Chapter 121: Global Crisis

Charging forward along the gravel-covered road, Zach clung to the rough, coarse hair on the scruff of his war-mount’s neck with his left hand, and with his right, he both extended his arm and swung his sword in the same motion, shattering the shield of an Avislicer Guardian with an echoing crack and causing the avian-faced mob to fall over onto its back. Yet before it even hit the ground, Zach spun his body, hopped off the side of his mount, and then raced over to where it was about to pick itself back up. Quickly, he plunged his blade straight down into its chest, finishing off the creature and earning a heavily reduced +1200xp for his efforts.

As his mount continued onwards without him and began to rip apart two Marauding Avislicers that seemed intent on barring their passage, he hurried over to where Kalana and Ruby were fighting side by side. “Are you guys okay?” he asked them both.

“Mhm,” Kalana said, though she was breathing heavily.

“We’re okay,” Ruby agreed, licking her chops just before tearing into the throat of a Marauding Avislicer for 40,133 damage, killing it.

“Good job, Ruby,” Kalana said.

“Thank you, Mommy Kalana!” she replied, chirping.

Zach sighed. He’d more or less gotten over the fact that his card and item had been stolen from him in the same accidental action, and he’d become far more fascinated than anything else. At the very least, the two of them seemed to make a pretty good team. Zach watched as they finished off the small group they were battling while, right around the same time, his Kralzek’s Beast ended the two marauders it’d been dealing with; releasing a roar, the saber-toothed cat turned around and hurriedly returned to Zach’s side. Now, having cleared out yet another bunch of mobs, he turned his sights on the gate that was nearly upon them at the end of the mob-ridden path.

Can’t believe how much shit we just killed, he thought to himself, wiping sweat from his brow.

Though both he and Kal were sweating, his perspiration was due more to the heat than anything else, whereas Kal was showing clear signs of fatigue. Zach, on the other hand, was completely energized and felt like he hadn’t even begun to exert himself yet thanks to the stamina regeneration ability on his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness.

For the past thirty-five minutes, he, Kalana, Ruby, and the war-mount had torn their way through so many of the mobs that Zach couldn’t begin to guess how many they’d killed. Not only had they had to cut down group after group of the ones that either stood in their way on the path or wandered back and forth along it, but occasionally they’d triggered an alarm and had to deal with reinforcements from nearby villages. Sometimes, these alarms would even cause mobs that they’d already killed—and had recently respawned—to join the swarm of angry Avislicers. There was also the infrequent wagon that aggroed onto them, increasing the pressure and intensity of the nonstop combat.

Several times, Zach—and now Kalana, too—had tried to call out various things to the Avislicers regarding the king of the slug clan, hoping to unlock more of that weird quest stuff in order to bypass having to deal with some of the mobs in their way. But so far, they hadn’t been able to spark anything like the earlier event, which meant they’d had to fight their way all the way over here to the front gates of the walled-in mini-city.

Given the sheer number of enemies that’d stood in their path, it was incredible they’d managed to push through as fast as they had; naturally, a lot of that was due to the presence of Ruby and his war-mount. And even despite the tremendously reduced experience points per kill on each of the mobs, the four of them had slain such a ridiculous number of Avislicers that Zach had still earned more than 120k xp from it all.

To Next Level

169,632/215,000

I just can’t believe this place is real, Zach thought, caught in a perpetual state of amazement. It’s like we’re on a different planet and not Galterra.

Although slaying the same few types of Avislicer mobs over and over had quickly become monotonous, it never stopped being captivating to Zach. This was because he’d gone almost all of his life without ever seeing a mob outside of the yearly, publicly broadcast tournaments, and now here he was, finding himself inside of something akin to a little kingdom with thousands of them inhabiting it. It was yet another sharp reminder of just how different Galterra thousands of years ago must have been from the Galterra that was lived in today.

“You ready to keep going?” Zach asked. “We’re almost there.”

Fewer than two-hundred feet ahead of them was the end of the gravel-covered road, whereupon a giant metal gate served as the shuttered entrance to a miniature, city-like cluster of antiquated-looking structures. From the defenses atop the stone wall and the movement that could be seen from Avislicers scurrying about, Zach knew they would not have any easier a time getting inside than they’d had fighting their way over here.

With a nod of her head and a quickly flashed thumbs-up, Kal indicated she was good to go. Even still, Zach worried he was pushing her too hard; if not for his sword, he would be crawling on the gravel right now, too exhausted to continue walking upright on two feet let alone resume battling all these strange bird-human mobs. Yet he'd been pretty lucky with his stamina proc: very lucky, in fact. Or maybe it wasn’t luck at all and was simply the natural result of slashing so many mobs so many times with his blade that it was inevitable. Either way, the result was the same: Zach was still at full stamina and his duration of Unleashed Phase had skyrocketed to an unbelievable 1:23:04.

It was almost getting to the point of being worrying. What would he do if it continued to rise? What if he ended up with a duration lasting several days by the time they were done with this quest? Certainly, he didn’t think Kal would want to sleep in the same bed as him while he was glowing and shooting off embers and black smoke.

Realizing this, Zach had begun to liberally make use of his various abilities during the past half hour, throwing out Wave Slashes, Phase Slashes, and a few Phase Cannons with regular frequency. It was partially why they were able to push through as fast as they had. Yet even that hadn’t been enough to stop the steady increase of his remaining duration. And now that they had nearly arrived at what Zach was sure would turn out to be the quest location, he decided not to hold back and to use as many abilities as he wanted.

He eyed four mobs atop the wall ahead of them in the distance that were standing before the ballistae as though intent on firing the moment one or more eligible targets came into range. With his stats as high as they were, Zach didn’t think the ancient-looking war machines were actually capable of seriously harming him, but even still, he saw little reason to take any unnecessary chances. So with that thought in mind, he extended his palm, fired off four consecutive Phase Cannon attacks, and destroyed the machines along with the Avislicers nearby that were waiting to operate them.

Unlike his Wave Slash, which traveled—and very often cut—straight through wherever it was aimed, and unlike Phase Slash, which dealt a heavy, but concentrated burst of damage to a single target, Zach’s Phase Cannon exploded wherever it struck, and so it damaged anything near its location of impact in addition to whatever it hit, making it very useful for attacking enemies that happened to be grouped together; this, he’d learned on the way over here. Having had so much excess duration on his Unleashed Phase to spare, he’d finally gotten the chance to experiment with his abilities, and he was rapidly gaining a feel for what was best to use in any given situation. Right now, his Phase Cannon was ideal.

Thus, one after the next, his hand snapped and recoiled with each use of the ability; four consecutive bangs were followed by four consecutive booms along with a series of cracks thrown into the mix. Zach watched with satisfaction as each ballista was blown apart into many different pieces along with the unusually low-HP Avislicers that were operating them, all of which died in a single hit.

HP

0/8,000

Name

Avislicer Engineer

Level

44

Immediately after, a pillar of smoke rose from a small area on top of the wall where he’d concentrated his fire. At the same time, his war-mount gagged up its own cannon and fired it several times as well, exploding several crossbow-wielding Avislicers farther along the wall while Kalana summoned meteors down on top of several more in a separate section. Scanning the wall with his eyes, Zach began to unleash several more Phase Cannons wherever he saw trouble, and for a short while, the warm air filled with the constant sound of destruction as the three of them obliterated the mini-city’s defenses and vaporized nearby Avislicers—and all while blasting away numerous bits of stone and brick, sending plenty of both scattering.

The combined power of their assault made it so that before another half a minute had come and gone, they’d eliminated all of the defenses atop the wall and had left huge chunks of it missing near the central gate—earning Zach yet another 10k experience points in the process. And with that, he reckoned they should now be able to approach the city’s entrance safely.

Wow, we sure tore the wall up, Zach thought, amazed. They’d left holes and cracks in so many different sections that it almost looked like they’d bombed it—just like the Royal Roses had bombed Shadowfall Coast right before Zach had butchered so many people so fast that he couldn’t even recall how many of them he’d actually killed.

Stop it, he warned himself as a sinking feeling of fear entered into his chest. The fear wasn’t because of the memory in his head but more so the worry that it would cause him to become a bit “off” like before. You got this out of your system already, remember? So just stop it. Do you want her to think you’re fucking crazy? Pull it together.

For just the briefest moment, his lips sank into a frown. Yet he caught himself right away and promptly reverted to a smile before Kalana had a chance to see it. Yet even still, the dismay he felt in his heart must have somehow come through on his face, because after turning towards him, Kalana tilted her head curiously as though spotting his rising fear. Then she slightly opened her mouth as if worried; thinking quickly, Zach improvised. He took a deep breath then sighed, pushing it all away.

“Sheesh,” he said, watching as more plumes of smoke rose up into the air from the various destructive abilities dished out by him, Kal, and his war-mount. “All this effort for a few healing stones that we won’t even get to keep.”

Kalana studied his expression a moment as if uncertain. “I thought you looked upset just now. Is it ‘cause you’re mad about money again?”

Zach forced a laugh. “Just a passing thought. Don’t worry about it. I guess I’m still coping with the fact we’re giving our hard-earned healing stones away.”

Kalana elbowed him playfully, reminding Zach that, even despite her apparent exhaustion, she still had plenty of energy left in her. “It’s for a good cause!”

