Part 1 of 2
Winter, Reki, Samuel and Rinne had journeyed together before. Thus, it did not take them long to gather supplies for their trip. At least that was supposed to be the case. What delayed their departure was the farewell Rinne and Samuel felt obliged to give to the players that helped them out.
A lot of male players and some females were seeing Rinne off in front of the Entertainer’s Guild. The males tended to be extremely handsome and flamboyant in their costumes, the females exuding the feel of protective older sisters.
It was a contrast to Samuel’s own farewell crowd. Too great. Aside from quantity, Samuel’s crowd tended to be fully musicians. They were mostly male, rugged in look. Some even styled their avatar to show advanced age and wisdom. It was a mark to Samuel’s popularity to have some females bidding him farewell. Still, to Winter and Reki whom received their message that they will be delayed, Rinne looked like a starlet while Samuel appeared to have mostly bromance going on.
One particularly gussied up bard, rouge on his lips with powders on each cheek wailed while hugging Samuel. His gestures were extremely feminine, in complete contrast to his well muscled body that would make iron pumping gym members feel deficient in his presence. His costume was beyond ridiculous too. They were full of frills of bright colors, mainly yellow and pink that made anyone looking at it too long hurt their eyes. The cloak and headdress was what cracked Winter up the most. Even Reki was affected for he spied her body shuddering here and there though her face remained expressionless.
The headdress was made of several coloured feathers, black, blue and bright red. The cloak that flared wide was also made of similar color and style. In summary…. it made the seriously feminine muscle man look like an oversized chicken!
Winter and Reki looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement. They thought this would make wonderful material to tease Samuel during their journey. He would not tease him too much, only enough to make him cry a few buckets of digital tears.
Eventually the two managed to extricate themselves from their admirers and…. whatever the rest were. Rinne looked slightly tired, glad to be on her own way. Samuel that stopped his pace when he saw Winter’s smirk was not happy at all.
“Not a word, old man. Or I swear I will put my foot right up your ass.” Winter was not bothered by the threat. Samuel has always been at the bottom of their totem pole.
Samuel did not wait for Winter’s reply. He walked off quickly. The feminine muscle-bard was waving his handkerchief while sobbing. Now Winter was really curious!
*Grab*
Apparently Rinne has her own share of problems from being too popular. Some overly ardent males kept pestering her. She grabbed Winter’s arm as a shield. Throwing frosty glares, Winter dissuaded them from getting too close. To put emphasis on their chances of doing anything further, Winter casually put his right hand around Rinne’s hip. The soft feeling of her body felt almost realistic to Winter.
Winter would not know this or notice it in all probability. In fact, most players would not. But Royal Road has an extremely strong code of ethics for their players. The system was built into the core code itself, working in conjunction with the avatar generation and motor control. Physical contact between players not interested or comfortable with each other would be like touching stiff boards. Even then there was a limit to how far the ethics could be bent.
“Samuel can’t hack it?” Winter inquired casually. Rinne nodded in confirmation. Apparently Samuel was not useful enough to deflect advances from Rinne’s wannabe suitors. Nothing surprising from the small brained monkey.
Shaking his head inside his mind, Winter thought Samuel needed to buck up or some handsome idiot might swoop in and take Rinne away. Reki that was ever helpful in her own way attached herself to Winter’s other arm that was still free. This brought the female players without any confidence to match Reki’s cool beauty aura to a halt. And that appeared to be everyone.
‘Well, not all it seems.’
One rare blond haired beauty with a bust to match her confidence sashayed forward and gave Rinne a hug and peck on the cheek without any preamble. She gave Winter a polite nod, her eyes amused at their circumstances. Winter smiled back helplessly but his way with women was rather set. Thus, he was being flirtatious about it.
“Come back anytime, Rinne. Okay? I want to sing with you again on the stage.” She spoke loud enough for the three to hear but no more. Her voice was melodious and clear even when she simply spoke. There was no doubt she was a star on stage.
“Okay, Cecille. I will be sure to let you know if I am in town.”
