Chapters are coming out slowly because I keep changing what I want to happen later, thus having to rewrite parts of this chapter. I think three more chapters before the end of this arc and I will be able to get them out because of Spring Break next week where I work. One chapter is for the introduction of another Dark Mage. One for the purpose of the Grey Cloaked Men. Neither will be immediately solved, but set up for some of the problems in the next arc. There was originally more, but I did not want to drag out this arc by more pointless wandering around that does not introduce anything useful or new.
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ROAR. Just then, in the distance, Garnet could hear the loud roar of something in the waters.
"What was that?" Garnet asked.
"That's the Leviathan," said Eddie. "It's the powerful creature that our mages and our ships are focused on keeping away from the city."
Garnet heard a deep and terrifying voice. "You will all pay for your thievery!" it shouted.
Garnet looked at the guards and they were not scared at all. They watched as the events unfolded. It seemed to be a regular occurence.
The shout was coming from the Leviathan. Even from the city, Garnet could see it as it extended its head above the water. It was a large serpent covered in rainbow colored scales. Its head was like that of a dragon's, complete with horns, but it had fins and gills that separated it from a dragon. Most surprising of all was that it spoke.
Name: Lotan
Level: ???
Class: Serpent
Sub-Class: Divine
Stats: ???
Garnet could not see its level. The city was somehow able to defend against the monster. Garnet watched in the distance as ships armed with mages were deployed. The first group created a dome of water that shielded the city. Meanwhile, the others began to create a net of lightning around the Leviathan. They had developed a way to combat it.
To Garnet though, it did not make sense. The Leviathan should have been able to break through the barriers erected by the mages. On top of that, the city was only protected by a dome of water. It probably could have swam under the dome and attacked it then. It was almost as if the Leviathan was holding back its power, choosing not to attack the city so that the people would think they actually had the strength to stop it.
"I swear, I will get my orb back," said the Leviathan as it screamed at the top of its lungs. "I don't care how long it takes!"
"Orb?" Garnet thought. "Did the city take something from the Leviathan?" If it was the case, it was likely that the Leviathan did not know where the treasure was and that was the real reason why it did not attack the city.
New Quest: The Leviathan's Treasure
Find out what happened between the Leviathan and the town of Venice
Reward: New Recipe
There was a quest for it as well. If the Hero System deemed that it was important, then it probably is. The question was how to reach it. The Leviathan was kept away from the city by mages who have been trained to repel it. It seemed to live far out into the water. All Garnet could do was try to find it and talk to it, assuming it did not try to kill her first.
"What do you think?" Garnet asked Riley.
Riley paused for a second to think. "Perhaps there's more going on than we know," said Riley. "Information is very important and I think we need to find out what happened to the Leviathan."
"I agree," said Garnet. "I wonder what its treasure is though."
"Let's try to ask around," Riley suggested. "I'm sure someone knows."
"Go back to hiding," Garnet ordered her Cerberus. They were getting very good at it, finding strange alleys and passageways in the city to hide in. She was surprised that the mages of the city did not do anything about it. Then again, the mages of the city did not do anything about Alexander either. Their duties were probably divided in some way.
Garnet went back to the one place she thought would have the information, the Guild. There was the same receptionist from before. "I need information," said Garnet.
"For your help, I'll do what I can," said the receptionist.
"What's your name?" Garnet asked. "I don't know what to call you."
"My name is Elisio," whispered the receptionist.
"Okay Elisio, I want to know what is the Leviathan's treasure," said Garnet.
Elisio gestured for Garnet to get closer. Garnet leaned and Elisio began to whisper quietly. "I only heard rumors, but a long time ago, someone was hired to take something from a cave underwater," said Elisio.
"Do you know what it was?" Garnet asked.
"I heard it was a bright blue orb of some kind with power over water," said Elisio. "However, that's all I know."
"How long ago was this?" Garnet asked.
"I would say three years," said Elisio.
It was not a very long time. The Leviathan itself was something much older and probably much more powerful. The people of the city had devised a way to block the Leviathan from entering the town using a combination of warships and lightning. "I heard the Leviathan shout something about wanting the orb back," said Garnet. "Do you know where it might me?"
"You're asking me to help you steal?" Elisio asked.
"Can you?" Garnet asked with her hands clasped in front of her.
