Several hours after I had signed out of SWO, I rolled out of bed. After signing out last night, I had quickly shoveled a meal into my stomach, then promptly went to bed. This game is going to do horrible things to my healthy daily routine, but it’s absolutely a worthwhile sacrifice. It was now fairly early in the morning. Since your body is in a restful state almost like sleep while playing, I feel fully awake, even though I only got a few hours of real sleep.
Sitting down to breakfast, I decided to spend some time online again looking for information before I got back into the game. I didn’t really have any specific goals in mind, but in general having information is better than not. Besides, I doubt I could stop thinking about the game if I tried, so I might as well turn those thoughts to something productive.
First off, I went back to the list of rare races to see what had been added in the last day. The list itself had gotten surprisingly long, reminding me again just how much variety there was in this game. In the list was a note about golems ability to become a rare race by changing the material they are made out of. There wasn’t any mention of succubi yet, so I’m really beginning to think I might be the only one. It really would make sense, after all. What are the odds that more than one incompetent group of cultists summoned a demon at roughly the same time, and happened to all get the same type of demon, and they all failed to enslave their summoned succubus. It’s pretty unlikely.
There was a post about the Shunned racial ability. It seems that’s not unique to me, though different races are affected differently. The player that brought it up was apparently a vampire, and he wanted to know if anyone else had anything like that and how they deal with it. According to the post, because he looks like a regular human he can walk through town normally without any danger to himself (other than damage from the sunlight apparently), but if his race is discovered or he is seen using his racial abilities than others will realize what he is and call the guards. Other players said they were only attacked if they caused trouble or harmed to someone, otherwise their presence was grudgingly tolerated. Most of these are races like orcs that have both friendly and hostile tribes around, and thus are difficult to trust. All in all, it seems like I have one of the more severe versions of the skill.
I thought about it, and decided to post a bit about my own situation to that page. I chose to not say what race I am, but explained that I had an ability to hide my form while limiting my abilities, and if I wasn’t using that I would be killed on sight by most NPCs. If nothing else, it might generate some interesting discussion.
Skimming through a few other posts, it was clear that more and more players were starting to travel to other cities already. Many talked about where they were, or where the were going next. A few players had started putting together a “traveller’s guide”, describing various locations across the continent. It seemed they intended to eventually publish the guide in game, and sell it to other players. I will be very disappointed if they don’t title it “The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ariloth”, which reminds me I should get a towel before we set off on our trip.
After finish my breakfast and research session, I cleaned up and signed into the game again. Glancing around the city gates where I was, it seemed to be a fairly busy morning with people coming into and leaving the city. It also seemed I was the only member of our party to be online right now.
I decided to get to my chore of finding us someone to escort to Al Omand right away. Since I was already at the entrance to the city, the request board was nearby. Unfortunately, things weren’t going to be so easy, though. There were a number of parties recruiting members and various jobs around town, but I didn’t see any requests for an escort to the desert. Instead, I placed a notice advertising our services as an escort, and left my contact information.
Since I was free now, I decided to spend some time to do some shopping while I waited. My first stop was back in the eastern district. Since my position was going to be mostly on the back line, I wanted to have a proper ranged attack I could use in fights. Even in the dungeon, there had been many times I was standing on the sidelines because I had no way to attack the goblins.
In my reading this morning, I had learned about a trick some people had discovered. The equipping system is actually fairly flexible when it comes to weapons, and a few players had discovered they could actually equip two weapons at once, and swap between them as needed. This was mostly being used by archers to equip a melee weapon like a dagger or warriors with throwing knives, but this way I would be able to equip both my whip and a more standard casting weapon that allowed me to cast an attack spell. The only real limitation is that I would only be able to use the spell of the current active weapon, so I can’t use the spell from my whip with the other weapon. There is also the option of dual wielding them, but that requires the dual wielding skill before it can be done, and lowers the effectiveness of both weapons.
For my second weapon, I initially considered a staff or wand. However, a staff wasn’t going to work, as it would get in the way if I needed to get into melee. Wands were small enough that they were still an option, but frankly I find wands a bit boring and generic. If possible, I wanted to have something else.
Unfortunately, I needed to have something to cast attack magic with, so class based weapons weren’t really an option. However that thought did put me onto something. Rings, bracelets, and other wearable casting items would be best since they wouldn’t get in the way when I was using my whip. Luckily, my succubus nature also unlocked a few of these things, so I might be able to find something in one of the specialty shops I had visited before.
It took a while of browsing before I found something. Most of the wearable casting weapons I could use were available due to the Enchantress class, and were thus excluded from my search. However I eventually found a decorative sleeve that could grant me a good attack spell. The sleeve reached about three quarters of the way up my arm. It was black with deep blue decorative trim near the edges, and had a ring that fit around my middle finger to hold it in place. I’m honestly not sure how the other end was held in place. I just assume magic.
