Chapter 4 Meeting Natella

I was hot sweaty and feeling tired, the morning had passed in a blur as I practiced the other three forms that Philoe had taught me. Over and over, I caught myself chanting wax on wax off as I worked. But I would not quit not with the girl standing beside me doing the same exercises without even breaking a sweat. She had perfect form and execution, plus she was hot. Red hair pale skin and green eyes. A little thick but not fat pure muscle and grace. The kind of girl I had always been attracted to. Her name was Natella and she had been accepted as an acolyte Paladin by Philoe over a year ago.

I suspected that she was from a noble family from the quality of her gear and clothing. She had greeted me with a smile but was all business in the practice hall. We finally finished and I barely made it outside and collapsed on a bench. Natella looked at me and laughed as she said, “You need to get into shape your form is good but your stamina sucks.”

I smiled as my ego meter took a serious nose dive to bottom out. “Yes I agree, I am in terrible shape, but every morning I try to run before coming here. Hopefully, sooner than later I will get better.” It was hard to not stare at her eyes they had a magnetism about them but I looked away after a second, I did not want to come across as a pervert.

I listened as I looked around at the midday crowd of people out shopping, eating and visiting. I missed most of the conversation between Natella and Philoe but I did hear Philoe say, “Well why don’t you ask Belen he is not from here and I doubt he would care about anyone opinion.”

“Huh, what did you say?” I asked in surprise. Philoe responded, “Listen, Natella has to attend a dance at one of the nobles halls and she needs someone to go with her. Be a man and take her to the dance. Have fun and enjoy the evening. But do not kill anyone, some of those muckrakes will try to provoke you, by all means, duel but a Paladin does not go around killing people in duels.”

“Why would I duel anyone, and I have no intentions of killing anyone, and yes Natella if you need an escort I would be glad to do my duty to a sister Paladin.” I stared at Natella and noted her cheeks reddened as she said, “Thanks, I would like it if you could be my escort tomorrow night. I will meet you here, please wear your good clothing, Sir Chancy is particular about things like that. My Father will accompany us, to the dance so…” Her voice died off and then she stood up and said, “Until then.” With a small smile at me, she turned and walked through the crowd disappearing from view.

I turned to Philoe and said, “What the heck was that, why did you invite me to Natella’s dance party. I don’t walk in those circles, she is clearly a noble and I am a level, 1 Paladin. I don’t even have good clothing, I am going to stand out like a third testicle on a bull.”

The old man smiled at me and then said, “Enough of your complaints, I am friends with Natella’s father and he was worried that she would not have an escort or even worse the wrong kind of boy would ask her.

This solves several problems, as for your clothing go to Top Hats and Fox Fur Cloaks, tell them I sent you and that you need a set of clothing for the dance. They will take care of you and I will take care of them. Consider this a training exercise, Paladins are expected to deal with the lowest peasant and the High Kings on equal footing, you are not a noble or at least not yet, but you are of equal standing to any noble. Show me what you can do boy.” With that Philoe walked back into the training hall and closed the door.

I was on my own, standing up I began to walk towards the nearest stall where I had to pick up a packet of letters to drop off all over town. Along the way, I would stop at the clothier and get fitted with my good quality clothing. The early afternoon passed quickly with the fitting only taking a few minutes and the letters all delivered. I suspected they were bills judging by the sour looks I received as I dropped off the letters. Bills, you can't escape them even in a game.

I stopped to grab some food and water and purchased a cloak, cause I was once a boy scout and one should always be prepared. Once I left the town and was out of site I began to experiment with my ring and started calling the mischief of rats. One second I was walking alone and the next I was surrounded by huge rats with huge teeth. The buggers were eager to get close to me rubbing against my legs and playing with each other.

They seemed to be having fun but clearly deferred to the largest rat a monster the size of a Shepherd dog. I could communicate with all the rats mentally and felt the joy and happiness they had as the played. The largest rat was at a higher level than the rest and could communicate with simple sentences. I decided to name him Kirk and suggested that two or three rats range ahead and scout out the way to the mine. In a flash three rats broke away from the group and ran ahead, they just seemed to disappear into the ground.

