Reksoni Tower Key – Grants access to the Reksoni Tower. Traps within 10-Yards will temporarily disarm when in the presence of this key.
I grinned and grabbed the other four, stuffing them in my bag.
“What have you got there?” Heath asked.
“Keys. Magic keys that will let us bypass the traps,” I answered.
Heath nodded, then pointing to one of the rotting chests, he asked, “But will they open one of those?”
“Don’t know, let’s go find Olaf and the others. Then we can come back here and find out,” I said excitedly. I was just as eager to open the chests as he was, maybe more so.
Thankfully, the path back to the others was fairly easy to follow. The trail of broken traps led the way.
I heard Micaela’s voice call out, “Bye-bye’s back.”
Olaf’s large form pushed through the players to meet me. “It’s about time, was it worth it?”
I took out one of the keys and handed it to him. “What do you think?”
Olaf looked at the key like it was the greatest prize ever. “Was that it?”
I shook my head. “No, there is plenty more still back there.”
“Rotted chests and crates,” Heath added unhelpfully.
“But the keys were hanging from hooks on the wall just the other side of the door,” I said, pulling out the other three keys from my bag and holding them out to him.
Olaf grinned and took the keys and yelled for our scout, “Eagle!”
Eagle slipped between the other players easily. “You called?”
Olaf held out one of the keys to him. “Here, take this and start scouting. I want this floor mapped as quickly as possible.”
Eagle took the key, his eyes widening as he read the description. Unable to hide his excitement, he said, “I’m on it, boss.”
Olaf waited a moment for Eagle to go before he spoke again. “Now, as for the treasure. I suppose we should go have a look.”
It took a few minutes for Olaf to hand out the other two keys, one to Icyhot and one to Rose, while keeping one for himself and letting me keep one. Then it was a few minutes longer to get everyone back to the treasure vault.
Olaf addressed the players as soon as they were all standing outside the vault. “Well, as you can see, we found some treasure. I don’t know what’s in here yet, and before we dig too deeply. I want to make sure we give credit where it’s due. Bye-bye Jacko, Fitz Bangs, and Heath Rickards made this possible. Just like with the MVP on boss fights, I intend to reward them with their first pick of whatever we find. That said, the crates and chests are in rough condition. We might not find anything of value, or we could strike it rich. Either way, be patient.”
Olaf gave everyone a minute to digest what he said. I know he was trying to temper expectations but the gleam in several of the players eyes said that they still expected great things.
“Now, we’ll start with the crates. And be careful, we don’t want to break anything hidden inside them,” Olaf ordered, motioning a few of us to start opening them.
I went to one of the smaller crates and used the knife I used for ‘Scavenging’ to carefully pry the lid open. The wood of the lid was so rotted the nails simply pulled through. Inside I found packing straw. It had thinned but not rotted away. Within the straw was a small glass jar with an ornate tapestry painted across it. A dragon burning a village to the ground.
Ornate Draconic Urn – Depicts the burning of an unknown village. (Draconic Lore Insufficient) Value unknown (Appraisal Lore Insufficient)
It was art. Art that told a story if my ‘Lore’ skill was at a high enough level. And more, it had some value if I learned the ‘Appraisal’ subskill. It seemed I had a task to complete in Root City before logging out.
“Okay, it looks like the crates are filled with artwork,” Olaf announced. “We don’t know the value yet, but we’ll find out. For now, we’re going to store it in our bags. Eventually, we’ll take it to Root City to be appraised. Any objections?”
There was some muttering from a few of the players but mostly everyone was fine with that. I would talk to Olaf later and let him know what I had learned.
After we opened all the crates, we had 5 paintings, 2 vases, 1 urn, and 4 statues. I took a few pieces that spoke of Draconic Lore. The rest of it went into Olaf and Micaela’s bags since they had the highest carrying capacity.
