Illuminating the air with pale purple light, the spectre hovered above the ground beyond the gateway. Through the apparition, one could almost make out the crest of Lanos that hung proudly on the worn tabard. As Beast cautiously approached, its once human face broke open to speak.

“Adventurers, you have been proven worthy and released the seal that we have placed. For that I thank you.” The ghost went into a deep bow. Beast panicked and wanted to stop this unwarranted act of formality but was stopped short by a sight he never thought he would see as they stepped out of the passageway. In this gigantic cavern of rock and clay, dozens of flickering purple lights dotted the landscape and went about their business, giving the entire place an ethereal purplish glow. If it were not for the fact that all of them were ghostly sprites of the past, this place could even be mistaken for a normal town.

You have discovered the hidden town: Earth Lake.

You are the first to discover this place. For this, you will receive Finder’s honour of increased discounts when purchasing and selling items in this town. Also, your intimacy with the residents will increase more quickly.

Judging by the look on Kiki’s face, it seemed that she also got the same notification. Being the first to discover a new place had always been advantageous in both money and experience, due to the permanent bonuses associated with the place. This was also the reason why most adventurers prefer to journey out to uncharted areas, so that they could obtain this benefit for themselves – the areas near major towns and cities were usually no longer unique. If not for Beast’s ability to read the messages and Lotran’s friends pressuring them onwards on the threat of death, they might have never found this place.

“My name is Agor Lanos, keeper of this place. Please, join me in my abode for a word.”

Beast and Kiki followed, all the way through the winding passageways carved out from dirt and stone to the biggest dwelling. Inside, the spectre invited them to take a seat.

“I am sorry. There is nothing substantial I could offer. This town had long died. We are but ghosts of the past. As you might have guessed, we were once residents of the Fort above, driven down below here due to circumstances beyond our control. We were proud, and we were strong, but now we are no more.” Agor sounded almost sad, but his pale expression did not betray any emotions. “That is if the others realised that they had died or even accept the fact. Many of us still do not, and we wander these paths with no end in sight.”

Beast sat in silence. That sounded like a cue for something to happen, if he were just to ask the correct question in the correct way. “I am very sorry for your plight.” He replied. “But could you explain more about what caused your current fate?”

The spectre nodded.

“The passage of time had long since been meaningless to me, but I know that we were once a mighty contingent of soldiers sworn to protect our kingdom of Scelenia from outside threat. Our name spread far and wide, only to fall when the Sundering happened.”

The Sundering again. This must have been about the third or fourth time he had come across the mentioning of this cataclysmic event. “The Sundering?” Beast probed.

“No one truly knows how the Sundering truly began. We were soldiers, not scholars. All we know is that the Sundering happened and with it brought an army of goblins and demons that overwhelmed our fort. None of us could entertain the thought of being deserters, so we stayed and fought. Even when our swords were broken and tabards torn, we retreated down here to continue our resistance. We carved our homes from rock and stone and scrounged food from the waste and whatever we could find. For a while, we managed to hold and could probably hold on if not for a miscalculation on our end. A powerful warlock of spite wove a spell upon this place, cursing us to linger here for eternity, such that even when the Sundering had passed, we could never leave… That is how we came to be.”

Drrrinng!

The Secret of Lanos – Completed

You have leveled up.

Almost immediately, another window popped up right after as a continuation of the previous quest.

The Secret of Lanos – Part II

Class Quest

You discovered a hidden town underneath the Fort of Lanos, where the old inhabitants retreated to when faced with the overwhelming might of the dark army during the Sundering. They had been cursed to wander deep beneath the earth and suffer a fate outside of the cycle of life and death. Understand the root cause of this and liberate them from this fate.

Class Limitation: Historian

Difficulty: C

Beast had expected this; the quest was overdue for completion the moment they discovered the town.

“We can see if we can help liberate your people. “

Agor sighed again. “I do not think anyone can help solve this problem. Other seals chain us to this place, and the one you broke is only one of them, the one we placed on ourselves.”

There were more seals besides the Antroach, meaning more loot and experience in store.

“And yet we did break one. It might be possible to break the others.”

“I do not think you are ready yet.”

