World Tree Online: The Duchess of Hammers: 2nd Dive Begins

by M. A. Carlson

  I stand corrected. Slowly peeling my eyes open, I was surprised to see my User Interface clock indicate it was already 8:00 AM, which meant I had indeed slept in. Although considering I only got to bed maybe 4 or 5 hours ago, it wasn’t much sleep.

  I let out a tired sigh as I squirmed toward the edge of the bed and rolled up to a seated position, my bare feet settling on the cool floor. I sat for a minute, letting my body try to wake up a little. I yawned and stretched my arms over my head, trying to work the sleep out.

  “Jack,” shouted Rose again, hammering at the door.

  “I’m up, give me a minute,” I snapped back. The pounding on my door wasn’t helping with my hangover at all.

  “We’re leaving in 15-minutes, you better be dressed and ready to go,” shouted Rose through the door before I heard her booted feet walking away, though muffled by the door.

  I sighed again which turned into another yawn. I blinked a few times, trying to peel my eyes wide and force the tiredness away. I even slapped both of my cheeks a few times.

  My eyes however were drawn to the neatly stacked items on my desk. My ‘Advanced Cartographer’s Field Kit’ had been delivered yesterday while we were out and about. It was packed with everything I could ever need or want to make maps while I was out and about exploring the various provinces of the World Tree.

  Remembering that Rose was eager to get going and satisfied that I was as awake as I was going to get until I had a little hangover remedy and some food, I dressed quickly and packed my new kit then headed downstairs to meet with my friends.

  “About time, Jack,” said Rose, grinning at me slightly. It was a wry grin that I knew only too well the cause of. Last night’s drinking card game, she won . . . big time. Put me, Olaf, Micaela, and Mardi all under the table, I barely remember stumbling to my room . . . actually, I think Rose helped me to my room now that I think about it.

  I ignored her grin and sought out my remedy, there were still the same two kegs of beer setup with empty mugs waiting to be filled. I filled one to the brim and start guzzling it down, eager to deal with the hangover.

  “Better?” Rose asked.

  “Yes,” I replied, moving on to grab a plate and fill it with bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast . . . then I added a few extra slices of bacon as I already knew Rose was likely to steal some of it even though she was fully capable of getting her own plate.

  Mardi stumbled in just as I was sitting down.

  “Aren’t you going to be late?” I asked, taking note of the time.

  “They can wait,” mumbled Mardi, going straight to the keg. Instead of getting a mug she put her mouth to the spigot and opened the tap and let the golden liquid poor straight down her gullet.

  Olaf and Micaela joined us a few minutes after that. Like clockwork, they too went to the kegs and filled a mug.

  Heath joined us too but in stealth, apparently, he was still avoiding Rose if the pantomime he showed me was to be interpreted correctly.

  “Bye-bye, Mic and I were talking about finally going to the barracks for training this morning,” started Olaf. “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind coming with us, just for the sake of introducing us and hopefully avoiding some of the . . . prejudice that tends to follow us.”

  I was more than happy to agree but I also knew Rose had plans for us today, so I looked to her first.

  “Yeah, we can drop you off there. We have a few errands to run afterward, but we can meet back up with you there,” said Rose.

  “Why don’t we all go to the library together first, then drop them off? We might be able to use the jump point to get to the fifth ring a little faster,” I suggested.

  “Listen to them, they sound like parents planning to drop their kids off for a playdate,” joked Micaela.

  I froze and felt my face heat up. Leave it to Micaela to find the perfect way to embarrass me and a quick look at Rose told me it was just as effective on her.

  “Are Rose and Bye-bye having a puppy?” Vision asked, looking between the two of us.

  Micaela, Olaf, and Mardi burst out into laughter.

  If the heat I felt in my face was any indication, I must have been bright red. I had never felt so uncomfortable or embarrassed in my life.

  “Jack, we’re leaving,” said Rose, quickly standing and starting to pull me away from the table. “They can find their own way this morning.”