As I walked I would receive a mental picture of what the rats saw once in a while if they thought it was interesting. The remaining rats and I continued to make our way down the track towards the mine with Kirk walking beside me his nose and whiskers quivering here and there as he sniffed the air. He was a handsome grey color with silver highlights in the fur around his neck and head. I liked the color scheme and decided to see if I could have my clothing all that color. I had always tried to maintain a clothing color on all my game characters, it was just something I liked to do.

We eventually arrived at the mine, my scouts had not offered me any warnings about anything. The mine itself was like a cave with several buildings scattered around the clearing. I had the rats check the buildings but they were all empty. I could not help but smile as I entered the dark mine. Seeing a rack of torches I grabbed 6 and threw them into my bag then lighting one I made my way into the darkness. I had sent my rat scouts ahead, they had an excellent dark vision and would see anything long before I would. We explored the top level of the mine finding it to be empty of life. Heading to the ramp that led down to the next level I sent the scouts ahead again and waited for a moment until they told me the area next to the ramp was clear.

I arrived at the bottom of the ramp to find that the torches were suddenly out. WTH, only my rats' warning allowed me to duck from the mining pick that embedded itself in the wall at the place where my head had been. I thrust out with mace and connected with something soft but hard enough to feel the breakage of bones. Scurrying back I pulled a torch and lit it then looked down into the chamber. Zombies, about 20 of them scattered and moving slow.

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I walked up to the first on and managed to connect a solid blow to its skull which caused it to drop lifeless. Moving on I worked my way through the pack of undead, they were slow and easy to one shot with a blow to the head. The only time I had trouble was when three of them arrived together in front of me. Fortunately, I managed to distract two of them when I screamed brains and pointed behind them. Being freshly turned they still had limited reasoning abilities and so turned around to see what I had pointed at.

This allowed me to get them both. The third zombie meanwhile had managed to grab me by the arm and bite me on the shoulder near the neck. It hurt and for a moment I thought I was going to be gaming as a ghoul but once my blood filled his mouth the Zombie screamed and tried to spit but only managed to fall down clutching his throat as he died. I suspect that my being a pally and having a healing buff was why he died. Pallys have always been strong against the undead.

I moved from chamber to chamber finding smaller groups of Zombies, I looted them all with the plan to give all the personal artifacts to the miners guild to return to their families. The zombies were not a challenge for me and I had not had to use my rats against them. By my reckoning, I had dealt with all the miners but had not found the creature that had turned them. At the end of a long passage, I had discovered a hole torn into the wall, perhaps something from the inside and managed to dig its way out.

The opening was large enough for me to easily walk through and I discovered that it led to a man-made passageway that sloped down. I followed the passageway for half an hour and finally arrived at a huge subterranean cavern. It was all quiet with no sign of life but I was not fooled. I knew that hunters could remain still waiting for their prey and that something that did not move was extremely hard to see.

Sending in the rats brought an immediate reaction as skeletons arose from the pools and began to chase the rats. My rats were much faster and easily illuded the skeletons. I directed the rats to break into two groups and had the first group run around the buildings and then had the second groups pull up a few skeletons at a time to me.

The combat was quick and brutal, my two-handed mace breaking the bones of the skeletons with ease and when they did manage to pull a sword it would often fall into small pieces of rust as soon as it hit the air. Eventually, the rats pulled the last group up to me and they also joined the growing pile of broken bones in front of me. While the rats had been running around the buildings they had observed no other creatures so I felt it was safe to proceed down, and in fact, I was curious about what might be in the ruined temples. I paused and waved my hand over the pile of bones and was pleasantly surprised to receive 50 gold and a handful of gold jewelry most of which were identified with a pirate tag.