“That’s right,” Ruby agreed, nodding twice then licking Kalana’s face. “It’s for a good cause.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Okay, I’m fine, he thought.

Together with Kal, Ruby, and his war-mount, he proceeded down the last stretch of gravel-covered road until the gravel changed into a paved, tiled pathway as they at last arrived at the foot of the metal gate. It was a massive, impenetrable-looking structure that spanned the entire distance from the ground to the top of the wall and loomed over him like an unmovable giant. The sight of it threatened to rouse the part of Zach’s brain responsible for level-1 thinking, though not for long. He soon reminded himself that nothing was impenetrable. And hell, even if it was, it still wouldn’t matter because if he jumped as high as he could, he’d easily clear the fifty-foot wall and land back down directly inside the mini-city. Yet given that he’d have no clue what kind of situation would be waiting for him, he thought it better to first try going through the gate.

For a moment, he stared up at it in contemplation, but not a few seconds later, he turned his eyes to regard Kalana. “You know, I bet I can just kick it really hard and knock it down—or at the very least punch a hole straight through it.”

Kalana sheathed her daggers then flicked her chin with her index finger a few times as if in thought. “Umm, yeah, that’ll probably work. You could also use your ring-thingy, too.”

“True,” Zach said, nodding. “My blasting ring.”

“Ohh, is that what it’s called?”

“Yup.”

Gesturing with his chin for her and Ruby to take a few steps back, he spread his legs, planted his feet, and prayed he didn’t get sent flying. Raising his arm and making a fist, he pointed the ring directly at the metal gate and prepared to activate it. Yet a mere instant before he unleashed a massive beam almost certainly powerful enough to blast right through the entrance, he shook his head and lowered his arm, unclenching his fist in the process.

“Actually, that’s a bad idea, Kal.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Because we have no idea where the king of the slug can is, and if for some reason he’s standing on the other end of that gate, the beam from my ring will go right through it and probably kill it, and then we’ll fail the quest. The same goes for bashing or kicking the gate in and sending it flying. With my luck, it’ll end up slamming into the king of the slug clan and squishing it.”

Kalana released a nervous chuckle. “Oh, right. Good thinking, baby. You do have really bad luck when it comes to kicking down doors.”

“Don’t even remind me,” Zach grumbled as he recalled that freak, one-in-a-million “incident” in Yorna’s just a few days ago. Kalana had said something that pissed him off, and so in anger, he’d bashed in the door that led from B9 to B10 only to have it ricochet off a wall an entire flight of stairs below them and come right back up before crashing into Zach.

I definitely have bad luck with door-bashing, he thought with a shudder.

“So…what should we do?” Kalana asked. She glanced around as if searching for something. “I dunno if we can open it from this side. The chain-thingy that makes it go up and down is on the other end.”

Zach thought for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers as an idea popped into his head relatively quickly. “I can use my Phase Cannon,” he said. “It’ll probably destroy it without risking too much damage to whatever—or whoever—is inside the city. It’s not completely risk-free, but it’s better than kicking it in or using my ring.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said with a cute smile.

Zach nodded at her, and she returned with a nod of her own. Then he oriented his body so that he once more faced the metal gate. With that, he lifted his arm yet again, though this time, instead of making a fist, he extended his hand with his palm flat and pointing in the direction of the gate. Now, with his target before him, he activated Phase Cannon. Right away, his arm jolted backwards as a deep, ominous boom echoed off the wall and gate in front of him while a muzzle-like flash—only far brighter—briefly flickered in front of his hand.

Given the very short distance between where he stood and the gate he was firing on, almost instantly after the boom came a loud cross between a bang and a ping, one that actually seemed to reverberate and have a louder echo than the initial sound. Following this, a screeching, grating sort of noise briefly rang out as the gate became dislodged from its roundish frame; then, finally, there was another loud, startling bang as it flopped backwards and crashed into the ground, causing a slight sensation of vibration beneath Zach’s two feet. The impact with the ground also caused a screen of dust to rise into the area, obscuring his view of whatever lay beyond, yet it only lasted a few moments and quickly settled. But as it faded, Zach’s eyes detected motion, and now, he could see that several forms were heading their way.

“It looks like we’ve got a bunch of mobs coming,” he said, readying his sword. To his side, he could hear Kalana unsheathe her daggers. “I guess knocking down the gate caused me to aggro whatever was right behind it.”

“Be careful, Zach,” Kalana said in warning. “These ones are higher level.”

“How do you know?”

“I can see them.”

“Through the dust?”

“Mhm. Elvish eyes, remember?”

“Oh yeah, right.”

Due to the dust that’d been kicked up, it took Zach a bit longer than Kalana to see what was heading their way, and when he did, he saw that Kalana was indeed correct—and that these were definitely higher-level mobs. Thus far, everything they had fought in the Avikin Grounds had been between levels 27 and 40 and were not particularly difficult to deal with. Zach didn’t think the pack of mobs sallying out to face them would be too much worse, either, but he decided to be cautious and stay on guard just in case.

As mob after mob emerged from within the city, Zach wasn’t able to tell just yet how many of them were coming at them, but it was definitely more than a dozen. And as the first of them came into view, his eyes were immediately drawn to it. Keenly, he observed the bird-headed, human-bodied mob that was moving directly towards him.

These guys look like they mean business.

HP

95,000/95,000

Name

Avislicer Guardsman A

Level

52

Unlike the other Avislicers he’d fought so far, these ones were taller, bulkier, and had thicker patches of hair on their shoulders along with thicker wings. They also wore armor, too: shiny, glistening armor that cast off the sun’s rays and could actually sting Zach’s eyes if observed from certain angles. They also wielded massive, two-handed greatswords that looked daunting and deadly. There were five of these creatures in total—at least so far that Zach could see—and each one made loud, angry squawks as they stormed their way over to Zach. Oh, and one of them spoke.

“Defend the city!” the leading one cried. “Zachys Caldor, the human, and Kalana Vayra, the Elvish female, and Ruby Vayra, the raptor female, have all come for the slug king. They will not succeed!”

Upon hearing these words, Zach had really hoped it’d be like before where he’d have options of things to say in response that he could pick from, but nope, the bird guy just kept marching his way towards him and Kalana with four others behind him and quite a few more behind those. And though Zach did not require their confirmation—as he had already decided to rely on his own judgement regarding something’s sentience—the fact that Ruby’s name had been mentioned but not his war-mount strongly suggested that Zach was correct about the uh…the hell was it called again? The thing that Ruby was. It was on the tip of his tongue. Oh, for fuck’s sake, the bird thing just said it a second ago. It was something with an “r.” What the hell was she…oh, oh yeah, right! Raptor. It suggested that he was right about the raptor having become self-aware. Zach flicked his eyes in Kalana’s direction to glean if she was thinking the same thing.

She wasn’t. Her mind was on something else entirely.

“Awwh!” she squeaked excitedly. “He called you Ruby Vayra. That means you have my last name. That’s so, so cute. I love you, Ruby.”

“I love you too, mommy Kalana. We’re best friends now.”

Kalana’s cheeks puffed up. “Zach! Zach, look at how adorable and well-behaved Ruby is,” she said, petting the top of her rough, scaly head. Each pat caused the raptor’s tongue to lick the air almost as if it were an automatic reaction to being pet. “Do you see how cute she is?”

“Yeah, so cute,” Zach muttered dryly.

“She’s such a good girl. Maybe she can set a good example for Fluffles.”

“Totally,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Fluffles is just as well-behaved, he thought to himself defiantly and defensively. He is! Kind of. Sometimes. He’s just as good a boy. I don’t care what anybody says. My cat is the best.

With a rush of enemies closing in, Zach shut down the extraneous thoughts and focused his attention on fighting. “Focus up, Kal. We’ve got mobs to fight.” He inhaled. “Wave Slash!”

Several of the mobs were oriented in a line, and Zach saw this as an opportunity to hit a bunch of them. He sliced the air diagonally downwards with his blade, leaving behind a green, patchy, cloud-like clump of energy, which quickly reformed itself into a double-bladed disc that took off in the direction of the rapidly approaching mobs.

Though there wasn’t enough distance for the Wave Slash to reach maximum speed—the point at which it would ignite and shoot flames and likewise deal its maximum damage—it did come close. At the very least, it traveled fast enough to begin giving off its high-pitched whine when it tore a hole directly through the armored chest of the leading Avislicer Guardsman—Avislicer Guardsman A—dealing 32,900 damage and causing a spray of blood to stain the paved entryway along with several feathers that floated slowly to the ground.

Continuing onwards, the Wave Slash struck Guardsman B for 19,211 damage, C for 17,403, and it narrowly missed D—but did manage to cut off a piece of E’s shoulder blade for 11,405 before at last breaking apart midair and fading from existence. The impact also caused all four of the struck mobs to stagger somewhat, putting them outside of the straight line needed to hit them all with a second Wave Slash. Thankfully, their proximity to one another was still close enough for Zach to use his newest ability: Phase Cannon.

Removing his right hand from his blade and throwing his palm forward, he fired his Phase Cannon three times in a row, which gave way to three booms and three flashes. Each Phase Cannon was then accompanied by a chorus of loud squawks as well as a scattering of blood and numerous bundles of feathers and hair. Zach’s primary target, Avislicer Guardsman A, suffered a perfectly even 22,000 damage from the first blast, whereas B took 10,405, C took 11,506, and there was just too much going on for Zach to both see and mentally register what D and E took, though he was sure from the way they flinched, bled, and lost feathers, he’d hit them both as well.

