But enough of that. I had to figure out what to do about the quest—either I was doing it or it was getting put on the back burner. I also needed to start heading in the direction of the next dryad, as I figured I’d be okay at my current Level 43. It would have been nice to jump up to Level 45 or even Level 48, but I could manage where I was if I was smart about it.
I left the caravanserai and stopped a hook-nosed guard walking by. “Excuse me, sir, could you tell me where the auction house is?”
“Ah, not far,” he answered in a heavy accent. “Turn when you get to that house over there, then you’ll see Rahimbai’s money-changing stand. He’s as greedy and mean as a dog, that one! I asked him to lend me five gold and he wouldn’t do it.”
“That’s a shame.” I shook my head. “And where do I go after that?”
“It is!” he continued, distracted by his annoyance with the money-changer. “Then go around that fool Mikkhak’s stand, walk through the square, and then go past Ibrahim’s tavern. Ah, their kebab is to die for! They use mutton, and I swear on my mother, it’s the best you’ll ever have! One bite and you’re in heaven. Hey, let’s go have some right now!”
“What’s your name, good sir?” I asked with a sigh.
“Sayyid,” said the guard, his arms on his waist.
“Sayyid, here’s three gold. Go have yourself a great meal and drink to my health. But, in the meantime, I need to know how to get to the auction house—I swear on my mother!”
I handed him the gold, and he took it with a smile.
Your reputation in Selgar is now 3% higher, so you will be given small discounts by the tradesmen selling their wares within the city limits. Getting your reputation to 20% or higher will unlock a number of hidden and other quests.
“Don’t worry about that, my friend. I will drink and eat to your health!” Sayyid assured me. “Definitely and right away. I’ll dance, too! Do you know how well I dance?”
Sayyid looked like he was about to give me a demonstration.
“I’m sorry, my friend, but we’ll have to dance later. How do I get to the auction?” I was already regretting that I asked him the question in the first place. The reputation boost was nice, but not if it came at the cost of my sanity.
“What? Oh, the auction! Once you’re past the tavern, it’ll be right there. Look for a flag with a sword and hammer on it.”
“Thanks,” I said sincerely as I shook Sayyid’s hand. “Have a good meal!”
I trotted off in the direction the cordial guard had indicated.
“When you’re done, stop by the tavern. I’ll be there!” he yelled after me.
“Yeah, right, that’s just what I need,” I muttered to myself. On the other hand, of course, having a few drinks with him might not have been a bad idea. I figured I could probably get my reputation up to five percent or even ten percent.
But, given the fact that I couldn’t care less what my reputation was right then, I decided to let the whole thing slide. The auction house was calling my name. I needed to sell some things and get a feel for what the price range was—I couldn’t spend the whole game looking like a ragamuffin. Judge for yourself: I was wearing a steel cuirass that clashed with my leather poleyns. At least, I was far from the only one looking like that.
The auction house was an enormous building with columns near the entrance, a domed roof, and a dozen guards that were probably there to create the setting. Inside, was a huge room full of players milling around auctioneers on pedestals.
I walked up to one of the latter.
“Buying? Or selling?” he yelled at me. He had no choice but to yell given the deafening roar created by so many voices talking at once. The ceiling’s great acoustics didn’t help…
“I’ll start by buying,” I shouted back.
The auctioneer nodded, and an interface popped up in front of me. I told it what I was looking for by entering a number of search parameters: class, level, item type, price range, and so on.
I spent about half an hour checking through all the equipment the different players were selling before coming to two conclusions. First, I could sell my own belongings at prices higher than what vendors would give me, though the prices still weren’t great. Second, I couldn’t buy anything nice, as it was all really expensive. I wasn’t about to buy anything like what I had either, as I would have had to pay up for just the few points of strength they might net me. I did make an exception for a pair of gauntlets, however, as mine—the ones I got back at the clan storehouse—were ancient. Everything else within my price range was no better, and often even worse, than what I had on me.
Once I’d gotten the hang of the prices, I put my items up for sale, asking the auctioneer to mail me the money he collected for them. I asked him to send me the items themselves, as well, if they didn’t sell.
“We don’t send anything besides money by mail, so you’ll have to pick them up yourself,” said the auctioneer, cutting me off in the process.
“Why? What if I leave Selgar?”
“You can get them when you come back,” he answered. “We keep things for a month free of charge, though every day thereafter for up to five months costs ten copper coins.”
“What happens then?”
“Your items are claimed by the auction,” he informed me dispassionately.
“That’s a bit severe,” I said.
The auctioneer didn’t reply. Instead, he screamed his “Selling? Or buying?” at the next visitor.
My purchases ran me quite a bit of money: I spent almost a thousand gold on what were just average items.
I put them on and finally distributed my points, something I’d been putting off doing.
Basic attributes:
Strength: 177 (105+64)
Intellect: 18 (13+5)
Agility: 31 (17+14)
Stamina: 137 (75+62)
Wisdom: 20
Next time I’ll have to bump up my wisdom, I noted to myself.
