《The Stars of Fate》 prologue As a man stepped out of a golden portal, the noise of the bazaar slammed into him like a freight train. Many multitudes of colourful stalls lined the sides of narrow streets where people were pushing against each other to move in any direction. Large plazas and courtyards dotted the bazaar with large, elaborate fountains and statues depicting gods placed at their centres. These plazas and courtyards weren¡¯t the most impressive aspect of this strange bazaar. If one glanced up towards the sky they would see a perfectly clear night sky, on closer inspection however people would start to notice that it was not, in fact, the night sky but outer space. Though for everyone present in the bazaar, the fact it was located in space was not the greatest surprise that they would encounter. As the man exited the golden portal the guards stationed next to it immediately came to attention. ¡°At ease.¡± he said as he moved past them and stood at the top of a flight of stairs leading down towards the bazaar. The portal, a transport point that allows all the major gods to visit, stood atop a flight of gold streaked white marble and was very rarely activated. Before setting off into the bazaar, the man turned towards the guard captain. ¡°Where would I find the Elder?¡± ¡°With the upcoming group of new souls due to arrive in a few hours, he would most likely be getting ready at the grand entrance.¡± Nodding a couple of times, the man started making his way down the stairs, the noise getting louder the closer to the bottom he got. By the time he reached the bottom people had started to take notice of his presence, many of the people who were milling about in the plaza the stairs joined to, stared up at him, many with curiosity and the stall owners with reverence and awe, with some even revealing looks of fear at his appearance. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs he was met with another group of guards who were preventing some of the overly curious people from seeing where the stairs led. On the ground the streets of the bazaar looked more crowded than they did when he looked down upon them, though whether it was due to the way he arrived or the attire he was currently wearing the crowd parted to let him through. It took about an hour of walking to arrive at the grand entrance. The grand entrance was not in any way misleading, a room large enough for several million people to stand together and still allow them to swing a sword without worry of hitting anyone next to them and a domed ceiling with planets, stars and nebulae on a background of pure black, standing many kilometres high at the centre point. After passing through the pair of elaborate doors that lead to the bazar, the man walked in the direction of the only two people in the hall. ¡°I was not expecting to meet the elder of the demon gods here.¡± The man said as he stopped in front of two elderly looking men. The demon elder looked almost identical to a human, the only differences was the long hair that seemed to absorb all light that touched it, and a pair of slightly curved black horns that resided on his head. ¡°Today seems to be an interesting one.¡± The demon elder replied . ¡°As for what I am doing here, we require more people with divine blessings.¡± The man turned towards the other elder. The elder of the eternal flame, a man who could easily be mistaken as an ordinary elderly person on any human world was looking at a clock of blue and silver hanging above the door that led outside ¡°What news from the gods of the eternal flame?¡± ¡°The dimensional border is weakening, the order believe that it¡¯s being bombarded on their side, they estimate a century at most.¡± ¡°I would assume that is why you are here, is it not?¡± Asked the demon elder ¡°That was not the original intention I was sent with, but plans can change.¡± ¡°Ah, he wants another champion, or champions, in the mortal realm.¡± The demon elder paused for a moment before continuing. ¡°It¡¯s the same with the sundered throne, we don¡¯t have enough mortal champions to defend our realms.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°The lack of suitable mortals is becoming a problem, most of the suitable ones have transcended mortality.¡± Said the other elder ¡°The unfortunate truth.¡± The man said. ¡°I suppose for this run I¡¯ll be representing the eternal throne then?¡± The two elders looked at each other for a moment. ¡°The eternal throne is, uh, preoccupied with internal affairs, so it is probably for the best you represent them today.¡± Said the demon elder. ¡°Why did those arrogant pricks choose such a name? At least the order of the eternal flame isn¡¯t connected to them¡± The man muttered ¡°well, I suppose with the representatives of the divine realms assembled we can begin?¡± The other elder smiled slightly ¡°You always have such good timing.¡± He said as the three turned towards the doors that led to space. As the doors swung open, the beauty of space, with the multicoloured nebulae and galaxies became visible, spreading as far as their eyes could see. However, the more impressive sight were the thousands of golden portals that were opening and closing every second, as clouds of pure white drifted towards the grand entrance. The closer the clouds came to the doors, the more detail could be made out, including the people who were sitting on top of the clouds, many of whom were a mix of scared and curious. The people on the clouds were not all human, there were Elves, Dwarves, Beast folk, Dragon kin, Demons and many others. As the myriad of races arrived outside the entrance hall and disembarked from their clouds, that faded away as they got off, they all stopped for a time to stare up at the ceiling, and while this caused the tide of people flowing into the entrance hall to slow considerably, the mass of people who were still arriving caused them to be pushed further into the hall. The three men stood at the end of the hall, in front of the doors to the bazar, and looked out over the chaotic mess of people crowding into the hall. ¡°I suppose we should get started.¡± The man muttered as the last people entered the hall. At those words, the doors leading to space closed with a thud and click. ******************* ¡°No luck?¡± Those were the first words spoken as he walked into a throne room that looked more like a war room than a throne room. Sat in a throne that belonged in a room of over the top opulence and not a war room, was the high god of war looking straight as his subordinate. ¡°None of their souls showed the resolve needed to take on the mantle of your champion.¡± ¡°You¡¯re simply being too picky.¡± ¡°You set the minimum criteria too high.¡± ¡°I did?¡± The war god said minor confusion evident on his face. ¡°How can you not remember, it was 6 hours ago!?¡± The man said in a raised voice. He looked around and noticed bottles of wine and other alcoholic drinks scattered around the throne. ¡°I¡¯m telling Nature''s Servant.¡± He continued in a calmer voice. At this the war god bolted out of his throne is shock and horror. ¡°No, Don¡¯t, please don''t do it, I¡¯ll do whatever, just don¡¯t tell her I¡¯m drinking again.¡± While the war god was pleading with his subordinate, the throne room doors creaked open just enough to let a person into the room. ¡°A bit late for that Liz.¡± The person spoke ¡°It¡¯s Lizel.¡± The War God roared in his mostly drunken state, before turning to the voice. As he looked at who had called him he froze, standing in the doorway was a beautiful woman with sharp brown eyes and long flowing hair the colour of grass. She was wearing robes of brown with green patterns that seemed to move along the seams and edges when looked at. Upon seeing the reaction of the war god, a slight smile touched her lips. ¡°We will be having a talk about this later, Liz.¡± She said, ¡°For now, your lord commander wanted to say something.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± said the man who had just raised his voice at the war god. ¡°For the last 600 intakes there has not been a soul that has reached the requirements that you set. I do have a plan for this, however, I do not have enough authority to make it happen.¡± ¡°So you want me to help with this problem?¡± The war god asked ¡°Yes and no.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°You personally can¡¯t help. However, you can call for the council to gather.¡± ¡°What sort of council do you want?¡± Nature''s servant asked before the war god could ¡°A war council.¡± The lord commander said. ¡°Preferably of the high gods, though, my idea may require the primordials as well.¡± ¡°The primordials should at least listen to your proposal.¡± Nature''s Servant said. ¡°I shall drag this ¡®fool¡¯ along as I call for the council. I look forward to your proposal.¡± chapter 1 ¡°After many arguments both scientific and political, the new and fully immersive, virtual reality game, The Stars Of Fate, is set to launch next week. Simon Matthews has more.¡± The screen switched to show a young man in his late 20¡¯s standing in front of an impressive compound. ¡°Thank you Kirsty. The stars of fate is a new and fully immersive virtual reality game. Accessible with either a headset or through the specialty pods, stars of fate can be played anywhere you want. As many of us remember, back when this game was first announced, human rights activists around the globe heavily and, at times, violently protested the technology used in the headsets and pods. At that time there was a valid concern about how this tech might affect the brain and body, despite these protests the Azure branch company continued to work on these devices. Four years ago the World Health Organization gave the company the go ahead for prototype testing on volunteers and, after a rather rocky start, have finally declared that their tech is ready for launch.¡± As Simon was recounting a brief history of The Stars Of Fate, he was walking towards the main gate, where a large group of new reporters and paparazzi had gathered, all shouting questions and furiously photographing a man who stood just inside the open gates. He was a handsome man in his late 30¡¯s, with rich and curly brown hair which exactly mirrored his eyes. The man was wearing a standard black suit and tie and was flanked by four security guards in similar suits, with dark glasses and earpieces. ¡°The CEO of the Azure Branch company, Arthur Pendragon, announced yesterday he would be giving a public speech outside the company compound at 12:00 pm.¡± As Simon turned towards the compound he noticed that Arthur was looking right at him and, with a nod, began to speak. ¡°Thank you for showing up this afternoon. I gave the announcement that I would be talking to the Press This afternoon, however, I will not be taking questions.¡± The crowd of reporters went wild, demanding to know why he was not willing to answer any questions that might come up. ¡°I know, I know. This is not what you were expecting, however, the reason I wanted this meeting was to give out some information regarding The Stars Of Fate. From little bits of information that will help people in the game, to the pricing of headsets and pods.¡± Saying this, Arthur took out a folder and riffled through its pages. ¡°I think I¡¯ll start at the pricing. The headset and pods are classed similarly. Ranging from copper to iridium. So, copper headsets will be priced at $299, indium headsets at $399, Silver headsets at $499, Palladium headsets at $599 and iridium headsets at $699. The different headsets have different synchronisation levels depending on which one you use. With a 60% synchronisation rate at copper to an 80% synchronisation rate at Iridium. As for the Pods, well, copper pods start at $1000 with a synchronisation rate of 85%, indium pods at $1200 with a 90% synchronisation rate, silver pods at $1500 with a synchronisation rate of 95%, Palladium pods at $2000 with a synchronisation rate of 97%, and iridium pods at $3000 with a synchronisation rate of 98%.¡± Arthur turned to another page as the reporters started muttering about the pricing and synchronisation rates. ¡°Before anyone starts complaining about minimal increase in the synchronisation rate of the more expensive pods, I would like to point out that it is difficult and far too dangerous to put a person into a pod at 100% synchronisation due to mental problems that come from being completely immersed in the game. These symptoms can include loss of memory due to brain damage, or complete chaotic insanity leading to the individual going on a rampage. I say this as a warning to those who will inevitably try to modify the headsets and pods, if you mess with the synchronisation rates of either, the Asure Branch company will claim no responsibility for any damages that come for the use of those devices. On that cheerful note, I shall now give you some information regarding the start of the game, only the start and no more.¡± The reporters felt cheated after Arthur said he would only be giving out information about the start of the game, they had all shown up thinking that they would be getting exclusive information not shared before about secrets of the game. ¡°Many of you are dissatisfied with the amount of information I am giving you, however I would like to point out that the start of the game is one of the most important aspects of The Stars of Fate.¡± This reply seemed to calm down many of the reporters that had been muttering about the lack of information. ¡°Upon launching the game players will appear in an isolated location, to choose their name and class, following that, they will be transported to the bazaar of the Gods, or was it the other way round. I would like to implore everyone who plays the game to treat all NPC¡¯s as real people, while races such as the Orcs may appear primitive, they are as intelligent as many other races. Oh, and before I forget, if you die to a god, or an NPC 15 levels above you, you will have to buy a new headset.¡± With those final words, the gate of the compound closed and Arthur Pendragon walked back inside. ***************** Jessie sat back on the couch after turning off the television, it had been months since he had started to save for a headset that would allow him to play The Stars Of Fate, but fate was not kind to him, as an almost broke college student, he had his student loans to pay off, and his roommates and friends would often strong arm him into going to a bar or nightclub every other night. Even if they shouted him drinks, they would always make him pay for them in one way or another, be it with books, lectures or drinks at some other place. True , he didn''t hate going to bars or nightclubs, there were always plenty of girls that caught his eye, and though he would always deny it to others, there was always the occasional boy that would catch his eye each time he went to a nightclub or bar. ¡°You coming with us to a nightclub?¡± a voice came from behind him. Jessie briefly glanced over to see Seth leaving his room, he has straight blond hair, which he combed with a swoosh to the left, and a handsome face that made most women swoon over him. It wasn''t just his face that attracted women, his body had the perfect build with just enough muscle to look attractive, but not too much to make him large and imposing. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Jessie replied, ¡°I don¡¯t have enough spending money this week anyway.¡± ¡°Still saving for that headset are you? It¡¯s just a game, come meet some women and get a real life. ¡°I don¡¯t have your intense desire to impress as many women as possible.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°At least come to the first one¡± ¡°Depends on which one you''re headed to first.¡± Jessie replied with a resigned sigh ¡°The orange lotus.¡± ¡°Ah, the teashop with the club outback, aren¡¯t the looks of the women there higher than you usually start with?¡± ¡°Of course they are.¡± Seth cried joy clear in his voice. ¡°I¡¯m celebrating.¡± ¡°Celebrating what?¡± ¡°My birthday of course.¡± ¡°But that''s not for another few days.¡± ¡°True, my birthdays not till Sunday, but I''m partying all weekend to celebrate my 20th.¡± ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll join you for the Orange Lotus, then I''m leaving.¡± Seth smiled in glee at this response, then he looked at what Jessie was wearing and frowned but said nothing. The Orange Lotus was located across the road from a large shopping mall, the building that housed the nightclub looked like an old tea house. With two large half hexagonal windows that protruded from the white wall and overhung by black tiles, the building was a relic of another era. Inside the Orange Lotus the main tea house was furnished with Victorian style mahogany furniture, and lit with a comfortable warm light emitted from the many lamps around the room. Towards the back of the room and to the left of the counter was a heavy oak door with a plate on it that simply read ¡®Night club, open 10pm - 6am¡¯. The reason the nightclub was not where the tea house stood was because the owners had wanted to run a tea house, but they also wanted to accommodate their sons wishes to also run a nightclub, and therefore the nightclub was built underground behind the tea house. Currently the tea house was filled with people sitting around and nibbling on cakes, all clearly dressed for a night of clubbing. As the clock ticked ever close to 10pm, people started to leave their tables and Stand in front of the door to the nightclub. Seth walked over to one of the tables in the corner of the tea house where five people were already seated ¡°You guys want to go in now, or finish your cakes?¡± he asked as he took a seat ¡°The cakes are delicious.¡± Said Michael. ¡°But the line is getting longer.¡± ¡°I say we finish the cakes while things ramp up inside.¡± Dylan chimed in ¡°What do you think Jessie?¡± Cooper asked As he threw himself into one of the arm chairs that surrounded the table, Jessie gave his standard answer. ¡°I could not give a shit.¡± Before grabbing one of the smaller cakes and throwing it into his mouth. The group sat there finishing off the cakes for a few minutes, and waiting for the club to fill up a bit, before spending another few minutes waiting in line to enter. ¡°You''re early.¡± The bouncer said as he checked their id¡¯s. ¡°And sober. What¡¯s the occasion?¡± ¡°Celebrating my birthday.¡± Seth said a small amount of his arrogance showing in his tone. The bouncer clearly picked up on it if his verily slight frown was anything to go by. ¡°Very well, just don¡¯t do anything stupid while you''re inside.¡± The bouncer pushed the door open revealing a flight of stairs that led down to another door and allowed the group to enter. Once Seth reached the bottom he pushed the door open and Jessie was engulfed in a tidal wave of noise and lights and it took him a moment to adapt to the new environment. The instant the group entered they went their separate ways, it was like this all the time. Seth would ask everyone if they wanted to hang at a nightclub then immediately ditch them upon entering to look for alcohol and women. One of which Jessie couldn''t be bothered to look for and he made a beeline for the bar, not that he was planning to get drunk, but because he was there and he may as well grab a drink or two. Though when he got to the bar, he didn''t know what he wanted. So he simply went around the bar and grabbed himself a bottle each of rum and vodka before finding himself a table somewhere in the corner of the club. He was approached a few minutes later by one of the bar staff who asked ¡°Do you want these on your tab?¡± ¡°Seth said he was paying, also says he''s celebrating his birthday, so be prepared to hear about that.¡± ¡°Ah, good to know then.¡± she said, then turned and headed back to the bar, which was slowly getting more crowded as more people flooded the club. Jessie stayed at the club for another few hours, and after barely touching the rum and not touching the vodka, and without a glimpse of Seth or the rest of his friends, granted he had hidden himself away in the corner of the club, he decided to leave and, on his way out, he grabbed a bag from behind the bar and snagged a random bottle of gin from the shelf, all while the head bartender was watching him. ¡°Put it on Seth''s tab.¡± Jessie said as he noticed the bartenders gaze ¡°I was going to, but do you mind waiting in line and not jumping behind the bar for whatever you want?¡± ¡°The fact you don¡¯t stop me goes counter to your words John.¡± Jessie replied as he walked past ¡°besides, Seth invited then ignored me for the night, i may as well get something out of it.¡± ¡°You sat in your usual spot and ignored most everyone for two hours, you don''t usually like coming to these places.¡± ¡°The fact you know how much I dislike these places, and the fact that I literally have a permanent tab open here, tells you just how much of a hypocrite I am.¡± Jessie began to walk away but turned and faced John again. ¡°I¡¯ll probably see you again next week.¡± ¡°Do try and get a hold of your life, you don¡¯t need to follow Seth to the night clubs.¡± As Jessie opened his mouth to say something John interrupted him. ¡°And don¡¯t use ¡®it¡¯s his birthday celebration¡¯ as an excuse, you would have come anyway.¡± ¡°Yea, you''re right.¡± Jessie said, a small sigH escaping his lips ¡°Well, I''m glad you finally realise that.¡± a small smile playing across John''s lips. ¡°Now get going before I throw a bottle of tequila at you, which will be charged to your account.¡± ¡°Oh fuck you, and good night.¡± Jessie said as he walked towards the exit. After walking up the stairs and saying night to the bouncer he exited the Orange Lotus tea house. As he made his way home alone in the moonlight of the early morning, he passed by a tech store that was still open with large crowds of people entering and exiting. Curious, Jessie made his way to the store to see what the commotion was about. Upon entering the store and following the crowd towards the section with all the VR things, Jessie started to understand why the store was still open and decided that he would obtain his own headset and create an account for the new VR game that he wanted to play. As the crowd in front of him began thinning out and he could get closer to the shelf, he decided to check how much money he had saved, and after realising he only had enough for a copper class headset he made his way to the far end of the shelf where the lower class headsets were shelves. Grabbing one of the last copper class headsets from the shelf, he made his way slowly back through the crowd towards the checkout where he proceeded to empty what savings had had managed to obtain in the past month, before making his way home and unboxing the headset and plugging it into a socket next to his bed. As Jessie lay down with the headset in his hands he thought about what he might experience in the game, after all, barely any information had been revealed about The Stars Of Fate. ¡°Well, if I spend too long thinking about this, I may fall asleep.¡± He muttered before putting the headset on. chapter 2 After about a couple seconds of darkness, the screen began to light up and reveal a picturesque scene of a sea of golden clouds. As Jessie looked around, a line of text popped up in front of him. ¡®Welcome to The Stars Of Fate, due to the immersive technology employed by the Azure branch company, please just move naturally. We ask that you try this out.¡¯ After reading this text, Jessie started waking around and, to his amazement, found that it was just as easy as walking intel¡¯s life. After a couple minutes running, jumping and playing with the clouds like a child, another bunch of text appeared in front of him. ¡®We hope that you have become more comfortable with the immersive aspect of The Stars Of Fate, name and class selection will occur at a Later stage, due to the large number of players, the next intake will occur in 00:00:00:34.¡¯ Followed 34 seconds by ¡®Thank you for waiting, to enter the game please step through the gold portal, the portal will remain open for 15 minutes.¡¯ The gold ports materialised about 5 metres away from Jessie. After staring at the swirls of gold moving around the portal for a minute, he stepped through into the unknown. ********************* The three men stood at the end of the grand entrance awaiting the arrival of the souls. As the blue clock slowly ticked away, the men seemed anxious about something. ¡°It¡¯s the first batch of them today, isn¡¯t it?¡± Asked the demon elder ¡°Indeed it is, my friend.¡± Said the elder of the eternal flame. The demon elder looked to the lord commander before asking ¡°It will work right?¡± ¡°Which part?¡± ¡°All of it, but mainly the blessings.¡± ¡°Yes, they should work.¡± Then a moment later he shouted ¡°ARGH!, HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT.¡± ¡°Calm down commander.¡± The elder of eternal flame said. ¡°The souls are here.¡± At these words the outside doors to the entrance hall swung open, to reveal the uninterrupted view of space and the millions of golden portals that were opening and closing as souls began arriving. *************** As Jessie emerged from the portal, the first thing he noticed was that he was still standing on a cloud, the second thing they caught his notice was how many people there were and the location they were in. After all, standing on a cloud in space floating towards what looked like a giant walled city floating in space was nothing short of breathtaking. As Jessie looked behind him, he noticed the golden portals wink out of existence leaving an uninterrupted view of galaxies and nebulae spanning as far as he could see. By the time he turned back around his cloud was descending towards a pair of massive doors that were wide open and the large crowd of people who were slowly trying to enter the room, and by the time he managed to enter, everyone else had taken a place facing towards a raised platform at the other end of the hall or looking up at the ceiling in awe, this stupor didn¡¯t last long as with a soft clang of metal the doors to the hall closed, and one of the men on the raised platform stepped forward. ¡°Welcome new souls.¡± The man said. And though his voice was soft it still reached the farthest corners of the hall. ¡°My name is Aritithe, grand elder of the eternal flame, representative of the astral throne. To my left is Abbadon, grand elder of the demon gods and representative of the sundered throne. And to my right is Ferindar, lord commander of the War Gods armies and representative of the eternal throne.¡± Aritithe paused for a bit. ¡°As has been tradition for aeons past, three elders gather to welcome the souls of the righteous and kind and help them embark on the journey of reincarnation.¡± After saying this Aritithe stepped back, allowing Abbadon to step forward. ¡°We welcome those whose souls were chosen from Among the mortals of righteousness and kindness, by the ancient gods of fate and destiny. And with a blessing from a god behind these doors, remain on your path for all eternity.¡± After these words Abbadon also stepped back and was replaced with Ferindar. ¡°with the blessing of three elders and representatives of the three divine factions, we grant you entrance into the bazaar of the divines, your time here is endless, and may your choice of patron be wise.¡± With these words the doors behind the three elders swung open revealing the crowded streets and stalls that made up the bazaar. ¡°Before you enter, I ask one thing, those of you who hail from earth, please stay behind.¡± And with that he stepped back and waited as the souls of those who did not come from earth, made their way into the bazaar, as the last of them plaster the threshold of the great doors, slowly swung closed with soft clang. ¡°I make the assumption that those of you left in this hall hail from earth.¡± He looked around for a moment, then took out a scroll before continuing. ¡°I have been instructed to give you this information before you are allowed to gain the blessing of the elders. I do warn you, there is a lot of information I need to read.¡± And with that Ferindar unfurled the scroll and began to read. ¡°The first thing you should know is that you may only have one account and one account only, it matters not if you use a different pod or headset, you will always be connected with your account.¡± By the nervous looks and muttering the responses throughout the hall, he knew that these people were from earth, and that very little information had been shared with them. ¡°The next thing you should know, you may only receive one blessing from this place, due to your abilities the respawn after death, you will not be sent here but instead to the nearest city or town to where your death occurred. Do note that we are not allowed to inform you what your penalty for death is, that you need to find out on your own.¡± A lot of dissatisfied grumbling came from the gathered players when they heard this part. ¡°In regards to the termination of accounts, if you delete the account yourself, you may re choose your blessing from any god who will give it to you here, however, though you may create another account immediately, experience gain will be reduced by 75% for 3 months and only after that may you enter the divine bazaar to choose your new blessing. If your account is terminated by a member of the Azure branch company, an account may not be created for 3-12 months depending on the offence. This also means that the blessing you may obtain after these accounts are terminated will decrease from whatever one you choose to a minor blessing, depending on the offence. That is all the information for now, figure out the rest on your own.¡± He stepped back after saying this. Stepping forward Abbadon addressed the stunned players before him. ¡°We have shared with you all the information we have been told to deliver to you, so, with the blessing of the three elders and representatives of the diving factions, we welcome you into the divine bazaar. May your selection be wise and thought out.¡± With these words the three elders turned around and walked into the divine bazaar. *********** Jessie remained at the back of the hall, in part due to the moment of stunned silence he was experiencing as well as the rest of the hall. No one moved for several seconds as they mentally digested what was said. ¡°What the fuck was that all about!?¡± ¡°That¡¯s it!?¡± ¡°I thought we would get more!?¡± The players exploded into a chorus of expletives and annoyance at how little information they were given, though after airing their complaints as loud as they wanted, the players slowly began to enter the divine bazaar and filter down the various paths and passages that made up the winding labyrinth. Aside from the noise, the main thing that stuck out to Jessie was the sheer number of absurdly attractive goddesses who seemed to be seducing both men and women with their looks and their words, and not even Jessie could escape them as he was approached, shortly after entering, by a succubus. Her approach heralded many gasps and mutters from other players behind him, all clearly taken by her looks, be it her Beauty or her voluptuous breasts which were barely contained by a dress of scarlet red that accentuated her curves. After a quick glance behind him at the players who were veritably drooling at the mouth looking at her, Jessie tried to continue down the pathway without having to talk to her. ¡°Hey cutie, where are you going?¡± He mentally cursed at being noticed by a goddess clearly related to seduction. ¡°Deeper into the bazaar to find a god who is a better suit for me.¡± The succubus pouted at this response but before she could say anything the men behind Jessie started to get annoyed. ¡°Hey, if you''re not going to accept her offer, let others through.¡± ¡°Get moving, I want to see her up close,¡± ¡°She¡¯s mine, fuck off.¡± Jessie looked behind him, back at the Succubus, then back to the men before saying ¡°Do all of you think with the lower brain you horny perverts?¡± And before waiting for a response he walked off looking for another god who might have a better fit of blessing. The succubus watched him leave with a slight look of incredulity on her face. ¡°I haven¡¯t encountered anyone who can withstand my aura of seduction to that level before.¡± She muttered, before turning back to the crowd of drooling teens and men who were looking at her, at which point she started her sales pitch to get as many of them to take her blessing as she could. As Jessie approached the main square the first thing he noticed was the large staircase that led to a golden portal similar to what he entered when he first arrived outside the divine bazaar. The second thing he noticed was the large open space around the base of the stairs, where a group of people could be seen having a massive argument and, upon closer inspection, Jessie noticed the three elders who had given them the introduction to the bazaar earlier. Despite his rational brain saying it was a terrible idea, Jessie decided to try get a closer look at what was happening. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°ARE YOU SHITTING ME!?¡± The elder who had introduced himself as the lord commander of the War Gods armies yelled. ¡°THAT''S YOUR EXCUSE!?¡± The fury on Ferindar¡¯s face could kill someone, he was clearly trying his best to not send the man in front of him flying. ¡°Uh, yesh.¡± ¡°You came to see how I was doing. You didn¡¯t happen to, you know, WALK THROUGH THE WRONG PORTAL!?¡± The man shrunk back further into himself as the verbal assault continued to smash down his defences. As the man tried to formulate a response, Ferindar turned towards the other man who had tried to shrink back out of his sight. ¡°And you.¡± The look of anger on his face merged with a look of disappointment. ¡°How are you drunk, WHEN YOU DONT EVEN LIKE ALCOHOL?!¡± Ferindar took a breath to continue yelling at the two men when someone appeared next to him. This man wore a black hooded robe which covered his entire face in shadow, the only thing that could be seen were the eyes of flaming purple. On his back sat a scythe with a silver blade and black haft, while on his left hip sat a long sword the only thing exposed was the black handle. ¡°Ferin, I think they understand your anger, but could you reprimand them elsewhere?¡± ¡°Death, shut up.¡± ¡°I shink you shood lishten to him.¡± The first man said in a slurred voice ¡°Liz.¡± Ferindar said, his voice a dearly calm compared to a moment before. This change sent shivers down the spines of everyone watching. ¡°This is your only warning to shut up.¡± ¡°But the sheen you¡¯re mak¡­¡± The War god Lizel didn¡¯t even finish his sentence. Ferindar lowered his fist and looked at the dust cloud coming from the bottom of the staircase. As the dust slowly faded, the crumpled form of the unconscious War god could be seen. As Ferindar started to make his way over to the War God, Death laid a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough for now, go organise a few legions to reinforce the gods of the eternal flame.¡± Death looked at the pitiful form of the War God. ¡°Be a better use of your time than beating up primordials anyway.