Sedona, Arizona - 5:37 PM


    The highway from Flagstaff to Sedona was full of monsters just like other long-distance travel quests that involved getting from one place to another as fast as possible. None of the beasts were as fast as I was, though; from lizards to sentient dust devils to cacti that shot spikes at travelers on the road, nothing could keep up with me on my Heelies. There were roaming bosses that took the form of roadrunners in this region of the United States, but none graced me with their presence today.


    By the time the landscape started to turn to the rusty red that Sedona was known for, I could feel the city’s draw in the back of my mind. There was something else here, spinning slowly through the air. Not physically, but mentally. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck raise from the sensation.


    It made me scowl.


    “Sedona feels different,” I announced. “Not nearly as strong as it should have been. Something bad has happened here.”


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Quest: Sedona Blues!]]


    I was wondering when you’d feel it, Anthony.


    There are a couple of Patrons here, and none of them feel like talking to me. One thing is for certain, though, this is not the paradisaical resort you made it out to be.


    The first scenario is complete. The four major psychic vortexes have been rendered inoperable with the defeat of the bosses guarding them, leaving Sedona to the whims of the administrator. The second scenario hasn’t started yet, but there’s no guarantee it won’t be soon.


    Find out what happened here. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as we both think it is.


    Objective: Uncover the secret of what happened in Sedona.


    Reward: 7,500 points.


    <<<>>>


    Her last line resonated with me. Sedona was so far from where I had been changing history that I doubted it could have been affected by anything I did specifically. It was statistically improbable. There was only one thing in my mind that could have altered the course of the city, though, and I didn’t want to say it out loud.


    Taking a breath, I got my expression back under control and continued down the highway. It would only be a few minutes before I got there, so there was no use being upset. A lot of reasons to be, but no use.


    “Maybe I just need to stop telling you about the future,” I joked, trying to lift the mood in the face of something new. “Seems like a lot of things I tell you about go wrong.”


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Message]]


    I hardly think that’s my fault. You’ve already changed so much in this run; it would be absurd to think that things wouldn’t have far reaching consequences.


    Though, I doubt this is what you were thinking. What did the scenario bosses drop here?


    <<<>>>


    Despite fixing my expression, my face soured again when I saw her question. “As a Warmind, they’d have the possibility to drop Warmongering Mystic pieces, of course, and stuff like Mental Juggernaut. You know, things useful to psychics in general.”


    I worked my jaw as I entered the city. The first thing I came across was a roundabout with a destroyed sculpture in the middle that was usually in one piece. As if I needed the reminder that something was wrong.


    <<<>>>


    [[Race Complete!]]


    You have set a new record! +100 points.


    1st place: Anthony Franklin 47.57


    2nd place: Antonio Luna 1.23.12


    3rd place: Lucy Castillo 2.12.33


    Welcome to Sedona!


    <<<>>>


    Swiping away the text box, I checked the buildings around me. The four biggest vortexes were Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Boynton Canyon, and Airport Mesa. Two of them were south of the city, one was to the north, and the last was situated, as the name suggested, near the airport. I paid particular attention as I wheeled down the street.


    The further into Sedona I got, the more I understood what had happened here. The north side of the city had more fighting than the south, telling me that whoever did this took out Boynton Canyon’s boss first, shaving off a good portion of the city-wide safe zone. Coming from the train, it would have taken some hiking but that really wasn’t a problem for anyone with access to the system anymore.


    On a whim, I started heading south when the road split instead of heading straight for the current safe zone, which was at the airport. There were few monsters around, mostly mutated coyotes and other scavengers. None of them were worth many points since they were the system’s cleanup crew for this area, and I left them alone.


    By the time I passed Mammoth Rock, I was starting to see where battles had taken place. It wasn’t as bad as it was up north, but still notable. That clinched it for me; whoever did this knew what they were doing. They started from the north and swept around the city to the Bell and Cathedral Rock bosses.


    I slowed down and crossed my arms. Doing it that way would have lowered the number of people who died in the process and given them some warning. If they had started from the south and headed north, people would have been more surprised by the sudden disappearance of the safe zone, thus leading to more deaths.


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Message]]


    I’m giving you a lot of time to answer, but I can’t help but notice that you stopped halfway. It stands to reason that whoever did this probably didn’t have a psychic class. What would they get instead?


