[Arc 3] Chapter 30

  [Book 2] ~Siege of the Shroud~

  Chapter 1: Travel to the Unknown

  Light bloomed in brilliant colors around us, it felt like pushing through a gel like substance. Through it all, I tried my best to keep hold of Talia’s hand as I pushed further. Sudden flashes of lighting arched past us, but at a slow pace. The searching tendrils went up into the connecting arches. I was used to it, having done it many times before while playing Realm of Ancients.

  Well, before the cataclysm in the real world threw a wrench in the works that is.

  But I couldn’t dwell on those uncertainties at the moment. So I took the last few steps and stomped onto cobbled stone at last. Immediately the resistance stopped and I stumbled forward. I heard Talia take a gulping breath. She probably held her breath. A bit of a chuckle bubbled up in me, I had been the same my first time through a Travelling Stone.

  Ping!

  I tapped it.

  Fossfall Byr Discovered!

  +1 Lore

  “Where are we?” I breathed.

  I shot my eyes around the area. The architecture of the fences around the small plaza was old. Older than I was used to on the mainland in Realm of Ancients. The name wasn’t familiar. A map would be really nice, I didn’t like taking swings in the dark. I was used to the bustling cities of Shai’Gidon and saving rookies from roaming monsters that shouldn’t be where they were. But this was a different region. Yet, I couldn’t imagine it would put me on the far end of the continent.

  Regardless, of where I was, I needed to find out where I was first, and then get to the closest city asap to set up my mailing registration with the pixie network.

  Talia then tapped my shoulder and I looked and there before us stood an old mansion. In front of an elderly gentleman with a turncoat and monocle waited patiently. What intrigued me was the sharp look in his eyes, like he weighed us. He looked slightly out of place in his fancy butler clothes before the large weathered, but clearly intricately, carved doors. “Maybe he knows where we are?” Talia whispered, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

  Nodding, I stepped toward the gentleman. However, before I could even open my mouth, a ping sounded.

  I quickly tapped it.

  [Prerequisites met x 5. Quest chain started. The Forgotten Garden.]

  +3 Fortuity

  Five prerequisites? That was rare. But for that moment, I was more intent on finding out where we were.

  “Good day, sir.” The finely dressed gentleman bowed his head briefly, “Are you here to claim the Guild Mansion my master left behind?”

  I actually burst out laughing, before immediately reigning in my outburst.

  “Forgive me, I was caught off guard. No. I am nowhere near the ability to do such a thing,” I said with all honesty.

  Getting to a place to own a guild mansion with the utter competitive players waging wars over who could buy and own a guild mansion, not to mention that if you bought one, you only leashed it for an in game month. And so the fights would begin again. No, no. I wasn’t in any place to buy that type of thing. Would be useful though, I sighed.

  “But you have a key.” The man said with a slightly baffled look.

  I froze, did a double take and stammered, “W-what do you mean I have a key?”

  The gentleman pointed to my bag of holding and I frowned deeply.

  “This place is not for sale?” Talia asked out of the blue next to me, her auburn hair bounced as she stepped in next to me, looking up at the old mansion built into the cliff.

  “Certainly not!” The elderly butler scoffed, “My master made sure that this place would remain available only to those that went through the trials and found a key for it.”

  I’ve been through a lot of strange lately, but this wasn’t what I expected at all. “And you think I have one of those keys?”

  “Yes, you both do.” The man nodded, tweaking on his monocle, like the notion should have been obvious.

  One last time I threw a ‘No way that could be right’ look at him, before I reached into my bag and pulled out the key we got in Sturm Tsadar.

  I held it up and whispered “Identify” on it. Talia again looked at me like was doing something silly.

  Old key [Rare]

  There is green jade signet at its base. It is a waterfall tumbling over cliffs.

  I looked to my right and beyond some larger trees there was a large waterfall that came falling down from high up in the dark red stone cliffs. Oh.

  I hurried forward and held up the key, I had never done this part before, I felt like a kid about to receive a present. “I am here to unlock this Guild Mansion.”

  “Welcome sir. You may enter into the Redcliff Mansion. First thing inside you would find the map room and then beyond the grand stair case there are more than enough rooms for your entire party. At the back is several utility rooms, but unfortunately the mansion has seen better days, so you need to invest in it to bring it back to its former glory.”

  Ping!

  Ping!

  I tapped both.