¡± With a word to the guards who were standing at the side this whole time, Ferindar made his way up the stairs while the guards dragged the unconscious form of the War god, and escorted the god of wild animals towards the portal. Along with everyone else who witnessed the altercation, Jessie stood still, stunned by what he had just seen, before deciding to continue his search for a decent blessing. As he walked we went over in his head all the blessings he had asked about, most of them seemed to be small things like an increase in experience gain, or an increased chance to gain a follower or stuff like that. Others were useless like being able to grow apples the size of basketballs, or one group of gods who were all offering people a blessing which would drastically increase their chance at creating a harem. Jessie may have cursed at them when they tried to get him to take the blessing, saying something like ¡°why the fuck would i want more than one lover, that seems like way to much fucking work.¡± They had backed off fairly quickly after that. By the time Jessie found himself back in the main square some eight hours later, he had walked the entire bazaar and only found a few combat related blessings that he was only slightly interested in. As he sat on the edge of the fountain, which contained eight statues of gods and goddesses he had not seen in the bazaar he started muttering to himself. ¡°Am I asking too much? These blessings all seem very basic, which makes sense I guess. If they were to OP, the game would be broken.¡± As he sat there muttering to himself, he didn¡¯t notice a man in a black robe sit next to him. ¡°They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.¡± The man said in a soft voice , which made Jessie jump in fright. Jessie turned towards the man and stared. The man was clearly the same one as earlier, the one who had stopped the elder from beating up the war god further. But what made Jessie stare the most was that he had his hood down. Instead of a normal face the man only had a skull. ¡°You¡¯re Death, right?¡± He asked slightly hesitantly ¡°There is no need to be scared, I¡¯m not here to kill you.¡± Death said, and though he had no skin, Jessie was sure Death had a slight smile on his face. ¡°I merely wanted to ask you why you are still here, I know you were told to take your time and choose wisely. But the second intake of your lot has come and gone, with most of those having chosen a blessing already.¡± ¡°I just haven''t really found a blessing I like.¡± Jessie said in a quiet voice. He then looked at Death again. ¡°Could I ask you a question?¡± Death looked at Jessie and opened his mouth, thought for a bit, and closed it before muttering ¡°I always hated that joke.¡± He looked back at Jessie and nodded. ¡°You may. Ask as many as you want in fact.¡± Jessie thought for a moment before asking. ¡°What¡¯s the difference between necromantic and undead magic?¡± ¡°Going straight for the difficult question I see.¡± With a slight chuckle Death continued. ¡°Necromantic magic relies more on the summoning of undead creatures. For instance the skeletons a necromancies can summon are made out of mana, a complicated fusion of mana and molecular material allowing it to resist magic that dispels mana in an area, but that¡¯s far out of your league. The mana fusion, not the class. Necromancer''s can raise the dead, but they have multiple ways to do it. The most common way is where the stereotype comes from and is related to undead magic. The second way allows for the necromancers to resurrect the dead, with all their memories and skills from when they were alive. With the added side effect that they will have full loyalty towards the one who resurrected them. The problem with this method is that the soul of the deceased has a say in whether they want to be resurrected or not.¡± Death paused to see if Jessie was still with him. ¡°Undeath magic ties into the first method a necromancer can use to raise the dead, undeath magic is easier to use than necromantic magic as one only needs to worship or gain the blessing of a god or goddess of undeath. This method forcefully reanimates a corpse without their will, the soul of the deceased is not taken or harmed but the corpse will be under the control of whoever raised it. The more powerful the undead, the more skills the corpse will retain or unlock from when they were alive.¡± Death looked at Jessie. ¡°Does that answer your question?¡± ¡°It does. But.¡± Jessie trailed off a bit, but after a moment continued the question. ¡°But what¡¯s Death magic then?¡± ¡°Void.¡± Death instant answer somewhat surprises Jessie ¡°Void, isn¡¯t that like, it¡¯s own magical tree or something?¡± ¡°Death magic and void magic are the same but they are also different. Pure void magic is destructive by nature, and can also destroy the soul if the wielder uses it too broadly and without control, though this only happens with the more powerful void spells. Death magic also destroys things by nature, unlike void it doesn¡¯t disintegrate matter or nullify mana, it takes the life force of any living thing, draws it out of them and dissipates it into the air where it mixed with the mana, and helps more life grow. Void magic and death magic can both manifest themselves as purple in colour, but also black as well. This is where the main confusion comes into play as the colour difference is only noticeable with high tiered spells.¡± Death paused then continued, however he seemed a bit sad. ¡°On most undeveloped and young planets, death magic is seen as undeath magic, and thus practitioners of death magic are persecuted.¡± ¡°But, if you are Death, who rules over necromancy and undeath?¡± Death slowly stood up and faced the statues in the fountain, upon closer inspection, Jessie noticed that one of them was of death himself. ¡°There are eight fundamental laws of This realm.¡± Death started. ¡°I am not meant to tell you, but I can¡¯t be bothered not to as few talk freely with me, or the other seven in fact,¡± there was a long pause, during which Jessie decided to just stay silent ¡°Everything has its opposite, many believe that the opposite nullifies the opposite. Few realise that opposites are intertwined, without one there cannot be another. This is the highest law of this reality. Without life there cannot be death, and without death there cannot be life. The eight ancient gods are the manifestation of these eight laws. Space, Time, chaos, order, creation, destruction, life and death. Each ancient god has their own domain, but oftentimes they overlap, death creates the nutrients needed to grow trees in forest, those trees have a lifespan after which they die, but they spread seeds over the ground to grow more trees. This leads to a Forest where the trees grow where they can, but a balanced ecosystem is in place allowing for this cycle to continue. A wildfire may burn through this forest but it will leave behind ash to fertilise the ground allowing the forest to regrow better soil than it did earlier. These eight fundamental laws all act in harmony within this forest.¡± ¡°So, as the ancient god of death, you preside over undeath and necromancy?¡± ¡°Along with Life, Chaos and Destruction.¡± ¡°But why are you telling me this?¡± ¡°Partly because you are the only mortal, or god who will speak to me as you have.¡± Death paused. ¡°And because I want to offer you my blessing.¡± ¡°But¡­ wouldn¡¯t your blessing be too powerful?¡± ¡°Indeed it would. The blessing you would receive will level up with you, for each milestone you reach, the blessing will upgrade, this way I won¡¯t be disrupting the natural order of reality.¡± ¡°If I was to accept, what would I have access to right away?¡± ¡°The ability to absorb a small portion of the life force of whatever you kill. To make this more fair, you must be the one to land the killing blow, or someone must give you permission to take the life force. This life force will grant you a small portion of experience equal to half the amount you received for the kill. The excess life force will be dispersed into the ambient mana to continue the natural cycle.¡± After thinking the offer over for a while, Jessie looked at Death ¡°I accept your blessing.¡± As he said this a screen popped up in front of Jessie ¡®You have accepted the blessing of Fulorbayan-Shingon, the ancient God of Death¡¯ ¡°Fulorbayan-Shingon?¡± Jessie asked ¡°Uh, yea. The name I was given many Aeons ago by another mortal, he wrote it in a book without consulting me.¡± ¡°Is there a way I can see what the blessing does?¡± ¡°Hmm? Oh right, if you think about expanding the information it gives you more details.¡± As Jessie thought about getting more details about the blessing, the screen information of him changed and a new line was displayed under the blessing. ¡®Blessing of the ancient god of death. How the hell did you get this Rank: unknown Upgradable. With this blessing, you may absorb a portion of the life force of any kill up to half the experience gained from its death.¡¯ ¡°Okay, soo, what do I do now?¡± ¡°Now? Now you choose which planet you wish to begin your adventure on.¡± Death turned and began walking towards a large hall that sat off to the left of the stairs. The doors to this hall were made of solid white mana embossed with intricate swirls of gold and silver that seemed to flow, ever so slowly, across the doors. As Death approached the doors, they silently swung open revealing rows of golden portals surrounded by portals showing kingdoms and empires. ¡°Welcome to the hall of, well, portals. It¡¯s a bit unoriginal but it gets the point across.¡± Upon entering the hall all the gods stopped what they were doing to stare at Death, a god who was almost never seen in public and never seen in the divine bazaar. Ignoring the other gods and people choosing which planet to begin their adventures on, Death considered a planet for Jessie to begin on. ¡°What are your views on politics?¡± ¡°Not interested.¡± ¡°Hmm, Adventure?¡± ¡°Preferable. Why are you asking me these questions?¡± ¡°To send you to the most optimal world.¡± Death though for a bit, ¡°hmm, a newer less developed world maybe?¡± As he looked around the hall for a suitable world, gods shrank back as his eyes glanced over them. Death''s eyes quickly scanned the entire hall, before snapping back to a portal with a bluer hue surrounding it. ¡°Alecious seems a good choice.¡± He mused ¡°Alecious? Could I ask what it contains?¡± ¡°Oh, all the usual races found throughout most of the universe, Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Beastfolk and so on. Fairly new and rather large, little politics in most places and ripe for adventure. If you go to that planet, would you allow me to do something?¡± ¡°Allow you to do what?¡± ¡°Do you accept this planet as your new beginning?¡± ¡°I accept?¡± ¡°Great.¡± There was a hint of glee in Death''s voice. ¡°Have fun and don¡¯t annoy the local gods.¡± Death then grabbed Jessie by the back of his plain tunic, which he had been wearing since he arrived at the bazaar, and threw him through the portal leading to Alecious. ¡°Oh, I forgot to tell him about classes.¡± Death muttered after Jessie had vanished through the portal. chapter 3 Jessie really wanted to punch Death, he still had so many questions about how the game was supposed to work, how was he to name his character, what about classes, he had yet to name his character, did the game use his actual name? As Jessie was thinking these thoughts rows of text appeared in front of him, the brightness of the text compared to the black screen that was what he was currently seeing was enough for his to slam his eyes closed and flinch away, unfortunately for him, the text followed where his eyes were forcing him to adapt to the light difference quickly. ¡®Welcome to Alecious, player information below. Name: Unknown Class: unknown Blessing: Blessing of the Ancient God of Death (Upgradable)¡¯ ¡°Huh, so, how do I name myself and obtain a class?¡± Jessie asked out loud ¡®Would you like to choose a name for your character? Or use the name associated with the purchase of this game¡¯ ¡°Huh, so that''s an option apparently.¡± Jessie muttered to himself. ¡°Is there a way to use both?¡± ¡®Alternate identities can be unlocked later in the game.¡¯ ¡°Hmm, I think I''ll use the name Ghost for now. I can change it with an alternate identity later.¡± ¡®Name chosen: Ghost Please choose a starting class¡¯ A long list of classes appeared in front of Jessie after these words came up, the list included the basic classes of swordsman, marksman, mage, priest, ranger and so on. As Jessie looked at the list infront of him, he noticed a bunch of tabs at the top. Combat, crafting, blessing, misc. The closer Jessie looked the more small details he noticed, mainly the very tiny text tucked away at the bottom of the misc page that read. ¡®Note: starting classes are not static, you may use whatever weapon or magical ability you want, so long as you learn it first.¡± After reading through all available starting classes, Jessie thought about how he wanted to start his adventure. After pondering this for a while he decided to go with the ranger class. He had considered the soldier class, but after realising that he didn''t feel confident it close range combat, he began to ponder between the ranged classes and the magic classes, ultimately settling on ranger to start with because he didn''t want to get into the complicated magic system he was sure the developers had put into the game to annoy the player base and make them spend weeks getting builds that could cause the most cost effective destruction. Anyway, the ranger class allowed him to fight at range while also not worrying about running out of mana. ¡®Class selected: Ranger Skills: None¡¯ ¡°Oh, so skills aren¡¯t included? Great.¡± Jessie said with sarcasm clearer than a glass window. ¡°Don¡¯t suppose I could see my entire character sheet?¡± he followed up ¡®Character Sheet Name: Ghost Class: Ranger Blessing: Blessing of the ancient god of Death (upgradable) Skills: None Items: (given in table form for convenience)
Item: Rarity: Quality: Quantity: Durability:
Bow Common Poor 1 100/100
Quiver Common Poor 1 100/100
Arrow (Iron) Common Poor 60 N/A
Hood (wool) Common Poor 1 100/100
Tunic (wool) Common Poor 1 100/100
Pants (wool) Common Poor 1 100/100
Gloves (leather) Common Poor 1 100/100
Boots (leather) Common Poor 1 100/100
Cloak Common Poor 1 100/100
You can change the layout of the items table at any time. Titles: None.¡¯ ¡°Ok, um, change items from chart to list:¡± He said after looking at the chart that popped up. It just felt a bit weird as a block. ¡°Whoever uses the chart is weird.¡± ¡®Character creation complete¡¯ ¡°Wait, no race selection?¡± ¡®You can switch your race after finding certain items or devoting yourself to certain gods.¡¯ ¡°Is that everything, I want to play the game now.¡± ¡®Character creation compete Please choose a starting power. Twilight dynasty Storm kingdom Elven dominion The alliance ¡­¡¯ The list continued for another dozen or so empires, kingdoms and other powers that held territory on the planet. Jessie looked over each of them and slowly read the descriptions of each of them. It did take him a while to decide on where he wanted to start, but he eventually settled on a place called the Star Dragons grave. ¡®The Star Dragons grave: One of the five great powers of this world, the Star Dragons grave wields the second most powerful military force. Yet despite this they are adamant to remain absolutely neutral with all other powers, only utilising their armies for monster control and preventing dungeon breaks. The north of the kingdom is defended by a mountainous region known as the dead peaks, which keeps the northern tribes out of both the Kingdom, and the rest of developing nations.¡¯ After selecting his starting power Jessie chose to begin outside a small walled village several kilometres away from the base of the dead peaks. The only information he was given about the village was that it was the main resupply for a fortress that blocked the only pass between the kingdom and the lands of the northern tribes. ¡®Starting location chosen, Spawning player, We hope you enjoy The Stars Of Fate.¡¯ The nice welcoming message was soon followed by yet another black screen, well, that¡¯s debatable as the screen was always black with the white words appearing as if it was a canvas, the words simply vanished leaving him in complete darkness again. Which slowly lightened as until he was standing in a forest, a very dense Forest with foliage all over the place. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Huh, it¡¯s not so bad.¡± He muttered as he looked around at the forest. Before promptly getting impaled by a random unicorn. ********** Somewhere off-world and elsewhere, the Ancient god of death Fulorbayan-Shingon looked out with his senses to watch the mortal he had blessed. The moment he appeared in a forest of the kingdom he had selected, he began to laugh loudly. He thought this mortal would be able to notice the sound of a charging, enraged unicorn. Though it appeared that he was too focused on what was around him than the noise of branches getting broken, he laughed even harder when the enraged unicorn charged straight up to, and through the confused mortal, impaling the corpse on its horn. The corpse remained on the unicorn''s horn for a whole minute, before dissolving into motes of light and dissipating into the air. Oh he couldn¡¯t wait to see the face of the mortal once he reappeared. ***************** After five minutes of standing still, confused as to what just happened, Jessie was respawned into the forest in the same spot as last time. Only this time he could see the trail of destruction that the unicorn had left in its path as it rampaged through the forest. A message popped up information of him as he was timing in the details he had some who managed to miss when he had first spawned in. ¡®You have been killed by Unicorn(Enraged) lvl: 100¡¯ Another message popped up after the first one, this one confused Jessie even more than the fact he had been slain by a lvl 100 unicorn ¡®Your former level (0) was vastly lower than your opponents. Due to this difference and an exp modifier of 1.5x, you have lost 50 levels.¡¯ ¡®Your level is now -50 All attributes have been reduced to 1 Your attributes will not increase until you reach level 1.¡¯ ¡°What the actual fuck?¡± Jessie was so confused he couldn¡¯t think straight and just stood there for a while. After a couple minutes he finally came to his senses. ¡°I should find the village and do some basic quests.¡± After muttering this rather obvious fact, Jessie made his way in the direction of the village, assuming it was in the direction of flowing water, which he very much hoped it was. After walking for another minute in the direction of the running water, he suddenly realised something, and had a minor panic problem. He had completely forgotten about the time, and when looking at the top of his HUD, he noticed that the time displayed there read 10:43 am. At which point he promptly found a place under a rather large tree, and logged out of the game. Jessie took the headset off and began changing out of the clothes he had worn the night before. In his excitement to see what the game had in store for him, he had immediately logged in without changing into something more comfortable that the clothes he had worn to the club. After changing into a grey tee-shirt and loose black pants, Jessie made his way out of his room and into the shared common room where the kitchen was. He had expected to see other people in the room, but upon further consideration he realised that they were either out at work, because college students needed money, or in Seths case, he was pretty sure, still over at someone''s house or in his apartment, well, not that his apartment was used for anything other than his own entertainment. Walking into the kitchen Jessie noticed a bunch of cups, plates and cutlery just sitting in the sink and on the counter, at least it meant the other people who shared this space were back, not that they would be of any help when cleaning up the mess they themselves made. With a resigned sigh, Jessie got to work filling the dishwasher and cleaning down the countertops and the stove, as whoever had cooked Mac n cheese the night before had left the pot on the stove, without cleaning it. After closing the door to the dishwasher, with slightly more force than was necessary, he got to work making himself breakfast, a simple meal of scrambled eggs on a slice of toast, it wasn¡¯t much but he didn¡¯t feel hungry. He returned to his room after cleaning up and decided to check what the player base thought of The Stars of Fate. After a bit of searching Jessie found a forum set up by the developers of the game. Many of the posts were about people enjoying the landscape, towns and environment, the combat systems or how life like to NPC¡¯s were. After filtering the forum by most viewed, Jessie realised what the most viewed post contained. It was the conflict between the gods he had witnessed. The post titled, Fight between gods, had garnered over a million views within the few hours since the event had occurred. The video, Clearly captured by someone with a front row seat to the fight, showed the entire interaction from start to finish. And the comment section had gone insane. ¡°I missed this by being on the other side, FML.¡± ¡°I wish I could have seen this.¡± ¡°What rank was that god that got punched?¡± ¡°Who was the raved figure at the end?¡± ¡°Nooo, I wanted to see more.¡± ¡°I wonder if you can get a blessing from one of them.¡± ¡°How long till I can get strong.¡± ¡°What level are they?¡± ¡°That punch was so fast.¡± There were thousands of comments wondering who the gods involved were, what level they were, how to get a blessing from them and so on. There were also the people who claimed that they got a blessing from one or the other and demanded money to give out the information, and then there were the people who claimed that this video was faked and was only an animation. Those people were utterly obliterated by people calling them old dinosaurs and other rude insults. But that was the way of the internet. It did make one wonder though, how long would it take for the dinosaurs from the ancient homophobic era, and the arrogant peacocks from the mid-money is power era. Maybe that was why the rumours of the currency exchange system had been shut down almost instantaneously, those who held the money didn¡¯t want others to earn it. And on that somewhat depressing thought, Jessie prepared to log back into the game, though before he could even pick up the headset his phone began to ring. ¡°Yes?¡± He said as he picked the phone up without looking at who was calling him. ¡°You seem a bit irritated this morning Jess.¡± Came the reply ¡°Morning James.¡± Jessie said, slightly sighing as he did so. ¡°Oh, now something is definitely wrong.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Not only do you sound fed up with something, but you said my full name.¡± ¡°Did you call just to see how annoyed I was, or was there another reason?¡± ¡°Well, I wanted to know if you had started playing the Stars of Fate.¡± ¡°I have. What of it?¡± ¡°You''re a bit standoffish.¡± ¡°I suppose I am, aren¡¯t I.¡± ¡°Yea, What planet did you start on by the way?¡± ¡°Alecious. What about you?¡± ¡°Damn, I started on Dorlundon. It¡¯s pretty much covered with continent spanning metropolises and mainly focuses on technomany.¡± ¡°That sounds interesting, Alecious is a barely occupied planet. I¡¯m not sure what magic they focus on.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± James asked, a bit confused. ¡°Well, because I spent too long in the divine bazaar, and then got impaled by a level 100 unicorn right after spawning in.¡± ¡°Damn.¡± James said as he struggled to stop himself laughing. ¡°Well. It¡¯s the weekend, I¡¯m going to get back to the game.¡± ¡°Yea, I just need to not get killed by the unicorn again.¡± Jessie muttered after hanging up. He put his phone back onto the charger and threw himself onto his bed, put the headset on, and re entered the game. ************ Looking around more thoroughly than he did the last time, Jessie made sure that there weren¡¯t any monsters or rampaging unicorns around. Though one thing stood out to Jessie as he thought more about the appearance of the unicorn. ¡°Was it a roaming field boss or something?¡± He muttered as he continued to walk in the direction of the river. He had spotted the river just as he was logging out an hour or so before. Upon peering into the river he could see a very clear reflection of him, and his hand immediately flew to his chest, the same spot where he had been impaled. Instead of the wool he expected to feel, he felt only the skin on his chest, in a minor state of panic he pulled up his status screen and had a look at the durability of his shirt. ¡®Tunic(wool), common, poor, 75/100¡¯ Jessie breathed a sigh of relief, his shirt wasn¡¯t broken, but it did need repairing and he did still need to find the village. Looking around Jessie took note of how close he was to the mountains, and began to walk down stream and further from the mountain. The reason he did this was because he remembered that the village was several kilometres away from the mountain, thus he had to walk down stream. ¡°Several kilometres, my ass.¡± He muttered after an hour of walking along the river. It was at this point that he was beginning to think he had been walking in the wrong direction, and that the village was actually closer to the mountains than he thought. But he kept walking, and after another quarter hour he finally noticed a wooden wall appearing in the distance. The closer he got to the wall the more detail he could make out, the water wheel that powered the mill and the lumber machines. The watch towers that lined the wall and the gates stood tall over the surroundings. Jessie was noticed by the guards on the wall and shortly thereafter by the guards at the gate. While they didn¡¯t show hostile intent, they were wary of the lone stranger who was travelling towards their town. ¡°Greetings wanderer.¡± One of the guards in front of the gate called. ¡°Can we assist you with anything?¡± ¡°I would like to enter the village.¡± Jessie said with respect, he had not started with the identify skill, or any skill for that matter, and thus could only take a guess at the guards level. Even if they were only level 3 or 4, he still didn¡¯t want to anger them. ¡°The cost to enter the village is 10 copper, that will allow you to stay for 5 days, after 5 days you will need to pay another 10 copper, during this time you may enter and leave as often as you like.¡± The same guard who had greeted him replied. But after looking at Jessie¡¯s face for a moment he continued. ¡°But if you don¡¯t have the coin.¡± The guard paused and looked at the guards who stood on duty before turning back. ¡°If you could get us 5 rabbits from the forest nearby, I will grant you entry. You will have access for 5 days, but after that you will need to pay 10 copper for the extended stay.¡± As Jessie considered this problem, a message appeared in front of him. ¡®Quest: Hunt 5 rabbits in the Forest nearby: 0/5 Reward: access to the village of Whitewater for 5 days.¡¯ ¡°If it gets me access into the village, sure.¡± Jessie said as he accepted the quest. After Jessie had walked away towards the forest, Another guard walked over to the speaker. ¡°Why are you charging him in rabbits?¡± ¡°Because look at him, you can tell just by how he¡¯s dressed and also by his presence that he doesn¡¯t have any coin to his name, also I¡¯m over charging him, fresh caught rabbit costs 5 copper in the market.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, captain.¡± ****** It took Jessie about an hour to find and shoot all 5 rabbits, a lot longer than he thought it would take him. In his defence he had also had to fight two wolves that had stalked him throughout his hunt, sure he cheesed the fight by climbing a tree and shooting the wolves in the head, but it had delayed him for a while as he tried his best to harvest some materials from the wolves. It was early afternoon when Jessie made his way back to the gate, carrying the five rabbits in his arms. It did cut a confusing image, a figure walking towards the gate, with five dead rabbits in their arms. ¡°Five rabbits.¡± He said as he approached the gate. Another guard took the rabbits to inspect them for their quality while the guard captain walked forwards and handed Jessie a rectangular wooden token. ¡°Your payment has been accepted.¡± He said as he stepped back. ¡°Welcome to Whitewater village.¡± ¡®New location unlocked: Whitewater village.¡¯ After the notification faded Jessie walked into the village. The first thing he had to do was find somewhere to seek the claws and teeth he had harvested from the two wolves he had killed earlier. The village was larger than he had originally thought, but it did make sense as the short description of the village told him that it was a resupply post for the fortress located in the mountains, it would also indicate why there were many guards who were better equipped than most villages. As he was wandering through the village he noticed a blacksmith, alchemist and many other shops that sold or created items. As he thought about where to sell the claws and teeth, he absentmindedly walked toward the blacksmith. By the time he came back to his senses he was standing in front of the shop portion, deciding to just enter and see what was for sale, Jessie pushed open the door. The walls were lined with weapons and armour, as expected of a blacksmith, but what caught his eye the most was the person behind the counter. He was a young male, probably around 19-20 years old, going off looks, had an average build, though his muscles were well defined. He was quite tall, and Jessie guessed he was around 6¡¯6 or 6¡¯7, with blond hair that flowed down his shoulders, his piercing green eyes were looking down at a book he was reading. But what really caught Jessie¡¯s attention were the pointed ears that poked out from beneath the hair. After looking around the shop for a bit, Jessie decided to ask the elf a question. ¡°Um, excuse me.¡± Jessie said, a bit of nervousness in his voice ¡°Hm?¡± The elf looked up in surprise and looked at Jessie for a moment, then swore in a language he couldn¡¯t understand. The elf quickly looked around the shop and behind the counter, and after seeing no one else he let the tension relax from his shoulders. ¡°Can I help you?¡± The elf asked, his voice was soft, but he also sounded a bit nervous. ¡°Um, yes, do you buy materials here?¡± ¡°Hmm, it would depend on the material¡± Jessie took out the wolf claws and fangs, placing them on the counter between him and the elf. The elf raised an eyebrow when he saw the materials. ¡°Hmm,¡± he muttered as he separated the fangs from the claws. ¡°I can offer you. 36 copper for the claws, and 40 copper for the two fangs.¡± Jessie really didn¡¯t know what the conversion rate between the currencies, he assumed that it was the standard 100-100-100 conversion rate many other games had. But 60 copper seemed like a decent deal for materials he really didn¡¯t have to try hard to gather. ¡°Sure.¡± Jessie said as the elf put the coins on the table. Jessie pocketed the coins and thanked the elf, before leaving to explore more of the village. He walked in the general direction of the centre of the village where he saw the spires of what seemed to be a temple. Stepping into the square Jessie noticed a large market in front of what looked like a temple to the gods of this world, and the town hall which was where the village chief resided. After wandering the market for a while, Jessie decided to find somewhere to sit and eat something, he at least wanted to know if the food also had taste in this game. He was aware that the game had some sort of pain receiver as he had been impaled by a unicorn, but he was unsure if that translated to food and drink. A divine smell drifted out of an inn nearby as Jessie was lost in thought, and without really intending to, he began to walk towards the inn. Upon opening to door he realised that it was more of an inn and tavern cross, and he was quick let approached by a serving lady who had such a spring in her step for some reason, that her bosom was bouncing up and like a bouncy ball, this drew the attention of the few drunk men who had a greater addiction to alcohol they were nearly penny less, or copper less Jessie though. ¡°Greetings stranger, what can I do for you?¡± The woman, who Jessie now realised was still a girl, asked in her slightly high pitched voice. ¡°A meal please, also direction to a tailor.¡± A slight frown crossed her face. ¡°Well, the only tailor in the village is Grelod, but she can be quite grumpy with people.¡± Then her face lit up again. ¡°But take a seat anywhere, I¡¯ll bring you out some food and drink.¡± And with that she bounced back to the kitchen to put the order in as Jessie made his way to one of the tables along the back wall of the dining room. As Jessie crossed his arms on the table and lay his head on them facing the door and prepared to relax for a while. Someone dropped into the chair across from him. Chapter 4 Jessie turned his head towards the person who sat down and, without lifting his head off the table, just stared at them. ¡°Yes?¡± He asked after a moment ¡°Are you the one who stopped by my smithy earlier?¡± The man asked At this Jessie took a better look at the man. He wore a sleeveless canvas tunic and a pair of grubby, soot stained canvas pants. He was very well muscled and looked to be around 60 years old, though his large bushy beard probably contributed to him looking that old. ¡°I was.¡± It was at this point he decided to lift his head from the table and look at the man properly. ¡°Good. Do you think you can obtain more?¡± ¡°Depends how many you want.¡± ¡°The teeth, claws, and pelt of, let¡¯s say 10 adult wolves, I¡¯ll buy the parts off you for the same price as that assistant of mine.¡± ¡®Quest received: wolf hunting 0/10 The blacksmith of Whitewater village has requested you hunt 10 adult wolves. He is offering you the same price per part as his assistant did. Reward: depends on how much you bring back.¡¯ ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take you up on the offer.¡± Jessie said after he read what the quest contained. ¡°Great.¡± The blacksmith said as he clapped his hands loudly. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to your meal then.¡± The smith stood up and left the inn a moment before Jessie¡¯s meal showed up. ¡°Your meal sir.¡± The server said as she placed a wooden bowl of stew on the table, alongside a tankard of ale. ¡°Would there be anything else?¡± Jessie looked at the meal and then back at the server. ¡°How much is the meal?¡± ¡°Oh, silly me. The stew and ale is 10 coppers, and a room for 1 night is 15 coppers.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll, just take the meal for now.¡± He said as he placed 10 coppers on the table. ¡°Thank you.¡± The server said as she picked up the coppers and returned to the kitchen with the empty plates of another table. Jessie picked up the wooden spoon he was given and dug into the meal, it was a simple meat stew made from what tasted like lamb and an assortment of different spices. The fact he could taste the meal with the level of intricate detail surprised him more than most things in the game had. So far it had been an interesting day, he had spoken to powerful NPC¡¯s, and been impaled by what he assumed to be a wandering world boss, and now he had been requested to hunt wolves for a blacksmith, what the hell would the blacksmith do with the parts he had requested? After pondering this confusing question for a while, Jessie just decided to get him the parts and not worry about it any further, though he would need to visit the smithy for some more arrows as it took him about 5 arrows to take down an adult wolf, and 10 arrows to hunt the rabbits, he wasn¡¯t the best shot when it came to the bow. Standing up a few minutes later, and after he had downed the food and drink he had ordered, Jessie made his way out of the inn and towards the smithy. As he once again opened the door to the shop he noticed the elf was still reading the same book he was when Jessie last visited. The elf looked up as he entered, a contrast to what happened last time. ¡°May I help you?