Rinne replied, slightly embarrassed and slightly in awe. It was easy to figure out how good this Cecille character was as a Bard for the perfectionist Rinne to react this way. Standing beside one blond and the other silver haired beauty, Winter’s sneer brought looks of contempt and jealousy from the men milling around as if they were watching a grand play.
His eyes and smile spoke ‘Shoo! Nothing to look at! All mine!’ that inflamed their dislike to Winter. Alas every play has to end. Cecille let go of Rinne.
“Now go with this older gentleman of yours. Until next time, Rinne.”
With those parting words, she shuffled back to the Guild Hall entrance without another backward glance. She deliberately gave Winter a good view of her derriere swinging that he had to suck in his breath. She also stopped the pedestrian traffic until she disappeared behind the gate. Now, that was a woman who knows how to make use of her full assets!
Winter felt mental pricks from his side after he came back from his personal paradise. Looking there, Reki was giving him her trademark cold glare usually reserved when Samuel goofed around and did something stupid. Letting out an awkward smile, Winter bent down and whispered to her ear.
“One day you will understand, Reki.” Winter thought they were fitting words to say to her. He added a light kiss on the side of her head and began walking away to groans of disappointments.
‘Those bards really lack entertainment around here!’ Chided Winter in his mind.
Reki’s fingers dug in tightly while the three walked away to the Western exit. It was mildly uncomfortable to Winter that still thought he was being a wuss, not knowing his sense of pain was multiple times more sensitive than normal in game. She pushed Winter’s arm away when they had walked beyond the sight of the Guild Hall, opting to walk quickly from the still joined Rinne and Winter.
Winter was not sure why he said what he said, but he chuckled upon seeing Reki acting out. Just like a teenager growing up.
“Nothing, Rinne. It’s nothing. Now go catch up with Samuel. I will be right behind you.” Winter answered Rinne who was still holding onto his arm before she even asked the question he knew to be coming.
“You are just a mean old man, aren’t you.” That was a statement. Rinne appeared to be much more mature than her supposed age and appearance. Left alone, Winter walked slowly behind Rinne that spoke in low voice to Reki.
xXx
Reki’s mind replayed the scene. Winter’s kiss had been teasing, fatherly even. She was not sure why her mind was in turmoil. Reciting Pi in her mind rapidly and paralleling it with prime numbers, her head remained spinning. They eventually settled down after a while. She was surprised to discover that she was furious at Winter, her own father. If Rinne was not around she would be clutching her head in despair at the feeling that sprouted out of nowhere!
Meredith operates by logic. Everything in this world was based on logic, even love, affection, and friendship. Everything could be explained by mathematical formula if one tried hard enough. She always believed that when she first discovered math. But recently, after being apart from Ronald for almost a year, she began to think that maybe not everything could be explained or need any explanation.
Rinne that chattered away on Winter’s impropriety, something she knew was the source of Reki’s current disposition was promising retribution on her behalf. Reki simply nodded and shook her head at the appropriate time while she outlined her petty scheme that was closer to pranks. Reki never really paid attention to Rinne before as she was too focused on Ronald most of the time. But recalling from their first meeting, Rinne has changed considerably. More cheerful. More determined. More alive. Meredith now was slightly jealous of her.
‘I wonder if I will change too.’ She voiced her innermost desire. Wrapped in them were the seeds
of interest for opposite gender.
She wondered if she could be like Rinne too if she likes someone else. It hit her then that Rinne might be her first friend. That she disliked people as a general rule did not make her feel unpleasant to be around. But it could just be Royal Road not conveying the feeling properly, right?
Preferring not to find the truth to that hypothesis and choosing emotion instead of logic, Reki slowed down to allow Winter to catch up.
xXx
The four were traveling at comfortable pace. That meant a lot of chatter, mostly between Rinne and Samuel though Reki joined in by mail at appropriate junctures. Winter that was used to the noises children make while he was taking care of his children left them alone until he was included in the conversation.
