World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  I was suddenly cut off by the familiar Scottish brogue of Marie, “Bye-bye Jacko!”

  I winced. “Right after I talk to my dear friend Marie,” I quickly corrected.

  “You fought a dragon, not just a dragon, but an ancient dragon,” Marie accused me as she crossed the floor. “And you did not come to see me immediately? What in the name of my father were you thinking?”

  I smiled uncomfortably and admitted, “I wasn’t?”

  “You are darn right about that,” Marie snapped. “Now, you better have what I need or so help me. I will find another dragon and feed you to him. Got it?”

  “I have it, don’t worry,” I promised.

  Marie nodded once, “Good, hand it over and escort me to Root City. I will need a few weeks to get it ready in my father’s forge.”

  I really couldn’t argue with the woman. When I finally registered what she said, I asked, “A few weeks?”

  Chapter 37

  It kind of amazed me that Baby and her three Fairy friends went into the dark places Heath said the Thieves’ Guild liked to frequent. Heck, I was amazed Heath frequented those kinds of places. But the effort had been worth it. Heath got us the information.

  The Order of Backstabbers, the group to which the four Sprites belonged, had taken over the town of Dagger’s Point after they wiped out most of the citizen population. Bartenders and waitresses were all that remained.

  Dagger’s Point was a seaside city that overlooked the Dark Sea from atop a cliff. It had a road that ran from the city to the portal and down to the port, which was naturally under the control of pirate players. The province was mostly water based, which is why the Backstabbers took it over. No land-based quests meant it was very unlikely to draw many adventuring players.

  Heath appeared from ‘Stealth’ next to me. “Are you sure you want to do this, mate?”

  I didn’t like Heath asking that. It made me feel like there was nothing good waiting for us. “I’m sure, how bad is it?”

  “I counted thirty-two players in town. Another dozen down at the docks,” Heath answered, then added, “There might be more in the mayor’s mansion. The Order Commander lives up there. I don’t know what he’s got inside for men, but I would expect at least half a dozen guards.”

  Pwn smiled, “I knew this was a good idea. This is going to be so much fun.”

  Heath frowned. Without his bad British accent, he said, “They’ve put the citizens in chains. Serving girls, dancers, bartenders. It’s not good, Bye-bye.”

  “Then we really need to clear them out,” I said, feeling a righteous anger build up in me.

  Heath continued, “I don’t disagree. But we’ve got to be smart about this. Thankfully, most of them are drunk and can be taken out easily. Problem is, once you use your spell, they are all going to know something is wrong. I would bet money that each of them is carrying a few sobering potions.”

  Pwn frowned then asked, “What about levels?”

  “Most are level 30 or higher. The Order Boss, I have no idea, but he’s who I would save that spell of yours for,” Heath answered.

  Baby was quick to ask, “Did you see those four Sprites?”

  “I didn’t see any of them. I’m not surprised Killer One didn’t come back after getting his level reset. I’m sure Hidden Dagger, Black Fae, and Tiny Deathdealer are here since the Thieves’ Guild says they are. And since I couldn’t find them in the town, and the only place I couldn’t find a way inside to investigate was the mayor’s mansion-”

  “Then they are probably in the mansion,” I said, finishing Heath’s sentence. “Is there any way to sneak into the mansion?” I really didn’t like the idea of going in like an assassin, but there wasn’t much choice if I wanted to complete the quest.

  Pwn frowned. “Say, Bye-bye,” he started. “I have an . . . let’s call him an acquaintance. This acquaintance told me a story once about how, someone that looks a lot like you, incinerated him, and most of the army he was travelling with, with a single attack. I don’t suppose you might be able to pull off something like that, would you?”

  I wasn’t sure who his acquaintance was, and it was probably best I didn’t know. However, I did know what he was referring to. In my first month playing, a group of player killers tried to attack Hurligville. The leader of the group, a player named Six Fingers, insulted my Goddess, and in her wrath, she blessed my spear and well . . . like Pwn said, I incinerated him and most of his army.

