Aiden was pacing back and forth in front of Winterhell, and their newly found companion, Skal. He was so overwhelmed by his sudden rush of emotions, that he found himself unable to find any words to express his current discontent.
New Class obtained!
Class: Bard
Subclass: Battle Bard
Description: Battle Bards combine the artistry of music with the ferocity of combat, transforming the battlefield into their stage. Armed with rhythm and resonance, they channel powerful melodies into devastating attacks and tactical maneuvers. Their songs bolster allies, weaken enemies, and amplify their own strikes, creating a dynamic blend of offense and support.
"Victory is a symphony, and I play the final note!"
New Class Ability obtained!
Ability: Summon Instrument
* Spell (conjuration)
* Base cost: Low mana
* Level: 1, common
* Cooldown: None
* Effect: Summon a trusty magical lute to use as a spellcasting focus for your spells and abilities. While the lute is active, your spells and abilities have a slightly reduced mana cost. Upon summoning the lute, you gain a brief Mana Recovery Over Time effect.
"Never leave home without a lute… or a backup lute… or magical lute summoning powers."
Level Up! You have reached Level 2!
He threw his hands up, his voice rising. “A Bard?! Are you kidding me? A Bard! What am I supposed to do now? Cheer you on from the sidelines while you do all the fighting? Maybe write a motivational speech mid-battle? ‘Good job, guys, keep up the great work!’”
Skal’s ears twitched, and he tilted his head, his golden eyes gleaming with curiosity. “You know, I think your class sounds great and really useful. Not the motivational speech bit though.”
“I didn’t ask to be useful!” Aiden interrupted, spinning toward him. “I asked to not have to fear dying horribly in every single fight. But no, apparently I’m supposed to sing my way to victory.”
Winterhell, seated on a crumbled stone block, arched an eyebrow, a small smirk tugging at her lips. “Oh, come on, Aiden. It’s not that bad. Bards are super cool! You get to… uh… do stuff?”
“That’s the problem!” Aiden exclaimed, turning his frustration toward her now. “I don’t get to do anything. Have you seen my abilities? Look at this.”
Aiden concentrated for a moment, then stretched out his right hand. A soft hum filled the air, resonating faintly as a shimmer of light gathered before him. The glow coalesced into a solid form, the light fading to reveal a lute in his hands. It was simple yet undeniably beautiful, its polished wood gleaming with a warm amber hue.
Holding the summoned lute by the string bridge with one hand, Aiden pointed the instrument like a sword towards Skal. “Look,” he said, “Winterhell is with all likelihood going to end up with an arsenal of world-ending spells, one more amazing than the other. I’m not even entirely sure what all your abilities do, but you have a roar that can cleanse debuffs, and a smite for crying out loud!”
“Well technically it’s called Punishing Light and it works quite differently from a classic smite,” Skal started to explain, but froze when he saw Aiden’s death glare.
“And then to add insult to injury,” Aiden continued, the lute shaking in his hands, “while you get an amazing broadsword that you can summon at any moment, all I get is this…” he started to wave the instrument wildly in front of Skal and Winterhell for them to see, “this lute”. Then with a flick of his wrist and a thought, the lute vanished in a puff of shimmering smoke, leaving behind a sharp twang that echoed briefly in the air, as though the strings themselves had bid them farewell.
There was a long moment during which Aiden stared at Skal and Winterhell breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed a deep red.
Skal took a couple of steps closer to Aiden, then with steel in his voice he said, “Are you about done talking out of your backside?”
Aiden blinked at him, taken aback by the way Skal was practically confronting him.
Skal’s golden eyes bore into Aiden’s, his broad shoulders squared and his tone low but firm. “You think this is about flashy spells and fancy weapons? You think your worth is measured in explosions and brute force?”
Aiden opened his mouth to respond, but Skal cut him off, raising a clawed hand for silence.
“Based on the way you held your ground against those lurker things and the Umbral Sentinel, I would have thought that you’re an experienced enough player to know better, but I guess I’m going to have to spell it out for you.”
He took a deep breath and spoke, not allowing himself to lose eye contact with Aiden. “You can’t jump to drastic conclusions when you have little to no information about what your class actually does. Yes, it would appear that both I and Winterhell received some great combat abilities very early in the game. It’s true that simple offensive abilities are incredibly important, especially when your character is still at a low level, and where monsters rarely pose complicated threats and just need to be smashed or blown to tiny bits.”