    <<<>>>


    I scratched my head as I picked up my pace. “Psychic resistance,” I answered solemnly. “25% resistance to all psychic damage and an increased chance to shrug off mental attacks. So, yeah, it’s basically confirmed that the Fallen sent his pet here to prepare for a showdown with me.”This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Message]]


    I absolutely despise that. But, I suppose it’s a weight off of my mind that they’re over here and not where the guild is. I have been worrying about that.


    <<<>>>


    “They’d be fine regardless. They’re scrappers. I still stand by my reasoning that they’d be able to take on anyone who’s not me,” I assured her before altering my course to head back to the airport. “Aaron obviously has some knowledge of what I’m going to do or have done. He used the ‘I’m not a prude’ line on me, which means he could at least hear us in the Hall of the End. Don’t like that one bit, but I think following the Dealer’s plan is going to throw things off course.”


    My mind wandered as I connected some dots, and I slowed down to a stop. “We’re going to meet in Dublin,” I realized, looking up at the sky. “Depending on whatever state this person comes from, there’s a very real chance that they’re going to have enough MVPs to join in. Unlike the Irish, we Americans aren’t in any real danger during the event. If we die, we pop out because almost all of us will have Patrons and pissing them off is bad for the administrators. That’s going to be where our first fight takes place. Like a test to see how far they need to go.”


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Message]]


    That makes sense to me. It might be worth it to challenge you early.


    I’ve been looking around and there’s a few teams here and there, but it looks like everyone’s back at the airport safe zone. Seems as though there’s going to be a town hall of sorts going on. It sounds like they’re trying to decide what to do now that the vortex bosses are gone.


    <<<>>>


    “I agree. From his perspective, it’d be worth it to see if whoever they choose will measure up to me eventually, and if it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out then there’s still plenty of time to get a replacement,” I said before getting back on my wheels. The thought of a town hall meeting in the aftermath of the scenario intrigued me.


    Heading back up to Mammoth Rock, I went off road to cut across the rocky terrain to get to the safe zone. It really wasn’t all that large, though it did take up the entirety of the small airport and runway. Just like the one back in Etson Square, there wasn’t enough space for everyone to live comfortably.


    People with construction- and logistic-based classes were working on shelters for people both in and around the safe zone. Others who were armed to the teeth patrolled the area for monsters all the way out to the city. I knew that people were still hunkering down in their homes, but that wasn’t very helpful against abstract psychic constructs. They needed a place to live that was closer to safety.


    Sliding down the hill, I started walking towards the brick airport terminal. The space in front of it seemed to be designated as some kind of city square, and it was one of the few places that hadn’t been developed on. There were several shanties of varying sizes surrounding it with only a few feet in between to walk through.


    As Sara said, several people were gathering and entering the terminal. Based on the very threatening looking duo out front stopping some people from going inside, it looked like it was invite-only.


    I walked through the crowd and looked around. While I was interested in what was going on, I still needed to find the other Warmind in town. Fred Orenstein wasn’t important enough to be invited to anything, much to his chagrin. He wanted to be, I knew, but was restricted by his class.


    Fred was the kind of guy who had always wanted to be a hero, but had little aptitude for it. In all honesty, he was a bumbling mess, and that was coming from someone who genuinely liked the guy. His choice to become a Warmind had started and ended with the thought that it sounded like it could make him something special, that it meant he could win fights against monsters.


    Once he found an item granting the class, he accepted it and bragged to anyone that would listen. As a Warmind, war was obviously what he was going to be good at. He trained for hours a day to get good at Push, Pull, and Lift, the first three abilities that required mental input from him.


    He could barely Lift a pocket watch.


    It wasn’t an issue of Willpower. At first undeterred, he used Shield as protection and slayed enough monsters to increase his stats little by little. The issue was that he had no aptitude for telekinesis.


    Over the last few centuries, I had learned that no one became a Warmind naturally. The system simply never offered it. It could only be found via an item or defeated boss. There were a few like that, such as the Needle Lancer, so I hadn’t really thought about what would happen if someone that wasn’t compatible got a hold of it.


    That became a question and was answered immediately by Fred Orenstein, a man so incompatible with his class that he could barely operate it. I was here to ensure that I received another piece of the Warmongering Mystic set, but I was also here to remove his class for him. It was mutually beneficial, as it meant I had a Medallion of Uuska infused with the Warmind class.


    Heading away from the square, I wandered in the direction I normally found him. His shanty was just outside the safe zone.


    The overcrowding was bad enough that I left the area and went around. People were starting to give me dirty looks, but I ignored them. Given the psychic lean the classes here in Sedona took, more than a few had to feel my Absolute Awareness lingering around me. Unfortunately for them, I wasn’t about to rein it in.