The keys I found did indeed work on the chests, the first of which was filled with Gold, Silver, and Copper. All of which Olaf quickly added to what he’d already collected. Same for the second chest. The third chest finally had the kind of treasure everyone wanted.
“Sage Blade,” Olaf read, holding up a tiny dagger. “Huh, dagger and wand, Fae restricted. That would be Baby or Rodger then.”
“Stats?” Rodger asked.
“Bonus to Intellect, Wisdom, and Nature Spell Damage,” Olaf said.
“That would be for Rodger,” Baby volunteered, effectively passing on the dagger wand.
“Congrats, Rodger,” Olaf said, handing over the unusual weapon.
“Blood Drenched Plate Helm, I think this is meant for Rose,” Olaf said, holding out the dark red helmet.
Rose happily took the helm and equipped it. The dark red helmet fit tightly around her head, hiding her dark hair, and covering most of her face. It also had an interesting, if intense visual effect, that made Rose’s already red eyes emit a blood red mist. “It has increased threat generation,” Rose said excitedly.
I was glad for her. Upgrades were always good.
“Next, I have a Dark Grimoire,” Olaf said, holding up a book bound between two metal plates covered in arcane symbols. “Not a book apparently. Dark magic boost. Uh, Sin?”
Sin Full eagerly raised her hand and shouted, “Yes, please!”
Chuckling, Olaf handed it over to her.
“One more chest,” Olaf said, opening the last of the chests. “We’ve got books and scrolls,” he announced then lifted the first of the scrolls out of the chest. “Remote Detonation,” he read. “I wouldn’t say no to this, but I get the feeling Fitz will want it more.”
“You’re darn right I do,” Fitz said, snatching away the scroll before Olaf could give it to him. The scroll disintegrated as usual just a moment later. “Hmm, only 100-yards to start. I will need to work on leveling this up, but oh, the possibilities.” I tried to ignore the mad cackle that followed.
“Moving on,” Olaf said, pulling out a booklet. “Let’s see. ‘Blueprint: Dragon Pistol’, I can build this, but I can’t really use it. Dixie, Hodge, or Duncan?”
“Not an engineer,” Dixie said with a pout.
“Me neither,” Hodge said, deflating slightly.
“Ooh, I can do it,” Fitz said, even though Olaf hadn’t offered it to him.
“Give it to me,” Duncan said. “I can build it and use it. And I can make it for those three as well.”
Olaf weighed his options for a moment before turning it over to Duncan.
“Next, we have . . . a book,” Olaf said, turning the book over in his hands in confusion. “A book in a language I can’t read. Bye-bye, is this Draconic?”
I stepped up and took the book.
Dragon Reksoni: A History
“Yeah,” I said.
“May as well take it, you’re the only one that can read it,” Olaf said. “And no, it won’t count against your loot. Not that there is much left.”
I was fine either way. After the cloak I got the day before, I didn’t really think anything would come up that I would want. At least, not until Olaf picked up the next item, another blueprint. I saw Olaf take one look at it and then quickly shove it into my hands.
Blueprint: Spear of Gungnir IX
That was extremely unexpected. The ninth blueprint to my legendary weapon. I would have expected to find it much farther up the World Tree. Then again, maybe this province once had a much higher-level requirement. I mean, Reksoni was an ancient dragon, didn’t that mean he was once an apex predator w
ithin the World Tree?
“Okay, last scroll,” Olaf continued, ignoring the fact he just shoved something so important into my hands and pretending that no one else noticed. “A spell, Roaring Chords. I have no idea what this is.”
“It’s mine, is what it is,” Heath said, stepping up to claim the skill.
“What is it?” Olaf asked.
“I’ll find out in a second,” Heath replied, opening the scroll, and learning the spell. “It’s a sonic stun spell.”
“Well, that worked out nicely then didn’t it?” Olaf said, alluding to the fact that most of the time, the rewards seemed to be tailored toward the players.
After that, we waited nearly an hour for Eagle to return from his scouting mission.
