by EA Hooper
A flash of light surround Noah, and then he found himself beside the Jump Gate again. He pulled the horned helm from his inventory and stared at the hollow, black eyes.
“Demon Lord, huh?” Noah said. “I like the sound of it.”
Chapter 13 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Wanderer
Location: Styxis (World) | The Ruined Lands (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 195
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
Vincent could tell that a great number of battles had taken place on the outskirts of Risegard. Frequent bombardments had left craters across the landscape. It felt impossible to avoid stepping in holes as they walked toward the defense towers, and they had to leap over large trenches that surrounded the city.
He’d heard from Jim that there’d once had been a massive wall around the entirety of Risegard, but the Demon Lord had knocked it down so many times that no one bothered to rebuild it anymore. Instead, they focused on constructing various towers and fortification built behind trenches to slow down attacking devil hordes, no matter which direction their portals appeared.
Vincent did see a glowing wall encircling the middle section of the city. That’s the Eternal Ring, he thought, remembering what Jim had told him about the world-magic-infused wall that protected the Inner Sanctum.
“Wow, this place looks like garbage,” Quinn said, eyeing the ruins and half-constructed buildings that made up the Outer Sanctum. “How many people live here?”
“Scan says over three thousand,” Vincent replied. “Considering their constant battles, I’m surprised there’s even a city left standing.”
“Jim says Iijin Industries have drones that do most the rebuilding,” Xan noted. “However, the drones only leave the Inner Sanctum during breaks in the war.”
“Seems peaceful right now,” Quinn said, glancing around. “I should be disappointed there’s no fighting, but I’m sure we’ll see this endless war start up again soon enough.”
Vincent caught sight of detection runes as they neared the first few buildings. Several players on lookout towers watched them go by, and one even waved.
“Hey, Vincent!” the waving man shouted.
Vincent squinted his eyes, but he didn’t recognize the guy.
The other player jumped down from the guard tower, landing beside them without breaking his Mana Shield. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I Scanned you,” the man said, talking with a slight country accent. “You’re really that Vincent? I mean, you must be with those levels. I’m Antonio, this world’s lieutenant for the Jiminy World Crickets. We hold towers eleven, twelve, thirteen, sixteen, twenty-four, and twenty—” He paused, thinking. “No wait, twenty-five was destroyed.”
“Jim’s still in the Inner Sanctum, right?” Vincent asked.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Antonio replied. “Glad you’re here, though. I really shouldn’t have left my post, but I just wanted to greet you and let you know you have plenty of friends in this city. Don’t be afraid to use the guild chat, you hear?”
Vincent nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”
“How long do you think it’ll be till the next siege?” Quinn asked, cracking her knuckles.
“Not too long,” Antonio replied, sighing afterward. “We saw devil scouts jumping in and out of portals yesterday. Once it starts, you can expect six to ten weeks of nonstop fighting. It’s not like that battle y’all fought in Midrun. These monsters are relentless.”
“I hope so,” Quinn replied.
Antonio grinned. “You’re just like Jim said you were. Boy, I’m glad you three are here. Although I ought to get back to work now. Catch you around.” He leapt into the air, scaling the entire tower in just two jumps.
“I can’t wait to spar with some of these people,” Quinn said.
“They say the best players in the game are here,” Xan said.
Quinn smirked. “Well, we’ve already met each other, but we’ll see the next best after our team.”
The three players continued past broken fortifications and ruined buildings. They noticed that most of the streets were covered in large white tiles, and they even saw a few players with a wagon rebuilding a damaged part of the road with new blocks. Vincent saw the hints of runes layered in the tiles, and he guessed they offered protection so the city wouldn’t have to rebuild their roads after every single battle. Even some of the newer buildings looked made from the same kind of layered stone.
The farther into the city they walked, the more they saw players on the street. Vincent’s Quickeye and Catalogue upgrades let him save every player’s details so he could look over them later.
“How strong are they?” Quinn asked Vincent.