    Especially when I came across the shanty I was looking for and found it destroyed. I started ran to it, pushing through the crowd. The wood looked like it had been cut through with an axe with no regard for who might have been in it at the time. I tapped a man who was passing by on the shoulder.


    “Do you know what happened here?” I asked loudly, pointing towards the destruction. The man glanced between me and the demolished shack as if he didn’t understand the question, and his aura showed him as a little frightened.


    <<<>>>


    [[Patron Message]]


    Anthony, I think you need to modulate your tone a little bit. You have to remember that a good number of these people are psychic and empathetic. Try asking again, but nicely.


    <<<>>>


    I took a deep breath. That made sense, and I had been so surprised I didn’t think about it. I looked the man in the eyes and activated my Peacekeeper’s Will just in case. He visibly relaxed after that. “What happened to Fred?”


    “He’s not with us anymore,” the man answered with a thick accent.


    I frowned. “You have to know that can mean a lot of different things,” I complained. “What happened?”


    He didn’t answer, but his eyes shifted to focus behind me. There was nothing there according to Absolute Awareness except the gathered crowd, which began to part. The man knelt and, to my surprise, the other people in the crowd followed suit.


    “He was murdered.”


    The strong voice came from behind where a woman was now standing. I turned, face to face with a person clad head to toe in oversized rust red robes. The eyes were the only thing I could see of her, and they were milky white. This wasn’t something that happened before the system appeared, but after.


    “The Red Oracle,” I said, crossing my arms. I wasn’t used to being snuck up on. “I wasn’t expecting to cross your path today.”


    “No, Anthony Franklin,” she said, holding her hand up to her mouth. “You were expecting to find Fred, offer him a deal, and leave town, not unlike a whirlwind we recently had. I can see that about you. You don’t like to sit still.”


    I let out an exasperated chuckle. Oracles and their vague, mysterious powers were generally something I tried to avoid. They saw, heard, and felt things that I would generally have wanted to remain hidden, and it was always random things with no rhyme or reason. An Oracle in Venice once offered me eggplant parmigiana because he thought I slighted him and had a vision of one of my least favorite foods.


    The Red Oracle was an important part of Sedona, but one that I didn’t usually meet face to face. We never really had reason to cross paths, and she never tried to seek me out. The one time we spoke, she told me that I was dangerous and keeping me here longer only invited disaster.


    “You do bring about disaster,” she said.


    “Don’t do that,” I warned with a shake of my head. “The fact that you’re here means you need something, and I don’t need you doing all that.”


    She nodded quickly. “Very well. I’ll let you speak, and then I’ll speak. I won’t try to accelerate the conversation.”


    Frowning, I sighed. That was likely the best I was going to get. “You said Fred was murdered?”


    “Yes, by the same man who destroyed the vortex bosses,” she answered. Before I could get out my next question, she continued. “I don''t know who he was because I never met him and I have to be near someone to see them, but this was his only interaction with anyone inside of the city. From eyewitness reports, he looked for Fred, found him, and then killed him before riding off west on a motorcycle. You missed him by only a couple of days.”


    “Fuck,” I said before I could help it.


    “Fuck, indeed,” she repeated. “Do you know why he was murdered?”


    “Probably for practice, the poor guy,” I sighed. Fighting a Warmind to train might have been a good idea if the one he stumbled upon wasn’t Fred. Without looking away from her, I turned my attention back to the demolished shelter. Everything inside was looted, leaving only the wood. “Do you have a description of who did this?”


    “No. Something about him fogged the minds of the people he interacted with,” she said. “We know that he wore black and rode a motorcycle, but only one of those things is really a defining factor.”


    I nodded and sighed. “I don’t plan on staying long. There’s a chance that I might be able to do what I need to do, but it’s a long shot. Do you know where his items are?”


    The Red Oracle nodded before I even finished my question. “Yes, and I’ll help you out if you help me out. Will you walk with me? I’m late because I had to come and greet you.”


    “You didn’t have to,” I replied.


    “I did,” she returned firmly. “Will you?”


    Making my decision quickly, I nodded and walked up to her. “Sure, if you can help me. Where are we going?”


    “To speak with the other factions of Sedona,” the Red Oracle answered as she turned and started walking through the shanty town. People moved out of her way as she did, and I followed in her wake. “I need your help convincing the others to leave the city. It’s the only way we’re going to survive the calamity the angered administrator will throw at us next.”