Chapter 152
Meeting With The King
Clop, clop, clop.
Mallory angrily strode forward, she was still one of my plus ones for my Death Shroud, I also think she was one of Gwen’s three spots as well. Which was good as we were both following her right now.
At first, we thought there was going to be a conflict, as indeed the guards that were present all ran towards her as if to stop her. Then she held up the unsealed marriage contract, that instantly placated all of the guards present and caused them to go from an aggressive stance to a bowing posture. As if to say that she was already being observed as the future queen of this kingdom.
“My queen.”
“My queen.” The guards echoed as she angrily stomped her way forward.
Gwen for her part had to run.
Me I sort of cheated by tying an invisible tether of magic around Mallory that pulled my weightless body forward like a seraphim winged kite. I did flap my wings, but that was mostly done as a way to make sure I didn’t fly off to the side, or run into buildings as she made sharp quick turns.
Panting.
Gwen on the other hand was clearly out of breath.
“Dr. Spiritlight, may we be of assistance?” The Knight Captain said, pulling up next to me. He seemed to have a hard time keeping pace with Mallory who looked like she was walking gracefully, even though the Knight Captain had to break his stride every so often to jog for a few steps to keep up with me.
“We are good right now, I think.” I stated.
“Might I ask what the nature of this visit is about?” The Knight Captain asked.
“Yes, Mallory, I mean, Guild Leader of the Midnight Hunters Guild Mallory Valhalla has received the proposed method for having a lasting peace between your faction and the members of our guild and has come to give her opinion, on said matter.” I state as diplomatically as I can.
“I take it from the Guild Master’s aggressive strides she is not too pleased with the proposed arrangement?” The Knight Captain said, a note of fear in his voice, particularly as he looked at me.
Wince.
I wanted to tell him that everything would be okay, but honestly this was so far out of being the quick joke I thought it would be, that I didn’t have a moment to tell Mallory anything.
Also likely adding to the sudden tension of all of this was the fact that Mallory had apparently been given a timed response to give her answer in person to the King, a timer that I was now watching as I too was given a mirror of her impromptu quest.
Major Territory Quest: A Permanent Treaty: A Proper Response: You have given notification of a proposed peace treaty between your faction, the elven occupants of the Capital of Deolar, and the leader of the invading Midnight Hunters Guild. Meet the dignitary of the Midnight Hunters Guild in your imperial chambers at the appropriate time within one hour to find out if your two factions will have peace or everlasting war. Rewards: Experience, variable (based on time remaining). Time: 58:23, 58:22…
Yes, while we still had most of an hour left, Mallory was powerwalking her way through potentially hostile territory, using her scroll signed by the king as the only way to defuse the otherwise hostile spirits.
Fortunately, Gwen and I were both Spiritlights, meaning that we started off with a favorable impression to all spirits, making it so we didn’t have to worry about angering the spirit inhabitants of this kingdom.
Idly I wondered if there was a way to make it so we could get a similar effect of our surname applied as a guild title, similar to the random bug we found where the Midnight Hunters helped me dispose of thousands of pounds of trash that were then turned into gold.
That was the type of success I had been envisioning, when I started this whole process. See part of why Mallory and I became such great friends was the fact that she helped me launder gold I had stolen from a competitor. Part of how I stole such a large quantity of gold was that I was able to portray myself as the Guild Leader of the Mage’s Guild, where using the Guild Leader’s room, I was able to teleport in with my clone, dropping off hundreds of pounds of gold and experience potions alike.
Here I had tried to do something similar, but the system as always has thrown a slight monkey wrench into the works.
***
(Thirty Minutes Ago)
We were in the King of Deolar’s chambers. I was wearing the visage of Octavia De’Arcaneri, an apparent elven princess who died over a thousand years ago in the now destroyed Arcanarus University. When I met her, I found out she was trying to come up with a spell to cure the Blight, and had died over a millennium ago, according to her back story. By helping her present her spell and gain a posthumous doctorate, I managed to have her fulfill her life purpose and leave this world satisfied. Which is what is required from my Class Trait Spiritual Doppelganger, this was a Class Trait I had unlocked for my then Void Walker class, which has since evolved twice into its current form of Ethereal Healer.
Thinking back on it, it is odd, as this likely means that my daughter who has the same class as me, as she is the only other Ethereal Healer in the world, will not be able to get this Trait. Not unless she too gets a random quest from Arcanarus University to cleanse out ten ghosts, which was of course how I got the Trait in the first place.
