“Um-m-m…” I glanced over at Radius.
“Oh, right.” The Gray Witch clapped herself on the forehead. “Radius, Hagen; Hagen, Radius.”
The halfling got up, gave me a ceremonial half-bow, and sat back down on his chair.
Okay, Miurat, let’s see what you think of this. I didn’t promise you I wouldn’t go straight to the Witch, so my conscience is clear.
I finished my detailed account (sure, I left out a few things, though it was more that I didn’t draw attention to them), and the mistress’s office fell silent.
Finally, Radius had a question. “Is that all?”
“Yes,” I replied with a nod.
“Well, I don’t think it is,” he said in a voice that sounded like a dying swan. “You didn’t explain what quest you were on in the temple. What was it called? What was the reward? Who gives it, and where? Is it a series or just a one-off quest? Where are the details?”
Fredegar was a playful kitten next to this guy. Who he belonged to and what his job was couldn’t have been clearer, and he was committed.
“You’ll have to forgive me, but that’s my business,” I said as tactfully as possible. “I can’t share those details with you or anyone else.”
“You misunderstand,” Radius replied softly. “Information like that is important since it gives us a complete picture to analyze. We need you to tell us.”
“Mistress,” I said, turning to the Gray Witch. “I’m not going to tell him anything, so can you have him get off my case? Quests are personal.”
“Radius, calm down.” The Witch walked over to the halfling. “We have the general idea, and you’ll have the information soon. Leave the guy alone. He’s had a tough day today as it is.”
“Okay,” he replied, still studying me closely. “Then the next question is why Hagen visited the other temples, and why was this one saved for last?”
Damn it. Why did I mention them? The halfling was hanging on my every word.
“I can’t tell you that either,” I muttered, starting to regret coming to visit the Witch in the first place. “That’s my business; not yours. It was part of my game process.”
The Gray Witch looked at me thoughtfully before turning back to the halfling. “Radius, stop grilling him. He’s obviously not telling us everything, but he isn’t obligated to. Plus, we players all have our secrets.”
“I hope we can invite Hagen to come for a follow-up conversation if we need to clarify anything?” Radius asked.
The Witch looked at me, and I nodded, sighing deeply. There was nothing fake about my sigh.
“Okay, okay, don’t worry.” The Witch came over and tapped me on the nose. “How much did Miurat take from you?”
“About 20,000 gold, more than ten portal scrolls, and three runes: Eivaz, Jera, and Gebo. Ah, that dog!”
The Gray Witch poked her head out the door.
“Flavius, take Hagen to the treasurer and give him 30,000 gold and fifteen portal scrolls.”
Flavius nodded, and the Witch looked back at me, putting her hand on my shoulder.
“I very much appreciate what you did both for the clan and for me today. Please don’t be offended if I don’t see you out, and forgive Radius for being so thorough. I’d explain the whole thing to you, but I’m way too busy. Time is invaluable. Regardless, I’m certain that we—I and my clan—will repay our debt to you, a debt that grew even bigger today. As far as the runes go…well, we’ll think of something. And please let Miurat know that your deal is still in effect.”
“I’d like to add something about how I told you everything,” I replied. “He’ll find out eventually, so why can’t we use that?”
“Agreed. And now I have to go. Sorry. There isn’t much time, which makes it too valuable to waste.”
She walked back into her office and shut the door. There wasn’t a “hello,” so why should there be a “goodbye”?
On the other hand, I was only too glad to see their backs, since I was tired of all the secrets and running around. I’d gotten Miurat back a bit and earned a little something in the process, and the future would take care of itself. For now, I’ll pick up my earnings and go see the dryad. I needed to finish the quest; the whole thing was getting awfully dicey.
Chapter Eighteen
In which the hero revisits old haunts.
Another thing I liked about the Hounds of Death was that everything got done quickly. It took no time at all for me to get my gold and scrolls, and nobody even stopped to ask what it was for, where the paperwork was, or why I didn’t have a signature with me. They’d been told to shell out, and shell out they did. If my clan—the one I hadn’t visited in forever that had probably forgotten who I was completely (something I was only too happy about)—had been like that, our relationship probably would have been different.
“Do you need anything else from me?” Flavius asked.
“Of course I do!” I replied, frightened for a second. “I need you to show me the way out of here. Otherwise, I’ll be wandering around until the second coming!”
Once out of the Hounds’ citadel, I took a deep breath, pulled out a portal scroll, and left for Holfstrig. I needed to dump my extra cash in the hotel, write Miurat a letter, and try to cover my tracks a little. Why Holfstrig? There weren’t as many people there as there were in other places, and I had fond memories of my simple life in the North. It was nothing like what I’d had to deal with in the South.
The mailbox was right next to the hotel, so I decided to head right over and send Miurat my reply.