¡± He asked as he spotted Jessie entering ¡°How much would 20 iron arrows cost?¡± ¡°I can offer you 20 iron arrows for 20 copper,¡± the elf said as he placed the arrows on the counter. Jessie took out the needed money and placed it on the counter as well, taking the arrows and thanking the elf. As he left the shop, Jessie took a glance behind him and saw that the elf had gone back to burying his nose in the book. The walk to the gate was short, but Jessie took in all the details of the village, from the unusually well paved road, to the sturdy stone based houses and buildings that rose two or three floors high. It made Jessie wonder why this village was different to other villages, or if it even was different and this was how all villages, towns and cities were constructed throughout this kingdom. The gate and wall were also different from the palisades that he would have expected, they were thicker and more sturdy, with a stone base to give them more structural support. Passing through the gate, Jessie walked down the road and towards the mountains where he assumed he would be able to find more wolves, especially since he had killed two in this direction an hour earlier. The forest was quiet, apart from the slight russell of the undergrowth as Jessie passed through it, and the call of birds in the trees. The motley pattern of light that bled through the trees made it hard for Jessie to locate anything small that may be creeping up on him while he walked. The direction he was headed was towards where he had slain the other two wolves, yes it was a strange way to hunt, but he didn¡¯t know where any wolf dens were nor did he ask for their locations when he set out, a stupid mistake and one he was going to try and fix in the future. It took him a few minutes walking through the forest, occasionally stumbling when he did see a root or low hanging vine, to reach the spot of the dead wolves. Upon approaching the spot he began walking slowly to avoid making any noise and starling any wolves that may be up ahead, and yes, he had decided that circling around to be downwind of the wolves was a smart idea. Upon arriving in the small clearing in which the wolves were slain, Jessie found nothing but bones and blood, scavenged of all meat till only white bones and blood soaked ground remained. Jessie took a quick look around the cleaning and noticed some tracks which seemed to match those of a wolf''s paws, well, the paw prints of what seemed to be a pack of wolves. Not being a tracker, or for that fact a fighter, Jessie couldn¡¯t figure out how many wolves were in this pack, but he decided to try hunt them anyways, besides what could go wrong if a player with his stats permanently stuck at 1 till he recovers 50 levels hunted a pack of wolves, which were most definitely above level 1. Continuing through the forest Jessie made sure to make as little noise as possible, it was a terrifying adventure, knowing that a single mistake will send him straight back to the village, with an even lower level. The trail led him to a cave at the base of the mountains, it only took him a couple hours of following this trail. But upon teaching the edge of the forest, he gazed across an open expanse of shrubs and knee high grass that stood. After climbing a tree to get a better look at what was in front of him, and to plan out how he was going to approach the quest, Jessie noticed a group of different wolves stalking around the perimeter of the cave, upon closer inspection though, Jessie recognised these wolves as the same type as the one he had killed earlier, what they were doing stalking around a cave, he did not know. What he did know was that there were over 100 wolves around the cave, it seemed like multiple packs had come together to hunt something, probably whatever was currently residing inside the cave. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Howls and growls, and roars came from inside the cave, loud enough, and menacing to send shivers down Jessie¡¯s spine, it was definitely not a wolf that was making the roars. They sounded almost draconic. It was at this point that about half the wolves charged into the cave with howls that echoed around the clearing and into the cave, followed shortly afterwards by another spine shivering roar, although this one sounded almost pained, as if whatever had made the sound had been grievously injured. The remaining wolves all charged into the cave at this point, adding their howls to the infernal choir that was echoing around the cave and inside Jessie''s mind. It took a few minutes of howls and roars till the cave went silent, and a few bloodied and beaten wolves fled from the cave. Jessie waited a while before deciding that it was safe to venture down from the tree in which he had managed to hide himself from the wolves, it may have been how high he up he was, or how much attention the wolves were paying to the cave, but they had made no move or indication that they had noticed Jessie¡¯s presence at all. After carefully climbing down from the tree, Jessie ventured towards the cave, what he found in contrast from what he saw when he was up in the tree, was how large the cave opening was. Feeling a little creeped out about what he was about to do, Jessie made his way into the cave and, contrary to what he had thought, suffered no penalty to his sight. The further he went into the cave, the more wolf corpses he saw, this made him nervous because some of them had been pierced right in the heart, while others had been smashed against the wall or torn to pieces by claws larger than their own bodies. His feeling of nervousness was increasing to extremely uncomfortable levels, so uncomfortable in fact that he was considering turning around and leaving, just as he was about to commit to turning around and leaving the cave, he walked into what he assumed was a giant underground cathedral. A ceiling that seemed to rise to the peak of the mountains and pillars of stone with carvings so intricate that they seemed to move and portray the story of a civilisation long past that rose into the darkness above. The room was so large Jessie first thought he was back somewhere in the divine bazaar, however that thought was immediately vanquished as he noticed a claw poking out of the shadows at the end of the hall. The claw was about the size of a freight train carriage and curved up into the shadows, the more attention Jessie paid to the environment he was in the more details he noticed, from the rumble of something snoring to the slight scratching of claws on stone or the gentle swoosh of wings cutting through the air. The giant claw retracted into the shadows, scaring Jessie enough that he almost screamed. ¡°A mortal has come to this sacred place.¡± a deep voice boomed out throughout the cave system. From tunnels that Jessie could only now barely see, forms flew out into the main chamber, circling the pillars and room. Dull thuds came from pillars as the forms landed on the and grabbed hold to peer down onto the human who had entered. Jessie gasped in surprise and fright when a giant, purple eye appeared from the shadows, into which the claw had disappeared. ¡°How did you find this place mortal?¡± the voice sounded again Jessie couldn''t answer, for some reason he felt like his whole body had seized up upon glancing at the eye, like a sort of force was holding him still and infusing his bones and very being with fear. ¡°Interesting.¡± the voice rumbled. ¡°A wanderer has appeared in this place.¡± The giant eye closed for a moment and then opened again. ¡°But why are you here?¡± The voice paused again. ¡°Ah, you were hunting the wolves. So why then did you not leave when you were told what this place is?¡± Another pause. ¡°Hmmm, I see. You were not told, which means you don¡¯t have the skill. But you should have received it with your blessing. The bleeding of an ancient, how fortunate. But which one? Death, I see. So why then did he not? Ah, he forgot.¡± The voice paused again, this time for about a minute, during this time Jessie felt the pressure fading slightly, enough so he wouldn''t feel the need to try and flee, but not enough to make him feel comfortable, at least as comfortable as he could be after seeing that giant claw. ¡°I will not grace you with my true form mortal.¡± The voice came again, startling Jessie a bit as he had been lost in thought. ¡°But I will show myself.¡± As the voice spoke, it slowly changed and became a bit softer and less domineering. After saying this final line, the whole chamber slowly lit up, runes inscribed within the pillars, the warm light exposing not only what was attached to the pillars, but also what was in front of him. ¡°You are the first mortal man to have seen me since ages long since forgotten by all but the eldest of beings.¡± The creature said, ¡°it is not your fault you came here without knowing where you were. For that, you may live.¡± The pressure that had suffused Jessies bones faded away leaving him with control over his own body again. ¡°You, you are.¡± Jessie stuttered out ¡°A dragon.¡± The creature said simply. Jessie stared at the dragon for some time. It was at least 20 metres long, with two gold horns protruding from the top of its head. The scales seemed to shift between purple and gold as the light landed on them in different places and it¡¯s wings seemed to be folded in so much they looked like a thick duvet of shimmering gold and purple. ¡°I thought dragons had two legs.¡± He managed to get out. ¡°You are ignorant then.¡± The dragon said. ¡°But I suppose that space, time and dimensional borders distort the truth. A Wyvern has two legs, are a lot smaller than dragons and are more aggressive.¡± The dragon looked upwards towards the ceiling. ¡°The differences between a dragon and a wyvern are vast, but that is all you need to know.¡± Jessie followed the dragon''s gaze and gulped. The sound of wings cutting the air came from the hundreds of wyverns that were circling the ceiling, and on the sides and tops of the pillars, which resembled a cat''s play stand, perched around 50 dragons, of different sizes and colours. Though many of the dragons seemed young, Jessie guessed that they could be hundreds or thousands of years old. Jessie fell backwards as he registered that the whole time he had been frozen, he had been surrounded by creatures that could probably wipe the kingdom off the map. The dragon smiled at Jessie, a smile that looked like the dragon was going to eat him. ¡°Welcome to my sanctuary mortal.¡± it said. ¡°For Aeons I have resided here, looking after the dragons and wyverns abandoned as eggs or young by territorial disputes long before the mortal species¡¯ existed on this world.¡± The smile faded as the dragons studied Jessie far more closely. ¡°What is your name mortal?¡± The question came as such a surprise to Jessie that he forgot what he had named his character. ¡°Jessie.¡± He said, before remembering that he had called himself ghost. ¡°Hmm, but your name is ghost. So why did you? Oh, this is interesting. Very well ghost, you may take the wolf corpses and do whatever you wish with them.¡± Before Jessie could turn around and flee the sanctuary something materialised in front of him, an egg the size of a wine barrel stood before him, the egg had a pattern of overlapping scales of pure white trimmed with gold, as he looked at it, flashes of purple danced over the surface. ¡°I ask one more thing of you.¡± The dragon said in his rumbling voice. ¡°I have too many young, but none old enough to look after an egg. I ask you keep this on or near you till it hatches.¡± ¡°I would, great one.¡± Jessie said. ¡°But, um, this is way too big for me to carry easily.¡± As Jessie said this, the egg began shrinking, in the span of around 4 seconds the egg had shrunk from the size of a wine barrel to the size of an ostrich egg. ¡°Oh, um, thank you.¡± He said after the egg had shrunk. ¡°You need only keep it near.¡± The dragon rumbled. ¡°It is around a week from hatching. Do be warned, while a dragon can survive on mana alone, the planet you come from is too barren for that.¡± The dragon smiled a bit. ¡°I hope you have the funds for when that happens.¡± The wyverns that had been circling the ceiling were now perching on the pillars, and the dragons were curling up on their perches. It was clear that the conversation was over. The light began fading from the back of the room, and by the time Jessie looked back at the dragon he was talking to, he could no longer see it. ¡°I bid you safe travel, mortal Ghost.¡± The dragon said, its voice once more the low bass it was when it first spoke. ¡°The exit is clear, harvest what you need of the wolves, the rest I shall feed to the young.¡± Jessie picked up the egg and carefully put it in the bag he had obtained when in the village, and left the main chamber, focusing on finding the way out, It took him a few minutes to get the right tunnels but he made it out of the cave as the sun was approaching the horizon. Realising he would be heading back to the village at night if he tried to return everything now. He decided that harvesting the parts then logging off would be the best thing to do. chapter 5 Jessie took the headset off and rolled over to look at the clock. 10:24 it read. Jessie muttered a slight curse as he realised he had been in the game for 12 hours. Rolling out of bed, he failed to catch himself on his legs and fell on the floor and, cursing, pushed himself up and left his room. He had intended to cook himself something for dinner, but upon exiting his room and looking at the kitchen, he cursed again.The sink was full of dirty plates again and the counter was covered in grease and bread crumbs, while a pot of oil was still bubbling away on the stove. It was like his roommates were blind to the fact the kitchen had a dishwasher. While he was rinsing off plates and cups to put into the dishwasher, Seth decided to stumble out of his room. ¡°Oh, hey Jess.¡± he said in a pained voice as he stumbled towards the fridge. Jessie took one look at Seth''s pale face and dishevelled hair and realised that he was suffering from an extreme hangover, it was clear that he had remained at the nightclub till it closed, then came back to the dorm and continued drinking. ¡°How much did you drink?¡± Jessie asked while taking a closer look around the common room. ¡°Uh, I dunno.¡± Seth mumbled. ¡°Probably too much.¡± ¡°Yea, no shit.¡± Jessie said as he placed the last of the dishes into the washer. And began cleaning up the oil pot and the stove. ¡°By the way, you don''t happen to know who left this mess do you?¡± ¡°Not a clue.¡± came a new voice from a hallway that led to more rooms. ¡°What the fuck was that for!?¡± the voice cried as something hit him in the head. ¡°You know perfectly well we have a dishwasher, William.¡± Jessie said. ¡°Now bring that spatula back here.¡± William looked at the spatula, then to Jessie, and back again. Jessie could see he was contemplating walking past the spatual to sit on the couch. Picking up a serving spoon from the counter Jessie prepared to throw it at William if he tried that. ¡°No, no, put that down.¡± William said as he picked up the spatula and brought it over to the sink. ¡°The dishwasher.¡± Jessie said as he continued to hold the spoon William looked over to Jessie and when he saw Jessie still holding the spoon, he promptly put the spatula into the dishwasher before heading over and turning on the TV. ¡°See, wasn¡¯t that hard, was it?¡± Jessie then walked over to a cupboard and took out some pain killers which he handed to Seth. ¡°If you want to avoid the headaches, drink water.¡± ¡°Hmmm.¡± Seth managed to get out as he took the pain killers and returned to his room. This was a typical weekend for Jessie, tidying up the kitchen and looking after boys who should have been able to look after themselves, after all they were all 18 or older and still couldn''t cook a decent meal. How he had ended up with this job he didn''t know, it just happened over time as he realised that the idiots couldn''t do the basics. After wiping down the counters and putting away the pots, Jessie went to the pantry to figure out what he could cook, and found it a complete mess. He stood in front of the open pantry and just stared, the thing had been tidy 12 hours ago, why the hell did it look like someone had put a grenade inside it. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK!¡± William cried as the spoon Jessie had just taken from the drawer hit him in the head, turning around William noticed the pantry. ¡°Oh, um, i was going to tell you about that.¡± ¡°And when were you going to tell me?¡± Jessie said as he turned towards him ¡°Uh, later?¡± came a sheepish reply With a sigh Jessie got to work cleaning and reorganising the pantry. It only took him an hour and by that time it was quarter to midnight and he was feeling completely fed up. Not bothering to cook anything complex, he just threw some pasta into a pot and made a simple pasta dish, which he quickly downed and placed the plate into the dishwasher. Throwing himself into bed he fell asleep quickly and woke with the early light of the rising sun. As the sun peeked over the buildings that surrounded Jessie''s dorm, it threw a ray of sunlight through the gap in his curtains which stabbed him in the eyes. groaning, Jessie rolled out of bed, managing to land on his feet this time, and walked into the common room, looking around he noticed that it was exactly as he left it the night before and began unloading the dishwasher which had been running all night. As he was doing this he put some bacon into a pan and began making his breakfast. It was with the smell of bacon and eggs that the rest of the dorm woke up. As Jessie was plating up his breakfast he noticed the other 8 people who also occupied his dorm had gathered around the table. Knowing they were too tired, lazy or hungover to bother making a move to make their own breakfast, Jessie muttered a curse, and got to work cooking all the idiots breakfast. After cooking, plating and serving breakfast as well as eating his own rather cold one. Jessie decided to return to his room and just play The Star Of Fate for the rest of the day. When he entered his room he first decided to check the official forums for the game. There were pleasantly more posts about people discovering just how immersive the game was, people getting killed by city guards for thievery or starting fights or killed by citizens after harassing them. It turned out that if the player was killed by the guards they respawned inside the prisons and had to serve a 24 hour sentence as well as the exp reduction. There were also posts about the death penalty, with people complaining that it was too harsh, while others were complaining about having to buy new headsets or pods because they had decided to try their hand at killing high level monsters. There were also many streamers posting clips of their adventures and links to their twitch or YouTube channels to try gain more viewers. Out of curiosity Jessie opened Twitch and searched for The Stars of Fate, selecting the stream with the most viewers. The stream was about a group of professional gamers going about quests in a way to grind out levels and provide entertainment to the viewers. Looking more closely Jessie could see that everyone in the group was over lvl 10, meaning that they were grinding exp with a lot of efficiency, but other than their teamwork and comedic commentary there wasn''t anything that interested him. After clicking through a few other streams, Jessie closed his computer, lay in his bed and entered the game. Jessie checked the pile of wolf parts he had harvested the night before. When he realised that he would prefer to walk back through the forest during daylight, he had gone and obtained the teeth, claws and pelts of as many wolves as he could before the sun fully set. Putting the teeth and claws inside the bag alongside the egg, Jessie gathered up the pelts of the 15 wolves in one roll, tied together with vines from a nearby tree, and began to make his way back to whitewater village. The trek through the forest was quiet apart from the sound of birds chirping throughout the forest. Jessie paused as he reached a rise in the Forest, and looked down on the village of Whitewater. With the stone based wooden walls that rose 10 metres into the air, and the towers that soared over them, each flying the flag of the Star Dragons grave, a black flag with white stars placed behind a dragon of vibrant blue. Jessie also noted that while the town seemed cluttered and chaotic when walking the streets, there was method to the madness and it was shown that the village''s walls were not the only form of defence it had. The raging river which flowed through the middle of the village seemed to be instantly tamed as it passed through the walls then was let loose again as it left.it took him another half hour or so to get back to the village proper, and after showing the guard his token entered the village and walked towards the smithy. Rounding the corner onto the street with the smithy, Jessie noticed there was a small crowd outside it being held back by a couple of guards. Curious as to what was happening he decided to try and approach. As he made his way through the crowd, trying not to hit anyone with the rather heavy bundle of wolf pelts, he overheard some of the people talk about a knight or champion who was around the town, from what he could make out this champion was currently inside the smithy and the people who were crowding up the outside were trying to either get a look at him or get an autograph. As he approached the door to the smithy, he got a few muttered curses from some of the crowd who thought he was just trying to barge to the front and was stopped by one of the guards before he could open the door. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°The coal hammer smithy is currently closed until further notice.¡± the guard said as he looked over Jessie. ¡°But I have a delivery for the smith.¡± he replied, gesturing to the bundle of pelts he was carrying. The guard took a closer look at Jessie then picked up a board that was lying next to the door and read over it. Looking back up at Jessie he asked. ¡°Claws, teeth and pelts of 10 wolves?¡± When Jessie nodded his head the guard looked to his left and quietly consulted with the other guard who was standing by the door. After a few moments of deliberation the first guard turned back to Jessie. ¡°You may enter.¡± he said as he opened the door and let him through. The first thing Jessie noticed as the door was opened was the man in what looked to be a very expensive suit of armour and travelling cloak who seemed to be in an intense argument with the smith and the elf over something that was on the counter before them. As the door closed after Jessie entered, the elf looked up confused but that was quickly replaced with relief as he realised who had just entered the shop, turning and muttering something to the smith the elf stepped out from behind the counter the argument was taking place at and wen to the another one on the side where the forge was located and gestured for Jessie to head there. ¡°I got what your boss requested.¡± Jessie said as he put the pelts on the counter and unrolled them. As the elf started to tally up how much Jessie was owed for the pelts, he happened to look up as Jessie was taking the claws and teeth out of his bag and noticed the egg. ¡°Is there something wrong?¡± Jessie asked as he noticed the elf staring at him. The elf opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head. ¡°No, no.¡± He said as his face seemed to turn a light shade of red. Before counting out the teeth, claws and pelts and totaling the cost. The total came to 186 copper for the claws, teeth and pelt of 1 wolf and 2790 copper or 2 silver and 790 copper for the components of all 18 wolves. The elf placed 2 silver coins, 7 copper octagons and 9 copper hexagons on the counter, but when he noticed Jessies confusion he hesitated slightly before asking ¡°Do you not know the currency?¡± ¡°Um, no.¡± Jessie replied in embarrassment ¡°That''s fine.¡± the elf said. ¡°There is 1000 copper to a silver, 1000 silver to a gold and 1000 gold to a platinum, though i have never seen a platinum coin before, to avoid carrying around many thousands of coins the different denominations are split into three.¡± the elf pointed at the silver coins first.¡± circular coins have a denomination of 1, so each one of these is 1 silver.¡± the elf pointed at the hexagonal pieces. ¡°Hexagonal coins have a denomination of 10, so each of these is equal to 10 copper, and finally the octagonal coins have a denomination of 100, so each of these is worth 100 copper.¡± ¡°That''s complicated, but also simple.¡± Jessie muttered. ¡°But why do the octagonal pieces have a hole in the middle?¡± The elf looked at the octagonal coins for a moment. ¡°I have no clue, I think it might be a way to differentiate between hexagonal and octagonal coins. But I am unsure of that.¡± ¡°Huh. Well, thanks for the info.¡± Jessie said as he collected his money and absentmindedly patted the elf on the head before leaving the smithy. The elf just sat at the counter for a moment in shock, when he finally comprehended what had just happened, his face went red and he buried his face in his hands for all but a moment before. ¡°Oi, get over here we have a job to finish.¡± his boss yelled at him from the other side of the room where he was still in negotiations with the man in the fancy armour. Jessie took a browse of the general merchants shop which was located on the corner of the main square, before heading over the the inn for a meal, not because he was hungry but because he had noticed he got some buff from eating food such as an increased stamina and health buff, not that it did anything from him and his -50 level that had barely gone up as he hadn¡¯t killed any of the wolves he harvested materials from. He had however gained the skill for skinning and breaking apart animals which had awarded him 1,000 exp for getting the skill to lvl 1. Approaching the inn, jessie noticed a covered board to the left of the doorway, looking at it he noticed that it contained requests for aid posted by either the residents of the village or the soldier who were guarding the village or the soldier who were passing through and needed supply runs or errand run. It seemed like a good way to earn some coin and exp, the exp he badly needed as he reminisced on the fact he was still lvl -50, as he entered the inn, the overly friendly server approached him once more. ¡°Greeting good sir.¡± she proclaimed in her cherry voice. ¡°Are you here for a meal again?¡± ¡°I am.¡± Jessie replied. ¡°Also how do I accept the requests out front?¡± The server seemed to perk up a bit when Jessie asked about the requests. ¡°You take a request from the board and take it to the town hall, the big building to the left opposite the temple. The board outside is for more mundane tasks such as errands or herb collections while the one by the town hall is more about monster extermination and the like." She took a pause to catch her breath a bit. ¡°Please sit anywhere you like, it not that busy at the moment.¡± she continued in a much more controlled voice than the rush her words had been when she was discussing the request boards. Taking a seat near the back wall, Jessie waited for his food to arrive, looking around he noticed that the inn was indeed quiet, though that was easily explainable by the fact it was around 11:30 and the lunch rush was still to come, at least according to what he managed to over hear from the kitchen. Pulling up his stats he looked over it, though he mainly focused on the exp needed to return to lvl 0. ¡®Current level: -50 Exp needed to return to level 0: 425,081,000,143 Current exp: 1105/425,081,000,143¡¯ ¡°Well, could be worse.¡± Jessie muttered to himself as he looked at the screen. ¡°What could be worse?¡± a voice said as someone sat opposite him Looking up Jessie raised an eyebrow at who he saw sit opposite to him. ¡°Does sitting and waiting for a meal at this place just summon people?¡± he asked in a somewhat bewildered by sarcastic voice ¡°First I''ve heard of this phenomenon.¡± the elf said as he made himself more comfortable. ¡°But what could be worse than stealing a dragon egg, how¡¯d you even manage it?¡± ¡°Uh.¡± Jessie hesitated while he thought of the best answer. ¡°Can we start with introductions first?¡± He finally resorted to. ¡°Yea, i got ahead of myself.¡± the elf said. ¡°My name is Astra, I''m 19 years old and, well, it''s obvious but I''m an elf. I have worked at the coal hammer smithy for five years now.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Je- Ghost, I''m 19 and have just been wandering around exploring.¡± Jessie said, correcting himself as he was about to say the wrong name. ¡°Also, you¡¯ve been working since you were 14?¡± ¡°Um, yea.¡± Atsra said sheepishly. ¡°I kind of needed money after I was abandoned.¡± ¡°Huh!?¡± ¡°Yea.¡± As Astra said this Jessie noticed his hair slightly shift from blonde to a very light yellowy green. ¡°Their claim was that I was too much of a hassle to look after, though I¡¯m pretty sure they did it due to how different I was to other elves.¡± ¡°Different?¡± ¡°You probably noticed the first one, but I¡¯m more outgoing and curious than other elves, basically no elves ever leave the dominion outside of military manoeuvres. There''s a couple others as well, but i don''t usually speak of them.¡± ¡°Like your hair changing colour?¡± Jessie said as he looked at Astras hair which had started to turn green over the course of the conversation ¡°Um, ye yes.¡± Astra stuttered, getting slightly more embarrassed. ¡°But, but anyway, how did you manage to steal a dragon egg, there aren¡¯t any dragons nearby.¡± ¡°Um, I didn''t steal it.¡± ¡°Then how did you get it?¡± ¡°It was given to me.¡± ¡°By who.¡± Astra seemed genuinely interested in who had given Jessie the egg. ¡°I¡¯m not telling you. Well, not till I know you better anyway.¡± Astras hair started to turn an orange yellow as Jessie said this, the expression on his face seemed to pull at something inside Jessie and he was overcome with the desire to pat the elf on the head, ¡°Why are you so interested in the dragon egg anyway?¡± Jessie asked after a moment''s lull in the conversation. ¡°The only dragons you will find on this side of the planet are domesticated by the various powers.¡± Astra said a look of sadness entering his eyes. ¡°I really want to know how smart a non-domesticated dragon would be.¡± ¡°That''s, actually a fair answer.¡± Jessie said, looking up he noticed his meal being brought out of the kitchen. ¡°Also, aren¡¯t you meant to be working at the moment?¡± ¡°Hm? Oh shit.¡± Astra suddenly had a look of panic on his face as he realised he had been talking with Jessie for far longer than he had thought, with that Astra ran out of the inn,though he did pick up the whispered words of Jessie as he left due to the enhanced hearing the elves had. ¡°Damnit, why does he have to be so cute.¡± was all Astra heard before he left the inn, flustered not only by the fact his boss would likely be annoyed with him, but also because Jessie was the only human he had met that thought that of him. chapter 6 The notice boards were full, both the board by the inn that requested help with mundane tasks such as herb hunting or building repairs and the one near the town hall that asked for help with monster hunts or material transport between the village and the fortress. It seemed like very few adventurers visited this town, which was fair as it was far from anywhere and only really acted as a support/logistics hub for the fortress guarding the pass through the Dead Peaks. Taking some notices for plant collection from the board near the inn, Jessie made his way over to the town hall to register the request. The town hall was a building larger than all the others, except maybe the temple, and consisted of three floors. The main floor contained the administration desks and meeting rooms which were manned by what looked like a poor imitation of a skeleton crew. Jessie walked up and placed a couple of simple collection requests on one of the admin desks and waited for someone to register them. It didn¡¯t take long for someone to attend the desk, mainly because there was no one else in the room. The woman was old, but not old enough to need walking assistance and had a friendly look and air about her. ¡°Are you registering or turning in requests?¡± she asked in a voice that was both soft and authoritative. ¡°Registering.¡± Jessie said The woman took out a book from under the desk and began flipping through the pages before stopping on a blank one about halfway through. Picking up the request forms and a quill she began recording the request, requestor and day it was accepted. ¡°What is your name, young man?¡± she asked as she came to the final column. ¡°Ghost.¡± The woman gave him a strange look before sighing and putting his name down ¡°There have been many people with strange names appearing these days.¡± she said as she closed the book and handed the request forms over to him. ¡°The village chief was told to be wary of them but, quite frankly, if you''re offering to help the village I couldn''t care what you call yourself.¡± ¡°How much contact do you have with the rest of the region?¡± Jessie asked as he picked up the returned forms ¡°Not much.¡± she replied. ¡°We mainly get out information twice a year when the guards at the fortress switch out. And any orders or requests are usually sent or received from the royal family, which is pissing of the marquess of this region because he thinks we should report directly to him even though none of the soldiers passing through here are his.a rich bastard who prefers to party and indulge himself instead of looking after his region.¡± ¡°I SHOULD HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR TREASON WOMAN!¡± came a loud voice from one of the rooms down the hall ¡°That would be the ¡®advisor¡¯ placed here by the marques. No one here likes him¡± the woman responded in a much quieter voice before walking off towards another room where she had come from. As she walked away Jessie received the quest notifications. ¡®Quest received: gathering herbs 25 moon flower blossoms: 0/25 20 yellow water lilies: 0/20 10 dragon blood roses: 0/10 5 tulips of death: 0/5 5 tulips of life: 0/5 Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the alchemist.¡¯ ¡®Quest received: gathering materials 10 1x1 metre squares of green opal: 0/10 5 branches of a green mahogany tree: 0/5 1 pelt of a giant mountain cat: 0/1 Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the sculptor.¡¯ ¡®Hint. Head to the village library before leaving on these quests.¡¯ Jessie had chosen these requests because while they had clearly been posted for a long time, he had thought the only part that would be tricky would be the pelt of the giant mountain cat and that the other plants and items just had very bizarre names. Leaving the town hall Jessie made his way over to another building that looked more like a longhouse than a library. The place smelled like old tomes and paper but was clean and free of dust and cobwebs. When he entered the library the first thing he was met with was a giant system message popping up in front of him. ¡®System announcement Congratulations to player lightning emperor for being the first player to reach lvl 20 Rewarding 5 silver and 5,000 exp¡¯ ¡°So the system announces the first person to reach certain levels.