Because of how quickly the second Phase Cannon landed after the first, the damage numbers all seemed to blend together, making it far more difficult for Zach to continue mentally taking stock of which mob took what. He was sure that A was hit for 20,007 and E was hit for 13,210, but the rest was just a blur. The same was true of the third blast, in which Avislicer Guardsman A was punished for another 20,110, and E was like…uh, maybe 12,500 or somewhere abouts. There were too many feathers floating around and blurred numbers for him to be sure.

Now, slowed—but not halted—the five Avislicer Guardsmen quickly recovered and continued their charge, each having been depleted to some extent—especially Avislicer Guardsman A, who had gaping wounds all over his body, which was leaving behind puddles of blood as it hurried forward somewhat unevenly, squawking each step of the way.

HP

20,093/95,000

Name

Avislicer Guardsman

Level

52

Flourishing his blade several times, Zach then slashed it downwards and yelled out, “Phase Slash!”

From the tip of his sword, a visible, rippling distortion in the air made its way with incredible speed towards the badly damaged Avislicer mob, and along with it came the eerily loud, high-pitched sound that was akin to closing a zipper on a jacket, only tremendously louder. In less time than the blink of an eye, the Phase Slash reached Zach’s target, and in way that was similar to what had happened when using it on the roller-skating mobs in Archian Prime, the Avislicer popped upon impact—simply popped, sending steaming, smoking clumps of gore and bone a short distance up into the air before thankfully landing onto the paved entryway to the city without any getting on Zach. A big piece of arm did come close, though; with a thwack, it landed right in front of his feet.

+2050xp

Zach could only imagine how much more the mob would have been worth if it hadn’t been for Kalana, his war-mount, and Ruby. Since all three were higher level than both Zach and the mobs they were fighting, the xp penalty was pretty steep. Even still, it was better than nothing, and Zach had plenty of time left on Unleashed Phase to quickly earn himself some more: over an hour, in fact.

Unleashed Phase Duration

1:07:05 Remaining

Grinning, Zach eyed Avislicer Guardsman B. This one was also pretty banged up, though not quite to the extent A had been, which was to be expected since it hadn’t been the primary target of any of the attacks. Nevertheless, Zach didn’t think he’d have too much of an issue putting a quick end to the creature.

HP

54,384/95,000

Name

Avislicer Guardsman

Level

52

Swinging his sword, raising it, and then swinging it a second time, Zach threw out another two rapid Phase Slashes, both of them aimed at Avislicer Guardsman B. The first one caused its entire upper torso to detonate and rip open, revealing bones, a heart, and its ribcage while dealing 39,310, and the second hit for 36, 207 and resulted in the “pop,” which Zach was beginning to realize happened whenever his Phase Slash struck the killing blow on a mob for significantly more HP than it had left to give. He saw the +2050xp pop up into the air as the mob’s superheated, sizzling, and smoking insides splattered randomly down in all directions.

With so much time to work with, Zach let loose a chain of abilities with a seamless rapidity that he never would’ve imagined doing before today. With no concern for time, he sent another Wave Slash hurtling forward, followed by two more uses of Phase Cannon, and then a couple of Phase Slashes to clean up. By the time he was done, all but Avislicer Guardsman E had perished, and this one did actually manage to make it to Zach, albeit in awful shape. The creature’s armor was mostly gone—having been blown off—and it was bloodied in more places than Zach could count. It was also down to less than 8,000HP.

With a squawk, it raised both its arms and whirled its blade with tremendous force down on Zach. Given that this was a creature in its 50s, Zach was not willing to take any chances. With careful precision, and using all of his strength, he swung his sword from right to left, striking his enemy’s greatsword and succeeding in knocking it away. Then he swung in the opposite direction—left to right—and ripped his blade across the mob’s chest, dealing 17,903 damage and eliminating it.

+2,050xp

As it vanished from the world, Zach again flourished his sword. The first five out of the gate were dead, and many more were approaching: a far more significant number of them, in fact. Too many for him to bother stopping to count. Thankfully, he was not alone. Ruby and his Kralzek’s Beast both darted forward into battle, and so too did Kalana. Zach began to charge in with them, but he stopped as Kalana called out to him in warning.

“No! We’ve got the Guardsmen mobs covered,” she said. “You gotta go after the sorcerers and the healers!”

“The what?”

She pointed with her dagger. Just beyond the gate, Zach saw that several small groupings of mobs were hanging back and not coming any closer. Both looked very similar: they were stubby, far shorter than the Guardsman, wore robes, and all were carrying a staff. But there was one difference to behold: some of these mobs had long, human-like beards hanging down from their beaks, whereas others didn’t. Aside from that, it was difficult to tell them apart other than looking at their name, level, and HP, which were decidedly different. The ones with the beards were sorcerers, which Zach assumed meant they’d fight like mages, and the ones without them were healers.

I had no idea mobs could heal other mobs.

HP

55,000/55,000

Name

Avislicer Sorcerer

Level

55

HP

35,000/35,000

Name

Avislicer Cleric

Level

50

“Are you sure you’ll be okay, Kal?” he asked.

“I will. Promise!”

“I will protect mommy Kalana,” Ruby assured him.

He smiled at her, and it wasn’t forced. Then he used Phase Blink to quickly move beyond the rush of greatsword-wielding, Avian warriors that were gunning for Kalana, Ruby, and his war-mount. Now, following the sensation of the world shifting, he found himself behind all of them and directly in front of a loudly squawking, staff-wielding Avislicer, whose staff began to glow a bright fiery orange as though it were casting something.

“Oh no you don’t!” Zach shouted. He had no idea what the creature was doing, but he was not going to simply stand by and let it happen. Lashing out with his blade, he was pleased to discover that, despite being a level-55 mob, the Avislicer Sorcerer took far more damage from his blade than he would have expected, proving itself to be weak to melee attacks. Even with 55,000HP, it only took two strikes of Zach’s blade to put an end to the mob, the first hitting for 43,700 and the second hitting for 40,107.

+2500xp

The same was true about the angrily squawking sorcerer beside it. Much like its friend, its staff began to shine a fiery orange, and Zach took it down in two quick strikes—or at least, he should have. But after his first strike nearly decapitated the robe-wearing, bipedal avian, its body began to light up and give off little blue sparkling lights, and its HP miraculously rose back to full. It was only after paying attention to his peripheral vision that Zach saw one of the healers off to his right casting a spell on it.

With an even greater speed, Zach struck out twice more, landing each hit fast enough so that he killed the sorcerer before it could be healed, the first ripping open its throat and the second carving a crater into its chest. It also caused a return of the green aura as his stamina buff proc’d, helping him to regain some of the considerable time he’d spent just in the past few moments; still, he had just shy of an hour left on his duration.

“This shouldn’t be too hard,” he whispered to himself. “I’ve been in tough spots before. This isn’t one of them. All I need to do is—wait a minute, is that…? Oh, shit. It is!”

Zach’s thoughts took a sudden, immediate turn as he spotted something ahead of him. For the first time, he was able to really take a look at the walled-in city, and it was so breathtakingly incredible. He just couldn’t believe that this was real. There were several streets with “homes” lining both sides, and all along these streets as well as in front of each home—and likely inside—were mobs. There were mobs everywhere. There were carts and wagons riding up and down the streets, and there were a few open spaces that had large concentrations of them just standing around and sort of…well, “existing.”

Many of these mobs had likely been standing in one spot and doing nothing for thousands of years. And the ones casually walking up and down the streets had likely been pacing back and forth for just as long. Just waiting: for thousands of years. Waiting for someone to come into this surreal mini-city and fight them. Unfortunately, they’d be waiting a bit longer—or maybe forever—because the idea of fighting his way through this walled-in den of Avislicers was not one he could entertain. This place was jam-packed with so many mobs he actually became intimidated at the idea of what would happen if they all aggroed him at once. Despite having just gotten here, he was more than ready to leave.

And then he saw it.

In the center of the city just at the end of a two-way street lined with primitive, cabin-like homes on both sides, and tied to a chair large enough to seat ten normal-sized people, Zach spotted a tremendous, neon-blue-colored, crown-wearing slug creature with a name above his head that was visible even from this distance written in bold green lettering.

HP

??/??

Name

Rup-Rup, the King of the Slug Clan

Level

85

Even as Zach was casually flicking his wrist and decapitating a healer with his sword, which earned him +1500xp, he widened his eyes at the sight of slug king. Finally, he found the guy. Though, all things considered, he—or it—was really hard to miss. Like the “peons” that Zach had fought with Kalana, the “slug” king looked more humanoid than slug. Though it had two long antennae attached to the top of its vaguely slug-like face, and though it peered out at the world from behind two big orange dots that passed for eyes, the slug king had hands, feet, and a torso. It was actually kind of like the Avislicer mobs in that regard; though, in all honesty, the Avislicer mobs did look more bird than the slug king looked slug. If nothing else, it did give off a constant dripping of slime.

By far, however, the slug king’s most noticeable feature was its size. Ten people combined would still be smaller than the massive, neon-blue NPC that they had been searching for. Gods, it was huge. But even more important than its size was its distance. A nervous pinch worked its way into Zach’s stomach as he stared in awe at the sheer number of various Avislicer mobs that separated where he currently stood with where he’d need to go in order to reach the slug king.

