Chapter 12

  How to gain a advantage over the rat , part 2

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  AUTHORS NOTE

  This is the end of the second arc of my FF hope you enjoy smooochies , till the 3rd arc.

  ......................

  * tring*

  You have completed the quest to protect Rothrien as the factor of the quest have changed.

  You have leveled up

  You have leveled up

  You have leveled up

  You have leveled up.

  You have gained leadership due to your strategic planning

  +150 Leadership

  +250 Fame

  Acquired 29 gold

  ' Now this is something really convinient. ' Grim thought while reading the message.

  Grim had talked the mayor into letting them complete the quest for ' war preparation ' as he called it. After a little bit of wrangling around with words the mayor finally consented and gave them the reward.

  " Now what are we going to do? " Viena asked while they walked out of the mayors house.

  Grim looked honestly surprised at this question and at first didn't know how to react , as he just stared at her.

  " First sell your misc items , then stock up on what ever you can. Cooking mats , arrows , bandages and someone should learn the tailoring skill. Could help if we are down there for at least 1 month. Then see if you can find some people to join us on our quest. Minimum level 30 and tell them to form partys with 1 tank 1 heal and whatever how much dps. " Grim stated.

  " Prefer the prominent houses of Soc-relma , Fab-gwain and Bionel. They can get some good items from it. If you find a dwarf player whatever class he is invite him , that may get us some bonus achievement or fame with the dwarfs. We also need 3 or 4 merchants. " Grim continued.

  " It is best that one stays here and that would be Clash , you are not as outgoing as Viena or as sharp , sorry to say brother , as Crow. They can get more people together. But Clash you grab some paper and wait for people here to get them to sign up for the raid party i will form in 3 weeks from now. With that group we should clear it. I will stay here most of the time with casual logouts. Clash you can help me with a little something. Celu knows what to do." Grim finished his speech.

  All nodded in agreement , since it was the best plan they had and instantly Viena and Crow left the town to travel to the capitol. This left Grim , Clash and Celu to their own devices. Clash followed Grim and Celu looged out after she sent Grim a short Pm.

  ' 20 minutes , call. ' She sent him and was off.

  " Now Clash , i know the perfect job for you." Grim grinned a gentle smile at him and operated his console.

  Stacks of rusty metal armor and weapons landed in the middle of the Rothrien plaza near the blacksmiths shop. With some vivid hand motions Grim encircled all the metal scraps before he spoke to Clash again.

  " You want some new daggers right? And maybe even some throwing knives right? "

  At the hectic nod Clash was giving , Grim knew he had him hook , line and sinker.

  " Perfect , i got permission from the mayor to use the smith however way i want. You just take all of these metal pieces and throw them in the smelting pot. Then you get it all nice and hot until they melt. The master smith will tell you everything you need to do it. Im gonna log out real quick and be back in an hour or 2. " Grim told him and left into a back alley.

  There found quickly what he was looking for. With a sign over its door he saw the post office of Rothrien. After scribbling down a quick message Grim gave it to the postmaster and told him its VERY urgent and handed over a gold coin.

  At first the female official was impressed with the 1 gold but as she heard who the letter was for she looked suspicious. After a long sigh Grim lifted his hood from his head and the elf almost bowed to him. Some more arguing later , the letter was copied sealed and delievered to the house of soc-relma and to his foster father.

  Grim was pleased and logged out.

  ....................

  He quickly grabbed his phone that was lying on his bed and hacked in the number he had memorized. After a few empty rings someone picked up.

  " Hey it's me Grim , im really sorry that i was a late. I just told Clash to get the forge going and sent 2 letters to our houses. ..." Craig said and no answer came back.

  " Uhm excuse me is this the number of Celu? "

  " Hello? This is kind of creeping me out a bit with all that moaning and groaning of pleasure in the background. "

  " THERE IS NO SUCH THING. " A voice shouted through the phone which clearly was female which soon added something.

  " Yeah you really are Grim ... nobody could be so evil. " The female voice replied.

  " It's not evil , its fun! " Craig told her his honest thoughts.

  " Well whatever , listen i told you i can trust you now , so here is the whole truth. You know my class and that it is some prophetical end of the world class , right? "

  There was a short silence but soon the female voice spoke up.

  " Doesn't feel that strong though , you don't even have real skills besides , cursing the crap out of monsters to aggro them. " She said with an amused chuckle.

  " Yeah , yeah your just jelly . Now listen i got more information because of my class then i told the group. There is a ' mole' in our group that accepted a quest to help the goblins. My guess that person thinks our quest will go down the drain and decieded this will give him more benefits. Now who is it? " He said in a serious tone.