"Just don't tell anyone about me or where you got it from," said Elisio.
"I won't," said Garnet as she gave a wink and walked away.
"Rumor is that it is stored underneath the artisan district of the town," said Elisio. "One of the buildings is only for show and underneath it is a secret vault that contains the orb of the Leviathan, but I cannot confirm if this is true."
"That's more than enough," said Garnet. "Thank you."
The goal was to take the orb and bring it to the Leviathan as a sign of peace. That way, the Leviathan would be less likely to kill her on sight. "I don't think this is a good idea," said Riley. "Breaking into a building to steal something and offering it to a monster that hates this town sounds very bad."
"Worst case scenario is that I get killed or it destroys the city," said Garnet. "But I think I can negotiate with it."
"Your skills might only work on people," said Riley. "It might not work on something as powerful as that thing."
"That's why I want to offer the orb as an offering," said Garnet. "If it truly is as valuable as the Leviathan thinks it is, it would want it back at any cost."
"But what will happen if it tries to destroy this town?" asked Riley.
"Then I'll put myself in the way to stop it," said Garnet. She was determined. She felt that returning the orb to the Leviathan was the right thing to do. It was not like anyone could stop her anyways.
"If things look dangerous, I'll step in though," said Riley. "If something happens to me, you can always just summon me again anyways."
Garnet and Riley headed to the Artisan District. It was possible that one of these buildings contained the orb that the Leviathan was looking for. "I don't sense anything unusual from these buildings," said Garnet.
"You can barely feel mana from an item when its in your sight," said Riley. "Did you think you could just sense it?"
"Yes," said Garnet. "But it looks like it won't be that easy."
There was another way for Garnet to look. If it was indeed inside an artisan's building, she could go in and look at their wares. The one with unusually strong people or powerful items equipped would be suspicious as most artisans often only employed one or two guards. There were no exceptional artisans that employed numerous guards as far as Garnet knew. None of the buildings were exceptionally large either because those would be suspicious as well.
"Well, let's get started," said Riley as she opened the door into the store on their right. The best way was going to search each quadrant of the city at a time. There were images carved onto boards that hung in front of each store so you could see what the store was selling without having to walk in. The first one was a bakery.
Garnet walked in with Riley and began to look around. It was an unguarded bakery. There was just the cashier in front and some bread on display. "Welcome," said the man in front. "What are you looking for?" he asked.
"Just browsing," said Garnet.
"Just bring what you like over here if you're interested," said the man.
Garnet could see highly decorated bread. It was five silver for most of them with sweets being more expensive and the highly decorated items like cake costing gold coins. It actually seemed reasonable compared to the other places she had looked at before in the town. She selected a few pieces of bread and purchased them. "I'll take these," said Garnet.
The man took a close look at her coins and weighed them individually. "Thank you for your patronage," said the man.
As Garnet bit into the bread, she could feel the soft texture in her mouth. It was definitely still warm as well and sweet. Inside of the bread was some kind of cream. It was very different from the foods that was available back West.
The next store was a butcher that sold cured meats, something Garnet had not seen often as salts and spices were very expensive. The meat was incredibly expensive, but was incredibly well preserved. If she ever decided to try to make food with magicraft, it could be useful. Next to that, was carved fruits. It was almost as if everything there was food. "Do you think there's some kind of layout?" asked Garnet.
"It's possible," said Riley. "I didn't think a city like this would be organized, but I don't think it will be easy to ask without drawing suspicion."
"I have an idea," said Garnet. She walked over to the chef who was cutting some fruit and arranging it to make a tree. "Do you know where the shops that carry magic items are?" she asked.
"You're going to have to look at the East End of the Artisan District," said the chef.
"Thank you," said Garnet. "See, it was not that hard."
Deep into the Artisan District, Garnet saw that there were more guards here. Some of them even stood outside of the stores. Inside of the stores were even more guards as well. Compared to the other areas, security was much higher. As they walked by, Garnet could see that the guards were looking at them.She chose a random store and just walked into it. It was a jewelry store. Inside, there were about a dozen more guards and people browsing. Each item was contained in a secure case that was locked up within a display case. The security was very high, but the security did not stand out. They were only level 20 and wore standard equipment.
The next store was a blacksmith. One that had numerous small blades on the wall. There were also four guards.
