“Anyway if you’re looking to get access to MY artefact then it won’t come cheap” Fiurj’a added as she hid it back behind her desk, “Now I would ask you for some aide against the insurgents instead of payment but…” she looks them up and down with scrutiny “I’m afraid you’re not strong enough” a notification appears in front both of them

Too low level for this quest line! (Requirement: Level 150+)

Sly sighed “So much for that”.

Kyle shrugged and spoke “What about my reward? If you’re looking to gain profit out of owning that artefact, then wouldn’t having one of your officers with a Lord class be nothing else but beneficial?”.

She frowned “No I would be losing over a potential purchase in the future, as I just said we do not know if there is a limit. I’m afraid you’ll have to pay or help me out in another way, both of which I doubt you can do".

At this Kyle smiled “Why? How much would you sell it’s usage for?”.

She entered deep thought momentarily then finally answered “200 gold pieces” Sly’s jaw dropped ”don’t give me that look it’s a powerful class after all” she said while giving Sly an amused grin.

Kyle could barely keep himself from giggling like a maniac “200? Quiet the hefty price…that would be two hundred for both of us, 400! I’m afraid I can only pay once…” he said while keeping up a frown.

Fiurj’a shrugged “So will you pay?” she had gone back to writing.

“How about this then?” Kyle said with friendly tone “Since my friend helped you capture one of the insurgents, give him a discount and cut my quest’s gold reward from the payment as well. What do you think?”.

She looked up from her desk and glanced from Regg who looked to be waking up and Sly who had also noticed “Oh?” he said gleefully as he turned to glare down the waking bandit “Sleeping shitstain’s up!”.

Regg immediately tried to get up but he instantly hunched back roaring in pain as he tried to hold his groin inducing himself even more pain. Tears and snot covered his face as his choked screams filled the room.

“Fuck you’re loud!” Sly exclaimed as he crouched down and grabbed him by the hair, suddenly he smashed down the man’s head into the ground knocking him out once more “There, nice and fucking quiet!” he let go and turned to look at the rest staring at him in surprise. “What?!” he asked rather loudly causing Shirley to flinch.

“Nothing Sly…nothing” Kyle spoke to fill the void “So do we have a deal Miss?”.

Fiurj’a’s eyelids twitched as she nodded “80 gold pieces for one use, make it quick” she took out the artefact once more and held it on top of her desk “Payment first” she held her other arm out with her hand wide open. Kyle nodded and opened his inventory and tapped on his stack of 500 gold pieces giving him a notification

How many of this item [Gold Coins] would you like to extract?

He though ‘80’ and a cotton pouch full of gold coins appeared floating in front of him, he grabbed the pouch and opened it giving the gold coins one last look “You owe me for this Sly” he said with an evil smile.

Sly shivered “Yeah yeah…I’ll repay you after I get on with PKing don’t worry…” Kyle handed him the pouch and he walked over to Fiurj’a’s desk, he dropped the pouch onto her open palm which she quickly retrieved and opened to count. Sly looked the artefact over as without hesitation placed his right hand over it, the artefact glowed a white light momentarily but quickly faded. Sly stared at the notification Kyle knew he got and turned away from the desk.

“80 gold for a class opportunity” she sighed “Here’s your quest reward, Dusk Blade Officer Kyllix” she said uninterested as she pulled out a small blue scroll with gold lining it’s edges and two large plain folded papers “Citizenship and mapped information of surrounding areas and further”.

Kyle walked over to stand by Sly who was still eyeing the artefact, he grabbed the red scroll and it shattered into hundreds of golden particles that flew onto the back of his palm forming themselves into a detailed mark. The ‘S’ shape of a golden dragon glowed momentarily before disappearing completely, “Damn, was hoping it stayed” he cursed as he caressed the skin the mark was once on.

“Hell no, I hate yellow” Sly said breaking him out of his daze “Either looks piss ugly or is too damn bright like gold making it easy to be spotted” he then pointed to the maps “What’s with the maps for reward by the way?”.

Kyle chuckled “Can’t play an MMORPG without map knowledge, gotta say I hate systems where you have to map the world yourself and was thinking of looking up ways to quicken the process later”.

Sly shook his head “I love exploration but if it means having to search every damn nook and cranny…” he sighed.

