Two days had passed since they had defeated Kiula Web. All four of them were waiting outside of Kries’ hospital building, where they all needed to go to confirm Delarius needed medical treatment. James had checked out their levels beforehand: they’d all managed to hit Level 8 in their own time. Despite whatever Amelia had seen, and the fact that they knew this was potentially dangerous, they’d still agreed to come along regardless.
The timer finished counting down, and Delarius swung the doors open and walked out, acting like nothing had happened, which for Amelia was slightly disturbing.
“Ah, it’s good to see you again adventurers.” He smiled. “Sorry I kept you waiting.”
“No need,” Grey replied, smiling. “So, where to now?”
“The Capital, of course! As I stated earlier, the Prince will greet us on the way in, and then we shall have an audience with the king. We can debrief him about the events with Kiula and Nolan there.”
“When did you explain that?” Amelia asked.
“When we were being murdered, apparently,” Patrick explained, “which was probably more entertaining and informative than having to sit through all of that exposition.”
“I don’t think we should joke about this stuff anymore,” James told Patrick sternly.
“This isn’t a joke anymore, it’s a coping mechanism.”
They followed Delarius through the city streets, past groups of players preparing to tackle the new raid, before reaching the opposite end of Kries from where they started. There they found a new horse and cart, one that was much higher quality than the pile of wood they had travelled to Kries in. The horses were also not preparing to bolt any second, perfectly staying their ground.
“Never thought we’d have good transport for once,” Amelia said. She looked at Delarius and smiled. “Thanks. And…sorry about everything that happened at the Tower, we should have got you out sooner.”
Delarius took his seat on the horse and cart. “Do not fret, events like these are natural occurrences in your line of work. I have seen worse in my time as an inventor. Our crash into Heartily was not the worst I have seen…but without it, we would not have achieved so much.” Delarius smiled. “I’m glad I got to go on this adventure with you all, whether it was intentional or not.”
The rest of the party climbed up onto the cart. Amelia turned to the others, lowering her voice so Delarius didn’t hear.
“When Draconautis attacked, Delarius said he knew he was going to die,” she explained.
“Yeah, you mentioned something about that,” Grey replied. “That guy in the cornfield implied something similar.”
Patrick scoffed “There’s no way that guy got through Kiula. We couldn’t get through her with two level 6s. A solo player wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“I think we’ve established that man was more than a player.”
“That’s not the point,” Amelia said, “I want to try and save him. If his death is preordained by the game, then the best way we can find out more is by trying to stop it.”
“We have no idea when his death is going to come in the story,” Patrick pointed out, “and there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to do anything to prevent it.”
“We should at least try,” James said, “and if not, we can just redo the dungeon he dies in, right?”
“I checked online, this game drops story events when you retry dungeons after beating them,” Grey explained. “We’d have one shot at it, and we’d probably fail…but I agree with you, James. We should at least try. Judging by what Amelia saw, the easiest way to get answers to this whole thing is through Delarius.”
They rode out of Kries, back into the wastes. Slowly, the city’s green glow faded out of sight, the grass began to grow again and the permanent night sky finally gave way to dawn, illuminating the spires of the Capital once more. They could already see the towers from all the way back when they entered Corinth, but as they rode closer they realised how modern they looked, sleek white towers of marble that almost touched the sky. There were several roads leading up the city’s wall, all of them packed with carts filled with resources that moved in and out in an orderly manner. The wall had mountain ranges on either side, connecting to them almost naturally.
“Was this once all one mountain range?” Grey asked.
Delarius nodded. “The mountain range in the centre was destroyed by a war between the Gods of Sable. They say the corpse of the Forgotten God is where the Capital was built.”
“The Forgotten God? Who was that?”
Delarius shrugged. “I don’t know, we forgot about them.”
Grey cocked their head. “That…makes sense.”
