Gray rubbed his hands together as he wiped down his coffee table. The last task of the day. He was starting to really enjoy getting on Elrin on Sunday mornings. It was a nice rhythm that he made for himself. Every Sunday, he would cook himself a decent breakfast. Today, it was an omelet. Then he would spend the first hour dusting the place, mopping the floor, and changing his bed sheets. All while partnered with a cup of coffee. After all of that was done, he would put on his headset and game. With the coffee table clean, he was now done.
He turned on his GECKO II and dove back into Elrin Online.
He appeared in the guild house and saw the winter forest from within the guild house. It was not because he was looking through a window. Two days before, Kelsy and Melody thought that a bigger guild meant that the style of the house needed to be changed. The guild couldn’t agree on a style, so they demolished a kitchen to remind themselves of their future mission.
Gray was not in support of this mission.
Thankfully, they didn’t need to worry about the cold.
“Good morning,” Akira said. He was sitting near the dining table with a book in hand.
“Morning, Akira. It seems you're the only one that’s online.”
“Yup. I usually don’t have much going on Sundays,” Akira closed the book. It disappeared into light and continued. “Say before the rest of the gang goes online, would you be willing to help with another codex puzzle?”
“Sure,” Gray agreed. If he remembered correctly, Akira had collected most of the codexes appropriate to the areas that they had access to. At level 37, there were about only five more unexplored areas that they had to wander around for them to have access to all the areas in the game. Sax’zo was unique in that even a level one player could reach that area through a particular portal in Alitz.
Akira took one look at the missing wall.
“I still think we should go for a coffee shop vibe,” Akira said. “It would be fruitful once the guild house update comes out.”
“Guild house update?” Gray asked. He was still not checking the Elrin Online site for future updates. The Sax’zo update was something he only heard about because Harry kept bringing it up at work.
“It's to give people the option to make their guild house public, so non-guild members can visit it.”
“That sounds cool.”
“Yes, now let’s head on to Basidio. That’s where this codex is.”
Gray and Akira had to go to a cave near the base of the mountain of Severed Crag. From the mouth of the entrance, they could see a sky-blue light that twinkled from the underground city of Basidio.
At the bottom they found a city of light and mushrooms. Giant mushrooms had stems that curved and twirled among each other like tangled wires. Each of these stems glowed a rustic green or ruby red.
Some of these large stems were molded into pathways that allowed people to navigate the underground cities. These pathways led to shops managed by dwarves with mushroom helmets and thick gray beards, NPCs going about their day, and player market board that were crowded with players who were away off their headsets. Some thin mushrooms were finished into makeshift lamp posts. Yet all these mushroom paths and stems did not cross a single edifice. It was a gleaming pond in the center of the city that had the color of a sky that could only exist in a fond memory.
“Basidio is called the City of Endless Night because the roof of the cave looks like it has stars,” Akira explained.
“Cool,” Gray looked towards the ceiling and found mushrooms growing along the roof of the ceiling that shone like red and green stars. “I wonder if we can make the roof of our guild house look like this?”
“It might take some work, but that would certainly look nice. It might be expensive as well.”
“Oh, where’s the codex puzzle that you were talking about? I don’t really see any floating books.”
“Follow me,” Akira led the way along the mushroom walkways.
“Does anyone want to do the Akasha encounter? We need a non-dryad healer and a non-monk DPS. Please send me a DM if you are interested,” A Makana with a celestial afro was shouting to get the attention of all players nearby.
Gray remembered Harry mentioning encounters. A necessary step in the progression once they reached max level. They were getting closer. With the addition of Keslsy and Madame Cheddar, they would only need another tank, support, and healer to have a party of eight. There was also still the hurdle of getting to the later levels.
“So, where’s this puzzle?” Gray asked.
“Just up this road or er, mushroom walkway.”
Gray followed Akira along a path that was neighboring several stalagmite. At the end of this path, a waterfall ran down the side of the cave wall. The color of water was very same that pooled in the center of the Basidio. This Gray and Akira walked through the waterfall and found a hidden iron gate. A pair of levers were on opposing sides of the gate. Wordlessly the two stood pulled the levers at the same time.
The gate rose and the two entered a stone rotunda. The ceiling above them was made of stained glass that displayed a goddess that Gray recognized. It was Leran. There were several depictions of the goddess on murals and guild house paintings that players could buy. It was also easy for players to mimic their favorite deities with the character creator. He saw a couple of Lerans walking around in Alitz. However, the goddess of war was not alone. She stood back-to-back with another.
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It was a black knight with a purple cape that billowed. While Leran faced the western sun, the black knight faced the eastern stars. Behind the stained glass, one could see rushing water. It was mostly likely the path of the waterfall.
“Akira, do you know who that knight is? I’m guessing its some god?”
“Yup, that’s Zaton. The lore doesn’t talk much about him. It just says that he used to be a paladin of Talik that went on to do his own thing.”
“Neat,” Gray examined the rest of the room.
A statue of a dwarf and human warrior stood side by side with their swords pointed towards the floor. The two were dressed in sable armor that carried a beautiful onyx sheen. It was clear that these statues were created with an ancient reverence. Which made it odder that the dwarf was carrying a sword that was as long as four dwarves put together. Meanwhile the human didn’t fare any better carrying a blade that looked about the size of a tennis racket.
Along the walls, ancient runes were etched into the walls. Such runes were automatically translated for the two players.
