Chapter 35: …Not Even Close

Cleaning Fort Lazerpail took a grand total of 3 days. What should have been a job completed in a single day turned into a longer process than Claire would have liked. It didn’t help, in her opinion, that Marlon and Amelie kept sneaking away to read their books or that Thomas decided that playing pranks was good for moral. She had nearly tossed the little boy from a window one morning after he had flung a dead spider at her. Alex, as ever, had been a stalwart worker as soon as he had figured out the best method of cleaning the dilapidated fort. It had been Alex, not Chase, who had organized the guild best after realizing their efforts were making the fort more dirty instead of clean.

“Look,” Alex had said on the morning of the second day. The entire guild was groggy from a night spent sleeping outside where the bugs had attempted to drain them of all the blood which they had. “This process is taking longer than it should be. We need to rethink our approach to cleaning this place if it’s going to be our home long term.”

“What would you suggest?” Chase had asked. He yawned and looked like the only thing he wanted was to curl back up into a ball and go back to bed. Claire was beginning to realize that their leader was not a morning person.

Alex sighed and laid out his plan. It involved a systematic cleaning process going level by level in the fort until all the work was done, with the tasks divided evenly and playing to each guild members strengths. Being the smallest, Thomas was tasked with cleaning the most hard to reach places which had accumulated a terrifying collection of spiders and dead bugs. The day before the Fighters had scoured the depths of the fort (all fives floors of it, Claire had counted, including the two above ground which made the walls of Fort Lazerpail) and found zero goblins lurking within its bowels. What they had discovered instead was a large swatch of purple colored fungus which sprayed a cloud of green spores every time they came close. This information had been what propelled the excited Marlon to his book in order to research this mysterious mushroom. He had forbidden anyone from from going near it until he found out exactly what it was and whether it was dangerous.

“Aborkanin beltonin,” he had announced that evening to the guild as they lay around the fire exhausted from the days activities. He had had his dusty tome opened to a page near the middle and turned around so that all could see the detailed drawings and its description. “Also known as the Purple Houseguest. It’s a good thing you three heeded my warning and stayed away. This mushroom uses its spores to place its victims to sleep, and then slowly inches its way to their body until it can consume them slowly. The book says there are very few recordings of this actually happening, as typically the victims friends can easily rouse them.”

“Sounds rather innocuous if all it takes is waking someone up,” said Chase, munching on some freshly caught venison. Chase had been the most successful and found their first hot meal in days. Despite her gripes about their leader’s behavior the man had at least learned to cook in his previous life and it was giving the guild a needed boost of energy.

“It will be a simple matter to rid our new home of these uninvited guest,” continued Marlon, holding up a finger. “But the real trick is harvesting them. I can make some very advanced potions for a Herbalist if I can dry their husks out in the sun. In order to do this I need to leave the fort and find some algae.”

“What’s the algae good for?” Asked Chase. He seemed to be only half listening as he watched Thomas attempt to pull his bow string to his cheek. The bow was much too large for the little boy as they had found out during the hunt.

“I can mix it with some saffron and more water to create a substance which will send its sleeping spores in reverse,” said Marlon, his eyes bright with intrigue. Claire had a fleeting image of Marlon giving a proposition to a general leading an army about how best to destroy an enemy force. “After only a few minutes I can harvest them and allow them to expire and dry up in the sun.”

“You have my blessing,” said Chase, waving his hand like a priest of AION. “Tomorrow morning we can find your algae. There is a small estuary not too far from here we can go to.”

From there Alex had given everyone a specific task to complete, and the next day the cleaning commenced in full. Despite the reorganization is still took well into the third day to finally have the fort in shape, but Claire decided it had been well worth it to do so. The kitchen was now useable, the bedrooms spotless and ready for sleeping rolls, the three floors underground were fungus free and ready for storage or whatever else the guild decided, and Chase had even managed to build a halfway decent awning for Moonshine along with a watering trough.

And now, on the morning of the fourth day, Claire had been awoken by Brent for their daily training which had been sorely missed since the cleaning began. Amelie was sound asleep on the other side of the room they shared, and Brent had seemed to not care that he was sneaking into their room. When Claire had been gently awaken by him she had felt a nervous thrill run up her spine. Brent had placed a finger on his lips.

“Shh,” he had said. “Everyone’s asleep, but I’m too restless to sleep anymore. Let’s get a workout in, eh?”

Claire was still exhausted, and grumpy to have been awoken up, even by Brent. Even just another 20 minutes of sleep sounded divine to her and there was a small part of her brain that she could hear whispering about taking the day off in order to allow her aching body a chance to recover. Had it been anyone else she would have pushed them away and told them to get bent.

“Let’s go,” was all she had said.

