“How’d lunch go with your sister?” David asked as he flexed and swung his left arm, getting a feel for the new shield he held. It was much less ornate than the one he’d had previously, but Ethan knew that looks weren’t everything in the game. The chances were high that it was either just as good, or better than the one David had lost.
“Not bad,” Ethan nervously loosened and tightened the leather straps of his bracers as they waited for the player who would be paying them for a mount run of the first floor. “Her and Thomas seemed to get along great with Alera.”
“She have anything new for us, information wise?”
“No,” he spat on the ground and shook his head. “All she said was that Paul and his friends didn’t socialize much with the rest of the raid clan, no one seemed to know much about them at all.”
“Junpei still on her ass about the whole thing?”
“I don’t know,” Ethan shrugged as he squinted against the glaring light of the setting sun. “She didn’t mention him at all, but it’s only been a couple of weeks.”
“So where is this guy?” David shielded his own eyes as he looked down the road leading towards the Tower. “I don’t want to be here until midnight again.”
“Man, I don’t know,” Ethan scowled as he kicked at a rock on the ground. “I didn’t meet him in person. He messaged Miguel after seeing our post on the board.”
His plan of trying to raise the funds to pay off their fee to Paul and his guild had not gone as smoothly as he’d hoped. After a two, this was only their third run through the first floor of the Tower.
“Give him another fifteen minutes, and if he’s not here by then we’ll clear eight again,” he said as he fell back into a lean against the stone walls.
“You think we can do eight, without Leah, I mean?”
“I don’t see why we couldn’t,” Ethan chewed on the inside of his lip. “We’re all up, what, four or five levels since we did the run with Alera?”
“I think Sam is up six.”
“How does he always manage to level faster than the rest of us?”
“No clue, maybe he’s cheating,” David gave a small laugh. “If we do eight, you going to pass on the shoulders off Loeg again?”
“Ugh, I want them so bad,” Ethan complained. “I don’t even care about the stats, they just look so bad ass.”
“Sam will murder you if you take them after forcing him to pass on that neck.”
“If we get that lucky that it drops again, he can have it,” Ethan said as he watched for any signs that someone was approaching.
Alera, Sam, and Miguel were waiting for them inside the Tower. They outleveled the first floor enough that the four of them were working to clear sections of the caverns for any low level item drops they could find. The plan was that as soon as the guy who’d hired them showed up, Ethan would send a message and everyone would meet up outside of Duke Farnham’s encampment. If he didn’t show, they would use their escape crystals and they all would work on a higher floor.
“One minute and I’m calling it,” Ethan sighed as he pushed off of the outer wall of the Tower. “That good with you?”
“Yeah, don’t want- ACK ACK!” David coughed as he was interrupted by a thick grey smoke that filled the small area. “What is going on?”
Ethan gripped the handles of his seaxes, muttered an incantation and felt the blessing of Reás flow through his arms and into his weapons.
“Ambush!” He shouted, “get into the Tower!”
“No!” A voice called out through the smoke and a perfect sphere of wind appeared around the outline of a man before whipping out and clearing the smoke completely. “It is I, Faelyn Erlar!”
“Did you just waste a smoke pellet for that?” David coughed again as he waved his hand to force the smoke out of his face. The smoke cloud had formed almost directly under his feet.
“Hmph!” ‘Faelyn’ crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side, his black hair falling into his eyes. “No, baubles are for charlatans.” He flipped his hair back out of his face as he grinned at David, one eyebrow raised.
This guy is insane, Ethan thought as he appraised the newcomer. His armor was completely mismatched and all dyed black. A long overcoat, similar to the one Sam wore, covered a shining steel breastplate. His pants looked like they were made of cotton, but his black boots had thick metal plates on the toes. The ornate hilts of two bastard swords were visible over his left shoulder as if, somehow, he’d strapped them parallel to each other. How does he draw those to even use them? Ethan wondered, his eyes falling on hand crossbows attached to the mess of straps that he assumed was supposed to be a belt. This is going to be so bad.
“Alright,” he took a step forward. “I’m Ethan, this is David.” His friends nodded as he introduced them. “The rest of our group is already inside.”
“And, am I to understand that we will be clearing out knaves and thieves from the rightful holdings of the Duke Farnham?” Faelyn asked Ethan, his eyebrow still raised.
“Uh,” Ethan paused, he could already feel a headache building after less than a minute. Jesus, this guy is annoying.
“Yes,” David stepped forward. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.” He turned and winked at Ethan. “But to be clear, we’re also selling you the quest. And you own half up front.”
“Oh, right,” Faelyn dropped his pretentious act for a moment and swiped his hand through the air. “Here you go, three seventy five, right?” He held out a small brown sack containing the gold.
“Thanks,” Ethan took the gold and a notification immediately appeared.
Dillon has given you 375 gold.
Jesus, I can already tell this is going to be a nightmare. Ethan wasn’t surprised at all to see that “Faelyn Erlar” was not his real name.
“What class are you?” David asked. Ethan could see him eyeing the same mismatched armor and weapons he’d already seen. “We need to figure out the best placement for you during the run.”
