Chapter 19 “Queen of Blades. Part two”

Karma city is the largest city in the western provinces. At the same time it’s most remote city in the west, in the known world. Farther to the west, there is still an unexplored land. Well, it was explored in a way but so far, no one managed to find another city there that could serve as a player’s base. There was no city in which players could resurrect in so any progress that they could make in the exploration would immediately vanish should they die.

There were many expeditions that went to the west but they usually were either wiped out or returned without any findings. The main problem was naturally the lack of resurrection spot but it was not only that. The areas in the west were extremely hard to deal with and required a lot of skill from players there. Even expeditions that only had people that passed 200 level barrier meet the same fate as all others. Sure they went farther than most but in the end they were still wiped out.

The other problem was that western province wasn’t really popular with players. There was just nothing that impressive about it. Of course Karma city as largest city in the area had a lot of people within but compared to other cities or so called Capital, their number was rather small. People that decided to come here from other regions were rare. Most of players that were playing in western areas were those that were ‘sent’ here and still did not leave. If someone wanted, he could stay in Karma up to 200 level but traveling was one of biggest features of EOA so most people decided to leave at some point. But there was one good thing about Karma. Big cities always offered a lot of merits and if competition was lower than in other cities, one could find something really interesting here. For example Rin who was now entering through southern gate of Karma.

She found here few high rank quests from which she got incredible rewards. To find even one quest with high rank was impressive feat. So far Rin found three of them. Well two to be exact, the third was still a prequest. But she wouldn’t be able to get third quest if she didn’t complete quest of rank 6. That could only mean that next quest would be about the same or even higher difficulty. It wasn’t a chain quest but if she thought about it, she wouldn’t be able to get this new prequest without doing the previous one. Rin didn’t know which rank new quest will have. Rank of quests didn’t have anything to do with level of the player. It didn’t mean that if you have low level you get low rank quest and if you have higher level you get quest of higher rank. Rin completed chain quest of rank 6 on her own which was her greatest achievement in game so far. Although it took her a year of ingame time and main reason she completed it was also due to incredible luck. Still that quest gave her an incredible reward, which was ability called ‘unlimited blade’. Even from her perspective this ability was completely unbalanced, to the point where she rarely used it in its full power. Still, even with that ability she still couldn’t manage to finish one stupid prequest that she was trying to complete right now. At some point she even gave up at trying to complete it but she couldn’t just pass it by like nothing. If she took all the time that she spend on those three quest so far and instead of doing them leveled up she would probably long ago pass 200th level if not higher but she decided that there was no reason for her to do level up as doing quests is much more rewarding. Many players would also add ‘much more enjoyable’ that would definitely not be the case for Rin.

[You have leveled up by 4%]

[You have gained a level current level 125]

Rin just finished one of jobs that she was using to level up. It was a job that required one to bring twenty pieces of iron. She wouldn’t be normally able to gather them without mining skill but Rin found a place where iron ore dropped from monsters.

-good job as always, here is yours 12 gold.

The dwarf answered after receiving the iron. Even though he was from race of dwarfs he was 154 cm in height which made Rin just a little higher than him. Dwarfs were common in Karma, about 1/3 of its population were from that race, after all. At the same time, the ruler of this city was also of that race. Still Karma wasn’t something you would call dwarven city for sure. It was rather a mix of dwarfs and humans with some elves appearing here and there but in much smaller numbers. Elves were more popular in other parts of the world.

-thanks, I will bring more next time.

Answered Rin and walked away. Even if she didn’t involve herself with players that much, NPCs were a different thing. She needed to get quests after all. That’s why in cities she wasn’t walking around in her usual brown cloak with red mark of blood at the back. Instead she was walking in plain clothes that she bought in the shop. Those plain clothes were still the same that she would use while wearing cloak but without the cloak no one would recognize her. It was her friend that advised her on that. ‘What would be best disguise?’ Rin once asked her. To that her friend Yume answered. ‘If you stop hiding like you usually do, no one will recognize you’. It was truth that no one would have thought that famous Queen of blades would look like her, a weirdo with red hairs so long as to touch her thighs. Well that still got her get a weird look from time to time but Rin didn’t have problem with that. As long as no one bothered her it didn’t matter. Rin put in a great effort no to kill anyone inside city as it would lower her recognition with NPCs and that would result for example in dropping the reward from jobs like gathering iron. Even if gold was of lower importance to her right now as she needed experience to level up so she can challenge her prequest again, having a lot of gold still didn’t hurt. Right now she had 2314 gold coins which would actually make her one of most wealthy person in this city. She didn’t have anything she wanted to buy right now so the gold simply stockpiled over time. Even though her clothes were plain they had a good stats same with all other items. She also had a lot of weapons as her skill unlimited blade required her have one of each type. All of those weapons were of high caliber. They all were made from red iron a really rare material. She had to ‘farm’ it for three months to get enough for all weapons she wanted.

Right now Rin had 125 level. After failing fifteenth try in the tomb she lost 13 levels. With ten days of wait and additional week of play she managed to regain 6 of them. With one more week she would be able to close the gap back to 130 and then try sixteenth time at her prequest. She was originally planning to level up until she gets there but she received important a message and she had to get back to Karma.

