the oxygen content in the room was very low and the explosion of the toilet didn''t hurt William much, the burning liquid from the tub fell all over William, Harry and Humayun. Despite Harry''s best attempt to cover William with his shield, the liquid still fell over William''s torso and started to burn through him. The room was filled wails from William as his guts fell down. Harry couldn''t do anything as his target was dying. He couldn''t douse the flames with the fire extinguisher even though it was a low oxygen environment with hardly any gas. He would have been in a similar situation if he didn''t activate the force field around his suit in time. Humayun was in a similar situation. His suit was melting, and the liquid was burning at a very high temperature. He was bent over the tub and trying to catch the crystalline cube as it fell into the tub. So, he had the liquid fall all over his suit. He tried to pull it off but couldn''t do so as the part that covered his hands and face were melting down. He could hardly see because of it. Harry who managed to avoid the same situation because of the force field on his suit helped Humayun to quickly pull his own burning suit off. Kevin was the one who was in the best state. He successfully managed to jump out of the bathroom door before the liquid splattered all over. He immediately passed on a message that a fire was setup in the building and empty the air through the vents, evacuate the hotel and called in the fire fighters. About 15 minutes later, the fire was subsided by the efforts of the fire fighters. The fire burnt the entire bathroom and more than half of the room. It also spread to the adjacent room through the hole that was made when the toilet exploded. The mission was a total failure. Humayun had serious burns on his hands and his torso and was rendered unconscious because of the pain. He was transported to the nearest hospital. Wilhiem had almost instantaneously completely evaporated within the liquid and William had been burnt to death with most of his body turned to ashes. A large part of the room was also burnt, and they couldn''t find anything useful. The communication devices of both the Burns brothers were missing. So, they couldn''t even get find out their location history of the previous day as it still hadn''t been uploaded to cloud. Harry understood that both William and Wilhiem were entirely used as a diversion and immediately contacted Arthur. Arthur quickly pulled in Albert, Bruce, Yassin and Balthazar into the call. "So, both of them are dead?" asked Bruce. "Yes. Both the Burns brothers'' bodies have been burnt unrecognizable. Even Humayun was put out of commission by the fire. It was meant to take care of most of us. If not for Kevin recognizing the scent of something sweet mixed in the blood, the result would have been way worse," said Harry. Bolena who was listening into the call along with Balthazar was very shocked and horrified on finding out how the attack was made on the Burns brothers and the way they chose to set up the trap. But then she suddenly realized that the chemical that can be burnt in an almost oxygen free environment would be something that could be monitored closely by the alliance. "Some that is inflammable in an environment with very low oxygen would be a very closely monitored chemical by alliance authorities and wouldn''t be easy to procure in secret with ease," she said to the people in the call. "She has a point. Can we get any details on the fire accelerant used?" asked Bruce. "Kevin is working on it. But by his expressions, it doesn''t look like we are going to get any results quickly. All he could tell us that the liquid was some kind of benzene derivative," replied Harry. "I can help speed up a bit. You told us that the liquid was in the bathtub, right? Could you ask him to run two tests which I send? There are only few such chemical used in the industries and labs here and I can help reduce the possible number of it sources and the exact chemical from database we maintain," said Bolena. "You have a database of what the other labs and organizations use?" asked Harry confused. Only high officials in the alliance chemical regulatory would have that. "No, but we keep a track of the competition and we have contacts among the various suppliers. It is just good trend to keep a database of it based on them." "I will provide you the contact details of Kevin. He is our expert on all things related to fire and demolitions," said Harry sending the details to Balthazar via the call app. Within an hour Bolena managed to narrow down the chemical. But it made her more nervous as the only labs which procure the chemical within the cit and the neighboring ones is Apropos labs. She immediately informed them about her finding, and this cause another turmoil among the group. "Where would the chemicals be stored in the complex?" Albert asked Bolena. "It would be in the lane 7 cold warehouse C near section 13 of the lab complex. I can lead you there if required or have someone lead you there," answered Bolena. "Have you informed someone about the incident or the chemicals in the lab?" asked Albert. "No." "OK. That''s good. Do not inform anyone of it and stay here. Let us deal with it." He immediately broke up from the call and contacted Lily and Lila regarding the issue. They quickly started moving through the record of the lab video. In a few minutes, they called back. "The video in the lane in the warehouse has been disabled for half-an-hour yesterday. We didn''t find anyone unlogged access of the during the rest of the video. We observed the video of the entire warehouse and the areas near it around the time when the video was disabled and narrowed down to two people who might have accessed the chemical during that time," said Lila. "Never needed explanation of how you did. Just give me the names," asked Albert. "Dr. Seinberg and Dr. Winkle. We have their location from their badges. Dr. Winkle is currently in the lab and we have signaled Jordan to go to her location. Dr. Seinberg isn''t in the location shown by his badge. We are looking into his location right now. Sean found his badge quite close to where you are. Sending his image. Look out for him," said Lily. "DOCTOR BOLENA! WHERE ARE YOU?" They heard a short brown-haired man wearing a lab coat and goggles running into the cafeteria. He looked hysteric and was sweating. "You can stop looking for him, I think I see him approaching us in the cafeteria," said Balthazar. Note: * High frequency blade - A high-frequency blade was a sword reinforced by a powerful alternating current and resonating at extremely high vibration frequencies. This oscillation weakened the molecular bonds of anything it cuts, thereby increasing its cutting ability. Chapter 28 - The Escape The entire cafeteria was surprised and looking at Dr. Erik Seinberg who shouting hysterically for Bolena like a mad man. Erik had been working in the Apropos lab for more than a decade and was well known amount the personnel of the Apropos facility. All the personnel including Mary began to wonder what Bolena might have done to compel him to behave in such a manner. "Dr. BOLENA! WHERE ARE YOU? PLEASE, I NEED TO DO THIS," he continued to shout waving a lighter in one hand and holding a vial filled with some transparent liquid in the other. A couple of guards soon came by and started to ask him to calm down. But Dr. Seinberg continued to shout and even threatened the guards that he is holding on to a very inflammable liquid and dropping it would cause an explosion that would take them all out. Observing that the situation with the guards and Dr. Seinberg was deteriorating by the second, Balthazar decided that it would be for the best if he intervened to calm him down. "I will try to cam the guy down or stop him. You ask the guards to take their leave," said Balthazar looking at Bolena and Albert. "Sure, Sean is already by the cafeteria and Nolan''s on the way. Stall him for 3 minutes and he will be in place to take him out," said Albert planning to take them out. "You want to take him out? kill him?" asked Bolena shocked. She had been working with Dr. Seinberg for more than 4 months and he was a well-known by the personnel of the Apropos labs. She had also met with his family. "Well, by the looks of it, he isn''t going to be stopped by talking to him," said Albert. "He is just a civilian. He has a little daughter and wife. He is being forced to act like that. He has no background or experience in anything like this. Please, try to stop him and not kill him," requested Bolena. "Well, it is true that he has no experience at this and is a civilian. I can try something out," said Balthazar. "Totally unnecessary. We can take him out without any incident or fire accident," said Albert. "I agree. Just let me try. If I think there is a chance that it might go wrong, I will ask Nolan to shoot," said Balthazar. "In the meantime, check up on his family. Roger was also forced by capturing his family." "OK. Stay in constant contact with Nolan during your attempt. I will contact Harry to look into the family. Don''t take any unnecessary risks," said Albert. Nodding his head, Balthazar immediately set up a link with Nolan to stay in contact and went out the room to negotiate with Dr. Seinberg. "Dr. Seinberg. I understand you want to meet with Dr. Bolena," he said loudly to attract Seinberg''s attention. "Who are you? Don''t come near me," shouted Dr. Seinberg. He could see a well-groomed dark-brown haired man with green eyes in a black and white business suit walking towards him. "I am Colonel Blyth," said Balthazar as he continued walking towards him. Dr. Seinberg immediately recognized him as the brother of Bolena. He had seen him in the news and knew that he was responsible for the defense against the apes. If he went against him, he would be in a lot more trouble that attacking Bolena, attacking a military official would probably make him a traitor of the alliance. "You have nothing to worry about. May I know why you want to meet Dr. Bolena?" said Balthazar as he took his gun out. Sean also began to slowly move around the cafeteria to go behind Dr. Seinberg. "Why are you taking the gun out? I have a vial which will explode on breaking. It contains Benzyl-alpha-phospho-trinitrochlorate. It will burn through the entire cafeteria," he started saying loudly waving the vial. "OK. I am putting my gun back," said Balthazar holstering his gun. "Now, please tell me why you are so bent upon attacking Dr. Bolena." "I can''t tell you. I can''t tell you. Please tell me where she is?" he continued in hysteria. "If you are worried about your family. Please, calm yourself. We have a team already working to rescue your daughter and wife," said Balthazar signalling Sean to approach Dr. Seinberg from behind. "You know where my family are?!" shouted Dr. Seinberg looking at him crazily. "Please, help them. I have received a message about their kidnapping the day before yesterday. I wasn''t allowed to go to my home since then. Please, help me. I beg you. Please. Plh." Sean finally managed to grab the vial from Seinberg''s hand. He pulled the other hand and kicked Seinberg''s back. Seinberg fell on his face before Balthazar. "NO! NO! Please don''t kill me. Save my daughter," he began shouting as he turned around looking at the person who kicked him. Balthazar quickly caught Seinberg''s arms and held them behind his back to stop him from moving. "Get the vial back to the lab. Everybody stay where they are. No one is to leave the cafeteria until I tell. I will shoot anyone who attempts to," said Balthazar as Dr. Seinberg fell down and started crying. "Calm down Dr. Seinberg. As I said we already have some of our best already on it. At this time, the best you can do to help your family is to tell us how you were contacted by them," said Balthazar pulling him up. Despite his attempts to calm him down Dr. Seinberg, the man didn''t calm down and continued to bawl for more than five minutes. Balthazar had to finally resort to slapping and beating him up for him to finally stop crying. "There is a very good chance that your family are safe and have just been captured. Any information you give us would be extremely helpful to free up your family from them," said Balthazar. He took Seinberg to a private room in the cafeteria while he suggested the guards to search the people in cafeteria. Albert continued to stand Bolena at the private room they were in. "So, the faster you are the better chances you family have. Please start talking," asked Balthazar. "I don''t know how they found me or why they used me. They suddenly met me the night before yesterday and showed me an image of them holding my family captive and let me have a conversation with them," said Seinberg stuttering. His lip was cut, and he couldn''t talk properly. "Wait. Wait. How did you meet them? Where? Describe them?" "They stopped me on my way after work as I got out of the garage at my home. They seized me and stuffed me in the back of my car as they put a hood on my face and took my communication devices." "How did they look? Describe them?" "They wore masks. All three were women and wore full body suits." "Hmm. Carry on." "They held me in the hover car and then returned me back to the labs after showing the video. They told me to get a couple of vials of the Benzyl-alpha-phospho-trinitrochlorate. They took one and told me to hold on to the other. They gave me a communication device to use." "Where is it? Give me the device," asked Balthazar raising his hand to receive it. "They asked me to incinerate it before I came here. They told me to burn Dr. Bolena." "OK. Anything else? Their names? Or anything you heard during your time of abduction?" "Aah. They called each other Alpha, Beta and Gamma. They didn''t even use their names." "The car? They have your car, right? Can we track it. Give me the details," asked Balthazar. "I don''t have my wrist band. It was taken from me. The details were noted on the cloud. I need to access my account at a terminal," said Seinberg. "You stay here. I will see what we can do," said Balthazar leaving the room. He asked the guards to not let Seinberg out of the room and went to meet Albert and Bolena in another private room. "They seemed to have taken Dr. Seinberg''s car. Can we track it?" he asked Albert. "I will have Lily and Lila check it out. Harry managed to reach Seinberg''s home. They were preparing to break into their room," said Albert as he sent a message to Lily about the car. A minute later, Harry called them. Albert quickly added the rest of the group. "Both Seinberg''s daughter and wife are all right. They were just unconscious on the bed. No trap placed in their room. This I expect would be another dead end." "So, we found the guy with inflammable chemicals. We managed to stop him with relative ease. Almost feels like they didn''t put as much thought into the attack as they put into covering up their tracks," said Balthazar half-heartedly. He was really depressed that even after all this, they failed to get any information on the people pursuing them as hardly left any tracks to pursue. "What did you say?" asked Bruce. "I meant that the way they covered their tracks was so unconventional and effective. It had us concerned more about traps and" "NO. NO. Compared to the way they covered their tracks, they hardly put any thought into the attack. If they really wanted to kill Bolena, they could definitely have done something better," continued Bruce. "Oh Shit!" shouted Arthur as he immediately cut the call on his side. "What happened?" asked Balthazar looking at the Yassin, Harry and Albert who were still on the call. "He realized something important and ran to check it out," replied Yassin. "Huh?" "The Orthrus Guardian Group''s target Max," continued Yassin. "Need more than that." "It was a diversion. The whole plan to attack was a diversion to pull the focus of both your family and my group from Max. They are probably checking out Max''s location right now," explained Yassin rolling his eyes. "That is ridi.." started Balthazar but stopped as he realized that it is an extremely plausible scenario. He looked towards Albert and found him with his mouth open in shock. It was apparent that Albert also was going through the same thought process as him. A minute later, they received a message informing to put both Balthazar and Bolena in a safe place as Max had managed to escape the Blyth grounds. Albert immediately called Sean, Jordan and Nolan to join them at the cafeteria. He also suggested Harry to return to the headquarters as soon as possible. "Come on. Both of you," said Albert and began to lead both of them through the cafeteria and towards the lab complex. They soon entered a small bunker which is used to test dangerous substances and might cause explosions. Winston has already had the bunker cleared of all equipment before Albert and Balthazar came to the planet in preparation for such a scenario. Albert, Balthazar and Bolena entered the bunker and Albert shut the door behind them. Both Balthazar and Bolena tried to contact Winston, Arthur and Walter on their way to the bunker, but there was no response from any of them. Harry thoroughly searched the Dr. Seinberg''s room along with Humayun and Haseem, after they rescued his family and also interrogated the family but couldn''t find anything that would help them with tracking down the perpetrators. He returned back to the Apropos headquarters and started to question and investigate the personnel there. Balthazar and Bolena waited in the bunker along with Albert for more than an hour before they finally got a reply from the family. It was Arthur who finally video called them. Winston was beside him and they seemed to be in Winston''s office. "I have some bad news and good news." "We got a good news too?" asked Balthazar shocked. "Well, not much of one actually," replied Arthur. "Is Max still in our family grounds or custody?" asked Balthazar. "No. He managed to escape. We had Silas Blyth monitoring him but he somehow managed to put the cameras in a loop and Silas had been poisoned and paralyzed," said Arthur. "Wait! Wait! Why are we tracking Uncle Max?" asked Bolena surprised. "OH! How to explain this?" asked Arthur looking uncomfortably towards Winston. Even Winston looked a bit out of odds. "Let me take this one," said Balthazar to both of them. "You remember that George and dad and mom were assassinated right? I was tracking it with the help of some military contacts, and we ended up finding that Max was the traitor and he was in cahoots with some rebels. That was what led to the attack on the base. We tried our best to make Max think that we knew nothing about him, but it looks like we were wrong." "Max had helped kill dad. That is ridiculous." "No. He had been trying to kill me since a long time. He was kind of very good spy. When dad found out that Max was responsible for his brother''s death. He had our parents killed before they could get the proof. And now for the same reason, he attempted to kill me, but I still managed to provide the proof to the family." "Now, that he is sure about me knowing about him, he seems to have attempted to escape the family grounds," continued Balthazar. "The main issue is not Max but the people who are helping him attack us and why? We have no idea about them except the name Dave. Luckily for us, they seem to avoid fighting us outright and prefer to fight in the dark. So, a little bit of security and vigilance would make us very safe." Bolena found everything that Balthazar told her to be high impossible and truly bizzare. Though Balthazar managed to completely omit the any information about the knights of the Old Republic, it still was a lot for her to take. She could hardly do anything other than sit down in a chair thunderstruck. "Now that we have gone over that matter, what was the good news?" asked Balthazar looking towards Arthur. "Max did not manage to completely escape. He is being followed by Elaine and her team on an armed shuttle. There is a good chance that they might catch up with him," replied Arthur. "That is barely hopeful," said both Albert and Balthazar together. "Well, that is all we could do. He planned well. It looks like the entire thing from the Burns brothers leaving Asklepian was a pre-planned by Max a long time before Balthazar found out about him. Probably since the time he first betrayed us to help kill George. If he hadn''t attempted to kill Robert on his way, he would have escaped without leaving any tracks." "He even tried to kill Robert. Why?" asked Bolena now tearing up. "He attempted to kill his own brother and you are asking why he attempted to kill his nephew, the same brother''s son?" inquired Balthazar sarcastically rolling his eyes. "Well! Be that all it may," interjected Winston. "The main thing we called to tell you is that both of you will have to be in lock down till we manage to get a hold of Max. Just to be on the safe side. Once we have him caught or killed, we wouldn''t have anyone in our family with high-level access and we can relax with your security then." Chapter 29 - A death in the family "Wait. Wait. I have to stay here too?" asked Balthazar. Staying there with Bolena was definitely not a part of his plan. "Of course, you do. You are in the same situation as your sister and Robert. Albert will be providing security and anything else you need. We will inform you of the updates as soon as there are any," said Winston. "I have to work. I can''t wait here til god knows when. Bel and Albert are going to be by my side all day long. Do we really need to stay in this bunker till Max is captured?" asked Bolena. "Yes, at least till we are sure that there would be no more attempts on your life. Definitely for a week or so. Till we make a definitive plan and improve upon the security available at your workspace," said Arthur trying to assuage her. "You said Elaine is tracking him on an armed vessel, right? If you have their location couldn''t you just blow their shuttle to kingdom come and be done with it?" asked Balthazar. "Given all the ridiculous things that Max had done, it was suggested to by me to shoot him to death, but Walter insisted that it is in the best interest for all of us to capture him alive. And the fact that he tried desperately to escape us and the amount of support he was provided by his mystery helpers had the council convinced with Walter''s decision. He personally followed behind Elaine along with his team," said Arthur. "That makes sense. How is Robert by the way?" asked Balthazar. He was both concerned for Robert and wondered Walter''s state of mind is, that he followed after Max himself. Max was Walter''s only remaining biological son, but he seemed to be intent on capturing him and interrogating him by what Arthur just told. "Robert had his arm cut off by Max in his attempt to kill him. If Elaine hadn''t reached in time, Robert would have lost his head too. Walter went bonkers again. He almost strangled Silas awake in anger that he managed to get himself fooled by Max," replied Arthur. "Robert had his arm cut off?!" "Also got a deep gash on his neck, Max just missed lopping off his head. He is in surgery right now, but it is expected that we could attach his arm back and would be back to perfect health in a couple of days." "Anyways, please continue to stay in the bunker till we give the say so. Bolena you can work from the bunker itself. No direct meetings only virtual ones," said Winston as he cut off the call. "Sorry, I have to keep you here and I suggest you be cooperative," said Albert. Thus, they were stuck in a room with no one but each other. Albert occasionally went out and got a chance to meet with other, but Balthazar and Bolena got bored by the day. The night they began their time in lock down, they came to know that Robert was successfully out of surgery and his consciousness returned. Both Bolena and Balthazar talked to Robert to make sure that he was all right. The next day onwards, it was only the two of them with occasional appearance of Harry or Albert. Bolena spent all her time on the computer they got into the bunker and lead the experiments on the nano-technological bots which are to be used to transfer data from human body to warframes, through internet. Bolena had a lot of work and spent her time doing it, but Balthazar was just bored. By afternoon of the next day, he had requested Albert to get a somnium V.R. technology helmet. He spent most of the day creating an arena framework, so that he could start practicing his weapon and also fight against Robert. Once that was done, he spent his entire time in the arena practicing his weapon or fighting with Robert. Soon, even his regular class with Salazar was also continued in the same arena. This period of them in the bunker endured for a total time of one week till they finally got a call from Arthur regarding Max''s escape. "Max managed to escape. Elaine almost caught up to him but some pirate vessel showed up to assist him. Elaine''s ship was blasted to pieces, but they managed to get into a escape pod and landed stealthily on a nearby planet. Walter''s ship which was following them managed to get a hold of their position and pulled Elaine and her team onto their ship," said Arthur as soon as the call connected. "So, what does that imply for us?" asked Balthazar depressed. He knew that it implied continued isolation for him but asked anyway to be sure. "We are going to announce tomorrow morning that Max has been disowned by us for commercial espionage, escaped from us and announce a reward for him. Walter insists that we would rather have him dead than him escape. Yassin is also announcing an award for him, but only if he is alive." "Walter is still pursuing him?" asked Balthazar. "Yes, I don''t think he would let him off after he tried to kill Robert," replied Arthur. "So, my suffering continues?" asked Bolena in a sad and frustrated manner. "I''m sorry. But we did manage to improve the security at Apropos, by a lot. The Patriarch had Bruce Kane to revise the entire security setup. You probably would be able to resume back to your usual life in a couple of days," said Arthur trying to calm her. "Well that is something I could look forward to," said Bolena as she turned towards her computer and continued with her work. "When can I return?" asked Balthazar. He realized that if Max isn''t caught then he probably wouldn''t be allowed to return back to Asklepian anytime soon. They would probably just suggest him to stay here with his sister for the remaining duration of his medical leave. "Just, stay with your sister, Balthazar," said Arthur like he had expected. "We might make arrangements to transport you back to Asklepian in a day or two." "That''s better than I expected," said Balthazar pleasantly surprised. "Yeah, you can also stay there with your sister which I suggest." "No, I like the other idea better." "That''s what the Patriarch thought. We will see according to the situation." "OK. Hope you call me with some good news the next time." "Hope I do," said Arthur as he cut the call. "You know what the best thing is, I observed in all this mess?" asked Bolena suddenly. Balthazar looked at her and thought, "When did she become an optimist?" "Is it that I am in a lot more bored and frustrated than you?" he asked. "Wow! Good guess," answered Bolena as she started to laugh. "You know, sometimes I just have these urges to strangle you." "I know, I guess it is just genetic," she retorted. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- January the 30th, 2682 A.D., Asklepian It had been a very eventful day for Arthur. Just 8 hours earlier, he had received a message from Walter about Max being assisted by someone very dangerous and thought to be dead for more than 5 decades. He immediately set to verification of the information and asked Elaine personally about the vessel that attacked her. "It was a large grey vessel about 4 km long with the red words ''UNHINDERED'' written across it side and it had used a very good camouflage tech till they were right in the firing range. They had some kind of illusion over the ship that made it look like it was covered gray gaseous substance," said Elaine over the call. As soon as Arthur heard Elaine talk about the illusion of it being covered in some kind of grey gas and the red words ''UNHINDERED'', he was sure that they were back. The color of the words was written down as black in all reports by the military. Only a few people, who had seen and survived the murder of its captain, Asuragana Veeraprasad and bombarding of the ship from within knew that it would be red. Moreover, Walter told him that he checked the video recording of the black box and the radar logs were also quite convincing. A lot of copycats tried the same thing, but the most of them will wiped off the universe by either its survivors or the military. Also, the way they managed to have Max escape was very similar to how the original Nirbaadh pirates used to work. They always knew that the ship and the Nirbaadh pirates would resurface but didn''t expect it to be so early. Immediately after he got a confirmation from Walter, he called Balthazar and Bolena to tell them of Max''s escape. But he didn''t mention anything about the ship or its legend to them. He instead notified Albert that a very dangerous group which went dormant before the knights of the old republic were assisting Max and to confine them in the bunker until further development. But now he heard something very disturbing from the local law enforcement of a city in the planet KF-35, that they found a body that was very similar to Max. He had been beheaded and thrown by the police station. Even the DNA results showed that it was Max''s body. He immediately sent someone to make a more detailed check of the body and take sample from various parts of the body to confirm if it is actually Max or a ruse. He couldn''t understand why they would just not throw it in some isolated planet if they wanted to get rid of Max. He also called Walter who luckily was quite close the planet KF-35. Walter immediately set off to collect Max''s body. On reaching the police station, Walter had confirmed that the body was actually his son with the help of the personnel Arthur sent. The sub-inspector also provided a small video disk that was left by the body. It was the same as before, the Nirbaadh pirates always made a statement when they attacked someone. Walter quickly played the recording in a device provided by the police. It was a recording of someone beheading Max. "We were paid to provide extraction for Mr. Max Blyth and kill him after we receive the information. The Nirbaadh pirates have returned. Hail!" shouted the person who beheaded Max. "They are making a statement of return," thought Walter looking at the video. They also intend to say that they were just doing a job and had no other intention than that. They had no intention to fight against the Blyths. He immediately informed the alliance authorities that the Nirbaadh pirates have resurfaced, killed Max Blyth and sent out a statement of return. He also sent the information back to the Blyth household and also told them to concentrate on security rather than tracking the Nirbaadh pirates. He told Arthur that he would personally look into tracking them, that he could have Balthazar return back to Asklepian and they were no longer in any danger for the time. He also told Arthur to hold Max''s funeral at the Blyth mansion and not reveal the hunt that happened for him. Arthur immediately called Balthazar to inform him that Max was dead and to come back to the funeral which was being held on the evening next day. Balthazar was very shocked to hear this. Just 8 hours ago, he heard that Max managed to successfully escape but now he is being asked to attend his funeral. "Why did they rescue him if they just wanted to kill him," asked Balthazar confused. "They are an old group of assassins and pirates that have been employed to rescue Max, but their employer seemed to have had him killed as he is no longer useful. They must have been pissed off that their employer asked to dispose of the target they secured with great efforts. So, they decided to announce their return with his decapitated dead body. That''s what Walter makes of the situation anyway." "OK. I will return immediately. What about Bolena?" "She will stay there. She needs to work there. But you need to practice on your skills and strengths. So, you are going to come back to Asklepian with Albert and his team and stay here for the remainder of your medical leave." "I am concerned about Bolena''s security. What is being done to improve the security here?" asked Balthazar. "Come here for the funeral. We are going to introduce you to the people who would be in charge of her security from now on," replied Arthur. "OK," said Balthazar accepting the plan. He quickly contacted Albert who was already getting ready to depart. They left quickly even before Bolena woke up. Balthazar left a small note explaining that he would be leaving to Asklepian and wishing her the good luck with her research. Chapter 30 - The Funeral Balthazar was quickly escorted by Albert and his team to the transport ship in the middle of the night. The ship immediately launched into warp and Balthazar dozed off. They managed to reach Asklepian and entered Blyth mansion by the early morning of 31st January without any incident. He was greeted by Anubis and Thaddeus as soon as he reached the mansion. They were immediately followed by Salazar who pulled him into the combat room for his usual training. Robert was already at the gym waiting for them. "Thank God, I missed you the past week more than the last five years. I don''t know if Salazar was missing you or if he was worried by my injury, but the last week was very exciting. My daily training increased to four hours." "Other than the two hours, he used to take, he got Donatello to help him for two more hours. Now, there is another guy Lucius whom Walter asked to help me instead of Donatello. He seems to be a very old guy but is larger than me and very quick and experienced. Now, we can get beat up together." "Wow. Training got worsened? That is not good news at all. I didn''t think that was possible. And you still were that excited to fight in the V.R. arena?" asked Balthazar surprised. "Ya. Once, someone tries to lop off your head, you would probably be into training and fighting too," replied Robert. "They tried to blast me to pieces and then tried to put a blade through my forehead, I still get tired after fighting with Salazar and was more than satisfied with one hour per day," said Balthazar. "Maybe that is just me then," said Robert. "Come on, let me introduce to you to Lucius." "OK. Let me meet the second guy who is going be beat me up, every day from now on." As they reached the combat room, Balthazar saw Salazar talking with a large man. He was a bit taller that Robert and had white hear with streaks of auburn. He was holding a large stick and it looked like they just had a bout and he was giving advice to Salazar about someting. "Hi Salazar, look who is back," said Robert pointing at Balthazar. Both Salazar and Lucius looked towards them. "Oh Good, we were just waiting for the Colonel to come back," said Lucius. "We were just discussing schedule of your exercises. It is tiring for us and probably would be for you guys too if we continued to fight for four hours per day." "So, we suggest that Salazar would take an hour in the morning and me in the evening," said Lucius. "I''m cool with it." "But that would reduce the amount of time we spend on it, why don''t we stick to the schedule of the past week?" asked Robert. "Cause we got other work to do. We just indulged you because you had a near death experience recently. But this can''t continue further," said Salazar. "Get on the platform with your long blade. You will be sparring for the first half hour today." As Robert went to the platform, Lucius joined sat beside him. "So, you are feeling all right?" "Yeah, I am just glad that I am free to walk around again." "Good, I am Lucius by the way. Walter asked me train you guys after the sighting of the Nirbaadh pirates." "What pirates?" asked Balthazar confused. He had never heard of them before as they were never active after he was born. None of his peers at he same generation as him knew about them. "Oh! You don''t know? Don''t need to worry about them anyway. But he is concerned about your capability to protect yourselves," said Lucius avoiding his question. Balthazar decided to not push on his query further and continued to watch Robert and Salazar on the platform. He contacts Sophia every night these days. He could just contact her and have her check the name. He noticed that Robert had improved a lot over the past week. He never noticed it during his bouts in the V.R. arena but he had become very aggressive when fighting. After the usual exercise in the morning, he went back to his room with Anubis and later spent most of his time working on the eulogy. He also made a call to Sophia to check out on the ''Nirbaadh pirates''. By four in the evening, a number of tables and chairs were fitted into the gardens in front of the mansion for Max''s funeral. Balthazar walked through the garden and out of the family grounds to meet up with Rudra and the rest. As soon as he entered the cybercafe, he was greeted by Nancy who was serving as the manager. She immediately bought him a beverage and offered her condolences for Max''s death. It was a very weird experience for him to have being consoled for the death of a person who tried to kill him. Soon, Rudra and the rest of his team also joined them, asked about where he was last week and offered their own condolences. Balthazar was being creeped out by their concern for Max. So, he quickly changed the topic to how the cyber cafe was faring over the weekend. He quickly came to know that even though the customer traffic went down for a couple of days after the day of opening, it pulled up later as many were interested in creating new apps and such on the new Samsara technology. "When is the funeral ceremony starting?" asked Rudra. "At 5.30 pm.There is still time for it. No hurries," replied Balthazar. "Are you all right? You seem to be a bit callous whenever we talk about your uncle," asked Rudra. "It is nothing. Max was a moron who got himself killed," said Balthazar. "Don''t ask. It is best left secret." "OK. You want us to come to the ceremony?" "Yeah. I was stuck up in a bunker for the entire week. I would like to have some drinks and fun. Why don''t you dress up, we can get going right now?" suggested Balthazar. They soon got to the mansion ground and Balthazar took them to the ceremony. He decided that if he had to give a eulogy about his backstabbing uncle, he best be drunk to make it look convincing. He began swallowing drinks like water. Rudra and the rest had to forcefully stop him from drinking so that we wouldn''t be wasted. Soon, more people began to join them in the grounds. Most of them were Walter''s old acquaintances who came to offer their support but were received by Robert who told them that Walter was tracking down the culprits. It looked like quite a bit of them already expected that of Walter. Later, they had Robert, Balthazar and Winston talk a few words about Max. They talked about how Max was a generous and loving uncle and finally Winston ended the speech saying that he was very grateful for all the people who had come to attend the funeral and that he would make sure the culprits would be penalized for their offences. The rest of the night, Winston introduced Robert and Balthazar to various friends and acquaintances who had come to the funeral. Balthazar could identify a few of them from his own parent''s funeral and met a few new faces too. Notable among them was an emissary from the Price family, Yassin Achaemenid, Bruce Kane''s daughter and a few other dignitaries from other families. Balthazar soon took an interest in Bruce''s daughter Barbara and her husband D.i.c.k and spent most of his time talking with them. He came to know that D.i.c.k and Barbara had set up a security group with the help of Bruce''s connections and have recently come from a mission. He also came to know that they were being recruited by Winston to protect Bolena over at Apropos. While Balthazar was chatting with D.i.c.k and Barbara Kane, Bruce, Yassin and Winston were discussing something very serious at Winston''s office with the emissary of the Price family. She was Evelyn Price, the younger sister of the prime director of the alliance, Harvey Price. "So, is it true?" she asked looking at them. "Walter thinks it is. He seems pretty convinced," said Bruce. "Well the description of the vessel is quite close to what we know of the Unhindered. Their methods are similar to what I have heard," added Yassin. "So, what do we do about it?" asked Evelyn looking at Winston. "I really can''t say Eve. Walter just sent back his team and left with Rupert on a shuttle. He has gone completely incognito and told that he would contact us only if necessary." "The best we can do is to announce that the Nirbaadh pirates have returned. By my estimate they would have already made their presence in all the black markets, underground and assassin service and discussion forums. We have already noticed their presence on a few of them," said Bruce. "Yeah. If we have the entire alliance forces looking for them or at least aware of the resurgence, we can avoid a lot of trouble. Even though it might look a bit bad on the alliance governance especially since the alliance prime director had been focusing mostly on the alliance and reduced the resources provided to the law enforcement personnel. I think it would be worse if you didn''t inform and the Nirbaadh pirates decide to make a grand entrance sometime in the future. They would just catch you with your pants down in that case," said Winston. "Yeah, that makes sense, but Harvey is not really sure whether he wants to do that," said Evelyn. "You mean to say that he is worried about his supporters mainly the Malik and Khan families. They don''t want to believe that the Unhindered and Nirbaadh pirates are back. They had an irreconcilable enmity with Asuragana Veeraprasad. His followers wouldn''t let them rest in peace," said Yassin smiling. "If they have such enmity with the Nirbaadh pirates why would they be against putting out a notice that their sworn enemy is back. It doesn''t make sense at all," said Bruce. "Because most of their families are filled with cowards who would rather be happy hoping that their enemies were extinct rather accept that there is a bull''s eye on their back and prepare against it," said Evelyn angrily. "The Maliks especially love maintaining a false sense of peace over their territory. Even when there were rebel attacks or power plant accidents, they refused to let the truth out. I had no small amount of troubles with them regarding such incidents." "I know that it is trouble to deal with them, but as you have noticed they have no issue in taking any assignments against other families too. Even ones considered to be among the 20 most powerful families in the alliance. Why don''t you suggest to him that if he continues to delay this, they might end up making another attempt on some others and it would quite worse for him in the scenario that their target is from a family with more influence than the Maliks or Khans?" suggested Winston. "That would be a really good way to convince him. I can assure you that even the Achaemenid family supports you in this regard. The way they used the Orthrus Guardian Group is an affront to us," said Yassin supporting Winston. "That definitely would be the way to convince my brother if any. But it would still be hard," said Evelyn thinking of way to present it to her brother. "OK. I have kept something secret from you guys, that is one of the main reasons for us to invest a lot in this." "You have another big secret than your nephew betraying your family to kill his brothers and nephews?" asked Yassin surprised. "You really wan''t to let them know about Balthazar?" asked Bruce. He was one of the few people privy to the knowledge of Walter rescuing John and Jordan and raising them as his family. "Yes. It is time. But this information can''t leave the room. Maybe just tell Harvey about it but don''t let it spread," said Winston looking at Yassin and Evelyn. "We didn''t know that the Nirbaadh pirates were involved. We actually came to know about Max during Balthazar''s and his lieutenant Jane''s investigation. He was working along with the knights of the Old Republic and the most recent employers of the Nirbaadh pirates are the same," said Winston. This sudden reveal from Winston stumped both Yassin and Evelyn into silence. They couldn''t believe that Winston had kept something so important a secret till now. Evelyn quickly composed himself before looked very seriously at Winston and said, "You should have started with this. The Nirbaadh pirate''s client are the knights of the old republic. I have half a mind to have your grandson court martialed for hiding it in the first place." "Wait a minute. I thought the reason that Asuragana Veeraprasad was killed because he was forced by the knights to fight a losing battle. Why would they work for him again?" asked Yassin. "The Asuragana family are a bit weird and have some crazy customs. They probably chose to plan their rise with the help of the same organization whose actions led to their downfall," said Bruce Kane. "That''s just poppyc.o.c.k. You just made that stuff up," said Evelyn laughing and pointing at him. "It could be true. We all know how ridiculous they could be. And the atmosphere in the room had become too serious. It was begging for a joke," said Bruce. "Well it was a good attempt as always Bruce," said Evelyn getting up. "But it was enough for me to go and convince my brother. Why don''t you accompany me on the way back Bruce?" said Evelyn as she stroked his neck. "Sure. I would love to," said Bruce getting up to follow her. "Don''t let others know about the knights. The fewer people that know about it the better," reminded Winston. "I can''t really speak for my brother, but I will make sure that I don''t spread it," she answered cheekily. "Just tell him that Samuel and Ethan insist upon it," said Winston. Chapter 31 - Pirates and Pursuits After Bruce and Evelyn left, Winston and Yassin were left in the room. "I didn''t expect you tell me that your grandson defied military law by failing to inform his superiors about something that important. Aren''t you concerned that I might cause trouble to your grandson?" Yassin asked Winston. "Frankly speaking, both I and Walter wanted him to resign his job at the force and come back here. If not for the fact that my father and elders insisted that it is best, we have a person in the alliance force, I would have had him back here a long time ago," replied Winston. "Hmm. Who are Samuel and Ethan?'' "Samuel is my uncle. Even I don''t know who Ethan is. There are two generations of people above me. I am just passing on a message." "Fine. I am not going to mess around with those ancient ones. I will keep it a secret and you can expect co-operation from the Achaemenid family." "We also suspect that there might be at least one Rhodium level assassin among their members. We think that the person Dave, we heard about from Balthazar after the explosion is a Rhodium member of the Nirbaadh pirates. Obviously, Dave is an alias." "Hmm. So, you suspect the explosion on the frontier was also a work of the Nirbaadh pirates." "Well, we haven''t been able to relate the two assassins who made an attempt on Balthazar after the explosion to any group. There is a good chance that the assassins were either from the knights or the Nirbaadh pirates." "That is a bit farfetched isn''t it?" "Just suggesting the possibilities. The Nirbaadh pirates would not have announced their return, if they didn''t have a few strong members among them. In case, you remember, Asuragana Veeraprasad and his brother were platinum level agents and even you are still considered a Rhodium member. We still don''t know where his brother had disappeared to after his death." "In that case, are you sure you want Walter to be tracking someone that dangerous." "Rupert is also a Rhodium level agent, and Walter I think can be considered to be a Platinum level agent by now." "Walter is considered platinum level now?" "I think so. I don''t have the clearance level to check about him." "You are the Patriarch, right?" "Some things especially the secret ops are kept even a secret from me. You know plausible deniability. Similar to the reason why you are kept out of the Achaemenid family." "You are really Walter''s brother, aren''t you? You both have knack of using the person you are talking to, to make your point." "Easier to convince people that way." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few light-years away, a ship was parked on a desolate moon of the planet GT-14. It was Unhindered waiting for Dave to dock back on to the ship. A shuttle just docked onto the large grey pirate vessel that was on the moon. As soon as the shuttle docked onto the vessel, Dave walked out on to the vessel and was quickly taken to the captain''s quarters by a bunch of guards where the captain of the ship, Asuragana Rana pratap. He seemed to be talking with one of his subordinates about something they were smuggling out. Rana Pratap was more than 7 feet-tall with long black hair that fell down to his waist. He had toffee colored skin and dark red coloured pupils with thick strong beefed-up muscles which were clearly visible due to the tight-fitting black suit, he wore. He had a red combat armor covering his chest over his suit. "It has been a long time, brother. How are you?" asked Rana Pratap. "I have seen better times. I hope you didn''t have much troubles escaping from the Blyths," replied Dave. "Yeah, it was fine. It was just escaping from them and we managed to ambush them to rescue Max from them," said Rana Pratap. "Guys, could you leave us for a minute or two. I need some privacy to talk with Dharma." The men quickly left leaving both of them alone in the captain''s quarters. Rana pratap gave a quick hug to Dave and set him down at his seat while he rested himself against the wall. "I heard that the Blyths are looking for you. They seemed to somehow managed to connect the name Dave with both the knights of the old republic and us." "Yes, despite all the precautions we took they somehow managed to get my alias. It looks like the Blyths have a better network in the shadows than what we expected. That man Walter sure lives up to his reputation," said Dharma. Dave''s original name was Asuragana Dharma Pratap and he is the younger brother of Rana Pratap. He spent more than a couple of decades creating a believable alias Dave for himself before he was given his mission to execute the Blyths. He was very upset with the fact that someone managed to relate his alias with the knights or the Nirbaadh pirates. "It isn''t Walter who found out about you. According to my man in the alliance force, it was your target Balthazar who leaked the information about Dave. He managed to convince them that the woman you recruited Jane was the one responsible for finding out about you. Also, the attack was a failure because he managed to identify the glitch in their systems and fixed it silently." "Yes, I heard about him and how he managed to subvert our plans. It is best we take care of him. But I never heard about Jane being his informer," agreed Dharma. "Nevertheless, the fact that Balthazar found out about you has become well known to various factions of the knights including ours. They want Dave to be dormant for some time to let it all cool down," said Rana Pratap. "What? That is ridiculous, I have been a Gold-level assassin for more than a decade, bordering on Rhodium level. Why do they want me to calm down because of some young Colonel, who probably is a silver-level agent." "Well, for some reason, Walter Blyth seems to take his word regarding the intel on Dave and he might not actually be as weak as he lets on. I heard that he managed to defeat Max at the Blyth mansion in combat," replied Rana. "You kidding, right? Though Max is not much of a fighter compared to us. He is not that weak either." "Yes. But the rumors about the kid are quite confusing and he is being protected at the Blyth mansion. It is best we leave him alone for some time." "These Blyths have become such a pain in the recent times," said Dharma feeling a bit morose. "Hmm. I agree. But the main issue is not the Blyths. I am afraid that our collaboration with the knights might be more trouble than we expected." "You know that it is not optional now. After your uncle joined them, it would only be advantageous to get more involved with them. You know how crazy they are and since your uncle came to know their secret, just consider ourselves lucky that they chose to give him a chance rather than attack us." "That is just consoling ourselves. You and I both know that we haven''t been completely accepted by them. They clearly let my father be cannon fodder a few decades ago. It was always a game for them. I do not for a second think that uncle is in any good situation either." "What do you suggest we rather do?" "For the time being, we just stay low and do whatever is suggested by uncle," replied Rana Pratap. "Well, even if my alias is found out by them, I don''t think that I need to put down that alias completely," said Dharma. "It is not the Blyths, I am worried about. You are a known link connecting to the knights. I am just worried that they might throw you to the alliance or get rid of you secretly to prevent any unforeseen accidents," said Rana Pratap. He had already seen his father sacrifice himself for his uncle and now he doesn''t want his brother to be thrown under the bus too. "FIne." "Cool. Stay on the ship. You can work on assignments which we take, but just not anything that are involved with the knights. I have a couple of plans that would help increase extent of our dominion. A few assignments that are suited for you," said Rana Pratap. A few miles away under the dark shadow of a small hill, a small shuttle was parked hidden from the Unhindered. It was Walter and Rupert, who managed to tail the Unhindered stealthily. "Why are we not informing the alliance of their location? We need backup to fight against a vessel of that size. It can simple shoot us before we reach any closer to it in this shuttle. What do you intend to do?" asked Rupert. They were parked there from more than 20 minutes. All Walter did was send out a small drone, which couldn''t be used for anything other than surveillance. He couldn''t understand the point of surveying the ship alone. It was a very big risk and it didn''t look like he was planning to call for help anytime soon. Walter seemed extremely concentrated on the drone that he was controlling and monitoring. He didn''t even look at Rupert, but slowly hid the drone behind a large rock before he turned back. "We are not trying to take down the Unhindered. Though they proved to be the same notorious gang of pirates or assassins, the people in the Unhindered aren''t my main priority. The one I fear most among the NIrbaadh pirates is Asuragana Shouryaprasad, who I think is not on the ship but is dictating their actions from somewhere else," said Walter. "So, you are trying to get the drone on the ship to bug it?" asked Rupert. "Good guess." "But any transmitter that has a large distance or coverage would be easily discovered when it is transmitting," said Rupert confused. Rupert was an expert at infiltration expert but was still confused about why Walter chose him of all to accompany him. "That is why I am placing a short range encrypted one which sends a signal only when it receives a request from us. We are going to be closely stealthed on their tail for some time. I was told that finding out the location of Asuragana Shouryaprasad at any cost as he is being suspected of being in some kind of collaboration with the knights. It the best option, I have to find him," said Walter. "Where do I come in, in all of this?" asked Rupert confused. "You are just a contingency," said Walter at a low voice. "Contingency? I hope it doesn''t mean, what I think it is" said Rupert sitting down. It had been a long time since he infiltrated any organization. He is about the same age as Walter and a bit out of touch. He had long been considered dead and could be regarded quite an apt candidate to infiltrate a pirate organization such as the Nirbaadh pirates. "Ya, we find a proper place where they seem to be working for a continued period. We would need you to be a proper convict escaping the authorities or something else to join them. I will take care of the cover you require in case of such a scenario," said Walter. He slowly managed to control the drone till it reached the stand of the Unhindered. He slowly made the drone crawl up the stand and place it on the inside of landing gear. While Walter and Rupert were risking their lives, Balthazar was having the time of his life at the garden of the Blyth mansion. Once, the attendees gave their eulogies, Max''s body was incinerated, and Winston carved his name on the memorial where all the other dead Blyth family members names were carved at the back of the mansion. Balthazar had spent a little time with D.i.c.k and Barbara discussing his sister''s security arrangements and afterwards went along with Rudra and the rest of his friends to karaoke bar. They spent most of the evening singing and dancing drunk till Rudra finally realized that it was past 10 p.m and he needed to get back to the Dreamz Cyber Space to get ready for the launch of vita-nova. Balthazar quickly told his goodbyes to them. He also told Rudra to be careful if any Blyth other than himself, Robert or his sister because these were extremely troubling times. As he reached the mansion, he found Robert waiting for him by the main hall. "I half thought that you would spend the night at your cyber cafe. It being the launch of vita-nova at midnight and all. Don''t they have a party at the cyber cafe?" asked Robert. "I think so. But I am not really comfortable sleeping at a place with hardly any security. You remember I was almost blown up and impaled, right? That tends to change one''s habits," replied Balthazar. "OK. Anyways, I came here to tell you that Lucius was kind of waiting for you at the gym by 6 p.m. and was disappointed that you weren''t there. He asked me to inform you that he expects you to be more disciplined from now on, being that you are a military man." "Sure. Will be on time from tomorrow morning. Tell him... No. I will apologize to him for my tardiness tomorrow." "Just be careful you know. You remember that Winston also suggested that it would best for us to not leave the mansion frequently." "It is not that serious right now. You are still traumatized a bit by Max''s attempt. Just calm down and relax. Play the game vita-nova. I will join you at midnight," said Balthazar patting him on his shoulder. He went into his room, crept into the V.R. capsule and went to sleep after putting on a timer to pull him into the game vita-nova as soon as its launched. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Translator Notes: 1. Security agents and Assassin''s are graded at different levels as Bronze, Silver, Gold, Rhodium and Platinum. These grades are dependent on their capabilities and are mainly their achievements. Chapter 32 - Vita-nova begins As the midnight came, Balthazar was transported to the somnium space and them immediately to the game interface of vita-nova. He was in a white space and was quickly shown a notice that the game would be different than real life and stunts and tricks that can be performed in the game might not be possible in real life. He quickly clicked accept to progress further. He was given three options indicating whether he wan''t to choose the light faction, the dark faction or the neutral faction. As soon as he chose light faction, he was given the option to choose his race. There were six of them: humans, dwarves, gnomes, light elves, dryads or fae. He already knew that the reason for creation of the somnium technology and according to military protocol he chose human. He was asked to choose a nickname. He first chose his old assassin nickname in his real life, "shadow blade", but the system informed that it was already taken. Then he tried ghost, shade in multiple languages and a few more trials later, he had to finally settle on "shadow tyrant". Once, that was done. He was immediately transported to one of the beginner towns. He was just outside the town entrance. As he looked around, he realized that it wasn''t the same town as in his previous life. At that moment, many players had started appearing beside him and started walking into the town. They started to speak to the NPCs around the town hoping to obtain a trail for a quest. Some of them started to go out of the village into the wilderness to kill monsters. Everyone were busy with something or the other. He seemed to be the only one standing in place outside and observing the surroundings. As he walked into the town, a notification popped up. "You have reached the black rock village, adventurer. Please choose a primary occupation:". There were twelve occupations divided into four main classes. Warriors: Shield Guardian, Martial Artist, Berserker. Weapons specialists: Swordsman, Assassin, Ranger Magicians: Elementalist, Warlock, Summoner. Healer: Cleric, Palladin, Druid. He immediately chose what he chose in his previous life - Assassin. He was extremely familiar with the Assassin occupation, so he chose the same. He then decided to check his attributes. As soon as he thought about it, his attribute panel appeared before him: Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level:0 Exp: 0/200; HP: 100/100; MP: 100/100; Physical Attack: 10 Defense: 2; Attack Speed: 6; Movement Speed: 8; Willpower: 0; Balance: 5; Focus/Search: Toughness: 1; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 0; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 3, Agility 5, Endurance 2, Intelligence 2, Vitality 2, Perception 2. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 4 Weapon Master: Dagger Mastery +5 (Apprentice Rank - Increases Dagger Damage by 5%) Free Master Points: 0 Occupation ability 1: [Ambush]: 20% bonus Attack Damage when attacking an enemy from behind. Occupation ability 2: [Pick pocket]: Can be used to steal money or items from unfriendly NPCs. Skills: Stab. Active skill, Requirement: Dagger, Increases damage by 5 points. Cool down: 5 seconds. Skill level: 1 (Proficiency 0/300) Equipment: [Novice Dagger] (White Trash, Dagger) Level 0 Equipment Requirement: Strength 3 Attack Power +4 Durability 15/15 [Assassin''s Leather Shirt] (White Trash) Level 0 Equipment Requirement: Strength 3 Defense +2 Durability 15/15 The game was as interactive as he remembered. As soon as he clicked on a skill name a small video played in front of him depicting an assassin execute the skill. Inside his bag, there were ten pieces of bread and ten pouches of water. The bread would recover 10 HP per second and water 10 MP per second for 10 seconds when at rest. Every player of a profession always started with the same Attributes, equipment, skills and Basic Mastery of that profession. The only difference being the allocation of the Free Attribute Points. Each player by default would obtain 4 Free attribute points with each increase in Level. With each rise in the level, the allocation of these free attribute points would result in the players unique style and personality. Strength increases Physical Attack Power, Agility increases Attack and Movement speeds, Endurance the max HP and stamina, Intelligence increases Magical attack power, max MP and Magical resistance and Vitality increases the recovery rate of HP and MP. Every Job places an emphasis on different Attributes. Balthazar had played as an assassin in his previous life. He had also read many guides for the profession and also for various parts of the game. So, he was quite confident that he would be successful and that he would be set apart from the others. The skill proficiency and the level of completion of the skills had also played a very important role in the determination of damage caused by the skills. The better a person performs the skills, the faster the proficiency increases. Skills with levels could also be upgraded through allocating skill points into it, to a maximum of level 10. However, skill points are only obtained every 10 levels. But bonus skill points could also be obtained through the completion of some hidden quests or main quests. Sometimes wild bosses could also drop skill point crystals. Balthazar had 4 free attribute points in the beginning. He could use these to upgrade any of his attributes except the hidden ones Luck and Charm. Luck helped in improving the rewards and reducing difficulty of the quest and Charm allowed to have better interactions with the NPCs. These attributes were different for everybody and assigned randomly in the beginning. They could also be obtained in some special quests or from equipment. Balthazar had added 3 of his free attribute points to Agility and 1 point to Strength. It was a bit different from the usual allocation of the free attribute points by the assassins. Players tend to mostly tend to allocate the attribute in a well-rounded manner. Assassin occupation usually add in most of their points to Strength or Constitution as those are the weak points of the Assassins. But Balthazar knew that the hidden attributes were the most important for success. He knew a good way to get them in the beginner village and that is the reason for his abnormal selection. Vita-nova is extremely different from the other V.R. games. Here, the player could move as freely as he wished, and it allowed a lot of flexibility. This allowed players to use their own moves to attack and escape or dodge attacks. While playing vita-nova one had the option of using controlled mode, Half-manual mode or Manual mode. By default, it is always set to controlled mode. But the controlled mode consists of robotic movements and is suggested only for beginners to practice the skills. Balthazar had practice of most of the skills and directly chose the manual mode. After adding the attribute points, Balthazar took a look at his surroundings. People were still pouring into the town. The players were crowding themselves around the NPCs who were giving out quests. The NPCs who gave out quest had a yellow dot above them. Such a situation made looking for an NPC a tougher challenge. Balthazar quickly equipped the dagger and leather shirt from his bag. Most of the players were crowded around the village headman or the blacksmith or shops nearby the gate. But he knew that the best way quests at the beginner village were given by the priest at the temple. Vita-nova had a lot of differences from the other V.R. games. One of these was how close the made the interactions of the NPCs to the real world. This included the modern technologies, politics and religion. Despite the improvement of technology, a majority of the mankind still believed in gods and religion still was a core part of the society. Man still hopes for miracles, and holy places still are one of the most popular meeting places. This concept was also included in the structure of the villages, cities and empires of vita-nova. The temple in the beginner villages provided all the non-secondary profession quests and also gave more rewards and reputation for the same quests. This differed from the usual V.R. games and most of the people missed the temple which was at the back of the village. People only came to be know about it an year after the launch, when someone posted about a chain quest he received from the beginner village. After that any newcomer or someone who changed his occupation always visited the temple in the beginner village. He quickly walked past the crowd to the back of the village, where the temple was situated. He quickly made his way to the priest of the temple. The priest had a yellow dot above his head which implied that he was an NPC who gave quests. "May the faith protect us from the darkness and improve our lives by the glory of the light," said the priest to Balthazar as a greeting. "May the light protect us from the darkness," said Balthazar. "The wolves have been very active these days. I had to hold 4 funeral ceremonies today. They have been a menace to our faithful followers. Would you be kind enough to help us eliminate these cruel beasts?" asked the priest. "It would be my honor to serve the temple," replied the "Brave adventurer, the twelve great gods see your faithful conduct, and may they bless you to be successful in your endeavours," said the priest. ''Ding! You have received a quest: Help the village against the menace of the wolves'' Balthazar quickly opened the quest menu and checked the quest''s description: [Help the village against the menace of the wolves] (Difficulty Level: Novice) Quest Description: You have accepted the request of the village priest. Go to the hills outside the village and kill wolves to keep the village safe! Progress: Wolves killed. (0/20) The difficulty level was determined by 2 factors: first, the level difference between the players and monsters; second, the difficulty of the monster itself. The wolves he had to kill were only level 2 and level 3, hence the difficulty level was determined by the system as Novice. After receiving the quest, he went ahead to the blacksmith, tailor, alchemist and bunch of merchants to receive a few more quests. He learned mining, smithing and alchemy from the blacksmith, the miner and the alchemist respectively. The secondary job menu got activated and a pickaxe and a basic alchemy kit appeared in his inventory. He also got a quest from the merchant to kill rabbits which were ravaging his carrot fields. The rabbits were all level 1 creatures and that made the difficulty to be Novice. [Help Hart to get rid of the rabbits from his fields] (Difficulty Level: Novice) Quest Description: Kill the rabbits in the carrot field Progress: Rabbits killed. (0/30) He also got quests to collect 10 iron ores, 10 wolf furs, 10 rabbit skins and 10 red weed and blue weed from the blacksmith, tailor and apothecary respectively. Most of the collection quest from trade profession NPCs are repeatable. This was the same for the quests for the ones in the beginner villages. He first decided to go the east of the village where the fields are located. The quest to kill rabbits was taken by quite a number of players. The field was filled with little horned white rabbits. Though they had fangs, they were small, had a small HP of 30 and didn''t actually manage to cause any harm except for the default damage of 1. But they were too fast for the player''s attacks to land on the rabbits. Balthazar immediately pulled out his dagger and started attacking the rabbits. Balthazar had put most of his attribute points in Agility leading to a total of 8 agility. He had a better advantage in agility than the other players and could attack the rabbits with considerable ease. It hardly took him 4 or 5 hits to kill a rabbit. If the rabbits didn''t attack the players, the players would hardly be able to even get close to the rabbits. Soon, the players realized that it was a futile effort and that they needed to have more agility to attack the rabbits at the carrot farm. The experience the rabbits provided was also too low and it was hard to land a hit on them even in groups. Thus, the player began to leave the carrot farm in a few minutes. Balthazar soon managed to kill 15 rabbits. He also got 4 rabbit pelts. Each rabbit gave him 5 experience points. Slowly a few larger rabbits came up which could actually hurt Balthazar and cause damage of 3 to 4 per attack. [Monster Rabbit] (Elite Monster) Level 1 HP 50 He started to find it harder to fight, when he received a call from Rudra. He quickly got out of the carrot farm and began chomping down on the bread to recover his health. He had earned an exp of 75 points. "Hi Dude, didn''t expect you to be playing the game. You all right?" asked Rudra. "Ya, I would hate to miss the game. It would be so wrong to not play the game owning a V.R. capsule. It is a good diversion from all the things that occurred to me recently. I decided on human character assassin from Light faction. Which village are you at? I am at the Black rock village." "Oh. I am at Silver leaf village. I also chose human. I chose to be berserker. Best of luck. See you when you come to the city. You are working on killing the wolves from the headman''s request?" "About that. Try taking requests from the temple than the headman. It has better rewards. See you at the city," replied Balthazar. Once, a player reaches level 10 his level and attributes would be capped at level 10 even though the player could keep getting experience points. He got back into the carrot farm and began to attack the rabbits, but only the monster rabbits came towards him once he got into the carrot farm. He realized that it was different from his previous experience when all the rabbits were normal ones and not elites. He slowly carried on killing the elite monster rabbits. Every one of them began to drop a rabbit pelt and a copper or two. They also gave an experience of 5 points each. Soon, he managed to kill up to total 29 of the rabbits, when the monster rabbits began to scurry away from him. Chapter 33 - To Blackrock hills He started to run after the rabbits in the carrot farm, but they completely outpaced him when they are running away and not attacking him. At the end of the farm, he could see a large rabbit with red eyes, fangs and horns. The other rabbits were placing carrots around it. He ate a piece of bread to fill up his HP. [Monster Rabbit Leader] (Special Elite) Level 2 HP 100 As soon as he came into its vicinity. The Rabbit leader began to attack him. It was far quicker than the others. The rabbit bit into his leg, before he could evade. A notification popped up along with a pop up of -5 over his head. "You gave been bitten by Monster Rabbit Leader. Bleed effect has been cast." "You will lose 2 health once every 5 seconds" It was already tough to handle the elite rabbits. Now this special elite even had a skill. None of this was posted on the forum by the person who finished the quest. The rabbit leader was fast but not too fast for him to evade. It also had a higher defense value than the others. Every attack by Balthazar only caused the mandatory damage of 1point. The main problem with the rabbits was that they were small and attacked from multiple directions in a group. When the rabbit leader attacked the rest moved aside to give it space. Noticing this, Balthazar focused his attention only on the rabbit leader. He slowly managed to whittle away its health without other injuries. When the HP of the rabbit leader reached 20, it began to squeal loudly. It went into an enraged state. The squeals were clearly a call for help. A few of the elite monster rabbits joined it in the fight. This was exactly what Balthazar was hoping would not happen. He was already forced to put his entire focus to avoid the skill of the rabbit leader. Now, more of the critters would be supporting it and his remaining health was just 75. The elite monster rabbits along with the leader would easily kill him in a minute. He decided that it would be best to take down the rabbit leader as fast as while allowing the elite monster rabbits to attack him. He quickly ran towards the rabbit leader and sidestepped it as it jumped towards him. He immediately used his stab skill on its back side. Due to the skill usage on a sensitive part of its body, the attack caused a damage of four points. "Stab Skill completion rate:60%, caused 80% skill damage" He quickly followed it and continued to deal damage. In five seconds,he reduced its health to 10. At the same time the elite also reduced his health by 20 points. As the stab skill came off cooldown, he repeated the stab skill, but this time he chose his positioning properly and executed it striking the rabbit leader''s eye. A small red colored -7 popped amidst the string of -1s atop the rabbit leader''s head. "Stab Skill completion rate: 90%, caused 120% skill damage. Proficiency increased by 2 points." He quickly hit the rabbit leader three times with his dagger to end it''s life. He received 30 experience points which is 50% more than the expected amount due to level difference of two. He had only 30 HP left. "Completed quest: Help Hart to get rid of the rabbits from the carrot field. Report back to Hart for your reward." A few of the remaining elite monster rabbits continued to attack him, while the remaining ran away. Balthazar quickly killed the ones attacking him in a couple of minutes and went to loot the rabbit leader. "[Rabbit''s foot - Talisman] (White trash) Level 1 Agility +2; Luck +5; Durability 10/10; To be equipped as an ornament" He finally got it. The only reason for which Balthazar wasted his time on the rabbits which provided little experience points was this. He knew that the chance of getting the rabbit''s foot was low, but if he is the first one to kill it, the chances were a lot high, close enough to consider a guarantee drop. That''s the reason he chose to complete this quest while others were levelling up outside the village. It had been over 30 minutes since he started playing and almost all the players who started at the same time already levelled up. Other than the rabbit''s foot which he immediately equipped, he also looted a pair of monster rabbit fangs, a rabbit skin pelt and 20 coppers from the rabbit leader''s corpse. The corpse immediately turned into white light like the rest. Now, he had a total of 18 rabbit skin pelts and 40 coppers that he received from killing in the carrot farm He quickly went back to Hart''s shop to complete the quest. A quick notification popped up indicating that he had completed the quest and was awarded 50 experience points and 20 coppers. "Player levelled up, need 380 experience points for the next level" Balthazar quickly checked and noticed that his strength and agility increased by two points while the remaining attributes by one point each. He also got 4 more free attribute points. He added 2 points to Strength and a point each to vitality and agility before he set off to exit the village. He bought five health potions and two slowing poison bottles from Hart''s shop. It cost him 50 coppers leaving him a meagre amount of 10 coppers. He also used these 10 coppers to buy a map of the surroundings from Hart. Maps were very useful in making decision in such new places. Though they cost 10 coppers which is hard to earn initially, it is in general recommended to get one. After he spent more than 50 coppers at Hart''s shop, a yellow dot appeared on Hart''s head indicating, that he had another quest. He then remembered that many such NPCs would tend to have hidden conditions like making purchases after the previous quest to give a new one. It was similar to how merchants would get friendly with customers who make more purchases. He immediately asked Hart if he could be of some help to him "A request was made to make a necklace from the shaman of a Jundal tribe. Could you please procure few wolf teeth." "Ding! You received a new quest. Procure wolf teeth for Hart" [Procure wolf teeth for Hart] (Difficulty: Novice) Progress: Wolf teeth obtained 0/30; The first thing he did after that was to equip the rabbit''s foot. Then he went to the weapons trainer to learn the basic Assassin skills. He quickly learned the skill Stealth. "Stealth: Allows a player to move around unnoticed. Skill Level: 1; Instant Cast. Cooldown: 10 seconds." He quickly went outside the village and checked the map. To the left of the village were the red grass plains followed by the Blackrock hills. The right side of the village was the Arwild forest. The path in the middle led to the Red leaf village but was filled with higher level monsters. There was also a small river between the plains and the blackrock hills which fed water to the village. The river thinned at a point, a few miles away from the village. It was sure to have a bridge there. The map only showed the natural structures and not constructions till a person reached that point. But Balthazar from his previous experiences was sure that a bridge would be there. He made his way towards the Blackrock hills. Such areas were always a good source for mining. That would enable him to gather some herbs and iron ores too. So, he set off towards the bridge shown in the map. Soon, he came into contact with the rocky mountain wolves but there were already somebody attacking it. He could see it was a level 2 wolf. This area was the outskirts of the Blackrock hills. This area would be known in a few hours for its abundance of herbs by the river. Only few wolves estranged from their pack would be found alone in this area. There were a group of people clearing the area. [Mountain Wolf] (Common Monster) Level 2 HP: 100 "The Sirius Imperials have taken over this area. Please evacuate." There were more than 30 people from the Sirius Imperials clearing the area. He hated such instances when the large guilds held such clearances of the monster farming areas. But he didn''t have any friends supporting him and could hardly go against 30 people alone. The number of wolves in this area was also very small. A berserker with a long heavy spear approached him. "Couldn''t you hear? The Sirius Imperials are farming here. Get out of here," he said. He was a level 1 berserker and seemed to have already swapped his Level 0 Trash weapon. "Don''t worry. I am not interested in the wolves here. I am going beyond this area," said Balthazar as he quickly ran away and cast stealth. With the amount of attribute point he invested in agility, he was very faster than most of them and manged to get away unscathed. The berserker along with a few others followed him but were unable to reach him. "Forget him, we can kill him if he is found in the area. If he actually goes much deeper than us, the monsters will kill him," said the player leading the group. He was a ranger named ''Blue Dart''. "Make a note of his name - Shadow Tyrant", he continued while attacking a wolf. Balthazar ran into a few more level 2 mountain wolves as he came nearer to the Blackrock hills. He quickly applied the poison and used ambush to attack them. The wolves usually were in packs of three to four. When one of them was attacked by him, the remaining also attacked him. The wolves had two main skills: Rend and Paw attack. Rend causes a bleed attack on the player and paw attack had high damage. The only advantage that Balthazar had was that it was slower than him and he could evade almost all attacks from the wolves, even if 6 of them attacked him together. Moreover, he also applied the slowing poison to his blade, which lasted for 2 hours per bottle. The poison slowed down the wolves and he always used ambush to attack them having an advantage. He also knew that attacks aimed at the weak points of such large monsters are more effective than others. If a person manages to hit the eyes, it can even cause a bleed effect. Each of the mountain wolves gave an experience of 20. By the time, he reached the river separating the fields from the Blackrock hills, he had killed more than 15 wolves and managed to get 10 wolf furs and 12 wolf teeth. He was just 40 exp away from level 2. The wolves hardly gave any coppers. He got only 10 coppers even with the rabbit''s foot. Luckily, he got a long sword among the loot. [One-sided Wooden long sword] (White trash tier, sword) Level 1 Equipment Requirement: Strength 8; Attack Power +8 Durability 15/15 He had a strength of 7 points and it required atleast 8 points in strength for him to equip the sword. In vita-nova, there were no restriction for the weapons based on the occupation, except for a few special ones. An assassin can even equip a mage''s wand and use it to hit. But the skills of a mage couldn''t be used by an assassin, which made it a useless piece of log in his hand. Balthazar thought he could equip the sword, once he reached level 2. Even though he has no skills to be used for the sword, he could at least use it to block monster attacks. He checked the level ranking list and found out that the top 10 were all still at level 1. This implied that he was very close to being in the top. He immediately selected the option to remove his name from the list. At the bridge, there was an old man looking over the bridge. He was an NPC with a yellow dot blinking over him. The usual quest giving NPCs had a yellow dot over them, but not one which blinked. This was a special case, which Balthazar had never seen before. He slowly approached the old man. The man had long pointed ears and Balthazar had found his face very similar to Lucius for some reason. The text above the NPC read "old man Rotar". The NPCs in vita-nova were all very close to characters in real life. They had their own consciousness and intelligence. If they don''t have some restrictions, they would just break the game and be the same as players. As he reached the NPC, he asked, "Respected Sir, you seem to be looking for something. Could I probably help you with something?" "Dear boy, my grandson is on the other side of the bridge. While we were walking through the area, I felt some elf magic over from the depths of the Blackrock hills. My grandson ran towards it as soon as he felt it, but I am unable to cross the river due to a curse in the area. Could you contact him and tell him to come back here before anything untowardly happens to him." "Sure, Sir. But how do I convince him to return?" "You could show him this," said Rotar giving him a small round pin with a symbol of what looked like a griffin on it. "This is my crest. He would recognize it." As he received the pin, he got the notification. [Rotar''s Request: Pass on Rotar''s message to his grandson] (Difficulty: Hard) Quest Description: Convince Rotar''s grandson to return back. Received quest item: Rotar''s crest: Stealth skill level +1; Agility +2; Strength +2; Progress: Find Rotar''s grandson (To be completed); Balthazar was extremely surprised that he had received a quest which was of Hard difficulty. It also provided him with a quest item, which provided him attributes and increased skill level. He was also not overly fond of the quest as there is a high chance that he would be killed in such quests. It would also take a lot more time than the usual quests. He quickly thought about it and the time in the world was displayed to be 12.25 a.m. He still had a lot of time till the morning and decided to complete the quest. Chapter 34 - Rotars Request On the other side of the bridge were the Blackrock Hills. Such hills were a good source of ores and raw materials. He immediately went into stealth. He slowly stalked through along the rocky hills. Along the way, he saw a couple of iron ore veins. He quickly selected the mining pickaxe from his inventory and set to mining the veins. He got a total of 4 iron ores from them. He also saw a few elite mountain wolves of level 3 walking around the hills. But most of them were in groups. So, he walked around the place in stealth searching for lone wolf which, he could take down without losing much health. Soon, he found one and it was drinking water from the river. [Mountain Wolf] (Common Monster) Level 3 HP: 150 Because of the improvement in his Strength and agility due to Rotar''s crest and the poison, he managed ambush it and take it down quickly. Being two levels below the wolf, he had received 50% more experience points. He got a total of 45 experience points which pulled him to level 2. Balthazar got 4 attribute points from the level up. He put two of them in the strength attribute and two in Agility. He also equipped the sword onto his left hand. He checked his attribute panel: Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 2 Exp: 5/800; HP: 400/400; MP: 300/300; Physical Attack: 35 Defense: 6; Attack Speed: 18; Movement Speed: 24; Willpower: 4; Balance: 10; Focus/Search: 10; Toughness: 4; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 2; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 11, Agility 15 , Endurance 4, Intelligence 4, Vitality 5, Perception 4. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0 Weapon Master: Dagger Mastery +5 (Apprentice Rank - Increases Dagger Damage by 5%) Free Master Points: 0 Occupation ability 1: [Ambush]: 20% bonus Attack Damage when attacking an enemy from behind. Occupation ability 2: [Pick pocket]: Can be used to steal money or items from unfriendly NPCs. Skills: Stab. Active skill, Requirement: Dagger, Increases damage by 5 points. Cool down: 5 seconds. Skill level: 1 (Proficiency 7/300) Equipment: [Novice Dagger] (White Trash, Dagger) Level 0 Equipment Requirement: Strength 3 Attack Power +4 Durability 15/15 [Assassin''s Leather Shirt] (White Trash) Level 0 Equipment Requirement: Strength 3 Defense +2 Durability 15/15 [One-sided Wooden long sword] (White trash tier, sword) Level 1 Equipment Requirement: Strength 9; Attack Power +8 Durability 15/15 His increased strength resulted in more attack power and he also had another one-handed weapon he could now use. This almost doubled the damage that he could cause. He began to farm the elite mountain wolves without much delay as he went deeper into the blackrock hills. With his DPS improved due to the sword he equipped, he didn''t have much problem with the elite mountain wolves. Wolves hunt in packs. The same applied for the elite monsters in vita-nova. But this posed little to no problem for Balthazar had already had a decent amount of experience with both the rabbits and common wolves. Though the elite wolves were much faster than the normal ones, almost as much as the rabbits, he didn''t have much issue as they were larger and much easier to spot than the rabbits. This allowed him to evade their attacks easily. Now, he had about 500 experience points. He had already managed to collect 24 wolf furs. He even got 50 coppers. His gains had been very high as he was farming monsters individually and not in a group. About half-an-hour later, he found a very large black wolf. It was at least 40% larger than the usual elites, its skin had a crystal-like sheen and also had a couple of large blackfangs extending from its mouth. It had pitch black eyes and its serrated claws. [Blackrock Wolf] (Special Elite Monster) Level 3 HP: 150 Though it had the same amount of HP as the other elites, it was clear that it had better defenses and even its normal attacks would cause high damage. The serrated claws were almost like knives. As he was observing it in stealth, he noticed that it was going around a large tree. He slowly went around and found a treasure chest. It was a Black-Iron treasure chest. At the preliminary stages of the game, any such chest would be very valuable. Any weapon if obtained from such a chest would be a definite improvement over the ones, he is using. Suddenly, he noticed that the wolf made a running leap towards the tree. A quick flash came struck the wolf as it fell down. There was a young man wearing a hood on the tree. There was a dot blinking on the figure. It was changing colors yellow and green alternately. "Quest updated: Rotar''s Request: Rotar''s grandson is found. Help him fight the monster or escape from the monster." He realized that he luckily stumbled on to the quest objective. Though the attack cause the wolf to fall down, it didn''t reduce its health at all. He realized that it was just a video and the wolf wouldn''t actually lose a health till he joined the fight. But the wolf appeared to be very fast and strong from the attack it just did on the NPC. But he steeled himself to complete his quest and decided to attack the beast. Even if he died, he would only lose about 10% of his experience points and he could easily farm it from the elite wolves again. He went into stealth and slowly moved towards the blackrock wolf. As it was a special elite, there was a high chance that it might be able to detect him while he was in stealth. So, he was more careful than usual. He also used the second bottle of poison onto his dagger. He saw the wolf began to run was about to make an attack on the NPC again. Just as the wolf was about to jump, he came out of stealth and swung his sword with full force against its face. "Ding!" The plan worked the wolf stumbled and fell down by the roots of the tree, with a red number -15 over its head. But the clash also caused Balthazar to fly and smash into the tree. He lost health of 60 HP. He tried to get up but for some reason was unresponsive. He immediately checked the notifications. "Blackrock wolf''s rush attack caused a dizzy effect. Player will be in an unresponsive state for 2 seconds." Two seconds were enough for the beast to easily empty half of his HP bar. He began to regret his foolish choice to swing the sword at its eyes. Even though it caused the beast to lose 10% of its HP, it also caused him to lose more than that. He would be surprised if he had 40% of his HP bar remaining by the time, he would be able to move. Just as the wolf was about to attack him. The NPC jumped down the tree landing on the wolf with his sword piercing through wolf. A red number 50 appeared on the wolf''s head. With a single strike the NPC managed to reduce a third of the wolf''s HP bar. "Bold adventurer, help me kill this wolf. We can''t let it call for reinforcements," said the NPC pulling him up. The NPC had a sword in one hand, a triangular shield in the other and wore a pitch black armor and cape. He was clearly a knight. From the damage he caused the wolf, he is probably a level 3 or level 4 character. Balthazar immediately went into stealth. But it was clear that the wolf could notice him. He recognized that he managed to attack it the first time just because it was focused on the NPC. As he was slowly walking to the side of the wolf, the NPC ran towards the wolf holding its shield in front. It bashed the wolf with its shield, stunning the wolf in place. Balthazar also took the chance and used Ambush and Stab skills with his poisoned dagger. The poison caused the wolf to slow down a bit. Balthazar continued to support the NPC and slowly managed to reduce the HP of the wolf to critical health. As soon as the HP of the wolf came down to 20, it started to back off. This was a special elite which ran away when enraged. This showed how intelligent the creators made the monsters, even the ones at low levels. "Don''t let it escape. It will call for reinforcements again," shouted the NPC. Balthazar having a high movement speed and could quickly go behind the wolf and tried to block its path of retreat. Even though he had very little defence as an assassin, he could still stop it with his body while losing HP. It would be a total waste of time and a lot more troublesome, if he let it escape for reinforcements. With Balthazar and NPC flanking from opposite sides, its health quickly dwindled to nothing. The wolf had given him an abundant amount of experience points amounting to 120 exp. This was more than double the amount that he received for completion of his previous quest. But Balthazar had only 40 HP remaining by the time, they managed to finish off the Blackrock wolf. He quickly put in a piece of bread in his mouth as he bent down to loot it. He pulled out a pair of leather boots. [Wolf skin boots] (Black Iron, leather boots) Level 3 Equipment requirement: Agility: 12; Endurance: 6; Effects: Agility +6; Vitality +4; Special Effect: Dash: Allows a sudden movement in the forward direction upto 5 feet. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Balthazar only needed 180 experience points to level up. Killing a pack of 5 elite wolves would allow him to do that. Then, he would have an increase in endurance and level and could equip the boots. He threw them into his inventory and continued to check for loot. He quickly fished out 4 wolf teeth making the total amount he got to 48. He also got 2 wolf furs and 1 silver coin. This was the first time he got a silver coin. One silver valued to 100 coppers, one gold valued to 100 silvers and a platinum to 10 gold coins. This was the currency system used by the vita-nova as in other V.R. games. As the wolf turned to light and disappeared, the NPC was waiting for him to finish looting came towards him. "I am Elias Rotar," he introduced himself. "I believe my grandfather sent you for me," he continued pointing at Rotar''s crest quest item pinned on Balthazar''s belt. "Yes, Mr Elias. I have indeed been sent by him. He asked me to request that you return as soon as possible," said Balthazar. "I understand that my grandfather is worried about me, but I can feel that a heirloom of my family is very close to this location. Could you please help me find and retrieve it?" asked Elias. A quick notification sounded in Balthazar''s ears. "Help Elias secure his family heirloom or escort him back to his grandfather." "OK," said Balthazar involuntarily, as he didn''t know what to do. "Quest updated: Rotar''s Request: Rotar''s grandson wants to retrieve his family heirloom. Help him retrieve it." "Follow me," said Elias as he began to walk. "Wait a minute. There is a chest behind the tree. I want to open it," said Balthazar. He quickly went to the chest. He tried to open the chest, but it was locked. The unlock skill can be learn''t after reaching level 2 from the trainer in the village. But he hadn''t returned to the village after he reached level 2. As he was wondering what to do Elias came by his side. "What''s the delay?" he asked. "The treasure chest is locked," said Balthazar in a dejected manner. He had to come back another time for the treasure chest but by that time, he was sure that the Sirius Imperials would occupy the area. Suddenly he had an idea. "Can you open it?" he asked Elias. NPCs usually don''t open treasure chests, but he thought that there would be no harm in trying, especially when the NPC in question was being very polite and helpful. "Move aside," he said as he swung his shield down on the lock with great force. "CLACK!" The lock of the chest broke open and was lying by the chest in pieces. "Thank you, Elias," said Balthazar bowing his head as he reached for the chest. He slowly removed the contents of the chest. [Tough leather gloves] (Black Iron, leather gloves) Level 3 Equipment Requirements: Vitality 6; Effects: Strength +5; Endurance +6; Special Effect: Toughen: Increase both physical and magical defence by 10% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds. He also found a blueprint. It was for a long bow. [Light Bow] (Black Iron long bow) Level 3: Materials Required: Iron Ore x 5; Black rock crystal fragments x 2; Effects: Agility +2; Perception +6; Causes 20% more damage against the members of the warg and worgen families. Though it had no special effects, it was quite a decent long bow. Equipment which improved perception are very useful. Rangers and Assassins are most commonly used as scouts in new maps and also for pulling monsters. So, a high perception value to the weapons of any of these two professions is a very desirable attribute. There was another item still in the Treasure chest. He quickly pulled it out and found it to be a blackrock crystal. Rare materials like these are very useful. He worked in Rudra''s workshop for 5 years and during this time, he learnt about various materials and their uses. He also remembered that the 1st rate guild Ranger Estate, had taken over the Blackrock hills when they found out that the Blackrock crystal was very useful in creating weapons that could hurt worgens. Though the blackrock crystal can be used for making a long bow by breaking it into crystal fragments. It would be a total waste of a rare material. "Come on, let''s go. They seem to be doing some kind of ritual. We must hurry," said Elias leading the way. Along the way, they ran into a few packs of elite wolves, but they were easily killed by the combination of the knight and assassin. They managed to kill a special elite already, normal elites were no trouble for them at all. But Elias almost always block their attacks without evading. This cause his health to go down steadily. Luckily Elias seemed to have brought his own food. After each fight, he ate a small amount of food the pulled up his HP bar to the full state. As both Elias and Balthazar killed them together, the NPC also got a share of the experience points from the wolves. Within 20 minutes, Balthazar leveled up again. As soon as he reached level 3, he put in two attribute points to agility, one to endurance and the last to strength. This allowed him to equip the new boots and the gloves. His agility crossed over 20 points which enabled the special trait - "Nimble movements". When fighting against monsters with your health below 30%, your focus increases by 10%. This is very useful when fighting against higher leveled monsters. Chapter 35 - The Cave and The Worgen Balthazar continued to follow Elias along a rocky path on the Blackrock hills. He occasionally saw a treasure chest along the path but couldn''t stop to loot them as Elias didn''t stop on the way. After a few minutes, a light enveloped around Elias as he leveled up. In vita-nova, even NPCs acc.u.mulate experience points and level up similar to the players. After the level up, the speed with which they went through the hills with much higher speed. An hour later, they reached a small black cave. There were a bunch of wolves numbering about twenty monsters patrolling the entrance. A couple of the special elites were also along with the pack of wolves at the cave. Balthazar quickly pulled behind a large boulder to hide. "There are far too many wolves there. Why don''t I attract a few monsters which we can take down first? We can slowly take them down in smaller numbers. It would safer this way," suggested Balthazar to Elias. "OK. We can try that, but I doubt the blackrock wolves wouldn''t be easily fooled to leave the entrance," said Elias and began to wait behind the boulder. "Attack them only after I give the signal," said Balthazar as he moved out He quickly picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it on one of the elite wolves at the edge of the pack. This attracted a small pack of 4 of them towards Balthazar. Balthazar quickly ran towards Elias. After he reached close enough to Elias, he said in a loud voice, "Attack!". Elias quickly rushed towards the wolves and smashed his shield against the wolves. Being attacked by both Elias and Balthazar, the wolves were taken down in a minute. In this way, they managed to take down all the elite wolves but the blackrock wolves wouldn''t budge however many times he tried. "As I told you the blackrock wolves wouldn''t move away from their guard positions," said Elias. He quickly took off towards the cave entrance and dashed towards a blackrock wolf and with his usual attack of smashing them with his shield. Even though Balthazar donned two equipment and both Balthazar and Elias managed to level up since the took down the first blackrock wolf, they had a very hard time to take the two wolves down. Both the blackrock wolves tried to flank them from two sides continuously. Balthazar had to run around one of the wolves and distract it continuously from Elias, till he managed to kill the other one. Though he had a very high speed, the blackrock wolf was not slow and every attack from it cause a bleed effect if it hit him. Being an assassin, his defence and toughness was very low. So, Balthazar became walking pincushion trying to distract the blackrock wolf. By the time, Elias was finished with one wolf, Balthazar had almost died. He had to take a health potion to stay alive. Elias began to attack the other wolf after he killed one and this gave Balthazar a small reprieve. He quickly went out to recover a bit of his health before he joined Elias back in the fight. He also found a blackrock crystal and wolf fang from each of the blackrock wolves. After looting the wolves, they slowly went into the cave. The cave was completely devoid of the wolves. It was pitch black inside without a single light. Elias pulled out a small torch and lit it. Then they could see that the wall of the cave was black and crystalline. Balthazar was shocked to see the cave. He quickly pulled out his pickaxe and struck the wall and a small black crystal fragment fell down, which he immediately picked up. "Blackrock crystal fragment found. Can combine 10 fragments to form a blackrock crystal" "What are you doing?" asked Elias stopping Balthazar. "We need to be quiet. Follow me silently," he continued as he moved deeper into the cave. It was like a long tunnel. After they continued for a quarter mile into the cave, red light fell onto the floor from the far end of the cave. They silently continued forward towards the red light. As they reached the end of the tunnel, they found a large enclosure. There was a bright red altar at the centre of the enclosure. There was a blackrock wolf bleeding from its neck and floating on the altar. Four elite wolves were at four corners of the altar and seemed to be connected by a string of blood. An emaciated looking worgen in front of the altar holding a large sceptre with a large red ember at its top. A two feet long shield was between the alter and the worgen. The same picture of the griffin that was on the Rotar''s crest quest item was there one the shield. The red light was radiating from the worgen and it sceptre. A flickering small dark portal was slowly being formed atop the bleeding blackrock wolf. He was definitely a worgen summoner who is in the midst of some kind of ritual. "The shield it was using as a medium is surely the family heirloom that Elias is searching," thought Balthazar. [Arsenus the Summonner](Worgen Boss) Level 5; HP:2000 "How dare the worgen use, my family''s heirloom as a medium for their ungodly rituals," shouted Elias as he ran towards the worgen summoner. The worgen seemed to be completely involved in the ritual and didn''t notice till Elias hit him. "Quest updated: Rotar''s Request: Help Elias Rotar stop the ritual to open the gate to the Wolhiem kingdom, get rid of the worgen menace and take back the heirloom shield." With hardly any other option left, Balthazar went after Elias towards the worgen which was in the middle of a ritual. It was definitely a good option to attack the mage while in middle of the ritual. As soon as Elias hit Arsenus, a shockwave emanated from Arsenus. It blew back both Elias and Balthazar into the walls of the enclosure. Balthazar immediately got up and saw that a large amount of mana was being gathered from the four wolves around the altar to a large red ball atop Arsenus. He immediate realised that to be the animation before fire shower. It was a skill that mages could learn after level 40 and it had a strong blow back effect. "Why would a level 5 boss, be using such a high-level skill?" thought Balthazar as he ran towards Arsenus to interrupt him. But however, much he and Elias hit Arsenus, it wouldn''t budge or move. It just continued casting its skill without losing its health. There seemed to some sort of invisible shield covering him. This continued till the fire shower skill was cast. A large number of fire balls plummeted down on Balthazar and Elias. They exploded on touching any surface. The explosions threw anyone that touched it to the walls of the enclosure. Balthazar evaded the balls with great skill but finally one of them hit him. After his level up to level 3 and he equipped the gloves and boots, his HP raised to 850 points. But still a single hit cost him a third of his health. This was much better than what he expected. As much ash he remembered the original skill always took out more than 20000 HP from a player easily. "The skill was probably toned down to level 5 to match the boss," he thought. He immediately got up and went into stealth. Arsenus was focused on Elias who was consistently blocking the balls with his shield. After the fire shower, Arsenus continued to bombard Elias with the basic mage skill ''Fire ball''. He quickly sneaked to the back of Arsenus and used Ambush to attack him. But the result was same. He was still protected. He turned around and whacked Balthazar with his sceptre. This caused Balthazar to fly away losing another 20% of his health, even though he managed to block the sceptre with his daggers. He had only 20% of his health and was in a critical situation. He finally realized that he needed to somehow get rid of the shield, before he attacks Arsenus again. He ran around the place observing the transparent shield of mana around Arsenus. Suddenly realization struck him as he realized that the shield is made of mana and every magic has a mana source. The mana shield was up even when Arsenus was casting fire shower. The only other source of mana, he could observe was the four wolves around the altar which were connected to the heirloom shield. Even the quest update was hinting the same. It told him to disrupt the ritual. Attack Arsenus wasn''t disrupting the ritual at all. He immediately began attacking the wolf nearest him. They didn''t have any shield over them and began to lose health quickly. "How dare a mere human adventurer dare to stop me!" shouted Arsenus turning towards Balthazar. He began throwing fireballs at him. But with his speed, he easily evaded the fireballs without stopping his assault on the wolf. "Let me see how you persist with your annoyance," said Arsenus after the wolf lost half its health and immediately a transparent shield appeared over the wolf. Balthazar was surprised but it didn''t stop him. He quickly moved to the next wolf. Withing two minutes, two other wolves also lost half their health and a shield was placed on them by Arsenus. As Balthazar began to attack the last of the four elite wolves, Arsenus started the fire shower spell again. The mana around him started to condense into a large fire ball above Arsenus. Having seen the animation for fire shower, Balthazar began to retreat immediately. "Don''t stop. He can''t put a shield on the last one. If he does, the shield around him will weaken," shouted Elias. "Wow! What a helpful NPC?!" thought Balthazar as he resumed his assault on the wolf. In a few seconds, the last wolf was also covered with a shield as it lost its health. Arsenus lost the shield around him at the same time, but he continued with incantation of the fire shower without stopping. Balthazar started towards Arsenus but he knew he wouldn''t make it in time to disrupt him. Luckily, Elias bashed his shield into Arsenus and interrupted his spell. The mana around went berserk and the large fire ball above Arsenus dropped directly onto him. Both Arsenus and Elias was surrounded by the flames and were in the explosion. They were inflicted with a large amount of high damage. They were also blown back from the altar towards the walls of the enclosure due to the resulting shockwave. Even Balthazar flew into the altar. Smoke filled up the entire enclosure. A notification popped up in front of Balthazar. "Elias suffered high amount of burn damage. Rescue him. Death of Elias will result in failure of the quest." The ritual finally stopped. The red light that was emanating from the shield and summoner ceased. Even the wolves fell down unconscious. Balthazar started to look around in search for Elias. As he got up his feet hit something metallic and dull gong sounded out. The heirloom shield was at his feet. He tried to lift it up, but it was too heavy. He didn''t have the adequate strength to use it. As he couldn''t use it, he ran into the smoke in search of Elias. Unable to find him, Balthazar began to shout for him. But the first to notice him was the Summoner a couple of fireballs smashed into him. The only upside of the situation was that the explosions cleared the smoke around him. He could finally notice Elias through the smoke. He was squatting down behind his shield, tired and still burning. Being a knight, he had a high resistance against physical attack but not much against magic and burn damage. He had only 5% HP remaining. He made a running sprint towards Elias. "Elias, take a potion" he shouted giving him a small green potion. Elias quickly downed the potion and quickly regained his health. A basic healing potion healed up 800 HP but that filled up only 30% oh his HP bar. Fire balls soon came onto both Elias and Balthazar. Balthazar quickly began running towards the altar. "Follow me," he shouted to Elias. As they reached the altar the elite wolves immediately attacked them. "Don''t worry about them. Your family''s shield lies on the ground before the altar. Take it and use it," said Balthazar. "I should be wielded only by the worthy, I can''t use it without permission from the elders," replied Elias. "Use it for now, else we might lose the shield to him and no one wants that," said Balthazar pointing towards Arsenus. "You fools! if it was that easy to use the shield, I wouldn''t have been using it as a simple medium for my magic," said Arsenus laughing in a howl. "Okay. What you say makes sense," said Elias as he unequipped his own shield and equipped the shield on the ground. Chapter 36 - Unwanted Fame A bright pure white light shone from the shield as Elias equipped it. It spread around Elias and his health increased till the health bar filled up and beyond. It looked like Elias leveled up but it wasn''t the so. The HP and MP bars that were visible above him were overflowing. "Impossible!" shouted Arsenus pointing at Elias. "The shield! You can use it. What is a member of the Rotar lineage doing this far from the elven lands?" Just as Arsenus finished with his exclamation, the fluctuating portal above the altar suddenly went berserk. It began to absorb the mana and a black substance started pouring out of it. "You imbeciles! You broke the connection between the shield and the portal. I need to return before the portal closes. You will pay for this," shouted Arsenus as he bolted toward the portal and through it. As soon as he got into the portal, a shock wave emanated from the portal. Elias jumped in front of Balthazar shielding him from the shock wave. A notification popped up in front of Balthazar at the same time. "Successfully prevented the attempt of Great Worgen Sorcerer Arsenus from opening a portal in the White Heart Kingdom of Man." "Light faction Reputation +50" "White heart Kingdom Reputation + 100" "Blackrock village Reputation +200" "Worgen Reputation -200" Balthazar was very happy when he saw the notifications. It is very hard to obtain light faction reputation. He had never heard of a way to earn it in the beginner village. These were hardest and rarest kind of reputation. But he suddenly got 50 at once. "Come on, it is best we leave these hills as soon as possible," said Elias bringing his thoughts back to the cave. They quickly ran back through the tunnel to exit the cave. As they reached the tunnel opening, they saw the old man Rotar flying towards the cave. He landed direct in front of Balthazar and Elias. "Bold Adventurer. My thanks for helping my grandson. It must have not been easy to fight someone who managed to put a field that reduces others power. I am but an old sorcerer and very useless without my magic," said Rotar to Balthazar. "Glad to be of help to you or any other members of the Light faction," replied Balthazar trying to butter up the NPC. "That was very reckless of you to go into such danger alone," said Rotar looking at Elias. "I understand grandfather. But it was worth it," replied Elias showing him the heirloom shield. "How could it be? The lost shield of ancient King Rotar!" exclaimed the old man examining the shield in his hand. "Your attempt is indeed worth it." "Hold on to it. You found it. It chose to signal to you. You are its rightful owner by all means. I doubt the family would disagree with that," he continued. He then pulled out a gold treasure chest. "Consider this a token of gratitude from this old elf," he said pushing it into Balthazar''s hands. "I had these for a long time but was unable to use them. I hope they would be put to good use in your hands." "Quest Completed: Rotar''s Request: Successfully escorted Elias to old man Rotar." Performance: Excellent. "Experience gained: 1200" "Quest Item: Rotar''s crest returned" "Light elf reputation +50" "Your relationship with Light elves changed from Neutral to Friendly" He immediately leveled up. He was now level 4 and probably would be at the top of the level rankings if he opted for displaying his identity. He immediately checked his attribute panel Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 4 Exp: 240/1600 HP: 1200/1200; MP: 600/600; Physical Attack: 35 Defense: 16; Attack Speed: 24; Movement Speed: 30; Willpower: 6; Balance: 15; Focus/Search: 15; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 4; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 17, Agility 20 , Endurance 11, Intelligence 6, Vitality 10, Perception 6. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 4 "World Announcement: Player Shadow Tyrant of the Light faction is the first one to complete a special quest. Unlocked the special level 5 dungeon ''Cave of Wargs'' at the blackrock hills." Balthazar was completely shocked by this new announcement. He had never heard of this special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs''. "Maybe the person who took this quest in his previous life failed to complete it," thought Balthazar. Meanwhile the control staff who heard it were shocked. These guys had a single job. It is to make sure that no player is cheating. "It had been only 90 minutes in real life since the game launched. How could have someone already finished a special quest?" "How many players were involved? Which guild?" "It was a lone assassin." "A single player finished a special quest? Contact the developer involved. Check the logs for case of any tampering or evidence of third-party software. These special quests were meant to be secret and very hard to complete. I refuse to believe that someone managed to do it when people still are getting used to the control of their characters." A few moments later all his doubts were answered. There was no tampering of any kind noticed. The developer in charge of the quest also connected to the control room. "What kind of quest did you create? Someone completed it within the first 4 hours of his game. Isn''t it supposed to be one of the hard ones?" asked the person who is leading the team in the control room. "All special quest are hard. It was created for characters below level 5. Even finding the bridge so quickly is very hard. We didn''t expect any one to reach such long distance alone. The greater number of people in the team that takes the quest, the harder it would get. It is very hard to believe that a lone assassin would go and finish it so fast in the game." "But what about the world announcement weren''t these special quest announcements to be kept personal and not a world announcement." "That I agree is something that we didn''t expect. There are level 2 and 4 dungeons in the villages. Who would expect that someone would finish a special quest before those? The first announcement by default was to be made a world announcement to inspire the players," said the developer. "F.u.c.k that. I will put the same in my report then. Make sure that such mistakes are not there in the rest of the code." "Already on it. I would still suggest you check the player for tampering and also his ID. No virtual gamer would be able to adapt that fast to game mechanics. Especially when the fights really hurt the person," said the developer. "We have already done. There is no tampering and apparently someone the person the big boys upstairs decided to put under observation. Apparently, he has a very high adaptation rate and they want us to not concern with him," said an employee suddenly. "I just got the message directly from Constantine''s special team when I checked for tampering." Everyone was shocked to find out that this man was someone the special team was monitoring. The special team was made to check for perspective candidates who could be valuable assets for the military. Both for teaching and executive positions. They were also probable recruits for the alpha team for operating the bio-warframes the Scions of Minerva were working on. The members of the control team were shocked that someone already showed potential for the special team to start monitoring. It was expected to not have any proper searches in the first two day. In fact, they expected that before the general level reached 40 or 50, no person wouldn''t interest them much. "If that is the case, we better forget about the individual and continue with our work. There are bound to be exceptions in everything. Be glad that our efforts to recruit possible members are already showing fruition," said the team leader. Balthazar was already having trouble due to the announcement. He already began to receive many friend invites. Some guilds were also requesting him to join them, including the Sirius Imperials who just an hour ago threatened him. He quickly disabled new friend requests and muted the world and faction chats. It was very irritating to hear the constant buzz of notification from them. He received a call from Rudra. "Dude! Is it really you, whom the world announcement was about?" "Yes." "Man! What level are you at? I don''t see your name in the leader boards." "I am at level 4 and I opted out from being displayed on it. I don''t need unwanted fame. The world announcement is already very troubling." "You got anything good from the quest. Will check and tell you. I didn''t even get a chance to check my rewards since the announcement." "How do you transport to the new dungeon reported in the world announcement. I can''t see it anywhere on the teleportation point at the village here." "I have no idea. There is a cave in front of me but there is no NPC or anything here. Maybe it would be accessible if I go back and return to the cave." "The world announcements are filled requests to provide the location of the new dungeon. Some idiots are even threatening. It is best that you put in a comment sometime soon before they decide to hunt you." "I will put a notice in the world chat once, I find out how to access it. Or I will just tell them I don''t know. If they want to waste their time trying to hunt me. I will indulge them. I am not much concerned about a few overexcited idiots." "Just contact me if you need any support. I am already gathering a few members to form a team. See you," said Rudra cutting the call. He was with Slaine and a few other he found at the Silver leaf village. They were at level 2 and attempting the dungeon quest. Dungeon were special places to which the players were transported to from the teleportation centre. The dungeons in general were easily accessible from the teleportation point but the new one wasn''t visible. All they had to do was pay a teleportation charge to enter the dungeon. Even if they weren''t accessible, they would be visible but grayed out. "He doesn''t know about it," said Rudra. "Maybe it will open up once we hit level 5. No one has reached that the required level anyway." "That is not what I am concerned with. Some are thinking that he might be using it as a private dungeon," replied Slaine. "You know that such fame could make him a target." "He can handle the irrational idiots himself. Such kind hardly have any decent firepower. Moreover, he has been famous in the world out there too for quite some time. Even before the recent incidents. He has experience handling such people," said Rudra calming down Slaine. "Let us go finish the dungeon. This is the last try for today," said Rudra in the team chat as he selected to teleport them into the level 2 Instance dungeon - Corrupted Forest. Balthazar after ending his call immediately set for to open the golden chest. When he opened it, a large light flew from the chest into the air and three items floated up and began to hover in front of him. They were bright and reflecting light as if covered by some kind of mana shield The first one he took was a light green badge that seemed to be made of wood. It had the same griffon symbol that was there on the heirloom shield. [Rotar clan guest badge] (Bronze Accessory, Badge) Level 0 Agility +4; Bound to Shadow Tyrant. Passive Effects: 1. Blessing of the Forest: Would have a 5% increase in Agility when in forest or woody areas. 2. Provides access to elven lands of Ilis Valion, the fief of the Rotar family. Active Effects: 1. Forest cure: Heals 10% of health or 150HP (whichever is lower) instantaneously. This would be a very useful badge. The Passive effects are rare ones. But the active effect would hardly be useful after level 10. "Still, I can use it right now," thought Balthazar as he equipped the badge and immediately took the second item. It was a small book with the name Research written on it and a small name Archibald. [Archibald Rotar''s research records] (Silver Book) Level 0 Contains the scribbles of the great mage Archibald Rotar, made during his youth. Balthazar quickly opened it and went through the book. It contained random titbits of information on basics of potions, engineering, magic runes and the like. For Balthazar who remembered these for a long time, it was practically useless. But given to Rudra, it can be put to good use. Luckily it was not bound to him like the previous item from the loot. The third item among them had the most intriguing appearance. So, Balthazar saved it for last. It was a black mask with a scaly lizard-like appearance and silver runes glistening on it. Occasionally small gold line moved across the mask like it was being scanned. [Mask of Shadows] (Unique Mask, Upgradeable) Level 0 Equipment requirement: User must be either an Assassin or Swordsman. "It is a Unique equipment!". There are various kinds of equipment in vita-nova. But unique equipment tend to have very useful special properties. It may either be beneficial to him or worsen his condition. He also heard that they tend to be bound and can only be lost in special circ.u.mstances. If he could use it properly and upgrade it, it would be a strong piece of equipment. But if he failed to do so, it would be more detrimental. In his previous life, few experts also complained about these Unique equipment. Also, these unique items tend to take up the slot for the accessory or equipment permanently. As long as he had it, he wouldn''t be able to equip any other accessory or equipment of the same type. They also didn''t show their attributes and effects beforehand. It would be a complete leap of faith to bind these to oneself. As he was considering whether to use it or not, a notification popped up. "Do you wish to equip and bind the mask?" "Screw it. It is not like my livelihood depends on this game. I have more things to worry about than this," thought Balthazar clicking on bind option. The mask immediately flew from his hands and covered his face automatically. Chapter 37 - The Mask of Shadows As the mask covered his face, his went blind for a second. A large surge of power passed through his body from the mask. It felt like hot molten wax was poured on his face. His body was paralyzed, and his level began to fall down but the attributes of his body remained the same. It had improved his constitution, but it threw him back to level 2. This allowed him a great deal of advantage at the initial stages of the game. If he received the same amount of free attribute points and fixed attributes with every level up, he would be stronger than all the others at the same level. He finally realized how the experts who had the unique equipment could be so tyrannical. With better attributes than the rest of the crowd, it would be easy work to dispose of them. "I guess this is the reason, we never became a first-rate guild in my previous life," thought Balthazar. "I wonder what more features does a unique equipment provide?" wondered Balthazar as he checked the stats of the Mask of Shadows. [Mask of Shadows] (Unique Mask, Upgradeable) Level 0 Bound to Shadow Tyrant. Focus/Search +10; Willpower+5; Magic Resist: +10; Intelligence +5; Vitality +5; Perception +5; Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level. Passive Effects: 1. Enhanced Stealth: Stealth can''t be detected by higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher. 2. Enhanced Perception: Can identify higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher when they are in stealth. Equipment can be leveled up by absorbing the life essences of 500 creatures of the dark faction. Additional skills: 1. Shadow Clone: Instantly creates a clone with 50% of the attributes and all equipment and skills. It can be controlled by the user. Duration: 20 seconds; Cooldown: 5 minutes. 2. Shadow Swap: Can swap one''s position with that of an ally or clone. Cooldown: 10 minutes. 3. Disguise: Can change one''s appearance to another form. Cannot change to another occupation or race. Duration: Persists until any damage is received or till the user stops the skill manually; Cooldown: 20 minutes. (Warning: Higher-level monsters and NPCs would be able to see through your disguise.) A mask whose story is lost to the ages past. Damaged to an extent that it could hardly be recognized, the fae and elven magics cast on it barely protecting it. Find out more about its heritage for without knowing its past, it wouldn''t stay long in your hands. Balthazar was giddy with excitement when he saw the attributes and effects of the mask. Just the stealth features alone would make him extremely strong at PVP. The shadow clone and swap are game breaking as much as he was concerned, but the only problem was that the swap could only be done with an ally. If it were possible even with enemies, he could swap himself with them whenever he was in a troublesome situation. Luckily, he could do the same with his clone. As for swapping with an ally, that sounded something that would be useful to a guardian. Disguise skill can be used to escape from players, but the warning made him wonder the situation with NPCs. Almost all the NPCs in any village, town or city were higher-leveled than him. It looked like a practically useless skill as he would never have much problem escaping from other player with his enhanced stealth and perception. The only thing he was confused about were his level dropping down and the upgrade condition. What does creatures of the dark faction mean? Any creature affiliated with the dark faction, dark attributed creatures or does have to go to the lands of the dark faction. The last one is mostly unlikely as access to those lands was obtained a long time later. "Anyway, I will learn about it after I kill a few monsters," thought Balthazar. He quickly checked his attributes panel before he departed back to the village. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 2 Exp: 0/400 HP: 1200/1200; MP: 600/600; Physical Attack: 25 Defense: 16; Attack Speed: 19; Movement Speed: 21; Willpower: 11; Balance: 20; Focus/Search: 25; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 8; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 12, Agility 14, Endurance 5, Intelligence 11, Vitality 13, Perception 11. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 4 "The unallocated attribute points from the previous level still remained," thought Balthazar. "I will use them later." He also noticed that the attributes and the effects of the gloves and shoes he was wearing grayed out. The attributes from these equipment weren''t showing in his attribute panel as well. "The probably will become available after I reach level 3 again," thought Balthazar. He never faced the scenario where he could equip the equipment before he reached the required level. Along the way, he managed to clear a few more elite wolves by the time he reached the river over the bridge. The riverbed had a lot of blue weed and red weed which were quite useful in creating potions. As soon as he began to collect them, a notification popped up. "Secondary profession Herbalism acquired. All four slots for secondary professions filled." "Herbalism proficiency +1; Experience points +1;" "Well, I can leave the alchemy later, if I want something else," thought Balthazar and continued to collect the weed along the river. He slowly moved away from the bridge along the river till he began to see the members of the Sirius Imperials who were searching along the opposite bank of the river. "I better make myself scarce before these guys come after me. They were already angry that I came into the Blackrock hills. After the world announcement they might even be actively searching for me," thought Balthazar as he made his way back to the bridge. Reaching the bridge, he went into stealth, crossed the bridge and made his way to the village. By that time, he had already gathered 5 stacks of blue weed and 5 stacks of red weed. Each stack consisted of 20 weeds. He had also gathered about 100 experience points and herbalism proficiency by 20 points from gathering the weeds. After gathering a few herbs of the same type no more proficiency would be gained. He had already finished the requirement for the quests he had taken but the experience gained would immediately level him up. So, he decided to the teleportation portal to go to the dungeon. Else he wouldn''t get any decent experience from the dungeons if he was higher leveled. As he reached the village gate, he noticed that the Sirius Imperials had already men positioned at the gate in search for him. He was sure that they would also be position at the teleportation point. "Well, the disguise skill of my mask would finally be of some use," thought Balthazar. He immediately selected the disguise skill. "Is there any character you want to disguise as?" came the notification. "If I took the appearance of someone else, it might cause troubles. It is best if I just change my appearance a bit," thought Balthazar and clicked no. "You can change to any random appearance or slowly modify your appearance," came another notification. Balthazar chose to change his appearance. As soon as he selected that a 3D image of him appeared in front of him. He changed his facial features to match his sisters and also changed his eye and hair colors and increased his hair length. It gave him a feminine appearance. But he was fine with it. He also changed the appearance of his equipment slightly. Once, he was satisfied that he wouldn''t be identified, he confirmed the appearance. "Would you like to change the name of the disguise?" After a minute of thinking, Balthazar decided on a name typed it in. Disguised as a different thief named ''fleet-footed rogue'' he walked through the gate. He first made his way to the thief trainer. He still hasn''t learned the skill lockpicking. This would be a very useful skill, even in dungeons. He quickly paid the trainer for the skill and received 5 lock-picks and the skill book from the trainer. After that, he went to the teleportation point and quickly teleported to the dungeon entrance. As he reached the dungeon entrance, he found a large number of players in groups going in to the dungeon - Corrupted forest. The maximum limit for a team entering this dungeon was 5 members. There were a lot of independent players too. They were talking to each other trying to form groups for the dungeon. Some groups who required were even shouting that they required a tank or priest or a DPS class for their group. He also kept hearing players talk about the progress of teams belonging to various guilds. Most them were guild members publicizing their guild. Some were even telling that a team in the fae country managed to clear the dungeon and they didn''t receive notification as it was a different race of the light faction. The dungeons were always a good source of equipment at the early game stage. When the player levels were below 5 the dungeons were especially useful for collecting Black Iron quality equipment. These were hardly dropped by mob. Only boss level monsters would drop them and dungeons always spawned boss level monsters. Though Balthazar had equipment better than most of the players, there were still various kinds of equipment he could use. Even his weapon was a White trash one. So, dungeon was definitely a good method. He would also get decent amount of experience along with equips in a dungeon. He quickly began to search for people asking for DPS members or scouts. He also started to shout that he was a DPS and a scout. He went to ask a couple of small groups whose composition looked like they required. But they replied that they had a member coming. Suddenly a mage from a group of females called out to him. "Are you any good at scouting?" she asked. It was an elementalist. "I am good enough for the Corrupted forest dungeon. I have already reached till the boss once. I can lead the way up till Vultarc with ease," replied Balthazar looking at the elementalist. She was a group of three with a priest and a female knight. The priest and knight alongside pulled her to the side. "What are you doing? I told you that I can ask my friends from Sirius Imperials to help us" asked the priest named little white feet. She was short and cute and looked like a secondary school student. "Yes. It is better we go with them rather than a completely new face. Moreover, he has only reached level 2 and looks weird. He couldn''t have reached till the last boss. He is obviously bluffing," said the knight named Tang and Spicy. The elementalist quickly put up her hand to stop them. "I already told you that I have received a special quest from the temple and learnt a special inspection skill, right? I already checked him twice. He is wearing level 3 equipment somehow and also his character goes all grey when I examine it. He might be using some kind of disguise. He definitely has some secret and is definitely capable as evident from his equipment," she said. "All the more reason for us to not trust him," said little white feet in a way that suggested it was an obvious choice. "Still better than the idiots from Sirius Imperials. I know that your boyfriend is in that guild, but they have been nothing but an obnoxious lot who took anything we gained from the dungeon. I am at a loss after the first run and was very glad when they told that they had already finished 3 runs," said the elementalist. "That part is true. Why don''t we try it with him? He is obviously not a part of any guild. Else, he wouldn''t be asking independent members to join for a dungeon," said Tang and Spicy outvoting the priest. With that settled the elementalist contacted Balthazar who had moved on and was talking to a lone female paladin. "Hello, I am Quiet Fire. This is our knight Tang and Spicy and priest Little white feet," said the elementalist introducing the team to Balthazar. "Quiet fire? Isn''t she the leader of the Blazing Fury adventurer group?" thought Balthazar being reminded of the name from his previous life. "I am fleet-footed rogue. Glad to make your acquaintance. You can call me fleet or rogue if you like," said Balthazar shaking her hand. "OK. Now, that you are acquainted with each other. Could you introduce us to your lady friend," said Quiet Fire pointing at the paladin he was talking to. "Oh! I just met her. Her name is Blinding White. Apparently, she had been kicked out of the team after she broke up with her boyfriend. Could we have her with us. A paladin would be very useful in the Corrupted forest," said Balthazar explaining the gist of his conversation with the female paladin. By the time, Balthazar finished telling them about the paladin being kicked out after breaking up both Quiet Fire and Tang and Spice were already moving towards her. It was a common thing for a girl to console others in pain and they both instinctively decided to let the paladin join their team. "Why were you talking with a single girl if you didn''t even know her?" asked Little-white feet looking at Balthazar suspiciously. "I found a single paladin at the dungeon entrance who was looking to join a team. Why wouldn''t I talk to her?" answered Balthazar with another question. The priest just rolled her eyes and went toward the rest of her team. "Shameless fellow. He is shameless avoiding my question," thought Little white feet. "Why would a single paladin not be able to find a team?" she thought as she reached her friends. "How come someone who is a paladin, not be accepted into a team at the corrupted forest," she asked as soon as she met the paladin. "My boyfriend was a member of Sirius Imperials. He shouted around that he would kill anyone who would take me into their team about 10 minutes ago," replied Blinding White. "How arrogant!" said Quiet Fire in an angry voice. "These idiots think they are the rulers of the game. Such shameless behavior." "Yes. Yes. They have been overly tyrannical. They didn''t finish the dungeon nor were they in any announcement. Still they are so oppressive," chimed in Tang and Spicy. "We don''t mind if you join us. We don''t like them too," said Quiet Fire ending the discussion. "Damn, I have ended up with a couple of fiery girls," thought Balthazar looked at the angry duo. Meanwhile the priest had a sullen face. She had good relations with Sirius Imperials and her boyfriend was also a part of them. It was hard for her to see her friend badmouthing them. But she decided to finish the dungeon runs with them. Chapter 38 - Corrupted Forest Quiet Fire added both Blinding White and fleet-footed rogue (Balthazar) into her team. She quickly led them to the dungeon entrance and selected normal mode and all of them went through the transfer passage. "You have chosen Normal mode of the Corrupted Forest." They found themselves in front of a forest. The clouds covered the entire sky above the forest. It had a dark gloomy atmosphere. Even the trunk and leaves of the trees in front of them had a black color. There was a thin path in front of them leading into the forest. "I haven''t been to the dungeon before this. Can you explain the plan and strategy?" asked Blinding White. "We have corrupted rabbits at the beginning. They are fast and they have high damage. They are extremely susceptible to holy damage," explained Tang and Spicy. "It is best we stay in open spaces for them. The scout, an assassin or range is the best option to gather them up. They usually attack in packs and have good flanking tactics If these find us in open spaces make a circle to cover each other''s backs," said Quiet Fire continuing Tang and Spicy''s explanation of his strategy. "Not much else is required to handle these rabbits," said Little white hands finishing the explanation. "Fleet, you can carry on and lure some mobs," said Quiet Fire turning away from Blinding White. "Dude! Where are you?" she asked looking around for Balthazar. Unable to find him, she messaged in the team chat. "Already hunting the rabbits. If I find a large group, I will lead them to you," replied Balthazar on the chat. "Also send me text me when I am scouting. These rabbits have good senses and high attack." As they received the message, they also began receiving experience in increments of 2 points each. Each corrupted rabbit provided 10 experience points which when shared among 5 provided 2 points each. They received three such increments. Though Balthazar couldn''t completely avoid the rabbits while try to agro* the other mobs and had to attack them. Due to his high attack the rabbits which had about 150 HP were easily taken down in 4 to 5 hits. He killed his first corrupted rabbit accidentally trying to block their attacks. But he got a notification from the system which made him very excited. "Obtained 1 life essence from a monster of the dark faction." He immediately checked the attributes of his Mask of Shadows and found that the counter for the life essences updated by 1. In his excitement he killed a couple more. He even got a white trash shield from one of them. "Dude! Get them to us. Don''t attack them alone," messaged Quiet Fire again. "Yeah, collecting mobs nearby. Accidentally killed a few. Wait a minute on the way," replied Balthazar. He actually manged to lure 4 packs already. He already had an agility of 14 and could easily overtake the rabbits. He also had a high visual range and easily managed to check for corrupted rabbits. Within a minute, he managed to lure more than 20 rabbits towards the team. "Got a large bunch of them coming towards you," he messaged in the team chat. "Got about 5 packs coming from the front. Get you skill ready and bombard them mainly holy and fire damage skills like smite, blast and the rest. Blinding get ready to block," he continued in the team chat. "Is he for real? How could he even lure 5 packs?" said Little white feet shaking her head in derision. But no sooner than the words came out of her mouth, they say about 20 rabbits following him towards them. "Did he put all his free attribute points in Agility? How can he run faster than the rabbits?" asked Tang and Spicy as she prepared to block the rabbits rushing towards them. Balthazar quickly joined them and positioned himself beside Tang and Spicy. He also pulled out the shield which he looted from one of the rabbits and threw it Blinding White. Palladins also have high strength and can tank** enemies similar to knights. Though they were not as tanky as knights and warriors, they have a decent amount of strength and endurance attributes. "Thank you. But I don''t have any shield type skills," said Blinding White equipping the shield on her left hand. She also began to move and placed herself beside Tang and Spicy to tank the rabbits. "You don''t actually need to learn physical skills from skill books in vita-nova. Do the appropriate movements and the monsters will be effected accordingly," replied Balthazar to Blinding White. He then removed his sword and held it in his left hand while the dagger was in his right hand. Though they thought that he was talking nonsense and just wanted to assuage them or trying to woo Blinding, they began to think otherwise after they saw him equip a sword. "That is a bit too many. It will be hard. You told that you can take us till the boss, Vultarc. Is this how you scout?" asked Little white feet in a tone that was both depressed and angry. From what she could see, the team would definitely lose quite a bit of health in the beginning or someone could even die. Death implied a loss of 5% experience in a normal dungeon. Only Quiet Fire kept her calm and started using fire blasts against the rabbits as Balthazar went into stealth. She saw Balthazar''s speed when he led the rabbits, but she also remembered that he already killed 3 of the corrupted critters. She was stuck on that thought ever since she had seen Balthazar outpacing the rabbits. "How could someone have such high agility and also damage at level 2." She felt her thought itself was very ridiculous. "But that could be discussed later, it was important to survive without losing large amount of health and casualties," she thought. "Let us talk about it later. Everybody start using your attacks now. Tang you try to block as many as possible. Little white and Blinding both of you focus on attacking the ones I target", she commanded immediately. "Fleet, where are you?" she shouted looking for Balthazar. She wanted him to tank along with Tang. It was his mistake for bringing so many rabbits, so he had to take responsibility from letting them harm others. But he was nowhere to be seen. A second later, Balthazar came out of stealth in the middle of the rabbits as he ambushed one of them. He quickly jumped from one point to another landing attacks on several rabbits. "I will hold them at a distance for you girls. Focus on attacking," he said stabbing a rabbit in the eye. Looking at his antics, the rest of the team initially thought that he was feeling responsible for his mistake and trying to tank few corrupted rabbits from behind to lessen the burden on them. These actions were that of a martyr. No assassin would be able to continuously handle that many attacks. But slowly they realized that none of the attacks from the monsters managed to land on him. He was able easily maneuver among them. Not only that, he had very high damage. The corrupted rabbits had a HP value of 150 each. He dealt nearly 30 per hit. When he used a skill or hit a vital point it even reached 40 damage per hit. Within a couple of minutes, the combined attacks of the team cleared up the group of rabbits. Balthazar also noticed that the counter incremented only when he landed the killing shot on the rabbits. Still the value had already increased to 17 and he was glad that he found a way to upgrade his mask. "How come you have such high damage?" asked Tang and Spicy. Even though they were all wondering the same, she was the first one to address the elephant in the room. "Every monster has some vital points. Hitting them would cause more damage. Also, the somnium tech the game is using was made for military. So, all real-life skills and techniques when used cause the more damage. Real life hunter and fighters would have an obvious advantage in the game," replied Balthazar. This information wasn''t a secret. Many would be discussing in the forums about the extent of this feature from the first day of the game. "Still it doesn''t explain the high damage and speed together. Are you hacking?" asked Quiet Fire. Him cheating was the only possible explanation she could glean for the abnormal stats of the character. All of them were afraid of a hacker. If found out, action might be taken on them by other players for teaming up with him. "I am not a hacker. It is not that easy to find a hack to such a new ground-breaking technology. Moreover, the tech runs on my brainwaves. I respect myself and my brain far too much to use any hacks on the first day of the games launch. I am not someones guinea pig," replied Balthazar. But he could see that they were not convinced, and he didn''t address their question either. "I have a friend in beta-testing. I used his knowledge to complete a hidden quest of berserkers which provides more strength and agility," lied Balthazar to explain his attack and speed. "He was the one who told me that we could equip and use weapons and equipment even if we don''t have the skill for them. Blinding you would have also experience during the fight. You tried to do a shield bash on some of the rabbits, right?" asked Balthazar looking at Blinding White. "Actually, I did equip the shield and I tried to do as you suggested. But wasn''t able to see any effects of shield bash like the rabbits getting stunned. It was very useful in blocking their attacks though," replied Blinding shyly. She was glad that he gave her a shield for free, but she couldn''t lie to the rest of the team that had taken her in. "Ah! That isn''t right. You done the movements properly right. You swing your shield towards rabbit putting the weight of your entire body behind the shield. You would see completion rate when you do that. If the complete rate is less than 80% you might not activate the effect," said Balthazar trying explain his experience. "Completion rate?" interrupted Quite Fire. "Are you using manual mode?" "Oh! Yes. I forgot to inform about that. Free usage of weapons is only allowed in manual or semi-automatic mode. I used manual from the start. So, I kind of took it for granted," said Balthazar embarrassed. "How could I forget something that important!?" he thought reprimanding himself. "Try it out with the shield. You will see," he added to Blinding White. She changed her mode to semi-automatic and tried swinging her shield in the motion of shield bash. After a few trials, she suddenly yelled jumping in excitement. "It works. It works. I got a notification saying that shield bash was used," she told them. "But the completion rate was just 60%. How do I improve it? You seem to be very good at your skills for someone who is using manual mode." she asked looking at Balthazar for hints. "You have seen it in other V.R. games, right? Just practice your technique. You will soon get it," answered Balthazar with a lie. He couldn''t say that he had previous played the game for a very long time. "That is fine. Shield bash is one of the paladin skills. It is reasonable to assume that you can do it in manual or semi-automatic mode. But you are using a sword. That is totally not a skill of your profession," said Quiet Fire. For some reason, she was still not convinced that he isn''t using a cheat. But the cheat Balthazar was using was something inconceivable. So, she decided that he was hacking. "Change to manual or semi-automatic mode. You will be able to equip dagger or sword too. You can use it for basic attacks, but it won''t give any skill completion or usage notifications when you use. Try it out if you don''t believe me," said Balthazar holding out his dagger for her to take. She immediately took it and equipped it in her secondary weapon slot. Being a mage, her primary weapon was a wand given by default. She tried to move he weapon around and even attacked Tang with it. Only then she was convinced and returned the dagger back to Balthazar. "But still your technique in evading the rabbits was very good. I doubt the quest helped you with that," said Quiet Fire still unconvinced. The way he bent or swerved just before a rabbit managed to land an attack was a bit hard to believe. "Wow! She is very observant. Well, it should be expected of a person who would establish such a strong adventure group whom even first-rate guilds used to be wary of," thought Balthazar. "I already told you about that. I have been hunting since a kid and even continued it as a profession in searching through unknown territories and planets. So, that is all my skill and awareness. That is all," replied Balthazar. "Wow, a real-life expert!" exclaimed Tang and Spicy as she slowly walked towards him. "Please, teach me how to fight expert. Do you know martial arts? Teach me whatever you know. Accept me as your disciple," she said holding his hands and started to beg to be his disciple. Balthazar was freaked out by the sudden outburst from this thin and lanky girl. Based on her appearance, he thought that she might have been a model in real life. But she apparently was really into fighting and they were all really perplexed when she started asking to be his disciple and tightly held onto his hands. Quiet Fire was the only one who wasn''t surprised. The girls Tang and Quiet Fire were all childhood friends. They were quite close from the time they were kids. Tang had been a big fan of martial arts and fighters for a long time. Her brother had shown her first action movie which involved martial arts and people competing against each other in a dojo. From that time, she had been a big fan of such things. Though her father never allowed her to learn those and told her that a girl shouldn''t be hot-headed, she always had an interest and managed to learn little stuff from here and there. Most of it was thought by her own brother who worked as a policeman. Balthazar looked at Quiet Fire for help not knowing what to do with the lady grovelling to be his disciple. She was in the same generation as him and he didn''t want to take any disciples. But Quiet Fire just began to laugh after she saw the baffled expression on Balthazar''s face. "I am not really qualified to be teaching you. It is one thing to hunt with a knife, but fighting is another thing entirely," he began to explain her. "Just teach me whatever you know." "It might not even be suitable for you. Why don''t you practice in the manual mode in the game? It would definitely improve your skills. You can even go to the arena to fight once it opens." "Hmph, why can''t you teach me?" she asked angrily. "Because I am still learning and if my teacher comes to know that I am giving lesson to someone, I will be beaten up," said Balthazar. He could only lie to stop the girl from pestering him. "Well. Leave him be. You can definitely improve in the arena," said Quiet Fire before Tang could continue. "Let us finish the dungeon first." "Yeah. If you are really that into fighting, wait for a few days. I heard that a few training centres are already looking into employing somnium technology for teaching purposes. Some guilds are already talking about having contracts with them.," said Blinding White. "Let us talk about that later. We need to focus on the dungeon. Fleet could you please continue to gather mobs," said Little White Feet. Seeing him in action, even Little White feet who didn''t like him from the beginning slowly came to respect him a bit though unconsciously. Balthazar was beyond glad to put an end to the conversation. He led them a bit into the thin path on the forest. Then, he asked them to stay put and went further inside. "It would be another group of rabbits of similar size. All of you change to semi-automatic mode and be ready," he messaged as he went in to gather the monsters. Notes: *Aggro (also commonly spelled ''Agro'') is a term used to describe the act of getting the attention of an NPC **Tank is a character whose primary role is to absorb damage and prevent others from being attacked. Tanks are "meatshields", so to speak, putting themselves between the mobs and the more vulnerable party members. Chapter 39 - Corrupted Forest 2 Balthazar quickly made his way into the forest in stealth mode. As he moved through the trees he searched the forest continuously for herbs. He found a couple of corrupted poison ivy by the trees. He collected them whenever possible. The corrupted poison ivy can be used to refine a poison which reduces strength and slows down the monsters. Within a few minutes another group of 20 rabbits were lured by Balthazar and killed be the team. The group also manged to get a new wand from the killing the monsters. They even got a hammer and mage cloth gloves from the corrupted rabbits killed by them. It was a level 2 hammer which provides holy damage. It was immediately equipped by Blinding White. The level 2 gloves were obviously used by Quiet Fire. [One-handed hammer] (White, hammer) Level 2 Equipment Requirement: Strength 6; Attack Power +8; Holy damage +6; Durability 15/15 [Mage gloves] (white, cloth gloves) Level 2 Equipment requirements: Intelligence: 6 Magic Damage +8; Magic Resist +2; Durability 15/15 As they continued further, they came to an open clearing in the forest. There were eighteen thin paths leading away from the clearing. However only four of them led to the boss, Vultarc. All the remaining paths were paved with the blood of many players. They were filled with traps and ambushes and led to dead ends. Players could only come back to the clearing and try another path. Of the four paths that were right, two led directly to Vultarc without meeting the side boss Vultusk. But these were the deadliest paths as Vultusk always ambushed them once Vultarc lost half his health. The last two paths would allow the player to fight Vultusk before Vultarc. One of them had a lot of rabbits supporting Vultusk who would ambush them during journey. The other allowed the players to ambush Vultusk at his lair. After Vultusk both of them led towards Vultarc. The best path was the one that allowed them to ambush Vultusk. Balthazar led them along that path. After five minutes they came to a dead end. The only path they could see was a large hole in the ground. "Are you sure this is the right way? I heard that the boss would be in an open space surrounded by the woods" asked Quiet Fire looking towards Balthazar. "Yes, we are near the side boss, Vultusk," replied Balthazar. "We heard no information of a side boss in the dungeon. Everyone is talking only about the boss Vultarc," said Blinding White. "We even followed a different path to reach it." "Yes. That is right. But once you finish half his health. The side boss Vultusk would ambush you. This is Vultusk''s lair. If we finish him first the boss will become a lot easier to kill Vultarc," replied Balthazar. "Stay quiet and follow me. The side boss is much more agile than the corrupted rabbits. Be careful. It is best that we don''t allow him to get out of the hole. If he gets out, he will call for corrupted rabbits'' reinforcements. That would be irritating," continued Balthazar. "Tang you stay a right behind me. Once the fight begins, you need to block his path and make sure that he doesn''t get out. Blinding and I will lead the attack as we find Vultusk," said Balthazar continuing along the hole. It was a long damp hole filled with bones of critters and other animals. Five minutes later, they saw a 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide furry silhouette feeding upon the carcass of a large deer. Balthazar immediately went into stealth. Hearing them approach the furry creature slowly turn around to look at them. As it turned around, they noticed that it was like a large furry humanoid with an overly large rabbit head. It had dark black fur with a pair of bright green eyes. It had large fangs coming out of its jaws with blood leaking from its mouth. It was a kind of a gory scene. It was far too realistic for a game. [Vultusk - Lepusvir kit](Special Ellite) Level 3 HP:1500 Vultusk is the young offspring of Vultarc. He had been infecting the forest and controlling the rabbits around the forest. As it turned around it bared its fangs towards them. Balthazar immediately jumped out of stealth and stabbed into Vultusk eyes. The dagger went through the eye and blood poured out of the socket blinding the Special Elite in one eye. The scene was very realistic and gory. It almost made the girls puke out in disgust. A large red 50 popped up on the creature''s head which began to shriek in pain. "How could they put it in something so disgusting in the game? It isn''t even a video. How come they make it so gruesome," said Little White hands looking away. "Attack it. Don''t let it recover. This is the best time," shouted Balthazar getting out of the way. Quite Fire and Little White Hands immediately began to fire on Vultusk. Tang also charged into the rabbit and slammed it with his shield on the face stunning it raising the aggro towards him. "I will hold the monsters agro along with Tang. Quite and Little attack him as fast as possible. Blinding support Tang," said Balthazar commanding the team. Ever since Balthazar began to display his talent the team started trusting him more. After viewing the side boss, it improved they started to believe them more. They also began to take his commands after that. As soon as Vultusk got out of stun, it swiped its large clawed hands towards Tang pushing her back and showing a damage of 40. The attack also put her in a stunned state for two seconds. Two seconds were enough for Vultusk to deplete 250HP from Tang. Her total health was just above 500HP "Blinded White, heal Tang if her health goes below 50%. Vultusk has a swipe skill which it uses frequently. It can easily put her in critical state," commanded Balthazar as he began to take aggro of Vultusk in Tang''s place. "Tang don''t use your aggro gaining skills now. I will take hold of the aggro. If I began to lose agro than you use you take aggro using provoke," continued Balthazar. "You want to be the primary tank?" asked both Blinding and Tang. "I am not going to tank, but I got the most aggro among the entire team," said Balthazar. "Pretty shameless, aren''t you?" asked Quiet Fire. It was good that he was quite an expert in the field but she felt he was quite boastful about it without even meaning to. Knowing Vultusk''s attack patterns he could easily evade it''s attacks but he had to maintain a high DPS* for Vultusk to focus it''s attacks on him. That was getting increasingly hard as Quiet Fire''s damage increased due to the gloves. To maintain the damage and aggro, Balthazar had decided to allocate the remaining 4 free attribute points into strength and agility with two points in each. With Vultusk''s aggro on Balthazar, and every one maintaining a steady DPS, they managed to take down the health steadily. When Vultusk had only 30% health remaining, there was a sudden changed in its appearance. It began to squeal in a babyish "Wreatched Humans! I will eat you. I will eat you." The atmosphere which was tense took a sudden change once Vultusk began to speak. The babyish voice of Vultusk caused all the girls to start giggling. Vultusk was enraged and his moves also changed in both quality and speed. Also the aggro of monster resets when enraged. It jumped in the air with its hands raised. Balthazar quickly realized the move. It was a common move from Lepusvir monsters especially warrior type ones. It was a body slam which put everyone standing on the ground into a fainted state. The only way to avoid this was to jump into the air just a moment before the it landed. "Go back or jump away from the shock wave," shouted Balthazar but none other than himself managed to escape the shock wave when Vultusk executed the body slam. Though Balthazar was already finished the dungeon in his previous life, it had been about 5 years since then and he hardly led any beginner level dungeons for four years of his play time. He forgot a lot of stuff that the players should be aware of. All the team except Balthazar were all put into a faint state for 5 seconds after being struck by the shock wave. The enraged Vultusk immediately made its way towards the weakest players, the priest and the mage. It was like the aggro system had reset and even changed in type. It began to concentrate on the weaker members of the team. Though Balthazar continued to attack it, Vultusk neglected him and continued to attack the cloth armor classes first. Little white feet had a total HP of 350 and died within 3 seconds. Immediately after that, it jumped on to Quiet Fire. The stun still wasn''t gone, and Quiet Fire couldn''t do anything but watch the monster jump on it. By the time the stun effect was cleared, Quiet Fire had come to critical health and had a bleed effect on her. Even though both Tang and Blinding attacked Vultusk and helped Quiet Fire out from its grasp. With the bleed effect cast on Quiet Fire, she lost even more health. Vultusk continued to attack without any regard to its health. Its damage also continued to increase as it began to lose health. It was clearly a berserker type monster. The lower its health went down the higher its attack went. With Quiet Fire out of harm''s way they continued to gain back their advantage. Quiet Fire was covered by Blinding as she resumed her attack on Vultusk. With Balthazar continuously attacking it without losing health, he managed to regain its aggro back on to himself. "It will use that stunning slam attack for every 10% loss in its health. When I tell you run back at least 10 yards to escape it. If your are far even if you get hit by the shock wave you will be stunned for a shorted duration," said Balthazar. Though Vultusk continued to use a body slam with every 10% decrease in health, with Balthazar''s guidance they managed to escape being stunned. But due to the loss of holy damage from priest, the DPS and the healing to the Tang and Blinding reduced. Tang was already at critical health blocking the attacks for Quiet Fire. Even though Blinding tried to heal both Quiet Fire and Tang, it wasn''t going well. As the health of Vultusk went down to 5% it made a large sweep attacks a couple of times and started to run away. Though Tang had little health remaining, she tried her best to block Vultusk''s path, but it was hardly of much use. Vultusk directly jumped onto Tang landing on her and squishing her torso beneath its feet. Both Blinding and Quiet could only look away from the dead body. The visual and sensual effects of the game were downright morbid. Even the smell and spray of blood were realistic. The scene had them in shock that they forgot about holding back Vultusk. Only Balthazar was fast enough to keep up with it and continued behind it while the others were left behind in the hole. Balthazar had already informed them that it would become worse once Vultusk goes back to the clearing. They ran quickly afraid that Vultusk''s reinforcements might kill even Balthazar. By the time Quick Fire managed to reach the clearing, there was a small announcement. "Your party managed to kill the Vultusk. Kill Vultarc and free the source of corruption from the forest." "+75 exp" Vultusk alone gave them a total of 300 experience points. His large carcass was lying in the clearing before the hole, while Balthazar sitting beside it. By the time they manged to kill Vultusk, even Tang was killed by Vultusk''s attack. Though they managed to kill Vultusk, they lost their tank and healer. It would be a futile attempt to consider going further. "That was too real for my taste. It might give me Nightmares," said Quiet thinking of the deaths of Little White and Tang. "We could report about it. Having such visuals in a game would actually be detrimental to the game," added in Blinding. "Loot it," said Balthazar looking at the carcass of Vultusk without a concern about their talk. Well, he had a good reason for that. He already knew that all such complaints would be a futile attempt from the players. It was a fair assumption from them concerning the game. Not only them, but a large number of players would complain about the same in the first week. Yet, the authorities would stick to the original visuals and effects. This was because of the fact that the game had different purposes than the usual profit that could be obtained. The battle along the frontier had never been as successful as the populace was led to believe. It was already being considered as a way to acclimatize people to the horrors of the real world. The game was just a test on a large scale. The somnium technology would be used as a common means of battle training for all military within the year. There were already talks of issuing conscription notices to people from the planets near the frontier to repel the alien invasion. The attack on Balthazar''s citadel was actually the event that furthered these concerns. But this experiment had a lot of unexpected side effects. The first one that comes to mind is many couldn''t properly handle the experience. The somnium technology made their brains actually experience the fights though they didn''t actually get hurt. This caused a few mental problems to the players. There were also a large group of people who actually tried to replicate the physical feats they could do in the game in real life. Without proper supervision that lead to a lot of accidents. Cause lets face it, people in real-life don''t actually have the physique their characters would have in the game. The most prominent one is that most of the game players were usually a docile bunch in real life. But they soon got addicted to battles. Some of them even ended up becoming violent in nature due to it and actually learned to fight very well compared to the normal citizens standards. Withing 3 months of the release of the game, this situation even causes the local law enforcement to speed up their own talents using the somnium technlology. But the all these were a discussion for another time. On Balthazar repeatedly asking her to loot the corpse without interest in their topic, Quick Fire went forward to loot it without any delay. She first removed a skill book for warriors, Stomp. With Tang and Spice dead due to bleed out, Quiet Fire held on to it. The other was a wand for priests. They had a priest in their group and Quiet Fire held on to for the same reason. The last one was a rare material. It was a Lepusvir claw. It could be used for forging short weapons especially daggers or throwing knifes. Balthazar asked for it as soon as he saw the claw. "What do you use it for?" asked Quiet Fire. "It can used in forging of knives and daggers. I have learn''t blacksmithing and could use it," said Balthazar openly. "I can provide the compensation for the team in return." "Not required. It was your kill in the first place. I doubt we would have managed to take it down without you," replied Quiet Fire tossing the claw towards Balthazar. Note: *DPS - Damage per second Chapter 40 - Trying out Elite instance dungeon. Balthazar immediately put the claw into his inventory. "I doubt we can do anything given that Tang and our priest are dead. Why don''t we return through the portal and attempt it another time with them? With the new skill and equipment, I think we can make it faster to the Vultusk and then Vultarc," said Balthazar. "It is a waste of effort repeating this. We couldn''t even kill the main Boss''s cub without serious losses. What chance do we have against Vultarc?" said Blinding. "Why don''t we just repeat the same and just focus on taking down Vultusk. It provides a decent amount of experience and also good loot," added Quiet Fire. "Isn''t that a better option than trying to take down Vultarc?" "If you are bent on trying it again. Let us make an attempt at Elite mode. We would at least get decent equipment from it. With a few Black Iron equipment, we would be able to perform better in normal mode," suggested Balthazar. As Quiet Fire was discussing this with the rest, they moved back to the dungeon entrance. Balthazar insisted on attempting the dungeon in elite mode saying that the first clear and first kill awards for every mode are definitely better than normal awards. At this time when most guilds are attempting for the honour of the first clear. It was easier to obtain the first kill of Vultusk in elite mode. Soon Tang and Little White feet agreed to Balthazar''s suggestion tempted by the awards. They already got a decent skill and equipment. They began to wonder, if they could receive better ones on a first kill. There were already rumors that someone already cleared the normal mode. Even, if they didn''t, they were quite close. So, a first kill suddenly became a priority, especially when most didn''t even know that a mini boss was there in the dungeon. Quiet Fire quickly selected elite mode at the dungeon entrance and led the team through portal. Though Balthazar managed to convince the team with the temptation of first kill, the main reason he wanted to go to elite mode was because that the elite mode provides treasure chests inside the forest and there was a side quest he intended to complete that isn''t available in normal mode. Once, they were inside the dungeon, he asked them to wait at the beginning of the path and went in search of the treasure chests instead of luring the monster rabbits. There was a chance to find a total of four treasure chests to be found in the elite instance of the dungeon. This was just a chance. It completely depended on the luck of the team members. There were a lot of such situations where the luck attribute played a major role in the lower levels of the game. This is why Balthazar had gained the rabbit''s foot at the beginning of the game. One of them was supposed to be on the right side of the thin path in a small hollow made by the roots of a tree. It was covered by the black bushes and was impossible to find unless someone falls into the hollow. This was only discovered a long time after the game launched when a person frightened by the atmosphere of the forest accidentally ran into the hollow. As Balthazar neared the hollow, he found a small pack of 4 monster corrupted rabbits near the tree hollow. He would definitely be attacked by them if he attempts to enter the hollow. So he lured the pack towards the rest of the team and returned while they were being killed by the team. He found a white treasure chest waiting for him. He quickly opened it and found a couple of raw materials in it. One was a corrupted treant branch and other was monster rabbit eggs. The branch can be used in woodworking and the other is a cooking ingredient. He quickly pocketed the resources and continued to lure the corrupted rabbits in packs of 4 monsters to the team. He chose a smaller number of rabbits to lure than in the normal dungeon as the monsters in elite mode tend to have 10% higher speed and damage than the normal instance dungeon. Balthazar suggested that everyone use semi-automatic mode. It allows for manual targeting of the long-range skill and this is very useful in changing targets at last minute and also evading one monster while shooting at other. He made everyone practice at the corrupted rabbits with manual mode. The group of girls were decently good learners with the right mentality. Most independent teams tried their best to improve without following the norm. Within 10 minutes they managed to clear the group of monsters before the first clearing. They also managed to get three pieces of equipment from them. Two were cloth armor which both Quiet Fire and Little white shared. The third was a leather chest armor which Balthazar took. With the new armor their defense increased by a small amount. They quickly equipped the new armor and reached the clearing. But this time there were 20 thin paths extending from the clearing instead of the 18 like in the normal instance. Two additional paths opened up. Blinding was the first one to notice this, other than Balthazar who already knew the change. "There are two new paths in the elite instance," she said aloud pointing at the two new paths. "What should we do? Do we want to explore them?" asked Quiet Fire. "Why don''t I go scout it first?" suggested Balthazar as he pointed towards a new path. This one was directly to the left of the entrance to the clearing it was relatively bright. It looked like there was a large source of light at the end of this path. Balthazar knew that this path led to an old treant that protected the forest. It was the one that provided the side quest. The path was plain and without any traps or monsters except for the one at the end - the treant. Once Balthazar reached the treant, he called for the rest of the team to come in. The area in this path was quite different. The darkness that covered the trees receded as they went further in. At the end there was a large clearing with the trees and plants lush with greenery and the treant standing over a treasure chest with its eyes closed. "Should we try and attack it?" asked Quiet Fire looking at Balthazar expectantly. With the experience and technique show by him, he has become to person the rest looked for in unknown situations. "Why don''t I try and talk to it," said Balthazar moving toward the treant. As he reached closer, the treant suddenly opened its eyes and looked at them. "Humans? It has been far too late for reinforcements. The corruption had long since killed my family. I am the last one left protecting this small area from the corruption they spread," said the treant. A small yellow dot appeared on top of the treant at the same time. [Pecandor] (Treant, a dying treant) Level ... HP: 1500 "We may not be able to stop what had already happened, but I hope we can be of some help to make some reparations. We could still be of some help to you. You could get out of the forest," said Balthazar looking at the treant. "I have no need for protection, nor do I want it. My family was used to reside at the area where that Lepusvir marauder Vultarc lives. Now only I remain after he occupied the the forest. I just hope that the Heavenswill legion of the light faction had come sooner to protect these outlying regions of the great forest," said the treant in a grieving tone. "What is he talking about? I thought the forest was already corrupted and we have to save it. Are we considered Heavenswill legion?" asked Little White feet in the chat. "No thats just the storyline. The Heavenswill legion is an NPC legion. The failed to save the outlying regions to the west end of the great forest. The boss here is just a bandit who is hiding from them and they are too busy to take care of the small fish," explained Baltahzar in the chat. "I offer my condolences to you. We will try our best to get rid of the Lepusvir menace and may time heal the pain he brought on you," replied Balthazar. Balthazar''s reply for some reason seemed to enrage the treant. "I don''t need to heal my wounds. I need to make him pay for what he has done. If only I weren''t injured when I killed his mate. I could have taken his head myself," shouted Pecandor. "We plan to do it ourselves. We could help you with it?" suggested Quiet Fire thinking that the treant was giving a quest to kill Vultarc. "Hah, maybe your heart is in the right place, but you are far from capable in dealing with his venomous blade. And I don''t know you to begin with, how could you talk of cooperation?" replied the treant. "What could we do to prove our sincerity?" asked Balthazar immediately before anyone else continued to diverge from the quest topic. "You could kill his kid, Vultusk. Although he is but a child, he is a vile creature and I want Vultarc to experience the pain he put me through. The pain of losing his family. If you do that, I will provide you a way to battle his venomous means," answered the treant as a notification popped up to Quiet Fire. "Pecandor''s revenge: Kill Vultusk and bring his head back to Pecandor." "We will prove ourselves," said Quiet Fire as she accepted the quest. They immediately went back to the clearing and Balthazar led ahead to scout the second new path. The path was just to the right of the one beside the path leading to Vultusk. This one was dark with the corrupted trees making a canopy over the path and light barely falling on the path. As they went through the path the encountered a few corrupted rabbit packs. Balthazar also continuously advised Tang on how to evade attacks rather than tank block them with her shield. He had her try her best to only block when it attempts to attack someone else. This was a hard task to do but Tang was a quick learner and managed to reduce the healing burden on the priest and paladin. There were also a few traps along the way, but Balthazar managed to trip them and escape before he led the team through. At the end of the path there was a small wooden platform. On top of it was a small black chest. As the rest of the team looked at it, the girls began to squeal in happiness. This was the first black-iron chest they encountered. Even Balthazar was surprised. He expected a normal white chest at the end not a black iron one. "Maybe we got a black iron one due to first exploration? The next attempts would probably be a normal chest," thought Balthazar going ahead to pick the lock on the chest. "System: You found Vultusk''s treasure. These are keepsakes from his dead mother." They quickly surrounded the chest as Balthazar began to pick the lock on the chest. He managed to open it on the first attempt due to his experience in his previous life. He quickly put in his hand in the treasure chest and pulled out a black shield, a skill book and a material from the chest. The material was a leg Lepisvir bone. It would be a useful material for forging swords. It would provide an additional darkness attribute. Blackwood Shield (Black Iron Shield) Level 2 Requirement: Endurance: 8 Defence +12; Reflect +2; A shield made by Vultarc from the corrupted wood of the forest for his son Vultusk. The shield had the appearance of the wood of the black trees. It had a metallic feel to it. It was immediately given to Tang to equip. It would definitely improve her ability to tank Vultusk. With the new shield it would be much easier to kill Vultusk and if luck favors them even Vultarc. The skill book was also a warrior skill book, Rallying cry. It improves the damage of all the allies in a 20 feet radius by 10%. "It definitely was a berserker skill," said Quiet Fire. "We can sell it and distribute the money among us," she continued. "No. Let Tang try to learn it first. There are some skills which are applicable for the classes not just an occupation like in other games," said Balthazar. Heeding his suggestion, Tang took it from Quiet Fire and tapped the book on her chest. To her surprise, the book disappeared, and skill appeared in the skill menu. She was overjoyed. She gained the most in the dungeon instances among all of them. "What is the bone for?" asked Blinding examining the bone. "Looks like a thigh bone." "It could be used to make sword with dark attribute," replied Balthazar promptly. "I don''t mean that. I could guess that it is a rare material. I wanted to know what is so precious about a bone." "It is a Lepusvir bone. Probably a keepsake from the dead body of his mother." "Ugh!" said Blinding throwing it at Balthazar. He immediately pocketed it. They soon made their way to Vultusk''s lair. It was the same situation and even the same appearance except that he wore a pair of boots. "That would definitely improve his attributes," said Quiet Fire pointing at the boots. I will check it told Balthazar as he reached Vultusk in stealth and began the battle. A few seconds later, he messaged that there is an improvement in Vultusk''s agility and not in defence but has no idea about the increase in strength, if any. Hearing this the rest of the team joined the fight. Tang tanked a few hits and determined that there was no difference in damage or strength either. The team quickly entered the fray and the health of Vultusk gradually fell down. This time care was taken by the entire team that a member would not die. Vultusk had the same behavior as in the normal instance dungeon. With the new armor and shield, the team managed to bring it down to 30% without any issue. This time to evade the body slam of Vultusk, Balthazar had come up with a new plan. He had Tang use the skill stomp just before Vultusk''s health hit 30%. Being a special elite, Vultusk was easily stunned by it. This time was used by the team to put enough distance between the team before Vultusk could unleash his attack. Balthazar as usual stayed close and evaded the shock wave by jumping. Balthazar made the entire team control their damage, so that this method could be used to escape the effects of body slam from Vultusk. This allowed them to bring Vultusk''s health down to 5% easily, when it would try to escape again. At this time, Balthazar had the entire team increase their damage to the maximum. He even had Tang use the Rallying cry skill to improve the damage. They quickly managed to reduce the health of Vultusk to 2% before it came out of stun. It immediately tried to run away, and Balthazar made the team leave it a path to escape, so as to avoid any health loss or casualties in his team. They instead tried to land attacks on it. He managed to follow it and take it down at the clearing where its burrow hole started. "System: +60 experience points" With the death of Vultusk, Balthazar began to loot it as the rest of the team hurried along. He found a pair of black iron boots, Lepusvir skin and Vultusk''s head. As soon as he looted it, the entire team got the notification. [Vultusk''s head] (Quest Item) Return Vultusk''s head to Pecandor. "Pecandor''s revenge: Return Vultusk''s head" [Iron boots] (Black Iron boots) Level 2 Requirement: Endurance: 7 Vitality +4; Strength +3; The team discussed and decided to give the boots to Blinding White to improve her defense. With Vultusk dead, they quickly went back to the treant Pecandor. As they reached the treant it immediately came towards the team. "I can smell treant blood on you. Come on give me the head," it said extending its large hand in front of them to receive the head. As Balthazar gave the head to the treant. A notification popped up in front of Quiet Fire. "Pecandor''s Revenge: Quest completed" The treant walked back to its original position and picked up the treasure chest it was guarding. "Here, this contains something that would allow you to counteract Vultarc''s poisonous methods. I hope you are successful in your mission. May the 12 great lords and guardians of the light bless you," said Pecandor giving him the treasure chest. Another notification popped up in front of everyone. "System: You have received the Quest Item: Pecandors Antidote." "Beware. Though the antidote protects you against the poison of Vultarc. It would enrage him as it is made from Lepusvir blood." Chapter 41 - First Clear of an Elite dungeon After giving them the treasure chest, Pecandor went into the forest. They got hold of another black iron treasure chest. They quickly opened the chest and three items were visible in it. A small token with picture of five treants on it, a small parchment which looked like a recipe and the third was a long staff with a black jet lignite on the top. [Token of Baron Pecandor] Level 0 Requirement: Can only be used by a member of the light faction. Vitality +10% Allows third grade citizen access into the great forest of gaeta skogar. [Poison of corruption Recipe] (Basic poison recipe) Required Materials: Corrupted poison ivy, blue weed Effects: Reduces Strength and Agility by 20% for 10 seconds. Not stackable. [Lignite staff] (Black Iron Staff) Level 2 Requirements: Perception: 6,; Intelligence +8; Vitality +5 The token of a Baron of the great forest is something that guilds would fight over for because of the access it provided. Balthazar knew it would be worth a lot if they ever sold it. Its value would probably rise by a large amount after a few months. "Hold on to the staff," said Balthazar throwing the staff to Quiet Fire. "Tang hold on to the token. I will make good use of the recipe." He immediately learned the recipe. With his experience, he could easily craft a basic potion. In a couple of minutes, he easily managed to create 3 bottles of the poison. Though he wasted a couple of sets in his first two attempts, the rest were all successful. "It is best we use them on our weapons when we are fighting Vultarc. He is faster than Vultusk and even stronger," said Balthazar giving Blinding and Tang a poison bottle each. "Are we sure, we want to attempt killing Vultarc? We had such a hard time with Vultusk," said Quiet Fire addressing the concern of the rest of the girls. "It is best we try it out. We got an antidote from his poison. It is hard to kill him. We have an unseen advantage. I already know about its patterns and can lead you through the fight. The hard part was the poison knives thrown by Vultusk and fighting Vultusk and Vultarc together after it loses 50% of its health. We already killed Vultusk and have a quest item to deal with the poison," said Balthazar explaining the situation. "I guess it is best we try. It does provide good equipment and experience in case we win. If we die it is just a little bit of experience," said Blinding in support of Balthazar. She also wanted to finish the dungeon and take down the pride of the Sirius Imperials. She wanted to show it off to the boyfriend who broke up with her. "I am fine with it," said Tang shrugging her shoulders. "We also get the first clear awards and our name goes on the boards," said Balthazar. That was the icing on the cake that convinced Quiet Fire and Little White Feet. Without any delay, Balthazar led them to the clearing and another path. This path was had very little light and had a canopy of foilage of corrupted trees preventing sunlight from passing through. There were also a few packs of corrupted rabbits. But with the poison applied on their blade, the fight became a lot easier. There was another treasure chest hidden in the forest by the path. Balthazar managed to get to it while he was scouting and opened it. It was another white treasure chest and he only found a couple of raw materials in it, corrupted poison ivy and a jet lignite crystal. One could be used for making poison and the other is a good storage for Mana. The jet lignite could be used in making mage weapons, tools and also as a core to deploy small scale spells. He quickly put them both in his inventory and continued with killing the corrupted rabbits. As they went further in the trees grew taller. Some of them even had faces on them that had their eyes and mouth open in horror. "This area looks like it had been copied out of a horror movie. Look at those trees," said Little White Feet pointing to one of the trees with a face. "It is really creepy." "Oh! Come on. All the games always had a very creepy and chilling story lines. This game is just a bit more immersive and experient than the others. It all matches with the plot of dead treants of Pecandor''s family," said Balthazar. A few minutes later, he stopped and said, "We are near Vultarc. Eat some bread and have water. Fill up on your health and mana. He is a Lepusvir of ranger occupation. So be long distance attacks would be the ones that take down his health. Both Quiet and Little Feet get ready, focus only on attack. Blinding will act the primary healer as her range is shorter." "That would be a lot of stress on a paladin wouldn''t it?" asked Quiet Fire. "Let me explain. Vultarc would be just attempting to shoot you with normal arrows and penetrating shots. He would be running around us and shooting at us. I would be following him and call out whenever he is shooting. Try your best to avoid the shots. Sometimes he would run towards other and strike at you with his sword. Tang and Blinding need to tank those strikes. His aggro will be mostly towards mage and priests because they will be the main damage dealers in this case. Tang needs to use provoke whenever he does that." "Once, he loses 50% health, he will start using poison. So use the antidote as soon as his health goes down by 50%. He will also start fight in close combat after that. Then, we will move back to the strategy we used for Vultusk. Luckily his close combat damage is worse than Vultusk. His attacks stun rather than deal damage," finished Balthazar and moved forward. They saw a dead treant in a clearing ahead. It was about 9 feet tall. The clearing was in the shape of a perfect circle and surrounded by tall black trees except for the path they entered it. There was a small hut made of wood on top of the dead treant directly opposite the entrance. "You have killed enough of my pets to garner my attention," said a voice in a weird squeaky accent. It came from the hut on top of the dead treant. An arrow suddenly whized in the air hitting Blinding in the chest. The force of the hit pushed her a bit back "Oww! That hurt!" she cried out in pain. "It was like someone struck me on the chest with a hammer." "Yes, it will become worse in higher levels. As the level difference between the monster and you increases, the worse the effect will get. Vultarc is a level 3 boss. That is a penetrating shot. It brought down a sixth of your health. Try to evade or block all shots. Even if they don''t reduce your health by much. They hurt a lot. Keep on the lookout for the small flash of light that appears before the shot," said Baltahzar. Vultarc showed himself at the edge of the platform. The Lepusvir was thin and 7 feet tall carrying a bow with a sword strapped on his back. It wore nothing on his body other than the belt the held his sword. He gazed at Blinding with its red eyes and said, "Next time, I will make sure it passes through your head. Hahaha." It was all very frightening except for his squeaky voice. [Vultarc - Lepusvir] (Boss) Level 3 HP:3000 Balthazar immediately went into stealth and asked the rest to begin shooting at Vultarc. But to their dismay Vultarc simply took a step back and avoided the shots. All the shots hit the treant body. "Haha, I doubt you can hurt me like that," said Vultarc. "How can we attack him if he hides like that?" asked Quiet Fire. "I am on my way onto the platform. Hold your fire and evade if he shoots. I will kick him down," said Balthazar in the team chat. Once, Balthazar saw Vultarc attack Blinding he immediately remembered that Vultarc would hide behind the treant to avoid fire. To overcome this scenario, someone has to attract his attention by shooting at him from the ground, while the other needs to attack him from behind. There are footholds for getting onto the top of the treant body which could be used to climb onto it silently. Thus, he immediately went into stealth once he saw Vultarc shoot at Blinding. Usually stealth wouldn''t work but due to his passive skill he decided to bet on it. If the stealth works, the team could save a lot of mana which would be wasted in their attempt to distract Vultarc. The most common cause of failing to kill Vultarc even after Vultusks death is the deficiency of mana among the long-range professions due to this wastage. If Balthazar manage to sneak up to Vultarc without support from the team, it will become a lot less stressful. Else, the fight could continue for hours and he had spent already about 6 hours in the game. He needs to gain as much an advantage as possible in this life. Balthazar was already halfway to the top of the treant body. As he reached the top of the treant, he saw Vultarc making another shot. The top of the treants body was levelled and flat. He slowly made his way to Vultarc and waited till he made the next shot. He wanted to make sure that Vultarc would fall down and it is best if Vultarc gets near the edge when he is making his next shot. A few moments later Vultarc drew another arrow to make a shot. Balthazar quickly ambushed Vultarc by attacking Vultarc''s ears with his dagger while he used his sword as a lever to trip him off the treant body. The Lepusvir was completely surprised that someone managed to sneak by its side. It fell down with a loud thud and lost its bow as it fell down. As Quiet Fire and Little White rained attack on it, it quickly got up and ran towards its bow. Balthazar who also fell down along with Vultarc saw Vultarc lose its bow immediately ran towards the fallen. He tried to kick the bow away from Vultarc as he attacked Vultarc with his dagger and sword. Though Balthazar had tried his best to stop Vultarc from reaching the dagger, he hardly could do it for more than a few seconds. Vultarc pulled out his sword and attacked Balthazar with it. Balthazar immediately pulled his distance from Vultarc and Vultarc took his bow. Then, he began to shoot arrows at Balthazar and his team. Though it was hard, Balthazar managed to evade the arrows without any injury while managing to attack Vultarc. The poison he used on the daggers reduced Vultarc''s agility allowing Balthazar to escape Vultarc''s attacks. With Balthazar close to Vultarc, the Lepusvir spent most of his focus on Balthazar allowing Quiet Fire, Blinding and Little white feet to bombard it with their attacks. As it''s health went down by 20%, Vultarc made its way back to its hut and shot at the team while hiding in the treant. Balthazar also went into stealth to climb up the treant. But this time, he could clearly see that the Lepusvir was actively looking for him. Still Balthazar knew that it would hardly matter. If Vultarc failed to perceive him the first time, it would fail again. He repeated the same feat of throwing Vultarc down with ease. The plan was pretty much successful until Vultarc''s health reached 50%. He shot an arrow into the sky which exploded in extremely large sparks. Then, he began throwing small knives laced with poison. But with the antidote they received from Pecandor, there were no adverse effects. The fight continued without much issue. Though Vultarc occasionally the team with his sword, Blinding and Tang took turns to block it. As he came into close combat, Vultarc''s health fell down even faster as Tang also finally managed to get in a few hits. Thus, its health quickly fell down to 20%. Vultarc suddenly stopped and looked around. He saw that the usual effects of people poisoned didn''t appear on the team. Even Vultusk hadn''t responded to his summons till now. "You detestable primates! You colluded with that old half-dead treant baron. Where is my son? I will kill you to get my answers!" bellowed Vultarc in anger as he was still being bombarded by attacks. At this time, Vultarc got berserk and threw away his bow and knives, his arms and legs bulged and his eyes went bloodshot. As much as Balthazar remembered Vultarc wasn''t supposed to go berserk till his health went down to 10%. It would pose a lot more problems if Vultarc goes berserk earlier. He slightly wished that he had tried the game when it began and not after two years in his previous life. Being berserk, Vultarc started swinging his sword at the team. When Vultarc goes berserk he changes into a berserker like Vultusk, but it had a longer reach than Vultusk making it much more dangerous. Blinding tanked a couple of hits from Vultarc and lost 90% of her health. Vultarc didn''t care about Balthazar or the others who were dealing it damage. It directly went to attack the cloth armor classes whom Blinding and Tang were covering for. Within a few seconds, Vultarc managed to bring both Blinding and Tang to critical health. Though it was poisoned from their attacks and his defense went down. It continued to attack crazily focusing on the weakest members first, the cloth armor classes, then it would go to the leather armored ones like Assassins and Rangers. Balthazar commanded both Blinding and Tang to escape and attack rather than continue block for Quiet Fire and Little White Feet. He took an all-in approach as he couldn''t do anything else. But whatever they tried failed due to the speed and aggressiveness of Vultarc. A few seconds later, both Quiet Fire and Little White Feet died. Vultarc then focused on Balthazar, but it couldn''t land a hit as Balthazar began to focus more on evading than attacking. As Vultarc was focusing only on attack him, Balthazar lured it towards Tang and Blinding so that they could attack it. Balthazar began to feel tired due to the continued strain on him. Due to the limitations on his speed, he felt like he was fighting Salazar again. He slowly began to get fatigued and Vultarc managed to make a couple of hits on Balazar. It was the first time, he had been injured in the dungeon runs. Those hits cancelled his disguise skill. Both Blinding and Tang clearly saw him change to his original form. Even his name changed in the team chat and showed his as Shadow Tyrant. Also, the number of hits that were enough to even kill Tang only reduced his health by a half. "What just happened?" asked Tang in a confused way. "I used a disguise so that I could enter the town. The Sirius Imperials have been after me ever since I completed my quest. Sorry for the deception. How about we continue with killing Vultarc?" said Balthazar enabling his skill shadow clone skill. A clone which looked exactly like Balthazar appeared and started to attack Vultarc as Balthazar. It was his first time using the skill. He immediately tried to control it manually and he suddenly could feel even the other clone. Though the had half the attributes of the original, it still had enough power to provide enough attack power equal to Tang easily. Balthazar could also see, hear and feel everything from the clone''s point of view/existence. Though Balthazar had controlled creatures in the game in his previous life. This experience was different from that slightly as he could also feel the clone as if it was himself. It also allowed him better control on it due to this. Soon, Blinding and Tang also joined the fight and helped him with the fight. Slowly they co-ordinated their attacks and whittled away Vultarc''s health. But as Vultarc''s health went below 5%, he began swinging it at everybody without any consideration to aggro or damage. This caused Blinding White to also die. By the time, Vultarc succ.u.mbed to their attacks, Tang barely had any health left. "+250 exp" The death of Vultarc rewarded them a total of 500 exp, which when shared between Balthazar and Tang directly led them to level up. Chapter 42 - Negotiations "System: Your party is the first to clear an Elite Instance dungeon. Experience awarded 300 exp each. First clear rewards would be directly placed in your inventory." Blackrock Village Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Corrupted Forest. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 Blackrock village reputation points. White heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Corrupted Forest. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 White Heart City reputation points. The announcements surprised all the players attempting in the dungeons or quests. It had been a bit over 7 hours since the game started. Most of the professional players and experts were stuck at the boss Vultarc of the normal mode of the Corrupted Forest. The announcement had all of them perplexed. They began to suspect the whether they were playing the same game. It cause an uproar among the players in the White Heart capital city region. "Ridiculous, I was so distracted at the announcement and got myself killed by a monster." "WTF? I''ve been stuck at normal instance boss and someone actually finished an elite dungeon?" "It must be a leak of information. How could someone actually finish the elite mode when no one finished even the normal instance of Corrupted Forest." "Someone is hacking the damn game. GM, please look into it." "Dog shit GM, ban his account. We can''t have such shameless hackers in a game." "Of course, it is a hack. It is the same dog shit player Shadow Tyrant in the team as the one in the special quest announcement. Ban him." Apart from the regional chat and forums, a number of applications were immediately submitted to Metic Technologies. But the received only one answer from them. "No hack or external interference was used by the concerned party. Based on the data of the fight, no bugs were used either." While the forums were abuzz with discussion again the man responsible for it was peacefully looting the corpse of Vultarc. He found a bow, a skill book and a potion bottle. [Vultarc''s Bow] (Black Iron Bow) Level 3 Requirements: Strength: 10 Agility +3; Perception +7; This bow could be used up till level 5 by any ranger. Perception is a very rare trait in any equipment. Any weapon that increases it would have double the usual value. Balthazar first thought about providing this to Slaine who was a ranger but realized that he could only meet him after level 5 and the bow would not be of much use at that time. As no one in his team were a ranger, it is best he sells it. [Knife throw] (Common skill) Level 0 Causes 100% damage on using a throwing knife. No Cooldown. Though this skill becomes a pretty common one in the later stages of the game. At this point, it would still be considered one of the rare skills at this point of time. It would be an easily farmable skill by weapon master in one of their common quest at level 15. But for Balthazar it is still a useless one and not the one he was hoping for. [Vultarc''s Berserk potion] (Potion) Level 2 Increases strength attribute by 20%. Reduces defence by 20%. Attributes would be reduced by half for 30 minutes after use. He put all three of them in inventory and then checked around him. Tang was looking at him with a perplexed look. "You are really in disguise all this time. How did you put it on? How much time can it be used? How could even your identity be changed?" she asked. "Got it as an extra skill from an equipment," replied Balthazar. "Can use it as long as I like. It breaks when I am injured. It is meant for stealthy and spy jobs I guess." "You have no issues with me actually hiding my identity?" asked Balthazar as they began to walk back towards dungeon exit and entrance. "What identity? Shadow Tyrant is also not your real name. It is just an in-game name. And you had a good reason. Anyways, those idiots from Sirius Imperials have always been overly oppressive. I actually admire you just because you managed to irritate them." "What reward did you get for first clear?" she asked Balthazar. "I forgot to check. What did you get?" "I got a level 3 black iron sword. I think it is the first level 3 equipment. It looks so beautiful," she said displaying a red one-handed curved sword. Balthazar quickly checked his own inventory and found that he had received a belt. It had places to hold throwing knives too. [Vultarc''s belt] (Black Iron Leather Belt) Level 3; Endurance +3; Vitality +4; Increases bag space by 5 slots. The usual belts allow for up to 20 slots of bag space with each slot used to carry a stack of items. The stack size of each item may differ based on the item. The belt allows for a 25% increase, which can be considered to be quite generous for a level 2 dungeon reward. He quickly equipped the belt As they exited the dungeon, they found Blinding White, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet waiting for them. They had also received their first clear rewards. Quiet Fire received a black Iron necklace which improves her intelligence, Little white a cloak which also had the same effect and Blinding got a tiara which increased her vitality and also provided a shielding skill. They were more than satisfied with their rewards, but they looked like they were in distress at the same time. "I thought getting a first clear would be something to be cheerful about. Why the gloomy faces?" asked Balthazar. "We received a call from Raging Blade of Sirius Imperials," said Quiet Fire. "They are asking for the strategy for the corrupted forest." "Okay, we can sell the strategy. I am not against it." "No. They are not looking to buy. They are demanding that we join their guild except for Blinding White and give them the strategy. Else they have about a couple of hundred people waiting to kill us right outside the dungeon." "Wow. They''re quite a bit arrogant. Aren''t they?" "What should we do?" asked Little white feet. "How did they contact us? And why don''t they want Blinding?" "Raging Blade is my ex-boyfriend. He contacted us through Little White," replied Blinding. "So, this is just an attempt of his to save face and not the plan of the guild, right?" "So, he is not the main guy in charge of handling their guild affairs at the town, right?" "No, that would be Blue Dart, a ranger. He mostly keeps himself to exploring new areas, rather than aiming for dungeon clears." "Well, he is one of the top 20 of the guild and also a member of the tournament team. His words hold a lot of weight to the guild members." "I am not interested in joining any guild. Are you guys interested in joining them?" asked Balthazar. "I am not interested in joining them either. They disgust me," replied Quiet Fire. "Ditto" said Tang. "But they are a large number waiting outside the safe zone. Can we continue in the village and then the city with them hunting for us?"asked Little White Feet. She was genuinely concerned about it. Though she had a boyfriend at Sirius Imperials, she was already disappointed in him by the way, he sold her out to Raging Blade. "They don''t have significant number of members to threaten us at the village. I will handle the Raging Blade, while the rest of you get ready to rush to teleport station. We are already all at level 3 due to the reward of the dungeon. You shouldn''t have much problem," suggested Balthazar. "Don''t look down on us. We can also fight them," said Tang. "I thought that our aim is to avoid trouble and play the game. The idea is for me to hold them off for enough time for you to get away. If the guild seriously begins to use it''s manpower to hamper us, then we can fight them properly," said Balthazar to change their view. Although Tang was angry at the Sirius Imperials, Quiet Fire and Little white feet were not. They had intended to play the game without any issues if possible. "Why don''t we try to do it as he says. It is worth it if we could peacefully coexist," said Quiet Fire. "OK. Once, we get out of the dungeon portal, I will try to reason it out with Raging Blade and consider selling our strategy and also the bow can be sold to Blue Dart. But just to be on safe side only I will be discussing with him. That would be the time for you to get to the teleportation point and head to the village. That would be a safe zone and if someone attacks you. The guards will take care of them especially since you have enough reputation, they will be considered intruders of the village if they attack you," said Balthazar. Though Balthazar had prioritized to talk it out with the Sirius Imperials, he wasn''t a fool who would put all his eggs in a single basket. As he leveled up his strength his strength and agility attributes increased. He also had the level 3 gloves and level 3 boots which could now be used. Even all the 6 free attribute points he received were all directly put into strength. This caused both his strength and agility attributes to exceed 20 points and the special traits "Nimble movements", "minor passive regeneration" and "free form combat". Free form combat allows a person to directly attack with their body even if they didn''t have any weapons. This was the feature that would separate vita-nova into a unique game from all the previous games and became a place of combat training as much as it was a game. Passive regeneration allowed a person to slowly increase his health points back when in rest at a slow rate of 1 HP per 20 seconds. With his ridiculously high attributes any normal warrior class player couldn''t compete with him in strength and vitality. The quickly got out of the portal and were at the dungeon entrance. As soon as they got out they heard someone calling out that they have exited the dungeon. A group of 50 people directly confronted them. A tall figure approached them from behind. He bore a large shield and a red colored Black Iron blade. "So, what have you decided to do," said the man standing before Balthazar in an imposing manner. "You must be Raging Blade," said Balthazar. "I am not interested in joining your guild, but regarding the dungeon strategy and equipment from the dungeons, we can sell them for a reasonable price." "Haha, you are kidding right?" "Nope, not at all." "You have only two options. Either join our guild or die," shouted Rogue Blade "Why don''t I offer an alternative. I will even give you one more option than you gave me. You can either make a good transaction for the guide and we all leave happily, or you allow us to pass through simply or continue this nonsense and I will kill all of you," replied Balthazar in a calm tone. "How dare you? You can''t even handle Boss Raging." "Yeah, just because you got lucky, you think you are better than us." Few more comments ran out from the mob behind Raging Blade, before he raised his hand to subside them. "He seems to have quite a reputation in his guild," thought Balthazar. "How about this? We will have a duel, you and me, right here. If you win, we will join your guild else you don''t disturb me or the team again," suggested Balthazar. Raging Blade was slightly surprised that Balthazar had suggested such an open confrontation between them to decide the dispute. He was a berserker. At this stage of the game where the players didn''t have many skills, he would have an advantage over any assassin. Though Raging Blade began to think that Shadow Tyrant might have an advantage he didn''t know, Balthazar wasn''t one to give him time. "Do you dare? I don''t want to join a guild filled with cowards," said Balthazar to incite him. "You are a level 3 player, while we are all level 2, it isn''t a fair fight. Aren''t you being a bit shameless?" asked a Swordsman standing beside Raging Blade. His name was Dane and he usually was the one who commanded the dungeon team after Raging Blade. "If you think so, you can have 2 or 3 fight me alone. Or even the entire main dungeon raid team," replied Balthazar pointing his dagger at them. Raging wasn''t one of the characters who thought a lot and he was filled with rage over being challenged publicly. It would be very disgraceful to both him and his guild if he still didn''t accept. So, he immediately pulled out his sword and accepted Balthazar''s challenge. "The two of us are enough to deal with any player even level 4," said Raging in his anger. This way Balthazar completely managed to divert all the anger that Raging Blade had towards Blinding and others towards him. Balthazar also revealed the Vultusk''s bow to everybody surrounding them. "This is Vultusk''s bow, a level 3 black iron bow which improves perception. It would be very useful in exploration of new territories. This is the main reward from the dungeon. I bet both the bow and the strategy for the dungeon. Let my teammates pass to the teleportation point. Then, we can begin the fight. I will stay here," said Balthazar holding out the bow. He also sent Raging Blade a friend request and sent him a picture of the bow''s description and attributes Usually a guild wouldn''t have allowed something like that. But the bow in Shadow Tyrant''s hand was too tempting. Raging Blade immediately sent the information to Blue Dart who already had asked the main guild leader to look into details of Shadow Tyrant. Blue Dart was highly tempted by the bow and asked him to secure it. It was a bow that would allow him to explore the Blackiron hills without much danger and would be useful even after he was a level 5 ranger. With that Quiet Fire and the rest went to the teleportation point and to the village in peace. "Now that they are out, shall we start?" asked Balthazar. Both Raging Blade and Dane were experienced at PVP*. They were quite strong and we''re good at tactics even at a true virtual reality game like vita-nova. They quickly moved to positions making a 60-degree angle with Balthazar. Balthazar was very calmly standing in the same place and didn''t even pull out his weapons. "Get ready," said Dane seeing that Shadow didn''t even take out his weapons. "I already am. Feel free to attack," replied Balthazar beckoning to them with his hand. Enraged by his actions both Raging Blade and Dane immediately attacked him. "Don''t regret for being a fool," said Raging Blade as he swung his blade with skill hamstring. Dane also used his skill chop at the same time approaching from the opposite end. There was hardly any time difference between the two attacks. If a player jumped back to avoid one, he would end up being hit by the other. But Shadow Tyrant took a completely different approach. With his speed he directly went beside Dane in the instant they used their skills. Swordsman was a balanced class which neither had high agility or strength. There was a large difference in both agility and strength between Dane and Shadow Tyrant. Before Dane could realize what happened, he found himself being pushed into Raging Blade''s attack. Struck by the attack Dane speed reduced by 20%. Both Raging Blade and Dane were surprised by this. Before they could grasp their head around what happened, Shadow Tyrant jumped on to Raging Blade with his dagger. Balthazar had a lot of experience as a PVP player. He was always better at killing players than monsters as he could directly use his assassination experience. As soon as he attacked Raging Blade, he chose to hit all the weak point of a human like eye, neck and joints. As he was a player of manual mode, even the effects like stun and bleed were afflicted on Raging Blade without Shadow having the actual skills. Within 5 seconds Raging Blade was turned into a flash of light while Dane was held at a distance with nothing but punches and kicks. In the next five seconds, even Dane dissipated in front of the crowd. Both the challengers died within 10 seconds which was a large stain for the guild. Though Raging Blade agreed to let him go, the remaining members weren''t the ones who said so. They immediately attacked Shadow Tyrant claiming that he was cheating. Balthazar also had to respond in like. He had never expected a completely peaceful negotiation to occur. He retaliated as soon as the remaining members attacked him. With his high speed he could easily evade all their attacks and even countered with his own attacks. For one minute, he went crazy and continued to kill the members of Sirius Imperials. He had already used his shadow clone skill during the fight and had it escape using stealth. His main aim in playing the game in this life was training and there is no better option for it than PVP. During this minute he managed to dwindle their number from 50 to 16. But he had also reached critical health. He quickly cast the skill shadow swap. To everyone else, it only appeared as if his health increased due to some skill. No one guessed it was a clone. With his clone keeping them busy, he calmly teleported to the village without any fear. Note: *PVP refers to player vs. player. All fights among players are in general referred to as PVP. Chapter 43 - Blackmail As he reached the village, he found the rest of the team waiting for him at the teleportation point. But they seem to be busy watching something and suddenly gasped. All they suddenly saw Shadow Tyrant appear disappear in the video they are watching appear behind them. "How did you do that? You teleported here in the middle of a fight!" exclaimed Little White Feet in surprise. "I didn''t disappear there and appear here. That was just my clone fighting them. Once I teleported the skill got cancelled," replied Shadow. "Yes, he has a clone skill. I saw him use it to fight Vultarc," said Tang confirming Shadow''s words. "The Sirius Imperials are shouting again that you have been hacking and they even posted the video of you fight and you disappearing in the middle of it," said Blinding showing them the post on the forums. Balthazar opened the forums and could see that more complaints about him were sent to Metis Technologies, but he wasn''t worried about that. What concerned him more was the video and that players may get antagonistic with him and the team because of the video. "Can you guys contact the guy Blue Dart?" he asked looking at them. "I have a friend at Sirius Imperials. He might be able to send a message to him," replied Little White Feet. "Ask him to tell Blue Dart that if they want the strategy for Corrupted Forest, he better contact me as soon as possible. Tell him that I also intend to trade him the bow and something else that would be useful to them." At the same time, Raging Blade and Dane who were killed got transported to the village graveyard. They made their way to the village pub which could be used as a meeting point. Blue Dart had also arrived at the village and joined the pub. "Three of your best beer for me and my boys here," said Blue Dart tossing a few coins to the bartender. He took three mugs from the NPC and sat beside his friends. "So? How good was he?" asked Blue Dart. "Jimmy was recording the fight. He just posted it on the forums," replied Dane showing him the video. Blue Dart himself opened up the video and check it out. "He seems to both faster and stronger than you. Did you send the video in the complaint against him?" "We did. The only reply I got is that he didn''t do anything unfair or no hacks were used in the fight. Even his disappearing act was included in the video we sent," said Dane. "If he is really that strong it would be of no use for us to fight him. It would be detrimental to our cause if we go against such a strong character at the beginning of the game." "Didn''t boss say he could contact some GM from a friend of his. What did he say?" "I didn''t disturb him after the announcement. He will contact us, if he deems necessary," replied Raging Blade. "Why don''t I check with him?" said Blue Dart contacting the guild leader, Blood Wolf. Blood Wolf was a veteran in V.R gaming who was involved in the V.R. games for more than 30 years. He had created the guild Sirius Imperials two decades ago and had brought made it into the well-known first-rate guild it is. Having spent more than two decades as a guild leader he had a lot of contacts in the gaming industry. He invested a lot of resources into vita-nova as he believed that it would be a lot more profitable than any of the previous ones. As soon as he came to know that someone named Shadow Tyrant had managed to do a special quest, he wanted to know more about it. After he heard the announcement that Shadow Tyrant also managed to clear an elite instance dungeon, he used his means to find out more but the results weren''t what he expected. He was mulling over what to do regarding him, when he saw the fight posted on the forums. As he was watching the video, he received a call from Blue Dart. "Hey, Blue. Is it about that guy, Shadow Tyrant?" "You looked at the video, yet?" asked Blue Dart. "Looking at it. He is indeed impressive. Any chance we can negotiate with him?" "Negotiate? We suspect that he might be hacking, and his account would be banned anytime now." "No. He isn''t hacking. It is more than that. He is a real-world expert who is playing the game. Every trick he did was done without any hacks. My guy refused to divulge his identity and actually warned me that it is best if we don''t probe into it." "You sure?" "Very sure. These kind of men don''t take threats well in real life. I doubt he would be deterred by anything we do. Better to negotiate with him than fight. Work along that lines and tell the rest to not antagonize him. See you at the city," said Blood Wolf cutting the call. Blue Dart looked gloomy after the call. He turned to Dane and Raging Blade. "It is not what we expected. He is asking us to not fight Shadow Tyrant and that the guy isn''t hacking." "He isn''t hacking? That is impossible." "Blood seems to be awful sure about it. He insists that we don''t go picking fights with him and by his tone sounded a bit adamant about it." "Well, he sure can fight, and he is an assassin. He fought us directly and defeated us. If he decides to hunt us starts stealth killing, he could be a big pain," agreed Dane. He suddenly got a message from someone. "It looks like that guys wants to contact you," he said looking at Blue Dart. "Tell him that we are at the pub. We can discuss it here," said Blue Dart. "You think he will come here. We have a lot of members around the place." "He will come. Why do you think they teleported to the village? Here, the guards protect them due to the reputation points they received. Even I managed to get only 5 reputation points from the quest for leather working. They definitely received a lot more reputation points than me. Fighting him at this point in the village would be suicidal and we might be place in prison even if he initiates the fight. So, everyone stays calm," said Blue Dart as he continued to drink from his mug. A few moments later, he saw a 6-feet tall man wearing a black mask approached the pub. All the members of his guild were looking at him angrily. He could easily guess that this was the player, Shadow Tyrant. "You must be Shadow Tyrant. Please have a seat," said Blue Dart pulling an empty chair to the table. "Blue Dart, I presume," said Balthazar shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you." "I am sorry for the conflict, we had previously. It was just a misunderstanding among us. I believe that it is best that we end it here. Both Raging Blade and Dane also feel the same. I hope that Mr. Shadow Tyrant feels the same.," said Blue Dart attempting to solve the bad blood between them. "I am glad you think so. It would be tiresome if I had to keep killing members of your guild whenever I meet them. I would rather get on with my quests and enjoy the game a bit than killing these novices." "Don''t be so shameless. Do you really want to see if you could survive if our entire guild hunts for you?" said Raging in anger. Though he was already killed by Shadow Tyrant, he could take it lying down when Balthazar called him a novice. "I already proved that I can. But I can indulge you another round if you insist," said Balthazar looking at him. He didn''t like Raging Blade ever since he heard that he had forced Blinding to leave the team and threatened others using his guild name that he would kill anyone who teamed up with her. He turned towards Blue Dart. "I came here to talk it out. If it is going to continue in this fashion, I see no need for this." "Raging and Dane please take some time off. Let me discuss with him," messaged Blue Dart to his peers. "OK. We will talk it out. Let us not discuss who would win the fight," Blue Dart said aloud looking at Raging and Dane. After both Raging Blade and Dane left hearing distance, Blue Dart said "Let us forget about the small tussles you had with my guild members, Shadow Tyrant. But let us talk openly now. Even if you can kill them, you will waste your time doing it. You recognize this too. Isn''t that why you asked for a meeting?" "Yes, of course. It will be an unnecessary quarrel. Though I won''t be losing much. It would definitely hamper my gains in the game." "So, I would like to suggest something. Help us with the dungeon and I will buy that bow from you. In return, we wouldn''t go against your team. Even Raging Blade will keep his distance, except for the girl Blinding White. There is a history between them. I would like you to kick her out." "Have a look at this video," said Shadow Tyrant playing a video of him betting with Raging Blade and Dane. He also showed the attributes of his Mask of Shadows. "I can put up my actual equipment and attributes up in the forums along with this. It would change the way the general players think about me and also have something about reputation of Raging Blade for not standing up to his word even for such a small thing. Do you really want everyone to think that you guys are that untrustworthy?" "Are you blackmailing us, Shadow Tyrant?" asked Blue Dart. "I am just doing the same thing your guild members have been doing to us. It is your decision what you want to call it." These idiots have been behaving quite rampantly these days. I thought Dane might be able to control Raging and had them move together but it looks like it isn''t of much use. They even are making bets about guild matters. He probably has other videos and it is very easy for him to infuriate and kill Raging Blade. And it is necessary to preserve their reputation at the beginning of a new game. Else, it would be impossible to get new members into their guild and improve their workforce. He had no option but to conform to this demand of his or atleast feign conformance. "Hmm. You are quite persuasive. I will try my best to see that Raging Blade doesn''t disturb you." "Trying your best? I need a better guarantee than that for our co-operation to go any further." "Hahaha. You are good at negotiating. I will guarantee you that none of the guild members would quarrel with you or your team members. Well, unless you directly cause us any harm to the guild. Then, we can''t help but attack you and your team. We got a deal?" said Blue Dart. "Well, in that case, I guess we have a deal," said Balthazar extending his hand out to shake Blue Dart''s hand. "I guess you have made a video of this conversation too." "Of course, it would be foolish not to. Anyways, let''s discuss about the bow and the guide for corrupted forest." "We estimate that they are both worth about 50000 credits. What do you think about that?" "If you are considering it to be just for the bow, I agree." "Haha. Don''t oversell the bow it isn''t worth that much either. Let us assume an amount of 30000 credits for the bow. Even if it has good attributes, it is still only a level 3 bow. How much do you suggest for the guide?" "You might have a valid point about the bow. For the guide, how about 2.5 lakhs?" "You are kidding, right?" "The corrupted forest allows you to gather the primary skill and equipment for warriors and healing professions. It would allow you to gather equipment that would be helpful in all dungeons in general. It would allow your guild to improve much faster than the others. It is best to explore and get as many advantages as possible in a new game. Please, consider this before you decide it''s value." "You might be right. But we have been on the opposite sides. I can''t accept such large amount of pay during such early in the game. If it isn''t true, it might be a worthless investment from our side. The most I am allowed to give you for both is 1 lakh credits." "How about I give you both the the bow and guide for now. You can transfer the amount of 1 lakh into my account for now. Go through the information I provide and run a few rounds. After you have verified my claims you can pay me the remaining amount I suggested, but I would like the remaining amount to be paid in vita-nova coins rather than credits." "Vita-nova coins! It is extremely difficult to procure vita-nova coins right now. I can''t accept it. I need to discuss with the guild leader," said Blue Dart. He discussed with Blood Wolf for a few moments and then replied their decision, "We can provide you about 20% of the amount in vita-nova coins once we get to level 5. We can''t go higher than that." The exchange of coins with credits would start only after the 30% of the players reached level 5. The exchange rate would be 1 copper for a credit. So, that would give him a couple of gold coins as soon as the credit exchange began. It is to be noted that even with all his adventures he had less than 2 silvers with him. It wasn''t easy to farm gold in vita-nova. They had specifically made it so that. It wouldn''t cause any issue to the economy especially since the time in vita-nova is 3 times faster than the real world. It was a valid option for him, especially since he had to share it with only a team of 5 members at that time, he probably will have more coins collected by that time anyways. "Okay, that is acceptable. Shall we sign a contract for it?" said Balthazar pulling out a contract out of his habit from the previous life. The system enforced these contracts and any penalties stipulated if the conditions are not met. The type of contracts also vary in grade based on the quality and quantity of the penalties, compensation and conditions involved. The minor contract which Balthazar pulled were system generated for 5 bronze coins. The amount would be collected when both the parties sign on it. Blue Dart was shocked that the guy had enough money to waste on a contract at this stage of the game for something like this. It has to be noted that it had been about 3 hours in real life. "The system can''t really evaluate our satisfaction. Why don''t I transfer the amount of 1 lakh to your account, right now?. You have my word that I will stick to our deal." Balthazar also thought about it for a moment. "It is true that the system can''t really account to their feeling and evaluate if the guide is worthy of the amount I asked. Why don''t I indulge them for now?" he thought. "Okay as you say. I need an hour time to make a proper guide. Why don''t you send me once I mail it to you? I will send the guide as a paid delivery," said Shadow Tyrant. He removed Vultarc''s bow from his inventory and handed it off to Blue Dart as he received the corresponding payment for it. "I hope we can continue to co-operate, Mr. Shadow Tyrant," said Blue Dart shaking Balthazar''s hand in thanks. He could really put the bow to good use, especially in a game like vita-nova where the experience and level growth is far too slow. "Just call me Shadow. Knock of the honorifics. I find them a bit uncomfortable." He quickly made his way back to the temple, where the rest of his team were waiting. He already told them to wait there as there are some good quests that can be obtained from the temple. "So, did it go well?" asked Quiet Fire. "It was cool. They wouldn''t trouble us, and I sold the bow for a decent amount. They also agreed to buy the guide for a good price." "Even me?" asked Blinding White. She was sure that the negotiations would fail as she knew Raging Blade''s temper and he would refuse to accept her to be left free. "Yeah, of course. They raised a concern about you. But I managed to convince them." "What did you do? You didn''t kill them again, did you?" "No. I kind of blackmailed them," said Balthazar not looking at anywhere in particular. He had no scruples blackmailing people, but he didn''t want the world to know the kind of man he was made into in his previous life." "You blackmailed them? What happened to negotiations?" asked Quiet Fire. Ever since, they met him, his way of handling thing was a bit abnormal. They were worried when it would backfire and make things worse. "You ever negotiated anyone? What kind of proper negotiations begin without threats or blackmails on both sides?" asked Balthazar. "If both didn''t have something against the other then there would be no negotiations. Just a takeover happens," he continued as he beckoned them to enter the temple with him. He already had completed the requirements for quite a number of quests. All he had to do was submit them. Chapter 44 - Quests and equipment. As he entered the temple the priest that gave him the quest moved towards Balthazar of his own accord. "Why is he looking at me like that?" thought Balthazar as he saw the priest looking at his face. The priest suddenly raised his hand and showed him his palm while he mumbled some spell at him. There was the yellow dot above the priest. So, he thought that the priest is giving him some quest and began to check his quest log. "Shadow, your mask is blinking in flashes of gold and silver," said Quiet Fire pointing at his face. Balthazar wasn''t able to notice that his mask was flashing, the effect was hidden from him. He then realized that the priest was waving his hand towards his mask and it was flashing in response to the spell. "When I heard that you foiled the plan of a great mage, it piqued my interest. But, you seemed to have found out something a lot more interesting in your adventures, Mr. Shadow," said the priest. "The mask you donned; it reacts to the power of the altar of gods. You have acquired the recognition of a relic of one of the 12 great lords. I have seen many powerful creatures, but the material seems to be more resilient than the skin of a wyvern. You have been given a great gift. Take good care of it and know that it by extension you are a member of the temple. Kindly act in accordance noble adventurer," said the priest. "Devout Priest, could you provide me any more information regarding the relic of the lords." "I am but a minor deacon at the branch of the temple, I am not capable enough nor informed about such powerful artifacts. Such knowledge is not something a priest of my rank is privileged to. But I can refer you to someone who once taught me, the great priest Luciophel. He will surely help you." System: Meet the great priest Luciophel of the ''Temple of the Twelve'' of the white heart city to further investigate the origins of the mask of shadows. Received a letter of introduction from the deacon. "Thank you, Deacon. I have also completed the quest given by you and can be of further service to the temple," said Balthazar and immediately a couple of notifications popped up. Quest Completed: Help the village against the menace of the wolves. Wolves Killed: 63 Performance: Outstanding. Quest reward: Temple of the Twelve Reputation +5; experience points +150; The quest when given by the village headman usually rewarded about 50 to 75 experience points when it is completed. Only the temple quest allows the rewards to acc.u.mulate if more than the required number are killed. This is a feature that few organizations within the game follow. But the experience was something that Balthazar could easily gain and was not the reason for him accepting the quest. Shadow Tyrant presently was at level 3 and had already begin to acc.u.mulate reputation in the Blackrock village region and the White Heart City region. But he considered the temple reputation to be worth a lot more than either of these. At this stage of the game, he is probably one of the strongest players in the game. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 3 Exp: 415/800 HP: 2000/2000; MP: 650/650; Physical Attack: 52 Defense: 41; Attack Speed: 30; Movement Speed: 32; Willpower: 12; Balance: 20; Focus/Search: 26; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 8; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 26, Agility 24, Endurance 15, Intelligence 12, Vitality 22, Perception 12. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0 The temple reputation has a certain use as when a player manages to gather sufficient reputation, he would be considered a soldier of the temple and would be given the same title. This title allows one to have a natural enhanced resistance and damage towards the members of the other factions, which would be very useful in the later stages of the game. Also, he needed to collect the life essences of dark faction. In the dungeon runs, he only managed to gather 92 life essences. He would probably need to acquire more for further upgrades in the later stages of the game. So, the temple reputation would be useful for that too. As he was waiting for the priest to prompt something that would give him the quest which players received at level 3 from the temple, the priest said something he didn''t expect. "I almost forgot. Captivated by the relic, I neglected the main purpose of our meeting. You have successfully stopped the plans of the Worgen Great Sorceror Arsenus. While we thank you for the services rendered, I would also have to request to do this," said the priest holding out a small disc. "This is a high-grade teleportation disc. It can be used to create a permanent teleportation point. Though you managed to stop Arsenus. The failed ritual causes a few smaller space-time tears near that location. These could allow few lesser creatures sent by Arsenus to infiltrate our kingdom. I would like you to create a teleportation point near the cave that would allow the followers of the light to take action against them. We have already sent a few members of the temple, but they haven''t reported back. I hope the light of the twelve blesses you in your endeavour." Balthazar immediately understood that this was a continuation quest for his previous one and is being given by the temple. As he took the teleportation disc from the priest, he got a new quest. System: New special quest: [Hold back the Warg''s: Help to hold back the advance of the wargs at the blackrock hills] Create a teleportation point near the cave to stop the growing number of Wargs at the blackrock hills. Received Quest Item: Teleportation disc. Progress: Return to BlackRock hills and find the cave ( To be completed). Now that he received a quest from the priest and the yellow dot hovering over the priest''s head disappeared, the one he previously expected wouldn''t be given to him. He was disappointed a bit as he lost his chance to complete a quest, he knew that he could easily pass through. Moreover, the quest was a team quest, that could only be done at level 3 or level 4. As he turned back in disappointment, he saw his teammates standing there. "Of course, I can have one of them take the quest and join their team," he thought. He quickly took the team towards the priest. "Devout Priest, I have a few friends who like me are followers of the temple of the twelve. The wish to be of service to the great cause of the twelve great lords," he said introducing the team to the priest. The priest looked towards Quiet Fire calmly and acknowledged her. She had already done a quest at level 2 and obtained her inspection skill from the temple. He then observed the other three new members who came to the temple. "Ah, three more adventurers that want to serve the light. I hope there would be more of you as the time passes. There is something that you can do but it will be hard. Go to the Blackrock hills and stop the mining operation of the goblins. They pay no heed to the safety measures and are polluting the river. You better increase your strength before you attack the goblins," said the priest to Quiet Fire Quiet Fire immediately thanked the priest for giving her the quest. As she was checking the quest details Shadow Tyrant asked her to share the quest details. [Stop the goblin miners] (Team Quest. Difficulty: Hard) Quest Description: Kill the goblin leader to stop the goblins from mining at the blackrock hills. Progress: Find the Goblin Leader; Goblins Killed: 0 Team quest: Can be shared with 4 more members. 0/4 Following the details, a quest request was sent to him by Quiet Fire in order to join the team. Though the team quest can be done by even a single member, it is always recommended to do it with a team as the difficulty is not scaled by the number of members in the team. For better rewards and performance grade by the system, it is best to fill up to the maximum number and kill accordingly. "What does the priest mean by increasing our strength before we attack the goblin camp?" asked Blinding White. "It is a level 3-4 quest. The NPCs who have a good impression of you tend to give some clues to help you out in such a way. You guys can at least improve your gear before you go for the quest. Do you guys have any more quests to submit in the village?" "I didn''t focus that much on quests. At the time, I just too the quest from the headman and went to the dungeon after leveling up a bit," replied Blinding. "We have a few quests. But only one per person. We didn''t want to fill up our quota of four secondary trade professions, right now. We want to take some time to decide which is the best for earning money," said Quiet Fire. "That is a sensible move in general for games, but you can remove a secondary profession from your trade skills anytime you wish. The only problem is that you would lose all the trade profession related quests and the proficiency when you do that. Moreover, I heard that the quota is going to increase. So, just take whatever you find and use it to increase your experience," said Balthazar. "OK. We will try out the other tradesmen NPC quest in that case." Vita-nova had focused on the trade professions as much as the main professions. The level of detail of the combat increases with the level so that the players can slowly get used to it. The same concept was applied even to trade professions. All the trade professions which are seen in real-life are made as close to reality as possible. Even the mythical ones such as runecrafting have been made extremely close to what the myths suggest. That is why Balthazar had them work on filling up the slots for the trades. It is best to gather a decent amount of proficiency even in the gathering trades which most exploratory teams take up. "Why don''t we meet back at the temple in 30 minutes. You guys do whatever you want in that time. I need to finish up the guide for Blue Dart. We also need to discuss, the distribution of loot among us, if we are to work as a team for a continued duration," said Balthazar. "OK" "See you at the temple gate in half an hour." "Wait, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet before you go doing your quests, I got something that might help improve our strengths. Come with me." Balthazar made his way to the Tailor and Leather working shop to finish the quest. The Tailor NPC Lydia gave a repeatable quest till a person reached level 5. But most stopped doing the quest as the amount of experience they got after level 2 doing the quest was too little. They would at least get money on selling the resources than completing the quest. But once the quest is completed 6 times, a person''s relation with Lydia improves and she begins to sell her handmade apparel to the player. This would be an easy way to get hold of leather and cloth armor. But the number of apparels she sold per day would be limited to 20. Still at this stage, Balthazar knows he would have monopoly over the wares she sold. These kind of quests were offered in every beginner village of the game so that the players are could easily adapt to the realistic way the trade professions are played in the game. As they reached the tailor, they could see that it was quite sparse around the shop. The tailor sold only white trash clothes of lower level. Only really unlucky guys would end up losing them at this stage of the game. The low experience given by her already made her a pariah. Players would rather go to merchant''s like Hart where they could get coins for their resources, especially when the resources and coins are scarce. Moreover, the coins can be used to purchase potions and supplies and can also be distributed evenly within a team but not the experience. Not everybody could solo kill wolves and rabbits at this stage of the game. They usually formed teams to kill them. [Lydia] (Tailor) Level ... Protected by the system. As soon as they approached her, she started her usual dialogue. "Brave adventurers, could you please provide me resources for my shop. Assuredly I will repay you for your help." System: Lydia''s Request: Gather 10 wolf furs or rabbit pelts for Lydia to make clothes. (Repeatable) Balthazar already had 47 wolf furs and 18 rabbit pelts with him. He quickly put them up for Lydia to take. "+10 experience points" "+10 experience points" "+10 experience points" "+10 experience points" "+10 experience points" "+10 experience points" System: Improved Relationship status with Lydia to Friendly. "Brave Sir, Shadow Tyrant, I thank you for your patronage. These are clothes that have been made personally by me. Please, have a look at them. They might interest you," said the NPC, displaying a new set of clothes. The new ones on display ranged from level 2 to level 5 Black Iron leather and cloth armor. There were some special items which Balthazar wanted to buy. [Explorer''s Hooded Cloak] (Black Iron Cloak) Level 2-5 Defense +10% Agility +10% Perception +10% Cost: 80 coppers There were others but right now Balthazar didn''t want to spend, the little amount he had, in fully equipping himself with black iron armor. He chose the explorer''s cloak for himself and provided the pictures of a couple of items. "Pick one each suitable for you. We can come shopping another time when we have more money," said Shadow. Soon, the two of them soon selected a couple of clothes. Quiet Fire chose a pair of boots which would increase her damage while Little White Feet chose a pretty white gown which would increase her intelligence and health. [Mage sandals] (Black Iron footwear) Level 2-5 Restricted to mage class. Intelligence +20% Agility +5% Cost: 80 coppers [White Gown] (Black Iron gown) Level 2-5 Restricted to Healer Class. Intelligence +10% Vitality +10% Cost: 70 coppers These were clothes with very good attributes. Lydia had similar ones in stock but the amount of coins that the team had weren''t enough to buy them. Shadow had already told Blinding to stock up on basic health and mana potions to go through the quests. These three items had cost him a total of 2 silvers and 30 coppers. He would only have 20 coppers after the transaction. As he pointed out to the three items in the display. They were immediately put into his hands and Balthazar selected 2 silvers 30 coppers and put it on the table. "Since you have more than 200 reputation, you would be considered to have equal privileges to the village head. 20% off on all purchases in the village," said Lydia returning 46 coppers back to him. "Thank you," said Shadow accepting the coins. He immediately called Blinding and rest of the team to tell them that he will make all purchases they require as he would be given a discount of 20%. Chapter 45 - Cheap Shot As they left, he also had a few other quests at the apothecary and the blacksmith. He quickly reached the apothecary and exchanged the stacks of blue and red weeds he collected for experience and money. "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" Then he went to the blacksmith Kade to exchange the iron ore he collected. The process was the same providing him decent amount of experience and money, except that the blacksmith would offer another quest after he exchanged 5 stacks of iron ore. "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" "+25 experience points, +10 coppers" After the fifth exchange a yellow dot appear over the blacksmith Kade. He examined the last stack of ores and groaned in displeasure. "Ah! the whole lot of you adventurers are good for nothing. The blackrock hills are a rich source of ores and all I receive from you are a bunch of crappy iron ores. By the time I refine these I get a barely usable chunk of refined iron to make weapons and armor. Why don''t you learn from those goblins?! They manage to get hold of decent refined iron ore. I don''t need any more of these lower quality iron ore from you. Get something better or get lost." [Kade''s demand] (Difficulty: Moderate; Repeatable) Quest Description: Gather refined iron ores from the blackrock hills. Refined Iron Ores collected: 0 Collecting enough of these ores allow a person to get into apprenticeship of the blacksmith Kade and other rewards that would help speed up the blacksmithing profession. There was a player called Mr. Miner who was into mining from the start of the game. He was the person who joined the game after about 5 years of its launch. He was the one who first found out this specific peculiarity among the trade profession NPCs of the beginner village. He was a player who enjoyed mining and continuously used to mine for fun. He provided the ores he collected to the blacksmith as the blacksmith was giving more coins than the small guild he joined. He was taken in by the village blacksmith as an apprentice and slowly became one of the more popular trade profession players due to the rewards he obtained. This slowly led the player base to think about the completing the various seemingly unrewarding trade profession quests. Though these allowed them to level up their skills faster, they still couldn''t compete with the skill and proficiency of the players who had been in the game for years and didn''t have much impact in the major power structure of the game player base. Balthazar being a vice-guild leader of a first-rate guild had to constantly be informed of the various opportunities in the game and that is the reason he memorized all the tricks, but not even he knew the details of a lot of quests. Now that he has finished the quests, he went back to the pub and started on the guide to the corrupted forest. He made separate ones for normal, elite and hell mode dungeons. "I hope that they would be satisfied with this level of detail," thought Balthazar. He intentionally left out a few details about few treasure chests they could find in the elite and hell tier dungeons. He made another guide with all the details he knew and mailed them to Rudra. After that he went on ahead to buy bread, water and potions for the quests they have. As he was getting supplies. he got a call from Rudra a few minutes after he sent the mail thanking him. Though Rudra couldn''t yet establish a guild, he already started contacting his old acquaintance with the idea of establishing a group presence in vita-nova. This guide would be of great help to him in gathering players towards him. The guide sent to blue dart was also accepted by him and he got an amount of 100000 credits in his bank account. Now, the only thing that was left in the village was to hand-in Hart''s quest before he meets up with his team at the temple. He made his way to Hart''s shop. By now, Hart had become one of the few shops which are crowded by the players. Hart bought a lot of resources from the players and gave decent amount of coins for various drops from the monsters. Shadow directly went to Hart and provided him the wolf teeth that he had procured. Quest Completed: [Procure wolf teeth for Hart] (Difficulty: Novice) Progress: Wolf teeth obtained 30/30; "+50 experience points." "Thank you for these teeth. I will make good use of them," said Hart taking the teeth. "If it is not trouble to you could you also acquire a couple of black rock crystals. I will make it worth your effort. New Quest: [Procure Blackrock Crystals] (Difficulty: Moderate) Progress: Blackrock Crystals obtained 2/2. Quest Updated: [Procure Blackrock Crystals] (Difficulty: Moderate) Progress: Blackrock Crystals obtained 2/2. Return to Hart. Shadow felt he was quite lucky. He didn''t know whether it was the rabbit''s foot in his possession or some other form of luck. But it is surprising that Hart would ask for something that he already had. He quickly pulled out the blackrock crystals, he had found on looting the Blackrock wolves from his inventory and handed them to Hart. "Ah! With these I can successfully complete the necklace for that Waramar Jundal. He had been pestering me for quite some time. I thank you for your timely help adventurer. Please take this as a token of my gratitude," said Hart handing him a skill book. It was an assassin skill book, cheap shot. It was a very old skill existing in a lot of V.R games, probably even existed when people used to play games on a static screen before V.R. console games started. The cheap shot was a skill that allowed a person to stun his opponent for a fixed duration of time in all normal V.R. games. During this time one can continuously beat the opponent without worry about him getting out of stun. It was the same for vita-nova presently. But soon after the first upgrade that happens a couple of months later, the stun time will begin to vary and is calculated based on the strength of the attacker and endurance of the attacked. Still, it was a very useful skill that an assassin would be using quite frequently in a game. It is the skill that allowed a player having assassin occupation actually behave like an assassin and take down his opponent''s health to zero in a round of attacks. He immediately learnt the skill and checked it in his skills list. Cheap Shot: Needs to be executed when in stealth. Deals a strong hit at a vital point shocking the victim into a stunned state for 4 seconds. It also provided two combo points. The victim wouldn''t come out of stun while being attacked. Skill Level 1. Proficiency: 0/500 He has learned one of the very important skills for an assassin that would usually be provided to the players by the Assassin Instructor at level 5. Learning it before the rest would definitely provide a minor advantage to him over the others. He went to the temple to meet the rest of the team. By the time, he reached the temple the remaining four of his team were already waiting for him. "Come on, I know the way to the goblins at the blackrock hills. Let us discuss the distribution on the way," said Balthazar leading them back to the bridge across the river by the blackrock hills. On the way, they met a few members of the Sirius Imperials, but no conflict ensued. It looked like Blue Dart intended to strictly enforce his side of the deal. They still cleared and cordoned off the area, but they didn''t tell anything to Shadow or his team. Even Shadow was surprised that Blue Dart was being this thorough about it. He half expected the guild members to feign ignorance and warn him too. But little did he know that not only Blue Dart but even the guild leader Blood Wolf was wary about him. He didn''t know that some of the upper brass have already been observing him closely. Along they way the went into a few more level 2 wolves, but those didn''t provide much experience to the team as the were already at level 3. Else, they would have continued to farm at the corrupted forest. Finally, it was Tang that opened up and asked Shadow about how they should handle the distribution of loot in the game. She and Quiet Fire proposed that the girls would each have 10% while Shadow could keep the remaining. With Shadow''s skills, they could easily earn a lot and didn''t want to displease him. So, they went ahead to propose something that would benefit him more. They also suggested that it is best if they work to create a guild so that they would need to worry about the stronger powers in the game bullying them. It was a clever and well thought proposal but Shadow already owned a workshop and he found no point in having another guild. Moreover, he couldn''t be in the game for a large amount of time due to his work in the real-world. So, he decided to explain everything. "It is a decent proposal but please allow me to refuse," said Shadow. "I started a new workshop with some of my college friends recently. I will be a member of the guild we create. Though mostly as a honorary elder as I have a job which I can''t leave." This brought down the spirits of the four girls. They had hoped that with Shadow Tyrant''s skills and training, they could easily gain fame and fortune in the game. "But we can join with them in the guild. They are also good at V.R. games," he continued. "As for the distribution of loot, I will take 40% and the remaining can be shared among you four for now. It is still the early stages of the game. We can have a proper discussion when we actually establish a guild or an adventurer group. Rare materials and weapons we will use if any one of us have a use for it and Roll in case of conflicts." He also asked for their account numbers and sent 19500 credits to each of their accounts. "I have sent your share of the transaction with Sirius Imperials. Check your accounts," said Shadow. Though he can''t spend a large amount of time in the game as he did on his previous life, he needed a team and it is best to earn their confidence and loyalty to him as early as possible. Though loyalty can''t be earned through money, a display of his care and prompt distribution of loot is necessary. "We could also use more members. If any of you have friends or acquaintances who you think are a good fit, we can tryout a quest or two before we have them in our group," he added. After crossing the bridge instead of taking the direction that lead him to Elias and the worgens, he took the opposite path. As they went forward they couldn''t find the even a single wolf on any other monster on their way. It was like the wolves avoided this part of the hills. Luckily there were a decent amount iron ore veins on the way which they ended up mining. "Are you sure you are going the right way? I haven''t been able to see a single monster on the way here," asked Tang. "That is why I am sure that this is the way to the goblins," said Shadow as they continued forward on their path. They finally saw a goblin. It was about 3 feet tall holding a pickaxe and wearing clothes made of what looked like wolf fur. It seemed to be mining an iron ore vein. [Lesser Goblin](Common Monster) Level 3 HP: 200 "Come on, lets finish him," said Quiet Fire. It had been more than 20 minutes since they found any monsters. She was itching for a fight. "Hold on. Goblins are humanoid. I want to pickpocket them. It yields more number of resources this way as I get something for every goblin instead of a few for every 4 or 5 monsters," said Shadow. Goblins were a neutral race that specialized in engineering. All neutral races tend to have good items with them. They need to be very good at their specialties. For goblins it is engineering. Usually monsters can be looted after death but these are usually not that valuable with the exception of special elites and boss. But pickpocket allows the players to access loot which wouldn''t be available after death. This was a feature that was always present in most of the mmorpg games like vita-nova. The main reason for loss of items after death was suggested to be battle damage to the items. The monsters and NPC could also use items to attack or defend causing battle damage to items in their possession. Initially this part of vita-nova was similar to other MMORPGs. But, later they improved the part. Players had to make sure that they didn''t attack parts of monsters like claws and fangs if they wanted to gather those parts from the monsters. Shadow immediately went into stealth and went behind the goblin. Having been an assassin character for 5 years in his previous life, he easily used the pickpocket ability on it. When executing pickpocket, the player needs to actually put his hand into the bag or pocket of the monster/NPC and can pull out an item or two without shaking the bag much. If the player lacks proper finesse or accidentally shakes the bag, the monster would realize even if he is in stealth and attack blindly and the pickpocket attempt would also fail. Hence, it is best to fell around the bag slightly and pull out whatever one could touch if one wants the pickpocket attempt to be successful. Once the attempt fails the monster/NPC would be on guard against pickpockets and the player wouldn''t be able to attempt it again. "Successfully executed pickpocket. Looted 1 Refined Iron Ore. Raised Proficiency 2/500" After pickpocket, the monsters of same level usually wouldn''t be able to detect the thief due to him being in stealth. With the enhanced Stealth from the mask of shadows even higher leveled monsters wouldn''t be able to detect him. He quickly attempted it a few more times, till the goblin realized that it is being looted. He immediately started swinging her pickaxe blindly. Now, that he had been noticed by the goblin, Shadow immediately used his new skill, cheap shot and within the duration of the stun managed to kill. With a high attack power of 50, it was an easy feat for him to kill a monster of HP 200 in four seconds. "+5 experience points" The goblin gave a total of 25 experience points. In vita-nova, teams could have equal distribution of experience points or the usual one followed in other games, about 40% to the last hit and the remaining is distributed among all the alive members of the team based on damage contribution. Shadow selected the former as he wanted to develop the team at a similar high pace as him and cheap shot definitely would allow him to kill even elite monsters quickly. "Two Refined Iron ore, a screw and a drill bit. Not bad for one goblin," said Shadow as he pocketed the loot. They got a few coppers from the body of the goblin. "Not a bad haul for a single monster," said Quiet Fire looking at the items, Shadow showed her. "We will stick with the idea of you looting the goblins before attacking from now on." Chapter 46 - Goblin camp "What is the drill bit for?" asked Tang checking the images of the loot that Shadow displayed. "As the priest told they are mining at the hills and if there is one thing that goblins are famous for in any game are their engineering capabilities. It is expected of them to have drills and other machinery at their operation," said Shadow as if it was obvious. Shadow had already begun to move towards the location of the mine. It is going to take at least another 30 minutes to reach the enemy camp and he no time to lose as he is going to have his actual training with a new teacher in another 5 hours of the game time. He needed to improve his characters as fast as he can. He had his aim on a pair of unique daggers that he could obtain after reaching the White Heart city. Along the way, they found few other goblins mining at iron ore veins whom they managed to easily pickpocket and kill. As they came within a 200 feet distance to the mine entrance. They say a camp of about 10 brown colored tents with a wooden fence surrounding it. There were elite goblins guarding the camp and a few goblins riding wolf patrolling the area around the camp. [Lesser Goblin Guards] (Elite Monsters) Level: 4 HP: 500 [Lesser Goblin Riders] (Elite Monsters) Level: 4 HP: 500 "How are these level 4 elites? They hardly have any HP compared to level 3 players," asked Tang who had about the same amount of HP as them. "Their defence, agility and skill would be high enough to compensate for their lower HP. These aren''t the common monster like the miner goblins we found outside. They might also call for reinforcement if they notice us, especially those riders," explained Shadow. They soon found a hiding place behind a boulder a bit closer to the camp and while the rest of the team waited behind it, Shadow went around the camp to scout the monsters and the patrols'' patterns of the riders. A few minute later, a report of the details of the camp came in. "There are over 12 riders patrolling the camp. Four guards in total, two at the gate visible to you near the tents and two more just at the entrance of the mine. A number of the common ones are all around place. Might be more common and elite monsters in the tents," reported Shadow sending the location and patterns of the monsters on his map. "So, we can''t directly attack them. They outnumber us and there are higher-level elite monsters at the camp. It would be very hard with those numbers. We need some kind of plan to infiltrate the camp," said Quite fire looking at the image of the map sent by Shadow. "We also need to check and see if there are any monsters that would get out from the tents. It is very complicated pattern. Is this one like that special quest that you completed?" asked Blinding White. "I don''t think so. Special quests are not given by routine NPCs like the temple priests. They are given by unknown hidden kind of NPCs," replied Shadow. "As for the plan, I will try to thin the ranks near the other side of the gate and send my clone also to provide some distraction, in case I accidentally alert them." Soon, alerts of them receiving experience points filled up the team battle log. They were quite amazed at the speed with which Shadow was killing the monsters. But it looked like he was only attacking common worker goblins scattered around the camp. In ten minutes time, they heard about 20 notifications of the common goblins kills. This can be considered to be very efficient as Shadow always looted them before casting cheap shot and killed them. "Done with the common goblins. Will attempt to take the riders now. Might get discovered if reinforcements move towards me, attack the remaining ones. I can swap with my clone to escape successfully," said Balthazar as he prepared to take down the wolf riders. Wolf riders had one advantage that was very irritating. He needs to carefully attack only the rider and not the wolf that he is riding. If the wolf is hurt, then it will be a two-fold attack from both the wolf and the rider who wields a sword. The wolf rider is also very fast, even faster than blackrock wolves. The rider also shoots arrows and inflicts long distance damage and has high perception. It is very difficult to approach them stealthily to use cheap shot on them. But luckily the mask of shadows provides Shadow Tyrant enhanced stealth as a passive which make sneaking up to the rider a lot easier for him. The 500 HP of the wolf rider is divided between the wolf and the rider, 350 HP to the rider and the remaining to the wolf. The rider could also call for reinforcements. But if he manages to stun the rider, he could actually him down and release the mounted wolf. The mounted wolf usually would run away from the camp. But Shadow wanted to try and pickpocket the riders. This in general is considered extremely foolish as the riders are continuously moving and the players are hardly skilled enough to pickpocket such moving targets at the beginning of the game. It was something so hard that Balthazar heard of what he could obtain on executing pickpocket ability on the riders. The wolves were 3 feet tall with the riders wearing satchel on its side. He quietly walked in stealth by a rider and carefully put his hand into the satchel and pulled out something. It was a Blackrock crystal! The rider gave Blackrock crystals not even crystal pieces. He directly obtained the Blackrock crystals. Excited by his discovery, he began to pickpocket the riders without attacking them. He made sure that he didn''t pickpocket from the same rider multiple times so that, he wouldn''t get caught. Meanwhile, the remaining members of the team were getting bored. They had been waiting for more than 10 minutes but there was no commotion or notifications of the monsters being killed. Tang couldn''t bear to remain in hiding any longer. "What are you doing? Why the delay?" she asked in the team chat. "Sorry was stealing from the riders and forgot to attack," said Shadow sending an image of a stack of 15 Blackrock crystals in his inventory. "Will start the attack now." He immediately chose a rider who was patrolling the area where his team was hidden. He waited till the rider reached a secluded where he used cheap shot to stun the rider and assaulted him to death. He used a shadow clone. Even with a white trash dagger and sword, his attack power and speed couple with his clone were high enough to deplete the riders'' health to nothing. The wolf mount of the rider ran off away from the camp once the rider died. He got a white trash dagger and 8 coppers from the dead body. The team also got a total of 40 experience points from the death of the rider. [Goblin Dagger] (White Trash) Level: 4 Equipment Requirement: Strength: 8; Attack Power +10; Agility +6; Durability: 20/20 Though he managed to kill a rider without alerting anyone, it couldn''t be done without the shadow clone which had a cooldown of 5 minutes. So, that implied that he would have to wait for 5 minutes before he attacks another rider. This would take a lot of time to kill 12 riders and by that time, the riders might realize that some of their companions are missing. With that in mind, he had no option but to call in the second highest damage dealer in the team. He had already canvassed the entire area and had Quiet Fire hide while he stunned the riders. Then, together they easily killed the riders, before the stun duration was over. Even though he had already warned Quiet Fire to not injure the wolf and that if the wolf is injured it''s howling would alert the other goblins, accidents were bound to happen. In their eighth attempt, she hit the wolf with a fire ball causing it to howl and alert all the riders and guards. "Quickly kill both the wolf and rider now," said Balthazar summoning his clone to block the running wolf. Though they managed to kill the rider and wolf in 3 seconds. The remaining of the riders already have seen them and are riding towards them. "Rendezvous with the team. I will lead them away," said Shadow. He could slowly whittle them down or escape but Quiet Fire will surely be killed without Tang or Blinding tanking for her. "No, there are only 4 of them, if we meet at this point, we can repel them. The guards aren''t as fast as the riders. We can manage to repel them," said Quiet Fire opposing his idea. "No, I can outpace the riders then easily run back and strike at the isolated monsters and pick them off. You four attacked the guards and thin their ranks with long range attacks while maintaining your distance. If more guards or other goblins show up just leave. This is definitely a quest made for level 4 players. At level 3, it is really hard to defeat them," said Shadow. "Maybe, I shouldn''t have brought them to the mine before they leveled up," thought Balthazar. "They are not strong enough attack them at level 3 and they need to get better equipment. They might die if we continue to go to quests like this." He messaged to Quiet Fire instead of on team chat regarding his concerns. "If we fail let us attempt this again only after we level up. We are not strong enough for this quest. We need to upgrade our equipment also." "Might be right. It is a level 3 to 4 quest," said Quiet Fire agreeing with him. "If, it gets hard, we will retreat. You do the same." "OK, if you retreat, this is a good place where level 3 wolves are found. The Blackrock Wolves, which are special elites, may also be seen. Be careful and farm here. They respawn* rate is also not bad. The dead ones respawn about once every half hour," said Shadow providing her an image of the map he traversed for his special quest. There were two riders already closing onto him and Quiet Fire hardly thirty feet far. He immediately created a clone to attack the rider targeting Quiet Fire allowing her to make a decent distance from them. By the time, the 20 seconds for the clone were done, Quiet Fire managed to run close to 200 metres from him. The other rider also focused on him as Quiet Fire was far away and the aggro from the clone shifted to him. The remaining two riders also appeared on the horizon and were riding fast towards him. Though Shadow with his higher attributes could resist the attacks of two of the riders and combat them. It would be far too hard to handle four of the riders on his own. He started running in a direction away from Quiet Fire and the other two riders while fight two riders close to him. Lucky for him that the riders didn''t have an attack speed that was comparable to their movement speed. Else, the two riders would have managed to land attacks on him without fail. It was a hard task to evade the two who were collaborating to land attacks on Shadow. But that wasn''t the main issue. If Shadow ran at his maximum speed, he could sooner or later avoid the riders. He had to intentionally lower his speed so that the riders would keep attacking him, else if he successfully evades, they will go back to the camp and might attack the team who were attacking the guards. He continued to run away while maintaining aggro range for a few minutes when he got the system message. System: Teammate Tang and Spicy died. He immediately messaged Quiet Fire, "What happened at the camp?" "There were more goblin riders and guards who came out of the tents. We hardly managed to escape them. Luckily, they stopped attack us after we were about 100 meters away from the camp. Else even Blinding would have died trying to tank those riders." "That is good, it looks like the monsters that appear from the tents won''t leave the premises of the camp." "But Tang died trying to tank them. They are too fierce. We need to upgrade our equipment by a lot before we try to do the quest again," said Quiet Fire. "OK. Go to the location I mention in the map. I will distract them," messaged Shadow as he created his shadow clone and made it go into stealth to escape. He had four of the lesser goblin riders attacking him. The clone only had 20 seconds of life within which he had to swap position. He had to make these few seconds count and sprinted away from them at full speed. In the last second, he activated the skill shadow swap to disappear from the aggro range of the riders. "I escaped the riders. I hope you are nowhere near the camp," he said immediately going into stealth. He made his way back to the goblin camp to check up on the reinforcements. As Quiet Fire told him, there are more riders and guards at the goblin camp now. Due to him being in stealth he was 50% slower than his normal, the riders who were after him returned to the camp. Apart from these four riders, he noticed another four riders and four guards. "They are lucky that only Tang and Spicy got killed," thought Balthazar. "With these reinforcements, they definitely need to be geared up well before they can take on the quest. I always knew that the temple quests aren''t easy. But this is harder than I remember, even the initial number of riders and guards were lower than what I see. I guess, the difficulty of quite a decent number of quests was made easier in later upgrades." He quickly made his way to the guards while in stealth. These guards were 4 feet tall. That was quite large for species like lesser goblins. He set to picking their pockets. He got refined iron ore again. The guards were quite stationary compared to the riders and it was easier to execute pickpocket. It was a common habit for most guilds in his previous life to pickpocket guards as they gave iron ore. Shadow continued to pickpocket the guards for refined iron ore. He already had enough iron ore and refined iron ore to finish his quests, but he continued to pickpocket the goblins because they might give him engineering blueprints or forging designs. Even the lesser goblins occasionally carried blueprints and designs. Though the goblins began to notice that some pickpocket was among them and began to attack blindly, Shadow continued till he finally got hold of a parchment from one of the guards. It was a shield design, a black iron shield. [Goblin Shield] (black iron shield) Level 3: Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Stones x 5; Magic esscense x 2; Requirement: Endurance: 8; Defence +15; Vitality: +10; Endurance +3; "Finally, something worth being a goblin creation," thought Balthazar as he looked at the design. He could easily create it once he finished Kade''s request. With this he could earn some money in the game and maybe don his team with better equipment. If he opened a stall at the village, the players tend to buy it with credits through somnium technology than the in-game money like it happened in his transaction with Blue Dart. He decided to give it them to the village head who could auction them off at his office. Note: *respawn - an instance of a character in a video game reappearing after having been killed. Chapter 47 - Merlin Satisfied with his plundering at the goblin camp, Shadow got out of the camp and immediately began to channel his hearthstone to return to the blackrock village. As he reached the village, he realized that the players of the Sirius Imperials have already reached level 3. Players sporting level 3 equipment were already visible moving around at the village. "I guess the leveling speed of the Sirius Imperials members improved with the guide," thought Balthazar. "I might have to contact someone Blue Dart about the remainder of my payment." He called Blue Dart. "Hey. How is the progress of the Corrupted Forest dungeon?" he asked as Blue Dart took the call. "Well. It isn''t bad. We have already managed to get through the elite instance of the dungeon. But the hell mode, it is still not possible. Even Raging Blade and his team failed." "It isn''t that easy to go through the hell mode dungeon, even with the guide. You need improve on your equipment and have all in level 3 before you go on trying to take the hell mode instance." "Yes, we gleaned that much from our attempt. But I wonder how you found out about the details of the hell mode if you didn''t try it out yourself." "I also failed to kill Vultarc, else I would have had the first clear for that too. The sad part is that we only get to attempt the hell mode once a day. Else, I wouldn''t have sent you the guide for it." "So, what is the call about?" "I just wanted to ask if the guide had been useful and up to your satisfaction." "So, it is about the money that we owe you. Well, I guess your guide is quite worth the price you mentioned. You want me to send you the money now?" "I don''t mind. But it isn''t the only thing I called you about. You might need a lot of black iron equipment, right?" "Hmm." "I can provide you. But only for vita-nova money. Else I can''t get them to you. How about we talk a couple of hours later? Give you some time to prepare enough money," said Shadow sending him a picture of the black-iron cape he got from Lydia. "Do a number of such equipment interest you?" "How many can you deliver?" "That depends on how lucky I can get? But each one costs at least 80 coppers. You can consider that a discounted price since we are acquaintances." "That is a discounted price?!" asked Blue Dart shocked. "Are you kidding? That is not cheap and definitely not a discounted price." "Tell me how many members who are not in your guild are willing to sell you black iron equipment? Not at discount, but just sell you black iron equipment at all," asked Shadow back to Blue Dart. "I get your point. I just want to buy them using the credits instead of the vita-nova coins." "I can only get the supplies I need using vita-nova coins. I can''t do it with credits." "I can get you your supplies and provide additional credits for your services." "Not these kinds of supplies. Maybe the only ones you can provide are a few wolf furs, that is if my team isn''t able to get enough by hunting the mountain wolves." "No harm in telling me what supplies you need." "Can''t. I don''t want to let out my trade secrets." "Materials are trade secrets?" "Yes. If those materials can procure you black iron equipment." "Fine, I will ask the teams to hold onto their purchases for the time being. I hope you can provide me with good equipment." "You won''t be disappointed," said Shadow ending the call. "You interested in trying out the hell mode of the corrupted forest?" he asked. "Now that we are in level 3, we can at least get some good equipment out of it if not clear it." "You are kidding right? It is hell mode. I don''t think any of us ready for that." "I don''t plan on finishing it. Just getting better equipment so that we can make a better attempt at the temple quest." "OK. I am speaking frankly now. The girls aren''t really into finishing the quest right now. We need a bit of a time out after the goblin attacks so that we can enjoy the game a bit. We will stick with the wolves for some time." "Fine. Did you contact anyone regarding about joining our group or do you have anyone in mind?" "I have only played the V.R. game, War god''s tempest before vita-nova. Don''t have any of the friends I made there in the blackrock village." "Well, in that case, I would need to search for someone myself." "Wait! I know of someone, but he is a bit reckless and narcissistic. A bit of a wacko." "Then, why are you suggesting him?" "Well, he is my elder cousin." "Oh. I understand. Is he any good or just reckless and narcissistic?" "Well, he introduced me to the games, and he is actually good at them. He always plays warlock. So, if he agrees we will get someone who actually quite good at crowd control." "OK then. Introduce me to him." "I will contact him to meet you. Actually, you might end up liking him. He also tends to go out solo, quite often." "I meant now. Give me his ID." "It is Merlin Grimlock. He is at the Corrupted dungeon searching for teammates." "Wait did you say Merlin Grimlock? A bit too much into magicians, isn''t he?" "Don''t make fun of him. Don''t say anything bad about mages in front of him. He is a fan of almost all magical fantasies as you can guess by his name, Merlin one of the oldest mages of the ancient and Grimlock of the new Grimlock adventures." "Got it, I will keep it in mind. Is he actually good?" "Well, if you played War god''s tempest, he was one of the founding members of the guild Magus Shrine. He was known as Mad Merlin." "Wait a second, your brother is the Mad Merlin? He is considered a genius. But wouldn''t he be a part of Magus Shrine''s efforts in vita-nova?" "Yeah. He had some kind of falling out with guild leader, Magus Extreme an year ago. Even if he didn''t, he wouldn''t be a part of the usual guild activities. Not really leadership material." "He was always great at the competitions. Don''t lie." "He can deal with small teams easy. Not good at handling guilds. Even teams, he expects high quality gameplay from everyone in his team. A bit of perfectionist." "Anyway, I am going to him immediately. Inform him of my arrival." "Already did and sent him your ID. He is expecting you," said Quiet Fire cutting the call. "You just know about his fame. Wait till you meet him in person," thought Quiet Fire as she resumed farming the wolves. The prospect of gaining a powerful ally especially one who had been very famous in his previous life was very enticing to him. He had also heard of Mad Merlin in his previous life. Obviously, the name Merlin Grimlock didn''t stick in vita-nova and he was still called Mad Merlin. He was one of the only three warlocks who managed to get into demi-god tier in the seven years of the game. As he reached the dungeon entrance, there were a lot of groups attempting the dungeon. Especially members of the Sirius Imperials were all attempting elite dungeons. It was a good thing for Balthazar that only the first exploration and opening of the treasure chests provide black iron equipment, the others only get white trash equipment to maintain the balance of the game, else he wouldn''t be able to make any sales. Shadow soon found Merlin. He definitely stood out and alone among the groups. He was definitely a mage as he was holding a wand and cape but had also equipped steel and leather armor pieces instead of the usual cloth armor. People were avoiding him and even laughing at him. Balthazar understood why as he moved closer to the guy. He was shouting for a party to attempt the hell mode. As Shadow moved closer to him, he identified Shadow and came towards him. "Hi Shadow, I am Merlin," he said introducing himself. "Heard you are interested in running through the Hell mode. I am up for it if you are in." "Odd sense of fashion you got there," said Shadow pointing at his gear. "Well, you probably already know that there are no requirements of weapon and armor on classes, right? So, put a lot of white trash armor which I could equip." "Definitely a good idea. I should follow your lead on this." "Always a good idea. Let us get a bit more equipment from the Hell mode dungeon. Though the monsters are level 3 from the start. They give better equipment and rewards." "Sure, anyone else joining us. Or is it just us two?" "Just us two. More equipment to share. I doubt that we can kill Vultusk or Vultarc. But we can explore a lot." "So, you got any skills already from the dungeon?" "Well apart from the usual shadow bolt and corruption, I got two rare ones from a special quest at the Arwild forest. They are terror wave and dark lash. Did you know that only the first special quest would be announced? I got lucky because of you. Else I would have been hunted by these Sirius Imperials instead of you." "Rare skills! I am impressed. What do they do?" "Dark lash is like whip which can be controlled by me waving my wand. It is like a whip with my wand as the handle. Terror wave as the name sounds is a multiple target version of Fear skill." "A multi-target crowd control skill? It would be quite useful with the corrupted monster rabbits. Moreover, I heard Fear itself is a very hard to obtain at this stage." "Yeah. I didn''t hear of anyone of my friends get it too. The dark whip can also be used as multi-target skill. I just need to make sure the rabbits are in the whip''s trajectory." "So, Let us try out the Hell mode of the dungeon. But one small request. Let me get the last hits on the rabbits. I will put it in experience sharing mode. I just need to get the last hits on them to upgrade an equipment." "You got an upgrade-able equip? It is from the special quest, right?" "Hmm." "OK. But you are going to be the scout in the corrupted forest." Soon, they went to the dungeon entrance and selected the hell instance of the corrupted forest. A portal with a flickering red flame like halo around it appeared before them as they walked into it. "Go do your thing, I''ll call if I need help. Just call me if you find any good equips and I will do the same," said Merlin walking into the forest. "One more thing. I got a weapon that you could use." He threw a wooden dagger towards Shadow face. Luckily Balthazar tilted his head in time and caught the handle of the dagger as it passed by his head. It had weird shape with a hard brown wooden blade curved from the centre to the tip and patterned green color wooden handle. [Wooden Jambiya knife] (Black Iron Dagger) Level 2 Equipment Requirement: Strength 8; Effects: Attack Power +12; 20% chance to inflict bleed effect; "Nice catch. Maybe it is true what old Blue told about you," said Merlin with a smile on his face. "You learnt Knife throw skill too?" asked Shadow surprised by Merlin''s throw. "And what did Blue Dart tell you about me?" "That you might be a fighting expert in real-life," answered Merlin. "And yes, I learned knife throw. Heard you did too." "No, I didn''t. I just have the book in my inventory. I don''t need it. Was intending to sell it." "If you needed proper contacts, I can provide you with them. I know people who are ready to pay quite an amount for such skills. Especially skills that are common to all occupations are considered rare ones." "I don''t mind but I would rather have vita-nova coins instead of credits for it." "Why coins instead of credits? Once, the credit to coin exchange is opened you can have as many coins as you want." "I heard that there would be a limit on the coins that can be bought per day." "Hmm. If that is true, it would be though. Why don''t I try and negotiate with old Blue to give you a fair price for it." "We can discuss that later when he is going to buy equipment from me." "You are selling him equipment? What do you have?" "None. I just got few ways to get a hold of them. You got the money, then I can buy black Iron equipment from the tailor in the village." "Why didn''t you tell me before we entered the hell mode dungeon?" "You never asked nor did the topic come up. Still, it is for the best. What if you get a cloth armor here for a part that you already accidentally purchased." "Hmph," said Merlin as he walked into the forest to attack the rabbits. They both went on killing the corrupted rabbits in the dungeon till they reached the first clearing which had several paths diverging from it. This time it had four more paths than the elite dungeon instance. There were two more treasure chests in the initial part of the hell mode of which one of them was black iron chest. He got a cloth armor piece for hands and corrupted poison ivy in the chest. The other one was supposed to have been another black Iron chest if it was the first opening but probably the members of Sirius Imperials beat him to that. But, the most surprising thing was Merlin who despite being alone managed to deal with the level 3 corrupted rabbits which had a health of 200HP and had been about 5% faster than the ones in the elite dungeon. Though he managed to subdue any rabbit that came his way, it would be a hard task to directly kill the monsters without taking damage for him. He needed a person to provide DPS and tank for him. After all, Warlock was an occupation which was built using crowd control in mind. He was very skilled at using his skills and only used them when they were most effective and would hurt more possible number of monsters. With their combined efforts, they managed to kill the level 3 monsters albeit it being difficult. They got a pair of black iron shoulder guards and leg armor for Shadow from looting the rabbits. Though these armor didn''t have any special effects or skills but did improve his vitality and endurance. The diverging paths at the clearing had more treasure chests. He told Merlin to go on the path that led to Vultusk''s treasure chest and that he would scout the other paths. He already knew where the treasure chests would be at the Hell Mode and immediately set off to get a hold of them. Luckily, the two remaining treasure chests that he had in mind didn''t disappoint him. The soon met back at the clearing and decided to return back to the portal. "I don''t understand one thing. Why didn''t you ask your cousin to accompany you to the Hell mode dungeon? I am sure she would have obliged for you," asked Shadow. "I have played with them before. They are not good enough to hold their own." "They seemed fine to me. They had good timing and awareness. They don''t waste skills in a hurry. What more do you need?" "You talking about the same three as I am?" "Of course, yeah. Have you played with them in vita-nova? They don''t actually need to be physically capable of pointing like in other V.R games. It is the thought that counts and they seemed to have a relatively sound mind." "Hmm. Never thought about that. Seeing their faces always reminds me of my days coaching them in War god''s Tempest." "Well, it is better with a team. If you can teach and lead them, I believe they will definitely improve a lot more than what you had seen in War god''s tempest." "I guess you have a point," agree Merlin. "Are you trying to make me coach them? Did they ask for it?" "No, but we need someone like you who is good at crowd control and in-game tactics. You are veteran and you got a chance to mould the team according to you liking. Many would love to have a chance like that." "Sure, many would. But why aren''t you interested in doing the same?" asked Merlin expecting a snag. He couldn''t find any reason why Shadow himself wouldn''t want to do the same as he had suggested. "I would. But I can''t. I can''t be playing the game for long or invest in this game like you. This place is more of a training grounds for my mind and I treat it as such. My real-life schedule may conflict with using somnium technology for prolonged periods," explained Balthazar. "What job is that?" "I work in the alliance military. Just home on a break. But even here I have physical training at my family." "So, it is true that you are an expert fighter." "Fighter, yes. Expert, not so much. I can''t call myself an expert in my circles, still a trainee." "Oh. That is cool. Fine, I will join you guys. At least for the time being. I don''t want to join any other guild and joining my cousin and helping her is not bad. I live with her. She took me after I broke off from Magus Shrine. I should probably be helping her out a bit in the game," said Merlin. "Cool." said Shadow. "Definitely a narcissist," he thought reminding himself of what Quiet Fire told him. Chapter 48 - Forging They talked about other stuff till they reached the portal. Most of it was Merlin telling Shadow of his exploits in various games before vita-nova. All Shadow did was listen to him ramble on about his achievements. As they reached the portal, Shadow removed the items he got out of the two black iron treasure chests. He got a pair of black iron hand and leg cloth armor with one having a 10% more magic damage special feature and the other has a special skill which heals about 50 HP of the character. Merlin immediately equipped them. "Now let us go to the Tailor you talked about. We need to make some purchases." "You are almost fully equipped already. You have cloth armor covering hands, legs, chest and back. What more do you need?" "I want the adventurer''s cloak that you are wearing." "Hmm. Come on," said Shadow taking him to Lydia. He asked Lydia to show the clothes she made and the display of clothes appeared in front of Shadow. "It costs 80 coppers," said Shadow asking Merlin to give the money. "Can''t you get this one for me. I am a little low on cash." "Don''t you think that if I had that much, I would have equipped myself with better gear." "Oh," said Merlin giving him the 80 coppers. Shadow bought the cloak and gave him 16 coppers back. "I get 20% off on all purchases in the village." "So, that''s how you plan on getting profit from Blue." Shadow simply nodded his head in agreement. "I have other quests to complete. You can join the team if you want to." "Yeah. I will go meet up with my cousin," said Merlin as he went out of the village gate. Now that they have another member with them. Shadow could leave it to Merlin to maintain the teams leveling speed and strength. He immediately went to Kade to submit refined iron ore for the quest "Kade''s Demand". He had more than 6 stacks of refined iron-ore. He immediately started giving refined iron-ores to Kade. After receiving 25 refined iron ores, a notification popped up in front of him. "Quest Completed: Kade''s Demand: Provided 25 refined iron ores. Refined Iron Ores collected: 25 Performance: Outstanding" "+200 experience points, +80 coppers." This burst of experience points along with the ones he gained from the hell mode dungeon of the Corrupted Forest gained him enough to level up again. He was directly put into level 4. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 4 Exp: 70/1200 HP: 2000/2000; MP: 650/650; Physical Attack: 70 Defense: 51; Attack Speed: 38; Movement Speed: 40; Willpower: 14; Balance: 22; Focus/Search: 28; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 9; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 35, Agility 30, Endurance 18, Intelligence 14, Vitality 28, Perception 13. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 6 "I am impressed by how resourceful you are adventurer. Do you know what a person requires the most to become a successful blacksmith? It is resources. Once, you have enough resource you can practice. With enough practice and a good eye, anyone can become a good blacksmith." "Adventurer, I wish to take you as my apprentice. What do you say?" "It would be my privilege to learn the art of smithing, master Kade." "It is good that you are enthusiastic about this adventurer. I will take you in as my apprentice," said Kade giving him a silver colored box. System: Kade has accepted you as his apprentice. Gained Silver ranked blacksmith apprentice kit. Gained the title Blacksmith Kade''s in-name apprentice. "Though I have accepted you as an apprentice, you still need to prove yourself. I am an honorary elder of the Forging association of the White Heart Kingdom. You need to improve your smithing level as soon as possible. You will be my in-name apprentice for now. If I am not satisfied, I will withdraw your apprenticeship." New quest: Forging talent. Impress Blacksmith Kade by improving your Forging proficiency. Become an Intermediate Forging Apprentice. Time Limit: 2 months. Balthazar was very satisfied by the blacksmith kit he received. But he was very shocked by the quest that he got along with the apprenticeship of Kade. He never heard of this from the forum which Mr. Miner told him. He immediately checked the title that he received from the quest. Title were very useful. They usually provided percentage advantages for various attributes. Blacksmith Kade''s In-name apprentice: The title provides you 10% off on Basic Forging Rooms and Intermediate Forging Rooms. It will also grant you the status of a third-grade citizen in the White Heart KIngdom and 5% discount at trade organizations in White Heart kingdom. This was the first title he received in the game. He had a few ideas on gaining titles in the game. But none of them were before he left the village to enter the white heart city. Though it looked like the title gave him a lot of advantages. It wasn''t actually so. Other than the 10% off in booking forging rooms, he already had all the rest due to his reputation in White Heart Kingdom. "Master Kade, can I know where I could get hold of a proper forging room with a furnace?" asked Shadow. "There is a forging room behind my shop. It is just a basic one, but you can use it at the same price as the ones in the Forging Association if they are full." "Thank You, Master," said Shadow and left the market street and went towards the Forging association. It was just the beginning of the game and the only a few independent members and the members of the guild invested in developing their forging skills. Being just a village, the forging association had only a few 30 Basic Forging rooms and 5 intermediate ones. "I better get around to the forging room fast if I want to avail the discount on the forging rooms," thought Balthazar. He had only two designs with him now. One was the light bow and the other the Goblin shield. He had enough Iron ore and blackrock crystals to make them. But that alone wasn''t enough he also needed magic essence and stones which were usually found from the Arwild forest. He only had 3 hours left and he had no intentions to spend it killing monsters in the Arwild Forest. He realized that he needed to plan ahead to avoid such situations. He no longer had a guild where he could easily get the required materials. He immediately called for Merlin. "He had spent time doing a special quest there, he definitely would have some of the materials," thought Balthazar. "I have a few materials that you want. But I am quite far away from the village now. Ask Blue about the materials. He will provide them. I will talk to him," replied Merlin. A few seconds later he got a call from Blue Dart. "How many do you need?" asked Blue Dart directly. "I need about 50 stones and 30 magic essenses." "Only those? What are you making magic stones?" "No. Of course, not. I got the remaining materials. I got a design for level 3 shield." "Black Iron shield? I could use some of those. Are you sure you can make them." "Yes. But lack the materials from Arwild Forest. Didn''t go to the forest. So, lack the magic essenses and stones." "Oh, so you got the design from the dungeon?" "No. If you are satisfied with the information I provided, can we discuss about the materials." "I will get someone to deliver you the materials in a few minutes costing a silver. That should be enough to create a few equipment. I hope you can sell us a few." "Yes, I can provide a black iron bow also. Let me make a few attempts then I can give you a proper value depending on the amount of resources and attempts I needed to make the equipment." "OK. I will have my guys deliver you some materials. Where are you?" "I will be at the Forging association. Send them in twenty minutes or so. I will be working on equipment with the materials that I have," said Shadow cutting the call. The forging association was a two-storey building. The first floor had about 20 basic forging rooms and the second had the remaining forging rooms. There were already few guild members at the reception waiting in line for the forging rooms. There are only 30 basic forging rooms at the forging association which could hardly support the growing population of the game. One of the silliest things done by the Metis Technologies was to underestimate the growth of the players joining the game. There was an exponential growth overnight. This caused a crisis of space, especially for the trade profession players. The players waiting in front of the forging association were grumbling about the same. "The damn price of these forging rooms are outrageous. 