It was something that is all too familiar. That meant that the intimacy between them was still too low for Agor to trust him. As it had been usual fare in most games, there was a need to raise trust with the town first.

“Very well. Thank you very much for your hospitality. We will return when we have proven ourselves.” Beast turned to leave. Kiki who had been quiet till the present gave a surprised look.

“Wait, we are going off like this?”

“Yea, there is nothing else we can do for now.”

Agor Lanos nodded his head. “Please, make yourself comfortable at my place while you are in Earth Lake.”

With nothing more to be done, they took their leave and exited.

“Well, I still have some time to spare before I need to log.” Beast glanced at his in-game clock counter. “What are you going to do, Kiki?”

The assassin shuffled about in her feet. “I don’t know?” She finally said. “I think I will explore a little around town…”

Even though she said she could do some exploration, the way she seemed reluctant to do so and her body language seemed pretty odd. Speaking of which, she had been acting a little weird ever since they entered Earth Lake. Beast knitted his forehead together in an attempt to search for an explanation before his mouth suddenly curled up into an “o”.

“Could it be that… you are scared of ghosts?”

The face and the “eep” that she made when she was called out made the answer obvious. Well, perhaps it could not be helped after all; being alone in this town of pale glowing spectres does give one the creeps. He had to give her credit for sustaining thus far.

“All right, how about this? Let’s walk around and check out the NPCS around here for now and we can save the quests for tomorrow.”

At Kiki’s furious nodding, they began walking down the dirt path.

……………..

“What do they mean, they are buying all my loot for 0 copper coins!” Beast hissed outside the General Store, his body no longer able to reign in his temper; He would not dare to show this attitude inside because he had to accumulate intimacy with the town NPCs after all.

Despite Kiki’s repeated attempts to cool him off, Beast only got angrier and angrier as he visited all the stores in town. Everywhere he went, things were the same. The shops in Earth Lake were… virtually non-existent. Even though the physical shop front still remained, the actual goods themselves had long since dissipated into dust.

Town prices in Ages Online are actually determined via the laws of supply and demand. If the shop value the good more, their buying price would naturally be higher. Because the inhabitants of the town were by all means and purpose dead, there was zero need for them to trade anything for anything simply because they could no longer have any use for them.

This game mechanic infuriated Beast to no end.

Similarly, with the quests they were supposed to undertake to raise relationship with the town and its inhabitants, there were none to be found.

“Madam, would you need help in anything? No? Okay…”

“Would you need something done? Not really? I see…”

“Sir, do you have a request to ask of us? We can do it no matter how minor it is. Manual labour, object retrieval, even grocery shop- What? Go Away? I am sorry…”

Rejection, coupled with dejection made for a depressing duo. Even after going through almost all the spectres within the town, there was not a single one who had a request or desire that needed their help. How else were they supposed to obtain enough intimacy to proceed on with the next quest in the chain?

What they did find however, would eventually prove much more beneficial in the long run, so much that Beast forgot about his peeves in a moment’s notice.

“Oh, you must be the warrior who slayed the Antroach. I may have no more goods to sell, but I could teach you how to make it like I used to.” The ghostly tailor by the name of Palcape droned. “That is, only if you wish to learn.”

You have learnt Skill: Ancient Tailoring Basic 1

Using an old technique lost to the world ever since the Sundering, you are able to create armours and clothing using leather and cloth. Because it has been outdated, the creation process will take a longer time. However, the quality of created clothing will be higher and the max skill level you can reach will be higher.

The best part was, because the spirits have no use for currency, the skills were entirely free! The only problems were the tools which they do not sell, but he can easily get them outside of Earth Lake.

“I can teach you to work metal like I did back in my day.”

You have learnt Skill: Ancient Blacksmithing Basic 1

Using an old technique lost to the world ever since the Sundering, you are able to shape metal and create weapons. Because it has been outdated, the creation process will take a longer time. However, the quality of the created item will be higher and the max skill level you can reach will be higher.

You have learnt Skill: Item Repair

“Those times when I mixed up draughts and potions are the best part of my life.”

You have learnt Skill: Ancient Alchemy Basic 1

Using an old technique lost to the world ever since the Sundering, you are able to identify herbs and mix potions from them. Because it has been outdated, the creation process will take a longer time. However, the quality of the created item will be higher and the max skill level you can reach will be higher.

