009

--TheirWorld--

“Wait,” Athariel said, waving her hand in the air. “The two of you took on a pair of level 15 Skeleton Masters and their Bone Hounds by yourselves? A 14 Shaman and a classless level 8?”

“Those things were level 15?” Guin asked, scrunching up her nose. Either that was incredibly disappointing, or Ibraxis was a much better support player than she gave him credit for. Seeing the impressed looks on their faces though, Guin decided to not play up the disappointing angle, and said, “I’d give the credit to Ibraxis; those buffs of his are no joke.”

“Wow!” Tea looked at Ibraxis with a curiously starry-eyed expression which did not go unnoticed by the object of his attentions. Guin smirked a little as she watched the white garule awkwardly edge behind her. When he noticed her stare he twitched his nose with a shrug.

Zen snorted in Guin general direction, grumbling, “They’d have to be to keep you alive.”

“That said,” Ibraxis started. “With that trait debuff of hers, the only thing my buffs were doing was healing damage she barely took." He looked down at her, "Do not give yourself so little credit; your instincts are not bad.”

“Trait debuff?” Zen asked, his face going a little red.

“That’s why you were late, wasn’t it?” Ath asked.

Nodding, Guin gave a brief explanation about what happened — leaving Liorax out of the conversation, of course. “Sorry to keep you guys waiting!” she finished.

“You got here yourself, so it’s no issue,” Ath said. “We are just about to Zen’s quest location. What quests do you two have? Guin, you probably have quite a few, considering your level…”

“Right now I have,” Guin opened up her quest screen to show them the relevant quests. “[The Glowing Carvings], [Quest Offered: Dust and Essence], [The Rodents Below], and [The Lost Spirit (Fate Quest)]. Two of them are gathering quests, so I’m not terribly concerned. The other two are a little more complicated, probably.” Ath and the others looked through the list as she linked them out.

Zen twitched. “Those quests are awfully cryptic. How do you have a fate quest at level 8?” The human monk looked her over with great displeasure. Better not tell him I have two…

“The biggest one I am aiming to complete is the one about the glowing carvings. That one is from my profession quest line,” she said, ignoring what she interpreted as jealousy coming from the proud man. Regret creeped into the back of her mind, thinking she should have held the fate quest back from them.

Tea tilted his head. “You are a scribe, right?” he asked. “I was as well, but I don’t recognise that quest about the inscriptions…”

“I do,” Ibraxis said. “It’s a quest given to those with the [Veil Sight] trait.”

“Oh!” Athariel went. “That makes sense. The fate quest is connected to that too, isn’t it?” It was more statement than question, and without a better answer to give them, Guin simply affirmed her thoughts with a nod. Athariel then turned to Ibraxis. “And you?”

The white garule shrugged. “Do not worry about me; I am mostly just down here to level right now. I do have a couple of collection quests — the same as Guin’s, actually; I got them late — but like her, I am sure we can pick things up along the way.”

Guin looked at him in surprise. She had gotten all her quests at roughly the same time; it didn’t seem like there was another route to get them. How then, did Ibraxis know about the glowing carvings quest without getting the others?

Raising his hand, Tea said, “I have those gathering quests too! But I finished the mice a while ago. I’ve gotten some [Bone Dust] and [Death Moss], but I can’t solo the areas to get them very well. Haven’t had much luck finding rats or [Spectral Essence].”

“If you do not have [Veil Sight], [Spectral Essence] is impossible to find,” Ibraxis told him, shaking his head. “Quests like that one serve as one of the balance mechanisms for Veil players in exchange for the fact that they often have to fight a lot more enemies than Che players.” Guin’s eyes flickered toward the white garule again. Surely, she was able to understand what he was saying because of her journey through the tutorial. It was the way he said it that caught her attention.

The others, however, just gave him blank looks.

“The what and the what now?” Ath blinked at him.

“TheirWorld, or Uldarin, depending on how you want to refer to this world, is essentially made up of two planes,” Ibraxis explained, making motions with his hands to demonstrate his point. “Though it is basically incorrect, the easiest way to explain it is that there is the ‘physical’ realm, which the valkyrian call the ‘Che’, and the ‘metaphysical’ realm, called the ‘Veil’. Really, it’s more like two parallel, overlapping realities that are in a bit of a push-pull relationship. There are those that can see into the other side, if you will, making them exist in both worlds at the same time. There are also a rare few that can exist in one realm or the other. The creatures that drop the [Spectral Essence] exist only in the Veil; meaning, of course, that only those who can see into, and manipulate the Veil, are able to achieve success in these quests.”