  A minute or two went by without them making even breathing noises , since Craig wanted to give Celu the time she needed to think this through.

  " My guess its Clash , but im only 60% sure. Viena almost refers you like a god and Crow is just like a no-one. " She told him her thoughts.

  " Actually i tend to think it is Crow , since he didn't like me from the start and kind of threatend me. But that just maybe thinking we need to be careful , that person can share the quest. That leads us to the next point. If he can share it our only way of knowing who he is is to get to the bottom of the ' mysterious deaths ' that occur and find out who is there all the time. " He started

  " Since alone he or she has no chance , so he has to gather a ANTI team to carry it out , but some will definetly decline who he asks. So he has to get rid of them quickly and most anonimiously. The more ' followers ' he has the harder it will be to track the one that can share the quest , down. "

  A few seconds Grim gave her to let the information sink into Celu but as he was about to open his mouth she interrupted him unknowingly.

  " Yeah i think we have 3 days , before he has many followers to actually carry out assasinations or sabotages. That leaves us with the question , can he talk to the goblins already as part of the quest or not? " Celu asked.

  " Doesn't matter , remember what i said about the royal couple? No not the fact with the sleeping arrangments , you naughty girl what are you thinking about , HAHA. I meant we will unconditionally lead the army and push the others off as normal soldiers and get a few NPC officers in the ranks to make the players feel ' safer ' with the tactics trained and stronger Npc guards. " Craig told her.

  " I don't know to call you a genius sometimes or if you are just a half-wit with good ideas.... " Celu sighed loudly.

  " I also got a really suspicious quest from a unknown source. " Now Craig was in serious mode again and Celu took the same approach instantly.

  " Shoot. "

  " It's a rank B quest to reveal the identity of the traitor. " He said almost inaudible.

  " WHAT YOU GOT A RANK B QUEST!!! " A loud voice rang through the speakers.

  Craig expected this and held the cell phone far away from his ear but it was still ringing incredibly.

  " Yeah , it's more like 2 birds with one stone right? " He said amused.

  " Screw you , epic world destroying class and endgame skill , f**ker. "

  " Okay , oaky sorry but i can't do anything about it. Now to another main point on the agenda today. We need ALOT of players we can use the old ' sugarbread and whip tactic on '. What will be better to do that with a fair little princess type female that pleads for help on the internet showing the S rank questlog. " Grim retunred to serious mode.

  " Cry , plead , scream and edit a video where you run away from goblins which are hot in pursuit , the szene with your horse for example. But SHOW the S rank quest and tell them abit about the quest only small infos though and press out some tears will ya. Good need to forge stuff later do your best in believe in you , sweetheart , i mis you ' smootch , smootch' . HAHA " Grim said and hung up.

  Celu was utterly confused at his behaviour and didn't know if she could take ANYTHING he said seriously even if everything sounded perfectly thought out.

  " Guess the saying is true , there is only a thin line between Genius and Pyscho. " She said and switched her computer on while connecting it with her capsule.

  ...........................

  * pang* , .... * pang * , .... * pang*.

  The sun had just rose over the mountain range that covered the east side of the country and the rhytmic sound of a iron being bent into shape was audiable through the town called Rothrien.

  Numerous elfs complained a few hours later at the noise but the hammering never seized even once. Neither did it falter or loose the ringing sound that blacksmiths loved so much. Every strike resounded with a clean ring and hit its mark with the same intensity after the thousand hammer swing.

  This ' bliss ' of a craftsman , that the villagers cursed after 2 straight days , was only overtuned by loud voices from time to time.

  " CLASH , NEED ANOTHER INGOT! " Grim shouted through the loud hammer strikes he had placed for 48 hours without pause.

  Some elfs just grumbled at the noise that kept them awake during the night , others wondered what kind of grudge the lad had against iron. But he loved iron in any form as he could create it into whatever he wished. Stacks of swords , shields and generalized arm and legguards piled up behind him. A few hundred elfish naginatas were the only thing that was stacked up properly in weapon racks , since the smith only had room to store a few hundred things not the ridiciolous amount this boy produced.

  Others wondered what kind of demon had found its way to their lovely town , as it had to be a demon with enough stamina to beat iron into shape non stop without rest or pause. Some even uttered there had to be a company of dwarfs working the forge but it was just a single man. He was neither a demon nor a few dwarfs it was just one smith and a helper.