Aiden tried to interject, but Skal continued, “But that doesn’t mean that any of us here currently have a well balanced set of abilities and spells. Sure I have a fancy sword, and I call forth my righteous judgement upon my enemies, but do you have any idea what I’d give for a movement ability, when all that stands between me and my own downfall is my precariously fragile stamina bar? On top of it, my amazing broadsword as you call it has a small but at our current level very taxing ongoing mana cost, which means that once my mana runs out, all I’m left with, is that ruddy wooden club we all started out with.”
Winterhell put her hand on Skal’s shoulder, “I think that’s enough,” she said, you’ve made your point.
He turned to face her, then said, “No, he needs to hear this,” fixing his gaze back on Aiden.
“Listen,” he continued, his voice sharp, but not unkind, “you yourself know just how quickly a fight ends once spellcasters run out of juice. You were just there, moments ago, and now that you’re the only person in the party to have a recovery ability, you somehow still find the nerve to complain about it. You can bet that there are already a fair amount of players who didn’t have anybody come to their aid in their hour of need, and for them, this whole thing is already over.”
Aiden couldn’t hold the Leonid’s gaze, and instead stared down at his feet. Upon being confronted with what Skal was saying, he felt like an entitled child. His heart started to beat faster, and his hands felt clammy as he tried to swallow down his pride.
Aiden tried to find something clever to say that would help him save face, but nothing came. After a couple of uncomfortable heartbeats, he managed to open his mouth. “You’re right,” was all he heard himself say.
Skal nodded, his expression softening slightly, though his golden eyes remained steady. “Damn right I’m right. Look, this isn’t about you being perfect or strong right out of the gate. It’s about figuring out how to make what you’ve got work. You don’t need to be a fireball-throwing mage or a holy crusader. You need to be the best version of yourself. And once you find your own rhythm, and round out your set of abilities a little bit more, you will see things come together.”
Winterhell stepped closer, her tone gentler than Skal’s but equally firm. “Skal’s right. Don’t think for a second, that I didn’t realize that you could have left me to fend for myself back there. Instead of running for the hills, you came up with a plan, a ridiculous one, that almost did more harm than good, but you put yourself between your party and the big bad evil nightmare-thing. That act alone already makes you braver than half the players out there.”
She gave him a genuine bright smile, “We’ll work together and get more Shards of Ascension for each of us, and do whatever it is we can to get you a balanced set of cool abilities….”
“And whenever you get lost in your own melodrama, we’ll find a large stone and hit you in the head with it,” Skal said with his signature toothy grin.
Aiden took a deep breath, finally feeling a sense of resolve settle over him. He might not fully understand his new class or abilities yet, but one thing was clear, he wasn’t about to let his party, his new friends down. Not now. Not ever.
“Alright,” he said, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “So what happens next?”
There was a pause so long it had time to invite its friends, who then threw a party for a long-lost relative: an even longer pause.
***
The three of them stood there in silence, the faint sound of the wind and distant birds filling the void. Aiden shifted awkwardly, glancing between Skal and Winterhell.
Finally, Skal cleared his throat. “So... do we just stand here until another monster tries to kill us, or is someone going to come up with an actual plan?”
Winterhell sighed, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “I thought paladins were the ones with all the wisdom.”
Skal shrugged. “My wisdom usually comes with food breaks.”
Aiden groaned, opening his inventory to retrieve the apple that had been there since the beginning of the event. After it appeared in his hand out of thin air, he tossed it over to the big man. Skal caught it with a smile and took a large bite, taking away more than half of it.
While Skal was busy chewing, Aiden who had kept his inventory window open looked at the last remaining item stashed in his storage. The Guildhall Raid Key. With a thought, he inspected its properties.
Item: Guildhall Raid Key
Rank: Epic
Effect: Use the Guildhall Raid Key to summon a portal leading to the Guildhall Lair, a boss-level raid instance. Defeat the lair’s Guardian to earn otherwise inaccessible rewards, including a Guild Coin, essential for unlocking the hidden potential of the ruined mansion at 177A Bleeker Street.
Restrictions:
* Requires a minimum of five party members to activate the portal.