Name: Isaac
Level: 40
Class: Warrior
Sub-class: Guardian
Stats: High Strength, High Vitality
The man in charge stood out because his class was not an artisan. He was in fact a warrior, which was suspicious. There was a chance that the store was just a front. Garnet looked around the store. The guards looked at Garnet and Riley as they browsed through the goods. Unlike the other store owners, they also did not speak up when Garnet and Riley entered. If they were trying to maintain the image of a shop, they were doing poorly. After spending some time looking around at the store, Garnet walked outside with Riley.
"I think this is the place," said Garnet. "The person at the counter was not a blacksmith of any kind, he was a warrior."
"That is suspicious," said Riley. "Is there any way to know for sure though?"
"Not unless I can use my power," said Garnet. "I think if I use it here, it will draw too much attention."
"Then are we just going to wait for one of the guards to separate and go home?" asked Riley.
"They have to leave at some point right?" said Garnet. "We can just grab one when they're heading to work or when they're going home."
The two decided to walk around the other stores nearby to see if there were any changes to the guards. In total, there was a total of four changes, but it was clear that the guards at the stores nearby might also be working to hide whatever was at the blacksmith. In total, there were probably about four dozen guards. It was a lot and they were definitely hiding something valuable.
The next night, Garnet waited for a shift change to make her move. She watched as the guards each took turns moving around with some of them leaving. She followed one of them as they left the Artisan District. It was here that she made her move. "Flight!" With her feet not touching the ground, the guard would not be able to hear her footsteps. She flew straight for the guard and grabbed him by the neck. "Pleasure Inducement!"
The guard immediately collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud. "What are you protecting in the Artisan District?" Garnet asked.
"I don't know," said the guard. "It's treated as top secret and is only known to the top city officials."
"How many guards are there?" asked Garnet.
"Twenty four on the outside, six in the first room, and another twelve inside the hidden room," said the guard.
A total of forty guards. However, it was likely that more would arrive if she alerted them. She would have to find a way in, and that was not going to be easy. But, there was also the other option. "Hey Riley, I'm not going to go after the orb myself," said Garnet.
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"Then what are you going to do?" asked Riley.
"I'm going to tell the Leviathan where it might be kept," said Garnet. "I think that might be enough if it knows where its treasure is."
"How so?" Riley asked.
"The Leviathan was rampaging about, but I feel that if it can speak, it is intelligent," said Garnet. "I think it will find a way to retrieve the orb on its own if it knows where it is."
The problem now was to find the Leviathan itself. It lived in the water and Garnet could not exactly swim deep under water. Her transformation gave her scales, but not gills to breathe through. She would have to wait for the Leviathan to surface.
Garnet headed outside of town and flew out into the waters with Riley. They circled around the town to make sure that they did not draw any attention to themselves. If the boats spotted them, it would be problematic. While they were over the water, Garnet saw the clear blue color of the water below them, unpolluted and pure. As they headed further out, she saw that the water was no longer clear. It was dirty and had black spots, similar to oil. Around it was dead fish that had floated to the surface, much like an algae bloom. There was definitely something strange with the water. A clear circle divided the dirty from the clear water.
It was strange though. The city was the one that was probably pouring things like chemicals in the water. It did not make sense that the water away from the city was dirty without making the water in the city dirty as well. The reason for this must have had something to do with the Leviathan's treasure.
Garnet released a Sonic Scream into the water. SCREECH. She waited for a moment to see if anything would respond. This was the closest she could get to sending a message down into the water. There was nothing. She decided to try one more time. SCREECH.
VWOOSH. A giant serpent erupted from the waters splashing water everywhere. "Keep it down will you?" asked the serpent.
This was Garnet's first time seeing it up close. It was enormous. Garnet was not even the size of one of its teeth. Its bright rainbow colored scales made it quite a beautiful sight when it was not trying to destroy everything. Its eyes were a combination of black, gold, and yellow, resembling that of a snake.
"I think I know where your orb is," said Garnet. "But I cannot get it."
The Leviathan circled around Garnet and Riley, taking a good look at each of them. "Friend of a spirit I see," said the Leviathan. It could tell that Riley was a spirit. "But why are you helping me?" the Leviathan asked.
"I want to know what the town did to you," said Garnet. "There has to be a reason why you are so angry at it."