  The smith beat and hammerd and smashed everything to his desire , while the helper piled up the finished work and placed new glowing hot iron infront of the smith with a set of pliers. From time to time the helper even placed a loaf of bread inside the lads mouth so he would not drop from his usual pace , since his Stamina was ALWAYS at a all-time low.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Yes tales of the smith loving ghost , or the midnight demon of the forge would be told for hundreds of years in this town. Some freshly elfs , that were still green behind the ears , would receive quests to find out the truth behind this long and elaborate tale just to find it was a truly and utterly stupid Elf and his companion that started all this.

  " CLASH HURRY UP I NEED MORE BREAD , THE LAST ONE HAS BEEN GONE FOR 5 MINUTES AND MY STAMINA IS SO LOW I CAN'T EVEN SEE YELLOW ANYMORE. " The lad shouted over the rhytmic * pang* of his hammer.

  ...........................

  * huff , huff* both went after they had ended their meticioulus task. It had been 63 hours since they last had a bit of shut-eye or even saw the outside of the forge. Now it was already dark and they stood outside in the cool air.

  Clash was so out of breath he thought he would die from missing oxygen any second. He felt so beat he thought about abondaning the quest and cursing Grim forever.

  " THAT WAS TORTURE! " He shouted towards his companion.

  Grim laughed slightly before he spoke.

  " Yes , yes indeed it was. But hey i got you daggers out of it with double the damage , you would have to pay at least 30 gold for those in the capitol. Be happy instead and thank me , HAHA! " Grim said much to Clashs dismay.

  True he was happy but 63 hours of continous work. Even though clash never intended to get the skill he still acquired blacksmith but he also knew the next few months nightmares of glowing iron would haunt him , maybe even forever.

  " Look on the bright side i even got my Blacksmith up to (120/300) my repair is up to the same level and i got identifie. My new set of armor with thigh protectors increased my defense to 130 and with the new shieldguard i am at 180! It definetly paid off to do that. Come on i will introduce you to all the hot Priestesses that will gather here in a while! " Grim tried to ease Clashs mood.

  He already had him at the mention of girls. Everything else slipped Clashs mind instantly. Everything was forgiven , Grim was the hero of his world.

  ' Bah who needs sleep if he has such a good companion that will introduce him to a bunch of girls as soon as they arrive , definetly not this guy! ' Clash thought.

  " Come one lets go hit the pub my treat and tell the citizens that the smith work is done! They will be happy! " Grim said with confidence.

  This night all the citizens bought them so much rounds , Grims coin purse was actually fuller after the evening and both were so drunk they could only crawl. All to Grims calculations of course.

  ...................

  Both woke up in the Inn in which they had rented a room. Their tongues were thick and their skulls ringing but after some fresh and cold water in Grims face from his palms , and a bucket over the snoring Clash both were fully awake.

  As grim knew , judging by the sounds outside , he put on the fine armor he had just produced yesterday and hung his mace in a strap of leather he had tied to his belt. He lifted the hood on his head and Thalia took her usual spot at the base of his neck , behind his hair , and they proceeded down stairs to meet the first people that arrived.

  With a strong push he opened the gates of the Inn and stepped outside. His eyes first had to adjust to the sudden sunlight , as it was close to noon , but they did it pretty quickly. Before him he saw at least 50 elfs and 2 or 3 dwarfs mixed in with them. He thanked Viena , Crow and Celu for their efforts and cleared his throat slowly before speaking up.

  " Hello , my name is Grim .... " He started.

  But the noise this crowd made , intensified the headache Grim still suffered from the dwarfen ale the villagers poured down his and Clashs throat yesterday. Grim still swore that THAT stuff was better used to de-rust armor.

  Clash backed away a little as Grim drew a clear and deep breath in a split of a second. He hid behind a pillar and put his hands over his long and pointy ears just in time to be showered in the aura Grim released from time to time.

  " OYYYYYYYYYYYYYY , SCUUUUMMMMM!!!! " Grim shouted at the mob.

  All chatter seized instantly and they viewed him like they had seen a god in the flesh.

  " Now that i got your attention , my friend over here .... Clash come here you dim-wit , good. He will register you for the S difficulty quest after checking that you are indeed over lvl 30. The ones that are in the range from 30-35 can gather at the forge and will receive equipment from us , me and my friend here , forged 3 days straight , without pause to create all this just to make this quest succeed. " Grim started.

  Now a Murmur went through the crowd once again.

  " SILENCE , you will be fighting Goblins of level 40 minimum to gather enough experience till you hit at least my friends level over there .... " He started once again but a random guy interrupted him.

  " Till we level up to 40 you mean? HAHA . " And the whole throng started to laugh.

  Grim waited till his aura of authority had silenced all of them ,it took 30 seconds.