The message was from the questgiver that gave her the prequest. He was also the only person that would manage to send her the message in such way. The way was a sudden voice appearing out nowhere inside her head. The questgiver was a Wizard so she could understand that he knew how to do that. The message stated that he wants to know her progress on the prequest. The Wizard was gone for about four month now so Rin also wanted to speak to him.

The Wizard himself was a particular human being. He was a ‘little’ odd if one wanted to speak about him nicely. Still, for Rin he was precious questgiver so she tried to be on his good side although there already were more than 10 times that she wanted to kill him.

Rin found her way through Karma. She was now walking through dwarven district. There were many ways that she could use but somehow she always preferred this route. That might be because dwarven district had fewer users than other one. In the first place the only people who were coming here had some interest in it, be it a job or visiting a forge.

In compression elven district were filled with flowers and café shops. It was a place where people gather. For example if Rin were to look for her friend Yume she would definitely start there. Karma was big enough to fill everyone but elven district was small compared to other two and it was always crowed. In Karma there was were more elven players than elven NPCs, which also formed a statement for Rin which was avoid elves at all cost as there is nothing to gain from them. At the same time thanks to this attitude, dwarven NPCs suddenly started to like her.

The place that she was going to was a tower located at the edges of human district and dwarven district. There was a single entrance to this tower. Should normal player decided to open the door. He would simply find the stairs that lead upward. After climbing them one could find another shut door at top of the stairs. Of course some tried to open the door and with few tries people pick look ability managed to do that, still they didn’t find anything of value inside. Inside was rather empty. There was only a round table and few chairs around it in the middle. Still, it was questgiver hideout, in a way. Although he didn’t live inside the tower like normal Wizard should.

Rin opened the door to the tower and entered. She could see the stairs that leaded upward. She closed the door behind her.

“Now how was it? First three knocks.”

‘puk, puk, puk’

She knocked the door that she just closed, three times.

“Then two left, two right, one left.”

After knocking the closed doors, she started to walk up the stairs. She was walking in an unusual fashion which was two double steps by left leg and right leg then one step by left leg. Then she had to stop for five second and continue same thing again till she climbed to the top.

“After that five knocks.”

After reaching the top, Rin knocked the doors five times then opened it. What she could see inside was the empty space with table and chairs in the middle that any other player would see.

“Now where was it?”

Rin run to the right side of the empty room and started to touch the wall around there with her hands. She was moving them around the high of her belly. She soon found a loosen brick. She took it out. After that she moved to the left side of room looking form the door. On her way she picked up one of the chairs that stood next to the table.

This one part was something that she dearly hated.

Rin put down the chair next to the wall and stood on it. The reason for that was simple. She wouldn’t be able to reach if she tried to do it without a chair.

“At least no one see me like that.”

She tried to do this without the chair but it was simply impossible with her height. She also tried to do it with jumping but removing brick from a wall was something that she needed stable ground for. While looking for previous brick it took her some time here she immediately found it. Even if it was only her fourth time doing it, she already had many bad memories with this place which wouldn’t just leave here.

“Why did he have to put it right here?”

With use of the chair she managed to remove second brick and replace it with first one. After that she put the chair back to the table. Then she moved to wall on the opposite end to the doors. There she started to look for the last brick which were located at bottom, nearly at the floor. She once again removed it and put in the second brick to that place. Then she moved back to the position from where she took first brick and put the third one there.

“Nearly done.”

Rin get back to the middle and went under the table. She left one copper coin right underneath the table.

“Being small is sometimes useful.”

-haha…

Let’s just say that it wasn’t a laugh from heart. It was somewhat empty.

“Now the last thing.”

She left the empty room and walked down the stairs. She reached the door and knocked it ten times. After doing all ‘necessary’ things that Wizard told her to do, she opened the door. After opening it she could see the familiar streets of Karma, nothing changed. There were few people but they paid her no mind.

Rin left the tower and went around its walls to the back. She needed to get through some bushes. After getting at back of the tower she found a small handle for a torch. The torch was lying on the ground just under it. She picked it up and put it on the right place, afterwards she pulled the torch downside. Bricks where torch was disappeared revealing a hidden entrance.

“Why does he care about security that much? Pulling the torch should be enough.”

She once asked the Wizard that question but he said that ritual is a must. If she didn’t follow it she would be shock by magic trap and die. That’s what he said at least. Rin didn’t want to die for a stupid reason as to find out if it’s true or not so she followed his instruction.

The hidden entrance revealed another set of stairs but this time they were going down to the underground. Rin walk down by them. After going down the stairs, she found herself inside Wizard’s hideout. What funny thing was that the place itself was something that would come to your mind when thinking ‘Wizard’s Laboratory’. The first room was oval in its shape but the celling was quite high. The walls around were filled with bookshelves on which many books resided. Some of them were not touched for years as the spider web was covering them. Then from this room one could go to many other rooms as there were five doors around it that leaded to different parts of the hideout. Right now one of those doors was open and through it one could see that inside there was many alchemist equipment. Every room served a different purpose but right now other doors were closed.