"Those foolish humans stole something important," said the Leviathan. "Do you know who I am?"
"I only know that you are named Lotan, but I do not know who or what you are," said Garnet.
"That is correct, I am Lotan, Lord of the Seas," said the serpent.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Garnet.
"It is my job to control the flow of water in the oceans," said Lotan. "I used the orbs to regulate the flow of water in the seas of this region."
"What are the people of the city doing with that orb?" Garnet asked.
"They stole it," said Lotan. "The orb was kept in an underwater cave, but they took it and used it to change the flow of water. Now, they're using it to push in the fish and push out their pollutants and trash out into the sea without a care for anything else."
That was the black stuff that Garnet saw past the line. They made it so that all the nasty stuff they created from their production of quality goods was pushed into the sea around it. If they did not have the orb, who knows what it would be like in the city.
"If you knew where the orb was, could you retrieve it?" Garnet asked.
"Yes," said Lotan. "So far, they expect me to always attack from a single direction and they think I'm weak, but I can break through their electric net at any time I want."
"What will you do with the orb?" Garnet asked.
"I will restore the natural flow of the seas," said Lotan. "And, I'm going to make sure that the trash stays in the city."
"Won't they just take the orb again?" Garnet asked.
"I've devised a way to seal it," said Lotan. "No one but me will ever be able to move the orb once I'm done with it."
"What does the orb look like?" Garnet asked.
"It's more of a crystal than an orb," said Lotan.
"Does it look something like this?" Garnet asked as she took out the broken crystal from the Zmaj.
"That's from the dragon isn't it?" Riley asked.
"Yes," said Garnet.
Lotan circled around and looked at the broken crystal from different angles. "Sort of, but this one does not exhibit the same level of magical power," said Lotan. "It pales in comparison to the orb."
"If I tell you where the orb is, what will you do for me?" Garnet asked.
"A mage like you certainly values knowledge," said Lotan. "What if I taught you how to create magical cores?"
"What is a magical core?" asked Garnet.
"It is sort of like a jewel that can store and gather mana," said Lotan. "It goes under different names including Mana Core, Mana Crystal, Jewel of Magic, among others. You can use it for any purpose, such as using it to amplify spells or power up a golem you created."
It was almost as if Lotan knew exactly what Garnet wanted. She was glad to accept it. "The orb is most likely located in a blacksmith shop in the Artisan District in the East part of the city," said Garnet. "It is heavily guarded."
Quest Update: The Leviathan's Treasure
Help the Leviathan retrieve its orb
Reward: New Recipe
"That means it will be under the shop," said Lotan. "That's easy."
"How is that easy?" Riley asked.
"That's because the crystal must be touching water to be effective," Lotan explained. "I simply have to grab the whole part that is sticking out and just take everything with me."
Garnet felt like this was a bad idea. There was a chance that Lotan could just sink the entire city. "Can't you retrieve it without sinking the entire city?" Garnet asked.
"If it sinks, then the city was poorly built and was only being supported by the orb," Lotan added. "That's their fault for not thinking things through, like those idiots who built their city next to an active volcano."
"..." Garnet had no words. The city was built on top of water. If it was being maintained by magic, then that was fine, but if it was being maintained by the orb, the whole thing would sink. "Can't you keep it afloat with the orb?" Garnet asked.
"They might use it to just do the same thing again," said Lotan. "I know it sounds bad, but what they're doing is just slowly killing themselves by poisoning their own water."
Lotan was right. What the people of the city were doing was definitely not good for their environment. The steel used to build those ships had to be manufactured. With no smokestacks to let the chemicals flow into the atmosphere, it was likely that they found a way to force it into the water, which was what made it so dirty and pushed away the fish in the first place.
Garnet watched as Lotan swam to the city. It was extremely fast. Garnet could not keep up with her flying speed. Even before the city was in sight, Garnet could hear something that was a combination of a horn and a bell, similar to an alarm. As Garnet approached, she saw Lotan overlooking the city and the mages getting into formation to cast the lightning net. Lotan dove under the water and swam straight for the city. Since, it knew where the orb was, it could just avoid the defenses altogether.