  " Let me introduce my companion first , his name is Clash , Class assasin , level 57 , world ranked number 100 at the moment. Good luck with catching up. " Now Grim started to laugh.

  He didn't expect it but some females giggled at the random guy that wanted to be the funny one of the group.

  " Now let me introduce the person who initiated the quest and who sent out his subordiantes to gather players , instead of letting the NPCS take this honor , the xp and the loot. "

  Grim said all this while he lifted up the hood and removed the cloak he made just for this occasion revealing the etched in Phoenix in flight on his breatplate.

  " Me , Grim Gwalchimar , the ruby prince of the elfs. Direct line as the heir to the throne of the elfen kingdom. But you all can call me Grim , 3rd world ranked at the moment. "

  Now the whole throng went berserk as they SAW HIM in the flesh.

  Due to Celus , lets call it influence , not only was she displayed crying and whining while fleeing from the goblins , her video depicted Grim saving her from 100 goblins alone wielding his mighty club with the ruby crown embedded in his fore-head. Just in a mere few hours the video had 10 million click on youtube and even some stations called her to make a contract about the quest.

  She talked about it with Grim but he said to decline all of them. After she almost cried for real at the 10 thousands of dollars they would miss Grim told her to relax as they talked over their cellphones in real life.

  She trusted him and the next day they had doubled they money they were offering. Still Grim told her to decline. Now after 3 breath taking days Grim accepted as they tripled the original price and Celu decided that this man had to be some kind of half-god in real life.

  Back to the present. All of the players that arrived were the real deal and most of them were around the level 38 range. The big talker from before was a bulky warrior with level 42. For now Grim decided for that bulky guy to follow his every steps or he would kick him out of the raid , permanently.

  The gave the equipment to the lower leveld people and still had over 3/4 left of the inital stock pile , but Grim realized these were just the higher level players the others invited first. The rest that would follow would be the ' barely ' eligable.

  " Now the clerics or healing classes stand over there , the tanks and other guys that can take some beating stand over there. The rest assemble by , mage , archer and meele dps. " Grim spoke out loudly again.

  " Not you big guy , stay here i got a special mission for you. " Grim whispered to the bulky elf that wanted to steal himself away.

  He sighed vehemently but accepted the cruel fate that awaited him , he thought at least.

  " Now a mage a archer and a meele dps form groups of 3. If there are odd ones out just add yourself to a 3 man group only! Now each a cleric and a tank join these groups of 3 or 4. The odd ones of the dps groups split up and go a group that has only 3 other dps a tank and a healer. Very good , i can already see this will be good. Form partys please. "

  They did as they were told and Clash got the impression of a wolf in sheeps pelt was directing the sheep herd into a dark and solate place. Naturally he kept it for himself.

  " Good now , i leave you a choice. My class is a little special you will gain about 3 to 4% extra dmg and healing and take the same amount reduced damage if we form a raid group but your xp will be halfed. Those groups that want to farm a raid party nonetheless go the right the other ones on the left. "

  As none of them moved Grim continued.

  " Thought so but i wanted to leave you the choice. Good now this guy , " Grim pointed towards the bulky elf he singled out. " Will be your supervisor. He will approach already existing groups join them , teach you guys how to outsmart the groups of 10 or more goblins you will have to pull EVERY time , just to get some levels before the raid actually starts , then leave and teach the next group. Think of him as a direct link to me. "

  After saying this Grim sent that guy a friends request and he learned his name was Bulky ... Grim really had to contain his emotions to not laugh , but his will power succeded.

  " Now stock up on bread and water before you guys go. Me and my group of 5 people got 3-4 levels each day. "

  Now Grim explained some more about the Goblins and the tactics that they used , he even added the story how they defeated 300 goblins in a few minutes , that soon will be shown on the net on a certain website , and some other random info.

  All the while he lead them to the training grounds they had to conquer before the actual raid began.

  " Now Clash , Thalia lets show these green horns how its done. " Grim said.

  As he said this he equipped his new mace and shield ( not shieldguard he got a real shield ) , and charged at the first group of 6 lvl 45 Goblins he found. After taunting them and hitting them a few times , Clash shanked the archers and Thalia fired a few weak beams at the stragglers to kill all of them off.

  Grim wiped some green blood of the goblins off his face and the glowing rubys came back into view before he spoke up.

  " When you can do this with just 3 people , without loosing more then 10 % health like me , you will be ready for the raid. " Grim stated matter of factly.

  All of them were ashen faced at how easily the supposed to be ' tank ' just obliterated 3 Goblins with a much higher level then the 50 players he had in tow by himself.