The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  I knelt down and looked at it, rubbing the dust caked around it to see the words better. It was quite worn out, but I could still read it with some effort.

  “Ikarius.”

  The fountain suddenly started making weird noises, and water gushed out of the sprouts, wetting both me and everyone else next to me.

  “What did you do, you idiot?” Freya chuckled, shaking her hands to get the water off.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “All I did was try to—”

  DING!

  I looked at the screen in front of me, and the widest of grins immediately curled onto my face.

  Congratulations! You have unlocked a new base:

  Ikarius Village

  You have purged the Skeletal Warriors from the streets. In doing so, you have claimed this village. Ikarius is now yours, Village Master.

  ***

  CHAPTER THREE

  There was only one phrase that could describe how I felt.

  “Hell yeah!” I punched the air, unable to contain the excitement within me. I read my screen once again, unable to believe what had just happened.

  “What’s going on?” Freya walked over to me, confused. One look at the text on my screen and her eyes immediately widened. “Did you just—” She stopped, excitement reverberating within her as well.

  “Yeah.” I nodded, a wide smile on my face.

  “Holy hell!” she exclaimed. “This is amazing.”

  “Calm down, you two.” Nyx chuckled.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You have earned a new title:

  Master of Ikarius!

  You are now Master of the Village, Ikarius. New options have been activated in your Ga’em menu. New Benefits have been made unlockable.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You have unlocked a new menu:

  Base Building!

  You are now able to possess and upgrade your own personal base – Ikarius Village.

  Oooooh. I grinned and swiped the screens to the side, letting the next ones come up. There were going to be a lot—I could tell.

  DING!

  A new map has been added to your Map menu:

  Ikarius Village

  You can now use your Map menu to navigate through the village paths.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You obtained a new title:

  Master of Ikarius!

  This title provides you with additional stat bonuses. +1% to all stats while within the vicinity of your village. +1% Health Regen while within the vicinity of your village. +1% Mana Regen while within the vicinity of your village.

  “Whoa.” I looked at the screens, basking in the glory of what I’d just earned. A part of me was amused. I was a Level 500+ Eternal with the title of Phantom Lord, and here I was, happy that I’d become master of a small village out in the middle of nowhere.

  Of course, everything else around me was normal at the moment. The adventurers from before still seemed to be easing out of the situation they’d just been in, and Freya had moved next to them without me even noticing, chatting for a bit and taking care of them too. I was about to go join them, but my plans were interrupted by the voice in my head.

  “By the way, I should let you know that your Ga’em menu seems to have changed now too,” Nyx said, and that reminder excited me enough to drop everything else. I quickly swiped my finger through the air, sliding my Ga’em menu open. However, instead of five icons showing up, there was now a sixth one, one with a castle design placed right below the first one which was my Player menu icon.

  I tapped on the castle icon and a new screen popped open. It had the word Base at the top, and beneath it was a list, though only one option had text on it.

  Ikarius Village, I read and tapped on it, summoning another screen in front of me.

  Stats

  Items

  Equipment

  Skills

  I tapped on Status and a new screen, similar to my own status screen, popped up.

  Base Name

  Ikarius

  Level

  1

  Defenses

  5

  Place of Power

  None

  Mana Reservoir

  5

  Allies

  None

  Population

  1

  Enemies

  None

  Happiness

  None

  Founder

  Zoran Diablo

  Reputations

  None

  Assigned Leaders

  None

  Special Effects

  +1% to all stats

  +1% to Mana Regen

  +1% to Health Regen

  “Happiness. None.” Nyx chuckled.

  Well, that’s because I don’t even have a proper population right now.

  “Excuses,” he scoffed playfully.

  “Yeah.” I smiled as I closed the screen and went into the Special Skills screen instead.

  Skill Name

  Level

  Buffs

  Mirror Shield

  Level 1

  Renders village invisible to enemies. Effect wears off if any damage is inflicted on it

  That’s why we weren’t able to see the village before, I realized, recalling that the place had become visible only after I’d attacked what we’d dubbed an “invisible wall” back then. I thought of how the adventurers had said they’d seen the village from afar and decided to come in.

  “It seems to me that was probably because the Skeletal Warriors had already taken down the shield,” Nyx said. “The barrier must have regenerated between when the skeletons took it down and when we arrived. That’s why it was up when we got here.”

  That would make sense, I thought. I still found it super neat that villages could have these sorts of things embedded in them. I couldn’t help but wonder what other kinds of skills a base could earn, and I immediately started fantasizing, already getting excited about the untold possibilities.

