CHAPTER 23

THE ABANDONED CITY

Having rested for a few hours I was eager to explore, going to the roof I changed to Dragon Form with what now amounted to a simple thought and then jumped off the tower and glided to the ground.  Going back to human form I entered shadows and began to walk down the streets through the mist.

I had traveled several blocks without seeing anyone when suddenly I saw an Undead.  She was walking down the street showing more bone than flesh, with her empty eye sockets glowing a bright blue.  She seemed to know where she was going so I followed her down several streets until we stopped in front of what used to be a large temple.

Looking at the statues and mosaics on the wall surrounding it, I realized it was a temple dedicated to a martial order.  I observed the undead Zombie, as she walked back in forth in front of the gate, it would seem that the ground was consecrated, and she could not enter.  Interesting.

During the few minutes that I had been observing her, a small group of Zombies had approached.  They were being led by someone wearing a dark cowl and robes.  It became clear after observations that the bugger was alive.  What the hell, this is getting strange.  I resolved to follow the man when we were finished here.  Meanwhile, he continued to exhort and order the Zombies past the gate onto the temple grounds.

Suddenly the whole group of zombies turned and rushed at the broken gates of the temple, then as they entered the temple grounds, a golden-white fire appeared and began to race up the Zombies legs burning away the remnants of flesh and turning the bones to ash.

I continued to watch as the last of the Zombies disappeared and the lone living man was left standing on the street.  With a muttered curse, he turned and walked away, I turned and followed him.  I was planning on returning to the temple latter, who knew what I might find, I am a thief now after all.

Following the man, I noticed that the streets were dirty and full of debris, the windows on the building were dark and many were broken.  Most of the homes and buildings had doors still closed, but a few hung open.  There was no water splashing in any of the fountains that we passed, it was truly a dead part of the city.

The rats, on the other hand, were alive and well, large creatures that were about four times the size of a normal rat.  There were many of them, I saw at least ten darting in the fog.  Also, spiders, the webs hung between buildings and they waited for prey to become entangled, I saw several zombies wrapped up in the webbing.  These spiders were oversized also; they were about two to three feet in diameter and stood damn near 5 feet tall on their legs.

Then there were the slugs, ten feet long and three feet around, they had a circular mouth layered with fangs, ugly looking fat bastards.  I would not want one to bite me.  Eventually, the man made it to a tower located in a small square. 

Once he entered and shut the door I observed the tower with my Dragon eyes and quickly saw that it was covered with wards and other nasty enchants.  I would not be getting in there anytime soon, and the square had a constant ebb and flow of Zombies and Slugs. 

I edged away from the tower and slowly made my way back towards the avenue I had traveled on.  Continuing up the avenue I eventually reached the Temple.  I could see a Zombie shuffling down the street, I managed to get behind it and swung with both my maces, the both procced and one crit.  As the undead whirled towards me I attacked again, this time, using Holy Wraith.  In the imprint of my mace on the Zombies' shoulder, a golden glow appeared that traveled across the upper body of the creature before fading away.  I could see his health falling on the red enemy health bar that appeared when I attacked him.

A couple more hits from the maces and the Zombie turned to ash and blew away, waving my hand over the remnants I looted 87 silver.  Suddenly a small window appeared with a countdown that showed the number 19.  It was from the Paladin quest.  With a few more kills I would be done the quest, and with that in mind I went out to find the next victim.

I probably had been at it for about 3 hours, learning how to fight while dual wielding maces and casting forth combat spells.  All in all, it felt pretty natural, and I was getting more comfortable, that old saying practice makes perfect is so true.  The only problem is in combat mistakes are costly.  Thankfully I was able to correct any mistakes by using my double speed racial bonus and Dragon Fire.

Eventually, a new window opened that informed me that the Quest was completed and I should return to the administrator for my rewards.  By killing 20 creatures of Darkness I had received a large amount of XP as the enemy was three to five levels above me.  Glancing down I saw that my XP bar was almost to the end, with another kill or two I should hit level 5.

I glanced down the street and saw a wandering slug, they were an easy kill with Dragon Fire and holy Wrath did a ton of damage to them.  I walked up until the slug spotted me, the aggro range seemed to be about 15 meters.  Once he knew I was there he charged, the big fat rotund bastard actually could move pretty fast when he wanted to. 

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Leaping backward I dodged the charge and dropped the hammers on him, they both procced the Fire enchant and that combined with my Holy Wrath attack began to burn his life points away.  At this point, the slug curled up into a ball and just trembled until only ash remained.  There was nothing to loot from the slug.