“Not bad, Claire,” said Brent after they had been training for over an hour. The sun was already peaking over the battlements and beginning to warm the courtyard. “But try moving your sword arm—like this—and then don’t forget to twist your waist—there--“

Claire felt her face heat up as Brent took her by the arm and with one hand adjusted her guard while simultaneously moving her waist with his other. Suddenly she was nearly in his embrace.

“Like this?” She queried quietly, not trusting her voice.

“Yes.” His breath fell upon her neck and its warmth caused her skin to tingle. “Now try the strike again.” He stepped back and motioned toward the practice dummy.

Don’t act a fool you stupid girl, she thought to herself. She managed to focus on a couple deep breaths which cleared her mind of Brent. Despite his presence she was still able to focus on her training which was almost equally important to her. With a swing and a slice through the air she slashed the dummy exactly where Brent had showed her.

“Excellent,” Brent beamed. He clasped her shoulder with one strong hand and suddenly the heat returned to her face like she had touched an oven.

“Thanks, Brent—for showing me— I mean.”

“We are on a team after all. Chase showed me how to use your stomach to add strength to a blow. I think he called it recruiting the muscles or something like that.”

Claire nodded. If training could distract her of her emotions then talking of training was the second best thing.

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“So many little details to master.”

“How about we take a rest in that shade?” Brent covered his eyes from the sun with a hand and peered at the awning where Moonshine was dozing standing up. “I need to cool down. This heat is killing me.”

And so the pair found themselves resting in the cool shade of the awning. They leaned against the stone wall and passed their water skin between them, taking long drags of the fresh water. Claire hadn’t seen another soul awake and suddenly become aware that this was her first time alone with Brent since their long training sessions on the island.

“Can I ask you something, Claire?” Brent asked.

“Go ahead.”

“What are your plans after we finish our Fighter contracts?”

“You mean which job? Chase said Warrior is the next step for us.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean are you gonna stay with the guild?”

“Oh.” Claire had never considered leaving the guild. The only reason she had joined it was because Brent had. The idea of Brent leaving her behind was too much to take.

“No,” she said. “No I think I will stay here. We have a good thing going, don’t we?”

“Maybe.” Brent sighed. “We are taking a lot of what Chase is saying on faith. The only evidence we have that he was who he says he was is a little boy who claims he saw him come to the island.”

“And also from our Advisor,” pointed out Claire. “I don’t think Ghelion would lie about that.”

“That’s true,” Brent admitted. “I guess I am also thinking about why I joined the guild. Chase told such a good story about the Old Guard and their betrayal. His need for vengeance and also his guarantee of helping us pass our contracts.”

“You were so excited when he talked about the revenge part,” Claire said.

“Guess I was.” Brent sat up and faced Claire. “They are the most famous Guild to ever exist right? If we can topple them then all that glory belongs to us. Who better to get us there than a man who used to be one of them? But now…”

“Now you’re not so sure if you want to help him?”

Brent shrugged. “I do, but, you remember those highwaymen we fought on the way over here? Those are some of the weakest NPCs in the world and had Sir Antony not showed up I’m not sure even Chase would have been able to save us. And those are NPCs! What about players who have been training for five, ten, twenty years? Those guys will be monsters!”

“You will be stronger over time too, Brent.”

“Yeah but is Chase really the guy to get us that strong? He wasn’t even OP he told us and admitted that without his Guild he would have never passed the fourth contract even.”

Brent was making some good points, but overall Claire was happy that she had a group of people to work on her contract with. Most of all knowing that she would get to see Brent everyday even if he seemed to barely register her beyond being a training partner was was more than she had ever hoped for. Before Chase, she had resigned herself with the knowledge that as soon as Brent left the island she would probably never see him again. That fate had brought them together in this guild was something which she was grateful for every day.

“True,” she began, choosing her words carefully. “You’re right about him not being OP before. But as you said he was apart of the most famous guild in Esem. He trained alongside Solomon and Karkren and all the rest. I think that he knows what he is doing, and if we give him a chance then maybe we can be like his old guild one day.”

“It’s possible,” agreed Brent. “I’m not saying he doesn’t have experience that I would kill for—literally. But what about this?”

Brent drew in closer to Claire and lowered his voice. Had Claire been standing she was sure her legs would have shook.

“What did he even do to them?”

“Meaning?”

“The Old Guard,” said Brent nervously. He looked around to make sure their guild leader was no where close. The courtyard was still empty with not a sign of anyone awake yet. “They tried to assassinate Chase. In all the books I’ve read about them they never struck me as the murderous types. I mean they had their fair share of scraps and there are records of them having to dole out punishment to other players from time to time. But what was so bad that they decided to kill their own thief?”

“Chase said he didn’t know.”

“Come on, Claire,” said Brent, rolling his eyes. “Use your head. He definitely knows why they wanted to kill him. And he definitely is hiding that information from us.”

