Prince Loran approaches the stage and hands over a card, which Lithulis accepts, and gently pushes Lisandra towards her purchaser... her savior? She is extremely nervous, as why would someone as powerful as an Archsage purchase low level girls?
"Greetings. I can see the power of your soul, although it does not fit with this form," Loran states, his skin glistening as if it is emitting moonlight. "The soul in this being is that of a Paladin, and yet the gods have deemed to give you the form of an Assassin or Mage."
"She cannot speak, Prince Loran," Lithulis quickly explains. "She is under the Brand of Silence, so that she will focus all her efforts on your desires instead of voicing her own."
Lisandra rolls her eyes. If he knows I'm Paladin, then what else could he know? Could he know of a way for me to make another Forty-seven and a half million? Lisandra ponders.
I can write, if you have questions. I too have questions. How were you able to bid? Normal members of this world should not have been able to. Lisandra writes in the air with her magicka.
"Ah, I love an intelligent woman!" Loran laughs. "Come, we will talk, and you and I will learn more about each other!"
I pale as I see the five members of the Mariat Mafia Guild off to the side watching her. She taps Loran's forearm gently and points at them.
"Ah, are you saying those will cause us trouble?" he asks her and she nods. He laughs heartily, and she gets her first good look at his teeth. They are all pointed, fangs meant for a carnivore. "Don't worry about them. If they try anything they will be forced to learn they are not the ones in charge here."
She still looks worried but she bows her head in understanding. Who in their right mind would dare attack someone who is both a prince and an Archsage? she thinks. Wait, what exactly is an Archsage?
"Come, my beautiful," Loran says, walking right past them with her and leading her to his group, which consists of four other Mythics, all of them with hidden characteristics, although there is a Moonlight Bladedancer, an Archpriest of Seluna (Goddess of the Moon), a Twilight Dancer, and a Eclipse Blade.
I tap his arm and write quickly. Why don't you have a reference to the moon with your Class?
All four of them burst out laughing at the question while Loran blushes deeply. "Didn't think she had would ask that question, did you?" Raphael, the Eclipse Blade asked.
"It's because the Prince hasn't finished his Training," Jelliba, the Twilight Dancer answers, as she rolls her hips in a dance move. It seems like she has trouble standing still for too long.
"You will find out more about our race, our culture, and our special relationship with the Lady Seluna and the Moon as you work off your debt," Aurian, the Archpriest of Seluna, states calmly.
"Anyways, now that you've blown our shopping budget, we might as well leave," Alana states as she taps her foot. "I can't believe you spent our entire trip's budget to buy a slave! Do you know how much crap you're going to get from the rest of the nobles for that?"
Loran takes a long, deep breath, then lets it out slowly. "Alora told me before we left that I would see something that would end up helping our nation rebuild from the tiny community huddled in the Forest of Mages to what we were long, long ago," Loran firmly informs them. "She said that I was to spend the entire trip's fund to force us to immediately return with the source of our salvation."
Alana sighs and shakes her head, muttering about Alora and Loran's foolishness. "Fine, let's go," she says. "I'm not protecting her, though. That's all on you."
Jelliba smiles and smacks Loran's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help you protect her. After all, if the Oracle said you should buy her, then you did your job. Let's go, if we leave now, we can be home in a few days."
It looks like they are adjusting menus, and then to her surprise Lisandra receives a Notification.
System NotificationYou have been added to Prince Loran's PartyAs Prince Loran's Property, you are not allowed to decline this party invite.
Her legs go weak and she collapses in surprise. NPCs aren't supposed to have access to Party or Raid systems, other than accepting a Player's Proposal or joining as a Companion!
Raphael catches her as she starts to fall so she doesn't land in the street, ending up leaning into his arms. "I can see why this one caught your interest, Prince. Her Charisma score is well above normal, as is her Luck."
NPCs... shouldn't have access to menus and party invites, Lisandra writes quickly, making them all pale and wipe out her writing in the air before anyone else notices. They quickly march her off away from other players, and into an inn which Raphael pays for the night's stay.
"Alright, what is going on?" Alana snarls. "How dare this... this piece of disgusting filth... call us NPCs!"
I'm a Player! Lisandra huffs angrily.
Alana moves to backhand her, but just before her hand connects Loran catches her wrist and keeps her from connecting.
I am Jonas Plython, the Grand Paladin!
"Bullshit! The Grand Paladin disappeared shortly after clearing the Tower of Bailorn, and everyone knows that Grand Paladin Plython was a normal member of this world, who disappeared!" Alana swears at her.
I am the Grand Paladin of Guardians of Delmare, Arcons of Dreadmore, Legends of Listlo, League of Eternity, Heroes of Archropolis, Siphoned System, Mortals vs Gods, and Limitless Beyond. her writing quickly fades as she is running out of magicka.
Congratulations!You have learned the skill 'Enhanced Magicka Regeneration (Beginner)'Enhanced Magicka Regeneration (Beginner)You now regain Magicka at a much faster rate than normal. Magicka Restoration +100%
"So you're claiming to be like us? You're claiming to be able to be reborn every six hours after death?"
After waiting a moment for her magicka to fully regenerate, she writes, Six hours? Players can respawn after an hour, if not resurrected. What do you mean by Six Hours? You aren't playing a game by VR-Technics, are you?
