I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw that the streets in front of us were now empty. We had been too late to cure the townsfolk of their affliction. At least now, we had laid them to rest.
After we had all caught our breath, Smoglar was the first to speak. He held his injured hand in the air.
“How about giving me some of the antidote before I’m the one trying to bite you?”
While Smoglar drank the plague antidote, Brian, Feidan, and I made plans. We decided that Smoglar and the healer would go to the bank to collect the CR and items that he had promised us.
“CR500 split three ways,” said Smoglar. “That’s 150 each for you and Brian, 200 for me.”
“It’s not CR500 anymore,” said Feidan.
“We had an agreement,” I said.
“Healers don’t work for free,” said Feidan. “I just cooked up an antidote for you. That’s coming out of the total, for services rendered.”
Smoglar shook his head in disgust. “You’re profiting out of this? Really?”
“We don’t have time for this,” I said. “We need to get moving.”
***
While Smoglar and Feidan went to the bank, Brian and I walked to the library. With the undead corpses starting to evaporate around us, the streets became all too silent. I began to hate the sound of my own footsteps. I longed for noise, any kind of sound as long as it broke the eerie quiet.
When we reached the library, I realised that it was much bigger than I had first thought. It was a tower that stretched so high into the air that even when I craned my neck to look at it, I couldn’t see the top. It was made of metal girders that were interlocked like twine. The design was so intricate that I wondered how any man could have built it.
The base of the library was a metal cylinder. It didn’t seem to have a door, and I wondered how we would get in. When I looked at Brian, he shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ve heard about the place, but I've never been here,” he said.
I walked around the circumference of the base. When I completed one lap and joined Brian back at my starting position, I still hadn’t found any sign of a door or a way of getting in.
As we thought about what to do, I heard a noise. It sounded like a faint humming, but then it grew louder. A mist began to gather in front of us, rectangular in shape. I stepped back and equipped my dagger.
Gradually, a face began to take form in the centre of the mist screen. Its outline was faint, and I could barely make out its features. It seemed to be a man. He had wrinkles covering his face, though I couldn’t decide if that was from age, or just from being projected through the smoke. He had a beard that grew down below his chin and went on so long that it still hadn’t ended when it hit the edges of the mist.
“Speak your names,” said the voice. The sound was garbled, as though we were listening to a radio that hadn’t been tuned properly. The man glared at the two of us.
“Janus the Tinker and Brian the Giant,” said my friend.
“And I assume you are the giant?”
“Did him being ten feet tall give it away?” I said. I looked at Brian but he just shrugged his shoulders, seeming as confused as I was.
“Speak your guilds,” said the voice.
“We don’t have one,” I answered.
There was silence as the man in the mist screen stared at us. Finally, he spoke.
“None who are guildless may enter the Grand Library. So it has been decreed, so shall it be.”
“We just need to come in for a few hours,” said Brian.
“None who are guildless may enter the Grand Library. So it has been decreed, so shall it be.”
After coming all this way, I wasn’t going to be stopped by some smoke. I stepped forward and went to go through the screen, in case a door had appeared behind it. As soon as I touched the mist, I felt my skin burn.
25HP lost! (Total: 127 / 152)
“It’s not going to work,” said Brian.
“Listen,” I said, looking at the man in the mist. “We really need to get in.”
“The rule has been in place for decades and cannot be broken.”
“Can’t be broken, or won’t be broken?” I asked.
The man glared at me. “Both, tinker. None who are guildless may enter the Grand Library. So it has been decreed, so shall it be.”
“Come on, buddy. We just saved your city. I’m not expecting a hero’s banquet, but how about letting us look at some books?”
With that, the screen faded, leaving me staring at the edgeless metal of the tower base. I waited a few seconds in case my words had persuaded him, but nothing happened.
***
When we met Smoglar and Feidan in the trader square near the bank, Smoglar looked unhappy.
“He’s playing us for fools,” he said, as we approached.
Feidan shook his head. “The bank is sealed. I’m guessing that whoever ran it was afflicted, or they’re hiding from the plague. At any rate, I can’t get you your CR yet.”
After everything Reebus the mage had done to me, I was becoming used to people who didn’t keep up their end of the deal.
“You better be straight with us,” I said, holding my dagger. “You made a promise.”
“How about this?” said the healer. “I’ll stay with you until I can get you the CR and the items. I won’t leave until I’ve kept my promise.”
Brian tapped his hatchet against his palm. “We have bigger problems than that,” he said.
