NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43 - Rats in Hell
"Name and job?" A woman guard wearing a red bracelet pointed her sharp sword at us. It glistened in the purple light, a slight sheen on it that shimmered. She coated it with an oil, likely a poison. I couldn't afford another potion cure from Alcender.
"I am Alcender the Great. I was gathering the supplies for Mayor A. Tory. Specifically, these mushrooms." Alcender patted the ACDC box.
The guards backed up, one even tightened their mask over their face. Everyone was afraid of the Helitical Shroom here because they knew what they did.
"We note your sacrifice, brave alchemist." The guard moved her sword toward me. "You?"
I kept my shield covering the giant box as best as possible, hoping they didn't see the timer. "I'm Boulder and-"
"He's helping me return the box that was stolen. I single handily killed the thief, and this low-level came over to help return it." Alcender wrapped his wand arm around me, the blue light glowing brighter. "You can trust me."
I wanted nothing more to shove him off and get away. I had to get back to the kids in the game.
But the stupid "one-more-quest" this game did kept on distracting me. I had to finish this box quest for Bearita and get back to my family.
The guard sheathed her sword and pulled out a three pictures, one of a man with a mustache, and two women who looked to be the same person, just fifteen years older. "You may go once you answer these questions. Who is our mayor?"
"That one." Alcender pointed to the older woman with dark tight curls on her head.
"Do you agree?" the guard asked me.
"Yes." I copied Alcender. This was all a test, but for what?
"Hmm, you will need to answer this question next." She pulled out another three sets of pictures. One picture displayed the four pillars in the middle of town as if new, not broken like they were now. Another picture with how pillars were currently, and the last a statue of a man holding a magical staff surrounded by people lying on the ground by him. "Which of these is our memorial?"
"The one in the middle." I answered without hesitation.
Alcender gave the same answer.
"Good." The guard gave the approval. "Their memories are still fine from harvesting. Let them in."
That wasn't ominous about the mushrooms.
The guards put their weapons away. One sat down at the desk and wrote in their journal. The timer on the box changed to white instead of the glaring red. The timer remained the same. Almost an hour left. A new note popped up on the quest.
>>><<<
[Quest Update: What's in the box?
You are now less suspicious in town. It feels like you need this hint: Hurry and get this box to its destination before something bad happens.
Failure: As time passes by, your vision will narrow down. This will become a permanent status for a week.
Reward: You will know the purpose of those alchemy ingredients.]
>>><<<
Once I was out of earshot of all the guards and back out in the main streets of Purge, I breathed a breath of relief. Alcender the Great was proving too useful and was after something. I pushed the box to him and said, "You sure you don't want this box now?"
"Please, if I can help a fellow Fanamel friend in finishing their quest, earn some funds, and do it all without interrupting my personal goals, it just warms my soul."
"You make it sound like it comes from the kindness of your heart."
Alcender put a hand over his heart and gently spoke, "People say they let the new kids pick and do what they want. Let them enjoy something for the first time. I'm letting you not lose a chance on this class quest."
I slowed my steps, and Alcender continued ahead. He started talking to his stream about how glorious and wonderful he was. All of it was hogwash. I got goosebumps being with this performer. I knew these old tricks. Alcender was after something and I had to figure out how to shake him.
There was no way for me to interact with my viewers on my stream. Maybe there was someone there trying to warn me and give me information. Or trick me like Alcender did.
His fans were internet trolls and loved what Alcender did. I couldn't trust my stream tip information, only my gut feeling that I had to run.
I turned down another alley, stumbling into some trash because I still hadn't gained back my vision yet. Even more of a reason for me to finish this quest. Rats squeaked about and I kicked them away, surprised that even in hell, they had rats.
Some walked on two legs with their nasty personality.
"My friend, where are you going? I need you to turn that box in." Alcender shadow loomed over toward me, his wand out and pointing at the box in my hands.