“Ah, yes,” Faelyn drew his hand crossbows with a flourish. “I am a Mage Hunter! I use ranged and melee attacks along with magic to destroy my foes!”
“That’s… not a real class,” David spoke slowly, his eyes dancing between Ethan and Sam in confusion.
We need the gold. We need the gold. We need the gold. Ethan tried to remind himself of why they were here as he ran his fingers through his hair, squinting as his headache worsened.
“I have combined all the best parts of Fighter, Rogue, Ranger and Mage into a class of my own!” Faelyn boasted as he spun his crossbows over his fingers before holstering them once again.
“So.. ranged?” David asked, blinking rapidly at the stupidity of what he’d just heard.
“Yes, if that I where you are lacking, I can do ranged damage,” Faelyn smirked and made a show of flipping his coat back to reveal the crossbows he’d just replaced in their holsters.
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“Yeah, okay,” Ethan sighed and sent out a party invite to Faelyn. “You’re going to stick in the back with our other casters.”
“I’ll be tanking, the rule is ‘you pull it off me, you tank it’,” David explained, not making any moves towards the Tower. “I’ll give you one accident, but after that you’re on your own.”
“Right,” Ethan nodded in agreement. He doubted that this “Mage Hunter” would be able to do anything close to enough damage to pull threat from David, but stranger things had happened before. The first mount selling run they did, their client somehow managed to anger Duke Farnham’s forces enough to get them attacked. They’d all had to use escape crystals to reset the floor before they could make another attempt.
“Is there anything else I should know?” For a moment, Faelyn dropped his pretentious facade and actually looked genuine.
“Just stay back and let us do all the work,” David shrugged before walking into the entry of the Tower.
Since they were part of a group already inside, the portal swirled purple and green behind the floor selection pedestal. Energy arced around the circular entrance, dancing between the ornate tunes carved into the stone. It always disturbed Ethan that the entrance portal was completely silent. It appeared to be a magical doorway, but it’s lack of sound was off putting.
“Once we’re through the portal,” Ethan paused a few steps from the pedestal, the helix of lights twisting and spiraling behind him. “We’ll meet up with the rest of the group and it’ll take about two hours to complete the quest.”
Faelyn nodded but before he could speak, David spoke up, leaving the Mage Hunter standing with his mouth open like a goldfish.
“Last thing,” David rapidly swiped his hand in the air. “By entering this instance, you agree to pay us the remainder of the agreed upon sum of seven hundred and fifty gold as soon as the quest, ’The Princess in the Castle’.” He stopped and took a deep breath before continuing much faster, “furthermore, the guild known as Disorder, takes no responsibility for your death once we are in the Tower. We will assist you, including healing, as best we can, but no member of our guild will sacrifice their life for yours. Your initial payment is non refundable, no matter what happens between now and the end of the quest. Do you understand and agree to these terms?”
“Ummm… yes?” Faelyn’s eyes darted between Ethan and David as he accepted their terms and conditions.
“Excellent,” Ethan clapped his hands together. “Let’s head in then, shall we?”
Two hours later, he was pleasantly surprised at how smooth their run had gone. Faelyn, despite his eccentricities, had performed decently. His mismatched spells and abilities hadn’t done any significant amount of damage to any of the bandits as they made their way through the familiar castle, but he’d stayed enough out of the way that he hadn’t hampered them too terribly.
“What is it, we’re waiting for exactly?” Faelyn tapped his foot apprehensively as he, Ethan and Sam stood at the door to the great hall.
“We have to make sure David’s group is in position,” Sam sighed. “Ethan already explained that.”
“Oh, right,” Faelyn’s cheeks burned bright red as he stared down at the floor. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Ethan kept his eyes glued to the digital clock in his vision, his fists tightening in anticipation around the leather bound handles of his ice enchanted seaxes. Since they’d already finished the quest, he and his guildmates didn’t have the timer that Faelyn had. They were relying on the in game clock. “One minute left, then blow cool downs as soon as you’re in the room.”
“O-okay,” Faelyn stuttered out as he drew a pair of hand crossbows from under his black coat.
“Now!” Ethan shouted before activating his Burning Rage ability. The gift of Vewa allowed him to maintain his focus as the raging inferno inside his soul manifested as flames encompassing his body. “Hit them fast and hard!” He raised a leg and smashed into the door. His rage enhanced strength shattered the heavy pine barrier, sending splinters into the dining hall.
Ethan pushed off of the ground and launched himself into the air. He landed hard in the middle of a clustered group of bandits and drove his seaxes into the stone floor. A shockwave of frozen stalagmites burst forward in a line, throwing helpless bandits into the air.
To his left, out of the corner of his eye, he saw David’s shield bounce between targets, the signature golden aura lighting up the room. A bolt of inky blackness whizzed by his head, exploding on impact with another bandit as Sam hurled curses and Shadowbolts into the room. He even managed to see quick glimpses of Alera as she bounced around the dining hall in flashes of blue light.
“YOU WILL FEAR THE REAPER!” an unfamiliar and nasally voice echoed through the chamber, causing him to turn his head from the bandit he’d been fighting. All around him, everyone, bandits and Disorder guildmates, turned to see Faelyn appear in a cloud of smoke directly in the middle of the dining hall, arms crossed over his chest, his hand crossbows drawn.