Still, we were there, inside the imperial chambers, and they looked oddly grand and opulent, but not overly so. I will give the elves one thing, and that is the fact that they have a way of blending art opulence, with natural curves and symmetry that is very appealing to experience.
I was so caught up with taking in the grandeur of the room, and the intricate ways it worked with different facets of the room that I was lost with that, followed by a random system message letting me know I needed to work with the system to finally settle down and focus on my Akashic Qi Master class.
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Warning: Akashic Qi Master Class Perk (for Level 50 Automatically) Assigned. Due to time constraints and having the requirements to unlock a level 100 Class evolution, your level 50 Class Perk has automatically been assigned based on actions taken.
Seeing the message my heart dropped, as I realized I had gained a lot of levels in such a short period of time. Well to my defense, we are in a massively overpowered zone, meaning all the quest rewards are ridiculously high for completing them. Meaning I have been flying through the levels.
I mean, I did just get 1.5 million experience in a little under an hour for completing two major quests in this zone alone, which propelled me to new heights in levels.
I pause, realizing that I spent over six months working on getting through the first few dozen levels. Now, I seem to be flying through dozens of levels a day. In fact, I think my time here is what pushed me forward so quickly as I just now realized that I had quite a few due outs for my different unique classes.
Making a quick check I see that I had the ability to choose a class upgrade for each of my three classes.
Akashic Qi Master (139): Level 100 Class Evolution available. Ethereal Simulacrums Master (201): Level 200 Class Evolution available. Ethereal Healer (246): Level 200 Class Evolution available.
Then pausing to see what class Perk was chosen for my reaching and passing level 50 as an Akashic Qi Master, I paused and was oddly pleased with what it chose for me.
Class Perk Unlocked: Qi Technique Propagator: You have managed to focus your will into creating new Qi Techniques that can be used and trained by all users of Qi. Effect: +100% Ability to Create new Qi Techniques, +100% efficacy of all new Qi Techniques created by you that you use, +100% efficiency in your ability to teach known Qi Techniques to others.
Honestly, that Perk was a lot better than I could have hoped to have created on my own. It also helped to explain why I have been able to create so many new Qi Techniques and subsequent skills related to the use of these new Qi Techniques, as this perk made it so I could basically be a Qi Technique generating machine. Which I guess fit in nicely with the whole concept of my class being the Master of Qi knowledge.
With that, I was about to go down the path of what I would want for my level 100 Akashic Qi Master class upgrade, noting that I got two new classes of magic awakened at level 100 for my two magical classes. Before I could get caught up in that, I wondered how much I had unlocked for my level two hundred class evolutions as well, as I had managed to accomplish a lot since my last upgrade, saving the great tree Yggdraspirit, curing the Blight, reclaiming lands that were long since thought of as dead and inhabitable wastelands.
Yet, despite all of these thoughts, I was distracted by the sudden welling up of energy around me.
Pulling myself from my own internal thoughts of power, and class evolutions, I was met with the sight of a crying father. Well not my real father, but the father of this avatar I was still wearing.
Seeing him, I realized I had missed something, as the once proud king looked suddenly so small. A tear was on his face, I couldn’t help but react the way I would. I didn’t know how the real Octavia would react in this situation, and at this moment I didn’t really care as I saw him and realized I needed to act.
So I did what came naturally to me. I lunged forward and hugged him.
“I’m sorry father.” I said, my voice still sounding odd as I was using the voice and body of an older more regal elf.
“I’m not.” The King said, with that I took a step back, wondering if I had missed something major. I knew I had, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what was said.
Mentally I tried to pull up the last few minutes of dialog between us, well it would just be him talking as I was clearly taking inventory of the random system warning from me leveling too quickly and not taking care of my Unique Class evolution requirements.
“You have made me the happiest King, no father in the world. I can now rest, knowing that you are safe, sound, and above all you forgave me. Thank you.” The King said, a tear rolling down his face.
Quest Complete: A King’s Final Regret: You have managed to finally allow King De’Arcaneri to rest comfortably in the afterlife, knowing that he has finally been truly forgiven by his daughter. Rewards: Experience, New Spiritual Doppelganger Form.
Experience Gained: 25,000 / 12,500 / 12,500
Ding.
Level up.
Akashic Qi Master has increased to level 140.
Ethereal Healer has increased to level 247.
Seeing the level up notices didn’t really make me feel as excited as I should, as they were just reminders of the fact that both those classes were almost halfway through to the next part. Actually my Ethereal Healer class was getting close to the point where I would unlock my first aura, which would mean I had finally made it as a true elite of the world. Well my first aura from a class, I already had two auras thanks to my Legendary bloodline, but that was a different story entirely.