  “Village Master, are you done being a giddy child?” Freya chuckled as she walked up to me, the adventurers right behind her.

  “Fine, fine.” I smiled, closing the screen in front of me.

  “We just wanted to say thank you once more before we headed off,” the man said.

  “Ah, you’re leaving already?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the lady beside him responded. “We must get back to the Kingdom soon. And we do not wish to impose on you any longer.”

  DING!

  You have obtained a quest:

  Journey with the Adventurers!

  Accompany the adventurers on their path back to the Kingdom of Aingard. Ensure that they reach their destination safely. Reward: ???

  Accept

  Decline

  I stared at the screen, confused for a second, and turning even more confused when I saw what my reward was.

  Question marks? I asked.

  “Well, that’s certainly new,” Nyx said, a tad concerned himself.

  “What happened?” Freya asked, leaning over to glance at my screen.

  “I just got a quest,” I said.

  “Well, that’s nice. Why do you look so confused, then?”

  “Because look at the reward I’m supposed to get,” I said, shifting a bit so she could see my screen better.

  She read through the text. “Okay, that’s weird.”

  “What’s weird?” the man asked, peering over our shoulders.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I sighed, closing down my screen and turning around to face him and his companions.

  “Soo…do you want to take up the quest?” Freya asked me.

  I sighed. “Normally, no, but that reward section has me very curious now.”

  “That’s understandable.” She smiled, as though she had known all along that this was what I’d say. “Although…” Her face changed a bit, and her voice turned to more of a hushed whisper. “Are you sure you want to go back to Aingard? We’ve spent weeks avoiding
that place.”

  “I know.” I paused. “But I think it’s worth doing it if I’m this curious about the quest screen. Either way, I think I’m strong enough now to be able to take care of myself in the event that the Kingdom does attack me. Plus, I could always run away if something bad happened.”

  “Do you really want to go that bad?” she asked. “We came all this way because Ijyela finally had a breakthrough after three months. Remember? She said this place might help us with breaking the second part of your Seal of the Eternal. Maybe we should just focus on figuring that out for the time being.”

  “Ah.” I looked at her.

  Since my battle with the Dark Lord, Ijyela, Freya and I had spent countless hours trying to figure out this entity called the Seal of the Eternal. This seal was something that I’d been bound by, to restrict me from gaining my true power, and as one would imagine, it was something I wanted to get rid of. Especially if I’d have to end up facing the Dark Lord’s full wrath sometime in the future.

  Right now we still didn’t know much about the seal, other than the fact that it seemed pretty hard to find out how to break it. The seal had five parts, and each one was broken by finding what was called a Spectral Spirit.

  I’d found one of the spirits about three months ago, but since then, I’d had zero luck. We hadn’t even come up with any guesses about where we might find the spirits. We were basically clueless at the moment.

  And that wasn’t really preferred.

  “Ugh, I have to choose between working on breaking the seal and going on this quest?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Freya said.

  “I mean, it won’t hurt to put the seal stuff on hold for a little, bit, right?” Nyx said. “How long is this quest going to take, anyway? A day or two at most?”

  “Probably,” I said.

  “Fine,” the elf said suddenly. “I can already see your decision in your eyes. You should just go on the quest.”

  “What?” I blinked. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “To be honest, I’m quite curious about what that quest rewards section means as well.”

  “Fine, then.” I grinned.

  “You all seem to be lively.” One of the male adventurers walked up to us.

  I grinned. “Do you have space in your company for another person?” I asked.

  He looked at me for a second, and then a smile curled onto his face. “Of course!” he said. “Definitely!”

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” I chuckled. “You are leaving immediately, correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” he said. “To a small town a few minutes past the border of the Kingdom.”

  Good, that means I won’t have to travel too deep into Aingard, I realized, feeling a bit better about this.

  “Wait, if we’re gone, who’s going to take care of the village?” Freya asked.

  “I’m going,” I said. “You’re staying here.”

  “What?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I mean, the alternative is to leave this village undefended. I don’t think either of us wants that.”

  “Fine,” she groaned. “You can go on your adventure. I’ll take care of this place for you.”

  “Thanks.” I grinned. “You’re the best.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She chuckled.

  I turned to the man. “So…”

  “Joseph,” he said, smiling.

  “Joseph,” I said. “I’m Zoran. Would you like to leave?”

  Joseph looked at his small group of people, and they all nodded, smiles on their face.

  “We’re good to go.” He looked at me.

  “Sweet,” I said.

