by R J Triveri
Mac exchanged another glance with Allen. They continued for so long that River began to lose focus and watch the SIFS.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: Anyone know anything about these two we don’t already?
Time marched by and an answer came quickly.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) [Mod] Bloo-haw_72: They’ve got Wiki pages now. Up until now, they haven’t used the SIFS or been seen on camera outside of what you’ve already said.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: Well, at least there’s that.
“Alright,” Allen said definitively. “We’re in as long as we don’t have to deal with that damn SIFS.”
River smiled. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she confirmed as she switched her windows around and sent them a pair of invites.
Allen Lee has been invited to your party.
Mac Null has been invited to your party.
To her surprise, the pair glowed white for a moment after the agreement was made, and the quest shared itself on a floating golden window before the pair.
Divine Event Offered: Fall of the Alchemical Abnormality
Objectives to be revealed upon acceptance.
Note: This is a quest offered by Unum and cannot be shared with others before an agreement is reached on assistance. Rejection will result in the rejecter’s memory to be negatively affected. Actions taken on this quest against Inciperians will not result in an alignment change.
Accept?
Neither hesitated, and the windows changed a moment later to list everything the quest offered.
Dante Rior => River Hexi: This is going better than I’d hoped.
River smiled at her friend and shook her head. She had to agree as she watched the pair read the objectives. Everything was going according to plan.
Well, except for the horrified look on Allen’s face.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: More Questions, Fewer Answers
After a moment, Allen found his voice, and it wasn’t too thrilled with the new information he had been given. However, remembering what had happened to River when she tried to speak his name, he took his rage to the newly formed group chat and let loose a torrent of cursing before, finally, something coherent came out of his rambling.
(Party) Allen Lee: So, what in the nine bloody levels of bloody Hell do you mean we’re hunting Athos Aramis!
(Party) Mac Null: Allen! What’s the matter?
Whether or not River expected the turn and Allen’s intense gaze, she took it well enough. Her thoughts ran amuck until the cloud kit jumped up onto the table and barked as she went looking for the food that her master was so horribly keeping from her.
(Party) River Hexi: Why does it matter?
Not needing the name anymore, Allen looked at her with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. Each word he spoke dripped a fresh venom. With his new weapons, Allen was poised to strike as he made matters very clear to her. “That man gave his life to save his friends and all of Oenus from a world boss.” His hand tightened around his spear as a quick prayer followed. “God rest his soul, he’s been dead for almost a year now.” His voice grew softer as the memories rushed back of the night Trina returned from the hunt. The night the guild fell apart, and the two fought so violently. How often had he doubted himself about the choice he made that day? How often had he been trying to make amends with his own psyche? Carefully, he formed his question again. “I’m going to ask again, more clearly this time, River, and I expect a clear, understandable answer. Why are we hunting a dead hero?” With those last words, his eyes fixed themselves on her face until he was confident that he could use his eyes to drill through her skull if needed.
At first, she was at a bit of a loss. She hadn’t heard of an Athos Aramis being involved in that event or even him being part of the Moon’s Aura. Hell, she still didn’t care, but she needed the healer and his partner. “The man you knew is dead, Allen,” she began carefully. “You said it yourself. We both know Unum doesn’t condone violence against his people, so this can’t be the same person. Can it?” Mac sat silently as Allen weighed the words. After a moment passed, he nodded to the woman. Good, she thought to herself as she pushed. “Whatever it is, it’s ruining everything your friend stood for and is putting the entire world at risk. We have to fragment it and retrieve its core data, so Unum can fix whatever problems it’s been causing.”
The words, and the task, seemed to sink slowly into Allen’s mind as Mac put a hand on his shoulder. He was slow to answer, but the words held the weight of their wait. “He and I didn’t always agree, ya know?” A slight pause followed as he chose the next words. Allen’s face fell into a thoughtful darkness as he continued. “I may not have known him that well, but it’s still my fault he’s gone. It’s my weight to carry, so I have a debt to his memory. I won’t have some copy reminding anyone of what he wasn’t.”
River’s smile grew in measure with his words as Dante processed everything with his hand resting on the back of his cloud kit. “What do you say, Mac?” he asked a few moments later when he was sure Allen had nothing left to say. “Do you have a problem with the mission?”
Without hesitation, Mac shook his head. “Not in the least. If anything, it just seems a little… unsporting to send four against one.”
“You haven’t seen what he can do,” Dante only half joked as he relented to the crying kit and formatted another piece of meat from his inventory and offered it to her.
“If we can, I’d like five,” River interjected. “A full party for hunting will round us out better. We still need range that won’t risk killing themselves. No offense, Dante.”
“None taken,” he confirmed. “A ranger might be good. Our Talon Guard here can get in close while you have him distracted, Allen can keep everyone’s integrity up, I can deal with anything his beasts can conjure…”
“Beasts?” River asked curiously.
“I told you to look up the alchemist class.” Her face flushed a bit as he sighed. “Alchemists have access to pact beasts to help them for a cost.”