The sound that I had been waiting for arrived, 

Ding

You have acieved level 5, enjoy your new stats

I did not bother checking my stats I knew that they had changed, I was not concerned with that, I needed to just increase my levels, the stats and additional spells and abilities could be looked at later.  What I wanted to do now was hit the old temple and do some exploration.

My last two years at the orphanage had been busy but I had managed to get out and do some urban explorations in some of the old abandoned towers and building in the city.  It was a thrill to sneak in and explore and I had to admit that I was feeling much the same as I approached the temple.

Going through the gated I felt a slight resistance and then I was on the walkway proper, with no ill effects.  I looked around the fence surrounding the building had dead grass between the walls of the temple and the fence with the occasional fountain or statue.  It had to have been very pleasant back in the day but now it just seemed sad with the fog covering much of the ground.

I began to walk and then climbed the stairs, the large double doors were open, so I slipped in.  It was much like a church with pews that ran up each side going towards the altar.  Sadly, the pews were full of the skeletal remains of men in plate and armor, some looked like they were praying others looked like they were merely resting.

It was clear, that whatever had happened to the city these men had been trapped here and eventually had died here.  Whatever had trapped them had not been able to overcome the wards placed on the temple and grounds and it had evolved into a stalemate with the men losing in the end, they probably died of starvation and lack of water.

I am not a religious man, but I took a moment and bowed my head and said, “I do not know what these men believed, or who they were or even what happened, but I pray that they have peace now and move on to a brighter better world which will welcome them.”  A few simple words, softly spoken in an old ruined temple.  Suddenly there was a crack louder thunder and a brilliant white beam of light began to spin around the interior of the temple.

I glanced upwards, and I am not sure what I saw, but it looked like a field with men and women running towards each other, hugging and laughing.  I also saw a man on a horse his eyes met mine and he saluted me.  Suddenly the light was gone and looking around so were all the remains that had been in the temple.

Walking towards the altar I saw that a small chest was sitting there.  Once I reached the altar another interface window opened up and I read,

Hidden Quest complete

Free the souls of the temple's guardians

You have completed a class based hidden quest

The reward in on the table.

I noticed that my XP bar had gone from just starting level 5 to being almost at the end.  I had received a ton of XP.  Nice.  Reaching out I opened the bag and pulled out two rings and cooking recipe titled

Ambrosia, the drink of the Gods

This drink will triple health, attack power, and mana regeneration while tripling all earned experience.

Requires master cook or having a divine nature

This was interesting, my cooking skill was non-existent in the game.  But if my demigod nature proved acceptable, then I might be able to brew up the in-game equivalent to RED BULL.  I could remember something about those old adds, “it gives you wings” I think.

The list of ingredients seemed common, the problem was in your cooking level.   If you were not high enough, the results would not work.  It was just how the game worked, I hoped it would work for me.

It was time for me to depart the abandoned city, I would have to let Mecha know what I had found, he would inform the King and he could deal with it.  I did not like necromancers, and that is who I think were operating here, they had killed a whole section of the city which had been sealed up and left to rot for years.  Who knew what they were up to.

I had my own missions, I had dealt a blow to the House of Pain, and while I wanted to deal with Archon and the Old bastards, the presence of Homeland Security agents in the game and the fact that the Eldest had been captured in a computer sandbox by Homeland agents told me that Archon was going to be having some explaining to do.

Finally, I wanted to deal with Reona, it had been a stroke of luck that she was being sent with me to the Dwarves.  I would have time on the trip to develop a plan to deal with her.  This mission of being the Kings Eyes and Ears, the royal spy for the king was something I could do without, but it had netted me some great gear and fantastic spells.

I had not thought to become a Pally but it all seemed to be working out.  I stepped into Shadows as I left the temple and slowly made my way back to my tower.  Once near it I changed to Dragon form and noticed that while still humanoid in shape I was much thinner than before and my head was more elongated.  It seemed that my dragon appearance was becoming more that of a traditional dragon.

Gathering my gear, I went down the tower and entered the underground passageway, stopping to reflect for a minute before the doorway that led to the Knights chamber.  I am still not sure what the hell had happened in there but I still felt that it was the right thing to do.  I continued on and eventually left the tunnels and entered the park.

Deciding a warm bed and warm food in an Inn was preferable to camping in the park I kept to the Shadows and made my way down to the first tier of the city.  Finding an Inn, I place my items on the floor of my room and went down to get something to eat.  Tomorrow was going to be busy.