Emerilia Box Set, page 66
part #1 of Emerilia Series
“Since my grandfather’s time, we have kept these walls a secret while adding runes to them—protection, strength. Countless mages have touched these walls and made them powerful. I just hope that it is enough to keep out the forces that wish our downfall.” Fend leaned on the battlements and looked out over the forest.
“High King Rean has asked that we be ready to take on more people if other mountains are attacked,” Wrole said.
Fend nodded. He had been moving with his forces while Wrole had remained in Mithsia, doing his bidding and carrying out his orders. Fend’s sons were still too young for the responsibility and they respected their father’s orders.
“I feel that this is just the beginning—the opening moves have been played. Our will was tested and we spat in their eyes. I wish that they would leave us alone, but I know that they will not. The lords and ladies of the Pantheon are loathe to do much more than act like bickering children.”
“Was it so long ago that you and your brother were so different?” Wrole’s eyebrow rose in question.
“That wasn’t bickering—that was good-hearted discussion! Plus, he’s off being a metal banger anyway. Try to get him to come back here for family events is like building this wall from pebbles and leaves!” Fend muttered under his breath as he noticed Wrole’s amused grin. “Oh, shut up, damned advisor. Feels like you’re just there to make me look like some bumbling ape.”
“Well, if you didn’t make it so easy...” Wrole’s face split into a smile.
“Why you!” Fend chased his advisor, threatening to beat his backside as Wrole laughed down the wall’s line.
A few of the Dwarves looked at the commotion; a few laughed and others shook their heads at their lord’s and his advisor’s antics.
Chapter 18: Nadorf
Josh looked out over the wall, to look down the road they came from Komo.
The traders had been most thankful for the protection to Nadorf. They’d come across a few decently leveled monsters but they weren’t much compared to the creatures that the Stone Raiders usually dealt with in their raids.
“Maybe they took a bit of a detour,” Dwayne said.
“Well, I kind of bet that they did. It was a detour going to the mountain instead of coming right here, though they said that they would be here soon,” Kim said.
“Ah, I think I see something.” Josh saw six people run out of the forest, traveling at some speed now.
Josh walked down from the wall. Before, he would’ve jumped, using someone’s house and the other items scattered around to break his fall. After his fight at the citadel, he kept the POE in mind as he moved around.
“Well, at least we’ve got trade moving again and people will stop fearing Quindar,” Dwayne said.
“Well, I’m still hoping that the damned thing didn’t eat them,” Kim said.
“Knowing that lot, they’re probably having dinner with the damned thing!” Josh snorted.
“Well, whatever it is, people are pretty happy that we cleared up Quindar’s demands. Also, the fact that the dragons have said that they will be keeping the area clear of high-level mobs is pretty good,” Dwayne said.
“You know how much money we’re not going to get for having the dragons keep those roads clear?” Kim asked.
“Well, there are always bandits.” Dwayne shrugged. “Plus, we’re raiders, not bodyguards.”
“This is true, but a bit of diversity didn’t hurt. Some of the ideas that Suzy had about starting to consider trading sound like they might generate some revenue.” Kim shrugged.
“You sound like Lucy now,” Josh muttered.
“Did any of you look up who she and Dave are?” Lucy asked lightly, continuing to read her book and only half paying attention to the conversation.
“No. How the hell would we find out? Their faces are probably the same, but we can’t really go around doing facial recognition on them. We aren’t bloody coppers,” Josh said.
“Hmm,” Lucy said, not feeling it necessary to elaborate.
“Well, you going to tell us why the heck you just said that?” Kim asked.
“Suzy Markell is the secretary of one Austin Zane—you know, the richest guy in the world. The one who mines asteroids; has settlements on Mars, the Moon, and Earth. You know, richest man in history. Find it odd that she is spending so much time in here and how that she and Dave get along really well? Now, if you have a look at pictures of Suzy Markell, you notice that there’s this rather dapper-looking guy—black hair, goatee, nice suits?” Lucy looked at everyone with their blank expressions. “What the hell happens in those minds all day? How the hell do you get ideas? Just hope like hell a neuron hits another?”
“Hey! I’d like you to know that they don’t hit one another—they smash one another out of the ballpark!” Josh said.
Lucy gave him a flat stare. The others looked at him for a few moments.
“Boss, I think you just said you’re even dumber than we thought,” Dwayne said.
“W-wha? No! I was saying that my ideas are so good when they come together that my neurons would probably explode if they were anyone else’s!”
“Yeah, still think that makes you pretty stupid,” Kim said.
“Aren’t you supposed to be my minions? My yes-people? Comrades in arms? You know?”
“Wow, I wish I could mentally bleach this moment from my memories.” Lucy shook her head and looked away.
“All right, so what you’re saying about Suzy being Austin Zane’s secretary—that’s pretty crazy, but whatever.” Kim shrugged.
“Kim, he’s one of the richest and most powerful human beings on Earth,” Josh said.
“Ehh,” Kim shrugged again, clearly not bothered.
Lucy didn’t say anything; instead, a picture appeared in all of their inboxes. There was Suzy and Austin Zane, wearing sunglasses as they talked about something.