¡± Jessie mused as he made his way over to the librarian''s desk, when he got there he noticed it was manned by an elderly man in what looked like dark blue wizards robes. ¡°Greetings young man.¡± the wizard said cheerfully. ¡°I am Esbern, retired court wizard of the royal family. How may I help.¡± ¡°I would like information on some plants and materials.¡± ¡°What are you looking for?¡± As the wizard asked this, Jessie placed the request forms down onto the desk where Esbern looked over them with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Well, if you are still insistent on gathering these items after reading the books, i¡¯ll not stop you.¡± Esbern said before slowly standing with the assistance of his staff and walking towards a bookshelf in the middle of the room. He looked over the shelves for a moment before taking a couple of books off them and placing them on a free table. ¡°Here are the books which contain information on the herbs and materias you are looking for. If you have any more questions please don''t hesitate to ask.¡± and with that Esbern walked back over to his desk and continued writing. Jessie looked down at the books and noticed that there were only about three of them, two on the different herbs found within the kingdom and one on the various materials found within the region the village resided in. picking up the first book titled ¡®A compendium of materials from the region of the star dragons grave¡¯. Jessie began to read about the materials of the region looking specifically for green opal and green mahogany. After flipping through a few pages Jessie noticed that the entries were all in alphabetical order and flipped to the G section. Green Opal Found along the banks and within the depths of the Emerald creek, Green opal is prized for its deep green colour and geometric shapes. Usually found in square or tetrahedral shapes green opal is a very durable material that is used by and desired by most of the nobility within the kingdom of the star dragons grave as well as many others throughout the lands of Alecious. The main difficulty in obtaining this commodity is getting past the dryads who guard the emerald creek as a sacred site and only let few people in who are only allowed to take little out. This restriction has resulted in the price of green opal increasing drastically to the point only those of nobility are able to afford even the smallest amount. Many attempts have been made to locate other sources of this material but all expeditions have come back fruitless, and so the emerald creek remains the only way to obtain green opal and any attempt to seize the deposit by force we stopped when king George of the star dragons grave signed a treaty with the dryads to cease all hostilities between the races, the kingdom will protect and respond to any hostility against the dryads while the dryads will give a small amount of green opal to the royal family as payment for this protection. Green mahogany Found along the banks and within a 2 kilometre radius of the emerald creek. Prized for its rich green colour and durability, green mahogany is a wood prized for sculptures and decorations by the higher nobility. Green mahogany, while found in larger quantities around the emerald creek, is rarer and more expensive than green opal due to the dryads protection of these sacred trees. Unlike green opal, the dryads only allow visitors to take with them the branches that have naturally fallen off the trees so as to preserve what is left of the green mahogany. Attempts have been made to replant these trees somewhere more farmable, however all attempts to do so have failed and only regular mahogany trees have grown. It is theorised that the reason for this is due to something within the emerald creek that gives both the green mahogany and green opal their distinctive colours and strengths. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Jessie stared at the two pages as his mind ran over the fact that these materials were found in the same place, and the fact he would have to somehow convince dryads to allow him access to both to complete the requests. Taking one of the quills and some paper that were placed in the centre of the table, Jessie began to make notes about the materials that he was going to collect and how he might be able to convince the dryads to let him access the emerald creek. Picking up one of the other books Jessie looked at the title. ¡®A compendium of materials from the Dead Peaks.¡¯ Opening the book Jessie looked for an index where he might be able to find any information on the plants he was to gather. It took awhile but he eventually found and noted down the locations of the dragon blood roses, tulips of life and tulips of death within the book and began reading their entries. Dragon blood roses Dragon blood roses are a rather unknown but very useful herb used in the concoction of high levelled potions. It is a very potent source of strength magic as well as fire or lightning magic depending on the colour. It is unknown how dragon blood roses come to be, and while it has been theorised that they grow where dragon blood has been spilt, experiments and observations have been made both in laboratories and on battlefields where dragons were involved. Red dragon blood roses are a potent source of strength and fire magic. It is theorised that these roses have a connection to red dragons due to their high potency of fire magic. Red dragon blood roses are used in both strength potions as well as potions of fire resistance or explosives. Blue dragon blood roses are a potent source of strength and lightning magic. It is theorised that these roses have a connection to blue dragons due to their high potency of lightning magic. Blue dragon blood roses are used in strength potions as well as potions to resist lightning. Both types of roses have other uses outside of potions as well, they can both be used in different ways in rituals and summoning, please see volume 3 of grand summonings for more details, as well as flower arrangements for the banquet table of the rich and nobility. Dragon blood roses are found in many areas of the Dead Peaks, but are found in abundance further towards the higher peaks. While no one has managed to reach the highest of the peaks, it has been noted that the potency of the roses increases the higher they are up the mountain. Tulips of life Tulips of life are found in places with abundant life, these tulips can be found anywhere life exists and, while rare, are still available to any who look for them. Tulips of life are prized for their abundance of life magic and are used frequently within the medical field to treat the worst cases of war and illness. Consuming a tulip of life can bring someone back from the brink of death, however it can also cause a person to die due to a massive and sudden influx of life force, this is why tulips of life are distilled and combined with many other ingredients to make potions. The most common place for tulips of life to sprout are the areas around dragon blood roses, this is theorised to be because of the massive amounts of lifeforce housed within a dragon and its blood, and while experiments with growing dragon blood roses have always failed, tulips of life have always sprouted wherever the blood falls, although these tulips have a massively weakend amount of life magic compared to those found in nature. Tulips of death With the existence of Tulips of life, it is thought that there exist tulips of death though no evidence has been brought to light that proves this theory. Scholars from all over the planet believe that if Tulips of death do exist, their effects would be the opposite of the Tulips of life. This has led to many researchers and explorers searching places where death is prominent and has seeped into the very essences of the location to try and find this elusive flower. The only place guaranteed to have them in abundance are the fields of unnumbered tears where the gods of old fought off the abyssal horrors and sealed the borders between the realities. The only other place thought to grow tulips of death are plains of sorrow, a location from myth said to be found within the dead peaks. The plains of sorrow are supposedly a place where a great betrayal occurred between the elven people and humanity after they finally crushed the northern tribes, refer to the myths and legends of Alecious for more information of this betrayal. Many expeditions have been launched to find the location of the plains of sorrow yet few have returned from the perilous journey, and none of them returned in success. Jessie made notes about where to find the dragon blood blossoms and the Tulips of life but was stumped for the Tulips of death, the only way he knew he might be able to gather them would be to either ask to alchemist why they wanted tulips of death and why they thought that they might exist despite there never being any conclusive evidence. The other way would be to try and find the dragon sanctuary again and ask about them, though he didn''t want to go back there because he didn''t know what price he would have to pay for that information. Deciding to do the former Jessie made a note of it and picked up the final book which seemed to be from the same author, a mr Lucian Greymoore. ¡®A compendium of herbs and plants found throughout the region of the Star Dragons Grave¡¯ This book was much larger than the other two he had read, and as he browsed the index of the book he figured out why. The book contained an entry for basically every herb and plant within the region. Moon flowers Moon flowers are a special flower that bloom only under the light of a moon, known for their affinity to astral magic and absolute beauty they are used both by wizards and nobles. Magical uses for this flower include an enhanced sight of the flow of astral magic as well as increasing a person''s affinity in the use of astral magic, these gains are temporary unless you consume moon flower blossoms everyday from a very young age. Potions of astra sight, which allow a person to view between the folds of reality or access the astral plane are very rare and require many blossoms of a moon flower that has been harvested under the light full blue moon, an event that happens only once every decade. If a moon blossom is harvested under the light of a blood moon, it will gain an extra affinity that allows it to be used in necromantic rituals. The blood moon blossom contains powerful astral and blood magic and any who are found to have them in their possession will be arrested and tried as a criminal. Due to the beauty of moon flowers they can be found in almost every garden owned by a person of nobility. Massive fields of moon flowers are planted near the towers of astral and spatial mages. These gardens are heavily guarded during both a blue and a blood moon, this is both so that blood moon blossoms are restricted in circulation as much as possible, but also to give these people a monopoly on a very valuable magical material which can only be harvested in the kingdom of the Star Dragons Grave. Water lilies Water lilies are one of the most common water plants within the Star Dragons Grave region, while there are many different varieties of water lilies very few have magical properties and while a coloured water lily can have magical properties, it is likely that the lily will just be a plain lily. Water lilies come in many colours. Pink, red, orange, yellow, purple and blue. If you know what you are looking for it is easy to figure out if the lilies you are looking at have a magical affinity as those ones will be a brighter colour and will appear to have a glow around them while non magical lilies will simply look beautiful but have a duller colour. Red lilies are a high quality source of blood magic, the amount of blood magic these lilies contain is not enough to perform necromantic rituals, however there is more than enough for high quality health potions. Orange lilies are a high quality source of fire magic, useful for concocting potions of resist fire and explosives. They can also be used to enhance the power of fire spells if consumed. Yellow lilies are a high quality source of solar magic, these lilies are used to create potions to cure sanguine infections and are used in devices used to both detect vampires and harm vampires. Blue lilies are a high quality source of lightning magic, used to create potions of resist shock and lightning; they can also be used to enhance the power of lightning spells if consumed. Purple lilies are a high quality source of death magic, these lilies are used for ceremonial rituals when burying the dead, but can also be used by necromancers to raise the dead as mindless minions. Purple lilies are currently under extreme security within the hall of the dead in the Star dragons grave capital and are destroyed anywhere they are found outside of the hall. Pink lilies are just lilies. They have no know magical properties and are the most common type of lily, many of these are found in ponds within the noble houses and royal families gardens, often being mixed with lilies of the other colours. Jessie noted this information down as well and soon had most of what he needed planned out, all he needed to do was ask for a map of the dead peaks, talk to the alchemist, and convince some very secretive dryads to allow him access to the emerald creek. The yellow water lilies and the moon flower blossoms were probably the easiest to come by, so we¡¯re the Tulips of life and the dragon blood roses, however the tulip of death would be a major problem and Jessie wanted to see if the alchemist had any idea of the difficult in getting them. After closing the last book and leaving them on a small side table where the librarian would eventually reshelve them before returning to the librarian. ¡°Could I have a map of the region?¡± He asked as he approached the desk ¡°Which region?.¡± The wizard said as he looked up from his writings ¡°This one, preferably as much of the dead peaks as mapped and to the emerald creek if possible.¡± ¡°Huh, your taking up the suicide mission.¡± The wizard said. ¡°Very well.¡± He stood up and walked over to a cabinet and began taking maps out of several draws, looking at them before putting some of them back. He finally settled on a map and brought it back to his desk and unrolled it. The map showed, in surprising detail, the area surrounding the village and all the way from the emerald creek to a large portion of the dead peaks, what Jessie noticed was that this map contained annotations around the dead peaks in a language he couldn¡¯t read. ¡°This map will cost 2 silver, or you can get a less detailed copy for 500 copper.¡± ¡°Uh.¡± Jessie looked at the amount he currently had before deciding asking a question. ¡°What language is that written in?¡± he said as he pointed towards the writing. ¡°No one knows.¡± the librarian said. ¡°This map is the oldest one known to exist, well, a perfect copy of it at least.¡± Jessie placed the two silver coins he had received from selling the wolf parts on the wizards desk while also rolling up the map and placing it in his bag, after thanking the wizard Jessie made his way through the village looking for the alchemist who had posted the gathering request. It took him a while but he eventually found it tucked away in an alleyway off the main market square. It looked like a plain building from the outside with the only thing marking it as the alchemist''s store being a cauldron outside with a sign reading ¡®Alchemical concoctions¡¯. Pushing open the door, Jessie walked inside and was met with an eccentric looking middle aged woman with brown hair that was a complete mess and a pair of large goggles on her face. ¡°Are you Emily?¡± Jessie asked after a moment of watching her potter about with different ingredients and devices. ¡°Oh, a customer.¡± the alchemist yelped as she heard Jessie speak. ¡°Yes, I am she, how may I help you?¡± ¡°Why do you think Tulips of death exist, and why do you need them?¡± ¡°Of course they exist.¡± she cried. ¡°With life there must always be death, wait, does this mean you accepted my request, do you have the items?¡± she was practically bouncing up and down while staring at Jessie. ¡°Er, no, I don''t have the items yet. I came to see why you needed tulips of death and why you thought they existed before going out to search for them.¡± ¡°Oh, that makes sense.¡± Emily said as she deflated a bit. ¡°Well, the tulips of death will be used to create a device that can detect the presence of abyssal horrors, the essence of the tulips I mean not the entire flower, the other items are just for random potions. And the tulips exist, they must exist, otherwise, otherwise this whole endeavour was for naught.¡± Jessie thought about it for a moment before responding. ¡°Well, if the tulips do exist.¡± Jessie paused for a moment. ¡°Then the likely location would be the plains of sorrow, that know one knows even exists.¡± ¡°Please, find me those flowers.¡± she seemed to almost be begging. ¡°I. I¡¯ll double your reward.¡± ¡°I.¡± Jessie seemed a bit stumped by the sudden offer to double a reward, one he didn''t have a clue about. ¡°I¡¯ll find you the tulips of death.¡± And after confirming that he would obtain the tulips of death for her, Jessie made his way out of the alchemist store and headed back to the inn for a drink and also to figure out what his path would look like while he completed these requests. Chapter 7 It took Jessie around 6 hours by horse to traverse the forests that made up the area of the marquess de Veronts territory to reach the emerald creek. Jessie had decided to head south east first to gather the green opal and the green mahogany before making his way north towards whitewater lake to gather the yellow water lilies, then heading into the dead peaks last and maybe stopping to get some information from the dragon sanctuary. dead peaks to look for the dragon blood roses and the tulips of life and death. Jessie had assumed that there would be an obvious border between the regular forest and the emerald creek, and while that may be the case on a map, hence why he didn¡¯t notice he was in the region of the creek till he was surrounded by a group of fully armed dryads. who didn''t seem all that pleased to see him. ¡°And what would a man as young and inexperienced as you be doing in these parts?¡± one of the dryads said. ¡°I uh, was looking for some materials.¡± Jessie replied with some hesitation ¡°Another adventurer here to steal our resources.¡± another dryad said hostility was clear in her voice. ¡°Now now sister.¡± the dryad behind Jessie said, ¡°this man couldn''t do shit against us.¡± ¡°Oh I see.¡± another one burst out laughing. ¡°Don¡¯t sneeze on him then, he might disintegrate.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprised he actually made it here.¡± ¡°Should we humour him?¡± a dryad on Jessie''s left said ¡°Of course we should, let''s take him to the matriarch.¡± another said ¡°We should carry him.¡± Another said. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want a branch to scratch him.¡± And so Jessie was entangled in a cocoon of vines and transported across the emerald creek. Of course, he couldn¡¯t see where he was going due to being inside a cocoon, he also couldn¡¯t feel where he was going, it seemed the dryads had made true on their threat? Promise? And were transporting him as delicately as possible. It was kind of humiliating if he thought about it, but at the same time it did make the journey through the emerald creek safer, he just hoped he wouldn¡¯t be killed by this matriarch. He didn¡¯t know how much time had passed since he was cocooned inside the vines, he didn¡¯t even know if they had moved and they were just playing a prank on him. Eventually however, the vines began to peel back to reveal where he was and, despite what he had thought, they hadn¡¯t played a prank on him. The place where he had been taken was along the shore of a massive lake which had the same colour as a pure emerald with small islands dotting the lake for miles. Bridges of wood criss crossed the lake between the islands, looking like the roots of a great tree as they made chaotic paths that led everywhere. Oak trees big and small dotted the shoreline and the islands as thousands of Dryads went about their day tending to the forest and lake. As the cocoon finally dispersed Jessie was surrounded by more armoured dryads who began to escort him across the winding criss crossing paths between islands. Arriving before the bridge to the final island the procession, which had grown as more and more dryads had started following the warriors and their charge, halted as a group of dryads dressed in gold or wearing gold armour approached. ¡®The Matriarch is ready to see him.¡± the dryad in the front said as the gold armoured dyads stopped in front of the group. With a salute to the dryads in front of them, the guards who had escorted Jessie through the settlement turned around and returned to their scouting posts around the perimeter of the emerald creek. Once the guards had walked off the dryads in gold surrounded Jessie and began to escort him over the bridge, this bridge was more intricate than the other he had crossed and looked almost like it was grown from a massive tree and transported to this location. It was at the halfway point that something Jessie hadn¡¯t expected happened, with a ripple like a rock hitting a pond the space in front of him split and revealed more than he could have thought. The lake, which had been unusually massive before, turned into what could only be described as an ocean. Thousands more islands and bridges appeared as he passed through an invisible wall, a thriving civilisation of spirits and elementals existed in this place. As the procession rounded a corner Jessie couldn''t help but fall into shock. A massive port city lay before him bustling with activity as satyrs, nymphs, drus¡¯s and many other spirits wandered around and went about their business. Oak trees filled the area making the city look like a forest of light and shadows as light elementals floated in patterns that gave light to the places of great population. As the procession walked through the city of trees and houses that seemed to all but match what he had learnt about the spirits and other mythological creatures, the citizens gave them looks of pure curiosity which made it clear that they very rarely, if ever, saw a human. But the main thing that took Jessie breath away was the port itself, a multi kilometre wide walkway of tangled spruce and acacia trees created a flat surface with sturdy railings that prevented people from falling into the water, this same pattern and design extended out from 50 to 200 metres into the water with quays spaced 50 to 100 metres apart from each other. Many of the quays were occupied, either with small fishing boats or traders that were loading supplies to be brought to other ports that were undoubtedly on one of the many islands that dotted this hidden location. There was one boat that stood out though, a ship 6 decks high and 150 metres long, it was made of a silver wood that was accentuated with gold, though the closer he got on this ship the more he realised the gold was actually a wood as well, the sails and rigging were a mild blue that seemed to almost glow. It was a ship that belonged to someone important and he figured out that it belonged to the same people as he was being escorted by. As the procession arrived at the ship more gold clad people appeared on the bulwarks and not just dryads either, there were some drus, and satyrs in the mix as well. ¡°Welcome human to the battleship Seristhana, i am high captain Amodeus, member of the fleet council and commander of the 12th fleet of her majesty the matriarch Alessia¡¯s navy.¡± a man said as soon as he saw Jessie, the captain didn¡¯t look like a dryad, drus, satyr or other mythological creature. In fact he looked like a human, apart from the slitted eyes that seemed to absorb light and hair that looked like it had been made from powdered bone, he was dressed in the same gold armour that the rest of the soldiers around him wore, however he seemed slightly uncomfortable wearing it and the colours did clash violently with his look. Before Jessie had a chance to respond he was pushed up the ramp onto the ship and led to a room below the deck where the ship''s wheel was located. It wasn''t a bad room to be thrown into, it had a comfy bed and cosy furnishings as though it was meant for more important people than him. There was also a balcony which led outside which he immediately went to. As he stepped out onto the balcony he heard the captain shouting orders and getting ready to set sail, from what he could hear the crew move with practised movements, movements more skilled than sailors he saw in movies, and they were setting sail within minutes of Jessie boarding the ship. As he stepped back into his room he heard the bolt which had been slid closed on the outside of the door, slide open and a soldier stuck his head into the room. ¡°You are free to wander the deck as long as you stay out of everyone''s way.¡± Jessie didn''t even have time to respond, which was becoming a strange trend, before the guard withdrew his head and walked away. After waiting for about a minute Jessie decided to take a walk around the ship to see what it was like, the door to the room was heavier than he thought, though that may have been because his 1 in strength, though this was the first time he had experienced not being able to move anything and he began to wonder why he had managed to carry 15 wolf pelts several kilometres from the cave the the village, because if he struggled to open a simple wooden door how could he have lifted about 68 kilos of wolf pelts let alone carry it far. Deciding to just ignore this issue for now, Jessie forced the door open and stumbled out onto the main deck of the ship, the first thing he noticed was that the soldiers were leaning against the bulwarks or sitting on crates that were stacked along the middle of the deck, none of them seemed to be at attention, almost as if there was not going to be anything happening, though that was probably true as this place seemed like it had existed for aeons, soldiers and sailors moved from deck to deck and all looked care free. Some of the crew noticed Jessie but only gave him a glance as he walked around the top deck, he was stopped from heading down to the lower decks but that didn''t bother him as the surroundings gave him more entertainment as he tried to make out what was happening and where he was. Early evening found Jessie sitting at the bow of the ship as he watched a pod of dolphins swim alongside the ship, he was so engrossed in watching them that he didn''t notice the person walk up beside him. ¡°It is very rare we get a human in the emerald creek, rarer still that one gets let this far into our lands.¡± Jessie spun around and looked at the captain who was watching the waters ahead of them. Jessie turned to look out in front of the ship and saw that they were sailing into an area where there were no islands and only a clear way to the other side of the mini ocean. It was then that something occurred to him. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!¡°We aren''t about to sail through another illusion are we?¡± he asked ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡± was all the captain said while smiling faintly, before turning around and heading back to the wheel ¡°PREPARE TO DOCK¡± the captain called out to the crew as the ship continued to sail into open waters. As Jessie watched the dolphins swim he noticed a ripple in front of them as the dolphins began to disappear, a moment later a wall began to shimmer in front of the ship as they passed through yet another illusion. The world seemed to flicker for a moment as the ship passed through the illusion spell, it wasn''t the realisation at the amount of mana needed to fuel three large scale illusions that awed Jessie, it was what lay beyond this final illusion. A tree that seemed to scrape the heavens themselves stood proudly on an island the size of Fiji, with a trunk of pure white and silver that covered an area larger than a football stadium. It held up a canopy of pure gold that covered the entire island on which it lived. The closer they got to the island the more detail Jessie could make out, from nigh uncountable number of military vessels, both larger and smaller than the one he was currently on, to the trees that lined every street and occupied nearly every space where no one lived. Trees of pure white occupied everywhere they could, ranging from trees that resembled oaks and maples to tall pines and firs it made the island look like it had perpetual snow fall even though it was covered by the canopy. The docking procedure was swift and within a minute of the ship going stationary Jessie was disembarked with the same escort that brought him onboard, the only difference this time was that the captain of the vessel accompanied them. The city that surrounded the great tree was surprisingly similar in both building style and population variety toi the port town in which he boarded that Jessie might have wondered if he had gotten off at the same port, well, apart from a tree that was a dead give away. Jessie was walked through the city and towards the great tree, the trip to the great tree was quite a distance and so jessie was loaded into a wagon and driven to what jessie could make out as a house at the base of it, though as he got closer he realised it would be a better idea to call it a mansion, though even that word struggled to encapsulate what exactly the building was. As the only building that did not directly resemble a plant but was instead made out of one, it had the architecture of a Heian period palace while still somehow fitting the all nature style which appeared to be the standard building style of this place. The doors that were tall enough to fit a 20 metre giant bore imagery of a tree holding aloft an uncountable number of planets swung open with barely a sound as the procession made their way into the building. The entrance hall to the building consisted not of a large room with many doorways and a staircase, but of a garden with fountains and ponds that stretched as far as Jessie could see, ahead of him lay a gazebo, built of white stone covered with flowers and vines it stood in the middle of a pond, with four bridges allowing access from the cardinal directions, it stood tall enough to comfortably hold four floors and still looked like a standard gazebo. Inside the gazebo resembled the dining rooms of palaces, except for the throne that sat at one end against the only wall the gazebo had. ¡°So you¡¯re the one who got that old bastard¡¯s blessing.¡± Said the woman on the throne. She resembled the usual form a dryad held in the mythology Jessie had learnt about if a bit different, she wore plants as clothes that barely covered her modesty, which wouldn¡¯t have been an issue if they weren¡¯t the size of one and half basketballs which the plants she wore to cover them barely even covered the front. Instead of being drawn in like most men would have, Jessie just sighed. ¡°What of it?¡± he asked in a resigned voice. ¡°And why do all powerful women seem to dress so scantily?¡± The second question was followed by some gasps from people whom Jessie guessed were advisors and nobles in the domain of the matriarch. ¡°YOU WILL RESPECT HER MAJESTY THE MATRIARCH.¡± one of the nobles furthest from the throne shouted at Jessie who was standing before the throne. ¡°Calm down, dears.¡± the Matriarch said as she waved her hand for silence before turning to Jessie. ¡°Powerful women, mainly goddesses but occasionally demigods as well, will dress scantily to see the reaction from mortals, but looking at your reaction it is clear that either you don¡¯t care for women or I''m just the wrong type. A pity, but it does happen.¡± As she said this the plants began to grow, and soon she was wearing a dress in the same plant style as her other outfit that flowed down from her shoulders to the floor. ¡°On to the main matter at hand.¡± she said after she had changed her outfit. ¡°You ask what of it, so I shall give you some information. Blessings, especially those handed out by higher gods, are detectable, the higher the blessing the more detectable it is due to the presence of the gods divinity. Now, this wouldn''t be an issue if you had received a regular blessing, you however received a true blessing, a blessing that evolves as you level up and give you access to the powers of the god who blessed you. This is likely the reason Neovecrianth didnt turn you to ash when you met him.¡± the matriarch paused for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m talking too much, it matters because there are many people who, while they don¡¯t know the name of the god who blessed you, will be able to detect the power of the divinity in your blessing. This wouldn''t normally be an issue, but your unfortunate run in with Velthoth the cursed is an issue. Nature''s servant has given me an item which will solve this problem for you, however you must prove your worth to receive it. If you pass the test I will give you the item and the green opal and mahogany you originally came here for. What is your answer?¡± ¡°Do i get to know what your test is before answering?¡± Jessie asked ¡°No.¡± ¡°Oh, um, sure, I guess.¡± jessie mumbled ¡°Sorry, I didn''t hear that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take your blasted trial.¡± Jessie said in a loud voice. ¡°Very well.¡± the matriarch said with a small smirk on her face. ¡°To pass my test, you must prove your resolve.¡± ¡°Huh!?¡± With a wave of her hand Jessie disappeared from the gazebo in a blinding flash of light, when the light receded Jessie found himself in a cell the only thing he could see was the interior of the cell which was lit by a soft green light, everything outside the cell was pitch black. As Jessie wondered where he was, a voice sounded from all around him. ¡°All you must do dear mortal, is show your resolve to never relinquish your blessing to those who would take it from you.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Jessie cried out ¡°How strong is your resolve mortal?¡± the matriarch''s voice said. ¡°To pass this test you must endure a month without breaking. By the end of the month you must still retain your blessing. Good luck.¡± With that the voice of the matriarch faded away and the darkness outside the cell began to lift. What Jessie saw turned his blood cold. In Front of the cell stood a mage, behind him stood a hooded executioner and a middle aged man who had a manic look in his eye. ¡°So, you''re finally awake.¡± the mage said as he unlocked the door to the cell. As the cell door opened Jessie was about to try make a run for it through the mage, but before he could do anything he suddenly found himself suspended from the roof by ropes of lightning ¡°No, you won''t be running.¡± the mage said, a deranged look in his eyes. ¡°With the blessing you hold, I will be able to take the throne and conquer this world, now I shall ask once, relinquish the blessing and this won''t have to get messy.¡± ¡°No.