Still, on the whole, I was happy with the tank I was shaping up to be. A veritable armored train! Strength and power. I was even closing in on Level 45 and the shield I would finally be able to use. On the other hand, what if something happened? The shield’s attributes were fantastic, but if I died, I’d be stuck waving goodbye to it as I floated off. Whatever, I’ll figure that out when I get to Level 45.
“Hi there, vagabond!” I received a smack in the shoulder that didn’t very well match the melodious, girlish voice that accompanied it.
I turned around. Smiling at me was Milly Re, the Gray Witch’s beautiful sidekick with the two swords behind her back.
“Hey, Milly,” I said, smiling back. “How are things?”
“Fine,” she said, her smile widening. “Really good even. I’ve had so much work to do lately, but I got the day off today, out of the blue, so I couldn’t be happier. This may not be the nicest thing to say, but hooray for quarantines!”
“Oh, wow,” I said, surprised.
“What are you up to?”
I looked at Milly, radiant in her love of life, and realized that she was my ticket into Sviss’ cave. She would neither try to take my share nor stab me in the back. And she had time on her hands.
“Me? Nothing much, though I do have one little problem you could help me take care of—we’d walk away with some nice loot and even have fun collecting it,” I said, hoping she’d take the bait.
“Oh, yes?” Milly’s cheeks reddened slightly and she looked a bit taken aback. “What do you mean?”
I explained to her what was going on and, as expected, she quickly agreed, perked up, and started paging through her friend list to see who was online. It was a Monday, so there weren’t that many.
“Hey, come on,” she said, shoving me at the same time. “Look for some other kiddies, and especially a healer for you. I invited three hulks I know, so you don’t have to worry about tanks, but we could use a mage, a healer, and a scout at your level. Don’t know any? Just find anyone. We don’t have to wor
ry about anyone betraying us with my guys around to show them the straight and narrow.”
“But why a scout?”
“There’ll be chests, hiding spots, and traps. Can you open chests?”
“No.”
“Me neither. But scouts can. And, there’ll be plenty of good stuff in chests—gold, and so on. I guess you can figure out the problem with traps on your own? Go, go, go, write a message in the chat. What are you waiting for?”
I thought for a second before writing.
Getting eight people together, going to Fattah Cave to hunt Sviss, the naga king. Already have high-level tanks—4/4. Low-levels—1/4. Need low-level: healer, scout, mage, no lower than Level 35. Extra difficulty level.
I didn’t expect the nearly instantaneous response I got. Sure, the players responding were mostly bodybuilders like me, but it took just five minutes to find a Level 44 healer named Dix, a Level 43 firedrop mage (his words) named Flar, and a Level 44 healer named Tregen.
“All set?” Milly Re asked, looking over the troops gathered under my banner.
“A decent group,” I said with dignity.
“That doesn’t really matter—my guys will do the fighting,” she answered. “Ah, speak of the devil!”
Three portals opened, one after another, and out popped what could only be described as three battleships, judging by their colossal size and the amount of iron they were encased in.
“Hey, Milly,” said one named Erador. “How’re you, babe?”
“How many times have I told you not to call me babe?” roared Milly indignantly. “Hagen, these are my iron-headed friends, Erador, Nox, and Turok. Guys, this is Hagen.”
“Ha, you sure do like hanging around with the kiddies,” said Turok with a grin. “Hi, Hagen!”
“The Witch sent this particular kiddie a personal friendship ring and invited him to storm the Wild Hearts’ citadel with us,” Milly Re said to the iron heads sarcastically. “You might not remember, since you weren’t there.”
“I’ve told you a hundred times, we were away at drill for the Olympic reserves,” boomed Nox. “How many times do we have to apologize? I heard about you, by the way, my friend. You were the one who survived in the siege tower when all the veterans died, right?”
“Yes, that was me.” I was tickled to think that even people like the ones in front of me knew who I was.
“He saved my ass, too,” added Milly Re.
“And, a special thank-you for that,” said Erador, laughing. “I’ve had a thing for her forever, so I’m glad she’s okay.”
“Stop drooling and let it go,” she said sharply before turning to give me an order. “Invite them to the group.”
A minute later, the group was set up and we’d jumped through a portal Milly opened, finding ourselves smack dab in the middle of the oasis looking at the entrance to Fattah Cave. It was small, earthen, very narrow, and overgrown with some kind of shrubbery.
“All right, kids, listen up. Your job is to not die and, most importantly, make sure this one,” Milly Re said, pointing at me, “doesn’t die either. It’s fine if you don’t actually kill anything, but he has to stay alive. Healer, remember—all you care about is Hagen. Got it?”
“What about me?” asked Tregen.
“You make sure you don’t get killed either, since we’ll need you once we clear out the cave. There isn’t a respawn, so you don’t have to worry about the nagas coming back. You’ll start exploring when they’re all dead.”
The mage was silent, apparently understanding what he had to do.
“Everyone ready?” asked Milly.
We nodded, the Olympic reserves noisy in their metal cocoons.