Athariel’s eyes were glazed over, but Tea looked excited. “So, if we want to finish these quests, we need to party up with people with [Veil Sight]?”

“Why the hell would they do that?” Zen asked, looking a bit ticked off at being lectured.

“Do what?” Ibraxis asked.

“Make a system like that?”

“Isn’t it part of the cultural aspect of the game?” Guin asked. She had thought that part at least was rather obvious.

And indeed, Ibraxis nodded along with what she said. “It is,” he affirmed. “Every world has some version of a Veil-type concept, and it helps to create a cohesive, diverse world that accounts for the beliefs and cultures of many. But for the more practical individual, it also helps to promote teamwork. Either you are bound to the Che and need someone with Veil Sight to help on certain quests, or you have Veil Sight and have two or three times as many enemies interfering with quest goals.”

“And why isn’t it all over the forums?” Ath asked, tilting her head. “I feel like there must be a ton of people who haven’t figured it out and have a ton of quests they haven’t completed.”

“There isn’t a whole lot of information out there yet, even for the game being out a whole six months,” Guin said dismally. “Trust me. I’ve looked.”

“That plays into it,” Ibraxis said. “People do not want other people to know the secrets of the game.”

Tea’s eyes as they started at Ibraxis were filled with awe, but he said nothing. Ibraxis awkwardly pat the smaller garule on the head, and the little male’s feathers flared out again.

“Well,” shrugged Athariel. “I didn’t understand a word of that. Let’s move on?”

“Yes,” went Zen distastefully, pointing down the hallway. “The tomb should be down this way. Be ready for anything. Ibraxis, heals on me. You got any range, level 8?”

Guin gave him a taut smile. “Not any worth talking about, but I’ll do my best to stay out of your way.” The warrior monk continued to look unhappy, but he pulled the group along.

“Sorry about him,” Ath shrugged. “He’s had a long day. He’s cranky.”

Tea visibly shivered and hugged his lute. “Scary, scary, Zen.”

While they followed the Monk through the halls, Guin watched Ibraxis carefully. Aside from the fact he was a garule, she had found him easy to trust and play with thus far — but he lecture made her uneasy. Could he be a Candidate too? she wondered, recalling the tense interaction he had had with Liorax earlier.

Driven by curiosity, she pulled up his public character window. It didn’t give her much information beyond level, class, and gear, and the only thing worth noting was that all his gear was white-class; normal. There wasn’t a single magical item among his possessions. Cursing under her breath, she wished that she had thought to pick up a detect ability to see if he was hiding anything. How unusual would it be for a player over level ten to wear to not have a single enchanted item? All six of his accessory slots were filled, and they too, were white-class.

Closing it out, she looked him over.

The closer she looked, the less she liked it.

Not only was his class a magic-based class, the appearance of his gear looked far from ‘normal’. She could see the material was finer cloth then she had seen thus far in the came. The bones and beads that covered him were delicately carved, or intricately painted. The rings on his fingers looked to be of simple construction, but she knew enough about gemstones to know that, normal or not, they must have been costly acquisitions.

Striding up to Tea, she asked, “What do you think of Ibraxis?”

“Ibraxis?” the blue and orange garule looked nervous.

“You tend to look at him like you admire him…”

Tea laughed. “Oh. I guess so. There aren’t many like him, after all.”

“What does that mean?”

“Eh? I-I mean…” he threw a glance in Ibraxis’s direction, the leaned in. In a hushed voice, he said, “He’s a Sutak after all. Not only that, but he’s a Sutak daring to play at being an Undying. Every traditional garule in this game are bound to attack him without mercy!” Tea looked at him, his eyes filled with longing. “I wish I were half so brave…”

That term again, she bit her lip. “What’s an ‘Undying’?” she asked instead.

“Mmm,” he went. “An Undying is like a garuli Shaman. A special kind of Shaman; one of the very few positions of power a male can rise up to in most of our culture. I don’t know what they are like in the game, but the Undying in our mythologies are very, very powerful. Maybe like… like human wizards!” Tea’s eyes seemed like a child’s as he spoke; alight with wonder.

“Is that so?” Guin murmured, looking over at the increasingly mysterious Ibraxis again. “What about Su—”

Before she could ask anymore, Zen shouted down the hall about a horde of mice. Not caring to be mistaken as an enemy in Zen’s power game, she forgoed using her [Fox Form], and instead used her dagger to try to slice them.

It was a rather fruitless endeavor — she and Ibraxis alone made a much more efficient team — but at least she had been able to improve her dagger proficiency.