The Apprentice of Arabella

by Matthew Kent

They laughed.

  “No, it's nothing like that. What we do is support each other and help one another out.” She said as she pointed each of the members out, “Right now there are just over two hundred members in the guild in this cluster.”

  I wasn’t sure a guild was the right idea for me right now, but you never know. “Tell you what send me a message in-game and I’ll consider it. I need to get back. That village won’t investigate itself.” I know they thought I didn’t catch the looks they gave each other, but I did in the reflection of the polished doors. It was the look one got when they were about to take ownership of something. I remembered that look from wealthy patrons who set their eyes on acquiring me. I had to be more careful, there were things going on here that I didn’t understand.

  “Watch out for the Valkyries,” I heard a voice whisper as I left the cafeteria. I looked over to where it came from. Brown hair, brown eyes, coffee-colored skin and a cute nose along with a symmetrical face. I nodded as the door closed to the others.

  “Yeah.” I looked back then back at the cafeteria, then at her. “Somethings not right with them. I think they think I’m their new cash cow.”

  “Just remember leave in-game, in game. They like to take over quests,” she said as she went around me and down the hall ending the short conversation. “Just what I needed,” said no one ever, “politics.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Chapter 9

  When I want to back into the game, I still sat in the tree. I was overlooking the remains of the village: the broken walls of stacked stone and the remains of years of vegetation. I sat there wondering what must’ve destroyed the village. I saw animal paths that would let me enter through the overgrown grass. There had to be predators somewhere, but the mystery of this place was too much for me to pass up.

  I climbed down from the tree and searched the area. I worked my way steadily, but carefully, into the center of the village, thinking that might be where a church or Headman’s residence had been, based on my knowledge of middle-age villages. In the center of the town I found two skeletons. They looked like they had fought to the death, their armor two-damaged to tell how they had killed one another. The metal was rusted and useless, while the leather had long rotted away.

  I found the remains of a small tower whose rotted wood pile on top revealed a bell I believe it was for warning of danger. I continued to search for a while.

  Quest received: Search out the secret.

  Rewards: Variable.

  Accept: Yes/No

  I stumbled onto another mound outside the town proper. There were two doors well hidden from the elements. They still seemed stout the what they were guarding, I did not know. Above them was a symbol that I thought was magical. It resembled a protection rune from Mesopotamia. But what was it protecting? I examined the doors more closely and saw a catch. It was rusty from ill use and I was able to free it, opening the doors.

  The doors cracked open before me was a black maw. The ancient stone almost looked like jagged teeth. I must have been crazy but I couldn’t help myself. I entered I knew it was the first dungeon I had ever found. At the time I didn’t know then that the dungeons scaled to the size and levels of the party. The entrance was clear, but I could hear stirrings in the dark depths, I was able to find a torch in the entry hall.

  The stone was crudely worked. There were two halls that went out from the entrance, like arms branching, that I could take further down. There were niches is in the walls thst were large enough contain a body. I could the light from my torch gave me the ability to see about 30 feet. The walls were lined with bones. I figured that the dungeon was full of undead. The scraping I heard did not dissuade me from that belief.

  As I walked down the hall, I saw that each wall contained three niches: one top, one middle, one bottom and they were on both sides of the hall. Each of them were about 6 feet long and held the remains of a body. I hoped that they didn’t all decide to get up at the same time. If they did, it might give me to good an idea of what the Paris catacombs would resemble if a necromancer paid them a visit.

  The gloom, the flickering light from the torch, and the overall atmosphere was not helping me with my memories of horror movies from when I was a child. Again I heard the far off scraping. Looking around I saw nothing I took one more step forward and I felt something strike my leg.

  You take 9 damage, rat bite,

  I screamed in pain, I had looked down and saw a rat. It was huge from tip to tail it was as long as from the top of my hand to the back of my elbow and then didn’t even feature its tail. It’s ugly, disgusting tail. I should’ve had my sword ready, but I didn’t. I kicked at the creature as I went for my sword.

  You kick rat for 3 damage

  Once I freed my sword, I lashed out at the rat even as it drew back and tried to strike me once again.

  You take 5 damage, rat bite

  Your short sword slashes rat for 12 damage

  One more blow from me and the rat was dead. I looked to see where he might have his nest, to see if it contain any goodies. I found it. There was little of value three Copper coins and three xp. I sighed, but went on more warily. When I found a few more torches, I placed two more in my pack. I noticed as I went that all the forms inside the niches appeared to be human and of an armor type I’d seen before. There were various rats I encountered, some bigger than the one I faced, but most of a similar size. I had to stop and rest as my Hit Points had dipped around fifty percent. I think rats were about to replace rabbits on my enemies list.

  From ahead I heard the pitter patter of boney feet. I looked cautiously through the gloom and saw a figure striding toward me with a ponderous gait. I aimed and let lose with a Magic Missile. This time two balls of energy shot out.

