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Chapter 12 - Dawn of Camelot

Arthur picked up his normal phone and called his parents. He reassured them that he was ok and that the Vanderbilts were taking good care of him.

Grandma Cynthia waited until his parents asked all their questions, mostly about his girlfriend, and took the phone. "Arthur, I only have one question. Was this like when you were unconscious for a week?"

Arthur thought it over and answered back, "Same vein, different situation."

"Please be careful. I worry that you got shoved into the deep end of the pool."

"I will be ok. I have good people around me. And I am still going to find a cure for you, I promise."

They hung up and Arthur dialed up Shane, the purple-haired scientist. "Shane, it's Arthur Cross. I need to know if you can edit my account to reflect the adventurer's name as Arthur instead of Warden. And you can make it public."

The highly energetic woman quipped quickly back, "Sure. Anything else you need me to do? I saw that fight with the there hobgoblins. Good fight. I don't think we need to test you again. Two of them were rank C and the leader was rank B. Can I help you with anything else?"

Arthur laughed as he imagined a chipmunk speed-talking, but didn't share that with the scientist. "There is something that you might be able to help me with. I'm looking for some recruits for a group I am making. I know it isn't easy to find trustworthy people, so I am wondering if you can pull together a shortlist of people that are ranked B or higher."

"That's right. I've met so many adventurers. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed the company of many of them. I can find you good-ranked people, but you'd have to judge them by yourself or with your friends. I could always put my notes on those that I have a good feeling about."

"Yes, that would be great. Please send the list to me by text. I can look them up in the system to contact them when I reach out to interview them. And can I get an updated list of all cleared labyrinths on the East Coast? Thank you, Shane. I'll owe you a cup of coffee or a carafe."

"Cleared labyrinths? Whatever for?"

"Training my new people in different terrain," bluffed the young man.

"Hide and seek eh? Good idea. Make them work to find the entrance even if they can't enter. I'll get that to you with the shortlist. Chat with you again soon."

Valkyrie returned wearing a black tight leather bustier with matching colored shiny pants with thigh-high boots. She had a tablet in her hands and sat down crossing her legs. She glanced over and winked, "Camelot has been registered. I've talked to one of the senior members of Valhalla and transferred leadership to him. Bjorn and I have joined Camelot. You are the leader. I have also reached out to your two friends and sent them invites to the group. You should see the number of exclamation points when they find out about their new team members. This puts us at five. I have sent an invite to Danistrae for an interview. When she responds, we can find out where and when we should meet her. Anything else that I can help you with my love?"

Arthur smiled back, "You are such a godsend. I reached out to Shane. I told her to replace Warden with my name and to make it public. I am done playing in the shadows. It's time I walk into the light. I also asked her to make a short list of people who we can review for recruits. She will look from rank B and higher and send me the list when she gets them ready. And I don't want to limit Camelot to just humans. I intend to make this a more cohesive group from all races. We need to harness the best combination of skills from all the races. What do you think?"

"I agree. I have compiled a list of labyrinths for us to go into. A place to test how people work with us and to judge if they are someone we want to add as a member of our group. It's a good thing the GMs didn't put a rule about having a raiding group that is only human. Only the more homophobic groups travel with full human groups."

Arthur stared out the window while still on the bed, "Are there any labyrinths in the New York City sewers?"

Amy tapped on the tablet to look it up, "There are three. All three are cleared."

"Ok. We'll also be getting a list of all the cleared labyrinths."

"What do we need that for?"

"Camelot's secret. We own two labyrinths now. I suspect we might be able to claim ownership of the others but I'm not too sure if we can. I know that the two I own now required keys and took some of my blood to bind the places to me."

"Yeah, finding keys would be a needle in a haystack. Hold up, OWN labyrinths?" Valkyrie nearly dropped the tablet she was holding.

Arthur grinned, "Well when we clear one of the labyrinths. I want to build a castle. Camelot needs a home base."

The black-clad woman fanned herself, "You are full of surprises."