  And just like that, I had begun an adventure with a group I’d just saved, all because the Ga’em was being suspiciously weird again. As we walked, I turned around and glanced at Freya, watching her wave to us until we turned a corner and lost sight of her.

  I wondered if I could just leave my village to someone, just like that. It didn’t seem like it was the best way to do it, but I didn’t feel like any problems would arise from it either.

  “You probably have to make her an assigned leader for the place before you leave,” Nyx said. “Right now, you’re the only person that the Ga’em considers a resident of the village. If you leave, I think the village becomes abandoned or something, and that means someone else could take over.”

  Who’s going to want to take over this village?

  “I just think it’d be safer to assign her as a leader.”

  Fine. I’ll search for the menu option, then.

  I quickly opened up my Ga’em menu and navigated to my Base menu. I opened up my Stats submenu next and noticed that the Assigned Leaders section was empty. I tapped on the header text, not really sure if that’d work.

  DING!

  A screen popped up, with a heading at the top that read Assigned Leaders: Ikarius Village and a blank screen underneath it. I found a small plus icon at the center top and I pressed on it. A smaller screen, titled Acquaintances, appeared above the already existing screen, and on it were two names.

  Allies

  Followers

  Freya

  Nymph Mother

  Nymph Mother? I blinked for a second, and then I recalled that she was someone I’d met on one of the adventures from three months ago.

  Okay, so I guess I just assign one of these people to my village.

  “I think so,” Nyx said.

  I tapped on Freya, and a prompt popped up in front of me.

  DING!

  You are about to assign Freya as a leader to your village: Ikarius. Assigning and removing a leader, no matter how far apart in time, lowers your standing with the person and can also reduce your fame. Do you wish to proceed?

  Wow, that’s intense, I thought, but I hit the Yes option anyway. If there was ever a time when I had to remove Freya as an assigned leader to my village, I figured I’d have bigger problems to worry about than a relationship demotion or a fame decrease.

  “Honestly, your fame probably could do with a decrease,” Nyx said. “The more people that are drawn to you, the more trouble you’ll get into.”

  “So…Zoran.” Joseph dropped back to walk beside me. “What brought you to that village?”

  “Oh.” I stopped, not expecting that question. “We were just exploring and happened to come upon that village,” I said, lying blatantly. “It was as standard adventure development, really.”

  “Ah, I see,” he said. I tried to gauge from his tone whether he’d bought it or not, but I couldn’t really tell for sure.

  “What about you?” I asked. “Where were you headed back from?”

  “A field far to the east,” he said. “There are many herbs and plants there that are valuable to an herbalist in the Kingdom. This is how we make our living.”

  “That is interesting.” I smiled.

  “Seems pretty standard to me,” Nyx said.

  Shh, I’m trying to be nice.

  “Good job.”

  About the quest screen, though. What do you think the ‘???’ means?

  “I’m quite curious about that too, actually,” he said. “I know that if a reward for a quest hasn’t been set yet it’s supposed to say ‘Unknown’ and not ‘???’ The question marks are pretty weird.”

  Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I bit my lip.

  Quests in general were basically goals or adventures that the Ga’em gave you based on things like who you were, who you got the quest from, and what your true inner desires might be. The fact that I had a “???” under my rewards section for a quest was quite confusing, to say the least. I was curious about what kind of a scenario made the Ga’em present something like that in the rewards section in the first place.

  I was still plenty excited though. There was a lot of mystery to this, yeah, but it had been quite a while since I’d gotten a quest, and so I felt a kind of giddy excitement to have one to myself again.

  A part of me couldn’t help but wonder why I’d gotten
it, though. What part of me wanted to accompany these travelers so much that I’d actually gotten a quest to take them back?

  “Maybe a part of you just wants to go back to Aingard,” Nyx suggested. “This quest might be how the Ga’em decided to give you what you wanted.”

  Why would I ever want to go back to Aingard? I sighed. I looked up at the dull light of the setting sun and the dimmer clouds that caught the red rays. I turned my sight to the clouds that sat higher up in the sky, shielded from the light. They were a pale gray, not the gray of storms, but rather a gray of calmness, a gray that stayed silent and simple.

  “That’s a lot of gray,” Nyx chuckled.

  Okay, just stop. I groaned. You read my mind way too much.

  “It’s a compliment. You’re an interesting person.”

  I see. I totally did not buy it. He probably just wanted to poke around and see if he could get any juicy stuff on me.

  DING!

  You have received a new message from: Freya. Would you like to read it?

  That’s odd. I blinked and tapped the Yes button beneath the prompt.

  Hey, how’s everything going?