Red had packed up her camp, pleased that the game let you do it through a menu and not actually have to pack it away. Most of the life skills in the game involved you actually doing the thing, raising wood cutting and carpentry meant cutting down trees and then practicing carpentry by making whatever you could think of. There weren’t a lot of players that did life skills at the minute, most people just hired the npcs to do the hard work. Although that had been hard before the patch when no one could farm any quests or money. She stood up and stretched, looking out over valleys and low mountains that would take them back to Crown City, she doubted it would be nearly as difficult to get back as it was to get here. The monsters would be weaker and their small group would let them move a lot faster. It was almost midday now, and it wasn’t likely that they would arrive before dusk. Suppose it will help with the heist though, Red thought, she looked down at the light leather armour under her cloak, faintly glowing runes where painted on boosting her various stats. She felt lighter on her feet, and stronger too, even her senses seemed heightened. Eyes were sharper, and her ears much more sensitive she could pick out single sounds like a particular birds song, far off rain, or the footsteps coming up the hill behind her. Red frowned and turned to face whoever it was.
Amok came into view, his own clothes covered in glowing runes as well, she wondered if he would have been able to make the climb without them.
“Hey!” he shouted, and waved, “I’ve come to get you.”
Red frowned, “get me? I was about to come back to the town,”
Amok trotted over to her and looked at the view from her campsite, “Not at the town anymore, they couldn’t wait, sent me to come and fetch you and we are going to meet them in there somewhere,” he gestured at the landscape before them.
“I’ve only been an hour and a half,” Red said,
Amok shrugged, “guess they’re just eager to get moving.”
“Why didn’t they send a message? I could have easily found you all on my own, we’ll both have to go at your pace now.”
“Oh well I am sorry,” Amok said putting his hands on his hips, “my pace isn’t good enough, even after I put all that work in,” he pointed at the runes on Reds armour
She laughed, “suppose it won’t be that bad.”
He shrugged again, “shall we?”
“After you.”
Amok grinned and walked over to the northern side of the hill, it was the steepest side, with only a few scraggly vines, and small sharp rock outcroppings. Amok took a deep breath and jumped of, sliding down it on his feet, the runes on his robes glowed brighter, Amok had the most runes of all of them, he needed them to compensate for the fact he spent most of his time leveling his intelligence and wisdom. The blood had soaked into the fibers, which made it look like the robes them selves were glowing with arcane power, Which I suppose it is, Red thought, as she hopped down the hill and slid after him, her own runes didn’t glow as brightly as Amoks, since her dexterity skill was already quite high, she hadn’t needed as many runes to boost it, the runes she had mostly boosted her strength, and senses.
Amok Jumped before the bottom of the hill and angeled himself to land on a raised stone in the valley below. He landed with a soft thump, and stood up hands on his hips, Red landed next to him a few moments later, “Damn thats fun, maybe I should have been a rouge,” he said,
Red smiled, “it’s pretty great, jumping and climbing about the place.” She scanned the valley below them for any sign of Goodman and the others, but she didn’t see them, just vines and rocks and the odd critter scuttling about. The valley was dry and grey, the ground cracked under the sun, which beat down relentlessly, Red was pleased that she was wearing light armour and not the heavy suits that the others had on, she looked over at Amok who at the minute seemed to be doing okay despite his relatively heavy robes when compared to her light cloak, he had a big grin on his face and didn’t seem that worried about finding the others. Well if we don’t meet them on the way, we’ll find them in the city, she stepped forwards and looked down, they weren’t that high up, probably wouldn’t suffer any significant fall damage.
“Come on,” she said, and flipped forward of the raised platform they had been stood on.
Amok hesitated only for a moment, then jumped after her. Red landed nimbly in a crouch and stood up barely taking any damage at all, Amok tumbled through the air screaming and landed in a pile. “Fuck” he shouted, as he untangled himself and pulled out a health potion, and drank it, he offered some to her but she refused,
“Landed on my feet,” she said, “barely took any damage,”
“Is that the secret?” he asked standing up,
“It’s one of them,” Red said, as she set off in down the valley, she pulled up her map to make sure she was walking roughly north, Amok got to his feet and jogged to catch up with her. They chatted idly as they went, about Goodman and the others, about their plans for the future and what they hoped to do. They wondered about the other shards, Amok said that he had heard from some of the people that died that they ended up in a huge desert filled with ruins to explore, and all sorts of sand based monsters and magic. Red wondered what a sand based monster would look like. And figured sand based magic was probably just wind, Amok got grumpy when she mentioned that to him. And they walked in silence for a while, they kept there eyes open for monsters or a sign about the others. They didn’t bother to message each other, both of them figuring they’d meet in the city if not sooner.