Yet, before I could get too lost in these thoughts, I was met with the final system message.
New Spiritual Doppelganger form: Deolar King Galuminous De’Arcaneri.
Seeing the name, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the odd name, and realized that the world had a sense of humor. As that name was the real name of Golum, which was ancient elven for Light, and that is what the king had turned into before he vanished, a blindingly bright wave of light.
Seeing the light and my new opportunity, I of course switched forms from Octavia, a mere princess, to that of the King and was surprised to see all of the different options that were available to me.
Case in point, I could see the displeasure of all the people of my empire, about the quote “Noisy Invaders.”
Then I was given a few options for how to deal with said Noisy Invaders, apparently the King had been choosing to Ignore, said Invaders. Unfortunately, we were now at the stage where actions must be taken, as the people were growing increasingly agitated with all the noted hostile patrols of the enemy, which was why the two groups of guards were taken prisoner.
While this was just an initial step, it alluded to the fact that something greater was clearly on the rise and the fact that war between the two factions was all but inevitable.
But as I was effectively an agent for both realms, I decided to go on a more interesting route, the only one that actually led to a peaceful resolution between our factions.
***
(Present)
That of course, is how we now found ourselves here. Well barring one minor stop off to heal an unhealthy unborn pup, and a random quest alteration by the world around me and here we are.
“It’s probably best if you give us some space.” I noted to the Knight Captain.
Seeing that Mallory was clearly on the war path, at least if her power walking stride was any indication, the Knight Captain first thought against it, but then decided to go back to man his troops at the entrance of the zone.
This was okay, as we were already at the long staircase leading up to the Imperial Chambers, where each step was guarded by not one but two elite guards who all seemed to be as strong, if not stronger than the bloodline awakened Knight Captain.
“One second, I need to use the little healer’s room.” I said, breaking off from the group, dissolving my tether to Mallory, as I got to a corner, Teleported to an empty room, where I promptly used my Spiritual Doppelganger form to change into the avatar of King De’Arcaneri, then Teleported once again to the empty Imperial Throne room.
I had taken less than a minute to make all my changes.
I had gone so fast that I was still huffing and puffing from the sprint of changing and elongating my torso and lungs, to be in this new form.
Yet, despite my speed, I barely beat Mallory, and only then because a servant had to come to my door.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.” I managed.
With that the servant came in, “My lord, Lady Valhalla, leader of the Midnight Hunters has come to deliver her answer to your proposed treaty arrangement.”
There was a clear note of fear in his voice as he clearly felt that either Mallory or I would be disappointed by the answer. As any answer other than a yes to a formal marriage between myself and Mallory would be considered an act of war.
I honestly tried to get Octavia to be the one to marry, but she sadly did not have as much political authority to end this conflict, especially with how little current empathy she had created by randomly appearing. So, of the two avatars I had available, only the King had enough clout, authority, and empathy to generate a lasting bond that would be able to actually end this conflict once and for all.
Now all I had to do was convince Mallory to first accept this without overtly giving up the fact that I was in fact a double agent, acting in the best interest of our guild.
That was part of why I had made sure to make my Teleports, and changed my forms in places that were close enough that even Gwen should have been able to see my changes sand movements with her own version of Angel’s Sight.
Fortunately, she seemed to catch on, as she had been whispering into Mallory’s ear, while the envoy came to speak to me.
“Bring my proposed bride here before me, so that I might see her splendor.” I state, as regally as I remember the King speaking but moments ago.
“Right away your majesty.” The servant said, bowing once then going to get Mallory.
This time when Mallory moved, the anger in her strides was clearly gone, as she seemed to be slowly composing herself.
“Your Majesty, I present to you Lady Valhalla, Legendary awakened bloodline holder, and leader of the roaming band of vag… people who have taken up living on our lands.” The servant said, clearly cutting himself off from saying something inflammatory to the proposed future queen.
With that Mallory strode forward, clearly skeptical, until she took one look at me. Then pausing for a half second, she seemed to stare at me intently, before shaking her head and moving forward.
For a moment, I wondered if I should first send everyone out of the chambers to speak to her individually, before she said anything that could not be taken back before witnesses. Yet, before I could state anything she began to speak, and I held my breath as I waited for what would come next.
“King De’Arcaneri of Deolar, I, Mallory Valhalla, Leader of the Midnight Hunters Guild, have come to answer your query as to whether we can in fact form a permanent Truce between our two factions.”