They were aiming slightly Northward to pick up Zorya. The hour walk was pleasant under the mild virtual weather. Reki shot arrows at a set interval. [Skill training] was her reply when everyone finally noticed she shot regardless whether she aimed at a mob or not. Winter needed to raise his expertise rating was more aggressive with his guided spells though he could not hit targets as far as Reki. It always brought exclaims of admiration from Rinne and just pure awe from Winter that she could hit a target that to Winter appeared to be a bare fingertip size.
*Swish*
Something passed at the corner of Winter’s eye rapidly. <
‘Should I discipline her again?’ passed through Winter’s mind too but he dismissed it when his mental projection noted that the black projectile would miss them by a meter. Not a deliberate attempt then?
Her screech of anger he was familiar with reverberated from the screen of tall trees where they were supposed to be headed to. A few more wild spells passed through the natural wooden barrier, blowing a hole here and there and felling thinner trunks in several cases.
This pricked up everyone’s interest and they began moving faster. Winter opted to leave them all behind to take stock of the situation. Obviously Zorya was fighting something. And this something was giving her some trouble.
Under the continuous influence of his acceleration spell, Winter zipped in between trees, safely avoiding randomly passing shadow spells that was Zorya’s trademark.
Indeed, Zorya was battling. Against a player!
The player was dressed in green leather shirt and brown pants. Winter could not get a good look at the player’s face since his back was to Winter’s. He was pretty skilled, using twin daggers to knock away Zorya’s hand when she fired spells while scoring slashes when she tried to distance herself. A close distance fighter like Winter.
Puzzled on why another player would attack his pet, Winter was contemplating if maybe he should defuse the situation by unsummoning Zorya before giving the player a strong talking to. He did not know that if not accompanied by their owner, to any other players, a loose independent pet appeared like any normal mob though they would not give any experience or item when killed, only returning to their owner in exception to some circumstance.
Twisting his body to avoid a rending blow, Winter recognised who the player was. Winter tended to not forget someone that disrespected him. It was Daffy. That made his decision on who he should help simple.
‘There’
Summoning a Coffin, Winter angled it low to tackle Daffy’s legs. It was a perfect hit. Yelping from the sudden attack, he fell on his butt. Zorya, not wasting the chance fired a shadow spear that pierced Daffy’s abdomen, essentially pinning him to the ground for the next few seconds. Wincing at the imagined pain he would feel if he was there. Not sure whether a pet killing a player would count as him doing the deed, Winter chose prudence, erecting another Coffin right in front of Zorya. He would like to test that out in the future. Might be really convenient if it does not.
The surprise was enough to break her off her rampaging anger, channeling it to the person interrupting her. Her hiss of displeasure stopped upon noticing it was Winter that stopped her.
“What are you doing to that player (adventurer), Zorya?”
“Apologies, Master. This adventurer attacked me first.” Zorya did not look the least apologetic. She looked raring to go another round.
“What the hell man! That was my kill!”
Daffy stood up yelling. At least until he saw who he was facing. His finger that was ready to point with accusation stopped halfway down.
“Oh? Your kill is it?” Winter enunciated each word slowly. A grin on his face was spreading out slowly.
“Er… never mind. My mistake. Sorry for attacking your pet. Farewell.”
Daffy has always possessed a rather cunning mind. That was how he climbed up quickly in the Thieves Guild’s hierarchy. But sometimes his mouth worked faster than his mind. He had temper problems in real life that caused him a few jobs in the past, though if one looked closely he was always provoked.
His mind nimbly figured out that he made a mistake, attacking another player’s pet. A pointless exercise. The words were already out of his mouth, though he was ready with his apology. It was something he learned after repeated mistakes. Posturing when you were in the wrong brought nothing but embarrassment and even more problem. But he froze upon seeing whom he was facing. It was that damned mage posing as a swordsman!
‘Why the hell is he here! It’s his pet too! What a terrible luck!’
Daffy’s mind was screaming warning sirens all over the place. He knew that this Winter was bad news for him. In the past he wasted his roving squad single handedly. Judging by how strong the pet was, Winter was probably leagues ahead of him. Daffy knew he was right.
Thus, praying very hard that Winter did not remember him at all, he quickly pretended it was but a small misunderstanding, bidding him farewell and leaving as quick as his profession could allow it. Even a moron who only saw a stranger would not let someone that gave such awkward apology leave without proper explanation. For someone so cunning, Daffy was at times too naive!