“If it’s a copy of him, he also had an Exceed,” Allen said darkly. One of the many things Trina had beat into his head about his sacrifice. “An absurdly powerful one in addition to whatever else he had going for him.”
River sighed. “Any idea what the Exceed could do?”
“Crush skulls and take names?” he offered gruffly. “All I know is that it was brokenly powerful. Powerful enough to overwhelm dungeon defenses and nearly one shot a world boss. It still wasn’t enough to defend him from Wrath.”
Another nod, another sigh, and another creature she had no information on. “So, assume that it’s part of the last form of the boss then?” she offered as she looked to Dante. “He’ll have at least three different tools at his arsenal. Sounds about right?”
“If he’s a boss mob, nothing’s out of the question,” he agreed. “I’d assume he would have a few phases like the more advanced bosses, but after Tenebrae, we should prep for the worst.”
With an irritated sigh, Allen began tapping on the table as loudly as he could until the pair stopped talking and turned to him. “Care to let the rest of us into the conversation? Ya know, seeing as we’re stuck together for the foreseeable future.”
“I don’t think they’re used to others,” Mac pointed out honestly as he took out one of his claws and examined it.
Another sigh from the woman was accompanied by another whine from the hungry kit. “This is going to be harder than I thought.”
“I told you it would be.” Opening his inventory for a moment, Dante compiled another piece of raw sharp steak and handed it to the kit to devour. “Don’t forget, we still have to find him too.”
“And how do you think we’ll do that?”
Dante shrugged. “Well, it’s a quest. I’m sure we can ask around and find something out. Start in Oenus maybe? His old guild master might be a good shot.”
“Well, aren’t you just full of answers?” River sighed and tapped t
he table. “But we’ve still got plenty of problems to deal with.”
“Again, still here,” Allen pointed out as he toyed with the spear next to him.
A flush of embarrassment crossed her face for the second time as she realized her mistake. “Sorry.”
“Besides, Trina’s been MIA around this part of the continent since about six months ago,” Allen added. “We couldn’t find her if we wanted to.”
Mac flicked his gauntlet claws on and off two or three times as thoughts raced within his head. Each time they flicked, Mac looked to be sure that everyone was looking at them before the words came forth. “Even if we could, we need to build our teamwork first. We might be able to down a dungeon boss, but this sounds like a world-boss-level event. If we want to survive, we need to learn to work together, and I only know one way to learn to rely on each other.”
There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation as Allen spoke. “Dungeon run?”
“Unless these two have a better idea.” Mac’s grin shimmered like the claws against his fingers as they flicked back into place one last time.
“Finally, something we can agree on!” Dante said happily as he looked to River. “Right?”
If her last experience left her with a rotten taste, it didn’t show as she smiled. “Let’s go kick some asses!”
“Now that we’ve got that settled, where should we go?” Mac asked, looking to their fearless leader.
“That’s easy,” River said, and without further ado, she triggered the SIFS chat and smiled as she addressed her people once more.
(SIFS Chat: River Hexi) River Hexi: Alright, anyone have any ideas?
If the Internet was good for anything, it was getting ideas.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Rogue Element
With the combined knowledge of River’s following growing by the hour and through the work of her fearless mods, it didn’t take long for the four to find a dungeon that fit their very specific needs. The dungeon of choice had to have puzzles and a decent challenge rating that would force them to work together, be less-than-frequently traveled so that Dante wouldn’t already have done it on his own or with anyone else, and someplace that they all had access to at a moment’s notice.
With the destination set, the group was off in a flash of pixels and light.
The world changed from the darkened grunge of the city to something more akin to a pre-township or even a camp. Deep within a forest of grays, silvers, and greens, the four adventurers arrived deep into the Forest of Silverwood in the city of Silverwood in the far western interior of Ciber.
As they began to materialize one by one, one thing was more apparent than the rest. All around them were the sounds of nature and the smells of fresh-cut grass and flowers. The people were quiet and out of the city center, busy on their own missions and tasks as they lived their day-to-day lives gathering supplies to trade to the larger cities or the Guild of Inciperian Traders. No one paid a few new adventurers any mind. Taking everything in, the differences between Graywall and Silverwood were so numerous that not even Dante could begin to catalog everything. From shadows to the silent song of the breeze, it was everything Graywall wasn’t. Then again, a visit to a peaceful city wasn’t really why they had come.
“Are you sure about this?” Dante asked as the group finished warping in. “I’ve been here plenty of times, and I’ve never even heard of this place having a dungeon.”
“Neither have I, and I spent two years here back in my younger days,” Mac added, looking around the forested city square surrounded by the silver-barked trees that gave the city and surrounding area its name. “You’d think a dungeon in the middle of a city would have more attention and wouldn’t be so far on the down-low.”
Allen grunted in agreement but said nothing as the group took a seat inside the ring of the five silverwood trees.