"How did you even know it was a class quest? About me throwing my axes?" I needed to buy time and think of a plan. Alcender was higher level than me and armed.
He tapped the wand against his head, right before it glowed a vibrant green spell. "I told you; I can talk to my guild and even some streaming members thanks to this. There's always tricks on these things. Oh, that's right, you don't listen?"
The last remark scared me the most. It revealed how much he knew of me. I had to be better and spot these clues like Beth and Elaine did in order to shake this guy.
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I put the box down and pulled out my axe behind the shield. "And you're really shady with your responses."
"I prefer mysterious. To be in the Pantheon, one must have flair and money. You're both the problem and a solution to that. So, chop, chop."
I wanted to listen to those words and chop him up with my axe as a warning to back off. But there was an electrical charge on his wand, and I was an idiot who walked down this alleyway to lose him. I needed to find guards to save me from him.
"What are you going to do once we get out here and in the streets where the guards see you threatening me?" I tried to scare him.
"I'm not concerned about that. I can wait for the last hour on your quest. Remember, that box full of alchemy ingredients is for me. Or you can fail your class quest and be stuck here even longer while I go to Fanamel."
Cold anger flushed through my blood. "Why do you want to go to Fanamel?"
Alcender smirked, pointing to the alleyway. "I've got to research something, a leak. The Pantheon doesn't reveal their plans to lowly humans. Walk along."
Forced to obey, I tried my next plan while carrying the box. The crowded area out in the open didn't feel any safer than the alley. Especially with a loaded wand behind my back. Other players noticed us and gave us more room while avoiding eye contact.
"Hey," I called to a player crossing the market area.
Zap!
A jolt ran down my back, sending a pain along my left leg.
Alcender cackled. "That's a warning. Keep quiet and just carry that box while I follow."
We walked through the market area and were now near the city hall. A lot of guards stood out front and they would do anything to stop player versus player fighting in the city. They were my best chance.
I turned to run near them, but on the second step, a tiny zap hit me. "Idiot." I mumbled to him as I rolled my shoulder from the pain.
The guards turned their heads toward us, their hands resting on their weapons. A woman wearing a yellow stripped balaclava and four pins sewed into her jerkin approached us. "Sir Alcender the Great. Is everything alright?"
"Oh yes. Trying to help the young stay on track and finish their tasks. You know how the new recruits are." The laughter he let out belonged on a cheesy sound track for a sitcom.
"Then have a good day." The guard saluted him, along with all the others.
Alcender was associated with this town.
The box in my hands felt extremely heavy as I dropped it to the ground. There wasn't anywhere to run. I had no money for a portal. I couldn't talk to anyone and I was being forced to finish this quest. This wasn't even a class quest I wanted. It wasn't fun doing what others wanted. I got my just desserts for how I treated the kids.
The failure reward was fitting. Maybe with the tunnel vision, I'd learn to focus better. I could accept that and then continue on to the next quest, the next distraction.
Or… I could just give up. Stop all of this pointless gaming. It was too soon to go back into gaming as a down time. I had been so obsessed with forcing the kids on my plan, on my goals, that I didn't let them have their first gaming experiences the way I did. To take it slow and explore every rock and find every treasure. To sit and fish off a boat and get excited at the catch. Or become a tracker that guides us to adventure and saves our lives.
"It's not my game." I repeated the mantra my therapist gave to help me stop this addiction. To stop confusing virtual reality and life.
Another zap hit me, stronger than before. "Let's get a moving pack mule," Alcender laughed at his joke.
If I logged out now, he could kill my character and I end up elsewhere in the world. I'd lose a few levels and my money for leaving a class quest open. It wouldn't just be one class, it be multiple class quests failed. The kids could receive a curse for not finishing the legendary quest, or even failing it because I had the seed.
It's not just my game.
I refuse to let Naiad and Triangle suffer because of my selfishness. This mess was my own, and I would get back to them.
Another larger electrical shock hit me.