¡± was all Jessie managed to say before the ropes of lightning began to electrocute him, the lightning pumped volt after volt through Jessie¡¯s body wracking it with pain and leaving burns where it touched his wrists and ankles. The mage simply looked on while Jessie writhed in pain from the lightning, after what felt like hours the pain resided and Jessie hung limp from the ropes. The mage lifted Jessie''s chin up with a finger and looked him in the eye. ¡°Will you give me the blessing, or will you continue to resist?¡± Jessie¡¯s response to the mage was to simply spit in his face. This seemed to enrage the mage as he grabbed Jessie by the throat and began to squeeze. ¡°You will relinquish the blessing and I will rule the world¡± the mage said, his voice low and dangerous. ¡°I don¡¯t care how long it takes, you will be broken.'''' With that the mage walked out of the cell and muttered something to the executioner and the other man whose manic eyes and sadistic smile seemed to turn even more predatory. As the mage and the executioner left Jessie''s view, the other man walked into the cell. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been let free on a prisoner.¡± he said cackling in glee and walking around the suspended Jessie. ¡°Oh, this is going to be fun.¡± Before Jessie could wrap his head around what was happening, he cried out in pain as something was driven into his left arm. The man walked back around to Jessie''s front with a predatory smile on his face while holding a bloodied knife in his right hand. The man slowly placed the knife on Jessie''s collarbone and applied enough pressure to draw blood before slowly dragging the knife diagonally down Jessie''s front drawing both blood and a cry of pain which only seemed to make his predatory smile more intense as he soaked up the cries of pain. This continued for hours as the man made long and slow cuts all across Jessie''s body applying more pressure to the cust as Jessie¡¯s body became accustomed to the pain. By the time the mage returned with a cup of water and a stale loaf of bread, Jessie had been turned from a clean looking human into a blood soaked body that hung limply from ropes of lighting. His clothes had been torn to shreds, barely hanging onto his body, but his wounds had all been healed, which the man had been doing periodically to prevent Jessie from dying. ¡°Are you ready to relinquish the blessing?¡± the mage asked as he placed the meal on the floor. ¡°No.¡± Jessie muttered ¡°Very well.¡± the mage said as he left the cell and locked it behind him before releasing Jessie from the ropes. ¡°We¡¯ll see if you change your mind tomorrow.¡± he said before walking off. chapter 8 Jessie had been counting the times the mage left food for him, and estimated that it was closing on the month that blasted matriarch had given him to complete the trial. It felt more like he was being punished than undergoing a trial to obtain the items he needed for his quest. He looked up as a furious looking mage blasted the door of his cell open and stormed inside. ¡°RELINQUISH THE BLESSING YOU BASTARD!¡± the mage yelled spit flying from his mouth. ¡°Or what¡± Jessie managed to get out, the residual pain from the near month of torture prevented him from speaking properly. ¡°I WILL RIP YOUR SOUL FROM YOUR BODY AND BIND IT TO AN ARTEFACT TO BE TORTURED FOR ETERNITY!¡± the mage screamed before turning around and looking the man who had been torturing Jessie dead in the eye. ¡°If you cannot break him today, I will have you executed.¡± he said in a cold voice before leaving the cell. The man looked a bit rattled, but soon his resolve over took his nerves and he walked into the cell. ¡°Your resolve is strong.¡± he said as he walked right up to Jessie. ¡®But today it will break.¡¯ as he said this he grabbed Jessie by his left arm and bent the elbow back with enough force to break it. Jessie cried in pain as his arm fell limp and his body slumped to the left as his arm could no longer hold his weight. The man looked over Jessie''s naked body, the clothes he had first worn had been torn to shreds weeks ago and lay in a blood soaked pile below him. The man took out a pill and forced it down Jessie''s throat, after which Jessie''s nervous system seemed to burn as if he had been submerged in acid, the man simply laughed at Jessie''s cries of pain as he began to slowly cut open Jessie''s abdomen so as to inflict as much pain as he could. After cutting through Jesse''s abdominal muscles the man began to heal Jessie again. The man''s healing spells didn''t dispel any of the pain that Jessie felt, only mend to wounds and restore the blood that he lost. Looking into Jessie''s eyes the man only saw pain and nothing else, with a snort he grabbed Jessie''s right wrist and with a quick twist snapped it before tearing the hand off his body to the pained groans of Jessie who could hardly draw breath enough to scream. Grabbing hold of the exposed bone in Jesse''s arm the man twisted it until it broke from the elbow and he pulled it out through the broken wrist. The pained groans that came from Jessie turned into screams again as the man tied the boneless forearm into a knot before twisting Jessie''s shoulder enough times to cause the skin to tear and the bone to dislocate and the arm to come away from the body, shoving his hand into the wound the man ripped out one of Jesse''s ribs along with the muscle that was still attached to it and without pausing plunged the rib into Jessie''s abdomen and yanked it upwards to the base of his diaphragm before pulling it out and casting his healing spells over Jessie. The day continued on the fashion till the mage returned, at that point the cell was coated in blood and discarded limbs, bones, muscles and organs lay scattered around the cell making it look like a human blender, with a wave of his hand the mage cleared a path from the cell door to Jessie and rammed a knife with a purple glow into his stomach. The skin around the knife began to lose colour and turn black before slowly falling off. ¡°have you decided whether to relinquish the blessing?¡± The mage''s voice was calm, but there was an underlying coldness to it. ¡°I have.¡± Jessie choked out ¡°And?¡± The mage said getting more impatient ¡°Go to hell.¡± he choked out as his flesh began to rot at a faster speed. ¡°And take that depraved bastard with you.¡± The mage simply stepped back and watched as the knife spread the necrosis throughout Jessie''s body, causing flesh to turn black and fall off revealing tainted black blood that seeped from the rotted flesh, as the necrosis spread Jessie''s internal organs began to rot and turn into a paste the seeped out of the hole in his stomach. All of this was accompanied by the screams of pain from Jessie as his nervous system was also turned to mush. The pain didn¡¯t seem to lessen even as Jessie¡¯s legs fell off to rot on the floor, the necrosis spread until Jessie could taste the rotten flesh in his mouth, it made him want to vomit but at this point the only thing that remained was his neck and head. Watching this the mage simply smiled before picking up a white orb walking over the Jessies head and crushing it to pieces under his boot. As darkness engulfed Jessie the last thing he saw was the fury on the mages face as the orb suddenly vanished. the pain he had been feeling for the past month seemed to go away, when light finally returned he noticed he was lying in a bed. Looking around Jessie saw that while the room wasn¡¯t that large, it was still well furnished with items one would easily find in a royal palace. Jessie went to sit up but found himself unable to move, it hurt to even breathe let alone tense any of his muscles so he simply lay there and looked at the roof while thinking about all that happened. It was then that the realisation of him being in game for a month hit and he tried to log off, but when he tried to select the button nothing happened. Panicked and tried again but to the same result, it simply wouldn¡¯t let him log out and because he couldn¡¯t take the headset off without logging out he was stuck in game. Lying back in resignation Jessie lost himself to thought. The most recent memory he had was of being a head on the ground as necrosis slowly dissolved his body, he remembered the mage holding a white orb on his hand before his expression turned to rage as the orb had vanished from his grasp. ¡®What was that orb?¡¯ Jessie thought ¡®the mage did say something about tearing out my soul to suffer eternal torture, but this isn¡¯t so bad if that¡¯s the case.¡¯ His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door which caused him to jerk his head to look which caused him immense pain at the sudden movement. ¡°Shit, sorry sorry.¡± The woman hurriedly said as she rushed to his side and began to cast healing magic. The pain that Jessie felt from jerking his head towards the door faded but still returned if he tried to move. After removing the pain the woman stood up and bolted from the room leaving Jessie slightly confused. A moment later she returned, leading a familiar figure behind her. ¡°He¡¯s awake?¡± Death asked as he followed the woman in. ¡°He is, but he is in serious pain.¡± ¡°And his soul?¡± ¡°I reintegrated it as much as i could, but it needs to integrate naturally now.¡± ¡°Thank you Osi.¡± death said ¡°It''s nothing.¡± she said. ¡°I shall leave you two to talk for a bit, for now I have to figure out why abyssal magic was involved.¡± She left the room after checking Jessie''s condition again. ¡°Can I have help sitting up?¡± Jessie asked after a moment of silence Death helped Jesse into a sitting position that didn''t apply much weight to any part of his body, his touch was delicate and caring despite being a skeleton, after helping him into a sitting position Death didn''t say anything for a while. ¡°I would like to apologise.¡± Death said after a minute of silence ¡°For what?¡± Jessie asked ¡°For what happened to you.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Jessie asked hesitantly Death paused for a moment, considering what to say. ¡°As much as I hate to admit it, I am not omnipotent. I had assumed that you would be safe on Alecious due to how new and safe it was.¡± Death paused again. ¡°The Matriarch is obsessed with becoming divine and would do anything necessary to achieve it.¡± ¡°Ok, but why are you apologising?¡± ¡°Because I wasn''t watching you, you walked into her trap, and nearly lost both your soul and the blessing.¡± Seeing Jessie''s confused look Death began to explain in more detail. ¡°Souls can be harvested, however that type of magic is outlawed by basically every god due to its ties with abyssal magic, it is through this magic that the blessings of gods can be forcefully moved from one soul to another. The process is insanely tricky as the god in question can revoke the blessing from either the soul or the new bearer, but the change has to take place outside the purview of gods.¡± ¡°But, I was killed, turned to paste with my head crushed, how am I even here?¡± Jessie asked, a bit of panic entering his voice as he voiced these thoughts. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°As long as your soul is recovered and is untainted, as you thankfully was, the power of Osioglen, the Ancient goddess of creation, can restore you.¡± ¡°But, why me?¡± Jessie asked. ¡°I know the Matriarch said something about people sensing my blessing. Was that all a lie?¡± ¡°She didn''t lie about that part.¡± Death said. ¡°If you are indeed powerful enough you can sense the blessings of others, it won''t tell you who the blessing is from or what it does, but you can tell the power of it. She was also telling the truth about the item she had being able to hide the blessing, what she did lie about was having been given it by Nature''s Servant.¡± ¡°But if she just needed to tear my soul out, why did she trick me into undergoing a trial?¡± ¡°The trial was a backup plan. For a soul to be taken from a living person they must either be relaxed enough to not resist, or too exhausted to resist.¡± Death thought for a bit. ¡°It seems your preference for, smaller assets let''s say, helped you in the first regard but did result in arguably the worst way happening.¡± ¡°Jessie thought for a bit. ¡°Would the first option have been any worse? How would she have even done that?¡± ¡°I am unsure, ways that people have done it before include hyper enhancing the victims stamina for a short time, resulting in more exertion which in turn results in a massive crash once the effects run out, or simply draining the body of life through touch. The divines try to prevent souls from being taken in such manners, but at times it still happenes.¡± ¡°That''s kind of depressing way to go, being fucked to death.¡± Jessie muttered. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes before Jessie spoke again. ¡°Could I ask you some questions?¡± ¡°Ask away.¡± Death said. ¡°I am a veritable fount of knowledge and shall answer all your questions.¡± Jessie couldn¡¯t help but let out a small chuckle at that, not that he didn''t doubt the god but just the way he said it made Jessie chuckle. ¡°Very well, why do all NPC¡¯s act so realistically?¡± The flames in death''s eyes flickered for a moment as he contemplated what Jessie was asking him before they seemed to enlarge to twice the size, the comedic effect was somewhat ruined by his lower jaw falling open slightly. ¡°I shall answer almost every question you have.¡± he said Jessie gave the god a sceptical look before asking his next question. ¡°Huh, very well then, I was told that if I was slain by an NPC 15 levels above me I would need to create a new account, why didn''t that happen?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Death said as he let out a laugh. ¡°You died to a monster not an NPC, there might be a slight difference there but a difference there is none the less.¡± ¡°And how many of these loopholes and grey areas do I have to look out for?¡± ¡°Enough.¡± ¡°You''re not going to tell me are you?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Go to hell.¡± ¡°I rule it.¡± Jessie threw his arms up with a sound of annoyance, which immediately turned to pain as he remembered he was still recovering from having his soul ripped from his body. Death simply shook his head and cast a spell that relieved Jessie of the pain. With a muttered thanks Jessie collected his thoughts to ask his next question. ¡°Why did I drop to level -50 after I was killed?¡± ¡°So, the way it works is that the level of the monster is taken and then you lose experience equal to half that monster''s level, due to you having no levels and being level 0, you lost experience equal to half the monster''s level and thus went to level -50.¡± ¡°How do you know so much about the game?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°How do you, an NPC, know so much about the technical aspects of the game?¡± ¡°The 10 ancient gods were programed with all knowledge necessary to, uh, be the ancient gods.¡± ¡°10 ancient gods? You told me there were 8.¡± ¡°Uh, um.¡± Death stammered as he tried to come up with an answer. While Death was trying to come up with an answer another voice came from the doorway, the laughter seemed to break death out of his stammering as he sent a glare at the door. ¡°He¡¯s got you there, Fulor.¡± the voice laughed. ¡°Behold, young Ghost, One of two secretive Ancients.¡± the man said as he performed an exaggerated bow. ¡°Really Thys?¡± Death said the disappointment in his voice very clear. ¡°I know there are very few other gods here, but can you not overdo it with the dramatics? ¡°The theatrics, my dear Fulor, keep everything interesting.¡± ¡°Of course they do.¡± Death muttered. ¡°Why are you even here?¡± ¡°I happened to be passing by an overheard you let slip about the other two.¡± ¡°Passing by my arse.¡± Death said. ¡°Indeed, while I''m here though I might as well tell him about me and Destiny.¡± ¡°Might as well.¡± Death said. ¡°I might paint you in a very bad light if i did it.¡± After giving Death a flat look the new god walked in and sat in the chair at the base of Jessie''s bed. He looked surprisingly young, then again Jessie guessed he could change his appearance, his build wasn''t small, but it also wasn''t too large, his hair grew out not too long, but also not too short, it seemed like everything about his appearance was perfect. ¡°Are you like the god of perfection or something?¡± Jessie asked before the god could say anything. As Death burst out laughing the new god seemed to take the question in stride. ¡°The god of perfection?¡± he said as he acted hurt. ¡°Dear me, no. I am nothing like that absolutely perfect god. No, young ghost, I am Thysonare the Ancient god of fate.¡± he pronounced himself like he was announcing the name of a gladiator entering the arena. Jessie just looked at him in confusion. ¡°Why don''t you have a statue in the courtyard then?¡± ¡°Courtyard?¡± Thysonare asked. ¡°Oh, you mean the one in the divine bazaar?¡± after waiting for Jessie to confirm he continued. ¡°I just don¡¯t want a statue there.¡± ¡°It''s because as the ancient gods of fate and destiny he and the other one want to be as anonymous as possible.¡± Death chimed in. ¡°Fine, Fine I¡¯ll hurry this up you ancient grump.¡± Thysonare said as he looked at death. ¡°It¡¯s as he says, me and Destiny are so sought after that we have tried to make ourselves anonymous, the amount of people wanting us to change their fates or destinies got so out of hand that wars were fought over our temples at one point.¡± ¡°You have temples?¡± Jessie asked. ¡°Had. We both destroyed them to prevent more wars of that sort.¡± ¡°What about the clergy.¡± ¡°Oh, they lived, we just asked them to be wandering priests and priestesses and not to build any temples, shrines are fine, but temples seemed to cause people to wage wars, they seemed to think there are portals that would take them straight to us.¡± ¡°So what do you do then? Just read and watch the threads of fate?¡± ¡°The threads of fate are fickle things. I mainly look for worthy souls for rebirth and inform the many thousands of reincarnation gods and goddesses about them. I do also watch the breach to make sure the abyssal horrors don''t come through again.¡± A quick look between the gods of fate and death led Jessie to drop any questions he might have had concerning the breach. It was a strange sight he thought, sitting in the company of death and fate, anyone else would have been confused but Jessie seemed entirely at ease. ¡°About the wolf pelts.¡± Jessie started but Death interrupted him. ¡°So I may have taken the liberty of interfering directly and reducing their weight to something you could carry.¡± At this the god of fate looked at him sternly. ¡°You what?¡± he asked as he stared Death straight in the eyes. Death seemed to shrink back at the look, when Jessie looked back at the god of Fate he noticed the air shimmering and Thysonare¡¯s head flickering back and forth with speed, when his head stopped moving and the air stilled he spoke. ¡°You are lucky that the threads of fate have not been altered.¡± ¡°What would you have done?¡± Death challenged ¡°I would have cut off your ability to view your blessed.¡± Thysonare looked at Jessie then back to Death. ¡°But I realise that would be stupid, and so I would have done nothing.¡± he let out a small laugh. ¡°But that would have also required me to call the ancient council, and I can''t be bothered to do that. Anyway I shall leave if you have nothing more to ask me.¡± ¡°One last thing.¡± Jessie said. ¡°Was my meeting with the dragon fated or just pure luck?¡± ¡°It was fated.¡± Thysonare said before leaving the room ¡°How long will it take before my soul has reintegrated?¡± Jessie asked after a moments silence ¡°A couple days I would say.¡± Looking at Jessie''s resigned face Death added. ¡°Instead of lying in bed for the next few days, I think you should learn to fight. I do also recognise my incompetence in not giving you a basic skill.¡± as Death said this a notification popped up in front of Jessie ¡®You have learnt the skill Identify¡¯ ¡®Identify: lvl 1 Allows the user to appraise an item or creature to glean information about it Only basic information is shown. If the creature or item is too high levelled only the name will be shown.¡¯ ¡°Huh, thanks.¡± Jessie muttered ¡°Think nothing of it.¡± Death said. ¡°Now, I shall take you to the training grounds and teach you some of the basics. What weapon would you like to learn?¡± ¡°I can learn to basic weapons from people in Alecious, so, why not the scythe.¡± Jessie said as he looked at the scythe Death had left near the door when he entered. Death''s eyes seemed to smile at Jessie as he said this. And before he could blink Jessie found himself standing in an arena holding a scythe similar to the one Death held. ¡°Shall we begin?¡± he asked as Jessie realised he couldn''t feel any of the pain he had when he was lying down. Before he could properly respond to the god, Death leapt at Jessie while swinging the scythe. chapter 9 Jessie dodged backwards as he barely avoided the scythe that was aimed to decapitate him, his landing was unbalanced and as he stumbled backwards he felt a stinging pain run down his chest as Deaths follow up attack embedded the blade of the scythe in the ground. Before being able to counter attack Jessie dodged to the side as Death thrust the scythe forward bringing with it any sand that tried to keep the scythe stuck, regaining his footing Jessie swung his scythe for Deaths legs, only for the god to jump up and land on the blade trapping it under his feet. ¡°My win?¡± He asked as he held the blade of his scythe to Jessie''s throat ¡°The fuck do you think.¡± Jesssie grumbled as he fell onto his back and looked up at the sky, the swirling nebulas and galaxies the crawled across the sky seemed to give him a sense on comfort, he had often looked up to the night sky on his way back from the nightclubs that he was dragged to, but seeing what lay beyond the murk of the city clouds that always seemed to blanket the skies was something he had always wanted. He had been training in the scythe for the past week while his soul reintegrated. The pain had been lessening over the past week and now he could fight against Death without him suppressing the pain, well, get beaten about by a god who wasn''t trying but he did learn a lot about fighting with the scythe, there was an entire fighting style that surrounded the scythe, though it did mainly use magic to extend the range of the blade or send spinning versions of the scythe into hordes of enemies to kill as many as possible. There were a lot more variations to the magical and physical fighting styles of the scythe, but with the limited time Jessie did have, what he assumed to be a divine realm or something, Death just taught him the basics, use the scythe alike it was meant to be used by swiping at the legs and torso like you were harvesting wheat, or use it as a janky axe with a greater need for point control. With a sigh Jessie stood up and returned his scythe to one of the weapons stands that stood around the arena¡¯s edge. As he was heading to see Osioglen to see if he was ready to return to the mortal realms he was joined by Ferindar, Death had vanished after Jessie had replaced his scythe and left Jessie to find his way to Osioglen by himself. ¡°By the way, where do you sit?¡± Jessie asked after a walking in silence for a while ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ferindar asked ¡°Well, where do you sit in the divine hierarchy?¡± ¡°Uh, somewhere.¡± Ferindar said. ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure myself, but I will say probably near top just under ancients but above primordials.¡± ¡°But, that doesn¡¯t explain why you were welcoming people to the bazaar.¡± ¡®Oh, right um.¡± Ferindar paused. ¡°It¡¯s classified?¡± Jessie gave him a blank look as he muttered ¡°Of course it is.¡± there was a moment''s pause as Jessie thought. ¡°Why don¡¯t I have any skills?¡± ¡°Because giving them to you right away would be too easy, therefore you must unlock them yourself.¡± Ferindar said ¡°What are the, thresholds? Needed to unlock new skills?¡± ¡°Not telling.¡± ¡°You enjoy withholding information don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Indeed, I am only holding this conversation because you are considered a friend of Fulor¡¯s.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Jessie hadn¡¯t actually considered that. ¡°I thought he said he didn''t chose that name though¡± ¡°No he didn¡¯t.¡± Ferindar said. ¡°But before he was given the name he didn¡¯t have one of his own and everyone just referred to him as Death, it did get annoying, and while he doesn¡¯t like it it¡¯s the only one he really has. And this is where I must leave you.¡± he finished as they walked up to yet another corridor that branched off the one they were in. After saying goodbye to the god, Jessie walked the halls for a while longer. The roof of the halls curved to a rounded point at least 30 metres off the floor while the walls were lined with the exploits of heroes and gods from many millions of worlds, at least from what Jessie could see it felt like a million worlds, engaging in feats worthy of being commemorated, from battling rouge demons to a war with creatures that seemed to bend Jessie''s mind as he looked at them these paintings and tapestries which were painted and woven with such delicacy and detail that they seemed to almost be windows into a frozen time were placed at regular intervals along all the walls of the halls, in between the paintings and tapestries were statues of gods and heroes who were depicted in the scenes, sculpted in such detail that it looked like they were standing there frozen in time. He finally arrived at the end of the corridor and stood before a massive pair of double doors that spanned the whole wall and was carved with intricate imagery of the creation of the worlds and different races, it seemed to depict a story too complex for Jessie to understand. As he approached the doors they silently swung open of their own volition and revealed a massive portal that led, Jessie guessed, to the realm of creation. Stepping through the portal Jessie found himself in a garden full of golden trees that seemed to radiate a sense of warmth and comfort standing in the middle of the cross walks stood three gods, Creation, Death and Fate, who all looked at Jessie when he entered. ¡°Welcome Ghost.¡± Said Creation as she looked at Jessie with eyes that seemed to pierce right through him. ¡°It seems your soul has reintegrated properly and it is now safe for you to return to the mortal worlds.¡± ¡°Safe? I thought I was only being kept here so you could keep an eye on me.¡± ¡°Well, due to how your soul was taken, it was better to keep you here till it was integrated again.¡± ¡°What would have happened if I just went straight back?¡± ¡°You would have taken a one way ticket to my realm.¡± Death said. ¡°Oh.¡± Jessie had to think that through for a bit simply the way Death had said that made Jessie think that more was going to happen than a simple death. ¡°Enough of this depressing talk, the young ghost is healed and ready to re-embark on his epic adventures.¡± Fate said in his dramatic voice before turning towards Death. ¡°But due to what has happened and what will happen due to your hastily bestowed blessing, we shall each offer one thing to him to assist him on his path.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Death had the nerve to look embarrassed when Fate said this, well, as embarrassed as a skeleton could be. ¡°I offer to you this orb.¡± creation said as she handed Jessie an orb of deep blue with swirls of silver flowing freely through it, as Jessie took the orb that creation offered he used inspect on it to see what it was. ¡°Orb of divinity concealment: ???. Effect: ???" ¡°Uh, what does it do?¡± Jessie asked as he realised he couldn¡¯t get any more information out of his inspect skill other than the name of the item. ¡°The orb of divinity concealment is as it says, it conceals any divinity that you possess, it is mainly used by priests who wish to wander the worlds without being targeted by opposing factions. well , they use lesser ranked ones but they all have the same effect just with varying degrees of effectiveness. The one I have given to you is of the divine rank and will effectively hide your blessing from anyone who might wish to take it from you.¡± ¡°Will it have any side effects on me?¡± ¡°Well, aside from being able to wield divinity without anyone noticing, you will suffer no side effects even if you wish to remove this artefact.¡± ¡°Side effects?¡± ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry about it, it won''t affect you.¡± ¡°Okaaaay.¡± Jessie sounded as though he didn''t truly believe the goddess. He turned towards Fate. ¡°You giving me anything?¡± ¡°Usually people have more respect for the gods.¡± Fate said as he looked at Jessie. ¡°But I do have something for you.¡± Fate withdrew a very plain staff that seemed to be half made from a sull silver wood and the other half from a green alloy. The alloy on the staff had the appearance of a swirling mess of mid to dark greens with a sprinkling of gold haphazardly glinting throughout. ¡°A very fancy broom handle?¡± Jessie asked in a sarcastic tone. ¡°You going to give the the broom head next?¡± ¡°This ¡®broom handle¡¯ as you call it is a morphic weapon.¡± Death and Creation both looked at fate sharply. ¡°Before you complain, it¡¯s scaled to his level.¡± ¡°Okay, but, i wanted to give him a weapon.¡± Death complained ¡°Give him magic or something, I don''t care.¡± Fate said as he looked at the sulking god who seemed to brighten up after that comment. ¡°WAIT! No, within the bounds of not ruining his fate you can give him something.¡± ¡°Damnit.¡± Death said as his plan was ruined. He seemed to think for a while before pulling a bookshelf out of a spatial tear and began looking through it. ¡°Would you like pure destruction, pure creation or a combination of both?¡± Death asked as he pulled more bookshelves out of the tear till he had a literal library surrounding the group. ¡°Uh, a combination of both?¡± Jessie said as he looked at the bookshelf in confusion. The other two gods just shook their heads as they saw the bookshelves. ¡°A combination huh.¡± Death muttered as he started to take many hundreds of books off the shelves and placed them on a large table Jessie hadn''t noticed appearing. After Death had pulled books from the last shelf he began to combine them all into one, the whole process took about an hour, or so it felt to Jessie who had to watch this performance, but when he was done there sat on the table a rather dull looking leather bound book. The only thing on the cover of the book was what it was, curious Jessie used inspect on it. ¡®Spell tome of magic: Divine This tome contains magic spells from many different trees and disciplines of magic Error Error Correcting.¡¯ Jessie just stared at the message as he wondered why the system was giving him an error ¡®Corrected Abyssal grimoire of divine magics: divine The abyssal grimoire of divine magics contains many spells, trees and disciplines of magic known, unknown and lost to time. Due to the unforeseen mutation that has occurred because of the merging of so many different types of magic a trace of abyssal magic has been combined. Once used this grimoire will dissolve to ash and the path of the unknown will be opened to you Soulbound to Ghost¡¯ ¡°Uh, that wasn''t meant to happen.¡± Death said as he stared at the book in shock. The plain leather bound book had transformed slightly and now contained an outline of black leather. ¡°So. you can take the grimoire.¡± Fate said as he looked at the book carefully. ¡°But please refrain from using any of the abyssal spells, especially those related to soul removal.¡± ¡°Yea, I understand that.¡± Jessie said ¡°Can you put your library away now, Fulor.¡± Creation said, she seemed to be getting annoyed. ¡°Yes, yes.¡± death muttered distractedly before returning all but the book and table to his spatial storage. Picking up the book he carefully handed it over to Jessie. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to assist you as much as I would like due to this incident.¡± ¡°Maybe Order could assist?¡± Creation said. ¡°Or Chaos, or Destruction.¡± ¡°The last two might be useful later on.¡± Death said. ¡°But for starting Order is probably the best option.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± said Fate. ¡°but it will have to be after the young ghost here takes more than his first steps on the path for he must start forging it himself.¡± The gods continued this conversation for a little while longer, but ultimately decided to try to get Order to help him once he reached apprentice level spells. ¡°Well, it''s been a pleasure being here.¡± Jessie said. ¡°But i would like to return to the mortal realm.¡± ¡°It is indeed time to return.¡± Fate said. ¡°We will meet again in time, though not under the best of circumstances I fear.¡± Creation and Death both looked at him strangely. ¡°The seal is getting weaker, I¡¯ve already had Ferin dispatch several of Lizels legions to reinforce the forces of the Eternal Flame in case it breaks early.¡± As Jessie looked between the faces of the three gods he suddenly felt very out of place and out of depth. ¡°I feel like this is something I shouldn''t be involved in yet.¡± he said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. ¡°Could one of you open a portal somewhere not the emerald creek?¡± O¡±of course.¡± Creation said as she opened a portal right behind Jessie. ¡°I would advise that you consume the artefact I gave you as soon as possible. oh. and before i forget.¡± Creation handed Jessie a ring. ¡°This is a very basic spatial artefact, the inside of it is only about 1 metre cubed but it contains what you went to the emerald creek from. This portal will take you to the whitewater lake where you will be able to gather the lilies.¡± Jessie thanked the gods and stepped through the portal. It was a weird feeling of weightlessness followed by a sensation that he was going to vomit everywhere, which he very nearly did as he exited the portal on the lake side of a rather large but shallow lake that was filled with thousands of lilies of different colours and sizes. Chapter 10 As beautiful as the lake was, Jessie¡¯s priorities were elsewhere as he quickly logged out and grabbed his phone in a panic. He sighed in relief when he noticed he had only been in the game for several more hours than he usually would have liked. Not bothering to get changed, Jessie simply rolled over and fell asleep, not that he would get much sleep anyway. With a start Jessie awoke as his alarm went off, if that wasn''t bad enough he had left his curtains open slightly and a beam of light landed directly on his face. With a groan of displeasure he rolled out of bed and checked the time and realised he had a lecture to go to at 8, giving him half an hour to get ready and get to uni which was thankfully a 5 minute walk. The main common room was quiet and surprisingly clean, almost as if no one had used it the night before, which was quickly clarified as he saw the small pile of plates in the sink. ¡°Because of course they didn''t clean them.