“Wait, we need a trophy rule,” I said to Milly. “Maybe Who Needs What?”
“You’re the leader; you decide,” said Milly harshly. “We’ll go with what you say.”
I’d had to take charge, as I was the only one who could pick the difficulty level for the quest.
“Done,” I said. “Who Needs What.”
“Then let’s do this,” she said, pointing toward the cave.
Chapter Eighteen
In which nobody really lets the hero do anything.
I crawled into the narrow hole, got caught on some root sticking out of the ground, and tumbled into the passage head over heels.
You are beginning a quest: Sviss, King of the Nagas.
Task: Kill Sviss, the naga king, in Fattah Cave
There are three difficulty levels for this quest.
The number and quality of the trophies you get during the quest, as well as the main reward, depend on which difficulty level you choose.
Select a difficulty level:
Normal
Hard
Extra
I selected Extra and got another message for my trouble.
You selected Extra difficulty.
The number of opponents in the caves is increased by 200%
The strength of your opponents is increased by 100%
The strength and ability of Sviss, the naga king, are increased by 100%
The number of traps is increased by 50%
The number and quality of trophies is increased by 70%
The quantity of gold received is increased by 100%
The quantity of experience received is increased by 40%
The quest reward has been changed
You have an hour and a half to beat the quest
If you do not beat it within the time allotted, you will fail
A timer appeared in the lower left corner of the monitor, and I was happy to see that it didn’t show the seconds ticking away. That would have driven me crazy and, more importantly, distracted me.
Modified reward for beating Sviss, King of the Nagas
Reward
Completion of part of the Snakeface action
5000 experience
2500 gold
A random object for your class
Bonus: the ability to boost one of your active abilities one level if you complete the quest in half the allotted time
How many bonuses can one guy get? All I had to do was survive. Well, and get to the end…or, rather, get to the end and then survive.
The Olympic reserve crawled in behind me, armor clanging and curses spouting in a bass undertone.
“Seriously? Why do the tunnels have to be so narrow?” asked Turok as he stood up next to me.
“You think I know?” answered Milly Re. “I’m not a doctor.”
“That’s for sure,” snorted Nox.
“Oh, aren’t you Mr. Smarty-pants,” said Milly, snarling at him for some reason I didn’t understand.
I wasn’t exactly listening to their exchange, and was instead peering down the dark corridor. There was some kind of disconcerting movement a little way off. My fellow low-levelers, I thought, also had the jitters.
“Okay,” said Milly, glancing at the smiling faces of the giants hidden under their helmets. “You go ahead and put your appliances to work.”
“Our what?” Nox wrinkled his brow.
“Your meat grinders.”
The trio grinned and nodded.
“I’ll be right behind you and take care of anything that happens to get by you. You,” she continued, jabbing a finger at us, “collect trophies and protect Hagen. Hagen, whatever happens, you stay out of it. Understood?”
I nodded.
Milly was less than satisfied and repeated her question.
“Don’t nod; tell me, ‘Yes, I understand.’”
“Yes, I understand,” I obediently responded.
“Great. Scout, you…what is it? Tregen. You check the rooms for traps. There won’t be any in the corridor—time and other people have proven that. But there are usually plenty of them in the different rooms. So, you wait for the guys to clear out any enemies in there and then go in. And, not until then—if you go in first, they’ll all target you, you’ll all go running through the traps, you’ll die, and we’ll fail the quest.”
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“But what if the guys run into traps?” asked Tregen reasonably.
“You couldn’t kill them with an atom bomb. They’ll trigger the traps, brush them off, and go back to crunching bad guys. We’re the ones you need to worry about.”
“Right,” agreed Dix. “You can’t kill them—they have more health than a platoon of me.”
“Yes, healer,” said Milly, pointing her finger next at him. “Remember, Hagen is your main priority. If something happens, I’ll tell you who to heal, but focus on him. Make sure you always have some mana in reserve, got it?”
“Got it,” said Dix with a nod.
“Mage, buff us with whatever you can and keep an eye on Dix. Okay?”
The mage was about to nod when he looked at me and changed his mind.
“No questions, everything is clear,” he said distinctly. He waved his staff and we all got 20% protection from fire, cold, and electricity.
Milly looked us over. “Well, since we’re all clear, let’s get a move on it. The clock is ticking. Don’t forget to watch the wings.”
The triple towers boomed and crashed their way down the corridor, and the movement I’d spotted earlier started to take shape. A second later, it turned into a crowd of nagas snapping lipless mouths and waving sabers in front of themselves. They rushed down the corridor in triplets, somehow managing to avoid stabbing each other in the back as they went. I estimated that there were about fifteen of them, and they rushed forward with blinding speed. The only thing that mitigated my fear was the knowledge that my low-level groupmates were just as afraid as I was.
The crowd of nagas washed into the three giants, whose helmets nearly touched the ceilings, and broke like a wave against a rock.
The Road East (Epic LitRPG Adventure - Book 2) (Fayroll) Page 22