My health potions didn't even tempt me. Triangle learned how to make a lot of different potions and funny bombs. He was having his first game experience now, without me. He started alchemy without me saying so, discovering it on his own. Making friends with an herbalist NPC to get going. Naiad stayed focus on finishing her quest with the Carrion of Life, even when I dragged her through hell. I was going to page from their books.
I started walking, purposely weaving further around the city to buy time for my slow gears to work. The little crowned basilisk skittered from us. Alcender kicked the helpless creatures to the side.
Something about what Alcender said about Fanamel threw me off earlier, but it now made sense. In a calm voice, as if I was in control, I asked him, "Why can't anyone find the herbalist in Fanamel? It should be a normal quest to create a potion market."
"Zap!" He mocked as he hit me again. "I don't need to answer to you. Do you want me to throw you in prison?"
"No." But he also was really pushing for me to turn this quest in. I had to get that balaclava off him and wear it myself to warn my guild.
I grabbed the box and moved away from the false security of the city and towards Bows and Teekes. Alcender probably already knew where to go because of his streaming fans. They could tell him everything I saw and said.
Not what I was thinking right now. Bearita would be on my side, unlike those guards.
"Let's get this done and go our separate ways." I ordered with complete confidence in my plan. I put my shield away and carried the box in the open.
The brat hummed as we walked. I nudged my way through the town, taking a longer stride. There was no time to be wailing on the ground and giving up. I'm a dad and had to be there for both Naiad and Triangle.
I would stop this prick from whatever he was planning to do in Fanamel. We arrived at the shop and I took a breath. It was show time.
Standing in front of the store was the smell of stained leather and the stank of Alcender next to me.
With an overly exaggerated movement, and a deep breath, he opened the door and waved me in. "After you, squire."
No one else was here. I had hoped the paladin was around, but he and his guild mate didn't live here like NPCs. The reeds rattled with our entrance, heralding trouble for Bearita. The room felt too small for a battle. Weapons lined the rack, but none that I used, only the axes at my side could do the job.
But what would killing Alcender do? Calm my nerves? I know he was a jerk using me and threatening me. This whole mess was my fault, anyway. My life wasn't escalating to the point it needed violence to fix a solution. He wasn't a monster, just a sleazy rat, threatening me. As long as he stayed away from my family, he would be fine. Turn the box in, finish this class quest and return to my family immediately.
"Boulder! Back so soon." Bearita came walking in with a big grin, smiling at both of us.
Alcender smirked back, tapping his headpiece to move it into his inventory. He noticed Bearita not wearing it. "Why, what a charming face and smile you have. My friend, Boulder, here needed some help with the task you gave him. I had to join along."
Bearita had hearts appear over her head. "My, aren't you a charmer? Why don't we head to the back? I'll prepare some mellow, earthy tea. Maybe that will be more for your taste." She winked at me.
"Water's fine for me." I told her, but she waved a hand.
"I'll find something for your palate."
I lost track of her as she moved around the register, so I shifted my position to keep her in view. I was down to forty percent vision. I had to warn her that Alcender was trouble before she said anything that would reveal her goals to figure out what the Mayor Miss A. Tory was up to.
As I got near her in the back room, she put a hand on the box, looked at it, and then up at me. Four deep green painted fingernails tip toed up the box, near my face, and then off to the side. I turned my head to check, annoyed that her flipping me off would've been in my normal peripherals.
"Oh lad, what happened to your sight?" Bearita kindly asked.
"The purple torches, don't look at them long." I kept my answer short to avoid blurting anything. "That's all I could find out there. During testing, I learned the torches don't stop the demons from finding you out in the boglands."
Alcender scoffed. "Yes, it does. You just had to bleed all over the place first and make a trail right to us."
"It was the only way to motivate you to pull the arrow out," I retorted.
Bearita put her hands up in the air. "You two, sit down while I get the tea. I can't wait to hear the results you got."
I really did not need tea right now. I had to stop myself and Bearita from blurting out our actual goals.