Sliding the sleeve onto my left arm with my whip holstered on my right side, I checked my spells. Sure enough, the Flame Slash spell from the whip was not available, but in it’s place I now had a new spell.
Ice Spike
A basic Ice Magic spell. Launches a sharp icicle at your opponent. Does moderate damage, and magical cold seeping from the icicle may cause the enemies actions to be slowed.
Mana cost: 15
As far as combat spells go, Ice Magic tends to do less actual damage than other elements, but most of its spells have that slowing effect giving it a bit of a support role as well as damage. It was still the most damaging thing I can do, possibly excepting my claws.
My new spell sleeve equipped, I went back to the central shopping district. Our trip through the dungeon had used up a lot of my potion supply, so I wanted to restock those, as well as get a few other things for the future. While I was shopping, I also received a message from a merchant player who was interesting in travelling to Al Omand. I arranged to meet them individually in an inn room to interview and determine if I thought we could trust. Just in case, I went to the inn early and rented another room. In that room, I altered my disguise to a dark haired elf just in case. It’s probably not important, but it might prove helpful for merchants I reject not to be able to recognize me later.
Arriving in the room, I found a slightly heavy set man with a moustache waiting for me. I was honestly surprised. Who would actually intentionally make their character look like the stereotypical unscrupulous merchant? It’s like screaming “don’t trust me” to everyone you meet. Still, it might just be poor judgement, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Long story short, my initial judgement was right. After introducing himself as Coburn, he went into a long diatribe about what he planned to do, and how we could get in on it by escorting him. He was somewhat vague about exactly what he intended, but from what he was suggesting I was fairly sure he wanted to create a mafia-like organization somewhere in the game. And if we escorted him while he looked for a good place to start it, we could become an integral part of that organization in the future.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
One point he emphasized very heavily is that both he and his organization would be willing to do absolutely anything if it meant profits. That alone was enough reason for me not to want to escort him.
“I see, I don’t think we’re the group you’re looking for as escorts. My party and I don’t really want to attach ourselves to any organization. We prefer to freely travel the world. I’ll discuss your offer with them later, and contact you if we decide to take your job, is that alright?”
“I understand. Unfortunately since I’m not established yet, I have no choice but to accept your decision. I do hope you’ll change your mind, though. You seem like the sort that would be valuable to us in the future.” The man nodded and left.
Over the next couple hours, a few other merchant players messaged me and went through the interview process. While none of them were nearly as shady as the first one, they all still struck me as someone I couldn’t trust my secret to.
After a few merchants, the twins signed in and joined me in the room I was using as the interview room.
Celeste waved as she pushed open the door, with Aurora slowly trailing behind her. “‘Morning Lilith. What’s up with that look?”
“Hey. I figured it would be best not to be recognized later by the people I rejected, so I changed things up a bit. I’ll go back to your older sister once I find someone. More importantly, is she alright?” I motioned toward the staggering Aurora.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah she’s fine. That’s just how she is when she wakes up. No luck with the merchants so far?”
“Not really. There were a couple that seemed alright, a few that would absolutely sell us out if the price was right, and one that offered us a position in the mafia he was going to start. I didn’t think we would be up for that and turned it down.”
Celeste stared at me a moment. “Wow, Horvath wasn’t kidding about you finding the strangest things, was he.”
“Hey, this one was relatively normal. It’s not like being asked by a group of space luddites to smuggle them and their weapons onto a space station.”
“That seems strangely specific. Did that actually happened?”
“Yeah, once. I’m still a bit fuzzy on exactly why a group of technophobes wanted to take over one of the most advanced research stations in the universe, but I needed the money. I’m still pretty impressed they managed to take over the entire station with nothing but a bunch of wooden clubs, though. This was a game where most people carried at least a laser pistol on their person at all times. Normally they wouldn’t have been able to take over a small ship, much less an entire station. Anyway, what are you guys going to do. I’ll probably be here conducting interviews for a while.”
The girls thought for a bit before Aurora finally woke up enough to speak. “I need to get ingredients for cooking.”
“Oh, good point. I guess we’ll do some shopping. If we’ve still got time, maybe we’ll see about learning some useful skills too.”
I nodded. “Alright, I’ll let you know when I finish up here so we can regroup.”
After seeing off the twins, I continued interviewing a few more merchants, and was honestly surprised that no one seemed to intend to be a trustworthy character. I was honestly about to give up and remove the ad I had put up that morning when I received another message. After telling the merchant where to meet me, I sat back to wait. Before long, there was a slightly timid knock on the door, followed by the door slowly opening.
“Um… is this where I’m supposed to come about an escort?”
Peeking his head in the room was a young looking man with pale skin and deep blue hair. His ears were elongated somewhat, And the pupils of his eyes were slightly larger than they should be.
I motioned to him. “Yep, this is the place. Come on in. Do you mind me asking what race you are? I haven’t seen a character like yours yet.”