  [Congrats on finding and completing the prerequisites to unlock the Redcliff Mansion. A guild hall for 10 parties of 4.][Unique]

  +2 Endurance

  +1 Strength

  +3 Survival

  +15 Patience

  +4 Lore

  I gaped at the 3 major attribute gains and the whopping +15 in Patience. Clearly during my harsh and intense survival in Sturm Tsadar I must have picked up the requirements for this. Talia gained it too, so it must have been since I have been accompanying her. The key drop was just one requirement, which made me wonder what on earth was the other requirements. I could only shrug and check the second notification.

  [Quest unlocked. Redcliff Mansion’s Restoration Part 1]

  That might be worth pursuing. Since this was a guild hall with a Travelling Stone in front of it, having this as a hub for my expeditions, was definitely worth it. But that would have to come later.

  “Good sir, what is your name?” I asked curtly.

  “Frederick Jonah Korwalsky. You may call me Jonah. May I inquire to what your names are?” He inclined his head once more.

  “Leo Stormchild and this is...” I said, holding my hand out towards Talia.

  “Talia… Talia Es Fierena,” Talia said in an odd accent I haven’t really picked up from her before as she curtsied.

  “Pleased to meet you,” Jonah said, “Is there something I may be of service?”

  I nodded. “Indeed. May I ask where is Fossfall Byr located exactly, and where is the closest city?”

  “Certainly. Follow me to the foyer, it would be easier to show you on a map.” Jonah said before sweeping his arm in a gesture to the old doors.

  I turned to Talia and motioned. At the door, I inserted the key and the large doors creaked as I pushed them open, sweeping up a little dust. The air inside smelled slightly stale as new air flowed in from the outside.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  It was a large circular room with two large grand stair cases on the fair side with a balcony overlooking the foyer. A glittering chandelier hung over a central table that had two maps bolted into the velvet frames.

  As I walked towards the continent map, I saw the entirety of the Tai’Vior continent. Did I ever see a complete map of it before? I wondered for a moment.

  Next to it was a region map, and the name on it was Sorvendyre. “Sor-ven-dyre,” I mouthed as my hand traced over it.

  “As you can see, the region we are in presently is the larger region of Sorvendyre, it sits west of Shai’Gidon and North of Aderya.”

  “Wait,” Talia said leaning forward, “I have read the name Aderya in a book before. It was… hmmmm, North of Sturm Tsadar.”

  “You are correct my Miss Fierena.” Jonah said with a nod.

  Hold on just a second. That meant we jumped a massive jump to the North. This might be perfect. I didn’t need to go through Gadasa to reach the tower sieges I need to unlock the region that I was ordered to unlock. Problem was, I knew very little about Sorvendyre, apart from a time specific quest Claire showed me in the region. Still… It gave me a shot.

  “And where is the town Fossfall Byr in Sorvendyre?” I asked, peering at the map.

  “Right on the mid South Western edges of the Niwlen Spine, a little east of the guardian city of Veilwatch,” Jonah said, pointing to about the North Western quadrant of the Sorvendyre Region, below the winding mountains of the Niwlen Spine.

  Then it hit me. Veilwatch! That is where Nathan was last reported to be stationed before the cataclysm hit. Massive. If I could report to my boss, I could gain a lot of information in a shorter time, and he could help me plan how to get to the tower sieges I needed to go to.

  “What is the quickest way to get to Veilwatch?” I asked excitedly.

  “Good sir, surely you don’t want to go to Veilwatch while its on the front lines of heavy attacks from the Hushwind Gap? There are enemies on every road!”

  “Darn. I need to get there.” Not ideal. It sounded like there was a war on going. What to do.

  “Why do you want to get to Veilwatch so badly?” Talia asked twirling her dagger in her hand.

  “It’s complicated,” I said thinking about what I should do, “For one, I need to get to a city. Then also, there is a good chance my boss is stationed in Veilwatch, and it would help me immensely on my mission.”

  “Then, you can go to another city first and then go to Veilwatch.” Talia said, pointing to a city further to the South, below Sniom Chadair mountains. Dynas Tymroy.

  She had a point, it might be the way to go, since I could set up the mailing system and make contact with Nathan that way, so I turned to Jonah and asked, “How long to get to Dinas Tymroy on foot?”

  “In the current condition in the region, that would take at minimum of 7 days sir. With the dangers on the roads, it is not recommended.” Jonah said, shaking his head.