“A lot of hundred twenties and thirties,” Vincent noted. “Some hundred forties and fifties too. Those two talking over there have specialized stats over a hundred seventy.”
“Wow,” Xan said. “So, three thousand people in this small city around the strength of Lucas’s generals. I didn’t think there were so many players in the game on that level.”
“Jim says before the endless war against started, the few hundred players here were mostly around a hundred twenty,” Quinn said. “Many of them had reached this far by taking large caravans, with only a handful of people surviving each trip. None of them were ready to take on Lavrin, so they settled here. Apparently, they’d grown complacent until that Demon Lord attacked. The weakest hightailed it back to the lower worlds, but the ones who remained have grown quite strong.”
Vincent’s eyes fixated on a blacksmith’s shop, and he approached to check out the tables. The master-quality basteel weapons on display made his mouth fall open in amazement. “These are incredible!” he said, looking at the fine details. “All my years on Eramar, and I never produced anything of this quality.”
“Thanks,” a girl’s voice called. “Been blacksmithing since the beta, so I like to think I’m the best on the World-Tree.”
Vincent peered across the store before realizing the person talking to him was a messy-haired girl behind the counter. Judging by her appearance, he didn’t think she was old enough to even play the game, so he Scanned her, expecting her to be an NPC.
Player: Hammer Queen Juniper
Class: Warden
Subclass: Mage
Real Age: 16
Highest World: Lavrin
Vitality*: Lv 193
Spirit*: Lv 189
Resolve: Lv 170
Perception: Lv 174
Agility: Lv 165
Strength: Lv 172
“You’re only sixteen?” Vincent questioned. “How are you even in this game? You have to be eighteen to play.”
“The doctors say I won’t make it to eighteen,” Juniper replied. “Then again, they said I wouldn’t make it to sixteen, but ARKUS’s advancements changed things. They started me over on the Critical Illness Server made for dying kids, but I asked to be transferred to the World-Tree Server because this one is a lot more exciting. ARKUS only allowed it because sixteen is considered an adult in my country. Anyway, I’ve had to explain this to thousands of people, so can we just talk about how cool my weapons and armor are?”
Vincent nodded, returning his attention back to the sword on the table. “It really is incredible craftsmanship,” he said. “Where’s your forge? This building looks a little small, so I assume it’s in another location?”
Juniper tapped her foot on the stone floor. “Actually, it’s underground. The devils and hell ants periodically destroy everything aboveground, so you’ll find most the interesting parts of the Outer Sanctum below your feet.”
“You don’t live in the Inner Sanctum?” Vincent asked.
“Nah, I don’t bother with that,” she replied. “Isaac Bell has begged me to work for him a thousand times, but I’d rather make weap
ons and armor for the people defending the city. Plus, I get good stuff from the hell ants. Check out my chitin armor and weapons.”
She equipped a longsword made of a strange, dark material that Vincent Scanned.
Chitin Blade – Material Rating: 400 | An exquisitely crafted longsword made from a hell ant’s chitin. Cannot be hardened, enhanced, or further enchanted. | Regeneration – This blade drains minuscule amounts of mana from the user to repair itself over time.
“Wow, that’s useful,” Vincent replied. “Do you also make chitin armor?”
Juniper nodded in reply. “The hell ants sometimes drop globules of soma too. It’s highly alchemic, even more so than gild.”
“Alchemic, huh?” Vincent replied, remembering his skyglass. He took out a piece to show her. “Do you think you can make weapons from this? Its rating is six hundred, but it drops to one hundred if exposed to world magic. We probably have half a ton of the stuff.”
“Woah!” Juniper said, her eyes growing big. “I know what that is, but I haven’t seen any since the beta. I’ve never had a chance to make something from it.” She paused, thinking. “I’ll need a world magic pipeline if you want me to craft anything from it. The only problem is that the Foundry sucks up all of Styxis’s world magic. I’m sure you’ve noticed how barren this world looks. It wasn’t that way until Isaac started his experiments.”