  “Oh, come now, Rose,” said Olaf, wiping away tears of laughter. “We were just taking a little liberty. We didn’t mean any harm by it. And Vision doesn’t know any better, he’s barely more than a pup himself.”

  Rose hesitated but still sat down, still red but somewhat more composed.

  “So, they are not having a puppy?” Vision asked, looking from one of us to the next, looking for an answer.

  “No, Jack and I are not having a baby,” answered Rose directly.

  “Awe, I was hoping to have someone to play with,” whined the pup, his ears lowered.

  “What? I’m not good enough?” I asked, trying to perk the pup back up again. “I suppose you don’t like getting your belly rubbed or scratched behind the ears then?”

  “What? No, I like it. You are good enough, Bye-bye. Please do not stop petting me,” begged the pup, having nearly tackled me from my chair.

  I gave him a good scratch behind the ears to reassure him. “Alright then, all good now?”

  “Yeah . . . but do not wait too long to have a puppy. I want a little cousin to play with,” said Vision, moving off and earning another round of laughs. Rose and I even laughed this time, the little guy was just too funny.

  “Right, I suppose I have left the Royal Guard waiting long enough for me. I best get ready and make one final attempt to procure some help from Leo,” said Mardi, excusing herself from the table.

  “Soon as the Duchess is gone, we should head out,” said Olaf. “I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything this week.”

  “Except Rank II engineering and completing several professional quests for it,” said Micaela, refusing to let her husband get down on himself. “Not to mention, you also restocked on supplies, and upgraded several bits of our survival gear, so what if you haven’t been able to do any training for your class yet. This isn’t a race, my love.”

  Olaf rubbed his head, it was his turn to blush. Apparently, receiving such praise from his wife was more than he expected. It made me wonder what the pair was like when it was just them together. I was starting to get the impression that as much as Olaf took charge in the game, it was actually Micaela that wore the pants in that family.

  We saw the Duchess off with the Royal Guard about 20-minutes later, so not quite on Rose’s timetable, after waking me up almost an hour before.

  The inside of the library was much the same as the first time I had entered days earlier, down to the snakeman librarian reading a large tome, his hissing sounding a lot like shushing.

  “So many skills,” whispered Micaela, looking around in awe.

  Rose wasn’t as awestruck, this was her second trip here. She went straight to the desk, setting two of the three books she had previously checked out on the counter and showing the librarian her library card.

  I may have forgotten to tell Rose I had learned ‘Vampin’ from one of the skill books I had bought, so when Rose and librarian started hissing to each other like they had last time, I discovered ‘Vampin’ included snake language.

  “Misss Rose, I am sso pleassed to ssee you again. Were the bookss helpful?” the snakeman asked.

  “Abssolutely, thank you again Ssirac. I gained sseveral levelss in enchanting and learned a few new enchantmentss. I was esspecially happy with the ‘Enchanted Vampire’. Panther wass happy to have that one as well,” gushed Rose, hissing back to him.

  “Yess, I quite enjoyed it, thank you,” hissed the small black snake from around her neck. I only now noticed the little snake wasn’t so little anymore, he had to of grown at least 6-inches.

  “Anything for a sservant of th
e Great Misstresss,” said Sirac, bowing his head reverently. “Now, how may I be of asssisstance to you, Misstresss Rosse.”

  “Eye skillss, there wass a book in Hurlig Ridge my companion ussed lasst month to learn sseveral valuable eye-bassed sskills. I think it was called ‘The Eye Trainer’ or ssomething like that,” hissed Rose.

  “The Trained Eye’,” I hissed helpfully.

  “Right, ‘The Trained Eye’,” said Rose before suddenly freezing, and looking at me wide-eyed as did Sirac.

  “Bye-bye,” started Micaela. “Did you just hiss?”

  I smiled at the ogre, immensely enjoying the look of absolute befuddlement on Rose’s face.

  “Jack, since when?” Rose asked, no longer hissing.

  “It was one of the skill books I picked up yesterday. I thought it would be good if we had a way to communicate that was unlikely to be overheard,” I explained, also not hissing. I’m not sure how that worked. There wasn’t a conscious decision to hiss or not hiss, it just kind of happened. It must have been a subconscious decision. I made a mental note to explore it later, see if I couldn’t consciously choose to speak in one of the other languages.