As the sun went through the sky and they walked further north, the mountain changed from valleys and mountains to to low hills, then thick wooded forests. They ran into a few monsters, but were more than a match for them, and as they got closer to the city, the monsters stopped attacking them all together sensing that they were far to high a level for such small beasts. A few times Red practiced calm on some of the smaller beasts, but she didn’t have any of the ingredients she would have needed to turn them into pets. So the pair would leave these small monsters sat in clearings of the forest, waiting for something that wouldn’t come. They guessed eventually calm would were off and they would go back to patrolling the forest and attacking lower leveled players. Soon they found themselves at the border of the forest, looking at the imposing wall of Crown city, the citadel towering over it, looming over the city.
“Well, that was much easier,” said Amok,
Red only nodded, and they sat and waited for a group of other players to follow through the gates.
It wasn’t long before a party appeared nearby, they were all wearing armour with a motif depicting a silver crown with a sword through the middle of it. They also all wore similar white, grey and silver armour. Except their rouge who was wearing a midnight black cloak, and died leather armour.
“Check out that edge lord,” Amok said nudging her in the side. She laughed. After the other party had passed them they stood up and walked out of the forest behind them following them towards the gate, Amok looked down at himself “will the runes give me away?” they glowed faintly all over his robes.
Red shrugged, “If anyone asked tell them you got a rare drop or something.” He nodded and they walked the rest of the way in silence, the party in front of them didn’t turn and notice them. And they passed through the gates without difficulty despite the larger number of npc guards than either of them had expected. The city itself had changed a lot since they had last been there, many of the buildings were damaged or knocked down completely leaving entire city blocks worth of rubble where before there had been houses or shops, places where people could practice a trade skill, like blacksmithing. The players walked past these without looking twice, having grown used to the sight of their city in ruins. There were a lot less vacant eyed npcs about as well, the merchants were still there shouting the same 3 things mindlessly into the street over and over, but the npcs that used to pad out the street to make the city feel more full and living were all gone, now it seemed to be exclusively players, the vast majority of which were wearing the same or similar colours and armour to the one they had seen outside. All of them bore the crown and sword motif somewhere on them as well, whether it was emblazoned on their shield or just a patch on their shoulder, if you looked it was there. The few players that didn’t have it on them were mostly traders, and the ones that weren’t walked quickly through the streets.
Red and Amok drew a few glances but no one bothered them as they made their way towards the broken blade tavern. It was the meeting point if they hadn’t met up in the valleys, or forests. They walked through the door together to find Ammy with her helmet off arm wrestling another warrior who wore bright silver plate with the crown and sword motif, the silver warrior was gritting his teeth and straining, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. Ammy on the other had seemed to hardly be trying, the runes on her armour glowed slightly brighter, she was smiling as much as her twisted face allowed her too, showing her red gums, empty of teeth. Brett and Goodman were lent against the bar drinking from tankards, and watching the contest with disinterest. The other patrons in the bar were all shouting and cheering for the silver warrior, telling him to stop holding back and just beat her all ready.
Goodman glanced up when Red and Amok walked in, he nudged Brett in the side, when he saw them. Brett finished his drink and walked behind Ammy, he put both his hands on her chair and yanked it out from under her. She fell to the ground with a yelp and a bang, hauling the silver warrior over the table with him, Brett and Goodman burst into laughter, Amok chucked, and even Red grinned. The other patrons were shocked shouting their disappointment. The warrior got up of the ground and rounded on Brett,
“What the hell was that?” he shouted, “I almost had her.”
“Piss off,” Brett said, he started to walk towards the door, where Red and Amok still stood.
“What did you say? I’ll show you not to talk to an officer of the Silver Crowns like that” he swung a fist, which connected with the back of Bretts head sending him forwards half a step.