  And surely there wouldn’t be carriage services available apart from the cities. I needed to do a quest for a mount, or go tame something in the wilds that would speed up my traveling time. It’s been a while… I normally took a caravan with my party, or rent a mount from a city. But I had access to neither.

  “Jonah, are there any quests in Fossfall Byr that would give us access to travel mounts?”

  “Certainly! We have several in fact,” Jonah said as he pulled out a parchment and pen. He briefly wrote on the paper before handing one to me and one to Talia.

  Ping!

  Ping!

  Ping!

  [Quest unlocked! The Hammer in the Lake.][Novice]

  [Quest unlocked! Goblins on the Range!][Apprentice]

  [Prerequisites met! Quest unlocked! A Dash in the Woods][Journeyman.]

  Before I studied the quest notifications in more depth, I turned to Talia a bit unsure why Jonah gave Talia a parchment since… I shook my head. Truth was… I didn’t know anymore what Talia existence meant. She was a woman, a very beautiful woman, at that. But beyond that, unlike Jonah, she wasn’t a normal NPC(Non-Player Character), that was for certain. I couldn’t say she was a NPC at all. And I was having a hard time putting her as a normal player too since, she had strange mysterious quests that kept revolving around her.

  Yet… she received rewards exactly like any normal party member would, which never happened with NPCs! And thus my supreme confusion. I wanted to throw a rock through the window.

  Finally, I steadied myself and shook off the conundrum once more. She was my party member, she saved me back when I was about to freeze, she fought alongside me, and she chose to come with me when a part of her wanted to stay in Shaura. At Gregor’s request, she pushed aside the real need to help the city get back on its feet after the endless blizzards ended.

  She chose to follow me, and on the way hopefully we can find clues to her father. So that is what it was going to be, I turned to Talia and asked, “Okay so, I will tell you this. My quest, my… um heart quest, is to find a man deep into the core of this world. If I don’t find him, many people might never wake up. I can’t do this alone, so will you help me?”

  I didn’t mention I might be among the number of people who may never wake up… That thought squeezed my heart.

  Talia tilted her head like that night in frozen ice and with a mischievous smile, she said, “You don’t have to ask. How can I help?”

  “Thank you… I mean it. Anyway! Can you tell me which quest would suit you? We need to unlock travel mounts.”

  Talia studied the paper and said, “There are three on yours, but only two on mine. But looking at them, both would be easy, goblins are not as dangerous as gremlins.”

  I had one that she couldn’t access, interesting. I wonder what was the prerequisite.

  “You go to the farm, just a bit east from the mansion and go help drive off the Goblins and I will tackle the harder quest up in the woods. Maybe we can get mounts to move about.”

  She nodded with excitement, and I was sure going on adventures in a new land was fascinating to her. It was to me as well.

  She was about to walk through the front door, before I caught her hand. “Whoa there, before we leave. Just for in case let’s go to our rooms and lie down on our own beds.”

  “Huh?! What’s wrong with you? Why do we need to lie down on a bed before we go?” Talia asked bewildered, like I just smashed a pie into my own face.

  “To set our respawn points if something were to happen…” I started before seeing her pure disbelief that I would suggest such an odd thing, “Agh! I know it is confusing, but can you humor me for a moment, please? Go pick a room, tap the top post of the bed and lie down on it. Then we can go on our quests.”

  Talia shot me a glare, her hazel eyes boring into me. The orange tints in her irises actually seemed to glow, before she huffed and moved down the hall, picking one of the two large rooms.

  I just chuckled and moved towards the other large room. I needed every bit of help, having a larger room meant I could outfit it with crafting stations. I grinned broadly at that idea. Having the option even for having your own personal crafting stations was far above anything I had in my game time in the past before the cataclysm outside.

  I tapped the double bed and my hand glowed, setting my new respawn point. Ah, I remembered how long I had to fight to find my first bed in Sturm Tsadar. Not something I wanted to repeat soon. Challenge Zones were frikken hard!

  Ping! [Respawn point set.][Fossfall Byr, Redcliff Mansion.]

  As I laid down on the bed. I tapped on the menu button on my unique Star Cartographer HUD. My hand paused over the log out button. I desperately needed info on what was going on. And having been a bit more than 5 days in the game already, outside it would be somewhere past only just 10 hours that passed since I logged in…

  A memory of giant green crystals pierced through the dome building where the main servers for Realm of Ancients were plugged into the Hive filled my mind. The BeeHive had a mysterious power source discovered in a deep ocean.