“I have a spell that makes world magic rain over an area,” Xan said. “Would that help?”
“Nah, I’d need an actual pipeline,” Juniper replied. “It’d take a lot of precision and time to craft anything from skyglass. Making it rain for a few minutes won’t do me any good.”
“Is it expensive to run a line from the Foundry?” Vincent asked.
“It’s costly, but if you get Isaac to run me a line, I’ll make whatever you want,” Juniper said. “Just let me keep enough skyglass to make a few short swords for myself.”
“Sounds great to me,” Vincent replied.
Juniper grabbed a rune leaflet and drew on it with mana. “Here you go,” she said, handing over the glowing leaflet.
Blah, Blah, Quest Title (Contract Quest) – Hammer Queen Juniper has offered to make you whatever weapons and armor you’d like from skyglass, but only if you convince Isaac Bell to run a world magic pipeline to her forge. In addition, you must give her enough skyglass to forge a dozen short swords. | Quest Condition: If either player breaks the contract after the pipeline has been built, the offending party will pay 10,000 gild from their inventory or storage. Do you accept? (Yes/No)
“You didn’t need to write a contract,” Vincent said, accepting the quest.
“Around here you do,” Juniper replied. “You can’t take anyone at their word on Styxis. Only the most driven players have made it this far. You wouldn’t believe the lengths some of these people have gone to climb this high. Don’t trust anyone.” Juniper paused, staring above Vincent’s head, likely at his player profile. “Jeez, a sixteen-year-old girl shouldn’t have to tell an old man not to trust strangers!”
Vincent chuckled. “Thanks for the advice. I already need to talk to Isaac, so I’ll try to work this out while I’m at it. See you later, Juniper.”
“Later, old man,” she replied. “Next time you stop by, I’ll show you the forge.”
Vincent nodded and then returned to Xan and Quinn, who had left for the shop across the street where a player was performing alchemy. The three watched as the man set up complex runes before bombarding a towering pile of gild with frequencies from his hands. They stood there for several minutes, but in that time, the table of gild only produced a small cube of basteel.
“Alchemy is a slow process,” Vincent noted. “Looks like it takes a lot of skill, knowledge, and meticulousness to get the desired results.”
“So boring,” Quinn said, walking away from the table. “Let’s hurry to the Inner Sanctum already.”
“Hang on a minute,” Vincent told her. “I wanted to check out some apothecary shops while I’m at it.” He saw one nearby and approached with an excited smile. The equipment on the table looked a lot more advanced than what he normally used, and he saw different mixtures and substances in vials on display.
The shopkeeper showed him boxes containing different plants and materials, and Vincent spent almost five minutes oohing and aahing before buying some pre-made mixtures that could be used in different recipes.
“So boring,” Quinn repeated, pretending not to notice as Vincent rejoined the women. “Oh, there you are, Vince. You done looking at flowers and jars?”
Xan rapped the back of her hand against Quinn’s shoulder. “Be nice, Quinn.”
Quinn glared at the younger woman. “When’d you get so stern? Is this something you picked up from Zhang?”
The mention of Zhang seemed to bounce right off Xan, and she replied with a smirk, “That’s something I learned dealing with you two and Jim. Someone in our party has to be levelheaded.”
“I thought I was the levelheaded one?” Vincent questioned.
“You are when you’re not geeking out or obsessing over something,” Xan replied. “When you get single-minded like that is when I’ll step in and be the mature one. You know we can’t rely on Quinn and Jim for that.”
They slowed to a stop as they approached a building that was under construction. Twelve monstrous ants the size of people worked on the building while three players guided them. Vincent eyed the control rods sticking out of the monsters’ heads. Jim had told him about Iijin Industries’ so-called drone knights, but they looked even more disturbing than he’d imagined.
“Those things are ugly as hell,” Quinn said.
“Creepy too,” Xan added. “Especially with those rods jutting out from their heads.”