Brett turned, showing his perfect teeth in a sharks smile, the officer only had a moment to realise his mistake, before Brett launched into an uppercut which lifted the officer plate mail and all 2 feet of the grown, the runes on Bretts armour shined as the punch connected. The officer was left crumpled on the ground, a moment of silence passed, then outrage as the other patrons who all wore the same sword and crown motif, launched themselves at Brett. Ammy was standing now and moved quickly to his side, helping to fend of the attackers. Goodmans threw himself into the fight too, swinging his tankard and shattering over someones head. Brett and Ammy were each fighting 3 players, fending them of with powerful punches which sent the people in light armour spinning across the room.
“So much for keeping a low profile,” red said,
“Yeah,” said Amok, “oh well, might as well get stuck in.” He raised his hands and started to move them in intricate patterns and chanting, as he did green trails of light started to appear around them then with one quick sharp gesture, a section of the floor lurched upwards tossing several players against the wall
He moved his hands again, and another piece of the floor did the same, throwing more players about the room. Red leapt into the air and hopped across several peoples heads, she kicked out at a few hands that tried to grab her and hopped down onto the bar near where Goodman was standing. Goodman was holding a lightly armoured warrior in the air and laughing, the runes on his armour bright. He tossed the player against the wall as if he weighed nothing, then swung at someone else that had strayed to close. He turned to Red, “you guys made it.” He said through big grin.
“We did,” Red hopped back behind the bar and grabbed a tankard, she picked out a target and thew it. The tankard shattered against the players head sending him stumbling, “I can see you lot are settled right in.”
Goodman laughed again, clipping a players head with his fist sending that player in a spin which ended with him being a heap on the floor.
Brett and Ammy were swinging wild the players were so dense around them that they couldn’t miss. Amok now stood on a table waving his arms about, each time he jerked his arms, a piece of the building lurched towards a player. Red threw another tankard.
“It’s good to be back” he said, “once this is settled we can formulate our master strategy to rob the archive.”
“How long is this going to take?” Red shouted over the noise of the fight.
“Fuck this,” someone else shouted, the door opened and soon players were following suit, escaping into the street. The officer was the last to leave, he stood in the doorway and stared back at them for a moment, Goodman met his eyes, then the officers turned and ran out into the streets.
“That’s going to come back to bite us,” Red said, “I guarantee it”
“Worth it,” said, Ammy, “nothing like a good fight,” Brett nodded in agreement with her. Amok hopped down of his table and stepped around the now broken and floor to get to the others, “what is the plan then.”
“Hold on,” said Red, “let me guess, we walk in kill anyone in our way, grab whatever books take our fancy and walk out again.”
The others all looked to Goodman, he rubbed the back of his head, “I mean, it’s not like we’re robbing a bank.” He said.
“I knew it,” said Red.
The crowds gave them a wide berth as they walked towards the archive, even the players wearing armour didn’t try to stop them, although some groups followed at a distance. Market stalls went silent as they walked down main street. All apart from the npcs who continued yelling into the otherwise quiet street. Their voices echoed of damaged buildings. The group naturally moved into a defensive formation as they walked, Goodman led with Brett and Ammy on the flanks, Amok walked in the middle and Red behind. She kept glancing over her shoulder, at the players that stood watching them. Once they passed the crowds closed up behind them and watched as they walked on. Ammy and Brett treated were treating it like they were celebrities, waving and saying hello to the watchers who stayed silent. Goodman didn’t seem to notice the crowds at all, he just walked and let them part before him. Amok had used his magic to take a flag stone out of the ground and was using it as a floating pedestal for a book, which he read as he walked. The flagstone glowed faintly green. Red had more diversity in the players armour than she remembered too, instead of there just being, knights and rouges and other fighter types along with the odd player who was still trying to figure out how ranged weapons like bows and crossbows worked. There were a few who were wearing a light silver armour, over robes which had been tailored to look more like a fighting uniform as opposed to the robes Amok wore, which were heavy, flowing and impractical in close quarters combat. These lightly armoured players carried short swords or quarter staffs. They flexed their hands as the group walked past but made no move to stop them.
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They entered the alley way to the archive and found it deserted. Aside from a few rouges wearing a silver crown uniform, they scattered, as the group got closer. There was debris from a what must have been a large boulder at the other end of the alley, it was partially cleared out. There were still wheelbarrows with rocks and stones in.