Miurat (I won’t add “dear” or anything like that since I don’t like lying),
You didn’t really hold up your end of the deal, though I’m not sure why that was. Maybe you got greedy, or maybe something else happened, but whatever the reason, a few of my things—neither scrolls nor gold—you apparently took such a liking to that you decided to keep them. That notwithstanding, I can confirm that I will be following through with my part of our deal. The service I promised will be provided promptly and at any time, provided that I am online and do not have any other obligations to other players at the time (raids, dungeons). I will also need advance notice of what I am delivering, be it an item or information.
As I noted above, with no respect whatsoever,
Hagen of Tronje
P.S. We didn’t agree not to tell third parties about our meeting, so I told the Gray Witch about the whole thing. Sorry.
It was a rude missive, and I was looking forward to his response. Will he return the runes? Or promise to kill me?
I expected something like that, so I wasn’t surprised in the least.
I’m glad our deal is in place, as it’s an important one for me.
As a good-will gesture, let me give you a piece of advice: don’t be in a hurry to push your way into the Gray Witch’s inner circle. There’s more danger than gain there for you—that much I can say for certain.
As far as your runes, yes, they’re nice and rare. Let’s just say that I borrowed them from you for a bit. We’re friends, so you don’t mind. Right? I’ll be happy to give them back to you as soon as you agree to join us. Hey, I’ll throw in another five and a case to hold them in. Think about it. Think long and hard.
Miurat
So, that was that. I’d definitely have to keep an eye out for him… In the meantime, I decided to forget the whole lot of them and go see the dryad. I had quite a bit on my to-do list for the day; all I needed was more traipsing through jungles in the dark.
I looked around cautiously before opening a portal and jumping through it to my usual sandy shore, the same one where we’d had the fight to free the könig’s daughter. I stood there looking around for another five minutes trying to see if any spies left their footprints in the sand. There was nothing to be seen. That was odd, however, since I was almost sure I was being followed. How else could so many people know exactly where I am and when, all in the interests of different clans? You can’t fool the sand, however, and yo
u can’t cast spells on it. Maybe I’m just paranoid. I wondered if I was just worn out by all the intrigue that had been swirling around. Ultimately, I hadn’t given anything up to anyone, so all the problems I’d been having could, theoretically, have been one long chain of coincidences. Whatever the case, I had a quest to finish. There was a dryad caterpillar that was waiting for me to turn it into a butterfly—or something like that.
***
The palms were the same and so was the spring. Realizing that the local dryad lived somewhere up above me, doing her business and simply throwing her trash down out of the trees, I stood a little farther away and called out to her.
“Hey, Idrissa! Where are you? Come on out so we can talk.”
Palm fronds rustled, and the dryad’s face peered out from one of them. “You?” she asked, looking at me with a wrinkled face. “That fast?”
“What, you think I’m going to spend my whole life wandering around the jungles?” I responded with surprise. “Plus, I feel terrible for you. Your sisters are all gorgeous, and here you are, still climbing around the palms like some kind of wild monkey. It’s time for you to get on their level.”
“Gorgeous,” Idrissa said, spitting. “You haven’t seen anything!”
“Well, come down and grab your toy so you can surprise me with your stunning beauty. Amaze me!”
“Are you joking?” Idrissa’s eyes rounded. “You really got the gong?”
I shrugged. Yes, so what?
Idrissa scampered down from the palm with lightning speed, ran over, and held out her shaking hand.
“Give it to me!”
You completed a quest: Gong of the Goddess.
Reward:
20,000 experience
Firestorm, a unique active ability
Woodsman, a unique passive ability
+10% to mana
Ding!
Dear player,
Because you completed this quest, you have the chance to select one of the following items (They all belong to sets, though their levels and attributes are hidden, and they all match your class.):
Guyard Skaloboy’s Greaves
Lonely Boar Belt
Roland’s Helmet
Rigbert the Conqueror’s Pauldrons
Shadow Stalker Cloak
Romun Rune’s Amulet
That was new. I wasn’t sure why the little creature clutching the brass gong to her sunken chest, which was covered by some torn rags, wasn’t offering me the choice herself. What’s with the “click and grab” interface? Maybe it’s a bug.
The selection wasn’t bad… The only problem was that I didn’t know a thing about any of them. None of them were from my nearly complete Knightly Collection, though…
Dear player,
You’re going to have to make your choice faster. There’s just one minute remaining in the time you have for your decision.
That’s ridiculous. I added one more item to my list of things I wanted to discuss with Zimin. But what to take? Everything fit me, and I could have used any of them. I wasn’t dressed like a beggar, but still… Oh, and I forgot to visit the blacksmith again… Wait, what am I doing thinking about that? I want…I want… I wish I knew what I wanted… Oh, come on, I hate picking between good choices. Whatever!
Romun Rune’s Amulet
Belonged to a great hero who achieved fame in the First War of Hatred, doing the impossible with his friends and saving an entire kingdom at the cost of his life.