  Magic Missile hits skeletal Guard for 37 damage

   I noted that, with that hit, its health dropped by about a quarter. I lashed-out.

  Magic Missile hits skeletal Guard for 32 damage

   Then, it was on me and lashed out with a club. I was still in my starting clothes so my armor was negligible.

  Skeletal guard strikes you for 45 damage; you should learn to dodge.

   I thought, “great now the AI is getting snarky with me,” as I Struck out with my short sword, then shot another Magic Missile, I watched as my Mana bar dropped to about a third full.

  You swing and miss Skeletal Guard.

  Short sword hits skeletal guard for 45 damage. The skeletal Guard collapses and is defeated. You gain 25 xp.

   My own health bar was flashing and I sit and rest allowing it to recover over time. That was far to close I thought to myself then I check the skeleton’s body. On it I found four Copper coins and a belt. Its was a grey item, but it offered 8 ready slots for items, and a damaged club that did sixteen to twenty five damage. Damn, that skeleton must have been Strong.

   Once I recovered, I continue down the hall into a few rooms. Mostly, I fought rats or skeletons. I picked up only a few pieces of loot: a very little bit of money and other gray items I could wear. Mostly these items raised my stat points by two to three points. I looked more like a pied piper than I did a respectable bard.

   Then I descended into the next level. By this time I had picked up a second club that did more damage to skeletons twenty-five to thirty five-damage. I managed to hit level six. It was a good thing I had the new club as the monsters on the second level were more dangerous. I figured out they had a maximum hit points around three hundred.

   It was here I found the first traps, pits, and blow darts, but this is where I found some small chests. Everybody likes a nice chest full of goodies. Sadly, the only money these had was Copper -eleven pieces- but twice potions of health and Mana regeneration. The one hidden area I found was full of undead. Three skeletons had been packed in there nice and tight. It was the toughest fight I had to date. I found a pair of damaged leather pants that gave me armor plus four and agility plus three. I put them on. Other thinks I found: skull of an unsung hero, v
arious rib bones and a few finger bones. All crafting components and very creepy.

   Then I found what I guessed to be the floor level boss. By this time, I’d figured out how to examine the enemies.

  Royal Guard: Ccrypt Keeper level 8, Elite. 385 hp.

   On top of that, I knew he carried sword and shield. As an elite I figured he was a lot tougher. What I thought I would do is lure him back to the next room where I had found a covered pit trap. Get him to fall in there then Magic Missile him to death…or was it redeath? I don’t know the specific terminology. I stood outside the room and shot him with Magic Missile. He was off like a shot after me. What did I do? I ran just as the plan called for, twenty feet down the hall, then up over the pit. I turned just as he got to the edge of it and shot him once more with a Magic Missile. His health had dropped by a good twenty percent. I jabbed my club at him, it struck his shield.

  You swing and miss Royal Guard.

   He swung at me and I reposted with my club, forcing him to take a step back. Then, I shot him with another Magic Missile. He stumbled back once more and tumbled into the pit.

  Royal guard falls 26 damage, pit trap.

   He started scrabbling up the pits side, his long bony fingers more apt to gain purchase as he hauled him self up the ten foot droop. I lashed him with Magic Missiles one strike and his health was at fifty percent. The next strike was a critical, dropping his health another thirty percent. My final strike killed him, and the form collapsed into the pit. I descended to search him and found a full Silver coin which is worth one hundred Copper. Ten silvers are worth one Gold so I made a tenth of a credit, wahoo. The other item I found was a green longsword that added four to strength and did thirty to forty damage.

   Then, I went back to the room he was guarding. It dead-ended into another locked door. Of course, I knew I would need to go into it to solve the quest. But I still needed clues.

  I rested for a bit in the chamber before I tried to open the door. I had gained level five earlier in the day, so I took time to assign my free attribute points. Two points in Intelligence to increase my Mana pool, two points in Charisma and one point in Agility.

  Once my health was back to full and my Mana filled, I looked around the room. The door was framed by two pillars and they were designed in such a way that the lights would reflect onto the center of the door. Obviously, I first had to figure out how to light the lights in the correct order. But I still didn’t know what I was getting myself into. The walls were covered in bas-reliefs; they told a story. Now, this would usually be a chamber to sacrifice to a god or in ancient times a place to leave gifts for the ancestors.

  Lore check successful, +1 to Loremaster

  Suddenly I found that I could read the story; almost as if it were in a newspaper. I took my time but it was straightforward. The tomb was for men, soldiers who had betrayed their oaths in life and were now doomed to fulfill them in death. But here was where it got tricky, they were doomed to guard a royal prisoner: their lord and commander. However, it never revealed what their true crime was. I mean what did they do that betrayed their oaths? Were these murderers, or worse?

