Having finished reading Roy’s message, Drake quietly closed the book and vanished it into his inventory. He tried to make sense of the master’s words, but any justification or answer that he tried to come up with only served to spawn even more questions.

As the wagon continued to race through the air, just above the uneven dirt road, the morning’s cool breeze managed to snap him out of his train of thought. ‘Zeph, you there?’ His question, however, was met with complete silence. And as he tried to probe the link between him and his spirit, he only felt an all-encompassing sense of exhaustion. ‘Shit… he’s still out of it.’

“You okay, dude?” Bane asked, gently placing a hand on his shoulder that caused him to jerk back.

“Yeah, sorry.” He exhaled and shook his head in a somewhat futile attempt to focus his thoughts on something else. “I was just reading through some… instructions that the master left me about… inscribing magical runes. And I’m still trying to wrap my head around them.”

The lycan’s ears perked up and his eyes lit up the very next second. “Inscribing magic runes? As in enhancing your gear with runes? That sounds totally awesome! And what sort of enhancements are we talking here?”

“Wow, slow down!” Drake smiled, seeing his buddy get so riled up. He then remembered the runed ring that Arthur had passed along to him. “I’m no expert in this sort of stuff, but Roy did leave me a ring that he inscribed himself.”

He raised his right hand and concentrated on the ring he had placed on his index finger. Immediately, he felt his mana rushing to fill a void inside the runed, silver band.

Stranger’s Guise activated.

“What the…?” Vala gasped, leaning in closer towards him.

“What?” Drake asked. “What happened?”

“Dude… your face,” said Bane, pointing towards him.

“What about it?!”

“You’re wearing some sort of mask…” Mia explained. “It just appeared a moment ago. Can you really not see it or feel it?”

“No,” he said, running his fingers over his face and only feeling the short stubble covering his cheeks. “Roy enchanted the ring with some sort of spell called the ‘Stranger’s Guise.’ Wait, let me see if I can toggle it off.”

As he cut off the flow of mana towards his ring, he received another prompt informing him that the spell had been deactivated. However, he still didn’t feel any different.

“It’s gone now!” said the lycan. “Holy shit! That’s so cool!”

“Can you really not tell when you have that mask on?” Vala asked.

“No…” he answered. “Apart from me having to feed a bit of mana into the ring and getting a system prompt, I didn’t notice anything different.”

“Seriously?” the taur asked, raising her brow and reaching out her hand. “Could you pass it over a bit?” He nodded and gave Vala the ring as she then equipped it. “So, how does this work?”

“Well,” said Drake, “you have to focus on it and channel your mana into it.”

“Channel my mana into it?” she asked, slightly confused. “Never mind. What was the spell called again?”

“Stranger’s Guise.”

In silence, Vala closed her fist as a simple, unadorned mask appeared on her face. No other detail was present on it, apart from the two lines racing down from the mask’s narrow eye slits. The air around her, however, seemed… distorted. As if Drake was peering through a shifting layer of warped glass. “Wait,” he said, blinking incredulously. “I actually had that over my face?”

“Is it on?” the taur asked. “Well fuck! You were right! I really can’t tell that it’s there! That’s… actually amazing.”

“Let me try it!” said Bane, nearly slipping off his seat as he extended his hand towards Vala. “Okay. You said to channel my mana into it? How do you even do that?”

Drake opened his mouth to explain, but before he could even get a word out, Vala spoke out. “You can just call the spell’s name out inside your head.”

A moment later, the same mask had appeared over Bane’s face. “So? Is it on?”

“Yeah,” Drake answered. “But are you serious? You only thought of the spell’s name?”

“Well, yeah,” said the lycan. “I didn’t understand what you meant when you said to ‘channel mana into it,’ either. But normally, you only have to think or say the name of an ability or spell. So, what did you mean by that?”

Drake scratched his head and then raised his hand. “It might be easier just to show you.” A small, blue flame flickered to life inside his palm. It then flared violently, growing to the size of a torch’s fire. “I sense the mana flowing through me and then guide it towards where I want it to manifest. And by controlling the amount and how I apply it, I can also do stuff like this,” he said, condensing the flames into the shape of a spinning orb. “This is a Manabolt for me.”

Everyone remained silent as they watched the luminous sphere above his palm disappear. Bane sighed and took off the ring, handing it back.