Ducking down to his knees, a spinning, rotating disc made of an eerily reddish fire sailed over his head. Jumping back up, Zach spun around and swung his sword in a circular arc, cutting the entire head off the sorcerer that had fired it before lunging towards another.

This is bad, he thought. I don’t think we can do this.

As Zach craned his neck and took in his immediate surroundings, he became confused: very much so. Something wasn’t quite adding up.

Right now, Kalana, Ruby, and his war-mount were doing just fine: better than fine, actually. The three were making steady progress killing off the remaining few mobs that had charged out of the gate, and at their current pace, they’d be entering the city shortly. Even still, it was not nearly good enough.

Already, Zach could see mobs respawning from the direction of the gravel-covered road behind them, and he could hear an alarm being activated from a nearby village—which meant even more mobs were heading to Kalana. Naturally, she’d have to deal with them. But by the time she did that, some of the ones Zach had killed would probably have respawned. And assuming she killed all of those, they’d have to then begin an incredibly slow and difficult journey towards the slug king, who was only a few blocks away but may as well have been a few-hundred miles away for all that it mattered.

This can’t be right, he thought.

The sheer, unfathomable number of mobs that they would have to deal with to get to their quest NPC was such that Zach was forced to conclude the task was well and truly impossible. Despite the quest recommending just three to five adventurers between levels 45 and 50, Zach estimated that fighting their way through would require something closer to fifteen or maybe even twenty. There were just that many of them.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

In fact, even now, as he fought to take down more of the healers before they could aid their fellow Avislicers, in the corner of his eyes, Zach spotted nine Avislicer Guardsmen exiting a medium-sized hut not far from the two-way street that led to the king of the slug clan. All nine turned and charged in Zach’s direction. He had no idea whatsoever how he’d aggroed them, but clearly, he had.

This is actually impossible, he thought.

Unless he was missing something here—and he didn’t think he was—then even with the help of Ruby and his war-mount, the best he and Kal could hope for would be to fight to a constant standstill right by the entrance to the city, never making any progress forward but managing to avoid being pushed back. Given the fairly expedient respawn rate of the Avislicers, there was no chance in hell that they could actually push through.

And even if they did, what then? How were they even supposed to save the king? Were they supposed to untie him and then slowly lead him out while fighting their way back through everything which would have respawned by that point?

Why would the quest say 3-5 members? Zach wondered, becoming agitated and frustrated at the same time. It’s clearly impossible. There’s just no way.

Backing away slightly, Zach chewed on his lip as he tried to make sense of things. Then the first of the Avislicer Guardsman mobs reached him, and from the way its two-handed greatsword caused the air to whine as it cut straight downwards through it, Zach didn’t even bother to risk blocking. He instead leapt backwards and out of harm’s way.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw that, as predicted, the first 5 Avislicer Guardsman mobs he’d killed had now respawned, forcing Kalana, Ruby, and the war-mount to deal with them. They hadn’t even entered the city yet. From the look of disappointment on Kal’s face, Zach could tell that she, too, was realizing that this was a task that they simply did not have the numbers for.

So was the quest lying? Or mistaken?

Assuming it wasn’t, then what the hell were they expected to do here? With absolute certainty, fighting their way to the slug king was something he could rule out. Not with hundreds of mobs in the 50s to beat their way through. So what did that leave? Sneaking? Sure, he could turn invisible or Phase Blink his way there, but given the size of the mob, what would it matter? If he tried to carry that huge mob out he’d just end up getting stabbed over and over while his arms were wrapped around it.

He could potentially use Boundless and Phase Rescue, and in fact, with the gate knocked down, that would actually not be a terrible idea since the only requirement for Boundless was that he could physically see whatever he was targeting. Done that way, he could easily bring the king of the slug clan straight to him from a much safer position. But that just didn’t feel right. Not because he thought of it as “cheating” or whatever, but because the quest couldn’t possibly have intended for that to be the solution. For all he knew, the quest might not even “work” properly unless he physically moved to the king’s location. How could he be sure the king would even follow him and not stand around like a statue if he used Phase Rescue?

These, along with numerous other questions, plagued his mind and made him feel uncertain. Put simply, it just wasn’t clear what, specifically, they were meant to do. In fact, the only thing that was clear was what they could not do, and in that case, it was any attempt at fighting their way to the king and back. It was out of the question. But then…if fighting could be ruled out, what did that leave them as far as their options were concerned?

Maybe we have to try talking to these things again, he thought. It’s at least worth a shot now that we know it’s something that can actually matter and lead to things happening.

Scrambling back and away from the nine greatsword-wielding, armor-wearing bird-men, all of which were gunning straight for him, Zach sucked air into his lungs and then opened his mouth. As loudly as he could, he shouted, “Hand over the king of the slug clan!”

Zach waited a moment—and nothing happened. Then he waited another moment, but still, there was no discernible change around him. Finally, realizing that nothing was going to happen, he swore viciously at the mobs. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t react to that either. But Kalana, on the other hand, did. At the moment, she was still just outside the toppled gate, which was close enough to Zach’s position so as to be within earshot. And having clearly overheard what Zach had just attempted to do, she now seemed like she wanted to give it a try of her own.

“Give us the king of the slug clan, you mean birds!” she shouted. Like Zach, her words were clearly intended for no specific mob and were instead meant for the general area around her. “We want the king of the slug clan!”

“Give us that,” Ruby chirped in agreement. “Give us the thing mommy Kalana says she wants!”

Following this, a few seconds came and went before Zach felt comfortable concluding that their attempts had also failed. As he continued to think on the problem, he dashed backwards to evade a strike from the massive sword of the mob in front of him, which slammed into the pavement with such force that a piece of stone actually got kicked up and bopped him painlessly on the side of his head.

“Did you hear us?” Zach shouted, ignoring it and trying yet again. “We’re here for the king of the…”

Zach ended his words with a sigh, and he shook his head rather than finish his sentence. This was because he realized he was only wasting his time, energy and breath. Why even bother? They’d just tried that and it didn’t work. All he’d end up doing would be yelling and making himself desperate as he shouted the same thing at a bunch of lifeless mobs over and over again. So instead, he tried a different, but similar course of action.

“Hand over the king of the slug clan, or I’ll kill you all!” he threatened. He held his breath and waited for a reply, but still there was no reaction from any of the mobs. Nothing at all. Annoyed, he cursed in frustration as he guarded against a greatsword attack that was so powerful it caused his arms and wrists to ache with the shock of absorbing it. “Give us the king of the slug clan and uh…I’ll give you a rare item.”

When that also didn’t work, he licked his lips and thought of something else he could try saying; before he had the chance, however, Kalana beat him to it. “Umm, please give us the king of the slug clan and we’ll be your friend,” he heard her say from behind him.

Nothing.

“Give us the king of the slug clan and we’ll give you gold,” Zach half-shouted, half spoke.

Nothing.

Kalana grunted with what sounded like combat-related exertion then called out, “Give us the king of the slug clan and we won’t hurt anybody.”

Nothing.

Zach thought for a second before trying again as he and Kal settled into a pattern of taking turns trying whatever they could come up with. “If you give us the…” Zach cut himself off mid-sentence and reworded his statement into a question. Loudly, he said, “What do you want in exchange for the king of the slug clan? Can we trade you something for the king?”

In truth, Zach genuinely did not believe that was going to work either, and indeed, like all the attempts before, he concluded after just a second or two that this attempt had also failed. Yet as Kalana began to voice another question of her own, the Avislicer Guardsman in front of Zach made a strange movement. Rather than press forward, the mob, whose greatsword was held high and was about to be slammed down on top of Zach, decided to take a full step backwards before lowering the weapon. And as it did so, the entire city abruptly became quiet. All at once, the noise from everything around him dropped off so suddenly that it was actually startling.

In unison, the sorcerers and healers stopped casting, the nine mobs that’d been pressing Zach came to a halt, and looking over his shoulder again, he saw that every one of them that’d been attacking Kal now stood down. His war-mount had also stopped attacking—even without his command to do so—but Ruby, on the other hand, made as if to bite a now stationary Avislicer Guardsman. She stopped only as Kal gave her a gentle but firm pat on the top of her head as if to indicate that she should pause.

Now, all three of them came hurrying over to Zach. He watched as they waded right through the mobs in front of them, which made no attempt to bar their passage. They remained perfectly frozen in some kind of inactive state. “Is it happening?” she asked, excitement in her voice and a smile on her face. “Did we…did we do it again?”

“I think so, Kal.”

She sheathed her daggers, he sheathed his sword, and then she wrapped her arms around his waist and briefly pulled him into a hug. “How did you know that would work?”

“I didn’t, but I kept trying it anyway because there’s no way this quest can be done with just three to five people: not if it requires fighting our way in and out. I figured there had to be some other way we were supposed to do this, and after the first couple of things didn’t work, I knew we still had to cross everything off the list before we concluded that speaking to them wouldn’t work either. That was why I—”

“So, you have come to barter with us!” interrupted an Avislicer sorcerer, which caused both Zach and Kalana to snap their heads in the direction of its voice. He watched as it exited one of the small wooden homes located along the two-way street about halfway to the king of the slug clan. It looked indistinguishable from any of the others, and it made a loud, angry squawking sound and flapped its wings in place before walking closer to where Zach stood next to Kalana, Ruby, and his war-mount.