“Was that there when we left?” Brett asked.
“Couldn’t tell you.” Ammy answered.
No one else spoke as they stepped around the debris. The archive plaza had changed dramatically, since they had left. The main area had been cleared of the trees and benches, leaving only the fountain in the middle which had been drained. There were several large tents set up around the edge. Around the empty fountain in the middle of the plaza, sparing rings had been set out, outlined with rope. There were large and left a lot of room to run about in. Scotch marks were scattered about on the floor. There were also a target range with dummies and targets. The place was deserted at the moment.
“They’ve got there magic then.” Red said.
Goodman nodded, “Amok can you tell what kind of magic they are using?”
Amok glanced up from his book and looked at the plaza for the first time, “I don’t know how you would expect me to know that, there are just a bunch of scorch marks on the ground. But it does look like they all have the same type. I assume different types would have different requirements for training.”
Goodman nodded again, “this could be only one training ground.” He said
“Hardly matters does it, there’s no one here now” Ammy said.
Brett agreed with her, Red stayed quiet, she was watching the rogues from the ally they had reappeared around the plazas edge on the roofs of buildings. No one of them was within 100 meters of the other. The group were surrounded, but the rogues weren’t attacking. They just watched. They are waiting to see what we will do, they’re scouts, she thought. Spread out like they were there was no chance of stopping them all. The noise of swords being drawn snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Come on then,” Goodman said, “lets hit the books.”
Brett and Ammy had their weapons ready and Amok put away his book, the flag stone in front of him broke up into a fine mist which flew up his long baggy sleeves. Red clutched her daggers below her cloak and together they made their way to the archive.
The lobby was open, there a few racks of weapons inside. The bodies of the npcs had been moved away and someone had attempted to clean the stains.
“Do you think the alchemists that were here got magic?” Brett asked.
“When I left people were enjoying using alchemy,” Amok said, “it’s a similar build but not perfect for magic. I’ve had to work pretty hard to get my stats in the right place since I left. Some of them might decide it’s not actually worth it.” They walked through to the inner door, Brett moved forward while Ammy and Goodman readied themselves behind behind their Shields. Brett shoved the door open and stepped back to the side. It flew open and banged against the wall on the other side. After nothing came through Ammy and Goodman looked through it “clear,” Ammy shouted back and the others followed them.
“Subtle,” said Red.
“We know what we’re good at.” Said Goodman.
It was quiet on the other side. Tall shelves of books stretched to either side of them.There were holes burned into the floor and abandoned equipment scattered about. A body wearing the silver crown uniform was slumped against the wall the left half of his face was burned away leaving the bone bare.
“Which way then.” Said Goodman.
“The index.” Said Amok, pointing along the corridor, and thankfully not into the stacks.
The group set off, in the direction Amok had pointed. Red leaped up on to the stacks and used her hook and leverage to lunge herself to the top, she was close enough to the ceiling that she could touch it. The stacks went on and on, a maze of knowledge with apparently hostile alchemists jealously guarding it. It was going to be a long day.
The index was a large round room, it was tall and the wall had small slots where index cards were sticking out. The cards were shoved carelessly in to the slots with no regard for where they should be. Many were just thrown scattered on the floor. Only the slots on the highest levels were still neat and tidy. Ammy and Brett stood guard while the other three entered the room properly, Goodman gave it a once over, he picked up one of the index card. It was for a series of books called unfortunate tragedies there were 13 volumes and roughly 500 copies of each book in the archive according to the index card each one was sorted according to an 18 digit number. The small card folded out into a long scroll. “I assume you know what we are looking for and were to find it?” Goodman said.
“If you assume you’ll make and ass out of me and you.” Amok said back, he had walked to the pile in the middle and was briefly scanning index cards before tossing them away.
“I wish we could have a normal conversation.” Red said, “one with straight answers.” Goodman glanced at her and shrugged,
“Red,” Amok said, “why don’t you see if you can find anything up there, just look for like magic or enchanting or really anything that sounds like it might hold the secrets of the universe, standard library stuff.”