After entering through the hidden passage one would find himself in that room, in which Wizard spend most of his time. Even now he was sitting on his rocking chair and read some book near the fireplace. As for Wizard’s appearance, he looked as wizardly as possible. He had long pointed hat, he was wearing blue robe and of course he had a long white beard. One couldn’t really mistake him for anyone else although there weren’t that many people that managed to meet him.

-hello.

Rin said after entering. She always had a small problem while talking with that man. He didn’t reveal his name for whatever reason. He himself said that he forgotten it. Rin told him to create some fake name so it is easier to talk with him but to that he answered that he won’t bother which such trivial things.

-ah you are here, good, good.

“Once again this annoying catchphrase.”

-so, what do you want?

Rin went straight to the matter.

-hmm… what did I want? Sorry I forgotten already, you took too long. In the first place who are you again?…

“Why is it always like that?”

Some might think that old Wizard had memory problems. Rin also thought that once. But she wouldn’t get into his game anymore.

Ten ruby colored weapons appeared around her. Each of them was pointed in Wizard’s direction.

-ah Rin! How long has it been child?

The thing that Wizard always called her a child was another thing that angered her, although for person in his age everyone was a child of some sort to him, so she didn’t attack him for that. Weapons disappeared with the sound of broken glass and in few seconds there was nothing left of them.

-if you remember, then say so. In the first place I am probably the only person that would come here.

-that might be true, but it is always better to ask.

-please don’t play good old grandpa again. So what do you want?

-I see that you didn’t change. I already told you what I wanted, how is your progress with the quest?

The Wizard went straight to the point.

-well… there was some progress.

-oh, tell me about it.

-I can survive longer than before, that’s for sure. So, soon I will definitely finish it.

-then it’s the same as always. No progress at all.

-don’t say that!

Rin interrupted him although what Rin did over few last month wasn’t that big of a progress.

-so, I have question for you. Why do you always try to do it alone?

-if I could share this quest it would be easier.

-I won’t let you do that, you might not understand it but you must complete this quest.

-I could always just ditch it you know.

Wizard was not bothered by this comment and answered.

-you would give up long time ago if you really wanted to do it.

“He got me there.”

-what does it change for you should I will complete it or not?

-for now, it’s not a matter of completing it but rather getting it. Remember what I told you. The tomb itself has little to do with all that will happen afterwards. It’s just a first small step.

-so why do I even bother with it?

-because if you can’t manage with this small step, there is simply no reason to even bother with what follows afterwards.

-you say that and yet at the same time you tell me to win by increasing numbers. How would I get better by doing that?

-being able to cooperate with others is also an important thing. Still even if you don’t cooperate I already saw all of your futile attempts at completing my challenge. From what I saw you have more than enough power to complete it. Well, at least the prequest. Even I don’t know what will happen later but know that the reward at the end is something that you always desired and are destined to get.

-what I always desired? You think you have a thing like that. In the first place if I had to answer that question I couldn’t even answer right away. And the thing that I want…

“The thing that I want can’t be granted no matter what.”

-never mind. So what will I get?

-it won’t be me who will give you reward. The quest itself will lead you to all rewards at the end. There is more than for one person but you must be the one that take the main prize or rather the quest itself is for you to reach that reward.

-of course if I am doing it I will take the grand prize but if there are multiple rewards why can’t you let me share it? If I could share the quest finding good group would be easy.

-then, if you could share quest would you go out now and look for people?

Wizard right away hit with hard question to which Rin couldn’t say yes.

-well, I could give it to one person I know at least. So can I share it now?

-that won’t be possible. Quests given by me can be only available to people that I chose as worthy and no one else. I also must know that they are ready for the job and have good intention. But anyway! In the first place you don’t even have that quest yet so you can’t share it even if you got my promotion. The prequest you have is my challenge to test your ability.

-you just said that I am powerful enough for it so for what do you still need some stupid tests?

-I was talking only about fighting abilities, but it’s not the only thing that you need in this journey. In the first place you failed fifteen times already. If you go with performance like that on the main part you will never complete it. Now tell me once again, what was your mission again?

-get you the crown of Edward Third the Great.

-…ehhh… maybe you will change somehow in the future.

Wizard was disappointed in her answer.

-hey what does that mean!?

-I would want to tell you but I can’t, without great effort there is no great reward…

“He could at least tell me something. In the end, I stand where I stood.”

-although, I did said that you really need to complete this quest. The faster you get it the better. Ah, what to do, what to do?

-well, maybe give me another quest that would help me in this one.

-don’t think I am that generous… but I was also always interested in that place where you would go eventually and prequest was already given. You also need that reward so.

Wizard had a hard time as he fought against his principles. Rin was more interested in that reward which he spoke about so often.

-by the way what is the reward?

She asked once again thinking that before he was trying to avoid the answer.

-I don’t know what it is. All I know is that you need it. I also don’t know where this thought came from. You remember why I gave you this quest.

-because I helped you when monsters attacked you in western region, and there were a lot of them.

That was the reason why she thought that previous quest was connected to this one. During her journey she met this Wizard in the middle of nowhere. He was attacked by horde of monsters. She decided to help him and he told her to meet him later in his hideout which was this place. Still, the only reason that she met him was because her previous quest told her to go there.

-there is that but why was I even there? I always wondered.

Wizard could not remember why or how did he get there.

-you have a memory problem that’s all.