A two meter tall one meter wide wall sprouted up from the ground ahead of Daffy. In seconds it alternately spread left and right, like a clone, forming a rough half circle with sharp angles between each wall. Mentally Daffy was terrified.
‘What sort of cast speed is that! This guy is a monster!’ his mind screamed.
“Now, now, don’t leave too quickly, my friend. I think we can have a chat.” Winter’s mocking voice called out from behind.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Looking up at the heavens, he cursed at his bad luck for a second before closing his eyes in resignation.
Turning around slowly, he gave his best awkward smile that looked sickly instead, while his mind was preparing plausible explanation. His hope for quick and painless resolution was dashed when the fake swordsman spoke again.
“Hi, Daffy. Fancy meeting you here.”
A predatory glint shone through Winter’s avatar. If Royal Road allowed a player to sweat, Daffy would have sweated a cold one, full bucket and then some.
xXx
“This concludes our deal. Pleased to do business with you.”
Zaya took the parchment with three handprint, ironclad in their content and stored it in her inventory. She would be back this afternoon with ten thousand bottles of <
Inclining her head slightly while showing a cheerful smile, Zaya told them she would be back the day after. The other party consisted of three players; a swordsman, a wizard and a knight bowed back, not unhappy with the deal they received. Zaya had driven a hard bargain at them while still managed to appear to be generous. She could afford to knock a couple thousands from the contract price when the whole sum was worth over a hundred thousand gold in sum. The last few minutes of the deal they were fighting over coppers they could save.
She had changed considerably compared to her first time meeting Winter. The change was not really obvious until recently. She began wearing more conservative outfit, spending less effort to wrangle a deal through enticement and more on the deal itself. She discovered a fundamental flaw in her old style of trading after she stopped doing it. Most players were rather immune to enticement when money was involved.
Thinking on it, it was obvious. Virtual world allow one to reduce, even eliminate physical flaws while enhancing their assets. It was a well-dressed word for fake appearance. Royal Road does not allow change of gender, but it allowed enough alteration in physical appearance that a player has to create on purpose should they wanted to appear unpleasing to the eye.
It was due to this fact that players paid less stock to appearance when things count, like loot distribution or money. Of course there were exceptions, like a particular female player she had the misfortune to join their party…..
“Merchant Zaya, can we interest you in further contract? We are currently in need of good consumable buff for our raid next month and we heard that you are able to obtain <
The one that just spoke was the Knight, Rodeim. Their guild was called Unending Conquest, ranked number 86 in strength, quite a feat. Boasting over forty thousand members, they were quite a force to be reckoned with. And a very sly one.
Rodeim was their appointed general leader. He has a large body build, over two meters tall, clad in heavy armor, all in deep blue with silver gilding on the edges of his armor. His face was blond and handsome with the right cuts and angles to his face. If he existed in real life, Zaya could easily imagine plenty of girls falling for the player.
The blue eyes might look kind and righteous, but Zaya knew it was a facade. She, as a merchant dealt with information daily. She heard plenty of good things from the top 100 guilds. But if her experience in Cosare taught her anything, appearance can be deceiving.
Applying simple logic, there was no way top 100 guild manage to keep their spot without some streak of ruthlessness.
This was the third time a top 100 guild of Versailles continent approached her with business proposal for her precious wine. At the moment it was the hottest item in the Capital, what everyone called the largest city at the center of Versailles Continent in short for its official name, Lesalia Imperial Capital. Only Zaya could procure it reliably.
The offer for purchase was as real as it could be, but they were also a fishing expedition. The three guilds wish to break the monopoly Zaya has on the Wine. There were a few players here and there selling it, but only Zaya could secure a large enough quantity for a Raid, allowing her to rake nearly ridiculous profit at record speed.
Because she was not careful enough, everyone now knew that her supply line came from Cosare. They also managed to zero in on Sella’s restaurant. The only saving grace was that the NPC so far never sold more than a few glass or at most, a bottle a time to any player other than Zaya. But she knew it would only be a matter of time before someone managed it.