Kyle grabbed hold of the two maps and to his surprise neither disappeared. “So…how do I?...” he looked up at Fiurj’a.

She raised a brow “What? Don’t know how to read a map?” she said mockingly.

Kyle thought it over for a moment then decided to open the map, he then unfolded the two maps and read them over while glancing over at the map window. As he did so the plain map began to fill with information, he went over both maps and studied his map window when he was done

[Map Progression: 11%]

He stared at it then looked up at Fiurj’a “Are there any other continents on this world?” he asked her.

She was piling up papers looking relieved then looked up at him as if he was an idiot “Of course there is! The continent of Barik is the smallest one! Over the Rulek Sea is the Elven mega continent of Il’tel, beyond Sailor’s sea is the continent of Hasharr controlled by the Orc Empire and over Dead Man’s Sea is the cursed Demon continent of Ruk taken over by the Dezol Demon Legions. If you want more detailed maps on those or a world map I’m afraid I cannot help you, you’ll have to head to the capital for that and to go there you need to head down to Kaledd for transportation or pay off a black watch pirate crew somehow” she held the stacked papers under her arm and the artefact in the other then stood up “Those two maps are all I got to offer, adventuring is a tough occupation and mapping even more so these days. We’re lucky just going by as we are with the demons right at our doorstep!” she cursed in some unknown language as she walked out of her own office leaving him, Sly and Shirley behind.

“Yo can I have a look at those maps?” Sly asked as he gestured at them.

Kyle nodded and handed them over “Yeah I’m done with them, looking for something specific?” he asked.

“Yeah, looking for a good grinding spot to get your ass up to date. Focus on a destination and you’ll get some information about it including surrounding area levels” he spoke while looking the maps over “We’re at Il’e currently with maximum level of 55, next we should head to Carn who’s maximum level is 105. Before that though we should go farm inside the Frostbite forest, monsters are scattered all over it in different levels and from my experience they aren’t too difficult to deal with” he said as he pointed out the forest on the paper map of Barik.

“Before that I suggest the both of you head to the generalmart” Shirley suddenly spoke with a chuckle “Neither of you has basic equipment from what I can tell and you won’t survive further than the forest without”. She got up and gestured to the door “I’ll have to ask you to leave now” she glanced back at Regg, “I have some information to…extract” she said with a grin.

Kyle laughed uneasily “Ah..hahaha…we’ll…leave it to you then” he said while stepping towards the door, him and Sly walked out and then moved to exit the fort as Shirley came out of the office dragging Regg behind her.

“Oh before I forget, what’s your name warrior?” she asked as they opened the door. They both glanced back and then at each other.

Sly responded “Third lord of the Blood Pack guild” he grinned “Sly Bloodthirst, you’ll hear our name soon” he pushed Kyle out and closed the door behind him.

“Thought you weren’t into roleplay?” Kyle smiled mockingly.

“Most of the time” Sly chuckled “So off to the general store I guess? Wait…Shit!” he then cursed.

“What?” Kyle asked in surprise.

“I don’t have that fancy tattoo you got, will they let me in?” Sly panicked and was about to reopen the door.

Kyle stopped him “Woah not after that exit, they should let you in as long as your reputation isn’t negative!”.

Sly stared at him “Who.Am.I?” he worded out like talking to an idiot.

“How bad?” Kyle asked in resignation.

Sly looked away and at the fort door “Twenty four…negative…” he said.

“Jesus christ did you murder a whole guild!?” Kyle shouted with arms wide open.

“Yeah…you definitely owe me…” Kyle said as he knocked on the fort door.

Sly sighed “I’ll…pay you back…”.

Kyle knocked on the door again “Bum”.

Suddenly the door opened as Shirley looked through the doorway with an annoyed expression “Damnit I’m busy, who-” which quickly changed to confusion as the sight of Sly choking Kyle presented itself.

Sly immediately let go and looked away with an annoyed expression as Kyle caught his breathe and looked at her “We…eh…need directions…” he coughed a couple times “We require another…citizenship thing”.

Shirley blinked a few times as she stared at him “Oh…” she pointed behind them “Central plaza…Ask for Jior, it’s 30 gold but they’ll ask for 32”.

Kyle nodded as he caressed his neck “Alright, thanks…We’ll be off now” Sly had already turned and began walking away so Kyle had to jog momentarily to catch up.