The young man timidly entered the room and took a seat.
“I’m Lucelan, a merfolk. We have a city under the water north of here, but I want to become a travelling peddler so I left as soon as I could to a coastal city, and worked my way to here with my inventory full of pearls and things found in the ocean. They sold well here and I was able to get enough to get a basic wagon and a horse to pull it.”
Hmm, an underwater city. I wonder if I could find a way to visit it later. I haven’t heard of anything that allows people to breath underwater yet, but there might be one.
“I see. And now you want to get to the desert? Won’t that be rough on you with that race?”
“I’ve heard that the nomads are good traders, and they know how to transport their goods through dangerous environments. I’m hoping I can learn from them for a while before I set out on my own. As for the lack of water, I’m carrying quite a bit in my inventory because I’ll need it.”
“Wow, you’ve planned this out pretty thoroughly. So you would rather travel around selling things than have a store of your own?”
Lucelan nodded. “Yeah, I want to be a merchant, but I also want to see the world. I may not be going out to the frontlines, but I still can see a lot of things this way. Sure, I might be able to make more money with an established store somewhere, but this seems like it will be much more interesting. Besides, I’m not really concerned with making a lot of money as long as I can afford the things I need.”
“A merchant not concerned with making a lot of money. That’s pretty uncommon…”
“Ah… I suppose when you put it that way it does sound odd. But it is true that profits are a secondary goal for me.”
His lack of greed wasn’t really very merchant like, but it did match my needs quite well.
“I think you might be what we’re looking for, but I do have one question to ask. One of my companions has a rare race that they are trying to keep a secret from both NPCs, and to a lesser degree other players. That’s why we’re being somewhat stringent with this whole interview process. The thing is, if the NPCs do find out about their race, it will cause problems. Can I have your word you’ll protect that secret for us?”
Without any hesitation, Lucelan nodded. “Absolutely. I’ve got no interest in profiting from someone else’s misfortune. And as a travelling peddler, it’ll be more useful to have friends than enemies. I am a bit curious about their race, though.”
I smiled. “Well, let’s save that surprise for once we’re on the road and safely away from the city. You’ve got yourself an escort party to Al Omand.”
We shook hands, then went over the details such as payment, and decided to head out as soon as possible.
Checking my friends list, Horvath had signed in while we were talking, so I just needed to gather the party and we could head out. I sent a message to all three of them to meet us near the gate, and went with Lucelan to his wagon.
It was a small, wooden wagon that would be hitched to a single horse. The grey horse was currently grazing nearby in the stable.
“It’s not fancy, but it’s my first wagon. It’ll get us there, and counts as a log out point so we can take breaks as needed without stopping. Although with all my goods in my inventory, it might not have actually been necessary, I just wouldn’t feel right without having some sort of transportation. Besides, at least this way we can have a few people ride instead of all of you walking.” Lucelan slid his hand along the side of the wagon proudly.
That was true, aside from the enormous Horvath, two of us could fit in the back of the wagon quite comfortably. Unfortunately for Horvath, he’s just too big. If he was alone he could probably sit back there, but there was no way anyone else could get on with him.
Speaking of Horvath, he arrived fairly quickly after I had sent the message. He must have been in the general vicinity already, given how fast he got here. Though being that big it’s probably pretty easy to push through a crowd, too.
“Oh, there’s one. Horvath, over here!” I waved at the golem, who looked confused as he made his way over.
“Lilith? You look different, so I didn’t recognize you.”
“Ah, right. I’ll explain that later. For now, this is Lucelan, a travelling merchant who we’ll be escorting to Al Omand.”
Horvath turned to the merman. “I’m Horvath, our tank.”
Lucelan held out his hand. “Lucelan, travelling peddler. Thanks for agreeing to help me get to Al Omand.”
“No problem.” The golem said, shaking his hand. It was rather funny, since Horvath’s hands were at least twice as big. “If Lilith say’s you’re good, I’m fine with it.”
“Hehe, you’re embarrassing me.” I did my best to act shy.
“Ew. Stop that.”
I sighed. “Now all that’s left is the twins.”
Just as I was saying that, I saw the two making their way to us. Unlike Horvath, they struggled a bit getting through the crowds, but reached us fairly quickly.
“Lucelan, this is Celeste and Aurora, damage and healing respectively.” I motioned to the twins.
“And this is Lucelan, the merchant we’re going to be accompanying to Al Omand.”
After the greetings were over, we decided to leave in about an hour, and split up to finish up any tasks we had in town. I headed back over to the Mages Association one last time to say goodbye to Elenore and Samantha, who clung to me and refused to let me leave until I promised to write to her occasionally to keep her informed of where I was. While I couldn’t quite hear her, she muttered something about graduation under her breath after I made that promise.
Returning to the stables where Lucelan had his cart parked, we all gathered and set off on our journey.