Chapter ‌‌3.03 G THE RACE OF THE DEAD

Kingdom of Ravaryn

4th Voidday of the Full Moon

It took Ginka all of five minutes to figure out she had no idea where she was heading. She spotted an armored guard standing near an inner wall entrance looking around the square. It seemed to be heading into the center of the city.

“Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the Adventurers’ Guild?”

“What are you? You’re not Elf or a Silken. Are you some type of Fae?” the guard asked.

“I’m Human. Isn’t it rude to ask someone what they are?”

“Yea, you’re not from around here. Sorry if It appears rude, but some races aren’t permitted within the inner circles of Ravaryn. As to your question, the Adventurers’ Guild is in the outer ring and can be found in the southern section along the main road. Turn around and walk down this road until you come to a large road that’s eight carriages wide, then turn left. The Guild is about a thirty-minute walk from there.”

“Why aren’t some races allowed inside the inner city?”

“King Thronnos has forbidden anyone other than the high races from entering the inner city.”

“Who are the high races?”

“The Seraphim, Cherubim, Elves, Kitsune, and any of the Fae.”

“How does a new player get inside the inner city?”

“They don’t.”

“Oh, well. Thank you kindly for the directions.”

Ginka turned around and walked off in the direction the guard had pointed her to. The massive boulevard wasn’t hard to miss. The roads were laid with square pavers made of either brick or clay. They were constructed to be slightly higher at their center to allow water to run off their sides. The thoroughfare was bustling with activity. Multiple carts and carriages passed in both directions as a gaggle of people walked on sidewalks made of large cobblestones.

Turning left, Ginka began walking down the cobblestone sidewalk while taking everything in. She tried not to stare, but some of the races that passed by boggled her mind. Ginka wondered if she was actually inside some type of sci-fi game.

Ginka spent the next forty minutes taking in the sights. The entire city seemed more alive to her than New Houston had ever been. The architecture looked like it came out of the medieval era, but the streets and people seemed to be both clean and happy. Coming out of her thoughts, she spotted a large building on the other side of the road with a sign that indicated this was what she was looking for. Looking in both directions, she waited for a lull in traffic before jogging across the wide road.

Just before making it to the other side of the street, she spotted the tall Bastiva looking down at her as she leaned against the second floor of the building. Ginka stopped in her tracks upon seeing the giant.

“Move, gutter trash!” someone yelled from her right.

Ginka looked to her right and immediately dove for the sidewalk. A large carriage being pulled by two massive headless rhino bodies with long grey looking giraffe necks at the back of the animal with its giraffe shaped heads weaved around her and kept going down the road. As the carriage swerved, a small sack seemed to be thrown out of the window towards Ginka.

After pulling herself up from the cold pavement, she looked down at the item by her feet, seeming to study the bag for a moment before finally picking it up. She looked up and began yelling for the driver to stop but didn’t see any sign of the carriage. Thinking back to Bastiva, she turned around to greet her but found her gone as well.

Huh, did I imagine her?

Ginka waited a few minutes for someone to come back and retrieve the small sack. When no one came after a while, she decided to enter the large building. Walking into the large hall, the first thing she noticed was all the different races seemingly filling every part of the large open room layout. Realizing it was probably impolite to be gawking at her fellow players, she began making her way to a series of lines leading up to what looked to be reception desks. . She stopped along the way when she spotted three massive bulletin boards with hundreds of paper stacks nailed to them. They were all blank except for a hand full on the leftmost board’s bottom.

Still looking around, she got in line behind a man with what looked to be a koala’s head upon his shoulders. Peering around the Koala man’s shoulders, she looked down the line to see a beautiful Elf sitting behind the desk. Ginka was just beginning to wonder how many different races were in the room when she felt something sharp clamp down on her shoulder. Frightened by the sudden attack, she let out a shrilling shriek and dove to the ground.

“Damnit, Zekie. You need to stop doing that!” came a shout from across the room.

Ginka looked up to see what seemed to be a large bird mixed with a panda hovering over her. As she tried to process the sight before her, a tall Lamia slithered over to her and the panda bird.

“Smells funny, different,” the panda bird said.

“I’m so sorry. I hope my companion hasn’t hurt you,” the Lamia said.

“I’m fine. He just startled me,” Ginka said as the Lamia reached down and helped her up.

“Zekie is a she, and she should apologize right now.” said the Lamia rather pointedly to her companion.