“So that’s…how much exactly you owe me now?” Kyle asked while looking at Sly mockingly.

“Yeap, I’m gonna kill you, one of these days I’m gonna fucking kill you” Sly whispered.

They walked through the town of bandits until they reached where both cavern walls were closest, one single platform held up by both walls and many pillars embedded into the cavern roof. They both stood around the middle looking around the wooden shack like buildings and stalls, “So…where do we ask?” Sly asked while eyeing a weapon stall.

Kyle shrugged “Guess we just ask someone?” he looked at the short and burly bandit behind the stall looking somewhat like a dwarf “Might you know where we can find Jior?”.

The dwarf momentarily looked up “I might” he said with disinterest. Kyle sighed and opened his inventory, he was about to take out a gold coin but was stopped by Sly’s arm getting in the way.

Sly stepped up to the stall and slammed both hands onto it’s wooden surface making most of the weapons jump up a centimetre or two, “Well do you? Or do you not? Be careful dwarf, the state of your shop after this conversation will solely depend on your answer” he glared down at the frowning dwarf. Sly glared and the dwarf also began to glare, after what seemed like ages “Oh for fucks sake” Kyle pulled out two gold coins and laid them over the stall.

The dwarf didn’t look away and pointed to the left “Jior’s services, grey bark door third to the right” he grabbed the coins with his other hand, Kyle nodded and walked away from the stall “Sly?” he noticed his friend hadn’t moved an inch.

“He’s about to blink” Sly said while continuing his glaring contest, Kyle simply walked back up to them and grabbed Sly’s tail “NOT THE FUCKING TAIL!” Sly shouted making the dwarf flinch as Kyle pulled him away. Sly fell back as Kyle let go of the tail “Fuck! Would you like it if I pulled your damn tail!?” he cursed and shouted as he grabbed his own tail and petted it.

Kyle sighed “Do you want to get on with this and get to the town or what?” he asked while walking away.

“Fine fine!” Sly said as he stood up and followed, “I coulda won that” he added as they walked. They went by multiple run-down buildings before stopping in front of one that did not stand out, what so ever. Like all the others the shop was entirely made of wood with green paint and a grey wooden door, Sly stepped forward towards the door but a sudden crack completely caught his attention as he leaped back whiter than paper.

Sly had jumped about five feet back as he stared pale at the crack in the wooden floor he was just putting pressure on “Let’s get the fuck outa here quickly” he said and moved around the cracked floor.

Kyle nodded “I dislike this place about as much as you do” he walked into the store with Sly following in behind. The store was nothing more than a long wooden table at the back of a dimly lit room with a back room behind it, absolutely nothing on display.

“Come now Jior, you know the boss has certain…expectations!” a rough voice spoke out from the back room.

“Y..yes yes! I know but I can’t keep up right now! I’m behind! Cut me some slack I don’t run no business here just some excuse of one!” a high pitched voice spoke right after.

The rough voice sighed and spoke again “Guess we’ll have to see what the captain has to say about that” the sound of shuffling papers could be heard as a large wide bandit in basic leather armour stepped through the back room’s doorless doorway, holding something up in his right hand. Both Sly and Kyle stared with surprise as they noticed the bandit wasn’t holding up something but someone, a small palm sized humanoid struggled in the man’s large hands as it’s blue translucent wings poked out from behind it.

“Look I have customers now! Come on can’t you just wait a couple more days! I’m sure I’ll gather more!” the fairy spoke quickly in panic, their too large blue eyes darting between the two at the door. It looked somewhat relieved to have witnesses to see what some would call a kidnapping, it scratched its short blue hair as he stared at them expectantly.

The both of them stared back (“The fuck’s a fairy doing here?”) Sly thought to himself,.

(“Huh…fairy…is that a female or male?...I can’t tell…”) Kyle wondered.

“OI! Some help! Maybe! Being kidnapped over here!” the fairy’s long pointy ears shivered and it shouted after a couple more moments of staring.

The large bandit shook his hand multiple times “Shut it Jior, we’re going to Regg whether you like it or not!” with Jior in it.

Kyle began to chuckle maniacally inciting a worried glance from Sly “Yo mate, you…okay over there?”.

Kyle slightly hunched over and sighed “Oh I’m fine, just amazed” he looked up at the bandit and Jior “At just how lucky we are”.