“In the first place you are NPC, you were programed so there is little you can do about things like that. No matter if you like it or not.”

-still, my thought at the time were that I must lead you to this quest no matter what. I even had to create new laboratory in this city just for this reason.

-so what about that help in quest you just talk about?

While Wizard was disoriented she asked.

-you won’t deceive me, I didn’t promise any help.

-eh, you seen through it.

-haha… I have been training to not get swindled again.

-so you got swindled before?

-well it is my disgrace as questgiver. It was a story that happened little more than a month ago…

“Ah here he starts again, him and his stories. Didn’t I tell him that after hearing the one about him defeating the dragon or demon lords I had enough of his fairy tales?”

-it was in the city that is far far away from here. There is no known way to get there on foot. Still, with my power one day I created a portal to go to that place. Naturally it’s only because I am that powerful it was possible…

“His stories are always the same. I am so great and powerful blablabla.”

-in that city I found a person with great magical potential. A girl she reminded me of you little even if you look completely different. She had blue hair and refreshing face.

-I don’t need visual aspects. Just skip to the point.

Wizard ignored that comment and continued like nothing.

-so I took the girl for studding. My expectations were correct and she turned out to have an outstanding talent for magician. She did anything I asked her. When I was sure of her abilities, I gave her few challenges that she had to complete. But I might have made them a little too hard especially the last one, especially given the fact that there was little time left. She wasn’t going to make it…

“Ah, at least I don’t have quest with time limit.”

-and then it happened. I got swindled. And it was all because of my good heart…

“No, no, if you had a good heart in the first place you would have told me how to solve my quest. That girl wouldn’t have problem with her tasks either.”

-back to the story, I decided to help her but I cannot do anything directly my codex forbids it. There were two problems ahead of her. First one was finding the place that she should find. I gave her really easy puzzle but she couldn’t solve it. It turned out that she wasn’t really good with puzzles even thought she said differently. But there was also second problem which was even more pressing.

-what was that?

-you see even if that girl had a potential she wouldn’t be able to use it in fight as she still didn’t know any attacking spells and it seemed that something dangerous would attack her. That’s why I found help for her.

-if you can look for help yourself, find some help for me.

-that thing and this thing are two different things.

-how are they different?

-your quest is definitely possible as you stand now. All you need to do is move your head.

“But I tried to think of any fighting method, I used every mean necessary. Healing potions, mana potions, stat potions. I bought all bonuses I could and it still didn’t work. I even used that stupid outfit, dammit!”

What Rin was always wearing, plain grey-dark clothes weren’t her best equipment. She had one class item that she got from her first quest but wearing it was not something that she could stand given the way that item looked like.

-I am trying okay… anyway what is the moral of the story?

Rin somehow became interested in a story. For the first time it wasn’t Wizard telling something unbelievable about himself but rather something that could happen.

-moral is always be careful when you talk with people who carries two swords at their right side.

“What does it have to do with anything? Well I do carry like that, after all, from all styles of Master this is the most effective one for this world and my class also turned out like it did.”

-I don’t buy it. You just come up with it on the spot.

Still Rin was not convinced by Wizard’s explanation as indeed it looked like something that was made up only because Wizard was talking with her.

-in that case listen. As I said, I wanted to help my apprentice with both of her problems. As for the riddle I just had to give her the answer and as for the second part, lucky I found a fighting professional that appear in that city. You must understand that that city was definitely lacking in that regard. People really had no idea as how to fight.

-they are lacking in that regard everywhere and your “fighting professional” was probably the same.

-you think so? I wouldn’t invite just anyone. The fight wasn’t going to be a walk in a park. Well it did happen in the park but it was not something that many would manage. It is true that I didn’t have many to choose from and actually he was the only one that could manage that fight but he was definitely good. I wonder if you would manage against him.

-hoho… you must definitely introduce him to me.

-it’s rare for you to show interest in someone.

-rather than interest, I would like to beat that guy down as hard as possible so he won’t get ahead of himself too much.

-would you now?

“Ah it’s irritating and we are wasting time anyway.”

-you probably overstating him, that’s all. Anyway what happen next?

Rin really got into the story.

-well, he helped my student and everything ended well.

-so where is the problem? When were you swindled?

-I didn’t realize how grave it was before everything ended. In the meets of events I somehow gave him some gold which as quest giver I shouldn’t have done.

-why did you do that?

-simply put it, he swindled me out of it. He asked to pay up first for the job and double price at that. There was little time and I was worried that he will simply walk away too, so I had to quickly say yes.

It looked like Wizard also had a hard time from time to time.

-everyone makes mistakes, don’t let it get you.

-I somehow avert the crisis so it wasn’t that bad.

-how so? You already gave him gold, although you shouldn’t have. Well you can give gold to whomever you want in the first place so it wasn’t like you did anything wrong.

-I am that generous I told you already.

-so what did you do to balance things out?

-to avert the crisis I ran away without giving him reward which I promised, perfect right?

Wizard shared with her his evil plan but after hearing it.

-okay, I am done doing business with you. If you just run away when I complete the quest, I don’t care anymore.

-well that was a little too selfish of me but serve him right. Also you don’t know what the part of that reward was. It was written in small notes. If it was only the item I wouldn’t have mind but… anyway, let’s just leave this talk. So in the end, I can’t be too good while handling out the quests that’s the moral of the story.