I listened in as Eagle reported. Holding out his map, the Vanguard pointed to it as he talked, “I was able to scout the entire floor. I found four different staircases going up.”
“Any more dead ends or hidden rooms?” Olaf asked.
“Negative,” Eagle reported, showing Olaf and me his map, which I worked to quickly copy into my own map book.
Olaf nodded in acceptance and maybe a little disappointment. “Alright, then let’s get up to the next floor and see what we can find.”
I couldn’t help but think to myself, like another treasure room?
Chapter 34
All four stairways Eagle found led up to the same maze of hallways. He also found another four stairways leading up from there. And like the previous floor, it was filled with traps and a single hidden vault. Correction, a single empty hidden vault. Something that repeated itself on the two floors after that. No monsters to fight and no bosses to slay.
The trap floors culminated in a pair of heavily trapped double doors. And behind those double doors was a grand stairway leading up.
“Do we keep going?” Micaela asked.
I couldn’t help but look at the time in my UI when she asked that. I was only a little surprised to see it was already after 7:00 PM.
Olaf rubbed his face wearily. “No, I think we’ll call it a day here. We’ve got everything mapped out. Let’s get back to camp and get some rest. We’ll see what’s above us tomorrow.”
Many of the players wanted to at least take a look to see what was at the top of those stairs, but Olaf was the leader. It was his decision to make, right or wrong.
Backtracking through the tower took almost an hour, even knowing the way. Then another hour to return to the Flatlands Camp. Despite our success for the day, everyone was mentally exhausted and simply ready to get some rest. Rose and I included.
We’d been working on the tower for three days already. In any other game that would have been ridiculous. But here, in the World Tree, it was realism on a scale I didn’t think was possible. There was just so much to explore and learn. I couldn’t wait to see what was at the top of those stairs.
Even with the excitement of the raid progressing in the morning, I slept hard that night. I always slept hard in the World Tree. It was rare that I tossed and turned. That could have just been the game, but I’d seen Olaf after a rough night of sleep. I supposed being in the game didn’t really matter as far as sleep was concerned.
“Ready for another day of fun and adventure?” Micaela greeted me as I approached the fire she was using to cook.
“That’d be great, thank you,” I said with a yawn.
Micaela laughed and handed me a plate of bacon, eggs, and some fruit. “Balanced breakfast for you.”
I took the plate and sat to eat. Rose went to check on her armor repairs. Despite the lack of a qualified and capable smith, Rose still chose to let someone attempt to repair her armor. As she said, better to get some repairs than no repairs. And this at the cost of overall durability of the armor. On the other hand, I didn’t take the kind of punishment Rose did. In fact, my armor was mostly intact and could wait to be serviced properly.
Swallowing my first bite, I asked, “When are we leaving?”
Micaela frowned and answered, “An hour, maybe two. It depends on how stubborn Ollie wants to be about it. Sergeant Butters, Mack, and Trinico are all insisting they come with us today. Ollie is trying to convince them otherwise.”
“Why do they want to come?” I asked. The tower was dangerous. We’d already had a full party wipe on a boss and several random deaths. Mack, Trinico, and the Sergeant were putting their lives at risk, and unlike the players, they wouldn’t respawn.
Micaela sighed. “Trinico finished preparing her spell. Says she can lead us to the Phylactery once the Lich is disincorporialized . . . whatever that means. Anyway, Ollie will argue until he eventually realizes it’s not up to him. Honestly, you would think he would know by now that if NPCs insist on accompanying you somewhere, it usually means they know something you don’t. Am I right?”
I nodded. She had a point. The citizens were part of this world. If they insisted on following you somewhere, there was a good chance they needed to be there for whatever events were about to take place. I would have put money on it that if we continued up those stairs the night before, Trinico, Mack, and Sergeant Butters all would have showed up out of nowhere, never mind all the traps or the limit of players allowed in the Dungeon Raid. Games could be weird like that.