Seeing Mia fixating on the ring within his palm, Drake grinned and handed it over to her, causing the young woman to jerk and shy away. “Hey, it’s okay if you want to try it out. I’d be curious as well,” he said, dropping it inside her cupped hands.

“Uhm… I’m more curious about how you managed to control that orb of mana,” Mia mumbled as she played around with the ring for a bit, before handing it back.

“Oh, that?” Drake smiled, “I can try teaching you, if you want to give it a shot. Though it does involve a bit of meditating.”

“I happen to be pretty good at… sitting around,” the young blonde beamed, causing both Bane and Vala to snicker.

“Am I missing something?” Drake asked, shifting his gaze between the two half-beasts.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Bane chuckled. “But honestly, I’ve never seen this level of synaptic control implemented inside a game before.”

“Yup,” Vala nodded as she crossed her arms and turned to keep an eye out on the road ahead. “Even in my limited experience, Prism really does take the cake.”

“So, is that what you people call it? Prism?”

It took Drake a moment to place the unfamiliar voice as he scanned the area around them, his gaze meeting that of the purple-haired woman driving the wagon. “Yeah,” he answered, his mind immediately going back to the message Roy had left him. And seeing Bane about to open his mouth to say something, he gestured to his friend to wait.

“Is that the device you use to get here, or the… game?” she asked, no longer staring straight at them and instead looking up ahead.

“It’s what we call the entirety of Enoa,” said Drake, taking note of the other three’s confusion.

“Oh, there’s no need to be so on guard, sweety. I know Roy, and I’m fairly certain that he told you to at least try and keep a lid on things. Then again,” said Kim, sneaking a peek at him, “I also didn’t expect him to take a Stranger on as an apprentice.”

Given what he came to understand about the master, he could partially understand the woman’s point of view. However, that did not mean that her comment and, more importantly, the haphazard way in which she made it didn’t irk him. “I imagine,” he snarked, “that such an oversight, even one as small as this, would reflect pretty poorly on the reputation of an information broker.”

“Hah!” Kim laughed as she spun around, a sly grin plastered on her face. “Okay, I stand corrected: I do see why Roy picked you!”

“I don’t know whether I should be flattered or insulted,” sighed Drake. “But speaking of the master’s occasional… impulsiveness, he’s kind of left us high and dry when it comes to the details of this trip. With that in mind, is there any chance that you could fill us in on whatever you happen to know?”

A brief pause hung in the air as the woman spoke. “Well, I could be persuaded to share a few details here and there. But you’d have to make it worth my while since I’m already here, risking my hide to get you into Harkon.”

Grinning, Drake leaned forward. “And would that be besides what the Guild’s already paying you? Or on top of that?”

Kim sighed and raised her hand, as if waving the matter away. “It was worth a shot. Then how about this? You answer a few questions of mine on a single topic, and I’ll tell you what I know about Harkon.”

“Ask away,” he said, slightly dreading the sheer scope of what the woman might ask.

“Tell me everything about that ability of yours where you make items appear and disappear. ‘Inventory,’ I’ve heard it’s called.”

Slightly taken aback, Drake glanced at the other three and then proceeded to answer. “It’s… basically like the world’s most convenient backpack. You can store any number of items inside, as long as their weight doesn’t exceed what you would normally be able to carry. And if you go past that limit, you start moving slower the more you try to carry inside your inventory.”

“So,” said Kim, pausing for a second, “the only thing that matters is the weight of whatever you’re trying to store?”

“As far as we know, yes,” answered Vala as she also chimed in. “Until now, that’s been the only restriction.”

The purple-haired woman nodded, still keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “Do you feel the weight of the things you’ve stored inside? How exactly do things get sent to and from this inventory? And can anyone else access it?”

“Okay, first of all,” said Drake, tapping the small rings of his chainmail. “Speaking from personal experience, no. Until you reach that limit, you don’t feel the weight of whatever is inside your inventory. Once you cross it, however, you start to feel a bit… sluggish. As if you’re wading through water. As for how you send stuff to it, it’s a bit like… having the mental picture of a shelf inside your head. You focus on what you want to take from it or add to it, and the system kind of takes care of the rest.”

“And it might be possible,” said Bane. “To get access to someone else’s inventory, that is. But something like that should become apparent later on, after more pl… Strangers have gotten the chance to interact with one another and the people here.”