“At least it wasn’t as self-reflecting as previous ones. Still…”

-so you are saying that you should be fair and square to everyone right?

-that is exactly what I said.

-so how is it fair that you help someone and even find them some ‘fighting professional’ while you can’t even give me a small hint.

-this and that are two completely different things.

Wizard answered but his voice wasn’t as sure as previous time.

-how is it different? Same situation, small fragile girl is in need of help with her quest.

-you are definitely not fragile. Fragile girls don’t destroy hordes of monsters on daily basis. And it was before you got that flying things.

“Of course I am not fragile, you idiot!. …. mmm”

Still after thinking like that, Rin located the mirror and saw her reflection in it.

“… look doesn’t have anything to do with being fragile! Anyway I need to get something.”

-it’s still a little too hard for me. I need some assistance! Just a little would do, I don’t need you to look for help. What do you say? Maybe you could give me one of your puzzles that you like so much.

Rin knew that Wizard had a little soft side for his puzzles and wanted people to solve them even if they were creepy and sometimes didn’t resemble puzzles at all. Wizard answer was however different from what Rin wanted to hear.

-ah, its good thing that I learn my lesson, always be careful when speaking with the person who carries two swords at side. …

“Eh it didn’t work. It’s entire that guy fault.”

When she was cursing in mind someone she ‘didn’t know’, Wizard out of sudden changed his mind.

-still, I will give you a chance to prove yourself. I already gave you challenge that test all of your abilities but now that I think about it, it’s your abilities and experience that might blind you from finding the solution. I decided that I will give you something that will test only your mental ability. When you solve it the message will also help you solve your quest.

“No, no, I already know that crown is in that tomb, I spoke with this ghost and seen it many times on his head. And ‘get met that crown’ isn’t very complicated quest to begin with. Where does it test my mental ability, I don’t know. Still if he says that it will help, I will take anything I can. That’s what I wanted after all.”

-so what is it?

-as you asked I will give you a puzzle. You need to solve.

Even though a minute earlier Wizard said that he won’t get swindled, in the end he changed his mind as his puzzles were more important to him. In the end even though Wizard said that he had some kind of codex, in the end he was a selfish being and he always did whatever he wanted.

-great, so where is it?

-well not so fast, I need to prepare it first. It will be something that needs to send you a clear message so I don’t have much of the choice. I guess I will use one of the classical patterns, while making it…

“If it’s not his own creation then it should be solvable. Then if something goes wrong, I can always ask Mary for help.”

-even though I said that. Only first part will follow the pattern and the second one will be completely cut off. To balance it, I will have to create the hardest possible part one. Ah, I am already fired up. …

“I am beginning to wonder if it was really good idea to ask him for a puzzle. Still it was probably the only way.”

-it should take me about five hours to make it. I need to think up the words and the drawings will also take some time. The best thing you can do is disappear for now and come back later.

-but I am not in hurry and I don’t want to repeat that ritual so I will stay here.

-ritual? What ritual?

Somehow, Wizard didn’t know what she meant. Rin explained.

-you know knocking and switching the bricks.

-ah that one. Yes, it is very important. Do it, every time you are coming here. Ah I missed it today, good thing that I always record it…

Wizard’s words were somewhat strange but Rin just ignored them.

-anyway I didn’t mean you have to leave this laboratory but rather disappear and appear later, you know what I am talking about. The power of ‘quest receives’ which is not bestowed on quest givers like me.

It looks like Wizard was talking about logging out. Even if he was NPC he had a way to explain this phantom.

“If I could do that, I wouldn’t be here.”

Rin’s situation was somewhat more complicated than of other people around her. People that Wizard just called ‘quest receives’ that were usually called adventurers. Still, that situation was the main reason, why Rin didn’t involve herself with others. With no other options Rin had to stay in Wizard’s hideout.

-no, I will just kill some time here. Do you have some interesting books?

-well they are all interesting to me, choose what you want. If you are staying then I will change my plans and start working on puzzle as fast as possible. Firstly however I need to check my recording mirror as I could use some laugh, I mean I need to check something first. Well it won’t take more than 20 minutes.

Wizard left his seat and ventured into one of the rooms. Rin didn’t know what that recording mirror was and she didn’t pray.

“It’s probably something stupid anyway.”

It was true that it was something stupid and sometimes, it was just better not to know what other people were doing.

She started to look through the books that Wizard owned. First she looked at the one that he was just reading. The title was “How to recognize swindlers”. Because it looked ‘less than uninteresting’, she searched for something else. There was a lot to choose from. Bookshelves and books on it were the only decoration that Wizard probably knew. Most of books were magic oriented just as one would expect from a Wizard. There were many different genres but most of them involved something called either, basic, primitive or classic magic. It looked like Wizard had a great interest in this subject. For someone with magic oriented profession an opportunity to study those books would be priceless but on the other hand for someone like, Rin with little interest in it, those books were completely useless.

In the end Rin found a bookshelf with historical books on it. She quickly chose one of them because it was somehow connected to her. The book name was ‘Edward Third the Great’. Rin always liked to read books and it was her long last hobby and one of few things that ‘did not change in her’. The books in this world had little difference than the real books, and actually those books could be read only here as they did not exist in real world.