¡± Jessie muttered as he grabbed himself a couple slices of bread from a bag and threw them into the toaster while he went back to his room. Pulling off the clothes in which he had slept the night before, he changed into something more presentable which happened to be a loose pair of black track pants and bluish grey tee shirt that was more blue than grey. Grabbing his bag and making sure his computer was inside, he left his room and flat heading towards uni while munching on the toast he made earlier. Despite the early hour, or because of the early hour, the streets were crowded with people walking to work or going about their business. Many shops lined the streets with holographic signs displaying names and menus. Due to the proximity to the university, stationary and tech shops were the most common, with fast food stores and bars common every 200 metres or so. As he walked down the street, Jessie was reminded that this was one of the nicer districts of the city, and it truly was beautiful. The buildings were simple when viewed from a distance, but the closer one got the more detail you could make out showcasing the complicated methods that went into them. The streets were clean and police patrols were common to keep the peace. The university grounds were massive, covering about 200 square kilometres, and many floors, it could cater to several million students at a time, which was evident by the solid block of students walking through the gates. Joining the mass of students he began the slow walk towards the gates which allowed passage through the large and ornate wall that surrounded the entire campus. As he walked through the gates, Jessie began making his way in the direction of one of the buildings, one that looked like a palace. The university had been designed as a neighbourhood for the richest people in the world, but was turned into the largest and most prestigious university in the world after the second american civil war spilled over and began another world war the end result of which left most of the rich assassinated and the American empire being nuked back to the stone age. It had taken humanity two hundred years to recover from the war and the remaining owners of the buildings in the neighbourhood had decided to set up a university to educate future generations, and store what knowledge had survived the near annihilation of several continents . The start of the day was always the same, and though he was at university, Jessie still had a timetable that he had to follow. And so his first class saw him sitting at the back of the lecture hall, a remodelled theatre in one of the main buildings, listening to a history lecture. As the lecturer droned on about how the third world war had started, and what had led to the american civil war, Jessie occupied himself with random drawings in his notebook, doodles of the great dragon he had seen and hooded skeleton wielding a scythe were the most common doodles, he even had a doodle of the dragon sitting on the skeleton with a smug face. Overall it was a boring morning during which he took a few notes and did more drawings, it wasn''t until lunch when something interesting happened. ¡°YOU BASTARD!¡± The yelling occurred after everyone had left the lecture halls to have lunch. The commotion had started shortly after Jessie had begun to walk through one of the many parks that were situated throughout the campus. A group of people, all popular within the student population, had gathered into two sides while a pair of students stood face to face. ¡°Oh? What about me?¡± a student who was wearing a pair of black riding pants, a black shirt and black leather riding jacket asked as he faced down a student of similar height. ¡°WHAT ABOUT YOU!?¡± the other student, who was dressed more casually in t-shirt and shorts, yelled back. ¡°I SPENT 12 HOURS WORKING ON THAT QUEST, ONLY FOR YOU TO STEAL THE KILL AND SWAGGER AWAY LIKE YOU OWN THE WORLD!.¡± ¡°Ah yes.¡± the boy said with a drawl. ¡°Because a weak fuck like you shouldn¡¯t be allowed first clear of any quests.¡± The group behind the boy burst into laughter as the other guy''s face started to turn red in fury. ¡°The game has only been out for a weekend.¡± a voice came from behind Jessie ¡°Oh, hi Jem.¡± He said as he turned towards the voice. James had been his one constant friend throughout his life, and it had honestly been a coincidence that their parents sent them to the same schools. ¡°I kinda understand.¡± Jessie said as they continued to watch the two boys verbally fight. ¡°Spending 12 hours on a quest only to have the final kill stolen by someone who wasn¡¯t even doing the quest must suck.¡± James said. ¡°But do they really need to fight over it in public?¡± ¡°Possibly a matter of pride.¡± Jessie said. ¡°Let''s get food.¡± As they were walking away in the direction of the cafeteria they both looked back at the arguing pair just in time to see the offended boy throw a punch at the boy in the jacket, the fall out of which caused a brawl to occur between the two groups as the people behind the arguing pair joined in. The cafeteria looked about what one would expect when thinking of a school cafeteria, except on a considerably larger scale due to the size of the student population. As they entered they noticed that the majority of the tables were claimed by students who were chatting about their first experiences in the game and sharing images and videos of their fights and bragging about stats. As they neared the service counter they overheard more conversations, many were talking about how cool the game was, or arguing over the point of playing it. While others were holding arguments of incidents that had happened in the game. Grabbing a tray and some food Jessie made his way to an empty table that sat against an outside wall and was soon joined by James who had grabbed his food as well. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°How''s Dorlundon?¡± Jessie asked after a moment of eating ¡°Imagine coruscant, except it still has oceans.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°Yep, and technomancey is so cool, i¡¯ve been earning experience as a novice technomancer and it''s so interesting how they joined technology and magic into weapons and other items.'''' The excitement in James¡¯s voice made Jessie smile a bit, he had always been interested in the mechanical aspects behind objects, though he was mainly focused on weapons. ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve been having fun.¡± Jessie said a slight amount of bitterness entered his voice. Which did not go missed by James. ¡°Spit it out.¡± James said. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°Well, you heard about the unicorn right?¡± ¡°Yea, you told me over the phone.¡± ¡°Right, well, i took a quest to gather wolf parts, encountered a dragon colony, got a dragon egg, returned with the wolf parts, accepted a simple gathering quest, met a former court wizard, got kidnaped by a dryad matriarch who had me tortured to try gain my blessing, got saved by a couple ancient gods, discovered the game has some insane time dilation, got some divine objects and logged out after being sent back to Alecious.¡± Jessie looked up at James who was just staring at him wide eyed. ¡°You look stunned.¡± jessie added ¡°YA FUCKING THINK!¡± James practically shouted while his voice didn''t travel that far due to the overall noise of the cafeteria, the tables near them all turned to look at them in confusion. James did lower his voice when he noticed this. ¡°You go out on a collection quest for simple materials and return with divine objects.¡± ¡°You forgot the dragon egg.¡± jessie said in a lightly teasing voice ¡°Ah yes, you know Jess, I never thought I would say this, but the dragon egg at this point is an afterthought.¡± James said with clear exasperation. ¡°On another note, what did the gods give you? ¡° ¡°Seriously?¡± Jessie asked, but upon seeing the interests on James¡¯s face he decided to tell him. ¡°Ok, fine. The first one was given to me by a goddess of creation. It basically hides my blessing from anyone below the level of primordial gods. The next came for a god of fate, it''s basically a growth morphic weapon and the last one came from a god of death, it''s a book with an interesting magic path.¡± ¡°And let me guess.¡± James said. ¡°You get divine assistance with the magic path.¡± ¡°Nope, I have to figure it out myself.¡± ¡°Well, there''s something, at least you won''t have absurd, cheat-like abilities off the bat.¡± James paused. ¡°What''s your blessing?¡± ¡°It''s a blessing from a god of death.¡± ¡°So what, it allows you to become a necromancer?¡± ¡°Nope, nothing as interesting unfortunately, i just gain an extra 50% experience from kills.¡± ¡°Okay then.¡± James said with a flat look. ¡°You have some of the best and worst luck I have ever heard of.¡± The two of them continued to chat and eat their lunch for a while longer and just as they were about to leave to go grab some resources from the library, a group of students walked into the cafeteria like they owned the place and kicked a group of newer students off their table ignoring the looks of contempt thrown towards them by other students. The only thought Jessie had as he watched this show of arrogance was that if someone knocked their lights out, they would have deserved it. The rest of the day didn¡¯t involve any arguments about The Stars of Fate between the students, and any conversations that seemed to start getting out of hand were quickly quelled by the lecturers before they could continue. Things started to get interesting when Jessie walked through the door to his dorm and saw his roommates sitting around the Television watching an announcement. Curious, Jessie sat in an empty chair and watched the news anchor stall for time. ¡°Thankyou for hanging in here folks.¡± the news anchor said. ¡°We apologise for interrupting your regular viewing schedule, but this announcement is said to be world shattering.¡± the news anchor paused again. ¡°I shall now hand off to Simon Matthews who is currently live outside the Azure branch company. ¡° ¡°Thank you Kirsty.¡± Simon said. ¡°Due to the record shattering number of first day sales surpassing 100 million copies sold world wide, the CEO of the Azure Branch Company has publicly stated online that he is moving up the scheduled release of a feature, he did not meanton what feature he was talking about, but said he would reveal it at a press conference today.¡± Simon was standing in front of the main gates to the Azure branch company where a podium had been set up. ¡°We have been informed that the company''s CEO, Arthur Pendragon, will be with us shortly.¡± As he said this, the gates began to open allowing a group of people to walk through before closing again. Arthur Pendragon stepped up onto the podium and addressed the crowd. ¡°Thank you for attending.¡± He began. ¡°I know that this is unexpected, it is the same for us. The feature which I will announce was planned to be released when we had 100 million players, which was reached within a day of launch which has led to us moving some plans up.¡± he paused for breath.¡± I am aware of how abrupt and shocking this is. I would like to say that months before the launch of The Stars Of Fate, we were in talks with the CEO¡¯s of banks and banking companies. These talks have only recently finished and the corresponding codes and systems were meant to be released in a few weeks. But the target was hit and contracts are annoying demons. SO, as of this moment.¡± Arthur looked down at his watch.¡± 5:00 pm. In 48 hours time, the servers will go down for 4 hours to allow time for the update to be implemented. Are there any questions?¡± An explosion of noise erupted from the gathered media and news reported, the noise so loud the a few birds were startled from the roof of the buildings surround the Azure companies compound ¡°Ok, quiet please.¡± Arthur said after a moment.¡± The most common question I seem to hear is ¡®what exactly are we implementing¡¯. Fair, I did a bad job at explaining. We will be implementing an exchange system where you can buy or sell coins for real money. While the prices will rise and fall depending on what is bought or sold, prices will start out as 1 copper being about 1 dollar, a silver being about 100 dollars and a gold being about 1000 dollars.¡± another roar of noise came from the reporters before Arthur could continue and he was forced to ask them to quiet down again." The pricing is based on 100 copper to a silver and 100 silver to a gold. We have also taken into account how difficult it currently is to obtain copper and silver for most people and have priced the selling point to offer some payoff for their hard work. When buying coins there will be an additional 5% increase to the cost due to the company requiring a source of income to pay its staff, run the servers and as prize money for competitions that may or may not be coming.¡± There were more questions for another hour and a half as the media tried to get more information out of the CEO, by which point Jessie had already cooked a meal for himself and the rest of his roommates before heading to his room to continue with his gathering quest. Chapter 11 The lake looked as beautiful at night as it did during the day, the soft glow emanating from the lilies that covered the lake giving it a mystical feel. As Jessie looked over it he couldn¡¯t help but notice that only some of the lilies glowed while others didn''t. Walking towards the shore he hoped that the final parts of his quest for some simple materials wouldn¡¯t end in such a catastrophic disaster as earlier. The water was cool to the touch but not as cold as one would have expected from a lake. As he stood in the shallows of the lake, Jessie pulled up his quest screen for the first time in what felt like months. ¡®Gathering herbs 25 moon flower blossoms: 0/25 20 yellow water lilies: 0/20 10 dragon blood roses: 0/10 5 tulips of death: 0/5 5 tulips of life: 0/5 Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the alchemist.¡¯ ¡®Gathering materials 10 1x1 metre squares of green opal: 0/10 5 branches of a green mahogany tree: 0/5 1 pelt of a giant mountain cat: 0/1 Reward: depends on quality and amount returned to the sculptor.¡¯ ¡®Hint. Head to the village library before leaving on these quests.¡¯ ¡®Learning magic: Achieve at least the rank of apprentice mage. Reward: Personal tutoring for the primordial god of order¡¯ ¡®Hint. Mage academies are helpful for mages.¡¯ ¡®The matriarchs madness: Discover the reason the matriarch of the Merrian tribe of Fae tried to steal your soul and the blessing associated with it. Reward: (unknown)¡¯ The two new quests that Jessie now had were related to the slightly traumatising incident that he had suffered not more than a day ago, what intrigued him was that the name of the quest, ¡®the matriarch''s madness.¡¯ implied that something else was going on other than just some deranged near demigod bitch who was looking for more power. The other quest had to be related to the spell book that he had been given by Death. Looking at both of them Jessie knew he would leave the one about the matriarch for later, when he had the strength the be able to back himself up when he inevitably went looking for the answers. Maybe, maybe after he completes his current gathering quests he would head for the capital to try gain access to a mages academy. Well, he had to finish his gathering quests first, and with that though Jessie closed his quest menu and began slowly walking towards the nearest patch of softly glowing yellow water lilies. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The water was surprisingly shallow out to where the lilies were located, only reaching half way up to his knees. Slowly pushing aside the lilies of blue and purple as he waded over the the nearest patch of softly glowing yellow lilies, stopping in front of the patch Jessie decided to have a look into the spacial ring he had been given to see if the gods had been kind enough to provide a tool for him to harvest the lilies, seeing as he no longer owned anything with which he had left the village with. To his disappointment there were only the 10 cubes of green opal and the 5 branches of green mahogany, along with the spell book which he was intended to use once he got to the capital, and the morphic weapon in its staff form but no tool that would help him harvest the lilies. ¡°I¡¯m a fucking idiot.¡± Jessie muttered to himself a moment later before pulling out his morphic weapon. The staff, made half from a swirling mass of greens and gold and half from a silver wood, stood about as tall as Jessie, around 6 ''4". Jessie stared at it he wondered how he might be able to change its form before deciding to just see what happened if he willed it into a new shape, surprisingly that turned out to be the correct way to transform the weapon and he ended up standing in front of a lilly patch with a perfectly balanced sickle that seemed to weigh less then the staff he started out with, because of course magic bullshittery existed. After taking a look at the quest, Jessie momentarily thought about what he should do. The quest simply asked for 20 yellow water lilies, seeing as the request came from an alchemist, Jessie was sure that she wanted the mana infused ones that glowed softly, but whether she wanted to leave, or the flowers, or the whole plant, Jessie had no clue. Out of curiosity Jessie decided to identify the special ring he was given. ¡°Spatial ring, uncommon This ring has an internal space that can be used to store any item as long as it fits within the confines of the space within. The uncommon variety, as well as all others above this grade, contains a stasis effect, this effect will freeze whatever is placed inside in time. Restrictions: no living creatures may be stored within any spatial ring.¡¯ Well, at least it contained a stasis effect, and with the amount of space still free within it, Jessie was confident with his plan, as so, after transforming his sickle into a shovel, he began gently uprooting the yellow lilies and storing the whole plant inside his spatial ring. The funniest part about this whole process, was that Jessie was literally uprooting large water lilies, but the fact that it still counted towards the overall goal. It didn''t even take him an hour to extract and store the 20 yellow water lilies that he needed, though he was currently running low on space in his spatial ring. After harvesting the lilies, Jessie made his way out of the lake before turning his shovel back into the staff which was the default form his weapon had taken. It took him a moment to orient himself for the next location, the grand and imposing outline of the dead peaks which was barely visible by the light of the full moon. It wasn''t actually that far away, relatively speaking. It looked close enough that he felt he could reach out and touch it, yet he knew that he would undoubtedly have a several hour walk, and with his stats now actually being at 1 and without the help of Fulor to keep the creatures at bay, jessie knew it would not be an easy trip. Jessie stumbled upon a small clearing about an hour after departing from the lake, just a small clearing with a random sundial looking rock about the size of a small van sitting in the middle. The cleaing would have been utterly unremarkable during the day, other than the rock of course. But during the night, Jessie found the clearing mesmerising, thousands of flowers bloomed throughout, all glowing a bright white with an undertone of purple. Casting a quick identify on them told Jessie that they were moon flowers. He remembered there was a note in the book he had read before leaving the village about the potency of moon flowers under what moon they were picked, with the full moon being the second most potent, after a blue moon. With these flowers blooming under a full moon Jessie decided to take advantage of it and pick more than the 25 he needed for the quest, he picked a total of 100 moon blossoms and would have kept going if not for the fact he needed the space to store the other plants he was going to get from the dead peaks. At least he knew where the rest of the plants were located. Now he just needed to find them. It couldn¡¯t be that hard, could it? Chapter 12 Oh how wrong he had been. It had taken him much longer than he had thought to get to the mountain. To Jessie''s great irritation it had taken him three days as the crow flew just to reach the base of the dead peaks. The only issue is that he only had time to play between 10pm and 7:30am, between dealing with his roommate and Uni it had taken him a full week to get to the base of the mountain. Of Course there was also the major banking update that had occurred on the wednesday, which had delayed him as he had fallen asleep and forgotten to log in. Overall it had been a boring week in which he attended university during the day, and wandered towards a giant mountain during the night. It wasn''t all that bad if he thought about it, at least he wasn¡¯t attacked by anything, which did kind of confuse him, but he chalked it down to either the soldiers of this region being very thorough in their patrols, or the work of some meddling god who kept trying to test how much he could interfere in mortal affairs before he was scolded like a child. The base of the mountain rose in a gentle slope for several kilometres before gradually rising to a point that seemed to slice through the clouds and stretched for as far as Jessie could see. It truly was a shame the game didn''t come with a blasted mini map, but the only thing he could rely on was common sense. The main two places Jessie intended to look were the plains of sorrow and the highest peak he could find, which just so happened to be the peak up ahead of him. Deciding that taking a route to the highest peak of the dead peaks would be the best bet, Jessie began his arduous climb, the first part wasn''t that hard, just climb till you reach the first peak and hope that the mountainous terrain held a gentle slope to the start of the next one instead of a sharp descent. It wasn''t to be sadly, as jessie soon figured out after cresting the first peak, it was also the first time it dawned on him why it might be called the dead peaks, there were no nice flat plains, well maybe apart from the fabled plains of sorrow, only jagged ups and downs that it seemed stretched from the human controlled star dragons grave to the orc controlled plains of the northern tribes. Jessie''s main thought at that moment was not reading into the distance measurements more. ***** ¡°Are you going to get your robe back at anypoint?¡± Death asked of Fate. They were currently sitting at one end of a table that spanned a ballroom larger than most planets were wide. The roof of the ballroom seemed to disappear into the darkness above, almost as though a very fluffy cloud had passed over and removed it exposing the room to the open sky of space, even the massive stained glass windows at the end of the hall seemed to have been sliced off at the top. ¡°While a mortal having this many divine items on him without being the head of a grand clergy or powerful empire, nothing bad should come of it if he can keep his mouth shut about where he got his clothes, although I may change the colours of the robes. The multicoloured look is definitely too distinctive.¡± ¡°Why not let him choose the colour of the stars and threads?¡± ¡°That''s actually a great idea, I wonder what colour he will end up choosing?¡± ¡°Black clearly.¡± ¡°But that would look terrible with the silver base.¡± ¡°Then change the base.¡± ¡°True, the silver doesn''t suit him well. But I still don''t see him choo¡­¡± Fate broke off what he was going to say when a fist slammed down onto the table between the two gods. The person withdrew their scaled hand once they had the gods'' attention. ¡°Ah, Magnus, it¡¯s good to see you again.¡± Death said with a slight cheer in his voice. ¡°Is there a reason you look like this today?¡± Fates asked as he gestured at Magnus. scales of shimmering purple and gold covered his body and horns of pure gold sprouting from his head, magnus stood at about 12 feet tall, towering over the gods who were seated at the table, dwarfing them in both height and width as wings of black 12 feet from each shoulder blade sat partially extended behind his back. In this partially transformed state Magnus would have been one of the most handsome men at any event, apart from his eyes which radiated such intense malice that it made even the two ancient gods in front of him shiver in fear. ¡°I gave to the young ghost an item.¡± Magnus said, his voice low and dangerous. ¡°An item I am sure you wouldn¡¯t have let fall into the hands of a bitch who tried to forcefully steal something that belongs to you.¡± ¡°It was just some dragon egg.¡± Death said ¡°Fulor, watch what you say.¡± Fate said as the look in Magnus¡¯s eyes went from intense malice to a look that was colder than an asteroid in deep space. ¡°I don¡¯t see what the big issue is, it¡¯s just a dragon egg. Granted one given by you to a mortal, one i personally like, but i don''t think that''s why you gave¡­¡± he didn¡¯t get the chance to finish as he was sent flying through the air to crash into the wall at the far end of the table, a rather impressive punch considering the width of the ballroom. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°How is it.¡± Magnus said as death appeared in the seat he had just vacated, massaging his jaw where he had been hit. ¡°That you can be as caring as a grandfather one moment, and as arrogant as some of these human emperors of the allied imperium?¡± ¡°I, uh.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care right now. What I want to know is whether or not that bitch has the egg, or if I need to wipe out a Fae clan in its entirely to retrieve it?¡± The anger and volume of Magnus¡¯ voice was enough to practically kill any mortal unlucky enough to be within several miles of him, though thankfully the two gods and dragon were currently alone. ¡°The egg is not with the Matriarch.¡± Fate said in a calm voice. ¡°SO THEN WHY IS IT NOT IN THE YOUNG GHOSTS POSSESSION!?¡± ¡°Because we figured it was best he not be blundering around the wild with a dragon egg on him. NO Fulor, you do not get to speak." The last part was snapped at Death when he tried to say something. ¡°That doesn¡¯t tell me WHERE IT IS!¡± ¡°We gave it to an acquaintance till he got back from his journey. What''s so important about the egg anyways?¡± ¡°And you call yourselves ancient gods, if you can''t tell what''s so important about that egg, you don¡¯t deserve to know till the same time as everyone else.¡± and with those words Magnus turned and strode out of the ballroom, well, he turned and walked a few steps before teleporting away leaving the two gods sitting at the table in a sort of stunned silence. *** The view from the tallest summit of the dead peaks was breathtaking, both literally and figuratively. The walk up the final slopes had all but exhausted Jessie to the point he could barely raise his head from the snow of the small plain that lay there. But the view of the surrounding landscape was beautiful and terrifying. It had taken him another two weeks to climb to this point, and he was glad he didn¡¯t have to worry about a decline in the oxygen levels, that or the oxygen thinned out much, much higher than the summit. To the north of him Jessie could see all the way out into the plains of the northern tribes, almost completely flat with very few forests, they were there and Jessie was sure they were massive, but from where he was they looked only as small as a small copse you might find in a city park.to the east was nothing but more mountain ranges with jagged peaks and precarious ledges and drops, while to the west, along with all the peaks and drops, Jessie could make out where the mountains actually dropped down to form the mountain pass that was one of the few know safe passage ways through the dead peaks as a whole. He himself was more than a little surprised he hadn¡¯t slipped and fallen to his death yet, and he wasn¡¯t planning on doing so at any point. To the south where he had just climbed from was the more interesting side. Hundreds of kilometres of forests, rivers, lakes and, in the very far distance, oceans. What Jessie liked most about the view towards the more civilised and homely lands of the south was that he could actually see some of the cities, granted only the few that were close by, but he could still see cities. From the sizes he guessed that some of them were newly established, partially due to the insane amount of trees being felled that he could see even from as high up as the tallest summit. The largest city he could see, in which he could just barely make out the vague outline of a couple of tall buildings peaking above the trees in the far distance, he guessed belonged to either the count of this region, because the Star Dragons Grave was supposed to cover a very large territory, so large that maps of the region tended to only have the major cities inked in as small, labelled dots surrounded by vast stretches of forested region. That or it was all a myth and what he was actually seeing was the capital of this empire. After finally regaining his breath Jessie went to look around the plateau that he found himself on. It wasn''t that large, only big enough to fit about 10 large dragons comfortably. All around the plateau Jessie could see thousands of flowers of either a fiery crimson or an electric blue. Jessie bent down and picked one of the crimson red flowers, bringing it up to his face and using identify on it. "Crimson dragon blood rose, Rare. potent Crimson dragon blood roses have a high affinity with strength, vitality and fire. They can be used in all sorts of potions and meals to help increase strength, resist fire and heat as well as creating health potions.¡¯ Aside from the description which was basically the same as what was written in the book he had read, Jessie learnt that they were actually called crimson dragon blood roses instead of red dragon blood roses, also they also had an affinity for vitality, which he guessed was accurate considering the main theory being that these flowers grew where dragon blood had been spilt. Jessie glanced at his quest again and realised he didnt know which roses the client wanted him to pick up. Jessie simply decided that he would pick a few of each colour before heading off in search of the final two plants he needed to finish the quest. When Jessie reached the centre of the plateau after picking 100 dragon blood roses of each colour he noticed a group of flowers that seemed to radiate a feeling like his body was being restored. The blossoms of the flower were such a pure white that they not only blended in almost perfectly to the snow covered mountain, but when Jessie noticed them they hurt his eyes just looking. He did manage to get an identify off before he had to avert his eyes for the third time. ¡®Tulip of life, epic, potent¡¯ The tulip of life grows where great sources of vitality gather, they are commonly found where dragons have rested for long periods of time.¡¯ The part about them being found where great sources of vitality gather led Jessie to wonder if the dragon blood roses on this mountain naturally had an affinity with vitality or if they were influenced by the tulips of life that were growing in the centre of the plateau. But he wasn''t here for research and after picking the necessary amount of tulips he walked the the edge of the plateau and began circling it, looking for any hint as to where he might find the plains of sorrow that were said to reside within these mountains. However before he could even get halfway around he froze as something heavy hit the ground behind him. Chapter 13 Jessie stumbled forwards as something large and heavy landed on the plateau, the force of the impact nearly sending him tumbling down the sheer cliff face that he was walking along. After regaining his balance and glancing down at what could have been his death, Jessie looked around to find out what had slammed into the plateau. The large form of a blue dragon seemed to distort as it slowly got smaller before stopping, in its place lay what seemed to be a child with an average build and electric blue hair and matching eyes. As Jessie got closer though he noticed that the child, a boy, was lying in a pool of red that was slowly spreading from a large wound in the centre of his torso. The amount of blood that had clearly already flowed from the boys body made Jessie pause in shock, more so when he realised that the boy was barely hanging onto consciousness and through his rather shocked and hazy thoughts, Jessie crouched down beside the boy, vaguely realising that both the boy was naked and that his robes, which he also vaguely realised he had taken from Fate, were being soaked in the boys blood. ¡°I have no right to ask.¡± Jessie muttered as he clasped his hand together. ¡°But to any god listening, please offer assistance in saving this boy''s life, I have nothing to compensate you with, but I can''t just do nothing, so please, anyone, I beg of you to offer assistance.¡± Jessie didn''t have much hope in any divine help coming to assist him in saving the boys life, so once he had sent up his prayer he began furiously trying to think up a way to save the boys life, but the only thing he could think of was to try and either get the boy to drink the sap if a tulip of life, or drip the sap directly onto the wound. Jessie pulled one of the tulips he had picked mere minutes earlier out of his storage ring, but paused as he looked at it, he didn''t know if the sap would cause a vitality overload and kill the boy. ¡°It¡¯s actually not a terrible idea.¡± a gruff voice from behind his made Jessie spin around, slipping and falling into the blood. Two people stood behind him, one he recognised as the Ancient goddess of creation, though the feeling of power she gave off was severely muted compared to how it had been when he first met her. The other, a gruff looking man who matched the voice almost perfectly, Stood to her right as he gazed down, not at Jessie, but at the child who was lying behind him. ¡°You didn''t need to pause time,¡± the gruff man said as he turned to Osioglen. ¡°I could just heal him up and be gone.¡± ¡°This is not a part of your domain.¡± Osioglen said as she looked at the man. ¡°Interfering here would lead to major issues with the gods of this world.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem to be an issue with Fulor.¡± the man muttered ¡°And he will offer compensation of a suitable amount to the gods of this world for that.¡± ¡°I guess you¡¯re right, anyway.¡± The man turned to jessie. ¡°You were correct about using the sap from that flower, however, you may want to consider adding the sap of one of these blue ones.¡± At the confused look on jesse''s face the man sighed and continued ¡°He¡¯s lost a lot of strength plus, due to his nature, if you gave him the sap of one of the red flowers you would most likely kill him, even with the sap of the tulip.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± was all Jessie said before he lost himself in thought. If he was to pour the sap of the two flowers onto the wound, he would need some way of combining them together, while he was thinking of ways to do this, his eyes landed on his morphic weapon, discarded to one side when he started to pray for help, Jessie picked it up and, after using a lot more willpower than he thought he would have, managed to turn the staff into what looked like a mortar and pestle, except about four times as large. Thinking about how large the wound was and how much blood the boy had already lost, Jessie decided to add two tulips of life and four blue dragon blood roses to the mortar before crushing them into was amounted to a paste when he turned back to the boy, he noticed that time had resumed and hurriedly began to pour the sap mixture over the outside edge of the wound. To Jessie''s surprise the wound began to heal almost as soon as the sap touched it, the skin beginning to close the wound at a rate that was very visible to the eye and in about 30 seconds the life threatening wound that had plagued the child was closed. Letting out a sigh Jessie glanced into the mortar to see if there was any more of the sap left, seeing that there wasn¡¯t Jessie placed the pestle back into the mortar and with an effort of will turned it back into a staff. ¡°So Anything ¡­ else?