Under the Sword Saint’s gaze, the armsmaster governs the armaments. Only then will the equinox speak.
“A puzzle huh,” Akira said.
“At least it isn’t parkour.”
“True, but hopefully Cheddar can join us for those types of expeditions,” Akira nodded. “Let’s look around.”
The two search around for something of interest. It didn’t take long as the room had no other decoration of note other than the two statues.
“Might this be a part of the puzzle,” Gray kneeled before an uneven stone slab in the corner of the room. If his experience playing video games all this time was correct, then it was a pressure plate. He looked down as he stepped on the plate and saw an image etched onto the stone panel. It depicted a banner and sword clashing together. There was a click once the stone aligned itself with the rest of the floor, but nothing happened.
“I get it. Gray, stay there while I rearrange their weapons,” Akira said.
“Sure.”
Akira rearranged the weapons, so that both knights received weapons befitting of their stature. The wall behind the two knights rumbled and opened a small chamber with the codex floating over a piece of purple silk.
Gray and Akira grabbed it. Gray skimmed the pages. Codexes that were written like historical documents didn’t interest Gray much. He was more interested in the one that depicted a scene like an actual tale. Those kept his attention. The codexes mostly discussed an order of knights that were called Equinoxes. They would form alliances with seers to hunt paladins that were abusing their power. Whether that abuse of power was physical or social.
After that successful adventure, Akira and Gray sat down near one of the shops within Basidio. The structure almost reminded Gray of the ramen shop that he went to with his father. Except, that everything was made from mushrooms. And there was no ramen.
However, the two of them got good seats, as they could see the whole city from where they were sitting. The shop was mostly empty except for an archer and paladin that were roleplaying in the corner. Apparently, they were hired by a king to hunt down demons. Gray wished them well on their journey as they left.
“Equinoxes, huh?” Akira seemed to have already finished reading the codex. “That might be a new class that’s coming.”
“Huh, I thought you said that monster hunting class was going to be next…The um what were they called again?”
“Jaegers. They use a repeater pistol and sword. I think they’re coming too, but this codex goes pretty in depth about the establishment of the equinoxes. Like how their order rebelled against Grand Paladin Gerold in the Age of Crowns.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Gray scratched his head. He had no idea what Akira was talking about. “I think it’s cool that you like reading up on the lore. To be honest, most people I know don’t really read like that. Me included. Did you always read a lot when you were in school?”
“Yeah, I always liked reading as hobby. Then I really started reading because of my job.”
“What’s your job?”
“I’m a librarian at a college.”
“Cool,” Gray waited a moment and then imagined an Akira shushing rowdy college freshmen in full adventurer’s garb. What a strange gig that would be. To get paid to tell people to shut up. “Um, what does a librarian actually do?”
“Nowadays, the primary role of a librarian is to manage a database and help students and staff with research. It’s pretty boring, but better than being a professor. Don’t have to grade papers…”
“Wow that sounds actually kinda complex,” Gray’s generic thoughts of a grandma with round glasses shushing students was replaced by the image of that girl at his job that always carried a hamster around. Her just typing into her laptop while updating the database.
“It can be if students or staff need a certain piece of research or criticism that we don’t have. We must consider things like getting it ourselves or communicating with other schools to see if they have it. Digitizing archives too, it’s a whole thing. But it lets you get exposed to a bunch of different subjects.”
“That sounds interesting. My job isn’t much better. I’m just one of many PMs in a software company. I have the title of project manager, but I’m really not that high on the totem pole.”
“Hmm,” Akira looked over to the pond in the center of Basidio. From their table they were looking out in the City of Endless Night in all its dwarven and fungal glory. The way the cave walls seem to reflect distant stars. “Do you ever spend too much time in platforms?”
“I got the burns once when I first started. Me and Melody wanted to build up the guild house, so I kinda went crazy.”
“Its tempting isn’t it. You get to just leave for a bit. Leave all that mundanity behind. Not that my job is rough. I’m sure a lot of people have it worse than me, but sometimes I just want to do something interesting. I mean look at this city. Water with the color of molten ice, streets made from mushroom that is as hard as stone. It’s exciting.”
Gray understood Akira’s thought. It wasn’t just Elrin that was vying for their attention. Every day they had millions of platforms to choose from. Some of the platforms even had ways of making online careers. It wasn’t a guarantee, but it was a potential path in the modern life. Gray had even heard of platform super stars that would put on shows.
But Gray had locked himself in a prison once before. Jumping to a new one that had wizards and cyborgs would just be the same.
“Oh well,” Akira shook his head. “Sorry about that Gray. I was just rambling on. We could have been grinding mobs or money for the guild house. I put you in an awkward spot. Having some guy you never met in real life talking about his issues.”
“I’m your guild leader,” Gray paused. In his mind, he saw Melody pausing and feeling a disturbance. He was the co-leader. Gray smiled. “The co-leader of Daybreak. I have no problem listening to you. Sometimes games like this are the best way to just talk and chill.”
“Thanks, Gray. I’m really glad I found you guys. I would probably still be a solo player.”
“Speaking of that, looks like Melody got online.” Gray saw a message from Melody asking them to meet in the guild house.
“Well, then let’s get going,”
Akira and Gray stood up from their chairs and returned to the guild house where Melody would be ready to tell them of her latest plan to get rich and powerful. Or maybe she just wanted to go fishing.
It turned out that she wanted to get a dragon.