The Wizard managed to finish making the puzzle after about four hours which was slightly faster than what he said at first. He really did take into consideration that someone was waiting for that riddle in the same room as him.

Rin received an envelope from the Wizard and was told to leave the laboratory before she look into it. Personally, she would prefer to stay there as the place was quiet and had comfortable seats but she knew that Wizard didn’t like to have guests and preferred quiet environment and solitude. It’s not that he hated people but just had low level tolerances for them. He even once told her that he really liked people but he also added that only for short periods of time. After about five to ten minutes of talk he had enough.

Upon leaving, Wizard also mentioned that as long as she doesn’t complete the prequest, she shouldn’t come back to this place. There was no reason for Rin to argue about it and she definitely didn’t want to complete opening ritual again. Previously she already decided to never come here again as long as prequest remains uncompleted but she had to come as Wizard specifically called her for it.

“Well it was a good thing I came, I got this after all.”

She though while looking at envelope.

“Still I don’t think any advice can help me there much.”

The fight in the Tomb was rather simple and monotonous. The king’s ghost was summoning skeletons and Rin had to defeat them. She knew that there should be limited amount of them as long time ago some group managed to clear out all skeletons. Still they weren’t able pick up the crown though. Rin understood that the reason for that was probably because they didn’t have prequest for it and crown is quest item which they couldn’t pick up. She knew that quest items were pickable regardless of if someone has a quest or not but maybe some of them were not. In the end Rin believed that should she destroy all skeletons she should be able to get the crown somehow.

Rin got out from the bushes and was now few meters away from the original entrance to the tower. She already looked inside the envelope. There were three pages inside. She didn’t take them out though because she first needed to find a good place for it. Doing something while standing in the middle of the street would bring too much attention that she hated. She was also hungry as she didn’t eat anything since yesterday. She woke up pretty early today as she still had some distance to make. She wanted to reach the city before the number of players increase. Thanks that plan she reached Karma before 7 am when player population was the lowest. Now however it was the midday and the time that player base was the highest and Rin didn’t take it well.

“I never knew it will take that long. It can’t be helped now.”

Rin once again make her way to dwarven district. She chose restaurant as her destination. On the way just as excepted, there were much more people than at morning. Still as long as no one recognized her it should be fine. For Rin, who was rather known by the name Queen of Blades wandering around the city was not that save. Only because not many people knew how she really looks like, it was not everyday problem but there still should be some people who remembered her.

The title Queen of Blades that she hated so much was given to her more than few years ago. It was after her numerous victories in city’s Arena. Fighting in arena was a great way to gather gold and because at that time she was in need of a lot of it she participated in every competition. At first she was treated as lucky newcomer who got unique skill even though at some point she didn’t use it at all because there was no need for it. Rin could manage about 10 to 15 players with pure sword skills. She even proved it once when she participated in free for all arena battle where 15 competitors group up together to eliminate greatest treat. Since then people and even NPC commentators started introducing her in fight with title Queen of Blades or Queen of the Arena. There were two reasons for this nick name. One already mentioned great skills in fighting. Second was unapproachable attitude. Whenever someone came in contact with her, she would brush him away and if he was insistent she would simply kill him.

Nowadays as she no longer participate in arenas, the second title die off and the only one left was Queen of Blades. A lot of time has already passed since then, so most of the players that seen her fights in arena are no longer here. They left the Karma and started looking for adventure elsewhere. The legend of ‘Queen of Blades’ also changed. It was no longer skillful girl, with long red hair and two swords at her side. Nowadays, it was murderous ghost that hunts areas around Edward Third the Great’s tomb. People liked to exaggerate things after all. The more time went the more crazy the story has become. For Rin it wasn’t that bad of a story and she actually decided to play the role of that ghost. Mostly because it kept players from venturing into that place. If someone found out that one can get high rank quest from the tomb even if parties in the past found nothing, there would be some adventures that would come to try again their chances at the tomb.

Still for some reasons, legend didn’t always work that well. There were numerous of times where Rin’s friend Yume was kidnapped and the one to give ransom for it was always Rin. It wouldn’t be strange if it happened once or twice but number of times that it happened was way enormous. Not only that even if people knew that legend of Queen of Blades was a false rumor and it was indeed player with some unique skill, why did they use the same tactic every time instead of just asking the question. Of course Rin would just tell them that quest is not repeatable because questgiver died. With this they would get information and she would have peace of mind but no, they had to do same stupid thing over and over again. On the other hand though, Rin didn’t mind it that much. It was also a chance to meet her only friend in this world Yume, whom she called Mary. She could meet her anytime she wanted but finding her wouldn’t be that easy. In worst case, she would have to spend few days waiting in elven café shop which was something that she hated a lot. Yes there were a lot of things that she hated.