She rolled her eyes but was happy to have something to do, As she leapt away she saw Goodman flicking though some of the crammed in index cards along the walls. The room was easy to climb, her hook fit into the slots with the index cards, and even if she didn’t have it she probably could have used them as hand holds anyway. She threw herself up again so she was level with the first row of cards that weren’t crumbled up, about 40 feet in the air, there must have been a ladder at some point she thought she began reading the index cards, ‘languages of old vol 1-6’ ‘a short history of agriculture’ ‘adventures of the old kings vol 1-3’ ‘birds in crown city’ she blinked in confusion, then shouted down to the others, “How are these organised?”
“There not” Amok answered, “thats what we were meant to be doing, organising the library and then we would learn magic, but everyone got bored and started to murder each other prison style,”
“How are we meant to find anything?” She called back
“Blind luck, keep looking.” Goodman answered before Amok could.
She sighed, and looked at another few index cards, ‘trees in the silver wood’ ‘noble families of the crown lands’ ‘wars of old’ she stopped and thought. If the players were meant to be organising the archive than it makes sense that they would start at the bottom. She looked down to the mess of paper and her companions poking through them. If they were meant to discover magic by organising the library then as they worked their way up they would discover more useful books. She looked up at the distant domed roof of the tower like room they were in. She braced herself and launched upwards, then again, flying up towards the roof, below her Amok looked up, “there she goes again,” he said
“Likes heights that one,” Goodman said.
When she reached the top and secured herself with the hook, she looked at the nearest index card. All the cards so far had, had the title of the book and number of copies written this index card had a string of round symbols she didn’t recognise and they made her eyes hurt when she looked at them. The next card was the same only the symbols were more blocky. To high up, she thought these books must be for masters of magic or something. I bet there is one on whatever language this is here somewhere. She looked at a few more index cards and found she couldn’t read any of them. So she unhooked herself and let herself fall a short distance before catching the wall again. The sudden stop caused the runes on her armour to glow and she avoided any damage from it, she looked at the cards around her. ‘A history of the crown city citadel.’ Can’t see that being useful she thought and moved on, ‘advanced enchanting’ “Hah!” she said,
“What have you got,” Amok called up
“Advanced enchanting,” she said,pulling the card out the slot,
“Good one toss it down and see what else is up there,” Goodman said,
Red let the card fall and watched it unfold as it did, it wasn’t as long as the unfortunate tragedies card but it was still the length of her forearm. She scanned the next few cards, but didn’t find anything useful, so she hopped further along the wall. ‘Magic and its forms,’ she grinned, “got another one for you,” she called down pulling out he index card and letting it fall. She kept searching around the upper middle and middle of the tower occasionally dropping down index cards that seemed useful, she picked a few cards for books on ancient languages as well and tossed down one or 3 of the index cards at the top of the room. She wasn’t hopeful it would come to anything or even what Amok would find in the pages, but the others seemed to like the idea. All of the top level books she tossed down only said there was 1 copy in the entire archive. Which only further excited the Goodman and Amok.
Eventually they told her that they probably had enough and that she should come down. She let her self fall most of the way, letting the runes prevent her from taking fall damage. And she landed with with a soft thump. She found the other two were each clutching a small stack of the index cards, about 50 in total.
“You found some too then?” she asked
“This one wants to start a traveling library,” Goodman said indicating Amok with his chin.
“This is a good idea, trust me.”
Red only shrugged, “as long as I don’t have to carry them.” She said, “where to first then.”
Amok pulled of the first index card on his stack, “a brief history of shards.” He said, then rattled of the 18 digits, “reckon it will help us beat a infinity gate boss.” He said.
Red looked at Goodman who shrugged, “well, lead on then,” he said.