"What the fuck are VR-Technics?"
"Let's let a calmer person than you talk with her, Alana... why don't you step out and get something to drink," Aurian insists, pushing her out of the room.
Loran frowns as he sits in a chair, and rests his elbows on his knees knees and his chin on his hands as he examines her. "She speaks the truth. Her soul is that of a Paladin. I don't know how she ended up in this body, but the Soul screams 'Male Paladin'. To think that Seluna would bless us with a chance like this..."
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Wasn't Seluna a goddess added with the latest expansion?
"Expansion...? Could you explain what you mean by that?" Loran inquires.
Well, an Expansion is where the Developers of the Game add in a lot of quests, dungeons, raids, and instances like the Tower of Bailorn. They also tend to add in new races, classes, and occassionally deities. She takes a deep breath and waits for her magicka to regenerate again. In the Expansion that launched last month, they introduced the Purchasable Race: Cloud Elf, as well as Hardcore Gameplay, where a player starts out as a Slave and has to work for their freedom.
"Game? Our Goddess truly brought us to a World that is a Game?" Raphael mutters softly.
"Well, that would explain the pop-ups, easier communication with her, and the fact that we can now return to her chapels after being killed. Our goddess was quite wise to guide us here," Jelliba worships.
What do you mean you were brought here?
"Our world was being destroyed by an army of demons. Our last stand was being fought at the base of Seluna's Grand Temple, with only a few thousand of us remaining. If not for the great transition, in which Seluna moved her Grand Temple from our world, we would have all been lost, and the goddess herself may even have been killed," Aurian states calmly.
I see... What happened a week ago, when the servers were taken down for maintenance?
"What do you mean, maintenance?"
Last week, it would have been around six in the morning, until about five in the afternoon... The game servers were shut down to fix a bug in one of the new skills introduced, she calmly inquires.
"Ah, you mean when the people with the glowing crystal above their head vanished? Everyone else went about their standard business. In fact, we received better deals because we didn't have to wait for those others to turn in their quests and make purchases," Jelliba smiles.
Does that mean that... we are influencing the lives of real people, instead of just artificial game characters?
"Yes, it does. Does that bother you?" Loran wonders.
Me personally? Not really. I'm a Paladin, after all. I live to serve and protect. It would, however, greatly worry some of the people back on my home world, she answers. My wife will probably find it fascinating.
"You're married? To a woman?" Jelliba gasps.
I'm really a man, as is the case of being the Grand Paladin. I was forced into a capsule set up for a woman after having my body beaten and broken. After a few moments for magicka regeneration, she continues. Apparently, I was tricked when I saved the woman who was supposed to end up in this shell, either that or it was the influence of a higher being like Seluna that made her cry out for help when she had arranged for her character to be sold, probably with a lot lighter bonds on the slavery side.
"Yes, Seluna can do things like that," Aurian states flatly. "However, she rarely interferes without just reasons."
Well, right now, my body is healing in the medical pod they dumped it in. I estimate it will need about a month or two to fully heal before the nanobots and nanites start to do anything funky to my body.
"What do you mean, 'funky'?" Loran asks.
There is a very good reason why playing as anything other than a character designed off your personal body is a bad thing. The first, is that the physical characteristics of the difference start to be carried over. She sighs, hating to have to pause for magicka regenration, yet again. It is theorized that if you left someone in a Long Immersion Medical Pod on a non-human race continuously for about a year, the majority of that race's physical and psychological traits would carry over back to our world.
"Amazing... Your world sounds marvelous," Jelliba whispers.
My body will be healing for the first two months. After that, the changes might start. I don't know how fast, though. The science behind this is inconsistent at the moment, and still only theory. I know for a fact that I don't want to end up as a woman though, which was the plan of those assholes I pointed out earlier.
"So, in order for you to be free..."
I need to raise 47,500,000 Credits personally to pay off my character's 'Debt' and remove the Slave state at a Temple, where I can then contact Customer Support, which will locate the Pod my body is in and get me out.
"That's not going to be easy, especially not in under three months," Jelliba mutters. "The entirety of our race, all seven thousand of us, barely made ten million total in the last month, and half of that was spent on you, when it was supposed to be used to help us explore this new world."
Quest AlertYou have been offered a quest!
Assist the Mythic to Rebuild their Civilization!Reward:UnknownFailure or Refusal:Loss of Reputation with Mythic Race and Goddess Seluna.AcceptDecline
Quest AlertYou have been offered a quest!
Assist the Mythic explore their new World.Reward:UnknownFailure or Refusal:Loss of Reputation with Mythic Race and Goddess Seluna.AcceptDecline
She accepted both quests, of course. There was a lot to be explored in the new expansion zones, not to mention the older zones. Of course, every true paladin enjoyed a good civilization quest!
"Wow... We can issue quests to people like you?" Jelliba asks.
Apparently, Lisandra yawns. All this magicka expenditure and restoration... really takes it out of a person. May I go to sleep?
"Of course, good night," Loran states and escorts the others out of the room.
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Author's Note: This Chapter is a bit shorter than I might have wanted it, but with the amount of magicka it takes for her to continuously talk with them, she'd be dead tired by now. Also, this chapter veered far, far away from the original plan for the story, and I can only anticipate what else might come.
Have a good night everyone!