* Each key can only be used once and is consumed upon activation.
“Now is not the time for politics. Stab the monster, not your friends.”
Aiden’s eyes went wide as he looked at the item description.
“You’re going to want to see this,” he said, his voice filled with excitement and alarm as he shared the item description with Skal and Winterhell.
“That’s a strange name,” Skal said after he finished swallowing the last remains of the apple, while staring at the mansion's address.
“Not you too,” Winterhell said, as Aiden gave Skal a bright smile. “I’m surrounded by clowns and jokers,” she continued with a deep sigh.
“What do you think the Guild Coin does?” Aiden asked, changing the topic.
“I really wouldn’t know where to start guessing,” Skal said, “but I do like the idea of unlocking hidden potential. That gives me the sort of vibes where we don’t die and everything suddenly becomes fantastic.”
“Don’t die is rule number one,” Aiden agreed while rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “but we’ll need at least two more party members before we can even consider trying.”
“And how exactly are we supposed to find good party members? You know, ones with abilities that aren’t terrible?” Winterhell asked.
“Well how did you find this guy?” Skal said, pointing at Aiden.
“Oh you know, I found him lying in a crater of his own making, his face buried in the dirt,” she said.
“So to find competent party members, we should try doing the exact opposite of that,” Skal said with what he thought was a cheeky grin.
Aiden hesitated, glancing at the shimmering Guildhall Raid Key still displayed in his inventory window. In a desperate hope to move on to a different topic he said, “We’ll figure it out,” his tone betraying some uncertainty.
Winterhell gave him a look that screamed disbelief. “You don’t even have the slightest beginnings of a plan, do you?”
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“Well no, I obviously don’t,” Aiden said.
Winterhell raised a hand and was about to open her mouth to speak, when Aiden interrupted her, “don't even think about suggesting recruiting players by using the world chat.”
“What's wrong with the world chat?” Skal asked, “I agree that it's not always entirely reliable, but it's not that bad.”
Aiden was about to respond that the world chat was filled with nothing but trolls and mouth-breathers, when he had a sudden realisation. He looked at Skal. “Earlier, didn’t you say that we had more important things to worry about?” he asked.
Skal paused, thinking for a moment, then slapped his forehead with the force that could have knocked Aiden out cold. “Right, I did say that didn’t I?” he exclaimed.
“Yes, yes you did,” Aiden said, “would you care to let us know why you said that?”
“Well it’s just this thing that I noticed that seemed odd and suspicious to me,” Skal said. “How long do we have for the big Defend the Portal quest?”
“Didn’t it say we had 12 hours?” Winterhell answered her voice filled with uncertainty, “but what does that have to do with anything?”
“It did,” Skal said, “why don’t you see how long we have left.”
Aiden opened his quest log to review the quest details as Skal had suggested.
Quest - Defend the Portal
A mystical portal has appeared in the Evergreen Glade and forces are gathering to destroy it.
Objective: Defend the portal
Duration: 12 Hours - Time remaining: 02 Hours 46 Minutes 01 Seconds
Reward: Individual rewards will vary based on personal performance
Aiden stared at the quest log, his heart skipping a beat. "Wait... what?"
“What is it?” Winterhell asked, leaning closer, trying to look at Aiden’s quest log that was invisible to her.
Aiden turned to them, his voice tinged with confusion and alarm. “The quest timer. It says we have two hours and forty-six minutes left.”
Winterhell blinked, then frowned. “But that doesn’t make sense. It was at twelve hours earlier. We haven’t even been here that long.”
Skal crossed his arms, his tail flicking thoughtfully. “It’s been dropping faster than normal.”
“Dropping faster?” Aiden repeated, his brow furrowed. “But how? I thought these quest timers were fixed.”
“Also, don’t you think that this is something you should have mentioned earlier? As in much earlier?” Winterhell added.
Skal put his hands up defensively, “Hey don’t blame me, I was rather distracted saving your skin. And then I had to sort out goat-man’s tantrum.”
“I’m not loving the nickname,” Aiden said….
“Now is not the time to complain goat-man,” Skal said, his tone growing more serious. “But you’re right about the quest timers normally being fixed. There must be... something else is affecting it, like, I don’t know, the High Council having a laugh?”