  The key there was that Six Fingers insulted my Goddess. I didn’t know if I could cause a repeat. Still, there was no harm in asking.

  I took a knee, holding my spear upright with both hands and the butt planted in the ground. I bowed my head, pressing my forehead into the shaft of the spear. I prayed. Goddess . . . Issara. I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but I could really use your help. Those people in there could really use your help. I’m not sure if you can bless my spear again like you did that time in Hurligville, but it would be a big help.

  The Goddess Issara was indeed listening. She said, “I cannot repeat that blessing without a similar inciting event. The Wrath of a Goddess is not a trifle to be handed out like candy.” For a moment I was disappointed but then she continued, “However, in exchange for . . . let’s say 10 charges of ‘Justice Bringer’, I may be able to even the odds. Would a city wide ‘Justice Bringer’ suffice?”

  ‘Justice Bringer’ was a once-a-day spell I’d been granted that basically leveled the playing field. If she wanted 10 charges, that meant I would be without the spell for over a week. I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the week but not having it could cause me problems. That said, the town in front of me was a much bigger problem.

  Spell: Justice Bringer

  Level: 18

  Experience: 4.50%

  Description: A spell to bring justice to the people of the World Tree

  Spell Duration: 1-hour

  Cooldown: 00:00:01

  Charges: 1/1

  Spell Cast Speed: Instant

  Range: 35-yards

  Spell Effect (Active): All Adventurers and Citizens within range have their effective level scaled to match your own. Does not work on enemy Citizens or Beasts

  Mana Cost: -100-MP

  I passed the message to my companions and waited to get their feedback.

  “That works for me,” Pwn said excitedly. “It is still going to be difficult, but I like a challenge.”

  “We can do it,” Rodger said. “We’ve got Bye-bye Jacko on our side. How could we not succeed?”

  Heath answered rather bluntly, “There are a lot of them, that’s how. Still, I think that’s our best chance. Hopefully, they won’t notice too soon. Is your Goddess willing to let me get into position first? Actually, let the Fairies get into position above the guards as well, if possible?”

  “I can only ask,” I said, preparing to send the mental request.

  However, Issara’s voice echoed in my head before I could, “You only need call my name.”

  Class Quest Alert: Eliminate the Order of Backstabbers

  Your Goddess Issara has charged you to eliminate the Order of Backstabbers and return Dagger’s Point and its port to the control of the Admiralty. (2:00:00.00)

  Reward: Experience, Various Bounties, 1-Sigil of the Goddess Issara per Punished Criminal

  Do you accept this Quest?

  Yes

  No

  “She says we’re good,” I corrected myself, mentally accepting the quest.

  Heath nodded, then said, “Okay, there are two guards on the wall. Fairies, you get the one on the left. I’ve got the one on the right. We attack when the fireworks begin. Bye-bye, Rose, and Pwn, I expect you to storm into the city and start laying waste to anyone in red. No hesitation, no mercy.”

  I didn’t even get to acknowledge his order before he vanished into ‘Stealth’.

  “Better get going, you three,” Rose said. “Heath moves pretty quickly.”

  “We’re so going to
pown these guys,” Rodger said excitedly, shooting upward followed by Icy and Fiery.

  Pwn rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  I just laughed at the Void Mage. “You picked your name.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Pwn replied, rubbing his face. “You know, I didn’t think Maggie would take me seriously or that there wouldn’t be some kind of rule against the naming convention.”

  I laughed even harder, Rose and Baby’s laughter quickly joining mine.

  Once Rose mastered her laughter, she said, “Let’s move up. I’m sure we’ll get the guards attention, make it easier for Heath and the Fairies to sneak up on them.”

  As we approached the wide-open gate, I saw the two “guards” on top of the old stone wall. One, a player named was snoring so loudly we could hear him from fifty yards out. The other, , was staring up at the night sky, completely ignoring everything around him.