“That is a bold move after all of our blood that you’ve spilled, Zachys Calador, the human male!”

Zach laughed. But on the inside, he was actually offended. For real. Something about the accusation rubbed him the wrong way and made him feel as if the blood in his face was draining away. Still, he got over it quickly and said, “And I’ll spill a lot more of it if you don’t give us what we want.” His words caused Kalana to glare at him. “What?” he said defensively, curling his lower-right lip. “It doesn’t matter what we say. You know that.”

“Nah-uh. It might. Don’t go accidentally getting us into trouble, you dork.”

“I’m not.”

“You better not.”

Taking her gaze off Zach, a look of wonder came across her eyes as she, along with Zach, watched the Avislicer Sorcerer draw nearer. It paused when it was only a few feet from the two of them.

“Frrragh! Why should we listen to anything you have to say?”

Zach excitedly waited for the list of possible replies to pop up, eager to see if he could scam these stupid birds out of another rare item. Yet, when nothing happened, he exchanged a confused look with Kalana as the two remained silent for nearly ten more seconds. Just as he was about to wonder aloud if something had gone wrong, the Avislicer continued to speak.

“Tell us why we should barter instead of killing you where you stand. Frrragh!”

And now, upon these words, they were finally given a chance to choose a response. Appearing out of thin air slightly ahead and above them, Zach was presented with a list of options to choose from, and with limited time to make a choice, he immediately began reading them over.

A: “Because there must be something in this world that will make you set aside your five-thousand-year-long war with the slug clan. Wouldn’t it be great to finally end the bloodshed?”

B: “Let us settle this with honor, then. Summon your strongest warrior and allow us to battle it!” [Teleport to Avislicer Arena]

C: “You’re right. We shouldn’t barter, and this isn’t a negotiation. Now, hand over a legendary item, 100,000 gold, and the king of the slug clan or mark my words: I shall slay every single one of you!” [50% chance of success. Failure = T2 (75%) or T3 (25%) consequence]

Time Remaining to Decide: 2:50

Almost at the exact same time that Zach finished reading, Kalana flashed him a look of dire warning, and before she said a word, Zach was already extending both his palms in her direction. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t worry, Kal. I’m not going with option C. Even I know that’s too risky.”

As tempting as a legendary item and 100k gold might have been, now that Zach knew what could possibly happen in the event of a T2 or T3 consequence, he was firmly against the idea of rolling the dice on it. Not even a 50% chance of success was high enough for him to risk him or Kal being sent to a “dungeon” for up to fifty years or having their body parts mutilated. No way. Not for just a 50% chance of success. Now, if it had been more like, say, 75% or higher…

As he chuckled at the thought, Kalana’s skepticism deepened, and he waved at her. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Option C is definitely out of the question, I promise. I know it’s either got to be A or B.”

“It should be the first one,” Kalana said. “We should choose A.”

“Think so?”

She gave a quick bow of her head. “Yeah, ‘cause we have no idea what kind of thing we might be forced to fight if we choose B.”

“Yeah, but B seems like a way cooler option. Just think, Kal. We’ll be teleported to an arena. Maybe there’ll be thousands of mobs in seats watching us fight. It could be awesome.”

“I guess so, but Zach, it could also be death, too.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I think we should do A. If you really wanna try B, I guess I’m okay with it, but umm, definitely not C.”

“Fine, we’ll go with choice A.”

At this, her eyes seemed to light up. “Can I do it, baby?”

Zach again chuckled, but this time it was because he found her cute. “Go ahead.”

She made a giddy sound and stepped forward to tap her finger against the first selection. Then the choices screen vanished, her hands moved down to her sides, her body posture became more rigid, and with an impassioned, overly dramatic tone of voice, she said, “Because! There must be something in this world that will make you set aside your five-thousand-year-long war with the slug clan.”

Kalana stopped speaking and took several steps forward. She extended her hand and placed it on the Avislicer Sorcerer’s feathery shoulder. And honest to God, no bullshit: she actually shed several tears out of both of her eyes as she gritted her teeth a moment before saying, “Wouldn’t it be great? To finally end this bloodshed!”

The moment she finished speaking, she wiped her eyes, turned to Zach, and began to laugh uproariously, and so did he. “Holy shit,” he said. “I can’t believe what I just saw.”

“I can’t believe what I just did!”

“Were you actually sad, Kal?”

“Nope. I wasn’t even sure until just now I was crying. I just felt water in my eyes.”

Ruby made a moan and a grunt, causing both him and Kalana to look at the creature. “Is Mommy Kalana okay?”

“Ohhh, no, no, everything’s fine,” Kalana said, hurrying towards the raptor and kissing its nose. “I’m sorry if I scared you, Ruby. That’s supposed to happen. It’s how the quest works.”

The Avislicer Sorcerer shifted slightly so that it stood with a somewhat looser posture. Then its beak opened as it began to speak. “It’s not that we don’t want peace. It’s that the crimes of the slug clan’s ancestors still haunt us to this day.” Having spoken those words, it closed its mouth, felt silent, and did little for the moment but stare vacantly into the distance.

Kalana tapped Zach on the shoulder, and he turned to look at her. “I wonder what the slug clan did,” she whispered to him. Zach had to stifle a chuckle at the realization that Kalana was actually “getting into” this dumb storyline, which was clearly fictitious and not based on any real historical events. “What do you think they did, Zach?”

“I’ll tell you what they did!” the Avislicer shouted, abruptly becoming animated and causing Ruby to chirp in what Zach took as a sign of surprise. It then spread its wings, squawking loudly. “Frrragh! They robbed our people of our treasure and our lives. For centuries, the Avislicers were slaves to the slug clan. That is what they did!”

Once more, the mob stopped speaking. Zach and Kalana exchanged a brief glance. Then Kalana’s expression lit up. “It…it just answered my question,” she said, sounding shocked. “I thought it couldn’t understand anything we said. That was so cool!”

“It didn’t actually answer your question,” Zach said, feeling bad for putting an end to her awe and excitement. She scrunched her lips at him.

“What do you mean? You saw what just happened.”

Zach nodded. “Yeah, and I would’ve thought the same as you if I didn’t already know better. But the truth is that even if you’d said nothing at all, it still would’ve replied with the exact same words in the exact same way. It only said what it said based on the assumption that anyone standing where we’re standing would be likely to say we—or in this case, you—said.”

“And how do you know that?” Kalana asked, looking plainly unconvinced. Zach was more than happy to explain.

“The only reason I know this is because I learned it in Yorna during my fight with Moldark. Basically, some mobs or bosses or whatever go on these long-winded speeches, and then they pause in a way that seems really awkward until you realize why they do it. Basically, it’s to let adventurers, like, ‘participate’ in the story or whatever. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s weird. But it’s almost like they expect you to shout out responses or, I don’t know, ‘roleplay’ or something like that, which is just way too cheesy for me.”

“That sounds so fun!” Kalana said giddily and enthusiastically. “I didn’t know that.”

“I didn’t either until Moldark. He kept pausing each time he spoke about—”

Zach closed his mouth and let his words fall off as the Avislicer Sorcerer chose that exact moment to continue speaking. “Yes. I know it’s awful what they did to us. I don’t need you to tell me that. Frrragh!”

“See?” Zach asked with a smirk, extending his hand at the creature. Kalana’s only reply was to give him a playful smack on his butt.

Now, the two of them waited around for the Avislicer Sorcerer to continue speaking, though they did not wait very long. Just a handful of seconds passed, and the creature again flapped its wings. “Very well. There is perhaps one thing you can do to end this war and free the king of the slug clan, but it will not be so simple a task.”

A: “Name it and it shall be done.”

B: “On second thought, I’ve decided I feel like killing everyone and looting your corpses. Time for genocide! Prepare to die!” [Attack]

C: “Too much effort.” [Quest Failed]

Time Remaining to Decide: 0:45

“Not much to discuss on this one, yeah?” Zach asked.

“Mhm, this one seems pretty obvious.”

Not even needing five seconds of the time they’d been given to choose, Zach tapped the first option with his index finger, causing the options to fade away as he said, “Name it and it shall be done. Wow, no dramatic speech for me, huh?”

Kalana giggled. “Don’t pretend you wanted that.”

He shrugged. “I wanted to do it in the name of irony, Kal.”

“Maybe next time.”

Having made their selection, it was here that things started to become very, very strange as a spectacular series of events unfolded: one that happened fast and caused no shortage of confusion and amazement in equal measure. And it all began with a squawk as the creature came even closer to them.

Now, lifting its beak somewhat, the Avislicer Sorcerer said, “We of the Avislicers require the Eye of the Ohorja. It is the only thing that will convince me and my brothers to free the king and return him to you. Until you retrieve it, the king will be kept here—unharmed. But! As a gesture of good faith, you may feel free to reside here as a guest, and you may come and go as you please. You may also make use of our inn, our blacksmith, and our town’s item and weapon shops. Good luck, adventurers!”