5 coppers an hour! I hardly have any left for materials." "Yes, it looks like the independent players can hardly prosper, if it continues to be like this." "It isn''t easy for us guild members either. We were given only 30 to 40 coppers. The farming teams aren''t able to successfully adapt to the game. It is much worse for us. Forging here is far too realistic with a high failure rate." "How come the basic forging rooms are all full. Instead of the 5 intermediate forging rooms, they could have put in more basic ones which we would use." "Stupid system why waste resources on an intermediate forge which no one would use." As they were bickering about the unfairness of the system, Shadow was calmly walking towards the attendant at the reception of the forging association. "Oy! What do you think we have been standing in line for. We are all in waiting for the forging rooms," ridiculed someone from behind. "Ya, do we look like idiots to you?" Shadow didn''t pay any attention to them as he reached the attendant NPC. "I would like to rent an intermediate forging room for one hour please," he requested the attendant. The NPC which looked bored from telling the players that basic forging rooms are not available, suddenly got an elated expression on its face. Finally, someone who wants to have an intermediate forging room. Now, it actually got a chance to get some decent amount from a bigwig. "That will be 50 coppers an hour," it said looking at Shadow. Noticing his title it immediately added, "Esteemed sir would get a discount of 5 coppers." Shadow immediately paid 45 coppers to the attendant and obtained the key to the intermediate forging room. The players around who were ridiculing him stood aghast in shock. "It is these kind of nouveau riche that waste their money on coin so early in the game," said an independent player. "You kidding?! It is impossible to exchange money for coins at this stage. It must be some kind of expert to get this kind of funding for forging," said another guy shutting them all up. Shadow paid no heed to any of their comments. He quickly reached the floor and got into the nearest intermediate forging room. He wanted to open and see what he would get from the silver blacksmith kit. Once inside the room, he quickly opened to check the kit. There were three items inside. [Basic Forging Manual] (Tool) Written by Human GrandMaster Whitney of the White Heart Kingdom in her youth. Provides an explanation of the basic Forging Techniques. Provides an increase in the success rate of Bronze equipment by 20%, Black Iron equipment by 30% and 50% for common equipment. [Basic Forging Hammer] (Forging Hammer) Gives 5% more experience points on successful forging of equipment and weapons. [Kade''s Insignia] (Bronze Badge) Forged by Kade to help aspiring and resourceful blacksmith to improve their talent quickly. Provides a fixed increase of 3 proficiency points for every successful forging of equipment or weapon. This was the most valuable of all the three rewards from the quest, Kade''s demand. The badge is the one that allowed Mr. Miner to improve his forging proficiency quickly. In general, every successful forging has only about 50% chance to gain a point in forging proficiency. This chance increases as higher ranked equipment are created. But this could hardly match the proficiency gained from the badge till one becomes an advanced apprentice. Shadow immediately equipped the badge. He went over the manual to check if it had the same information that he heard of in his past life. It was more or less the same stuff he knew about handling various metals and other resources and small tips. But it only covered the resources which were available in the starting areas of the game and not the ultra rare resources either. But still it included some useful stuff like the list of optimum temperature to heat for removal of the impurities from resources or the list of optimum temperature at which to temper or shape the metals. Still it allowed him a lot of advantage over the other trade profession players. He checked the design for the light bow and realized that it was a lot easier than he had expected. It didn''t even require the iron ore to be purified/refined. In the advanced forging room, he had a few advantages over the basic forging room. The first was better and greater set of lathe machines and forging tools for various purposes like various kinds of tongs, chisels, fullers, flatters, swage blocks, blower/cooler and casts of various basic shapes. The other was that the temperature of the forge can be manually checked with a sensory device. This is very useful. The third and the most important is the tier 1 mystic fire that is provided as the forge fire. The mystic fire can be controlled at the forge to the proper shape and intensity required for the product. The fourth was that it also provided a proper magic stylus to carve runes and magic pathways on the equipment. But for the black Iron equipment he wouldn''t need the stylus at all. He had quickly placed the iron ore in the melting pot and started up the forge fire. The mystic fire was deep blue in color with small sparks jumping out of it occasionally. Balthazar immediately recognized the fire to be the tier 1 mystic fire, the Blue glitter fire. [Blue Glitter Fire] (Tier 1 Mystic Flame): Can provide very high temperatures. It can also be used for forging. Items, tools or equipment treated with it tend to have improved magic conductance. This fire was considered to be among the top three of the tier 1 flames for the purpose of forging. It was especially sought after to create magic orientated tools and equipment. The iron ore placed in the pot began to melt within the minute under the heat of the Blue glitter fire. He added the Blackrock crystal pieces to the molten metal which quickly dissolved in it. He slowly reduced the temperature and poured the metal in a cast in shape of a thin rod. After the temperature reduced a bit, he pulled out the metal on shape of rod from the cast. He then took it towards a filing and tapering machine and slowly removed required amount of metal from the rod to produce rod like tapered structure with pointed ends. He took this to the anvil and again used the Blue glitter fire to soften it. He finally got to use his forging hammer along with other to bend it into the appropriate shape of a recurve bow and then he let it slowly cool down to the room temperature. Though Balthazar had worked on smithing in his previous life, it was for a small time and he never made a bow. He was very satisfied by the result of his efforts. Even if it didn''t have the perfect shape, once the system analyses it, the proper corrections to the shape and balance would be made automatically. He immediately placed it on the anvil and selected the option for inspection. A green colored loading bar appeared beside it as the system was analyzing it. After a few seconds a notification sounded out. Chapter 49 - Forging 2 System: You have successfully forged a light bow. "+100 experience points, +4 Forging Proficiency" As expected, he got four forging proficiency points from making one piece of equipment. If this continued, he would become an intermediate apprentice in no time. The successful creation of equipment also gave him 100 experience points. This is equal to the amount of experience provided by a single quest. He knew that he only managed to make an equipment at his first try due to his previous life experiences. It wasn''t an easy thing to create equipment in vita-nova especially structures like bows. One had to have at least a little talent of forging in real-life to emulate it in the game. He also realized that forging and other trade professions could always improve his level above others whenever he required as he had a good understanding of most of them and this would provide him a lot of advantage in the game. He then remembered to check the bow he had crafted. Light Bow (Black Iron Bow) Level 3: Effects: Agility +2, Perception +6; Causes 25% more damage against members of the worgen and warg families. It was a satisfactory result. In fact, it was more than what was expected. The damage value against the warg and worgen families increased by 5% over the specification in the design. It might be due to the use of Blue Glitter Fire. All that was left to do with the bow was tie as string and use it. He immediately took a picture of the bow and its attributes and sent it to Blue Dart. "How much do you think this is worth?" he asked Blue Dart. "What is with you and good equipment? Do they just fall into your lap? You are gaining a reputation as bad as Merlin," replied Blue Dart surprised at the new message he received. "Though it provides a bit less attributes than the Vultarc''s bow, but for you, I will offer the same amount," he continued in good faith. He wanted to establish a good relationship with Shadow and decided to not hassle with him. "Don''t talk like it is a bad investment. It has the special property against Worgen and Warg families. That includes wolves too. It will be great in exploring the blackrock hills. The chance of the wolf packs ambushing you reduces by a lot. It will be much more useful at the special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs''." "You have access to that dungeon?" "No but I know that the public will get access once my quest is completed. In fact, my quest it to create a teleportation portal at the cave." "Why are you wasting your time forging instead of getting on with it?" "I don''t have the proper level to be able to successfully complete the quest. And before you suggest it, numbers wouldn''t make a difference. It is best, I do it alone. So, what do you offer for the bow?" "I told you. The same as before." "How about you provide me with some coins instead of credits? Or at least cover a bit of it with coins. Else I will not be able to forge more equipment." "Wait! Are you saying that you are the one that forged the bow?" "Yes, I can produce more than one too. Think of its value to the guild." "You are the guy that used the intermediate forging room, aren''t you? How did you hide your data from the other players?" "Oh, yeah. That was a skill that allows me to disguise myself. Though it is a rare skill, similar ones probably could be seen in future." "It is truly rare. I heard of disguise skill that can fool NPCs, but a disguise that can change the ID of a player and fool other players to such an extent is truly rare." "Enough with the flattering. How many coins do you think that you can provide?" "I don''t have enough coins, but I could provide you materials and credits upon the materials for your services like I suggested for your shield. Remember you also asked coins for purchase of equipment too. By the way, how is it going on that end?" asked Blue Dart. He was extremely anxious to know if there was a way to get armor with vita-nova coins. Though he didn''t mind co-operating with Shadow, this case was depending on him for equipment and it wasn''t very acceptable for a person in charge of a guild in an area to be dependent on an independent player for such resources. "I got the items. You just need to collect enough coins to purchase them. So, about the bow. Do you intend to get it along with the rest? Let us conclude this, every minute I talk with you is costing me. I am in the intermediate forging room you know." "I am willing the to buy it for one silver. Let us meet after the hour. We can also exchange for the bows for raw materials of the same. Though the credit to coin conversion ration might not be that high. I can''t help you any more than that. We will need to hold on to the coins as they are not easy to farm." "OK," said Shadow as he also understood the situation. It was indeed very hard to farm coins in vita-nova compared to other games. Shadow already thought Blue Dart was being generous to him already. He immediately started on the next bow. It already took him about 15 minutes to craft one bow. A quarter of his time was over. He realized that making structures such as bows in a forge took a lot more time than plate armors and bladed weapons. He quickly began to make another bow. Before his rental time at the forge was done, he managed to craft three more bows with each taking shorted time than the one before as he got used to it. He had 5 more minutes left, but he decided it was time to take sell the bows and other equipment. He directly went to Lydia''s shop after going into stealth and checked that no one was following him. He checked the display provided by Lydia and sent the images of various equipment to Blue Dart. "These are the ones that are available right now. Tell me which ones you would like, and I will purchase them. I can only get 10 more from the NPC. Choose well." He left the remaining 6 slots to by equipment for himself and his team. He wouldn''t sell everything that was provided by Lydia to Sirius Imperials as that would be an instance of biting his own hand. "Give me a minute. I need to cross check with the others." "Of course, I will be at the forging association along with four light bows. You can meet me there," said Shadow. He obviously understood the need to cross check. If Blue Dart ended up buying an equipment when someone already had a similar one or if it covers the same part of the body, then the newly bought equipment wouldn''t be of much use. He quickly made his way back to the forging association and waited there for over ten minutes. Just when he was getting tired and felt like calling Blue Dart. He saw Blue Dart come to the forging association with Raging Blade and few others. On the other end, Raging Blade and Blue Dart were having a fierce discussion. "He is Merlin''s contact who is selling the equipment for coins?" asked Raging Blade to Blue Dart pointing his sword at Shadow. "Yes, he has access to some good equipment. You just had a look at the info he sent. Tell me do you really want to go against both him and Merlin. I just brought you down here because you tend to be closer to the village or cities at all times. I want you to handle further transactions with him." "That''s ridiculous. Why do you want me to do the exchange? Can''t you handle it yourself?" "I can. But I usually am asked to spearhead exploration of new places. You are not. You are a part of the club and are a part of the team in the competitions. So, you should learn to negotiate with these kinds of players. Just try it. You can always consult me." "You always used to do it before right? Why not continue that." "Blood is considering exploration of new places a high priority. We want to gather reputation and possibly get decent property in the game. The value of properties in the game would be a lot more than other games." "What is so special about the game. It has a kind of realistic feel to it. People would soon get tired of it. Games are meant to be enjoyable." "That is what you are mistaken about. The purpose of vita-nova isn''t to just be a simple game. As the name suggests, it is meant to be a second reality. Soon, the physics of the game will converge more with reality than diverge. Just do this for me." "But you know what happened between me and Shadow. How can I bargain from him when he is a lot more stronger than me?" "You represent the guild, Raging. You have an easier access to coins and workforce than independent players. That is why he is selling the equipment to us. It will be fine. I will talk to him about it, for now. After that, you will be the liaison with independent forces in the village till we leave to city." Shadow who started walking towards them once he saw Blue Dart was already beside them. "So, you will be my point of contact for Sirius Imperials then. Hope we have many successful trades," said Shadow who had heard what they were talking. Shadow Tyrant immediately pulled out the four bows he had crafted and held them to Blue Dart. "You have the money and materials?" he asked. Blue Dart immediately opened a trade window to have an exchange with Shadow. He put in the money for the bows, the equipment and the materials. But only received four bows. "Where are the equipment you showed," asked Blue Dart. "Give me a minute, I will get them," said Shadow as he went into stealth. He quickly purchased them from Lydia and gave the equipment to Blue Dart. "You still haven''t told anything about the materials, you require. I am sure we can provide almost any material found near the Blackrock village," said Raging Blade taking initiative. Balthazar felt a bit relaxed when he heard Raging Blade. He was glad that Raging Blade could reign in his anger when necessary. "I need iron ore and blackrock crystal pieces for the bow. The shield requires refined Iron ore. Can you really provide them?" asked Shadow. "Iron ore, a few of the members managed to get it," said Raging Blade but he heard nothing about the other two materials that Shadow told him. He looked at Blue Dart who was just as confused as him. Though Blue Dart initially went towards the blackrock hills, he spent a lot of time at the river, after he heard the announcement of the special quest, he decided that it is better to focus on the Arwild forest and pioneer it. He also had no idea how to get refined ore or blackrock crystals. "I will call you again if required," said Shadow as he went into the forging association and booked the intermediate forging room again leaving behind a Blue Dart who was now sure of the fact that there is a way to cross the river after he heard Shadow talk about Blackrock crystals. Once, in the forging room, Balthazar checked the design of the Goblin Shield. It was a black iron shield and would definitely have more demand. It could also be used by his teammates. The Goblin Shield was relatively easier than the bow. All it needed was to have molten poured around a base made of stones bound by the magic essences. Magic essence was a liquid that could be used to create magical pathways or carve runes in equipment. The essence required for the goblin shield was the normal/low-grade essence obtained from the minor elementals in Arwild Forest. Shadow put the stones in a small crucible and poured a magic essence on the stones. He wrote a rune for binding on the stones using the stylus. The stones were held together by the essence as depicted in the design. He then melted a refined iron ore using the Blue Glitter Fire in a cast the shape of a half-sphere and put the bound stones into the molten iron. As the iron ore cooled down, it formed a tough hemispherical centre part of the shield. The remaining two refined iron-ores were also melted, and Shadow quickly poured it into the hemispherical cast. He cooled it to a semisolid state using the blower and then began to beat the semisolid metal in to a circular sheet with a diameter of about 2 feet. He put it in a metal pressing machine to even out the thickness of the plate. Now, he had to fix the base into the centre of the plate. He directly melted the centre of the plate with Blue Glitter Fire and welded the central part of the shield into it. He slowly beat the heated-up plate and central part with his hammer till they completely fused, and he got a good-looking shield. Fusing the plate with the centre of the shield was the most time-consuming part of making the entire shield. It took more than a hundred shots to fused them. All that was left to engrave runes for toughness on the shield using a magic essence and carve a groove at the centre of the shield to hold it. A minute later the runes were done, the shield was ready, and Shadow selected the option for identification. Once, the loading bar was done loading, notification sounded showing that the shield was successfully forged. System: You have successfully forged a goblin shield. "+100 experience points. +4 Forging proficiency" [Goblin Shield] (black iron shield) Level 3: Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Stones x 5; Magic esscense x 2; Requirement: Endurance: 8; Defence +15; Vitality: +10; Endurance +5; Durability 25/25; This was a decent shield for level 3. The only lacking quality of it was that it had no extra skills or special effects like most black iron equipment. But it still provided a good increase in attributes. Better than similar black iron shields of level 3. Shadow sent the image of the shield and its description to Blue Dart and continued with making another shield. Once, he was done with the second shield, he checked his messages and saw that Raging Blade contacted him about the shield. They were willing to buy one of the shields for 2 silvers. Though, it could be considered a smaller price for a shield. It was still acceptable at the beginning of the game. Shadow responded that he would be willing to sell it only if he got at least another 50 coppers on the 2 silvers. After a bit of haggling, the settled the price for a shield to be 2 silvers and 20 coppers. Moreover, they were willing to buy as many shields as he could provide. With a buyer available, Shadow decided to continue forging the shields till he finished all the refined iron ore that he had. With his experience in forging and the equipment he had in the intermediate forging room, he had a high theoretical success rate of at least 70%. It was a considered very advantageous. When he was forging his eighth shield, he received an alert from the system that he had set to wake up. He only had five real-life minutes before he had to wake up. He had already successfully forged 6 shields. With two for his teammates, he had four more to sell. He continued to forge the eighth shield which due to his hurry failed to be a black-iron shield and instead ended up being a white trash shield. He quickly contacted Raging Blade and asked him to meet outside the forging association and that he had to leave in 5 minutes. He also asked his team to teleport back to the village in 5 minutes, so that he could buy add on further equipment to them. In the next few minutes, Shadow quickly sold the four shields and went to Lydia''s shop to buy more equipment. By the time, he reached the shop, he saw that someone else was already at the shop, browsing black-iron equipment from Lydia. He was shocked that someone else already completed the quest. The new guy was named, White blaze and was a priest. With no time to waste, he quickly bought four equipment from Lydia when she told that she had sold all that she could today and that she could only sell equipment tomorrow. It looked like the priest had already bought two equipment from Lydia. Though he lost the chance to get two more equipment from Lydia, it was still a decent harvest. He quickly went to the teleportation point to meet Merlin and his team and provided the equipment to them before he logged off. Chapter 50 - Training with Lucius As he logged out of the game, he noticed that he hardly had enough time to fulfill his daily ablutions before he went to his training. Today, he was bound to be late for training and Robert had already warned him not to be late for Lucius'' training. He quickly ran to the bathroom and once done, he ran all the way to the gymnasium at his top speed. But still he was ten minutes late. He made his way to the private room where he found Salazar waiting for him at the door. "You are late," he said looking at Balthazar in a way that suggested concern and dissatisfaction. "What happened? Did Max''s death really put your mind in such a haze that you have become so tardy? For a military man like you to become like that due to a single death is totally out of character." Salazar was the one who rescued Balthazar at the explosion. He had seen how collected and focused Balthazar was when he learned that his subordinate Jane died. So, he couldn''t understand that Balthazar would be affected by the death of his enemy. Little did he know that Balthazar neither cared about Jane nor Max and that his tardiness was because he was just excited in the game, thus losing track of time. "Of course, I would be like this. I lost my parents and many men to that idiot''s schemes. Even when we had the upper hand, we foolishly lost him. Now, we have no idea why they targeted me or on whose orders. I am regretting my actions in reporting this to the family instead of going to the military. Maybe they would have gotten answers from Max." "That is hardly a fair assessment of our capabilities. We had almost caught up with him when a completely unexpected enemy entered the fray." "Whom apparently, I am not allowed to know about, or no one considered that I was important enough to be kept in the loop." Salazar could only sigh at this argument. He perfectly understood why Balthazar would be disappointed in the family. He had his neck on the line and managed to gain a bit of useful intelligence for crimes against both him and his family but they in their negligence have allowed the only piece of information escape from them. Such a failure would disappoint anyone in his shoes. "I understand you point of view. Yes, our forces might not have lived up to your expectations. But that is no reason to neglect your training. That would be detrimental to you and you alone. I hope you understand that." "Hmm," said Balthazar. After a gap of time, he continued in a remorseful tone, "I might have been a bit too hasty in judging the situation. But I do agree with you. I will be on time for training from now onward. "Good," said Salazar. "Lucius will be taking the morning class. He is in with Robert. You will take his place after the first half hour. Bear with him for today. He is a bit angry that you are late. But he is a very good trainer." "He trained you?" "Me and your dad. He is good at what he does. After the incident with Robert, Walter decided that we need to improve your strength and physique faster. He wanted to attempt an experimental procedure for it." "You are kidding?" "No. But Winston finally convinced him otherwise and they finally compromised with Lucius. He is the best trainer if a person wants to improve his body capabilities. I think Walter just played around with the idea of experimental procedure so that Winston would agree to getting in Lucius. Lucius and Patriarch have a bit of unsavoury history." "You have any idea, what it is?" "I do. But it is not my place to tell it. Ask your grandfather, if you want to know about it," said Salazar as he opened the door to the special combat room, he had booked. In the ring, fighting ring of the combat room Robert was engaged with Lucius in a fight. It couldn''t exactly be called a fight as it involved Lucius continuously hitting Robert without giving him a chance to fight back. Initially he thought that Lucius was just cornering Robert in the middle of the fight but as the same situation continued from about 10 minutes, he began to get worried. Soon, the 30 minutes were almost up, but all the Lucius did was punch and kick at Robert without giving him a chance to escape. "Isn''t he going a bit overboard with Robert. Does he have some kind of issue with Robert too?" asked Balthazar confused by the continues beating that Robert was receiving. "Huh," said Salazar with a surprised expression. "He has nothing against Robert. Why?" "He isn''t even giving him a chance to attack or escape from his assault. What kind of instructor just beats the person receiving instruction continuously without giving him a gap? He is totally unlike you," said Balthazar. "Well, I am meant to make you improve your moves and learn how to fight. He has a different purpose and hence a different training method than me." "He is supposed to another fighting coach, right?" asked Balthazar confused. "I am. But I emphasize on other things which I consider equally important to the fighting arts. They are equally important as skills and techniques and required for survival. In fact, they are to be considered a prerequisite," said Lucius appearing behind him. "Oh!" said Balthazar getting up when he noticed that Lucius had heard him. All his question to Salazar had been whispers. "This guy has very good hearing for a man his age," thought Balthazar as he got up and greeted Lucius. "Come on to the floor. It is your turn now," said Lucius waving at him to enter the ring. Balthazar immediately got into the ring. "As I told before I will leave your training in martial arts and weapons practice to Salazar for now." "You have enemies most of whom are in a generation above you. Most people of your generation are focused on gaining more technical knowledge or earning money. It is quite later in life that you realize that for either knowledge and wisdom or money to be able to provide you happiness, a person needs power and physical strength. Once, you realize it, you tend to focus on improving your strength and physique from them on. You guys had a recent brush with death and realize the need for this, don''t you?" asked Lucius. "I guess so. We do need to be able to protect ourselves," agreed Balthazar. "Well, my work is to help improve your physique and make you as tough as fast as possible while still keeping you healthy, agile, flexible with good control on your body movement or body coordination. You might find a few things that I do a bit excessive but trust me, I know what I am doing," said Lucius. Balthazar was surprised that Lucius explained to him in such a calm way without getting offended after he heard them. "He is either a very patient and good teacher or a very dangerous individual or could even be both," thought Balthazar. "Just try to attack and pin me down. I need to gauge your strength and skill before we begin. I won''t even counter any or your moves and just block them." "OK," said Balthazar as he began to attack Lucius. Being taught how to fight from when he was a kid at his family and at the military, he had learnt to never let his guard down even when being trained. Even though Lucius just wanted to find out his best and really didn''t have any intention to counteract his moves, Balthazar wasn''t the kind to believe it. He attacked Lucius the best he can while always maintaining his guard. Lucius and Salazar could easily notice that Balthazar had his guard continuously up against Lucius. "Attack me seriously like it is the end of life if you don''t put your all in attacking me," said Lucius who was getting irritated. "Do as he says dude. Don''t get him angry," said Robert while Salazar nodded beside him indicating the same. Balthazar trusted Robert and Salazar a bit and he thought that the worst thing that could happen is him being beaten up a bit. Thus, deciding to attack all in, he began pounding on Lucius. Whatever he tried, he never managed to land a hit on Lucius. He got blocked by Lucius which ever angle he attacked him from. Lucius was very fast. Soon, he began blocking Balthazar''s hits with only his left hand without even looking at Balthazar. Though Balthazar tried to change his attack patterns, Lucius still managed to block without even looking at him. "Am I that predictable?" asked Balthazar unable to believe that even after getting a second chance and all his experience in his previous life, he couldn''t lay a hand on this man. He stopped attacking that he couldn''t land a hit on Lucius even after trying for more than 15 minutes. Moreover, fighting at that pace without any results had him exhausted both physically and mentally. "No. You are actually quite talented. You continuously try to improve and try to observe your opponent, but you are limited by your speed. Your muscles are not fast. I could look at the corner of my eye and guess what your next move would be. I could even let you land a few hits on me and you wouldn''t even budge me by a bit. You don''t have muscles tough or fast enough." "Hmm, I guess, my hardware couldn''t match up to yours," said Balthazar agreeing with Lucius. "Yes, in engineering or technical terms for you young kids, though your body has a decent software you haven''t got the proper hardware to process it before the deadline. I guess, I have got the right reference, is it?" "Close enough. So, what can be done for me to improve or upgrade my hardware?" "Robert, he needs to improve on his speed and toughness in equal amounts. He has a relatively balanced improvement in his standards. You on the other hand have good tricks and speed. You were actually very quick. In fact, I should rather say that way you fight focuses so much on quick and sudden movement borders on the extreme. You might actually cause a muscle tear or injury." "I am not that bad," said Balthazar slightly offended as Lucius sounded like he was criticizing his fight style. "But I agree you got a good control on it like you have been used to this style of fighting for a long time. So, you don''t need change it. Just focus on toughening up a bit for the speed to be of proper use. Though you are probably good at evasion techniques, it is always good to be tough too and not completely rely on evading attacks." "I guess so. I realized that myself few days ago and am working towards it," said Balthazar. After the second chance he had been given, he had been trying to improve back to the stronger physique he had during the last moments of his previous life. Most of his techniques and skills would be more effective if his physique gets better. "Good. I am glad that you realize and accept you short comings. Always try to grow into something better. You also need to work on your stamina, if you are going to pursue such a high paced style of attack. People having that style tend to have lower stamina and that is one of the biggest drawbacks and a common flaw seen among many who pursue that style." "Frankly speaking, you have a relatively lanky build for a military man. I suggest you exercise towards that end. I will prepare a project schedule and exercise regimen towards that aim. For now, you both take your leave. No weapons training this morning. I need to talk with Salazar," said Lucius sending them both off. As they both went off the ring and out of the combat room, Lucius beckoned for Salazar to enter the ring and have a spar. "So, how do you really think they are?" asked Salazar. "I have told them exactly what I think. Robert is exactly what I expected him to be. But Balthazar is somewhat odd. It is just not that he fights at a high speed, but I think that some of those moves are instinctual. That is what I couldn''t understand. If I didn''t feel so I would have asked him to stop that quick style of fighting as it has a high-risk factor." "Yes, he was always a bit weird. I don''t understand where or under whom did he practice those. It isn''t like that he got them naturally." "I agree. There is a very low chance of him learning them by experience. We had his data double and triple checked and couldn''t find anything that suggests him being taught by such an expert. So, the thing that frightens me most is that, I think he actually realized or created those tricks himself." "That is preposterous. How can a kid like him do something like that?" "You do understand that without someone creating them, we wouldn''t know of it. He is a very good talent in that regard. Moreover, I trained John too remember. He always gave me a similar feeling like they were meant to be assassins or similar assets. He was also a bit crazy at improving his skills like his life depended on it. I never understood what inspired him to be like that," said Lucius. "So, what is your plan with Balthazar?" "I need to think further. He is an odd case." "Be that as it may, but why don''t we start with your training," said Lucius as he started attacking Salazar. "What training?" asked Salazar confused with Lucius. "You screwed up bad with Abel. There were more three of you and you were still unable to subdue him. If you are going to Balthazar''s guard, you need to improve. Walter specifically asked me train on both you and SIlas up to the mark." This a complete shock to Salazar that he also would have training sessions with him along Balthazar and Robert. Chapter 51 - Future plans Since Robert and Balthazar got out of the combat room early, they decided to spend the rest of the time they usually train with Salazar at the gym. After an hour when they both were tired from working out and left the gym. "I don''t understand, why he stopped today''s session. He hardly evaluated me for 5 minutes before he decided that the best way for me to improve was let my muscles experience more trauma. All he did from then was to make me block his punches," said Robert while walking back towards their rooms. Robert found it real hard to believe that Lucius didn''t do the same to Balthazar. Lucius told him on his first session that he was not going to be able to compete with enemies much older than him and that they would mostly focus on blocking practice because of that. Since then his sessions with Lucius involved most of the same thing that happened today and a little bit of instructions on the various stances that he could take to reduce the effect of the blows. He expected more or less the same thing to happen with Balthazar, but what happened was something entirely different. Though he wasn''t sure, he felt that Lucius couldn''t decide on how to train Balthazar. He also gleaned something very important today that would inspire him to train even harder. If Lucius hadn''t actually had him do blocking practice implied that he already considered Balthazar to be adept at escaping his enemies'' attacks, which means that Balthazar was already quite ahead of himself. "Who know what he is thinking? I heard that he had some issues with Winston and maybe just didn''t want to coach me," said Balthazar trying to comfort his cousin. He could clearly see that Robert was a bit intimidated and envious about it. "I know what happened between them and also that he wouldn''t do that just to get back at Winston. Let us talk about something else," said Robert. He understood that his cousin wants to avoid talking about it and he didn''t want Balthazar to feel uneasy around him just because of this. So, he decided to change the topic. "So, how was the game?" asked Robert. "I haven''t played games at college like you but, I found this one a bit tedious and repetitive. Also, the blood and killing are a bit too realistic for my taste. Are these supposed to be like that?" "Yes, most games involve killing a large number of monsters repetitively. I always leveled up your account when you played against other players. So, you never probably realized it," answered Balthazar. "You would enjoy more if you play against other players. I also think, it would be very useful in using this to practice for our training. Especially when the arena feature opens up. Fighting other players would definitely improve our skills and the best thing is that we can spend about three times the amount in vita-nova to work on your skills." "Yes. That would be useful as I do need to improve on my skills. You are way better than me at the skills and I definitely need to catch up with you. I could even ask Lucius to join us in the game. It would provide us more time to practice." "You are forgetting that Lucius just said that he focused on improving your physique. He probably needs to have physical contact for that. Maybe it is better to ask Salazar as he is the guy in charge of combat with weapons and the game offers a unique environment to do just that," added Balthazar trying to help his brother. "It is true that Walter called him for that. But you have seen how proficient Lucius is at fighting?" counter argued Robert. "He has trained both my father and Uncle John. So, he definitely got the skills for it. I am just considering how to convince him." "Yeah, he also seemed to be experienced in training. He has a very good control on his movements and seemed to be very perceptive. He might be better than Salazar if he is into it. I will also help you persuade him if necessary," said Balthazar agreeing with Robert. He also felt that it would be good to have Lucius in the game. Not only would he be a good coach, but if he genuinely gets interested in the game, he would be a great asset. "So, which village did you start at?" asked Robert changing the topic to the vita-nova game. "I got sent to the Red Leaf Village. What is the name that you are using?" "I am at the Blackrock village. Using the name Shadow Tyrant. What is yours?" "I am using Draco Rigor as my character name, class is guardian. Formed a group of guys. Wait a minute. Are you the Shadow Tyrant that had been recently known for all the announcements?" "Hmm. I am," agreed Balthazar nodding his head. "You got the first clear for the corrupted forest? When did you become so good at gaming? I thought that you would lose your touch after being in the force for 5 years. But you seemed to have become a lot better," said Robert in shock. His cousin was almost considered to be hacking in the game by many players. "It was mostly luck. We just got lucky and managed to take down the boss in elite mode." "Dude, I played the same dungeon. The boss was ridiculously hard, and it was almost impossible to land a hit on him even for mages. What was the secret? How did you do it?" "I will send you the dungeon guide, if you want. Just don''t talk about it anymore. I just got luck and saw the right path. We can meet soon when we reach level 10 or so when we can teleport to the cities." "OK, will send you a friend request once, I log in. But first join me in my room, I need to talk to you about something," said Robert as they reached his room. He pulled Balthazar into his room and quickly closed the door behind him. Balthazar had been to his cousin''s room before. It was the same as he remembered. There was a chair and a table with a few books at the end opposite the door, a cupboard to his left and his cot and fridge to the right. Balthazar immediately made himself comfortable on the cot as Robert occupied the chair. "So, what are you going to do in this time?" asked Robert. "I heard you got a leave for about 3 months. You have been better than recovered. Any idea about the effects of that attack? You are considered a hero and you are playing games." "OK, what do you want to know?" asked Balthazar as he was unable to determine where his cousin was steering the discussion towards. "What happened with your posting? I heard that someone already took over your post. So, what is your new posting? What is going on in your career? What''s next in your life?" "Oh! So, that''s what you wanted to know? It is not like I am sure about it either. If I get promoted again, I will be a brigadier general and there hasn''t been a brigadier general as young as me since ancient times. It is exceeding rare." "So, what is the plan? You would have some sort of idea about what you would get into after your leave, right?" "Well, promotion is very unlikely due to the reason I just told. With the new information about the apes having more types of species among the aliens and the suggestion that there might be some sort of hierarchy would probably force the alliance to put in a new campaign to find out more about the alien empire." "Is there such a campaign being put up by the alliance? I never knew about that." "It is just a matter of time before they do it. Considering the body, they recovered from the wreckage at the incident. Bolena was also working on tech for similar purposes long before this incident. Such efforts would only be intensified now. I already heard a few things from my friend Sophia." "You sure you want to go and work on something like that. Especially after you came to know all about our history. You know. The things which Winston and Walter told us." "Yes, you got a point there. That is why I decided to stay here spending my three months leave training rather than in the military. And if I am going to go after them, I need to improve my skills and also gain a few friends in high places. Even Walter and Winston''s influence and talent weren''t enough to track down these guys. I honestly am not sure of what I can do against them." "But you realize the danger you are putting yourself in, if you are going back to the force. Are you really willing to be the bait? You might lose your life. You have a lot of other options than fighting them. They might be willing for a compromise." "Compromise?" asked Balthazar in a loud and angry voice. He was unable to believe that his cousin even thought of something like that. He even felt that the idea was completely ridiculous. They didn''t know who their opponents were or what are the organizations under their control. They work completely in the dark. One needs to be able to contact before they could ever think about compromise. Even if they manged to contact the knights of the old republic, it was clear that they wanted to kill everyone related his grandmother. The only thing that stopped them was they didn''t want to have it done quietly like they were afraid of someone else finding about Balthazar''s genealogy. "How do propose we make them compromise. We don''t even know why they want to kill us or if anyone else might want to kill us. There is no room for negotiation because we don''t know anything about the other side. What you are saying is like asking the apes not attack the humans. That is how ridiculous you sound right now." Robert had his head down and looked dispirited after hearing Balthazar. He knew that Balthazar was right, but he had always been an ideal citizen and never harmed anyone. He had been unable to sleep and was afraid and miserable after the failed attempt on his life by Max. Ever since then, he had been pestering Winston daily if they got something that would help them in this situation. The few rare times he had fought was against people of similar skill set as him. With his large physique and strength, he dominated in the few bouts he had. He had never been targeted in the dark for assassination. Unlike Balthazar who had about two years experience in the shadows, he was extremely frightened and uneasy. "But there must be something we can do," said Robert in a tired and weak voice. "We are already doing all that we can. Don''t worry. They wouldn''t attempt anytime soon again. We already got rid of the mole in our midst and from the previous attempts it is clear that they would rather keep it a secret and allow us to grow than let it be known to public. So, the only thing that we could do is to become better and probably well known. That is why, they insisted on me continuing in the military even after the assassination attempt on me." "It sounds all well and good. Still, weren''t our parents well known and famous during their time. They were killed nonetheless," said Robert finally putting forward the doubt that had been plaguing his heart. Even his mother, who was once the successor to the patriarch was now a mentally handicapped patient. "You are right in thinking that way. But there are two distinct advantages we have over our parents. First, they never knew that Max betrayed them, or he would be willing to go that for the position of the patriarch. Second, we know the truth about who is trying to kill us and a face to relate them to us. Though we don''t know why, they don''t want anyone else to know about it either. It is still an advantage we can use to gather more information about grandmother." "But we aren''t in the loop about the investigation. They don''t consider us to have enough experience for that and without clearance what could we do. We have no source of information as long as the family, I mean Winston and Walter are not willing." Robert did have a valid point and it would be the case if not for Balthazar having knowledge of the future from his past life experience. He had only used his sources in playing the game. He had a bunch of other people whom he could contact for information. Though these people couldn''t be considered friends, Balthazar definitely knew what kind of men they were and how to convince them to help him. "I will take care of finding out from external sources. You leave that to me. The only thing you need to worry about is to become the patriarch, gain fame and also become capable enough to protect yourself. I need you to be the man whom the family trusts and looks up to. Though it will take some time for that, you are best among our generation. Both Bolena and I will support you." "I believe Winston wants Bolena to inherit his position. What you are talking might not be possible. But if you want me to be an elder in the family. That is something that can be achieved," said Robert. "There has been a recent vacancy with the death of Uncle Max, and someone needs to take over the territories and resources that he used to look over." "Yes, they are going to hold a recruitment event some time soon. It would mostly be a contest among the family members, mostly someone in the previous generation would be chosen. But most of them already have been working under other elders for quite sometime. It is great chance for us, if we could get someone on our side to participate on our behalf. We have quite some status in the family as the direct descendants of the main branch." "You can convince someone to participate on your behalf?" asked Balthazar surprised. He knew that his cousin had a decent amount of influence in the inner circles of the family, but never did he think that he had enough to have someone of the older generation to participate in contest for position of elder in his place. After his father''s death Walter had groomed him to take after George. Robert also inherited many properties from his father and mother, including a few moons which were great resources. Balthazar had no clue about his own inheritance, nor did he care about it. So, he had no clue of the amount of properties that his cousin had or anything of the influence they brought him. "I do know someone, who is not interested in power. He is a recluse and I completely trust him to take part. I also got a couple of elders supporting me. That is enough for a show of strength. But apart from a competition of strength, there would be other tests. I need to participate in at least one which I would like your help in." "You seem to know quite a lot about what it takes to become an elder in family. I am quite surprised," said Balthazar. "Of course, you idiot. I am not like someone who stupidly ran away. I always intended to gain power through the family. I have been prepared to be the first one among our generation to enter the council for a long time. Walter also wanted me to replace Max for a long time. I guess he never liked Uncle Max." "That is true. Walter never liked Max. Keep in loop with your plans. I will do the same," said Balthazar as he got up and left the room. Chapter 52 - Consulting Winston Once Balthazar reached his room, he immediately had a bath and went down to finish his breakfast. During breakfast, he thought further about Robert''s situation. It was true that he had no idea about the trials one would have to face to join the elder council. Other than Robert, he could only ask his sister or grandfather. He didn''t have much friendly relations or completely trusted anyone else in the family. He called his sister whom he was trusted the most to confirm about it. He also needed to know if his sister also intended to contest for the position of an elder. "Hi brother, good morning," said Bolena on the other side of the call. She was in a night gown, her hair fell down on her face and was rubbing her eyes as she talked to him. It was clear that he had woken her up with his call. "Good morning, Bolena. I thought you were the kind to wake up early in the morning. What is with that stupid sleepy face?" asked Balthazar. Bolena was always very disciplined since her childhood. He had only seen her in such a situation when they both were kids and shared a room. It was quite odd for her to look like that at this time in the morning which had him slightly concerned for her health. "I was working on the biofeedback system past midnight. I forgot to sleep in time. What do you want?" asked Bolena. "I doubt you would call so early for nothing." "It is just a small matter. I heard that there would be a vacancy for the post of an elder since Max died. So, I was wondering if you might be interested in it." "Where did this come from all of a sudden?" asked Bolena surprised. She never expected her little brother to be interested in family politics. Him asking about the vacancy of the elder post on death of Max had her genuinely confused. She began to think she was in a dream as that would make more sense. "I am not dreaming, right?" she asked as she began to pull her hair to the back of the head and bound the strands to form a ponytail. She pinched herself to make sure it was not a dream. "No, need to pinch yourself. This isn''t a dream. I am genuinely interested in knowing if you are going to participate in the contest for the position in the elder council. I know that grandfather would like you to be more involved in the family matters as you and I are his only heirs left. I doubt that he never talked to you about this," inquired Balthazar. "Did he ask you to persuade me to participate?I am really busy with my research and I don''t think I need to be considering this right now. I am just 24 years old and would rather like to work on my job. Still got a lot of time to be involved in those. Just butt out of it," said Bolena with her eyes half-closed in a drowsy and irritated manner. She already had a similar talk with her grandfather the day, Balthazar had left to Asklepian for the funeral. Winston contacted her a couple more times regarding the same. She was quite annoyed by his repeated attempts and thought that her brother suddenly asking her about this was also due to her grandfather. "Good. I really hoped that you wouldn''t be interested in this contest. Otherwise, it would be really awkward at the contest if we confront one another," reply Balthazar. He had intentionally phrased his words so that Bolena would think that he is contesting for the being an elder and would wake up properly. As expected, his reply shocked her awake from her stuporous state. From the way, he replied it she thought that Balthazar was competing for the post of the elder. Though he had an ill.u.s.trious career at the military and was considered a celebrity by people of her generation, he was still detested by a large number of members of the family''s elder council for abruptly leaving the family and joining the military as soon as he got a chance to do it legally. The elder council was not actually the most powerful force of the family, but a lot of decisions regarding the stance of the family about various issues was decided by them. There were branch family members among the elder council who cared solely for their own assets and profits. There will obviously be elders who would rebuke him and condemn him for his disrespectful behavior of the family in the past if he tried to contest. "Are you being stupid?" she rebuked him directly. It was better she stopped him now before he was stopped by a majority of the elders who wanted their own friend or pawns to compete for that position. "Not at all. Why do you raise such concerns?" asked Balthazar calmly. "You stupid, brother! You''re really stupid. How can you even think that those elders would allow you to get into the council." "Whoa! Whoa! Whoever told you that I wanted to enter the elder council. I just asked so that in hopes that you wouldn''t be an opponent for Robert." "Huh!" said Bolena slightly surprised by her brother and began to think about what he actually said. "In fact, he never told that he wanted to be an elder. Was he just playing around with me?" she thought. The she got angry again when she realized that he was just toying with her. "You ass, you were just toying with me for fun. I hope I don''t find you anytime soon or I will use my warframe to beat you senseless." "Haha," began laughing Balthazar on the other end of the call, while his sister scolded him. He enjoyed those rare instances where he managed to fool his sister when she was distracted or sleepy. After listening to his sister''s rant for a few minutes about the elders and why she didn''t want to participate while scolding him, he finally stopped laughing. "I also don''t want you to participate as you wouldn''t be able to spend much time towards this. It would be for the best if both you and I don''t compete to become elders. Due to your projects and research, you don''t have the time to indulge in this. I can''t be because I don''t want to leave my job for the post of elder. I can''t do both simultaneously." "Then, why are we discussing this?" asked Bolena puzzled. "Though I don''t want to be an elder, I would like to have someone I trust to be one. Robert is a good choice. With his as an elder I would have a decent access to their private information and there is also the issue of the threat on our lives. Someone was helping Max and I would like to have an elder who is as concerned about it as me." "So, you thought of Robert. You would have him be an elder rather than me? Your own sister." "Stop playing. I know that you wouldn''t be interested. I would like you to also support him for the present vacancy in the elder council." "Even if he becomes one, you can''t really rely on him for information if grandpa or Walter want to hide it." "Of course, I can''t. But it doesn''t hurt to have more on our side. It would also be of use when you actually want to be one of the elders. Think about it." "I am fine with it. But also talk to grandpa. He would like me to participate. If you convince him, I would be very glad and support Robert." "OK. I will convince him. But you already told him that you weren''t going to participate, right?" "Yes. Repeatedly. But you know that sometimes he can be really stubborn." "I guess. I haven''t really seen that side of him." "Well, compared to an idiot who could just leave everything he had in his life and join the military, maybe he is not that stubborn after all." "Wow. People really like to rub that it my face a lot," thought Balthazar. "Don''t worry. Leave that to me. I will talk to him. You can also tell him my idea if he contacts you again," he said to his sister. "OK, then. Talk to you later. My head hurts from all my work and this crap." "Wait. Wait. But this isn''t why I called you." "You have something else also on your mind." "Yes. I didn''t think of asking you to support Robert till I called you. I only asked it once you told that you weren''t interested. It was then that I realized that you would also have a decent amount of influence in the family due to Winston being the Patriarch." "So, what did you actually call me for?" "Robert asked me to help him in the contest. But I have no idea what it might be about? You should have some knowledge regarding this, right? So, I called you to ask what could I provide Robert that he already doesn''t have? I couldn''t put my finger on what he needed me for?" "Oh! You are worried about that? That is very simple. It is because he a young generation contestant," said Bolena and cut the call. "Huh!" Balthazar could make heads or tails of what she said. She told it in a way that it was fairly obvious and he shouldn''t require further explanation of it. He immediately messaged her, "What the hell was that supposed to mean. I didn''t understand anything from that." Bolena had already entered the bathroom and wasn''t interested in talking about the topic any further. She simply messaged back to her brother to talk to Winston about it he would be able to provide more information on it and also not contact her till he convinced Winston to stop pestering her from competing for the post. She didn''t reply to any further calls and messages he sent after that. "And you have the nerve to call me and Winston stubborn. You hypocritical cow," he thought as he resigned to the fact that she wouldn''t respond any further. With nary another option, he messaged his grandfather that he wanted to talk to him about the contest for the position of elder. Within a few seconds, he got a message back from Winston to meet him at his office on the sixth floor of the east wing. He walked to the sixth floor thinking about how he would convince Winston. As he reached the sixth floor, he found Winston waiting at the door of his office for him. "Come in," said Winston ushering him inside. He closed the door and immediately looked at his grandson in a proud and happy manner. "I am happy that you are taking such initiative on your own. I never thought that you would concern yourself about family matters," said Winston as he hugged Balthazar. "But it is truly not advisable for you to do it right now. You just got a famous and have a brilliant career in military. I would like you to focus on that." "I don''t intend to leave the force anytime soon. But I still think I want to garner more influence here. There were many things that I didn''t understand before. So, I left before. Now I realize I need a bit to have a bit of influence so as to actually find out what happened and help myself and Bolena." "That is all nice and well. But there are some issues. Your posting is not determined, and you don''t have much influence outside the military. There are few jobs that you can''t have to serve as elder in a family. You need to be able to stay at the areas that you to protect and govern most of the time," explained Winston. Winston had his own plans. He wanted his grandson to support Bolena for the position of elder. He also wanted his grandson''s help in convincing Bolena. He was intentionally steering him towards that point. But sadly, his plans were bound to fail as his grandson and Bolena had completely other plans. "There is another option if you really want to increase your influence in the family. You can support someone for the position and help them to attain it," continued Winston. "I had the same idea. That is why I came to you to talk about Bolena," said Balthazar. Winston was pleasantly surprised on hearing Balthazar as he thought that his grandson was already considering the same thing that he was about to suggest. He took a careful look at him as he sat on his worktable. "Didn''t expect you to be that involved in this matter," said Winston in a depressed manner. "Don''t misunderstand me. I am all in for supporting Bolena to the post. But she is not interested in it." "I know. I am also supporting her decision. I don''t want her in this contest. At least, not right now." "I am confused. You don''t want her to compete?" "I don''t want her to compete as she is also in the same situation as me. Though she has you supporting her, she can''t stop her career for this. She has military contracts. It is better if she gets more influence and popularity on her own. It might not be wise for her to give her research up now." "I know that kid. But this is a great chance and I want her to take after me. You do understand that right." "I understand grandpa. I know that this is a chance you wouldn''t want to let go. You want her to be able to protect herself. But I think I have a better idea than pushing Bolena. It isn''t me." "Talk to me. I am listening," said Winston folding his hands. "I want Robert to fill that vacancy. I hope that you would be supporting him." "Robert! I don''t want Robert to get the position. It would pose a bunch of problems for you and Bolena that you can''t think about," said Winston shaking his head. "I know you are worried about another person supporting Walter. But Robert isn''t like Walter. He wouldn''t do anything that might harm either of us like letting us be bait." Winston almost slipped off the table when he heard Balthazar. He knew that his brother had tendencies to be a bit cold blooded sometimes. But he didn''t expect his grandson to know about it. "What do you know?" he asked keeping his composure. "I know enough to understand your concerns, grandpa," said Balthazar. He realized a long time ago, that Walter didn''t just send him out of the family to train. But he was also a bait for anyone who would continue to target Balthazar, Bolena or Robert. "Then you understand why I don''t want another elder to be supporting Walter. Robert would completely follow Walter. It is hard for even me to stop Walter sometimes. I don''t want..," stopped in the middle of his sentence and began sobbing. Balthazar had never seen Winston get this vulnerable. He was always strong and opinionated. Sometimes he stood strongly with some opinions to help his family, but never did he ever cry in front of someone. It was the first time, he had done this someone before other than his wife and daughter. Balthazar was initially shocked by this sudden change in his grandfather, but then he realized that his grandfather was actually crying and hugged him. It looks like Winston''s trust in him improved by quite a lot if he was like this in front of him. After a small period of time, Winston controlled himself and wiped his face with a cloth. "I am sorry. I was overwhelmed by emotion for a small amount of time," he apologized. "It is fine, grandpa. Happens to the best of us. It is tiny thing." "It is just that I never expected you to be able to understand why I have a problem with Robert taking the position of an elder. This is something that most wouldn''t understand." "I know that you think that Robert would support Walter, if a situation calls for him to choose between the two of you. But, believe me, he wouldn''t follow Walter blindly. Their relationship was never in a way that Robert would choose Walter over his own conscious and put someone in danger." "You don''t know Walter like I do. Even if it is against his conscious, he might get convinced by Walter." "I agree I don''t know him as well as you do grandpa, but I do know Robert very well. Trick and traps in the dark aren''t his forte. They are mine. I just need you to trust me on this. I will make sure that no harm shall befall either Bolena or any of our friends due to him." "Hahahaha," laughed Winston loudly then he looked at Balthazar and then continued laughing in a crazy manner. "Trust you? Why? On what basis should I trust you blindly. I don''t even have a clue how you found out about Max. You have too many secrets for anyone to trust you." "Grandpa, I am your grandson. Why can''t you simply trust me to take care of my loved ones." "Under normal circ.u.mstances, I would have. But your secrets make me wonder if you are having ulterior motives. Though I trusted you with your secrets on Walter''s insistence. I am not willing to do so with Bolena''s life. I am not a gambling person person. If you want me to trust you with someone''s life, I need you to prove yourself." "What would you need for proof?" "Something like convincing to write an agreement to put in a vote in the council in my favor when I and Walter are against each other. That would be really proof that you can control him. It can also help me protect you." "That is a total waste, if you want to protect Bolena. How about having him provide a doc.u.ment in writing that he wouldn''t ever cast his vote in the council that could potentially cause harm to Bolena or me. Doesn''t that sound better?" asked Balthazar. "Definitely, if you can actually get it done." "Consider it a deal then grandpa. Will be calling you in an hour or so. Be ready for it. Also, I have a few plans outside Asklepian but within Elysium. I want you to confirm with Walter if the Nirbaadh Pirates are still after me," said Balthazar walking out of the door. "Take care." Chapter 53 - Convincing Robert As soon as he got out of Winston''s room, he made a call to Robert. He wanted to personally meet Robert to talk as he also wanted Robert to be aware of Walter. "It is best if he is also aware of the why I was sent out by Walter and joined the military," he thought as he walked towards Robert''s room. "What''s the matter? Didn''t we just meet a few minutes ago?" replied Robert. There was no image on the call for some reason. Balthazar immediately realized that his cousin was probably playing the game and didn''t change the default settings for calls. "Are you playing vita-nova?" "Yes. What''s the matter?" "I need to talk to you in person. I am coming to your room. Get out of the game now." "I just got into the game." "I would rather not have anyone, or any tech be used during this talk. Actually, thinking further, why don''t you come out and have a walk in the garden outside with me? It is a bit refreshing to walk in the sun for some time, especially since it looks like we wouldn''t be going for our runs with Anubis." "OK. I will be out in a minute or two." "Will be waiting at the hall for you," said Balthazar ending the call. He went to the main hall and seated himself in a sofa waiting for Robert. After five minutes or so he saw Robert entering the hall. "That was a short 1 minute you took to come down," said Balthazar walking towards the mansion exit. "I was in the middle of a fight with a bunch of monsters when you called. It is obviously going to take some time before I finish and log out," replied Robert. "So, what did you want to talk about?" "That can wait till we are in the garden. By the way, I have some good news. Bolena also intends to support you and I can convince the Patriarch too to support you." "That is great. I was afraid that she would also be one of the contestants. I would be a lot more relaxed if she isn''t participating," said Robert ecstatic. from hearing the good news. "Are you sure that you can convince the Patriarch too?" "Before that I need you to listen to a few things and there is a condition for him to support you. You probably already expected him to support Bolena, right? He actually intends to do so unless his condition is fulfilled." "A condition from the patriarch. What can I do that he can''t?" "It is not about what you can do but what you will be able to do once you are an elder," replied Balthazar. "I never thought that Winston would have such plans. I guess he wouldn''t have become the patriarch if he isn''t a bit political. I hope it isn''t something that is sinister in mind," said Robert a bit concerned about the condition that Winston put. Being a patriarch, he would have the highest influence and could even veto some decisions. The thought of what such a powerful figure far above would want from him naturally tends to frighten any person. The same was the case with Robert and his face began to show his apprehension. "You are thinking too much. He doesn''t want anything too bad. You probably wouldn''t think much about it once you hear it as you probably wouldn''t think of a situation that would go against his condition. But listen to what I have to say so that you would understand why he asked something like that from you." "Dude. You are talking in circles like an old guy. Just speak about it." "Do you know why I went out of the family and joined the military?" "You mean to say that it wasn''t teenage craziness and boredom?" "I am serious," said Balthazar looking at him crossly. "I got no clue cousin. I heard rumors from some people, but I didn''t really believe them." "Oh, what rumors did you hear?" "Something about you going out to find our parents'' killers. I always thought that it was nonsense but seeing that you managed to find out about Max, I guess it might not be that far-fetched an assumption." "That is true. I wanted to find out about my parents'' killers. So, I had Walter teach me for a long time. Then, he suggested I am not ready to work alongside him yet and go gather some experience out in the alliance military or border force." "So, it is true that you actually left to find information about those killers." "No, of course not. I had no idea about why parents were killed and only learned it after the incident at my base. But the thing I want you to understand is that Walter always knew about it. He knew that the killers were targeting grandmother''s descendants, but still sent me out." "What are you talking about? He probably never thought that they would attack you." "You are kidding, right? Walter didn''t think of the danger!? He is the first guy who would have realized it. But he used me as bait, nevertheless. He even had Salazar looking out for me nearby." "But I bet he really didn''t mean harm. He would never have done so if he wasn''t sure that he could protect you." "I agree. But he has a tendency to do such things. He frequently puts his own self in highly risky situations and got used to it. He is incognito hunting the assassins who helped Max. So, he obviously is wouldn''t think twice in putting us at risk too sometimes." "That might be true. But he also very adept in saving and has a decent force at command." "I agree to that. I am also willing to do so. But I don''t want either you or Bolena to ever be the bait. There were some instances where I could have been killed but escaped only due to sheer luck. I didn''t have someone from the family having my back at that time. The only reason Salazar was probably sent because I sent a communication home because I began to suspect Max a week before the incident," said Balthazar looking at his cousin. "So, I want you to swear in writing that under no circ.u.mstance shall your vote ever be used to make any decision that would likely cause harm to Bolena, else you lose your position and assets. As soon as I send the doc.u.ment over, Winston is willing to completely support you for the position of elder." "Both my position and assets? That is something I can''t do without consulting Walter or the lawyers. It is very risky." "Only I will hold on to it and have the authority in determining if you violated it. I will just send a copy of it to Winston. It will be only affected if Bolena is harmed. You can go ahead with it if you trust in me," said Balthazar. "Being supported by the patriarch will allow you a strong advantage in the contest. If Winston agrees, even Bolena will not participate. Think about it." "Is it only Bolena or even you?" "Only Bolena. You would have hardly any control in what I do. If the council tries to force me to do something, I can always leave the family again. I don''t think they would dare to make any moves against me. Even if they do, you best allow me to resolve it." "Are you sure about it? The do wield significant influence and power. You don''t want to piss them off, if you want to join the elder council anytime soon." "That is true, but I don''t have any intentions to join the elder council. Still I would like to have everyday updates about the discussions in the elder council once you are a member." "I think that might be a bit unethical of me. The rest might get a bit antagonistic to me if I do that." "Do you honestly think the elders in the council don''t tell their children of most of the affairs they discuss. I think only a few like Winston and a few others don''t babble. Moreover, I just want details to make sure that no one is planning against us. I have a vested interest in protecting both you and Bolena. Anyway, I believe I could also provide you information that you can reveal to them in return that would be extremely helpful to you." "What can you find out that would be useful to the council?" "You leave that to me. The attack at my base was just a prelude. The aliens are getting more aggressive and so are the rebel forces. The world is going through a transitional phase which is going to be more a lot more lively than during the rebellion of the knights of old republic." "You serious?" "Yes. I already think that they somehow managed to contact and convince even the upper echelons of the apes to form some kind of collaboration." "Hahaha. You sound like some kind of conspiracy theorist you know. Don''t ever talk to anyone like this." "Don''t worry. I will not. But I definitely intend to prove it. For that I need to know that you and Bolena are safe and strong. So, what do you think about this agreement." "I have no problem with it. It is a pretty simple thing to do. I will send it to you within the hour." "In that case, let us go and play for some time. It is a good way to ease up." "Sure, it is a lot more fun than I expected. I think I might get addicted to it." "Take care that you don''t. I know for a fact that the somnium technology is very addictive. I heard that the military already noticed it in their tests though the positive cases of addiction were very small." "You for real? Something like that is going to be extremely high-level info. How did you come by it?" "Oh! It was by no legal means. Just someone putting out a friendly word for me. I hope that I can count on your discretion about whatever information I provide you." "That is given. I wouldn''t like anyone asking me more questions than required," said Robert. "You can count on me. I would even consult you in case I ever have to." "No need for that. I already trust you. Else, I wouldn''t be informing you. Let us go back now," said Balthazar as he turned to go back to the mansion. "Anything else, you require your highness. You need any support from in your secretive plans," asked Robert sarcastically signalling double quotes with his hands. "Can you get me an alternative alliance ID using any of your contacts. I could use a few of those?" "Huh?!" said Robert feeling a bit weak in the knees. He didn''t know if his cousin was being serious or just joking. What his cousin was asking was a serious crime if anyone ever found out. "I am joking. If I want something like that which borders on illegal, I would ask Salazar, Walter or others. Definitely not you." "I got nothing that I can say to you, man. I can''t even guess if you are being serious or just joking." "Come on. Let us get inside. Also can you tell me what you actually had in mind for me, when you asked me to support you for the contest. It clearly is not handling Bolena or Winston as apparent from your expressions. So, what do you actually need and what is involved." "Oh! Finally, something I can contribute to towards this conversation. You have been steering our little chat all this while. Let me just get into the details directly. There are three important things that you need to have for being an elder. First, at least 30% of the existing members of the council should be willing for you to join the council." "Ok. So, Winston would be of help there I think." "Yes. That would be where Winston would help me the most. The other was would be the second condition. I need to have enough power and force to protect the territory I am to guard as an elder." "I hope you already have someone for that. I don''t think I am strong enough to compete with the guys other elders might have," said Balthazar hoping that he wasn''t being asked by Robert for this. "Yes, and no. There will be two contests. One is combat between representatives directly. I got someone for that and that is a competition. The other is a test strategic commander to handle and maintain my forces. I need you for that. There will be a few simulations, more like a game. You just need to handle it. There will be a few questions for both me and you." "You don''t have anything better than me to do this. I don''t think you didn''t have better choices than me," asked Balthazar. He was sure that Robert would have better options than him. Walter would obviously provide more assets to him for this. "Yes, I got better guys. But there is one advantage that you have over others." "I sincerely doubt that but carry on." "Experience and fame. These guys which Walter introduced to me are mostly ghosts and don''t like to be well known. With you I might directly be asked to skip the test. Your recent achievement at the military still garnered some fame as sensible man and good at commanding forces. Especially you. Your achievements at the military are enough to let us pass that test." "I don''t think that I am as famous as you think. They still.." "Quite a good number don''t like you, but they still have to accept your achievements. But that is not the main reason for me to ask your help. The main competition would be the fight among our representatives. It is the major deciding factor." "Good. Anything else?" "Yes. It is because we are from the young generation, there is another small trial for us. I need to participate in at least one of the planetary excursions." "The what?" "We have a few planets and moons which don''t have actual bases on them as they have a special environment and some resources are best grown in the native environment. So, there will be occasional trips to collect these resources from the planets." "Oh! I remember. We are usually given a list of resources mostly biological and a few equipment before we are put on the planet. We need to collect them before we return. It is a pre-requisite to be considered for any position of responsibility in the family," said Balthazar remembering the time when Winston asked him to take the test when he became a legal a.d.u.l.t. "Yes. This is required for both you and I, if we are to participate in the contest for the post of the elder," explained Robert. "But for this, we need a planet or moon which is ripe enough for its resources to be gathered. I doubt there is one readily available and I thought that you would have been done with your''s by now." "Alas, we do have one available as if god intended for us to use it and I didn''t finish mine either. I already talked to Salazar about it. He told that he already got acceptance from Walter that we are going to be safe for the time being as long as we don''t leave the boundaries of Elysium," explained Robert. "You already got the permission for this?" "Yes. I wouldn''t have contacted you, if I couldn''t even participate due to something like this," said Robert. "I already told him about you joining me so that he could process it through. Leave all of that to me. I will inform you beforehand for everything. It will be in two or three days. Now, I am going back to my room. Just wait for the doc.u.ment in your room. I will forward it online." "Cool. Would be waiting for you. Keep me in the loop. See you in the game probably." Chapter 54 - Worgen and portals As the situation with Roberts came to a conclusion, Balthazar had nothing important to do. He went to his room and put himself in to the vita-nova pod. Though he had plans to meet old acquaintances of his past life who would be of help to him, he decided that it would be better to do sometime later. The second he got into the game he got messages from a number of people. Merlin, Blue Dart and even Rudra. He also got a message from Robert to send him a friend request as he was unable to do so because he had blocked his friend request list. Merlin wanted to talk to him about the goblin quest and Blue Dart about the new dungeon that was announced along with the completion of quest. There were also messages from Raging Blade and Quiet Fire inquiring about the same. He quickly messaged both Blue Dart and Merlin that he was going to the enable the special dungeon within the hour. Most of the players have almost reached level 5. If he was any later, most of the players would probably start attacking him. He had the special quest ''Hold back the wargs'' given by the temple. He needed to complete it as soon as possible. He was just a little away from the level 5 due to the experience he received from crafting equipment. He had already received a decent amount of coins from his transactions with the Sirius Imperials and he brought a few basic supplies using the funds. He also went to the merchants to buy spices for his trip. Vita-nova offered a wide variety of secondary occupations including cooking. Players could cook few dishes with herbs and meat from monsters which would provide buffs for small durations. Spices are usually used in cooking but sometimes these can also be used to throw off the scents of tracking pets or even stun monsters. As he was going to Blackrock hills on a solo mission, he decided to buy few just in case he needed it. They would definitely be useful against the wargs or any members which have a high sense of smell. He quickly made his way to the blackrock hills. On the way, he found a few more wolves and blackrock wolves, and killed them finally allowing him to get the required experience to reach level 5. He also immediately allocated the free attribute points to vitality, strength and perception. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 5 Exp: 5/2000 HP: 2200/2200; MP: 750/750; Physical Attack: 80 Defense: 58; Attack Speed: 46; Movement Speed: 50; Willpower: 16; Balance: 26; Focus/Search: 32; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 9; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 40, Agility 35, Endurance 20, Intelligence 15, Vitality 30, Perception 16. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0 Within 20 minutes, he managed to cross the river and get to the place where he had first seen Elias Rotar. He had already marked the location of the cave where he fought alongside Elias on his map. So, he slowly made his way to the cave. As he reached the cave, he saw that the entrance to the cave was larger than he remembered. It was not the same as he had left it. There was a wooden cabin by the entrance. There were also signs of explosions and battle. There were quite a few blackrock wolves patrolling at the cave''s entrance. "Blackrock wolves patrolling the entrance. This is worse than I expected it to be," thought Balthazar. He had half a mind to contact Merlin and others for help but decided against it. He went into stealth to observe the patterns of the blackrock wolves but couldn''t find any opportunity to attack them individually. Without the option he usually preferred, he could only try and observe the area in stealth if he could get any advantage from the surroundings. He went into the cave but then suddenly he received a notification that he couldn''t without alerting the wolves. To avoid a fight went back to the cave entrance and towards the cabin. He saw a worgen in the cabin though the window. It was clear that another worgen had come to the blackrock hills from the portal which he thought was destroyed. [Althus] (Worgen swordsman) Level 5; HP: 3000; The worgen had a couple of swords strapped on his back and he seems to be interrogating some one who wore the robes of the temple priests. There was also a green dot above it indicating that it is a friendly NPC character. "Must be one of the members sent by the temple," thought Balthazar. [Rickard Holt - emissary of the temple] (Paladin elite) Level 5: HP: 2360. The NPC was obviously injured and bleeding with its right arm broken. The worgen was kicking the tied-up NPC further while fiddling with its sword. After a few moments, the worgen stopped kicking the NPC, walked out of the cabin and into the cave. Quest updated: Hold back the wargs: Save Rickard Holt and help him finish his mission. "This is probably my chance to enter the cabin," thought Balthazar as he made his way to the door. But the door was locked. Luckily, he had learned the lockpick skill which still allowed him to enter without being detected. It was a simple lock and his five years of experience made it rather easy for him to open the door. As soon as he closed the door, he got out of stealth and the NPC on the floor turn his head to look at him. "Who are you?" it asked as it noticed that Shadow Tyrant wasn''t the worgen. "Emissary Holt, I was sent here by the temple to check up on you and your team. You haven''t reported back to the temple and they wanted to make sure that there were no issues with establishing the teleportation point," replied Shadow Tyrant as he leaned forward towards the emissary and untied him. Holt pulled himself up and leaned against a wall and asked "You an adventurer? I have never seen you before at the temple." "Yes, I was sent by the deacon to find out about your situation and assist you in case you need any support." "Ah! I failed the temple today. Our company was ambushed by the worgens. There were four of them and 7 of us. They waited till we made the cabin to serve as our temporary base and attacked as we were about establish a teleportation point. Though they ambushed us the warlock and elementalist managed to kill them while giving up their own lives. May the lords have mercy on them." "May the lords have mercy on them. Did their sacrifice manage to save the mission? What happened to the teleportation point?" "Alas! That would be impossible without them. I am a paladin by profession. Even though I can perform a few holy spells, setting up a teleportation point by without them, isn''t possible. Unless we get a teleportation disc, it is not possible to complete our mission." "Well, it is a good thing that the kind deacon had provided me with a teleportation disc., so that we could establish another teleportation point," said Shadow Tyrant show him the quest item. "You have a teleportation disc?! But that could be given to only members of the temple. How did you get a hold of it?" asked Holt looking at Shadow like he was an alien with his eyes wide open. It was clear that he began to doubt him. "The deacon trusted me for this as I was the adventurer responsible for stopping the worgens from opening the portal in the cave in the first place," said Shadow trying to provide an excuse for the emissary who began to suspect him. "That is fine. If the case is as you say, then you have a right to get involved in this operation as you are already aware of the danger and proved your allegiance to the cause," said Holt. He seemed to be searching the cabin for something. "What are you looking for?" asked Shadow Tyrant looking at the NPC search around in the cabin. "I need to bandage my hand. If we are to setup a teleportation point, we need to take out the wolves and most importantly Althus. Him being a worgen can control the wolves and we need to be in the best possible condition. He won''t be away long. So, help me with this," he explained as he continued with his search. They immediately found the first aid kit in the cabin and Shadow set the bone back and bandaged the NPC''s arm. Shadow also gave it a health potion so that it could recover its health and heal the wounds. "It is best we take him down inside the cabin unless you want to fight the wolves alongside him. The wolves are the main reason, they manged to defeat and capture me," suggested the NPC as it threw the ropes which tied him down towards Shadow Tyrant. "Tie me up and stay in stealth while we wait for the worgen. We need to be as fast as possible when he realizes I am not tied up," said the NPC as he laid down on the ground where it was tied up before. Shadow quickly put the rope around the NPC''s hands and he also gave him the sword which used before Merlin gave him his second dagger. Once, Shadow was convinced that the NPC looked convincing enough to fool the worgen, he went back to stealth and hid by the door to wait for Althus. In a few minutes, the worgen walked back to the cabin. After opening the door, it began to talk to Holt. "I still offer you an option to save yourself. Help me in stabilizing the portal and I shall allow you to live as a human pet in the great empire of Worgensbord." He took out his knife and was just about to resume his torture when Shadow decided to use cheap shot to stun the worgen. Immediately Holt also got up and began attacking him as soon as Shadow got out of stealth. Though Shadow managed to execute cheap shot to have the worgen, the stun would only last for 4 seconds. So, he also executed his shadow clone skill to increase the DPS on the worgen and also the time he could put the worgen in stunned state using cheap shot from the clone. But the doppelganger would also exist only for 20 seconds. Once the stun duration of 8 seconds expired, the worgen started retaliating against them. Though Shadow managed to reduce the health of the worgen by a third in that time, it wasn''t easy to continue after the stun duration was done. Even if Shadow managed to avoid the worgen''s attacks, the NPC Holt couldn''t evade them and was slowly losing health. As the worgen reached 20% health, he went into an enraged state and started to try and get out of the cabin. Shadow could already hear the wolves howling outside and if the door opened, he would have to handle the wolves along with the worgen. In this situation, he had to force the worgen into focus on him or put him in a confused state. So, he took a packet of spice from his pocket and smashed it on to the worgen''s snout. Althus howled in pain and began to swing his blades at Shadow. With this Shadow managed to completely fix the worgen''s aggro towards him allowing the NPC Hart to take a respite and recover itself. With the worgen''s attacks failing to hit him, they managed to kill the worgen without any loss. "That was a waste of good spice, but your method definitely had its own advantages in tackling worgens," said Holt looking at the dead body of the worgen. "I agree. If we could just disperse spice in an explosion or something, it would get a lot more easier to handle wolves and wargs," said Shadow Tyrant checking the corpse for loot. He got a sword and a worgen flesh from it. The sword had a 4-foot-long curved blade and was clearly one of the swords that the Althus used to fight. [Worgen Scimitar] (BlackIron One-handed sword) Level 5 Equipment Requirement: Strength 15; Attack Power +16; Attack Speed +5; Durability: 25/25 Shadow Tyrant pocketed them into his inventory and asked the NPC to stay while he scouts the situation outside. The wolves have retreated away from the cabin with two of them at the entrance of the cave. He was surprised that two remained behind. He also went a bit far ahead and noticed that the remaining wolves were hiding a distance away from the cave. This didn''t sit well with Balthazar as he couldn''t understand the behavior of the wolves after the death of the worgen. It was as if another character was controlling the wolves. But couldn''t find any other character or monster nearby other than the wolves. "There are a couple of wolves at the entrance of the cave where we need to setup the teleportation point. These can be easily handled by the two of us. But I doubt that some other entity is nearby and waiting to ambush us. I think we should call in for reinforcement," said Balthazar to the NPC. "Let us take care of the wolves and then see. Even if there is someone waiting in ambush, it is obvious that they are weak and hence waiting in ambush. Else, we would have been attacked directly. If any other worgen is controlling the wolves, they were definitely seriously injured," replied the NPC. "To setup the teleportation point all we need to do is put the teleportation disc down and pour mana into it. I wouldn''t be able to move from my position while I am setting it up. You need to cover me, in case anyone attacks. I doubt a weakened worgen would be able to get past you" continued the NPC as it got out of the cabin. Quest updated: Hold back the wargs: Guard Rickard Holt as he sets up the teleportation point. The pair of them easily subdued the two blackrock wolves and Holt began to channel mana into the teleportation disc. A light blue light enveloped both the disc and Holt. A black balll suddenly shot towards them from the cave as a worgen stepped out. Luckily, Balthazar had already felt that him being unable to enter the cave was somewhat odd and was already prepared for an attack from the cave. So, he deflected the ball with the new sword with ease. "Finish him, I can setup the disc on my own. The wolves can''t harm me," said Holt as he smashed a small violet ball on the ground beside him. A yellow holy light shield immediately surrounded the NPC preventing monsters from attacking him. "The minor orb of protection," whispered Balthazar to himself as he realized what the violet ball was. It was one of the most desired tools that can be obtained from the temple which can used to protect oneself from attacks below tier 2 for a minute. As he knew that the Holt would be safe from the wolves'' attacks for a period of one minute easily, he ran towards the worgen that came out of the cave to attack it. [Mathus] (Worgen warlock) Level 5 HP: 1000/3000. The worgen warlock wore burnt up clothes and clearly had a lot of burns on his body. He was definitely injured during the ambush of the worgens on the team from the temple. It was easy to handle even though he couldn''t use the shadow clone skill. But the worgen looked like it was already in a berserk state, blood was leaking out of his wounds and evaporating. A large number of shadow bolts about 50 continued towards Shadow Tyrant and Holt. It was like the worgen warlock had could use multiple instances of the same low-level skill. It was like an AOE skill. It was clear that it was using one of the racial specialties of the worgens, blood-magic. This allowed the worgen to have different magical effects in place of losing its health. Though the shadow bolt was a low-level skill and Balthazar could escape them in general, such a large number was hard for even him to escape. He was quickly hit by a few and after that a dark bind was cast by the warlock holding him down. Dark bind would easily hold a target in place for thirty seconds, but the slow casting speed of warlocks always limited it and this is the reason he realized that the worgen used so many shadow bolts. They were just the diversion while shadow bolt was the main attack. Chapter 55 - Rewards and Trust The dark bind spell would only bind the character for a period of 10 seconds or till he is attacked. It was a spell that was perfect to be used after a distraction, but it could easily be dealt with by using someone or something to deal a small amount of damage to the bound person. With Shadow Tyrant bound at the place due the spell of the warlock, the worgen began to attack Holt. But all its attacks were in vain due to the shield from the orb of protection. "How could you have such a powerful tool and not use it during the ambush," shouted the worgen like a crazy person. He couldn''t believe that Holt who was setting up the teleportation disc had a protective charm that powerful that even using his special ability didn''t break it. "Isn''t it obvious," said Holt. "I didn''t use it because your ambush already killed the Arthur who was setting up the portal. No use in using it if we couldn''t fulfill the mission." With the situation it was facing the worgen was in a bind and could do nothing. Initially if any attack happened Holt was to be used as a hostage and Althus was supposed to be distraction. But with Althus out of the picture it ran out of options. As he couldn''t do anything, it simply began to run away from the cave. The shadow bind would still hold Balthazar for quite some time, and it was the best time for it to escape. As soon as the bind effect wore off, Balthazar ran behind Mathus. Seeing Balthazar behind it, it immediately howled calling for the blackrock wolves. Some of them immediately attacked Shadow Tyrant and he rode away into the hills on another wolf. Though Balthazar could kill a blackrock wolf with two or three hits, the number that the worgen called had him stuck far behind. The wolves managed to halt him for more than 30 seconds and Mathus was already very far away and almost disappeared from their sight. With only 20 or seconds remaining on the light shield, Shadow immediately set to killing the wolves that were around the light shield. But before the minute of the protection expired, a few circles, pentagrams of light and various other symbols creeped out of the teleportation disc and merged shining a bright light creating a teleportation portal to be used for the special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs''. Quest updated: Hold back the wargs: Travel back to the portal and report back to the temple. Holt walked to Shadow as the protection around him expired and started to attack the wolves along with Shadow. Within a few seconds, they easily took down more of the wolves around the teleportation point and cabin while the remaining ran away. "It is sad that we failed to capture the last of those dogs," said Holt as the remaining ran away. "Now that we finished setting it, could you please report back to the temple. I will need to stay at the cabin and observe till more forces are sent by the temple." "I will do it immediately," said Shadow Tyrant and immediately channelled his hearthstone to return to the Blackrock village. He quickly made his way to the temple and reported to the priest that his concerns were right and the team from the temple were ambushed by worgens. "Ah! So, I guessed right. It was unnatural for them to not report for so long. I am glad that I made the right choice in sending you to their rescue." Quest Completed: Hold back the wargs: Successfully managed setup the teleportation point. Performance: Moderate. Faults: Failed to capture or kill the worgen warlock. Experience gained: 1000 Quest Item: Teleportation disc used successfully to fulfill the mission. Temple of the twelve reputation points +25; Temple of the twelve contribution points +50; "In gratitude for your contribution in identifying and thwarting the attempt of a foreign race to silently infiltrate human territory and you being the first one to do so, the temple has decided to reward you in a way to inspire the other immortal adventurers that entered our lands," said the priest pinning a small dull black badge onto Balthazar''s chest. The badge was like it was made of a metallic black substance in the shape of 12 connected towers. It was the symbol of the temple of the twelve. It also had the roman numeral 1 on it. This was completely unexpected as he never got a badge in his previous life even though he had a lot more temple reputation at that time. System: You were rewarded a iron grade membership to temple of the twelve. "World Announcement: Player Shadow Tyrant of the Light faction successful in establishing a teleportation point to the special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs'' at the blackrock hills. For his service, he would be rewarded 1% of the payment from the teleportation charges to the dungeon." When he heard the system announcement, he first felt exhilarated in finding out that he got a constant source of income from the game so early. The usual sources of income from the game were the guild towns, cities, territories or portals guarded by guilds. This was completely different from them as it didn''t need to worry about guild protection or other guilds attacking as it is protected by the temple which being an NPC organization is a taboo for every guild before the gather more information about it. Even after the guilds learn about it, attacking its properties would still be taboo. But immediately after that he realized that he couldn''t set up a guild now as most of the guild and gaming workshops would be hunting him from now on, due to the same. He had a bigger target on his back from now on. "Why the bloody hell did it have to be a world announcement," he thought. "It is as if the bloody system was completely against me. Or does some idiot monitoring the players have some grudge against him. The same crap happened with the special quest." He also began receiving calls from his friends, team and also Sirius Imperials. He also got a message from Blue Dart inviting him to join the guild again. "And so, the hunting begins," thought Balthazar. "You also have the partial administrative privilege to the portal at the cave. I trust that you will make good use of the honor given to you," said the deacon as he patted Shadow on his shoulder. "I hope you would soon manage to get to the White Heart city and find out more about your destiny," he continued as he left back to his work in the temple. With the new information that the deacon provided, Balthazar quickly checked his dashboard and found a new panel for management right below the attributes panel. As he thought about it a window popped up showing his various administrative privileges. It was very similar to guild administrative privileges options he had during his previous life. Still it varied a lot because it wasn''t for a player owned organization. At the top of the screen was the title of the organization followed the emblem of the temple. There was only one name in the list of privileges, and it was the portal for the ''Cave of Wargs''. By default, all players of the light faction were allowed to use it. But on selecting it he could select specific races or other even blacklist races, factions or guilds. He immediately called Merlin to ask him if they had been done with the attempt on the goblin camp at the blackrock hills. "Hi dude, we heard the world announcement about the ''Cave of Wargs'' portal but in the middle of the goblin camp, there is something called Goblin Champion in the cave here." "Goblin champion? I guess that is the boss of the quest." "Highly probable. It has a machine strapped to it, gone berserk and is throwing rocks at us inside the cave. How about we talk later? After we are done with this." "You need help?" asked Balthazar. "You can come here within a minute?" "Of course, not." "Then let us handle it. for now. We will meet you as soon as possible," said Merlin ending the call. "Well, he really doesn''t like disturbances when he is in the middle of a fight," thought Balthazar as he walked back to the village market. He wanted to check if there were any designs or recipes are available to purchase. But as expected there were none because unless the player who found a recipe or design wanted to use it himself, he would sell it to a guild at this stage of the game. Without an auction house or having a good relationship with NPCs having trade professions. Right now, the only NPCs having a trade profession and a good relationship with him were blacksmith Kade and the tailor Lydia. Tailoring isn''t something he concentrated on nor did he have any plans on doing so. Kade was his master so it would be a good idea to consult him on the same. But even at Kade''s shop, he didn''t get what he wanted. The system obviously didn''t want the designs to be accessed that easily. Kade flatly denied him saying that he needed to find his own designs and develop his skills before he could come to him for training. He even pointed at the badge given by him and told him that the reason he gave the badge was also the same. This was quite unexpected as he remembered that designs were available at shops once players managed to raise their favourability, but he never tried this at the village. But this didn''t stop Balthazar as he always has another plan. If he didn''t after having all the knowledge of his previous life, it would be a total waste of the gift that he had been given. With him being stuck and unable to progress at trade professions. The only other options he had to increase his experience was to go to the start along the path to the city or town. There were two conditions for a player to be able to enter a city. One was to be above level 10 and the other was to clear the path to the city as it was filled with monsters. This path was always the same. The quest for this was always provided by the village head once one reached level 5. But this was a very hard one and even after the first upgrade where they increased the number of beginner villages due to an increase in the number of players, there were very rare occurrences of players attempting it at level 5. For this, he had better equip himself with tools like throwing knives or crossbow bolts. So, he asked Kade if he could provide these weapons. Kade thought for a while and replied, "I sure can make such weapons, but iron ore isn''t the best option for these, the weapon need to be of a finer quality and sharper. If you could provide me a few blackrock crystals, I can make a good set of throwing knives." New quest: Forging throwing knives: Gather blackrock crystals for blacksmith kade to help him create a set of throwing knives for you. Minimum requirement: 5 crystals Rewards depend on amount of crystals procured. This was like a quest given to him just to make use of the blackrock crystals that he had acquired. He already had 15 complete blackrock crystals from the goblins and 20 crystal pieces. He quickly exchanged the 15 blackrock crystals. "Huh! You already have blackrock crystals? And not a small amount either," said Kade as he took the crystals from Shadow Tyrant. "Pitch black with a slight violet glow at the centre. These will sure be of use to me. Come with me boy. Let me fulfill me end of the deal." He quickly led Shadow Tyrant into the interior of his shop. As he told before, there was a Basic Blacksmith workshop inside. Once inside, a silver flame burst from his hands and using it, he quickly sculpted a pair of black rock crystals into 6 thin leaf like structures. It was like the fire itself took the form of a tool and cut a crystal into three of those structures. Kade made a set of 6 knives in a second with just the blackrock crystals. He quickly had a piece of iron ore melted and had the molten metal form a thin layer on the crystalline knives. He quickly put these in a pail of water to form a set of six perfectly similar knives. Quest Completed: Forging Throwing knives. Performance: Extraordinary Experience +300; Apprentice Trust value increased by 50 points; Reward: Set of 6 throwing knives forged by Kade. System: Kade''s Trust in you changed to not guarded. Gives access to few designs. "This is very good. I am glad that you are a very resourceful adventurer," said Kade handing him the knives. "These will be fine till you fight monsters above level 10." [Blackrock crystal Throwing knives] (Black Iron Throwing knives) Level 5; Requirement: Strength 15; Attack +15; Causes additional 50% damage to worgen and warg families. Durability 10/10; "Though you have the knives, the common problem with these is that they have to be thrown and quite frequently get lost in a fight. So, I will give you a design for throwing knives. Though they are not of the same quality as the ones I am giving you, they will be decent substitutes in case you lose them," continued Kade giving him a design he pulled out from his pocket. [Throwing knives x 6] (White trash throwing knives) Level 5; Materials required: Refined Iron Ore x 1; Blackrock crystal pieces x 2; Requirement: Strength: 7; Attack +8; Durability: 5/5; "I guess I can confide other designs to you, but I can only exchange them in return for materials like blackrock crystal, gray serpent scales, cougar claws and the like. There rare they are the better the designs you get to choose. I need them to make weapons for my journey back to the white heart city and I have been stuck here long enough," said Kade showing him a bunch designs from pocket. Chapter 56 - Cave of Wargs - 1 The designs of weapons and equipment varied up to level 10 but hardly any of them would be of use to him except a pair of daggers which could be used at level 10. "The blackrock crystal is a premature version of the magic crystals with some impurity causing it to have an adverse effect towards the canine family. You can also access better weapons made by me in exchange for resources or ask me to craft you weapons," said Kade as another list popped up showing various weapons, their attributes and costs. Most of them were higher level weapons and equipment and required resources than money. Of the things he could use, only a level 5 black iron dagger could be bought by using coins. He quickly bought the dagger and decided on a few other items which he could use. [Swift dagger] (Black Iron Dagger) Level 5; Requirement: Strength 15; Agility +2; Attack +18; Special Effect: Swift blade: Improves attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Durability: 20/20; "Thank you, Master Kade," said Shadow as he bowed to the NPC and left the blacksmith shop. The best way to continue in the game is to take the village heads quest to clear up the path to the city. He directly went to the village headman to take the quest. The crowd around the headman''s office subsided as the quests for the hunting monsters in blackrock hills or Arwild forest. He received the quest from the headman as soon as he received a call from Quiet Fire. "Hi, hope you are still in the village. We just reached the temple and submitted the quest. You won''t believe what we manged to raid from the goblin champion and the mine." "Stay by the temple I am coming to meet you," said Balthazar as he ran to the temple. At the temple entrance Merlin met him instead of Quiet Fire. "They are inside finishing up the quest. We got quite a haul from the quest. Few decent pieces of armor were looted from the chests in the lair. But mostly it was resources and mining tools. We got a couple of designs which could be used by you," said Merlin as he initiated a transfer of designs and resources to him. Balthazar immediately accepted them and noticed that most of the materials had been iron ore or blackrock crystal. It looked like being the first to attack the goblins mining operation had it advantages. The designs were for Goblin chest armor and plate greaves. [Goblin chest armor] (Black Iron armor) Level 5 Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 2; Blackrock crystal pieces x 3; Requirements: Endurance: 10; Strength: 8; Defence +16; Vitality +12; Intelligence +2; [Plate greaves] (Black Iron armor) Level 5; Materials required: Refined Iron Ore x 2; Blackrock crystal x2; Requirements: Strength :12; Defence +8; Strength +4; Movement speed -4; Special skills: Kick Daze: Allows you to perform a quick kick to the head which would cause monster to be in a confused state for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes. "They are going to be quite popular and you have also provided me with enough resources to craft them," said Balthazar having a look at all the resources given to him by Merlin. "Yeah, I guess we can mine more in the hills once we go there to get the dungeon. We found a few goblin mining and refining tools. They are a lot useful in getting refined ores from the mines. We actually had spent about 5 minutes mining there as Tang didn''t want to leave without collecting all the resources she could from the mines," said Merlin. "So, shall we go to the dungeon or should I make more equipment for now?" asked Shadow. It was awfully tempting for him to go to the Forging Association to get forging on the new equipment. The designs and equipment offered by Kade were even more tempting. But all of that could wait as the special dungeon would soon be explored by players and being the first to discover chests or missions or first kills have the own advantages and it is time sensitive. "Obviously, the dungeon. The faster we explore the better. I already think that we are a bit late and have been very angry with Tang for wasting the time she spent mining at the goblin camp," replied Merlin. Being a veteran at gaming, he was quite sure of his priorities in game. Balthazar was glad that he chose a competent partner to work with in the game. Suddenly a bright light enveloped Merlin as he got upgraded to level 5. "I hope that the experience from the quest would pull all of you to level 5," asked Shadow expectantly. "Yes, it sure did. I hope they got some other quest. We spent a lot of time at Blackrock hills. There is a high chance that similar quests would also be found in the Arwild forest," said Merlin expressing his opinion. "If Quiet Fire does ask the deacon of the temple, I am sure that she would get another quest." Merlin''s thoughts definitely had virtue. But Balthazar doubted it and even if they did get a new quest, Arwild forest having lower level monsters would definitely not provide much experience. As he was thinking that it wouldn''t be possible to get any more quests from the temple, Quiet Fire came with the rest of the team. "Come on, let us get to the dungeon. We got another temple quest to complete after that," said Quiet Fire as soon as she joined Merlin and Shadow. "You another quest?" asked Shadow in a surprised voice. He couldn''t believe that they got another quest from the temple. "Need to gather snake bile and clearing up the path to the city. Some NPC was poisoned, and they need the bile to create an antidote. The killing of monsters along the path is just an additional request. Not a necessary requirement to complete the quest," answered Quiet Fire. Balthazar never expected that Quiet Fire would get a quest similar to the quest he got from the village head. If that were possible, he would have taken it himself. "Can you share the quest?" he asked. "Yes, but only for a team of 5 members," replied Quiet Fire awkwardly. They had already formed a new team of five members with Merlin. As Merlin occupied Balthazar''s previous place in the team, such situations were bound to come. Balthazar realized it as soon as he asked her that question. "Cool! Let us check out the dungeon first. I believe it is a seven-person team dungeon. Anybody has a suggestion for another member, or shall we try with us six?" asked Balthazar changing the topic so as the avoid an awkward conversation. "How do you know that it is 7-man dungeon? I asked quite a few guilds already and they have tried only 5 man and no info was seen in the official website or forums yet," asked Merlin. "I got the administrative privileges for the dungeon. I can see it on the associated menu," replied Balthazar. "You got administrative privileges too. Damn! Why did I go to the Arwild forest instead of the blackrock hills? I lost on a great deal. Can you change the charge to teleport to the dungeon?" asked Merlin. "That would allow you to have great control over your source of income." "Yes, it does, and I have no intentions to change it for now. But I can have us go there without any charge as you are in my team," answered Shadow Tyrant. "Can you allow a guild to use it for free?" continued Merlin with his questioning. "Dude, I just have a few privileges. I don''t own it. It is not like I own the dungeon. It is just free because I am leading the team. Now, do we have anyone else we can recruit, or shall we continue with just the six of us?" "Let us go. It would be a lot easier with the six of us. I doubt we would be able to find anyone trustworthy and capable enough to join us," said Merlin as he began walking towards the teleportation point. It seemed that most of the players have already reached level 4 and at this stage corrupted forest hell mode was the only one which gave decent experience but can only be used once per day. So, they began to move towards blackrock hill to hunt blackrock wolves for experience. Shadow and his team quickly teleported to the dungeon ''Cave of Wargs''. He realized that quite a decent number of players from other villages had already reached level 5 and were going through the dungeon. He realized that most of the players were guild members and he had to be quick if he intended to gain any good equipment or resources from the dungeon. "I want to try the elite mode directly. You guys have any objections?" he asked turning around to look at Merlin and the girls. "I am all for it. I really like to team up with someone who enjoys a bit of risk," said Merlin gesturing with a thumbs up. "Won''t our trials at elite dungeon be limited than the ordinary one? I think it is best if we try the ordinary one first," chimed in little white feet. "I agree with her. It is too reckless to try the elite mode directly," added Blinding White to little white feet''s argument. "I think I can increase our attempts per day for the dungeon. Now are you girls willing to try?" asked back Balthazar. Though the game didn''t permit him to do so he wanted to try out the elite dungeon. If they fail, they can still attempt the ordinary mode a few times and then try the elite another time. They get two chances at the elite dungeon per day. It wouldn''t be too late if they attempted it afterwards, but he didn''t want to miss the chance of first kill or the chests he would get hold of in the elite instance of the dungeon. "It is not that bad. We can try out the elite mode," said Quiet Fire looking at Blinding and little white in an attempt to persuade them. "It isn''t that hard, and we won''t lose our chances at elite dungeons either." With Quiet Fire and Tang voting for attempting the elite instance of the dungeon, the elite instance became the obvious choice. He immediately went to the cabin to request the NPC to open up the cave for them. The NPC at the dungeons would be protecting the area and had all controls to open temporary portal to allow players to enter them. It was an NPC he recognized and in turn was recognized. It was Rickard Holt at the cabin. "Ah! It is you adventurer. I am glad to meet you though it is expected as I am designated to guard the cave and you obviously wouldn''t stay away from this quest," said Holt. "I am glad to see a friendly face too. I came to go to the elite instance. Now, I know where to find you in case I want to meet," replied Balthazar. "Not hoping to stay here that long," said Rickard Holt as he opened up the elite dungeon. "Need any torches for the cave?" asked Holt holding up a few torches. Balthazar immediately checked the price and found that Holt was selling them to him at a reasonable price. He quickly brought a few and the team jumped into the portal. They were immediately teleported into the cave. The entrance was exactly the same the cave entrance he remembered. A violet light fell on to the walls from the interior of the caves, causing it to have an eerie look and it lowered the visibility range of the players by a lot. He gave Merlin the torches he brought as he entered the cave. "It was definitely a good idea to buy torches for this dungeon. I guess it pays to have a few NPC acquaintances. By the way, I found a good sword, level 5. Hope one of you can use it," said Shadow Tyrant holding up the scimitar he got off the worgen. "It has got to be better than using the one I have now," said Tang immediately taking the scimitar and equipping it. "I will go ahead and scout the cave first. You follow behind slowly," said Shadow Tyrant as he walked into the cave in stealth. He quickly moved forward into the tunnel. It was the same as before but there were a few wolves sleeping on the ground for every five to ten metres, he took into the tunnel. [Hungry wolves] (Common monsters) Level 4; HP: 600 He immediately informed his team about the wolves. There were also a few small caverns branching out from the tunnel. He walked in to the first one he found that there was a large warg sleeping in the cavern. Balthazar had seen Wargs before in his previous life. They were quite popular in territories owned by worgen and were commonly used as mounts by worgens and even known as pets or mounts in other empires too for they were known to be very vicious and powerful. But this was much smaller compared to the ones he remembered. [Blackrock Warg] (Elite monsters - Wargs affected by the blackrock crystals losing their vitality and strength.) Level 5: HP: 2500 "Well the description of the monsters dissolves my doubts about these wolves. It seems just like good luck that the portal opened up in the blackrock hills which suppresses the canine family. He realized that the Cave of Wargs might be a lot more dangerous as the number of wolves in the tunnel would be like a warning system to the wargs and it is going to be a lot difficult to fight them. But then he realized that the solution to this would be having multiple assassins in the team. Well that is one option which he could think of immediately as the assassins learn cheap shot at level 5 which could be used to effectively solve the problem of attacking wolves without disturbing the other and stopping the chain of sleeping wolves. There might be other options for doing the same, but he wasn''t sure about the skills of other classes. They could still attack one at a time with a single assassin, but that would be a very slow process. He immediately contacted Merlin to check if any other classes had the similar skills as they would need to chain their stuns. But only other skill with similar effects was terror wave which Merlin had. But it was an AOE skill which might have effect on other sleeping wolves. He had the others wait at a safe distance while he went and used cheap shot on the wolves. As soon as he used cheap shot, all those that had long distance attacks rained their spell on the wolf. Though he couldn''t take out the wolf alone, with the help of other, he managed to kill the wolf within the stun duration of 4 seconds which the cheap shot provided. Chapter 57 - Cave of Wargs - 2 Though the method Balthazar devised in the short amount of time that he had was a safe one it was obviously one which had a very slow pace. Only by being in stealth could a player approach these monsters of the canine family even if they are sleeping. Else they risk being detected. Apart from that, every member of the team needed to be very careful and had to maintain quite a distance from the wolves as they waited for Shadow to initiate the attack. This was a very inefficient way to handle a dungeon. But for the others it was still an acceptable option as they got an experience of 50 total for each wolf and also it provided them with wolf meat and a few white trash equipment from them. As they moved along the tunnel, they found a few iron ore veins on the way which Tang immediately set to mining them. As they reached the first cavern in which Balthazar saw the blackrock warg, he immediately cleared the nearby wolves with his team and then walked into the cavern. The cavern was about 300 sq feet large and in an oval shape. There was nothing in the cavern except for the warg sleeping at its center. The warg woke up when the team put their first step into the cavern. Only after it stood up did the team realize the size of the monster they were dealing with. It stood more than 5 feet tall and had limbs about 10 centimeters thick. It was definitely one of the biggest creatures the team had seen. Only the goblin champion was close to it. Clearly, the warg had recognized them as soon as they stepped in the cavern and was about to howl. Luckily, Shadow was already in stealth beside the warg and managed to use cheap shot on it before it dd howl. "Come in and attack directly," said Shadow calling Tang and Blinding to join him. Tang and Blinding both had shields and could be effective in holding it down and even stunning it with their shield attacks. Though they managed to reduce the health of the Warg by 1000 points in the four seconds of the stun duration, it wasn''t easy to hold the Warg after the stun expired in the small place that they were. The wargs had two prominent attacks they were famous for. One was swiping its large claws at the player. This had a strong knockback effect and required a shield bearing tank to counter it. It could also inflict a bleed effect on the player The other was charging toward the players to bite. The best way to respond to this is to evade the attack by jumping away. Even when blocked by a shield the warg would simply jump on the player pinning him on the ground and continue its attempt to bite him till someone attacks it. If in case the warg manages to bite a player because he failed to evade or block, it would try to shake the player until it is hit on its head. As long as it keeps shaking the player, he would lose health and even after that the player would be inflicted with the bleed effect. It was always best to fight the wargs in a relatively wide space. Especially when there are more than one of them. The warg was an extremely strong quick creature and its large size coupled with the small place they were in, made it quite hard to even escape the warg''s attacks. There are very few tactics to handling a warg in an enclosed space, but Balthazar immediately thought of one that could be used by the team. The two tanks are very important for this, along with someone quick that could save the tanks from being mauled by the warg. Both the tanks take on the swipe attacks from opposite sides of the warg. Whenever it charges and pins down a tank or bites any player, an assassin and swordsman need to attack the warg to let the player escape. Tang could taunt the warg in case it tries to attack another member allowing them to reduce unwanted scenarios. Shadow quickly commanded both Tang and Blinding according to his tactics in order to hold down the warg in the cavern and carefully managed to kill the warg without much loss of health and MP By the time they killed, their first warg in the cavern it had been 15 minutes. The dungeon was named ''Cave of Wargs'' and it was bound to have a lot more wargs in it. At the pace, they were going it is going to take a lot of time to reach the end. But their harvest wasn''t bad either. All the monster provided at least wolf/warg meat which could be used for cooking. The warg also provided a pair of level 5 blackiron plate armor gauntlets which could be used be paladin or guardian. But the best harvest was the iron ore veins and Blackrock crystal veins they found in the cavern. After they killed the warg, Merlin was the first to notice the ore veins. He immediately lit a torch to check if there were more as Tang pulled out a handheld drill, she got at the goblin camp from her inventory and began to mine them. Though their method was slow they continued in this way and killed six more wargs sleeping in small caverns branching from the central tunnel of the dungeon till they reached the end of the tunnel. They found treasure chests being protected by the last four wargs. It took about 90 minutes for them to do this. "We need to find a better way than this to make our way through the tunnel. It is taking too long in this manner," said Quiet Fire looking at Merlin. Shadow''s way is a viable option, but it has its drawback. She hoped that Merlin could have a better idea than the one they were using. "What are you looking at me for? With the team composition that we have it is hard to find another tactic to go through the tunnel. We need another thief or some way to silence the wolves to speed up our movement. But two tanks are necessary to handle the wargs," said Merlin. Seeing the Merlin also supported Shadow, Quiet Fire couldn''t do anything. "I don''t want to go through the dungeon another time like this. We need to at the very least find another member to go with us," said Quiet Fire. "I feel the same," said Blinding White and Tang in unison. They had been extremely busy with tanking the warg and this was harder than tanking most monsters as the warg always pushed them down pinning them between the floor and itself. "Ya, we will try to get a hold of another member before we repeat the dungeon," said Merlin. He was also a bit tired of the monotonous manner of clearing the dungeon. "But let us first try to finish the dungeon, shall we?" Shadow already went into stealth and had a look at the large enclosure at the end of the tunnel where he had the fight with Arsenus. The altar that was used by Arsenus was being used by another worgen summoner to summon Wargs. There were already two Wargs in there walking around the enclosure and another warg which wore armor near the worgen. The armored warg was even larger than the wargs they fought all this time. [Varthus] (Worgen Summoner) Level 6; HP: 2500; [Armored Blackrock Warg] (Special elite) Level 6; HP: 3000; He quickly came back to the team and reported that there were more wargs in the enclosure. But even though there are two wargs and an armored warg, it wouldn''t be very hard because they have enough space in there for the players to maintain a decent distance from the wargs which allowed the players to evade with better chances. It was decided that Tang, Little White Feet and Merlin would attack one Warg while Blinding White and Quiet Fire would attack another, while Shadow would help both of the smaller groups. They didn''t think it was advisable for him to attack the worgen while the armored warg was guarding him. As they entered the two wargs actively ran towards them while the armored warg stayed still by the worgen as expected by them. They quickly separated in the way planned before and Shadow sneaked behind the warg with Blinding and Quiet Fire to attack with cheap shot. After that he ran to the other warg and immediately put it in stun in the same way. Though the armored warg was currently just standing by the worgen guarding him for now. They doubted that it would continue to do so once one of the wargs died. So, they planned to have reduce the health of the two wargs by equal amount so that they would be able to kill them both in quick succession. Even if the armored warg actively attacks them after one of the warg died, they would be able to kill the other immediately and they all can concentrate on the armored warg. With this idea the continued to slowly deplete the health of the wargs. Within 5 minutes they managed to take down one of the wargs. But to their surprise, the armored warg wouldn''t budge from its place. Shadow quickly looted the warg and started attacking the other warg when Merlin interrupted him pointing towards the worgen. As he turned around, he saw another warg coming out of the portal by the worgen summoner. The worgen was simply summoning another wart to replace the one they killed and the armored warg was still at the same place. The same thing happened when they killed the second warg. Another warg was just summoned to take its place. "If this is going to happen repeatedly, we have no chance of finishing this dungeon. We would need another plan," said Quiet Fire as she saw another warg replacing the second warg. "Let us continue to kill the wargs, a few more times. It might give us a different result and in case you noticed the MP bar, it''s reducing by one eighth for each warg being summoned. I doubt it would continue to summon more wargs after that," said Merlin pointing at the summoner. "But if we slow down our DPS, it would recover mana." Balthazar was surprised that Merlin noticed and quickly decided that it is best to continue with killing the wargs, even when the rest were getting dejected by the reappearance of the wargs that they killed. He realized that Merlin is a quite experienced in playing the games almost as much as him, maybe even better. After Merlin pointed out that it might that the limit to the number of wargs they would need to fight before they fight the armored one, they decided to continue with the same tactic the used to kill the first two wargs. They quickly split up and continued with their plan of attack. The wargs summoned also gave them more chances to practice evading and collaborating in smaller groups of two or three members. Both Merlin and Shadow Tyrant considered this a very good opportunity as not many chances come to train at the early stages of the game. By the time the managed to slay the ninth warg, the worgen decided to stop summoning wargs and mounted the armored warg. The armored warg gave a long and deep howl before it ran towards the team who were frantically attacking the last remaining blackrock warg. "Tang and Shadow go and see if you can distract it," said Merlin taking lead. He had already realized that though Shadow has a few good ideas and is adept at games, he is avoiding leading the team. He decided to be lead them anyways and did it since the goblin camp clearance quest. So, he started to actively do it. Tang ran away from the rest of the team and used the taunt skill perfectly managing to shift the armored warg''s aggro. The armored warg charged towards her. With all the practice she had with the other wargs she deftly evaded the charge. But she forgot that there was a worgen controlling it. Even though she jumped away at the right time, the worgen made the warg slow down for a second to make it turn and follow Tang. It continued to charge after the turn, jumped on Tang and managed to pin down Tang beneath her own shield. Seeing Tang pinned beneath Shadow immediately ran to the armored warg and tried to hit it on the head to get it off Tang. But the worgen on the back of it interfered stopping his attack with a whip blast. The whip blast is a skill of the summoners sounds quite similar to dark whip but has an entirely different purpose. The whip blast is a rare skill which can be learnt by the summoner and elementalist occupations. It is used best in close combat. These occupations are mainly long range and this skill allows them to protet themselves at close range. The whip blast explodes when it comes in contact with the opponent and has a strong knock-back and blinding effects due to the blast along with damage. The whip blast cast by Varthus knocked Shadow back far and blinded. The armored warg continued in its attempt to bite Tang who was struggling to duck beneath her shield to evade the wargs teeth. On the other side, the remaining members to the team managed to take down the last warg and started to run towards them to attack the worgen and the armored warg. By the time they came into the range of the armored warg, it had already bit Tang and was trashing her around. Merlin quickly cast Terror wave to confuse the warg and Quiet Fire sent a Fire bolt on to the warg''s face when it was confused causing it to remove its hold on Tang. Little White feet started healing Tang while Blinding started to tank. But though they tried the best to attack the warg was very fast and with the worgen directing its attacks it wasn''t easy to evade it. Even the attacks weren''t much effective due to the high defence of the armored warg, on top of which the summoner frequently used whip blast to attack and light shield to block. They were continuously losing health and if this continues, they were soon going to get killed one after the other. These kinds of scenarios usually lead to multiple player deaths and without a proper tactic even a team wipe. At this stage when everyone is trying to get the first clear award, it''s best if they manage to finish the last monster in this attempt without any delay. Chapter 58 - Cave of Wargs - 3 "If we are to have any chance at it we need to separate the worgen from its mount," said Merlin. "Else, we don''t have much of a chance to finish this dungeon. This is the end of the dungeon, right?" he asked Shadow hoping that he would know because of the special quest. "It should be the end at the altar," replied Shadow pointing to the alter at the center of the enclosure. "This is where I finished the quest and is the end of this tunnel. So, according to the story line, it should be the end here. Hopefully, these are the last monsters we need to fight here." "Nevertheless, we best try to defeat them in this chance and for that we need to separate them. Any ideas on how to do that? It is hard to get near the warg and even if we do we aren''t able to pull down the worgen from its back. The armored warg is taller than some of the players." explained Merlin as he continued to attack. But most of the attacks failed. The worgen sitting on the armored warg was too skill in controlling it and managed to evade most of the attacks. "I doubt we can do it without separating them. They even have separate HP and MP bars. I can pull them out but the worgen has whip blast and magic shield. Hold on to the terror wave skill. We will attack as soon as the magic shield expires," said Balthazar as he formulated a plan. The magic shield which had a short duration of 2 seconds and a short cool down of 150 seconds. It is another rare skill like whip blast meant to be used in an emergency to defend oneself "Quiet Fire and Little White Feet use your long-range attacks on him to make it use the shield," commanded Shadow. "Tang get close to the warg and use taunt when the shield expires. Don''t evade it and block it instead. I need to get on to you and stay in position for a few seconds for me to pull the worgen down. No one else attacks when it jumps on Tang." "I guess you understood your part," continued Shadow looking at Merlin. Merlin quickly nodded and followed Shadow. "Once I have the worgen away from the warg, I want you, Tang and Little White Feet to handle the armored warg. Just hold it at a distance and dont get hurt. We will join you once we take care of the worgen," explained Shadow to Merlin. Soon the long-range co-ordinated attacks from Quiet Fire, LIttle White Feet, Blinding White and Merlin forced the worgen to use the shield as it couldn''t evade. This was immediately followed by Tang striking the Warg and using taunt skill. As the armored warg jumped on Tang and pinned her down, Merlin used Terror wave putting both the worgen and the armored warg. The team managed to successfully give Shadow a decent chance. The confused state due to terror wave would last only for two seconds and he needed to make them count. He immediately used his shadow clone skill and used the clone to use as step to jump on to the confused armored warg''s back. He quickly cast cheap shot on the worgen and pulled it down along with him. "Drink mana and health potions if required, this is a critical moment and we can''t fail," shouted Shadow as he began to drag the worgen away from the armored warg. (This trick couldn''t be done by guardians or paladins as they don''t have the required agility for it. Mages don''t have the required strength. In actuality, even assassins wouldn''t have the required amount of strength attribute. The best option for such attempts would be a martial artist.) As soon as the four seconds of cheap shot was over, he had the clone do a cheap shot and continued to run. In the meantime, the warg got out of its confused state, but tang managed to attack and divert its aggro as Blinding White and Quiet Fire joined Shadow in attacking the worgen. Within the eight seconds of stun provided by the cheap shots, their quick attacks managed to reduce the worgens health by a decent amount. He only had 1200 HP by the end of the stun duration. As soon as the stun wore off, the worgen began to run and started summoning. A small goblin like creature with wings appeared. "It is summoning new creatures," warned Blinding White as she swung her sword at the summon. [Minor Imp] (common monster) Level 3; HP: 400; A pair of fire bolts from Quiet Fire immediately killed the flying summon while Blinding and Shadow flanked it from opposite sides. Blinding was careful to make sure she stood between the worgen and armored warg and with her shield, she always pushed the worgen in a direction away from the warg. "Looks like you are better at tanking monsters than I expected. Especially at keeping them apart," praised Shadow observing her calculated movements. He understood how hard it is to keep track of quick beast like warg while handling another monster like worgen. "I should be able to do this after the goblin camp. Merlin made us practice a lot of things with the goblin riders," explained Blinding in a shy voice. "Though he is always yelling he is quite adept at teaching these things," giggled Blinding. "Oh please! He could do with a lot less yelling. He hates teaching that is why he yells so much. He is just a prick. You will soon realize," said Quiet Fire as she too continued with her attacks. Between Blinding White blocking its path, Shadow and Quiet Fire continuously attacking him, the worgen hardly got a chance to summon imps to even use as a shield. When it used the whip blast to try to escape, Shadow had his clone tank it, head on. It was already nearing 20 seconds and it is best he uses it for the best advantage before it expires. The few imps, the worgen managed to summon were easily shot down by the Fire balls from Quiet Fire. The summoner already had a weak defence. Its only defending point was the armored warg that was quick on its feet allowing the worgen to evade attacks. Without the warg, it could hardly survive allowing the team to kill it even before the 20 seconds of Shadow clone expired. System: Congratulations for obtaining the first kill of Varthus, the worgen summoner. Kindly receive the first kill rewards from the dungeon guard, Rickard Holt. "We are going to get first kill rewards individually apart from the looting the worgen," asked Blinding White as she saw that the worgen''s body didn''t disappear. It wasn''t only her, the rest of the team were thinking the same. If there was such a reward, then each would individually get another item. "Damn! We should have brought someone else to be the 7th man. Now help us kill the beast!" shouted Merlin. His shout brought back the team''s attention to the task at hand and they immediately rushed towards the armored warg as Shadow began to loot Varthus. He got a worgen meat, a pair of gloves and a sceptre which he put into his inventory and ran towards the armored warg. Without the worgen to direct the warg, it became quite easy to evade and attack the armored warg. Though it had high defence, it wasn''t very hard to reduce health as the armor didn''t protect it much against magic attacks. But the main trouble came after the armored warg got into critical health. Once, it reached 200 HP health, it started to run towards the weaker members of the class and started to actively avoid Blinding White and Tang. It first charged towards Quiet Fire and almost killed her before Blinding came to her rescue. Then it continued to go for Merlin. "Every one of the cloth-armor classes always stay behind Blinding or Tang," said Merlin recognizing that the armored warg had changed its tactics. He also quickly ran behind Tang to save himself. "Both the tanks don''t evade and actively block the warg, if they run after anyone else." With the tanks blocking the armored warg, they managed to control it and soon managed to kill it too. But even after they killed the armored warg, they heard no world announcement. Even if some other team managed to finish the dungeon, in the time they took to kill the warg, they should have at least heard the system announcement for completion of dungeon. "There is still something left to do in this dungeon?" asked Blinding White in a weak voice. "I am not really up to killing any more wargs." They were already very tired from killing all the wargs and the worgen and had also run out of potions and their MP has also gone down. She hoped that they wouldn''t to fight any more wargs. If there were monsters, they might not be able to fight and kill them with the MP they had remaining. Shadow was also confused by the lack of notification. At such dungeons which had guards, the main objective of the dungeon was usually mentioned by guard. But he already forgot to ask Rickard Holt. This was also a special dungeon which didn''t exist in his previous life and he had no idea but to guess. "Maybe we need to break the altar," suggested Shadow pointing at the altar in the center. But he wasn''t able to have any effect on it during his special quest and he doubted their attacks would break it now. Quiet Fire and other immediately started firing attacks on the altar but they had no effect as he expected. When Tang and Blinding White used physical attack with their swords on the altar the felt like they struck some kind of thick unbreakable stone. Their weapons vibrated like a tuning fork. There was no HP bar on it either. "I don''t think that attacking that altar is the way to go," said Merlin as they failed to damage the altar. Though the red altar was didn''t get even the slightest scratch from their attacks, it glowed in a red light as the magical attacks hit it. "Why don''t some of us go check the cave for clues while the rest check the altar," suggested Merlin. "I will check the altar with Shadow, also I saw a few veins in the cave during the fight. Do you best to find all the ones available." Both Shadow and Merlin continued to examine the altar and also the portal above it, but they couldn''t find anything even after 10 minutes. In the meantime, the rest also couldn''t find any clues from the remainder of the cave. Shadow couldn''t do anything and started to look at other thing apart from the altar when he noticed that the warg hadn''t been looted yet. "Hey, did any one loot the warg?" he asked as he moved towards it. On looting the warg, he got a slab of warg meat, a wolf shaped headgear and a quest item. His focus directly went to the quest item which was vial of warg blood. [Warg blood] (Quest Item): Use it to activate the altar of blood and close the portal. Seeing the description of the quest item, Shadow quickly moved toward the portal and poured the warg blood from the vial at the centre of the altar. The altar began to absorb the blood and started thrumming while it emitted a dark red light. The portal on the altar also began to vibrate and hum. Looking at the portal vibrate, Balthazar thought he did the wrong thing. He couldn''t see any signs on the altar that suggested they were interactive. He also tried to place his hands on the altar, but a mysterious energy held him back. Not only him, even the team began to feel uneasy from the red light and the humming which were increasing in intensity by the second. Suddenly Rickard Holt ran into the cave and jumped on the altar. He quickly cut his hand and dripped the blood on the altar which allowed him to interact with the signs. The red glow covered him and a second later the sound and the light both stopped as the portal also closed completely. Blackrock Village Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 Blackrock village reputation points. White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart City reputation points. Human Territory System Announcement: Congratulations to Quiet Fire, Tang and Spicy, Little White Feet, Blinding White, Merlin Grimlock and Shadow Tyrant for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Cave of Wargs. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 Human reputation points. "Sorry! I failed to inform you of how to control the altar to close the portal. Luckily, I managed to come in the right so that we could avoid a disaster," said Rickard smiling at Shadow. It was then that he had a thought of what might have happened. In the game, the NPCs have been created to have different types of personalities. One of the rumored thing in his past life was the NPCs that were saved by the players tend to have a life debt. The system forces them to repay this favour by some way or other. Some of them sincerely offer to guard the players, some would provide a method to contact or summon them in case of trouble to clear up this debt. But there were some tricky ones among these NPCs which would withhold information so that the player falls into danger and then save the player to clear up their debt. "Oh god! I never expected this rumor to be true," thought Shadow. "And this fellow seemed to be so righteous and even belonged to the temple. Can''t really trust even the NPCs in this world." "Well, thank you for your help. I am glad that you were close by, else I don''t know what would have happened to me," said Shadow to Holt. After learning Holt''s personality, he didn''t want anything to do with him much longer. "Ah! It is nothing. I owed you one for saving me. Consider this as the debt repaid?" "Sure." With that small issue of the debt being cleared, Holt went back to his post outside. Shadow looked at the other and explained that loot from the armored warg had a quest item which allowed him to complete the dungeon. "Though the dungeon didn''t give much equipment compared to the Corrupted forest. We did get a lot of resources from this dungeon," said Quiet Fire as she checked the resources the team obtained from the dungeon. "Yes, I am the only cook here. Give me all the meat we got from the dungeon. I will handle them all," said Merlin. "The blackrock crystals and ores to the blacksmith," he continued pointing to Shadow. "You know we can also become blacksmith or cooks," piped in Quiet Fire who obviously wouldn''t let her cousin get materials for free. So, started suggesting that they could also use the materials that they collected. "OK. I got your point. We will buy them but at a discount," said Merlin realizing that his cousin wasn''t going to allow him to take the materials easily. "Then, we would be expecting the finished products at a discount," replied Quiet Fire and Tang in unison. "OK," agreed Merlin a bit reluctantly. "So, what about the previous weapons and equipment I provided you," asked Shadow joining in the conversation. He also wanted the ores from the rest of the team, but he already provided them for free. The girls were a bit ashamed and immediately traded their ores to Shadow. "You can consider this compensation," said Quiet Fire. "Why don''t we just play for now and later we could discuss our earnings once we setup a proper guild or mercenary group? It will be either me or Quiet Fire who will lead and decide on compensation and stuff. We can draw a proper guild treasury and points at that time," suggested Shadow bringing their discussion to a halt. "Merlin not competing with you two?" asked Blinding White confused. As much as she is concerned Merlin was more talented than Quiet Fire and maybe even Shadow. She didn''t understand why Shadow didn''t mention him. "You want to be managing the guild?" asked Shadow looking at Merlin. "Of course, not. Don''t involve me in that crap," replied Merlin. He never had any interest in management and that was clear enough to both Shadow and Quiet Fire. "OK, now that this is settled. Let us exchange resources and get to the exit. We also need to take the first kill rewards from Holt," said Shadow throwing the spectre he looted from Varthus to Merlin. Chapter 59 - Clearing a path [Spiral Sceptre] (Black Iron Sceptre) Level 5; Requirement: Intelligence: 12; Strength +5; Intelligence +8; Special Effect: Light shield: Creates a small shield of light around the player for 2 seconds which can absorb up to 150 damage; Cooldown: 300 seconds; Durability: 20/20; "This is the worgen''s sceptre?" asked Merlin as he examined the sceptre he received from Shadow. "I got no use for this. It is not that great, and the special skill is a defensive one." "Cool. I thought so. But I am sure Quiet Fire or Little White Feet could use it or you could at least sell it. I expect you can get more money than me with all your contacts," said Shadow. "You got a point there. There is the first kill reward too. We can get a decent buck with these already. Moreover, a few guys have already asked to purchase the guide for the dungeon. But, the problem is silencing skills are hard to find and even though some players used stealth and managed to get by the wolves, they are being detected by the wargs. Do you know what could be done for that?" asked Merlin. As expected of a professional even as they were completing the dungeon, Merlin already was in contact with few of his peers and was trying to complete a proper dungeon guide. He also realized that Shadow wouldn''t have any objections as Shadow earned 1% of the transfer fee and would like more players to go to the dungeon. "I have enhanced stealth. I doubt others would be able to do the same. Moreover, it should be easy to manage the warg with a pair of tanks as long as it is held in the smaller caverns." "Haha, easy for you to say. You can easily get by undetected and stun it, allowing us to join you inside. Most of the guys are being pounced on at the exit of the cavern and then, if they fail to stun and pull it inside it jumps out into the tunnel and gathers the wolves. After that it''s a team wipe." "Ask them to learn the cheap shot skill from the Assassin trainer near the village head. It is easy to control the warg using the skill. And everyone can retreat into the cavern once the warg is stunned." "Learn from Assassin Trainer? Dude, he is asking precious resources like 10 refined iron ores for the skill. It is not easy and a viable solution," replied Merlin. "I thought that the trainer would just take a silver in return for cheap shot skill. There are a lot of differences between the game now and after two years. I probably began the game when they reduced the difficulty at the initial stages. Maybe, I won''t be as successful as I expected in further quest or dungeons," thought Balthazar. The gamed differed from the one he remembered by a prominent amount that he needed to be worried. Even a reincarnation wouldn''t allow him to grasp everything that easily. It looked like he need to work and spend a decent amount of time on it. "Yes, though the dungeon is a bit monotonous and time consuming, we did have a decent harvest and fair amount of experience from it. We can repeat it," continued Merlin hoping to level up to the sixth level in the next run. It was true that dungeons always provided a chance for higher experience points and resources than farming in the wild. "We need another member to speed it up. It is too tire some in the way, we had gone through the dungeon. Also, we never found out the use for the torches provided by the NPC," replied Balthazar. "Torches? Yes, why didn''t I think of it before!?" exclaimed Merlin. He immediately began to chat with someone while the rest of them calmly made their way to the exit. They came out and even contacted Holt for their first kill rewards. As Holt gestured for a helper to bring the rewards out, Merlin began to yell. "Yes! I got it. It was foolish of us to miss it," shouted Merlin when got a reply from one of his peers he was chatting with. "The torches are the key. The wolves are afraid of the fire. Waving them keeps the wolves at bay. We now have a way to speed through the tunnel." "Really! That''s good news," said Little White Feet clapping her hands in glee. Being a priest, she had to stay behind everyone, couldn''t attack much and always had to run away even from the wolves. Wargs were even more of a nightmare for her. "Are the Wargs afraid too?" she asked hopefully. "Wait, a second," said Merlin as he continued to chat. "Nope! The warg just chewed the torch and spat it out." "How about we check our rewards before, first," interrupted Shadow shoving the boxes that were provided to him by Holt into their hands. As they opened the box, the box disappeared and the item in it remained hovering above their hands for them to receive. Most of them received equipment except for Quiet Fire and Tang. They both got a design and recipe. Tang got a recipe for wolf meat patty and Quiet Fire got a design for a staff. They both had no use of them as they didn''t have the respective trade professions. Even the others didn''t get anything corresponding to their occupations or trades. They immediately set to exchanging the rewards to the ones that could use them. Blinding got to upgrade her sword to a level 5 one and Little white feet and Quiet Fire also had small upgrade in their equipment. They decided to sell the old ones and gave them to Merlin directly. They were still at the dungeon and many players from other town were teleporting there to play the dungeon. The area was also protected by the temple and the players couldn''t kill and steal here. So, it was a good chance to sell any equipment that they had. Merlin already called for a few players he knew and began transactions. But there were still a couple of equipment that he couldn''t sell. One was the gauntlets that Balthazar looted from the worgen summoner and the other was Merlin''s first kill reward. It was a pair of tonfas, a marital artists weapon. Both the gauntlets and tonfas didn''t appeal much to other players as the occupations were the least chosen ones in the entire game. Summoner was a class that confused many. It was highly dependent on summoned creatures and had little offensive or defensive ability. Between the druid and warlock classes which could also summon similar creatures to it and had other abilities, summoner was considered a useless class. Only once the higher-level skills and spell were released, the player realized its importance and that a summoner can be an extremely strong asset if used wisely. Martial Artist was even rare than the summoner. It had very little range and was very vulnerable. Most of its skills were hand-to-hand combat oriented. Though they used a few weapons like tonfas and poles, the skill set at the initial stages was concentrated around hand-to-hand combat. Thus, they were considered a weak class. The few players who had an interest in fighting in real world and chose that class were considered reckless and foolish by most. But as the game progressed, the players realized that the choke and other skills are very useful for controlling monsters and a lot more useful in PVP competitions. They could stun and even ambush and kill player quicker than an assassin in some situations. But none of the players would realize this at this stage of the game. The only useful skill of the martial artist was choke that could control monsters. The summoners didn''t even have this skill at present. After a small while, Merlin returned with a wide smile plastered on his face. "Haha, I got a very good deal on some of the weapons, but most are trading with credits. Only the tonfas and the summoner gloves didn''t sell," said Merlin showing transaction which totalled over 20000 credits. That was a decent haul for a game on its first day. "I can also sell the knife throw skill, if you are in for trading with credits. Skills would sell for a lot more than the equipment. Of course, I am going to take a 5 percent commission," he continued looking at Shadow hopefully. "No," replied Shadow flatly. He had no use for credits. What he needed were game coins to further progress in the game. He had no interest in short term gains and was willing to wait for the auction house to open when a majority of player reached level 5. "What do you want so many coins for?" asked Merlin. "You already have a decent source from dungeon entrance rights. We need some real-life money, credits if you have an interest in setting up a workshop and I can get you more double the value of coins if you are willing to sell it for credits." Hearing Merlin talk about the coins he would receive from the ''Cave of Wargs'' made him realize something which he had overlooked. He quickly checked his administrative privileges panel and realized that he already earned about 500 bronze coins in the past two hours. Thousands of players already reached level 5 and the first thing most of them would do was to attempt this special dungeon. With the dungeon providing him a steady supply of coins, it might be a better investment to invest a few credits into a workshop/adventurer group led by him. It is best if he doesn''t put all his eggs in the same basket. "Well, you do have a point there. Show me how well you could do," said Balthazar giving Merlin the Knife throw skill book. "You won''t be disappointed," said Merlin. His eyes were almost sparkling. He could get a good value for the skill book which might exceed more than a lakh credits at this time. He quickly contacted every one he knew and told that he had a rare skill book for sale and was waiting at the dungeon. "Also check if you could get another member. I would prefer a martial artist, if you manage to find any?" asked Shadow. "A martial artist. That is like the worst occupation available." "Believe me. I know for sure that a few of their skills would be very helpful in both the dungeons and quests. Don''t consider them so useless. Though the somnium technology allows direct interaction between player in hand-to-hand combat, all player can''t use it effectively. This is where the martial artist''s skills come into play." "Hmm, I will take your word for it. But I doubt that I would be able to find anyone." He already heard about that the most recent quest from the village head was to clear the route to the city and the skill book would be of great use. Moreover, the skill would provide an element of surprise for any player in PVP. The group left Merlin at the dungeon and went back to the Blackrock village through the portal. They immediately set on to the path to the city. The path was windy and between the Blackrock hills and Arwild forest. Along way, the came into a few blackrock wolves and wild cats which are common in the areas on both sides of the path. Soon, Shadow leveled up, he already had acquired more than 1500 exp before the dungeon. The dungeon and the few monsters along the path allowed him to finally reach level 6. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: Exp: 0/2500 HP: 2200/2200; MP: 750/750; Physical Attack: 82 Defense: 60; Attack Speed: 48; Movement Speed: 51; Willpower: 17; Balance: 27; Focus/Search: 34; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 11; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 41, Agility 37, Endurance 21, Intelligence 16, Vitality 31, Perception 17. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 6 He quickly put a three attribute points in agility and three in Strength. This quest was going to be the most harrowing of all the quests he took till now. It was considered a quest that a player can continue till he reached level 10. He needed to be prepared for it. A few minutes later they reached a fork in the path. This is where the quest actually begins. The fork marks the end of the Blackrock Village region. The two paths lead to other villages or the city. No player would know that beforehand. If they reached the city while clearing the path, they chose they would be luck, else they just would form a path between two villages and the quest would be incomplete. They would can either continue the quest from the new village or go back to the fork and attempt again. Some villages don''t have any path directly to a city and need to go through other villages. For these village, all the paths at the fork would lead to another village. This kind of situation made the players extremely angry with this quest. Though it was a bit closer to the situation that happens in exploring an unknown land in real life, the game made the actual process of clearing the path quite easier. All the players had to do was kill the monster around the area. Once, the boss monsters are all killed, a few village officials would arrive and quickly make the path to the other villages/cities. That would only be the first time someone clear the monsters in the path. The village official would set up a teleportation method between the two points when the path is cleared, and village official would install a few magical posts along the path. After the first time, whenever another group finishes the quest, the village official would just come and use a magic crystal to power up these posts and keep the paths clear. That is just the story that the game came up with. Only, once the quest is cleared and the players register at the other teleportation point would they be given access to teleporting to other cities/villages. As Shadow and his team reached the fork, they suffered the same dilemma like everyone else. They had to choose a direction to pursue. If they chose the wrong one, it would be a waste of time if they fail to reach the city. Apart from reaching level 10, reaching the city outskirts through this quest was necessary for gaining entrance into the city. Moreover, it is the first time and if they fail to choose correctly, they would lose a chance to gain city reputation points which everyone coveted. Also, some groups already started working along both the paths. It is better not to delay any longer. Luckily, Balthazar already knew the path due to his past life and quickly chose to pursue the quest along the left path. To the left of the path was a hilly area filled with rocks and to the right were woods slightly sparser than the Arwild forest. As they continued in that direction, they say a group from the guild Sirius Imperials led by Blue Dart. The numbered about 10 people and were very busy fighting a barrel of monkeys that they failed to notice Shadow and his team approach. Finally, it was Blue Dart who noticed the newcomers first and greeted them. "Ah! You guys have also taken the same road. Mind lending a hand with these monkeys," asked Blue Dart politely. Though the monkey were the first new creatures they came across in the quest, they were all at level 7 and extremely hard to deal with. They were fast nimble and almost perfectly evaded physical attacks. They also pelted the players with stones they found on the road which was an almost unending source of ammunition. They had better long range attacks than the players. The only advantage which allowed the players to survive is that unlike the players, the monkey didn''t have any healers topping up their health from behind. [Forest Monkeys] (Common monster) Level 7; HP: 2500; Though the monkeys had slightly lower health for their level. But their quick movements and their attacks more than made up for it. Shadow quickly went to battle the monkeys followed by his team. But he couldn''t be of much help. There were many using long-range attacks and him being a melee player would be losing health if he received the attacks from Sirius Imperials members. He needed to be in the same team as them to avoid friendly fire. "Blue Dart, if we continue like this, none of the close combat occupations can safely fight the monkeys. Why don''t we join the same team?" asked Shadow. "Who would be the leader?" asked someone from Sirius Imperials. "Let it be Blue Dart but do change the distribution rights of the loot to be based on most damage caused," replied Shadow quickly. He didn''t want any sort of quarrel between the two groups and he always had a decent relationship with Blue Dart who was a strong minded individual. If he had any suggestions which are useful, Blue would consider them. "I am fine with it. Let us all form a team and loot would go to the character that caused most damage to the specific monster," agreed Blue Dart. He had never seen Shadow fight personally nor did he have any idea of his skill set. He would definitely like to see him pit himself against these monkeys which are a higher level than him. He quickly sent members of Shadow''s team requests to join his team. "Finally, I can attack higher leveled monsters than me," thought Shadow. Higher leveled monsters always gave more experience that was a common feature of most games. The only thing that differed was the percentage increase. But there was a large difference from time he killed higher level wolves which was that he was in a team and the experience gained would be distributed through the team. Chapter 60 - Unexpected developments With the issue of the friendly fire from the member of Sirius Imperials solved, Shadow quickly moved towards the troop of monkeys. He could have simply gone into stealth repeatedly and attacked the monkeys. But seeing higher leveled monsters than him unable to discover his stealth even when he repeated the same trick, would be considered game breaking and would probably result in reports against him sent to Metis technologies. He definitely didn''t need that sort of reputation. He was already famous enough as it is, and he didn''t need to do that as he also knew a tactic to handle these monkeys. He called for Tang and Blinding White to stay beside him. Though they had higher agility and escaped from most of the attacks of the players, the monkeys had one small issue which he could use. The monkeys attacked by throwing stones and they had to stay still for the instant when they took aim and threw. There would obviously be higher leveled monsters who didn''t need to stop while attacking but these monkeys weren''t the type. He had higher level and speed than most players. He stayed behind Tang and Blinding White and their shields to hide himself from the monkeys and had them both move closer to the monsters. When they came close enough, he went into stealth and attacked a monkey which was in the middle of throwing a stone. The monkey which failed to notice him till he attacked couldn''t respond in time. Shadow Tyrant immediately took this chance to stab the monkey and threw it towards Tang and Blinding White. The two of them who had been waiting for him to make the move, immediately caught the monkey. They hit the monkey with their shields to stun and pulled it back toward the rest of the team as Quiet Fire provided cover by attacking any other monsters. Blue Dart also saw the them and quickly realizing their plan started to command his men to lay cover for them. It was the first monkey that they were able to actually subjugate rather than attack randomly hoping to hit the monkey. "It is a good plan, but I doubt you will be able to stealth towards them again and one dead monkey will hardly make much of a difference. We better go back," he said to Shadow who was attacking at any monkey who came close to the Tang or Blinding. "No, don''t kill the monkey, we have. Just keep it in stun or feared state and hold it down. The monkeys are humanoid creatures they will come near us as long as we have that one captive. Just continue to lay down cover fire and they will come in our line of fire of their own accord," replied Shadow. It was then that the rest of them realized the plan and immediately surrounded Tang and Blinding. Tang and Blinding cooperated with the other players under the leadership of Blue Dart and managed to maintain the monkey in a state of stun or confusion while Shadow led the offensive against the other monkeys which approached them. Now, the monkeys directly came towards a single point, the captured monkey and this allowed the group to be more effective in their attacks. The players were previously in a stalemate with the monkeys due to ineffective attacks and managed to stay alive only due the heals from the healers in the back. With this new trick, they managed to tip the situation in their favour. Shadow led the force that was using physical attacks against the monkey. He went into the middle of the troop and due to his high agility was able to evade them and also disturb their attacks. He also had high strength almost equal to a warrior of the same level allowing him to cause a lot of damage to the monsters. Soon, a few monkeys began to die, and this provided them experience. Though they didn''t have enough time to loot the corpses, they were at a better situation than before. But they were still faced with a few other problems. The monkeys focused most of their attacks towards the player around the captured monkey allowing the others to attack easily. But the players around the captured one bore the brunt of their attacks losing health at a faster pace. This put-on pressure on the healers and they were already guzzling mana potions they bought. Some of the players had to use health potions to keep themselves alive. The other problem was that though the captured monkey wasn''t being actively attacked and the team used only controlling skills, even these skills caused some damage. This damage slowly acc.u.mulated and once this kills the captured monkey, they would again need to get a replacement for it. No one expected the quest to be this hard, it was draining their resources and money. Blue Dart noticed both these problems and didn''t want to continue. He wanted to spend more time and attempt the dungeon so as to gain a few levels before this. Else, they would continue to lose money. He quickly expressed his concern to Shadow who had noticed the same. Shadow was already preparing himself to throw another monkey back to the team but couldn''t manage as the monsters seem to be already aware of him after his first stunt. He didn''t want to use stealth against higher leveled monsters revealing his enhanced stealth. So, he was in a bind. When Blue Dart suggested retreating due to the issue, he didn''t have any objections and quickly agreed. It is better if his team could clear the quest on their own. He didn''t want to share the rewards of finding a new city with members of another guild. Moreover, Merlin had already contacted him during the fight. He told him that he had already sold the skill book for a value of 200000 credits. It was more than he got for the guide of corrupted forest. Merlin also informed him that the person who bought the book was willing to join them and was playing as a martial artist. With the information he had choosing to retreat was an obvious choice. He wanted to capture another monkey and kill the entire troop before he went his separate way from the members of Sirius Imperials. But as Blue suggested retreating, he had also decided to retreat under Blue Darts lead. They soon managed to escape form the monkeys. "Now, I understand why Merlin decided to work with you. You are quite resourceful. I intend to leave this quest and level up before we pursue this," said Blue Dart once they were a safe distance from the monkeys. "Hmm, I understand. A guild can''t afford to lose resources. I would suggest ''Cave of Wargs'', if you want to improve your level or resources," suggested Shadow. "Yes, that is what I had in mind. Any tips?" "Merlin probably already told you about the torches. I got nothing else to inform you." "Nothing at all? Come on. You can give me something," pressured Blue. "Have someone learn cheap shot to handle the wargs and if you find a worgen riding a warg your best option is to separate them." "Thanks, for the advice. I will leave you with Merlin. Are you going to continue with this quest?" "Yes, I expect he first one to finish would get better rewards. So, I intend to pursue it." "I would do the same if we were actually able to do it. But, with the trouble a bunch of level 7 monsters gave us, I doubt we will fare any better as these were the first monsters on the quest. It would only get worse as we go further along the path." "I thank you for your concern and will take your advice under consideration," replied Shadow in response. Blue rolled his eyes understanding that Shadow Tyrant wouldn''t stop pursuing. He already knew that Shadow didn''t put complete effort or used any of his special skills when he fought the monkeys. With that he left on the way back to the Blackrock village with his team. In the meantime, he decided to scout the forest on the right side of the path while the rest of the team waited for Merlin and whomever he was bringing. He quickly went into stealth and started exploring the forest. He already knew what kind of monsters to expect and also how to escape or kill them in case of an ambush. The first kind of monsters he came into contact was the monkeys. He soon found their lair. He also found a few fanged antelopes and cougars, but didn''t engage any of them. He only wanted to check if he could come across any treasure chests. A few minutes later, he was contacted by Merlin who had already reached the rest of the team. He decided to return to the team and then go to the monsters and clear the forest. As he reached back to the location where he left the team, he saw the new member named Tetsujin beside Merlin. "Hi, I am Shadow," he introduced himself to the new guy. Tetsujin had already covered himself completely in plate armor. He also wore the tonfas that Merlin wanted to sell on his back. "This is Tetsujin. He is also a veteran. He used to be a berserker before vita-nova. He decided to try the new occupation for this game," said Merlin introducing Tetsujin to him. "Hi," said Tetsujin shaking his hand. "Merlin sold me this skill book. He tells me that you managed to obtain this as a reward for you quest and didn''t want to use it as you already know how to throw knives," said Tetsujin looking at Shadow Tyrant''s belt which held throwing knives. He had a very mellow and pleasant voice. "You got those from the same quest?" he asked pointing at the belt. "No, a different one." "Well, I came to Blackrock village to meet you mainly. Moreover, Merlin gave me these and asked me to accompany you guys for a while in return," continued Tetsujin pulling out the tonfas. "You weren''t spawned directly in the Blackrock village?" asked Quiet Fire in a confused manner. "How can you roam around in the wild if you didn''t spawn here directly." She had a valid doubt. If the village wasn''t the one in which they had been sent to on their first log in, they would be re-spawning at their original village on death. Players hardly ever did that on a quest. "No. He came to the portal at the dungeon, went out of the Blackrock hills and registered at the village. He can choose to respawn here if he likes," said Merlin clarifying his cousin''s doubts. "You can do that?" asked Quiet Fire shocked. "Yes, sadly we can only get back to the teleportation point only at Blackrock village from the dungeon. We don''t have that option, but everyone else in the light faction are given a chance to move here," said Merlin. "Yes, when he opened the ''Cave of Wargs'', the village became a common meeting point for all the players in the light faction. How else would your cousin be able to sell me that skill for such a high cost," added Tetsujin. "Yes, you unexpectedly made the village a hub for exchanges and trades without even meaning to. This isn''t something any of us have foreseen. More guilds will be joining soon," said Merlin. "More people who reached level 5 already would be registering at the village allowing thirty percent to be level 5 and opening up the credit exchange faster than other villages. Also, once it reaches 50% we would even have the auction house opening. That is why many players are using the dungeon portal just to come to the village," said Tetsujin. "That is a great thing, isn''t it," said Quiet Fire excited. The prospect of an auction house opening so fast would excite anyone. "It has its advantage but a lot more guilds will be coming to the village and competing against resources. They will tend to purchase most weapons and consumables here, reducing our chances to procure them. It has its drawbacks," said Shadow. Unlike the rest he had a less than optimistic view about this development. The guilds will all definitely use this chance and the more equipment and weapons they get to trade, the stronger they will get and be able to reach the city faster. This would throw a monkey wrench into his plans. He contacted Rudra to inform him but found that he was already attempting the dungeon and also Slaine was already going to the Blackrock village to register. "We need to clear this quest as soon as possible. This unexpected development will cause more people to come here. We better get to work," he said to his team. "Tetsujin, I intend to clear a few monsters for this quest. Once, we have an increase in level, we intend to attempt hell mode of Cave of Wargs," said Shadow. "Do you intend to accompany us till the dungeon?" he asked Tetsujin. "Hell mode!? You sure you can complete it? I don''t want to waste my time," replied Tetsujin with a question. "I am sure. I just want the rest of the team to reach level 6 before we attempt it and we can clear the hell mode with just the six of us. But if you join us, it would be faster and I don''t want to leave anything to chance concerning a first clear," answered Shadow. Tetsujin couldn''t understand how the guy could be so confident in assuming that he could clear hell mode when everyone else couldn''t even clear the elite mode. But he did come here on invitation of Merlin and it wouldn''t be right to give up before he even tried. So, he agreed immediately to accompany them for now. Merlin also understood what Tetsujin was thinking. He knew that Tetsujin was the kind who always wanted to be the toughest and liked to do stuff that had others looking at him in awe. He already acquainted him with Shadow. Whether Shadow manages to successfully recruit Tetsujin was not his concern nor could he influence Tetsujin. He left that entirely to Shadow Tyrant. Chapter 61 - Cougar and monkeys With Shadow leading the way, the team including their new addition Tetsujin went back to continue their quest. Instead of walking across the path, Shadow led him into the forest to the right. The main objective of the quest was not to just walk along the path but kill the monsters. The needed to have a significant count of the number of monsters killed, else they would have to deal with a large stream of monsters before they reached the city outskirts. So, they quickly made their way along the path and stopped at a point. "I will aggro a few monsters here one by one. Tetsujin, what skills do you have?" asked Shadow after stopping at the clearing. "Choke, Toss and Back Throw are the only skills, I have," replied Tetsujin. "So, you already learnt choke. That makes thinks easy. You are the in charge of mainly controlling the monsters." "It does have a cooldown, I hope that others also have similar skills," he said looking at Merlin. "Use semi-automatic mode. It will help you learn the skills. Then, try using manual mode to repeat the same and then you can have the same effect as the skill without using it. And you don''t have any cooldown in the manual mode for skill which require physical movements," explained Tang. Ever since Shadow had demonstrated the use of manual mode, she had practices every one of the skills she knew in manual mode and at this point is using only manual mode. "That can be useful. How do magical classes do it?" he asked Merlin. "Some of the gestures are necessary along with few incantations. In manual mode we don''t need to select target first which allows us to guess the targets path and use a skill at the location where he would move to. But we can''t do it without cooldowns," answered Merlin. "I guess magical classes would have such an obvious drawback when using a technology that allows our thought to make us feel like we are physically interacting," added Shadow. "But on continuous usage of skills in manual mode, you tend to feel tired. I think they have a hidden stamina value based on endurance attribute," he continued as he went into stealth mode. Balthazar already knew that the manual mode would have this feature and usage of skills without regard to cooldown in manual mode would draw on the stamina value. It is similar to the HP and MP bars but is presently hidden. It would be made visible to the players after the first upgrade which he heard happened a week after the game''s launch. It was done on popular request, so that every player could determine his own stamina. The same would be also done for the magical classes. They also could use the smaller level skills without regard to cooldown by playing the price of stamina. But it was not much popular to depend on it among the magical classes as it required them to put in a sizeable attribute points to endurance. Shadow quickly found a red fanged cougar, got out of stealth and attacked it with the intention of bringing it back. The cougar was similar to a mountain lion with a thick bushy tail. It had four large fangs, two upwards and two downwards protruding from its jaws giving it a fearsome appearance. These were relatively isolate monsters that fought anything that the saw including other cougars. Vita-nova always had the monsters and NPC''s intellect to be independent and as similar as possible to real-life as is evident from the behavior of the cougars. The monsters also have to eat others to improve their level. They also tend to have similar eating patterns especially those which also exist in real-life. It was actually considered impossible to find one that wasn''t at full health or not injured. It was thus considered easy prey to isolate and attack. With a martial artist using choke on it, it would be easy to make quick work of the cougar. [Red fanged Cougar] (Elite monster) Level 8; HP: 2280/3000; The red fanged cougar had an attack pattern similar to warg. It also charged quickly at its enemies and attacked either with its claws or by biting into them. Both these attacks result in bleed effects. But unlike the warg, when the cougar bites it would just chomp onto their limbs and toss them away usually towards other monsters to disrupt their co-ordination or just rattle them. As he came back, he saw that his team had retreated a few metres towards the direction of the village. They were under attack by a troop of monkeys. If he were any late, he might have jumped into the advancing troop of monkeys. It looked like avoiding the monkey when the go through this area was impossible on the first run. But the number of monkeys that attacked them were lower in number. "It looks like these first attacks are dependent on the number of players in the team," though Shadow. Tetsujin and Merlin seemed to have employed the same trick as he used before. They had a monkey with them and were using it to attract the others. But the monkey they caught seemed to be slow, almost dying and wasn''t able to retaliate. "What did you do to the monkey?" asked Shadow as soon as he saw them. He was already out of stealth so as to allow the cougar to follow him. "These things came out suddenly a few seconds ago. With no idea, I told what you did when we fought alongside the Sirius Imperials. Tetsujin immediately caught on of the monkey and used toss to send it to us," began Quiet Fire in an attempt to explain. "Didn''t work. Tetsu used choke and I poured a poison bottle into its mouth," said Merlin finishing her sentence. Merlin chose the trades of cook and alchemy as they can be used in the middle of quest to replenish stocks if he had the ingredients. The required apparatus for the skill were little and could be carried in inventor. The other two of his trades were herbalism and foraging which would supplement his other two skills. So, he was the main potion source of the group. "I hope you didn''t get any other monsters here. We are already being pushed back by these," added Tetsujin who left the poisoned monkey to Blinding white and began waving his tonfas to attack. The cougar that he pulled to the team would only serve to their detriment in this situation. "Don''t attack it when it comes out. Let it follow me and go back a bit," shouted Shadow as he ran into the troop of monkeys. A few seconds later, a 4-foot-tall red furred monster with fangs jumped out of the same place as Shadow. With his team already retreating, the spot where the cougar came out of, was right beside the monkeys. The red fanged cougar which came out of the trees suddenly got into the midst of the monkey following Shadow. The cougar that bumped into a bunch of monkeys squeaking and throwing stones only saw it as a large buffet to eat and quickly pounced on the nearest monkey changing the nature of a fight. With one of the monkeys being treated by the cougar as food, the focus of the remaining monkey changed from the players to the new predator in their midst. Chaos immediately ensued as few of the monkeys started attacking the cougar. The cougar being a very aggressive kind of monster retaliated and kept jumping from one monkey to other while swiping its claws and fangs at them. Shadow already knew that the cougar wouldn''t focus on them as the monkeys were better food than them as they were higher leveled and eating them would enable it to increase its level. This behavior of monsters also extended to tamed monsters/pets. His team most of whom were three levels below it wasn''t appealing at all compared to the monkeys. With the cougar taking the attention of the monkey, Shadow''s team got the break they needed. Shadow used cheap shot and threw another monkey to his team. But this time instead of using it as bait they directly decided to kill the monster. With the cougar charging at the monkeys, biting and swiping its claws at the monkey, they didn''t need the previous plan and all they needed was to quickly hold down and kill the monkeys as much as possible to gain an advantage. Luckily for them, the cougar seemed to have an interest in the monkeys more than the players and as long as they didn''t attack it, this wouldn''t probably change. Even Tetsujin being a martial artist could use skills like choke and toss to stun and pull out individual monkeys and they soon began to increase their kill count. But, as the number of monkeys decreased, they realized that the odds were against them and started to retreat. Once the monkeys reached the trees beside the path, they started to swing their way into the forest. They were a lot faster on the trees than they were on the ground. The cougar wouldn''t be able to attack them now. By this time, they managed to kill 14 of the monkeys while the cougar itself killed three of the monkeys. Each of the monkey was level 7 and was two levels higher than the team providing extra experience. These few monkeys provided enough for everyone in the team except Tang and Little White Feet to raise up by a level. The cougar which realized that it can''t catch the monkeys came back on to the path. looked at the team, who were looting the monkey corpses. With the monkeys gone, the team became its new target. A monster which tends to follow and hunt other monsters wouldn''t allow players to safely retreat. Though the team were a bit apprehensive to fight such a monster, Shadow had no issues combating the cougar. He had original meant to temper his team with the cougar but due to the monkeys he had to deal with them first. Despite, the red fanged cougar was also injured by the monkeys during the fight and its current HP was about 1800 HP. Moreover, even Tang and Little White Feet needed only little experience to move to level 6 and killing a level 8 monster would definitely provide them the required experience. "Get ready Tetsujin, need you to help control it," said Shadow Tyrant in the chat. He had already moved into stealth when he saw the cougar returning. "I will stun it and at the end of stun, you need to control using choke and toss," he added. Due to the enhanced stealth provided by the mask of shadow, he could fool any monster 5 levels above him. The cougar couldn''t perceive him either. He was already waiting for the cougar and quickly got by it side and used cheap shot to stun it signalling his team to attack. The team attacked frenziedly as they wanted to kill it as soon as possible. The cougar fighting the monkeys by itself had left a formidable impression on them. Shadow had also used his clone skill to increase the DPS. Also, their attacks wouldn''t be as effective as a higher leveled monsters would have better defences and also control skill tend to not have the expected efficiency. But luckily magical attacks seem to have better effect than the physical ones. Both Merlin and Shadow immediately noticed this and commanded all those who had magical attacks including priest to continuously attack and not do anything else. The cheap shot would normally stun for four seconds, had the cougar stunned only for 3 seconds due to level difference. Luckily, Shadow had his clone ready increasing the stun for another 3 seconds with its cheap shot. Though it was only 6 seconds, the combined attack concentrated on a single stunned monster was rather disastrous for it. By the time, the stun expired it was already in critical health, in an enraged state and chose Blinding White who was right beside its head as the target for its bite and toss attack. The toss by the cougar left it open to attacks and Tetsujin wasn''t one to leave an opportunity, he immediately used back throw, toss and choke attacks in succession leaving it in a state of confusion for another 2 seconds. System: Your teammate Blinding White bled to death. The announcement shocked everyone. The cougar had used only one attack to successfully kill a player. It was obvious that it had a very high attack value. Though it was a shocking change, the team continue their attack as the monster was on its last breath. Merlin had also had his terror wave skill ready in case of emergency, but the monster succ.u.mbed to assault before that. "WHAT KIND OF CRAZY BEAST DID YOU LURE!!! IT EMPTIED HALF MY HEALTH IN ONE ATTACK," shouted Blinding White. She had already resurrected and called them as soon as she got the notification that they killed the cougar. "Sorry, I didn''t expect it to have such high attack in its enraged state," replied Shadow. "How could I know that the cougar had such high attack. All I heard was that it had an attack pattern similar to wargs," thought Shadow as he berated himself for not finding out more about the earlier stages of the game. When he joined as a vice-guild leader in his previous life, he focused mostly on the various resource areas and special quests which could improve their funds. "That was a crazy monster. Why did you lure it?" asked Merlin. He too found it hard to believe that Shadow would do such a mistake. "It was the only monster in isolation. After the monkeys, I thought it would be best to handle individual monsters. Moreover, its attacks were only charging to swipe and bite. I thought we could easily evade it," replied Shadow. "It is true. If it is an isolated monster and by its attack pattern, even I would have done the same," said Tetsujin agreeing with Shadow. "We should have been a bit more prepared and expected that the stun wouldn''t last that long." Tetsujin was quite satisfied with both Merlin and Shadow''s play. He also saw the potential in Quiet Fire and Blinding White. What killed her was just a rookie mistake. The ones who were most happy were Tang and Little White Feet, the experience from the cougar had pushed them both to level 6. Unexpectedly, Blinding White who was already at level 6 went back to level 5 due to her death in the wild. Such a death resulted in loss of 10% experience. Blinding just managed to level up after killing the monkey and unfortunately lost experience and went back a level after death. Even though the team leveled up, Shadow had a small confusion about something. He calculated the experience he received and by his estimates, it wouldn''t be possible for them to level up after the monkeys. He didn''t cross check at that time because of the cougar, but now he gave in to his curiosity. He asked Tang to send a quick snapshot of her attribute panel. In the panel, he saw that the experience required for her to reach level 7 was 2300, instead of the 2500 it showed in his attribute panel. He repeated the same Quiet Fire and found the same result. This confirmed his doubts. "The unique equipment!! It wouldn''t give more attributes for a single level up just like that. It forces the player to gather more experience for a level up," though Balthazar. "No doubt, the players who had these complained about them. There would obviously be no free meal. If it really provided more attributes for the same levels, it would be considered unfair." The more he played the game the more he realized the issues his simple plans had. "It wouldn''t be simple even with my knowledge of future. I wonder what other requirements would prop up, if I acquire the unique weapons I had in my mind," thought Balthazar. On the other side, Merlin had looted the cougar. It didn''t provide any weapons but did provide the materials. Cougar fangs, cougar fur and meat. On enquiring, he found that the loot of the monkeys also didn''t yield any equipment. It was just meat and fruits. Luckily, the fruits were directly consumable. Though they couldn''t be consumed during combat, they refilled both HP and MP. They also provide a temporary buff of higher HP and MP and fill up the HP and MP faster than bread and water. As Blinding White was already at the village, Shadow asked her to check for Slaine and meet up with him. She also told him that the credit exchange and auction house had already opened up. Moreover, the village population was already reaching its limits and she advised him to tell his friends to come and register as soon as possible. Now that most of them reached level 6, Merlin, Tetsujin and Quiet Fire asked to attempt the Hell mode dungeon. It looked like they got a taste for first clears and first kill rewards. That was their previous plan too. So, Shadow also agreed and they channelled their hearthstones to go back to the village. Though they told that they wanted to go back to village to replenish potions, it was obvious that they wanted to check the auction house to see if they could find anything useful. Especially Tetsujin, he wanted to go to both the credit exchange and the auction house. Chapter 62 - Blackrock Town As soon as they reached the village, Tetsujin and Shadow immediately made their way to the village head for the credit exchange. There was a long line at the village head''s location. It looked like most of the guilds had already their representatives to the village for the purpose. There was a limit on the number of coins that can be brought per day to only one gold per person. So, more than one person from every guild came to the village. Balthazar and Merlin also had the rest of the team stand in line to buy coins. The line had at least 200 players before them. It would take at least 5 minutes for them to reach the village head. In a couple of minutes, they got coins in exchange for credits from the village head. As they were moving toward the auction house to check it out, a notification sounded to all players. Blackrock Village Region Notification: The populace of the village exceeded its limits. It will be upgraded to a small Town. The upgrade will take 15 minutes and all players will be transported outside the village during the upgrade. Immediately they were all magically teleported outside the village boundary. More than 5000 people were at the gate of the village beside the graveyard. "I don''t think we can go to the auction house for now," said Shadow to the team. He looked around and soon found Slaine coming towards him. "Finally, you are here," said Slaine moving towards him. Blinding was beside him along with a few others. Slaine chose his old ID in war god''s tempest, ''Slain n Shot''. There were few others alongside him. "These are Light, Brick and Reel, they are old friends from War god''s tempest." said Slaine introducing them. "They already joined the workshop and we are planning to start here. Rudra would be joining us soon. Thinking of starting from this place. We already have you here. It is sad that we can''t make a guild till level 10." "You sure that you guys want to start from this place? There are going to be a lot more players coming here," asked Shadow. "Ya dude, we thought of completing the quest to go to the city from Silver Leaf village but now we could have all our friend and acquaintances start from this place due to the portal." "You know that other guilds would also consider the same, right?" "No, most would be usually considering developing in towns or village any of their vice leaders or even elders were first sent to. You already managed to get special quests and first clears. Really hard to get any reputation at this place now. So, most would avoid developing their guild here even though it would be a hub for trade." "Oh! That makes sense. I guess we do have a certain amount of advantage on starting from here." "Yes. It is better if we start the guild from here. Moreover, this is going to become a town. It would create more quests. About 200 of the guys from the guild in War god''s tempest are coming to register. They are all attempting the dungeon. Your guides have been quite useful," said Slaine. "That is good. The Sirius Imperials guild is also here. They have one of the vice leaders Blue Dart here. They would be competition." "I heard. But I doubt that the majority of their efforts would be here. Their leader Blood Wolf is at the Brown Rock town. They seem to be recruiting mostly at that town. Towns have more populace and better place to recruit members. They wouldn''t suddenly change their focus now to this town." "Fine. I am cool with it. You can start recruiting here, but most of the players who would be interested in joining guilds have already joined Sirius Imperials." "Yeah. Already knew that. Anyways, we intend to use your name and popularity for recruitment. You don''t mind. Do you?" "I own the workshop. It would be a waste if I don''t allow you guys to not use my name for recruitment. Use it however you like. Putting that aside, these are friends, I found here," said Shadow pointing to the team. "Yes, Blinding told me about them. Nice to meet you lot. Will you be joining the guild?" "Not really into these things. How about we tell you once you actually create the guild?" suggested Merlin. "Which guild do you own?" he asked Shadow. "Oh! It is Crimson Realm. You might have heard of it. We came into the top 20 for the Dread cup in War god''s tempest." "Yes. I heard of it. That guy Roadkill was one of you right?" said Merlin as he remembered the name. "You own the guild?" he asked looking at Shadow. "I recently came to own it," said Shadow nodding his head. "Anyway, why don''t you guys get acquainted. I need to log out for a few minutes to check on a few things," said Shadow as he walked pulled Slaine to a side away from the rest. "Don''t try to persuade those guys to join the guild. Mad Merlin likes to be a bit independent and he is a good player. Leave him to me. I am trying to create an adventurer group to work in collaboration with us," he explained to Slaine. "Mad Merlin? You mean the one who got out of Magus Shrine? You know that Magus Shrine is a super-first-rate guild, right?" "I know. But I don''t think that they will find trouble with him. That is why I am thinking of an adventurer group rather than the guild to be on the safe side." "But we were hoping to have you in the guild," said Slaine confused. He couldn''t actually use his name if he isn''t in the guild. "I will be a honorary elder preferably. I won''t be able to play after these few months anyways. So, let it be like this for now. I will log out now. Inform Rudra of this. See you in 15 minutes," said Balthazar logging out of the game. He got out off the pod, stretched his legs and opened up his mail. He quickly checked his mail and found out that Robert had already sent the doc.u.ments which he requested. He first sent the agreement to Winston so that he would be ready to support Robert. Next, he began to go through the doc.u.ments about the planetary excursion he would need to go along with Robert. The next one was after three days in an abandoned planet nearby. The planet DG-105 had about 10 times the gravity of Asklepian. Due to the high gravity and the atmospheric pressure, it was not advisable to stay there for longer durations. But these conditions led to the growth of some rare species of flora. The animals on the planet were mostly reptiles with thick hides. The majority of animals here had extremely tough bodies and were considered dangerous. Luckily the high gravity didn''t allow for any flying beings native to it. The only birds there are flightless and extremely fast like the rest of the living beings. They were only allowed to be on it for a duration of 10 hours. it is mandatory to wear a combat suit that would reduce the strain from the high atmospheric pressure and gravity. As he was going through the list of animals to be expected and their characteristics, he got a message from Winston informing that he had received the doc.u.ment and would support Robert. He also forwarded a list of suggested items he could take to the planetary excursion. As he checked the list, he found that few of the items he suggested would actually be useful. Mainly two of them. He would require a very sharp and strong blade for the purpose of cutting up whatever he found. It would be extremely unwise to use any of the usual high frequency blade* as the heat would cause an explosion due to high atmospheric pressure. He also would need a something to shield him in case of an emergency. Though he couldn''t use the combat suit he took to BR-64, he was offered the small piece of equipment that could project he shield. Winston wanted him to carry it on his body wherever he goes to. Balthazar appreciated his grandfather''s offer and immediately sent a message back offering his thanks and that he would gladly accept whatever he wanted to give for the excursion. Winston asked him to meet the next day morning so that he could prepare them for him. With the concern about the competition for the elders handled, he had one more important thing to check. He wanted to find out about the situation at the base as soon as possible and what would his posting be. Though he had been informed by Sophia that there was no information about his posting, he still sent a message to her hoping to hear something new. He had been in constant contact with her every day. He even told her about the suspicions he had about the knights and the Nirbaadh pirates. She was his confidant about a lot of things with exception of his family secret, the one of his father''s true lineage. He returned to the game and found that the blackrock village was upgraded to blackrock town. He quickly checked his privileges panel and found that he had the same amount of reputation in the Blackrock town as before. Reputation in towns is generally harder to gather than a village. In a village once he hit 200 reputation points, he would be provided the maximum privilege possible equivalent to a village head. Gathering any further would be a waste. The only reason he wanted to be the first to finish the quest of clearing a path was to get reputation at White River city. Now he had another reason. With the rate the size of the town is increasing it would soon be a famous starting point for those players spawned at the White Heart kingdom. Within a town, he could actually have a guild quarters set up. Having reputation points exceeding 250, he would already be considered a first-class citizen of the town. He found that his team and friends have already got into the town. With the upgrade into a town, the geography of the place changed. The boundaries have increased, various buildings have increased in size along with a few new ones popping up. There have been new constructions too. A few watchtowers were visible outside the village. A large 4-storied hotel appeared beside the town hall which was 3-storied building itself. Many new NPCs were also visible. With his friends and team already exploring the new town, he couldn''t lag behind and immediately went into the hall. The first place he went to was Blacksmith Kade''s shop. He had a decent amount of resources from the Cave of Wargs, which he could use to obtain a few designs. The majority of the player in the town were already level 5 and right now the equipment would earn him a lot. As he went in, he realized that the outline of the place had changed a bit and master Kade''s shop wasn''t where he expected it to be. He checked around and even bought a map of the new town from a shop but couldn''t still find Kade on it. ""Ah! How could something like this happened. I was just performing well and now this upgrade had Kade disappearing," thought Shadow. An NPC wouldn''t usually leave once a village upgraded into a town. If anything, he would try to achieve a better position in the town than he had before. "Oh! That''s it. He probably just closed the shop and moved to a better area. I better check near the auction house or the market," he thought. With these thoughts in mind, he made his way towards the market. He called Slaine and was told that he along with the team were at the marketplace beside the teleportation point inside the town. As he reached the location, he observed that the auction house was also moved beside the marketplace. The marketplace was vast and empty and allowed the players to call out their wares and exchange items with one another. It was like a real-life market with hawkers and shops. There was a new building opposite to the auction house. It was the town bank. The bank was a feature that was very useful, especially for trade profession and merchant players. It was widely used by all guilds too. It would provide a storage area for valuable possessions and also to store money or coins to be shared among a group. All banks in the town and cities of a kingdom share the storage space and the items stored at one town can be accessed in another town of the same kingdom. But to be able to use a bank one must rent the storage using coins. Along with the hawkers, there were also people who were shouting about recruitment for guilds. Slaine was also among them with his friends, Merlin and the team. Rudra and a few other have also joined him. As he saw Balthazar, Rudra came running to him. "You changed your ID!" said Shadow as he noticed him. It used to be Road Kill No 1. Now he is using Crimson Power instead. "Well, Lizzy used to be the actual guild leader before, though I handle the affairs. I am told that Road kill would be a horrible name for guild leader," replied Rudra. "Road kill was a horrible name for one''s character any way you look at it," said Balthazar shaking his head. It was the name of an old game that Rudra used to play as a kid and chose it when he first started to play games. "OK. You sure you are all right? I heard that you are playing like a crazy person," said Rudra. "I am fine. Why do you keep asking the same question?" said Balthazar angrily. He was getting irritated that everyone he knew kept asking the same question. They were obviously worried that he might have taken Max''s death to heart. But he was actually angry that Max died without letting him know anything about his companions. "Fine. I will give your space. Let me come to the point. I heard you already might have earned enough reputation to be a first-class citizen, right? Can you purchase some land in the market? If we get a shop for trade profession, it will improve our popularity in the town," said Rudra. Rudra already had the thought and went to the town hall. But he couldn''t even rent a land as one required to be at least a third-class citizen with 50 reputation points to do that. Now that Blackrock village upgraded to a town, it provided more quests and one could soon acc.u.mulate the required reputation, but it would be a lot slower and he might not even succeed. It would be best if they could get the best slots near the market, right now. This kind of competition is only seen in towns. It is rarely seen in villages where there wouldn''t be any shops available for rent or purchase. Balthazar completing the special quest had resulted in this situation too unexpectedly. He quickly made his way to the town hall where one could purchase such properties. "Well, it is best if I do use the advantages I have. I can never be too prepared. Moreover, this would help reduce some strain on me in the White Heart Region," thought Balthazar as he went along with Rudra to the town hall. Note: *High frequency blade - A high-frequency blade was a sword reinforced by a powerful alternating current and resonating at extremely high vibration frequencies. This oscillation weakened the molecular bonds of anything it cuts, thereby increasing its cutting ability. The effect is similar to using a red hot blade and it produces a lot of heat and sparks. Chapter 63 - Setting up shop. He first messaged Merlin and his team that he was planning to rent property and it would take some time. He suggested them to go and search for any new quests. The best options in a town would be the merchant shops and the adventurer''s guild. The temple would also provide decent quests, but as the team already had a quest from the temple, they wouldn''t get another. But Tetsujin and Slaine immediately made their way towards the temple. Now that Blackrock had become a town, it would have an official adventurer''s guild where one could check out several new quests around the town. A new area also opened behind the town. A new path was created from the back gate leading to a small barracks. The barracks and guard towers weren''t usually seen around a beginner village or a beginner town, but it was different for the Blackrock town. It was more along the lines of a town which would be near the borders of other kingdoms. As he went into the town hall, he noticed that the hall was quite good infrastructure and a serene quality which was uncharacteristic for a beginner town. The only thing that made it appear like a beginner town was the lack of any high-level personnel walking around. The calm feeling was probably due to the recent change to a town and none of the players having enough reputation to do any transaction at the town hall. But there were still NPCs at the lobby, who were moving around. They went to a receptionist at the lobby. "We are adventurers looking to buy a few properties of the town. Could you please show us the available lands for purchase?" asked Shadow. "Adventurer Shadow Tyrant, you are first-class citizen. This allows you to only purchase one land and rent two more in the town. Please wait near at the office of the town head. We are short on staff and the head is a meeting right now," replied the receptionist. "Adventurer Crimson Power, I cannot allow you to perform any purchases. I am willing to answer any other questions you have," said the receptionist turning towards Rudra. "Go do some other quest or something. I will see what I can do," said Shadow as he went to the first floor leaving Rudra behind. With nothing to do here, Rudra went back to the marketplace. If Balthazar was going to buy a land or rent a property, he needed to gather players to make good use of it. He can''t build a guild quarters without registering a guild which isn''t possible till level 10. So, the only alternative was a shop. A shop without wares is useless and money draining. So, he needed to convince a few trade profession players and also buy a few recipes and designs. For that he needed to make sufficient preparations. He already had Slaine recruiting members at the marketplace. For recipes and designs, he went to the auction house. Though the auction house allows only for transaction using coins. If an independent player, places the recipe, he could always contact the person and decide on a price to exchange with credits. He needed to gather a decent amount of basic designs available. The auction house seemed to be having many of these. There were even black iron and bronze designs being sold. Many guilds sent representatives for trading and buying any new equipment and designs. Though there are many guilds, they mostly fought for the high-grade equipment. The more powerful ones didn''t even care about black iron designs. The migrants mostly wanted to buy recipes and designs which are rare. This left all the basic recipes designs native to the town to be easier picks. Rudra soon managed to bid, contact sellers and gain a few recipes and design below level 5. He also managed to get a couple of level 5 designs. Right now, guilds were trying to contact Shadow and waiting to see if they can pull him in. If they can acquire him, recruiting a strong player base at the Black Iron town would be extremely easy as they can have their guild property at the town. He wanted to set up a shop with his guild''s name as soon as possible to dissuade other guilds. Shadow in the meantime had spent more than 10 minutes outside the town head''s office, when finally, someone came to call him in. Inside the office apart from the town head, Strontson there were a few other NPCs including Kade and the deacon from the temple. There were a total of seven NPCs sitting by a rectangular table in some sort of meeting. It looked like these NPCs were just done with their meeting and about to depart. Shadow quickly greeted Kade as he approached Strontson. Strontson gestured him to a seat by the table. "Adventurer Shadow Tyrant, please be seated. All the developments in the town were due to your eminent work in collaboration with the temple. We were discussing on how to develop the town. What have you come here for?" "Sir, I wish to rent or purchase a land to sell merchandise made by me and few other fellow adventurers," said Shadow coming to the point directly. "Well then, you have come at the right time. We are trying to gather more people to develop the town and we would welcome any adventurers to help us with these efforts. With the road to the city closed, we have very little support and it is not good for a town to continue like this," said Strontson. "We will be issuing new quests to speed up this process," said Kade who along with an armored man was still waiting while the others left the room. "This is my apprentice, Shadow Tyrant," said Kade introducing him to the man in armor. "This is commander Renner. He had been sent by the royal to make sure that the town is safe from foreign forces," said Kade. The blackrock village originally was a beginner village with limited population. With the sudden change to a town, the game had to compensate the increasing populace with similar amount of quests. The new barracks behind the village might also have been to the same effect. The upgrade to a town seemed to have opened up few new regions behind the Blackrock town which weren''t there in his previous life. There are bound to be new quest there and even though he didn''t know much about those areas, he knew about almost all possible monsters and the weaknesses of most of the monsters that would appear in the game for at least 6 years. "Nice to meet you, adventurer. I hope you will continue your efforts in the development of this town," said commander Renner with a tilt of his head. "With Kade as your master, I hope you could provide us with equipment and fortifications for the town," he continued. "I will surely try my best, Sir Renner," said Shadow. "Master Kade, I was unable to find you at the location of your shop. Could you please tell me where I can find you?" he asked Kade. Shadow had been unable to purchase designs and he had a secret way of gathering designs. He didn''t want to lose this source and hence, enquired Kade about it. "Oh! Adventurer Shadow. We have requested Sir Kade to be leading the forging association at our town," said Strontson with a laugh. "We never knew Sir Kade is a celebrity till Sir Renner informed us. You can sure find him at the forging association." "I will be leaving now, Mr Strontson. Sir Kade could you please accompany me. I would like to discuss with you, the details of our cooperation," said Renner taking blacksmith Kade with him. "Renner seems to be very familiar with Kade. It looks like my master has a strong background," though Shadow seeing them both leave together. "I better improve my relationship with both these NPCs. It could provide useful." "Let us see, what properties are available," said Strontson as the two of them left. He produced a scroll from his pocket and gave it to Shadow. The scroll listed various properties that are for sale and rent along with their location and cost. Though Shadow had a constant source of income from the portal, it wasn''t an inexhaustible source. It currently provided him about 32 gold which was far from enough to purchase a plot of land. It would slowly increase as the number of players in vita-nova increased. It was just the launching day of the game and many were waiting to see if there would be any effects due to use of somnium technology. By the next few days, the player base of the game would increase by a hundred-fold, it would see the peak of new players in about a month and it would still continue to have new players even after five years. With the amount he had on him, he couldn''t purchase land but could definitely rent a few shops. The lands were being sold for a minimum price of 100 gold and those weren''t the lands near the market. There were five shops available near market, each of which had a rent value close to 15 gold per month. Though he had bought a few properties on some territories in his previous life. They were on the outer reaches of town when they upgraded as most of the best properties were already purchased by that time. So, he didn''t expect it to have such a high price. His expectation was something near 50 gold which if he had the members of the Crimson Realm use credit exchange to get gold was easily achievable. So, purchasing land was no longer an option. Still he decided to rent a shop right on the market right beside the portal. He thought it would be best if he finds a shop which was at a busy area. The greater number of players that saw it, the more popular it would become. He didn''t even need to open it right now. He just needed it for publicity of the guild. He was provided the deed for renting the shop by the Strontson on payment of 15 gold. With the remaining gold he could make decent renovations to it if required. Once that was done, he had no more business at the town hall and immediately left to the shop. He also asked Rudra to meet him there. They found one of guards and showed him the deed. He quickly removed the restraints on the shop and let them inside. The went into the shop and examined it. It had two floors and covered about 400 sq feet per floor. It was still not configured and even the name of the shop had been left blank. The decided to make the ground floor as a display area and the first floor to be a restaurant. The cook profession had become a moderately famous one due to the special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs''. The wolf and warg meat were resources it gave to every player. This prompted more players to attempt the cook profession at this stage. Apart from cooking meat which required them to buy provisions such as stove and utensils, cooks could also produce simpler dishes like sandwiches, juices and other drinks using fruits, water and bread which were always available. Similar to forging and alchemy, cooking also required tools which they decided to buy and provide to their members at the restaurant. The forging and alchemy also required coins and resources to manufacture products. He left the remaining gold he had to Rudra so that it would speed up the process. The main aim of them buying a shop was to attract more members to their guild and a restaurant was a very effective method even in real-life to make people notice them. They decided the name to be Crimson Realm Equipment and Consumables. They had a notice placed on their shop that said opening tomorrow. Even though they managed to rent a shop, they still needed to gather trade profession players and also need to have sufficient products to sell. Most of the basic recipes and designs required for a shop to start were already gathered by Rudra. But they also needed at least a few high-end items to be displayed on their shelves to get popular. Being Kade''s apprentice, he had an advantage over other blacksmiths. He made his way towards the forging association. Along the way, he was contacted by Merlin and Tetsujin. They already gathered a few quests which they wanted to complete. They were also wondering if they could complete the hell mode of the ''Cave of Wargs'' first. Though they had the advantage in making blackrock village their base over other guilds among the light faction. The same didn''t apply for the first clear of the Hell mode of the dungeon. Moreover, the competition at the town was only among humans as it would be hard to find weapons, equipment and designs for other races at a beginner town at this stage of the game. But the dungeon was another thing entirely. There were five other races similar to humans who could attempt the dungeon and some of them had racial passives which would be useful in such an environment. Especially fae and dwarves who have good ways to retaliate in the environment of the dungeon. That is why it was a great surprise for most that a human team got the first clear of the dungeon. With that in mind both Merlin and Tetsujin insisted on attempting the hell mode. They even had shown him chats on the forums which indicated that the other races were also attempting hell mode. But Shadow had enough experience to know that their racial passives wouldn''t be of much use in a dungeon. Though the fae could fly for short durations and dwarves gained strength in a cave like situation, these would be suppressed in the hell mode of the dungeons. The game had this implemented as without this all the races would have use for their racial advantages in most of the dungeon and human wouldn''t get any records. This would definitely make players avoid choosing humans slowly. So, they decided to have this safeguard in place. Though the forums had shown that the other races were competing for the fastest record and also attempting the hell mode. None of those players told about the suppression they faced in the dungeon. "They obviously wouldn''t make others know of the issue they are facing at this time when everyone is competing for the first clear." With his administrative privileges he could already see that some teams from other races and kingdoms already had completed the elite dungeon and even check out the leader board. It looked like they were trying to beat the system record for fastest completion already. "Ah! It would be very hard to convince them to lay off the hell mode for now," thought Balthazar as he looked at the records. He suddenly realized that he could actually use this to their advantage. The fastest record was already near 80 minute which was very close to the system approved record of 60 minutes for the dungeon. This was done by a team composed of all fae characters. "There are many others already attempting the hell mode, but all are failing. Clearly the far have an advantage. Once, the trick with the torches was known, the dungeon became a lot easier. But still none of them managed to complete hell mode. It is clear that they are hiding something," replied Shadow in the team chat. "That is true. We also have doubts, but we have to try. It will be too late if we keep waiting," said Merlin. It looked like he got really addicted to first clears. "But we get only one chance and even I can''t change that. Why don''t you guys try to do the elite mode with Tetsujin and Slaine. With the torches, we have an advantage we didn''t use previously. It would also better prepare us for the hell mode," suggested Shadow Tyrant. "It is not a bad idea. I have yet to try this out too. Moreover, the team which attempted hell mode have already used torches and still failed. If we go in half-c.o.c.ked, we might waste out chance. Soon, some information is bound to leak. Someone would release or sell the information about it," agreed Tetsujin. Shadow immediately contacted Slaine and requested him to join them. He would like someone other than him to be on good terms with Merlin and the team. Slaine was a good choice for this as he got along with most people. He was also an adept player who on suggestion from Balthazar, had been practicing in manual mode. Chapter 64 - Visiting the auction house With the team busy at the dungeon he would at the very least have an hour of free time. It is best if he would use this time to make a few equipment. As he reached the Forging association, he saw that there were some changes to it too. It evolved from a two-story building to a three-storied one. Even the area occupied by it has also increased. It was obvious that the number of forging rooms would also increase as a result of the upgrade. The association was still congested with all the trade profession players, but it was still better than the situation before the upgrade. Though a bunch of new players came into the town, they mainly focused on trading new recipes and designs with hardly any trade profession players from guilds. So, the number of trade profession players in the town increased by not enough to fill up the forging association. He walked past the players waiting for the forging rooms and talked to the receptionist. He asked for the association head Kade and equipped his title Blacksmith Kade''s in-name apprentice. She took him past to the third floor. There were no forging rooms on third floor. Instead there was only a single corridor with two large doors at the left and the right of it and another small door at the end. The nameplate storage was on the left door and cooperative workshop on the right one. The receptionist took him to the door at the end of the corridor with the name, "Forging association, Blackrock town branch head, Jeremiah Kade." She opened the door to inform Kade and a second later opened it to allow Shadow Tyrant inside. "Ah! Shadow my boy, I have been waiting for you. I hope that you have enough resources to impress me. With the recent developments a lot is being asked of me," said Kade as he entered the room. There was the desk with all the designs on it. Right now, he had only refined iron ore, blackrock crystals and cougar fangs. He had no other resources. As he put down the fangs, iron ore and blackrock crystals, the expression on Kade''s face plummeted. "I am disappointed. I had expected more from you," said Kade picking up the iron ore and blackrock crystals. "I had hoped that you would be able to gather more than these. Some rare materials from beyond the hills. At least you got a pair of cougar fangs. I could make good use of these," said Kade as pointed to the desk "You can check the design on the desk," said Kade. There weren''t many available for the amount of resources he gave. He saw a few designs of level 5 but they weren''t any better than the two he had. There were others but they did not really interest him. He needed better item than iron ore and blackrock crystals for better designs. With nothing else that interested him he just bought another swift dagger for his second hand with coins. He was quite disappointed in himself for failing to get any decent designs. Looking at his expression, Kade said, "If you aren''t sure that you want these you can gather more resources and come for some other designs. I can give you forging association contribution points in return for these materials you are providing." "That would be very helpful, Sir Kade. Thank you," said Shadow bowing to Kade. It would be a lot more useful in this manner. Forging association contribution points aren''t easy to obtain, and they can be used buy designs and even used to rent forging workshops. One usually needs to do some kind of special quest or end up creating a new fine gold equipment to become a significant member of the forging association. "Being your master and the head here, I can provide you contribution points. But I hope you will improve your talent and manage to gain reputation in the association," continued Kade. "I hope you would get better resources for me the next time you come. You can''t make good equipment without good resources." System: You have been given 120 forging association contribution points by Kade. "Are there any other quests that would help increase my popularity at forging association or increase my contribution points," asked Shadow to Kade. Though he boldly asked it, he was afraid that Kade would be upset that he asked for other methods when he already could earn them by helping him. But he hoped that Kade being his master and with the current position he held, could point him towards something he can. "Hmm, there are a few things that you can help the forging association with. There were a few new requests made to the association to create few items. You can gather the required materials or produce the items," said Kade. "But to be able to check them you need to be a bit stronger as a pre-requisite. Come back when you are stronger, and I will suggest something." System: Attention! Can only check forging association quests after level 10!!! With that notification, he understood that he couldn''t do anything about it right now. He heard that once a person became an NPCs apprentice, he could get into the respective association of the trade profession. But it looks like there would still be restrictions and the membership of the association is only nominal. He probably had to do few quests to become a true member. He could go and forge a few equipment in this time, but he did have only the Blackrock crystal and refined iron ores. He hadn''t checked the auction house yet and with the knowledge he gained in his previous life, he could use a few more raw materials to create better equips. With that thought he went into the auction house to check out what the players from other towns brought. Even though most of the materials would be common ones like ores and meat, with the entire light faction there would definitely be a few independent teams and player who would put in materials they obtained in their quests for sale. He went to the auction house. The auction house would have items for sale throughout the day. One can directly check the interface to make bids. There would be a time limit to make bids and sometimes players could also provide a buyout amount for their items. Players could also put in items in exchange for other specific items. There would be special auctions held occasionally for very rare items that are given to it. The system decides if the items provided by players are worthy enough for special auction and asks for the player to use item in special auction. The players could accept or deny. But most usually accept as the members attending special auctions tend to be ready to spend more. Today was the launching day of the game and there would be no special auctions. So, Shadow didn''t really have any plans to save any money and began to browse for materials. He couldn''t find any materials. It looked like anything that was put for sale were being immediately taken. The most frequent ones were still refined iron ore and blackrock crystals. It looked like these were still not sufficient for the demand. It made sense too. He only got the large quantity he managed to gain due to him being the first to explore both goblin camp and elite mode of cave of wargs. Else, he would also be fighting for these alongside them. Though he couldn''t get see any rare materials suitable for forging and blacksmithing, he did glimpse a few tools that he could probably use. These were broken tools which usually didn''t held much importance at this stage of the game. Though they wouldn''t be of much use at this stage nor players would notice it, they could be very useful. He saw three such tools or items and immediately put bids for them. The first was the explorer''s orb which can be used to map the surrounding up to a five kilometer radius two times. Usually when the player explores new places, the map updates around a 30-meter range. He couldn''t believe that someone actually put this for sale. It is an uncommon item found in fae territories. The only drawback with the tool was it wouldn''t update the map with the various resources but only provide a terrain of it. It wouldn''t even be found in other races. Probably some other race player put it in for the money to buy something else. He directly paid the buyout price of 50 silvers for it and got the orb. The second was a dwarven metal detector. It had a range of up to 4 meters and can be equipped to one''s hand like a bracelet. Though it was being sold, it didn''t have many bidders. After a few repeated bids, it fell into his hands for a price 30 silvers. It was mostly used by players to locate metals. Though the metal detector is mostly used for mining purposes. It also sometimes signals towards treasure chests. This is something that players wouldn''t realize soon. Once, they came to know, these tools came to be used whenever exploring a forest or any unknown area. The third was the most useful items, he had seen. Though it would be very well known for stealthy kills, it wasn''t used by most due the difficulty in using it. It was a garrote, a bronze grade garrote of level 5. It would be very useful for choking monsters and even players. It would enable one to control as well as deal damage at the same time for a continued duration if used properly. It was a well fashioned device consisting of two metal handles with grips joined by a thin metal wire. It was an assassin''s weapon in the game. Also, garrotes were well known weapons which Balthazar had not only used in the game but also in his real-life. So using this would be a cinch for him. [Wire Garrote] (Bronze Garrote) Level 5; Requirement: Strength: 35; Endurance: 15; Damage = (2 * Strength +15) true physical damage per second of choke. Special effect: Wire cut: Swiping the garrote while removing inflicts a bleed effect losing 20 HP per second for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Durability: 20/20; But it had its drawbacks too. Without a garrote skill which isn''t seen till now in the game, it would be impossible for any normal player to properly use it. Moreover, it had a low durability and the durability decreases when a player fails to use it properly or someone directs an attack on its surface. Though most wouldn''t know about the issue of durability, most players would be deterred by the first issue. But these didn''t apply to Shadow. He immediately placed a bid of 20 silvers beating the previous bid by 10 silvers. With no one else interested in buying it he got it for a relatively cheap price. Most bronze items would be bid for close to 30 or even 40 silvers. Apart from these tools he saw a recipe which wasn''t being used by anyone. It was the alva''s tincture. It had the description which told that the potion when mixed with the any food would put the person into a euphoric state. It was an extremely rare recipe. This was more of a luxury item and hardly had any practical use. But Balthazar knew it could be used in a specific way which could be used to hunt. He could use it in a spray bottle used in herbalism players to induce a similar effect on monsters which would make it very easy to hunt. A single potion could be used for about 50 monsters and probably more if diluted. Being a luxury item, it didn''t look was anybody was bidding on it. At this stage, everyone was still focused on leveling up, only a few were using it just to enjoy and that kind wouldn''t try and walk all the way just to register in a new beginner town. It still was stuck at the base price of 30 silvers. He quickly set his bid at the base price and there were no further bids on it making him the owner of the recipe. [Alva''s Tincture] (Basic Potion recipe) Required Materials: Red moss x 2; Blue weed x 2; Effects: Can be consumed with or without food to put you in a state of euphoria. "Red moss! There are only found near dryad territory. I better put in few refined iron ores in exchange for the red moss. Else, I doubt I would be able to produce the potion," thought Balthazar as he put in 5 ores at the auction house. He had already spent about 15 minutes at the auction house and hoped that he would get the Red moss quickly. Luckily, somebody bought out the ores for 20 red moss within a minute. He realized that the ores are probably in higher demand than he thought. On further thought, he only managed to get refined ores because of the tools that the team got from the goblin camp. He was satisfied with his finds in the auction house and decided to leave it. He also needed a sprinkler to make use of the Alva''s Tincture. He soon got it from one of the merchant shops in the town along with a few bottles of slowing poison. With the new tools and potion recipe he got, it would be really easy to explore new areas and he hadn''t yet explored one part of the town. It was the new area that appeared behind the town. It had a new barracks and a barracks indicated monsters in the area. As he intended to explore a new area, he would probably end up with few new materials. He needed to empty a few more space in his bag so that he could fill up the new materials he found. "I could put in most of the materials like ores and crystals into the bank for now," thought Shadow. With a shop in the marketplace, he might need to store more materials into the bank. With that thought in mind he went to the bank immediately and opened a storage space in there. The bank provided rented storage space of 100 bag slots per month per account for the price of 10 bronze coins. For increase in the storage space, it was 10 bronze for every 50 bag slots. He made an account for himself for 100 bag slots. He had 62 refined iron ores and 72 blackrock crystals in his bag which he transferred to the storage space. He also contacted Rudra and informed him of the account and gave him privileges to store and remove stuff. If he is handling all the trade profession player, it is always better to have a storage space to place materials and finished products apart from the ones he would put in display or in the shop. Even though he had spent about 20 minutes after the town came up. He is sure that other than the locals most didn''t even attempt to go to that part. Also, towns having a back area mostly had quests above level 10. Even if few locals didn''t know, most of the one from other towns knew and few had already mentioned the general trends of the quests in the forums. Chapter 65 - Kanterbury plains He quickly went along the new path and in a couple of minutes reached a small camp filled with tents. There was a ground with a few soldiers training in fight against each other. There were few guard towers in the vicinity and a small keep near the training ground. There were trenches and anti-cavalry spikes around the entire area. There was a small gateway beside the keep that allowed player to get outside the trenches. A few guards were in waiting by the gate who seem to be giving quests to the players. He went ahead to talk to them. "Greeting adventurer, there have been a lot of changes in the area around the Kanterbury plains. We would like you to investigate and kill any monsters you see there," said the guard. "We are willing to reward you for any monsters you kill or information you bring." [Help the garrison against the increasing menace of monsters] (Difficulty Level: ??) Quest Description: You have accepted the request of the garrison. Investigate and/or kill any threat to the garrison. Progress: Monsters killed: 0 Though the difficulty level being indicated by ?? confused many players, Shadow knew that it implied that the difficulty can vary based on the monsters or characters he found. It is completely random and depended on the movements of the player. These kinds of quests can be very dangerous or very easy, depending on how far the player is willing to go and continue the quest. Sometimes, they even involve higher leveled boss monsters too. With the guard allowing him to go through the gate, he made his way to observe the landscape. The map he had, only showed the topography up till the barracks. It was a completely new zone for him, and he was going in blind. It would be a lot harder to explore than the Blackrock hills and Arwild forest as it wasn''t there in the game during his previous life. Once he crossed the gate, he went to a side and began production of the Alva''s tincture. All basic potions involved heating up some water and adding the ingredients. The instruction specified the different shades of it is supposed to be at every stage. The only issue was the time it took to make them. With the materials he had, he quickly managed to make 5 of the potions. He had materials for 10 potions and managed to produce 5 potions. "Hmm, that is 50% success rate. It is good rate in general but for someone who had played the game in previous life, I guess I could do better," though Balthazar as he poured a potion into the sprinkler. He went into stealth after he was done potions and made his way across the plains. The plains were filled with tall grass as far as he could see. There were a few trees sparsely thrown at random places in the grass. The river before the blackrock continued into the plains. As he moved through the grass in stealth, he could see a few fanged antelopes, stags and prairie boars. These were all mostly level 7 and level 8 monsters. With the sprinkler and poison, he just needs to use it and attack the monsters without much worry of retaliation. Most of the monster like the fanged antelopes, stags and prairie boars moved in the areas near to the river. The stags and antelopes didn''t actively attack players and usually ran away at a high speed when they saw anything. Injuring them to generate aggro wasn''t usually an option with these monsters. These kinds of monsters were usually referred to as docile monsters by the player base. It was always suggested to ambush and quickly kill them before they get out of control and escape. They also attack but their attacks are always used to create an opening to run away. Luckily, these monsters tend to have little defense which was best for ambush attacks but if the failed to control it, they would easily escape due to their extremely high agility and movement speed. The developers of the game clearly decided to trade, defence and attack of the creatures for high agility. The only exception was the prairie boars. It was possible to aggro the prairie boars and they attacked and even called for reinforcements. So, it is best to find isolated boars to attack. These would also attack if they find players attacking other monsters. [Fanged Antelope] (Common monster) Level 7; HP: 2500/2500; [Stag] (Common monster) Level 7; HP: 2500/2500; [Prairie Boar] (Common monster) Level 7; HP: 2500/2500; The fanged antelope have horns and fangs. Their most common attack involved using their horns or kicking before escaping. The same held true for the stags. So, it was always advisable to stay away from their legs. Putting them in a stupor with cheap shot or the alva''s tincture and then using garrote to strangle and make them bleed was considered one of the best methods to solo take down such beasts. Luckily, he already has the required weapon and tools to do that. He slowly made his way towards the river and slowly crept behind a fanged antelope. He quickly used cheap shot and began attacking the beast with his daggers. Even though the garrote is a good way to control as well as injure them, the damage was dealt at a lower rate than using daggers. The damage was (2 x Strength + 15) which was 97 true physical damage per second if he used a garrote. But each strike with a dagger cause 100 physical damage. With his agility he could land at least 2 attacks per dagger in a second. Even with the defense these monsters had, with the daggers, he could deal three times as much damage as the garrote per second. After 4 seconds he used the sprinkler to put it in a daze. With the daggers he already managed to reduce its health by half and the potion gave him enough time to change his weapon to garrote, swung it around the antelope''s neck, pushed it down and began to choke it with the garrote. "+65 experience points" Within 15 seconds, he managed to take down a level 7 antelope alone. At this rate, he would be able to kill at least one beast per minute without much issue. He quickly started looting the corpse and found antelope fangs, antelope horns and antelope meat. Antelope horns and fangs can both be used in making equipment and even in some potions while the meat like all other meat is used in cooking. He went into stealth and began attacking beast one after the other. With cheap shot, the alva''s tincture and the garrote, the monsters were always controlled, and the surrounding ones didn''t even usually notice him killing. In 40 minutes, he had killed enough to even allow him to level up. He not only killed antelopes but also managed to kill a few stags. He made enough experience to even level him up. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: Exp: 40/2800 HP: 2500/2500; MP: 800/800; Physical Attack: 92 Defense: 64; Attack Speed: 60; Movement Speed: 62; Willpower: 18; Balance: 27; Focus/Search: 36; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 17; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 46, Agility 44, Endurance 22, Intelligence 17, Vitality 32, Perception 18. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 6 With this method he already had started to gather decent amount of materials for exchanging with Kade for contribution points. Kade had asked him specifically for materials from higher leveled monsters from the start and this was no better place to farm them than the Kanterbury plains. He had used three of the free attribute points in intelligence and three in perception. He had already had all other attributes with values above 20 and continuing to neglect these two attributes would make his character imbalanced. Intelligence along with endurance would improve his magic resist and perception is very important for assassins as then need it for better scouting activities. He continued with killing the monsters in the plains. It was a decent way to increase his experience and he could also get decent materials. Apart from these, these monsters also dropped a few equipment rarely. Though they didn''t have great attributes, he could sell them. As the days continued more people would join the game. The demand for equipment wouldn''t drop anytime soon. He also occasionally fought boars. It was much harder to use the garrote on the boar because it had a wide and short neck. But, as the boars got easily aggroed, they kept coming back to attack, allowing him to repeatedly practice his garrote skill on it and kill it. Unlike other thieves, who had low stealth and attracted only boars while the stags and antelopes ran away from them, he managed to get deeper than others into the plains. This also made him the lone player who explored so far into the plains. He was at least a couple of kilometers ahead of any other team that ventured into it. He used the explorer''s orb to make a map of the plains. In another two hour he would reach the lake which the river dumped into. It was at the end of the updated map. He was also getting better at using the garrote. He was able to even choke the monster by holding both the handles of the garrote in one hand while using the dagger in the other hand to inflict damage at a higher rate. With these monsters being at the same level as him, there was no level subjugation. Though he got lesser experience per monster than when he was at level 6, the damage he could deal per second increased compensating for it. The experience would decrease further when he leveled up again but the rate at which he was gaining experience would still be worth continuing to farm at the plains. The only thing that concerned him right now was that his team would complete the elite mode of the dungeon and he would be asked to join them to attempt the hell mode. As expected, about 30 minutes later, he got messages from both Slaine and Merlin that they finished the elite dungeon in 76 minutes putting them in top 5 of the fastest records. Merlin immediately suggested him to join the group to attempt hell mode. Their run in the elite mode dungeon had them all excited and they definitely wanted to try hell mode. Tetsujin also showed them how useful a martial artist can be in crowd controlling monsters. Shadow knew that he couldn''t dissuade them at this time. The best he could is finish the hell mode dungeon as fast as possible and return to the plains to further explore. He also sent an image of the map of the plains to Slaine. He had plans to get his team to explore the plains along with him after the dungeon and he would also like Rudra and his guild to be exploring the plains. During this time, he hardly got a couple of kilometers into the plains. He would be able to get more information from Slaine, if he had the map and explored into the plains a bit. He definitely would like to know more about the monsters near the lake. A change of terrain always resulted in a few new monsters, resources and tools. He channeled his hearthstone to get back to the town. He met with Merlin and the others. Merlin being considered the main cook for the team was given all the meat collected by Shadow. Also, they exchanged any equipment they might need. He quickly went to the bank to deposit the antelop horns and fangs, stag horns and prairie boar tusks along with the equipment he had in his bag. He also told both Slaine and Rudra to keep on the look for red moss in the auction house without revealing to them about the alva''s tincture. With these done, he along with his team teleported to the ''Cave of Wargs'' again to attempt the hell mode of the dungeon. He was already level 7 and the rest of the team was level 6. If he leveled up again, he wouldn''t even get a decent experience nor will his achievements of first clear be considered by the system as the limit was up to level 7. He quickly bought a few torches and opened up the portal for Hell mode dungeon. As expected, the hell mode was quite different from the elite instance. It was darker and gloomier than the elite instance. As usual he went into stealth to scout. It was mostly the same except that the level of wolves and wargs increased by one. Luckily, their behavior still was the same. But he didn''t want the team to advance right now as he was sure just this wouldn''t cause the others to fail to finish the hell mode. He went further but couldn''t find anything. "I guess there must be some change at the end of the dungeon," thought Shadow as he returned to the team and asked them to move forward. He didn''t wait for the team and began killing the wolves one by one. With the wolves being at level 5 they were subjugated by him easily. The combination of garrote and dagger allowed him to kill a hungry wolf in less than 5 seconds even after they leveled up and had higher HP. Though the rest of the team used the torches to frighted the wolves, the wolves tend to evade their attacks and a decent number of them missed. Unlike them, Shadow always disables them and then uses the garrote and dagger. It had the advantage of the martial artists choke skill and didn''t have a cooldown. It also dealt damage at the same time. The team waving their torches always attracted the attention of the wolves. This led to Shadow solo killing the wolves at a faster rate than the rest of the team together. This had them extremely surprised, especially the new weapon garrote that he used. Even Merlin and Tetsujin were impressed by his skill in using a garrote. The garrote attack when used in controlled mode required the opponent to be stunned or still to use it perfectly. But Shadow used it on the quick and fast-moving wolves, which clearly showed them that this man could actually attack using a garrote in real-life. It not only put them in awe of him but also a tiny spark of fear crept into his team. Chapter 66 - Hell mode again With Shadow leading them through the dungeon in the new fashion, they easily mowed through the wolves. When they came near the caverns where the wargs slept he didn''t have the team slow down and silently take down the wolves. Nor did they have Tetsujin use choke to restrain the warg as they did with in the previous run. Shadow directly went into the room and with the use of cheap shot and garrote managed to restrain the warg easily. The remaining just followed into the room and began to shower their attacks on the warg. Even the blackrock wargs which had taken some precautions and planning before, were no trouble to Shadow after he used the garrote. In this way they moved through the dungeon with a decent speed. They reached the end of the dungeon to the large enclosure where the worgen was located under 40 minutes. If this was the elite instance of the dungeon, they were sure that their team would have made the fastest clear of the dungeon beating the system record time. Before the enclosure, they all stopped to take a small period of rest and eat some bread, water and meat before they continued. Merlin already had some warg meat patties ready which temporarily boosted they strength attribute along with filling up a decent amount of mana and health. They sat down to enjoy these refreshments before the final boss. "This run was ridiculous!" exclaimed Tang unable to hold it any longer. "With brother Shadow''s new weapon, we definitely would have gotten the fastest clear in elite mode. It is sad that we can''t see that happen. You should have come with us for the elite instance again, we would have already had the first clear." "You seem to forget that he didn''t have the new weapon when we cleared the elite mode for the second time. He probably would have lost the chance to gain the weapon if he did," said Merlin trying to calm down the excited girl "Yes, but he is invincible with that garrote weapon," continued Tang. She already knew that Shadow was an expert fighter in real-life. The way he used garrote to take down wargs cemented that thought in her mind and even elevated his image to a that of a near godly expert. Merlin and Tetsujin have already realized this and began making jokes about it and were chuckling. "No, I am not. I can''t use it against many monsters. It wouldn''t work on the armored warg. Moreover, I also need to continuously hold the garrote with my hand and my movement is restrained during this time. There is nothing without flaws," said Shadow stopping her before she continues to accidentally embarrass him unintentionally. "I am glad that we have managed to clear these, but it wasn''t as good a haul as I expected from hell mode. We hardly got any good resources from the dungeon," said Quiet Fire changing the topic. "I guess all the good stuff must be concentrated in there." Though they were quite fast and efficient in clearing the dungeon till this point, they didn''t have much gains resource wise. They opened a couple of treasure chests, but the contents weren''t very great. Many teams have attempted the hell mode by now and unlike the elite instance where they were the first to explore, the treasure chests if any were surely opened by the ones who attempted before them. But none of the teams managed to finish the hell mode. It was clear that there was some kind of strong deterring agent somewhere. They didn''t observe much difference up till now, except for a change in the level. So, it definitely would be something that changed at the end of the dungeon. With that thought, Shadow halted the team near the entrance as he went into stealth to check the large enclosure at the end of the tunnel. At the first glance, he couldn''t notice anything new. It was the same old worgen with an armored warg and two other wargs. They all just have a higher level than in the elite mode of the dungeon. He was almost convinced that it was all, when he noticed two cinder wolves behind the altar. With their smaller size compared to wars and the red light of the altar camouflaging them he almost failed to notice them. [Cinder Blackrock Wolves] (Common monsters) Level: 7; HP: 2500/2500; He immediately realized why the previous teams failed to finish the hell mode. It was due to these new monsters. Cinder wolves had an ash color but glowed with a scarlet hue just like the name suggested. They had fire and smoke rising out of them continuously. They also dealt fire elemental damage to any player or monster that came into contact with them. This made all forms of physical attacks to cause self-harm to the player. Even tanking these monsters was harder than the normal wolves as they continuously dealt fire damage by even being in contact with the players. These monsters could also use small bursts of fire to propel themselves or push others away. Luckily these monsters seemed to have lower level unlike the actual cinder wolves which were level 15. Else they wouldn''t have had any hopes of taking them down. These would definitely make the dungeon a lot harder than the elite instance. He went back to the team to explain to them. Though he didn''t tell the name, cinder wolves as it would raise suspicion, he told them that there were level 7 fire elemental wolves which could cause fire damage and have very high speed. Though the team was a strong one for a team at this stage of the game, it wasn''t capable of handling four monsters at a time. Assuming the two wargs being kept in control by tetsujin and himself, two more monsters would be attacking them. Moreover, with four monsters closely related to wolves they would definitely attack in a pack employing wolf-pack tactics. Neither Tetsujin or Shadow can control the wolves because they would be in physical contact with them dealing large amounts of damage. Also, fire and thunder elemental damage tend to cause sensation of pain causing them to lose control. But the worst part was that fire damage would usually lead to loss of durability of weapons and equipment. Blade weapons can have their durability easily recovered by whetstones by sharpening a dull blade, but that didn''t extend to equipment. Moreover, the durability loss would tend to be high due to everyone in the team being at a lower level than the wolves with the exception of him. Shadow calmly explained all the disadvantages they had. Fire damage causing the weapons to lose durability was a common thing in many games. Merlin and Tetsujin were also concerned about having to fight four monsters instead of two. "If we had better equipment of leveled up to level 7, we could at least consider it as having made our best efforts. It looks like the developers intended even the players with the maximum allowed level to work hard to clear the hell mode," said Tetsujin. "Let us try it out," said Merlin. "At worst, we will die and lose 5% experience. We gained enough to compensate for that. But winning would give us first clear rewards which would be some of the best equipment in the game." His argument had a valid point. At this stage, it would feel awful to just turn back. Everyone in the team were also extremely tempted by the thought of the first clear. The temptation of the rewards finally had them vote to attempt the final boss. As planned, they all were close to one another as the monsters closed in. Shadow and Tetsujin were responsible for handling the wargs and Blinding and Tang would tank the wolves. The remaining were just going to attack, and they need to focus their attacks on the wolves. It was a decent plan except that it didn''t work as expected. Shadow and Tetsujin were still successful in controlling the wargs. They manged to somehow keep the wargs in control. But the cinder wolves were something entirely different from the wargs. When Shadow and Tetsujin were busy trying to hold the wargs at bay, the cinder wolves as expected attempted to aid the wargs by attacking Shadow and Tetsujin. Tang and Blinding covered them from the cinder wolves as they attacked the wargs. Shadow didn''t even need any help as long as no other monster attacked him. He alone was able to kill the warg. He managed to reduce the strain on the team significantly by holding back one monster all on his own. Tetsujin did need Merlin and the rest to support him and deal damage to the other warg. With Little White''s heals supporting them and potions they managed to slowly kill the wargs which the summoner as expected replaced with new ones. In this manner, the slowly managed to kill eight wargs and the team was glad that there would be no more wargs summoned after that. This was when the worgen started howling continuously and a sudden change took place in the wolves'' pattern of attacks. All this time they used a few attacks on the wolves occasionally but didn''t focus on them. The only tried to repel them when they tried to help the wargs but focused mainly on killing wargs. They wouldn''t be able to do much either. The wolves had high movement speed which only Shadow could keep up with. They couldn''t deal significant damage to the wolves. Luckily, the wolves always attacked to save the wargs and this allowed the team to predict and repel them. Uncharacteristically the two wolves started to attack players instead of trying to save the wargs. Both Blinding and Tang blocked them with their shields as planned, but they simply bounced off their shields and moved towards Quiet Fire and Little White Feet. With their speed, both Quiet Fire and Little White wouldn''t be able to outrun the wolves. They did use their skills to attack the wolves while they ran towards them. Quite fire used Frost Bolt against the wolf, which was a level 3 skill and dealt little damage in general, but was very effective since fire attributed beast tend to avoid frost or water attacks. The smite and holy attack hardly had any effect on the wolf. The wolves gave up on the rest of the team and they both began to focus on Little White Feet instead. This was something that wasn''t expected by anyone in the team. Even though both Tang and Blinding tried to cover for the priest, one of the wolves managed to attack little white feet and flung it away from the rest of the team. The other one also joined it and within a few seconds they managed to kill Little White Feet. After Little White Feet, they flanked Quiet Fire. She also was killed soon. Without Quiet Fire and the priest, the remaining understood that they had no chance of finishing the dungeon. They would need to fight even the armored warg and worgen later. They began to retreat to the tunnel to save experience. Sadly, it looked like neither the two wolves nor the wargs would allow to them to leave safely. They attacked them repeatedly from all sides resulting in two more casualties before they left into the tunnel. Only Shadow, Tetsujin and Tang managed to escape. The soon made their way out of the dungeon and through the portal. The others were already at the Blackrock town waiting for them. "We have underestimated the Hell mode of the dungeon. The increase in difficulty was a lot more than expected. We should have been a bit more careful, prepare and maybe waited till we reached level 7," said Quiet Fire bringing up the topic of the dungeon. It was common practice to discuss their pitfalls after a dungeon run to analyse and determine what they could have done better. But today, it was not a problem of the players work but their levels and equipment. Merlin felt most guilty as he was the one who suggested and raised their morale against Shadow''s advice, but how was he to know that it would be that difficult. He would be the one to usually start discussing their mistakes but this time he felt like it was his fault. He was the one who was most excited about hell mode dungeon. He couldn''t get a team for corrupted forest, so he put all his hopes for getting a first clear of hell mode in the cave of wargs dungeon and that almost resulted in a team wipe. "It wasn''t that we underestimated but we didn''t have enough information. It wasn''t a usual dungeon that the game had for everyone to help level up fast. There was no dungeon at level 5 till I did the quest for special dungeon. It was a special dungeon and we expected it to be like the regular dungeons in difficulty," said Merlin trying to pull up their spirits. He was the one who led the team mostly. It would be his burden to take responsibility and maintain their spirits. "We can have other first clears. We just need to cross level 10 and get to the city," continued Merlin pointing them to the next course of action. They wouldn''t have another opportunity to attempt hell mode today. It was best that the continue with their quest of getting to the city. Once, they finish that quest they would have a lot more opportunities. Under other circ.u.mstance even Shadow would have agreed that it is best to go and attempt the quest. But he always knew that the quest was a very difficult one. When players noticed that it was very hard, the formed groups of large numbers like 50 or so to go through the quest in all villages. All other quests in villages had low level monsters and didn''t provide with much experience. So, the players had to join forces irrespective of guilds to get out from beginner villages. It was a different experience in beginner towns as they always had monsters that were higher leveled and allowed the player to level up before attempting and clearing the quest. But these quest in town weren''t easy either. And couple with the large populace and competition in towns, it was more or less the same situation. Chapter 67 - Trade Skill books Even after two years when he created his account in his past life, he could see that its difficulty didn''t decrease much after the upgrades. The game company insisted that such a quest would enable the player to get better acquainted with the different options the game could provide allowing them to improve their co-ordination and techniques and have a better experience with the game later. In fact, the Metis technologies didn''t really care much about the players enjoyment. It insisted on this quest as the scientist believed that hard quest would improve the players compatibility with the somnium technology. Also, it would have an unconscious effect on all player to improve their physical abilities. So, Shadow could only imagine that the quest wouldn''t be simple or easy at all. It would need people in large numbers to attempt the quest as it happened in his previous life or they could level up. Seeing that it just became a town and new territories opened, it would be best to explore them before the craze for the special dungeon ''Cave of Wargs'' subsided. It was always a rule in games that dungeons would provide more experience and resources than farming in the wild. After that came quests. Everybody considered that quests gave better rewards. So, most would try to complete the dungeon runs before they go and attempt the quest for clearing the path to the city. Assuming the best-case time to finish the dungeon in 60 minutes and having a total of 6 possible runs per day, they could assume 6 hours to be spent by most players at the dungeon. Let the worst case be 4 hours. This still gave Shadow a significant advantage to explore the plains and with these thoughts in mind, he suggested that the explore the plains instead. "At least, let me pull your levels up. The plains have good farming spots. Then you can go and attempt the quest like others. I have already explored that area in stealth during your attempt with elite dungeon. There are a lot of monsters and without being ready, we would face a situation similar to the hell mode," said Shadow. "Fine, if you could raise our level quickly. We can still attempt the quest afterwards. The quest is supposed to be a valid one till we reach level 10 anyway. We wouldn''t be able to enter the city without reaching level 10 even if we finish the quest," said Quiet Fire. "Ya, it would probably make the quest a bit easier. Let us try and see. It is always better to get a hold of farming spots early to level up. We lost our chance at the hell mode of dungeon. This is the best time to improve our levels," agreed Tetsujin. With both Quiet Fire and Tetsujin agreeing, the rest also decided to try and see. During their attempt at the dungeon, Slaine as suggested by Balthazar took Rudra, Brick, Light and Roll to explore the plains in a 5-man team. Brick Wall was a guardian, Perennial Light a Druid and Duck ''n'' Roll was an assassin. They had been playing games with Slaine for a long time and were already working from the workshop that they prepared. They had mostly moved along the river and targeted boars. With a team, isolated boars were good targets if one had a proficient team. All the thief needs to do is aggro the boar towards the team and they ambushed it. It was easy to agro the board and it wouldn''t run away. A couple of control skills or a decent tank would provide them the chance to whittle down its health. Slaine also used poison on his arrows and along with their ambush tactics, they had a decent hunt in the plains. Farming at the plains was easy. All one had to remember was to pull isolated creatures into ambushes and not waste their time with docile monsters if they didn''t have enough control skills. Farming in this manner allowed them to quickly gain experience and crossed level 6. This way, Rudra, Slaine and the other three made their way towards the river. The river was one of the places that they didn''t explore well as it had a higher concentration of monsters. Even if most of them were docile one''s, accidentally causing more than one boar or other kind of monsters wasn''t appealing as they were all higher leveled monsters than the team. Slaine and Roll had the highest perception among the group. Roll went closer to the river and he could see that the river also had monsters, but they were small fishes and moved at a fast pace continuously. He felt like it is a waste to even attempt attacking them. Slaine attempted to shoot a couple of them but as soon as the arrow touched the water the fish swam away as if it noticed the attack. He made a few more attempts, but they were all futile. They also could see few monsters which looked like crocodiles in the river, but these monsters were just still. Moreover, they were at level 15. {Langstonia] (Common Monsters) Level 15; HP: 7000/7000; Langstonia were monsters similar to crocodiles. But unlike crocodiles they were fast on both land and water. They had a length of 2-3 meters with 3 feet long legs which allowed them to move around easily on land. But like crocodiles these reptiles spend most of their time in water. The only moving monsters that were in range and had similar level were fishes. It looks like the game only allowed them to catch fish by fishing or getting into the water to attack. But looking at the langstonia, any such thoughts evaporated instantly. The continued to attack the monsters along the river in the same fashion as before. After a few minutes, they saw an isolated cabin on the banks of the river. The cabin was large and had a large fishing deck that extended on to the river. There was a crippled old person fishing in a wheel chair while a guard was on the lookout on the deck. As they approached the cabin, the guard immediately came towards them with his sword. "Why are you here?" asked the guard rudely pointing his sword at them. The guard was a level 15 character and had a yellow mark on him indicating he was a neutral NPC. "We are just adventurers from the Blackrock town. We are exploring the region and hunting a few monsters," answered Rudra before the guard would get any doubts. If he was a neutral NPC, there might be a good chance to get a quest from him, if he talks to them in a decent and respectful manner. "Don''t frighten them, Bill. Send them to me," said the old person in the wheelchair suddenly. The guard led them to the deck when they could notice the old guy. The old man had grey hair cut like that of a soldier, bright green eyes which almost sparkled and wore what looked like a guard uniform. From the uniform, it was apparent that he was high-level personnel among the guards. He was definitely a mage as he had a 5-foot long sceptre in a stand attached to the wheelchair. The sceptre had scarlet blade at the end instead of a gemstone like the usual ones. It was a very odd one. As the old guy turned around in the wheelchair, they noticed that the wheelchair was also powered by magic and had runes flashing on it. There was a pressure that couldn''t understand pressing on their minds when he came closer. [Battlemage Arius Wright] (NPC - Light Faction) Level: ??? (Crippled) HP: ???? "Don''t be frightened," said Arius and at the same time the pressure they felt suddenly disappeared. It was clear to them that the old man was a very powerful NPC. "Respected Sir, we have been given a quest to explore the area and hunt monsters in the plains to make it safer for the new town. This quest was given by the guards," said Rudra before anything was asked of him. "I guessed that young man," said Arius calmly. "I am Arius and have been an advisor to the royal guards for a long time. I came here to look at the new town and see if there are any strong foreign aggressors who might pose a danger," continued Arius introducing himself and his purpose there. "Nothing worth my effort here. The entire endeavor was boring. The only issue with this place is lack of provisions. They don''t have enough food so as to scr.a.p.e me a decent meal here. This cabin was made by me just for fishing and gathering food. Help us gather some food and in return I will teach you a few simple tricks. They will surely be useful to you," said mage as a list appeared in front of them. The list included various things like manuals for fishing, enchantments, alchemy and other trade professions. But the most enticing things were skill books. Thought the skill books corresponded to the profession of mages and berserkers. The guy had very rare skill books too and he calls them simple tricks. "Sir, we surely will try our best to help you," said Rudra as he gathered all the meat, he had from hunting the monsters. He had also collected meat from Cave of wargs and had a total 56 meat pieces together. He began to regret leaving the meat at the storage of the shop he had rented. "Tcch! It is not that easy to learn tricks from me," said Arius as the costs below the skill appeared. They were all extremely high. Even the manual for fishing, enchantments cost 50 meats. The other skills like frost nova, Thunderstorm were in high hundreds. "Don''t underestimate them. They were improved versions made by me and not the cheap stuff you find at any shop. By the way I don''t intend to spend more than 2 hours here and am partial to seafood. We can lend you some fishing equipment," continued Arius. At the same time, new prices for books appeared if they traded with fish. The prices were half the previous ones when using seafood. A new quest notification popped up. New Quest: Help Sir Arius gather food (preferably seafood) Reward: Skills and manuals. Looking at the quest, Rudra was awfully tempted. He wanted Slaine to run back to the town and get all the meat he could from the shop. During Rudra''s talk with Arius, Slaine was also contacted by Balthazar to check if they found anything useful in the plains. "Found an NPC who is willing to provide skill books for meat. Get as much meat as you have immediately," he replied sending an image of his location in the map. "Balthazar is coming with meat supplies from the town," he immediately informed his team. "Get the fishing manual and learn. It is the best we can try. I doubt we can get enough meat on our own for any of the other main occupation skills," suggested Slaine immediately. Rudra was the only one who didn''t yet learn any trade profession skill. He was the guild leader and had always focused on it. He wanted to learn merchant and engineering but were considered higher tier trade professions not available before level 10. Moreover, Slaine knew that Rudra was always had hunting and fishing experience in real life. So, he shouldn''t have much issue in a virtual reality. So, he was the one to learn fishing. Luckily, the book was better than the normal ones available in general shops. It directly improved his skill level to level 2. This was better than expected. But he still needed fishing supplies. "Bill these guys need some bait and supplies. Loan them a few would you?" said Arius winking at the soldier. The soldier immediately bought out a fishing rod and supplies like bait and a storage case. "Costs 5 silver per hour," said the soldier stretching out his hand. It was clear that they system wasn''t going to make it easy for them to gather skills easily. The rental rate was very high for some trade profession goods like these. [Simple Fishing Rod] (Fishing Rod) Min Skill: 0; Min level: 1; Damage: 15-20 per second; Durability: 20/20; The manual not only provide him the 2nd level of fishing skill but also provided information about how to tie bait properly to the fishing rod. It also contained information on different kinds of various kinds of fish that can be found in various environments. Rudra seated himself on the fishing deck at a distance from Arius and swung his fishing rod in a direction a bit distant from Arius. It wasn''t sensible for multiple people to fish at a same point. He also tried to imitate and learn from Arius after going through the book. Fishing was quite similar to hunting other monsters, once a fish is hooked the players needs to maintain the fish on the hook. The damage is caused as long the fish is on hook and once it dies, it can be reeled in. If the player stubbornly reels in the fish if it tries to swim away after being hooked without giving a care to how much force he feels, the fish would break away and it would also lower the durability of the fishing rod. This mechanism isn''t exactly like real fishing obviously. But it was quite similar to the other games and made fishing a bit more of a challenge. But mostly fishing was considered one of the leisure activities of the game. While Rudra was focused on fishing, the remaining continued to search for other monsters to collect more meat and Balthazar was coming towards them with more than 1500 meats. Each stack of meats contained up to 20 pieces which could be put in one slot of bag space. A single player has 20 slots of bag space by default. So, the seven of them could carry a maximum of 2800 meats. Shadow even gave Merlin a few gold and had him buy up whatever meat he could find from the auction house along with the red moss as he went to shop to retrieve the stored meats. Merlin managed to get up to 300 meats from the auction house. Apart from that he also had all the meat the team and Shadow collected till now. He even had more than one variety of cooked meat. Shadow also bought another sprinkler which he could have someone else in the team use. It would also enable the rest of the team to hunt monsters faster. If Merlin used a confusion skill like Terror Wave followed by Tetsujin and other holding the monster down, even a docile monster could be taken down easily. With cave of wargs frequently producing meat, a lot of player began to sell it and Rudra stocked up his shop with them. These were all collected by Balthazar and his team. They filled their bag spaces with them and made way to the location specified by Slaine. Rudra was also not bad. He soon got the hang of it and managed to pull up a few fish. Luckily, the fish were lower leveled one''s with little health and he didn''t need much to hold on to them for much time before he could reel them in. After 15 minutes of him starting, he had a steady rate of getting at least two fishes per minute. In 30 minutes, Balthazar and his team managed to reach the cabin and contact Rudra. He immediately exchanged the 1500 meat pieces he had with Rudra, so that he could exchange for some skills. Chapter 68 - New skills and equipment. After giving him, the meat from the shop, Shadow stayed there with Merlin and Quiet Fire, there so that they could also check to see if there were any interesting skills they would like. Apart from the 1500 meats they got from the shop, the team themselves also collected meat which was left with Merlin and Quiet Fire. Quiet Fire and Merlin had about 300 meat and Merlin had a 50 cooked meat too. Shadow still had more meat on him which they got from the auction house. Balthazar decided to only use the meat from the shop for Rudra and the guild. Receiving the meat, Rudra immediately contacted Arius. A list of skill was displayed before him again. Though there were a few high-level skills, with the amount he had, the most he could get was one of them. Though the skills didn''t show exact description, they could see information whether it was an *AOE/single target, physical or magical skills. The skill names also made a few things apparent. Rudra finally chose Earth Shattering Strike for 800 meats, Whirlwind Strike and Harpoon Tackle for 300 meats each. All the three skill he chose inflicted AOE damage and were rare skills not easily found in games in general. Earth Shattering Strike was a skill which required him to jump up and strike towards the ground with force. The strike would cause stun and bleed effects if it hits the target. The higher the distance he falls from, the higher would be the damage and range of the attack. It had a 5 min cooldown. Even if it fails to hit a target, it would cause slight AOE damage to the players and monster in his range. But its main advantage is the disorient effect it causes on those are in range. It could be used to attack and also as a control skill. Whirlwind Strike is a skill that allows the player to rotate and strike the enemies around him. It is a very powerful AOE skill of berserkers, that is available in almost all games. It is a rare skill that couldn''t be found before level 15. It had a cooldown of 1 minute. Harpoon Tackle is a skill that allows the player to dash in the direction his weapon is pointed for a distance of 2 metres. It dealt damage to all monsters and players in its path depending on the user''s strength. But it is not an unstoppable skill. If a higher strength monster or obstacle is in the path, the user would get bounced off. So, it must be used with care. It had a cooldown of 1 minute. With him done with choosing the skills he wanted, he suggested that the Quiet Fire and Merlin choose something and sent them a few images. Merlin was excited by all the skills that the NPC provided, but looking at their costs, he calmed down to determine which would be useful. They had 300 meat left with them along with 50 cooked meat patties. Apart from that Rudra had 100 meat and Rudra managed to catch about 20 fish. They need control skills more than anything right now. The kind that would also help them in hunting more meat. With much deliberation between Merlin, Quiet Fire and Shadow, they decided on the skill, chaos wave. This skill was a warlock skill and cost 450 meat. The skill was also a rare skill with an effect over area. It was something that had varied effects in different cases which couldn''t be predicted. The skill can cause either disorientation, slow, sleep, stun or fear effects. The player never had control over it. It was always a gamble to use this skill. When used a grey mist from the Warlock spreads into the area of effect and induces one of the effects. It is very useful in situation where players need to escape mobs. Merlin who had a reputation of fighting against guilds for resources and items obviously loved to have the skill. With that done, Shadow, Merlin and Quiet Fire joined their team who were already working with Slaine, Roll, Brick and Light. Shadow gave Merlin the sprinkler and explained how to use it with control skills on docile monsters. Thus, Shadow and Merlin were responsible for getting hold of beasts while the remaining attacked to kill them quickly. Roll would also lure in boars which they helped to kill fast. But soon they realized that however hard they tried they would get enough meat for one more skill but not more than that. By the end of the two hours of the quest they managed to get hold of near 200 meats with three people able to subdue the beasts and met back with Rudra. They all also managed to get to level 7. Apart from that Rudra also managed to capture a bit above 100 fish. "Ah! I thought I would get no more meat from you. I hope you got some fish to sell me after all this time. Make it quick, I need to go," said Arius as he saw Rudra come to him. "Check what you want. I don''t have anything else I am interested in right now," said Rudra as he allowed Merlin and Quiet Fire to use the meat for skills. He also knew about Merlin''s fame and wanted to deepen their friendship. They both already had thought from the previous time they looked at the list. They immediately selected Lightning Ring for Quiet Fire which cost 200 meat and 50 fish. The lightning ring made an electric ring around the player which can be used for defence or even to kick thieves from stealth. It was a common anti-stealth, short-range AOE skills used by elementalists which had a cooldown of 2 minutes. It also causes high amount of damage. They were left with another 50 fish which Merlin used to buy a manual for alchemy. It was the costliest trade profession book in the list. "It was better to use it for some manual than waste it," said Merlin and passed it on to Shadow. "This is best used by you. You can develop that sleeping potion and I guess you will improve your skill level as Crimson Power had a level up for fishing," said Merlin. He believed that the increase in materials at the town auction house would soon subside as the players slowly leveled up and the red moss would get scarce. So, he thought it best for him to improve his skill level to improve his success rate in alchemy. "Thanks," said Shadow as he took the manual. It read, alchemical experiments by Battlemage Arius Wright on its cover. He quickly opened it and checked about the author to find out that Arius was an Intermediate Alchemist. This implied that he would have many things about various potions up till the difficulty of Basic Alchemist and most of them can be trusted. As Shadow was checking the book, Arius Wright moved on his wheelchair which flew up into the air toward the barracks. With Arius gone, they had nothing left to do here. Though they were level 7, this was one of the good farming spots and also a decent place for fishing. So, the team decided to farm there for a few hours before it became known to other. Once, they were level 8 they could attempt to do the quest of clearing the path. Even though there were unexplored places, the quest tempted everyone as it is bound to give them reputation for White Heart City for being the first to clear the path. This was a competition not only between the players in the Blackrock Town region but also all the players in beginner towns and villages situated in the White Heart city region. Popularity in the capital city of the kingdom was a very enticing thing. Everyone in the team wanted to do that with the exception of Shadow. Balthazar knew the quest wouldn''t be so easy and didn''t want to try. But is impossible to explain that to them. So, he decided to go on his own way and let them realize it for themselves. Though he had the advantage of reincarnation, he could hardly help his friends in some manners. The only thing he could do was to make himself strong and help them in their time of need. The nature of the society didn''t leave him any choice. If he kept suggesting things that would happen, he would be either marked as a thief or a crazy person. He left them behind and made his way to the lake. The lake was bound to have something new and underwater treasure chests were always something that had valuable stuff. Along the way, he killed a few beasts. He also came across a new kind of beasts, the grassland leopards. [Grassland Leopard] (Common monsters) Level 8; HP: 2000/2000; These were very dangerous and intelligent beasts. Though they had less health for a level 8 beast. They were small, nimble and extremely fast. There are also other kind of leopards at higher levels. In the tall grass of the plains, these beasts are completely invisible and can easily ambush player and other monsters. Luckily, they are beasts which are alone and don''t travel or hunt in packs. These beasts can easily climb trees and attack from top of trees too. They usually jump onto the players maul them causing severe bleed effect and run away into hiding as soon as someone else attacks it. These were the assassins in the family of cats. They mostly ambush, hide and wait for their next chance. But the irony about them is that they are most vulnerable against assassin players. With the stealth features and perception, the hiding leopards were most commonly surprised by assassin players with cheap shot. After that, their comparitively lower HP would be pulled down to zero by the team. A good assassin would be able to farm these beasts with ease. Shadow was probably the best one in the game right now. He always moved in stealth and had enhanced perception and stealth from the mask of shadows. A quick cheap shot followed by strangulation using garrote was his favorite style and he continued to use to kill these beasts in the same way. The best part about killing these leopards, wasn''t the experience but that they dropped one of the first armor set pieces in the game. This would be the reason that many players would try to hunt leopards. Moreover, the leopard skin set was a leather armor set he could use. The armor set had total of four pieces, the helm, the gloves, the chest armor and the boots. [Leopard skin helm] (BlackIron head gear) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance: 15; Agility +3; Strength +5; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Agility +10%; 4 piece set effect: Ambush +1 level; Durability: 25/25; [Leopard skin gloves] (BlackIron gloves) Level 8; Requirement: Agility: 15; Strength +3; Endurance +3; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Agility +10%; 4 piece set effect: Ambush +1 level; Durability: 25/25; [Leopard skin boots] (BlackIron boots) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance: 15; Agility +5; Strength +2; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Agility +10%; 4 piece set effect: Ambush +1 level; Durability: 25/25; [Leopard skin armor] (BlackIron armor) Level 8; Requirement: Strength: 20; Agility +2; Vitality +5; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Agility +20%; 4 piece set effect: Ambush +1 level; Durability: 25/25; Set equipment were considered very useful as the set effects they provided were usually very powerful. A four-piece set was the kind of set equipment with least number of pieces. The leopard skin set was an armor set that is available at the lowest levels. It provided high agility and was very famous among assassins. The only thing that could be a bit of problem was its color scheme. As the name suggested, it had the leopard pattern on it. Most male players had issues with it, but it was quite famous among female players. Even the ones who didn''t play assassin profession were tempted to buy it. Even Balthazar himself wouldn''t be caught dead wearing it but it definitely was a useful set. He could sell it tomorrow after getting a better set. After he got the first piece, he was awfully tempted to collect the remaining pieces of the set. He decided to hunt actively for leopards instead of going towards the lake. He soon killed over 15 leopards managing to get 6 pieces of the leopard skin set. When he finally got all four pieces without a repeat, he resumed his original plan to explore the area by the lake. By the time he was done with the leopard skin set, he was already level 8 and equipped the set. As he reached the lake, he noticed that something was peculiar about it. It usually is expected to see more number of beasts by a lake. But it was completely different from what he expected. For starters, there were no beasts such as antelopes, deer and leopards visible along the lake. There was a large wooden stockade separating the lake from the rest of the plains. It had a few masked bandits guarding the door and other places. Moreover, the guards were all at level 10. It also had a couple of watchtowers. It seemed like they had a camp set up at the lake and were digging near the lake in search for something. Though he couldn''t kill any of them, due the passive enhanced stealth from his mask, he could easily check it out in stealth. Note: *AOE - Area of effect (or AoE) is a term used in many role-playing and strategy games to describe attacks or spells that can affect multiple targets within a specified area* Chapter 69 - The Bandit Camp The watchtowers near the gate were primitive ones made of wood with a single bandit on top overlooking the plains for monsters or players. It wasn''t like the stone ones near the Blackrock town which could have multiple personnel working in it. These were the first things that he saw before he saw the stockade around the lake With a little care he could easily take care of both of them. But killing one of them would probably alert the other. If there was an option to kill them instantly and soundlessly, he would have. Sadly, this wasn''t that kind of a game. Even though he was an assassin, he couldn''t kill a bandit with a higher level than him without allowing the bandit to make a sound. Humanoid targets like these bandits were extremely different from the beasts. Like the NPCs they were also metacognizant in sense they had a purpose, could understand and be aware of the things happening around them. These bandits were covered in rags and wore weapons and equipment just like the player and NPCs. The guards held spears and the lookouts wore lenses with a crossbow in their hands. These qualities made them a lot trickier to handle than the usual monsters. They tend to have strong safeguards, communication and management techniques which would enable them to know if any player has targeted any member of the group. These group dynamics made assassins a very vital commodity in handling such groups. Assassins could use stealth enabling them to sneak in and note down their movements habits and how they are communicating. It is important to know whether the opponent has any leverage against us in battle and knowing their communication systems and chain of command. With these two things known one can make plans to cripple the strongest of the fortresses in the world. The same applied for the game and assassins were the usual spies. Later, in the game assassins would even have the specialization of scouting/spy-craft which gave them better skills for the same. Balthazar had learnt these things even in real life as a colonel to safeguard against any intrusions into his citadel. Although he had failed horribly in his past life in this regard, that made him more careful and observant. Moreover, staking out a place was the first part of any of his jobs in his two years as an assassin. He also understood the typical behavior of the guards and lookouts. Although, the game made these characters'' behavior as close as possible to real-life, they had some idiosyncrasies which he could always use. Even if, he couldn''t be discovered in stealth by these guards, the lookouts stationed at these places tend to have higher perception sometimes. {Bandit] (Elite monster) Level 10; HP: 4500/4500; [Bandit Lookout] (Elite monster) Level 10; HP: 4500/4500; Shadow knew that there was nothing like being too careful. He intended to use his shadow clone skill to confuse the guards. The only problem was that he couldn''t have the guards see his clone disappear in a poof or they might realize it was a clone and continue to search for the real body. Luckily, there were tall grass nearby. The stockade and the gate were around the lake and there was tall grass all around. The bandits cleared the grass up to a region about 10 metres distance from the stockade. They obviously couldn''t clear all the plains. He stuck in the grass as he came closer to the gate, created the shadow clone and had it move towards one of the watchtower ladders in stealth. As expected, the other lookout could see though the stealth, noticed the clone and started firing arrows at the clone when it was climbing up. The clone immediately jumped down and began to run away The guards immediately ran towards the clone to attack it. Shadow made sure his clone wasn''t hit by the guards as he had it evade and run into grass as quickly as possible. The guards at the gate followed the clone and the lookouts on the watchtower began firing at the clone. After the clone get into the grass, all Shadow''s clone needed to do was crouch and let it go into stealth and later disappear. The guards were quickly after the clone into the grass. The lookouts on the watchtower also were focused on the clone and a few more bandits came running hearing the shouts of the lookouts. As soon as the guards started after the clone, it was the best time for Shadow to get into the bandit camp. He made his way into the interior of the camp in stealth. There were quite a few cabins inside the encampment. For Shadow, it looked like a buffet. There are bound to be treasure chests in such camps. He felt sad that he couldn''t deposit some of the resources he collected from the plains in the bank, so as to get more space in his bag. The cabins closest to the gate were empty because their inhabitants ran out behind the guards in search for his clone. This was the best time for him to search these three cabins. Shadow quickly went into one of the cabins to search for anything he could find. It was best that he took whatever he could as fast as possible. Time was of the essence as he didn''t want the bandits to come back while he was in. There would probably items and tools in every cabin in the open. Most of them everyday items. A few coins lay around a board game and dice at the centre of the room. These were of no use to Shadow. But he still pocketed a few coins and began opening the cabinets in the room. Luckily, none of them were locked and he could browse them quite quickly Most had food supplies and other things. He went to the other two cabins and the results were the same. He couldn''t find anything valuable in any of them other than a crossbow. He immediately put it into his inventory and got out. [Bandit Crossbow] (BlackIron Crossbow) Level 10; Requirement: Strength: 35; Perception: 20; Attack Power +15; Can shoot at a rate of 10 bolts per 20 seconds. Durability 20/20; The crossbow was a very useful secondary weapon that could be used by many professions. Especially close combat professions would use it a lot. It had a higher firing rate than the bows of rangers. The only disadvantage was that it had smaller range than the actual bows and the magazine had limited arrows before they needed reload another magazine. Though it was a level 10 crossbow and he couldn''t equip it anytime soon, he couldn''t wait till he could use it. He couldn''t wait to level up and use it. Sadly, he was at level 8 and the bandits all around him were level 10. It would be suicide to try and level up by killing them. The things he found inside were very disappointing with the exception of the crossbow. There were no treasure chests or weapons available inside. These bandits usually kept them close in the cabins. As he moved towards the lake inside the camp, he saw a couple of warehouses a little distance away from the cabins he searched. These were large warehouses which could house a lot of weapons and other resources and spoils. That suggested why he couldn''t find any weapons or loot at the cabins. There was a fishing deck by the lake and also diving gear and harpoons pointed from the cabin towards the lake. Though the bandits managed to set up a decent camp, it looked like bandits still didn''t manage to take control of the lake and something was hindering their plans. He decided to make a circuit of the entire camp before and check other cabins in the camp. As he was going around the camp, he saw a small prison containing a merman He had a large blue colored body with a yellow dot above him. He was severely injured and leaning on the bars of the prison while looking towards the lake. Luckily for Shadow, there were no bandits patrolling around. "Finally, I catch a decent break. I bet I can get something from this prisoner," thought as he approached the merman. There were different kinds of sea races in vita-nova like nagas, murlocks and mermen. Among these races, the mermen were designed by the developers to have a frame most close to humans. If not for their scaly skin, they were exactly like human. Once, he reached the merman, he got out of stealth and the merman immediately turned towards him. "You! Help me. I will make it your worth," said the merman pointing towards him. "That was awfully trusting of a man in prison to call out for me as soon as he find me," thought Shadow. All NPCs are supposed to have higher intelligence. So, the merman''s behavior felt more like a trap to him than anything else. "Why do you trust me to help you?" asked Shadow while maintaining his distance from the merman. He could still run and get into stealth to escape if it was a trap. With his enhanced perception bandits at level 10 couldn''t hide much from him. "Because you are the first human that I have seen in days and these bandits are all Quingols. Moreover, you seem to be able to escape the eyes of these bandits. It is a rare skill for someone of your strength," replied the NPC. "These bandits have attacked me and my convoy. Although the relationship between mermen and humans isn''t the best. I will surely make it worth your effort," he continued. The Quingols were a race of humanoids with the head of a rat. They were considered a scourge by both light faction and neutral races alike. Their entire culture is evolved around banditry. They don''t have any other occupation than that. Even the head of their race is called bandit king. "Who are you? Wait let me unlock your cage," said Shadow as he came toward the merman as he heard about the Quingols. With Quingols as enemy, he was positive that he could get a few valuables from the quest. "No! it is best I stay here. Can''t let them be alerted," said the merman stopping him. "I am Erdunol, one of the princes of the Garlisk merman tribe. I need a gem that is in the lake," continued the merman at a very fast pace. [Erdunol - Merman prince] Level 10; HP: 1320/6000; Though he was surprised for an instant to see that a prince was captured. But then realized that in races like the mermen being a prince wasn''t something that is very popular. There are hundreds of princes beneath a king. "Ah! If it is royalty, couldn''t you at least make it a princess," thought Shadow cursing at the system. "But a merman princess would probably be as repulsive as the prince for me," he continued in his thoughts as he was disrupted from the thoughts by the merman. "Take this token and it will guide you to a location in the lake. You can take anything available in the lake. Just get me back the blue obsidian gem in the shape of a shark which the token would lead to," said the merman prince. As he said those words, the scales on his back opened up revealing a small red colored token. "Why can''t you come with me? It would surely easier with two of us", asked Shadow. He was still not convinced of the merman''s words. He doubted that if he could get into the lake so could the merman. With the bandits searching the lake, he doubted he would be any more adept in the lake than the merman. "Can you protect me while fighting them or at least even fight on par with me and the bandits?" asked the prince. His question immediately shut Shadow up. The prince took Shadows silence to be agreement and continued, "Make no mistake. I am only asking you of this because you somehow have the skill to get past these bandits. This token will make you able to breathe underwater. With the gem, I will be able to escape from these bandits." "You still never explained how you ended up here?" asked Shadow. The prince glared at him. The NPC was a prince and an injured one who has a regal status at his home. "My convoy was travelling through this place and got ambushed. My head guard who held the gem was killed while he was trying to escape. The gem is an emergency device which could create a portal back to my home. He wove a spell around it and let it sink. He couldn''t have the bandits get the portal. It could be a way inside the castle for offensive forces," answered the prince. "While he did something that was expected of him as a guard of the merman race. I became their prisoner due to it. I can''t get back to my home without it. Only this token blessed with my aura can track the gem. The aura would also stop the natives of the lake from being aggressive towards you," said the prince handing out the token. "Aren''t you afraid that I might make away with the gem?" "Unless you are a merman royalty and a druid, you can''t use it. It can''t be sold that easily either. If you sell it, the merman race would surely notice it and hunt you. And the human officials wouldn''t want you to offend merman for this. The Quingol bandits would also know and be offended. So, I guess you wouldn''t run away with it unless you are a bit suicidal," sneered the prince. This time Shadow didn''t doubt it and took the token. "It looked like this NPC thought a lot about this. The developers really put sum effort into this. Huh, if nothing, the token would allow me to move through the lake unhindered and loot. I can stealth to the lake and disguise myself as a bandit in the water to travel as I wish," thought Balthazar. New quest: [Save the merman prince] (Difficulty: Moderate) Description: Help the merman prince Erdunol to get back to his homeland. Progress: Find the obsidian gem. Quest Item Received: Token of merman prince Erdunol. Failure to complete the quest would make you an enemy to merman and Quingol races. Chapter 70 - Underwater adventure [Ernudol''s token] (Quest Item) Aura Effect 1: Leads you to the Ernudols obsidian gem of transport. Aura Effect 2: The aura of the merman prince allows you to breathe and move like a merman underwater. Aura Effect 3: The Aura of the merman prince prevents most water monsters from attacking you. With the token pinned on his chest, Shadow immediately used his disguise skill to morph into the shape of a bandit and went into stealth. Though the bandits were of another race, he could put on a disguise that covered him up with rags similar to the bandits. He also had put himself in stealth just to avoid any trouble that might come towards him. He went toward the lake where he could see a couple of mounted weapons that would shoot bolts continuously like a machine gun. These weapons had a barrel which held a bunch of arrows. It was like an automatic crossbow but had bolts the size of harpoons instead. It looked like the native life of the lake wouldn''t be much docile if these guns were being used by the guns. "I might need to be careful in the water," thought Shadow looking at the weapons. The weapons clearly indicated monsters inside the lake that needed them. He would hardly stand a chance against such monsters. "I hope that aura effect of the token works," thought shadow as he got into the lake. As he got into the lake a blue aura light got our from the token and covered him. It formed a figure similar to that of a merman around him. He could see the figure having webbed feet and hands. He could also see a blinking shark symbol at the bottom of the lake indicating the location of the obsidian gem. He saw an entirely different world in the lake, he couldn''t see from above the water. There were no fish close to the surface of the lake. He expected his visual range would diminish on entering the water. But his visual range actually expanded. It seemed to be a welcome side effect of the aura. When he tried to swim, he could also notice that he could move with great speed and had good control over it. "Maybe this would be the feeling if I was a merman," thought Balthazar mesmerized at the feeling. He had used tools to move underwater in his previous life, but this was an entirely different experience than those. As he went down a few metres, he saw various kinds of fish in the lake. These varied from level 4 to level 15. A few large ones that looked like sharks came close to him but turned back once they touched the light blue aura around him. He could see bandits in the lake fighting a few fish and sharks, but weren''t successful. He decided to go deep before any bandit notices the aura. Luckily, most of them seem to be preoccupied with the monsters. It seemed that he would have a smooth trip in thy lake. The only thing that surprised him was the depth of the lake. He couldn''t see how deep it was and he was at the edge of the lake. The bank was so steep that it was almost vertical. After he swam down what felt like 500 feet, he finally saw the bottom. At this depth, his visibility and mobility both reduced. He could see only up to a few tens of metres. There was hardly any sunlight at this depth, he could only see because of the token. He needed to search the bottom. Any treasure if found would be on the floor of the lake. He had no options other than searching for treasure chests as he we wanted to gather some valuable from this trip. Attacking any monster underwater would be suicidal for him. He was only able to move safely as he could avoid aggro of the monsters. Reaching the bottom, he started to move along the edge of the lake observing everything he could. The symbol for the obsidian gem always pointed to the centre of the lake bottom. He also noticed that there was something peculiar about the lake floor. It was elevating upwards towards the centre as far as he could see. "The lake might have some kind of underground hill like structure," thought Balthazar as he saw the terrain. "But the gem still seems to below my level. Most probably there is a hole or something at the centre. I doubt they would make it so easy." Though he already walked for quite a large distance on the floor of the lake, he couldn''t find any treasure chests. But he did find a few herbs like white pondweed and obscure kelp. These would be useful in making of potions. The obscure kelp is a dark colored weed seen at the bottom of underwater areas which is used in making in obscurity powder which could be used to hide from magical tracking. It has other uses in potion along with the white pondweed. These were level 15 herbs. Though he wouldn''t be able to find any recipes for these anytime soon nor they would be any use till they reached level 20 and tier 1, he still chose to harvest them. He best put in whatever he found in his bag. Harvesting herbs also provided experience which was something he didn''t do since he entered the camp. Though the success rate isn''t high due to him being 5 levels below that of the herbs, he decided it was better than nothing. Soon, he found a path made of stone bricks that led to the centre of the lake. He decided to check the path first. As he walked towards the centre along the path, he also saw a few arches on the path. "There might be some old ruin at the centre," thought Shadow as he continued along the path which was sloped upwards. He became more sure about his idea of a submerged underwater ruin or something similar as he couldn''t guess the plot for such a ruin in a lake in the plains. Soon, he came to see a few stone huts and other buildings covered by moss. It was definitely some old ruins. There were all dilapidated with window holes and doorways which were missing windows and doors. He went to search these areas but found nothing. After a continued search in these stone structures which proved futile, he reached the centre of the lake. There was a crater at the top like the mouth of a volcano. The crater seemed to be the centre of the ruined civilization and had a relatively larger building made of stone which looked like some kind of old mansion with three stories. It was in the shape of a rectangle with four spires at its four corners and spherical dome at the centre. It had a metal door which was closed shut. Luckily for Shadow, a large hole was there right beside the dome where the roof collapsed inwards. His search of various building was in vain till now. He didn''t find anything other than herbs in this entire 90 minutes he spent searching the lake bottom. The symbol for the gem also pointed toward the mansion. He desperately hoped to find some treasure chest or items in the mansion. So, he quickly swam towards the hole. As he reached near the hole, a cyan colored tentacle suddenly shot out of the hole and grasped him around his waist. He couldn''t do evade it and when he tried to stab at it, his daggers simply passed through it. The tentacle pulled him into the hole at a breakneck speed which immediately dazed and blinded him. When he could see again, he was seated on a chair in a pitch-black room filled with water. "I am still in the lake," thought as he looked around. He wasn''t bound but he had an eerie feeling like he was still being constrained. A silhouette of a man was in front. The man glowed in a cyan light and appeared translucent. The scenario reminded him of the ambush and interrogation he had suffered just before his reincarnation. The silhouette immediately moved towards him as the tentacles that caught sprouted off its back slithering towards him. [Guardian Spirit Barbotul - Polypoda Spirit] Level: ?? HP: ?? The Spirit had the shape of a thin beautiful lady with long hair. It was the same color as the tentacles and was staring at him with its head tilted bearing a confused expression. "Another high-level NPC?" thought Shadow surprised. He had seen two high level NPCs by now in exploring the plains. One was Arius and the other was a polypoda spirit. Polypoda''s were supposed to be tier 2 sea monsters at the very least and can go up to tier 5. He was extremely confused by the appearance of these high level NPCs. He didn''t know that at the start of the game any new area or expansion had such entities to inspire interest to quickly explore the new areas at the start of the game. But the developers later decided to remove these special quests after the first upgrade. "You are an odd creature. You bear the aura of merman royalty, but you are obviously not one," said the spirit in shrill voice as it continued to look at him. The tentacles caught his hands and pulled him to her. "Tell me, what reason do you have to come to this sacred place and why do you have that aura?" "I was sent here by a captive merman to retrieve something of his. He needs it to return back to his homeland and provided me with something that leads me to his possession. The item also releases the aura to protect him," replied Shadow. "Hmm! Recently an escape gem did find its way down to the holy grounds. It made its way in here. I would like to help the merman. But I can''t trust your words blindly," said the Spirit. "Even if true, I can''t let in anyone without confirming them to be not an enemy of the merfolk. I am bound by the rules and can''t help you." It threw him down on the floor in front of it. A few symbols immediately appeared beneath his feet and magical light poured out of them like a gush of water covering Shadow blinding him again. A few seconds later, the light covering him receded. He could clearly see that he was no longer in the lake. He was at the edge of an island. There was a hill about 1 kilometer high out of which lava was pouring. There were a bunch of larian running towards him. These were creatures that looked like bulldogs made of stone with red glowing eyes and fire spurting out of their mouths. These were a subspecies of the Hell hounds which were sworn enemies of the mermen. Hell hounds breathed hell fire having dark and fire attributes. Mermen were being that lived most of the time in water and many of them were civilization that mainly consisted of druids that practiced holy magic. There were natural enemies due to their natures. [Larian pup] (Common monster) Level 7; HP: 2000/2000; Shadow was still reeling from the shock of the light effects when he heard the barks of the larians running towards him. He immediately realized that the test of the spirit probably involved killing these small monsters. The voice of Barbotul suddenly sounded in his ears. "This is the old training grounds for the young ones of the mermen race. They learn how to fight the larian at this place. It serves as a breeding ground as well as a prison to them. It has been a long time since this has been put to use, but it will serve well to determine your allegiance." "Killing the larian in large numbers leaves mark on your body that makes you an enemy out of all the creatures of underworld. I am leaving you here for an hour. Impress me," said the voice as it disappeared. Quest Updated: Save the merman prince: Prove yourself to guardian spirit Barbotul by killing the larians. Time: 1 hour. "This was ridiculous. There is no indication of what the spirit means by large numbers or anything. How am I supposed to know what to do?" thought Balthazar. Luckily, he was on an island on its shore. His feet were wet due to the water. The main weakness of these monsters is water. They are entities which seem to be made of something like hot clay with skin that looked like it was made of porcelain. It would be easy if these are directly step into the water. They would harden a bit and they tend to go get brittle which would allow him to kill them easily. But the larian never get into water. Though it sounds easily to kill them by using water, it wasn''t really a feasible option for him. He would need to improvise a bit if he wanted to do it. A group of them were rushing towards him from the hill. He had an idea to handle this group, but there were only about 50 larian. He was sure that he needs to kill more if he wants to impress Barbotul. Chapter 71 - Test The larians had very simple attacks. They didn''t even have claws. They were very small and couldn''t bite either. The only thing they did to attack was to spew large amounts of fire from their mouth. It wasn''t much of an attack, but they are always seen in groups of 10 or even larger. With the larians rushing towards him. He didn''t have much time to think about something else. The only plan that came to his mind was to throw them into the water to slow them down. He couldn''t go to stealth and use cheap shot as he needed the larians to come close. As they reached the shore, they began to slow down. He noticed that these larians were even smaller than he expected. He immediately recognized them to be all pups. This would make his work much easier. He ran towards them instead waving his garrote in one hand to aggro them. His stupid movements had somehow worked. They jumped towards him. The only advantage he had against these were their small size. If he could get a hold of them without having attacked, he could throw them into the water with his strength. The larians began to bark instead of any kind of attack. "Shit, these really are pups and they are calling for the older ones. How could I forget! This is a breeding ground," thought Balthazar reminding himself of Barbotul''s speech. He needed to kill them quickly before the bigger ones come. He didn''t worry about any damage and directly caught one of the pups by its leg. He swung it into the water behind him. The pup flew into the air and splashed into the water and began to yelp and sputter. Seeing that it was effective, he ran after the others too. It was an easy chance to kill at least 50 of these monsters and he didn''t want to miss any of them. Though the yelps of the pups seemed pitiful and heart breaking, he had no concerns about morality with them being the enemy. He was an assassin in real-life, and he had seen far too many die. He definitely wouldn''t pause especially for a bunch of virtual monsters. Soon, a couple of notification sounded in his ears. He was quite close to reaching level 9 and the notifications of death made him very happy. But even after 10 of them, he didn''t level up. Confused he checked them in the log. System: 1 Larian killed. Obtained 1 life essence from a monster of the dark faction. "Shit! This damn test doesn''t even give me experience!" he shouted loudly in anger. He has no chance of getting to level 9 in this manner. By this time, he had thrown almost all of the pups into the water. It was a simple task due to his high agility due to the leopard skin set he was wearing. He soon heard the notification of the remaining pups dying. But the thing that concerned him was not that. It was the sudden barking of more larians that were coming towards him. It seemed that the pups yelping and wailing managed to successfully attract a few more big ones. [Larian] (Common monster) Level: 8; HP: 3000/3000; They were about a couple of hundred which were running towards him extremely angry and howling. They were about 2 feet tall and began to spouting fire out of their mouth. It was coming like it was a flame thrower. He immediately ran into the water to save himself, but the larians continued behind him. It seemed that killing pups had put them berserk and continued to attack them despite them getting slow. Visible cracks were seen on the larians as they stepped into the water. The embers from them fell into the water causing smoke to rise. The water also crept into their joints producing steam and cracking their porcelain like skin. But they continued into the water till only they began to form a line and attack him one after the other. They were taking turns use their attacks. There were like living flamethrowers. It was like a firing squad formed by multiple lines of the larians. He was at a distance of 4 meters from them and could still feel the heat from their attacks. He began to run along the shoreline in the water to get away from them. With them being slow in water, it was a sensible option to escape from them. It proved to be a sensible option as the larians couldn''t follow him much far running in the water. A couple of them came close to Shadow, but it was very easy pickings for him. As they got brittle in the water and were already losing health a couple of hits cracked them into pieces. The only problem was to evade their flames. If it became too hard to escape the fire, he could use his throwing knives through the fire to stop the larians. But he could only use if the situation was too grave. He had only 6 of the throwing knives which he could use. He had to retrieve them after each throw to make sure he didn''t lose any. Luckily, a single throw shatter their skin and made them dizzy as they were in water. This crazy chase continued for over 20 minutes in which a hundred and fifty of them got killed. Most of the damage wasn''t even done by Shadow. The only thing he did was to make the finishing hit. They harmed themselves trying to kill him by entering the water. Sometimes a single kick by him just to escape their flames did the job. As their numbers reduced, the larians came to their senses and made their way away from the shore. They couldn''t do anything to shadow as long as he stayed in the water. When Shadow saw them retreating, he was really happy that the craziness was done. He was so tired that he fell down on his ass in happiness completely drenching himself in the water. But a minute later, he realized that his quest required him to kill the larians. Though the past 20 minutes were crazy, he killed 50 pups and his notifications showed the death of over a hundred a.d.u.l.t larians. He decided it was best to get up and move into the island to hunt more of these creatures. The spirit didn''t give him a specific target on the number, and he had to attack and kill as many as he could so that the spirit would be satisfied once it returns. This probably is a quest whose rewards will be based on the number of larians, he kills. He went into stealth and got out of the water and moved slowly towards the volcano. There wasn''t much vegetation on the land and as he got close to the volcano top, it became a barren land filled with lava streams. There were only a few stone building sparsely thrown on the land. In fact, he didn''t notice before due to the larians attacking him. But most of these structures looked almost like the ruins on the floor of the lake. It seems that the volcanic island was also a part of the same civilization which fell into ruins. The Spirit Guardian is probably a spirit bound by this civilization to the building to protect and sadly, it was only one remaining of that place still stuck at the lake bottom due to a binding spell or item. The island had only one species, the larian which were drinking the lava from the hill. These beasts need a source of fire to grow and lava is one of the best sources. There were a few small mold like red colored vegetation growing by the lava streams which were being consumed by the larians. Most were just drinking from the lava stream or barking and running around. Attack one of the ones that were running around would just provoke a large group to attack him and that was a very unproductive idea. There weren''t many places to hide either. Only a few rocks and the like. As he moved closer to the top of the volcano, he got inflicted with fire damage and forced out of stealth. He was immediately noticed by a group of the larians and had to run to the shore again. This time the larians retreated as soon as he walked into the water. Unable to walk in stealth towards the volcano top, he dejectedly decided to check the area along the shore in hopes for another group of pups. The spirit told that these were breeding grounds for the larians. So, there are bound to be other pups. Larian pups unlike a.d.u.l.ts are easier to kill. After about 30 minutes of walking he finally managed to spot another batch of pups. They were huddled around a small pool of lava which was being filled up by a couple of lava streams from the volcano. It was a good feeding point for the pups. Though he found an occasional isolate a.d.u.l.t larian during this time, most of them, he couldn''t kill because a group of other larians were immediately alerted and he had to run away from them. He only managed to kill a couple of a.d.u.l.ts in this time as they were close to the shoreline and he threw them into the water after cheap shot before continued attacking for a kill. This group of pups were much larger in number than the first group he met, but he only problem was that there were also a few a.d.u.l.t larians nearby. Close to 500 pups were being monitored by 40 a.d.u.l.ts. It was like a larian nursery. "At least, these are near the shore than the other groups," thought Shadow as he went towards them in stealth. He made his way behind an a.d.u.l.t larian close the centre of the group and used cheap shot. He wanted to aggro as many as possible and lead them back to the shore. He quickly lifted one of the pups and threw it towards the water. It was always easier to throw and kill pups as they were smaller, and they couldn''t escape from the water unlike the a.d.u.l.ts who could move up to a 2 feet depth. Even if they didn''t fall on the water, these pups got easily injured due to fall damage. As he began to throw pups, the others including the remaining immediately noticed but he didn''t care. There were too many monsters. Even though the pups couldn''t cause much damage without the flamethrower attack. So, he also released his shadow clone so that it could provide him with a back to back view. A couple of a.d.u.l.ts started to use their attacks. But Shadow threw the pups in the direction of the a.d.u.l.ts to escape these attacks. The pups blocked the line of fire of the a.d.u.l.ts and it also hurt the pups. In this way even when the a.d.u.l.t larians attacked him, he could easily escape while also harming the pups. His main intention was to harm a few pups and gain a few kills, but he also wanted to test if harming them would cause the larians to follow him deep enough into the water at the shore to kill them like he did before. He had little time left and was desperate to get as many kills as possible. The clone only lasted for 20 seconds and once he appeared, he had the aggro of almost all larians in the group. Even the ones which failed to see him at first got interested on hearing the howls and yelps of the larian pups. With all of the larian having his attention, he started making his way towards the shore. The pups were no issue and as long as he could throw a pup to divert the a.d.u.l.t''s attacks while injuring them. Though a bit of fire damage spilt over and cause a bit of HP loss, it wasn''t too large. The shore was about a distance of 100 metres from him and he could easily manage to cover that distance with his clone supporting him. He had his clone also tank a few attacks. In the worst case, he also had a few health potions which he could use. In spite of Shadow having a decent plan of action to get a large number of kills, it didn''t happen completely as expected. The larians managed to surround him completely with a few seconds. If not for the pups that were also beside him, he would have fallen into deep trouble. Though he was prepared enough, the clone was killed within 10 seconds by the larians. It only had half the attributes of the original and didn''t have much health either. So, it was kind of expected. Luckily, in this time he had already gotten quite close to the shore. Once, the clone died, Shadow caught a pair of pups by their necks and instead of throwing or hitting other larians to cause injuries, he began to hold them up as shield against the fire attacks of the larians as he went into the water. As he reached the water, he had no use of the pups and threw them into the surrounding water. His conjecture about luring the a.d.u.l.t larian into the water by harming the pups also proved to be right. They began to attack like before spouting fire at him, but this time they were fewer than 50 a.d.u.l.t larians. This made the task easier than the previous time. He had 10 min left and he best get to the pups which were easier and faster to kill. Moreover, only a few entered the water to attack him which numbered a little over 10. The pups and the other larians also came nearer to the shore barking and howling at Shadow but maintained a safe distance from the water. He used all his 6 throwing knives on after other immediately to stop a cl.u.s.ter of larians placed together and jumped amidst them. He made quick attacks to the already brittle larians to kill them and continued towards the pups again. This caused the few more larians to leave the pups and attack him. He again lured them to the water and made quick work of them. This continued for about 3 times leaving only 4 a.d.u.l.t larians left in the group. With this small amount, he didn''t even care to attack them and directly made his way to the pups. He resumed his attack on the pups and began to make quick work of them. With him running amidst the pups the attacks of the a.d.u.l.ts were also in vain. Within 5 minutes, he managed to get a total kill count of 400. By this time, reinforcements also arrived from the volcano in the form of additional larians. It was similar to the first time larians came down from the volcano. They numbered around 200 hundred and followed him into the water. Another skirmish continued which allowed him to get more kill as the larians were hurting themselves in the water. He was also getting low on the potions he had left. He had only 2 more health potions left. Luckily the one hour which the spirit specified came to an end while these new group of larians were still attacking. As the spirit came from the water, it whipped a tentacle which stretched along the shore smack all the larians in the water. The single hit from the Barbotul pulverized them into sand. "Ah! 432 kills. Not bad for a human. I would have been satisfied with 200 kills If it it were a sea race, I could have understood using water to kill them. But you managed to understand their weakness to lure them into the water," said Barbotul. The spirit waved his hands as a circle appeared beneath his feet again. The light that flowed from the circle as it wr.a.p.ed around Shadow again transporting him out of the island. Chapter 72 - New weapons and upgrades. They were both back in the dark room in the mansion underwater. "You passed my test. Follow me," said the spirit as it opened a circular trap door on the wall. There was a tube that sloped downwards. This was the sea races, equivalent of a private/secret staircase. They mostly swim. Hence, these tubes are more comfortable for them than a staircase. Shadow followed the spirit down the staircase. They ended up in another floor where various armaments, gems and other valuable tools were there. As he reached the room, the spirit raised its arms as a couple of objects flew into its hands. "This is the gem, you have come in search for," said the spirit opening his left hand. A violet colored gem sculpted like a shark was lying in his hand. Shadow immediately took it out of his hand. Quest Updated: Save the merman prince: Return the gem to Erdunol. "These you can consider to be an acquaintance gift as well as my gratitude for helping a prince of my race," said the spirit opening its right hand. In it there were a pair of white shiny throwing knives. "They are made from the tusks of the same animal. Hence, you can always one to find the other as long as you have one with you," continued the spirit. [Walrus throwing knives] (BlackIron Throwing knives, Upgradeable) Level 10; Requirement: Strength: Level x 3; Attack Power: +25; Special effect 1: Holding one indicates the location of the other tusk; Special effect 2: Ignore Defence: 20%; Can be upgraded by absorbing the 200 life essences of sea monsters. Durability 25/25; "This is an old relic of this place. Though it has lost almost all its power, I hope you can find good use of it," said the spirit. "Thank you, respected spirit," said Shadow taking the weapon from him. Though he can equip it right now. He could surely make good use of it when he reached level 10. Good weapons are the hardest kind of armaments to come by. Even if he didn''t get daggers, he could do a variety of attacks with a pair of throwing knives like these. "You better take leave now," said the spirit pointing to the tube from which they entered the room. Balthazar had wasted more than 2 hours without getting experience. He was eager to get out of the lake and finish the quest. He quickly made his way out of the mansion. He put on the disguise of bandit again and directly floated up to the surface of the lake. He occasionally saw a few bandit groups trying to kill the lake monsters. But it was the same state as before with the bandits still not able to gain an advantage. He went into stealth as soon as he reached the surface of the lake and made his way to the prison where the merman prince was being held. He found the prince in the same condition. "Noble prince, I have retrieved the gem you have asked for," said Shadow holding out his hand with the shark shaped obsidian gem in it. "Thank you for your help, adventurer," said the prince as he took the gem. "Could you give me back my imperial token," he asked. Shadow had hoped that he could keep this token which game him the capability to move easily in waters, but it looked like the system wouldn''t allow it. He returned it with a glum expression. The prince placed it back in the location he removed it from. "You have been of great help to me. Please, let me out of this prison. Be sure to run out of the camp once the alarm sounds," said the prince. Shadow immediately started picking the lock on the prison gate. As soon as he opened the gate alarms sounded out. The prince came out hurriedly from the prison. "I hope you will accept this," said the prince putting a pair of swimming goggles into his hand. "Though it isn''t as effective as the token, it isn''t very bad and is resembles the gear which humans use," continued the prince as he ran towards the lake. Quest Completed: [Save the merman prince]: Time taken: 2 hr, 3 minutes Performance: Outstanding. Rewards: Experience +2000; Merman Reputation +30; Erdunol''s swimming goggles; System: Quingol Reputation -50; "Quingol Repuation? That is hardly ever useful," thought Balthazar as he made his way in a direction opposite to the lake. With the alarm sounding, most bandits would check the prison and immediately make way to the lake. With the quest completed, he didn''t care about the merman anymore. Moreover, the returns of the quest were also good. It was hard to get 2000 experience at level 9 in these plains. Most monsters were level 7 ones. The only level 8 monsters, he saw were the leopards. He wouldn''t get much experience from killing them in these 2 hours. So, he considered these 2 hours well spent. He also leveled up from all the experience he gained on completing the quest. He was level 9 now and he didn''t assign the free attribute points he got from the previous level up. He had a total of 12 free attribute points to assign. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 9 Exp: 1800/3600 HP: 3300/3300; MP: 1200/1200; Physical Attack: 98 Defense: 68; Attack Speed: 66; Movement Speed: 68; Willpower: 21; Balance: 32; Focus/Search: 42; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 20; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 57, Agility 56, Endurance 27, Intelligence 22, Vitality 39, Perception 23. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 12 He put 6 points each in endurance and perception to finish up the free attribute points left. He decided to improve his defence so that he could finish up the quest of clearing the path to the village. As soon as he came out of the camp into the plains, he checked the time in real-life. It was a few minutes to 3 p.m. He had about 6 hours left in the game before he had to go to training with Lucius. With this done, he began to check the merman goggles. As he was opening the inventory panel, he saw a notification at the equipment panel. "Shit! Did some equipment get broken during the fight with larians?" thought Shadow. Fire and lightening attacks usually make equipment lose durability. Unless the equipment completely broke down the equipment panel wouldn''t show notifications. He could always get equipment repaired at a shop if it wasn''t completely broken. As he opened the equipment panel, he saw that the notification was from the mask of shadows. He expected unique equipment to be a lot more durable than the normal ones. He heard that it was one of the few advantages that a unique equipment provided. When he selected it, he got a completely different surprise. The notification was not for a loss of equipment but to upgrade the equipment. He had 92 life essences absorbed before the latest quest and in the quest, he killed 432. It had crossed the requirement of 500 for the mask.He happily selected the upgrade option from the mask. [Mask of Shadows] (Unique Mask, Upgradeable) Level 5 Bound to Shadow Tyrant. Focus/Search +10; Willpower+10; Magic Resist: +10; Intelligence +8; Vitality +5; Perception +5; Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level. Passive Effects: 1. Enhanced Stealth: Stealth can''t be detected by higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher. 2. Enhanced Perception: Can identify higher-leveled monsters up to 5 levels higher when they are in stealth. Equipment can be leveled up to level 10 by absorbing the life essences of 500 creatures of the dark faction. Additional skills: 1. Shadow Clone: Instantly creates a clone with 50% of the attributes and all equipment and skills. It can be controlled by the user. Duration: 30 seconds; Cooldown: 5 minutes. 2. Shadow Swap: Can swap one''s position with that of an ally or clone. Cooldown: 10 minutes. 3. Disguise: Can change one''s appearance to another form. Cannot change to another occupation or race. Duration: Persists until any damage is received or till the user stops the skill manually; Cooldown: 20 minutes. (Warning: Higher-level monsters and NPCs would be able to see through your disguise.) The only upgrades he got were in level, intelligence and will-power. The duration for shadow clone also increased. But Shadow was still disappointed in the upgrade of the mask. He luckily managed to get hold of life essences of the required monsters. If not for these lucky encounters, he would have to spend a lot of time to upgrade it. This issue still persisted if he wanted to continue to increase it to level 10. He also had received the goggles from the merman prince, which he hadn''t checked yet. From what the prince told him, it would allow him to explore underwater areas. [Erdunol''s goggles] (Diving Tool) Level 5; Special effect 1: Allows you to breathe underwater for 30 minutes. Special effect 2: Improves your vision underwater by 20 meters. He decided to make his way back to the garrison behind the town. He checked quest for helping the garrison against the monsters. The number of monsters killed were 107 monsters. He had been killing monsters from level 5 He channeled his hearthstone to reach back to the Blackrock town. As soon as he was teleported to the Blackrock town, he went to the leatherworking and blacksmith shops to repair his equipment. Both his weapons and armor lost durability due to the fire attacks of the larians. It was in his best interests to have them repaired before he continues playing the game. He quickly made his way back to the garrison and met the soldier at the gate. As soon as he reached the gate, the soldier recognized him and asked, "You found anything, adventurer?" "There is a Quingol race bandit camp by the lake at the end of the river," said Shadow pointing towards the river. A couple of notifications quickly popped up informing him of completing the quest. Quest Completed: [Help the garrison against the increasing menace of monsters]: Monsters killed: 107; Investigated the lake area and found Quingol bandits. Rewards: Experience +1270 (1070+200); "Thank you for the information, adventurer. I will make sure that the commander is made aware of it and will take precautions that the bandits won''t spread," said the soldier. "Please, inform if you find something else. We would also reward you for killing them." New Quest: [Kill the bandits and investigate the surroundings of the lake] (Difficulty: Moderate) Description: Kill the Quingol bandits by the lake. Can be shared with 4 others (0/4). Progress: Bandits killed: 0 "New Quest?" thought Shadow. He only expected that the soldier would take a note of the information and the previous quest of investigating the plains would continue. "It looks like there is more to the quest of the bandit camp," thought Shadow as he made his way toward the path. He could still complete the quest of clearing the path. He had contacted Merlin and Tetsujin. They were already working along with Rudra and the rest of the team to clear the path. It seems like once they all reached level 8, they decided to go and have another try at the quest. They had already come in contact with the group of monkeys and went through them with relative ease. They had better equipment this time and higher level which allowed them to kill them. After the monkeys were done, they had also encountered a couple of cougars and a bear, but they managed to easily take them down as these were monsters which tend to move alone. But as the went ahead the number of monsters that they encountered kept increasing. They soon encountered a pride of lionesses which had them stuck again like the situation he had with monkeys. These were all level 8 monsters. They had attacks similar to the cougar. They They asked Shadow to join them, but he knew that this situation would continue as the moved forward. If they didn''t get into the forest and kill the leader of monkeys and the pride, these groups would attack them together at the end of the path before he could reach the city. So, he didn''t want to waste his time with the quest yet. It is better to have them all reach level 9 before he attempts to finish the quest. They would probably continue in their attempts for quite some time. He could attempt at making a few equipment to increase his experience in the meantime. He hadn''t used the Forging Association contribution points till now. He also had quite a few resources now, which he could use to exchange for good designs. With the idea in mind, he went to the Forging Association. He went to Kade and first asked for the list of available designs. He moved through the list and decided on the on a few items, he could create with the materials he had with him. He already had 120 contribution points and had still not used the designs for the plate greaves and goblin chest armor. Among the designs that were available, he was most attracted in the antelope dagger which was a level 8 weapon. There was also a level 10 halberd that would be very famous, once players realize the difficulty of reaching the city. Weapons were always in great demand compared to the other equipment. Moreover, all kind of weapons required blacksmith which didn''t apply for other kinds of equipment. So, selling weapons at this stage of the game would earn him a lot of money, especially when many were racing to reach the city. [Antelope Daggers pair] (BlackIron Daggers) Level 8; Materials Required: Antelope horns x 2; Refined Iron Ore x 2; Requirements: Strength: 30; Attack Power +30; Durability: 25/25; [Stag horn halberd] (Black Iron Halberd) Level 10; Materials Required: Stag horns x 2; Refined Iron Ore x 4; Requirements: Strength: 30; Agility: 15; Attack Power +40; Special effect: 10% chance to cause a bleed effect of 30 HP per second for 5 seconds on successful hooking. Durability: 30/30; Chapter 73 - First Original Equipment The designs for the dagger and halberd together would cost him a total of 150 contribution points. He had 120 contribution points and he needed at least 30 more points for getting these designs. He quickly sold a few boar tusks and antelope horns to get those few contribution points he needed and bought the two designs. Once he got the designs, he went to the bank. Rudra had stored all the stag and antelope horns that his team as well as Merlin''s team collected in the bank before they went for the quest. Merlin had sold everything they collected to Rudra. Rudra also had players collect other materials like meat, warg claws, iron ore, red moss, etc, which he stored in the bank or shop. So, Shadow went to the shop also to collect whatever he could and then went to the forging association to book an advanced forging room. Once, in the forging room, he decided to start with the level 5 greaves which he received from Merlin. These required only refined iron ore and blackrock crystals. He immediately learnt the design. Even though Shadow was at level 9, most of the players who started playing at the same time were still at level 7 or level 6. So, level 5 equipment would still be used by most. The greaves were easier ones among both of these level 5 equipment designs he had. It was just melting 2 Refined Iron Ore along with 2 Blackrock crystals and etching a few runes on it once, it cooled down. With the Blue Glitter Flame in the forging room, he easily managed to melt and make a rectangular piece of the require dimension. After the rectangular metal pieces were done, he only had to heat them slightly and beat them into the proper shape with a pair of tongs and a hammer. This was followed by quenching the hot plate greaves. The entire process took him only 5 minutes. This was an easy job for him. The only remaining part were the runes which give it the special effect. Once, the runes were carved using the stylus, the plate greaves were done. "+30 experience points. +4 Forging proficiency" In less than 10 minutes, he managed to create an equipment. But he received very low experience because the level of the equipment he forged was quite low when compared to his level. He had previously received 100 experience points for a level 3 shield. Now, he didn''t even get half of that for a level 5 equipment. Shadow had totally forgotten about the effect of the level difference between the equipment he made and his own level. Luckily, it didn''t seem to have any effect on the proficiency points he gained for completing a piece of equipment. Remembering that he would get low experience for these, had him change his plans. He decided to give up the level 5 goblin chest armor to Rudra. He had hired quite a few trade profession players. There was bound to be someone who could use it. He decided to focus on the Antelope horn daggers for now. These daggers could also be used by him. The Antelope horn daggers were quite different from the other weapons. These were made form bone and not metals. It didn''t involve melting ores and materials, but rather sculpting the horns into a form that could be used as dagger before he cast a metal layer on it. The fanged antelopes had straight horns with circular ridges. These were perfect for creating daggers or spear heads. He put the horn carefully in a lathe machine as he smoothed off the ridges and cut the bone to a thin edge creating a proper shape for a dagger, except for a length of 10 cm at the base of the horn. This ridges at the base of the horn would form a good grip for the handle. He had an iron ore melted with the mystic fire and coated the blade area to create the dagger. He only had to buff the blade and sharpen it. The dagger was his fastest creation in this life. Though carving a bone would have many issues like the bone might break while operating the lathe. Sometimes, fissures may appear if it is not properly handled during carving or when the bone is being carved to form a sharp edge. Even though the tool are all provided in the advanced forging room, many players would be the first time users making a number of silly mistakes. But Shadow had a lot experience in his previous life which allowed him to finish these tasks at a quick pace with relative ease. "+100 experience points; +4 forging proficiency;" Shadow was glad that forging the daggers at least gave decent experience than the plate greaves. He continued with forging the same daggers. As long as he didn''t make any mistakes in carving the horns. Though level 10 would allow him to enter the city, it wasn''t easy to finish off the quest at level 10 either. He remembered the posts describing that teams at level 10 failed to finish the quest. He quickly continued with making the anterlope daggers. By the time he made 5 sets of daggers, he got enough experience to level him up. Once, he was level 10 he didn''t get the same amount of experience as before. He got only 70 experience points per set of daggers. He decided to change and start with the halberd instead. Halberd was a two-handed weapon. The two-handed weapons are usually much heavier than one-handed weapons and hence, had to use more materials than the one-handed weapons. As it is in all the weapons that used horns as materials, the horns had to be processed first. The stag horns had branched horns called antlers, which were properly sculpted could be made to use as curved blades coming out from the main part. The main branch was also was sharpened to a point. With two of these sculpted horns placed one beside the other, it formed a shape similar to a halberds head with two curbed blades on opposite sides. Once, he was done with sculpting the bones, he melted an ore piece and used it to coat the bladed edges of the bones and bind the two carved horns at their base to form the head of the halberd. The remaining three iron ore he melted and poured them into a cast cooled it down. Once, the temperature fell down by a bit, he pulled it out of the cast and welded it to the head of the halberd. "+200 experience points, +3 forging proficiency" Making level 10 weapons definitely provided more experience than the daggers. The only problem with this was that carving the stag bones was a time-consuming process compared to the antelope bones. This is because, they were curved, and he needed to be a lot more careful. If he accidentally cut some parts not along the curve, the entire bone would be wasted and form a defective product. Each halberd took him at least 15 minutes due to this. He earned 1000 experience points in 90 minutes and also lost few materials as it was difficult to carve them properly. He was bored and this wasn''t being any useful. He hardly had four hours left before he had to leave the game. He was about to leave the game when he remembered something. He had the experiences from past. He could always create new weapons if he had the materials. Moreover, it was a common practice among the Forgers in his previous life to make small changes to existing weapons to form a new one. Creating a new BlackIron equipment is one of the requirements for one to become an advanced forging apprentice. It usually took a log of forging experience and a good understanding of various materials available. Only after a lot of practice and study would they be able to create a completely new equipment of decent quality. For every other increase in the level of forging. It was required to create a completely new equipment of better quality. For an advanced forging apprentice, a new bronze equipment and more than 3 BlackIron equipment was required. New Secret Silver equipment for Basic forger, Fine Gold for Intermediate forger, Dark Gold for Advanced Forger, Epic equipment for a master forger. Due to this condition, it was extremely had to become Master Forgers. In his previous life, players didn''t become an advanced forging apprentice as soon as they gained the required forging proficiency. Once, they reached that stage, it took a lot of effort to create a new design to become an advanced forging apprentice. A number of players make the same designs by combining two or more other armaments like he did. They could all end up with the same designs, but this was not an issue. The game allowed multiple player to create same new equipment. However, only the first one would be allowed to sell the item to the forging association. But this became harder as they reached higher levels. It was deemed impossible to create a completely new Epic equipment by mixing up other equipment. Even if someone did, they mostly would fail to end up an Epic equipment. A lot of research was required to make sure the materials used were compatible with each other. Even though Master Forgers would have at least one design of completely new Epic equipment, they would never sell it. Epic equipment were very valuable and it would be extremely hard to create multiple epic equipment. Players who were known to have created more than one epic equipment could be counted by Balthazar on one hand. This option of creating forging designs made forgers, extremely famous and rich. The process of fabricating a forging design was very simple and a player could easily make tens to hundreds of them any time they wanted. Otherwise, how much money could they make, even if they exhausted themselves by forging equipment every single day? He already had over 200 forging proficiency points and he required 500 forging proficiency points to get to intermediate forging apprentice. He had begun to plan on what new forging designs to become advanced forging apprentice as soon as possible. Else, even if he created equipment, he wouldn''t be able to gain any more proficiency after 1000 proficiency points without becoming an advanced forging apprentice. The hard part with the halberd was sculpting the stag horns. If he used an antelope horn instead of a stag horn, he could get a decent spear with quite ease. He immediately took an antelope horn and began to work on it This time along with smoothing the ridges at the pointed end, he smoother off the ridge on the base. He further grinded the base to make it smaller and easier to fix into an iron pole. The remaining part he made it similar to the dagger. He soon made the iron pole similar to the one used for the halberd. Once, he coated the blade with metal and fixed it into the iron pole, a notification sounded indicating that he had successfully completed a new weapon. [____________] (BlackIron Two-handed spear) Level 10; Requirement: Strength 30; Endurance: 20; Attack Power +40; Strength +5; Special Effect: Impale: Pierce the opponent to cause a bleed effect of 30HP per second for 5 seconds. Cooledown: 5 minutes. Durability: 30/30; "+ 200 experience points; +4 Forging proficiency;" System: Congratulations on creating an entirely new piece of equipment in vita-nova. Obtained an additional 2000 experience points. Rewarding a Runic hammer (Bronze rank) that increases the forging success rate by 10%. System: Please provide a name for the new equipment you have created. You are also eligible to leave a personal mark on your creations. Kindly think about a personal mark to imprint it on the equipment. He simply chose it as Antelope horn spear and confirmed the name. He had chosen the same personal mark he chose when he created new equipment in his past life. It was blade with blood dripping from it. As soon as he selected, the equipment information changed. His personal mark also appeared on the shaft of the spear. It looked like the blood was dripping off the blade with the red color glistening. [Antelope horn spear] (BlackIron Two-handed spear) Level 10; Requirement: Strength 30; Endurance: 20; Attack Power +40; Strength +5; Special Effect: Impale: Pierce the opponent to cause a bleed effect of 30HP per second for 5 seconds. Cooledown: 5 minutes. Durability: 30/30; System: Naming successful. Forging Design for the Antelope Horn Spear has been automatically generated. Player can now voluntarily make forging designs for the Antelope Horn Spear, allowing others to learn the Forging Design and produce it. System: "Crimson Blade" stamp has been successfully registered and bound to your account. Nobody else can use it. With the successful creation of the new armament, an additional window appeared in the Forging panel. It was named Personal Forging designs. It allowed players to create Forging Designs. Balthazar was very happy when he saw the new panel. As long as he had a pen and drawing paper, he could gather from any shop, he could fabricate as many copies of the Forging Design for his creations as he wanted. This was an option which was only available for original creations. Forging Designs are much more valuable than the equipment or resources. At this stage of the game, hardly any of the forging designs were available at the auction house. At this stage forging designs would go for a very high value. And new forging designs such as the Antelope Horn Spear would be much more valuable as they wouldn''t be available by default in the game. Guilds would fight with each other crazily for something like this. Even equipment like the ones he forged from the designs he got from Kade would be fought for. But he wouldn''t want to let anyone know about the it right now. With the designs he had, it would be an easy job to earn even gold coins when the players realized the difficulty of reaching the city. Considering the fact, that there were a lot of players coming to the Blackrock town now and no shortage of guilds among them, they would earn a great price. But he couldn''t sell them right now. He wanted to avoid providing his competition any weapons that would help them. The same was the reason, he had for selling designs. Moreover, the design of the new equipment that he had, was for a level 10 equipment which wouldn''t be of much interest to most players as no one was at that level yet. He couldn''t see any player in the leader board at level 10. If there was any, he obviously selected for his ID to be not displayed in the leader board. There was another benefit for an original creation of equipment. When forging your own creation, the success rate for creating them would be increased by 10% and there is a chance for it to also come with an additional ability. So, he continued to create the spears till he finished the ingredients that he had. In the next two hours, he managed to make 20 or so spears. Chapter 74 - White Bane Corps During his time at the forging room, he had managed to level up again reaching level 11. He wanted to join Rudra and the rest of his team to finish the quest as soon as possible. If he didn''t finish in the two hours remaining, he would be out of the game for enough time that most will reach level 10. In his excitement of creating an original weapon, he misplaced his priorities and focused on creating more spears rather than going to the team to finish the quest of the village head. Afterwards, he quickly made his way to Kade. Though he created quite a few equipment and an original equipment, he didn''t have a decent pair of daggers. The highest-level daggers he had right now, were the antelope horn daggers which level 8 daggers. These were three levels below his own level. If he had to have any hopes of finishing the quest in 2 hours, he needs to equip better weapons first. As he reached Kade, the first thing he wanted to ask whether he could exchange original equipment for forging points. He didn''t want to exchange the forging design right now as doing that would be detrimental to him. Once, the forging association has the design, it can be bought by other members of the forging association. It had very little probability for someone else to be a member of the association at this stage. But he didn''t want to take any unnecessary risks and allow some guild to get a hold of these from the forging association. He couldn''t allow to do that if he wanted to make money off the design. "An original creation by you!?" asked Kade in surprise as he took the spear which Shadow held out to him. "That''s impressive. You are sure to go far in your life, kid," said Kade. "But right now, you can''t exchange these for contribution points. Though it is an original creation. It is a BlackIron spear. I can''t really get you any contribution points for it unless you decide to provide its design." "I am willing to provide it to the forging association, but not right now. I would be willing to do it tomorrow. I only wanted to see if I could exchange these for a pair of daggers," said Shadow slightly disappointed. To begin with, it was a slim chance of exchanging equipment with the forging association. The forging association hardly ever exchanges equipment or resources for contribution points. The only method to gather contribution points was providing new designs or completing quests. Quests usually provide contribution points. But sometimes they also provide additional rewards like armaments or forging designs. "I can''t help you in this regard. The only way you can get more contribution points is to give resources to me or provide the design to the association," said Kade. "But, you have another way of getting contribution points now. You can check the forging association quests. There might be something that interests you there." "Damn! I totally forgot about the association quests. I can check them now that I am above level 10," thought Shadow remembering the notification the system gave him last time. "The quest board would be outside. It is right beside entrance of the workshop. Sir Renner has also recently posted few quests on it. You might find them useful," said Kade pointing him outwards. "I would also be glad if you could provide more resources for me," he continued. "Let me please have a look at the quest board, Master Kade. I will try to bring new resources the next time we meet," said Shadow as he went out of the office and walked toward the quest board in the corridor. There were two quest boards beside the entrance of workshop. One was large and had the forging association requests, the other was smaller. "The smaller one was probably from the outfit of soldier lead by Renner," though Shadow as he disregarded the smaller board and focused on the big one. The forging association quests were always the same. It had request for materials or sometimes a few NPCs would request armaments of the forging association which would be forwarded onto the quest board. They would always get contribution points for completing these quests. Though Shadow immediately began browsing the quest board, the sad part was that he couldn''t complete any of these quests. It was filled with requests for materials that were level 10 or above. There were only two level 10 material requests. To finish any of these, he would have to go and help his team in clearing the path. Now, the reason for him to reach level 10 for the forging association quests was obvious. Upset with the forging quest board, he moved his attentions towards the other board. This board had the name "White Bane Corps" on it. Shadow was surprised to see this. "Sir Renner is leading the White Bane Corps?!" thought Shadow. White Bane Corps was a unit which worked directly under the king of the White Heart Kingdom. It was an elite unit which was deployed first in case of all scenarios where the kingdom was in danger. It was similar to the Heavenswill legion, except that it was under the control of the White Heart kingdom and not the temple. "It must have come to Blackrock Town to secure the town premises as it was a beginner village that changed to a town," thought Balthazar. "Would probably only be till someone finishes the quest of clearing the path to the city." Luckily, this board had request that suited more to his situation. There were two quest which garnered his immediate attention. One was named "Quingol Bandit". It was a quest to attack the bandits and reduce their number. The quest make it look like the Bandit camp had become another place similar to the goblin camp which would respawn monsters periodically. The other quest was to help the garrison with armaments. The notice read, "With the sudden growth of the Blackrock Town, the borders have increased. The town forces require more equipment. Willing to buy all kind of weapons and equipment at level 10 or above." Though the barracks only provide experience and coins for the weapons. Shadow got an idea that could work. All the military forces had forgers as a part of their ranks. If this is the story line that was chosen, he could go and try to sell forging design to the White Bane Corps. With that idea in mind, he made his way to the barracks. Instead of going to the gate as he previously did, he went towards the tents at the camp. He was stopped by a soldier and asked what he came for? "I have come to provide armaments as per Sir Renners request at the Forging Association," said Shadow as pulled out a spear to show the guard. "I can take the armament in his place," said the guard stretching his hand to take the spear. "I have another proposition for Sir Renner that would allow you to get more of these," said Shadow suggesting that he wanted a meeting with Sir Renner. Seeing that the soldier didn''t change his disposition, he pulled out a forging design and showed it to him. "You are willing to sell a forging design?" asked the soldier. With the forging design, the soldier couldn''t really stop him. He didn''t have the rights to negotiate for the design, but he couldn''t let the garrison lose a chance to get a forging design. "Yes, and I have more than one forging design to exchange," said Shadow which convinced the soldier to bring him to Renner immediately. He quickly led him into a tent into a tent where Renner was sitting on the ground sharpening his blade. "What brings you here, adventurer," said Renner in an uninterested tone as he continued to sharpen his blade. "I came to see that the White Bane Corps require more weapons," said Shadow showing the spear to him. "The White Bane Corps hardly ever requires anything from adventurers, Mr. Shadow. The quest I put up at the forging association was for the town guard. I would love to finish fortifying this place and return as soon as possible," replied Renner in the same tone still without looking at Shadow. "I understand Sir, but I have come to you not to offer armaments but forging designs. I have an original forging design. Though it is only a blackiron weapon of level 10, I believe it can speed up your efforts," said Shadow quickly explaining his idea. Though he came to the barracks hoping to sell the designs, he was not so hopeful after seeing Renner''s attitude. "Hmm! That would help speed up the efforts of my men. A spear design would definitely help improve the guards'' standards," said Renner finally lifting his head to look at Shadow. "Now, tell me what you hoped to get in return for the design," asked Renner getting up. "I would like to receive a pair of level 10 daggers in exchange for the design. It would help me with the town head''s quest and help me reach the city," answered Shadow truthfully as he held out a forging design. It was best to not lie with higher leveled NPCs, especially when they are NPCs with authority like Renner. If he was found out, he would be in deep trouble. "A couple of daggers for a forging design? That is hardly a fair trade," said Renner suspiciously as he took the design to examine it. "It is a valid design and something that requires the materials available in the plains." "Why would you want to exchange the forging design for just a pair of weapons?" asked Renner as he still wouldn''t trust Shadow. He wouldn''t have been a good commander if he was someone who would easily trust others. Balthazar couldn''t obviously explain to an NPC, his need to finish up the quest within two hours. "I just want to clear up the path to the city as fast as possible," said Shadow as he didn''t have any other options. "Even if you are willing to accept this exchange, we can''t have the good name of the White Bane Corps tarnished. Such an exchange would diminish our reputation. If you don''t want anything else, I suggest you chose something kind of armaments. If you are adamant about not requiring other armaments, I can give you a few contribution points, but you can''t be made a member until you are stronger," said Renner. System: You have been made an interim outer member of the White Bane Corps. You have earned 100 contribution points. Can only be used after tier 2 when you become a proper outer member of the White Bane Corps. He got a better deal than he had hoped. Contribution points for the White Bane Corps was something he had never even heard of in his previous life. Though he can''t determine their value of these contribution points, he was sure that becoming a member of something like White Bane Corps would have its advantages. With these contribution points, he definitely had a good chance of entering the NPC-player group when he reached Tier 2. "This concludes our transaction, adventurer. If you have any other things to exchange, I suggest you do it as soon as possible. I would be relieved of my duties after the path to the city is cleared. All the quests, I posted would be retracted after that and the town guard will take over after that." said Renner as he pulled out a pair of daggers and gave it to him. The daggers looked like they have been made from the claws of a monster. The blade was in the shape of a claw but had a blood red color. The handle was made of leather with a red gem on top of the pommel. [Red Claw daggers] (Bronze dagger) Level 10; Requirements: Strength: 25; Endurance: 15; Attack Power +50; Intelligence +3; Passive Effect: Ambush skill would have a 30 % chance to cause a random bleed effect. Special Effect 1: Red Rage: Smashing the pommels of the pair of daggers would cause a burst of energy to come out and injure to come out increasing the strength and endurance of the player by 20% for a period of 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes; "Thank you," said Shadow taking the daggers and walked out. Once, out he started to exchange the spears and halberds he crafted with the guard keeping only a couple of them for Rudra and Tetsujin to use once they reach level 10. He got a total of 22 spears, 6 pairs of daggers and 5 halberds which he made. Among them, the spear and halberds could be used right now to gain experience from the quest that Renner posted. After all, he didn''t complete that quest, but rather had a transaction with Renner. Each of the level 10 weapons gave him 100 experience and 5 silver if he sold it to the soldier. Though it was a small amount, the important thing for him right now is to gather experience points. With the exception of 2 halberds, he sold of the remainder of the level 10 equipment to the soldier to reach level 12 before he made his way to the rest of the team. Chapter 75 - Reaching the city 1 Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village Title: None Job: Assassin Level: 12 Exp: 5/6000 HP: 4500/4500; MP: 1800/1800; Physical Attack: 128; Defense: 88; Attack Speed: 84; Movement Speed: 88; Willpower: 38; Balance: 57; Focus/Search: 76; Reflect Damage: 1; Magic Resist: 20; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 63, Agility 62, Endurance 37, Intelligence 32, Vitality 47, Perception 38. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0; Once he leveled up he added the remaining, points to vitality and intelligence to pull them closer to the rest of the attributes. Without much delay, he went to meet the rest of the group. There were still battling the lionesses along the path to the city. With a four level difference between him and the monsters they were fighting, he had a strong advantage against these monsters. With a level 3 difference, the players would have a 50% higher damage than the usual. With a level difference higher than that, the damage wouldn''t increment any more till unless it reached 5 levels. He was easily able to evade their attacks due to the difference in agility and level. With the Red claw daggers, he was easily able to deal large amounts of damage to the monster. His style of fighting wasn''t going in stealth to use cheap shot and attacking the monsters rapidly when they were in a controlled state as he usually did after he got the garrote. He had a more than ten members who were working with him at the same level as the monsters. His garrote which he mainly used for controlling the monsters was at quite a lower level when compared to monster and him. With the garrote at level 5, the damage he inflicted with it was meager. He couldn''t even have a significant effect on the lionesses. Luckily, he was able to inflict a lot of damage from the red claw daggers. Within 5 minutes of his arrival, he managed to frightened the lionesses into running back into the forest. With the lionesses retreating, he quickly made Merlin and the rest follow into the forest, but they didn''t run after the pride. He already checked the location of the monkeys and their leader in the forest. He quickly led them to the location of the monkey as he knew they had to clear up as many monsters as he can before they went to the city. Shadow provided the antelope daggers to people who could use them like Roll and Tetsujin. Even players who were mainly long-range attackers like mages, could use daggers as secondary weapons. He had always planned to provide his team with secondary weapons, which could pull them out of a pinch. Along the way, they saw a couple of cougars, but the team were all level 8 and they managed to easily control and defeat them. As they went deeper, they came to lair of the monkeys. The monkeys were all situated around a large tree in the forest. Most of them were situated up in the trees. The most difficult part of dealing with the monkeys was getting them down the trees. It was a tough task as most of them remained in the trees. Luckily their mode of attack was mostly chucking stuff at the player and the branches and fruits of the trees didn''t affect the players much. The fruits could even be used by most of the players as items in potion or to have temporary buffs or increase the health and mana of the players. Though they tend to come down after some time to attack player using stones. It would be a time-consuming process to wait for them to come down and then take them down. The players could also climb trees in forest, but it required skill from the players. Parkour was a skill that professional game players or even normal people hardly learned in this era. Moreover, such skill in a forest environment is much rarer as people hardly ever had stayed in such an environment. Player slowly learnt these skills due the effect vita-nova had on human. But right now, most of the players hardly had any decent skill to move at such heights in such an environment. They could only do well in close combat on ground or bombard the monkey with long distances skill, which the monkeys easily evaded. But Shadow had none of these issues. Shadow could traverse on top of the trees due to his experience in previous life. He quickly made his way up the tree in stealth while the others remained on ground and attacked. With his team having their attention, he could easily push the monkeys off the trees which both reduced their health and also left them in a stunned state on the ground. The monkeys were level 7 creatures and Shadow''s attacks dealt very high damage to them. With the level difference of five levels any player could easily kill a monkey in 10 hits. Shadow always used ambush and other attacks which dealt high damage even without obtaining the corresponding skill books which allowed him to take down within 2 or 3 seconds. This was his advantage over other player in the game. But it had a side-effect of depleting his stamina which was used like MP. Luckily, he was on trees where there were quite a number of fruits and occasionally eating them managed to keep his stamina from depleting. Observing Shadow, Roll and Slaine who were also high agility classes tried to do the same, but they didn''t have the same effect. Though it was difficult, Roll tried his best to imitate and managed to climb up the trees, but he couldn''t move there as easily as Shadow and could only move by slowly in stealth. Slaine and Rudra was extremely surprised to see Balthazar able to move through the trees with such ease. They couldn''t believe that it was their friend who had such good skills. Even general military men wouldn''t have such skill. Only the rare elite who were in charge of clearing up new planets or those who did rescue operations at dangerous areas would usually be so skilled at such maneuvers. It was ironic as Balthazar learnt such techniques of movement by watching Slaine and his team. The trees were supposed to be the monkeys'' sanctuaries in the forest, but Shadow became a predator that invaded their safe space. Soon, the monkeys noticed this and began to scream crazily searching for him. This was Shadow''s main intention. The faster he infuriated the monkeys the faster the elites and the leader of the monkeys would show themselves to the players. This was the general idea in getting the attention of the leaders of the monsters in the game. Shadow''s plan worked as the leader came screeching down the branches. They were immediately noticed by the whole group as the monkey leader was louder than most and the larger than the rest. It also had very large fangs coming out of its mouth and had small bag over its back. As soon as it arrived, it started taking stones from the bag and chucking them at the player on the ground. It stayed at the top of the trees like the others, but it went into the foliage of the trees above the range of the attacks from ground. [Forest Monkey leader] (Special Elite monster) Level 8; HP: 3000/3000. Its appearance cause all the other monkey to get into a berserk state. Moreover, it was above the other monkeys and only came out to launch an attack before it went out of range again. It was as if the leader allowed the others to attack them first to observe their attack range before it started its own assault. It would only come down after its bag is emptied of rocks. The team couldn''t attack it either and other monkeys were making the fight difficult. Shadow immediately moved to the branches at the top to pursue the forest monkey leader. It wasn''t easy to reach the leader. Unlike the other monkeys which only moved around when they saw an attack coming towards them. The leader was moving around continuously. His only advantage was that the leader didn''t notice him as he had the team to continuously attack. As he reached the leader in stealth his first instinct was to pickpocket from the bag. But there was nothing in the bag other than stones. Disappointed, he wanted to make the leader get the largest possible damage from the fall. He cast cheap shot and used garrote to pull swung the monkey leader down with great force. He left the garrote tied around its neck and jumped down right behind it. The fall of the stunned monkey leader from that height couple with the stones on its back caused its health to be immediately plummeted by a third. He along with the rest of the team immediately followed and used the Red Rage skill as soon as he landed by the monkey leader. With the Red Rage skill, he managed deal very high damage to the monkey leader in killing him in 5 seconds as Tetsujin held it down using choke. As the monkey leader died the rest of the monkey subsided and scattered quickly into the depths of the forest. "The monkey are done, next is the lions. I hope there wouldn''t much harder species after that," thought Shadow. As soon as the notification for the leader''s death sounded, he suggested they loot all the monkey and leader, while he scouts for the lions. He quickly moved into the forest without giving them a chance to talk to one another. Their attack on the monkeys was quite beneficial. With Shadow already at level 12, defeating the monkeys was like forced leveling without much effort. A few among the group already leveled up during the fight. The ones who didn''t level up hoped that Shadow could have delayed his attack on the leader for some time which would allow them to gain a little more experience to finally level up. The entire fight to defeat them took less 10 minutes. Everyone couldn''t understand Shadow''s hurry to finish the quest. Though it was a very small amount of time, Shadow didn''t feel the same as the rest of them. He needed to go to the White Heart City as fast as possible. The faster he reaches the city the faster he can get to his aim. The only reason he was in such a hurry was a pair of unique daggers that can be found in the White Heart City Region. The previous owner of these daggers was a member of the guild Foedus Rex who were the first to reach the White Heart City. Apart from the daggers, his team also gained other unique armaments. Another member of the team called Sultan-e-Shehzad had boasted about its attributes and effects in the forums, a year after they managed to get it. He also mentioned the quest and the manner in which they got hold of the unique armaments. That post was one of the most famous ones in the forum and it was talked about whenever, it came to be known that a player found a unique armament. But the post also earned the player who posted it the ire of the rest of the guild. Sultan was immediately kicked out of the guild. This was the reason that Shadow wanted to get to the place along with others before anyone else managed to reach White Heart City. Doing this would serve two purposes in regard to getting a hold of these unique armaments. The first is that it would provide them an advantage over other players as they would be the first to get a chance at these weapons by following Shadow. The second is that in being the first to reach the city, they would get more reputation and also get a chance to do quests before others. Even after the other teams and members reach the city after them, they would be mostly concentrated on gaining the city reputation points. The quest for the unique armaments was a temple quest which wouldn''t be the first priority. While Shadow set out to search for the lionesses tracks, the rest of the team were focused on gathering loot from the monkeys. Roll, Tetsujin and Slaine went to pull out some fruits from the top of the trees. They noticed how useful eating fruits could be for classes that focused on physical combat when they saw Shadow fight. The most important thing about the fruits is that they could be eaten during combat rather than the other foods which could be used only in out of combat state. Shadow managed to quickly find the lionesses'' tracks and managed to get to their lair. It as a huge cave that went into the ground. Though it was the lair of the lions. There weren''t many monsters there. It was only 2 lion and about 30 lionesses. He didn''t care to even check the amount of cubs. Until now, no one in his team managed to get hold of tam beast skills. Cubs and younger monsters were easier to tame. So, they could only attack and kill these cubs. He ran back to the team to bring them back and finish the quest as soon as possible. Chapter 76 - Reaching the City - 2 As he reached the team, they were almost done collecting the loot and fruits. The team had few doubts as soon as he came back. The first was why he was in such a hurry. Rudra and Slaine knew that Balthazar had just lost his uncle and thought that he was going wild with rage in the game. They wanted to calm him down as they thought it wouldn''t be good for his mental health. The others who didn''t know Shadow''s identity and recent events weren''t that concerned about his behavior but wanted to know if there was any specific reason. Especially Merlin and Tetsujin couldn''t understand his sudden change in the person who was peacefully at the forging association making armaments. "Oy! Shadow, I noticed that the fruits don''t fill up the HP bar when in combat. Why were you gobbling them up?" asked Roll who already tried to do the same as Shadow. "You feel tired when you are using manual mode. If you move according to skill action you would create the corresponding effects of the skill in manual mode even before cooldown. You feel tired at that time. Eating those fruits relieves that feeling," explained Shadow describing the effect of low stamina. "How come you are so good at all those skills and moving?" asked Roll. Though he was Slaine and Rudra''s friend, he had no idea about Balthazar. "I have had a lot of practice," said Shadow. "He seems to be some sort of expert fighter or hunter in real-life," said Merlin. "I agree, it is a weird thing for someone in those occupations to actively participate like this in a game." "Ok. I found the lion pride. Come with me. I intend to finish up this quest within the hour. I need to get back for practice by 5 p.m.," said Shadow as he led them through the forest. The monkeys were easy because of Shadow being able to drop them down the trees. But the lions aren''t that easy to kill quickly. For the lions and lionesses, they don''t have any tricks. Luckily, the number of lionesses weren''t large. If he manages to lure the lionesses up, he could speed up the process. He knew the best way to lure any monster was to attack its cubs. He would need to reach the end of the path and fight the main boss after the lion in order to reach the city. Killing the lions and monkey leader would halt the reinforcements, the boss would have at the end of the quest making it easier to kill him. With him at level 12, he would have a definite advantage over the boss at the end of the quest. So, killing the lions would assure his completion of the quest. [Forest Lioness] (Common Monster) Level 8; HP: 3000/3000; [Forest Lion] (Elite Monster) Level 9; HP: 4000/4000; [Forest Lion Cubs] (Common Monster) Level 6: HP: 1500/1500; The lionesses were mostly roaming around the entrance of the cave with the cubs. The two lions which were elite monsters were inside the cave. These would only come out once they managed to kill a decent number of the lionesses. This behavior of the lions was similar to the monkey leader. Shadow had the team already placed nearby where he could lure a few of the lionesses. He moved close to a cub at the edge of the monster group and kicked it hard enough for its cries to be heard by the nearby monsters gaining their aggro. About 5 lionesses which were nearby, and a few cubs immediately ran towards Shadow. He couldn''t lure all 5 of the lionesses toward his team. It would probably cause casualties among the team with that high a number. So, he picked up the cub which he kicked and ran into the forest. Before he came to the team, Roll came and took the cub and ran further away while holding it. This caused all the lionesses'' aggro to be changed to Roll. But Shadow didn''t want them all to follow Roll. He let two of the lionesses to run by him and began to attack the remaining to regain their aggro. In this manner, two of them followed Roll who led them away so that the Shadow and the team will be able to take down the remaining three. Roll was already at level 9 and had enough agility to outpace the lionesses for a short while. Shadow''s high attack had already caused the lionesses which the team were fighting to retreat during his first confrontation with them as soon as he came back from the barracks. He can''t have the lionesses retreat this time. That is why, he had decided to fight at most three of them at a time so that they wouldn''t retreat and return with reinforcements. A retreat from them would be follow by an attack by larger number of lionesses possibly including a lion or both. That could cause a loss of life of the members, but it will most definitely delay the completion of the quest. The lionesses weren''t like the cougars which were also members of the cat family. Unlike cougars which were lone fighters, these monsters had a sense of teamwork like wolves. This would allow them to easily retreat if the team attacked a larger number of the lionesses at a time. That is the main reason that Shadow had Roll to lure two of the lionesses away. The remaining three were controlled by the team. The team had three tanks and a martial artist. These close combat classes were very useful in controlling the lions. With Shadow''s high damage, he was the main damage dealer while the other physical combat classes mostly involved themselves in controlling the lionesses. They managed to kill the lionesses quickly. They continued with this strategy till there were only 10 lionesses and the lions remaining. At this time, the lions came out of the cave and began to prowl alongside the lionesses. During this time, they managed to kill over 20 lionesses. The loot of the lionesses was also very useful, especially since it provided another leather armor set. The lion''s pride set also had four parts like the leopard skin set. It had a plain ochre color and had no designs on it. Its helm had a mane like that of a real lion. Though it was a leather set, it wasn''t much popular among assassin and ranger players. That is because, all the parts of the set only provided strength as attribute. But it was quite a popular choice for martial artists. [Lion''s pride helm] (BlackIron head gear) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance: 15; Strength +7; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Endurance +12%; 4 piece set effect: Intimidating roar: A shout which puts all enemies in range of 5 meters in a state of fear for 4 seconds; Cooldown: 3 minutes; Durability: 25/25; [Lion''s pride gloves] (BlackIron gloves) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance:15; Strength +6; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Endurance +12%; 4 piece set effect: Intimidating roar: A shout which puts all enemies in range of 5 meters in a state of fear for 4 seconds; Cooldown: 3 minutes; Durability: 25/25; [Lion''s pride boots] (BlackIron boots) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance: 15; Strength +5; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Endurance +12%; 4 piece set effect: Intimidating roar: A shout which puts all enemies in range of 5 meters in a state of fear for 4 seconds; Cooldown: 3 minutes; Durability: 25/25; [Leopard skin armor] (BlackIron armor) Level 8; Requirement: Endurance: 10; Strength +5; Vitality +2; Set effects: Set contains 4 pieces, helm, gloves, boots and chest armor. 2 piece set effect: Endurance +12%; 4 piece set effect: Intimidating roar: A shout which puts all enemies in range of 5 meters in a state of fear for 4 seconds; Cooldown: 3 minutes; Durability: 25/25; With over 20 lionesses dead, they had managed to get multiple pieces of the set except for the helm. Shadow heard a rumor that the headgear of the set would only drop from lions, but he didn''t actually know if it was true or not. It was a minor thing and would be revealed in a few moments, so he really didn''t care. "The lions are out, and it might change the difficulty of the fight. I will try to lure them again, but if the lions follow me, I will take the lion away from you. After that it is your responsibility to clear any lionesses that are behind me," said Shadow as he went to lure a few more monsters. This time instead of attacking a lioness or a cub, he went behind a lion in stealth used cheap shot on it. Due to the level-difference between them, the lion stumbled back a few feet and would definitely be stunned for more than 4 seconds. Seeing its companion attacked the other lion immediately ran after Shadow. A few of the lionesses also followed. Shadow controlled his speed so that he was fast enough for the lion to follow but the lionesses would lose him. The other lion was stunned and didn''t follow him. Shadow soon led the lion to the team where the entire team started to attack a single lion. Even though it is an elite level 9 monster, it couldn''t escape nor put up a fight against 12 players and was easily killed in 15 seconds. With over 20 lioness and a lion dead, the remaining weren''t much of a challenge. Moreover, they needed to only take down the lion. Without the leader of the lionesses, these monsters wouldn''t come as reinforcements at the entrance of the city. So, Shadow went into stealth and used cheap shot against the lion which was the signal for the others to attack. As the rest of the team attacked Shadow began to beat up the lionesses to get their aggro onto him. With most of their focus of the 11 players on the lion, it didn''t have much of a chance to escape and succ.u.mbed to their damage within the minute. It was during the fight they realized that the rate of damage Shadow dealt was a lot above them. It wasn''t just the high attribute and level-difference, he had the technique to injure and inflict high damage by striking vital points and causing bleed effect. As the lion fell down, the rest of the lionesses immediately scattered away from the cave. It was the same behavior as the monkeys in response to their leader''s death. If not for Shadow already telling his team that this would probably happen, and they would need to block a few lionesses before they scattered, they would have lost the experience provided by the monsters deaths. The lion also gave out the Lion''s pride set headgear finally completing the set. It was decided that Tetsujin would be wearing that temporarily and later they can sell it. Rudra being a berserker could also use the strength increase from the set, but leather armor would have low defence and he didn''t want to sacrifice his defence for strength completely. He also didn''t like the headgear which had a mane like that of a lion. After they killed all the monsters, they could a few cubs remained, but no one could actually use tame skill on them. Without the option, they just marked the location to see if they would still be there after they reached the city. There was a high chance that they could get the tame skill in the city market. Shadow already knew that once the reached level 10, the city would have pet shops where they would sell the skill. A lion cub if grown properly would be a great pet. With the lions cleared, they only had to reach the city and kill the boss monster which would always be a different species. One could only guess. It was always different for different groups even in the same village. But it wouldn''t be above level 10, and it could be killed by them if they properly coordinate. But there was another problem. Though he was at level 12 and he hardly received any experience. He selected equal allocation for all the 12 members of the group, but they were still at level 9. He couldn''t really promote them to level 10 if he directly moved towards the city. Moreover, he had only an hour left. So, he decided to let them kill a few more beasts in the forest before they walked along the path to the city. He also messaged Robert to inform Lucius that he is in a business activity and might be delayed by 15 to 20 minutes. This was true as the workshop could actually be considered his business. This would gain him another hour in the game. But Robert''s reply was much more confusing to him. "Lucius already told me that you have a meeting with the Patriarch," replied Robert. "Lucius know about it. Don''t worry, take your time with it. If Winston has a meeting with you, Lucius wouldn''t hold it against you." "Grandpa has a meeting with me?" thought Balthazar in shock. He immediately checked his email from the console and found that Winston indeed scheduled a meeting with him and sent a mail to approve it. Apart from that, he found that he received another mail from Sophia. This one was much more confusing. Sophia told him in the mail that she was appointed as the Colonel at the PK-170-B base. The confusing part was she also told that it was decided that Brixton would continue as the Brigadier General and from her contacts in the military headquarters, she heard that Balthazar would be a colonel of a special unit directly under Lieutenant General Xander Drake. It was also confirmed by Rodrigo Banderas according to her. Xander Drake was one of Rodrigo''s friends. He was the one that took over Rodrigo''s position after his retirement. He had the reputation of being an exceeding aggressive in his plans for the military. His fame was so high that some higher authorities frequently thought that they should have let Rodrigo continue as his successor was much tougher to deal with. Chapter 77 - Reaching the City-3 The mail he received from Sophia was a source of both comfort and anxiety. It was a source of comfort as it implied that Sophia was concerned about him in this life too and he finally got some information about the next step in his career. Not knowing what would happen to one''s career was always a source of discomfort. The anxiety was because it told that he would be directly reporting under Xander Drake. Any job that required one to report directly to an authority that high would have a high-risk factor and a lot of responsibility. It was concerning to him that the job would put him in the more danger. He already faced enough threats. Moreover, it might also lower his chances of meeting with Sophia at the base. "I can''t do anything about this now. Let me handle it as I get the official posting," thought Balthazar as he sent a mail to his grandfather informing him that he would be 15 to 20 minutes late. Winston immediately replied that the meeting wasn''t urgent and even specified to take his time in reaching the office. It was like Winston didn''t really want to meet him. With that he reverted his focus back from the messages board on his panel to the game. He had to finish up the quest as fast as possible. Even though he got a bit more time now, he couldn''t take it easy. Else, he would fail in his plan. He moved through the forest in search for more beasts that they could take down. He also suggested that they take different routes while searching for the beasts. He wanted Slaine, Roll, Rudra to move and himself to move through the forest while the rest of the team moved along the path towards the city. He divided the group equally. He went along with the players from the Dreamz workshop as he was most familiar with them. With all of them at level 9 it wasn''t that dangerous to move separately. They could at the very least retreat safely now. "Contact us if you find any other players or any other danger," said Shadow as he went into the forest leaving the other three. He wanted at least one from his workshop and one from the Quiet Fire''s team to be in the first three that enter the city only these would get reputation points. His best bet were Rudra and Merlin. Though all the 12 members who were doing the quest are at level 9 after the fight with the lions. Merlin had the most as he frequently focused on even his trade professions of cook and alchemist. He was the go-to source for resources like food for the team. Thus, his experience was just 200 points short of level 10. Rudra was like the rest and needed a lot more experience points, but he was the guild leader and if the leader had more reputation points, it would be easy for them to expand and get hold of resources. Even though Balthazar was going to help the Crimson Realm guild, it was always best for Rudra to have a decent number amount of reputation for situation where he might not be available. Rudra needed a significantly higher amount of experience compared to Merlin. With the six of them in the forest they could have Rudra take the last hit and with the proper experience mode, he could gain experience much faster. Shadow quickly put any monster he found in a near death state and using the level 5 garrote to choke, he held it till Rudra landed the last hit. In this manner, the rate at which Rudra was gaining experience was steadily increasing. At the Blackrock town and the other villages and cities under the White Heart City region, many were shocked to see the leaderboards. The board at the Blackrock town was completely dominated by the 11 members of his group. Shadow had long ago opted to not show his name in the leaderboards. Even in the entire White Heart region, the occupied the top 5 positions. There were members from other groups that had reached level 9 and were competing with him. With the Blackrock town promotion, there was a lot of exchange of goods and resources causing many members also to reach the level 9. Luckily, none of them knew the best way to complete the quest that allows them to reach the city. Even if they tried to kill all monsters they found, it wouldn''t be possible to kill the boss at the city at level 9. With Shadow helping him, Rudra soon managed to reach level 10 in 60 minutes. Merlin had already reached level 10 by that time. With the two of them reaching level 10, the player in the region were in uproar. Most were spamming the forums with accusations that they have been using some sort of glitch in the game. Luckily, the game moderators were quick to reply informing that no unfair means were used saving their guilds reputation among the players. Soon, a person called Wandering Hermit that there were others that have reached level 10 but had opted to not be shown in leaderboard. He also listed a few names from various towns indicating why he thinks so. In the list, Shadow was also mentioned. It was known that Shadow had been playing with Merlin. Also, Shadow had a few first clears, but his name never popped up even in Blackrock village list. Informing these facts, he suggested that Shadow definitely crossed level 10, but kept it secret. Though there were other who insisted that it might not be so as Shadow already had first clears and had no reason to keep his level secret, they would all be proven wrong within an hour. Once, Rudra had crossed level 10, Shadow immediately provided him with the stag horn halberd he crafted to Rudra. He decided it is best that they aim for clearing the quest. Even if they didn''t cross level 10 by the time the boss died. It wouldn''t be hard to enter the city as the cleared the quest. They just need to cross level 10 through trade profession or a few more kills before they teleport to the city from the BlackRock Town. They went along the path and soon could see the city wall from a distance. They only came in contact with a few isolated monsters like the red fanged cougars, but they could easily take care of these monsters. As they began to saw their destination, the team started to run along the path in excitement. They stopped caring about other beasts that might come. Only, Shadow knew that it wouldn''t be easy and carefully observed his flanks as he was running. As he expected there were few roars and soon a pair of bears popped out of the forest attacking them from the front. Though these bears were both level 9 elites, Shadow didn''t consider them difficult enough for the end of the quest and had the team be on hold instead of actively attacking them. His doubts soon proved to be true as another bear which was much smaller than these two jumped out of the forest behind them. This was named Sun Bear and was the level 10 boss monster he was waiting for. It was clear that these monsters had the team flanked. [Forest Bear] (Elite Monster) Level 9; HP: 6000/6000; [Sun Bear] (Boss monster) Level 10; HP: 9000/9000; The forest bears were both about 6 feet high and 8 feet large. Bears usually had high defence and health. It was best for Magic damage classes to attack them. These bears had high damage and lower agility. So, attacking from a distance or classes with high agility are the best options to attack the bears. Bears usually fought by swiping their claws against the players. They had a huge frame and even being hit by their limbs usually result in throw back and stun effects on the players. They even ram into the players when their health is low. The only advantage against them is their low speed. The sun bear was about 4 feet high and 5 feet large. It had golden fur instead of brown, wore a helmet and plate armor around its torso and carried a sword. All bears high strength and defense. The different kinds of bears only differed in other aspects. The only exceptions were two kinds of bears - sun bear and starlight bear. These two kinds of bears are humanoid. They could speak and use armaments like humans. They also move very fast with quick, agile movements. It is easier to take down 4 bears than one of these sun bears. They were similar to players in most aspects but had the physique of a bear. With most of the team being level 9 players, Shadow left them to deal with the forest bears. As long as they maintained a reasonable distance and attacked, it is not hard to deal with the forest bears. He also put Rudra and Merlin in charge of one forest bear each. These two being at level 10 will have an advantage over the bears. Shadow ran to handle the sun bear himself. Although it was a boss monster, it was two levels below him. Moreover, a monster could never match a fight against a seasoned veteran like him. He cast a shadow clone and used Red Rage skill as soon as he attacked the bear. Like always he cast the clone to use cheap shot skill. The sun bear was a humanoid similar to the worgen. Though it didn''t physically look different from the other bears. It was able to use a sword. It wasn''t an easy task to fool the sun bear into not observing the shadow clone. That is why he used the red rage skill so that the visual effect of the skill would distract it. He had to keep at a distance from the rest of the team. It would certainly cause disturbance in their coordination of the group in fighting the bears. He immediately had the clone cast cheap shot to stun the bear and began to lower its health. He focused his attack on joints of the armor first. It was always best to disable or remove the armor of the monsters to lower its defense. Striking the joints that held the armor pieces together was the best option to remove plate armor. Removing the armor could best be done while the monster is stunned. It is a lot harder to aim at the tiny joint when the monster is trying to evade. With the repeated cheap shot from his clone and himself, he managed to remove the armor and helm in 6 seconds and began to attack the sun bear rapidly. The sun bears main advantage was it speed and movements. Most of its defense was provided by the armor. Without its armor it began to lose health rapidly. The sad thing was that it couldn''t even match its speed with Shadow. At level 12, his agility was more than high enough to deal with it. He could easily stop its attacks and deal damage to it. It slowly began to lose health and within three minutes, its health went below 50% which put it into a berserk state. It started to attack the others in its desperate state instead of attacking Shadow who was the only one who inflicted damage to it. It ran around and tried to attack others, but Shadow being faster than it easily got hold of it and kept it at bay. Yet due to the berserk effect, its speed clearly increased by at least 20% and it was getting harder for him to hold it at bay. He tried to control it with the garrote. Though he wasn''t able to loop the garrote wire around its head, he managed to loop it around its limbs. But still it could not control it. The bears have limbs which could smack at players who are using chok and are on their back. So, it was a futile attempt to control using choke or garrote. He had only on option left. It was the halberd that he made. It could be used to control and pull away the bear by the hook like gaps in its head. He already had enough strength attribute to use it even though it is a two-handed weapon. The flaw with the halberd was that without the appropriate skills, he could hardly deal decent damage and the frequency of attack also was quite low with this weapon. The good part was that, Rudra who always played berserker had made good use of the three new skills he learned recently. Using the harpoon tackle and whirlwind strike, he managed to already push the bear they were fighting away from the other two. With him being at level 10, his attacks had a stronger effect on the bear. The halberd could also be used for these skills and the best was already on its last legs. With a shattering strike, Rudra quickly put an end to the monster and five more were ready to help Shadow. The remaining also were able to control the bear in a decent manner but they didn''t have enough firepower. Tetsujin who could usually control the monsters using choke skill failed as the bear could smack him away with its arms even when he was on its back. This wasn''t possible for wargs or cats. Due to this, they had to change their fight style. They were using tanks for cover and attacked the bear with magical long-distance attacks. This wasn''t a hard task, but it definitely took a long time to kill the bear in this manner. "Join the others to finish off the other bear," said Shadow as soon as he saw Rudra finish one of the bears. He was quite confident in his capabilities to keep the sun bear away. Though the damage he inflicted was quite small, engaging it in a fight at a stalemate was an easy job. With all 10 of them attacking the other bear didn''t even last for a minute. After that the same fate awaited the sun bear. The sun bear though was fast enough to evade even most of the level 10 players, it couldn''t handle escape the co-operative effort of the 12 players and died within two minutes of the 12 players joining to kill the sun bear. With the sun bear dead they have been done with all the monsters in the quest. All that was left is to go to the gate at the wall and inform the guards about the town head''s quest and finish the quest. They quickly made their way along the path in the direction of the city wall. The soon came to a junction where a large number of paths from various towns and villages joined. A few meters away from the junction there was a large watchtower and check post. This check post is the teleportation point that would be available for the players at level 9 to teleport to. They can''t directly teleport into the city till they reached level 10. Even after the death of the sun bear, none of the others managed to level up. The others could only register at the check post for the completion of the quest and come back when they have managed to reach level 10. Shadow quickly went to the check post and pulled out informed the guard about his quest. The quest reward was based on the number and type of monsters, a player helped to kill. The experience gained was dependent on this. Thus, there was a good chance for most of the team to level up. Even in his previous life, situation where someone managed to complete the quest without reaching level 10 were rare occurrences because of this. He immediately heard the notification. Quest completed: [Clear a path to the city] (Difficulty: High) Performance: Moderate; Experience gained: 700; Rewards: Gained access to the White Heart City. Chapter 78 - An unexpected job With the quest completed, Shadow quickly made his way past the check post to the gate of the city. There were a couple of guards with halberds and spears at the gate. As soon as he walked past the gate, a couple of notification sounded through the entire White Heart Kingdom. White Heart Kingdom Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant for becoming the first player in the White Heart Kingdom to arrive at a city! Rewarding the title of First Citizen of White Heart City. White Heart City Reputation +50; Blackrock Town Reputation +100; With this done, Shadow quickly gave Rudra a few of the designs for the Antelope Spear and immediately selected to logout of the game. They were luckily able to manage to clear the quest within the time. He still had 10 minutes to reach Winston at his office. He had no clue about what it is and was in a hurry. He quickly got off his pod and started to move towards Winston''s office. On the other hand, the situation inside vita-nova and the forums became very chaotic. Everyone was surprised by the announcement of Shadow Tyrant reaching the White Heart City. Most of the guilds were shocked. The forums were also ablaze with similar comments. All the players in the entire game soon came to know that someone managed to reach the city and his name became quite famous among all the players of the game. "Ridiculous! We are dying to maintain level 9 and these guys have already reached the city," shouted Raging Blade who was in the middle of the same quest. They were having a very hard time in clearing the quest and were constantly being hampered by monsters that continuously came out of the forest and attacked them. This could only be stopped by going into the forest to kill the leader monsters. "That guy Wandering Hermit was right. There are people who are way ahead of us. We should have listened to Blue Dart and contacted him when we saw his friends cross level 10. I bet they all managed to get into the city," said another member of the team. Blue Dart had already expected such a situation to arise ever since he saw Crimson Power and Merlin in the leaderboard crossing level 10. He had realized that Shadow had found a method to finish the quest in a faster or easier manner. He had insisted to the guild leader and other members of his team that it is best that they contact Shadow to come to an agreement, but none paid heed to him. Blood Wolf also understood the situation when Blue Dart suggested it. In fact, he understood it better than Blue Dart. He knew that neither Shadow Tyrant nor Merlin Grimlock would tell it to them before they reach the city. Blue immediately tried to contact Shadow about it as soon as he heard the announcement. With Shadow already logged out, he couldn''t contact him. This, he immediately called Blood Wolf. "What is it?" asked Blood Wolf. He was also quite busy in the game at this time and really didn''t appreciate Blue Dart''s call at this time. The others who knew about Blue''s suggestion were already pestering him for not taking initiative. Even few guild elders were using this opportunity to embarrass him. "I am unable to contact him. It looks like he logged out. He didn''t share his contact number. I can only contact his account," explained Blue Dart. Blood Wolf had ordered him to wait till Shadow reaches the city before contacting him for the guide to the quest. This was the most important part of their agenda right now. Everyone in the game wanted to be able to reach the city as fast as possible. "Is Merlin not responding either?" asked Blood Wolf. "He isn''t responding. It is quite odd for him to not respond. I don''t know if they want to keep it secret and only use it for themselves. It would cause a lot of friction between them and other guilds, if they do this. It is weird for him to not respond," explained Blue Dart. Merlin had an entirely different take on the issue. As much as he was concerned, they managed to finish the quest because Shadow was at a higher level and hence managed to help them level up easily and finish the quest. He couldn''t give a way for them to level up easily. Without any other options, Merlin just told Blue Dart the truth and told that he would just have to wait till Shadow comes back from his meeting. "I am sorry, it might take more than 3 hours in real world, but we mainly depended on him to finish the quest," explained Merlin to Blue Dart. His explanation hadn''t reduced the pressure, he would face as it is was hardly of use to any of them. Most thought that Shadow had somehow finished another special quest or something before he completed the quest. Some players were also putting pressure on the Crimson Realm guild members. Luckily, Shadow hadn''t created a guild yet at the city, else the players would have gone crazy if they didn''t know the method to clear the quest. Balthazar had an entirely different issue right now. As he got out of the pod, he saw that he got another mail which informed him that his meeting with Winston wasn''t at his office but moved to some other room in the mansion and to ask Thaddeus for directions. He quickly contacted Thaddeus Crane through his wrist band and Thaddeus soon led him to a place which he least expected. It was Elder Max''s old room. "You''re kidding right?" asked Balthazar. "No, they wanted to go through his possession and cross check if we missed something," explained Thaddeus and left Balthazar in front of the gate. Balthazar initially didn''t care about checking Max''s rooms and belongings for any clues because he didn''t care about it. He expected that his family already took care of it. He didn''t really want to go through his uncle''s belongings. He had the same issue right now. He didn''t want to go into his uncle''s room. He had a lot of memories related to his uncle and would possibly remember a few things once he entered the room. Though he had come to terms with the betrayal, he had quite a few happy childhood memories that had lost all meaning after his experience with Max on Rowley''s ship. He still wasn''t ready for this. As he was pondering over it, someone opened the door. The man that stepped out was almost 8 feet tall with thick arms. He wore a long grey coat with a hood, a scarf covering his nose and mouth with a pair of shades over his eyes. "Oh! you finally came. I was just about to go back. Why are you so late?" asked the man in a gruff voice as he pulled Balthazar inside the room. In the room, other than himself there was Winston, Evelyn Price, D.i.c.k and the man who pulled him inside. D.i.c.k was looking around the place and was bagging several stuff from the room, while Evelyn was showing some doc.u.ments to Winston. D.i.c.k waved his hand as soon as he saw Balthazar enter. "I hoped you would come a bit later," said Winston looking at Balthazar as he shook his head. "Well, I don''t have much issues. Talk it out with him. I can''t decide this on my own," he continued looking at Evelyn and the disguised man. "This is Evelyn Price," said Winston introducing her. "She is the younger sister of the prime directer, Harvey. She used to be a commander of clandestine operations unit and worked alongside Walter. She now works as a political advisor for Harvey Price." "Nice to meet you Madam Price," said Balthazar shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you Balthazar. I have worked with Walter and was also acquainted with your father. Still can''t believe that your uncle was responsible for these deaths," replied Evelyn. "You have my condolences." "The big guy to my left is Lieutenant General Xander Drake. He is your superior officer at the alliance military," she continued pointing at the person who pulled him into the room. "We were told that you were responsible in finding out Max''s involvement with knights of the old republic and the Nirbaadh Pirates. You somehow managed to get information about them, when most of us failed," added Xander Drake as he pulled of his hood, shades and scarf. He had white eyebrows and white hair in a crew cut and red eyes. He was clearly an albino. That was truly a rare breed in this century. He had a few scars on his face that gave him a look that would frighten most people. "The Nirbaadh pirates have shown themselves in the open and we are concerned about a potential crisis. So, we need a response team," said Evelyn showing him the doc.u.ments in her hand. They were new posting orders for him directly under Evelyn. It had suggested him being employed in a clandestine operations group under her direct command. It looked like they wanted him to investigate the knights of the old republic and any affiliates of them that would probably cause any more troubles to the social structure of the alliance or any way they might collaborate with the apes. "Is this for real?" asked Balthazar as he went through the doc.u.ments that Evelyn provided. He couldn''t believe that he was being asked to spy. He only managed to get escape the blast and managed to get Max caught because he knew the future and a lot of luck. Now, he is being considered someone adept at such work and being offer this position. Though he had worked as an assassin for two years and had done a lot of spy work as a part of finding out about his targets, he didn''t have any specific training for it nor did he know the protocols to be followed for such outfits. He definitely needed to be trained for something like this, but the doc.u.ments suggested he start the work as soon as possible. "Well, I don''t want to force you for this. Moreover, you have been through some severe trauma. Winston did suggest something. Though you have the teams technical support, how about you work for the duration of three months which is your leave on your own or with your family," suggested Evelyn looking at Winston. "I don''t really want you to go do something without proper preparation. Though you managed to get information about them, you almost died the last time. You best get some proper training and get vetted from Walter," said Winston. "Yes, there were a few things you could have done better. We might have ended up saving quite a few lives or gotten hold of more information if you had been a bit more prepared," agreed Evelyn. "I would be the one usually training new recruits but seeing that you already have some practical experience and you are a member of this family. I am fine if Walter is confident." "Yes, that is a good thing," added Winston. "Walter had the most experience in dealing with these folks. He is also currently pursuing them. You could follow him, and he already has experience in teaching these things." "Yes, actually I don''t care as long as you follow a few guidelines which would ensure your safety and also make sure we don''t lose any valuable information or cause a delay of information transfer," said Evelyn. "I will just mail you these details so that you keep track of them. In fact, I don''t care if you do nothing for these three months of your leave. I can train you afterwards." "I am sold," said Balthazar holding out a hand to stop both of them. "Send me the guidelines. I will look into them. I already had a few plans in following up after these guys. Just hope you can provide me some technical support. Mainly I will need a few duplicate identities, I could use." "That is a capital offence unless approved," said Elaine looking at him in surprise. She couldn''t believe that Balthazar asked him for something like that as if it was peanuts. "I like the kid," said Xander Drake laughing. He was always aggressive and tended to like people who took initiative. "Though you are just to be my subordinate as a part of your cover. Feel free to ask me if you need anything." "YOU ARE ALREADY WORKING ON IT!!!?" shouted Winston. He was extremely angry. He had already felt that his grandson going to help Robert for the position of elder was dangerous. Now, he came to know that Balthazar was already planning something dangerous and he still didn''t plan to explain everything. "Well, I have a few contacts and I know that the best way to get to information is to infiltrate or at the very least get into their circles. I already know who might be in contact with the Nirbaadh pirates or at least end up contacting them. I think I can move in their circles with a bit of help," said Balthazar frankly without reacting to Winston or the other two. "I can''t directly help you with getting a duplicate identity without getting additional information about what you are planning," said Evelyn seriously. "It goes against protocol." "Actually, I don''t need an identity from you. I am sure I can get one on my own. I just need you to back me up in case I ever get caught by authorities," said Balthazar smiling. "I will try to do a few things on my own in these three months. These are still my official leave. I will go where I want to. Once, I join your outfit, I will inform you of everything and follow your orders," continued Balthazar as he put the doc.u.ments back in her hand. Xander started laughing loudly after he heard this. It was clear that Balthazar was telling them that he would do it with or without their permission. He was just hoping that they would serve as his back up in the worst-case situation. Evelyn was shocked that the young man was so frank with her without any ounce of fear. It was especially unexpected coming from a someone in the military. Both Drake and Evelyn had a lot of prestige among the armed forces. Even after she informed about her working alongside Walter, he was extremely bold in front of her. D.i.c.k was the only one who held his calm. He already knew that Balthazar was targeted. He realized that Balthazar was being so bold was probably because he was already a target and defeating them and kill his opponents was the best way to escape this issue and live a normal life. Before he setup a security group, he had led a life where he ran away from powerful people. He only managed to gain his fame after killing his enemies and then came to be known to Bruce. Thus, he understood Balthazar''s intentions and need to go after the culprits who attempted to kill him. Chapter 79 - Job negotiation The situation was an unexpected one for everyone in the room. Balthazar didn''t expect that he would ever openly give Winston any hint about his plans to become an assassin again. D.i.c.k, Evelyn and Xander thought they might need to do a bit more convincing, but their discussion took an entirely different turn and Winston never thought that his grandson would be already planning further action against their enemies on his own. It was finally Xander that broke the awkward situation between Evelyn, Winston and Balthazar. "Where are you planning to get a hold of the fake identity cards? What do you intend to do with them?" asked Xander. "Can''t really tell you that. But I can provide you information about others who would be using similar services. I need them to join the underworld. To get to the Nirbaadh pirates, I need to join similar circles, become an assassin," said Balthazar. He began to put it all out as having the alliance military support him would make his plans work a lot more easily. Without providing them a few details, they would hardly ever accept to help him. So, he needed to give them the overall idea, but he was never going to share the details of it. "You want to convince a bunch of murderers that you are one of them? How do you propose you do that?" asked Winston gritting his teeth. The more he heard his grandson talk the angrier he felt. It was not only directed towards Balthazar but also towards Evelyn and Walter. He knew Walter had thought Balthazar to fight ever since his parents died. He knew that Walter inspired Balthazar along this path and suggested him to join the armed forces. Though he knew that Balthazar would have to face this sooner or later, but he still hated Walter for it. Now, he thought that Evelyn was doing something similar to Walter and to his shock Balthazar was already along an extremely dangerous path. "I am already prepared for that. I already have a bit of experience in looking out for assassins. Even before the blast, I had dealt with a bunch of assassins they sent to kill me," lied Balthazar. Though he was a capable assassin in his previous life, he can''t prove his skills to others directly. He was used to killing quickly without involving direct confrontation. He had to try and convince that he could defend himself. So, he started to lie to them. "You were already attacked by assassins at the base?" asked Xander Drake. An assassin infiltrating a military base like the citadel Balthazar was in charge of, was a serious breach in security of the base. It needed some serious security upgrades at the citadel if someone managed to infiltrate a military base. "Don''t worry. I have already taken care of the issue. There was a mole among the members, but he is already dead in the blast. That is why I didn''t expect such a method of attack in the hangar," said Balthazar trying to calm Xander Drake. Hiding that Max was involved in the blast was already a crime by Balthazar. It could be considered a capital offence by most and was privileged information in the military. Xander was already angry when he came to know it and had thoughts to punish him severely. It was due to his insistence that Balthazar wasn''t promoted. He was three levels superior to Balthazar in the military hierarchy. Moreover, Balthazar was his subordinate. It was only due to the interference of Rodrigo and Evelyn that Balthazar wasn''t punished. Now, listening another secret being revealed blew his top. "Are you kidding me?" shouted Drake as he stood up. Xander liked Balthazar a lot for his achievements and his nature. But if there was one thing that Xander found hard to tolerate, it was disloyal and traitorous people. "Even if you knew who the mole was and he died in the blast, we can''t just leave like that," said Xander. "It is one thing to hide your uncle Max''s involvement in this disaster, but all the dead are being considered heroes and were awarded for their valor. Because you hid this, the traitors are being awarded the same honors as the injured veterans," continued Xander angrily. "I know that. I have known that it would be unfair to the loyal soldier and if any information about this gets out, it would be a nightmare for the military. Most employees would lose faith in the armed forces and the current authorities and that is something none of us want," said Balthazar as he stood up looking at the enraged Xander in his eyes. Xander was clearly someone who could easily intimidate people through his might and physique. Not being intimidated, maintaining a calm attitude and providing clear, valuable explanations was the best way to gain the confidence of such men. "Just the thought of them having doubts that I might have information about them resulted in the disaster at the base. I have no intention of informing them about what I know and there might be more traitors in the military that I don''t know about. If you brand the dead traitors as such, they might be more on guard against us. I am not willing to let that happen. So, whatever you say, I won''t inform you anything about my plans," continued Balthazar staring at Lt. General. "Calm down, Xander. He might have a fair point," said Evelyn putting a hand on Xander''s shoulder and signalling him to sit down. "If we brand them as traitors, we might cause the knights of the old republic be on guard." "Nevertheless, we need to have information regarding the traitors. We might get hold of more information if we investigate their relatives at the very least," continued Evelyn looking at Balthazar. "Already did investigate them. I found them reporting to a person who was revealed to be a Rowley. On torturing the assassins sent after me, they also gave me two names, Rowley and Dave. I am sure that the Rowley family is involved, and they would be very good at covering their tracks," said Baltahzar. "I would have informed the military if you were able to find anything from the ship. Even though you tracked it to Raymond Rowly, a simple statement from one of their elders put the investigation on hold. That is the reason, I would inform you of my plans unless my investigations reveal something you could use. Not only the military, even you are bound by the political influences," continued Balthazar pointing at Evelyn. "Be that as it is, I still can''t allow you to keep this secret from me. I am responsible for the investigation of the explosion related events since we came to know of the Nirbaadh pirates and their clients. I can''t allow you to hide related information from me.," said Evelyn stubbornly. In her position, she couldn''t allow such information to be hidden from her. "I am not willing to put my life and lives of others in the hands of people like you. You are the prime director''s sister and your actions will be dictated by political pressures. Moreover, in this way, you would have plausible deniability and blame it on me. And I can always plead insanity caused due to disaster at the base," said Balthazar in a flat tone. It was clear from his tone that he didn''t care about Evelyn. Everyone in the room realized by this time that it was not just his loyalty to the alliance military and his sense of duty that is pushing Balthazar to investigate the enemies. It was clear that he considered this issue a life and death matter for him and his family. "He is a tough one. Obviously, he wouldn''t trust me, if he didn''t even trust his own family to be capable of getting any information," thought Evelyn. "I am not going to get any information from him directly. The only thing I can do is let D.i.c.k help him. In this manner, I will at least have some modic.u.m of control. Moreover, he could also claim insanity if I force him legally to reveal his secrets. That would lead to a total waste of money and resources." She couldn''t force the Blyth''s to reveal all the information they had. Forcing them to cooperate is impossible. That is a lot harder than forcing Rowley family to cooperate, which she couldn''t do either. She had come here hoping to get Balthazar under her to have a source of information at the Blyth family. She never had any interest in recruiting Balthazar for clandestine operations. Her only interest was to get some information from the Blyth''s using the Patriarch''s grandson. Winston, D.i.c.k and Xander had always known her intentions. She always knew that Winston wouldn''t support her attempts for obvious reasons. She brought Xander along thinking that Balthazar being his subordinate might actually be more willing with him present. D.i.c.k was a familiar face to Balthazar and hence, she got D.i.c.k to help convince Balthazar. She always considered that Winston would be the person hindering her attempt the most today. If Walter had been at the planet, he would directly send her back. Without Walter, she thought that she had a good chance to have a Blyth working for her. But never did she ever expect that her target himself would be the one who would be against her. Unable to change his mind, she had to concede. "Hmm...," sighed Evelyn as she realized she wouldn''t be able to achieve her objective completely today. "I can only accept his condition and maybe slowly gain his confidence later," she thought. "At least, I would have plausible deniability, if he screwed up with something. Moreover, he seems to be strong willed and capable. He might actually find out something we can use with a bit of support." "OK, I will agree to provide you technical support. D.i.c.k will also be your liaison to my outfit. But you will be in probation till you provide any valuable information proving yourself or you accept my original proposal train with the outfit. You can contact D.i.c.k for everything including your issue with identity cards," said Evelyn finally giving up on her original plans for now. "That would be best for all of us. Don''t worry, I am not stupid enough to try and destroy my enemies on my own. I only intend to collect evidence or create a situation that will prompt action from the alliance. That is the only way, I would be able to beat them, especially if they have the backing of the knights of old republic or the Nirbaadh pirates," said Balthazar. Though Evelyn had finally accepted that she would let him try on his own, Balthazar knew that she would try to monitor him through D.i.c.k. Yet, their discussion finally reached some sort of conclusion. Though it wasn''t to the liking of either Evelyn or Balthazar. No good compromise ever satisfies all the parties involved. Xander and D.i.c.k were quiet, and it looked like they were willing to accept this arrangement. The only person who was completely not satisfied with the way this meeting turned out was Winston. Before the meeting, he held the hope that even in the worst case, if Balthazar directly accepts Evelyn''s offer, she wouldn''t put him in any highly dangerous situation. Yet now, not only is Balthazar accepting Evelyn''s help which she would definitely use to pull him to her side, but also Balthazar was definitely going to do something illegal or dangerous as he asked for fake identity cards. This scenario was worse than the worst case he imagined. During their talk, Winston had half a mind to knock out Balthazar and keep him in the mansion till he reconsiders these unsafe plans. But by the time, Evelyn conceded, he also understood that he couldn''t stop his grandson and even if he uses force, Balthazar would surely find a way to escape and continue. Right now, he just wished that his grandson had told him of his plans beforehand so that he could help him directly instead of Evelyn being involved. Walter had contacts that would be able to provide anything that Balthazar needed. In his perspective, it was a better option to seek Walter''s help than Evelyn''s. "I will be waiting for your reports. Hope you don''t make a mess of things. Remember, there are a few things from which even Winston would not be able to protect you," warned Evelyn as she got up to leave. "I beg pardon?!" interjected Winston. "If he does go after the Rowleys, it them that have to be worried. Not us," he continued looking at Evelyn. "The Price family have gotten too soft lately. They have almost forgotten how they managed to gain their power." "Hmph!" said Evelyn as she walked out of the room followed by D.i.c.k and Xander. Though Winston''s last words held no meaning to the others, it looked like Evelyn was shaken by it. The Blyths have been supporting her family for a long time and so she had taken them for granted, but it looked like they were not willing to budge on this. She knew that if the situation called for it, her own family would discard her if there ever came a situation where the Blyths were no longer willing to support them. Seeing Winston support Balthazar made her rethink that may be Balthazar was much more capable than she thought. She immediately made a few calls and started preparing for the scenarios where Balthazar failed or was successful and could get some incriminating evidence about the Rowleys. "It is all in your hands now kid," she thought as she reached her ship and lit a cigar. "Don''t disappoint us," she sighed openly. Chapter 80 - White Heart city As Evelyn and the other went out of the room, only Winston and Balthazar were left. Though Winston helped to convince them and helped Balthazar with the situation before, he had never really wanted to let his grandson to play detective among assassins. Though Balthazar was 22 years old, he would be still considered a very young man. Moreover, Balthazar and Bolena were his last remaining descendants and he didn''t want them to put themselves at risk. Balthazar knew about his grandfather and knew that he still had to convince Winston. Winston was looking at Balthazar waiting for him to give him an explanation. "How about we talk about this somewhere else? I really don''t trust you to be in this room until it is completely scrubbed," said Balthazar opening the door. Though the family had checked the room after Max escaped, it was best to get into another room, since Evelyn and D.i.c.k could have easily put in a device or two to spy upon them. "Let us go to my office. I can trigger an insulation field around it which could prevent any unauthorized communication to or from the room. Even if there is a bug on our person, it won''t be of use," said Winston as he got out of the room. Both of them quickly reached the Patriarch''s office. Winston quickly went to the console on his table and selected something which caused some devices to protrude out of the corners of the room and create a field along the walls of the room. "We can talk now," said Winston as he sat down signalling Balthazar to sit opposite him. "I just supported you because I didn''t want Evelyn to use you. If you joined her outfit and be trained by her, she will slowly erode your suspicions about her and get you to confide in her. It is what she does and even if you are strong enough, most elders in the family wouldn''t believe you if you stayed with her for a few months," said Winston. "Now, I want you to give me an explanation of everything you that happened during the alien attack on your base. Else, I would be the one who would imprison you right here," continued Winston in a low warning tone. Balthazar had never seen Winston talk like this. It was clear that he would do as he told. If he had any actual proof that he could show Winston, it would have been easy to convince him. But, all his knowledge about the incident was due to something, he never could explain. He had to somehow convincing lie about the entire incident. "Well!.. Let me start from the beginning. After I became Colonel, I noticed one of my Lt. Colonel''s behavior to be a bit off. It was more than the usual resentment that someone young like me got promoted before her," said Balthazar. "She had a bit of an erratic behavior due to which I kept an eye on her. The more I observed her the more I began to doubt her. I noticed that she had devices which were not military issued. So, I bugged her room and had followed her movements when I came to know that Jane was actually in contact with someone and was planning an attack on the citadel." "Is this the same Jane that died in the explosion? The one that you told in your report to the military was helping you?" asked Winston in surprise. His grandson had portrayed her to be quite instrumental in investigation of her subordinates and died a hero. "Yes, I did put in that way because I wanted them to think that everything they lost was because they had a double agent amongst them who was helping me. With her dead, neither the alliance nor our enemies would focus much on me. She has been in the armed forces a lot longer than me and everyone would consider her to be the main person who saved the day," said Balthazar. "Fine. That was a good way to make your enemies underestimate you. Is that the reason you had her with you at the hangar?" asked Winston. "Yes. She and the other two traitors I specified in my report were the actual traitors who were helping them. They sabotaged the detection and targeting devices of the citadel''s artillery so attack by the aliens be successful and they would lose the base. I distinctly heard that they would help with her promotion after the remove me from the post. Their talks made me feel like the knights wanted someone at Colonel level working for them. This suggested that they already have someone with high influence working for them," said Balthazar. "She was contacting Raymond Rowley and Dave. Rowley also mentioned that his family elders. Though not by names specifically. Their family is definitely involved. When it came close to the day of attack, I heard Max''s name and I was a mandatory target. Once I heard that I immediately erased all records of their conversations, then called you and to just to find out how important a target I was being considered, I booked a ticket to come home the next day," said Balthazar. "When the attack happened during the exhibition, I realized that they considered my death very important. I wanted to interrogate the members from the merchant vessel and just to be on safe side, I also took Jane to the hangar as she was helped arrange the attack. So, I thought no mass scale attacks would be done with her beside me. It is after the blast that I realized that they considered my death to be more important than an inside man in the border force and that she was already considered expendable. The rest you know as much as I do," ended Balthazar. "Well you were careful enough, but you could have never realized how badly the knights of the old republic wanted you dead," said Winston. It was now that Winston realized that him hiding the truth about Balthazar''s grandmother didn''t protect him and if he knew the truth, he would have probably been a lot more careful once he realized whom he was in a fight against. "If I knew the actual story about my grandmother, I would have probably avoided the blast and contacted you long before. My parents probably faced a similar situation," said Balthazar. "John would have definitely been a lot more careful if he knew," groaned Winston catching his hair. No father would be able to bear the thought that his over cautious behavior cost his daughter her life. He started groaning as he slammed his head on the table pulling out hair. "Stop it," said Balthazar as held back Winston''s hands. "You did something that you thought was for the best. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we cause our worst nightmares. You can only adapt and improve if you want to prevent further mishaps," he continued as he hugged Winston. "I guess, I have truly gotten old, if my grandson is giving me life advice," said Winston as tears continued to roll down his cheeks. "Haha. Of course, you are old. Get ready to give your post to Bolena or Robert as soon as possible," said Balthazar trying to cheer him up. "You would have a hard time keeping up or understanding with the technological advancements." "Stop your nonsense and get lost," said Winston waving his hands. He deactivated the field so that Balthazar could get out. As Balthazar got to the door, Winston finally clarified himself. "If your are really interested in investigating them, I can help you. You just need to ask." "I would surely like that. I hope you can keep everything that I told you to yourself. Maybe Walter, but I leave that to your discretion," said Balthazar as he walked out and went to his room. First, he needed to help Robert in two days. His plans would require money. Money which couldn''t be traced back to him. If Robert becomes an elder, he would be able to support him. But he also required other sources of money. The best source he could find right now is vita-nova. He went to join the game again. The further he progresses in the game the better. With the meeting done, he didn''t have any other things to attend to. With the gaming pod, he could also skip meals and depend on nutrient fluids for two days. So, he decided to use it as best as he could for the first day at least. It would become harder for the coming days. As he joined the game, he realized that was in White Hear City now and he had a lot of messages. Most of them were from Blue Dart and other acquaintances that he made in the game. They were all asking him regarding the method to finish the quest to reach the city. Merlin, Rudra and the rest have been busy trying to take quests and level up. They have a clear advantage over the rest of the players, and they intended to keep it as such. Yet, they have also advised him to provide some kind of method to get through the quest. Balthazar knew that they were right, and it was best to provide answers to the players in the forum. He had intended to be a part of a guild and have a leadership position in it. One of the important qualities required by a leader is to be magnanimity. A leader needs to teach his followers what he knows so that it would allow him to develop. No one would follow a person who they perceive to be stingy, voluntarily. He quickly made a post in the forums that he managed to cross level 10 by finishing quests other than the one to reach the city and by forging of armaments to gain experience and with a higher level, he was able to help his team clear the monsters in the main quest. It wasn''t a very specific answer, but his answer never needed to be specific and accurate. Most players just wanted a response from him acknowledging their questions. It didn''t need to be something that they even thought was achievable. In fact, if it wasn''t something that was hard to believe most wouldn''t accept it as that would make other players look like fools. It had to be something that made him looked like an expert. When the players saw that he managed to gain experience to cross level 10 just by a trade profession, it caused a surge among them to work on their trade professions. Most would soon realize that it isn''t very easy to do so. It made most player who saw the post that Shadow had successfully managed to find a loophole, but as they tried it they would realize that not all could actually use the loophole successfully. Even trade profession would stop giving experience if they products are far below their own level. So, most would need to find appropriate recipes and materials to progress using trade professions. Vita-nova is a game in which everything resembled real-life and required actions similar to what one would do in real-life. Most players had to change their styles, main occupations and trade professions in vita-nova as they realized that in such a realistic game, the techniques and methods they followed in other games would be a waste. Players who could gain high experience using trade professions were low in number and most of them wouldn''t be adept at fighting. So, this wasn''t a feasible method for almost all players. In such a game, players who were extremely good at both trade professions and their main occupation and realized what they were good at would be extremely rare. Thus, Shadow''s explanation while hiding the truth also made him a lot more popular among the general player base. He was already known to have defeated the dungeons and the players of Sirius Imperials due to which most considered him a fighting expert. Now, he also came to be known for his forging skills. With his reply in the forum, he went back to the game. Having reached the city, he had a lot options. The White Heart city was the capital of the kingdom. It had one of the most beautiful structure one could see. Players watching it for the first time would be mesmerized by the sheer size of it. The royal place at the centre was made completely of White marble and had beautiful structure. It served as a great tourist attraction. The developers used the game to create some of the most aesthetically beautiful structures that could be seen in the world that they would serve as a tourist attraction. In later stages of the game, player who managed to get enough reputation to be considered royalty brought others to such structures just for enjoying them. Many rich people paid a lot for such services. But the palace was not the only place that would serve as a tourist attraction in the city. The temple of the twelve would also be developed into such a beautiful structure. The central most part of the city was occupied by the royalty and the armed forces of the kingdom. This area is considered the core region and even with reputation and title of first citizen, he wouldn''t be allowed to enter the core area. Most of the core region consisted of the royal palace. A very small number of shops were present in this area, but they would be considered the best in the kingdom. One need to be a noble to be able to get into this region. The services were also royalty exclusive. After that is the inner region which contained a lot of merchant shops, the market, restaurants and lots of other buildings. One needs to be a citizen of the city to be able to enter the inner region or at least be above level 50 humans. Then comes the outer region which is accessible to all who come to the city. There aren''t much differences between inner and outer regions except for the quality of the goods and services available. The inner region obviously has better goods and services. Some products were exclusive to the inner and core regions. Chapter 81 - The temple of the Twelve In the twenty minutes, he had been out of the game, all 12 of his team managed to successfully get into the city. By this time, the sky in the game also darkened. It had become night-time and exploration during night was very difficult. This time was mostly used by most of the players to get out of the game and do their daily activities. Many also used this time to do follow up on their trade professions and increase their proficiency. Quests that are close to the village, town or city were also doable. Balthazar could also go and use the forging association to make more weapons. Moreover, at the Forging Association, he could also exchange his forging design now that he had already managed to reach the city before others. Doing this would provide him contribution points from the association which he could use to get better designs. But he didn''t want to get hold of the designs right now. He had remembered a lot of things from his past life, but it turned out that most of them were things that changed over time. He couldn''t completely believe anything he read in forums either. Those players were bound to hide the truth or would have told partial truths just like he did. With him reaching the White Heart City, which was the capital of the White Heart Kingdom, he had access to a lot of teleportation points within the kingdom. He also has about 100 White Heart Kingdom reputation and would be considered a citizen throughout the kingdom. It was best that he uses this time to check on the other cities/towns and the resources available at these places. Based on these observations, he could get the appropriate designs from the forging association which would be most useful. The beginner towns were mostly small ones which had smaller areas and even the corresponding regions were smaller. These were also ones that were situated away from other kingdoms and empire and had smaller amount of resources. If he wants to establish a strong base in the kingdom, renting a few lands would be quite useful. He was a second-class citizen of the kingdom with 100 reputation points which he got on completion of the special quest. He could use it to rent a couple of plots anywhere in the kingdom. He also had 90 white heart city reputation, which he could use for renting a plot in the city. Renting land was like mortgaging their reputation. If one failed to provide rent to the system in time, it would simply reduce the reputation points. Buying land was also similar. If one failed to provide tax in time, their reputation would fall down. This was the best time for him to rent out places in both the White Heart City and other places. He already had rented out a place from the Blackrock Town. But for this, he needed money above all else and selling weapons and the weapon designs felt like the best plan right now. He quickly contacted Rudra and asked him about the trade profession players he employed at his shop and the various products that they created. The reply was less than satisfactory. The cooks managed to produce a decent amount of food and there were other armaments and potions too, but they were too little to be enough for the player''s needs. "What happened to the designs which I gave to you?" asked Shadow unable to do anything else. He needs money to rent lends. He had to find some source of money. The shop was the only thing, he could think of. "I gave a few of them to trade profession players who joined us. They already have signed a contract to work for us. But only one of them is successful in creating them, the others haven''t even managed to make it once. Trade professions are a lot harder in this game. It requires a lot of practice, even when using intermediate forging rooms," replied Rudra. "Yes, trade professions are a lot harder in this game. I think professions like cook which most people do in daily life are the only ones that can be learned quickly," said Shadow agreeing with him. "Yes, the restaurant part is well and also a few equipment and potions were produced. But higher-level ones are increasing harder than we expected. We can open up the shop saying that it is an early peak due to us managing to reach the city," added Rudra. "Yes, that would be advisable. I can also make a few of those spears and place them in the store to be sold. Having level 10 equipment in the shop would show the players that we can mass produce such equipment and also improve our popularity." "Not a bad idea. We can have a small auction of sorts at the shop. But I think it would be better to auction these equipment at the auction house rather than at the shop. There are no high-level equipment at the auction house right now. I was thinking of putting up the halberd for the auction too. I already got a heavy sword which deals better damage," said Rudra. "We can do both. Give an hour or two. Maybe put in the halberd at the shop rather than the auction house," said Balthazar as he went to the teleportation point to get back to the Blackrock Town. Once he reached the Blackrock Town, he disguised himself, got a few materials from the bank and went back to the forging association. He decided to visit Kade before he booked a forging room. As usual he went to the receptionist and requested to meet the association head. Having the title of Kade''s apprentice, he was easily given access to go to the association head. As he reached the office of the head, he saw that the nameplate changed. Instead of Kade, there was another name on it. It read "Forging association, Blackrock Town branch head, George Questor". "The branch head changed again," thought Balthazar. "Then again, Kade did say that he was trying to get out of the Blackrock village and back to the White Heart city. NPCs would probably be able to travel once someone finishes the quest of clearing path to the city." Sitting in the office on a seat by the table was another man. He was a fat, chubby looking old man with grey hair. He wore spectacles and was perusing some books. He had the loop of a typical old head of a government organization. "Ah! Adventurer Shadow. Welcome. I heard that Master Kade had taken in an apprentice. You are also a member of forging association and were responsible for clearing the path to the White Heart City. What can I do for you?" said George. Even the way he talked was like that of a typical authoritative figure in an agency. After he reached level 10, he became a proper member of the forging association and he also had his own contribution points. He had originally come to exchange his design for contribution points. So, he immediately pulled it out and handed it over to George. "I have created a new kind of weapon and this is the design. The materials required for it are also easily available around the town. I want to contribute this design to the forging association," said Shadow. "Yes, I heard of this. It is being used by the White Bane Corps at the barracks at the back of the town. The association could be put to good use. And as you said the required materials are easily procured. I am willing to provide you 200 contribution points for this design," said George as he observed the design. He quickly called for someone and handed over the design as an announcement popped up. "Forging Association Contribution points +200" With that done, he went out and rented an intermediate forging room. He already had the materials from the bank which were stored by Rudra and his friend in the bank. He continued to craft more spears and halberds in the forging room. It was night-time in the game which would last for 18 hours in game time. It was the best time to spend forging weapons. He continued to create spears and halberds for 5 hours. He managed to create enough equipment to earn half the amount required for level 13 by this time. Though these provided less experience due to them him being at level 12, the experience he gained from the quest along with the coupled with the crafting weapons for 5 hours finally make him level up. He had created 15 halberds and 20 spears in these five hours. He put 5 of the spears and 5 halberds in the auction house to be sold one after the other for 5 hours. Though level 10 equipment are rare, if he put them all at once, they would lose their value. Doing it in this manner would also increase fame of the weapons and would also gain the interest of guilds. If such weapons are repeatedly put in auction most guilds would realize that these weapons could be produced repeatedly. At such a time, putting a design of the spear would be quite profitable. He gave the rest of them in the bank, so that Rudra could put them up in the shop when it opens. During this time, other players have tried to complete the quest of reaching the city, but the darkness of the night make it very easy for monsters to ambush the players. So, many guilds were still searching for stronger weapons at this time. Selling level 10 weapons when hardly anyone reached that level would entice many players to the shop. Without any other new designs corresponding to his level, continuing to forge equipment would be a waste of his efforts. He could go and get a few designs from the forging association using contribution points, but to get resources he needed to explore the areas outside the city which is extremely dangerous at night. He also had another quest he could initiate at the White Heart City. The deacon at the town temple had told him to go to the temple of the twelve in the White Heart City to meet the great priest, Luciophel. It was regarding the mask of the shadows, his unique equipment. He quickly teleported back to the White Heart City. The temple of the twelve was located in the outer region. It was known for its large size and architecture. It occupied a large area and unlike the one in the city, its garden had twelve different statues one for each of the twelve lords. The entire shrine was made of marble and had a sculptures of the twelve lords on it. The statues in the garden each were about 30 feet tall and gave a very life like feeling. The twelve gods each corresponded to the twelve occupations of the players. These twelve idols also moved continuously posing or sometimes giving advice or commenting on the players who came to visit. Most of them just made actions with their weapons, but some like the lord of shadows kept using various disguises and the chimera king (druid) kept changing from one beast to other. All twelve of the lords were mixed breeds between various races. They were never considered the leader of races but according to the lore of the game were responsible for achieving peace in the land. The temple advocates peace between all the races of the light and neutral factions which were native to the land. The land in which they resided in the game was named Viridi Lovi. All the allied races of the light faction and the neutral races were original inhabitants of the plane of existence. The dark races invaded the land from another plane of existence called Rudrum orbis. They invaded this land under the leadership of thirteen generals called Abyss Warlords. When the attack of the dark races occurred an unlikely group of thirteen outcasts joined hands to get rid of the forces of the dark races. The war resulted in the death of one of these outcasts who managed to kill all the Abyss Warlords. The remaining outcasts came to be known as the twelve lords who brought peace to the land. This was the main background of story of the game. His unique mask had a requirement that the user must be an assassin or swordsman. With each of the lords corresponding to one of the occupations, the mask must have corresponded to the lords corresponding to the assassin or swordsman. The lord of shadows and the sword monarch were the only ones that it could have belonged to. The lords weren''t even known to any one by their names only their titles. He made his way into the temple. There were portraits of the lords and idol of all the twelve lords together at the far end of the shrine along an altar. The interior of the temple also had a lot of marble furniture. He went towards the altar where there were a few priests. As he reached the altar, a deacon came to greet him. He was wearing a veil and a long flowing robe covering him from top of his head to his feet. One would hardly able to guess his race, color or even gender from looking at the deacon. "Greeting adventurer," said the deacon as he approached him. "We could use your help for a lot of things in the city," he continued ready to give a quest to Shadow Tyrant. Shadow immediately pulled out the letter of introduction given to him by the deacon. "I was asked by the deacon of the Blackrock town to meet the great priest, Luciophel. Could you please take me to him." "Priest Luciophel is currently in prayer please wait for a few minutes, while I go inform him," said the deacon as he went back to the altar. A few minutes later, he came back and took towards the altar. There was another priest waiting at the altar. The new priest was a bit larger than Shadow and dressed just like the other deacon except for a few patterns on his garb and he bore a scepter. "Adventurer, I hear that you have been looking for me. What can I do for you?" asked Luciophel as he took the letter from Shadow Tyrant. As soon as the NPC asked, he noticed that Mask of Shadows. It was having a reaction with the altar in the temple similar to what happened in the Blackrock Town. Without even opening the letter, he realized why Shadow was sent to him. "Ah! The Mask of Shadows. You gained its recognition. I suppose you came here to understand what it is?" asked Luciophel. "Yes. That is the reason I have come to the temple in the White Heart City. The deacon at the temple of Blackrock Town suggested that you might be able to help me," replied Shadow. Chapter 82 - Memory Fragments "Sure, adventurer. One hardly ever finds someone recognized by the lords. Moreover, the prophecy that indicates dark times to start again. It would my honor to help you. Please, follow me," said Luciophel. He quickly led Shadow past the altar through a door. There were stairs which led downward beyond the door and these were guarded by a bunch of paladins. The guards bowed to Luciophel as they opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and let them in. In this room, there was another altar similar to the one above it. It was also larger than the one on the floor above. "This is the true altar of the temple. The one above channels a small amount of the power from this one," said Luciophel. "The true altar is extremely powerful, and we can''t let every person have access to it. So, we put it in the hall to placate the followers." "Oh!" said Balthazar confused. He had no idea why he was brought to this area. "What are we doing here?" he asked. "There has been a prophecy that the dark forces which the twelve lords defeated would rise again and the land would enter a state of unrest. I only know that your mask has some relation to the lord of shadows, but what it requires you to do is something only you can figure out," said Luciophel pointing to the altar. "Please, touch the altar with your hands, while I activate it. Its advice is only for you to know," said Luciophel as he began to channel mana into his hands. He soon weaved a spell as a ball of light was formed in his hand which threw at the altar. As soon as the spell ball came into contact with the altar, the power from the ball dissipated into the altar. It began to shine as a lot of runic patterns appeared on it. They began to crawl all over the altar as a small halo began to form over it. This continued for nearly a minute till the halo expanded to a diameter of three feet. It was covered in a bright glow and looked like a spiked wheel. This slowly moved towards Balthazar till it was directly on top of him. A circular screen of light came down from the halo forming a cylinder which covered him. By the time, Balthazar reacted he was teleported somewhere else. It was similar to the teleportation that happened during his quest underwater, except that he was transparent and like a ghost hovering in the air. His first impression of his surroundings was that he was in vast ground filled with dead bodies and smell of blood and decay permeated the air. Though he was like a ghost, he could smell, see and feel even the movements of the air around him, but he couldn''t physically or magically interact with anything. He immediately realized that he wasn''t transported to any place but that it was a memory fragment. Memory fragments were quite common in vita-nova. In later stages of the game apart from the usual video recording devices, memory recording devices were also available. It provided an experience which would make a person as he himself lived it. Moreover, he could view the memory from different positions and even float and move around in the air like a ghost. But memory recording devices unlike normal video were extremely pricey and not easy to procure. He never expected that memory fragments like these were there from the starting day of vita-nova. He always thought that the memory recorders began after upgrades. He realized that idea was probably from the start, but players probably only came to know about them later and also recording devices were found later. Every hour, he seemed to realize that some of the things he thought were common knowledge and obvious stuff, might not be true. "I am clearly in a memory at the site of some war," he thought as he floated up in the air. Even at a height of some hundred feet from the ground, all he could see was fights and killing between various factions. Even the air space was filled with many entities fighting each other. As he was observing the fights, a sudden shockwave emanated from a distance which he couldn''t even see. He had no idea of the source of the shockwave, but he could clearly feel it. He floated back in its direction due to the wave for a few meters before he could stabilize himself. He could see a few bodies on the ground burst into mist and many other both on the ground and air were struck away from the source by the force of the shockwave. He soon saw a large black mass flying towards him from what seemed to be the source of the shockwave. As it neared him, a dark mist covered it which slowed down its flight and put it on the ground. A 6-foot tall man in red armor suddenly appeared beside it and the mist disappeared into him, revealing a large black dragon. The man was also bleeding from his head. It was bleeding from a large number of cuts and holes on its body and its wings were torn off the body. It was a gruesome sight to watch even on a large fearsome black dragon. Though he watched many death scenes and escaped the explosion in the citadel, he still found it to be very morbid. The man caressed the dragon and started tending to its wounds. "You were reckless. If we fought with the others, we could have avoided a lot of damage," said the man as tried to stop the bleeding. Tears were rolling down the eye sockets of his headgear and mixed with all the blood on his gear. "That would have caused a lot of damage to the land. Despite being outcasts, all of us were never on the same page. They would have never come here in time," came a deep voice from the dragon. "We were always destined to be alone, my friend. I just hoped that I would accompany you all our lives, but it looks like it might no longer be possible," the dragon continued. "Don''t be stupid. I will save you. The others have noticed the attack and have come here and that''s why I managed to come to you. We can heal you," said the man. "You never tell the truth. Do you? I know my condition better than anyone else. That attack even hurt my soul. I can''t even be resurrected," said the dragon as the man began openly crying and sobbing as he lay his hands against the snout caressing the dragon. "I got a last wish. Make sure all those 13 monsters are dead. Don''t let them return back and attack later. Promise me that you will never let them rest in peace," said the dragon. "I promise you that they shall never escape this land. Even if they do, I will follow them to the edges of the rudrum orbis to assassinate their entire lineage," said the man as waves of mana escaped out of him as he promised in anger. The last embers of life extinguished from the eyes of the dragon, the second the man promised to avenge her. The man closed the dragon''s eyes and held the claws of the dragon in his hands and further promised, "I will make sure their lives are taken by your own hands. This is the best I can do for you." At this time eleven other humanoids came to the site. They all held their heads down as if they wre ashamed. Together all twelve of them lifted the dragon as they left flying through the air. The surroundings immediately became blurry like a large amount of liquid suddenly flooded the entire space and after that, he was in a dark cave. It was still a memory fragment, but it changed locations. The man who promised the dragon seemed to be magically crafting armor from what looked like the dragon''s skin and bones. This scene continued till a set of armor of 10 pieces and pair of long knives were formed. He could clearly see his mask of shadows among them. As the man doned the armor and weapons, the surroundings changed again. He was in the sky as the man along with the other eleven were fighting with someone else. He suddenly appeared behind an opponent and stabbed through the opponent''s neck and beheaded him. Then, the surroundings again changed. This continued till scenes depicting the twelve lords killing eleven other leaving only one. The last memory had them all in a cave with the knives stabbed through the lungs of a huge man with patch black scaly skin having a flaming skull made of lava in place of a head. Its arms and torso were tied down. "Let me live, I will do anything you ask," spoke the skull in a frightened voice. Its legs were cut down and its hands and fingers broken. Beside the lord of shadows were 4 others who seemed to be torturing the scaly being. They were the War god (martial artist), the Dread Hawk (ranger), the Angel of Death (warlock) and the Divine Doctor (cleric). These four along with the lord of shadows were clearly interrogating their captive. "You know nothing that we want to know. Nor can we trust anything that you say right now," said Dread Hawk as he nocked an arrow with the intent to kill. "No! No! I can tell you a lot more. I am the only one left of the thirteen. If you kill me, you can''t get information from anyone else. Don''t kill me," it began to shout. "Maybe, he can be useful. Why don''t we keep him alive? If we are to go to their realm, he might still be of use," suggested War god. "I don''t trust him. I hardly believe what he told till now. I can definitely withstand the amount of force we dealt and lie," said Angel of Death. "Why don''t we just kill him, and I can try and capture his soul and read his memories. We could be sure that way." "Fine," said lord of shadows as he threw his knives into the captive''s heart tearing it open. "Even if he is right. I don''t believe he will be of use as they would immediately suspect that he was compromised once, they notice his presence." Angel of Death immediately waved his wand as a white light came out of the captive''s body into his hands. It looked like his plan to capture the captive''s soul was successful. "He didn''t lie," said Angel of Death in a few seconds. "Let us meet at the decided place in a month. Inform the others. Prepare yourselves. Fix your affairs. We might not be able to return once we go there," said the lord of shadows as he turned around to get out of the cave. "You forgot your weapons," muttered War god as the lord of shadows was about to leave. "I didn''t. I am leaving these weapons and armor in this plane. She wouldn''t want to leave this plane. Let it belong to whosoever finds it," replied lord of shadows as he disappeared. "I suggest that we improve our equipment further before we go to the new plane, he told us about. These probably wouldn''t be sufficient", sounded his voice from the void. "I agree with his assessment," said Angel of Death as he also disappeared. The surroundings changed again to another place in a volcanic mountain range where he left his gloves. Then, the surroundings changed again. This continued as all the 9 pieces of his armor were left at various places. Balthazar got a brief glimpse of the places. He managed to identify only three of the nine. He already knew the location of the knives, which were unique weapons. He had come to the city in such a hurry to check for these very weapons. He somehow stumbled onto them and realized that he already had a part of the set. After that the surrounding changed again and he was back in front of the altar in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the temple of the twelve. The shining runes that had previously formed all over the altar had disappeared. The halo above him also vanished. At that time, in the monitoring room in Metis Technologies headquarters, there was another commotion. This time even Victor Constantine was observing Balthazar''s data. He was informed that Balthazar had a very high adaptation rate to the somnium technology and since, he requested to be informed of any special things that Balthazar triggered. Since, Shadow had received the letter of introduction from the deacon at the Blackrock Town, the monitoring team had been observing him as he would be triggering a memory fragment due to the letter. They wanted to observe his adaptation to the experience of a memory. "He already has finished the memory. His adaptation factor seems to be quite satisfactory for someone experiencing this for the first time," reported one of the personnel to Victor Constantine. "What is the horror level of the memory?" asked Victor constantine. "We had the horror level to be high. There are two more levels above it, but we decided to try this for his first time. The realism level of the memory was completely realistic. He still adapted to it easily and had no adverse mental reactions. Such behavior might be considered borderline sociopathic," reported the personnel. "He recently commandeered an attack on the apes and almost got killed in an explosion. He must have seen lot of his comrades burnt to death during that time. It is a good thing that he can overcome this. A soldier needs to have a strong mind," replied Victor. "Don''t worry. I understand your concerns. Keep monitoring him and be on check for sociopathic behavior. It is best to be safe than sorry. We can''t take any unnecessary risks for this." Chapter 83 - Guild Creation It had been a long time since he had experienced a memory fragment before this. The last time, it was a memory fragment of a fight between players that was shown to him by Rudra. He was dazed by the entire fragment and was trying to commit to his mind the areas that he didn''t recognize. It would be a sad joke, if he went to one of the locations and failed to realize it. Optional Quest: Gather the complete Void Dragon Set: Void Dragon Set consists of a 10-piece armor set and weapons. Peices gathered: 1/11; Mask of Shadows; "The collection of the entire set is a optional quest? I was under the impression it might by a main quest," thought Balthazar. "Then again, if it was a main quest that man in Foedus Rex wouldn''t have been that successful. He didn''t wear the other parts of the armor and failure in main quests usually have some kind of harmful effects to the character." In a couple of seconds, he got up and saw that Luciophel was waiting from him. "Thank you, priest Luciophel. I believe I understand what I need to do now," said Shadow as he was waiting for him to take him out of the bas.e.m.e.nt. Luciophel was prompt and immediately led him out into the main hall of the temple. With him in the main temple, it was best if he tries to get some sort of quest from the temple right now. He immediately asked Luciophel, "Great priest, you have helped me a lot. Is there anything that you would like me to do for you or for the welfare of the temple?" "Hmm, I would suggest improving your strength and collect the other parts of the armor. I think that takes priority over anything else that the temple needs," said Luciophel. "That is true great priest, but I doubt I can gather all of them with the strength I have right now. I would have to improve my power in the meantime and would like to be of help in the meantime," said Shadow. "Why the heck is he delaying giving me a quest. I haven''t heard that anyone else managed to get into the city. Rudra told me that he would look out for others, who might get in. There is no way that the quests were all taken by others," thought Balthazar. "Well.. That is a valid point. There is one which I could ask you to do, but I would suggest that you put this off till you get a little stronger," said Luciophel. "There is a town called Jarko, a few kilometers west of the city. The priest of the temple in the town had been out of contact for two days. Though the law requires a person to be missing for at least three days before they are considered missing, it is quite unusual for Faroon to not be in contact. I would like you to check on him as there have been some unsavory rumors of missing persons near by the town." New Quest: Find deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High) Description: Go to Jarko town to find clues about Farron''s disappearance. Suggested to attempt it after level 15. Progress: Investigate the Jarko town for Faroon''s whereabouts. "I will check into it as soon as possible," said Shadow and made his way out of the temple. It was quite an odd sight for him to see the temple empty like this. "I guess, it would get crowded after more players come to the city," thought Balthazar. "Once that happens, the entire place would be crowded. It would become something of a holiday spot. I better take a few good pictures right now," thought Balthazar and he started taking a few pictures. Being night-time the statues looked much more beautiful as the night lights of the temple got reflected off them. It made the statues appeared like heroic figures that were giving off light in the dark. He immediately contacted Rudra, Merlin and the others. He wanted to check which monsters they encountered around the city and what resources they managed to get. Based on them, he could always try to get compatible designs and also try to create new ones. They found quite a few quests in the city, but the best ones were found by Slaine. It was the exploration quest which required him to go to other towns from the barracks. This kind of quest would allow a person to get reputation in other towns and allow them to set up a base of operations there. It was exactly the kind of quest that one required at this time of the game. He also asked Rudra, why they didn''t have a guild registered yet. He wanted to setup the first guild in the game. That would definitely cause the popularity of Crimson Realm among the player base to rise and based on his observations, they would probably get guild popularity points too. The best part of guild popularity points is that they are not limited just the White Heart Kingdom. To his dismay, Rudra replied that he could not create a guild right now as it required at the very least 10 members above level 10 in the city to form a guild. "Can''t the five of you go to your beginner village and get more players back? It is best that we not allow someone else to get this chance," asked Shadow. "We would like to. But a lot of people are trying to finish the quest even in the dark of the night. It is extremely hard to finish it. There are players who are a lot better than me struggling to get through. It is hard enough to level up at the beginner town by killing monsters in this light. The monsters tend to ambush the players and it will lead to deaths of any who come," said Rudra. Balthazar had known Rudra for a long time, and it felt like he was rambling on instead of saying what he meant. "Stop rambling and come to the point," said Balthazar. "I want you to ask your friends, Merlin and other to join the guild temporarily. Once, others come they can leave immediately," said Rudra. "I am not sure Merlin would want to join a guild after what happened with his last one." "Don''t ask Merlin. You should have asked the others." "I don''t really know any of them. It is not quite good for someone going to be guild leader to ask them to join temporarily. If someone else found out, it wouldn''t be good for my reputation. I am afraid to ask them to join permanently as that may offend Merlin," explained Rudra. "Oh! I can ask them and check. But they can stay if they wanted to, right?" "Of course. They are good players. Why would I say no to it?" "Ok. I will go and ask them," replied Shadow as he decided to contact them. "We need four of them. Even, if Merlin and Tetsujin disagree, we still will have 10 members including me," thought Balthazar. He quickly contacted Merlin and Quiet Fire about it. Unexpectedly, all of them accepted his request. But Merlin put forward a condition. He wanted to establish an adventurer group and once the member count of Crimson Realm increased, he wanted a few of them to join it temporarily like they were willing to do. In fact, they wanted to form the guild as quickly as possible. It was a weekend and they had most of the day to join him in the game. But unlike Balthazar who could take it easy by using the nutrient fluids as he was in a pod, they needed to eat because they were using helmets. Even in his workshop, he had only five V.R. cabins which Rudra and Slaine were using. So, most of them were hungry and it being a weekend, they continued to play the game neglecting their lunch. It was high time they eat something to appease their hunger, else the helmet would automatically disconnect them. To form a guild required all of them to visit the Adventurers Association and register to form the guild. Quiet Fire and team immediately teleported back to the White Heart City. Rudra had already called back Slaine and the other 3 members of the guild back to the city when he talked to Balthazar. Rudra had no issue in accepting Merlin''s request and had already made his way to the adventurers association. He was waiting for them. The went inside to register for the guild. Registering a guild is quite a simple affair which only required a small amount of 2 silvers to be paid to the Adventurers association. Once, Rudra finished the formalities and provided their names, they received a request for joining the guild. The immediately accepted it causing another notification to appear before the twelve of them. "Congratulations! Crimson Realm guild successfully registered to the adventurer alliance." "Congratulations! You have been accepted as a member of the guild Crimson Realm." "Guild Notification: Congratulations for being the first adventurer guild in vita-nova. Awarding guild 50 guild reputation. New guild quests available. Guild warehouse disabled." As soon as the notification sounded, another option appeared beside the attributes panel. It was the guild panel. It contained the basic guild information. It being novice guild all the members except the guild head were considered equal and they could see the members list too. The guild chat could also be accessed from this panel. "The warehouse isn''t enabled by default?" asked Blinding. "Let me create a few rules for the guild, get a room to rent for headquarters and warehouse. Then, we stock it up and enable the guild warehouse. You can check it tomorrow as soon as you enter the game. I will make it ready by that time," answered Rudra. "Fine, I am done with this game for today," said Merlin as he logged out. The rest of them also followed him and logged out. Only Rudra, Slaine and Balthazar were still in the game. In this time, Rudra has already created a post on the forum indicating that the Crimson Realm guild has been created in the White Heart City. This caused quite a commotion because though one required to get out of the beginner city or town to reach Adventurers association, they could join a guild as soon as they reached level 10. It only requires the guild leader to accept them into the guild. So, all that was needed for one to join the guild, was them to contact Rudra or anyone else whom he provided the rights to join new members. At this stage in game, though it was extremely hard to reach level 10 and get to the city, there have been quite a few trade profession players who managed to reach level 10 and these players would have decent skill above the average trade profession players. A chance to join a guild was equivalent to have access to funds and resources for these players. This would allow them to faster progress in the game as well as get money. If these players joined the game, their products would be used or sold by the guild which beneficial for the guild too. This could be done before too by signing contracts, but an official registered guild in the game would also provide them guild quests. Many players who were good at their trade would wait till they could prove their worth so that they would get a better contract. It was a win-win scenario. Rudra making the post at this time was highly beneficial and it was good chance to get better trade profession players into the guild. He also created a small guild forum, explaining that they have created a guild at the White Heart City. To anybody who joined the guild, he left a standing post in the guild chat that their base of operations is at Blackrock town and trade profession players could come there. He soon got requests to join the guild from various locations in the game. Even trade profession players could go to the Blackrock Town from the dungeon point of Cave of Wargs. It was a location of level 5 monsters. So, even in the dark they could make the trip with ease due to the level difference. Luckily, the number of such players were very few in the game. If there were a large number of players, it would become hard for him to even supply materials for them. "We would need to go back to Blackrock town and probably support more players from the guild to complete the quest tomorrow. Can you join me tomorrow?" asked Rudra. Now that he had put up a post which would get him recruits, it would be a total waste if he couldn''t get more players complete their quest to the city. It would also cause other troubles if they failed to get more player in their guild to the city. The next day, a large number of guilds and players would fight to finish their quest. Failing at this, would mark them as lucky and rumors would spread that they are not actually a capable guild. Maintaining a guild would have a lot of issues. Most of them would involve avoiding bad reputation and this required a lot of careful planning and good control over the members. Any guild which fails to maintain its reputation wouldn''t be successful or would end up being a casual guild and would not have any decent profits from the game. "Yes, let us organize group to clear the quest. I have checked the forums and I observed that the leaders which we killed in the forest are attacking once they get close to the city. It is best that we kill them before, we reach the city. Else, we might lose quite a few consumables in our attempt. I will also join the group. Let us make it a large one," replied Balthazar. He had invested in the workshop and a little help at the start of the game was necessary. Rudra immediately sent messages to Slaine and a few others to join them at the Blackrock Town by the next morning to clear the quest. He also asked them to gather enough consumable to be on the safe side. Even if they didn''t end up using them, they would find a use once they reached the city and started on other quests. Chapter 84 - Pets and Colisseum With the issue of the guild done, there was nothing that they could do for now. They would have to wait for daybreak or continue with trade professions. As he thought about the various things that he could do, he realized that he could also go to the Colosseum in the city. It was the best place for PVP and there would also be fights against monsters and other NPC combatants. The only drawback was that if he fought with NPCs or monsters, he would have to bet with the system. For PVP fights, it was a very good place. It required a small sum to book an arena which would provide the person 10 combat points. If he won, he would get the combat points or anything else that he bet with his opponent, but a loss would make a player lose the bet along with a few points going back to the system. The good part about the fights was that there would no loss of experience on death in this place. So, it was a good place to train players. Apart from that, it would also give combat points and other rewards for every win with the NPCs or monsters. It used to be a very crowded place and a lot of players used to continuously come to the Colosseum to test their skills against one another. At that time, it was really hard to get a chance to fight against NPC or monsters as a lot of players used to compete for it. There would be a fixed number of fights with NPC or monsters per day. Now, he had all of it for himself. "There is a Colosseum in the city where you can fight against other monsters or NPCs or you can try to learn engineering or inscription," said Shadow immediately guiding him. If there was no way for them to level up or play the game other than trade professions, the game''s popularity would surely go down. "You can also try to get pets from the pet store," he suggested. Though people couldn''t tame wild beasts for pets, cities allowed for players who passed level 10 to have more docile already tamed pets. Taming a wild beast could only be done after gaining the tame beast skill book. Such skill books could still be found in the auction houses of cities held by the NPCs. These auctions were one of the ways of collecting money by the game managers and is common in most games. But these tamed pets bought at stores wouldn''t get popular as they usually didn''t have the advantages, or the fighting skills of a wild beast tamed as a pet by a player. As the level of the players increased it would get easier to get tame beast skill books. Later upgrade would also introduce, Beast Taming as a trade profession which can be used to provide tamed beasts to others as pets. Beast taming is one of the compound trade profession like engineering, trap disabling and field medic. It required the players to know a bit of other professions like alchemy. It required the player to create medicines which would help increase the level and strength of the pets. Engineering was also similar to this as it required a good knowledge of the forging profession. The professions couldn''t be done without the alchemy and forging. The players also had to use a lot of apparatus that was used in alchemy and forging. That is the reason, the professions such as engineering was only introduced in the cities when most players have made a decent attempt at professions like alchemy and forging. They immediately checked the map and headed towards the direction of the Colisseum, but first decided to make a stop at the pet store in the market. This was the first time that Rudra had seen a pet store in the game. This was quite similar to the ones in real-life. They store had three floors with each displaying a number of monsters for pets. The ground floor was filled with the smallest and harmless of pets. These were simple ones like slimes and small plushy cats, dogs and ferrets. They didn''t even have any strong skills that could use in battle. These would all be pets that are just eye candy and would be good gifts or playthings. The top floors had stronger beasts that have moderate skills. As they went up to the higher floors, one could see better and stronger monsters. There were quite a few ones including cougars, cats and even wolves. These all have few physical skills which can be used in combat. All these pets required food to increase in level and even needed potions and bandages to heal from injuries. The behavior of these pets were also quite similar to how beasts and animal would behave in real-life. They had to be cared for and sometimes even pampered. To teach skills, one could use pet skill books or even use the tricks in real-life to train them. They both went into the pet store and began to browse over the ones that are available. Shadow couldn''t find anything that he would like. All the pets available were quite low level and had a low life rating. Though the concept of having a pet would be very enticing to most people at this stage of the game, Shadow had no interest in it. He considered it to quite useless and it would hinder his progress than help him advance easier in the game. It was an entirely different thing for Rudra. From the cute ones in the ground floor to the wolves and beasts on the other floors, he wanted to buy everything. Even if he didn''t use it, he wanted to get them just so that he could show them off in the forums. Shadow had to physically wrestle him down from doing something that stupid. He knew that he could simply get to feel out the pets and take pictures without buying them. They soon started to take pictures of themselves with a few pets. At the end Crimson Power still had bought a pet. He actually bought the flashiest one of them all. It was a large white crown hawk. It was similar to a hawk and had light brown colored feathers with a white crown on its head made of bone plates. White crown hawk (Elite flying pet) Level: 10; HP: 3000/3000; Perception: 25; Movement Speed: 100; Attack Speed: 80; Physical attacks: Claw attack: 80; Peck attack: 100; Attacks cause bleed effect. Flying monsters were frequently used to scout new areas. These kinds of monsters would be most useful when exploring new areas. The hawk also had physical attack skills and with the hawk being a flying beast, its attacks would be quite unpredictable. It also could increase up to level 20 and would be quite useful. The hawk was smaller when compared to the beast and monsters at its level and it also had low health. But it had a high perception and speed. The perception attribute decided the range of vision of the players and monsters. This was common among many bird like pets. The bird just needed to have the player in its range along with any other monsters. That made the effective range of the player almost twice the range of the pet. This was one of the most important features of pets with perception. It allowed the players to be a lot safer while exploring new environments. When these pets see any monsters or dangers, they tend to run back to the player and shriek or so signs of fear. Apart from bird type pets, the same could also be true for monkeys or moles which were reared as pets. They would also run back to inform the player of dangers. But bird pets were the best ones as they would tend to be a lot faster and nimble than other beasts. The problem with these pets were that they were high maintenance and useless without skills. The tamers can be paid to teach the pets a few skills, but most shops didn''t have any attack skills. Though not attacks, the skills for scouting and defense had a lot of uses. Most players would be interested in attack skills, but these pets without a good defence or exit strategy all attacks would result in death of pet. Once, they were done with the pet store, Shadow and Rudra continued to the Colisseum. This was a large game stadium. Once, they got in, they could see a large ground at its centre. The ground that was open in the centre usually had some NPC''s or monsters fighting each other, while the players could bet on them. But most players just watched them fight rather than bet on them. Occasionally, there would be chances for the players to fight the monster or NPCs in the main arena too. It was free for all to watch these fights. Unlike in fights against other players, the fights against other monsters at least provided about 50 combat points. There were a bunch of other smaller combat arenas that players could access to have fights among them. These arenas don''t have a viewing area and unlimited in number. Once, a player paid the amount for the arena to the manager at the Colisseum, he could choose for a random fight or set up an arena with a password so that they could only fight with specific players. The entire outer edge of the Colisseum is filled with stores. These stores formed a kind of small market selling different kind of products, but they would only sell and not buy from the players and they only sold for combat points. Moreover, the Colisseum which was in the outer region of the city had stores which had a lot high quality equipment and products. A few products that were only available in inner and core regions could also be bought at the Colisseum stores. The only problem with it was the large number of combat points required to exchange for the various tools and products that were available. With Shadow and Crimson Power being the only two players at the Colisseum, they could easily register for the fights with monsters and NPCs. These fights were usually held with monster or NPCs which were of a similar level to the top 20 members of the leader board. If it wasn''t so the fights would not be interesting enough to the audience. Everyone wants to watch and bet on fights which would showcase new skills and top players, else it wouldn''t much fun otherwise. They both registered to fight the monster in the arena. With them being the only ones, the fight with the monsters was immediately held. They were immediately sent to the main arena. The main arena was a simple flat ground without any obstacles. It was a fight that was held in multiple rounds. The number and level of monsters would increase once they killed the monsters or defeated the NPC in the previous stage. The first round had a couple of wolves. They were the same as the other wolfs and had the same behavior and attack pattern. The only difference was that they were at level 10 and had higher health and damage than the previous ones. With his expertise, it was quite easy for him to kill them. The number of the wolves increased to double in the next round. Though it was a bit harder, he still managed to clear the round. With every round the creatures would change or increase in number Every five rounds, the players would be provided an option to get out the fight or continue. Getting out of the fight would provide him with all the points but continued and dying would cause him to lose half the points, even though he wouldn''t lose any experience. He quickly accepted to continue the fight in the arena. He continued until level 10 when he decided to give it up as he almost got killed by the bears. He was an assassin by profession. An assassin''s expertise would be sudden aggressive burst of attacks that make quick work out of the opponent. Fighting continuously in a flat arena would be extremely hard for an assassin, especially when fighting against multiple opponents. Such fights were more suited to guardians or berserkers. By ten rounds, he already managed to gather 700 combat points. It would be a waste, if he lost and had to give up half of them. Rudra who had also registered got into the arena after Balthazar got out. His opponent was an NPC instead of monsters. It was swordsman NPC at level 10. It was always harder to fight NPCs than monsters as the NPC had human techniques. Though Rudra had a halberd which was a longer weapon and had practiced using it against monsters on the way to the city, it was a completely different experience with the NPC swordsman. The NPC had skills and fought like a professional that Rudra couldn''t compare with. He never fought with armed combatant in his life and was easily defeated. This fight taught that physical fights with humanoid races in this game would be a lot more difficult than in any other game he played before. "Without proper and frequent practice, you won''t be able to compete in this game. Don''t forget that the somnium technology was created for military purposes. Fighting with humanoid NPCs is also quite different to fighting monsters and would be very hard for me too. We can practice with each other before we attempt again," comforted Balthazar. Though his friend comforted him, Rudra was not a fool. He knew that his friend told that fighting humanoid NPCs is very hard, he knew that his performance paled in comparison to Balthazar''s. "It looks like serving in military had given him an unexpected advantage in the game. I need to work a lot more than expected to be able to become a strong player in this game," though Rudra. It was clear to him that all people who had actual skills in real-life would be able to use them in the game and would be extremely successful. "My gaming experience would be useful, but it might not have much effect if people like him continue to join the game," thought Rudra as he understood his urgent need for physical training. If he needed to establish a first-rate guild as he promised to his father, he must learn to fight physically, especially since he chose berserker occupation. Chapter 85 - Engineering "I think I need to work a lot on my fighting skills. I could definitely use a bit of practice along with you," said Rudra accepting his offer. He realized the importance of this far quickly than most players would. The game would be mostly dominated by players who were good at physical co-ordination and had strong co-ordination. Due to this game most people who spend used to spend their lives playing games or software companies and other jobs which didn''t provide much exercise, slowly started to divert their interest in physical games and activities. Most guilds would soon hire even coaches and experts to help them with physical activities. Balthazar had already been planning for the same. The reason he was able to become a vice-leader of a guild was because he had good skills due to him being an assassin for two years and that experience made him an extremely, cautions and ruthless man. Many other players were wary of going against him and that gave him quite a good reputation and respect. He knew that doing this as soon as possible would benefit both his friends and him. Moreover, the fights against the alien apes would also intensify, soon and the better their physical skill and stamina, the better their chances of survival during tough times. He already had plans to send Lucius and Salazar somnium headgears so that they could practice his skills with them. It would provide him thrice the time compared to real life. He also knew from his previous life, a few people he could hire. Moreover, he could also contact Rodrigo and few other old military men who had been in special operation, to teach players. They would have enough experience and skill to teach players at least the basics of fighting and a few techniques. It could be considered as a job for them who are past the retirement age. Such people would soon be contacted by the military in a few months to help train new soldiers. The somnium technology would become a method to teach and train various things. Not only old people at military but a lot of old people who were famous at their fields and physically inept or incapable of using it began using the somnium technology to teach others. "Yes, we can go and practice fights in the arenas. I think most players would be interested in this. If, we want to have a fixed room, we better keep a room booked with password and let our guild members fight against each other, so that at least one of them always has the room. Many others would realize the need for practice, and it would get harder later," continued Shadow. "Yes, we might need to do that. I will inform Slaine and have a few guys maintain a few rooms. But I think, it might not be enough. We need to hire a few coaches to help with the same. I will contact my father. He might actually a bit helpful at this," said Rudra "Why don''t we go and try to check the engineering trade profession?" asked Shadow. It was the best time for them to try out engineering. Being the only ones in the city, they wouldn''t have much competition. They could easily search and gather for materials and tools for it. They just collected a decent amount combat points and they could get whatever they needed from the shops here. Engineering was a profession that was concentrated around making tools. All engineering items are considered tools and they are used by almost all main occupations and trade professions. From this perspective, it looked like they have the largest consumer base compared to any other trade profession. The only issue was that most of their products would be considered luxuries by a large number of players. Virtual Games had begun as a way to entertain and enjoy oneself. Though professional gaming organizations and competitions are a common thing, a majority of the players wouldn''t be professional and played to escape from the troubles of daily life. Armaments and potions were a necessity to enjoy the game due to the nature of the games, but tools were not. Only gaming organizations who needed to have a relatively higher speed and quality of progress in the game or the rich who didn''t like to work much in a game were the frequent customers of tools. Thus, engineering trade profession has a smaller consumer base than one would expect compared to alchemists and forgers. The good thing about this was that the price of the tools was higher as they took lot more effort and finesse than potions or armaments. As they game progressed, the difficulty of it would increase exponentially. Engineers could produce a bunch of tools like firecrackers, explosives, diving goggles, etc that would be allow a player to quickly hunt monsters and explore places. Though explosives could be used to speed up the process of getting experience, it wasn''t very profitable as it would cause the dead monsters to be useless. Vita-nova was far too close to reality. A player actually needed to spend time to forage dead monsters and if the monster sustained many injuries most of its body would become useless. To prevent this from happening, players would try their best to only attack on the known weak spots of monsters. Even with these drawbacks, the competition among the players and zeal to see the name on leaderboard would tempt many players in using explosives. These explosives and bombs created by engineers would also be very useful in clearing quests, especially the quests like clearing the path to the city. Armed with a bunch of explosives, the players would have a chance to escape life threatening situations. In situations, a player surrounded by monsters, they could use these tools to find a way out of the encirclement. They could also be used to frighten monsters or thin their herds. Shadow and the Crimson Realm guild had plans to get more players to the city, the next morning. Having a few tools like explosives in their arsenal would allow them to finish this mission with much more ease and speed. Though Shadow Tyrant had already used up all his four trade profession slots, he could replace one as long as he was in a city or town. He decided to forego herbalist skill for now as he could easily get hold of all the materials from the shop and auction house anyway. He also has a guild to support him in collecting materials. Moreover, he already knew that the first upgrade of the game would remove the cap on the number of trade profession slots. So, he would be able to relearn it later. To him, engineering was of vital importance in his immediate quests. He planned to go and find the daggers that the lord of shadows left in the cave as shown in the memory fragment. The cave would be occupied by a number of gnomes and there would be trials to reach the weapon. He would definitely need some fireworks and bombs. Fireworks tend to act like flash-bang in the game. Though they don''t deliver any damage, they tend to confuse monsters. Bombs deliver both fire damage, confuse monsters and also have blow-back effect. He quickly began to search the shops around the combat arena for the designs for these tools. He soon found a shop with good engineering designs and managed to exchange two small firework designs, two small dynamite design and a primitive scope design for a price of 500 combat points. After that he bought all the required supplies for making these tools. They quickly made their way to the engineering association and booked an advanced workshop for both of them. For both fireworks and dynamites, the players needed to create the mixture to pack in a cylinder. These mixtures are made by use of alchemy. Players could alternatively buy the specific mixture from shops in cities and just pack them in cylinders to create dynamites or fireworks. Usually many trade professions prefer to work in isolation, but engineers would have to work along with alchemists or blacksmiths. Even if they gather a lot of proficiency and become expert engineers, they need to use materials that can be created by alchemists and forgers. If they had any intention to mass produce high-level products, they need to work in conjunction with alchemists and forgers as they couldn''t also gather proficiency points continuously in alchemy and forging. Hence, the workshop would also have equipment for blacksmiths and alchemists along with the basic tools required for engineers. They could be working in the workshop along with the engineers. This is the reason that engineering workshops had double the rent compared to a forging room. Once, they reached the advanced workshop, both Shadow and Crimson Tyrant learnt the designs. The designs were similar to the blacksmith designs which contained detailed description of how to create the tools. It also included how to make the ingredients like blasting powder using alchemy. The outer case is usually made from monster bones or iron by the forger. Engineers can be considered to be assemblers of creations of forgers and alchemists to form new products. Both Balthazar and Rudra decided to focus on fireworks and dynamites as their use for the next day''s plans was obvious. Shadow worked on production of the ingredients while Crimson Power on assembling them to form the dynamite and firework. Small firework and small dynamite were basic level products for engineers. It would require minimum effort from the engineers to produce these items. They were able to craft these without much issue. The only thing he was disappointed about was the fact that he couldn''t get high proficiency points like he got during forging. The Kade''s insignia he had allowed him to gain proficiency in forging quickly but the same was not true for engineering. He needed to do a similar quest for engineering, if he wanted to improve his proficiency as fast as forging. Though he always used forging to construct cylinders for the firework and dynamites, it wasn''t considered an armament and didn''t improve his proficiency at forging either. He couldn''t complete any quest for engineering as he did for forging as he would require materials or do some sort of adventure which isn''t safe at night. They continued to create small fireworks and dynamites continuously for 9 hours. Either fireworks or dynamites took hardly half a minute to create. In this time, they managed to create about 500 fireworks and 500 dynamites. Though it was not enough for them to bring a lot of people clear the quest from the Blackrock Town, it was easy for getting a group of at least 50 of them to the city even without his help. "You can continue making more if you think this isn''t enough. I am logging out for dinner," said Shadow as he decided it was enough for the day. Crafting the equipment helped him get to the next level in these nine hours, but it was still a boring stuff and he had to make some plans for the excursion with Robert in two days. He also had created enough blasting powder and other materials for Rudra to continue for a decent amount of time. "Fine, I can continue with this. The more of these we have, the better our results would be tomorrow. Just be ready to get more guys into the city tomorrow," replied Rudra as continued with creating more dynamites. Though dynamites would cause losses for the loot that would be available after death of monsters, at this stage of the game, it would be quite efficient to get to clear the quest and get more players of his guild into the city. "I am expecting a bit of resistance from the other guild players. Already made preparations for it and even contacted Merlin for it. But still, expecting a load of players against us. I suspect we would be using the dynamite against players rather than monsters tomorrow morning. So, be there as early as possible. Having players of higher level is a definite advantage and your presence would have a kind of restraining effect due to your reputation," continued Rudra. The success of the campaign the next day was very important in establishing the prestige of his guild. The guild was under new management and owners. Over the past few days, those involved in the gaming circles have already come to know about this and those that didn''t would certainly look into them after they registered the first guild in the game. A recent change in the management of any organization would have an effect on the efficiency of the organization. Many would try to probe during such situations, especially when the specific organization shows signs of improvement from a previously mediocre state. At such times, it was necessary for them to put on a strong front. Previously, it was well known that the guild was owned by the Blyth family. So, nobody wanted to specifically target it as the guild wasn''t worth the retaliation of such a powerful family. Now, the information was that Rudra got out of the previous owner''s employ and is running the guild with completely authority. They never disclosed information of the person who currently owns it. Even if people managed to know about Rudra''s connection to the Power family, they would still try to hinder their growth in the game, especially first-rate guilds and stronger ones. Like any other business, they would try to squish their competition as soon as they feel another guild to be a strong opponent. Knowing about Balthazar owning the guild would not stop some either as they expect the family''s members to have different opinions regarding the guild and thus, they wouldn''t need to worry much about their retaliation. Hence, there would definitely be some players from different guilds who would try to stop them or follow them, the next day. There might even be a few who join them to spy on then. Rudra has to be extremely careful so that the interference from them wouldn''t harm the guild. He needed to be successful in his attempt tomorrow to display his team''s capabilities, else many would soon start to think they got lucky on the first day of the game and might slowly get out of the guild. That would be extremely detrimental to their plans as Rudra had intended to develop the guild into a first-rate guild as he promised his father. Chapter 86 - A new problem "I will be there in time," agreed Balthazar as he logged out of the game. Once, out of the game, he immediately ordered three somnium headsets from the V.R. website of the Metis Technologies. One was for him, the other two for Lucius and Salazar. He needs a somnium headset for the days when he would be travelling. He can''t keep moving the pod into a ship whenever he needed to travel. The headset was easily portable and that is the reason many people who could also afford to buy a pod, preferred a headset. "Salazar, I might end up being busy in the coming days and unable to have time to join you guys in the gymnasium for our lessons. Though, you are a tough instructor and I get beaten up most of the time, training under you has been very useful to me. So, I am gifting you these helmets, so that we could continue our weapons training on the days, when I am not on Asklepian. Hope you can agree to this request of mine," wrote Balthazar on a mail to be sent to Salazar along with the helmet. He did the same thing for Lucius. Though, Lucius'' training focused on improvement of his body and good control over it by causing severe stress on his physique, this training also helped him improve his techniques. Lucius wasn''t involved in any research and from what he learned from Robert and Bolena, he was retired and an extreme fighting enthusiast. He was exactly the kind of person that vita-nova and somnium technology would appeal to the most. Balthazar was sure that once Lucius started using the tech and played the game, he would soon get addicted to it. He would be training him and when he is not, he could also have a job or a hobby he could spend time in. Vita-nova in his previous life had also attracted a lot of old successful people, who were bored and needed a way to pass time. Once, he was done ordering the helmets, he got out of the pod and went for dinner. Even though he could get the required nutrients from the nutrient fluids, it was always considered best to use the natural biological way to feed as one needs to have their body acquainted to food from natural sources. Due to his experience in military, Balthazar had always been prepared for using food sources available in the form of natural vegetation. So, unlike many others in the core region who got used to depending on the nutrient fluids, he always preferred to consume his dietary needs in the solid form to keep his digestive system in good shape. Any organ without use would atrophy and that was the same for digestive organs and he, a military man whose job was to conquer and even explore new places occasionally couldn''t afford that. He also saw that he received a few mails from Robert and Winston. The mail from Robert just an invite to meet him at his room after dinner. He apparently wanted to discuss about the challenges they were going to face in detail and prepare for them. Winston just dropped in a mail to remind him that he makes the best use of the opportunity he was given today and contact him if he needed anything. Balthazar replied to Robert immediately that he was now going for dinner and he would come to his room after it. He went to dinner and saw that Robert was also in the dining hall. He joined Robert and after dinner they went back to Robert''s room. "I already told you about the strategic tests and fight between individual representatives, right?" asked Robert. "Ya, we just talked about it today. You already confused. Stay focused, dude." "Yes, I remember talking to you about it, but I might have overlooked something small which might require a bit more participation from you," said Robert. "What is it?" asked Balthazar in a serious tone. He knew from experience that Robert being this fl.u.s.tered implied that his cousin considered the issue to be a serious one but is deliberately trying to play down the issue so that he wouldn''t get tensed or frightened. But the Balthazar in his second life hardly fears the things that his cousin might consider to be dangerous or harmful. He just wanted his cousin to be open and frank about it. "Well it is like this. I told you that you have a good reputation as a commander. Your efforts have left a good impression and hardly anyone in the elder council or other would disagree. Even our excursion to the planet DG-105 is more of a formality. I already consulted with a few elders who support us and they all agree that no one who cares about their face or post would say anything else." "OK. That kind of makes thing much more simpler doesn''t it?" "Yes and no. Let me give a clearer understanding of the situation of the family right now. Though I may be young, it isn''t a disadvantage against the others competing for the post. There can be considered four main competitors. Me, Herbert, Jacob and Mary. Both Jacob and Mary are from a generation before us, more than 25 years older. They don''t have much of fame or influence and they are already quite old. Most wouldn''t side with them and I guess they don''t have any decent chances of getting the post." "What about Herbert? As much as I remember, he is about 5 years older than you and his father, Archie is already an elder, right?" asked Balthazar. "Yep, he is the main headache. Moreover, unlike Jack and other idiots, Herbert had always been a responsible guy. He takes care of his father''s businesses, manages all security, commands most of the forces and service chains of those businesses and is also a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He is considered to be already doing the work of an elder under his father." "OK. I never kept much tabs on him, but from what you told it looks like he is very suitable for the position. So, I probably have to take the strategic command test seriously. Give me a detail of your forces too, it is best that we be ready for anything," said Balthazar. He could see that Herbert wouldn''t probably willing to concede due to his own work and might be confident in himself. "Apart from my representative who is considered my protector, they might say that the commander I chose isn''t skilled in direct combat and that you need to prove yourself." This gave quite a shock to Balthazar. He was thinking that he didn''t need to fight any contenders. He managed to defeat Max by pushing him out of the ring, but this wouldn''t probably be a similar situation. "I just managed to defeat Max because he was negligent and didn''t put me in his eyes. I can''t do the same with other contestants," said Balthazar quickly. If it came to situation that he needed to fight physically, it would best that Robert chose someone else for the commander stuff. "No, you misunderstand. I told you he is an adrenaline junkie, right? You won''t be in the fighting competition, but Herbert is representing himself as the commander and you being in the same generation as him, he could technically ask you for one on one," said Robert hastily correcting Balthazar''s thoughts. He needed Balthazar to stay cool on this one. Though he has other candidates for it, they were all people who worked in secret and their achievements can''t be shown to the elder council openly. This position required men of fame and experience, so his best bet was Balthazar. If he could contact Walter, he might actually find another solution, but no one has a decent clue on his whereabouts. "Haha, you mean I just have to fight Herbert? Why did you sound so serious about that? I am sure I could take him on," said Balthazar as he realized that his cousin had him worried about a simple issue. He was only against fighting elders and men who were in a generation above him because they definitely had more experience in fighting than him and probably were stronger and completely mature. But he was sure that he had learnt a lot more than Herbert in his past life. At the worst, he believed that he might end up in a draw in a fight against Herbert. "Don''t consider him so lightly," said Robert as he realized his cousin wasn''t putting Herbert in his eyes at all. "As I told you before, he is an adrenaline junkie and has been involved in few explorations and other things. Moreover, he manages the security personnel of his father''s businesses and also was a champion in his college at boxing and mixed martial arts. He isn''t an easy one to handle." "So, you are saying that he is strong at close combat?" asked Balthazar understanding that it might be better if he researches his opponent properly. "I can''t take anyone lightly. That would be my own undoing," he thought reminding himself of how he underestimated Jane. "Yes, of course. He is very well known for his fights. He had been one of the top contestants three times for the annual tournaments held at the stadium in Entora. What rock have you been living under? You used to be in the mansion at that time," said Robert angrily. He couldn''t believe that his cousin didn''t know this about Herbert. This was the main reason that he was afraid of the possibility of a fight between them. "It is all right. It isn''t as much of an issue as you are considering it to be. I am sure there will be recordings of his fights. I will look through them. That would give a basic idea of his foundation and tactics, but it wouldn''t be enough," said Balthazar as he was think about how to counteract this scenario when he realized that the fighting is still considered of the most crude ways to determine ones capability. The answer was in the problem itself. "You are worried that the opposition would say that your commander might not be able to protect himself and they would use this chance to request a combat. This is an opportunity for them to at the very least humiliate me. But if they do this, they are digging their own graves. Simple close combat hardly ever happen in real life, we can also ask them to conduct a competition for shooting and use of warframes," said Balthazar giving him a hint on how to handle this scenario. "Are you crazy? This is just something that would be requested on the spot. A simple direct combat is easy to arrange and that is the reason they have the advantage. Otherwise, me and others supporting this would have already thought about this option and simply informed you," reprimanded Robert harshly in a loud pitched voice. He felt his cousin''s suggestion to be entirely ridiculous. "Under general circ.u.mstances, I would agree with you. A shooting contest long distance or a large number of targets can be quickly arranged, but he might be pretty good at that. War frames or combat suit training would take a bit of time to set up and are quite dangerous. The same goes for using weapons, which Herbert wants to use to his advantage," said Balthazar unaffected by his cousin''s rebuke. "I am pretty sure that I would ace any shooting contest. That we can use to show them up. I said the other things as we have a way for it too, but it might require some effort from a few others," continued Balthazar. "What?" "We can use the somnium technology, the samsara framework to develop the scenario for war frame and many other combat scenarios. It can be not only used for this, but also for competition and to test the eligibility and capability for any recruitment scenarios. We just need to be prepared and you should pick the proper time to suggest this in case Herbert and others play this game," answered Balthazar. "That might be actually possible," said Robert as he fell back on his bed. He was looking at the ceiling, thinking about it and realized that as his cousin told, he could actually use the same kind of tests for recruitment. It would save a lot of resources and also time if they used this method. The tests could also be much more comprehensive. As soon as he realized it, he started to create a mail and sent it to Richard Shrike. He was someone that Walter recruited and became one of the few knew about the secrets of the Blyth family and the table of Ouroboros. He was never usually at Asklepian, but after the near death that Robert suffered at Max''s hands, he came back to guard over Robert. Richard was Robert''s representative for the fight and had been following Robert in secret daily. He was always monitoring Robert and also had his room bugged. He was listening to everything that the two cousins were talking about. "Hmm, that boy is surely adapting fast to technology. A good trait for an agent," thought Richard as heard them. Chapter 87 - Meeting Ellie again Once, he received the message from Robert, he immediately replied to it and told him that he would take care of it and would like to further discuss the same with him. He knew that though it was a viable option, it isn''t the best one. He knew a few people who can take Balthazar''s place, but they are not ones who would allow any hearsay that they are working under a young man for him. They were all tough ones who had their own prestige and fame and wouldn''t allow it to be diminished for him. They might consider if Walter proposed it, but even he would have to trade something worth it. "If only Walter considered that his grand kid would do something like this," he said aloud talking to himself. Richard knew that if Walter expected that it would be a long journey or wasn''t angry that Max had actually attempted to kill Robert, he would have definitely made arrangements for Robert. He got a message from Robert informing that they could meet right now, and he would also introduce Balthazar as he was in the room. "I don''t mind being introduced to the kid. I would be meeting him some time in the near future. Better now than later," thought Richard as he got up and made his way to Robert''s room. Once, he went to the room, he found Balthazar sitting on a chair with the screen in front of him, playing some videos of fights and was fervently discussing about them with Robert who was lying on the bed and looking at the same. "What are you kids doing?" asked Richard gently as he entered the room. Balthazar was shocked to see this person enter the room with getting permission from Robert. All rooms usually required a password that would be set by the resident or at least his permission to enter. Seeing this person quietly enter the room, he began to quickly scan the room for objects, he could use against the intruder. He only calmed down, once Robert introduced the person. "Balthazar. This is Richard. He works for grandpa. He had been guarding me since the incident with Max," said Robert pointing towards his neck. Listening to Robert, Balthazar calmed down and clasped the hand which Richard extended to him on being introduced. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Richard." "He was willing to represent me in the contest." "Yes. I am going to fight in young master''s stead. I am glad that you who are eligible for the same are supporting him instead of trying to gain the seat yourself. You are a good brother," said Richard as he held Balthazar''s hand tightly. It looked like he was trying to ascertain, whether Balthazar was really supporting Robert or if he has an alternate agenda. He was only told by Robert that Balthazar and Winston were supporting him, and he had no idea why or the circ.u.mstances and the agreement under which this happened. He would be an extremely foolish man, if he didn''t consider foul play. "Yeah. It is for the best the Robert is included in the Elder council. I don''t expect myself to be joining anytime and my sister doesn''t have the time to indulge this at the moment. So, supporting Robert was obvious," explained Balthazar who guessed the intent behind Richard''s words. "By the way. You don''t have anything in the room to protect yourself against anyone. WTF dude!" continued Balthazar as he sat back down into the seat. "Come on. I got a decent guardian who looks after me all the time and who told I don''t have any weapons in here," said Robert as he pushed his hand into a small tile by his bookshelf. This caused a small door to open up beneath the tile revealing a gun and a knife. "That would be a viable option if someone unexpected asks permission to enter the room not in situations like these, where one comes in barging," said Balthazar. He almost wanted to slap his cousin. Such false panels would be of use in a common place for visitors like a hall, not the bedroom of a bachelor. Their main use is in situations where one expects his opponent wouldn''t think that he would have a weapon. Any person that would sneak into a bedroom, would make sufficient preparations, attack and kill as soon as he enters. "Dude! Chill out. He is my guardian and I gave him standing permit to enter the room in case of emergencies. I got lucky and was saved as Max in his hurry to leave left the door open," said Robert. He heard the words barging in and thought that he was angry with Richard and was trying to cover for his guardian. "Still, it is always sensible to have a quicker access to weapons, if you are to survive or hold back the intruder before the help comes," said Balthazar in the same spirit. "I agree with Colonel Balthazar, you need to have a weapon on your person, young master or at a location which you can access within a second. Given the recent attack on you, there is a high chance that one might be able to fool the security and sneak into your room," said Richard agreeing with him "Fine, I will try to get it done as soon as possible," said Robert agreeing to their suggestions. He was already suggested the same by Richard, but he felt it would be extremely uncomfortable to have a weapon by his bedside. He was also the kind of sleeper who rolled around in his sleep which made having a weapon by his side dangerous. "Now, can we continue with the observing his fights," said Robert pointing at the screen. "Ya, you told that you wanted to talk about something," he asked Richard. "Ya, I wanted to talk to you about this prospective solution that Balthazar suggested. I already know that they are working on a proper combat arena through the samsara framework and they already have a proper arena made for weapons combat and working to create combat suits and warframes. I have already contacted Mr. Edgerton and informed him of your suggestion. Though it would be hard to create a large ground or an actual fight-based scenario, he says a simple ground to fight with warframes could be easily done in a couple of days," said Richard. "This guy is helping Robert a lot. I guess, he holds an important place under Walter. Else, he would not take such initiative and be so fast and efficient," thought Balthazar. "So, for now, we need to focus on the excursion to DG-150 planet, rather than the other thing. They wouldn''t suggest a fight even before the hunt, else they would be marked as cowardly," explained Richard. "But first, we need to consider what kind of tests did you have in mind, if you were serious about using the somnium tech for recruitment. The present versions were all meant for practice between two contestants. We need a good method for grading their performance, if we are to use somnium tech," continued Richard. "I will let you both discuss this, I need to be somewhere else," said Balthazar as he got up and left the room. It was a good opportunity for his cousin to think and discuss this with Richard. Until now all his cousin did was to forward his suggestions to Richard. If they are both alone, Robert would be providing his own thoughts. Even if they might be stupid it was a chance to grow and him staying would hamper that. He also wanted to go to Winston, and he wanted to get hold of few weapons. He also needed a hidden one on his body as it was important for him to be prepared for unexpected intruders like he told Robert. He contacted Winston for the same who asked him to get in touch with Ellie Edgerton as she was the one who would be the fastest and most proactive for such things. Moreover, Winston knew that she is the only one who wouldn''t be intimidated by the fact that he was the patriarch''s grandson and interact with Balthazar without any inhibitions and suggest anything that comes into her mind. She liked to experiment with people and had a record of trying to fool people into trying out dangerous thing like attaching equipment directly to the body. The failure and sometimes even success of such things would cause physical and even mental damage to a person. Despite all these, he suggested her to Balthazar as he wanted to see how he would handle her. If he couldn''t even do this, then he wouldn''t have a good time in the world outside. As much as Winston knew his grandson had been in the military where the technology and weapons used needed to follow a standard safety protocol. If he had any intention to go after the military and use resource out of the standard or join Evelyn Price''s group, he needed to learn how to interact with such people. This required him to learn how to handle, extremely strong-willed people and from Winston''s perspective, Ellie was the best person to give him that experience. Balthazar on the other hand didn''t mind the slightest, he was used to working with a bunch of assassins'' whom he never trusted to do only that would profit them. He was someone who would never knowingly let someone get into his blind spot. He considered Ellie the best option as he liked such people whose passion for their work made them ignore protocol. Such people would provide their uncensored opinions and thoughts when enticed. It would allow him to thoroughly understand his existing options and also they would simply try to create his equipment as per his requirements and that is the best point in having custom made equipment. He always considered people who restrict themselves by the standards to fail in this. So, he appreciated Ellie more than others who were worried about fame or standards. He went back to the armory again. Ellie was waiting for him at the entrance as he didn''t have the permission to enter it. She practically pulled him into the armory by his hand. She quickly pulled out a thin, skin colored full body suit and made him hold it like he was displaying it. "Yes! I was waiting for you to come back to the armory. How can someone like you who managed to take down an alien armada and almost died not want some emergency equipment to take back. I have been working on some of the best clothes that can be worn underneath your uniform. They are made of a material made by me. It is less than a micrometer thin and provides high insulation and it doesn''t tear easily. It provides the same protection as a standard recruit military vest," she explained. She took out a blade and began swinging it at the suit to demonstrate its toughness. "Stop! Stop! I didn''t come to the armory for a vest. I needed something else," said Balthazar. "You didn''t like this? You realized that the material is a bit abrasive, right? The two testers also thought the same, it kind of grates at your skin when you are running. Why don''t I suggest something else for you? You probably want more defensive equipment, right? I can provide you a better version of the equipment you took last time. The force field can have a larger range, but there is a chance of overheating and explosion, but I added something which would allow you to customize the range of the force field. This would also give you more options, right?" she continued without listening a thing that Balthazar was about to say. "That sounds like a very good idea, but I didn''t come to for more defense oriented tools. I wanted to have a few weapons," said Balthazar. "Oh! I was about to show you my collection the last time we met. Come on," she said as she began to move. "Hold it," said Balthazar as he caught her by her shoulders stopping her. "Let me finish. I am not here to check the guns you created. Actually, I don''t have any idea of the tools that are available here, but you have piqued my interest with this suit. First, I would like to have a suit similar to this. I need it to be quite thin, but also comfortable and I should be able to wear it for large amount of time, at least a few days without a bath and shouldn''t get any abrasions from it." "That is hard. You can''t have both defence and those other things that you asked for. I thought you were well educated. It would take a lot of time and effort and wouldn''t be worth the price of the research involved. Why do you need to wear it for such a long time?" she asked disappointed by his request. "Don''t need the defence. In fact, I don''t even need an entire suit. I just need something thin and hard to be noticed by others and it to be able to cover some hidden weapons. Say poison coated needles or a small blade. Consider it something that would be used in an emergency to buy myself some time from a superior opponent," said Balthazar explaining his requirement. "These are something that is required for an assassin, but one would always use a combat suit for such purposes. You don''t need some micro thin fabric like this. You are just like the rest of them," said Ellie getting disappoint more by the second. Chapter 88 - Preparations "I don''t need this for assassinating someone. If I wanted something like that, I would have been given those combat suits directly by Winston. I don''t need to make a custom one from you," said Balthazar. "I need something for everyday use under my uniform. Mostly on my hands and probably voice activated or something along with them being able to slide down by flexing by wrist." "Oh boy! You are regressing to ancient ages. Do you have a bunch of assassins'' after you or what? Why do you need such crazy..," started Ellie, but then realized halfway that it was probably why he was asking for such equipment. At a military base, it would have thorough scrutiny of the people and any blasters or very long range weapons would be easily caught be the personnel there. So, the best option for an assassin would be to come in silently and kill his target at close range. So, he needed a few hidden cards to counter such attempts. "Fine, I understand. I will start on in it. I believe you would be going back to join the force a couple of months later, right? By that time, I will have created a standard bunch of arsenal for the purpose you require," she shouted energetically looking up at the ceiling with a face full of passion. "The crazy one is also a daydreamer? I hope she is worth the trouble," thought Balthazar as she looked at the woman whose mind was stuck in her own personal world. He coughed loudly to get her attention back to the real. "I am going to be returning a couple of months later to the border, but I need these in a couple of days," he said. "A couple of days?" "Yes, I have a few things to do in the Elysium region. So, it is best that I have something ready to use by that time. I hope you would impress me, by that time." "In a couple of days?" "I am going out for something the day after tomorrow and would like to have at least something up my sleeve," answered Balthazar. "I have an idea for the material for a light thin blade for your use. To hide a weapon, we need the material to be quite tough at least half the cut-resistance as one I just showed you. It can be used to craft a full sleeved top in a day, but it wouldn''t be able to be used for a long time. If it is a short trip, it would be fine. I can make something for your requirements by the next week," suggested Ellie. "I can do with it. I am not expecting much at that time and I would be wearing a combat suit during the excursion. Just provide me with something that could be worn on my arms. Don''t need to cover the entire torso. It won''t affect me as I will be using it only when I am out of the combat suit. Make it something that would be reaching from my wrist to my elbow like to sweat bands sportsman wear." "That can be done. Easy. I can install a few poison needles that would be coming out of it. They will definitely hinder someone attacking you. They can be made to activate by a keyword you can set on your wrist band. Choose a swear word you rarely use. It would quite effective," said Ellie. Balthazar''s requirements were quite small, it wouldn''t be a hard task for Ellie to do something like that. These tricks were used for centuries before them, but they became obsolete as many people began using combat suits and other protective equipment, if they were in genuine danger. Because of this, the assassins also had to develop similar weapons that have a bit more penetrative effect than needles. Such tricks were only valid when the target has no idea that he is being preyed by someone. The element of surprise is quite important in using these tricks. "That sounds like a good idea, but I was hoping that you could get a blade or something into it. I would prefer to have a blade that I could use continuously," suggested Balthazar. It is never an option to just have a surprise attack. A surprise attack almost never manages to completely solve a problem. One must always follow through and finish the task. "A blade? That could also be done, but it would naturally be heavier than a needle and need some support which would be visible. We can use your wrist band to support it on one hand. That is the most, I can do in such a short time. The fabric I made was to be cut-resistant and insulating against heat. It doesn''t have enough elastic modulus to be bearing a blade for long duration, the blade silhouette would become visible on your wrist without use of a support." "OK. A blade on one hand is enough, but could you make sure that I can take it into my hand with ease and use it like a knife," asked Balthazar. If it would be something that would be another projectile or just a blade that would be stuck on the wrist band, it would be quite useless for his purposes. "Yeah that would be how I would design it. You can take it by tomorrow night," she agreed. "I understood your requirement and have a few ideas in mind. Give me a week and I am sure you would be satisfied by my designs." "Impress me." "Put that one aside. You have not yet viewed any weapons, I have. Last time you just view the combat suits and not any of the other arsenal that we have available. Let me introduce a few to you," sad Ellie as she led them to a crate in the room. She began with a show of a variety of guns and grenades. Being a military man, he saw or heard most of the ones which she began to show, but a few still surprised him. There was a grenade that was even marked truth gas. "What the hell does one need a truth gas grenade for?" asked Balthazar confused. "It is an antiquity. I bet it the gas doesn''t even work. The picobots in our blood prevents such old stuff from being effective. It was apparently used a couple of centuries ago in a political party and it led to a bunch of bureaucrats spill their secrets. It was before Winston''s time, no one knows about it," answered Ellie. "These are all nice, but I am used to standard weapons. Would probably need some practice with a few before I change up to them, but I hope I can take a few of the standard ones that have their serial numbers filed off," requested Balthazar. "These are all illegal and none of them have a serial number and are all untraceable. Stupid thing to ask. Any other specific requirements?" asked Ellie. "I would like a whip, non-conducting, shouldn''t acc.u.mulate static charge, at least 7 meters long," requested Balthazar remembering that it would be better if he also has tool that can provide mid-range combat abilities. Once, someone sees him with a whip, they might consider it his weapon and the hidden blade would be a lot more surprising. Moreover, a whip provides a degree of control and it swings make it hard for the opponent to evade. He had always been decent at using it in vita-nova and so, he believed that he could use it in real-life with a bit of training. "You used a whip before?" asked Ellie surprised. Wh.i.p.s were a rare weapon that are usually used by people who are involved in taming of wild animals. It is something which was rarely seen in combat and even explorers of new planets, don''t tend to use it. Without a good amount of skill, a whip can easily hurt oneself and teammates rather than their enemies. Ellie had already researched him thoroughly on the net, when he first met him, and nothing suggested that he was proficient with a whip. So, she was obviously concerned when he asked it. She wouldn''t have batted her eye if he wanted to put himself in danger for the sake of her experiments, but this sounded crazy to her and if he harmed himself with it, it wouldn''t serve any purpose either. "Yes, I am familiar with a whip. Don''t worry, I won''t ship my own face or cut myself with it. But I agree that I hadn''t used it for a long time. I put it on hold after I entered the force. I might need to practice it for some time," answered Balthazar. He knew that it would be hard for her to believe that he used a whip before as there would be no record of it and none in the family would have seen him using one. Ellie also was looking at him extremely doubtful of his words. So, he needed to convince them that he is indeed capable. "Could you do me a small favour and help me in crafting a simulation for somnium technology?" he asked her. It is one of the best ways to convince her. "I don''t know if it is possible. Guns, blades and other things, you are qualified for use. Even warframes are something we could issue for your use, but wh.i.p.s are something I can''t just provide you. It would be irresponsible on my part," she said. "OK. I understand. Can you ask Leon on who would be able to certify me? Do you know who Mr. Edgerton, the one responsible currently working on samsara tech is?" "I will contact Leon, but the chances of that happening are very low. With the alliance having a ban on the use of wh.i.p.s, we hardly find any proficient in it other than tamers. I will also contact Uncle Elias. He will be able to help you with whatever you want with samsara framework." "Cool. It is nothing big. I just want to use something I heard he already successfully created," said Balthazar. "Anything else," asked Ellie continuing to look at him weirdly. Today''s meeting with Balthazar was very different from what she expected. She was hoping for a test subject, but instead found the person to be request things that most consider to be extremely outdated. He was supposed to be a military man who would require equipment tailor for chaotic war scenarios or planet clearing expeditions but he gave her the feeling of a person reenacting an ancient drama or something. "Hmmmm.. Ya. Can I have your number? It would be a lot easier to contact you, if I want something. I could just message you," he asked her. Once, they exchanged their details, he left the armory leaving a very perplexed woman behind. "Whatever, I will just do what he wants. It is not like, it would take much time," she thought. "If he does manage to effectively use them, I would have the lead in creating a bunch of equipment for a specific type of use. As a matter of fact, I do need to create a fiber that can be worn for longer durations." She sent the details of their conversation to Leon and Winston and also informed her uncle Elias about Balthazar''s request. Balthazar also decided to send a message to Winston on the way back to his room. It is for the best if he could speed up the process and receives a whip as quickly as possible. "I want to get a whip from the armory. Apparently, I don''t have the qualifications. Please find someone who can help me get it and keep it a secret. I worked very hard to use it while keeping it a secret," read the message. He also sent a mail to D.i.c.k regarding the duplicate identity that he required. He chose the same name that he used in his previous life, Ethan Cutter. D.i.c.k had already prepared a picture of his which was modified slightly by adding a beard and a few other small changes so that photo-recognition techniques wouldn''t realize him right away. The software would check a few salient features and lines on one''s face which would help differentiate people. Knowing these, he could reduce the match percent to 60% while most people would still be able to recognize the photo to his face. There would still be a chance of someone realizing his real identity if he gets caught. So, he needed to wear a beard or a mask when, he is traveling using his duplicate identity. With this done, he needed to get in touch with his old acquaintances. These people don''t know him at this time, but they would come to a place in the next week if they follow his previous life''s experience. Even if they don''t, he could get in touch with other people in similar profession at that place. He booked a ticket to AT-164 planet for the next week under the new identity. He needed to begin his counterattack as soon as possible. Done with all the things he could prepare for, he decided to make a call to Sophia. He missed her a lot and sadly the intimacy he had with her in his previous life was no longer there as she didn''t share the same memories as him. All he could do was to continue maintaining their friendship and maintaining virtual contact. Chapter 89 - An expedition to the city When, he delved back into the game, it was still night and the area was dark. "This would be perfect time to explore if I manage to get hold of some decent tools like night vision goggles," thought Balthazar. Sadly, such equipment wouldn''t be able to be procured anytime soon. One needs to go to stage where they at least cross tier 2. There are other options like creating light stones (magical artifact creation) or torches, torch lights (engineering). Magical artifact creation was similar to engineering but involves extensive usage of runes and magical language which specifically created by game designers for vita-nova. He contacted Rudra who was still creating dynamites in the advanced workshop. Rudra just asked him to get back to the workshop. In the past four hours, Rudra had been working on making more minor dynamites and wanted him to help him create more. He bought more ingredients some time ago when Balthazar was logged out of the game. Shadow continued creating dynamites and scopes till it was time for dawn. Dawn at the game would be at 11 p.m in real-life. It was the time when most of the people in major cities at the prime meridians of all the terraformed planets would be done with the work and go to sleep. This would make it the ideal time for most to start playing game if they go to sleep. They had decided to wait till 10 minutes till the dawn in the game before they had the players who joined them moving. They had to make these players complete the quest to get to the city. They had about 50 players who reached level 10 and other 150 who didn''t, ready to finish the quest. The 50 who managed to cross level 10 were mostly trade profession players, who moved to the Blackrock town and signed contracts with their guild. Rudra made sure that these players wouldn''t jump to other guilds once they reach the city by specifying that they have to stay in the guild in the contract or their account experience would be erased. Though his condition was a bit over the top, it was still considered liberal as they didn''t put any constraints on their communication with players not in the guild and nothing about them releasing the information about how they complete the quest. Rudra and others didn''t care as they knew that others would end up knowing of it, even if they included it in contracts. The 150 were mostly old players who Rudra and his team were familiar with and were a part of their guild in the previous games. These were good players, but the close resemblance of vita-nova to reality and the characters movements being dependent on the players thoughts brought varied performance to the characters of even these veteran players. They were still reliable and can face mental pressure of the fights as they were veterans and with a bit of practice show good improvement, if they aren''t traumatized by the life like feeling of killing monsters and people. They have a better chance of developing well in the game than new players who were pulled in by the allure of somnium technology. Rudra had them start from the gate in groups of 20 each with at the very least one or two players he strongly trusted in each group. He had also called all the members of the team led by Merlin in exchange for a few dynamites. It was a simple job which provided the team about 50 dynamites. So, Quiet Fire and Merlin immediately accepted it. As soon as they started from the gate, few players from specific guilds came and attack in an attempt to stop they from advancing. These guilds wanted to block them from moving forward in the game and ruin their reputation. Rudra''s move to take trade profession players and increase his guild''s prestige pissed off quite a number of guilds, but they wouldn''t send their best players to block him. Those would be trying to themselves finish the quest and enter a city. The more experience and clever ones like Blue Dart didn''t send anyone to directly oppose them and in fact stopped anyone in their guild who wanted to do so. They just sent a few assassin players who could stay in hiding and trail them and find out how they managed to complete the quest. They were already aware that Shadow had somehow managed to get to a high level in the game and players like Blue Dart also knew him to be an accomplished forger as he sold his creations to them. So, they thought that there was a high chance that his level increased further during the nighttime in the city where he would have access to better materials or designs. The same can be considered of the other players who reached the city too. So, it would be a waste of manpower, if they try to block them at this stage and it would be a loss for both according to the few who chose to send spies. But when they were observing the groups of Crimson Realm members, they noticed that the first group of players who were sent to block them were bombed by the players themselves and none of the team members who reached the city intervened. This was a surprise attack and it allowed them to easily decimate those who come to block them. The dynamites in their hands shocked many that were following these groups. Even without the ones who managed to complete the quest beforehand, these groups were able to hold their own. This caused a sense of apprehension in few other groups who were waiting to ambush. It was an effective method to reduce the fights as using only the strong players to fight these players who blocked them would give them an impression that they might be able to succeed with larger numbers. This is harmful to the Crimson Realm guild. Moreover, the guilds who want to block them have no idea about the availability of these previously unseen consumables. They simply have no idea of how many of these dynamites are there with the Crimson Realm guild members. The thought of these new consumables also made quite a few guilds to reallocate their members in to completing their own quest than blocking the Crimson Realm members. It was obvious that more members working on it gave higher chances of completing the quest and getting these consumables. The new dynamites that were used by them also brought another wave of posts in the game forums. They were asking details related to how these consumables can be bought. Many were asking to sell these in their shop which they opened. Some were even demanding that they would face their wrath if these consumables weren''t sold. Rudra had their shop opened at the same time that they started their ten groups to begin the completion of their quest. Over the night, he had a few blacksmiths learn the design for the level 10 spear that Shadow created and managed to produce a decent stock of them. He also had Slain and Roll to buy a few level 10 equipment and weapons from the shops, and he put them up at his shop. Though he put up about 10 spears for sale directly. He put the rest of them on an auction system at the shop, so that players could bid on it. He also announced at the shop that the dynamites and weapon designs would be placed on auction once the weapons they have got sold out. This had resulted in an increase in the popularity and has also diverted the attention of the leaders of the guild player in the Blackrock Town. It was more important for them to find own resources and armaments to develop further in the game, rather than waste time stopping other guilds. Thus, the announcement at the shop cause the priorities of these guilds to change and they had their members immediately collecting funds to buy from the shop. This also allowed them to sell these at twice their original cost providing Crimson Realm guild a decent profit. Balthazar had Robert informing him of the developments in the forum as he was leading a group into the Blackrock hill area. "I was right in allowing him to have complete management rights over the guild. It was a good idea to use the shop to divert their attention," thought Balthazar as he was being told by Robert about the posts in the forums. They separated into ten groups initially so that their opponents would be split, and they could use the dynamites to counter smaller numbers easily. But this wasn''t feasible when they were completing the quest. It was always easier to take down the leaders of the monster groups in large numbers by focus fire of large number of players. It would also allow them to clear the quest faster. With the 200 members united, they actually had Crimson Power and Shadow Tyrant lead a smaller batch of 10 players before the rest along the path. These were the scouts of the group. Shadow knew that the number of monsters encountered on the path would be proportional to the number of players in the team. So, he formed a smaller team to track the location of the monster leader that would be spawned. Then, he could bring the entire group to that location and raid the lair as he did before. They also came in contact with a few lone monsters like the red fanged cougar, but with the numbers in the group these lone monsters hardly stood a chance. The only issue was that Shadow and the others who already finished the quest shouldn''t have the last hit for it to be counted as the party''s kill. In this manner, they slowly cleared the quest till they managed to see the city walls. Only the final boss was left. With their large numbers and the dynamites and fireworks, the managed to reach this stage in just 2 hours. The main boss were ogres this time got killed much faster due to the use of dynamites and the large number of attacks from the 200 players. At this stage about 10 players got killed and lost their chance to complete the quest, but the rest had successfully registered at city portal. So, with a ninety percent success rate, they finished their first mission of the day. About 30 players didn''t manage to reach level 10 even after the quest and 150 new players got into the city. This was quite an effective result as none of the other guilds managed to get into the city yet. But their trick was disclosed. Blue Dart was closely following them with his team to check on them with a scope he bought from their shop. They realized that killing the leader of monsters in the forest would enable them to escape the crazy fight at the end. They immediately began their quest to reach the city with this idea in mind. But it still wouldn''t be as easy as the Crimson Realm members did because, Shadow helped a lot in taking down of these monster leaders and they had a good supply of dynamites and fireworks. Rudra immediately began assigning players in his guild various tasks to do. They had an advantage which would probably be lost within the day. So, they had to make good use of it. Rudra had immediately employed the 50 trade profession players beyond level 10. He sent them to workshops and their respective associations to start working on new equipment and items. Apart from that, he had sent some to the Colosseum and the remaining immediately went on their own to try their luck with the quests that would be available. He put specific stress on few to enter the colosseum as the combat points would allow them to buy designs and other tools. He had noticed that goods sold by the shops in the outer region aren''t good compared to the ones he saw at the Colosseum. The players couldn''t share or exchange combat points with each other nor did the system allow them to purchase more than 10 points with money. So, the best alternative he could think was for them to fight against one another, the final winner would have a larger number of combat points than the initial ten. This would allow some trade profession members to get good designs. All this would cost him a lot of coins., but the thing that Rudra was least concerned about was coins. Due to him selling the halberds at the auction house and the opening of the shop where he auctioned dynamites, spears and other equipment, he had managed to collect a decent amount of gold from the other guilds and players. Until now, he had only auctioned one of the spear designs which was bought by a guild for a cost of 10 gold. It was almost equivalent to the price of a small shop in a town. Rudra didn''t inform that this was one of Shadow''s creations and this led a majority of the players to believe that the shop was actually auctioning designs which the players worked extremely hard to procure. He also announced that they would probably sell more designs of the same if they found them. The brought him a good amount of coin for the designs and also the good will of a number of players. His announcement suggested that there are ways at the city to get hold of designs continuously and also increased their fervor to get to the city quickly. Chapter 90 - On guard With them having completed their first attempt to finish the quest with a decent success rate, things have changed a bit. Other guilds will be trying to finish the quest in the same manner they did. Their advantage was that they had dynamites. They used about 300 of them in the first run with nearly half of those used at other players who tried to block them. Though Rudra put about 50 of those for sale at the shop, he still had enough remaining and he continued to make them once they reached the city. This would enable more of the players in their guild to soon get to the city from Blackrock Town. On the side of the Blackrock Town, they had Lizzie who was managing the shop and the second group of players ready to complete the quest. They had a significant advantage of higher-level players in the city at this moment and no other guilds wants to waste their time in fighting them. Moreover, they also had the advantage of dynamites which gave them a significant chance to overtake any others. In this manner, the situation with the Crimson Realm guild was at a good starting point and Balthazar had enough time to explore the other regions right now. Moreover, he managed to reach level 13 while he was creating all the dynamites, the previous night. It was the best time for him to explore other cities and get to know of the resources that would be available. The best part about having a guild was that collecting information through the guild was a lot easier than directly exploring. He had contribution points of the forging association but didn''t use them as he had no idea what are the various resources that could be found in abundance at the surroundings of the city. He immediately told Rudra of his dilemma and asked him to maintain a proper database with various levels of access at the guild. It was best to use a separate server to store such information. Luckily vita-nova allows one to access mails and other features available on the net and once, they found a secure storage vendor, this library could be easily maintained. He also was a third-class citizen at the city currently and could use his reputation to get a hold of one hop to rent. He didn''t do it previously because of the lack of coins. Now, it wasn''t the same. Apart from the shop in the Blackrock Town, a number of players moved to the town through the portal in Blackrock hills to check the merchandize available. Though it is a small amount for using the portal once, a number of players in guilds made quite a few trips to get hold of money and were congregating at the shop. This itself provided him a decent income. He also could complete his quest at the town Jarko to compete the quest given to him by the priest from the temple of the twelve. There was the third option of also continuing to the hills and get the weapons of the Lord of Shadows. The faster he finishes this, the better it would be. But he wanted to take Merlin, Tetsujin, Slaine and Little White Feet along with a few others as he knew from the memory fragment that at the very least the same place was visited by the lords corresponding to warlock, martial artist, ranger and cleric. He also heard from the forums in his previous life that more than one player found unique equipment at that place. So, he preferred to take Merlin and his team along with Rudra and his old team to that place. Even if none of them managed to get a unique armament, they would still me able to get some good equipment from the run. It was worth the attempt. The issue was to get them all to be ready for it. Moreover, he wanted to improve on their equipment and level before they went for it. Among all of them, only he was at level 13 and a couple of them at level 11, the remaining were all at level 10. They at the very least needed more level 10 equipment armed before they attempt it. At this point, the only players in the White Heart City were all from the Crimson Realm guild. There were others who were attempting the same quest and would soon be able to get to the city. If the players in the beginner villages and towns knew which city they would end up at the end of their quest, most guilds would try to avoid White Heart City as Crimson Realm. But the thing was that no player would realize the nearest city till they reached the gates. This was the main issue that Balthazar was facing right now. As he wanted his friends to increase their strengths, he had no other option than to go farming monsters and finish other quests at the city to increase their levels. He knew that the players of Foedus Rex would definitely be coming to the White Heart City and they would attempt to complete the same quest he wanted to finish. He needed to make sure that he and his team attempts to get to the unique weapons before the players from Foedus Rex. The good thing and the advantage that he had was that despite the various routes that one could use from various villages and towns to reach the White Heart City, they all had to register at the main gate to enter the city to finish the quest. This was where he could keep a lookout for the members of Foedus Rex like Sultan and the others. Moreover any guild that would find themselves at the White Heart City at the end of the quest would scramble to get more reputation and find a foothold for themselves at the city because they all knew that Crimson Realm had been here for more than a day. The same was valid even for the players of Foedus Rex which was a super guild. The only thing that he didn''t know was weather these players also received a quest from the beginner village or town like him or if they received it at the city. If it was at the city, it wasn''t much of an issue, but if it was at the village, he was sure that they would try their best to attempt it as soon as possible. This was something that he wanted to desperately avoid. From what he knew of the guild Foedus Rex, the star players of the guild had used V.R. suits in the previous games and they even used to practice wearing V.R suits in the previous V.R. games. So, even if they weren''t accustomed to the somnium technology, they still had a decent practice with moving their bodies in games due to the V.R. suits. This allowed all the super guilds main roster''s to easily increase their familiarity with the somnium technology compared to others. They also had already hired a bunch of software professionals to use the samsara framework to create practice routines and sessions for the players. This was something that guilds teams did so that their players who showed decent talent could be well trained for competitions. Hence, he didn''t want to take any chances with them. He had asked Rudra to send a couple of players to station themselves at the gate. This was not really possible as there are not many missions around that place. The best way to do that was to get to join the city guards. It isn''t an easy thing to join city guards and most wouldn''t find any decent rewards anytime soon. The guilds would only realize the value of them joining the various organizations in the game only in later stages. But, Balthazar knew about the advantages. The contribution points from these would be quite useful. These contribution points would have similar use to that of the White Bane corps but not as useful. It wasn''t easy to get into the city guards. They easiest way they could get into it was to accept missions. Registering new players to the city was the best option for them right now. It was something that provided contribution points based on the amount time they spent on it. It was one of the simplest missions and extremely boring, but the best thing was that he could be sure that they could keep track of the new arrivals. It also didn''t provide any experience. Hence, most considered it one of the worst missions in the game and hardly any player accepted it. There were such missions all over the game and they provided any decent returns on continuing the machine for a very long time. He convinced Rudra that he needed someone on the lookout for players of super guilds at the main gate. He couldn''t tell Rudra that he needed to lookout specifically for Foedus Rex players as he has no reason that would be convincing. He asked them to just continue till any super guild managed to reach the city only for the day. Most players that would manage to clear the quest at this stage would be guild players and he provided them a list of player names from his memory that they could check for. He told them that he went through the forums and these were the most probable the would reach the White Heart City and were in the vicinity from the map that he purchased. With that part of the issue cleared, he had to do something else. It was to get hold of a shop in the city as soon as possible. He immediately went to the city hall to rent a new shop in the White Heart City. Similar to the Blackrock Town, the receptionist at the city hall guided him to a registrar and he was shown a list of the available properties in the city. He chose one close to the Colosseum in the city. It would be quite a popular place almost on par with the market as it would soon be filled with players who would be very interested in getting better equipment to win at their fights in the Colosseum. His guild had been earning a decent amount of money from the shop in the Blackrock Town which he could use to purchase a shop instead of renting it. So, he chose a good shop but it cost 500 gold. Though the shop was earning a decent amount of gold, it would take some time to get a return of about 500 gold. "The guild needed quite an amount to buy resources too. Taking 500 gold at this stage might actually do more harm than good," thought Balthazar and decided to buy the shop later as he was in no hurry. "There isn''t much use in buying a shop now anyways. With the amount of players in the city, right now it would be a total waste to open it now," he thought. While he was searching for the shop in the list provided to him at the city hall, Rudra collected some basic information from the members of his guild. Their reports were as he expected from his knowledge of the surroundings of the city. He immediately met up with Merlin and his team. Rudra also led Slaine, Rick, Harry and the three other members whom he trusted to stay in the guild for a long time. Balthazar told Rudra to get players he trusted completely as he intended to take them to a special quest after they increased their level and he was going to help them with it. There was a forest surrounding the city on three ends and a grass land on one end. Balthazar chose to go for the grassland. The place he wanted to search for unique weapons was in the forest at a small hell to the left of the grassland. In the grassland, the monsters they found were similar to the ones, they found in the village. The main problem after level 10 was that they would need to properly attack at the right body parts of the monster or they might end up not receiving any resources when the forage. As they went into the grassland, they found it inhabited by a herd of white horn deer. The white horn deer are same as any other deer and brown in color except that they had a long white horn on their snout and were about 7 feet tall. Their horns were used in alchemy rather than forging and other resources that can be obtain were their skin and meat. [White Horn Deer] (Common Monster) Level 12: HP: 4500/4500; Despite their large size and the horns on their heads, they were docile monsters and would run away from players. The players had to disable them to hunt them down like they did with the antelopes at the Blackrock town. Now, that they were above level 10, disabling monster was much easier for Shadow. Previously they needed to strangle or hold them down, but from level 10 onwards, the game would change so that a proper hit on a weak point would simply disable the monster and also deal a large amount of damage. Chapter 91 - Sylvannus Fort - 1 He was a level 13 player and hence took lead in attacking the deer. His attacks were extremely impressive to all the players who were with him. He also wanted to teach them to attack the vital points of the monsters to easily take down the monsters. Shadow had gotten used this type of fighting for a long time. He quickly attacked the joints and tendons of their limbs. This caused the monster to quickly lose its speed and a proper hit even cause it to fall down and become a stationary target. He could only make them realize this through his attacks and thus, he continued to run after the deer and attack at their limb joints and tendons to stop them. Though he knew about the fact that they wouldn''t get resources if they randomly fired at the monster hitting at every point on their body, he couldn''t give them a proper explanation on how he knew it. The game company kept it a secret and hoped that the players would realize themselves. But even after a long time a majority of the players didn''t realize and complains kept coming to them that they were unable to get resources from monsters which prompted them to release this information. If they hit only at vital points, the resource that can be obtained also wouldn''t be damaged by a large amount. So, if he showed them that he realized attacking on vital points would cause more damage it would help his team by a decent amount. "I believe that attack on vital points is causing more damage and also inducing restriction effects on the monsters," said Balthazar as he demonstrated again. "Aim for the tendons on the legs, it is disabling them," he continued. With his advice, the team realized that it was true. "Wow, how did you realize it?" asked Tang as she attacked a deer which was stunned by Merlin. "I would like to know that too," added Slaine who also managed to stop another deer. "The somnium technology was for creating a realistic effect and I was trying to attack and defeat the monsters as I would in real life. Cutting up tendons is the best was to slow down and stop a running or rampaging animal," said Shadow shrugging his shoulders as if it was an obvious thing. "So, that is the reason you only attack at the perceived vital points of the monsters?" asked Tetsujin. Balthazar''s reason wasn''t completely convincing. Most hunters wouldn''t take the trouble to aim at an animal''s tendons as they would be a very small target and always aiming for something that small and moving at a fast pace is extremely stressful. So, most didn''t find his answer completely truthful. Balthazar also realized this. "Ya. I worked on exploring new planets and clearing forest of the resident wildlife. For me this was the most efficient method and also the carcasses of the dead animals were in better condition when I did this. My pay depended on the quality of the dead carcasses. So, I had practiced till it almost became a second nature or instinct to me." "Hmm." "Also, it is always best to practice aiming at vital points. If one ever wants to ambush or gets ambushed, every shot counts and I find it always best to practice like this. In fact, the game is one of the best practice sessions that I ever had," continued Shadow. "At least, the more competitive ones would put more effort into practicing after this explanation," thought Balthazar. Soon, he noticed that everyone were putting effort into attacking only vital points as he suggested. This would improve their technique slowly if they continue to play the game with the same spirit. Though it is not comparable with the training of professional players in first rate guilds, this was a good start for one''s training. "Do you have someone creating a training program using samsara tech in our workshop?" he asked Rudra. "No. The previous software team that handled most of such stuff was a friend of the owner. So, after we split up, we couldn''t find a decent one. We are still searching. But the start of the new game creates a lot of work for such professionals. There are quite a few who applied for the job, but all are novices, we need someone with experience to design the structures of the training program," said Rudra in a depressed tone. Rudra had been on search for a professional for a long time to lead a team to create a new training program. He had been discussing with the programmers about it for the past few days, since he started the workshop. During these days, he realized that he needed someone with experience to lead or at the very least some who also played games with an intent to compete in a professional backdrop. Last night, he realized that he was still off. He also needed someone who is good at fighting in real life to guide these programmers due to the nature of this game. Now, most experts don''t tend to have good temper which is a necessity to guide these programmers as they tend to have a lot of questions. Such experts with good tempers usually move up high in the command chain, earning the respect of their subordinates. It could be considered impossible to get them to join a gaming studio. If the situation becomes really desperate, he could always ask his father. He was sure that his father would know a person or two who fits the criteria, but he wasn''t willing to go to his father before he tried his best. "In fact, I believe we need someone who is good at fighting too for this game. The training needs to involve a person who is used to training his body and could teach a few real-life techniques," sighed Rudra realizing that the game''s nature further complicates the requirement for the trainers. In fact, Balthazar knew that it would be more than what Rudra was thinking of. Every player of the game would soon develop fighting instincts and habits in the game. These get imprinted on their minds and these habits prevail even in their daily life. So, as to not accidentally cause harm to oneself, most would realize the need to train their bodies. Most guilds would also realize this and prepare proper body trainers and equipment for their main personal. Such equipment and training rooms are common in every organization. All organizations provide such facilities as a part of the health benefits, but these were always optional. The employees involved in software related jobs or playing games hardly ever made good use of these facilities. But vita-nova would change these things. Body training would soon become mandatory for all personnel who play the game as it would become a matter of personal safety. Players who developed habits in the game and having a weak physique would soon be considered as a liability. The interplanetary gaming commission would also enforce this. "Yes, that is true," agreed Balthazar. "It is best if I contact Rodrigo again. I didn''t think of creating training programs before. I only thought of in person training, but that would require a lot of personnel with expert level skills. A properly created program would definitely reduce the burden," he thought. "I will try to get you help regarding this. I am sure that I can get hold of a few experts who can help you, but they probably don''t have much idea about games. You will need to explain to them exactly what you want them to do," continued Balthazar. He sent a mail to Rodrigo regarding the same before he continued with the game. He wanted to get some old veterans from the military who were retired due to age limit. They will work great as advisers for the software team. There would be many such men and most of them would have good skills as they survived through an age of planetary expansion. Their skill would be quite useful in a game like vita-nova. "If they play for some time, I am sure that they will get acquainted with it. It is not big issue," said Rudra as he considered it a very simple issue. "They might be quite old. It is not the realistic feel of the game that they will have a problem with. They would need to be taught what we require for the guild and the various things we consider important. I intend to contact few old veterans from the military. They would be probably interacting through somnium tech not directly. So, you need to have the appropriate expectations from them. Though they would be novice gamers or casually played games before they probably wouldn''t have any professional experience. I guess you understand my point," explained Balthazar. "Ya I understand. But we still need someone to lead all of them. I am currently trying to guide and manage them, but I can''t continue doing it for a long time," said Rudra. "We can''t do anything for now. We will surely find more people as the game progresses. It wouldn''t be much of an issue," comforted Balthazar. In fact, he knew that the faster they created their training program, the better it would be in all aspects. Moreover, the training program would play a big role in development of guilds. When, he started playing games in his past life, a guild couldn''t be considered a first-rate guild without a decent training program for its members. Rudra and all the players that came along with them were busy trying to practice hitting vital points of the deer. The white horn deer being docile animals always ran away when they noticed players. So, it was a good practice for them. Sometimes, even docile animals attacked in groups if they killed too many of them, but they had dynamites and firecrackers to save themselves in these situations. So, he went into the forest to the left. He knew that the players of the guid, Foedus Rex found the unique weapons in a cave at a hill at this forest. He never trusted the information from the forum completely. Players hardly ever wrote the complete truths about such things. He went into the forest and began to search for clues. He went into the forest for about 5 kilometers and used explorer''s orb to map the terrain. This was his second usage of the item and with it became useless and couldn''t be used further. Though it was his last chance to use the orb, this was the best time to use it as it would provide him something far more valuable if he was successful. The terrain of the forest area of a circle of 5 kilometres radius showed up clearly in the map. As told in the forums, there was a worn down castle in the hills of the forest. It was about 4 kms away from him almost at the edge of the radius of the explorer''s orb''s mapping function. The forum informed him that the castle was filled with goblins and even a few trolls were supposed found at the castle. It would be a tough fight to handle trolls and goblins. It was always tougher to fight humanoid monsters in the game. He made his way towards the castle. Along the way, he went into a few cats and other wild monsters, but they were all lower leveled than him and he managed to kill them quite easily. As he reached the location marked on the map, he found the castle. "System: You have found special location Sylvannus'' Fort Ruins." "Clear the monsters to explore the ruins." As described in the forums, it was a dilapidated old castle built into the base of a hill. The outer walls were broken at many places along with the gate. There was a lot of vegetation on them covering up the walls. The main part of the fort was actually sculpted out of the hill. The goblins seemed to have made a good use of it. They made picket fences at the gaps of the walls and even had a couple of towers made of wood from which archers were observing the area around it. [Forest Goblins] (Common monsters) Level 12: HP: 5000/5000; These were obviously stronger than the previous goblins that he had seen and were definitely a different race. The had covered themselves with tree bark and leaves for clothes and their ornaments and weapons were made out of bones of monsters. The smell around them was also disgusting like that of rotting carcasses. He quickly made his way to the wall and tried to climb it, but the vegetation and the moss on the walls made it almost impossible. Though he climbed a few feet using his daggers, he slipped and fell down. "With some repeated attempts, I will be able to get in. But I can''t expect the same from the rest of the team," he thought. He couldn''t find any way better than attacking them from the front. But, this wasn''t ever the best way from his past experiences. Attacking a fortified place from the front almost always results in large amount of losses. This was something that many players learned through multiple trials in his past life. Chapter 92 - Silvannus Fort - 2 Shadow knew that the game always provided an alternative method in such situations unless explicitly specified by a notification from the system. He began to slowly move around the fence in search for a weak point. He went in a direction to the left of the gate but couldn''t find anything. Failing that went back in the opposite direction. After he crossed the gate again, he heard a small commotion in the forest. He knew that his team members weren''t in the forest. If someone got portaled to this place due to a quest or any other reason, he needed to kill them as there was a high probability of them interfering with his optional quest. The last possibility was the existence of an NPC which was fighting the goblins. Either way it was advantageous for him to check it out. He moved closer to the source of the sounds while in stealth. He could hear the screams of a few goblins. They were clearly fighting something. To be on the safe side, he climbed up a tree and slowly moved among the treetops towards the goblins. From the treetop, he could clearly see five goblins attacking someone. [Rozarius Ludo] (Spectre) Level: 12 HP: 3800/4800; Though outnumbered the opponent was clearly dominating the fight. It was donned in full body steel armor and wielded a transparent blinking blade as it attacked the goblins. Moreover, the opponent looked like a human spectre NPC and had an orange dot on its head. "Definitely an NPC. With an orange marker, it would probably only be friendly if I help it against the goblins," thought Balthazar as he moved towards the fight. Choosing an opportune time, he jumped off a tree onto a goblin plunging both his daggers into its back. The first attack itself slammed the goblin onto the ground making it lose a third of its HP. He pulled his daggers along its waist and pulled it out causing a high bleed effect of 500 HP per second. This was the reason that he always preferred ambushing with a high momentum as they caused high damage. He quickly slit its throat and moved on to another goblin. The goblin he attacked previously was already seriously injured and the bleed effects caused it to die before it even stood up. With him joining the fray, the attention of the goblins diverted towards him too. The ghost was already able to fight on par with them alone. Now, with one of them down and it being reinforced by him, it easily managed to kill them in a couple of minutes. "Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?" shouted the spectre holding its blade above his head. It looked like it was ready to kill him even though he helped it. "Well, it is an orange marked NPC. This is to be expected," thought Balthazar. At such times, it is best to give information that he would provide any other NPC, else he might be attacked. "I am an adventurer from the White Heart City. I was just hunting in the forest, when I saw the goblins and fort. When I heard the goblins fighting, I came to help whomever was being attacked by the goblins," said Shadow to the NPC. "Why do you care about who is fighting the goblins?" asked the NPC without changing its posture. "Goblins are vile creatures. If allowed to grow they would attack the settlements nearby. Moreover, the White Heart City is quite close. If I inform them, then the city would probably send reinforcements to capture the fort and kill all goblins," said Shadow. It was a good explanation seeing that the spectre was really angry at the goblins. "You intend to capture the fort!!!" shouted the spectre as it attacked him with full force. The sudden reaction from the spectre shocked him and he barely managed to avoid the blade. "What the hell?" thought Balthazar confused by the actions of the spectre. "Is it a protector of the fort? In that case, I doubt I would get any help from it." "I don''t intend to capture the dilapidated fort in the middle of the forest. I am just interested in killing the goblins," he continued in a hurried manner. But it didn''t seem to have much effect on the spectre. It continued attacking Shadow. Spectres could turn intangible when fighting and this made it very hard to fight them. It is best to attack them with light magic or one can use fireworks to shock them before attacking them. Shadow had fireworks and could easily defeat it using them, but he knew that an NPC at such a remote location wouldn''t be without any use. That is the only reason, he was trying to convince the spectre that he isn''t an enemy. "Anyone who dares covet the fort and the shrine must be killed," shouted the spectre swinging its blade towards Shadow. "I didn''t even know of the fort. How the hell do you think I would covet something in it?" shouted Shadow back as polite speech didn''t seem to work on the spectre. He didn''t need to worry much about retaliation as the spectre was of a lower level than him. He even started to block its blade with his own rather than evading. Sometimes, it was required to change tactics. Not every NPC would be a logical and sensible character. After a few more strikes being blocked by Shadow, he slowly went on the offence as the spectre didn''t seem to be stopping anytime soon. He attacked it till its health went down to 100 HP. "Wait. Wait. I am warning you to not go as it is very dangerous. The goblins and trolls which all tried to reach the shrine died. Only those who are fated can go to the shrine," said the spectre. "What do you know about the shrine and the fort?" asked Shadow. "I can do something about the shrine after I kill the goblins and trolls. I wouldn''t go to a place which could kill me. So, tell me everything that you know," he continued pointing his dagger at the spectre. It was clear that the spectre wouldn''t run away. Spectres can easily escape once they turned intangible as only holy or light magic attacks could harm them in that state. But seeing that the spectre would rather talk with him than escape showed that it was an NPC which was closely related to the fort and secret in it. "I hardly know anything of the shrine. I was only instructed to protect the fort and prevent any foreign races from entering the core region of the fort by Lord Silvannus. The lord told me that great power lies at the shrine and one shouldn''t allow vile people to enter. He was the one who always made sure that only virtuous and noble beings tested by the Lord Silvannus were allowed inside," said the spectre explaining the reason. "This Silvannus must be some kind of guardian. Must be some famous character of the lore, if his follower became a spectre to follow his orders even after death," thought Balthazar as he heard the spectre. "Is that all? It seems like you don''t know anything of it. I would definitely attempt to get to the shrine along with my team," said Shadow. He realized that if he wanted any more information, he would have to make the spectre talk about it. "I have already warned you. If you are bent on attempting to go to that place, I already know I can''t stop you," said the spectre. "But if you promise that you would kill all the goblins and trolls, I promise that I would lead you to the core region." "Why should I trust you? You wanted to kill me," asked Shadow. "You told you wanted to attempt with your team. Those not fated with the shrine will lose their lives anyway. But the goblins and trolls should be killed and taken care of. One can never risk one of these creatures to even accidentally get a hold of the power inside. These were the words of Lord Silvannus and I exist to adhere to his orders," said the spectre. "There are more than 10 people in my team. Can you lead us all through the fort to the core area?" asked Shadow. "The number is of no consequence. I have been a member of the guard for a long tiime. I know of ways that you couldn''t imagine. Lord Silvannus had great foresight and he created lots of obstacles to the core area. He also created short and hidden ways to enter the fort. It was his foresight that saved the army," said the spectre. "So, you know a hidden way into the fort?" "Of course!" replied the spectre tipping its helmet in pride. "Here, this will help you get inside the fort. Meet me inside. I will be waiting for you and show you the way to the shrine once clear the fort of the filth," said Rozarius handing Shadow a map. It showed a detailed path from the side of the hill into the fort. New Quest: [Clear out the Silvannus Fort] (Difficulty: Hard) Description: Kill all the goblins and trolls in the Silvannus Fort and meet up with Rozarius in the fort. Progress: Enter the Silvannus fort. "I better get the Rudra and the other to this place," he thought as he checked his friends list. It would also show their levels. Rudra had already reached level 11 by crafting all the dynamites. Now, he already was at level 12 due to killing white horn deer which were level 12 monsters. The others also managed to reach level 11 in the past hour and would soon reach level 12. "It is enough. The forum had no indication of the goblins occupying the fort. Killing them would elevate their level to 12," thought Balthazar. "I guess this is a one-time mission to clear the fort. No one found it after the post in the forums either." He quickly made his way to the rest of the team. He had already contacted Rudra and told him about the quest that he received. When Rudra heard about a fort, he thought it could be used as a small base of operations outside the city and was very excited. Rudra immediately went ahead and started helping the rest of the group to increase their level. He believed that the more the number of players at higher level, the easier it would be to capture the fort. In about 30 minutes, he managed to get back to the place where Rudra and the rest were hunting the white horn deer. He joined them in hunting the deer. Once, he joined them, he took Rudra and the rest into the forest towards the location. They soon reached the Silvannus fort and a majority of them were surprised to see such a large camp of goblins in the forest. "F.u.c.k! How do you find these things? First the cave of wargs and then the goblin camp, now a fort. You know someone who designed the game?" asked Merlin unable to contain his excitement. "Haha, I am just good at exploring places, I guess," shrugged off Shadow as he led them to the secret passage that Rozarius'' map had indicated. The map indicated the passage to be left of the goblin camp halfway to the opposite side of the goblin camp. It was small cave in the hill. The cave was small and had an area of about 20 square meters. The map showed a path from the cave. They had to keep searching it for a while before Quiet Fire managed to find a small lever in the cave. It was just a small grip for one''s hand in the stone wall of the cave. On pulling it, a grating sound filled the cave as a piece of the wall cut in shape of a rectangle was pushed out of the wall. Rudra, Shadow and four others had to push it to the side together so that there would be enough space for them to get inside. They slowly moved into the passage, which was about 8 feet in high, allowing at most tthree players to move through side-by-side and completely dark. They could hardly watch see a thing in the passage. "Merlin get the torches out. We can''t get anywhere without them," shouted Tetsujin. "You guys have torches on hand?" asked Shadow surprised. He didn''t expect them to keep torches with them. Later, in the game players would always keep torches or light stones with them, but at that stage players would have a decent amount of bag space. So, it wasn''t that much of an issue. "After the cave of wargs, I just decided that it would be prudent to have a couple of torches with me and Quiet Fire," answered Merlin as he pulled out a torch and lit it. Merlin led the rest of them through the passage into the fort. At the end of the passage there was a wooden door which the opened into a dark stinking room in the fort. It was clear that they were deep in the hill. The room was filled with meat. They clearly stepped into a food warehouse of the goblins. They would have looted the meat if it didn''t stink like it was spoiled. The wooden door when closed merged smoothly into the wall like there was nothing there. They couldn''t even find a way back into the passage as they couldn''t open the door. Chapter 93 - Silvannus Fort - 3 "Turn down the setting for smell, if you are finding it hard to tolerate," said Shadow as he was examining the room. There was a door at the far end of the room. It would clearly lead into the fort, but they had no idea what they might find there. "Keep dynamites and fireworks ready on hand. We might need to use them," said Shadow as he slowly went to the door without making a sound. It was locked from the outside and from the shadows He couldn''t open it from this end of the door. "I think we are stuck here. We better find some other way out or make a commotion and attract their attention and fight our way out," said Merlin in the team chat. At such situations when they were in unknown territory, it was always common for most players who played games to use team chats. Speaking directly or making noises would bring them to the notice of the guards. "Who has pet?" asked Shadow. "If we make any metallic sounds or something they might be on guard, but if sounds of an animal comes from withing, they would be worried about the food being consumed and rush in a hurry." "You think that would work?" asked Tang. She was extremely impressed by the hawk that Rudra bought from the pet store. Once, she saw Rudra''s post on the forum, she immediately went to buy a ferret from the pet store. It was not really a pet that would be useful in fight and just to be something to be played with and enjoyed. "Ya. Probably one of the very few uses of ferrets. Make it squeal when I give the signal," said Shadow as he placed himself beside the door ready to attack. Tetsujin, Rudra and Merlin also placed themselves beside the door ready for the goblins. Slaine and Quiet Fire went into the dark to attack from a distance in case they failed to restrain the guards outside. With the preparation done, Shadow signalled for Tang to start it. Once, the ferret started to squeak, the guards outside immediately noticed. They started grunting in their own language and in a couple of seconds, the click of a lock being opened was heard tensing all the players in the room. As the door opened two goblin guards rushed into the room. Each were about 4 feet, wearing animal skin for armor and a pike made of wood in their hands. When they passed by both Shadow and Tetsujin immediately reacted and held one down each. Shadow as usual went for the neck and slit it open before he continued attacking. He couldn''t take a chance. Though the game made the fights and mechanics realistic, it also introduced a certain amount of regeneration to the magical beasts and monsters, so that it wouldn''t become boring. Tang and Blinding White joined him in finishing it off. Tetsujin was also quite efficient in controlling a goblin guard. He had bought a pair of wooden tonfas at the city which had a hook like blade at the end of it handles. He pushed an end of the wooden part into the throat of the goblin shutting it up. Following that he immediately threw it down on the floor after which Rudra and Merlin joined him in the attack. At the same time, Duck ''n'' Roll got out of the room in stealth to check if there were any other sentries close by. With 13 players attacking 2 goblins, it hardly took a minute before the goblins died. The spectre gave them a location to meet, but it told them to kill all the goblins and trolls before contacting it. So, Shadow had planned on killing all the monsters in the fort first. The rest of the members also wanted to do the same as they wanted to capture the fort and had no idea of Shadow''s original intentions. The storage room that they were in, was inside the fort and quite a distance from the outer wall, where the two towers were. The archers and personnel posted on such towers usually served the warnings. With them past the range of the tower and inside the fort, they escaped a major hurdle. "We are inside the fort and hold the element of surprise," said Shadow turning towards the rest of the team. "Both I and Roll will move out to scout for the goblins and trolls. We need to quickly kill any goblins we come across without letting them alert others to maintain our advantage. We will observe their patterns and attack only groups with less than 5 members each time, so that we can quickly kill them. If you find trolls, avoid them and try to get away from them. Provide the location in team chat so that we can all avoid it. We can kill trolls quickly. They are tough and they shout alerting nearby reinforcements." "I also got 4 scopes here. Though you can''t mount it without a bow, it can still be used to check for enemies at a distance. Be careful," said Rudra as he handed them out to Merlin, Quiet Fire, Roll and Harry. "Yes. That would be helpful. Power take this and spray it at the goblins, in case you can''t stun it quickly. It puts them in a daze," said Shadow as handed him a sprinkler filled with alva''s tincture. "It won''t be for longer duration though, but enough for you to injure the monsters." "One last thing. Don''t use torches and flashy attacks. In this darkness, it is a dead give-away. Goblins tend to live in dark places and a light will attract them," said Shadow as he went into stealth. "No flashy attacks? What am I supposed to do? Hit it with my staff?" asked Quiet Fire. His conditions made her next to useless. "Don''t worry and follow me. We will go along with Shadow," said Merlin as he took hold of them. He had extensive experience and knew how to use magic classes without alerting others. He just needs a few physical classes to pull the targets into a dark corner to attack them. He obviously chose Tetsujin and Shadow for this. "Stay in the dark. He will give the proper sign for us to attack and we will quickly kill it. Remember stay as close to Shadow and attack using your skills at close range, so that the visual effects would be seen for longer durations," advised Merlin. "Dude, I am trying my best, but your orders do make us almost useless. You need to determine if we can use our attack and order us," said Merlin to Shadow privately in chat. "Ok. I understand. Just attack when I ask to. I will handle the responsibility. I have the highest perception attribute among us and I am the best for checking this," replied Shadow in the private chat. "Roll move out. We will scout out the area before, we get them out of the room," said Shadow as he went into stealth. The fort inside the hill seemed to be in the shape of a semicircle and the storage room where his team was at one of the ends. There were a few goblins in the pathway outside the room. Most were in other rooms playing or screeching and arguing with one another. One could consider them to be extremely lively beings. They almost fought on a regular basis and noises were always there. Other goblins would only be alerted on sounding horns. This was both an advantage and disadvantage for anyone who infiltrated a goblin encampment. The disadvantage is an obvious one. With the goblins always awake and active, it was hard to find single goblin. So, at the very least one would find a pair of goblins patrolling. The advantage was that as long as they prevented the goblins from sounding horn or themselves using flashy attacks or lights, the other goblins wouldn''t usually care for the noises and sound of weapons. They would assume that it was a fight between two or more goblins. Shadow and Roll went ahead checking a bunch of rooms. It was the same in most rooms. Two or three goblins playing or eating some stinking meat. They had checked close to twenty room after which Shadow signalled for the rest of the team to come out. They had roll on lookout while Shadow took the lead in attacking them. It was already a habit for Shadow to pickpocket the goblins once before he attacked. Being humanoids, they had proper pockets in their wear and it always gave him something decent like armor or bones or other resources he could use. He always started with cheap shot stunning one goblin and immediately attacking other while Rudra used Alva''s tincture at the same time. This was immediately followed by the rest of the team running into the room to attack and kill the goblins. This was a simple and efficient way to kill the goblins as long as no unexpected scenario occurs. A few times, a goblin came out of the room to check the walkway, but Roll was always on the lookout and managed to inform in time for them to get back into an already cleared room. Apart from Roll, Slain or someone else with a scope was also put on look out after the first time this occurred. By the time, they cleared about twenty rooms, everyone in the team managed to reach level 12. During this time, they also found a few locked rooms. Shadow who had a lot of experience in opening locks could easily open these rooms. These were usually filled with nothing but everyday necessities of the goblins. Occasionally, they found a leather armor or so. These were also level 12 equipment which were very useful to them right now. As they neared the central part of the semi-circular passageway, they found a pair of 8 foot large and 4 feet wide doors made of black stone. Looking at it, they immediately realized that it would be used to store something valuable. Shadow immediately set to picking the lock open. Once, it opened five of them together focused on pushing a door and the managed to open it enough to allow only a pair of them to go through beside one another. Still it was more than enough. As soon as they entered it, they were giddy looking at the various bows, crossbows, swords and other armaments in it. These were all scattered down near their racks. It looked like time has worn down the wooden stands and racks, but the armaments made of metal were in decent shape. There was even a small hand cannon inside which could be moved around be a pair of players and held in place using a small fastener that held it on place on the ground. It was about 4 feet long and a foot wide and could shoot metal balls of about half a foot in diameter. Though it was a small one, Balthazar knew that these were quite effective and could cause shock and burn effects on even a troll. But as soon as they went inside, an alarm sounded in the fort. It wasn''t the horns that the goblins usually used but some kind of ringing sound that was probably from the fort itself. "Shit! After all that careful movements, we still got discovered," said Slaine as the alarm sounded. "Get into the room and lock it. There are bound to be a horde coming in. Get those crossbows and load them. Rudra help me with the cannon. We shall see what we can do," said Shadow as he ran towards the cannon. Luckily there were no other traps or dangers in the room, and they were all quickly able to equip the crossbows. The rest were all put into their bags. "This is a great score. Even if we fail to capture this fort, as long as we get this equipment it is worth the trip," said Rudra. "Everyone first let Harry fill up his inventory. Harry you get to the corner of the vault and stay out of the fight. If we fail, at the very least we will try to buy enough time that you will be put out of the battle state." With the alarms, goblins had been alerted and they were in a state of battle. They can''t channel their hearthstone to teleport back to the city and if they die there is a high chance that all the loot, they collected in this state would be left behind. This was a common feature in many games, and it persisted even in vita-nova. Harry was the best option to stay back and out of the fight at this time as he was a druid and he didn''t presently have any good skills for fighting. It was unexpected how a person who most thought would be dragging them down would be quite useful when they wanted to transport their loot. If the loot was lost, everyone would feel very miserable. "Get ready. Fire the crossbows and use magic attacks. You guys haven''t used them much and have a lot of mana stored up. Use it all now," said Shadow as he lifted the hand cannon and was moving it with Rudra''s help. By this time, small groups of goblins already reached door and were getting into the room through the space opened by Shadow and others. All those who had long range attacks, immediately started attacking the goblins. Slaine used a firework which put them in shock due to the light. The nearby groups of goblins themselves numbered around 20. But as they were squeezing through a gap enough for only three of them, they made easy targets. Once they positioned, the cannon, Shadow called Little White Feet back to man the cannon. Being a cleric, she had little attack capabilities and was the best choice to use the cannon as the damage from cannon was independent of the player using it. He went and started attacking the goblins along with Rudra. "Use the cannon, only if, we are unable to stop it. I will give you the signal. Just be ready and continue with your heals," said Shadow. Though the goblins were in large numbers, they had little space to get in and were unable to move the doors due to their smaller weaker physiques. Shadow also used the dead bodies to block the door. The bodies wouldn''t disappear for sometime before they were looted. He used this to block the door. This situation of frenzied attacks continued for about ten minutes, almost depleting the mana from the bars of the players. Some of them already used their potions. Luckily during this time, Shadow, Rudra and the close combat classes pushed the door close little by little to reduce gap, so that it would reduce the number of goblins entering at a time. This reduced the advance of the goblin hoard. "We better refill our stocks as soon as possible," said Merlin as the attacks reduced. He sat down and began to make more mana and health potions. This was the biggest advantage on having an alchemist or a cook in the team. They could always bring their equipment and create consumables in small periods or reprieve between the fights. Chapter 94 - Troll Suddenly, the goblins ceased their advance as a loud grating sound was heard outside the weapons vault. It was as if something was dragging a metal object along the floor. This was accompanied by heavy footsteps. It was clear to them that some new monster probably a boss level one came up as they killed a majority of the goblins. It put them all on edge as they heard the sound. "I am out of the battle state," said Harry in the team chat putting a stop to the tension. He was continuously checking his panel for his status. He was ready to get out of the palace. As the mission was only Shadow''s any of them could escape by channelling their hearthstones. "Great! There is troll coming. Channel the hearthstone now. Go and deposit them in the shop. Don''t sell any of these and get Lizzie along with you," replied Shadow. "We will try to clear out as many as possible in the meantime." "Yes. Also tell her to stop selling the dynamites and get them with you two. We will probably need them to secure this fort," said Rudra as Harry was channelling his hearthstone. Rudra was extremely determined to get a hold of this fort and use it as a base. Though it was quite close to the White Heart City, it was bound to be useful sooner or later. At least, he would be able to sell it to the city in the worst-case scenario that he couldn''t use it well. "Get away from the door," said Shadow peeking out from the gap filled with burnt and cut up goblin corpses to confirm his guess about the troll. "It is more than 8 feet tall and holding a club that is 5 feet long. It probably would be able to push open the door," said Shadow as he moved away. "Get the cannon and dynamite ready. We will throw them all on it as soon as it enters," said Shadow. Blinding White and Little White Feet were near the hand cannon aimed perfectly at the entrance. The rest were also waiting for the troll to enter and bombard it. There was a loud bang as the door which Shadow and others managed to close partially with great difficulty slammed open. There was a spiked club made of metal stuck in the door. The size of the club itself was extremely intimidating. The force of the door being opened raised dust all over the room and a bunch of weapons and ammunition which they didn''t take for lack of space in their bags crashed onto the ground due to the vibrations. A horde of goblins about 30 in number came running into the room followed by a large silhouette of a troll. It was bald with red eyes and long ears, had four long fangs coming out of its mouth with an inch-long claws and had a dark green color. Despite looking ferocious and hungry like a beast, it was slow as it had a very large torso and legs giving it a disproportionate shape. It had one of its legs on the door and was trying to pull out the club which was stuck on the door. [Forest Troll] (Boss Monster) Level 13: HP: 8000/8000; They could have immediately attacked if not for the horde of goblins which were attacking them. "Aim for the Troll, I will clear the goblins," said Merlin as he used the skill chaos wave. As soon as he used it a grey mist almost indistinguishable from the dust spread onto the goblins putting them in a stunned state. "Dynamites at the troll," shouted Shadow as they all threw dynamites at the troll putting it in a state of stun as well as causing damage to it. The dynamites also cause fire damage and had a blow back effect on the troll and goblins. The goblins which were in a stunned state all fell down due to the blowback effect, but the troll hardly moved due to the dynamite. "Did you prepare for the chaos wave skill when you heard it approaching?" asked Shadow surprised at the speed and effectiveness of Merlin''s skill. Chaos wave was a skill that required certain time to chant and use it. If it was disturbed during the chant, he would have to start again. So, it wasn''t a skill that could be used instantaneously. "The sounds indicated that it was huge and if it entered, it would definitely create enough space for a horde to support it," replied Merlin as he continued attacking with other skills. The hand cannon was also fired during this time and hit the troll in the middle of its chest. The troll which was already stunned and due to the mass use of the dynamite staggered backwards as it was hit by the cannon ball. A huge red value of 1500 HP immediately showed on its head indicated its loss of HP due to the cannon "Reload the cannon. Aim at its head," said Rudra to Blinding White as he went ahead to attack the horde. Apart from Merlin, he was the only one who managed to get a few strong AOE skills. He quickly used Harpoon Tackle forcing the goblins away to the sides as he managed to reach the troll and continued with Earth Shattering strike. The aftereffects of these skills provided enough time for Little White Feet who was being protected by Blinding White to reload the hand cannon and fire it. This time they made sure that it would hit the troll on its head. The hit reduced its health by an amount of 3000 HP. With the dynamites, the two cannon balls and the various attacks of the players, the troll had already lost a large amount of its health and had less than 2000 HP. Moreover, the attack from the cannon had smashed its nose and mouth causing it to fall back in a dazed state. Its head was also in a tilted state as if it had broken due to the cannon. "Continue with the dynamites and spam your skills," said Rudra as he used Whirlwind Slash on the goblins which were close by putting them down again. "Hold on to the hand cannon load but don''t use it," said Shadow as he and they rest continued attacking the troll and the mobs. The troll seeming already passed out and even let go of its club after it was hit by the second cannon shot. Shadow quickly went to the troll and used his clone skill to deal damage. But the best part was done by Rudra. He had already changed his weapon to a broadsword he found in the vault and swung at the troll''s neck to behead it, effectively killing the troll. After that they continued to attack the remaining goblins of the horde. Though they managed to finally kill the horde, it wasn''t without casualties. "How many are dead?" asked Rudra as he began looting the goblins. He had already looted the troll, but he got only a small piece of armor from it. "Tang, Rick and Tetsujin are dead," reported Slaine. Even though they had a cannon and dynamites, the horde that followed goblins was overwhelming. Tang was a guardian and Tetsujin had the highest agility after Shadow and Duck ''n'' Roll, but they still couldn''t escape when a number of goblins ran towards them. "That is bad. We depended on Tetsujin quite a bit. He always made sure that he held back one of the goblins in the rooms," said Duck ''n'' Roll. "Let us first move the door back, loot the goblins and the remaining armaments in the room first. We can make a plan after we scout again. Quite a number of goblins have come after the alarm. We might have a simpler situation than we expected," said Shadow as he came to the door and with the help of others again moved the door and left only space enough for one player to get through at a time. They collected all that they could from the goblin and even replaced their equipment with those available from the vault. They also managed to collect a total of 50 level 10 crossbows and ammunition which could be used as a secondary weapon. The only thing that they regretted is not having enough bag space and their inability to move the hand cannon which couldn''t be placed in a bag. "Let us not open any more vaults for now. We can open anything we find later. We best clear the gates so that the ones who died can easily enter the fort and move the resources," said Rudra as he felt very bad in leaving all the equipment there. Even Shadow whose focus was on the unique equipment felt bad about wasting the equipment. If left unclaimed for a certain period of time, all armaments would disappear. This was common in many games. Shadow and Roll went out of the vault to scout. As Shadow expected, the nearby rooms were all empty. Even after reaching the central area of the semi-circular corridor which was connected to the outer area and the gate, they couldn''t find any goblin or other monster. Shadow made his way to the outer area and found it to be empty except for an archer each on top of the two wooden towers. These archers were still monitoring the area outside the gate. "Shall we take out the archers? After that the dead guys will be able to get in easily," asked Shadow. It was quite simple for them to do this. The towers had wooden rungs forming a makeshift ladder to climb it. They easily reached the archers in stealth and directly pulled them off the tower. The fall itself almost killed the goblin archers and put them in a crippled state. When they followed up with their attacks the goblins died quickly clearing up the outer area. "Get to the outer area and check their tents. The area is clear," reported Shadow in the team chat. "We are on the way," said Rudra as he came out of the vault along with the others. They also carried the hand cannon with them. They all began to check the tents and soon found a few armaments, but these paled in comparison to the ones that they found in the vault. "Sorry, let us put the searching and looting of all thing on hold," said Shadow as he realized that they didn''t have any more bag space left. "Yeah. That is a good call," said Rudra sarcastically. "By the way, I got information from the city gate. Sirius Imperials have managed to get into the city. There are about 10 of their members. There were apparently a few others who came close enough but failed to kill the boss monster near the city." "Oh! It is fine. Get those guys out of there. We are already here and have a good advantage over anyone else who might come now," said Shadow. "Lizzie and the others who died are going to come here in about 10 minutes. Let us get ready, we haven''t cleared the right part of the inner area or went into the core area yet," said Rudra. "Roll with me," said Shadow as they both went back to the inner areas scouting the right part of it. This was necessary as they couldn''t go into the core region which was locked. They had to find Rozarius, the spectre, before they could do that and reach the shrine. The map showed Rozarius to be in the right side of the inner semi-circular area. The only concern of Shadow was that there would be another troll in the fort. It was expected since the spectre already mentioned that there would be trolls in the fort. He and Roll managed to quickly check the right sector in stealth. As he expected, there was another troll at the end of the fort. The goblins were also no longer in their rooms, but around the troll armed and ready. They immediately came back to the gate where the others were waiting for them. By the time they came back, Lizzie, Tetsujin and other have all returned. Four new players from the Crimson Realm guild have joined them along with Lizzie. So, a total of eight players with empty bags came to the fort. "Lizzie and you four you need to fill up your bags and return to the city. Clear out your bags and come back again. There are still quite a number of rooms that we haven''t checked yet. Also get more members the next time, enough so that we can secure this place, if necessary," said Rudra. They moved all the best equipment from their inventory into the bags of Lizzie and the remaining four before they went to the inner area. They carried the hand cannon along with them too. There were three more cannon balls that they found in the vault. So, it had three shots which would be very valuable in taking down the troll. "Place the hand cannon here," said Shadow pointing at a location on the pathway. "There are about 20 more goblins left. We will attack and lure them. Use the cannon only on the troll." Previously, a number of goblins burst into the room almost at the same time as the troll causing a lot of confusion and three of the players died in that chaos. He didn''t want a repeat of that. The goblins were quite faster than the troll and can be lured easily. They wanted to avoid fighting goblins and the troll together. This would allow them to concentrate their attack on the troll when it comes. Shadow, Roll and Slaine were the once who went to lure the goblins. With their crossbows, it was quite easy for them to lure the horde at the end of the passage. The goblins ran after them and the troll also came but it moves slowly. The troll had a big size which made it hard to move fast through the passage which was only 8 feet tall. As expected, the goblins came running after them and this time with the troll a bit behind them, they didn''t need to worry much and attacked the goblins with full fervor. Rudra and Merlin both used their AOE skill on them causing significant damage and stun effects on them. The others also piled their attacks on the goblins killing them very quickly. By the time, the troll reached them, there were only six goblins left and these already on their last legs. Though they managed to quickly attack the troll last time, it wasn''t that easy to defeat one. Last time, the troll''s club was luckily stuck on the door and it wasn''t paying much attention to them. The same couldn''t be said this time. The troll suddenly increased its speed when it saw that most goblins were dead and it swung it club at them in a might manner, but the result was very comical. The passageway wasn''t wide enough for the troll to make a full swing with its arm which cause the club bounced of one of the walls, slipped out of its arm and fall down behind it. It stopped its advance and started to search for the club with its round beady eyes. "The game designers must be trolling to put in something stupid like this," said Slaine unable to contain his surprise. Before the others started commenting on his stupid joke, Blinding fired the cannon on the troll starting the fight. What happened next was more or less a repeat of the previous fight with the troll, but it was much easier due to lack of goblins and that the stupid troll was quite farther away from them. This allowed them to use long distance attacks and with the remaining two cannon balls, the troll had the same ending as the previous one. Chapter 95 - Another complication The fight with the second troll and the goblins finished much faster and easier than the previous ones. It also didn''t cause any casualties which was unexpected. They quickly made their way to the right most end of the semi-circular passage, where the spectre was waiting for them. "You have quite a large and capable team," said Rozarius as he looked at the others. "Which place did you all come from?" it asked looking at Rudra. "White Heart City," said Rudra uneasily. It was his first time conversing with a spectral NPC. Despite him playing quite a few games before and meeting spectral NPCs before, the experience in vita-nova was quite different. When one came near spectres, they feel a slight could and nausea. Shadow was used to the feeling in his past life and it didn''t bother him much, but it was evident from the others'' expressions that they didn''t like it very much. "Any relation to Col. Asmodeus Whiteheart?" it continued to ask Rudra. Rudra had no clue what it was talking about, but Balthazar knew the lore of the game and was able to answer. "That would be the founder of the White Heart Kingdom," answered Shadow. "Hmm. I guess, it is fine if the fort went into the hands of his successors," it muttered out loud looking at a distance. "Here take this," said the spectre handing him a square shaped token with a silver "S" printed diagonally on it. "This is the lord''s token. I am willing to show you how to enter the core area under two conditions. Either you destroy the outer part of the fort or you go to your king and let him guard this fort under his jurisdiction," said Rozarius looking at him. This put all of the player around him in a shock. The quest didn''t allow them to occupy the fort and had a ridiculous requirement. Rudra and the other were very excited at the prospect of obtaining a new base and the spectre''s words broke down these hopes. "What? What do you mean by that?" asked Rudra unable to accept this sudden turn of events. "The lord always informed me that the shrine should be in worthy hands. If possible, I wouldn''t have let you occupy the fort at all. If not for the goblins, I would have kept this a secret. But now, fate had brought you all here and you already have an idea of the core region," said Rozarius looking at them. "I am not left with much options. So, I am offering you the chance to enter the shrine and claim the power if you are lucky. But it comes at a price. Else, you can occupy the fort and I don''t care," it continued. "Remember, it is quite hard to find what you want in the shrine. I have only heard of one person who managed to get out alive." With that the spectre turned back to Shadow. "You are the one who led them here. So, I leave the responsibility of their choice to you. But you have only a couple of hours to accept or decline after that I will not entertain you," said the spectre as floated away to a wall and rested against it as if it was a living being. Everyone turned towards Shadow hoping to get some answers from him. He was the one who had found the quest. So, they all expected him to have a clue about what it was about. They didn''t know enough about the entire quest of the place and were hoping to get some answers from him. "Let us wait for the others the come, we still haven''t opened another vault. It might be filled with more armaments," said Shadow looking at them. "We are not looking at you for that," said Merlin who was irritated due to being in the dark about the entire quest. He was also under the assumption that they could occupy the fort after clearing the monsters and use it as a base. "I want to know what the shrine is about and why you led us here." "I haven''t the foggiest idea," said Shadow putting on a bewildered expression as he shrugged his shoulders. "I was just exploring the forest when I came across the fort. I was unable to scale the walls and was looking for some easier way when I came across the spectre NPC. I provided him a bit of help against the goblins, later fought the spectre and before I killed it, it stopped me and provided the quest." "You were attacking the NPC and it gave you the quest?" asked Merlin. The more Shadow told about it, the more confusing it was. NPCs don''t give quests if they have a bad impression of the players and attacking an NPC was the easiest way to give it a bad impression. "Helping it didn''t work and it attacked me. So, I decided to attack back," said Shadow. "Look. Just this small part of the fort isn''t really worth much. Moreover, from my fight with the spectre, it seemed to be guarding the shrine even after death and it looks like it would very important. At the very least, we would get some decent equipment inside. We have two hours and we can plunder the inner region before the time is up. I think it is best we agree to it. If, we give it to the kingdom, we could at least get some reputation or contribution points from them," suggested Shadow. "Not a bad suggestion actually. Maybe, it is better this way," agreed Slaine. "Fine, let us first collect the weapons from the other vault," accepted both Rudra and Merlin. The members which Lizzie was leading were about 10 minutes away from the fort. By this time, they have used the Colosseum points to gather a couple more dynamite designs and were busy making them. With the dynamites, they had they would be able to easily get through the forest to the fort. During this time, the others also decided to go back to the city. They had their bags full and they had no work. Almost everyone except Rudra, Shadow and a few others stayed behind. Rudra was a guild leader and he decided to stay behind so that he could make a proper evaluation of all the things that would be found in the new vault. Due to the chaos, he couldn''t do that the last time. Shadow stayed back as he was mostly concerned about the shrine and the chance to obtain unique weapons. He also stayed back as he was supposed to open the vault. Roll had tried to open the previous vault and failed. He was the only one who managed to do it. During this time, Rudra and others went to the gate to make sure it was secure and Slaine positioned him on top of one of the wooden towers. He was observing the surrounding through his scope. At this time, Shadow was free and decided to check his mail. He had to ones which he had to pay attention to. One was from the Elias Edgerton, Ellie''s uncle who asked him to contact him on phone. He was working using the somnium technology overnight in conjuction with Leon in creating virtual armaments and wanted to check if he could actually use a whip which he asked Ellie for. "Wow! Either Winston is too fast, or Elias was already working with Leon," thought Balthazar as he saw the mail. If he could convince Leon, he definitely would be able to procure a decent mid-range weapon from Ellie. The other mail was something completely unexpected. It was not a simple mail but a fairly large mail chain. It was from the military and included quite a few important names along with him. It was from Hector Constantine who presided over all the projects done by Scions of Minerva. It included names such as Victor Constantine, Evelyn Price, Xander Drake, Winston and a few others. The main content of the letter was to keep him secure and not give him any military assignments as he was considered an important test subject and is a necessary person for the biofeedback combat suit project that they are working on. This was extremely shocking to him. Apart from him, Xander, Evelyn and Winston were also quite confused and immediately replied to it requesting the reason for that assessment of Balthazar. Winston not only sent mail back to Hector but replied on the same thread to Marcus Price for answers. The only reply they got was to schedule a virtual meeting with Hector Constantine and Victor Constantine, where they could all discuss about it. It was scheduled early morning at 7 a.m that day. He was also asked by Winston and Evelyn on the same chain regarding his involvement in it. The most surprised person was Balthazar. In his past life, it was a dream to people like him to come in contact with the Scions of Minerva. These were legends in both the scientific and military communities and were responsible for many innovations that simplified the lives and efforts of the military. But right now, he was confused and slightly even afraid of them as he didn''t understand what they were talking about. He immediately called Winston from the game. He was agitated and shocked by this sudden turn of events. He wanted to clear it up with his grandfather at the very least that he wasn''t involved with them. Though the conversation was short, his grandfather realized that Balthazar was as shocked as him from the state of his voice on the call. "Don''t worry. If you are not involved, it isn''t an issue. There might be a chance of these guys having made a mistake. Even in the worst case that they don''t accept it, you can always refuse it. They don''t have the rights to make you do something that you don''t want to," said Winston comforting him. Though he convinced his grandson in the call, Winston wasn''t certain either. The Scions of Minerva were very famous and any such contact to people outside of their inner circle would be double and triple checked. They have to maintain their reputation and wouldn''t make such mistakes easily. So, Winston believed that there was a high chance of Balthazar being monitored discreetly without his permission. Even, if it was a mistake, the fact that it was sent at this time implied that someone who didn''t want him working with Evelyn, discovered about his meet with Evelyn and Xander and tried to stop it. The part that Winston found most frightening in this case was that they had high level access to the workings of the Scions of Minerva and could have a modic.u.m of control over them. Either way, Winston considered it to be, he couldn''t deny that his grandson was being discreetly monitored by someone at the Blyth mansion and even they didn''t manage to realize this. On the other end, Balthazar who had just talked to his grandfather on the call was also confused and tensed. Since he saw the mail, he also had some thought which were similar to his grandfather and was worried and it could be seen clear on his face. Rudra who was right by him, noticed it and inquired. "I just received an unexpected mail from the military, and it is a bit concerning," said Balthazar. He couldn''t reveal the contents of the mail to Rudra as it was marked confidential. He simply sat down on the floor of the passage and began to think what it could be about. The most irritating thing about it was that it restricted his plans, if they took it seriously. He would have to make some changes in that scenario. "Don''t worry. Nothing I can''t handle," said Balthazar as he noticed that Rudra was concerned about him. Rudra was obviously concerned for his friend whose life had been full of turmoil for the last month. His base was attacked by apes and then, his uncle died just two days ago. Such a situation would cause mental breakdown to most. Balthazar immediately opened up the mail and began to read it again in case, he missed something. He was quite shocked the first time he read it and immediately made a call to Winston. He noticed that Victor Constantine, the CEO of the Metis Technologies was involved. This suddenly put him in thought. "The somnium tech was originally a military initiative. There is a high chance that they would be monitoring our performance and other scientific things when playing the game," thought Balthazar. "I was good at the game, but I didn''t do anything very astounding. I always limited it from going overboard. I didn''t even use most of the skills that I learned in my previous life," he thought. He pondered on it for a few more minutes and thought about some other alternatives, but none other than this made sense. "This is the most probable thing that happened," he murmured as he saw Lizzie, Tetsujin and other members from the guild come to the fort. He realized that it is best to consider his options after he actually comes to know why he is being considered by the Scions of Minerva and got up to open the vault. He still had to meet up with Leon and Elias for them to certify him to be able to use wh.i.p.s. "Give me a minute, I need to compose a mail," he told them as he replied to Elias and Leon that he was ready to meet them right now for the certification and that he also intended to talk to Elias a bit more about the usage of samsara framework. After he sent the mail, he went to the vault and started to pick the lock. These doors were also quite similar to the other vault, made of rock and 4 feet wide each. In a few seconds, the clicks of the tumblers being loosened was heard as the door unlocked. He helped them to push open the door and checked the vault inside, before he opened his mail again. Elias had already replied to him and provided a virtual address for him to go to where he could talk to them. "I have something to do and would be absent for half-an-hour, maybe an hour," he said looking at Rudra, Tetsujin and Lizzie. "Will be logging out now." "Now? We need you to talk to that spectre in less than two hours. That much time outside may make you lose the chance to accept it. Why don''t you first accept the spectre''s suggestion and then log out," said Tetsujin worriedly. The time was three times faster in the game and Tetsujin assumed that him logging out of the game to mean, he had to do something in real-life. There were hardly few things that one could do while using somnium tech and none he knew would take that much time. "It is a virtual meeting using the somnium tech. Just logging out, but will have the same sense of time," said Shadow as he logged out. Chapter 96 - Consulting Elias. Once he logged out, he opened his mail and visited the virtual room provided in it and sent a reply to Elias that he was already in it. The room was similar to the arena in the second floor of the gym. Soon, Elias and Leon also entered the room through the same door that the entered it. Elias was a bit less than 6 feet tall and had a face about 60% similar to that of Ellie Edgerton and he shaved his head. As he walked in, he had waved his hand and a table appeared in the room with a whip on it. There was a knife attached to the whipping end of it. "Hi Mr. Elias. I wanted to meet you for quite some time. I heard you were working on the samsara framework and wanted to talk to you about a few things," said Balthazar shaking his hand. "Yeah. Sure," said Elias wondering why the kid was so excited as he gave way to Leon. "Is this what you wanted?" asked Leon as he went to the table and pressed in a protrusion on the handle of the knife which cause the end of the whip to slip out from the handle of the knife. The handle of the knife had a thin hole that the whip''s end was fixed into. He moved away allowing Balthazar to go and take the whip. "Wow! You guys have the same weapon in store too," said Balthazar as he looked at the weapon. It was a combination of two weapons, a whip and a chain knife which could be interchanged and he had used both of them in vita-nova. "Yes," said Leon. "You can use a chain knife too?" he asked surprised at the expression on Balthazar''s face. Though he sounded excited his eyes didn''t reflect the same. Balthazar looked quite casually at the structure of the blade and and the end of the whip as he was examining for faults and determining the mechanism. "I can use it. It would be great, if I can get this for use," said Balthazar as he removed it from the table and checked it by attaching and detaching the knife a couple of times. "Start the simulation. Let us see what he can do," said Leon to Elias. Elias waved his hand as a panel appeared out of thin air. He made some setting changes on it and loaded the simulation for the whip. There were a bunch of circular targets floating in the air at various heights. Some of the targets were red in color and others in blue. "Get to the central area. It is marked by a cross on the floor," said Elias pointing to a place in the midst of the targets. "The test will be as follows. First you need to aim for all the red targets in front of you. You will be evaluated based on the time take to hit all of them," said Leon. "As you finish the previous ones, we will go to the next test. You manage to finish the first three, I will allow you to carry a whip," he continued. "OK. You can start now," said Elias. There were about 8 red colored targets in front of him. It was an easy task for Balthazar who had practiced it for a year. He made two quick movements after unfurling the whip managing to strike all the 8 targets. It took less than two seconds for him. "Hmm," said Leon as he observed Balthazar. "He isn''t a novice and had definitely used it before," thought Leon as he saw the style and speed of Balthazar''s attack. He quietly nodded to Elias indicating to go to the next test. "Next, we have moving targets. Hit the red ones," said Elias. This was also done in three swings. It hardly took one second more than the previous test. The speed of the targets wasn''t high and it was similar to evasive movements, but it wasn''t hard for Balthazar. He always liked the whip as he could easily change the direction of attack to counter such evasive movements. "Next," said Leon. "Same as before, but avoid hitting the blue targets," said Elias. He considered this unnecessary right now as he had already noticed that the blue targets weren''t hit by Balthazar in the previous tests. So, this was a totally redundant test. "Consider him passed," said Leon stopping Elias from starting the simulation. "Continue with the next ones, include all the scenarios for human and animals and evaluate," he continued. "I am certified to use the whip now?" asked Balthazar immediately. "Yes, but continue with the further tests. It won''t take much time," said Leon. He wanted to gauge Balthazar''s strength properly before he could inform Winston about it. He also wanted to know more about Balthazar. He was a weapons specialist which is a job which required one to be proficient with many weapons. He wanted to check if Balthazar is a promising candidate. He already had Balthazar''s military records which detailed his skills with guns and warframes. He considered Balthazar to be a decent fighter at close combat considering the way he defeated Max. Though many told him that Balthazar won merely because Max underestimated him, he believed that it took a certain amount of quick thinking to defeat someone like that. He considered this to be a necessity for a weapons specialist. Now, based on his proficiency with a whip, he wanted to determine Balthazar''s talent for controlling the situation around him. "Can I use the knife with it now? I would like to be certified for that too," asked Balthazar looking at Leon. "Are you sure that you can use it in chain knife mode? I don''t want to waste my time," said Leon. He was working with Elias to complete a training modules using the samsara technology and took time out of specially to certify him as Winston asked for it. "I can do the first three tests. Maybe not as fast, but I believe that having a chain knife sometimes is very useful in making a strong sneak attack. So, I would like to get it done too," requested Balthazar again. "Hmm," sighed Leon. "Give me the administrative privileges for the room. I will meet you after this is done," he said to Elias. "I wanted to talk to you about.." "We heard you the first time," said Leon cutting Balthazar off. "Focus on your evaluation. I will take you the room where we are working after the evaluation is done." "I would prefer to go back to the game within the hour," said Balthazar. "Just focus on the evaluation. It wont take that long," grunted Leon as Elias went out of the room. The repeated the same tests for the chain knife mode and Balthazar had a managed to pass them. As he told before, he didn''t have the same speed as a chain knife would have different dynamics than a whip. The knife would be a lot heavier than a whip and hence, it had more momentum the remaining part of the chain. This made it very hard to change the direct of the knife''s edge. The heaviness of the knife also allowed a person to make swift attacks from weird angles. Leon considered him to have been certified and continue with the test. The test included humans, animals and also obstacles. Soon, the speed and toughness of the opponent was increased. The whip wasn''t a weapon that could cut through metal easily and it has to be aimed at vital points to make successful attacks. The chain knife could be use to cut through minor armor. The tests checked his application and all such minor details. The test automatically kept loading till Balthazar surrendered as the number of targets kept increasing in number and toughness. "Not bad," said Leon ending it. The tests for both chain knife and the whip took about forty minutes. "You are better at using it as a whip," he continued. "An opportunistic style of fighting meant for surprise attacks is you forte. I will allow you to use the weapon. You can collect it tomorrow from Ellie along with the rest, but I recommend training with it more. I will provide the training scenarios too. Come let us go meet Elias," said Leon as he messaged a password and opened the door of the room. "Use the password, I connect this room to the Elias''s workshop," said Leon as he moved out of the room. Balthazar immediately followed him and used the password to pass through the door. The room on the other side was also very large, but the thing that made it different was that there were about 15 to 20 personnel in that room and were all working on samsara framework. The room was filled with tables, screens and chairs like a common office. "Come in," said Elias as he saw Balthazar and Leon enter the room. "How was the evaluation?" he asked Leon. "He is quite good, but one could always use more practice," said Leon. "You better start working based on the requirements, I gave. We already have a client who needs it," he said pointing to Balthazar. "Quite good?" asked Elias surprised looking at Balthazar. "A positive comment from Leon was a rare thing. You seemed to have impressed him," he whispered in Balthazar''s ear. "So, what did you want to talk with me?" asked Elias as he directed him to sit on one of the chairs as he took a seat beside it. "Richard Shrike would have possible contacted you. Mainly about the warframes and other scenarios which he probably mention," started Balthazar. "Yes, he did. Was that idea from you?" asked Elias. "Yes, I would be really glad if you manage to create the warframes for combat. But I wanted to know if there was any chance," "Let me stop you right there. I have already heard of it from Richard. It is for the competition for the position of the elder, right?" asked Elias. "Right." "We need to spend a lot of time on it. We don''t have much resources for this as most want to believe that little could be done with somnium technology other than normal training. I would have helped you, if I could get more people working on it," said Elias being as polite as possible. He was irritated by the fact that he was being asked the same thing again. "Does this kid think that his request would have more priority compared to Richard''s request just because his the patriarch''s grandson," thought Elias. "Even Winston couldn''t change much to this without giving a proper reason to allocate more members to work on Samsara framework." "I suppose you need something to convince the elders that more man power on Samsara framework would be worth it," said Balthazar. "You can do that?" "How about I put in a suggestion to you that would help you to exactly that and in return you help me with my little problem?" "I am all ears, kid," replied Elias. "Despite the advancements in facial recognition and all that, camouflage also improved. So, we always required human observation and patrols to respond to attacks. There are always blind-spots and mistakes which could be improved upon and these patrolmen could be trained," said Balthazar. "I fail to understand your words. That is just more work and I doubt we would be able to created programs that would help do that," said Elias. He was more confused after hearing Balthazar. "No. No. Such things are best learned by ones own experience. I am suggesting something different. It would also help a bit to reduce the required workforce. What I am suggesting is to integrate the feeds from the various cameras and sensors into the somnium technology. We always have a few people monitoring the camera views. The patrolmen have shifts. How about having the patrolmen who are resting to use somnium technology to operate the cameras. Not only will it remove the need for a separate camera crew, but observing the patrols from a different view point would also make them realize any blind spots and other issues in patrol patterns." "That might be feasible," said Elias as he began to think about it. "We could multiple people superimposed at a same point and view the camera feeds from a virtual room," he continued. "Yes, there are bound to be a lot of benefits one could obtain through this," said Elias. "But I probably would need to discuss it with a few others before I propose it." "Yeah. Sure. Something like this needs to be discussed and pros and cons determined before proposing it. Take your time, but not too much," replied Balthazar smiling at Elias. "Yeah, it wouldn''t take much time for that. We would probably come to a consensus by evening. It also doesn''t require much work while we can use it as an excuse to get more men for work on the samsara framework," said Elias. "You thought this out quite thoroughly didn''t you?" asked Elias. "Heh. Heh. I didn''t put much time into it but felt it was a good thing to do," replied Balthazar. In fact, he didn''t really put a thought into it. Two years from now, this would be used at a number of places. It was a method which kept correcting its mistakes continuously, making it exceedingly difficult for thieves and assassins to navigate through secure areas. Due to this reason, he had started to search for other jobs in his previous life and found a job at Rudra''s gaming workshop. Moreover, since the cameras feed is received by trained personnel in real-time, they also tend to move the view a bit randomly. Sometimes, they move it based on their instincts and any sounds which hear or not hear. In short, any one with the aim to infiltrate couldn''t find a proper pattern among the cameras movements. This caused it to become quite popular in the following years. Chapter 97 - The Shrine - 1 "I just hope that you wouldn''t make it public anytime soon," requested Balthazar. "That is obvious, kid," said Leon this time. He was sitting behind Balthazar all the time listening what he had to say. "Irrespective of whether it works or doesn''t none of the stuff which is being tried out here would get out to public knowledge." "We need to inform elders about this idea if we want more resources," said Elias. "Without that there is no point in having this discussion." "I just meant that we don''t divulge this even to families and organization which are working with us," said Balthazar. "That would be hard. Once, we suggest this to the elders at the very least, members of the Price family who are with us, would get know about the idea," said Leon. He knew the structure and organization of the family quite well and considered keeping this a secret to be a futile hope. "OK. But we can request them to keep it under wraps, right?" asked Balthazar. "Yes. They wouldn''t allow others to know either. You don''t need to worry about that," answered Leon. "Yeah. They wouldn''t try it out themselves first either. They would wait to see if we have any success with it before they ever think about implementing it," added Elias. "Furthermore, we might have a problem with it ourselves too. For this, we need someone to agree for a test run. Most of the elders don''t like to try it themselves. We need someone to agree for this, if we ever want to get it done properly." "I will see if I can contact someone about it, but it would be hard. I would see if Robert or Winston can help," said Balthazar. "Yeah. I was already thinking about contacting Richard for the same," said Elias. "Let us see what can be done. Anything else?" "No, this is all I wanted to talk to you about. I will take my leave," said Balthazar as he made his way out of the virtual room. He put in a mail to Robert regarding it. He just mentioned to him in the mail that he had talked to Elias and had a proposal that would help to create a real-fight based scenario, but they would require some assistance from him and asked Richard to discuss it with him. He immediately logged in to the game and made his way towards the fort from the White Heart City. By the time, he logged back in, it was already an hour. He needed to get to the fort as soon as possible. He immediately contacted Rudra and came to find out that there were other guilds including Foedus Rex have managed to enter the city. But Crimson realm members also made another expedition managing to get increase their numbers in the city to about 500 players. Luckily, the players who entered from other guilds were very low in number. Even the members of Foedus Rex who entered the city numbered less than 10 and they managed to do that due to the use of dynamites they bought. Knowing this, Balthazar told Rudra to stop the sale of dynamites for some time. He told that they would probably need quite a bit for this quest, and it is best to put a stop to it. Lizzie had long since stopped the sale of dynamites since she realized that Sirius Imperials manged to get into the city due to their use. They left management of the shop to her and currently it was only selling armaments and the spear design made by Balthazar. She already put in a post on the forum that due to their need of dynamites in a quest, they weren''t currently selling any for a period of time and would resume later. Though few criticized it and made fun of the guild for not selling one of their hottest products, it was still considered a valid reason and they didn''t need to worry about their reputation. In fact, there were other guilds who already managed to reach the cities due to use of the armaments and dynamites sold by their shop. None of them sold the wares that they managed to procure till now and hence, the Crimson Realm guild still had better reputation right now. Even the well-known super guilds of gaming industry weren''t in a better state than them currently. The members of the other guilds who managed to reach the city were also small in number compared to them. Most players who managed to register the city were trying to help more players of their guilds to register at the city by finishing their quest and hardly had any time to scout for other quests around the city. This was the advantage of them finishing first. By the time, Balthazar reached the fort, there were close to 50 players around the fort. They have already finished transporting the armaments they found and were scouting around the fort in the forest. They were hunting the animals around the forest. The ones that would be found at this stage would be similar to the animals found in real-life. As the aim of the game was to hone the skills of men and teach them to survive in exigent situations, they monsters would have a lot of characteristics of those found in real-life. The also made sure that these animals were low to moderate danger varieties, so that they could easily learn to hunt them. As most players would be novices, the game designers created the monsters so that it provided a slow learning curve and wouldn''t put off the players. Even Grypa which was the species of Anubis, Balthazar''s pet was appraised a high difficulty species by the game due to its speed and wouldn''t be seen in the game anytime soon. During his travel to the fort through the forest, he was informed of all the developments and the weapons and gold they earned by Lizzie and Rudra. He immediately went to the spectre after he reached the fort and accepted to fulfil its request. Quest Completed: [Clear out the Silvannus Fort] (Difficulty: Hard) Description: Kill all the goblins and trolls in the Silvannus Fort and meet up with Rozarius in the fort. Progress: Successfully clear the fort of the goblins and trolls. Reward: Experience +2000. Revealed the path to the shrine in the Silvannus'' Fort. The sudden experience again put him up another level. He was now at level 14 whereas most of his companions were still at level 12. He was happy about it as he had to collect more experience than the other players since he put on the mask of shadows, but he knew that this wouldn''t persist long. Once, he took the unique weapon, his level would be reduced again. Luckily, even if his level reduced, there wouldn''t be much change in attributes and he probably would get better skills. Rozarius, the spectre quickly led him to centre of the semi-circular pathway. It passed through the ground at the midpoint of the pathway and a few seconds later, a bunch of sounds were being heard from deep within the mountain. The sounds were similar to those of a bunch levers being turned when suddenly a portion of the wall about 8 feet long and 10 feet wide broke off and slid back into the mountain revealing a long path. The path started to shake as it slowly began to move down forming steps that led into the depths of the hill. As the steps were still forming Rozarius suddenly popped up through the floor. "I have done my part of the job. Now, I need you to adhere to your part of the bargain and take an oath on the heavens that you would do as I requested," said Rozarius. "System Notification: You need to inform the royalty of the White Heart city about the shrine or destroy the fort after you finish exploring it. Else, you would lose 10 levels for breaking the heavenly oath." At the same time, his character Shadow moved all on its own and he lost control as he swore with one hand pointing to heavens and the other hand on his heart. "I take the heavenly oath that I would inform the White Heart kingdom of the shrine or destroy the fort after my visit of the shrine," he said looking above him. There were a bunch of thunder and lightning in the sky as if the heavens were responding to his oath after which he regained control. "I hoped it wasn''t one of these," thought Balthazar. He had already heard about heavenly oaths in his previous life being asked by an NPC. These were ways to make sure that the players follow through the bargain with the NPC and doesn''t renege on his deal. Else, it would break the structure of the game. Though there are ways that players managed to find to break the heavenly oath without following through, these methods are extremely costly. Though he mainly came to the fort for the unique equipment, a part of him also wished to occupy the fort and use it as a base. They didn''t yet manage to get enough reputation to find a guild headquarters and he also thought that the fort would be a suitable place to establish one. "Are you all right in the head?" asked Merlin. "You seemed to be a bit too involved in the game," he continued as he wondered if the guy was insane. Though Balthazar display good instincts, tactics and was already known to be a real-life expert, he heard that some of these experts tend not to be mentally sane and began to fear if the player Shadow was one of those. Even the others were looking at him a bit oddly as if they were sceptical of his mental health "I am not crazy. It was out of my control and my character did it automatically like some kind of cut-scene," replied Shadow giving him an angry look. He immediately took a snapshot of the notification and showed it to Rudra and Merlin. "Wow. There go all our plans. We can''t expect him to not follow through the options now," said Rudra. "Let us just, inform that the members that this is a quest that would enable us to get rights over the fort and that we failed after we finish exploring the shrine. We don''t need to put out this information," said Merlin. "Fine. Moreover, we aren''t even sure if we would be able to use it effectively. Once, we get enough to create a guild headquarters in the city, this would be wasted," said Rudra as he stepped on to the steps leading downward ready to explore the new area. As soon as he stepped on to the stairs, Rozarius started to speak again. "The Shrine will test you before it allows to get the power left behind. I shall warn you again that failure to complete the test will lead to loss of life. I hope that if you are successful, you would use the power wisely," said Rozarius and then moved to the side waving his hands towards the staircase indicating them to go forward. "That is what we shall do then. Let us talk about what we shall do about exploring the shrine. This seems quite similar to the Cave of Wargs quest that I did," said Balthazar. Though it wasn''t true, the others didn''t know of the details so he could use it to command them appropriately. "I think the strongest of each class would better make the first trip. There might be situations where different skills belonging to different occupations would be useful. From the second attempt onwards, we can plan based on our previous experience," suggested Shadow. "Yes, it is best we do it that way. There seem to be no restrictions that are apparent. It is best if we are able to gather most information with the first scouting group," said Tetsujin. They discussed among themselves and decided the first group of twelve people that were to attempt the first scouting of the core region. The group consisted of Shadow, Merlin, Rudra, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire, Slaine, Blinding White, Rick, Tang and Spice, Perrenial Light, Little White Feet and Lizzie. Due to lack of a summoner, they decided to have two healers, Lizzie and Little White Feet. Lizzie used the ID, Holy Radiance for her character. Duck ''n'' Roll took charge of guarding the fort in this time. There were quite a few players from the guild already exploring the forest around the fort who would serve as lookouts. Apart from that he had a few sit down at the entrance to inner fort guarding the area. Rudra had also had the secret path which they used to enter fort closed during the time when Shadow was logged out. Thus, the gate was the only way currently to enter the fort for any other players not in the team. They also already called for the other players than entered the city to temporarily explore the forest near to fort, so that they would have quick reinforcements in case some guild tried anything as they knew that it wouldn''t take long for the other guilds to get players into city and try to stop them from seizing the fort. Most guilds who reached the White Heart City were already concerned about the Crimson Realm guild as they were the first to reach the city. They already had made a decent amount of gold from the shop in the Blackrock Town and were afraid that with occupation of a fort, they would become very strong force in the White Heart City. So, Roll considered it best, if they had as many players close the fort as possible. Moreover, the fort was in a forest allowing them to explore and hunt monsters while being close to it and wasn''t detrimental for the growth of the players. Chapter 98 - The Shrine - 2 Shadow led the eleven players down the stairs into the core region. The walls along the stairs were lined with glowing paintings. The beautiful drawings immediately caught the attention of the team. All of them, except Shadow thought that they might be some kind of story or directions that would serve as clues for exploring traversing the core region. On looking at them, Shadow immediately realized that these pictures were the same that could be seen on the walls of the hall of the temple of the twelve in the White Heart city. They depicted the story of the twelve lords of the temple. He would have gone ahead without any comment, if not for the fact that the rest were taking pictures of the walls assuming that they might need to check it later in the core region "Those pictures depict the story of the twelve lords of the temple of the twelve," said Shadow as he turned around to look at them. "They are found on the walls of the temple in the city. You can admire them in the temple later," said Shadow implying that they shouldn''t care about it and move faster. "There might be some clues in them," said Quiet Fire looking at Shadow a bit disgruntled. "How can he think that these are here just for decoration and not significant to the core region of the temple? All such scenarios in games indicate clues. Don''t they?" she thought without voicing out. "Yes, the clue is that this is an old shrine which the Lord Silvannus had been protecting for a long time and constructed a fort around it. It probably was just a cave at his time," said Shadow as he moved forward. "This area is something which the spectre had access to and probably was well known to him if he could open it this easily, but he had no idea and feared the thing which he called a shrine. So, I sincerely doubt it would be really useful. Anyways, just take your time and follow down the stairs. I will go ahead and scout. Will inform in team chat if I find anything important," said Shadow. Though he knew that these drawings are not important, he couldn''t explain it to them properly. So, he just told them something that he might know more than he is revealing and hoped that they would believe him. Even, if they didn''t, he could take the time they were taking snapshots to go and check the shrine for traps. He just hoped that they would be able to communicate through team chat at the shrine. His answer seemed extremely arrogant and it gave them the impression that he thinks they were stupid to consider these drawings important. It pissed off Quiet Fire and a few others. "What is wrong with him? Why is he in such a hurry?" asked Merlin who didn''t think that Shadow is a reckless character. "He seems to be in a hurry," said Rudra. "He is usually quite levelheaded. He might be in some hurry, but I don''t think he doesn''t have any information about the shrine." "Be as it may, we best take the snapshots as fast as we can and get going. There is a good chance that he is right, and it is an old shrine. It is bound to have something worth all this work," said Merlin as he was unsatisfied with the reward of the quest. Most of the weapons were moved to the shop of the Crimson Realm guild and he didn''t consider it a significant profit even after Rudra promised that he would sponsor the adventurer team. He was hoping that they could use the fort more than Rudra. He knew that, they shared the work in conquering it and if Shadow became a part of the adventurer team which he will create, he was sure that once Crimson Realm got hold of a proper guild headquarters in the city, he could use this fort for this team''s base of operations. "Aren''t you too greedy brother, all the things we found at the fort are bound to provide us a lot of gold," said Tetsujin. "You are a dumbass. Why would I be content with that, when I am sure that we are going to a bigger feast. It is the reason why we emptied our bags of most things keeping only necessities and stronger equipment," replied Merlin. In the meantime, Shadow managed to reach the end of the stairs. There weren''t any traps along the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs, he found a small circular enclosure having a diameter of 5 meters and an exit directly opposite him. Shadow stood on the last stair and looked carefully into the enclosure. There were nothing on the walls of the enclosure which were also made of stone. The only things he found suspicious were the runes at the entrance near him and he could also see some runes around the exit. There was a stone board on top of the exit which read, "Power with responsibility makes monsters of men - Silvannus Shreeve". He had seen such runes before in his previous life and understood what they might be. It was something like a check of the race of the player entering the area. There was something else included but he didn''t understand them as they seemed very complicated and of a higher level than he was in his previous life. He knew that the players of the guild Foedus Rex were members of the light faction and were able to get through and hence, he probably wouldn''t have any issue passing through. He informed the teammates of the enclosure through the team chat and entered it. As soon as he stepped through the entrance, the runes at the entrance began to glow violently. This was expected as they would be checking the player but what was more surprising to him that the runes at the exit also began to glow. He immediately thought there would be a test, and something would come through the exit. So, he pulled out his dagger in preparation, but suddenly he felt a force pulling him to the exit. The runes shined more brightly on both ends as a small tunnel made of light formed between them and a light screen appeared behind him. It moved forward pushing him through the exit and he landed in a dark area. "System: You are in a special zone. You can''t communicate with anyone or logout in this area." "Logout is not allowed too? I expected that communications would be stopped. This is ridiculous," thought Balthazar as the message appeared. He was disgruntled and was irritated by the various deviations in the game from what he had read in the forums. He couldn''t chat with others outside and hoped that with him not being to communicate with them, they would try and get into the enclosure and start the test He seemed to be in a long desolate tunnel and behind him there was nothing but solid rock. A number of ornamental rock torches decorated the tunnel on both sides. A voice sounded out in the void as he looked around. It seemed to come though the rocks of the tunnel from all around him and was almost deafening. "Ah finally someone, managed to get in. How come no one tried for the baptism for such a long time," said the voice. "Hello, I am not sure where I am or what this is supposed to be? I am just an adventurer exploring some ruins," said Shadow. "Ruin? The great temple is reduced to simple ruins?" "Yes. I was exploring the ruins of an old fort called the Silvannus fort when I was suddenly transported to this... What is this actually?" asked Shadow "Silvannus Fort? Hmm. I thought that he actually disregarded his post. Was the fort made by Silvannus Shreeve?" "I think so. I found his name in the ruins." "Guess, a lot has happened, since the elf general was successful. He was the only one who managed to reach the end of the test till now, but even he failed," said the voice in a lamenting tone. A spectre like being suddenly appeared in front of him. He had a purple colored halo around him. The worst thing was that Balthazar immediately related him to someone else. It looked to be the same species of that was being tortured by the five lords in the cave. It was flaming skull and had a scaly skin just like the one in the memory fragment. "I am the guardian of the shrine. Not really a guardian though as I can''t get out of this place. I am a remnant of a soul that is responsible for putting you through the test. Based on you evaluation, you will be rewarded," said the flaming skull. "Did those lords use the souls of the thirteen guardians to secure the treasures or something," thought Shadow as soon as he saw the soul remnant. "You seem to be an assassin. Most assassins tend to focus too much on their quick and sharp attacks and fail to understand that the true path to domination requires on to be strong. Strong enough to endure a lot of enemies. Your test starts now. To complete the test, you need to destroy 5000 zombies in this tunnel. You will be evaluated on the number you defeat before you accept defeat. If you fail to realize the situation and refuse to concede, you might die," said the remnant as it disappeared. [Human Zombie] (Common monster) Level: 13; HP: 3000/3000; Zombies started to move towards him from the other end. Zombies are classified as the most basic of undead which had moderate speed, low intelligence and had simple movements which was an extreme advantage for him. They can be killed easily by fire and physical attacks take a lot of time or requires a sharp attack to the head or spines of the zombies. Beheading them killed them instantly like any other monster. Moreover, zombies of monsters are also seen, but these aren''t that different and were also slow moving. The only problem with them was that they would usually be in large numbers and unless one made a fatal attack they wouldn''t die and try to kill even if they accidentally attack other zombies. They would not care about their own injuries either and just attack whomever they could find. This makes it difficult to handle when there are smaller number of player and larger number of zombies. Looking at the situation, Balthazar was initially stunned. He didn''t expect such a large number of enemies to defeat. "I doubt even those gamers who managed to get it last time had a test of this difficulty. Considering that I already have a unique equipment, the difficulty of the test was increased," thought Balthazar. He didn''t know that his difficulty was increased because he was being monitored specially through the game. "The good thing is that there quite a number of torches here and I am already used to killing zombies. I even got a crossbow from the vault and dynamites for emergency situations," thought Balthazar reflecting on his previous experiences. He ran at his highest speed to a nearby zombies kicking it back into the centre of the tunnel. This would aggravate them, and more would come towards him which is what he needed right now. He quickly used his dagger to cut through the bolts and pulled off a torch from its bracket on the wall and smashed it close on the zombies approaching. The oil from the torch spilled all over them lighting them up in fire. Though he could always keep killing them with a good swing to behead these zombies, killing a number as big as five thousand would put him in dire straits and completely tire him out. He decided to use as many tricks as he had and slowly move ahead without haste and started using the resources which were available in the tunnel. The burning zombies try to put out the fire on them and in general, zombies which were afraid of fire always tried to avoid it unless a necromancer (kind of summoner) would direct it to fight even while burning. So, elementalists were always considered the best counter to zombies. This was the best thing for Shadow to attack in these circ.u.mstances. He aimed for the heads of the zombies while he always threw the burning zombies at the other ones. With his attributes, skill and experience, it was quite easy for him to do so. But it was a slow progress. The zombies were slow, and he also didn''t attack unless he saw a perfect shot which could take their head off. By the time, he managed to kill 2000 zombies, it had been about four hours. It could be considered that he took more about 7 seconds per zombie, but it wasn''t really so. Shadow was still used to attacking in short bursts like an assassin. He just used the fire to herd the zombies closer in smaller groups so that he could cut through the thin decaying necks of the zombies in the smaller with a single strike each. He had prepared well with about 100 dynamites for this, some of which he used to escape a few unexpected situations. If he had any regrets about his preparations, it was that he didn''t put in enough fruits or food in his bag which were the only way replenish his stamina quickly and there weren''t any stamina potions available at this stage of the game either. After the first 2000 the zombies changed, it was no longer the human zombie, it changed to zombie cats. Zombie cats were a large sub class of zombies including various wild cat monsters which are zombified. Luckily, these didn''t have the usual speed of wild cats and were like other zombies. Only difference was they made sudden dashes to attack like the cats and tried to tear the opponent with fangs or claws. But these weren''t considered a tough opponent by Shadow either. It was faster for him to kill these zombies. Once, they made a dash attack that was easy for him to escape it due to his high agility, he quickly cut off their heads which were in close range for him. Apart from trying to herd them using fire and kill the small groups, this behavior of these zombies allowed him to kill faster. Chapter 99 - The Shrine - 3 This situation in which he had to fight zombies repeatedly carried on for about 10 hours which is more than three hours in real-life. At the end, he finally managed to kill them all. He was extremely tired by this time and was exhausted and had no stamina left. "Ah! After a long time, a bunch of people attempt to test themselves, but the first to arrive was the last to finish," came the voice of the soul remnant. "The others finished their quest before me?" asked Balthazar aloud in surprise. The number of monsters he was asked to kill alone already put some doubts in his head. Though the players of Foedus Rex were good by the time he joined the game, he was sure no one would be as good as him at the early stages. So, he suspected that they couldn''t have gone through the same test as him. Now, that all his teammates also managed to finish before him, he was sure of it. "These idiots are definitely monitoring me and are making the game unnecessarily hard for me," thought Balthazar as he cursed them. But the next second he realized that there was an option for him to quit in the middle, the others could have been given the same option. His doubts were right. There were quite a few among the others, who managed to finish their test, but his was set to very hard mode and he wasn''t given the option to choose difficulty which was provided to the rest. That is the reason, he took so much time. The good thing about it was that the rewards would also correspond to difficulty and even the moderators couldn''t stop that. He put in the effort and hence, he was going to receive the corresponding reward. "Your performance was exemplary," continued the soul remnant. "I guess you are worthy enough to obtain these." A pair of daggers with long ornate handles came flying into his hands through the wall at the end. Along with these a large treasure chest shining in gold also appeared at his feet. He quickly opened the treasure chest and sweeped it all into his bag. He was immediately transported back to the enclosure, where Merlin was waiting for him. "Finally, at last. How come you took so long," said Merlin who was making potions in the enclosure. He had chosen the hard difficulty and it took him about 6 hours to finish his test. "Give me something to eat. I am real low on stamina and might get kicked out," replied Shadow. Merlin quickly gave him a meat patty from his bag to Shadow who looked very tired. Once, Shadow was done eating it and rested for a few minutes, Merlin began talking to him. "I didn''t expect anyone to come out after me. So, what took you so long? What was your test?" asked Merlin. "I had to kill 5000 zombies. What was yours?" "Five thousand or hundred?" asked Merlin shocked. The number was a bit hard for him to believe. Even if he knew that Shadow was a real-life expert. The thought of one killing so many monsters was unbelievable to him. "Five thousand obviously. Why would take so long to kill five hundred zombies?" "What difficulty did you select?" "Difficulty? There was no such option to select difficulty. I was directly asked to kill 5000 zombies." "I think you used all your luck beforehand that you didn''t even get to choose," said Merlin laughing. "Ya, probably," said Shadow gritting his teeth in anger. "Don''t get angry. I was just kidding," said Merlin. "It was hard for me too. I chose the hardest difficulty it provided. I expected some test that would put my skills to use. Unexpectedly, I was given a few helpers at the start who would fight by my side." "No way," said Shadow getting angrier. He expected something hard if Merlin also took a lot of time to get through the test but hearing that he had helpers was something that he never expected. "Ya, but it isn''t as good as you think. I had to make sure that they wouldn''t die. The amount of health they had by the end of the test will be used to evaluate me. I had to help them kill 500 spectres. These helpers would only attack if I gave the order and I could control them for a certain time like a summoner. It felt like more of a test for summoner than a warlock. The demon told me that it is meant to check against the usual weakness of warlocks," explained Merlin. "That makes no sense," said Shadow and it was reflected in his face. "I can understand the need for endurance for an assassin like me and hence, I was tested in such manner, but for warlock I expected something attacks against high speed monsters as majority of their stronger spells take time to cast," thought Shadow. "Ya. I was kidding. That was Fire''s test not mine," answered Merlin. "I was tested on my attack power and frequency. About 500 flying insects in a tunnel. Luckily, they fell down or got stunned on one hit of dark bolt or any other attack, which allowed me to run around as I killed them," he continued. Shadow no longer cared about it. He was getting irritated by Merlin''s jokes as he was already tired. He got up and started to move back to the staircase to get out. "I no longer care about the tests. Come on. Let us go," said Shadow. "Ok, so what did you get as your reward," asked Merlin. "Didn''t yet check it," replied Shadow. "What are you waiting for? You might as well check it now," said Merlin. "What did you get?" "I asked first, but I will show it first. It is no big thing," said Merlin as he revealed a violet colored 6-feet long sceptre which had a large crystalline gem at one end and a metallic shaft. It looked very pretty and beautiful like an ornamental sceptre than an actual weapon. "That looks pretty. Any good skills on it?" asked Shadow sarcastically. Though he knew it was probably a unique weapon or at the very least a high-quality weapon, he wanted to get back at Merlin and was trying to joke on its appearance as he was feeling a bit angry. "Pretty and powerful, my friend, the sceptre of evil is a unique weapon. Reduced my level quite a bit, but it has a few good skills and is upgradeable. Also received some other materials and recipies, but this was the best among the lot," replied Merlin. He was quite proud of the new weapon that he found and was showing it off. He didn''t care a bit even that Shadow was trying to point out that it was a bit feminine. He took a snapshot of his weapons attributes and forwarded it to Shadow. [Sceptre of Evel] (Unique Weapon) Level 10; Bound to Merlin Grimlock. Focus/Search +10; Willpower+10; Magic Resist: +10; Intelligence +12; Vitality +6; Endurance +5; Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level. Passive Effects: 1. Enhanced Power: All curses and spells have prolonged effects than the usual. (Depends on the spells) 2. Reduced Cooldown: The cooldown of the spells or curses is lower than the usual. Equipment can be leveled up to level 15 by absorbing the life essences of 1000 creatures of the dark faction. Additional skills: 1. Siphon Mana: Siphons the opponents mana for one''s own use at the rate of 10 MP per second. Duration: 30 seconds; Requires: 50 MP; Cooldown: 5 minutes. 2. Siphon Health: Reduces an opponent''s health at the rate of 20 HP per second and half of the health reduced would be used to replenish one''s own health. Duration: 30 seconds; Requires 50 MP; Cooldown: 10 minutes. 3. Subjugation: Has a chance to force to opponent to be your servant. Duration: Persists till the servant dies or is released by you; HP: 300 MP; Cooldown: 20 minutes. (Note: Has a 50% chance to fail opponents at the same level. The chance to fail increases if the level of the opponent is higher and reduces if the level is lower.) "Powerful weapon. Right?" asked Merlin looking at Shadow. He had to agree that there were some good skills provided by the weapon. Even the passive skills were quite good and improved upon a warlock''s skills. "Yeah, it is not bad," said Shadow without much change his expression. "Either this fellow is quite good at maintaining his expressions or he already has seen something as good," thought Merlin. "You have seen something as good before?" asked Merlin doubtful. "Yeah, I already had a unique equipment," replied Shadow. There was no point in hiding it from Merlin and any others as they also probably had seen others with Unique equipment or personally have them right now. "Well that explains few things now. I guess it definitely contributed quite a bit to your strength," said Merlin. "Yeah, it has its advantages, but levelling gets harder once you have a unique equipment. You must have also observed it. What is your level now?" "I was directly converted to level 9 after equipping mine. Luckily, there was no change in the number of attribute points that I had. It just managed to get back to level 10," said Merlin. "Yeah, congrats!" said Shadow. "How many others managed to get hold of such armaments?" "Everyone completed their tests, except for Blinding White, Little White Feet and Holy Radiance. We all got Unique weapons," replied Merlin. "Though they didn''t get unique weapons, they got some decent equipment. Little White died and didn''t get anything." "That is very good. Nine of us received unique equipment. It would improve our strength by a lot," said Shadow. "Yeah. We were really lucky. If only we had options of repeating the test. They would also have managed to get better equipment," said Merlin hoping that they have landed on a gold mine. "Did Rudra send any others to attempt the test after the first batch?" asked Shadow. "I hope that we actually manage to get more people to attempt the test. If we manage to get more armaments from this shrine, we definitely stepped on a great place and it is worth a lot more than what I expected of it," thought Balthazar. "Yes. He had sent more people. The first thing he did was to check in the game site about unique weapons. Though he didn''t find any info from it, it was clear that these are rarities and he had only a four of his guys attempt it after he realized their importance. None of them returned yet though," said Merlin. "OK. We will wait for them. Frankly speaking, based on the difficulty of my test, I didn''t expect that so many would have passed the test," confessed Shadow. "Dude, your test was ridiculous compared to the test of others. It also took most time compared to the others," said Merlin. "The tests were all similar to the ones we faced, focusing on the usual weak points of players with those professions, but for professionals, it wasn''t much of a problem. I was actually surprised that Fire and Tang managed to finish the quest, but it was expected of the others who passed it. Your''s was the only freakish one, the highest number of enemies, the rest of us faced was five hundred." "Now, check what you received before we get going, I have seen the equipment of the others. Let me have a look at yours too," continued Merlin looking at him as he waited for him to open up his rewards. Shadow also decided that it was the best time for him to check out the rewards, he received. Though he had carefully planned for getting the weapon, he felt a bit anxious when he actually was about to check it out. He was a bit afraid that he might not have received the weapons that he was dreaming about since his past life. He didn''t even check the weapons he received from the soul remnant due to the same reason "Fine, I will check it out," said Shadow as he pulled out the gold treasure chest that he received from the soul remnant. He was still a bit hesitant to check the weapons. He opened the chest and found that it had four items in it. These items were very valuable. They were a cloak, a crossbow weapon design and two materials. The most valuable among them was the cloak for Shadow. The crossbow weapon design was also very valuable to a guild. He would have immediately given it to the guild, if he was sure that the engineers and forgers would be able to successfully create it, so he immediately learned it. Once, he equips the weapons he was sure to the reduce in level, so he was sure that the design would help him in gaining easy experience. Chapter 100 - Rewards [Rifle Crossbow] (Gold Crossbow) Level 15; Requirement: Strength 30; Attack Power +35; Piercing Damage: 5; Range: 30 metres; Firing rate: 2 bolts per 20 seconds. Durability: 30/30; Required Materials: Refined Iron Ore x 6; Scope x 1; The crossbow was unexpectedly an engineering design rather than a forging design like a bow. It was completely different from the crossbows that he already had. It was more like a sniper rifle and allows a player to hit long distances. Looking at the crossbow, he immediately realized that he already had a crossbow that he hadn''t used it. It was the Bandit crossbow that he obtained in the bandit lair. He had forgotten about it due to the issues he faced as soon as he reached the required level. He was focused on reaching the city that he had completely forgotten about this issue. [Void Mantle] (Gold cloak) Level 10; Defense +25%; Agility +30%; Perception +5; Additional Skill: Void State: Allows you to avoid damage for a duration of 1 second as long as the total damage doesn''t exceed 500 HP. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Though it didn''t have any skills apart from the Void State, it was quite a useful skill at level 10 and a life-saving skill at that. He immediately doned the mantle. The other two items were tetralophodon tusk and a skill book. Balthazar had been waiting for a skill book for a long time. He could obtain a few skills from the White Heart city at this stage, but most of these would be common skills. The skill book found in such chests were usually uncommon skills. It was an aerial assassination. Aerial assassination was a skill that allowed a player to leap from a high position to stab the opponent in a vital opponent to cause triple damage to opponent. The damage also increased and caused higher damage when they jumped from a higher point. The Tetralophodon was a large elephant like animal. Its tusk was a rare material that was about 4 feet high and was something that could be used to create a variety of weapons. The best option was to create swords or spear. Moreover, the tusk also provided additional effects to the weapon. "This quite a good haul, but I wasn''t expecting these. I also got a gold treasure chest, but it had a unique weapon in it," said Merlin a bit disappointed. As Shadow had stayed in the test for a longer duration than him and also given Shadow''s skills, he expected a better reward as he was sure that Shadow''s performance was no worse than his own. "I expected a unique weapon to be in the chest similar to what me and Rudra got," continued Merlin looking at Shadow with a dejected expression on his face. "I got a weapon set too," said Shadow finally deciding to check the daggers that he had received from the sour remnant. The pair of blades he pulled out were pitch black in color and the blade had a shape extremely similar to that of the claws of a beast. They were curved at the tip with one side of it having a sharp edge and the other end was dull and rounded off, just like the talon of a bird. The blades were a bit more than a foot long and had width of half an inch at the wider edge. The handles were even more weird. They were each about one and a half feet long and were made of a bone like material, having a helical design on it which provided a good grip. Apart from the design, there were a couple of knobs on the handles. Once, he saw the weapon, he immediately confirmed that these were the same that he had been dreaming of obtaining. Obtaining these was just a pipe dream for many of the assassin players in his past life, but now he held them in his hands. He immediately selected to equip it as a light shrouded him. He was pushed down to level 11 from level 14, but he didn''t care about it in the least. [Void Dragon''s Talons] (Unique Weapon) Level 10 Bound to Shadow Tyrant. Attack Power +10; Reflect Damage +5; Magic Resist: +10; Strength +15; Intelligence +10; Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level. Can morph in to a pair of piolets, by horizontally bending at the joint of the handle. Can be used for trekking and climbing slippery places. Can also be used to execute few sword and axe based skills. Passive Effects: 1. All weapon-based skills will cause additional damage to the members of the dark faction. 2. 