“Oi fat ass, we need that fairy you’re holding” Sly said gaining fat ass’s full attention.

The large bandit stomped over to Sly and glared straight into his eyes at about a centimetre away “What did you just call me?” he spat as he spoke.

Sly pulled away and wiped his face “Apparently fat ass can’t hear all that well, fuck you spit when you talk”.

The bandit’s face turned red with rage as he let go of Jior who fluttered out of the way and behind Kyle. The bandit rushed forward and into Sly making both of them crash into the door, they both crashed straight through the weak wood and onto the plaza floor outside. Kyle rushed outside with Jior on his shoulder to see the bandit standing over Sly as they pushed at each other palm to palm, “I’ll kill you fucking purple dog!” the bandit shouted as more spit rained down on Sly’s face.

Suddenly a chilling aura blasted out from Sly followed by a violet glow that violently lashed out at the bandit’s body, no physical damage was done as the tendrils went straight through the bandit. Sly pushed the bandit off to the side as he stood up and wiped his face, he glanced down at the whimpering bear of a man as he shivered in terror.

Kyle noticed his friend’s appearance had changed not unlike before, his eyes glowed still but his appearance had gained other traits. Dark violet tattoos had appeared around Sly’s eyes as more pronounced tendrils grew out of them, he stepped to where he stood above the terrified bandit. “Dog?” he asked with annoyance filling his tone “Kill me?” his tone got colder with every word, he raised his right leg up above the bandit as the violet tendrils encased it completely turning into a dark purple fire like aura.

“I’m a fucking wolf” Sly stomped down onto the bandit blasting him into the floor as it shattered in the process, Kyle rushed forward as the wooden floor gave away even under Sly. He fell through the hole he himself made as his expression paled and ability died down completely, he felt a tug at his ear but made no move or reaction. Kyle lay down on the floor at the edge of the hole as he pulled Sly up from the hair and ear before grabbing onto his arm, Sly made no movements as Kyle with some minor help from Jior pulled him up to the floor.

Sly lay flat on his back his face drained of all colour as his irises had completely contracted into blade thin slits, Kyle sat down by him with Jior both breathing heavily “Since when could you do that?” he asked surprised.

“Eeepp…” a high pitched in-audible sound came out from Sly’s lips as he lay there motionless.

“What's his problem?” Jior asked.

Kyle sighed “Heights…Sea monsters…He might be in shock…”, he glanced at the fairy sitting on his shoulder “So you’re Jior?” he asked.

The fairy fluttered up into standing and put their hands on their waist as if saying ‘Bask in my glory’, “Indeed I am! How can I help my saviours?” Jior exclaimed.

Kyle stared at the fairy momentarily before speaking “I have no fucking clue what you are” he said in resignation.

Jior looked at him with a confused expression “I’m a water fairy obviously!”.

Kyle sighed “No..I mean…You a he or a she? I can’t tell!” indeed the fairy had no traits in their appearance that suggested either.

Jior frowned “Common Fae don’t have genders smart ass, only summoned, contracted or evolved do!” they said with distaste.

Suddenly a smacking sound makes them both jump as they glance down at Sly who had slammed both hands open on the floor “Out of all the god damn questions you could have asked, you ask THAT!?” he says as he looks up at them with his slits.

“You…alright there?...Your…eyes” Kyle said as he slowly backed away, Jior was hovering mid-air as they did so.

Sly slowly nodded “As right as I can be right now” a shiver went through his body as he spoke, he stuttered as he spoke “Please tell me one of you knows teleportation…NO FLIGHT!”.

Jior nodded “I do!...Teleportation I mean!”, it was about to flutter into the shop when it stopped to stare “My door…” Jior turned to look at Kyle “What did you need from me again?”.

“Oh right, we need a Dominion Citizenship...thing” he said while pointing at the back of his palm, Jior nodded and quickly flew into it’s shop. “So about that skill” Kyle began to ask but was shushed by Sly.

“Just…give me a minute…” he kept laying there immobile except for the occasional shiver.

Jior suddenly came out of the shop with two small scrolls underneath each arm, the fairy threw the gold gilded blue one onto Sly’s face. The scroll shattered into hundreds of golden particles and flew over to Sly’s hand then settled onto it’s back forming the dragon momentarily before disappearing, “See that as ‘On the house’, now let’s get the hell out of here!” Jior said before spinning in place as the second red scroll shattered and engulfed all of them in bright red particles of light.