The deeper they went into the library the more like a labyrinth it was. Twisting corridors with off shoots and small study rooms everywhere. All of them in disarray now. The wannabe wizards hadn’t let a single room go untouched. Several of the study rooms had gory reminders of the guilds birth. The hallways were once a clean white with a pattern like reflected water on the cold marble floors. The walls had once had murals of the worlds lore across it. Great heroes fighting huge and mighty beasts, the construction of the infinity gates. The shattering of the world. Now the floor was stained red and brown with blood the walls too. Skeletons and rotting bodies lay slumped against them some of them half dissolved or scorched black the stains of the fighting that took place marred the walls covering the once beautiful art work. They walked through it, following Amok barely sparing a glance at the bodies. They wouldn’t have anything good on them. They followed Amok with their weapons drawn. For a while they jumped and moved into a defensive formation at every sound. But after half an hour of this they walked carelessly down the hallway, unafraid of the noise they were making. Only Red moved quietly, and that was only because she couldn’t help it. They continued through the hallways, at one point Amok found an overturned book cart, he picked it up and took it with him. The wheels squeaked a little but no one said anything. After that they started to find the books on the list. Amok would stop them outside a study room or walk into one of the larger rooms with stacks of shelves. He’d pick up a book and bring it up, tossing the index card away as he did so. Red asked why he didn’t just add them to his inventory. He told her he didn’t want to be encumbered. Brett and Ammy said they’re weapons were heavy and took up a lot of space. Goodman told her to worry about one problem at a time, and they continued gradually accumulating books as they went.
They had been going for an hour when Amok stopped them, at a set of wide glass doors that led onto a patio surrounded by thick greenery. Amok looked down at the index card he was following then at a set of signs on the wall. He swore under his breath.
“Problem?” asked Goodman.
“It’s the gardens,” said Amok, “we’ll have to go around.”
“Why?” asked, Brett, “just a bit overgrown is all.” He peered through the glass doors at the gardens, they were indeed overgrown, it looked almost like a small jungle.
“Thats not the issue, it’s th-” Amok never finished because something exploded behind them and filled the corridor with smoke. This time the group moved quickly into a defensive formation. Amok stood at the back hands glowing, back pressed up against the glass. Out of the smoke, walked 15 figures all in dirty brown robes. Most of them were tossing bottles up and down. Glowing liquid sloshed around inside.
“15?” muttered Brett to the rest of them, “we can take them.”
“There not even wearing armour.” Said Ammy.
Amok shook his head, whispering back, “most of them will be invisible.” He said, “we can’t fight them, not here.”
The group shifted and looked at the empty space around them nervously.
“Is that Amok?” one of the wannabe wizards said, “can’t say I expected to see you again.”
“Hello Heyzor” said Amok,
“After you stole the magic from us,” Heyzor went on, “and now you stealing from us again” he gestured at the book cart with the open bottle in his hand, some of the liquid sloshed out and landed on the floor causing it to bubble and spit.”
“This can all be very easily explained,” said Goodman, “lets all calm down.”
Heyzor laughed, the wannabe wizards fanned out more evenly around the Goodman and the rest, forcing them closer to the glass. “Not only thieving, but bringing the crowns in to crash our party.”
Goodman frowned, “The silver crowns are here?”
“Of course they are” snapped answering them for the first time, “now they have there own magic too. Got it from that storm. I would have gotten some too but was busy securing the guild.”
“Why is he just telling us things.” Whispered Ammy,
“Loves the sound of his own voice.” Answered Brett, they both nodded in agreement.
Red was scanning the crowd of robed players, they probably could have beaten them in a straight fight. But even she couldn’t fight something she couldn’t see.
“This isn’t looking good for us,” she said.
Goodman nodded, “we’re going through the garden. If it is dangerous like Amok says it might give us some time to get away.”
“We can’t go through the garden, it’s suicide.” Amok said.
Goodman shrugged, “die here, die there.”
Amok looked at the wannabe wizards, then back out the glass behind them. “Shit,” he said.
“Alright team,” Goodman looked at Red and nodded, “let’s roll.” As he said that Red threw a handful of flash stones at the surrounding enemies. The team threw themselves backwards not bothering to open the glass door simply charging through it. It shattered and they sprinted into the forest. Amok shoving the book cart over the uneven ground as they went. A few bottles followed them out bursting in to flames as the shattered against the ground. Although the people that through them were still stunned from the flash, the throws went wide. Oddly none of the foliage caught fire despite some of the bottles hitting large groups of leafs the foliage seemed to shrug of the fire letting the burning liquid drip off their leaves.
Goodman led the others through the thick overgrown garden, batting at branches and larger leafs as he ran. The others followed close behind him. Red was helping Amok keep the cart up. Amok was staring with a worried expression at the plants around them. The wannabe wizards, didn’t follow. They stood at the broken door and watched. A few of them laughed.