We explained to Smoglar and Feidan what had happened at the library. We were guildless, and without entry to the library, we had no way of finding where the Greye guild lived. I was always aware of the Old Serpent’s Sting in my inventory, as though I felt it pressing on my mind. We needed to destroy it. After using it to kill the pit demon it had placed a map marker on me, so the Serpents would be able to find us. I couldn’t let the dagger find its way back to Herelius Rouge.
“We’re going to have to join a guild,” I said. “I’m not excited about the idea, but what choice do we have?”
Smoglar spat on the floor. “I’m not joining anything.”
“You don’t have to. Brian and I will join. After all, it’s only us who need to go to the library.”
“And why's that?” said Smoglar. “Because I’m a dwarf and I’m stupid?”
Brian put his hand on his friend's shoulder. “Because you get bored easily, Smoglar. And this will take hours, if not days, of research.”
My shoulders ached, so I set my inventory bag down on the ground. “What do we need to join the guilds?”
Brian shook his head. “The Halons won’t have us because after killing the NPCs in Dry Gulch, we’ve got too many Chaos points. The Mercs would let us in, but it would cost CR3000, which we’re quite short on.”
“I though they charged CR500?” I said.
This time Smoglar answered. “That was back in the newbie village. Once you leave, the price goes up.”
“Which I’m afraid,” said Brian, “Leaves just one option; the Serpents. And as much as we didn’t want to accrue them in the first place, we actually have enough Chaos points to join them.”
I shook my head. Everything I had heard of the Serpents made me angry, and Herelius Rouge, the man I wanted to kill, was their leader.
“Not a chance in hell,” I said.
Brian nodded at me. “I know. I’d never go back to them, either. But I’m just relaying our options.”
“Then we’re stuck,” said Smoglar.
Brian nodded.
Suddenly, an idea struck me. It seemed stupid, but I knew it was all we had.
“There is one thing we could do,” I said.
The dwarf’s forehead screwed up as he looked at me. “I’m all ears and beard, Tinker.”
I looked at my group in turn. I had everyone’s undivided attention.
“If we can’t join the Halons or Mercs, and we don’t want to join the Serpents, that leaves us just one option. We create our own guild.
”
Quest Received: Create a Guild
Chapter Thirteen
Smoglar was the first to react. He put his axe on the floor and then sat down next to it. He rubbed his injured hand. His skin was inflamed but he’d gotten the antidote in plenty of time, so there wasn’t any danger of him getting afflicted.
“Making a guild isn’t as simple as putting together one of your screw bombs,” he said. “There’s a reason there have only been four guilds in Re:Fuze.”
“You’re telling me nobody has ever tried creating a new one?”
“Not that I know of.”
Feidan packed his alchemist equipment into his inventory. “Actually, someone did make one, once. It was stupid, but he tried it.”
Brian scratched his head. “I’ve never heard of this. Who was it?”
“Me,” said Feidan. “I hadn’t joined a guild after leaving Blundow. At first, it didn’t bother me, but soon I got sick of PKers coming after me. I walk a fine line between good and bad, so neither the Halons nor the Serpents liked the look of me. Instead of lowering myself to joining the Mercs, I made a guild for alchemists. I called it the Mercury guild.”
“This must be before my time,” said Brian.
Feidan nodded. “Probably. This was about nine years ago.”
“You’ve been playing Re:Fuze for nine years and you’re still only level 22?” I said.
Feidan put his bag next to him. “There’s more to the game than just levelling up, Janus. There aren’t many people in the world who’ve got their alchemy skill as high as mine. I never liked the fighting part of it all. I like mixing stuff together and seeing what comes out. Kind of like you with your bombs.”
“So what happened to the Mercury guild?”
Feidan looked down at the ground. “I started getting messages from high-level Serpents telling me I had to disband. I thought they were just being asses; you know what they’re like. But then the Halons and the Mercs joined in. Before I knew it, my guild house was filled with letters telling me to disband the guild or they’d do it for me.”
“What did you do?”
“I ignored them. And nothing happened, for a while. One day, I was brewing a Morlekie potion, when I looked out of my window and saw five hundred men with Serpent banners above their heads. They marched to the guild house and smashed it to pieces, then destroyed my charterstone so that my guild was broken.”
“Why didn’t they kill you?”
“I swallowed a mist potion and got out before they saw me.”
“The guilds don’t like change,” said Brian. “They feel threatened by it. And making a fifth guild is a pretty big change to the status quo.”
“I’m not going to let them put me off,” I said. “This is all the more reason to start our own rather than joining theirs. There must be hundreds of guildless people out there who want to join something.”
“This won’t be easy,” said Feidan.
“I didn’t come here expecting anything to be easy. What would we need to do?”
Feidan stood up and started to pace. Around us, doors started to open and the surviving townsfolk walked out. The doors they left had been marked red.