“But that’s not fair,” Winterhell said, “we never would have drifted so far from the Evergreen Glade had we known that….”
Skal interrupted with a sharp gesture, his expression grim. “Don’t waste time trying to make sense of it. You read the warning at the start of the event. This isn’t supposed to be fair.”
Winterhell pressed her lips into a tight line, clearly frustrated. “It’s not just unfair. It’s... wrong. How are we supposed to plan anything when the rules keep changing?”
“Simple,” Skal said, “we stop worrying about what’s fair. The clock’s ticking, so we focus on what we can control. We’ve got a portal to defend, and we’re not going to achieve anything by standing around here.”
Aiden hesitated, glancing at the shimmering Guildhall Raid Key still in his inventory. “But what about…”
“Forget the key for now,” Skal cut in. “We’ll deal with it later. Right now, we move. Or do you want to stand here until that timer hits zero?”
Winterhell let out a sharp exhale, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Fine. Let’s go. But if this whole thing ends up being one giant waste of time because of whatever nonsense our High Council overlords are pulling...”
Aiden gave her a faint smile, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about wasting time. The stakes seem a bit too high for that, so we better get moving….quickly.”
Without another word, the three of them set off, the weight of the dwindling timer pressing heavily on their minds.
***
They left the ruined villa and its courtyard in Bleeker Street behind, running past the Plaza and its statues, backtracking their way towards 2nd Street, hoping to avoid any unpleasant surprises on their way back towards the Evergreen Glade.
The crumbling streets of Lockhaven echoed with the sound of hurried footsteps. Aiden, Skal, and Winterhell moved at a brisk pace, dodging debris along Bleeker Street with a purpose. The city had lost some of its initial eeriness, as there were now a fair number of players to be seen moving about on Bleeker Street and many of its smaller alleys branching off from either side. Many of the numerous players looked more relaxed than Aiden thought they had any right to be.
He glanced to his right, where a small group of players was inspecting the remnants of an ancient statue depicting a one-armed barbarian. The figure held a savage-looking blade, resting it lazily on his shoulder. Waving wildly, he called out, “Hey! Pick up the pace! The quest timer’s all buggered!”
One of the players, a tall Elf with glowing daggers at her hips, raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? It said twelve hours earlier. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“About that,” Aiden said, not slowing down to address the Elf. “It’s down to less than two and a half hours.”
The Elf and her companions exchanged skeptical glances. “Not my problem. If it’s dropping, it’s dropping for everyone. We’ll catch up when we’re ready.” She turned back to her group, resuming their leisurely exploration.
Aiden clenched his fists as they rounded the corner onto 2nd Street. “Why aren’t more people running towards the Glade? Don’t they get it?”
“They will,” Winterhell said grimly. “When it’s too late.”
“Not our problem,” Skal said curtly, his sharp gaze scanning the shadows of the ruins as they jogged past. “If they want to ignore the obvious, let them. We’ve got bigger issues.”
Aiden followed Skal’s gaze to the shadowed alleyways flanking 2nd Street. A faint shimmer of something all too familiar caught his eye. Nyxborn Lurkers… in the dozens. Their nightmarish forms blending with the gloom, lingered in the edges of the ruins. Their hollow faces betraying their predatory intent, fixed squarely on the trio.
“Lurkers,” Aiden whispered, hoping that they weren’t about to be runned down. “I don’t know what’s worse, being attacked by them, or them just standing there.”
“Definitely being attacked,” Skal said, not missing a beat.
“They really don’t seem to be after us, for now at least,” Winterhell said, her tone hushed but firm. “The quest said dark forces are gathering to destroy the portal. I’m guessing they’re the dark forces in question. And if that’s true, they’re probably heading for the portal too.”.”
“Well, that’s comforting,” Aiden said, his sarcasm barely masking his unease. “So we’re racing a pack of nightmare spiders to the same destination. Great.”
“Keep moving,” Skal said, his voice clipped. “Engaging them now would be a waste of time and resources. We need to focus on the portal.”
After pushing their stamina bars as far as they could, the group slowed to a halt in a wide intersection near the end of 2nd Street, their breath coming in labored gasps. Aiden leaned heavily against a crumbled pillar, his stamina bar flashing angrily in his field of vision. Skal crouched nearby, his broad shoulders heaving as he wiped sweat from his brow, while Winterhell sat cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed as she tried to calmly catch her breath again.