I explored the first two smaller buildings but they held nothing of interest to me. The third building was much larger and had a large altar in the middle, on top of the altar was the reclining figure of a female naga, The head, and torso of a woman and the body of a large snake. She was beautiful but deadly with a trident in one hand and a net in another. I walked around the altar and examined the back of the room only to discover that it was a dead end. I put my rats away as I expected this to be a boss fight and did not want them hurt. When I discovered the boss.

Turning around I noted that the Naga was no longer on the altar, clearly what I had thought was a statue was something far more deadly. My first indication of that was when the net came sailing out of the darkness and wrapped around my feet instantly turning back to stone and trapping me. I had found the boss and I was in trouble. I managed to deflect her trident with my mace but was not prepared when the naga abruptly hit me with an uppercut that caused the stars to shine in front of my eyes.

I finally had a good look at my enemy as she wrapped her snake body tight around me. I heard her say, “You are a handsome one, perhaps I will keep you as my personal slave.” Then she bent down and kissed me. I was bleeding in my mouth from when she had popped me and my only hope was that my blood might react towards her as it had the other undead, for as beautiful as she was she was also undead. Some kind of higher form than a ghoul or a zombie but still undead. Grabbing her by the back of the neck I pulled her in and kissed her back with all my remaining strength. Just before I passed out I saw a popup display,

You have mastered the art of the first kiss, you can now smooch with the best, pucker power active.

Awesome I thought as I faded into unconsciousness, with my last thought wondering how Natella would like to be kissed. When I awoke, I was extremely uncomfortable with my legs still trapped in a stone net. I was on my back and looking over beside me I saw the Naga, she was reaching for me with one hand as the other grabbed her throat. I had to remember that she was trying to permanently convert me to being undead and then enslave me. It was hard because I could see the stone tears on her face that she had cried when she realized that she was dying.

I managed to reach out and grasp my mace but as much as I tried to break the net it would not shatter. After an hour I decided to take a different approach and put the net into my bag which instantly freed my feet. I stared down at the Naga girl and thought what the heck and then put her into my bag as well, she made a lovely statue now that she was harmless. Standing I stretched out my leg muscles and then tried to loosen up in preparation for what was to come.

Once I was ready I walked over to the altar and examined it. As I suspected it was a table tomb, with the top of the altar actually being a cover for the tomb. I carefully placed my hands and began to push, and push and push. The lid was thick and made of solid rock. I did not stop and continued to push, finally after what seemed like forever the lid began to move. I manage to move it enough to have a good look inside the tomb and reach into it. The tomb held the figure of what appeared to be a Dragon, curled up within the stone confines.

I would guess that this was a young Dragon, but what did I know about Dragons. Nothing. The body was resting on a bed of solid gold coins with precious jewels and assorted jewelry. I waved my hand over the body and it all disappeared as loot, The Dragon itself turned to dust and faded away leaving a pulsing red jewel at the bottom of the tomb. I reached down and grabbed it and then held it up to the light. It was beautiful and lit from within by a fiery light.

Suddenly I felt a terrible burning in my hand and tried to drop the stone. It refused to leave my hand and in fact, it began to burn hotter and hotter. The pain was overwhelming and I fell to my knees holding out my hand. I am not sure how long the pain lasted but it was suddenly gone and the relief I felt caused me to fall onto my but. I could no longer feel the jewel but as I held up my hand I could see a small red area on the palm of my hand.

Closing my eyes I swallowed and then looked at my hand again, there was no doubt that the stone had somehow merged with my palm. I felt funny and knew it was time to go back to the city I was not sure if I could make it that far but at the least, I had to make it outside. Feeling both hot and cold at the same time I managed to stumble my way to the surface. My only thought was to get out of the mine. I made it out of the mine and into the bunkhouse then crawled onto the first bunk I saw.

When I awoke I was hungry, thirsty and a bit irritated, everything I had read had told me that Tarsas was supposed to be fun, but the pain I had felt was not fun, it was painful. Debilitatingly painful. I pulled up my interface and quickly sent a message to game Quality and Assurance telling them the pain levels I had experienced was way over the top and not fun at all. With that done I began to make my way back to the city.