They approached the wall, Delarius managing to push through the groups of people by waving official documents in the air and using his status. Eventually, they reached the wall, and the game paused. A message appeared in the air in front of them.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Warning: You will not be able to leave the City for a long period of time upon entering.
Would you like to proceed?
“That’s certainly ominous,” Patrick said. “Whatever happened next, there isn’t any going back. Is everyone ready.”
Amelia and Grey simply nodded. James looked at the frozen Delarius and smiled.
“Let’s do it,” he said. “To the capital.”
The world unfroze, and they entered the walls like nothing happened.
Quest Completed
Court of Spiders
----
New Quest
Battle of Corigrad
Objective: Reach the Palace
Not that far away, Knight Oblivia sat in the fields surrounding the Capital, her sword planted in the ground, watching as Cieth’s party vanished into the abyss. The Corigrad she saw was completely different from the one they had seen, but that was simply because they hadn’t completed the quest yet.
She was lucky she was even here after what happened in Kries. The game had automatically logged her out after being idle for too long, a function she didn’t know it had or would even be necessary in a full dive game. Before she’d been mostly indifferent to Ceith’s plight. Now she knew it was necessary to stop them.
She opened her menu to open the Dungeon Finder: a way of quickly joining dungeons that only became available after paying for at least one of the expansions, and a lifeline for solo players. Her level would be reduced to 10 to make sure she didn’t blow apart the difficulty of the game, but for what she needed to do, level wasn’t going to matter.
Preparing to Join Raid Session
Battle of Corigrad
Waiting for players…
“That’s a bit of a long shot, isn’t it? There are hundreds of people playing that challenge, the chance of you joining the right group is minimal.”
Oblivia looked around to see an old man in a cloak walking towards her.
“Do you have a better idea, old man?” She asked. She looked up above his head. “You don’t have a name tag, and I don’t think you’re an NPC either.”
He chuckled. “My mistake.” He waved his hand and his player details appeared above his head.
SoulArmoury
Level 8
Saber Level 8
Oblivia sighed and turned back to the menu. “Any other player would be bombarding you with questions.”
He kept smiling. “So why exactly are you not?”
“I’ve seen too much shit to care. Learning more will just make things worse.”
“Things like Draconautis showing you the truth?”
“I…only vaguely remember what he showed me. Like my mind’s trying to black it out. Can’t tell if it’s the game or trauma.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that. If it’s any conciliation, I can see those things either. It doesn’t get easier. I’m glad I have someone to talk to about it.”
“You haven’t tried to kill me straight away, so I’m guessing you’re not one of the bad guys.” She almost laughed despite herself. When did her standards get so low? “Why do you want to go to Corigrad?”
“To assist a boy in his goals. And you?”
“To stop a fool from stumbling into something he doesn’t understand...who I imagine is the same person you want to help. Guess you are one of the bad guys after all.”
“That is likely the case. I must warn you, though, that you will not stand a chance if you try to stop me.”
Oblivia scoffed. “What, do you think you’re a master of the game or something?”
“I do not play the game. That is the reason I will not falter.”
Session Found
Preparing to Join
Oblivia grabbed her sword. “Well then, I’ll see you on the other side.”
“May the best Saber win.”
“I never would have guessed you were a Saber.”
He laughed. “Neither would I.”
She vanished in a flash. The old man smiled and walked towards what he saw as the ruined city of Corigrad.
James Stats: Level: 8 VIT: 350/350 STR: 20 DEF: 25 DEX: 10 SPL: 20 INT: 1
Amelia Stats: Level: 8 VIT: 200/200 STR: 30 DEF: 15 DEX: 20 SPL: 5 INT: 1
Grey stats: Level: 8 VIT: 200/200 STR: 15 DEF: 15 DEX: 15 SPL: 30 INT: 1 Healing Pool: 600/600
Patrick stats: Level: 8 VIT: 150/150 STR: 35 DEF: 10 DEX: 20 SPL: 25 INT: 1 Mana: 250/250