"My brain is going on overdrive. I'm just getting started," he released mana from the Doll's Heart and enveloped himself in a healing spell. He felt his body recover from the debilitating poison's effects.

"I can never get used to seeing you use that spell. You are like a jack of all trades."

"Imagine if I can master them all. By the way, I want you to talk to someone."

"Who?"

Arthur stood up and grabbed Kelrick's phone. "Amy a.k.a Valkyrie, I want you to meet my master. Kelrick Shatterstorm."

"Good morning Valkyrie," came Kelrick's elven voice through the phone.

"Hello Mr. Shatterstorm," responded the girlfriend.

"Kelrick will be fine."

"Shatterstorm... My father mentioned that an ancestor was saved by an elf with that name."

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"I did. I am the same elf."

She stared at her redheaded boyfriend who grinned back, "Told you I had more secrets. I am revealing them as I go, I don't want to hide anything from you."

"Valkyrie, when you get a chance. Spar with Arthur. He needs to practice his sword work. He will let me know his observations of your fighting style. I will think of ways to help you improve."

"Are... are you taking me on as an apprentice?" stammered the girl.

"Your betrothed is my apprentice, why not you?"

"Be... be... betrothed?" blushed the braided Amy.

"Your parents favored me when they found out I am the human apprentice to the Shatterstorm," said Arthur. "Thanks for speaking with my girlfriend, master."

"Start working on more electric-based lightning. The GM tests need to follow the skills they know of. We need to hide the rest from them. They are not ready to know what you can do."

"What do you mean? I'm just me."

"There is a scar on your chest. You've had it since you were a baby. You were slated to die, but a stranger came. He offered your parents a chance to save you, in return, they were not supposed to tell you anything about it. He performed surgery on you and put something inside of you."

"How do you know?"

"I saw your memories, even the ones that you do not recognize or understand. You didn't get to see the stranger but he kept his promise. Whatever he put inside of you helped you survive. Now, I suspect it allowed you to learn at a faster rate. So I want you to practice," said Kelrick but Arthur understood that his master was still keeping the appearance of being on the phone. The elf meant that he was learning the former's abilities but he still needed to practice it and make it his own.

"Yes master, I understand. I will continue to practice. I will call you when I have more questions. Thank you for taking my call."

"Practice as much as you can with what you know. Til the next time."

The phone clicks off and Amy rushes to Arthur grabbing him by the shirt. She half-heartedly shakes him, "Your MASTER is an elf!!!! And a Shatterstorm!!!!! Do you know how big that is???"

"Umm... I actually don't know that. Other than him being an elf, which I know is already a rare thing for them to teach a human. What's so big about Shatterstorm?"

"Oh, my clueless boyfriend. Shatterstorm is one of the ruling families of the elves. They are part of the Elven High Council. It is rumored that in the absence of their king, the Shatterstorm family head can lead the elves. Your master would be considered a prince."

"Well, I guess it would be a good thing that the start of Camelot has some sort of royalty associated with it," teased Arthur. "I am Camelot's king and you are my queen." He kisses her and she forgets all about shaking Arthur.

A deep voice took them by surprise, "I am not interrupting anything, am I?" The towering man with deep red hair and a braided beard smirked from the doorway. A black sleeveless shirt with bold and bloody red lettering of "Heavy Metal" ran across the massive chest. He took slow steps towards the window to open it up. "You need some fresh air, yer highnesses." teased the man.

"I assume you are Bjorn?"

"Got it in one," grinned the man who looked very much like a Viking.

"Valkyrie, text Argent and Moonglow. Tell them to go to the corner yogurt place in two hours. We will meet them there."

"Two hours? We can get there in thirty minutes."

"Yes, but we are dropping by the GM building and doing some upgrade shopping. Bjorn, do you need any upgrades? And Valkyrie, will your custom equipment be ready for pickup?"

"Is this a social call with gifts or are we going hunting?"

"Probably a little bit of both."

"Meet you, boys, downstairs in ten minutes, I need to go get changed," ran Valkyrie to her room.

Bjorn smiled, "No worries about me, my gear is on my bike."