Rin finally reached her destination. The restaurant had two floors. One was for normal customers and one was for ‘friends of the shop’. Getting access to second floor was easy but at the same time no many people tried to do it. Basically, all you needed to do was to become regular customer and for seven days in a row eat at least one meal a day there. Then after quick talk with the owner, you were granted an access. Still getting access to second floor meant nothing more than getting access to the second floor. The food there was the same. Tables, chairs also were same as well. There was really no difference. Still, for people like Rin who didn’t wanted to be bothered, getting to the second floor had some merits. While on the first floor there always were about 10 to 20 people, second floor was usually empty or at best was filled with NPCs. So far the biggest number of players that she encountered at second floor apart from her was four at the time and it happened only once.

-set third please, but change beer into double lemon tea.

Rin ordered the meal the moment she reached second floor.

-mha… I will never understand you.

Familiar to Rin dwarf took the order. It was a dwarven restaurant after all and as it should be, every dwarf would put beer in food set as a drink. It was worth to note that it was no some simple beer but rather dwarven ale. Rin once drink it with her friend Yume. She had no memory of what happened after the moment she took the liquid into her mouth. All she remembered was what happened after and that was her awakening in city’s prison with stomach pain. Her friend was also there and somehow didn’t want to explain what happened. Rin decided to avoid repeating that action again. In the first place Rin drank that ale only because Yume persuaded her to it. She was saying something along the lines ‘if you say you are not the kid then prove it’. Rin had no idea what drinking ale had to do with being grown up, rather drinking some strange liquid which taste bad was something that stupid kid would do. But it was true that 19 years old without drinking anything in life was rare and she was convinced by that fact. In real life Rin always had to watch out for her body so something like alcohol was naturally forbidden to her. Although watching the diet did not help her avoid what had come.

Today the second floor was not completely empty, there was one person sitting there. He seemed to already finish his meal. Rin already saw him in this place many times. It looked like he either really enjoyed the meals that were served here or like Rin just preferred the atmosphere. He was one of regulars. Still there was definitely no reason for Rin to care about him. There was only one time that he spoke with her or rather just exchange few words. He said that time.

‘

-I am sorry to bother you but could you confirm that quest that you once completed is definitely not repeatable?

‘

It looked that he at least knew who she was. Well at that time her image was still known as girl with red hairs so it was not surprise that he recognized her. Although normally to that question Rin would just ignore him or say yes it is, to get rid of him, that time because of humble manner of speech she explained.

‘

-questgiver died so even if it was repeatable, there is no way to get it again.

‘

The man just nodded as a signal that he understand and moved away. That was probably because he knew what happened to those who didn’t give up after trying asking once or because he just accepted the fact and there was no reason to get involved again.

Death of NPC character was different from death of a player. While player would just resurrect after 10 days which was 2 days in real time NPCs stayed dead forever. There were cases that quest which belonged to an NPC that died was moved to another NPC but someone who did that quest while old NPC was still lived, wouldn’t be helpful in finding new NPC. Asking Rin about it was no longer helpful. Although, Rin knew that her quest is definitely not repeatable, as it was just simply too unique.

‘Set three with double lemon tea instead of beer’ was served after 15 minutes of wait. The main dish of it was huge bulk of meat with sauce. Yes, it didn’t suit someone who looked like Rin at all. In the first place if she was eating something like this often, she would at least gain few more centimeters in height and a lot in width. But virtual food had nothing to do with weight. As for real world even though Rin always wanted to eat food like that, she could not do it. Reason for that was the same as with the beer. That’s why in this world she would not hold back on eating. Also meat dishes were specialty of dwarven chiefs.

Some might question if there really is enough space in Rin body to eat something like that but she finished her meal without leaving anything on plate. After finishing, she finally took out the riddle that Wizard gave her. Just as she checked before there were three pages inside it. After quick scanning over them, Rin found out that two of them were filled with some pictures and the last one had instruction on it and normal letters. She started with that one.

[Instruction

Riddle based on famous Morgorian riddle.

The owner is the king.

In classic Morgorian riddle you create words based on pictures, then combine them into another riddle but as I mentioned, I changed it into message for you. That message should help you in your prequest. You should have two pages with pictures on them. Every picture symbolizes one letter which is the first letter in the name of object. To make you better understand here is the example. Letter S is symbolized by picture of sword but at the same time it is symbolized by picture of shield. It can also symbolize the stairs, stars, straw anything that starts with letter S.

Your job is to choose the right pictures take their first letters and combine them into sentence which will create the message that you want to hear.

Good luck.

PS: Should you require assistance you can ask anyone you want for help. No matter what method you use you just have to solve it and remember that your main objective is to complete the prequest.]

“Even if I never seen anything like that, it doesn’t look that hard. For now, I will name every picture and write down the letters. Then I will try to combine them into something with meaning.”

Those were her thoughts before checking other two pages carefully. Although from first look, number of pictures was small if one looked more carefully they were numerous of pictures that were combining with one another into bigger pictures and those bigger pictures combined into even bigger pictures. In the end everything was combined into one large mosaic.

“I already decided on a way.”

Rin started solving the riddle with planned method.

Time was going fast but number of pictures to interpret was not dwindling. There were also few pictures that Rin couldn’t name but after thinking about them 10 minutes each, she just moved to the next picture. Loosing track of time she engraved herself in naming puzzle. From all this thinking, she became hungry again and ordered another set of food.

Through the windows she could see that a lot of time had passed since she started but she was about to end. After all the troubles she managed to descript about 90% of all pictures.