Thus, Zaya was planning to build up as much wealth as possible in preparation for her monopoly to be broken. Her rise to prominence in the merchant community was prominent enough for other mercantile guilds to be wary of her, a single player that managed to climb so quickly in so short an amount of time. At first trying to recruit her for her sole worth in the monopoly of <
She succeeded in a sense that the guilds failed to keep her from trading with the larger guilds, credit for her Wine again and her monopoly on it. That single product was her ticket to all the deals she made with large guilds. Eventually.
Seated once again in the gaudily decorated seat, she was silent, as if thinking.
“How much are you willing to pay, Guild Master Rodeim? The average price for a bottle currently go for about 5000 gold.” Zaya stated clearly.
They were originally only 2500 gold a couple months ago. Zaya gradually increased the price when she found out she was the only one capable of fulfilling large scale orders reliably. She was making a literal killing since NPC Sella in Cosares still sold crates of the Wine to Zaya in fixed price. When one such good item appeared haphazardly in the market and in small quantity, a reliable supply line counted much much more.
“How about 5500 gold a bottle sound?”
Her eyes, now framed in tasteful oval glasses to present an air of sophistication glinted sharply. The next few minutes of negotiation were fast and furious. They were pretending not to have Zaya raise her price too much while not breaking the deal by overly resisting the increase. In the end they settled for 6000 gold a bottle, payable upon delivery with 20% penalty for inability to deliver. They deliberately left out a crucial part. Zaya would need to pay in full if she was even one bottle short while standard contract commonly accounted for such shortage and only applying the penalty for those said shortage.
Leaving the guildhouse with a wide smile, Zaya inputted the new purchase in her private ledger. The list was quite a long one for that month. Over 200 bottles purchased from eight different large guilds. She simple formula that automatically adjusted from the new entry at the bottom of the page read 2105.
Now she only needed to wait nearly until the delivery day. Another failed attempt at ruining her disguised as an attractive business proposition. It was common occurrence between merchants and the guild, she discovered. It was stupid as they sort of rely on each other.
Her rich merchant robe, light brown and green trimmed in gold that increased Charm stat swinging, Zaya took her private completely white private horse back to her own guildhouse, waiting for another order.
Checking her inbox for messages, Zaya sent a quick reply to one, agreeing to another appointment with Absolute Best, a guild she had dealt with before within the hour. It was the preferred way for merchant to accept messages.
Rumors had been abound for the past week that they were attempting another big raid. Her Wine would be the deal they would discuss again. Every guild that was going to have a large raid had to have one.
Searching her densely custom marked map for the right building, she swung her horse to Absolute Best’s guildhouse. On her way she waved her hand to a middle aged merchant she knew in a carriage heading the other way.
She noticed a couple days ago that Winter’s location was back in Arcanum again. She would like to meet him but was not able to. The moneymaking machine in The Capital never rest and neither should Zaya. She promised herself she would find him the first chance she managed to get away.
xXx
Aloine was having another bad day.
The lunch talk was filled with the success of Julianne’s success in her Punitive Raid. Her table was surrounded by flocks of admirers that used to be her’s. It made her seethe that she was forced to listen to them heaping praises on her nemesis. It made her blood boil when she pretended. Pretended to be modest upon accepting it.
Penelope Water finally could not bear to listen anymore. She excused herself - none really paying attention to her, another blow to her pride - quickly and immediately jumped into her personal capsule, sighing in relief.
In her mind everyone had turned to be her enemy.
Penelope was always oblivious of her own shortcomings. She was haughty and conceited. Julianne was on the other hand, down to earth and friendly. Choosing between the two was not difficult for general population. She might not be as refined or beautiful as Penny, but she was liked a lot more.
Previously, Penny had Royal Road to keep everyone’s attention on her aside from beauty. But that was taken away from her with Julianne’s rise in prominence. She was still a beauty now, but a bedraggled one. She cringed in horror when she found a couple of white strands in her hair. She was stressed!
