by James Hunter
Dagger of the Mystic Path. So, you’ve decided to become a spellcaster, eh? Well, good for you, but it’s always nice to have a little backup when you run out of magic to sling around all willy-nilly. Never forget that a bit of metal with a pointy end can be just as deadly as a flying Ice Spike in the right hands. +1 strength, +1 to any Bladed Weapons skill (Sword, dagger, sabre, ect.) (Locked). Can be used in off-hand.
After some strenuous haggling with the shopkeeper, Sam walked away loaded down and ready to get to killin’. He also walked away forty gold lighter, though after paying for all his classes at the Mage’s College, that felt like a steal. He tried not to think of how much actual money he had thrown away to get everything and started to sweat. No, come on, it was time for fun!
All that was left to do was party up and kick some serious butt.
Chapter Fourteen
After leaving Nick’s Knacks in the dust, Sam and Finn found themselves shouldering their way into a dimly lit inn on the outskirts of the city, not far from the perimeter gate which let out onto the rolling field lands. The inn itself was a three-story ramshackle of a building; the floorboards were creaky, the tables rough-hewn wood, and the patrons just as gruff and dirty as the rest of the interior. Servers wearing linen shirts and green, woolen garments circulated around the floor, delivering platters of steaming food or steins full of amber beer. Sam’s eyes followed the food and drink hungrily, to the point that he needed to remind himself why he was here.
On a raised stage was a broad-shouldered bard—sporting a kilt of all things—belting out an overly loud rendition of what could have been ‘Danny Boy’ on what Sam guessed was a set of make-shift bagpipes. There was definitely something you didn’t see every day. But the bar-goers were enjoying the tunes, eating, talking, joking good-naturedly over their steaming plates. A handful of customers even swayed happily on a cleared space in front of the stage.
Despite the grime and the sickly-sweet aroma of unwashed bodies and dried blood, the atmosphere was friendly. Inviting. On the surface, the Mage’s College was classier, cleaner, more refined, but this place had one thing the College didn’t—and this place had it in spades—fun.
Most of the folks in this tavern were players, and as Sam surveyed their faces, he could tell every single one of them was glad to be here. They were happy with their gaming experience. Suddenly, he was rethinking all of his Eternium choices. As a former gamer, Sam assumed that having a more powerful class would make gameplay more interesting and therefore more fun in the long run, but… but maybe he’d been wrong. If he were honest with himself, he hadn’t had as much fun in this game as these people were clearly having. Not ever. Had he really chosen so poorly?
He didn’t know, but he was here now, and he intended to soak up as much of the atmosphere as he could. Sam leaned over and spoke into Finn’s ear to be heard over the crowd, “Come on, dude. This looks absolutely amazing. How about a drink before we party up?”
“You read my mind! That’s a totally illegal spell!” Finn replied with an easy, lopsided grin, even he looked more alive than Sam had ever seen him on the College campus.
Sam lead the way, weaving through the patrons, narrowly avoiding servers, customers, and drunken dancers. He felt like a wrecking ball as he moved through the tight quarters. His dexterity score didn’t help things much, and his ungodly low perception was almost entirely responsible for what happened next. Sam swerved to avoid a server holding a wooden tray piled high with dirty dishes, missing her by inches… only to plow face-first into another woman, this one with a shock of red hair and a round of full mugs clasped in her hands. Her light green eyes flared wide, lips pulling back from perfectly straight teeth as she and Sam collided.
Hitting her was like careening into a brick wall. She was all hard steel and tight muscle, without an ounce of give in her body. Sam bounced back, his health dropping by a few points from the collision. She didn’t seem hurt in the least, but the four mugs she was carrying didn’t handle the impact quite so well. Beer exploded like a geyser of gold, drenching Sam and spraying her directly in the face. She, at least, had the wherewithal to hang onto the mugs so they didn’t shatter on the floor.
Sam reeled, arms pinwheeling to keep his balance, his face almost as red as the woman’s hair. He thought he might die from sheer embarrassment. Finn leaned in from behind and steadied him with one hand, clearly struggling to maintain his composure. “Smooth move, my friend. Slick as ice. This is exactly the way I expected things to go.”