“Those rods are imprinted with monster control runes,” Vincent told her. “They trick the hell ants into being docile, and Iijin Industries can tweak them to follow the commands of certain players. Jim says they rent them out for construction to the Outer Sanctum, but most of them serve players in the Inner Sanctum.”
The three players picked up their pace, moving past the construction site. When Vincent passed close to one of the drone knights, he could feel the buzzing of the control rods’ frequencies.
Those things are powerful. Monster control runes are normally very limited, so they must have to bombard those creatures with frequencies just to keep them in check. If someone ripped out even one rod, I bet that ant would attack.
Due to the small size of the city, it didn’t take long to reach the Eternal Ring. Vincent could see runes and pipelines racing across the walls, and a whitish haze rose off the stone like it was seeped in world magic. The haze even hovered above the wall, and Vincent glimpsed a near-invisible dome that reached toward the massive factory-looking building at the center of the city.
I bet my Void Gun wouldn’t even penetrate this wall, Vincent guessed. He picked a rock off the ground and flicked it at the white forcefield, only for a spark of world magic to vaporize the stone in an instant. Incredible, but how do we get inside?
The three players circled around the Eternal Ring, trying to figure out where the entrance was located. Eventually, they found a glowing gate with four drone knights standing guard. Just past the gate, Vincent could see a spiraling Daiglass Tower rising higher than the wall.
“Hey, let us in!” Quinn shouted, although she seemed to be yelling at the wall and not the bugs.
A holographic projection of a cloaked man appeared in front of the drone knights. “Do you seek access to the tower or the Inner Sanctum?” the man asked.
“Both,” Vincent replied.
“Your team will be allowed to enter the tower,” the man said. “However, you’ll need a permit to enter the Inner Sanctum.”
The gate slowly opened, but Vincent discovered the area around the Daiglass Tower was surrounded by more glowing walls. Even the tiles on the ground glowed with world magic as he stepped across it. Fortified towers loomed above the left a
nd right walls, and a second gate stood beyond the tower, denying them entry into the Inner Sanctum.
“These defenses seem a little excessive,” Quinn said, approaching the spiraling tower.
“The two gates can’t be opened at the same time,” the holographic projection said as it reappeared beside the tower. “If the Demon Lord ever breaches these gates, he might damage the Foundry.”
Vincent and his team set their new spawn points at the tower, and then they put any extra items into storage. He smiled with relief that they’d made it through their journey. “There’s nothing better than the feeling of setting a new spawn,” he told his teammates.
“Normally I’d agree with you,” Quinn said, “but I already don’t like this place. There’re too many rules for my taste.”
“After checking with my supervisor, I’ve been informed only Vincent is permitted into the Inner Sanctum,” the hologram told them. “He’ll be allowed to stay just long enough to speak with Crow-Foot Jim and Isaac Bell. Once the two women leave through the first gate, I’ll open the second.”
Quinn sighed. “You know what? I’d probably hate it in there anyway.”
“Aw, I wanted to see it,” Xan said, disappointedly. “You sure I can’t get a permit?”
“Normally, to acquire a permit you need to put in a request,” the man explained. “The typical waiting time is up to one year. However, you can purchase a one-day pass for a thousand gild if you’re in a hurry.”
“A thousand gild?” Xan questioned. “Ugh, forget it.”
Once Quinn and Xan left the area, the gate closed behind them. Vincent waited as the second gate opened, and then he continued into the Inner Sanctum. He saw a lot more pipelines running from the Eternal Ring to the Foundry, and it looked like drone knights posted on every street corner kept an eye on the pipes.
Most of the buildings between the Daiglass Tower and the Foundry looked like warehouses and workshops, but it didn’t take him long to find elegant houses lining the edge of the Inner Sanctum. From what Jim had told him, some of the richest players on the World-Tree made their homes there. Vincent didn’t doubt that as he passed extravagant mansions, gardens, and what looked to be a resort that covered several blocks.