FACTION INFORMATION AND STATUS UNLOCKED

Faction Added

Avislicers (Town Only)

Faction Status

Friendly

Without rhyme, reason, or explanation, so much happened all at once that Zach thought he’d become dizzy. From the moment the mob had finished speaking, the name of every single Avislicer inside this city—or “town,” whatever—turned green as if to symbolize that they were “friendly.” From a peek behind him, he saw that this didn’t appear to be true of any of those outside of the walls, such as all of the ones they’d had to fight through to get here. But wait. Did that then mean that all of the Avislicers within these walls would no longer attack or aggro onto them? That they could walk right up to the creatures without fear? It sure seemed to be the case—as difficult as it was to believe. Yet before Zach could even begin to process the significance of this, even more stuff started happening.

All around the mini-city or “town” or whatever the hell this place was, several Avislicers located in seemingly random locations now had shimmering, golden exclamation points floating above their heads. Zach had never seen anything like it before. And in fact, the king of the slug clan also had a floating, golden exclamation point above his head. What was that all about? And why did the “Avislicer Blacksmith” now have a giant, cartoonish illustration of a hammer and anvil above his head? This was just so Gods-be-damned confusing.

Yet before Zach could dedicate even a single brain cell to understanding what he was seeing, a musical, joyful, and celebratory jingle played for just a few seconds, coming out of nowhere and startling him. It seemed to have an echo to it as well, and it took Zach a moment to realize that this was because he was hearing it twice at the same time: one from the spot in front of his face, and one from where Kalana stood next to him.

“Da-da-da-duuum!”

The upbeat little jingle ended, and it was soon followed by a screen of information that materialized in the air.

QUEST COMPLETE! The King of the Slug Clan

Reward: +21,200xp, 8000g, 2x Red Rejuvenation Stone, 1x Yellow Rejuvenation Stone

For once, the utter, all-consuming confusion he felt was also on Kalana’s face; her mouth had popped wide open in what Zach took to be stunned surprise. Then Zach guffawed in both shock and glee as he realized that both he and Kalana had each gotten their own rewards. “Wait, time out. We don’t have to share the rewards?” he asked as three beautiful gemstones and a satchel filled with coins came into existence and landed softly onto the paved ground just as the same took place before Kalana.

“I…I guess not!” Kalana replied, sounding just as joyful. Then she poked him in the chest. “But you’re still giving me those stones to help heal the people in Den of Ziragoth.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I’m keeping the coins.”

She gave him a peck on the cheek. “Fine.”

Putting aside the loss of his beautiful stones—that could’ve made him filthy rich—he opened his mouth slightly as he attempted to word one of a series of questions, all of which he was sure was on Kalana’s mind, too: namely, what in the hell was going on here, why the hell was it going on, and most importantly, what did all of it mean? But he didn’t get a chance to ask it, as two more things happened, one followed by the next.

LEVEL UP!

23(22)

Intelligence

+20(167)

Dexterity

+10(124)

XP Required for Level 24

265,000

Kalana made what Zach could only describe as an “incomplete” gasp. She started to gasp, but then she quickly covered her mouth to stop herself. And though it was only there for a brief moment, Zach knew he did not mistake the flash of fear and uncertainty in her eyes that she wiped away so quickly he almost didn’t see it. Yet he chose not to dwell on it because, truthfully, his level up made him a little nervous, too. But only a little.

Reverting somewhat to the way he’d been feeling before the incident with Doomsday Slash, Zach was slowly coming to crave the power more than he feared it. But most of all, he was glad to finally have one of the “good” level ups. Though very slight, he could feel the increased hand-eye coordination from his +10 to dexterity, but only just barely, as it was relative to his current stats. And since the “Intelligence” stat did not refer to literal intelligence, he naturally felt no smarter than he did before. Yet he knew his Phase Cannon and blasting ring would now be moderately more powerful when used, and his Phase Slash would get a small boost as well.

“I was hoping for some more points into strength and constitution,” he said. Then he shrugged. “But this is still a pretty good level up.”

“Zach,” Kalana said. “That’s…that’s beyond ‘good.’ I can’t believe you can get that many points into anything on just one level up. I just hope you remember to—”

She gave up on whatever she’d been about to say as even more information popped into existence in front of the both of them.

Quest

Eye of Ohorja

Given By

Avislicer Sorcerer

Recommended Level

45-60

Recommended Raid Size

30+

Description

(Galterra-Wide): Congratulations to Zachys Calador, Kalana Vayra, and Ruby Vayra for discovering an event chain and unlocking the portal to Ohorja. Adventurers may now participate in the Ohorja Raid Event by speaking with Avislicer Mystic Saliquar in the Whispery Woods region and completing his quest to activate the portal.

Please note: to tamp down on excessive disturbances, Galterra-Wide Events can now only be triggered once every 7 days and remain active until the next update unless event conditions state otherwise. Likewise, unless stated, you are not required to have completed earlier quests in the chain to participate and continue on with the quests in this event chain.

It has been: 196504 days since the last update.

It has been: 356484 days since the last event.

Reward:

Eye of Ohorja, 1x Light Stone, Happy Monkey Companion

Quest Expires In

N/A

Zach felt like he needed to sit down. So much was happening around him, and he was so confused yet so stunned—and even a bit unsettled. And this only became more so the case as his phone began to ring while text messages and other notifications began flooding in. It started off slowly, yet it only took around thirty seconds before his phone began to freeze from the utter deluge of people all trying to contact him right this moment for some reason. At the exact same time, Kalana’s phone also began to ring and receive an influx of messages.

“The hell does everyone want all of a sudden?” Zach asked, ignoring it. It was probably political guild nonsense. He wanted no part of that.

Standing there with Kalana, he reread the quest a second time while trying to process the sheer magnitude of what was happening around him. He decided to just pause for a moment to slow down his thoughts and observe the town, which he was still not fully convinced was safe; actually, he really wanted to test that to be sure. And so, cautiously, he approached one of the greatsword-wielding Avislicer Guardsman mobs—in fact, one of the exact ones that had tried to kill him only moments ago—that was standing with its back to the western side of a primitive-looking cabin nearby.

“Hail, adventurer,” it said as Zach approached. It made no other moves and spoke no other words—at least not until Kalana walked over to Zach, at which point it once again said, “Hail, adventurer.” Aside from that, it stared vacantly out into the distance, completely unmoving.

“This is so crazy,” Zach said.

“I know, right? But it’s exciting, too.”

For several minutes, his phone continued to buzz and ring in his pocket, and now, even with all the questions burning a hole in his brain, Zach had a very bad feeling growing in the pit of his belly. For his and Kalana’s phones to be going nuts like this, something very serious must have happened. Maybe he should stop ignoring it. As he glanced down to see who was contacting him, he became even more nervous, and he knew right away that he would need to answer. With an uneasy look towards Kalana, he answered the call, put the caller on speaker, and then winced in anticipation of what he was about to hear.

“Mr. Oren,” he began. “Is everything all—”

“Zach!” Mr. Oren exclaimed. “Did…did you and Kalana just do something quest-related?”

“Yeah, but…wait, you know about that?” he asked with a gasp, confused.

“Yes, Zach! Everyone on the entire planet ‘knows’ about that, as every living being on Galterra just received the same quest. There’s mass panic going on right now all across the world. People are scared and confused, and we’re likely now in a state of global emergency. Every world leader across all races is now going to have to react to this and calm their people.”

As Zach stared at Kalana, he might as well have been looking into a mirror, because he knew that everything he was feeling was perfectly reflected on her face. In her visage, he saw the disbelief, bafflement, and shock that he too was feeling. He tensed up, struggling to believe what he was hearing even as he replied to it. And when he did, he spoke with a weaker voice than he intended, suddenly feeling a bit ill.

“Why?” he asked.

It was not the word he intended to speak. Really, he surprised his own self by asking this in the face of several other possible questions. And yet, of all things, his primary source of confusion was not about the nature of what had taken place, but rather, it was of the way that Mr. Oren claimed people were reacting to it.

“Why?” he asked again. “I don’t get it. It’s just a quest notification. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Not to you, my man. But to an elementary school teacher, a construction worker, or anyone else going about their daily lives, it’s a moment of confusion and terror, and people now need to be given answers. And with war breaking out, this is really not a good time for something like this to have happened.”

Blowing the air out of his lungs as it all seemed to hit him at once, Zach said, “Well, I didn’t do it on purpose, Mr. Oren. I swear to the Gods.”

“It’s true!” Kalana exclaimed, speaking up from where she stood next to him. “How were we supposed to know this was gonna happen?”

“You couldn’t,” Mr. Oren said. “Please don’t think I’m implying you’ve done something wrong. I for one did not know something like this could happen either or I would’ve warned you against it. So, to be perfectly clear, I don’t blame either of you, and I’m absolutely not upset. But this is a very, very, very serious issue even if it seems nonsensical to you. Right now, there are massive, worldwide disruptions taking place, and let’s just pray to the Gods there haven’t been any major DEHV or airplane accidents due to vision obstruction. Fortunately, the quest seemed to come in slightly above and partially outside of the peripheral vision of someone looking straight ahead, so my first instinct is to think that no one was blinded by it. Wait, hold on. Donovan’s calling. I’m conferencing him in.”

A moment later, Donovan’s voice bellowed over the speakers. “Zach, you amazing son of a bitch! The GSG’s losing their fuckin’ minds over here right now, kiddo. Gods, just when I thought I couldn’t love you any more than I already do, you go off and spawn a Gods-cursed world event you beautiful little bastard, you!”

“Donovan,” Mr. Oren said sternly, sounding both frustrated and annoyed. “That is absolutely not the takeaway that we should be—”

“Oh, shove it up your ass, Alex. I’m talking to the kid, not you. Hey, Zach, can you hear me?””