The icing on the cake came when the both of them found an identifier shop that taught the Identification skill, for an entire sum of zero coins. It was like a mini windfall that came early.

You have learnt Skill: Identify

Each of these skills cost a fair bit of money outside to learn outside of those who decided to go into that particular class, which may amount to as high as a hundred gold, to protect the trade of those who specialise in them. Also, they were not always available in all towns; basically only major capitals in the world have the trainers and the Identification skill was obscure enough as it is, having only shops that provide the service. To be able to obtain them at all was already a steal on their part, much less for free.

By the time Beast finished learning the skills from the ghosts and he logged out, he was smiling from end to end.

………

“You seem happy today huh?” Naomi asked, noticing the stupid smile on Sebast’s face. “Did you strike lottery in that game of yours… Ages Online?”

“Something like that.” Sebast replied as he went through the motion across the dojo.

“It was no reason for you to be late though.”

“My bad.” The time spent learning the skills had been longer than expected.

“After the lesson you will go wash the toilet as punishment.”

That day, they were revising on the basic of all martial arts: footwork. For that, he was given a complicated choreograph which he had to reproduce as flawlessly as possible to pass and advance onto other stuff. As usual, there were the regular chores he would have to do after the training, but he could not bring himself to complain at least for today. Besides, he somehow felt a little stronger from all the heavy lifting Naomi usually had him do. That did not mean that she was actually trying to hide her teachings in menial tasks like how those movies and shows like to portray them as; Sebast gathered that she was just simply lazy.

Nevertheless, it was impossible for him to deny that she was a good teacher at heart. Perhaps the situation was helped by the fact that he was her only student at the moment, but the one-on-one guidance that she was giving was very much welcomed. Any mistakes he made were immediately corrected, questions asked immediately answered. It was no wonder he could advance this fast within a matter of days.

“Keep your attention!” Naomi’s outburst snapped Sebast back into reality. A hand sweep came flying a moment later with no chance of dodging, impacting into Sebast’s chest and knocking him off his feet.

“Fwah!!”

“Your leg and balance is off. Try again.”

Sebast painfully got back up and re-initiated the kata as he was told.

“So,” The girl started, back to her usual chirpy self, “Tell me about Ages Online.”

Sebast blinked, a little surprised at the quick change in demeanour, but gathered his thoughts enough to start describing the game to his master as he followed through his training for the day. By the end of his lesson, he had gotten her intrigued enough that she had forgotten to exploit his manual labour. Instead, what she wanted was much more unexpected.

“Come.” It was not an order, but a request. Perhaps used to the previous orders she had made him do, Sebast obliged, only to do a double take when Naomi led him to her room. It was a feminine room, filled with dozens and dozens of cuddly soft toys of all types and adorned with pink wallpapers. It was also the first female room that Sebast have ever been in, alone.

Cold sweat dripped down his back. “Umm… are you sure this is okay?”

“Hmm?” Naomi seemed unfazed as she took a pusheen from her bed before sitting herself down in front of her white laptop on her desk. “Yea, it is okay. Teach me how to sign up for it.”

No matter how nonchalantly Naomi had said it, Sebast still could not shake the uneasy feeling off his back. What if her father suddenly entered and saw him alone inside here with her? He would become minced meat for sure. And what was she doing to make herself look so girly at the current point of time? Sebast could not help but see his dojo master in a different perspective when she was holding a soft toy and looking at him expectantly with puppy-dog eyes.

Was he being tested? There did not seem to be any signs of any surveillance camera.

Stay calm, Sebast. Stay calm.

She only wanted some help. So help her and get the hell out of there.

“Are you going to stone there forever?” Okay, that sounded more like the Naomi he knew.

“So you go to this website…”

……………….

Beast was all smiles when he logged into the game, awaking from the bed inside the lodge that Agor had set aside for them.

“Kiki?”

Strange, the assassin girl was nowhere to be seen. Leaving the bare abode to the town outside, he called out again. “Kiki?”

It was then a piercing shriek penetrated the dusky air. All the spirits were unfazed, except for Beast who immediately dashed off towards the direction of the scream.

“Kiki!”