20% chance to cripple an opponent on landing hits on the vital points. Equipment can be leveled up by absorbing the life essences of 1000 creatures of the dark faction. Life essences of void race species or dragonoid creatures would also level up the weapons. Additional skills: 1. Void Strikes: Cause true damaged to the opponent. No barrier can block the talons during this period. Duration: 2 seconds; Cooldown: 5 minutes. (Recommended to be used in combination with other skills) He immediately sent the details to Merlin as he began checking the features provided by the Void Dragon''s Talons. On checking the features, he was quite satisfied by the attributes, but the skills provided by the talons were even lower than the those provide by the mask of shadows. Moreover, he was sure that the Void Talons had more skills as he saw them being used in his previous life. It had at the very least a berserk skill which was provided by it. Such skilsl were as important as a life-saving skill and was quite common in unique weapons. "Yes, even Merlin''s sceptre should have a berserk skill as it is a unique weapon," thought Shadow as he didn''t find any skills in the description. He immediately checked his chat to confirm this again from the description of the sceptre. He looked quite confused and the disappointment was quite apparent in his face. On the other hand, Merlin was very happy and was gloating that his weapon had more skills than Shadow''s weapon. "This should bridge the gap between us a bit," thought Merlin happily. Though he already considered Shadow a friend and intended to form a group with him, he found that their capabilities had a considerable difference in power which always pricked him and made him feel uncomfortable. He began to wave his sceptre and openly relish after he saw the effects provided by the Void Talons. Looking at the disappointed expression on Shadow''s face made him happier. "Stop gloating. I still have two unique armaments and have a higher level than you," said Shadow irritated by his behaviour and the giddy look on Merlin''s face. "Hah, I will get a few more equipment soon enough. There are bound to be more unique equipment and based on my observations of this place, I am sure that I can get hold of better ones in the future," said Merlin waving him off. "Let us get out of here," said Shadow moving towards the staircase back up to the inner region of the fort. As he stepped up on to the staircase, Rozarius popped up through the stairs scaring both Merlin and Shadow. Shadow forgot the spectres and ghosts could pop up through the floor and attack the players and was reminded by Rozarius now. Luckily, the spectre didn''t want to attack them. "Oh! You managed to survive. I have seen the others get back up, but somehow you took a lot more time than the others. Now, what do you intend to do about the promise you made?" asked Rozarius looking at Shadow. "Damn! That was frightening," said Merlin. "Yes, I was just thinking about it," replied Shadow. He didn''t expect that the spectre would appear as soon as he got out of the enclosure. "So, you are going to meet the king, or do you choose to destroy the fort?" it asked Shadow coming close into his private space. "Give me a minute," said Shadow to the spectre as he contacted Rudra about it. He had already talked it out with him before they got into the core region, but he wants to discuss it again as Rudra being a guild leader might have an intention to continue to use it. "Hi Dude," greeted Balthazar as soon as he lifted the call. "What do you think about the heavenly oath that I have to fulfil after the test. I am thinking of blowing up the fort." "That sounds like the best idea. Currently we don''t have a way to even go to the king to report to him. I have checked. To get to the king we at least need to be a noble to request an audience. Apparently only nobles would be given audience within the day," said Rudra. "Moreover, such a thing would require a lot of effort and even if I force the guild to work for you to help you in quests to increase your nobility, it wouldn''t happen anytime soon," he continued sounding a bit remorseful. Balthazar who had been in a lot of trouble had still provided a large amount of help to him recently and he wished to help him in game at least. It was the only place that he might have more influence than Balthazar. "Yes, I am thinking the same. Even trying to increase my status in the kingdom is a waste as if as I can''t stay in the game for longer duration due to my job. It would be a waste of resources to use the guild to increase my nobility status," replied Balthazar. As he heard the tone of Rudra''s voice, he could immediately guess that it was on his mind and he gave an explanation himself, so as to placate the unease in Rudra''s mind. Rudra had provided him a lot of timely help in his previous life and Balthazar didn''t consider any of this to be on the same degree as the help he received as he was considered a famous outcast by the world when he received Rudra''s help. He could only give a business minded answer to Rudra at present and that is what he chose. "OK. I guess Merlin already informed you of the rewards that we received and also that a few more players are attempting the test now?" "Well, he didn''t go into the details of your weapons, but I can always meet you guys and check it out. He also informed me of the others that entered the test. I will shut the fort after they come out, if possible. The spectre caught me on the steps and is demanding that I fulfil the promise," replied Balthazar. "Ok. That is fine. Can''t help it. Do as you see fit," said Rudra ending the call. "Rozarius, I intend to blow the fort. But it will take some time to amass the necessary equipment to do it. Also, a few of my companions are already in the shrine. So, can you wait for them to come out and me to make my preparations," asked Shadow looking at the spectre. "I am willing to wait for your companions, but how long would it take to make your preparations to blow up the fort?" asked Rozarius. "It is no small effort to destroy such a well-built and sturdy fortress. It would definitely take a few days to accomplish this," replied Shadow. He also found the task quite difficult. To blow up the room, he would need to create a few large dynamites which could break the rock of the hill. Seeing that the fort was sculpted into the hill, blowing it up is the same as destroying the base of the hill. Moreover, seeing that the fort also has 60% of the hill above it, one can guess how sturdy the fort walls would be. "To be frank, I didn''t expect you to come out unscathed. I am willing to follow you as you and your companions are the only ones that I know apart from Lord Silvannus who managed to accomplish this. So, I guess I can tell you this," said the spectre. "Follow me." He led them up the staircase to a point at the middle of the stairs. He pressed against a drawing of the champion (berserker lord) fighting a serpentine beast. It produced a clicking sound as the part of the drawing flipped over revealing a lever. "This was constructed by Lord Silvannus. This was the protocol for the worst-case scenario. This lever can collapse the core region magically. Now that others would sooner or later know about the shrine. I would like you to use this. If you were stronger, I would have wished that you protect the fort. To protect the fort, one would require a strength on par with the Lord Silvannus, but your strength is equal to an ant''s when compared to me when I was alive, far from being comparable to the lord," explained the spectre. "Use the lever to stop it, when your companions are out. At the very most, they should take about 10 hours. I would have thought that a person died if he didn''t return after 6 hours, but after you I think 10 hours can be considered something that is acceptable. After that I need you to collapse it. If not for the fact that only the living can use this lever, we wouldn''t be having this conversation at all," it said as it went through the stairs again disappearing from their sight. "Well, that make our job quite simpler," said Merlin. He was also thinking about how to fulfil the heavenly oath taken by Shadow. Though it didn''t have any direct effect on him. Failure to fulfil the oath would be the same as crippling a member whom he wanted on his team. So, he was glad that this problem had its conclusion. Chapter 101 - Blazing Fury Now, that they have decided on what to do with the fort, Rudra already informed in the guild chat that it is best that they get out of the inner region as there is a high chance that if Shadow fails to complete his quest in the core region, the entire place might collapse. Though it is a lie, it served the purpose of convincing the members of the guild quiet. It also would divert the suspicions of anyone in other guilds who would accidentally came to know about the unique weapons as no sane person would intentionally bury a place which could provide them with such good equipment. He went back to the enclosure as he couldn''t get out of the fort and carry on with the usual without fulfilling the heavenly oath and he had to wait for the four members of the guild to return before he did that. "How long had it been since they went inside?" Shadow asked Merlin. "Two of the four already failed the test and re-spawned at the city, the other two have been in there for more than four hours now. Wait for them here. I am going out," said Merlin as he sent the names of the remaining two through personal chat. "Now that quite a number of the guild members are in the city, I want to get out of the guild and create an adventurer team. So, need to get to the Adventurers Association to register," said Merlin as he started to channel his hearthstone. An adventurer group wasn''t much different from a guild, both were almost the same and were a number of players helping one another in the game and both would also have a number of rules governing them. It also had a similar hierarchy to oversee the players, but the power held by the leaders in guilds differed from that of adventurer groups. Players in adventurer teams had a lot less responsibilities to the group and don''t usually have the stringent contracts that guilds require. The numbers are also usually smaller as these teams usually consist of a close-knit group of players of similar calibre. They don''t have mass recruitments and large numbers like guilds. The adventurer teams also didn''t require them to have to spend fixed number of hours in the game. With everyone out of the core region only Balthazar remained in the enclosure waiting for the other two to get out of the test area. He had already put in a reminder in the game to inform his as soon as the two became available. If they get out of the test either by death or passing it, they would be online and available for communication. As everyone left, Shadow too made his way out of the fort. He lied to those that were guarding the entrance to not enter inside as it was dangerous and that only he only came out as he had to collect something personally in the forest for his quest. He was at level 11 right now and considered leveling up very important right now. Players from other guilds had already entered the city right now. The Crimson Realm guild had gained its prestige in entering the city first and was successful in getting more players than other guilds due to the use of the engineering tools, but this advantage would slowly start to diminish if they took it for granted. Their advantage had already drawn the vigilance of the other guilds and many guilds who failed to get into the city the previous day were already paying extra attention as they were already left behind by the Crimson Realm on the first day. The shop at the Blackrock Town also had a good turnout and lot of sales during the day, which put the other guilds in much more stress and working hard. Apart from the Crimson Realm guild, he had to make sure he was above the others in the game as he couldn''t be playing the game full-time. He had to find out the threat to his life, so he couldn''t waste anytime waiting for the others to come. He made his way out of the fort into the jungle. The jungle was filled with a bunch of monsters which were at the same level as him. Moreover, the field about 15 min away from the fort were filled with white horn deer which were level 12 beasts. It was a good place to farm for him singly. Though he was at level 11 right now, it was quite easy for him to hunt beasts that were even level 14. The only reason he didn''t go deeper into the forest to do that was that it would take more time to come back to the fort, once the remaining of the two players were done with the test. On his way out of the forest, he received a message from the system inviting him to join a newly formed adventurer team named ''Blazing Fury''. It was accompanied by a note from Merlin indicating that it was the team that he had created. "Blazing Fury? Huh! Guess somethings don''t change in this timeline," thought Balthazar as he accepted the invite joining the group. As soon as he did another panel appeared beside the guild panel in his view. It was for the adventurer team and was quite similar to that of a guild. Apart from the original seven a couple more were in the group who were unknown to him. Their names were Bitter Beast, Grenadier Mage and Psychotic Mob. They were a druid, an elementalist and a summoner. The list of the members in both the guild and the team panel showed him as a multi-faction entity. Both Rudra and Merlin sent messages to him as soon as they have seen the same. Though they expected Shadow to stay in the Crimson Realm guild as a honorary elder, they didn''t expect the game to have a feature that would actually allow such a thing. So, they immediately called him to find out. "I just accepted his invite and forgot to remove myself from the guild," answered Shadow feinting that he didn''t know it was possible. After a couple more questions, they both accepted it. Rudra checked his settings and removed the tag from showing in the guild members list as many would have worries if a player is in multiple factions as it is constraint on loyalty. He also changed the contracts so that others may not use this trick. "So, what is with the name?" Shadow called Merlin. "I expected something indicating mages in the adventurer team name," he said. "I thought of Magus Magnum but was overruled by my cousin and others. She suggested the name which was accepted by the other," replied Merlin sounding gloomy. "Isn''t mine a better name?" he asked hopefully. "It would have been great, if the team was made of only mages like your first one was," replied Shadow. "But for this team, it is a bit ridiculous silly and sounds like the name of those a.d.u.l.t toys. So, really glad that your cousin has bit more naming sense that you." "Tcha! All of you are the same. Thinking of that thing as soon as hear the word ''Magnum''" replied Merlin as he cut the call. Laughing at Merlin''s crazy for mages, he made his way out of the forest to hunt the deer. It was easy prey for him and with his level below them, he got more experience. The passive effects of his new weapons were quite useful too. It was far easier to cripple the beasts. Apart from that, when these weapons were changed to piolets, they could be used to make moves similar to those of a hunting sickle. He observed that it could be used to pull the beasts down or tear into their skin causing better bleed effect that simple slashes with a dagger. This continued on for about 30 minutes before, he got a reminder that the remaining two had come online. He immediately made his way back to the fort in a hurry and went down the staircase. He found Harry waiting for him at the lever. "You here finally," said Harry as he saw Shadow coming down the stairs. "Let us get it done then." "You got anything good from there?" asked Shadow tilting his head towards the bottom of the stairs. "It ain''t anywhere close to what you or Rudra got. Got an upgradeable armor piece and a dark gold leg guards. Nothing I could use much. I would have rather had the unique weapon any of these," said Harry. He was quite disappointed that he didn''t make the cut when they decided Perennial to be among the twelve who first went to check the core region, but he knew that he wasn''t the best druid character in the guild. He had been a bit more enthusiased towards the trade professions and was one of the few forgers who had been with the guild from the start. He also studied engineering with Rudra and Shadow in college and wanted to explore the engineering trade in the game currently. Due to these things, he couldn''t be the strongest druid in the guild, and he felt that he had lost that chance now. "Don''t worry about that thing. These things aren''t bad either. Moreover, with Rudra being the guild leader, he wouldn''t have time to focus much on the trade professions. I believe the trade professions will soon be a lot more important and valuable than the other. That part is clear from the amount of demand that we have for the dynamites," said Shadow. He knew that Harry was the one that was making dynamites after the first group of players were brought to the city in the morning. "That is true, and it has quite a realistic feel with all those machines and other things in the workshops, but you can''t deny that it lacks the feel of fighting," said Harry. "Anyway, there are still other chances for me to get hold of such things. I am not giving up that easily," continued Harry as he started moving up the stairs. "Cool," said Shadow as he pulled the lever down to fulfil his heavenly oath. As soon as he pulled the lever, a bunch of rumbling noise sounded through the walls. There were also a bunch of large crackling sounds like that of electric shock that could be clearly heard from the bottom near the enclosure. "Run," said Shadow as he and Harry quickly made their way up the stairs. They both knew that whatever the sound was it wasn''t worth losing 10% of their experience for it and ran as fast as they could. The stairs started to wobble and move up closing the space they had. If they hadn''t run, they would have definitely been crushed between the floor and the ceiling which came closer and joined effectively sealing up the shrine. "System: Fulfiled the heavenly oath." Rozarius quickly came up through the floor again greeting Shadow and startling Harry. "Thank you, adventurer. I guess this fulfils my duty to my lord," said the spectre as it turned into a number of tiny particles like stardust and disappeared into the air. "You know. It is one thing to see and hear them in the previous V.R. games, but this one is quite different. I could even feel a cold wind as the spectre came up," said Harry attempting to touch the silverish particles of light that the spectre transformed into. "Yeah. The somnium tech is an entirely different thing. It is really like a dream or a memory which we are reliving," said Shadow agreeing with him. "Come on, let us get into the forest. It is time we increase our levels." "You know, there is a dungeon which we haven''t yet completed. Why don''t you try that out first. Rudra has already attempted it with other in a group. There are both 5-man and 10-man dungeons," suggested Harry. "Yes. I have totally forgotten about it. Also, I have joined Merlin''s adventurer team," said Shadow. "What?" "I will definitely be helping the guild out as I have invested in it. But I also want to prefer working in an adventurer team. The guild thing is not my style as I can''t spend lot of time, once my medical leave is up," said Shadow. "Yeah. That is true." "So, I am probably going to be a honorary elder or something, but I will join his team. I can''t probably spend long duration of time in the game." "This probably is the best option. Also, with you in their team, we are bound to be in cooperation with each other. Having someone like Merlin as an ally in a new game is quite good," agreed Harry. "Ya. But first I need to get to the Adventurers Association in the city. Might also need to by a new shop in the city. I think we can afford one now." said Shadow as he pulled out the hearthstone from his bag. "You already have the required reputation?" "Yeah. Was just waiting to gather good amount of funds. Rather than rent like in the Blackrock Town, I was waiting to buy out a place for creating a shop. I am willing to try out the dungeon. If you are free you can join me," said Shadow channeling his hearthstone. Chapter 102 - Caves of Lukriag As soon as he reached the city teleportation point, he made his way to the Adventurers Association. He had already contacted Rudra to get him the money to buy a new place in the city where they could sell their goods. Rudra was collecting the money from the Blackrock Town shop and they managed gather close to 800 gold which was currently more than enough to buy a shop in the market street. Shadow got into the adventurer association to report about the fort. He knew that it would be an extremely difficult task for the guild to monitor the fort continuously and though they were the first to reach the city, super guilds like Foedus Rex would have a large amount of manpower and once, a good number of their members reached the city, it would become harder to hold on to the fort and also a lot of effort and resources would be wasted into it. So, he wanted to make use of the situation to capture the fort on behalf of the Adventurers Association. Any such constructions which would help the adventurers and provide a sanctuary outside the cities, could be claimed by the Adventurer Association. Once, at the Adventurers Association, he waited till Rudra reached the place and they immediately went to the receptionist. "I have something to inform to the adventurers association," said Shadow to the receptionist. "Sir, you can inform anything to me. Based on your information, you will be directed to the responsible authority," said the receptionist looking at him. "I have information on a fort that is currently being occupied by trolls in the forest to the left of the grassland. It is about a few kilometres away from the gate," said Shadow. "Hold it. I will direct you to acquisitions," said the receptionist. In a couple of minutes, an NPC came to the receptionist and directed them both to the inside of the complex. They went to the first floor of the complex and into a room which read acquisitions. As they entered it, Shadow noticed that there were 5 NPCs in the room sitting at their workstations shuffling doc.u.ments. The man directed them to an empty table and gave him a doc.u.ment to fill up the details of the new location. He provided a description of the fort and directions and also a picture of the map. He took the doc.u.ment and went out of the room asking them to stay for a few minutes. After a couple of minutes, he came back into the room. "This is a small fort and the location is quite near to the city. We have also had information of goblin in that area and we will reward you for your information and this quest would be put up at the reception hall," said the NPC giving them a paper specifying the quest. "Adventurers Association Reputation +10;" "Adventurers Association contribution points +20;" Balthazar had already expected the reward already due to his experience and gave the paper to Rudra directly. The quest was to clear and occupy the fort, but it required 10 gold as the association would send an NPC to check it out. The rewards were contribution points and certain administrative rights to the fort. "Well, you know what to do now," said Shadow handing over the paper with the quest to Rudra. "Accept it and take the NPC to the fort. You will get certain administrative rights to the fort. Give me the amount and I will get a shop in the meantime," he continued. "That is a good, but what can be done of the fort. I doubt we would have exclusive rights over the fort now. Why did you do this. I kind of expected something more when you told that you a solution against the others occupying the fort," said Rudra confused. "This is the best that we can do in this situation. We both already know that Foedus Rex guild are also at the White Heart City. They are a super guild. This would have the city protecting the fort and not much effort from us. They wouldn''t go against any NPC organization so early in the game for this," explained Shadow. He took the gold from Rudra and went out of the room to head towards the city hall to register the shop that he chose previously. It was a shop which had three floors and cost about 500 gold. Once, he was done with it, he immediately contacted Lizzie and provided the administrative privileges to both her and Rudra. He also had the shop name changed to "Crimson Realm Wares and Consumables". With this done, he went through few shops in the city to by few necessary consumables and then, he contacted Merlin. After they reached the city there were a few dungeons available at level 10-12 range. With his knowledge, it would be an easy work to handle elite mode of the dungeons too. There were two important dungeons before level 15. One could be done before level 12 and the other after level 12. The dungeon before level 12 was something called the caves of lukriag and were filled with a bunch of goblins and trolls. This was the first goblin dungeon and having experience with goblins in the fort, Rudra and the Crimson Realm had already attempted it previously but failed to complete it only due to the traps in the dungeon. Shadow accessed the teleportation point of the White Heart City and teleported to the dungeon entrance to meet with Merlin and the other members of the team. The dungeon entrance was in the middle of a forest area covered with trees. The caves were in a small mountain in the forest. As soon as he teleported, he found himself in a large clearing before the dungeon entrance. The Caves of Lukriag was a 5-man maximum dungeon. When he reached the place, Merlin was waiting with the three new players of the team to greet him. The others were already attempting the dungeon. This dungeon area was quite sparse when compared to the other dungeon entrances that he had seen in any game. "The low population of the city at this time has this advantage too," thought Balthazar as he realized that he almost missed a large chance at getting first clear. With him being ahead of the rest, a first clear of a dungeon was an easy way to get good equipment for his level and it is best to get it if possible, to also increase his fame in the game. As soon as Shadow saw the summoner, he messaged Merlin about him. He hadn''t come across a summoner player till now and he wished that a summoner player also attempted the test at the shrine if he was someone that could be trusted. So, he inquired Merlin about the details of the new player. "Yeah, he used to play a necromancer in the War god''s tempest and thought that it was the closest thing to it. So, he chose summoner. He is a bit disappointed, but he is a bit of a proud and wouldn''t change it to warlock. They are old friends from Magus Shrine who came out along with me. If Mob managed to come to the city a bit earlier, I would have definitely contacted you to stop so that he could also attempt the test. He is good and worked with me for a long time. He was on my side all the time when I was in Magus Shrine," said Merlin. "The other two, I am not as much in contact with them, but they never gave me a reason not to and are both good friends with Mob," Merlin continued to explain in his message. "Cool, I am fine with it. It is not that much of an issue. If they were to be attempting the test, I would have had issues but not now. Let us get to the dungeon," he replied on the message. As he looked at them, he found their equipment somewhat familiar. "Did they also come to the fort and help loot it," asked Shadow as he realized that their equipment was from the fort. "No, I just got this equipment from Rudra. I promised to tag the guild name, if we manage to get the first clear. It is easy to make such deals with guilds that are on the rise. I had a lot of experience in this area," said Merlin remembering his past. "So, I am thinking that we attempt the elite mode of the dungeon," said Shadow looking at the four of them. Mob didn''t have any reaction to his words apparently didn''t consider it much of an issue. The same was with Bitter Beast, but Grenadier was a bit taken aback. "Well, it is to be expected of someone Merlin likes. I guess you like taking risks as much as him," he replied with a small grin. "You seem to have made quite an impression on your friends here," said Shadow looking at Merlin. "Anyone who plays with him for some time would have the same impression," said Grenadier looking at him. "So, all up for the elite mode, right?" asked Merlin confirming as he went towards the dungeon entrance. The dungeon entrance had a small cabin with a portal which would transport them inside. The setting was quite similar to that of the Cave of Wargs dungeon with the only difference being that the surrounding areas was green and part of a forest rather than a rocky area as in case of the other dungeon. As they reached the cabin, the NPC in the cabin was also selling torches as the NPC at the Cave of Wargs. With the previous experience in mind, Merlin immediately bought a set of ten torches before they paid for teleporting into the dungeon. This dungeon was quite similar to the goblin camp which Merlin had previously visited with Quiet Fire and others. He immediately lit a torch as soon as he entered the dungeon and passed it to Bitter Beast. As usual, Shadow went ahead of the others to check out the dungeon. In truth, he didn''t need to actually scout as he had already known of the layout of the dungeon. The start of the dungeon was a large cavern, with had six hollows starting from it. These were all smaller than it and had height of 5 feet and width of 3 feet in the smallest hollow and the largest hollow had a height of 6 feet and width of 6 feet. These were filled with goblins which were very smaller and adept at making sudden attacks from dark corners of the cave. Moreover, these goblins were small and had the advantage against other players due to their size in these smaller spaces. Merlin had already gathered information from Rudra and others who have attempted to go through the dungeon. They have already realized that with the goblins tactics it was best to explore the largest way so that it would be easier to survive through the dungeon. Balthazar knew that this wasn''t the most dangerous path but moderately hard. This path had the highest number of goblins compared to the other paths, but it provided a decent amount of space for the players to maneuver which allowed the players to survive the dungeon. From the perspective of a player who hadn''t have much details about the structure of the dungeon but had attempted the dungeon, the widest path was the best option as it allowed them decent room to move around. Though Shadow knew that it wasn''t the best path and that it would be a dead end, he went in the path so as to avoid suspicions. More than three players would find it hard to move in the path beside one another. Shadow made sure that he was not too far ahead and maintained a distance that would put him at the edge of the region that is illuminated by the torch in Bitter Beast''s hand. A few meters behind Bitter Beast, the remaining three followed beside one another. The tunnel had smaller holes on the sides at random spots. Looking at it a person would be liable to think that they might be in a giant anthill made by giant ants. With Shadow at the edge of the light and in stealth, he kept informing via the chat of the various holes near him where a goblin might be able to hide. Bitter Beast, who was a druid held a shield as his secondary weapon and played the role of tank along with healer. Along with Bitter Beast, there was a spirit wolf that had been summoned by Psychotic Mob. Though it didn''t have much defence, it was a summon that was fast with quick attacks and served to handle any sudden attacks to tank as well as make a quick counterattack. In case, any of the goblins made past these two, the three mage class players all had long distance attacks to support them and with the distance between them, any mobs would also be controlled by the time they manage to reach those three. Chapter 103 - Caves of Lukriag - 2 Shadow took the lead and any goblins he could notice in the dark, he would usually wait till the others came a bit forward and once the goblin comes out to attack, it would be stunned by him with the use of cheap shot and killed by their combined efforts. [Dark Goblins] (Common Monster) Level 10; HP: 3500/3500; These goblins were small with a height of about 3 feet and held small knives, which they used to make surprise attacks. They were also pitch black in color and if not for their eyes, one would find it very hard to make notice of them in the dark. This was the reason that the dungeon was hard as once the goblins failed to make a decent ambush on the player, it was quite easy to take them down. Due to the enhanced stealth effect of the mask of shadows, he didn''t have to fear much from any goblins which hid in those smaller holes and those which were missed by him would usually land a few hits on the tank but due to the support of the three mages, it wouldn''t be much of an issue for Bitter Beast. In short, Bitter Beast was the bait for the goblins as he held the torch and the spirit wolf summon served as his guard. Balthazar made this strategy to deal with most isolated and small group attacks of goblins based on a similar strategy which was well known in his previous life when he joined the game. That strategy required one tank, two mages and two assassins at the front and made assassins quite popular at the start of the game due to the requirement. In this way, they went through the tunnel for about 10 minutes without much issue or damage. They got a few equipment from the goblins during this time, but they weren''t that good compared to their loot from the fort. Shadow also made sure to pickpocket the goblins once he used cheap shot. It was a habit of his that he found to be of good use. Though their travel through the tunnel was easy, he knew that the previous goblins they encountered were all scouts and small scout teams and that the elite monsters would soon make their entrance. If such a simple strategy could be used to clear through an entire dungeon, the dungeon would easily provide equipment and also the game would lose its appeal. They soon came in an area where there were no smaller holes in the walls of the tunnel. This clearly showed that there wouldn''t be any ambushes in the area, but it just signified that the harder part would start now. As the team noticed this change in the tunnel, sounds of clamor could be heard from the depths of the tunnel. In a few seconds, a mob of goblins running towards them could be heard by them all. Shadow being ahead of the rest was the first to identify them. There were about 15 goblins being led by 3 goblin mages. These goblin mages were behind the horde of the other goblins and were either healers or warlocks. One couldn''t determine whether these were healers or warlocks by appearance alone. [Dark Goblin Mages] (Elite Monsters) Level 11; HP: 4500/4500; As soon as Shadow saw them, he suggested Bitter Beast to tank them for a few seconds and hold aggro of the goblins as he wanted to test the goblin mages. Shadow knew that if he didn''t kill the healers, the damage they suffered would be substantial. So, he at the very least needed a path to reach them. Usually, a bit of time and bombardment from the mages would give enough time for a player to get near the goblin mages, but it required a good effort from them and some potions. Merlin and Grenadier had decent firepower against the mob and were quite useful against the horde. But Mob who was a summoner didn''t have many quick offensive spells except spirit bolt and spirit blast. The spirit bolt caused damage while confusing enemies and the spirit blast was something like chaos wave and caused mass hallucination for a couple of seconds. All the other spells of the summoner class were summons which take time to cast. This made summoner a very hard class to play with at the beginning of the game. Later, methods to call forth summons quickly came to be known which made it quite powerful, but these methods required a few rare materials and lot of preparation. Shadow never intended to reach the goblin mages in that manner, so he decided to use a couple of firecrackers at the horde to stun them. Goblins especially dark goblins lived in dark and damp places and a firecracker was a good way to blind the goblins and goblin mages. They were bound to meet other groups of goblins in the dungeon and they didn''t want to waste too many potions and killing the healers was very important for that. If he got rid of the healers, the horde of the goblins get much more easier to get rid of, else even goblins that were hit in the neck and crippled could suddenly ambush a player when he thought that it would bleed to death. The tough part was to identify the goblin mages which served as healers. This could only be done my attacking them and observe the goblin mages'' actions to determine which were the healers. So, it was necessary for them to fight without attacking the mages for some time at the very least. Luckily, with the other goblins nearby them, the players had a lot of cover to hide from the goblin mages'' attacks. Apart from that they had another advantage which was that they were equipped with crossbows and any attack of the non-healing mages, which are warlocks take some time to cast and any player who saw the animation could shoot at it to disrupt it. This would allow them to quickly tag the healers among the goblin mages. Thus, Shadow gave quickly told the three at the back that he had a plan. He asked them to attack at the non-mage goblins only while he tried to determine the healers among the mages and then, they needed to only aim for the mages and support Bitter Beast, once he used the firecracker. He moved back to get closer to Bitter Beast and cooperate with him while the other three attacked the horde. As expected by him, the goblin mages soon started to use their spells and he identified two of them to be healers as their spells were directed towards other goblins. He had immediately tagged the warlock, informed in the team chat that the two that weren''t tagged were healers and began execution of their plan as Shadow used a firecracker. With the confusion caused by the firecrackers, Shadow ran at this top speed evading and pushing the goblins that were in his way. The same time the three at the back moved closer to Bitter Beast and Spirit wolf, so that they could his behind these two, while being able to get closer to the goblins. Even though, they had long range attacks, all of the long-range attacks were more effective and caused more damage if the distance was smaller. So, despite being closer to the goblins being dangerous, this allowed them to kill the goblins faster which was their priority for such large numbers and small space. Once he managed to get behind the goblin mages, it was easy for him to land a few hits on their necks. A throat cutting strike on the neck or a quick cut to the any joint of the mages from Shadow was enough to cripple them. With his experience, it was quite easy to deliver effective attacks. Combined with the new weapon, he had it was quite easy for him to cripple and cause bleed effects on the two healers. He made sure to aim for their necks. All mages in the game had to use a spell for defence or attacks, unless they had special tools or racial traits. So, silencing them was the best way to stop them from using their magic. This could be done by rare skills by mages, but all physical-attack based classes can silence mages by attacking on the throat or the body parts involved in producing sound like jaws. Though it is technically possible for everyone to do it, it is not easy to land a hit that would serve this purpose. The most effective way is to use cut-throat skill. Shadow with his experience didn''t need these skills and could easily cut through the armor and land a hit on the goblin mages'' throats to silence them. Though they are silenced, their natural healing would get rid of this effect in a minute or two. This time was quite crucial, and it was the best time for them to get rid of the goblins. After silencing the healer, Shadow focused his attack on the third goblin mage, while the other spamed their attacks on the goblins. Shadow had a very high damage rate and could cause a HP loss close to 200HP per second with just the normal strikes. Moreover, he always chose to attack at the weak points causing bleed and cripple effects. So, a silence effect that lasted a minute was more than enough for him to kill a mage who had a health of 4500HP. Though the goblins tried to help the goblin mages it wasn''t of much use due to Shadow''s high movement speed. His speed allowed him to easily escape the attack of the non-mage dark goblins. Also, Merlin and the others also were attacking them from a direction opposite to Shadow. Their support made it easier for him to deal with the goblin mages. During this time that he was attacking the goblin mages, he also noticed that Mob also managed to summon a spirit bear in the chaos which was a defensive summon. Its large size would help block most attacks. He also noticed that the four of them cooperated very well with each other and also managed to provide support to him. At this early stage of the game most players are still not completely used to the technology, but these four have already adapted well and are able to work in tandem with one another. They also killed a third of the goblins in the two minutes he took to kill the mages, which was a lot better than what he expected from them. "This might be the Merlin''s personal farming team," thought Balthazar as observed their impeccable coordination. They didn''t even talk to each other, but always managed to cover each others flaw''s and reinforce one another attacks. This kind of fighting required a high level of trust and an almost complete knowledge of one another''s skills and techniques. For someone like these gamers who aren''t natural fighters, something like that is only possible through a lot of experience. So, Balthazar thought that, they were the team that had always worked with Merlin in other games. It was common for skilled players to have their own team while playing the game. The other players of these team might not be involved in competitions or could be trainees or just players who worked well with one another. They needed to spend a lot of time playing with the others and for this, the most essential requirement is to be able to tolerate the others for continued duration and a high degree of compatibility. "But don''t such teams tend to have five members as a standard," thought Balthazar. This was quite an obvious thing as the common dungeons at any levels in most games were usually five-man dungeons. So, it is expected to have five members among such groups. "I can ask him later but must be sure to ask him. Else I might find myself being replaced," thought Balthazar as he put it in the back of his mind and moved on to attacking the non-mage dark goblins after he killed the goblin mages. Being attacked from both sides, it became harder for the goblins to resist and they soon perished. With the goblins dead, the five of them looted their corpses and moved forward in to the tunnel. Shadow already knew that they reached the end of the path. In a couple of seconds, the others also realized the same as found the tunnel ending abruptly. There were just a few tattered cotton clothes and an ornamental stand with a key dangling from it at the end. "The f.u.c.k!" cursed Bitter Beast as he began to search for any possible secret passages. "I refuse to believe that this is the end after killing all those goblins. What does the key even do?" he continued as he picked the key. "System: You have acquired one of the three keys. Find all three and locate the chest to acquire the goblin''s treasure." "Dungeon sub quest," thought all of them as they saw the system announcement. "It means that we need to go through at least three more tunnels to finish this. That is assuming that we don''t accidentally get into the dungeon boss''s location before that," said Merlin. Chapter 104 - Caves of Lukriag - 3 They quickly made their way back to the entrance and took the tunnel to the left of the previous one. This was a narrower path compared to the first, but they didn''t run into any large groups of goblins or goblin mages before they came to a dead end. They spent close to 20 minutes exploring this path while killing less than 10 goblins and all of these were isolated attacks. "This path was a total waste. Didn''t even get any good loot. There is a good chance that the same might happen again," said Merlin. "So, need to have a few changes. Shadow you let the isolated goblin come near Bitter Beast and don''t attack it immediately. The only decent materials that we received were the iron and occasional copper ore which you stole these goblins. So, till it attacks you don''t attack it and stick to picking its pockets." "Sure, its better way than what we are doing right now," said Shadow agreeing to it. He had already hoped that they could do in that manner but didn''t suggest as the loot received would be got from pickpocketing couldn''t be seen by the others of the team. It would be a trust issue for most as there is a good chance for one to hide the real loot and fool the others in the team. This was much more important as he was not well acquainted with the half of the team. Merlin also knew him for only a day. As Balthazar was someone who could not trust people immediately, he expected the same from others and didn''t suggest this idea. Merlin on the other hand wanted to have a strong bond between Balthazar and the rest of the team. So, he intended to do things which would suggest that they trusted him as he was the lone person joining them. He did the same thing with Blinding previously. He considered the loot at this stage of the game to be trivial. An adventurer team didn''t usually involve in collecting lot of resources, they collect gold and money. They form bonds with people who can create equipment and usually purchase any specific armaments when required. Guilds usually collect large amounts of low-level resources as it forms their foundation and is very important for development of trade professions within the guild. So, Merlin didn''t really care about it much. After that they went through a couple more tunnels, but found only one key but luckily, they didn''t run into the boss of the dungeon. They encountered another group of goblin mages guarding the second key, but with practice they had, they managed to get through without a hitch. They got a reasonable harvest from the goblins due to Shadow''s pickpocketing. After that Merlin finally chose the tunnel that led to the boss''s lair. Shadow was glad that the exploration of the dungeon was coming to an end. Though he had thorough knowledge of the dungeon, he couldn''t say it as it would raise doubts and acting clueless and vary for more than an hour was quite tiring for him. He had long since known the location of the keys and also that one key could only be looted from the boss, Lukriag. The path to this time was different than the others. It started as a narrow path but before they crossed 20 metres, it started to widen. There were no holes in the walls which the goblins could use to ambush them. This continued for another 20 metres when they saw a doorway about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide and there were tiny lights like the visual effects of spells on the other end of this doorway. But this time, the tunnel had widened to about 3 metres. Seeing the tiny lights flickering at the other end, it was clear that someone was there waiting for them. The good thing was that there were no openings from on the walls anywhere in the tunnel. They didn''t have to worry about ambushes from the dark goblins, but the lights clearly signified a decent number of goblin mages at the other side. "Can you go and check their numbers without getting detected?" asked Merlin. Though Balthazar had stealth, in open room with lights it is not possible sneak with stealth. Merlin wouldn''t have asked this normally, but the doorway was the only way and the lights could make him visible for small moments and if some goblin managed to view him, it would be hard to escape without severe HP loss. "I will try. If I get detected I can use dynamites and firecrackers to escape, but you need to be ready in that case as they will also attack you immediately," said Shadow as he went through the doorway in stealth. The good thing was that it was a dark cave and except for the spells, there were no lights in the area. Shadow had the void mantle doned which was a pitch black and can be used to cover his entire self, including one''s head. In the dark, this would help to hide due it its color and apart from that, he could also use the void state effect of the cloak in case they managed to notice him and their attacks put him in a perilous state. He made his way through the doorway and started taking pictures and forwarding them on the team chat. It was the best way to record and explore the dungeons. Even if they miss something, they could send these pictures to the guilds where these would be analysed, and their next attempts could be planned accordingly. It also allowed one send information quickly to the rest of the team and they could warn him, if he missed anything. Shadow didn''t actually worry about missing anything or to be accurate didn''t care to even care to observe their patterns as he already knew what is there inside. The pictures too weren''t that great as he could only take when the dim light from the spells of the goblin mages illuminated the surroundings. But he managed to provide the numbers of goblin mages and the boss through his pictures. Past the doorway there was a large circular hall where there were 7 goblin mages by his estimation. Balthazar knew that difficulty of this stage depended on the tunnels they visited before coming here. The tunnels with the keys were guarded by goblin mages. If they didn''t kill those goblins, they would join the fight in from behind and effectively flank the players on both sides. That was one of the reasons why he indulged the rest of the team in exploring the other tunnels. Apart from them in the direction directly opposite to the doorway there was a cage holding a troll and treasure chest. There was some kind of dull blackish violet colored magical field around the cage and a similar magical seal clearly visible on the door of the cage. This was the light that could be seen from the doorway. The lights were the spells that were cast on the cage. The trolls were constantly replenishing the power of the spells the bound the troll in the cage. The troll inside the cage was injured and beaten. These were in accordance with the story of the dungeon. The troll Lukriag was the protector of the caves. Though a troll, it didn''t get out of the caves and the caves were its domain. It used to trade the crystals that were found in the caves with the goblins and taught them magic for food. But soon, the goblin mages decided to overthrow it and bound it in a cage. It was the typical story of a bunch of ungrateful being trying to steal from the one who helped them. The funny thing was that it was a troll mage and goblins who learned. This was funny as a troll which are known for inciting fights was a helpful being and it trusted goblins which are known to be ingrates. The designer actually made this dungeon story as a joke as he was angry with his boss for some reason. Once, he took the pictures, he had chatted with Merlin and asked them to initiate attack from the doorway. This was a real good place to attack as it provided a good cover for the players and the goblin mages were in a large empty circular hall with no place to hide. Shadow has marked a couple of goblin mages and requested the rest to attack the unmarked ones. He marked the ones closest to cage as once, they are distracted the troll would soon start to escape from the cage. Once, it escapes the cage, Lukriag would attack the goblins and players without any discrimination. So, he didn''t want them to attack these two at the beginning. When the others started their attack, Shadow quickly made his way towards those 5 goblin mages from the side. With the others distracting them, he could finally approach these goblin mages without fear of being discovered. Merlin and the others thought that Shadow would want to determine the healer among these goblin mages and that is the reason, he had asked them to attack first. Shadow actually didn''t care a bit about any of the goblin mages as he already knew that there wouldn''t be any healers. These were all warlocks who would be using magic to control Lukriag. Once, he was close to them, he used cheap shot and began to attack the other goblin mages. With him in the midst of the goblin mages, whatever little cooperation the goblin mages had among them went to hell. Bitter Beast and the spirit wolf also got past the doorway to support him in the fight. "Kill these five first and then we will attack the other two. They seem to be concentrating on holding the troll in the cage," shouted Shadow as he was joined by Bitter Beast. The goblin mages who didn''t have any decent close combat skills were at a disadvantage and within a couple of minutes they were all dead. Once, the five died, the remaining two stopped using their magic to hold back the troll and began attack the players. "Kill these two before Lukriag comes out. It will be easier to handle it once these are dead," said Shadow. The two goblin mages didn''t stand a chance against the five players. In 15 seconds, Lukriag broke the bonds that held it and came out of the cage. It had a height of 7 feet and had a very fat belly. This was quite small for a troll. If not for its green color and oddly shaped head, one could mistake it for a very fat human. It had a staff in its hand which was also 6 feet high and had a black jewel the size of a football at the top of the staff. [Troll Doctore, Luckriag] (Boss Monster) Level 12; HP: 7000/8000; As soon as Lukriag came out, it started snarling, roaring and swinging its staff like a clug. Even though it was very fat, it seemed to be in an enraged state with its eyes red and smashed one of the two remaining goblin mages using its staff like a mace, killing it immediately. "Shit!" exclaimed Bitter Beast who was right beside the goblin that died. "This game is going to give me nightmares," he continued as he moved away from the dead goblin in disgust. "It seems to be attacking the goblin mages, get away from them," shouted Shadow as he ran away. He knew that the troll would target the goblin mages which had betrayed it and that was the main reason for him to kill the five goblin mages before he attacked the last two. Else, these goblin mages would run among the players causing havoc among them and also cause high damage. Boss monsters usually only get enraged when their health is at critical state, but as long as the goblin mages were alive, this boss would be in enraged state. Lukriag immediately went towards the other goblin mage while swinging its staff wildly. Both Merlin and the spirit wolf got hit by the staff and were went flying away. The spirit wolf almost died immediately, and Merlin also lost half his health from the single hit. The only good thing was that it was concentrating on the remaining goblin mage and was only running after it. This allowed the players to keep away from the goblin mage. As Shadow was about to suggest how to handle the troll, a single spirit bolt from Bitter Beast causing the remaining goblin mage a second of confusion stopped it. This allowed the troll to smash and kill it. Chapter 105 - Caves of Lukriag - 4 Once, done with the goblin mage, the troll returned to normal from its enraged state. It started using its staff like a mage and began firing shadow bolts like a warlock. Its speed also reduced considerably. "Dude, you shouldn''t have attacked the goblin mage," said Shadow. Being an assassin player, situations where his targets were concentrating on someone else was the best he could ask for. Especially, when his target monsters were concentrating on other monsters were much more convenient. At such times, he could land some sneak attacks on it without much worry. The troll was in such a state. It wouldn''t turn to attack the players as long as they didn''t reduce its health by more than half when a goblin mage was still alive. It was a very good opportunity to reduce its health which was lost accidentally. Even Bitter Beast realized it once he heard Shadow. "Sorry, I wasn''t in a proper state of mind after watching that goblin mage die by my side," said Bitter Beast. "So, any plans now?" asked Merlin. "The usual. I don''t know any weaknesses it might have. I will go close to it. The four of you maintain your distance. The troll is quite faster compared to the previous ones. You guys don''t have enough speed to escape its attacks. Bitter Beast you also change to a wand and support from a distance. I will tank it," said Shadow as he ran towards the troll. "Can he tank it?" asked Bitter Beast sceptically. Though he knew that one can keep a monster distracted by evading and attacking, it was hard task and it would fail once the monster lands a hit. Without a shield the damage of one or two hits is usually clear up all the aggro. So, it was common to wonder if one can tank without a shield, especially he saw the speed at which the troll swung its staff. "Don''t worry. He has very good equipment and allocated a lot of attribute points to agility. He can handle it," said Merlin. He quickly had the other three, move away from him around the troll. They formed a square with the troll at the centre and the four of them at four corners. This was a good arrangement to handle slow moving, high damage monsters with long distance attacks. Even when, the monster would take cover, it would impossible for it to escape from the attacks of all four of them because of this arrangement. The position of the tank also at the very most would only obstruct one of the four. Thus, it allowed for them to easily reduce its health. With Shadow tanking the troll, it didn''t focus much on the others. Whenever the troll had a player within a certain distance from him, it tried to physically attack. Even though it was using the staff to cast magical attacks at the rest, it tried to kick him and punch at him with its free hand. Though Shadow had high attack speed and damage, he couldn''t deal a high damage rate while evading the troll''s attacks, but he still had a high aggro as had continuously maintained a close distance evading its attacks while occasionally using dynamites. His movement speed allowed him to run around it, without receiving an attack. In five minutes, they soon managed to reduce its health to about 1000 HP. Once, it got into critical health, it got enraged again and started to try and hit Shadow with its staff again. In enraged state, it started holding its staff like a mace again trying to smash Shadow with it. At this stage, the aggro of Lukriag gets reset. Shadow quickly threw a couple of dynamites on it, to regain its aggro. It was best to use dynamites and firecrackers while running away at this time to avoid its attacks. Even Shadow, with his high movement speed couldn''t be sure to escape from all attacks if he stayed close and tried to attack it with his daggers. Though it was a costly affair for most to use so many dynamites for most, Shadow didn''t really care about it as the Cave of Wargs portal, still provided him with a decent source of gold. In a minute, the troll lost the last remaining HP it had and fell down. "System: You have successfully completed the Caves of Lukriag. Do you intend to provide your team name for the wall of honour?" This notice along with a text box for team name came up in front of Merlin who was feeling slightly bad that he had accepted Rudra''s offer and promised to give out the name of the guild, if they cleared it first. He only waited for a second in thought, but decided to put in the guild name. "Tcha! I am not going to make such promises again," said Merlin talking to himself loudly as he put in the name "Crimson Realm" and selected enter. White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merling Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast and Psychotic Mob, the members of Crimson Realm for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 White Heart City reputation points and 10 gold. White Heart Kingdom System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merling Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast and Psychotic Mob, the members of Crimson Realm for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart Kingdom reputation points and 1 skill point. "System: First clear rewards will be delivered to you via mail after you exit the dungeon." "You put in Crimson Realm for a wall of honour announcement?" asked Mob looking at Merlin surprised at the announcement. "It is a small thing. It is better this way. I don''t need the pressure. If those idiots from Magus Shrine think that I have a good relationship with a guild, they wouldn''t try something shameless again," said Merlin. "I told them that I would give it to them this one time." "I don''t really care. It is just a 5-man dungeon but let us not make any other such promises. We also need a bit of popularity for our team," said Mob. "You have used quite a number of those dynamites for this dungeon. Those came from the Crimson Realm guild, right?," said Grenadier Mage. As apparent from the name, he was actually quite fond of using explosive and explosive spells, but even he was amazed as Shadow used 10 dynamites within a minute and wanted to see if he could get a few. "Ya, I got bored of it and thought that it would be the fastest way to get rid of it," replied Shadow. Merlin didn''t care how it was dead and went to loot the troll. It was the most important thing right now. All the things that they looted till now didn''t compare with the stuff they got from the fort and Merlin and Shadow didn''t really care about those. Merlin was already feeling bad that they didn''t get the third key in the dungeon. "System: You have obtained all the three keys. You can open the goblin''s chest now." "Yes, the damn troll has the third key," said Merlin as he looted the troll. "What else did you obtain from him?" asked Bitter Beast. "Nothing apart from a crystal. It says grim shadow crystal," replied Merlin as he pulled out a football sized crystal from his bag. It was the same crystal that was on top of Lukriag''s staff. He was stumped by the small amount of loot that they had obtained from the boss''s dead body. Usually games provided most loot from them. This was something that he didn''t expect but Balthazar knew that it might happen because he used a lot of dynamites on Lukriag. "Maybe the best loot is available in that goblin''s chest?" suggested Mob as he couldn''t find any other reason for the low amount of loot they obtained from the boss''s dead body. "I don''t think that is the reason. Have you guys ever observed that if we attack the monsters at only the vital points like eyes and joint, we get more loot. I mean when we forage, we try to peel the skin and take the horns and other things and check their pockets, right? It looks like based on our attacks the loot might get damaged and we don''t receive any," said Merlin. Shadow was shocked by what Merlin just told. In his past life, he knew only that after a lot of repeated requests to the game company, they revealed this. Seeing Merlin already having observed the same in the second day, he was quite surprised. "Didn''t you realize that by now. I don''t believe you didn''t have any such doubts," he continued looking at Shadow. "I always attack at vital points. So, even if such a thing was there, I wouldn''t have enough data to even make any such kind of deductions," said Shadow. It was a simple excuse which Merlin would have no reason to not believe as he had already given them a demonstration. "Well, you are a freak and don''t spend much time playing. So, you probably didn''t realize, but any player at our level would sooner or later realize this. Just keep this to yourself. Even if you don''t most would find it very hard to attack only vital points to use it. For the same reason, unless someone is interested in farming with the least effort, it wouldn''t be easy to realize this," explained Merlin. "So, you are saying that me using the dynamites is causing us losses?" asked Shadow as if he didn''t already know about it. "It is a highly possible scenario. We can try a few more times and make sure if my hypothesis is right or wrong," replied Merlin as he started walking towards the goblin''s chest in the cage. "If that is true that is going to cause a lot of problems, especially for mage players whose basic attacks are long distance," said Grenadier Mage as he realized that it was going to be an extremely horrible thing for him. For elementalists, a large number of their spells cause extra damage to the monsters. Burn damage, frost damage and all the rest would reduce the loot that they receive, if Merlin''s hypothesis was true. Apart from that, many of the large-scale attacks would prove to be very inefficient in collecting resources. This would become real headache in taking down field bosses. "That is partly true. But mage classes always had the advantage of being able to attack from a safe distance compared to others. It was the reason that a large number of players who had strong long-distance attacks are taken by guilds to defeat field bosses. Now, it became a bit harder, stress would be, put on accuracy and precision of our attacks. Moreover, you need to understand that in a game like this such precise attacks are also very hard for physical attacks. If one spends a second or two more to get a better attack, he might be seriously injured," explained Merlin. "I agree. A high amount of speed is required in real life for close combat. Else, one could be overwhelmed by the opponent''s attacks," said Shadow nodding his head. "He is right. Except for freaks like him and other real-life experts in body training, the challenge is a bit too hard. If my hypothesis is true, we need to have a special kind of practice to hone our skills. It would be too hard to be successful in this game otherwise," added Merlin. "Let us first test the hypothesis. We can go to a lower leveled region like the BlackRock Town to check it out. Based on that we can have a further discussion later," said Mob nodding at Merlin. "I thought that we could make another attempt at the dungeon after this. Maybe the hell mode?" suggested Merlin as he considered the rewards for first clear much more valuable. "We can check it first. If we are sure that it is true, we can make sure we get decent loot from the boss the next time," suggested Mob. "That is not.." started Merlin. "Please. Even now, I am not at level 12 and would find it hard to make such precise attacks on the troll boss. It is not going to be an easy task, even if the hypothesis is true. I would rather repeat the dungeon and get more experience," said Shadow. "How about we first check the goblin''s chest," said Bitter Beast pointing at Merlin who was inserting the three keys in the keyholes of the chest in the cage. "Please, let it be something useful." Merlin quickly opened the rectangular chest and there were three items in it. A crown, a sword and a potion recipe were visible in the chest. "The crown goes to Mob, the sword, we can sell, the recipe is for a lesser potion of heightened perception." [Spirit Wreath] (Bronze Crown) Level 10; Requirement: Intelligence: 30; Defence +5; Intelligence +5; Special Effect: Spirit Mode: Puts a person in a state of being able to perceive spirits faster. In this state, one would be able to cast all spirit skills including summons at double the speed. Duration: 10 seconds; Cooldown: 10 minutes; Durability: 30/30; [Bastard Sword] (Silver two-handed sword) Level 10; Attack Power +25; Requirement: Strength 20; Endurance: 20; Strength +4; Special Effect: Heavy Strike: Grants a strong push back effect and double damage; Cooldown: 5 minutes. Durability :30/30; [Lesser Potion of Heightened Perception] Increases the perception of a player enabling one to detect beings in stealth for a duration of 30 seconds. Materials Required: Violet Poppies x 2, Horns of White Horn Deer x 2; Chapter 106 - A new recruit "So, shall we collect the first clear rewards and attempt the hell mode of the dungeon?" asked Merlin. "As good a plan as any," said Mob following him. "Really! We are going to attempt the hell mode? We aren''t even at level 12," said Bitter Beast. "Yes. From our past observations, we know that it is almost impossible to clear the hell mode if we are not at the highest level allowed in the dungeon. It is going to be extremely hard without good equipment too," added Shadow agreeing with Bitter Beast. "When are you logging out?" asked Merlin suddenly It was a few minutes past 4 a.m in real-time. Even if he managed to get to level 12, it would be hard to complete the hell mode before 5 a.m. when Balthazar needed to be out for his daily training. He had already skipped a few lessons and both Lucius and Salazar already mailed him saying that he better not miss any more. "I need to get out by quarter to 5, can''t stay longer than that," said Shadow. "Is that specific to today?" "No. It is a regular thing. Need to do it daily and wouldn''t usually be back before 7 a.m. Sometimes, it might take more time," said Shadow. "Come on? Is it really that important?" asked Bitter Beast. He was concerned that if Shadow would go out, the others might consider attempting the hell mode immediately. "Dude. I am really into playing this game, but I can''t let go of my daily routine even during leave. Once, I am medically cleared to get back to my job, I will be spending less and less time in the game," said Shadow. "Let us leave it at that. It is not that big an issue," said Merlin. "How about you guys ask the fifth member of your team to join?" asked Shadow. He had already thought about it previously during the dungeon and had wanted to ask them about it. Unexpectedly, the whole lot of them had gone a bit glum, when he asked about it. "How did you know about him?" asked Merlin. The fifth guy was the main reason that the other four got out of the Magus Shrine. He and Merlin were the two members of the main roster of the Magus Shrine who fell out of odds with the others. "It is apparent that you guys know each other moves very well and can cooperate without effort. So, you are a team who had practiced together before. Usually, such farming teams have five members, so I guessed that there would be a fifth," replied Shadow. "Hmm. I guess you really aren''t involved much in gaming for the past few years," said Merlin. "Dresden is our fifth member. He is currently a vice-leader of the Magus Shrine and we really can''t expect him to join us," he continued. "Dresden''s Ghost?" asked Shadow. He also knew Dresden''s Ghost. He was the first vice-leader of the Magus Shrine in his previous life. He was an elementalist second only to the guild leader, Azreal in the Magus Shrine. "Can you tell me why you sold your shares and got out of the guild?" he messaged privately to Merlin. "Yes. the guy who played Dresden''s Ghost. A couple of players from our roster were about to retire. They had contracted some kind of radiation poisoning in an accident and wanted to get out as they couldn''t play. We had some issue in the new recruits that the Azreal was considering. He was a bit adamant to join some players, who aren''t that good and had been with us only because they were related to our main sponsors," said Merlin. "Hmph!," he breathed out. "I was obviously against it as they were definitely going to bring the level of the entire team down. One of them was especially a self-entitled, rude jerk born with a silver spoon up his bottom. That cause a few tensions and it escalated. Sadly, Dresden decided to remain even though we left. He needed the money and can''t really fault him for deciding to do so," said Merlin. "So, can''t get Dresden to join us," said Bitter Beast who seemed to be angry and spouting when Merlin was explaining. It was clear from his expression that Bitter Beast was probably one of the players whom Merlin suggested or at the very least was against Azreal in the quarrel. "Hmm. I''m sorry. Sometimes, things just don''t go as we hope," said Shadow. "It isn''t a big thing. I got enough money from my sale of the guild shares to set up a workshop and a new team," said Merlin waving his hand. "Just need to find a good place to move to." "You looking into it? Found a decent place?" "Yeah, I tried but those idiots are trying their best to block me. They intentionally bought two sites in cities that I was about to set up camp and set up their workshops just for that purpose. With them as competition, it is hard to get any players. So, I moved to my cousin sister''s place and am searching from there while using her ID. So, I set up up an adventurer team and decided not to take any major sponsors this time," said Merlin. "No sponsors?! That put a break in my plans," said Shadow in a mocking tone. "Yeah. I am telling this to you beforehand. I knew that you were interested in sponsoring the team. So, consider this prior intimation. Not going to accept any major sponsors and am going to be the owner of the new place holding a majority share always," said Merlin looking at him. "Fine. It is not big thing. But, let us get back to the problem at hand. You guys need a fifth player for dungeons and other things as you can''t expect my presence at all times," said Shadow diverting the topic of conversation. "Yeah, I already realized that and am contacting few players that might be interested. You don''t need to worry much. I already have someone in line and will be meeting them in the city soon," said Merlin. "Anyone I know?" asked Shadow. "Hmm. He is a member of Foedus Rex. An old pal. He named himself Sultan-e-Shehzad. He is a rich kid and also wants to sponsor. That is the reason, I am considering whether or not to take him in," said Merlin to all of them. Merlin''s words were news to all of them as the other three apart from Shadow had also never been told about him. There were all very surprised to hear this. Especially, the part that he was a member of Foedus Rex was also quite startling for them. Apart from that Shadow had an entirely different perspective on this. Sultan-e-Shehzad was the person whose blog he had followed to get to the shrine. He couldn''t believe the person who left Foedus Rex after that incident in his previous life was a friend of Merlin''s. "Someone from Foedus Rex? How come we never knew about this?" asked Mob looking at the others for support. "Yeah, we never heard that you were such good pals with someone from Foedus Rex," said Grenadier Mage supporting him. "I didn''t think that he would leave his guild anytime soon, but he recently contacted me. He had already contacted other teams before as he isn''t being offered a job on the main roster and felt like he might be related to the back seat always," said Merlin. "What does he even play as? Can he fit our team?" asked Mob. "He is a paladdin. He isn''t that popular, but he was once a member of Magus Shrine and had also got out because he didn''t like Azreal," said Merlin. "We need someone for physical combat, and he is very good at it. Moreover, our team is full of mages and need a strong character for hand-to-hand combat. It is a good fit, but he is a bit eccentric and I have managed to convince him against the sponsorship thing that I just discussed with you guys. He actually wanted to meet him in the city, and he told that he would be free in an hour," said Merlin. "You could check him out and see, but be a bit careful," said Shadow suggesting a bit of caution. It was not a bad option as far as Balthazar could see. There is a chance that the guild Foedus Rex might just be messing with Merlin, but at such an early stage in the game, they could be afraid that Merlin had joined Crimson Realm and was trying to build a new super guild like he did the last time and wanted someone to observe him close by. "I get your point, but he had wanted to get out of the Foedus Rex and was waiting for an opportunity to join a strong team for quite some time and I know his real identity due to which I can confidently say that he would consider it beneath him to actually be a corporate spy," said Merlin. "OK. We can try it out and see. Nothing wrong with a few first trials,'' said Bitter Beast. "But you better be sure about it." "He is fine. As I told you before, he finds any two-faced things despicable. In fact, he called Azreal, a two-faced bastard in front of Dresdon, me and a few others. So, at the very least, I don''t expect him to be on the side of Magus Shrine," said Merlin. Though Merlin explained his views and beliefs about Sultan pretty strongly, the background of the Sultan made it hard for the four of them to believe Merlin. They were looking concernedly at each other not sure what to tell him. Shadow walked close to Merlin and pulled him aside "You do understand the predicament and the confusion of the others and me, right? Can you at least tell me his real identity? I won''t inform anyone else and you don''t need to be worried about my safety," asked Shadow in a whisper. "Your safety. He wouldn''t harm you just because you know his identity. More than a few know his actual identity, even though he doesn''t make much public appearances. Your words tend to frighten me sometimes, you know," replied Merlin in a surprised tone. "His name is Shehzad Malik. They say he is the second grandson of patriarch of the Malik family." "A member of the Malik family? Huh? Royalty? He might actually be just like you told. Those idiots do consider loyalty and honour more important than their lives, but that makes them equally stupid," said Shadow. "You know them?" asked Merlin surprised that Shadow might be acquainted with someone like Maliks. The Maliks were a prominent family and were the rulers of a certain part of the human occupied universe. Though, their name is known to many, not much information about them would be available as they don''t usually publicize it. Both Maliks and Khans had been known to be extremely security conscious for the past few decades. "I have a decent idea and heard a few things about them. It is not a bad Idea to join him in your team, if you seriously intend to have him a part of your team. But if you think of not putting him in the main roster and just try to tag him along, he might end up being a lot of trouble in the game," suggested Shadow. "Well, he is a Malik. I obviously have no intention of jerking him around. He is a close combat player and suits well in the team. So, even if he isn''t in the one-on-one competitions, I definitely intend to put him in the main roster for the team competitions," answered Merlin. "OK. Why don''t you guys check him out then? I will take my leave. I can join again at 7.30 am. We can meet up again at that time. Probably try out the 10-man dungeon then. In the meantime, why don;t we explore the bandit lair at the edge of the grasslands," said Shadow. He had been away from the town for quite some time and apart from the Cave of Wargs, he had not yet explored the Quingol Bandit Camp. The camp was filled with quingols at level 10 and as usual an encampment would provide a good amount of loot. He had previously only checked and escaped from the Bandit lookouts who were level 10 monsters. He also got his first crossbow from them. "Not a bad idea," said Merlin as he realized that they hadn''t yet explored that part of the Blackrock Town. "Everyone was in a craze to reach the city that the place had probably been left alone. I will meet with him Sultan first and have a small chat with him. In the meantime, why don''t you four try to explore that area." Once, they went out the dungeon, they immediately checked their mail and found the first clear rewards. They immediately set to allocating the skill points to their skills. A skill point can be used to upgrade a player''s skills. Upgrades usually improve the effects of the skills or reduce the cooldown and cast time. The skill points could only be used on skills which aren''t provided by any equipment. They can only be used on the skills of the occupation or those learned through skill books. Shadow immediately set his skill point to the backstab skill which he obtained at level 10. Backstab at a 90% completion rate caused about 200% the normal damage caused by the basic strike attacks and caused more damage based on the completion rate. Once, it is updated to level 2, it would have dealt about 300% the normal damage onto the opponent Shadow''s had to skills which were obtained from the occupation trainer, stab and backstab. Stab skill had already been very close to reaching level 2 due to repeated usage. Though the skills learned at this stage and many try to save the skill points for stronger skills learned through skill books, these basic skills are very useful as they have low cooldowns and can be used quickly. Once, he set the skill point, he channeled his hearthstone to get back to the Blackrock Town. He immediately contacted Rudra and Slaine about his plan to explore the bandit camp. He waited at the back gate of the town along with the other three for Slain to arrive. Chapter 107 - To the Bandit camp Slaine was in the jungle by the fort and was exploring the areas close to it. He was mapping the area and marking the various monsters that would be in the various parts of the area. It was a common thing when any guild occupies a certain area. The members of Crimson Realm had formed about 70% of the populace of the city, so they were bound to occupy certain areas and map them when they have the advantage. Though Slaine was doing something important, he was convinced by Balthazar as soon as he suggested that they would probably find a lot more equipment at the bandit camp. Given that he didn''t find anything else at that time, he decided to join them. "I will get someone to take my place. Give me ten minutes," said Slaine as he ended the call and immediately contacted Perennial Light so that he could take his place. "Slaine will be joining us in ten minutes, probably might get a few more players. Why don''t we try to check Merlin''s hypothesis till then?" suggested Shadow. "Yeah, we can try that. I will form a team with Shadow and attempt to attack only at vital points, trying to avoid claws, tusks and the like. You three choose another monster and fire at different points on its body. Try to cover the whole of its body. Let us try it out and check if the loot corresponds to his hypothesis," suggested Bitter Beast. "That is fine. After a few attempts, we can make precise attack and you two attack randomly. We need to check multiple scenarios," said Mob agreeing to Bitter Beast''s plan. "Precise attacks? With a staff? That is almost impossible for me," said Grenadier Mage. He never cared about such things before and as long as his attacks hit the target, he never had to worry where it hit. So, this exercise was something, he was sure that he couldn''t do well. Moreover, even his basic spell, firebolt causes fire damage which doesn''t make it possible to avoid attacks in an area. Only, when an elementalist learns wind blades at level 15, it would allow for such precise attacks at a small area on the target. "Yes, using fire bolts or frost bolts, would be quite an issue for something like this. They would cause fire and frost damage," agreed Bitter Beast and Shadow. "Yes, you stick to the team that does damage all over the body. The rest of us will be switching between the teams," said Mob. Shadow soon found a stag which he first crippled by a hit on its knee joint with his unique weapon. Once, crippled Bitter Beast focused his hits on the vital point like its eyes. Moreover, with the level difference of three levels, it was easier to deal high damage to the leopard while trying to hit only the vital points on it like its eyes. The loot as expected was better than the usual when they foraged the corpse of the monster. They repeated the attempt with a couple of other stags and found the results consistent with Merlin''s hypothesis. With the initial attempts confirming Merlin''s hypothesis, they decided to try and repeat their experiment and forgot about Slaine and the others. "Who are the new guys and why are you forcing this crazy training on them at this place? Did you get used to being a coach in the force and were missing those moments?" came the snide voice of Slaine from behind them suddenly, pulling their attention of the experiment that they were conducting. "Thanks, dumbass. That was extremely helpful. I didn''t tell any of them about my job and I don''t coach anyone in the force," messaged Shadow to Slaine before he accidentally revealed anything else. "Oh, my bad," messaged back Slaine. "So, who are the new guys?" "These are Merlin''s friends. They joined his adventurer team recently. You saw their names in the announcement, right?" asked Shadow. "Hi, I am Psychotic Mob," said Mob shaking Slaine''s hand. "These are Grenadier Mage and Bitter Beast," he continued pointing at the other two, who waved their hands in response. "We used to be in Magus Shrine in Merlin''s team. Just joined the adventurer team he started in vita-nova. So, you guys are all from Crimson Realm?" asked Mob trying to make conversation. The introduction continued for a few moments and then, they sent friend requests to one another, before they made their way towards the Bandit camp. Though, the Kanterbury plains had a decent number of players, by the time they reached the bandit camp there weren''t any players visible other than their own group. "No one is here as we expected," said Slaine. "Obviously, anyone who is at level 9 and has a chance of reaching level 10, attempt to reach the White Heart City and once there, they find a number of new things to explore. Even, we who have been at the city overnight have forgotten about it," said Shadow. "There are two watchtowers at the camp," continued Slaine looking at the camp through his scope. "We might need to take them out before we get in. Else, they might sound the alarm. Any ideas?" he asked Shadow as he knew that Shadow had already explored the camp a bit. "i have no idea, how to get an entire team in. The last time, I caused a diversion with my clone to divert the attention of the guards. We can just go and attack them. We have more than 10 members and all are at the very least in level 11 and have pretty good equipment," said Shadow. "Let us fire at the lookouts and guards first, we can get them into the grass and see. if we can kill them easier with an ambush," suggested Slaine. "I think, it isn''t necessary to go through all of that, but there is no issue in trying," said Mob. "How about my use of spirit wolf to get their attention," he continued as he made his spirit wolf run towards the gate of the camp. Both the lookouts on the watchtower immediately started firing at it and the guards also ran towards it. "I suggest you flank the two bandits. I am getting the wolf to the grass," said Mob as he made the wolf ran towards the grass. The bandits were quite fast almost on par with the wolf which was at level 12. Summoners have two different types of summons. One is like the spirit wolf and spirit bear which they can summon frequently. The other types of summons require a lot of effort and materials and these are usually summons which are at a much higher level than the player. The second type of summons are also sometimes required special methods and need multiple summoners. This was the main advantage of summoners, especially when they work in tandem in a group. The second type of summons were usually used to kill a field boss by guilds or in guild wars or large-scale campaigns. The first type of casual summons which summoners could summon without much issue and they could be learned through skill books. The advantage with them was that they could have summons which were at a higher level than the players. Their level can only be increased on repeated usage or special materials or magical tools. With the use of his skill point on the summon skill, Mob had already upgraded his summon skill and thus, the spirit wolf was a level higher than him and it also reduced the cast time of the summoning. "We shall go and attack the guards, Roll and Shadow will handle the bandit lookouts," said Slaine as he as he made his way through the grass towards the wolf to attack. The two lookouts were focused on the wolf and didn''t observe Roll and Shadow who made their way towards the watchtowers in stealth. "Hold on. I will have the wolf run around till they both get to the lookouts. They could have some means to signal the bandits. We will ambush them once, they give the signal," said Mob halting them from attacking the guards that followed the spirit wolf. "We are on the ladder of the watchtower. Let us get to the top and we will signal you," said Shadow on the team chat. "Get it done fast. It is hard to avoid their arrows while keeping the guards at bay," replied Mob. If he just had to maintain the spirit wolf avoiding four guards, it is not much of an issue as speed was the spirit wolf''s forte but avoiding the arrows of the lookouts was a bit hard. Balthazar had moved as fast as he could to reach the top of the watchtower. Once, there he began to wait for Roll to take his place as the other lookout would probably notice when he attacked one of them. "Attack as soon as you can. I am already in place and Mob says that he is unable to keep his spirit wolf evading the arrows," he messaged to Roll. As soon as Roll reached the top, their attack started. Shadow who was looking at the other tower immediately told Mob to start and all of them simultaneously jumped on to their targets. Shadow and Roll both had to keep the lookout busy and stop them from giving any warning before the other took out the guards. There were a total of 8 guys on the ground each of whom were above level 11. So, they managed to quickly stop the four guards from escaping and pinned them down in the grass. The hardest problem that the players would have with the bandits was that they were a different race called Quingol. There had the head of a rat, extremely sharp teeth and a body the shape of humans, but the worst part was that they had an exoskeleton like an insect. This made attack one of them an extremely daunting task. Physical attacks that didn''t land on joints or vital points cause almost negligible damage unless they are the strong ones that had a blow back effect. This made it very hard to kill them. Shadow knew that he would have to help them and decided to take down his lookout as fast as possible. He morphed his unique weapon to the shape of piolet directly struck the blade into the lookout''s neck and pulled the bandit lookout throwing it off the top of the watchtower. Even though they had an exoskeleton which protected them against many physical attacks, the joints and face of the quingols were their week points. Both Shadow''s attack on its neck and the fall from about 5 meters from the top of the tower caused it significant damage and also put it in a stunned state. The attack on its neck also caused a strong bleed and cripple effects. Shadow immediately slid down the ladder, so that he could finish the bandit lookout. Sliding down ladders or ropes is much faster than climbing up as one could let gravity move them down fast while only using their hands to grip the ladder occasion to regulate their speed from getting too fast. Else, their own speed could cause them damage. Once he reached the ground, he ran towards the fallen lookout which was still stunned and lying on the ground without any movement bleeding from its neck. He quickly delivered a few more attacks killing it withing 10 seconds. The fall itself had cleared half its health and the remaining was slowly draining due to the bleed effect. With the additional attacks from Shadow after he reached it, the lookout was easily killed. With his target taken care of, he ran towards the other watchtower. Roll too made a sudden attack on the lookout, managing to kick away its crossbow off the top of the tower. This was very important as without the crossbow, even if he failed to subdue the lookout, it wouldn''t be able to attack the other from the watchtower. The space on the watchtower wasn''t very large. Roll was hesitant to attack with full force as he didn''t know the nature of the bandits. If it got into an aggressive or berserk state, there is a high chance of them falling of the tower and that would cause a lot of damage. So, he was just trying to stall the lookout till the others kill the guards and join him. He was counting on Slaine and others with the crossbows that they found from the fort, which could support him. He planned to keep it occupied, till the other join in his attack and kill the lookout easily. Shadow noticed Roll fighting with the lookout and understood that it was a good tactic, but he had little time and didn''t want to let them all take their time to kill the monsters. Moreover, Roll was waiting for support from others, so he was sure that Roll wouldn''t feel bad if he joined the fight. He made his way up the ladder and that the lookout would probably be focused on Roll. He didn''t even care to get into stealth as that would reduce his speed and as he reached the top of the ladder, he jumped onto the platform and immediately swung his weapon towards the lookout who was using his dagger against Roll. He hooked the piolet at one of its knees and this time jumped down dragging the lookout with him. In mid-air, he swung the lookout beneath him with all his strength. This increased the force at which the lookout crashed into the ground and also provided a bit of cushion for him to land on. As he fell on the lookout, both he and the lookout received fall damage. Balthazar didn''t care because he wanted to complete it as fast as possible. He didn''t care at all to even roll and reduce the damage, but land hands first on to the lookout''s head. His hands held his weapons with their blades stabbing into the lookout''s head as he reached the ground. He wanted to use the fall to cause more damage to the lookout by piercing his daggers deeper into its head. This time Shadow''s falling attack cause a lot more damage to the second lookout, putting it in a critical health state while also inflicting it with stun and bleeding effects. By the time, Roll came down the ladder, the second lookout was already dead. Chapter 108 - Raiding the bandit camp "Are you crazy?" asked Roll shocked at the manner in which Shadow had taken down both the lookouts. Looking at the health bar, he could see that Shadow had also lost some health, but he doubted that the lookout actually hurt him and was sure that it was self-inflicted from the fall. He had already known of Balthazar''s present state as perceived by Rudra and his question was from the sheer surprise of his tactics. "It is faster this way and the commotion isn''t small, the other might notice the guards missing and there are even patrols moving in the camp. If anyone comes close to the gate and finds the guards missing, it would be a prolonged tussle with these monsters," said Shadow as he made his way towards the gate. "Get into stealth and follow me," said Shadow as he crept into the camp with Roll following him while the other were still fighting the four guards. Roll and Shadow quickly came to the first tent. Through the window flap they could see the bandits without their armor feasting on the carcass of a stag. This was the first time that Roll saw the bandits head and could finally see their race. Roll was both a bit disgusted and frightened by the appearance of these monsters. At that time, Balthazar found that he had a few notifications. It was for the quest that he had received when he reported of the bandit lair to the encampment of the guards at the back of the Blackrock town. The number of bandits killed increased to two in the quest progress. [Quingol Bandit] (Elite Monster) Level 10; HP: 4500/4500; "These rat headed creatures. Are all the bandits same?" asked Roll. "Yes, a race called Quingol. I sneaked in last time and got a decent harvest, but I have seen a lot of them in the camp. They also have harpoons and other tools lying on the floor by the river." explained Shadow as he was moved around looking into other tents. He noticed that most of the bandits were similar and had their armor removed inside the tents. It would be an easy thing to take them down, if they had enough assassins. The problem was that they had only two and unlike the goblins, the quingols kept quiet in their tents and either feasting or sleeping. "I don''t think there is an easy way to get through these bandits. We might need to kill through all of them," said Roll as he had also observed the situation in various tents. While they were searching the tents, he had already asked the other to keep a safe distance from the gates and Slaine also perched himself on a watchtower and began to make a map of the camp and mark the paths of the patrols that he could see. Balthazar continued to observe for a few more seconds before conceding. "It might be as you told. I can''t see another way either. The goblin fort seems quite simple compared to this," he said looking at Roll. Unlike Roll, he knew that there was always away to use the camp''s structure to their benefit in the game. That was considered the iron-clad rule of the game in his previous life and it just depended on the players ingenuity and their intelligence. Even in situation when the players failed to exploit anything and fought like brutes, there were always things that they realized later which they could have used to reduce the difficulty by a bit. Even though, it wouldn''t make the fight easy, it definitely would help reduce the difficulty. In hindsight, many could find the flaws of other, but it wasn''t the same when they were actually in the fight. Shadow had seriously looked for anything that could be used but failed to notice anything among the behaviour of the bandits that would help the team''s raid. "Damn, I can see a lot of harpoons by the lake, but sadly can''t transport them from the midst of the camp," said Shadow sending a few pictures of the area around the lake to Slaine. "Found a warehouse here, the last time I came into the camp," he sent a location to Slaine in chat. "Good chance of getting goods from the warehouse. Found a crossbow in one of their tents. So, a warehouse is bound to have better equipment," he told Slaine. "You found crossbows in the tents? Are those the ones similar to the crossbows used by the bandit lookout? Does that mean that we can expect more of the bandits to be carrying crossbows? That would make our task a lot more difficult. How come you forgot to tell me that, I would have come with more players than call for reinforcements," said Slaine. "You better call them now," said Shadow. "Called for help as soon as I saw those frightening guns," said Slaine as he continued to observe the pictures that were sent by Shadow and Roll. A few seconds later, Slaine sent a message that surprised Balthazar and put a bit of hope in his mind. Slaine suggested using the mounted weapons against the bandits. They just needed to find a way towards the bandits without noticing them. He also sent Shadow co-ordinates for a place where a patrolling bandit would soon come close to the gate. Shadow and Roll quickly made their way to the place mentioned by Slaine to ambush the patrolling bandit first. Shadow used cheap shot from the side stunning the bandit and then they both repeated strikes at its neck beheading it within five seconds. "Let us get closer to the weapons and we can take clearer pictures and see if they can actually be rotated to face the bandits," suggested Roll. "It is not a bad idea, the last time, there were a good number of bandits at the very least twenty of them in the lake. Don''t know whether they might be at this time of day or no, but it is a fair assumption that a few would be at the very least," said Shadow. His words put another hurdle in their plan. There were quite a few harpoon guns and other machines mounted by the lake and most of them were not manned and probably wouldn''t be except for special situations. But, if someone from the lake saw them and attacked from behind, it would get a lot more difficult to use the mounted weapon and fight the bandits. "Well, I can only find one way that would make it easier," said Slaine on the team chat. "We first need to get to the guns by the lake. Then, a couple would get into the lake to locate the bandits in it. We use a couple of those weapons to get rid of them first and then continue to attack the other bandits," said Slaine. "Any other thoughts or suggestions? Please make it fast. The patrols would sooner or later notice the missing personnel," he continued. "You are right. Let us get to the lake. If we are really blocked, we can use dynamites and quickly escape," replied Roll. "Sure, I couldn''t locate anything useful either," said Mob who was on top of the other watchtower. He had been watching the camp from another watchtower. Summoners send their summons to fight. So, they tend to keep their perception high to be able to monitor the fights. Moreover, Mob also had a scope which was given to him by Merlin who got it from Rudra. They would also gain a skill to watch from the viewpoint of the summons after the first upgrade. This would be very helpful in scouting and laying traps, but currently Mob had to rely on scope to control his summons like other control their pets. The only difference between the pets and his summons currently is that even if a player is dying, he could give some commands to the summon that would try to complete them even after the player died. "Anyone have strong frost spells like the frost nova?" asked Slaine. "They would be better suited for holding back the bandits in the lake, if they could freeze the area. Apart from that keep your crossbows on ready. We don''t need to kill the bandits, but at the least make sure they wouldn''t be able to use those guns." "Yes, Grenadier has got wintertide. It could be used to freeze multiple targets in direction," said Bitter Beast. Wintertide is just an uncommon skill that send a chilling wave of white particles covering an area of about 4 by 4 metres in a direction selected by the user. Usually it just slows down the opponent by freeze effect and deals negligible frost damage. It was considered a good way to run away. But it has a special effect near water. The wintertide''s range of attack increases in water, its freezing effect also increases and an ice barrier in the shape of a tide is formed which can be used as a cover. "Well, then he comes along with me. You guard the lake for the bandits with me while others use the mounted weapons to attack," said Shadow in the team chat. "There rest should also make sure that none of the bandits from the tents reach any of the mounted weapons close to us." "No, I am not good at close combat. Why do you want me with you?" asked Grenadier a bit worried. Moving along with an assassin usually implied being a bait which requires decently good close combat skills to survive. So, he was worried and started to suggest that Bitter Beast best keep his mouth shut. Grenadier Mage usually played the role of a bombing specialist. He maintained his distance while providing support to other characters. He was never good at one-on-one fights and preferred team fights. Both Mob and Bitter Beast knew this and were silently laughing at his plight. "You are not being the bait. Just follow me. I need your skill to be used at the lake," said Shadow to calm him down. Slaine remained on the watchtower while he provided direction to the others. Apart from that, he also called for reinforcement from the guild and Blazing Fury when he realized that it isn''t easy to capture the encampment. There were a couple of situations when Shadow and Roll had to ambush a few of the patrolling bandits who might discover the others, but they managed to react in time and kill them in time. They all knew that they could only sneak in till a certain distance. The area around the lake had a decent number of bandits and anyone without stealth skill would be detected. Slaine had already sent everyone marked position for the mounted weapons based on the pictures that Roll and Shadow sent him. "Guys you need to make it to the points that I sent you and hold the positions. There are three mounted guns near the lake close to us. We need to secure them. There is a bandit near by the one in the centre and that gun is closest to us. Shadow and Roll will help secure it quickly and then they will get to breaking a couple of gun mounts. Let the ones who have crossbows accompany them as there is a high chance that the bandit might turn the gun pointing at the lake around and use it on us," said Slaine in the chat. "Each of the guns will have two players with it. One to use it and other to try and protect it. You have crossbows and dynamites which you could use, but make sure to at the very least keep one dynamite with you in case the plan fails and we need to run back out," continued Slaine. "Yes, dynamites are quite useful with these quingols. Though they have a tough shell, they burn easy and like water. So, a dynamite would be very useful to handle them," said Shadow agreeing with Slaine. "What am I doing?" asked Grenadier as he moved beside Shadow along with Bitter Beast and Mob. Shadow quietly sent them messages asking them to accept the quest to kill the bandits, that he had received from the soldier at the rear of the Blackrock Town. Shadow thought that it was a simple quest and it is best to share it with them rather than the guild as he possibly would be playing with them more than the guild. "Stick with Shadow and follow whatever he says. We need to just hold on for a few minutes. I have already called for reinforcements from the guild, but as there is a high chance that the patrols will soon find the bandits missing and raise the alarm, we are making the first attack before the others come here. I am staying behind and will provide directions from the watchtower. Keep in your positions. I am waiting till it is the best time and when I give the signal run," said Slaine. Slaine had been monitoring the situation in the camp from his perch. He had them wait behind a tent ducked and out of view of from any windows of the tents. He wanted them to wait for a time when there are a smaller number of bandits in their way to the lake. He just hoped that none of them the others in the tents come out. A few seconds later, he felt that it was the best time and more delay might probably make them realize that some of the bandits were no longer in the camp. So, he told them to raid in the team chat and they ran towards the guns. There was only one gun manned, while the other two were unmanned. Grenadier and two others ran towards the manned gun. When the others were waiting when Slaine told them to, Roll and Shadow had already moved closer to the gun in stealth. They three of them had crossbows which they fired one after the other aiming at the bandits back as soon as he noticed them. The bandit immediately started turning the gun towards them. There was another thing that was useful in attacking the manned gun first. They didn''t know the method to turn the direction of the mounted guns. It would make operation easier and faster if they have a look at the bandit using it. That was the reason, Shadow and Roll moved closer to viewing distance before they started the attack. The bandit couldn''t even rotate it halfway around before Shadow managed to reach him. Roll had a good look at the levers and buttons on the mount used by the bandit and quickly put in the information in the team chat, so that the other two pairs could get to know the operation of the gun. Chapter 109 - Raiding the bandit camp - 2 Shadow used cheap shot, struck his weapon in the bandit''s face and he pulled it away from the gun. After that Roll immediately took the gun and continued to turn it in the direction of the other bandits. As soon as they attacked the commotion had been noticed by the other bandits nearby and they sounded out the alarm. The other two gun were also reached by two other pairs of players. Mob and Bitter Beast were in a team. Mob summoned a spirit wolf before he took the gone and started to turn it around as the spirit wolf and Bitter Beast stood in guard. The other pair also got to their gun and started operating it. The bandits were started coming out and began to fire at them. With half the turning already done before by the bandit, Roll was the first who managed to turn the gun turret around and began firing at the bandits. He left the bandit who was previously manning the gun to the other four who came along with him. With Shadow and the other three attacking a single bandit, it died within a few seconds and the other two took immediately took over the gun from Roll. With the three mounted guns in the hands of the team, the first part of the plan was done. Shadow had two more things to take care of. He first contacted Slaine who reported that with the three guns in their hands, they had a good advantage over bandits. Though the bandits started pouring out from their tents, a single one of the bolts from the guns which were the size of a harpoon were enough to fell more than one bandit, if they were in line. The bolts cause blowback, cripple and bleed effects on which ever bandit they fell on. The power of the guns was clear for everyone to see. With the situation seemingly better for the ones that manned the guns, Shadow asked Roll to get to the other guns which were away while he had a look in the lake. He quickly put the goggles that he received from the merman prince and jumped in to take a peek at the situation underwater. There were no bandits that he could see. His vision just under the water surface even without the goggles had a range of about 15 meters horizontally and 5 meters deep. With the goggles his vision improved by about 20 metres magically in all directions. It was enough for him to be monitor the entire regions. "Get into the lake," he said to Grenadier as he put his head out and removed the goggles. He decided it is best to allow Grenadier to directly monitor the area. So, he handed the goggles to Grenadier. "Don''t lose or miss them. Though they are of low level, I don''t have any other tool of that small size that allows me to breath underwater," he said as he put the goggle in Grenadiers hand. "Keep a look out from here. If they appear at a distance, use the frost bolts to lure them and then when a decent number come use the Wintertide skill. It is best if you could freeze a few with that skill of yours," he said as he began to move out of the lake. "I can''t handle them all. I am not good at close combat," said Grenadier frantically as he saw that Shadow was leaving him behind in the lake. "Dude, chill out. Use frost-based skills. Their freezing effect is better when the target is in water and that slows them down. Apart from that, the bandits are already slow in water and none are even visible. So, I doubt anyone would even come close to you before I return," said Shadow as he ran towards the other mounted gun. Roll was also halfway towards his target. They couldn''t target two mounted guns as they are not close to the warehouses which they intended to take over, first. These two were quite far away and they didn''t have the manpower to properly man two more mounted guns. Apart from that, these two were at quite a distance, but Shadow had seen the guns operating beforehand and knew that these two could be used to attack two of the mounted guns claimed by them. All mounted guns couldn''t be moved except for changing their direction. The bases of the mounts were firmly affixed in the ground. So, the only option that Shadow could suggest was to disrupt the system that helped change the direction of the gun that was mounted. Roll managed to reach the mounted gun close to him first. With the commotion being made by the three mounted guns which his teammates were firing at the bandits, the entire attention was towards them. Shadow had already informed him that the best way would be to wast a grenade. A tap wheel like lever is there on the mount which when rotated loosens the gun allowing one to rotate it in 360 degrees. Once, one is decided on the direction, he could tighten it back up. It would still allow the gun to be moved vertically. Shadow''s suggestion was to turn the gun in the opposite direction and just blow the lever off with a dynamite. As he reached the gun, Rolls immediately set to work and managed to rotate the gun in the opposite direction with ease because he had seen a bandit operate it before. After that he couldn''t find out where to stick the dynamite in the mount. "Dude, I don''t know where to stick the dynamite in," he messaged Shadow. "The lever which you rotate. Just tighten it back and put it on it. Balance the thing on the lever if you like," said Shadow who had just reached his own target. "Don''t stay there too long. There is a good chance that the bandits would come to the gun, if they notice you," he warned in another message as he started to work on his own target. He had suggested the assassin players to do this as they would be the fastest in the team. But he was worried that if they weren''t fast enough in disabling the gun mount, there is a good chance that bandits might reach them and then they would be the reason for directing the bandits to those mounted guns. He had similar experience with larger weapons in his previous life and quickly setup a dynamite to break the lever of the gun mount. He checked if the gun mount was really stuck by trying to push and kick it in other directions before, he made his way back to Grenadier. Though he asked Grenadier to handle the bandits and that it was easier to hold them back, he knew that he was sugarcoating the situation. Water or any other fluid would distort the distances that one sees an opponent at. Underwater, an object is usually three-quarters the distance that it is actually at. For close combat, it isn''t that much of an issue, but for mages who used their spells from a distance, one has a good chance of missing their targets. Shadow knew that though it is hard to get used to the life like feeling of the game, many would find it much harder to fight underwater, especially the classes which attack from a distance. It would be especially hard for mages to hit their targets. He was sure that by now, Grenadier Mage had seen some bandits coming towards him in the water and he was much surer that he would have missed a few shots and riled up because of that. As Shadow was running towards him, he saw a section of the pool suddenly getting frozen. It was clear that it was the effect of using wintertide in water. "Wintertide? I didn''t think that they were that close to him," thought Shadow as soon as he looked at the lake. "Roll, are you done with the gun?" he messaged Roll. "Done. I screwed up the first time. Got it correctly after that. Just done checking it," he replied. "OK. Get to Grenadier''s location. I think he is going to need some support," said Shadow. As he reached the location, he dived into the water and saw that there were five bandits stuck in the frozen chunk of water created by the use of Wintertide skill. Grenadier Mage was using the Frost Bolt skill at the other bandits in an attempt to stop them down. He was able to get better shots as they were closer to him. "What is the status at the guns?" he messaged Slaine. "Lot of bandits. But the guns are quite helpful. A couple of healing potions were taken, but under control. I guess, it is a bit better than I expected. The dead bandits here number in hundreds. Good thing. Roll and you got a good view on how to operate it and took the bandit down before they started coming in such numbers. Now they are moving around the camp, they went away from te location actually," he replied in the team chat. Slaine thought it best to put the situation in the team chat as the bandits that were running towards them stopped their advance and were circling around the lake away from the location with the three guns. They would have seemed to be running away and just hiding behind the tents, if Slaine didn''t notice them take a detour to escape the area. Though they had guns which are very effective, the bolts aren''t unlimited and he wanted them to stop shooting. So, he warned in the taem chat. "Might be a chance that they are regrouping and come back in larger numbers. I am sure that a big bandit camp like this has more warehouses and probably similar mounted guns that they could move around," said Shadow. "Start to try and break the warehouse door. With the gun and dynamites, it would quick." he continued as he swam towards Grenadier in the pool. "Wow. You are faring better than I expected," said Shadow as he reached Grenadier Mage. "The bandits at the top moved back. So, more might come through the lake or they might take more time and come in greater numbers. Either way, you get out the pool and cover from the ground." "No. I am just getting the hang of this. It is hard to get practice underwater and I just am able to do it properly," said Grenadier Mage. "Dude, I asked you to do it because frost spells are great at slowing down. I know that you are able to shoot now as they are closer than before but once, they come close enough to initiate a physical fight, you lose. Don''t forget, mages need to keep a certain distance when facing large numbers," said Shadow. It was common thing for Shadow to occasionally train a few promising candidates at the workshop in his past life. In situations new to the player, most tend to get a bit over excited and they move closer to the opponents to get a better shot, especially since better shot at a vital point causes more damage and effects on the monster. So, he had a habit of repeating a few dialogues as he had to monitor them. "Yeah, I know but I would hardly get another chance. Give me a few seconds," said Grenadier. "By the way. You have been playing games before? I thought you to be some real-life expert who doesn''t have experience with gaming." "You honestly want practice, give me my goggles and get above ground. It is harder to hit underwater targets from the top," said Shadow holding his hand out. "Let me take them out, I am faster and it will be simpler. Just want you up in case they need help, it is the best position for you to be most effective," replied Shadow trying to avoid talk about the question about gaming that he was asked. "You played a lot of games before?" asked Grenadier again. Merlin and the others wanted to know as much about him as possible, even though they didn''t make it obvious. So, they at least wanted to get as much insights into his real-life as they could. But that was the thing which Balthazar wanted to avoid. "College. Long time," he replied in a tart manner taking the goggles off Grenadier. "And I have been friends with enough shooters and snipers to know that it is always better and easier to maintain distance." "Hmm. Well good thing is that you have at least a good knowledge on how to play??" he asked in slightly low voice that was almost inaudible. "Yes. I can play these games and was always good at them," said Shadow as he felt it slightly wounding to his pride. "I just had to go into the other field due to some personal reasons. Else, I would have made a pretty good player," he said wading towards a bandit who had come close. Chapter 110 - Warehouse loot Shadow had prior experience in fighting underwater in the game. The fights underwater were a lot different from the normal ones. For starters, the movement speed and strength is significantly slowed down by the water. Apart from that the water pressure, water flow, bouyancy and other effects are also simulated very naturally when needed. When diving and moving around it wasn''t such a hard part, but fighting underwater would be quite difficult for most players as the ones who have actually experienced such things would always be low in number. Shadow had many a battles underwater in his previous life with other players, let alone monsters which are lower levelled than him. Also even though elite monsters and humanoids improved their fighting slowly in fights, it was not comparable to fights with other players and tricks that they tried. When Balthazar started the game in his previous life, magical breathing devices like his own Erdunol''s goggles became common in use. To disable or break these magical devices was very hard. It wasn''t the same thing now. Even the bandits used normal mechanical devices with air tanks. So, the best way Balthazar could see was to land an attack or two on these devices breaking them and after that the bandit would simply have to try and get above the water surface to avoid drowning. During this time just holding the bandit back in water would cause HP loss to the bandit and in the hurry to get above water, the bandits are bound to provide enough chances to fatally injure them. It was a simple trick, but could only be used as he had the goggles which were small but allowed him to breathe underwater. Being small the goggles provided a hard target for anyone and it provided a total of 30 minutes time underwater which was more than enough for him to defeat the few bandits that he could see. Apart from that Grenadier was also providing decent support by freezing a few bandits though it was still a bit hard for him to have a perfect hit rate, he improved in a decent manner. While they were holding back the bandits, Roll came back to support Grenadier above water from any bandits who came close as he didn''t have a breathing tool. The bandits in the water also started retreating and it looked like they would be soon be able to kill all the ones that they engaged them and go back to help the others as a loud boom sounded from above. "We broke through. Needed to blow up 5 of the dynamite sticks at once, but it got us through the warehouse door," messaged Slaine in the chat. "Those were our last dynamites. Quickly get in and loot the warehouse," he continued. "How could you use all of them? We might need some if they attack back," said Roll. "The reinforcements are less than half a minute away. With the pics I sent them, they would barge into the camp," said Slaine as he posted a couple of pictures of the warehouse in the chat. There were a few stands filled with swords and other armaments along with a few chests. "Check for any traps," said Shadow. "Ya, one trap was triggered we are checking for more. Could use your help here," said Slaine. "Then, you would have lost a few of the armaments too, right?" asked Shadow. He knew that any such warehouses which would have traps would definitely cause a few damages to the things around it. "Yes, even the bomb blowing the door caused damage to other armaments by its side. The traps are simple. They are common tripwires and I already collected one," said Slaine. "But could definitely use your help in picking the door lock of the other warehouse." "Ok. I am on the way back. It is good if one can check the tents and the area around the lake too. There is a good chance of finding diving tools in there," said Shadow as he got out of the lake and began to run towards the other warehouse behind Roll and Grenadier. "Yes, we can do that. The area around is cleared of all bandits. The only problem is having enough players to take these back. Brick is already on the way with about thirty players above level 10, but might need more numbers to carry back the tools, if we open up the second warehouse," said Slaine. "So, are any others coming?" asked Roll. "These tools and armaments are all at level 10, at most. So, Rudra suggested that we take it easy and decided to put a halt on the number of members above level 10 to the 30 that are coming to reinforce us. Lizzie is putting together a group to help us transport but none of them reached level 10 and are to help only moving the loot back to the shop," said Slaine informing this to the entire group in the team chat. "Ya. It is understandable to focus more in the city area. Just thought that with the players around the fort freed up, We could get more players here. You know, that the population of the town would surely grow," said Shadow a bit dejected about Rudra''s view. He felt that he could surely put in more efforts into the town. Even though it is a small town, it would soon be upgraded to an intermediate town and it is always sensible to keep a good amount of strength in a town which has a good chance to upgrade. "Yes, but Rudra is a bit concerned as Foedus Rex and Sirius Imperials are both at the White Heart City. Sirius Imperials are a bit friendly and intend to cooperate with us. Foedus Rex guys are crazy. They are a super guild and they have already had conflicts with both us and Sirius guys," said Slaine. "Shit! Why? It is just the second day," said Shadow in anger. This wasn''t expected by Shadow. He knew that Foedus Rex would be at White Heart City as a couple of their vice leaders would get started at a village near it. But they had always been tolerant of other guilds and didn''t start unnecessary fights with new guilds. Crimson Realm was considered a second rate in his previous life and hence, it didn''t really care much and allowed them to co-exist. Foedus Rex just considered other guilds as healthy competition and only if they wanted any resources or lands occupied by other guilds, it would resort to force. "We have caused quite a bit of ruckus and also got a few first clears. It kind of puts the impression that we are investing a lot and is also considered as a show strength. With two of the vice captains here, they might see it as a loss of face and are anxious and angry to prove themselves. So, anywhere they, find us, they start a fight," replied Slaine. "How were the results?" asked Shadow. "Those were just a few tussles between the a few members. Hardly worth mentioning, but Rudra is worried and wants to avoid fights with them. Their numbers are quite large and they could overwhelm us with numbers if they are able to get players from other cities. There is also another thing that is there which you didn''t hear from me," said Slaine. "So, secretive!! What is it?" asked Balthazar. "Concentrate on the camp for now. Focus on picking the lock. You are the best that we got for that. I will tell you after the raid," said Slaine. "Fine," said Shadow as he had already reached the second warehouse. He quickly set to opening the lock on the warehouse door. As he opened the door, a stink of dead fish wafted out. He went in to check the goods inside. There were rows of diving gear neatly lined along the racks of the walls of the warehouse, while there were tubs filled with dead fishes and other sea monsters on the ground. There were also few chests placed in the warehouse. Shadow immediately sent the picture of the floor in the team. "Let us make taking the diving gear our priority. If use these, we may be able to explore underwater regions much easily," he said to Slaine as he started looking for the traps that Slaine warned him about. He could only see a few tripwires connected to mines. He found one just by the door and two more in before a couple of chests. It was quite easy to disarm an amateur tripwire trap like the ones in the warehouse. They were just wires which when pulled would pull the pins of mines placed at the diving gear. These were clearly meant to destroy the tools than let them fall into intruders hands. In a game such as vita-nova, this was much more disastrous than if they would be aimed at the players. This is because, an injured a player can be healed easily, but the gear destroyed can''t be repaired back to the earlier state easily. Trap disabling would be made into a skill on later upgrade of the game due to introduction of magical traps, but right now it was a lot simpler. The tripwires are only useful as long as they aren''t noticed. Once noticed, they are quite easy to disable. To disarm them, Shadow had two options. He could either cut the wire without triggering the trap and can put the mine in his bag or slowly get to the mine and dig it out without disturbing the pin or letting it come out. The second method is a two man job as they didn''t have any tools like tape which could be used to hold the pin in its place. So, one player needs to hold the pin in its place while the other digs out the mine. Once, the mine is pulled out and wire is loose, the other end of the wire can be pulled out and the entire thing can be stored in the bag. This allows the mine to be easily reused too. This was the method used by Slaine. The first one required a player to use some tool to cut the taut wire without triggering the mine. This required wire cutters or something that could corrode the wire like acid or a corrosive poison. Apart from that, in Balthazar''s previous life someone managed to disarm using a pair of blade in place of cutter. He placed the two blades above and below the wire and grinded it slowly till it got cut without triggering the mine. Though this could be done by a single person, it required a lot of skill, patience and time. They had no idea about the time that they would have before the bandits returned and already had Mob as a lookout with his summons. Though Mob could not see from the viewpoint of the summons, he would notice any health loss or status restriction effects on them. In this manner, he had them as bait. Shadow is quite capable of disarming the tripwires alone but because of the time factor, he asked Roll to help hold the pin of the mine in place as he dug around the mine. In half a minute, the mine at the door was in his bag. At that time, the reinforcements also arrived. He immediately held the up at the entrance of the warehouse and told them about the two traps near two chests. He got in the warehouse and opened one of the chests not blocked by the traps. It was filled with herbs such as white pondweed, obscure kelp and gerrika stalks. These were all plants found underwater in the lake. They were all higher leveled herbs but the first two could be considered common in underwater areas, where as he knew gerrika was an uncommon one which can be dried and powdered and when used along with blasting powder in dynamites doubles the usual blast damage. In his eyes, it was a great harvest and one of them could be used immediately. He moved to another one and opened it finding blue serpent scales, lanstonian scales and parts of other monsters. He immediately realized that this warehouse was the storage for diving gear and resources claimed by the bandits from the lake. "Dude, what did you find in the trunks there?" he messaged Slaine. "They are filled with ammunition. Bolts, the entire lot of them. We are taking back the crossbow bolts and decided to move the bigger ones towards the three mounted guns. Can''t use them without the guns and these are loaded in a strip. Even loading them in to the gun is going to take time," said Slaine. Though he was quite pleased with the weapons he found in the warehouse, the content of the trunk were quite disappointing. Crossbow bolts could also be bought from every weapons shop in every town and city. So, even if it saved some money, he wished it had been anything else. Chapter 111 - Quingol Menace "Forget about the crossbow bolts. They are not worth much. Send some of the guys with you to help me. I have better luck with the chests. These are filled with higher levelled underwater materials," said Shadow sending pictures of the contents inside the chests. "Even when sold for money, these would fetch more coins," he said as he went to the other mine where Roll was already waiting for him. "I thought you would try to disable the mine first. The chest with a tripwire is bound to have better loot," said Roll as he held the pin of the mine in place. Shadow joined him in disabling the trap and in 20 seconds they opened the chest guarded by the trap. It was the same as the other ones filled with the same things. "Is it nothing special?" asked Roll as he looked at Shadow''s unexcited expression. "It is the same as the other chests. Let us check the final one," said Shadow moving on to the next trap. After another 20 seconds, the same was repeated. "It is a good harvest overall. We have many level 15 herbs and resources in these chests. I don''t know what we could do with the fish and other water monster meat in the tubs, but we can think about them after these are transported to the town," said Shadow as he went out. Most of the thirty players who were led by brick had already joined as reinforcement and have station themselves near the warehouses and the mounted guns. Only the assassins were in that group were asked by Slaine to check the tents nearby and loot anything useful. He already informed them of the loot that they found in the warehouse and told them to choose selectively. Slaine wanted them to stay in the camp and help with further conquest of it. Though they had taken over a small area, he was sure that these were not the best things available in the bandit camp as it was quite easy till now. It is an area filled with level 10 monsters. Though they were lower levelled than the players he brought, they had high numbers and the presence of the mounted guns which allowed them to push back the monsters made him a bit doubtful. So, he wanted to make sure that there are no surprises and had all assassin''s moving in stealth and also had lookouts while the others filled up their bags. In a couple of minutes, the weapons in the warehouse were swept clean by them all and they ad done the same thing with the items available in the other warehouse too. Each of them had bag space to fill up 20 slots. The weapons and equipment took one slot each, but the resources and some tools form stacks which could be put into the bags. Once, they have emptied the warehouse, the total number of armaments and tools that they collected was close to 500. The resources which could stack up to 20 pieces per stack were above thousand pieces and they were all at least level 15 or above resources. They were already quite eager to explore more of the camp, but Slaine strictly laid down the rule that they could go further into the camp only after they exchanged the loot that they collected with players below level 10 that were sent by Lizzie. Thus, the wait began. Everyone including Shadow and other assassins were stopped from venturing further even in stealth. Slaine was afraid that they might accidentally trigger the bandits'' attacks which he didn''t want till the loot was safely back at the town. They waited for close to 10 minutes during which the nearby tents were also cleared of anything that could be looted, when the transporters arrived. During this time a few of the players were bored and even went to check the outer areas of the lake with the newly acquired diving gear. The transporters were numbered around fifty which were more than enough. The loot was quickly exchanged with half of them who immediately channeled their hearthstones to return to the town. The remaining Slaine had them wait close to the gate through which they entered and also man the mounted guns. He decided to have them serve as lookout. As they were not even level 10, they would have a hard time to survive a bandit which were level 10 elite monsters. So, it is best if they stay back and be ready to provide transport of loot if required. There were a total of 40 players above level 10 of which Slaine divided a group of ten led by Brick to guard the location by the warehouse. The camp extended to both left and right of the area with the three mounted guns that they captured. He was sure that once they started moving to the left, the bandits would attack from right or the other way around. So, they needed a few players to hold ground and someone to determine and inform him of the attack by an overwhelming force. Thus, he split these 10 most of whom are tanks so that they would have a path of retreat in a dire situation. A death would cause 10% loss of experience, which would pull him back to level 11 from level 12 that he recently achieved when they used the mounted guns to kill the bandits. With these 35 players guarding at their back, the 30 players moved ahead to explore the area to the left. There were a total of 6 assassins ahead of the others with Shadow leading them. They moved ahead of the others to check for ambushes and hidden attacks. As they assassins had stealth skill, they had a high chance to avoid such attacks. Even if the bandits were regrouping in large number, they could observe their number in stealth without alerting them. Shadow had them all check the tents and plunder whatever they found as they moved ahead. They continued for about a mile when Shadow finally heard a few bandits at the tents. He found a point to peek at them and they in the process of arming themselves in preparation for a fight. They were talking something unintelligible and it sounded like squeaks and screeches which made no sense to him. He immediately informed the others as he went closer and found a few of them working on something new. It was an apparatus similar to the gun mounts but this one had wheels on it. "This one solves the problem of moving the mounted guns," thought Shadow as he took pictures of it and sent them to Slaine. Slaine was very surprised and happy as he looked at the picture. He had felt bad that he couldn''t use such gun mounts further to capture the entire camp, but now it looked like the game itself provided him another solution. He started to dream about capturing the camp and the lake area for the guild for a few seconds before he came back to his senses. "Can we acquire them?" asked Slaine. The picture provided by Shadow gave a good view of the new apparatus but not the number of bandits or other things in the area. "Close to impossible. If we somehow manage to get close to it, we might be able to kill them and quickly use it to get to safety with it. Afterwards, we can try to move further into the camp, but it is not going to be possible to get any significant advantage with a single one," replied Shadow. "There is only one of them?" asked Slaine surprised. He had expected there to be more than one. Even if their numbers were lower than the bandits as single transportable mounted gun can''t be used to handle three of the fixed guns. They had already used dynamites and mounted guns. So, he expected the game to have created a situation where it disables these two advantages that they had. "I can see only one, but there is a good chance that they might have others too. We don''t know what are present at the side where we left Brick and others on guard," said Shadow reminding Slaine that they only checked in the direction to the left of the gate. "Forget that for the moment. Can you get closer and confirm that there are no other such apparatus in the vicinity," asked Slaine. "It would be very useful if we can use. It is going to simply attacking the bandits by a significant margin." "Stealth doesn''t make me invisible and intangible. I will try but I might get detected," replied Shadow. "Really?! I never knew," said Slaine sarcastically. "Just try it. It looks like retreating is in our best interests right now. I just want to make sure that we don''t waste an opportunity without even making proper reconnaissance," he continued in a serious tone. "Ok. I just want you to understand that if I am detected, the bandits might immediately start their attempt to get back control of the area that we took. So, you best be prepared for a quick retreat in that case," said Shadow as he went behind a tent. Shadow decided that he should use the disguise that he used in the lake when he completed the quest from the Merman prince. Using the disguise skill, would have him using rags similar to the style of the Quingol bandits. In stealth, he hoped that even if some bandit noticed him, it might not look twice or suspect him of being a human in that disguise. Sadly, he was horribly wrong, and he forgot something extremely important. After all, they didn''t find a quingol bandit able to use stealth. That skill was not one of the monsters'' skills. The bandits were all either berserker or rangers type occupation. Else they would have tried to use stealth to attack the players and with his enhanced perception, it would be hard for him to miss something like that. So, if one of the bandits found someone in stealth, it would immediately raise alarm. Though Shadow overlooked this fact, his disguise was just in case a bandit noticed him, and he knew that there is a good chance for the bandit to be not fooled by the disguise. So, he had no plans to go into their midst directly, he went closer to the lake and moved into it. He had decided to move underwater and check along the bank first. It was good decision as he saw that there were more fixed mounted guns along the bank than it was during his last attempt and they were manned by bandits. It was clear that the bandits were fortifying the area in their control before they make their attack. There were also a number of spots he couldn''t see and there is a good chance that the bandits are using the tents to hide more of the new apparatus. Anyways, he knew that the present manpower that Slaine had can no longer get to the transportable mounted gun. The bandits could easily move the transportable gun in range of other mounted guns on the banks of the lake and then it would be a massacre of the players. He had no further intentions to get deeper into the bandit camp and informed Slaine about the things that he had observed. He also advised them to get back and abandon the camp. Suddenly, an alarm sounded out in the bandit camp. "Run. They are attacking," said Shadow as he swam in a hurry in a direction away from the mounted guns which the bandits were using. It was lucky that he was underwater, and he didn''t find any bandits in the water. "What happened?" asked Slaine in the team chat. "It is Foedus Rex. It is the Boris Blade. He stealthed into camp and was caught by the bandits. They somehow learnt of us going through the bandit camp and had come here," said a player in the team chat. Boris Blade was the assassin star player of Foedus Rex. In fact, he was the player that had Shadow''s unique weapons in Balthazar''s previous life. The player who reported in the team chat was also an assassin who had a good view of Boris running from the bandits. A moment later Roll also commented on it in the team chat cursing at Boris Blade for mucking up their plans. "Let us retreat. Shadow also sent pictures of the remaining bandits. We don''t have much chance against them," said Slaine in the team chat as he gave everyone the order to retreat of the bandit camp. Blackrock Town announcement: The quingols in the area around the Canterbury lake are trying to occupy the Canterbury plains. Mass quest, Quingol Menace started. Kill the Quingols to protect the lands from falling into the Quingols banditry and prevent their attempts of conquest over the Blackrock Town. The town announcement immediately caused a lot of commotion among the players. A bunch of thread opened up on the forums in discussion of it. It was the first mass quest. A quest that was given to all the players in a region. There were instances of such quests before in other games, but never so early after the game was released. Chapter 112 - Boris Troubles The issue came to be known to many immediately and it was new source of excitement for many players. It was a quest which was given to everybody who entered the Blackrock town and mass quests usually provided very good rewards for the players and it depended on the number of monsters that they killed. As soon as the announcement came a special notice came into the mail of all the player in Blackrock Town providing the instructions of the quest to the players. These quests are enticing to many players as such quests provide the rewards based on the kill count and the rewards they could gather would depend on the number of kills or collecting something that would drop on the death of the quingols. In case of the quingols, it was their heads. The game made it so that the quingol head would drop on its death which could be collected by the players and it wouldn''t take any bag space either. It was similar to a kill count except that it could only be looted from the carcass of the dead quingol. There was a stall set up at the back gate of the blackrock town by the guards where the players could exchange these for rewards and also a new leaderboard set up by the side for the purpose of the quest depicting the kill counts of various players. It was both an opportunity and a headache to Shadow as he knew the consequences of this announcement. He had already known about the escalating conflict between the players of Foedus Rex and Crimson Realm. This announcement was bound to promote this competition. In general, Shadow also considered competition a good thing. It was a necessary element for the growth of the players skills. The problem he had was that their prime competitor was Foedus Rex which was a super guild and two of the players in the area were from the main roster while one of them clearly didn''t like the players of Crimson Realm being able to get first clear in an area which he got sent to. In fact, Shadow had underestimated the problem from Foedus Rex. Boris Blade was an experienced player and he didn''t really care much about the first clears. He had failed to get first clears many times in other games and he was quite rational about it and didn''t have any specific issue against the guild Crimson Realm. He was a celebrity in the guild and didn''t play much role other than standing as a role model for the other players. Boris Blade had two other reasons for him challenging the Crimson Realm guild and instigating fights between the players belonging to the two guilds. Both the reason involved Merlin. The first was the fame that Shadow had gathered. The video of him fighting so many people along with Raging Blade, him managing to get the first clears and also the first announcement in the light race region also involved him gathered him quite a number of fans. But Boris didn''t even put Shadow in his thoughts due to these. It was only when a proposal from Merlin came in the Bicker messenger that he started to put consider him as an opponent. Bicker messenger was the most widely used messenger in the interplanetary alliance and had a lot of features including the virtual reality video messages. There was a group in the messenger that only had professional game players that were crazy about player vs. player battles. It was named "Fight Club." The thing was that only certain player who had good technical skills were allowed into the group. Else, there would be a lot of players who could use money to become professionals and get into the group defeating the purpose of having it. The admission into this group is considered a mark of the players skill in the gaming circles. Merlin who was one of its members had already suggested that they bring Shadow into their ranks. He had already vouched for the strategic and tactical gaming sense that Shadow had as one could have accomplished the same thing that Shadow did through money and a bit of luck. So, to enter the group one always had to be recommended. Even Rudra and his companions were never a part of this group. Tetsujin also had supported him. With their recommendations, some were already considering him a possible candidate. A few playful members mentioned in the group that even with Foedus Rex in the vicinity, the fact that Shadow was able to snatch these achievements at least merited a test for him to join the group. They snidely remarked that Boris was losing his touch which riled him up starting up the animosity that Boris had for Shadow. Shadow had become a small itch at his pride. Thus, Merlin had been culpable in initiating this bitterness in Boris'' heart. Apart from that Merlin was also responsible for the growth of this hatred and provided another reason to Boris Blade for challenging Shadow. This second reason was the issue of talks going on between Merlin and Sultan-e-Shehzad. Sultan was a member of his farming team and the pair of them though were quite good in cooperating with each other in the game had few personality issues and always quarreled. The fact that he is considering joining a new team was quite irritating to him. Sultan always wanted the fame that Boris had, but he never got much of a chance at it. So, he had actually told that he is considering joining Merlin and if that didn''t work out join Crimson Realm and pair up with Shadow and form a new team to participate in competitions. Sultan was just tired of being the player on the bench, a substitute. It was just bad luck that he couldn''t be on the main roster because of the strong players in the team and slowly everyone in the industry began to see him as such, a substitute. So, he wanted a fresh start and a new and promising team. As he came to know about Merlin he was far too tempted to let go of the chance and to make sure he didn''t look back, he intentionally got into a quarrel with Boris and cut ties with guild before he contacted Merlin. This caused Boris to think that Merlin and the new player, Shadow might be considering him an easy target. It was one thing to get the first clears which he could just consider as good natured competition but having plans on his team member irrespective of his personal issues with the so-called member felt like a matter of looking down on him. Though he was a strong member, he couldn''t just be mobilizing the force of the guild behind him to vent his anger. Such a thing would be an ugly mark on both him and his guild. Moreover, the fact that Shadow could do these things implied that he also had decent back of a moderately guild and such means would cause a war between guild which Foedus Rex would also condemn as it was not much profitable at this stage. So, the best option that he could see was to challenge Shadow himself. With Merlin suggesting Shadow to join the group, someone had to test him before he was accepted. So, he wouldn''t be joked upon in the professional circle for challenging a newcomer and also many normal players would see that it was just a senior playing a friendly match with the new guy if it was in the arena. Thus, he publicly invited Shadow to join him for a fight at the arena in the White Heart City. This happened in the past few hours and Shadow who had other things like the meeting on his mind didn''t check upon the forums and was ignorant of the invite. As Shadow had not responded to his invite, Boris Blade decided to find him. He felt that he wasn''t given enough face but was aware that Shadow might have missed his post in the forum, and it is best if he personally met him once. He contacted the person in charge of his guild at the White Heart City, but he didn''t have any leads even from the spies that he had planted. Later, Boris found out that a number of players of the Crimson Realm guild who are at level 10 had been back to the Blackrock Town and went towards the lake at Canterbury plains. So many level 10 players at Canterbury plains seemed a bit off to him and he decided to investigate it and try to get Shadow''s attention. This soon led to the incident of him entering the bandit camp and getting killed by the bandits. He normally would have been quite careful, but once he reached the camp, he heard a player saying Shadows was ahead and he couldn''t help himself from proactively trying to find him. Right now, Boris was at the White Heart City grave just resurrected after death. "Maybe I have been a bit too hasty," thought Boris as he remembered the horde of Quingols that had attacked and killed him. He could have waited there for Shadow to come back, instead of barging into a large group of monsters in stealth. Even for an assassin, that was a suicidal move considering the number of monsters. As he was thinking about what to do next, a few messages popped up in the group for PvP experts. It was Merlin again. Merlin: Haha, I was sent something hilarious from a friend. Ballad (Administrator): Dude, you send another stupid creature doing stunts, you are off the group!!! "+1" "+1" . . Merlin: "Well you would enjoy this one." It was followed by a video of Boris Blade being surrounded by bandit and being beaten to death. It was taken by Roll from an angle that looked like he ran into bandits while running away from others. Merlin: "Never seen an assassin run into midst of monsters for fun." Merlin: "Congrats to Boris for starting the first mass quest in vita-nova." Yaeger Bomb: "What?" Nix Maester: "Was he sneaking to get a shot at Shadow?" Mass Raja: "I thought it was the Crimson Realm guild that was responsible for the mass quest???" King Rex: "Hey! Let us give him a chance to explain." Merlin: "Fine. I was hoping to get a statement too. He screwed up my friend''s quest." Nix Maester: "What''s there to explain. He went for Shadow silently and got caught on camera!" Blue Sky (Administrator): +1; Nix Maester: "Oye! Boris! You are keeping your fans waiting." Merlin: "I am thinking of putting this in the forums. ???? Hee Hee Hee" (He also added a maniacal laughter to his post.) Merlin: "Hoping to show that though Foedex Rex guys want to screw others, they somehow helped all the players." King Rex: "How does this show that? The video shows none of the other players in it." Nix Maester: "I concur. Merlin bro, you need better footage for that." Merlin: "Of course, I got better footage bro. I was just giving some face to Boris by holding my peeps from posting it. He fell all over the ground in it trying to crawl away." Though Merlin didn''t have it, he told others that he had so that he could put some pressure on Foedus Rex. There were some rules for the chat group and making such blatant lies would be cause to be banned for a few days, but only if someone could prove it. So, Merlin didn''t really care about it. Nix Maester: "More footage! What are you waiting for? I hope it is better than this." Nix Maester: "Do have any fights between Boris and Shadow." Boris Blade: "How would there be? We hadn''t even fought yet. Would I be there if Shadow had responded to me or didn''t avoid me." Nix Maester: "Ah! He finally talks." Red Dagger: "Aiiyyaa! Did he accept that he was stalking a newbee?" Clear Sky: "He definitely did." Red Path: "A veteran stalking a newbee. Boris brother, you need to maintain your image." Nix Maester: "Boris! Stalking a guy! I never you knew that you swung that way!!!!!!" Red Dagger: "!!!!" Red Path: "!!!!" Clear Sky: "!!!!" Dead Sea: "!!!!" Captain RoundTree: "Brother Boris. We are close knit community. It isn''t an easy task to come out of the closet. Allow me to welcome you to our group. Nix Maester: "!!!!! Congrats! Brother Boris. Looks like RoundTree is interested in you." Boris Blade: "Stop talking nonsense. I wasn''t stalking him. Do you see him anywhere in the video?" Merlin: "Of course, not. That would be impossible as he was taking your video after we noticed you." Oceanis (Administrator): Really!? He took that video? Merlin: "No. He took the one that I didn''t put on yet. Thinking of updating it directly in the forums." Red Dagger: "!!!!" Red Path: "!!!!" Clear Sky: "!!!!" Dead Sea: "!!!!" . . . Nix Maester: "I bet Boris wishes that he had been the one stalking Shadow and not the other way round. Ha haha ???? " Dusk Sabre: "It looks like Boris had lost his edge." Clear Sky: "Wow! If he was able to sneak behind Boris, he might be a good fit for the group." While the others were commenting on Boris and Shadow, King Rex was having a group video call with Boris and the others on the side. Rex had never thought that Boris would end up in such a situation nor did he think that after challenging Shadow in the forums, he would try to track him. These still weren''t something that he considered to be of much consequence. the only thing that he felt uneasy about was the video that Merlin had talked about. There were two members in this group call that were at the White Heart City, Boris Blade and Big Blaster who were both star players in the guild. "What were you thinking doing something so stupid? Why did you go after him? You just had to wait till he responded to your challenge? It was totally unnecessary. Merlin already sent me the video. If he puts it in forums, you will be a joke," shouted King Rex at them both. He even considered Blaster responsible as he was Boris'' teammate and should have advised him not to run after Shadow or at least let the others know about it. "Merlin was playing his tricks as usual," said Tristar He was one of the founders of the guild and was one of its oldest members who was close to retiring. If not for the somnium tech which allowed even the old to play well, he would have already retired. "I was very suspicious about the was Sultan left. Most probably, it was Merlin who asked Sultan to insult Boris before he left. Though it serves to cut ties with Boris, it also was sure to agitate him," he said shaking his head as he looked at Boris. "You were played by him." Unexpectedly, Merlin was getting a lot of credit for things that he hadn''t done. He had a reputation of doing things by crook, which led to this misconception by them. Chapter 113 - Merlin negotiating "Yes! Merlin is not being entirely truthful. I am sure that Shadow had went closer to the monsters. There is no way, he was behind me to take the video," said Boris angrily. He was a bit depressed and ashamed of this incident. He also never expected this to happen and Merlin''s words as well as his fame suggested that he was trying to blackmail them which completely pissed him off. "Like that matters. Who would verify it? You?" said Rex. "We need to do damage control. First, I will talk with Merlin about it. It is best that we exchange something with him for not leaking the video. It is best if we get that in writing. "That is quite possible. Merlin is a greedy fellow. I know him personally and the fact that he left the Magus Shrine doesn''t imply he is going to stop being a professional player. I will talk to him about this," said Tristar looking at Rex. "We probably need to let Sultan go peacefully and not attack him. He will ask for that in writing." "Of course, he would. Let him go. It is not such a bad thing to lose him. I just let him be because his elder brother was one of our sponsors. It is fine if he got out on his own. My concern is that Merlin wouldn''t just stop with that and he probably knows that we wouldn''t bully him anyway," said Rex. "Why not," said Boris and Blaster together. "Are you stupid? You don''t mess with him. He has a strong background in real-life. Both his brother and grandfather dote on him. That would be of no good to the guild." "Yes, the guild wouldn''t support any attempts by you guys to do such things. It would only be a waste of money and time. You both never liked each other and have separated let us leave it at that. If you are that bored, I would rather you challenge that Shadow," said Tristar. "Why did you think that I had always told you to get on good terms with him," said Rex. "That man has good influence." "Second, as Tristar had just told, it is best that you complete that challenge with Shadow Tyrant. You will also inform in the Fight Club chat that you wanted to see if he was worthy and that you went to test him," said Rex. "But we can''t just let Merlin go very easily. It is best if we put some fear of our guild into him," said Boris. The events that happened made him feel that Merlin had targeted him for some reason. The only reason he could think was that they were in the same city and with Merlin out of Magus Shrine, he was trying to use him as a steppingstone for his fame in the new game. "Yes, it is a simple thing. There is a mass quest in the Blackrock Town, right now. We can use this to send a number of players into the town. They can toy with him," said Rex. He was also a bit angry due to the same reason as Merlin. Such a thing at the start of a game would make it hard for them to establish a reputation in the game. "Boris quickly tell the Fight Club the reason that you were tailing him," said Rex as he was observing the discussion going on in the chat. They continued making fun of Boris. All the members in the group had mean streaks and had a habit of making a big issue of the smallest things. (Fight Club Chat) Nix Maester: "Boris brother. Please respond. This gets boring if you don''t respond." Nix Maester: "It isn''t that bad. Everybody does stupid things occasionally. Nothing to be ashamed of." Clear Sky: "Did he log out?" Clear Sky: "Did we go a bit overboard." Misty Day: "Oh Please! You guys talk worse crap about us ladies. If Boris really feels down about this, I would be looking down on him." Nix Maester: "Ooh! Brother Boris. The feminist is dissing you." Boris Blade: "I swear that I didn''t have any unsavory or evil intentions in following the player Shadow or Crimson Realm guild members. My intentions were pure and only wanted to test the player Shadow Tyrant to see if he is worth enough to join the Fight Club as Merlin had suggested. I only went to the lake as he didn''t respond to my invite. Any unexpected harm that I may have caused either to the player Shadow Tyrant or his guild are completely unintentional or accidental. I have never intentionally sabotaged the quest of any guild in the game vita-nova. Clear Sky: "!!!!????" Clear Sky: "Did someone hack into his account?" Nix Maester: "Oye! Boris, do you a member of the HR team dictate this to you?" Nix Maester: "Or is it Tristar''s work. Tristar bro. This isn''t an official comment. You could have at least made it sound like something that Boris would say." Misty Day: "Why is Merlin so quiet. He always talked as much as Nix." Nix Maester: "You bastard!!????" Clear Sky: "!!!" Oceanis (Administrator): "!!!!" Red Dagger: "!!!!" Red Path: "!!!!" Misty Day: "What happened?!! Why are you swearing at me?" Merlin: "Ah! Misty. I knew that you would miss me. Thanks for the support, my Honey Bunny.????????" Misty Day: "DREAM ON!" Nix Maester: "Merlin! You bastrad! Where is the video?! You were making a deal with Tristar?" Merlin: "Stop swearing and don''t talk nonsense." Nix Maester: "Answer me! Where is the video?!" Clear Sky: "+1" "+1" "+1" Merlin: "What I do with the videos, I have is my own business." Nix Maester: "I knew it. You were talking it out with them. You cunning bastard! You were using us." Azreal: "He is known to be cunning one. Administrator, he shameless lied in the chat and used us. Deserves a reprimand." Oceanis (Administrator): "He just said that he was thinking of making the video public. Not an issue." Clear Sky: "It isn''t like we expected him to actually put it online. Except Nix who is burdened by an overly curious nature, I doubt anyone actually expected him to do it." Misty Day: "Of course! He loves to show off. If he really wanted to, he would have done it immediately after the first video." Merlin: "Hey, I am just looking out for Brother Boris and didn''t want to upset him too much. Is it wrong to be helpful." Nix Maester: "Tchhh! I need to puke." Misty Day: "It does sound wrong when you tell that you want to be helpful." Red Dagger: "That sounds downright creepy and frightening." Boris Blade: "Helpful!! If you were actually a helpful guy, you wouldn''t have put the video in the chat." Merlin: "Of course. I am helpful. I am helping my friends and myself. I never told that I would help without being asked. I am not a saint.????????????" Boris Blade: "If you wanted to help, why didn''t you have him accept the challenge. It is a disgrace to both me and Shadow." Merlin: "Hah?!! ????Why didn''t you just contact Shadow on chat." Boris: Blade: "You an idiot. How could I contact him without him accepting a friend request. He seems to have shut off the notifications or just ignored." Merlin: "You are the idiot! If you couldn''t contact him, you should have asked me or do you have difficulties in that too.????" Clear Sky: "????????" Dead Sea: "????????" Red Dagger: "????????" Nix Maester: "You expected the hot head to actually contact you. ????Don''t joke Merlin bro!" Tristar: "Putting the talk of the video aside. Merlin can you inform Shadow of the challenge." King Rex: "Yes, as Merlin had suggested Shadow for the Fight Club. It is good that Boris is willing to test him." Oceanis (Administrator): I agree. Let Boris test him out and invite us for the fight. Nix Maester: "Oh! Oh! The big guys are having a serious talk. It is no fun now. Bye." Nix Maester: "Hi Tristar. What did you have to give Merlin?" Oceanis (Administrator): "Nix. Bye." Nix Maester: "Aw! Guild Leader, a few more moments please." Star Lord (Administrator): "Please, let this nonsense about video end with this. It has gotten tiring. Go play the game." On the other side, Shadow, Slaine and the others were running hard to try and get away from the bandit camp. The bandits started to attack them in large numbers. As soon as they got a chance, all of them started to channel their hearthstones to escape from the bandit camp. "That was completely unexpected," said Shadow looking at Slaine. "Why did the idiot go deep into the monster horde?" Though Merlin told everyone in the Fight Club that Shadow had been tailing him and took the video, Shadow hadn''t even had a good look at the assassin who caused the issue. He only knew that it was Boris from the team chat. "You don''t know? He came for you," said Slaine looking at him. "That was the secret that you didn''t hear from me. Boris challenged you to a fight, but Rudra didn''t want you to participate. He is a professional player." "Why? What if he is a professional? I doubt he is any better than me," said Shadow indignantly. "No good will come out of it, if you win or lose. We will lose the momentum that we gained if you lose and if you win, we can''t be sure that he won''t be a sore loser. The Foedus Rex guild members are already getting into fights with us," explained Slaine. "Ya, that is true. I heard that they were being quite aggressive," agreed Shadow. "But I doubt he would let me go. I don''t like him trailing me." "Frankly speaking, even I feel the same. He did go a bit overboard. It is best if you accept the challenge and put an end to it. Else, he might continue with this and it is hard to get good stuff with a pair of eyes following you," said Slaine. The recent stunt pulled by Boris changed his opinion about the way that they should be handling the challenge. Seeing a player do something as stupid as going into a horde just to follow Shadow had changed his view on how far a star player might go for a bit of fame. "I just didn''t tell you till now as Rudra suggested that we avoid the challenge and probably wouldn''t have told you, if not for Boris'' interference at the camp. He didn''t want me to tell you, but now I will let you talk it out with him," said Slaine. As they were talking about this, Mob and other came to them. "You know I just sent Merlin the video of Boris getting killed. He asked me not to let go public. He is negotiating with Rex," said Mob. "Apart from that, Merlin had nominated you to join the Fight Club," added Bitter Beast. "Fight Club?" asked both Shadow and Slaine. Though Shadow had lived seven years in his previous life, he didn''t know of the existence of fight club. It was only known to its members or close to the members and these didn''t want to irritate them by making it public. "It is a dream group for all PvP enthusiasts in the virtual games. I would love to be accepted into it and asked Merlin to nominate me, but he always told that I was not ready for their test," said Mob. "You mean the rumors of the PvP club where the players try to improve harmoniously is true?" asked Slaine with an expression of extreme shock. "Yes. Merlin is a part of it, and he thinks you are good fit," said Mob looking at Shadow. "I won''t deny that I am not jealous of you, but you are quite capable and a bit crazy like him. Maybe that is required for the Fight Club too." "So, do you know if the rumors about the founders of the fight club were also true?" asked Slaine. "Which ones?" asked Bitter Beast. "You know. They say it was started by real-life mercenaries who joined various guilds and that is the reason they are so good," said Slaine. He had been hearing quite a few rumors for the past couple of years from various friends. These were the kind that most whispered that didn''t say out loud for the fear of being considered an idiot. "And they continued to have maintain their camaraderie through the group?" asked Mob sarcastically. "Yes," said Slaine not realizing that Mob was being sarcastic. "No, dude! I was being disingenuous. They are not mercenaries," said Mob. "How do you know?" asked Bitter Beast. "Cause I asked Merlin similar questions," said Mob looking at him angrily. He once had a similar conversation with Merlin where he felt like a fool and he felt annoyed that he had to accept that in front of Slaine and Shadow. "Might be. Actually, if they were mercenaries that were old comrades, they could have started a guild on their own," said Slaine agreeing with it. "They could be in different guilds. There is a good chance that they didn''t have prior experience with games and just joined the guilds and ended up being crucial parts of the guilds," said Shadow. He felt these rumors to be quite close his own situation in his previous life. Chapter 114 - Meeting Sultan "Yeah, whatever. The important part is that, there is a test for joining into it and you need to accept Boris Blade''s challenge for that," said Mob. "So, I got a good reason to convince Rudra into accepting the challenge," said Shadow looking at Slaine with a smile. "Why? Was he asking you to not accept the challenge and avoid Boris?" asked Grenadier Mage. "It is a reasonable request. Boris is a star player and though we know that Shadow is a real-life expert, he might not be able to take Boris down," said Bitter Beast. "That is the main reason. We don''t want him to lose the fame and momentum he built up to go down suddenly," said Slaine. "Yeah, but the chance of joining into this group is very rare. You are going to get other chances in the game. Merlin says that once you refuse, it is going to be very hard to get another chance," said Mob. "You will get a lot more chances in this game, but that group persists across games. The guilds and the star players wouldn''t change with the games." "It is true. This looks like it is a lot more valuable and this is a chance that one would rarely get," said Shadow agreeing to Mob''s words. "Yes. You don''t even need to win against him. If you just put up a decent fight, you might be considered for it. It is not Boris alone that evaluates you. Most of the Fight Club will be among the spectators. Especially after this issue, the administration wouldn''t trust him completely to determine your qualification," said Mob. "That is good. It does provide one more confidence, if the administrators are that thoughtful," said Shadow nodding his head. " Yes. There is only one rumor about the group that is true. The administration doesn''t fear anyone and are the oldest players in the gaming circle who have a sense of honor and don''t allow even super guilds to bully their independent members or go against the new recruits," said Mob. "That is the most ridiculous of the rumors that I heard. How can that be true?" asked Slaine. "You ever heard of the guild, Architects of Eden?" asked Merlin who had just teleported and was walking towards them. "Never heard of it," replied Slaine turning around to face Merlin. "Yeah, it was about 15 years in the past and it was a guild that was definitely going to end up a super guild. We were kids at that time and the Fight Club had been in operation for about 10 years and the guild leader of it bullied someone for defeating him in the fight club and didn''t stop even after being warned by one of the admins. All the admins had their guilds had their guilds concentrate on it and caused it to disband," said Merlin "Let us talk in a bar. Shall we," said Merlin moving towards the town center. "This is Sultan-e-Shehzad, a new addition to my team," said Merlin pointing to a paladdin who was walking beside him. "Hi guys. Glad to join you. I have already heard a lot about you from Merlin. You can ask me anything you want to about my previous guild or experience. I got nothing to hide, except my identity. I hope you trust Merlin with that and not try to know. It isn''t a problem for me, but my family would like to keep it under wraps," said Sultan. "Ah! It isn''t any issue at all. We already have a similar case here," said Bitter Beast pointing at Shadow. "We know about him as much as we know about you and I think that is the same for Merlin too." "Ya. But it kind of gives a feeling that we are with a pair of heroes, you know," said Grenadier Mage looking up in the sky daydreaming in the game. "The whole secret identity thing. Don''t you?" "Hahaha," started Sultan laughing boisterously. "You got an odd sense of humor," he said pointing at Grenadier. "I like it." Meanwhile, Balthazar was frightened. He was being considered a hero by the public after the incident at his base as his efforts managed to uncover that there were more types of the aliens and they have a hierarchy. Hearing Grenadier, his thoughts immediately got carried away thinking that Grenadier had somehow already known about him. He felt that it might not actually be a thing that is really hard to find out. Merlin already knew that he was the new owner of Crimson Realm guild. One could easily find out that Blyth family were the new owner and might slowly relate to him with a bit of investigation. His apprehension was clear on his face as he was thinking about it. Though the others were laughing with Sultan, Slaine and Merlin noticed Shadow. "Keep your face straight. That was just a wild guess," messaged Slaine to Shadow as he noticed both Shadow and Merlin. "Thanks. I guess I got a bit carried away in my thoughts," said Shadow. He immediately put a smile on his face and walked behind the others towards the tavern. Merlin who already had found out that the owner of Crimson Realm was a Blyth family member now had decided to reduce his suspect pool to people who were known for their valorous deeds. He personally couldn''t investigate a family as powerful as Blyth but decided to put Sultan to it. Merlin led them to a tavern called "Travelers Draught" in the town. As with all the other features, drinking also caused a player to get inebriated and experience the original taste and smell of various food and beverages. The taverns also provided various alcoholic drinks that were there in real life and also a wide assortment of drinks that were specially created for the game. This was one of the few things that everyone a lot of rich people who joined the game enjoyed. It would be one of the very large sources of income for many who would like to enjoy the feeling of getting wasted but didn''t like the aftereffects that they would have in real-life and also the health issues that would come with frequent consumption. Later, this would end up being a method to slowly control alcoholic addictions. The tavern was a modeled like a wooden cottage filled with wooden furniture like that of an ancient era where wood was commonly used for construction. It had two floors with the ground floor filled with a bunch of round tables surrounded by wooden chairs. The tables were small and had four chairs around it. The second floor was much smaller than ground floor and had half the areas, but it was reserved, and one had to pay to get there. There were a bunch of lanterns hanging of the roof which gave it a very antique ambiance. There was a counter with a bartender and a couple of barmaids serving the customers, but it was mostly empty. In all the previous games, a player would have no sense of taste, so they would only go to bars and restaurants only to get consumables that would provide buffs. With somnium technology, this would change but most players at this early stage were not going to indulge in such things. All the beverages that were there in real-life didn''t provide any buffs but caused a drunk debuff would appear if a player drank too much. Only, a few special ones in the game provided buffs, but they were high priced. Merlin and the others pulled a couple of tables beside each other and seated themselves around the pair of tables. "A beer for everyone?" asked Merlin looking at the others for confirmation as a barmaid came to them and handed out a menu before she left. The menu card worked similar to a pad for them to browse. They could either call her and give their order or there was a provision for them to select what they wanted, and the maid would get the items automatically. The seven of them went through the options and ordered the beverages according to their likes, which were brought to them in seven wooden mugs in a couple of seconds. "Ah! Tastes and feels like the real deal," said Merlin as he savoured the drink from his mug. "This stuff tastes the same as those in real-life and is cheaper in the game. Sultan brought me to this place to discuss about the team." "It certainly is very good. A good difference from those potions we had to drink all day long. I finally feel like increasing the sensitivity guage in my settings to 100% to experience this," said Bitter Beast as he drank while browsing over the menu to see what other things were offered. He ordered a few items to eat along with the drinks which were also brought in a few seconds and placed on the table. "Talk about empty calories," said Grenadier making one of his silly jokes as he started to eat. "It is a sad thing that I can''t live off these. They taste better than the ones in real life." "So, what did you want to talk about?" asked Slaine as he didn''t want to spend a lot of time on this. There was a mass quest that had begun in the town and he was needed. Though the others were capable of organizing the guild, he was a ranger who usually scouts for the team and he had gained a unique weapon which gave him an edge over other players and monsters. "Hmm. Where to start?" wondered Merlin. "Let me begin with the problem with Foedus Rex. Boris Blade wanted to challenge you and would have continued to follow you and try to harass the Crimson Realm guild due to Sultan. He was previously part of Boris'' farming team and with had broken off to join us," said Merlin. "I was trying to think of a way to subdue them, when I received a video from Mob showing Boris'' death by the quingpol horde. I told them that we had a much better video taken by Shadow that showed Boris Blade foolishly getting into the horde and being beaten down by them. This imaginary video is my leverage," explained Merlin. The others had confused looks on their faces as they were trying to guess where Merlin was going with this. "I blackmailed them that, I would put up a post in forums that Boris tried to sneak behind you to kill you but got himself killed by quingols in a stupid manner. The video was to be my evidence," he said quickly as he did not want to waste any more time to allow them to guess. "A star player''s image is very important for them. They most probably accepted your requests. What did you ask for?" asked Shadow. "Well, the main reason for the Foedus Rex to be so aggressive against us was Boris Blade. So, you accept the challenge and after that, Boris Blade and Big Blaster would leave the White Heart City and move towards Seven Swords Empire where the main forces are there. Possibly Tristar or someone else would come here to manage their guild here," said Merlin and took a deep chug from his mug. "That seems very little," interjected Bitter Beast who had expected Merlin to gather a few things more. "That is because I was not done yet," said Merlin as he continued. "They also wouldn''t try to bully or mess with Sultan and gave 400 gold which I am claiming as the negotiation fee." "Planning to get hold of real estate are we boss?" asked Mob. "Yes. We are already third-class citizens and require 20 reputation to become a second class one. Everyone is scrambling to do various quests to get more reputation and get shops. The only reason, we don''t have one is because we didn''t have enough hold. Frankly speaking, I could have gotten a lot gold from them. This is peanuts for Foedus Rex. I just wanted Tristar to be on friendly terms as he probably will come to lead the guild here," said Merlin. "It is the best time for us to rent shops or lands in the city. These places will only increase in price. Even if we can''t purchase them, we can rent these from the city. Once, we hold the rental agreement, they can''t be purchased by others from the city. We can slowly acc.u.mulate the required amount during this rental period and purchase it. After that we can use it or make a good sale of it if we don''t find a good use to it. The other guilds would love to get these lands and pay large amounts for it," said Merlin. "Damn! You have a good eye for business," said Sultan. "It wasn''t me who started this. The Crimson Realm guild team of 10 which took the mission for the fort occupation all became third-class citizens. They have already rented a few lands in the city and plan to rent a complete 10 when they get enough funds. Even Slaine here has already rented a forging shop at the gate of the city. They are hiring forgers specifically. It is already known to be the first blacksmith shop owned by a player," said Merlin pointing towards Slaine. "Yeah. I do rent the shop close to the gate and barracks. I heard we could also take NPCs put up forging quests which one could find at the guard posts and Forging association. The players are scrambling to get into our guild because of this. Fame definitely has its uses," said Slaine. "See, we are already behind the others. We need to pick up the pace," said Merlin. "I have 4 good ones in mind near the marketplace, which we could rent. Each cost a hundred gold. Shadow you need to accept the challenge as soon as possible. Reply on the forum directly," said Merlin forwarding him to the web link of the challenge on the forum. "We need to finish this up and start at the mass quest. Rex is already angry with us and will try to send large numbers to take a lead in this mass quest," said Merlin emptying his mug in a large gulp. "Bleeergh. Shadow be a sport and pay for our drinks," said Merlin as he got up the chair. "No. Consider this my treat. It is my first meeting with you guys," said Sultan as he put down some coins on the table and got up. "Ah! I already like this guy," said Grenadier as he put an arm around Sultan and started to chat him up. Chapter 115 - First Upgrade "Well, now we know that the easiest path to Grenadiers Heart is through his stomach," joked Merlin looking at the way that Grenadier was behaving. He was talking with Sultan as if they had been best friends. "Is he a light weight?" asked Shadow as he could see that though Grenadier seemed to overtly open once he had drunk the beer. "Does that persist in the game?" asked Merlin. "You do feel a bit of the effects, right? Who knows, the game has put so many things close to reality, it might have created the effects of alcohol too," said Shadow. With his plan to explore and possibly occupy the bandit camp gone to shit, he had nothing specific to do. He needed to log out within 20 minutes as it was close to morning. So, he had decided that he will get to the Canterbury plains and kill a few quingol bandits before he logged out. As he followed Slaine towards their shop where they were assembling new members to attempt the mass quest. The Crimson Realm guild had prior experience in fighting the quingols which they were already advertising for recruiting more players by use of the mass quest. They were assembling many players below level 10 along with some of the guild elites like Slaine who were at level 12. They wanted to treat it as a level grinding exercise. Lizzie had already advertised in the forums that there were level 12 players who had experience killing the quingol bandits and were providing a chance to quickly level up using them. The guild promised that the last hits would be reserved for the level 9 players and that they would be protected. The level 9 players could either join the guild or pay for this service in coins. "Lizzie has been quite busy thinking up tricks to expand the guild," said Shadow looking at close to a hundred players at the Blackrock town. "Her advertis.e.m.e.nt seemed to have a decent effect on the populace of the town," he thought. "Yes. This is the second team. Brick had already led a team before this into the Canterbury plains. With the crossbows and a lot of arrows purchased from shops, he says it isn''t that hard. Moreover, we are collecting the quingol heads," said Slaine. "It is a clever operation, but helpful. Quite a few players from other cities and villages are actually moving to the town because of this mass quest. We will soon have a lot of competition. So, this is the best time to make as many kills as possible." Just as they joined with the rest and were about to go towards the gate of the town a system announcement rang through the entire game. System Announcement: The game will undergo its first upgrade in 10 minutes. The upgrade will take four hours. All players outside dungeons and special areas will be sent back to the locations bound to their hearthstones after the upgrade. Details of the upgrade will be uploaded in the website shortly. "An upgrade? So early?" said Slaine in shock. These words were repeated by many players in the game as soon as they heard the announcement. They checked the system log repeatedly to confirm the same. It caused a commotion in both the game and forums. All guilds who had planned any activities started to delay them and all players attempting to reach the cities or any other towns or teleportation point were in a hurry all of a sudden. A number of players began to check the website to understand the details of the upgrade. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the same time in the offices of the Metis Technologies, Victor Constantine who was observing the game saw the system announcement and immediately contacted the team that was observing the adaptation rates of various players with the somnium technology. "How come we have the first upgrade so early. Didn''t we need a player to have at least above 90% compatibility consistently for that?" asked Victor angrily. "Sir, the first player who crossed that rate had been maintaining that for some time already. We just found four others who managed to get that rate triggering the first upgrade. It was a preset condition and the notification went out on its own. There was nothing we could do about it," replied the person heading the team. "He has been maintaining that rate continuously?" asked Victor surprised. He had expected that some freaks would be able to do that and hence put the condition, but he never expected that this would be the condition to be fulfilled first. He was asked to do the upgrade by his brother and other superiors as soon as five players hit the 90% mark at least once, but he thought that would be hard on the game and added this special condition. Unexpectedly, the second condition had been the first to fulfilled and it failed its purpose. "This is an entirely different kind of freak," thought Victor. "I must inform the others that he had already been maintaining the compatibility," he thought. In fact, with experience they knew that more people would be able to maintain that compatibility as time passed, but they wanted to see how quickly could the people adapt to the somnium technology which was a primary concern if they had to use it in battle as this rate tends to fluctuate when the person takes damage. "What is the highest value of compatibility that he had?" asked Victor out of curiosity. "He had a 97% at a time, and 92% on an average. Even in times of severe damage or unexpected events, it doesn''t go below 85%," replied the leader as he was checking the statistics that they measured. "Get me a comprehensive report of him. I need all the details whoever minor in the report sent in a minute," said Victor. "I need to sort out all the relevant information before the meeting today. There is a high chance that he could help with the development faster than expected," he thought. "Sir, it was suggested to remove the special quests after the first upgrade, but an extremely small percentage of them had been triggered and almost everyone was concentrating on the getting into the city. If we remove it now, the few who managed to get them will be a lot more powerful and disrupt the balance of the game." This put Victor into some thought. Though the main purpose of the game was different from many other virtual games, it is hard to maintain the game if it doesn''t have a certain balance among the players which could cause people to stop playing. So, he had to do something about this. "Just let it continue for about two weeks. Yeah, two weeks should be enough. The special quest would need to silently end by the 15th of February. Inform me if any other thing causes a spike or lag in these special quests at the beginner regions and cities. Anything else?" asked Victor after providing what he considered a decent chance for the players. "About the reason for upgrade. Do we continue with the initially prepared one? We expected this to happen a few weeks later and at that time, implying the need to upgrade due to having an unexpectedly high number of player inflow was sensible," asked the team leader. "How close are we to the target?" asked Victor. "Sir, we reached 47% of it. The number which joined today were a lot more than the projected ones. There is a rumor going on that the game can be played by people who are good at any trade in real-life as the game was very close to real-life practices. This is being considered for the high inflow in the second day." "Well, there you go. You already had the perfect reason for us. Let the official reason be that. Openly, inform that the similarity to real-life gathered players from different professions to the game. We don''t need to be modest about our tech," said Victor waving his hand as he went back to his work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to the game, Shadow who had seen the notice was also surprised. He had heard that the first upgrade happened in the second week due to high inflow of the number of players. He never expected that the upgrade would happen so fast. He didn''t have any issue with the upgrade as he already knew the changes that happened after the upgrade. He told Slaine that as they had now been given time, it is best that they gather fruits sold at market as they would help with filling up the stamina, if they plan to spend long time in the Canterbury plains hunting for the quingols. He knew that once Slaine would see the information about stamina bar on the website, he would immediately try out a fruit and most probably get hold of as many as possible before the others. This was the only thing he could do without suggesting prior knowledge of it. He immediately logged out after that and after freshening up, went to the gymnasium. He was actually a few minutes early and decided to spend that time lifting a few weights. He was still quite thin and lean compared to how he used to be at the end of his previous life. So, he wanted to bulk up his muscles a bit. In a couple of minutes, Robert came to the gymnasium followed by Salazar and Lucius. They immediately went behind the other two into the combat room. "Balthazar, you are going to be first today and I have something special for you," said Lucius as he pulled him into the fighting ring. He pulled out a whip and a knife from a bag which he brought to the gymnasium. It was the whip that was according to the specifications that he asked Ellie. "I know you have asked for this from Leon. It is a hard to use which even I am not well acquainted with. You have already shown him using that new tech, but I just want to make sure that you could use it well in physical practice." "How can you determine if I am good at it, when you don''t know how to use it?" asked Balthazar surprised as he took the whip and the attachable knife from him. Leon did tell him that he could collect it from Ellie but didn''t expect that he would get to use it so early in the morning on the same day. "You can practice with the beast reared behind the mansion, the trainers there can help you. But to use this outside, you need a license until then you don''t get to use this other than for practice. He already applied for one indicating you to be his apprentice" said Lucius pulling out an three 3-feet long sticks from his bag and attached their ends to one another forming a long pole that was 9 feet long. "Leon did tell you to practice with it a bit, right? I might not be able to use a whip, but I have had mock fights against Leon where he used various weapons including this." "So, don''t worry, I am quite good in handling you and am quite faster compared to you. Moreover, I am wearing a light armor, so without use of the blade, you can''t injure me," said Lucius as struck the floor with his pole. "This shall be your practice. Come on," said Lucius beckoning Balthazar in a taunting fashion. Balthazar immediately pulled the whip out unfurling it with a flick of his wrist and swung it expand behind him. "Let us have some fun," he said as he attacked Lucius with the whip. The sudden and quick manner with which he swung the whip, he expected it to land a full hit on Lucius'' body as Lucius raised the pole to block it. "Even if you block it, I can pull the whip in a manner that it will still hit you," thought Balthazar. He had intended to pull the whip at the exact time that it struck the pole causing the point of contact of the whip and pole to behave as a fulcrum. This would cause the part of the whip from the point of contact and the end not in his hand to swing much faster and strike Lucius It was a good plan and required him to pull at the exact instant the whip hit the pole, but he was confident in his skill. Yet it failed as Lucius was much better than him. He had a lot of practice against Leon who was similarly good at using a whip. At the same time, that he struck the whip with his pole he deftly ducked causing Balthazar''s strike to miss and once the whip made a circle round the pole, he rotated the pole pulling the whip from Balthazar''s hand. Chapter 116 - Hectors proposal "You underestimate me. You can definitely use it well against someone who has no idea or the basics of wielding a whip. Maybe even a tamer would find it hard to fight you, but not against someone who learned the art of using it for offence. That is why you need the training," said Lucius unfurling the whip from his pole. Balthazar was completely shocked by this. He had never expected that Lucius would be so good at fighting against someone with a whip. It required a lot of skills and having the perfect timing to do something like this. He simply looked at his hand where there was red mark from having the whip pulled from his hand. "How?" he asked looking at his hand and then Lucius. "You have decent reflexes and skills, but have never honed many of them and probably fought people less skill than you. So, you have a higher estimation of your skills. Fighting against someone like me need you to have such tricks and using it at the perfect time cultivated into instincts. I might be able to use this against you, but it will fail if I fight against Leon," continued Lucius. "I showed you this so that you wont get complacent in your training. Your enemies are probably stronger than any you have fought till now. The only reason, they aren''t making a clear attack is because they fear your family. You need to be able to learn to handle them on your own." Lucius threw the whip back to Balthazar. "Come on, I won''t use that again, but show me what you can do. I will just block you," he said beckoning Balthazar to attack again. Balthazar caught his whip and started his attack again. This time, Lucius just blocked or evaded him rather than counter it. Balthazar used the whip faster and in different strike, trying to hit him rather than put a lot of force behind the strikes which he did in his first attack. A few attacks later, Balthazar got tired and Leon also felt that this method might not actually teach Balthazar, before he got a bit better with the whip. "Leon told that he would soon be sending you instruction videos of using whip and the chain knife. He is glad that he finally found a reason to compile one for this kind of weapon," said Lucius. "Maybe we best not use these in the training sessions before you go through them." "No, give me some time. I can improve," said Balthazar. He hardly ever got a chance in his previous life of this one to improve his skills with a whip. So, seeing that he could experiment with a person who was strong enough, he didn''t want to stop so quickly even when he was feeling tired. "You have no clues about fighting with a whip against those who are prepared for it or those who fight with wh.i.p.s themselves," said Lucius. "Controlling a whip requires a lot more expenditure of energy and mental fortitude. It is not advisable to use it continuously in such fights. You will not learn anything. Drink something and rest," said Lucius as he pushed him out of the combat ring. "You can get to your daily activities after an hour with Salazar. I heard you have another meeting at 7. It looks like you somehow fell into the eyes of the Scions of Minerva. What did you do?" asked Lucius out of curiosity. Having garnered the attention of the Scions of Minerva was something so impressive that apart from Lucius it piqued the interest some of the member in the generation above Winston and Walter. "I am as confused as the rest," said Balthazar when he heard the question. It was a something that he dreaded as he had no clue what it was about. He called for Robert and had told Salazar to spar with Balthazar during this time. Robert came and took his place as he went out and found Salazar waiting for him at the entrance of the other combat room. "I guess you missed your lessons with me," said Salazar smirking at him. He knew that Lucius had most probably had beaten up Balthazar and tired him out. "He told something about trying out a new weapons training program with you. What was that about?" ''Oh! I asked for a few weapons from Ellie. Included a whip and chain knife in my request. Leon had to test and give me permission for that, but apparently his test was to check if I can use it against animals and others who have no skills with these weapons. He applied a license for me to use it as his apprentice, but I apparently need to train," said Shadow. "So, he asked Lucius to beat you up and provide you with some practice?" asked Salazar conjecturing the part based on Shadow''s statement and his knowledge of Lucius. "He had been a regular sparring partner with Leon for a long time. So, did he just tire you out again?" "Yeah, I doubt he ever lets his trainees off without completely tiring them out," said Shadow. "Give me a couple of minutes and I will be ready to train." "Tell me when did Leon actually test you?" asked Salazar suddenly. "He always maintains a strict discipline every day and doesn''t usually accept such request to test someone, especially young ones like you. He says that the young ones are always overly confident of themselves." "He does? He did talk only about the weapons and not much about anything else. I don''t know why he tested me. He used a software created with the samsara framework and somnium technlogy to test me yesterday night," said Balthazar. "Oh! Elias tech?" asked Salazar. "Yeah. I requested a meet with Elias. So, met them both yesterday," said Balthazar. "Now, it all makes sense. They had been trying to use the somnium technology as there is a rumor going on that it helps to imbibe skills better than other training and has the additional advantage of not damaging a person in the fight. They were testing it with multiple persons and decided to include you for those two weapons," said Salazar as he understood the situation. He was also asked to participate in these tests by Elias a day ago. "The somnium technlogy is really something. The natural sensation of touch felt almost like it was real. Leon had been using it for sometime and says that after continued usage, one would find it almost the same as in real-life. Elias told that they had also been planning to experiment with various environments," said Salazar. "That might be useful. It would help with the mental development of security forces and train to increase their tenacity," said Shadow agreeing with Salazar''s words. This plan definitely made sense and that might be a good reason for Leon to be actively involved in the project. "But the fact that he registered to obtain a license to carry a whip for you, as an apprentice under his name means that you have definitely impressed the guy. It is a test from him and not the usual kind. It mean he might be considering to take you as his apprentice and teach you," said Salazar. "That is a story for a later time. For now, you get to teach me," said Balthazar as he got up and moved into the combat room for his lessons. "By the way, are you impressed by the somnium tech?" "What not to be impressed about it? Get ready," said Salazar. "What do you think about training with me through the somnium tech. It provides us more time than in real-life and is a good way to impart weapon skills," said Balthazar. "That is not a bad idea. It can actually speed up your training, but we need to ask Elias for the proper tools and I need to get a headgear for it," answered Salazar. "I already ordered one for you. Consider, it as a small token of thanks for saving my life. It should be delivered today," said Balthazar. "I also did the same for Lucius. Do you think that he will accept it." "Ya. Most probably. Leon is involved in it and with them being old rivals, Lucius would also be interested in checking it out. He will probably like the fact that you sent him one," replied Salazar. "No more talks, we haven''t been training for quite sometime." After that, another hour of continued attempts to defeat Salazar but getting his ass handed to him, Balthazar left the combat room tired and hungry. He went directly to the dining hall and wolfed few pancakes and some meat in a hurry before having a hot shower and got back into his V.R. pod. He opened the link for the meeting that he received in his mail and joined the virtual room. Apart from him, Evelyn had already joined the room and was waiting for others. She was seated on one of the chairs surrounding a table in the centre of the meeting room. "You know why those Constantine brothers were asking for you?" asked Evelyn as soon as she saw him enter the room. "Please, you could see from the mails that both me and Winston were as shocked as you. Have never been involved in any research. My sister was actually involved in a research along an alternate line of bio-feedback warframes which they are rumored to be working on. But I am a nobody in the research fields," said Shadow lifting his hands in an expression of ignorance. "Hmph, then I hope they didn''t get confused with something else. I have been checking out a lot of things about the you, but have ended up with the same conclusion. The only one I could suspect was your sister. I wanted to get her to join, but both the Constantines and Winston deemed it unnecessary," said Evelyn as Balthazar seated himself on a chair. Winston joined into the virtual room as soon as she finished about it. One look at Evelyn and Balthazar, he immediately said, "I am completely in the dark about this." He took a chair and put his legs on the table waiting for the others. He was very angry and looked like he was ready to hit someone. "Wait for those two. I am very eager to know why they were so interested in him," said Winston as he pointed to Balthazar. In a minute, Xander and another person arrived. The new guy had a very pale complexion and pure white hair and pale blue eyes. "The albino guy is Ichigo Suzuki. He is from a family that is very old and has quite a few military contracts. He holds a honorary title of being a lieutenant general and is one of my brother''s three technical advisors who is in frequent contact with the Scions of Minerva," whispered Evelyn to Balthazar. "What are you doing here, Ichigo? I didn''t see you anywhere in the mail chain," said Winston standing up. He knew that Ichigo''s presence at the meeting was meant to be a show of force from the Scions of Minerva. "I am as confused as you are, Winston. I was requested to attend this urgently by Hector. He told that it was something about the new somnium related experiments," said Ichigo putting a hand on Winston. "What did Walter do now?" he whispered in Winston''s ear. "Walter? This meeting is about my grandkid, not Walter. Why do you always suspect him," said Winston. "Really?! You know what all he did. I heard he was missing again probably in pursuit of the Nirbaadh pirates, but is missing. So, I repeat again. What did Walter do?" said Ichigo repeating his question. "This isn''t about Walter, Ichigo," came a voice as a couple of men entered the room. "Excuse me for my delay. I was shown something in the morning and was going through it and almost forgot about the meeting," said Hector Constantine as he entered the room with his brother, Victor. "You mean the kid actually did something that you considered important?" said Ichigo surprised. "What were you researching kid?" he asked looking at Balthazar. "Nothing. He isn''t involved in research but is an important asset nevertheless," said Hector as a stack of papers appeared in his hand which he handed over to Ichigo. "He has the best adaption rate we had seen among all the people using somnium technology. His compatibility never went below 80% in vita-nova." "Impressive," said Ichigo as he laid down the papers over the table. "Well, I guess you have had good results with this. You can probably get to the second phase, if the people have such a high adaptation rate. This is enough to consider moving ahead in your plans." "Look carefully. He is the only one who is able to do this. The rest aren''t even close to him. Only for others hit 90% and their total number of hits isn''t even in double digits," said Victor Constantine showing him another paper with more statistics. "So, you are saying that he is special?" asked Winston and Ichigo. "Yes, he is special. An anomaly. When we noticed him to be the first to hit the 90% mark, we checked upon him and found out about his involvement with Evelyn''s unit," said Victor Constantine. "Following Walter''s footsteps are we?" asked Ichigo as he came closer to Balthazar putting the papers in Winston''s hands. "Not exactly," replied Balthazar looking at the white haired Lt. General who was looking at him like he was some special toy of his. "Haha. Even talks back like him. I guess it is in their genes," said Ichigo looking at Hector. "What are your intentions, Hector?" "I don''t have any plans involving him for now. But, Evelyn''s unit isn''t a simple line of work. It is dangerous. He has a never before seen adaptation rate to the somnium tech. It is like his thoughts don''t fluctuate at all or come back on track very quickly. This is highly recommended for the bio-feedback war frame project. So, I propose that he be relieved from her unit. I am willing to take him completely under engineering wing as a representative of the armed forces, if he agrees," said Hector. Working directly with the Scions of Minerva would be a dream for any person who had any involvement in scientific research or engineering. Victor who had gone though Balthazar''s details knew about his education and thought that this was the best way to get him to agree to it. Chapter 117 - Convincing Hector Ichigo didn''t respond to Hector''s proposal and simply looked at Balthazar waiting for his response. Winston, Evelyn, Xander and Victor also did the same. Winston was a bit surprised when he first heard Hector, but it immediately turned to happiness as he realized that Balthazar would be safely protected. Despite knowing the dangers that plagued his grandson and granddaughter, Winston didn''t want him to be the person investigating it for he considered it to be very dangerous. The others also expected Balthazar to immediately accept when they heard what was being offered to him. It was really a very tempting job and if he played his cards right, he might end up in Ichigo''s job after a few years. It was a great opportunity for an upcoming officer in the armed forces. Evelyn was the only one who doubted it when he didn''t reply immediately. For a moment, even Balthazar wanted to accept it. If this was an offer he got during his college or before the attack on his station at PK-170-B, he would have gone crazy with joy and immediately accepted any posting related to the Scions of Minerva. Sadly, he had changed a lot after the attack. His aims and goals have completely changed after that. "I am really honored that you are willing to provide me with such an opportunity," said Balthazar looking at Hector as he got up. "Very good. I guess that brings this meeting to an end," said Hector without giving Balthazar a chance to finish. He only stopped when Ichigo who laid a hand on his shoulder. "Sadly, I can''t do that now. If this had happened a few months ago, I would have joined it immediately, but right now I can''t let go of the operation I undertook," he continued. "If you are worried that Evelyn or Winston might get angry, you needn''t have any such concerns. I am sure that they will be glad to support you for this," said Hector looking at Evelyn whom he expected to be the main reason for the refusal. "No, they aren''t responsible for this. I don''t care about Evelyn''s opinion any more than you and my grandfather would rather see me working with you than her," said Balthazar. "I would appreciate it if you weren''t so candid, kid," said Evelyn who was irritated by his words. It hurt her pride a bit when he said that he didn''t care about her opinion. She knew that he just told those words to make a point but didn''t like it yet. "Then, what is your problem?" asked Hector loudly irritated by Balthazar. He had never seen anyone at Balthazar''s age and his position refusing him like this. Especially after he ended up leading the Scions of Minerva, even his own brother rarely talked back to him. "I expect that you need me to be in good physical and mental health after a couple of years for me to be a worthwhile test subject, right? I can''t be in good mental health, if I give up my mission now," said Balthazar. He had quickly realized that the best way to persuade Hector was to convince him that this decision serves his own interests. "Huh! What do you mean?" he asked calming down and sitting on the table. "My family and I have a death threat from someone. They tried to kill me in a military establishment. So, I am sure that they have personnel working for them. They also attempted to hurt my brother and sister. We caught one of their members and came close to finding out their plans, but failed to do so," said Balthazar. "These guys also attracted the apes to make that attack on the citadel of PK-170-B moon and disabled the targeting system. Luckily, I found out about it and we won that fight," continued Balthazar. "What I want to say is that, I have already managed to get a lot of information on them which none of you ever got and as that they are trying to kill me and also have people in the armed forces working for them, I can''t trust to be alive in most places. So, even if you don''t accept and think that you can provide us protection, I am not willing to put my security and my family''s wellbeing in your hands." Hector looked at Winston and Evelyn as he heard Balthazar. "Is it true," he asked them to confirm. The both nodded agreeing to his words. Even Ichigo nodded his head and said, "the part about the attack on the moon is true." Hector took a deep breath. "I agree that you might be in danger, but that makes even more sense for you to stay in my protection. You cannot have a better protection detail than what I am suggesting. Few hours ago, I wouldn''t have considered offering this to you, but the new readings that Victor showed me are extremely promising. We need you for this project," said Hector. "You misunderstand, Sir. I don''t need protection. I am quite capable on my own and with the resources provided by my family, I am not worried about myself. I want to continue my work under Evelyn as it is one of the best chances, I could get to find out about my enemies right now. The more I delay this, the harder it gets. I do this, so that I don''t have to live under protection for the rest of my life. Do you think that constantly being protected would keep me in a health mental condition?" he asked Hector after explaining why he wasn''t going to accept. "Impulsive behavior and narcissistic tendencies. Do you think that apart from you no one else can track these culprits down? This is borderline sociopathic behaviour as we have in our reports. It might not be very advisable to consider him, brother," said Victor Constantine suddenly. Victor could never tolerate anyone disrespecting his brother and the way Balthazar refused Hector irritated him more than it did Hector. "I have no problems with that. I am also willing to participate in your experiments for the bio-feedback warframe, but I am just not willing to wait in protection till that time. That is ridiculous," answered Balthazar standing up in response. "Also, you might have never considered this, but you might need to relax your requirements for sociopathic tendencies considering the purpose of your experiments. The armed forces work at the edges of civilization and most times, the normal social behavior might cause more problems. Moreover, to fulfill the missions a certain amount apathy and fearlessness is required. If you don''t consider this you will fail to make good use of the technology you create," added Balthazar. "You! What nonsense are you talking," shouted Victor in anger. He hardly ever expected the kid to comment on his work and the suggestion to rectify his procedure was like a pinprick to his pride as a researcher. He looked at both Evelyn and Ichigo, but they seemed to have accepted Balthazar''s words. What was most shocking to him was that even his brother seemed to be in mild agreement with the kid. The only person in a similar state to him was the kid''s grandfather. "I would also have to agree with his suggestion, Hector," said Ichigo. "I would never make such a statement publicly for obvious reasons, but if your research is to progress at a proper pace, we best keep this in mind." "General Ichigo?" said Victor in surprise looking at the lieutenant general his eyes almost bulging out as he heard the old veteran agree with the kid. "Hmm. I will take it into consideration," said Hector as he put a hand on Victors shoulder and pulling him to sit beside him on the table. "So, you are willing to accept any experiments that we intend to do later?" he asked Balthazar. "I will definitely do my part to help you in that regard. If, I was worried about death, I wouldn''t have joined the armed forces nor would I agree to be stationed at the edge of human civilization," replied Balthazar. "Fine. I can''t persuade you to abandon your quest. So, I have no choice but to accept it," said Hector patting on Balthazar shoulder. "I shall be in contact with you. I would also like to be informed about your whereabouts as much as possible." "You are sure to have some method of contact or determining that he is safe for some time. I would like to be aware of his situation. Please, keep me in the loop," said Hector throwing a look at Evelyn Price who nodded her head in acknowledgement. "And any problems technological, I can provide you with the best of solutions," said Hector looking at Balthazar. "You can contact me or Victor directly. You will soon be provided with a method to do that." "Ichigo, please stay in the room while the others can leave," said Hector looking around the room. Evelyn, Xander, Winston and Balthazar all immediately got up and made their way out of the virtual room. It was clear that Hector didn''t want them to linger. "Brother, you are unnecessarily giving him more importance than that is required," said Victor Constantine as soon as the others left. "There are bound to be others who would manage to get a similar rate to him. It might take some time, but we have enough to be patient. He isn''t worthy enough for you to promise your help." "Dear, Victor. Do you think that I have only come here only because of the reports that you sent me? If it were not him and someone else who had those results, I would have let you do it yourself and considered waiting for others," said Hector. "There are three reasons for me to come here. Can you venture a guess of what they might be, brother?" asked Hector as he laid back on a chair and put his legs on top of another. "I would guess the first to be the high compatibility and the high adaption rate that he exhibited to the somnium technology," said Victor. "Other than that, obviously," said Hector rolling his eyes. "I know that you are aware of that one. Guess the remaining two." "His age? We have already experimented on a lot of prisoners and realized that any changes to body through the experiences from the somnium technology are more pronounced in younger people and for this reason we expect better performance from the young," said Victor. "Yes. Quite close to the point that we have observed. It isn''t that changes to the body or something like that but the adaptation rate. The young always find it easier to adapt to as most consider it a learning age. As one ages, most tend to subconsciously consider that they have gone through the stage where they could learn new things. Moreover, the old have habits and idiosyncrasies that are hard to forego for them," said Hector trying to explain the reason he considered age to be a factor. "I could have told you that without use of any experimentation. Try asking any of your old folk to change their habits. It would be easier for them to die than do that. The old get set in their ways and at certain age due to some changes, we don''t consider it consciously to change some of our habits. I got the experience for it," added Ichigo. "Hahaha," laughed Hector at Ichigo''s joke. "You certainly are experienced, old man. But I am not talking about people as old as you. Even by the time, a person reaches middle age, he finds himself in a fixed path, an occupation that he is willing to continue till the end of his life. That is not an age for learning himself. It is the young that have a mindset of learning new things and not a fixed path for his future. That kind would have the best adaption rate." "How do you know that? We hardly ever had such young test subjects," said Victor as he found his brothers conjectures to be without much proof. "The somnium technology is essentially one for the mind. To research its effects, one should have a good grasp of psychology and behavior. Without that it is hard to understand its effects and also be vary of any changes that might occur on prolonged usage," explained Hector. "Thus, we determined that it is better to have younger subjects. Unfortunately, such young prisoners who are willing to accept scientific research for reduced sentences are very small in number." "It is not unfortunate that they are in a small number," said Ichigo shaking his head. "The small number of young ones shows that there are more trying to set their lives right and not risk their life for a reduction in sentences." "Yes. See. That is exactly what I am talking about. The young have a lot left and would also be less inclined to do stupid things. This way, we got a big host of reason to prefer a younger subject." "Now, try the third one. This is the most important one. This might be a bit hard, but you can think about it for some time," continued Hector. "Hector. Can you finish this quick or at least tell me why I am waiting here for you?" interjected Ichigo. He found the discussion all nice and entertaining, but he was suddenly summoned, and he had postponed his work to comply to Hector''s request. "Hmmm. Always in a lot of work, aren''t you?" mocked Hector. "Fine. I will give it up. He is a warrior and also has an engineering background. He was also in the engineering corps of the military. He understands a lot of technical jargon and is a good fighter who does what he considers necessary to be done." "We have already tested with a few people matching that profile. We never considered them that important," said Victor. "They were a combination of old or murderers or a combination of both. Most didn''t have a sense of belonging to the alliance not suitable for our purpose of inventing the bio-feedback warframes," said Hector clearly differentiating the difference between Balthazar and the other experiments. Chapter 118 - Taming "You probably like the fact that he was in Evelyn''s unit too," added Ichigo. "She is known for her clandestine operations. He probably has a few of his own secrets for him to have such a good record in the force. I would say it is better than my own." "Yes. We needed this warframes alpha team to be effective in special ops and gathering of intelligence. Such operatives would be the most ideal," agreed Hector. "Did you notice that even his grandfather was surprised by his talk about military personnel being sociopaths? He might not just be good at keeping secrets but also at keeping his character a secret even from his own family." "See. That is exactly what I was talking about. He is a sociopath. We didn''t want some prisoners for the same issue. He best be treated as one of the other expendable test subjects," said Victor as he finally realized that Balthazar was quite close to those murderers. "No. That is the main reason for him to be in the alpha team. We need sociopaths. Ones who wouldn''t mind a bit of blood and some disgusting actions. We just need the right kind of sociopaths," said Hector smiling. "Brother. Do you really think there is such a thing as a right kind of sociopath?" "Of course, there is," said Hector. "The right kind might not care of a person''s feelings, habitually lie or even kill, but they don''t kill without reason and their actions tend to achieve something useful or practical. They might choose the lesser evil with far more ease than others but that might save more people than that a righteous stuck up would." "This is the reason you haven''t been a part of our warframe team. There are things that one might need to do on the border that might seem harsh and cruel, but they are necessary. You don''t have the experience for considering all of these things," said Hector. "You think that I might not have the right vision for the biofeedback warframe?" asked Victor. He didn''t expect this to be the reason for him to not be selected. "No. You have the vision. You can imagine. You don''t have the experience. Without that it would be hard for you to accept the things that I have just told. You have previously been involved in a lot of non-military projects. That led you to live in certain conditions which had a strong effect on your opinions," said Hector trying to explain to his brother, the reason for this difference of thinking. "This was the reason that we didn''t have any second thoughts in letting you use the somnium technology for public use. You have been in the central area of alliance, have been involved in good medical research and thus, you are very good for controlling technology like the somnium in use by the common populace," continued Hector. "Why am I still here?" repeated Ichigo. "I have heard about the attack on his sister Bolena. Thought it was for her tech, but it seems like it is personal and is kept in the hush. I want you to find out what this thing is about?" requested Hector. "Why are you concerned about his sister?" asked Ichigo. "I just want to be kept in the loop. There is something off about the family," replied Hector. "You don''t want to check their family. That would bring you no good. Even Harvey wouldn''t allow you to do that," said Ichigo. "No. I know that. I want to know about these siblings. It is odd that these attempts have been made on these siblings. I am curious about what they have done that makes them such targets," said Hector. "Also, Victor, I would also like it if you could check into his sister''s research personally. Though we knew that the response rate for that tech would be lower than ours and also probably the side-effects would be more, I want to make sure that we don''t overlook anything. If that tech can be deployed with decent results. It is better that we provide our support," said Hector. "But brother, it is unnecessary. Our tech.." began Victor. "I know that our tech is better and could be used for quite a number of things other than warframes. Unlike our''s their project is tailored for warframe operations. Just look into it and provide me the details," said Hector. "See you later," he concluded the meeting and disabled the V.R. room causing both Ichigo and Victor to be kicked out of it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the meeting done, Balthazar checked his email. He had hoped that Leon would contact him for the lessons that he would be receiving, but he didn''t get anything from him. The only thing he got regarding that is a confirmation that he is registered as a trainee to use a whip by the alliance under the guidance of Leon. He also got a mail from Ellie who made a design of the devices that she intended to make for him. There were designs for thin arm bands that sync with his wrist device and could be used to attack with hidden needles and a thin blade to pop out. She also mentioned that the specification required for these to be carried through secure areas require use of special materials and she was still researching on it and is having a difficult time with it. "Maybe I can actually contact Hector and see if the Scions of Minerva can provide with a good solution for such fibre," thought Balthazar as he saw her mail. "I hope that I get a method to contact him soon." He was quite surprised that his grandfather hadn''t called for him to discuss the meeting but was glad about it. It implied that Winston was finally treating him capable of making good decisions and this trust towards him is going to make life much easier. With these done, he got out of the V.R. pod. There was still another hour for the game to be restarted and he decided he would spend some time with Anubis and actually try the whip and see how it could be used to control beasts. He took the whip given to him by Lucius and went towards the training grounds. As he went close to the grounds behind the mansion, Anubis came running and jumped on him pinning him to the ground and began licking his face. Though Balthazar knew that it was done by Anubis in an expression of affection, he hated having its saliva all over his face. It also caused an itchy feeling if left for a couple of minutes. A caretaker soon followed it. "Young Master, Balthazar. I would have brought Anubis to you if you had requested. It was unnecessary for you to come here," he said. "Hi, do you know where Lucian Elric is? I would like to meet him," asked Balthazar. "He is currently at the training ground, where Anubis was. I just came from there following Anubis who suddenly decided to get out and meet you. You seem to have a special bond with him," said the caretaker. "Thank you. I have known him since he was a pup. I will take him back to the training grounds. You can leave him with me," said Balthazar as he held Anubis by its muzzle with a hand and began rubbing its fur. He always like to rub its fur which being soft and smooth gave a nice pleasant feeling. "Ok," said the man bowing out and leaving them alone. A few minutes later, Balthazar reached the training grounds along with Anubis at his heels. The training ground was filled a few beasts running around and jumping through various hurdles. There were a couple of people who were at a corner treating any injuries that the beasts might incur in the training, while Elric with another tamer at the centre commanding the beasts. "Hi Lucian," greeting Balthazar with a shout from outside the racetrack. It was hardly audible, but Lucian noticed it. He beckoned for Balthazar to come into the center. The racetrack was full of beasts running. Balthazar choose a gap and run along with Anubis to cross the track reaching the centre. "Young Master, Balthazar. This is Eduardo Elric, a cousin of mine who also works here. You would seldom see him as he is too old and occasionally comes to help me when he gets bored," said Lucian introducing the man beside him. "Nice to meet you Mr. Eduardo. Were you also a tamer by profession?" asked Balthazar as he shook Eduardo''s hand. Eduardo was quite similar looking to Lucian with respect to build and facial features and had orange hair. "No. I was an explorer most of my life. I used to herd away beasts when occupying new planets most of the time," said Eduardo. "I was told by Little rock that you wanted to talk to me about something. Are you going to get more friends of yours for the morning training?" asked Lucian. "No. I am not a big fan of that training either. I actually wanted to learn something from you," replied Balthazar. "You want to learn from me? You interested in taming?" asked Lucian in surprise. He had known of Balthazar''s achievements at the military from the news and for a rising star like him to request to learn from him wasn''t something he ever expected. "You can always ask me to train a specific beast that you captured, or you could also contact me to capture any specific animal for you. You don''t need to spend time learning if that is what you have in mind," said Lucian reigning in his expressions. He realized that though Balthazar was famous, he was a person that could be considered to be in his late teens and a young master of a prestigious family. So, he thought that Balthazar had taken fancy to a specific animal that he wanted to rear as it was a common thing among other young masters. Similar requests had come to him from other members of the family. "I can even train them in such a way that they would only listen to your commands. You don''t need to involve yourself in the work," he continued. "No. No. You misunderstand. I don''t want any of that. Truth be told, I am learning the use of a whip as a weapon. I was told that it is widely used by many tamers in controlling the animals," explained Balthazar. "I wanted to know how you do that and possible a bit of practice?" he asked in a lower voice trying to see Elric''s stand in use of the animals for the sake of practice of a novice. "Sir, with all due respect, a whip isn''t a simple tool to use like a blade. It requires a lot of practice and one needs to register for its use. Tamers are allowed, but even we are under restrictions and can''t harm animals except for situations when we are being aggressively attacked. The restrictions are much severe for its use as a weapon," said Elric trying to convince him against what he considered a foolish endeavor. He believed that with this knowledge Balthazar would at least back of for now and he could inform about Balthazar''s intentions to an elder in the family. "I already have registered as an apprentice under weapons master Leon for using a whip," said Balthazar opening the mail he received in the morning on his wrist device and showing it to Elric. "I am already familiar with using a whip a bit. At the very least, I know well enough to avoid accidentally hitting anyone with it," he continued with a smile. "Hmm. Ok. I agree that you are qualified on paper, but it lies outside my daily duties. I am an employee and am not willing to do it for free nor could I do it when I am busy," said Elric. It was an attempt to irritate Balthazar so that he would leave him alone. He expected Balthazar to learn for a few days and then give up as taming required a lot of work and time to be spent on the animals which according to his observations, rich kids were hardly good at. "Of course, I am willing to compensate you for your time," replied Balthazar. Any other young master of the family would get irritated and probably start warning Elric at this time but for Balthazar it was an obvious thing. He was an assassin who killed for money and charged based on the difficulty. Any change in parameters of the work, he would usually make a similar statement and request his employers to compensate for any extra work he needed to do. Elric didn''t know what else he could do to avoid Balthazar and finally accepted. "Ok, I will send you times when I am free and could have someone take over my duties," he said. "Why don''t we start today? I believe with Mr. Eduardo here, he could take over for you for some time" said Balthazar pointing towards Eduardo. "I don''t mind, Lucian. Hell, I want to see if you are any good a teaching?" said Eduardo without giving Lucian a chance to make another excuse. He felt that the training would be a good source of entertainment. "Fine," said Lucian. "So, what do you know about taming?" "Not much. Consider me a novice," replied Balthazar. "Actually, do you have any interest in taming or do you just want to know of the use of whip in taming?" asked Lucian as he thought about Balthazar''s request. "The second part." "OK. That makes it simpler. Most expect an extensive use of whip in taming wild animals but it isn''t so. Hitting the whip is quite close to taboo in taming of animals," said Lucian. "You don''t whip them in taming. Even horse carts used to whip animals to make them speed up, right?" asked Balthazar. Though he had never seen it in real-life, he had seen it in vita-nova in his previous life. "Wow! Many tamers also don''t know this as one hardly sees animals used for transport these days," said Lucian. "What you told is true, but these are not the same as the wh.i.p.s we have in our hands. Those are shorter ones with dull end and don''t hurt the animals like these. You can even use a rope in place of those." Chapter 119 - New changes "The one in my hand will pull the skin off an animal if it strikes the animal. It is not the same as using the ones you have heard of. You don''t use the whip that you have on animals, it would injure and them and repeated strikes could cripple them or drive them mad," explained Lucian. "Oh! This is completely different from what I thought," said Balthazar. "I have heard of those cases of animal harassment and thought that use of whip is a common thing." "Those animal harassment cases probably were scenarios where such methods were used. There are a number of tamers who when unable to tame some aggressive wild animal tend to use such methods," said Lucian. "These are rare cases. We take extreme care to not hit the animals." "Then, how do they even work?" asked Balthazar who was confused. He was quite surprised as he found this to be quite different from the things that he had seen in vita-nova. In the game, he remembered that big wh.i.p.s were used against mounts. "OK. You seem to have observed situations where tamers frightened animals in the wild or something like that. It works on docile species only. It is to be used on such species which are trespassing in a secure area. Most aggressive species like many wild cats, tend to attack back if you land an attack on them. It also injures them heavily. So, if your plan is to tame them properly you don''t let it hit them," explained Lucius. "The best way to control the whip is by their sound and attack objects close to them. Animals are quite perceptive and most of the ones that move on land have a good sense of hearing. So, the crack of the whip and shattering objects close to them puts fear in their hearts," said Lucian. "This is used to direct their movements. Whenever they come close or stray from their path you use the whip to intimidate them." "So, most strong animals wouldn''t be hurt by this whip?" asked Balthazar. "No. They will be hurt. Most definitely. Many times, they get crippled too. I wanted to say that the whip is to be used to kill the animal or cripple it. Both of these aren''t great options if you intend to tame an animal. Tamer consider the health of an animal to be extremely important and they protect their pets and even teach them tricks to protect themselves." "Oh, now I understand your point. Can I try it out with some of these?" requested Balthazar. "No. I can''t let you practice on these. All the ones here are rare ones like Anubis. We have a number of common animals like cougars in another place. Why don''t we go there," said Elric. In a few minutes, Lucian Elric brought him to a cabin to gather a few supplies before they reached a new training ground. "We have a couple of cougars here, which we can try this on. They are bred as kids from captivity and are afraid of me," said Lucius as he pulled out an electric prod used to shock and control animals. "This is also used to frighten them and not actually hit them unless they try to attack you. You develop a sense of mutual respect between you and the animals, when you behave in that manner," said Elric. "I will release one from the cage. Try to make it move along a plain running track for starters," said Elric pointing to a location for Balthazar to stand. A few seconds later, a cougar arrived near him. It was growling and Anubis beside Balthazar also began to growl back in response. The cougar was moving closer to them to attack, when "Ttwack," rang out the sound of the whip as Balthazar aim it at the ground close to the cougar''s feet stopping it in its tracks. "Not bad, repeat," shouted Elric who was at a distance behind the cougar. A couple of more strikes at the ground cause the cougar to turn back and move away. "Good. You have decent skill. I half expected that it would end up hitting by pet," said Elric as he came closer to them. After that, he called Anubis and shouted instructions for it to get back to its kennel. It came close to Balthazar and rubbed against his legs before making its way to its kennel. "It is better that you don''t have Anubis with you during this training. It would aggravate the other animals you are practicing with," he explained. "Can I have a second try?" "Maybe later. This is the time for most of them to rest. These things wake up much earlier than you and have just had a lot of exercise and are tired. You got the basic idea for now. We can try again later," said Elric. "Thanks. So, what do I owe you?" asked Balthazar. "Nothing. Consider it a freebie. If you''re still interested to learn tomorrow, we can consider some proper lessons later," answered Elric. He led Balthazar out of the grounds to a safe zone and returned back to his work. "Not bad. At least I understood the basics of controlling the animals. Could come to practice again later," thought Balthazar as he got back to his room and into the V.R. pod. He started the somnium tech and began to browse the net as the game''s upgrade didn''t yet finish and about 20 minutes were remaining which is about an hour in the somnium technology. He began to browse information about tamers, incidents involving animals and similar things to get a better understanding of tamers. Then, he opened the vita-nova website to check the information that it posted about the upgrade. The official reason for the upgrade was given that they had to do it because of unexpectedly large number of patrons that purchased the somnium gear. They also put in a line that this was due to the extreme similarity of the game to real-life which spurred a large number of people to experience the game and enjoy the feeling of living in an ancient era of swords and magic. The team responsible had decided that this could be the best reason for the unexpected increase in the number of players. Apart from that, the website also listed the changes that would occur in the game. 1. The number of beginner village and towns are increased by five times. This also resulted in a corresponding increase in the map size and the number of kingdoms and empires doubled. 2. Introduction of the new stamina gauge along with HP and MP gauges for the players of all races and professions. This measures the capacity of the player for physical exertion and a player would feel tired out without stamina value. It is required to complete special actions and fills up automatically on resting. It is introduced to simulate real-life exertion that occurs due to strenuous activities. 3. Lifting the cap on the number of trade professions that could be learned. A player can learn as many trade professions as he wants to. Need to learn the profession from an NPC or book before one could use them. Also need few basic tools or toolbox for every trade profession. The tools or the toolbox that are required for trade professions are to be stored in the bag. 4. Increasing the default bag size by 50%. 5. Introducing new weapons cache to store armaments aside from the space in the bag. This space is independent of the bag space and has multiple versions. It is not provided by default and has to be purchased. The basic version is readily available at the Adventurers Association and it has enough space to accommodate the gear required to fully equip three persons. 6. Introducing Bounty quests that enable a person to clear one''s red name which happens on killing other players outside arena. Any settlement that prevent a red-named player from entering has a guard outpost where one can submit these quests without interference from the guards. 7. The fighting arenas for fights between the players at the colosseums in various cities are linked. Player could use them to challenge players irrespective of the races and their factions. 8. One can only use their hearthstones to return to the beginner village or beginner town or the city directly connected to it. For every other location, the player needs to gain enough reputation to become a third-class citizen to be able to use the hearthstone for travel. Further details about each of these changes were provided in the other parts of the website, but Balthazar didn''t care. He knew about all of them from his previous life experience. There were a lot of players discussing the changes, their pros and cons in the forums during this time, but he didn''t care as he heard of them all in his previous like. In fact, he found these new rules more comfortable as he had played for five years with these new rules in his previous life Balthazar wanted to join the Fight Club to which he was recommended by Merlin. He bought a new contact number to use it for the game account, registered the same as an alternate for him and opened an account with the name "Shadow Tyrant" on Bicker. He went to the forums to accept Boris Blade''s challenge before he went ahead to check out the details of the mass quest that Boris Blade had triggered. Though it was a mass quest, it was quite simple compared to the ones in other games. It spanned over a period of three days where repeated invasions from the quingol bandits would occur. Quingol Menace: 1. The guingol race managed to set camp at the Canterbury lake and have managed to set up a portal from which they are receiving reinforcements. 2. Provide support to the guards of the city. The guards have set up a line of control at the middle of the plains to prevent the quingols from causing damage to the town. A number of quest will be provided by the guards during the quest. 3. Reinforcements will arrive by the third day from the capital of the White Heart Kingdom. The special forces will serve as vanguard to conquer the quingol camp and defeat all of them. 4. Special rewards will be provided to the adventurers at the end of the mass quest based on their contributions. The information from the website was quite informative and he realized that he couldn''t capture the bandit camp with the guild. "It looks like that Boris Blade''s interference screwed up my plans with the bandit camp completely," thought Balthazar as he saw the information on the website. As the game didn''t start yet, he contacted Merlin on Bicker and asked him to provide Boris Blade''s information so that he could contact him for the challenge after the game starts. "Contact me after you log in. He won''t accept your request," said Merlin. "Right now, he hates you almost as much as he hates me and he would definitely not accept your friend request." "Ok. I am will be at the arena and waiting for him. Inform him to come to the arena at White Heart City," said Balthazar. "Ok. But don''t start till I come. I intend to spectate it. There are also others in the Fight Club who are going to view your challenge. We need to wait for them to view it. At least one administrator should be there for you to be allowed into it," said Merlin. Out of boredom, he tired to log in to the game and was unexpectedly transported to a large hall, which was filled with the avatars (characters) of many players. Apparently, he wasn''t the only one who tried to login before the upgrade of the game and they were all sent to some sort of waiting area. There was a large clock showing a countdown of the time for the upgrade to finish. As he was looking around, a notification popped up in front of his eyes. "The upgrade of the game hasn''t yet been completed. The communication features provided by the game is still available. You can either chose to remain here, go back or select to be put into sleep till the upgrade is finished. Then, you will be logged into vita-nova." Three buttons popped up in front of him for him to select what he wanted. Balthazar had entire forgotten about this feature that was provided when the game is getting upgraded. He could always select to sleep and get logged into the game when it starts up. He immediately selected to sleep. He was in no mood to converse with the other players or his friends. Most of them would be interested in discussing the new upgrades for which he had been waiting for some time. He went into sleep and after what felt like barely a second, he was in the game. "It didn''t feel like, I went to sleep at all," thought Balthazar. He had never used the somnium technology to go to sleep without playing the game before. Unlike normal sleep, the sleep with use of somnium tech without any activity provides a dreamless sleep which make a person lose his sense of time and feels like they woke up the very next moment. The feeling is only noticeable when the user takes catnaps for a small duration. It was recommended in the forums to avoid that as it gives a drowsy feeling to the user. Chapter 120 - Preliminary Battles Balthazar looked around and noticed that he was at the transportation portal of the Blackrock town. He immediately channeled his hearthstone to get to the White Heart City and made his way to the colosseum. He checked his dashboard and found a new gauge specifying stamina along with HP and MP. It was represented as SP and had a light green colored bar representing it value. He pinged Merlin informing him that he was at the colosseum and was waiting for him. "Book an arena and send me the details. You might get a few players challenging you before Boris Blade. Just entertain yourself with them," replied Merlin. "Why the delay? Didn''t you inform him?" asked Shadow. "It is due to the mass quest. You need a few others to spectate the fight with Boris. The mass quest had them all busy. The guilds are all trying to pull their players above level 10 and even a number of them below level 10 to the Blackrock Town. By the way, all players below level 10 need to use the portal for your dungeon. You are going to have a windfall," replied Merlin. "They are all busy with that? I thought that the players in the group were all fighting maniacs. Why are they concerned about the mass quest so much?" "We already have few of them asking to start right now. The thing is that Rex is delaying. Both Tristar and King Rex transported to the Blackrock Town and are trying to use this excuse to delay a bit. I heard that Boris is still at level 11 and is trying to raise his level and get better equipment before the fight. Tristar didn''t want to leave anything to chance when he learned that you are at level 12," said Merlin. "Don''t worry. Oceanis already told them to hurry up. They will rush to the fight as soon as he hits level 12. Just book an arena of your choice in the colosseum and give the details. A number of players are criticizing you in the forums after you accepted the challenge. It is best, if we have a few good fights to shut them up," he continued. "Is it really necessary?" asked Shadow. Balthazar didn''t want to fight other players. With his experience, he could be considered an expert and believed it might be conceived as bullying the other players. "Of course. Even my reputation is on the line here. I recommended you. Moreover, a fight with a star player like Boris Blade is the main event. You need to have a few fights before that and do you not care that there are others challenging you in the forum," said Merlin. "Fine. I am booking an arena," said Shadow as he booked one and sent Merlin the details. He wanted to win against Boris Blade strongly and establish a reputation as a good PvP player. So, he selected an arena called solitary ramshackles which was mostly plain ground with a few trees, rotten fences and a couple of broken-down houses. As an assassin, he should prefer an area with a lot of cover than something like this, but Shadow chose this to show them his skills. A few seconds after he sent the password and ID of the arena, a couple of names appeared in the spectator list and more in the challengers list. He would get the combat points of the players that he had defeated. He realized that this was a good opportunity to get combat points. "Some spectators have already entered the arena. Oceanis is the administrator and he is already inside with few more members of his guild, Poseidon''s champions. Give them a good show ????," came a message from Merlin. "You make sure to put pressure on Boris," replied Shadow as he selected to fight the first person that appeared in the challengers list. He disappeared and reappeared at a random place in the arena as his chat box and communications got grayed out and a notification appeared that it can''t be used till the end of the fight. He was frozen and a small countdown from five appeared in front of him. The spectators were put in a large hall with multiple screens depicting the players from various viewpoints and also the map and their respective locations. It allowed the spectators to clearly understand their movements and the fight. Shadow found looked around him as soon as the countdown hit zero and entered stealth as he made his way towards one of the houses. The two opponents are always spawned at a distance from each other. He could see from his opponent information that it was a level 11 swordsman. "Hmm. This is to be expected. They are being through in their preparations. That swordsman is a main member of Foedus Rex. Looks like he got out of the guild before he challenged. I have seen him many times in other games," said Nix Maester who was beside Oceanis among the spectators. "It is to be expected. Both Rex and Tristar have always been the type to take safeguards and don''t blindly charge. Boris is the same, but he was foolish at the bandit camp because of the Sultan incident," remarked Oceanis. Most people would disapprove a player sending out someone to investigate his opponents, but this was never the way that guilds operated. Especially super guilds were quite strict and considered winning to be important above anything else. "Still, the guy Shadow Tyrant is a complete novice and at this stage of the game neither will have too many skills. Is that idiot Boris not even confident even in his technical skill?" asked Nix Maester who felt a bit disgusted. "It is just a simple fight not a tournament or a competition fight. What are they so worried about." "We already know that this game is different from the previous virtual reality ones due to it being based on somnium technology. The fight mechanics are also quite different and close to those in reality. If Shadow Tyrant is an expert fighter in real life as the rumors suggest, he would have a strong advantage. Even I would have someone check him out beforehand," said Oceanis. "Is it really going to be an advantage. Does real-life experience make that much of a difference?" asked Nix in a worried tone. If that was true, even he would soon have a hard time in game industry. By this time, Shadow had located his opponent, hid behind a tree and used cheap shot to stun him. He followed it up with a few more attacks and ran into one of the houses before the opponent got out of the stun. This one barrage had already cost the opponent half his health. "He is already at an advantage and running openly into that house. It is a clear trap," said Nix commenting on the game. "Yes. Do you know why Star Lord is at the top of all the star players?" "He is the best expert. Got great intuition and tactics. What is there about it?" questioned Nix throwing a few looks at the screens. "Yes, he has good tactics, but his advantage is not that. He hardly ever wavers or doubts himself. That comes from his time as a mercenary. It is a mental fortitude that most lack. I won''t deny that he has better tactics either," said Oceanis. "Moreover, this game is would be much more comfortable to them for obvious reasons." "He was a real-life expert too. I guess Celestial Warriors are going to remain to the top guild. The already had the best trainers whom now have a special advantage. Did you talk to him about the game?" asked Nix. "Yes. After the upgrade notice we had a small meeting. He loves the game and is glad that he doesn''t have to decide on the next guild leader because of somnium tech. He agrees with all the rumors and that he finds the game a lot easier but hates the new stamina gauge implemented in the upgrade. Says that he would now have to keep checking on it like mana bar and maintaining it is a hassle," said Oceanis. "Wait a minute? Did you say something about next leader for the Celestials?" asked Nix. If Star Lord stayed just due to the somnium tech, then the real lost a big chance to vie for supremacy among the gaming circles. "Ya. He is at least 20 years older than me. He never allows anyone to speak of his age, even the officials, but we are sure of this. That is why we never cared and thought he would retire sooner or later," said Oceanis. He and several other guild leaders were the ones most heartbroken about Star Lord not retiring. "Wow. Learning a lot of new thing that I haven''t heard of before," said Nix. "Why would they talk about these things when they worked so hard to leave it behind," came a voice from behind them. "How''s my guy doing?" asked Merlin as he joined them. "Damn! When did the second match start? What happened in the first?" asked Nix Maester looking at the screens. "He beheaded the swordsman when you were chatting away," said Jinx Mix. He was another warlock star player who was a part of Poseidon''s champion''s like Nix and Oceanis and was also a strong competitor for Merlin. "You found a good one," he continued looking at Merlin. "Of course. That''s natural," replied Merlin acting like he was never wrong. The second opponent was an elementalist player and got stunned by Shadow in the first minute of their fight. At such close range, Shadow Tyrant didn''t bother to get out after the stun ended but used a few more attacks to kill his opponent. The opponent was a cloth armor class who had low defence and wasn''t even a good challenge. The next one was another swordsman who seemed to especially careful. He kept turning around to check if Shadow had crept behind him. He seemed to be very vigilant. Shadow had already decided to attack them in a frontal assault. He was also bored of sneaking around. He got up the roof of a house and was looking for his opponent. "Is he selecting only members of Foedus Rex or something. These three are all from the same guild. This one didn''t even care to remove his guild tag," said Jinx. "Yeah. I told him to do that," said Merlin who was seated behind him. "You know. To make things more interesting." "You just recommended him out of boredom, didn''t you?" asked Nix. "You must have if you are leading him on such a risky path. They will learn of his moves if he does this." "Ok. First. I didn''t recommend him out of boredom. I wanted to let him understand that there are many players as skilled as him. For a strong newbee, it is good if he realizes that as soon as possible, I am looking out for him," said Merlin. "You are looking out for a newbee?" asked Jinx skeptically. "Did he refuse to join your team or something?" "No. Nothing of that sort. I just found him a bit headstrong." "What happened? Did he want to lead some dungeon or quest and fail to do properly?" asked Nix. "No." "Fine keep it to yourself. We will know it sooner or later," said Jinx Mix. "Ya. No way, you did this out of the goodness of your heart. You didn''t even recommend your own team." "We both know that Mob isn''t yet ready if that is what you mean," said Merlin angrily. He had been training Mob for quite some time in other games, but he always felt the guy to be lacking good instincts and couldn''t guess the opponents tricks well which is necessary for PvP. "I would suggest you to give him a chance. You are too protective. It is best that you let him try," said Jinx Mix. "Dude. You were one of the rare ones who got a second chance to join the club. That is because Oceanis vouched for you," said Merlin. "You can let him try a few friendly matches with us," said both Jinx and Nix together. "You will chew him out." "Perhaps, that is what he needs," said Oceanis. "We can honestly help him out, if you want to?" Merlin immediately felt something odd with the scenario. It was fine for Nix and Jinx to talk nonsense and irritate him, but Oceanis was never one who did either. "Why are you being so helpful? Are you trying to steal my guy?" asked Merlin doubtfully. It was odd to see them trying to help someone who would be their competitor. Suddenly, all the three of them looked fl.u.s.tered and looked towards the screens as they heard him. It was like they were trying to avoid his gaze. "You are trying to recruit me?" asked Merlin as he realized their intentions. "You already have a warlock player don''t you? What are you not telling me?" They looked at each other for a moment before Oceanis finally decided to speak out. "It is something that we were asked to do by the boss. He is sure that the format for competitions including the Magic cup is going to change this year and would require more players. So, he wanted us to ask you. Frankly, speaking I don''t want you. You are a wild card," messaged Oceanis. "Oh! Well glad that you have now opened up about it. i won''t be a good fit. I would try to replace you. Are you sure about this new format? If that was real, Sultan wouldn''t have been left by Rex," replied Merlin. "Only two guilds know right now. Our''s and Celestials. It is still under discussion. I only told you because you are not in any guild right now and you are the kind who would never let someone else take advantage of this knowledge," said Oceanis. "Ya. That is true, but I am trying to compete. Just you know as an adventurer team," said Merlin. "I don''t understand that. We all know that adventurer teams wont have as much resources as a guild. What are you really playing at?" asked Nix Maester. "Let it be, Nix. I guess I am a bit tired of the politics that come within the guilds," said Merlin. "You, the Celestials are a bit different. You have good and headstrong leaders who chose the best path to win. Not all the other guilds are the same." It was clear that Merlin was a bit disappointed in the guild, Magus Shrine that he founded with his friends and that this was a sore topic for him. The others also went silent and decided to stop discussing it. "He just killed the fourth one. How long is Boris going to make us wait?" said Jinx looking at the screen as it showed a paladdin being taken down. "I am going to make some noise in the club." (Fight club chat group) Jinx Mix: Boris is taking a lot of time and seems to be busy. Why don''t we send someone else for the test fight? Chapter 121 - Challenged (Fight Club Chat) Red Dagger: Ya. I don''t want to stay in the city any longer than necessary. Is he going to come anytime soon or I will test him myself. Red Path: Yes. Red dagger you go test him Clear Sky: +1 Mass Raja: +1 . . . King Rex: Please, wait a few moments, he is stuck with a few monsters and is unable to use his hearthstone as he is in battle state. Star Lord: Please make sure, he attempts it within 10 minutes. Else Red Dagger please administer the test in his Boris Blade''s place. "What is wrong with this Jinx?" thought King Rex as he sent out the message. "Wasn''t it his own guild leader that told Boris to test that Shadow Tyrant guy." He had half a mind to put the same thing in the chat group but before he could do that Star Lord''s message stopped him. Everyone who saw that knew that Rex was just trying to get more time and those who were spectating put in similar messages to Jinx asking Boris to come quickly. "I never thought that you would suggest using someone else for the test," said Nix Maester to Jinx. "Why not?" "Cause guild leader was the one who suggested Boris to test Shadow in the first place. Did you even realize that you were crossing him?" asked Nix as he saw Jinx put on a sheepish smile and looked at Oceanis to apologize. "Leave it. I don''t care for such trifles. I am as bored as the rest of you. Even if you didn''t, I would have a minute later," said Oceanis as he put in a +1 for Jinx''s statement in the chat. With that as precedent the other administrators also did the same for Jinx and Star Lord''s statements. Rex quickly contacted Tristar who was helping Boris level up. "What is the delay. I thought he was quite close to reaching level 12. Is it not done yet?" he asked. "He is at level 12, we are just browsing through the market to get more equipment," replied Tristar. "What is wrong with his equipment? We already gave him the best in the guild." "Well. The ones we sent to check out Shadow all confirmed that he had high attributes. Probably very good equipment. So, we were seeing if we could get any better," said Tristar. Even though he believed that the previous incident was an accident and was confident that Boris Blade''s technical skills would be better than a newbee''s, he wanted to make sure that the attributes were as close to the opponent''s as possible. Even with the best technical skills, one would find it hard to defeat his opponent, if the attributes differed by a significant margin. "You are unnecessarily worried. Just stop buying and get to the colosseum. They are suggesting that Red Dagger take Shadow''s test and Merlin''s contract wouldn''t be valid if Boris doesn''t take the test," said King Rex and cut the call. He also teleported to the city and went to the colosseum to check out the fight. By this time, Shadow had already fought with twelve players and had managed to secure 130 combat points. He was about to chosoe the next one when Boris Blade''s name finally appeared on the challenger''s list which immediately selected. "He finally came," said Oceanis as he noticed the next participant and put in a message in the fight club chat for any other interested parties to join. The last few fights, Shadow didn''t use any assassin skills provided by skill books and began to take down his opponents just by using the skills he learned in his previous life. The garnered the interest of quite a few players who were in the fight club "Care to make a bet?" he asked Boris before starting the match. There was always an option for the players to bet other things than combat points for their fights. Sometimes, they could even put in more combat point that they have other than the 10 that are taken per fight. "What do you have in mind?" "You got more combat points?" asked Shadow and found Boris immediately putting up a 100 combat points for the bet and an addition 50 gold which Shadow immediately matched. He had the portal of Cave of Wargs which had been raking money continuously after the upgrade due to the mass quest. He could even bet upto 5 times the amount and not even care about it, right now. Once the fight started, Shadow did the same as the last few times and decided to confront Boris head on. Boris was quite surprised that his opponent didn''t even go into stealth but waited for him near a tree looking out for Boris. As he got close, Shadow who had advanced perception easily noticed Boris'' outline and dashed towards him. "You are very daring to attack me head on," thought Boris. He already knew that Shadow had better attributes than him, but he still thought that it wasn''t enough for his opponent to put him at a disadvantage. He also released stealth and used his skill teleportation stab to cover the distance between them and make a quick attack. As soon as the Shadow saw the flickering visual effect caused by teleportation stab, Balthazar knew the skill that he had used. Though it was a rare skill, it didn''t faze him. He simply side stepped avoid the path of Boris Blade''s attack and kicked at his back causing him to tumble down. Boris was quite shocked by the way that his opponent countered him. The skill was a special effect on one of his weapons and was considered a rare skill. Even for a person who was a real-life expert, it was supposed to be impossible to counter as such effects are not physically possible in real-life as there is no magical element in real-life. Apart from him, few others were also surprised as the visual effects clearly showed it to be one of magical nature. "How did you do that? There aren''t many players who can use this skill" asked Boris as he got up angrily. Though the kick caused negligible HP loss, it was clear that Shadow managed to land the first hit which was very important as an assassin could use the first hit to build up a combo. Moreover, the way he countered with a simple kick, he could have easily followed up with a few attacks as Boris fell down, but didn''t do so. Boris felt that his opponent was looking down on him for not using the chance. "I have seen the effects of teleportation before. So, I guessed you would try to get close to and jumped to the side," replied Shadow nonchalantly. Though this seemed to be a valid reason, any player could see that it required perfect timing and wasn''t an easy feat to do. Angry at missing the first atttack, Boris lunged at him again. This time he used another skill which allowed him to rush towards Shadow at a high speed. It was a special effect from his boots as they glowed in a weird light before the skill happened. Shadow decided to attack with his weapons directly this time. Their weapons struck each other, and Shadow was pushed back when he blocked his opponent almost falling flat on his face. It looked like the skill caused a bit of blow-back effect. He quickly changed one of the talons to the piolet form and swung it on the ground to hold him in place and then using the same as a hold, he lunged forward and the second talon was used to strike at his opponent who was moving towards him. Boris knew the effects of the skill he used and wanted to capitalize on it to land more attacks on Shadow. So, after his attack was blocked, he continued to run towards the opponent who was pushed away, when he was suddenly struck at his knee by a dagger causing him to lose balance and fall by his opponent''s side. Apart from that, he also got a notification that a cripple effect was inflicted on him. Both Shadow and Boris rolled away from the other, after that bout. Boris realized that Shadow was not a newbee and definitely knew how to fight even if he hadn''t played for long. He was no longer careless and began to treat him like any other star player. The spectators were also quite impressed by the attacks and even the members of the fight club. They understood that it requires very good reflexes and quick thinking to be able land that attack when he was falling down and pushed back by Boris'' attack. They were also curious of his weapon that could change forms. "It is a special weapon," said Thunder ray a berserker member of the fight club as they were discussing the weapon. He had one of the special weapons of the game which could morph form from a Glaive to a Scythe. He had confused the unique weapon with special weapons which could only morph forms and most can''t even upgrade. Even his own doesn''t upgrade in levels. "You have seen that kind of weapon before?" asked Nix Maester who was extremely curious about the pair of daggers. He was also an assassin and wanted to get his hands on a pair of such weapons. "They are rare, but nothing great. It won''t be of much use in higher levels. I don''t see a point of having those other than to climb some tough locations. Quite handy for a trek," said Thunder Ray joking about those. "Mine changes from a glaive to a scythe," he continued as he showed off his own weapon. This was quite new for most of the players as they observed the weapon in Thunder Ray''s hands as he made it change forms. He even sent its details to them. It even had two different special skills for the two different forms and was a Dark gold weapon and had a very impressive design with shiny metallic l.u.s.tre. "Still, you can continue to use it till level 20, instead of other weapons right?" asked Nix as Thunder nodded. At this time, Boris who had a cripple condition was naturally slow and was limping. Shadow knew that it was the best time to take him down and started attacking from the direction of the injured leg, but suddenly Boris helmet glowed as a silver hue appeared before him pushing him back. He realized that he had underestimated the resources of the super guilds. It looked like every equipment of his had a special effect. He decided to use the skill Void Strikes of his weapon, if he used any barrier again. Boris used the chance to run and go into stealth. It was clear that he had considered Shadow to be a strong opponent to everyone that was watching the fight. "Well, it is clear that he qualifies. Do we need the fight to finish?" said Oceanis as he got up to leave. "Wait till they finish the fight. What is the hurry?" asked Nix Maester. "Dude! You have fun. I got a guild to run. Would be glad if you helped me though," replied Oceanis as he selected to get out of the colosseum and informed his decision on the fight club chat. Jinx looked at Nix with an inquiring look wondering if they should follow Oceanis. "We will stay and watch the fight. I want to see who wins the bet. Talking about bets, anyone like to bet?" shouted Nix. "My vote is on the new kid." "10 gold on Boris," said King Rex. "Throw another 10 gold for Boris," said Thunder Ray. "I am hoping you fitted with some good equipment." "Who is going to the bookie and what are the odds?" asked Merlin. The others were stumped by the sudden question. None of them had an answer to his quest and those that were excited and about to bet all shut up. "Party Pooper," said Nix Maester looking at Merlin. "Let us just keep the bettings to the usual competitions and the underground fights. We will have actual bookkeepers and reasonable odds," said Merlin. "Ya, you do that. I am betting 10 gold each with Rex and Thunder for equal odd," said Nix waving off Merlin. "You two are up for it, right?" "Ya." "Of course." In the meantime, Boris and Shadow had been in the fight for quite some time. They were both in stealth and on the lookout for the other in one of the houses. Finally, a minute later, Shadow managed to find Boris and used a cheap shot against him and also used his clone to deplete half his health before he ran out of the house. Shadow knew that once the stun wore off, Boris would have a few tricks as soon as he gets out of the stun. He left the clone attacking Boris, so that he wouldn''t run after him. The fight had already taken more than five minutes and there is good chance some of the skills on Boris'' equipment have already gone to cool-down. Till now, Shadow had received negligible damage compared to Boris. Most of the spectators were already convinced that Boris would have a lot of difficulty to catch up to the difference in HP. As Boris came out of the house, Shadow jumped off the top of the house performing the aerial assassination skill as he activated the Void Strikes effect of his unique weapons. He aimed his weapons at Boris''s neck causing a cripple effect along with bleed. Boris found his view all tilted to the side and blurry due the hit on the neck. This was his first PvP fight in the vita-nova and he wasn''t even hurt in a similar fashion till now in the game. He was frightened by the sudden change and the searing pain he felt in his neck. Moreover, out of habit, he had set his senses to full for the fight. It was common to do that before PvP and field bosses so that they wouldn''t actually miss any light slow damage skills used on them. Shadow managed to use this shock the opponent and continued to aim his attacks on the neck causing more damage. He had to agree that Boris'' equipment was very good as it caused much less damage than he expected. Before the Void Strikes time was done, Shadow morphed the daggers to the form of piolets and stuck them both in Boris'' neck from opposite sides and began to use it to hold him as he continued to pull him around. With the two blades stuck in Boris'' neck, he was bleeding out HP and unable to move his head around. Boris could clearly see that the bleeding effect would continue as long the blades were in his neck. He was trying to pull them out with his hands but failed as Shadow''s attributes were clearly better than his. With lack of option, he activated the special effect of his boots causing him to dash again and made the bleed effect worse. The good thing, he could find about it was that he was out of Shadow''s clutches. He had been beaten by the new guy whom he didn''t even consider to be in the same league as him. It was quitea humbling experience for him. He followed it with the special effect of his weapon to put more distance and tried to run away from Shadow to get a chance to make a comeback. He decided to let Shadow come to him. With such a high lead it is common for Shadow to seek and finish him. "I can''t let it go down like this," he thought as he ran away into a house. While he was waiting in the house, his view suddenly grayed. Till then he didn''t realize the bleed effect was still on him causing him to die. Chapter 122 - Basic Strategies "Wow, that was a rare sight. You don''t usually see one bleed out when hiding," said Nix Maester as Boris died. "Pay up, folks," he shouted turning towards Rex and Thunder. "I should have bet more," he sighed as they paid up. "I wouldn''t have. 10 gold was a reasonable amount to risk, but after the first few bouts, I wouldn''t bet more than that," said Thunder Ray. "It wasn''t a bad fight. He never got a chance to fight back. The newbee was quite strong too," said Thunder putting his hand on King Rex''s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. "Yep, he was unexpected. Hope to fight him soon. What did you bet with Merlin for the fight?" asked Nix. His questions irritated Rex and TriStar, but he didn''t care. "We didn''t bet anything on the match," replied King Rex as he turned around and got out of the arena. He was disappointed that Boris failed but it was just a small thing. He knew that Boris and the rest of the members would have better access to resources being in his guild and sooner or later managed to get good equipment at higher levels. It was just the start of the game and it was a completely new kind of game. He just considered it to be a humbling experience for Boris who would most probably try to work harder after this. Merlin immediately posted the results of the match and also added Shadow to the Fight Club group. There were a few introductions and rules for the being a member of the club which were quickly explained to him by Oceanis. The main one was that every person had to have at the very least 4 matches per year with players of other guilds or teams in the club. If a pair of players had previously fought, the losing side of the last time could choose the arena. If a player lost continuously for 10 matches, he would be kicked out. Following that there were some greetings and congratulation offered in the group after which Nix Maester and a few others started make fun of Boris Blade again. Balthazar quickly understood that this group was mostly a place of gossip for star players and conducting matches between them. The rule for compulsory matches made sure that the members couldn''t keep most of their skills secret except for a few hidden hands and this forced them to continuously improve themselves. This was just a club to cultivate their competitive spirit and stop them from lazing out for long. The one thing that Balthazar cared about the most was that it increased his contacts. This was quite important for a new player. There were previous instances when promising independent players first joined the club and later moved into a guild through the contacts they gained through the group. The group was a source of making friends to Balthazar in the gaming circle. He needed this if he wanted to improve the Crimson Realm to a first-rate guild. The group had many players who were from super guilds and first-rate guilds. "So, what do you think of Boris Blade?" asked Merlin after he quieted down in the group chat. "He seemed to be shocked to fight me, even after I fought so many members of his guild," replied Shadow. He had expected a decent fight but was disappointed. He realized how much the game was responsible in the improvement of skill in the players. The Boris Blade of his past life could have definitely put a lot of pressure on the present Shadow, but the results were far from comparable. He realized the difference in both skills the players would gain and also how much their equipment differed in his previous life. "I need to use this time to gain a good fan base and more members for the guild. Else, I never will reach the level of those super guilds," thought Balthazar. He asked Merlin to join him in hunting the quingols in the Blackrock town. He knew that this is the best time to gather more recruits for the guild and contacted Slaine informing that he would be joining them in the Blackrock Town. He decided to attack the quingols till he managed to raise his level till he was close to 13. After that, he would rather attempt the hell mode of the Caves of Lukriag. Dungeons had always been a good source of materials and experience, if played right. He wanted to get the first clear of the Caves of Lukriag and would have done so, if he had the same level and was worried that someone else might already be trying it. Especially, after fighting Boris Blade, he realized that the super guilds have very good access to resources and equipment just due to the large numbers. Caves of Lukriag wasn''t an overly complicated dungeon. With good equipment and a few tools like dynamites which he knew that other super guilds already have, even the hell mode could be cleared. Even with his equipment, it is hard to clear hell mode without an upgrade in level or the equipment. He knew that he could only obtain first clear, if he was at level 12 or below when he entered the dungeon. He had seen players do it to get best clear time records in his previous life. So, he wanted to increase his experience very close to reaching level 13 before they entered the dungeon. So, he decided to try out the Quingol Menace as he believed that like all mass quests, it would provide large number of monsters to attack and kill. From the forums, it was clear that the quingols had been constantly attacking any players that stepped into the Canterbury plains. As he reached the shop in Blackrock Town where they were assembling, he noticed that the gather was being led by Brick and Perennial and the number of players were more than ten times the amount that was there before the upgrade. The 30 minutes he spent in the colosseum gather a large number of players. "Congratulations!" said both Brick and Perennial Light as soon as they saw him. There were shouts from the other players too congratulating him on the fight. "What are they so excited about?" wondered Shadow. "This is expected. Every time a player in a new guild defeats a star player, it usually leads to a new strong guild. New guild implies more fun and better options for professional players and normal players alike. Competition provides good chances for the ones that are interested in games. That is the main reason for fame bringing more players," said Merlin looking at Shadow as if he had asked an extremely stupid question. "That is true," added Brick. "But it is going to be a nightmare to protect all of these players from the quingols," said Brick in a tired manner. He had led a small group less than a tenth of the present one before the upgrade and for that little time, he had worked and stressed extremely hard. "Protect them?" asked Merlin looking at Brick in the same way, he looked at Shadow previously. "Does stupidity run rampant in your guild?" he mocked. "With these numbers you don''t need to protect them. You have at least a few hundred members here, right? A good coordination is more than enough to mow those bandits," said Merlin. "Mob do you remember the Ravager''s revenge?" he asked looking towards Mob. "Wargod''s Tempest? Yeah," said Mob wondering why he was asked about that now. "Well, this time you lead the troops. Similar one should work for these monsters too," said Merlin. "We five will leave the group when we get experience to level 12, you should continue with the rest," said Merlin. "What? Why am I singled out?" asked Mob after getting close to Merlin. "You always wanted to lead, right? You do a few things that I propose successfully, I will recommend you to the Fight Club" asked Merlin. "Once, we get out, it will be only you in charge. It is a good practice. We can get other first clears. You already got one. This is just the first clear of level 10. How about you take anything that you find useful that we get from the dungeon, including first clear rewards," suggested Merlin to pacify him. "What does commanding players have do with fight club. You are just giving me work cause I am better than the others at this," said Mob irritated. He thought Merlin was just using that to get him to do this. "You have never handled this large a number and I would not have considered this for fight club, if you were anything other than a summoner. But you always choose necromancer or summoner," retorted Merlin. He rarely tries to genuinely help anyone without any personal advantage but he was irritated as Mob implied that he wasn''t helping. "Ok. I can ask for anything that you acquired," said Mob trying to negotiate further. "Yes, but only that you could use for your profession. Not more," said Merlin. He made sure to tell this as he is the kind to ask for all the gains if someone promised the same to him. Even, if he didn''t have any use of it. He could always use things for bargaining or exchanges. "You are confusing him with you," joked Grenadier and received a scathing look from Merlin in response. "Ok. Once, we cross the line of control formed by the guards in the plains, all the long-distance attackers like mages and rangers stay in the center, while the others form a line around them. We will need to make smaller groups of the players. You have noted down the players and their occupations, right?" Mob asked Brick. Brick quickly messaged him a list. 560 30% were assassins, 6% swords men, 10% guardians, 5% paladdins, 1% martial artists, 5% summoners, 6% druids, 10% clerics, 5% rangers, 7% berserkers, 5% warlocks and 10% elementalists. Looking at the stats with majority of assassins, it was clear to Mob that these numbers were mainly due to the Shadow''s fame. This made it hard as assassin''s have the advantage of stealth and do burst damage but are very useful in continuous battles that is required in mass quests. At that time, he wished that it would be better if Shadow had been anything else even martial artist which was the least played class. "You have your work cut out for you," said Merlin who also had observed the issue with the players assembled before them. "How many of these are from the guild and above level 10?" asked Mob. "40," said Brick sending another list. "They are all just for guarding the others and are well equipped. They all even have crossbows." Mob caught his head as he began to think. "We need to divide them into smaller groups based on occupation. Each one will have at least one from these forty," said Mob. He felt that this is going to be much harder than the time, he had seen Merlin organize a group. At that time, warlocks were in majority and they could spam warlock skills to control and kill the monsters in mass quests. "We need tanks at the front. Shield Guardians. Include all paladdins and druids who have shields. Let us put them all in the tank category. Then come, berserkers, martial artists, swordsman and assassins, close combat physical attackers as category 2. Summoner, Warlock and Cleric are middlemen. The remaining two are complete DPS long range, category 4," suggested Mob. "Will this work," he asked Merlin''s opinion. "You decide and learn. I leave it to you," said Merlin as he remembered Oceanis'' words. The others were had a surprised look on their face, when Merlin refused to comment as he is the kind that comments just to have a bit of fun even when the best option was put forward. "Okay, then," said Mob taking Merlin''s words for approval. "Total groups will be fifteen. Make note of it and you need to assign member their groups and numbers. At least, two of the 40 above level 10 would be in each group." "Two kinds of groups. Outer and inner. Outer groups will have categories 1 and 2. These two categories will only be the outer group. Total number of outer groups is ten. Distribute the two categories in 1:2 ratio of tanks to attackers. Make sure every group has equal number of paladin or druid, if possible, someone who could heal," explained Mob to Brick. "Inner group has the remaining. 5 inner groups. Pair each inner group with two outer groups. Elementalists and Rangers both have decent long-range DPS compared to others. They will be the ones who will be able to land their attacks first before any other class. Summoners also have long range attacks but let us have them use their summons to assist as tanks for outer groups based on situation," said Mob." "You noted down that?" he asked to confirm. "Yes, Ya. Warlocks and clerics also use long-distance attack and support when necessary?" asked Brick. "Yeah. Apart from that, if the monster numbers are too large, first the ones with shields tank, then the summons, then the berserkers will try to hold them back. In general circ.u.mstances, all the others attack in cooperation with tanks, but only if the monster come close. If the monsters are maintaining a distance, let smaller parties of four or five asssassin''s go out to scout for them. They will not attack but only scout and report then larger groups will attack the monsters. From the information that we have, these monsters tend to be in groups. So, letting the assassins attack alone is stupid. The most important part is to regroup effectively based on the size of the monster groups that we find. Only then, we can use the groups to effectively kill the monsters without much losses." "I understand. I will try to do the best to make sure others understand and follow this. This strategy is mainly to keep the level 9 players safe and help them level up as soon as possible," said Brick. "Anything else," he asked looking at Mob and then Merlin. Chapter 123 - Attacking Quingols "Nothing comes to mind. Don''t think I missed anything important. With our composition of players, I think this is the best way to attack in the plains," said Mob looking at Merlin to see if he had anything to add. "Also, make sure that everyone remains in the same team all 560 of them with experience and don''t let anyone use hearthstone to go back once, they hit level 10. We will return only after everyone hits level 10. Once, level 10, let the others make the last hits but I think you don''t need me to tell you all this, right?" asked Merlin with a smile. "Not to worry, most of the players are ones that joined the guild and wouldn''t be so greedy. There are about 10% of them who have paid to get to level 10. I will distribute them evenly, so that others can keep a look on them," said Brick. "What about the drops and the quingols head that we can collect?" asked Shadow. "That is the same as before. We will have few members that will keep collecting all the quingol heads. There are only five of us so that we can get a high count. The other drops can be picked up by any guild member for use, but the 40 that I brought will make a note of it and calculate the contribution points and deduct them accordingly. Don''t worry. These guys are all old players who helped manage the guild in other games," said Brick explaining his plan for the drops. He went to the other 40 and explained the strategy suggested by Mob. The 40 of them set to work dividing the players into different groups and explaining their responsibilities in the group. Suddenly, a player shouted out. "What do you mean by asking me to not teleport after reaching level 10," he asked in a haughty manner. "Am I not paying you for this service? You have not informed me of this before. I don''t agree." "Ah! Spoilt kids," said Merlin in a voice that only the few near him could hear as he looked at the player who was shouting. "Just hope that he isn''t a rich one too. Those are the worst." "Player Mighty Merchant," shouted Brick to be heard and attract the players attention. "You have provided us gold for the service, but you can''t just leave as soon as you are done. You have joined to form a group, and none are to leave till everyone has reached level 10." "You drone. Who do you think you are?" shouted Mighty Merchant as he came close to Brick followed by a couple of his lackeys. "Do you know what I am capable of in real world? I have chosen your guild because of your fame and it is your honor to receive me," he said. "Do you even know who I am?" His words were extremely irritating to almost every player those who heard it. The games were originally a way to leave behind the worries of one''s mundane life and enjoy in a fantasy world. It was very close to taboo to talk about oneself in real life in a game. Though most wouldn''t be able to do anything, it would acquire the ire of all the players. "Definitely a rich kid. Any guild that gathers a bit of fame always attracts such flies. They were always such a nuisance," said Merlin in a small voice. If he had been a part of the guild, he would have gone to handle the player, but now it wasn''t his problem. Yet he said those words so that other could hear it and hopefully hire him to do the same. But he was never going to get the chance as Balthazar immediately took charge. He had experience with such things in his previous life, but decided to try something different than what he used to do. "Do you know who I am?" Shadow shouted back in an angry tone from behind them. "You are the new player that defeated Boris Blade," said Mighty Merchant looking at the name above Shadow. "Join me, I will definitely give you a better offer than them," he said looking at Shadow. Balthazar didn''t know what to do with the guy. He was pissed off due to his arrogant behavior but also amused by the fact that he was trying to buy him. "Hahahaha," laughed Shadow unable to hold on. After laughing for a few seconds, he caught his belly and said, "I am the boss of the Crimson Realm guild. The guild leader works for me at my workshop." It was followed by a small amount of silence followed by bickering and mocking Mighty Merchant. No one knew about Shadow Tyrant being the boss of the Crimson Realm guild and it was news for most. Mighty Merchant looked the most stupid for trying to poach the boss from his employee. But Might Merchant wasn''t one to be embarrassed easily. "Oh! Much better. Sell your workshop to me. I am," he said looking at Shadow. Shadow didn''t do anything but look at him as if he was an idiot. "Do you know who I am? I am Don Scruts. The Scruts family is planning to get into V.R. gaming industry. We have been in the provision of security for years and have." "Not interested," said Shadow as he had no intention of allowing the man to use the gather for his own advertis.e.m.e.nt. "Think about it. A number of corporations are going to join the game sooner or later. You don''t understand the changes that the somnium tech is going to bring it is not just a simple tool for gaming," he said as he came closer to Shadow. "Do you know who I am?" asked Shadow again confusing him. Merchant felt that he was being provoked by Shadow and felt like putting Shadow in place with a few threats, but before he did one of the lackeys that he recruited in the game came to whisper something in his ear. "So, it is the Powers family who have started the guild. Still you cannot match the collaboration that we are about to have. I suggest you think again," said Merchant lowering his voice. Though Don was the son of the head of Scruts, he had two brothers above him and didn''t have much chance in being influential in the family. So, when he heard of this venture, he immediately jumped at the opportunity. He came to Blackrock town just so he could negotiate in the presence of many to make others understand that he was a capable man. But he also didn''t want an open conflict with the Powers family. He wished that he had informed his lackey about his plans before hand and could have avoided this. "I was too reckless," thought Don when he heard about it, but was still not willing to back down easily. "Powers family? Please," said Shadow as he came right beside Don. "Only the guild leader is from that family. Don''t try to intimidate me with your family name. If I feel like it, I will go and put a blade through Matt Scruts head let alone you," he whispered. He grabbed Don''s hand put some coins from his pouch into it. "We have paid back what you gave us," said Shadow. "Please, don''t approach us ever. Else I will have to approach you Don and I mean Don Scruts, not the Might Merchant," whispered Shadow in his ear threatening Don. It was an empty threat and Balthazar didn''t even care about it but looking at Don''s face, he knew that the man was genuinely scared and wouldn''t do it again. He knew that he made a new enemy but didn''t care as he was bound to make more in the game. "Blacklist these idiots, I don''t want them disturbing us again," said Shadow. "Let us continue with the plan," he said to Brick and went back to join Merlin. Brick and the others soon arranged them into 15 groups as suggested by Mob and smaller subdivisions for assassins. The soon lined up and made way towards the back gate of the Blackrock town. As they moved towards the back gate, they found other groups making way to the gate for the same purpose. About 100 meters away from the back of the town, there were a bunch of tents and a few wooden stations setup. Palisades made of wooden stakes were place across the place forming a temporary wall against quingols. A number of players formed lines in front of the wooden stations. Apart from Mob, the other five have formed a different team from the other 560 players as they intend to leave in middle. Mob joined the same team as Brick and the others as they had to cooperate with each other and the guild planned to continue killing the quingols till Lizzie called for them, with more players ready to level up. Rudra and Slaine were at the White Heart City exploring that area. This mass quest is being considered as an easy way to level up players by them as they know it will end in three days. They only had plans to join on the last day. To them exploring new areas was worth a lot more. The same was with other guilds, but a few guilds came just to make their presence known for the purpose of recruitment. It was the first mass quest and complete non-participation isn''t very good for morale. They would also get to know if there would be anything different, they could expect from mass quests in this game as most wouldn''t trust information not gained first-hand. "So, this is the line of control setup by the guards," said Shadow as he looked at it. There was another large group about half their size assembled at the palisade and led by a Shield Guardian who was looking warily towards them. Shadow was unsure who they were or why the Guardian was looking at them. "Don''t take any quests from the guards now. I have checked it out and the quests require us to go their camp and steal something or kill some special bandits there. We have the hell mode clear as our priority," said Merlin to Shadow and his team from checking out the forums. "You guys also better not take any quest," he suggested to Brick and Mob as he knew that it wouldn''t be possible to complete them while guarding the new recruits. "Let us have a chat with them," he said in the team chat as he went towards the Guardian glaring at him. "Fancy meeting you here, Tristar. Didn''t expect the presence of the best tank of Foedus Rex at a town like this just for the sake of this quest," said Merlin putting on a weird mocking smile. "Stop acting like you don''t know. With your condition for the video and this kid defeating Boris, King had to send me to prevent Boris from make a fuss again," said Tristar angrily. "I know that you did all this just to make us split our resources." "You are overestimating me, bro. I just got irritated by the fact that Boris was messing around with us. You really thought I want you here. Nothing could be farther than that. I would rather have Boris than a cunning old coot like you in the same city," replied Merlin as he continued to smile. "You know how I know I am right. Your stupid smile," said Tristar pointing at Merlin''s face. "Get out and don''t disrupt us, if you know what is good for you," he continued as he looked at the players assembled with Brick. "Those guys?" said Merlin pointing behind him. "Just a few guys whose company was entertaining to me while I reached here. I just wanted to have a look at the mass quest along with my pals, here," he said pointing to Shadow and the other three. "You know one of them quite well," he said as Sultan also came to greet Tristar. "Hi kid, couldn''t you have found anyone else other than this idiot," said Tristar as Sultan approached him. "You know the problems I face with any others, Tristar. I was getting tired of waiting for a chance. I am just branching out," said Sultan. "Dude, you make it sound like you don''t really want to join our gang," joked Merlin. "Aah! Forget it. No harm done. There were too many hot heads in the guild anyway. Just be careful of this idiot," said Tristar pointing his hand to the Crimson Realm group. "Your friends are leaving without you," he said. "Let them go. I don''t care. These monsters were never my concern," said Merlin in a carefree manner. "So, is it the hell mode first clear?" asked Tristar immediately guessing their reason for being here. He had been in games long enough for him to guess their reason for coming here. "It is extremely hard to get to level 12 at this place," he said while shaking his head. He had worked with about 50 players forming small teams to lure and kill monsters while having Boris jump teams continuously to land the last hit and gain experience quickly. But still apart from Boris, the rest were all at level 11. They had to use such a trick as they had about 20 minutes for him to get 10% experience at level 11. Shadow would also be in the same situation, if they had not used guns to kill a large number of quingols near the lake. "This is the difference between guilds and small teams, Merlin. It was stupid to start again from scratch. Boris and other have already been armed fully and are attempting the elite mode boss as we speak," said Tristar. "You have to scr.a.p.e a lot to find decent gear." "Speak for yourself, you old coot. Unlike you, I haven''t come to a stage that I would nod by head to every stupid thing that I hear and cover for others," said Merlin as he walked away from Tristar. Sultan, Shadow and the other two followed and got to the other side of the line of control and went to join the Crimson Realm guild team. The quingols in the Canterbury plains also made small fortifications. They set up tents and trap around them. These were usually hidden in grass and the scouts have to be careful whenever they saw a tent. There were both small and large tents seen throughout the plains and the number of quingols depended on the size of the tents. Merlin and team stayed near to Crimson Realm members and contacted Mob for quingols they could take care of, so that they would get experience quickly and leave for dungeon. As mob had a lot of assassins, scouting he could find isolated guingols faster than them. Mob was already at level 12 as he had fought at the bandit camp. He needed more experience to level up. Even though, he was commanding the players because Merlin asked, he also wanted to gain more experience. So, he chose the groups of quingols that the scouts found and left the isolated ones to Merlin. As they went through the plains, they were able to easily kill the smaller groups. Due to the bombardment from the long-range attacks, the quingols usually lost half their health and were injured before they came in contact with the physical attacker who were able to kill them easily. Though, it was safe, the increase in experience of the players was very slow in this manner. So, Mob decided to change tactics. He started going to larger groups of quingols. Instead of a single set of two outer groups and an inner group attacking one small group of quingols, he had two or three sets flank larger groups of quingols to kill more numbers quickly. He had to use all the assassins for scouting and make a separate group only for information gathering to speed up this process. His method was to direct the players according to the intel and it was quite effective in this situation. He made sure to not get too close to the bandit camp at the lake and maintained a distance from it. With the quingols being spawned quickly, he could move the players from one area to other, easily gathering experience. Chapter 124 - Lightbringer Sword With Mob''s information, Merlin and his team also managed to gather experience quickly. The quingols being elite monsters at level 10 provided good amount of experience and Merlin collected their heads. Shadow usually attack and incapacitated them before Merlin and Sultan who were at level 11 killed it. In about 30 minutes, Merlin managed to get to level 12 and another half hour later Sultan also was at level 12. Merlin was more than glad enough to be at level 12. Shadow had joined the game in his previous life after two years of its launch. It was his first time getting first clears. Shadow enjoyed the new feeling of being able to get first clears and wanted to get them more and more. He wanted to get to more experience to get close to level 13 and he didn''t get much experience because he had been allowing Merlin and Sultan to get the last hits. Merlin suggested that they attempt the hell mode as soon as Sultan hit level 12. So, Shadow had suggested his plan to Merlin. He expected Merlin to immediately agree, but contrary to his expectations Merlin showed a slight expression of disgust before he refused. "What is wrong with it? It is the best way without having at least Silver gear. Boris wore three dark gold equipment. The super guilds clearly have a better chance of getting the first clear. So, why not?" asked Shadow confused as he believed it to be a perfectly valid strategy. "Nothing wrong with it. It is possible to do that, but I don''t intend to do that. We already managed to get the elite mode first clear. It is not necessary to go to such lengths for that. Moreover, that few pieces that you saw were from the entire guild. Even Celestial Warriors wouldn''t have a member with those many dark gold equips on a person continuously. You don''t need to worry about it," said Merlin. "Just let us attempt the hell mode. It is good if we manage. We have three players with unique equipment that puts as at more advantage than any others," said Merlin. Shadow could still not understand why Merlin is refusing. All of these were not a reason for them not to do it. He looked at Merlin with a blank face completely confused with Merlin''s decision. "Ok. I expected you to not understand this. You are in the big leagues now. I want to establish a professional team to take part in competitions like other guilds and the same is with Crimson Realm. It has a chance to become a first rate guild if you maintain a similar pace. What you suggested is done for best clear records but they are looked down by first rate guilds. It is much more stupid to suggest the same for first clear. It is not just about getting the rewards any longer, it is considered a competition among us, which is considered more important if you intend to have your guild as a first rate one," explained Merlin. "That seems like a stupid reason to not do it," said Shadow as he still felt that Merlin was attaching too much of importance to it. "You don''t want to do it. You just got into the fight club and now you want to do this? There are some unspoken rules that are expected of you," said Merlin trying to make him understand. "You can try and gain more experience here if you want, but I am not interested. You need others also to do it don''t you? So, just try to understand them." "Fine," said Shadow disappointed that Merlin was not willing to accept his idea. He realized that Sultan would also side with Merlin probably as he was from a super guild and just got out to make his own name. Though dejected, he was considering the statement that Merlin made to try and determine if there was anything that could be use to convince Merlin and he suddenly realized something important. "By the way, who else has a unique equipment? You told that there were three with unique equipment," asked Shadow. He had only expected Merlin and himself to have unique weapons among their group of five. None of the others had been to the fort, so he didn''t expect them to have any. He had hoped that Mob joined them before they blocked the entrance so that they would have a good summoner equip as he hadn''t had much information about that class from his past life due to there being very small number of summoner players compared to others. "Oh! I forgot to tell you guys. Sultan had stumbled on a special quest for paladin. He got a unique weapon too. A sword. It was the sword of Silvannus. A paladin weapon that he got as the reward from some quest," said Merlin. "Sword of Silvannus? The sword that belonged to Silvannus Shreeve? The one that the fort was named after?" asked Shadow. "That makes sense, if he found that sword, then he was responsible for Foedus Rex to be able to find the unique weapons, the reason that Boris Blade got hold of the Void Dragon''s Talons," thought Shadow. "Silvannus Shreeve? Ya. I don''t know about it, but he did say that he had found a map to the fort which we explored when he met me and that it contained a lot of valuable things. He kept it secret to use it as a bargaining chip, but realized that we had already raided the location after we talked out," said Merlin as he sent the information about the sword that the received from Sultan [Sword of Silvannus - The Lightbringer Sword] (Unique Weapon) Level 10; Bound to Sultan-e-Shehzad. Attack Power +10; Reflect Damage +5; Magic Resist: +10; Strength +10; Intelligence +15; Increase Free attribute points by 2 points for every increase in level. The holy blade can be used to channel holy magic along with its use a physical weapon. Passive Effects: 1. Light Burn: Any physical attack causes holy damage to the dark faction. Causes persistent holy damage to the opponent based on the depth of the attack. 2. Any holy magic spell causes additional damage to the dark faction. Additional skill: 1. Glaring Blaze: Can release an extremely bright fire on the blade which blinds all enemies in the vicinity. All attacks on the monsters would cause extreme burn damage. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 minutes. The sword could be upgraded by sacrificing 500 life essences of members of the dark faction. Shadow was quite impressed on looking at its attributes and effects. It also had the capability to upgrade similar to this own and Merlins. "I expected that all the unique equipment could be upgraded but I didn''t expect that all of them required to kill monsters of dark faction," though Balthazar. He then remembered that the paladin unique set belonging to the twelve lords was called the Lightbringer set and realized that Sultan was the one responsible for Foedus Rex to get the unique weapons. He knew that the Lightbringer set also had a shield which has quite a few good active and passive skills which allowed a player to be very strong tank. The lightbringer set also had a story behind it like the Void Dragon set and provided a lot of good skills that could be used against the dark faction which would be very useful in later stages of the game. He was very glad that Sultan was his ally now. "At the very least, I think all the things that were left by the twelve lords have the same requirement for the upgrade, at the very least their weapons," thought Balthazar. "Best check the details of the weapons that Rudra and others received before he confirms on it." Moreover, if Sultan has kept this secret from Foedus Rex, it was a good thing for him as they probably are not aware of the specialty of the fort. That was a source of comfort for him as he didn''t need to worry much about Foedus Rex now. "It has quite useful passive effects but were mostly oriented towards the dark faction. These could only be useful in special conditions and can''t be that useful in regular situations," said Shadow. "Luckily, many of the dungeons had monsters of the dark factions. The Caves of Lukriag were also filled with dark goblins which were a breed of goblin that belonged to the dark faction. The same can''t be told of the other kind of goblins, but in the dungeon, he would have an advantage," thought Shadow as he considered them attempting the hell mode. "Yes, the dungeon has dark goblins which belong to the dark faction. I checked the website. The additional skill is also quite useful in dealing with the boss, which I am also found out to be the same. He would be quite useful in the dungeon," explained Merlin. "I agree that he is gives us a better chance at fighting them and if he has a shield, it would help us get through the dungeon faster, but I still don''t think it is won''t be easy," said Shadow trying to convince Merlin to consider his plan. "We at least need better equipment to get through it like we did the last time." "I agree. While we were playing with the quingols, the others in the team had been attempting to get through the elite mode based on our observations. Though we were able to do it before others due to you being able to be in stealth, a couple of players with shields leading the way while covering each other and others at the back would also allow to go through it. The game allows to use shield as a secondary weapon which makes it easy for a capable player. It is already being used by Crimson Realm too," said Merlin. "That is a decent substitute for our method. But using assassins would be more efficient and quick," said Shadow suggesting the method that he had seen in his previous life. "True. A pair of assassins would make it faster and probably would require less number of consumables if we are using them instead of players with shields or proper tanks, if the assassins were able to get them and remain in stealth. Assassins are a good way to get the fastest clear too. You are always thinking from the perspective of getting achievements, but we also need to be able to have a method to just get through the dungeon at start," said Merlin. "That is true," accepted Merlin as he also used to think in the same way when the guild had to explore new dungeons. There were a lot of dungeon which he never had played a part in the initial exploration and had always used the methods that were already prevalent. At that stage, the methods to get through were well established. As a guild, the new players were always guided by older players who preferred to follow the arrangement that allowed them to quickly finish the dungeon as they didn''t want to spend more time in a lower level dungeon. All the new players at that time who wanted to attempt elite or hell modes at that time would have a lot of decent equipment corresponding to their levels available in the market and those that would attempt elite or hell mode would be capable enough to get these equipment. "Yes, though you are not a guild leader, you are the boss of a workshop. So, it is best that you also plan from that point of view. You have good perspective and have the good strategic and planning capabilities. You are always thinking like a specialist, you need to think like a manager too as you own a guild. I am supposed to think like a specialist as the leader of an adventurer team which only accepts elites. This is going the other way round," said Merlin holding his head. "Well, it is a good thing, we are working together, heh," said Shadow smiling at the thought that they were doing what the other was supposed to do. "In that way, it is best we get going to the town. I also want to try out the dungeon now." "Cool, I have already asked Quiet Fire to put some good equipment for us in the bank. We got a some storage space for the adventurer team. Tetsujin says that she managed to get a few decent equipment too," said Merlin. "So, how is their team?" asked Shadow. His first acquaintance was Quiet Fire and she was the one who introduced him to Merlin. He also knew that she would be a strong figure in the future and wanted to know her progress. "They are actually quite good according to Tetsujin and he has high standards. I think my cousin is actually good at gaming than her actual job. It is quite unexpected that Tetsujin is willing to continue along with her. I expected him to join us after some time and get Bitter Beast or some one to replace him. I hope he is not interested in her in that way. That guy is quite old," said Merlin hoping that Tetsujin wasn''t pursuing his cousin using the game as an excuse. They made their way to the back gate for Merlin to submit the 34 quingol heads that the collected. They found others doing the same at the wooden stations of the guards. Tristar was there and came to Merlin when he saw them. Chapter 125 - Hell mode first clear "So, you done with your quest?" asked Tristar. "Didn''t take any, Tristar. I was serious about attempting the hell mode," said Merlin. "How many heads did you collect?" asked Tristar. "34." "For that you would get a silver equipment at most. Why don''t you submit when you have collected more?" suggested Tristar. "Are the number of items available limited per day?" asked Merlin guessing accurately that Tristar didn''t want him to choose anything right now. "Caught me," said Tristar. "I tend to become more like you in your presence." "How were the quests?" asked Merlin. "Oh. They are a nightmare. You could have warned me about the weapons the bandits have there. Six teams got wiped out because of it," said Tristar. "Boris was at the bandit camp, wasn''t he?" asked Merlin confused. "That idiot is like a kid. He didn''t have the common sense to report about it," said Tristar. "He might be angry that you and Rex didn''t allow him to stay here longer," suggested Merlin. "I hope not," said Tristar. "Either way he is an idiot," added Sultan. "So? Did you guys complete at least one of the quests?" asked Merlin. "Not the ones near the bandit camp. Only one team did it till now, and it was led by Nix," said Tristar. "Nix came here?" asked Merlin surprised. He didn''t expect Nix to also come here. He expected Oceanis to send someone else to do the grunt work on the first three days. "Ya. He just did one assassination mission, came back and told that it isn''t worth the trouble. Then, he left the town area. Told me the trip was an entire waste of his time. He asked for you though," said Tristar pointing to Shadow. "Me?" "Probably wants to feel you out and check the place. He explored the town for some time and then met with few of his guild members before leaving," said Tristar. "You know anything of it?" asked Merlin. "No clue. He could have messaged me directly, right?" asked Shadow as he checked his messages. "Wasn''t contacted by him. Not even a ping." It was quite confusing for the rest of them, but Merlin who had known that Oceanis was trying to recruit more members for his team could easily guess it. They wanted to ask Shadow Tyrant to join them. But he didn''t care as he now knew that Shadow was the boss of the Crimson Realm guild. Even he didn''t expect Shadow to join him after he came to know that and was wondering if his investment was a waste. "Odd thing. I can''t understand why he was so secretive about it," said Merlin putting on a confused expression on his face. He decided to feign ignorance as he didn''t want Shadow to have any idea about it. Though Merlin was trying his best to not let Shadow know about it, Shadow had already known about it as he had already experienced it. But Shadow didn''t have any intention to recruit players for the Crimson Realm guild team. In fact, he was considering whether he should join that team, or the team being led by Merlin. For the Crimson Realm guild, he didn''t want to recruit new star players. He had played along with them for quite some time and they had good coordination. He would rather have them be trained in the game with the help of the trainers that he planned to recruit from Rodrigo''s contacts. The reason which caused them not to be famous in his past life that they didn''t have an advantage as Rudra and his team went away from their previous owner and set up a workshop independently quite some time after the game had started. "Shall I contact him," thought Balthazar as he asked the same of Merlin. "It is a waste. He could have contacted you if he wanted to. He definitely didn''t want to have you be able to take snapshot of it. He wanted to talk personally, but if he didn''t find what he wanted, he wouldn''t have left," lied Merlin shaking his head. "He won''t talk about it to you any longer. Let us focus on the dungeon. If he needs to contact you, he will. Don''t worry about it. Though he talks a lot in the chat, he keeps his mouth shut when he is told to not reveal something," said Merlin. "Fine. Let us exchange at the wooden station and get to the dungeon already," said Sultan. He didn''t get much chance to show his skills when they were killing quingols and wanted to go through a dungeon with them. Shadow and Merlin dominated the fights and with the crossbows that they had, it didn''t provide him much chance to show his skills. Sultan had a bunch of mock fights with other star players and wanted to show his technical skills, but for a paladin, the long range attacks were weak and close range fights and healing were the best characteristics which he could show better in this dungeon. "Yes. Yes. I don''t have much time to waste it talking with this idiot either," said Tristar pointing at Merlin. "I wish you better luck with him, Sultan. And Merlin don''t waste those 34 head you collected. Do some quest or kill more quingols, if you want some decent equipment," advised Tristar as he went back to the other players from Foedus Rex. "Come on, then. I can check them out even after the dungeon," said Merlin as he also wanted to see how good Sultan was and how well they could collaborate in the dungeon. "Why don''t we first attempt the elite dungeon to acquaint ourselves with each other. Then, we can go to the hell mode. Sultan is new and it is best if we have more time and try it out with him at elite mode before the hell mode," suggested Shadow. It was a proper suggestion as they had only one attempt per day at hell mode. They might end up discovering any deficiencies that they have in teamwork and also good to plan out any changes that might be required to handle the boss. Bitter Beast, Sultan and Grenadier also supported it immediately and Merlin also quickly agreed. They used their hearthstones and went back to the White Heart City where Merlin visited the bank to check what his cousin had left him. Though he had good weapons and decent equipment, most of their armor pieces were black iron. So, he wanted them to replace with bronze level equipment. He found a few replacements for himself, the other four and even Mob and brought them out of the bank. Once, equipped they made their way to the dungeon. The number of players at the Caves of Lukriag entrance were about five times more than the last time. It showed how many more players crossed level 10 and reached the cities. They knew that this influx is mostly because of the guilds and the spendy using the mass quest to get quick experience. Else, if they had to reach level 10 the same way as Shadow and others did it would require a lot more time. As they appeared a lot of players were looking at them. They were already well known due to Shadow and Merlin. Apart from that they were the ones who had cleared elite mode first. A lot are still struggling to do the same. "Yo, Shadow! Waiting for you to clear the hell mode," shouted an overly excited fan. Similar cheers sounded a few more times, gathering excited looks and angry glares towards them. Shadow just waved his hand in response. This was new to Balthazar. Though he was a vice guild leader, he never had fans like this. In his past life, he was only cheered by people he knew. "I hope we get more bronze equipment at the elite mode this time," said Merlin as he selected to got to the elite mode of the dungeon. "With this the other guilds would also try to attempt for hell mode, from now. Let us see, if we are lucky enough. We are trying to get against the entire humanity faction not just the kingdom. Previously, we did it because no one was trying desperately. Now after we got the elite mode first clear, many guilds would have already attempted and try to desperately compete. Us getting the previous clear is already considered a disgrace by many like Boris. So. no pressure, eh" said Merlin to the team as he waved victory sign to the players outside while walking into the portal. Though he just told it as a joke, Sultan''s face had visible changes in expression. He was new to Merlin''s style of talking and got a bit fl.u.s.tered before Merlin finished the last sentence. "Sultan, bro. Don''t fl.u.s.ter, he loves listening to his voice. It is not as bad as it sounds," said Grenadier. "I get it. But most of what he told was true. Let us try to finish this as quick as possible. Shall we consider a change in strategy or the same as before?" asked Sultan getting his thoughts clear. "If we want to finish faster for the first clear. Let us try some change. Shadow, you''re at front as usual. Sultan and Bitter Beast just behind him, Grenadier and I will cover the rear. With two proper tanks along with an assassin as the vanguard, we can check if we could clear faster," said Merlin. "Both the healers in vanguard?" asked Bitter Beast who was surprised. He and Sultan who were a druid and paladin were the only two who could heal, so technically it wasn''t the best option. "Under usual circ.u.mstances, I would suggest it, but Shadow hardly ever gets hit. I can take care of myself and go some skills to replenish my own health and also potions. You guys need to occasionally aim a heal at Grenadier in an emergency. We are aiming to clear fast, so we are not considerate about usage of more consumables during these two attempts," said Merlin. Shadow again led them to the path that doesn''t lead to the boss, first. This time he decided to go a bit faster as the two behind him could support each other and heal in an emergency. He attacked any goblin that he noticed and was immediately supported by Sultan. He was able to get a hold of the dark goblin and hold it against the wall with his shield allowing the others to easily take it down. He cornered it towards the wall and used both the shield and the sword to attack and deal blows taking down the goblin quickly. Due to his unique weapon (sword), he was able to deal high damage to the dark goblins quickly and it was also clear that he also had high attributes similar to Shadow and Merlin due to the sword. He was able to corner a small creature like the dark goblin and not allow it to escape from his grasp or counterattack. He was also very nimble for a tank class and was able to move at a high speed. Sultan was able to repeat this whenever Shadow missed a goblin and any of the dark goblins ambushed them. The way he evaded the attacks by observing the goblin and countered made it clear to Shadow that he was at the very least trained in using sword and shield. "Well. He is a Malik and those consider themselves royalty with a lot of enemies including the Nirbaadh pirates whom they openly fought at one time. As a prince, he would be taught the basics of fighting and use of weapons," thought Balthazar as he observed Sultans movements. It was clear that he was also using manual mode. Sultan was definitely reading the movements of the monsters as he made his moves. With monsters, it was an easy task to read their movements unlike players, but Sultan was able to accurately determine the timing of attacks and give strong counters with both his weapons and legs. He was also good at positioning himself in a good place whenever they were ambushed. He also kept looking around towards the others to check their positions and moved accordingly to support and deal more damage piling up the effects on the goblins to kill them faster. Sultan was able to use his sword at the right moments to injure the goblins and push it back to Shadow allowing them to continue a sequence of attacks. It was clear that Sultan was good at physical attacks and a high chance that he was well trained at fighting "Were you trained at combat before?" asked Shadow after they went through two paths to confirm his suspicions. Though such royal families could train and emphasize on it a lot, many of the young members don''t usually care and do not focus much on it. They put more effort into social activities, games and business unless they were forced to practice arts of self-defence and use of weapons. No man ever finds it necessary unless they come into danger. "Ah! You noticed. It is expected since you actually are martial expert in real-life," said Sultan as he attacked a dark goblin. "I was never really interested in it, but the basics of handling a sword and fighting in a group were beaten into me by my brother." "You are quite capable. Considering your expertise, we can move much faster, if we change the way we go through the dungeon," said Shadow. "He has good foundations in the fighting but not the necessary spirit to practice and improve faster. I wonder if this game would help or hinder his growth," though Balthazar. Balthazar knew that one could force a person to learn to a certain extent but without proper motivation it would be impossible for him to reach the top. In vita-nova a good interest in playing games is not enough to have any achievements. This will be soon learned by a majority of players and they will learn arts of self-defence and use of weapons. This was one of the intents of the Scions of Minerva for to release somnium technology for public use. Balthazar decided to let it go as he couldn''t do much about it right now. He didn''t have much information on Sultan in his previous life, so he decided to let it go, see what happens and respond accordingly. As they continued through the dungeon an announcement was heard shocking the team. Human Territory System Announcement: Congratulations to Aegis Guard, White Out, Starry Sky, Fire Star and Raven Witch, the members of the Celestial Warriors for being the first team to clear the Hell Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 Human reputation points and a skill book. Chapter 126 - Confusion Everyone that were playing vita-nova were quite shocked on hearing the announcement for the hell mode first clear. Though the names that were seen in the announcement were all quite famous it was still a shock to most of the players and was something unexpected. It had the greatest impact on the guilds as they realized that most of them lost the chance. But the most shocking thing form most of the players who knew about the players was the fact that apart from the first two names, none were previously known to be members of the Celestial Warriors. Fire Star was known to be a very old and powerful mage player in the games. He had been scouted by many guilds and teams, but none had ever managed to recruit him. He had always been an independent soldier of fortune who found players in need of his services and offered them in return for money. There were quite a few rumors about him having a large team on agents who sell information due to his capability to find clients in need of his services, but none ever found proof. He was a mystery to everyone including the largest guilds and he had always chosen to keep his information secret and the none of the gaming organizations cared as he never registered for any competitions and the game companies which were sworn to keep the identities of players undisclosed couldn''t risk a lawsuit for something that trivial. Aegis Guard and Raven Witch were quite famous players and were known members of an adventurer team called Universal Legionnaires who were known to be providing in game services to capture field bosses and any other achievements as long as they were paid. They also formed collaborations with guilds in many games to secure achievements and resources, but they don''t usually do such things early in a game without observing who could provide them with more advantages. Especially for achievements like this, they would tend to contact other guilds and try to get the best amount in return for their help. This was the part that shocked most of the guilds as they began to suspect that Universal Legionnaires already allied themselves with Celestial Warriors. The forums immediately got filled up with discussion regarding the same from the players who knew about them. Most of the fans of Celestial Warriors guild were already starting to talk about the collaboration between the guild and Universal Legionnaires. But a lot were denying it as the major forces of the guild and the team were at different locations and that it might just be a small joint effort between them. The team managed to complete it in the Sand Forest empire in human territories which weren''t were their main forces were at. Apart from this, the top members of Posiedon''s champions and Merlin were extremely concerned about this achievement. They knew that all the guilds would soon need to recruit new players for the competitive stage and were worried that the Celestial Warriors which was already considered to be one of the topmost already managed to convince the Universal Legionnaires to join their guild or at least were already considering cooperation for vita-nova. This was a very troubling scenario for them as they were worried that the adventurer team might be recruited by Star Lord to join the guild. The Celestial Warriors were already considered quite powerful and if these players joined them, it would be quite akin to adding wings to a tiger. Merlin couldn''t contact Fire Star but could contact members of the Universal Legionnaires. This was a very important time for him to be up to date on all happenings. He had previous dealings with them and had a good friend among the four heads of the group. He went off to a side and made a video call to his friend and a few rings later, a pale faced man appeared on the screen. "Brother Niji, how are you?" asked Merlin. "Maddy Bro. Long time." "What could I say. Have been busy the past few months. I doubt you don''t know the details." "Hah, heard of it. Azreal had it in for you for quite some time. But I am quite disappointed in you too," said Niji. "Disappointed? What did I do?" "You started an adventurer team. You know that you could have joined us, right? You would have been directly under me or the boss. Your scheming brain is wasted there. You need a bigger stage," said Niji. "You were always good at flattering, dude. You guys are soldiers for hire and I don''t want to do that. I still want to try to create a team and continue at the competitive stage," said Merlin. "Your group would never support that." "Hah, that''s true. We prefer to earn money in the games itself. Lots of options here and competitions isn''t our forte. If we show off our skills, it is the same as crippling ourselves," said Niji. "I hope that answers your doubts." "Hmm. That does answer my suspicions. How did you know?" "Though the first clear is a minor thing, quite a few wanted to know about it. Even Oceanis had called one of the brothers a few seconds ago," answered Niji. "What happened to the Celestials that both you and Oceanis are concerned about? Why do you think that our members joined their guild?" "Hehehe, you really want to know," teased Merlin with a smile. "Don''t leave your brother out like that? Did something happen to them? You can''t keep a secret like that to yourself. You know these things are worth their value if we can sell it to the right person," said Niji. His team not only had sold their services but also sold information. Haijasho Niji always loved to collect information, not only to gather more money or favours, but also just to satisfy his curiosity. "You can''t tell other without my approval. Would lose my own advantage, if others know." "Of course, Maddy. I wouldn''t harm my own clients or sources for a small amount of money. We look stupid?" asked Niji as he rolled his eyes. "The play format for the competitions is going to change for the upcoming competitions," said Merlin. "Minor changes are expected with every new game brother. Is that really a secret," asked Niji as put on a discontented expression. "That is expected, but there is a leak of information from gaming commission. The number of players in the main roster would need to be increased atleast by 3 or 4 members. It is bound to start with the Magic cup," continued Merlin with a wave of his hand. "You sure about that?" asked Niji with a sudden change of expression. He began to consider the implications of it and there was a high chance of quite a few star teams fragmenting or merging due to this. "Yes, heard from Oceanis who wanted to recruit me." "He wanted to recruit you? The guy must be quite sure if he risked informing you. Every one knows that you always wanted to be guild leader and with the things that happened in the past year, it is much less likely for you to join them," said Niji shaking his head. "The first clear was just a scenario of them meeting at the city luckily and joining hands for the first clear record. Those guys told us that they were actually trying to get a some repute in the human region of the game with an elite mode first clear, but you guys beat them to it. They offered the entire first clear rewards apart from money just for the record. But, I best make sure that it is so." "So, you know whom you can sell this to, right? Don''t make it hard for me," said Merlin. "Let me take care of that. This bit of info is quite valuable and explains few things that I have heard," said Niji pondering over it. "Any advantage we get from this, you have 20% of the share. Same as before. This would cause quite a few changes. I definitely owe you for this. Our entire group owes you for this. Will keep you in the loop and don''t hesitate to ask if you need anything," said Niji as he cut the call. This information is quite valuable to few and it was bound to change few teams and probably even lead to joining of few teams. Timely information to the right persons would earn him some goodwill and also some resources if he played his cards right. He also needed to make sure that none of his group got poached by some guild. This information would have a large effect on the guilds who would tempt capable players and the first location most guilds would check were the various adventurer teams and workshops that are similar to them. Merlin looked at the other as he got out of the call. "They didn''t join the Celestials and Fire Star would never," he said looking at them. His team had lost the spirit they had as soon as they heard the announcement. In the state that they were, they didn''t really care if the Celestials had joined hands with Universal Legionnaires. "Cheer up! It is a freak occurrence. The Celestials are among the top three super guild. They collaborated with Fire Star and Legionnaires. Pooling their resources, it was quite expected of them them to clear the hell mode. It is actually unexpected that they weren''t faster," said Merlin in an attempt to cheer them up. "Come let us get back to the Blackrock Town. We have no point in exploring the dungeon anymore," said Grenadier disappointed. After he observed that Sultan and Shadow were quite good at physical combat and were moving faster than before, he had got high hopes on the first clear. "It happens, bro. Even though, we had a good advantage, we lost the chance. It is just a freak unexpected occurrence. Let us finish the dungeon first. We can still attempt the mass quest and the first clear for the next dungeon. Either way, it is best to increase our level by going through the elite mode and hell mode of the dungeon," said Bitter Beast trying to cheer up Grenadier. "Yes. He is right. Even though we lost the chance to get the first clear, this is a great chance to try out new techniques and work on our team work," said Shadow. "We can explore all the parts of the dungeon without any hurry." "See that is what we need to do. Just continue with the dungeon," said Merlin ushering them to continue the dungeon. Though a bit disappointed, they continued through the dungeon in the same manner. Shadow had talked with Merlin and they decided to move together in a group. The dungeon small and had little space to move around and Shadow believed that this would be an excellent place for all of them to try a few physical combat moves. As an assassin, he understood that ambushes were a vital part of most competitions and were quite common in the game. So, handling ambushes was also something he considered very important. The dark goblins hiding in the goblins provided one of the best places to practice this at the early stages of the game. He specifically let them individually defend the goblins attacks and repel the attacks to provide proper practice for them. Grenadier was given a dagger as his secondary weapon and then he had the exchange the secondary weapons to shields and swords to have a little practice. Soon, they went through all the six paths in the dungeon and finally got to the end of the dungeon. They repeated the same strategy as before. He initiated the attack on the mage goblins and tagged them like he did before. Once, the fight started Sultan also ran close to Shadow and began to fight in close combat while the others cast spell from a distance. The effects of Sultans sword were quite useful in handling the dark goblins. This was the first time that Shadow and Sultan fought more than 6 long distance attackers in close combat. When the number of monsters who can attack from a distance are more than ones own team, it gets harder to coordinate ones movements. Long distance attackers release attacks and try to blanket the players with attacks. One could always block such attacks and take heals or potions, but it was not the best way. It is best if one could avoid the attacks and retaliate. Unlike the previous V.R. games where the attacks and evasion relied mostly on few fixed movements provided by the game, Vita-nova was very realistic and minute movements could be used to avoid and counter the monsters attacks. The monsters at low levels tend to have a pattern when attacking which once examined would allow the players to exploit and counter attack. Unlike Shadow who had a lot of practice, Sultan was very new to the game. But he was still able to do it with some effort. He definitely missed a few times, but his skill was quite apparent and Shadow could also notice that Sultan had already had practiced in few mock group battles at least in real-life. Once the troll escaped from the cage, Shadow decided to attack and take it down the same way as before. He went forward and kept close distance to it and attacked while the others three attacked from a distance with their spells. Sultan initially tried to help out Shadow to tank a few hits and attack physically, but a couple of hits later realized that his speed was much lower compared to Shadow and fell back to join the other three. When the troll got to critical health, it began to swing at the players with his staff and attack physically. At this time, Shadow previously used dynamites to take care of it, but this time they tried to use Sultan as he had a unique equipment and thus had better attributes. The attacks of the troll though fast and strong were easy to predict due to the large size of its staff. Even though he couldn''t tank those hits head on, Sultan could deflect them at angles to gain aggro and make it focus on him. With both Shadow and Sultan attacking it from opposite sides, its movements were restricted to a smaller space and that helped the others to release more precise attacks to kill it faster this time. Chapter 127 - Jarko Town Once, they cleared the elite mode, they immediately went to the hell mode. The dungeon offered them a good area to practice their physical skills which they had already realized would be vital in this game. Seeing Shadow make evasions with the smallest of moments, it was clear to them that to be successful, it was very important to predict and avoid attacks in vita-nova. So, they continued to the hell mode as they wanted to practice. Sultan and Shadow were more than glad to attempt the hell mode as the greater the number of dark faction monsters they kill, the faster they could upgrade their equipment. Apart from that, Shadow also wanted to make sure that they explored the entire dungeon. He knew that two additional paths would pop up in hell mode in the dungeon and there would be at least one more treasure chest. About four hours later, they managed to finish the hell mode of the dungeon. Without first clear of the hell mode, the rewards weren''t great or exciting, but the treasure chests provided armaments provided decent ones. "That was time consuming," said Bitter Beast as soon as they came out of the dungeon. Without the need for first clear, they practiced physical combat with the dark goblins and the usage of spells in manual mode. For the team, it was quite tiring as Shadow didn''t show the best of his capabilities but let the rest take charge of the situation. "Yes, but the exercise was quite useful. I want to try out the colosseum now. The PvP is bound to be a lot different from the previous games as it depends on our own imagination. We need to work on this if we have any intentions for competitions," said Sultan. "Yes, that is a given. We need to learn to fight. The colosseum would provide a good training ground for us," added Merlin. "Mob had already led 3 trips for the mass quest already. I want to try on those quest being provided by the guards in blackrock town. It is the best way to level up at this point." By the end of the hell mode, they have all come quite close to reaching level 13. As they had missed one first clear Merlin wanted to level up and try for the next one. Balthazar knew that it wouldn''t be that easy to get a first clear of elite mode of the next dungeon - Bungar''s keep. It was a hold of dwarves in a vast mountain like area and considering its large size, it is much harder to explore or get a first clear in it. So, Balthazar wanted to focus on the quest he had received from the church. He had kept it on the side, but now it felt like a good time to explore. "Why don''t you five try it out. I got a quest in a nearby town. I want to complete it first," said Shadow. "When did you get a quest? You were with us most of the day," asked Grenadier surprised. "I got it yesterday, you guys didn''t meet me at that time. It is a higher leveled quest, but I think I can get through it," said Shadow. Balthazar knew that doing quests before the level suggested would give better grade and rewards, especially quest that he received from organizations like the temple of the twelve. So, he wanted to attempt the quest. It was a new one and the Celestial Warriors managing to get first clear of hell mode was still on his mind. This achievement made him realize that even with his knowledge, he couldn''t be stronger than all others and needed to put much more effort than he was currently. "But this is not like the mass quest. Those bandits apparently don''t even drop crossbows. I heard from Mob that these quests have special rewards along with point similar to the quingol heads. The stations at the Blackrock town is even providing town guard crossbows that are better than the ones we got from the bandits," said Bitter Beast. He had found the bandit crossbows to be quite useful and wanted better ones. By the end of the third trip, Mob had managed to kill enough to exchange for a town guard crossbow whose attributes he had been showing off to Bitter Beast via chat and this made Bitter Beast want to take a few missions as Mob told that would also allow one to get these equipment. "It is a temple quest. Their rewards are better than others. You know how I profited from the quest that opened up the Cave of Wargs. I want to try it out and see," said Shadow. "Shit! How did I forget temple quests? I also need to go visit it once. Make a not of this. After the night falls, we will visit both the colosseum to train and the temple," said Merlin. He had already known of the temple quest that he got previously but forgot all about it. "Fine. See you later," said Grenadier as they made their way to the Blackrock Town. Shadow also channelled his hearthstone to get to the White Heart City and checked the teleportation point. All towns and villages from which at least one person came to the city and registered would have a path and link in the teleportation hall. Apart from that, one could visit most of the non-beginner towns if they had relevant quests. Unless the quest involved finding a hidden or secret town, the quests would provide the direction to the town. He would just need to pay the amount to teleport to that town. At the teleportation hall, he checked the board and found that the Jarko Town was indeed available to teleport to. He noticed that it was not a basic town. This would reduce the area that he had to search and would simplify his quest. He quickly selected it and teleported to the Jarko Town. As he got out of the teleportation point of the Jarko Town, he noticed that the town was in a flat area with a forest covering about 70% of its circ.u.mference and the area in front of the gate had a simple path leading to the city with a small stream flowing right beside it. The stream flowed through the town and there was a small dam on the town wall which regulated the flow and right inside the wall, behind the dam there was a water wheel. There were a few wooden bridges to cross the stream inside the town and one right outside the gate. He immediately went to a shop nearby and asked for a map. The quest definitely was a search quest which implied the need to move around the town and probably in areas around the town. So, a map of the town was the most essential for the quest. The thing which was odd was that there were no players visible to him. The only things that he could see were NPCs. He initially though that it was very weird but then realized that the most interesting places around the region were currently the White Heart City and Blackrock Town. Even if the town was a few kilometers to the west of the city. It would take some time for the other players to reach it. Most of them are having trouble to adapt to the game and currently a lot of players are cursing that very small amount of resources are being dropped from killing monsters as they didn''t know the trick to it. So, the Blackrock town became the best place for guilds to focus on right now and very little force is being used to explore the areas surrounding it. Without someone finding the town, it would have quite sparse population of players. But Balthazar knew that he wasn''t the first one to reach the town. He initially thought that due to the quest, he was able to teleport to the town, but now he could see that it wasn''t so as he didn''t get any notification for discovering a new tow which would be given to the first person to enter a new town. "As expected, not all guilds would focus on the city or blackrock town. With the competitors that they have, a few second-rate guilds that have members spawned nearby would try to explore and find new towns and areas to get reputation points," thought Balthazar. With the map, he managed to find the way to the temple. He didn''t remember any Jarko Town from his memories in previous life, but it wasn''t surprising. Quite a few guilds occupied few towns and when a player gets enough reputation to be a towns Baron, he could change its name. The same was with forts and other constructions. When, he joined the game in his previous life, a lot of low-level town and areas had their names changed by guilds and sometimes even the events of the game resulted in name changes. The stream that flowed through the town dividing it into two parts. A quarter of the town was on one side of the stream while the rest on the other. The temple was in the smaller part and most of the remaining land was made of farms and a market area. Most of the residences, adventurers association, colosseum, the baron ruling over the town and other associations were in the bigger part. This division made it quite easier to travel through the town according to ones needs. He crossed the stream and went to the temple which was about the same size as that in Blackrock Town. It was the largest structure in this part and was a black towering structure at the centre of the market. A number of shops and were built around it and it looked like market hall, if not for the statues of the twelve lords in the temple. He couldn''t see any NPC or players around the temple. If any players were exploring the town, they didn''t come here. As he came to the gates of the temple, he was blocked by a pair of town guards which were NPCs at level 15. "The temple is currently closed by order of the baron. Visitors aren''t allowed inside," said one of the guards looking at him. Balthazar was surprised for a second. He had never faced a scenario where temple would be closed. It was one of the few places that would be open for 24 hours in the game. If it was closed, it was definitely for his quest or was prelude to a quest. "Respected Sir. Could you please tell me why the temple is currently closed?" asked Shadow. In such situations, it was best to ask question to gather information about the quest. The responses by the NPCs and their behavior would give a lot of clues on how to further proceed in the quest. The guard looked at him like he was looking at a stupid person. "Are you questioning us?" he asked. "Get out of my sight before I skewer you," said the guard pointing his spear at Shadow''s head. The guard''s reaction made it clear that the scenario was something that couldn''t be told to every civilian of the town. He put on the badge that he received for his iron grade membership of the temple. "I am a member of the temple here on official business. I need to talk to deacon Faroon. Please, let me inside," said Shadow showing him the badge. "Pardon us, sir. We didn''t know that you were a member of the temple. Give me a minute to inform my superiors," said the guard who had previously threatened to impale him. The NPC quickly ran up the stairs of the temple and a few seconds later walked down with his captain. The captain was a blond-haired NPC with a large spear in her hand. "What business do you have with deacon Faroon," asked Captain Sandy as she looked at him like he was a criminal. Balthazar was a bit surprised by the behavior of the NPC wondering whether she is a part of the enemies but decided to say the truth as he was sure that he could escape from a few level 15 NPCs. "I was asked to check up on deacon Faroon by the great priest of the White Heart City. He felt that something might have happened to deacon Faroon," said Shadow. "What do you mean by that? How would you know if anything happened to deacon Faroon?" she continued in the same tone. "I don''t know. I was requested by the great priest Luciophel to check upon him. Don''t know if he is sick, needs help or if he is a danger to someone. I was sent to provide any sort of help that would be required to the temple," said Shadow trying to indicate to them that he is on behalf of the temple and would be investigate the deacon''s situation without any prejudices. Though it was clear that they didn''t want to allow him inside, the NPCs had a few rules that they wouldn''t usually go against. So, the captain relented as she signalled to the guards to move aside. "Let me lead you inside," she said walking up the stairs. Chapter 128 - Murder of the Deacon As they went inside, Balthazar could see that the entire hall was empty. There were a few guards covering the various exits of the hall and a few more at the end of the hall by the doors to the altar. The area around the altar was covered by a tarp keeping the altar from others'' sights. "So? Could you please tell me what happened here?" asked Shadow as he stepped into the hall. "Why have the town guards restricted entry into the temple?" "It is best if I show it to you, adventurer," said Sandy as she led him to the altar and pushed the tarp aside to show it to him. There was a beheaded body lying on the altar and a lot of blood splatter could be seen beside the altar. There were a number of symbols painted with the blood on the altar with the head in a large bowl filled with blood at one of the ends of the altar. One look at the body made him realize that this was detective type quest where he needed to search for clues, and it would involve more chasing and investigating than fighting monsters. On coming closer, he noticed that the body was actually nailed down on to the altar and there was big hole on his chest with his innards missing. It was a very gory picture and a sickly scent could be clearly sensed when one was close to it. "Is this deacon Faroon?" asked Shadow as he came close to the altar. He took out his dagger to poke at the body and pulled the clothes to the side to look at it. There were a bunch of dark lines on the flesh of the body. "No. Assuming the head to be from the same body, this should be Waral. One of the altar boys that works at the temple. He is an invalid. Can''t believe that someone actually did something so horrible to him," said a guard. "You know him?" asked Shadow. "He is the retarded man. Was best friend with Faroon, almost like a brother. Lost his mind after a hunting accident and Faroon had taken care of him since then," said the guard. "So, Faroon knows him quite well?" asked Shadow. "Yes. You can ask anyone in the market area about. They all would have seen them," said the guard. "So, where is Faroon? Is he alright?" asked Shadow. "That is the main issue, Mr. Shadow Tyrant," said the captain. "From our investigation, the deacon usually leaves with him at night and hands it over to the other deacon Bistam. The other altar boys left the temple after the mass in the evening and they last saw Faroon and Waral. Bistam came to see this scene when he went inside. Our biggest suspect currently is Faroon." "So, that is the reason you have cordoned off this area. You could have removed the body away, right?" asked Shadow. According to procedure, it was common sense to remove the body and have Bistam take over his shift temporarily. "That would be the usual scenario, but both Bistam and the baron have agreed to let it be here and investigate. They decided to inform the city after the culprit was found. The insisted that this be solved before it be made public and they wanted to make sure that the murderer doesn''t repeat this," explained Sandy. "That is extremely odd," thought Balthazar. "It was fine for the baron to be concerned but a deacon would never accept it. He would at the very least inform to great priest about it, especially when there were clear signs of a ritual." "Do you have any information? Any idea what this ritual was about?" asked Shadow. "None. There are too many prints made of mud at the altar. The culprit made sure not to let any blood prints were left by him and no other signs. We had the altar boys help us in examining the entire temple. There was nothing new, found, since Bistam reported last night," said Sandy. "I need to meet the baron and this deacon, Bistam," said Shadow. "I can give you the location of Deacon Bistam''s home. He said that he would be resting at home. The baron is at this place. Wistar here, will come with you. I need to be updated on everything," said Sandy as the guard who had initially denied him entry stepped forward to lead him towards the deacon''s home. The guard, Wistar quickly led him out the temple and through the marketplace to a small house leaning on the wall of the town. "This is deacon Bistam''s residence. He had asked us to not disturb him today and baron agree to it to let him grieve," said Wistar. "He must be inside as there is not lock on the handle." Shadow rapped at the door with the handle of his dagger. "Deacon Bistom. I am sent here by great priest Luciophel of the White Heart City. Could you please open the door?" shouted Shadow. He waited for a few seconds before repeating it. After a few minutes, there was still no noise, so he decided to break open the door. "I think there might be something wrong with him," said Shadow. "The dead altar boy had black lines on his flesh like he was poisoned. Cover your nose and help me knock down the door," said Shadow as he moved away from the door. Together they ran and crashed into the door with their shoulders popping the door open. The room was completely dark with a small flickering flame seen at one corner. It was candle at the end of its life placed beside a bible. A few more seconds and then the room would be plunged into complete darkness. Shadow quickly went to the table and pulled out the drawer finding candle in one of them. He lit a new candle, and in the light, he began to check the hall. He could find nothing in the hall and he soon moved to the bedroom and then the kitchen. "Everything is empty," said Wistor. "We might have been a bit hasty. He might have been out in the market." Shadow didn''t heed his words and continued to check the kitchen. He had noticed a slight scent of rotting vegetables as he moved into the kitchen. "Definitely something afoot here," he said pointing at a plate and a glass of water that was put on the table right beside a cooker and few other utensils. "I don''t see anything odd. He put plates out to eat and probably didn''t feel like it," said the guard. The guard NPC was clearly afraid that the deacon might take affront to them breaking open the door and even his captain would find it hard to cover for him when he sent him to control Shadow. "Yes. That is a valid assumption, but" said Shadow as he opened up the lids of the utensils on the table. The food in it was all white, rotten with fungus growing on them. It was definitely left in the house for some time. "This wasn''t made today," said Shadow moving away his head to avoid the smell. "Urgh! That really stinks. What is wrong with this deacon. He looks so dignified at the temple," said Wistor with disgust. "I doubt that it was the deacon that we have been seeing for the past few days at the temple," said Shadow. Horror creeped into the eyes of the guard as he heard Shadow and realized the issue. He quickly went out of the house and pulled an amulet to inform his captain. This was an emergency amulet which is to be used only in grave situations by the NPCs like when someone,s life might be in danger. It allowed the guards to call in for reinforcements quickly. Shadow checked out the bedroom and the study room to see if he missed anything before, he came out. He thought that the kitchen was the main clue, but he didn''t want to miss anything. "The captain is requesting that we check on the baron," said Wistor as soon as he came out. "Lead the way," said Shadow. He understood that his discovery had already helped in gaining a bit of favorability with the guards. "They most probably would be helpful and wouldn''t unnecessarily conceal things after this," thought Shadow. The guards were his best allies currently in the quest and he always made sure that his allied NPCs had a modic.u.m of trust towards him or his capabilities. The pair of quickly ran to the stream and crossed to bridge to get to the bigger part of the town. The baron''s place was at the centre of the town and as the crossed a bridge in the town, a bunch of guards joined them along with the captain Sandy in front of a large mansion. It had two floors and a number of guards and tamed beasts inside it. "I have notified the other guards of the town and the baron''s own service that the deacon Bistam that was with him the past few days was not actual deacon, but someone else," said Sandy. "The only problem is that the head guard Baskel who accompanies the baron is not cooperative and refusing entry into the mansion." "We have a suspect that we assume to be able to disguise as others and head guard who refuses to cooperate when we expect that his master is with the disguised suspect. We have probable cause to suspect him to be an enemy too. Use that as the excuse to get through the gates and into the mansion," said Shadow. Though his suggestion was quite reasonable and could be used in this situation. The NPC captain Sandy was clearly hesitant. "I will say that a criminal who killed the temple deacons is in the mansion in disguise to the guards at the gate. Would that help?" asked Shadow. "Yes, please. These guys at the mansion don''t take the others seriously as they work directly for the baron. The temples name would help. They would think twice before denying you," said Sandy. Shadow quickly ran to the gate and flashed his badge at the guards. "I am under a mission from the White Heart City. Someone under disguise of deacon Bistom had been masquerading alongside the baron for the past few days. We suspect both baron and the head guard are under his influence. Allow us inside right now to secure them," said Shadow to the guards at the gate. One of the guards came to Shadow pushed his sword into the ground by the gate and leaned with an elbow resting on its hilt and looked at Shadow like he told something extremely ridiculous, "You kidding, right?" he asked. "Why are you supporting these idiots'' conjectures?" "You got it wrong, man. I was the one who was there when we realized that deacon Bistam that we were in contact with was not the original," said Shadow. "You serious?" said the guard suddenly looking uncertain. "Serious enough that the great priest would be very angry with the baron and his guards for letting a criminal roam freely among them," said Shadow. "No need to involve the great priest of the capital," said the guard realizing that stopping them would not help him and it would best if let them check the mansion. If something is really there, then he would have to answer for it. The doors were opened, and they quickly made their way into the mansion. They only let in Sandy and Shadow inside, while Sandy ordered the others to surround the walls to make sure that no one escapes the mansion. The guard quickly led them into the mansion and to the study in front of which the head guard, Baskel was waiting. Baskel was a 7 feet guard who wore leather armor "Who the hell is this?" asked Baskel as he saw them approaching the study. "The baron ordered to not allow anyone to disturb him and deacon Bistam in the study." Shadow didn''t care about the head guard Baskel. He only noticed that the head guard was a level 20 NPC. He knew that he could use Alva''s Tincture to disable him for enough time to get into the study, but it was better to reason with him. He held the badge up for the head guard to see. "On a mission from the great priest, Luciophel. Need to see Deacon Bistam urgently. It is of vital importance. Any delays, we might need to consider putting both you and the baron in custody," said Shadow. Though it was a lie that they could put them in custody, it had a significant impact on the Baskel. It was important to listen to his master''s commands but knowingly neglecting someone and causing serious issues like the one that Shadow told him would be much more detrimental to the NPC. "In that case, let me get the deacon out," said Baskel gritting his teeth and opened the door slightly to move into the room. "Baron?" he shouted as soon as he put his head through the door. He flung open the door immediately after that and rushed into the room. It was clear that the baron and the deacon were missing and were not in the study. Shadow, Sandy and other immediately moved into the study to check. "Check the entire mansion. Every room," shouted Baskel to the guards. "Coordinate with our men. We are after the same thing right now," said Sandy. "What is happening? Why are you after Bistam?" asked Baskel as he came close to Shadow. "We suspect that the Bistam that the was with the baron is someone who is in disguise and not the deacon," said Shadow. "Check every room and put everyone out in the yard. Need to have a head count of every person and none are to leave the grounds of the mansion," shouted Baskel immediately. "Tell me the entire story," said Baskel turning to Shadow. Shadow quickly recounted the scene at the temple and how he came to suspect Bistam. A few minutes later, a guard came running into the study. "Sir, we found the baron. He is injured but fine. The same can''t be told of deacon Bistam. We found his body. A large hole at his chest and seemed to be in shock" said the guard as he reached the study. Chapter 129 - The barons secret "Where did you find them?" asked Shadow. It was good that these guards found both Bistam and the baron, but still didn''t have any information about Faroon. So, he needed to get to the place to check it out. His mission was to find out about Faroon not the rest. "There were at the dungeons where we hold the prisoners. Don''t know how they got there, but as we asked for a count of all the guards, one of them noticed the baron fainted in a cell at the end of the dungeons. The baron was probably tortured by the demon," said the guard. He was shaking in fear as he told the entire thing. Them failing to protect their master and unable to notice him till he was in the dungeon was a very big blunder. "Call for a healer to treat the baron," said Baskel. "We need to make sure that he isn''t poisoned or let him have any permanent injury. Get some silver ware to check the body and also check the baron. We have someone who can disguise. So, keep everyone in place, ask everyone around you their security questions. I need each one vetted at least by three others," he continued. A second later, another guard came running. "Sir, we found someone dressed like deacon escape over the walls," said the guard. "The person had claws and killed some of the men on the way out. Deacon Faroon was with him. Luckily, we managed to get Deacon Faroon from him." "You have deacon Faroon? Is he safe?" asked Shadow. He was very concerned about the NPC Faroon as his quest required him to find out about him. Other than Faroon, he only put up with the others as he had to. "Yes. He is alive and safe. A bit hurt but was able to talk. He is being interrogated about the events that happened currently," said the guard. "Interrogate? Check him with silver and make sure he isn''t an impostor. Chain him up, but have a healer check him too. Also, get a warlock who could make sure that it isn''t someone else in disguise," said Baskel. The guard ran as they also made out of the study towards the grounds of the mansion. A number of guards were surrounding an NPC in deacon''s clothes and a paladin was healing the injured deacon. A warlock was waiting by the side. "Have you verified him?" asked Baskel as soon as he came close to them. "He had been checked and healed. The baron is still unconscious though," said the healer that was looking after them. Shadow quickly made it to Farron and asked, "Deacon Faroon, I have been sent by the great priest, Luciophel to assist you. Can you tell us what is happening here?" Quest Updated: Help deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High) Description: Assist deacon Faroon against the impersonator who murdered Waral. Progress: Found Faroon at the Jarko Town. Assist him in capturing the impersonator. The quest being updated as he met Faroon was expected. A quest which had a difficulty high wouldn''t finish that quickly without even a decent fight. There hadn''t even been a fight since he started the quest so, he completely expected it to update. He had expected a small fight at the mansion, but that also went forward without much issue. "I don''t know when Bistam was taken over by the impersonator. I was a bit suspicious of him and asked great priest Luciophel for advise," said Faroon. "But yesterday he killed Waral for some ritual and abducted me. I don''t know who it is, but only that it was a demon and he wanted something information from the baron. I don''t know what it was, but the baron refused to tell him. The ritual at the altar was to find out the same, but it looks like it had failed," continued Faroon. "How strong was it?" asked Baskel looking at the guards around him. "It wasn''t stronger than us, but it had ambushed us suddenly and was very quick. So, it managed to run away easily," said a guard. "Where did you find the baron and the other?" asked Shadow. Without any information from the NPC Faroon or the baron, he wouldn''t be able to proceed through the quest and such quests if he doesn''t manage to find anything for some time, the system would consider him to have failed the quest. Usually, once night-time comes in the game, the system considers the culprit escaped and the player to have failed the quest. So, he needed to find more clues as soon as he could. "In the prison, which is right beside the mansion. We put the town prison here as it is one of the most guarded areas of the town," said Baskel. "Why?" "If the baron was taken to the dungeons, there is bound to be an unknown passage to reach the place. It would probably help us in finding out about the demon," said Shadow. "Deacon, can you tell us, how the demon brought you into the dungeons?" asked Shadow. "I was bound most of the time until and gagged in the dungeons. It only let me be awake when it wanted me to talk," said Faroon. Baskel had the guard who found the baron lead them to the dungeons and point tot the place where they found the injured baron. It was a small cell and was completely made of stone. It would be really hard to find out a secret passage in that dark place. Though they had a torch with them, it was still very hard. "Does anyone have the blueprints of the dungeons?" asked Shadow unable to find anything. He was sure that if he failed to find anything here, then the quest would fail with a completion rate of less than 40%. "The study in the mansion is supposed to have one," said Baskel and sent a few of the guards to search for it. "Mr. Basker. Do you have any idea why the demon was after the baron? What secret would he have that was important enough for a demon to impersonate a deacon attempt a ritual at the temple. It is one of the most dangerous places for a demon," asked Shadow. "I really can say, adventurer. I honestly don''t know what could have been the reason," said the NPC Baskel. Shadow knew that repeatedly asking him was a waste of time and he needs to look for other NPCs who might be aware of something. "Would anyone else know why baron was abducted. Was he related to the temple in any way?" he shouted hoping that one of the NPC might be able to help him. "The baron hardly had any contact with the temple. He didn''t ever go to the temple," said one of the guards. "He didn''t ever like going to the temple and he hated the concept of worship," said Baskel. "I agree. He was very critical of the mass and the worship of the lords. I couldn''t make any sense of why he was abducted," said Faroon agreeing with the others. "He really disappointed his ancestors with his antics." "He might have been a bit critical of the temple, but his reforms were quite useful to the town and he brought in a lot more trade than his predecessors," said Baskel trying to support the baron. "I don''t deny it, but a lot of things changed after his father and deacon Benson died in that attack. He is quite a capable baron, but the temple had always kept the monsters away and still remains a source of hope for all the citizens of the town," said Faroon. "He didn''t need to break off the ties his father and uncle had with the temple. He wasn''t like that before. He was on quite good terms with the temple and a good friend of mine before that incident," continued Faroon. "So, things changed after the attack?" asked Shadow. The only thing that could be a clue in the story from Faroon was the details of the incident. "No one know of the details of the attack. It was an attack by monsters, and we don''t even know how or why they were attacked. We only found their bodies around their carriage. The temple had sent a few investigators, but they never came to any conclusion," said Baskel. "I doubt it has any relation to the situation we have." "Yes, but his family were part of the temple. His uncle was the deacon of the temple. I didn''t expect him to change so much because of this," said Faroon with a sad expression. "His uncle was the deacon?" wondered Shadow aloud. "So, he has a strong relation to the temple. There is a great chance that the baron had something which the demon considered important enough to risk its life and incur the wrath of the temple. We best talk to him as soon as possible." "He is still recuperating. I believe that whatever question you have for the baron can wait till tomorrow," said Baskel. Being the baron''s bodyguard and butler, the NPC Baskel considered his health to be of utmost importance. "I understand that you don''t want him to suffer more trauma, but it is necessary that we wake him up and he talks about this. The demon is able to get into the mansion. If, we neglect it, there is a good chance that the demon will attempt to attack again," said Shadow. "That is a good point, Baskel. We only want to help the baron. It is essential for his safety that we find the demon as soon as possible," said Faroon agreeing with Shadow. "Hmph," said Baskel in anger. Though he didn''t want to accept it, he knew that the best way to do his job and protect the baron was to let the adventurer do his own job. "Follow me," said Baskel as they went into the mansion with a group of the guards to meet the baron. The went into the baron''s bedroom. A number of people were around the baron. The healers seemed to have healed the baron and he was sitting on the bed. [Baron Lockhart] (Baron of Jarko Town) HP: 100/????? "Aah, my savior arrives," said the baron lifting his face up to look at him. He looked pale like he was poisoned and hurt. "Good thing that someone managed to guess that I was danger," said Lockhart. "I was recruited by the great priest, Luciophel. I just found you in my attempt to save deacon Faroon. It was not my intention to save you, but finding you was essential to help solve my problem," said Shadow. "A candid member of the temple of the twelve? That is something new. I thought that all of you were the same, secretive and mysterious. I guess, the adventurers who joined might be a bit different from the usual ones," said Lockhart. From his words, it was clear that the NPC wasn''t trusting of the temple of the twelve. "A few members aren''t a mark of the entire organization, baron," said Shadow. "Most of your guard didn''t believe that you were safe. That doesn''t may your entire organization incompetent, does it?" "Rude and overconfident. That is a something you share with the others," he said looking at deacon Faroon. "Highly assured of one''s own beliefs to be the truth and the best way in a situation. That is something which you share with the ones that investigated my parents'' murder." "That is probably where it ends too. I am more than interested in finding out what happened to your father," said Shadow. "Hehehe," laughed the baron weakly. "You want to investigate an incident that happened so long ago. Like it is even possible to do something so ridiculous." "I am not sure that I can actually do that. But I believe that the only relation that you have with the temple is your father and uncle and the demon that tortured you. So, I think there is a high chance that the reason for it going after you is because it strongly believes that you have what it wants," said Shadow. "Ah! You have already unraveled the mystery of my parent''s death. So, what more do you want?" asked the baron. His words implied agreeing to Shadow and almost all of the guards were surprised to hear the baron accepting to it. "Unraveled? Far from it. I don''t know anything about what the demon wants from you. How can you say that?" asked Shadow with a smile. "I don''t know anything about it either. My uncle requested me to keep something safe. It was taken from me by the men who came to investigate his murder," said the baron. "So, you have no idea at all. Then why was it after you?" asked Shadow extremely surprised by the change of events. He had expected that the baron would have more information than this. "I know why it was after me. It was asking for the thing that my uncle left with me. That is the reason for its attack," said the baron. "So, what do you suggest we do about it?" asked Shadow disappointed. He had no other options that he could think of. "Only one thing can be used. I still have the box that was used to store it. I will give it to you. You just need to take it and lure it," said the baron. He looked to the woman NPC beside him. "Help me down to my study, dear," he said trying to get up. The woman supported him, and they led the others to the study of the mansion. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 130 - Trap a demon As they reached the study, the baron led the group to a bookshelf and kicked down a rack. As the rack fell down, a few buttons with a bunch of symbols was seen on the wooden shelf. It was something like a safe but instead of the standard number, a bunch of symbols were there. This was a commonly seen thing in the game when Balthazar had joined it in his previous life. There were quite a few languages created for the game and the players needed to use the proper key to be able to open the safe. As soon as Balthazar saw the arrangement he cringed in fear as he knew that to open such safes, a player would usually need to know the right password. But he knew no key or password nor any clue for the safe that he has seen. He thought that he had faced another dead end and might need to start searching for clues again. Luckily, the baron himself set the password. A long chamber made of stone slid out from the wall. He took out a small pouch, the size of a person''s fist from it. The pouch was made from some beast''s skin having an intricate blue colored design painted on it and as he opened it a red crystalline metal box was in it. "Don''t touch the box. It would harm you, if you don''t possess our bloodline. Without my bloodline, it can only be opened on use of a specific ritual which temple already knows. This belongs to my family and it is used to seal items of important value in it," said the baron. "This was the thing that the demon desired. Though I never knew of its contents, the box is of equal importance to me. I hope you can use this to lure the demon and kill it. But I want the box after you are done," said the baron handing over the pouch to Shadow. "Received Quest Item: Red box" Quest Updated: Help deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High) Description: Use the box to lure the demon and kill it. Progress: Convinced the baron to assist you. Lure the demon and kill it. "I will try my best to get rid of the demon that had been after you baron," said Shadow as he took the pouch from him. "I will make my way out of the mansion and I request that the guards don''t follow me. The demon clearly has the capability to survey and evade the guards and it would be hard to lure it with the guards with me." "You intend to face it alone?" asked the baron. "It is quite strong and capable of fighting my guards." "It is the best option to lure the demon," said Shadow without denying the baron''s words. "That is true, but I suggest you make ample preparations. My family were all killed for the same thing that it would believe you have," said the baron as he began moving out of the study. "I will let you handle the rest. I need to take a reprieve to heal my injuries." "You don''t need to be worried. I will help you with your task," said Faroon. "Are you sure you can provide help? You were caught by the demon previously and I doubt you are a good fighter," asked Shadow skeptically. Though Faroon was the deacon, he had been captured by the demon and the demon had previously managed to impersonate another deacon. So, Balthazar was naturally wary of the NPC. The story could change suddenly in a lot of quests in the game and Shadow didn''t want to lose the quest just because he was careless. "It is the temple''s responsibility to begin with and I intend to help you. Though I am not a good fighter, I have some things which I specialize in. A deacon would have his own ways of safeguarding himself against demons," said Faroon. Shadow simply raised his eyebrows to that answer. "If that were true, how the f.u.c.k were you captured?" he thought. "I understand your apprehension," said Faroon as he saw Shadows expression. "I was only caught because I never thought that it would be a demon disguised as Bistam. Moreover, you intend to lay a trap for the demon. I believe strongly that I could help you with that. The temple is the best place for it and we still have some means to capture it if not kill it," said Faroon. "Quest Update: Capture the demon with the help of deacon Faroon - Yes/No" came an option on his dashboard. It was an optional part of the quest as it allowed him to choose. Balthazar knew that choosing such optional parts in a quest would make the quest much harder, but the rewards would improve too. Even if he failed the optional part, the original quest could still be completed. He quickly accepted the optional quest. "I am willing to accept your help. Tell me what contingency you have against the demon," said Shadow as he began to move towards the exit of the mansion. "I am willing to but, I suggest you hide that pouch in your bag before we make move," said the deacon. "No. Let it be. I want to make sure that the demon is aware that I have the artifact," said Shadow as he held the pouch in a hand and walked out of the mansion. He was aware Captain Sandy would still follow him to the temple. She was not a part of the guards of the baron''s mansion and was responsible for the case in the first place. So, with her guard, he was confident of going to the temple securely. As he had expected, the captain and her men followed Faroon and him to the temple. "My men will stay guard at the temple," said Sandy as they went stationed themselves at the exits of the temple. "Please call us, if you require anything," she said and join her men. After they went into the temple, Shadow finally decided to find out what Faroon''s plan was. "So, could you please explain in detail what we are planning to do?" asked Shadow. "It started with the previous deacon of the temple, deacon Lockhart. The baron''s uncle. I was his student. Most know him as just a deacon of the town, but he was a powerful paladin who once participated in wars against the demons," said Faron. "You know of the artifact that used to be with him?" asked Shadow in shock. "Yes, he managed to get hold of it and he realized that he needed to safeguard it. It is because of the artifact that he joined the temple and became its deacon. He managed to send word to the great priest about it, but he realized that something was wrong. So, he hid it and told his nephew the baron to keep it a secret," said Faroon. "The excursion during which the deacon and the previous baron died was just a misdirection. It was their intention to kill the demons trailing the artifact, but despite their preparations, the deacon died." "He never told his nephew about it?" asked Shadow. "I think they knew it would be extremely dangerous and if they told the baron, he would try and follow them. So, they lied to him. But I was told the truth. He wanted me to safeguard the baron in case anything happens. The members of the temple that came to investigate also informed me that there were signs of a fight and death of few demons. Nothing happened for a long time and we assumed that the danger had passed." "Well, now we know better. So, do you have any thing that could help us?" asked Shadow. "There is a room which he has specifically prepared in case of such an event. It had been enchanted by deacon Lockhart and I have its control. He had thought me quite a few skills other than being a priest," said Faroon. "Can it be used to capture the demon?" asked Shadow. "It was meant to kill, but it can also be used to imprison the demon. For that I need you to hold it down in the room for at least ten minutes," said Faroon. "I can try it out. No harm in that, but in case I fail could we kill it?" asked Shadow. His main priority was to kill the demon and get rid of it. Capturing it was just an optional quest. It wasn''t necessary for him to do it. So, he wanted to make sure that they would be able to kill it. "Killing it wouldn''t be a problem. Even if you don''t hold it in for 10 minutes, I have a method to deal a lot of damage to it, but that would also leave me vulnerable and we are not sure if he is the last one. So, I intend to capture it," said Faroon. "Fine, we shall try it out," said Shadow. It was an hour left for the sundown and Balthazar knew that once it was night the demon would probably try to attempt to attack him after sundown. Roaming around the town and completing some other quest would be dangerous, but he couldn''t do much staying at the temple either. "Damn, the quest is going to make me waste a lot of time," he thought. "Could I browse the library of the temple till sundown," asked Shadow. Though the library or study of the barons or the temples in these towns wouldn''t have any information about occupations or techniques that he didn''t know due to his previous life, it would still help him to get to know about the town. The Jarko town seemed to be quite well developed and had a river flowing through it. If he found out more about the town, it would help him understand it better and allow him to get more resources from the town. After all, he owned a guild and would want to gain power in the town to get a good share of its resources. "Ah! Mr. Shadow. I can provide you access to most of the common books in the library, but the legacy of the deacons can''t be touched. I hope that you wouldn''t attempt to go through that section," said the deacon giving him a token. He quickly took the token and made way to the library behind Faroon. "Do you know what kind of demon it is or anything about its origins?" asked Shadow. Though Faroon told him that all the knowledge that he had about this situation was from his predecessor, he hoped that some kind of information about it could be obtained. It would definitely improve his chances in getting another quest. As the artifact had been taken to the great priest before, he was sure that it was an important thing and there was a chance for him to get a continuation quest. Continuation quests were what the players called the quests which had a big lore and the quests ended up being tool long that they were divided into multiple parts. The different parts of these quests could be done by the same player or most times multiple players get to do different parts of these quests. So, whenever a player had a doubt that it could be a continuation quest, he would try to get as much information from the NPCs as possible. It was a chance to get another strong quest. "I was only told that the demons were remnants of a great war and had been in hiding for a long time. Deacon Lockhart had accidentally found their hiding place and found out about them and their plans. Though he was quite powerless alone, he couldn''t simply not do anything about it. So, he stole that artifact and returned to his home to study it. When he couldn''t do much, he informed the great priest, Luciophel who was an acquaintance of his," said Faroon. "So, the name of the group or their origins?" asked Shadow trying to pry out more information. "I have no idea. He refused to inform anyone of it. I doubt even his brother, the previous baron knew much about those details. He just told that this group wouldn''t want to attack them openly as they intended to keep a low profile. The artifact was just a means for the demons to speed up their activities and grows stronger faster," said Faroon. Balthazar was totally stumped. He knew nothing of such a quest from his previous life. He had read a lot of books and lore too, but none of it had anything similar to this quest. "I guess, I can''t rely on my memories for this one," thought Balthazar as he followed Faroon to the first floor. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 131 - Barakdoros As a person who had been at a high managerial position in the game of vita-nova, Balthazar had always read through many posts in the forums and any information that he could get hold of. The best way to understand game lore and the local situation was through the local libraries. Many books for secondary occupations and spells and magical arrays, tools, etc. were also found in the libraries. Most towns and cities have the town libraries which have almost all the information on the various historical things and the NPCs that have either visited the town or were in the town. One usually required to be a citizen and requires having more reputation to get to the more confidential information. Apart from the city and the town libraries, a number of organizations and powerful NPCs, would have their own libraries in every town or city. A player needed at least some reputation to be able to access these libraries. Sometimes, the information that these organizations have might not even be found in the central libraries in towns and cities. That is the reason most players used to try and get reputation in various organizations. Sometimes, a good reputation in some organizations of the game was enough to promote a player in their respective guild or workshop. Shadow was a member of the temple of the twelve and had an iron grade membership. It allowed him to get to library of the most local temple branches. Though it probably didn''t allow him to get to the confidential areas, it was enough for him to find information of the local lore. They stopped at large door and the token that Faroon gave him served as a key to open the door. The library was quite large and had a few hundred books in it shelves. There was another door at the other end of the library. Shadow asked Faroon as soon as his eyes fell on it. "That would be the confidential part of the library. I can only provide access to a person who is a deacon or has a standing above it. I am sorry, but it wouldn''t be of much use to you. Most of it is filled with accounts of various transactions done by the temple," said Faroon. "Oh, in that case, I would spend my time here," said Shadow. "This is completely a detection type quest. Luckily, I managed to get good information because I had read about these previously. Hopefully, the end of the quest wouldn''t be a hard fight as those guys wrote," thought Balthazar. "A good part of the quest matched the things that I have read. I hope the end of the quest isn''t too hard," "Good, I will be in the confidential area of the library. You can call for me if you need anything," said Faroon as he opened the door at the other end and went inside it. Shadow quickly made his way to the shelves and started browsing through the books available there. There were a lot of books in the shelves. Most of them were related to any profession or anything. They had information about geography, the monsters around the town, the various important personal in the town and other information. He didn''t find anything about the NPCs as he went through the books. As that provided him nothing significant, he went through the history of the town. He had never heard of the Jarko town. He had been in the White Heart City and clearly the Jarko town was close to it, so he was sure that the town had been renamed. Most of the towns that were renamed were due to some player managing to get enough reputation to become a noble and change its name or some kind of quest or event that led to the name change. Either way, such towns tend to have a speciality or resource that could be found easier at that town than other places. So, getting a reputation at this town or having his guild develop at the town was a good thing to do. So, Balthazar wanted to make sure that his guild takes this opportunity. If he were in the game since its start in his past life, he would have been able to identify the towns very quickly and plan accordingly. As, he wasn''t he was only left with the option of identifying the town through its history and geography. Soon, he went through the important names and headings of various events that occurred at the town but was unable to identify. So, he finally had to examine its geography. The temple library had a good map of the town, which provided a lot of details, but that wasn''t enough as most renamed towns would change quite a bit. Sometimes, they might even end up becoming larger towns and in rare cases small cities. Unable to get anything from it, he went to the priest''s cabin and knocked on it to meet up with Faroon as it was time for sundown, and they needed to prepare to catch the demon. "You got a map of the location of this town in relevance to the White Heart City," he asked Faroon as soon as the priest came out. Even though, he couldn''t find any clue about the towns name in his previous life, its relative location would help him guess some significant details. "It is to the west of the White Heart City. I have no map of it, but the baron has a map of the town and a few relavant trade routes. He depends on it for improving the trade of the town," said Faroon. "He might be willing to let you have a look." "That would be helpful. I guess, I have to meet him up after we are done with the demon," said Shadow as he got out of the library behind Faroon. The deacon led him to the back of the temple and into a tunnel which was dug at the backyard of the church. "Move in, quickly Mr. Shadow. It is almost nightfall and the demon would be stronger from this hour," said Faroon as he left the trapdoor open after they went in. They walked into the tunnel which was a few dozen metres long. The finally stopped at a room which was made of white marble. It had a lot of sockets fitted with gemstones and there seemed to be a red granite floor. There were large markings on the floor in the form of some kind of magical array with a lot of its pieces missing. "There seemed to quite a few pieces missing from this array, deacon," said Shadow as he noticed it. He had enough knowledge of the magical arrays of the game to deduce it. "Are you sure that this would be successful?" he asked as doubts crept into his mind. "Yes. I am sure," said Faroon but it was clear that he was also a bit worried. "Well, I haven''t used it before, but deacon Lockhart had assured me that it was good enough to stop even mid level demons. He isn''t one that would lie about something like this which could be considered as one of the defences of the temple," continued Faroon. "I hope so," said Shadow. "It might be some high-level array, which even when only partially complete could help against smaller foes," thought Shadow as he observed the floor. "I better get a hold of some kind of high-level appraisal skill technique or artifact. Else, it would be really hard to deal with such things." He had heard of several players having high-level appraisal skills, which allowed them to identify various arrays, items, weapons, camouflage, etc. These skills were highly helpful to make one''s character strong, clear special quests, find new quests and even the trade occupations. Appraising of artifacts itself was used as a trade by a few players who sold their service to other guilds and workshops. Most guilds employed such players in determining the legitimacy of artifacts and armaments in various auctions in the game. "You don''t need to worry. I will conceal myself in the control room. Originally, Bistam should be the one who could lure the demon and hold them in the array," said Faroon pointing to a small room at one corner of the room. It was hardly enough for one person to be standing in it and was behind a pillar in the room. It was the only pillar in the room and Shadow immediately felt like that pillar was only there to conceal the control room. "Ok. Get there and keep safe. If the demon notices you, it is best if you get out from there. It would be hard to escape if it gets close to you in that small space," said Faroon. With nothing to do, he went to the centre of the array on the floor and sat down. He waited there for a few minutes before he could hear a scraping sound from the tunnel to the room. A demon about 7 feet tall wearing pitch-black leather armor. It held a large halberd and wore a large cloak which would easily cover another human along with it. It had thick arms with bulging muscles and a stifling aura that would numb most minds who aren''t used to bloody fights. [Barakdoros] (Minor Demon) Level 15; HP: 10000/10000; "You guys and your tricks," laughed the demon as he saw Shadow in the room. It held the halberd at Shadow and jumped at him trying to impale him with the halberd. Shadow managed to side step it and throw a dagger at the demon managing to make a deep cut on its weapon hand. Thought the demon was at level 15 and Shadow at level 13, his attributes were high enough to match and even beat the demon due to the effect of the pair of unique armaments he had on him. "If you were a bit slower, I would have definitely disarmed you with that," said Shadow. The demon seemed to be looking down at him and laughed at Shadow as soon as it entered the room. So, taunting it to anger it was a good idea. As in any game, taunts tend to excite the opponent. Verbal taunts were the simplest ones in vita-nova. "You are a strong one," said the demon uncaring of his taunt and examining him. This behaviour made Balthazar realize that the demon is a monster of higher intelligence and it wouldn''t be easy for him to defeat the demon. Taunting and irritating monsters to excite them and using this to fool them into circ.u.mstances was a well-used practice in his past life, but there were always exceptions. Some monsters had higher intelligence which wouldn''t be easily taunted. Some were even more intelligent and could cast skills that put the mind of the player in an aggressive mood and would cause the players to be the ones to be affected by the monsters'' taunts. Those were a nightmare for most players. "It had to be an intelligent one," cursed Balthazar in his mind. "Well, I guess at least this had to be expected from the quest, since the demon is the only monster I encountered in the entire quest." The demon tried a few more attempts to attack Shadow, but his speed allowed him to evade them and land a couple more hits on the demon. It was sort of a stalemate and they were trying to circle each other. Though he managed to evade the attacks, Shadow knew that if he took the attack it would have a strong blowback effect and also cause high damage. Shadow could see that the demons was also waiting and taking its time to attack him rather than continue with a series of quick attacks like other monsters and beasts. He suddenly realized something and began to look at its health bar. "Shit, it might be a minor demon, but it definitely has some kind of secret," thought Balthazar as he saw the rate of its recovery. It was healing at about 100 HP per second. This was quite high for a demon of its level. A 1% recovery rate would usually only be seen in higher demons or at the very least middle order demons. So, the recovery rate immediately made put him on the guard. "So, you noticed," said the demon suddenly as if it had realized that the adventurer in front of it noticed the peculiarity. "I am not the usual minor demons you find in these areas. It won''t be that easy to defeat me." COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 132 - Barakdoros - II Though Balthazar was a bit fl.u.s.tered by the intelligence of the demon and its high recovery rate, he didn''t get fl.u.s.tered by the disadvantage. He had expected the demon to have a few tricks, it was just that he had never expected it to possess such intelligence or capabilities that were characteristic of higher demons. "At least, its attributes are inferior to mine. Even if it has these tricks, it would still not be enough for it to defeat me," thought Balthazar. "But it would surely take some effort from my side to defeat it and probably a few potions and tricks are to be used." "It is too strong for me to attack it directly but evading to strike it wouldn''t allow me to kill it fast. Moreover, it has the sense to stall for time to recover its health," thought Balthazar. "Luckily, I need to hold it in her for 10 minutes. So, my best chance is to keep attacking it. That way, it would assume that stalling for time is advantageous to it." With those thoughts, Shadow continued to attack the demon repeatedly. He didn''t move at his highest speed or used his highest attack speed but started to slowly reduce its health. He also let the demon make a few cuts on him with his halberd. This continued for about 5 minutes before Shadow began to feel a bit tired. Though he had more than 70% of his health left, his stamina was low. "You tried your best adventurer. Why don''t you let me take that thing of you? We can go our separate ways. We don''t have any enmity with one another," said the demon. "It is bargaining with me?" thought Balthazar shocked by it. The more he was with the demon, the more it began to surprise him. "I am a member of the temple of the twelve and I cannot let you go after you have been killing members of the temple." "You are hardly a member of the temple," said the demon still trying to negotiate with Shadow. "You aren''t a deacon or someone of their guard. They don''t operate like you do. They order the small town deacons, not cooperate with them." "Still doesn''t give me a reason to cooperate with a demon which has been known to be criminal element at that," said Shadow as he took out a health potion and quickly ate it. The demon suddenly attacked Shadow again and they resumed their fight. The demon started moving at a faster pace than before and its attacks were getting stronger. Shadow also had to increase his movement speed in order to handle its attacks. The demon got a few more attacks than previously as it increased its speed of attacks and Shadow had to slowly increase his movement speed to reduce the rate of damage he received. "You are faster!" said the demon after a couple more minutes. "You have been stalling me!" it shouted as its eyes went red and a dark red gas started to seep out of its armor. It clearly went into an enraged state and it had about 70% of its health remaining. "Let me see how long you can fight me," said the demon as it rotated the halberd and swung it vertically onto Shadow. Shadow managed to evade it again causing it to strike down at the floor. The speed and force with which the demon swung the halberd down made him think that it would break the floor and the array would get disrupted. But the halberd instead of piercing through the floor got bounced off the floor at about the same speed. The change in direction of the halberd due to this was very abrupt and sudden that the demon almost had the halberd flying out of its hands. "You dare to trap me!" it shouted, and it began to fight more furiously. Shadow was very surprised when he saw that the demon could improve more. This kind of situation usually happens when a monster goes into critical health, but this demon was an odd one and was already in this state. "I guess it is time I fight it with all my strength. If I keep holding back and get hit by that weapon, I will definitely be put in a stunned or disoriented state allowing the demon to kill me quickly," thought Balthazar. He knew that his best bet was to use the void strikes effect on his weapon and continue with cheap shot and other skills that he had to reduce its health by a decent amount. After that it would be a tough battle, but he had the skill on void mantle to escape and down a few potions if it became really hard to hold off the demon. With that thought, he immediately used void strikes. The demon was swung its halberd at Shadow directly but having faith in the description of the void strikes skill of his weapon, he swung the Void Dragon''s Talons at the halberd. The result was completely unexpected from what Balthazar though it would do. He simply expected that the weapon would be able to stop the blow back effect of the demon''s attack and injure it giving him the chance to continue with a combo. But his daggers simply cut through the halberd and landed its attacks on the demon. The halberd was cut into two by a simple attack. It was then that he realized that the strength of unique weapons was a lot more than what he had expected. Cutting through the halberd, the daggers hit the demon causing it significant damage. Balthazar was completely shocked at the result of his attack. "This didn''t happen the first time," thought Balthazar. The first time he used the skill was against Boris and at that time though it had a very strong effect, he aimed the attack at Boris neck and thought that the high damage he dealt was due to hitting Boris at a weak point on his body. Now he realized that it might not be so. Though he was surprised by the effect, he continued his attack on the demon. It was good chance to overwhelm the demon and he couldn''t let go of it. He quickly summoned his clone and began to push the demon back while attacking it. He also used the chance to do a cheap shot and continued his attacks. With this, he managed to reduce the health of the demon to 3500 HP. He jumped away from the demon before the stun effect wore off the demon. He had caused enough damage for the demon for it to be in rage and go after him. So, he believed that it would continue to attack him for some time during which he just needs to evade and keep it in the room. He also realized that only the first attack after using void strikes produced the effect of cutting through the armament, but the others didn''t have the same effect. "You expect that I would continue to attack you after all this?" asked the demon in a condescending manner once it noticed him backing away. "Nothing wrong in trying it out," said Shadow as he moved to the side to cover the exit of the room. He just needed to keep it in the room. The entire room had the array and a couple more minutes later, he would have the demon imprisoned by Faroon. "You clearly want to capture me. You think you could interrogate me or something," laughed the demon. "You are quite foolish to think I, Barakdaros could be interrogated by the temple. I have been fighting the temple for a long time. Just be glad that I don''t want to kill you before I am sure that you haven''t hidden the thing I need." "You think that because you managed to cut through a weapon, I borrowed from one of the guards, you can hold me back. I even managed to take down a contingent of those men of the old baron Lockhart. If not for them, I would have never been this weak. Do you even know who I am?!" it shouted in anger as it jumped up and started muttering some kind of spell. It suddenly started grow in size and the armor that it had on its body including its helmet broke off due its growing size and fell down in pieces. Only its cloak remained on its body most of which apart from the head was covered by a black smoke that wove around its body like clothes. Balthazar felt that letting it complete the spell would make things more difficult to him and quickly threw all blackrock crystal throwing knives at it. Instead of harming it they simple deflected off the smoke covering its body like it was tangible and hard like metal. "You can''t stop the process, human," it laughed at Shadow''s attempt. Its head ended up into the form that looked like that of a scaly cat and its stared to glow iridescent red giving the demon''s appearance a completely otherworldly effect. Balthazar was so impressed by the effect that he started to take pictures of the demon. [Barakdoros - clone] (Minor Demon) Level: 15; HP: 3700/10000 As soon as Balthazar saw the new description, he realized the reason why the demon was so different from the other minor demons that he saw. It was clearly a clone of some higher demon which was scouting out the town for this artifact. "What is in the pouch that you want it so badly?" asked Shadow. "Stop your nonsense and just die," shouted the demon as it jumped at Shadow. He knew that the demon considered getting away to be its most important priority right now and he couldn''t allow it to escape. So, he blocked the demon instead of evading it this time, but he knew he couldn''t simply block it and put his daggers in the way of demon at the height of his head with aim of dealing sever damage. Once, he realized that it was the clone of a higher demon, he decided that he best cripple the demon as soon as he could if he wanted to hold it in the room. So he planned to stick his weapons in its neck. Blocking it head on jarred his entire body and gave him a feeling like he was struck by a tank. He was shocked out of his bones was pushed back almost out of the room and found his ears ringing. As he pushed himself off the floor, he noticed that though he felt very bad, his health only fell by a third. He found one of his weapons stuck in the head of the demon which frightened him more than anything else. It was stuck in his cheek and the demon was shouting. Apart from that the knife made a big cut through one of his eyes and went all the way towards the forehead of the other eye. Both these wounds caused considerable bleed effects on the demon and he could see the HP falling down. As he guessed, the head which wasn''t covered by the smoke was vulnerable. There were notifications of the demon having stun and bleed effects. But he wasn''t concerned by the demon which was also on ground trying from the shock of being injured, he was more concerned of the weapon in its head. The Void Dragon''s Talons were a lot more important to him than the completion of the quest. He immediately ran towards the demon to pull out the dagger from its head and after that made hs way back towards the exit. It made screeching howl as he pulled out the dagger. He noticed that the demon could only look from one eye and it was extremely enraged. He downed a health potion to recover some of its health. The demon''s health was down to 2000 HP when he looked at it. It was apparent that collision between them hurt the demon more than him. He was very lucky that the demon didn''t have a weapon, or he was sure that he would have been impaled by it. He had expected the demon to rage more and some more changes after the collision. It started to move towards the door blind in one eye. Balthazar was sure that the demon intended to get out and he had to stop it by some means. He immediately checked his notifications and noticed that the smoke didn''t cause any corrosion or other effects. "That is good news," thought Balthazar. "It would make things easier." Though the black smoke acts like a curtain and doesn''t allow him to harm the demon, it acts like a solid metal armor and he could push the demon away. He used his daggers to attack the demon''s body and push the demon away from the door. The demon also had a new blind spot as it lost one of its eyes. So, this allowed Shadow to attack the demon easier to push it away from the door and also land a few more hits on its head. He tried his best to take out the other eye too, but the demon held a hand to its head to protect itself allowing Shadow to only land a few scratches on it. Though the demon was slowly recovering itself and its injuries began to heal, it was of little consequence to him. It had low health and with the blind spot it could hardly protect its working eye and fight properly. So, Shadow had no issue in dealing more damage to the injured eye preventing it from healing. This continued till the deacon Faroon finally shouted Shadow to get out and the entire array on the floor lit up in a bright red light. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 133 - Maps Shadow was backing away as the red light on the floor formed a circular wall encircling both him and the demon. The circle slowly became smaller leaving less space for both Shadow and the demon. the red-light wall became darker as it shrinked. Balthazar was a bit fl.u.s.tered when he saw that the light from the array surrounded both him and the demon. Due to his unique weapons and skills, he didn''t find the quest very hard and suspected that Faroon might be an enemy when he saw the light surround him along with the demon. But as he reached to touch the light wall, it passed through him as if he was not there. The demon on the other hand was actively moving away from the wall and reached the centre of the circular wall. When the circle became small enough that it had a radius of only a few feet, it started to change shape forming a hemisphere and trapping the demon in it. "You might have trapped me here, but I would like to see how long you would be able to maintain it," said the demon in a scornful manner. "I suggest that you be nice and tell us whatever we want to know," said deacon Faroon as chanted some spell while writing on a wooden board which controlled the barrier. A tendril of red light shot out of the red spherical barrier onto the demon. As it touched the demon, the black gas protecting it simply gave way to the light like it was running away the tendril. When it touched the demon, the demon screeched in pain like it did when he put his dagger through its head. "You!" shouted the demon pointing at Faroon and Shadow. "How is this possible. This can''t be a demonbane barrier", it shouted. "Of course, it is not a demonbane barrier, but it is enough to deal with minor demons like you," said Faroon as he repeated the attack causing the demon to screech again. "Hahaha. That paladin. He did this. He was one of the detainers. I should have expected this," the demon started talking to itself. It made no sense to Shadow what the demon was raving on about. "Anyway, you can''t trap me in this," it said turning to look at both Faroon and Shadow with a weird smile on its face. Then suddenly the black smoke that covered its body started to go into its body and it started bulging up again. The demon inside began to laugh hysterically. "Is it going to get stronger again?" Shadow asked Faroon who also took immediate action and used the red light to attack it again. Unfortunately, this time the attacks didn''t garner any response from the demon. It continued to increase in size and didn''t have enough space to be in the spherical barrier surrounding it. Its body became so large that it started to push against the spherical barrier. As soon as its body touched the barrier, the body corroded like acid or some other corrosive substance was poured on it. But it still continued to do the same and was still laughing. Balthazar was sure that the demon would break out and start attacking them again. He quickly pulled out some bread, water and other consumables to fill up on his health and mana. Both Faroon and Shadow stepped back towards the exit when suddenly the entire body of the demon inside exploded with a loud blasting sound. The only thing that was left in the translucent spherical red-light barrier was the black smoke moving as around as if it had a consciousness. "I told you that I can contain it," said Faroon suddenly looking confident. "It even tried to self-detonate but it couldn''t break the barrier." "You sure there is nothing hiding in the smoke there," said Shadow wanting to make sure that the demon was killed. Faroon immediately used his control board to send a bunch of light tendrils into the smoke to clear it away. A couple of minutes later, they found nothing in the barrier except for a dark bluish black bony skull that looked quite similar to the head of the demon. Faroon quickly went out to get a large canister made of some transparent glass like crystalline material. He chanted something and used the board as the red spherical barrier slowly dissipated. After that he chanted another spell to cover his hand with some kind of white light and he pulled the the skull into the canister. Quest Updated: Help deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High) Description: Return the package to the baron and take back the canister with the demon skull to Luciophel. Progress: Successfully lured the demon and captured it. "The demon tried to break out but failed going into a state of hibernation," said Faroon giving him the canister having the demon skull. "It is a skill usually seen in higher demons. I can''t revive it but I believe that the great priest, Luciophel could be of help." "Received quest item: Barakdoros'' skull" "Ok, I will pass this on to him," said Shadow taking the canister from the deacon. "Let us meet the baron for the map," said Faroon going out of the room. Shadow took one last look at the room and took a picture of it before he followed the deacon. The deacon took him out of the room and towards the baron''s mansion. The guards were quite accommodating of both of them this time and Baskel came to lead them to the baron. The baron was in his study where Baskel took both of them. The baron was waiting for them and was browsing over some books on demons. "He wanted to take care of the demon. Talk of a demon in the town would put a lot of fear in the merchants. So, he wanted to take precautions against further attacks to assuage any malcontents." "I hope you have managed to take care of the demon that was after me," said the baron looking at Faroon and Shadow. "We have done that. I just came back to return this to you," said Shadow as gave the pouch back to the baron. "I also wanted to ask you for a favor." "Please, continue," said the baron as he went to the bookshelf to hide the red box in the pouch back from where he previously retrieved it. "I would like to have a look at a map of this surrounding area. I mainly want to see the route from here to the White Heart city, but also want to know of the surrounding terrain of the town," said Shadow. "You involved in any trading or have any contacts?" asked the baron. "No. I don''t have any such interests, but I think that a lot of areas around the town could be cleared of monsters and there is a good chance for development," said Shadow. "Well, adventurers have their own tricks and plans. I can''t deny that. I will provide you with the any information you want and a map. But I want to know what happened to the demon. The last time, the members of the temple came, they told me that they had the situation under control, but here we are with a demon that almost killed me. So, I want the truth from you," said the baron. Balthazar knew that he had completed the quest already and he just needed to teleport back to the White Heart City and meet the great priest, Luciophel to finish it. So, currently he only cared about gathering more information from the NPCs local to the town. "We captured the demon. It tried to explode itself and the only remaining part of it, is its skull. We think that the great priest could get more information from the skull," said Shadow. "Oh! You managed to capture the demon?" asked the baron evidently surprised. "We lured it into a trap. Else, it would have been impossible," said Faroon. "It was set by your uncle and he told me and Bistam to use it incase the demon attacks the temple during his journey. It was left abandoned after we thought that the issue was handled." "I will be asking the temple for an explanation of it. I want to know why the ones that came before considered the demon problem to be solved," said the baron glaring at Faroon. "You can leave a trail that I took the box back to the White Heart City. Even if any straggler demons are left, they would follow me and the White Heart City has better resources to handle them," said Shadow. "Hahaha," laughed both Baskel and the baron. "Aren''t you a bit too caring?" said the baron. "We can''t have that. If any stragglers are left or if someone higher in the hierarchy of those demons want it. It is best that they think it is with us. That is the reason I asked you to bring back the box to me." "Why would you want them to think that?" asked Balthazar confused. "Isn''t it simple. If they think it is with us. They will send someone smaller whom we have a chance to fight. Else, there is a good chance that they will assemble a stronger force." "And the demons being vengeful species they are, will try to kill us all on the way to the capital," added Baskel. "Yes, that is true," agreed Faroon. "But you realize that they almost killed all of you," said Shadow. It is fine if they can hold back against the demons, but if they are weak, it won''t be of much help to anyone. They won''t even be able to send a message and could be overwhelmed by the demons if a stronger group of demons come. "That is just because we thought that they were all killed before. As there haven''t been any incident for a long time, we became careless and weren''t prepared as we didn''t put much focus on it. I won''t let that happen again and will make sure my successors are also aware of the situation," said the baron waving his hands indicating that Shadow needn''t be concerned. He looked at Shadow in contemplative manner. "Come on, adventurer, I shall show you the map you want to see," said the baron and led him to one end of the study and slid the wood paneling on the wall revealing a small compartment with a table and number of sheets. There were a bunch of rolled up maps placed on the cabinets lining the walls of the compartment. There was a particularly large map that was hung on the wall of the compartment neatly spread showing a lot of details. System: Relationship status with the baron to friendly. "This is where I keep my maps. This collection was made by my family since we settled in this town," said the baron as he went to a cabinet and pulled out a map. "That one was made by me and Baskel," he said pointing to the map fixed on the wall. "This has the safe routes from here to the White Heart City. Apart from that it also details routes to the Black wall fort further in the west. Depicts all terrain in this area. Made many a journey in my early days as a baron to set this up." Shadow immediately went to the map and started taking pictures of it. It was about 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. As the baron told him, it had a lot of details of the various structures natural and man-made. It had enough details for him to draw details of a large area to the west of the White Heart City up to the Black wall fort which was a one of the strongholds of the army of the kingdom and an important station that allows one to resupply. There was a large mountains to the west of the fort which form a border of the kingdom. The map had covered areas from level 10 to level 30. Making a good note of these details would help his guild for quite some time. "I should make sure that these maps are only seen by Rudra, Slaine and Lizzie," thought Balthazar as he was taking pictures of the map. "It is best if others don''t know. There is always a chance of things leaking out. Maybe it is best, if I keep this to myself," he thought. As he was taking pictures, he realized the location of the town. It matched most of the terrain of the town that he had thought of. "A river through the town, between the White Heart City and the Black wall fort, in a level 20 area, this is definitely the Star mine town," thought Balthazar. "It seems like I am going to take most of the thing that belonged to Foedus Rex, in this life," he thought as a smile crept up his lips. "This map would probably interest you more," said the baron who had spread map that he pulled from the shelf. Shadow made sure that he took pictures so that the entire map on the wall was copied before he went to the baron. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 134 - The Skull "This map is a lot more useful than the that if you want to develop some kind of trade in this town," said the baron pointing to the map on the table. It had a lot of symbols on it and only depicted the area to a few kilometers around the Jarko town. "What is this?" asked Shadow. It was quite different from the normal maps that one could see. It was clearly something that was made personally by an NPC. The symbols on the map definitely needed a personal key to understand what they meant. "This was made by me too. I fancied myself an adventurer and intended to roam the world before I took my father''s mantle. Faroon was also with me during that time. Though we didn''t go to other town, we made quite a detailed map of various resources found in and around the town," said the baron pointing at various points in the map with pride. "I hope you have found whatever you want from these two," said the baron as Balthazar looked seriously at the map and began to take pictures of it. This would also be quite useful to the guild though most of this information could be easily found when exploring the town area. "These are quite useful, baron. I thank you for allowing me to browse your personal collection, but this area is empty. Do you have any information about that?" asked Shadow pointing towards a certain point in the map. It was a location to the north of the town at the centre of the forest area that covered about 70% of the town outline. "That place?!" asked the baron in surprise. "I never went that deep in the forest and that area was considered dangerous. I have sent men to explore, but they never returned. I had to decide to put it for some time later when the town underwent certain amount of development." "I can go and explore that area, right?" asked Shadow as he wanted to make sure that he didn''t want to cross any NPC. The Starmine town was famous because there was cave in the forest which had a mithril mine in it. It was a level 20 area and had a guardian boss in the cave. Even Foedus Rex which had found the mine and developed the town due to it was known to have done it only after most players became Tier 1 players. "That area is something that we avoid. Thet say that a beast that uses it as its nest. It kills anyone that enters the area but doesn''t get out of the area though. You can go to explore the area, but I wouldn''t recommend it," said baron. "Rumors are that it is an outcast demon." "Like that exists," mocked Baskel. "Well, it is a rumor. Anyway, it implies a formidable existence as none were able to return," said the baron. "Thank you for your advice and help baron. I best take my leave and report back to the great priest," said Shadow as he decided to finish the quest. He said his goodbyes to the baron, deacon and others and left to the teleportation point. "I need to make sure that Rudra finds develops, the guild in the Jarko town and becomes a major power in it," thought Balthazar. Mithril mine is a very powerful resource. Mithril is used in making a lot of armaments and engineering products. Having a mitril ore in their hand would help the guild a lot as mithril would be used in a lot of products till level 50. Once, he reached the teleportation point, he immediately selected to get to the White Heart City. After that he went to the temple of the twelve to meet up with the great priest Luciophel. He found Luciophel conducting the night mass in the temple of the twelve. There were a large number of guards around the temple. There were quite a number of NPCs in the temple of the twelve for the mass. A number of guards, merchants and other armed NPCs all sitting down in pews and few on the ground listening to Luciophel talking about one of the twelve lords'' achievements as he often did at the end of the sermons. Balthazar knew the story and realized that it was at the end with only a few minutes the congregation would get up and leave the temple. So, he just pinned the badge he received for his membership of the temple on his chest and stood at the door listening to the Luciophel talk about how the dread hawk made a name for himself before he joined the others. A few minutes later, Luciophel was finished with his sermon and the NPCs all got up and made their way out of the door. Quite a few of them noticed Shadow and the badge pinned on his chest. He also found Kade walking out of the temple. "Didn''t expect to see you here with that on your chest," said Kade pointing to his chest. He also had a similar badge on his chest, but it was made of copper. "I didn''t think that you were a member either, master," said Shadow tilting his head in a small bow. "I am not really a member of the temple. I am one of the vice leaders of the Forging Association and the weapons of the twelve lords had always been a source of inspiration and wonder to me. So, I ended up a follower. Someone in the temple noticed me and asked for my services to create some armaments. Following that I was presented a badge. It is merely honorary," said Kade. "Oh, I was awarded this for completion of a quest," said Shadow pointing at the badge. "I guessed. I would have been informed if my apprentice was made a member of the temple due to his forging services," said Kade with a smile. "So, how goes your practice. I hope you did put considerable effort on forging and didn''t spend all your time hunting beasts. You didn''t even come to meet me," he continued. "Of course, master. I would never abandon the craft. I did search for you after reaching the city, but couldn''t find you," said Shadow. "Hmm. That is true. Though I manage the forging association at the inner region, I reside at my store in the core region most of the time. Increase your reputation and find a way to be permitted into the core region. I hope that you manage to improve fast," said Kade as he patted Shadow on the back and began to move. "What are you here for?" he asked suddenly turning around. "I need to meet the great priest, Luciophel," said Shadow. "Come on, then. Let me take you to him. Now, it makes sense, why he is waiting in the hall. Usually, he moves into his quarters after the sermons and the deacons handle the doubts and questions of the followers," said Kade looking into the hall at Luciophel who was talking with a bunch of other NPCs. "Informing them that you are my apprentice would probably increase my fame and also land more work for both me and you," he continued as he pushed his way through the crowd leading Shadow to Luciophel. "Ah! Master Forger Kade," greeted Luciophel as soon as he saw Kade arriving towards him. "I wanted to ask you for your services. I am glad that you came to meet me," said Luciophel. "Anything for the great priest," said Kade. "This is my apprentice, Shadow Tyrant," he continued pulling Shadow in front of him. "Oh yes, I know him," said Luciophel looking at Shadow. "So, adventurer, I hope you can provide me a few details of what happened." "Dear followers. I need to take my leave due to some urgent business. May the light of the lords protect us all," said Luciophel in a loud voice and beckoned to Kade and Shadow to follow him inside. He took them to an isolated room and underground location. They moved further through a few tunnels and finally stopped in front of the door. Shadow was completely unaware of what was happening in the game, but it looked like Kade already had an idea. "Is this the vault of the old king?" asked Kade looking at Luciophel. "Hah! That is myth, Master Forger. But I understand why you would think so. The previous dynasty had created quite a number of dungeons one of which, the temple is allowed to use. The king had given us permission to join this area to the temple. It is made of very sturdy material and is used as a weapons hold as well as a vault by the temple," explained Luciophel. "I hope you won''t inform of this to anyone," he added looking at both Kade and Shadow. "Of course," said Kade while Shadow also nodded agreeing to the request. Luciophel opened the door and there was a large hall made of a dark yellow granite stone. It had a few armaments, elixirs and other goods on one side of it. The other side, there was a small array. Shadow immediately recognized it to be a small-scale teleportation array. "Please, hand over the item," said Luciophel. Shadow immediately brought out the canister from his bag and gave it to him. "Let me check the item first before I make any decision. Shadow please come with me I need you to report what happened," said Luciophel beckoning him to stand above the array and activated it. There were immediately teleported to a similar room which was completely empty. Luciophel immediately cast a spell that went into Shadow. Balthazar felt extremely calm and serene for a few seconds before the feeling passed. "Well, you are not possessed. Any demon that could completely hide from my spell without any symptoms wouldn''t need to sneak into the city," said Luciophel. "I heard from Faroon that the demon had skills unlike any he had seen. So, I would like to confirm if it is from you." "Blacks smoke like armor, red eyes, head like a scaly cat, called itself Barakdoros and tried to become huge and explode," said Shadow covering the main points. "Huh," said Luciophel as he opened the canister. "This looks like a hibernating higher demon, but it hardly has any demonic energy that I could feel. Moreover, Barakdoros was one of the seven kings of the demons and they say he was killed by the present emperor when he deposed the old one." "I have no ideas, if he actually is the one whom he claimed to be. Could be a clone, but he was definitely not a higher demon. Else I would have been killed easily," said Shadow. "Hmm," said Luciophel thing as he observed the demon skull. "It is quite strong like those of the higher demons though, but very hollow. I guess that those myths are true. Anyways, this will provide to be a valuable material to forge things." Quest Completed: Help deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High) Description: Investigate the Jarko town and help deacon Faroon to overcome his problem Progress: Successfully got rid of the menace troubling the deacon and managed to capture it. (Completed the optional part). Performance: Outstanding. Reward: Experience +10000. Temple of the twelve reputation points +50; Temple of the twelve contribution points +200; "10000 exp! That puts me directly in level 14 again," thought Balthazar but the other rewards weren''t what he had hoped for. He had hoped that he would receive something like a spell or armament or a tool for his efforts. "At least, the contribution points and reputation points could have been more," thought Shadow greedily. Luciophel transported them both out of the secret chamber back to the room with Kade. "I apologize for the secrecy. I had to make sure that your apprentice wasn''t possessed or that the thing he brought wasn''t dangerous," said Luciophel. "What did he actually do that requires you to be that worried," said Kade. Even though Kade was a master forger and part of the forging association, it wasn''t that he only knew forging. He was a sure to be powerful, else he wouldn''t be able to handle strong materials and become a master forger. So, it was confusing for him to see that a low-level adventurer that was his apprentice could have something that Luciophel would be wary of. "It is nothing dangerous. Just something that wasn''t seen for a long time," said Luciophel as brought out the demon''s skull. Kade gasped as he had a look at it. "Is it what I think it is?" asked Kade as he moved closer to inspect it. "The demon from whom he got it was a minor demon, but it called itself Barakdoros," explained Luciophel. "Barakdoros?! Are you sure?" asked Kade looking at Luciophel inquiringly and then looked at his apprentice. "But there is hardly any demonic energy. Isn''t one of these supposed to be covered in thick black energy shield?" "We think that he might have been after something which needs to be kept a secret for now. It is could have become very weak after so many battles. Barakdoros was someone hunted by both men and demons alike," said Luciophel. "But that is beside the point. You have seen the skull. It is made of a strong material. Can you work with it? The lack of the demonic energy should make it easier, doesn''t it?" asked Luciophel. "Yes, sure. I am just worried it might be a trap and the energy might spill out during the process," said Kade looking at the skull like it was his own son. "It usually requires a grandmaster to handle the energy, but without it I can surely make something useful of it." "You don''t need to worry about the energy. I will make preparations for such an event. The closest grandmaster forger is Seven Swords Empire and I don''t want to them know of it," said Luciophel. "Naturally, we can''t let such a treasure out of the kingdom," said Kade. It was an obvious thing for both of them. Such a material would be very useful in creating a very strong artifact. He was looking at the skull in amazement but slowly his expression turned around like he saw sad. "But there is one problem," he added. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 135 - Lorken "What is it?" asked Luciophel. He wanted to make use of the skull and was quite willing to provide a lot for it. "The lack of the demonic energy would make a physically tough structure that would be hard for us to break, but it has no inscriptions on it and I believe it wont be able to conduct mana efficiently. So, it will not have any strong magical effects," explained Kade. "Any magical effects that we want must by added to through use of supplementary materials of high grade." "Oh!" said Luciophel clearly disappointed by the words of forging master Kade. "I am sorry. It is a lucky thing that we have such a sturdy bone from a minor demon, but it can''t be used to produce any overly strong armament. Tough exterior and low magical conductivity. It would be considered a waste material by most master forgers. If not for its origins, I would have made it into a tier 2 armament at the most," said Kade. Most of the higher officials and NPCs in a kingdom are tier 3 NPCs at the very least. So, a tier 2 armament is one meant for captains in the capital and isn''t considered to by much valuable by the two NPCs discussing it. "I am sorry," said Kade handing it back to Luciophel. "True," said Luciophel nodding his head. "We can''t expect something a minor demon to be made of something that powerful. We should be glad that it at least managed to give us this. I was just disillusioned on seeing the skull." "It could still be experimented on," said Kade trying to comfort Luciophel. "It is an unexpected harvest, and most would be amazed to see it. We hold add it to the auction of the major powers. Many grandmasters forgers would be willing to experiment on the material and try to understand it better." "That is a wise suggestion, Master Kade. I knew that I could count on you," said Luciophel. "This is the best option. The sale is bound to provide a lot of gold and would be a lot more useful." "It is nothing," said Kade. "We probably need a plausible story for it, too. Most wouldn''t believe that it came from a minor demon. Something, like finding it in an old run-down fort or cave is more believable for the lack of demonic energy." "Yes, of course," said Luciophel. "Adventurer, I need to speak to Master Kade about something. Could you please leave us?" asked Luciophel. Though it was a request, it was obvious to Shadow that the NPC was kicking him out. "Sure, great priest. Please let me know if there is anything else that I could do for the temple," said Shadow. With Kade introducing him as his apprentice, he hoped that the temple would also consider providing him forging quests from now on. "Of course, I will find you if I require your assistance. In the meantime, you can consult captain Lorken. He can help you with anything you want," said Luciophel gesturing him to the teleportation array. As he stepped on it, he was sent to the main hall of the temple. "Captain Lorken, I forgot that she would be the usual liason for the members of the temple," thought Balthazar as he remembered pretty paladin who provided missions. Luciophel being the great priest would only meet higher level adventurers or NPCs. The only reason, he came into contact with Luciophel was due to the letter of introduction that he received at the Blackrock Town. He looked around for captain Lorken in the hall and one being informed that she went out of the hall with other NPCs after the sermon, he made his way out. Soon, he found the tall lady NPC wearing a bright mithril armor outside the hall, near the gates. She was talking to a few NPCs and bidding them off. She led the guards of the temple and was the highest authority in the temple branch for all matters related to quests, making appointments with the NPCs of the temple like Luciophel and she could even bar most players from entering the premises. Captain Lorken was about 7 feet tall with blonde hair that fell over her shoulders. She wore a feathered helmet, had a pair of longswords on her back and tight fitted mithril armor with a pair of small axes and a set of ten daggers hanging of her belt. She had an almost perfect body shape and couple with her tight armor and pretty face, she was one of the prettiest, hottest NPCs of the city. She was the fearsome female bell of the temple whom most players adored in his past life. There were always players who came to the temple to ogle at her. It was the same this time too. He and Rudra had already posted pictures of the temple which caused quite a number of new players who entered to city to come to the temple. He was sure that some of these players were definitely taking pictures of the paladin. "I hope that none of these guys try to talk stupidly to her," thought Balthazar. He had seen many new players try to play around with NPCs and get beaten up thoroughly. Lorken was one of the worser NPCs. She could even one hit kill level 50 players and would remain in a bad mood after one of those situations. So, he decided to talk to her first quickly before some player gets the guts to try and hit on an NPC. He ran to the paladin and greeted her. "Greetings, Captain Lorken. I am Shadow Tyrant, a member of the temple. I was told by great priest, Luciophel that you have some errand that I could run for you." "Ah! I heard one of the adventurers joined our ranks recently," she said turning to look at him. "I have a few thing that you could do," she said beckoning to follow him as she went towards the hall. She took him to a small guard post to the left of the prayer hall. She checked few things in the guard post before she came back. "I have a few requests that you could help with," she said as a list of quest appeared on his dashboard in front of him. These were all mostly gathering quests. It was similar to quests provided by the merchants in the city. There were a couple of forging quests too, but none were the kind that would provide him temple reputation or contribution points. Still, the forging quest caught his eye the most as he found the armaments that were requested to be ones of high quality, even gold and dark gold level. "Most of these forging quests, I don''t have the designs for them. Does the temple provide them by any chance?" asked Balthazar. Forging quests for forging association were something that he did in his previous life and they always provided the common designs in exchange for resources or contribution points. But he had never heard of forging quests in other organizations or groups. The most he heard of was selling them new designs in exchange for contribution points. "No, these we don''t have designs, but we have next best thing. We have equipment and weapon moulds. You need to collect the resources and make them. We will also be taking a certain amount as deposit for the mould. It wouldn''t be returned if you fail to create an armament of decent quality," explained Lorken. Hearing her explanation, he checked the quest list again and noticed that these forging quests indeed had a small deposit required to take the quest. He realized that this was mostly the system trying to get some money from the players as most forging players would sure fail to make such armaments. "Maybe the game removed these quests by the time I joined it," thought Balthazar as he realized not having seen such quests in his past life. "Do you want to take any of them?" asked the paladin again. She looked a bit annoyed which Balthazar had notice. "Probably because I am browsing them slowly without responding," he thought. "I will take a few of them," said Shadow selecting a few collection quests. He also checked a forging quest to try it out. Most of the ingredients it would require would be done during the collection quests. So, he didn''t worry much and paid 5 silvers for the mould of the dark gold equipment that he received. After that he decided to check and assign the free atrribute points that he had left pending. With the Void Dragon''s Talons equipped, he would get another pair of free attribute points for every level up. So, a total of 8 free attribute points for every level up. He had leveled up three times since he equipped his unique weapon leaving 24 free attribute points to assign. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village. Affiliated City: White Hear City (Capital) Title: Kade''s apprentice, First Citizen of White Heart City. Job: Assassin Level: 14 Exp: 2450/10000 HP: 6000/6000; MP: 2800/2800; SP: 3000/3000 Physical Attack: 184; Defense: 88; Attack Speed: 96; Movement Speed: 100; Willpower: 58 ; Balance: 63; Focus/Search: 84; Reflect Damage: 6; Magic Resist: 30; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 86, Agility 70, Endurance 50, Intelligence 50, Vitality 52, Perception 46. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 24; He put 2 points in each of the attributes consuming 12 points quickly and the remaining 12, he put 6 in agility and 6 in endurance. Endurance is essential for stamina and his techniques required him to have a high stamina and speed. So, Balthazar decided to invest a bit in these two attributes increasing his SP to 3500 and agility to 78. He quickly made his way out of the temple and contacted Rudra and Merlin. He inquired about the situation of the guild and team in the Blackrock Town. It appeared that Crimson Realm had become quite famous in the city due to the shop that they set up and also due to the fort which was made into a new hub for the players in the forest. With Foedus Rex also giving them space and defeat of Boris, it became much easier for them to gather more influence in the White Heart City. Merlin on the other hand decided to take the quests at the guard posts of the mass quest in Blackrock Town. They managed to complete the quests, but it wasn''t without significant losses. Still Quite Fire looked quite happy with the new equipment she got from those quests. Merlin wanted him to join them from the next day as he believed that with an assassin, the quests would become a bit easier. Moreover, Merlin considered him a strong asset with two unique armaments. So, adamantly requested him to join them from the next day and was quite irritated when he heard that Shadow wouldn''t be able to join them for much time the next day as he had some work in his real life. Balthazar and Robert had to go to another planet for their trial the next day. So, he informed Merlin and Rudra that he would be in some dangerous work the next and not to worry if he fails to join the game for an extended duration. He had already neglected lunch during the day and lived of the nutrient solutions that were put in his pod. He had to be ready for the trial tomorrow and couldn''t afford to be weak or tired. So, he decided to have a good meal and made way to the Ambrosia restaurant. It was past 4 p.m and close to evening. So, there weren''t many people in the restaurant allowing him to get an isolated spot. He ordered a few dishes and began to browse through the information about his trip sent to him by Winston on his wrist device. He needed to wear a combat suit to tolerate pressure of the planet and apart from that he is being given a knife, a crossbow and bunch of traps. Winston sent him a list of the various traps that could be used and list of various substances that could be used to attract or repel the beasts that would be present. Apart from that, Winston also sent him information about the non-vertebrates that could be found on the planet and the waters of the planet. A number of safety instructions were also included. Balthazar spent an hour reading it while he ate. He went back to the mansion and gathered up all the required supplies that Winston suggested along with the combat suit and the weapons he asked Elina. He also got his mail which had a new headgear which he planned to wear during his travel on the ship to the planet. Once, he had all that he wanted, he refilled the nurtrient fluids in the pod and got back into the game. It was still night-time in the game and it was the best time for him to work on the designs that he had and try to create new equipment. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 136 - Hammer and Tongs The first thing wanted to do once he logged in was to go to the auction house of the city. He needed raw material for the collection quest as well as creating equipment. So, the auction house was the best place to look for these after night. Along the way, he contacted Rudra to check to request for any refined iron ore to make the rifle crossbows. As Balthazar managed to already create his own black iron equipment, all his friends in the guild already considered him to be best forger. So, Rudra had already offered to provide him as many resources as he needed. With that in mind, he inquired about the various resources that the guild collected and apart from that the common items available in the auction house. Even if a guild didn''t require a material, they tend to keep a record of the materials found commonly in auction house in case they ended up finding a design or recipe that required it. He first went to the forging association to buy some designs. Even though he already had the design of the rifle crossbow, which he hadn''t used yet, he also wanted to check on other design that were available. He hadn''t yet visited the forging association at the city till now. As he remembered it, it had three floors, the ground had the reception area and was filled with basic forging rooms. The first floor had mostly intermediate forging rooms and 10 advanced forging rooms. The advance forging rooms were very costly and using them before one reached tier 2 would be considered a waste of money by most. It was considered sensible to used them only after upgrading to a basic forger from a forging apprentice. The players would usually have to book these beforehand as the NPCs also tend to compete with them for these rooms. The third floor had the main offices, supplies, equipment and stores of the Forging association. The offices of the vice heads and head would also be there. It was where Kade''s office would be. This was also the place where members of the association could exchange designs for contribution points. One usually needed certain permission or has to be a member of forging association to get there. With the title of Kade''s apprentice and being a member of the forging association, Shadow had the access to get to third floor. He first went to the receptions to inquire for Kade first and was informed that Kade wasn''t actually there and would only be there for a couple of hours every afternoon. After that, he went to the third floor. The third floor was pretty much the same that he had seen in the Blackrock town. It had offices of the NPCs at the very end, with materials rooms and workshops on either sides. It also had a quests board filled with requests similar to the one that he saw at the Blackrock Town, but he requests were all for higher level materials and equipment. He had a look through them and decided that he didn''t want to waste his time with those. He needed to get out of the city for them and it wasn''t much sensible to hunt for them during the night time. He went pass the workshop and reached his destination. It was the managers room. The NPC in this room would change usually depending on the time of the day. The managers usually handle all submission of quests and exchanges that the members want. Usually, there would be a total of two or three manager NPCs for every association, forging, alchemy, tailoring, engineering etc. He knocked at the door and a short 4 feet tall bespectacled NPC opened the door. He wore a tall pointed hat that reminded Balthazar of the ancient wizard movies. He recognized the NPC immediately from his past life memories. The NPC was named lithe and was a great mage who specialized in adding enchantments to armaments. This wouldn''t be known to most till "Who are you? Who allowed you here?" asked the NPC in loud shrill voice. Balthazar was surprised by the question. He was confused why an NPC would ask him that. "I am Master Kade''s apprentice. I came to you for designs," he said in doubtful manner. "You can only be here if you are a member or apprentice of a member. Wait! You are Kade''s apprentice? Where is his insignia?" asked Lithe raising his brows. "Oh! I am sorry," said Shadow as he put on the badge that was given to him by Kade. "Ya, wear that before you move around the place. Without that or a member badge, how am I to know who you are?" questioned Lithe angrily as he gestured Shadow to get in. He went back to his desk and placed his hands on a transparent globe. The globe was a method of transferring information and to store data in the game. It is used by most organizations to keep track of members and their data. "200 contribution points, huh. Good. You can check what you want from that table," said Lithe pointing to a desk. It was a setup similar to the one in the Blackrock town filled with designs. He could browse through them and buy using contribution points. There was quite a large assortment available there allowing one to purchase designs for even level 100 armaments. Shadow had seen quite a few of them before. Even some of the popular set equipment were also available for purchase. The only problem was that they were ridiculously costly. He focused on equipment around level 15 and could be made using the resources that were available. He also checked for armaments that could probably be mixed to produce new ones. He bought the design for a level 15, one-handed two headed axe and a clawed buckler. These were items that would be commonly used by many players and would have quite a large demand. Buckler and one-handed axe though not popular a new kind of weapon will attract quite a bit of attention if someone manages to show how useful it could be. Swords require a lot of finesse and training to be effective. The best way to injure using one-handed swords was to stab rather than hack which is harder for most players new to the game. As one-handed swords are light, a hack doesn''t have much force behind it. Most players tend to move their swords in a hacking motion as it helps them cover more area and it gets easier to attack monsters. So, a majority of players using one-handed swords don''t deal much damage. To them, an axe is the best way to compensate. An axe having its blade to the sides and a heavy head deals most damage in hacking actions compared to swords. Apart from that an axe requires much less refined metal and would cost less. Most tanks who focus most of their effort on blocking and wildly hack away in retaliation would prefer axes to one-handed swords. The biggest reason that most tanks chose an axe was because they don''t lose their durability as fast as as sword. When a sword is used to block the edge would be dulled, but an axe is largely thick except for the edges, and the durability wears off slower as mostly the thick part would be used to block. These effects are much more pronounced in vita-nova and would soon be realized by the players. Quite a number of them already know it. All guilds and teams equip their tanks with the most equipment as they play a very crucial role for dungeons. So, Balthazar chose an axe which is easy to make and would have a decent demand. Bucklers are basically small shields, but these are useful in both attacking as well as defending. As small shield allows the players to move it much easier in fights. Bucklers aren''t meant for tanks but quick moving occupations. This is one of the most common choice for players who choose a light-footed occupation like assassin or swordsman, but slowly find that they need a better way to block. Though a shield, clawed bucklers, blade rimmed bucklers and the like would become one of the most favoured close combat weapons. Even as a secondary weapon, they would become quite famous. [Barbarian axe] (Black Iron One-handed axe) Level 15; Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Simple wood log (small) x 1; Requirement: Strength: 35; Agility: 20; Attack power +25; Special effect: 5% to cause a bleed effect of 20 HP per sec. Durability: 30/30; [Clawed Buckler] (Black Iron Shield) Level 15; Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Iron Ore x 2; Requirement: Strength x 25; Vitality x 15; Endurance +10; Defence +15; Attack Power +10; Special effect: Induces a stun effect for 1 second on a perfect stab. Durability: 30/30; Though both of them were hard ones to make, Balthazar was confident that he could create them without much difficulty and that he would not have much issue with either of them. He also didn''t care much about the weapons not being that frequently used as he was sure that he could convince at least Rudra to have some of the guild members try them out once he explained it. With the designs in hand, he contacted Rudra who had already sent the materials required with another forging apprentice of the guild. The forging apprentice he had sent was a well-known player in other games. His alias was always Hammer and Tongs and had been asking Rudra to make him the guild head forger. He had the reputation for being a well accomplished forger in the other games and had been the head forger of a first-rate guild called Valkyrie Brigade in the game War God''s Tempest. He was always forging and kept asking for more materials. He had only joined them as they offered more materials than others at the Blackrock town. So, Rudra told him that he had already had one forger who already created equipment and thus wanted to make Shadow, the head forger of the guild, at least for now. Unconvinced that the Shadow who was well known to be an ace fighter to also be an accomplished forger, Hammer had requested Rudra to meet him. Rudra also didn''t want to lose a capable forger player. So, he had sent him to Shadow with the materials. Shadow used his disguise skill and met with Hammer and Tongs at the receptionist. Hammer was a plump man with well-defined arm muscles, and he wore a pair of goggles. Balthazar also recognized Hammer and sent a friend request. Hammer was a one of the Master Forger players in his past life and was quite well-known. Hammer wanted to check Shadows skills. He realized quite some time ago that without sufficient real-life skills, it would hard to be a successful forger. So, he immediately requested him if he could observe. "You want to look at my forging?" asked Shadow confused. "I haven''t done anything that outstanding in forging yet nor was there any system announcement. Why does he want to check me out?" thought Balthazar. "Give me a minute," said Shadow as he contacted Rudra about it. He soon came to know of Rudra''s dilemma. "Can you let him look at you. He is a very capable player and wants to know why you are being the head forger. It would be for the best, if you manage to convince him. He is the best in our employ after you and probably would lead forging division in your absence," requested Rudra. "Fine, I will try my best. I think it is best if you make him the head forger though. I wouldn''t be available for most of the time and giving me that position is not really effective," said Balthazar. "Fine either way, but I want to reduce his consumption a bit. He is forging a lot of equipment just to increase his forging proficiency. I hope you can calm him down a little," said Rudra. "I get your point. Bye," said Balthazar cutting off the call. "You can watch me work. Come along," said Shadow as he went towards the receptionist. "One intermediate forging room please," he requested the NPC and took a token for six hours after paying her the amount. He wanted to increase his experience as much as possible as he wouldn''t be able to join the game for a day. His purchase caused a small commotion among the players, most of whom went around calling him a rich kid who came to waste money. Even Hammer and Tongs didn''t use an intermediate forging room as it cost ten times the basic room. So, he was also surprised that Shadow would take an intermediate forging room. But hammer still kept his calm and followed Shadow without saying anything. They soon reached the first floor and got into an intermediate forging room. "You have been in an intermediate forging room before?" asked Shadow noticing that Hammer was looking at the various equipment present in the room. "No. This is my first time," said Hammer. "Ok. Let me introduce you to the basics. You can see the various lathe modules, forging tools, etc," said Shadow pointing to them. "Allows us to carve most materials to the required shapes for weapons and materials for tools." "You can have a look at it yourself. Maybe try to use them to make the Antelope Horn spear?" suggested Shadow. "But these aren''t the best part. The forge is much more advanced. It has a temperature gauge. The Mystic fire at the room allows us a finer control of the metal and its temperature." "Lastly, a magic stylus. It allows us to create magic pathways and carve runes which are seen in some rare equipment," said Shadow pointing at it. "Only used it for one equipment. I think it might be more frequently used at higher levels." "These would be very important for tier 1 equipment onwards. It is best if I introduce them to him," thought Balthazar. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 137 - Hammer and Tongs - II With the introduction done, Shadow decided to work on the buckler first. The buckler was a clawed buckler which made it much harder to make as it a combination of a weapon and a shield. It needed to be both defensive and sharp edges to be used for attacks. He first started the mystic fire. It was also a tier 1 mystic fire but not the blue glitter fire that he had at the Blackrock Town. It was grey in color and had a silvery white streaks flowing through it. It was named Nightlight fire as most couldn''t even see it in the darkness of night except for the white streaks which made it look like a beautiful bed light. [Nightlight fire] (Tier 1 Mystic fire) A weird fire that can provide high temperatures as well as cool the materials based on the will of its wielder. The temperature control makes it an ideal fire for forging and alchemy professions. "Nightlight fire. It is very useful in forging. It can heat or cool down materials. One doesn''t need separate quenching utilities if one has this fire. But it isn''t best option for creating equipment with mana using skills. There are better ones available. Suggest you to go to the Blaackrock Town for that purpose. The fire there improves magic conductance of the equipment," explained Shadow as he played with the fire. "You can increase and decrease the temperature by adjusting the flames with these knobs as you check gauge of the forge," he said pointing to the temperature gauge while he moved other knobs on the forge which allowed him to manipulate the fire. "Trying out a new kind of equipment. It is a combination of shield and claw. Frankly speaking it mostly a claw with a large disk protecting it," said Shadow as he went through the design of the clawed buckler. He took three refined iron ores and began to melt it in the forge as he set to making of the casts. He required just to make three strips of metals. Two of them were to be made into the two blades of the claw while the third was to be made into the handle which holds the blades and the buckler. Two thirds of the molten metal was used for the blade strip and the remaining for forming the handle. He took the pair of blade strips and heated them to make them soft and began to beat them into shape with his basic forging hammer. Hammer also found a similar forging hammer from a quest. "He also has a forging hammer? I thought not many would be able to get them," he thought. Once, the strips formed the proper shape of a blade, he started with the handle. The middle of the handle strip was to be made a bit cylindrical so that it would be easier to hold. The remaining part was beat into flat ribbon shape. The ends were to be folded and attacked to the shield. He took the two iron ores and softened them down for the shield. The buckler shield was mostly a thick clump of metal and it didn''t need to be refined metal as it is mostly used for block. The softened pieces were joined beaten into the shape of an oddly shaped shield. It was like an egg shape. He cut a small portion of the thicker part of the shield and used it to weld the handle that he had previously made. At the end it formed a teardrop like structure with a handle an opening to attach the blades. He followed up with attaching the blades and then began to sharpen the blades and the edges of the shield with a sharpening machine. This entire process took him less than ten minutes in game. Hammer who was observing all this from the side was surprised at the speed at which he made the entire equipment. The ease with which Shadow had worked the metal and his movements and control of the forge had him astounded. Even the sharpening which was a very dangerous operation as an imprecise or inaccurate movement would ruin the blade had been done with calm and quick movements. "It is like he had worked on the damn thing for years," thought Hammer. "Are you a smith in your real-life?" he asked unable to contain his doubts. "No. But I have experience in making and maintaining weapons," answered Balthazar. He had maintained his daggers and armor for about two years in his real-life as an assassin. It was one of the reasons, he was able to grasp the forging techniques with relative ease compared to others in his past life. "Oh!," said Hammer as he pondered over it. "Are you a mercenary?" "Militia," replied Balthazar. Hearing that Hammer decided to keep the rest of his questions to himself. He knew that men of the armed forces couldn''t reveal much about their life. If he persisted, he would probably bring unnecessary trouble to himself, especially when the men were a very capable fighter along with being capable of maintaining and making bladed weapons. He understood that such skills would usually be only learned by special forces who would be trained to make blades and the like to protect themselves. Once, the buckler was done, he put it up for inspection. A couple of seconds later, a notification sounded out. System: You have successfully created a Clawed buckler. "+350 experience points, +4 forging proficiency" "The experience is not bad, but still need about 250 for upgrading to intermediate forging apprentice," he muttered aloud to himself. He had 244 forging proficiency and for one to become an intermediate forging apprentice, he required at least 500 forging proficiency. "Have about 2 months to complete Kade''s quest. Still have a lot of time," he thought comforting himself. On the other hand, Hammer who was heard him was shocked. "This man already has close to 250 forging points! How did get it in two days!" he thought. "No wonder, the guild leader chose him for the position of head forger." Shadow picked up the buckler and checked its attributes. "Not bad. It is a satisfactory product," said Shadow and gave it to hammer. "What do you think of it?" asked Shadow. "It has very good attributes, but I am not sure if it would be popular," said Hammer as he took the buckler and equipped it. He waved it around for a few moments. "It is too light for tanks and it doesn''t provide much defense either." "Yes. It is not meant for tanks," replied Shadow. "Consider it as a secondary weapon for mages. Good for blocking and attacking. Is it not?" "Hmm. That is true. But most players aren''t yet focused on secondary weapons," replied Hammer. "Yeah. Give it time. They will understand the need for it by the time, they attempt to kill level 15 monsters," said Shadow. "It would also be quite useful for close combat classes like assassins, swordsman when they find the need to block" "You have attempted to kill level 15 monsters already?!" asked Hammer surprised. Most were still concentrating on the Bungar''s keep normal mode which still didn''t have level 15 monsters. "It makes sense. Else, how could he have a level 15 design," thought Hammer. He didn''t know about the option of buying designs from the Forging association. "Yes. I did manage to kill," said Shadow. "I heard that you wanted to become the head forger in the guild?" asked Shadow suddenly coming to the point. "I thought of it previously, but not sure right now," said Hammer. He had previously thought that he deserved that position because he was the best option that the guild had, but now he didn''t think so. He was a shameless character that he wouldn''t agree that he wasn''t as skilled as Shadow for now. "You don''t want to be the head forger? Why the sudden disinterest?" asked Shadow. "I can''t compete with you right now, but I will become better than you soon," said Hammer in an irritated voice. He felt that Shadow was humiliating him unnecessarily and decided to walk out of the room. "What are you talking about. I can''t be the head forger," said Shadow. His words caused Hammer to stop. Hammer wasn''t sure what Shadow was talking about. He was partly angry and partly confused. "I don''t understand. You are obviously quite capable and have higher proficiency than me. So, explain," said Hammer in a strained tone. "I asked Crimson Power to send you here to evaluate you. I am the boss of the guild. So, I wanted to check if my head forger was capable," said Shadow. Though he didn''t know if Hammer being in the guild until a few minutes ago, he decided to lie in order to tie Hammer to the guild. "You are the boss?! Isn''t Crimson Power the guild leader?" asked Hammer. "He is the guild leader, but he is my employee. You can confirm it with him," said Shadow. A few moments later Hammer''s expression changed as he learned that Shadow was really the boss of the guild. "Why can''t you be the head forger? Even if you are the boss, what is stopping you from being the head forger of the guild?" asked Hammer. "The same thing that is stopping me from being the guild leader. I have a job that wouldn''t allow me to spend much time in the game," said Shadow calmly. "Oh!" said Hammer as he remembered about their conversation where Shadow told him that he works in the military. "So, I guess you are interested?" asked Shadow. "Yes." "Good. Let me test you. Can you make the Antelope horn spear?" asked Shadow. "Yes." "Well, I will evaluate you on that, then," said Shadow walking away from the forge and indicating Hammer to start working on it. Hammer immediately pulled out the materials from his bag and started working on it. As he started using the forge, he realized how easy it was to handle ore with the Mystic Fire. "Now, I understand why the intermediate forging room was so expensive," thought Hammer. Shadow took an antelope horn in the meantime and began to process it in the lathe machine. He made it into the proper shape and handed it over to Hammer by the time, he was done with the handle. Most players hated it when multiple players worked on different parts of a weapon simultaneously as one''s work might disturb the other. Most don''t even let the others work in the same forging room as it might affect their concentration. Balthazar wasn''t one of them, he had worked as an engineer too and believed that working together can help make items much faster. "Thanks. So, you were the one who created the antelope horn spear, right?" asked Hammer as he took the processed horn from Shadow. "Yes. I want to try and develop a few more," said Shadow. "I discovered an easy way to create new original equipment. I can help you make one if you want." Hammer almost lost his concentration and screwed up the attachment of the head of the spear to the pole. "Is making a new original equipment that easy? Even if you wanted to brag, you could have waited for some time and not while I was working on equipment," thought Hammer in irritation as his concentration was broken. Shadow also noticed that Hammer''s situation and didn''t continue. Hammer also didn''t respond any further and waited till he finished making the spear. He checked the product and put it up for system inspection which reported a successful creation of the spear. "I hope this is up to your satisfaction," said Hammer handing over the spear to Shadow. "You told something about making original equipment?" he asked Shadow. "Yes. I know a trick to make new original equipment. I teach you but only after we have decided on the matter of head forger," said Shadow as he took out a contract for the head forger of the guild. "Take a look at it, we can discuss anything that you want," said Shadow. Hammer was a bit surprised that Shadow proposed a contract at this time. He expected this to be done by Crimson Power. But he still took it to read it over. It stipulated his salary to be at least 10% of the amount for which his creations would be sold. That was fine as it was a new game with different criteria and one couldn''t easily decide a fixed income at present. The other parts were also the common things that most guilds asked like keeping their secrets and so on until he came to part about the duration. "A period of five years?" he asked looking at Shadow. "Are you kidding?" Shadow knew that he might have an issue with it. At the early stages of the game, neither guilds nor players would be willing to sign contracts for such long times as they don''t know how capable the other party is. But Balthazar knew that later, the successful forgers would ask for longer durations. "Yes. Moreover, the contract is with me personally, not the guild. If I am unable to contact you for a month, you can assume the contract nullified. I added that as a clause," said Shadow pointing to a clause in the contract. "I will employ you as head forger of the guild and you will work under Crimson Power," said Shadow. "You will have no lack of resource compared to any first rate guild. You can move around and explore the game world. I will place no restriction on that but will suggest you take some protection with you if you want to do that and not go to highly dangerous quests. I will leave those considerations to Crimson Power and if you feel that he is not being rational you can always contact me. That is why the remuneration is based on the amount your creations would be sold for," he elaborated. "This is completely different from my contract in the previous game. Why all these changes?" asked Hammer. Most guilds wouldn''t give free reign and option to move around. They wouldn''t allow them to get out of the contract if they are unable to communicate for a month either. "This game is different compared to the other by a number of different things. That is why, I had to make such a contract. As you can see, I didn''t add any clause that would be unfair to you. I doubt you can get a better one than this," said Shadow. Balthazar was quite confident of it as most guilds would probably only recruit for a small duration and the only thing in common with this contract would be remuneration based on the amount for which the items would be sold. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 138 - Easy way to make original equipment. Despite the contract being favorable to him in any reason, Hammer was still not convinced. He was a college student who was a law student and from his experience and studies, if anything was too good to believe, it probably wasn''t. So, he was still uncertain about it. The only thing, he could see was that Shadow could fire him at any time, if his work was unsatisfactory. But that was an extremely common thing. "Still not satisfied?" asked Shadow. "I am only offering this to you as you seem like a good kid who has a decent character and my own personal problems due to which I wouldn''t be able to spend much time in the game." "How about I add another thing into the contract for you?" said Shadow as he took the contract and wrote something new in it and passed it over. "I can void the contract if you can''t create a new original equipment in half hour after me signing it?" said Hammer as he looked at what Shadow wrote. "And you will personally help me create my own original weapon design? Are you for real?" "If I wasn''t confident enough, I wouldn''t put it in the contract with my name signed down there. would I?" answered Shadow pointing at his agreement to the contract at the bottom of it. It was then that Hammer noticed that Shadow had already stamped in his agreement to the contract. "If not anything else, at least the original equipment would be worth a lot of money," thought Hammer. "Just selling the designs would be me an advantage over any others," he thought as he accepted the contract. "Well, now that you have signed that we can proceed further," said Shadow as he forwarded the contract to Rudra and took out a pair of iron ores and a pair of refined iron ore. He started with making the buckler shield again from the iron ores. He made it into the exact same shape as before. Following that he took a pair of antelope horns from Hammer and used a machine to remove the ridges off it. He then sharpened the tip of the horns to a sharp edge and top half of the horn was also tapered to create sharp edges on two sides of the top half. The bottom half was left as it was and even the ridges of the horns weren''t removed. Even in making the dagger or spearhead, he left only enough space for one''s hand, but this time he left about double the amount unprocessed on each horn. Then, he took the refined ore and melted it. He coated the horns with the metal and then put them aside. "You understand what I am trying to do righ?" he asked looking at Hamacmer. "You are just changing the material used for the claws of the buckler. Would that really end up being an original equipment?" asked Hammer. "Of course. When you change the materials, the attributes and properties would also change. It will definitely lead to a new original which you be allowed to make as many designs as you want," said Shadow. "Take the Antelope horn spear. I made it from merging a halberd design and a dagger. It ended up as a new spear. We just need to make that they are fused properly and not have any defects. If you observe the materials, you will notice that the antelope horns provide more durability and are better at blocking than iron blades," he continued as took the coated horns and began to buff their edges. "You can do this beforehand for horns but not metal blades. When we attach the blades, the heat from welding will blunt the edges, but horns are insulator materials and in the small time used to weld it will have a minimalistic to no effect on the edges," said Shadow. Once, satisfied with the sharpness, he took some of the remaining melted refined iron ore to create a handle like he did before and after that joined them all. Checking that pieces were all thoroughly welded and joined, he put up for inspection. "Make sure that all parts are properly welded. Else, the system will fail the inspection," added Shadow as a notification sounded out indicating a new original equipment. [_________________](BlackIron shield) Level 15; Requirement: Strength x 25; Vitality x 20; Endurance +10; Defence +20; Attack Power +12; Special effect: Induces a stun effect for 1 second on a perfect stab. Durability: 35/35; "+ 350 experience points; +4 Forging proficiency;" System: Congratulations on creating an entirely new piece of equipment in vita-nova. Obtained an additional 1000 experience points. The crimson blade stamp will be imprinted on it. Please name it. The crimson blade stamp was also imprinted at the centre of the shield. The mark along with the shape of the shield made it look a bit a barbaric, but Balthazar was sure that the design would still appeal to a lot of players. "Wow, the stats are better than that of the original," said Shadow looking at the statistics of the new buckler. "Maybe the horns have a shock absorbing effect." "Any suggestions for the name?" he asked Hammer. "Antelope horn buckler seems a bit too common and someone might recognize the similarities." "With that print, most would start to think that this is probably an original equipment if you sell it. I doubt the naming would make much of a difference," said Hammer as he looked at the buckler. "You shouldn''t have marked it." "I didn''t. Your personal creations would get marked by the system automatically," said Shadow. "You will be asked to choose a personal mark to distinguish your creations from the one''s in the system. It wouldn''t appear on the ones created by others. Now, please suggest a name." "How about a simple Horned buckler. It is similar to the name ''Clawed Buckler'' and wouldn''t draw much attention to the fact about the materials used, unless someone has the clawed buckler design. At that time, a capable player would recognize it, even if we don''t do anything. But most of such capable forgers have the common sense to keep their ideas to themselves. At the most, we will he helping an isolated competitor," said Hammer. "He has a valid argument and I knew that with my works, someone would sooner or later realize it," thought Balthazar. "Then, Horned Buckler, it is," said Shadow as he decided on that name. He put it down for his new shield design and it was immediately registered by the system. "So, you want to try and create a new original equipment too?" Shadow asked Hammer. "I would definitely want to try," said Hammer enthusiastically. If he didn''t think of making an original equipment after watching the creation of a new one, it would be a black mark on his pride as an exception forger player. "Well. It is best to try and combine equipment you already have made. However, hard you try, I doubt that any original equipment you create could always be considered as combination of two or more equipment already designed by the system," said Shadow. "So, it is best to simple merge a couple or more of the equipments that you already made. You can introduce new materials, but you better have a good understanding of them before you try. Else, you would just end up wasting them." Shadow''s words were extremely weird to Hammer. As a player who played as a forger in War God''s Tempest when he was in school, Hammer had experimented with multiple materials to create new stuff, but never in the way that Shadow suggested. Most forgers understood the materials through multiple experiments and then worked on new equipment, but Shadow had a much simpler suggestion that was to use material that he had already worked on as it would provide him a moderate understanding of them. It was a reasonable suggestion, but most players believed that it would only result in sub-par equipment. Shadow also guessed Hammer''s thoughts based on his expression. "You think that it will only lead to inferior products, don''t you?" he asked Hammer to which Hammer simply nodded in agreement. "I am not asking you to always do it that way. I am suggesting you acquaint yourself to them in this manner, but it might not always lead to inferior products. The horned buckler is actually better than the original. Just try out the first attempt in the way I suggested. If you feel that it is not good, just don''t make more of them. You can just abandon that armament," said Shadow. "But you can''t deny that a new original equipment would increase your proficiency and your original equipment has a higher chance of success in your hands." "My original equipment would have a higher chance of success, if I create it?" asked Hammer. "Of course, just try it out. List out the equipments that you have already done," said Shadow. Hammer sent him a list of 17 names. Balthazar was surprised on looking at the list. Even though, he had previous memories and knowledge, he didn''t manage to make more than 10. "Being a completely secondary profession player, this amount is a reasonable thing," thought Balthazar. "Do you not attempt normal quest and spend most of the time forging?" asked Shadow. "Of course, my specialty is forging. Why would waste time on the other trivial things," said Hammer immediately in a proud manner. But he realized that Shadow was in fact a person who did both at the same time and thought that his words might be perceived as an insult. "That is true, but this game offers a lot more. Try it out some time. I am sure that you would enjoy it," said Shadow as he went through the equipment list. Most of them were armor and they had similar materials used in them. "Combining wouldn''t bring much of an effect, but it could be done," thought Balthazar. "You have a dagger and glove armor that you could probably combine to form a clawed glove or you can make a glaive by combining the sword and spear designs," said Shadow as he went through the others. "I personally wouldn''t prefer gloves. They are a special kind of armor with moving parts. So, mostly it will metal plates attached to leather. Attaching a pair of blades to it isn''t the best option. You can try to create a simple claw, if you want," he further suggested. "Hmm. I will try them out. I had the same ideas when I saw you make the horned buckler," said Hammer agreeing with Shadow''s idea. "I was concentrating on creating a new shield since I heard that you already have made an original equipment. Now, I am getting better ideas to merge the materials. Can I also have buckler design to work with?" he asked Shadow. "Sure," said Shadow as he quickly sat on the table and wrote down the design for the Horned buckler giving it to Hammer and Tongs. Hammer took with glee and immediately learned it. "I am sure that I will be able to create a few original equipment. I will inform you and give you the details as soon as they are done," he said. At the moment, he was very glad that he accepted Shadow''s contract. "With a better start in the game, I will surely earn more money and reputation," he thought in delight at the sudden gifts that landed in his hands. "Cool, get an intermediate workshop and start working. Crimson Power will provide you with the coins and the materials you need. Just need you to work with him and create new products," said Shadow sending Hammer off the room. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 139 - First Bronze Original equipment. "I best start with the axe now," thought Balthazar as he pulled out a log and used the lathe machine to make the handle of the axe. The handle needed to be in proper shape with the appropriate thickness. Else, it would end up being a lower quality work. Shaping materials using lathe always took more time than beating metal into shape as it didn''t require the finesse. If one accidentally makes a wrong shape, he could melt it again and try, but the same wouldn''t be valid for materials like wood and horns. If one accidentally shaves of more than required, it will end up being an inferior product. So, most players took a lot of time with it and wouldn''t be able to do it faster without a lot of experience. Balthazar truly had an advantage in this area due to his reincarnation. He hardly took 5 minutes to complete the handle and went ahead to create the head of the axe. He softened the refined iron ore and started to pound it into the shape. Unlike swords which are usually made from casts, the axe head were treated differently. It isn''t that they could also make casts for the axes. It was just that this process would allow one to make the axe head faster. Making casts always took time that and he would still need to hammer it afterwards to force out impurities and make a better-quality weapon. And even with the use of casts, one needed to pour the metal uniformly before it cools down so that no gaps of air end up inside the cooled down metal. So, even swords made from casts would always be hammered to get rid of any potential air gaps and other things before sharpening the edges to form the blade. With his forging hammer and the other tools available, Shadow managed to make the bring about the basic shape of the head under a couple of minutes. In a basic forging room, he would need a lot more time to do this. All that was needed, was to make a hole for the handle. He took the head to an anvil and made a hole with the use of a nail. After that he continued to thin the parts of axe which required it, by hammering. Once, he was sure that the hammer head was up to the specifications in the design he cooled it down and went ahead with sharpening the crescent shaped edges of the two-headed axe. There were hammering and sharpening machines which he used for thinning the ends of the heads and sharpening the blades. He quickly put in the handle into the hole and tightened it by driving a small wooden wedge that he took from the log at the top of the axe. Then he continued with further smoothing of the handle and when he was satisfied with the axe, he had it inspected by the system producing a good axe. [Barbarian Axe] (BlackIron One-handed axe) Level 15; Requirement: Strength: 35; Agility: 20; Attack power +25; Special effect: 5% chance to cause a bleed effect of 20 HP per sec. Durability: 30/30; "+350 experience points, +4 forging proficiency" "Now to try out what I had in mind," said Balthazar talking to himself. He had only bought the Barbarian Axe as he wanted to check out the method for making the head. He had already planned to improve upon this axe to create a Bronze weapon. He was nearing level 15. At this stage most players exploring new areas were already on the lookout for Secret Silver equipment. Though the number of such equipment were low, it didn''t stop most of the well-known guilds and teams. The players were already able to find a Black Iron grade equipment designs with relative ease and most guilds were focusing their searches on Bronze armaments. He already had a pair of original designs for BlackIron equipment which he could flood the guild players with and also make a decent profit from others. The only considerably good thing that he could see in this situation was that the designs and equipment would get increasing harder to procure form level 15 onward. So, it was a good chance for Crimson Realm because of it. He already had a BlackIron level 15 original equipment which he could allow most of the trusted guild forgers to learn. Still that wasn''t enough. At this stage, bronze equipment would be the most needed to get an advantage over others. So, he took the axe design to improve it to be a bronze equipment. Moreover, a bronze weapon would allow the players to be able to kill monsters faster and get more resources and possibly designs. His plan was to change the handle of the barbarian axe to a slightly longer metal rod instead of wood. A metal handle would increase the defence and durability of the weapon along with the attack power. He knew that from his previous experiences and also tried it out already with antelope spear. With his experience, he knew that it would cause more vibrations if he used a metal handle and that would increase the strength requirement a bit, but that was common for all bronze equipment. One couldn''t get better stats weapons without fulfilling better requirement. There was no way past it. He quickly took out a pair of refined iron ore to make the new handle. He melted them out and made a handle about two and a half feet long. He intentionally made it a bit thicker compared to the poles of the spears as he was concerned that the heavy axe head would require a thicker handle, else it might end up with an inferior product. He also made it a bit thicker at the bottom end so that it would be easy for the players to hold. With the stamina bar up, things would become much more real and players would feel the weight of the armaments. So, with weapons like axes with heavy heads, they might slip out when swinging it. For a forger, it is essential that players using it should be able to use it effective. Otherwise it wouldn''t be sold. So, he had made it thicker at the bottom. He made the axe head in the same way as he did before, but before sharpening the blades, he welded the handle to the centre of the axe head. With a handle made of refined iron ore, he couldn''t use the same method that he did for the barbarian axe. Once the handle was welded firmly, he continued with the rest of the job sharpening the crescent shaped cutting edges of the axe on a machine. With that done, he went ahead and put it up for inspection. [________________] (Bronze One-handed axe) Level 15; Requirement: Strength: 40; Agility: 20; Attack power +40; Special effect: 10% chance to cause a bleed effect of 20 HP per sec or cripple the opponent for a couple of seconds. Durability: 40/40; "+ 450 experience points; +4 Forging proficiency;" System: Congratulations on creating the first new piece of bronze equipment in vita-nova. Obtained an additional 2000 experience points. The crimson blade stamp will be imprinted on it. Please name it. "Huh, thank god," thought Balthazar as he looked at the specs of the hammer. With the increase in weight of the handle, he was very afraid that it might end up being a two-handed weapon. With that it would no longer be a bronze equipment but a black-iron one again. The crimson blade imprint was set at the base of the handle which hardly anyone could see, but that wasn''t much of an issue for Shadow. He had already thought of keeping the axes that he created within the guild and that place where it is hardly visible is the best spot that he could ask for. "Let me name this as an Iron axe. Completely made of iron one, it is not a bad name. It is easier than finding any other name," thought Balthazar and typed it in. He didn''t care for the name. As long as it is useful, it will surely be bought and that is all that he cared about. "With this, I just need another black iron original equipment and proficiency to become an intermediate forging apprentice. Proficiency is easy. I just need to think of third black-iron equipment," he thought. "But first let me try to reach level 15," he thought as he had to make up for not being in the game the next day. He checked the time and found that he had spent a bit more than an hour. He had spent about an hour total trying to make the four pieces of equipment. It was clear that the rate at which he was making them is not enough for him to hit level 15 by the end of the time which he thought to log out and prepare for the next day''s excursion. "Let me just get as much experience as I can. I can worry about the other things later. With the headgear that I received today, I can still attempt the dungeon during the travel," thought Balthazar as he continued with making the new equipment for the remaining five hours that he had. After that he exited the forging association, he made a bunch of forging designs of the new axe and buckler and decided to meet Rudra. He contacted Rudra and found out that Hammer had already been out of the forging room an hour ago. He had created a few original equipment. "There is level 15 black iron shield and he told that he was able to create its designs. He also had a claw and a glaive weapons made, both black iron and lower level. I have already put up a few in the shop. What happened between you two, that he suddenly managed to create all this?" asked Rudra clearly excited by the advancement. "It is nothing. He was a good forger player. It is a good than that he is the head forger," said Shadow. "Yes. It is good. Now that he could also create original equipment, it will be a lot easier for the shop. With you being unable to spend your time here, it would have been really hard if you were made head forger," said Rudra. "Yes, can deny that," said Shadow in a slightly sad and sarcastic voice. He also enjoyed playing the game a lot, but he had responsibilities that he couldn''t shirk away, else it would probably result in his death or that of his family. "So, why did you call?" asked Rudra. "I have made a few new equipment and I have new designs," said Balthazar. "Great more designs, it is a good thing that we have more designs but there is already talk going on that the guild is monopolizing a secret resource for the designs. Some guilds have already contacted me for it," said Rudra. "Tell them that we will sell the designs in auctions if they want and that I can''t give out the detail due to system restrictions," said Shadow. "I already had discussions with them about selling the designs. Else, they wouldn''t have calmed down. Auctioning them tomorrow, so that they could collect money," said Rudra. "Ok. You can add the black iron design that I will give you to the auction, if you want, but keep the bronze design with you. Give one to Hammer and Tongs and maybe some you know well and are close to. Don''t let this out right now. It would be quite useful at level 15. Best keep it among our members tell that, we only found two or three of these designs. The guilds wouldn''t make much of a fuss with that excuse. It is quite reasonable," said Shadow. "You made a bronze original equipment?" asked Rudra in surprise as he heard Shadow. "Yes," said Shadow agreeing to him as he sent a picture of the stats of the new axe that he created. "Ok. I will keep this among us, but later we might need to sell the weapon if not the design," said Rudra. "That will be fine. We can''t avoid that," said Shadow. "So, you are coming now? I am at the engineering association," said Rudra. "I was hoping you were there," said Shadow. He wanted to see how the guild was faring and also wanted to know if Rudra and others managed to get any new engineering designs. He also wanted to create the rifle crossbow. It would take a lot of effort, but it would be quite useful. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 140 - Contact from Walter "I don''t have time to work on the Rifle crossbow," thought Balthazar as he made his way to the engineering association. "It is best if I make some suggestions and log out. It is best if I still contact Winston and ask him of his experience. I don''t believe that he will deny me that information," thought Balthazar. Rudra was already waiting for him at the reception of the engineering association. The reception had quite a lower number of players compared to forging association. Balthazar expected it as he had always known that engineering which required knowledge in multiple secondary professions is harder than others and had much less players interest or good at it. Though the creations of engineers had a lot of uses, it wasn''t an easy occupation and was dangerous. Alchemists and Forgers don''t have to be worried of blowing up trying to make creations at lower levels, unlike engineers who could blow themselves up to death creating bombs and the like. Dynamites were the simpler explosives and thus had less power, but later it would become harder. Moreover, most engineers were requested to make explosives and blowing up in vita-nova makes one feel they have really experienced it. They occupation requires them to have a moderate amount of sensitivity to properly build tools so they can''t put their senses down completely and work. The worst part was not dying after an explosion but staying alive which cause them to feel all the burns and pain till they were healed. "Come on, let me have a look at the new designs," said Rudra as he noticed Shadow enter the ground floor of the engineering association. "You are almost drooling," said Balthazar as he passed on a bunch of designs to Rudra. "Dude, it has been quite overwhelming today. We have managed to do things that even Super guilds would find hard to do," said Rudra. "So, what other thing did you manage to do. Any new engineering tools?" asked Balthazar. "Managed to mind a few tools, but they were mostly simple ones. Scopes, caltrops, new kind of bombs, smoke bombs. They are technical weapons and not much useful against most monsters but could be used well in dungeons," said Rudra. "Caltrops, I expected," thought Balthazar. "Where did you find smoke bombs design. I doubt you got smoke bombs from the Colosseum," asked Balthazar. "Ya. We didn''t get it from the Colosseum. We have a famous engineer join the guild courtesy of Merlin. Already joined the guild as engineer, but he insisted to be left alone for his quests and didn''t want to even share the workload of the other engineers of the guild and produce the common goods required," said Rudra. "Seems to me like he wants to be an independent player," said Balthazar. All the requests of the player were consistent with the desires of one who wanted to be an independent player who only sold their goods. "Why are you even entertaining him?" Shadow asked Rudra. "It is mostly because of Merlin. He vouched for him and told that we would get decent goods for providing him raw materials. The man also had a quite high success rate and production speed," said Rudra. "Looks like an expert. What is his name?" "He uses the name Earthly Researcher. He is apparently also good at other secondary professions and does most quests alone. Merlin came to know him because he was related to Grenadier Mage," said Rudra. It was clear from Rudra''s tone and manner of speech that he wanted Balthazar to look into and if possible, get him to sign a contract with the guild. "Can''t promise you anything, but will check him out," replied Balthazar. It was clear to him that the player in question was quite confident of his abilities and so was Merlin. So, he didn''t dare to give any assurances. "I am going to another planet on work tomorrow. So, probably won''t be able to stay in contact for some time. It is test of sorts from my family," said Balthazar. "They suspect you for something? You need any help?" asked Rudra. He didn''t know of the tradition of the Blyth family and thought that his friend was in some kind of problem. "Hahaha. No. It is just a tradition, something like a coming of age ceremony or test to check if we are strong enough to handle a few things. Mostly a pre-requisite of sorts for most positions in the family," said Balthazar amused by his friend''s thoughts and grateful for his concern. He explained the situation to him and that he was participating for helping out Robert to become an elder. "Damn! You have a lot of work. You sure are gutsy to be playing with such issues." "Ya, I will meet you after dinner in the game," said Balthazar and he logged out. He had a meal just four hours ago in real life and didn''t really feel hungry. So, he decided to contact Winston first. "Ah! My grandson calls me in time for dinner? To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" said Winston as soon as he took the video call. Though his words were pleasant they oozed out sarcasm as he clearly knew the reason Balthazar called him. "Ya. I get that I don''t call you much," said Balthazar. "I was hoping to meet with you though." "You could have put in a message about it." "I was working on my business. You know that I was asked to have a personal source of revenue," replied Balthazar. "In the gaming industry, please. I doubt you know anything about games," said Winston. "You were a very studious engineer and finished your college early to apply for a job at the force. When did you even get time for games?" "In college. You don''t spend all your time in college reading." "Ok. At least tell me you earned a decent amount the past few days. I consider it a decent income if you are actually working," said Winston grinning. He felt that his grandson was going along a wrong path with the game. It is fine if he just owned a gaming workshop, but he believed it to be a complete waste of time to be spending time there personally. "I earned about 2 hundred thousand credits on my first day. Apart from that I have much more in virtual game coins which I can''t convert to actual credits right now nor do I intend to. I don''t have the exact numbers but can contact my manager Rudra to give it to you," said Balthazar. "Two hundred thousand? That''s it?" asked Winston in a derisive way. "Hey! How much did you managed to get on the first of a completely new business which isn''t related to your actual occupation? I am pretty sure that I could get more if I decided to set up a security provision group, but I can''t do it as long as I am a member of the armed forces," said Balthazar. "Hmph! We can talk about it later, then. Come to my office. We can have dinner here," said Winston ending his call. He was still unconvinced, but he knew that this wasn''t the way to get his grandson to give it up. "Ah! He still has time. He has enough money if he wants for now or even if anything happens to me, he still has John''s inheritances to get through temporarily," thought Winston as he decided to concentrate on the matter at hand. "He is really confident about that game, isn''t he," said Arthur as he was sitting opposite Winston and heard everything. "Ya. I don''t understand this sudden interest in games." "You know he never had a proper chance to try out what he wanted. His parents'' death might have changed his priorities and didn''t give him a proper chance to explore his interests the usual way most kids do," said Arthur. "I never thought of that. He had always been a bit mature and calm about most things," said Winston as he also thought about it. "Let him try it out. It is nothing big, if he successful, it is another source of money, else he would sooner or later realize that he isn''t suited for it. It is not like he is pouring a lot of money to sustain it right? Whatever money he put in, he got it more than that when he won the challenge with Max," said Arthur. "He has made a profit off it, whichever way I look at it. I believe you can let him off for a year at least." "Yes. I guess so," said Winston. Arthur''s reasoning had convinced him more than his own thoughts. "I guess I was too close to it to realize that he had done a reasonable work at it." The buzzer at his door had rung and he could see that Balthazar had already reached the office while they were talking about him. "Well, let us keep the talk limited to only the trial tomorrow, not Walter''s message or anything else." Currently, most the family and the members of table of Ouroboros were preparing for action. Walter had managed to contact them with the information that they best prepare for a fight. Rupert had managed to get some information about Asuragana ShouryaPrasad who currently is in liaison with the knights of the old republic and is governing the actions of Nirbaadh pirates at the top. Walter just told them that they had to be prepared for action as Rupert suspects that he might be coming to meet Asuragana Ranapratap and Dharmapratap. So, it was considered a very good chance to capture and probably even get some information about the knights'' bases, etc. Even Evelyn Price and Harvey Price were informed, and they had a bunch of trusted high-ranking military personnel on alert. Walter was also informed about the situation with Robert and Balthazar to which he simply requested someone to be on the same planet observing them from a distance in case any unexpected forces attack. Other than that, he didn''t talk anything about them. Arthur was one of the elders of the table of Ouroboros who was closer to both Winston and Walter and was co-ordinating their efforts. "Ah! Come in, Balthazar," said Winston opening the door. "So, what brings you here?" "I wanted to.." started Balthazar but then noticed that Arthur was seated in the room. "If you guys are busy, we can reschedule." "Oh! We were just chatting. Come in," said Arthur. "I wanted to talk to you too. How are you doing?" he asked as he got off his chair and pulled Balthazar in. "I am fine, Arthur. I just wanted to catch up with Winston over dinner," said Balthazar looking at Arthur awkwardly. He couldn''t say that he wanted to know his grandfathers experience or that he was asking for tips as that would be unethical as the person had to learn about these themselves and not ask people who had already gone through it. So, he chose to deceive with the dinner excuse as Winston had already invited him for it and hoped that Arthur would leave him alone with his grandfather. "Good! Winston has just invited me for dinner too. Let us talk. How is your new organization faring? The Dreamz Cyber Space? right?" asked Arthur seating himself back. "It is actually going pretty good. The new somnium tech has brought a bunch of new customers. It requires high speeds compared to the common home connections for a good experience in gaming. So, it is actually going better than I expected." "Heard that you also have set up a gaming workshop? How is that?" queried Arthur. As Balthazar started to explain about it a small alarm rang at Winston''s desk. Winston quickly check it and his expression became much more serious. It was an alarm from Walter. It was a rare alarm that would be sent to Winston in case the other was in mortal danger. "Bel. Arthur know why you are here. He intends to help. Arthur will contact you via those new headgear while you are on your plane. I can''t tell you mine as I am the Patriarch and some idiots might try to subjugate me if they find out," said Winston in a serious tone. "Get out. Have dinner at the hall." Arthur also looked confused and concerned at the alarm and the sudden change in Winston''s mood As Balthazar went out of the room, he immediately went beside Walter to check what message he got. He was shocked on looking at the alert. It was sent to all parties currently involved in the mission including the Price siblings and even members of the armed forces. He found it hard to believe that Walter with all his experience had been in such a situation. He believed it impossible without the other party being tipped off by someone of their actions. Yet, it seemed unlikely as Walter wouldn''t select the alert that informed everyone. But the most confusing and alarming thing was not the alert but the message that accompanied it. "STAY CLEAR FROM THE UNHINDERED. EXTREME DANGER." Apart from that, Winston also received a small mail indicating him to send someone to him at a safe location. Apart from that, Walter requested the person to be sent to be his predecessor, Daniel who headed the table of Ouroboros before Walter. Daniel stays most of the time in seclusion counting his last few days. Asking him to meet was completely unexpected as that would imply a secret that couldn''t even be told to Winston and even Walter isn''t sure how to act on it. "What the f.u.c.k happened? Why Daniel thought?" thought Winston but he quickly contacted the old man and informed him. "I don''t know what happened, but I think we best keep our calm and do as he suggests. I will inform the others that I have sent reinforcements for Walter at a safe place and they needn''t worry for his safety," said Winston as he started to compose a mail for the others. "Tell them that he is still injured and will inform the others about what happened. If he called for Daniel, it is definitely something that we can''t let the others know. We need to give them time for a story," said Arthur. "I hope that the knights are not planning anything crazy again." Chapter 141 - Trade routes Balthazar was confused a bit regarding the sudden change in Winston but he knew that the being the Patriarch he had to deal with many things. As Winston had already managed to inform him that Arthur was going help and that their trial was still going to happen, he was sure that it wouldn''t be related to him in any way. "If it was related to the knights or Nirbaadh pirates, he would most probably ask me to stay indoors and put me in house arrest," thought Balthazar as he made way to the dining hall. He had already asked Robert to meet him there. Robert was also at his room wearing the helmet. He was actually training with Lucius using the somnium headgear. Lucius gave them the evening off, so that they could rest and be ready for the trial the next day. But knowing that Balthazar gifted both Salazar and Lucius somnium headgear, he had already asked them to help him practice with use of somnium technology. Seeing that it is a good way to spend more time on the techniques of fighting for Robert, Lucius also agreed to it. Robert replied that he would be coming down in a few minutes and he had also request that Lucius join them. Balthazar was taken a few eggs, bacon with some vegetables and bread and found himself an empty table with place for Robert. A few minutes later, Robert arrived with Lucius and Richard and joined him at the table. "You could have also joined the practice with Robert, right?" asked Lucius as soon as he sat down. "Oh! I thought that we were all having a break and rest. You know that one needs to rest our minds too," said Balthazar. It was a clumsy excuse that none of the others believed as they knew that Balthazar had been playing the game vita-nove. Robert specifically told Lucius and Richard, that Balthazar could be considered a minor celebrity in the gaming world too and that he had defeated a star player. "Yes, I heard how well you were resting in the game," said Lucius grinning. "It is quite relaxing to stay there killing those monsters. The weather and the trees, it all feels so good as if we are at a natural place," said Balthazar as he didn''t want to give up. If he agreed, he was sure that Lucius would try to increase his training with use of somnium technology. Balthazar sent the headgear for his own considerations and didn''t want Lucius to have an upper hand. "You should definitely try it. You will enjoy it," he continued as he bit into the bacon. "Though he is just making an excuse. He is right. It is really relaxing and feels good," added Robert. He felt a bit bad that his wishes caused trouble for his cousin who had actually bought the headgear for his mentors and suggested training in the first place. "What excuse? I was the one who sent them the headgear for training purposes. I need no excuses," said Balthazar making use of the Robert''s words. "Fine. Fine. It is all right, but I want you to join me in the V.R. after the trial. I think you will have faster progress in V.R. with your skills," said Lucius. "But mornings are going to be physical. No tech can change that." "Of course, not. We need to get our body used to the skills too. No use just practicing in V.R. without being able to check it physically," said Balthazar agreeing with Lucius. "I heard from Elias, that they could also make not of your physique and simulate your stamina, perspiration, etc. So, you might not necessarily be sure that you need physical training," added in Richard. "You can''t have it simulate everything perfectly. At the end, it is a code based on a few assumptions. It is best we always practice physically too and it is good to have physical exercise," said Balthazar. "Took the words from my mouth," compliment Lucius. "By the way, Richard and I are accompanying you to the planet. We might have a few others on the plane," he added. "Ahem, ahem," coughed Balthazar as he almost choked on his food when he heard this. "Are you going to train us on the plane," asked Balthazar. He was afraid that if Lucius would try and train him on V.R. but he needed to talk to Arthur during the ride. "No such intentions. We are coming to provide security, just in case of an attack. After the incident with Max, we are just a bit more careful," said Lucius. "Oh. Did anything happen?" asked Balthazar as doubts began to creep in his mind. Winston had abruptly sent him off his office which fount to be somewhat odd. With the sudden addition of Lucius and Richard, he felt that something might have happened. "Nothing happened. What do you mean?" Lucius asked Balthazar. "I thought we were going to be taken to the planet by some unknown personal and didn''t expect you two for security," said Balthazar trying to pry out more. "Ah! Well, since Robert almost died, Richard and I were assigned to have look out for anyone around the place. We didn''t tell you before this as there were some people concerned that you might bribe us. Still we need to wear a camera and keep sending live feed to the others," said Lucius. "So, we obviously can''t help you unless another human or ape is seen on the planet." "Maybe they are just protective of Robert. He had plans to attempt trial for some time and Richard was definitely his bodyguard and Lucius was asked to specifically train him. It is a reasonable assumption. It is better, if I don''t wast much time on this," thought Balthazar. After that their conversation went on. Lucius mostly talked about training and that they better learn using weapons well, if they plan to compete for an elder position. Richard also seemed to have the same idea. Most of their conversation went around training Robert as he was the one with the intention to compete for the post of an elder and they both were adamant on one thing - Robert needs to learn to defend himself by hook or crook, if he becomes an elder. It was true. Once, an elder, he would have more responsibilities and would need to venture out of the safety of Asklepian. Finishing their meal, the others returned to their rooms and suggested that they get to the hall by 10 p.m sharp. Lucius offered to check and get their equipment to the ship in time and Richard was going to accompany Robert and Balthazar from their rooms to the ship. Richard clearly didn''t want to take any chances. Balthazar went back to his room and began to unpack the headgear that he had received from the mail. He put a chair beside the pod, connected the headgear to internet and power and put it on. The system check up immediately started the usual scans and logged into his account. He checked if the bank details and other features are all proper and working before logging on to the game. He immediately logged into the game to check that too. He was appeared in the teleportation point of the White Heart City. He had about one hour or real-life time which translated to three hours. He didn''t really need to pack anything for the trial other than the somnium headgear which he planned to use on the plane. He didn''t want to get out of the city and try out killing monsters to see if there were any differences that he could feel. The difference is mainly due to the consumption of energy and electrolytes by the players. If the player is well hydrated and fed, the headgear and pod wouldn''t have much difference. He had a better way to check it out. Forging and other secondary occupations also needed fine control of actions by players. So, it was also a good way to check the control that he had with it. He first decided to meet up with Merlin and talk about the engineer, Earthly Researcher that Rudra had found. Merlin invited him to the Whitewater tavern in the White Heart City to talk about it with Grenadier Mage. This tavern in the city was more or less the same as the other one they had been in. The main difference that one could notice was that there was a musical troupe of NPCs and even a dance floor. It was much more entertaining than the other tavern and Shadow had remembered this much better. Merlin was already occupying a table and waiting for him and Grenadier to come. "Sit down and have a drink," said Merlin pushing a mug of white colored drink towards him. Balthazar immediately realized that it was one of the specialties of the White Heart City. The tavern was also named after it. Merlin seemed to have found a liking for it and there were already three empty mugs in front of him. "This Whitewater is just delicious, frothy, tastes like freshly squeezed apples but is so strong and makes you tipsy within seconds," said Merlin as he had another big gulp of the drink. "I know. I heard it is one of the unique items of the city. You don''t find it anywhere else at the same cost," said Shadow as he partook it. "Sadly, both the taste and feel disappear within a minute however much you try to remember it." "What?" asked Merlin. He had just heard of it from the bar maid NPC a few minutes ago and had been consuming it non-stop. He wanted to stop for a minute and check it out, but had another gulp of it immediately. "Yes. Some players were cursing it because of that," said Shadow. "Well, there is a simple solution. Don''t stop drinking," said Merlin. "It is a good drink to start with though," said Shadow gulping down the drink in his mug. "Is Grenadier coming?" "Yeah, he is on his way. I just asked you to come early for some company all the other are busy working on their secondary profession. I have already got as much alchemy and cooking profession that I can with the recipes that I have. So, here I am," he said. "You could have tried to get to the city library or the temple. They offer good quests and you could even access quite a few books in there," suggested Balthazar. "Ya. I have been to both. Already have a collection quest for the temple and the library doesn''t allow third-class citizens to most areas. Only have access to the first shelf were all the books were about the twelve lords, the different kingdoms and empires and the like which everyone could get easily from reading the forums on the first day," said Merlin. "Couldn''t even access the maps or the history of the kingdom. Need second-class citizenship to even check the smallest of the maps. Those might at least help with some quests and gathering work," said Merlin. He was clearly disappointed by the fact that he wasn''t allowed much access to library. Libraries and the like were the best sources of information for players. Having a third-class citizenship which less than 0.1% of the players had currently, Merlin thought he would have an advantage at this, but the system was far too strict. Shadow had already known it. Unless one had special permission, one couldn''t access decent maps of the interior of the city till they became a first-class citizen. Even a second class citizen would only be able to access maps of the outer region and surrounding areas. As he was thinking of the maps he realized that he forgot to inform Rudra of the Jarko Town. It was a level 15 to level 20 area and the location of the mine was definitely a level 20 area. Though it would take some time for the players to expand to it, he wanted the guild to form a strong supply route to it. The mithril ore mined needs to be transported to other towns and cities to make best use of it. He couldn''t rely on everyone in the guild to be completely loyal to it. Even super guilds would get tempted by the information of a mithril mine. Trusting all members of his guild or mining openly were simply impractical options. So, letting a select few to mine and know about it while using trade carts and caravans was the best option. For those to go unnoticed, it is best if they keep making a strong trade routes between each town that they go to. It is also good for the growth of a guild if they had a decent infrastructure for trade between towns and cities. Moreover, the Black wall fort was also in the same direction. So, he decided that it is best to have the infrastructure for it. "Need to find designs for transport caravans and the like. I also better send the map to Jarko Town to Rudra," thought Balthazar as sent the images of the map that he took along with instructions to find designs for transport carts or caravans and decent beast tamers for dragging them. He also told Rudra to keep this among the trusted players who had already signed the strictest contracts. "Find a few players who are have tradesman secondary profession or it is best if you have someone capable like lizzie do it. They will be quite useful in negotiating and also will be helpful to manage shops. NPCs can be purchased to manage shops and trader profession would be quite useful for negotiating with them," messaged Shadow. "Trader profession. Right. I will look into it," said Rudra. Trader was relatively less popular profession and most players wouldn''t even try to know about it. It is only useful when dealing with other merchant NPCs and it one of the new unique things in vita-nova. Without NPCs who have their own A.I. and act for their own interests, it is makes no point in having a trader profession. Hardly any player would even know of its existence currently unless they thoroughly went through the introductions of the game. Even then most wouldn''t care about it and cultivate it as it would only be useful in rare cases. "Ok. I understand that trader profession would take time. So, keep your focus on gathering the caravan designs. Engineer designs. Lastly make sure that the guild progresses along the direction to Jarko Town. It would help us a lot in long term," messaged Shadow. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 142 - Probing each other As he was messaging Rudra, his suggestion and instructions to successfully have monopoly over the mithril mine at Jarko Town, Grenadier walked in along with Sultan, sat down and began to drink. "I was expecting some one else to come along side you," said Shadow as he finished his discussion with Rudra. "Ya. He is coming in a couple of minutes. He apparently was working on something and told that he would come once he is done with it," said Grenadier. "I hope you don''t want to try out something like wanting him to become the head engineer of Crimson Realm. He is as unreliable as you." "Whoa. You angry at me or something?" asked Shadow surprised and caught off guard when Grenadier called him unreliable. "Don''t worry, he always becomes like that when you bring up Earthly," said Merlin. "Another round?" "Yes." "Yes." "I want a mead. I got bored of Whitewater," said Shadow. "Dude! Were you drinking all night?" asked Sultan surprised when he heard that Shadow had already been bored of the specialty of the place. Though he was a royalty even he couldn''t think of spending enough on Whitewater that he would be bored of it. "Not really my drink. With such a good taste, I would like to get high soon and slowly enjoy it. With Whitewater, I can''t have that enjoyment," said Shadow. "Huh, whatever dude," said Merlin ordering another round for them. Though Whitewaters effects tend to go down quickly, they have programmed it to have a lingering effect of inebriety after having a few continuously and it would persist longer than other drinks. They did this so that players wont continuously throw their money at the drink. If that happened, sooner or later, accusations would soon come up that the virtual drink was made just to addict players and steal their coins. That wouldn''t be good for the game and might even have detrimental effect on sales of the drink. So, a couple more rounds later, Merlin had over six and had started to sing some folk songs. The other two also soon joined him. Sometimes, they hummed and sang along with the musical troupe and other times they sang gibberish. He soon notices that it wasn''t only them but players and even a few NPCs from other tables started to do the same. "Never knew that this would also happen in these places," thought Balthazar as he had never had much time to do this. He was always come to a bar to discuss something or gather information as a vice guild leader. "I guess adventurer teams have a lot more free time which allows them to really enjoy this," he thought. As they were singing a person approached their table and Grenadier suddenly stopped singing as he noticed this player. Merlin simply bounced off to another table and began to sing with them as he noticed the player. "Well, I guess at least one of my little brother''s friends don''t lose control completely," said Earthly Researcher as he looked at Shadow. "Well, I am not always like this. I do enjoy getting wild occasionally," said Shadow. Earthly researcher''s words clearly put him on a level higher than the others and could be a way of using it to sow discontent among them. As he was unaware of the players intentions, Balthazar denied his words albeit only partly as a flat-out denial might be detrimental to his talk with the new player. "Hmm. At least you know when to keep control," said Earthly as he looked at Grenadier with a disappointed expression. "Wait a minute. You are his elder brother?" asked Shadow pointing to Grenadier as he repeated the man''s introduction in his mind. "I guess you''re just a bit better than those," said Earthly shaking his head as he realized that Shadow was also slightly tipsy and slow on uptake. "Want a drink?" asked Shadow as he signaled the barmaid to come. "No, I dont partake." "So? Why did you want to meet me?" asked Earthly Researcher. "I just wanted to know why you don''t want to do any jobs suggested by the guild?" asked Shadow. "That''s easy. I am a researcher and quite a famous one at that. I own an entire moon. I am good at building stuff. I enjoy the simplicity of the tools and repeated simple movements is somewhat relaxing, but I don''t enjoy doing repeated actions too much. If I make about 30 dynamites, I will get bored," said Earthly. "But it is hard for me to let you use the guild resources without anything in return. Don''t you think it is a bit unfair on your part to ask it of me?" asked Shadow. "It is not like I don''t bring anything to the table. I am capable of acquiring quite a few designs," said Earthly. "Hahaha. You know that I and Crimson Power were the ones who first managed to come to a city and got hold of the engineering designs within that hour, right?" asked Shadow. "I don''t have any issue in finding new designs either. A guild will always have more chances of getting designs than a single person when one comes to know of a tool. It is not like we don''t have designs which we keep secret from the others too." "Hmm," said Earthly Researcher and it was clear that he was a bit angry. He had hoped that with a new guild they would be a bit liberal after he told them that he owned a moon. Most starting guilds would be that way in the hopes that he might be a sponsor. "I own a moon and can be a sponsor," he said openly flaunting his wealth. "I have control over more than one," said Shadow in reply. "I am not talking to you as a potential sponsor. I already have enough of those. I am asking you what potential you have that you would be given special consideration." "I am a good engineer. I have skills that most don''t and would be able to easily identify defects and even repair equipment that I haven''t previously worked on," he said. He decided to use similarity of the game to real-life and his familiarity to engineering in real-life to gain an advantage. "I constantly work with engineers and have expertise in creating in field. I am sure that I have the same experience if not more with most of the tools and items in the game. Only reason, I am not head engineer is because I have job that I can''t neglect for the game," said Shadow. "I graduated as an engineer. I have made name as a fighter, but I am good at engineering too. You can check with Merlin if you find it hard to believe." "I can provide you good code to employ somnium tech for training players with the use of samsara framework," said Earthly researcher unable to find anything to beat him. This was his trump card that he decided to use. "Hahahaha," laughed Shadow loudly. "Totally useless. I have already made arrangements for it and am also making plans to train my players with the help of experts in combat." Earthly researcher''s look became increasing glum after each of Shadow''s replies. It was clear that he was thinking of an appropriate answer. From his first interaction with Earthly, Balthazar managed to deduce that he was an intellectual and a proud one at that. So, losing a battle of wits or even failing to come to terms favorable to him were options he would hate to choose in front of the little brother that he looked down on. "What do you want from me? Please be frank," said Earthly Researcher finally conceding to Balthazar. He understood that he couldn''t get an upper hand at their argument. So, he decided to check what the offer is? "At worst, if his conditions are not at all suitable, my idiot brother will make a few jokes about this," thought Earthly. "Ok. We took mainly because some one''s recommendation. It doesn''t look like he is on the best terms with you, but the fact that he recommended you implies your are skilled," started Shadow. "So, usually I would offer you an amount more than reasonable to acquire your services, but you are obviously don''t have the usual interests." "Thus, I offer this suggestion. The guild will try to provide you as many materials as possible, but with a few conditions. You can play on your own as much as you want and make whichever products you wish. We will buy it and at a reasonable price and pay you a certain percent," said Shadow. "Don''t need a percentage. Good amount of resources is enough," said Earthly Researcher waving his hand indicating that he didn''t care about the money. "This is a business transaction. So, it is best if we pay some amount for your services. We can have it at a lower value that usual if you wish," said Shadow lifting his hand to stop him from continuing that discussion. "Now, the conditions. The first is that you have to maintain your level at a slightly higher level than the usual in the game. Crimson Power will keep you updated on that. You can play only on weekends and holidays, but this is a must. If you fail, you will work with the guild members and they will help pull your level up. You should always have a reasonable level to make items of the level that would be of use to us," said Shadow explaining the reason for the first condition. "That is probably expected, I guess. No problem with that," said Earthly. "They are willing to help me pull up my level. What can be wrong with that?" he thought. "Think carefully. For example, even if you found some good design which you want to try out. You would need to increase your level with the help of guild members, except if you are able to increase your level making that certain item," said Shadow clarifying the scenario that might occur. "No problem." "Sometimes, we will require your expertise in making a harder design or work. I assure you that it will be something that is challenging to you and is not some small thing like dynamites that are made in large amount. It would be tools that aren''t easy to make and wouldn''t have required materials in large amounts. We need you to show your expertise there," said Shadow. "What you said is quite vague. Can you elaborate?" asked Earthly. "They will be mostly large-scale projects, big items or complicated items, like caravans, defibrilators and the like," replied Shadow. "You know the rare and hard ones which others might find hard to assemble." "Oh! That''s it?" asked Earthly in surprise. "Well! It is a special offer currently being provided to players who have similar expertise in real-life," said Shadow. "Only for one year. We will have to renew the contract based on the performance. I have high expectations of you, but I am not willing to have a longer contract based on someone else''s belief in you." "I understand. I am fine with it. As long as I don''t have to waste time collecting materials," said Earthly. "Of course, I understand. I have a similar arrangement for forging. I will draw the contract, why don''t you have a drink while you wait. I would suggest the pampara pine juice," said Shadow as he pulled out a contract paper and started to write down the details. A few minutes later, Earthly had signed the contract and Shadow forwarded the contract to Rudra. "This is the best that I could do. He is an expert and would not accept the position of head engineer," messaged Shadow. With that done, he was sure that he had managed to get a good player for forging and engineering each. He wanted to go and try out forging while wearing the headgear and then probably a couple of fights in the colosseum. "Dude! How did you do that?" asked Grenadier who had been sitting quietly observing the discussion between his old man and Shadow. "How did you convince the retard?". "It is all thanks to you. If you weren''t so closely observing us both, he probably would have left saying that he could go to another guild as soon as I asked what he could do for us," said Shadow. The entire discussion was a play on a father''s ego and would have been impossible without Grenadier Mage. "Ya. I get that. But it was still awesome. I will remember to use this incident to have some fun," said Grenadier. "He always acts like he is in control of everything. It was always his way or no way. It amusing to see him concede." Grenadier was really happy at his brother''s situation and that he ended up signing a contract to work for Shadow. On the other hand, Earthly was having an entirely different conversation with Merlin through video call. Merlin had disappeared into the crowd a few moments ago. "So, what is your conclusion of him. Is he the colonel?" asked Merlin. "My friend, I think that you have made a mistake this time. I doubt that Shadow is just acquainted with the colonel. I would rather not pursue this," said Earthly. "Why do you think so?" "He was exceptionally calm and has good sense of negotiation," started Earthly. "He spoke very confidently. He clearly told that he is a capable engineer. Isn''t the colonel an engineer too?" "Yes." "Apart from that, he was also good at forging, right?" asked Earthly. "Our inquiries have confirmed that from both Crimson Realm and Sirius Imperials. Even if he is not exceptional, he is definitely in the top at present. I heard Crimson power even wanted to make him head forger, but he denied it for the similar reasons as you," said Merlin. "See that is where, I am confused. Assuming his background, he is bound to be good at fights and engineering and skilled, but to be also good at forging? He never had the time to know all of it. Either he is a monster, or he isn''t who we think he is," said Earthly. "Hmm. That is actually a good point. He is also a half decent alchemist," added Merlin remembering of the time the Alva''s tincture. That was a rare potion that even he found useless, but Shadow had managed to make it into a treasure. "See. Apart from that he told me that he controlled multiple moons. I have made inquiries and the colonel only had control of one moon. He must be very good at lying if he is the colonel. I also have the feeling like it is just a business to him, and the others are just employees, but the colonel and the Powers kid were apparently good friends," said Earthly. "You made a lot of inquiries into him," said Merlin surprised. "Knowing who it might be, why wouldn''t I?" sneered Earthly at Merlin''s lack of courage. "I doubt he is petty enough to retaliate in real-life. Such people tend to crush others the same way they feel that they were wronged," he added. "So, you are sure that he isn''t the colonel?" asked Merlin trying to confirm it once and for all. Chapter 143 - Provocation "I think so. He could always be lying, but it didn''t feel like that. It is hard to do that when one is so drunk. He also had good control over his body," said Earthly Researcher. "He can hold his liquor. That is why I waited till I found him a bit out of it," agreed Merlin. "The colonel left the family as soon as he came of age and joined the armed forces, Merlin. He was only taken in because of his achievements and he was injured. The family doesn''t have much reason to support him, but Shadow clearly has the family''s support. Else, my contacts would have been able to find out more information about the owner than the fact that he is one of the Blyths," explained Earthly. "So, it would be to meddle much into it and just focus on infiltrating the guild as Shadow is supported by Blyths?" "That is not the most important thing. If we assume that the person is not the colonel, he is clearly using the colonel. He has no need to contact the colonel''s friends and help them," said Earthly. "Now, I am confused. You mean to say that apart from colonel, no one has a need to do it, right? So, Shadow is the colonel Balthazar Blyth," said Merlin feeling happy that Earthly is finally understanding why he thought Shadow would be Balthazar. "You totally misunderstood my thoughts. Doing that would clearly suggest that Shadow is the young colonel. So, why would the colonel do that, if he wanted his anonymity?" asked Earthly Researcher. Merlin was stumped by the question. "Why would someone do something so obvious. Most guilds would find out his identity in that case. It was completely contradictory to his behavior," thought Merlin. Then, suddenly he came to the realization. "You don''t mean that. No," whispered Merlin finding it hard to believe. "Yes. It means that Shadow is making use of the colonel and the colonel would obviously have known it with his friends involved. So, it is someone who could convince a person known as hero to be his scapegoat," said Earthly. "It was on realizing this that I decided to get into his employ." "No. Why would such a guy even, enter this field?" "I don''t know but I am sure that it wouldn''t be in our best interests to irritate someone like him. It is a good thing that he contacted you. It is not a bad thing to have the back up of someone like him. Even if it is the colonel himself, he is a monster in that case. So, good to have him as a friend, right?" said Earthly as he ended the call. Merlin also decided that it is best not to provoke Shadow for now. "I have one guy to relay me information in the guild anyway. It is enough for most things in the game. I don''t have to worry about things outside it," thought Merlin as he decided to put his investigation to rest. If Balthazar heard of the thoughts of these two, he would be laughing on the floor at their ridiculous arguments. But that was a very reasonable conclusion from the point of view of the others. Even Rudra believes that Balthazar has the support of someone extremely influential to be able to do all the things that he did and that he was a monstrous genius. With the matter about Earthly Researcher settled, he talked a bit with Sultan about the how they were enjoying the game and to keep a place for him if they were going to raid the dungeon, Bungar''s keep. He informed Sultan that it is best that they attempt it early in the morning to get a first clear and inform the team to finish up their dinner and be ready in time for it and he might be unavailable for some time. He had wasted about half an hour for due to the wait for Earthly Researcher and was slightly inebriated. So, he decided it best to get to the Colosseum and have a few fights to get to rid of it. He went to the colosseum in disguise and noticed that there were quite a lot of players there. Many players were at the colosseum which contrary to his expectations. Most players usually used the time in working on their trade occupations like forging and alchemy. When Balthazar first joined in his past life, a fraction of this amount used to be at the colosseum. There were quite a bunch of them discussing other players and talking about various strong players in the fights. "I guess most don''t yet realize the importance of having a decent secondary occupation. Most players worked it because it provided an alternate source of income and after the first couple of years, they lose interest in fighting techniques and realize that colosseum would only help them to a certain amount in improving," thought Balthazar. "A good chance to promote my new designs and get points though," thought Balthazar as he noticed the players. Quite a number of them were betting their combat points and so on. "A good time to get some resources too," thought as he saw a few of the players that he previously fought trying making bets with the system. The colosseum also allows one to be anonymous during the fights. This is very helpful for him too. He just needs to change his armor and the weapons that he used. He can get rid of the unique weapons. They would always remain in his bag and take a slot permanantly, but he could always unequip them and use other weapons. He thought of a plan and called Slaine. He was better for such things and it is best to use him as he had a talent for sarcase and aggravating others. "Make a list of resources and gold that we have. I want to try out the colosseum and you need to bet," he said as soon as Slaine lifted his call. "Scamming them of resources, are we?" asked Slaine. "Count me in, but wouldn''t they recognize you. Your disguise skill would dissipate with one hit. You really want to take that risk, just after that match with Boris?" "I will play the part of a swordsman. Need complete armor equipment, black iron is more than enough. For safety, make half of them leather and others metal and include mask. Weapons, I have them with me. Come quick and don''t tell Rudra. He might not be willing," said Shadow. "Stay there away from the colosseum before I get there. I will need about 5 minutes," said Slaine. "Don''t worry, I wont use daggers. I doubt that they will recognize me. Taking a token. Come quick," said Shadow as he cut the call. He paid the amount and sent the message of the name of his disguise - Dormant Blade. He took a token and waited for Slaine instead of going in for a fight. He decided to observe the various players that were fighting to decide on a ripe target. He finally decided on a swordsman of the Foedus Rex who he had fought previously as a preliminary to Boris'' fight. He had been pissed of by the antics of the guild before the fight and wanted to seek retribution. A few minutes later, Slaine came to him and exchanged the armor. "These are quite good and half of them are bronze armor. The helm and chest plate are silver ones," said Shadow as he checked their stats. "Yeah, we have quite a decent collection. I asked Hammer informing that you were trying something, he gave me most of them. He even offered a silver sword," said Slaine showing him a scimitar. "He can make silver equipment now?" asked Shadow in surprise as he took the silver grade sword. Silver equipment designs were very hard to obtain at this stage. So, Balthazar didn''t expect that they already had such designs. "No. No. He told us that he wanted to observe it and try to create silver original design. He already managed to create a bronze dagger original," said Slain. "But keep it secret. Only Rudra, myself and Lizzie are aware of it." "Cool. This is better than what I expected. Also, tell them to take rest. It is not good to work all day round in the V.R.," said Balthazar a bit concerned. "Ya. Rudra had already told him and gave him limits. We had experience with it and have others taking our place for main activities. We were running a guild before you joined us, you know," said Slain rolling his eyes. "Come with me, I have fought that swordsman, Epoch Break before. Already found his arena number. Bet against him when I try to initiate a fight," said Shadow as he equipped the silver sword and the horned buckler. They went to spectate and walked towards the group of players of Foedus Rex and he started to comment. "Blah, Epoch Break. The name isn''t suited for the man. You told that he had decent technique," said Dormant Blade in a loud tone. "He isn''t bad. It is not as useless as the others that you saw. You can at least have a decent fight with him," replied Slaine. "Else you can fight with me." "You! You will keep shooting at me from a distance. I want to experience a close combat to see if I can get some inspiration," continued Dormant Blade. Slaine just lifted his hands. "He is the best that I can find in the colosseum of the city, right now." "He is so clumsy and leaves himself open most of the time. It is a waste. Keep someone here to check if any half-decent player comes along. I think that making a trip to this city might have been a waste," said Dormant Blade shaking his head as he got up to return. The players wearing Foedus Rex were busy cheering their guild member could clearly hear him. It was fine if someone was just trash talking behind their back or challenged them. But this masked guy was making light of the best of them when he was right beside them and even refusing to fight as it was beneath him. Moreover, he was beside Slaine and wore the badge of Crimson Realm which was the same badge that they used in War god''s Tempest. It was crimson colored badge in the shape of an outline of a palace. So, they felt that he was simply mocking them. "Fight and see if you dare," said a player unable to hold his anger in. Others were also looking daggers at him and Slaine. They were all players who usually fought in a group. So, they were pissed off by his comments. "Nah! The guy is beneath me," said Dormant Blade openly making them all angry. A few of them already stood up and wanted to beat him up but the system prevented conflicts in the spectating area. "Who the hell is asking you to fight him. You need to defeat me before you get a chance at him," said a player named ''Golden Ward'' who wore shield like him. He was clearly a shield warrior. "That guy is one of the top tanks that Tristar brought to Blackrock town. Half these guys were in the Blackrock Town for most of the day," whispered Slaine to him. "A top tank that considers himself below to that one is still beneath me. Have no reason to fight him either," said Dormant Blade. "Shameless boasting. I doubt you can take any of us, coward," spat out Ward in anger. "You think I am a coward?" asked Dormant Blade turning back as if those words irritated him. "Fine. Send out who you want. Let me see if you guys are any good," he said folding his arms and waiting for them. "Well, the Crimson Realm guys are getting far too confident these days. Let us show them exactly how good they are," said Ward getting up and about to get out of the spectator area. Slaine and Dormant Blade followed the guys out. "Who''s first?" said Dormant Blade as he paid for an arena and walked into it. He selected to keep his name anonymous and sent the arena details to Slaine and also told him to get some information out that players of Foedus Rex are being defeated easily by a new player. "Wait a minute, boss," said a player berserker called Walt Greatsword stopping Ward. "The guy there is ''Slain n Shot''. He is one of the top guys in Crimson Realm. He is the ranger who beat up one of our guys with only his bow without any arrows. He mostly keeps himself in exploring areas, but is a strong fighter who Tristar is already trying to poach" "I noticed. I don''t want to fight him," said Ward with a frown on his face. "I know but he is quite considerate of the new guy. So, why don''t you let me try him out first. You guys can watch," said Walt. "You sure?" "Yes," said Walt as he challenged the arena. Balthazar had already been expecting it. A guild never goes in blind especially, a long standing one. So, he hoped that more than one would challenge him. "More challenges, more combat points," he thought. Chapter 144 - Axe man As he expected, a different player by the name of Walt Greatsword entered in place of Ward. He had selected a simple arena with a large open ground, not giving much space to hide. He was not playing as an assassin and he had no intention of using those skills. So, he decided that it would best, if he make the arena in a way that would match the strengths of a swordsman and the fight would be open and direct. He also put the silver sword back in his bag and equipped the axe that he had forged. The axe on his right hand and the horned buckler on his left gave him a weird appearance. Walt also immediately noticed that the player had changed his weapon. "Oh! You changed your weapon?" he asked. "You want to change to some better armor too?" jeered Walt. "A silver grade sword would be a waste in handling you. A black iron axe is more than enough," said Balthazar. He did it intentionally to rile up the player that fought him. Any player who came to test him would be wary of him. So, he needed to irritate them. "You talk a lot of crap," said Walt as he pulled out his great sword and pointed it at him. He was getting angry by the minute. "I am bored, and you aren''t the one that was supposed to fight. I don''t want to waste by time on you," said Balthazar. "You guys can send more people to check me out. But if you want to waste by time, at least put in a decent bet to compensate me for my time," he shouted looking at Walt. The shout was meant for the other guys who spectating. It was him telling that he wouldn''t accept fights without decent bet. A player could restrict the fights conditions when he had paid for an arena. "Isn''t he a bit too confident of himself," said one of the players of Foedus Rex looking at Slaine. "He has the calibre to be that way," said Slaine not giving a care to those players. He also had work to do and it was to get them to bet on Balthazar loosing. Most of these players haven''t been in contact with Slaine much and the only contact was when a team of the guild tried to push out the team that Slaine had been leading. At that time, Slaine had taken out one of their assassins and beaten him up with swinging the unique weapon that he got from the shrine. Slaine''s bow had a couple of blades lodged in the bow at the ends and a couple at the centre which allowed him to have melee fights with others. After Boris'' defeat, the guild had decided to not fight with them much and concentrate on the mass quest in Blackrock Town. Foedus Rex never considered a kingdom capital to be too important and there weren''t much popular at the place too. So, they decided to put their efforts on empires. With that situation and Slaine always involved in conducting exploration of new areas, hardly anyone knew much about Slaine or his behaviour. "I also think that bets are the best way to stimulate one''s spirit and have a good fight," said Slaine. He had also invited other players of the guild to enter the spectating area and more at the colosseum to talk about the fight. With the two guilds being at loggerheads from the start of the day, the topic wood soon gain momentum among the discussion of the players. "Do you dare bet?" Balthazar asked Walt. "How many combat points do you have? I doubt you have more than a 50. Why won''t I place 50," said Balthazar further goading the berserker. "Fine. I don''t know much about you, but the same is true for you too. Don''t get too complacent," said Walt putting in 100 combat points for a bet. Balthazar was a bit stunned on looking at the amount. He didn''t expect that Walt who just came to probe him had so many combat points. He didn''t know that these guys had all been individually been fighting others in the colosseum for the major part of the night. So, they ended up collecting a decent amount of combat points. It ended up being a good thing for him. "Unexpected. I will match it. Hope the others will make better bets the next time," said Balthazar as he started the fight. The countdown started and others were waiting to see what the new player could do. "He any good?" asked someone appearing beside Slaine. It was Brick. He along with a few others were practicing to fight against one another. Rudra who was told by Balthazar that it would be helpful if they could have training in the colosseum before they make a proper framework. "He is good. Just watch the show," said Slaine. "You done with your practice?" "Bah! It isn''t going anywhere. We need a proper structure or a trainer for this. Trying on our own would take a lot of time," said Brick. "Ya. I knew that. We are already trying to arrange such people and a proper practice regimen. Let us wait for Shadow and Rudra to do that," said Slaine. "We can have a bet with them," said Brick pointing at the players of Foedus Rex. Slaine felt very happy suddenly. He wanted to goad them to betting but with Balthazar''s approach they were being a bit apprehensive. He felt that Brick said those words at the perfect time. "They don''t want to. They apparently are not into gambling," said Slaine signalling air quotes. His provocation was quite effective, and Brick could see that were staring angrily at both of them. He also messaged Brick to goad them. "You sure. They seem to be quite interested," said Brick. "I will check if they are for some fun." "Hey guys, up for some betting. Gold or combat points?" asked Brick as the countdown was done and the fight started. Walt started with a charge strike to get close to the Balthazar as soon as possible and followed up with Cleaving Blade attack which made a 90-degree hacking motion to a side that would hit a player, even if he side stepped. Walt expected that his attack would have to be blocked by Balthazar even if he side-stepped. With the small buckler, he was sure that his opponent would be knocked away even if the strike was blocked. If one didn''t know that he had these moves it would be very hard to evade. All his peers agreed that even with a shield, this pair of moves if used properly would definitely provide him an advantage, especially if the opponent didn''t know. He expected the same result from their fight but only found him striking air. Balthazar who had seen a lot of moves had already expected and was guarding against the few moves possible. During the charge strike, he noticed that the blade of the sword was held horizontal, parallel to the ground. That would imply a sweeping attack as a follow up and berserkers had a long range and would have a good blow-back effect that would give a good advantage. So, Balthazar was already prepared for it. After he side-stepped the charge strike and moved a step towards Walt. He slid down onto the floor to evade the attack. As the sword went past him, he used the horns of the buckler to clasp the hand of Walt restricting him. That was the best time to counter as the sweeping attacks with heavy weapon would require a small amount of time to stop and redirect due to the high momentum of the heavy weapon (two-handed weapon). Walt was still unaware of his escape, he looked toward the direction he swung his sword and was slightly startled that he felt nothing hit his blade. As he looked in the other direction, he felt something latch onto his arm The next second, he felt a crippling pain on the other arm as status popped up in front of him indicating that his hand is temporarily in a crippled state. Balthazar had used the time to land a hit on the wrist of the other hand. It was to most common instinct to retreat away to in such a situation with status effects, but the other hand was clasped between the horns of Balthazar''s buckler. Balthazar had already had the advantage and had a hold of him. So, he held Walt in place with the left hand (horned buckler) moved the right hand in an upwards motion striking Walt''s neck with his axe. He followed it, with a hack at the other wrist. Whenever an axe hit its target it is usually bought to a stop are at least its momentum in that direction is lowered which allows a player to redirect it faster. Balthazar also held the axed at the middle of its handle allowing him better control and use it almost like a dagger. This is a common thing for hacking motions with most weapons and using such a common technique, he crippled both the hands of his opponent. The pain of his neck and hands being injured which happened within a couple of seconds had Walt completely stunned. He had thought Balthazar a swordsman or a guardian, but never saw either fight this way. With his neck injured, he didn''t dare to move it much cause of the pain. He still tried his best to jump back. As a berserker, he had more strength and that was always a good move in such situations. He found himself out of Balthazar''s grip but the next moment, he felt a familiar pain at his knee and he fell down backwards. He then realized that he didn''t escape due to his efforts, but it was because Balthazar had decided to stop his moments. He felt that he was a monster being trapped by a hunter by attacking the limbs. "Don''t ever burst in with a charge against a person without having any idea about his moves," said Bathazar as he struck to cripple the last limb. After that, Balthazar continued with a few more attacks aiming at the same spots and killed Walt within the minute, ending the fight. "Next," shouted Balthazar to signal to the others. He had already put a restriction on it as a betting match with a minimum bet of 100 combat points. So, he didn''t worry much. He also was sure that he could play well with the somnium headgear too. The spectators were all looking at the screens in awe. A couple of them already started to buy the videos of the fight. Both the members of Foedus Rex and Crimson Realm were stunned by the fight. "Damn! He is way better than I expected," said Brick looking at the video he brought and replayed the first part of the fight. "I told you. He is good. It was foolish of the other guys to close up to him. He is wielding an axe, it can be used both as a small and long weapon due to its handle," observed Slaine. Ward was red with anger and embarrassment at speed at which his friend was killed. He didn''t even manage to get any decent information from the opponent as the opponent didn''t use any swordsman or guardian skills. The man clearly used the axe in manual mode without use of any distinct skill that he could recognize. "Who''s next?" shouted Balthazar while they were thinking of it. In the meantime, a player had already posted the video of the fight on the forum. He put in the title Awesome Axe Man followed by an animated sequence of the first counterattack and then the video. He was an independent player and also put in that the axe man was challenging members of Foedus Rex with a bet. "Destruction, you try him out. Don''t let him get close to you," said Ward calling an elementalist called Purple Destruction. Purple Destruction was the main DPS of Golden Ward''s team and had the highest long-distance damage rate among them. The mage nodded and immediately went to the arena. Balthazar saw an elementalist holding a sceptre arrive at the arena. This was the last thing he wanted. It would be hard to showcase his axe with a mage. "Dude! You are a mage what are you doing here?" asked Balthazar. "Huh?" said Destruction surprised. It felt like an extremely stupid question. "Didn''t you just challenge for a fight?" he asked. "Damn! I guess that I have killed the other one too quickly that you forgot why we started this," said Balthazar shaking his head. "Hey! What are sending an elementalist for? I came here to have a close combat fight. If it was to be such a fight, I would have rather sparred with Slain n Shot. It would be better practice than this low defence class," shouted Balthazar. "You are of no use to me. Get out," said Balthazar waving his hand. "Send someone can fight close combat. Should have put in a restriction for that too," he grumbled loudly so that everyone in the spectator arena could hear him. Devastation was feeling extremely offended especially due to the comment that he would have rather fought Slain n Shot. It was clear that Balthazar considered him inferior to another person that he never even fought. "You talk so big, but don''t dare to fight?" he teased. "You aren''t even worth it," said Balthazar calmly. "I already bet the amount, you can forfeit if you are afraid," said Devastation. "Who is afraid of you, idiot. I just know that running after you to kill you is a waste of my time. I would have gotten at least 200 combat points in that time by defeating two guys in that time," said Balthazar. "Ah! That has a simple solution, just increase the bet to 320 combat points. I hope you have enough combat points," said Destruction as he put in all the combat points that he had. He was sure that Balthazar would find it hard to escape his attacks from a distance and he had the advantage. At the very least, he was confident that he could make Balthazar show his skills. "Fine. That is alright," said Balthazar with a smile as he immediately accepted the bet and started the fight. Chapter 145 - Axe man - II The count down from ten began as soon as he accepted the new bet. Balthazar was sure that he could take down the mage with a couple of hits once he came close to his opponent. The only issue was how much time it would take. The arena was a simple one and not too large. So, it was just a matter of time for him to get close with his high movement speed. But there was one thing that the members of Foedus Rex would think from now on. He had to act as a swordsman player due to his high speed attribute and not a guardian any longer. "It doesn''t matter, I just need to maintain high movement and avoid brutish behavior so that they don''t think I have an unnatural defence value," thought Balthazar as he readied himself for the fight. At the same time, Balthazar''s reluctance followed by Purple Destruction''s tease to forfiet the match sparked another conversation among the spectators. "You still want to have a bet?" asked a player beside Ward looking at Brick and Slaine. Slaine decided to act afraid to have them bet higher. It helped that Brick didn''t want to actually bet this time as he already knew of Purple Destruction. They have both been known of Purple Destruction as they had gathered information of the other top players in other guilds. "What don''t feel like it anymore?" added Ward mocking Slaine and Brick. "Wow! You suddenly are into gambling now?" asked Slaine in a low tone. "Fine, if you are interested, I got four hundred combat points and a bronze weapon design on me. Match it," he continued at Ward with an instigating look in his eyes. "What?" asked Ward a bit nervous with the sudden change. "Is he hiding something from me?" thought Ward and became wary of him. "What you lost your courage again?" goaded Slaine. He failed to instigate Ward but the ones beside him were angry enough. "Why would we be? Come on," said the guy who first asked Slaine. "The design is a level 15 bronze, at least 100 combat points," added Slaine. "Good, 500 combat points," said the player but suddenly stopped. "What happened now?" asked Slaine rolling his eyes. He was getting irritated by the way they kept stopping just before the confirmed the bet with the system. "I don''t have enough combat points," said the player in an embarrassed manner. "You can share it or bet what you have or replace the points with resources or so," said Slaine shaking his head at the stupid reason he gave. The player went back and in a second, he had two others support his bet. "Finally managed to get something from these guys," thought Slaine. "Any other takers?" asked Slaine. As Balthazar had dared to already bet more than 300 combat points, he was sure that Balthazar would be winning. Slaine''s confidence slowly increased as Balthazar kept surprising and he was sure of Balthazar''s capabilities or at least the ability of analyse his own chances after the fight with Boris. So, he daringly continued to instigate the others to bet against Balthazar. The three had put in their bets, but Ward being the suspicious one didn''t allow anymore of his peers to bet with Slaine or Brick. Even Brick didn''t want to bet anymore. He knew that Slaine won quite a bit of combat points in the colosseum today, but still couldn''t believe that he bet it all for someone else''s match. As the countdown ended, it was Balthazar''s turn to cover the distance between him and his opponent. They were separated by about 30 metres. He ran towards him with his best speed. He had a quick movement skill on his boots, but he didn''t want to use it before the mage used his movement skills. It was best to use them at that time. Purple Destruction started to release fire balls as soon as he saw his opponent sprinting towards him. The fire balls were slow but had a larger coverage than frost bolts and decent damage were the most basic spell of elementalists. They used very little MP compared to others and a large amount of them could be fired quickly. It was similar to normal strikes of the physical combat classes, but these had a longer range and used MP. It was the most common strategy for elementalists to get a handle on the capabilities of their opponents. It wasn''t the same as an AOE skill where the attack covers a larger area at a time. The attacks though can be covered over an area, the attacks would be released one after the other and the time difference would allow a person to evade if one is fast enough. Balthazar who boasted a high speed didn''t have much issue with it. He just needed to step aside for every fire ball which came close to him. It took less than 20 seconds for him to reduce the distance between them to 15 metres. "The f.u.c.k," said Destruction as he realized that the fire balls were useless. He immediately started to run backwards and changed his method to frost bolts as they were faster than fire balls, but in a few more seconds, he realized that it was still a waste. Balthazar was still able to evade quite a few of them and those that were too close due to the faster speed, he used his axe or shield to deflect or block them. Elementalists got a new spell at level 10 by default, but it was swamp trap. It is directed at the ground and takes a couple of seconds to setup during which an opponent could easily step out of the area. It wasn''t suited for this kind of PvP. Though Purple Destruction didn''t realize it, Balthazar was feeling discomfort as more frost bolts were blocked by him. It was quite straining to evade projectiles continuously while advancing. It was consuming of his stamina, but he didn''t worry and persisted as he could see that he would be beside the mage in a few more seconds. Suddenly, wave of wind which light blue and almost transparent in color flew out of the elementalists scepter as he came to a distance of two metres to him. It was an uncommon spell called Air Ripple that spanned about 3 metres wide and was very quick had a very strong blowback and stun effect. Purple Destruction was sure that he succeeded in pushing Balthazar back off his feet when he saw that Balthazar was stuck in its range. This was the best time for him to pile up more damage on Balthazar. Balthazar had been expecting such a spell which covered an area as he got close to the opponent. He had used the void state effect of the void mantle that he had equipped to remain impervious to the attack. It allowed him to pass through the attack. The attack passed through him and raised dust resulting in formation of a smoke screen. This was a common drawback of almost all AOE attacks. They tend to block the vision of the players involved. Unaware of the situation, Purple Destruction decided to close in due to the smoke to at least use swamp trap on him and continue with frost bolts. The frost bolts were the best option as they would cause a freeze effect slowing down the opponent. As he moved forward with that idea in mind, he suddenly found Balthazar sprinting towards him at a distance less than a couple of metres. His mind went blank with shock for an instant before he realized his position and started firing frost bolts. But Balthazar didn''t care is those hit him when he was so close. He blocked a couple of them with his buckler and one of them even hit him squarely on his chest. He didn''t care. The only thing important to grab a hold of the mage. Mages mostly wore cloth armor and though it was low weight, one of its biggest disadvantages was that it could easily be grabbed by an opponent. Balthazar simply used that to his advantage as he grabbed Purple Destruction''s armor and pulled him close to strike at his head with the axe. It was always best to deliver a strong blow to the head to stun a monster or a player. Destruction who wore a complete cloth armor wasn''t able to avoid the blow being stunned by Balthazar effectively. Balthazar wasn''t one to lose his chance and proceeded to cripple his opponent''s limbs as soon as he got the chance. Once, in his hands, the mage being a low defense clothe armored player was killed in half a minute despite his attempts to escape. Balthazar let all the spells that the mage had cast in these 30 seconds to hit him but never let him get out of range. The fight showed all the spectators that the Axe Man had high speed and moderate defense. It even showed them that the guy had some kind of invulnerablility skill that he could use in a dire situation. "At least, we know that he focused mostly on speed and would have low strength due to it. But his equipment seems to be quite good, might be top class," thought Ward. "It was a good plan to have you test it before I fought," he said to Walt who had already joined them in the spectator area. "It was a good fight. We now know a few things that we could expect from him now," he messaged to Purple Destruction to comfort him. "I will go to fight him, now. I will get back all those combat points and more," said Ward as he got out of the spectator area. "Finally, decided to step up, huh?" asked Slaine. "You guys better contact Epoch. Ward might not have it easy too. By the way, does he have enough combat points to bet enough to get back those from the previous losses?" he questioned the others of Ward''s team among the spectators who continued to glare at him without saying anything. "Ok. Up for some bets?" he asked but there was still no response from the others. "I guess I won''t be able to get anything else from these guys," thought Slaine as he let it be. Ward was already down at the arena. "I bet 450 combat points. I am going to take back all that you took," he said in an angry tone. He also told his teammates to bet with Slaine to take back the points that they lost, but they weren''t sure and decided to spare themselves some points. "You wan''t to bet 400 combat points? Fine. Why would I deny such a generous gift?" said Balthazar sarcastically as he started the countdown. As the fight started, Ward slowly moved towards Balthazar who didn''t move an inch. Balthazar had no idea about Ward other than the fact that he was a tank and carried a sword and a big round shield that was about 3 feet wide. It would be hard to evade any of the moves of the shield. His only option was to make more strikes to get into what would be considered his personal space and quickly take care of him, if intended to keep the momentum. He had the walrus throwing knives which he could use. He only wanted to use them to get close to the shield guardian. Golden Ward who was approaching him slowly and cautiously saw him put the axe onto this belt. He was sure that his opponent would use some kind of trick or skill than is unexpected. So, he kept his shield in front of his body covering everything except the head and legs. He kept his head low and kept peeking above it. "Damn! Does he really need to move like that?" asked a player beside Slaine and the members of Foedus Rex. "Epoch! When did you come here?" asked Walt who noticed that the player whom he thought was mocking them to be one of them. "Destruction told me to get myself here. That some player challenged us and defeated him already," replied Epoch. "Ya, he defeated me too. He is quite powerful skills," said Walt. "What is so strong to have Ward be so cautious?" asked Epoch. "Actually, we only know about an invulnerability skill. All his attacks were manual mode attacks and not actual skills," said Walt and he also began to explain how it all started. In the arena, Balthazar was getting bored of waiting for Ward to get close. "You going to come to me anytime soon?" he asked. "You can''t attack me from a distance like that mage." "Why don''t you come close," said Ward. He was now sure that his opponent was waiting for him to come close to spring some kind of trap on him. "Ok," said Balthazar contrary to his expectations and started to walk towards him. "Was he just fooling around with me?" thought Ward as he saw Balthazar simply walk without a weapon in his hand. "You know what?" said Balthazar suddenly stopping after a few steps. "I don''t need to get close to attack you," he said pulling out Walrus trowing knife and flung it towards Ward''s head. Ward who heard his words put his head out to check what his opponent would do, but immediately lifted his shield a bit higher to cover his head out of instinct causing the knife to strike the shield with a clanging sound. The next second he felt an arrow strike his feet. "What the hell?" exclaimed Ward as he looked at Balthazar finding him holding a crossbow in his hand. "You! Didn''t you say that you wanted a close combat," shouted Golden Ward his eyes almost bulging out. "Really?" asked Balthazar rolling his eyes. "You think you get to say that after you sent that mage over?" he continued as he fired another arrow. Chapter 146 - Daniel Blyth Though crossbows could be used, it isn''t much effective without ranger skills in a PvP. Ward failed to block the first shot as he didn''t expect it, but the second one he easily blocked with his shield. He knew he could do block as many arrows as possible, but even the blocks would make him lose a small bit of HP and every bit was important in a PvP match like this. He couldn''t let Balthazar continue like this and he began to move away to evade from the shots. He concentrated more on improving his strength and vitality not his agility. So, he couldn''t completely evade an arrow if the player firing them was too close and had to resort blocking it. This was a common thing among tanks, and he wouldn''t care about it usually, but with his new opponent, he really didn''t want to lose any HP. He quickly realized that his opponent could always stay at enough distance for him to tire him down with arrows and the best option for him is close quarters combat. He initially maintained a distance as he was concerned that Balthazar might gain first advantage by use of his invulnerability skill. In the arena, the skills would usually be reseted after each match. This, he was sure that Dormant Blade would have the invulnerability skill. Right now, it felt like he was going to get the first advantage anyways and it would be best to start a close combat so that he would also be able to deal some damage. So, he began to run towards Balthazar while blocking any arrows that came towards him. In a few seconds, he was within two metres distance of Balthazar, when Balthazar also equipped back his axe. Balthazar equipped the axe as he ran to meet Ward. Ward started the fight with swinging his shield, followed by the sword, in quick succession. Both of those had a larger size than Balthazar''s axe and that gave him a longer range. So, Balthazar had to side-step and evade. Balthazar kept doing the same for a few seconds. As he saw that Balthazar''s range was shorter, he got more confident and aggressive. This was exactly the thing that Balthazar was hoping to see. He wanted to fight a close combat intensive fight to show the use of an axe and buckler. He started hacking at the shield with his axe and countered any sword attacks with his shield. Usually anytime a shield was used to block or deflect an attack, the attack would still deal the blocking player a little damage unless a shield counter is done. But with the horned buckler, he needed to make a proper deflect and with a flick of his wrist, Balthazar could have the horns of the buckler land a strike on his opponent sword arm. Thus, each block of his would cause more damage to his opponent unless the opponent had practiced sword play and had the conscience and skill to retract his sword arm in time. Due to this style of his, Balthazar was able to deal damage in both blocks and attacks with his axe causing Ward to suffer almost double damage compared to him. Ward also noticed it soon and was seriously thinking about his options as he started to retreat. He went back a few metres back before he stopped. "What happened? I thought that we could have a good fight with both of us having a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other," said Balthazar mockingly as stood still and waved his axe and shield. "Don''t be so shameless. That thing is both a weapon and a shield," said Ward looking at the horned buckler in his opponent''s hand. "So, you think this is a disadvantage?" asked Balthazar waving his shield. "Okay! For you, I am willing to forego the shield," said Balthazar as he put it back in his bag and pulled out another axe in his left hand. "This ok?" asked Balthazar waving the second axe. "Another Black Iron weapon? Don''t regret it when you lose," said Ward as he rushed back at him in anger. He was confident that his damage rate would get higher compared to Balthazar now that Balthazar didn''t have a shield as he had higher strength. "This is going to be fun," said Balthazar as he rushed at Ward. He understood why Ward would be glad that he put away his shield, but he still would have an advantage. He held both the axes just below the axe head. Holding an axe at that position would enable him to use the axes to block and even grab the opponent''s hand between the axe head and his hand. This time, he moved towards the left hand of Ward on which the big shield was equipped. It was quite apparent to the spectators and even Ward. Ward also stepped to his left and tried to bash Dormant Blade with it. But Balthazar who hoping for this side stepped avoid the shield, blocked the swing of the sword with an axe head and immediately jumped back right in front of Ward such that there was hardly in inch of space between their head. Ward tried to pull back but noticed that his shield hand was clasped between the head of the axe and Dormant Blade''s hand. Balthazar rotated the axe and held it upside down and tilted his wrist so that Wards wrist would be held between his wrist and the axe. The spectators couldn''t see any of this. They only saw Balthazar jumping in front of Ward for some reason and Ward who had higher strength could easily push, knock him down with the shield. It was considered a stupid move from their perspective. Ward was the only one who realized that things weren''t that simple. In fact, he was a bit afraid as he tried to pull his hand out and realized that it wasn''t to his advantage at all. First, he couldn''t pull out his hand from the hold which implied that Dormant Blade had higher strength than him. Second, he was too close to Balthazar and he remembered the manner in which Dormant Blade kept Walt subdued in the first fight. He swung his sword at Dormant Blade''s head desperately. He knew that he had to act fast and strong to break away even though he was aware of the fact that Dormant Blade could block it with his axe. Luckily, Dormant Blade wasn''t looking at his sword arm and directed the axe in his free hand towards the shield arm. "You didn''t forget my invulnerability skill did you?" whispered Dormant Blade as he struck the wrist of his shield hand. That was a strong blow both at physical and mental level. With the activation of void state, the sword simply deflected off Dormant Blade''s body even though Ward put all his strength behind the attack. With shield hand of his opponent crippled, Balthazar released his hold on it and aimed for Ward''s neck with one hand while the other went for the sword arm effectively crippling them both. He also kicked at one of Ward''s legs causing him to stumble and fall. Dormant blade didn''t miss the chance and followed up with attacking his legs and then hacked at his opponent till he won the fight. "You see, that guy is quite adept and has strong skills. Ward wasn''t cautious without reason," said Walt to Epoch. "Hmm, I agree. I still don''t understand a few things that happened, but even I learnt a few things. Moreover, he seemed to be very well practiced with axes and had a strong advantage at this stage, but we need to see if he can maintain at higher levels," said Epoch nodding his head as he replayed the video. "You know who he is?" he asked looking at Walt. Epoch understood that with that level of skill, the player would be a strong asset if he managed poach him. "No. He was brought here by Slaine. He also seems to be a member of Crimson Realm," said Walt pointing at Slaine who was seated in the spectator arena. "You know that guy?" asked Epock looking at Slaine. Slaine was now in a fix. He was definitely not in the guild. Else, the members would have been able to check the name. The only exception was if the guild leader hid it. So, he quickly sent a message to Rudra while came up with a lie. "He is just a honorary member. A friend of Shadow Tyrant," said Slaine looking at the screens. That was the best that he could come up at such a short notice and it would give flexibility to Balthazar. As the fight was done, he could now contact Balthazar and asked him to come out before he got into more trouble. It was not just Epoch and his peers but also Brick and other members of Crimson Realm that were currently interested in Dormant Blade and it was best if Balthazar himself could come as he would be able to give the best explanation that would best suit his convenience. Looking at Slaine''s message, Balthazar also came out albeit a bit reluctantly. He didn''t get to show off the advantages of the axe much, except for the moment where he trapped Ward, but almost all players spectating would have noticed the used of the horned buckler. "At least completed one of my aims and no noticeable difference between pod and headgear for now. I can show off my axe skills properly another time," thought Balthazar as he exited the arena. With him exiting the arena all the spectators were pushed out at once. The spectator area would disappear if the arena itself was cleared of all members. The exited player immediately surrounded Balthazar at the arena. He had gathered quite a few fans during the past three fights. The Axe Man''s name also became a popular one in the forums and the last fight where he used only Axes to defeat Golden Ward made it much more so. "Why don''t you wait a few more minutes? I heard you wanted to fight me," said Epoch coming before Balthazar. "I never said that. In fact, I didn''t want to fight you, but your fans refused to let me go and pissed me off. Else, I wouldn''t have wasted my time with them," said Balthazar moving away from him. If he could attack in the colosseum, Epoch and his team would have definitely done so. But the system had kept a number of guards at the place. The colosseum offered battles between the players in a safe environment. Yet, a number of players would have conflicts due to their loss even if they didn''t lose any experience. So, the system had put strict guards at the place and the perpetrators in case of any attacks would be thrown into city jail. This was learned the hard way by some players early during the day. So, hardly any players would initiate a fight at the place and even if they had more numbers, one couldn''t be completely convinced of being able to kill the person before the guards arrived. If they didn''t kill the player at whom they had animosity, it would be a total waste. Even in his past life, no one attacked a player due to conflicts in the arena. The only successful attacks were pre-planned ones by rival guilds or teams. "But you did say that you could defeat me with ease, right?" asked Epoch blocking his way again. "I need to logout. Got some place to be. Why don''t I find you tomorrow? I doubt you would improve much in short time," said Balthazar as he pushed him away. He knew that Epoch or the others wouldn''t dare to attack him as he had shown enough skill that they would already expect him to be able to log out safely, even if he was attacked. "Slaine come with me," said Balthazar as he went and purchased another arena and got in along with Slaine. A couple of seconds later they both arrived, and Balthazar immediately logged out after that. "What did he call you in for?" asked Brick. "A bet match which he forfeited," said Slaine as he walked off towards the shop. Though it wasn''t possible to exchange combat points between players in a friendly manner like coins and other resources, one could always lose them in a bet. This was used by guilds quite frequently, but it would always result in loss of at least ten points that were required to book an arena. Balthazar had used the chance to return the armor that he had borrowed and got out of the arena looking the same way with the use of disguise skill. He had also informed Slaine to tell Hammer that he could sell his original equipment designs to the Forging Association for contribution points. He logged out and had a lot of time till the departure. He made a call to the butler, Thaddeus to get him a few more nutrient solutions for the journey. Nutrient solutions were used mostly by the people after hard workouts or high level of physical activity. His trial could be considered as a high level of physical activity, but Balthazar still got more than the usual amount using his grandfather''s name. After that, he simply lay down and the pod and rested waiting for Richard to arrive with Robert so that they could leave the planet. As he was resting, there was quite a commotion going on somewhere else. Arthur had sent a signal to Daniel but the only acknowledgement he received were the sentence - "Tell him to contact me from Delarvaran''s post" There was no response after that. Unable to do anything else Arthur and Winston forwarded the message to Walt who also behaved in the same manner. Currently, Arthur and Winston were at the forbidden areas considering their next course of action as the head of the table of Ouroboros seemed to be mortal danger. The alarm used by Walter was meant for that situation and it was expected to choose an interim leader for the table and make necessary arrangements to handle the danger. They had already selected Arthur as the interim leader and he had plans to lead a contingent of his men to the location. The only reason, they hadn''t moved was because, Walter had explicitly informed them not to approach. As they were in that dilemma, a man suddenly opened the door and walked in. He looked older than any of them with pale white hair that fell to his shoulders. He had pale blue eyes, a broken nose and an eye patch covering his left eye and part of a scar that extended from his upper lip into hair. Everyone got up as soon as they saw Daniel enter the room. Though he technically had no authority, he was the person that commanded the most respect among them. "Hmm, I have kept all you waiting," said Daniel as he signalled them to sit down. He cleared his throat and looked like he was in deep thought about something. As he came closer to them, most noticed that he seemed to be in some kind of thin-combat suit. It appeared like he was already geared up for a fight. "I will be frank with you guys, then. I have already managed to contact Walter and he seems to be in an unforeseen trouble. The kind that hadn''t disturbed the alliance since its formation. Our main priority is to understand this unit and find out their intents," he continued. "Winston, Vargrave and Arthur remain here. The rest will continue like this never happened. Anyone who lets this leak will be executed. We can''t let any other forces realize this nor can we let anyone think that we are in a dire situation and Walter is missing. This includes our own men, sons and daughters. Arthur will have complete control of the table in Walter''s absence," said Daniel intensely. Everyone simply nodded and followed his instructions. There were none raising any objections or even showing any displeasure even when they were told to remain ignorant and not participate. They all had the confidence and belief in his decisions that they were willing to do as told. Chapter 147 - Untold History After all of them left, Daniel also stood up and went to a corner of the room. He took a black object shaped like a spire and one foot long and stuck half of it in the ground at an inconspicuous point in the wall. A slight buzzing sound came out as the spire started to move on its own and entered the ground. It was clearly a specific kind of key. As it went down a small crevice opened up at the corner of the room enough for one person to walk sideways through it. "Follow me," said Daniel and led them through the crevice. At the other end was a small room about 12 feet wide in both directions and only 8 feet high. There was a small table with chairs and a vending machine in the room. Daniel sat at one of them and signalled the three to do the same. "Whatever I tell you doesn''t leave the room. None of the current members of the table are allowed in this room. Only a select few who managed to persist and were willing to guide the next generation are allowed here. By bringing you here, you should understand that I am about to tell you things that usually only the current head, Walter is qualified to know. You are the three that I am sure will be the ones guiding the next generation in my place, if you live long enough. I expect you to remember this and act accordingly and not disclose any of it to your peers, loved ones, even on threat of death. Doing so, would only put you all in more of harm''s way," threatened Daniel. "We understand Daniel. None of it will leave this room under any circ.u.mstances. We realize the severity of the situation and were expecting something like this," said Arthur and the other two nodded in agreement. "Well, where do I begin?" asked Daniel looking at the wall as he thought about how he would explain to them. A minute later, he had gathered his thoughts and decided to explain it from the start. "The table of Ouroboros had been maintaining peace behind the scenes for a long time. Over time, we have come to know of many secrets of this world. A number of them were things that the world wasn''t ready to know. The same goes with a number of our personnel too. That is the reason we compartmentalize a lot of this stuff," said Daniel. "We also have a few rare allies. This is something most of us don''t know," said Daniel. "Aren''t the Price family our allies?" asked Vargrave. "Almost everyone our age is aware of the fact, especially after we married some their members." "The Price family, eh?" asked Daniel smiling like he was looking at a naive kid. "They are a sub-ordinate family to us. Walter knows it and everyone qualified to enter this room does. Our behavior outside is just to fool prying eyes," explained Daniel. "Evelyn and Harvey Price are aware of this too. They also just play along," said Daniel looking at Winston who had a shocked expression on his face. "They are yet to be strong enough on their own to match us. If they reach such a stage technologically, we will consider them as allies. They are the most powerful subordinates that we have and there is no doubt at that." "There are three things which we need for us to consider someone as an ally. One, they need to have strengths and capabilities to match our own. Two, we need to have a common goal or a common enemy and third is that they should maintain a low profile and the world shouldn''t be aware of their actual capabilities," said Daniel counting them on his hand. "If we ever ally with anyone not satisfying these three conditions, we are as an organization in mortal danger or have fallen down from our current standing in the world," said Daniel. "Now the ally I currently wish to talk about was mainly due to a common danger that we were extremely worried about." "Is it the knights? They are the only unknown variable that we could think of. You have known of them beforehand?" asked Arthur. He was unable to believe that they would keep such an organization which was responsible for the deaths and severe injuries of few of his friends. "No," said Daniel derisively. "The knights are a new menace, though I don''t disagree with your point. There is little to no information about them. That is what makes this meeting so important," said Daniel. "The enemy we were aware of are the apes. As a completely different sentient species with a civilized society, we have always expected them to compete with us sooner or later." "You are aware of the apes'' existence from before?" asked Winston. This was something that surprised all three of them. None of them ever expected that something that had been threatening the entire human race had been known to Daniel and his peers all along. "It had been known to us for quite a long time," said Daniel scratching his head. It was topic that was very hard to explain especially because most humans found it hard to believe, even after the first fights that happened in the latter half of the 26th century. So, even though they had known of it for a few centuries, it wasn''t most sensible to tell other as the world would refuse to believe of a new species that was developed technologically and intellectually on par with the humans. "It is kind of hard to convince most humans of it, but we had to have precautions," said Daniel. "Think it from that perspective. We had to handle the information and prepare for a fight in a society which wasn''t prepared to accept the danger they were in and would rather beat us up as they would think that we were wasting essential resources." "This was at an ancient time when humans were trying to get out of their original home planet and spread to the galaxies. Think about the effects of one simply suggested to prepare for war at this time," suggested Daniel as he leaned back on his chair with his hands folded. There was no need for the three of them to do that. The read enough history to understand it. The need and advantages of terraforming was something that every human was taught during their childhood. The entire table went silent in contemplation. "You could have still had us better prepared," said Vargrave breaking their silence. "A lot of people could have been saved," added Winston. "We did as much as possible. At that time, no one was ready to believe, so we kept it hidden. We could have let it out all in the open after the first few fights, but that would also raise questions. What was our source? How do we know? What are we going to do then?" asked Daniel in response to Winston''s remark. "We would have been made use of by the others. The other forces wouldn''t let go of us simply because we helped. They would have accusations that we withheld important information and falsely pinned crimes against humanity on us. We would have been made a common enemy and probably wouldn''t have survived the situation," said Winston. "Yes," said Daniel. "You finally understand our situation. Even the unification took 20 years. Most forces would just use the opportunity to squash us, just because they could. We did everything because we have a sense of self-preservation and also help the growth and survival of humankind. So, we couldn''t come out with all our information in the open," said Daniel. Though it was all the truth, most of them had grown up hating the aliens for their attacks and their destruction of human planets. It was hard for them to accept that they could have provided more help but didn''t. Daniel remembered that Walter had the same sombre expression on his face when he was first informed of this. "It is not like we completely withhold information from the others. We use our position to leak out information whenever possible. For example, I heard that one of our own stopped an invasion on one of the border citadels successfully. The wreckage did have one red ape and a bit of salvageable information. At the most, one could guess that there would be a mutant among the apes, the red ape from that situation, but now all higher authorities already believe that there is a hierarchy among them. That thought didn''t come out so quickly on its own. We had a hand in that," said Daniel. "You know the hierarchy of the apes?" asked Arthur. "Black, Red are soldiers and elites, then come the royals Purple and golden kings. The Purple ones are about the same size as the red apes but a lot stronger with a tail that is as strong as python and thus making it very hard to defeat. The golden ones are variants among royals. Don''t really have anything on them except for their color and purple ones, immediately consider them kings from birth," said Daniel. "Rumour is a few of the purple and golden ones can actually understand us and are extremely fast learners." "How do you know all this?" asked Winston. "There were a number of encounters with them before we expanded ourselves on other planets from earth. There were always myths and lore of their species. Some revered them as gods and others, monsters and we found evidence of it too. Probably, would have showed the evidence to the world if not for the occurrence of few things," said Daniel. "Few people realized that the apes never considered staying at earth. The ones that found themselves on earth were estranged kings and their court fleeing from their own civilization. Though our planet was habitable, it was not the best environment for them and they left not due to any losses, but because earth was an inferior place to live and was too far away from their original home," explained Daniel. "These few people were on good terms with the aliens and also learned the use of their technology. These were the godspeed dynasity. They were a part of the table of Ouroboros. We weren''t the only family that were members of the table," said Daniel. "The godspeed dynasity were our allies?" asked Winston extremely surprised. Most of the coalition were extremely prejudiced against the godspeed dynasity and the knights. If it were known to any that the Blyths were old allies of them, the effects of it weren''t something he dared to think about. "Yes. If not, do you honestly think that we would have let the twins that Walter brought to live and get married into our own family? It was clear that they were both Godspeed family members," said Daniel. "Walter learned the same after he became the head and that is one of the reasons, he trained your grandson," continued Daniel looking at Winston. "They sent expeditions to the far reaches and found a place to survive. They gathered more information and managed to get it back to us. The apes aren''t the only aliens in the world according to them. They were in constant conflict with other races. In the end, their leader decided that they leave and make good use of their knowledge to grow at the edge of the apes'' civilization. A large congregation left with them and we were also offered the chance. But we denied it. Some of us decided it is best to liaison to the rest of humanity by staying back. Our ancestor could be considered selfless people to let go of that chance or maybe just cowards. I will never know," said Daniel. "About half the members of the original table went to support their efforts. They setup up civilization there and made an army that could stop invasion into their areas. As they did it all in the outskirts, the apes left it alone assuming they were some small race of barbarians trying to fight in the outer edges of their civilization which allowed them to flourish. They soon became a warden of the outskirts and even apes were helpless if they stepped into their area," said Daniel. "Apart from them similar efforts were made by other dynasties to block the other races from reaching us in a similar fashion to the Godspeeds. They came back to us and gave us our knowledge periodically. This knowledge was used to help speed up our technological growth. At that time, there were still others who were part of the table, the Vickers, Rognizens and so. They were all lost to the quarrels and fights among us. We luckily survived to this day. We had our contacts with the godspeed family a century ago, but then something happened. We don''t know how this happened or why. The same is the situation with our other allies," said Daniel. "This brings us back to the situation at hand. Our foremost suspect of this lack of contact from the others are the knights of the Old Republic. There were the only ones which we suspected to be aware of the actual situation. Now, we have another, Jack Godspeed." Chapter 148 - Jack Godspeed "Walter had once seen his image before and was sure that he is still alive. He was the second son of the leader and was considered the next one to lead them. The reason that he asked us to not approach was not because he wanted to prevent anything bad, but to keep this information a secret," said Daniel. "The godspeeds are alive, have about 10000 members under Jack Godspeeds command." "So, we need to contact them," said Vargrave. "If the situation is as you say, then it is best that we contact them as soon as possible. Did Walter already make contact? Do we need to prepare to receive them?" "Wait a second, if the godspeed are our allies, don''t the knights know all this?" asked Arthur. "Why did they do something so crazy as to cripple the forces guarding our territory?" "We don''t know either. It was something that always confused all of us. It doesn''t make sense. It was the same as cutting the branch they were sitting on," said Daniel. "That is the reason, we are treating the knights with extreme prejudice and want to capture them to find out more." "So, what are we to do now?" asked Arthur. "First, we don''t know if the remaining members of the Godspeed dynasty are responsible for the issue or not. We don''t even know if they are with us or against us. But we are still hopeful that they are against the knights of the old republic. The reason for it is simple," said Daniel pulling out a locket in the shape of an eye. "This is the locket of John Blyth. It was given to him by his mother when Walter rescued them," said Winston realizing the locket immediately. "Yes, it is this locket that might help us. This locket is called the eye of the Watcher. It is usually always in the hands of the leader of the Godspeed dynasty. I am quite certain that John was Jack''s son due to this. It was one of the main reasons that we expected that the Godspeed were all dead. Else, it wouldn''t have been given to a escaping pregnant lady who would give it to her child," said Daniel. "You knew the details of John''s parents all this time?" asked Winston. "I did. But I expected both of them to be dead. Now, this is the best way for him to trust in us. So, the priority is to keep Balthazar, Bolena, Robert and Jordan while we make sure that none are aware of this. I don''t even trust most among us. We couldn''t move Balthazar, Bolena or Robert because moving them would bring suspicions to others. Jordan is already at a safe place," said Daniel. "What do you want us to do?" asked Arthur. "You will serve as the head of the table for now and maintain contact with the other organizations as required. Inform the chairman of the alliance that we are trying our best to get Walter back and for them to not allow any vehicles or devices near the places where they suspect him to be," said Daniel pointing to Arthur. "You need to not let anyone know and act as everything is the way it was today morning," he continued, looking at Winston. "Arrange the fastest ship for me and Vargrave. Need a strong team to support us. Arthur you will arrange that. None from any other family are to know of this. That''s all for now." "What actually happened to my brother? What did he see?" asked Winston finally unable to hold himself back. He had been waiting for Daniel to inform him about Walter''s condition for all this time and Daniel didn''t say anything about it. He had been fearing the worst for the past hour and felt that Daniel had avoided the topic intentionally. So, he finally couldn''t hold himself from requesting it. "Ah! Fine. I will be quick. Walter had Rupert infiltrate the ship as a mechanic. He was observing the pirates and that is when Rupert managed to discover that Asuragana ShouryaPrasad was coming to meet the captain of the pirates and his other nephew. He wanted to strike a decisive blow and called for us to remain ready. He had Rupert plant explosives all over the ship for quite some time now and he intended to use them and then make them follow him. He intentionally left some explosives unarmed as he wanted them to think that he failed and was running away," said Daniel at a rapid pace like he was dictating. "He planned to lead them to a desolate area where he had asked the armed forces to be station ready for ambush." "Sadly, even before Rupert triggered it, Jack Godspeed arrived with an armada hot on tail of Asuragana ShouryaPrasad''s ship. They began to bombard the unhindered. So, Walter crashed his own stealth ship into the unhindered to get Rupert out," he continued. "Everyone was confused. Both sides thought that Rupert and Walter were enemies. The planted explosives were used. Shouryaprasad was killed by Jack. Few of them escaped. The front quarter of the ship is apparently a huge escape ship. Jack decided to follow behind them, but both Jack and Walter recognized each other before Walter managed to get away on another ship. His ship and equipment is lost. That was the reason that he had to establish a separate comm channel." "Vargrave and I will lead the ship along with a team to reach Walter. I am planning to go in search of Jack myself. I don''t know if Walter will come with me or not, but I hope he is able to. This was the main content of the report that Walter sent," said Daniel informing them everything he heard. "Well, there is at least one good thing. If Jack recognized Walter and didn''t take any action, isn''t it tacitly informing that they were still allies. Else, it would have been had for Walter to escape, considering the fact that the opponent has an armada," said Arthur. Vargrave and Winston also nodded in agreement. "If it was that simple, Walter would have joined them and talked it out with Jack there itself. He wouldn''t have run," said Daniel shaking his head. "Jack attacked Walter after recognizing him?" asked Winston. He felt that Walter would have been seriously injured under such circ.u.mstances. "No. Jack didn''t do anything of that sort, but we are not sure about his aims for now. Actually, Walter and Rupert got caught by Jack''s men, but they didn''t kill as Walter informed that they were responsible for the explosions and weren''t with the Nirbaadh pirates. He gave the locations of the unarmed explosive, before they believed him. Then, Jack recognized his face in the video and ordered his men to let him and Rupert leave quickly, but there were quite some odd behavior from him which is very confusing," said Daniel. "When the armada attacked ShouryaPrasad, it was with extreme prejudice. They apparently bombarded his ship to tiny pieces. Except for the escape shuttle containing about 10 members, everyone else would have been killed. That consisted of about a thousand members. Jack personally went after the escape shuttle moving towards the unhindered to attack and kill ShouryaPrasad. He was apparently in complete control and his men managed to capture him, but Jack beheaded the man as soon as he confirmed his identity," said Daniel. "What that is ridiculous. We could have learned a lot from someone like him about his activities," said Arthur. Such a thing would definitely make anyone aware of the pursuers. It didn''t follow common sense. "I agree. After that Jack apparently took a lot of effort and even at the cost of one of his battalions having severe injuries and being incapacitated, he got hold of Ranapratap, the current captain of the Nirbaadh pirates. He was knocked out and taken prisoner. The only scenario that we can think of is that, he might be working for the knights. Then, he would be privy to all information known to ShouryaPrasad and would need RanaPratap to be alive instead," explained Daniel. "That is indeed extremely suspicious, but in that case, he wouldn''t have let Walter escape safely," said Vargrave. "Indeed, it was like his entire behavior was inconsistent. The more surprising thing that Walter informed me is that even his lieutanents behaved like that was the expected and most efficient thing to do. So, we are expecting them to have some contact with the knights. Thus, it will be a very...." said Daniel. "Honestly, I don''t know what to expect," he said shaking his head. He had been thinking of a lot of scenarios, but every one of them had a flaw or two or expected Jack or Walter to behave foolishly. So, he couldn''t decide on anything. "It is indeed very peculiar. I will keep on lookout for any other peculiar behavior. Will contact Quentin if he managed to hear something similar underworld," said Arthur. Quentin was his contact in the underworld. He was a broker who dealt in shady deals and murderous contracts. But he was mainly an information broker who had been of help to the table of Ouroboros in the past. He would hear most things that others wouldn''t and kept meticulous records. "Hmm, you do that. Just don''t let the reason be leaked. He always had tied to gather information from us too," said Daniel. "He wouldn''t dare. He had been under the operating table once and I had someone plant something in his head. He knows not to leak anything pertaining to us," said Arthur. Arthur never trusted Quentin completely. Quentin was the kind who would always provide his services to the one who offered better compensation. So, he had long since put him under his control. "Also, will give you the location for the wreckage of the unhindered. Have Harvey hold back the armed forces. Let Evelyn check it out first from a distance and let them confiscate it only after the Godspeed troops leave. Tell her that we already have a trail on the new troops and we don''t want her to interfere. Tell her it is an order from above," said Daniel. "I better contact her uncle too just in case she tries to defy orders. She is an ambitious one and would most probably try to follow them," thought Daniel "Ok. I will see to that," said Winston glad that his brother wasn''t in any danger currently. With Jack Godspeed currently on the Nirbaadh pirates'' tail, he doubted that they would try to retaliate. Daniel opened the door to the main conference hall and the four of them returned to it. "Winston," called Daniel as they were about to leave. "Keep them safe. I already sent one of my peers for Bolena but hearing the stories about the events of the citadel, I doubt that the boy would be able to discover anyone trailing him. I went over the details and the evidence, but there are so many gaps in his story. He was definitely hiding the real reason he managed to find them out. So, it is best if he isn''t followed by anyone that he doesn''t know. He might consider them an enemy," suggested Daniel before they left to their work. Arthur and Winston left together to inform of the situation to Lucius and tell him to maintain a closer distance to them than the usually allowed. They didn''t want to take any chances. Winston also called Salazar to be on standby on a stealth shuttle at the planet. "Do you think that he had really kept his capabilities and tricks secret from us?" Winston asked Arthur. "Daniel is right. Most of the achievement was pushed by him on a dead lieutenant colonel and he even used the same excuse to avoid informing anyone of the traitors. It was an ask from him to trust us, but he still didn''t manage to clear tell us how he knew their plans in such detail. The Nirbaadh pirates were anything but sloppy in their previous attacks. They would have a lot of contingencies and agents planted there. Even after the blast, Salazar found three trying to kill the kid. I can say that he needs to have a certain level of awareness of his surroundings, if he managed to do all that before the unexpected blast," explained Arthur. "Don''t plan on grooming him as your successor. He is meant for the table. It had been quite some time that we had one at a high position in the border forces. Under the present circ.u.mstances and after hearing Daniel''s secrets, it is only a matter of time that he joins as a proper member," added Arthur patting his old friend on his back. "Yes. I know. I have known it for quite some time, but I still tried to change him. Now, I am sure of it. That ship has sailed. With the Godspeeds back, I don''t know how things would change," said Winston in a tired voice. Chapter 149 - Daves Predicament As Daniel was explaining the situation to Winston, Vargrave and Arthur, two people were lying down in rest. One was Balthazar who was simply waiting for Richard to pick him up. He was relatively happy and didn''t have any idea of the attack that had happened. The other wasn''t in such a happy state. It was Dave (Asuragana Dharma Pratap), who had finally managed to escape from Jack Godspeed''s pursuit. He was very tired and in severe pain. He had lost his left arm in the fight and suffered quite a few burns and other injuries. He had been resting at a corner in the infirmary. He had barely escape from near death with a very small fraction of the bandits who used to be under his brother''s command. About 90% of them had all died in the vicious attack by an unknown enemy. They all barely managed to escape their pursuers and a majority of the survivors were injured with over 40% of them severely injured that they would be dead within a day or two, if they didn''t receive proper medical care in a city. With the ship damaged and most of the resources that were available, it would be extremely hard for them to continue living the manner they previously did. He also realized that there might be spies among the crew when the explosives were used by Walter. So, he believed there to be a high chance that apart from the main attackers, there were other that were keeping track of them. He would need to comb through the entire vessel to make sure it wasn''t so. It would require a lot of manpower and time. He considered leaving the vessel to be the most prudent action for his survival right now. He was sure that ''the unhindered'' which had been the legacy of the Nirbaadh pirates would be lost in his hands completely. But that was the least of his problems. He is currently a person who had lost an arm and was extremely weak and tired. He was among pirates the most ruthless kind who only listened to the strongest among them. He doesn''t know much details about any of them or their capabilities but was sure he would be no match to them in his condition. With his brother out of the picture, some of the l would surely try to fight for leadership of the remaining members. The survivors could be considered to be the strongest of the bunch. If he was given such a strong teammates, he would have considered it a gift, but right now it was like a loaded gun pointed to his face. Even if he told them that he didn''t have any intention to lead, they wouldn''t believe him as he was the brother of the previous captain. The lieutenants of his brother who had helped train him would be the ones who will try to kill him the most. It was a nightmare and he would have run away from the vessel in a small stealth vehicle if he had the option, but his presence was already requested at the commander''s cabin. Moreover, a couple of strong escorts were sent to retrieve him. They would definitely kill him if he tried to escape. They could simply tell the others that he was colluding with their enemies. No one would fight for him after he was dead. He didn''t even know who among his brother''s strong and loyal men were still alive. He only hoped that a few of them and himself could mutually support each other. Without any other options, he had quietly got up and decided to move along with the two who came to escort him. He didn''t know what the others had planned for him and hoped that it wasn''t anything drastic. He resigned himself to his fate as he made his way behind the pair of them. He followed them to commander''s cabin where the 10 lieutenants and three commanders waiting for him. The unhindered was a very big ship and it had four parts the size of a general military warship that would be used to plunder their targets and make their escape. It had four commanders who were in-charge of these warsh.i.p.s and 5 lieutenants directly under the captain. Apart from that a few lieutenants were under the commanders and had served under them. One of the commanders died and another one, Arkhan was injured worse than Dharma Pratap, but was still brought to the cabin. Of the lieutenants under Rana Pratap, three survived in good health and were also waiting for him. He knew one of them, Darak. He had been with them since the time his father was the captain. He was quite loyal to his brother and suspected that if it wasn''t for his intervention, they might have already killed him. He was a veteran with cropped hair and maintained the appearance of a businessmen. Hardly anyone would consider him a thug when he went into a city. Though they were lieutenants and technically had a lower standing than the commanders. They were ones who had always been under the direct control of captain. They along with their teams were known to be quite strong and 80% of their teams survived. Even, the men of the two dead lieutenants under the captain had a similar survival rate. It was much high, more than double compared to the other teams. Thus, the other commanders and lieutenants were extremely wary of them. "You are finally here," said Basuli, one of the commanders. Basuli was about 7 feet tall, dark skin, a fear inducing face and braided hair that fell all over his torso. His escorts nodded to Basuli leaving him in the cabin. "I guess we can discuss the important things now," he humphed looking at the Darak. "We don''t know who our enemies are, but have they attacked quickly and put us in an extremely perilous situation. We are left with only one of the vessels and even lost the main part. A lot of our brothers also died in the fight, but this we don''t have time to mourn for them. He has a lot of issues that need to be examined to make sure that we don''t fall into another trap," said Basuli. "What is the status of the engines and transport. I was told that we they were over heated and need urgent maintenance," asked the other commander, Moreno looking at Basuli expecting answers. Moreno was a blue eyed, dark haired caucasian about 8 feet tall. He had a very intimidating presence and was well known as the brute among the four commanders. Arkhan had the highest number of pirates under him currently, but a majority of them were injured. Basuli had the next best and was the commander who was in-charge of the vessel that they escaped in. So, he knew the situation best among them. "It is going to take some time. Darak and I have personally looked over the items and the state of the systems. I already sent a few of my men on our shuttles to get enough materials to make the ship reach a good hiding spot. Also made contact with Geraldino to provide us a place to hide and recuperate," said Basuli. "The main issue is the situation with the ship. We obviously had a few moles among us. That is the only plausible explanation for the explosions," said Dharma Pratap. He planned to make preparations to escape during this search. "We need to sweep through the vessel to make sure no silent beacons were planted." "Agreed," said Darak. "I suggest we check each other''s quarters and their belongings. This is a matter of life and death. We can''t consider our brother''s privacy in this instance. The fact is that Basuli and his crew are in charge of the vessel. So, if any mole is remaining and has a moderate control of the vessel, it is highly likely they are in his crew. It is for the best, if we check each other''s crews especially Basuli''s. What do you say?" asked Darak looking at Basuli. "How dare you? Why should we show you our possessions?" roared one of the lieutenants beside Basuli. "Yes, you are just using the situation to your advantage. Don''t forget you are talking to a commander, lieutenant Darak," shouted another. Basuli looked at Darak''s face for a moment as he raised his hand to stop his lieutenants. "It will be done. A silent beacon would be the worst thing that could happen to us, right now," he said. "Captain! You can''t be serious," said one of them in a hurry. They were pirates and had the habit of always keeping one or two valuable artifacts in their rooms for a rainy day. Most of the men except Basuli''s crew had lost their rooms and their valuables in the attack. Basuli''s crew had their valuables stowed in this vessel and were afraid that they would be taken away, especially in a situation where all others had lost theirs in the fight. The same applied for Basuli''s lieutenants. He didn''t expect Basuli to agree and he definitely didn''t want to let others check his quarters. "Enough! There is no need to be concerned about it. Though you search in his room for a signal, I request you to let our brother''s cover it with some cloth. At close range, even a silent beacon can''t escape detection even put in a lead box. I hope you agree to this," said Barak looking at Darak and then the other pirates in the room. He needed them all to agree as the checking was definitely advantageous to them. Before the others could even ponder on it, Darak had replied. "It is a reasonable request. We won''t be so shameless as to put our own brother''s in an unfavorable predicament. Also, any aggression among brothers needs to be dealt severely by their own lieutenants and commanders. Else, it would lead to in-fighting and we don''t want that now. It is best if we all announce this in the vessel after the meeting." His words surprised the other pirates in the room, including Dharma. All the others had surely thought that Darak was using this chance to move against Basuli, but it didn''t seem so. "Let us come to the main point, then," said Basuli glancing at Darak and Moreno. He wanted to bring the topic of the next captain or at least the interim captain. His lieutenant had already called him captain and hence, he needed to deal with it as soon as possible. He viewed at the two pirates who seemed to wield the most power apart from him. He didn''t even consider Dharma Pratap to be important and view him only as a pawn of Darak. "Though it is inappropriate, my lieutenant had called me captain. It is best that we decide on whom to lead us. At this perilous time, we need a strong leader who makes the last decision. Without one we wouldn''t be effective as a group," said Basuli as he nodded towards Arkhan. Arkhan was waiting for this signal for quite some time. He and his crew had suffered the most damage and were extremely afraid of aggression from others. Basuli had already made him an offer when he was at his weakest. He had already accepted to be Basuli''s second in command. He got down on one knee while holding bandages in one hand. "I, Arkhan Borra, believe that commander Basuli is a very able leader and is capable of letting us gain us getting back all that we have lost. I pledge my allegiance to him and on behalf of my crew," said Arkhan with his held head down. "Mierda Cobarde," cursed Moreno hardly able to believe Arkhan''s words. He was already aware of Basuli''s intentions and he was sure that Basuli had made concrete plans for it when he heard the lieutenant refer to Basuli as captain, but he had never expected Arkhan to offer his allegiance. He was hoping that at least Darak and his two fellow lieutenants would oppose him right now. "I can''t deny your logic, Basuli," said Darak. Moreno''s heart plummeted as he heard those words. He wished to beat them immediate. "But it is counterproductive to talk of it at this time," continued Darak. "We can discuss it once we are safe and our men are all back in good health. Still I agree that we best let you handle all the affairs currently. After all, you had been doing it all this time." It was neither an acceptance like Arkhan''s or a rejection like that of Moreno''s but a deferment to decide the leadership at a later time. Even Basuli couldn''t deny it as he also knew that Arkhan''s allegiance was only due to the temporary situation. He couldn''t completely trust Arkhan. He gritted his teeth in anger but couldn''t fight against both Moreno and Darak as that would just deplete his troops. He still didn''t have much idea of the enemies who had attacked them. So, all he could do was simply accept it. He still had a better chance than the other three, even after they get to a safe place provided by Geraldino. Geraldino was his contact and he would still have decent control at that point of time. He still had his chance and his plan was to conserve as much strength as possible. He had lost many able fighters and didn''t want to lose more either. That is why he tried it in a peaceful manner. Chapter 150 - Daraks Secret "Fine," replied Basuli looking at Darak and others angrily. "Apart from that there is something else that I want your opinion on. Geraldino agreed to house us, but for a price. We will need to work for him till that is fulfilled. I hope that this price could be paid by all of us equally," said Basuli. "How is that possible? That Geraldino is a slave driver. It would be years before manage to get the amount smuggling things for him," said Moreno. "You have all your valuables stored here. You surely have enough to procure his services." "I do, but I am responsible for only my men. I will only pay for those who serve under me. I won''t waste the hard-earned money of my crew for everybody. Even the suggestion would cause my crew to revolt. Only, a pea brain like you would think of it," said Basuli without giving Moreno any quarter. It was then that Moreno truly understood how Basuli managed to get Arkhan to agree to his conditions. Being one of the men under Basuli had never had such value to any of the pirates before. He brought his most trusted lieutenants to the cabin but, he wouldn''t be surprised if any of the others lieutenants would also support Basuli once they heard that he would pay for them. Working to clear the debt of Geraldino while Basuli and his men got free would put them in a very precarious position. Even after they clear the debt, Basuli and his crew would have recuperated and been pirating for a couple of years. They would probably even have more men and then, they would only have the option of pledging allegiance to them or dying under their swords. He doubted that Basuli would spare his men. Moreno''s eyes flashed with anger as he had a strong urge to attack and kill Basuli that very instant. If not for the fact that he was outnumbered and he didn''t know the stance of Darak and his men, he would have surely attacked Basuli. "That is hardly fair. You surely wouldn''t be much effective as a pirate group without our help," said Morena. "You wouldn''t diminish the strength of the Nirbaadh just for a few coins would you? You can surely help out your fellow brothers." "Brothers?" laughed Basuli in a loud crispy voice. "Aren''t you being too chummy? Since, when were we so close Moreno? Aren''t you being too shameless?" asked Basuli. "I''m shameless? You are the one who is being shameless. How could you value your coins more than the lives and health of your brothers?" shouted Moreno in reply. He took the moral high ground and tried to get Basuli to help him out. He was sure that Darak would support him after he had shown so much initiative. "Don''t talk nonsense Moreno. We are pirates. Does that even mean anything to you?" asked Basuli. "Asking a pirate to put their coins before something else. Now I understand why they call you braindead." "Mind your words," shouted Moreno as he pulled out his sword and started to move aggressively towards Basuli. Their corresponding lieutenants also released their swords. "Hold it there, both of your," said Darak as he and his peers finally made a move. "We don''t need to be uncivilized. Let us talk it out." Basuli looked angrily at Moreno and Darak and put his sword back into his sheath while signalling his lieutenants to do the same. Moreno still had a dark look on his face. He had always been treated as a brute and was called the same by even his men behind his back. He hated being known as such. He knew that he was emotional and doesn''t scheme as much as the other commanders and preferred to settle disputes with his fist, but he never considered him any less intelligent than the others. As such, he didn''t even withdraw his blade. He was still angry over the remarks made by Basuli. "Basuli, you are being unnecessarily rude, here. Don''t forget that we all have our pride too. If you don''t control your tongue, I would also have to persuade you to do so," said Darak fiercely. It was clear to everyone that Darak didn''t mean any offence by it, but it was a way to calm down Moreno. "Hmph. You can say all you want Darak, but if you or he thinks that you can get me to spare my coins without offering anything in return, you are dreaming," said Basuli without taking any step back. "Fine. We can discuss and come to an arrangement. It isn''t like we can''t provide you something in return for your help," said Darak. "Once, we are back on our feet, we can always set aside a certain amount of our loot to pay you back." "Yes, we are quite willing to do so. It isn''t like we would ask you to pay for us without any thing in return. We could definitely pay him back the amount with interest," said Moreno adding upon Darak''s statement. Darak had finally made a statement that would allow him to get through the situation. "Willing to pay back with interest, are you? Fine, a hundred percent interest compounded per annum," said Basuli with a sneer. The large amount of interest again led to a round of curses and swear words followed by discussions. It took them another 10 minutes for them to finally come to a consensus and leave the commander''s cabin. Moreno walked out angrily after agreeing to a proposal from Basuli. He had to agree to have his crew and himself provide them with 50% of their loot at every plunder till they managed to give Basuli back his coin at an interest of 50% per annum. It would definitely make them bleed but Moreno had to resign to that offer because of Daruk. "That Darak definitely has other plans. Else, there is no way for him to have accepted this plan. He will surely act when we are at Geraldino''s. We need to keep an eye out for him and his crew," said Moreno as he went back to inform the details of the meeting to his crew. He was in an extremely bad mood. Dave and Darak along with his followers went out of the cabin after Moreno leaving Arkhan and Basuli along with their lieutenants there. It used to be the commander Basuli''s cabin to begin with and he continued to stay in the cabin. As Darak went out with the others, Arkhan immediately came out with his concerns. "Captain Basuli, Darak agreeing for this looks very suspicious. We need to be careful of him. He was never one to take an offence lying down," warned Arkhan. Arkhan''s eyes almost bulged out when he heard Darak agreeing to his proposal. Even he would never have taken that offer, but Darak took it a time that would be extremely helpful to Basuli. He even made an enemy out of Moreno with this decision. If Darak actually attempts to follow through this decision, he would make an enemy out of Moreno and even his followers. Basuli was already against Darak. So, he was sure that Darak had some other plans and would definitely have some other plans. "I am aware," said Basuli agreeing to Arkhan''s concerns. "I have always considered him to be my strongest opponent in the attempt to become a captain. He had been alongside Rana Pratap for a long time. He has surely has more contacts and friends than me," said Basuli with a grave look on his face. Arkhan realized that Basuli was just putting on a brave front throughout the meeting and all the small tussles with Moreno were just to sound out Darak. Clearly, Basuli had failed to get any decent response from Darak and this frightened Arkhan as he currently was in the same group as Basuli. "He is the main reason I recruited you. The more people that could observe his men, the better," said Basuli. "Moreno isn''t foolish and he would also keep a look out for any movements or communications made by Darak''s men. That is the reason, I took initiative to send my men for any and every resource required for us to patch the vessel and move to Geraldino''s." "But Moreno is extremely stubborn. I doubt he would share any of the information he learned to us," said Arkhan. He had seen both Moreno and Basuli quarrel in the cabin for some time now. He was sure that Moreno wouldn''t really support him. "You don''t understand Moreno. He hates to be under someone''s leadership. He was the same even with old captain. The only reason he kept it down was because of the captain''s uncle. He didn''t want to go against that old man," said Basuli. "Darak could be considered the strongest among us, after the old man. If he has a plan, it will cause us both to bend the knee and Moreno would prefer to be under my leadership than Darak as no one knows anything about him. He would definitely come to cooperate with us, if he manages to realize Darak''s plans." "You sure about that?" asked Arkhan. He couldn''t leave anything to chance and wanted to make sure of it. He had already made plans to have a few of his men to observe Moreno''s movements too. "Positive," said Basuli in a tone which exudes confidence. "I have been fighting against him for a long time. I understand him quite well." "You best go and recuperate yourself. Contact one of my lieutenants if you need anything. It is best if you recover to certain extent before we reach our destination," said Basuli looking at Arkhan concernedly. Arkhan bid his farewell and went out of the cabin back to his resting place. There are lot of things to be done to the vessel and it even needs to be thoroughly searched. The cabin would be extremely noisy and wouldn''t be the best place for him to rest. So, he went off to the quarters provided to him Basuli. Basuli had already taken care of him and his lieutenants when he offered Arkhan, the chance to be his second-in-command. A couple of minutes after Arkhan and his men left the cabin, Basuli told one of his lieutenants to take care of the vessel and went out informing that he better convince his crew of the decision they made. He went out and made his way not to the quarters of his crew mates but to the armory of the vessel. Darak was waiting for him there at a corner in the dark unlit room. "You are finally here. How was the result?" asked Darak. "They are behaving as we expected, uncle," said Basuli. "Moreno would have most of his focus on you. The same applies to Arkhan. I suspect he might have his men observe Moreno too. He might be trouble." "Good. Then, we proceed as planned when we get close to Geraldino''s. Kill Arkhan. He is a pest and will never completely be under our command. He looks docile but is just more cautious than the others. He is far more ambitious than Moreno," said Darak. "But it would be hard to pin it on Moreno, if Arkhan has his men trailing Moreno," said Basuli. Their plan wasn''t going exactly the way he hoped. He had given Arkhan way less credit that he deserved, but he realized his mistake when Arkhan raised his doubts about Moreno. "You are far too limited in your view, Basuli. Moreno''s men will soon learn of the things that happened in your cabin. I know that there are a couple of lieutenants who would rather serve you than split their loot. After all, they would crave for coins the most after the fight and would probably contact you. Make use of them to distract Arkhan''s men and then make your move," said Darak as he handed him a dagger. "It belongs to one of Moreno''s lieutenants that joined us in the meet. Use it well," said Darak. "The others would soon be looking for me." "All right. I will take care of every thing. I just have one doubt," said Basuli. "Geraldino or Dharma?" asked Darak as he already expected Basuli''s thoughts. "Actually both, but I am most concerned with Dharma," said Basuli. "First. Geraldino is an old friend. I have something that he wants and I am the only one who can give it to him. I have already talked it out with him and he is willing to accommodate us in return for my help. This is something personal and it is best that you don''t ask much about it," said Darak. "You are playing it quite close, but I know you can handle it. It is Dharma who concerns me most. I am not sure that your peers would support you if he ever comes back. I heard they were quite loyal to the Asuraganas in the past," said Basuli. "You don''t need to worry about them. I know how to keep them in control. Dharma would be escaping in a stealth shuttle in the middle of our journey. It is best that we let him off. We don''t know who our pursuers are but I am sure that they wanted the captain for intel against the knights. Dharma could be used as leverage against him and they would only follow us for him," said Darak. "That is the reason for my concern, Darak. He is the best way to get to the knights. We can surely use their help at this time," said Basuli. "Aah! If it were any one other than my sister''s son, I would have killed him for infuriating me. All right, I will tell you this as you are going to be my second in command and successor. But beware. Make sure that no one would think you know of this," said Darak. Basuli also wanted to hear the reason why his uncle had adamantly wanted to avoid the knights at any cost. It was very confusing to him why he wouldn''t accept the patronage of well known group of terrorists who wanted to help them. "The captain was never in collaboration with the knights. They have a hostage, Asaragana ShouryaPrasad," said Darak. "Huh, but the man was in good health and was quite free to move around. What are you talking about?" asked Basuli with a confused expression on his face. "When someone joins the ranks of the knights, he is no longer considered the man he was in the past. I don''t know what is done to them, but they become puppets of someone else. The only reason the captain was agreeing to that man was because, he was threatened. Threatened by his uncle that his brother would also be made to join them," said Darak. "You are kidding," said Basuli unable to believe his uncle''s words. It sounded ridiculous to the extreme that a person could be controlled to that extent. "He had always kept this a secret from everybody. Of course, I learned a couple of things on the sly," said Darak. "He let the Nirbaadh pirates be in the clutches of the knights for the sake of his brother. I couldn''t even convince others of this situation and held it in for a long time. If anyone knew that I was aware of it, I would have been beheaded." "It cannot be. You are saying that all this time, we have just been pawns for both the captain and the knights?" asked Basuli. "Yes. The captain had always had a soft spot for his family. He wanted to get his uncle back from their clutches too. He had stopped caring about his crew for a long time. You have no idea how adamantly he tried to keep his brother from executing the mission of killing that Blyth kid," said Darak. "To be frank, this attack is a boon to our group of pirates. We can finally be free from the knights. A new chapter finally dawns upon us," said Darak with a smile as he patted his nephew on the back and left the armory. Chapter 151 - Leverage Balthazar just lay resting in the pod for some time before Richard came to his room along with Robert and Lucius at half past ten. The three of them were already in combat suits and the gave one to Balthazar too along with Ellie''s promised inventions in his room and insisted that he gear up before leaving. Balthazar was now sure that something had happened, and the others weren''t informing him. The mansion was considered to be very secure and they would only have such preparations if there was an incident which prompted them to up the security. They made their way to the ship that was placed behind the mansion, he noticed that they were going to a battleship instead of a commercial one. He also noticed that a battleship was being stocked up with provisions silently. It was clear to him that something was afoot, and they didn''t want to let him know of it. He messaged Winston quickly about it, but all he received was a reply that told him that the things that he way didn''t concern him and to concentrate on his own task and it was the best that he could do right now. He was frustrated and was sure that it was related to Walter and most probably hints of the event would be common knowledge soon enough. Else, Winston would have told him that it wasn''t related to Walter. He felt that he was owed the information as he was responsible for realizing it in the first place. As he was boarding the ship, Lucius laid a hand on him and pulled him aside. "Look kid. I know that you want to help. Winston sent me a message. Let me inform you. I and Richard are here to protect you from any human interventions in this trial," said Lucius. "So, something did happen? Can you tell me what it is? Is Walter safe?" asked Balthazar. "You still don''t understand. I am considered one of the strongest among my generation and so is Richard. There are few things that Walter wouldn''t be telling me and I am sure that anything that Walter doesn''t want me to know wouldn''t be told to Winston either," said Lucius. "He is safe, but he called for a meet with his predecessor." "Walter''s predecessor? The previous head of the table?" wondered Balthazar loudly. "What could be so important that he would need an old man?" "I don''t know, and I still am not informed of anything. I was only tasked to keep you two safe in case something unexpected happens," said Lucius. "It is just a precaution and I am sure it has nothing to do with Nirbaadh pirates. If it were them, I would have known about it all along and you would be probably informed." "Do you understand, why I am explaining this to you?" asked Lucius. "Yes. I understand. It is best that I concentrate on the task at hand and not worry about it and I probably couldn''t do much if I were informed of it," said Balthazar nodding his head. "Yes, both Arthur and Winston had repeatedly told me to keep you safe at all costs. I will be trailing you at a certain distance. You are being monitored by us closely. It is unlike the previous trials. It is best if you could satisfy the minimum requirements of the trial and signal for a retrieval," said Lucius. "If it was Winston who told me, I wouldn''t have cared. But Arthur was the one who warned me. He is currently the acting head of the table in absence of Walter," said Lucius stressing on each word so that he would understand the significance of it. It clearly meant that there was a high chance of him being in danger and it is best if he were aware of the surroundings. "I will be on lookout for anything odd," said Balthazar. "That isn''t the main thing you need to do," said Lucius shaking his head. "You are to take care of Robert and keep him safe. You are both going through the trial together and will be dropped together. You will be monitored by Salazar too. We are already telling the trial judges that you have a death threat and we are here to trap any attackers," said Lucius. "Arthur had already told them that you are qualified by him to be capable and this entire thing is just a trap set by us." "What? Is he serious?" asked Balthazar shocked to hear his words. "I don''t think anyone is actually after you. Else, Winston and Walter wouldn''t have let you out. But this is the best way to keep a close eye on you during the trial," said Lucius. "If you are tensed, go play that gave for a while. Don''t forget. You need to keep Robert safe. It is not a big issue if you fail, there is still a good chance for Robert to become an elder. If he fails, your entire plan goes down the drain. Considering the fact that Arthur vouched for you, this entire trial is not necessary, and you can still continue to participate in the competition for elders even if you fail the trial." "I will keep it in mind," said Balthazar and both of them made their way to their room. The room was quite spacious and had a couple of beds, tables, chairs, drinks and was attached to the cooking room. It was like a luxury cruiser. Balthazar didn''t expect them to be travelling in such a fashion and was quite surprised to see this. "Surprised? Right? We were supposed to go on a newly made battleship outfitted with new tech that could hasten our travel. But we had a sudden visitor who requested for it. So, we got this instead," said Richard as he pointed to a sofa to have a seat. "Hmm. That is unexpected," said Balthazar with a smile and head nod indicating that he is aware of the situation. He saw Robert already wearing the somnium headgear and laid down on a bed. "What is he doing?" asked Balthazar tilting his head towards Robert. "Your proposal to Elias made him value you and Robert. He offered Robert an automated reality where he can practice his skills. He had been trying it out most of the time these days. He isn''t even concentrating on his job at the hospital much and applied for a managerial post. We suggested that a long time ago, but he refused it before as he wanted to work on the patients and on his research. I guess, a brush with death changed his priorities," explained Richard. "Do you also want to try it out?" asked Richard. "Not now, but I surely will try it out," said Balthazar. "I thought that they would contact me also for when they develop a decent framework for training people. It is best if I could get a lower level training for the guild too," thought Balthazar. "OK, I was also asked by Leon and Elias for you to contact them before the trial. He seemed to have thought of something that would be mutually beneficial to both of you. They had something in plan and wanted you to have a look at it. Elias told that he had been working on something that would be useful to you. Something that would help you with the game and improve your guild strength or something like that. He left a mail for you," said Richard. This piece of news was something that he hadn''t expected at all. He had invested in a cyber cafe and had set up a workshop, but he didn''t think that Elias would also know about the guild. It was a welcome development that he never thought of. He was sure that anything related to guild that Elias could provide would be a training environment, but he didn''t understand how he came to know of it. "I will definitely contact him. Thank you," said Balthazar in surprise. He took his headgear and plugged it into an internet port as he sat down on a sofa. As he got online, he opened up his mail and followed up the link sent to him by Elias. He ended up in the workshop that he had previously met with Elias and his team. Elias was immediately notified when Balthazar entered his workshop. He turned around and came to meet Balthazar. "Hi kid, I am glad that you came to the place quickly. You on the plane?" asked Elias. "Yes, I am. Richard just informed me that you wanted to meet," answered Balthazar. "Good. It is about the proposal that you came up with. I got a better method to get funds for this project," said Elias. "I came up with it after I heard about your guild and activities in the new game." "How did you get to know about that?" asked Balthazar in surprise. "It was Ellie. She had tried out the game and told that your guild is doing well. It seems that you are quite famous in the game. Shadow Tyrant, right? How is it going?" asked Elias. "Oh! She must have heard that Shadow Tyrant owned Crimson Realm and made the connection. In this way, anyone in the family would be able to make the connection," thought Balthazar. "She started playing the game as well? I hoped that she would contact have contacted me," said Balthazar. "I will suggest that, but she isn''t one who likes to play the game a lot," said Elias. "She did ask me to call her once you visited and would probably be coming right now. It was actually her suggestion that allowed me to think of this. She says that the game is a good source of income and there are many who would put a lot of money into games. I have never been much into those things." "She is not wrong. The game is quite addictive and apart from just the experience of the game, we already have plans to participate in competitions and the like and a real-life experience in fights is quite useful in the game due to the nature of somnium tech. That is the reason for my fame," said Balthazar. "It is not just the gamer folk but a lot of people in different walks of like can make a living out here. It is quite a good source of income," continued Balthazar. "I am glad to hear that. Honestly speaking, I am not really sure about the amount you would earn and I know that you wouldn''t be able to give me proper figures in these early days. I want to know that if we create a decent framework for the practice of your members, how much funds are you willing to appropriate to us?" asked Elias. "That is a hard question to answer, right now," said Balthazar nodding his head. "Ellie seems to think that you would have sufficient funds without much issue. I had informed her of your proposal hoping that we could get her help temporarily, but she suggested that it is best to talk to you for this. She seems to think that you wouldn''t have much issue with it," said Elias. "Well, she seems to be much more confident than me," said Balthazar. Though he had an idea of the amount that was spent by super guilds in developing a proper training in virtual, he hadn''t the slightest clue of the amount that would be required to support his own proposal. "It is not that I am not willing to do it, but I actually have no idea how much you would need for this. I have a decent amount saved up," said Balthazar. "Hahaha. You are a colonel of the military. I can guess how much you have saved up. It surely isn''t enough. I need ten professionals and they would take at least a million credits as their salary per month. I doubt that your savings would even pay for that. At the very least, I need at least five to start up with the proposal or the warframes before the competition," said Elias waving his hand. He didn''t have much confidence to begin with. He had already asked Richard who told him that Roberts assets received from his parents and Walter was already vested in quite a few projects and he wouldn''t be able to provide much in the short time that they had. But he was informed later that Robert was willing to put in his own savings that he made as a surgeon to support this, but it still wouldn''t be enough. "Don''t worry. I just hoped that we could have a head start on this. I have already informed of your proposal to the elders council. It is just that some a few idiots are delaying the process because the suggestion came from you. They are using you and your past of leaving the family as an excuse. They won''t be able to delay it for long. We will surely be able to simulate the other things that you asked like shooting," he continued. Balthazar quickly put his hand on Elias shoulder before the guy continued his talk which he found both undermining and irritating. "I can do that. What else do you need?" he asked. "You can provide ten million?" asked Elias in surprise. "We also need equipment. People willing to test it and they would need hazard pay and all that. The total would at least be an amount of 50 million for the first month to start it up," said Elias. "Fine. I hope you can start it up soon enough. I will transfer you the amount immediately," said Balthazar. He suddenly had a doubt. The guy only talked of things that would be required for the security proposal and nothing about training environment for the game. He had an amount of 70 million left from the amount he won in the challenge with Max. He thought of using it for this for training of guild members or at least start it up and would later have to provide funds from his earnings in the game. "The 50 million would allow for creation of the training environment, too right?" asked Balthazar as the doubt popped up in his mind. "Oh! I can''t really give you a definite answer on that. All the things I mentioned was for your proposal and creating the warframes instances in samsara framework. It would be beneficial for the elder selection and the fact that you provided your own funds would also be advantageous to you. The fact that the proposal came from you along with the funds to develop it would limit the rights to your creation to you, Robert and myself. Even if the elder council wants to deploy it, they would have to consult us. Isn''t it great? Even after Robert becomes an elder, he needs leverage to make effective use of that position," said Elias with a cunning smile. "Oh! You plan to use it as leverage for funds, right?" asked Balthazar immediately understanding Elias intentions. He had called for Balthazar mainly for this purpose. Funds are something that a researcher always required. Without them, he would stagnate and not able to progress much. "You understand me well, young master, Balthazar," replied Elias with a nod. "As for the other thing, I don''t know much about games to promise you such a thing, but I am sure Ellie would be able to help you. She is supposed to have been here by now." Chapter 152 - Basic Training Environment With Ellie being late, he continued to talk about the further investments that they might need for their project. Elias quickly explained that though it would be considered his project, he was bound by agreement to work only for the Blyth family and he couldn''t have done this if he wasn''t a Blyth. As he was one of the Blyths, once Robert was an elder, he would have enough authority to provide more funds and it wouldn''t be much of an issue. He had just wanted to get a better hold of the project by starting it early and registering it in their name rather than the elder council. "It is just a power play. I would have been able to set up the entire thing, even if I don''t receive any funds from you. The elder council also believes it to be a very good venture. Just a few morons delaying it," said Elias reiterating his words. Balthazar decided to create a corporate account for their venture at the place and transferred the funds right there. He called for Robert who also joined them in the room. As they were filling up the forms online, Ellie and Leon joined the room. A couple of minutes later, they managed to setup the venture. With the main process done, Elias offered to handle all requirements and other processes which both Robert and Balthazar left to him as they didn''t know much of it and also Ellie was waiting for them with Leon. "Congrats, on your project," she greeted both Robert and Balthazar. "But keep an eye on my uncle, he tends to go through funds quite fast," she whispered into their ears. Though she whispered it, it was clear that she didn''t mean it and was just teasing her uncle. Everything they talked was quite audible to the others in the room and Elias being the administrator could always replay the scenes. So, if she meant it seriously, she would have told it. "If your planning to get something done, you should get a proper virtual workshop by paying for the service. I hope that you don''t have plans to work here and be a nuisance," grumbled Elias in return. "Let us make this quick, Ellie. I don''t have much time," said Balthazar. He was in no mood for Ellie Edgerton''s antics. "Fine. I believe that you need a proper training environment to develop quickly and stably in the game. It is a good source of money and you wouldn''t be just half-heartedly working on that workshop, right?" asked Ellie. "Yes. I agree. We need something of that sort, but apart from money we need different kinds of personnel. You are definitely going to be the designer who codes and supervises its functionality. But we need other kind of personnel too, right?" asked Balthazar. "Of course, I need someone who could actually train those people and come up with a decent training regimen. I have played games before too. It needs someone who understands the mechanics of games, very well. With vita-nova, we don''t even need this person to understand the game mechanics, he just needs to be a good trainer at physical arts. I brought the best person for this," said Ellie confidently pointing at Leon. "Ahhhr, hrr, hrr," coughed Leon as he heard her causing her to turn towards him. "You wanted me to teach some gamer to improve in that game," said Leon looking at Ellie like she told the biggest joke he ever heard of. "Yes. Why not?" asked Ellie. "Because they are not Blyths or affiliated families. I wont teach or help provide any training facilities or techniques for anyone who isn''t," said Leon. "I thought you wanted to create some training environment for the members and personnel of the family and wanted my help for it." "This I cannot help you with, Balthazar," he continued looking at Balthazar this time. "I understand," said Balthazar immediately. He understood Leon''s concerns. He was the weapons master of the family and couldn''t simply impart his skills to anyone. Even if he decided to teach someone only a little, he would find the experience extremely unsavory. Moreover, for experts of his capabilities, especially teachers, it would be a matter of pride. He couldn''t accept any layman as a student nor could he accept it if anyone who received his guidance was no good fighter. So, training a large organization as a guild was definitely out of question for him. "This has got to be among the top ten," said Elias face palming himself as he heard Ellie''s question. It was clear that he considered the ask to be one of the stupidest ones, he ever heard. "Master Leon, please wait a minute," continued Balthazar. He had agreed that it would not be possible to ask him to participate in the guild directly, but he was sure that he could provide other kind of help. "Though I accept that you cannot train my employees, I am sure that you can introduce us to someone who can," said Balthazar. He had already sent a mail to Rodrigo about this but hadn''t given any definitive answer. He wanted to try his luck with Leon. "That''s true. You have been an expert for quite some time. I am sure you know a few who could help us with this," said Ellie agreeing with him. "I am sure that you would have been acquainted with quite a number of people in your life. As a weapons master, you would have come in contact with many experts. I don''t even need anyone in good physical condition. Such men would be hardly willing to help me. I just need someone who at the very least has a high-level military training and can teach the methods of a ranger," said Balthazar. "Ranger? You are quite specific. Why do you need your employees to have exploratory and survival skills?" asked Leon. "Oh boy! These games usually need those skills more than anything. They all are essentially moving through new areas and killing monsters. It is true that a military ranger would be very effective for this position," said Ellie. "Well in that case, I do have some that would be a good fit. But I have no way of making him agree. Only Robert has a decent chance," said Leon pointing to his cousin. "You know an old ranger that could help us?" asked Balthazar. It was true that there is a good chance that Robert might know someone as he was Walter''s grandson. He somehow failed to realize this in spite of spending a lot of time with his cousin. "I don''t know no one," replied Robert with a shake of his head. He was as surprised as Balthazar when he heard Leon. "You know the old pervert Lewis in the wheelchair in your permanent resident ward?" asked Leon. "Yes, he had been there before I even joined the branch," answered Robert and a couple of seconds later realized what Leon''s words meant. "You mean old man Lewis could help us? He was that strong?" asked Robert in shock. The others had no clue of what Leon was talking of, but Robert had a very clear understanding of it. The man that Leon was talking of was well known to a number of medical professionals at his place of work. Most patients would have a natural tendency to respect the doctors, especially at a place like the city hospital of Asklepian which was considered a temple of medicine. Here, the medical professionals were even revered. The only few who didn''t have such a behavior were ones with a strong background. Old man Lewis was known to be a lecher in wheelchair that hit on any female he laid his eyes on. "Yerman Lewis is someone that I once considered a rival. He was one of the strongest personnel on side of the alliance at the end of the unification era. He comes from a strong military background and spearheaded a most famous ranger unit," said Leon. "He is one of the best rangers I knew but suffered an unexpected betrayal and barely remained alive. Haven''t met him for a long time. Why don''t I introduce you guys? He would enjoy doing something again." It was clear from his tone that Leon felt sad that Yerman was in such a state. They had the rivalry that inspired one another and as an expert, he found it hard that someone who could have been the same as him fell to a state, where he would be known as a crazy lecherous man. "I know him pretty well. It makes sense. He tells the wildest stories about his expeditions but most of his descriptions though far fetched seem to be quite plausible. We always thought he was someone like us who lost the use of his limbs in a research accident or something," said Robert as he recollected his talks with the old guy. "No. Poison and burn damage. It reduced him to his state. Quite a decent amount of money was expended to try and recover him, but now no one finds a use for him. Even his family let him be," said Leon. Ever since that incident, Leon had a lingering fear at the bottom of his heart that the same could happen to him and he trained much worse due to that fear. It was the reason that he always involved himself in knowing of other''s research in medicine and surveillance tech as he feared betrayal at the bottom of his heart anything. "I can talk and suggest it to him if you are interested," said Robert looking at Balthazar. "Sure. Why don''t we all go and meet him once we return," said Balthazar. "Apart from him, we can still have more people join us. Hopefully, I will get a reply from some of my contacts in the military," continued Balthazar looking at Ellie. "Ya. It is always better to have more minds. If I have ever learned anything, it is that there is no fixed correct path for anything. It all depends on person and we need multiple view to provide an environment that would benefit a number of people," said Ellie. "That leaves us with you. What do you need for creating this?" asked Balthazar. "Need a workspace, something like this. Then, personnel for the same. I can get that," she said cheerfully. "Once we have some concrete plans to start, we would need to buy another space to create the environment. It would not be like the trials space offered by samsara technology. You would need to rent a decent amount of virtual space or set up a large server room for it." "I expected the space requirements and have already been looking into it. I needed to know what you and your team would need," said Balthazar waving his hand. Though the Crimson Realm guild never had its own training space for its members, it did manage to borrow a few facilities from a quasi-super guild for a limited period of time. He had a good idea of what would be required and if he planned to make his own guild, a super guild, he would also need plans to expand this much further. "I am actually not sure of what the requirements would be. I need to get a decent idea of it before I can even decide on the number of personnel that I would require in my team," said Ellie. Balthazar also realized that it was true. It was always data that had limited people. Any creation would require a large amount of data for it. He couldn''t borrow the training systems of his family and was sure that he would be refused that data. Even if he or his sister ended up the Patriarch, he was sure that he would be suppressed if he suggested anything that would enable people out of the family would get a hold of their knowledge. He had no option but to recruit trainers for his guild before he manages to make anything out of it. "I still have a decent amount of time, it is still the third day," thought Balthazar as he calmed down. His main concern was that he didn''t ever know how much time a super guild would take to set up their own training system. "Where in the game are you two located, right now?" asked Balthazar. "Yes," said Ellie. "Lizzie Bizzie at gray sword city. Trade profession player, engineering and forging." Balthazar had completely expected that to be what she is doing at the game. She had a thing for developing weapons and he was sure that there is a good chance she might follow the same path in the game. "I am actually in White Heart City, but still at level 10. Didn''t really play for long time," said Robert. "I''ll be leaving now. It is not like I understand what you kids are talking about," said Leon interrupting them as he turned to leave. "Wait, Master Leon," said both Ellie and Balthazar. "You best try it with Yerman. The others I know would probably not want to work for a game," said Leon thinking that they were hoping he could provide any more information. He knew that experts would look down on such a game and consider it a waste of time. "No, it isn''t that. Why don''t you play the game? It is fun and relaxing," said Balthazar. "Moreover, the time dilation lets you have a lot more free time. You could just try it out during your sleep hours." Balthazar didn''t really care much about Leon''s entertainment, but he wanted to increase his rapport with him and also hoped that he would be of some help in the game. He knew that the star players of the gaming industry would soon see a shift. Many new players would come and the guilds would be forced to accept them to maintain their standing. Apart from that, he understood that Leon was a very strong person and a good teacher. Being the weapons master, he also held quite a number of resources and prestige in the family. It would be a lot easier if he wanted any technology or weapons from the family, if he had a better relationship with him. "It is just.... I don''t think it is worth my time," said Leon. "He did say that you can only try it when you sleep, right?" said Ellie sarcastically rolling her eyes. "When do you think I work with your uncle and the team?" asked Leon back and left. "Just suggesting giving it a try sometime," said Ellie as he left. "You might actually enjoy it." "Ok. Forget him. Can you meet Crimson Power? I will inform him and you both can meet to discuss. You don''t even need to consider fighting techniques with humanoid, but even most people fall down to monsters in the game. If you can create a room based on the monsters also. We can start up right now," said Balthazar. He had used training rooms which allow you to battle with humanoids, but most monsters in the game were not so. They usually overwhelm the players with numbers. So, the basic training always involved fighting these monsters. Unlike the monsters in the game, dying while fighting in training room would not make players lose experience. So, they soon try new stuff and tend to be more daring and inclined towards learning to fight than keeping themselves safe in such an environment. This would help most players to start on the path of improving their techniques. Apart from techniques, it was always important for a fighter to have ample ability to observe their enemies to discern their movement and attacks. It would enable them to react better and counterattack. Fighting a number of monsters in such an environment would soon or later cultivate this skill too. This was the most basic of the training that they required. It was essential for a guild. Chapter 153 - Orcs "Isn''t that too trivial? Why waste money on such a thing. I am sure there will be areas where you can have the players practice it. It is not use to waste virtual space for that," said Ellie shaking his head. Sometimes, she felt that this man was crazy and extravagant. Though she crafted weapons according to his requirement, she felt that they were also unnecessary. She felt the same way currently. "Actually, this could be considered as important as having experts teach players. It is much more important than them. They could mostly be able to give advice, but without practice any amount of guidance would be wasted," said Balthazar. "I don''t deny that. Just don''t waste money and my time on it. Why waste resources when you already have the game providing you the environment," said Ellie irritably. She felt a bit annoyed that Balthazar would tell her something that simple. Elias was the one who had created V.R. guides and training environment for the members of Blyth family. Being his niece, she had seen many train and practice and she knew the importance of it. "I understand your concern. You are comparing the training environment we need to create to what Elias does. It is not the same," said Balthazar calmly trying to explain. "How so?" "The people who train here, do that to fight other people. They already have experience in real life fights and understand that they need to improve to survive. Their goals and state of mind are different compared to the players," explained Balthazar. "No player would experiment on his technique or try to improve his fighting skills in the game. They would lose valuable XP, equipment and consumable if they do that. It is very expensive for them. Even if a guild will agree to compensate their equipment and consumables, they lose their XP on being killed by monsters. Due to this, most don''t really get rid of their fear that resides at the bottom of their heart and try to learn new thing or fight to their limits. This will always hinder their progress," he continued. "It is the same reason that Leon had tasked us with creating the V.R. learning environment to begin with Ellie," pitched in Elias who was listening to their conversation. "The confidence that their injuries would only be in the V.R. is something that make people to explore their limits. If the pain doesn''t persist outside or prolong or hurt them, it allows them more practice and understand the actual technique." "See, even Elias agrees with me and apparently even Leon," said Balthazar. "That being told. We don''t allow any experimentation or practice through V.R. platforms without supervision as we are using this just to prepare for real-life. It is to make sure that they don''t misunderstand and learn the wrong thing. We haven''t really experimented the limits to which the somnium tech replicates the features of human body," added Elias. "That is a valid point, but I don''t think that we need to worry about it for the game, right?" asked Balthazar. "Obviously," said Elias. "OK. I will see what can be done. I still need data on what would be considered hard or tough situation for a player so that it would help him improve," said Ellie agreeing with their points and informing them what more is required for her to set it up. She was a strong-minded researcher who quickly learns her mistakes and tries to improve on them. "Yes. That actually depends on players levels. We need some exploration and videos and need to spend some time together to decide on a proper way to realize this," said Baltahzar. "Anyway, contact Crimson Power. His actual name is Rudra Powers. You can discuss with him about anything you require," said Balthazar. "Would also suggest you to go and try out some fighting quests frequently so that you would also get your own view of the training required. You can also join the guild as a forger and engineer. We can provide a decent amount of resources for you to play," he added. "Hehe, I was already planning on using your guild for that purpose," said Ellie with a smile. "If that is all, I better get moving. I will still need to get a few for helping me with this. It is not an easy job, especially if we are to simulate a bunch of monsters. It is not like I can borrow Elias work for it." "Yes. Their behavior, patterns and even physique would be quite different. You would need to put in a decent amount of work and probably even have it tested by experts before we let the players use. Else, it might cause more harm than good," said Balthazar nodding his head. There had been multiple attempts by many guilds to create training environments, but a large number of them failed in their attempts. Sometimes, the environment hindered the growth of players than help them. This was only realized later by those guilds. The most important thing that they learned from this is that they always required a fighting expert''s help to evaluate these things. As he thought of this, Balthazar realized that there was a much simpler way that would become quite popular among the guilds which failed. It was simulating group battles in various environments. Most professional teams take part in competitions where group battles were a norm. So, this allowed them to develop better co-operative skill. Realizing this, he told Ellie to work on this first before any other undertaking. "OK. I will try my best," said Ellie. "We didn''t yet discuss about my pay though. I am not going to do this for free, you know." "Oh! I forgot. What is your price?" "The same as uncle took from you," she said with a smile. "A million credits per month?" asked Balthazar surprised. He didn''t expect Ellie to ask that much. "I think I better look for someone else," he said immediately. He knew the amount of work required and he was sure that it wasn''t something that it wouldn''t require so much compensation. "Ah! You are paying him a million credits per month?" asked Ellie in surprise. It has now her turn to be shocked as she never expected him to be paying Elias a million bucks per month. She gave Balthazar a pitiful look. "Elias is robbing you." "Oye! What I am doing is a completely different application of samsara tech. It is not the same as replicating the environment of a game," said Elias irritated as he turned around to face Ellie. He was already angry that they were disturbing the atmosphere of the workshop with their chatter. "OK. Let us not get into an argument, right?" said Balthazar intervening before the pair of uncle and niece had an argument. "Ellie, I will invest ten million for this right now. It is with Rudra. You can meet him and then proceed with your work. Let us base, further investments on your work, shall we?" asked Balthazar. "Ten million. You are far too generous," said Ellie. "Ya. I didn''t say when my next investment would be. I will decide that on your performance," said Balthazar leaving the room. He had already spent enough time with them and decided to return to the game as it was already 11 p.m. He also forgot to contact Sophia today. He sent a mail to her explaining that he would be busy today due to the trial and then sent Rudra, Ellie''s details and the 10 million credits before he got into the game. He had already made plans with Merlin and the others to raid the dungeon, Bungar''s keep. This new dungeon limited the players from level 13 to level 15. He wanted to get the first clears for both the elite and hell mode''s this time. He had been feeling bad that someone managed to get the hell mode first clear of the previous dungeon, despite his advantages. When he logged in, he already found Merlin and others waiting for him. Sultan had followed through and they were clearing the area in the direction of the Jarko town in cooperation with the members of the Crimson Realm. Rudra had already started to clear the area towards the town as he had asked. As he contacted them, nine members quickly teleported back to the White Heart City to attempt the new dungeon. Blinding White had decided to sit out instead. She had been used to the environment of the guild and the tension of getting first clears was a bit hard on her. She always had been a normal player who enjoyed the game and playing with a number of people. Moreover, there was another paladin on the team, and she had already observed that he clearly had superior skills compared to her. Even Raging Blade would be defeated by Sultan. With such character, she wouldn''t get much priority over good loot compared to him. So, she voluntarily offered to sit out in such situations when Sultan had informed the team that Balthazar wanted to attempt the dungeon in the morning. Though, it was awkward, they couldn''t do much about it. Psychotic Mob was also left out the previous day. They also need more people in their adventurer team for which Merlin had already posted in the forums. So, they left her at the market to handle those issues. Together the ten of them, immediately teleported to the dungeon location. The Bungar''s keep was a mountain fortress of sorts. It was a dwarven construction according to the lore of the game. It was like a palace and had room both on the surface of the mountain and also passages and labyrinths that went beneath. It was currently occupied by some possessed dwarves who led a group of trolls and orcs in conquering it. Like the trolls and other dark factions, the orcs also entered the plane Viridi Lovi during the conquest of the Abyss Warlords and had managed to develop their own forces here. Like the goblins and trolls, the orcs were also racially in cooperation with the Abyss life forms and demons as per the lore. They were also offsprings of the creatures from Rudrum orbis and are constantly in conflict trying to take over the plane and destroy the separation between Viridi Lovi plane with Rudrum Orbis, which the twelve lords have managed to erect. The biggest problem faced in this dungeon was not the trolls, orcs or the possessed dwarves, but the passages in the mountain. One could get lost just by moving around. It would take a log or time to properly explore, but one could get the clear with killing the possessed dwarf that led the trolls. It had up a total of five bosses, which Balthazar wanted to kill as he also wanted the first kill rewards for them. He directly chose the elite instance. He had already asked Rudra for information that he collected form the normal mode. The elite and the hell mode didn''t have more passages in this dungeon but more number of traps and monsters. As they entered the portal for the dungeon, they were teleported into a forest area. There was a path in front of them that lead to a gate at the base of the mountain fort. The rest of the team had also already tried the normal mode and could see the differences. This time, there were trolls right at the gate unlike in normal mode. These were all orcs with knives and stakes which numbered around 15. It was an open area and orcs were humanoids of the dark faction that resembled humans the most. They were the same size as humans with the only difference of having a snout like mouth like that of a wild cat and overly long tusks the came out of their jaws. There were many other races of orcs with varied color skins from the dullest to the brightest of colors. They would also have extremely tough skin and depending on the race of orcs they might be resistant to either physical or magical attacks. Sometimes, they would be resistant to both. Every orc would be aggressive in nature. One would never find a passive orc monster or NPC. The fights with orcs would be different compared to other monsters. Most would feel that it was similar to fighting other players. They even had similar skills like the players. The best thing that Balthazar felt about the orcs was that they were humanoid, and he could pick their pockets. Unlike goblins, orcs didn''t have a lot of materials or designs. These were rarely found in a pickpocket, but they had finished products like daggers or equipment which he considered much more valuable. The only problem was that it was hard to sneak up when the teammates had already started firing their spells at the orcs. Chapter 154 - Bungars Keep His team was a strong one with over half the members having a unique weapon. It was an easy task for them to kill through the group of orcs. In any other game, this would have been a great thing, but Balthazar didn''t feel so as this meant that they would get minimal loot from them. As expected, they only found a couple of level 13 black iron equips which none of them wanted. They had already outfitted themselves with the best equipment that they could get from Rudra for the first clear. Rudra had been quite accommodating because they were in an alliance and his boss would get the equipment. He had already been considering Blazing Fury as an offshoot of the guild. "These are a waste," said Balthazar looking at the equips. There were no resources either. Even when they tried to forage the orc tusks, the system realized them to be broken or charred. "Best kill them by attacking a single point like their legs, just like we killed those deer," said Shadow as he put the equips in his bag in disappointment. "Avoid attacks on their face if possible. We can forage their tusks." Though it required more effort, the team decided to try it out as the loot disappointed even them. Shadow decided to go ahead in stealth as usual and the others followed the instructions that he sent to team chat. The mountain had a number of small entrances like caves built into its face. Most of these were just the peasant''s homes which foraged the surrounding terrain for food and a few of them would be posts for dwarven sentries. Currently all these would be devoid of any dwarves and few of them would have orcs feasting upon the bodies of the dead dwarves. It had the appearance of ruins and smoke coming out of a bunch of those huts. The players could be sure that these ones would definitely have orcs but there would be orcs jumping out from other entrances too. Apart from these, there would be a large grand entrance which led into the depths of the keep halfway up the mountain. It would be visible from the base itself. This was the main entrance into the keep. Most players immediately took this path by now. If they moved around on the mountain, they would face ambushes by the orcs, and this would slowly cause them to waste their consumables. But Balthazar had other priorities. He had almost reached level 15 but his mask was still at level 5. He would soon have negligible effects of its skills if he continued in this manner. He needed to kill as many of the orcs as possible to collect their life essences. Apart from him, the other players like Merlin, Sultan and others with a unique armament also had this issue. They all needed life essences of dark faction monsters or some other alternate, the way he could use void race or draconic species'' life essences. He also told that similar to the bandit camp, these caves might have loot. So, it was easy to convince them. Apart from that, the iron-clad rule of the dungeons in the game was to clear the surrounding monsters to make the boss fight easier. The enhanced stealth provided by the Mask of Shadow''s had already weakened and his stealth wasn''t any stronger than other players now. He had to be much more careful. He began to get caught by the orcs as soon as he executed the pick pocket when he attempted to steal from groups of orcs. He had to immediately continue to attack. It had become increasing hard for him as he had been previously reliant on the strong effect of the enhanced stealth. "Dude, you better stop trying to steal and use cheap shot as soon as possible. Else, we would waste more mana and potions," said Merlin who had already noticed that Shadow''s stealth wasn''t the same as before. Shadow also nodded his head in agreement. He realized that it was best that he use this opportunity to upgrade his Mask first, before he continues with his usual plundering style. They slowly went from one small cave to other and in an hour managed to cover over a hundred such caves and still killed less than a hundred of the orcs. Shadow himself managed to land the last blow on only 40 of them. He still needed four times the amount to upgrade his mask. "I can''t rely on my equipment and need to completely fix to the strategy that was created by those guilds," thought Balthazar. The others were also tired of searching the small caves. Though they found some equipment. The best they found was Bronze grade equipment, which they were already losing interest in. So, they all agreed to try out the main entrance. Bangar''s keep was like a tower. It had three floors going down and each of the floors had a stairs which led to the next floor and was guarded by a boss monster. None of the small caves on the outside of the mountain would lead to these floors. The major delay with these floors was not the monsters or the bosses, but the path to bosses. It was a labyrinth of caves that would be hard to remember. There would also be a couple of side bosses that could be killed and a bunch of dwarves that could be rescued in the fort. It was once considered that the fastest way to get to the boss could be found by saving a dwarf and moving according to his directions. Most guilds found out the pathways by use of this technique in his past life. Though Balthazar knew the right way, he decided to use the same trick. The good thing was he also knew where he could find a few dwarf allies in the first floor. The first floor was just a long snaky tunnel about ten feet tall with paths diverging to its left and right. The diverging tunnels also had the same design making it extremely hard for them to recognize one from the other. Unlike the caves of the goblins and trolls, these caves looked like they are the passages of a castle. It had brackets on both sides of the walls, with gems socketed into them that provided lighting. There were also directions written at every joint, but in dwarven language. Without understanding one could hardly use them, but Shadow took pictures of them so that he could tell his guild to follow a sequence of pictures to reach various treasure chests and then the mini-boss. It was a good way to mark the path that they took in this maze. The problem with this dungeon was that there were less monsters but more traps in this floor. One would fight monsters (except for bosses) got only about ten percent of the whole journey. That too, it was when someone knew the actual path. Less monster implied less loot in most cases, but to compensate for it, there would also be six bronze chests in the floor. If they managed to open it before others, it was bound to provide silver grade armaments. The traps were mostly arrows and flame balls that were triggered by stepping on particular. The traps in this place had no signs and one couldn''t avoid triggering them except if they already triggered it before remembered its location and avoided it. Even if he accidentally triggered any trap, Balthazar could easily avoid them or block the arrow with his dagger if he was alone. With a team, he had to employ the tanks to shield the others. The players could always block arrows with their weapons, but any flame balls would still cause more damage without shield and only could be evaded. That is not an issue for an individual, but even if one evades these traps, there is a good chance that the person beside him would be the victim of it as the evading person would block his line of sight. So, blocking the traps was very essential. There were already three tanks with shields in the team. A shield was also provided to Tetsujin allowing them to cover the other five from attacks on either side. This was one of the simple ways used to counter the situation in his past life. It allowed the players to protect the weaker members of the team, but it put a good amount of effort on the healers and tanks. The tanks would be forced to take all the damage in this situation and if they kept moving through the wrong way, they would continue to bear attacks till they even lose their life. But it was still the best option to use this method as the alternatives were not any better. Shadow went ahead of them with the excuse that he needed to explore. He decided to take them to mini boss of the first floor. This one was a troll who guarded a few dwarves who were held in cages. These dwarves could help them with the path to the other bosses. Once, he was done with the dungeon, he could just give the path to the troll and the others could easily complete the dungeon with the help of the dwarves they rescued. He knew that there was also a good chance for first kill of the mini-boss as he didn''t hear of anyone crossing the first floor yet. If the mini boss was dead, it would be a simple thing to cross even the second floor much less the first. But before the mini boss, he had to take them to treasure chests too. There were six in this floor of the fortress with three being guarded by orcs and the other three just at the ends of a few passages. He first led them to the chests as he hoped that they could equip themselves better before reaching the mini boss. The traps would be considered too many in number for the ones who aren''t used to it. Such a number of traps would frighten most players as it required a lot of resources to move through the place. If they went for the treasure chests, it would increase their consumption of potions, but Balthazar knew that bronze equipment too are worth more than the amount of potions that would be used for it. So, he took the decision and led them to the treasure chests first. As he knew the way, their progress was quite fast and within forty minutes they managed to get through five of the treasure chests on the floor. A couple of them were guarded by orcs, but they had no issue in killing them. They managed to get 16 armaments with four of them being silver grade. It was a good upgrade better than any he had at this floor in his previous life. Bitter Beast, Tetsujin, Tang and Sultan got to use the silver equipment. Most of the equips found in the dungeon were for physical attack occupations. He left the last one as it was along the way to the next floor and soon led them to the mini-boss. They ended up in a large room with shiny black walls and a lot of empty cages adorning the walls. There were a number of chains hanging around the place and even a set of bloody torture tools that looked like they have just been used. A number of chains and broken-down cages could also be seen on the ground. A large furnace was at one corner of the room with a few pieces of meat hanging over it from a metal rod. There was a brownish yellow colored large troll sleeping at the back of the room as it hugged a huge club with a couple of dwarves lying down in a cage by its side. On the other side, there were a heap of skeletons which looked like the meat had just been picked of the bones. A bunch of broken down weapons were right beside these bones. Most of the team felt like puking out after they saw it. [Prison Warden Chrome] (Minor Boss monster) Level 15; HP: 10000/10000; Most players would think that it was in deep sleep and would try to open the cage to free its captives. That would be the worst decision ever. The NPCs in the game are quite intelligent. If the troll were really sleeping, they would have signaled to them for help. Any player who attempted to free them or even got close to them before killing the troll would be smacked by the huge club. "Hold back," said Shadow stopping Tang who was about to rescue the dwarves. "The troll is not sleeping," he said looking at them. He immediately through a throwing knife at the trolls face which it deftly slapped away. Though the room was large, the troll was atleast 4 metres tall which made it hard for them to evade. This fight wasn''t an easy one and they had to fight while constantly maintaining distance from it to avoid its club. Though trolls are slow on their feet, they swing their club at very high speeds. He wanted them to move back away and used the pillars of the place to hide whenever it swung its club. But unexpectedly another set of commands came up. They were Merlin''s. "Tang go for the feet, Quiet fire cover." Tang ran forwards jumped up into the air and suddenly a burst of mana formed on her feet as a layer of mana covered her shield. She accelerated in the air at a breakneck speed and struck the knees of the troll. At the same time, a huge cloak of fire sprung out of Quite Fires wand and directly fell onto its face wrapping it. Balthazar, then realized that he had more members with unique weapons no and he had completely forgotten to look at their skills. It was a major mistake. Tangs skill was something that he seen before. It was called Meteor Smash and was a skill of the unique shield of the guardian lord (The protector). There was a high chance that Quiet Fire''s skill was also had similar origin as he hadn''t seen that either. It was quite a powerful skill which blinds the enemy while dealing significant fire damage. With these to attack, the troll unexpectedly fell back onto pile of bones with a large crushing sound. Chapter 155 - Servant and Shaman Balthazar was quite surprised by this sudden turn of events. He didn''t expect the team to be strong enough to make the troll fall down. It also hit its head on a wall and a bunch of bones, got pushed into its body by the fall causing it to lose about 30% of its health from just the fall along with multiple bleed effects. This completely different from the usual way to handle the troll, but it looked like it was completely feasible with the new strength of the team. Tetsujin made quick dash towards as kicked the club away from the troll. He then proceeded with a jump and the gauntlets on his hands grew spikes as he smashed them into the troll''s head. It seemed like they planned to keep the troll down on the bones of the dwarfs. The team had been playing a defensive game for quite some time moving through the keep and were frustrated and decided to vent some of the boredom with their skills. Shadow and Sultan were the only ones who looked calm. Everyone else was busy spamming their skills. As they were doing this, the dwarves in the cage began to shout for help as soon as the troll fell. Shadow decided that it was best to release these dwarves at this time. With the troll down, he doubted that it would be fast enough to stop him releasing them. The dwarves usually help the players in taking down monsters and for the first clear, it is best that they had more help to finish faster. He immediately picked open the lock of the cage and the two dwarves went out to pick a couple of weapons from beside the bones and joined the fight. The others were also working on it while Merlin cast a spell which shocked the whole lot of them. A black mist rose out of his staff and into the skull of the troll. The name of the troll suddenly changed to green and Merlin shouted for all of them to stop the attack. He had used the Subjugation skill of his Sceptre. The troll was now completely under his control. [Prison Warden Chrome] (Merlin Grimlock''s Servant) Level 15; HP: 5600/10000; "You used Subjugation?" asked Shadow. "Good call." "This is going to make it much easier to take care of the boss of this floor," he thought. "Give us all the equipment, materials, tools, designs and recipes you have with you," asked Merlin. It was the first time that he had used the subjugation skill on a boss monster where it actually worked. He wanted to try out all the things possible and the first thing on his agenda was to get all possible loot from it. The troll pulled out a bunch of armaments and threw them down in front of Merlin. He also put in a weapon design. It was about to disrobe too, when Merlin quickly noticed and told it to not do that. Balthazar was quite surprised. It was a very hard thing to pickpocket from boss monsters and the like and in many cases impossible as they would attack you as soon as you are near them like this one. This was the first time that he had seen all the loot from a boss monster. "You should use this more often," said Grenadier mage looking at the loot in front of him. "I got lucky with this one. This is the first time it worked on a boss. It doesn''t even have a 60% success rate with elites," said Merlin shaking his head. It was only possible when the monsters are not noticing or otherwise distracted to have a decent success rate. There were a total of 12 armament put down by the troll, including the club that it carried. There were six bronze, three silver grade and two of them were even level 14 gold great swords. The last one was its club. It was a great haul. Especially, the two great swords, they were actually a pair of swords exactly similar to each other. Balthazar knew the weapons as they would be used by the troll in its berserk state. They were a pair of great swords that were the same color as the troll. The passive effect was very effective in handling the last boss. [Chrome''s Great sword] (Two handed sword) Level 15; Attack Power +40; Requirement: Strength 30; Endurance: 20; Strength +7; Special Effect: Dwarf Soper: Attacks have a 10% chance to induce dwarves into a trance like state. Active Skill: Chain Slash: Covers the blade with a mana that would push the opponent back slightly on every successful slash allowing one to chain their attacks. Duration: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 10 min. MP: 50 per slash. Durability :40/40; Getting the great sword would be considered really lucky as its attributes and passive effect were quite useful later in the dungeon. Their team had no berserker. In the game, a player could use weapons of other occupations in manual mode and the don''t have the advantage of using suitable skills. Only skills provided by the equipment could be made use of in this manner. It was hard enough to learn to use their own weapon in manual mode, let alone the weapon of other occupation. Tetsujin was the only one who could reasonably use the great sword as his main weapons were gauntlets which allowed him to hold and used other weapons. He also used to play as a berserker in previous games and due to it, he was capable of using it decently to a certain extent. Due to the unique gauntlet, he also had better attributes than other level 14 players and could immediately equip the sword. The other sword was just placed in the bag with plans on selling it or keeping it safe when others joined the adventurer team. Though it has very little effect on a boss, it is still useful compared to not having one at all. He just hoped that Tetsujin would be able to use the weapon effectively. Apart from that the chain slash skill is also very useful skill especially in PvP matches. Sadly, there wouldn''t be any competitions so early. [Chrome''s Club] (Gold Two handed hammer) Attack Power +35; Requirement: Strength: 40; Agility +4; Active Skill: Smash: Makes a vertical swing of the Club causing double damage. MP: 200; Cooldown: 5 min. The weapon design that it produced was the most valuable of all the three items. It was a silver great sword. Though it is not on the same level as the gold weapon, it still would be very popular at level 15. Moreover, it is a weapon design and multiple weapons could be produced, making it far more valuable than the design. [Troll Cutlass] (Silver one-handed sword) Level 15: Requirements: Strength: 25; Agility: 20; Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Copper x 1; Strength +8; Active Skill: Deep cut: A quick slash that causes bleed effect, even when struck on armor. MP: 300; Cooldown: 2 min. Sword designs are always the most popular. A cutlass has a wide blade allowing one to easily block attacks too and it doesn''t lose durability easily. Unlike the other swords like rapiers, cutlass is considered a saber-type sword. It doesn''t have thing pointed end and curved blade, mainly made for slashing which was the easier way for most players. This kind of weapons though considered swords by the system were called sabers by many players and they don''t lose durability as quickly as swords as their structure is made for slashing. These become much important after the rate of loss of durability slowly increases with levels. "Can you give it to me?" asked Balthazar as soon as he saw it. He didn''t have any intention of learning it himself but giving it to Hammer and Tongs. It would be better for the guilds development if the head forger had it. He didn''t know if he could spend much time in the game. Moreover, forging a silver equipment would also help him to try and create original bronze equipment which is a lot more valuable as that would enable Hammer to make designs. "I will pay for it. I am not asking for free," continued Shadow as he noticed that Merlin was thinking of it. "I am thinking of auctioning it," said Merlin with a smile. He wanted to get more money and he felt that auctioning it was the best option for them. "It is the best option for the team. It is just not my decision, even the others own a part of it." "I shouldn''t have been so open," thought Balthazar as he realized that Merlin was hiking up the price. "Under any other circ.u.mstances, I would have agreed, but today I might not be there at the end of the day. We both know that it is best to auction it today. It would get the best price when only a very little number are at level 15," said Shadow. "So, suggest a price." "Oh!" said Merlin as thought about it. At the same time, Balthazar also realized that it would be improper for him to ask it in this manner too. "I will tell Rudra to make a buyout from auction house. That would be better," thought Balthazar. The auction house will always allow for a buyout price if a player wants to get anything quickly and not wait for others to notice the item and place bids. "I could just transfer him the amount of gold I got in the Cave of Wargs. It would be more than enough. I need to separate the adventurer team from my workshop for business related things. Else it would result in resentments." "Let it be. Rudra will bid for it," said Balthazar. "Ok," said Merlin. He was also glad that Balthazar realized his dilemma. It was fine at this stage when the team is small for them to do it internally, but such behavior would cause issue when there are more people joining Blazing Fury. Merlin was also worried as he realized this and that was the reason, he suggested an auction so that Shadow would realize. "Hurry now, we must stop the traitor Barak," said a dwarf as they were discussing the price. The other were already back in the tunnels when Merlin and Shadow along with the troll were discussing about the design. Merlin and Shadow also followed behind the others quickly as Sultan left the instructions for their movements. They soon joined the rest of the team and on the way, they met with another group of orcs which ambushed them from a tunnel to the side. This time, Merlin told them to hold off on all their attack to check the prowess of his new servant. The goblin took 8 swings to kill 10 orcs. It hardly took a minute for the orcs to be pulverized, but the others told Merlin to not use it again as they didn''t get any loot from the smashed-up orcs. In fact, they didn''t even feel like foraging on looking at the gory scene of smashed up orcs. They continued on their way till they reached the end. They were in a large room with stairs which led downwards at the end of it. There were a number of pillars, tables, chairs and boxes in the room. It looked like some kind of warehouse. A bunch of orcs were quarrelling amongst themselves while a relatively big orc sat on a table beside the stairs. [Gularg Orc Shaman] (Boss monster) Level 15; HP: 12000/12000; The huge orc was almost the same size as the troll which Merlin subdued. It had a dagger in one hand which it was using as a fork to cut up meat with a sickle sword hanging of its hip and large staff leaning on to the table beside it. It was clearly one of the orc shamans. As they entered the room, the fighting suddenly subsided and all the orcs including Gularg, looked at them. "Kill the intruders," shouted Gularg as he threw the dagger in his hand which flew towards big troll causing it a damage of 1000 HP. Luckily, Sultan and Bitter Beast had kept healing the troll on their way as they knew that it would be their strongest asset against bosses. The other orcs which were a bit more than twenty in number rushed over waving their weapons. "Merlin get the troll to attack the small ones. We shall counter the boss," said Shadow as he ran behind the pillar to get to stealth. He wanted to attack the boss. Only Mob, Grenadier and Bitter Beast remained to support Merlin while the others followed him to attack the boss. This boss wasn''t much hard to take down. It had a few fierce moves but also gets tired after them. One only needed to attack it at this time, and it could be easily killed. The main problem were the other orcs. They need to be killed else they would protect the boss with their lives whenever it took a respite. But once five of the orcs were killed the boss would go berserk, attack the players who killed the other orcs until those players were dead and remain in the berserk state. It would fight in tandem with its companions and attack on the other orcs would gather the aggro of Gularg. Due to this, the players always didn''t kill these orcs but controlled them and attacked the boss during its respites. Without the others dying it would only get to berserk state at 5% of its health. At that time, it required less effort to empty the rest of its health. Balthazar also planned to continue with the same tactic, but the troll servant offered another option. As the troll would be used to kill the other orcs while the held it back for some time, its aggro would be established on the troll. This would give them the opportunity to be free from the aggro of the orc shaman. As he had expected, the troll immediately swung its club at the incoming orcs killing two of them in four swings. It was clear that the troll was a lot more fearsome than the orcs. The shaman orc also immediately raged at the troll. Chapter 156 - Troll vs Orcs "Chrome! You traitor. How dare you betray lord, Nakshakh," shouted the shaman in anger as the troll killed the orcs. In its rage, it quickly fired a bunch of frost bolts that injured the troll and a thin layer of frost started to form on the troll because of it. "Quiet Fire, blind this one too," shouted Shadow as the Orc Shaman came running towards them. His plan was to hinder and stop the shaman before it stopped the troll from taking down the rest of the orcs. That would be to their best advantage if the troll handled the other orcs and the aggro of the shaman remained on it due to this. Mob, Grenadier and Merlin who could attack from a distance were the only ones who attacked the normal orcs and they stayed close to the troll to bring them closer to the troll. This would clearly help the troll to harm the other orcs faster. Bitter Beast being a druid was in-charge of healing the troll while Little White Feet being the main healer went with Quiet Fire as they