The Panda bird landed on Ginka’s shoulder again and headbutted the human. Ginka giggled at the strange display and reached up to pet the odd-looking bird.

“I suggest you don’t do that, or you’ll never get rid of her. By the way, I’m Aelithis. And this here is Zekie, my companion, a Pandatrice.”

“Hello, Aelithis and Zekie. I’m Ginka. I’m new to the game. Just started today, not long ago, in fact. I’m here for my first quest.”

“That, that shouldn’t be possible. Why didn’t you start on one of the islands to learn about the game before coming here?”

“I was sent here to find the owner of Ziggy’s Thorn, an inn.”

“‘SQUAWK’ bad food,” Zekie said.

The Lamia chuckled at her companion.

“We know of the inn as we are currently staying there. We could take you there after you’ve finished your business here. It’s not very far.”

“Why did she say bad food?”

“You’ll understand when you get there.”

Ginka continued conversing with the Lamia as they waited. Ginka kept looking at the colorful scales across the bottom of her torso and tail. Aelithis smiled every time she caught Ginka staring at her wonderful patterns.

Ten or so minutes later, they got to the front of the line, where Ginka got her first full look at the Elf behind the counter. She was incredibly gorgeous, with vivid pink hair that was weaved into flower patterns down her shoulders.

“Hello, I have a quest that says to come here and register as an adventurer.”

The Elf appeared to be shocked by the news. But after a brief moment, she seemed to push through it and began speaking to Ginka.

“We don’t register many new adventurers here besides children on the anniversary of their tenth cycle. You look a bit older than ten, my dear.”

“Sorry, I…”

Aelithis, still with Ginka, leaned over the counter and whispered into the Elf’s ear. Ginka watched the Elf nod a few times and then smile.

“Don’t worry, Ginka. I’ll take care of you, you poor thing.” said the pointed eared admin.

With a last sympathetic look to Ginka, the Elf got up and walked back into one of the rooms behind her. Ginka looked over at the Lamia, waiting for an answer.

“I told her you were rebirthed here before you could do anything on the island. I’ll explain later. You don’t want people finding out you were sent here by one of the gods.”

“What?!”

“I’ll explain how I know that as well later. Please try to keep calm in the meantime.”

The Elf came back a few minutes later in a huff and placed a pouch, a large sack, and what looked like green dog tags onto the counter.

“I’m sorry, it’s been a long time since I've registered someone. What kind of combat style did you want to specialize in, so I can get you a set of starter weapons.”

“Cooking and baking.”

The Elf nodded and began to turn around before repeating what the Human had said.

“That’s not a combat style.”

“I’m not here to fight. I’m here to retire and bake to my heart’s content.”

The Elf seemed to battle over something mentally and then disappeared into the back again. Five minutes later, she returned in another huff.

“Ok, I spoke with the Elder, and he said to just hand over a bunch of these to help you on your way.”

The Elf handed over a stack of smooth feeling small books that looked like coupon books to Ginka.

“These are Horde Vouchers. They’re given out to refugees when a horde destroys their town, and they wind up spawning here. That hasn’t happened in many phases, so we have plenty to spare. Take these to any of the shops in the outer ring to buy whatever supplies you may need for your...retirement.” The Elf’s smile was both brilliant and enigmatic.

“Thank you, hun. What is your name, by the way? I don’t want to have to go around saying that pink-haired Elf was so nice to me.”

The Elf turned a red shade, almost light enough to match her hair.

“I’m Shelara.”

“Nice to meet you, Shelara. I’m Ginka, and thank you again for the vouchers.”

“It’s wonderful to make your acquaintance Ginka. Here is your magic bag. Would you mind?”

Shelara held out her hand as to shake Ginka’s. Ginka placed her hand into the Elfs, then regretted it. Shelara removed a tiny thin dagger from thin air, then turned over Ginka’s hand so the palm was up and cut a shallow line across it. Ginka immediately pulled her hand back and looked over the small wound.

“Ow!?! Wait? I didn’t even feel that.”

The Elf just smiled at the Human.

“Please place your palm on the bag, so your blood seeps into it, please.”

Ginka did as she asked and was startled when a prompt came into view.

You have unlocked Soulbinding.

Soulbound: 0/8

“What is soulbinding?”

“This blood ritual will bind an item to your soul, allowing the said item to follow you even through the death process. Anything you keep inside your magic bag will also respawn with you.”

“Ok, I believe I understand.”