“Oh, I am so sorry!” Sam blurted out once he finally got his balance. “I was trying to avoid someone else, and… I didn’t even see you there.”
He looked around frantically, trying to find some napkins to help clean the mess up, but of course, there were no napkins. This was a fantasy world, not a burger joint back in Anaheim. That made him want to die even more. Thankfully, the woman didn’t look furious. She actually grinned and just shook her head before depositing the now empty mugs on a nearby table.
“It’s okay.” She pulled a tan handkerchief from a pouch at her belt, quickly mopping the suds from her face and hands. “It could’ve happened to anyone. Really. How about you just buy another round of drinks for me and my friends to make up for it?”
Sam froze as he listened to her. That voice. He knew that voice! He’d never met this person in real life, but he’d heard her run a hundred guild raids and talk to him through a thousand hours of gameplay. Sam stood stock still, mouth open, studying her. She was a few inches shorter than him but looked twice as wide, thanks to the heavy, silver plate mail weighing down her frame. She wore a ragged cloak of scarlet, a dagger riding on one hip, a massive maul on the other, and had an enormous shield attached to her back. With the shield, she looked a bit like a medieval version of a Ninja Turtle.
This woman had to be a Barbarian class or maybe even some sort of Paladin; assuming this game had a Paladin equivalent. That fit what he knew. This had to be her.
“Hello?” She snapped her fingers in his face. “You okay? Did I lose you? Laggy set-up maybe? That or getting hit must’ve knocked something loose in your head.”
Sam felt at a complete loss for words, so instead of actually answering her questions like a normal human being, he blurted out the only thing on his mind. “Rachel? Rachel Poulson? Is… is that you?”
“Yes.” This time, it was her turn to stand stock still and thunderstruck. She finally answered after a long, tense beat, one hand dropping down to the hilt of her dagger. “How did you know that? Who are you?”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, and her previously friendly demeanor vanished, replaced by a snarl and the cold look of warning.
“It’s me,” Sam ignored all the blatant ‘back off’ signs, “Sam King! I mean, I know it’s been a while, but it hasn’t been that long. You ran the Bannergarde Guild in Masterwind Chronicles and were the squad leader for the Shivercrawlers in Celestial Conquest Online! We must’ve played a gajillion times online together.”
The snarl turned into a grimace before slowly disappearing, though she still looked skeptical. As though testing the words, she finally asked, “Sam King from Anaheim?”
“Yeah. I used to run under the gamertag BadKraken. Decided to go with something closer to my real name this time around, since my parents got me a DIVE pod and I’ll be in-game full time for the next three months.”
She grabbed his arm—her fingers felt like steel bands digging into his flesh—and pulled him close. She glanced furtively around, looking for anyone who might’ve heard him. When it was clear no one had heard—or at least didn’t care—she let out a ragged sigh and eased up a bit on his arm. “I’d keep that pod stuff to yourself, if I were you,” she hissed.
“These are early days, but there are already some bad apples roaming around Eternium. Groups of PKers that specifically go out of their way to target divers. That’s not the only thing; don’t go throwing real names around in here, okay? I know you didn’t mean anything by it, but se
riously, there are some people I don’t want knowing who I am. My gamertag’s the same as it always was, DizzySparrow, but I’m just going by Dizzy for now. Trying to stay on the down-low.”
She hesitated like she wanted to say more but then clammed up at the last second. Finn slid up next to Sam. The Noble was blushing furiously, an overwide smile on his pinched face. “Well, are you going to introduce me to your… acquaintance?”
“I’m Finn of the House Laustsen. Sam and I are in the same cohort over at the Mage’s College,” he crowed proudly, puffing out his chest like a preening peacock.
“No way. You’re both Mages?” Dizzy’s eyes flared. She glanced around again, this time like a greedy thief who’d just spotted an epic pile of loot. “Like legit Mages who can do magic?”
She whispered the last word. In response, Finn lifted a hand and effortlessly conjured a globe of slowly spinning ice which hung suspended above his palm.