“Y-yeah,” he stammered nervously.

“Zephyr was with me when that quest popped up. Don’t you worry. We’re gonna find out how to unlock that portal, and I just wanna let you know, kiddo, you’ve got a guaranteed slot in reserve on the raid when we do. You’ll be with me in the very first raid group to take it down. No way anyone’s denying you that honor. The both of you will. When you get a chance, the Explorers Brigade wants to know everything that happened to unlock this. Oh, and don’t worry about the queen, Kalana. Your mom’s a nice girl deep down. She’ll get over it.”

“Get…over it?” Kalana asked. Now, she sounded nervous. And confused. They were both so confused—and nervous. And worried. Zach held her hand with the one opposite that which he was using to hold the phone, and he gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“What do you mean by that?” Kalana asked.

Rather than immediately reply, Donovan first let out a long, drawn-out, annoyed-sounding sigh. “Yeah, well…we just found out some bird fucker’s spawned right in the middle of the Bridge of Torment in Whispery Woods, and it’s caused a complete traffic standstill.”

“That’s a gross understatement of what’s happening,” Mr. Oren cut in. “The entire city of Whispery Woods is essentially shut down on the very first week of her mother’s new administration. Luckily, no one was harmed and the new Elvish authorities are rushing in to cordon off the bridge to prevent anyone from crashing into—and possibly aggroing—the quest NPC.”

At a whisper, Kalana said, “Uh oh. My mom’s calling me. And she’s sent me like five texts just now. She’s really, really mad, Zach.”

Zach rubbed his eyes, his hands still giving off impossibly black smoke. “Okay, look. She can’t blame us for this. And if she does, don’t forget she killed me and we can use guilt as a weapon against her if we have to.”

“Stop. That’s not funny.”

“I’m not kidding.”

“That’s totally inappropriate,” Mr. Oren said. “Absolutely not okay, Zach, either as a joke or otherwise.” He grumbled something that almost sounded like profanity but probably wasn’t. “Look, I have to go. I’m about to enter a zone of war, and now I have to deal with this on top of everything else. People are terrified and don’t understand what’s happening.”

The phone call ended before Zach could say another word. And now it was Kalana who put her phone on speaker. “Where are you two?” Fylwen’s irate voice blared through the speakers. “Do either of you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Mom, it wasn’t our fault. How were we supposed to know that—”

“You just shut down our entire economy, caused a level of panic greater than the dragon, and spawned a level-270…bird creature that’s walking around our most vital roadway and giving random level-1 humans quests. Kalana, I know this wasn’t intentional, and I know you didn’t mean for this to happen, but for the immediate future, if you and Zach wish to adventure outside of a dungeon, you’ll do so only on Archian Prime. You simply cannot gamble with the lives of billions by playing with ancient forces that no one has understood for nearly a thousand years.”

“All we did was a quest!” Kalana shouted, heat in her voice.

Somewhat more softly, her mother said, “I know, Kalana. I understand. If we’d had more time to talk, I could have told you from my experiences on Archian Prime that in the world of leveling—or what you call ‘adventuring’—there are unpredictable oddities and unforeseen consequences that can happen on occasion. Yet that is of no concern to us now. For the moment, you two shall do no further quests until I’ve had a chance to sort through all this. We’re already in the middle of a war to begin with, and now I must fly all the way to the Slopes of Dal’Zarrah for an all-hands emergency meeting over such insignificant rubbish while also trying to facilitate the construction of an entirely new bridge lane just to prevent the collapse of our economy. Take Zach home with you and rest. The both of you. Touch nothing else until I stop by later next week.”

Zach couldn’t take much more of this. “Uh, Fylwen, what do you mean no more quests?”

“My words were not unclear, young man.”

Zach swore. “Fine, but can we still hunt regular—”

“Absolutely not!”

“Why the hell can’t we?”

“You don’t get it, do you?” she asked. She sounded exhausted, frustrated, and overworked. Given everything going on in the world, Zach couldn’t blame her. And was he just imagining it, or was there a little boy’s voice in the background? He could’ve sworn he heard the sound of a young child calling out to her, but maybe he was hearing things.

“What don’t I get?” Zach asked.

She sighed. “The way things work outside of dungeons is very different from the way things work within them. Unless you have prior knowledge, you can’t ever predict what circumstances your actions will cause. For example, you may slay a mob that looks like a caterpillar once, and nothing will happen. Ten times, and still nothing. But the fiftieth time? Perhaps you activate a secret, unknown quest that spawns a flying, winged demon halfway across the planet, or some other strange occurrence you could never have predicted. None of this would be cause for concern or out of the ordinary thousands of years ago. But today? Very much so.”

Zach replayed her words in his head as he filled with disappointment. This was a major let down. Defiantly, he said, “Okay, remember when you promised to be my ally, and you—”

“You cannot guilt-trip me, young man,” she interrupted as though reading his mind. “This is not a personal request but a demand on behalf of the lives of those impacted. If you’d like to continue leveling, you’re free to do whatever you wish—in one of the dungeons or on Archian Prime, as the Elves who live there are not likely to be affected, and even if they are, there’s no event you can spawn that they or the vampires cannot handle. But until further notice, the Elvish hunting grounds on Galterra must remain untouched. It will not be for long. I promise you. And…I apologize for my temper. With all that’s been occurring, I should have realized this might happen. The failure here is mine, not yours.”

“This is bullshit,” Zach grumbled. “Fylwen, if you only knew what we just discovered you might change your mind. You might even run out here to see it yourself.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Yes,” Zach said. “Right now, believe it or not, me and Kal are standing together in a town filled with mobs, but all the mobs are friendly and there’s an actual item shop and a blacksmith. I’m not making this up. I swear it. So you can’t expect us to just turn around and—”

“Yes, I absolutely can, young man. And for your information, NPC towns are not a rarity on Archian Prime. Not a hundred miles west of where we met, there’s an entire village of NPC skeletons that sell lightning maces and fire swords. You’re welcome to visit it if you’d like. In fact, I encourage you to do so. But for now, you will kill nothing and do nothing on Elendroth until I arrive. Behave yourselves! Oh, and for the love of the Goddess Helena, who or what is ‘Ruby Vayra’?”

“I’m Ruby!” Ruby chirped.

“Who said that? Kalana, who is that girl?”

Kalana snickered. “Ruby’s my raptor, mom.”

“Your what?”

“I’ll explain later. I love you. Please don’t be mad at us.”

“I’m not mad at either of you. I’m upset by the situation. Now, behave yourselves and all will be well. Shh. Settle down, Peter.”

“Huh?” Zach asked. “What was that?”

“It’s nothing. There’s too much going on for me to spend much more time on this call.” She released another sigh and her voice softened further. “Look. I don’t intend to keep either of you from exploring the hunting grounds,” she continued. “There are well-kept records on Archian Prime brought there by Elves very long ago, and I’m sure that, in consultation with the vampires, we can easily learn if anything else of danger or concern needs to be avoided to prevent this from happening again. For thousands of years, Elvish kind hunted on Elendroth, and their experiences have been reserved in our records. I am certain that sufficient information exists to safely ‘reopen’ the grounds for hunting. But that cannot be a priority right this moment. So please: be patient. Once I’ve had the chance, I’ll order an inquiry and allow you to resume your activities. But until then, do not do anything else. You will both go straight home—now.”

“We will, mom,” Kalana said.

Zach rubbed his forehead. “All right, fine.”

“I love you, Kalana.”

“I love you too,” Kalana replied. She spoke sincerely but somewhat awkwardly; Zach knew this kind of conversation was somewhat new to her. With that, she ended the call, took Zach’s hand and then gently tugged on his arm. “You heard my mom.”

“Since when do we listen to her?” he asked. “I was at war with her a few days ago. Now I have to do what she says?”

“Yes.”

“Bullshit,” he said again. “We have all these questions we need to answer. Like what are those exclamation points, and what’s an item shop? Can we really buy and sell things? You’re telling me we have to ignore all of this cool new shit because people are scared of a fucking quest popup? Give me a break, Kal! It’s not our fault that Galterrans are all just a bunch of—”

“Zach,” Kalana said, frowning. “You’re being inconsiderate again. Lots of people don’t understand what’s going on, and also, it’s not just the quest thingy. We also spawned something on the Bridge of Torment, so now a whole lot of people can’t do their jobs or get into and out of the city.” Lowering her voice, she asked, “Aren’t you the one who said that”—she lifted her eyebrows upwards as if to gesture to the heavens—“that it’s wrong to do”—she made small gestures with her head as if to point at a nearby mob—“without considering who it might hurt?”

He understood perfectly well what she was trying to say without her having to complete the thought. She was referring to Adamus’s plan to randomly reactivate all the spawn points. And what sucked was that he begrudgingly had to admit that she made a really good point, too. Because now that he understood there could be consequences elsewhere on Galterra that sprang up as a direct result of him playing around with all these non-dungeon quests and mobs, Zach would be, in a way, acting just like Adamus: inconsiderate and indifferent to the lives of others.

I’m not that kind of person, he said. I just…I really just wanted to adventure.

Learning from past mistakes, Zach carefully considered his words before replying, and so rather than reply with anger, he sighed upon the realization that Kalana was right. “You make a good point.”