¡± As Jessie turned around to confront the gods that had appeared earlier he found that neither of them were there, even the location where they had been standing bore no signs of having been walked on. **** Sekairoshin didn¡¯t know much about the outside world other than what his mother had told him. What she had told him painted the picture that their species was the pinnacle of life, the greatest among the ancient beasts whose bloodlines spanned aeons. He could remember the times when he and his clutch would lie outside and listen to their mother tell them stories of their kin, passed down through something called the dragon dream, there were two main types of stories that sekairoshin felt drawn to, the stories of dragons who were benevolent and assisted different races in their times of struggle and the stories of dragons were like living catastrophes killing where they went and leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. However those days of stories and peace had to end, and on the sixteenth year of their hatching Sekairoshin and his clutch were taught their final lesson, they were taught how to shift, and a week later their mother didn¡¯t return to the nest, oh they waited, but eventually days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. It had been a month since their mother last returned to their nest when the young dragons started to leave the nest and slowly, over the course of two years all thirteen of Sekairoshins clutch mates left the nest with arrogance and grand ambitions. Sekairoshins was filled with the ambitions of a dragon, most of which had been imparted by his mother during her stories, however he understood the importance of being able to blend in with other races if he needed to escape from hunters who might be scouring the lands for dragons the hunt or tame and he didn''t intend to become a mount or a pile of scales. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! The day started with Sekairoshin making some final preparations to leave his nest, mainly this focused on him shifting into human form and back, while trying to see how many of his draconic features he could keep before his true nature became obvious. He had just transformed back into draconic form when a loud horn sounded, echoing around the mountain where his nest was located, what really concerned him the most though wasn¡¯t the horn itself, it was the massive amount of mana that was being drawn to a several points outside the cave the entrance of which was being flooded with small green skinned creatures, there seemed to be some larger than others with darker skin and different coloured coverings but it was clear that they were there for him, and likely not to capture him if the amount of mana being gathered was anything to go off. Sekairoshin decided on two courses of action and with a quick breath in, he covered the entrance of the cave in fire, at first there wasn¡¯t a reaction and he thought that maybe he had been imagining things, however a moment later screams of pain emanate from the fire and smoke that had completely engulfed the cave entrance, a moment later however Sekaroshin felt a spell being cast and the screams of pain, as well as the fire and smoke faded away leaving only the blackened bodies lying in front of a shield wall. Sekairoshin knew that he would not be able to survive this fight no matter what he did, and so he did what he assumed no dragon would consider doing, though to be fair he had been intending to do so for several months now, he left the nest. It wasn''t as simple as that, but his panicked mind still managed to understand that a massive amount of fire in ones face, or a shield in front of them, would obscure the vision of his attackers and so, when he sent out another wave of dragon fire he shot forward and over the heads of the attackers who were trying to keep him in the cave. As he flew over their heads he caught shouts in a language he didn''t know, but he guessed they were either curses or hasty orders. It was only when he shot out of the cave that he noticed the large amounts of robed figures who were standing in groups of about 20. It was clear where all the mana was gathering at least. Sekairoshin made a split second decision and immediately began flying towards the large mountain range that seemed to separate the land in half. While flying away from the robed groups Sekairoshin felt a massive release of mana and felt it all fly towards him faster than he was, the next thing he felt was a searing pain in his stomach and a massive increase in speed as the force of the magic attack sent him flying towards the mountain range. As Sekairoshin managed to regain some semblance of control over his flight, he began to faintly feel a strong concentration of life force, he could also feel his own slowly ebbing away the longer he remained airborne and so he painfully turned in that direction. Strangely, the closer he got to the source of life the more powerful a sense he got that there was something else there, a presence that felt draconic. However before he could dwell on the fact he felt the impact of the snow covered peak shudder through his body as he collided with the top of the mountain, Sekairoshin realised that his dragon form was too large to grab what he could now tell were flowers that had been emoting the life force and so, as his vision faded, he began to shift into human form, hopefully in time pick and eat some of the flowers. *** Jessie sat on the edge of the cliff looking out over the Star dragon region, the sun was beginning to set and it¡¯s rays were sliced in half by the mountain range to his left covering the area that he could see in a strange half sunset effect that was beautiful to look at. He had been lost staring at the effect for what felt like hours before he decided to get up and check on the boy. In the dimming light Jessie found that the boy was still in the same position he had left him and was breathing steadily. Jessie checked to see if the boys temperature was dropping but it seemed the coat he had slipped the boy into seemed to be doing a good job at keeping him warm. Seeing that there was nothing Jessie could do till the boy woke up he decided to move a bit away and figure out if he could adjust the colour and pattern of the robes he was wearing while he waited for the boy to wake up, mainly because it didn¡¯t sit well with him to just leave the boy alone at the highest peak of a near impassable mountain range but also because he really needed someone with even the vaguest amount of information about the dead peaks and any clues they might have as to the location of the plains of sorrow. Jessie spent about an hour trying to change the robe. His main thought being that because he had ¡®borrowed¡¯ it from Fate and that it was a divine object, like the rest of his clothes, that he could somehow change it if he tried hard enough, but after getting nowhere he decided to log off for a while after checking on the boy, after seeing that he was still sleeping Jessie moved away and sat down to log off. After removing his headset Jessie looked at the clock next to his bed and realised it was about 12:00 pm. Getting up he made his way to the kitchen before remembering someone needed to restock the pantry, and after a quick check through the rooms of his roommates to confirm that none of them were awake yet, Jessie decided to head down to the nearest supermarket to stock up on enough food to last at least the week. The streets outside were bustling with people going about their day. The streets were more full than usual as people enjoyed their weekend. As Jessie walked to the nearest supermarket, which was a couple of blocks away, he noticed a rise in people muttering about the game compared to the week before when he went on a food run. The trip to the supermarket was uneventful and Jessie got his shopping done without too much trouble, it was on his way back that Jessie encountered something interesting. He had decided to take a short cut through a small public garden that would cut out a block of walking when he saw a group of people gathered in a circle. As he got closer he noticed that there seemed to be two halfs with a person in front of each who seemed to be arguing. From what Jessie picked up both parties seemed to belong to two different guilds and were arguing over a levelling spot and who it should belong to. Hearing nothing interesting after one of the players mentioned the name of the planet they were one, not the one he was on, Jessie walked back to his apartment, loaded the food into the pantry and fridge before putting the headset back on. chapter 14 The first thing Sekairoshin felt as he slowly regained his senses was the dull ache around the centre of his torso. At first his thoughts were foggy and muddled but as the moments stretched on his thoughts became clearer and he recalled the day before when an army had tried to kill him. His eyes shot open in a panic and his hands shot towards where the bolt of curse magic had shot through him, feeling around where the wound was, he felt a soft fabric and, upon glancing down, noticed he was wearing a robe of black that was dotted very generously with purple stars that almost seemed to blink in and out of existence. Sekairoshin glanced around the location he had woken up in. He had vague memories of crashing onto the peak and turning human but beyond the dim images he had seen as his vision darkened, now he could see that the peak was covered in blue and red flowers but none of that explained how he had survived what he considered a mortal wound, that was until his eyes landed on the human who was sitting on the edge of the plateau watching the sun rise. Sekairoshin watched him as he sat quietly, a staff lying next to him as the rays of the sun climbed into the sky, it was only when some pollen from one of the flowers caused him to sneeze that the human turned around with a look of surprise on his face. The human grabbed his staff and slowly stood up before walking over to him. ¡°Beautiful isn¡¯t it.¡± The human said as he looked back towards the sunrise. Sekairoshin had to admit that watching the sun rise for this height was somewhat beautiful, but all he managed to get out was ¡°W-who are you?¡± ¡°Oh, right, introductions.¡± The human thought for a bit. ¡°I am known as Ghost, I am human, and I¡¯m currently looking for a location to finish a quest.¡± ¡°A quest?¡± Sekairoshin asked sounding sceptical ¡°Yep, but I won¡¯t tell you anything till you introduce yourself.¡± ¡°Uh, um.¡± Sekairoshin was confused. Mainly due to the fact the first human he had talked to seemed genuinely friendly, unlike those who had hunted him, and also because he knew he should be dead, and yet somehow he was alive. Something that also made him wary of the human named Ghost was that his mother had told him and his clutch was that humans often had ulterior motives when dealing with those more powerful than them. ¡°How about we start with your name then.¡± Ghost said as he sat on the snow a few feet in front him ¡°Uh, Sekairoshin,¡± ¡°Sekairoshin huh, could I call you Kairo instead?¡± ¡°S-sure.¡± Ghost sighed slightly. ¡°Ask your questions, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to get anything else out of you.¡± Sekairoshin started at the human for a bit as he tried to get his head around what was happening. First he thought he had died, then he though the human was going to demand something of him, and now he was simply letting him ask questions. ¡°O-ok, um, w-what is it you want?¡± He finally settled on ¡°I want many things, but you¡¯ll have to be more specific.¡± Ghost said ¡°Uh, what is it you want in, um, this place?¡± ¡°In this place? The flowers.¡± ¡°Flowers?¡± Sekairoshin asked confused ¡°Yes.¡± Ghost reached around to grab something but upon seeing nothing there he sighed and turned back. ¡°Well, from what I remember, the red blossoms are good for potions related to fire, the blue ones to strength and the white ones to healing.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°That¡¯s all I can remember unfortunately, I¡¯ve had a few rather intense weeks.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± sekairoshin paused. ¡°U-m, do, do you want your robe back?¡± ¡°What? No No no, keep it on.¡± Ghost seemed concerned about that question. ¡°It¡¯s not even mine anyway, and I doubt the bastard it belonged to will miss it.¡± ¡°You stole it?¡± Sekairoshins eyes went wide as he looked at the human ¡°No, of course not, I just, borrowed it with no return date.¡± Ghost cocked his head slightly to the side. ¡°Besides, why are you concerned about me stealing, don¡¯t dragons have to steal to grow their hoards?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not entirely wrong.¡± Sekairoshin muttered. ¡°But, but, often our hoards are grown from tributes gone to us.¡± There was a lull in the conversation as both fell into a sort of comfortable but also contemplative silence. ¡°Kairo?¡± Ghost asked after a while ¡°Yea?¡± ¡°Do you know of any subspace distortions within these mountains?¡± ¡°What¡¯s a subspace distortion?¡± ¡°Oh, um, a special disruption, or some sort of place where reality seems to have shifted? I think the place is also meant to be filled with death.¡± Sekairoshins eyes opened wide ¡°I know the place.¡± He said with fear entering his voice. ¡°Why do you want to go there? Even the greatest of our kind never enter for fear of the miasma that covers the place.¡± Ghost narrowed his eyes. ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°W-why?¡± Sekairoshin stuttered ¡°Because your actions seem like those of someone who has been sheltered from civilisation, but you possess Knowledge beyond what your appearance suggests.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit of a rude way to tell me your reasoning,¡± sekairoshin muttered. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, that, happens from time to time.¡± Jessie said There was a pause before sekairoshin muttered. ¡°I¡¯m 19.¡± ¡°Huh¡± was all Ghost said before he fell back into silence. But was broken slightly later by sekairoshin ¡°Why can I feel a draconic presence from you?¡± But the only response he got was more silence and a pained look that flashed across Ghosts face for a moment. It was a bit later that Ghost finally spoke up. ¡°Do you think you could take me to the special distribution?¡± ¡°Why would I do that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, you don¡¯t really have an obligation to help me, you could just fly off to the south.¡± Ghost paused. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to take me could you at least point me in the direction?¡± ¡°I owe you my life, but.¡± After a long pause sekairoshin continued. ¡°If I take you there will you teach me the ways of the people who live beyond the mountains?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not much of a teacher, but, I can try my best.¡± *** It took about an hour of flying east for Jessie and his new acquaintance to arrive in the area of the spatial distortion. The foreboding feeling that Jessie felt as they started to approach the area soon turned into a feeling that death was right around the corner, and it continued to grow in intensity eventually getting to the point that Kairo could fly straight and had to land, leaving Jessie to continue on foot. Kairo refused to follow instead the blue dragon, who was about 25 metres long, decided to curl up and wait for Jessie to return. The first look jessie got of the spatial distortion was a massive crack that loomed up over the peak in front of him, the higher up the peak the larger the crack became and the more he saw till he was standing on top of the peak looking down and a basin. The basin seemed to be covered in nothing but black grass and snow, dead trees littered the landscape and thousands of suits of rusty armour and skeletal corpses dotted the area, but what drew the eye the most was the massive fracture in reality, that looked like a mirror had been smashed, through the fracture Jessie could see a landscape of death, skeletal creatures large and small wandered aimlessly and piles of rusty armour could be seen lying strew everywhere. The sky beyond the fracture was a crimson red casting an eerie glow over the remnants of the battlefield. Jessie¡¯s gaze returned to the basin as he noticed bunches of black flowers dotted the landscape, their many different forms indicating that there was more than one type of flower. As he continued to scan the basin he noticed several patches of flowers that seemed to look like the exact opposite of the tulips of life he had harvested before his encounter with Kairo. As he approached the edges of the black grass Jessie bent down to run his hand over it, the moment his bare fingers came into contact with the grass they began to tingle and the colour in them began to fade, quickly pulling his hand away and watching the colour return Jessie tentatively placed his foot on the grass, but the expected tingle didn¡¯t come and it seemed that the shoes he was wearing which, like the rest of his current clothes, were divine ranked, because what else would you expect to find in a place where gods lived, blocked the effects of the miasm. Carefully, so as not to either accidentally touch the plant life with his bare skin or wake what he assumed was an army of undead skeletons that seemed intent at the moment, Jessie began to walk towards the first group of flowers that resemble the tulips of life. Upon inspecting the first group Jessie was kind of disappointed. ¡®Flower of undeath.¡¯ ¡®Tulip of death.¡¯ Of the 7 flowers in the group only one of them was a tulip of death, the rest a flower of undeath and it seemed like the system wasn¡¯t interested in giving him a description of either of them, a precaution Jessie thought was probably a wise idea. After letting the sleeve of his robe, one he had not borrowed but stolen from Fate, Jessie picked and stored all 7 of the flowers, 6 of undeath and one of death. The pattern Jessie noticed after picking his third patch of 7 flowers was that a tulip of death, which he assumed was a weak potency due to it being on the outermost outskirts of the plains of sorrow, was that for every group of 6 flowers of undeath, 1 tulip of death would be present, unfortunately by the time Keesie had picked the fifth and final tulip of death, he realise he had travelled about half way towards the fracture.turning around Jessie began to walk back towards where he had parted for Kairo, however he was about 500 metres from the lip of the basin when his foot landed on a dagger that had been hidden in the black snow, as he stood on it his foot slipped and Jessie stumbled sending the dagger flying backwards, bouncing off a few suits of armour on its way towards the bottom. As he followed the path of the dagger as it bounced off more armour he nearly missed the clank of metal coming from his left, jerking his head around he noticed one of the suits staggering to their feet and heading in his direction, swinging his staff toward its head Nesise knocked it down towards the bottom of the basin before turning around and sprinting up toward the top with the sound of more skeletal warriors rising from their slumber behind him. He tried to avoid any skeletons in front of him, but any he couldn¡¯t he tried to knock back into the basin, unfortunately with the way he was positioned and his panic of getting out of the basin he didn¡¯t always manage it on his first swing, and by the time he had gotten to the top of the peak he had originally looked down at the basin from, he was covered in minor wounds that weren¡¯t fatal but still hurt, a glance behind him showed that his mistake is slipping on the dagger had woken thousands of skeletons who were all stumbling towards him. Turning back around he sprinted as fast as he could back towards the dragon, shouting when he was within hearing range. ¡°KAIRO, GET READY TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!¡± Jessie wasn¡¯t well versed in reading the expressions of dragons, but what he assumed was a look of confusion passed over Kairo''s draconic face which turned to horror as the first of the skeletons passed the peak behind Jessie was somewhat comical to look at. When Jessie was close enough he jumped and grabbed one of the horns on Kairos head before somehow swinging himself onto the back of Kairos neck. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO!?¡± Kairo roared at Jessie as he beat his massive wings and rose into the sky ¡°HOLD ON!¡± As Kairo banked hard left and began to fly back the way they had come, Jessie managed to get a good look at the massive army of skeletons that had been pursuing him, they all seemed to be looking up at him and Kairo for a moment before they all turned and headed back to the basin. A sudden burst of speed knocked Jessie to the base of Kairos neck before he managed to get a firm hold on one of his scales. When he next looked up he saw Kairo leering back at him. ¡°You didn¡¯t answer.¡± He grumbled, his voice rumbling throughout his whole body. ¡°What did you do?¡± Jessie looked away from Kairos eye in embarrassment before muttering ¡°I slipped.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t hear you.¡± ¡°I slipped.¡± Jessie muttered a bit louder ¡°Once more please, I think my hearing is off.¡± ¡°I SLIPPED ON A DAGGER OKAY.¡± ¡°You slipped on a dagger after almost making a perfect stealth run into an area full of undead?¡± ¡°YES! NOW SHUT UP AND FLY.¡± The burst of laughter that Kairo had been trying to hold in finally slipped free and for the next few minutes all Jessie could hear was the rumbling laugh of a dragon. It was about midday why the two of them returned to the peak where Kairo had newly died of his wounds. After Jessie had thrown the black robe for Death to the now human Kairo he walked to the southern side of the plateau to try and locate the village where he so desperately wanted to return to. After a while of staring out at the empire of the Star Dragons Rest, Kairo joined him on the edge of the plateau. ¡°Looking for something?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve gotten more comfortable talking to me.¡± Jessie said as he glanced sideways at him, before a slight sigh left his mouth. ¡°There should be a village near this mountain range.¡± ¡°That one?¡± Kairo asked as he pointed to a small dot that appeared in the forest. ¡°Likely.¡± Jessie said as he looked in the direction Kairo had pointed. ¡°Do dragons have enhanced eyesight?¡± ¡°Compared to humans, yes, shall we fly there?¡± ¡°No, that would cause an unwanted commotion, just fly to the base of the mountain range, we¡¯ll walk the rest of the way.¡± ¡°But that will take days.¡± Kairo complained. ¡°Indeed. But you wanted to learn our ways and we can¡¯t fly.¡± chapter 15 It was 4 days after Jessie and Kairo had descended the dead peaks that they finally saw the stone based wooden walls of the village of whitewater. Compared to when Jessie had left the village, there were thousands of soldiers who were camped out outside the walls going about their day. As Jessie and Kairo walked down the road towards the east gate some of the soldiers gave them inquisitive looks but other than that they weren¡¯t bothered until they arrived at the gate. ¡°Purpose for entry?¡± Asked one of the guards on duty. ¡°Returning from a quest.¡± Jessie replied. The guard looked the two of them for a moment ¡°Entry is 5 coppers per person.¡± What¡¯s with all those men outside? Kairo asked after they had paid the entry fee and entered the village. ¡°Probably the replacements.¡± Jessie replied as he walked towards the town hall. ¡°How many guards does a village need?¡± Kairo exclaimed ¡°Oh, they aren¡¯t for the village, those were from the imperial army so I think they are stopping by on their way to the pass, or returning.¡± ¡°Pass?¡± ¡°From what I heard it¡¯s the only safe passage through the dead peaks.¡± Jessie paused as he looked to the sky. ¡°It¡¯s getting late and I¡¯m hungry.¡± ¡°That was a quick change of topic. Are you sure you don¡¯t want to keep talking about this Place?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like I know shit about this region. I was only here a couple days before I embarked on the quest, of which I won¡¯t tell you anything.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t particularly want to remember some of those incidents.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got my curiosity peaked now.¡± ¡°Deal with it.¡± Jessie said as he approached the inn. Pushing open the door Jessie was met by the same bubbling waitress as the last time he was there. ¡°Good evening.¡± She said in a cheerful voice. ¡°Would you like a table?¡± ¡°Could I grab that one in the corner?¡± Jessie asked as he pointed to one of the only tables free. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll come over and take your orders soon.¡± The waitress said after she glanced at the table Jessie had indicated. ¡°So, what can I get you?¡± The waitress said after she deposited a tray of drinks to a nearby table. ¡°Meat.¡± Kairo said without hesitation ¡°Just meat?¡± She asked ¡°You serve other stuff alongside the meat?¡± Kairo asked in confusion ¡°I apologise for this idiot''s ignorance.¡± Jessie said before the waitress could say anything more. ¡°What is the kitchen serving tonight?¡± ¡°Hm? Oh, right, so, there¡¯s a chicken stew which is served with bread and a roast lamb served with vegetables.¡± ¡°One of each and two ales please.¡± Jessie quickly said before kairo could open his mouth again. The waitress smiled and soon returned with two tankards of ale which she placed in front of each of them. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Kairo asked as he watched Jessie take a sip of his drink. ¡°Ale. A human drink.¡± Jessie took another sip. ¡°Dwarves could probably make a better one.¡± Kairo lifted his tankard and took a tentative sip of the ale. ¡°Tastes weak.¡± He said as he put the tankard down ¡°Probably allows them to sell more.¡± Jessie muttered as he stared into his tankard. The food was delivered a short while later leading to another round of questioning and arguing between Jessie and Kairo, about how the food was served and what the use of the implements were. Which Jessie abandoned after a while of not getting through to him leading to Kairo eating his lamb rather messily with his hands. After a while Jessie sighed and put his spoon down before heading through the rather crowded room towards the bar weaving through the other patrons who were conversing with a steadily increasing volume as they tried to be heard and the more alcohol they consumed. Leaning against the bar Jessie flagged down the man who was standing behind the bar and ordered two ales, one of which he downed immediately before asking for a refill. ¡°It''s not often you see someone your age down a whole tankard without care, though I suppose it''s likely more common in the capital than out here .¡± a voice came from his left. Turning to the voice, Jessie saw a grizzled soldier wearing armour that seemed more intricate than the other soldiers who were in the inn. ¡°Yea, well, after the adventure I just had, I might need more.¡± ¡°Drowning yourself in alcohol does not get rid of worries or fears.¡± The man said. ¡°Telling someone about your issues or weaving a troubling tale into a story can be good ways of getting those worries or fears off your chest.¡± ¡°Yea, maybe telling someone more attached to the mortal plane is a good idea.¡± Jessie replied before licking up the two tankards and walking back over to his table. ¡°What do you mean?¡± The soldier said as he sat down next to Kairo. ¡°Actually, I should probably introduce myself. Ciaran Arundell, commander of the 3rd border army.¡± ¡°Ghost, it¡¯s what I go by anyway.¡± Jessie said as he took a drink out of his tankard. Ciaran glanced at Kairo before turning back to Jessie when he noticed he wasn¡¯t paying the conversation any mind and was intent on devouring his meal. ¡°Gods turn out to be great fonts of knowledge, but seem to severely lack the ability to understand the tribulations that come with being mortal.¡± ¡°Did you meet the gods of the world?¡± The intense curiosity in the commander stunned Jessie momentarily. ¡°No, I think the ones who I met were higher up the cosmic ladder than the planetary gods of the world.¡± ¡°How high up.¡± ¡°High enough to be able to reconstruct my body and reinstate my soul into it.¡± ¡°I feel the story here is a rather interesting one.¡± Ciaran said. ¡°And a bit traumatising,¡± ¡°You know what?¡± Jessie said. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you of my adventure and in exchange I get to travel with you guys to the capital.¡± The commander looked around the room briefly before replying. ¡°We¡¯ll leave the day after tomorrow, a lot of these idiots seem to be in for an unbearable day.¡± ¡°Sounds fair.¡± And with that Jessie told Ciaran about the adventure that seemed to go both right and wrong, one after the other. He left out some parts, his blessing and the existence of two gods who would much rather be background noise. It took him about half an hour to get through his story, and the old commander was a great listener, barely interrupting his story except for two places, the first was to comment on how Jessie was able to watch his soul float out of his body and the second was about the tulips of death. ¡°So the tulips do exist and you were asked by an alchemist to obtain them?¡± ¡°Yes¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°And did she tell you what they would be used for?¡± ¡°She said she was going to use the essence of the flowers to create a device to detect abyssal mana.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Ciaran thought for a bit while looking around the room. ¡°We leave the day after tomorrow, these idiots need to recover for the march back. I do also want to meet this alchemist.¡± ¡°I was going to head over there after breakfast.¡± Jessie said. ¡°So feel free to join.¡± After taking another swig of ale, the commander got up and joined a group of his soldiers who seemed to be partaking in a drinking contest. ¡°Can you be any messier?¡± Jessie asked as he looked at Kairos plate. Most of the food wasn¡¯t on in anymore, either having been eaten or strewn across half the table. ¡°Do you want me to?¡± ¡°Gods no, I want you to try keeping the food confined to the plate next time.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Kairo asked confused ¡°Because it¡¯s less for the staff to clean up.¡± Kairo looked over to the waitress who had served them, then back to the mess he had made. ¡°And no eating it off the table you damn lizard.¡± Jessie said as he grabbed Kairo''s hand preventing him from reaching a piece of lamb that was lying on the table. ¡°Because in our society it¡¯s rude.¡± Jessie continued at Kairo''s confused look. ¡°You need to learn table manners among many other things.¡± Jessie grabbed his tankard and downed the remaining half before standing up again. ¡°Just, stay here, I¡¯ll go see if there is a room or two available.¡± Standing up, Jessie walked back towards the bar, however instead of talking to the bar keep he went up to the middle aged woman behind the bar who had an air of authority around her. ¡°Excuse me,¡± he said. ¡°Do you have a room or two available?¡± The woman turned from the cabinet she was loading with wooden plates and regarded him for a moment. ¡°We only have one room available at the moment.¡± ¡°How much for two nights?¡± ¡°15 coppers a night, five ales, one lamb and one stew comes to 100 coppers. Jessie reached into his pocket and took out one of the octagonal coppers he had found in his spatial ring and placed it on the counter. After the woman had checked the coin she handed over a key. ¡°Your room is on the second floor, due to some issues with people being unable to count floors. They are numbered. Your room is the sixth room on that floor, the door is also numbered.¡± After saying that she turned around and continued loading the plates into the cabinet. Jessie pocketed the key before returning to the table where Kairo was and found that the dragon had cleaned all the food off it, he groaned a bit when he saw Kairo pop the last bit of food that was on the table into his mouth. ¡°We¡¯ve got a room.¡± Jessie said as he put the cups and plates into a pile. ¡°And we are going to have a talk about table manners.¡± It was at the end of this statement that Kairo''s head hit the table, Jessie looked down at the dragon then back to the tankards on the table and noticed an extra one compared to when he had left to get a room. This new tankard had a much stronger smell to it than the others that had contained ale. With a sigh and a quick muttered prayer to an annoyingly over protective god, Jessie hauled Kairo over his shoulder and began to stumble his way up the stairs. At the first landing he noticed a sign on the wall that simply had the number 1 on it. With a sigh he continued up the next two flights and down the hall till he found his room. With awkward movements he withdrew the key he had put in his right pocket with his left hand and opened the door. Jessie dumped Kairo on the bed before heading back and closing the door and after a quick look around the room he grabbed a spare pillow and blanket before falling asleep on the floor. Jessie was woken up rather rudely the next morning, not by the sunlight pouring through the window but by some clumsy oaf stepping on his shin, there was a quiet shriek of panic before a thud resounded throughout the room. Opening his eyes Jessie saw Kairo stumbling back to his feet slightly unsteadily while holding a hand to his head. ¡°You good?¡± he asked as he looked at Kairo ¡°My head hurts.¡± Kairo grumbled as he stood back up. ¡°I''m sure it does.¡± Jessie muttered. ¡°Put the robe on, it''s time to meet the commander.¡± By the time Kairo had managed to get into the robe that had definitely not been taken from a god, Jessie was waiting for him by the door tapping his foot impatiently. The trip down three flights of stairs with a hungover dragon was not the best way to start ones morning and jessie had half a mind to just leave him be for the day, before he could finish thinking up a way to make kairos day any worse they stepped into the dining room of the inn. There was a bit of sunlight pouring in through the windows by the door, but the candles still provided most of the light to the room. Lying on some of the tables, still asleep were some soldiers who had drunk far too much and had yet to wake. Taking a seat near the bar, Jessie asked the woman who had given him his key if he could have two cups of coffee. A few minutes after they received their coffee, and Kairo had spit out his first sip complaining about how bitter it was, Commander Arundell walked into the inn and took a seat at their table. ¡°Not going to eat anything?¡± The commander asked as he noticed the lack of plates on the table. ¡°I was just going to grab something from a food stall on the way.