  “Well, this is quite the surprise,” said Sirac. “For one who is not chosen to speak the language of the Great Mistress. What will she think? Will she smite you? Or turn you? I do wonder.”

  “I’m pretty sure the Goddess Issara will not allow the Goddess Lilith to interfere with her champion,” I said, not that I wouldn’t have been okay with becoming a Daywalker like Rose, it could be pretty cool, but kind of the antithesis of being a warrior priest, specifically the priest part.

  Sirac let out a hissing laughter. “Now that is just too precious. I suppose we should get back to business. You need ‘The Trained Eye’, correct?” he asked, looking to Rose again.

  “Yes, and if the book does not contain the skill, I need a book that teaches ‘See Intrigue’, I think that’s what Jack called it,” answered Rose.

  “You would want a skill like ‘See Intrigue’,” complained the Snakeman. “I just hope the book that teaches it has not been moved or it might take hours to find stupid enchanted books.” He sighed, resigned to a possibly long and difficult search through the library. “And what about the rest of you?”

  “Olaf and Micaela both need Library Cards. I don’t know what they will want for books though,” answered Rose.

  I set my one finished book on the counter. “I don’t know if I will be able to finish the two other books I’ve got now before we leave Root City,” I stated. It was true. I was little more than halfway through ‘Reading the Patterns’ and I hadn’t even cracked open ‘Provinces of the World Tree: Volume I’.

  “Well, that is at least something,” said Sirac. He took care of the Library Cards for Olaf and Micaela first.

  Micaela then asked for a book on spirits. Apparently, she felt she needed to know more about the spirits and spirit types that existed. She mentioned something about having a few ideas for totems but didn’t know if there were spirits available that could do what she wanted to do.

  Olaf asked for any books that might have a passive skill related to reloading hand-cannons, improving accuracy, raising his critical strike chance or damage. He also only wanted one book as he wasn’t sure how much time he would have to read before we left Root City.

  When Sirac returned he doled out the books to everyone. But where Rose had asked for two books, she was only given one. “I will need to search for the other book. Come back this afternoon and I am sure I will have found it for you by then.”

  “Thankss again, Ssirac,” hissed Rose.

  Sirac bowed.

  As we were leaving, Sirac called me back. “Bye-bye, a moment if you please.”

  “I’ll meet you outside,” I said to my friends, going back to the counter.

  “Have you had any luck uncovering what those books together might do?” Sirac asked.

  “I have a theory, but I won’t know for sure until I finish them,” I replied. I had a very good idea at this point, but I wanted to finish them to be absolutely certain, it wouldn’t be good if I got his hopes up.

  “Well, come back when you do, I promise I will make it worth your while,” said Sirac, reinforcing the quest I received from him earlier this week. An Item from the Library’s Private Collection was just too good to pass up.

  “I will, I promise.” My friends were waiting.

  “What was that about?” Rose asked, eyeing me carefully.

  “He gave a quest earlier this week related to the books I’ve been reading. He wants to know what they do,” I answered.

  “What do they do?” asked Rose, leaning in a little closer.

  “I think . . . and this is only a theory. But I think they let me read the World Tree portal information,” I answered.

  “As in, you can look at a portal and get the information for what’s on the other side?” Olaf asked, leaning in a little closer.

  “I think so,” I replied. I then briefly told them what happened when I looked at one of the portals yesterday evening.

  “That sounds fantastic, no more stepping into a portal to see what’s on the other side,” gushed Olaf. “I might have to go in and get the books myself.”

  “Wait, is this a ‘Lore’ thing?” Rose asked.

  “Yes, at least, I think it is, and it’s a lot of math, like a lot. I don’t have the words to properly express just how much math is involved,” I replied. I didn’t doubt Rose’s ability, if she set herself to reading and learning those books, she would. I figured a little forewarning wouldn’t be remiss, especially after seeing Rose cringe when the word ‘math’ left my mouth.