were attacking the boss. The pair of dwarves which had shown them the way also participated in the fight by attacking the orcs. This was more of a trouble than help. The players always had to protect these dwarves as they jumped into the orcs to fight and didn''t listen much to the players commands. Most teams usually let these dwarves die as they didn''t have much use after the first floor and it was too much of an effort to keep them alive. But there were rumors that if they finished the end of the dungeon with the dwarves there would be a better reward. Balthazar wanted to try it out and had asked Bitter Beast to keep a lookout for these dwarves health. As long as they didn''t go after the shaman, it wouldn''t be much hard to keep them safe. They were also quite good helpers and tanks at that. After firing a bunch of dark bolts, Merlin attempted his subjugation skill again. But now it was on a normal orc instead of the boss. This was a good way to cause chaos, before the blind effect cleared on the boss, but sadly his subjugation attempt failed. In the meantime, the troll killed another couple of orcs and the others were also attacking the orc shaman and managed to reduce about 2000 HP. Usually, the five of them all had unique equipment and their attacks would deal at least 3000HP damage. The orc shaman had a very high defence physical and magical and even their combined effort didn''t have much effect. Tetsujin and Shadow realized that they should concentrate on slowing down the shaman rather than dealing damage and worked together to cripple one of its legs when it was blinded. Still it wasn''t of much use as the shaman started to release frost bolts and fire balls as soon as the blind effect was released in 3 seconds. "Merlin forget the other orcs make it attack the shaman. Bitter Beast tank its attacks and drink a health. Little White heal the troll. Sultan can temporarily handle us," said Shadow. The shaman was crippled in its leg and wasn''t able to move properly and it was focused on the troll. It had already gone berserk as five of the other orcs died. Their attacks were disturbing the shaman''s attacks and it had already started using its sickle-sword. It had the sword in one hand and staff in other, using both of them simultaneously in its berserk state. Tang and Sultan focused on stopping its sword while Quiet Fire attacked from a distance as Shadow and Tetsujin was mainly concentrating on disrupting its attacks. Still it was clear that they were able to hold against the boss only because the shaman''s aggro was on the troll. They were able to hold against it without much difficulty because it was only blocking and evading them, not actively attacking them. The troll had achieved its purpose of gaining the aggro of the boss. It would be best if it also joined the assault on the boss now. The troll though slow in moving its legs attacks very fast and viciously with its club which is the thing that they need most. Merlin commanded the troll as asked. There were a few orcs in the direction of the shaman blocking the troll, but they smacked aside by the troll with its club. It took about half a minute to reach the shaman and by that time it killed three more orcs on its way. Once, it reached the shaman it continued with its swings at the shaman ignoring the other orcs. Mob, Merlin, Bitter Beast and Tang were asked to hold back the other orcs from joining the fight. This was a matter of purely tanking and avoiding some attacks to hold them back. They actually were quite worried about this. By this time, they had noticed that the shaman was focusing obsessively on the troll and had gone berserk because these orcs were killed. The shaman was held back because it was only focusing on the troll and this allowed Shadow and Tetsujin to cripple its legs. They had been attacking the same spot repeatedly till the troll reached the shaman to put up a physical fight with it. They were very worried that if they accidentally killed an orc they might be targeted by the shaman. Usually most players would consider attacking such a boss as the hardest job, but these four considered this to be much harder. Merlin had already told Bitter Beast to keep track of their health and heal the orcs if they were about to die. Luckily, the fight was progressing at a fast pace. The troll was very effective against the shaman. As the other players were disrupting the magical attacks of the shaman and there were two healers healing the troll, Merlin let it attack without consideration to its own health. The troll''s blows were very strong. Even when the shaman blocked it with its sword and staff, the attacks dealt a damage of 500 HP each. Within 10 seconds, the shaman had already lost half of its HP. The shaman''s physical attacks weren''t weak either, it dealt a damage of 400 HP each to the troll too. It became a fight of attrition and see which one will fall first. The advantage that the team had was that the troll had high defence and physical attack. Its weakness was magical attacks which were currently being controlled by the players. Frost bolts and fire balls couldn''t deal much damage and Sultan could easily tank them. The stronger spells required time which the shaman wasn''t currently being given by the players. So, the biggest advantage of the shaman was currently nullified and the aggressive nature of the boss which the game had designed had become a boon instead of a curse as it usually is to other players. It was all because of the sick skill of the sceptre of evil that Merlin held. Moreover, the troll had healers and the shaman didn''t have any. All this caused the shaman to be bitterly cornered and defeated by the group in another 15 seconds. A boss fight which was tedious and takes atleast 30 minutes because of all its minions and its aggressive nature concluded in two minutes. "System: Congratulations on obtaining the first kill of Gularg, the orc shaman. You will receive the first kill rewards in your mail on exiting the dungeon." The way the first kill rewards were sent to the players changed after the first upgrade of the game. There were other some minor changes which were kept unannounced in the website as these didn''t bring any disadvantage or advantage to the play of the game. It was a very high paced fight and took a lot of effort from the players mentally. "It is a good thing that I chose players who were known to be mentally strong in the future," thought Balthazar. "If the performed in a similar manner, we would be quite successful in getting records," he thought gladly. Once, the shaman died the pace of the fight reduced considerably. Six of them were freed and could concentrate on the orcs which were about fifteen in number. The troll was also free. The three players that could heal just cast heals on the troll and let it beat up the remaining forces. The troll easily moved through the orcs as the others went ahead to search and scavenge the body of the shaman. The hands and the torso of the shaman were bashed in, by the troll. So, Balthazar was sure that its armor couldn''t be scavanged. Luckily, one of its weapons was in decent shape. The sceptre was fine, but the sword was slightly bent and was definitely not in good condition. Apart from that they got a silver equipment and four bronze equipment from its pockets. The head was still fine, and they managed to scavenge a pair of tusks and the helmet. [Gularg''s Sceptre] (Gold sceptre) Level 15; Requirements: Intelligence: 30; Strength: 10; Vitality +5; Intelligence +5; Special Effect: Fire Conduction: All fire spells have 10% more damage. Active Skill: Fire Vortex: Creates a vortex of fire that would attract and burn your opponent; Channel time: 3 sec; Max Duration: 4 sec; MP: 500 MP per sec; Cooldown: 10 min. Durability: 32/35; This was the first equipment which Merlin posted on the team chat. The active and passive skills impressed most of them. The active skill was actually the signature skill of the shaman which uses to attract players towards him if they maintain a distance from him for far too long in its berserk state. Though it didn''t have the same duration. It was still enough for a player. But it was clear to them that the durability went down due to the attacks of the troll. The sceptre was given to Grenadier Mage as he was one of the two elementalists of the team and Quiet Fire already had a unique weapon. [Gularg''s Sickle Sword - Deformed] (Silver one-handed sword) Level 15; Requirements: Strength: 25; Attack Power +25; Special effect: 10% chance of inducing a bleed effect of 30 HP per sec for 3 seconds. Durability: 15/30; The second item that he showed was the sickle sword that was used by the shaman. From its description it was clear that the sword lost a grade and its durability during the fight. It was even slightly twisted near the handle. It was clear that using the troll would have a bad effect on the loot. "I guess it is best if we don''t use the troll from now on," suggested Sultan as he went through the description of the weapon. No one would want to intentionally lose their loot. "I agree. Though it allows us to go through faster, it is better if we take our time and defeat the boss monsters so that we could get a better loot," said Quiet Fire. Even Grenadier and Bitter Beast nodded to it indicating their approval as they looked at Merlin who held control over the troll. "No. No. No," interjected Shadow before they made any stupid decision. The troll caused them losses, but it wasn''t without any use. Moreover, if they actually used their own spells and defeated the shaman, a majority of the attacks would be long distance ones mainly elemental spells. These would cause damage to the weapons and armor worn by the shaman too. In fact, it was considered lucky if any player got the weapons of the boss monster or its armor in the first clear as the proper method to deal with it wouldn''t be formed yet. Even with the proper method, it isn''t an easy task to get a weapon in prime condition. "Have your ever gotten a weapon from the boss monster in such good condition before?" he asked looking at the others. "It definitely harms the weapons and the loot of the boss but do you honestly thing that it is any better with us killing it. We also cause a lot of damage to its armaments. A prolonged fight by us would probably make it worse. It is not sensible to leave out a strong trump card as the troll for a something which we are not sure yet. If not for the troll''s strength, who know how long we would have needed to take down the shaman." "He is partly true," said Merlin supporting him. "Both of your arguments are just conjecturing at this point of time. It has no basis in fact. It is a waste to set it aside for now. We can only know if this is a good practice or not after some experimentation. Let us continue in this way for this run. I don''t even know if I can have the troll in control in the next run as I failed to control one of those orcs during this fight," continued Merlin. Shadow didn''t care much about other''s thoughts as the decision lied with Merlin. He was the leader of the adventurer team and also was the one who actually has control of the troll. He was glad that Merlin didn''t agree with the others. Else, it would be wasting a good resource. "We did get a decent haul actually. I think we just got greedy as the loot provided by enslaving the minor-boss was more than that of the boss of the floor. It is to be understood that enslaving would definitely give us all the things that the monster had," said Sultan. His words actually had better effect on the rest than the words of Shadow and Merlin as they explained the reason for getting better loot for the mini-boss. "Fine, let us go through the corpses of the orcs before we go down the stairs," said Shadow as he went to scavenge the corpses of the other orcs. Only Merlin, Sultan and Mob helped him in that work and the others didn''t as they found it extremely queasy to scavenge the dead orcs who had a large part of their bodies turned into meat paste by the troll. They only found a few Iron grade equips and couple of bronze grade equips from the orcs which none of them wanted to use and were all given to Merlin. They decided to let him keep track of the equipment and resources and let him manage it as he had experience with it in his guild. With that done, they went to the stairs. The stairs were a spiral one made of stone and went down to the next floor. The bottom of the stairs opened up into an atrium. It was not a complete stone construction like the first floor. The second floor wasn''t like the first floor. It was much wider and taller. It had a bunch of wall decorations and even the stone brackets which held the lights were gilded in gold. Chapter 157 - Another Troll This floor looked more like the interior of a lavish castle than the interior of a stone fort. The first floor was merely made as a defence to prevent the intrusion of spies and the like. That is the reason for its maze-like structure. According to the lore, the dwarves of the fort were apparently very cautious individuals as they lived in a remote and dangerous outpost. The second floor had the actual royals and the residences of the important decision makers of the fort. It was accordingly better looking and had a proper floor plan which is much more clear and easier to navigate than compared to the first floor. The second floor has a long main corridor starting from the atrium in which they were. There were definitely smaller passages into from the main corridor, but the boss of this floor would be at the opposite end of the main corridor. The side passages just had a few orcs and a few other treasure chests and surprises. "Come quick. We must reach the bottom floor and save Lord Bungar," said the dwarves that followed them down. "Let us check the entire area. If we go in a hurry, we might face ambush and wouldn''t probably be able to reach our objective," said Shadow as he cast stealth. "Check the atrium for anything you can find in the meantime," he messaged in the team chat as he entered the main corridor. He had already known the way for a long time and his main aim was only to take enough pictures to make a comprehensive guide that his guild could use. He quickly went around taking a few pictures and returned. He didn''t even cross a quarter of the main corridor but took enough pictures for them to start. He still considered clearing the dungeon to be the main property. Though he got the first kill, there is a high chance that some super guild was also right behind them and he didn''t want to take any chances after he lost the hell mode first clear. He realized that even with his knowledge of the game there would a good number of players that could best him. "Come on. I found a few orcs in the side passages. Let us start with them," said Shadow as he came back. "What did you fine here?" he asked. It was a first exploration and there was a good chance that even in dungeons there would be a few things that wouldn''t be known to him. "Nothing but a few books about the dwarves that lived here," said Merlin who had went through atrium completely. The only thing he found were a few books about the iron forge dwarves that stayed in the castle. The iron forge dwarves were the clan of dwarves that were mainly known for their forging skills in the game. This was one of the reasons that Balthazar wanted to explore the entire floor as there was a high chance of getting forging designs at this floor. "Huh!?" asked Shadow in surprise. He had no clue about what Merlin had found and wondered if it was anything that would be useful or provide suggestions for a quest. "It is just about their clan and their expertise and so on. It isn''t anything that is actually useful right now. It is just some of those stuff you find in the atrium of a new place, you know, like introduction to place for visitors," said Merlin. "You read it?" asked Shadow. "Na. Quiet found them and is going through it. She told us a few things about the iron forge dwarves. That''s it," replied Merlin pointing to Quiet Fire who seated herself on a small broken-down shelf and had a book open in her hands. He quickly went to her and to check them out. One was about the dwarves clans in general, the other about the iron forge dwarves and third was about how and why they came to construct the fort. These were all things that Balthazar had already known. "Ok. Let us get moving. We can read these later," said Shadow pulling them into the main entrance. He had already marked places with orcs where he took Merlin and few others while he had Mob, Bitter Beast and Sultan to check places which he thought were empty of monsters. He needed someone to look every place to check for treasures and he chose ones who could at least retreat themselves safely or heal themselves in case of an ambush. In this manner, they quickly went through the second floor. The second floor was actually much easier than the first floor as it didn''t have any traps. There were only orcs who were guarding some treasures or ambushed them, but with the troll in Merlin''s control, they made quick work of any monsters that they came across. Along the way, they also came across groups of orcs which had orc shamans. The shamans didn''t have any weapons like swords unlike Gularg. They were the same size as the other orcs but just had different tactics that would make it hard to use the troll to defeat them. These groups weren''t large and had ten monsters at most, but the orc shamans were mages that could attack from a distance. So, Merlin couldn''t use the troll on it as the shaman kept its distance from it. The shamans were the only monsters that other players actually got a decent chance to have a decent fight with. The rest of the orcs just came to the troll to get smashed in a few swings of its club. Merlin also noticed this and started trying to use his subjugation skill on the shaman whenever he got a chance. The dungeon was no longer a challenge but became an experiment to him due to the superb skill of his unique weapon. He also outfitted the troll with the second gold great sword to check its effectiveness. The sword was actually much more effective in its hand. The orcs are receiving similar damage and even bleed effects while they are not being smashed into pulp at the end. They were just being cut into pieces. This still provided them a better chance to get equipment from the orcs. Merlin also equipped his servant with armor slowly as they went through the second floor. They took a little more than 30 minutes to clear half the second floor and have managed to open 4 treasure chests in the way. The treasure chests were all silver grade giving them 7 silver equips and 9 bronze equips total. At this time, the troll was equipped with a shield and six pieces of armor. It looked very funny with a sword in one hand and shield in the other and an assortment of armor pieces which looked too small for it. During this time, they went into 10 shamans of which Merlin tried to make three of them his servants finally succeeding in the last one. That too was because Shadow had helped him. Balthazar remembered that the control type skills usually have better effect when the target is already in a trance or stunned state. So, he cooperated with Merlin and used cheap shot on the shaman after which the subjugation skill which failed the past two times successfully made the shaman Merlin''s servant.'' "We will stick to this idea. I am not really sure if we got lucky or if it has some effect, but we can try," said Merlin happily. He was very happy that he got another servant and he wanted to check out Shadow''s hypothesis as it would mostly provide him a good way to get servants in dungeons and quests. He found servants to be quite useful as they acted just as he wanted them to and he needn''t worry about them deviating from his instructions as much as the other players. The shaman servant made it much easier to fight against the other groups of orcs and shamans that came later. They soon managed to reach the end of the second floor in another 30 minutes. The main corridor ended in two rooms. One was a locked warehouse and the other was the court room which was double the size of the atrium. The court room had the throne and was the point of interaction of Lord Bungar with other dwarves in the keep. It was currently filled with 30 orcs, 3 orc shaman and a troll. The troll was on the throne and had a meter taller than Merlin''s servant troll. It also had a club in its hands. This was usually considered the hardest boss fight of the dungeon by most players in his previous life because of the number of monsters they had to fight at a time and the monsters including the boss troll didn''t have any specific aggro system they could make use of. They all attacked randomly, and monsters would just usually retaliate against anyone who attacks them. It was bound to be a chaotic fight where they constantly need to escape the trolls swings. [Dhrome Troll Outcast] (Boss Monster) Level 15; HP: 13000/13000; "A troll and shamans with dwarves?! Kill those traitors," shouted Dhrome and the orcs started running towards them. It was usually time for the players to use due dynamites and fireworks to split apart the group and attack. But Shadow had different plans as he had helpers. "Quiet Fire blind the troll when it gets up and focus on shamans. Sultan, Tang, hit and run aim to cripple troll legs. We need you to hold back from the orcs even after blind use firecracker or dynamites to attract and run away from us. Do it only after it gets up. Don''t join our fight," shouted Shadow. He turned to the others. "We kill and clear out the orcs as fast as possible. I think it won''t have same behavior as the last boss, being that the grunts are of a different species," said Shadow. "Anyway, Merlin have your servants start on the orcs, we can see how it goes from there." "Ya. We can check its behavior and plan our tactics accordingly," said Merlin having a look at the troll boss which was still seated on its chair. It looked like it was actually stuck in the dwarven throne and was using the club in its hand to push itself up. It had a comic look with it being stuck in the chair. Balthazar knew this and he also knew that it would only get out of the throne by breaking it once ten of the orcs died. Sultan and Tang were making way towards the troll without involving themselves much in the fight with the other orcs. Grenadier was using the staff from the previous boss and his damage improved significantly from it. He and Quiet Fire along with Merlin''s two servant shamans managed to aggravate the orcs easily. The others also started attacking the orcs with the two dwarves as they came closer. They kept close to Merlin''s servant troll which was moving in the direction of the orcs. The idea was the same as the last time - to use the troll to kill the orcs quickly and efficiently. They have already noticed during the past fights that the troll''s attacks damage the orcs faster and are actually giving more loot when scavenged than the scenario when they use their cluttered attacks. However hard they tried, they tend to not always hit humanoid monsters at the same points, especially when those monsters working with each other in cooperation. The trolls strong attacks was the best option. "Merlin, Bitter Beast need you with me. Let us get another shaman," said Shadow as he went into stealth. He planned to use his shadow clone for making a cheap shot on a shaman to stun it so that Merlin could get another servant. It is best if they succeed before chrome killed ten orcs and the boss gets into the fight. The orcs started attacking chrome and the other players. The number of orcs were thrice their own and it was hard to hold them back. So, Merlin had them all retreat backwards slowly as they fought. He told them to retreat so that he would get a chance to get a shaman and they would then attack from behind. They could actually push the orcs back, but Merlin wanted to put some chaos among them and kill a greater number of them at a time. Though chrome the troll was retreating, every swing of its sword still caused a lot of damage and it was able to block the others attacks quite effectively with it shield that it was surprising. About fifty seconds later, they were already at the end of the courtroom when Merlin managed to get another shaman as his servant. At that time, it was as they had hoped. The shamans all attacked from behind the other orcs as they were pure mages and the orcs provided them cover from physical assaults which were their weakness. So, the converted shaman was actually behind the rest and started firing from behind the orcs causing confusion and none of the orcs were even blocking these attacks as they had their tanks in front. At the same time, Shadow had managed to use cheap shot another shaman, this time with his original body (not clone). Merlin and Bitter Beast focused their attacks on the third shaman while the first shaman continued to attack from behind the orcs. Grenadier and others who were just passively blocking till now also started to attack back to push and kill as many orcs as possible. It would have been hard with the players alone, but the servant troll managed to do so easily with its shield and sword. Merlin got creative and started to make try moves like whirlwind strike which he had seen Crimson Power use. It was actually quite effective in scattering the orcs. In a minute, the orcs were all aggroed onto the players and chrome, the troll which had already killed more than ten. The troll Dhrome which was seated on the throne till now, took its club and broke the throne it was sitting on with a swing downwards. "You fools, you enraged me and caused me to lose my throne," shouted Dhrome. "I will kill you," it said as it started to move towards them when a fire cloak cast by Quiet Fire covered its face and Sultan and Tang attacked at the same time. Tang used the same Meteor smash skill to attack. She managed to push it back and it stumbled a bit, but the knockback effect wasn''t strong enough to make it fall back as it did with Chrome. It just took a couple of steps back and started to pat its face in pain. "Try to cripple its legs. The trolls always move slowly due to their huge body. Make it slower and run back to help kill the rest of these orcs," shouted Merlin. He had noticed that the troll didn''t actually go berserk like the orc shaman in the first floor. If it isn''t focused on his servants, he was sure that its attacks would deal a lot of damage to them and didn''t want them to risk a close combat fight like they did with the orc shaman. Moreover, he had already seen his own servants capabilities with a club, he didn''t want to see how effective the attacks of a bigger troll would be on his teammates. Chapter 158 - To the next floor "Yes, come back. All melee focus on the shamans, if possible. Let Merlin''s troll and shamans handle the other orcs," he said. It was a fair plan as the shamans were weak towards close combat while Merlin and his shamans could deal more damage to the other orcs under the cover. Grenadier, LIttle White had Tetsujing and Mob providing cover, while Bitter Beast for Merlin. Sultan, Tang and Quiet Fire also joined Merlin and the others to quickly kill the other two shamans. It was best if they dealt as much damage as possible. Shadow stopped one of the two remaining shamans while the remaining five along with Merlin''s new shaman servant attacked the other. They wanted to kill the other shaman before the troll comes close. Though Sultan and Tang managed to inflict a cripple effect they doubted it would hardly give them 5 seconds. The two shamans were at least twenty metres away from Dhrome as he they had already lured all orcs including shamans towards the end opposite to the throne. Quiet Fire, Sultan and Tang would be just able to reach the shaman''s by that time, but they still had a decent chance of killing it if they five worked together as the troll would at least take about 20 seconds to cover that distance even if it wasn''t injured if they measure it by the same standards as Merlin''s servant. Still, Sultan didn''t want to take any chances. He sheathed his sword as he ran back and tackled the orc like a football player catching it by its torso. They both fell together but he managed to push it further away from Dhrome. It was quite an effective strategy and he used his entire body to push the shaman which allowed him to take the shaman for a couple of metres but now he was just a metre behind the orcs that were fighting Chrome and others. The orcs also notice Sultan and the other shaman that slid towards them. "Dude, you were too excited," said Merlin shocked at the manner in which Sultan had put himself in danger as he tried to help them. The other were also worried about Sultan. There were still 15 of the orcs left and about seven of them were facing him right now. "Chill out. I got it all planned," said Sultan as he pulled out his sword and suddenly a bright light shone off the blade of the sword. All the orcs immediately wailed and covered their eyes. It was the Glaring Blaze skill of his unique weapon. The others had almost completely forgot about the skill of his sword as he didn''t show it before, but it was best to use it in a situation like this when he was very close to multiple monsters trying to attack him. Not only did it blind the orcs, but they jumped back from him when he activated the skill. He had actively jumped into the orcs that tried to attack him and the orcs cried in pain as his sword struck them causing them burn damage. Blinded, they pushed the ones behind them into the attacks of the troll and its companions. Sultan managed to cause more chaos than the others had expected. As the orcs were actively avoiding him, he turned his attention back to the shaman that he had tackled and struck it violently. The shaman also blinded by the light couldn''t respond to his attacks and others also joined him and within the ten seconds of the skill, they managed to kill him. "That was a great display. Now, let us try our best to clear the other ones, before that big one comes," said Merlin as he pushed forward. Dhrome had already crossed half the distance between them. "Shadow what are you doing with the other one that thing is halfway towards you," he shouted. "Ya. I have a plan. You clear the orcs and I will escape the troll don''t worry. You know I have an invulnerability skill," said Shadow. "Quiet Fire and Grenadier take a shaman each and try to flank it from opposite sides after you kill the orcs. Use only one element spell, don''t mix them." He continued to harass the last remaining shaman while the others focused on the orcs. With the troll and three shamans assisting them, the orcs were falling down one every second. In ten seconds, the troll came close enough to attack Shadow. By that time, there were only seven orcs left and were in red health. If the troll would be the only one left, it would be very easy and quick for them to kill it by long distance attacks. The three shamans were always the most irritating part of this stage. If he retreated away from the boss, the shaman would also retreat from him towards the boss. He wanted to kill it first and he believed that the troll wouldn''t swing its club as it would also hit its only remaining mate. So, he remained there. He could always use the void strikes and void state skills that he had to escape from the troll. His assumption was right. The troll actually stopped without swinging its club and tried to catch him, but he always evaded and used kicks and with his weapons in piolet form, even managed to pull the shaman between him and Dhrome. The others took this chance to advantage and finally killed the other orcs. It was then, that an unexpected change came over Dhrome. It went into a berserk state. It roared in anger swung its club striking the shaman who in turn crashed into Shadow and the both of them were flung across the room by the club. The shaman who was already in low health died immediately. Shadow who had quickly used the void state skill still got injured and was flung away losing 1500 HP on contact with the club. This was completely unexpected. The troll killed the shaman to get a shot at him and he had lost 1500 HP even with the use of void state, making the actual damage that would be inflicted by that strike to be above 2000 HP. It was a ridiculous amount. He had been knocked aside and he was in state of shock and unable to move. The system informed him that he would be in that state for 10 seconds, which was enough for the troll to make a second hit which he desperately wanted to avoid right now. Luckily, a pair of fangs caught his arm within 5 seconds and started to pull him away from the troll that was heading his way towards Merlin and the other troll. It was Mob who had used his spirit wolf summon to bring Shadow to safety. His spirit wolf had the highest movement speed among all of them, second only to Shadow. It was the best option to pull him to safety, even though its bite and drag kept causing Shadow a damage of 50 HP per second. "Thanks," said Shadow as the stun effect ended. He immediately got up as he found being pulled by the spirit wolf extremely uncomfortable and a bit embarrassing. "Didn''t expect him to pack such a heavy punch or even kill its own," he explained himself to Merlin and Mob who were right beside him. Merlin had taken charge of the others when Shadow was knocked out. He was the one who suggested Mob to use the spirit wolfs capability to maul and draw a monster to save Shadow from the troll. He also sent Grenadier, Quiet Fire and two shamans in four perpendicular directions to flank and use fire spells to deplete the troll boss''s health. The other shaman and players were also distributed in these directions and attacked while he kept chrome, the dwarves and melee only players away from the boss. After they have seen the swing it landed on Shadow, everyone was reluctant fight it in close quarters, especially since they have known that Shadow had an invulnerability skill which was the reason he was daring enough to do it in the first place. That was the reason, Merlin didn''t even let his servant troll fight in close combat. Their strategy was quite effective. In case, the troll moved in any direction, the members in that directions would stop their skills while the other three attacked causing it to change directions. This was quite simple and could be used to keep the troll in a loop. It was always a common strategy to keep monsters which didn''t have magical attacks at bay while shearing off their health. It was much more effective on a troll which moved at a very slow pace enabling the others to easily escape. This continued to carry on with this strategy for a couple of minutes when Dhrome finally hit 10% mark of its health putting it in a berserk state. After that, it continued to pursue the closest group. It also pulled out another pair of weapons, a large axe and shield which it began to use in tandem with each other. It seemed quite capable in using the shield to block any fire attacks by the players and shaman. The group it was following currently had a shaman servant, Bitter Beast and the two dwarves. The two dwarfs had only listened to Merlin''s commands after Dhrome started fighting and Merlin threatened to use Chrome to kill them if they didn''t follow his orders. But still it was the weakest team, the two dwarves weren''t that fast and Dhrome was catching up on them. The others were firing at Dhrome, but the dwarves which were running towards Merlin''s direction were in no way less trouble due to their slower movement speed. They were always a bit slower than the others due to their smaller sizes and Dhrome in its berserk state was a bit faster than them. Merlin was wondering whether he should help them or not, if it was worth it. "Merlin, we know that there are three floors and we didn''t yet find the way to the next floor. We need the two munchkins," messaged Shadow as he saw that Merlin was not mobilizing his troll servant. Merlin nodded towards him as he had the troll and the other two shamans to intercept Dhrome. "Attack it with all you have. I will have the troll support you," shouted Merlin. The troll pulled out his club and threw it at Dhrome which struck its torso halting it for a second. It was enough for the dwarves to put some distance between them. The throw was too fast that it Dhrome didn''t manage to deflect it and was actually stunned for half a second. The other players attacks suddenly weren''t blocked and hit him again almost doubling the rate of loss of his HP. As it got out of the stunned state, it immediately continued in its pursuit of the dwarves again, but it gave enough time for the chrome to block it from attacking the dwarves. The troll wasn''t great at it either, a single strike from the boss''s axe pushed chrome back from him. It also dealt a damage of 1500 HP. "Dude, that thing is crazy strong. The only good thing is that it was slow," said Tetsujin as chrome was pushed back. "No shit, the troll was supposed to have a high defence," said Merlin as he commanded chrome to retreat slowly. Though chrome had higher health limit than all others in his team and very high defence, it had been fighting the orcs for quite some time and its health had gone down from tanking a number of attacks. He was sure that a couple more attacks from the boss would put his servant in red health state. "Use only magical attacks or dynamites for the boss and somebody heal my troll. I will only use it to block if someone is in danger," said Merlin. "Also make those dwarves stay as far away from the troll as possible." They continued to run away from the boss and fired spells at it. Shadow and ones who could only do physical attacks used dynamites instead. He felt that it was more like the situations that players usually had in his previous life in this room. Everyone was running away and evading while only using magical attacks or tools to deal damage as they didn''t want to get close to him. It was extremely time consuming as the boss was also quite adept at using the shield in its hand. The boss came close to the others a couple of times, but Merlin had the troll block its attacks. Soon, the boss succ.u.mbed to their attacks. Without the other orcs and shamans that usually helped it, it didn''t take much time for them to kill the boss. "System: Congratulations on obtaining the first kill of Dhrome. You will receive the first kill rewards in your mail on exiting the dungeon." Merlin went ahead and started to scavenge the body of the boss. He found much less from it than that he found from the previous boss. It was probably due to the large number of attacks that landed on it from the players. It was common knowledge that monsters killed by a large number of random attacks at multiple places tend to leave less loot on their death. The others also checked the other corpses in the hall before they returned. They were about to discuss the loot when Merlin interrupted. "There is a key in his pocket," said Merlin pulling out a half-foot long black key carved out of stone. "That is the key to the dungeon," said one of the dwarves. "That is where they went, follow me," he continued as he ran out of the room and pointed near the locked door just outside the room. "The warehouse is the entrance to next floor where we have ore access. There were a bunch of gems that we found in the ore. That is the reason they attacked us. To steal our metals. He wants to get a hold of something in the ore which lord Bungar has," said the dwarf. Merlin immediately put key in the door and opened it. All they found was a large empty room with nothing but a few dead dwarves and an open square shaped trapdoor at the far end of the room. This stairs wasn''t like the previous ones and was quite smaller like it was made only for dwarves. Chapter 159 - Hadbufar Merlin and others began to give numbers of what they scavenged from the dead bodies of the orcs and the troll before they went ahead. They found a few armor pieces which they distributed among themselves according to whom it would fit best while the gold and resources just distributed equally. The only piece of gold grade equipment they got from this floor was the axe that Dhrome held. Its head itself was as about two feet long and it was given to Tetsujin who was the only one who had experience with heavy weapons. He found it extremely hard to carry around due to its large head and found it imbalanced for proper use. [Dhrome''s Axe] (Two-handed Axe) Level 15; Attack Power +30; Requirement: Strength 35; Endurance: 15; Strength +10; Special Effect: 10% higher damage caused on a critical hit.. Active Skill: Guillotine: Causes a damage of upto 300 HP in a fierce attack at one''s neck. Would also cause bleed effect. Can only be used when the opponent has less than 10% of its health. Cooldown: 10 min. Durability :40/40; "If not for its active skill, it is completely useless," said Tetsujin as he held it in his hands and tried to swing it a couple of times. "It is very hard to attack at shoulder level using it. Don''t have the proper strength attribute for it. Give it to the troll or I can try putting my extra attribute points into strength once I hit level 15." With that Merlin gave the axe to his troll servant and tried to make it lead behind the dwarves in entering the third floor. It always paid to have a strong vanguard and they didn''t have the slightest idea of the third floor. So, he tried to make it go through the staircase which was actually a bit short for it. "The troll can''t enter the premises below," said the dwarf as it led them down the staircase. Merlin decided to actually check the floor before considering the dwarf''s advice. They quickly went down the stairs and found themselves in a narrow passage which only had a few dead dwarfs and nothing else. It was a bit unlike the other floors. It was quite wide enough to allow more than 6 of them to stand beside one another, but was low in height, less than 6 feet tall with dim light shining from the gems spaced much distant compared to the ones in the floors above. "Definitely, the ore access," said Merlin. "And made for dwarves." He realized that the reason that all the orcs and trolls were in the first two floors was because they couldn''t actually stay comfortably here. The troll would actually be stuck at the bottom of the stairs and unable to move. Merlin had to go back to the floor above and take all its equipment before he came back to the third floor. Luckily, the three shamans were able to move through the third floor, else he would have felt really bad on losing all his servants on the third floor. He had already lost his best servant and even if it managed to bend and move in the third floor it wouldn''t be much effective as it had fight in close combat. They moved slowly through the third floor which was much darker. They had to be much more careful in this floor as the roof was low and they had to fight dwarves in this floor. There were a bunch of smaller passages which lead to temporary quarters of the possessed dwarves. Not ordinary dwarves but ones being controlled by the lord ''Nakshakh'' who was the final boss. These dwarves could be distinguished from the others by the blackened eyes. The good thing was that these passages are quite sparse compared to the other two floors. In the whole third floor there would only be ten such passages. Dwarves were short like goblins mostly reaching four feet high. With height as a disadvantage, the game designers compensated with high defence. They also had high strength to compensate for their lack of reach. Moreover, dwarves were treated as expert forgers by the lore of the game. So, they had good armor and the loot would even involve forging designs. These wouldn''t usually pose much problems for players at this stage of the game as dwarf''s low reach is still an advantage to others. Mostly, dwarfs and other races don''t have conflicts at this stage of the game as the players need to have a level greater than 30 to move across racial regions. The dungeons are the first-time players experience fighting other light races. The environment of the dungeon is also very suitable for the dwarves to fight. It was a dimly lit place where things were mostly dark and the dwarves who were short would attack the players below the belt which was always a bit hard to defend against. Though the goblins were the same height, their attacks didn''t have the same strength as that of dwarves which could be comparable to the strength of normal human berserker at the same level. The goblins also had a better eyesight with longer range than humans. The players who had yet to face the strong offence and tough defence would find it quite hard to get through this stage. This would be very difficult, and Balthazar doesn''t realize this due to the fact that he joined the game quite late and at that time fighting dwarves was a common thing. The first contact with dwarves raised a ruckus and players would need change their styles slightly. As they moved through the main passage, they soon came to see the first group of possessed dwarves. It was actually the two dwarves that they brought along which were able to notice them. Shadow also didn''t get a chance to attack. As he remembered, the dwarfs had a better vision in the dark and even before scouting assassins were able to attack, the dwarves noticed the other players and attacked with their axes. Shadow also retreated back to the group as he knew that standing in their path would just get him trampled. "Damn! They deal a lot more damage compared to gnomes," said Bitter Beast who took the first attack on his shield and was pushed back by the attack. After the two dwarves by he side shouted about the enemies, he had already bent low to take their attacks but still found them to be quite stronger than the orcs attacks and even had a stronger blow back effect. Sultan and Tang who were right behind him also noticed the same. Tetsujin who noticed that he couldn''t slash the great sword that he got in the dungeon vertically due to its height. But when swung it horizontally at a waist level, he couldn''t get enough force as he didn''t put his shoulders into it. He who had the highest strength among them was also pushed back. Shadow was the only one who was successful in his attacks. As an assassin, he never had the habit of countering a blade directly. He also knew that the dwarves would be quite adept with the axes and be able to block an attack quite easily with the head of their axes. So, he threw a firework amidst them to give his team a small reprieve before told them the essentials. "They are very strong. You won''t be able to fight them head on. Bend your knees. Lower your centre of gravity if you are going to tussle with them," said Shadow. It was basic technique in his past life for players to lower their centre of gravity when fighting dwarves so that they won''t stumble backwards. This method also gave them a perspective of the fight from a lower viewpoint than the other taller races making them able to guess the fight style of dwarves and pattern of the attacks better. It was the way to get used to the style of fighting with dwarves and they could later use this to fight in a more comfortable way. It was obviously not easy to bend your knees and lower your back while fighting. Though Shadow had suggested it to others, he was not going to follow the same tip he gave the others. He had already had enough experience with dwarves to know their weak points. They were strong but didn''t were slower than the human which was their advantage. Shadow always considered it stupid to block their attacks when it was far easier to just attack faster. The dwarf being shorter always present their heads as an easy target and it was hard to use swords in the third floor due to their length but using shorter knives or daggers made it easier. He could easily lean forward to make a vertical stab into their neck while evading the dwarf attack as he already had a good idea of their attack patterns. Him being able to fight the dwarves without much issue surprised the others when they heeded his advice to fight. Even though they realized the advantage of doing as Shadow suggested, they couldn''t easily adapt to the change in their posture during the fight. They could hardly fight better, but Shadow was already able to fight more than one dwarf at a time and was amidst them fighting the same way he fought against any other monsters. "Dude, get yourself back here, we are hardly able to use physical attacks and your antics are making it hard for the mages too," said Merlin who didn''t let his three shaman servants attack as he knew it he wouldn''t be able to control them well enough to avoid hitting Shadow among the dwarves in that small space. "Oh," said Shadow as he looked behind and realized that he expected far too much out of his teammates. They were struggling in fighting the dwarves and the reason soon dawned upon him. They had no experience with this and wanted to defend while depending entirely on the mages. But dwarves had a decent amount of resistance to magical attacks too from the armor that the wore. He knew that and felt that Merlin''s suggestion is not really sensible. He retreated back beside Bitter Beast and started to help them tank instead. He wasn''t that into killing them either as killing these possessed dwarves didn''t provide him any life essences of the dark faction which he currently needed the most. It was the best that he could do in this situation as his teammates who can physically fight couldn''t move ahead instead. Apart from him, only Mob was able to fight decently. He had gained a skill that allow him to see from viewpoints of his summons and that enabled him to use his summons better. They soon managed to kill the dwarves and move forward, but it wasn''t enough for Balthazar. He found it extremely slow and inefficient to completely depend on mages. Such an approach would always require more consumables and potions and would not be the best one to follow. He was glad that they were at least improving on his suggestions as they moved through the third floor. After they killed 7 groups of dwarves, the others managed to be able to make attacks that Shadow would consider decent. They mostly imitated his own style. Though it wasn''t the best option with swords, it was still better than their previous situation. During this time, they also managed to get quite a decent loot from the dwarves. As the dwarves had smaller bodies it was hard to attack them at joints or weak points as they were smaller targets. Due to this, they didn''t get much equipment from the dead dwarves. But even if a piece of armor was scavenged from their body, it was at the very least a a bronze grade equipment. By the time, they reached the end of the third floor, they gathered 15 bronze equipment, 5 silver grade armaments and 50 copper ores. Almost every other dwarf they killed had a piece of ore in their pockets. Apart from that, Shadow also went much ahead of them once he was sure that they can handle any ambush he failed to notice with his usual excuse of scouting. He wanted to pick their pockets and was successful quite a few times and had to come back running to join the rest of the team against the dwarves. His work also gave satisfactory results. Apart from a bunch of copper ores, he also got a couple of forging designs from the dwarves. One of them was a level 15 silver dagger and the other was a level 15 bronze vambrace. He kept them both secret and immediately learned the dagger while deciding to give the vambrace to Hammer. The third floor ended in a large cave like room which had a high ceiling and in shape of a circle of 30 metre radius. It was a pleasant change from the passage, and it was filled with 60 or so dwarves. Most of them were just looking and laughing at a dwarf being whipped at the centre of the cave on a platform by another dwarf. The dwarf whipping Bungar was clearly the final boss of the dungeon, the dwarf Hadbufar that had controlled by demon lord Nakshak''s spell. He was much different than the other dwarfs almost a 5 feet tall, he didn''t look like an ordinary dwarf but was like a human. He also had black eyes and black smoke that spewed out of his mouth whenever he talked. [Hadbufar - Nakshak''s puppet] (Boss Monster) Level 15; HP:15000/15000; As the team entered the large cave, the possessed dwarves around turned around simultaneously looking at them in angry way. It was like all of them were of the same mind. Hadbufar also turned around in anger from being disturbed by them. "A bunch of morons come to his rescue," said Hadbufar in a deep gravelly voice. "Show them how treat uninvited guests." Chapter 160 - Hadbufar - II The other dwarves who were watching the platform immediately started running towards them as they shouted furiously. With a higher ceiling, the team players were finally able to move better, and they ran into the cave to escape the group of dwarves. It was hard to fight a number that was more than four times their own in a frontal attack. So, it was best split apart and attack them while running off. With the dwarves'' slower speed, it wasn''t a hard task to do that. The split off into four groups with such that each group had one tank at the very least. With such large numbers, the mages were in most danger and their magic attacks caused the most damage and gained most aggro. However much they ran and attack from such a large number would sooner or later land on the player who could use strong long-distance magical attacks. So, they definitely needed protection. Merlin needed to control three shamans so, he had the priest, Little White feet and two physical attack based players along with him. Healers had it the hardest as apart from the attackers, the main healer who cast most heals would gain the most aggro. Mob and Tetsujin were protecting them. Merlin also took the two dwarves on their side with him. Bitter Beast teamed up with Grenadier, Tang with Quiet Fire and finally Shadow and Sultan fought separately. They were both well versed in fighting in their real-life and didn''t have much issue in running away while whittling down their opponent''s health. Unlike their previous boss fight, they didn''t have any strong companion like the chrome who could support keep the mobs at bay. So, they resorted to doing the the same manner all other teams attempting the fight would do and had to keep moving around the cave. Luckily, they had a lot of space to do so. Merlin who had three shamans along with him had the highest firepower. He had them concentrate their attacks on the dwarfs one at a time to enable killing them faster. It was when the dwarfs accompanying them shouted out. "Don''t kill our brothers. They are just under a spell. Kill Hadbufar. I am sure that lord Bungar will reward you if you save our brothers," shouted the dwarves looking pleading at Merlin. "That is going to be terrifyingly hard," thought Merlin as he messaged the information to others. He needed the others to cooperate with him on this. Else, it would be of no use if his group alone tries to save them while the others go on killing the other dwarves. "That is ridiculous. It is going to be extremely hard. We are hardly able to run around with these dwarves on our tail. I don''t want the main boss after me too," said Bitter Beast. Shadow also felt that this new idea would be extremely hard to implement. In his past life, they always reduced the number of dwarves before engaging Nakshak, who would try to attack them once half the numbers were killed. He had never even tried it this way as the dwarves that he rescued would usually be killed at the second-floor boss stage. He had only tried to keep them safe for this run as he heard a rumor about them receive better rewards if they saved these two. Now, he realized that there would be a chance to improve these rewards further. "It would be extremely difficult, but I am ready to try it out," said Shadow. "If the dwarf is right, it would allow us to save a lot on potions and avoid unnecessary killing. Once, the boss starts fighting, we still need to cope with other dwarves. It can be done, but the fastest will probably have to handle the boss and have his aggro while the rest should keep the others occupied. It will be a lot of work for all of us and we can''t be stingy on the dynamites," explained Shadow. "Had that in mind. Shadow, Sultan, Quiet Fire and Grenadier will engage the boss. The rest will handle the dwarves," said Merlin. "There is no point in think much about this. It is best if we start as early as possible," he continued. Shadow and Sultan immediately joined up with the other two before making their way towards Hadbufar. "You start with cloak of fire that you use. I will use the time to use a cheap shot on him. Let us deal some damage and see how it reacts," said Shadow. Even he didn''t know about what the result would be as no one in his past life tried to attack the boss when they were having their hands full with the dwarfs. He only wanted to try it out now as he had three shamans and two dwarfs helping them which more or less compensated for their numbers. Merlin also had the shamans outfitted with decent equipment and he needn''t say much about dwarfs who kept upgrading their equipment from the dwarves that they before they reached the boss. So, Shadow believed that it is not a bad time to test it out as there is a good chance for the others to technically managed the dwarves with their numbers. As they came about 4 metres close to the platform at the center, Quiet Fire let a cloak of fire on Hadbufar who was whipping up Bungar. He let out a loud roar in pain which Shadow took to be the cue to go and use cheap shot on the boss, while the others retreated while casting their spells on the boss. After the experience with the previous bosses, they didn''t want to underestimate the last boss''s strength though he was much smaller compared to the previous two. Once, the blind and the stun wore off, which took about 4 seconds, Hadbufar left the platform took out a pair of one-handed axes and came running towards them. He threw one of them at Grenadier, but Sultan took the attack as he could block it. The attack didn''t deal much damage, but axe went flying back into the boss''s hand after it struck Sultan''s shield. "He can attack like that!" shouted Grenadier in shock. He was pretty sure that he would have lost a quarter of his health if Sultan didn''t block for him. Even, Balthazar was surprised as that was a move only used by the boss after it lost half its health. The closer a player is to the boss, the more damage he suffers with this attack. "Ya, that was crazy. We need to see how far he can do that thing," said Shadow. "You want to experiment with that," said Grenadier appalled at the suggestion. "That is the whole point, right?" asked Quiet Fire as she fired a few more fire balls at the boss. She was quite ready with the concept of trying to see all that the boss could do. But after the attack the boss didn''t throw it again and started running after them while commanding a few other dwarves to stop them. Luckily, Sultan was very adept at knocking off the dwarves off their feet. Even Shadow was not sure that he could use a shield as well as Sultan. It also helped that the others were trying their best to attract the attention of the dwarves by attacking them. "You played football or something," asked Shadow surprised at his skill. "College," said Sultan as they continued to run away from the boss while firing at him. It was still following them. Though it didn''t throw the axe again immediately as Balthazar had expected, its speed did increase intermittently. It once, even managed to come quite close to them and attack them at close proximity by using the other dwarves to block their path, but Sultan took the blow and Balthazar used dynamite and firecrackers to stun and allow the four of them to escape. If it were only the two elementalists and shadow, they would have definitely gone farther, but the group depended on Sultan to tank other dwarves the most and also any attacks used by the boss. His movement speed became their limiting factor. The worst thing was that he was also the healer for their group. "Anyone has a skill to tether him?" asked Shadow aloud. It was getting harder to continue this run and gun strategy. Tethering skills are quite rare in the game. Close combat classes would rarely have such skills. The ones they could possibly have are traps that they have to set up. Apart from that, some specific tools like arrows that could be fitted with harpoon could be used for this. Mages and Archers also had some specific skills that could be used for the purpose of tethering. Tethering skill always required to be cast from a distance, and it is best if they were cast without the notice of the target. Else, the target will surely try to evade. "I have one, but it needs channeling for two seconds and we need the boss at the same place. It would pin him down for about 15 seconds," said Quiet Fire. The other three looked at she just walked out of the mentally challenged ward of a hospital. If they could actually hold back the boss for such a couple of seconds, they wouldn''t have needed a tethering skill to begin with. "Merlin some help?" asked Shadow out of options. "No. Not planning to sacrifice my servants." "Anyone else?" "Just stop attacking him and run away for some time," suggested Tetsujin. "That seems like the best option," said Quiet Fire. "Help clearing the mobs Grenadier," she asked as she started firing her attacks at the mobs instead. Till now, they had only been attacking the dwarfs lightly only with the intention of scattering them. Half their attacks were aimed to slightly miss the dwarves to make them evade and thus providing themselves more time, since the dwarf had suggested that the don''t kill all the possessed dwarves. With the two mages no longer focusing on the boss and trying to clear the other dwarves that were trying to block them for the boss, they were soon able to get away from the boss. The boss actually started to go back to the platform where Bungar was tied at a very fast pace. "Shit! He is going back. Attack him again," shouted Merlin directing the attention of Shadow and the other three in the group to the boss. "Oh! Damn! I will attract his attention," said Shadow as he ran away from the other three towards the boss as he was the fastest and used the crossbow to attack the boss. He could always deal damage to the boss from a distance using crossbow, but it was a waste and damage dealt by arrows to a dwarf would be much less than that of a magical attack. So, he let the others use fire balls and other magical attacks to attack till now. He pulled out his crossbow equipping it in one hand and an axe in the other only because he needed to get back his aggro urgently. He wasn''t sure what the boss would do to Bungar after he reached the platform and didn''t want to risk it. Luckily, the boss responded to the slightest damage and followed after Shadow again. "Issue partly handled, keep your distance, I will join you," shouted Shadow as he ran towards the remaining three of the group. This scenario continued for a some more time and they slowly were reducing the boss''s health. In about 30 minutes of this running, they managed to reduce his health to 50%. It was the slowest boss fight that they had in this dungeon. During this time, even though they tried the best to not kill the other dwarves, about a quarter of them died due to their attacks. The possessed dwarves were attacking them, and they preferred to retaliate than being injured by them leading to these casualties. After the boss lost 50% of its health, it changed its tactics again. This was what Shadow dreaded the most. The boss started throwing the axes from the start which it was supposed to do at this point. Shadow was afraid that it might use the moves of its berserk state now. At berserk state, the boss actually tries to throw the other dwarves at the players. Though the boss didn''t do that now, it did something new that even Shadow didn''t see before. It took out a spear and threw it at Merlin at a very high speed. He didn''t even get a chance to completely evade. Luckily, he always had all his three shamans in front of him protecting from the dwarves'' attacks. One of the three got impaled by the spear and the shaman immediately died of the attack. Luckily that was only one attack and it didn''t continue after that. It started to throw and recall it''s axes like it did before, but it was not focusing on Shadow''s group of four. It was after Merlin''s group. It was clear that its aggro had reseted. Merlin was the person most afraid of the boss currently. He had just lost one of his servants as he didn''t think that the boss would have such a terrifying skill. The boss attacked his group with axes after that but didn''t use a spear again. Soon, Shadow''s group got back it''s aggro and continued as before, but everyone was on alert against the new skill that the boss showed. Even Balthazar had no way to handle that attack currently apart from trying their best to evade skill when used. Once, the boss''s health reached the 40% mark, the new skill made its appearance again. This time the target was Tang and Spicy. She had blocked the attack with her shield but ended up being knocked back into the cave wall in a stunned and crippled state. It could be clearly seen that her hand was broken. If not for the quick interference of Mob, Merlin and Little White Feet, she would have been definitely killed at the spot. "High chance that the skill would be used for every loss of 10% of its health," said Merlin in the team chat. "If so, only 3 more times. Be careful and stay at full health during these times," he warned. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 161 - New Title They continued with the previous strategy of running away for another half an hour when the boss finally reached went berserk. During this time, he had used the spear throw skill another three times with its targets being one of the two friendly dwarves, Sultan and and lastly another of Merlin''s mage servants. Sultan actually took the blow for Quiet Fire and he collided into Quiet fire due to the blow back effect, even after that. Apart from Sultan the other two, immediately died of the attack. Merlin felt really bad on losing another one of his servants, but the others were all very relieved that they were not targeted by the skill. If they were the target, they would either get killed or at the very least be severely injured by his attack that they would be stunned or crippled. The worst part was that they expected the boss to go berserk after the last throw of the spear. But the thing that followed the attack surprised them more. Black smoke started to billow out of the joints of its armor. Ten dwarves that were closes to the boss died falling down while more smoke came off the dwarves and joined with Hadbufar. It took the shape of a demon as the smoke formed into scales and pair of horns on the head of Hadbufar. These were all expected changes for Balthazar. The biggest change was that all the other dwarves stopped fighting all of a sudden. It was like they were about to get out of the trance they were in but suddenly stopped. The boss began to throw its axes and even dwarves that were close to it. The axes were definitely slower than the spear and as the entire team had been quite vigilant after their previous experience and evaded them or blocked as necessary, but it went and flung the frozen dwarves instead. "Everyone, focus on the boss alone. The dwarves are incapacitated. You just need to evade the ones he throws," shouted Shadow knowing what is required. With the other dwarves in that state they could completely concentrate on the boss. This was the only advantage in the berserk state of the boss. The only thing that they had to be aware of what the boss could throw. Previously, they used to simply deal damage to the dwarfs when they were frozen to kill them as the dwarfs would suddenly become alive if they hit their target and dealt more damage. The boss also jumped about the same distance once every ten minutes and attacked. That would be a sure kill attack. So, the players usually attacked and killed all the dwarves before they fought the boss, so as to avoid that specific attack. But now, they didn''t want to hurt the dwarves. So, they are stuck to evading and attacking instead. He hoped that there wouldn''t be anyone who wouldn''t manage to avoid the throw and realize that the dwarfs would become alive once they hit the target. But it was far too much to expect that of them as Tang was the first one to block the dwarf with her shield rather than evade. She was quite shocked and shouted in fear when the dwarf caught onto her shield and attacked her. "They are not frozen. Attack them," shouted Tang as she came to her senses. This put the rest of them all into a tensed state suddenly, some of them were quite close to other dwarves and immediately jumped away from them disregarding other things. "Don''t panic. Only the dwarves thrown are getting unfrozen when we contact them instead of evading," shouted Shadow and also messaged them. At this time, the others would just consider it an acute observation of Shadow. Still, a majority of them didn''t immediately notice the message or heard Shadow and continued to panic. It took about 10 seconds for them to realize that the other dwarves weren''t attacking them, but in their panic a couple more dwarves were successfully thrown on to other members of the team, Bitter Beast and Tetsujin. "Yeah, they aren''t attacking us," realized Tetsujin as he pushed back the dwarf that whaled on him. As they realized, the situation became better and they slowly started to fight with the boss decently. This continued for some time and they were able to reduce the boss''s health steadily till it became about 700 HP. Then, the boss suddenly jumped instead of throwing a dwarf. It aimed for Merlin but landed on Spirit Bear and Bitter Best who were covering for Merlin and managed to cushion it for Merlin. The attack caused the bear to dissipate into light and it blew away Bitter Beast crippling him. As he flew away, he collided into Merlin causing both of them to lose significant bit of health. "Kill him faster," shouted Merlin afraid that it might have changed its attacks again. Though Bitter Beast was down the others started to all use their best attack in fear that the boss might continue. IF that was the case, even the physical classes were no longer safe even if they kept their distance fro the boss. So, Sultan took initiative to use his Glaring Blaze skill to allow others to use its effect and pile up the attacks. Even the boss wasn''t immune to the skill. Though it didn''t go blind like other monsters, it didn''t fight Sultan head on and started to retreat instead. This attack couple with Quiet Fire''s cloak of fire, Merlin''s Siphon health and other skills executed by Tetsujin and Tang managed to reduce its health to a meagre 200 HP within 10 seconds. Merlin also tried subjugation during these 10 seconds of Glaring Blaze, but it failed almost immediately. His health siphon could persist for another 20 seconds. So, he continued with that skill while retreating under cover provided by Sultan, Tang and Mob while the boss tried to throw more dwarves at Merlin. Tetsujin and Shadow also stood blocking the dwarves, when they realized Merlin''s plan. The boss threw four dwarves at Merlin in these 10 seconds, but none of them hit their target due to the interference of the other players. After the 10 seconds, it simply fell down as it lost its health to Merlin''s skill. "System: Congratulations on obtaining the first kill of Hadbufar. You will receive the first kill rewards in your mail on exiting the dungeon." The dwarves also were out of their possessed state and immediately began to move towards their lord tied up on the platform. There were about 20 dwarves left whom quickly removed Bungar from the platform and were cheering among themselves. "Nice plan," complemented Tetsujin laying down as he started drinking water and bread to get rid of his tired feeling. They had spent an hour just in this cave which was extremely taxing to continuously keep moving for such a long time. "I think your siphon skill is the best way to quickly reduce the health of a boss, in hard situations. Especially, if when they have high defence and speed. It is very hard to land physical attack in these cases," continued Tetsujin. "Ya. I personally think it is best used for handling the berserk state of monsters. We can keep distance and block while reducing the opponent''s health," said Sultan. "You need to advance your weapon as soon as possible Merlin. It is best if this skill becomes stronger," he continued looking at Merlin. "Ya. I didn''t think that far. I just used it along with a potion as the attack which crippled Beast also caused me to lose a lot of health with bleed effects. It was just a way to replenish my health faster so that I didn''t die," said Merlin. He also didn''t actually think that it could be used on a monster in berserk state to that effect and always thought it to be a life-saving skill than anything else. "Let us actually finish the dungeon by talking to Bungar, shall we?" said Shadow as he went to the platform. The other also followed behind him. The dwarves let them through as they came to meet Bungar. "Adventurers, I had lost hope till you came. I am really glad that you have managed to save all of us from the demon. They managed to infiltrate our ranks and incapacitate us. We managed to help most of the dwarves escape, but we warriors stayed behind to protect or land. Alas, we lost," said Bungar shaking his head. "Though you have killed quite a number of our men, you have also saved 24 of us from the demon Nakshak''s evil hold. With my fellow dwarves, we will be able to bring back the fort to its former glory. For this I thank you and want to give you this as a toke of my appreciation," said Bungar as he pulled out a dark gold treasure chest and gave it Shadow. "We thank you for your help in our time of need adventurers," said Bungar as system announcements sounded out. White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merlin Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast, Psychotic Mob, Sultan-e-Shehzad, Tang and Spicy, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet the members of Blazing Fury for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Bungar''s Keep. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 White Heart City reputation points. White Heart Kingdom System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merlin Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast, Psychotic Mob, Sultan-e-Shehzad, Tang and Spicy, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet the members of Blazing Fury for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Bungar''s Keep. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart Kingdom reputation points. "System: First clear rewards will be delivered to you via mail after you exit the dungeon." "System: For clearing a dungeon of the dwarf territory, while saving more than 20 dwarves, you are being awarded the title ''Dwarf''s friend''. You will be given some of the privileges of a third-rate citizen in most dwarven towns and cities." As they heard the announcements, a portal appeared beneath their feet transporting them out of the keep. As they came out of the dungeon, they also received experience points for saving the dwarves and 6 of them immediately hit level 15. "You guys got the new title too?" asked Tang as she checked the system announcement. Everyone nodded along as they checked their announcements. Even Balthazar was surprised by the new title that they received. Players would be allowed in the towns and cities of allied races, but they need to have reputation if they want to buy land, special equipment or compete with other dwarf players. Though the title doesn''t allow one to buy/rent land or shops it allows them entrance to some areas restricted to citizens. This would be quite useful in later stages of the game when various races would intermingle with one another. It would provide a starting advantage to them a it is very hard to gain reputation in other race''s territory, especially since most of the common means to gain reputation like dungeons would already be used by the players of that specific race. At such times, these titles would be quite useful in exploring higher level lands of other races. As others were enjoying the special awards they received and allocating their free attribute points, Merlin''s voice rang. "Open the treasure chest dude. Let us see, what we have won." The others also turned to Shadow on hearing Merlin''s voice. They were busy receiving congratulations from their peers and checking their reward in mail that they almost forgot about the special award they received for saving the dwarves. They surrounded Shadow waiting for him to pull out the golden treasure chest. Grenadier, Mob and Bitter Beast were more interested than others as it was the first gold treasure chest they had ever seen in the game. Shadow didn''t want to keep them waiting either and opened the treasure chest immediately. There were three things in the chest. A dark gold chest plate, a gold forging design and a bag. They first checked the bag as it was something that they hadn''t seen before, but they were bitterly disappointed when Shadow opened it. "Copper ores? It is copper ores?!" asked Merlin shocked by the contents of the bag. "A bag of 50 copper ores. That is also in a treasure chest," shouted Merlin in anger. He had been hoping it to be something special. "Dude, we saved 20 dwarves and that gave us a title and treasure chest. Aren''t you being too greedy?" said Tetsujin shaking his head. "I am not angry that it was a small reward. I am angry that the system put something so trivial in a dark gold treasure chest," said Merlin. "Move to the next one. Armor details please." [Galgar''s Chest Plate] ( Dark Gold chest armor) Level 15; Requirements: Strength: 25; Vitality: 25; Endurance +15; Magic Resist +30; Special Effect: Helwagor''s Blessing (Passive): Recover''s 1% HP (uptil 150 HP) of the player per second. Uses 10 MP for every 1% HP. Active Skill: Rock Guard: Forms a rock layer of armor around the player doubling his physical defence and magical resistance. MP: 500; Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 15 min. [Blessed by Dwarf Sage, Helwagor and worn by lord Gulgar (Bungar''s father) in his youth.] Durability: 45/45. "Damn! The specs on it is ridiculous. This is a tanks dream," said Sultan as soon as he looked at the description. "Tank or attacker, it makes them a fort. They don''t even need to worry about the healer. Even, if it needs MP for healing, it makes a person downright undefeatable at his level," added Tetsujin. Both of them wanted to pounce on Shadow to take the equipment. It was extremely tempting for them. They felt that it would make them impossible to kill even if they tried to fight the mini boss Chrome head on while wearing this armor. "It is a good one, but only until certain level. I doubt it will be much useful past level 18 or so, but it would be very useful for a guild to get resources from a dungeon. They could exchange the armor among the player and repeat the dungeon multiple times, unlike us," said Merlin as his eyes sparkled with newfound enthusiasm which had waned after he had seen the first item of the chest. "You want to put it in auction? We can use it right now. It will be easier for us to clear the hell mode with it. I suggest one of us uses it till level 18 or so," said Sultan. "Of course, we are using it, now," said Merlin rolling his eyes at Sultan. "I was just suggesting that we sell it after our use. This thing will still be valuable to guilds as they will have a number of new players constantly. For this game, I actually expect that such a trend will continue for a couple of years." "Oh! Cool! Soooo?!" said Sultan. "Who gets it?" "Roll for it. I don''t have a better idea, now," said Merlin. "Only plate armor classes," he added as he saw almost every getting ready to roll for a number. "It is a waste to use it on low defence or low health players." His conditions left only four players who could roll for it - Bitter Beast, Tetsujin, Sultan and Tang. The four of them quickly use the roll function available to generate a random number between 0 to 100. Bitter Beast - 43; "Shit! How can it be so low," shouted Beast. With that number, he was sure that he wouldn''t get the armor. Sultan - 88; "Not bad! Let us see if anyone else gets a better number," gloated Sultan. He currently had the highest probability of winning the armor. Tetsujin - 97; "Hahaha," laughed Tetsujin. Even the others, including Tang were sure that Tetsujin won. Tang - 84; "I can''t believe that you got such a high number," she grumbled walking away. Tetsujin took the armor from Shadow in high spirits and immediately equipped it. He was a martial artist who put a lot of his attribute points in strength and agility, while focusing less on endurance. He was really glad that he got to pair up with armor that provided him exactly what he needed. "Now, show the forging design," said Merlin. [Connective Twin swords] (Gold Two handed weapon) Level 15; Requirements: Strength: 25; Agility: 25; Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 4; Copper Ore x 2; (Can be split into two swords or can be used as a double ended blade) Attack Power +45; Special Effect: Party counter: Every parry in the combined form has a chance of inducing a counterattack from the other end of the weapon. Active Skill: Wheel Slasher: Allow the player to rotate the weapon at high speed while attacking. Increases the attack power by 50%. Duration: 5 seconds; MP: 400; Cooldown: 5 min. Chapter 162 - Trader profession "Can I buy this. I want to learn it," said Shadow as soon as he posted the description onto the team chat. The others looked at him weirdly while Tetsujin and Merlin actually slapped their foreheads at the question. "What is wrong with this idiot? I thought he had realized the issue of keeping the guild and the team business separate," thought Merlin. "Didn''t you just have the same talk about the other weapon design?" asked Quiet Fire who had also been noticing them. "Yes, that was for the guild. This is for me. I am going to learn it personally. I wanted to try out a transformable weapon. It would help me improve my forging skills," said Shadow with a smile. He had already decided to learn it personally and had no intention of keeping it for the guild. "Will try and create a few weapons personally if any of you want," he added in order to tempt them. "I am fine to give up my share, if you promise me a gold weapon," said Tetsujing immediately giving up his rights. "The same for me," added Sultan. To these two, money wasn''t of much importance as a gold grade weapon. Especially, Tetsujin who had recently got a dark gold armor. With the gold grade weapon, he would become very strong. Even though he already had the gold great sword, it wasn''t the same as it was and two handed great swords or hammer which he had to hold at one end was harder to balance in a fight than a spear or the new weapon which he could hold at the centre of the weapon. "But you do understand that the value of a gold design is much more. I don''t even plan to put it in auction house, but to sell it in the fight club. A gold design is rare enough that even the old administrators of the group will be extremely interested," said Merlin. "It can be sold for a couple million credits. Even three silver designs could be matched up to it." Balthazar didn''t know what else he could offer for the forging design. If it had been a couple of hours before, he would have offered credits too, but he didn''t feel like using his money right now as he had just invested a lot of it. He realized that he needed to invest a lot more money in the game than he thought. He didn''t think of it before, but now he felt like he needed Robert to compensate him half of the 50 million credits that he invested for their project. He just didn''t ask it before, but with Robert already being given shares for it, he can try to borrow some money. "Anyway, I still got about ten million left, and I can still negotiate with these guys," thought Balthazar. "Stop teasing him cousin, the design isn''t worth that much even to a guild," said Quiet Fire from the side. She didn''t want to antagonize Shadow much. He does own a guild and it would be unwise to pressure him far too much even though he was a part of their team. "Two million credits is possible, but a tenth of that is mine. Apart from that, I hope that half of it can be done in terms of coins or weapons, right?" asked Shadow. "I would even throw in another silver weapon design at least by tomorrow. Will transfer the million to you right now," suggested Shadow. "See," said Merlin looking at his cousin. "It isn''t worth much to a guild, but he wants it as a forger not as a guild representative," said Merlin. He had already understood that Shadow want to examine the weapon design as it was a gold equipment. He had already known that Shadow managed to create an original weapon design and examining higher grade equipment and experimenting on them was something that every forger did in a guild. He was a part of a guild before this game and understood the importance of a high-grade design to a forger player. "Done, you can send the money now," said Merlin. "Ok. I will send you the 1 million. Remaining four hundred thousand, we can discuss how you want it," said Shadow. "Four hundred thousand?" asked Quiet Fire surprised. "I am not counting my share along with Tetsujin and Sultans. We have our own agreement," said Shadow. Merlin was quite surprised when he heard it. A gold weapon is much more valuable than 2 hundred thousand. So, he was shocked that Shadow didn''t consider sending money rather than equipment. He also began to think that maybe Shadow had less money and suggested this. "How about another one of those gold weapons and silver weapon design," said Merlin greedily. "I am fine with the gold weapon, but silver design is something I can''t say for sure right now. I would rather compensate in the form of gold coins," said Shadow. He already knew that he was making a loss with the weapons that he promised, but he still wanted to make an amicable transaction. The weapon design he took was much more valuable than a simple gold design. He found it valuable because it is a modifiable weapon, which would have much more value than others. He could also use the design to construct similar other weapons which was the reason he wanted to buy it right now. "Fine," said Merlin as Shadow immediately learned the design and checked the steps of its construction. The detachable part needs to be a lot stronger than the other parts, where the copper ore is being used in combination with iron. "So, this is how it is made," thought Balthazar as he went through the steps. "Now, shall we attempt the hell mode?" asked Merlin excited to get the first clear of the hell mode too. "We at least need some consumable and rest, brother," said Tetsujin who had been very tired using his gold great sword. "Why don''t we give ourselves some time to rest and prepare?" he suggested. It was clear that he wanted to give some time for Shadow to try and make the new weapon he had learned and was using this as an excuse. But they all agreed that they needed some rest as they had to maintain a high level of concentration for some time and would probably not be able to get much results if they attempted the hell mode now. "Yes, it would be best if we upgrade some of our armor too. Why don''t we browse through the auction too? We do have another design and a few items to sell," said Quiet Fire. "Yes, we also need to see how our recruitment is going on," added Sultan. "Yes. Recruitment. Let us see how many are interested in our team. We just got a first clear in the name of Blazing Fury. It is best if we use it to our advantage now," said Merlin. The whole lot of them channeled their hearthstones to return to the White Heart City. Shadow separated from them and went to the bank. He had acc.u.mulated more than a couple thousand gold from his dungeon administration rights. He collected some money from bank and contacted Rudra and Slaine, but they were both attempting the dungeon. So, he told them that he would compose and send them the dungeon guide soon. He went to the shop to meet up with Lizzie and Hammer. At the shop, he found Lizzie and Hammer discussing something together. They seemed to be discussing something very seriously in a private room at the back of the shop. He would have waited usually for them to finish up, but he was in a hurry as he didn''t have much time. "Can I have a word, Lizzie?" he asked her. "You! Yes. What is it?" she asked. "By the way, how did you find out about the trader profession?" "I overheard some people talking. Why?" "Because, it is quite a weird one. It is actually provided by the city hall instead of a trader NPC. I haven''t seen a profession like this before. It awards experience for a good sale. The system generates a pair of values for every item that I sell. A min value to be sold based on its cost and the difficulty of creating it. This is close to the minimum that we have. The other is better estimate a bit higher than the previous one. If I sell it for more than that amount, I get experience from just selling stuff. So, all rare commodities, etc., I can just sell and get experience from the shop," she explained. "Haha, this is made for you then," said Shadow. "Don''t get too happy. I actually lose proficiency and experience if I sell it for a rate lower than the minimum. The profession isn''t permanent, yet and I need to complete some trader quests before the city hall makes it permanent. I don''t even know if the license can be used in other cities or not," said Lizzie. "I doubt you would have much issue with that. The rate at which the shop is operating would make things a lot more easy for you," said Hammer. "And holding an occasional auction would make it much easier. Doesn''t it?" "Ya. It is a rare profession. I doubt one would be very successful without having the support of a guild. It will surely be valid in other cities too. I doubt that they would limit a profession to a city or kingdom. So, just try it out. It is not like it isn''t useful, right?" asked Shadow. He already knew that the trader profession is linked through auction houses and it is common throughout the game. The profession would actually teach the players various bargaining techniques, sales of assets and so on. This would be very useful when a guild own multiple properties or rents to NPCs or wants to rent from NPCs. "It would allow me to get decent bargains from other NPC merchants too. It already has its uses," said Lizzie nodding her head. "Why are you here?" "Yes. Give me a couple of seconds," said Shadow as he pulled out the design of vambraces from his bag and gave it to Hammer along with some gold. "There is a silver weapon design going to be auctioned by Merlin Grimlock," he said. "Make a buy out as soon as you see it and learn it." "He is selling it auction house. I hoped that they would sell it at our shop. I just had a chat with Quiet Fire about it a few minutes ago. She told that she has a few items to auction for me," said Lizzie. "Ok. You guys talk it out among yourselves," said Shadow. "First, tell the guild members to hold off on the dungeon, if they are enthusiastic. I will provide the dungeon guide in a few minutes need to sort it out." "Rudra already did that. He sent a notification as soon as the announcement of you clearing it came out. Haven''t you been checking the guild chat?" asked Lizzie. "Too much of talk going on in it now. I have muted it and not really a fan of scrolling upwards to check the messages. You must regulate that chat to important things only," said Balthazar. That was one of the most important things required in a guild. When, a guild is growing, it usually gets hard to maintain this kind of regulations, but if one fails to do so, the chat becomes useless later on in the game and useful information tends to get submerged by a lot of friendly chatter. "Ya. Slaine was also complaining of the same. People are bit more enthusiastic than we have expected," said Lizzie in agreement. "It is hard to curb down their excitement." "Did you guys set up the guild warehouse, yet?" asked Balthazar. "Oh! Isn''t that a bit too hard?" asked Lizzie as she realized what Balthazar''s suggestion is going to be. Slaine had already suggested that they restrict the members who are using guild chat for trivialities to not be able to use the warehouse. "You need to have some hard and strong rules. Else, the members wouldn''t calm down. Especially under these circ.u.mstances. It is necessary," said Balthazar. This rule is used by a number of first-rate guilds. "Second, how is it going in the Blackrock Town?" he asked. "It is quite peaceful actually. The town actually upgraded to an intermediate town. We have a decent amount of control over the tow. The Sirius Imperials have joined their forces with us and we are presenting a united front to any player from Foedus Rex," said Lizzie. "What about the exploration of the Blackrock mountains," asked Balthazar. "Brick is leading that. We went quite far into the mountains, behind the portal for the Cave of Wargs. They reached a level 15 area with a bunch of new monsters, but we didn''t find any mine as you had suggested," said Lizzie. "Keep looking. It is actually best, if we calm down till the mass quest ends," suggested Balthazar. "What about the path to Jarko Town?" "We are exploring along the map you gave. Found that Welog town as shown in the map, but it will take some time to get uptil Jarko. We are actually pushing it a bit. It is a level 15 area already and we are just trying to improve our reputation at Welog town." "That is good. It is good to have a decent reputation in the places along the way. Any other big guilds in the vicinity?" asked Balthazar. "No. Most other guilds tend to interfere with us. Foedus Rex is concerned with the mass quest. Perennial Light is leading this, and he says that it is going quite peacefully as most player are currently overly concerned with the mass quest. It does give a chance of giving quite a few good equipment," said Lizzie. "It is much more interesting to guilds and independent players than exploration currently. We best use this option for these two days." "Ok. That mass quest actually ended up providing us an advantage," said Shadow. "How about the trade route and caravan designs. Talking about designs, did you meet with Earthly Researcher." "We checked with most of our sources for the caravan design. Found nothing, yet. Earthly, he is a bit full of himself, but a worth addition," said Lizzie a bit annoyed. It looked like she didn''t really like the engineer. "Ok. He is not important. I got another engineer in mind. I got a friend who is using the nickname Lizzie Bizzie. I actually contacted her to meet Rudra for the creating a training environment. He might mostly introduce her to you to help him with management of the training environment and similar things. She is a good engineer and it would be good if you can get her to join the guild," said Shadow. As Lizzie was mostly handling the business aspects of the guild more than Rudra, he decided it is best to also let her be aware and examine Ellie''s efforts. "Ya. He told me of her. I will see if I can talk to her about this too," said Lizzie. "Is training really that important?" she asked. "Ya. It is. You will soon realize it. Stick to the trader profession. I think that you would have the best chance to get a hold of caravans from the trader profession," said Shadow. "Last thing, do you have any copper ore mined?" "Copper ore? I think Hammer has some. He actually took charge of all resources and materials that might be required for forging," said Lizzie. "I did find a copper ore in the auction house, but it was a rare find. Didn''t find any designs to use it and didn''t want to experiment without more of them," said Hammer. "You know who put it on sale?" "Some guy called Hunter 1. They seem to be a group called Hunter squad. I have already asked, if they could find more of them, but they asked for double the price. So, I befriended them and didn''t continue with the conversation," said Hammer. Chapter 163 - Disagreements "Hunter squad? Huh!" said Balthazar. The only hunter squad he remembered were a group of hunting fanatics who used only traps and arrows, methods possible only in real-life to hunt monsters in the game. They were hunting aficionados and stressed on proper way to hunt the monsters in the forest areas of the game. The hunter squad was primarily made of archers. Apart from that, they had thieves, swordsmen and martial artists, but all of them were prohibited from using their magical skills while hunting monsters and could only use physical attacks. They used the have the concept of judging their skills by the amount of resources they could scavenge from their kill. Most of the time they laid traps for monsters which was considered by most of the guilds as a waste of time. The traps presently found in the NPC stores were small ones which could only hold down normal monsters. It wasn''t considered worth the money as the players could use multiple attacks to do kill the monster anyways. So, guilds considered laying such traps only for special monsters which weren''t seen in many areas. It was more of a hunter training academy than an adventurer group that kept its numbers really small. In his past life, they were known as eccentrics who didn''t like to join with anybody. A few years into the game, he came to know that they were actually retired old men who were spending their retirement in the game this way. Balthazar found it hard to believe that they found copper ore. They mostly restricted themselves to forest areas and laid traps for animals. "We can tempt them. Suggest a sale of crossbows for a discount in exchange for the copper ore. It is best if we can get the details on how they got it. We can even convince them that we will not disturb their activities," said Balthazar. Though he knew some mining areas for copper ore, they were all level 15 areas. Moreover, the White Heart City had a lot of areas forbidden to enter by Foedus Rex in his past life. He also didn''t spend much time in areas below level 50. So, there were definitely areas that he wasn''t entirely sure of and wanted to get the information. "Maybe suggest they can even use our guild lodgings at Sylvannus Fort, if they actually have a location of a mine or something. The proximity of the fort to the surrounding forest might tempt them," he continued looking at Lizzie. "Wow! You really need copper ore, huh," said Lizzie. "It will soon be in good demand. Copper ore has its uses," said Shadow. Copper ore would be used in lot of equipment from level 20 onwards. Even level 20 black iron equipment would require copper ore. It is better if they build up their resources for the future levels. "I will finish up the dungeon guide and leave now. You both handle this," said Shadow as he sat down beside them and began to arrange the photos he took and added a few instructions and boss''s behavior. He made two sets of manuals. One for guild elites, where he included details of the mini-boss chrome and how to use the dwarves and advantage of having dwarves alive at the end. The other for every other member and it could be leaked to other guilds too. This would happen due to spies put in by other guilds and also it would be for the best to avoid pressure from other guilds. Them taking the first clears would already force some other guilds to compete with them. "Here, I will let you distribute the manuals as necessary. I will let you decide who to send the detailed manual to. Just make sure to net let it out of the guild. So, I suggest you let the simpler one to the majority first," said Shadow to Lizzie who was going through the elite manual. "You followed this for the first clear?" asked Lizzie. "Not exactly, but you can''t follow that method without the special skill subjugation that Merlin has," said Shadow. "Oh! Rare skill?" "Ultra rare, from unique weapon." "Ok. I will handle this. You guys going to attempt hell mode next?" she asked. "Yes. But thinking of upgrading our armaments first," said Shadow as started to leave them. "All right. See you later, then. Good luck with your excursion," she said waving him bye. Shadow quickly made his way to the Forging Association and booked himself an intermediate forging room. He actually attempted for an advanced forging room but was denied the entry by the receptionist who informed him that he needs to be a Basic Forger at the very least to book an advanced forging room. He, being an apprentice of Master Kade could use it as an advanced forging apprentice, but it isn''t possible before that. He immediately set to creating the forging the pair of silver daggers first. The silver daggers he learn''t were actually quite simple. Each dagger needed a refined iron ore and a copper ore and a wooden log from the handle grip. The only new part for him was the melting the copper ore and mixing it with refined iron ore. He just needed the practice with the combination of ores more than anything else. With two different ores, he needed to melt them at different temperatures and mix them at another temperature so that a proper mixture of them is formed. This was the hard part of the entire process. He wanted to practice it once with the daggers before he attempted to create the gold weapon. He failed in his first attempt producing a dagger of bronze grade, instead of silver grade. A bronze grade dagger with copper ore at level 15 would be considered a crude failure in his previous life. The second attempt was better as it had better damage than the first, but it was still a bronze dagger. "I will get the hang of it. Just need practice it some more. It has been a few years since I have had to combine molten low-level ores," he convinced himself as he attempted it again. After a couple more attempts, he finally got it right and made a silver grade dagger. "Finally, took five attempts to get this done," thought Balthazar. "I will repeat another one so that I would get a set of silver grade daggers. I could also do with more practice to see if I got a proper hold on it," he thought as he started on making another dagger. It was best if he was sure on the process of combining ores before he went ahead and attempted a gold grade weapon. The gold grade weapon design was quite simple except for the detachable part. The handle had a helical thread which would help attach like a water bottle thread by rotating them. The same way could be used to separate into two different swords. There would be a small protrusion on one handle which would go into a hollow dug on the other handle and there would be matching threads on the protrusion and inside the hollow which enable the swords to be attached to each other. These protrusion and hollows also make the weight of the two swords slightly different from one another. Most players wouldn''t notice this, but experts would definitely realize the difference. The swords had a foot-long handle and 2 feet long blades. The threading of the the handles would be the hardest part for most forging apprentices, but that was because there wouldn''t be tools for that. With the lathe present in the intermediate forging room, threading was a quite simple, except for the fact that one had to make the proper calculation for it and mustn''t overdo it. Else, it would spoil the entire handle of the weapon. With the silver grade dagger done, he took two more pieces of copper and refined iron ore each and once he melted them, he poured them into the form of a cylindrical shape like a foot-long rod. He then started to use the lathe to create a screw system between the two of them. Once, the measurements were made it took just a couple of minutes for him to setup the screw system in the handles. Then, he set marks on the handles for alignment of the swords which are to be attached. Following that, he took two more pieces of refined iron ore and hammered them into the shape of blades and welded them down to the handles. He pulled the two swords checked if he is able to detach them easily before he started sharpening the blades and then selected for inspection by the system. [Connective Twin swords] (Gold Two handed weapon) Level 15; Requirements: Strength: 25; Agility: 25; (Can be split into two swords or can be used as a double ended blade) Attack Power +45; Special Effect: Party counter: Every parry in the combined form has a chance of inducing a counterattack from the other end of the weapon. Active Skill: Wheel Slasher: Allow the player to rotate the weapon at high speed while attacking. Increases the attack power by 50%. Duration: 5 seconds; MP: 400; Cooldown: 5 min. "+600 experience points, +5 forging proficiency." "Another 214 proficiency points for the intermediate forging apprentice," counted Balthazar as he began to examine the gold weapon he had created. He had taken less time than he had expected to create the weapon. He was glad that he had practiced with the silver daggers before he had attempted the gold weapon. "Still got about 20 minutes for an hour. I best try to create another piece of this," thought Balthazar as he pulled out the materials required for another piece of the gold weapon. He continued with forging another gold grade connective twin swords, before leaving the forging room and contacting Tetsujin. "I have the weapon ready for you," said Shadow. "Where are you guys?" "Ya, we got new recruits. Merlin and Quiet Fire are both a bit busy. It will take a few minutes for them. Why don''t I come and meet you in the meantime," said Tetsujin. "Meet me at the auction house in that case," said Shadow as he contacted Lizzie and Hammer about the other things. Lizzie already worked out a deal to sell some of their loot instead of an auction house as they could charge less fees than the auction house. It was just to help Lizzie with her trader profession. Rudra and Slaine are attempting the normal mode with the new dungeon guide as are the other players of the guild. Hammer also got the Troll Cutlass weapon design. Shadow had decided to make a habit of going to the auction house whenever possible as he knew about a lot of items in the game. In start of a game, there would be a few items that most players wouldn''t know the use of. So, it allowed him to get a hold of resources which many other players wouldn''t care for. He went through the various items that were available in the auction house. He was mainly looking for copper in the auction house, but apart from that he was also looking for thing that would help with stealth. He found a pair of vambraces, but he didn''t find them worth as he would have to give up on his strength for it. He also found quite a few Magusweed and Red Highblooms which made him realized that these could be used to craft Less Magic Resistance potions which would become quite famous. The recipe would soon be found from quest at level 15 areas. So, he bought all he could find and asked Lizzie to store up on more when they are available. He continued to browse through the items available and he suggested Lizzie to be on lookout for a few more items, especially for lesser elixir of Water Breathing and oxygen masks or other apparatus and also the required materials to manufacture them. There were quite a number of players joining the guild due to their fame at the Blackrock town which allowed them to explore quite a bit. He was sure that the once the mass quest is done, they would need to explore the lake and they would also require methods to move underwater comfortably. He only managed to get to the bottom of the lake due to his special circ.u.mstances, but the lake would allow one to farm monsters till level 30 at the very least. They got quite a decent loot from raiding the quingols, but it wasn''t enough. They need a method for a number of players to use the lake. Such a consumable could be sold for a high price. So, he stressed on the Potion of underwater breathing. As he was going through the items available in the auction house, he received a message from Tetsjuin that he already outside and hence, went out to meet him. "Where is my weapon, dude?" asked Tetsujin as soon as he saw Shadow. He was quite eager to use the new weapon. It could also be used as two swords which made it much easier for handling. "Don''t be in such a haste. What is the situation with the recruitment?" asked Shadow as he exchanged the weapon with Tetsujin. "Ah! That is nothing. Blinding White was actually able to recruit quite a few capable ones. It is just that Merlin has high requirements of everyone in the team, but Quiet Fire suggest otherwise. It is just a siblings quarrel," said Tetsujin as he started to detach and attach the two parts of the weapon that he received. "What exactly is it?" asked Shadow refusing to give up. He was part of the team and he also wanted to know Merlin''s requirements. If it is very high, it wouldn''t be favorable to him either as he would also be expected to adhere to those terms. "It is not really that bad. It is just one thing that they are not agreeing with each other. The rest are fine. We form different groups to hunt right. He is suggesting that they exchange group members periodically so as that it would help in overall development of the group," said Tetsujin. "That is not a bad idea," said Shadow instinctively. It was a well-known method to train players in guilds. It would help players analyse their flaws and dependencies and also that of their teammates. So, he found no issue with it. "You are thinking like a guild. That is the same issue with Merlin. He had been in a guild and wants to introduce this habit in an adventurer team, but its not going to happen. It is similar to the guild rules and most players join adventurer groups while avoiding guilds to escape rules like this. It is fine if they have a need for a player or a quest or in a specific situation that occurred in the game, but they wouldn''t accept it if they were asked to change teams as a training exercise," explained Tetsujin. "Oh!" nodded Shadow. "How did I miss it? The main reason the players join these teams is to avoid guilds which restrict their freedom. This would also be considered as that. Quiet Fire has a point. It will dissuade many players from staying in the team," he thought. "He just wants to do something different than the guild and is experimenting on it, but Quiet Fire is adamant about this. It is not like she is wrong either. He will calm down. Let us go," said Tetsujin as they both entered the market to head towards the place where Blinding White was recruiting. Chapter 164 - Unexpected News Merlin had been waiting to buy a shop for using it as the rally point for his team in the city for quite some time now. With the reputation, he got from the recent first clear, he had cleared the amount required to be a second-class citizen. He had long since put back the matter of buying a shop, but with the recent investment and the sale of the items he had got from the dungeon, he managed to rent a shop and decided to use it both as the adventurer teams quarters in the city before he gets the chance to buy a better one. He could only buy a residential complex after he became a first-class citizen. He had the recruitment venue shift to the new place. "How is it going?" asked Shadow as soon as he reached her. She was sitting at a temporary counter setup in the shop with a small queue of players before her, and another player beside her taking interviews along with her. He seemed to be a new addition and apparently being held in high esteem as he was also interview players like Blinding White. The both of them were checking the players skills, attributes, contact details and other stuff for admittance into the group. Though most players joined such teams through friendsh.i.p.s, the starting members usually are recruited in this fashion. "Hi," said Blinding White as she saw Shadow and Tetsujin approaching. Shadow had already had a disguise on as he didn''t want other players to disturb him, but she recognized him by his voice and Tetsujin had left a few minutes ago telling them that he was going to meet Shadow. The crowd was a bit unsettled as they approached Blinding White directly instead of joining in the queue. "Who are these two guys?" "Ya. The idiots are trying to chat up the girl and get in? Don''t they know of Mad Merlin?" "Yeah. Like that would work." "Dude, the martial artist previously came out of the shop. They might be members," said one of the players recognizing Tetsujin. "So, who is the new guy?" asked Shadow as he looked at the new player beside Blinding White. "That is Griff. He is Mob''s acquaintance, a berserker. They are considering him for the main team," said Blinding White. "Get in. They are waiting for you. There are a few more players inside. Merlin is just making up the rules." "Oh! Is he any good?" "Did they calm down yet?" asked Tetsujin. "I got no idea, but they stopped shouting," said Blinding. The both of them went and found that Merlin was just discussing the dungeon which they had completed an hour ago. Dungeon guides and such methods are usually shared with each other in adventurer teams. This is so that there isn''t much disparity in levels among the players. Usually adventurer teams don''t keep constantly recruiting players like guilds. They have a very little disparity in the levels of the different members so that that the strength of most players is in a similar range. So, basic dungeon guides and the like are shared openly. "Ah! The guys I was waiting for," said Merlin as he saw Tetsujin and him walk inside. Shadow immediately let go of his disguise as Merlin was probably going to introduce him. "This guy is Shadow. He is also a part of this adventurer team. He is the reason for our partnership with Crimson Realm. He is one of the best assassin players. I guess you already have heard of him defeating someone," said Merlin as he pulled Shadow beside him. "You have made a guide, right? I got basic instructions but still don''t have directions to the mini-boss," he whispered in Shadow''s ear. "I made two guides. Change as you want and add any suggestion you like," said Shadow as he mailed them to him. "This guy is an excellent scout and we would have failed miserably if not for him leading the way," said Merlin. After all, he had already heard from quite a few of his friends about the difficulty of travelling through the first floor of the dungeon. The traps were enough to slowly grind down their health to zero, if they didn''t know the path, even if more than half of the team consisted of tanks. Until now, he could count the number of players who reached the boss in decent health before dying to the traps in the first floor. He quickly introduced the other players that he had recruited into the adventurer team. Apparently, Blinding had sorted about 50 names, but Merlin only allowed 8 of them to be admitted into the guild. Half of them were unknown to him in his previous life. He recognized a couple of them as they ended up forming their own guilds in his past life. They were called Thousand Miles and Smiling Moon. Though they were second-rate guilds at the end, he remembered them as they were players who managed to slowly bring up their guilds from the ground in this game. "I need to get out early. How much time is this going to take," he asked Merlin. "Dude. You are the only one who is late," said Merlin. "By the way, from next time, we shall teleport to the dungeon from a town. We didn''t even get reputation for a town and got only two announcements the last time," said Merlin. "Shit! How did I forget that?" thought Balthazar. In his hurry, he had forgot something very important and trivial. The reputation points received depends on the place which they represent as they enter the dungeon. Elite dungeon usually provided town, city and kingdom/empire reputation while hell mode dungeon provided city, kingdom/empire and race reputation. But, if they chose to represent themselves from a city in elite mode, they would fail to receive the town reputation. This caused a lot of controversy and complaints were sent to the game, but they answered informing that this was intentional so that players could chose to attempt for specific town, city, kingdom or race reputation rather than the place and the race in which they were spawned initially in the game. It would also enable teams from different places to get an advantage. Since, they it was common for guilds to attempt new elite instances of dungeons from towns rather than cities except for some special cases. "OK. Let us get to the Blackrock Town first before we teleport to the dungeon from there," said Shadow. Suddenly, Sultan shouted in happiness in the midst of the group. He was yelling in his mother tongue of Urdu in extreme glee before he realized that he was being looked at oddly by the others. "Guys, I got great news from my brother," said Sultan. "Oh! Wait. I can''t participate in the hell mode dungeon run. I got to go. Sorry, it is a family emergency." Both Merlin and Shadow who know the identity of Sultan were surprised. Something that could be construed an emergency for the Malik family is usually something that they wouldn''t let others know. But he seemed to be quite happy like it was some kind of celebration, so they both thought it must be some major event for him to have such a reaction. "What happened? Do you need much time?" asked Merlin. He had got Sultan after a lot of deliberation and risked the anger of a super guild for him. So, he wanted to make sure that Sultan would be in the game for some time. Shadow also inquired the same. "No. It is nothing bad. It is actually great news for our family," said Sultan. "You would also get the information soon, but don''t spread it out. You know that explosion of military base and the ape attack that made us aware of other types of apes. It is said that the Nirbaadh Pirates were involved in that," said Sultan. Merlin was calm and didn''t have much of a response to this as he wasn''t much concerned of it, but Balthazar was extremely surprised as this information was meant to be kept secret. "How the hell did he know?" thought Balthazar. "Did the price family leak it out to the Malik family due to political pressure. Even if it did, is Sultan in a position of authority in his family to have the clearance to know it?" A bunch of doubts sprang up in Balthazar''s mind as he heard Sultan tell about the Nirbaadh pirates. He went on explaining how these thugs had killed a couple of his uncles and then, he told about the event that happened a couple of hours ago which would be released to the world soon. "Apparently, the joint military operation had their entire ship surrounded. The main culprit who was responsible for my uncles'' deaths, Asuragana Shouryaprasad was killed and his body found. It is one of the greatest achievements of the military. These thugs have evaded the military for a few decades," said Sultan. "Wow! Congratulations," said Merlin. It was clear to him that this would be an event of celebration for the Malik family and Sultan as the culprits behind the deaths of his uncles were brought to justice. "Did they manage to completely route them up?" asked Shadow from the side surprising them both. Balthazar had immediately realized that this was the event that had put the members of his family into action. So, he intended to get more information about it as his family was refusing him that. "Huh! No. Some of them escaped, but that was apparently 10% or much lower. Only the youngest member of the Asuragana family survived apparently. The rest were all captured or killed. Even the legendary ship, the Unhindered was blown up from within and is in tatters," continued Sultan. "I need to go too. I have to check some things," said Shadow. Merlin and Sultan already had their doubts that Shadow was a member of armed forces of the military or worked for the Blyth family. So, they didn''t ask much. "Merlin, you have the entire guide for the dungeon and you honestly don''t need me. You can replace us with Crimson Power and Slain, if you want to go for first clear of hell mode. Here, this is another one of the gold weapons," said Shadow exchanging the other piece of connective twin swords that he had with Merlin. "I am suggesting them as they have unique weapons and it is best to go prepared," said Shadow. "Ya. Let that guy, Crimson Power use the weapon for now. It will be useful to clear hell mode. I might also take some time to return," said Sultan. His brother had already asked him to get ready in his family''s tradition wear as a family meeting and party was announced to be held shortly. "Yes. I might also not be back for the rest of the day," said Shadow as he logged out of the game. He quickly selected to stop using the somnium tech and was awake in the ship. "The Nirbaadh Pirates were attacked by the alliance?" he asked looking at Lucius and Richard who were eating some crackers as they were enjoying a movie. "Is Walter really safe?" "You heard something from a friend?" asked Lucius. Lucius was already told by Winston about Walter''s condition and that he was after the remaining members of the pirates and Godspeed family''s return. So, he also expected that the military would be informed at least of a cover up story of the attack. Balthazar was a military colonel and was sure to have connections. So, he had already been prepared to calm him down, once he came to know of it. "I heard of the attack. The Malik family is already celebrating the death of the pirate captain and Asuragan ShouryaPrasad," said Balthazar. "That''s right. I have already told you before. Walter is safe. There seems to have been an incident with the Nirbaadh Pirates and due to some unexpected situation, those guys were killed, but we are still after the a few remaining pirates who would have information about the knights. Now, you know all that I do," said Lucius making up a story based on what Balthazar told him while keeping mum about the information of the Godspeed family. He was already informed that both Balthazar and Robert were heirs of the Godspeed family and was forbidden to inform them of it by Arthur. "Nothing else?" asked Balthazar. "Nothing more. There might be some things that I don''t know, but those are being kept a secret for a reason. Even your grandfather doesn''t know," said Richard. "I hope you will keep mum about this and not let Robert know of it." "Huh! Why?" "He would also be concerned for Walter, once he comes to know of it. He wouldn''t be able to concentrate on his trial. You understand the importance of that. Don''t you?" asked Richard. "Just keep quiet, until the end of the trial. We will inform you ourselves after that. We are also not allowing any communication of this development from being displayed in any medium in the ship," said Lucius. "You forgot about the somnium tech. He could check on the news through it," said Balthazar. "The boy is fixed on practicing fights in the new software provided by Elias. He isn''t even interested in that game, right now. He is completely engrossed in it and I doubt that he would get out of the simulation especially with the trial right ahead," said Richard. "If he goes ahead to check on new or the game through the site, we can just hope that he somehow misses the new about Walter," said Lucius. "Ya. That is out of our hands," agreed Balthazar as he sat down beside Lucius. "Can you tell me at least one thing? It is clear that the military were not actually involved in the attack on the Nirbaadh pirates. Walter went with a small team and I doubt even he would be able to kill such a large number of pirates. It requires a large force. So, who helped us?" asked Balthazar. "No clue," said Lucius amazed by the manner in which Balthazar had guessed that someone else were involved in the attack. "You wouldn''t tell me even if you knew, right?" Lucius just responded with a smile and continued to watch the movie being played on the screen in front of him. "Are Asuragana ShouryaPrasad and RanaPratap really dead?" asked Balthazar. "That is one of the few things that we have confirmed with certainty." "It isn''t the knights. Else the results would have been completely opposite. We certainly weren''t expecting their interference. They were also not related to Price or anyone in cooperation with us. If it was, Walter wouldn''t have allowed the death of the captain and Asuragana ShouryaPrasad," said Balthazar thinking about it. "He is really dead, right?" Balthazar asked Lucius again as he thought about the situation and realized that Walter would never allow them to die. He would have captured them alive as that was the main reason he had risked his life to tail them closely. "Yes. Walter himself confirmed it," said Lucius. "I don''t know much about the other things, but the deaths are real. Else, the talk wouldn''t have reached the military. If you managed to know it, the Maliks and Khans would also have learned about it and they would ask for the bodies as proof." "Can''t deny that," said Balthazar. He had known of the issue due to the Maliks. So, he realized that there is a high chance that those two were actually dead or captured and would be dead by the time they asked the alliance military for proof. "I actually know that the Maliks are already celebrating their death," continued Balthazar. Chapter 165 - A hard choice "You have a contact among the Maliks, who let you know that they are aware of the event?" asked Lucius surprised. Without official announcements, most families would tend to keep it quiet. "It was just an accidental release of information. They seem to be quite happy when they heard of the deaths," said Balthazar. "Either way. It is good to have someone among the Maliks as an acquaintance," said Lucius. "Hmm," nodded Balthazar. "There is one thing I was concerned about though. Even if the captain and ShouryaPrasad were dead, wouldn''t it have been better to let out information that they were captured rather than killed?" he asked Lucius. "It would be better to announce that they have capture to rile up the others who might have been in collaboration with them, right?" "No. The best way to frighten anyone in collaboration them is to inform that these guys died," said Lucius. "Wouldn''t they calm down on hearing that their collaborators died?" "You think they would believe the information from alliance? No," said Lucius. "It was a sudden black operation which none in the alliance were aware of. Most wouldn''t condone it because it was against the Nirbaadh pirates and they don''t want to antagonize the Malik and the Khans, but any collaborators would hardly believe it if they released the information that they captured the captain and Shourya." "It is a valid assumption," realized Balthazar. It being a secret black op, any collaborators of the knights would expect the information released to be falsified or possibly a trap. If the members that launched the attack had the brains to keep it secret till it was successful, it would be extremely foolish of them to release the true details of the operation so soon or not to capture anyone at the top of the hierarchy among the enemies. "So, the announcement of the death of these two would rattle them more. We already have people observing the Rowleys. Contact had been made with the Maliks and Khans as they would love to help against anyone who were in collusion with the pirates," explained Lucius. "All right. I will leave this to you guys, then. You seem to have it all under control," said Balthazar as he went back to the seat which he was using to play the game. "Ya. Leave it to us. You have about two more hours left for the ride. Keep your emotions under control and don''t lose your focus," said Lucius. "Anything else?" "I doubt I can get anything more from you," said Balthazar to which Lucius just simply smiled. "However, there is this person called Dave," said Balthazar. "The one who was working with Raymond Rowley and we don''t even know how he looks like," said Lucius. "But a good chance he was one of the Nirbaadh pirates as he was working with Raymond," said Balthazar. "That is the most prevalent theory among us too. We believe he is a Rhodium level agent of the Nirbaadh pirates. We will put out feelers for his appearance, again," said Lucius. "In that case, I will get back to my game," said Balthazar as there was no point in talking to these two any further. He knew that he might be able to find out more from the use of somnium tech by checking the news. As Balthazar was talking with Lucius about the event, there has been a great commotion among the Rowleys. They had already heard about the attack on the Nirbaadh pirates and had been roused away in the middle of the night for an emergency meeting called by the patriarch of the family. The patriarch, Rowan Rowley was already sitting in a meeting room and he had summoned all the elders and the members of the family who had knowledge of them collaborating with the knights of the old republic. Few of them were already arguing with one another if them collaborating with the knights was a mistake or not. Rowan had been waiting for a long time for his brother, John Rowley to join before they could start. John soon joined the meeting with his nephew, Ryan Rowley. Ryan was also the elder brother of Raymond Rowley. He was the one who had introduced Raymond to Dave and hated both Balthazar Blyth and Dave as he considered them responsible for Raymond''s death. Their father, Ragus Rowley became a member of the knights during one of his travels, which was the reason for the family to join their agend. As John arrived alongside Ryan, they both took seat alongside the others and Rowan finally decided to speak out. "We have prospered a lot due to our partnership with my brother Ragus'' friends for the past two decades. Though, he was in collusion with some antisocial elements, we have discovered that the advantage of having access to the resources from further reaches of the space which we have successfully explored, outweighs the danger it might bring to us a couple of decades ago in the same room," he started. "Now, we have assembled here to discuss about the danger of being alienated by the alliance due to the decision we made during that assemblage," said Rowan. "There is a high chance that the alliance has captured the ShouryaPrasad and RanaPratap. I don''t need to stress the fact that we would be in extreme danger if they manage to get any proof of our collusion with the pirates." "In that case, it is best if we have the family move out to a safe place from the mansion," said one of the elders. His name was Rhett Rowley and was a strong advocate of not collaborating with the knights for the past few decades. If he was the patriarch, he wouldn''t have allowed the collaboration, but now he always tells them to be on guard against the knights as they didn''t know much about their aims. "No. I am not sure if they have any information. We know that the Blyth and Price families are leading the attack. If they had any chance of getting proof against us, they would have already formed a barricade around our planet, but we are still able to contact with our clients and there is no decipherable change any place around it," said John Rowley. John and Ryan had already had cross checked if any moves were made by the military forces or the forces of any other family before coming to the meeting. They have also contacted Ragus regarding it and double checked the situation from his contacts before joining the meeting. "You want us to stay here because of a hunch?" asked Rhett. His question though aggravating to both John and Ryan was a compelling argument. They can''t have stake the entire family''s future based on a hunch. The alliance could be waiting to gather more information, or it could be deploying more men against them. Even the patriarch of the family would ridiculed and pushed of his position if he blindly gives such an assurance. "Can you be sure that they don''t have any one captured? They are not foolish enough to kill them without trying to glean any information beforehand," said Rhett. "But if we attempt a large-scale evacuation of the family members, it is as good as saying that we are culpable. We might be giving ourselves up," said Ryan. "Yes. It is foolish to move all the members of the family. Even, if they have proof, we can provide all the information about our explorations to get some leeway. We are quite useful to them and only few of us actually have the information. We can barter for something, even if we are caught," said another one of the elders. "Those are all viable suggestion for the situation when we are actually caught. John and I have already made plans for such a situation. We don''t need to worry about the lives of the innocent among our family members, even in the worst-case scenario," said the patriarch, Rowan lifting his hand to signal the others to stop. He sent had projected a list of places on the screen. These were clearly locations beyond the current borders of the alliance that they had managed to explore with the help of the knights. It was clear that he had gathered the maps and information related to these places to barter for the family''s freedom. "So, why did you have us convene here?" asked Rhett. "To take a few precautionary steps," said Rowan. "It is a fact that a raid was made on the Nirbaadh pirates. We don''t know if they managed to capture someone or not. As John told, moving the entire family is a not an option, but we need to make sure that the alliance doesn''t hold us responsible. So, I suggest that Ragus'' family be pushed out of the family. They will not participate in any of the decisions or participate in businesses directly." "Brother, how can you do that?" asked John Rowley angrily as he stood up for his nephews and family. "We have played it quite close in case of Raymond Rowley. The Blyths don''t believe us and you know the amount of power they can rally. My nephew did a stupid mistake of killing the last remaining descendant of the current patriarch. We need to be much better prepared," said Rowan in a loud and angry tone. "Even if they aren''t caught and have spilled out names, they would sooner or later do so. You know that Walter Blyth was known to be someone close to Evelyn Price. He has his methods," he continued. "So, anyone who was in direct contact with the knights will be subjected to this treatment. We can''t have any paper trial linking any person that might be named from today onward. They will leave our planet and will be moving from now on. We will tell anyone who comes to question us that they have left our facilities today. This is necessary so that we won''t be harassed by the alliance," said the patriarch in a tone of staunch finality. "That includes you too, my brother," continued Rowan looking at John Rowley. His eyes almost teared up when he had to tell his younger brother who had been as his right hand for almost all his life that he would be considered as an outcast. All the men and women in the room were shocked when they heard the patriarch expatriate his own brother and right-hand man. Even Rhett, who had always suggested that they stop their collusion with the knights was extremely surprised by this decision from Rowan. "Does anyone have any other suggestion that would help us out of this predicament or anything in addition to this?" he asked looking at the others in the room. None of them spoke anything nor did John and Ryan which was taken as their consent to the patriarch''s plan. "In that case, let us not talk of this any further. You all know what to do. Don''t panic in case of any attack. We can always barter for our freedom in the alliance, but we can''t recklessly provide any information about the knights. The alliance might be forgiving and reasoned with, but the same can''t be said of their adversaries," said Rowan as he moved away from his chair towards the exit while signalling to John and Ryan to meet him. The three of them made their way to the patriarch''s chambers. "I am sorry, brother. A lot of them were in panic and started to ask unreasonable things of me. I had no better idea than this. It would also prevent them from taking any action towards you for the time being," said Rowan as they settled in his chambers. "I understand Rowan. I have no issue with your decision. It is the fate of my children and that of my nephews that is of more concern to me," said John. John had three kids who were not in the same planet and didn''t attend the meeting. Similarly, Ryan also had another younger brother who was hardly any older than Balthazar. "I don''t mind protecting them, but if anyone is caught, you both would be named to be in direct contact. So, they will take action against you. I can assure you that no legal action would be taken against them openly, but as we both have noticed, they work quite well in shadows," said Rowan. "I understand, but I still request you to protect my daughters," asked John. "As for Sebastian, even I don''t know what he is doing. He has long been lost to me." "Fine, I will inform them and have them return to the family mansion. They will be treated the same as my own children in all aspects. I promise you that as they are in the mansion, their lives would be no less secure than my own," said Rowan. Being his right hand man, John handled a lot of shady stuff for Rowan and he felt that anguished by the fact that he couldn''t do anything but kick him out of the family in this manner. He had decided to treat his niece as his own daughters from this point of time. "Ryan," said Rowan turning towards his nephew. He found Ryan''s situation to be pitiable. Ever since, Ragus joined the knights, he had been extremely distant to the family, including his sons. Moreover, his younger brother, Raymond has recently lost his life killed by the same people they were colluding with and he still couldn''t do anything about it. His father, Ragus wasn''t of much help about it either. Ryan felt more lost than anyone in the family for the past few days. Now, he had to leave the family due to him being in contact with his father. "I am willing to help you in any way, I can. Your kids are still too young and so is your wife. You are not in the same situation as your uncle. You have to choose, but either choice will be a great burden on your children and wife," said Rowan. "I will leave them in your care, uncle," said Ryan without giving it a thought. He had already decided on his course of action in the meeting after he heard the decision of the patriarch. "Since, Raymond''s death, it had been clear that my father is not in his right mind. A couple of decades ago, he would have killed himself in an attempt to avenge Raymond. Now, he doesn''t even care. I need to know if I am actually doing his bidding or if he is forced. I plan to search for Sebastian and then, make further plans." "Ryan!" shouted John in anger. "I can''t willingly let you follow the same madness that had made me lose my only son." "Uncle, don''t forget that I was the one who first found about Seb''s intentions and informed you with the hope that you would stop him," said Ryan in a calm tone as he placed his hand on John''s shoulder to calm him. "But I cannot deny that father was no longer the same for the past few decades. Sometimes, I feel that he doesn''t even care for us. You can''t deny that either. We refused to listen to Seb and thought that he had been a fool for leaving us, but now I see that he had long realized them to be shady folk," continued Ryan. "Where would you even find him?" interjected Rowan. "He had been in touch with me. I have a way, but I will set out for him alone. I doubt, he would trust anyone else," said Ryan. Chapter 166 - Propaganda In a planet far away from the young man who had decided to leave his family and search for answers, there was a sudden declaration of a holiday. The planet was called as ''Jamai Malik'' and was under the rule of king Aamir Malik. Though named a king, he maintained a democratic council elected by the people to help him govern over his territories. The sudden declaration was quite surprising for all the people under the rule of Aamir Malik. He was known to be quite a disciplined man and a strict ruler. So, such a declaration was quite unnerving to most people, but the announcement of the attack on the Nirbaadh pirates that followed calmed them down. All the members of the Malik family were roused awake from their sleep to hear the words of their patriarch. Shehzad Malik was no exception. His brother Zubair had contacted him in the game and together along with Zubair''s wife, Aisha, they went into an auditorium where they were expecting an announcement from the king and patriarch, Aamir. Most were concerned and discussing about the attack. It had only been informed to the majority of them that a successful attack had been made on the Nirbaadh pirates and they would be provided further information here. The people assembled included all the high-level officials including the prime minister, defence minister and the commanders of the armed forces of the family. They were all waiting patiently for their king to make the announcement. A majority of them were expecting a call to arms to continue the attack on the pirates and destroy them. Many rumors related to it have already started spreading through them. Zubair Malik had been introducing Shehzad and Aisha to the various personnel. He had been a member of the armed forces, since he was of age and currently commanded a battalion of royal soldiers in service of the royal family. His father was the crown prince and many including Aamir and his father expected him to take charge of the family in a couple of decades. A few minutes later, a video was projected on the wall of the hall showing the debris of a number of fighter ship which were clearly fired at and destroyed. In a few seconds, a much bigger vessel entered their view with the word "UNHINDERED", written in bold letters across it. The ship looked like it had been burnt to crisp with holes in it and metal burnt and bent away from the insides of the ship like it had been blasted from the inside. Everyone, young and old, immediately recognized the ship as most of them were instructed to learn of its appearance and attack them with extreme prejudice as soon as they became a part of the family. It was a myth that evaded them for the past few decades, its occupants considered as evil men who haunted their nightmares. "Our enemies have finally fallen," came the loud resounding voice of Aamir through the speakers. "It is with great pleasure that I, Aamir Malik relay these images which provide conclusive proof of a successful attack on the Nirbaadh pirates who were responsible for many atrocities on our lands." "I am on my way to personally look at the remains of this bandit ship and the barbarian who led them," the voice continued. "While we are glad of the destruction of this group of thugs, I inform with great pain that the details of Asuragana RanaPratap and Dharma Pratap are unknown. It has also come to my knowledge that a small contingent has managed to escape the hands of the alliance." "It is best to weed out such an affliction from its roots and we can''t let it grow back. So, I have decided to collaborate with Khans and Blyths to pursue these villainous sc.u.ms throughout the alliance borders. Let anyone who dares shelter these vermin face our wrath. Let us celebrate this glorious achievement and a new partnership among our families today," said the voice before disappearing. "Did Grandpa announce just order up an extermination against them?" asked Shehzad in surprise. He had expected a celebration and a show of power but didn''t think that they had plans to completely wipe on any existing traces of the pirates. Such a thing is almost impossible. Pirates didn''t have a specific base and kept constantly moving, else they would have been taken out long ago. Moreover, these specific ones were rumored to have their base outside the alliance borders. "That he did," answered Zubair disinterestedly. He had other concerns on his mind. He didn''t care much about the pirates. Though the Nirbaadh pirates have killed his uncles and even grand uncle, they haven''t been any death in his time. He was more concerned of the extent of collaboration that the patriarch has decided upon. He had been recently wed and had no intentions of leaving the planet for some half-brained search. If there had been clues, a team which managed to destroy the unhindered in such a covert manner would surely have found them and wouldn''t need their help. "Brother, Aisha, go back to your rooms, for now. I might have some work to do," he said as he went to meet the interim commander of the royal armies, his father He would be the one with the most knowledge as all armed forces would be deployed only on his say so. With Aamir away to check the aftermath of the attack, his father would hold the highest authority on the planet. Zubair''s father, Anwar wasn''t seen in the auditorium. So, he made way to his father''s quarters where he saw a few royal guards barring entry to other cousins of his who wanted to talk. This would usually only happen when there is a high priority meeting going on. Else, the guards would never dare disobey the direct family members. He went to one of the men waiting for his father. It was his cousin and rival in his generation in the family, Aquibuddin Malik. "Cousin Aquib, how long has he been in meeting?" asked Zubair. "He had been inside with someone, since the first announcement calling us to the auditorium was made. I don''t think it is with any of our forces," said Aquib. "One of the guards told me that he is with liaisons from the Blyth and Khan families. I understand the Khans, but still not sure how the Blyths are so interested in the Nirbaadh pirates. Do they really value their new colonel that much?" asked another cousin who beside them. "It isn''t just about the colonel. They would never make such an assault for a kid," came a deep voice form behind them. It was Anas Malik, Aquib''s father and an elder of the family for quite some time. He had come for a visit with Anwar for the same reason as the others. Aamir only contacted Anwar before he left the planet. So, he along with others wanted to know of their course of action. "Father, what other relation do they have with the pirates?" asked Aquib surprised by his father''s interference in their discussion. "The same as us. The only difference is just that our wars happened out in the open while they fought covertly away from prying eyes. They are probably the ones responsible for the attack," answered Anas. He had known of the Blyths enmity with the pirates for a long time, but they never came out in the open for this before. So, he wanted to know the reason for this sudden change in their stance. A few minutes later, the doors opened as Anwar came out with three men and a lady who were new faces to Zubair. It was clear to him that they were from the Khan or Blyth families sent to discuss the facts of their cooperation. It did look like the Khan and Blyth families had enough preparations that they were already able to send their men by the time his own family managed to know of the attack. "I expected the Blyths to be here as it was possibly started by them, but I see that even the Khans have better access to information in the council than us," muttered Anas as he moved towards Anwar along with Aquib and Zubair. "Ah! Anas, I was just looking for you," said Anwar as he saw coming towards him. "He is my brother Anas," he introduced Anas to the four standing behind him. "We can resume our discussion right now, if you are willing to do so," said Anwar looking at one man who nodded in agreement. "I will convene an official meeting with the family members once we are done with our deliberations. It wouldn''t take much time. So, I request all of you to get back to you rooms. A simple online conference from your rooms will suffice," said Anwar sending off the people. "Anas, get in. You two can come and observe, but no talk," continued Anwar as he led Anas, Aquib and Zubair along with the other four back inside his quarters. Anwar''s quarters were quite spacious with a couple of sofa and chairs having more than enough space for all eight of them. He had the habit of receiving most guests in his quarters and even regularly held meetings there. So, it was no different from a VIP reception hall with drinks and other refreshments readily available. It could also isolate all communications with the world outside for similar reasons. "This is my brother Anas and those two are our children, Zubair and Aquib," introduced Anwar. "Mr. Bismail and Mr. Sumail are representatives of the Khan family," said Anwar introducing two of the men who nodded in response. "Lady Elaine Blyth and Mr. Marcus Price represent the Blyth and Price families. They also carry information from the alliance armed forces about the attack. They have been informing us about how they managed to track and bring down the Nirbaadh pirates." "As we need to discuss further cooperation between our forces, we decided to call for you so that we have all relevant personnel before we begin," said Marcus Price. "At the end of the attack, the survivors split into three different groups with Asarugana ShouryaPrasad and his two nephews leading them, individually," started Elaine. "For obvious reasons, we focused our attack on ShouryaPrasad and managed to kill him. We have his body. After him, we went after their current captain, Asuragana RanaPratap and our men are still tracking him. He made his way towards the border while his brother in another direction with the majority of the men in a large ship about a tenth of the size of the UNHINDERED," said Elaine. "A tenth of its size? How could there be such a large vessel in the ship?" asked Bismail shocked by her words. "The ship could actually be separated into five different parts. Apart from that there were three other vessels which separated from the UNHINDERED, but we blasted them to rubble. Rana Pratap ran away in a smaller vessel to lead us away from the others. Quite a valiant effort and it did yield results. We were after him and failed to pursue the others," explained Marcus. "That brings us to our present predicament. We have the general direction of their escape and would like you to take charge of it," said Elaine. "Why us? Why don''t you do it yourselves?" asked Bismail. He was very confused by the request. They clearly have enough personnel to pursue the remnants however deep they try to escape into alliance underworld. "It is like this. We have released information of the attack to the entire alliance as an act of the armed forces. Most of the tracking and planning was done by Walter Blyth and Evelyn price. You know their usual clandestine operations. They don''t want trails, but this became a big issue due to their escape and quite a number of people would be in danger from these pirates. These ones are just the grunts and wouldn''t have in reliable information about the knights. We also don''t want to give them the chance to resurface and kill them as quickly as possible," explained Marcus. "The Price family and my own have fought them in the shadows for quite a few decades, but he public are unaware of that or any losses we had during these tussles. We would like it to remain as such. It would provide a fast and complete conclusion if we could inspire others in the underworld to serve our purpose," said Elaine. "For putting on a bounty or to pursue them openly, you need a reasonable cause, especially the Price family," said Anas looking from Elaine to Marcus who nodded. "You are the best option for that. We are willing to let you take the remains of the UNHINDERED and ShouryaPrasad. If Rana Pratap is found, his body would also be given to your families. Your patriarchs have already agreed to this offer," said Marcus. "After the entire attack, our families would hunt the remains of the pirates, even if you didn''t ask for it. But you are offering us their bodies to let us use it as a trophy and give the world the impression that we actually were involved in the attack and finally won our battle against them. What''s the catch? What do you actually want?" asked Anas. The same doubts were also in the minds of the other men in the room. It felt extremely illogical for the Price and Blyth families to push their achievements to others. The Price family would be considered to be responsible too because of the involvement of the alliance armed forces, but they couldn''t understand the reasoning behind the actions of the Blyth family. "We just want you to look for few details in return. Dharma Pratap, Rana''s brother might have some information that we would like to extract," added Elaine. "Another person is Dave. We don''t know much of him, but any person with that name has been known to be in contact with the Nirbaadh Pirates and probably even the knights. We just want you to help us search for him openly and if you find either of them, we would like to take hold of them first." Chapter 167 - Traitor After the request by Elaine and Marcus, a few more questions popped up in the minds of their audience. It was clear that they considered reputation in the alliance and the merits for taking down the Nirbaadh pirates less than the information that these two individuals could provide. But they kept mum as they knew that they would hardly get anything from these two about their aims and intentions. Still, they couldn''t help but wonder about it and decide to secretly look into it themselves. None of them were willing to help another blindly as there was always a chance that this information could be used to undermine their influence and wouldn''t want to take the risk. They were temporarily cooperating with one another but had always been rivals in the alliance and would have been having battles among them if not for the emergence of the apes. They listened to the information provided by the two individuals about the direction in which the pirates escaped and descriptions of the vessel before the meeting was up and the Elaine, Marcus duo left to the quarters provided by the Maliks. The Khans remained behind at Anwar''s room. Marcus and Elaine noticed it but didn''t care and went ahead to their room. They had already expected the Maliks and Khans to have doubts and would discuss it. They only had to make sure that they decide to hunt the pirates actively at the end. "So, what do we actually do?" asked Bismail as soon as Marcus and Elaine left the room. "We are going after the pirates as they asked," replied Anas. "That is for sure. I want to know what we plan to do after that?" asked Bismail angrily. "Nothing. We plan to give them to the Price family as they have requested," said Anas with certainty. His words confused his son and nephew while angering Bismail. Sumail put a hand on his companion''s shoulder to calm him down before he erupted in anger. They were in the territory of the Maliks and angry words would definitely be a hinderance to any plans of cooperation. "There is no need to hide your plans from us Mr.Anas. I am sure you will find it easier to work them out if you cooperate with us," said Sumail with a smile. "We honestly don''t plan to do anything, Sumail," said Anas. There were stuck at this point and Sumail was thinking about the way he could move the conversation when Bismail took it out of his hands. "Mr. Anwar. Is it only Mr. Anas that is of this opinion or do we expect this to be the opinion of your family," asked Bismail in an angry tone. Sumail wanted to hit Bismail on his head for being an irritable idiot. His words would definitely piss off Mr. Anas who was an important person in the council. It would definitely delay an help or cooperation they would require from the Maliks. He was thinking of a way to rectify it while it was again taken out of his hands. "It isn''t my brother''s opinion alone and I support his suggestion completely," said Anwar surprising Sumail, Bismail, Aquib and Zubair. None of them expected that both of the heirs of the Malik family wouldn''t want the same thing. "Well. In that case, we don''t have much to discuss and will proceed as suggested by Mr. Marcus Price," said Bismail as he got up to leave. Sumail also got up to leave as he realize that there couldn''t be much use in talking now. "Please, consider it over the night. I hope that you will change your perspective regarding this," said Sumail before following Bismail out. "I will inform Enias about your behaviour," said Sumail as he left Bismail and went to his room. "Father and Uncle, how do we proceed? Do we need to make some additional preparations in secret?" asked Aquib. Both he and Zubair assumed that they would be asked to prepare in secret to get to the two people and interrogate Dave or Dharma. "Nothing. We don''t know anything about the reason they are after the two pirates and have no plans to irritate either the Blyth or Price families for something so trivial," said Anwar. "Neither the Blyths or the Prices aren''t fools that would allow us to get any information that would hinder them. They wouldn''t have come to us, if they the target actually had any information that we could get and use," added Anas. "What does that mean?" asked Zubair. "You haven''t been in much complicated situations. These two targets might not even know that they have information that the Blyths are searching for," said Anwar. "They might just have been seen or heard something in certain circ.u.mstances from which the Blyths could infer whatever they wanted to know." "True, if not for that, the Walter Blyth wouldn''t have allowed for this information to be shared with us. The same goes with Evelyn Price. None in the family would dare cross them. They are probably the ones that are in charge of this thing. They were after the Nirbaadh pirates for a long time. In fact, some say that Walter and Evelyn played a significant role in the previous captain''s death," added Anas. "So, it is best we do as they suggested in case of their targers?" asked Zubair. He found it hard to believe that his uncle and father wouldn''t even think of trying to find out the information that these pirates had, but he decided to let them decide. The more he heard, he felt that they had good reasons for doing it in this manner. "Yes. Of course," answered Anwar. "Don''t concern yourself with Bismail and Sumail Khans. Enias Khan isn''t a fool either and would suggest the same. His plan overrules anything that these two think of." "But we do have another idea in mind," said Anas looking at his brother for confirmation. "Ya. We don''t want to piss off Evelyn or Walter, but they never told anything about interrogating the other pirates. So, we make sure we find out everything the other pirates know while we leave those specific two alone," said Anwar. "Prepare accordingly. We might even have to compete with the Khans regarding this." As they were discussing their plans to capture the pirates, Bismail was in his room secretly calling someone unknown to anyone in both Khan and Malik families. He had been trying to contact this person for quite some time before the meeting but failed to do so as the person failed to respond to the call. He hadn''t even responded to Bismail''s messages and this had Bismail extremely worried and cranky. The fact that he had received a message during his meeting with Anwar and the others only worsened Bismail''s mental situation and he wanted to get back to his room as quickly as possible. "You finally responded," said Bismail as Dharma Pratap had finally replied to his calls. "What is going on? Where are you?" "What was so urgent you idiot? I don''t have time to assassinate him any longer. I am worried about my own life," said Dharma on the opposite end of the call. He had used a stealth shuttle to get off the pirate vessel after the meeting in Basuli''s cabin. He only informed Darak of his departure. "What was so urgent? The Nirbaadh pirates are gone. The Price and Blyth families attack had very strong results and they are after you," replied Bismail angrily. He had been trying to contact Dharma for quite some time as he had requested him to assassinate his cousin Enias. Dharma and his team had failed to do it in the past and ever since then, Bismail had been extremely worried that some one might manage to link it to him. "Yes. That is why I have been running for my life. I don''t even know if my brother is alive," said Dharma in a sombre tone. "Wait! What do you mean the Blyth and Price families? They were the ones who attacked us?" asked Dharma in surprise. He didn''t know who the person was who had attacked them all this time. None of the pirates were aware of this. "Of course. Else how do you think, I came to know of your situation. They informed us and we are having a celebration in the family due to this. Even declared a public holiday, right now," said Bismail. "My brother. Do you know anything of him? Is he alive?" "All I know is that he had evaded them and escaped. They are after him and wanted us to go after you," said Bismail. "My brother escaped!?" exclaimed Dharma in surprise. He found that extremely improbable. The attack of their mysterious opponents had been extremely fierce. They had been very quick in killing his uncle and capturing his brother. He had seen them overwhelm the forces of the pirates very quickly and defeating his brother. "Are you sure of that?" he asked. "Yes." "Please, check again. The one who attacked us was very fierce, he killed uncle and subdued Rana with relative ease, when his men were dying. He was extremely angry about it, and I doubt they would have let Rana escape after all that effort." "I doubt that I would getting any more information from them, but the main point is that they are looking for you specially. They also know your alias as Dave," said Bismail coming to his point clearly. "They know of my alias? That would be hard for me," said Dave worried about this. It was hard enough that he had to hide from the other pirates. He thought that he could get back into the underworld using the contacts he had but that would be a problem currently. "Yes. You need to be much more careful, but there is one thing that I am confused about. They think Dave and you are two separate persons." "Huh?!" exclaimed Dharma and then he realized that the name Dave was also known to the Blyth family through the colonel that his men failed to kill. "I guess I have an idea why they think so. The Blyths were searching for Dave alias even before the attack," explained Dharma. "Anyway. I need a place to hide for now. Can you provide any assistance?" asked Dharma. "Where are you?" "Near KX - 42 planet heading towards the HC sector," replied Dharma. "Good, the information we have tell you moving towards the KA sector," said Bismail happy that the information they received from the Blyths is a bit flawed. If he just gave Dharma a way out temporarily, he wouldn''t be in any trouble. "KA sector? Isn''t that the direction Darak and others are heading towards?" thought Dharma. He realized that their attackers already had been tracking Basuli''s ship and it would not take much time for them to be trapped, even if they hid with the help of their underworld contacts. "Remember the ex-bounty hunter, Kraven?" he asked Dharma. "Yes." "Will send his details to you in a few minutes. I contacted him once for assassinating Enias. He has a long-standing feud with the current power of Khan family. He would help you," said Bismail. "Don''t stray close to the Elysium. My life depends on your safety. They will kill me and my family if they know that I cooperated with you." "I understand. Don''t worry. Once, this subsides, I will surely finish my job. Else, I doubt that I would have a chance in living. Especially that my original path of retreat has been cut off by the Blyths," said Dharma as he cut off the call. "I hope that no one, would track his trail," thought Bismail as he sent Dharma the information about Kraven and also Kraven about the Dharma''s situation. He was sure that Kraven would support him as Kraven also had a grudge against Enias who had captured his team and killed them after their last assassination attempt. He only barely escaped due to Bismail''s warning. Dharma was also glad that he had managed to get away from Basuli''s ship. There had been too many uncertain factors. Apart from his brother''s lieutenants trying to kill him, now he realized that his attackers haven''t yet stopped their pursuit. He decided to get to a nearby planet and sell his ship before getting another one and leaving the sector. He realized that he might need to keep changing sh.i.p.s to avoid his attacker''s pursuit. So, he made way to KX-42 planet first. Chapter 168 - Change in planets Balthazar had logged back into the game. With him being gone for a few minutes, Merlin had already decided to attempt the hell mode of the dungeon. Merlin already had enough experience and with the guides provided by Shadow which had methods to clear the dungeon even without the subjugation skill, he was quite confident on clearing the hell mode. "Who was the tenth guy?" Shadow asked Blinding White who was still recruiting members for Blazing Fury. "It was Griff. This dungeon doesn''t really have much use for assasins once we know the path. So, Merlin decided to take another heavy hitter with him," said Blinding. "Ok. I will be in the Forging Association or Engineering. Contact me if you need anything," said Balthazar as he went to book a forging room first. It was the best way to increase his experience to a high level in short time without killing monsters and he needed to gain a significant amount to maintain his advantage over the others as he might not be able to play the game for a day. He decided to create a few more of the gold two-handed weapons, before trying to work on other stuff. He also had plans to use the same design of the gold weapon to create a weapon pair of detachable daggers. With daggers having smaller size, he was sure that he didn''t need to make use of copper as dagger blades with lower size reduces the requirement for handle sturdiness. He started to experiment with the idea and began to work on a pair of detachable daggers with only iron ore but failed to get results. He used the antelope horns with three iron ores for the pair of daggers. The first two times, they completely failed to be recognized by the system as completed products before they were finally realized as a proper weapon. The system failed to inspect both of them together as an entity but realized them to be a pair of daggers. This was far from what Balthazar had hoped to achieve. It was a complete waste in his eyes. Even though the dagger was recognized as a black iron daggers, he didn''t care about them. They had similar stats to that of the antelope horn dagger and were level 12 daggers as one more iron ore was used in their making. In his eyes, it was a complete failure. The only good thing that he could see about it was that he managed to produce another original black-iron equipment which put him a step closer to intermediate forger. "This is a waste of time and even if the daggers are considered as a single entity, I doubt that there would be much use with this attempt. Only good thing is that I got a higher-level dagger pair using antelope horns," thought Balthazar. With the failure of his attempt, he decided against detachable weapons which could be made without copper ore. He decided to make a few more of the gold weapons that he had made previously as he had about 40 more copper ores before going ahead to attempt engineering tools. He hadn''t tried to make the rifle crossbow till now. He continued to make the double-handed weapons for another two hours before he went out of the forging association. He handed them off to Lizzie and collected enough materials from her, before he went to the engineering association to make the rifle crossbow. The bow was a weapon that was harder and took more time to create than swords or spears. The crossbow required a bow along with a proper trigger and loading mechanism which were all delicate stuff. By the time, he made the first rifle crossbow, he took 30 minutes. It also earned him 1000 exp and 2 engineering proficiency. He began to wonder if this was the best option for quickly earning experience. Moreover, the proficiency, he earned could be considered much lower than the forging proficiency per equipment he made due to the effect of Kade''s Insignia. Due to the long time, he took to make one of them, he began to wonder if it was best to continue making rifle crossbows. He also thought of getting out and kill monsters to get a simpler engineering blueprints that would allow him to create tools at a faster pace, but realized he couldn''t do that as he needed to log out as soon as he was contacted by Lucius and that wouldn''t be possible if he was fighting monsters. It was an unpredictable scenario. He thought for some time and finally decided to continue with making more rifle crossbows. He had about 4 hours left to play in the game and if he works properly, he was sure that he could make eight other units of the rifle crossbows. He continued with that before he received a notification informing that someone was trying to contact him in the real-life. He had managed to create seven rifle crossbows while failing two attempts and created inferior silver grade crossbows. "I guess we have finally reached our destination," thought Balthazar as he received the notification. He put in the half-finished crossbow into his bag and got out and ran to Lizzie and gave all his items to her before logging out. "We have reached our destination," asked Balthazar as soon as he removed the helmet. Robert had also stopped using the somnium headgear and was standing beside him. "Ya. We are at the planet, GR-23. We had decided to change our destination due to some unforeseen circ.u.mstances. The planet isn''t really in our control but in the hands of the Price family. We are temporarily borrowing it," said Richard. "What?" "Why the sudden change?" "This changes a lot of things. We have no idea about the situation of the planet. How can we attempt it in some other planet?" "Calm down, both of you," said Lucius in a loud voice drowning out the questions of Balthazar and Robert. "We are going to give you all the information you need. You don''t need to worry," said Richard. "The suits will have link and image recognition that would allow you to identify which ever animal or plant you see." "Yes. We are also sending you the details of the various things on to your wrist bands. It is always best to be able to check these things manually," added Lucius as he forwarded the information to both their wristbands. "We will also be in the vicinity to get you to safety in case you are injured, or you request to be withdrawn." "Let us talk about the important things about the planet, first," said Lucius as he began to explain the important things. "The planet has twice rotations speed of earth. So, one day would be twelve hours. We will be staying here for at most 24 hours which is two days. You need to be ready to stay there at night. Find a safe place. Most of it covered with woods. There were a few humanoid intelligent tribes, but they were all eliminated. So, you would find a few places to keep yourself safe when it is dark." "That is the main difference you need to look for. The gravity is about 1.4 times that of Asklepian. So, you need to be aware of that and the atmosphere is quite breathable. Waters aren''t that dangerous either," added Richard. "Yes, get your suits now. It is actually a bit better than the trial that we had originally planned right?" said Richard pushing the pair of them into an adjacent room. The room was same the one in which they rested for the ride. There were a pair of dark metallic looking suits of armor having a large case with a bunch of panels attached to his back. There were three other people waiting for them seated beside combat suits. "These three are the evaluators of your performance. They are researchers who have extensive knowledge of various resources that could be found and can determine their value, condition and usability," said Lucius pointing at the three people sitting beside the combat suits. "Nice to meet you guys," said Balthazar greeting them. But the trio kept mum and didn''t respond. "The three of them were appointed by the elder council. They will not talk to you throughout the journey. They are just supposed to evaluate you. You are still a bit infamous in the council due to your decision to leave the family when you joined the armed forces. So, they have appointed the most strict ones they could find," whispered Richard into Balthazar''s ear on noticing his confused expression after greeting them. "This is a nice combat suit," said Balthazar as he looked at it. It was quite large and about 7 feet tall. He found it to be a lot simpler than the other ones he had been shown by Evelyn at Asklepian. "Ya. It is an exploratory suit that we designed recently. Main objective is to explore new planets and moons. It has quite capable communication capabilities and very resilient. Can move through water, but you need to pull out the panels at the bottom of the case on its back for the propellers to work," explained Richard pointing to the various points on the suit. "Yeah. Wear it. Go through the manual. It is best if you go through it here and we will answer any doubts you have," added Lucius. "Where are the weapons?" asked Balthazar as he put on his suit and started to go through the manual. He was unable to find any details of it in the manual. "Oh, yes! We haven''t yet set that up weapons, yet," said Lucius. "It was still an experimental work. We have a pair of guns and strapped to its sides and also four magazines for them," said Lucius pointing out the locations of the equipment on the case. "A flare, a crossbow and two blades. These three are reusable. You need to find the cartridge and arrows and can repeat to use them," said Richard as he brought these tools attached to a belt and strapped it onto Robert. "Also have a defensive force field generator on the buckle. It will cover your for about 3 minutes. Using it will also trigger a call for help and we will arrive to pick you up. The suit charges with solar power from the top of the case and you don''t need to be worried about conserving power. It is capable of running for more than 36 hrs on land. Water travel uses more power." "Yes, the belt also has a secondary locator beacon. It is just a redundancy. The other locator at your chest location of the suit. It is best to avoid damage to those parts. The case on your back is the best option you have to block any attacks. It is quite sturdy and you better use that instead of the shield generator if you want to continue on the trial. The case can store all your samples in it too. For this case, it will be holding your loot. It has a space for about 30 litres. You need to empty your cases, there is a switch that would call for a drone which would make trips with your collection. It can also be used if you have managed to capture a living creature. You can check about that in your manual," added Lucius. "Try pulling out and putting the equipment from the case, removing the case from your back and check it out." Balthazar had already started checking out the features of the new combat suit. He always had a habit of checking the features of any equipment he was using in the military. He considered it essential to be able to use them with ease. Soon, the ship came to the planet and stopped still, hovering in the air over a small hill in a forest area. Lucius and Richard also donned a couple of combat suits which were different from those of the two. Those were made to protection more than exploration. "You guys are going to help us?" asked Robert who didn''t know that they would be down on the ground with them. "No. Nothing of that sort. Just making a preliminary check of the surroundings. This is not a planet under our control, and we don''t find it comfortable to let you go without checking some basic security measures," said Richard covering for their appearance in combat suits. "Also, we are making use of the Price family resources. Need to have a chat and make sure that they cooperate. We don''t have a habit of trusting others easily," added Lucius. On Lucius'' command, the pilot opened the cargo bay doors of the ship. Richard threw down a rope ladder and the four of them went down the ladder and got off on the planet. One of the three researchers started a drone that is used to transport stuff and they had both Balthazar and Robert check if they were able to summon the drone through the suit before giving the approval for its use. "You two can move in that direction," said Lucius pointing down the hill. "We will meet the Price family representatives here." The ship which dropped them also got up and moved up higher in the atmosphere above the clouds. A stealth vessel piloted by Salazar moved out of the ship and started to observe them from the sky. Chapter 169 - Exploration They looked over the information sent by Lucius before they started and began to observe the environment around them. The forest had trees with very thick barks, and these weren''t very long. The higher gravity caused the trees to be much bulkier and thicker than the ones that were seen in Asklepian. "This is quite different from Asklepian," said Robert to Balthazar as he began to notice the trees and environment. It was his first time in a forest in another planet. Let alone Asklepian, where he learned about the indigenous flora and fauna, he couldn''t recognize many of the species he saw at the forest. "Yes, it would be quite different from the ones at the backyard in home," said Balthazar thinking of the trees and the woody area behind the Blyth mansion. "The gravity, atmosphere and elements in the planet are different from those of Asklepian." "Backyard?" asked Robert. "Ya. That is true. Our backyard is considered to have a large variety of trees that were brought from all over Asklepian and other places, but these are quite different," said Robert agreeing with Balthazar as he touched the trees. "Environment plays a lot of factor and we can expect the trees to be much sturdier than the ones at home. It is best that we try to cut a few trees, climbing, etc.,. here before getting deeper," said Balthazar as he pulled out a rope from his backpack and put it on his belt. He climbed up the tree and began to record the terrain with the help of the scanners on his suit. It was a common feature for most exploratory suits. He had the basic training for exploratory activities when he was posted to the armed forces at the edge of alliance territory and making a 3d map of the terrain was the first thing to do for any exploratory expedition. He also made Robert do the same just for the sake of practice. It was not only best to do this in a forest area but also for any new urban areas. It would be always useful to figure out traps or ambush points based on the data. Balthazar wanted to make sure that his cousin also understands it and gets the habit of mapping any new area. "It is best if we keep mapping the area regularly. The both of us will take chances to do this. It is best that one of use the sensors to map while other is collecting a sample or examining something. Best to save time unless we find that a situation might be dangerous," said Balthazar as he started to lead Robert through forest. Balthazar already began to think of the further steps that they would need to take for an exploration. They would also need to have a method for having water and food to drink and maintain their energy. He had already gone through the manual he got and found that he could use the water found on the planet, he just needed to pass them through a filter box in the case before consuming. The same was valid for food. He had a bit of dried food and pills available in the case along with bandages and other materials for first aid. But the thing was that it was suggested to them in the manual to not depend completely on the dried food as it was in small amounts and that they needed to procure their own if they wanted to stay on the planet for more than 12 hours. So, he started to remember the edible plants and animals that he could eat. He decided to look for vegetarian food rather than animals as animals would have to be killed and dead animals would have a lingering scent which would attract a lot of other predators. It would just be an unnecessary burden. "Check the list of all the edible list of plant. It is best if we concentrate on vegetarian food. Usually, it is best to look for fruits or so in forests, but in higher gravity planets, you don''t get fruits," said Balthazar. "No fruits? I thought fruits are best options and some fungi in a forest. You can''t get cereals or vegetables easily in these places, right?" asked Robert surprised. "Ok. You can consider them as fruits, but they are like nuts. They keep getting harder with increase in gravity. So, you would find them harder to feel and even plucking them," said Balthazar. "I guess that I should have expected that. From a botanical perspective, nuts are a kind of fruit and fruits always have an outer skin with the interior is soft," agreed Robert. "We can also hunt for smaller beasts. I can see a list of beasts in this info which could be used to cook." "No. Bad option. Only kill for meat when you have enough members and strength to keep away other predators. It is recommended to follow that as long as the number of your group are less than four," said Balthazar. "Military training," he added in explanation. "You have been in such situations before?" asked Robert surprised. He had known that his cousin had joined the military, but he had thought that he was in engineering division before he was fast tracked into fighting at the alliance border. "Not really. I just commanded men to do some exploration a few times and had training for it. But I know the basics for safe exploration due to those experiences. There have always been stories where beasts caused damages when the guys were cooking," said Balthazar with a nod. "Ok. But thinking about it, I just got another idea," said Robert. "If this could be used to lure other beasts, we can use it with traps. Gather a bunch of beasts and make a quick kill of the beasts." "Haha. That was also tried to kill beasts in large numbers. Actually, quite a common strategy," said Balthazar. "But killing a number of beasts at a time will cause a lot of damage on to the beasts. Fine for clearing up forest areas, but not great if you want the meat or materials from them. It will also attract more beasts due to the dead ones and their screams. So, not a good option with only the two of us." "Fine," said Robert a bit disappointed that Balthazar didn''t agree with his plan. "Then, would we have this issue when we catch any game?" asked Robert. "Yes. That is our biggest problem in this trial. I actually want to concentrate on getting the flora specified in the list, but at least the beasts leave a proper tracks and other signs in the forest which could be used to track them, but we need to be really lucky for getting hands on the plants in the list," said Balthazar explaining the advantages and disadvantages of gathering the resources. "So, what do we do?" asked Robert entirely confused about the entire thing. "It actually depends on you," said Balthazar. "It actually better as we are wearing combat suits. It would have been much harder without them. We best keep a good lookout for all species in the list, but the main issue is your maneuverability. It is quite hard to move through the forest on the ground." "You expect me to go all ape in the forest?" asked Robert. "No don''t need to go all ape, but certain amount of ability to move through the treetops is expected to avoid beasts. Most carnivorous beasts aren''t that fast on the treetops and the ones that are don''t travel in groups, which we could use to our advantage if you practice a bit," said Balthazar. "You understand that I am a doctor, right? I know about the general behavior of beasts in a forest from zoology lessons at college," said Robert irritated by Balthazar. His irritation was mostly due to Balthazar''s suggestion to travel on treetops which he found ridiculous rather than Balthazar''s explanation of beasts. "Yes. I do. But you still never even thought of using the treetops to escape right?" asked back Balthazar in a calm tone which stumped Robert and he didn''t have any retort. "You have a lot of knowledge about the species found here. You would probably recognize them faster than me and also more clearly differentiate between species," continued Balthazar. "But you haven''t ever studied or trained from the perspective of safety. You are again a very good doctor and will be the first one I consult in case of an injury, but you have the perspective of a proper citizen in an urban area. You need to change that." "Oh! Come on. This is a very rare scenario. It isn''t like I will be repeating this again in my life," said Robert not considering Balthazar''s words seriously. "No. It might no longer be so after you become an elder," said Balthazar. "I have a very clear idea of my work and duties once I become an elder. Even exploratory missions would just need me at a managerial level and someone else would be doing the actual explorations. I don''t need to worry of these things," said Robert waving his hand. "Even I know that. I am a colonel and I had to manage many things in my service. But there are a few things which the job description fails to clearly portray is the fact that you need to know these skills to fulfil your other duties," said Balthazar. "What do you mean?" "You can''t trust anyone. Everyone has weaknesses and though you have trustworthy people around you, there is a chance that they can be influenced. Being a leader of a small team of scientists and doctors researching something is different from this. They usually won''t have to trouble with security till they achieve significant results, but that is not the same for a position which gives you the ability to gather resource/ material wealth or armed forces," said Balthazar. "So, what? You are training me here?" asked Robert. "I am pretty sure that Lucius, Richard and the others are better than you in that aspect. Lucius also trains you." "No. I am not training you. Lucius is definitely the better option. Training to defend oneself isn''t my thing," said Balthazar. "I want to give you an idea of how it would be to remain separate from the rest of your friends while leading them. You have had a recent experience of betrayal. I don''t need to remind you that." "That is why I am training so hard to be able to defend myself," retorted Robert. He was getting angrier by the second unable to understand what his cousin was talking about. "That is good and a part of the solution. But as a doctor you should understand that prevention is better than cure." "What are going on about?" "Ok. I kind of moved away from the main topic at hand. As you told yourself you were alone when you fought Max. There might be more attempts on your life in future. You should know to escape when you are in danger. So, you should practice moving on difficult terrain with ease and also make a habit of mapping the area around you to use its features to your advantage," said Balthazar quickly. "Oh. Ok. I understand that. If I am not strong enough to fight, I should at least be capable enough to escape. But what was the other crap about being an elder as a different type of leader or something like that? You did say something like that which went over my head," asked Robert. "Ya. I did ramble around a bit out of context. It wasn''t my intention, just that betrayal was something I experienced even before Max. I used to think that I ran a pretty tight organization at the citadel, but I failed dismally." "Rambling again." "OK. I want to talk about organization. You are not a lead researcher who has all his funds and money arranged by others now. You will be an elder. You need to make sure that you know well about your subordinates and be on guard against betrayal," said Balthazar. "I am.." started Robert but Balthazar put his hand up covering Roberts helmet to stop him. "Let me finish. You need to know them a bit personally not just professionally. Only then, you will be able to know their weaknesses. It is commonly told in many leadership seminars to have a personal connection so that their performance would improve, but that is secondary for organizations which hold arms. It is essential to know them personally so that you would be able to immediately perceive if someone is plotting something behind your back," said Balthazar. "That is a viable method to keep safe and I know that you like to know your people personally, but I don''t think it is the best option for me," said Robert. "It didn''t help you much either. You even lost your girlfriend even after all your paranoia." "Wait. What? What girlfriend?" asked Balthazar surprised. "You know. That lady lieutenant colonel Jane. It is being told that she was the only of your lieutenants that you had trusted with the information about the attack," said Robert. "Sorry, about her death." "Hahaha," laughed Balthazar surprised by the turn of events. He had told people that she had been helping him with the dealing the attack, but never expected that some would think her to be his girlfriend. "You idiot! She was never my girlfriend. She was one of the people who allied with the Nirbaadh pirates and was responsible for the attacks. I just made her out to be a hero because of the blast. Else, I would have been beaten the truth out of her," said Balthazar. "No way! What about the commendations she received on death?" "Just a false trial to prevent my enemies from looking closely at me and finding out the details of my actual source of information." "You thought that far ahead about your friends in the hospital?" asked Robert surprised. He felt that his brother was a lot more calculated than he knew. "Of course, it is the same thing. You need to protect your resources too as a leader. Else, you wouldn''t be able to be a good one for any decent duration of time," answered Balthazar. "It would be hard to do all that. It is like micromanaging. I doubt my men would like to work under me if I do so," said Robert who was still not convinced with Balthazar''s suggestion. It was true that micromanaging is despised by many as they felt that their privacy is being invaded. "Idiot. No one is asking you to micromanage. Just be close to them personally. You don''t go and correct or supervise every small thing. You will notice your people making mistakes, but you don''t keep correcting them. Give them time to realize on their own, else they will never learn to improve. Never suggest, just be aware of things and stay above them. Even if you feel strongly that they could do better, you don''t go and inform them directly unless it is being repeated," said Balthazar. "Forget those things for now. Focus on the task at hand. Moving on treetops. It is good that you have a combat suit and wouldn''t sustain severe injuries from falls," continued Balthazar. He forced him up a tree and only after they began starting to move ahead. "Keep a lookout from the trees. Inform me if you find anything. Today, you will be the scout, while I gather and fight," said Balthazar. "After 12 hours, we will see change it if you want." Chapter 170 - Exploration - II Balthazar was very worried about his cousin''s skills and he needed him to learn the required skill set to survive on his own. If Robert was going to be his man in the elder council, he needed Robert to be capable of surviving and successfully adapting to exigent situations which he expected would arise soon. Moreover, he had learned that Robert was in the same situation as him, in danger of his life from the same group of people and it is best that he stayed alive to be as useful to him as possible. He also needed Robert to present himself strongly at the council so that any spies would be more concerned about Robert inheriting Winston''s mantle than Bolena which would probably reduce the focus of his enemies from her. The both of them kept mapping the forest and they moved through the forest. Due to the higher gravity they found that they required to use more strength than usual to move around and that they would become hungry faster. They already started filling up their bag with fruits as the had previously discussed and were thinking of finding an isolated area to sit down and eat. "I am getting hungry Bel. Why don''t we have a small bite before going further ahead," asked Robert as the reached a small stream in the forest. The trees were sparse around the stream. It a few metres wide and looked just a couple of metres deep. "Hold on to that thought for a minute or two," said Balthazar as he saw the stream. "It is good if we have some preparations before we do something like that. But do fill up the bottles first," he continued as he removed the bottle from the case and threw it to Robert. "What are you thinking of?" asked Robert as he looked at Balthazar who was checking the area around it while got up a tree on the bank started mapping the area again. "Just making sure that there are no dangers in the vicinity," said Balthazar getting down the tree. "Don''t worry. We didn''t see anything the whole way here. Only a few small ferret-like animals which you said would attract predators and would take quite a bit of time to cook," said Robert. "Ya. I agree with that, which makes me think that we have been on the outskirts of the forest all this time. Now, I see different signs," said Balthazar pointing across the bank. "What is there?" asked Robert as he tensed up thinking that his cousin saw a beast and they might be attacked. "I can''t see anything. Even the sensors don''t detect anything. Nothing is being displayed on the HUD of my display either," said Robert as he checked the display on his helmet too. "There is no animal or beast on the banks right now," said Balthazar. "You don''t need to have any worry about beasts attacking you right now but have a look at the trees on the other side of the bank." Robert immediately followed looked at the direction his cousin was pointing and noticed that there are some claw marks scratched onto the bark of the trees on the other side of the stream. It was a common method for large beasts like bears to mark their territory. "Wow! How did you see about that?" asked Robert. "It is so far away from here." "I was looking for it, genius. A stream with no animals close by at dawn. The forest on the other side is quite thick and no animals drinking water at a stream on that side. It was clear that there is some big predator and it is quite close by," said Balthazar pointing to a small mound at the other side of the stream. It was concealed behind a group of thick trees with its outer surface covered completely by grass and would be hard to find if one wasn''t looking for such structures. "There is probably a cave or something there where it lives. The sonar mapping pointed out a hollow region. It is best that we handle that as soon as we get to the other side. So, we attack it and use its cave for resting and even eating. The good thing is that most of the beasts seem to be afraid of it and will be afraid of its killers. At least, we won''t have them attacking us immediately and we can set up a decent camp at its cave," continued Balthazar explaining his plan. "Good finally, we get to kill a beast or two. I hope it is something on the list," said Robert getting excited by Balthazar''s proposal. "What do you think it is?" "I am going through the list of beasts on the planet and their descriptions right now," said Balthazar as he kept scrolling images down on his HUD. "I can tell a few things about the beast though. The marks are quite high about 9 feet above ground and close to a large bough. So, we can expect it to be quite big or one that could move on top of the trees. That is why, I have been so careful and didn''t start to suggest we move there yet. It is easier to for it to ambush if it is capable of moving on treetops." "So, any beasts with those features in our list?" asked Robert. "Ya. Narrowed it down to two beasts. The first one is a Nandi. It is usually about 8 feet tall and for the gravity of the planet it is going to could be as strong as a 10-15 feet tall one on Asklepian. It has a scaly tough skin and lives near water. Both skin and bones are made into accessories sold at a high price to collectors," said Balthazar. "Yes, we are bound to get a good rating after we capture it," said Robert gleefully. "Ya. Fat chance of capturing it alive. Aim to kill. There is another possibility. A Staterasimian. It is like a small gorilla which has scabrous skin. It would be moving on the treetops and can ambush," said Balthazar. "How do we proceed then?" "You get over the tree here," said Balthazar pointing to a tree right beside the stream and a bit away from the others. "Keep a lookout for any groups of animals that might come. I will have a look at the cave. It is the best way to determine the animal living there. If it is the second one, we leave as they tend to live in groups." "Can''t we just kill them or at least try to capture a cub or something. If you are going to its cave, there is a good chance for it to have cubs, right?" asked Robert. "Ya. A cave and a beast marking its territory which is quite empty are a sign for the parents protecting their young ones," said Balthazar as he made his way towards the stream. "But still aim to kill the old ones. The cubs could probably be sold. Don''t expect to have any thoughts of taking them. Though we are having this trail in a planet owned by the Price family due to special circ.u.mstances, I doubt that they would actually let us take any of the resources collected by us." "So, you want to say that it is unnecessary to take capture any living creatures?" asked Robert. "Yes." Balthazar took about a few minutes to observe the stream and once, he was sure that there were no water beasts in the small stream, he waded across it and reached the other side. He made his way towards cave. He moved in a way that his path would be visible to his cousin so that he would get a warning if he noticed anything approaching him. "I am going to search for the entrance. It is not on the side of the stream. So, be careful and I would be out of your sight for a few minutes," warned Balthazar as he got up a tree and moved into the forest. He had the experience of moving through treetops in the game and the only reason, he didn''t try it in real-life was that he was afraid of being injured on falling down. With a combat suit, it was no longer a problem for him. A couple of minutes later, he found a circular hole about 4 feet in diameter on side of the mound. Looking at the entrance, he realized that the mound is actually a huge rock covered by grass. "Weird to see such a structure," thought Balthazar. He was clear that such a structure was hard to be formed naturally beside a stream. Even if one assumed the cave was made by force of water, the entrance would be in the same direction as the flow of the stream. "It is not possible to have it been done naturally. Possibly a cave dug by the indigenous intelligent species that Lucius mentioned," thought Balthazar. It made more sense as he thought of it in that way as usually intelligent species would keep the entrance away from the streams to avoid any beast sneaking into the place whenever the water level rose a bit in rainy conditions. "I can expect a decent amount of intelligence from the beast, if it has made the construction of some other species as its home. This list doesn''t have any of such behavioral pattern information of the beasts. This is going to be hard," thought Balthazar as he realized that the information provided by Lucius has a lot of gaps. This behavioral information is usually known by heart to professional explorers, but Balthazar only ever recruited and commanded such men. He never had actually bothered to learn these things. He knew he couldn''t wait for movement from the beast as he his time on the planet was limited and also he didn''t know if his cousin or he might be being observed by some other beasts. So, he decided to get his cousin to the cave entrance and attack. He was also feeling a bit tired due to the higher gravity of the place. He realized some time ago that the combat suits provided to them had some features locked. Combat suits with the ability to reduce the effect of higher gravity are also found in the military and it didn''t make sense to him that the ones provided by the family didn''t have this feature. The only possibility was that the family had intentionally locked these features as a part of the test and probably would only be activated in time of danger. He thought the various possibilities for some time and finally decided to enter the cave alone. He felt that it would be easier for him to escape if the beast found him, if he was alone and he was also used to infiltrating places silently which he doubted his cousin could do. Beasts usually had better senses and it would be harder to conceal oneself from them. So, it would be much harder for his cousin to silently sneak into the cave. He got down the tree and moved to the cave entrance. As he got into the cave, he noticed that the cave wasn''t as dark as he had expected. There were holes in the cave which were covered by grass, but the sunlight still filtered through them throwing a soft diffused light. He also heard slight whimpering coming from within the cave. It was almost inaudible, and he would have definitely missed if not for the sensors of the combat suit, he was wearing. He didn''t find anything near the entrance and moved slowly into the interior where it got darker. He slowly followed the mild sounds and came to a corner of the cave where he found the corpse of a Nandi as he came close to the source. There were a few Nandi cubs right beside the corpse. They were just newly born babies and had their eyes closed. "I think my cousin has a divine mouth. This is too damn lucky," thought Balthazar as he decided to contact his cousin and inform him, when he was contacted by Robert. "Bel, I am pretty sure that we have a Nandi living in this area. Be careful," warned Robert. "How did you know?" asked Balthazar surprised by the sudden warning. He was much more amazed the accuracy of the information. He had moved so close to the cave and he couldn''t determine the species of the beast till he saw the corpse. "Are you still on the top of that tree." "No. I noticed you going to the cave and I couldn''t be of use to you from this position. So, I got down and crossed the stream. I found a shedded skin here. The combat suit systems identified as a Nandi''s moulted skin. It is quite fresh, so I doubt that you need to worry about the beast there. This looks quite fresh," said Robert. "What? Freshly moulted? Get out of there you idiot! It is hunting. That should be a trap" shouted Balthazar as he ran out of the cave. The dead Nandi in front of him clearly died on childbirth and as the male wasn''t close there were only one possibility. It was hunting to gather food for the babies which were going to be born. "What? How do you know?" asked Robert slightly unnerved by the anxious tone of his cousin''s voice. He already started to get back to the stream to get across. "Found newly born cubs here and the mother dead by childbirth. If there is a skin. It is definitely not of the mother. So, the father is there and is hunting. Get away before, it notices you," ordered Balthazar. "Bel. I found it," said Robert suddenly in a low voice. "Or it found me," said Robert as he sent the direction for his location. Chapter 171 - Exploration - III "Calm down," said Balthazar. "I am calm. What to do?" asked Robert in a barely audible whisper. "Is it looking at you?" "It is but looks confused. Probably, never seen a combat suit before." "What is the state of the Nandi?" "It doesn''t have the usual appearance. It is in a light green color instead of the usual black." "So, it has just molted its skin. It would be weaker." "Yes. There are also about few dead beasts beside it. They seem to be the food for its babies," said Robert. "It is probably not much interested and more concerned for its cubs. Its shedding is also probably any unexpected. It might have already been at its molting time, lost some skin in a fight and decided to molt the rest of the skin before attacking others," said Balthazar. It was common for animals to not stop in middle of molting as the hanging skin would disrupt their balance in fights and would be a hindrance. "I guessed that," said Robert slightly irritated. "Is the Nandi between you and the cave?" "No. I am actually between the Nandi and the cave." "So, escaping is a no go," said Balthazar as he came out of the cave. "You run to the sides or towards the cave, it will follow you. If you run towards it, it might take it as aggression, if it had never seen humans before." "F.u.c.k! What am I supposed to do? Should I signal for help from Lucius? This thing could be 12 feet tall if it stood up," said Robert in a frightened voice. "Don''t worry. Move slowly backwards towards my direction away from it. Check the map and don''t end up leaning against a tree and end up cornering yourself," said Balthazar. "Wouldn''t it suspect that I wanted to go for its cave?" "Ya, it might. I am suggesting the least risky one for you, cousin. It can outrun you if you move in any direction and will most probably attach you. It would be far too concerned about the juviniles. The best way is to attack it together. So, it will speed up at some time. You need to throw something at it and run towards me after that." "Will it be all right?" asked Robert worried about the trial. With his combat suit, he wasn''t really worried for his life, but the trial mattered a lot to him. "Don''t fret. I will attack it at the proper time. Even, if we fail to kill him, it would be injured badly and will escape to the cave for support. I doubt that it knows about the death of its mate?" "You sure it is dead? It might just be tired and laid down after the birth," asked Robert as he began to move away from the beast in front of him. "I am sure. I put a hole through its head just to confirm. It''s a habit of mine," said Balthazar. "Slowly move toward me. I am out of the cave." "If it catches up to me fast?" "Then inform me. I have will make a loud noise here to get its attention. It would hardly care about you, once it fears for its mate and cubs." "OK," said Robert as he continued to move. In a minute, he yelled. "Bel, the damn beast is after me." "Stick to the plan. If it comes too close throw something at it. Keep you blade handy in one hand. It will be much vulnerable after its molting," said Balthazar as he moved towards the cave. He had already used his crossbow and the spare string of the bow to make a trap at the caves entrance as a backup and was sure that he could take down the Nandi. He soon saw that his cousin and also that the Nandi was right behind him and would be on him in a couple of seconds. So, he decided that he needed to change his plans and ran towards the cave while firing a round of his gun at the cave entrance. "Run to the side cousin," he informed through the microphone. Robert also realized his cousin''s intention and jumped to the side to get out of the way of the pursuing Nandi. The Nandi following Robert heard the loud noise produced by the gun shot and it stopped pursuing Robert whom it was about to successfully pounce on. The bear like beast started galloping towards the cave concerned for its mate and cubs. Balthazar was at the entrance waiting for it to step into the trap. Robert stayed down for a couple of seconds and started to look at the Nandi and decided to follow it from a distance in case his cousin needed his help. As it came within a couple of feet nearer to the entrance, it slowed down a bit to check for intruders when an arrow whizzed from the top of a tree aimed at its hindquarters. It had already noticed Robert following it from behind and as the arrow came from another direction, it felt that the entrance was the best direction to move into and jumped into the entrance to avoid the arrow. A loud roar immediately followed by a thudding sound came after it entered the cave shocking Robert. He started to run towards the cave as he heard heavy breathing and grunting noises of his cousin through their comms. "Bel, are you alright?" he shouted as he pulled out both his blades and sprinted towards the cave. "Ya. I am alright, help me with this thing," came the voice of his brother followed by heaving noises. Robert entered the cave and found his brother on the floor with the Nandi atop him. It had one of its blades through its eye and the other one through its ears. It was clear that it was killed by two quick strokes, but Balthazar ended up falling under its weight. "You injured?" asked Robert worried as he saw his brother under the Nandi. "No! Just being crushed. Pull out the blades out of its head and pull up the damn beast!" said Balthazar angrily. He had been struggling to push out the Nandi off him. He had actually expected to take out the beast in one hit to the eye, but the beast was much more resilient and larger than he expected. Even after, it got a blade through it eye, it jumped at him. Luckily, he already had removed the case from its back which he used to block and evade its paws, moving closer to it to deliver another blow to the head. But he still ended up being trapped beneath its dead body which would have crushed him if not for the combat suit and the backpack case which was beside him and bore the brunt of its weight. Even with the combat suit reducing the effect of the beast''s weight on him, he felt a lot of pressure on him. Together then managed to get him from beneath the big body of the beast which finally relieved the pressure of its weight and allowed him to talk freely. "I thought that you were exaggerating when told it was 12 feet," said Balthazar as he observed the corpse of the beast. "Ya, it is a huge one and very heavy," said Robert still checking his cousin''s condition. He already had the sensors of his suit monitoring Balthazar''s vitals and condition. "Big haul for our first beast," said Balthazar looking at the corpse as he took his blades. "You go and get the skin shed by this beast. I will handle the things here," said Balthazar as he started to pull the backpack case which was also beneath the Nandi. "Ya, there were also a few canines that it was hauling back to the cave. I will get them all here," said Robert as he went out of the cave. Balthazar pulled out his cave and made way into the interior of the cave to the place where he found the cubs. His first priority was the cubs. There were a lot more valuable than the dead ones and could make good pets. He wanted to know if they could be raised at the mansion. He found the Nandi to be extremely ferocious and strong and it would be good if they could tame them, but he doubted it to be possible. Still, raising from birth in captivity would still be better, if they knew its feeding habits and other requirements in its growth. He went there and went to the cubs and the corpse of their mother to examine them properly. Three of the cubs were lying beside their mother while a fourth one was halfway out and dead. The three seemed and were breathing. So he carefully moved them closer to the mother out of instinct. "I didn''t even know the name of these beasts till today," thought Balthazar as he realized that it was a futile venture to try and tame them without knowing anything about their biology. He quickly called for the drone as only those guys would have some way to get information to keep them safe. He checked around in the other parts of the cave and found a small nest like structure made off dried grass and leaves. He put the three remaining cubs in them and brought them out to the entrance of the cave along with the carcass of their mother. The drone also reached the place and Robert also got the shedded skin and the bodies of the small canines that the Nandi was carrying in its teeth. Balthazar quickly opened up the case and put the three cubs along with the nest, the shedded skin and a couple of those canines as they might be food for the cubs. As the male Nandi hunted the canines for them, he felt there is a very good chance of them eating these animals. He was supposed to put in a record of their collections in which he put in a note about his intentions for taming the three cubs and quickly sent the drone back. "You could have filled it up with more of the dead Nandi''s," said Robert. "I just wanted the drone to transport the cubs safely to the others. It would be a waste if they died. It is great opportunity which I don''t want to lose." "I am just worried about the consideration of those judges. You heard Lucius inform us that the council selected really strict judges for us, right?" asked Robert. "I did. I noticed a lot of things about this trial too. For example, the combat suits kind of provide gravity compensation. Those are even found in the military and Lucius told that these the latest in the exploratory suits. So, clearly some of the features are locked," said Balthazar. "What do you mean?" "The suits are sturdy made of very good materials, but that is all. Even our sensors aren''t up to date. Military suits have better features than the ones that I could see here. You didn''t realize these things because you haven''t had this experience before or even observed one before." "Why would they do that? Do we need to complain about this to Richard or someone?" "No. They probably know it already. This is meant to be a survival training. Our previous generations had probably had it much worse. They have these things controlled so that we would be able to survive and adapt to hard situations. They are probably already monitoring us and know what we are talking about. The trial was probably never about the amount of stuff we sent back," said Balthazar. "Ok. Let me correct that. I think it is not only about collecting the items on the list. We also need to be able to make proper decisions and prioritizing things. I have been wondering about it for quite some time now and that is the reason I tried this out. We will know about it soon enough." "Let me get this straight. You are experimenting with the judges about the motive of this trial?" asked Robert in an irritated tone. He didn''t like it at all that his cousin was jeopardizing his chances of getting appointed as an elder. "Ya. If I am wrong, I will be the only one who gets lower grade and we still had a good haul. Sending the two Nandi''s afterwards is bound to have us cleared at the very least. I am not cared about the grade. Only, you are. I just took this so that I could participate in the competition for that elder post," explained Balthazar. "Just don''t worry, I called the drone and I was the one who was responsible for putting stuff in and sending it back. It will all be on me." "Fine. I guess it is not too bad to try it out." After a couple of minutes, they found the drone returning with a message for Balthazar. "Please, use the code ''xufnidkid454kd'' in the notebox of your HUD to unlock advanced mapping and sensory features of the exploratory suit. We will consider taking the cubs to the Blyth mansion for growing them under controlled conditions," said the notice from the drone. "See. This is good right?" asked Balthazar as he typed the code. "I would rather have the gravity compensation effect provided by the suit though. It makes this easier," he thought. "Why didn''t they give it to me?" asked Robert. "You probably need to take some initiative." gloated Balthazar. "Initiative? You just thought that it was a good idea to have those cubs as pets," said Robert. "Ok. It is not about initiative. It is more about making a good decision, I think. You also have a good chance of getting upgrades," said Balthazar. "Why don''t you go ahead and send the remaining stuff using the drone. I will go and check my new upgrades and also see if we can get a few more of those smaller beasts that the Nandi was hunting." "They are brux coyotes. Live in large numbers here. They are easy prey and useless. Why don''t we just cut up the Nandi and try its meat. We can try to cook it," said Robert. "Ok. Nandi is a rare animal and thus its meat would be probably be a delicacy. I would rather have it cooked by professionals and eat it later," said Balthazar as started to move out. "We also need to get some wood to cook it, else we need to eat raw meat." "Wood? I don''t know the slightest thing about these woods. Where the hell are we going to get the proper wood. We don''t even know which wood to use," said Robert. Even though he had not actually had experience in forests, he had gone to woods for camping with his friend during his college. He knew a bit about cooking. Chapter 172 - Exploration - IV "Ya. I am even concerned about getting decent firewood. We might just need to get some dried pieces of wood from the forest and try it out. The Nandi managed to get dry piece for the cub''s nest. We can do at least that. Else, we stick to vegetarian food," said Balthazar. "Actually, we could stick to uncooked food like fruits. We don''t even know which woods would smoke or if any of them release poison or hallucinogens or any other chemicals. Some trees have effects in their barks as defence mechanisms against other species you know," said Robert. He was a doctor and had studied about various flora and fauna as part of training in his college. Though, he wasn''t aware of the species found on a planet, he had a general idea of the various defence mechanisms of various species and believed that a few of them could be common in various planets. "You do have a point," said Balthazar. He had never heard of hallucinogens that came from burning wood, but he did know that many of the first discoveries of poisons and other chemicals were initially made from different parts of plants. He also heard about other adventurers using only specific types of wood to cook and them making lists of usable wood for cooking purposes. So, he had reason to not risk. "Yes. This is going to be very hard to just survive on fruits," said Robert. "No, problem. The only tiring thing is this gravity. If not for that, I could remain a day easy without food. By a day, I mean 24 hours not the day of this planet," said Balthazar. "In that case, I will just explore the area and come back. We could at least take a good nap in this cave. Use your blades to hack at the wood and make some basic spikes to cover the entrance. We don''t need intruders." He went ahead to map their surroundings with the unlocked features. The new mapping tech in his systems also allowed him to map not only the structures but also the various materials that of the different structures. It also increased the mapping range five-fold and introduced better features regarding various noises of the forest and frequency isolation technology which could be used to identify and notice different species around him. He could also differentiate between the species by isolating their vocal prints. "All nice and good," thought Balthazar as he checked the new features that were unlocked. "I would rather have a more comprehensive description of the species and ways to cook the species that we managed to kill instead. These guys are too serious about this," he thought as he started to move around and map the place. He came back in a few minutes with his backpack filled with a number of hard fruits from various trees and some other stuff. He had also found three plants found on the list, but two of them were poisonous. So, he left them and collected only one of the three. He also attacked a few of the brux coyotes and tied them to his belt using the spare crossbow string. "Cousin, the new features are great. It allows me to identify any item on the list through my sensors. They are a lot more receptive. I don''t know what tech enabled this, but I already have found three items on the list though I brought only one. The other two are marked poisonous on the list and I didn''t want to mix them with the fruits and the normal items," said Balthazar. "Oh! Yes, we need to separate the poisonous ones from the others," said Robert as he also realized their problem. "We need something to separate the two things. Actually, I think, we might need to separate the various items during transfer. How come we missed something so simple?" "We never worked at this level before. I mean I did, but in regulated conditions where there were a proper set of rules and all the things required were provided to us. Now, these things are being left to our own discretion," said Balthazar. "Damn! In this way, we might have to deal with a lot more work than what we expected," said Robert. "Don''t worry. One thing at a time. Let us prepare for resting for the night." "What do we actually need to do? You made me set up a few spikes made out of a few trees at the entrance, but I doubt that." "I think the same. I have no idea on what we could do. Don''t know if we could use fire or something. Even the spikes aren''t much useful without someone to man and stand guard. Nothing to setup a proper trap or something. By the reaction of the Nandi, I doubt that one could ward against them with the two crossbows," said Balthazar. "Oh no, I hope you are not saying what I think you are." "I am," said Balthazar nodding his head. "Let me take the first shift. We will monitor the entrance for alternate shifts of two hours each. Just relax and sleep" "Just two hours? That is too little isn''t it?" "Don''t forget that the days are half the usual time. That also makes the nighttime reduced to half the one you are used to. So, two hours are the best option. We don''t know our position relative to the axis of rotation and other things which determine the relative duration of day and night. By the amount of time it takes to darken, we can assume a bit more than five hours for the night. I would also like to get some shut eye and with me taking the first two hours, you would get a decent amount of shut eye," suggested Balthazar. "It is hardly enough time. I am feeling extremely tired due to the gravity here. I didn''t expect it to be like this," said Robert. "The gravity compensation systems in the suits are locked for us to give a proper survival situation experience. We didn''t think they would lock the features of the suits, but this is the best way in this scenario. We can sleep for more duration continuously but that would be wasting daylight." "Right. I am sorry. I am just too tired. Let me take a nap then," said Robert as he laid down at a corner of the cave and went to sleep. Balthazar went ahead and started cutting some trees. He decided to make gate of sorts against the entrance with the logs by tying them up with the guts of the brux coyotes that he had previously killed. Those were the best substitutes for ropes that he could find in the forest. As he made them, another idea sparked in his mind. "I can make a few partitions or boxes with this wood to separate items in the backpacks," he thought. It was not a viable option for them to always put poisonous items in Robert''s backpack and the others in his. This idea would allow them to share the load a bit. He decided to carve a few partitions and boxes, but in an hour, he realized it was very hard. He had always prided himself to be a good smith and engineer. He had been quite successful in this field even in vita-nova, but right now, he was failing miserably at this job. It made him realize that even in vita-nova, it was only the tools in workshops that have him the advantage and that he still couldn''t do much in the wild alone. "Damn. I am almost as useless as Robert. If I can''t make a simple box, it would be impossible to craft a bow or arrows. I guess I can only improve with practice or always keep a few tools smaller and sharper than these blades. Even the blades have gone a bit dull. It is best I don''t waste them on carving wood," thought Balthazar as he decided to give up on it. He waited staring into the dark while munching on fruits for another hour before he woke up his cousin. He warned Robert against using the blades on wood as he took his nap. Robert woke him up in two hours when the sunlight had already hit the skies. "That was quite short for a night, wasn''t it?" joked Balthazar as he got up. "You''ve seen anything?" "No, Bel. I think that all the animals are avoiding this place. The Nandi couple might have been quite territorial," said Robert. "But I did solve the partition problem that we were facing." "How?" "It is actually the wood." "I told you that it is a waste to carve it without our blades. They will be of better use against the beasts." "Calm down. It is not what you think, Bel," said Robert as he waved a green sheet like material in front of him. "What is this?" "This is the bark of a few smaller trees that I found close to the stream. Need only a few cuts from the blades to pull them off the stem. It is quite easy. It can actually be used to wrap up poisonous items. We don''t even need to touch them with our hands," explained Robert. "This is great. It will make our work much easier. Show me, how to pull them off. We will stock up before we go," said Balthazar. "No, need. I have been on it for about an hour," said Robert. "In the night?" "Ya, the night passed about an hour ago. I just saw one of those and went to try it out. After that I was excited and picked up more and kind forgot track of time." "You are saying that you left me unguarded for an hour in a cave while you went ahead to peel skin off trees?" "Ok. That might sound stupid, but you were quite safe. There were no beast or animals in the vicinity, and they all stayed away from the cave. The only things around here were those coyotes and they were probably scared after them being hunted by both you and the Nandi," said Robert covering for himself. Balthazar was still looking at him seriously. He was angry that his cousin had forgotten to guard over him. He knew from guarding the place when Robert was sleeping that it wasn''t that dangerous due to the reasons told by Robert, but he was still indignant that his cousin left him unguarded in an unknown region when he was sleeping. "I am sorry. I realize that I am wrong. It won''t happen again," apologized Robert for a few more times before Balthazar let it go and they went out of the cave to get through the forest. The started moving through the forest and found a few more items on the list. They continued this way till noon when they reached the end of the woods, they were in. They were at a rocky mountainous region. It had no plants and was very dry and looked deserted. They had been wondering about it since they saw it mapped by their sensors but continued till they reached it. "What should we do?" asked Robert. "None of the items on the list are found in such a rocky place except for a few beasts." "Ya. Even if beasts are found, the ones in such areas will be stronger if they are surviving in this environment and without the trees providing cover, it will be a lot harder to kill them," said Balthazar. All this time, he had been killing the beasts that they encountered by making surprise attacks and traps, but without the cover of the trees it would be extremely hard. "Let us eat some fruits, send our collections and then return back, search through the area in the south. It is a waste of time to continue through that area," decided Balthazar. Though he sad that to keep Robert motivated he didn''t have the same feeling as they would have to move a lot through the forest and with the noise that the made, it would be hard for them to encounter more beasts. He was sure that the wildlife were already aware of their approach since the morning. As the drone came for their goods, an unexpected notice followed. It was another set of unlock codes for both of them. It indicated that they were provided these as they managed to stay for 12 hours. It unlocked the gravity compensation. stealth capabilities and special attack effects of the suit along with orders for them to go and explore the mountain area. The most confusing part of this order was that unlike the previous instances, where they had given a list and they had to procure the items of the list, this mission required them to catalog the different things that they observe. "Why the sudden change in the mission parameters?" asked Robert surprised at the new instructions. "I think they are now considering us self-sufficient and the actual trial had begun," blabbed Balthazar even though he hadn''t the slightest clue why the test was like this. "I just think that one of those judges were bought out by someone on the council and is making it real hard for us to finish our trial," said Robert waving his hand as he realized that his cousin was simply spouting nonsense. "I guess the advantage is that it won''t be very hard to find a place like that cave in this region," said Balthazar. "The bad part is that we actually should be worried about guarding the area. They didn''t even give us information of the area''s dangers or anything. We are going to go enter completely blind." Chapter 173 - Exploration - V "Well, we are at least given all the usual advantages provided by exploratory combat suits now," said Robert. "It might be like you told. The main part is probably just starting now." The pair of them started to explore the mountainous terrain. They had initially thought that it was just a small span or rocky area, but once they went to the top of a hill, all they could see were more rocky hills and mountains. "We were left near a mountain range for the trial!? I heard that they usually choose areas with a water sources so that a lot of resources would be available. I guess the odds were stacked against us since the start," said Robert. "Don''t get shocked by something so trivial. We have already passed the basic criteria. Else, they wouldn''t have given us the full control of the suits. Let us just check the area," said Balthazar. He hadn''t had any preconceptions about the trial like his cousin. He was only given some information by Arthur and based on what he was told the trial would always change based on the persons undergoing it and the discretion of the judge, but the good thing was that its proceeding would be completely recorded and if any deliberate action were taken by the judges, it could be questioned by the elders. With Winston and Arthur backing them up, he was sure that the judges wouldn''t put them in a location which was completely devoid of any thing. At that time, Lucius and Richard had also reached the edge of the forest and noticed the change in terrain. Unlike the two participants, they could actually ask the judges for detailed information as they were responsible for the safety of the Balthazar and Robert. They had immediately asked for the judges and the information they got was quite surprising. "A cache for pirates? Why the hell would they send these to such a place? Robert hasn''t the slightest idea on handling traps and the like. He might be seriously injured," said Richard. "Ah! Balthazar had been too daring. He pissed her off. Now, it all makes sense, why the Price family offered us a planet at this time suddenly," said Lucius realizing the reason for this. "What? Who? I didn''t know that he had some beef with the Price family. Our families always cooperated with one another. If there was such a thing, how come we didn''t know?" asked Richard shocked by Lucius'' words. If there were any grievances between the Price family and Balthazar, Robert would have a lot more trouble in getting the position of an elder. So, Richard was concerned about the issue. "Ok! Don''t worry. It is not a serious thing. The kid is a colonel, right? You know Evelyn Price, the director''s sister. Based on his latest achievement, she asked him to join her group which he declined but asked for support. She apparently told him that he needed to be trained and wasn''t really ready. I heard that he was a bit snippy to her. She was slightly provoked and according to Winston, if Balthazar had not been a Blyth, she would have had him court-martialled for the thing he told in that meeting. If, I wasn''t training him, Winston wouldn''t have even told me about it," explained Lucius. "The kid pissed off Evelyn Price?" asked Richard shocked. "Why doesn''t the idiot go and call Harvey Price an imbecile for the way he had been tiptoeing around the increase of armed forces budget?" he continued in a sarcastic manner. "Normally, it is fine, but the guy is a member of armed forces like Evelyn which is the main problem. So, Winston was sure she might make things a bit harder for him," said Lucius. "Though I didn''t expect she would put her hands into the trial. That was unexpected. She probably had suggested this to one of the elders in the family council. The idiot probably thinks she is doing him a favour." "Let us hope that they won''t be too foolish and would examine things carefully if they manage to locate the cache," said Richard hoping that they would miss it. "You heard that the area would be covered with traps, right? Apparently, there are even a bunch of vantage points built in the place. It is an entire valley which they find if they go straight as they were," said Lucius. "Let us speed and get them in our view. It would be hard to help them even if they get into trouble from this distance." "Yeah. Also notify Salazar about the place. It is best if we let him have a view of them," said Richard as the pair of them sped up through the region in direction of their targets. Balthazar and Robert had spent about an hour moving across the rocky terrain, crossed a small hill and reached a large valley between two cliffs, when they came into contact with the first beasts. These were a group of wolf-like animals called Boredrevers which were commonly seen in rocky areas. These were carnivores and pack animals with sharp quill like fur all over them. "These things are being reared here," said Balthazar as soon as he saw the pack of Boredrevers. "What?" "Yes. These were reared here. I checked Boredrevers are common in rocky areas, but from the information given to us not native here. Also, you will notice that a few of them have collars," said Balthazar. The pair of them were using the stealth tech unlocked in their suits to traverse the mountains. Balthazar suggested it as they had little to negligible cover on these mountains. Though there were trees, the vegetation was far less sparse compared to the thick and densely packed forest trees which they passed through. It might be a simple task to hide from humans, but the beasts of the area couldn''t be fooled by simply hiding behind trees. Even if one is atop a tree, the gap between the trees was large enough for the beasts to have a clear line of sight to them if they weren''t using stealth tech to camouflage themselves. "Didn''t they tell us that all intelligent species were cleared off the planet?" asked Robert as he also noticed the collars on the necks of few beasts. "Yes. But they never told that they didn''t clean up behind them. Their pets and defenses might still be left," said Balthazar. "Go back to the hill and find some cover, I want to check one of those collared beasts." "Why?" asked Robert. "Getting close to them might be dangerous and tame beasts among a pack usually implies that they probably are the alphas and much stronger than the others. Else, the pack wouldn''t let them among them." "Ya, just indulge me, would you?" said Balthazar as he moved the side and started making disturbances. "Don''t get much their blood on you. The blood of other beasts we killed till now is a deterrence to them but having their own blood will attract them to you," advised Robert. Balthazar was the one who had killed all the beast that they encountered on the planet and had their blood on his blades unlike Robert. The stealth tech could hide them from being seen easily, but scent is one thing which can''t be hidden. But Robert''s worries were unnecessary. Balthazar had already taken precautions against these things. He knew that he had to cover both his scent and sounds. He had enough practice as an assassin to handle both the issues. Pet beasts were a hurdle he had to overcome for many of his targets in his previous life as an assassin. He had a lot of practice in walking silently and he had already covered up his blades and even his suit with moss he found on the way. This was the only reason he was able to sneak up on other beasts. Even with all these precautions, Balthazar was having a hard time with these pack of Boredrevers. The beasts patrolling the residences of his targets were usually always controlled by other security personnel. With his scent covered, he could notice patterns of the men quickly make a path through them, but these pack of beasts were different. The lack of the guiding hand of humans manning them, made it a lot more difficult to find a save way through. Balthazar didn''t even want to capture the collared beast, but just a closer look at it. Yet that wasn''t easy either. He had to spend half an hour just looking for a good chance to finally get near enough to notice that the collar had a signal being emitted from it. It was a collar that was quite commonly used by various organizations even on Asklepian. It was a short-range encrypted signal that would be hard to be detected unless one is too close to the source or looking for that specific kind of signal. It would be usually used to track if a pet is active or drugged by noticing the heart rate. As he realized what it was, he immediately moved away from the beast "The collar on the alpha is human made. These are staying guard over something," said Balthazar as he moved towards Robert. "What? Is it some forbidden area of the Price family? Should I try to call over to them?" asked Robert. "No. If it was a forbidden area. They would have better security and wouldn''t offer us to use this planet for us to use. They probably already knew of this. It is probably a cache from some renegades and decided to let us do some grunt work before they make their preparations," said Balthazar. "How can you be so sure?" "Cause if it was mine, I wouldn''t let someone like Lucius to roam around freely. Forget Lucius, I wouldn''t even allow you or me to move freely without personal supervision from my men." "The judges of the trial..." "Aren''t supervision of the Price family," said Balthazar ending Roberts sentence. "Ok. So, what should we do? There are bound to be more defences." "I am expecting the same. The valley is bound to be their cache. I have experience with circ.u.mventing security. Just follow me and we will go through it easy," said Balthazar. "You have experience circ.u.mventing security?" asked Robert surprised. His cousin become more and more intriguing every other day. He had certain expectations of his cousin due to his service in the armed forces, but his knowledge and skills are a bit out of what he would expect, especially since his cousin''s service was for only a period less than five years. "I had to check security features of my base and office. Didn''t believe in the concept of paranoia. Always, thought that it is best to be prepared. Else, I wouldn''t be alive today," said Balthazar. "What is the plan for the pack?" "Need to lure them away." "Really?! That is quite easy right?" said Robert sarcastically before a frightening thought came in his mind. "I am not going to do it," he immediately spat out before his cousin could even elaborate. "Ya. I don''t plan on doing that. That is a waste of personnel. What we need is meat. Meat enough to entice the majority of them away, so that we can sneak past them," said Balthazar. "That will take quite some time. Apart from the Boredrevers, there only critters and the like here. It would be hard to kill them in large numbers. It is time consuming. So, I got an alternate option which we can try," said Robert. "Please explain." "Poison." "What poison? I thought that we have sent the poisonous items we had on the drone." "No. Listen to me. We have ammo for flares, right?" "Ok. A flare can distract them, but I doubt it will be very effective," said Balthazar. "It actually won''t be much effective, but the powder of the flares is poisonous. We could use that. The same is true in case of the blasting powder in the bullets." "Let us use the ammo of the flares, for now. How many do we need to use for this pack? We also need a way to make them eat it. Can in it be aerosolized?" "No. You need to go on a killing spree again. A few of those ferrets roaming around." "How does that work? Won''t the Boredrevers smell out the poison if we smear it on the bodies of the bait? How potent is it?" "It will take about ten minutes for them to get dizzy and they will be down for a few minutes, but that is enough for us. We need to smear the powder inside their dead bodies for the Boredrevers to not notice and leave the part of spreading poison in the bait to the surgeon," said Robert as he started to make preparations. Balthazar ran away from the valley and began to hunt for bait. Though there were no large beasts, there were a bunch of smaller lizards and critters seen. With his crossbow, he took about twenty minutes to get a decent amount of them back to Robert. Robert quickly made a few incisions in the bodies of the bait to spread the powder inside them and they took the bodies and started to fling them towards the group of beasts. Balthazar took charge of it and he threw them one after the other. Chapter 174 - Exploration - VI "I spread the bait as much as I can so that all of them will get a chance to eat it," said Balthazar returning to the place where Robert was hiding. "But there is a good chance that few will not be down. Leave them to me you need locate and kill the others in the meantime. Once, we kill a large number, even if a few are missed they wouldn''t be too inclined to pursue us." "What? Didn''t you say that you would kill all the ones which are down?" asked Robert. "You will keep the ones which are not down at bay?" "OK. I like your idea," relented Robert and the pair of them waited there observing the pack from a distance. As Robert had told, the first beasts of the packs started to move in a wobbly fashion in ten minutes and began to fall to their side. "It is time," said Balthazar as he pulled out both blade in two hands. "Take out one gun. I will be on the lookout for the active ones, but if any escape me, you best shoot them down." Balthazar quickly made way to the alpha with the collar while making kill strikes against any beast he came across. They were slow due to the poison and provided easy targets. Subduing the alpha of a pack was always a deterrent to the rest of the forces. So, his main target was the alpha. Being the alpha, it had taken the largest bites from the bait they had used and it was one of the first ones to be down. "Don''t kill it. It might trigger an alarm," said Balthazar as he reached for the collar. He actually had no idea what to do but hoped to tie up its limbs and jaws shut. Robert had also followed Balthazar as he killed any "You mean the collar. Cousin, you must know that even the slightest change in it like reduction in the usual heart rate due to poisoning could be transmitted by those collars. If any alarm was there, it would have already been triggered. But most of such alarms usually have someone monitoring as the beasts might sometimes eat something and get notified to check it manually. So, no need to worry about any automated defences being triggered," explained Robert as he put his blade through the eye of the collared beast. "You know an awful lot about the security protocols," said Balthazar. It was his turn to be surprised. He had gathered his knowledge from working as an assassin and armed forces, but Robert had no such background. "I don''t know about security protocols, but I do know the limitations and drawbacks of devices which monitor vitals. Any protocol would be based on the information provided by these things," replied Robert pointing to the collar. "If I know one thing about people who use beasts, it is that they are compensating for the lack of men and tech. Anyways, I can say one thing for sure, if there are any personnel who would be observing the information from the collar, they already were informed when the beast got poisoned. Moreover, based on the ones I have killed till now, they look a bit malnourished. It looks like their caretakers haven''t been here for quite some time." Robert went ahead and started to kill the rest of the beasts which were down. He had to use his gun a couple of times, but most of the few Boredrevers which were not down saw him kill the alpha and were approached Balthazar instead. Balthazar was not even the slightest bit nervous of the Boredrevers. The only reason, he was concerned was the collar and the large numbers. With the poisoning successful, there were only about 15 of them capable of moving and were not at their best either. They were actually easy prey for Balthazar now and they were also afraid of him as most of their brethren had fallen down. In about ten minutes, the pair of them managed to kill enough with their blades and bullets, that the remaining fled away. The first obstacle along their entrance was clear and they could move into the valley. Balthazar took lead as he had the sensory devices on his suit unlocked. There was a slightly barren land with sparse vegetation and the greenery on increased as they looked further. "There are some mines present along the way," said Balthazar as his suit displayed the defences of the place ahead of him. There was a mine field with a number of pressure sensitive mines covered by the grass and other vegetation. Balthazar was surprised that these hadn''t blown up due to the vegetation. He was even more amazed that the suit was able to determine such things as sonic vibration might set off the mines and most of the mines were equipped to be not detected by sensory technologies. His suit also managed to identify the type and their effective radius suggesting him possible paths through. "I have a marked a path through them, but wait a moment," said Balthazar. "These mines are always being upgraded to counter the latest sensory tech. It is best if we check it by some other method too. It is common to put mines with better concealment tech in possible paths through the field or other traps in the way." "What? You want to throw rocks at it?" "We need to find really big rocks and we don''t know the explosion radius of these things. Too much trouble. You can throw rocks throughout the path. We need something that could be moved in a controlled fashion in the direction we specify. Usually, military uses bots for this purpose. We put on meat on them as a few traps might be based on light refraction and check for carbon-based signatures." "I am pretty sure that we don''t have any such methods at our disposal now. Stop bragging off about your knowledge," said Robert. "Ya. I am suggesting something different, cousin. I am suggesting that I will do the job of the bot." "Gross. You want to tie up those Boredrever bodies around you?" "No. I am suggesting we pile them up. Tie them with their guts and to a log which we can use as a handle to move around the area." "Oh! Sorry, your words were kind of misleading." "Misleading, my ass. What do you think I am a barbarian?" asked Balthazar. Doing the thing which his cousin thought was not something that actually disgusted him. In his past life, he had spent some time as an assassin during which he saw stuff far more gruesome and a part of him got used to it. But he had no intention of letting anyone know about the callous man that he used to be. He hid that even when he got the job playing in vita-nova for five years. "Come on. It was just a tiny doubt. Consider it a joke." "Bad joke and a bit far-fetched." "Not really. You are using the intestines of these beasts as a rope. I doubt even hunters and surgeon are would be as used to it as you." "Ok. I had a few experiences that you won''t find in the reports," said Balthazar and didn''t elaborate further. "Now help me with the beasts and you are the one in charge of making it. It will be a useful experience. Trust me," continued Balthazar as he smiled at the expense of his cousin''s nausea. Robert had seen guts and worked on both human and animals before, but not like this. Under his cousin instructions he had to pull out the intestines and use them to tie up the beasts which make him puke a couple of times. Balthazar used this time to get a log which could be used as a handle to move around the pile of meat. "You could have had a few more pieces of wood for weight instead of this gross thing, you know," said Robert feeling queasy to tie up the things. "It is not just useful as a weight. If we just wanted a weight of couple of the beasts would do. I wouldn''t make you tie up more than 5 would I?" asked Balthazar shaking his head. "Meat is heavy but soft when compared to the woods here. Even the bones of these beasts wouldn''t be as hard as they are not native to higher gravity environment. So, in case, an explosion happens due to a hidden mine. These will cushion it effect better with meat." "Wow. You were really thinking this through," said Robert who half-suspected that his cousin was just playing around with him. "Ya. Not really. Just practice. Any padding against explosions should be hard to breach and if broken or affected by the explosion, it shouldn''t get brittle and end up causing more damage. Our suits are quite sturdy, and I can''t see anything tougher here. So, choose to go with something that would dampen it instead. Remember this, based on the situation always find some decent cover when dealing with explosions," said Balthazar explaining to Robert about the precaution to take while one circ.u.mvents explosive devices. "You know this is more like a training session where I am the trainee and you are the trainer than a joint trail for the both of us," remarked Robert. "It is not. But I am sure that I can arrange a better training session if you want. I can even get you to see the training that the military conducts. You can be a personal guest of mine," said Balthazar. "No. No. I am getting tired of an impromptu one. You honestly think, I would ask for a planned training session with you," said Robert rolling his eyes. "Fine. The offer is always open. Might be a good thing to see, once you are an elder. But let us get on with the work at hand," said Balthazar as they formed a temporary makeshift appliance to make sure that the path he could see through his suits sensor was safe. Luckily, there was no issue and they managed to get through the mines. A stretch of vegetation and trees followed after that at the end of which there was a mesh. It had a bunch of creepers growing on it which made it seem like the place wasn''t really under upkeep for some time. "I guess we are near the main place," said Robert as he noticed it at the end of the land. "It looks like that. The system shows no mines in this area at all. I guess we can trust it, since we managed through those," said Balthazar pointing behind him. "But you still want to move that pile of beast ahead of you, just to be sure. Right?" "Well, I am glad that we are of the same opinion cousin. Why don''t you move it this time," said Balthazar handling him over the log to whose opposite end the pile of beasts was tied on. "That''s unnecessary," said Robert. "Your paranoid." "The same way you are paranoid and are fixated on training?" "That is different." "No, it is not. It is the same. That was just a person trying to kill you personally because he didn''t have enough time to make a plan. Else, it would be a bomb or poison or some other tool for that purpose," said Balthazar. "You won''t be able experience this in a safe environment again. It would be hard once you become an elder. Make use of it." "You know, you are awful preachy about this stuff," said Robert as he took the handle and the pair of them went towards the mesh. Balthazar kept mapping the terrain till they reached the mesh, but found nothing different. The mesh was about 7 feet high and spread along the entire width of the valley and went into the two hills on either side. "You sure there is nothing here?" asked Robert. "Check again." "I did already. Let us cross over this thing. There is a gate about 30 feet to the left," said Balthazar as he pulled out a piece of meat from the pile that they were carrying and threw it on the mesh. There was no reaction to the event. "No electricity running through it," said Robert as he pulled up the piece of meat. "It would at least sizzle if a current capable of harming the suit is passing through." Balthazar moved to the place where the gate was supposed to be on the mesh and kicked forward opening the gate. He was about to enter the place when a couple of voices sounded in his suit. "Wait for a minute. We are joining you," said Lucius as he and Richard ran to join them. The pair of them managed to catch up to Balthazar and Richard when they were making poisonous bait for the Boredrevers but stayed a decent distance away from them after activating the stealth feature of their suits. Lucius words had both Robert and Balthazar a bit tensed. Balthazar immediately went to the conclusion that something happened again, or they have found trail of someone else on the planet. "What''s wrong?" asked Balthazar through his comms. "Just stay put. We are coming," replied Richard. Chapter 175 - The cache "So, what happened?" asked Balthazar again as Lucius came to them. "Nothing happened. Your next part would require us to be close to you to be of any significant help in case of a life-threatening danger," replied Lucius. "Why?" asked Robert. He was told that there would be someone looking over him, but they wouldn''t come into contact unless necessary. Lucius himself told them that once he came to rescue them, it would signal the end of the trial when they started. "There is a cache belonging to pirates ahead. It is dangerous and apparently underground. We will accompany you. The trial is still on. There is no change. We will be quite and shadowing you closely, recording the entire thing and will provide these recordings to the judges in our report. If you make any mistake that we deem dangerous. We will take action and that would be the end of your trial," said Richard briefing them on the situation. "That is all?! Nothing else?" "You can decide to end the trial now. I don''t mind taking you back to the ship. It is dangerous," said Richard looking at the pair of them. "Let us try. It isn''t really that dangerous. Else, you wouldn''t be giving us the choice now, right?" asked Balthazar to which Robert also nodded indicating that he also wanted to try it out. "Yeah! We can''t keep a look on you if you end up underground. We need to be there to be able to help you if you require it," said Lucius. "Now get going if you want to continue." Balthazar took lead as he had already found a few doors that would connect to the underground. There were four doors on the ground that blocked their path to the underground cache. Three of them were very large that they could be used for moving products and so on. Such doors would usually be made in a way that they could only be opened from inside, else there is a danger of one being able to barge in with large numbers or use warframes. Due to that there is a chance of them having automated defences and guns with high damage ammunition. So, Balthazar wanted to avoid them. Caches on planets usually have a small amount of maintenance staff and these staff are rotated periodically, else the staff would get bored and go mad staying in an isolated area for a long time. The best way for entering such places would be smaller doors used for change of personnel guarding and monitoring the place. Not only such places, maintenance entrances were always considered one of the best ways to enter an area. These doors are also frequently used by the maintenance staff to get out of the place and stretch their legs. They are usually just cloaked and hidden better than the other entrances and had lower defences. The fourth door they found was beneath a rock and was cloaked by tech to look like a slab of wet ground covered with grass. It wouldn''t be possible to determine it to be an entrance, unless there was a map of someone used some kind of tech to check the structure of the underground. Luckily, his suit was equipped with that kind of technology. As he neared the place, he quickly searched for devices which were used to maintain the illusion over the door and broke them as there was a chance that there would be a trap or two at the door. As the illusion cleared, they found a red colored door made of some metal. It had a handle and a socket to put in a drive which would be used as a passkey. This kind of things were used when there is a chance of the personnel frequently changing or in situations where the person with access would occasionally send someone else on his behalf. "Awesome! We need a passkey for this. I guess we return now?" asked Robert. He could see no way through without a passkey. Both he and Balthazar wore exploratory suits that were meant for exploring new planets and places not secure facilities. So, going through a door with a digital passkey required either explosives or cutting equipment or some tool to unlock the door, none of which they had. "I agree. It is a lost cause," said Balthazar. He only thought about cutting equipment as a solution. Using explosives will have the risk of collapsing the tunnel and a tool for opening the door. Even equipment which could cut through the door would take quite some time which they didn''t have. It was already getting dark again and thus, Balthazar also believed it was a waste of time to pursue it any longer. "Yeah, about this. This was the second reason that we came. There would be more obstacles that were more technical and as we go ahead. It was already discussed with the judges. They are fine with it as long as we make a recording of everything that happens. We will be accompanying you from now on," said Lucius. "Ok. Please," said Balthazar as he moved away from the door giving space for Lucius and Richard to open it. Lucius went to the door and pulled out a small device which he plugged in to the door and a couple of minutes later, a small click sounded as the door opened up. "Keep moving. You have about 7 hours left. Once, the time is up, we retreat quickly," said Lucius. "So, how come we are with a planet like this? Did you guys actually prepare a entire bunker just for this trial? Doesn''t it seem a bit too much?" asked Balthazar. He had been having doubts on it since the start of the trial and he finally got a chance to ask them. He knew that they would have ignored his question if he asked them over the communication device, but now with them being right beside him, it would be hard for them to ignore his inquiries. "I already told you before, didn''t I?" said Lucius. "This is just because we wanted to take extra precautions for the trial and the Price family offered this to us." "So, they had a planet which had a cache with traps readily available for us to take a trial? Or are they just using us to clear out the defences of some rebels or pirates?" asked Balthazar getting to the point directly. The second part of his question was meant to be disingenuous, but it did hit directly on the mark surprising both Lucius and Richard. "Does it really matter?" intervened Robert when none of them expected it. "They are clearly uncomfortable about the thing and don''t want to tell you about it. It wouldn''t change the trial unless the things you ask would provide some information about the obstacles ahead. In which case, they wouldn''t tell us anything anyway as it is against the rules of the trial. So, let us just move through the damn thing." Both Lucius and Richard looked at each other as they heard Robert intervene and solve their problem for him. They didn''t expect his interference, but it did help them to clear up the air. Balthazar also stopped as he realized that Lucius and Richard might not be able to answer him as it would indeed end up providing him information about the trial ahead. "Fine. We will go ahead through the place, but I would like it if you be frank with me after we are done with the whole thing," said Balthazar as he led them through the door. After a few steps he suddenly turned back and asked, "You told that there would be technical problems that we wouldn''t be able to deal with ourselves." "Huh," said Lucius nodding in agreement. "So, give us the information for that we require to handle these difficulties. It is best if we don''t waste time trying to handle issue which we would need your help for. So, it would be nice if you would provide me a list of things," said Balthazar. "Not happening. A part of our agreement with the judges is that we only help you when you ask for it. So, you need to be sure of the problem and that you definitely require our assistance before you ask for it. Else, it would be considered the same as the end of the trial," said Lucius. "Damn," said Balthazar as he continued along the passage. It went for a few hundred metres before they first saw a couple of doors on the passage. The good thing was that they had clear markers indicating the direction of the various rooms. One of them indicated that it was a security station and the other indicated to be a path to warehouse, armory and general quarters. "Let us get to the security station, first. Arm yourselves," said Balthazar as took the gun in one hand and a blade in the other. The door to the security station was already open and ajar. As they entered, they saw that there was just a dead man on the floor. He had his tongue out and had his hands on his chest as he lay sprawled on the floor. Behind him there was a huge console and a number of screens which are displaying the picture outside and the also the inside of the cache. "Keep an eye ahead," said Balthazar as he moved to check the man on the floor. He quickly realized that the man was suffocated to death due to lack of breathable air. Moreover, the body looked like it was just a few days old. He was glad that he was in a combat suit and the smell of the body didn''t reach him. He was sure that the entire place would be stinking of dead and rotting bodies. "This is a recent operation, a few days old," he said to Robert. "The support was pumped with a mild agent that would put them in a trance like state while suffocating them. It wouldn''t let them realize that the life support system is misbehaving till it was too late," he explained to his cousin. This was a good way to take down a small contingent or to kill everyone in a ship with minimum effort. There would be detection systems and methods to prevent these things. Even wearing a combat suit or decent breathing apparatus would allow one to survive in such situations, but it was a method that was being continuously researched on and has frequent application. Especially due to the current state of war with the apes. A single man would be able to take down an entire battalion with such a method. "So, we are just clearing up the place for the Price family," said Balthazar as he noticed them. He went to the console and began to make a note of all the places that were being monitored. The warehouse, armory and even living quarters were partially being monitored from here. This was common in a pirate cache as pirates tend to steal from the warehouse and armory. So, they needed maintain tight control. The video was being streamed on the screens, but they weren''t able to change the view of the cameras. He checked the systems for a few seconds and then realized that it required a password similar to the gate through which they entered. "Need a passkey similar to the entrance to use the terminal. I guess you can help with this," said Balthazar looking at Lucius. Lucius calmly walked over to the console and unlocked the place so that they would get control over the monitoring system of the bunker. Through the security console, Balthazar quickly checked the map of the place and the various locations to confirm if there were any survivors. "Is there a chance for any of them to be still alive?" asked Robert. He was frightened by the dead body of the man. It was one thing to see a few beasts dying, but another to see a man dead in front of him. He had eaten beasts for food for a long time and was accustomed to it, but a dead man put a lot an unknown dread in his heart. "No. If there were any they would have surrendered by now," said Balthazar as he checked the various screens. He could see a lot of dead bodies in the screens. It was clear to him that the entire place was killed quickly by the same method as the one in the room was killed. "Most of the ones in the place are dead. If anyone managed to survive by getting into a combat suit or some other method to breathe air, the person would have surrendered by now. Even a mentally retarded person would announce himself in a attempt to garner the mercy of the assailants. Looking by the number of dead bodies, the attempt to kill all these men was done quite covertly and any survivor would want to escape death by providing information or helping the assailants, especially if it were pirates," he continued as he pointed at the screens. Robert followed him and saw that there were a lot of dead men visible from the various camera angles which Balthazar put on the screen. "I got the schematics of the place and the traps too. This isn''t the main security centre of the place. It is just to monitor the people using the maintenance personnel and monitor the interior of the place. That one is beside the armory. We can directly disable the defenses through the main security room not from the point, but we can get to the place with the information from this place by avoiding them. Once, we are there, the entire place will be under our authority," explained Balthazar. Chapter 176 - The cache - II With the information about the traps and the map in his hand, Balthazar was very confident in getting control over the entire place quickly. He wasn''t concerned much about there being automated defenses that would activate if he failed to use proper passkey or protocols. Automated defenses that could harm them wouldn''t be inside the control room as those would definitely cause damage to the consoles and apparatus there. Any defense automatons and robots would also be restricted entry due to the same reason. There would probably be alarms signalling the place that there is an intrusion, which they didn''t need to care about as the entire place is devoid of life except for them. He was much less concerned of any triggers to collapse the place. Being a pirate cache, they would not put in such an extreme measure. Such measures are usually only used for intelligence hubs where sensitive information or research is done. Such a measure for a cache which has weapons and sh.i.p.s is a complete waste. These could be recovered by them even if someone manages to infiltrate the place. The only thing he needed to do was to make sure that this is indeed such a place and the map he got from the security console convinced him of that. He shared the map and other details with the rest of them, even Lucius and Richard. He can''t have them accidentally triggering a trap or something. Though all the personnel in the place are dead, the traps were already activated. All hidden bases and caches like this one tend to have a periodic timer in which one of the personnel need to put in a password. Without that, the traps in the place have been activated. "Go through the detail properly," said Balthazar as he sent them to the others. "We will move in 10 minutes. Any doubts, you ask me. This is a very risky thing," continued looking at Robert. "Why are you looking at me for that?" "Because you don''t have experience with this kind of thing. Also make sure to go through them thoroughly. I also sent you the schematics of the entire place. You can go through it later. It will be useful for you later. You will be asked to supervise all such things," explained Balthazar. "I am getting a lot of homework after this trial, right?" asked Robert rolling his eyes at his cousin. "Ya. You are. I also have some suggested reading for you to go through. You need to know a few things which are necessary for you as an elder. You need a proper training session for all this, apart from the usual fighting training," said Richard. "Walter hadn''t taught you many things." "What?" "Yes. You need to know learn quite a few things," said Richard in a strict tone. "Walter also suggested that I teach you a few things about security and others. I test you and found that you can maintain security of a place but you still lack basic understanding of different kind of men, which is very essential as it is the men that finally maintain and execute any implementation you have in mind," added Richard. "Fine. I already was thinking that it was best to have a few training sessions with him anyway. It is all for the best," said Robert as he sat down and began to browse through the contents of the information sent to him by his cousin. "How do you avoid floor sensors and the like. We can''t float in the air. It is ridiculous to think of getting through them," said Robert as he began to browse through the details of the traps. There were pressure sensors on the floor at various points which triggered gunfire and alarms. Apart from that there were sensors on the walls and IR sensors and other traps. Looking at the diagrams on the hud of his suit, he felt that they needed to be an acrobat to avoid triggering these things. "Calm down. There are only one sensor cl.u.s.ter which is hard. They require a bit of effort from us. The rest can be avoided simply," said Balthazar as he went to the dead man on the floor and searched him pulling out a key card from his pocket. "This would help us. The security covering the maintenance entrance would usually have access passes like these. A bit of configuration at the console would allow us to use it to reset the sensors. Using this we will have gap of a few seconds to move through specific areas without any worry," said Balthazar showing different areas and corresponding spots where the key card could be used on the monitor. "Keep these points in mind and follow me. I will inform you of the amount of time we have at each point. It is going to be an easy trip except for that one place. It is just before the security centre of the whole cache. I will take lead and move alone to cross that places. This cl.u.s.ter can''t be completely disabled and need quick movements while evading laser sensor which keep moving," continued Balthazar. "Isn''t that risky?" asked Richard instead. "You might get seriously injured if it triggers some kind of gunfire. You will be considered to fail the trial in that case. We can still consider that you passed if we go back now." "Oh! Come on. You already told that it wouldn''t be a failure but you take us back to the ship. The Price family wanted us to clear the area and let us play with cache. They didn''t even check the area properly and wanted to make use of us. I would like to get a few things from here if possible," said Balthazar with a scheming glint in his eyes. "You have something against the Price family?" asked Richard. He was already a bit concerned about this and wanted to make sure that it wouldn''t become an issue to Robert if he had Balthazar represent him in the contest for the elder position. "Nah. I got nothing against them. I only had a decent conversation with two members. One is Marcus Price and the other is Evelyn and among the two of them, I have a clear idea who would have thought of using our trial for this and the authority and power to make it happen," replied Balthazar. "It can be considered a test or a lesson. Either way, I am going to make sure that the concerned person is convinced of my capabilities." "Fine. I will stay behind with Robert for the last situation. Lucius will follow you," said Richard shaking his head as he realized that he wouldn''t be able to curb Balthazar''s spirit or mediate between him and Evelyn. "That is totally unnecessary. All three of you can join me once I disable the security systems," said Balthazar smiling. He had plans on getting some profits and find out about the actual affiliation of this place, away from the prying eyes of the Lucius and Richard. The judges also would monitor the feed from their suits. So, he would have preferred if Lucius didn''t follow him till, he disabled the security. "Why? Do you think that this old man wouldn''t be able to evade the sensors which you can cross?" asked Lucius in a gnarly tone which indicated his displeasure. "Nope. Nothing like that. Please, keep an eye on me," said Balthazar as he made a mental note not to accidentally anger the old people around him. He had already pissed of Evelyn Price which was clearly evident from the present circ.u.mstances and he really didn''t want to add more people to that list. "Get moving," said Lucius and Balthazar quickly plugged in the key card into the console to make the required configurations to it. Since, he had worked as an assassin in his past life, he had a very good grasp over the various security mechanisms that are currently used and also for the next two years. Even after he left his job as an assassin, he had been involved in the security of Rudra''s workshop and due to that he kept his knowledge up to date on various security protocols and improvements through the dark net. With a properly configured key card which was configured with maintenance capabilities of the security systems, he had the ability to reset the sensors in various places. Security systems would also need to be frequently tested and the protocols that would be put by organizations for this purpose was being used by Balthazar currently to circ.u.mvent those security protocols. As the got out of the security station, they had to go through the next door that led to the actual interior of the cache. This door was also slightly ajar and opened. Balthazar had already expected this. He had observed a lot of bodies in the screen at the security station and it looked like a number of the dead men realized their situation as they were about to die and started to panic and run. So, there was a high chance of several doors being open and a few traps already being sprung. They found another dead body as soon as they opened the door. They moved through the tunnel which was well lit. There was a large dining hall at the end of the tunnel. There were other doors that diverged from it. Balthazar held up a hand after he opened the door preventing them from entering the tunnel. "What happened?" asked Robert. "Look at the bodies," said Balthazar pointing at them in the tunnel. "Everyone has an gun or some arm. So, careful where you step. The tunnel is 30 meters. You got half-a-minute to cross. So, run. I am going to swipe the card here and enter a code, that would start a timer," explained Balthazar pointing to a panel by the door. "OK," said Robert. Balthazar looked at Lucius and Richard who nodded in confirmation before swiping the card at the panel and typing in a reset code. They quickly made their way through the cl.u.s.ter of dead bodies and reached the other end where Balthazar used another code at the security panel there to get in. They were in a large dining hall with a number of tables and chairs thrown all over. It was like a tavern frequented by unruly people with a lot of stains and a number of tables were broken. The only difference was that such taverns tend to be lively while this one had dead men in it. "Blergh!" came a sound from the side as Robert felt like vomiting. He saw the scene from the monitor before, but a closer look had caused his digestive system to fail. "You''re kidding?!" said Richard "That might be a mark against you," joked Balthazar. Robert decided to take a chair and sit down to rest. "Don''t stray too far from the door. There are some sensors in this place too and looking at the scene it is clear that some of them were already activated by the bodies. I already have the information and marked a few safe areas. We just need to use that to get to the security room. Stay in those areas only," said Balthazar as he saw his cousin reaching for a chair. Robert didn''t respond and was still a bit out of it. Balthazar called for him a couple more times, but his cousin was still stuck in the same state. So, Balthazar quickly took a chair and pulled his cousin into it. "You all right?" he asked shaking his cousin who nodded in response. "Stay here. I will take care of the rest," said Balthazar. It was clear that his cousin is having problems with the dead men all over the place. It was probably his first time looking at so many dead men at a time killed like that. He knew that Robert would have seen a dead body or two as a surgeon, but those bodies were usually in hospital or mortuary where everything was kept clean. It was quite different from the site of an extermination like this one where the dead could be seen in positions where they are still trying to escape and had expressions of fear all over their faces. "I can," said Robert in a feeble tone. "No, you''re not," sighed Balthazar as he heard his cousin respond in a feeble tone. "The first time is hard. People could find it a lot harder to be at peace after watching such a thing. And that is common even among the military, even when they see other human and apes who have tried to kill them just moments before their death." "Leave this to me. Stay here with Richard. I won''t take long," said Balthazar to his cousin and then looked at Richard. "He might need some help. Let me go ahead with Lucius. If he doesn''t mind take him back to the ship, else let him remain. Don''t force anything. It is best if he comes to the decision on his own," he told Richard alone after muting the others. Richard nodded before asking Balthazar, "Are you all right?" "I am fine. I have seen worse happen to my own men. This really doesn''t bother me much," he said while he moved on ahead. Balthazar considered this to be the best option currently. It would be easier for him if he didn''t need to explain things to his cousin at each point. He had better confidence in Lucius and knew that Lucius will be able to evade all sensors even without his own help. The fact that Lucius is guarding them implied that he had already had enough tech on him to do that without any issue. The security centre was the farthest located room from the rest of the cache as it was required for it to be isolated so that no one would be able to infiltrate it. They had to go through three more tunnels after resetting the security measures temporarily from the panels, before they finally reached the sensor cl.u.s.ter which was considered hard. This one couldn''t be reset completely in the same way as the others as this led directly to the door of the security centre. Chapter 177 - The cache - III "What did he tell you?" asked Robert a couple of minutes after Balthazar and Lucius went ahead. "It was nothing. He just asked me to look after you and take you back to the shop if you wanted to. He was a bit concerned about you," said Richard. "I guess you are a bit disappointed by me," said Robert. "A surgeon who finds it hard to stand a few dead bodies. Most people would laugh at that." "Any who laugh at that would be fools or psychopaths. Don''t consider your cousin as a standard. He had a different life and perspective from a younger age. In fact, he is a bit abnormal for being able to bear it all with such ease. Even military men at such age would find it hard to be unaffected by such sights, especially men of his age," said Richard. "Ya. Bel told the same thing, but I still don''t understand why I would be so nauseated by it, when I have seen dead bodies before," said Robert. "It is not the dead bodies that affect you as much as the fact that they were killed intentionally. In your work, the dead bodies you see are mostly accidents or natural maladies with rarely such cases. It is probably the number of people that were wantonly killed that your morals find it hard to accept," guessed Richard. "It is expected. You have lived most of your life as a civilian and even elders of the council would rarely see such situations." "Maybe, I have always only thought of saving people and not hurting them as a doctor. This is definitely hard for me to accept. Is my cousin really cool with killing so many innocents?" "Innocent?!" asked Richard almost laughing. "Ok! They are maybe not innocent, but they are still humans. I still find it hard to accept it. They could have probably saved them by knocking them out or other options were available right?" "You are not thinking right. With the pico tech in your bodies most knock out drugs would be easily expelled in a few minutes and would be temporary. Especially for outfits like these where there is a good chance, they wouldn''t use the standard ones provided by the alliance. These guys would probably have a faster recovery. An agent which kills is the best bet that one could have," said Richard with a smile. "Ok. So, they technically needed it, but don''t you think that it is morally wrong at the very least?" asked Robert. "Killing is morally wrong. Very much so, in the case where you don''t have a personal grievance with the murdered. It haunts many a man and people who kill easy tend to disgust and are hated by quite a few because of that. Forget killing other men, quite a few vegetarians and vegans don''t even support killing other animals and beasts and there are definitely a few haters though a very little amount. The numbers are definitely large considering people who kill other people," said Richard. "But we still do it. It is necessary for the society. Someone has to curb the anti-social elements. Individual morality kind of takes a back seat sometimes during such times, but it is necessary. You need to understand that. Society takes precedence, else there wouldn''t be bounties on people indicating dead or alive, would they?" "I guess," said Robert half-heartedly. "Kid you are worried unnecessarily. These guys are pirates who kill and plunder on the innocent. They are scourge who attack the ones trying to get to new places and unsecured planet. Killing them could be considered the same as using pesticide in a farm. Though it might sound a bit callous, it is the way these people are. I hope you won''t think much about it," said Richard. "Fine. Give me a few more minutes I will be ready to follow Balthazar," said Robert. "And how do you propose to do that without being able to reset the security panel," said Richard. "Oh! Then, we wait in this place. Might as well remove the helmet and clean up my vomit," said Robert. "I wouldn''t recommend it." "I have already checked for the air composition at the security station using my suit and had it running since we entered this hall. There are not unknown particles or harmful chemicals that were observed. It is fine," said Robert. "Oh. I know that there were no harmful substances. It was pumped out after the attack. They wouldn''t leave it inside as it would be harmful for the ones that get into the place, but that gas isn''t what I am warning you against doctor," said Richard with a smile, to which Robert just gave a confused look. "The rotting bodies smell. They have been here for a week. It might be worse than that of a mortuary. Take my word for it. The smell of the vomit is better than what you would find in the room. You can have some fresh air after this," said Richard shaking his head. "I would suggest you go and take a part time job as a medical investigator at a local police precinct or something. Get a hold of forensics and other sciences. Need to get some detective work or at least learn to identify some things. You need to get expand your horizons." "Yeah, got a lot of suggestions these past few hours. I will take them into consideration," said Robert in a tired tone. He had wanted to be an elder of the family council and was preparing to win the position for quite some time now, but never truly realized that being a successful elder entailed a lot more than he expected. He is slowly realizing that it would take a lot of effort and learning from him to do that. In the meantime, Balthazar had already reached the pass with last cl.u.s.ter of sensors and traps along with Lucius. He could reset the pressure sensors on the floor, but a moving array of laser beam sensors couldn''t be reset which was the main problem. These could only be reset by a personnel who was inside the main security centre. Sadly, he was also dead. "One needs to scan the moving beams and decide how to evade and escape them on the spot," said Balthazar looking at Lucius. "So, how do we suggest we do this. Do I go first, or do you want to me to take the first turn cause I am sure it will be much more hard if the both of us attempt it at the same time." "We can both do it at the same time. Don''t worry about me," said Lucius. "You might be confident, but I am not. I might accidentally bump into you and that is not something I would want to risk on. You can go on ahead and just don''t reset the security systems," suggested Balthazar. "It is not a bad idea, right?" "Fine," said Lucius as he put out his hand. "I need the card for resetting the pressure sensors. Also, can''t open the door of the security centre without it. " "How would I do it after you cross it?" asked Balthazar. "I also need the card for resetting the pressure sensors." "I will reset them from inside the security centre for those thirty seconds which the card that you configured works for," said Lucius. "I can even disable them entirely. It isn''t a problem, but I won''t be disabling the moving array." "More than what I would bargain for," said Balthazar as he handed over the card to Lucius who immediately used it to reset the pressure sensors and started to go through the pass with relative ease. He was like an actual acrobat and used even his knife by driving it into the wall and using it as a support a couple of times. He took less than 10 seconds to cross a path of over 40 metres which was about a third of the time that Balthazar had in his mind. Even at the height of his career as an assassin, he was never that agile and precise. "You a professional acrobat or something?" asked Balthazar over the comms. "Your turn," replied Lucius. "The pressure sensors on the floor and walls are disabled." "Wait a minute. Let me observe these things for some time. I am not as talented as you." "These things don''t follow a pattern kid, it is all random." "I know that. Just let me get a handle of the speed at which they are moving." "You didn''t check their specs at the security station." "I did. Just need to see it in person. I don''t have any acrobatic training or the like. Can''t really realize the numbers specified there to correlate with my motor skills. Need to actually watch to get a better idea of it," replied Balthazar. "You sound like an amateur." "Of course, you are the professional not me," said Balthazar as he kept observing the beams moving around the pass. It wasn''t actually that hard for him. He had gone through such situations before, but he definitely couldn''t perform as well as Lucius. Even if he could, he wouldn''t do so as that would create a lot more doubts in the minds of Lucius and others. "You do have experience with overriding security systems and have quite a good understanding of them. Hard to learn such skill without professional training and practice," said Lucius. "Damn! He asked about it directly," thought Balthazar as he faltered for a couple of seconds thinking of an appropriate answer. "I do have experience with that. Just never with acrobatics. I always handled such problems with tech. It is not like I approach a pirate cache or an enemy bunker or stronghold without gathering information or tools. So, this thing would be a nightmare for even the best of the professionals. No professional thief or infiltrator would try to circ.u.mvent security without the tech and information," replied Balthazar in an angry tone. "Fine. Take your time," said Lucius as he pushed off a dead man from a chair in the security centre and began to check the details about the place. He quickly realized the picture among the list of the men that were stationed there. "Henshin Sakamoto! This idiot works for Jeremy Glades," thought Lucius as he realized the man who commands the men at the bunker. Jeremy Glades was a underworld dealer of arms and different kind of equipment. Industrial, research, exploratory any kind of equipment could be requested from the guy. He was one of the well-known traffickers who the alliance knew but couldn''t find for a long time. The man was considered a ghost. Henshin was a low-level member of Jeremy''s unit but Lucius knew him as he had once tried to kill the guy 10 years ago. "This is a good lead against those underworld guys. Let me look more into the inventory and other things at this place. I doubt Evelyn knew about this and thought this to a random cache set up by some new player. She would never let us use one of Glade''s places," thought Lucius. Currently, he didn''t care much about the trial and wanted to use the trial as an excuse to explore the entire place and get the logs of the inventory and other administrative logs. Sadly, he didn''t know that Henshin had separated from Jeremy''s organization 2 years ago and that Evelyn already knew of it and she didn''t care much about him. His priorities and jobs changed over the years and he didn''t keep much track of the latest information about various underworld organizations and structures like he used to. As Lucius was checking these details, Balthazar finally had observed enough and decided to attempt crossing the array sensors. Though it was a moving group of beam sensors which moved randomly, he could guess their trajectories and make proper movements to evade them. With his experience, it wasn''t very hard for him and he managed to get into the security centre without any hitches. "What are you looking at?" asked Balthazar. "Just looking at some files," replied Lucius. There were a number of monitors in the security centre similar to the outer security station and he had them displaying data of the items in the place and the people working there. "You know who they are?" asked Balthazar. "Know one of them from a long time. You can take over," said Lucius leaving the chair. Balthazar quickly disabled all the security features of the place and announced through the mike that they could move freely, so that Robert and Richard could come back. He proceeded towards the warehouse area and the armory after granting himself access to all the places. He first visited the warehouse and found a lot of food stored in the place. There was also equipment meant for drilling and construction stored there. He didn''t care about any of them. Their next stop was the armory which they wanted to look at. There were a lot of weapons and even warframes and shuttles placed in the armory, which surprised Balthazar. It was one thing to smuggle equipment and small arms but warframes and the like are strictly regulated. Only the men at the top of the underworld could do something like that and they don''t allow others to do it. So, he began to worry that it might get Robert into unnecessary trouble. "Let us get out of this place," said Balthazar as soon as he saw the warframes. Though the models were not the latest ones, these were currently under strict regulations as the only use they could have outside the border areas is as a terrorist weapon. He turned to Richard and Lucius. "You can check out anything else you want. I am done," he continued. "Why?" "I am not going to find anything useful here that I could take. These are all very old ones. Don''t want to even bother about it," said Balthazar. "And I would like to have a good meal and a bath. Don''t you feel the same?" The talk about meal and bath immediately put all other thoughts out of Roberts mind. He had been bearing the stench of his own vomit for quite some time and he really wanted to get out and have a decent food too. So, the pair of them went back to the ship while Lucius told that he would remain behind. Chapter 178 - Back to the ship Richard also noticed the warframes and realized that it is best that they don''t stay there for a longer duration. He understood the restrictions of the alliance and the affair of the underworld quite well. If the owners of that place think that Robert was investigating them, they wouldn''t think twice of putting a bounty on his head. So, he hurriedly took them out and called for Salazar to get his shuttle to pick them up. "Hi! Salazar," greeted Balthazar. "Were you monitoring us from the sky all this time?" "Of course, we don''t know much about this planet. It would be stupid to let you two kids explore the place with proper supervision. By the way, you guys did far better than I expected. I guess you cleared the trial," replied Salazar. "Do you know why they changed the location of the trial suddenly?" asked Balthazar in a whisper after he came closer to Salazar. "It was nothing. Actually, the elder council was responsible for this change. It had nothing to do with other movements of the table of Ouroboros. The only thing that they had added was me and Lucius as your security," answered Salazar frankly. "Come on, tell me the truth," persisted Balthazar as he found it hard to believe. "Really! This was apparently prepared yesterday, even before the incident happened. Lucius and I are here due to the incident. We have no clue about what happened. Only Winston and other guys at the top have been informed of the truth. The rest are all just following instructions given to them. With the betrayal of Max, they are being very cautious about leak of information," explained Salazar as he drove the shuttle back to the main ship. Once, they got onto the ship, they quickly changed out of their combat suits and decided to have a bath and a meal. After a meal, they were called to meet the evaluators along with Lucius and Richard to be informed of their performance. The three of them had already had a brief look at the recordings from Lucius and Richard. Only one of the evaluators remained while the other two left. "Hello, my name is Harek. I am the chief evaluator of your trial," said the old evaluator with his hands behind his back. "Hello, Mr Harek" "Nice to meet you, Mr. Harek." "We have gone through the tapes provided by your guardians already and have decent idea of the things that you went through this trial. Let me begin by informing you that this trial is not only a new experience for you but also for us. It is quite different from the usual trials undergone by the members of the family when they come of age. So, we had reduced the functionality of your suits, so that you won''t get too far ahead." "So, the suits aren''t latest ones as we were told?" asked Robert in surprise. "Well. They are made from the latest technical advances. They are sturdier than others, but as you later realized in the trial, we have restricted the tech support. Usually the combat suits made for exploratory purposes have much more features and with all the features of your suit enabled, you wouldn''t need the help of your guardians to enter the smuggler''s cache," explained Harek. "We could have done better and gotten better grades if you hadn''t restricted us," grumbled Robert as he began to think that the elder council had intentionally done this to hamper their performance in the trial. "Haha, you probably think that we were dispatched here mainly due to some elders in the council who are against you, right? Even a majority can''t change the usual trial without a good reason. The advances in tech and the recent war efforts have changed a lot of things and there have been talks of improving the nature of the trial to realize the shortcomings of the participants better and help improve them. The change in venue wasn''t objected by the patriarch for the same reason and he had used this to implement his own plans to change the trial patterns," explained Harek. "So, there was no intentional " "None whatsoever, Master Robert. The three of us are known to be very strict but that is all there is to it. We don''t let politics influence our decisions. It is a matter of our reputation and responsibility. Please, stop suggesting that. It is beneath us," said Harek in a serious tone. He went back to the table took a few sheets of paper and walked to them. Having a look at these sheets one could easily see that the three evaluators were actually trying to create a new system of trials for the younger generation. "The pair of you have managed to successfully finish your trial. Young masters, Balthazar and Robert are to be considered as a.d.u.l.ts by the elder council from now on. This trial is different from the previous ones due to unexpected circ.u.mstances. So, we will need further ponder over your performance to properly grade it. We also decided to suggest some training and learning work to the participants of the trial based on the things that we had observed today and also to increase the difficulty of the trial and put it in stages to better realize the potential of the other participants after this. So, even though you have been cleared we will need to create a proper structure and intend to grade you based on it," said the evaluator. "If you want a grade immediately, we can provide you a temporary one right now for the purpose of the competition for elders. Young master, Robert, you have shown quite a good amount of knowledge of the nature and various species as expected of you but are inefficient in using this knowledge for practical purposes. We recommend you have some experience and training to compensate for that. Based on the previous grades that we have given to other young men of the family, you can be considered above average and I am willing to recommend you for position of elder if you take care to learn the things you lack. I will provide you a list of items for that," said Harek. "Mr. Balthazar. You have been quite cautious and seem to have experienced some similar situations before this. That makes your performance much better than the others," he started. Even if Harek didn''t specifically point to Robert, it was clear to all that Balthazar''s evaluation was better than Robert''s as he was the only other participant of the trial. "You have good capabilities in being a leader, basic understanding of few groups and security constraints involved, decent physical skills for someone your age, but could still get to know more if you wish to pursue a life similar to that of Walter, probably learn to get through obstacles without use of technology so much. Sometimes the technology which you depend on so much might fail badly," he said looking at the sheet in front of him. "Nevertheless, you are among the best of all young men and women that I have evaluated in my life. Frankly, I think we need a better trial to get to know your limitations and probably need to conduct these trials in stages separated by some time," he continued. "You are being given the topmost grade of having surpassed our best expectations for the present youth. I would recommend you take the post of the elder that has recently freed up, if not for the fact that you have a successful career in the armed forces." He put the papers in his pocket. "That is all that I am willing to inform you now. You will be given your proper evaluations along with your pitfalls and strengths and suggested methods to improve yourselves in a few days. We plan to create the new system proper and then include your results in the manner so that the new system will not be delayed. I hope you are fine with it?" asked Harek to which the pair nodded as they didn''t really care much about it at that time. Done with the trial, the pair of them were much more relaxed as they had successfully made the first step in getting a proper say in the works of the elder council. Robert considered it important for getting power in the family and Balthazar wanted to have a source of information in as many places as possible. He already started thinking about contacting the underworld acquaintances that he had in his past life as he they walked back to their room. "I am glad that it all went well. With him having already mention that I passed with a performance better than the average, the first step towards a seat at the elder council is successfully taken," said Robert as he lay down on a sofa. "I will contact Elias about the progress of the other thing. I was informed by Richard about your deal with Elias when you were bathing. I will keep a close eye on it from now on." "Thanks, that would be very helpful," said Balthazar. It would be better for him if his cousin took some of those responsibilities from him. He didn''t want to completely trust Elias with it, and he believed that it would be better if Robert participates in it and gets a decent understanding of the usage of warframes too. With the war with the apes which he knew was only going to intensify, it is best if his cousin knew how to use some tools of war. He didn''t have much trouble with his sister as she is already researching on warframes and she would probably know to use it enough to at least escape an attack using it. "Fine, you keep an eye on that. Also, do you know how to operate a warframe?" "I am surgeon at Asklepian. So, no," replied Robert. "Well, it is not necessary, but it is good to get a good handle on the basics. It is an extra skill that will definitely be useful if you have your own territory later as an elder," suggested Balthazar as he put on the somnium headgear. He couldn''t do much about other things, but he could play the game while on the ship. He found himself in the White Heart City. He quickly contacted Rudra and the other for the latest information in the game. He came to know that the team of Blazing fury managed to get the first clear for the hell mode of the Bungar''s Keep without him. It was a good thing for the team. A team can''t have a sense of dependency on a single person for it to flourish and such a feeling would arise, if the team would only get achievements when led by the single person. It is fine if he was going to allocate all his time for the game, but that wasn''t possible either. Apart from that, a good amount of the players had now reached level 15 and the top few are already at level 16 including Merlin and few others from his team. As expected, he was losing his level advantage and he needed to do something quick if he intended to maintain that advantage. He came to know that Merlin''s group managed to get another dark gold forging design for the first clear of the hell mode but was also informed that they have already sold the designs through the Crimson Realm shop auction already. So, he headed to the shop to see if he can get anything from the shop or even Hammer so that he could use it get experience faster. Trade profession players find it hard to increase levels in the game, but Balthazar had the experience of his past life which made it much easier to gain experience and increase levels through forging and engineering. "Hi Bel," greeted Lizzie as he got into the Crimson Realm Store. "Hi Lizzie," responded Balthazar. "Where are Slaine and others? I am unable to contact them." "Oh! You haven''t heard. Rudra and Slaine were talking with their previous employer. He is claiming the ownership of Crimson Realm name and called for a meeting with them," said Lizzie. "Jack?! Didn''t he already agree to leave you guys alone. What is his problem?" he thought out aloud. "Yes, we did make the severance pay and Rudra was always the guild leader in other games, but Jack is claiming ownership of the guild as he had been providing all the monetary support and funds for the team. He brought lawyers and stuff. Rudra also called someone from his family to help with it and they are having a virtual meet," said Lizzie. "You know the details of the meeting?" he asked her. "Yes, I was also sent the invite, but Rudra insisted that he and Slaine along with his lawyers are enough to represent the guild. They are frequently on some quest or something, but I am always at the shop. So, they didn''t want to let him use my absence to spread any kind of rumors or gossip about the guild losing its name. That would be a big mark against the reputation," explained Lizzie as she forwarded him the mail invite to the meeting. "Ok! Let me go talk. I don''t understand how that idiot thought of only talking to Rudra and others behind my back when I am the majority shareholder having 50% of the shares," said Balthazar with a creepy smile as he logged out of the game to get into the virtual meeting. Chapter 179 - Request He quickly used the link to enter the virtual room where he found Jack, Rudra, Slaine and a few others talking to one another in loud voices. "I guess the discussion isn''t going on amicably," said Balthazar sarcastically in a very loud voice getting the attention of all the attendants of the meeting. "Who are you? What are you doing here? I thought this place was supposed to be secure and no random person could enter the place. This is as bad as the courthouse," started rambling a person beside Jack dressed as a lawyer while Jack himself had a horrified expression on his face. "Hi Jack! How are you doing," greeted Balthazar smiling widely creeping out his cousin. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to be on your trial for at least 5 more hours," said Jacking pointing at Balthazar. He was very afraid to do this as his family wouldn''t support his actions. Any conflicts were to be resolved within the family and with Balthazar who currently owned the guild, his family would not support him for inviting trouble to the family business from outside. This is common irrespective of how small a business might be. Moreover, Balthazar has already accepted and won his challenge about the cyber cafe related business. So, Balthazar could also twist it as Jack undermining the authority of the people who presided over that challenge, especially Arthur. This caused a feeling of panic in Jack as soon as he saw his cousin enter the virtual room. He had waited till Balthazar exited the game and only then sent the invites and tried to finish it up before Balthazar returned. He knew that the trial would take a minimum of 24 hours time to complete. But soon, he realized that his cousin did exit the trial before the time of 24 hours was up. He himself took about 40 hours to complete his own trial satisfactorily. He had realized that since his cousin had exited, before the trial minimum time of 24 hours was up, there was a high chance that he had failed it. "I got out of it a bit quickly and luckily heard that you were trying to do something stupid," said Balthazar. "How come you decide to talk about the guild matters without inviting the owner?" "Got out a bit quickly?" sneered Jack surprising Balthazar. He didn''t know the reason for the sudden change in Jack''s expression. "More like you failed the quest," continued Jack. "I didn''t fail the trial," replied Balthazar looking at him in confusion. "You passed within a day? No one did that ever before. The best was 28 hours," said Jack making Balthazar realize a few things. It was true that Harek informed them that their trial was different. Moreover, they weren''t given any information of the trials of the people before them. Their own trial was fixed to end by 24 hours, but it probably couldn''t have been the same of the trials that happened before. "You do know how records are made don''t you?" asked Balthazar as he realized the reason for his cousin''s confidence. "Anyway, if you want to have any claim to the name, you contact me. I am the one that decided to continue to use the name Crimson Realm. If you have any issues, let us deal it as we decide all family conflicts. Like we decided the last one. Moreover, I believe this comes under purview of the bet of that challenge as the guild is also a part of the business of my workshop," continued Balthazar. Jack didn''t know if Balthazar really passed the trial or not but looking at his confident speech, he wasn''t sure what to do. His cousin also indicated that the guild is a part of his workshop which frightened him more. He already knew Arthur was on Balthazar''s side and he didn''t want to provoke him. Balthazar also looked very angry. Balthazar was actually livid that his cousin would use the time that he wasn''t present to pressure his friends. "I. I can, can," faltered Jack unable to come up with a reasonable explanation. He didn''t want to anger Balthazar and hoped that his cousin would leave him a way out but looking at the livid expression on Balthazar he didn''t feel very hopeful. Balthazar started walking towards him in the room. A couple of people came in the way, but Balthazar simply pushed them off their feet to the ground. He caught his cousin by his neck and pushed him against the wall of the room. "Are you the administrator of the room?" he asked in a whisper. "Huh?!" expressed Jack before nodding. "The only one? No one else has administrative privileges." "Yes." "OK. Who put you up to this?" he continued with his questioning. "I know you are a bit greedy, but you aren''t a stupid one. Someone offered you something in return for your help. Who was it?" "It is the guild leader of the Divine Swords. He offered me a post as a guild leader if I manage to get this done," said Jack. He didn''t want Balthazar to take this to Arthur. So, he immediately gave up any thoughts of hiding information and gave up the name of the person who put him up to it. "Divine Swords? If you are lying you will regret it badly," said Balthazar shaking his cousin. "Yes. I am not lying. I don''t want you to inform Arthur. It would be nice if we could put an end to this between us and don''t involve anyone else," requested Jack. Balthazar felt that his cousin wasn''t lying, and he didn''t think that Jack had any good reason to lie to him about this. "They are quite far away from us in the game. They are nowhere near, in another empire. Why would they want to trouble the guild?" he thought. He couldn''t understand the reason for a first-rate guild who mainly occupies the fae empire were trying to mess with him. At this low level, they had no decent reason to waste their resources for something like this. "This meeting is done, and Jack doesn''t want to pursue this any further," said Balthazar looking at the others in the room. "Go back and play the game, I will handle this," he said to Rudra and Slaine. "Kick all the others out. We need to talk," he said to Jack who immediately complied. "You know why the Divine Swords wanted to do that?" he asked Jack. "No clue. I asked the same. I didn''t want to enter a deal which he could renege and didn''t want to be someones tool, but their leader Muramasa told that the owner is willing to give me the role of an elder 1% of their shares just for getting the name. He even had papers with signatures done," replied Jack. "Who owns the shares. Whose sign did you see?" "It was Ryan Rowley. Ryan Rowley. He was an old investor of the guild during his youth and had helped establish that guild. His name was Joyeuse in the War god''s Tempest and older games. I only know Muramasa. His name is Sengo Watanabe. I can arrange a meeting between Sengo and you if required," suggested Jack. He had already heard about the incident concerning Balthazar''s near death and the fact that the ship which exploded was tracked to one of the Rowleys when the Rowley family disowned him and dusted their hands of the matter. "Hmm. Wait a minute," said Balthazar as he released his cousin and took a seat in virtual meeting room and began to think about his next move. The name Rowley had caused him to put his guard up. Even though, he had never heard of this Ryan Rowley, he was sure that there is some connection with Raymond Rowley. So, he wanted to make sure that none of them would be alerted by it. But he immediately realized that as the others were kicked out of the room, they would inform it to their superiors sooner or later. "Arrange a meeting with Sengo. The faster the better," said Balthazar. "That is good cause he already contacted me and wants to meet," said Jack. "Huh?!" "He wanted to talk with you about the present situation," repeated Jack. "Fine, can you add him to the room?" "Doing that," said Jack. "Give me all the administrative privileges you have and get out of the room for now," said Balthazar as soon as he saw someone appearing. "We will talk a few minutes later. Don''t go missing." "I can stay here and introduce," stuttered Jack who currently just wanted to calm the parties and get this over with in a peaceful manner. "It is best if talk this out with one another. I want to know answers for things you don''t want to involve yourself with. You know why I have beef with the Rowleys, right?" "I guess so, but I doubt Sengo is nothing more than a small pawn. He is not rule breaker that one. He had joined up with them previously for the sake of making a guild, but he wouldn''t involve himself in other things," said Jack. "You know him well?" "Yes. He is not a good guy but has a tendency to do everything as by the rules of the society. Raised by a judge and that," said Jack leaving the room. "I hope you are done talking to your cousin," said Sengo who had seated himself on a chair in the room when he noticed that Jack and Balthazar were talking. "We are. For now," said Balthazar taking a seat opposite Sengo. "So, why did you want to meet me," asked Balthazar. "Ok. Let me introduce myself. I am Sengo Watanabe, a distant relation of the Watanabe family," said Sengo. "Watanabe family?" asked Balthazar as he had no idea who they were. He also quickly searched the web with the same name to get an idea. "Huh, didn''t expect that. Well, we don''t really move in the same circles. Watanabe family is involved in transport and shipping services. They have only become a bit famous a couple of decades ago, but not near planet Asklepian. So, you might be unaware of it," explained Sengo. "Anyways let us get to the issue at hand. I came to know Ryan Rowley through a cousin of the main family as they were in the same business. Ryan invested in the guild for me. I tried to mess with you only because he agreed to sign of the share he owned if I tried," said Sengo showing him a copy of paperwork signed by Ryan Rowley. "That is all. This is why you came to meet me? Why are you explaining all this to me?" asked Balthazar unable to comprehend the situation. "I don''t want to get on the wrong side of you. The lawyers and the rest of the folks don''t know your identity, but I do. When I asked Jack, he initially didn''t want to do anything against you and only after persistent requests from me he revealed your identity. After that even I had second thoughts, but Ryan then changed his offer yesterday. Previously, he had asked to write off his share for forcing you into a lawsuit, but yesterday he just agreed to sign off of I tried and sent me the signed paperwork," explained Sengo. "It is stupid to get on the wrong side of a military colonel for something like this. Moreover, one who is currently considered a hero," added Sengo. "Also, you are a member of the Blyth family and there also have been rumors of the attack on the Nirbadh pirates to be due to your efforts." "I was responsible? What rumors? Who did you hear it from?" asked Balthazar in a serious tone as he stood up. It was true that he had revealed Max''s betrayal to the family and that helped them to pursue the Nirbadh pirates, but that was meant to be extremely confidential and under wraps. Even if Jack let this information out, he could be quickly kicked off the family due to the present situation. Moreover, Jack might know that Max was killed, maybe even the fact that he was the traitor from Oliver, but the fact that he was the one who found out about Max was still only known to the top authorities and he doubted if even the elders council in the family knew about it. "So, there is an amount of truth to it. Was Raymond really helping them?" asked Sengo. Till now, he was not sure of the information that he heard but based on Balthazar''s reaction he believed that at least a part of it would be true. Balthazar glared at Sengo in anger for having been manipulated to confirm Sengo''s doubts. Now, he ended up being the fool who brought a little credibility to the rumors that Sengo had heard. "Who told you about it?" repeated Balthazar in deep tone as he sat back on his chair. "Ryan did. This was his request from the beginning. He wanted to get your attention some way or the other. I am just the messenger who is being paid his shares making me a majority shareholder of the guild," said Sengo. "Sorry, if I ended up provoking you, it wasn''t my intention, but I was asked to inform you only if you truly were involved in the attack on the pirates. In fact, I would love to have our guilds have friendly relationship over time." "That is a matter of discussion for another time. For now, please forward me the message," said Balthazar. "I don''t have it with me. He didn''t want to give it, but you will receive it in a day''s time. The password is the original timestamp on your invite to this room," said Sengo as he got up. "Please, understand that though Ryan still blames you partially for his brother''s death, he insists that he only intends to cooperate with you to bring the true killers of his brother to justice." "That is all, I was requested to say. Thank you," said Sengo as he shook his Balthazar''s hand and exited the room. Chapter 180 - Welog Town "I wonder what he sent me. I doubt he stupid enough to do anything that harms me," thought Balthazar as he selected to save the video, he had recorded of his meeting with Sengo. With that done, he immediately contacted Jack and asked him to return to the room. "What happened? Did you accept his claim?" asked Jack as soon as he entered the room. "No, why would you think that?" asked Balthazar pushing a chair to his cousin. "I just got doc.u.ments in my mail indicating that I was given the shares that he had promised," said Jack showing him the doc.u.ments. "Oh!" said Balthazar as he looked at them. "The man is much more scheming than I thought. He had prepared to give these Jack just so that he could avoid pressure from the family. I guess I have to be careful with him if I come into contact with him in the game," thought Balthazar. He also remembered that the Divine Swords managed to become a force on par with some super guilds in vita-nova. "I didn''t sell the name or accept to any of his conditions. He was actually just passing on a message," said Balthazar. "Anyway, I didn''t call you back to discuss about the incident. It is currently in the past and I don''t want to discuss anything about it." "Oh! So, you don''t want anything? Why did you call me, then?" "I wanted to talk to you about a few things. Not the issue that happened with the guild. Let me start with saying that I want to put aside the quarrels that we had with Rudra and others leaving your employment and start fresh," said Balthazar. He realized that the quarrel with his cousin was something others could use to get Jack to do stupid things against him. He had to do something to nip this issue in the bud. If Jack had not been family, he would have preferred to convince him by force rather than talk to him. So, he decided to convince Jack and try to reduce the tension between them. "What''s wrong with you?" asked Jack raising his eyebrows in surprise. His cousin who was just ordering him a couple of minutes ago became nice and accommodating all of a sudden which had him perplexed. He began to wonder if something happened in these few minutes of discussion with Sengo which changed his cousin''s behavior towards him due to the friendship between him and Sengo. In the next second, he thought that he could use this chance to force his cousin to agree to better terms with respect to the guild. "Nothing''s wrong with me," frowned Balthazar shaking his head. "How about you give me few shares of your workshop and we could consider it even. I will even put in a good word to Sengo and his friends about you," continued Jack without looking at Balthazar expression which was getting worse with every word. "How come this idiot only thinks of using influence for getting things," thought Balthazar as he moved towards Jack. He lifted Jack up by his collar and began to shout, "Listen Moron! I am only trying to reconcile with you because you are family and you are just a mild annoyance. But recently you have been crossing over from being a mild annoyance to a threat. Your friend, Sengo is sending a message from Ryan Rowley who I believe was in cahoots with the Nirbaadh pirates." "People will want to use any way they can to go against the family and our quarrel which somehow became public information feels like an opportunity to them. Guess what I am saying is to be careful and inform me or at the very least elder Oliver, your father before you become a patsy who would end up being labelled as a traitor," he continued to shout at Jack whose eyes were wide open in shock as he started to realize the situation. "I will handle this issue and the things that arise out of it for now. Be in touch with Sengo, but make sure no information goes out. I am doing this only because you are family and a bit naive about these things. Don''t get tempted by any offers. Even though elder Max escaped, he ended up dead as he foolishly let out information to others and he got the easy way out. It would much worse, if he ended up in the hands of the family. I hope you get it," said Balthazar as he pushed his cousin back on to a chair and got out of the meeting. He hoped that Jack would change and sent a mail to D.i.c.k about fake IDs for himself and his friend before he logged in to vita-nova. He sent a message to Rudra to inform him that he handled the issue that came up and he needn''t worry about it any longer. He also warned about the Divine Swords guild leader Muramasa who started the whole issue for a friend as he was worried that Ryan could still have others in the guild whom he could use against Crimson Realm and suggested to perform some recon of that guild. He then went to the store and see if he could get a hold of any designs. He came to know that Hammer managed to create a silver original glaive of level 15 and took the design. He also came to know that the weapons that he made were quite a hit and they could do with more of them. He decided to get to the Welog town instead of forging. It would get dark in the game in a couple of hours and he could work on forging at that time. Apart from that he hoped to get higher level designs, even black iron ones are fine as long as they were higher leveled as they gave more experience on production. It was an area which was to be newly explored. It was mostly a vast forest around the town with a few mountains towards the south, but there were two active volcanic mountains that were a few kilometers tall at that place which were quite famous in his previous life. These volcanoes keep spout lava every day in small amounts. These two active volcanoes were considered forbidden areas till players reached tier 3 but there were a few dormant ones surrounding it where the monsters ranged upto tier 2 level 70. Though it had many monsters it couldn''t be considered a good farming ground as the numbers are quite high and also a few of the higher leveled monsters would suddenly come to the low-level areas occasionally causing huge losses to the players. It was a volatile place where forest fires and the likes are common. One needn''t even be suprised if a blob of lava or rocks rained on them from the sky killing them. Even if a player keeps his pain and burn setting to a minimum of 1% to feel the surrounding burning to death suddenly due to lava rain is an experience which most players wouldn''t want to risk. In spite of all this, players still attempted to kill these monsters as they can find ores and even gems as the go deeper lying on the ground. There would also be a lot of igneous rocks that could be found on the ground and even on trees which when broken would also have different kinds ores. There would soon be players who just go to search for ores by wandering in the place as even areas with low level monsters would occasionally give ores like Dark Iron and crystals like Jades. So, it will end up being one of the popular places for player who want to test their luck. Currently the forest around the Welog town has level 15 beast common to the forest, but Balthazar wanted to increase his levels fast. So, the volcano region is actually a good place to grind for player who go solo. Moreover, the monsters tend to leave decent loot too. The main problem was that he currently didn''t have a way to quickly get to the Welog town due to lack of mounts, so he had to make way by foot. Without having been registered at a place one couldn''t use teleportation portal to travel to a place either. That was the main reason, why everyone had to discover a town before being able to teleport, except in cases where a quest guided them to it. Without mounts which aren''t introduced yet, it would be very time consuming to get there, but he decided to go there anyway as it would help him increase his level while he could also help the guild establish themselves towards the direction of the Jarko town. The path to Welog town was a mild forest. Being a town connected to the White Heart City and as it is not one of the beginner towns, there is a clear path to it made by the NPCs and a few watchtowers and restaurants along the way. Thus, the players didn''t have to worry about monsters attacking them in large numbers in the path. Players actually try to get out of the path in such scenarios to attack and explore the surrounding forests. Currently, most players are trying to explore all the surrounding areas in hope of getting lucky after they heard of the fort that was discovered by the Crimson Realm guild. This behavior of the players made his journey a solitary one till he reached a watchtower. Even while running at his best speed it took him 15 minutes to reach the first watchtower along the way. The watchtowers in between the ways weren''t just a tower but were like a small encampment of guards having a proper stockade with a hotel, restaurant, bar and warehouse so that travelers either adventurers or NPCs could spend the night if there was a need. The security and the number of NPCs at the watchtower also varies based on the number of players using that path. These places tend to be crowded as they also have a quest board at the watchtowers. The quests could be either resource gathering for the guards or killing special monsters or guarding NPC convoys. Players would realize later that gathering reputation would also allow them to post quests at such places, which could even be accepted by NPCs, but the details would depend upon the reputation of the individual concerned. Sometime, NPCs might even try to cheat the players in regard to the quests. Balthazar had no plans to pursue any quest. He only disguised himself and went to the watchtower areas to see the players and if any known guilds or team were there. Knowing the future, he was continuously planning on getting more trustworthy and powerful allies in the game. But he didn''t find anyone of much value and just had some beverage at the restaurant to quickly replenish his stamina before going ahead. He continued in the same way for the next two watchtowers before he found something interesting in the last watchtower before the Welog town. The thing he found wasn''t related to any player, but it was a quest to gather specific item from location of the volcanos. The quest was to gather the firestones that would be found in the abdomen of the salamandrids that would be roaming near that place. These beasts ranged from level 18 to level 20. Most wouldn''t even realize the quest nor would be interested in it due to their high level, but Balthazar was reminded of a very common use of these firestones and something else that would be found at that place. The firestones could be used to provide lights and used as consumable if one had lanterns. It could also be used to increase the quality of normal fire that could be used for forging or alchemy which would help increase the success rate of weapons and potions. But these weren''t the most interesting things to Balthazar as it is not easy to get the blueprints for lanterns and he had already been using advanced workshop which has better fires. So, using the firestones for improving fire was of no use to him, but he knew something that is very useful. The salamandrids are almost always accompanied by fireflies when they are resting. If he could use stealth and get close to a few he could put them in jars and with help of a tamer use them as light sources at night-time. The fireflies would also need to be properly supported to grow in level along with the player, else it would become victim to attacks of other beasts if the player attempts to farm monsters at higher levels. So, it is best if he tries to get hold of them at a lower level. He also knew that once the light stones and lanterns came into existence, the number of fireflies that were spawned were decreased by the game administrators and it becomes much harder to tame fireflies at that time. At this stage, exploration of places as night and some dark caverns are very hard. Use of a tamed firefly or a group of them would make it very easy for a team to continue in the wilds at night-time instead of staying at towns or cities. So, it would have a lot more value than anything he could think at this stage of the game. So, he took the quest and decided to attempt it rather than other things. It would also enable him to raise his experience faster at night. He is already having trouble finding a decent forging or engineering design to work at nights to increase his experience and level and this would only get worse at higher levels. Having a firefly tamed would allow him to farm monsters at night much easily and would help to increase his experience faster. He quickly made his way to the Welog town and registered himself. The town was exactly as he had remembered. It was a small town with no specific features. There were woods all around the place and it was a small town almost like a beginner town. The only difference is that all the monsters in the surrounding areas and most of the NPCs were at least at level 15. The towns size would only increase once the number of players visiting it regularly increases. After registration, he decided to go to the White Heart City. At this stage, tamers wouldn''t be in large number in kingdoms and even if they were, they wouldn''t be popular. He asked in the Crimson Realm guild chat on his way and found that no one knew of a tamer NPC or shop in Welog town. So, he had to go to the White Heart City where he knew the location of the pet shop. A pet shop always had a tamer or group in charge of it. Chapter 181 - Gathering Fireflies He had previously visited the pet shop at the White Heart City when he took Rudra around to show him the different things. Rudra had also brought an eagle as a pet which could help him scouting. He had also thought about getting a pet since then, but without decent attack skill books for the pets getting a pet was considered a waste. Now, it was a different scenario as the pet would enable him to work even during the night which would give him an advantage over the competition. He used to be at a better level than the one on the first place of the leader board and he realized that he couldn''t always maintain this advantage without some cards up his sleeve. So, a pet firefly became a necessity to him. He went to the managing NPC of the pet shop and requested if there were any pets that were luminescent to which the NPC simply laughed. Then, he requested for equipment to catch insects. He was shown different kinds of pooters, nets, malaise traps and the like. For fireflies, he didn''t need most of these. Traps could only be used with a lure, but the fireflies found at the Welog town were a specific kind called Fireglows by the system which only eat the dead skin off the salamandrids. They live in a symbiotic relationship with the salamandrids, which makes it so hard to catch them. One would have to risk catching them only when the salamandrids are at rest and at this time they had to quickly grab them, or they will fly away. "I will take a couple of nets and a pooter and ten bottles to keep them," said Shadow looking at all the equipment shown by the NPC. "Can I meet with the resident tamer of this store?" he asked. "I need some help to tame a few insects." "You want tame insects?" asked the NPC to which Shadow nodded. "Insects aren''t very useful unless they are tamed in very large numbers. Only few people in the world specialize in such things. Don''t waste your time. Most of the insects brought here would be used to set traps for animals and are one time uses. We only capture and sell them. Most even die after an attack, we don''t have anyone who can tame a large number of them to attack," said the NPC as he sold the equipment to Shadow. "I suggest you also stick to capturing insects and not taming them. They can be very efficient in traps." "No, I don''t need a large number. I just need a few to be domesticated and move around the place. Just like a simple pet. Don''t need them to attack or anything," said Balthazar. "I will get the tamer for you, if you want," said the NPC shaking his head. "But it will cost you 5 gold for a consultation." "Five gold?" asked Balthazar surprised. That was far too much for a simple consultation. He didn''t even ask to tame anything. "Yes, I am willing to do it only because you are the First citizen of the city. Else most tamers wouldn''t even indulge such discussions. You do have specimen available, right?" asked the manager. "No. I don''t have one on hand," replied Shadow. "Can''t have a consultation with a tamer without a specimen. They are always trying to tame one beast or the other. What you are asking is quite a weird request for a tamer. I can''t let you in for a consultation without even a specimen," said the NPC shaking his head as he pointed to the door. "I can come for the consultation later?" asked Shadow. "At night." "As long as you have a specimen, I can introduce you to a tamer for a consultation. But you must make the meeting count. After that, subsequent consultations will depend on her," said the NPC. Shadow went out and went to the adventurers association to get a weapons cache to increase his bag space. After that, he used the teleportation portal to get back to the Welog town. He quickly went towards the direction of the mountains. He had less than an hour to reach the place and find a fireglow or at least to kill a salamandrids to get a firestone. The small town was surrounded by woods and it would take at least 30 minutes at his best speed to reach the boundary of the habitat of the salamandrids. It was already started to get dark and he had to hurry the only good thing was that volcano area doesn''t get completely dark due to the burning lava and volcano. The salamandrids, larians, cinder wolfs, firehawks and most of the beasts that live near the volcano glow even in night. That would be a bit more beneficial to work at the night at that place but the fact was that it was very dangerous to hunt at night apart from the glowing ones, there would also be other beasts that don''t glow and give away their position. He also thought of capturing cinder wolf and firehawks later, but he couldn''t use them for scouting as the glowing beasts would give away their position. He could only use them as attackers. As he made his way through the woods, he came into contact with a few beasts. He didn''t move in stealth as he needed to move at his best speed else it would be hard to reach his goal in time. His chances would improve if he reached his destination faster. There were wolves, leopards, tigers and other beasts in the forest. He ran away from the ones he could escape from and made quick attack and used of fireworks and explosives to kill or distract them so that he could reach his destination. Due to this he had only 15 minutes by the time that he finally reached, but he also managed to get to level 16 as he had killed high level beasts in the forest. He hadn''t yet allocated the previous attribute points that he got from going to level 15 and that left him a total of 16 free attribute points. He put two attribute points in each of the attributes again. Though his focus was on agility, he wanted to maintain a decent balance among the rest of the attributes. He put the remaining four points into agility. He had to focus on agility due to his fighting style and profession. Even though balance was considered necessary, he couldn''t let his agility below other players and monsters. His performance always depended on his high speed. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village. Affiliated City: White Hear City (Capital) Title: Kade''s apprentice, First Citizen of White Heart City, Dwarf''s friend. Job: Assassin Level: 16 Exp: 110/14000 HP: 7500/7500; MP: 3100/3100; SP: 3800/3800 Physical Attack: 198; Defense: 98; Attack Speed: 120; Movement Speed: 126; Willpower: 66 ; Balance: 72; Focus/Search: 95; Reflect Damage: 6; Magic Resist: 37; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 93, Agility 88, Endurance 62, Intelligence 56, Vitality 58, Perception 53. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0; After allocating his attribute points he went into stealth. He was already in the habitat of the salamandrids which were creatures like a crocodile with longer feet. They stay on the ground most of the time and crawl at high speeds unless in a fight when they tend to jump a few meters to land on their prey. He had to be in stealth to avoid monsters. His priority was to find salamandrids and fireglow insects. The area was close to volcanoes and the heat made the surroundings different from that of a forest. The trees were sparse, but there was shrubbery all around the place which he could use to hide. The problem was that many of them hard thorns and were prickly, which would pull him out of stealth if he wasn''t careful enough. The place was hotter at night than the White Heart City was during the day. He had started to perspire, and he felt it hard to maintain stealth. It was even costing his stamina to deplete faster. He always used heat resistance potions in such areas, but now in his hurry, he had completely forgotten about it. He moved slowly avoiding any beast he could see. There were cinder wolfs and ash panthers roaming around occasionally. It was twilight already and most of the monsters were going back to their lairs and congregating in groups for the night other than a few which tend to stay away for longer periods of time. Luckily for Shadow, salamandrids and fireglows tend to stay out in the night. Salamandrids stay in holes like lizards mostly in hot areas at most of the day and come out at twilight. With fireglows hovering on their back while feeding on their dead skin, twilight was the best time to search for the salamandrids and Shadow had about 20 minutes before darkness completely sets in. [Salamandrid] (Common monster) Level 18; HP: 8500/8500; [Fireglow] (Common insect) Level 15; HP: 5000/5000; Soon, he found one salamandrid crawling by a tree with a few fireglows. It was like a shining 2-meter-long target that was moving. He slowly went behind it and moved toward the fireglows and took out his net to try and capture it. The fireglows had low health but moved very fast and in an erratic fashion. So, it was very hard to catch them without a net. The fireglows weren''t insects which actually had fire but released a light which looked like fire. Else, the net would have burned on contact. He had to be careful with the net. The place was very dangerous, and the ground could suddenly have cracks and spew out fire. That could easily burn the net. The net could even be burned by the flames of the salamandrid. So, he needed to be very careful as the fireglows just hover over the salamandrid and it was a daunting task to capture them without touching the salamandrid. He carefully crouched behind salamandrid and waited for the appropriate time before using the net to capture a fireglow. The minute he caught the fireglow in the net, the salamandrid had noticed him and swiped its hind claw at him and tried to strike him with its tail. He quickly evaded as he ran to the side going to its blind spot, before putting the fireglow in the bottle. He then put the net back, before pulling out his weapons. Salamandrid are usually quiet and crawl around slowly, but one they notice anything around it they become vicious attackers which roar and attract the attention of the other beasts. The stronger ones might come closer to them while the weaker ones run away. The salamandrids cause fire damage whenever anything touches them at any place other than the head and this is the worst thing about it. It restricts players from fighting it without fire damage. It also keeps jumping on the players, trying to pin them under it and kill them. This behaviour of the salamandrids made them a headache to kill even for people at level 18. Players usually tend to form group when handling them. The good thing was that the same behavior which frighted most was also its weakness. Their weak spot is the belly and underside which could be cut easier than its back and legs as it had no thick scales underside like it had on its back and limbs. Still it would cause a lot of damage when the salamandrid jumped on a player. One had to make a quick slash while evading. It would be a very risk attempt, but he had the experience. As the salamandrid jump towards him, he ran towards it, so that he could get beneath it while it was in the air and swung the void dragon''s talons over his head with all his might making half a meter long cut on its belly. The wieght of the beast caused the blades to go about 5 inches deep into its flesh causing it more damage than a simple attack. There were immediate notifications of it causing bleed and cripple effect on the beast. The beast lost 10% of its health and had a bleed effect of 50 HP per second. The beast roared in pain as it fell behind him. He quickly turned around and continued to attack the salamandrid. With its underside having a big cut, it could no longer jump. Even it movement reduced as it lay down and on the ground and began to growl at Shadow. Shadow had known that the wound would only heal in some time and it was his best chance to injure the salamandrid as much as possible. Once, it was crippled and had slower movement, he had better options for attacking. The back of the beast was the largest area but had the hardest scales and densest flames making it the worst point to attack. The tail was the same as the back and the limbs were better. The head wasn''t on flames and like all other beasts was the weakest point. The eyes and snout were the weakest points. All beasts protect their head, but currently the salamandrid was crippled and couldn''t move it fore arms fast enough to block his attacks. Shadow took his chance to quickly attack its eyes and snout managing to blind it in one eye after the other and even injured its snout making it much easier for him to continue his attacks or get away. He initially thought of getting away from the salamandrid as he already had the fireglow, but then he remembered that he also needed to gather firestones. As the salamandrid was currently blinded, he had a thought of trying to do the same thing as Robert and he did with Boredrevers. He had always kept fruits, bread and meat with him in his bag. They could be used to feed it. The only difference was that instead of using poison he thought of using a dynamite as a whole. He quickly pulled out a dynamite and some meat rolling the dynamite in the meat. He lit the thing and threw attacked the beast to make it roar while throwing the dynamite in its mouth. The beast immediately closed its jaws trying to bite it and swallowed it as he had expected. A moment later, a muffled explosion sounded as the salamandrid puked out blood and flesh while it tipped over on its belly and the cut that he had previously made opened up much larger with the beasts heart and lungs burnt and hanging out of it. The salamandrid made small whimpering sounds as more of its blood poured out of its wound and throat. Notifications indicating that the salamandrid had received 4000 HP damage and got a bleed effect of 300 HP per second. He checked the notifications and continued to attack at the overturned beast at a rapid pace to increase the rate of damage. The firestones would also be found in their stomach, so he began to focus his attack to enlarge the cut and get deeper into the stomach. Within 10 seconds, the salamandrid stopped whimpering and died. It was one of the fastest kill of a salamandrid that he had ever done, but he didn''t really want to repeat this method again. Most of the parts of the salamandrid which could be foraged were wasted. Chapter 182 - Taming The jaws and the salamandrid scale and skins were quite precious and salamandrid skin armor would have high fire resistance and defence that it can be used till tier 1. The heart and meat also can be used to create dishes which give a slight amount of fire resistance, but it was clear to him that most of it had been wasted, burned or filled with impurities from the explosive which couldn''t be used. He dug into the flesh of the beast to get to the stomach and took out a flaming stone. It was dealing him burn damage even after the beast had died. He quickly put it in his bag and checked the fireglow in the container that he had. Satisfied by the fact that he had managed to capture a fireglow and got a firestone withing 2 minutes, he started to cut up the usable parts of the beast quickly and made way to the tree to check out the surroundings. The salamandrid and he had made quite a few loud noises. Though weaker beasts would be detered by the sounds, there was a slight chance that stronger ones might be attracted. The highest chance was that other salamandrids might be attracted. He took out his scope and began to check the surroundings before deciding a direction to proceed in. As expected, in a few seconds he saw another salamandrid approaching him from an area about a few hundred metres away. He quickly stashed his scope in his bag and moved in that direction. He found it and used the same method as before to capture a fireglow on it. While attacking, he decided to kill the salamandrid in the same method as he did the previous one. After he caught the second fireglow, he realized that the important thing was to collect the insects rather than killing the salamandrid as he had less time. If he managed to get a few fireglows tamed, he could get experience faster, come back to try and tame more fireglows and kill more salamandrids. Though he was lowing materials, he was getting 525 experience point per one kill of the salamandrid. It was clear to him that farming at this place would definitely help him increase his experience than forging. So, continued the same for a few more minutes till it was dark that he couldn''t do anything more. He had managed to capture 5 fireglows in this time and also managed to get hold of 5 firestones. His attempts have also begun to get the attention of other beasts. So, he decided te use his hearthstone to get back to the White Heart City to get the fireglows tamed. It would be easier to farm if he could get his team along with him. So, he went back to the pet shop and requested the NPC to meet the resident tamer of the shop. The NPC asked for the specimen and once he had confirmed he led him out of the shop and behind it where there was another door. They went through the door and found a large empty room lined with a few cages with a beast or two in them. The centre of the place had a female NPC and she was petting a ram which was eating some feed from the other hand of the tamer. [Berlyn] (Master Tamer) Level: ????? HP: ????? The tamer was a 6 feet long lady who wore a deep blue colored leather armor. She had a round pleasant face with green eyes and had red colored hair which dropped to her waist. Shadow had never seen her before as the players had learned taming skill by two years when he had joined the game. "Hello!" said Berlyn standing up. "Who is our new visitor?" "Master Berlyn, this is a customer who wanted to have a consultation with you," said the manager. "Mr. Shadow Tyrant is the first citizen of the White Heart City. He wanted to talk about taming of a few insects." "Mr. Shadow, Master Berlyn is one of the best tamers that visit the city. She is a druid who had been to the dryad city of Grovestian and had been trained by the best of the tamers. She has been taming beast for our store for a long time and has been recognized by the guild as a Master Tamer," said the manager introducing the tamer. "I will let you to talk shop," he said walking out of the room. "Master Berlyn, I am Shadow and wanted to consult you about taming fireglows," said Shadow as he came forward and pulled out the containers with the fireglows. "Nice to meet you, Adventurer," said Berly as she took one of the containers in her hand and watched the fireglow from close. "I haven''t really ever tamed insects. In fact, I haven''t even seen fireglows from such closely before." "I have heard that it is very hard to tame insects and most tamers don''t usually attempt it," said Shadow. "But I hoped that you could at the very least advise me in just keeping them alive and ways to attract them back into the containers. The very basic of training. I don''t need anything else." "You plan to use them as lanterns," said Berlyn immediately recognizing Shadow''s need. "Yes. It is too hard to hunt in the night without proper light and unlike lanterns these don''t keep one of my hands busy," said Shadow nodding to the tamer. "That is relatively simpler compared to the many other requests that come to me," said Berlyn as she retrieved a small book making a quick picture of the insect surprising Shadow. "Most who come to consult me actually have requests like teaching their pets some skills." "I have been trained by dryads. They don''t tame insects. They tend to have a concept of loving their pets and that is hard with insects. Most insects die on attacking and dryads find it hard to teach their pets to even fight. They mostly teach them scouting, riding and scavenging techniques. Insects don''t have much mental capacity and can''t actually learn such skills. Some insects can be used for scouting, but these require special training methods, mostly sonic skills from the owner to get a decent performance from them," she said explaining the difficulty in taming insects. "You require them to only hover near you and move in certain directions as they provide light. It is quite easier than other things. I have a suggestion that might work. First, we need to realize something that attracts them and keep them healthy and safe. The rest is easy," said the tamer as she pulled out some feed and put it through a small hole in the lid and to check the fireglow''s reaction to it. "So, what do they feed on? I have only thought that they feed on Salamandrid skin and ate stuff grown near volcanoes?" asked Shadow. "I haven''t seen or heard of them eat anything else." Berlyn looked a bit displeased that an adventurer is questioning her methods. No customer ever asked her about her methods before. It could be considered as trying to get to know her tricks or countermanding her. "Adventurer Shadow, asking a tamer''s methods isn''t very appropriate." "Sorry, I had never interacted with a tamer before. I am just concerned as I would have to feed the fireglows, if I am going to use them," apologized Shadow. He was confused by the entire thing. In his past life, there was already a standardized insect feed being sold and used for insects in the city. "That might be true, but I am still experimenting. I hope you understand the process and I am not responsible if anything bad happens to the fireglows. You need to understand that when a tamer is handling new species, we can''t guarantee their safety completely," said Berlyn in a calm tone. "But even I heard that the fireglows only survive at place having a lot of fire elements. So, you might be right," she continued. "OK. I understand." "No, you don''t. You managed to catch the fireglows. So, you have been to their habitat. You can get me something which have seen it close to," said Berlyn. "It lives on salamandrids. I have some of the skin and meat," said Shadow pulling out a bit of his spoils from killing the salamandrids. "That might work," said Berlyn taking them from Shadow''s hands and making a paste a small amount of which she put into the fireglow container. The fireglow reacted to it and started to eat it, but it only ate a small amount and left the remaining in the container. "Well, one part done, but I would like to keep in further observation. Sometimes, there might be adverse effects of the change in diet," said Berlyn not willing to give the fireglow back immediately. "I will leave you to research on that. Consider, the fireglow a gift," offered Shadow. "So, what was the other part? You told that once we have dealt with issue of feed and attracting them, we can easily tame them." "Oh, yes. That is the easy part. The problem you will have with insects is to control their flight path and movements properly. Even the fae who have one of the best insect tamers use sound for controlling their swarms," said Berlyn. "You need to use nocturnal bird and just hang a glass cage containing the fireglow on their feet." "What?! That''s all!" exclaimed Shadow. "Yes. That is the best option. I would suggest nightjars or nighthawks. They have a good mental capacity and can see well at night which can be very useful for scouting at night as well as scourging for things. They are quite easier to control compared the other ones and nighthawk have a high speed and endurance with the ability to grow to strong beasts," suggested Berlyn. "There are common nightjars and nighthawks available at the store. You can choose to buy them. The equipment for attaching fireglows to the birds can be considered my gift. You can leave now," said Berlyn placing the fireglow container on a cage and letting out a small wolf from a cage and started to feed it. Shadow made his way back to the manager of the pet store. The manager had already been informed of the details of their transaction and had a few equipment ready for him. He immediately took Shadow to the second floor where there were quite a few birds and beasts on display. He took him to a corner where there was a door which led to the nocturnal section. As he entered the room, he realized that the entire room was dark with sparse light entering from small holes at the edges of the room. He couldn''t see anything in the place. The manager took a small lantern which a emitted a mild light. "We don''t really use lights in the room unless a customer asks for one of them. They really don''t like to light. Most of them get startled and we recommend covering the cages of birds with a cloth," explained the manager. There were a bunch of animals in the place. There were all kinds here. Raccoons, monkeys, owls, snakes were the ones that he recognized immediately. He had never seen so many different kinds of nocturnal animals before. The manager took him past a few cages, and he could finally see the birds that the tamer suggested. [Common Nightjar] (flying pet) Level: 10; HP: 2500/2500; Perception: 45; Attack speed: 50; Physical attack: Peck attack: 70; [Nighthawk eyas] (elite flying pet) Level: 13; HP: 3000/3000; Perception: 60; Attack speed: 70; Physical attack: Peck attack: 80; "I would suggest the nighthawk as it lives longer and has better capabilities than the common nightjar. Even the babies have stronger physique than the common nightjar," said the manager pointing to the cages. "How many do you have?" asked Shadow. "Six babies and two a.d.u.l.ts. There are more eggs. You can have more if you want, it is just a matter of time as we have a set of parents," said the manager. "I would recommend one per an adventurer. Else, it would be hard to maintain a good amount of control." "My friends also need a few. Can you point me towards other nocturnal pets that can be used for scouting?" asked Shadow. "And why would one have trouble maintaining control over the multiple pets?" "Oh! That is due to the nature of the business. As we have an intention to sell. We put most of the pets on a spell which we later change so that it thinks you to be the tamer that had raised it. It is the best way to make them obedient as almost all beasts raised in captivity have the closest link with the tamer who raised them. There is a specific keyword used for every kind of pet. When multiple pets of the same type are sold to the same customer, there tends to be an overlapping which makes it harder for one to control the pets," explained the manager. "It could be true," thought Balthazar. He had always raised pets from the beginning or captured and raised them in his past life. He had never used a pet store to buy a pet before. "Might be a method used by the system to restrict players from depending too much on the pet store. After all, its main aim is to improve the skill of the people," he thought as he nodded to the manager. "So, could you introduce me to other nocturnal scouting animals?" he asked. "Nighthawks and Tyto Owls are the best aerial scouts at lower levels. Can''t sell you high level ones as they don''t tend to obey weaker masters. It is a matter of safety of the customers. Raccoons and monkeys can be useful to check caves or so, but high chance of losing their life. Snakes and pythons are a viable option, but they tend to be harder to control. You could also use a bat for this issue," said the manager. "Ok. Give me a Nighthawk eyas and my friends are coming for who would also like to buy a few more of the same," said Shadow. He had already contacted Slaine and talked about his plan to him. He asked to only get a few top ones who they planned to include in a 5-man team if they participated in competitions. "Sure, eyas are easier to tame as they are still younglings. It will be a better option if you plan to use it for long term. They don''t mind mild magical lighting, but they avoid proper light," said the manager as pulled out a small cage and pulled an nighthawk eyas from its larger cage and gave it Shadow. "You can put it in a pet pouch," suggested the manager pulling out a small sack. "It is a basic one that has an internal space to hold upto 10 cubic metres. You can have up to 5 normal sized pets in it. Specially made to hold pets. Can''t put non-living being in it." The manager performed a small spell after which he had the nighthawk eyas eat some feed through his hand. It flew to his should, began to nibble and rub its head against his neck. "It recognizes you as its master," said the manager. "You just need to feed it in time during early hours of twilight daily to maintain loyalty and can feed it more to help it grow faster. It is already trained to fly. It can fly up to a height of 30 metres for a duration of one hour easily. You can also use it for scouting when it grows up." The went out and Shadow had paid the manager for the nighthawk, feed and collected the equipment to use along with it. As he was paying, Slaine entered the pet store with Rudra, Brick, Roll and Light. Chapter 183 - Night Hunting "You guys have a pet, yet?" asked Shadow as they entered. "I have one," said Rudra pointing to his eagle which was perched on his shoulder. "Not that. I mean nocturnal ones. I would suggest a nighthawk eyas if you want a scouting pet. They have more here," said Shadow. "Ok. Slaine can get that, but what about the rest of us? I hope you didn''t want all of us to buy scouting pets, did you?" asked Perennial Light. "Just scouting pets aren''t enough to fight in the night. We have heard of players attempting it already." "No. That is not what I had in mind," replied Shadow. "I have found a light source which can be tied to a bird''s feet and with it in the air, we can have a good source of light. It will be much easier with that in the air providing us guidance. I wanted birds so that they can stay in the air away from the other beasts." "But it is true. We don''t need all of us to buy the scouting beasts. There are variety of nocturnal beasts which you could go and check," said Shadow taking them to the second floor. After some time, Slaine ended up with a nighthawk, while Perrenial Light took a rock python to support his physical attacks. He was a druid who had got a unique staff from the Shrine similar to Merlin and it mainly had magical attacks and support spells. So, he decided to follow a magical type build for himself and chose a physically strong pet. The three of them all bought a pet pouch. Once they were outside the store, Shadow took the team outside the Welog town to hunt. At the gates, he had tied the equipment to his pet, so that two containesr containing two fireglows each were attached to each of the bird''s legs. As it flew a few meteres above them, it threw a mild light all over the place. Though it is not the same as sunlight during day time or even like having a lantern, it still allowed a player to observe his surrounding to a certain range. "The range is quite small, but I doubt we can use the lamps for scouting. It is like painting a target over yourself," said Slaine. "It could still be killed by a beast in the forest unless it can fly higher." "It can, but the light that comes down to us will be very mild. It won''t be of much use for us then. That is why I want to go beyond these small woods to reach this place," said Shadow sending them an image of the map on which the directions to the salamandrids habitat were marked. He had made an image of his path after he had killed the salamandrids. "We can get hold of more fireglows at this place, but it is very dangerous and will be filled with high level monsters. The fireglows will be along with salamandrids which are level 18 beasts and even attacking them physically inflicts fire damage on us. But once, we have more fireglows we can hunt during the night increasing our level faster than the others," said Shadow explaining his plan. "You got those from killing those salamandrid?" asked Rudra. "Yes." "Knowing you, you would have killed more if possible. What stopped you?" "It is dark, and I need someone to keep a lookout when I am attacking them. I could be ambushed by other beasts. I got these in the early stages of twilight. Now, there might be more beasts prowling around. So, we need to have lookouts capture the fireglows and kill the salamandrids quickly," said Shadow. "Ok. Let us go. I will be the scout along with Roll," said Slaine. "The rest of you can focus on the beasts and insects. We have already emptied our bags at the bank and stocked up on health and mana potions like you told us." "I need to explain more about the place. There will be random burst of fire from the ground and lava from the air occasionally. We need to be very careful. By the way, did you guys hear of any fire protection items or consumables?" "No, didn''t hear of such items yet and based on the thing you just told, is it really advisable to get to the place for a few of fireglows can''t we get them anywhere else. We can also use the ones available right now," said Perennial Light. "We won''t be going deep into the region. Just skimming the outskirts. The deeper parts near the volcanoes don''t have low level monsters. We just need to be on lookout for the occasional big ones. We all have scopes and we plan to have two of us on lookout permanently during this hunt for the bugs. So, it is quite safe. The chance of a random attack from the surroundings like ground fire or lava spouts is much less on the fringes of the place," said Shadow trying to convince Light. "Let us try it out. If we get more fireglows, it is a good thing. If we notice any danger coming towards us, we can evade and then channel our hearthstones. At worst, we will die once and lose 10% experience points. It is nothing bad. With the unique equipment, we already are stronger than those with a level or two more than us," mediated Rudra deciding to attempt it once. They slowly made their way through the forest. Realizing that nighthawk could be killed easily with such a low light if it hung low among the trees, they decided to pit it Perennial Lights armor as he was the magical class player and coudl attack from a distance. The dim light of the fireglows actually attracted quite a few of the beasts of the forest. Luckily, the half of the team were at level 16 and the others at level 15 with three of them having unique weapons and they were fighting beasts at level 15 or 16 at the very most. They kept killing them and managed to travel in the forest for about 40 minutes before it became hard. "The light is attracting too many beasts," said Perennial light. Brick and Rudra have already taken out shield and were using it to block the attack of the beasts continuously. "We could just put the lights in our bag temporarily scout using the night hawks and make way till our destination. We are already quite close to it. Would just take 10 minutes," suggested Roll. "Ok. We will try that out. Perennial keep the lights away. We will go ahead in the dark after we clear these wolves," said Shadow agreeing with the decision of the others. Perennial Light put the lights inside and they cleared up the beast around them before they let out the two nighthawk eyases. Perennial Light also released his pet, the python to stay close behind one of the nighthawks as guard while Slaine guarded his own pet. Shadow and Roll went into stealth and took the lead in scouting the forest as they slowly made way to their destination. In another 20 minutes, they reached their destination. The rest of the team were quite surprised to see the environment there. It was their first time experiencing such a hot climate in the game and they started to notice the effects it had on them. Shadow had already warned them about the climate during their journey, but none of them felt it good enough. "Slaine and Roll, there are a few trees here. Climb them and check for salamandrids. I would suggest to not use pets in this area. Most beast are higher level and could kill them easily," said Shadow sending the team a picture of the beast that he had previously killed. He had the others hiding behind shrubbery. The team slowly scouted the area and found quite a few new beasts that they haven''t seen before. They soon noticed that all those beasts, the ash panther, cinder wolves, ember horn deer. All of them were above level 18 and few of the beasts were even stronger. The ash panther was the only one that they found alone, the rest were all pack animals and were in small groups at the very least. If they weren''t hiding in the surrounding vegetation or they didn''t have scopes which extended their range of vision, they would have certainly died. "This place is much more dangerous than you have described," said Roll. He was having a really hard time as he and Shadow were the ones that had to scout ahead to check the surroundings before they could move. They didn''t want to get towards the volcanoes as the beasts would only get stronger. So, they were moving in a curve maintaining the distance from the volcanoes. Shadow and Roll, being assasin class players had to take on the duty of scouts in this place while Slaine kept a lookout at the rear. Though they didn''t actually get to kill any salamandrids for the past half hour, they managed to make note of the terrain of the place and mapped it. Through their scopes, they found a few herbs like the flamegloves and sootleaf which can be used in potions and also had a few glimpses of the fire spouting from the ground and once a lava chunk that fell through the air. It frightened them as the damage from such a thing would be fatal to the players. Shadow had slowly had them get to the places of these environmental hazards as there was a high chance of finding ores at these places. The others were afraid to get closer, but Balthazar knew that there was no chance of another hazard close to the vicinity of a previous one in a short frame of time. So, he went to the place to check. He wasn''t very lucky and got only a few copper ore and a silver ore. Though the rest of the team were impressed by these, Shadow was not. He had seen better results in his past life, and he didn''t yet find any fireglows. "I think we should also concentrate on the Welog town and the place. This is like a treasure trove. We couldn''t find copper on sale and we got both copper and silver along with a few unknown herbs," suggested Perennial Light as they were checking the area. "No, this is just the outskirts and we are a small team. When more people come in large numbers to farm here, the reaction from the native life here would be large. It is best to not involve the guild in it. There will a number of deaths and the place will be much hotter during the day and will be impossible to stay here without fire resistance. Magical classes will find it hard as all strong spells need a few seconds to cast them, but the fire damage will continuously interrupt you," explained Shadow. "I have tried to be here during the daytime, and I suffered fire damage during last few hours of the day time, so believe me it is a waste. There will be high level beasts even ones with level 30 and 40 as we go a bit closer to the volcano. We will simply waste our experience if we farm here. So, it is best to do this at night. We can have a few players get reputation in this town, even get a good number of players posted here, but don''t go deep into this area in large numbers," warned Shadow. After that they continued for another 5 to 10 minutes when Slaine finally spotted a salamandrid which popped out of the ground in the area which they had already crossed. "Found a salamandrid. It is level 19 and 2-metre-long," informed Slaine in their chat. They quickly moved back towards the location of the salamandrid. There were two fireglows that were already hovering over it. "That is very large, and it will be hard to kill it," said Rudra looking at the beast. "Can we just capture the two fireglows and escape?" "Once we capture the fireglows the salamandrid will attack and follow us. It is quite fast when it is aggravated and capable of jumping long distances. It won''t be possible to get rid of it easily or quickly which only makes it more difficult for us in this environment," said Shadow. "I will take lead with Roll to capture the fireglows. We need to get into stealth capture them at a time,else we will lose them. When you are ready, we will count to three and capture them at a time.," said Shadow as he took out the other net he had brought from store and gave it to Roll along with a contaner. "Don''t let the net touch the body of the salamandrid. It will burn up." "After you two capture the fireglows?" asked Slaine. "Roll gets away and I will attack it temporarily. I will give the signal when you guys need to attack. Just be ready and don''t attack till I give the signal. Aim for its head," said Shadow. He went into stealth along with Roll and a few seconds later the pair of them were behind the salamandrid. They ended up catching the two fireglows while salamandrid attacked them and a couple of seconds later, Shadow had moved away and used the same method as always to cut up its belly when it jumped at him. He immediately called for the others who rained their attacks on the salamandrid. The salamandrid was level 19 and his attack had caused less damage on it, but the beast had a big enough cut on its underside to hinder its movements like it happened before. Though his own attack didn''t cause as much damage as before, the attacks from five others caused much more damage to it than he managed to individually. He followed up with his usual attacks on its head and then used the dynamite in meat to injure it further. This time the attack didn''t cause the same amount of damage as before, but the salamandrid still died under the attacks of the five players. "Might need to get better explosive designs if I plan to use it in this manner at higher levels," thought Balthazar as he realized that the dynamite caused less damage than before. He might have had to continue fighting it for at least double the time as the other salamandrids. "Dude! Are you a bit suicidal that you ran in its direction, when it jumped at you?" asked Brick. "Even a guardian would be crushed by that monster." "Its underside was its weak point. I can''t think of a better way to kill it faster," replied Shadow. "Still, that was a bit reckless. It also made a lot of noise. I think it is better to injure its belly like you did and use that chance to escape from the next time," suggested Slaine. "Why? We got a great haul. Even got 140 experience points each. We were hardly getting a total of 400 points per beast when we killed in the forest," asked Brick who was cutting up the salamandrid corpse to forage for materials. Shadow only took the firestone and left the rest for the team. "Because it is taking time and the area is dangerous. The beast roared very loudly after the explosion in its body. We have managed to kill it but, I already see an ash panther in one direction and cinder wolves in the other coming here due to the commotion.," explained Slaine. "We don''t want to fight them and might have to use our hearthstones to get away and return again." Chapter 184 - Back to Asklepian "What?! We just managed to get our first pair of fireglows," said Roll who had just collect one fireglow in a container and gave it to Shadow. "Do we really need to get back to the city?" "The ash panther is it alone?" asked Shadow. "Yes. The cinder wolves are a pack of ten or more. They are converging from opposite sides along the edge of the forest like us," replied Slaine who was still perched on a tree checking the surroundings using his scope. "Can''t see anything else on the ground or skies for now." "Move in the direction of the panther. Get into the forest area a bit. Roll you go and scout while keeping an eye on the ash panther. I will try and distract the ash panther. Keep a look on me. If it looks like I am failing get back to the city," said Shadow. "Else move further in that direction as we have previously planned. I will join you later." "We can help you. You don''t need to take on the panther alone," suggested Rudra. "No. I plan to use a doppelganger skill to distract it and none of you guys compare in movement speed to me. Even, I might have to use some fireworks to escape," said Shadow. "There is a high chance of it realizing and following you back," said Slaine. "Yes. That is why I plan to lead it to the cinder wolves and use explosives to create a fight. If it were some other set of beasts on the other side instead of ash panther we would need to give up. All the cat type beasts attack everything in their view without discrimination. Ember horn deer will move in groups and it is hard to fool an entire herd to attack. Firehawks would simply notice my real form escaping from the sky. If it isn''t ash panther, I would have no thoughts of continuing either," said Shadow. "Ok. Fine. Let him try it out," said Rudra before the rest suggest anything else. "Got a few smoke bombs. They have a radius of 3 metres and would persist for 5 seconds. You might be able to use them for this," he added giving a few shadow bombs to Balthazar. Shadow separated from them to pursue the ash panther. He was being directed continuously by Slaine who had been observing the ash panther with his scope and also the nighthawk which he bought recently. He had to attract the attention of the ash panther and not let the cinder wolves and ash panther meet at the site of the dead salamandrid whose sounds attracted them as his team would definitely be noticed and attacked by them if the beasts hear them walking. So, they moved a certain amount of distance towards the direction of the ash panther and hid behind some shrubbery or climbed a tree and stopped their movement to avoid any noises. They had to be fast in all their preparations as the panther reached close to them within 30 seconds. Shadow went directly in the path of the ash panther instead. The beast roared and followed him immediately. He quickly led it towards the cinder wolves. The wolves were also alerted by the roar of the panther and started running towards him. Shadow had expected that this might be the situation and had already used his Shadow clone which he had hidden and instructed to get away. He had expected to meet the cinder wolves in 20 seconds or so, but the wolves were already in his view in half the time. He quickly used a smoke bomb on himself when all of them started to attack him and began to attack both the panther and the wolves for a couple of seconds before swapping with his clone. He had lost a quarter of his health in the two seconds when he fought them in the smoke which showed how much the beasts overwhelmed him. The ash panther attacked the cinder wolves and his clone without any discrimination as he had expected. After their narrow escape they continued with their attempt for another hour and half. They had managed to collect few more herbs and ores and four other fireglows in this time before a cast of firehawks noticed them. They decided to immediately withdraw and used their hearthstones to teleport as soon as they noticed the flying beasts which were all above level 20. "How many fireglows do we have in total?" asked Rudra as they convened at the city. Though they wished to stay at the fringes of the forest and volcanic area, they got quite a good haul and all of them managed to get to level 16. It was a good use of time of night. Most of the night-time was usually spent by them on secondary professions. Most players other than ones who are good or those who professionally develop their secondary professions wouldn''t be very good at them and could only get a meagre amount of experience for the time spent on it. They could only use to practice fight at the colosseum in the night if they didn''t want to spend on secondary profession. So, the trip they made is still better than any other thing they could do when they compared the experience they gained. They made way to a nearby hotel and took a room to discuss it privately. "Ten. There are ten of these. Five with each of the nighthawks would actually provide a decent amount of lighting even if the birds fly above the trees," said Shadow. "We can continue farming in the forest." "I don''t think the light will be useful even if we have five in a container. We need the intensity of the light to increase if we need to be able to see from above the trees," said Slaine. "I know. The only way the intensity increases is with the growth of the insects or when they are feeding or in proximity of food they eat," said Shadow pulling out the past made from salamandrid meat that the master tamer had fed the fireglows before. "The reason for having them grouped is somewhat silly, but I want to try," started Shadow. "I heard that fireflies in real world tend to glow their brightest when they eat or mate. So, when I noticed that it was glowing brighter at the pet store when it was being fed, I decided to try and check if the other thing also works as this game is quite close to real-life. Thus, I wanted to have them five in each of the containers to play the odds as I got no way to distinguish between male and female." "Hahahaha," laughed Roll which was soon followed by the others. Shadow''s thoughts did indeed sound very ridiculous, but they didn''t know that the game was actually designed to mimic as many features of the real world known to man as possible. Even the minor behaviour patterns. Not only of insects, but also the beasts like panthers. Most wouldn''t focus much on it right now, but later such thoughts would be considered logical by most who played the game. "Dude! I don''t know what to say about that," said Slaine as he controlled his laughter. In the meantime, Shadow also realized that it wouldn''t be possible for them to accept such a statement. So, he had already took out the containers and the pooter and started to move all of the fireglows to a single container. By the time he moved the seventh one, the intensity of the light from the container suddenly increased. "You guys satisfied," said Shadow as he left the seven in one container and transferred the other three into another container. "I am not sure of the exact mechanics of the game, but there are some similarity always between these monsters and real-life beings," he continued as he tied the container to a leg of his nighthawk as he fed it. He had also gathered some of the meat from some other beasts that they killed and fed it to the nighthawk. The manager of the pet store had already told them that insects and meat of higher levels are the best food for nighthawks. They would help them grow faster but would not be ready for use for few hours after feeding. The feed the shop sold was also good, but could only be given in limited quantities just to keep the pets loyal to their masters. "Let us take some time off. Play in the colosseum or go try to craft some stuff. The beasts will calm down after an hour or so. Once, the firehawks start searching for pray, they don''t give up soon and hover around for a few hours," said Shadow. "We can continue to farm in the forest with the fireglows that we already have," said Brick confused by Shadow''s words. They had had a decent increase in their experience points lately and wanted to pursue it. The time, they spent on killing fireglows if they put it in farming in the forest would certainly get them more experience points as they had to avoid most beasts in the area before. If they farm in the forest, they could get an advantage over all other players. "One light source is not enough. If we are attacked by a horde and one of the beasts takes down the nighthawk, we would all die soon after without proper light. Having the light on us will not be any good either as we will be a target instead and it will be very hard," said Shadow. "We also need to bet more pets like the python which Perennial bought to have them guard the birds. Some pets for defense and lastly, we need to upgrade the pets and help maintain them at the same level as us. Else, they wouldn''t be much useful. So, feed them some meat or whatever helps before we take breaks at night and do the same in the morning." "Can we at least try it out once. We can surely get back the lost experience points, if we hunt at night carefully afterwards," said Perennial having a sip of the drink that he ordered. Even the others were thinking the same as him though they didn''t voice it out. "Man. You guys are not thinking this through. Soon, others will also realize it. By that time, we still need to have this as our advantage over the others. The only way for it to be possible is to do it like this. Apart from that, you guys just got leveled up. Use the night to fight in the colosseum," said Shadow. "You also need practice for PvP. You need real-life fighting skills in this game and that requires a lot of practice. We intend to participate in competitions defeat other players," said Shadow as he looked at Rudra and the others. "We started a new guild with the aim to make it a first-rate guild or better." "Fine, I understand," said Rudra. "We need some time. Some play time in the colloseum or a workshop would give us time to think about the issue we had at the forest due to lack of light and help us improve. It is good to have some practice." "I would also suggest you guys to buy pets and make use of them in PvP. If both players accept use of pets the system would probably allow," said Shadow. "Try it out. It will help with the teamwork. This is just temporary. I have already been working to develop a proper training centre for the guild. Some of my family''s scientists are also on my payroll currently to help with it. We will get a proper training ground soon." "You have an expert who can help train our players?" "Working on it," said Shadow. He hadn''t yet got a decent response from Rodrigo who told him that he could contact few of his old mates for the job. "I have some issues with convincing them. They kind of look down on virtual reality and games. It is hard considering their experience." The others got up and went to out of the room after they had some refreshments. Balthazar also followed out after some time and went to the market. He had forgotten about something very important which he realized as he checked the pets tab when he fed the nighthawk. He could equip pets with armor or enchantments. He couldn''t find these at pet store, but NPC forgers and enchanters would definitely sell them. He spent about half an hour searching before he finally found an enchanted collar which could be used by his pet. After that he went to the forging room. He had gotten another design from the Hammer before and he went to spend some time forging a few more of the designs that he had. A few hours later, they went again to capture a few more fireglows. This time, the team had bought more pets. Each of them got an owl or other pets. In another four hours, they managed to capture a total of 18 fireglows, enough for three individual sources of light and pulled back to the forest. They continued to hunt in the forest for the rest till Shadow received a notification that someone was trying to contact him from outside. "You guys continue. I am being called outside the game," said Shadow as he logged out of the game. The ship had already been back to Asklepian. Robert had also removed his headgear and was waiting for him. "Come on," said Robert. "We are back at the mansion. We passed the trial. Thinking that a small celebration is in order." "Seriously? Is it necessary?" asked Balthazar. "Yes. At such times, a small celebration is expected. I may be in troubles that the others aren''t, but I can''t just completely change my behaviour. My friends and other will find it unusual and will try to dig further or put more pressure. Neither of which is good for me. So, Richard suggested that we have a small celebration," said Robert. "Moreover, I have also invited Yerman Lewis. He is the kind that doesn''t usually miss a party." Chapter 185 - News of family "Yerman Lewis?" "The old man that Leon suggested you pursue to help train the guild," said Robert. "He is going to be attending the party. He loves parties. You can talk to him about your proposition during the party. I will introduce you." "Couldn''t have a better time for the party then," said Balthazar happily as he remembered about him. "I will surely attend it. Can I invite someone too?" "Yes, of course. The celebration is for the both of us. You surely need to invite anyone you want," said Robert. "Cool. So, when and where?" asked Balthazar. "Well, I was thinking of tomorrow evening. Give both of us enough time to call whomever we want to," said Robert. "Richard had apparently already thought about this and booked the Ambrosia hotel. He says it is a chance for me to meet with others in the family and people who support Walter." "That sounds good. He seems to have everything planned out for you," said Balthazar. "Ya. I don''t know what Walter told him to do, but he seems to be a lot more concerned about me gaining influence in the family than even Walter," said Robert. "He had already taken the liberty to call quite a few members whom he wants me to meet. I will send you a mail to invite people. You can send invites to anyone whom you want to attend." They got out along with Lucius, Richard and Salazar and went to the mansion together. Robert, Lucius and Richard went to their own rooms, but Salazar took Balthazat to Winston who was waiting in his office for him. "Congratulations! I heard that you performed very well and the recommendation that Harek gave to you," said Winston hugging his grandson as soon as he entered Winston''s office. "I hope you can reconsider and compete for the vacant position instead of supporting your cousin." "Grandpa. I already told you. If it had been some other time, I wouldn''t have any issue with it, but there are things that I need to do. To make sure that our safety is guaranteed. It is best that you let me work on that. I still have a lot of time to take on the position of an elder. Even, if I fail to be an elder, I promise you that I within a few years I will have the influence of one," said Balthazar. "Fine," said Winston giving up. "You and your sister are so stubborn. I thought your parents were bad when they were young. You two are much worse and are getting completely beyond my control. Tchah." "I don''t have time for the family politics, grandpa. Don''t I have you for that and later I will have Winston looking after my back. By the way, I never expected that the evaluators would be your friends and you to be manipulating the situation to improve the trials. Using their own schemes against them. What do I have to worry about when someone like you is look after me. Those corrupted and rotten elders will really have a hard time after this. I think you are the one who deserves congratulations more than me," said Balthazar. "Hehe," laughed Winston. "I did show them the consequences of their chicanery, didn''t I? The new format and suggesting them to improve would finally make the young ones to actually strive than depend on their fathers and family." "You need to be careful though," said Winston. "When are you planning to attempt to get the information that you have promised Evelyn. I haven''t seen any movement from you till now." "I had a few plans before, but now I need to change them. I need to know about a few details of your operation against the Nirbaadh pirates," said Balthazar. "You had plans against them?" "They were the closest link that I had to the ones that attached me and others. I had plans to have someone infiltrate through them. Didn''t expect that you would be able to deal such an attack to them. Any news about Dave?" asked Balthazar. "No. That Dave guy is a mystery. We don''t have the slightest clue about him. Even Rupert who infiltrated them never heard the name. He managed to get us the identities of all lieutenants and important personal of the pirates, but he didn''t manage to hear the slightest of that person," said Winston. "Might be someone only the captain and his closest keep contact with. But it could also be an alias. He is powerful enough to represent or supervise for the knights, he is no ordinary person. You should be careful if you plan to deal with him." "Don''t worry. I will take care of that. By the way, there is a party tomorrow for the pair of us having completed our trial. Can you come?" asked Balthazar. "I am sending an invite to Bolena too, but I doubt if she would spare herself from her work." "I tried to get her back when the incident with pirates happened, but she insisted on staying there. So, I doubt it would be of much use," said Winston. "I will be coming there in time. I will have talk with Richard and I think it is a good opportunity for you to show and give confidence that you have completely recovered physically and mentally and announce that you are not going back to the military immediately just because you were given a new posting and wanted to spend some time with your family after having been on the frontier for close to five years." "Do I need to announce all that?" asked Balthazar feebly. "I will announce it or Richard. It will be better that way," said Winston. "Have it your way. So, why did you call me?" "I heard from Lucius that you were concerned about the Nirbaadh pirates. So, I wanted to warn you. You were already planning on getting to them or the Rowleys. Concentrate on the Rowleys but forget about the pirates for now. There are things that I can''t say. So, I hope you will heed my warning and keep your distance. It is best if you avoid the topic or just stick to the story that the alliance has released in the new," warned Winston. Balthazar didn''t give any expression of disappointment or dissatisfaction for which Winston had hoped for. "Ok, but just answer me one thing. How did you manage to attack them? I know that our forces couldn''t be mobilized enough to do it. So, just tell me who was responsible for this. And don''t give crap that the Price family did it. It has far too many politics to mobilize enough force to deal such an attack," said Balthazar. "I knew that you would avoid this, but it seems that you are bent on looking into it," said Winston as he isolated the room''s communication systems. "You didn''t hear this from me. You will never talk about it, inform or suggest any one about it or take any action on it. I am telling you just so that you won''t get into any danger. Can you promise me that?" asked Winston. "Yes." "The attack is from a completely new party or organization. No one knows about its allegiances, collaborators, agenda or enemies and they are very powerful. According to Walter, most of their deaths were only because they tried to take the captain alive, else they would have killed the entire pirate crew and none would have escaped. The worst part is that your other grandfather might also be involved." "What?" "That is why it is being kept under wraps. He was supposed to be dead, but he was observed to be very healthy. Moreover, they are definitely not with the knights of the old republic as the pirates were under their employ. It is an enigma," said Winston holding Balthazar by his shoulders. "You need to stay away. Understand." "I do," nodded Balthazar. His mind was all in fuzz. He had been fine till now. He had been told that his other family had been gone and he never had any hopes of seeing them alive. He only thought of finding out about them to keep himself, Bolena and Robert safe. Now, with the new information he learned, a lot of thoughts started to move through his mind. Winston also noticed the state of his grandson and seated him down. He brought a glass of water and a pill. Balthazar took the water and refused the pill. "I just need some time," he said taking a deep breath. "Take as much time as you need," said Winston taking another seat beside him as he held his hand. After a couple of minutes, he finally nodded to Winston and took back his hand. "I am all right," said Balthazar. "Just finding it hard to believe that he could be alive. This raises a lot of questions. Any chances that other members are alive? How come he.. Aargh. I don''t know where to start," said Balthazar at a rapid pace whilst he pulled on his hair. "I don''t know where to start, where to end, what to do." "Calm down," said Winston. "You don''t need to do anything. Just stay put. We will handle this. Walter had talked to him during his youth. Let us find out what happened. The entire family considers this a priority." "All right. I will let you guys take care of it, but please inform me of any updates," requested Balthazar. "I will inform you of anything that I come to know. If they are friendly, Walter already intends to inform him about you, Bolena and Robert. But be prepared for bad new and don''t expect the things to happen anytime soon," said Winston. "I will take my leave then," said Balthazar as he made his way to his room. Salazar accompanied him till his room and noticed that Balthazar looked quite dispirited for someone who just passed the trial and is having a celebration the next day. He went to his bed, took a sleeping pill which requested from the butler and laid down to sleep. He had tried to calm his mind by sleeping but that wasn''t very successful either. He kept getting a nightmare of his parents dying. Withing an hour, he was wide awake and knew he wouldn''t get anywhere sleeping at this time of the day. So, he decided to put his mind to something else. He sent some invites for the party to D.i.c.k, Rodrigo, Bolena, Sophia and a few other whom hoped would come. The ones that he wanted to meet. After that, he went ahead and sent another mail to Rodrigo to request him to provide some help with getting expert''s names soon. Then, he decided to get back into the game and have some time PvP to divert his attention. Slaine and Rudra immediately called him back to join them in their hunting in the forest as they were notified when he was online. The past two hours that he had spent out of the game were six hours during which they had used to get more experience. They didn''t want to explore and move towards the direction of the Jarko town. Though the light was enough for hunting in the forest, it was only because they knew the place and the kind of monsters. To explore they should be ready to go against new types of monsterrs, they needed a lot more light and vision than what the fireglows could provide. He had previously used a disguise to call for PvP fights in the colosseum, but he decided to remain with the same attributes. With the last hell mode clear by the Blazing Fury, rumours already began to spread that he was a busy man in real life and couldn''t spend as much time as a professional. So, many started to think that he would soon not be able to maintain his levels and he was sure quite a few would be willing to fight him. The important thing was that he wanted to work on team fights. The colosseum was being used for both one-on-one and team fights by various guilds and groups. Till now, he had just reserved rooms to fight one-on-one, but he decided to try out teamwork. He had contacted Blazing fury about it. Merlin, Quiet fire were busy in their secondary occupations and told him that they wouldn''t be able to come, but there were already a few who were participating in team battles. Team fighting mode had a different kind of options, from two person per team to even ten. There were different ranking boards that could be used for the teams, which would be named usually after their guilds or teams. Though one could form teams of different numbers, most players would form teams that had five or three as the competitions were usually held in that format. He soon met up with them. Tetsujin, Tang, Sultan and Griff were the ones who contacted him. They had already been participating in battles as a team of four, but they didn''t have many others to fight with as they were in a group of four. With him, they would become a 5-man team which was one of the two most popular groups and had a lot of players participating. So, they immediately responded to his request and were waiting for him at the colosseum entrance. "How come you guys don''t have others along with you? I heard that you four were the only ones from Blazing Fury here," asked Shadow as soon as he met them. "It is Merlin. He had been insisting all night the importance of having secondary occupations. He insisted that we concentrate on them during the night and only spend a third or less in the colosseum," answered Tetsujin. "Well, one can''t argue against that logic. It is quite true," said Shadow. "So, you guys don''t have any secondary profession or don''t want to work on it." "We don''t want to work on it. It is hard to promote a secondary profession. Without decent recipes and designs, it just becomes worse. Those things are getting harder to find," said Sultan. "There is a limit to it and it is very hard to spend half the time on secondary profession, but quite a few members of the team actually are good at multiple secondary professions." "Hmm," nodded Shadow raising his brows. With the nature of the game being quite close to real-life, it was hard to pursue secondary professions by most players. But the similarties between some of the professions allowed players to correlate and improve faster at both. "So, what is the deal with the team?" he asked. "What?" "Everyone is a physical attack class. There are not long-distance attackers, except for Sultan who can use one or two," said Shadow. "How did you even play all this time?" "Oh! It was a bit hard. Sultan has bought a scouting pet which helped a bit, but you find very few players making four-man teams," said Tang. "Didn''t really have much of competition." "Its fine. It would help us improve our cooperation and tactics," said Shadow. "That''s what they said," said Tang pointing to Sultan and Tetsujin. Chapter 186 - Rules of engagement "Come on, it will be a good experience. We want to participate in competitions, and this is the best way to improve our technique and teamwork," said Sultan. "It will be very hard with all physical classes, but we always need to be able to get close to attack them and a team made of completely based physical classes would help us," agreed Shadow with Sultan''s words. "Dude, we had to keep blocking the attacks continuously and half the fights involved us forcing them to deplete their mana. It was not much useful," said Tang. "Well, we will change our tactics then," said Shadow. "Not tactics, exactly but impose some rules of engagement when fighting our opponents." "What can we change?" asked Griff who calm all this time. "I can hardly think of any method. Mages and archers keep attacking us from a distance, the only good thing is that Sultan and Tang have high defences and Sultan could heal while Tang keeps using her skill to jump among them to disrupt their formation." "Ok, let us make a few changes first," said Shadow. "Let us all separate and try to attack from different sides. No one stays together." "Suicidal," said Griff to which the others nodded. "You don''t lose any experience in the damn thing. What is the problem?" asked Shadow. "Combat points. We will lose combat points for every match we lose," said Tang. "How many of those did you actually use?" asked Shadow. "None, but we are saving them up," said Griff. "OK. You all have shields?" asked Shadow. "I don''t. The others do," responded Griff. "The fighting is quite similar to real-life. If we are to get any decent advantage in competitions, we can''t make rolls and evading jumps like we usually do in other games. Even blocking with our shields isn''t the best practice. Of course, we need to learn to block while handling monsters because there are different factors as we are not sure of their numbers and other things, but in PvP we will always have a decent amount of information about the other team," said Shadow. "All projectiles or magic spells follow trajectories. Just try to bend your body or move the minimum so that those attacks will only miss by a few inches and you don''t deviate from your path towards your enemy. As physical attackers, we have don''t always block with our blades but try to avoid other swords by a small amount and attack all the time with monsters, right?" he asked. "That is different. They have patterns and they don''t make feints," said Griff. "It is true, but since we have already been able to do it with them, we can do it with these too. Some have already been trying to improve using those techniques. We need to be able to do it," said Tetsujin. "Even if we don''t want to be in competitions and develop completely as an adventurer team that earns through playing the game and gaining resources, if we aren''t capable of fighting others, we won''t be able to keep anything that we find or hunt except scraps. So, actually it is not a bad idea." "Seriously!?" "He ain''t wrong. There is no point in training in weaker and easier methods if we actually want to be a strong adventurer team. I am ready," said Sultan. "Come on, it is not bad. We will just try it and see for a few rounds. If it doesn''t work, we can change," said Tang. "Ok. Cool. Now that we are find with that, the second thing is that we should try to avoid helping others as much as possible at least in the starting of the fights," said Shadow. "I mean to say that we only try to employ working as a team if someone has lost more than 80% of their health. We don''t try to finish the opponents faster by combining forces or attacking one-on-two." "How are supposed to improve our teamwork, if that is not allowed. If we find someone isolated and there are a pair of us, it is best that we attack together to finish them off," said Sultan who found the second part a bit ridiculous. He was always trained by his family to use teamwork and improve his coordination with his teammates as much as possible to take down opponents faster. "I don''t mean that way. Let me rephrase that. If we manage to kill off a member or two of the team, we will not corner the remaining together and pile up upon them. At least not as soon as we finished our previous fight. We will only rescue our teammate when he is in low health state. I am suggesting this because, if a player is unable to kill his opponent faster or giving trouble, it is a good opportunity for the player and it is best to let him have some practice before he is really in trouble. I would even suggest that we don''t help him, if he asks us not to interfere. Though teamwork is necessary, it is best to let one struggle and improve in the colosseum. Individual capabilities also need to be improved and we need to take every chance we have," said Shadow. "That is all nice and well, but I thought you told that it was a good way to improve our teamwork," said Griff. "How about changing it a bit further. We only use this when the opponent is also separated and make it something like we can''t have more members fighting at a time than the opposing team, when some of their members died," suggested Sultan. "Sure, as good an idea as any other. I am just suggesting these for now. We can change and modify as we see fit after every game," said Shadow shrugging his shoulders. "Just want to use this to provide more pressure." "That''s right. You guys are all taking this too seriously," said Tang. With that they soon went into the colosseum, paid and registered as a team of five. They were given an initial team points of 10. The points are calculated on the number of wins and losses of the team similar to that of a single man PvP, but when the players lose or they decide to end the matches, they each get combat points equal to the team points that they have. Their first opponents were a group of a warlock, an assassin, an elementalist and two guardians in a forest map called Bramble woods. They would be informed of their opponents'' names and occupations. They would not be informed of the other''s locations. "Do we really need to stick to those rules," asked Tang. She had kept a brave facade during their discussion but when the actually started the match and their opponents had to mage classes, she started to wonder if it was the best thing to do. "Yes," said Tetsujin. "I want to tussle with a guardian. I think it is time, I actually practice with my original occupation rather than use a great sword like a berserker," he continued as he put back the weapon that Shadow had crafted into his bag and pulled out a pair of tonfas. "If anyone finds a guardian inform me, I will take him on." "Let us move ahead then," said Sultan. "Spread out all of you. Inform if you find multiple opponents. As it is the first time, let us take it a bit slow." "I am going into stealth. Dibs on a guardian. Best of luck," said Shadow as he disappeared into the forest. It was always hard for him to fight a high defence classes. They spread through the map informing of their general location periodically, so that more than one wouldn''t be searching in the same area. A couple of minutes later, Griff was the one who responded with the location of the opponent. "Found an elementalist and guardian. They are at the North-west and moving further west. Others might be nearby. I can''t see anyone else," said Griff. "I am close. Will join you. We will attack together," responded Sultan. A few seconds later, the opponent pair noticed Sultan first and attacked him. Griff who was observing them with a scope also got stabbed in the back by the assassin making him unable to help Sultan. He was actually in a worser situation that Sultan. The assassin continued to attack him as he was put in a stunned state by the backstab for two seconds. It was much worse than Sultan who could at least block the attacks with his shield. Moreover, Griff was one who developed a strength build and didn''t have very high health. The assassin could also have other stun skills which he could compound on him after he used a couple of strong attacks. Just a second after the assassin started his attack, it suddenly stopped. "I used cheap shot on him. He will be in stun for three seconds after you are out of it," said Shadow in his ear. "Use it to get rid of him. I will support Sultan." He ran into the elemantalist, took out an axe and locked the elemantalist''s wand with his axe and pushed him from behind the guardian cover towards Sultan who was slowly moving towards the guardian. "The guardian is mine," he informed as started his fight. Sultan had already started a close quarter fight with the elementalist. Once, he was close enough, he was hardly hit by any attacks of the elementalist who moved to a defensive attack Without other options, the elemantilst use skill such as light shield and flame explosion near him which would cause damage to both of them, but with Sultan''s defence and endurance, he was on the losing side. The guardian who was covering for the elementalist was in the worst state. Shadow hadn''t even used any specific assassin skills on him and just fought with his axe. He held down the shield of the guardian and crippled that shoulder making all usual shield skill of the character useless. After that he kept hacking at the guardian''s head and when the guardian used the other hand, Shadow used the chance to cripple that arm too. The guardian player was out of commission in two seconds, after which Shadow kicked him down flat on the ground and a with four repeated hits to his neck, he killed him. "Speed up. I am done with mine," said Shadow to Sultan and Griff. The pair of them were still fighting with their opponents and were quite surprised. Then, they looked at the axes in his hand and were even more surprised and recalled Merlin informing them that he was an expert in real-life and would be proficient in multiple weapons. Griff who had his opponent stunned and during that duration crippled had a good chance to look at Shadow''s fighting technique. The way, he crippled the guardian before brutally killing him convinced him of Merlin''s words if he was doubtful before. But he did realize that it was a very good way to fight and him being a strength build had better chances to use similar tactics to halt a guardian from covering others. With the assassin in stunned state, Griff was able to deal very high damage to him. As an assassin, he would naturally have more speed but low on health. Withing the three seconds, he was put in a red state with less than 20% of his health and put his opponent''s leg in a crippled state. He had a sudden urge to try to use the same style as Shadow to cripple and kill, but he felt that it was a waste when the opponent was already at the end of his life and crippled. Griff realised that his heavy weapon might not be the best method to attack without using system provided skill for the berserker, especially if he wanted to perform at a same level as Shadow. He still was finding it hard to believe that Shadow had managed to take down a guardian in the same time he took to kill an assassin. "I thought that you use those daggers," said Griff come close to Shadow as he watched Sultan fight his opponent. "I am just practicing with other weapons too. It is good practice for real-life and helps improve my control. Always using the same, wouldn''t be good for my improvement," said Shadow. "It would also help me understand the perspective of other fighters and helpful to forge original weapons and also my success rate." "Hmm, I don''t know much about forging, but I think it would help me understand the perspective of other fighters. I do use both spear and great sword as weapons," said Griff. "How about we exchange our weapons. I have silver level 15 spear that I am not using," he said as he pulled out a spear and held in front of Shadow. [White Splitter] (Silver Two-handed spear) Level 15; Requirement: Strength: 50; Attack Power +65; Active Skill: Light Slice: The tip of the spear is covered in a bright light which increases piercing damage by 40 and 50% increase of causing a bleed damage of 5 HP per second. Duration: 20 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Durability: 40/40; "This is the weapon given to the White Bane Corps," said Shadow as soon as he saw the weapon. Their weapons have a specific design that looks like a fractal of a snowflake on their handles. He didn''t ever see the specific weapon, but the design gave it away. "You already have this?" asked Griff surprised. He had to finish a very hard quest to get this spear and reputation from the corps and thought that he was unique in this aspect. "No, I just know the design. I have been involved with them," said Shadow as he took the spear from Griff. "I only have bronze grade axes. Can''t provide you with silver grade ones," he said as he pulled out the axes and gave it to Griff. "Iron Axe?" asked Griff as he took them. "For a bronze grade axe, somebody likes irony." "We cool?" asked Shadow. "Didn''t think of that when I was naming it. Just named it that way because it was made completely of iron ore." With them having exchanged weapons they began to move them around to get used to them and tried to perform techniques which they had previously seen. Shadow had previously fought against a lot of players who used spears. He even fought against Lucius who used a long stick and few of those moves could be applied to a spear. They didn''t care about the others and continued to practice till Sultan joined them. "Tetsujin and Tang are fighting the last two. He is fighting the guardian and she already has the warlock at his end. It looks like their opponents managed to ambush them, but Tang used her weapon skill to crash into them," said Sultan who had been conversing with Tetsujin in chat. "Don''t care. I hope they kill them fast," said Griff and a second later an announcement came that their opponents forfeited the match. "What happened?" said Tang in the team chat. "The forfeited so suddenly. Did you guys already kill the remaining?" "Yes. Only you and Tetsujin were fighting," said Griff. "It is good. Let us go to the next one. We must also be careful to not be ambushed. They have ambushed all of us except Shadow in this round." "That is always hard. We will have to keep looking after our backs all the time," said Tetsujin. "It isn''t possible to always be aware of ambushes especially if there are assassins. We have no way to avoid them. Without mages, these things are going to be much harder than I thought. Our opponents in this match were also quite better than the previous ones." "It is expected as we have a 5-man team now. Let us continue with the same rules though. It is the best way to get used to this. It is good to learn how to react to ambushes," said Sultan. They were soon transported to another map that looked like a ruin on a hill for the next match. Chapter 187 - Need a crew They continued to play under the same rules as the first match. Though it was hard, and everyone had slightly felt that they were being too reckless about their combat points, everyone soon realized that there were a few improvements in their reflexes and the way of thinking in a fight. Shadow had been trying to replicate everything he had seen Lucius do with a spear in the fights. Having fought with Lucius for a few days, he had already taken the liberty to learn the basics of using long weapons. It didn''t have much effect on killing his opponents as he always started his attack from stealth and his high-speed coupled with a long weapon enabled him to deal enough damage to kill in a burst of attacks. News of his antics already came to be known in the colosseum and some players already started post in the forums. It was a very weird thing for an assassin to use a spear or any two-handed heavy weapon. The more shocking thing was that he was able to even take down Shield Guardians with it. Apart from him Tetsujin was also seeing a slight improvement in his fights and so did Tang and Sultan, but the best was from Griff who was able to use the axes with ease. He had taken Shadows rules and suggestion very seriously, replaced heavy armor from his chest with leather armor and only let the heavy armor on his limbs and head remained. Whenever, he came across long-distance attackers, he intentionally maintained distance trying to evade attacks by a low margin as suggested by Shadow and slowly improved. It wasn''t like all their attempts were successful. There have been instances where Tang, Tetsujin and Griff died in the fight. Only Sultan and Shadow were able to survive in all matches and they were quite good in supporting as well as individual fights. These two actually didn''t enjoy the fights much as they didn''t get to fight players who were strong or capable. After 32 matches, they heard the announcement that they had a continuous win streak of 32 and were ranked in the top 1000 of the kingdom. This was a good thing for all of them. Sultan and Shadow were happier as this put their names on the leader board and from now on there would be changes in the way the matches were arranged. All teams on the leader board could be challenged by other teams who were on the leader board or have ever been on it before. If their opposing team won, they would be given rank held by the losing team. So, there existed quite a bit of competition between them. Most teams who were confident of themselves would want to be known in the game or seeked fame would try to challenge them. Even other teams in the leader board would challenge them. They would be forced to accept challenges of at least ten teams ranked below them per day, if they wanted to keep their rank. But the good thing was that they can check the team details and choose. Moreover, challenging requires a team to spend 50 team points. They would be getting 30 team points from their opponent for each match they won, and the other 20 points would be reclaimed by the system. So, only the capable would usually challenge them and this was a good thing for them. They would get to experience fighting against better teams of the kingdom. Once, they have managed to finish their ten mandatory challenges per day, they would also get five chances to challenge others in the leader board for free. Losing to someone with a better rank would have no effect on their ranking. "We got into the leader board," shouted Tang in glee. "Isn''t this great we are going to get famous." "It is only going get harder after this," said Griff. "We will be targeted by many. We are a team with no members who can do long-distance attacks and I hear that there is already a post about Shadow using a spear. They will target us for the fame. I doubt that we can continue with the previous rules." "It doesn''t matter. We didn''t really have an intention to get into the leader board and maintain our position. It was just a happy coincidence," said Sultan. "At most we can try to separate into two groups, but not more than that." "Let us see the team composition of our opponents and see how we could do. It is best if we still fight individually. At most, we will lose the position, but we could still challenge others. We have amassed about 300 team points," said Tetsujin. "I am of the same opinion. We don''t need to be a team that would persist in the leader board. We won''t last long, nor will we reach the top without any long-distance attackers. We lack the balance to reach the top," said Griff. "Let us just enjoy the fights." "Was thinking of the same thing," said Shadow. "Did we receive any challenges yet?" he asked Sultan who was the team captain. "Ya. Our team composition is quite tempting to most. About 40 teams have already challenged us," said Sultan looking at his notifications. "Let us choose, some easier ones. It is true that these teams will be harder and more co-ordinated," said Shadow. "Got one with two mages, no archer," said Sultan. "Confirm. I hope that after a couple of matches, we take on the harder ones," said Tetsujin. "Don''t worry. The requests are still coming. I think we are quite famous," mocked Sultan as they were transported to a new map. The challenged could usually chose the map, but Sultan let it be randomly selected. They started in the usual way with all the five spread out in the map and soon Griff got into contact with the two other players. The opponents were also luckily non mages, which gave Griff a decent chance to persist while his reinforcements arrived. Soon, it ended up being a battle between all the members of the team. As they had expected their opponents had better coordination and were used to supporting one another. Any team which managed to reach the leader board once would have to be able to have decent teamwork else they wouldn''t be able to have managed to get their names on the leader board. They managed to win the round anyway, but it was getting clear that the teams were definitely stronger and only Shadow and Tetsujin managed to survive till the end. Their own team also suffered losses early, as the opposing team managed regroup faster and killed Griff even before all of their team managed to come close. Even though, Griff was the first to be taken out, he didn''t want to change the rules. Tang wanted to change it a bit as it was clear that other teams would be gain an advantage, if they continued in this manner. "I understand that the rules have their pros," said Tetsujin. "But it is of no use if we dies so quickly." "Yes, it is getting increasingly hard and it will give a chance to practice for long if we move in groups of two and three. Else, we are being bombarded by attacks even before we could have decent fight," said Tang. After some discussion, they decided to group into three teams, Tang and Tetsujin in one, Sultan and Griff in the other and Shadow alone as he is an assassin and it would be useless to have him move slowly in stealth beside them. But they did stick to the rule that if their opponents'' numbers were lower than theirs, they wouldn''t attack seriously but stall till the others came. The accepted challenges from other teams and their new changes proved useful in the subsequent matches. Soon, the finished they managed to finish the ten required matches for the day. All of them were tired. It was clear that fighting the other players was much harder than hunting. They decided to take a break and get away with the points. "We can resume after a few more minutes," suggested Griff. "I might need to get back to my place. There is going to be some revels at my place. I can''t miss them as my brother is expecting me and there is a chance that I may have to stay there for long. It is getting close to dinner and I can''t really avoid this," said Sultan. "It has been more than a day," said Shadow surprised that the Maliks would still be celebrating it. "There are still stragglers and our family along with the Khans are banding together to get rid of them. Might even be called to participate in the search frequently after this. I have already told Merlin about this issue," said Sultan. After Sultan took his leave, the others also decided to play PvP individually while Shadow contacted Rudra to join them in hunting monsters. Unexpectedly, Rudra and the others also have decided to take a break and started to work on their secondary professions. Slaine was still willing to continue, but Shadow refused and got out. After he heard Sultan that there were stragglers and his family was still in pursuit of them, he started to have new ideas. There was no response of Dave and Ryan Rowley had already reached out to him. It would be best if he could go ahead and make some preparations. That would enable him to have an advantage when he goes after Ryan. He checked his mail and found that there was a mail from D.i.c.k informing that he could collect them as soon as possible and he would be willing to get them to him tomorrow when he comes for the party. He hoped that Ryan Rowley''s package would reach him before the party as he might need to change his plans accordingly. He first needed to procure a plane and means to get around to other planets. He should be able to get to other planets and a crew that could help him move around. With Ryan Rowley contacting him, he might need to be able to move through planetary systems much faster than he anticipated. He realized that he hadn''t made any preparation for a crew till now. His first thoughts were to get some men from his family, but he realized that it would be very hard to keep things secret from his family if he did so. So, the only thing he could think of was to find someone who wasn''t involved with his family. He thought of D.i.c.k, but he had too many contacts with Bruce and even Winston. It might not be the best option. He thought for a long while and realized that the only contacts he had outside the family were military or his college friends whom he hesitated to ask. He finally decided to contact Sophia and spend some time talking with her to get rid of other thought from his mind. "Hi Col, how are you doing? You done with your trip?" asked Sophia who had been informed by Balthazar of his voyage to a different planet. "I am good. The trip has been quite eventful and was done quickly," replied Balthazar. "What are you doing?" "I am actually with you sister," said Sophia surprising Balthazar. "What?" "Yes, I have come here with Rodrigo to discuss with you sister about her new model of war frames being tested on the citadel. You remember. You have signed an agreement with her company," she replied. "I don''t. I don''t mean that. Is she beside you?" he asked. "Don''t tell her that it was me who called." She giggled loudly and informed him that she had moved away to answer the call. Though Sophia and Balthazar had only been talking these days in a friendly manner, she had long been clear that Balthazar had the intention to court her and she had the same intention. Thus, she was amused and like the fact that Balthazar was shy to let his sister know about it. "I will call you later, if it is nothing important," she said. "Wait! I have sent you an invite to a party. Since, you are close by I hope that you would be able to attend," invited Balthazar. "Oh yes, both Rodrigo and I are planning to attend your party. Did you really call me in the working hours for this?" asked Sophia. She knew a bit about Balthazar''s personality and he never disturbed her during working hours. Moreover, she was currently handling the affairs of the PK-170-B moon and citadel. So, she found it extremely unlikely that Balthazar would expect her to join him for a party that would take at least a day to reach when he didn''t even know that she was not at the citadel. "There was one other thing and it needs to be a secret. I am in need of a crew. Any chance you can send me some personnel and a ship?" he inquired. "Seriously, you want a ship and crew to pilot it without it being on paper? It might have been possible in other times, but currently my movements and everything is being watched by the brigadier. It would be very hard," she said denying his request. "Can''t you ask your family?" she asked. "Even your sister would be able to easily help you." "I told that it was a secret, right? I can''t let my sister, or my family know about my movements. They would try to impede my efforts," he said. "What are you doing, Balthazar?" she asked concerned. "The last time you kept secrets and found out about the invasion, you almost died. Do you really want to continue like that?" "I believe the secrets were the ones that allowed us to get them unawares Sophia," said Balthazar. "I need a reliable crew and without my posting it is going to be hard. That is why I called you." "That is true. If you hadn''t come to realize that our defences were down, we might have lost a lot more lives," agreed Sophia. "I am not sure, but I think that there is someone you know that might be willing to help." "Who?" "You remember, Herschel?" she asked. "The old garrison engineer who used to always fight with the brigadier about the quality of our equipment." "The frizzly haired dude who hated to explain operation of any equipment. The one who was asked to retire," guessed Balthazar as blue haired man''s image went through his mind. "Yes. He is currently running miscellaneous jobs mostly transport. He has a crew which are well armed and currently being used by Rodrigo sometimes to transport arms for his business," said Sophia. "I don''t really know him that well," said Balthazar who was not sure of Hershel White as he was known to be quite an eccentric by many people. "Really?! He says only good things about you. He also used to say that you followed the wrong path and your destiny was in tech," said Sophia. "You guys talked about me?" "Ya. At his farewell party. You were some training. He seemed to be quite impressed by you and wanted to take you under his wing at that time," said Sophia surprising him more. "Apparently, you are quite good in understanding the mechanics and tech. He also told that you gave of a honest vibe and truly believed in your career." "Wow! I never knew," said Balthazar. "I will get his detail from Rodrigo then. See you." "No need. He is already here." "Oh no, is my sister with him." "No. You talk with him," said Sophia as she included Rodrigo in the call. "Hi kid, what are you up to these days? I hear that you have been very busy for the past few days," said Rodrigo giving him a thumbs up. "Congratulations on the attack, kid. You are sure to be moving to the post of a brigadier general after that." "Thanks Sir. I actually wanted to talk to you about something that I need to continue in those efforts," said Balthazar. "About Hershel? I overheard the pair of you talking," said Rodrigo. "I shall send you the details. I would love to further talk to you, but we have a demonstration to go to." "Yes, talk to you later, colonel," said Sophia as she cut the call. Chapter 188 - ShadowCard "You guys seem to be quite friendly," said Rodrigo. "I didn''t realize that you were in such a relationship." "I really don''t want to talk about it," said Sophia. "That serious, ha?" asked Rordrigo. "Does my disciple know of our relationship." "No, he doesn''t, and I hope you keep it quiet from him, grandpa and also mom," said Sophia. "You know of my challenge with mom and she already thinks that you helped me. It will only get worse if she ends up knowing about him. "I hope you make some decision soon. He is a good lad and I approve," said Rodrigo. "Your father would also agree. Though he came from a good family, he is capable of staying safe and strong on his own. Can''t find a better suitor." "Stop talking about it," said Sophia as she walked ahead of Rodrigo who started laughing. He started to compose a mail copying the details of Herschel which Balthazar had asked for before following his granddaughter to get to the demonstration. Balthazar felt that he could pursue and check the man, but he also realized that whomever he chose, he had to keep his plans a bit secret from him. As he received the details of the would-be pilot and provider of a crew, he immediately called Herschel, but the man didn''t respond. So, he left a mail indicating his source and his need. Herschel was definitely a good way forward, but he knew that he couldn''t completely depend on him. He couldn''t be completely sure of their loyalty. He had another option which was his cousin Robert, but he wasn''t sure if his cousin could actually provide him with manpower and he didn''t want to involve Robert unless it was necessary. He doubted if Robert was prepared enough to get into such clandestine affairs. "No harming in trying out, right?" he thought as he went to his cousin''s room. As he knocked over the door, Richard opened it for him. Richard was informing him of the arrangements of the party tomorrow and has taken a chance to give him the basic knowledge of various important persons that would be coming and their interests and hobbies. To be on friendly terms with such people it was necessary to have a little idea about their demeanour and achievements. So, Richard was preparing Robert for it. "Ah, come in Bel. Richard, surely I can take a break for a few minutes, right?" asked Robert as he saw his cousin. "It is imperative that you be aware of these details, Robert. You have to understand that becoming an elder is just a start of competition between you and the other elders. You need to gather enough support or at least give the impression of a strong leader so that these influences would maintain a neutral stance in cases of conflicts between you and the other elders," said Richard. "I won''t take much time, Richard. I hope we could talk for some time alone," requested Balthazar. "Fine, I will be outside," said Richard as he went out the door. "Finally. Something other than remembering the lives of old men and women. Half of it was learning about which planets these guys managed to colonize or develop. I have half a mind to not attend my own party," said Robert. "So? What brings you here?" asked Robert. "You don''t come unless you want something. Especially at an important time like this. I don''t believe you just came to have a friend chat with me." "It isn''t like that. I would have enjoyed to have occasional friendly chat with you," said Balthazar. "But as you know I never really had the time. I had my studies and then had to deal with one issue or another." "And you still have troubles. They haven''t left us for a long time," agreed Robert. "In fact, you have noticed these for a long time before me and Bolena. We failed to even detect them even though we were elder to you." "So, what do you want?" asked Robert again. "I need a crew for travel. It needs to be secret and hidden from the eyes of Winston and the rest of the family. They wouldn''t appreciate it," said Balthazar. "I guess you don''t have access to the usual military personnel you had before the blast," said Robert. "No one to trust after the change of post?" "Yes. That is the main issue that I have," said Balthazar nodding his head. "When do you need it?" "If possible, tomorrow." "Tomorrow?!" "Yes." "Currently, I can''t. I need to at the very least become an elder. Without that I have no independent control, nor can I do anything. Everything I do is being monitored by Richard," said Robert. "I can in a few days after I become elder. Maybe?" "Ok. Forget it," said Balthazar realizing that he couldn''t get any help regarding this from his cousin. "But do make a team of people loyal to you. You will need them. You can get them with Walter''s help but make sure that they report to you alone." "I will try, but I fear that it might be impossible. Most would fear Walter than me if they are from his contacts. I can never command such loyalty in a short time," said Robert. "Yes, that is true if they are his direct friends and acquaintances, but look for their sons and daughters. They would want to make their own name and get their own fame. Right now, most planetary bodies have been captured, at least as many as possible. For any further advances, we need to wage wars and expand our borders. At this time, such people will look for expanding their influence and clearing the known bandits and influences against the alliance. You need to look for such candidates. As Walter''s grandson, they will expect you to have some information and influence which could be helpful against such elements. So, you need to attract the other forces with that in mind," suggested Balthazar. "Not possible," said Robert flatly. "Currently, I can''t do it. There are already a few elders against you for having brought the trouble of the Nirbaadh pirates. They are afraid of their retaliation. They know that you were responsible for the start of this and are already calling you a warmonger. It might not be sensible to openly support such an intention. It would hamper my chances. I need to take a diplomatic approach." "You already thought about all this?" wondered Balthazar aloud. "For some part, but Richard helped me get things in perspective. He has ways to know of the intentions and plans of the other elders. I don''t know his source of information, but he always is thorough and lets me get to the conclusions myself. So, I trust him and believe that is the best way," said Robert. "It might be true. These elders have become a bit unscrupulous having been in a state of peace for the past few decades," said Balthazar. If there weren''t any traitors or those who weren''t performing their duties and managing their territories strictly, their parent''s murderers wouldn''t have managed to escape without a clue. Even Winston suggested before that the elders have become increasing corrupted these past few years. "So, is that it?" asked Robert. "Mostly. I guess that I will have to look somewhere else," said Balthazar. "Is it urgent?" "Might be. I am not really sure, but wouldn''t hurt to be prepared," said Balthazar. "You did suggest me to get a team, but you could actually do the same. In fact, you have the reputation for it," said Robert. "My repute is that of a colonel, a military force. I can''t attract those that have political ambitions," said Balthazar. "You are kidding right?" asked Robert. "What?" "You are a colonel, but no one expects you to continue for long in the armed forces. Most think that you are our family''s influence in the military, and you have your loyalties with the family first. You have your own possessions and influence even if you are not an elder. They consider you more to be following the footsteps of Walter than me. Why do you think that Winston wants to announce about your good health in the party tomorrow?" "You know about that?" "Of course, I do," said Robert. "Richard is planning and maintain all security at the place. He did have to inform him, and he informed me of Winston''s intentions." "There might be a bit of truth to it. Even the higher ups at the military might think so. Especially after Evelyn and Xander came to know about the things that I hid from them," thought Balthazar. "So, you are suggesting that I do it on my own. I doubt that I would have the time for it. I would soon be back to work. It is hard to maintain those things once I am back in work. And I am pressed for time," said Balthazar. "Excuses. If you wan''t to do things at a fast pace none of these will work. Just find an already established group of freelancers. That is the best thing you can do," said Robert. "As long as you are willing to pay them, they wouldn''t care of the rest." "That is right. Why didn''t I think about this before? I just need a hired gun for now, but I must be able to pay them," said Balthazar. "Again, with the jokes. Tell them your name and many will willing join you. You are at the height of your reputation and you the grandson of the patriarch of the Blyth family. A family of medical professionals who are world renown. No one would suspect you lack money." "Yes. I have still been thinking with the mentality of my past life. I was disgraced and out of my family at that time. I had to show that I could pay people before anyone partnered with me," thought Balthazar. "I am not in the same state now." "Thanks, Rob. It was good talking to you. I will leave you so that you could continue your conversation with Richard," said Balthazar. "It is about eight at night. Fancy going to an early dinner?" asked Robert. "Sure." "My treat. Let us get to ambrosia," said Robert and they both walked out finding Richard waiting for them. "Dinner time, Richard," said Robert with a smile. "Ok. I will join you two. We can resume after dinner," said Richard. "Cool, we are going to Ambrosia," said Balthazar. "No. You are not. We are in a hurry, master Robert and you don''t have the time to waste on roaming around. We shall go to the dining hall and resume after that. I know that you are a bit frustrated with the present situation, but I insist that you will have to persist in your efforts," said Richard in a stern voice. "I will hear no objections." "Maybe another time," said Balthazar surprised that Richard would stop them like that. Robert also found it unexpected. Richard was never too pushy and gave him time to enjoy. So, he decided to let it go. After dinner, Balthazar went to his room and called D.i.c.k. He thought about Roberts suggestion and it felt like the best path he could take now. D.i.c.k responded immediately. He seems to be in a shuttle on move when he lifted the call. "What''s up dude? Did anything happen?" he asked in a serious tone. He had just sent a mail to Balthazar a couple of hours ago indicating that he would get to the party with the identity cards that Balthazar requested. So, he thought that something else might have happened for Balthazar to have called him. "Nothing happened. You coming tomorrow? I hope that you could bring Barbara and Bruce too," said Balthazar. "Bruce was already invited by Robert. Barbara and I will be there," said D.i.c.k. "You need something or is it just a social call. In that case, I would rather you call in a few minutes later." "I need an account in the ShadowCard," said Balthazar. "Nice joke. That is for clandestine agents," said D.i.c.k looking at Balthazar, but he didn''t find any change in Balthazar''s expression. It didn''t look like Balthazar was being sarcastic. He quickly parked the shuttle at a parking lot near a hotel. He took a device from his glove box and attached it to his wrist device as the picture blurred for a second and started up again. It was a way to prevent the call to be recorded. "You on a secure line? You are serious?" he asked. "I am. I need an account in the ShadowCard." "You want to put in a bounty, or you want to take one?" asked D.i.c.k. "You don''t need an account for putting a bounty." "I know D.i.c.k. I still want an account in the ShadowCard." "You don''t understand. Once, you are in ShadowCard you will have to take at the very least a few cases. It is mandatory. Those need to be improving in difficulty slowly else they will send men after you. There is no getting out of it, once you enter," said D.i.c.k. "You will be forced to live a life of an assassin or thief." "I know the details, D.i.c.k," laughed Balthazar. "I know that it is anonymous except to their leader. He will only be able to access it when the mandatory number of missions are not done. I also know that there have always been a few government personal in the alliance that have used these accounts to impersonate others. The ShadowCard will pursue the person who failed to perform, but I know the way, the loophole that could avoid that." "You have done your homework, huh," said D.i.c.k surprised that he already knew that the alliance had members using the organization for their purposes. "Wait! Wait! There is a loophole to avoid that." "Yes." "What is it?" "Can''t say that. It won''t be useful if the alliance knows it. No offence, but regarding such details, alliance clandestine services could be considered the world''s biggest gossip group," said Shadow. "Wow! Really?!" "Yes, and I am sure of that. The ShadowCard have ears in most places. One can''t be sure of loyalty these days and you know that I wouldn''t trust people easy," said Balthazar. "Why don''t set up an account on your own, then?" asked D.i.c.k. "That is simple. My duplicate identity. I need it to be done on my duplicate identity," said Balthazar. "One will need to swipe the ID card at the interface when creating the account and as I need it urgently, I am asking you. Else, I wouldn''t have informed you at all." "You didn''t think that I would set up the account on my original identity, did you?" continued Balthazar. "Even though only one person is supposed to be accessing my identity. I don''t want them to know of it. It is best to always have my identity covered." "Fine. I will set this account for you," said D.i.c.k. "Anything else?" "No. I hope that it will be done as fast as possible," said Balthazar. "Takes just a few minutes. I already have equipment ready to start," said D.i.c.k as he ended the call and made a call to Bruce. "What is it?" "The Blyth boy wants an account in the ShadowCard. He asked me to set it up on one of the duplicate accounts we set up," said D.i.c.k. "He also tells me that he knows a loophole that could avoid him being hunted if he didn''t meet his quota." "ShadowCard and the loophole. Are you sure?" asked Bruce. "He seemed pretty sure of it. I think he is in contact with one of the ten," said D.i.c.k. "There is only one way to get out of that right?" "It definitely wasn''t me. I can''t speak of the others. They would never let me know," said Bruce. "But it worth investigating whom he managed to get in contact with. Never expected him to have been involved in ShadowCard. I didn''t even know he was in contact with any member." "Walter. He was always in contact with Walter," said D.i.c.k. "Don''t waste your time. Walter knew of it, but he would inform me, if he wanted to tell such important information that he got from me. Could you confirm about his method?" "No. He insisted against informing me of it," said D.i.c.k. "He was adamant." "Well, at least he knows that it is to be kept a secret. It would be pain if that becomes public knowledge," said Bruce. Chapter 189 - Bounties "So, do I proceed?" asked D.i.c.k. "Connect to the site, swipe the card and press escape along F6, F9 and F11 and type in my name along with your wife''s middle name," said Bruce. "What for?" asked D.i.c.k. "Only the current president among the ten of us can check the details of the person when there is an issue, but if we are setting up an account there is a way for me to monitor the account by use of a temporary password," said Bruce. "You can monitor accounts like this?" asked D.i.c.k. "If we were actually setting up the accounts, we already are aware of the person''s identity and we were vouching for them. So, it makes sense that we are obviously given the option to monitor them," said Bruce. "Ok. I am done. Are you able to access?" "Yes. Branson Shades. That it?" asked Bruce. "Yeah. Do you have my account under surveillance too?" "Yes. But I don''t use it often. I came to trust you over the years, and I have my daughter to keep a look out," laughed Bruce. "I don''t care. So, what is your plan with him?" asked D.i.c.k. "I will keep a lookout for him. I owe that to Walter, and it is good thing that he supports us. It would make things much more difficult if our way of life is disturbed," said Bruce as he ended the call. D.i.c.k sent the details of the account to Balthazar and continued on his way in his shuttle. Balthazar had been waiting for D.i.c.k to respond and was glad to receive the details of the account. He needed a secure station to set up a few requests on ShadowCard. There are a bunch of issue with this. He couldn''t use his wrist band or any devices in the mansion for this. He could be monitored by his family and he needed access to a more secure device. He didn''t want his family to know anything about it. So, he had to go find a secure access outside the mansion, preferably even the city. Equipment was the main problem for him. He needed equipment to establish a secure communication interface. Such equipments are usually regulated. This would have been a very huge problem, if he hadn''t had his early years in the military being trained about establish communication channels. Every city has a security organization that provides general security services to various buildings. These security organizations tend have labs which are to be used for providing maintenance services to the various equipment that they provided. That was a place where he could find the required parts and the tools to assemble them to form a device he needs. Apart from that, there would be maintenance personnel who would be using those tools for on spot maintenance work. He thought of breaking into a lab but felt that it was a bit over the top and they would have the best security features to secure the lab entrance. He finally decided to go ahead with robbing the cybercafe that he owned. He made a call to Rudra and asked him to log off the game as he went to the workshop. The workshop had been outfitted with security by Rudra and he needed to have a look at them, if possible before he broke them and called the maintenance personnel. When he reached the workshop, he found Rudra waiting for him at his office. "What happened? You sounded serious when you called. Did something happen with that name issue again?" asked Rudra. "It has nothing to do with Divine Swords. I have handled that issue and there is going to be no legal issue about that. My cousin Jack is with me and he has no intentions to d.i.c.k around about it from now on," assured Balthazar. "What I need is something different. I need you to help me with a slight bit of fraud for which I will be paying for. It is kind of urgent," said Balthazar. "You got at soldering gun from your maintenance supplies." "I don''t understand." "You don''t need to. Just be prepared call the security provider for a maintenance personnel. Inform him that there has been some power surge triggering the auditory alarm of the place. Be careful to inform that there was no notification being sent to you, but it is disturbing the environment. So, I the owner who was at the place broke it to prevent the nuisance," said Balthazar as he went to security control box and pulled it out and started break it apart and took a few parts while using the solder gun to create some burn marks near some parts. "What the hell?" "I needed the parts. Make the call. I am waiting," said Balthazar sitting on the table. "We need a maintenance personnel," said Rudra making a call to the security company as he repeated the story told by Balthazar and showed him the broken apparatus in his office. The company replied that it will be taken care of as soon as possible. "Good," said Balthazar as he took out a few parts from the control panel. These parts be usually used to transmit secure messages to the organization and to the customers terminal in case of a violation. He could assemble these with a few others and get a device which could establish a secure channel, though it would much slower than those used by D.i.c.k or others. "It is best if you let me do the talking," said Balthazar as he collected the required parts. "Is a private space available, where I can do my thing." "I will look into it," he said, and he checked the logs of the place. "Have two available currently. You can take one. The thing was booked and will be in needed in an hour. For how much time do you need it?" "That depends on the arrival of the maintenance personnel. Just, be prepared to temporarily offer some other with some excuse of maintenance if the customer arrives before I am done. I also need a few spare parts for network interfaces. I believe you will have a few available," requested Balthazar. "Yes," said Rudra. "What do you need?" "Two pairs of network interfaces preferably the best you have. Should be backwards compatible with older versions," started Balthazar and continued with a list of other parts commonly used in computers which could be tinkered a bit to transmit data encrypted and secured. The maintenance personnel soon came to the place in a few minutes and started shouting at Rudra for busting the box. "It is irresponsible of you to just break the control box. You could have just broken the speaker. Breaking a control box was useless and would cost a lot more to replace," he yelled. "I was the one who broke the box," said Balthazar stopping the personnel. "I have already identified the issue, there was an electrical surge that burnt through few of the parts and caused malfunction of encryption module failing to transmit the alarm to either the customer or your company. It was an issue with the electrical conduits which had caused an issue in few of our devices." "Who are you?" "I am Balthazar Blyth, the owner of this place and also currently providing my engineering services. I have noticed that the lights of the control panel were indicating it to be the cause. So, I broke it to prevent any issue before the customers get worried. The speakers have also been harmed and I have managed to set them right before you came along with other issues that sprung up, but I realized that the working ones would continue with alarm. So, I decided to bust up the control box, then I noticed the burns and disposed of the burnt parts. The rest are all here," explained Balthazar. "You are Balthazar Blyth, the colonel of the border force?" asked the guy. "Yes, I am. I own the cyber cafe. Nice to meet you, Mr.?'' "Justin Barber. It is an honor to meet you, Colonel Balthazar," said the man. "I hope that you have the required parts to replace them," said Balthazar. "You understand these systems?" he asked surprised. Though Balthazar had a reputation of a person who managed to stop an invasion effectively and helped the alliance realize that there was a hierarchy among the apes, none know of him. They all expected him to be a capable administrator not a man with much technical knowledge. "I started my military career as a communications engineer," replied Balthazar. "I have a very good idea of these systems and would have set it up if I had the required equipment." "Oh!" said Justin. "I will need to go and get the required parts from the office. I didn''t expect this. I just thought that there would be some reassembling of the box and some basic components." "I suppose so. I doubt a security company would allow personnel to move encryption ch.i.p.s and the like without proper paperwork," said Balthazar. "The serial numbers were partly melted but these were the ones at the end. I managed to get these from the part that was a bit legible. I believe you can match them," he continued as he gave him a paper on which he had copied down the numbers at the end. "I would rather have the devices," said Justin. "You know company protocol." "We put them in along with the rest of the electrical equipment and threw it in the trash. The smell was disconcerting to the customers. So, we disposed of it. But I do know that you need to verify it. So, I had the serial number or whatever is readable ready for you," replied Balthazar with a smile. "I am sure you meant for the best, Colonel, but I would have to inform my boss," said Justin worried. He was afraid that Balthazar might take it to be insinuating that he might be stealing or something. Most people would misunderstand. "I understand. It is protocol. You don''t need to explain," said Balthazar in a cordial fashion. "I would insist that you inform and get the process moving. It would help in replacing my systems faster." "Ok. Cool," said Justin nodding his head enthusiastically. He called his boss and talked about it. The boss was a bit pissed initially, but Balthazar joined the conversation and told that he had just disposed of it as he had already known of the systems and apologised for jumping the gun. Considering his reputation and his family, the man let it go. "I will go and get the parts, then," said Justin. "By the way, can I get an autograph," he asked Balthazar. Balthazar had been planning to find a way to get friendly with the Justin, request his tools to help assemble the parts he managed to steal, but he didn''t expect to be given a way by Justin himself. "My autograph?" he asked as if he was confused. "Sure." "Dude, can you get me a hat the one in the merchandize section," he asked Rudra. He immediately signed with him and after a few minutes of friendly chat, he managed to convince Justin to leave his tools here as he went ahead and got the parts required to repair the control box. "You are quite good at this," said Rudra who had been staying quiet all this time. "Practice," said Balthazar calmly as he took the tools and went ahead to the private room to assemble the device that he needed. He had already done everything other than assembling the encryption devices which are main parts of the security device with the network interfaces, which he managed to do in a couple of minutes with tools from Justin''s toolbox. "You did this all for a device to setup a secure comm channel? You could request it from your family or the military," said Rudra. "Don''t want any of them to know about it. I hope you can keep this a secret," said Balthazar. "You some kind of government spy or something?" asked Rudra. "No. I am not doing this for the government, but I am hunting a few criminals. Nothing that would hamper my reputation. It just needs to be hidden," said Balthazar. "I don''t think it is best to keep secrets from your family." "If that was true, I would have been dead by now," said Balthazar looking at Rudra with a smile. "It is best if you don''t worry about it. I will go ahead. I hope you will keep this a secret." "Fine. I guess you want to use the workshop for using it," said Rudra. "No. God no. Why would I want to do that? I will find some other location an isolated place to get it done. It wouldn''t be useful to do it in a place which I own," said Balthazar as he got up and made way out of the room. He also needed to get a hold of a decent chunk of money to use freely, if he had any intention of accepting a bounty in the ShadowCard. He needed to get to a place to get a set up a bounty anonymously in the ShadowCard. Apart from his own city, the nearest place that he had a place to stay was in the Entora City. He had a large plot of land, some of which he was using to set up a hospital. He had already talked to Winston about it and they were setting up a hospital which he intended to leave in the hands of his cousin if possible. The construction of the building had just started for about a week, but it was just the bas.e.m.e.nt and a few rooms that were done. Though Winston had his contacts start the work, the land was under Balthazar''s name and he was the one who signed the required paper online to begin with the construction. He went to them under the pretence of checking the development of the project. About 90% of the land used to be covered with trees, but that reduced 70% now. The area was being considered by development by the local and apart from his land, there were other area where construction of buildings are already underway. This was relatively isolated are where he could have a small place for himself away from the supervision of his family. He went to the constructor and asked for a small private villa to be made beside the hospital. It was the best he could do. He needed a place, a safe house away from his mansion and this was the best he could think of right now. He told the contractor that it was for a friend who was interested in buying it and he gave the name, Branson Shades which was used to make his ShadowCard account. Having discussed the future plans for a private place away from the family mansion, he went out to a shopping mall. He bought a laptop and went to a cyber cafe in the Entora city and booked a private room. He used the device to setup a secure communication channel. He had to check a bunch of things in the ShadowCard. The first was to check the available contracts in the ShadowCard. This is the main reason for which he needed an account urgently. One couldn''t have access to the bounties put on the ShadowCard without an account. He needed to check if there were any that were placed for two people. One was Dave and the other was Ryan Rowley. He found that there were bounties on both Dave and Ryan. There was only one bounty on Dave, but it requested for any verifiable information along with addition bonus pay for capture and specified that there won''t be any pay on death of the person. On the other hand, Ryan Rowley had three different bounties on him. All three were to kill him as fast as possible. It also provided pay to anyone who gave information regarding his location and information about any who came into contact with Ryan Rowley and these were placed just for more than a single day. It was clear that the people who put these bounties were convinced that Ryan has some information and wanted to bury it. This made him more convinced that working with Ryan Rowley might serve his needs. There were a few bounties which have been placed for any person of the Nirbaadh pirates and he also saw a few other bounties that he could be interested in. These were on some well-known rebels and brigands. He took a large-scale bounty set against the stragglers of Nirbaadh pirates before he logged out. Chapter 190 - All in vain "Interesting," said Bruce aloud during dinner as he was notified by the ShadowCard account of Balthazar''s searches. He was having dinner alongside his daughter and her husband. She was talking about reduction in their personnel available as quite a big chunk of their organization has taken leaves to pursue the surviving members of the Nirbaadh pirates. Most personnel in security companies and even law enforcement were trying to get a hold of the bounties being offered by the Khan and Malik families. "What caught your eye?" asked his daughter. She had been rambling about the difficulty she and D.i.c.k were having at ther company for the past few minutes, but Bruce didn''t say a word. Usually, when he gets a message he would just reply and doesn''t talk about it or say anything aloud. So, she her curiosity was spooked. "A couple of hours ago, D.i.c.k created an account for the kid, Balthazar and I have set the system to monitor and report any activity on his account," said Bruce. "Just got the information that he had made a few searches using his account." "What did he want?" asked D.i.c.k looking up from his steak. "The first search was expected by me. He wanted to look into this unknown man, Dave that he had been talking of since the attack on his station. No update on his name till now," said Bruce. "The second was kind of unexpected and recently made. In a few moments after the incident with the pirates. So, I find it very interesting. He searched for Ryan Rowley." "Ryan Rowley? The brother of Raymond Rowley?" asked D.i.c.k. "What is the request for Ryan?" "It is for his death. There have been three different bounties on it. Any idea on his situation? Looking at the timing of issue of the bounty and his relation to Raymond Rowley, I guess there was might have been something that happened in the family of those merchants," said Bruce. "We got anyone in contact with them?" "Evelyn has someone monitoring them, since Balthazar had reported on them. She didn''t believe the convenient way in which they had reported of the boys indiscretion and exiled out of the family," said D.i.c.k as he put in a message to her and continued eating his steak. "Wait, he put in a request for Ryan Rowley, but not a kill request. It was just for information or captured alive and in good health," said Bruce. "He wants Ryan Rowley too?" asked D.i.c.k surprised. "Ryan is the patriarch''s nephew. It will be a big scandal if he Rowleys are setting him up. I think we might have to contact the Blyths and I better contact Evelyn." "Evelyn just sent it to me," said Bruce suddenly. "Ryan had recently left the family alone without any security detail. There seems to be a rumor that there was a meeting in the family on the day of the incident and someone was exiled after the meeting." "She thinks it is Ryan Rowley?" asked Barbara. "Yes. It certainly seems so," said Bruce as he received another message. "She is also surprised that we are asking for this information." "What are you going to tell her?" asked D.i.c.k. "That someone has attempted an attack on him and reported that the mission is much more dangerous and requires an increase in the bounty to go ahead," said Bruce. "Is that even allowed? Wouldn''t the president know?" asked Barbara. "You know I could be the president, right?" laughed Bruce. "I don''t need to worry about those things. I am just updating it as a critical note vetted by me after one of my men took the assignment. Evelyn also accepted to vet it," he continued as he updated the assignments posted for Ryan Rowley. "Wouldn''t it make it hard for people to accept Balthazar''s request too?" asked D.i.c.k. "Good way to prevent anyone from accepting it too. If killing the man was considered extremely dangerous, a bounty for him to be caught alive would be considered a lot more dangerous," said Bruce. "What I am most concerned is about the fact, the kid already is looking for things that were only privy to Evelyn. She just informed me that I was the only one apart from her and her man at the Rowleys to know about this. Does he have a network that is on par with her?" "He could have contacted Balthazar on his own," said Barbara. "Improbable. Balthazar was indirectly responsible for his brother''s death and seeing that Ryan was evicted on the day of the incident, I think he wouldn''t be too interested in contacting the person responsible for it," said Bruce. "It doesn''t make sense, but the other alternative isn''t sensible either. What we have here is an enigma. I wan''t someone on his tail." "That might be hard. He managed to overcome the Nirbaadh pirates and knights whom the entire alliance including us failed to make a definite move all this time. He would probably realize it. It isn''t really the best option we have," said Barbara. "Moreover, I suspect the Blyths would also be having him tailed." "That''s right," said D.i.c.k agreeing with his wife. "We will talk to Arthur tomorrow. I hope he has some information," said Bruce. "Let us leave it for now." As they were discussing about Balthazar, their person of interest was done with the account for now and decided to return back to his family mansion. He was in dire need of money to go through with his plans and he had recently spent a lot of it in the game and development of guild training environment. He needed another source for money. This was an issue which had been troubling him for quite some time. To employ services of Herschel and also for the bounty, he would need a lot of money. He planned to take out some money that he earned from the dungeon entrance he owned at Blackrock Town, but he knew that it wouldn''t be enough. He had to find a better way and he knew that Robert would already be under scrutiny and currently Richard would allocate any funds for him. He didn''t want to ask Winston as he would have to explain to his grandfather, the need for those and also it would attract attention that he didn''t want. So, he decided to call Bolena while travelling back to the mansion. After a couple of attempts, she responded to the call. "Hi brother, how are you?" asked Bolena looking tired and a bit disconcerted. "I am fine. What is wrong with you?" he asked. "Nothing. Just work problems. How is your career? I heard that your posting might be affected due to the latest incident with those pirates?!" "I got no idea. Where did you hear that from?" he asked. "That man Rodrigo. He came to watch the demonstration along with your replacement, Sophia Martinez. They had a lot of doubts which made me real tired. Both of them actually have a decent knowledge of technology and it had been a long night due to that. I expected them to talk about costs and materials and the like, but she was very interested in the effects and possible changes that might occur in her soldiers physiology and other concerns for her men," said Bolen. "Took a long time to proper convince her." "Hmm," said Balthazar nodding absentmindedly. He didn''t want to talk about his crush to his sister. He didn''t want to involve in any discussion that involved her. "It wasn''t like she was wrong, but we need a lot more testing. We haven''t really tested the entire warframe with personnel to check the resiliency and other features. Moreover, to do that we need to have comprehensive medical facilities closeby for which we need to find proper location. These facilities should also be very advanced, and the equipment are to be very secure. Grandpa didn''t even agree to provide this equipment to me at my lab. He says it is too risky and that I would need medical personnel with more experience in case of emergencies. That guy Rodrigo also told the exact words that Winston said. I am sure that gramps had put those thoughts in the heads of those guys.," she continued with her complaining. "And the worst part was that he has suggested that we find a place in the Asklepian city close to home. He is even suggesting a place near to the hospital. There aren''t any decent ground or large spaces close to the city. He just wants me to get back. It would cost a lot of money and time for the company due to this setback. I didn''t think that he would go so low for something like this," she said in anger. It was clear that she was furious by Winston''s attempts to relocate her to work close to home after she refused to leave BR-64 planet due to her work. "Well, I guess so. He is the patriarch and he wouldn''t have been able to hold that position, if he wasn''t good at such schemes. He got you good," mocked Balthazar. "I didn''t tell you all this so that you can mock me." "What can I do apart from that?" "You can help me!" "What would you want?" asked Balthazar. He had initially called to her to request her help but the direction of their conversation was going in an entirely opposite manner to his intentions. "I don''t know," pouted Bolena. "You seem to have been quite successful in your attempts. I heard from grandpa that the recent defeat of those famous pirates also began due to your interference. It seems like you hold a good reputation. Can''t you try to convince him?" "He really wants you to come back. He is afraid and he wouldn'' listen to me. I don''t feel like convincing him either," replied Balthazar. "What if he puts in a notice to you that your company needs better medical facilities to proceed. He has that authority, you know." "Ah! Useless. He can''t actually do that as it is untrue. It is not a necessity for most of the preliminary tests and it is only required later. By that time, I am willing to relocate, and I will be able to setup something decent on Asklepian. He wants me to move as fast as possible," said Bolena. "Oh! So, you only want to convince Rodrigo and Sophia, then?" "Yes. Those are the ones important right now." "You are not telling me this just so that I will put in a word for you, right?" asked Balthazar. "You were always good at fooling me. You are sure that Winston''s recommendations aren''t really necessary at this stage. If I end up finding it to the other way later, I wouldn''t mind ratting you out to Rodrigo." "Bleh! I care about my reputation as a researcher. I wouldn''t risk that," said Bolena waving her hand. "You can deny my request. Don''t insult me." "Fine, but I need help from you too," said Balthazar with a smile. "I need some funds to secure your interests." "You blackmailing me?" asked Bolena raising her eyebrows. "And what is with those words. You are talking like a thug. "Secure our interests," she said making air quotes. "How much do you want? A million enough?" "About ten times that and I hope that I can depend on you for further funds. I will try to get money on my own, but I would be glad if I can depend on you," said Balthazar. "Fine. I am sending you the amount now, but this is from the funds of the company. So, Winston tends to have a look at them. I hope you wouldn''t need them much frequently. Just stay safe. I understand that you are asking me because you don''t want Winston to know. So, it isn''t something that he would accept to, but I understand that you will need to do somethings that you think is the right thing to do. Hope you that you will not risk your life like the incident at the citadel. OK!?" asked Bolena. "Fine, I will make the calls. Also, hold on the payment. Send it to Rodrigo instead and put in some reason. I will talk it out with him," said Balthazar as he cut the call. By the time, he reached the mansion, he had already talked to Rodrigo and messaged Sophia about the situation and he got ten million credits from Bolena through Rodrigo. Having done with most of the preparation that he needed to have before his meeting with Ryan Rowley, he decided to go to his room and spend some time with the game. The game was the only thing he could currently predict using his memories from his previous life. Most of his life was progressing different and even the main events among the humans were quite different when compared to those of his past life. The only thing from his past life that he could use in real-life were the skills that he had learnt, his memories were of not much use. So, the game was the best way for him to earn some money which he clearly needed for his aims. As he donned the helmet, the first person he contacted was Ellie. He had managed to gather some funds for the first trip, but to make the trips he needs to maintain a certain amount of personal safety for which a combat suit was very necessary. He chose to talk about this to Ellie because she has already been working for his guild and he also had received few of the devices which he asked her to make. She already had plans to improve on those designs which she gave to him during his trial, but these wouldn''t be enough. Those were meant for everyday use when he was visiting people. As he couldn''t be wearing combat suits, he requested weapons that could be conceiled under his dress. Now, his requirements were different as he wanted a personalized combat suit. "What do you want now?" she asked as soon as she took the call. "How are you? How is the design of the training environment going on? Did you employ anyone?" he asked. "Ya, that is going good," she said. "You can get a few to come and experience it. Started a basic thing but would still appreciate if you get a few experts so that we could modify difficulty of the thing accordingly, else this would just be an execution ground rather than a training scenario." "Ya. Have been working on that. Meeting Leon''s old friend tomorrow during the party. You coming, right?" "Of course. So, is this just a social call?" "No. I need a combat suit." "Go and contact Leon. Winston had already given you permission to choose one for personal use. After recent events, there is a majority of elders who have decided to support your development as they consider you to be a capable asset. There are a wide variety of models available," she said dismissively. "I need a personalized one. I need you to do it." "What is it for? We have a variety and there is sure to be one which satisfies your needs," she said. "I need to be a bounty hunter." "That is the same as not saying anything. Are you intentionally being difficult?!" she yelled. "No. I intend to be a bounty hunter," said Balthazar. "What do you want anyways?" "It should have as many exploratory features and scanning tech as possible, an air support system, high mobility, stealth tech and one of those defensive fields which could be deployed. Preferable a pair of guns, penetrating rounds and frequency blades. Should look like an older model. At least a generation old," said Balthazar repeating all the things that he had noted down. "Do you need something else?" "Nah, can you do it," said Balthazar. "I would preferably need it by tomorrow night." "Tomorrow night, huh" "Yes." "I am not doing it. Do you have a compulsive need to surprise people whenever you meet them? I don''t know what to think of you," she said. She was fine till he told her that he needs it in a day''s time. That was the last straw for her. She was already quite busy, helping Elias and also working on his virtual environment. "I am sending a mail to Elias and Winston specifying these things. Elias will look into it. I am not attempting to do it so fast," said Ellie as she sent forward a mail. "No. No. Don''t send it to Winston." "Sorry! I already sent it." "Damn, all my preparations have been wasted," cursed Balthazar as he got a couple of calls immediately. One from Winston and another from Bolena. Chapter 191 - An escort "Damn! I don''t believe this. It was hardly a few seconds before he called me," thought Balthazar he saw the calls. He could believe that Winston was calling him, but Bolena was unexpected. He decided to take Bolena''s first as he put Winston''s in waiting. "What is it?" "I just wanted to thank you for your help. I just got the papers giving me the permission to further continue my experiments. I have made arrangements to get back to Asklepian in a month or so when I am expecting that I would have all the test results for my research done so that I could move on to the next step," said Bolena. "So, Congratulations?!" "Thanks, but that isn''t what I called you for. Winston realized that you were the one who helped me. He just had a not so friendly chat with me. He might be calling you, next. Wanted to give a warning." "He already is calling," said Balthazar. "Let me join the call, I will be alongside you. It wouldn''t reduce his anger, but probably be a slight buffer against him." "Grateful, but let it go. I think he has more than your situation to talk about. I will be taking his call now. Bye," said Balthazar as he changed the calls. "You Idiot! What are you doing? First, you go ahead and help your sister with her ridiculous request. Can''t you realize why I am doing it? We might need to call them back soon. The recent events were quite disturbing. Without our protection, she might not be safe there," shouted Winston as soon as he saw Balthazar''s face. "Now, I hear you are being a bounty hunter. Do you want to give me a heart stroke? Do you want me to die?" he continued shouting. "Sorry, I didn''t know that it was so serious. Bolena didn''t tell me," said Balthazar in an apologetic tone. "Of course, she didn''t know. She doesn''t understand how the incident would reflect on the parties involved. Considering the resurgence of them, there is a high chance the knights might attempt to kill you guys again. Even Robert''s security is increase and we had plans to convince you to have someone beside you and you have plans to be a bounty hunter," he continued without accepting his apology. "That is..," stuttered Balthazar. "Right. I am sorry about Bolena. I didn''t think that far." "Forget that. I am still fine with that. Her movements would be known and there will always be a couple of us looking out for her. Now, you are a different thing. You are going after the pirates or something after I have explicitly told you to not involve yourself with them," said Winston as he continued to shout. "I am not going after them. I want to get a hold of the Nirbaadh pirates. I am just going after Dave. I believe he could help me with the knights," said Balthazar. "Ah! Shut up. I don''t care what you say. I wan''t someone to partner with you," said Winston dismissing him. "That is unnecessary." "It is now. With those guys still alive, I don''t know what to make of the situation. We have been operating on wrong intel for decades. So, I will send you a couple of bodyguards." "Can it be Salazar?" "Why?" "I know him, and I am acquainted with him." Suddenly another person joined their call. It was Arthur. "I saw the mail you forwarded," said Arthur. "I agree that it is not suggestible to go ahead under such circ.u.mstances. I also have called Walter to talk about it." "Good. So, I hope he can get a guard to babysit him. I guess, Richard is already looking after Robert. It is best if we have someone continuously on him like Richard is on Robert," said Winston hoping that Arthur would quickly provide a person to look after his grandson. "Walter and Daniel are of a different opinion," said Arthur. "They wanted to let him attempt whatever he intends to do." "What?" shouted Winston. "That is ridiculous. Why? Why would they? What are they thinking?" "I suggest you calm down Winston. It is not like they intend to harm him. You will realize that it might be for the best," said Arthur. "For the best. I listened to that when Walter let him go into the military. He came back almost dead. I don''t care for the best of the family. I care for him," shouted Walter. "And now they want him to go out as bait. I won''t agree to it." "Listen to me," yelled Arthur getting angry. "Get to your office. We will all talk there." A few minutes later, the three of them were in Winston''s office in the mansion. Arthur came in and explained the reason for Walter and Daniel to choose to let Balthazar do whatever he wanted to. "So, he is not the bait," said Winston realizing his folly. "Not at all, we have been under a lot of pressure because we are not sure about the others who might be in bed with the enemy. Someone clearly informed them that Max was made and being tailed by the whole force of the family. It was under wraps. Half the family didn''t know about it. It is clear that someone betrayed us and is still unknown to us," said Arthur. "So, who will be acting as me, if I go out?" asked Balthazar. "It will be Salazar. He will be your guard when you are here and will replace you and act as you in your absence," said Arthur. "But you can''t reveal you identity. Wear a disguise, change your appearance, some scars or something. Salazar will teach you. Apart from that, there is one last thing, that I need to tell you." "There are more surprises?" asked Balthazar sceptical of his own words. "Well, it is that they requested one of the table, to be with him at all times. Even during his travels as a bodyguard. He will only be with you when you are travelling to evaluate you," said Arthur. "Evaluate me? For what?" "To include you into the Table of Ouroboros." "Didn''t you people still think it was too early for him?" asked Winston. "We had some misgivings and weren''t sure, but Daniel insists that we best include him if he is capable. He helped us with stuff we never managed to and this way, you can be assured of a modic.u.m of security being focused on him during his travels. He doesn''t want to go over your head. So, all of this is currently a suggestion. It depends whether you accept it," explained Arthur. "I do," said Balthazar immediately. "No. Wait. Think about it. It is a very risky thing to do." "No, you think," shouted Balthazar. "I am more or less capable. This is the best way to move forward. More men after me implies less after Bolena and Robert. We need to get any personnel if involved to be handled soon. Else, the risk would only get greater. This is the best time," he explained. "Fine. Let it be so." "Good. I would introduce you to your new friend. He is waiting outside," said Arthur as he opened the door allowing a man who looked slightly older than Robert and a bit more than 6 feet tall. He had a thin and pallid face with green eyes and brown complexion. He had sholder-length dark brown hair that he had tied in ponytail. "This is Glen Fitch. He had joined us a couple of years ago and is the youngest among us. This could be considered as a trial to the both of you," said Arthur introducing the man. "I thought you were dead," said Winston looking at the guy. "You are Herbert''s brother, right? The one who saved him and went missing when that station was razed during.." "Yes. Yes. That it is. He had joined us after that incident. He decided to join us completely as he didn''t have any intention to continue as his father desired," said Arthur. "I am the same guy," said Glen shaking Winston''s hand. "I took this job because I don''t like to life as my father did and as my brother wants to. I decided to join the outfit." "Nice to meet you, Balthazar," said Glen shaking his hand. "I will share my contact information and I hope we can work together effectively. I have been already informed by Arthur about the situation. Consider me your man, someone you hired. You are the person in charge, even though I have become a part of the table. I am just going to listen to your orders." "You will be given his details. You can contact him whenever you plan to leave the mansion, but bear in mind that if you fail to stick to the plan, we will make sure that you will be confined to your room in the mansion. Even access to dining hall would be lost to you. I hope you don''t disappoint," said Arthur sternly. Exchanging contact information with Balthazar, Glen Fitch and Arthur got out of the office. "I am not really comfortable with that guy. I didn''t want to be along with him. He was Herbert''s brother. Their father is known to be a miser and considers nothing more important than getting more power." "Wait. Before you talk any further. The man is all you told he was, but Glen was different. He was supposed to marry someone else, but he loved someone different. He went ahead and married the person he loved, and his father tried to kill him. He was missing along with his wife after that. Now, we know who helped him," said Winston. "You are sure?" "Yes, we are. That was one of the black marks of that old coot, Archie. It was kept a secret from most of the world as the council decided against it, but it had an adverse effect on his power. So, I am sure of it," said Winston. "I will give it a try," said Balthazar. "No. This is a gift horse. Glen was known to have issue with authority. So, he might have sounded a bit off when he was assigned under you. So, there might be a friction. You should understand that it is as much of a test to him as it is to you. They will also ask for your reports after his own reports. You are closer to getting into their circle sooner than I hoped," said Winston. "I will cooperate," said Balthazar as he made way to his room. He put on the helmet and with Rudra and his team continued to explore the area around the Welog town in the direction of the Jarko town. Knowing that he would probably be unable to play for some time when he was after them, his main priority was to increase his level. So, he continued till he reached level 17. Once, they reach level 20, they would be stuck in it or increase experience very slowly, if they don''t improve to tier 1. That was one thing that would keep the players from increasing their levels fast when he was unable to play. This was both a good thing and bad from Balthazar''s perspective. The Tier 1 test would be hard and to get through it one would need better equipment and consumables which would cause the importance of secondary occupations to increase and also the skills of professional players who focus on them. The secondary occupations in vita-nova were much harder than others due to the nature of the game, but this time would put enough stress and resources would be given to such players by guild to help them improve. This would help improve even the resource collection which is only possible if they improve their skills in attacking the monsters. The levels and development of the secondary occupations was still not his main problem in the game. It was his own equipment that was most troubling to him. He had two unique equipment and he needed to upgrade which was going very slowly. It will become very hard for him to improve further if he didn''t tackle this problem. The most important thing that he needed to do was kill monsters of the dark faction or void to upgrade his equipment or void race species. There was no decent place to hunt for dark faction other than the level 15 dungeon. So, despite the fact that he would get very little experience in killing the species as he crossed the max level of the dungeon, he went to farm those monsters alone. After a few hours, he managed to get his mask upgraded once to level 10, but he didn''t want to continue as it was taking a lot of time to kill these creatures and he only did so that the effects of the mask wouldn''t decrease. Though the mask was upgraded, the main thing that he needed to upgrade was his weapon, the void dragon''s talons. Luckily, he had other ways to upgrade his weapons. Void race species or dragon race species could also be killed. Void race was a race rarely found in the game and he had no way to get to such places. It would only be found close to the regions occupied by elves. The closest to dragon race that could be considered at level 20 was the knuckler species and it would very hard to kill them. They were more like snakes and found in marsh like places. He knew enough of the game to get to a place where he could find such areas. The problem was that it wasn''t in the White Heart Kingdom. He needed to get close to the Greybark marshlands in the border between Five Elements Empire and the Spritewar Empire of the fae region. Crossing empires need special items if one intended to use teleportation. Passes that would allow players to go to another empire which can only be found in the destination empire and one would need to barter or exchange these passes with players of the other empire if they intended to go there. These passes could also be used to get to places in the country where a person hasn''t been there. One needed to be a first-class citizen of the location they wanted the pass for. Before, he didn''t have a way, but he remembered that the Divine Swords had made efforts to develop in the fae region mainly in the Spritewar Empire and the Pixplatin Kingdom. He could use them to get to the Five Elements Empire. It was also good, if they could develop close to another guild who had intentions to cooperate alongside them. There was also another guild called Children of the Sun who competed with Divine Swords, so he was sure that they would accept a collaboration. So, he immediately had Jack contact him to talk about it. A few minutes later, he found a member of the Divine Swords putting on a pass to a town in the Five Elements Empire in the auction house. This was one of the common ways to get items from different regions and through the auction house, he got the pass he required. In return for that he had also gave a couple of passes for BlackRock Town. [MurkWater Town pass] (Special Item) Can be used at teleportation portal to move to the MurkWater Town in the Five Elements Empire. Remaining Uses: 3/5; Getting the pass, he went to the bank and dumped all the materials that he collected, cleared his bag space an immediately went to the teleportation portal at the White Heart City. A couple of seconds later, he was at the Murk Water town. Though it was clear that it had already been used twice, he didn''t care as it would be very hard to find a pass to a place where one couldn''t find a pass which was to a place where the person didn''t have their base. Chapter 192 - The Marsh The Murk Water Town was different from the all other towns as it was on the edge of the borders between the two regions. It was more of a war state and close to the Greybark marshlands. Being on the border, there would be both human and fae players in the town, though fae players are much less in number than humans. The town was still a small town and it had forests all around it. A bit further to its east there was the border between the fae and the human regions. There was a large bay to east separating the two regions known as the Murk Water bay. It was a marine region with a log of water beasts. As one went deeper into the bay, the levels of the beasts would even cross level 100 and it was a region that could be farmed till a player crossed tier 4. This bay covered a half of the border between the Five Elements Empire and the fae region and the other half was a mountain range. The town itself was very simple and was called Murk Water town as it was the town right at start of the bay in the Five Elements empire. Right between the town and the bay lies a forest of which a part ended up becoming a marsh area known as Greybark marshland. This was the location to which Balthazar planned to travel. As he got into the teleportation portal of the Murk Water Town, he found that he got a friend request from someone. It was someone named ''Agua Canalon''. He had never heard of the player before, but he could see from the friend request that the player was from Divine Swords. "Mr. Shadow, nice to meet you," said Agua Canalon as he met Shadow right outside the teleportation portal. He was the a human elementalist who wore a pair of blue robes. "I have been sent by leader Muramasa. I could help you with anything that you need here." "There are a lot of things available in the town. We have a wide variety of resources available here due to the environment and even resources from the fae region appear here often," said Agua. "Red moss, Pix glow, magic ash and a lot more. The magical resources here are a lot better than those found in White Heart Kingdom or Seven Swords empire. The same goes for wands and sceptres. Better quality than the rest of the Five Elements Empire too." "That is all good and well, but I came here for something else," said Balthazar. "Oh! Is there anything I can help you with?" "I could use a map of the Greybark marshlands," said Balthazar. "Any suggestion for exploring that area is also useful." "Greybark marshlands? That is a dangerous area. The guild has actually forbidden normal members to enter the place. It is hard to even escape that place even with wings," said Agua indicating that even fae players would find it hard. Though Balthazar knew of the place, he hadn''t actually spent a lot of time exploring it. So, he wished he could get as much information about it as possible. "What is the problem? How come it is hard? I heard that the monsters in the place range from level 15 to level 50, but it is relatively large, and one could start hunting there since most have reached level 15 now, right?" asked Shadow. "That is true, but it is not so easy. The place is hard because it is a marshland. It is a greasy place and it is hard to have a proper foothold there," said Agua. "Huh?!" "Basically, it is slippery. The beasts are covered by the same muck and one tends to find their weapons covered by it and slippery and this makes it hard to fight in the place, for all physical attack classes including archers. Magical classes might have it better, but the beasts have high speed and other than AOE attacks it is hard for most players," explained Agua. "So, it is a different environment," said Shadow. The warning didn''t frighten him much as he had already experienced even underwater situations. The grease is much harder to get rid of than water, so he would have it a bit harder. Still, it was not much of a concern to him. He needed to take a few precautions and he already had thought of it beforehand. Based on the description given by Agua, it was probably a shallow marsh filled with mud and swamps which had a higher density and will affect mobility a lot more than water. "I need a team for that," said Shadow. "Any suggestions?" "The main guild here is the Valhalla Raiders, they are not willing to go there. The only one that I could suggest is the adventurer team, Ardent Ronins. They are forming a group to attempt the marshlands. The Raiders have employed them to get to the place and get them information. There has already been an advance team that went ahead, but another group is being gathered to follow. They will be moving soon," said Agua. "There might be some quest or something for which they are going there in such large numbers. Else there is no need to have an advanced party. That is clearly there to avoid prying eyes of the independent players," thought Balthazar. "You want to join me?" asked Shadow. "No. They will not allow me. They don''t want to help another guild. The Raiders have employed them and will have some to supervise. They would already be aware of me and probably even you. If they realize you, you need to have some way to convince them," said Agua. "Ya. Thanks for your help. Please, ask me if you need anything, but I will proceed to the marshlands. I am sure that I can provide them something to join their group," said Shadow as he took a map from Agua and made way to the place where the adventurer team was gathering up players. The Ronins were offering a default payment for the trip plus an additional for each monster a player helped in killing. They wanted to take all the materials that could be gathered from the monsters. Considering that most players wouldn''t be able to make precise attacks that wouldn''t harm the usable parts of the beasts and it would be much harder in the marsh, it could be considered that this was a very good deal. But it was clear to Balthazar that they were doing this so that the independent players would act as cannon fodder for the most part and levels were important to players in guild and adventurer teams which plan to play at a professional level. As he saw the gathering, he immediately put on the disguise that he had previously used, ''fleet-footed rogue'' and he had his stats displayed as a level 15 assassin. Looking at his level, they quickly accepted him. All the strongest players had gone ahead in the first group and there were only two level 16 players supervising this group. He had quickly volunteered to join in the scouting team of the group. As an assassin, he was one of the most common groups used for scouting. Even though there was a smaller group which made the way ahead, there was always a good chance that some monster was missed by them or creeped into their path later. So, all groups would have a small number to be set aside for scouting. One of the two level 16 player that were in their group was also an archer who led the scouts. His name was Kiriti. Understanding the nature of such raids, he knew that the scout would have some knowledge of their intentions or at the very least the extent to which they plan to explore the marshlands. So, he decided to contact the man and get close to try and get something out of him. "Hi Mr. Kiriti, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about our trip. Everyone are thinking about it," requested Balthazar as he came close to the guy. "We are going to get into the place in a minute or so," said Kiriti in a snarl. He was angry on being disturbed by someone when he was talking to the party that had gone ahead in advance. It was clear to Balthazar that he wasn''t in a good mood. "To be a scout I would need to know a bit more and this place is entirely new to me. There are others like me. I hope you can give us some basic information about the beasts so that we could perform effectively," he explained as he held his hands in front of him in an attempt to pacify him. "It would also help you concentrate on the things that are important for you." "Fine," said Kiriti after a second. "It is best if we inform you about these things now itself. Alma, you go ahead," he said looking at the other level 16 player who was an elementalist. " The marshlands is different from other parts of the forest. We have to main types of beasts. You wont find any of the usual ones similar to mammals like wolves, cats, cattle, deer and the like. There will only be reptiles, amphibians and the aquatic ones in this place with a few occasional tree dwellers," said Karma. "Tree dwellers don''t usually disturb you unless one attacks them, but the rest will attack, and it is hard to fight them. The only good thing is that the ones don''t usually have any form of coordination and one can identify from the distance. Just bombard them with you attacks from a distance." "The main problem is for the scouts and physical attack classes. You will be the ones that will be attacked first and any failure from scouts to find and pull out hiding beasts could cause ambushes on the others. We will request you to let us forage all the beasts that have been killed. If we lack enough bag space, we will require you to carry some for us," added Kiriti. "We will keep track of the items carried by you for us. If there is a discrepancy, we will need to check after we are finished." A minute later, Kiriti started along with the rest of the scouts. On the way, he suggested a few other precautions to take by observing the terrain. A large part of the marshlands was covered by grass which was a few feet tall. There were a lot of trees too. The small beasts could hide anywhere in the grass. As assassin''s they had stealth and they had been forced to move in the grass while checking for any beasts. They had to mark any group of creatures that they found. If they found any isolated beasts, they could kill them and inform the rest. Groups which they can''t afford to tackle would be left while they would mark the locations indicating the size of the beasts. They had to move separately in different directions while making constant reports to Kiriti who co-ordinate them. Balthazar didn''t care about any of the beasts. Most of the beasts he found at this stage were snakes and the like which moved around in swampy areas with grass. The first ones that he found were a few marsh snakes which were slightly below level 15, he just killed them and went ahead. Even groups of those didn''t bother him with his attributes. He put in a few of their fangs and eyes in his bag as he didn''t have them before. He was sure that the others wouldn''t notice that a few of the materials were taken by him. With his efficiency, he was sure that the others would be surprised at the amount left by a single level 15 assassin player, but the numbers he left behind would cause doubts to Alma who would come later to check the loot left by the scouts. Balthazar''s main focus was on the resources other than the creatures, he was hardly interested in them. He focused his search more towards any herbs that he could. Glebe watergreens, darkpeat moss, Greybark fruits, etc., which were the specialities of this place were the ones he was concerned with. Even if he couldn''t transport large numbers required by secondary profession players, he would have enough to let himself experiment with them and increase his alchemy and herbology proficiency. Moreover, as he was planning to stay at the place for a few days, he considered focusing on alchemy and this to be a chance to improve his alchemy skill as marshes were always considered a good place to get resources for potions than the metals. Besides, he also had the alchemy notes from the Battlemage Arius Wright which he had to put to good use. It would be a waste if he didn''t focus on the alchemy profession and only on forging because he could develop it faster. They soon went deeper into the place. It was clear that the Valhalla Raiders had interest in something deep in the marshlands than these few beasts. They had reached place where there were stronger beasts that were above level 15. Red-spotted toads, black-tongue lizards, silver scale snakes and the like which were poisonous. They had to keep a certain distance from these beasts as they could get poisoned easily, but the fangs and the poison glands of these monsters were very useful. Kiriti advised them to not attack and keep distance till the rest of the group came. It was getting harder to get further into the marshlands due to this. The raiders had been hoping to get a large number of members into the depths to kill a monster. It was a quest for one of the professionals in their competitive team and the guild leader, Tyr Fang decided to spend money to get cannon fodder while simultaneously start with the exploration of the marshlands on which he had an eye for a long time. A couple of minutes after Kiriti had advised them to keep distance, he received an order from the advance party to speed up the others advance into the place. With no choice, he had to ask the scouts to start attacking any isolated beasts and smaller groups of beasts that they could find, to help speed up the pace of the party into the depths of the marshlands. These monsters didn''t attack the scouts as they kept themselves hidden and didn''t agitate any monsters, but the ones behind would surely make a noise and that would gather the beasts towards them. So, he had to make these scouts to kill any beasts that they could, and they would be given twice the compensation from here on as they were relatively vulnerable characters and that wasn''t their main job. With that order, they began to attack actively. Scouts were given more compensation than the others as they had to do a difficult and much dangerous job and had be alone for most of the time. Though they were given better compensation for the trip, no one wouldn''t want more money. So, they quickly took the offer and formed smaller groups on advice of kiroto to kill as many as they possible could. Initially, they took on smaller groups. It was hard but they had to use a couple of potions to kill them. They had generic minor antidotes, but they knew that these wouldn''t be effective for a long time. These would only reduce the time for which they would be losing their health due to poisoning. They couldn''t completely rely on that. Moreover, there were some varieties against which these antivenoms were negligible. Soon, a couple of assassins were poisoned and overcome by Red spotted toads which were quickly congregated to form a large group and killed them before the assassins could escape. After that a few more similar incidents took place and the remaining banded together and refused to continue attacking the poisonous species. Though they were being paid, they wouldn''t voluntarily go to fight if they considered the payment insufficient. It was also hard to determine how many they killed when species like the Red spotted toads fought in such groups. Chapter 193 - The Marsh - II "We need some healers to be able to continue in this manner, Mr. Kiriti. Else, we will die in vain," said one of the archer players. "It is best if you could get one preferably someone who has a multiple player healing skill." "No. It is best if you could get a few paladins to individually support multiple groups, else they themselves would be overcome by the beasts in this swamp," suggested an assassin. Both of these suggestiosn immediately received support from others, but Kiriti found it hard to accommodate either. Healers were most important part of the group that they were brining to the advanced party. They were the lifeline and both Karma who was leading the advanced party and Alma refused to it. It was Karma''s quest so he finally left it to Karma to decide but Karma who spent most of his time in competitions and rarely participated in handling normal players didn''t have any decent solution. Finally, it was one of the Ronins team member who had ended up providing a way out. Rivel was a swordsman from the Ardent Ronins who was along with Karma in the advanced team. He had experience handling such issues. He had gone along with Karma in the advance team as a part of a five-man team of the Ardent Ronins. He had heard of Karma complaining about Kiriti and provided an advice. "You won''t be able to force independent players like that. They will start complaining among themselves and soon they group wouldn''t cooperate will your guild members or the Ardent Ronins. Even a few members would not put their best effort. You need to give some more advantages," said Rivel. "We are already paying the scouts double the normal for killing a beast. We can''t keep providing advantages, else they would consider us soft persimmon to be squeezed dry," said Karma dismissively. "That I agree, but you need to understand that these guys are greedy, especially the ones who have decent skills. You don''t need to provide the money, but you can offer them the option that they could pick up the remains of the beasts that they killed," suggested Kiriti. "We aren''t able to get a decent harvest from the locations provided by the scouts of the beasts that they killed. Half of them are being lost to other beasts which eat them up. It is best if we let them take these spoils. They would also not be able to take many and leave quite a few behind after some time. It is not much of a loss to either of us." Karma thought about it and felt that it might not be a bad idea. He talked it out with Alma and Kiriti who both agreed to it. "We have discussed, and you can forage the beasts that you have killed because of the situation. We won''t concern ourselves with the loot. If you don''t have enough place you can give the items from your bag that you don''t want to me," said Kiriti. "Remember I am not offering to carry those for you. I will buy anything that I consider useful to help clear your bag space and note your contribution. That is all." The players didn''t care about the other part and cheered that they could keep the materials. These materials were quite valuable. Even if they didn''t know how to use it, they could sell them back to the Raiders or the Ronins. Other guilds and teams would also pay decent amounts for them or they can put them up in auction houses. This was far better an incentive than offering them more money as they could see more options for themselves and it will also instigate them to risk more. Previously, the players would still have some reservations in giving their best, but the materials that they could obtained by foraging were currently rare in the game and most would try to buy them at higher prices. Though the materials that they could obtain by foraging from the bodies of the beasts were unknown to most, the fact that they could be useful, and they are from the marshlands would be enough for many to buy them. Balthazar who had seen this decision made by guilds and teams before had already been hoping for this. Though he had never fought in this specific marsh region before in his previous life, he had heard enough to determine which was the best items were of most use to him. So, he could discriminate, and he collected only the best in his bag. He had already filled more than half of his weapon cache with arrows and alternate weapons. So, he didn''t have much issue with crossbow which he kept using frequently to kill the beasts easier. He chose this method as it would be less conspicuous than him attacking directly with his weapon at close range. At close range, he would have to show his high speed and skills which would put all the players to be suspect him to be a troublemaker. With his attributes and his crossbow, he was already noticed by the others in the group. The ones like Kiriti who are from the Valhalla Raider and the Ardent Ronins were already aware of him and had noticed that he had better technique than most. Some wanted him to join them, but some felt that he might already be in some other guild or team and had discretely come to the group to spy on them. Being a part of the team or guild, they told their views and with such conflicted view they decided to let it be and not take any action before gathering more information as it would just cause more chaos. There were differing view even among the independent players. Some of them wanted to get into the two groups and they maintained their distance from Shadow. Among the remaining few wanted to befriend him while some were jealous or afraid. At the end only three independent players joined up with him. They were strong players who understood that they would sooner or later be asked to join by guilds or teams. So, they didn''t worry about small trifles at the start of the game. Two of them were assassins and one was an archer. They were known as Nihulus, Zoras and Baelstrik respectively. They joined up with Balthazar and they didn''t care about the thoughts of the others. They formed a team and started killing them faster. Balthazar allowed them to join him but insisted that they all hit the beasts at the same points and pointed out their weak points to his teammates. He also promised to buy all the materials that they took at the proper price. They didn''t care much about getting a better price than to kill more beasts and gather more resources. They were already putting efforts on gathering more experience points. They believed that they could still get better resources as they went deeper. As Kiriti led them deeper, they came across harder beasts at level 17 or higher like the gharial, bipod serpents, horned toads and the like which are more dangerous. Balthazar like this better as he was finally fighting against beasts of his own level, but the other were already afraid on looking at these beasts. "We can''t fight them with our forces. We need to regroup with the ones in the back," shouted one of the players which received support from the others immediately. Kiriti didn''t mind it as it was already their plan and he was just trying his best to scout as far as possible before joining the rest. "That was the plan. Don''t worry. The scouts are going to join the rest of the group and form a same team. The advance party has just made a camp beyond these beasts. We are going to help and support them," said Kiriti as he went back and was followed by the rest. "How is it in the front?" asked Alma as they joined the others following at the back. The scouts could see that the other numbers were attracting the beasts to them which were flanking them from the sides, but due to their large numbers, they were able to hold them back. The scouts slowly looked for gaps between the beasts and joined behind the line of guardians, paladins and berserkers who made the outer line of their formation. "It is the same as last time. Though the advance party managed to defend themselves using the artifact that Karma has, the beasts surrounded them. We will need to slowly kill them in order to join the rest. I hope that the amount of those high-level beasts we saw were all the ones in the surroundings. If more pop up from the flanks, it would be very impossible to handle them even with these numbers," whispered Kiriti after he got close to Alma. This was something he didn''t want the independent players to know especially the ones he doubted like Shadow and the other three. "What should we do?" asked Alma tensed. "Stick to the plan. If it doesn''t work, we will attempt again after the average level of the players increases. It is still a good thing as we have many who increased to level 16 and we got a lot of resources. It isn''t the worst possible outcome for the guild, but Karma would be angry," said KIriti. "That is the main problem. All of this was because the guild leader insisted, we help him," said Alma. "We go ahead and do it. Even if we lose our lives here it isn''t much of an experience loss and we did recruit these numbers so that they could be used as cannon fodder. Just make the entire group rearrange by our observations of their strengths to a more effective formation. We will try and kill through them," said Kiriti. They had the independent players and the other fight most of the time during this period to be able to evaluate the players to a certain level. Only then, they would be able to coordinate them more effectively during the main fight as they already have a decent idea of their own guild members. The monsters ahead were gharials, horned toads and the like which were a mix of ones with good defence and offence. These could also hide in the grass and few even burrowed into the wet ground. Apart from that, they also had a higher level. So, they need small teams which could advance into the beasts and kill them when they spot some jump without much losses. Else, they would take a very long time and the advance party would get into a dangerous situation as their protection couldn''t last forever. This required Kiriti and Alma to create smaller teams without drawbacks and also give them instructions to merge into larger formations when required. They set down in the place after clearing the smaller monsters and set up tents forming a makeshift temporary camp so that they could prepare and replenish their health and mana before continuing their attacks. The number in each smaller group varied from 5 to 9 and the total number were separated into three battalions each consisting of 20 or more groups. Each battalion was commandeered by Kiriti, Alma each and the last one by two of the Ronins together. Kiriti wanted to keep a look on Balthazar and had him in a group along with two of his own guild members. The small group was also a part of his own battalion. Balthazar ended up in a group of 7 members. He had two berserkers, a paladin, an elementalist, a warlock and a guardian. A berserker and a paladin were from the raiders. The guardian named Grand Puba was made the leader. Puba was from the Ardent Ronins. Apart from Kiriti and Alma most of the others were members of the Ardent Ronins and they have all mostly reached level 16 during the trip. The main force of the Valhallla Raiders was in the advanced party and Kiriti had to give the leadership of smaller groups to the players in the Ronins. The members of the Ardent Ronins had different perspectives when compared to the guild members of Valhalla Raiders like Kiriti. They were also concerned by the fact that Balthazar could cause trouble to their mission or could be a spy, but they knew that their collaboration with the Raiders was just a temporary one and they have entered this town only because of the quest of the player Karma. They would probably not continue and hence they had to have moderate attitude towards other at this stage of the game and they kept a friendly demeanour around the strong ones that they found. That was the best option for an adventurer team if they wanted to have someone join them or have collaboration with them later in the game. "I am Grand Puba. I will lead the group. Although, no one knows about me or my skills, I will hope that you guys will listen to my instructions. You can give any advice in the situation where you think things can be done better, but I hope that you will finally listen to my orders in the end without any delay," started Puba while introducing himself. "Mr. Kiriti will shortly be giving us information about the plan of attack." "These are few things that I have observed from the scouting mission. So, listen carefully. Till now, there has been a lot of small beasts hiding in the grass and the scouts have managed to give us information about their location enabling us to know about them beforehand and fight without any losses," said Kiriti in the team chat. "It won''t be the same any longer. We have not much idea of the terrain before. The mobility would also be much worse. We were warned to expect the water to be a foot high on the land from a few metres forward. You have all heard that the marsh has only beasts above level 15. That is right. This is considered the actual start of the Greybark marsh. The area we covered till now is just the surrounding forest." "So, are we just starting our mission, now? You are kidding. A few of our friends already died. Aren''t they going to get compensation?" asked one of them surprised by his words. A few other piled on his question immediately. "The guild of Valhalla Raiders and the Ardent Ronins have discussed and decided to go ahead and provide the ones who have joined and helped us in killing the beasts till this camp. It would have been hard to establish a camp if it weren''t for their efforts," said Kiriti calming the crowd. "We need to be much more careful from now. All beasts will be stronger than us and it is best if we defeat them using attacks from a large number of players," continued Kiriti. "So, we need to form small forward teams to lure them from the water towards us in the beginning to reduce our effort. Be careful, they will also burrow themselves into the ground and pop up suddenly to attack. It requires quick reflexes and regrouping among the forward teams to handle such situations." "All right!" started Puba. "We are a part of the forward teams. We need to get the beast to come closer to the rest of the group, so that we could take them down easily. We have two players who always have shields on them. As we are going to try and lure the beasts, the members need protection from any attack of our flank. That where I and paladin will be." "As forward team to avoid unnecessary troubles, it is best if we get isolated beasts. So, a member from the scout is in each of the forward team. That is where Mr. fleet-foot comes in," said Puba pointing to Balthazar. "Some beasts have high physical defence while some have magical defence. So, to get the aggro, we have members who can deal high physical damage like these two berserkers and the elementalist for magical damage. Warlocks as always help to mitigate the situation if multiple beasts attack by using their curses to put them at bay. Any doubts?" Chapter 194 - A Marsh Battle "Can I go ahead and start the attack if I am confident of gathering the beasts aggro, but I feel that other beasts might join it if we wait for the two berserkers to reach it?" asked Balthazar. Puba would have usually reprimanded a player for asking that question as it would tend to piss off the attackers. Assassins considering other players slow and unable to attack a beast at the most vulnerable time was a cause for common conflicts in many games and he didn''t want the members of his group to get into such a dispute now. But he was warned by scouts in both Ardent Ronin and Kiriti, that Balthazar had a very high offence and also that he had a crossbow which he is quite adept at using. One of the archers told him that Balthazar was almost as precise and accurate as him despite being an archer. He also told that being an archer would give him better firing speed and that it was a waste that the player chose to be an assassin instead of archer with that skill. Little did he know that Balthazar was that good because he had practice in his past life and he chose a crossbow as it was similar to a gun and he couldn''t actually use a bow with much ease. Before he could respond one of the berserkers from the group who was an independent player already flared up. "Just because you are fast and have stealth. Don''t think that you could get its aggro and come back safely in time. You will also need to land a few attacks on it to gain sufficient aggro before you lack any strength. If you were in an actual situation that you described, you would bring its friends along with it by the time you gain aggro," said the berserker angrily. "Ya ya, then we would have to protect your sorry self," said the paladin who was also pissed off by the Balthazar''s attitude. "Don''t expected us to help you in that situation," she added folding her hands. Balthazar who hadn''t thought of all this and had just asked it because his true level was higher, the same as the beasts and it would make his work easy if he was given the freedom to attack the beasts on his own. "That is true, fleet-footed. Though you have a high speed and a crossbow that allows you to attack from a certain distance despite being an assassin, it wouldn''t be easy to get aggro of a beast without sufficient damage and we wouldn''t be ready to hold off more beasts if they attack you. You might die, in that case," said Puba trying to convince that the others made a valid point. As the others had already started to talk against Balthazar and had given a valid argument, he just repeated their words while including the information about Balthazar so that they would underestimate the assassin too much. "I am pretty confident of being able to gather their aggro even though they have a higher level. I have been scouting all this time and I know their weak points which when attacked generate a lot of aggro," said Balthazar. "If it looks like I am getting overwhelmed, I would just suggest that you go back and inform that I got caught by a beast''s sudden attack and you guys weren''t able to save me," he added. "Damn! This guy is harder to control than what Kiriti told me," thought Puba as he heard Balthazar. "And he is very rude. Can''t he realize the situation. Does he really think that he doesn''t need a team when fighting multiple higher level beasts." "Let it be that way, then," said the elementalist Frozen bullet suddenly. He was also a member of the raiders and had been warned about Balthazar. "We shall do as he says. If he isn''t capable to handle himself in a situation of his own making, it is clear that he is not a team player and would only hamper our efforts and might even make our situation worse, later. If he is actually capable of what he told us, it is a waste to prevent him from using his best skills," he added looking at the others. "So, we really will move away if he wants us to get back. That is ridiculous," started berserker again. "Yes, in forward team, we have the chance to kill beasts more than the others. It would affect our pay, we don''t want this guy. Can''t we have a change of personnel. We can get some other player from the scouts, right?" asked the paladin. "The teams are fixed. Can''t change that. If any loss of players happens, we are supposed to go back and join the others. That is all," said Puba seriously. "Only thing that we can do is to accept his idea. It can''t hurt to try. There won''t be any rearrangement of groups as it would disturb other groups too. Took a lot of planning to set these. They have no intention to indulge in such requests." Puba was actually angry at the elementalist the most. He felt like he would be able to get through to Balthazar and convince him, but the guy had to go and provoke Balthazar. Hearing those words, he was sure that any assassin would try his best to prove himself let alone the crazy guy who started this conflict. "Cool, I will move ahead in that case," said Balthazar as he went into the area. He had good reason to want to be ahead of the others. In a team made of a players who don''t know one another, the experience distribution would be set to do according to the effort put by the individual in attacking, defending and healing. Else, no one would be willing to put in their best for people they didn''t know. The bipod serpents and gharials which had high magical and physical resistances respectively weren''t his focus. The bipod serpents were like serpents with to legs just beneath their heads. They squirted bursts of water as their attacks along with bite attacks which could poison the players. They were weak towards physical attacks. The gharials which attacked physically with their tails or tried bite the players were very immune to physical attacks, but susceptible to fire. Though he could get their aggro, he didn''t want their aggro, he wanted experience the most. So, the horned toads were his focus as he could kill them alone. These were poisonous, faster and smaller. It was extremely hard to take down such a small target moving at high speed. Long-distance fighters had it very hard to hit such a small target and close combat players had it worse. They had to take special care to avoid them, blocking wasn''t an option without a shield. Trying to block with a weapon wouldn''t be effective as the skin was also poisonous to touch. The only thing they could do was to evade and cut at it which was very hard in the marsh area due to lower mobility. The horned toads were also slightly intelligent and tended to attack at the joints and bare and thinner areas of their armor with their horns. Their horns could actually get through cloth armor and poison players. The players have already begun removing parts of their armor to lessen their weight to counter their loss of stamina due to the water. This was necessary, else the tired player would be easily killed by a couple of ambushes. Due to this there were in much more danger of being poisoned by the toads, but it was unavoidable. If they were poisoned, the players would lose health at a fast rate along with a slight paralysis which was very dangerous in that environment. So, within a few minutes, the nature of these toads was determined and everyone in the battalion were made aware of them and were advised to avoid physical confrontation with them or provoking them. Balthazar had previously kept his speed in control and didn''t work to the best of his capabilities all this time as he didn''t want to let anyone know of his attributes. He chose this time to attack these horned toads. The best part was that unlike the gharials and the serpents which spent most of the time underwater, these toads lie on top of floating plants or grass. They even float on the top of the water for most time as they can''t spend long duration underwater and this allowed him to attack them with his arrows. Though the toads are fast, they would escape or attack only when they notice players which was not possible with Balthazar in stealth. So, he could easily gain aggro and kill the toads. He had equipped a buckler on his left hand to be on the safe side and began to attack. Once, he got their aggro, he didn''t have to worry much. A few hits with his weapon were enough to put it in dire straits. He had specifically asked to be allowed to engage monsters alone only for the opportunity to kill these smaller toads alone without having to share the experience. As the toads were fast and none of the berserkers wanted to play with them either. So, they didn''t complain or criticize him for killing the toads on his own. Moreover, the toads were already marked most dangerous due to lack of an intermediate antidote and Balthazar had already asked permission to handle beasts alone if he could. So, even the ones who felt that he was rude let it go whenever the heard notification of one of their team killing a horned toad. He also lured back serpents and gharials alone occasionally, so that his teammates wouldn''t have any complains, but made sure to kill the toads on his own before coming towards his team. He also made sure to carefully collect the remains using gloves so that he could extract poison for research of an antidote. He planned to return to the place again on his own. So, he was already making the required preparations. He was able to get through now as the animals had their focus divided among many players, but he doubted it would be the same in his next trip. So, gather antivenom was most important to him. He also planned to gather the gall bladders and the similar organs of the other beasts. As they were living beside the toads it was clear that they are resistant to its venom and their organs would most probably be crucial for making antidotes based on the game design. After a couple of hours of toiling in the marsh, they finally managed to move ahead enough to see the advanced party. The advanced party were in an orange colored force field which kept the monsters at bay. There were langstonia, gharials, toads around them, just beside the orange force field. Being the scout in forward team, Balthazar was one of the first among them to notice the advance party through his scope. "They seem to be stuck. They are surrounded by monsters and are only alive due to an orange colored field around them which is keeping the monsters at bay," he said to the others in his team. "Have come here to save them?" he asked Puba. "That is a part of the mission, but we need to move further ahead. If we have come close to the advance party, we need to discuss with Kiriti about the next part," said Puba as he led them towards the direction of Kiriti who had been behind them. "You have noticed them too?" asked Kiriti as he saw Puba coming towards him to which Puba nodded in agreement. "OK. Join the main group. It will be a defense oriented fight now. There are too many packed near them and I hear they haven''t budged yet. We will need all guardians to hold them at bay." "You know why we are changing tactics?" asked Zoras who also joined them back. Balthazar just shrugged his shoulders and redirected it to Puba. He had a certain expectation but wasn''t sure if the Valhalla Raider were actually doing it as it would cause certain amount of damage and losses to them too. Soon, his doubts proved to be true. He felt that these guys were crazy for attempting it. They pulled out barrels about 2 feet tall which had a fuse at their end. Using this was a crude way to disrupt beasts in aquatic environments. Soon, six of the barrels were ready. The players were arranged in a formation so that berserkers could run and lob these barrels into the distance after lighting the fuse. This was a very risky and a costly way to clear beasts in water-logged places. He had been avoiding damage all this time to keep his disguise intact, but he knew that this attack would inflict some damage onto him too. Still, he pulled out a large level 10 shield to cover himself and was ready to get away in case he was found out. As the lit bombs were thrown, the players were all instructed to move back and prepare for the beasts'' attack in a semi-ellipse like fashion. This time, the outer layer was completely covered with players with big shields while assassins, swordsmen, martial artists and berserker stood right behind them to put in attacks. Behind them stood a crowd of healers, archers and mages ready to attack. There were a few melee players even among the long-distance attackers and healer as there was always a chance that few beasts might get near to them. So, these were supposed to be as guards for the others. This was a standard formation for wars in games as they were expecting a charge of the beasts after the explosions. Balthazar had specifically requested to be placed among the long-distance attackers and healers. It was a very small job and most of the players expected those wouldn''t see any action. So, he was despised by the others in his team for requesting it. Puba felt it was odd but he didn''t care as many others were asking to not be put along with the mages as they wanted to participate and get more experience and pay. So, he was sent to his requested position without issue. He had even suggested the three friends that he made while scouting to join him, but only Zoras took it seriously and followed him. Balthazar had no intention to participate in the fight. He asked for that position so that he could stay away from the explosion and go into stealth and escape. Any damage would remove his disguise which he didn''t want to happen, and he knew no way to avoid damage for the upcoming excercise other than running away. They were risking a lot for the well-being of the advanced team. As the barrels burst, most of the monsters close to the barrels have suffered serious injuries. All the players stayed behind the guardians and their shields to avoid environmental damage due to the explosions, but still something that they didn''t expect happened that through them into panic. The beasts that had the least weight were the poisonous horned toad. These were pulled off the water and into the air and fell on the players in pieces. They had already been warned of water falling on them along with some debris causing a visibility problem, but they had overlooked the horned toads whose skin was also poisonous causing a number of players to be suddenly poisoned. Within ten seconds of the blasts, over 30% of the members were already notified to be poisoned. The majority of these were from the line of berserker, assassins, swordsmen and martial artist. The first line made of guardians and others with shields cowered behind their shields and hence the number of poisoned among them were low less than 10%. The ones behind them weren''t so lucky. The mages, archers and healers got lucky as they were too far for the poisonous pieces of toad flesh to fall on them. It was during that time, the majority of them realized the folly of their actions. The poison rain caused by the death of the toads paralysed a good amount of the physical attacker among them. Though a majority of tank players were fine, they alone could continuously keep a monster charge at bay. They could block the attacks, but while they were focused on blocking others need to make attacks on the monsters to lower their number. Else, the tanks would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Due to the poison rain, the formation in which almost all the players were confident wasn''t effective any longer. As expected, the casualties spiked when the gharials and bipod serpents attacked. The bipod serpent by virtue of their magic and the two legs could jump distances and they landed behind the tanks. They were physically weak and could be routed quickly by close-combat attackers, but due to the paralysis from the poison most of them ended up being cover for the serpents against the other players like archers who were still in action while some even attacked the tanks from behind. The gharials were stopped by the tanks at the front, but they couldn''t always block their attacks. Their tail attacks are particularly fierce robbing the health of guardians by chunks of 10% or more. Without attackers like berserkers and martial artist who had high strength to support them, they were also in a losing fight. The worst part was that the tanks realized that floating pieces of toad flesh would still be poisonous. These floating pieces were blocked by their shields and fell to their sides. They didn''t consider these a danger as their focus was on the beasts that were attacking them, but any tank whose skin or thinner part of armor came into contact with these dead toads were also poisoned. Chapter 195 - A Marsh Battle - II Kiriti was appalled at the outcome. He and the other members of the guild had expected there to be a number of beasts that would attack them and prepared for it, but never expected that their own efforts would be responsible for injuring their forces to the largest amount. The barrels used to explode the place was supposed to make the attack easy, but it ended up having the opposite result. Notification began to sound in everyone''s ears that their companions were dying within seconds. The explosions followed by the roars and growls of the beasts which ran towards them were frightening enough. The following announcements that their companions were dying at such fast rate was just demoralizing. Some of the long-distance attackers started to release their attack continuously at the incoming horde. Almost blanketing their teammates with their attacks along with the beasts in panic. This was all before the really strong beasts like the langstonia joined the fight. The langstonia were similar to gharials with large snout, scales and strong tail. The distinguishing feature was that they had for thick 3 feet long legs that allowed them to move at higher speeds and they could also jump a couple of metres high to land on their prey. They were like the Salamandrids, but they didn''t cause any fire damage on touch and had low magical defence. When they joined the fray, even the guardians who had most defence were mauled by the beasts. Luckily, the numbers of these langstonia were very low. The bomb barrels were mainly aimed to fall amidst the langstonia, and they received the worst damage of all during those explosions which killed more than half of the langstonia. The surviving ones were also low in health and crippled which made it easier for the players to kill them. The ones in charge of the mission like Kiriti and the other were trying their best to command the groups to fortify their defences and attack the approaching monsters. It was a panic scenario, but within half a minute or so, most of the players realized that their best option was to stay together and fight against the horde of beasts. After a few minutes of fighting, the situation slowly subsided. The beasts have all been dispersed or killed, but the casualties among the players weren''t low either. Apart from the independent players a number of the players from the Raiders and Ronins both died. They lost over 50% of their force and this wasn''t even the main reason for them having gathered these many players. Balthazar had stayed away from most of the fight. As the barrels were thrown, he went into stealth and sneaked off to the side and up a tree when the others were focused on the fight ahead. He covered himself with a shield and safe from the poison shower he expected. Luckily, he wasn''t even range of the area where the poisonous chunks of toad showered the players. To avoid any damage, he chose his targets selectively and used his crossbow to attack for the first half to get a little bit of experience and he only came down after he noticed that the beasts were diverging into the forest. The explosion had startled the beasts very much that all the surviving beasts ran away from those spots resulting in a stamped. As the players began to kill more of the beasts, the beasts slowly ran away to the sides in directions which were safe. Balthazar also moved to the side in the direction that the beasts were running away. This was the best time for him to attack isolated monsters and gather their carcasses. By the time, the panic subsided, he was already had a few samples, but he also lost his disguise. In the confused struggle between the beasts and players, he had attempted to kill a langstonia which caused him some damage. So, he stayed away from the others in stealth till the cooldown of the disguise skill is cleared. They managed to successfully clear the beasts surrounding the advanced party, but all of them were hesitant to proceed further in the marsh. They didn''t think they had enough chance to survive the situation ahead. Karma was the most adamant as it was his quest that had brought them to the marsh in the first place. He argued that all their effort would be in vain if they didn''t proceed. He also told them that a loss in experience isn''t much as they had earned quite a bit of experience during the previous blasts and following charge by the beasts. In fact, all of them crossed into level 16 during the explosions. In five minutes, they had decided to move forward along with the advanced party. The independent players who just joined for the money that the guild promised, didn''t want to move forward towards the centre of the marsh but rather continued hunting at this region where they had a decent chance of increasing their experience. But knowing that they would get the pay only if they completed their objective or died during it, they continued to move forward under the hopes that they would get a chance to improve their experience more. Still, there were few who decided that they didn''t want the remuneration provided by the guild and separated as they felt it a waste to throw their lives away by going deeper into the marshlands. These players accounted for about 15% of the remaining. Usually, the guilds would kill them if they left the mission, but they left them alone as they had already lost quite a few numbers and felt it was detrimental to their mission if they lost more in a fight. They only had thoughts to deal with the deserters later if possible. Though they had a decent increase in experience, the number of useful parts of the beast that were found was very low. The place where the explosions took place was filled with burnt up carcasses of beasts which were of no use to anyone. This is the reason using barrels of gunpowder as bombs was considered useless by players in his previous life. It was a common consensus that it wasn''t worth the price. As they had started moving before the cooldown of his disguise skill, Balthazar had decided to join the players who stayed back. Puba had already died as he was on the front lines during the stampede. So, he directly informed Kiriti who kicked him out of the group and warned that they would open fire if he pursued them. Kiriti was a careful person who had doubts against all the better players that joined their group. He had a few assassins covering their rear just to be careful. Balthazar didn''t immediately pursue the group into the depths of the marshlands as he believed that they would be on the lookout for pursuers. He would have definitely put someone to check the rear if he was in their situation. Still, it wouldn''t be that hard to follow them from a distance. He had a scope which he could use to extend his vision range and it wasn''t hard to follow the trail of a group as large as them. Though the water which was a foot high will eliminate most signs of fighting like blood, flesh and broken branches, he could still move in the area without much issue in stealth. He also had experience in tracking in his past life and it was much easier to track such a large group from a long distance. Apart from being in stealth, he could also breath underwater courtesy of the goggles that he received at the BlackRock town. Though he only joined them to make his travel easier at the beginning, he was currently curious to know what would cause a guild to make such huge movements. After he saw the advanced party and the shield in which they were hiding, it was clear that the guild had found something useful or a quest to find some ruins or important place. So, he had decided to pursue them. The explosions had caused the surround beasts to keep away from them and the pace of the party was much faster than it was before due to the lack of beasts. There were some occasional langstonia which cause a few problems, but the large firepower generated by all those players together cleared off the beasts in no time. As he was following them, he noticed a few players that were covering their rear. He began to spread the venom he got from the toads on some of his arrows as a precaution and increased the distance between them. It wasn''t a problem to him as he had the a very high perception and a scope. So, it wasn''t hard for him. He also had a nighthawk as a pet which he could use to scout the areas if he lost track of them, but that was a last resort. Being a town on the border of the fae region, the players had a habit of being guarded against aerial surveillance. Soon, the party reached a location and stopped and started to clear the beasts by moving laterally. The land there was already under water for more than 2 feet and covered the legs of most players. He decided to disguise as another assassin that he saw when they were moving and joined among them as a scout to get a closer and better look. He noticed that half a kilometre ahead was an entrance of a cave half submerged in water. He guessed that it was at least three or four feet deep. He was sure that it was the destination of the group. There were a few assassins who were already moving towards the cave and they were checking the area for beasts. He joined them and moved a few hundred metres towards the cave when he saw something that surprised him. Right outside the cave there were small black rock like structures from which water bubbles came out at fixed intervals. Sometimes a burst of water like a waterspout were also seen. As he saw them, he immediately realized that these were not natural occurrences but the very things that he had been searching for. The knuckers tend to dig pits in the water where they lay with just their snout above water. These were part of the description that he heard of the knuckers in his previous life. He chose one at a corner and went closer to examine and confirm it. [Knucker] (Elite monster) Level 20; HP: 50000/50000; It would be considered a very high HP for a level 20 beast by most based on the other monsters, but Balthazar knew that any dragon related beast would have a better life rating and stats than other beasts. Still, he also felt doubtful in his ability to handle one now. Moreover, he could clearly see that there were five beasts in vicinity. There could be a few more in the cave which he couldn''t see clearly. He was sure that he wouldn''t be able to do much against them. He had to look for another location for a knucker. Species like knuckers from dragon lineage tend to be rulers of the place they were in and had high intelligence and would use proper cooperative tactics. They would also have high physical defence and magical resistance. Attacking this place was suicidal. He doubted that even with the big team taking on five knucklers would quickly pile up the casualty count. He quickly made his way away from the cave and towards the rest of the players. He joined the rest of the players and began to converse with a few other players whom he found out to be from the guild to get a better idea of their plan. After a couple of minutes, he realized that they planned to get into the cave and the only thing they have was a few more of the barrel bombs which they were counting on to get rid of more monsters that might attack when they enter the cave. It could be considered a reasonable approach as the number of beasts near them were quite low. The presence of the knuckers had the other beasts to maintain a certain distance from the location. They had no clue about the beasts that were guarding the cave, and all this was just a precaution as Karma had to get an egg from the cave and he was already informed that a formidable entity guarding the cave. Realizing that they were about to do something a lot more stupid and reckless than the previous time, he began to move towards the back of the group to go into stealth and go back to the town. He managed to get to the end when people started to shout in alarm. "A level 20 beast. Level 20 beasts run," started shouting one of the assassins and a second later he was sent flying towards the side by a stream of water coming off from one of the knuckers. As it stood up one could see that it was long and serpentine in shape with four thick legs. It was like the langstonia except for a long neck and long tail each of which spanned for at least 2 metres while its body was another two metres long. The head had a pair of tusk protruding out of a long snout like that of a dragon with frills by its neck and a pair of long fin like structures on its back between its limbs where there should have been wings for a dragon. The sudden appearance of the knucker and the flying player put everyone on alert. Before they even began to fire their attacks, another head popped out of the marsh a few metres beside the first and began to roar and spout streams of water from its mouth attacking a few other scouts who were close to the area. It was followed by another three necks popping up. Balthazar quickly ran away in the opposite direction before any of the attacks would come his way. He ran a certain distance and went up a tree to stay in stealth. Though the knuckers had legs they didn''t use them as much as the fins on their back. The glided along the top surface of the water with help of the fins. They were faster than the other beast and players and used their limbs, tail and neck to smack away all the players who went to scout the area near to the cave in a minute. During this time, the long-distance attackers had released their attacks to save their companions, but it was of no use other than irritating the beasts. The attacks of these players who were at level 16 or below didn''t even cause much damage and the knuckers followed up with water attacks which had a very long range. After a few seconds of individual attacks, the five knuckers even joined to form a line and put their necks at the surface of the water while beating their fins causing a large wave to form and move towards the players. This was an attack that even Balthazar hadn''t heard of. He had heard about the difficulties in fighting a knucker and their weak points, strengths, description and habits, but he had never heard of them fighting together. It probably did happen in his previous life, but people would have probably kept it a secret of he failed to know of it as he joined the game quite a lot of time after the marshlands were conquered by the players. It was new and he was amazed by it. When the players saw it, they tried their best to evade the large AOE attack. Even the fae players that had kept themselves secret realized that there was no point in hiding further and tried to escape by pulling off their cloak and using their wings, but the wave just grew in size and struck them too. It was about 10 metres tall and blocked all attacks by the players and swept them back causing them damage as it pushed them back for a hundred metres easily. Balthazar was really glad that he had decided to retreat, else he would also be among the players who were struggling to get up. The wave was enough to kill 5% of the players assemble there. After the wave attack the knuckers through a few more water stream attacks before going back towards the cave and submerged themselves underwater. The attacks knocked down everyone. Even Karma, Kiriti and the other members of Valhalla Raider and Ardent Ronins were soaking wet and lost more than half their health. If the knuckers didn''t retreat on their own there definitely would have been more causalties. This attack not only demoralized the independent players, but even the members of the guild had no intention of continuing further. They gave up on the spot and began to channel their hearthstones to get back to safety. Chapter 196 - Nodentius All of the players realized that there was no point in continuing forward. Even Karma whose quest was the reason for mobilization of such a large force had no hopes in moving forward when the area at the entrance itself was guarded by these beasts. He found it hard to believe that any level 20 beast would be so strong and wanted to raise a complaint. Balthazar also wasn''t sure if he could achieve his objective in the Greybark marshlands. He hasn''t ever had information of the area during it''s first month. The information he knew in his past life would probably be updated information which probably didn''t match to the current situation at the Greybark marshlands. Especially stuff about the knuckers which were his objective for his trip to the marshlands. Seeing the combined attack, he was sure that he had very little chance to kill these monsters. He needed to be prepared to die, but that would cause a whole other set of issues. He had a very high chance of dying if he attempted to fight all those knuckers together at his level. He had 70 Human reputation points currently and would be considered a citizen in all human occupied regions. So, death would respawn him in the Murk Water town. He didn''t want to lose experience that had gained with so much effort and time. He could currently only use his hearthstone to return to the BlackRock Town or White Heart City. Though he has 70 human reputation points, those would only be considered if he wanted to use his hearthstone to teleport from other-species controlled region to human controlled regions. If he wanted to teleport from a human occupied region using hearthstone, he could only get to BlackRock Town or White Heart City where he is a citizen. So, to be able to escape situations where he could be killed or avoid uncomfortable situations, he urgently needed to gather reputation at the Murk Water Town. With that in mind, he let go of all other distractions and made way back to the town. As he was focused only on travel and didn''t care about the monsters it took him an hour to get back to the town. The best way to get reputation in a place was quests given by the town NPCs and the town head office. After it has become necessary for players to become third-class citizens to use their hearthstones, most players have begun to search for way to increase their reputation to at least a third-class citizen in some towns. The competition for the quests has increased drastically due to this change in the game. This made it much harder for players who didn''t spawn in a specific town or country to develop in that specific town or country. Apart from that, from the upgrade which had this new rule, there were a large number of new quests that gave the players a chance to increase their reputation. There would be a few based on the secondary professions and gathering quests but these would give a very small amount of reputation. It was always best to attempt a quest which could be found in the difficult and special terrain of the places. Balthazar knew that for any town close to a large water body, the best quests would always be found near the water. So, he had to go to the coast of the Murk Water bay. He first made his way back to the town and contacted Agua for a map of the town and anything he could get about the Murk Water bay. The town map was immediately produced but the Murk Water bay map was much harder. The coast of the bay was completely made of silt and mud from the bay and the beast there were mostly crustaceans like crabs. They were all ranging from level 10 to 15. The area was currently being monopolized by the Valhalla Raiders guild due to its economic value. Though none of the players have yet to get into the bay to explore the water, the coast itself was a kilometre wide and it had a number of herbs growing on it. Moreover, the tides of the bay brought several things to the shore. These ranged from food stuff like clams, fishes, to important materials like pearls and gems. But the players had to usually fight with beasts like large crabs, turtles, tortoise, etc even for them. Though the bay was currently impossible for players to travel by boat or any way due to the high level monsters that are found in the bay, the NPCs of the kingdoms have a few ship using the bay for trade and military purposes. In fact, the coast along the Murk Water Town was left by the NPCs because it was too shallow boats to move. Still, there would some precious gems and other materials that was ashore from the bay onto this shore from shipwrecks of these NPC sh.i.p.s. This is the main reason for the Valhalla Raiders to create a monopoly for the place. There were players always patrolling the coast to prevent others from finding out about this. They initially were just after a level 10 to level 15 farming region with decent herbs but soon found out that gems and other items including weapons would wash ashore. So, they kept it isolated. Balthazar also knew this information and guessed the reason for the Raiders actions as soon as he heard that they were maintaining monopoly over the coast. The bay was a place which both the fae and the human empires have been fighting to grasp and it formed a natural barrier between those two regions. Fights between sh.i.p.s moving in the bay was a common sight and certain areas in the bay were considered war zones. So, the coast always saw the occasional weapon or two. The bay was considered a treasure spot and many players try to use diving gear from their sh.i.p.s to collect weapons from the bottom of the sea floor. There would also be a few treasure chests on the bottom of the sea floor randomly and sometimes those would even be found on the coast. Still he was sure of one thing that the coast was bound to have - a coastal guard station. That would have the NPCs who would monitor the coasts. Though the Valhalla Raider try to prevent others from entering the areas, they have their very own problems. They couldn''t be looting all the items that wash ashore either. Occasionally groups of NPC soldier would march along the coasts and gather up any useful item they see. In that case, if they see any adventurer taking an armament washed up to the shore, the adventurer would be attacked, and the armament would drop down. It would be considered stealing by the coast guard and even their reputation would suffer a blow. Balthazar wanted the location of this coastal guard station as that would have quests. One that could provide him reputation quickly. The best thing he could do was to get them a weapon design that could use materials from the surroundings similar to the one that happened with the White Bane Corps in the Black Rock Town. For that he would at least need to get to the coast and get some materials if he had any intention to craft anything, but first he needed to get a good idea of the goods available in the town. So, he first decided to get know of the information gathered by the Divine Swords. "Mr. Shadow, the Divine Swords have very few members here in this town. Most of them are at the fae region. Only a few us have chosen human race and were spawned close. I was an old member and have quite a few friends in the guild. So, I didn''t want to stay far and moved to this place and managed to get a few passes for moving to this town, which were used by some fae to explore this side," said Agua. "I was actually in the fae region till the leader requested to support you. I don''t have much idea about this place. So, I don''t have such maps. Most players wouldn''t have a map of the coast. The only other influence that could have is the Ardent Ronins, but they would also not sell it easy." "How much would it take?" asked Balthazar. "If it had been a day before, I would have suggested that you get some materials from the Greybark marshes, but now it I am not sure about this," said Agua. "What can I give them? You have any idea what they might need?" asked Balthazar as he didn''t know anything more than Agua. "I really can''t help you with this. Just sneak into coast and check for yourself. Just avoid the coast during high noon and dusk for an hour each. Even most of the Raiders retreat at that time. There seems to be some kind of NPCs patrolling who attack the players who are at the coast," said Agua. Those words were the very ones that Balthazar wanted to hear. The coastal guard would be the only NPCs that would be moving in the coast in patrol. If he wanted to get to the coastal guard station it would be best if he chose the time when the members of Valhalla Raiders retreated. He had to just follow any coastal guard he would see. He considered contact with those NPCs less dangerous as any patrolling NPCs would be low-level characters and it was better than contact with members of the Raiders. If the NPCs are seen, he could have a chance to negotiate as they didn''t discriminate between all adventurers, but if the members of Raider see him, they would definitely try to kill him and hunt him even in the town as they had plans on monopolizing the beach near the town. "OK. Thanks for your help. I will see if I can do anything," said Balthazar. "Where can I find you if I want to contact you again?" "You can message me anytime. We are hunting in the forest behind the town in the direction opposite to the coast," said Agua as he bid his farewell. It was already past noon in the game and the next chance he would get is during the dusk. He decided to check the market and the town before the dusk. He went into disguise as the Dormant Blade character he had previously used and asked around for a few minutes and found the shop owned by Valhalla Raiders. Looking at the shop, he found that there were quite a few things being sold by them, but it was limited to consumable and a few normal weapons. No armaments looked like they were made form the materials that could be found from the coast. So, it was one thing that Balthazar realized he could still use. He knew that there would definitely be items that the guild kept for themselves and wouldn''t sell to help increase their number but expected some lower level special armaments at the very least. He was disappointed by the items he found there. He went around the rest of the market to check the various items that are available at the NPC shop. The thing that he found most attractive were the underwater breathing potions. This were the best thing that he could stock up on as most players weren''t using them because they couldn''t get in the Murk Water bay due to the Raiders maintaining a monopoly of the coast and they knew that waters actually had beasts at a much higher level than them. He would have emptied the entire stock if he had a decent way to carry them back to the BlackRock Town. Lack of such means, he just took a few to attempt a looking into the Murk Water bay. He also checked the rest of the marketplace along with Agua to get a decent idea of all the available stuff. Apart from the coastal guard, the town head and temple of the twelve were his next best option for getting town reputation points. He went to the town headfirst and checked for quests. There was a common quest that allowed them gather reputation and contribution points by providing the town head with food supplies. The contribution points are easy to acquire, but it is much harder to increase reputation points which would require a lot of meat. He had collected the meat from the beasts at the marshlands, but most of those were poisonous and not edible. Most towns had such quests after the upgrade of the game, but he had hoped for something better. This kind of quest was extremely time consuming and was the last thing he wanted to do. Still, he took the quest as he knew that he would be fighting some beasts and might as well get a little reputation out of it by taking the quest, before he made way to the temple of the twelve. The temple of the twelve was an entity that would be there in all the towns in the light faction and he had an iron-grade membership of the temple. He would have the privileges for membership in every place in the light faction which could get him better quests. He put on his badge of iron grade membership as he entered the place. The temple was right in the centre of the market area like it was in Jarko town. But instead of stone and metal, the temple was made of marble that was greenish brown almost the same color as that of the Murk Water bay and was made as a tower with four floors. As he went inside, he found that the first floor was a large white walled meditation hall with ten-meter-tall statues of the twelve lords opposite the entrance. The distinguishing feature was that there was thirteenth statue behind them of an armed knight kneeling front of them and the walls of the temple had paintings that depicted this person fighting beasts of sea on the coasts and the waters of the Murk Water bay. This was clearly different from the temples of the Black Rock Town. Such pictures usually depicted the story of some important person in the lore and was the method used by the game to indicate that a special treasure or quest could be found in the region. He began to observe the paintings and after some time came to the statues to have a closer look at the knight when he heard a voice. "Greetings adventurer," said a deacon who had come close to his side. He had white hair and looked very old. "You seem to be interested in the statue of Nodentius, the knight? Are you one of those who had travelled to this town in search for his inheritance." "Yes and no, deacon. I am traveller who came to this town recently. How did you guess that?" asked back Balthazar. "The badge signifying your membership, I haven''t given that to you in this town and I am the only one who can," said the deacon. "And there was another adventurer who had come here a day before who was on a quest to discover about our protector, the knight who made these coasts a safe haven for humans." "So, Nodentius. He was a pupil of the twelve lords?" asked Balthazar who intended to find out more information about this person. Even, if he already had an inheritance, he was sure someone else could make good use of it. "Yes, he was a resident of this very town back when it was a village," said the deacon pointing to the pictures on the walls. "There was a constant danger of the beasts during that time. He grew up fighting these beasts and hearing of his deeds, he was recruited away by the army. He didn''t forget his roots though. He came back a captain and commandeered his men to push back the beasts." "That was a time when there would be no men on the coasts. He set up a coastal guard and showed that the bay was a treasure that could help develop the nation and thus, the present coastal guard and town came into being. Even this temple was made only due to his assistance. He was one of us. The town was renamed into Murk Water Town after the bay as he had his hometown as his base. Alas, after his disappearance the situation changed and the town that almost became a city once is in this state," said the deacon in a sad tone. "Where did he disappear to?" asked Balthazar. "A mystery, son," said the deacon. "Some say that he went into the lands of the fae, some say that he died doing what he always did and was lost to the waters of the Murk Water bay. There are also some who say that he had fought under the command of the twelve lords and decided to continue following them to wherever they had gone to." Chapter 197 - Antivenom Hearing the deacon talk about this character Nodentius, he was sure that he had stumbled into learning some part of the lore of the place and it would be useful to find out more about it. He didn''t expect his priority to change suddenly but this was too god a chance to give up. Most of such lore would be associated with an armament or tool used by the concerned person and the players would get a chance to obtain it. In his past life, all guild leaders and top management always had their feelers out for any information of this kind. All the hints that were in open places like the temple were already pursued by various guilds and most have succeeded by the time he had joined the game. This time, he had luckily stumbled into one such case and had no intention of giving it up. He had knowledge of quite a few armaments'' appearance even if he didn''t know their skills and attribute values. So, he began to observe the statue of the knight much with more concentration. The knight had a turtle shell shield on his back with a pair of daggers just below the shield hanging from the back of his waist. He had a harpoon in one hand that he held upright. Looking at the harpoon, Balthazar started to get a few doubts. He remembered a unique weapon called Sting Ray which looked like the same harpoon and was well known to be used by a berserker called Steel Breaker. He was one of the well-known players and his harpoon had both water and poison attributes skills which helped him create one of the most powerful adventurer teams of the Five-Elements empire. It was extremely tempting for him to go ahead and explore the story of the knight to get to the harpoon. He couldn''t use it as it as he was an assassin player and even if he could get an assassin tool, he would use it as he already had void dragon set which he already started working on. But he could always put it in his bag and give it to someone he trusted. He needed to have a trusted berserker player for that though or he could at least sell the weapon later. The weapon is definitely a part of inheritance that would help occupy the sea region which was almost as important as the land. He asked the deacon to see if he could explore the library of the temple to know more about the knight and spent some time going through the books and updated his map of the town using the one available at the temple before he asked for a quest. He also had 250 temple contribution points that he hadn''t used and decided to check if anything valuable was there. He was still disappointed as he couldn''t see things that were of much use except for an underwater breathing potion that was valued at 300 contribution points. Being an iron-grade member, he would have special quests than the others which he could take. This finally was of some use to him as he found a quest that aligned with his aims. It was to contact the coastal guard to find out about some supplies which failed to reach the temple. It was the thing he needed the most right now. He already got enough information to know the time to get to the coast, but he had to search through the coast and hope to find the coastal guard station. Now, he got a map to the station with the quest. He also had a reasonable reason to at least talk out with the players if he was caught by the Raiders at the beach. He had decided that he needed to spend some time in the alchemist association to craft some antidotes. Apart foro the guide that he got Arias he also had herbs and poison that he had collected from the Greybark marshlands. As the original reason for him to come to the town was to explore the marshlands and kill knuckers, he had to prepare for making a trip alone into the place. He had spent quite some time concocting potions in his past life to have a basic understanding of it. It was one thing to concoct antidotes which could nullify most potions, they need the appropriate ingredients that are hard to acquire and recipe that is even harder. Those might not even help subdue the poison of some of the monsters, but to handle specific toxins there were a couple of easier ways to produce antivenom for specific toxins. The easiest way was the similar to the one in real-life. One had to use a beast. They had to take a strong beast, infect it and after the symptoms of the infection were down, one could concoct a potion using their blood which contained the naturally produced antivenom by these beasts. This was a commonly known thing in his previous life and that was the reason he had collected samples of poisons from the beasts when he went hunting in the marshlands with the other players. This was one of the reasons a lot of guilds kept tamers and brought beasts that weren''t very useful in specific terrain. They were used for the purpose of making antivenoms when exploring new lands. The most effective is to capture beasts in that specific place as they would be able to lose the symptoms of poisoning of the other species much faster than those not native to the specific place. The other method of getting an antidote was to kill the other species that lived in the cohabitation with the poisonous species and use their meat for making potions or just cooking and eating them. But it was always better to make potions as the effects of potions would persist longer than compared to simple cooking and eating. Usually, the herbs grown in same place also need to be used in conjunction with the meat. He had also taken the meat from the beasts for the same reason. He collected enough herbs to make a few experiments. He had seen the attempts made by other players and also had some practice in his past life and he was sure that he could get it after a few experiments. He also needed a target to try out his potions. So, his first point of visit needed to be a pet store where he could get the tamer to use the poison, he had to produce some blood after infecting beasts. The other need he had was to get a few antivenoms into some other animals like possums to test the antivenom which he made. The thing was that the test animals were usually disposable ones like possums. Unlike the White Heart City, the place he was at currently was just a town. The facilities that were available also differed due to this. There was no pet store available but there was an intermediate tamer at the edge of the town who handled animals in a farmland. This was his right next to the forest. As it was just a town, one couldn''t expect Master Tamers. Intermediate tamers were the norm in most towns. Balthazar actually considered it better than the pet store as he could interact better with the tamer. Now that the upgrade of the game allowed a person to pursue as many secondary occupations as he wanted, Balthazar also wanted to try out taming. Taming was a hard occupation as it needed knowledge of multiple other occupations like alchemy, herbology, cooking and even forging to be a good tamer. Herbology, alchemy and cooking were for feeding and improving the statistics of the tamer beast. One should also know the characteristics of various beasts, their tastes, physiology, etc. Forging was just an additional skill that could be used to create armor and improving the attacks of one''s tamed beast. Balthazar first decided to request the tamer to teach him taming skill. For the most part, druids were the ones who usually tried to learn the beast taming skill as their own skills and magics helped with the process. They have methods to perceive the beasts and even transform into them which makes it easier for them to contact wild beasts and establish a contract with them. Balthazar knew that it would be impossible for him to do that and he hoped to learn the basics to at least teach the beasts that were his pets some attacks and other skills. Moreover, he currently needed to ask the tamer to administer poison and collect blood. He wished to learn this and the methods to keep his beasts healthy and safe if they were affected by poisons. Unlike players, the pets which died would be lost forever. This needed them to be taken to tamers to heal even if they were crippled. Most players learnt the tamer skill just for this reason. As he reached the location, he noticed that the farmland was actually a small part of the place marked on the map. There were only a few herbs being grown there which he was sure would be mostly used to help the growth of the beasts. These herbs were cordoned off with use of a fencing and magical shock wires covering the sides and the top which would keep the beasts from feasting on them wantonly. The rest was a large ground for the beasts to roam around freely. There were only two buildings in the land owned by the tamer. One was his office and the other was a stable of sorts that he uses to hold beasts that would attack or kill the other beasts that he had in his land. This had cages and equipment to subdue the beasts. He entered the office and was greeted by a secretary. "Greetings adventurer. If you want to buy any pet are beast, please browse our catalog," she said as a list depicting various beasts, their possible skills, stats, features and prices materialized in his view. There were a bunch of pets and items that would help grooming and equipping pets. There were a few pets common with the ones he saw in the pet store at the White Heart City. There were a few that he wouldn''t be able to find in the White Heart City and are only found in this town. There were even poisonous species like serpents and even the a few completely aquatic species. There was another board beside the secretary which had quests that were offered by Kiran. They ranged from meat to capturing beasts. Like the NPCs of other professions and shops, tamers would also offer quests. He browsed through the list and noted down a few which he could probably perform in the forest. If he went to the forest, there was a high chance of him encountering a few beasts. Capturing beasts would also provide him reputation, but it wasn''t something that he could do alone. He marked a couple of them which he could try with the help of Agua Canalon if he did venture into the forest behind the town. "I would like to meet the tamer," asked Balthazar. "I have a special request from him." "Please, follow me. A consultation with Tamer Kiran would cost you a gold coins and further service charges will be decided according to your request," said the secretary. As Kiran was an intermediate tamer, his capabilities would be clearly different from that of a Master Tamer like Berlyn and so would his charges and demeanour. After paying the secretary, another personal arrived and was quickly taken across the field to the stables on a cart driven by a pair of dogs to the stable. The tamer was at the entrance of the stable where he was mixing some concoction using his magic. [Kiran] (Intermediate Tamer) Level: ????? HP: ?????? The NPC was about 5 feet tall with brown hair, green eyes with a round face and he looked like he was lost in his work but realized that someone was approaching as soon as heard the cart. He wore a grey colored leather armor and leather cleats holding a wooden staff with a red coral affixed on its top. If it wasn''t for the staff in his hand, one could mistake him to be a farmhand instead of a tamer by his appearance. "Ah! A guest," said Kiran as the cart stopped by the stable. He put a pause to his work and pulled out a couple of chairs which he laid down for Balthazar to sit along with him. "Hello adventurer! I am Kiran," he said shaking hands with Balthazar. "Nice to meet you, Tamer Kiran. I am Shadow," responded Balthazar. He hadn''t expected the tamer to be so friendly with him and was a bit confused. In his past life, he remembered that NPCs with complex professions like tamers that required study of multiple other profession usually had a little haughty temperament. At the very least, he hadn''t seen one who was so accommodating to a player and stopped his own work to address him. "Glad to be of service to any member of the temple," said Kiran as they sat down. It was then that Balthazar had realized that he still had the badge of the temple on his chest and he forgot to take it down. Still, he was surprised that the badge would have such an effect on other NPCs which weren''t a part of the temple. He only expected it to be important to the members of the temple. "I have a few requests of you tamer Kiran," started Shadow. "Please," said Kiran as he waved his hand indicating him to proceed. "I heard that one could produce antivenoms by infecting beasts with venom," said Shadow as he pulled out the guide that was given to him by the battlemage Arius. "I received this from an alchemist in return for a favour. It describes the process that can be used to make antivenoms through other beasts which have a resistance to poisons." "May I have a look at that," said Kiran as he took the guide from Shadow. A couple of seconds later he returned it back to Shadow. He also looked a bit angry. "It is very harmful to my pets and something that I haven''t tried before but can be tried out. But I need to be compensated for the beasts and my time. Moreover, it is can cause fatal reactions in my pets. You need to compensate for that too. It is best if you buy one beast and try it out yourself," suggested Kiran. Balthazar had already expected that he might get such a reaction from the tamer, but he still asked because his attempt might not be as successful. For starters, any tamer NPC wouldn''t usually sell a player a pet which has a higher level than him. But the pets had a better chance of resisting the poison if they were of a higher level than that of the monster from which the poison was obtained. This was one of the reasons that tamers had to maintain a level greater than the average level of members of exploratory teams. "The problem is that there is a decent level of success only if the beasts have a slightly higher level than the beasts, I got the poison from. The poison if from horned toads which are level 17 creatures. So, it is hard for me to have a pet at level 18 when I am at level 17. So, I am requesting you for this. I will pay any costs or losses that you might have," said Shadow. "Also, I would like to request you to teach me the art of taming beasts." Kiran laughed loudly when he heard Shadow''s second request. "Fine. I guess, I will try," said Kiran surprising him again. "It isn''t for you. I need to do it too," he continued. "I have been stuck as an intermediate Tamer for a long time now. I like animals and have grown up in a farm. My interest into these sprung from those times. I like the view and enjoy the company of these things in wide fields," said Kiran pointing to the beasts. "That is why I spend more time out here than inside the office." "I was told by my master that I wouldn''t improve my skills if I had this mentality and would only improve if I force the beasts to improve under pain and stress. It had long been suggested to me that I try out poisoning and attacking a few of my pets aggressively to force improve their state," he continued. Balthazar was puzzled by the ramblings of the tamer. He was getting bored of hearing about the tamer''s experience and lost his interest in him. He didn''t even understand what provoked the speech and started to worry about the knuckler when a notification brought his attention back to the tamer. New Quest: Kiran''s acknowledgement Description: Capture a mud lizard alive. Rewards: Tame beast skill and instruction from Kiran in taming. Chapter 198 - To cage a beast. "So, adventurer I have no problem in teaching you, if you can prove yourself to be capable of more than blind killing of beasts. You have already proved that you consider beasts to be much more than simple pieces of walking meat. In fact, you had better foresight than me in this aspect as you have considered this alchemical experiment. So, are you willing to accept my test?" asked the tamer again to which Balthazar had nodded his head in agreement. He took the job and confirmed the quest details by asking Kiran before he left the tamers with a mobile cage which had wheels and a plank that lead into the cage. The cage once locked will have a small field generated around it and the beasts wouldn''t be able to use any magical attacks from within it. "Received quest item: Mobile cage - Durability: 200/200" The cage could be put in his bag but only when there is no living being occupying it. The players could only put in tamed pets into their pet pouch or living being which consented to move into it. So, the players needed to move it manually once the cage was occupied. It would be very hard to move it back so Balthazar bought a pair of horses which were the most common beasts of burden in the game at this level. [Clydesdale horse] (Common pet) Level 15; HP: 2400/2400; SP: 5000/5000; Movement speed: 130; Kick attack: 150; (Causes a cripple or stun effect. The only thing good about it was that it had a higher movement speed, endurance and stamina which is the reason it could be used for long distances. Though its attack has a sure-fire effect of cripple or stun on kicking, most of the time it would only be effective on beasts smaller than it which was a small amount. So, they were mostly used for transport than anything else at this level as they could outrun most other beasts up to level 20. Capturing a beast was always much harder than fighting one to kill it. Capturing a beast required it to be pushed into the cage. Most wild beasts would fight to death rather than being captured. He needed to have methods to trick and attract them into the cage and if that failed, a forceful way to pull the beast into the cage. The most common method was to pull a beast into a cage is to use food and blood of other animals to lure it till the cage, but it would probably lead more than one beast using this method. So, he needed to have good number of helpers that would keep the others at bay and probably also need the others to be handled quietly which was the most difficult part. If there was noise which would attract the beast, they would lose the chance to capture it. It is best if he kept the cage at a certain distance with a few others and lure in the beast into the cage. If the cage was close to other beasts both the beast inside and the ones outside would try to attack the cage. The cage was a passive tool which can''t be used like shield or other armaments. So, it would loose its durability and would be wasted if they were near multiple beasts when they managed to get He immediately contacted Agua Canalon and requested his location so that he could come to him. As he had hoped they were still in the forest and were hunting animals. The monsters in the forest behind the town were mostly blue gorillas, rock bears and star deer. These were the ones that the players usually hunted as they could be found in abundance in the forests near the Murk Water town. He checked the location given by Agua and realized that they had to move quite some distance from their current location to be able to reach the location giving to him by Kiran. Kiran had mentioned that the mud lizards would only be found in that location which lacked trees and was filled with dirt and mud with most of it being a plain area. He first decided to meet up with Agua. Though Agua was helping him out of courtesy, he couldn''t ask them to help him in capturing the mud lizard for his quest. They were not a part of his guild and it wouldn''t be fair of him to ask them for their help without providing something in return. He thought for some time and he decided to offer some of his loot from the marshlands and information that he gathered and will gather about the marshlands to them. He could also bargain with them about the information he could collect from the beach. For starters, he already had the location of the coastal guards'' station on the beach. Once, he met them he requested their help and made his proposal. He already offered them a bit of the poison and the location of the coastal guard station as advance and after a bit of conversation, they agreed to help him. The information that he provided them would sooner or later become available for the others. It is better if he could have a collaborative effort with them in the Murk Water town. He also wanted to expand his own guild to the town if possible. The Valhalla Raiders were only able to have a strong influence as it was still the starting stages of the game. It would be much harder for them to maintain it later. The town was on the coast which allowed the players to explore the marine territories and it was also in an empire. So, he hoped to be able to get a few guild members to start developing here. He would also have support of the Divine Swords and could probably develop together. Having reached an agreement, Balthazar led Agua and his team towards the location of the mud lizards. The team was composed of two guardians, an assassin, an archer, a priest, a warlock and four elementalists. Two of the four elementalists were actually fae players. The fae had the advantage of flight and better sight, allowing them a few innate scouting abilities than other species. In any terrain they could always fly up and check for enemies. The problem was that their wings were like those of flies and the continuous flapping sound could also alert other players and monsters of their presence, if they were close enough. They would also be spotted flying in the air and attract unwanted attention. Their worst problem would be seen after the players reach close to level 20. At that time, strong flying beasts would become common and they would be the hardest enemies that the fae players would have to face. But currently, they were very useful in hunting in forests. Apart from scouting, they could attack from the air with their spells without any problem of having to worry about damage from most beasts as the beasts'' attacks couldn''t reach them properly. They would also be effective lookouts when the team were hunting. This would reduce the burden on the other players of the team by a large amount. This is the reason that many teams would try to actively get a few fae members in their team. But it didn''t mean that fae players always had the advantage or that they could alone go hunting. The first problem that many fae players had was the lower weight which allowed them to fly. This made it harder for physical attack classes and tanks. Low weight tanks would easily be subjected to blowback effects than the human players. Apart from that flying depleted stamina of the players at a faster rate. A fae player couldn''t maintain flight continuously during the time, he was hunting because he would keep losing SP as they kept flying. Even if a player could keep flying throughout the fight and had a lot of stamina, one couldn''t fight while flying all the time. Most monsters would tend to run away if they are unable to reach the players attacking them and would need close combat players and tanks to keep them occupied and from running away. They slowly made their way to the area that Balthazar had marked on his map. If he was alone, he could move easily through stealth at a faster pace, but with a team they had to fight and kill whatever beast that could pose a danger to them. It took more than an hour for them to finally reach the location. The area around the place had a number of level 17 and level 18 beasts. The star deer were all level 17 and there were blue gorillas which were level 18 beasts. The star deer were called so as their spots were in the shape of stars. They always moved in groups of seven or eight. They would also fight and coordinate with each other and ramming the players with their antlers and kicking them. [Star deer] While fighting a group of deer, it was hard to fight them if there were not enough tanks. They would even surround the player group while they were attacking and it was a decent technique but had a few flaw which players could use to their advantage. The deer were quite fast, would ram into the players with their heads bent low and this was their advantage. They just moved in a straight line at a fast pace without checking if there were any player are before them once they started. A simple dodge would allow a player to escape the attack and it could also be used against the beasts by making them ram into one another or into environmental obstacles like trees. This was a common tactic that was used against similar beasts which he had used a number of times. So, under Shadow''s guidance they quickly started to coordinate and fight. The fae players were actually very good at it as they could simply fly up causing the deer to ram into others. Though this method caused a lot of meat of the deer to get spoiled and occasionally even their antlers, it was still better as they were able to get a decent loot without incurring much damage themselves. Frankly, the others were just fine with the loot they were able to get by killing deer in this manner, but Shadow kept talking about using their attacks better so that they wouldn''t spoil much of the meat of the beasts till Agua decided to put an end to it. "Mr. Shadow. Please, stop nit-picking over the smaller details. We have always fought like this and it is hard to maintain such control when fighting so many beasts," said Agua. "You are censuring over the small things." Balthazar also felt that it was true and let them try it out in their own way. "They are not my guild and are just supporting me. I have gone overboard," thought Balthazar as he realized that he had always led any team in that manner and continued the same with them. They soon cleared up a side of the area so that they could setup the cage and lure the mud lizards. Shadow had already used his weapon to stab into a crippled deer to make it bleed into a potion bottle for that. He also had some meat pieces which he decided to use to lure the mud lizards. He had the rest of the group wait there just in case to keep watch against any other beasts that were approaching. With the two fae elementalist who positioned themselves on a couple of trees in a direction and also the assassin and archer covering from behind, they had a clear view of the area around and Balthazar was moderately confident that there wouldn''t be any issues that would creep up unexpectedly on him. "It might take some time for me to lure the mud lizard. I can''t use the lure before I isolate a lizard from the place and I need to do some reconnaissance," said Shadow looking at Agua. "Please, wait and do not hurry or tense up." "We already have expected that," said Agua. "Once, the beast enters the cage, will you do the rest or shall we have one of my members, " "No. Leave it to me. It is best if we have as many people on scouting as possible. If there is already a beast or two in the area, only then get the assassin to position himself close by and lock the cage once the beast is inside," said Shadow as he went towards the area in the map. The residence of the mud lizards was in a part of the forest right beside a small waterfall about 10 metres high. It was a small stream that flowed out of a small hole from an elevated area creating a small muddy area that spanned for a quarter of a square kilometre. It was clear that this area would be the habitat of the mud lizards. It was filled with mud and didn''t even have any obstacles or cover to hide behind. It was a nightmare for an assassin to travel without cover. Though they have stealth, if a beast keeps looking at him straight for some time it is bound to discover the player. He found a few mud lizards on moving around the river. They were dark brown almost black in color and were 2-metre-long. [Mud Lizard] Level 18; HP: 7500/7500; He observed the mud lizard from a distance through his scope to check its basic physical characteristics to get any idea about its attack patterns. He hadn''t hunted them before, so he needed to observe its behaviour for some time. He found it hard to believe that a beast which was very similar to actual lizards and was only 2 metre long overall would be a level 18 monster similar to a salamandrid that was double its length. With its size, he was sure that its physical attacks wouldn''t be much of a problem Its tail was small and so were its maw and limbs. It wouldn''t be able to do leaps like the salamandrid or langstonia. Its tail attacks wouldn''t be much useful either as it had a small tail with scales and there wouldn''t be much momentum in its strikes. So, Balthazar believed that its mostly a magical creature with high magic resistance and probably has mud or earth-based attacks based on its habitat. Realizing that he understood the reason for it being designated as a level 18 beast by the game. All beasts with earth-based magical abilities tend to be able cover themselves with earth or mud armor. Even their attacks tend to have a strong blowback effect. He decided to experiment a bit before he went ahead and lured them. He chose a tall tree at the edge of the area, climbed it, took out his crossbow and tied the dynamite to the bolt. He released the bolt with dynamite amidst the lizards to check their response and found that they noticed it as soon as it fell on the land and they popped up to check the object that they noticed. A bunch of lizards were underneath the mud and had also come out to check the disturbance. As it exploded, they had covered themselves with the mud to protect themselves. When he threw a piece of meat, they tried to attack it first indicating that they couldn''t realize the nature of the object thrown. But soon they smelled the meat and started to fight for it as the mud beneath thier limbs moved like a wave transporting them closer to the piece of meat. It was clear to him that these beasts depended on their magical skills even for movement. He used a few more dynamites tied to crossbow bolts to spread the beasts in the direction he wanted so that he would be able to lure the beasts easily later. The lizards spread away from the bolts when the noticed one fall on the ground dispersing themselves away. Unable to notice the culprit they just covered themselves with mud and spread away from the bolts when they noticed one touch the ground. He did it till he got one isolated from the others. If he needed the beast to follow him, he would have to let it see him and only one of them to see him. He took his time to separate one beast from the others using dynamites and pushed it closer to his location. "I got one which could be lured from the others," he informed Agua and the team. "Everything fine on your side?" "Yes. All is well. Just get here quickly," replied Agua. "The ruckus you caused has attracted the beasts to our sides towards the location of the mud lizards, but everything is peachy near the cage." "OK. I am luring it now," said Shadow as he quickly shot a couple of pieces of meat lure the other beasts away while he got down and used his clone to attack and make it follow behind him. He didn''t use the crossbow or dynamites as he was afraid that it would recognize him and call for help. As expected, the beast started to move towards him. He quickly started to spread the blood of the deer and meat in his bag towards the direction of the cage as he threw a large piece of meat inside the cage and waited by the side. Chapter 199 - Tame beast A few moments later, the mud lizard came into the visible range of the team. It crossed past the muddy area and even moved on the grass of the forest in the same manner as it did before. All of them placed themselves over trees located in the forest and noticed it moving towards the cage. Shadow asked them to continue to maintain their surviellance of the areas so that no other distractions are seen by the beast. The mud lizard rode up on a wave of earth hardly moving its legs as it slowly followed the trail and came near the cage where it stopped. "I don''t think it will enter the cage on its own," said Agua as it stopped by cage without moving forward. "Hope you have a way to make it move if it decides to not get into the cage. The way it is gliding over the earth, I doubt if our usual tactics would be effective in cornering it." "No. The usual tricks wouldn''t be sufficient," said Balthazar as he started to smear the poison of the horned toads on one if his bolts. "My poison would slow it down. I doubt if it would have an effect on its magic, but that is what I am thinking of. If that fails, we will probably need to cripple it and push it in ourselves. Tell the guardian to be on ready and the warlock if he can use any spells to disorient the beasts." "Only got dark bolts that can slow it down," replied Agua. "Shall we get down then?" he asked. "No. It will detect any objects or footsteps on the ground. They are quite sensitive to any moving objects on the ground upto a certain range. It was definitely able to do it in a muddy environment, but I doubt its capabilities would extend even to the harder soil of the forest," explained Shadow. "Let the warlock shoot his dark bolts if I shoot my poisoned bolt. Then, we will try to physically wrestle it into the cage." About half a minute later, the mud lizard started to move into the cage for the meat, when they got another announcement that more mud lizards are heading their way from the archer who was closest to the waterfall where the mud lizards resided. He was making a map of that area for the Divine Swords guild. "We are having other beasts joining us," reminded Agua again as there was no response from Shadow. Balthazar had previously informed them that it will get harder if other beasts get involved and they will have to keep other beasts at bay. "Don''t attack before this one gets into the cage. There are no other beasts in the vicinity. If other mud lizards are coming close, it might affect this one to get into the cage faster," said Shadow. "If they come too close let the two fae get to attack them and keep them away." In another few seconds, the beast finally entered the cage. Shadow quickly shot two poison bolts into the beast and it was followed by warlock''s dark bolts as Shadow went to the cage and locked it before the beast tried to get out. He quickly summoned out the two horse that he had and told the others to distract the mud lizards as he connected their saddles to the mobile cage. He also had the warlock to join him to secure the cage to the horses and the pair of them got on top of the mobile cage as the game didn''t yet introduce mounts and prevented players from mounting onto beasts. "Let us move," said Shadow as he commanded the horses to ride through the forest. Though the previously made their way through the forest, it was on foot. For the cage which was about 2 metres long and a metre wide with two horses side by side attached to it, they need proper space and the horses couldn''t move through the same path they used to get to this region. Balthazar had already expected this and through the journey when he was scouting the path for the others to move, he had already marked a path for the horses to have enough space to move. It was a bit zigzag and curvy and not a straight path as they had used to reach the mud lizards. So, there were bound to be a few monsters that would notice them. Even if they could use the same path that they traversed to get to the waterfall, some monsters would still be respawned in that area. So, Balthazar requested the fae and others to keep them busy while he rode on the way back. He had already given the path he would follow to Agua who was coordinating the team to just attack the beasts and lure them away from the horses. It wasn''t a hard task as the horses led by Shadow moved quite fast even with the cage strapped to them. The rest of the team actually had a hard time to maintain their pace with the horse, so it was similarly difficult for the monsters to follow up with the horse. He already had warlock beside him on the cage to slow down any beasts that came too close to the horses. This way, they moved through the woods towards the town. In twenty minutes, the horses and the cage were out of the woods. The rest of the team were still behind. Balthazar decided to wait for them before proceeding ahead. With a pair of horses and the mobile cage, he was sure to gather attention and he wanted to make sure that he had some extra security before he did so. Agua led the rest of the team from the forest in a few minutes. They joined and made their way to the town. On the way, the players started to stare at them as Balthazar had expected. The cage as well as it being drawn by the horses was a new thing for them to see. They had seen horse drawn carts and carriages in the city but not one which is managed entirely by players. The cage was also a new sight to most of them. The tamer profession and use of pets hadn''t yet become a common thing to most players. So, they found the cage to be very interesting. Quite a number of them began to ask about it and by the time they reached the town gate, posts were already made in the forums about the incident. Balthazar had expected a bit of publicity, but it was more than what he expected. With this small incident, the local guilds were already notified of them. Balthazar had put on a disguise when they were travelling on the cart, but the others were noted by the people and that they ended their journey in the direction of the tamer in the town. As they reached Kiran''s office, the secretary immediately took them to Kiran. "Ah! You got the mud lizard I asked for," said Kiran with a smile. "Faster than I asked and no physical injuries," he continued as he walked around the cage observing the beast. Quest Completed: Kiran''s acknowledgement Description: Captured a mud lizard alive. Rewards: Tame beast skill and instruction from Kiran in taming. He held out two books in front of Balthazar as finished examining the beast. One was the tame beast skill book that Balthazar immediately recognized. The skill could be used to tame wild beasts when their health is very low or they are dying, but it has a very small percentage of success. The skill basically sends mana to an animal at very low health as a friendly offer. Sometimes, the beast would accept it and become tame but most of the time it fails. The beast could even take the mana and use it to attack him. Thus, it was a very risky skill that could even have adverse effects to the person that used it. The other one was something different as it had the name of Kiran on it and had a title that said, ''A guide to taming beasts'', on it. "I got the idea from the guide written by the alchemist Arius. It is a better way to let a person learn, give an option for experimenting and getting to have a practical knowledge without a monitoring personality over your head. There would a chance that one could die, but to immortal adventurers, it isn''t much of an issue. With this you could be considered an in-name apprentice of mine. I hope you wouldn''t disappoint," said Kiran pointing to the book. :"Let me take the beast off your hands and you can deposit the poison with my secretary. You can collect the blood by tonight," said Kiran as took the cage and moved inside his stable. With that Shadow and the others came out of his place after Shadow gave a couple of vials with the poison of the horned toad to the secretary "So? What next?" asked Agua. "I am going to the Alchemist association. I want to try a few things before we get to the coast," said Shadow as he handed him the map of the marshlands and a few of the resources that he had collected from the marshlands. To a guild these were more important as they could investigate the area with much ease. He clearly put in all the information including that of the cave and the different kinds of monsters that were there. One could think that they could get this information from any of the players, but it is best if they gathered it from a scout as they don''t disturb the beasts and make a proper assessment of the location and patterns of the monsters in an area. Most of the others in such raids fire blindly as they are brought in to compensate for lack of firepower. "We will talk after your trip to the beach then," said Agua as he took them from Shadow as they took their leave Balthazar could use the meat from the beasts of the marshland to experiment on alternative antivenom which doesn''t need the blood from the tamer, but he wanted to do those experiments during the night time of the game. He didn''t want to use the fireglows to hunt in the night as he didn''t want others to know of the method anytime soon. So, he decided to go hunting alone and only work on potions during the night. He also received the tame beast skill book and learnt it. But he hadn''t yet used it against any beast. He currently wanted to check the skill and experiment with some animals. He went back to Kiran''s secretary and bought a pet pouch which could hold another 5 pets. He went to a tavern to book a private room to check the nook that was provided to him by Kiran. The book was like an idiot''s guide to taming and was differentiated into multiple sections. The first section described about different beasts that he had encountered and how to determine a few basic qualities and nature of the beasts based on the environment and their physical features. This were common knowledge to most players in his past. So, Balthazar skimmed over it lightly before going to the next section. This was more about using the tame beast skill on wild beasts. These were written in the form of Kiran''s own experiences. The most important thing is to make sure that a beast was alone. If it perceived that other beasts could help it overcome the player, even if they were of other species, it will try its best to not allow itself to be tamed and will attack the player. The best chances for taming are when one could make it believe being tamed was its best choice. It works better when the beasts are in a weak condition. One could see beasts in various conditions like crippled, poisoned and even pregnant in various places in the game. The pregnant ones and smaller ones would be found in caves. These could be easily tamed than the other kind of beasts. Sometimes having medicinal agents or things which the beasts would like or crave would also increase the chances of taming the beasts. The other sections indicated the use of various growth agents, food, first-aid, healing medicines and training techniques. These were explained for different beasts with different kinds of specialities and it even included a few aquatic beasts which were hard to find and maintain. After going through them for an hour, he decided to go and attempt taming on a few beasts. Even if he got more beasts or managed to tame beasts that he didn''t require, he could always sell them to the tamers and others. So, he decided to use the tame beast skill and level it up as much as he could. He also realized that this skill could be used quite frequently when he was hunting for experience. He checked the map and decided to start with smaller beasts. The chance of it being tamed was always higher when the beasts were of a lower level than the player. So, he first thought of going to the forest and capture a few deer. It was the best option he could see currently as deer were usually docile species. If they are alone, they could be tamed far easier than the other beasts. As he moved in that direction, he realized that there were lot of players in the forest. A majority of all the players in the town area were hunting in the forest. He didn''t want others to know of his tame beast skill yet. So, he decided to try the marshlands instead. The marshlands have undergone a raid, but there were many players who died and so there were still a lot of people avoided it even after there were a lot of players selling information about it. The only ones who would probably go there are guilds and adventurer teams who intended to pioneer a new area. It was still a better area than the forest ast it would have lesser number of eyes, but these beasts in that area are all very aggressive in nature. So, it would be harder to tame them. Still, he finally chose to practice in the marshlands. He had the venom of the horned toads which could be used to weaken other beasts to tame them and going to marshlands would allow him a chance to collect more venom. He made his way to the marshlands and found that the player density in the area was less than that he had expected. He went inside in stealth and came to a level 15 area. This was an area which had silver scale snakes and black-tongue lizards which he could practice against. There were also red-spot toads but those were fast and small. It was hard to control one''s attacks in a way that they survive with a low health. Even after he captured the silver scale snakes and lizards, they wouldn''t be much useful to him as pets unless they were at a higher level. He would have to research with various medicines to promote their growth and he had no intention of doing that with these beasts. He only planned to sell them. He quickly went and started to attack the beasts that he could find. As an assassin, ambushing single targets was something he was good at. He could quickly cripple a beast once he ambushed it, but usually there would be other beasts in the vicinity and the ambush only serves as a starting point. It was not a problem for Shadow while dealing with silver scale snakes. His first attempt provoked 6 snakes, but he still managed to kill five leaving one alive and impaled by his weapon at the last. He tried his skill, but it failed, and the snake bled out to die. He collected the useful remains and went again to attempt it. He failed about 4 times, three just bled out in refusal and one retaliated agains him, before he got lucky with a black tongue lizard which finally accepted to be a pet when he offered it some gharial meat while he cast the skill. The data about the pet appeared as soon as it accepted in his pets list. [Black tongue lizard] (Common pet) Level 15; HP: 200/4500; Movement speed: 65; Claw attack: 100; Poison smear: Uses its long tong to poison the opponent causing a poison damage of 35 HP per second for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds. "Got no use for this, except to squeeze out it venom periodically. Best put it for sale," thought Balthazar as he saw its characteristics. It was true as it had very little movement speed and it would be easily mauled by higher level beasts. Bringing it out in the middle of a fight would be the same as offering the monsters a free meal. Chapter 200 - Coastal Guard He continued to practice his tame beast skills in the area, and he got experience on successfully taming a new beast. Every new beast captured would also give him a bit of taming proficiency. Taming proficiency was something he had never received before. Even in his previous life, he only bought pets that were already tamed and used to maintain and feed them. This new skill was completely new to him in practice. He had heard that it would be increase in proficiency whenever the beast is fitted with new armor made by the player himself. It would also increase if the beast leveled up under his care or if he manages to successfully heal a crippled pet successfully. This specific feature allowed healers and especially druids to be far more successful than other occupations as tamers. He continued till it was another one and a half hour left for nightfall. He kept a timer so that he would be reminded to get back to the town and prepare to get to the coast when the members of the Valhalla Raider would retreat. By the time, the timer notified him, he had four pets, three black tongue lizards and one silver scale snakes all of which were in his pet pouch and at low health. He put the time half an hour early as he only had a map to get to the coastal guard station from the gates of the town and he couldn''t use hearthstone to get to the Welog town without reputation. Trying to get through to the station by getting to the beach through the marsh was a lot more dangerous and he could lose his life as he didn''t know about the dangers that he could face. He was almost close to level 18 and he wanted to avoid dying if possible. He quickly made his way through the forest towards the town and didn''t aim to kill any beast that interrupted him. He was already at level 17 and with his stats he was faster than any other beast at level 15 or below. After he came out of the marsh area, he make his way to the coast. The coast was filled with dark brown colored coarse wet sand that spanned for a kilometre. There were a bunch of herbs on the coast and as he was previously informed there were a few players that were moving around wearing the badge of the Valhalla Raiders. There were a few crabs and lobsters moving across the beach which were all around a meter long and quarter meter high. A large variety of common crabs, lobsters, turtles, etc., would be found in the sea and coasts and most of these could increase their levels up to 100 or so without any special food requirements. Just a lot of common food would slowly increase their level and also their size along with it. So, these were later discovered to be very useful as pets in the waters. The problem was most of the crabs, lobsters and tortoises cannot swim in waters and are more of a burden than a help in naval battles. Some could swim to flee away, but they don''t have decent direction control. They can walk freely on land even under water but not swim. So, they could only be used to fight at the coast or beaches. Sometimes they could be used to explore underwater regions in the game. He observed them from a distance through his scope in stealth. The players were all retreating from the beasts that they were fighting as they kept looking to the sides. Few of them were on look for anything that the tides might sweep on to the beach. He moved parallel to the coastline in order to reach closer to the area in which the coastal guard station was located. After 15 minutes or so, he was able to see the coastal guard station on the beach. By that time, the players of the Valhalla Raiders came out of the beach and started to get back to the town. It was dangerous to hunt in the dark and that was much worse at the beach. The tides rise at the beach and comes much deeper on to the land during the nighttime and it would bring the beasts riding on the water. Even standing close to the coast would be considered a danger as a crab could suddenly jump from the water to attack players. Balthazar could just see a couple of archers from the Valhalla Raiders guild who were in his visible range. They were just looking over the beach casually. They also didn''t care as they knew that apart from killing, if they ended up looting anything on the beach, the coastal guard would forcefully take those things back. Shadow went into stealth and slowly made his way towards the station. The station was a large wooden cottage spanning about 100 square metres. It was actually built at a height of 4 metres above the beach floor balanced on a number of wooden logs and stones. It was built in the centre of the beach so that the corps would be able to easily access the beach and keep a lookout for any monsters that are trying to sneak out onto the land through the mud. It was quite big and would be visible from quite a distance, if not for its camouflage. It was painted in the same color of the mud in the beach. As he came close, he could see the words ''coastal guard'' written at its centre. There were no stairs onto the place, but a few metal ladders descended from the top floor. There was one at the entrance, which could be used by the players. It would always be down except for cases when there were attacks which would make the ladder a liability. As Shadow came close to the ladder, he was hollered by a guard who was at the top. "Adventurer, state your business," said the guard who was standing just at the top of the ladder. He wore the uniform of the coastal guard of the five elements empire and badge. The uniform was blueish green in color, a mix of leather and plate armor with a picture of a ship on their sleeves a badge with a circle have five colors and anchor super imposed on it. "I was sent by the temple to find out about the supplies that failed to reach them," said Shadow pointing at the badge pinned on his chest. "Oh! It is better if the lieutenant explains it himself. Come on up," said the guard indicating him to come up the ladder. Shadow went up the ladder and followed the guard to the office of the lieutenant. It was just past the main hall, where the guards all assembled. "Boss, this one here is from the temple. He came here for the supplies which we failed to provide the temple," said the guard as he left Shadow in the office and left. "Adventurer, I am extremely sorry for the delay in the delivery. I agree that we have promised to send those supplies in exchange for the deacon''s services, but these were items that we didn''t receive ourselves. We honestly can''t provide you with the items and want to request the deacon for an extension of the delivery by a week. I will personally make sure that the supplies would be delivered in time," said the lieutenant Bloom. He was a typical military NPC with a short crop haircut, shaved beard and moustache. This usually required a player to go back and I form the deacon following which he would be given details of the supplies and requested by the deacon to use any means possible to speed up the delivery. Alternatively, he could talk with the lieutenant to get the details and offer his help to speed up the process. Balthazar didn''t have much time and was hoping to get some reputation as quickly as possible. So, he chose to further converse with the lieutenant. "Sir, if you have any difficulty in delivering the supplies, I hope that I could be of assistance to you. At the very least, I wish to provide a better and detailed explanation to the deacon. So, could you please elaborate on the problem?" asked Shadow. "Hmmm!" sighed the lieutenant as he indicated Shadow to sit in a chair by his desk. "There has been a substantial increase in the number of monsters attacking the coastal line. The causalities increased and we had to request the services of the healers of the temple. They provided them in return for a few of the green aquamarine gemstones that were the specialty of the bay. These could be used heal some affliction caused by the monsters of the Murk Water bay at a much faster pace and coastal guard have collected a decent number of them and were always present at our headquarters. So, it concluded that we would provide these items," said the lieutenant explaining about the transaction between the temple and them. "These were precious resources, but the headquarters still spared a few for the temple. The problem is that they were sent to the town branch and we did send one of our men to deliver it, but he had gone missing for the past three days," said the lieutenant. "I know the night guards at the town gate, and they have seen him entering the town, but no one knows of his situation. They told me that he had gone in the direction of the temple. So, I am not sure what happened. Half my men think that the temple has him captured and is trying to get more compensation from us." "Can''t I have a simple quest, for once," thought Balthazar as he heard the story. This was clearly developing into a complex quest which more than what he had expected. "I guess it is expected if I take one of the quests which are set aside for iron-grade members," he thought. "Is the current deacon aware of the issue?" he asked. Any other question is meaningless after the story which the lieutenant told. The only thing he could determine is the existence of any communication problem between them. "Huh!," said the lieutenant looking a bit confused. "You can''t do that without verifying if the issue is from the temple or your own end. The deacon is also a suspect," said Shadow as he realized the problem faced by the coastal guard. "The deacon believes that I am working on the side of the temple. So, how about I try and find out about the truth?" suggested Shadow. "I am working for the temple and not a personal puppet of the deacon. If he is doing anything disgraceful, it is my duty to set it right," said Shadow acting all righteous in an attempt to convince the lieutenant. Quest Changed: Missing Supplies. Quest Description: Find out about the missing guard in the town. Check the deacon''s activities and find out his role in this matter. "Fine. I trust you because I know that adventurers like you don''t work under deacon. Please, don''t disappoint us," said the lieutenant shaking his hand. Shadow went to the main hall of the coastal guard station as he wanted to check for any quest from them before he went back to monitor the deacon. The only ones available were collection quests and quests for forging services and provision of weapons. It did seem that the coastal guard of the five elements empire was in a situation of conflict or/and active recruitment. He wanted to select the forging services option, but it was not available to him right now. It could only be accessed if one had a reputation in the coastal guard services. The forging services quest were more like tests. It would provide the player with specific designs, materials and the workshop withing the station. He would only be required to create the equipment, but it tested his proficiency. There would be a system set percentage of success that he would need to have at least one success for a certain set of materials needed for the weapon creation. This would be the average success rate of the systems forgers of the players level for that weapon. He would need to maintain a specific percentage of success, else he would be required to compensate for the materials that he had wasted. If he had better percentage of success, his rewards would be based on the amount of materials that he saved. It was a hard thing and a gamble for almost all current players, but for Balthazar it was an easy one due to his experience in his past life. As he couldn''t take the forging services quest, he took a few collection quests. It was hard to gain entrance into the coastal guard. He only managed to do so because of the quest he had with the temple. So, he decided to make the best use of it. He could also get some contribution by exchanging a few weapons. He quickly exchanged a few of the weapons that he had crafted with them gaining a contribution points of 20 before he left. The weapons being the ones below level 15, only the dark gold twin swords were accepted and were given 20 points for a pair of them. The other collection quests were for items usually found on the beach, but he doubted that the patrol would let any player take them at this time. With that he decided to go back to the temple to pay a visit to the deacon. Knowing the game, Balthazar knew that there was a high chance that the deacon could as well be the culprit. He had no real trail to follow as the lieutenant didn''t provide him one. This would confuse and stump a lot of players, but Balthazar had realized that there were other options. He could talk to the deacon and based on the reactions and the actions taken by the deacon, he could find out the truth of the matter. He could also keep a lookout at the temple, but that was time consuming and would have uncertain results. In short, he needed to start up his own investigation as neither the temple nor the coastal guard were going anywhere with their own investigations. Moreover, it wasn''t like he could do anything else as it had already become dark and he couldn''t do any hunting or such activities. He first went to the guards at the gate to ask them about the situation. He went to the gate and asked them for the information. Initially the guards were unresponsive as they couldn''t give such information. But Shadow showed them his badge and told the information that he got from lieutenant Bloom, they began to talk. The last they saw him was moving in the direction of the market. Chapter 201 - Break in He continued to ask other NPC merchants in the vicinity and came to know that the guard did enter the market. He needed to make a couple of purchases or give a few silvers to loosen their mouths. The temple was situated at the centre of the market. So, it was very hard for Shadow to not suspect the temple, when the man had already entered the market. But none of the NPC closer to the temple could remembers seeing a coastal guard. A coastal guard would be dressed in his uniform, so he would attract the attention of the passersby and also the merchants, who would try and sell their wares to him. This was all very confusing. It looked like the guard had disappeared somewhere in the middle of the market. He first thought about someone kidnapping him, but that felt stupid as such a thing would cause a scuffle and NPCs would talk about it unless it was an entity that they didn''t want to offend. Apart from the temple, he couldn''t think of anyone else. He also understood that the coastal guard''s investigations would be similar and there was a high chance the found out the same. The only other thing he could think of was that the guard had decided to get away with the goods of his own will. Either way, he was stuck. He could only go to the deacon, talk with him to explain his findings. As he entered the temple, he was taken to the deacon by a friar. The evening mass had just finished, and the temple was clearing of its devotees. Shadow immediately explained the situation to the deacon and informed that the lieutenant had requested for another week''s time to deliver the supplies. He then proceeded to inform the deacon of his own investigation and he was informed that the coastal guard would have probably come to know of this already. "No wonder, they are a bit hostile," said the deacon. "The market is considered by the majority of the community to be under the protection and the order of the temple. If the coastal guards have learned of this, they are sure to suspect us. We must know of the situation as early as possible. Else, the good name of the temple would soon be in tatters." "Adventurer Shadow, please accompany in finding out the issue. There is a chance that someone in the market might not be willing to divulge the information to you. So, I will accompany you," said the deacon as he got up to make a few arrangements and the pair of them got out of the temple. Balthazar was now sure that he did the right thing in the quest by talking to the deacon. The fact that the deacon had joined him to find out about the missing guard implied that the quest is moving forward irrespective of whether the deacon was a friend or an enemy. So, Balthazar was sure that it would help to bring the quest to a conclusion faster. Moreover, three is a high chance of him getting coastal guard reputation if he managed to either help the missing guard or find out about a corrupted guard based on the situation. He took the deacon to the last NPC who informed him of the missing guard. The deacon went to the NPC merchant and a few seconds later returned with a confused look. "He says that the coastal guard was arrested by the town guards and was taken there along with the supplies. He was warned to keep it a secret from everyone else by the town guards," said the deacon. "So, what should we do next?" asked Shadow with the hope that he could go ahead and inform the coastal guard, or the temple will handle it on its own. The town guard were a force as strong as the temple in the town and he didn''t want to meddle in it. He might get kicked off from the town. The quest was going in the worst direction possible in his eyes. "No. We can''t completely take action on the town guards based on the words of a merchant. We need proper proof. The coastal guard will be kept in the prison. You need to infiltrate it," said the deacon. "You want me to break out a prisoner?" asked Balthazar surprised. "That would definitely put me out of the town," he thought. "Isn''t the prison supposed to be something that couldn''t be broken into in an NPC managed town. If that was the case, there would have been guilds which would have definitely attempted it." He had heard of large guilds attack an entire town and try to take over the town in an attempt to break out someone important to the guild, but he never heard of them focusing on the prison. He only heard of them taking over the entire town and he thought that it was the only way to get someone out of prison in the game. "Break out? That is beyond your capabilities young man and beyond mine too. I need you to get into the prison and gather intel. Find the coastal guard. These military men are not like the local forces like the town guard. They will have a token to signify their identity. You need to make a recording of the person while taking the token," said the deacon as he handed him a small device with a lens and a red crystal on it. It looked like a scope, but Balthazar recognized it as primitive video recorder in the game. "That can be used to record the words of the coastal guard. You need to take his token and recording to the lieutenant. He can mobilize his men and set the matter straight," said the deacon. Quest Modified: Missing Supplies. Quest Description: Break into the prison to gather evidence of the foul play from the coastal guard who is imprisoned. "How do I break into the prison," asked Shadow. That was the thing that had him stumped the most. He only had seen the prisons of the guild owned town and was sure that any player who came close to the prison regions in NPC owned towns would be thrown into the prison by the system. "The prison is at the rear of the town heads mansion. It is a desolate building with a few guards. You need to be careful. He will probably be in the lower regions of the prison. Neither I nor the lieutenant can protect you if you are caught. They will have legitimate reason to keep you in the prison and if required even execute you. As for the actual breaking in and finding out about the reason for his capture that I am leaving to you," said the deacon. "Clearly the worst scenario that I could end up in," thought Shadow. "How could a mission which had a peaceful heading like finding missing supplies end up being one that would pit me against the town?!" he cursed the system as he went in the direction specified by the deacon. He went and found the mansion to be almost similar to the one he saw in Jarko Town. It had stone walls about 9 feet high bordering it, with guards patrolling the area and a pair of guards near the gate. The difference was that the mansion was smaller than that of the Jarko Town and there were more guards making it much more difficult. He decided to first notice the patterns of the guards and their words to get an idea of the place. "Did you know one of the coastal guards was taken captive by the young master," said one of the guards at a gate to a patrolling guard who passed by him. "The young master is back in town?" said the patrolman. "He is the worst possible heir for this town. He just mucks around everything he finds. What was the reason for arresting the coastal guard?" "Nothing. He found the guard carrying something in a case. Looking at the guard he thought it might be something valuable and asked him to part it for a price. You know how greedy and stupid he can be, right? You remember the number of idiotic things he did before," said the guard at the gate.. "So, he arrested a coastal guard for that? This is a bit stupid even for him," said the patrolman shaking his head. "I wonder how many people the head will have to bribe and pacify for him this time. The coastal guards are not trifling matter. We might even need to take some other jobs soon." "Don''t worry, the head had already stopped him when he came to know of it. It is just that the idiot had whipped the coastal guard and though he tried to reason with the guard to keep this quiet, he refused. So, he is in the prison for now. Anyway, the main reason for me to tell you this is to keep a lookout for a new job. I heard you know of a merchant in the city. It would be good if we can secure a job there. I don''t see the young master, Dominic changing anything soon," said the guard. "Sure, will send a message. Thanks, brother," said the patrolman as he went along with his patrols. "That is the stupidest reason, I have ever seen for a quest. That is just lazy writing," thought Balthazar as he began to observe the patrolman. He moved to the back of the mansion in stealth and he got onto the wall from a tall tree. He found the prison to be a dilapidated stone building of two floors with a crumbling roof. There were no guards specifically on the prison but a pair of patrolmen who moved past its door frequently. "The first floor is probably being used as a prison," thought Balthazar. He could see two option for entering the building. One was to pluck a key from one of the two patrolmen. He had to pickpocket these NPCs but there were all level 20 characters. It would be hard and very risky. If he failed to pick their pocket silently, he could quickly use the poison to put the guard down, but it would raise alarms and he knew that he wouldn''t have enough time to get the recording done. The second was to break into the prison through the second floor of the building. The building looked quite old and this seemed to be the less risky option. He had a rope which he had kept with him from the dungeon Bungar''s Keep and he could use it with the piolets to have a way back to the second floor. He had handled far harder situations in real-life before, the only difference is had the tools to make infiltration simple and this time he had to go beyond old-school. He felt that it was downright primitive. After some deliberation, he chose to go ahead with the second method. He made his way from the walls to the roof of the prison building in stealth. The roof was made of mud tiles with one quarter of it broken. He jumped down the broken room and found himself in the second floor of the building. It was filled with leaves stones and even a few critters were moving around the place. He moved around the place and looked for a few minutes before he found a broken-down staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small locked iron gate which prevented entry into the actual prison. He could see the prison cells through the gate and realized that the stairs opened into one of the prison cells. Most other occupation players would be stumped at this point, but this is a simple task for an assassin. Pickpocketing and lockpicking are the two most commons skills that they practice. The lock sprung open for Shadow on his first attempt and he got in. He moved through the place in stealth as he observed the various people in the prison. Most of them were in tattered clothes and looked like they have been in the prison for a long time. Unlike the modern-day prisons, the prison in the game didn''t have specific designed clothes for prisoners. So, he was sure that the guard could be recognized by his clothes. He went around looking for the guard but didn''t find him. The only place he didn''t look was a solid iron door which was at a corner of the prison. Then, he remembered that the deacon inform him that there was a possibility of him being imprisoned in the lower regions of the prison. So, he went to the door and started trying to unlock it. This door was harder to unlock but after a couple of tries, it opened. He made his way down and found himself in a bas.e.m.e.nt. There weren''t any prisoners here. Only a few skeletons and dead bodies hanging from the a few chains. It was a dreary scene which made would make any one imprisoned there feel stifled due to the smell and the bodies. He doubted that it would be where the guard was imprisoned but thinking of the guards'' conversation that he overheard, he thought that it might be possible, if the town head wanted to silence him. He soon found a prisoner alive and in a cage about 4 feet tall. He was sitting slumped his back on the bars of the cage and wearing the uniform of the coastal guard missing his badge. Shadow crept to him and got out of stealth. "Hello, are you awake," he asked tapping the guard with his daggers through the gaps between the bars of the cage. The coastal guard grunted before he slapped away Shadow''s dagger. "Aren''t you a bit too early. Had your dinner early today?" mocked the coastal guard. "I got nothing to tell you idiots. Have heard that the town head and his son are stupid, but this is the worst. I would suggest you to leave this place to find a new job." "I think you have misunderstood my intentions. I don''t work for the town head," said Shadow as he pointed to the badge pinned on his chest. "I work for the temple and was sent to retrieve the supplies that haven''t been delivered by you. I went to talk to the lieutenant Bloom who told us about you. After some investigation, I and the deacon came to know of your predicament. Though we can''t do anything ourselves due to lack of proper military might, I hope that you could provide me with enough proof that you were imprisoned here," explained Shadow as he took out the recorder. "Do you have any token or something that would convince him or your capture. I doubt a video recording is enough for them to attack the town head," said Shadow. "I don''t have any token. Even if I had, I wouldn''t just give it to someone with a badge. I don''t trust you enough," said the coastal guard. "Still I have been starving here and even if it is one of the town heads tricks, I am willing to give you a recording and something that will convince lieutenant Bloom." "There is a broken wooden box over there," he said pointing to some rubble. "That was the box containing the supplies. The son of the head broke it and took the merchandize and the note that I had from the lieutenant to the deacon, but there is supposed to be an inventory of the goods in the box which I am sure that he hadn''t taken. You can provide that to lieutenant Bloom." Shadow quickly went to the rubble and after a minute of shuffling he found the piece of paper with the stamp of the coastal guard headquarters indicating the goods being transported. This was enough proof for him to convince the head that he had at least come into contact with the missing guard or had found out about reason for him to be missing. But it still would serve better as a proof against the town head if it was left here and found the inventory here after they raided the place. If the missing guard was moved, then there would be a lot of trouble to him from the town head and also from the coastal guard if they think that he was misleading them. So, after he took a recording of the place and the prisoner, he asked the missing guard about it. "This would be better served as proof of their misdeeds if you were removed from this place by the time the lieutenant gets his men here," said Shadow hoping that he would get some other piece of information. "Stranger," said the coastal guard. "I don''t trust you. I have other arrangements and the coastal guard will realize that I was held captive if they come here, but I am not going to inform of those things to a stranger. I only trust my brethren. Move ahead with a recording if you will, you won''t get anything more from me." It was clear that he wouldn''t get any more from the NPC and decided to make his way back. From the first words of the missing guard when he tapped him awake, there is a high chance that someone would come for him in a few minutes. So, he quickly got out of the place as he pulled the gates back into place and made his way out. Chapter 202 - Negotiator He got back to the second floor of the prison without a hitch after which he made his way back onto the roof. He had been concerned about someone entering the prison periodically. It is common for the guards to make rounds to deliver food. Even the prisoners who are being starved would be checked upon. So, after hearing the missing guard''s words he suspected someone to enter the prison soon. Usually such quests would have a timer to finish them. Luckily, he went out of the prison without any issue. He quickly got down and made his way towards the coastal guard station. It was already dark, and it is very dangerous to go along the beach at this time. Though he didn''t want to use the fireglows to light his path, he could use the nighthawk to check for monsters. He didn''t want to kill any monsters but avoid them. So, his nocturnal pet bird was enough for him to get him enough of a look to provide a path to the coastal guard station. Along the way, he did see that the monsters like crabs were further into the coast and also a few of the coastal guards riding a few boats in an attempt to kill them. They were moving along the waters of the coast and raining spells on the monsters. Even the boats had a few weapons affixed on them that could attack the beasts, but these were mainly trained towards the bay on guard against the beasts in the waters. Only a few were clearing the ones on the coast. He carefully made his way towards the coastal guard station, where the guard who had previously welcomed him from top of the ladder was also holding a wand and attacking some monsters. "Get to the lieutenant. He is at the main hall," said the guard as he noticed him. Shadow went and delivered the video and the inventory list. The lieutenant seemed to be angry but was also thinking of something else. "Did vita-nova get stuck or have any serious glitches," during the starting days thought Balthazar as he saw the NPC was not moving. "This is ridiculous. We can''t have a quarrel with the town guards at this time. I just had received a notice to recruit them in our efforts because the number of monsters are increasing. The town head holds sway over the people of the town. It would only get worse for us, if we escalate this.," said the lieutenant as he punched on the wall beside him. Apart from him, there were a few other members of the coastal guard in the main hall. There was a healer who was looking after an injured guard and also another one who was continuously receiving transmissions from other guards and managing the forces along with the lieutenant. "We can''t let our man stay there, lieutenant Bloom," said the guard helping the lieutenant. "If we neglect this, our men will lose their trust in the military. You would also be blamed by the higher ups," continued the NPC. "The deacon supports you. He has a considerable sway over the NPC. You can talk with the town head and come to a compromise. Ask to borrow his forces for a few days in return for not prosecuting his son. You don''t need to tell him of the notice, right now," said Shadow. It was clear to him that the NPCs would have a small conversation or more before getting to a similar result and decided to speed it up. "That would go against the ethics. The kid should be punished. Usually for unlawfully putting a military man in such a condition, he would be court martialed to death or prison for a long time," said the guard who was being healed. "But that would destroy whatever relationship we have with the town. The town head is not a weak man and he loves his son very much and even used to pamper him quite a lot. He is known to be a well-known nuisance of the town. Even his father wants to set him straight but is unable to," said the healer who was along with them. "Then, the best option is to let him be treated leniently in return for the services of the town guard," said Shadow. "Think about it. You would probably not be just to you man, but you could probably save many others." "Fine. This is a hard decision. I have decided to spare the boy and treat him leniently in return for the services that he could provide, but he can''t be completely spared," said the lieutenant. "We need to decide on a punishment that will satisfy the guards." "Make him a trainee," said Shadow. "What?" "It is simple. The kid is a brat and needs discipline. You will find no other place that will teach a man discipline better than the military. So, we ask him to join the force under your supervision. Tell him that the coastal guard had already been informed of his offence and this was a compromise that you have negotiated with your superiors. The town head might even provide more forces once he comes to know about the current situation so that his son is safe. He might even join your efforts if he considers it necessary," said Shadow. "But none of that is true," said the soldier. "The lieutenant can''t say any of that. At most, he can agree to the brat joining the military and train him, but he can''t say that he had already sent the information to this superiors." "That is why he won''t tell it nor will any member of the coastal guard. I will go and negotiate with the town head as a representative of the lieutenant and the temple. I am not subject to the code of the military and with my badge, it will look like the temple is trying to mediate between the pair of you," said Shadow. "I will just need a token to represent you in front of the town head and also details of the amount of force that we need from him." "Hahahaha, that is the best I can ask for in this situation," said the lieutenant. "It really does solve my problem and also helps us to get the town head actively help us, if the kid joins the training. Let us follow your suggestion. Here, take this," he continued giving him a round metal token having the symbols of a boat and anchor with his name and post writing on its rim. It was clearly the token of the lieutenant signifying his military authority which Shadow put in his bag. Quest Modified: Missing Supplies. Quest Description: Negotiate the release of the guard with the town head, retrieve the supplies and secure more forces for the coastal guard. Quest Item: Lieutenant Bloom''s token "I would also suggest that you write a letter that you know of your man''s location in the prison and have sent me to negotiate on your behalf," said Shadow to which he got a letter from the lieutenant. "I will go ahead and handle it, then," said Shadow as he went out of the station and went in the direction of the town head''s mansion. He went to the gate of the town head and announced that he had arrived as a representative of the coastal guard station of the town and wanted to talk to town head about something important while he showed the token of the lieutenant. A couple of minutes later, the guard blocking the gate of the mansion welcomed him inside. The mansion was huge and made of strong basalt like stone. It had three stories with the first floor being the place of residence of most of the security personnel and the servants. The guard made way made his way up the stairs directly to the third floor and led him to a study where the town head, Theodore was there with a couple of other NPCs and his son, Barnabus. "Of what service, may I be to you adventurer," said Theodore as he signaled to Shadow to come closer. "I would suggest that you get rid on any unnecessary personnel for this discussion, Mr. Theodore," said Shadow as he handed him the letter that he got from the lieutenant. "Who do you think you are?" shouted Barnabus from the side as he heard Shadow suggest his father to clear the room. "Men capture him and throw him in the prison," he ordered the guards that led Shadow to the study. "Shut up," said Theodore to Barnabus as he began to read the letter. "Everyone, please leave me along with the adventurer, Shadow. Even you Barnabus," he continued as he folded the letter and got up to return it. "It might be convenient if young master, Barnabus remains for this conversation," said Shadow before Barnabus could speak further. As the other went out of the study, Shadow began to indicate his intentions. "We have a recording of the guard in the lower levels of the cellar. We already had someone infiltrate and provide the proof we need to attack you," said Shadow looking at Barnabus. "But the coastal guard is busy and don''t have time to waste with attack the town people. So, the lieutenant had sent me to negotiate. So, I hope for the sake of both of you that I return safely with the guard by the end of this discussion." "You commoner, what does the lieutenant ...," started the NPC Barnabus, but Shadow cut him short as he wanted to wrap up the quest as soon as possible. "Na, na na. Let me finish. First you send someone down right now to heal the guard and make sure that he is taken care of. Also, please return the supplies that were stolen from the guard. Then, we shall talk about the compensation for the coastal guards. The information about your son capturing a member of the military had already reached his higher ups, but to maintain the relationship with the town, the lieutenant proposed a compromise," said Shadow. "What do you suggest?" said Theodore as he called for a guard and then sent him down to get the guard from the prison to the study after healing and feeding him. All the things that they discussed till now were expected as they were just correcting their mistake. He was hoping that the compensation wouldn''t be anything severe. "Well, it is like this. The lieutenant can''t actually be lenient towards your son without proper cause. So, I would like to suggest that he join the military as a trainee under the lieutenant," said Shadow. "No way," yelled Barnabus. "Impossible." "Shut up," said Theodore. "Barnabus, get out of the room for a minute." After Barnabus left the room, Theodore resumed the conversation. "What is his intention behind asking my son to join the coastal guard? What are the intentions of the lieutenant in calling him to join as his apprentice? He could simply join the military. There is no need to join under someone who has a conflict with him," said the town head putting forward his suspicions. "You think for too much about the situation, Mr. Theodore. There is not secret or untoward intention behind the lieutenant''s thoughts. First, it allow him to pardon your son if he is under him. Second, he doesn''t want a quarrel with you. It would just make things harder for his unit and they are having trouble with the seas as it is. Third, your son needs discipline and has been known to cause problems. If left alone, we can''t be sure that he wouldn''t persist to behave in such a way. He won''t join any organization willingly but a death threat over his head might be the right inspiration he needs. I am sure that you don''t want your son to continue in this manner either," explained Shadow. "Why would he be willing to do all this for me? You still haven''t answered the main question that I had," said Theodore looking at Balthazar sternly. "It is simple. Hard times are on the way. There would sure be a time when the coastal guard would need reinforcements. The town being quite close to the coast would be the first place affected if the guards fail. He just wanted a closer bond without wasting any resources in fighting for you. But there is a problem of his men being satisfied," said Shadow. "That is exactly what I have been afraid of," said Theodore. "They would ask for justice and one can''t just consider pacifying such a large number with money. I doubt that all of them could even be bought." "It is hard to convince them to let go of your son''s offence. So, I suggest that you lend him some of your forces temporarily to help against the monster aggression that they are facing. Having your forces support them would calm down the other members of the coastal guard too. They may not consider your money, but your support would be well received if it helps save more of their brother''s lives," said Shadow. It was a hard task to convince, but he decided to make the town head assume that lieutenant is doing him a favor instead of the other way. The NPC Theodore would certainly be suspicious of the suggestion and believe that he owes the lieutenant a favor, but Balthazar was sure that the NPC would still accept it. "Fine, it is a deal," said Theodore finally getting up and shaking Shadow''s hand. "I will let my men lead you down to the guard who is being taken care of. You can return with him whenever you want to. I will lead my son down to the station tomorrow morning." "I wish that we have a successful cooperative relationship," said Shadow shaking the NPC''s hand as he pulled out the numbers that was given to him by the lieutenant. "This would be an initial number of personnel we have determined that would pacify the coastal guards based on the current situation. It would be good if you would bring enough forces along with your son tomorrow." "System: Special Notice: Received Hidden Title ''Negotiator''. This title would affect the NPCs behavior towards you but wouldn''t be noticed by anyone other than the its holder." "Murk Water Town Reputation +25;" After that, he was led down to the hall of the first floor where the missing guard was being treated by a healer. "I expected a raid led by the lieutenant. I don''t understand the situation," said the guard as he saw Shadow enter the hall. "Let us get back to the station and meet the lieutenant. It is best if we discuss it with him directly," said Shadow. He waited for a few minutes for the guard to be back in shape and then took the supplies and put in his bag before they made way towards the coastal guard station. The journey along the coast was much easier as he didn''t even have to go into stealth. The guard who accompanied him just blasted away any monster that was below level 15 and managed to come within his sights. "Ah! You are safe," said the lieutenant as they got to the main hall. He called for the healer to check up his man before turning to talk to Shadow. "So? How did it go?" he asked. "He accepted to everything we talked about. He would be here tomorrow morning with his son and reinforcements for your men," said Shadow as he returned the token to lieutenant Bloom. "I have informed him that the only way you are able to avoid his son''s punishment is to have him train under you. He was quite gladdened by the suggestion." "Good. You have been of great service to the coastal guard and will be considered an honorary member of the coastal guard," said the lieutenant giving him a small token as a couple of notification sounded. "Five Elements Empire, Coastal Guard Reputation points +10;" "Five Elements Empire, Coastal Guard Contribution points + 25;" Quest Modified: Missing Supplies. Quest Description: Return the supplies to the deacon. The token that he had received was a buckle that could be attached to his waist. It provided him an honorary membership to the coastal guard that would provide him access to the station and would also consider him a trusted member. It would allow him to take the forging services that he was sure was very advantageous. Chapter 203 - Alchemy In another fifteen minutes, Shadow was back at the temple on the way to meet the deacon. He quickly exchanged the supplies that the town head and given him and was given the rewards of his quest. "Temple of the twelve reputation points +20;" "Temple of the twelve contribution points +50;" "Experience points + 5000;" The experience points put him through another level making him a level 18 player. He needed to increase his levels to have a decent chance against the knuckers. There were dungeons available for him to participate at this level, but he didn''t want to work on them. He needed experience the most as he was sure that he wouldn''t be able to spend his time in the game later. He had quickly allocated his free attribute points. Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human) Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village. Affiliated City: White Hear City (Capital) Title: Kade''s apprentice, First Citizen of White Heart City, Dwarf''s friend. Hidden Title: Negotiator Job: Assassin Level: 18 Exp: 2310/19000 HP: 7500/7500; MP: 335000/3350; SP: 3800/3800 Physical Attack: 210; Defense: 98; Attack Speed: 134; Movement Speed: 136; Willpower: 74 ; Balance: 77; Focus/Search: 102; Reflect Damage: 6; Magic Resist: 40; Luck: *; Charm: *; Attributes: Strength 98, Agility 95, Endurance 67, Intelligence 60, Vitality 62, Perception 57. No Special Racial Attributes or weakness. Free Attributes Points: 0; Though the quest took a lot of time to complete and caused him a significant amount of tension, he was quite satisfied by it as he not only got the contribution points and reputation from the temple, but also got half of the required town reputation and the option to go to the coastal guard station as frequently as he wanted. He first thought of going ahead and accept the forging services quest. It will not only get him acquainted to the mainstay armaments of the coastal guard but also grant him experience and free money or contribution points whichever he desired. But he remembered the main reason for coming to the town which was to kill Knuckers. He needed the antivenom to be able to concentrate on an isolated knucker as he remembered that it would usually call upon fast moving smaller animals for support. So, he went to the tamer for the blood. He got the blood from the secretary at the tamer''s place and then he decided to work on the four beasts that he had taken as pets recently using the tame beast skill. The four were in his pet pouch whom he summoned out to check their condition. Pets take almost triple the time to recover, if they are in a basic pet pouch. There would be advanced pet pouches that he could get which would increase the recovery time of the pets, but in almost all kinds of pet pouches the recovery times is less than that the pet would have outside. The snake had already recovered from its injuries, but its health was still low. Its body was already in mend. The lizards on the other hand were all crippled before being taken as pets. So, he had to perform a bit of first aid and reconnect the crippled parts properly according the instruction seen in the book given to him by Kiran. Just like the monsters, the pets also tend to cure themselves when given time, but it is much slower if they are not given proper food. Even the beasts that are crippled in the wild wouldn''t heal faster if they didn''t get to eat anything. That is the reason, tamers were in high demand in the game. They could use their mixtures and pills to heal and speed up the beasts, but they required a large amount of land to raise the pets. Technically, even alchemists could do that, but most of the alchemist were focused on creating consumables for their players and didn''t have much time to focus on the pets. There were a few who managed to accomplish both, but alchemy was a very time-consuming secondary profession and they would lag behind. Forging and engineering could be sped up with the right tools and experience players would be much faster but making potions and mixtures by its nature required more time to create as faster stirring or improperly mixed substance would be very dangerous and fail. Even most tamer players depended on the healing skills of their occupation and forging to become higher level tamers. So, Balthazar had always wondered if it is the right thing for him to pursue this field along with forging and alchemy. But he realized that he already had two most important parts of the field covered and it would be a waste to deny the experience and benefits that came along with it. He could just be a tamer apprentice all his life, but it still was better than not pursuing it entirely. The main problem was that a compound profession like tamer was much more harder than engineering and it required a proper safe space to practice. Unlike the engineering, forging and alchemy associations which require a smaller space with workshops for individual engineers, forgers or alchemists to work, the same isn''t enough for a tamer. Tamers need large spaces enough for their pets to be trained and treated. In later stages of the game, the pets would increase in size and hence small places wouldn''t be enough for tamers. So, tamers association are usually only present in cities and they are placed at the edges of these places as they require a large space and the inherent security issues that come up with having so many beasts in a place like a zoo. In fact, Balthazar knew that some guilds used their tamers to buy land and use it as a zoo or petting zoos in guild cities to attract players to see and know about them while collecting fees. This was useful to many new players and most of the rich people who wanted to experience the beasts would also be attracted to such spots. As the game included all the animals that were actually found to have existed since ancient times, including prehistoric ones like dinosaurs, such petting zoos would become wildly famous in the game. Balthazar didn''t care about all of this, but he did need a place for his pets. He also hoped that he could leave the two horses in some place and grow them up. There weren''t of much use to him at this level. He couldn''t even use them as mounts but only for transport of goods. So, he had plans to leave them till he increased his level. So, he decided to ask the secretary. "Do you provide any services to hold and take care of other''s pets," he asked the secretary. "We do. We have a charge per day to hold beasts at our farm or stables. Their food and other necessities would be taken care of," said the secretary. "But Tamer Kiran informed me to not let you avail these services. You are his student. So, you can use the infrastructure, but you need to take care of all the animals that you leave here." That was both a good and bad thing for Balthazar. It gave him an opportunity to practice taming and it would allow his pets to recover faster. But it would also require him to take care of them frequently. A pet needs proper food and elixirs at proper intervals if one intended to increase its level and skills. So, it would require him to get back to the taming place at least a few times per day, if he wanted to maintain them as pets. "Can I sell pets to you?" he asked the secretary. "Sure! The value of the pets depends on the quality and the health of the pets. Kiran also insisted that you sell only pets in a healthy condition," said the secretary. It was clear to Balthazar that learning taming from the tamer had made him a disciple and he would be bound to his rules in this town. He half wished that he had waited and learned taming skill from taming association in the White Heart city, but that also had required him to complete a bunch of quests to get become a taming apprentice. He left the beasts that he has collected in a couple of cages, with the three lizards in one cage and the snake in another. He put in some meat from the other beasts that he had killed so that he wouldn''t need to come and maintain them anytime soon. He also bought enough critters to fill his pet pouches before going to the alchemist association to practice on his alchemy skills. He needed to create both the antivenom and he also had plans to create elixirs for his pets. These elixirs were similar to the antidotes too. Some of them can help a wide variety of pets while others which are focused on a pet or two will be much easier. Both the book from Arius and the notes from Kiran had information on such elixirs which he intended to create. He had set specific timings for his experiments. His first priority was the antivenom followed by the elixirs for his pets. Both would increase his alchemy proficiency and he had test subjects ready. If he failed to produce a decent antidote, he was going to continue all night long on it, but if he did finish with them, his next destination was the coastal guard. The forging services workshop was very attractive to him as he could quickly gather experience from the place. He was sure that he will get enough to jump to level 19 by the time he reaches the knuckers if he makes good use of the quest. He took booked an intermediate alchemical workshop from the alchemist association of the town. The intermediate alchemist workshop was quite similar to the forging workshop. It had tools to process various ingredients like grinders, mixers, centrifuges, etc. It also had different kinds of beaker, containers, tools like pipettes which could be used to regulate the quantities and rate of various liquids. It would remind a person of a chemistry lab and it also has a tier 1 mystic fire which could be used for use by the alchemists. The tier 1 fire was called the dusk brown fire. [Dusk Brown Fire] (Tier 1 Mystic Fire) Can provide a very high temperature. It can provide a temporary increase in the stability of the items it is in contact with. This was one of the good mystic fires that could be useful in experimenting in alchemy or even forging. The increase in stability would allow the player more time to experiment in both alchemy or forging of elixirs or equipment. Even if a player assimilated that mystic fire, it would be very useful as all his armaments would have an increase in stability when the player is using it and the durability would decrease at a much lower rate. He first decided to work on the potions that used the blood of the infected beasts. It was much simpler to create these antidotes, if he had the blood of the infected animals. It wasn''t even a complicated process and within five minutes, his first antidote for the horned toad''s poison was ready. He tested it on a two small critters that he had bought and found it to be fairly effective. He also injected himself with a dose of the antidote to check the duration of the antidote affect by using poison on him while he continued the experiment. As the antidote was recognized by the system, he was given experience and proficiency. As it was made using the techniques detailed in the notes of the battlemage Arius, it was not considered an original creation and was named as horned toad blood refinement antidote by the system. He continued for another half an hour by increasing the amount of blood and herbs he processed at a time to create multiple doses of the antidote at a time. After an hour, he realized that he was able to concoct up to 10 doses at a time with a decent rate of success, but he also needed more herbs to be collected. The amount of poison needed to infect a person was lot less than the materials for the antidote, so he had more poison than the materials for the antidote. He also recognized that the antidote would only be valid for about 15 minutes before it is no longer effective. He had also managed to create about 20 doses of the antidote for use an hour before the time he has set to spend on the antidote using the blood. He had enough for himself to protect against the horned toad which were the ones he considered to be most dangerous. These were fast and small which would cause him to be in serious danger when he planned to hunt the knuckers. After he had managed to create the antidote for the horned toad''s poison from the blood of the infected beasts, he tried to create more from the flesh of the other beasts like the bipod serpent and gharial which lived alongside the horned toads. This method was going to be much harder to get the proper antidote for the horned toad''s poison, but it would be much stable, and it would be effective for a longer duration. He continued to experiment on with the composition of the herbs and the paste made from the meat of the beasts. He had managed to create an antidote withing 20 minutes which was recognized by the system, but as he tested it on his beast, there were clear side effects. He repeated with small changes to try again, but there ended up being other side effects. This continued for some time with the side-effects usually being varying amounts of decrease in health or mana or even paralysis and blindness. Uncertain of the effects on the test animals, Shadow had to even use himself as a subject for the ones when he was uncertain of the side effects. Finally, after a period of four more hours in the game, he finally got an antidote that was decent and had an effect which persisted for longer than 40 minutes on him without any side-effects. He continued for another one hour trying to improve the performance before settling on a composition of the recipe. With that, he was quite satisfied with his effort on the antidotes. He had half a mind to continue with the elixirs for his pets, but he considered the forging service quest more as he needed experience more than increasing the capability of his pets right now. The only pets that he intended to improve were the owl, fireglows and the two horses none of which he had an urgent need to improve. The first thing he required was more experience and probably more people to help at this town. He first called Rudra and Slaine to talk to them about considering development in the five elements empire in collaboration with the Divine Swords. Knowing the future, Balthazar understood the significance of having control over a few places with the coast. It would provide methods of transport over different places and also several resources that couldn''t be found in other places. Though Rudra initially felt that it was more than they could digest, upon the insistence of Balthazar, he decided to let a small group from the guild to do as Balthazar suggested, but only that it would be done after a couple of days. It was hard to get reputation or go to another empire. They have put in a lot of effort and he needed to find someone trustworthy who could go to another empire to develop a guild branch there. Chapter 204 - Free Life After he had talked to Rudra about his plans to develop even at the sea, he decided that he also needed to talk to Muramasa. Since, the Valhalla Raiders were already a strong influence at the Murk Water town, he felt it better to include another guild in their efforts. If a pair of cooperating guilds ended up having decent control over the coasts of the bay in regions ruled by different species, there is bound to be good trade options. He first had to get a better picture of the town from Agua Canalon before he did anything. So, he chose to meet him at the local tavern in a private room. In a couple of minutes, he was already at the tavern talking to Agua and his teammates about the game over drinks. He started with the complexity of the game followed by sharing the difficulty the game posed to them. He then began to ask them about their secondary professions and their plans to develop in the town. He also started to share some of his views about the difficulty they would face of they go to the fae region and join the guild there. It was always hard for players of one species to develop guilds in a region of another species. These regions and the NPC cities will have a few advantage that the native species could properly use. Even a majority of the NPCs of the regions discriminate between the players based on the race of the player. "How do you know about all of this difference between the regions? I have never heard of you being in other regions. Most players when they visit other races are kept track by the local guilds," asked Agua. "It is common among all the regions, dude. I have friends who went to other races regions. Even getting a reputation point is very hard. The common consensus among the various guilds is to let the player get to higher level so that it would be easier to gain reputation and use their hearthstones. Else, 90% of the ones who attempted have already been killed and sent back to their native region on respawn. The others didn''t even manage to get even 20 reputation points," said Shadow. "Still players could join the guilds established by the others with the same race as that of the region, but we both know that isn''t the best option either. Those players growth would be stunted compared to the others. Sooner or later, they will just become a burden. This game is expected to have a longer life than most others as it is being made by the makes of the somnium technology," said Shadow. "You will definitely be pushed back in a guiild at that time." "What can I do?" said Agua sighing loudly. "Moreover, it is not sure that it wouldn''t improve in later stages. All I can do is change my race by resetting my account, but I will be looked down by others and the guild leaders also have insisted that the player in other races remain so that they have chance to move in different regions. They have become especially adamant after the auction house updated and they came to know of the use of the resources of other regions." "Of course, it is good to have someone we trust in other regions. I understand the reason for them to ask you to remain here," said Shadow. "It is just that most such players are unable to get a decent harvest or promote even in such areas as they don''t have enough members. The other guilds would surely try to suppress your growth." "Isn''t that the biggest problem that I am facing now," said Agua as he nodded his head while pouring another mug of ale into his mouth. "Can''t do anything though. Even if I move to other guilds, the ones who know me would suspect me to be a spy. Unless, I get something valuable for them, it is impossible. Getting something valuable in this game is very hard. It is hard to pass by and even getting to the coast or the marshlands is a headache. How do we get something that is of value?" "There is another option. You can have a guild here that competes. You surely want to start a branch of the Divine Swords guild here, right?" asked Shadow getting to the important question at hand. "Of course, but a name like Divine Swords, if heard here would beget action from those Raiders. They will suppress us much more. They have the numbers here," said Agua. "Only a few from the guild actually chose other races to explore, but the rest all chose fae. So, to avoid any suppression, we were instructed to not use the name till more of our members join." "That is a reasonable assumption too, but you can also create a new guild under a different name," said Shadow. There have been instances of sub-guilds being created by other guilds to tackle this scenario and also to maintain communication with other guilds favorably in his past life. The difficulty of the game and hurdles it caused kept the dynamics of the interactions between guilds everchanging. "You kidding, right?" asked Agua in surprise almost spewing out the drink in his mouth. He was shocked as such an act would usually imply a certain members of the guild diverging from the guild. It is usually done when players are irreconcilable and there expect a certain amount of oppression from the guild which they split from. "Don''t misunderstand me," said Shadow. "You can have it as a sub-guild of the Divine Swords and don''t inform anyone. Or even better, create a guild in the game but the let the elders and the current shareholders have the shares of this guild. Then, they would have no issue in supporting your efforts silently," suggested Shadow. "That sounds like a reasonable suggestion, but it still wouldn''t be a good option. They know me and already have been monitoring me. They aren''t suppressing us right now because we don''t belong to a guild in the game and are independent players. They just don''t want bad press among the potential recruits," said Agua. "Well, that is the good part, right? They don''t want bad press among potential recruits. This is the main reason I am thinking of a guild. They are currently monopolizing a few areas and they are able to do so only because of the lack of decent competition. But it is not that the independent players don''t resent them. They are just tolerating as they couldn''t do anything. So, if we create a guild under the name of a person who is not famous and have him as the guild leader, we can avoid such effects. Just a small guild so that we can have the benefits provided by being in a guild," suggested Balthazar. "What is that going to do?" asked Agua confused. "It will be under a different guys name. I will find someone, and you can just join. They have a lookout for you, but I am sure that we can get more people into the guild. I will get someone into the guild, and it won''t be under my name either," said Shadow. "You went to that trip with them. They would have someone tailing you too, by now." "I can''t be tracked by them," said Shadow as he removed his clock effect to make his name visible to them and used his disguise skill to change his name. The others were surprised by it. Some have already heard of hiding their names and even that rare skills to modify one''s appearance existed, but this was different. "You can change your name? Wont that break the rules of the game?" asked Agua as the others also nodded. "It is temporary, but enough to fool others. Else, I wouldn''t have been able to join their scouting team at the marshlands. I have methods to keep myself secret," said Shadow. "If I get someone to setup a guild and make noise that would get others to join would you help us. I promise that I will help you establish your guild if we manage to get decent amount now. Also, you can leave the new guild when the others from your guild join." "That is still very risky. I doubt that the others would not believe us," said one of them. "Even if we create a guild together won''t the others in our guild just think we are creating a new guild and defecting." It was clear to Balthazar that these guys didn''t trust him and were expecting some explanation. They were already informed by their leader to be wary of him and that he can''t be completely trustworthy as they had a small conflict. Though Muramasa didn''t go into the details, he warned them, and Balthazar also expected that they would already be warned. "Ah, the concerns of official paid guild members. I miss those days. Your problem is simple to solve. Just get me a few passes to the town and I will do the rest. Your small team will just join us later and not at the start. If join during the creation of the guild, you would be defectors but if you join later, even after a few hours after you have informed your guild leader and other elders most would just consider that you are just using us for now and your loyalty still remains," suggested Shadow. "The others working alongside you at your guild office would even think you are spies in the guild." "We still need to inform the leader about it beforehand and based on what you told, I doubt you would let us have any important positions in the guild," said one of them sneering. The guy believed that he had seen through the ruse of Shadow who had wanted to create a sub-guild using them. If they didn''t join at the start, they wouldn''t have any important position which would make it hard for them to influence guild members. "I am willing to write a contract that states Agua to be made a vice-leader of the guild within a few days of his joining. Making him a vice-leader would raise suspicions," said Shadow. "I can also have another one of you as vice-leaders if you don''t believe, but the guild leader of this new guild should be someone new whom no one in the game circles would know and should be just a nominal one. I can even make the guild leader sign the same. You would have a lot of influence on the new players and you can defect with them when your guild decides to put more effort in this region." "Ok. What do you want in return?" "Huh?!" "Come on? I doubt that you just gave us all these drinks to propose this," said Agua. "You need something from this, right?" "I am getting what I want. I am choosing the guild leader," said Shadow. "It will allow me to influence the guild. I just need you to get a few passes to get some players and some more players to start up the guild." "That is well, but it is not practical. You started with something about getting independent players to help us, but all suggested was to have our guilds put in the effort. The Raiders will eliminate us out of the town and won''t let us develop," said Agua. "Yes, I got the best item for it," said Shadow. "You know that there has been an issue with the marshlands right? The raiders didn''t accomplish their mission due to the poisonous toads. Even the players are having a lot of trouble due to them. I got the antidote for that." "That would work. At the very least, we can attract enough to temporarily join us in exploring those regions," said Agua. "Apart from that, we need to put in a few more things in our agenda. First, we make sure that it is known that all the members who created the guild have just made it for fun and are using to mutually gain profit without subjugation from the other guilds. So, we need to make the rules extremely light and provide the antidote for our members at a lower cost. A few more might be required, but we can discuss them later," said Shadow. "Yes, it is a good strategy and there is no point discussing details, if we don''t get the permission from the guild leader and the passes," said Agua. "Anyway, you need to put out the antidote in the market or auction them. It would get popularity and if everything goes as expected, it would give confidence to our guild too for investing in this idea." "Cool, I don''t need much investment, except the passes and a few men to join us discreetly to create the guild. You guys will join later as we have talked before," said Shadow. "One last thing. The name for guild," said Agua. "Free Life?" asked Shadow. He honestly didn''t care about the name and told that name sarcastically, but unexpected Agua nodded and agreed to it. "It is a good option. Suits our agenda and it is best if the name suggests the same. I will go ahead and talk it out. It will require some talking in person with them and convincing," said Agua as he downed his drink and got up along with the rest of his team and left the place. After a few minutes, Shadow also followed suit. He needed a new disguise and a player to pose as a guild leader, but one who would be carefree and not be concerned of anything. Anyone, he gets from Rudra would be sooner or later traced back to the guild. Any player who had played professionally would be immediately identified by their habits. Ideally, to get independent players to actually join them, he needed one who wouldn''t look like a traditional guild leader and would feel like one of them. He also required the person to be someone he trusted. It was a very difficult thing for him to find. He went ahead to call to Rudra to inform him of his plans and have some guys ready to join him in the Five Elements Empire. He could deal with this later. He decided to go and put some effort in the forging services in the coastal guard. It was a good chance to increase his forging proficiency and earn money and experience for free. Chapter 205 - Party He quickly made his way to the coastal guard station and took the forging services quest. He was taken to a forging room which was similar to the intermediate forging room of the forging association, but there were a few specific differences from those forging rooms. The first thing was that there was a board at the forging room where there would be specific items he could select to learn. The items he could select depended on his level and his reputation in the coastal guard. He could pay a certain amount of money to learn these recipes. There were also other rules for getting designs through forging services quest in NPC organizations. At the first attempt of the forging services quest, the forging designs available to the player would depend on the reputation and level of the player, but that is only for the first forging design purchased. The consequent designs available for purchase would depend on his performance. Initially, he would only be given iron and bronze grade equipment. but higher grade equipment designs would only be provided if they perform very well. As the grade of the equipment designs increase in level, higher grade like dark gold designs would even require contribution points instead of silver or gold coins. Apart from the designs available, even the duration of the forging quest and the number of attempts by a player depend on their performance. For every piece of equipment, a player would be given three sets of materials required to craft an armament or more depending on the general rate of success of the forging design which is a predetermined value by the system. The number of attempts success and failures for each player attempting forging quests are noted and based on that the rewards are given. This would be used to determine if one can continue. If a player has a bad rate, he could also be denied further attempts of the forging services quest by the organization. So, the first equipment to forge should be chosen carefully if a player wanted to be able to make use of a forging services quest. The list had a bunch of items available on it. Most of them were armors and the weapons were mostly wands, scepters and bows. The weapons were mostly intended to support the coastal guard. So, the weapons were mostly intended for long distance attacks. Balthazar browsed through them and decided on a level 18 weapon called Moonstone wand. He chose this because he had already had experience with it and he also knew to modify it and create a level 18 weapon called Moonstone Pike. [Moonstone wand] (Bronze weapon) Level 18; Materials Required: Moonstone x 1; Magic Essences x 2; Copper x 1; Wood x 1; Requirements: Intelligence: 36; Intelligence + 10; Special Effect: 10% increase in range of all spells at night. Durability: 65/65; The materials for the wand were provided by the coastal guard as soon as he selected the design. A guard came in with three sets of the required materials and gave them to Shadow and left. Balthazar quickly started working on the wand. To Balthazar, weapons like spears, wand were the easy ones. They needed skills he was already well acquainted with. He easily shaped the wood into the form of a rod. He mixed the magic essences with copper, used it to coat the rod and make a small copper head at one end of the rod into which he embedded the moonstone. For a novice, it would be a time consuming and hard process to shape the materials into the right size and shape, but it took 10 minutes for Shadow to make the Moonstone wand. He did it with the first set of materials. He was putting more care in forging them than the usual as this was a particularly good way to quickly earn experience at night time in the game. He wanted to continuously do the quest to quickly gain experience and increase his level. He continued to work on the forging services quest for a period of nine in-game hours (three actual hours) managing to maintain a success rate of 80%. Even the defective ones ended up being iron grade equipment. It was decent work and it let him gather experience quickly enabling him to get to level 19 easily. It was always faster to gain experience through secondary professions as long as one had the materials and a good capability and rate of success. Even experts would need some time to get used to creating new equipment which causes them to have an low rate of success initially. By the time, they have practiced enough to have a success rate close to 80%, most of them would have created enough to have crossed the level of the design they have been practicing. After that making more of that equipment would be considered a waste of time as it no longer gives decent experience. Thus, unless one gets lucky and somehow is naturally good at creating a certain equipment, the secondary occupation services quest aren''t particularly useful to most players. Balthazar didn''t have this problem and thus, it was extremely profitable for him to take this quest. Still, he stopped it as he couldn''t be doing at all night in the game. After that he decided it was enough for the night as he had another engagement in the evening and that was far more importantly to him than increasing his experience or forging proficiency. He needed to attend the function that was being held for him and his cousin. Even his plans for the guild required him to attend this event. He quickly got out of the gaming pod, took a shower and made his way into the main hall. He had Glen waiting for him in the hall. Arthur and Winston decided to let Glen move along with Balthazar as his assistant and bodyguard on Asklepian. Glen had used a facial mask which was approved to be used by Winston on the planet. Together they went to the Ambrosia restaurant where the event was being held. Most of the hotel still operated as usual, but the party was held in the penthouse at the top of the hotel. As he came close to the hotel, he noticed that the security was much tighter than the usual. He had to scan his invite in the lift to get him to the penthouse. The penthouse on top of the building was often used for private parties and it had been renovated multiple times since the construction of the restaurant. The roof was about 70 feet high and the room brightly lit. It was in a circular shape with an ring like balcony inside the penthouse about 30 feet above the floor. Apart from that there were 4 rectangular balconies outside. The walls were decorated by red tapestries bearing the insignia of Asklepian and Ambrosia restaurants while the balcony had a number of paintings arranged on its walls. A pattern of large chandeliers adorned the centre of the roof providing light to the entire room. The entire place was bustling people and Richard was talking with someone near the door. Most of the people in the place were waiters serving various items to the few guest that have arrived. They were all wearing black trousers and white shirt with the insignia of the restaurant on their chests while they carried several delicacies to the attendees. As Richard saw Balthazar, he excused himself to get to Balthazar. "Young master, Balthazar. Didn''t expect you to be so early. I was under the impression that you like to make a late entrance like master, Robert," said Richard as he came to receive him. "I just wanted to not be late. I was told by Winston to bring myself here a bit early. Something about wanting me to introduce to a few people," said Balthazar. "Yeah. I know, but you are far too early. Winston didn''t arrive yet. Anyway, let me introduce you to the few gentlemen who have already arrived. They are all locals, but you got know about them sometime," said Richard as he took Balthazar towards a group of middle-aged people. "Councilman Carson, let me introduce you to Colonel. Blyth, youngest colonel of the border armed forces," said Richard calling for a black-haired fat man who was about 5-feet tall. After that he continued to introduce other people in the party to Balthazar. They were all from the planet and most of the ones out of the planet wouldn''t arrive that soon. Glen didn''t talk much and kept mum. He was more concerned about the security of the place and began to include himself in the security personnel after introducing himself as Balthazar''s bodyguard. This continued for some time during which Balthazar acquainted himself with the political structure of the various local powers of the planet through Richard. Soon, others came to the party and it began to get more lively. Robert also joined him and so did Balthazar''s friends whom he invited. Afterwards few more from different planets joined the party. Even D.i.c.k, Barbara, Evelyn, Ichigo Suzuki had come to greet him. They had been temporarily staying nearby as they had a meeting with Winston to discuss about the Nirbadh pirates. They had congratulated him over successful completion of his trials while Evelyn Price and Ichigo Suzuki wanted to discuss more about his future plans. They took him aside and began to try and persuade him. Evelyn wanted him to join her outfit as usual and also wanted details of his own plans while Suzuki was offering something entirely new. He wanted Balthazar to stay to the border force as he did before, but as a member of a monitoring unit that would patrol and inspect the stations of the border force on a regular basis. He felt that Balthazar was a good fit for it as he had managed to identify and rectify an error which evaded regular maintenance and also have silently taken measures to try and stop the rebels. Balthazar found Suzuki''s proposal extremely enticing and he felt that it might also be a good opportunity. It could also be used as a cover for his operations if he joined Evelyn''s outfit, but he also felt that it would be a lot of work if he actually took it. So, he asked for a few days'' time from Suzuki to consider it and moved to D.i.c.k. He wanted to talk to D.i.c.k the most currently and D.i.c.k also wanted to converse with him about his intentions in using the ShadowCard. As Balthazar took D.i.c.k aside to a balcony, he had received an unexpected message from Glen which had put him on alert. Glen had been monitoring all the people in the place since he arrived. He had been originally tasked to protect Balthazar on his journey by Arthur. The party today was considered a primary test of his abilities by Arthur. It was meant to be a simple thing and no danger to Balthazar is expected as there were strict security measures and it would be close to impossible to get any arms near the place. Many important people would be attending the party. So, not only the building but a large amount of area around it is under strict supervision by various drones, snipers and other personnel to maintain the security. Despite knowing all this and not being a part of it, Glen took the job very seriously. He hardly knew anything about Balthazar, and it was a good opportunity for him to study Balthazar''s behavior and patterns. If he is to be a good bodyguard, he needed to know a few things about his clients in case he is acting under duress or being forced to do anything. Some people care about others more than themselves sometimes and Glen knew that firsthand. He also knew that Balthazar cared for his sister and Robert a lot. So, he considered it very important to get to know Balthazar''s habits and mannerisms for the sake of his mission. As such, he had also kept an eye on all the people who interacted with Balthazar. During that he found someone a bit suspicious. Later, he found this person always peeking a look at Balthazar as though he was obsessed with him. He was sure that Balthazar had a stalker and decided to have a talk with Balthazar first as he suspected that Balthazar might recognize the person and it would give a better idea on how to tackle the situation. "Balthazar there is someone who seems to be stalking you, since you have arrived. He is currently behind you," said Glen through a microphone which he had embedded in his mouth. He could activate and connect to other people through his wrist device. Balthazar who had an earpiece was initially surprised but held himself back. "Details?" asked Balthazar through his wrist device as he conversed with D.i.c.k and took him towards a balcony so that they could talk privately. Balthazar hadn''t worn a microphone as he never expected such a situation to happen and he had to converse with a lot of people directly. D.i.c.k also realized that something was wrong when Balthazar abruptly asked for details, but he also continued calmly deciding to play along. "The waiter with black hair holding a tray of clams," said Glen. "Looks unarmed but had been following you for a long time. Had his eyes glued on to you." Balthazar and D.i.c.k moved to the balcony and hid themselves behind the door while Balthazar had a look at the person who Glen indicated to have been following him. As he had a look at the waiter, he had a sudden feeling that he had seen the person before. "I know the guy," said Balthazar. "Give me a minute," he requested D.i.c.k and messaged the same to Glen as he thought about the face that struck a chord in some lost corner of his mind. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 206 - Asylum "Major Khalid, that is who it is," said Balthazar as he remembered the name. "He shaved his beard and has a lot of make up confusing me for a bit." "Who is he?" asked D.i.c.k wondering if Evelyn had put someone on Balthazar''s tail after he heard that the waiter was a major. "Someone who is supposed to be dead. He used to work under Lieutenant Colonel Jane. He was considered to have blown up in the explosion as he was supposed to be in the shop at the time of the explosion," said Balthazar. D.i.c.k immediately started to search for information on the Major through his wrist band. It was a very important lead which could provide them more information about the knights of the old republic. "Why don''t we have a talk with him," said Balthazar putting a hand on D.i.c.k''s wrist band stopping him. "You wouldn''t find anything there. It is best we have a few clams." "He is retreating to the kitchen," came Glen''s voice through the microphone. "Did he realize that we made him?" thought both Balthazar and D.i.c.k as they quickly walked out of the balcony to catch up to him. "He is just going to fill up his tray before he comes back. The pair of you can wait at the balcony," said Glen. "No. Let us get to him first. Catch up to him and pull him to a private room. Most of the room in the floor below have been booked in case any guests would want to rest. Get him to one of the rooms," said Balthazar to Glen. "Could you please get a hold of Evelyn and Ichigo, but make sure that you don''t inform them of the major till they are out of the penthouse. We don''t need anyone here to think much about their disappearance," he requested D.i.c.k as he followed in direction of the kitchen. Glen was already ahead of him in order to capture Khalid. As Balthazar reached the kitchen he found a few of the waiters and cooks in a tensed and frightened expressions. Some were looking seriously towards the kitchen backdoor. "What happened?" asked Balthazar though he already was quite sure that it is probably Glen who had put them in that state. "That man knocked out one of the waiters with a tray and carried him out," said a cook pointing to the backdoor. "Somebody alert the security." continued the cook as he looked at Balthazar. "Don''t worry. I am Balthazar Blyth. We have booked the penthouse for the party. The waiter was suspected of infiltrating the party and having stolen something. He was taken to a room by our men to find out more information from him," said Balthazar as he showed his identification and went through the backdoor. "I hoped that Glen would be a bit more discreet. What is he thinking taking out Khalid in such an open fashion?" thought Balthazar as he contacted Glen. "He noticed me and try poke my eye out with a barbecue poker," said Glen. "I have him in tied up in a room and am currently trying to make awake." "Douse him in water," said Balthazar. "I am coming and there would D.i.c.k, Evelyn and Ichigo coming a few seconds behind me. I would like to get a few answers before they come up." "I understand," said Glen. To him it was clear that Balthazar wanted to talk to this major away from prying eyes. He understood that D.i.c.k was included among the list of unwanted people, but he could only send away D.i.c.k without raising suspicion by requesting him to get Ichigo and Evelyn. So, they needed to talk a bit before D.i.c.k gets a hold of Evelyn and Ichigo and manages to get them without arousing any suspicion or fear in any of the other people in the party. It would be an easy task to alert them, but there would an expression of surprise at the very least if he informed them of the supposedly dead major. If officials of the armed forces high up in the command chain like Evelyn or Ichigo put any expressions of surprise, it would cause the people in the party to wonder and might disturb the atmosphere. All the people invited were social elites and they would have high level of intelligence. They would definitely wonder about it and he didn''t want that to happen. So, it would definitely take some time for D.i.c.k to get them both to come out of the party and he wanted to not waste any of this time. Glen took the major and threw him in the bathroom and used the shower to rouse him out of his trauma induced stupor. As Khalid''s eyes opened him found himself sprawled in a bathtub, with a man pointing a gun at his face. It was clear to him that he had been captured and they suspected that he had infiltrated the party. He just hoped that they didn''t know his identity and have somehow managed to realize that he had entered the restaurant after he tied up a waiter. "Damn these guys are pretty heavy handed," thought Khalid as he moved his hand over his head to check the bruise on his head caused by Glen. "They clearly want to interrogate me but why am I in a bathtub. I expected them to move me to some place like a dungeon." "Why did you knock me out? Where am I?" asked Khalid in a feeble voice. Though he was captured he had enough common sense to try and feint that he was wrongfully captured. He was a trained soldier and had kept a frightened expression on his face even since he woke up. He was sure that he had put up a good act as a common civilian to his captor. "I am an employee of the ambrosia restaurant owned by the Blyths. They are the rulers of asklepian. Don''t think that you can get away without any repercussions by being so heavy handed in this place." "I suggest that you cease the acting, major Khalid. We know of your identity. If you continue in this manner, I wouldn''t mind repeating my previous actions," said Glen as he pulled out a hair drier from the cupboard in the bathroom and held it as a club ready to smack Khalid on his head again. "No need for such brutish behavior. I understand my situation," said Khalid. "Sometimes brutes have the best effect in inspiring civilized liars to become honest gentlemen," said Glen smiling. "I suggest that you dispose of your wet clothes, cover your private parts with a towel and seat yourself in a chair. You are going to have a few visitors soon." Glen wanted to make sure that the major isn''t hiding any items that he could use to attack or defend himself. So, it was best to have him strip down before he got to meet up with Balthazar and the others. It was necessary for him to take such measures as Balthazar''s bodyguard. Under the stern gaze of his captor, Khalid had no options to do as he was told, and he was in a chair in the room before Balthazar came into the room. "Is he clean?" asked Balthazar as he entered and saw Khalid with a towel wrapped around the lower part of his body. He immediately realized that Glen had already taken appropriate measures to avoid an unexpected attacks. "Clean enough," said Glen leaning against a wall with his gun trained on Khalid. "So, it is you who had identified me," said Khalid. "That makes things a lot easier. I was afraid that someone else might have caught me." "Hmm," said Balthazar in surprise. "You actually wanted to meet me?" he asked in shock. He knew that Khalid had worked under Jane and had expected him to have been under the employ of the knights of the old republic. So, he thought that Khalid wanted to attack or injure him rather than talk. "Of course. You didn''t think that I had any intention of harming you. I am not suicidal. I just needed to meet you away from prying eyes. I have been in the city for quite some time, but it was tough to get in contact with you. When I heard of the party, I believed that it was the best chance to get in contact with you," said Khalid. "But first, was I that apparent that you managed to identify me before I even introduced myself. I thought that I had disguised myself quite well." "You did, but it was apparent to him that you were trying to get close to me in the party for a long time. That is quite an odd thing for a waiter to do in such an event," said Balthazar. "I guess I am not made for such things. Most of my work was always in technology. I was hardly any good at these things," said Khalid as he dropped his head. "Anyway. I don''t care about your experience in spy work. Tell me how you are still alive and why you wanted to meet me?" asked Balthazar. "Yes. Yes. I need your help. You are the only one I could come to," said Khalid. "Clearly not the answer to my question and I don''t have much time. If you are expecting anything from me, you better make yourself useful and answer my questions quickly," said Balthazar. "I will. I will. I trained along with lieutenant colonel when we were young. We came from the same batch. I was very good at software and my previous job was quality testing during which I had decent knowledge about updating software of various systems deployed by the military. I was also known to be a gambled and was under debt to some unsavory forces. So, she contacted me and told me that she could get rid of all my debt and provide me a fortune if I helped her sabotage the defenses systems of the citadel," explained Khalid. "So, you were the one who actually caused the issue with the systems in the citadel?" asked Balthazar angrily. He had suffered a lot in his past life due to the incident at the citadel and he hated all who were responsible for it. Even though, he managed to keep the citadel from falling the second time, he still had the memories of his past life and bore a lot of hatred towards the ones responsible. He wanted revenge and felt that he lost the chance to avenge himself personally after the explosion killed Jane as she was the only one whom he could ask for answers. His rage was clearly visible in his eyes and even the tone of his voice changed as he heard Khalid. This put Khalid on the guard and even Glen was a bit surprised that his cousin would take the matter that seriously. "Yes. I was under duress. I didn''t want to do it, but I was forced by using my family. They had pictures of them and threatened me. I had to help them," said Khalid in fear as he saw the expression on Balthazar''s face. "I did as they bid, but I didn''t take any money either. I didn''t want anything linking me to them. I had no contact with any of them." "Still haven''t answered my two questions. I suggest you start with how you managed to escape," continued Balthazar in an angry tone. "That was easy. I have also put a back way to determine the true information sensed by the defense systems. It concerns the safety of the citadel and I was at the same place as you. So, I needed to be able to make a retreat if necessary. It would provide me with notifications if anything dangerous happens. When you announced a state of alert, it was very surprising, and I was sure that someone managed to set the systems right. I was sure that soon the traitors would be routed out if you managed to find out about the hack in the defense systems. So, I decided to escape," said Khalid. "You were seen near the ship that exploded. You were noted to be present. Else, they wouldn''t have marked you as dead and would probably marked as a deserter," said Balthazar. "High chance that you would still be marked as one." "Of course, I went to the hangar. I wanted to escape and disappear. The ones who threatened me would also try to silence me after the incident. I expected the pirates to attack us at the hanger, though didn''t expect it to be a suicidal one. I went in and then walked away from the hanger along with a few volunteers under the excuse that I would train them," said Khalid. "So, you were a deserter," said Balthazar. "No, I just put my distance from the hangar as I didn''t want to die. I was just being careful. I didn''t leave the citadel. I didn''t want anything to do with Jane after it was clear that her plan failed. We all knew we were liabilities and were on guard, but I bet no expected the explosion," said Khalid. "After the explosion, I realized the extremes these people were willing to go, just to keep their name clean. So, I feinted my death. I just ran away from the citadel but realized that I was considered dead due to the explosion and as I didn''t give my name to the volunteers, no one suspected anything." "So, you got lucky. That is your reason for your escape?" asked Balthazar not knowing what to make of it. He had expected quite a lot from him as he managed to evade both the knights of the old republic and the border forces. Knowing that it just happened due to a bit of prudence and him being away from the hangar was just disappointing to him. "Why did you want to meet me, then?" "Because you were the one who escaped even after the explosion. Cause you were the one who managed to capture them by updating the defense systems after you have identified the issue which was supposedly impossible to identify," said Khalid in an excited tone "Please, tell me how you managed to do that so that I wouldn''t make such a mistake again." "That was just luck. You can modify the defense systems to not report any foreign sh.i.p.s that are close to the moon but can''t actually prevent them from being noticed by other devices and personnel. A trusted subordinate had informed me of a private vessel and that is the only reason, I followed up," said Balthazar. "Hearing what I told, it looks like I have just been lucky. Just as luck as Khalid or probably much luckier. Without my knowledge of my past life that is the only way it would appear to others. Or they would think that I am purposefully not revealing something," thought Balthazar as laughed inside at the ridiculous circ.u.mstance he was in. "Seriously?" asked Khalid unwilling to accept a reason so ridiculous. "I assure you one thing. It has got nothing to do with any issues in your work. I only realized the problems in the defense systems due to its effects. I could only realize it because the ones who asked you to do it were foolish enough to not think thoroughly about their request. Their plan had too many flaws to begin with," said Balthazar. Though most of the things he just told were true, the words he used gave the impression that the reason he managed to save the citadel was something within his control, but he is unwilling to inform anyone about it. "So, it wasn''t my mistake," said Khalid. "Still, they wouldn''t let me be. So, I came to you to request asylum." COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 207 - Identity "Do you know of other members of the military who had worked along with Jane?" asked Balthazar. "No. I knew about a few, but they all died in the blast," said Khalid. "Then, I have no use of you, and I don''t want to help a person who had been responsible for something that caused me to almost die, even if you did it under duress," said Balthazar. "I would just be marked as someone who had shielded a traitor and a deserter." "No, I am not a deserter. Would a deserter willing get among so many people to visit you? That is just suicidal. I am not a deserter. I never wanted to quit the force. I had no options but to do this for the safety of my wife and child," said Khalid almost tearing up. "What do you want me to do?" asked Balthazar. He pitied Khalid for his situation, but he couldn''t believe him completely. At the back of his mind, he even wondered if Khalid had been fabricating the entire story and had just been trying to infiltrate their ranks. He couldn''t do anything without proof. He needed to at least get a hold of Khalid''s family, but till he is vetted the only place he could put Khalid was the prison. Before that all he could do was to ask him more questions and tense him enough to see if he accidentally let out any information. "I can hardly do anything for you other than postponing your death sentence for some time." "You could tell the force that I was your man and helped to investigate the culprits behind the explosion. You clearly didn''t want to reveal the truth for some reason and that is the reason Jane, me and others are not being considered traitors. This would also give you a plausible reason," said Khalid. "Hahaha," laughed Balthazar. "You want me to just take your word that you are a good man. For all I know you could be a spy and I don''t know how you managed to reach Asklepian while hiding. And why would I do it for you? Your actions irrespective of the reason almost caused me to die and you are of no help to me at all." "Moreover, we just behaved in a manner that indicated we didn''t know about him in front of D.i.c.k. It wouldn''t be an easy task to convince him that this half n.a.k.e.d idiot worked for us," said Glen. "I can give you the names of the people who conspired. I came to know of them when I was working with Jane. She wanted be to join her cause and let out some information to try and convince me," said Khalid. "But you just said all the military personnel that participated in her scheme at the base were all killed in the explosion. You being the obvious exception." "They aren''t military personnel. It wasn''t just military personnel who were involved in this plan. They had support to be able co-ordinate with them," said Khalid. "I hope you have a name other than Rowleys." "Yes, I have another name. Dave. He was the man in charge." "Dave. He knows about Dave?" thought Balthazar. Though Balthazar remembered the name and outline of the man, he didn''t have much else to track him other than the fact that he was a member of the Nirbaadh pirates. "A known name, but he wasn''t found even after the dire circ.u.mstances of the Nirbaadh pirates," said Balthazar. "You have any other useful things?" "Yes, but I know details about him. He is the younger brother of the captain of the Nirbaadh pirates," said Khalid. "What? You sure?" asked Glen as Balthazar also leaned in. "Yes. I overheard him refer to the captain as his elder brother. If not a true brother, they are at least brothers in arms." "Either way, we know that the captain had a younger brother called Asuragana Dharma Pratap. We would find more information if we catch up to him," said Glen. "True, but I am not willing to promise anything. I will protect your family." "Thank you. Thanks a lot," started Khalid as Balthazar held up his hand stopping him. "You can consider them prisoners. They will have freedom but will always be under surveillance. I will inform Evelyn that you were my man, but I am not sure of your loyalties anymore. So, you will be a prisoner till we verify your information," said Balthazar. "I am fine with that. They are being pressured by my debtors. I hope you can provide them sanctuary," said Khalid. "You hinted that there was someone else you knew to be responsible." "Yes. Harry Drudgers, the industrialist." "Any proof?" asked Glen. "None. I can''t give you any such information." "In that case, I will let Evelyn Price decide your fate. You will be in contact with her," said Balthazar. "No. No. You just told you would help me." "I will tell her that you were my man and helped me with the situation, but it looks like you are not much useful. So, I will let her take care of you. I will inform her that you are being hunted. So, she will take appropriate precautions, but I am sure she will also interrogate you. It is best you stick to your story," said Balthazar. "Your family will be put under the care by me personally. I will make sure they come to know harm and they will be monitored all day long." "I can be useful to you. I have managed to cover the eyes of some many personnel and managed to modify an entire defense system which could have crippled an entire moon base," said Khalid still trying to convince Balthazar of his usefulness. If he was sent to other people, he was not sure of his situation. Balthazar would still keep him safe as he was sure that the colonel was not in cahoots with the knights, but he couldn''t be sure of the others. "Why do you want to be under him?" asked Glen who found Khalid''s request suspicious. "Because I am sure he is not one of the enemies." "But staying alongside him is very dangerous. There is a much higher chance that you would get into enemy eyes if you are alongside us." "You don''t know about the number of people who tried to kill us the past few days. There are always someone who are in their pockets," said Khalid. It was clear to both Balthazar and Glen that Khalid had been extremely frightened for his life and those of his family. "He could be useful," said Balthazar looking at Glen. He couldn''t deny from his achievement that Khalid was quite technically capable and might be of use during their trip. "Would you be confident in letting him guard your six?" asked Glen. He knew that Balthazar was considering recruiting Khalid, but the circ.u.mstances of his visit and his story were very suspicious. Balthazar couldn''t refute Glen''s concerns. Khalid was extremely suspicious and there wasn''t the slightest chance that he could trust Khalid''s words. It would unwise for him to have someone along with him without a minimum amount of trust and confidence. He would have to split his concentration and focus on Khalid to make sure that Khalid isn''t doing anything detrimental to him. "So, it is best if we leave him at the family. We can have someone monitoring him," continued Glen taking Balthazar''s silence as concurrence with his own views. "Him being a major is reason who was involved with the sabotage is reason enough for the family to keep him in observation. His family would also be put under observation so that he wouldn''t get any stupid ideas." "How long?" asked Khalid. Though he helped Jane, he never wanted that kind of life. He wanted to continue in his post at the military and it gave him a lot of benefits. He didn''t want to lose them if there was a chance. "Until your words are proven true or you can prove yourself to be a loyal and useful person," said Glen. "But my career at the military. What about that? I don''t want to be marked a traitor or deserter." "Leave that to me. I will talk with Ichigo and Evelyn, but you will be in the family for some duration. I will try my best to help you. You must understand your situation well. There is little I can help you with if you do not have any useful information. So, first start with Harry drudgers," said Balthazar as he heard a knocking on the door. "D.i.c.k has arrived with the other two," said Balthazar. "I will inform them that I didn''t recognize Khalid as he wasn''t supposed to meet me here much less in a disguise. That is the same reason I will use to have him under suspicion of changing allegiances," he suggested to the other two in the room and went to open the door. D.i.c.k followed by Evelyn and Ichigo got into the room. They were quite surprised when they heard that a supposedly dead man had been following Balthazar. They had a lot of doubts regarding his escape. It wasn''t an easy task to travel to Asklepian under a false identity. If Khalid had used his original identity, he would have been immediately flagged for using a dead military official''s identity. So, they were wondering about the secrets that Khalid held. This was the same reason for Balthazar and Glen to hold Khalid under suspicion to be a spy. The only reason they didn''t execute him was that they couldn''t clearly understand him, and it didn''t make sense for the enemy to send a person of his capabilities to spy at them. "I would suggest you start with explaining how you managed to get here without using your identity as a major," said Glen. He knew that it was not possible for Khalid to come here without someone forging an identity for him and intended to know if the corresponding party was a friend or foe or a new player. "I expected that there would be problems and they would realize that I am a double agent. So, I have already had a few doc.u.ments forged and kept ready. I knew a man called Rock in the underworld," said Khalid. "He helped me with them." "Why didn''t you come to the military after the explosion?" asked Ichigo. "My cover was already blown. There were people after me and I didn''t know whom I could trust in that situation. The only one I trusted was him and I had to pull my family out of danger," said Khalid pointing to Balthazar. "So, I ran away from the planet. After I learned that you were recuperating in Asklepian, I came here," continued Khalid making up a story so that D.i.c.k and the others would think he was not a traitor but actually was helping Balthazar. "That is well, but I still don''t understand how they came to know that you were my man," said Balthazar. "I even let you successfully sabotage the defense systems and let them test it with merchant vessels before rectifying it. They shouldn''t have had any doubts unless someone whom I didn''t account for was working for them." "He could be the one who is actually a triple agent. Have you thought of that?" came a message from Evelyn on his wrist band. "That is my primary concern. I knew that they wanted to kill me for some reason and there was a high chance that even Jane was an expendable asset to them. So, I want to put him under lock and observation. He would be bait," replied Balthazar through his device. "I will leave it to you then," said Evelyn aloud. "What about his posting?" she asked Ichigo who had been watching the messages. "He could be considered a special asset in need of protection for now. Let me put him as an asset who is under the Colonel for special use. There would be no other details. This is the best I can do," offered Ichigo. "But we need to be kept informed about any information you get." "Then, let us listen to him. He insists that Harry Drudgers was involved," said Balthazar looking towards Khalid. "Even if you don''t have any proof, I suppose you have an idea about his intentions and involvement, don''t you?" "Yes. I heard them talk about it. PK-170-B was not the only thing that they had planned for. It was just the starting point. The citadel provides a way to land onto the planet PK-170 and obviously all contracts involved would have to be approved by the Colonel in charge," said Khalid. "I thought that the Rowleys involvement was for the same and we are sure that they were involved in the event," said D.i.c.k disagreeing with Khalid. "Moreover, it is not possible for them to take advantage over it if the apes occupied the moon." "No, the border forces would let them be on the moon for long. Even if I failed, they would retaliate with greater forces and take back the citadel. The only issue would be that the citadels infrastructure would have to be rebuilt and I would be demoted for my failure while Jane would probably be put in my place if she had the proper contacts," said Balthazar. "That is right. Harry was just one of the few people who were going to recommend Jane. He had contracts with the military, but Jane looked down upon him. Something about a rivalry between the drudgers and someone in the military," said Khalid. "There is no way that idiot is going to get any chance around the border force. Brixton already in odds with them. The attack was probably to meant to also reduce his political influence, but the newly found information about the apes from the wreckage actually increased his influence," said Ichigo. "Anyway, thanks for informing us about him," said Evelyn Price looking sternly at Khalid. She was suspicious about Khalid even though Balthazar supported him. She had a feeling that even Balthazar is hiding something from her, but she didn''t decide to delve into it as the Blyth''s supported her family and weren''t going to change the political association anytime soon. "Let us get back to the party. I will let him be with you for now, but I hope you get some more results soon." "Yeah, let it be so. Winston has already arrived with a number of guests. It is best if you come with us. I believe D.i.c.k and your bodyguard can handle the Major for now," said Ichigo. "OK. D.i.c.k, please stay for some time. We need to talk," said Balthazar as he opened the door and went out of the room. "He has quite a number of secrets," thought D.i.c.k looking at Khalid. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 208 - Announcement Leaving D.i.c.k and Glen in the room, Balthazar, Evelyn and Ichigo made their way back to the penthouse. As Ichigo had informed, there number of guest in the party had increased and Winston was alongside Richard introducing a few of them to Robert. Balthazar didn''t want to involve himself much in this affair, but he understood that it was necessary. He followed Ichigo and Evelyn before greeting Winston. He was a member of armed forces and he wanted to get better acquainted with people in similar field or in cooperation with the armed forces. So, moving around with them was much easier for Balthazar who wasn''t much into politics nor wanted to ingratiate much into that circles. That was one of the main reasons, he didn''t compete for the position of elder in the family. Nevertheless, he came into contact with a few people from various planets. Industrialists, politicians, quite a few people in different influences came to him to make his acquaintance. The discovery of different kind of apes was mostly credited to him and due to that his fame soared causing many to try and befriend him. Winston didn''t even need to participate, as these people already knew him and tried to meet him of their own accord. Though quite a few came to meet Balthazar most of them were in military or were among the younger generation. Soon, Winston came to him and started to introduce him to ones of his own generation. He was brought to several leaders and elders of different organizations and families. There were also a few who he recognized as they were famous and there were some like Shehzad Malik and few others from his past life whom he recognized even though they weren''t well known. With so many people, he only got to exchange a few pleasantries before Winston pulled him and Robert away to make an announcement. "Dear friends, I am glad that you have come here from different planets to celebrate this day with me," started Winston as he climbed upon a small dais at one side of the hall along with Robert and Balthazar. "This party is being held to announce a few things. I understand that you are all enjoying, and I promise I won''t make much of your time. Just give me a couple of minutes." "Firstly, there had been a recent murder in the family. I hope my nephew Max, a happy afterlife as he had been avenged and the pirates responsible for his death had been brought to justice by valiant efforts of the military and Price family through which a stop had been put to the scourge known as Nirbaadh pirates," he said pointing to Ichigo Suzuki and Evelyn Price who were the most qualified those two organizations. He was received with a loud applause and cheers by many in the party. The Nirbaadh pirates were despised by almost all the society except for a few who have used them for unsavory purposes in secret. Even these people needed to put on an appearance in public that they condone the actions of these pirates. So, all of them applauded even if it was just perfunctory to maintain appearances. "The old man know how to garner attention," whispered Robert to Balthazar. "It is more than that," whispered back Balthazar. "He cleared Max''s name avoiding ill repute for family and also put all the responsibility for the attacks on Nirbaadh pirates to the military and the Price family. He did that because he wants the public opinion to not include any rumors. It is the same as publicly denying it." "I get the politics of it, cousin," said Robert rolling his eyes. As the applause subsided and both Evelyn and Ichigo receive congratulations from the people and Winston made a few coughs and continued. "Second, my grandnephew, Dr. Robert Blyth born to Jordan and George Blyth had recently proved himself capable and has decided to participate in the competition for the elder post that had been left empty due to the death of my nephew. I would like to offer my support and well wishes to him," said Winston pulling Robert beside him and lifting his hand. Robert was all smiles and waved giddily. "Lastly I would like to announce that my grandson, Colonel Balthazar Blyth whom people have recently heard of due to the attack on the citadel at the border has completely recovered physically and mentally," he said as he pulled Balthazar beside him so that everyone could have a look at him. "I will take a moment to indicate upon the significance of the victory over the ape armada," he continued as he signaled Balthazar and Robert to get down. "Most would have already heard a bit about a new species of the apes. Red in color, larger and stronger. As many assumed there is a hierarchy among these species. I have had the chance to examine a few specimens. It is best that we prepare for the worst." "Winston? What are you doing?" started Evelyn afraid that Winston might do something stupid that could cause panic. Winston held his hand to indicate that he would moderate the information that he would spread "There are many things that are possible in species which have a hierarchical structure based on their physiques. I won''t say that I know the everything about them, but I am one of the leading biological researchers and on this planet, we have researched many species that humans have discovered on different planets. There are also quite a large number of species that we grow on specific planets or moons. So, I have had the opportunity to get a lot of information about their behavior patterns," said Winston. "From the little bit of information, we have, I am confidently reporting that the red ones are higher up in the hierarchy of the apes. The blacks were currently being considered as the bottom of their hierarchy. This make us humans the same as pets or maybe much worse. We have our own social dynamic and use the naturally available resources for our own growth and development competing with these apes." "Humans have long since had a similar relationship with smaller being who also competed with them for resources and lived in social groups. We usually include them all under the term pests. So, I guess you all can imagine what the apes think of us," said Winston causing a number of people to gasp and widen their eyes in shock. Winston gave a small pause for them to think about it. Many considered the apes to be strong opponents to their race, but they always considered them to be like another race of humans as they were intelligent and most of their fights involved extensive use of technology. This use of technology made them think the apes to be same as other humans, but Winston''s words are something that would be very hard for most to accept. After the initial pause, a few of them started to shout. Some started to say that Winston was make a mountain of a mole hill and considered him to exaggerating the situation. Some were confused and started to wonder about the legitimacy of his claims and the next course of action while ones like Evelyn and Ichigo just wanted him to come down. Even the members of the Blyth family including a few elders who attended the party looked to be in a dazed and confused state unable to understand why Winston would say something like this publicly. "I am putting this out now because we have just realized that there is a hierarchy among their species, but we have been fighting them for quite a few years now. So, the upper hierarchy just started to consider as opponents. This give a bit of a picture about the diversity and number of these apes in the universe," continued Winston. "I am sure many of you have disagreements with me, but I am just informing you about the general behavior of various species including humans. Maybe it is not as bad as pests. Most pests are about the size of our finger. So, let me say we are like chickens or sheep which are about half our size. Either way, even the lowest of their hierarchy are double our size and the only thing they would try to do with us are consider us to be pests or pets. Both of these bode ill to us. So, I request that everyone supports the military in their endeavor to battle against this threat. Thank you. I request that all of you think about this as you enjoy this party," said Winston as he got down the dais. "What is wrong with you," said Evelyn grabbing Winston by his arm as he got down. She quickly pulled him out of the party hall to the lift to go to a private room along with Ichigo so that she could get some answers. A few seconds later she pushed him onto a chair in a private room. "Talk. What prompted this?" she asked. "I just thought that a bit of panic and some truths would be useful for the border force. It is clear that we need more support for battling against the apes. There are still idiots who are looking to make more bucks by using the apes for their agenda. If anything, the attack on the citadel proved that," said Winston with a smile on his face. He was enjoying the fact that he could do something that fl.u.s.tered her. To get her in such a state is considered a hard and rare thing and he was enjoying it slightly. "The citadel attack. Is that why?" asked Evelyn assuming that Winston was shook by the attack that happened on his grandson and put this out for his sake. Even so, she felt that it wasn''t worth doing it. "No, it is not just the citadel attack. The knights of the old Republic are the main ones. They already have a means to communicate and collaborate with the apes. This had been discussed even with Harvey. We haven''t released all the information we know but something which is already in speculation. They wanted us to control the direction of the rumors and having the first word would help in that," said Winston. "Harvey was informed?" asked Evelyn in surprise. "Still why at the party and why you?" "It couldn''t be Harvey. From a political figure like that it would be catastrophic to his career. There would greedy idiots who would claim him to be just instigating the rumors for political purposes and some would even call him warmonger. I on the other hand haven''t ever been involved in any election except for those within my family. On the other hand, I don''t involve myself in these politics but have a lot of influence due to my position. So, it is better if I put it out as an individual researcher," said Winston. "He will just inform the world that he is considering my words seriously and that the armed forces would start to take appropriate measures so that we wouldn''t be caught in any unexpected situation. Thus, you will be preparing for war without much issues," said Winston. "I still can''t believe that Harvey agreed to this. It is still unnecessary." "No, it is very much necessary. Recently we have had a bout of good luck and have been able to foil the plans of the knights, even though they just started their activities again. First, it was Balthazar, then the Nirbaadh pirates. They are going to retaliate soon. You know that their mode of operation. This is essential so that any person who tries to disturb any research or military expenditure or activities would be condemned by the public. It would put a certain amount of fear in those who are already halfway through their plans," explained Winston. "I guess, it was," said Evelyn sitting down. It was a surprise to her, and she didn''t expect such an announcement to happen all of a sudden. She could realize the validity of Winston''s claims by waiting a few days to check if her brother or any others make similar statements but still found it hard to believe as she couldn''t understand why their plan was kept from her. "Why wasn''t I informed of this?" she asked. "I am meant to spear head this and it was supposed to appear that your family was not involved in the first announcement. This was supposed to be an endeavor started by the researchers as they feared the current state of affairs. If suspicious of the Price family or military having been involved in this arose, it would be detrimental to our plans," said Winston. "Wanted to choose a private party or gathering when someone high up in the command chain able to represent the view of both were present to announce this. I didn''t expect Ichigo to be present and once I found you both, I have contacted the others and decided to start it. The faster the better. Maybe Harvey would have informed you if he was given more time, but after I informed him that we would start right now, he had to contact others and make them present their opinions soon." "So, you never had the intention of announcing this today originally. It just happened because Ichigo came along with me?" "Yes. My own family were surprised including the elder council and by grandchildren. I need to talk to a lot of them now," said Winston. "I guess it is better. The people here are only the ones who are powers in this part of the galaxy and a few specific ones that were invited. If you made the statement in some meeting where representatives of all powers convened it would be held much later and might seem planned. This feels more genuine like you were really afraid and couldn''t wait much longer to announce your report and opinions," said Evelyn. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 209 - Yerman Lewis At the same time, the atmosphere of the party had changed completely due to Winston''s announcement. Everyone put a stop to whatever else they were talking about and were only concerned about the statement made by Winston. "Dude, I think Winston went mental," whispered Robert to Balthazar as he saw Winston being accompanied by Evelyn and Ichigo down the party. "Those two are from the military. Do we need to do something? They are taking Winston away by hand. I think they are angry." "I am pretty sure they are angry, but it is probably just to have a chat. He is no danger," said Balthazar who had noticed that Arthur had been there, but he only gestured someone to follow them and continued to remain in the party. "Yeah, it would impossible to escape from the family if they hurt the patriarch," said Robert calming down. "But that was crazy. What was he thinking?" "Troubled times brother. This would affect your election too. He openly declared support to you and then gave that statement. Some might be angry due it and it might affect you," said Balthazar. "Go to Richard and talk about it, but don''t make any statements or talk to anybody about it for a few days. Let us see how this plays." Though Balthazar had no interest in politics, he could see that this statement would have political implications not only within the family but in the alliance. The best thing would be to keep calm and see if anyone else comments on the statement. Moreover, he knew that Robert couldn''t say anything against Winston''s opinions as Winston had just expressed his support for Robert and if Robert said anything it would just lead to unwanted confusion. "Richard messaged me the same thing. He wanted me to avoid the topic and try to talk up the guests. If that isn''t possible with someone, he is asking me to just tell that there might be some validity to Winston''s words but I don''t want to say anything without properly looking into the subject," said Robert as read the message on his wrist band. "Ya. Just diplomatically avoid giving a proper answer. It will be good practice for a future elder," said Balthazar patting Robert on his shoulder. "I will take my leave now," said Balthazar getting down the dais with the intention to meet up with D.i.c.k and take the forged identity cards from him. "Wait. I thought you wanted to meet Lewis here. I also thought that there were a couple of your friends from that border planet coming to visit you here," said Robert pulling his arm. "Yes, I almost forgot," said Balthazar. "Come on, then. Introduce me to Lewis." Robert took him towards a few women dressed vibrantly started giggling as they saw Robert. They were a mixture of friends and staff from the hospital Robert works. It was clear to them that the ladies were wasted from alcohol. A few of them requested to have a dance with Robert while some of the more clearheaded ones asked if there was ever going to be any entertainment like dancing. Now that a small speech was given they were expecting that some space of the hall would be cleared so that they could dance and enjoy themselves. Robert talked to them happily introducing Balthazar to his friends and after a couple of minute he managed to pacify his excited and drunken friends finally getting to know about Lewis'' location from them. "The old man is at that balcony. Apparently there was someone whom he knew among the guests who took him to the balcony for a bit of scenery," said Robert as he started moving. "Wait if he is talking with an old lady friend, we might be intruding and he might not take it well," said Balthazar. He wanted to make friends with Yerman Lewis and didn''t want to jeopardize his chances by intruding on a private affair. He could wait for some time before meeting him. "No. No. He seems to be meeting with a guy and I am pretty sure he doesn''t swing that way. It is probably an old friend. He wouldn''t mind introducing us," said Robert. "Your friends don''t know who he was meeting with?" asked Balthazar surprised. Yerman Lewis was a man who is in a wheelchair as he has trouble moving his body below his waist. He was told by Robert that the hospital staff accompanied him here. So, he expected them to be responsible for the man. "Of course not. They came here to have fun. They only brought him here because I promised to get him back to his ward after the day," said Robert as he took a glass of whiskey and downed it in along gulp. "At least I will arrange for someone to do that. I am pretty sure that I won''t be in shape by the end of the party." "Well, it would be a shame if you didn''t get hammered at your own party," said Balthazar. "But I recommend you to stay sober for some more time. I am pretty sure Richard wouldn''t appreciate if you are drunk when he has someone to introduce you." "That is the only thing keeping me from being in the same state as my posse," said Robert pointing at his friends with his thumb. He and Balthazar came to the balcony and found white haired man in a black coat sitting in a wheelchair smoking a cigar with another who was leaning against the wall. Yerman had a handsome face with white hair and a goatee for an old man with wrinkles. "Leon?" greeted Balthazar as he realized that the man leaning over the wall smoking was known to him. "Glad to see you here." "You here for this idiot?" asked Leon tilting his head towards Yerman Lewis. "Yerman let me introduce you to young Colonel Balthazar Blyth. Cut from the bloody same mold as his grand uncle Walter and probably worse." "What''s with the introduction?" thought Balthazar looking a bit shocked. He was confused and was unable to determine if Leon was badmouthing him or not. "I don''t even know what to make out of it. If he is hinting Yerman that I am good or bad, prudent or reckless." "So, you are the one they were talking about over there. Couldn''t see your face due to me the height disadvantage, but heard your old man speaking. That was one hell of a comparison, huh. Most would take affront to him calling humans as pests," said Yerman as he shook Balthazar''s hand. "Winston didn''t mean to call us pests. He was just implying that an ape would consider us to be so," said Balthazar as he shook Yerman''s hand. "Firm hands, better than your surgeon cousin," said Yerman. "I know what Winston means kid was just yanking your chain. And don''t trouble yourself over his word," he continued pointing towards Leon. "After this," he said pointing towards his legs. "I have made a habit of not taking the words of others to determine a character. No matter how loyal or sensible one is, there is a good chance of him to wrongly understand the nature of a person." "Was that supposed to be funny?" interjected Leon. "No. I was supposed to make shut your yapping for a while. As bad as drunk lady trying to woo a man. Never shut up, do you?" replied Yerman waving off Leon. Both Balthazar and Robert were surprised to hear someone call Leon to be a chatty person. He never gave them that vibe. "Nope, not when I feel like talking," said Leon. "Never get him drunk," said Yerman. "Unless you want to interrogate him." "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of a dashing young colonel who came here to meet a crippled old man?" asked Yerman. "He has a job offer," said Leon. "Job offer?" asked Yerman turning towards Leon. "What the f.u.c.k can I.." "Did he make you come to me?" he asked Balthazar. "I don''t want nothing to do with you if you that dumbass is making you help me. Believe me, I don''t have technical knowledge, nor I am good at anything physical." "No. No. No. Leon has nothing to do with this. He just came to know of it accidentally. I was actually told about you by Robert. We didn''t even expect to see Leon here," said Balthazar trying to convince Yerman that he is not working for Leon. It was clear to him that there was some minor hostility between the pair of them and he didn''t want to get involved in it. "Well, I can believe that you didn''t expect Leon to be here. The pair of you were surprised to find him with me," said Yerman taking a breath as he gave Leon a scathing look. "So, what is the job that you are offering me? I hope it is something interesting. I don''t really need a job, I have enough wealth to last me this life." "Have you ever played virtual games?" asked Balthazar. "Games? Where are you going with this?" "Please, listen to what I have to say for a couple of minutes. There has been a new virtual game released recently called vita-nova. Did you hear of it?" asked Balthazar. "Course not" "Well it isn''t the game itself that is important, but the technology released along with it. It is called somnium technology and by reading brainwaves it allows one to play the game in real life like manner that one couldn''t determine if they were playing or in a dream." "I heard a bit about the somnium technology. Something about it being able to allow a person to work while sleeping and experience thrice the amount of time while it is being used," added Yerman Lewis. "Yes, that is what I wanted to talk to you about. If it weren''t for the somnium tech, the game would be a waste, nor would it have gained much popularity. It is the somnium tech which makes everyone feel like they could live in a fantasy world through the game," said Balthazar indicating the importance of the somnium technology. "Fantasy world and games. Didn''t expect the famous colonel to be interested in fantasies and virtual games. You are so focused on game rather than the technology," said Yerman surprised at the zeal at which Balthazar was talking about the game. "It is not the virtual game, but the experience is a gold mine. There are people who are willing to pay to have a pleasant experience in the game already and it would only increase as it could be done during the sleep time. The main point is that even injuries and death are quite realistic in the game. Though it is not reflected in real world it will leave a bad taste and might even cause nightmares. To avoid that and provide services one needs to have a safe space. Apart from that it is going to be famous in the same way as other virtual games and a guild could make a lot of money by investing in it. Anyway, as the game is realistic, it also requires the players to have actual skills to be able to play the game well and make use of it. So, I want you to train my players in the game," explained Balthazar. "You want me to be a coach in a virtual game?" asked Yerman stupefied. "Yes. These virtual games have become quite famous in these past few years and even the competitions in the virtual games have become quite famous and have a lot of following," added Robert. "There are professional players and competitions and you want me to train them?" asked Yerman again with the same stupefied expression. "Bloody crap. I don''t know the first thing about these games, and you are asking me to coach players?" "I am not asking you to teach them about the game. I am asking you to coach them to fight. The game to much like reality and it follows all the physics and techniques involved with an added extra element of fantasy. If one removes magical elements it is the same as actual fighting and I want you to teach them to use physical weapons and fight. Most of the players are gamers who have a very good idea of the nature of the magical and fantasy elements of the game, but they are complete novices in using their body to fight. That is where you come, I want to employ you for your expertise. I heard of your stories from Robert and if half of them were true you are perfect for this job," explained Balthazar. "I thought you doctors never believed any of my tales," said Yerman looking at Robert. "Tall tales you used to call them." "Well, I.." started Robert unable to give him a proper answer and a bit ashamed. "He came to know about you recently," interjected Balthazar. "He was quite surprised to realize your identity that day." "So, you want me to train them? Is it really possible to train using that somnium technology? However realistic it is, it isn''t the same as reality," said Yerman still a bit skeptical about Balthazar''s proposal. "It is actually possible. We have already to use the tech to determine other uses than the games," said Leon. "Really?" "Quite really, it is a state-of-the-art technology. I have no idea why the ones who have created it have introduced it with something as trivial as the virtual reality game," said Leon. "It was actually meant to provide more funds for the work of the Scions of Minerva," said Balthazar. "This was a part of their bio-warframes that they were working to fight and capture the apes. There have been some problems with the reactions of the warframes but the somnium tech was supposed to be the core part of their detection and response systems. In the meantime, it was meant to let people learn fighting and gain some money for them. Also, works to provide them intel for performance on somnium tech for a larger test base." "Boy, don''t talk such nonsense. You can''t say such thing about the Scions of Minerva," said Leon. "I actually met Victor Constantine, the CEO of Metis Techlologies in a meeting. It is true, but they don''t plan to release these details. It is soon going to be used to train armed forces too," said Balthazar. "There are specific plans happening already. So, a few months later, a number of retired personnel would be given jobs to train the current armed forces. It is being told that once the bio-warframes are completely operational, even cripples like Sir Lewis could operate them to fight the apes, but it would take about a decade for that to happen," carried on Balthazar. "So, you are saying that a few months later, I am going to be offered a job by the armed forces anyway. Not much point in working under you now," said Yerman. "I am glad that Sir Yerman believes my words," said Balthazar smiling. "Coming to your question, it would be good practice. You have been out of practice for quite some time and even though the somnium technology provides an extremely life like experience, there is a thing called compatibility. A person''s brain doesn''t accept it completely at the start and there will be some amount of stress which will limit the amount of time you can play. The tech monitors your functions and stops if anything it considers harmful is noticed. Like any other tech, including the pico tech that runs in our blood streams, the body takes some time in getting used to it. So, my offer allows you some practice." "You would be a good salesman or a diplomat. Maybe military is not the best career option for you, at the very least if you want to stay on the front lines," said Yerman surprised by Balthazar''s answer. He expected Balthazar to be stumped by his question and put in a state similar to what happened when he asked Robert about believing his stories. "I accept your job. I will be working from the hospital. I guess you wouldn''t have any problems with it given the nature of the job." COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 210 - Commander Bruce "So, I will have the somnium headgear sent to the hospital," said Balthazar glad that Yerman accepted his proposal. "Crimson Power would be the head of the guild. Please, contact him after you login and Robert is using the ID Draco Rigor. You can play the game and use the headgear for any other purpose in your free time." "I bet there are others in the family who can provide you the same service from your family. Is there any other who is going to work from your family?" asked Yerman. "There are few who could, but they wanted to work on other uses of the somnium technology and not on the game. So, don''t have any who could be useful for it," said Balthazar. "It is not like he is only focused on the game. He also is involved in these other applications that he had mentioned," said Leon. "Of course, they are all just business opportunities. It is hard to survive in this world on the military salary alone, especially in the current circ.u.mstances. One needs to have a few bucks in his bank account to be able to have an edge," said Balthazar. "Good, I hope you wouldn''t be some military man who had been enticed by the world of technology and virtual games leaving behind his career and involve himself too much in these games," said Yerman. "There have been instances of those things happening." "Of course, not. I am pretty sure that it won''t happen as I acquainted with the world of virtual games much before I started my military career. They are quite interesting and provide some enjoyment that would be hard to attain in real-life, but I still understand that it is not the real thing and know enough to discriminate between the two," assured Balthazar. "Let us talk about the rest of the things, later," said Yerman. "I wish to talk with Leon." "Sure, I will take my leave. Glad that I could meet you today, Sir Lewis," curtsied Balthazar as he left the balcony along with Robert. "He is much closer to Winston than Walter," said Yerman as Balthazar and Robert went away. "Walter never thought much about involving himself in new products other than arms and security." "Might be. He also shows a certain amount of political aptitude. Either way, I think he is better suited for armed forces than joining the industrial circles like Winston. He might have a few behaviors similar to his grandfather, but I still think his future is as a fighter and commander," said Leon. "Maybe so. Let us see. Either way, I am glad to make his acquaintance," said Yerman. "You were the one who informed him that I would be a good fit for that job right. Were you concerned that he might take the job himself?" "No, I didn''t have any such concerns and even I was the one who told him of your identity, does it make any difference?" asked Leon. "None. He is still interesting," said Yerman smoking on his pipe. After that Balthazar went to meet with Rudra and the others and spent some time drinking and eating before D.i.c.k found him. "Shall we have a chat now?" asked D.i.c.k as he tapped on Balthazar''s shoulder. "Sure," said Balthazar and excused himself from the group and went along with D.i.c.k. They went down to the same room that they had been to before and Glen was already there waiting for them. "Khalid has been sent to the family. Arthur assured that he would put him in a safe location, and he tasked someone to get a hold of his family," said Glen. "Well that is good," said Balthazar. "So, D.i.c.k you got the identity cards?" "Yes. One Branson Shades. Native to Harlen mega city of BD-36. Aged 32 years," said D.i.c.k as he have an identity card to Balthazar. "It is also to be noted that you have worked as a prison guard and then a mercenary in a security firm after leaving that job." "Yes, this will serve well," said Balthazar as he took the card. "Need to change myself to a blond if I am going to use this." "There is also this," said D.i.c.k giving him a kit. It had a few items like lenses, some filaments in shape of ear, a small device in shape of a triangular panel the size of one''s thumb and a thin transparent glove. "Wear it when someone wants to take a DNA sample to cross check. It is an artificially synthesized item and it would provide a false sample as well as false fingerprints that would make the device recognize you as Branson. They will stick to your body and unless you use this device and press the button close to them, you wouldn''t be able to remove them." "Quite sophisticated," said Balthazar looking at the things provided by D.i.c.k. "This is rare equipment, but not knowing your requirement, Evelyn decided to let you be equipped with rare designs used by Rhodium level agents. If your find your self-recognized even after their use, you need to escape as soon as possible," said D.i.c.k. "I appreciate the effort the both of you put for me. Thank you," said Balthazar realizing the kind of equipment he is using. "Yes. They are quite good quality ones. I will be moving along with him. You don''t need to worry," added Glen from the side. "Ok. So, how do you plan to go forward now. I hope you have heading other than going after the Nirbaadh pirates," said D.i.c.k. "Cause there is too much of competition on that front." "I have some information that is supposed to come this evening at the mansion. Probably, has already been received," said Balthazar. "I am just waiting for a couple of friends from the PK-170 and my sister. They should have come by now, but I still couldn''t see them at the party. I am worried." "You are waiting for Bolena?" asked Glen. "There have been some changes after Winston''s announcement. Bolena was received by Winston and all military members not on leave were asked to convene and not attend any public events to avoid reporters and the like." "Yes, except for a few closely connected to Winston, all military personal were told to avoid public events till further confirmation," agreed D.i.c.k. "They probably thought that you would have also received the same message and understood their situation. "Damn!" shouted Balthazar punching at the wall. He felt angry at Winston for his statement during the party and for the first time wished that he had done it later. It lost him the chance to meet up with Sophia. He had been hoping to meet with her for some time. He called her and got a message that she was instructed to avoid conversation with him because he belonged to the Blyth family. After that, he called Bolena as she was with Rodrigo and Sophia during their journey here. "Hi Bel, I am back at the mansion. Grandpa really did it this time. I don''t know why he did it, but the consequences of his statement are affecting my contract. It is the most ridiculous thing ever. Your friends couldn''t wait to drop me off and make back to the hanger after they heard of it." "Ah! Shit. I will have to ask Winston about it," said Balthazar. "Did you get to meet him at the mansion. He doesn''t seem to be at the party." "Yes. He is at his office. A few elders have decided to convene with him after they came to know about it, but they returned back within a minute and didn''t say anything. He asked me to come to his office along with you after you returned. He says that it wouldn''t affect any of the business of the family or its affiliates, but we will have some trouble for a week at the most." "Really?! That is awful confident of him." "I know it is like there is something secret, but he told that he was busy, and he would explain it to the pair of us at a time," said Bolena. "After that he went to his office and the other elders are also behaving a bit unconcerned. Don''t know what happened, but they were pacified." "Fine, I will be there in a few minutes," said Balthazar as he cut the call. "So, anything else?" he asked D.i.c.k who seemed to be concerned about something. "What is your relationship with Rowleys?" asked D.i.c.k. The question surprised both Glen and Balthazar. Glen was just mildly surprised and confused. As much as he knew, Balthazar wasn''t on good terms with the Rowley family. His testament caused them to cut of ties with one of the members of their family, Raymond Rowley. Although, they informed the world that Raymond Rowley was a traitor, they still will be harboring a grudge as he was directly responsible for failure of their plans. Balthazar on the other hand was completely on guard and he suddenly felt the urge to not use the identity provided to him by D.i.c.k. There are only three ways to know think that his relationship with Raymond family might be different to that of Glen''s opinion or even suspect it to be so. One was to have been in contact with his cousin, Jack Blyth, but knowing D.i.c.k''s personality and life he strongly doubted it. The other way was to have been in contact with Muramasa or having some sort of way to spy into their meeting in the somnium technology. The last was to be able to spy into his activity in his Shadowcard account which he suspected to be the most probable. D.i.c.k was also quick in uptake and managed to notice the change in expression and his wary behavior. He immediately realized that his concern and doubts have put Balthazar in caution against him. He needed to quickly assuage those concerns if he wanted some trust between them. Luckily, Bruce had already suspected this might happen and suggested something to him. Bruce actually asked D.i.c.k to inform him about the ten Shadowcard commanders and Bruce''s identity as he was vouching for him. He intended to let Balthazar know about the manner in which his shadowcard identity was created. "Bruce wanted to know about it," explained D.i.c.k with his hands raised indicating Balthazar to not be hasty. "I would request your bodyguard to leave the place before I explain," he continued as he looked at Glen. After a cursory glance at Balthazar who also wanted to listen to D.i.c.k and indicated Glen to leave, Glen went out of the room and stayed guard outside. "There was a request to kill someone in that family and someone known to Bruce attempted it. It was considered too hard to do and the minimum bounty acceptable for the assignment was increased to twenty times the original. At that time, Bruce was also informed of your request as he was one of the ten commanders of the Shadowcard and was the one who vetted your account," explained D.i.c.k. "Bruce is a commander of the ShadowCard?" asked Balthazar in surprise. He had known about the hierarchy of the organization, but the commanders were always a mysterious existence unknown to him in his past life. He only learned of them as a Rhodium agent called Rohan ghatke he once tagged along with took an interest to him and wanted him to join his crew. He was the one who informed Balthazar about the hierarchy of ShadowCard and offered to recommend him to a commander, but later they parted ways. "Yes, but I suspect that you are already acquainted with another commander as you knew the loophole," said D.i.c.k. "No. I was actually informed by a Rhodium level agent. Bruce is the first commander of the ShadowCard that I know," said Balthazar. "Even if you didn''t and were told of the loophole by a Rhodium agent, the agent wouldn''t inform you without consent of a commander. It means that one of them already has their eyes on you but didn''t personally recruit you. Else, you wouldn''t have needed by help to set you up with an account. Usually commanders only consider agents who have reached at the very least Rhodium level. So, Bruce was interested and wanted you to stay within our group known to one another." "Aren''t you concerned about the other commander who might have taken an in interest in me?" asked Balthazar. He wanted to know how useful he is being assumed to be by Bruce. That would give him a better idea of the relationship between them. "You don''t need to worry about that. You are already well acquainted with us and Bruce is a good friend of your family. So, I doubt anyone would compete with him. Moreover, you always have the choice. You can choose an affiliation with one of the commanders once you reach Rhodium level. At that time, you will be contacted by them through your account," said D.i.c.k. Though he told the truth about the Rhodium agent, he carefully managed to avert Balthazar''s suspicions that Balthazar had about him monitoring his account. The reputation of the ShadowCard along with his explanation were enough to keep Balthazar from doubting him unless Balthazar was someone who was overly suspicious about others without reason. "So, how come I am being notified about Bruce being a commander. Is he really fine with it?" "You are my recommendation to Bruce. I am Rhodium agent and consider it a friendly gift. Moreover, he wouldn''t have accepted if he didn''t think you capable of reaching Rhodium level," explained D.i.c.k. "Of course, it isn''t official, and you are forbidden to speak of it if you want to continue to remain a member of ShadowCard. We aren''t going to hunt you if reveal this information due to your family and contacts, but you would definitely lose some privileges." "Don''t worry I have no intention of revealing it," said Balthazar. "But there is one thing I didn''t expect. You are a Rhodium level agent?" "Of course, I am. I specialize in infiltration and hacking. You are looking down on me, dude," said D.i.c.k. "I didn''t mean it like that," said Balthazar hoping that D.i.c.k didn''t take it as an insult. "I get it. It is my behavior. Wouldn''t be good at infiltration if I didn''t have an amicable personality," said D.i.c.k. "It is part of my charm. Either way, you shouldn''t make assumptions. For Rhodium level, there would be specializations. Based on those specialization, the interested commanders contact the agents. As you probably have seen in your account, you are considered a silver level agent." "That is good enough," said Balthazar agreeing with D.i.c.k''s assessment. He didn''t need a higher level and he considered it enough to get some others to join him temporarily to hunt the pirates. He didn''t need higher level agents as he put his age to be on the younger side and anyone at that age who is a gold agent would have some fame in those circles. If there was a golden agent who suddenly popped out, the others who joined him would probably try to test his skills and such attempts he was determined to avoid. "But not to handle either the Rowley''s forces or the escaped pirates. Both require a higher combat capability. So, I suggest you to not take any risk and have capable people from your friends or family accompanying you," advised D.i.c.k. "Do I give of the vibe that I am foolish or incompetent," laughed Balthazar taking D.i.c.k''s words lightly. "I will take sufficient precautions." "It is not about your vibe. People like me don''t rely much on it. It is your history or lack of history. No one knows anything about you or your physical capabilities. Still you did something which suggests you could be a capable leader. So, the advice," explained D.i.c.k. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY ¡ª New chapter is coming soon ¡ªWrite a review Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Weekly Power Status See Who Voted -- Power Ranking -- Power Stone Vote Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 211 - Surrounded "So, are you going to tell me?" asked D.i.c.k. "What?" "Your relationship with Rowley. Why do you want him alive?" asked D.i.c.k. "What do you think he knows?" "I don''t expect him to know much, but he could have some information from the fact that there is more than one bounty for killing him. There hadn''t been an announcement from his family that he has been emancipated, but somehow three bounties appeared on the day he was kicked out. Someone wants him silenced and he says that he could provide me with some answers," said Balthazar. "That could all be a trick to get you close to him," said D.i.c.k. "You did play a part in the events that led to his brother''s death." "I have considered it, but it is unlikely. He wouldn''t put three bounties on himself for the sake of avenging his brother. He has his own family and my investigation reveals that he cares for them dearly. Those bounties could get him killed as he could never control the ones that take it," said Balthazar. "If he was the emotional kind, he wouldn''t have left his wife and children to attack me. If he considers it necessary for me to die for the Rowley family''s repute, business and sustenance, he wouldn''t try to kill me either as that would have worse repercussions on the Rowleys." "So, I am thinking that there are only two possibilities for all this. One he is being hunted and I am his only choice for sanctuary as he has information that could help him. Two he is being blackmailed to put me in danger, but I have already checked that his wife and children are safe in the Rowley family and their patriarch himself is taking responsibility for their safety," said Balthazar. "You have them under surveillance?" asked D.i.c.k. "No, I had some one hired through ShadowCard to provide me information and this was what I obtained from the bounty. They had nothing about his present locale, but there were a few who investigated his family to know about him and told me that it was a dead end and I needed to increase the bounty. I paid them a bit and put in a condition that his family is out of limits. Can''t have him at odds with me and that would be hard if someone got to him through his family due to my bounty," said Balthazar. "Those idiots will probably try to capture and bring him to me, and he wouldn''t be really willing to help if he knew that I went behind his back." "Then you should remove the request of wanting him alive and just request for getting information on him," said D.i.c.k. "Of course, I changed it." "See you soon, hopefully with some useful information," said D.i.c.k leaving the room. Glen was right outside the room and he went in as soon as D.i.c.k left. "What did he want?" asked Glen. As Balthazar''s bodyguard and observer during this time, he needed to know if there was any chance of danger to him from D.i.c.k. Though he was considered a family friend through his relationship with Bruce and Evelyn, he didn''t trust D.i.c.k completely and if there was anything fishy going on, he was sure that Balthazar would give him a hint in some way. "It is nothing. I have recently joined ShadowCard," said Balthazar as he took a bottle of whiskey from the mini fridge in the room and poured it in a pair of glasses. "Good way to be anonymous, but I hope you didn''t use D.i.c.k''s help to set up your account. That is same use joining Bruce Kane''s side among the commanders and he could monitor your activity to a certain level," said Glen. "What?" "You know that Bruce is one of the commander''s, right?" "Yes, I just came to know about it today. How do you know?" asked Balthazar. "I am a member of the table. Well almost," said Glen. "There are some things you learn when you are being trained by them. ShadowCard is an organization used quite frequently by the major powers and all their security personnel would have a certain amount of understanding towards them. There used to be to commanders from our family about four decades ago in ShadowCard and there is one commander now," said Glen. "Usually all members of the ShadowCard from the family are taken in by him, but Bruce can be still considered the same. His post was given to him by a Blyth when he resigned as the commander. So, there are quite a good amount of interaction between them," he explained. "Who is the one from our family, Walter?" "No. I am not allowed to tell you about his identity, but it is not Walter. I will let you know only that much," said Glen. "Anyways, if a commander recruits you or vets your account, there seems to be a way for them to monitor your activity. It is to prevent any action from accidentally being taken against them by their own men." "Do I need to be concerned about it?" asked Balthazar. "No, he is quite close to the family in ways you don''t know. No doubt of his loyalty," said Glen smiling as if he had heard a joke. "Just considering it a foolish decision to use him as you probably wanted to use it to avoid being monitored by the family, but it is more or less the same." Balthazar slapped his head as he realized the folly of his actions the past few days. Probably everything he did was forward to Winston or Arthur. He hardly knew Bruce and was only introduced by Albert as someone who worked closely with Walter. He began to wonder if this was the thing that Winston wanted to talk to him about when he remembered that Winston asked Bolena to bring him to his office. "I make a joke of myself, haven''t I?" asked Balthazar as he sat down on a chair and gulped in the glass of whisky in a single shot. "Depends. If you did this to avoid Winston worrying for you and hide it for that purpose, it is probably fine as Bruce wouldn''t go ahead and inform him about your activities. But Arthur is probably aware of it," said Glen. "You sure?" "I am. Bruce just talks with Winston casually but there are little to no deals or transactions between them and he never considered it important to inform the patriarch but the table would be advised of any actions that would be detrimental to them. Anything necessary he lets the table decide and inform the patriarch," explained Glen. "He also stops his men in the ShadowCard from taking any actions against the table of Ouroboros. You can consider him a guest member of sorts." "Hmm. That''s a relief," said Balthazar calming down. "You are a member of ShadowCard?" "Yes. A gold level agent. Trying to go to Rhodium level, specializing as bodyguard and extraction specialist," said Glen proudly. It could be considered very good for a youth his age. Moreover, the two things he decided to work on were considered some of the hardest things as they were specializations where he needed to not only fight and protect himself but also another target. Such missions were considered to be ones that posed the most danger and had a high chance of failure as one had to check for multiple ways of attack and often fight against multiple groups of attackers. "Oh! So, am I your test for the bodyguard specialization?" asked Balthazar. "Could be. If a danger arises and it is actually tough enough to be considered so. I will be recording the events in my suit once we leave the planet. I didn''t do it presently as Asklepian is comparatively a safe zone for you, especially after Max''s escape. The security had been tightened and I am only the first line of your defence," said Glen. "Wouldn''t it be a problem if I join under Bruce and want to become a member of the table?" asked Balthazar. This question had been troubling him ever since Glen told him about a ShadowCard commander existed in the family. "It is not much of an issue. It could also be that Bruce is considering you an option for his successor," said Glen. Though he sounded serious, the words felt like a joke when Balthazar heard them. "That is ridiculous. There are D.i.c.k and Barbara. They are both already involved in security services for quite some time. They would obviously be a better choice than me," said Balthazar dismissively as he considered it a joke. "Not at all. Their specializations are more oriented towards technical skills and operation from a safe zone. That would make them excellent advisor for a security organization but only as long as the leader protects them. They are not suitable to be leader as they would not be able to hold command over other agents and I don''t see it happening anytime soon," explained Glen. "You might not think much about it, but from their point of view, you are already a competitor. Especially since Bruce is paying attention to your activities. D.i.c.k may appear all friendly and nice, but he is a schemer. You don''t think that he became what he is from nothing just through luck, do you?" mocked Glen feeling that his cousin was still quite naive sometimes. "I will keep it in mind," said Balthazar as he also remembered D.i.c.k telling him that he was a specialist at infiltration and has an amicable personality which makes others let down their guard. He didn''t know if D.i.c.k was actually being nice to him and genuinely wanted to befriend him or was confident enough in his own skills that he openly told Balthazar about it even though he considers Balthazar a competitor. Either way Balthazar decided that he couldn''t let down his guy guard in front of D.i.c.k. At the same time in another planet in a bookstore, Bruce was waiting for someone while he went through a book. It was one of his usual spots that blocked him from vision of enemies and surrounded by strong walls that could only be penetrated by use of strong explosives. His contact who was usually punctual was already 15 minutes late which raised suspicions as a voice suddenly called out to him. "Bruce Kane. Have been wanting to meet you for some time now," said a woman in the local law enforcer uniform. He casually glanced over the book as he checked out the woman. She was dark colored with black hair and a couple of nose rings. Apart from the nose ring, he immediately noticed a few other things about her that didn''t conform to the enforcer standards. He knew that she was probably a mercenary in disguise. He needed to know why she was here and how much she knew about him. It was always important to know about his enemy''s knowledge to have an upper hand. "I am sorry. I am the only one in the room. The person you want isn''t here," he replied casually looking over the book he was perusing as he put out an identity card that revealed him to be a Henry Wyatt. It was common and an expected response for an innocent and respected member of the society towards any enforcer. "You are as much Henry Wyatt as I am a cop," said the woman nonchalantly. "I suggest you come with us quietly. You are being surrounded as we speak. Don''t put up any futile resistance which might forces us to take any unsavory measures. We have no qualms in killing any of the people here. I hear you prefer to avoid unnecessary casualties," she said in a confident tone that indicated that she couldn''t be fooled by any story which Bruce might come up with. She was completely committed to her mission. Chapter 212 - A Trap "So, am I supposed to believe that this is going to be a forceful and violent extraction if I fail to comply? Aren''t afraid of the enforcers intervening?" asked Bruce. "You''re kidding," sniggered the woman. " Since, when are the local enforcers a cause of concern for people like us. I could walk around their station and they wouldn''t realise that I am not one of them. A small forgery is enough for me to get them to help me. Moreover, my men have already bought them, and they were willing to avoid this area for some time." "Oh! So, you have already made all the necessary preparations to capture and interrogate me. Impressive! Do you or your employer really think that it is sensible to cross me. I have friends in high places," said Bruce. Such words were routine stalling techniques and the woman realised it, but she didn''t care. She had already been waiting there for over an hour and has cross checked the surroundings before reaching out to Bruce. "Our employer invites you and would prefer to co-operate with you. She wants to inform you that it would be to your mutual advantage if you work with her." Bruce lifted a hand calmly indicating her to stop. "It is highly disrespectful to infiltrate a person''s book store to propose any venture, especially when the person is happy, safe and is trying to enjoy a moment of peace and solitude," said Bruce as his eyes moved along the lines written in the book. He had a calm sura of a person who isn''t the slightest bit concerned about the woman dressed as an enforcer. "I apologise for the intrusion," started the woman, but she was signalled to stop by Bruce again. "Secondly, I don''t have a habit of blindly following anybody who I met the first time at least without any reason to trust the person." He put the book down on a small stool on his right and stared at her. Even though she was about 5 feet away from him and the sensors built into the forged enforcer uniform didn''t indicate any camouflage being used to hide any weapons nearby, she felt like she being looked at by a predator who was toying with his food. His lips turned into a smile, but his intense stare made her feel vulnerable. "Lastly, the circ.u.mstances make me doubt your words. My man is quite late which is quite disturbing as the only variable in my expectations of the day is you. So, either you have something against me, or your employer uses incompetent people, and someone trailed you and your presence has disrupted my appointment," said Bruce leaning forward. She quickly put her hand on her weapon pulling it off her holster as she started to get suspicious by Bruce''s behaviour. "Calm down, I have no intention to fight you," said Bruce. "I thought you wanted me to co-operate and follow you." "You are willing to co-operate?" asked the woman surprised by his words. She was informed by her employer that physical coercion would be required for this job and she had her team on standby waiting for her orders around the store. She was only trying to have Bruce focus on her while the others move to their respective places to cut off any possible escape routes. "I did want to follow you, but I just realised where I have seen you. Actually, it wasn''t me but my daughter who recognised you," said Bruce as the woman checked her sensors again for recording devices but failed to find any. "Moreover, you team are already being detained as we speak," continued Bruce. "Stop bluffing," said the woman but traces of panic creeped over her as she couldn''t hear her team on her earpiece. "Come in, Gottlieb," she called but there was no reply. She tilted her head as she looked for any traces of her team appearing, but she found nothing that could provide any relief or help to her. "Anyway, this is not for you but the person listening our every word. This isn''t your trap but mine and it was very bold of you to use your father''s old death soldier in the team sent to nab me, Miss Parvati Banerjee," sneered Bruce. A felling of shock followed by a sense of dread filled the woman''s heart when she heard Bruce. As she was contemplating her actions, a voice which did not belong to any of her team, but her employer came through her earpiece. "Kill him, blow yourself up if necessary, else you know what would be done to your family," came the shrill tensed voice of her employer. The woman realised that she was in a very bad position and it was highly likely that she might not come out safe from this encounter. Her younger brother, his wife and child were the only one who would inherit from her and she never had a family of her own. She knew that her employer was someone who followed through her words and that her family would be lucky if she simply killed them. Her employer was known to be a deranged psychopath who would probably torture her family and make them beg for death if she failed. She had kept her work a secret from them all these years as she loved them dearly wanting her brother to live a happy life of a regular citizen. She had always been prepared to die, but she was used to fighting for her life and it had become instinctive behaviour. Though she thought that she couldn''t fight against Bruce and win, and it was in best interest of her family to explode herself as her employer told, she instinctively pulled out her gun and fired. It was her natural reaction and reflexes which kicked. She thought of her death multiple times. Though prepared to die, she always believed in going down fighting. To her surprise, she found the shot reflecting a foot away from Bruce like there was a screen a foot in front of Bruce while he continued to smile at her. This was beyond what she could imagine. She had previously checked using the sensory technology in her uniform but failed to find the screen, she found the screen now. Another usage of those sensors revealed that this screen slid out from the walls to her side. She quickly realised that Bruce must have activated this mechanism to make a transparent screen slid between them, when she was looked away from Bruce for signs of her team. She understood in that moment that Bruce even managed to guess and control her behaviour with his words and timed his actions perfectly. Realising that only worsened her state of mind. She started to fire at the screen in fear and hoped to put a hole through the barrier and shoot him. She had the latest technology of high piercing rounds which she believed would break through the screen. As she thought, she found the screen scarring. So, she came close and after a few rounds close by one another, a hole soon formed through which she inserted the barrel of her gun and fired at Bruce''s head. It was then that she realised that it wasn''t a transparent screen but an image of Bruce sitting on the chair. At the same time, she found herself being greeted by a sting on her neck and high current passing through her body. She jerked and fell down on her knees which failed to hold her up. She was very afraid. Not of her situation but for her family as she knew that they wouldn''t survive the wrath of her employer. Her vision got cloudy, her body numb as she fell down and lost conscious. It was a nightmare. She had been having nightmares and bad dreams from the first time she killed someone when she was twenty and it only got worse with time. They usually involved herself being tortured or dying in gruesome ways. Some of the soon turned from mere dreams to recollections of past events. The worst were the ones where she had to watch her peers tortured. Those memories formed her worst nightmares. But this one was special even amongst them. It was the first time she saw her younger brother tortured and one who inflicted pain upon him was her employer. She had seen her employer in action before and even aided her employer''s sadistic entertainment occasionally but finding her own brother as the person being toyed made it the worst. She struggled and yelled as she woke up. As her eyes opened, she saw a person looking at her curiously. Her vision was cloudy, and she thought that it was her brother immediately tearing up happy to see him, but soon her vision cleared finding the person to be Bruce Kane. "You!" she exclaimed. "You''re not Toby," she continued dispiritedly as she realised that her brother might have already been captured by her employer. "My brother," she sobbed uncaring for her current situation. She was laid down on at table, her limbs and head held in place by straps. Bruce let her cry and decided to let her a few minutes of respite for her to come to her senses. He saw her yelling in sleep and wanted her to get into her proper senses before questioning her. He had already injected a picovolts into her that would prevent her motor functions other than her head. The straps were considered a decoration by most who used such picobots and didn''t use them, but Bruce was not one of them. He understood that the tech he used is not fool proof and had her held down with use of them. Moreover, in some situations, he preferred if person being interrogated didn''t have their motor functions arrested. It gave them a sense of hope which he could use to his advantage. "I am done with mine. They yielded no information at all. I doubt they knew anything of value," came the voice of Barbara. She came close to Bruce and kissed him on his cheek as she inspected him. "That was risky on your part to go as a bait. Was it necessary?" she asked. "It was not much of a risk. I did worse," said Bruce calmly. Though he knew that his words didn''t provide much of an explanation, he hoped that his calm demeanour would pacify Barbara''s concerns and she would concentrate on the mission on hand. "I know, but you are not the same man you once were," she said. "As you have once told me, none can escape the ravages of time. Even the gods will have to bow down to it in failure." "Well, it isn''t my time anytime soon," said Bruce as he turned towards the woman who was tied down and had ceased her sobbing. She had realised that it was a nightmare and her first priority is to find a way to save her brother and family. She didn''t care much about the matters of her employer anymore. It was clear that her employer''s enemies were already aware of them. She believed that her employer would have more pressing concerns than her family. Her employer would only injure them to set an example to others in her death squad, but it would depend on the situation. She failed miserably and was caught by the enemy. So, she was sure that there was no chance of redemption from her employer. Her only chance was to talk to Bruce and try to escape and help her family before anything befalls them. "Hi, I am not Toby," said Bruce. He looked at a small tablet placed beside the table onto which the woman was strapped. "But I believe I can help you if you are concerned about Toby." "I don''t know any Toby," she denied flatly. One of the privileges of being a death squad was that her identity was closely guarded. Her employer deployed her on extremely critical missions, and she couldn''t have her enemies using them to get to her. "Your brother?" said Bruce. "You were yelling in sleep," he said sure of the fact that it wasn''t just a nightmare. His confidence surprised her. "You might be thinking that they would probably be safe for now as Parvati, your employer would be busy dealing with me, but you should understand that a single person is enough to kill your family." Though Bruce hadn''t the slightest idea about her nightmare or about Toby or her brother or if they were the same, he decided to talk about it like he was alive. He was unable to find any details about her and she was a member of death squad. So, he was sure that Parvati hid her details and would know about her loved ones. If she had any person that she valued and her employer knew of the person, he was sure that she would take the olive branch extended by him, else it would only waste a bit of his time. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 213 - Inquest Bruce''s words triggered her worst fears. She had worked for Parvati for quite some time to know that Parvati was a bit of a control freak. Parvati was called as a crazy, vengeful person by almost all who worked for her and the feared her for the same reason. Parvati would kill a bunch to set an example to the others. She had killed a few for similar reasons when ordered by Parvati and those orders usually involve making the process painful and torturous to the victim. She never took these things to heart or pitied the victims. She knew that these victims had enjoyed the riches and blood money earned by their loved ones. So, she always believed that they had to be aware of it at some level. She just considered it as a clearing of weeds required for the others to survive. Unexpectedly, she found herself on the receiving of it today and she felt her beliefs changing. She wondered if her brother and family really were unaware of her activities. She felt that they must have at least had a few doubts about it. She definitely wouldn''t have completely believed that her brother believed her reasons and excuses for some of her behaviour, but she did knew that he accepted that she kept secrets from him and let her have those secrets as he loved her. It was then, she understood that the ones she killed might have been in similar situations. "You were one of Parvati''s death squad. So, I need to suggest you the things she intends to do to your loved ones," said Bruce interrupting her thoughts. "The more trouble she faces from me, the less she would be concerned about your loved ones. So, I will give you a one-time offer. Tell me something that would trouble her, and I give you my word that I will let you and your team free. Depending on your information, I might even help you save the ones you care about." "Like I would trust your word. You do remember telling me that you had no intention to fight me, right?" replied the woman. "I do, and there was no fight. You might have been confused by your rapid discharge of your sidearm, but there was never a fight. You fell into my trap and I took you down. The same happened with your team. You are a death squad. Do you honestly think that there would be no casualties if there was a fight?" asked Bruce. "No," he continued as his voice became louder and angrier. "There were not even the slightest injuries to any personnel involved in the incident. You, your team and even Parvati are not qualified to fight me. Even her father wouldn''t have such stupid thought. And for the same reason, I know he isn''t involved in this. So, I suggest that you talk. The faster you talk, the better it is for you. I recommend that you start with your name." "C.o.c.ky old man," she thought hearing Bruce''s dialogue about them not being qualified to fight him. "But it is best if I co-operate with him for now. Ever since, Parvati gave the command to kill him by blowing myself up, all relationsh.i.p.s between me and her are torn. I would go down and probably my family even if I stay loyal to her." "Name is Janet. Janet Goldspot," said the woman finally revealing her information. "Goldspot? Huh!" said Bruce. "Haven''t heard that name for a long time. You know there used to be a candy by that name. Of course, one wouldn''t have seen one for a few centuries." "You all right?" asked Janet surprised by Bruce''s blabber wondering whether it was a sensible thing to join him. "Yes. Just felt that I heard the name some place before. So, I guess your dad was one of the managers of the Banerjee''s stores. Toby is your brother," said Bruce looking at a screen on which he looked for associates of the Banerjee''s with that name. "That was fast," said Janet. "We could estimate your age. Expecting your time of death on official records with a certain range and we know that you would have been involved with Banerjee''s at some level to have this position at your age," said Barbara. "It wasn''t hard to search after knowing your name. Would have been easier if you didn''t have such extensive facial reconstruction. Probably done after the accident in which you and your father were proclaimed dead." "Ok. Now, what do you want to know?" asked Janet. Now, she was the one in a hurry. It was important for her that she get out and save her brother as soon as possible. "What is her plan? Who are all involved?" asked Bruce. "Don''t know. She hardly tells anyone." "Is her father involved?" asked Barbara. "Probably, she does have someone who advises her, and she even takes commands from him, but no one know who it is," said Janet. "He keeps himself hidden and all she hears in our presence is a voice. Could be her father." "I told you that you trust him too much. He must be involved. She couldn''t have done this without his help," said Barbara. "If he betrayed me, it wouldn''t have been such a roundabout means of attack. He would have done better, even if he did it alone without involving any of his family," said Bruce waving his hand before his daughter continued about her suspicions of Bharat Banerjee. "Anything else?" asked Bruce. "It is best that you be as forthcoming as you can. The more she gets distracted by me, the better your chances." "I have something else, but I am willing to only do it if you help me secure my family," said Janet. "Anything else?" "You accept that?" asked Janet surprised that the man immediate agreed to help the person who had discharged a weapon in an attempt to kill him a few moments ago. "Yes, but they will be under my custody. You will help me, and I am even willing to let you work for me after this is done," said Bruce. Janet found it extremely hard to believe his words, but it was her best option to save her family for now by co-operating with him. She hardly had other options and if she refused it, she didn''t know what else she could do. "I don''t need you to trust me, but you are injected with a proprietary pico bot tech which can disable your motor functions as you are currently experiencing. With it, I can make sure that you don''t do anything stupid and one of my men will have control of it when you go to save them," said Bruce. "Frankly speaking, I am sure that Parvati and her backer would be under duress by the end of the day. I don''t even need any of your help, but I would like to preserve as much of my forces as I can. So, I am asking for information from you." "What gives such confidence? I looked into your details, but nothing apart from a regular soldier who got out of the armed forces and provides security services to industrialists," asked Janet. "That is what you were meant to know when you search about me. Only a select few know more than that and you don''t get to know more. Maybe later, but not now. Now I own you," said Bruce as he changed settings of the pico bots he injected her with to enable her motor functions. "You destroyed my property and tried to kill me. I need to get even. So, you get your family and you work for me till that debt is paid. We can discuss those details later, but you can go ahead and tell me whatever you think would help." "Don''t inquests usually involve more violent means?" asked Janet. "Sure, that is true but only in cases where the inquest is being done by your enemies. Right now, we are being collaborators and you know your enemy is someone else. I know your first priority is to escape. You value your life. To tell the truth, I don''t understand how someone like you is in a death squad. You aren''t suitable for it," said Bruce. "You are good, but don''t act like you know me," said Janet. "I don''t know you, but I know enough about you for you to do as I want," said Bruce. "Now, stop wasting my time." "Fine, I know a name, but he is supposed to be dead. He is someone so important that Parvati killed one of my team for overhearing it. Bhagvat," said Janet. Bruce eyes grew large almost popping out when he heard it. "He kept quite a few secrets, didn''t he?" he mumbled to himself. "Barbara arrange for extraction of her family. I need to call for a meeting," said Bruce leaving a confused Barbara with Janet. "I guess it was useful to him," mumbled Barbara as she set to work. "Though it is enough for him. I have more plans for you." "Aren''t you supposed to listen to him?" asked Janet. "He wouldn''t mind. I just need to know more, but not about Parvati and her secrets. Let him be involved with the secrets. I want to know about the things you are expected to know. How you got your resources and any other people involved in the attempted murder of my father," said Barbara. "Also, any forces she had previously deployed personally and not involved with the Banerjee''s telecommunication services business, the organization structure of her forces." "Oh! Sure. At least you are making more sense than your father. It was like he hardly cared about the organization," remarked Janet. "You sure that he hasn''t gone senile. He is known to veteran of the war a few decades ago. People involved in the wars before the alliance got control tend to be a bit off." Janet expected that Barbara would at least consider her words, but the only response her words garnered from Barbara was a stare that made her extremely uncomfortable. "Talk such things about my father again, I will break your jaw," replied Barbara. "He has concerns about things we are not aware of. Stick to answering the questions you are asked. Don''t mistake your situation just because he was a bit friendly. You are still a captive and you will be even during the mission. Any of the men her you talk smack about my father, they would beat you up. Don''t cause unnecessary trouble by talking crap." Barbara led her to another room where she and a bunch of other men were gearing up for a fight. Janet was asked a few questions and she replied as much as she knew while they got ready. After that Barbara left Janet with a crew after giving them instruction on how to handle her. On the way back, she contacted her father through her wrist device. "What happened? What are you doing?" she asked as Bruce''s face appeared on the screen. "ShadowCard. There is a chance it has been infiltrated. Prepare for a silent war. Get to a safe place. Quit all communications with D.i.c.k. He is with Balthazar going after the ones responsible for the attack of that moon. The two might be involved," said Bruce. "You are kidding?" asked Barbara. "Don''t we need to inform D.i.c.k and get him to safety, if the Shadow Card is infiltrated?" "No. It is just a doubt. Taking precautions. If it is really so, we don''t want to let them know we are onto them." "But that is true only if Parvati doesn''t know that the girl didn''t know that name, Bhagvat. If she is aware, they might have already taken action against D.i.c.k," said Barbara concerned for her husband. "He can handle himself and more than that. Stop worrying about him. I have given him instructions already and he is with the Blyths, armed and on a covert assignment. No information on the Shadow Card accounts or anything. Only case we need to worry is if someone is still working for them within the Blyth family. He is already on lookout for that," said Bruce. "Now, get to a safe place and don''t get out unless I or D.i.c.k contact you." COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 214 - Conference "Ah! This is a lot of trouble. How did it come to such a state?" thought Bruce as he cut the call. He was waiting for a conference call with the other commanders of ShadowCard when he received the call from Barbara. The Banerjee family had access to a very important force in the ShadowCard. Bharat Banerjee who was the current patriarch of the family was an old friend and one of the ten commanders of the ShadowCard. It was a very frightening thing if he had betrayed them, but luckily it looked like it was just his daughter. He planned to have a conference between the commanders to find out if Bharat was actually involved or not. For an emergency conference between the ten commanders at least a pair of them, need to make the summons. He had just convinced Evelyn before Barbara called him. There was a high chance that the Banerjee''s weren''t the only one against him. There might be others among the ten who co-operated. They could be looking at a full-scale war in the Shadows which fl.u.s.tered him. But as he thought of the incident, he became less worried as any of the ten commanders wouldn''t be so inefficient in their planning. So, he began to think that only Bharat Banerjee to be the one who was compromised and probably in captivity or dead. He was in a dimly lit room seated beside a round table. There were nine other seats beside him meant for the projections of the other commanders. As Bruce was thinking about his next plan of action, a silhouette was projected a seat away from him. It was Evelyn. Though the projections only consisted of her outline, he could immediately recognise her. "I would suggest we go with the second plan. Huang also is in the loop. You will receive an invite from him with informing that he found his successor. So, all the commanders would only be a silhouette projection. It is best as we don''t want to provide any information they might not have," informed Evelyn before disappearing. The successor of a commander in the ShadowCard needs to be approved by a majority of the existing commanders. A commander alone couldn''t choose his successor. The successor would usually be tested by the others once a commander found a suitable candidate. So, a successor couldn''t find know about the other commanders, but they could check him out in the meet. So, the commanders would only appear as a silhouette in those meetings. This could be used to keep their identities safe from subordinates of other commanders. This would also work in keeping identities of the commanders safe in this situation. The commanders used this feature quite commonly in situations when they were unpresentable or sickly and didn''t want others to know. All Bruce needed to do put in some doubts in the minds of the other commanders and he could find about the situation. A minute later, Bruce received a mail from a secure source as Evelyn had suggested. On opening it, the projections appeared one after the other around the table. Each projection was marked with a number on the table just in front of the projections. The numbers were from 1 to 10. "Dude, you are the youngest amongst us. How come you already found a successor while the rest of us are still struggling for a suitable one. You better have a good one," said commander number 2 pointing towards commander 9. Bruce was number 7 and Evelyn, number 4. "Don''t fret. I am not kidding around," said commander number 9, who was Huang Xiao Tian who was member of the military and was the one whom Evelyn convinced to call for a meeting. "There are two commanders who have allowed substitutes," continued Huang as he pointed at numbers 6 and 8. The commanders sometimes allowed for substitutes to participate if they trusted them. Such instances could happen when they were busy or in cases when they wanted to test the capabilities of the substitutes they used. The commander would have to take responsibility for their substitutes and the substitutes represented them. So, decisions made during the meetings would have to be followed through. Hence, no commander would let a substitute go to a meeting in place of them lightly. "This is not one for the descendants to attend. Call your commanders. Right now!" yelled number 2. Number 6 was a giant who would have been at least 8 feet tall if he stood up and number 8 was a woman. Number 8 was Parvati "Is he serious. He hasn''t even been a commander that long. He already is putting forward a successor?" came a voice as the figure at number 6 flickered and a silhouette about the same height but fatter replaced the previous one. "He must be," said Number 2. "He was the one who pointed you and her out." "Eight allowed his daughter in his place. She is too young. Even seven didn''t do such a thing and his daughter had been a much active participant," said Number 3. "Seven, you are getting old. Why don''t you let your daughter."? "Not yet," said Bruce causing him to stop. His focus was currently on Parvati''s silhouette as it didn''t change yet, and neither was there any response from her. A few of the others also found it odd. Usually a substitute would be ordered to quickly inform their commander in situations where the other commanders asked to do so. They usually respond to the other commanders and call for their own. Parvati''s behaviour didn''t conform to the usual one of a substitute. The other commanders were getting a bit irritated as a commander would usually have to be close to their substitute if they were allowing their substitute to train or at least inform the other that they were busy. Before the other commanders were about to take action, her figure was replaced by that of a man. "Sorry, for the delay, gentlemen. I was otherwise occupied, and that affair took more time than I expected," replied the figure. "That was very tardy for you, number eight," said number two. "What is up, number eight? Family trouble?" joked number five. "None of your business," replied number eight in an angry tone surprising the rest after which an awkward silence followed. Bharat was a very cool and punctual person who hardly spoke to others in such a manner. Especially Number 5 who was probably the closest to him among all the commanders. Usually he would have come up with a witty reply or friendly quarrel might have occurred between them, but not this. "As the organizer of today''s meet, I would like to conduct a non-formal greeting before we start," said number 9. "Any objections?" he asked looking at all the other commanders. This request but all the commanders in a state of alert. Whenever they called for a meeting, there would be a few common checks made by the systems they are using to verify that it is the right person behaving as commander and that it is no impersonator. This was common for many security systems. Apart from that, if anyone is suspicious of the other, they can invoke a non-formal greeting. This was a protocol that would only be invoked in case a commander is suspicious of another''s condition. It is usually used, if one of them suspects a commander to be injured or hurt or if they suspect another person is passively participating in the meeting, but hiding his condition and they believe that such a situation might impact the effectiveness of their agenda. They would first have to go through a small face to face meeting with another commander in pairs randomly. Every commander would be allowed to check the condition of the other through video. Once, that is done, the protocol would force the system to display their original video being captured by the system instead of silhouette projections. "Sure, it is your call," said Number 6. "You called for the meeting." "I agree," said both Bruce and Evelyn. "I am going ahead with it," said number 9. A second later, they were all paired with one another and their videos shown to the others. It was simple for the rest of them except number three who was paired with number 8. Bhagvat was calmly seated in a room as he replaced Parvati as Number 8. Looking at the projections, he realised that these were all security measures among the ShadowCard. He was happy as the same allowed him to keep his own identity hidden. Parvati had informed him that one of the commanders were introducing his heir. This was good news to him. He understood a bit about ShadowCard commanders. They considered their identity very important. So, he believed that under no circ.u.mstance, any of the commanders would ask him to project actual video. He had made a few inquiries from Bharat about the protocols used by the commanders. Though, he had initially refused to comply, Bharat answered Bhagvat''s questions under pain of torture. When Bhagvat learned from Parvati that her identity was compromised, he paid Bharat another visit, to ask about any methods that Bruce might employ to fight against him. That was the reason, he had Parvati attend the meeting at first. Only when multiple commanders commented that one of them was introducing a possible heir, he came into view as he thought that he wouldn''t need to participate much. He only hoped to say something in a perfunctory manner and make others believe as he had done before. While he was under such a belief, the sudden request to some greeting occurred and before he could respond, they invoked it and he was able to see another commander''s actual video feed while all other communications from the room were disabled by the system. Luckily. the other commander could distinguish him from his brother Bharat. Being brothers, it was a simple task for him to modify his features to be similar to Bharat and the other commander couldn''t realize the difference. He greeted him casually while joking about number 9 being a bit too strict and overexcited about this as he was young. Bhagvat realized that he could get to know about all the commanders if he played this right. He had tried to get information from his brother, Bharat for a long time and only managed to get a very little amount. The only commander he learned of was Bruce and he felt that this was a good chance to have a look at all of the others. The commander in front of him was the first one apart from Bruce whose actual face, he got to see. As he was happy and responded in a similar manner that the young would find be so and that he would also soon change, an unexpected thing happened. The video suddenly got cut and he was informed by the system that he was currently kicked out of the conference. The next second another message came up telling him that he is being suspected of being against the organization and that it is best he stays in place so that they could send someone to confirm his situation. "Damn it!" shouted Bhagvat as he kicked his chair back in anger. It was clear to him that others also doubted him, and the entire conversation was to confirm his identity. "Get my brother out of his cell. We need to make plans to move," he said to Parvati as he got out of the conference room. "Was it, Bruce?" asked Parvati. "How sure are they? They aren''t ones to blindly believe him and he couldn''t have informed all others. You did say that he would be suspicious of the others." "I don''t know," yelled Bhagvat in anger. He had been working for a long time to infiltrate and replace his brother. He worked for Bharat for a long time in secret. He even lost his identity and the alliance considered him dead and would arrest him for impersonating a dead man if he was caught by the law enforcers. "There was some protocol which he didn''t inform me of. We need to be ready to move. Send someone to get him out. We are not done with my brother, yet. If I fail to be a commander, I will me make sure he isn''t." "Yes, father," said Parvati as she called someone instructing them to get Bharat out of jail. COMMENT 1 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download 1 Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 215 - Raid As Bhagvat was telling Parvati to prepare for the actions going to be taken by ShadowCard, the commanders were also in a state of alarm. As soon as the commander talking to Bhagvat realized that he wasn''t original, he triggered a state of alert. By that time, the other commander had already confirmed the other''s identities and they were waiting for the pair of them. Bruce, Evelyn and Xiao Tian were among the first to finish and were waiting for the alert. Within a few seconds, they began to think that the commander who was checking Number 8 (Bhagvat) was also in cahoots with him, when an alert came to all the commanders. "What happened, Number 2" asked Huang as Number 2 was the one who triggered the alert. "Intruder in place of Number 8. He was talking gibberish and didn''t know anything of the protocol. He was supposed to initiate the conversation, but he didn''t even do that," replied Number 2. "Did you expect this?" asked Number 1 looking at Number 9. It was easy for him to understand that this was not a coincidence and Number 9 started the meeting with the intention to pull out the infiltrator. The others also looked at him with the exception of Evelyn and Bruce at that instant. Noticing their behaviour, Number 1 continued. "I guess 4 and 7 were also aware." "Yes, we had reason to suspect. There was an attempt to grab Number 7" said Evelyn pulling the focus of the others from Huang to her and pushing it towards Bruce. "He found out about it beforehand and laid a trap for them, managing to capture their men." "There was indeed an attempt to kidnap me. I know that the person who ordered it was his daughter, but some the things told by the ones whom I caught didn''t make sense. Moreover, they seemed to be involved the recent attack by the apes on the fringe and also with the knights of the old republic. So, I tried this out, asked both 4 and 9 to co-operate," said Bruce. "I didn''t find an heir and I am not in a hurry," spat out Number 9 who had been feeling that he was being looked down at since the start of the meeting. "Well, in that case, good work. Number 3, you better make a move at it. Let the enforcers surround the place. No sh.i.p.s are allowed to leave his office. Set up a video that he had requested the enforcers help secretly and that he was being held in secret against his will," instructed Number 1. "Wouldn''t it be a bit too, public?" asked Number 3. "It is not an issue. We need to make a statement to the ones who dared to infiltrate us. Make it public and make sure that we got a hold of them both. Alliance secret services will take them from the enforcers and then we can deal with them. Not a problem right, Number 4?" he continued. "I agree with it," nodded Evelyn. "Bruce, you get to take point on it with Evelyn. You were the one who identified and pulled them into a trap," continued Number 1. "Glad to," replied Bruce. He had been ready for this ever since he realized that the ones trying to capture him were involved with Shadow Card. "Any other suggestions?" asked Number 1 looking at the rest. "Didn''t he see your face?" Number 6 asked Number 2. This was a very crucial thing as their identity was very strictly protected by the commanders. Most of them were not known to the public and would only be known to certain circles. Number 9 flinched as he heard the question and cursed internally. "Why do you have to ask it fatso? You think the old guy is a fool or he hadn''t realized. Do want me to get scolded publicly?" he thought. "He did see," grunted Number 2. He was also not happy about it and was actually a bit angry at Number 9 for it. He just let it go as he also couldn''t find a better solution to the situation, they were in. Moreover, they only knew that one of them was infiltrated and that some of the information about Shadow Card had been revealed to the infiltrator. He understood that he could have already been known to the infiltrator. "I apologize for the manner in which this was known to the others, but we had no idea about the amount of information known to the infiltrator. Apart from that, I had reason to believe that it might be his brother who is technically dead and hence, would have a good knowledge of his family and has a high chance to know more about his secrets. It was the best we could do in the situation," said Bruce taking responsibility. "Let it be. I understand," said Number 2 waving his hand. "Just let me also be involved in this. Now, that he knows my face, it is not hard to relate it with my identity." "Ok, you will co-ordinate with Number 2," said Number 1. "Inform us all as soon as you get any details. Let us be done with the meeting for now. Number 10, did you find out about the attackers that killed the pirates, yet?" he asked looking at Number 10 who was calm all this time. "In process, they are avoiding the entire alliance and us for now," said Number 10. "Ok. You stick to the task. We will handle the infiltrator. That is a high priority. Let us wrap it up for now," said Number 1. By the time they had ended the meeting, Parvati was already preparing to run away. She had brought out Bharat with a cloth bag over his head and hands shackled to Bhagvat, when she got a call from the receptionist that the enforcers were requesting to meet with her. "Don''t let them in. Tell them that I am not available," said Parvati on the call. "They aren''t listening ma''am. They just pushed through our security and are warning the staff to escape. It seems some terrorists have entered our premises," said the receptionist. "They are forcing through our security. They will take custody of you. It is best if we kill him and you assume his identity," said Parvati looking at Bhagvat. "I need to know a lot more, if I am to successfully take his identity. There will be a few among the ones coming that can verify his identity and I am the priority target," said Bhagvat pointing her to a screen. A video of Bharat was streaming on it. He was requesting help from the enforcers and Bharat was publicly telling the whole world that the person in charge was a lookalike. "This will be hard," said Parvati. "He is still in our custody. I can''t believe that the enforcers would release a false video in the news. Now, the forces under him will be divided." "You are thinking too much. There would be no divide. Even if they believe that I am an impostor. You are with me. Everyone believes that you are Bharat''s daughter, not mine," said Bhagvat. "Either way, once they catch me and free him, you will be imprisoned. I was expecting this, since the moment I realised that they recognized that I am an impostor." "So, what should we do?" asked Parvati. "Leave him with me. You try to get away from the enforcers and any others. Don''t interact with anyone and don''t try to contact me after I am imprisoned," said Bhagvat as he sat down on a chair and handed her a communication device. "If it is safe someone will contact you, else use one of those identities I had you make and try to make a life out for yourself." "No, not again. I lost mom to this nonsense before. I am not willing to," she began to cry as she fell down laying her head on his lap. "Don''t worry, child," said Bhagvat in a reassuring manner as he caressed her hair. "This won''t be like the last time. They still need me, and I did manage to uncover some things which no one else knows about him. They will come for me as they need me. I will take you back. Just stay out of trouble." "No dad. I will come with you," she sobbed again. There were a couple of Parvati''s recruits behind her who were shocked to see her in such a state. They had always known her as a violent, vengeful commander, but it was their first time seeing her soft side. "No, this is final. Remember your training. I didn''t train you in secret all those days for you to go soft now. It was for moments like this. You need to escape," he said lifting her up. "You two. Escort her off the floor. If required, help her out of the building and stay back. Inform our men that they are to work for my brother and under no circ.u.mstance, he is to find out about our members," he warned them as they escorted Parvati off the floor. He pulled the cloth bag off of Bharat''s head and dragged him to a chair. There was a mask on his head made of metal and cloth. Parts of it blocked his ears and mouth, preventing him from talking or hearing. There were marks on his face indicating that he had been beaten recently and his left eye was missing. His eyes were the only things that were unobstructed, and he began to take deep breaths as he saw Bhagvat. It seems that fraternal relationship didn''t stop Bharat from torturing his brother. "You were right, Bharat," said Bhagvat as he released the clamps of the mask and removed it off his brother''s head. "I never lied to you brother. Didn''t tell you a lot, but never lied or led you to believe a wrong thing," said Bharat as he coughed and spat out. "So, if you think I am right, I need you to be a bit more precise about which thing you believe I was telling you the truth about." "After all this time. You still insist with the same. Do you honestly expect me to believe you?" asked Bhagvat. "I was never even in the ShadowCard because of you. I was meant to be the next commander, but you snatched that chance away from me." "As I said before brother, you got it wrong. Only one of us could be in the Shadow Card and you failed that mission. You killed an important operative who had intelligence because one of your men died in the operation. That is what put you behind," said Bharat. "He was my best friend. Was I supposed to just let it be?" "Yes. Then, at the very least, his death wouldn''t have been meaningless," replied Bharat. "You were the same as him. Telling lies to cover up your callous behaviour. I for one, could never be like that. That was the reason you were made the commander," said Bhagvat. "What is going on brother? You vent your feeling quite often, but this the first time you are doing it publicly where you could be seen by someone," said Bharat. Though he was beaten up and under the weather, Bharat was never one lose perspective. He already realized that something happened which put his brother in dire straits. He just was unaware if his brother wanted to execute him or if it was something else. All Bharat received in reply was a punch to his face which told him all he needed to know. If his brother wanted to execute him, he would have shot of his fingers or went for his other eye instead of punching him. A punch like that would at most cause him a slight cut or swelling. He coughed and laughed at the same time as he turned his face back. "Ok, then," said Bharat. "Won''t ask you about it. I will probably understand in a moment or two," he laughed. "Where is Parvati?" "Wouldn''t you like to know?" sneered Bhagvat. He had already been prepared to be arrested. Bharat was only there to divert the focus of the enforcers so that his daughter would get more time to escape. "Well, I am not much worried about her," said Bharat. "She is your blood and you are far too sentimental to harm her." "When did you know?" asked Bhagvat. He had expected that his brother would have guessed about it when Parvati betrayed him, but he wanted to hurt him, make him feel bad with the realization that his wife, Vrita had also betrayed him. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 216 - Jackson Broadback "About a few months before she was born," replied Bharat calmly. "What?" asked Bhagvat surprised. He wanted to rile up his brother, make him angry, infuriate him. He loved Vrita even before her marriage, but let it go. It was only Bharat was declared as the next commander, he had an affair with his brother''s wife. He wanted to see his brother who always had a calm and cool demeanour to jump at him in anger. He had expected the topic to rile up his brother, but Bharat''s reaction was the furthest from anything he had expected. "You think that it was kept secret from me," smiled Bharat. "It was never a secret. I had always known Parvati is not my daughter. Vrita she had the same face when she confessed to me about it and came to know that I had known of it." "No way. No way, you knew. Stop bullshitting me. I almost fell for it but bringing in Vrita. I knew that she would never confess to you. She promised me," said Bhagvat. "She also promised that she would be faithful and loyal to me when she married me," replied Bharat. "You were her plaything or maybe she was yours. I never could understand, but I agree that I never thought Parvati would betray me. That really hurt. Guess that makes you happy?" Bhagvat didn''t have anything to say. He was quiet and just sat down. He couldn''t understand his brother. Any man would be angered by something like this. No one would accept it easily. It felt like he was talking to an alien. "You are confused, right?" continued Bharat. "Vrita was a friend since we were kids and truth be told, she never had much feelings for me, but she married me cause her father told her to. It was an arranged marriage. Neither of us had much feelings for the other till the end." "You shit. Then, why did you marry her?" yelled Bhagvat holding his gun at his brother''s head. "I had other things on my mind than love, brother. It was war all around. I married as I was told to. If you loved her, you could have told me. I had no intention to marry only her. I only came to realize about it later, but by then, it was too late. So, I let the pair of you be," answered Bharat. "So, I guess you were a saint, huh," yelled Bharat. "I am no saint. But it was just a marriage, but I was her friend and she mine. Marriage did change a few things though. We lived together and, in a few years, she came to know a lot of things about me and my work. She began to distance you, then. After her brother died, she was lot to the both of us." "Stop your bull shit. You just stay quiet till they come to arrest me, else I will put a bullet through your head," said Bhagvat. "We both know that you won''t. You won''t fire a damn round, if you want to survive the raid," said Bharat. "In spite of being a sentimental and emotional person, I know you wouldn''t truly put your life at risk. Do you know why I and dad stopped putting you on missions?" asked Bharat. "We realized that you were meant to lead. You treat strategy like a game of chess. It is just a game to you. In real-life, you are not considered a winner if only the king survives. You think that the remaining fighters wouldn''t fight for their lives? We never fought wars in open. Our fights were in the dark and losing more than half the members for a temporary win was never worth it." "I don''t need to hear this shit from you," said Bhagvat hitting Bharat''s head with a gun with the intention to knock him out. He heard the same reason from his father along with a bunch of other things even when he successfully completed missions. Then, later he had an accident, was considered dead legally and was told to not go for any missions any longer and work for his brother. It was clear to him that he was considered a failure by his father. "You honestly think that would even register after my eye?" asked Bharat. "Screw that. Since, we are having a rare moment of honesty. Just tell me one thing. Why did you come back into operations and do all this when I you were give a peaceful way out?" "I never wanted out. I wanted to be the head. I wanted to be you," yelled Bhagvat. "Why?" asked Bharat perplexed. "I am what you would call a cuckhold. Not much of an influence in these calm times. I am just another businessman working my ass off for a family name, just to keep a promise I made to dad when I was young and foolish." "Think about it. Do you want to really be me?" asked Bharat. As he heard his brother''s words, Bhagvat looked at him. "I didn''t mean that. I don''t want to be you. I just wanted to be the head of the family. I don''t want to be the same as you. You are," said Bhagvat. "I don''t know what you are." "That is what it means to be the head of the family, brother. If you won''t always choose the family, you would be replaced. You know the things I had to do for it. You think I liked the fact that you were involved with Vrita?" yelled Bharat. "No!" "It is not a privilege. It is a pain," yelled Bharat. "It is power, you fool," interrupted Bhagvat with a shout. "It is power. In spite of being a commander, you still don''t understand." "Of course, it is power, but with its limits. You think there are no one else. There are nine other commanders as you have realized by now. Now, that is technically speaking a freelance organization. Something, that the alliance government allows because it has its uses. The way you operate, the ones you operate with will bring war," yelled Bharat trying to make his brother understand. "The ones I work with?" asked Bhagvat hitting him in the stomach and lifting him. He threw Bharat against the wall. "What do you know?" "I know what they want. I know that they have a habit of using people like you," said Bharat with his face pressed against the wall. "It is the knights of the old republic, brother. They are using you to fuel a war. They had been supporting you for a long time, but did you know why they pushed you to attack suddenly and threatened that it was your last chance. I bet they even threatened to kill Parvati. It was because we were about to find out about one of them. We had them in a trap and when they entered, we could have caught them. The only way out was to take me out. I was even on guard against you, just didn''t expect you to recruit her. My daughter was my blind spot." "My daughter, not yours," yelled Bhagvat. "NOT YOUR''S." "Yes, a fat lot of good your stupidity is doing to her," replied Bharat. "She had everything before, enough money, family, friends. But in the past two years, you made her into a beast." Bhagvat turned him around and gave him a couple of punches in his gut. "Talk about her again. I swear that you won''t be talking for a while." "Ok. Let us talk about your friends. Where are they?" asked Bharat. "They contacted you since this happened. They have given you a way to contact them?" Taking his brother''s silent breathing for agreement, Bharat continued, "No. They didn''t. They only call you. You don''t know their identity. You are just an investment. Do you even know if they have a plan to extract you or if they even plan to?" Bhagvat had been thinking of these things himself for a long time. Despite his requests, he never received a way to contact them quickly. All he could do was to send a signal, to which they take a day or two respond. He had always felt a bit that he was just being used by them, but the person who responded always insisted that it was a test and he could only join them when he passed it and proved worthy and capable. Even after he managed to replace his brother for the past two years, this did not change. He got their support and some of his most capable men and information that allowed him to replace his brother were provided by them. So, he didn''t take it seriously that they get him to perform a few favours, but their behaviour didn''t change even after he replaced his brother as a commander. "What? Cat got your tongue?" mocked Bharat. As his brother was caught in his thoughts, Bharat butted his head at Bhagvat hitting him on his nose followed by a jump and knocking him to the ground. "After this, don''t expect me to shelter you. You are no longer a part of the family. I promised father to not kill you and keep you safe, but I bet he would have told otherwise, if he knew the people whom you have befriended," said Bharat. Though Bhagvat still had a gun, Bharat wasn''t afraid. He knew that his brother wouldn''t use it. Moreover, he could already hear the shouts of the enforcers coming up covering the various exits of the floor. "Let me give a last piece of advice. Consider, it a parting gift due to fraternal bond that once was between us. If you ever end up meeting those guys again, make sure that they treat you as one of them rather than their pawn. I hope that today''s events have at least put that into perspective," said Bharat as enforcers busted into the room waving their arms and shouting at the pair of them to sit down. Both of them complied while glaring at each other. Bharat had his hands already tied behind his back while Bhagvat was forced to put his hands on his head and was tied up by the enforcers. They were both put up against the wall as they reported about the similar looking people to their superiors. A couple of minutes later, the one in charge of the raid came in. It was a veteran enforcer of the planet. Jackson Broadback was from a third-generation law enforcer family and he himself had been an enforcer for close to 30 years. He was commissioner of the enforcer force of the entire city and had been one of the most well-respected enforcers of the planet. He was about 7 feet tall with a thick waist, big hands and a round face sporting a handlebar moustache. He wore the blue uniform of a commissioner with his long coat covering his body up to his knees. He had an angry look on his face as inspected the place. It was clear to him that there had been a minor fight between the two captives. He came to Bharat first and asked, "You seriously tried to fight him when you knew we were coming up to rescue you. Couldn''t you wait for a few more moments?" "And you," he turned towards Bhagvat. "My men already told me that you were simply waving the gun at him and put it down as soon as you saw them. Why did you even have to bring out a gun, if you had no intention to use it?" "You know each other?" he asked the pair of them, but the just stared at him in response without saying anything. "Ok. Mr. one-eyed zombie over there. Stop staring," he added. "I have got the most bizarre pair of calls today one after the other. I was quite surprised to find that chief commander of the planet and director general of the enforcers asking me to raid this place as a valuable asset who is supposed to look like you is in danger and to take into custody any person who would look like you." "I hate such instances where I am just ordered to act. Usually these are kept in dark. Imagine my surprise that by the time, we started the press already had a video informing that Bharat Banerjee, whoever he among the pair of you had sent me of all people, a secret request to help," he continued. "Just arrest me and put me in jail as you were ordered to, blue coat," said Bhagvat who wasn''t in a mood to talk with the commissioner. All he saw was a boot coming up to kick him on his chin as he sent sprawling on the floor. "I don''t care who has your back, but you talk back to me or my men, I will kill you and mark you up as a casualty. You understand?" asked Jackson pulling up Bhagvat by his collar. COMMENT 0 comment VOTE Load failed, please RETRY ¡ª New chapter is coming soon ¡ªWrite a review Privileged More Privileged Chapters Download the app and become a privileged reader today! Come take a sneak peek at our author''s stockpiled chapters! Download Weekly Power Status See Who Voted -- Power Ranking -- Power Stone Vote Table of Contents Display Options Background default yellow dark Font Nunito Sans Merriweather Size Paragraph comments Chapter comments Write thought login liked newest Author: ? 0){ %>Chapter : Author: Machine Translation Editor: Chapter 217 - Cover up "Jackson!" yelled someone from behind. "Stop beating them," said a short old man with a small white goatee and white hair that covered his forehead. "What are you doing here, Amos?" asked Jackson irritably as he recognized the voice. "I haven''t even arrested nor was there any report. How come you were sent here? Are these by any way related to the military?" Amos was about 4 feet tall and had a wrinkly face with walking stick in one hand and a briefcase in the other. He was a defence lawyer and he was often employed by the enforcers and the military. His involvement usually implied that someone high up in the chain of command wanted someone to be released as soon as possible. Some of the enforcers loved him while some hated him. \ Jackson headed the enforcers of the city and had a chance to experience some pretty controversial situations during his life as an enforcer. Sometimes, he wanted to kiss the guy as he saved some of his officers from political cases and tough situations, but today, he wanted answers and the minute he heard his voice, he understood he wasn''t going to get any. "Stopping you from doing something stupid," said Amos shaking his head. "One of them is clearly an imposter. I am just trying to help," whispered Jackson after coming close to Amos. "Don''t these kind of people usually prefer to get information fast. I am sure they will appreciate it." Though Jackson hated it when he was kept in the dark by his superiors, he wasn''t foolish. This case was clearly important to someone high up in the chain of command and it was always good for them to have a good impression of him. A couple of favours of this sort put him in their radar and he would possibly get access to them. So, he wanted to try and convince Amos. "Usually, that might not be a bad idea. If it was director general or the chief commissioner who wanted this done, but it comes from above them. The alliance is involved. Even, I don''t know anything but to let these gentlemen be bound taken to enforcers. I will get my instructions after that," said Amos. "Seriously?" asked Jackson. "Just do as I tell you, Jack. These people frighten our superiors and by the looks of things, they are quite angry at the things that happened and you don''t want to offer yourself to vent their anger at," said Amos hinting him to leave it. "Fine. Can I talk to them at all? Should my men check the building or just let it be?" asked Jackson. "Let it be. I am just told to check on their health," said Amos as he went to the pair of them. "Get someone to examine them and inform a surgeon that we may have to outfit someone with an artificial eye. Where is the girl?" "What girl?" asked Jackson. "His daughter, Parvati Banerjee," said Amos. "She was considered must apprehend and we expected her to be along with them. You didn''t find her. Weren''t you told to consider that all members of the Banerjee family in the building to be in possible and put them in your custody?" "Give me a minute. She wasn''t here. Let me find out if she was found in another floor," said Jackson. "You won''t find her. She is long gone," said Bhagvat. "Best call my staff and inform them that she is in eminent danger and needs protection urgently. If required, inform them that I, Bharat Banerjee also want them to follow your orders," said Bharat. "Not a bad idea, but he probably won''t say that," said Jackson pointing at Bhagvat. "And they probably won''t believe it if you are in the video looking like that." "Anyway, leave it to me, Amos. If she hasn''t left the building yet, she will be found," said Jackson as he quickly gave a bunch of instructions to his men telling them to not let any personnel leave the building before, she was caught. "Ya sure," sneered Bhagvat. "Like that would be of any use, now." "First knock him out," said Jackson to one of his men. "No, Jackson. Don''t forget," warned Amos. "With an incapacitating shot," added Jackson to the man who quickly shot Bhagvat into an unconscious state with an injection. "You need a shot, too?" asked Jackson looking at Bharat. "No. I don''t, but I wouldn''t say no to some medical care," answered Bharat. Then, he turned to Amos. "Also, if you don''t mind, inform your superiors the following code phrase: Lack of agility, is the call to our death," he said to Amos. "Please, be quick about it. They will not reprimand you but thank you. This is for the ones who told the director general." "What do you think?" asked Jackson looking at Amos. He felt that there is a good chance it is safe to do so. The other guy who was knocked out clearly didn''t want Parvati to get caught, so he was against them, but this guy is injured badly, and it looked like he was trying to help them. "I will try," said Amos looking at Bharat and nodded to Jackson. He went to a corner and sent an encrypted message to someone and after a minute, he received a reply. "He is to be considered the original Bharat Banerjee. Provide any services that he wants," said Amos. "We will look for Parvati, Mr. Bharat. Do you suggest anything else?" "Bind his limbs," said Bharat pointing to his unconscious brother. "Just try to find Parvati. I will also give you a few names of some personnel who were involved in this. Try to apprehend them," said Bharat to Jackson and started to list out a few names of the people who sided with Parvati when he was imprisoned. Though, it had been two years and they probably had changed their identities and appearance from what was recorded, he hoped that the local enforcers would be able to track them a little bit before the other commanders send their forces. "It won''t be of much use in only searching the building. It is better if you can put out a broadcast about her and a reward for half a million credits," commanded Bharat. "Just put out her appearance, not her identity. It is best if that is not leaked out." "Fine, boss. Anything else?" asked Jackson in a mocking tone. He didn''t know much about Bharat and he didn''t like it that a businessman was talking to him in a commanding tone. "I would like a few of the enforcers to be guarding me and him put into most secure facility. I will personally come to meet him. Till then, please make sure that his location isn''t known to anyone and let no one meet him before that," he said to Amos. "Please, make sure of that." "Under what charges?" asked Jackson interrupting him. "Infiltration of a secure facility, impersonating me to attempt to steal security secrets of the alliance. That should warrant him the most secure area you have access to. Add any other things you fancy," said Bharat. "I doubt he would see the light of day again. Just keep it all confidential. If necessary, put out a statement to the press that the impersonator was killed during the day as the enforcers, heroically saved me when he tried to kill me. That should put things to rest from the public''s point of view. I will personally put in a good word for your quick and efficient action, Mr. Jackson" he added looking towards Jackson. Though Jackson had never known anything about Bharat, Bharat knew quite a bit about the leader of the enforcers of the city. He knew that Jackson needed to facilitate it for all of his requests to happen. Previously, he had never contacted Jackson, even though they were in the same city as he never had a reason to. But now, he needed his help and he knew enough to let them have a good impression of him so that they would help him efficiently and his requests would be handled promptly and swiftly. "Glad to be of service, Mr. Bharat. I will leave two of my trusted officers and a detective who reports directly to me to handle any request you have for the law enforcement division," replied Jackson as he indicated a few men to remain. He took Bhagvat and departed with the rest of his men. "Mr. Amos, how long would it take for my agents to come? Can you set up encrypted channel for us to communicate?" Bharat asked Amos. "I can only inform the director general of any requests that you have. I was already informed that a team will arrive in half an hour to receive you," said Amos as he came close to Bharat and began to take a bunch of photos and scans which he intended to send to the medical team that was in route to them. "Ok. Use any resources you can use, even outside the law to get a location of my daughter," said Bharat at a low voice so that the enforcers around him couldn''t listen. "I will pass on your advice to the director general, but those methods are not much reliable," said Amos. "It is fine. Frankly speaking, as long as she isn''t dead or tortured, I don''t mind if she sustains a few injuries. With the medical care of this age, it wouldn''t be a problem. Also, inform everyone that she could be armed and try to shoot or harm due to some false communication. If found, gag, tie and secure her in the enforcer stronghold along with the impostor. But keep them in different rooms and don''t let one know about the other''s situation. No one gets to meet her before me," instructed Bharat. Once, he was a very loving and doting father. Now, he didn''t mind if she was hurt or severely injured as long it isn''t something permanent. Still, he knew that he would fail to hurt or injure her personally. He planned to let the other commanders deal with her. He knew that he is not capable of that. "We will handle that. The only thing left is the situation within your company. The press are already speculating various things including a quite bold line that the enforcers were paid to forcibly take over your assets and replace you," said Amos as he configured his wrist device to show a news feed reporting the same. "That is quite bold," said Bharat sighing. "I guess, it is going to be much harder to convince the public, especially when my daughter is on their side. We can''t have the law enforcement division being dragged through mud or my company. Any suggestions?" "We can have a live video exchange between you and the reporters below, but we need a fall guy. We need someone to take the blame," said Amos. "It is better than letting it be one who was imprisoned." "Yes, we need to convince the world that my impersonator was dead and that my daughter was fooled by him into believing his word over mine," agreed Bharat. "It is best if we can let them see you operate something that only you can do," said Amos. "Something related to the company which will convince everyone." "Oh! That is not possible. Most of these systems currently recognize me as a visitor with no permissions. The picobot technology within by blood stream has already been rendered useless by the impostor. I am currently in a very delicate situation. Even the medical team would have to look into it," said Bharat. "Then, how did you send the message?" asked Amos. He was still under the assumption that Bharat managed to secretly send an encrypted message to someone. He didn''t believe it to be the director general as shown by the media and released by the enforcers, but he did believe that Bharat sent a message to someone who commanded the enforcers to rescue him. "Message? The video displayed by the media? That was on old recording sent by my peers. I was captive for a long time and they just realized it due to some mistake the impostor made," explained Bharat. Amos eyebrows almost went into his hair as he raised them. "That makes things a lot more complicated," said Amos scratching his head. "A lot more complicated. How long were you under captivity."? Bharat just lifted his hind with one finger signalling for a moment as he saw the date stamp on the news channel broadcasting the event. "A bit more than 2 years and a month," he replied. Amos felt like fainting when heard that. Such a long time in captivity implied that Bharat would hardly be any more useful than his own self. "Anyway, we better start with an interview. The imposter tried to kill and take your place. He brainwashed your daughter to serve him. He tortured you for details of your organization," said Amos. "He was almost about to kill you when the enforcers came to your rescue. That should be sufficient for now, right?" "I haven''t got a better idea for a cover up," accepted Bharat. "Well, then. That is what it shall be. Answer only a few questions. Make a statement. Plead the enforcers to find your daughter and the public to help with the same. Start crying and end it," added Amos as he sent a couple messages to someone so that he could have an online interview with the public media reporters who were trying to get the story of the sudden raid. "Don''t spend long. Keep it under a couple of minutes and for love of God look like you are in pain. I can''t read your expression at all," said Amos. Bharat had a poker face and looked quite calm. Angry and serious looks came easy to him, but acting like he was not so easy, especially after he had been starved and had a mask which did allow him to move his face for most of the past two years. His face also looked a bit pallid and gaunt due to malnutrition. "Get me a mirror or project my image. I would just need a minute to prepare for that," said Bharat as he blinked his eye a couple of times immediately tearing up and put on a bit of make up to look the proper part. Chapter 218 - Package When Bruce realized that one of the commanders might be in trouble, he immediately put his forces to be ready and in a state of alert. He had also informed D.i.c.k to remain with Balthazar and Glen for a few days. At that time, he only knew that Parvati was aware of his location and he had considered that there might be a mole or two among his men as she managed to realize his location. So, he needed to have his men under scrutiny. He had prioritized saving Bharat and abducting Parvati, but he never stopped thinking about the possible traitors among his own men. At the very least, he could openly take action against Parvati, but it wasn''t the same within his own organization. He considered D.i.c.k and Barbara as his heirs even though he hadn''t officially put them in front of the other Shadow Card commanders. As much as he was concerned, he and Barbara were already under the eyes of an unknown traitor among his men. So, he told D.i.c.k to sever communications all his men except him and remain with Balthazar till contacted. D.i.c.k was on a shuttle to board a ship to get back to home when he received the message from Bruce instructing him to remain there. "That is odd," thought D.i.c.k as he confirmed it again with Bruce and turned his vehicle around to the Blyth mansion. "Maybe, he wanted me to protect the kid," thought D.i.c.k misinterpreting Bruce''s message. He quickly sent a message to Balthazar telling him that he would like to join him and Glen in their mission. Balthazar and Glen had just reached the Blyth mansion when he got the message from D.i.c.k. "D.i.c.k wants to join us in our mission," said Balthazar as he saw the message. "What do you think?" "It looks like Bruce is quite interested in your attempt," said Glen a bit surprised. "I guess, should we allow him. I wouldn''t have thought much about it before, but after I heard all the things you explained a few moments ago, I am wondering if it is in the best interest of the family to let Bruce know much about me," said Balthazar putting forward his concern. "He wouldn''t have sent D.i.c.k to help you if he wasn''t interested. You have a valid concern, but there is also the fact that if you receive the message from Ryan Rowling about his location, it might be a trap to kill you," said Glen. "It might be so, but it is a good lead either way," said Balthazar. "True. That is why it is best if we have a bit more support for this, but since you insist that we leave quietly and let no one notice our absence and also Arthur wants to keep our absence a secret, we can''t really count on members available in the family for this. So, it isn''t bad to have D.i.c.k provide us some help. He is quite a capable person," said Glen. "Valid points for having him along with us, but what about the other things you told me?" asked Balthazar. "You should understand one thing. If D.i.c.k wants to try anything, he wouldn''t do it when Bruce knows he is along with us. Heck, he would even stake his life for you in such a situation. Only fools try to kill competitors when the judge is aware that they are close by. Even, if proved not guilty and evidence points towards an accident or someone else, the sense of doubt would always remain. From what I heard of D.i.c.k, he wouldn''t do that and none of the Shadow Card commanders take it lightly if one of their own disregards the mission and intelligence gathering for sake of internal competition. So, as long as he doesn''t know how you actually managed to get information which allowed you to stop that invasion by the apes, you are safe," explained Glen. "Just accept the help when given. Moreover, you don''t even have a ship to get off the planet. You don''t know if there is a time frame on the meeting. A lot of unknown variables. Transport being the one of the most importance, if you don''t have a way and you intend to keep it secret from the eyes of the family, it is better to seek his help." "Fine," replied Balthazar as he sent back a message to D.i.c.k asking him to join them at the main hall. It was true that he didn''t yet get any reply from Herschel apart from one that stated he was close by, hence came to the solar system and he would be lodging on a neighboring planet for the night. So, he wanted to see if he could get D.i.c.k to provide them a means of travel. Once, he got a confirmation from D.i.c.k, they got into the mansion. As they got into the main hall, Balthazar found the family butler, Thaddeus waiting for them. "Young Master, Balthazar. A package arrived for you during the event. During the routine scans of the parcel, we have had an issue. We realized that it''s design and materials make the normal scans useless and higher frequency scans might have a chance of damaging it. So, it is left in the lab on the ground floor at the back door," informed Thaddeus. "Lab at the back door of the mansion?" asked Balthazar surprised. He had never known that there was a lab at that location. The mansion was mostly living quarters and offices of the family. There were a few labs, but none on the floor and it seemed very odd to have a lab at the back exit. "I have never known of the lab. Could you please lead me to it?" asked Balthazar. "Sure, young master," said Thaddeus. "Do you know what the lab is?" Balthazar asked Glen. "He is referring to the mail room," said Glen. "There is a room adjoining it where any mail deemed dangerous or harmful is taken to examine after the preliminary scans. It is a strong room with lots of facilities like a laboratory. No research is actually done there, but the equipment''s appearance caused the staff to mistake and it often called the mail room lab." "Hmm. I didn''t know that there was such a facility in the mansion," said Balthazar. When he heard about it from Glen, he found it acceptable that such a room existed in the mansion. He had seen similar rooms in military facilities as a part of the security and realized that he had overlooked quite a few things about the family and mansion. A minute later, they were in front of the lab. Thaddeus used his credential to open the door and let them in. The room had a 30-inch thick door with no windows or any openings. It was clear that the place was constructed with the purpose of testing anything. Even explosions would be contained by the walls. The entrance itself was through a safety shower room. There were a set of lockers on one side and the other side had protective suits to safeguard them against all manner of pico-particles and explosions and an assortment of tools that might be required. "Your packages is sealed in locker number 3, young master," said Thaddeus pointing to the lockers. "We will take care of this, Thaddeus. You may depart," said Glen as he sent the butler off. He quickly stepped in along with Balthazar and donned a protective suit. He took the package from the locker and found it to be a cylindrical puzzle box and a small note which said, "To Avenge:". "This has got to be a joke. The note itself is a big red-flag and it would put here after anyone saw it. And if he believed that this kind of a device is useful to safeguard anything, I am sure that he isn''t reliable," remarked Glen. Balthazar had a look at it as he wore a protective suit himself and enabled the force field as he took the cylinder from Glen. "Don''t fret. Let us at the very least check it out. If it just contains a simple message, you are right and we don''t need to me further ahead," said Balthazar as he examined the cylinder. It was a cylinder with six rotatable rings on it, having the numerals from 0 to 9 and a red arrow pointing towards the circ.u.mference on one of the circular faces. "It has a pass code. If anyone tries to open it without the pass code, it usually has some sort of vial made of delicate materials containing something that could corrode the material inside instantly. The note probably has some relation to it," said Glen pointing to the note. "To avenge?" asked Balthazar looking at the note. "Yes, his brother. His name probably. Try the numbers on which the letters of his name appear on an old phone keypad," suggested Glen. "That is whom, he intends to avenge, right?" "That is a seven lettered word and we only have six rings. I won''t do if we are sure. It doesn''t look like we have multiple chances," said Balthazar. "Six letter''s, huh," said Glen. A moment later, he let out a wide smile. "Of course, it is not Raymond. It is Rowley. It actually a lousy password method unless you have a specific method to map the letters to numbers which you both have discussed, prior." "Shit, it is neither," said Balthazar as he put it to the side and quickly checked his mail. A moment later, he put the cylinder in a glass chamber used to open devices which are suspected of having poisonous gases. He put his hands through a pair of fibre gloves attached to the glass chamber and put in a sequence and circular face with the red arrow popped out and small glass cylinder containing an electronic device slid out of it. It was rectangular with a glass face and there were four buttons on the side a small port to charge it. "A smart watch without a strip," said Glen looking at it in Balthazar''s hand. "A bloody old model at that, it would be hard to find a charger that supports that port. Where did he even find this. Does collect them or what?" "Might actually be from a collection. Don''t forget, that family has an auction house and some rare old things like this might actually fetch a good amount," said Balthazar. He checked on the sensors of the chamber to see if any other substances had been released before opening it up and taking out the device. "Well it is at the very least fully charged and that would guarantee a couple of days, but I doubt it would support the current communication frequencies used," said Glen. "Moreover, it has a password and no notes this time." "No need for notes this time," said Balthazar as he directly entered the word Raymond as the password. "So, a single password for both. That is useful. I seriously doubt his capabilities, now. Anyone one else would guess it easily," said Glen. "That is where you are underestimating him. Neither of the brothers are fools," said Balthazar. He remembered for a second about the incident when he was actually kicked of the force when he thought about Raymond. "He was definitely a smart and crafty person. Ryan probably is no less cunning then him," thought Balthazar. Seeing that Glen didn''t look convinced and was even looking at him with doubts. "The note was a trap. The first password has no relation to it at all. It was delivered to me verbally through a mutual acquaintance some time ago." "Ok. Maybe, he is a bit careful, but still isn''t considered the safest method. Verbal messages are not really that safe. Even walls have ears," said Glen. "Not when we are using a virtual private conference room through somnium technology in a game," said Balthazar. "I doubt there are ones who already managed to hack into the game without touching our gear and use it to spy by now." "Fine, it is not the worst way. Now, where are we to go?" asked Glen. "I haven''t the foggiest clue. Know anyone who could help us with navigating through this," asked Balthazar. He had hoped that the information would be readily available after the use of the two passwords, but this is much harder. "Would Ellie be able to help us?" "I doubt if even her uncle would be able to," replied Glen. "Moreover, we didn''t want to let many know about this, right?" "Hmm," grunted Balthazar. Ryan Rowley''s methods have become far too cryptic for his tastes, but he realized that it may have been expected. "Luckily, D.i.c.k is joining us. He is an expert in infiltration and hacking. So, he would be well read about different kinds of devices even ancient ones," added Glen. "Didn''t expect him to be useful so soon," nodded Balthazar. He and Glen checked out the device from the mail room along with the puzzle box and made to the main hall. Once, they reached the main hall, Balthazar immediately messaged D.i.c.k and found out that he was only a couple of minutes away. He sent a message to Thaddeus that D.i.c.k would be arriving so that he could make the necessary arrangements as he slumped down into a sofa in the hall along with Glen. Chapter 219 - The watch - I A couple of minutes later, D.i.c.k came into the hall as expected and he had pulled out a bag from the car trunk and handed it to Thaddeus while holding onto a suitcase. "I will probably be staying here for some time. Would be mighty pleased if you could provide me a room and put my bag there," requested D.i.c.k while slipping him a few credits. "Glad to have as a guest, young master, D.i.c.k," said Thaddeus as he took the bag and walked away leaving him to meet with Balthazar and Glen. "How long are you planning to stay at the mansion?" asked Glen. "We might not have much time to spend here," he added. "Hope you are familiar with other people here." "Oh! I have lot of friends here. Just not ones as young as the pair of you. Anyway, it is not an issue. Until otherwise informed by Bruce, I will be tagging along with you and Balthazar. Maybe even have to move with him back to the border force barracks when he is done with his break," joked D.i.c.k. "What? You are planning to stay that long?" asked Balthazar surprised. "I am finding my position beside you a bit redundant, right now," grumbled Glen. "Haha, I am joking," said D.i.c.k. "Those were just instructions. It isn''t like I am a stickler for orders. So, now that I am joining you guys, mind to fill me in." "Follow me, I will take you to a safe room," said Glen as he took them both out and into the flight hangar of the grounds of the family. He took them through a few corridors and into a private meeting room. After a few preliminary checks, he pronounced it free of bugs. "Explain it to him, I will guard outside," said Glen as he went outside, locked the door and sat down leaning his back against it. "He brought me directly to the hangar. You planning to leave to leave right now?" asked D.i.c.k. "Not unless you have a way to get us to the planet DH-8 without anyone in the family noticing us," said Balthazar who had received a message that he was currently lodging at DH-8 at a friend''s place and he could come to Asklepian in the morning. "You are saying DH-8 is your destination. So, close to home?" "No, it is more of a pit-stop. A place where I can get an old acquaintance to get me to the place I need to go." "And what place might that be?" "Yes, that. Might need a bit of help from you to find that out," said Balthazar as he pulled out the smart watch from his pocket. "This is supposed to indicate our destination." "This?" asked D.i.c.k taking it into his hands. "More than a century old. Tech is currently useless. Not a valid option as a communication device, unless someone is broadcasting from a nearby source that source definitely being on the planet. If he could actually put in an interplanetary connection with this shit, he doesn''t need to use this. Getting and using the infrastructure require for that is harder and more revealing of his whereabouts than coming to meet you personally." "I thought so," said Balthazar. He himself had some amount of knowledge in communications as that was the field he worked on in the military. But he still found it hard to accept that it was a useless thing and that there might be some other method hidden in it. "Anything else, you can get from it?" "Sure, the operating system and other things are not hard to operate. You have a password?" "Raymond," replied Balthazar as D.i.c.k put it in and started to examine it. A few moments later, he still couldn''t figure out much from it. "You know, it is a pain to use it for interplanetary communication, but it is not so within the planet a couple of antennas repurposed can give you a planet-wide coverage on this," suggested D.i.c.k. "I doubt he would be successful to come to this planet, especially with the bounties on his head. I suspect that he is stuck somewhere, and we might have to be his rescue," said Balthazar. "True. Ryan Rowley is in a bit of a pickle, right now," agreed D.i.c.k nodding his head. "This was meant to be a clue, right?" "Yes, he took a lot of precautions to avoid it from falling into other''s hands. Even put it in this container have some kind of corrosive agent or something," said Balthazar showing him the puzzle box. D.i.c.k looked at it for a second before giving it back to Balthazar. "Keep it away, it might not be just a corrosive agent which could aerosolize once the glass breaks. Such things were used during the war. Some of these chemicals react with the glass to form a flammable gas causing it blow up. Put the cylinder back without the device and lock it and put it away safely." "Wow! That is something. You have quite a good amount of knowledge," said Balthazar admiring the wide variety of things that D.i.c.k knew. "You need to know broad scope of things to collect information or hack. Else, even if I am successful, I would remain as clueless as before," said D.i.c.k. "Anyway, looking at the precautions he took, I think it is best if I try out a few more things with the device. You have any setup which I could use." "These things are so old that I don''t know what to use," said Balthazar. "But I will introduce you to Ellie. She might be aware of it." "Don''t bother, I will ask her uncle, Elias. He would be a better option," said D.i.c.k. He was acquainted with few of the technologically proficient people of the family due to prior interactions. Elias was actually once introduced to him by Evelyn Price as the man to first contact for any communication requirements. A moment later, Elias was on video call with D.i.c.k. He seemed to be in the party along at Ambrosia restaurant. He looked quite drunk. He first asked them where they were as they were missing the party, but once he saw device in D.i.c.k''s hand, his attention was stuck to it. "Damn! That is a really old one. Can I have it after you guys are done with it?" asked Elias as he looked at the watch. "First, can you help us get a cable that fits into this?" asked D.i.c.k. "No. But I have the specs for the device. Come to my lab beyond the. Don''t bother, I will send you the location on your device. Be there in an hour. A makeshift port could be designed using 3-d printer and some solder," replied Elias. "Now about the device." "Sure, but it comes at a price. It isn''t for free," said Balthazar. "It is your''s?" asked Elias surprised. "Yes," replied Balthazar. "I thought it was the Rowley kid''s," interrupted D.i.c.k. "Consider, it mine. I will deal with those things," said Balthazar. He had to pay quite an amount to Elias for setting up the somnium technology virtual training platform. So, he hoped to get a bit of a discount on that. "Yes, I will buy it," said Elias without much thought. "How much?" "How much?" asked Balthazar stumped by the question. He had no idea of its value or a clear idea of the rarity of the item. He needed the assessment of a professional before he could make any deal. "Why don''t we discuss it later? I am not even sure if it will remain with me after we are done with it." "Yes, we will stop at your lab in an hour. Get yourself there in time if you want to have a look at it," said D.i.c.k and cut the call. "So, what do we do till then?" asked Balthazar. "You told something about getting to the planet, DH-8?" asked D.i.c.k. "Yes, I have an acquaintance who is currently at DH-8. He is somewhat of a freelancer and I contacted him about getting a ride. Told him that I have a solid lead on finding out about the Nirbaadh pirates and he could collect on the reward," said Balthazar. "Apart from that, I told that I have a personal interest in a Shadow Card mission. My own and that I am willing to pay the reward amount along with its details." "So, he agreed to help you and informed that he is currently at DH-8. He told you that he could pick you up at that point as everyone are trying to avoid the planet due to Winston''s speech," said D.i.c.k. "Nice guess, but he actually didn''t say anything about it. If anything, I replied telling him to stay there. There are lots of eyes on the planet due to Winston and those eyes would be more concerned on who are getting in rather than who are running away. I plan to be among the second kind," said Balthazar. "I don''t think it is much of an issue, but sure it is better this way. It also allows people to see me getting out of the planet while I can hide the pair of you in my shuttle. If you can act like you were recuperating in your room and avoiding public due to Winston''s speech, it would be good. I suspect many of the family would try to avoid public for now because of that," said D.i.c.k. "Hmm. I guess that is right. His speech did give me a better chance of remaining hidden with a proper excuse," said Balthazar. "Cool, then make all preparations to deal with it. We can depart once the device is examined," said D.i.c.k. "But what do you plan to do if we don''t find anything from the device. There is a good chance that we failed to identify his message or if it failed to function properly. It is over a century old and is an electronic device. A good chance exists that it hasn''t been maintain in perfectly functioning condition." "We still continue to move in the direction of the quadrant, the pirates escaped or towards the location of the Rowley family. They have a private moon where most of the family resides. We move towards it," said Balthazar. "Good. We need to have alternate plans of action in case of first attempt fails," acknowledged D.i.c.k as the both of them got up. As they got up, Glen who was outside guarding against any unwanted guests also got up and came in. Being just outside the door, he had heard everything that happened inside clearly. "Tell Thaddeus to give me the keys to your shuttle. I will have our equipment put in it," said Glen as the door opened. He had already made a call to the butler and made D.i.c.k inform the butler that D.i.c.k needed to carry somethings out of the mansion for some mission. Thaddeus had prior experience with such requests and didn''t question much. In this way, the managed to set up a story to chief butler of the mansion and they knew that he would inform any who asked the same. After that D.i.c.k and Balthazar made way to the lab whose address, Elias sent Balthazar through e-mail. Balthazar and D.i.c.k took a car from the family garage to get to the location. It was large 4-storied building and once, Balthazar told of his identity, the guard allowed him inside as he was already told by Elias that Balthazar would be arriving with another visitor. As they parked the car, Elias came to them jumping in glee along with another man. The man was rather portly with a thin pencil like moustache, a button nose with a pair of beady eyes wearing a top hat. He was in some kind of uniform and they both looked slightly drunk as they walked towards Balthazar slightly wobbling along the way. "How was the trip?" asked Elias happily as he addressed them both. "How do you do, Colonel Balthazar," said the portly man shaking his hand vigorously. Chapter 220 - The watch - II Balthazar shook the man''s hand though he hadn''t had slightest clue. The man also was shaking his hand enthusiastically without introducing himself and Elias was also smiling happily beside him. As none of them remembered to introduce the man, Balthazar had to ask himself. "Glad to meet you, Mr?" he asked the portly man. "Oh! Pardon me," said the man taking of his hat as made a small bow. "I am Dr. Nick Tataopolus. I have wanted to meet you for quite some time. Your victory against those apes and the valuable intelligence, it provided us as well as your capabilities. Dr. Hector Constantine told me that you are one of the best." "Oh! Glad to make your acquaintance Dr. Tataopolus. I am sure that it was an exaggeration on his part," said Balthazar winking his eye surprised by the loose mouth on this fellow. It was important that no one knew of the experiment being done by the Scions of Minerva using the somnium headgear. "Yes, it is very nice to meet you," said Nick as he realized about the thing had just told. "Your contribution had helped us a lot in determining the nature of our enemies. Your grandfather even more so. Hopefully, it would garner a positive response and humanity will take further steps in that direction," he said changing the topic immediately. "Yes. Nick here was at the party and we bumped into one another. Nick strongly agrees with the patriarch''s words and was very persuasive in making quite a number of guests see his point of view. As an ex-member of the Scions of Minerva and an advisory executive of the Metis Technologies, he had his beliefs aligned with Winston''s statement and would benefit from more support to that cause. "Yes, of course. It was a bold move but necessary. There are signs of resurgence of the knights and we don''t need them, the sc.u.m of humanity. They were even bold enough to co-operate with the apes to harm fellow humans. Just because, we managed to thwart their plans, most are not taking the threat seriously. The next attempts are only going to be much bolder. We should put a lot more focus on the issue. Glad that someone like Winston decided to do it for the greater good," praised Nick. "Hah, my grandfather would surely appreciate your words and be happy that there are other who share his concerns," said Balthazar. "Yes, but let us get inside. I don''t want to stay too long in the parking, makes me a bit uncomfortable," said D.i.c.k putting an arm over Elias''s shoulder. "You got that equipment ready for me, brother?" "Yes, let us continue inside. These days it is best to be as prudent as possible," said Balthazar. He also wanted to get done with examining the watch mailed to him by Ryan Rowley and was glad that D.i.c.k made the first move before he had to. "Sure," said Elias realizing the pair of them were in a hurry. He had no previous acquaintance with Nick but was informed of him by a mutual friend. Learning of his identity and his stance on various things related to the apes and somnium technologies uses and development, he decided to inform him about the new project that they are working on, the integration of somnium technology with security cameras in real world which was proposed by Balthazar. Hearing the proposal, Nick was amazed by the fact that Balthazar had suggested something that useful to do with latest technology which was mostly being used as a virtual entertainment industry. Nick felt that the thought was very similar to the integration of somnium headgear with the warframes optical sensor and inquired about their progress and also requested to see Balthazar. "Yes, let us do. I hear that Colonel Blyth enrolled initially as a member of the engineering corps. Do you have an interest in collecting such old electronic devices?" asked Nick who was already informed by Elias about the watch shown to him. "Ah! Not that much of an enthusiast in antique electronics, but I do have a use with this specific device. Most of the time, I spent using present day devices and repairing them, but I have recently learned to appreciate them," said Balthazar. "Learning how the present-day things came into existence and the need and process of development from the previous ones, does provide us a unique perspective," he continued. He felt that to be true, especially if he is going to participate in clandestine activities. He also realized that learning such things and the experience would be helpful if he managed to find any new technology of his enemies and the experience would be useful in getting them to work. "Our ancestor''s words guide our path to knowledge and glory," said Nick. "It is an ancient proverb roughly translated. Doesn''t mean that they have already known more than us, but they have experience hardsh.i.p.s and solved problems similar to what we might face and that their experiences might sometimes provide is with insights or stimulate our thoughts to realize better ways and find glory." "Good proverb," said D.i.c.k appreciating the meaning of it. "Never heard of it though." "Some of the best ones fail to become popular as many don''t understand them, my boy," said Nick. "Might I know of your good name," he said taking initiative to shake D.i.c.k''s hand. "D.i.c.k Kane," said D.i.c.k shaking his hand. "I work in security services mostly as tech support." "Nice to meet you, Mr. D.i.c.k," said Nick. "So, how come you ended up with that old watch?" asked Elias as they got into an elevator. "It is supposed to have a message. Young colonel here has an acquaintance who is requesting a meet. He is afraid for his safety and sent us the information using some puzzles. Two done. I hope that we will find the location once we connect it to a computer and examine it," explained D.i.c.k. "Your informant actually used this device to send you information?" asked Elias. "How rich is he?" he exclaimed. "Should I ask you for a higher salary for creating the training platform?" "Calm down," said Balthazar before Elias''s thoughts went any further. "He is an acquaintance who insists that he has vital information and he is in danger because of it. He managed to contact me through the somnium technology before he disappeared. He is on run for his life." "He is running for his life?" asked Elias. "Yes, there are already a couple of bounties for his head," said Balthazar. "Oh! An adventure and race against other hunters," said Nick. "All of this is so exciting. Makes me feel regretful about not enlisting when I was young." "You can join us if you want," said D.i.c.k. "No age limit here." "Haha, thanks for the offer, but I respectfully refuse. I am not one for adventures. Maybe in a virtual world, but not in the real," said Nick. Soon, Elias and the rest reached the third floor where Elias led them into a computer lab. "I have already created the cables and installed the corresponding drivers," said Elias pointing to a computer system primed and ready for them to use. "That speeds things up," said D.i.c.k as he quickly took the watch and plugged it in. He quickly started up a program and started with a scan of the device and a test to check the various components. The program soon gave him the details about the specifications of the device, its components, protocols it follows, data stored and the various process it is running. D.i.c.k quickly surfed through them and started to report what he found so that the other three could say if he missed anything. "No stored data. No additional applications running. It seems to be scrubbed to factory settings. Only the operating system is present," said D.i.c.k. "Let me check the processes." He used the tools to check the various processes and threads that the operating systems was running. "None out of ordinary except for one thing. The time and a few other essential processes have been suspended. The geo-positioning services. Damn, your friend must be a technical genius. He had his location marked and suspended the process, the things like date, time and location field registers of the memory could be used to get his position." Excitedly, D.i.c.k pushed off the others aside and opened a couple of doc.u.ments about the device. A few seconds later, he had the location on the screen. "It is on EG-6. Bill Gabe''s bar and accommodation, a local hotel," said D.i.c.k giving them a satellite view of the place. "I wonder if it is the right answer. It is not close to the Rowley''s place and it is opposite to the direction in which the Nirbaadh Pirates have supposedly escaped." "It probably is, but we didn''t find anything apart from that. We finally have a direction to move forward. Either way it would only be a slight deviation from the way to KA sector where the pirates have supposedly disappeared at. It is better we first check it out. We should leave now to the mansion. it has become quite late at night," said Balthazar. "Sure, it is best that we make a move as fast as possible. Elias, I will be taking this cable for now. I would like to see if there is anything else on the way. This could also be used to further communicate on the planet," said D.i.c.k pointing to the watch and the port and cable connecting it to the computer. "Didn''t you say that I could have it after you guys are done," said Elais looking at D.i.c.k and Balthazar like he was being cheated. "Yes, of course, I am willing to sell it to you after that. It is my property. Don''t worry about it," said Balthazar as they collected the device and made out of the building. They quickly ride to the Blyth mansion and found that Glen had already managed to prepare for departure and was waiting for them. He even got the somnium headgear from Balthazar''s room plugged in to a terminal in the shuttle and ready. "All ready, then," asked Balthazar as he entered the shuttle pleasantly surprised. "You even brought this. I thought that I might have to make a trip to get it. People don''t usually consider toys when making such trips." "That is not toy in my eyes. It is as useful as the watch device that we got in the puzzle box. Ryan might try to use it to contact us again. Moreover, you are using it to learn combat techniques and earn money. Apart from that, I bought my own. All the ones in the organization are already suggested to get acquainted with it as a learning device," said Glen. "Cool, let us get moving," said D.i.c.k who had checked various things in the shuttle. "We will be making a stop by an acquaintance of mine. The shuttle will be loaded into cargo dock which is leaving the planet today. He had agreed to make a stop at DH-8. Is your man, ready?" "I have already messaged him, and he replied. He wants us to meet him at 10 a.m. at interplanetary hangar of the Baltmase city. So, it gives us about 11 hour it is currently about 10 p.m. there," said Balthazar as he projected a mail that had booking details of a ship on the wall of the shuttle. "Isn''t that a military cruiser?" asked D.i.c.k checking the detail. The sh.i.p.s model was clearly written as PC-xs4 in the doc.u.ment. "Yes, he is an ex-border forces engineer, mechanic and pilot," said Balthazar as he put up details of Herschel for the pair of them to see. "Haven''t met him for a long time and though it appears he has a good impression of me, I haven''t been much close to him. He was suggested by my lieutenant to me." "Fine," said D.i.c.k. "He knows about our identities?" "Nope. The both of you are military personnel working under me and already sent him the fake identity and told him that he will be given reward for any captures, but we should be allowed to get any and all possible information from the captives. Ryan Rowley would also be considered as a captive by him and he will get the reward mentioned in the Shadow Card apart from fees that we provide for the trip. In return, he will not call any of us by names. I am to be called agent A, you two B and C," explained Balthazar about the contract he had made with Herschel. "He knows you though?" asked D.i.c.k. "He trained me when I first joined the force. Yes, he knows me," agreed Balthazar. "But none of the others do. We will put on some camouflage or suits when with them and the rest of the time, he has arranged a cabin for us." Chapter 221 - Fighting Glen "Come on. Let us move. It is the best we can get at such a short notice without letting anyone in our factions know about it," said Glen. "At times like this when we are concerned about traitors, infiltrators and impostors, it is quite a good way to move out unknown. Our trail ends here while yours would end at DH-8." "Fine, I hope all arrangements on your side are done," said D.i.c.k as he got into the pilot seat. "Were done long ago. Ever since, Balthazar told that he would be getting out secretly, it had been arranged to have someone reliable to take his place to avoid suspicions. He is someone like me and it is a test for him. You don''t need to worry about it," said Glen. "The only one I am concerned about is you." "Haha, very funny," said D.i.c.k. "Get in the back along with him. Use some camou tech to hide yourselves. I will inform your butler and take leave. Need to tell him to keep the guest room for me available and that I might come back in a few days." As Glen joined Balthazar in the back, D.i.c.k started up the plane while the other two, sat down on the floor near the cargo. Balthazar was examining the cargo that Glen had brought in from the room. The special items like sleeves with hidden blades, weapons like wh.i.p.s, chain blade, piolets and garrote and the combat suit with the features he wanted that he had requested from Ellie were also there with a note from her. "Dude, you have some nosy friends among the elders. This guy Arthur had sent four people to help me in making this according to your requests. The combat suit and weapons are perfect. Also made the in-shirt with hidden weapons. Though the outfit is not the best works and could definitely be upgraded, they have helped me quite a bit in making it. You should thank him from both you and me. Got to know a few new tricks from his friends," said the note. "He even knew about that?" thought Balthazar. "Of course, as long as it is in Asklepian, they will try have someone monitoring. Isn''t Glen here with me right now. Anyway, since they are helpful to me, it is a good thing that they have eyes on me." "Those are the ones you wanted, right? You trained as an explorer or beast trainer in the army?" asked Glen pointing to his whip. He had only seen such people use a whip and piolet to move through obstacles as well as climb different terrain. Those were the weapons of people who were in exploratory professions. "Not exactly," said Balthazar not sure how to explain his proficiency in using such weapons. "Don''t worry. I understand that you trained secretly. Those couple with hidden weapons are good choice for assassin''s and clandestine operatives. It is just that people rarely expect to use them in missions. Only heard of such items being worn, when people are involved in negotiations as a failsafe, in case they result in a fight. Glad to see that you are not too trusting of others. I was considering advising you against your trust in Ryan Rowley until I saw those," said Glen. Balthazar gave a smile to him. "I hope that you can trust be to be careful enough. I have had quite a bit of experience with such people," said Balthazar holding the somnium headgear. "Do you play the game?" he asked trying to change the subject. Balthazar wanted to gain trust of Glen, but he knew it wasn''t going to be easy. He knew that family and other things wouldn''t be shared by an agent like Glen. So, he decided to try and gain a bit of his friendship through the game. "I don''t play games," said Glen. "Only plan to use it for training. Till they develop a good platform for me to train, I am willing to have a few virtual fights with you in a ring if you would like." "I wouldn''t mind, but you could try the game too. Knowing the nature of the tech, you do understand that the experience is quite close to reality and if you put it in completely manual mode, you will hardly know the difference. I do the same. It is like a sort of training but is a bit enjoyable and also give me money by exchanging the items for coins or credits," said Balthazar. "You giving a sales pitch for vita-nova?" mocked Glen. "Come on, why don''t you try it. You would mind a few extra buck would you? With your skills it is an easy task and you can do it during your resting periods," said Balthazar. "Else I wouldn''t do it myself." "Let us do it like this," said Glen. "Three fights between us in a ring. One with bare hands, the other two with weapons, best two out of three. If you win, I will try it out. Else, we continue training." Balthazar was surprised by the suggestion. "Is he trying to train me or something. Did Lucius or someone put him to train me or keeping me sharp or something like that?" thought Balthazar. "Did Lucius tell you to do this?" he asked. He didn''t really want to fight with Glen. Though he appeared a bit gaunt in the face, he had a strong body. Moreover, he was told by Glen himself that he was trying to specialize as bodyguard and extraction specialist. That implied that Glen would need to have a strong body, high combat awareness and skills. "No. No. I just want to know what you are capable of. I need to know who a bit about your capabilities. Didn''t have much time before, but I believe this is the best chance for us to get acquainted with," said Glen. Balthazar still didn''t respond, but he understood that Glen had a valid point. He still didn''t want to bet on it as he was sure he wouldn''t have an advantage in the bare handed fight. Glen didn''t say anything like no-bladed weapons which he used to defeat Max by using his belt. So, he wouldn''t have a good chance to win. Even with weapons, he doubted to have a good chance to win if they fought in a ring. "You are worried about the bet?" asked Glen guessing Balthazar''s thoughts. "Forget the bet. Let us have a good fight. I will try the game even if you lose. No training from me unless you want it. Does this sound good?" "I am not worried about the bet," lied Balthazar with a poker faced smile. He was slightly pissed that Glen had guessed his thoughts correctly, but he didn''t want let him think so. "We shall fight three rounds then." "Yes, let us not put any bets, we shall enjoy the fight. I was being a bit aggressive with that suggestion," said Glen. Bets were usually good tool to motivate people to give their best, but he realized that Balthazar''s mindset was not that of an easily irritable man who could be baited in that manner. So, he gave up the talk about the bet. "I will set up an arena and send you the details by mail," said Glen as he put on the somnium headgear without waiting for Balthazar to reply. Balthazar was a bit angry but he calmed down. "He took back the bet of his own accord. At least he has a compassionate personality even if he is probably going to beat me up in the match," thought Balthazar as he also put his headgear on. He received a mail as soon as he logged in. He clicked the link specified in the mail finding himself in fight arena. It was a large circular room about 10 metres in diameter with the ceiling at a height of 5 metres with no windows or any items. Glen was sitting on the other side with his hair tied up, dressed in a shorts and wrapping cloth straps around his fists. "I initially felt like using a proper ring like that used by wrestlers and boxer, but later felt that this is better to get acquainted with your style of fighting in real-life scenarios," said Glen. "I prefer to fight like this. Was a boxer and wrestler in college. No rules. Since, it is virtual. Incapacitate, break bones and even kill." "That sounds like a bad idea. Even if it is virtual, aiming to kill is waste especially without weapons for the purpose of learning about the others style. I know you have probably trained a lot at close combat, but you can try your best to incapacitate me. Though, it wouldn''t be that easy to get a hold of me. Even though I can''t defeat, I know enough to avoid my opponents," replied Balthazar as he chose to have a tight fit black shirt and trousers as he was used to in his previous life as an assassin. "Fine, let us start," said Glen as he came running close to Balthazar. It only took three steps for him to jump across a distance lose to 10 metres and he leaped at his opponent aiming a punch with his right hand at Balthazar''s groin. He didn''t expect Glen to go for that area. Even if it is virtual, the pain and other settings were set to normal in the fight and none one wanted to experience unnecessary agony if they could. He expected him to fight similar to that of a boxer going by his choice of clothes, but he realized that Glen chose them just to give him the wrong impression. He had his arms ready, left one on guard and the right raised like a boxer instead. Balthazar''s back was just a couple feet from the wall and he was sure that even if he tried to evade to the side or backwards Glen''s fist would be successful in hitting him at some joint which would put him at a disadvantage for the rest of the fight. When evading was not a good option, many try to just exchange damage to one another. It was a valid strategy, but Glen was already prepared for it. He was waiting to see what Balthazar could do. Balthazar had already fallen in his trick, so he was sure he would have an advantage whatever Balthazar did. Balthazar was surprised, but he spent a past life trying to avoid low blows and shameless attacks. "Nice trick," said Balthazar as Glen got closer. "But not good enough. You wont get any advantage." Balthazar waited till his opponent''s fist was less than a feet close to his groin and jumped a foot back while bending low. Keeping his left hand on guard to protect his abdomen, he reached for Glens arm with his right. Glen had already thrown a punch and had put most of his momentum behind it, but he was also an experienced fighter and knew that his punching arm would be caught by his opponent. Still he continued as it would be a waste of effort if he pulled back now and at the very least, he felt that Balthazar would have to put more effort in blocking it. Balthazar caught onto Glen''s right arm with his own and using it along with his right foot as fulcrum he turned around showing his back to Glen while throwing a blind punch at the point where expected Glen''s face to be. As expected, his face made contact with Glen, but instead of face it was his chest. Chapter 222 - Fighting Glen - II When his fist, felt something hard contacting it, instead of soft tissue of the face, he knew that he had missed. He immediately felt Glen crashing into his body and pushing him towards the wall. With hardly any distance between him and the wall, Balthazar was sure it was going to hurt him. He was slammed into the wall by Glen, but he managed to reduce the impact by pulling up his legs and using his right hand to brace the impact. Moreover, Glen''s right hand was sandwiched between him and the wall and took the brunt of the collision as Balthazar lifted his leg in time for his knee to poke into Glen''s wrist. The collision was more hurting to Glen as it almost broke his right arm. Balthazar managed to use Glen''s own momentum against him and Glen''s wrist would be hurting for him to properly use it. Still, Balthazar knew that he was at a disadvantage. Glen had a good view of him and was close to him while he had his back to Glen. With his usual weapons, he had a couple of tricks he could use to escape, but barehanded, he was in a fix. Even if he didn''t feel like accepting it, he knew that Glen managed to trick him in the fight at the beginning itself and gain the advantage. He tried to kick back and found nothing hitting his leg. He was sure it was a faint, but he needed to look at Glen. He was too silent for Balthazar to guess anything. He jumped back a step and turned around swinging his right arm but found a hand on his face obstructing his view as it pushed him back towards the wall. Balthazar was ready too. Even if he still didn''t have a view, he now had Glen''s arm on his face and both arms free. While Glen was pushing him back, he wouldn''t be able to use his legs to block as he was pushing him towards the wall. His right wrist would be weak for a few moments and he wouldn''t be able to use it effectively. This was his chance to retaliate. While he was an assassin and thief, climbing ropes and poles and grappling were vital for him to save his life. He ended up being quite proficient in a number of grappling techniques due to it. He caught Glen''s hand with his own managed to push his face to the side and caught onto Glen''s body with his legs. It left him hanging off Glen in an awkward pose, but neither of them cared about it. In a fight, all such trivial things were inconsequential and much so when they have no spectators. After that, he swung his body around to get to Glen''s back, but Glen simply jumped and decided to land on the ground on his back. This forced Balthazar to push off from Glen, even though he managed to catch and was about to go for a choke hold. It was a good chance that he had lost, but Balthazar was glad that he managed to escape from Glen''s reach. He was pushed against a wall before and it was a horrible position to be in a fight. "Got away from situation with some small injuries on my limbs and managed to hurt his right wrist," thought Balthazar. "Not a bad outcome, I should attack him quickly before he gets used to his wrist hurting him." Balthazar quickly rolled away from Glen and stood up while Glen did the same. He knew he couldn''t repeat the same trick again. For that to work he needed his back close to the wall and he was sure that Glen wouldn''t let him do it again. Apart from that, he got a basic idea of Glen''s strength from the previous tussle. Glen as expected clearly had thicker muscles and good reflexes. He was sure that he would suffer if he got close to Glen. He put some distance between him and Glen. He needed to know more about Glen''s fight style, and he started to consider winning essential. He felt that it would be a good experience for him too. Though he had his specializations, he always felt it to be best to prepare for other scenarios. Through his experiences over the past month, he began to feel like he was given the second chance to better prepare and it would be a waste if he didn''t. He quickly ran towards Glen to overcome him by rapidly hitting a few weak spots like his joints or head. From the previous tussle, he realized that Glen was too sturdily built for him to get any advantage by hitting him repeatedly on his torso or other parts of his limbs. Glen was too strongly built for that to work. Getting stronger than Glen was impossible but he was sure he could have an advantage with speed. The previous exchange between them proved it. The only problem, he had was the lack of a weapon. With a weapon, it wouldn''t take much time in taking down Glen even at close combat. Still some weak spots didn''t need a weapon to injure a person, but Balthazar could see that he had his guard up. Luckily, there is a limit to the number of places that Glen could guard on his body. This was his advantage, but he realized it was not of much use when he came close to Glen and tried to attack. He started with a quick combo of punches. Strength was never his strong point. So, Glen could block them with relative ease. Balthazar had expected that, and his punches were merely a form of distraction. His actually attacks started in the middle of the combo as he swung his right foot into the back of Glen''s knee to disrupt his foot work and make him fall onto his knees. Balthazar hoped that when Glen fell down, his quick punches which were currently aimed at Glen''s chest would fall onto his face and he could discombobulate him with a few hits on his head. Once, Glen would be in such a state, Balthazar expected him to be easy to defeat. At the very most, even if he failed, he expected that it would be much harm to him as he felt Glen to be relatively slow and he would be able to escape any counter attacks. As he swung his foot, he found Glen''s upper half lower as he expected when a person''s knees would buckle and thus, continued with punching. But to his surprise, it stopped midway and he found his foot to be caught by Glen between his thigh and calf muscles. "Not bad, but not strong enough," said Glen with a smile. With one foot struck, Balthazar''s movements were restricted. His punches were already countered by Glen''s hands. He quickly tried to rotate his body by jumping on one leg and swinging his other leg at Glen''s head, but Glen expected that too. With both legs off ground, Balthazar couldn''t get away and both of them knew that it was Balthazar''s loss at that moment. Glen let Balthazar''s punches hit him and at the same time hit Balthazar on his face exchanging blows with each other on their heads. Balthazar''s fist struck Glen on his nose and Glen struck him with an open palm on his neck and immediately grabbed onto his neck. As Glen caught Balthazar on his neck, he was sure he won. Balthazar''s moments were highly restricted due to this. He just had to hold on to Balthazar''s neck, pull him into both his hands and choke him up. He was just about to do so, when he noticed Balthazar''s hand catching on to his other hand with an unexpectedly firm grip. It was quite surprising to him as he landed his first shot on Balthazar''s windpipe. Most would be in a state of breathlessness by such a shot unless those who were used to torture or specifically trained. So, he didn''t expect Balthazar to have good control of his limbs. He felt lucky that he wasn''t careless and noticed it, else he would have been definitely stunned by a strong hit on his head. "A tough one," said Glen as he realized that Balthazar was trying to restrict his other hand with one of his own. That would have both his hands occupied while Balthazar would have one free hand which he could use to make a strong attack. He let go of his neck as he found his other hand wouldn''t be released quickly to block Balthazar''s attack, but it unexpectedly didn''t come as Balthazar jumped back instead. "Good, I thought you would continue with your attempt to punch me, but you decided to jump back," said Glen. "You also have an unnatural tolerance to pain like someone who has been trained for those things. Anyone including me would at least suffocate for a second by that hit of mine. You calmly held your breath in and tried to fool me." "What''s with the explanation?" "I think I learned enough. I need to know about how fast you react, your sensibility and if you can tough it out when things go unexpectedly. For bare handed fight this is enough," said Glen. "I forfeit." "We can continue." "No point. These things are good in tournaments and competitions. Something which we don''t care about as it hardly is any good in real life. Just good to check your foundation. Now let us get the weapons out," said Glen. Balthazar and Glen found themselves transported into a store like interface. He quickly noticed that it was something created by Elias. There were various suits and weaponry which could be worn on civilian clothes. "Didn''t put in combat suits in this round. Wanted to know about your talents without combat suits. Walking around in streets with combat suits would be very conspicuous and gather unnecessary attention. These are all acceptable suits and designs with weapon permits and doesn''t make civilians think that we are some special forces or military. Choose your pick. All kinds available in our organization have already been simulated and ready for practice," said Glen. "Can I get some privacy?" asked Balthazar as he started browsing through the interface. "Or do you want to know which weapons I am gearing up with?" "I would like to know. You can also check my equipment," said Glen. "This spar is to allow us to know each other. I am wearing all the equipment I bought in the plane and I suggest you do the same. Don''t forget that this is meant to allow us to know each other''s style of fighting." "Fine, I will wear the gear that I bought in the plane too, but I intend to finish it fast. Learning all the tricks with weapons will be too time consuming. I am going to aim to kill you as soon as possible and enjoy playing the game instead," said Balthazar. "So confident when you have weapons, huh. Don''t forget that you were more injured in the previous fight," said Glen. A few seconds later, the both of them were equipped with armour and weapons that they could wear in public. Then, Glen transported them to another arena. This one was unlike the previous arena. It was a rectangular corporate complex about 10 metres wide and 15 metres long. It had many tables, wardrobes and chairs filled with all sort of accessories. The walls were glass and it appeared that they were on a skyscr.a.p.er on a floor that was at least 100 metres above the ground. "You like it? There are quite a few templates of places which of real-life places like this," said Glen, twirling a gun in his left hand. "You expect us to have a fight in an open workspace like this?" replied Balthazar. "I don''t plan to do something like that. That would same as putting ourselves out in the public eyes." "Ok. Fair point," said Glen as he opened up an interface and selected another arena transporting them into a warehouse. It was filled with different boxes, series of iron racks filled with various items and had a few trolleys and crate carriers. "How about a hangar warehouse?" "Better," said Balthazar. "This would work." Chapter 223 - Fighting Glen - III Glen wore a full armour that covered him from top to bottom including his head. Having his specialization as a guard, he had habit of wearing heavy armour on almost all his body. The only thing different from wearing a combat suit is that a combat suit is much thicker than his armour. If the armour was any heavier, he would have to use a control system integrated into it similar to those used in combat suits for him to be able to move comfortably in it. Balthazar on the other hand had light armour behind his clothes which were like a beast trainer. He wore a whip on the right side of his waist while a pair of short knives hung on a holster on his back. There was a gun hanging of another holster on his belt to his right while a few expandable throwing knives were in his belt to the left. "You think that so much of armour is inconspicuous?" asked Balthazar as he remembered that Glen had told him that they were meant to look like non-military personnel who could blend in public. "Come on, bodyguards to a lot of famous figures wear much more. Many explorers and rich travellers also wear such outfits," replied Glen. "Better than yours. You look like you are a beast tamer." "Thanks, that was what I was hoping the public would think," said Balthazar. "Ready," said Glen as he jumped towards Balthazar without even waiting for his consent. He had a small device in his right hand that created a 2 feet diameter circular force shield in front of him. He immediately enabled it and tried to dash into Balthazar, while he pulled out some other device in his left using the force shield to block Balthazar''s vision from it. Balthazar had already been expecting something like this. Glen didn''t treat the previous fight as a traditional duel, and he had been expecting that the same would be repeated again. So, he quickly jumped to his right. Balthazar pulled out his gun and started firing it. He knew that fighting directly wasn''t his strong suit, so he also threw a flash grenade. Glen stopped, jumped to his right and took cover behind a couple of crates as he pulled his own firearm out. He had been counting the number of rounds fired and decided to wait for the right opportunity. He waited for a few seconds and when he realized that the rounds in the magazine were over, he peeked out and tried to take a shot. He was about to discharge his firearm when he heard the crack of a whip. "That is waste against humans. It is actually giving away your position," thought Glen. He had already known that Balthazar knew how to use a whip and he was learning to tame beasts in the mansion grounds. So, he was sure that Balthazar would use it. He expected Balthazar to use his whip and immediately pulled his hand back to avoid the whip and even hopefully catch it, but it never came into his sight. Instead, he found a grenade near him. "Shit!" yelled Glen as he turned around and jumped to get away from it. He realized that the whip crack was just a distraction. Still, he didn''t think much about it was not enough to harm him with all his armour. As he was jumping back, he suddenly bumped into Balthazar who stuck his knives into his neck and an eye. He didn''t even realize it till he felt the pain of the blades stabbing into him. The grenade exploded pushing him further towards Balthazar and the blades into him. He fell on top of Balthazar who had used him as cover from the explosion. "Impossible," he croaked hardly audible as the blood gushed out of his neck. He couldn''t understand how he could come here where the grenade was just thrown from the opposite side. Balthazar quickly pushed him off his body as he got up the dying Glen. "It is possible. I was atop the crates here and I am quite silent. The gun was left there since I started firing it. I just used the whip to throw the grenade and it appeared to be thrown from the other direction while I jumped down when you were frightened of the explosion," explained Balthazar. "You honestly didn''t expect a proper duel, did you?" said Balthazar sarcastically as he caught the knife stuck in Glen''s neck and pulled to the side forcefully causing Glen''s spine to break and kill him quickly. As he died the duel was over, Glen''s body disappeared, and he spawned again. "You were good. Silent and quick. I didn''t hear you at all even though you came quite close to me," said Glen disappointed that he failed so badly, but he was looking at Balthazar in admiration. "No wonder, you managed to silently get information from them and deal them a good blow at your citadel," he continued. "You have a knack for scheming and strategy. I had practiced quite a bit in this map and the other ones I have. Still you managed to take advantage of me so quickly and defeated me within a minute. I am thoroughly impressed." "Ah! You are embarrassing me," joked Balthazar. "Can we move on to the next one? What is it going to be, combat suits are allow this time."? "I wanted to try two maps. That was all, but since you already won the bet," "I thought we decided not consider the bet," interrupted Balthazar. "You won the bet. Take the victory," said Glen. "We can just forget about the third match. I am satisfied. Introduce me to the game." "Sure," said Balthazar. He also didn''t feel like continuing. Thought he found Glen to be a good sparring partner, he believed that only if they were to fight directly in an empty map. Such maps gave him a good advantage and after the second fight, he felt that Glen was not adequate to be a good opponent in such maps. "Just register to the game and play. It is all self-explanatory. There are different nations and different tribes available. I recommend using human as you race. It is the best option, especially if you intend to use manual control to play the game. Else, most of your movements in combat would be regulated by the available ones," said Balthazar. "Which nation are you in. I will join you. It would be easier, and I would also like to know how to get a decent profit. I don''t trust others to honestly help me," said Glen. "Get to Five Elements Empire or White Heart Kingdom. I can help you. You will be put in a beginner town at the start of the game. For the first ten levels you would be there. Then you will be able to move. Anyway, my nick is Shadow Tyrant. Just send me a friend request informing it is you. I will accept. But it is best if you play the beginner village on you own. It will give you a good perspective of the game," said Balthazar. "Ok. I will try it on my own first and will contact you," said Glen as he went into the game. Balthazar was also pushed out of the arena as Glen had cleared the arena that he had established. Balthazar wanted access to the feature and train similar to Glen. So, he put in a mail to Glen and included Elias asking for the permission and then logged in to the game. He was back in the Murk Water town and it had already become morning. He was spawned at the gates of the Murk Water town and he first contacted Agua Canalon. "Mr. Shadow, you are about six hours late. I have joined a group and are farming at the forest. Want to join us?" asked Agua Canalon. "We are quite close to the area where we captured the mud lizards. There are other joining us too. It would be much easier with you joining us." "No. I wouldn''t be joining you guys now. I am more interested in the Greybark marshlands," replied Balthazar. "Might not be that useful. There are many exploring there, and the competition is very high. Really hard to get anything and the area has a high fatality rate. The Valhalla Raiders continue to employ the Ardent Ronins and any other team they can to explore that place. They kind of formed a group under a few members of the Raider''s management. They are not allowing others to enter deeper regions to even find something new," said Agua. "I was expecting that, but it definitely is better than the forest. Anyway, that is not the main issue. What did your guild think about my suggestion of creating a new subsidiary guild?" asked Balthazar. "The managers have their view split, but Muramasa is supporting you. He suggested that we start working on it. My team already registered with the new guild name - Free Life." "That is good. I will find someone to represent Crimson Realm and get him to the town soon," said Balthazar. "I also have a few antidotes ready which can be used against the beasts in the GreyBark marshlands. We can put them up for sale to start with. Try to get hold of some poisonous materials, poison of the beasts and herbs from the marsh. I will pay for them." "Ok. You managed to find another recipe for the antidote. We have alchemist who could be hired to speed up the process." "No, I managed to create it by some other means, but need different kinds of poisons." "Sure, will try my best. Will probably return with our bags full in a few hours to the town. The forests are currently empty as all players are being taken by the Valhalla Raiders to help them at the marshlands. They are splurging money for some reason. The antidotes will sell for a good price in these conditions," said Agua. "Yes, they seemed a bit desperate yesterday. It looks like someone in the guild has a quest in that area, but the beasts are extremely violent and easily noticing the players," said Shadow. "Yes, currently the forest and even the coast are being neglected by the Raiders. They are putting all their force into it. They have been at it for the past two hours. You can try the coast if you want to, right now. Will not get a better time," said Agua. "But best avoid the public eyes. The Raiders are a bit possessive of their areas. If they find out about it, they might attack you later even if they don''t have the time now." "Ok. Let us meet when you return. I will move in stealth at the coast. Thanks," said Balthazar as he cut the call. "Now, I need to increase my experience first. Without that it is a waste to pursue those Knuckers," thought Balthazar. "But first a visit to the temple. The rest will be filled with many normal quests and that is definitely a better place with my iron-grade membership." He went to the temple, but he received nothing other than a common collection quest for some herbs. Putting it aside, he decided to go to the coastal guard again. Creating equipment and gaining free experience was the fastest way for him. Moreover, he had already gained some experience and even reputation from the coastal guards. He went to the coast and move in stealth till he reached the coastal guard station. As he got into the main hall, he started to check the quests board and found that there were no updates and the forging quest was still his best option to quickly gain experience. As he was about to request it again, he found himself being pulled on the shoulder by someone. On turning around, he found the son of the town head, Barnabus along with a pair of guards in the coastal guard uniform. Even Barnabus wore the same uniform and he was smiling at him in a weird manner. "Shit, this guy became the lieutenant''s apprentice. Did I shoot myself in the foot coming up finishing that quest for the temple?" thought Balthazar as he saw this NPC who was fond of yelling at him. He had forced an apprenticeship on the NPC, and he might have the authority to prevent him from taking quests at the coastal guard station. Chapter 224 - Escort "Young master, Barnabus. I see that you have joined the guards. You look quite dashing in the uniform. Women wouldn''t be able to move their eyes of you," he said trying to appeal to the vanity of the young NPC. Sadly, his efforts did not work. "Of course, women always find this young master pleasing to the eye. It has nothing to do with this ugly uniform," said Barnabus. "What are you doing here?" asked Barnabus in a haughty manner. "I came to take up forging quest for the guards," said Balthazar. "No. You didn''t. I forbid you to perform any quests or enter the coastal guard station," said Barnabus. Balthazar was fl.u.s.tered when he heard the NPC, but his fears were calmed as he noticed that there were no notifications. Usually if a player lost favourability with an organisation or was banished from it, there would be a proper notification. This time there was none, and he still had the tag of being an honorary member of the coastal guard in his profile information. So, he was sure that he could continue. The receptionist also didn''t say anything and was processing his request for thee forging quest. "What are you still waiting here for? Do you want my men to throw you out?" asked Barnabus as the two guard on either side of him began to flex their arms menacingly. Balthazar began to take a step back as he didn''t know what to do. The two guards were listening to Barnabus and started moving towards him. If he attacked them in the main hall to avoid capture, he might lose the little coastal guard favourability points that he gained. He was stuck with no idea of what he could do. This was a completely unexpected scenario for Balthazar. "Oh, you are going to throw him out?" asked a voice from behind him suddenly. It was the lieutenant. Lieutenant Bloom had come to the room and was standing behind the receptionist. He was looking very angrily at Barnabus, who looked slightly frightened. "Did you finish your work?" asked Bloom looking at Barnabus. "Yes, I have arranged for the lookout posts to be built on the coasts," said Barnabus. "I told you to supervise and help them in setting up the posts, not order my men to help you. Moreover, how do I find two of my men who are supposed to be working on your sides," snarled Bloom. "Sir, I was.." started Barnabus. "Shut up," said Bloom. "You are a trainee currently and so are most of the members who joined the guards. I have put their names as such as they still consider you their employee. You will only be given half the pay and that too if you put your own hands to work. Now, join the others in building the outposts. They have to be done by tonight. Else, it would be all in vain." "And lastly, you don''t get to give orders here, Barnabus. You need to earn that right yet. If I find you ordering adventurers or offering money for their services. I will have to punish you according to the laws of the coastal guard for illegal dealings. I hope you don''t continue with this behaviour and the same goes for the pair of you and anyone else that joined today," continued Bloom. "You come with me to my office," said Bloom pointing at Balthazar. "Why is he calling me?" thought Balthazar as he followed Bloom to his office. He began to wonder if the lieutenant was going to suggest him to not come to avoid more conflict. As he went into the office, Bloom signalled him to take a seat. "Your suggestion helped to avoid a fight between the town and the guards, but it also brought its own set of difficulties," said Bloom as he took a seat. "Though Theodore told his son and his men to follow my orders. It is hard to manage them. They are good fighters, but they have to consider Barnabus''s words. They were actually employed by Theodore and he pays them. So, it is expected that they might be a bit hesitant to not follow Barnabus''s orders." "That is true, but you can avoid it by not letting him be with them. Let a couple of your own men whom you trust look over him and train him. Wouldn''t that solve the problem?" asked Balthazar. "I thought the same, but it is not so easy. Even they are bit afraid of him and it is hard to not consider their situation. They have not signed up to be babysitters and they are not qualified. They would consider him to be the same as a normal trainee and would rather beat him to get him in line. But Theodore specifically requested that we don''t do so," said Bloom. "Now that I had Barnabus as my apprentice and have reported my superiors of his mistake, I could use his name and kick him out of the guards," said Bloom. "That does solve your problem and would put all this behind," said Balthazar. "But I really am in need of more men which Theodore is happy to supply if I train his kid. He also wants his son to join the guards and learn a bit more discipline and become a man who can live on his own as any father would hope for his son. The beasts are becoming more restless for the past few day and I would also like to keep these extra soldiers," said Bloom. "This brings me to the matter at hand. I need someone not in the guards to put in some fear in him. So, I thought of you," said Bloom. Balthazar felt like punching himself in his face when he heard that. He never had much tolerance towards the self-entitled snobbish rich kids, and he didn''t want to take a quest in which he had to babysit one of those. "I really don''t think that I am capable of something like that," said Balthazar as fast as he could before any quest request popped up. "He wouldn''t listen to me at all. It would be impossible for me to train him. He would just not care, and I would require to physically discipline him." "Haha," laughed Bloom. "You are thinking too much. Neither me nor Theodore want you to mentor him. We discussed it and decided on a simple solution. We have a small quest in mind which would take you to the forest. You just need to guard him so that he doesn''t get killed or any irrecoverable injuries. A bit of fear would set many a man straight." "If you want to frighten him. I can attempt an assassination feint," said Balthazar as he felt it to be better instead. "That would just make him cry and force him to beef up his own security. Assassinations though bring fear wouldn''t make a person to work hard. Assassin only aim to kill, and they happen very fast. It wouldn''t bring the right effect," said Bloom. "The quest will be like a competition and I will tell him that you would be reporting to me about his performance so that he doesn''t attempt to cheat or claim you work for his." "Would the town head agree?" asked Balthazar. "I have already talked about the details with him. He was fine with it. The beasts in the forest are much less dangerous and, in the map, where I am sending you, there wouldn''t be much danger. He also hired a few personnel to guard him. If things go south, the man will pull him out, escape and treat him. So, do you agree?" asked Bloom. "Fine," said Balthazar. "I might need a bit of time to prepare. If it is to guard him and protect him, we will have a better chance of success if I get a few of my friend. With more adventurers we would have a better team and teamwork." "Sure, that is definitely better," said Bloom. "I will let you have a couple of hours to prepare. Gather your friends and meet at the main hall after that so that you can take him to the quest. I will make sure he is ready and available in two hours." Though he didn''t like the nature of the quest. It was from the coastal guard where he wanted a bit of reputation and contribution points. This was a good option. As he agreed a notification popped up. New quest: Escort Barnabus to search for star blade grass. (Can be shared with 4 more players.) Description: Escort Barnabus on his quest to gather star blade grass and protect him from dangers. Make sure that Barnabus fights a beast and help him defeat a beast. Note: The greater number of beasts you fight and more blades of grass you collect, the more rewards you get. He went back to the main hall and let go of the forging quest. With him taking this new quest, he did have some preparations to do. He first let Agua Canalon and his team know of the new quest and convinced them that it would not be an issue as the quest will take place in the forest. After that he needed to prepare some antivenom to protect against the venomous beasts of the Greybark marshlands. Though, he currently had no intentions to do any explorations till he levels up a couple of times, he needed them because he intended to help the guild that Agua and he are setting up in the town. He first went to town to buy any venom and herbs that the players who fought in the marshlands were selling. Though the Raiders had spread their members in the marshland and were buying most of the items that players acquired, they couldn''t consume all of it as the players attempting it increased. The players began to come back to the town and sell it. There were a number of other adventure groups and player groups interested in them too. Venom was always a good option to help kill beasts. Meat of the beasts was a constant consumable. Some players began to stock and store herbs with the assumption that their price might soon raise as it was a common belief in games that almost all items which require effort to acquire in games would be worth more. He had previously informed Agua to get these materials from such players, but now he had come to buy them personally. He quickly filled made enough purchases and went back to the tamer, Kiran''s workplace where he started to inject pets with venom and also started using the other method to produce antidotes quickly. He needed them to gather the attention of the crowd and not it was much more important as some player would definitely see him with Barnabus who was wearing the coastal guard uniform. Even though his description would identify him as the son of the town head, the Raiders would still be informed and might take action. So, the antidotes were needed urgently to prevent them from taking serious actions and gather influence. Based on the amount they are spending to complete the quest in the marsh, they would consider holding back from killing his team to get hands on the antidotes. After a couple of hours, he made close to a hundred antidotes of different types and then went back to the coastal guard station to start the quest. As he entered the main hall, he found Barnabus with a pair of guards on his either side. "You ready?" he asked Barnabus who looked irritated and angry. "Yes," said Barnabus in a low tone. "Anyone else joining us?" "They will join us at the town. Let us go back," said Balthazar as he took Barnabus back to the town. As they reached the town, there were quite a number of players who were looking at him oddly and talking about him. He knew that it was because of him interacting with NPCs wearing the uniform of the coastal guards. As they reached the gate, he got a call form Agua Canalon. "Hi, are you back to the town. I got a good mission," said Balthazar as he lifted the call. "Good mission, are you suicidal?" asked Agua from the other side. He looked a bit aggrieved and tensed. "Why are you walking around with members of the coastal guard? Do you want the Raiders to kill you?" "Ah! It is not an issue. I got this from the mission from the town head. I am just helping this NPC to complete a mission. Join me it is no big deal. Let your people start with selling the antidotes that I have in the meantime. It will dissuade the Raiders from taking any action against us," said Shadow. "That would have probably worked before, but with us openly defying their warning by going to the coast to take a quest, they would definitely be angered. It would take some time for them to believe that only we have the antidote and that only you have the method for now," said Agua still unconvinced. "Let me send you a picture," said Balthazar as he sent screenshots of different types of antidotes. They were for poisons of different creatures and depending on the type of method used to create them, they had different duration for which they would be effective. "You can put all different types on sale at once and announce that this is a special product made by an alchemist without a recipe. Looking at the types, they are bound to think so. If one had the recipe, he wouldn''t waste on experimenting different types," said Balthazar. "Fine, I will come, and my man will put this up for sale in the market," said Agua. "About the alchemist, should we tell them your name. It would be quite a deterrent if they learn that the Shadow is the one creating them." "No, that would be bad. They would be trying to get the alchemist to join them if they think it is a normal alchemist. Tell them the name is fleet-footed rogue. As they try to negotiate with me, you will get enough time to build influence. If you end up tell that it is Shadow, they will try to kill me as they know that they can get me to join them," said Shadow. Chapter 225 - Escort - II Balthazar went along with Barnabus to the town head''s place where the two guards escorting him departed and he waited for Agua and the rest to join him. A few seconds later, Agua and his team joined them and during that time a number of other players kept pointing at him and Barnabus. "You took your time," said Balthazar as saw Agua and quickly shared his quest with them. "Only four of us can take the quest," said Agua looking at the description. There were close to ten in his team. "Fine, we need others to handle the issues of the antivenom anyway," he said as he set a few members aside to join the quest and Shadow quickly distributed the antidotes to the remaining. After that they started to move into the forest from the town. A few players looked at them like they were crazy while others in admiration or anger. Luckily, none of them disturbed the team as they could see that Barnabus was moving along with them. He was dressed as a coastal guard and though they could see him as a level 15 NPC, no one wanted to fight with him unnecessarily especially after they looked at his description that he was the town head''s son. Attacking him or his team in their view could even result in being kicked out of the town. Balthazar understood that no one would attack them now because of Barnabus'' uniform, but his concern was about the future after they were done with the mission. So, he was a bit concerned that there were many looking at them, but he couldn''t avoid it. He could only put on a brave face as he was leading the team. The team had a fae elementalist, a guardian and a priest along with Agua and Shadow. Before went into the forest, Shadow turned towards Barnabus to tell him a few things. It was always better to make the NPCs aware of their plans otherwise, the quests might become unnecessarily complicated. "Young master, Barnabus," said Shadow stopping the others. "There are a few ground rules you need to follow. I will be leading the team from here on and everyone would have to listen to my orders. I welcome any suggestions that you have during the mission, but you are not to act on your suggestions or assumption without my explicit permission." Hearing him command, the NPC Barnabus was grinding his teeth in anger, his eyes shooting daggers at Shadow. "Don''t push it, you mongrel," said Barnabus. "You better not mess with me." "I won''t do anything of such sort as long as you do as you are told and work effectively with the others to finish the quest," replied Shadow. "But first, tell me how you fight?" "Better than someone like you," replied Barnabus in anger. "I doubt that, and I am not asking about how good you are fighting. I want to know what your speciality is. What weapon you use? You are a magician of physical combatant? Can you identify the different plants and beasts?" asked Shadow. "An archer. My trainer says that I have great eyesight and would be a very good scout," said Barnabus proudly but Shadow greatly doubted that. He found it hard to believe the word of a self-entitled rich kid, but he was glad that he would fight from a distance if necessary and wouldn''t get near the monsters in a conflict which makes his work much easier. "A good sight is not the only thing a scout requires, but I will let you search for the herbs once we get to the area marked on the map," said Shadow. "Till that time, you will be in the back along with the Agua. He is in charge when I am not near." "Handle this one carefully," he whispered in Agua''s ear. "He is a bit of a spoilt prince type character and is a pain to control." With that the group began to move into the forest. Shadow took lead in scouting along with a fae elementalist. The elementalist called wings of fire could fly up and stay on the trees giving him a better view of the area ahead. With the pair of them on the lookout, there weren''t any problems as they made their way to the location specified on the map. Shadow scouted the path ahead and continuously sent them information so that they would not come across many beasts. This came as a disappointment to the players of the team as the quest clearly told them that the greater number of beasts they killed, the better their reward, but Shadow didn''t think the same. He considered the safety of the NPC to be most important. So, he wanted to avoid any beast if possible. Moreover, he noticed along the way that the low-level beasts in the way were being easily killed by them. Barnabus himself was a level-17 NPC. He was able to shoot at the lower level beasts with relative ease like a professional. So, Balthazar believed that killing them wouldn''t probably earn them any decent rewards. He was sure that the rewards would be calculated based on the level of the beasts they kill. Shadow had enough experience with quests in his previous life to know the things which would be considered by the system to be important for the quest. Knowing that the reason for Barnabus to be on the quest was to make him understand fear and the need for teamwork to survive, he was sure that the level of the beast they kill would be important. Shadow actually was looking for any level 17 or higher-level beast to fight but he didn''t find any till they reached the area marked in the map. The area was in a part of the forest which had a plain terrain and a thin stream passing through it. It was a grassland with the tallest of the plants being less than 3 feet tall. This was good in a sense that they could easily find out any big beasts that were dangerous. The bad news was that the fae became useless. He couldn''t keep flying continuously as it would drain his stamina points. Apart from that, they were all tall figures and were easily visible to the other beasts. "Keep close to the ground," said Shadow. "We don''t want to attract any unwanted attention from the beasts. Keep on lookout for the star blade grass." "That stuff is usually found close to the stream. They would appear as blueish green grass which sparkle during both day and night. They will be as lone stalks in middle of other grass but finding them like that is very hard. The star deer like them and we can find the grass by following the star deer," said Barnabus surprising them. He had been sulking and scowling all the way angry with both his father and the lieutenant for sending him on this mission with whom he considered pawns to be used as required. So, he started to teach them about it. "Those beasts even take care of the brass by pulling out all other vegetation near any star blade grass they find so that the star blade grass gets more nutrient and water. Why else would the star blade grass be in isolated spots?" "You have quite a good knowledge of the beasts and the grass, young master," remarked Balthazar. "Of course, I do," replied Barnabus in a haughty tone. "Everyone thinks that I am just sitting and giving orders without doing any physical work. I don''t need to do any. I know many things about the vegetation and the beasts around the town and few others nearby." "So, we will probably get into fights with the star deer when we go for the grass," said Agua happily. He found it to be a good thing as he found the NPC Barnabus to be quite adept with his bow and he didn''t think that it would be hard to kill those beasts if they encountered them. "Yes, the only problem is that we don''t want the ones in a herd. The ones taking care of star blade grass usually are isolated and not in large groups. Even beasts know that more deer imply a good chance of trampling on the grass. They used their antlers to pull out the vegetation surrounding the star blade grass," said Barnabus. "So, look for two to four deer with their antlers scratching the soil." "That is quite useful. We will keep a lookout for it," said Agua excited. "We don''t get much useful suggestion in a quest usually." "But are the beasts really intelligent enough to farm grass like that? It is like a society?" continued Agua. It was common for beasts at higher levels to have a modic.u.m of intelligence in many games, but he found it hard that beasts could farm. "Well, there are some rare ones. Most of the star deer don''t form large herds except in plain areas like this one," said Barnabus pointing at the field. "Most beasts that herd have societies. It is just that these managed to find a way to help their society grow without fighting other beasts." "Enough biology lessons. Let us search for the grass," said Balthazar. "We will try to steal the grass if possible, rather than attack the deer." "That won''t help against our quest," messaged Agua. "I doubt it will work perfectly. I will scout ahead for the grass," said Balthazar loudly. "You guys keep close. With a fae in our ranks, he could quickly spot any skirmish and quickly lead you to help if necessary." "Let us first get the grass," he messaged to his team. "After that we will try to kill a few deer." Shadow pulled out a scope and asked Agua, " You have one of these?" "No." "Keep it and keep an eye out for me. If you find any of star blade grass, inform me this will make it faster," said Shadow went into stealth and moved ahead towards the stream. Though Barbabus informed him that the grass could be found by following deer, he didn''t want to do so. He preferred to search for the blades of grass which the deer missed. It was hard work as he had to keep avoiding the deer while he searched for the grass. After half an hour he finally managed to find a blade of the grass and quickly plucked it. "Acquired an adolescent blade of star blade grass." "Herbalism proficiency +1." "An adolescent blade of star blade grass?" wondered Balthazar and then a thought struck his mind and he checked the status of the quest and found the number of blades collected to still be zero. Suspicious, he went to Barnabus and asked about it. "Of course, you would find an adolescent one. They are hardly useful to the coastal guard. The smell of mature ones would attract the deer and it would be shocking if they are left alone," said Barnabus as if it was an obvious thing to know. Balthazar immediately understood that the NPC was getting back at him by hiding that information and making him work all this time. "You couldn''t have told that before?" snarled Shadow. "I didn''t expect that one wouldn''t something so obvious," answered the NPC. "This means we have to fight the deer," said Agua. He was glad about the fact that they had to fight the deer. He was taking a big risk and didn''t want to lose any extra experience of points they might get. He was already at level 17, the same as the deer and didn''t think that they would pose much danger as they had already killed few star deer before "Fine. Let us attack directly," said Shadow. "Hopefully, Barnabus is good at evading the beasts," he thought as they decided to start attacking beasts directly. "We need to kill them quickly," said Shadow as he started arranging the team. He was in the front along with the guardian. They planned to distract the deer while the fae elementalist flew in from the sky and harvested the grass. They soon found a small group of three deer behaving as Barnabus explained. Shadow went into stealth and got close to one and put the daggers into its ears causing it to shriek in pain. "Quick attack them before any others come," shouted Agua as he commanded his team to attack the deer. "Not an issue. The deer in the group work with each other, but the other deer won''t reinforce them. They usually assume it is a predator and keep away," said Barnabus. "If it wasn''t so then the entire plain would be ruled by this deer." "There are predators that can kill them in this plain?" asked Shadow. This was very important. All this time, he didn''t find any beasts other than deer which were level 17. "Sure, grassland tigers are one of the dangerous ones in this area, but we will kill them too when they come," said Barnabus. Balthazar wanted to slap the NPC, but he put his focus on quickly killing the deer as they were the priority. It took them only ten minutes to kill them and get the blade of grass. This time the grass was luckily a mature one and the quest got updated accordingly. Satisfied with it they continued to kill the deer. For every blade of grass, they had to kill a few of the star deer. But no one cared. It wasn''t hard and no one lost much health. Even Barnabus proved to be quite competent and managed deal as much damage as a player. The NPC was better than two other players in the team in terms of damage. They were farming peacefully and over the time, there were a couple of instances when the NPC was attacked. As expected, he was not good at evading and took a bit of damage from the deer, but the guardian took over for Barnabus and kept him safe while the priest healed. In this manner, they continued and quickly gather the required amount, but none of the team were satisfied and Barnabus also was helpful without grumbling. So, they continued to farm on the grassland, when the NPC received a sudden attack from behind. Chapter 226 - Tussle in the grass A notification popped up informing them that Barnabus was attacked and would bleed out in 10 minutes if not properly healed. It shocked all the player as they were continuously guarding him with players on all four sides of the NPC. So, they found it hard that some beast managed to get through them, and it also attacked Barnabus instead of them who were beside him in four directions. It made no sense. The quickly turned to attack the beasts and found that the beast was strong enough to pull the NPC away with the Barnabus''s hand caught by its maw. They quickly began to run after it instead of attacking as they were worried that the attacks might hit the NPCs who was already losing his health slowly. Still, Shadow took out his crossbow and started firing to the surprise of the rest of the team. No one thought that he would risk the NPC and failure of the quest after they finished collecting everything required for the quest. "Are you crazy?" shouted Agua trying to stop him. "No. It will kill him surely if it is allowed to pull him away. We can heal him. Priest get ready," yelled Shadow as he shot a few more bolts. As the beast was dragging the NPC, it wasn''t hard to notice it and aim even though it was green and was camouflaged by the surrounding grass. Hearing him, the elementalists also started firing at the beast after which the beast let go of him. They quickly ran towards him and surrounded him so that the beast couldn''t attack him again and the priest began to heal them. "What was that?" yelled Agua as he wasn''t even able to find a glimpse of the beast, but no cared to properly examine it in the hurry. Even Shadow was worried and didn''t bother to inspect it and only noticed that it was green and yellow in colour. After they formed a perimeter around the NPC, they tried to look for it but couldn''t find it. "That was grassland tiger. The one I warned you about," said Barnabus. "How is that a tiger?" said Agua. "There are not black stripes." "It is a grassland tiger. It is coloured yellow and green like the grass and very hard to spot," yelled Barnabus. "Be on the lookout." "What attracted it to you? It eats deer meat, right?" asked Shadow. The entire team had been collecting star deer meat, bones and antlers. "It does, but it is attracted to the smell of the star blade grass. The star deer smell the same and it confused me with the deer as I have the grass with me," answered Barnabus. "Oh crap, do we need to let go of the grass we collected?" asked Agua. "No need," said Shadow as he took some pieces of the star deer meat and started to swing them across as they assembled around the NPC. "Look for the pieces of meat. It will be attracted to them and we can spot it." A few seconds later, Agua found the beast as it jumped toward one of the pieces of meat. As he pointed, the rest of them immediately looked at it and Shadow swung another piece of meat towards it. [Grassland Tiger] (Elite monster) Level 19. HP: 9650/10000. "Finally, we have a look on it. How are you doing Barnabus?" asked Balthazar. "I will throw a few meats to it. Look if there are more of them in the vicinity." "I am fine. Can''t use my leg but healing up. Don''t worry about other tigers. They are territorial and will tend to fight others if they disturb their hunt," said Barnabus. Balthazar turned towards him and noticed that there was a temporarily crippled note on the NPC''s description. He immediately understood that the NPC was most probably going to be fixed to the spot for the duration of the fight. "That is good. We don''t have to worry about the others. Keep back. I will engage it," said Shadow. "Alone? That is suicide," said Barnabus looking shocked by his words. "I doubt anyone else among us is fast enough," said Shadow as he went into stealth and went near the tiger which was munching happily on the meat. He took his daggers out and decided to put them in its eyes to blind it, but tiger recognized it as he came close. Still he dashed but managed to make a cut about one of its eyes. It roared in anger and lunged at Shadow, but he was fast enough to get away from its claws which were black and 4 inch long each. Though he couldn''t puncture its eye with his daggers, he did enough the bleed above its eye from the cut he made was blinding that eye anyways. There were no notification or signs to the other players, and they couldn''t realize that something like this would actually affect the beast as they didn''t have much experience with the game and never thought it would that realistic. Balthazar who had enough experience knew that this was the best chance to attack the tiger as its vision would be impaired. With the vision of one of its eyes being blocked by the blood, it was trying to paw its face on that side and trying to put some mud on it. Balthazar knew that it would stop bleeding in a few seconds and had to act quickly. He enabled the shadow doppelganger immediately to distract in the same side while going into stealth to attack from the other side. "Attack on its injured side," yelled Shadow as he went into stealth to attack on the other side. Noticing that the beast was injured and blind on one side, the two elementalists began to attack on that side as soon he told them. The guardian and priest were with Barnabus guarding him. With the spells of the two elementalists the beast was focused on them. Balthazar left the shadow doppelganger on that side as he quickly moved towards the other side of the beast. This time he managed to successfully put a dagger into one eye of the beast, but still the beast retaliated almost instinctively. Even with his high speed, the swipe of the tiger was fast that he realized that he couldn''t jump back in time. Luckily, he already had the shadow doppelganger skill enabled and he quickly used the shadow swap to replace his clone. The clone took the swipe on its chest and was thrown away due to the force of the swipe shocking the others and they instinctively took a couple of steps away from the beast. Shadow was also shocked as the hit took about 30% of the clone''s health, which would be 15% of his actual health. The same hit would knock off close to 50% of the health of any other elementalist. "Stay away from the beast, it would take 3 hits to kill you," shouted Shadow but he was glad that the clone was hit as it would be present only for 30 seconds and it helped him realize the damage that could be caused by the beast. "You all right?" asked Agua looking at his partner who was thrown a few metres away by the hit. "Not an issue. It was just my clone. I swapped before I was hit," said Shadow surprising them. "Run that way and keep attacking it from its blind side. It won''t be able to attack properly if keep to that direction." "It will heal we need to have some strong way to attack it. We should have brought the others," said Agua. "Even if they didn''t have the quest it would have been a good precaution." "In hindsight, a lot of things seem to be a good suggestion. Anyway, keep attacking from the blind side. I already have poison on my weapon and if you check it is poisoned and stabbed in the head. It will die or run away after that," said Shadow as he had his doppelganger attack along with him. It was then that the others noticed that a poisoned attribute came up on the beast and it was losing small amount of health every second. "I will try to blind it from the other side," he continued as he began to attack it along with his clone. With both his clone and himself, he was confident to keep at busy for at least another 15 seconds till the clone disappeared. During these 15 seconds the two elementalists managed to get on its blind side and with a fae elementalist it was not hard to keep away from it. He only had to fly for short durations and the tiger was mainly focused on Shadow as he had already managed to blind one of its two eyes. Though it focused mostly on Shadow, he was able to avoid it quite frequently due to it being blind and wasn''t able to attack him properly. He used that to its advantage and though the beast managed to get close to hit him a few times, he managed to block it with his weapons reducing the impact. Agua and other were stunned to see that Shadow didn''t lose much health while blocking the beast''s attacks as it implied that he had both high speed and strong defence. They were sure that he had some great equipment to be able to do that repeatedly in a battle. This continued for a 5 minutes and Shadow managed to stab the other eye during this time permanently blinding it on one side. When the health went down to 30% of its total HP, it suddenly stopped and started to look around. This was the time that Balthazar was most worried about as the beast could go berserk and it could even go at Barnabus again. "I think it is going to go berserk," said Shadow. "Is Barnabus healed yet?" "The f.u.c.k am I supposed to answer, the crippled effect continues to persist. I think he needs higher level healing," said the priest in the team chat. As they were getting ready to fight bitterly, the beast turned around and started to run away. "What was that?" asked Agua looking at it. "Did something frighten it?" "Don''t calm down yet, the grassland tigers are known to be ferocious and they fight to the death," said Barnabus. His words immediately put the rest on alert, but Balthazar knew better. Any beast however ferocious will run away if it believes its enemy can overpower it. This was the downside to blinding beasts, they could still run away before the go completely blind. The tiger which lost one eye and had its blood leaking into another was clearly one of those. "I doubt it would come back, but we need to make some changes. Barnabus, can you ride a horse?" asked Balthazar. They had already collected the required materials to complete the quest and they only needed to return safely. None of the players had a pet mounting learned so they couldn''t use pets to ride without a carriage or cart, but he had been hoping that Barnabus might know as he was an NPC who was the son of a town head. "Of course, I know," said Barnabus. "Do you even know who I am?" "Good. That simplifies things, Barnabus goes on the horse," said Shadow as he pulled out the Clydesdale horse from his pet bag. "What about the others?" asked Barnabus. "There is a high chance that it will come back and attack. We are still in danger." "Is that concern for us?" asked Shadow. "No, I just don''t want my missions to have casualties. It will affect my rating at the guards," replied Barnabus. "So, you are willing to think of us at the very least due to the mission. Similarly, you are the mission for us. We need to get you back to the town safely," said Shadow. "So, get on the horse," he said pulling the horse near him. The guardian player who was near Barnabus pulled him up and helped him up the horse while the others kept a lookout. "Ok. Now we quickly retreat back," said Shadow. The guardian and the priest stayed by the horse along with Barnabus. Shadow led them back towards the town while the other two kept a lookout for the grassland tiger. Balthazar didn''t care for the tiger as he doubted it will come back to attack them. Chapter 227 - Back to MurkWater Town. The thing which bothered him most was the fact that the smell of the star blade grass would attract other beasts. They needed to cover it up for them to retreat. With a horse they would be easily spotted by other beast and when they come close it would be close to impossible that they wouldn''t smell the star blade grass. "The main problem as Barnabus reminded us during the fight is to cover up the scent of the blades of grass that we have. Though it is in our bags it appears that these beasts are exceptionally s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e towards the smell. Any ideas?" asked Shadow. None of the players in the team had any solution. To them, this was a game and they found it a bit ridiculous that Shadow was taking such things seriously. "It is true, even the star deer would attack us. They will surely come close to us once they see the horse as we are new beings impeding on their territory. After that, they will attack us when the smell the star blade grass," said Barnabus. "This is a known thing to have some method to prevent them from smelling it." "Yes, since you are quite knowledgeable, I believe that you would have a method or two to handle this scenario, right?" asked Shadow. He also didn''t have any method and he started the conversation only in hopes that Barnabus might give them some hint. He was sure that it would cause casualties when more than 10 deer would attack them, especially with Barnabus incapacitated and riding on a horse. "The blood of the tiger is the best deterrent. These beasts have a high sense of smell. They will attack us due to the smell of the star grass but collect a few samples of the blood of the grassland tiger and wipe it on yourselves. They will think that we are strong predators who could kill a grassland tiger and wouldn''t mess with us. That will keep them at bay, but a few stronger groups might still get attracted and try to test our strength," explained Barnabus. "Is that enough?" "It is if we are fast enough. There are both pros and cons to this method. The advantage is that it would keep the deer afraid of provoking us," said Barnabus. "But it might attract more of the grassland tigers too. They could consider us a challenge. So, we need to make haste. If both the smells drift to the deer. They would run away, and it is best if we move away before they could make a decision. As we haven''t seen any tigers except that one on the way, I doubt we will run into them if we follow the same path. The only situation where we might have to fight is if there are any star deer in the direction of the town." "That makes sense," said Balthazar as he quickly informed the others to do as Barnabus suggested. Though the fighting in the game was gory as it was in the preliminary stages of the game, the default option was to clear any blood or other disgusting fluids that fall on them during the fight. It was necessary for the players to not be disgusted by it. The players in the team didn''t feel like doing it as they felt it to be barbaric action and closely smelling it was a bit nauseous to them. Though Balthazar knew of such tricks he couldn''t suggest as such a suggestion from him would make the players new to the game think that he is some kind of a freak. But as they heard from the NPC to do it, they followed his instructions as they thought it would make their mission easier. There were a few things that need to be kept in mind when fighting docile beasts like deer. First, they only attack when provoked. They prefer to stick to their own and group together when they come into contact with any other beasts unless they are agitated. This implied that adventurers could always escape their territory, if they avoid them. But the star deer considers anything that has the scent of star blade grass to be a hostile that were coveting the grass and thus, due to the nature of the mission, they couldn''t escape without fighting the deer if they keep the star blade grass. The other adventurers in Balthazar''s current team didn''t really consider the mission to be of a very high importance. To them it was just another mission in another game. If they find it too hard, they would just die and it wasn''t of much importance to them, but to Balthazar it was necessary to find a way to get Barnabus back to the town as he would have a hard time getting reputation with the town and the coastal guard. Along the way they came across a few star deer as they had a horse. They could always duck and cover from the deer in the grass and attack isolated deer, but with a tall horse standing out it was no longer easy to do the same. With them standing out the star deer soon started to attack them actively. Previously, they were the ones who were attacking the deer, but the team realized that it was much harder to fight them when the deer actively attacked them. Luckily, Shadow already had enough experience to deal with such scenarios. He kept the team running while they used only long-distance attacks on the ground near the beasts to deter them instead of injuring them. He also had poison arrows which he used on beasts if they came too close. He used the fast-acting poison that he obtained from the beasts in the Greybark marshlands so that the others would immediately notice the effect on their peer beasts and be more reluctant to chase after them. With these few tricks they managed to get away from the grasslands in quick and agile fashion. Despite it just being a quick getaway and them not even actively engaging any beasts, they had to move much faster than before as they were afraid that the tiger might come again. After they got out of the grassland, they finally took some rest and began to consume bread and water to regain their stamina. "So, do you think we will get any reputation for this quest?" asked Aqua as he slumped his back along a tree and sat down on the ground. "It was far too dangerous for any kind and we need to be considered lucky for being able to escape in time." "The NPC is the son of the town. You will get some reputation for bringing him safely back. Don''t worry too much," said Shadow. "Take some rest and be prepared for the sale of the antivenom. How is it going on by the way? Did you contact them recently?" "Ya. I did most of them were bought by the raiders and ronins as we have guessed, but they were for a good price. They already told that they were just the middlemen and those guys might come looking for you," warned Agua. "It had to happen sooner or later," said Shadow offhandedly. He wasn''t much worried about the guild pressuring him. He was more worried about the Knuckers. Though he had to sell the potions to get money and get into the eyes of the Valhalla Raiders, he was worried that they would be able to kill the Knuckers sooner or later. The only thing on his mind was to get to level 20 and the other thing was to think of a way to subdue the knuckers. Currently, he could only think of using the Valhalla Raiders. "Ya, they will come looking for you, i.e., Fleet-footed Rogue" said Agua. "It would be quite hard to refuse them and continue to work in the town. So, any plans?" "I will work with them as freelance," replied Shadow. "You really think that they would be cool with that?" asked Agua sarcastically. He was quite confident that they would refuse his potions to be sent to anyone other than them. Freelance means that other players would also get access to his antivenom which was definitely not acceptable to them. "Not an issue. I will tell them that I have already signed a contract with you guys to produce a certain number of antidotes per day. It wouldn''t be much of an issue, but I will have to probably increase the amount of time I spend on making the antidotes," said Shadow. "They would just offer to cancel the contract or force us to cancel it," said Agua. "That is a stupid idea." "Not if I tell them that the price of the contract was me losing my proficiency and in return you were going to sell auction my potions and give me 50% of the profit along with materials required. My name is not known or famous. I am a new player who just started in this game," said Shadow. "From the perspective of a player trying to build a new guild, it is a good contract, and they can''t say anything about it." "Why not?" retorted Agua irritated. "They won''t care about morals and the like and will force the guild to disband by attacking us." "Ah, don''t worry about that. I know how to handle the bulling kind. They need to be just threatened properly with a good amount of incentive. As long as they get the lion''s share they will be appeased. That is just the way they are operating in the town. They are just a bit more greedy than the usual guilds." "Screw it, do as you will," said Agua. He felt that Shadow was either overconfident or has appropriate way to deal with them and doesn''t want to tell him about it. If it was the second thing, it was reasonable for him to behave so. If not, he would sooner or later learn his lesson and be a bit more co-operative. Either way, it was just the beginning of the game and they had more time to change things later. "Cool. Now, let us get going," said Shadow. "We had enough rest." After the grassland, the rest of the journey wasn''t much eventful. They encountered a few more beasts but they were lower level beasts than them and could be taken care of while protecting Barnabus without any mishaps. "They are checking for you," said Agua pointing at them. "That was obvious," replied Shadow. "Your men informed you about it." "Ya, they told that about 2 or 3 guys waiting at the gates. This is more than twenty," said Agua. "I am counting on them to sell my goods while they are so bad at counting," joked Balthazar. "Stop your nonsense and decide what to do?" asked Agua. "Just let me talk to them," said Shadow as they as they went closer. He moved ahead of the other players and the horse as they came to the gate to meet them. One of the players from the raiders guild also came forward as he noticed their names which he was searching for. "That is Hard Head, a berserker from the raiders," said Agua as they came close. "He is like the stupidest guy and just blindly listens to orders. He is usually sent to force other players to submit. This is going to be hard." "What about the others?" asked Fleet-footed Rogue (that was the disguise he had used on him as he came to the town). Though he had put on a disguise, he needed to finish the talk fast as he couldn''t have the disguise on for a long time. So, he needed as much of information as required. "He usually doesn''t allow others to talk when he is talking," said Agua. "You can guess from his Id about his personality, can''t you?" "You don''t have much info about them. Do you?" said Balthazar as he looked at the others behind Hard Head. "Don''t worry, I found someone whom I could use." He found the guardian Grand Puba among the few who are behind Hard Head. He was clearly sent by the Ardent Ronins. Balthazar found him a reasonable player and looking at him he understood that they had chance to negotiate. Chapter 228 - Back to MurkWater Town - II "So, you are the fleet-foot that I have heard about," said Hard Head in a loud voice as they came close to the gate. He had a large frame with a full plate armor and came towards them with a steel broadsword in his right hand. "And you are?" asked Balthazar casually without even looking at him as he observed the reactions of the others behind Hard Head. He intentionally didn''t pay attention to Hard Head to irritate him. "I am Hard Head, a member of the Valhalla Raiders," he said angrily while trying block Balthazar''s vision with his body. "Come with me, we need to talk about something," he ordered. "Come with you?" asked Balthazar as he looked at him. "Why would I?" "I you know what is good for you, you better follow me back to the guild. There is someone who wants to talk to you," said Hard Head loudly trying to threaten him. "Did you just threaten me?" asked Balthazar sneering at him. Hard head was angry that a player who depended on his secondary occupation was giving him attitude. Almost all players who were good at occupation such as alchemist or forging had to spend a lot of time on it and were hardly good at combat and they didn''t usually talk back to combat oriented players like him as they were afraid of being killed. He had expected fleet-footed rogue to be the same kind. Moreover, he was a new name, and he didn''t expect him to be good at games. So, he never expected Balthazar to talk back to him in an aggressive manner. His guild was always bullying others, so he didn''t expect a non-combat profession to be like this. Angered by his behavior, Hard head was quick to move his blade to attack, but he found himself suddenly in a stunned state. He didn''t even realize when he was hit in the stomach and only came to know of it when he saw the notification. Before, he could react he was blinded and then found himself dead due to a stab through his brain. It wasn''t just him but the other around him were also surprised. Though the Valhalla Raiders had a strong presence in the town they didn''t dare be so aggressive at the gates where there would be guards. They could be killed easily by the guards or imprisoned if they indulged in PvP so close to the gates. They could also lose reputation. The immediately saw that Balthazar''s name went red in color. The started to shake their heads in dejection. They wanted to kill him immediately but didn''t dare as that would make their names also red. So, they didn''t move. Even, if they didn''t personally attack, they were sure he was going to be captured by the guards behind them and didn''t worry about it. "That was a real stupid thing to do," said Puba who was behind them. The others in the guild were unsure of their next action but Puba had already had contact with Balthazar and tried to talk to him. "Run before the guards capture you." As expected, a couple of guards came close to him, but as they approached, they were aggressive or attacked Balthazar immediately as the others expected. "What happened here?" asked one of the guards looking at Balthazar. Balthazar was not afraid of them either as he had already had it planned. He had enough reputation for third-class citizen and more importantly he was escorting the son of the town head who they could clearly see riding on a horse behind him. So, they expected him to be a representative for Barnabus. Being the town-guards, they were definitely wary of him. "I am currently escorting young master Barnabus as a part of his mission from the coastal guard. The adventurer that I killed was preventing us from finishing our mission. Apart from that the young master was also injured and needs medical attention. So, I attacked and killed him when he raised his weapon," said Balthazar to the guard. "We intend to take him to the mansion where he could be immediately treated. Requesting your support for this." "Clear the path for young master and his entourage," said the guard as he turned around and yelled at the players nearby so that Balthazar along with his team and Barnabus could pass through. Even the name of the player went back to normal from a red name. All the players of the Valhalla Raiders were shocked at the sudden and unexpected turn of events. As they went inside, Balthazar stopped by Puba. "I don''t intend to be against the raiders or the ronins, and I wish to cooperate regarding the antivenom. You guys want my goods and services you better be respectful to me. I will contact you after my mission is done. Hope I don''t have to meet someone like Hard Head again. Tell them that forceful measures would only make things harder for them. Unlike the guilds whose occupation is the game, this is just a hobby for me, and I can make things quite hard for you guys. I got quite a good relationship with the town head," he warned in a very low voice so that only Puba could hear him. As he went away from Puba, the others came around him and asked about him. "What did he talk about?" asked one of them. "He actually wanted to cooperate with us and understood that we are only here due to the antivenom. He just was a bit pissed off by Hard Head''s table manners," answered Puba. "That was all! He killed as he didn''t like Hard Head?" asked the player. "Apparently so, either way. It is not our problem. He clearly has some kind of relationship with some important NPC of the town. So, best not force him. Let us report it before Hard Head comes back after respawn and make a mess of things," said Puba as quickly called Kiriti who could he hoped would control the situation. Balthazar walked into the town without much issue and under the guard of a few NPC guards who were quickly arranged by the guard who conversed with Balthazar at the gate, the entire group made their way to the town head''s mansion. As they reached the mansion, Barnabus was taken inside along with the players to meet the town head. The town head, Theodore quickly called for a healer to treat Barnabus while the others were offered some beverages before he asked Balthazar about the events that transpire in the mission. Balthazar understood quickly that Theodore was only interested about Barnabus''s injury and not about the entire mission as he surely would have already been informed of it. So, he quickly narrated and explained that Barnabus had been the victim of an ambush by the grassland tiger hoping that Theodore wouldn''t blame them. Luckily, Barnabus also joined him and put in a few good words about Balthazar and his team who braved the tiger to save him. Hearing Barnabus word''s, Balthazar and the rest of the team were happy as they were sure that they would get some reputation due to their efforts. As the mission didn''t give much information about the rewards, they were concerned about it all this time. "Thanks for your brave efforts, adventurers. I know that you have been employed by the coastal guard to guard my son, but I also understand that you could have left him for dead during the attack. I will remember your efforts," said Theodore as notifications rang in the ears of the team. "+30 MurkWater Town Reputation Points." "It was our duty, Mr. Theodore. Thank you," said Balthazar. The rest of the team were also very happy. They didn''t have much expectations from this quest. They expect some reward from the coastal guard but that wasn''t of much use as the Valhalla Raiders were trying to monopolize the coast and they didn''t have enough manpower to go against them. Town reputation was much more useful, and this single quest directly gave them enough reputation points to make even someone with no reputation, a third-grade citizens of the town which was a very good thing. "You can go, now. I believe you need to go back to the coastal guards before night. I will send a couple of guards with you," said Theodore. The team quickly went out and sat down in the garden of the mansion as they waited for Barnabus. A few minutes, later Barnabus accompanied by a pair of guards came out and the lot of them went to the coastal guard station. As they reported back to the coastal guard station, they were immediately rewarded with experience and coins. Unexpectedly they didn''t get any coastal guard reputation as Balthazar had expected, but the experience was quite high. "+14000 experience points." It quickly pushed all of them to level 19 except for Balthazar. He was already at level 19 and he required more experience than the rest of them due to his unique equipment. But he was quite closer to getting to level 20. "That was a lot of experience," said Agua surprised that he had earned a good amount of reputation, but he was a bit disappointed that he didn''t get any reputation points from the coastal guard. "Well, it was a hard one. Now, we need to deal with the Valhalla Raiders. Keep safe," said Balthazar. "You can try the missions available here. I doubt you wouldn''t have much trouble with the previous mission." "Sure, it is better to go with this than the other options, but we are afraid about the Raiders. We are thinking it is better to go back to the town," said Agua Canalon. "We will continue with taking quests from the town head or registrar and with the reputation we got we might get better quests." "Your call. I will leave now. I will meet the raiders," said Balthazar. "You want me to join you?" asked Agua. "I might of some help." "No, that would make it just harder. Let me deal with it," said Balthazar as he called up Puba. Puba was the one who spent a bit more time in the game with him and so he trusted him more than the others. "Hi, I was waiting for your call," said Puba. "Come on to the brown hog tavern. Kiriti and Karma are also waiting to meet you." "Karma? Isn''t he the one who needs to finish the quest in the marshlands?" asked Balthazar. "Ya. You killing Hard Head got him interested and he wanted to talk to you. You were a bit too aggressive I guess, but it is no problem. Kiriti will be there and he can support you," said Puba concerned about it. To him Karma who insisted that Hard Head accompany him to talk would probably as bull headed as Hard Head, but he only cared that they complete the mission without much losses. Though they are being compensated, as they get killed, they lose valuable experience which puts them behind. So, he wanted to just deal with Balthazar to get the antivenom in large amounts as soon as possible. "Not an issue. I don''t mind speaking to Karma. It is best if I hash it out with him. Everyone else from that guild in this town listen to him, right? So, talking it out with him would be better and we could avoid confusion as he would have the last word," replied Balthazar as he cut the communication and made way toward the tavern. "I hope he doesn''t behave with Karma in the same way he did with Hard Head," thought Puba. "Karma is a competitive player and any act of aggression from fleet-foot will have the whole guild against him and make our mission in the marsh much more difficult." Though he was worried he couldn''t do much about it other than hope that both Balthazar or Karma wouldn''t do anything too much and this could come to a reasonable conclusion. Chapter 229 - Cooperation. As Balthazar walked to the tavern mentioned by Puba, he found Kiriti waiting at the door for him. "We were waiting for you," said Kirit as he shook Balthazar''s hand. "Just bear with a Karma a bit. I will try my best so that we all walk out much happier than now." "Is he really that hard to deal with?" asked Balthazar. "He is a competitive player. You find many of those who have a good attitude?" asked Kiriti back. "Can''t say I have much experience with many of those. I am kind of new to the gaming thing, but I realize that it is a good and easy way to earn a bit of money while relaxing," replied Fleet-footed Rogue. "Easy way to earn money, huh," said Kiriti. "Just wait for enough time and you will realize that it isn''t that easy. Unless you are a really lucky kind." "No, it is not that hard. Some things are quite similar to the stuff in real world. I have served as medic in the military, pharmacies and some concepts I learned could actually be used here. Just need to be tweaked a bit and experimented to get the right methods in the game," said Balthazar. "You mean that the antivenom was a personal invention and not a drop from a beast or quest reward?" asked Kiriti. "Yeah," nodded Balthazar in response. Hearing that Kiriti''s heart sank. This information implied that Balthazar definitely got the better cards in his hand. If it had been a drop or a quest reward, they would have gotten the method sooner or later and can get rid of Balthazar. Kiriti knew that Karma definitely had such thoughts regarding Balthazar. He led them to a private room, but stopped before they entered. "Karma is inside. Give me a minute, I need to talk to him. You could order anything from the wench in the mean time," said Kiriti. He wanted to inform Karma what he learned from Balthazar. He knew that it could be a lie but lying implied that Balthazar knew enough about the game to not be a newbie. But if Balthazar was an experienced player, lying for such a thing would ruin his reputation and not be something that an experience player would do. Balthazar understood that Kiriti wanted to inform Karma of their conversation and so he want to order a couple of beer for himself while Kiriti got it done. It took him a couple of minutes to get the drinks and he found Kiriti waiting for him at the private rooms door. "So, what does he have to say after you informed him?" asked Balthazar smiling. "Are you really a newbie?" asked Kiriti. He was confused. Some parts of his conversation seemed like an experience professional while others were like that of a newbie. "Yes, but I pick stuff fast. I did ask around about the things I might have to discuss with you guys," replied Balthazar. "Who did you ask?" asked Kiriti. He wanted to find out if any other guild that was guiding him in the dark. But he realized a second later that it was not his business. He was even unsure of the state of his adventurer team after they were done helping Valhalla Raiders mainly Karma with his quest. "Don''t bother," said Kiriti. "Let us talk it all with Karma. He has calmed down." Karma was sitting by a circular table with an irritated expression on his face. As he saw Balthazar enter he changed his expression quickly to greet him. "Hi, I am Karma. I played in War God''s Tempest for the Raiders team," he said enthusiastically as he shook Balthazar''s hand. "Wasn''t much into it. Only played the game for fun a few days in the final year of my college and hardly know much about it," replied Balthazar as Karma''s face turned back to an irritated expression. "So, you had experience in playing virtual games?" asked Karma. "Ya, but that is nothing compared to you guys. It was just a pass time for me. Not a profession like you two," answered Balthazar. He made sure that his words sounded like that of a newbie gamer. "So, how do you like this game?" asked Karma. "Much easier that War God''s Tempest. Have better control options and it much entertaining and good way to pass time. It also doesn''t disrupt with my profession and a good way to channel my anger, almost ther.a.p.eutic," said Balthazar as gulped down the beer. Hearing him both Kiriti and Karma realized that it was going to be very hard to deal with him. To them it was clear that Balthazar wouldn''t allow them to push him around and it was definitely not important for him to have a pleasant and useful relationship with them. Anyone who would call the game ther.a.p.eutic would have rage issues and definitely not an easy person to control. "Ok. Let us get to business. We have little time," said Karma as he sat down and took a sip of his drink to calm himself down. "Sure. I realize that you have some kind of quest in the Greybark marshlands and you need antivenom in your supplies to make continuous attack without losing lives," said Balthazar. "You can just provide the amount you want and I will try to make required number necessary. Except that you need to provide the supplies and pay me an amount similar to the profits that were made by the previous sale of the antivenom." "So, you agree to sell them only to us," asked Kiriti. "No. I am just willing to provide you on a priority but I do have a few conditions," said Balthazar. "What conditions?" asked Karma. "Nothing much. First I have already made a contract with Agua. He is a friend of the cousin who introduced me to this game. So, I trust him. He will sell the antivenom. A certain predetermined amount will be given to you. I can currently produce antidotes that would be effective for 40 minutes and a batch of 20 would take an hour. So, considering the fact that I will actually be active in the game for about 18 hours and willing to spend on this for about 6 hours. I can give you about 80 of them for a fixed price, the rest will be auctioned by Agua due to the contract I already made with him," said Balthazar. "We can help you in dissolving the contract. You can provide all 120 of those you make to us," said Kiriti. He wanted to test if Balthazar was willing to work completely for them atleast for a few days during which they will finish the quest. He gave a subtle look to Karma so that he could support him on this. "Yes. Yes. That wouldn''t take much effort from us, it could be easily done," said Karma. "Oh! I know that you guys can do it easily, but it is not what I want to do. You want more than 80 you will participate in the auction and will not bully any of the players there. If any of those are being bought at a base price or if someone dares to force the other players to stop bidding, I have already told them to not sell the bottles and cancel it. Those 40 will not be sold to you guys either. I will just take them back," said Balthazar. Hearing Balthazar, Karma started to bit his teeth in anger, glaring at Balthazar in a very conspicious manner. "That is ridiculous. Why would stop selling just because of that? It is common for other players to stop bidding when guilds start bidding. They are just giving us face," he yelled as he stood up. "Stick your face wherever, you want, but not so that it would halt my income," replied Balthazar. "I am still giving you face, that is why I am willing to sell you those antidotes even after you sent an imbecile like Hard Head. If you are going to yell for every little thing, I would just take my leave now." "Calm down, Mr. Fleet Foot, Mr. Karma," interrupted Kiriti placing his hands on their shoulders. Karma was fuming in anger in a enraged state and wanted to beat Balthazar in the room. If not for Kiriti who had applied pressure on his shoulde , he wouldn''t have controlled himself and probably tried to assault Balthazar. "Control yourself. The quest is important for you isn''t it. Bear it for now," whispered Kiriti in Karma''s ear. Irrespective of whether he would take Karma''s side or not after his quest, he needed the potions as it was a good number of his own men who were dying due to poison in the marshlands. "We accept it, but is there any chance that we could get more number of antidotes. It is hard to do it with so few of them we need at least 200 to move forward with our efforts," said Kiriti. "200, huh!? Is it really that hard to get rid of those beasts?" asked Balthazar. "No, 200 is just enough to keep them at bay so that Karma can have an opportunity to finish his quest. It is just an optimistic estimate. We can do with quite a few more than that," said Kiriti. "Any chance of that happening." "It is really hard. I can guarantee 80 bottles but the other 40 also can''t be guaranteed by me as I have a job and it is hard to sit down and make them. If it wasn''t for the fact that it earns money faster, I wouldn''t even consider making them," said Balthazar. "If you don''t have time, you can provide the recipe and instructions to our members," suggested Karma. "No. I am not going to sell the method. My cousin informed me that it is a very good way to make myself famous and I understand that having a signature product is quite good for a merchant," said Balthazar. "A merchant. You plan to set up shop permanently in the town?" asked Karma. "Yeah. Why else would I do all this," replied Balthazar. "You do realize that you need help of the local guilds to be successful at it, right?" asked Karma. "I was also told that the local guilds would prioritize access and farming of a new area to any other thing and having stuff like that in one''s monopoly is a very good card to establish a good co-operation," replied Balthazar. Kiriti couldn''t stop himself from laughing when he hear Balthazar''s reply. He was sure that Balthazar was going to have his way as he already realized his advantage. Though Karma was a competitive player of the guild, he wouldn''t have enough power to prevent the guild members to kill monsters in an area. The guild would force him to not retaliate for earning more money. After all, the main goal of a guild was to earn money using the guild. Karma also realized the same and decided to relent. "Fine, it could be acc.u.mulated in two days time, right?" asked Karma. "160 doses of antidote? Yes." "Yeah, we will bid and win the remaining 80 from the shop''s daily auction too," said Karma. "What is the name of the shop?" "Thinking of Free Life trading," said Balthazar. "Good, your terms are acceptable to us. I hope we can set up a contract right now," said Karma. "Wait, a minute that was just my first condition. There are a couple more," said Balthazar. Kiriti indicated with has hand to carry on while Karma kept quiet. "You can never force us to sell you anything for a lower price or stop any people from selling their wares to us," continued Balthazar. Both Karma and Kiriti expected this. Since, Balthazar had an advantage currently, they expected him to make full use of it. The only special item Balthazar had was the antidote currently and hence, they didn''t expect it would cause much problem to their control over the town. They definitely had other methods to hinder the shop''s growth if they wanted to. The looked at each other and nodded towards Balthazar in agreement. "And lastly, this is a personal request. I intend to kill the Knuckers and would like to participate along with you in the fight," said Balthazar. "I hope no one has any issues with that?" "You intend to kill those monsters?" asked Karma surprised. This was a request which made no sense unless one had a special quest to kill them. "How many of them? Do you need their body parts as materials or something?" Karma was a bit conflicted with this request as his own quest was to get an egg from the cave. If Balthazar had a quest to kill one of the beasts, it might continue to gather the egg or something similar which would conflict with his. So, he wanted to know more detail of the quest. Chapter 230 - Cooperation - 2 "I would like to kill as many of them as possible," said Balthazar. He gave a pause as he thought about the materials of the beasts. Thinking for a second, he felt that there would be a good use for them too. "I would also like to get the carcasses of the dead beasts," he added. When Kiriti and Karma heard that he would like to kill as many as possible, they were immediately concerned. Such a quest would usually be something that would be a clearance quest which would give a player, a lot of reputation or even land if they considered any of the previous games. Either of which would be detrimental to the progress of their own guild as Balthazar would definitely be competition if he weren''t a part of them. So, Karma himself couldn''t promise that. "I would need to discuss that with the guild and Harley. She needs to take the call on that," said Karma as he couldn''t make a decision himself. Though he was a competitive professional player, he couldn''t make a decision on this as it could affect the situation of the guild''s development in the town. So, he could only let the local guild head deal with it. "I have no comments about it. It is not my place to decide on it," said Kiriti to both of them. "Should I call Harley?" he asked looking at Karma. "Already did. She intends to come to meet you," said Karma. "She can be a bit forceful. A bit of diplomacy might be required from you," said Kiriti to Balthazar in a private message. "By that, I mean that you need to yield a bit to her. Maybe let her know why you want to kill the Knuckers. Give details of your quest as she would not be willing to accept your request, if she has no idea what the effect could be, of you killing them." His words put Balthazar at dilemma as he didn''t want to give much information to her. Giving them the detail of his weapon and the need to upgrade them by killing dragon lineage creatures was definitely not an option as that would reveal his identity which he intends to keep a secret. They would definitely not accept any form of cooperation and would try to force him out of the town, if they come to know of him as Shadow Tyrant. "I have no quest of any sort that requires me to kill them. I am just trying to get their materials for experimenting," said Balthazar but neither Karma nor Kiriti believed him. "If you are going to be like this, we might be here for quite some time," said Karma. "Someone as stubborn as that crazy woman. It would be fun to watch them argue," thought Karma. "Ok. Let us forget about the quest or your interest in the knuckers for now," said Kiriti. "Any other requests from either of you?" "Nothing, but it would be good to know of your quest. Since, you guys are clearly using all this money for some kind of quest. It would be good to know of it, so that I wouldn''t accidentally cause any hindrance to your work," said Balthazar. "Haha," Karma started laughing as he heard Balthazar. "You don''t want to inform us about your quest, but want me to tell you about mine?" "I have no quest, you idiots," said Balthazar pissed at his words. He was getting irritated by them. "Why do you think that one has to have a quest to explore new stuff. I am not even playing this game for money, but for fun." "Calm down! Calm down!" said Kiriti to both Balthazar and Karma. "Let us not get angry about such stuff." "Mr. Rogue, I am sure you can understand our expectations. We are definitely doing all this due to a quest and you should understand how hard we find it to expect that you are just doing this for fun," said Kiriti. "Right, how could anyone believe that you don''t have a quest or a proper reason for asking us to allow you to participate in the fight. You wanted to kill the knuckers. Even if you want just the materials, we can give it to you and you don''t need to personally join the fight," yelled Karma pointing his finger at Balthazar. "Oh! So, that was what got you confused," said Balthazar laughing as he quickly thought of a plausible reason for Karma''s inquiry. "It is actually very simple," he continued laughing while he slapped at the table repeatedly acting like he was genuinely amused by their doubts. A couple of seconds letter, he stopped his action as he good idea struck him. "I suppose that you would find this hard to understand the way you have been behaving in the town, but the reason is really simple. I don''t trust the guild. Not even the slightest bit," said Balthazar. Karma was slightly shocked by this accusation. It was rare that any person would be so candid. He just sat there his jay slightly open. "You are making it worse," said Kiriti in a singsong tone. "I am not saying that I don''t trust you or Karma," said Balthazar before they could continue. "I don''t trust your guild. There are a lot of members in your guild and they have gotten used to getting their way in the town. Here, they consider themselves the kings. So, they would surely not find it hard to keep some materials for themselves and would rather sell them for money." "They would surely find me an eyesore as I am not offering to join the guild. To be frank, quite a few of them are local bullies and wouldn''t like the fact that I am demanding. I can''t have a contract with everyone participating in the activity and they would have a few tricks to keep some materials from me or harm me," said Balthazar. "So, you should be able to understand that I intend to supervise." "Your words have some validity, but you can''t expect us to believe that is the only reason for you to want to join us. You want us to believe that an alchemist like you wants to take part in the action. It is highly unexpected," said Kiriti. "Well, I am not the usual secondary occupation player," snarled Balthazar in an angry tone as he stood up walked towards them biting his teeth. He glared at them for a few seconds in that manner which made the atmosphere almost suffocating. It was clear to both Karma and Kiriti that he was extremely angered by their comment that he might not be good at fighting. There were almost frightened by his behaviour like it was not a game and real life. "In case, you forgot all the materials that I used to make the antidote were acquired by joining you guys on your expedition. I like fighting more than making antidotes. I have been a combat medic in real life. I actually enjoy the fighting the most," continued Balthazar. Both Karma and Kiriti had never seen such behaviour in other players in games before. All players they had interacted with usually were players from similar backgrounds like them. This behaviour was new to them. Moreover, the only ones that were forceful with them were guild leaders or representatives of big guilds. It was rare for an independent player to behave in this manner with them in this way. Previously no player would have behaved so as they would be afraid of retaliation. This discussion with Balthazar had left them both surprised. They understood that they wouldn''t be successful in getting Balthazar to be more complaint to their requests and only hoped that Harley would be better at it. "Fine, we are cool with it," said Karma taking initiative to break the silence. "My quest is to get a Knucker egg from their lair. It is supposedly in the cave and it is a chain quest. I am going to get a special skill by the end of the quest." "Anything that I should look out for during the attempt to finish the quest?" asked Balthazar happy that Karma finally relinquished. "Nothing. Any and all methods are acceptable, except for one thing. I shouldn''t let the eggs be harmed in any manner and after our preliminary check, we came to realize that the egg would probably have a knucker in its vicinity. So, we can''t use methods like the bombs and have to fight physically with a Knucker or two," said Karma. "Oh! I am more than willing to help you fight it at close quarters," said Balthazar. One of his worries was that they might be tempted to kill them completely with explosives as they had previously tried. The poison was the main reason for them to stop using the method, but after the antidote, he had been a bit worried that they would resort to that approach again if they were not much successful. He no longer needed to worry about this as he would get to fight at the very least one of the beasts. "It is good to know that. Would be counting on your help. I would be leading the team that would be hunting the beast," said Karma. "Anyway, Harley is here. We will go ahead with the quest a couple of days later after we get the required antidotes," he continued as he got up and left the room. A couple of seconds later, he brought a paladin player back to the room. The lady was wearing black heavy plated armor with a big shield over her back. Her helmet covered her entire face only her green eyes visible from a couple of slits. She was a little over 5 feet tall and had a petite build which made her attire sharply contrasting to her body. "So, you are the player selling the antidote," said Harley as she shook Balthazar''s hand. She had a high voice that sounded like that of a little girl. She rested her b.u.t.t.o.c.k.s on the table instead of sitting on a chair and signalled both Karma and Kiriti to get out. "Nice to meet you," said Balthazar. "Harley, is it?" "Yes, let us get to the point. I wouldn''t have come here if not for your stupid requests. Karma''s stupid quest itself is wasting the guilds time. I hate these competitive players, especially the ones that depend on the guild for their quests. Hardly any useful economically and they think that they own the damn guild. Such idiots are easy to fool by clever players like you," said Harley. "I swear that I am not trying to fool anyone," said Balthazar putting his hand flat on his head in an act of swearing. "At least not the way you think," thought Balthazar. "Tch, what is the point of swearing? It is not binding like a contract," replied Harley irately. She always hated such pointless actions. "So, what can I do to convince you?" asked Balthazar. "Sign a contract that you don''t have any quest that requires you to kill those knuckers or clear that area. Only those kinds of quests would bother me as they would affect the guild in the town. I don''t want any competition here and I have been working hard for the past few days to maintain it so," said Harley. "Killing those beasts would be bound to give some kind of experience or might even start a quest," said Balthazar. "What am I to do in such scenarios?" "Then, we will add that you should inform of any quest that is initiated for killing them. If you don''t accept then there is no need for any cooperation. Karma can do his goddamn quest by himself," said Harley. She was sure that Balthazar would end up telling her the truth about his quest. Even if he didn''t, the contract would at least restrict him and he wouldn''t pose much of a problem, but she was sure that he would never accept. "Fine," said Balthazar agreeing to her request. He wanted to upgrade his equipment and that wasn''t a restriction in the contract. "Get the contract and I am willing to sign, but in return I need an assurance that your guild wouldn''t actively provoke or attack the shop that I am establishing and it might be nice to have some business transactions among us." Harley was a bit surprised that he accepted to sign the contract. She thought about other possible scenarios but couldn''t find any that would affect the guild. It was hard to believe that he saw so amicable and couldn''t find any reason to doubt him. She just found him a bit hard-headed but being such a personality herself she didn''t mind much other than the fact that he didn''t join the guild. "Ok. Then, I will allow your requests. Karma will sign the contract with you," said Harley as she walked out. It was better for the guild that a competitive professional player signs the contract as at least the guild owner would take serious action if someone made a fool out of Karma. So, she decided to let him be the party signing the contract. Chapter 231 - Tier 1 As Harley got out of the room, she immediately came to talk to Kiriti, while she sent Karma into the room to sign a contract with Balthazar. Though Karma was the one who had the quest and was a professional player, she valued Kiriti more as he was player who helped develop the guild in the town the most and was the liaison with the Ardent Ronins. She was always the tough one who pressurized the opponents while he was made the deals with others. It was a game of good cop, bad cop played by them in the guild. He handled most of the problems that cropped up due to overexcited players in the guild and was a very responsible employee. He was also one of the few players whom she recruited personally into her guild as she observed his potential. So, she valued his view on this new player, fleet-footed Rogue who was currently being a problem. "What do you think of him?" she asked as the both of them got out of the bar and started walking in the direction of the forest. "He is a tough one and it is not worth fighting him. Recruit if possible, else have a friendly relationship," answered Kiriti. "We also need to keep on the lookout for his actions. He seems to be tough and unrelenting, but if that was the case, he wouldn''t have been so amicable after killing Hard Head. He intends to form an amicable relationship with the guild, else he would have continued to fight others after killing Hard Head. Based on what I was told by Puba, he definitely had the guards of the town on his side at that time and it would be a good opportunity to deal with us. But he relented, which makes it clear that he understands that he can''t fight against us. He just isn''t one to get pushed around." "So, he has his own plans," agreed Harley. "Just keep a look out for him as you suggested, but why do you want to be so passive. Previously, you would have forced a player to accept your terms by using my name. What is different?" "It is the game. The nature of gaming has changed. It is not the same as the previous ones where almost all players have a similar skill set or the strong ones are limited by the physical restrictions of the gaming systems they use. A simple headgear without much need for maintenance does bring a lot of people into the game, who wouldn''t have been the slightest bit interested in such things previously," answered Kiriti. "It is the same reason that you suggested to your brother to search for new blood for the guild for the sake of competitions." "You think, he is one of that kind. It is not possible. Those kinds hardly spend lot of time in the game and it would hard for them to be proficient in a secondary occupation like making potions. Smithing and sewing skills can be developed fast for such people if they had experience in real-life, but this is different," replied Harley. "Yes, that is what I also thought, but he did tell me he was a combat medic and I looked into antivenoms production. Currently, we use pico-tech to dissolve all kinds of venom in real-life, but there are old school methods which could be employed. Such skill would be learn''t by a few rangers or explorers," said Kiriti. "It is just the vibe that he gave me during our first exploration of the marsh. He seemed very adept at it and he also made a personal antidote. So, I am bit concerned." "Still is it necessary to consider him as one of the possible options?" asked Harley still unconvinced of Kiriti''s explanation. "It is just a theory, but better safe. If he is what we suspect, then he might be adept at guerrilla warfare and the forest and the marshes are both really good place for someone like him. It is unnecessary trouble to mess with him just for Karma''s quest at the start of the game," said Kiriti. "In that case, continue with your plan. See if you can recruit him. Money isn''t something of issue if we can recruit a good asset. Most professional competitive players of our club like Karma aren''t that much independent. It would be good to have one of him. He will be a definite improvement," said Harley. "That might not be really possible. He doesn''t seem to be much cared about a constant source of income like us. He also did tell that he needs to attend to his actual job during daytime. So, he might not consider this much important," said Kiriti. "Even money can''t buy a few things, but it would be good to have him as a friend. At the very least, if he is an elite, he could coach our players in his free time." "I understand," said Harley waving her hand as she went back to her team to continue farming experience. Kiriti understood that she left it to him and didn''t care much. He knew he had to take care of things and it was the reason that her brother didn''t let her manage the club which participated in gaming competitions, even though he would rather let her handle it to get some free time. She always had ideas, but rarely followed through them. She lacked patience to see through it till the end. Else, she would be been made the owner of the guild and club by her family already. In the bar, Karma and Balthazar had signed the contract and Balthazar went back to the tamer. He planned to make a few more of the antidotes for the day before he went out of the game. He had a meeting with Herschel early in the morning and he needed to create enough antivenoms to satisfy the according to the treaty. So, he thought it was best to make the necessary amount of antivenom required by the contract first and give them to Agua as he wasn''t sure if he could be busy trying to get to Ryan Rowley. He quickly contacted Agua who had been collecting the required supplies for him and went back to Kiran''s and started with the production of the antidotes. Four hours later in the game, he managed to produce about 90 doses of the antidote and he finally reached level 20. It was a time, he could get to completion of the adventurers association to take the test for becoming a tier 1 adventurer. This was a categorization of the adventurers in the adventurers association. The advantage of taking the test for this categorization is that a player would have better privileges if he was of a higher tier in the association. It had no effect on the levels of the players, but the higher the level of a player when he completes the test, the less rewarding it is. This was common for all the tiers of adventurers. Apart from this information, which was public, Balthazar had a bit more information due to his experience in past life. There was one good thing about the quest, that once a player took it his level would be capped till, he finished or aborted the quest. The experience stored would be used to elevate the player''s level once they successfully completed the quest but would be lost if they aborted it. The quest would be graded based on the level and the completion rate. Aborting once causes the grade of completion to be dropped by a level even if the person had a 100% completion rate the next time. The tier 1 quest also usually gave player opportunities to get special jobs. So, he wanted to take the quest as soon as possible and complete it at level 20. He failed to do so in his past life and that was something he regretted in the game continuously. It made a lot of difference, especially in using special skill and the like. He stopped with creation of the potions and went to the adventurers association to take up the quest. As he went into the adventurers association of the town, he was greeted by a receptionist. On requesting for a tier 1 quest, he was immediately shown a list of quests. They ranged from clearing a bandit cave in the forest, to wild beasts in the marshes. Quite a few of them also referred him to go to the coastal guard and the temple of the twelve. Having joined the game two years after it started in his previous life, he had never seen these many quests. The usual one was to clear a dungeon close by which was at level 25, but one could enter if they accepted the tier 1 quest. He immediately understood that the others were special quests which could provide him with special jobs or skills. He had an urge to try to get to the coastal guard but after a few seconds of thought, he decided that the temple of twelve was a better option as coastal guard special skill would probably only make him better at water based locations. He made his way to the temple of the twelve. As he walked into the temple, the deacon called greeted him. "I heard you have been busy. It seems that you made a good impression on both Mr. Theodore and lieutenant Bloom," said the deacon smiling at him. "What do you require now, adventurer?" "I have been to the adventurers association for getting a tier 1 qualification and was told that the temple could use with a bit of assistance," answered Balthazar. "Oh! That. We have quite a few things that you could help with. On completion, the church will give recommendation to the adventurers association that you are a tier 1 capable adventurer," said the deacon as a list of quests were provided to him. The list had about a hundred quests that Balthazar was surprised that there were so many of them. As he was looking through them, the deacon interrupted him. "I see that you are in possession of some power of shadows and you have a profession which suits the power. So, I would suggest you go to the shadow glen near the city of the Wightbarne. There seems to be some sort of unnatural presence and the branch of the church has asked for assistance," suggested the deacon. New Quest: Blight of the Wightbarne. (Tier 1 qualification quest) Quest Description: An unnatural disease plagues the area near the city of Wightbarne. The church has requested your assistance. Contact the priest at the city to get more details. Quest Rewards: Based on completion rate. Currently unknown. Taking the quest, Balthazar immediately contacted Agua. He wanted to know more about the city of Wightbarne so that it would be easier for him to navigate the place. A few moments later, Agua managed to get him a map that would help him reach the city. As he received the map, he went back to the refining potions. He had plans of going to the city, but he felt that he would have better results if he upgraded his weapons before that. It was a common method in his previous life for players to get better equipment and consumables after taking tier qualification quest and let the experience acc.u.mulate without the level raising. It would give him better grade if he did so. Chapter 232 - To a new city Another five hours took him to finishing enough antidotes for him to finish the contract that he signed with Karma. Once done, he decided to follow the road to the city of Wightbarne. He planned to get a few reputation points in the city so that he could get back to city when required. There was a slight chance that he might stumble into the tier 1 quest accidentally, but he understood that it would be fine if he didn''t go to the temple in the city. So, he planned to avoid the temple at the city as much as he could. Apart from the temple there are few other good quests he could receive in a city currently. It wasn''t the same as White Heart City where he was able to pioneer the development or Rudra''s guild as they were the first to get to the city. A number of players already populated the city, and he didn''t want to waste much time by doing the routine quests to get city reputation. The reward from it are too low and not much exciting. Thus, he wanted to get as much information about the city as he could. Balthazar also wanted to reduce the time he would take to get to the city. A four-hour trip is considered a lot of time waste. Luckily, he was level 20 and the other thing that he could do was to get a mounting skill as mounts would be available from level 20 onwards. It was much easier and faster for him as he already had an acquaintance of a tamer, Kiran in the town. He went back to the tamer''s residence in the town and asked the receptionist about it. He had expected some kind of quest to get the skill required. The receptionist just held out the skill book for him. "Having received the tamer''s acknowledgement and considered his in-name apprentice, you can purchase quite a few animal related skills in exchange for money," said the receptionist. Though it was different from what he had experienced in his previous life, it was true that he had different experience in the game this time. It could be acceptable that having a tamer as his guide was quite useful and pet mounting could be considered a very basic skill for tamers. So, he quickly paid an amount of 2 gold for it though it could be considered very high for a basic skill Though Agua provided him with a map to the city, there wasn''t much other information he could provide to Balthazar. Agua and his team were in the town and didn''t get much involved in the politics of the nearby Wightbarne city. So, he decided to ask Kiriti for more information. As the Valhalla Raiders managed to establish their guild strongly in the town, they were bound to keep an eye on the other player organization in the nearby towns and cities. He had Agua arrange a meeting with Kriti and as Kiriti heard his question, he was quite surprised. "Why do you want to go to the Wightbarne city? That place is on the border of two nations and the players are a lot more competitive there than the town. Here, we have a very good amount of control on the guild. There you might be bullied or even pulled into their fights unawares. There are a lot open PvP happening at the city," said Kiriti clearly advising him to not go there. He had to create antidotes for their team and Kiriti was very concerned about him not being to complete his part of the contract. Though the contract would force him to pay renumerations, it would delay their mission which was not good. "I know that a city would be more dangerous as it is on land and unlike this town, it has no bay separating the two countries which makes fae players coming to fight a commonplace. But I have a tier 1 completion quest for which I need to go there," answered Balthazar. "Fine, I will gather all information that I can get on the city. Just don''t get into much trouble and keep out of sight till we are done with killing the knuckers," replied Kiriti. "You have enough reputation to portal back to the town, right?" "Yes, I am a citizen of the town. I can get back. I even got a map to the city but need more information to complete my quest without getting into much trouble. I guess you understand what I am seeking from you, right?" "Yes, you can start on your way to the city. I have a few adventurer teams whom I have been in contact with. They are the best at collecting such information about whom to avoid and the relative strengths of the different groups. I will get Salket to meet you at the gate. I guess you make haste, you would need some time to get there. It takes about four hours on foot," said Kiriti as he cut the call. "I better have someone I trust follow you. It would give me a chance to know about your true capabilities," thought Kiriti as he called Puba. He didn''t have much influence, but he knew that the Ardent Ronins being an adventurer team would be in contact with others nearby. A few minutes, later he had made the required arrangements and went back to killing beasts with his team. . He already had a pair of horses in his pet pouch and those could be mounted and ridden. He quickly learnt the skill and made way to the city on the horse. Until now, most players didn''t see any player ride a horse and all that they saw were NPCs. So, his exit of the town caused quite a bit of commotion among the players especially the Valhalla Raiders who were surprised that someone not in the guild already managed to get a mount. The information quickly disseminated to almost all the players through the forums and a bunch of discussions about getting mounts soon popped up. Unexpectedly, he brought the attention of the players to the tamer profession to Agua and a few other players who had come to know of his quest with the tamer and soon came to the conclusion that it would be a fast way to get mounts. Horses at the same level as a player were at the very least 5 times faster than the player on foot when moving at a constant pace in the game and they could maintain a constant pace compared to human at their normal movement speed. The players lose their SP at a fast pace by maintaining their highest speed mentioned in their characteristics of the player, but it isn''t the same for mounts. They can maintain their movement speed constantly for a long duration with much smaller gaps than a player which would reduce the travel time quite a bit. A tamer with a good number of proper potions can make the travel time much less. The guidebook that Balthazar received from Kiran had a few general suggestions except for the recipes of such consumables. Even with his current skill set, Balthazar could force his horses to ride at a fast pace making his travel time 10 times faster than himself even though the horses aren''t at the same level as him. He had occasionally fed them and level the two horses twice bringing them to level 17, but still it was much less than his speed. Luckily the Clydesdales were a strong breed which were capable of running at more than 10 times his speed at their fastest pace. So, alternating them by keeping one in the pet pouch and mounting the other and interchanging them at small intervals could reduce his travel time to a bit above half an hour. The good thing about doing this was that riding mounts and feeding them was a good way to slowly level them up too. So, his plan would also increase them by a level and moreover, the fact that he is going to use them on proper road made sure that there wouldn''t be much danger and with a pair of horses he could outrun any ambushes that might happen on the road at this stage of the game. Sticking to these old tricks that he had come to know from his past life, he made to the city gates in a little above 40 minutes in the game. As he reached the destination he found that the city was not as he had expected. He didn''t get a chance to move around in the Five elements empire as much, but as always had expected it to be built like a proper city with large wall and a lot of open space and a number of merchants bustling around continuously like in the White Heart City. The sight he got was quite different. The city had a very dark atmosphere. There were rows of pikes placed all around the city walls. A number of dead fae impaled and left near the gates which was clearly a kind of warning. It was not a city at peace but like a military fort that was at war with the nation beside it. The entire entrance looked quite gruesome and it was definitely not for the faint of heart. He found it hard to believe that the game put such scenes in a public place. Looking at the scene, Balthazar understood why Kiriti suggested that he not go for the quest, but he had already stepped into it and the fact that the deacon referenced to some power within him, he was sure that it was to the Mask of Shadows. So, he was determined to enter the city. The walls were all black and had a bunch of spikes attached to them. On their top one could clearly see a number of ballistae and arrow shooters with a number of personnel moving on guard. There were also occasional patrols riding on giant hawks on that could be seen. Kiriti told him that he would arrange for someone to meet him at the city, but no one was there waiting for him. So, he put in a message to Kiriti that he had arrived at the city and had his horse trot through the city gates. A couple of guards were at the gates and they checked to see if he was a fae and gave a couple of instructions before registering him at the gate and letting him enter. The person who registered him was a player who was doing guard duty and he had asked him about his mount. "Ya, I had received mounting skill book," replied Balthazar taking a chance to look at the person more clearly. He had assumed that it was just an NPC till he heard the question. "Are you from Murk Water town?" asked the person named Salket. "I am. I guess someone posted about me and my mount in the forums," answered Balthazar with a smile. "Good. How about we have a deal?" asked Salket. "You provide me with information about the mount skill and I will provide you with the latest information on the city. Sitting here, I tend to notice a lot about who goes in and out. It is a better deal than anyone else can offer you." "That is quite true. Your job here allows you to gather a lot of information on players movements. So, tell me which guild you are from?" asked Balthazar. "Why do you think I am from a guild?" "There are four gates and suggesting that this the best deal that anyone here can offer implies that there are someone observing at the other gates and you guys cooperate. So, at the very least you are not alone, and I know that sitting here all-day round doesn''t provide much experience or money. Reputation is a different thing. So, I believe that you wouldn''t sit here if you weren''t asked by your guild to do so." "Oh! You are quite clever. Didn''t expect it of you as you came strutting on your horse publicly telling everyone that you know about mounting skills," said Salket. "Just confident that I can escape," answered Balthazar smiling. Chapter 233 - Salket "You are quite the confident one," continued Salket. "Well, I do belong to a guild, the Black Wolves guild." "I hope you are the one that Kiriti referred to meet here at the gate," said Balthazar putting out his hand. "Yep! I realized that as soon as I saw your name but didn''t expect that you would be riding on a horse and manage to come to the city within an hour. That makes it awful tempting for me to get a mount. It would speed up our exploring efficiency by a large amount," said Salket. "I just got lucky. Even Kiriti had no idea at that time that I would manage to get a mounting skill," said Balthazar. "So, can you give me the details that I asked for?" "Yes. Just wait here for a moment before I get someone to replace me here. It would take a couple of minutes and information about a mount would make the guild take my request on priority," said Salket as he signalled to stay by a small shop just inside the gate. As Balthazar went to the shop, he immediately requested for a map of the city from the NPC. Such items are mostly found at the centre of markets or near gates where newcomers would usually buy the required supplies. He quickly got the map from the NPC and continued to wait in the shop while looking at the prices of various consumables. It was a habit he had learned from his past life to look at the different consumables and their prices in shops. He also asked a few questions to the NPC about availability of few other items. It would give a relative idea of the items that are in demand at a new place and glean some information about the market in that area. It was a tactic that could only be used in the game as no person in real-life would be patient enough to answer all his questions even if he bought a few items. There was still a limit on the amount of reality that the game designers could bring to the characters, and this was one of the flaws which players managing organization would use prevalently in the game. Soon, Salket came to join him in the shop. "Got a lot of shopping to do, haven''t you?" he asked Balthazar. "Just looking into the local special," replied Balthazar in a cheeky tone. "Ok. I have the details of the things you are looking into. Can I know about your quest, though?" asked Salket. "I don''t know myself, but I am told it is going to be a hard one and that is the reason I am preparing for it. Have a quest item which I need to give to the priest of the temple. Need to have reputation to teleport. Would also probably have to upgrade my equipment before I contact the NPC in the temple of the twelve," said Balthazar. "That was quite candid. Aren''t you afraid at all that my guild would be interested in your quest and try to take your quest item?" asked Salket. "The letter is in my name in the Murk water town. So, it wouldn''t do any good to you if you get it after killing me and you need a certain amount of the town reputation to request it. Even if you do, it was issue by the adventurers association and I doubt you want to meddle with my quest just to satisfy you curiosity," answered Balthazar. "Ya that would be of no use to anyone. Let me just give you a small tour while I explain the details of the place," said Salket. "You don''t need to worry about it as almost all the players here have the information, just not properly organized and might miss to tell you a few details. I can just message it to you if you like." "No need. It is better if we have a chat in the bar. We can have a proper chat and the drinks are on me," said Balthazar. "Ya. The money that the game earns in the city is mainly based on the bars after the weapons and consumables of course. The number of merchant shops are very less almost the same as that of the Murk Water town," said Salket walking into the city. "It is fine for a town, but for a city it is on the low side." "Wouldn''t that cause a problem as there would be a scarcity of potions and tools available?" asked Balthazar as he followed Salket. "Or are the shops of a higher tier than usual and have more stock?" "No. The stocks in the market are usually the same. That is what makes it much hard to finish quests here, but most quest rewards are better than in other cities. I think it is the common arrangement of border forts or cities," answered Salket. Hearing that things made sense to Balthazar as he knew that some forts, towns and cities on borders of warring nations had this kind of a setup in his previous life. The places were meant for active wars and continuous fighting. It initially didn''t make sense to many as these consumables were used much faster by the players in the environment, but that was not its purpose. The designers made it such a manner specifically for the kind of independent players who enjoyed the game only for the fights and wars. When anyone bought consumables in too large numbers, they were oppressed by these independent players as they would lack the required consumables. Even guilds found it hard to maintain their supplies continuously in such areas. Apart from that, these areas sold equipment which increased the drop rate by a large amount and the quests in such areas also rewarded similar equipment. This made it much harder for guilds to develop easily and a haven for all the independent reckless players. This was particularly good for the kind of rich players who spent large amounts of money to enjoy the game and they also enjoyed bragging and partying about the same. So, a larger number of entertainment establishments was also common in such places. When the working of such places in the game was first exposed in the forms, many players admired the ingenuity of the designers. But soon, it was revealed that such a technique was a common affair in the past before the advent of fire arms and many a king and administrators used such techniques to keep the citizens from being discouraged by the effects of the war. The only difference was that those kings used such a plan to protect their power and lands, the game uses it make much more money in the sales of consumables by promotion of PvP battles while keeping the larger player organizations from using politics to maintain peace and grow steadily. It was of no use to the game if players focused mostly on killing the beasts and NPCs as open PvP was one of the most profitable sources of income for the game. Still, the game maintained moderation, by making only a small percentage of the forts and townsh.i.p.s in this manner as it would reduce the participation of guilds in the game, if they found it to detrimental for their development in the game. "Hmm," said Balthazar as he understood the state of affairs of the city. "I believe this place is made for rich kids who want to party," he commented. "Based on the number of pubs that are in the city." "Ya. The only thing that those big spenders love more than spending their money to kill others is to brag about their adventures," said Salket nodding in agreement. "I think it is good for the guilds too, right?" said Balthazar. "You will have much easier time to get some money in the game by providing security services to the big spenders. Wait a minute are you doing that right now with me?" "Lol," said Salket snickering. "You are not one of those, even though you are treating me for drinks. That kind don''t prefer such secretive movement and come on recommendation of others. Hardly anyone would recommend someone like that to players not in their guilds. Why would someone gift such fertile land to others? Kiriti is no fool and he would surely not be that stupid." "Can''t argue with that," nodded Balthazar as they came in front of an establishment named ''Temptations''. As they were about to go in, Balthazar glanced at the name plaque and pointing at it he asked, "Is the food that good?" "It is not just bars, there are other kinds of entertainments too if the players had a higher reputation. Quite a few places available for doing the cyber-nasty, if you know what I mean," said Salket winking at him. "This is similar to a strip club though. Some pretty lady NPCs dancing around. Only watch no touching else you will be kicked out by the establishment." "There are such kind of places too in a city in the game? Aren''t there any restrictions by the gaming commission?" asked Balthazar even though he knew that as long as it was the NPCs who were doing it, it wasn''t an issue. "Ya, it is players with NPCs. Not an issue even if a player forces himself on an NPC. For situation, that occur between players, the individual can choose to complain or accuse other and even legal action in real-life is possible at any time if one of the parties feels uncomfortable," said Salket stopping at the door. "Though most girls tend to get overly agitated if they find someone they know, enter this kind of places even if it all see, and no touch. So, it is your call if you want to get in." "Like I know anyone here or even had plans to stay here for long," said Balthazar walking in ahead of him. Salket shrugged his shoulders and walked behind him. As they walked in, they found themselves in a large circular hall with an elevated dancing floor in the centre. There were blinking lights flashing all around while there were a couple of dancers holding long silver white feathers. It was quite a mesmerizing scene as they moved around in a fast pace. It was quite eye catching even though they were about 100 feet away from them. There were a number of small round tables place all around hall and a bunch of ring-shaped table and seats around the central dias. There were a number of players and even NPCs seated around in the hall. Even Balthazar found it quite attractive and his eyes got stuck on them for a couple seconds. "Nice view, huh?!" asked Salket as he led them to a round table away from the dancing floor. "If you like them that much, you can dance with them later on request." "Hahaha," replied Balthazar looking away from the dancers. "I am not interested in them that much so as to pay in the game for a dance." "A couple of glasses of fae wine," said Salket to a waiter as they sat down. "Shall we start?" asked Balthazar. "There two guilds other than Wolves that you have to look out in the city. The Neo Centurions and Murder of Angels are both quite large and have a significant network in the city. Avoid all three," said Salket as a couple of glasses of deep blue coloured drinks were brought to them. "OK." "Not that important if you just want to complete the quest, but quite a few independent and reckless players are there that attack first and talk later. The fae will attack you on sight as they would get battle points on killing you. The same is in case of you killing fae. In this region, battle points are most valuable, and you could exchange them for a number of things at the barracks," said Salket. "I guessed. What else?" asked Balthazar getting bored at the things that he was being told.