¡± Jessie replied before downing what was left of his coffee. The commander glanced at Kairo before saying. ¡°To the apothecary then.¡± Jessie got up and dragged Kairo to his feet. As he passed the bar Jessie tossed a couple copper hexagons onto the counter, which the woman quickly swept into the pocket at the front of her apron. ¡°You owe me one silver for the scotch your friend drank last night¡± she said before Jessie could walk away. Jessie took one look at the woman, before turning to Kairo and just staring at him for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh and tossing the silver coin onto the counter and leaving the building. They passed a couple food stands as they made their way to the apothecary but nothing really caught Jessie''s fancy. When they finally arrived at the Apothecary, several coins lighter because Kairo had all but demanded food, they noticed a large number of soldiers lined up waiting for entry, there were a few grumbled complaints about people cutting in line which were silenced once they saw their commander following Jessie. As they entered the apothecary Jessie''s nose was met with the smell of herbs, he noticed Emily behind the counter handing over bottles of a greenish looking liquid to the soldier at the counter while what looked to be her assistant was constantly filling the bottles from a cauldron. When Emily spotted Jessie waiting off to the side she immediately turned to her assistant, muttered something and hurried over to him. ¡°Did you get the items?¡± she asked the excitement clear in her voice ¡°I did.¡± Jessie replied. ¡°But for the sake of people''s sanity I think I should hand them over somewhere without an audience.¡± ¡°Oh, Yes, of course.¡± she said before turning around and leading them to a door behind the counter. Once in the back of the shop Emily couldn¡¯t contain her excitement anymore and practically squealed out her next sentence. ¡°Show me Show me Show me.¡± ¡°Calm down.¡± Jessie said, noticing the soft smile on the commander''s lips and the confused and slightly panicked expression on Kairo''s face. ¡°I got the materials.¡± ¡°Show me!¡± She exclaimed in excitement With a small smile Jessie started to unload the flowers that he had been sent to collect. In the exact numbers that were on the contract. ¡°So. 25 moon flowers, 20 yellow water lilies, I assume you want the mana infused ones, 10 red dragon blood roses, 5 tulips of life and 5 tulips of death." As Jessie placed the tulips of life onto the table the amount of life attuned mana in the room skyrocketed until he placed the flowers of death on the table as well. The strange interaction between the life and earth attuned flowers seemed to cancel out the effects of each other. ¡°Do note, I would avoid touching the tulips of death without some sort of protection.¡± Jessie added as he stepped away from the table. Emily snapped her hand back and hurried over to a cupboard where she took out a pair of thick leather gloves which she immediately slid on before picking up one of the tulips of death and studying it for a time, after carefully looking over the tulips she placed one into a strange machine and fed some mana into it and, after a short moment, holographic projection of the tulip appeared over the machine with a description and other writing appearing below it. ¡°The amount of death mana this thing contains.¡± Emily said in awe. ¡°And undeath mana, but its residual, like there was a source of it in the area.¡± ¡°Aside from the large number of undead in the area, there were a few undead attuned flora there as well.¡± ¡°Did you get any?¡± ¡°No.¡± Jessie lied ¡°What are you going to use these for?¡± the commander asked ¡°Oh, uh.¡± Emily seemed nervous for a second. ¡°I¡¯m not the one who''s going to use them.¡± she finally said which raised the eyebrows of the general. ¡°Uh, well, you see.¡± Emily stammered out at the look the commander gave her. ¡°The request for these components were sent from the capital and I was going to deliver them when I go there to try to get a spot at the academy this year.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you joining the Academy leave this place empty?¡± Kairo asked before anyone could respond to Emily''s minor trick ¡°No.¡± she said slightly hesitantly. ¡°Grandma is out training a new hire to take over for me in the event I do get into the academy. If not, at least there will be another hand to help out around here.¡± Jessie lust looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. ¡°Can I have my reward please?¡± he asked. ¡°I feel like you might be here for a while talking about rules around potentially restricted goods.¡± ¡°Unfortunately.¡± The commander muttered. ¡°And I thought today would be a day off.¡± Emily hesitated for a bit before placing 3 silver octagons on the counter. ¡°I think I am severely over paying you, but going with the fact people only theorised about the existence of the tulips of death. I think it¡¯s fair payment, the majority of the reward is for the tulips, if you hadn¡¯t found them the price would only be a hexagon or so. Emily explained as she placed the coins on the counter, Jessie placed them in his pocket, subtly storing them in his special ring as he did so. He thanked Emily before turning and leaving the alchemist store, as he left he saw two women entering, one old and one young, but all the soldiers and citizens gave them the space they needed to move making Jessie think that the older woman was the owner of the alchemy shop and that the younger one was the new apprentice. After leaving the alchemy store Jessie dragged Kairo towards the town hall where he handed over the items for the other request he had taken, receiving 8 copper octagons in exchange. ¡°I suppose we just spend the day exploring this village then.¡± Jessie said as both he and Kairo stepped into the town square. ¡°Can we get more food?¡± Kairo said with an expectant expression on his face ¡°Fine.¡± Jessie said after a pause. ¡°As long as it¡¯s no more than a silver or two.¡± Chapter 16 Jessie took the headset off and just lay in bed for a moment. Finally deciding to move Jessie sat up and looked at the alarm clock next to his bed noting the time at 10:30 in the morning. Being a Sunday he could almost guarantee that it would be quiet in the house as either his roommates would be hungover and in no mood to make an appearance or would be out of the house with their friends doing whatever they did in their free time. Deciding that there wasn¡¯t anything better to do, Jessie got out of bed and turned on his computer to see what was going on on the official forums. The post at the top of the forum was a post pinned by an administrator, out of curiosity, and mostly what the title of the post was, Jessie clicked on the post. **** State of the Banking System and Current Plans for future updates: We thank everyone for their patience for the in game Banking and currency conversion system. Due to our rush in trying to roll this system out early, we made the mistake of not consulting the banks with whom we partnered with to make such a system possible. The Azure Branch Company would like to Clear some information up and set things straight. Due to an break down of internal communication between all departments of the Azure Branch Company after the initial launch day and the following week the wrong information was sent to our software developers to launch the banking and currency conversion system, as a result of this mistake the banks were not set to handle to the amount of transactions that happened in the 5 hours between the launch of the update and the roll back of the update. To All of those who used real world currency to obtain in-game copper and silver, we have worked with the banks to roll back the transactions. This means that you will receive a full refund from the Azure Branch Company. However, you will not be receiving any of the copper or silver you bought, any of the copper or silver that was spent in the 5 hours between the launch of the update and the roll back will not be removed as we only intend to roll back the money and not the items obtained. To all of those who used the currency conversion system to trade in-game copper and silver for real world money the roll backs were more complicated. As a result the Azure Branch Company has decided to leave any money obtained by the conversion system in your accounts and will not take actions to get it back, this means that if you successfully traded in-game copper or silver for real world money, you may keep it. If you traded in-game copper or silver for real world money but did not receive the money, your account has been modified and the traded currency has been restored to your account in full and the pending transaction or transactions have been cancelled. While on the topic of features unintentionally being released early, we have had reports of people being sent into negative levels due to deaths. While The Stars of Fate is not meant to be an easy game by any means. The first few months were meant to allow people to get acclimated to how the game works and as such death penalties were meant to be decreased or not added. Due to this incident we have decided to decrease the amount of experience needed to return to level 0 for all people affected. This is a one time change added to the accounts of those who are in negative levels only. This change will reduce the amount of experience needed to 5% of what you required and will be removed once you reach level 0. Please be aware that we have no intention of officially releasing the causes that will result in the deletion of your account and termination of your headset. Returning to the topic of the in game banking and currency conversion system, The Azure Branch Company have been in talks and negotiations with the world''s banks and have come to a unanimous decision. In one month from the posting of this, well, post, we will be launching half of the planned system with the other half slated to be launched 6 months later. The half we plan to launch is the in-game side of the currency conversion system, allowing players to convert their in-game copper and silver to real world money. Any form of in-game currency above silver will not be supported for conversion until the full rollout of Banking and currency conversion system. Conversion rates will be based on the US dollar and each coin type has its own trade value. For the copper coins regular circles can be traded at $0.01 per coin, the hexagons can be traded for $0.10 and octagons can be traded for $1. Silver coins can be traded for $5 per coin, hexagons can be traded for $10 and octagons for $15. For each account there is a limit of $1500 that may be traded each week and the exchange rates will be reviewed and updated upon release of the full banking and currency exchange system. Azure Branch Development Team **** It took Jessie a second read through to realise that his plight with experience had been addressed, the reduction of required experience to 5% of what he previously needed was almost a game changer to him, almost. After quickly punching the numbers into a calculator Jessie''s happiness from this change evaporated as he looked at the result. It was much more achievable when compared to the 425 billion exp he had needed earlier but 21 and a quarter billion was still a staggering amount compared to what other players were needing to earn, which, going off the comments, wasn''t any higher than around two hundred thousand exp. Letting out a sigh, Jessie got up and changed into a loose fitting t-shirt and pants before making his way into the kitchen. The first thing he did, like almost every sunday, was to load the dishwasher with all the plates that had been left out from when his roommates had just eaten and left them out before heading off to bed. A quick check of the pantry later and Jessie made his way up the street and through the park towards the nearest supermarket. As he walked he thought about all that had happened over the past couple weeks. Aside from the sluggish response time that came from the cheapest headset available, which He had gotten used to in both the waning area and the bazaar, his experience with the game was smooth and so far entirely without bugs. Well, mostly without bugs, Jessie was still on the fence about the unicorn that had all but condemned him to being level 0 for the foreseeable future. The more he thought about what had happened over the past few weeks the more confused he became, and it all seemed to trace back to Fulor. Not only did The ancient god of death grant Jessie a blessing that was supposed to grow with him as he leveled, the god had also chosen the world on which Jessie would start playing the game from. And also forgot to give him a tutorial on important things like skills which he had noticed other gods giving to the player who has selected their blessing. Of Course he had then been killed by a unicorn he was certain should not have even been in the area the moment he had spawned in, lost 50 levels and required 425 billion or so exp just to get back to level 0. Then upon taking a quest to kill 5 wolves for their pelts he had encountered a nest of dragons and been gifted a dragon egg, only to then lose said dragon egg upon taking more quests to gather resources, on that same quest he had been killed by a power hungry demigod, brought back to life by another ancient god inside their residence, got training with the ancient god of death, and then two weeks after returning to the mortal plane and scaling the dead peaks, he had saved a dragon from bleeding out, angered a whole horde of undead after slipping on a dagger and finally shared a drink with the commander of one of the border armies, who he was sure was a noble of some caliber, then been almost eaten out of cain by the dragon he had saved, after selling off some alchemy ingredients, he was sure he had been severely underpaid for the tulips of death though, as from what everyone was saying they were thought to not exist at all. Jessie shook his head to clear his thoughts, thinking about all the random and nigh improbable encounters he had had in the past few weeks was starting to give him a headache.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. It was on his way past a mall, Jessie noticed a commotion in front of an office building, a group of people were shouting about recruiting for a guild in game, promising fairly large sums of money if players were good enough to join their core teams. And from the sounds of things the pay they were offering other players who joined their guild as full or part time players wasn''t bad either. Due to the large crowd of people Jessie count easily get through to continue on, and as he waited for the crossing light to go green so he could continue to the store on the other side of the road, Jessie glance up at the building the crowd was in front of and noticed that the name of the guild the recruiting players were apart of was placed in large letters above the entrance, as well as their guild emblem reading sleepless light with a large heavily stylized crescent moon next to it. The trip to the supermarket was only about 15 minutes, 5 through the park and 10 to the supermarket, however instead of 10 minutes from the park to the supermarket it took him nearly 30 minutes with all the crowds around office buildings that had been bought by guilds to house their main operations. Muttering to himself about possibly missing an announcement related to guilds somewhere, Jessie finally made it to the supermarket to buy the weeks groceries, he was glad he had gotten into uni on a scholarship which gave him 2 thousand dollars a month, allowing him to live mostly how he wanted as his roommates also paid portions of rent and utilities, as the cost of groceries seemed to be slowly increasing over the weeks. Sighing slightly as he picked up the three bags which he had bought from the supermarket months earlier, he began his walk back to his flat. It was only when he passed the fourth guild building that he heard raised voices, it was one of the largest and fanciest office buildings in the city, which was saying something as the city was home to hundreds of billionaires. Looking at the name on the side of the building Jessie realised it belonged to a guild that has a strong presence in most rpg games. Surprisingly, as Jessie got close he still managed to get a good view of what was going on, despite the crowd growing larger. ¡°WHAT DO YOU MEAN FATHERS HOLDING A COMPETITION. THE GUILD WAS TO GO TO ME NOT ANY OF YOU.¡± the line was said so loud that people in the front row of spectators had to cover their ears ¡°Due to the many updates to the game and the size of the guild, Father has decided that only the best of his children should succeed him¡± said another man who was standing in front of the building. ¡°And due to your, shall we say less than appealing personality?, and uh, abysmal management of your money, i don''t think you are the best fit for Galactic, though feel free to join the competition.¡± after saying that the man walked through the crowd, letting his bodyguard push anyone too slow to move out of the way, leaving the man standing there fuming for a moment before he stormed into the office building. ¡°I apologise for the scene.¡± one of the people working a stand in front of the building said after a moment. ¡°If anyone still wants to join Galactic, we are still taking applications.¡± After the worker said that, half the people who were watching the altercation surged forward to put their names down for application into the guild while the other half dispersed over the next few minutes. Jessie, shaking his head, made his way back to his flat, to unload his shopping. He had to stop many times during the half hour walk back just to readjust the bags he was carrying as they had begun to dig painfully into his palms, eventually had made it back and heaved a sigh of relief when he was able to finally put the bags down. Even though it was midday none of his roommates were up, which was unsurprising seeing as they almost always stayed out till 4 or 5 in the morning drinking, spending the last hours at the Orange Lotus because it was the only nightclub that stayed open till 5 in the morning. Leaving a box of painkillers on the counter Jessie made his way back into his room and booted up his computer again to search for any mention of why all the guilds were buying properties and recruiting en masse. About 10 minutes in Jessie got bored and decided to log back into the game, even though it would be an hour or so after midnight, just scrolling past all the images and videos on the forums made him want to log back in. **** Magnus lay in his cave, his draconic form taking up most of it leaving only a sliver at the entrance. Slowly his eyes opened as he sensed someone walking in. raising his head he had to squint to make out who was entering. That was one of the downsides to his draconic form; it was so large that even an elder wyrm, some of the largest dragons that could be found in the universe, was about the size of an ant compared to him. Letting out a small sigh, that seemed to shake the cave and frightened some of the younger dragons and draconic creatures who also live in the cave, Magnus shrunk his sized down the that of an elder wyrm, still large enough to terrify anyone who saw him, except for some of the gods. ¡°Why have you come here, Fulor?¡¯ Magnus asked when he could actually see the god. ¡°Do I have a reason to visit a friend?¡± the god asked in response. A low growl was the only response Fulor got. ¡°Okay fine, I came here to try to understand something.¡± ¡°And what does the all knowing god of death want to understand?¡± a slight hint of mockery in Magnus¡¯s voice. ¡°I know everything about anything relating to death. I''m not a god of knowledge.¡± Fulor muttered. ¡°But i want to know what interests you about young Ghost?¡± ¡°What makes you think I have an interest in the child?¡± ¡°You gave him a dragon egg and interjected on behalf of a dying young dragon on a fringe world.¡± ¡°I did both on a whim.¡± Magnus replied. ¡°I did it because I could.¡± ¡°Is that all?¡± Fulor asked, his voice heavy with scepticism. ¡°Because about a decade ago you and Thysonare were discussing things related to the end of your race.¡± ¡°What I discussed with the God of fate stays between me and the God of Fate. I don''t care if you gave him your blessing or not.¡± Magnus paused, his draconic face glaring at Fulor. ¡°I will not speak on what we discussed but I shall give you some advice. There is a reason we accepted Lizel and Ferins idea. The young Ghost does not walk under your banner, he walks under his own, he does not represent you nor does he represent any of us, you have your duties along with the other gods. The travelers have their duty, whether they know it or not, the more attention you put on the young Ghost the more danger you put him in and the slower he will grow in power your attention has already caused him undue pain and suffering. Let him walk his own path, check in occasionally and don''t interfere unless necessary.¡± Magnus continued to glare and Fulor as he digested his words. The glare deepened as a cunning smile emerged on Fulors face. ¡°Unless necessary?¡± He asked. ¡°So I should interfere if I deem it necessary?¡± ¡°No. whether you deem it necessary or not, you may only interfere with the agreement of two other ancients.¡± Magnus growled which wiped the smile of Fulors face. With a glare at the dragon Fulor turned and walked out of the cave. Magnus sighed again before looking over to the side of the entrance. ¡°I trust you can keep him in line Osi, Lest I have to force him in line myself.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll keep him in line.¡± Osioglen said.¡± it seems he had had too much freedom to interfere with newer worlds." At those words Osioglen also exited the cave. Once the two gods had left, Magnus released his shrunken form and grew in size till the cave was crammed with one giant dragon who promptly closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Chapter 17 Shouts of military orders and the sounds of thousands of horses being woken up and readied for the march back to the capital woke Jessie at around the break of dawn. He had logged back in around 2 o¡¯clock in the evening in the real world, which equated to about 2 o''clock in the morning in game. It was nice that Jessie could play the game at night in the real world and have it be day in game, he was also not about to question why that was the case as he was sure there was going to be a long and complicated answer to it. A banging on his door forced Jessie to finally get out of bed, still dressed in the clothes he was wearing earlier in the morning, another interesting fact the Jessie was not going to question was that the clothes he was wearing didn''t seem to smell or get dirty, he just chalked it up to divine shenanigans and let it be. Opening the door Jessie was met by a young soldier who informed him that commander Arundell would be joining them for breakfast and would prefer them to take it sooner rather than later due to how long they intended to march. Thanking the soldier, who he was sure was the squire to one of the knights in the army, Jessie walked to the next door down and knocked on it, when only a groan was heard he simply opened the door and realised Kairo hadn''t bothered with the lock. Jessie chuckled a bit as he realised the dragon was absolutely not a morning dragon as he was lying face first on the bed, all his clothes but for a pair or comfortable pants lay scattered around the room where he had clearly just thrown them off before sleeping. ¡°Get up.¡± Jessie said as he walked up to the bed, the only response he got was a groan. Putting his hand on Kairo''s shoulder Jessie rolled him over. ¡°Get up, the commander wants to meet us before we leave.¡± that got a response as Kairo groaned again but muttered ¡°Fine, be down soon.¡± ¡°You better be.¡± Jssie said as he patted Cairo''s shoulder before leaving the room. Heading down to the ground floor Jessie found the commander already waiting at a table with a plate of eggs and bacon and a mug of what looked like coffee. Sitting down Jessie requested the same thing from a passing waiter. ¡°Where''s the other one?¡± Ciran asked onec Jessie had placed his order ¡°Turns out he''s not a morning person.¡± Jessie replied. ¡°He did say he would be down soon though.¡± ¡°Good.¡± Ciran replied. ¡°Because we have a month and a half march to the capital and we want to try to cover more ground to get there earlier.¡± ¡°And how do you plan to cut a month and a half journey shorter?¡± Jessie asked confused ¡°We camp at dusk and march at dawn of course.¡± Ciran replied with a smile that looked slightly sinister. ¡°Would be faster to fly there.¡± Kairo muttered as he dropped into a chair between the two ¡°It would.¡± Ciran acknowledged. ¡°However there aren¡¯t any airship docks or safe landing places near the fort or the village.¡± Ciran thought for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s more the publicly available excuse as to why we don¡¯t use them, aside from the cost of course.¡± He paused here as if contemplating whether he was allowed to say or not. ¡°The actual reason is that the marquis of this region refuses to allow the airships into his territory.¡± ¡°Sounds like a right bastard.¡± Kairo muttered still half asleep Ciran only responded with a tight smile, almost like he wasn¡¯t meant to comment on the marquis, before finishing off his breakfast. ¡°I¡¯ll let you two finish your breakfast.¡± He said as he stood up. ¡°We aim to leave in about an hour.¡± He paused for a moment then continued with a slight undertone of humour to his voice. ¡°And don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not a month and a half march to the capital. That¡¯s only to the nearest city outside of the marquis territory.¡± And before either of the two, mainly Kairo, could reply he walked out of the inn and towards the assembling soldiers. ¡°How big is this place for it to take a month and a half to cross the march.¡± Kairo complained ¡°It¡¯ll take longer than that.¡± Jessie replied, smiling slightly. ¡°It¡¯s a month and a half to cross the march, yes, but then maybe another week or two to reach the nearest city.¡± ¡°So a two month march, or ride, just to reach a city with airship capabilities, that¡¯s outside this bastard''s march?¡± Kairo groaned a bit of annoyance coming through his voice. ¡°Yep, so eat up.¡± Jessie said as he tucked into his breakfast. ¡°We have to leave in an hour.¡± The two met commander Arundell at the southern gate an hour later, and were surprised to see thousands of soldiers, mounted and on foot, lined up in orderly ranks ready to set out on their return journey. Ciran was currently talking with a group of soldiers just off to the side of the ranks with an annoyed but resigned look on his face. As Jessie and Kairo passed through the gates they overheard the tail end of the conversation ¡°Don¡¯t want to do it, these men are returning after two years away from their families.¡± Ciran was saying ¡°We don¡¯t have a choice sir.¡± Said a woman off to his left.¡± It came from the academy bearing the imperial seal, we can¡¯t ignore it.¡± ¡°I know Trish.¡± Ciran sighed. ¡°It''s just, it¡¯s going to add another 3 weeks onto our trip.¡± ¡°Could be worse.¡± Said a man to the commander''s right. ¡°Could have asked us to head to the marquis city.¡± ¡°Bran is right.¡± Said another officer. ¡°It could be much worse, at least they asked them to stay along or near the route we take.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Ciran sighed. ¡°At Least we won¡¯t be picking up any noble brats.¡± ¡°You including your kids in that bracket?¡± The third officer said with a slight smile Ciran gave him a mock glare. ¡°Think carefully lark or you''ll have to walk back.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Lark raised his hands backing up.¡± Sorry sorry, I¡¯ll tell the captains of the change.¡± He said laughing a bit As lark left, so did Bran and Trish to see to the support caravans and the remaining command staff leaving Ciran standing by the gate. He sighed slightly before turning to Jessie and Kairo ¡°How much of that did you hear?¡± Ciran asked the two of them as he motioned for them to walk with him. ¡°Something about most people hating the marquis and an extension to our journey.¡± Jessie said after looking at Kairo, who was lost in staring at the mass of orderly soldiers and realising that he wasn¡¯t going to say anything. ¡°The marquis.¡± Ciran gave a sigh after that. ¡°The imperial academy lets in commoners and nobles alike and teaches everything from basic etiquette to military battle tactics, enrollment for this coming year starts in two months and will last for two weeks.¡± ¡°Why does this concern us?¡± Kairo asked ¡°Politics.¡± Ciran said simply. ¡°The marquis, and a large portion of the nobles in this Dukedom actually, are part of a noble faction that believes they are the best, and that peasants only exist to serve them.¡± Jessie inferred what was happening. ¡°And because of this the marquis only lets those of noble blood use the airships in his domain.¡± Ciran gave a resigned nod. ¡°Correct, so all the common folk who wish to enter the academy have been, over the last few weeks, sent to a bunch of villages, towns and cities along or close to our route. Because of that, we have had to requisition several carriages from this town.¡± As they had been talking the trio had walked towards the central ranks of the formation where a dozen passenger wagons were hitched to horses. Both Jessie and Kairo were surprised to note that one of the carriages already had occupants. ¡°You two are also heading to the academy?¡± Kairo asked as he saw who was sitting in the lead carriage. ¡°Of course we are.¡± Emily said as she hopped out to greet them. ¡°Everyone of age wants to try entering the academy.¡± ¡°And you bosses don¡¯t mind?¡± Jessie asked directing the question to Both her and Astra ¡°Of course.¡± Emily said. ¡°Turns out both of them tried for the academy, and while they didn¡¯t get into the imperial academy they both got into branch academies where they learnt their trades.¡± ¡°Branch academies?¡± Jessie asked This time it was Astra who answered, though he still had his head in a book. ¡°The imperial academy is the one everyone wants to enter, it¡¯s where commoners can join noble ranks or become famous heros, if one fails to enter the imperial academy there are a bunch of off shoots where commoners are taught various trades and weapon skills, the later is more for of conscription is ever implanted so the empire won¡¯t have an untrained army in times of war.¡± Jessie looked between Emily and Aster. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s common knowledge?¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± Emily replied with a slight smile. While they were talking they heard Ciran as voice sounding over the assembled soldiers informing them to get ready to march. ¡°We should probably get in.¡± Kairo said gesturing to the carriage. The carriage was spacious and could comfortably seat about six to eight people, so there was plenty of space for the four of them to settle down. A minute after they had boarded the carriage they heard the sound of horns, followed by the rhythmic stamp of boots and the creak of wheels as the carriage lurched forwards. ¡°So, do you two have an idea of what pathway you intend to study if you get into the academy?¡± Emily asked as they settled down for the long ride? Jessie glanced over to Kairo to see if he would answer first, but to his surprise the young dragon was fast asleep again. ¡°He acts more like a cat than a¡­¡± Jessie muttered before answering Emily. ¡°I honestly don''t know, probably something magic related.¡± He absentmindedly flipped the magic tome Fulor had given him in his hands for a bit before noticing the wide eyed looks of surprise on Emily and Astras faces. ¡°Hm? What¡¯s the problem?¡± He asked ¡°You. You have a spatial ring!?¡± Astra half shouted jolting Kairo awake. ¡°Huh. What. Ow¡± Kairo exclaimed in quick succession as he jolted upright in fright before banging his head on the carriage roof before curling up and groaning in pain. ¡°A spatial ring?¡± Jessie asked ¡°what are you talking about?¡± Astra just looked at him like he was an idiot but before he could continue Emily chimed in. ¡°One moment you¡¯re answering my question with your hands empty, the next you have a rather large tome in your hands, with no sign of where it came from.¡± Jessie looked down at the tome in his hands. ¡°Technically it¡¯s a grimoire.¡± He said before he put the book back in the ring. ¡°See.¡± Aster said in a slightly quieter voice than last time. ¡°You just put it away, don¡¯t lie about not having one.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to lie about it.¡± Jessie muttered Emily just seemed slightly exasperated at this point. ¡°It can¡¯t be that high quality right?¡± She asked almost pleadingly. At this point Kairo, who had finally stopped groaning in pain from where he had hit his head, spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure about how magic items are classified.¡± He said. ¡°But the ring he has I think is soul bound.¡± Both Emily and Astra stared at Jessie in shock for a long moment before Astra sighed and said slightly sarcastically. ¡°Next you''re going to tell us you have a divine relic in that ring aren¡¯t you.¡± Jessie didn¡¯t look at him and shifted rather uncomfortably under the stares of the other three ¡°Um, no?¡± Jessie muttered uncomfortably and very unconvincingly. ¡°Lucky bastard.¡± Was all Kairo said before he curled up again laying his head in the middle of the bench he and Jessie were sitting on. Both Aster and Emily were staring at Jessie with uncontained shock and curiosity. ¡°Can I see it?¡± Emily asked before Astra could ask the same question Reluctantly Jessie removed the morphic weapon, still in staff form, from his spatial ring and handed it to Emily who immediately started looking at it from every angle taking the whole weapon in. ¡°It¡¯s a lovely colour.¡± She said as she admires the swirling green and gold top half of the weapon. Astra was just staring at the weapon with uncontained excitement as he waited for Emily to finish looking at it. After a time Emily finally relinquished the weapon to Astra who spent almost a quarter of an hour looking at it. While Aster was staring at the staff like it was the only thing in the world Emily asked if she could see the magic tome. ¡°Uh, no.¡± Jessie said much to Emily¡¯s disappointment ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Cause it contained spells that are likely to get him executed.¡± Kairo muttered from his curled up position Emily stared at Jessie eyes wide. ¡°Really?¡± She asked Kairo, mainly due to Jessie looking out the window and pointedly ignoring everyone else. ¡°I dunno know.¡± Kairo mumbled. ¡°I¡¯m just guessing based of the title of it.¡± ¡°The title?¡± Emily asked a bit of excitement entering her voice. ¡°What¡¯s the title?¡± Jessie¡¯s head snapped around fast as he sternly told Kairo to shut up. Cracking an eye open Kairo craned his head around so he could look at Jessie. ¡°The abyssal grimoire of divine magics, I think.¡± He said just before Jessie whacked him on the head. Asters head whipped around to stare at Jessie while Emily, who was already staring at him, widened her eyes in shock, her mind trying to form a sentence. Jessie simply sighed. ¡°And now you know why I won¡¯t share it.¡± He said before turning back to the window.