“First, you need a charterstone,” said the healer. “Next, you have to build a guild house. Lastly, you need money for upkeep.”
Smoglar grinned. “This will be easy, then. We’re skint, and we couldn’t build a shed between us, let alone a guild house.”
I rubbed my forehead. This was going to be tough, but I wouldn’t let it put me off. I didn’t care that by making a new guild we’d be disturbing the balance of Re:Fuze. With the way the world was, things clearly needed disturbing. Besides, I was starting to like the sound of my own idea more and more. I pictured our guild as one that welcomed the people shunned by the Halons, Serpents and Mercs. A guild for the misfits who couldn’t find a home anywhere else.
“First things first, then. What’s a charterstone?”
“On its own,” said Feidan. “A charterstone is just a slab of marble. The problem is, it needs to be enchanted. There used to be a guy up in God’s Keep who would do it for CR50000, but he died fighting a swarm of Toctalayons.”
“So who can do it?”
“Guild enchantment is a level 90 perk, so you have to be pretty high-level to get it. People rarely bother. The thing is, it’s a perk that serves no other use. Literally, the only thing you can do with it is enchant slabs of marble and turn them into charterstones. With the guy in God’s Keep gone, there’s only one man alive who can do it.”
Brian gave Feidan a knowing look. “Ozreal.”
Feidan nodded. “Ozreal is the only guy.”
It was a name I had heard before. The first time was on my initial playthrough, when I was in the cave next to the Plains of Jordan. Herelius had been conspiring to bring back Necrolor, and he'd mentioned trying to recruit Ozreal. Did that mean Ozreal was on their side?
Maybe not. I’d seen his name after that, too. I had been sent a mysterious note from the anonymous source who gave me a free login to Re:Fuze. They had also left me another note, and that one had read ‘Find Ozreal.’
This left me with more questions than I started with. It all depended on the person who sent me the login, and whether they were with the Serpents, or against them. If they were with the Serpents and they wanted me to find Ozreal, I’d be walking into a trap.
“Does anyone know who Ozreal is?” I said. “I’ve heard his name before.”
Smoglar was the one to answer. “He’s one of the most powerful guys in the game, yet he couldn’t kill an imp to save his life. He’s a waste of exp, if you ask me.”
I looked at Brian, hoping for a more rational answer. The giant sighed.
“Besides Necrolor, Ozreal is one of the oldest players in the game. The thing with him is, he put all his stat points and focussed all his skills on non-combative things. Ozreal is a man of learning and understanding. He knows more about the game world than anyone you will ever meet.”
“He’s the only person stupid enough to waste a level 90 perk on charterstones,” said Smoglar.
“Can we trust him?” I said.
“No,” answered Brian. “You can’t trust him, but nor should we distrust him. Ozreal is guildless, and he chooses no allies. The things going on around us mean nothing to him. Players grow strong and amass power, and then they die. While people rise and fall, Ozreal watches on.”
“I don’t think we have much of a choice then,” I said. “We need to find him and get him to enchant a stone for us.”
“There’s a problem with that,” said Feidan.
“That doesn’t surprise me. What’s the issue?”
Feidan looked at us all in turn. His face seemed to grow paler. “Ozreal’s been imprisoned in Gorgefall for the last two years.”
I didn’t know where Gorgefall was, but looking at the faces of my friends, I got the impression this wasn’t a good thing. It didn’t come as a shock to me, really. Re:Fuze was a place where luck of the good variety was rare.
Quest Received: Recuse Ozreal
Ozreal the Learned is imprisoned in Gorgefall Dungeon. You need him to enchant a charterstone for you, so you need to rescue him. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Nothing in Re:Fuze is easy.
Reward:
No guarantees, but if you ask nicely Ozreal may enchant a charterstone for you.
Chapter Fourteen
The streets started to show signs of life as the townsfolk walked around and looked at the damage done by the undead. Traders walked over to their stalls. The watch merchant gathered his trinkets in a leather bag and then walked away. A food vendor saw that his produced had spoiled, and he punched his wooden stall in frustration.
“If we’re going to Gorgefall,” said Smoglar, “I want to be more organised this time.”
I looked at him. “Really? You want to be more organised, the guy who charges at everything head-on?”
“What can I say? Call it personal growth,
but I know what Gorgefall is like, and I’m not dying in there.”
“First thing is,” I said. “We need someone to take charge.”
We all looked at each other. Slowly, our gazes all settled on Brian.
“No way,” said the giant. “I’ve had my fill of leadership.”
Tinker, Tailor, Giant, Dwarf ( LitRPG Series): Difficulty:Legendary Book 2 Page 13