  I remembered getting up through the wreckage after the cataclysm hit… seeing dead bodies. Real dead bodies…

  My fist clenched and I just hoped everything was okay out there. Eri, my sister, Claire and my fellow company workers.

  No, I had to find Darian and figure out why he left orders to the outside world that if ever something catastrophic happened, to find him immediately. I knew from the moment Claire told me to find and unlock the heart of world in Realm of Ancients and find Darian, she wasn’t telling me everything. Sure she looked uncertain like the rest of the others outside… but it was like she knew Darian could help if someone went to find him. But why?

  Well! That was a mystery for another time!

  I was about to get up when I looked straight at the log out button once more, my hand hovered before it.

  I pressed it… and nothing, again.

  Shaking my head, I got up. Whatever, I had bigger fish to fry than to dwell on that little creepy tidbit. I bit my lip as I remembered that weird green volatile energy shards that fused with the neural link of every player still inside the game. I imagined it was now the same with me.

  I sat up and tapped the quest I had been eyeing.

  [Prerequisites met! Quest unlocked! A Dash in the Woods][Journeyman.]

  Accept.

  A Dash in the Woods! [Journeyman Quest]

  Find the hunter Bjorn in the Fjallvior (Mountain Woods) at sundown. The hunt is dangerous. Come prepared with a weapon.

  Well, that wasn’t ominous at all. I took out my three current blades and sat sharpening them. Again glad that blades didn’t have a breaking durability like armor. One just had to sharpen them from time to time, to give an attack damage buff that lasts for a few days. I probably had to repair my armor soon, but that could wait.

  Xianmou was the first blade as my primary sword. I let the wet stone glide across the blue glint of its steel. That mechanic in game was so satisfying. Unlike that darn sweat mechanic. A vein throbbed in my head once more at that.

  After my sword, I pulled out my Swamp Dagger. A new blade I found before our crazy raid boss battle. I still had to give it a whirl, but the bleed damage was definitely something I could utilize.

  Finally, I took out my common Skinning Knife. Ah, my trusty skinning knife. I went through several extraordinary feats with that blade. It was the blade that saved my butt in several pinches.

  In fact, if I hadn’t stabbed that frikken Alpha Bear with it, I never would have ended up in Sturm Tsadar. But… underneath certain frustrating moments, I felt happy. Because of it, I met Talia, whom without, I don’t know where I would have ended up.

  I pushed the thought of the bear to the side for the time being and enjoyed a memory of Talia grinning at me from over a fire.

  I walked out of my room, all happy for once and whistled. As I got outside, Talia caught my eye and she gave me a slight scold.

  “What are you so happy about?”

  “Nothing to worry about.” I said with a smile.

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She said waving me off.

  “Ha, you are starting to sound like my sister!” I said all of a sudden.

  Suddenly her eyes flared up and she rushed towards me, her hands out to grab me. I jumped to the side and ran down the hall as she chased me.

  “Take that back! I am not your sister!” She growled.

  “I never said you were!” I said back over my shoulder, “Just, you sounded like her!”

  Surprisingly, she almost caught me, but could only give a single punch to my shoulder before I hit my foot to the exit of the hall and with a jump I grabbed the railing up on the small interior balcony. Landing safely and looking down at Talia with her puffed up cheeks.

  “No fair.” She said before walking towards the door. “One of these days, I’ll catch you.”

  “I will be waiting,” I said with a wink. With that I jumped down, my cloak lifting behind me as I landed on the solid floor. A few quick steps later, I joined Talia at the door.

  “Your sister better be a nice person, other wise I will hunt you down.”

  I was thinking of teasing her some more, but I just smiled warmly.

  “You’d like Eri,” I said finally, “Both of you have a strong sense of wanting to help people. I admire that.”

  “You have that too,” Talia said before whacking me on the shoulder.

  Her smaller fist hit for quite a punch, but I took that and what she said as a compliment.

  Yeah… I have a good friend.

  With that we stepped outside, on our way to do our quests. The other side of the door we were met with the afternoon sun as it fell on us, it made the misty clouds over the large mountains of the Niwlen Spine look incredibly pretty.

  Let’s do this.

  _

  The Niwlen Spine