  “That will have to be a battle for another time,” said Rose. “For now, we can all just mooch off Jack.”

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about that statement, I chose to retaliate. “Speaking of mooching, when are you going to start enchanting our gear?”

  It was ever so satisfying to see the look on Rose’s face. It was her comeuppance and it was long overdue. We had given her plenty of time to learn enchanting, she should have been able to start enchanting our gear already.

  “I suppose . . . maybe tonight . . . I mean, it’s not that strong yet but I should be able to give you a few enchantments to your armor. Why don’t we start with your boots? I have an enchantment I think will work for all of you,” said Rose, trying to placate us as we all stared at her together.

  “I suppose that will do,” said Micaela, then suddenly freezing. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. My totems are considered enchanted items. I guess you’re off the hook for me.”

  “Boss is awfully forgetful,” commented Vision.

  “You have no idea,” grumbled Olaf, rolling his eye.

  “Alright, we’ve wasted enough time,” said Rose. “We have things to do today, so let’s get to it.”

  Rose was right, we had a lot that needed to get done today. Though I had to admit, I was really enjoying just spending time like this, all of us together as a group, even if Heath and Baby were elsewhere.

  At the barracks, Rose and I showed Micaela and Olaf the training schedule in the mess hall, then took them up and introduced them to Lieutenant Saaya.

  “Before I forget, I was wondering if Rose and I . . . my whole group actually. Could we get permission to use the Jump points?” I asked as we were about to leave the office.

  “I have no problem with you using the Jump points, Bye-bye. You have proven yourself to my men and I. And I suppose . . . I would be fine with you and a guest using the jump points but no more than that,” said Saaya, rubbing his chin, stroking his fur to a point at his chin.

  “That’s fair,” said Olaf before I could protest, then added, “We’ll just all have to prove you can trust us.”

  “I will inform my men immediately,” said Saaya, quickly writing a note then dropping it in a tube behind his desk I hadn’t noticed before. “Now, off you go,” ordered Saaya, ushering us from his office.

  “
Well, Olaf and I are going to get a closer look at the training schedule and see what we can do,” said Micaela, even as the door to the office was closing behind us.

  “Okay, Jack and I are heading to the fifth ring, we shouldn’t be there for too long,” said Rose, practically dragging me away and to the jump point.

  “I really hope I don’t get sick this time,” grumbled Rose while we stood in line, waiting our turn. “Where are we going?”

  “Fifth Ring, Southwest 4,” I replied. “If it helps, Rhyes said it does get easier.”

  “Here’s hoping, see you in a few seconds,” Rose said, stepping onto the jump platform first. “Fifth Ring, Southwest 4,” she stated clearly, vanishing instantly.

  I stepped up next, clearly stating my destination and just like Rose, I was flying through the air, looking down on the city below me. I don’t know that I would ever tire of this view.

  Arriving in the enclosed room again, I found Rose standing off to the side, looking pale, but not puking, a sign of improvement.

  “Ready?” I asked, eager to get our errands run. I don’t know why I was so eager, it wasn’t like I had anything planned for the rest of the day. I was sure though, at some point today, me or one of my team . . . or all of us, would be attacked by the Ardentia Guild.

  Focusing on Rose, she shook her head and held up a finger, then turned and vomited in a conveniently place garbage can.

  I was there quickly, holding back her hair again.

  “It was better this time,” Rose said, a bit of color already returning to her face, as she wiped her mouth with the handkerchief I had kept from Rhyes. Thank goodness for the free cleaning from the Duchess’s temporary staff.

  “So, sundry first, then the colleges?” I asked, feeling Rose would prefer to just forge ahead rather than dwell on her having been sick.

  “Sounds good,” said Rose, leading the way out of the building and marching into the street determined. “Now, which way do we go?”

  I chuckled. Rose was something else. “Follow me.”

  Rose and I walked quickly, or rather, Rose walked quickly, pushing me along. I was half-tempted to purposely slow down just to bug her. However, it wasn’t a long walk to ‘Wally’s Sundry’ so before I could do much to annoy her we had arrived.