“I said, FEAR THE REAPER!” Faelyn unleashed a volley of magical crossbow bolts in a complete circle around him.
“Aw, fuck!” Ethan screamed in pain, his eyes welling up as a bolt struck him in the shoulder. Instinctively, he reached up and ripped the red and green fletched bolt free, sending a spurt of blood flying through the air.
“Got you, boss,” Miguel shouted above the melee, sending a surge of warm healing to him.
“Thanks!” Ethan said as he slashed into two of the bandits. Their level advantage was making this fight much easier than it had been when they ran it successfully for their mounts.
“Get ready to grab the princess and run,” he screamed as he decapitated a terrified bandit woman with a slash of both his seaxes.
“Just cleaning up these last few,” Sam sounded smug when he unleashed a torrent of shadow in a beam that caused half a dozen raiders to wither and die as it swept over them.
“I’ll untie her,” Alera called out from across the room and disappeared in a blink of energy.
Ethan drove one of his seaxes into the neck of a bandit, ripped it free and sliced into another.
“We got a problem, Ethan,” Alera looked panicked as she reappeared next to him.
“What is it?” He dodged the blade of a massive axe, Alera stabbed her katars into the attacker’s gut and ripped upwards.
“She’s dead.”
“Who is- OOF!” The distraction caused him to miss another raider swinging a fist into his face, knocking him to the ground.
Alera drew her blade across his assailant’s throat and helped Ethan back up.
“The Princess,” She looked grim as Ethan stood back up. “These were sticking out of her.” Alera presented three crossbow bolts, with red and green fletching.
“Oh, motherfucker,” Ethan swore and swung his blades into the torso of one of the few remaining raiders. “Go tell David.”
“Gotcha,” Alera winked at him before disappearing.
That little fucking shit! His rage flowed through him, magnified by yet another utter failure. He rapidly dispatched two more bandits as he made his way to Sam.
“I know we won’t get any loot for this, but it’s kind of relaxing to just slaughter dozens of low level mobs, isn’t it?” Violet energy crackled around the warlock’s eyes as he laughed maniacally amidst the carnage.
“The idiot killed the princess,” Ethan buried a seax into the skull of a scared looking bandit with a mace. “It’s a wipe.”
“What?” He whipped his head towards the dais. “Fuck!” He roared in fury. Blackness spread from his pupil over his entire eyes as Sam summoned green and purple flames to his hands.
“What are you doing?” Ethan watched horrified as Sam raised his hands over his head, the flames growing each second.
“Ending this!” Sam growled and slammed his palms into the stone floor of the hall.
Intricate, crimson circles appeared under the feet of the remaining bandits before pillars of the same fire Sam conjured erupted from the runes. Instantly, the bandits were incinerated. The flames scorched through their armor and skin, melting their bodies away until even their bones burnt away to ash.
“Jesus Christ, Sam!” Ethan screamed, his own body burning from the extreme heat of being near one of the bandits.
“Ugh…” Sam moaned and collapsed to the floor.
“What the hell was that?” David shouted, clutching a glowing hand to his face. Ethan could see tiny blisters immediately heal thanks to the Paladin’s holy spell. “I mean, it was effective, but holy shit!”
“It’s a spell…” Sam groaned from the ground. “Incinerate Soul…”
“You could have used that before, you know?” Miguel clapped his hands together and sent a holy of radiant yellow light towards Sam.
“Thanks,” he panted. “Burns my own HP to use, not good for large groups.” He shifted his gaze to Ethan. “Are you going to tell them or not?”
The shock of Sam’s violent spell had quickly worn off and Ethan was seething at the thought of having to reset and run again.
“T-tell us what?” Faelyn’s voice cracked as he nervously looked around the room.
“Don’t fucking play dumb, Dillon,” Ethan scowled and pointed angrily at the dais, where the daughter of the duke was sagging in her chair. “Your stupid AoE killed the quest objective.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me!” Miguel ran his fingers through his hair and kicked at one of the corpses on the floor.
“I-I-I,” Faelyn took several steps backwards, trying to avoid the angry stares of the Disorder guild members. “I’m sorry, I thought she was out of range!”
“I’m not doing this,” David said wearily and shook his head. “I’ll see you all at home,” he took his escape crystal from his inventory and disappeared a moment later in a cylinder of blue light.
“But what about my horse?” Faelyn shouted as Sam, Miguel and Alera disappeared as well. “I paid you!”
Ethan sighed and waved his hand in a figure eight pattern, the system motion to start recording.
“You paid us to complete the quest “The Princess in the Castle”, unfortunately, due to your error,” he said through gritted teeth. “The quest was failed. We will be keeping your initial deposit, as was agreed upon.”
“But what about my gold?” Faelyn looked panicked as he shouted at Ethan.
“Non refundable,” Ethan shook his head and grinned, glad that his recording wouldn’t pick up his own facial expressions.
“And you may want to get out of here,” he withdrew his escape crystal and activated it. “You’re going to run into more raiders and the Duke’s bombardment if you stay.”