“I’m an Ice Guard, and Sam here is an Aeolus Sorcerer—basically a Wind Mage, though it’s a little more complicated than that. Pretty cool, right?”
She smiled and slung an arm around both of them. “Know what? Forget about getting us drinks. The next round is on me and my friends, who, by the way, I would love to introduce you guys to.”
Before they could protest—not that Sam wanted to protest exactly; he’d come to find a party after all—she ushered them through the press of bodies and over to a rectangular table where three other players waited—two men and another woman. Based on gear, Sam guessed they were probably new to the game. Rachel, that is, Dizzy, definitely looked like the ranking member of the party, which was pretty standard. She was a natural leader, so much so that she always ended up taking charge in every guild or squad Sam had ever been in. She was a great all-purpose player, but she also understood meta strategy and kept a cool head even when things got heated and tense.
She pushed both Sam and Finn into a pair of empty stools, then plopped down on one of her own. She shot a look at a brown-haired man in shoddy leathers with a recurve-bow strapped to his back. “Arrow, go get us all a round of drinks, would ya? Make sure to get enough for our new friends, too.”
“But Dizzy–” he began to protest.
She cut him short with a glower that plainly said, ‘Now is not the time or place. Go get the drinks.’ Sam wondered if that was some sort of intimidation technique. If so, he wanted it. Arrow cleared his throat and stood, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Sure. I’ll be right back. You fellas drinking anything special?”
Sam just shrugged and shook his head.
“Yes, I’ll take the finest Flower Brandy they have available, or barring that, I’ll deign to take whatever the house brew is, I suppose.” Finn offered with a white-toothed smile. His words earned him a rather long set of stares from everyone present, but Finn didn’t seem to notice.
“So, Sam, your friend was saying you two are both Mages with the College,” Dizzy jumped in before things could get awkward. “We haven’t run into anyone else from the College yet. I’ve heard rumors there are a few priests running around, but you’re the first actual magic users I’ve seen. What’s it like? How did you manage to unlock a Mage class? Do you have some other primary class?”
She rattled the questions off like machine-gun fire, *boom-boom-boom*. Sam wasn’t even sure where to begin. “Well, I don’t think Finn unlocked the class.”
He continued slowly, not sure how to explain Finn, “He’s from here. He’s from one of the Ardania Noble houses. As for me, I underwent the trials during the early game phase, and it was just one of the options available for me. I honestly didn’t know it would be so rare when I picked it.”
Sam shrugged apologetically. “Honestly, though, it hasn’t been as much fun as I thought it would be. I’ve been here in Eternium for six days so far, and I’ve spent virtually the whole time at the College doing chores, running errands, and going to classes on magical theory and application. Not exactly the exciting summer vacation I had in mind.”
“Well, all of that is about to change,” Dizzy promised him, she waved confidently at the assembled members. “Now that you found us, that is. There aren’t really any player clans or guilds yet, but we’re working to establish one. It’s kind of the Wild West out here right now. Everyone’s fresh, fully noobs, and no one knows what to do. On top of that, the wikis are useless at this point. No one’s gotten very far, and we’re not even sure what the requirements are to form a guild. But with you two in our squad, we’d stand a real chance of pulling ahead once that info does come out.”
She leaned in on her elbows and dropped her voice, glancing furtively to the left and right. “I’m telling you, Sam, there are like no magic users out there. What if that’s one of the requirements for forming a Guild? I mean, I’m not saying it is, but it could be, right? Even if it’s not, having a squad with two verified Mages can only help us. We’ll draw attention, be able to grind higher level mobs, recruit better players, and complete missions no one else can, which will only grow our renown. If you come on board with us, I’ll make you both officers, give you a huge cut of the loot… whatever you want.”
The brown-haired Ranger, Arrow, returned with a round of drinks balanced impossibly high on his hands. The guy had six tankards all stacked up like a house of cards, but they didn’t so much as wobble when the man moved. As a Ranger—or whatever the Eternium equivalent was—he probably had a ridiculously high dexterity stat, and it showed. Sam tried to hold back the jealousy. With a smile, Arrow quickly distributed drinks to everyone. The distraction gave Sam a moment to mull over Dizzy’s proposition, and he kicked her words around inside his skull.