“Heh, kind of looks like Dave,” Josh said.
Silence fell as everyone slowly looked at Josh. He looked at Dwayne and Kim.
“Lightbulb,” Lucy said.
“Miss us much?” Deia asked as she and the rest of her party slowed down to meet them.
Josh just stared at Dave; Dwayne and Kim did the same.
“Do I have something on my face?” Dave rubbed his constant stubble beard.
“Ah-h, no, sorry. We were just talking about something, completely somewhere else.” Josh smiled.
How the hell didn’t I see this before? Josh looked to Suzy and back to Dave, his brain unable to really understand what he was seeing. Dave was definitely not like some of the billionaires he knew.
But hell, dude, this guy is a trillionaire! Fucking countries could take loans just from him instead of other countries. Fuck, I don’t want to know what this guy’s taxes are like.
“Sorry about them. We have an inn with everyone in it. We’re going to be leaving through the teleport tomorrow but we thought we might as well have a few drinks tonight to celebrate. This lot are off in la-la-land for some reason. Oh, and Josh wants to talk to you about business, Suzy,” Lucy said.
“Thanks.” Deia stared at them all with a confused expression.
“Ahh, sorry—just figuring something out,” Kim said with a half-smile.
“O-okay then.” Dave gave them all peculiar looks before they moved to follow Lucy.
“What the hell?” Kim asked in a low voice.
“Guess he likes video games. Sure, it’s weird but...” Dwayne shrugged.
“I’ve got to agree with Dwayne on this one. In here, we’re just Players. Nothing more, nothing less,” Josh said, ending the matter.
***
Justin whistled as he wandered over people’s rooftops.
The POEs yelled at him but what could they do?
Call the guards and tell them that there’s another Player wandering the rooftops. Might as well set up a café and a few shops up here, there’s so many of us here. Though, that one time I jumped onto that roof and landed in that couple’s bedroom—well, that was awkward. Didn’t know Humans could bend like that. Maybe they were bored with all their other positions?
Justin continued to whistle as he moved across the houses. Nadorf was the largest city in Opheir and it showed. It had originally been built on top of a hill. The main castle still was. Now the original city had been turned into government offices and other boring things that Justin didn’t really care about.
As the city expanded, circular walls rose in waves around it.
There were five different districts, all of them with nicer houses the farther in you went. In the Fourth District, there were the teleportation pads that the higher-ups of the country and the Players used to get from country to country. Some of the more powerful countries even had multiple hubs so people could move between cities.
The lore said that it was for soldiers so that allies could assist one another.
Justin doubted it. Although the Human kingdoms were at relative peace with one another, they were by no means the most amicable.
Justin looked out over the city’s walls. There were massive fields around the city. To the southeast, massive marshes hid the unsociable gremlins; to the west, there was the Benvari Range with the Benvari Mountains lying to the southwest.
Justin was out wandering in his starter gear. He got his pack back with everything that was in it, but his armor and weapons had been left behind when he died.
Things had been kind of dull over the last few days with the rest of his friends. They were all still annoyed that they had been killed so easily. Bendel looked relieved that he hadn’t been made to kill a bunch of Dragon eggs, even though he thought he hid it well. Helen was actually pissed, which just left Justin confused on how he felt.
This was a game but he didn’t think that he felt too good about killing dragons in their eggs. When they were roaming around and causing mayhem, well, then he could understand it. Otherwise, it was just a pain in his mind.
There was little fun in killing an opponent before they got interesting. Once the playing field was level and it was Justin’s mind against his opponent’s—that was where he had fun.
He moved continuously, whistling a tune before he came across the northern gate of the Fourth District.
The Stone Raiders had moved into town. They had brought goods down from the north and assured everyone that the passes were clear and that the dragons were not a threat to anyone unless they disturbed their mountain unannounced.
Justin had put the dots together. The party that he had been fighting had to be the Stone Raiders. He’d heard about them in passing but he was not one for gaming news all that much. Now, however, he’d looked into the decent-sized guild and was surprised by their exploits.
They were true E-heads, so into the world that they in fact defended the POE. It made sense that they would look after a Dragon as well. It made Justin wonder what kind of quests they got for being nice to the people. By the gear that they were sporting, it was not low quality and they all seemed to be a rather fun group.
Justin looked at a decent-sized group of ten people headed down the street.
As Justin had stuck to scoping people out and trying to understand how hard it would be to pickpocket them, he had developed a skill called Risk Sense. He used it on the ten people; they ranged from white, to gray, yellow, and four reds, and one just tinged with purple.
The Risk Sense didn’t just come from what the level a person was; it was based off their gaming skill and their stats, which were not necessarily equivalent to a person’s level.
A slow smile stretched over Justin’s face as he looked at the party moving into the city.
“Well, it seems that we did indeed mess with the wrong kind of people.” Justin crouched down and looked at them, pulling an apple from his bag and eating it absently.
If the others are still all pent-up and thinking about revenge, I think I might need to find a new party. Bendel and Gillie are good, but Helen’s a bit too hot-headed when it comes to these things. We did attack them first, after all. It’s why they got no penalties for killing us.