From the Price of Fearlessness set
Set includes:
Romun Rune’s Helmet
Romun Rune’s Pauldrons
Romun Rune’s Gauntlets
Romun Rune’s Cuirass
Romun Rune’s Amulet
Romun Rune’s Cuisses
Green Bog Shield
Ransol Signet Ring
Gray Knight’s Ritterschwert
+33 to stamina
+28 to agility
+18 to intellect
+7% protection from mental attacks
+7% chance of instantly restoring your mana during battle
+8% to weapon durability
+9% to the time you can spend under water
Once every day, you can summon a squad of up to five ghost warriors from the Shadow Brigade once commanded by Romun. The number of warriors summoned is random, and the damage done by each of their strikes is equal to the average damage you do. They fight for two minutes.
Durability: 2000/2000
Minimum level for use: 50
Class limitation: warrior
Cannot be stolen, lost, broken, or gifted.
Does not disappear from the holder’s inventory after dying when coupled with at least four other items from the set.
The following bonuses are unlocked by using the complete set:
Three random active class abilities
+4 to one random attribute
+35% to your chances of getting rare items from dead enemies
+25% to how fast you develop your active abilities
But that wasn’t all.
You unlocked Level 58!
Points ready to be distributed: 5
That gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, and I had to admit that the amulet wasn’t bad at all. It was fantastic, in fact, I thought as I added three points to strength and two to agility. I’ll just—
You unlocked Heroes of the Gray Days…, Level 2
To get it, receive 15 more items belonging to heroes of days gone by.
Reward:
Lucky, a passive ability, Level 2: +1.5% chance of receiving elite or legendary items
+2% chance of getting hidden or epic quests
Title: Heir to Glory
To see similar messages, go to the Action section of the attribute window.
The dryad soared into the sky with a long cry, sending sparks flying in all directions.
Would you like to see the abilities you received?
Needless to say, I did. There was no point watching the fluttering going on in front of me—I’d already seen it three times.
Firestorm, a unique active ability
When wielding your weapon, you turn into a ball of fire with the ability to do twice as much damage for 50 seconds. There is a 50% chance your flaming blade will light your opponent’s clothes or leather coverings on fire, doing 140 to 250 additional damage over 30 seconds.
If your opponent is a skeleton or zombie, you have a 50% chance of doing an additional 100 damage with each blow.
Activation cost: 420 mana
Recharge time: 4 minutes
It was quite the ability, something like Strength of Fire, but much stronger—and with a 50% chance of doing ongoing damage. I sat down to think about what I should get rid of, though I realized the choice was simple.
Upend was removed from your active abilities.
You can learn it again for free from any of the warrior instructors as needed.
That just left the passive ability.
You learned a new passive ability: Woodsman, Level 1
Your chances of finding the path to a populated area or quest goal in unfamiliar forests are boosted to 29%.
Another decent option. Sure, I didn’t spend much time in forests, though… No, if I didn’t have Lane to take me around everywhere, I probably would have just hired someone else. But it was still a good ability to have in my pocket.
I stood there pondering my abilities, their advantages, and their drawbacks, all the while completely forgetting about the dryad. She had already finished glistening in the sky, and she’d landed and was looking at me with confusion and some disapproval on her face. (Why aren’t you amazed? What happened?)
I was so beyond the whole thing that the graceful, dark-skinned woman dressed in some kind of obviously rare skin and leaning on a spear with a skillfully carved shaft did nothing for me as a man.
“What, stunned speechless?” she asked.
“Yes, something like that,” I replied, deciding not to hurt her
. “Who did that use to be?”
I pointed at the skin, and Idrissa frowned.
“A six-legged seven-nothing,” she replied. “Why aren’t you looking at me with desire in your eyes?”
Great, she’s crazy.
“I’m too afraid,” I replied after a slight hesitation. “You’re a warrior woman, harsh, resolute. And you could run that spear right through me.”
That seemed to do the trick, as Idrissa smiled, showing off her blindingly white teeth. I’d better get out of here before she gives me the seventh quest. I needed a break, maybe a couple weeks, and then I would have been only too happy to come back for it. The paper was expanding, I was tired, and there wasn’t enough time for everything I needed to do even without yet another headache…
“All righty, beautiful!” I said with a clap. “I guess I’ll be going. You four are all free, and you’re all young and beautiful again, with everything you were looking for. I’ll be seeing you! Don’t worry, I’ll stop back soon.”
Without taking the smile off my face, I tried to turn and walk briskly away from the palm grove.
“Hold it right there!” barked Idrissa. “Where are you going?”
Too slow…damn it! I should have opened a portal and jumped in.
“You’re a hero!” she said in an attempt to shame me. “You’re supposed to help everyone, and here…ah…”
“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “What else do you little orphan girls need from me?”
“I need a chalice.” Idrissa raised the index finger on her right hand.
“What chalice?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, stomping in frustration at my stupidity. “The Chalice of Memory!”
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