Arthur nodded and picked up his sword and bow. He slung his backpack on his back. He will need to fill it up with some provisions.

The shop attendants were taken by surprise when the three began looking at many items. Arthur let the two shop while he dropped by the rental office.

The pudgy clerk looked up, " Welcome back Arthur. I saw you got ranked B and this allows you to come directly to the counter instead of a number. What can I help you with today?"

"Two things, what is your name? And I need to see if there is a balance for Argent and Moonglow."

"Um... My name is Jethro," he answered and he tapped to check the accounts. "Yes both of them have balances. Argent appears to have a negative account balance."

"Jethro, are you ranked?"

The clerk pushed up his glasses, "Not that high, it's why I didn't go adventuring and worked here."

"What rank are you and what skills do you have?"

"I'm a rank D. Skill in appraisal and magical identification. Minor skill in probability determination, which means it isn't accurate. Proficient in daggers," answered Jethro unemotionally, though flattered that he was talking about something other than work.

"If you were allowed to leave this position, would you take it?"

He looked up, "I can't go adventuring. I won't survive the raids."

"But you are experienced in administration and organization, skills that I will need for my group. I am willing to pay you 70,000 credits a year with a yearly bonus based on the profit of the group's adventures."

"That's... tempting. I don't even know your group and who are the members. You can't fault me for wanting to know who I would be working with," asked the clerk with a little bit of nervousness.

"You already know me. Argent and Moonglow are members. And the remaining two are Valkyrie and Bjorn, both formerly from Valhalla."

The clerk opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again but no words came out. He took a deep breath and finally uttered, "What's the name of your group?"

Arthur turned the monitor while the entry was on Argent's account and pointed to a word on the screen.

Jethro whispered, "Camelot..."

Arthur tapped the clerk's shoulder, "First transfer 100,000 credits from my account to Argent and Moonglow. Second, re-activate your account. Transfer 20,000 credits to your account as a sign-on bonus. And quit your job at the end of the week. And here's the number to call to find out where to go, next week. See you soon Jethro, welcome to Camelot."

Jethro nodded vigorously and quickly transferred the credits. He watched Arthur walk down the hallway with awe and reverence.

Arthur stood watching a small pile of items on the counter in front of Bjorn and Valkyrie. He smirked and walked to an attendant on the side. "Hello, I am looking for something that can hold items to carry or to bring back from raids. Something like a magical storage bag or ring."

"I'm sorry, we don't have that kind of item. If we do, it would be worth millions."

"It was worth a try. Do you have items that have set affinities? I'm looking for a sword and shield at the minimum. Also a Staff and gloves as a minimum."

"Give me a few minutes to look through our inventory, I will be right back Arthur," smiled the woman.

Arthur looked at her questioningly. "Last man standing," she said and walked to a console to look for the requested items.

A pair of hands caressed up his chest and a sultry whisper lands on his ear, "Is my king flirting?"

Arthur turned around and kissed Valkyrie publicly. An action that caused quite a few people in the room to be surprised. Some even dropped what they were holding.

"She recognized me from the arena," said Arthur as he held his girlfriend somewhat possessively to the jealous stares of some of the male patrons.

"Bjorn and I are done shopping. We decided to get some extras."

The attendant returned but acted less flirty with Valkyrie in his arms, "We found a full set of helm, full armor, sword and shield. It is called the Silver Rampart. We also found a staff, gloves, and necklace. It is called the Persevering Light. The two sets would cost a total of 2.7 million credits."

Arthur squeezes his girlfriend, "Did you get me anything?"

"Of course love."

"What is the total for your pile of items?"

"8.3 million."

Arthur sighed, "Easy come, easy go. Charge the sets and the pile to my account."

The attendants quickly began to wrap up the items.

Bjorn carried most of the equipment and loaded it into the Maserati.

Valkyrie flirtingly struck his chest, "And here I was trying to get you a gift."

"It's a good thing I have enough to cover these expenses. We will need to do more raids to get more credits. Besides, we need all of these items. The dawn is shining brightly on Camelot."