While the trio was recovering, they could see more of the unsettling Lurkers. They had continued their unnerving march towards the Evergreen Glade, while being joined by more of their kin who were emerging from within ruined buildings and from alleyways. The growing sound of their sharp legs scraping against the cobblestone street sent shivers down Aiden’s spine.
He opened his quest log again, the ominous countdown glaring at him: 31 Minutes, 09 Seconds. Too fast. Way too fast.
“Think we’ve bought ourselves enough of a breather?” Skal asked, breaking the silence. His golden eyes scanned the road ahead.
Aiden shook his head. “Not yet. Stamina’s too low. If we don’t recover, we’ll be crawling into the Glade.”
Winterhell sighed, pulling her knees to her chest. “We’re not the only ones moving.” She nodded toward the far end of the street.
A ragtag group of players appeared from a narrow side-street. Some walked with purpose, while others limped. One of them, a dwarven player clad in mismatched armor, clutched his side as another player, a broad chested Half-Orc, supported him. Behind them, more players trickled into view, their faces set with grim determination.
“They’re heading for the Glade,” Winterhell said softly, her expression a mixture of hope and exhaustion. “Guess we’re not the only ones paying attention to the timer.”
Aiden felt a flicker of something he hadn’t dared let himself feel since they had left the ruined villa: optimism. “At least some of them get it,” he muttered, watching as the group passed without a word, their focus entirely on the road ahead.
Skal straightened, brushing off his cloak. “See? Not everyone’s a lost cause. People pull through when it matters.” He flashed a toothy grin at Aiden, who managed a small smile in return.
The group stood and began moving again as their stamina bars crept back into the green. As they reached the final stretch of 2nd Street, and the grand stone archway leading to the Evergreen Glade came into view, the trio came to an abrupt stop. Beneath its shadowed expanse loomed five creatures.
At first glance, they resembled the Nyxborn Lurkers they had fought earlier. Jagged, spider-like limbs, hollow void-like faces, and dark chitinous exoskeletons. But these creatures had an unnerving addition: long, multi-jointed tail-like appendages, each lined with jagged blades that shimmered faintly in the dim light.
Winterhell shivered, taking an instinctive step back. “Those things... they’re worse. A lot worse.”
Aiden’s mouth went dry as he watched the creatures. They stood motionless, their tail-blades swaying gently in the breeze, the faint sound of metal scraping against stone sending chills down his spine.
“Are they... guarding the archway?” Skal asked.
“They don’t seem to be moving,” Winterhell said, her voice low and cautious. “Maybe... maybe they’re like the Lurkers we saw earlier. They’re not after us, not yet, anyway.”
Winterhell stepped forward and turned to look at her companions, her expression tense but resolute. “We don’t have time to waste. If they’re tied to the quest timer, they won’t attack unless provoked, or until the timer hits zero, or something…. I don’t know. We could move around them.”
Skal’s golden eyes narrowed, studying the creatures. “And if you’re wrong?”
“Then we’re probably dead,” Winterhell replied, her voice shaking slightly. “But we’ll be dead if we fight them now anyway. Plus where did the players who were ahead of us go? I don’t see any signs of battle, or fallen bodies for that matter. Unless you want to climb those walls, or hope to find a spot that isn’t guarded, I don’t know what other options we have.”
Aiden exhaled, nodding. “Fair point. Let’s move carefully.”
The trio edged along the side of the road, keeping as much distance as possible between themselves and the nightmarish guardians. Every step felt agonizingly slow, their gazes fixed on the creatures, waiting for the slightest sign of aggression.
The guardians remained still, their hollow faces turned toward the portal as if focused on something unseen. But their presence alone was enough to make Aiden’s skin crawl, a primal sense of dread gnawing at the edges of his mind.
As they passed through the archway and into the Evergreen Glade, Aiden felt the tension in his chest ease, if only slightly. The open expanse of the Glade stretched before them, bathed in the eerie glow of the portal at its center. The timer in his field of vision read: 11 Minutes, 38 Seconds.
“We made it,” Winterhell said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“For now,” Skal added, his tone grim. “But I’ve got a feeling that things are just getting started.”