“I mean, the idea checks out,” River assured him before looking at an open window to confirm the information for the group she had been sent by her mods. “The Dungeon of Glass only opens between noon and four to a group of five or less that waits with the intent to find and run said dungeon. The group must make an offering of entrance in the ring of Silverwood trees no later than twelve-thirty using the language of the wood and finish the dungeon before four, or they will be ejected.” Skimming the information with a consistent mumble, she finally added. “It’s a rank-two dungeon with a unique boss and decent loot. Top that off with a one-run limit, and things get pretty exciting.”
“Still doesn’t make a lick of sense,” Allen pointed out as bluntly as he could. “Why are we the only ones here waiting?”
“Who cares?” River shrugged. “As long as it’s a rank two, it doesn’t really matter. We’ll learn to work together and breeze through it.”
“Tenebrae was a rank two,” Dante pointed out helpfully before adding, “it became a raid as soon as we survived.”
“Sounds like a fun trip,” Mac joked. “Never would have taken you two as the ones to go in half-cocked.”
“We didn’t. Things just didn’t go as planned,” Dante defended.
“I know.” Mac simply raised an eyebrow on his androgynous face. “But really, do plans ever survive the first encounter in a dungeon?”
“Not really.” Dante grinned just a bit at the words. “But what fun would it be if they did?”
“The kind where we live,” Allen chimed.
“I can get behind that idea, Allen,” River added, almost reluctant to agree with the gruff dwarven wanna-be. “I wonder what the dungeon will want for entrance. We’ve got plenty of stuff, but it’s not really specific.”
“We’ll find out soon,” Dante assured as his excitement got the better of him. Getting up, he leaned against the nearest tree and began to fidget. “When we call it, it should tell us exactly what it wants from us.”
Before any of them could say another word, their plan took its first critical hit. As the clock on the edge of town struck the noon bell, a voice interrupted the group’s concentration with alluring, yet heated tones. Like a siren song, it rang out from the tree branches and down to the waiting, prone ears.
“Hey! Are you running the dungeon?”
Cocking his head to face the direction of the speaker, Allen raised a hand to block out the sun streaming in. “None of your business.”
“Is too if you’re trying to run it with just four people,” the hidden woman’s voice flippantly retorted. “I wasn’t talking to you anyways, Shrubby.”
“Shrubby?!” the man said angrily as Dante laughed.
Apparently, a laugh was all it took for the man to be recognized. Not that she needed the reminder. A moment later, she had landed from the tree branches wearing a hood that hid her face in complete shadow. “Dante? Is that you?”
As the rest turned to face the hooded woman, no one was more surprised than Dante to see the rogue remove her hood. She wasn’t just some random stranger after all. In the same gear she wore in the Pits line, the woman was just as roguish-looking as ever with a few new knives here and there. Rubbing his chin, he tried his best to remember her name. “Jynx, right?”
Nyx shook her head but smiled as she flung back her hood to reveal her uniquely colored, galaxy-patterned hair falling to her shoulders. “No, but I do like that name, spell-slinger. Maybe I’ll petition the gods for a name change later, but try again, Dante.”
River had been using her brain a bit more than Dante had during their first meeting with the woman and stopped her friend’s struggle. “Nyx,” she corrected her friend. Her attention swiftly went from her group to the intruder amongst them. “Last time I saw you, you had given us some bad information and tried to poach my partner.”
Nyx simply grinned as she folded her hands behind her head, trying to act the part of the child with her hand caught in the cookie jar. “What’s the fun of bugging people if you always tell the truth. I’m a rogue, love. It comes with the territory.” And she simply grinned all the more, pulling her attention back from Ri
ver to Dante and the others. “I will say you look more intimidating than the last time I saw you, but real armor will do that.” With the compliment paid, her hands fell back to her sides and the woman’s attention fell to the kit clinging to Dante’s shoulder. “And that’s a new addition.”
Before he could answer, River stepped in. Holding up a hand to cover Dante’s answer, she sighed. “You have two seconds to answer what you mean earlier.”
“Which part?”
“The part about us running the dungeon with only four people. It’s just a rank two.”
She shrugged, opening her window and materializing a shimmering piece of metal and palming it before walking closer to the group. “The Dungeon of Glass is a five man, rank-two dungeon.”
Her emphasis on the word five was heavy, but lost on River as she snipped back. “We know that already…”
“I wasn’t finished, River,” Nyx interrupted in a scolding tone. “It’s a five-man dungeon with puzzles designed for five people. It just can’t be done with four in the time limit. Sure, you can go in with four, but once you do, you’ll get locked out after the first room. That’s it. After that, there’s no more fun for you and your group.”
“And you know this how?” River pressed the woman, annoyance growing with each word she spoke. “The wiki says that…”
“Wikis are always being changed, River,” Nyx interrupted with more than just a shit-eating grin. “And are you willing to take that risk?” Looking from one to the next, she studied the group carefully. A gleam of mischief came into her eyes as she dealt another blow. “Besides, do you even have an entrance token?”
A smolder of recognition began to creep into River’s eyes as she repeated Nyx’s last words. “Entrance token?”
Opening her windows and her hand, the rogue showed off the polished silver token with a flourish of pixels. “Did the wiki leave that out too?”