Her weight had also increased by two kilo the last time she checked two weeks ago. She had been eating more than usual recently in order to follow Julianne around. She really could eat without ever gaining weight. Penelope would never know since she never bothered to check, but Julianne loved to swim. She always did a couple laps in the pool early morning before she go to class.
Compared to Penelope that took up afternoon tea as her sport, it was a pale comparison. She now dread putting her foot on the scale. So much that she dared not check her current weight. The only escape she has now was Royal Road, where her appearance remained picture perfect, her world ordered.
“Aloine, my sweet one, have you heard anything new on our mutual enemy?”
Campbell whispered the question while he was hugging Aloine’s avatar from behind. It felt stiff as board to him, but the gesture was what was important.
The view in front of them was quite picturesque. The hill they were on overlooked a white and yellow meadow. Never mind the occasional flora based monsters that roamed the edges of the hill. His henchmen were rounding them up neatly, killing a few here and there.
“He is finally back to Arcanum.” Aloine replied in clipped tone.
She was annoyed at Campbell’s attempt at closeness but chose to bear with it. It was for her revenge. She could deal with the slimeball for that.
“Good. We can finally can get started. For our mutual revenge.”
“For our mutual revenge.” Aloine intoned. She was not feeling the rising excitement when she was plotting her payback as she was.
She pondered from time to time why she felt even sad contemplating such petty revenge. Deep inside she knew that mature man was right. Penelope Water would have probably chose a different path if not for Campbell. He could sense her will wavering and always guided the conversation back to her most bitter moment.
“I can’t wait to pay him back for my humiliation.” The last word resonated with Aloine. She was humiliated by Winter.
“We will laugh while we kill him and keep killing him until he stops coming back.”
“Yes. We will kill him.” Aloine whispered. Winter’s words reverberated in her mind. The pain. She never remembered when she ever felt the like of it.
Campbell, Aloine and another twenty six players, seven of them with murderer’s mark on their forehead had been setting up near Arcanum for the past three weeks. They had been waiting for Winter to be back in town, planning to take him in an ambush and settling their grudge once for all.
Campbell spent a considerable amount of in-game gold and hard cash to hire players that handle shady jobs such as what he planned. They only moved for money and nothing else. Compassion, fairness and gamesmanship were not in their personality make up. They would do the job they were hired and nothing more.
The plan was to follow Winter far enough, wait until he was out of spawn point’s range, which he would spawn on top of his own dead body should he log back in and kill him continuously until he gave. Of course there might be problem should Winter chose to contact his friends, but he that was why he hired the ‘gray players’ that specialise in such assignment. They would run interference with Winter’s friends. Worse come to worse, he would tack a few of his hired players on him and try again next time. Campbell was set on his path to reduce Winter to begging for Campbell to left him alone. Campbell toyed on the idea if he should ever let him.
It was a hole that Royal Road never intended to fix. For a fun game, it has darker aspects should one look closer. They were scattered here and there within the game, general players choosing to ignore such thing ever existed.
Both of them used the time they were searching for Winter to train. Their level was quite high, 220 for Aloine and 225 for Campbell. Their proficiency however was terrible since they only took the killing blow to speed up their leveling.
A horde of hissing flora monsters rounded up, ever faithful Herbert that had been with Campbell since the beginning of the game whispered his guild leader, notifying him that everything was prepared.
Aside from Herbert and Campbell, none of the players were from Valorous Guild. Campbell could not use his regular guild members for a job that has no real return. He left the management of the guild to his capable Vice Captain that was also under his pay while he went hunting for Winter. At the moment they were planning a raid. He would be told when they were ready in good time.
“Hon, they are all ready.”
Aloine walked from Campbell’s embrace. She have the process down pat now. He had to hand it to Campbell. He knew how to please a girl. She was leveling up barely without effort, like shooting fish in a barrel.
Campbell showed his proud countenance seeing Aloine begin firing spell after spell though inside he also thought like her, they could not wait to be rid of each other.
‘Until Winter is done. She will know her place later.’
Campbell planned to visit the exact same punishment he planned for Winter to Aloine. She was getting too haughty in his opinion.
Keeping his rotten smile that deceived many, he watched Aloine burning down the monsters one by one.