  I studied the door to see if there was a clue on how to open it. What I should have done was to leave since the answer was on the walls, but I never received a quest completion notification. Yeah, this wasn’t good. I had to go through there to find out what happened.

  I won’t put the riddle down here but the long and the short of it was I should light the sinister light first. Sinistra being Latin for left and then the right. The lights blazed, and the doors creaked open; the light reached in and illuminated the gloom of the room. It was spacious larger than the light from outside could illuminate. A figure stood there like a statue. I edged my way forward. I tried to hide in shadows but there were none.

  “Who goes there?” Cried out a voice hoarse with age and lack of water.

  I wasn’t sure why I answered as I did. “It is He Who Walks in Twilight’s Wind.”

  “So finally, you have come… These long centuries I have waited here and now you come when my life is near the end.” He sighed. “I suppose then, yet it will be a mercy to reach my end, and now I too can join my people in the slumber of the great beyond.” The man who spoke was old, well past a hundred He was in a silver cell inside a pentagram

  “Here I am not here for your death” I replied. “I am only here to understand what has come before.”

  “Ah, then I ask, know you of the fall of Maylon, my ancestral home and its great capital of Marduk?”

  “No.,” I said with confidence. “These names have been washed away in history.” I hoped what I said was true.

  “Then hear now the past that once was, stricken from the records by he, the last to recall and to have lived it.”

  He looked down, then spoke. I listened for whatever crumb or clue his words might offer. The Maylonese were human and had been in these lands since the dawn of time, fishers, farmers, warriors, and priests. They had co-existed with the elves for milennia, until one day a black priest came to the throne.

  The priest sought war and ordered slow escalations, what we would call casus belli, to initiate the wars. The general before me had been ordered to destroy a temple of what they called the thirty. He never explained what they were, fully expecting me to know the name. But as it was the last temple, its destruction set into motion the events that would lead to a great war, pitting the humans against the dwarves, the elves and their allies. While he had obeyed, he had taken the brothers of the temple hostage, then set them free. His king became enraged when he knew; he and his men who took part were bound to this place. Here in the remains of the temple he had been bound to destroy was to become his prison for all time. He was bound here in this cage unable to leave or die. Man it sucked to be him, I thought.

  “Please, oh minstrel, grant this old man one boon."

  “Yes, my lord if it is in my power," I replied.

  “Let me hear music once more. Food and drink are denied me, the light of the sun is no longer mine. But, If you can please play for me a song”

  I bowed my head and thought then I played a song I recalled from when I was a child. It was old even then. The Song of Hope and Healing.

  As I played he sighed and slumped down in his cell. Soon he breathed easy. I then played for him the Song of Courage. I played the five or six songs I knew, and when I looked at him he was gone. His body had withered to dust.

  Congratulations you now know the secret of the secret war. Reward +2 Charisma and a quest received.

  Find Marduk the Ancient City of War

  Rewards; Variable

  Accept Yes/No

  Well, what could I say? Other than, I was still on this quest, or on a second part of it, and I didn’t have a lot to go on. The good news was my character sheet was looking good stats wise.

  With my worn items I had:

  14 Strength

  12 Agility

  13 Endurance

  14 Intelligence

  8 Wisdom

  16 Charisma

  13 Luck

  At some point I had learned to Dodge, which would come in very handy as I had already figured out that getting hurt was very painful. Not as painful as the real world to be sure. I nearly had a broken band saw blade take a finger off once. That hurt, but the human body tries to avoid pain. The old saw about no pain no gain is bull. There are plenty of ways to gain in life both professionally and personally without causing yourself or anyone else pain.

  While I was in the crypt, I sat and considered my options. First, I needed to level up and make money I had hit level six with a few experience points beyond that, but I still needed to find other quests and level. As for the crafting aspect, I needed tools and a place to work, along with training in mining for this game world. I needed to disappear from the radar of the Valkyries. I wasn’t sure what was going on with that, but I was fairly sure I would not like whatever they had planned for me. Why was I worried that several
women had taken an interest in me? Well, women are far more vicious then men are. Sure a man might bash you over the head for whats in your pockets, but a woman will keep bashing you in the head in other ways long after your pockets are empty. They may be the weaker sex, but only in muscle power. They are far smarter and more cunning then most men can or care to be.

  What I needed to do was find the noob village, and an auction house to sell the leather I could make. So, how to go about that first thing, finding the noobie starting village? Well, I already knew the laws of wilderness survival didn’t apply. I had food, water, and could build a fire. What I needed was to find more footprints of civilization, I’d been following the water and found a tumbled down ruin of a village. I should look for a high vantage point, maybe a tree on a hill, then I smacked myself. I could levitate. So, if I levitated to the top of a tree, then recovered my Mana, I could look around. If I saw nothing there I could levitate myself higher and then come back to the tree.

  You know it was a fool proof plan. Sadly, god keeps making better fools.