  We kept walking, and I kept expecting one of them to say or do something. But they didn’t. They just . . . kept snoring and stargazing, respectively. When we got closer, I was . . . appalled by the number of judgments each guard possessed. There were hundreds of them. How was that even possible?

  We passed under the wall and through the gate where we found another guard, . Over six hundred judgments and he was passed out drunk, an empty bottle lying next to him. Did they really feel so safe here that they didn’t take anything seriously?

  There was a sudden commotion up the street as a door slammed open and six players burst out. For a second, I thought we’d been caught until I realized five of them were beating on the sixth.

  “Cheat us at cards, will you?” shouted as he pulled out a dagger and stabbed several times, not killing him but making his point.

  Smooth slurred, “I beat you fair and square. You were the one cheating!”

  The five men stopped their return to the bar and rounded on Smooth again. I feared this time Smooth would not be walking away. And with almost a thousand judgments, I just couldn’t let them send him for respawn.

  “Issara, now please,” I requested as I leaped into the air, ‘Storm Lance’ already charged to the tip of my spear. The clouds parted above, and I saw a small white orb drop rapidly. It hit in the center of town and burst, expanding until it covered the entirety of Dagger’s Point and the port below.

  Issara’s voice echoed in my head again, “You have 2-hours. Make them count.”

  I smirked as I dropped on the befuddled and confused murderers. The lightning cut three of them down in an instant. I didn’t get the chance to jump again before Rose was there, smacking thugs left and right, knocking them from their feet. And Pwn was right behind us, unleashing great gouts of black fire and cackling merrily as he did so.

  I made sure to strike Smooth and finish what the thugs started.

  Within seconds, all six were defeated. Banished from the province and their levels reduced. I looked back toward the gate to see Pwn had already finished off the passed out drunk. I looked around for the Fairies only to see them further up the street, dropping bombs of magic on the mostly drunk and confused Player Killer Order.

  I hadn’t noticed before, but there was music coming from inside. It sounded like a fiddle or maybe a violin. I always thought of them as being the same thing, but some people were particular about that kind of thing.

  Heath appeared suddenly, he said, “Maybe this won’t be as hard as I thought.”

  “Don’t jinx it,” Pwn complained.

  Rose grinned. “I’ve always wanted to clear out a bar,” she said, as she kicked the doors to the pub, knocking them off their hinges. The wood doors hit the ground with a thud and the music halted with a glaring note. Rose yelled as her form blurred from view, “Party crashers!”

  “We should help her, right?” Heath asked, watching as Rose went whole hog on the player killers.

  I watched as Rose was smiling brightly when she bounced someone’s head off the bar making me wince. I understood the pain was muted, but that still looked like it hurt.

  “I think she’s having fun,” I said.

  Baby hummed thoughtfully then asked, “I should still heal her, right?”

  I winced as another player, a woman this time, got her head clapped between Rose’s shields.

  “Oh no, you don’t,” Pwn shouted, shooting fire at the stage where the musician was trying to flee through a window.

  Heath sighed. “Seeing as Pwn has joined in, I feel I should do the same,” he said, vanishing from sight. Someone in there was about to have a really bad day.

  “I suppose I should just keep anyone from escaping, no?” I asked, looking for Baby only to see she had gone inside as well and was flying around the chandelier, casting healing spells as needed. The way she was circling reminded me of an old vid. Something about a ghost and these strange scientists. I shook away the thought as a small Goblin player tried to sneak past. He died quickly.

  When the dust settled, twenty-two more players had been defeated and banished from the province. With the players gone and no one there to stop him, Heath freed four enslaved citizens and sent them toward the portal.

  “That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” Rose said, filling a mug with what passed for beer. She took a sip then spit it out. “Oh, this stuff is terrible,” she complained as she poured it out all over the floor of the now vacant bar.

  “Where next?” Baby asked. “I didn’t see any of the Sprites.”

  “We’ll head for the mansion. Take out anyone in our way. Hopefully, we’ll find them there,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as her. There was always the chance, no matter how much Heath praised the Thieves’ Guild’s information network, that it was simply wrong.