Turning her head around just enough to glance at the four of them, Kim smiled. “I see, I see. Alright then, as promised, I’ll tell you what I know. So…” she sighed, seemingly trying to gather her thoughts, “Harkon’s a small mining town right next to Xeladia’s western border. Which means it falls under dwarven jurisdiction when it comes to defense and peacekeeping. But you might as well think of it as more of a Trorian outpost than a Xelian town.”

“Why’s that?” asked Vala. “Isn’t Harkon a human town? Why would the dwarves be fully in charge?”

“Since the mining compound is also under the direct control of the TCG. Most of the profits go to those living in Harkon, and the taxes do go towards the Xelian treasury. But the dwarves first get to take a nice chunk out of it in the form of a commission fee.”

“Uhm, what’s the TCG?” Mia asked, as if afraid to even risk interrupting the discussion.

“It’s the Trorian Craftsmen’s Guild,” the purple-haired woman answered.

“Never mind that,” Vala interjected, “did the people actually agree to an arrangement like that?”

“No,” said Drake. “The choice was never theirs to make. This is probably part of the agreement that the kingdom struck with Troria over a century ago, when the nobles were trying to avoid a civil war.”

“Indeed,” said Kim, an element of surprise evident in her tone. “As part of the treaty, Xeladia’s four great noble houses signed away the administrative rights of all of the current and future mines near our common border. Which in this case, means more than half of them, since the Harkonnen mountains are pretty rich when it comes to ore and Manastone deposits. And this brings me to my first piece of advice: try to not stir up any sort of trouble. The dwarves tend to be pretty strict when it comes to enforcing the law and their rules. And ever since the Arrival, the town’s been a bit on edge.”

“How so?” asked Vala. “Did the Strangers get into it with the townspeople?”

“Hold on,” ordered the purple-haired woman as she then leaned left. The wagon followed suit, tilting to the side as it entered into a wide curve. The levitating wagon soon righted itself, a short sigh escaping Kim as she continued. “Thing is, most of the kingdom welcomed the Strangers with open arms. If they hadn’t, they would have risked outright hostilities with the Conclave which holds a lot of sway within Xeladia. But many regular people and nobles are still on edge. And in order to ensure that tensions don’t escalate even further, both the Royal Court and the Conclave have upped the number of people patrolling the streets. So that if anything does happen, they can just deal with it quietly, without bringing it into the spotlight. The dwarves, on the other hand, aren’t that keen on Strangers running around. So, they’re a lot harsher since they only want to ensure that their operations aren’t affected.”

Scratching his head, Drake tried to piece everything together in order to get a better understanding of what awaited them. “So, the difference in mentality is what led to frictions between the Conclave and the dwarves?”

“Not quite,” Kim sighed. “The Conclave doesn’t technically operate within Harkon since the TCG’s banned any open manifestations of the sort within the mining compound and the town. The reason I said technically, is because the Mages Guild has recently received a pretty troubling claim from one of the compound’s foremen. According to him, the town healer’s a Conclave member and that she’s strongarmed him into doing some shady things. This is also why the Guild already sent two Adepts to investigate the matter, only they haven’t reported back since arriving in Harkon a few days ago.”

“And we’re to find out what happened to them?” asked Drake.

“I would assume so,” said Kim. “Roy only told me to make sure that you four get into Harkon without letting the dwarves know that you’re there to investigate on the Guild’s behalf. He believes that that’s probably what drew… unwanted attention to those two.”

The Master’s Task

Update: Kim has filled you in on some of the details regarding your trip to Harkon. According to her, you are to investigate the circumstances in which two of the Guild’s adepts have vanished, along with finding out more about the claims of the foreman that had contacted the Guild in the first place.

Given the currently tense situation within the mining town of Harkon, a stealthier approach would be wise.

Quest Difficulty: D

“I get the urgency of the matter,” said Bane, his eyes shifting from side to side as he probably read the new quest prompt. “But why go to all of this trouble to transport us there? Wouldn’t it draw less attention if we just entered the town ourselves?”

“Harkon’s been on lockdown ever since the Arrival,” Kim answered. “No one gets in without a good reason or the guards knowing. And that’s where having some connections comes in handy. I have a couple of friends working at the town’s back gate that can let you guys in without having to go through all of the official channels. But once their shift’s over this evening, they won’t be on gate duty again for another two weeks.”