I nodded and went back to my meal. Rose joined me a short while later looking unhappy. Her armor was clearly in better condition than the day before, but it still looked rough.
We heard Olaf’s grumbling before we saw him. “Stupid NPCs. No bloody idea what they’re getting themselves into. Can’t be talked out of it. Bunch of no-good lousy bytes of dated coding.”
Micaela smiled at me knowingly. “Like I said.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
Olaf glared at me. “You think this is really funny, don’t you?”
“Only your reaction,” I told him honestly.
Olaf’s glare didn’t relent. “We’re talking about Trini and the Sergeant’s lives.”
It was a sobering thought.
Micaela quickly interceded, “You think they don’t know the risks?”
Olaf grumbled something I couldn’t exactly hear, but it sounded a bit like a long and drawn out, “No.”
Micaela nodded. “There you have it then. We’ll just be extra careful today, won’t we?”
Olaf took in a deep breath, building up to something only to deflate and sag. Eventually, he said, “I still don’t like it. And I don’t have to either.”
Micaela held out a plate of food to the big man, “Here, eat your breaky. You’ll need your strength today.”
Olaf took the food and mechanically shoveled it in. When it was done, he stood up and said, “I’ll go round up the troops. Be ready to leave in ten minutes.”
As promised, we were marching ten minutes later. The large reddish-orange mountainous tower standing tall in front of us. And a couple hours later, we were past the double doors and climbing the stairs.
It was maybe three or four flights of stairs up before we emerged back into the light of day. We’d finally reached the top of the tower. And there waiting for us was the skeleton of the largest dragon I’d ever seen. Larger than any dragon I’d ever dreamed of. It lay on its side, wings folded neatly, and the tail curled around it. There were a few thin patches of emaciated skin on the aged bones. And yet, the sinew between the bones still held the skeleton intact. It covered over half the rocky plateau, even curled up as it was, otherwise, I was sure it would have been able to cover the entirety of the plateau. Heck, the skull alone was probably four or five times taller than I was, maybe more.
Mack gasped from somewhere behind me. “We’re too late,” he said, pointing to a figure standing in front of the dragon’s skull.
It was another skeleton, a humanoid one, though this one towered over the smaller figures around him. It wore dark robes covered in arcane patterns glowing with a sickly green light. I read the nameplate over its head,
Then I saw more arcane symbols. These were car
ved into the ground, pulsing with the same green glow, and encircling the dragon’s corpse. The arcane symbols were slowly crawling up the bones, engraving themselves upon them.
Helping to fuel this dark ceremony were a few dozen figures in dark robes labelled
Without warning, a distinctly female voice cut through the air, “Daughter, do not allow this rabble to interfere with the ceremony.” It was the lich. At least, that’s where I thought it originated from. She hadn’t moved or twitched. I didn’t even think she had noticed us or anything going on around her. She was standing stock still with her skeletal hands resting firmly on the dragon’s lower jaw as that was all she could reach even with her abnormal height.
With that command, the air tore open, revealing an endless darkness. From that black void, a young woman stepped through to join us on the plateau. She was tall, abnormally so, though not as tall as the lich. The skin on her face was ashy and grey, probably dead though green veins running just under the surface were pulsing with the same sickly green light. Her body was tightly wrapped in leather straps from the neck down, with black buckles scattered throughout. And most oddly, her hands and arms were bound around her chest like she was in a straitjacket.
Snapping to, Olaf quickly ordered, “Rose, intercept her. Baby, focus your heals on Rose. Everyone else, take up formation and let’s see what this psycho has got for us.”
Xanaiya suddenly stopped her laugh to stare at Olaf started muttering, “Psycho? Psycho? Psycho?” She continued muttering growing louder until she was screaming, “Psycho, psycho, psycho, psycho! Let us find out!” Suddenly, she launched into the air, her wings of smoke propelling her far too quickly at Olaf. She dove only to be knocked from the air by Rose’s Shield-Wall colliding with her just before impact.
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 58