“Here is a sack of a hundred Clear Cores. We normally give these to the younglings when they receive their bags. Please put them inside your magic bag until you are ready to use them. This is usually done before one goes to sleep. The last item here is your identification tags. Every player must wear these, as the system governs it. Please hand me your hand again so that you can place a few droplets of blood on them.”

Ginka gave over her hand again. This time Shelara only pricked the end of her finger, and she felt nothing. The Elf then carefully pressed Ginka’s finger to push more blood to the cut and let a few droplets fall onto the small green discs. The tags began to glow, then suddenly emitted a small flash of light. Once Ginka blinked away the spots before her eyes, she looked down and saw some writing had appeared on the tags.

“The tags let others know your rank within the Adventurers’ Guild, plus additional information such as your name and your planet of origin. If you wish to raise your rank, you may do so by completing various quests located on our aptly named quest boards. You can find quests for your rank on the lower left one.”

“Thank you again, Shelara. I’m not sure if I’m going to do quests or not yet. I need to go back to the Crystal first to register, then find a certain inn.”

“No harm in taking The Games slow, Ginka. I would love to hear about what you get yourself into sometime when you come back to The Guild.”

“That sounds great. I’ll even bring cupcakes.”

Nodding to Aelithis, the two left The Guild’s hall, the Pandatrice occasionally hopping shoulders between them.

“What the hell are cupcakes?” the Dwarf admin next to Shelara asked.

“I have no idea, but I’m guessing it’s food from the ‘Human’ world,” Shelara said as she pronounced the species’ name out loud for the first time.

“Thank you again for helping me, Aelithis. I need to head back and register at the Crystal before we go to the inn.” she pointed in the general direction from which she originally came from.

“There is one at the square just south of here, Ginka.” Aelithis pointed in a different direction.

“Oh? How many Crystals are there?” Ginka asked.

“The Kingdom of Ravaryn is made up of five of them. Each at a cardinal direction inside the outer ring and one inside the inner city.”

Ginka nodded and then shrugged the information away.

The Lamia led her new Human friend to a square a few blocks from The Guild. Upon seeing the massive Crystal, Ginka walked up to it, placed her hand against the cool surface, and then heard a small chime inside her head. A moment later, a message prompt appeared before her.

You have registered at the Southern Ravaryn Crystal.

With that chore completed, Aelithis led them to the inn called Zippy’s Thorn. Ginka learned her new Lamia friend had been born only thirty phases, or years prior, during the forty-minute walk. A group of adventurers had found a clutch of her race’s eggs, including hers, frozen inside a cave. The adventurers decided to bring them back to The Guild, where they were allowed to hatch safely.

The seven Lamia all grew up together on The Guild grounds, where they were hatched. When the Lamia was old enough to go off on their own, they all parted ways for points unknown, with the exception of Aelithis. She went on to explain her species had been in The Games for three epochs now, with most of her kind having either moved on to The Spire to transcend to the next game or ran out of lives on Mea.

Ginka asked a few questions about the Lamia race but filed away most queries for another time. She so loved a good story; it seemed a shame to interrupt Aelithis.

When they had drawn close to Zippy’s Thorn, Zekie let them know.

“Bad food, bad food,” chirped Zekie.

Ginka saw very few people in the common room as they entered the inn. Most who were sitting around only had drinks in front of them. Ginka started walking towards the bar when she heard shouting from her left near the wall.

“I can’t do it!” some kind of Lizardman shouted.

“Hah, Told you! You owe me 50 silver. Pay up, man.” said the Dwarf seated across from the Lizardman.

Looking closer at the table, Ginka could see a bowl of some mushy substance in front of the Lizardman. Aelithis, seeing Ginka looking over at the mush, began to chuckle.

“This place is known for its cheap rooms, but no one eats the food here.”

Ginka was forming a retort when she spotted someone with an apron coming out of the back room. She turned to walk up to the barkeep but immediately came up short. Ginka was stunned to see she was an absolutely beautiful cat person. She didn’t look like anything Ginka had come to know as Beastkin. A thick mat of snow-white fur seemingly covered her entire body. Leather pieces of clothing ran from her chest down to her ankles.

To Ginka, Beastkin looked like humans with animal heads and tails. The feline in front of her looked exactly like one of her old cats from her teenage years. Well, except the fact she stood upright and had human-looking fur-covered hands and feet.

“What is she, Aelithis?” Ginka asked softly.

“She is of the Bast. The race of the dead. Part of those who worship Bastiva.”