“Uhm… I have a question,” said Mia, slowly raising her hand. “If getting inside Harkon is this difficult, wouldn’t leaving be the same?”

“It would normally be an issue,” said Kim. “But if the four of you decided to leave, the dwarves would actually appreciate having less Strangers to deal with. And until you actually have to leave, I’d also suggest to not signpost your… heritage. If someone asks, you’re a group of bodyguards that I hired.”

“Does that mean you’ll stick around?” Drake asked, slightly confused. “I thought you were just going to drop us off and then leave.”

“I have a few things I need to take care of as well,” Kim grinned. “So, as long as I’m already here…”

“Fair enough,” he said, checking the clock on his HUD. “By the way, how long is this trip to Harkon?”

“At the rate we’re going? We’ll get there a bit before sundown so… around 11 hours?”

“I see,” said Drake as he exchanged glances with the other three. “Would it be a problem if we took the time to rest a bit?”

“Not at all,” Kim replied. “But by rest, you mean going back to your world?”

“Pretty much,” said Bane.

“How exactly would that work? Don’t your bodies disappear when you do that?”

“Usually yes,” answered Vala, “but there’s also the option of leaving our body behind as if we’re sleeping.”

“Okay…” Kim mumbled, “not at all creepy…”

Doing his best to suppress a chuckle, Drake waved at everyone before opening his menu and disconnecting.

****

While the worst of summer had already passed, the morning sun still had enough strength as to make even the city’s shaded park feel stifling. In this sweltering heat that still hadn’t reached its peak, the trails left behind by the beads of sweat rolling down Ryan’s face felt like pulsing veins of ice, flaring up each time the breeze picked up. And as he finished his morning routine, bringing down his bamboo shinai one last time, he heard Dan groan again.

“Dude, you okay?” he asked as he packed away his things, stealing a glance at his friend that was collapsed in the shade of the park’s oldest oak.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Dan wheezed, his voice an amalgamation of sarcasm, exhaustion and resignation. “It just feels as if someone set me on fire after forcing needles down my throat…”

“Heh, if you still have enough energy to whine, you’ll live.”

“I don’t get it,” Dan groaned, forcing himself up by his shaky hands and knees, “am I really that out of shape?”

“I don’t think so,” said Ryan as he slipped his duffle bag’s strap over his head. “Most people would be out of breath from simply climbing down a few flights of stairs.”

“Yeah, but VR makes it all feel so… easy,” Dan sighed, wiping his face with the small towel hanging around his shoulders.

“I know what you mean,” he said as the two of them made their way towards the park’s exit. “But in my case, it was actually worse when I first logged in.”

“Worse how?”

“As in,” Ryan answered, “even running for a few minutes had me out of breath at the beginning. It only got better after I started to put a few points into Vitality. But in any case, I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. You’ll get used to this here as well. Eventually.”

“Define eventually…” said Dan, wincing whenever he took a step.

“A few weeks,” he grinned, eliciting another groan out of his pal. “And just so you know, me going home today doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. I’m gonna come pick you up tomorrow morning, so be ready!”

They soon split up. It didn’t take long for Ryan to arrive at his small, studio apartment. “Hey, Mike,” he said as he entered and took off his shoes, leaving his duffle bag near the entrance. A quiet chime rang out as he sat on top of his bed, cool air beginning to flow from the small vents on the ceiling.

“Hello Ryan,” his home’s AI replied. “I trust you had a nice day?”

“It’s been… interesting, to say the least. And hell, now we’re on our way to investigate the disappearance of two NPCs in-game, in a town that might as well have a giant ‘KEEP OUT’ sign hanging above its entrance.”

“I see. That really does sound like fun!” the AI replied, doing its best to emulate a sense of interest, as any desire Ryan had to talk about the game flew out the window.

‘Heh… what did I expect? Mike’s not Aida. And it’d be unfair of me to actually compare the two…’

Still, compare he did. Thinking back, he hadn’t once gotten the impression that he was talking to an AI in any of his conversations with Prism’s NPCs. Having also read Roy’s note, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the entire thing… But before he could venture further down this particular rabbit hole, his stomach rumbled, snapping him out of his train of thought.