  The town itself was quite small. You had a small number of houses, a dozen at most, a couple of shops, the mayor’s mansion, and the pub. The provinces described it as once being a major transit hub to move goods to Root City. Due to it being such a small town, it really made for the perfect place for an Order of killers to call home.

  We met with token resistance right up until we got to the mansion. The Fairies had been rather successful in their magical bombardment of the town, except that it let the guards in the mansion know they were coming. The front door was now barricaded, and archers appeared to have set up on the second floor to shoot from open windows there.

  We found our trio of Fairies hiding behind a stone pillar at one end of a stone fence. We quickly needed to take cover with them when arrows started flying at us from the upper floor windows.

  I risked peeking over the wall but couldn’t really see anything before I was ducking back down quickly. I didn’t know what kind of damage those arrows would do if they hit me. I doubted they would kill me in one shot, but one couldn’t be too careful. “Heath, think you can sneak in?”

  Heath vanished then reappeared a second later. “I could, but I doubt I’d be able to get you in. No, I’m afraid this is going to be a direct fight. And you need to know now, these guys won’t play fair.”

  Pwn followed up before I could. “Yeah, but if you got in, you could take out those archers, right?”

  Heath slowly nodded, “Yeah, I suppose I could, but it will take time.”

  “We should have almost an hour and a half before the effect wears off,” I said, checking the quest timer that started counting down as soon as the Goddess Issara cast her spell. “Will you need more than that?”

  Heath sighed, “I’ll make it work. Just . . . keep them distracted.” A moment later, he was gone.

  “I got it,” Pwn said, forming and lobbing a black fireball over his shoulder in roughly the direction of the barricaded entrance. He then addressed the three Fairy spellcasters. “You three help out. Weak spells only. We’re keeping them distracted. Got it? Jacko, Rose, keep a watch for anyone trying to sneak up on us. PK’s like this always have sneaky
guys around and ways of sneaking them to places where they can do the most damage.”

  Rose nodded, “We’re on it Pwn, you do your part, we’ll do ours.”

  Rodger looked to Icy and Fiery and asked, “Are we really blind firing like that? Couldn’t we like, you know, destroy the whole building?”

  Icy and Fiery shared a look and shrugged before doing exactly that, a fireball and an ice shard quickly formed and flew blindly over the wall. I heard glass break as one of the two spells hit, but I had no idea how much damage was done.

  Rose and I did our best to keep an eye out for anyone trying to sneak up on us. I even kept my ‘Detection’ spell active. Between that, ‘Justice Unveiled’ and my ‘Perception’ skill, there was truly little chance the afflicted killers would be able to sneak up on me, more so because the ‘Justice Bringer’ effect outlined them in red.

  So, the two idiots, and , that were stealthily following the wall to where we stood were in for a nasty surprise.

  When the pair was just a few feet away from Baby, I gave the signal and a bramble suddenly rose from the ground, trapping the two men in place. A little ‘Storm Lance’, ‘Arctic Lance’, and ‘Earth Lance’ sent them back to level one in short order.

  We didn’t see anyone else when we heard a commotion from the mansion.

  A voice from inside exclaimed, “Someone’s upstairs killing the archers!”

  Followed shortly by another voice, “Don’t let them get away!”

  Pwn grimaced. “Time to do this the old-fashioned way. Rose, feel like breaking through that barricade?”

  “Sure,” Rose said, popping out from her cover with her shields raised. A single arrow pinged off her metal Shield-Wall and that was it. She grinned and blurred, crashing into the barrier but failing to break through.

  With only the one archer, it meant I could help. I leaped into the sky, completely ignored by the archer trying to shoot Rose. I came back down, targeting the barricaded door with my spear. The fall damage transferred through my spear into the door splitting it just enough to see inside. There was a single table leaned against the door and a few chairs piled up. I bucked at the door and it shook, the table and chairs on the other side shifted.