This was the first time Brent had ever broached this subject. After the talk in the gazebo and Chase had told them of his previous identity and that his guild had tried to kill him, the entire group had seemingly dropped the topic. Claire thought perhaps everyone was too scared to ask him for more details but Chase didn’t strike her as someone who would lash out at a reasonable question.

“Well,” she said hesitantly. “Why don’t we ask him?”

“Seriously?” Brent looked incredulous.

“Sure,” she shrugged, trying to sound more confident than she was. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“He could kill us in our sleep,” joked Brent, allowing himself a small laugh. “I amend what I said earlier about the Old Guard never murdering people. They had a member who was an Assassin for three whole years. Guess who that was?”

“Chase,” said Claire, remembering some passage that Brent had foisted on her during his studies on the Old Guard.

“Exactly,” said Brent. “Of course I don’t think he would do that to us. But maybe we should wait to ask him until we know him better.”

“So he really murdered people as an Assassin, Brent?”

“Of course,” said Brent. “Well, I read the Assassin job deals mostly in hit contracts. So he would have been murdering NPCs for gold. But I am sure he used those skills on players from time to time. Solomon doesn’t let anyone in his guild choose a job just for the fun of it.”

Claire thought about that for a moment. Their leader had lived a full life before he was forced to respawn for whatever the real reason was. She found herself growing more curious by the moment. Here was a man who had lived in Esem longer than he had ever lived in the Old World and had traveled the length of breadth of it many times over, becoming a legend in his own right despite not ever becoming over powered. Legends about him were known the world over by every player, and likely NPCs as well. Whatever it was he was hiding from them must have been an incredible tale, and one which Claire now couldn’t stop thinking about.

“Morning, you two,” said Chase. He stumbled and nearly fell on his face as he exited the door which led down to the bedrooms. “Oops, gotta watch that step, eh?”

His hair was a mess and he had bags under his eyes, and his trousers were dirty from the day before and Claire thought his shirt was perhaps turned wrong side out.

A striking figure from legend indeed, she thought to herself.

“Morning, boss,” said Brent, eyeing Chase has he nearly drank from Moonshine’s watering trough, thought better of it, and took the water skin which Brent offered to him.

“Thanks,” said Chase, guzzling the water. He then splashed the remaining water from the bag over his face. “What are you two doing up so early?”

“Training,” said Claire and Brent at the same time.

“Of course, of course. My two young fighters. Rising with the sun to cross blades. One of these days I’ll have to join you before the cock crows.”

“What’s the plan for today?” Asked Brent. He seemed unimpressed by Chase’s joke about waking up but let it slide.

“See that box?” Chase pointed at the large wooden crate poor Moonshine had been forced to pull along for countess miles. They had left it on the ground after unloading the cart on the first day. “It’s my surprise to the guild. Today we are gonna open it up! Excited?”

“I guess,” shrugged Brent. “What—.”

“Chase,” said Claire, interrupting Brent. Maybe it was their leader’s attitude seeing them up early that gave her the confidence. “What did you do to have the Old Guard want to kill you so bad?”

Brent stared at her in horror. Slowly he turned his face to check Chase’s reaction. Their leader was suddenly not looking tired at all and had a resigned look upon his face.

“Not buying my story, eh? I guess I should have known you would be the one to have the guts to ask me about the real story, Claire.”

“So it’s true? You do know the reason why they wanted to kill you.”

Chase took a seat across from them, sitting cross legged. Brent learned forward like a child unsure whether he was about to be scolded by his father for a bad deed or told to be told life changing information.

“I didn’t want to tell any of you before we had been a guild a bit longer,” began Chase. All trace of joking was gone from him and his eyes stared past them like a man dealing with unspeakable memories of his past. “But the truth is, well, what exactly do you two know about the fall of Lord Oscuro and the Old Guard’s hand in it?”

“You mean the thing that put you guys on the map?” Said Brent. “When you guys stormed the Dark Lords castle and killed him?”

“Right,” said Chase slowly. “Oscuro had been the most powerful NPC that Esem had ever seen, and AION had placed him here as the first big challenge for players to overcome. He had lorded over the entire place for almost 1000 years, and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Every other guild or player who had ever tried was killed by him in the most gruesome of ways.”

“That is until Solomon and the Old Guard came along,” said Brent breathlessly. “I’ve always wanted to ask you about that but wasn’t sure how to ask. I read about how you shot him in the eye with an arrow and broke the spell he had over Solomon. Then Solomon and the rest of the Old Guard killed him, right?”

“That’s the thing,” sighed Chase. “That’s what I am trying to tell you, the reason why they wanted to kill me. Is because…well…you see, no one but a handful of people in Esem know about this, and it would cause utter chaos if word ever got out.”

“What?” Said Claire. “If what got out?”

“Lord Oscuro,” said Chase, dropping his eyes to the ground in shame. “He ain’t dead, not even close.”