Sam couldn’t speak for Finn—though he strongly suspected the Noble would go with whatever course of action Sam decided on—but he was pretty keen on the idea. Sam liked Dizzy. He’d worked with her on more occasions than he could remember. He trusted her to do right by him and to put a good squad together, a squad that had a chance of being a serious contender in late-game play. To join up this early? It was an amazing opportunity. Plus, he wanted to quest, and this would give him the perfect chance to accomplish what he’d come into the game to do.
He picked up his tankard, swirled the amber liquid, and finally took a long pull of honeyed beer. “Finn will have to make up his own mind, but I think I’d be interested. Being an officer is a definite bonus, but I don’t need a bigger cut of the loot than anyone else. I want things to be equal; otherwise, everyone else will just end up resenting me. But there are a couple of things. One, the Mage’s College is demanding, and I think it will continue to be that way for a while yet. That means I’ll have to work you guys in around my course load and responsibilities with the College. Two, I need experience. Right now, I only get one day a week off for myself, so I need to make it count.”
“Not a problem at all.” Dizzy rubbed her hands together. “Those both seem like perfectly responsible requests. What about you. It’s Finn, right?”
“Yes. Finn.” The Noble bobbed his head rather energetically. “As to your most gracious offer, if Sam vouches for you, I’ll throw my lot in with you as well. If you can grant me a deal with the same benefits, then I see no reason not to join our collective might together. I highly doubt any of my fellow Nobles will be likely to join such a group any time soon, so there are a number of potential upsides for my house. Perhaps I might even be able to help grease the wheels, so to speak, in your quest to form a Guild. My connections to the court might well be enough to open the right doors.”
Dizzy and the others shared a quick look. “Would you guys mind just giving us a minute alone to make sure everyone is cool with this? As a team, it’s important for us to make decisions together.”
“Absolutely.” Sam was glad to hear that. It meant if they did accept, Dizzy wouldn’t steamroll over his opinion or thoughts. Sam got to his feet, wobbling a little bit from his drink. That was his low constitution at work, no doubt. Thankfully, he’d only had a few sips. He’
d have to remember how easy it was to get tipsy in the future. Good to know that Mages and alcohol didn’t mix. He tapped Finn on the shoulder and jerked his head toward the exit. “We’ll be waiting outside.”
“Well, that went particularly well. Don’t you think?” Finn beamed, quite pleased with himself, and he rocked back and forth on his heels as they stepped out into the crisp morning air. “I must confess I’ve never actually gone out with a common raiding party, but this sounds positively brilliant.”
He paused and stole a sidelong glance at Sam. “What… exactly is the story behind the knight, Dizzy? She is quite…”
Finn faltered, clearly struggling for the right word. “Interesting. So confident and bold. Quite straight forward and unpretentious. It’s rather… refreshing, really. So unlike the Nobles of the court, scheming your downfall and ruination all while hiding it behind crocodile smiles. The unrepentant beauty she holds does not hurt my interest either.”
“Dizzy and I go back a long time,” Sam replied with half his mind on other things. “We’ve worked together before, and she’s good people. Not sure about the rest of her crew, but if she trusts them, I’d say they’re probably a solid bunch.”
The wooden door squeaked open on rusty hinges, spilling Dizzy and her teammates out on to the cobblestone street. She had a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.
“Alright,” she spoke with a nod. “You’re both in. We’ll have to wait to officially found a Guild before I can draft up a contract for you two, but you have my word. Once we get this thing rolling, you’ll both be officers and founders with a full share of whatever loot we take. But all of that can wait; you guys said you wanted to grind some experience, so let’s go get you some experience. It’s time to power level.”
Sam bumped knuckles with Finn. “Sweet.”
Chapter Fifteen
The newly-formed party was heading through the eastern gates—enormous things, easily large enough to accommodate a swarm of T-rexes—when they found their way barred by a group of swaggering, armor-clad adventurers. The second Sam laid eyes on their leader, he knew this guy was trouble. He decided it would be best to avoid him if at all possible.