The mages on the ships were confused. In the past, Lotan had always retreated, but this time, it went straight for its goal. The ships and spells were too slow to react to Lotan as it ripped the entire room from under the city. Suddenly, Garnet could feel an enormous amount of mana coming from Lotan. A powerful source of mana that was not there before. She saw that its tail was carrying a large blue stone.
Name: Stone of Currents
Quality: Mythical
Effect: Controls the flow of water
Lotan took the stone and fled. It did not even bother to look behind it. It had accomplished its goal. The town itself remained floating. Garnet was glad that Lotan did not trash the whole city to retrieve it.
Garnet followed Lotan as quickly as she could. It headed back out into the sea. Past the clear waters, she saw Lotan again. The black stuff in the water began to slowly move its way back towards the town. Lotan had reversed the process. Garnet was worried that she might have doomed the town. "What will happen to the town?" Garnet asked.
"It's up to them to clean up their mess," said Lotan. "But as promised I will teach you. Take out the stone again."
Garnet took out the broken crystal she got from the Zmaj. Lotan opened its mouth wide. "Put it in," it said.
Garnet dropped the broken crystal shards into Lotan's mouth. When she backed away, the mouth closed. "What are you doing?" she asked.
Garnet watched as Lotan moved the crystal to the side of its mouth. "I'm repairing it using the power of Earth and Fire," said Lotan. "Earth is needed to crush it into a powder, then fire to melt it, then earth again to shape it. With that, you have a complete stone that can be made from almost anything."
Lotan opened its mouth and there was a shiny blue orb.
Name: Mana Crystal
Quality: Mythical
Effect: Empowers summons and allows them to gain mana and experience.
Quest Complete: The Leviathan's Treasure
New Recipe: Recipe: Mana Crystal
Requires: Magic Sand, Earth Spirit, Fire Spirit
Effect: Empowers summons and allows them to gain experience
MP Cost: 1000 for base, additional mana for upgrades
Garnet took it out. "If you could do this, why didn't you make a new orb?" Garnet asked. "It would be much easier than taking it back wouldn't it?"
"Then I would have to replace all of them around the world," Lotan answered. "The orbs were made in a set and interact with each other in a certain way. If I replaced one, I would have to replace them all."
"What do I do with it?" Garnet asked as she stared into the orb.
"Take the orb and insert it into the heart of your friend," said Lotan.
Garnet took the blue orb and put it to Riley's chest. There was a faint white light as it entered and seemed to have bonded with Riley.
Skill Upgrade: Riley
Riley can now use full transformations.
Riley was empowered by the stone. "Is it possible to give more to a single summon?" Garnet asked.
"No," said Lotan. "You must remove the previous one to put the new one in."
"How do I do that?" Garnet asked.
"Just push in the new orb and the old one will be forced out," said Lotan. "It's that simple."
"Thank you," said Garnet. "This will be very useful."
"You did great to help me," said Lotan. "But now that this issue is resolved, I must get back to my duties."
"Alright," said Garnet. "Maybe I'll see you elsewhere."
"If you do, you can be guaranteed that it is going to be trouble," Lotan replied.
Garnet and Riley watched as Lotan dove into the water and swam away. With the matter of Lotan being settled, Garnet and Riley continued on their journey. As they passed by the town again, Garnet noticed that the black liquid produced by the town was now gathering within their waters. They had relied on the power of the Stone of Currents in order to keep their water clean and they were now poisoning it themselves. That was their punishment for stealing from Lotan. If they did not change their ways, they would only be dooming themselves.
The existence of Lotan meant that there were possibly other powerful creatures that were responsible for maintaining the world. Chances are that it was not the only one. Garnet thought about the one for wind. It would be scary if someone was able to control it. The question was why they did not do anything to stop the Invasion. "Is there no creature to protect the world from Invaders?" she thought. Then again, Garnet remembered that the creature is responsible for maintaining the flow of water, something natural in the world. The Invasion itself was probably an unnatural event, which meant that the world had no natural defense mechanisms against it. "If I was strong enough, could I make one?"
Riley looked over her shoulder into the hills in the distance. "What's wrong?" Garnet asked.
"I'm not sure," said Riley. "For a brief second, I felt like someone was looking at me. When I turned around there was nothing there."
"Maybe it was an animal?" Garnet asked.
"Probably," said Riley. "I thought only people triggered the reaction, but maybe animals too now."
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Spoiler :
No change in stats