She smiled. “It’s not like we knew this could happen, Zach. We didn’t do anything wrong. It’s only wrong if we keep doing it. Don’t worry. My mom said we can keep exploring soon, and I believe her. And besides, you promised we’d go back and rest after we finished this quest anyway. Oh, and don’t forget: you’ve got therapy tomorrow morning, too. Early.”

Without even meaning or consciously intending to do so, Zach blurted out, “Shit! I forgot about that.” Then he bowed his head in apology. “Sorry. It’s just that after all this stuff happened, don’t you think now’s not a good time to—”

“You’re seeing the therapist tomorrow no matter what, baby. You can’t argue your way out of it.”

“Okay. Fine. I will. I really will. It’s just that I’m healed now.”

“Sure you are.”

Zach yawned. Even with forty-five minutes left on his Unleased Phase duration, he suddenly remembered he hadn’t slept for a really long time and he was unbearably exhausted. “Okay. Fine. Just get me to a bed, okay?”

“Okay.”

With that, Zach stretched and rotated his shoulder muscles. “Uh…you sure we can’t just pop into the item shops and take a quick peek? In and out, I swear.”

“We can’t, Zach. Even if it seems impossible, what if just by buying something, we trigger a quest somewhere. It can’t be ruled out.”

“Yeah, all right, okay.” Yawning a second time, he asked, “Does this rule apply to just us or to everyone?”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you say Rian and Lienne were here?”

Kalana’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh, right! They’re hunting on the island right now too. But they told me where they were going today, so I know where they are—and it’s on the way to my home. We need to tell them to stop.”

“You mean, before we head to your house?”

“Mhm.”

Zach’s mood brightened at the thought of seeing his friends again. Suddenly wanting to get going more quickly, he hopped on top of his Kralzek’s Beast as Kal got on the back of Ruby, and together, the two of them took off at a speed far too fast for any aggroing mobs to catch them as they raced their way back along the gravel-covered path, setting off one alarm after the next.

As the world rushed by, Zach knew that the sights, sounds, and mysteries of Elendroth would be torture to his eyes, and his desire to explore would be overwhelming, so he deliberately tried not to take in too much of it for now and to let it be a surprise for later as he ordered his mount to follow behind her, which enabled him to close his eyes and bask in the warm wind as they rode onwards. Entering a somewhat tranquil, meditative state, he let what’d happened fully sink in. That quest…it had really gone out to every man, woman, child, and baby in the entire world?

Crazy, he thought. But seriously, how big a deal can it possibly be?

*****

“This has gone too far,” Misha Tenka said. Stroking her long, black beard, she looked around at the other high-ranking members of her party, and she was glad to see agreement in the eyes of all but one of them. “The Chief Engineer needs to make a statement condemning this and demanding that the Royal Roses take accountability for their out-of-control human.”

Only a hundred and ten years old, Misha had become the youngest Dwarf ever to become the highest-ranking member of the Engineering Union: the chief opposition party of which she was the head. And based on current polling, she stood a very real chance of ousting the current Chief Engineer, Ailor Lemdrach, the highest-ranking member—and head—of the Dwarvish Unity Party, whose majority-led government was responsible for an economic downturn, a rise in energy costs, and a highly unpopular trade deal with the Orcs that prohibited the Dwarves from imposing tariffs on Orcish goods but allowed the Orcs to place tariffs on Dwarven-built DEHVs and other machinery.

Despite a closer-than-expected election two summers ago, the DUP had managed to hold onto a majority of seats in the Engineering Cabinet. But now? Now, things looked like they might actually change. For the first time in twenty years, the DUP stood a real chance of losing its majority in the upcoming elections later this summer, and this latest situation involving Sir Zachys Calador might at long last be the push needed to instill some change.

“I for one can’t be arsed,” said Umptin Rickell, a miserable little fellow whose beard barely reached down to his chest. Though he belonged to the Engineering Union, he seldom behaved like it, often giving the DUP the votes needed to pass controversial legislation against their party’s interest. Some of this was excusable, as he was the representative of a very ideologically divided mine and would likely lose the mine to a member of the DUP if he was seen as being too favorable to his party. Regardless, the pudgy little Dwarf often behaved more like a member of the DUF than he did a member of the Engineering Union.

“Why am I not surprised?” Misha asked him. “Once again, Mine-Leader Rickell chooses to lick the boot of Chief Engineer Lemdrach.”

“Ain’t like that at all,” he replied. “I just think you can’t be blaming him for this.”

She scoffed at his defense of the incompetent Chief Engineer. “Twice now, that boy’s actions have created a global panic. And twice, Chief Engineer Lemdrach has failed to show any leadership during a time of crisis.”

Despite living well below the surface of a frozen, inhospitable continent far to the north of North Bastia, Sir Zachys Calador’s actions had caused more trouble for Dwarvish kind than for any other race.

For most, the damage of his antics had been entirely psychological: but not for the Dwarves. Recently, for example, he had turned the sky dark and had caused the entire world to buckle in terror at a series of rapid booming sounds far louder than thunder. And though very few Dwarfs had been topside to personally witness the sky turning dark, they had all nevertheless been alarmed and horrified by the deafeningly loud banging he’d caused, which had created earthquake-like effects in many of their underground cities—often culturally referred to as mines—that were not present on the surface. The result? Immense damage, great suffering, and ruined lives.

Eight-hundred Dwarves had died as a result of structural damage, cave-ins, or roof implosions, and there had been several-billion gold in property damage that still had to be paid for, too. Naturally, none of this had made its way into human media, which was controlled by the guilds, but it was the most important issue facing the Dwarves at this time and had received constant, daily media coverage since happening. Even in the middle of the night, Dwarvish media continued to discuss the tragic aftermath of the that day. It was a tragedy that would not be forgotten and was still very much fresh in everyone’s minds.

And now, today, just moments ago, Sir Calador had apparently gotten up to his shite all over again, this time roping the Elvish nobility into it as well! As the head of her party, Misha was privy to sensitive information before most other MLs and well ahead of the media. For this reason, she had been personally informed that, only moments ago, Chief Engineer Lemdrach had gotten off the phone with Queen Vayra of the Elves, who personally offered her apologies to the Dwarvish people in what she was referring to as a “careless, but completely unintentional mistake made by well-meaning youth.” It was likely the exact same thing she’d say in her calls to all the other races.

Misha picked up her goblet and downed her ale with a grunt. Her vest became soaked as some of it dribbled down her beard and onto her chest. The queen's apology did not go far enough, and she was not satisfied with the level of accountability being taken by the Elves. For sure, they deserved some slack, having only reemerged after being thought extinct. Nevertheless, her brief apology failed to convey any genuine sense of regret. And in what came as an even bigger surprise, it was the humans of all people who had shown her up.

Only a minute after conversing with the queen, the chief diplomat of humanity, a newcomer named Sir Alex Oren, had contacted Lemdrach and offered a much longer apology both in word and in writing that was so well constructed it almost fooled Misha with just how sincere and heartfelt it came across.

Addressed not just to the Chief Engineer but to all of Dwarvish society, Sir Alex Oren made no excuses, apologized on behalf of humanity, and stated that the world deserved better from those in power. He explained that, while it was impossible for Sir Calador of the Royal Roses or Princess Vayra of Elvadin to know that they were triggering an “event,” both would be far more careful and considerate in how they approached ancient, poorly understood hunting grounds in the future.

At any rate, Orcish and Gnomish experts were quick to reassure the global community that this quest, though unexpected and frightening to many, was likely to have no immediate or long-term effects on any lives. Accepting questions from the public, officials had very forcefully pushed back on claims that people would die or face consequences if they did not complete the quest. They also insisted that those who were stating otherwise on the internet were bad actors and trolls. For their part, the Dwarvish authorities, though generally tolerant of free speech, were rightfully shutting down those who continued to perpetuate the claim that not completing the quest would result in death, as it was causing mass hysteria in some communities.

While much of the fear was based on false information, there was still a great deal of angst that was more than warranted. In particular, there was much discomfort now about the potential dangers of this “Island of Elendroth,” and quite frankly, very few world leaders were happy that Queen Vayra had unilateral control over this small territory, which was now known to have the power to affect everyone’s lives.

The Merfolk, along with the Orcs and the Lizardmen, had called for the creation of a neutral, multi-racial committee to discuss whether or not to request Queen Vayra give the global community at least some power and authority over her island. The Orcish queen, ever the one for words, had taken great care to stress in her elegantly written proposal that Elendroth must be now and always be recognized as a cultural home and sacred ground to the Elvish. Queen Vayra had yet to reply and, in all likelihood, would not do so for several more days, but for certain, a reply would indeed come, though Misha doubted she would agree in any case. Even still, Queen Vayra would certainly be facing a great deal of pressure. Already, there were conspiracy theories and misinformation spreading around, many of which suggested that Elendroth was responsible for the dragon spawn that the humans and Elves had recently dealt with in North Bastia.

And with all of this going on, what was Chief Engineer Lemdrach doing about any of it? Absolutely nothing! It was well known that the humans were looking to regain access to the global trading community, providing him with the perfect leverage to use—a way to assert some Dwarvish influence over such a recalcitrant race. But all he did was put out meaningless statements and platitudes. Well, enough was enough.

“We need to call a press conference,” Misha said. “It’s time we go to the public with a better plan for Dwarvish kind. This is the last straw!”