Justin shook his head and looked out over the city. A thought struck him.
The Stone Raiders are fighting their way across Emerilia and looking to make POE allies. Why don’t I just do the same, but with information? We’re already a higher level than most of the POE within Opheir. We could look to helping out here, get a few extra quests, maybe build an information network. People are always looking for information. If we get in a position to sell it, then I can try to get out of my parents’ place, maybe even get one of those E-head pods so I can be in here all the time.
Justin thought on his ideas as he saw the Players head into a trading house.
An alert pinged on Justin’s interface a few minutes later.
Private Message
Hello, Player. It seems that items meeting your requirements are for sale in the trading house.
Goods: Any
Place of Sale: Nadorf, Opheir
Cost: 300 gold
Justin smiled, putting in his bid, and walked away, whistling again.
It might be an idea to make a few Stone Raider friends in the future. Seem like a pretty interesting bunch.
***
After putting the various items that the party had gathered on their adventure up for sale, they split the rest.
Dave didn’t really care for the weapons and gear; the weapons might be nice but he already had an idea of what he wanted to build himself.
The Stone Raider leaders went off to start the celebrations.
Deia made sure they gathered supplies they needed for their trip to the Benvari Mountains before meeting up with the rest of the Stone Raiders.
“Woohoo!” a Stone Raider said. A group of five of them was inebriated and was running around the inn’s roofs.
The POEs seemed in a joyous mood as well, many thanking the Stone Raiders for what they had done at Boran-al’s Citadel. Many others were enjoying the multiple rounds that the Stone Raiders had ordered. After the boring walk, watching over the trader caravan, they were excited to be doing something else.
Dave laughed and clapped as the POE started a quick melody that went with the rambunctious atmosphere.
Josh was in the middle of it, running off on roofs or in drinking games.
Dwayne looked more reserved as he sat with Lucy, who read her books while he drank his beer.
Seems like those two are being the responsible ones. Dave smirked as Kim floated off the second-floor balcony of one of the inns that the Stone Raiders had rooms in.
“Come on, you lot—got plenty of booze in this place and it’s almost as good as that Dwarven stuff!”
“I think we’ll just have to test this out for ourselves.” Dave looked to the rest of the party before he followed Kim inside.
It was as crazy inside as it was out. The barkeep had a massive smile on her face at the Stone Raiders’ antics as they had drinking games, sang along with some of the songs and caused general chaos. Yet, they weren’t trying to break tables or use powerful magic that might mess the place up.
“Beers, please!” Kim said, getting to the bar.
“How many?” one of the bartenders asked.
“Seven!” Kim chugged what remained of her beer.
“Having an easy night, huh?” Dave looked to her mug.
“This stuff is much better than the crap we get on Earth. It’s damned well palatable!” Kim yelled back over the noise of the place.
“Where can we get a room for the night?” Deia asked.
“You’ve got rooms here. Double bunked, though—so that’s three of them.” Kim pulled out three keys and gave it to her. “Now let’s party!” Kim grabbed the beers as they arrived in front of her and handed them out to the others.
***
Dave didn’t try to open his eyes, instead pouring Mana through his body to fix all the damage that he done last night.
Even through his eye lids he could see the morning light.
Dave groaned, trying to get out of the way of the light, finding Deia moaning about his moving. He settled back down, using her hair to block the sun.
Dave felt a poke in his cheek, he moaned, looking over to Deia.
She had cracked an eyelid and looked up at him with a “you’re really hiding in my hair?” expression.
Dave just grunted back. He wrapped his arms around her more fully and pulled her up higher on him. She made a happy noise and snuggled in closer to him.
Well that was one hell of a night. Dave glanced around the room through Deia’s hair, finding clothes, armor, weapons, and gear leading to the bed.
Dave smirked at their trail of destruction before he let himself drift back to sleep.
“Wake up, you lazy bastards! Breakfast is downstairs!” Dwayne knocked on doors as he went.
Both Dave and Deia hid from the noise, hoping that it would just go away so they could get some more sleep.
Others got up and started to move around, fumbling through their rooms and creating a racket on their floor and then the floor above them as Dwayne reached it.
Dave groaned as Deia tried to tuck herself into Dave’s chest. Her eyes found his, a pitiful expression on her face. Why did this have to happen to us?
Dave just rubbed her head and poured healing magic into her, clearing away the effects of the hangover she was probably feeling. Although Dave had a taste for beers, she seemed to be a wine and spirits drinker. With her Elven metabolism, it was the only thing that could even start to get her drunk.
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Deia complained, her voice sleepy.
“Sorry, was just trying to go back to sleep.” Dave’s eyes closed as he got comfortable on the pillows.
“Mmm,” Deia said as the noise around them continued.
“We’re not going to get back to sleep, are we?” Dave asked.
“Probably not,” Deia muttered, not sounding all that pleased with it.
“Five more...” Dave’s words were interrupted with Suzy knocking on the door.
“Get up! You two are like damned horny teenag—” The door wasn’t locked and only half closed; her knocks opened it. She found Dave and Deia staring at her as her fist was raised to knock again. “Wow. So, tattoos, huh?”