“Ah finally it’s done, from now it should go easily.”

She looked at the notes that she made then looked at the instruction once again. Then she realized that she made grave mistake. Well rather than mistake there was a lot of worthless effort.

“No, no it will definitely be useful later on.”

She might have put a lot of work in naming all objects and in some way, it was in little way needed to solve this riddle but that didn’t really gave her any real solution. Her plan was to combine letters into words but what if there were about 600 letters on one page. If someone wanted they could create a lot of sentences which would sound reasonable but that wouldn’t have helped. Unfortunately truth was that without knowing how to, Morgorian riddle was impossible to solve and Rin just learned it hard way.

-excuse me but we are closing already.

Female dwarf called to her as he came closer. The previous dwarf that she asked to make ‘set 3’ was long gone as his shift ended.

-closing? Shouldn’t this place be opened to 2 am?

-it is 2 am, Ma’am.

-but how…?

Rin looked at the table that she has been looking for nearly 14 hours now. Then she looked at the clock and then on the table again. She finally realized how much time has really passed. She quickly gathered all her things and apologized for the trouble and left the restaurant.

Sun was long gone but moonlight shined its blue light all over the world. In the first place pitch black environment was not something that happened too often. In EOA you could always see what was ahead of you at least one meter ahead. Well it was a different story was with dungeons, caves or in forests where there was pitch black environment. Some forest were only possible to venture to during winter because leafs fall. One would think that using some kind of different light should work as well but those forest continued monsters that would be drawn by unnatural light resulting in impossible fight for anyone with who tried it.

Walking through dark alleys of Karma city was not something that would scary Rin. In the first place, the most dangerous person that was walking in those streets was her. If she equipped her brown cloak and walk around those alleys she would make it to front page in tomorrow news. The title would be ‘the murderous ghost has finally decided to attack’. There was something similar to newspaper that was coming out every day in Karma city. One could buy it from shops or boys that were running around in the mornings. Rin wouldn’t read it every day but it was a good killer time so she bought it from time to time. She couldn’t just hunt monsters all day and other entertainment was also needed. Other than that she would often immerse herself inside the library that this city had although ever since she started this quest she spent there, relatively less time.

Rin was making her way in direction of southern gate. Regions from south to east were mostly populated with dwarfs and that region was called dwarven district. Leaving through southern gate was common for Rin as that was where road to the tomb was. Still, she wasn’t playing to going there, at least not today. Her plan for now was to solve the riddle but after all work she has done today she somehow was not really enthusiastic to continue with it. She was definitely not giving up. That was at least what she has been telling herself when thinking about it.

Just as she passed near southern gate and left dwarven district she reached it. The only place that she could call home right now, even if no one would wait there for her. Player housing was not common in EOA, but Rin decided to get one for herself. It was good to have your own four angles after all.

The house had two floors. The whole second floor was one large room while ground floor had bathroom in which there was only a bathtub. There was no closet as one couldn’t use it in this world. Apart from that there was also one smaller room in which Rin stored items that she doesn’t needed right now. For example items which she can’t use because of level. At one point she once had 187 level but it drooped during her tries with quests. It was easier to level up smaller amount of levels after dying and level didn’t give much statistic in the first place. Difference between 125 level Rin and 187 Rin from the pass was that she couldn’t equip few items and had about 20 points in every stat less. If Rin thoughts those stats would help her much she would rather wear her only class item that she had. It was armor chest piece although it definitely didn’t look like one.

On the first floor there was also a dining room and a kitchen which was practically never used by Rin. She didn’t bother to cook her own meals if she could buy them. Gold was the only thing that she got from all that leveling. Even if getting gold and getting experience usually didn’t go in pair Rin found some mobs that gave quite good experience and also drop items that could be turned into gold after.

Gathering gold in this game was hard and one would have to focus on it if he wanted to earn a lot. People would think that it should be easier with each level but no it was not.

Rin entered her house and went straight to the second floor. On the table which was next to the window she found a small note. There was only one person other than Rin that had access to this house and because of that Rin quickly run up to it and read it.

[Amy, I don’t know when you will come back but I leaving this note just in case. I am going to Rodaria for two or three week, so don’t look for me. I write it also to inform you that I wasn’t kidnapped. But don’t worry. When I return I will be probably be kidnapped right away but you don’t have to rescue me if you don’t want to. Maybe this time the knight will finally appear. I hope you won’t need me for anything else beside the quest in which I won’t even try to help you as it’s doomed to failure. See you soon.]

“Why now?”

Rin’s last hope for solving the puzzle disappeared. Well Yume should return at some point. Although her letter was strange somehow she was so sure that someone will kidnap her. Still Rin didn’t mind.

“For now, solving the puzzle will have to wait. I will just go tomorrow and try without it. Yes that’s the best solution.”

Spending half a day without any results was a little hard for her so right now Rin didn’t want to challenge the riddle again.

“Instruction was encouraging to seek help after all.”

As long as you feel good with it, think what you want.

Rin get on the bed then started removing her clothes. She could do it with few clicks in inventory menu but in her home she would do it normally, which was throwing it on the chair next to the bed. Afterwards she covered herself with eiderdown and went to sleep.

//** This chapter is still not over. Continue to part _19.2 **//

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