Reality bent in front of them and suddenly changed as they appeared in front of the hideout’s entrance, Sly still lay still on the ground as Kyle lost his balance and fell back “Wooah..”.

Jior panicked “Ahha! Don’t move! First timers always get dizzy and nauseous!” the fairy flew around Sly as he tried to stand up.

“Oh no-” suddenly Sly rushed over to the edge of the platform. With eyes closed and mouth agape he unleashed his stomach off the side, he spat out then fell back on his ass breathing heavily “Never…teleporting…again!”.

Kyle had gotten back up and was holding onto the wall “Sometimes…there is a limit…to realism! This is one of those fucking times!” he cursed.

Sly groaned in agreement “Uhh…wait till you get poisoned…” a single tear formed at the corner of his left eye at the memory.

Jior kept panicking as it glanced between their sorry states before hovering in place with eyes closed and hands together “Remove thy ailments! Blessing of water!” the fairy suddenly opened it’s arms wide as sparks of blue light showered over the both of them.

Sly stood up quickly “What…did you just do!?” he asked the fairy with wild eyes.

Jior slightly hovered away from him “A…blessing…I removed your sickness…” it said sheepishly.

Sly suddenly smashed his aura clad fist into the stone cavern wall forming a human sized crater full of cracks “Even in a game…life is so unfair…”.

Kyle walked up to him and put his hand on Sly’s shoulder “No..wait…maybe we can…” they both stared up at Jior who began to pale.

“Can what!?” it asked agitated.

“Can you teach us how to use that blessing magic?!” “Or help us learn to summon a water fairy!?” Sly and Kyle asked respectively.

Jior relaxed and shook its head “Only fae can use blessings and I do not know summoning magic. Unfortunately, blessings cannot be put in runic form so that is also out of the question…”.

They both sighed in unison “Even the puke is gone…No…I cannot let this opportunity go dammit!” Sly cursed, he crossed his arms and closed his eyes as he thought it over “Is there any way we can keep you as a companion of some sort?”.

Jior tilted it’s head momentarily before the fairy’s expression seemed to do a 180 “You want me as companion!? But but! I’m only a fairy! A water fairy! I have no combat use! There is so many other stronger companions you can contract with!” the fairy went into a talking spree as it zoomed all over the place.

“Woah woah calm the hell down!” Kyle shouted with some amusement in his tone, “You can contract with NP- other non monster races? How many? What are the limitations?” he said as Jior suddenly stopped right in front of his face.

The fairy’s expression relaxed a bit “Oh you don’t know! They don’t know!” it exclaimed in surprise while glancing at both of their confused and amused expressions, Jior cleared their throat with a cough before straightening up and holding up their right index finger while putting their left arm behind their back as if beginning a lecture “Adventurers are capable of forming contracts with any single being for life, these contracts bind the two party’s souls and is in no way to be seen as your everyday friendship!” Jior spoke with a very serious tone “Soul binding is the deepest connection two beings can ever have! So much so that certain races utilize it as the binding of a marriage!”.

Sly suddenly raised both arms up “Woah woah hell if I’m getting married like that!”.

Jior glared at him “Then you aren’t ready to contract! If you’re not ready to share your very soul with another the contract will fail spectacularly!”.

“Yeah I ain’t interested in that, if I were to contract with a companion it would be one for combat anyway. I can deal with the nausea…” Sly shook his head in resignation.

“Then you probably want to look out for monsters of your beast species, the contract will be stronger like that” Jior said thoughtfully.

“Why does that sound wrong…it sounds wrong doesn’t it?!” Sly exclaimed with a chuckle.

“Yeah that sounds wrong, only because you have the mind to make it sound wrong” Kyle said mockingly making Sly frown.

“…I can’t…deny that…” Sly raised both arms back up in surrender again.

“I am still interested in the contract though, I’m not a combat nutcase like my friend here so I don’t care about your battle potential” Kyle said matter-of-factly,

Sly’s shoulders slump down “Combat nutcase…”.

“So what do I do? Having a fairy companion sounds too useful, if you’re interested that is” Kyle asked.

Jior sighed “I lost my shop because I was too ambitious…I can’t go back home…” the fairy fluttered around Kyle “Your mana is very stable so I won’t be affected at all…” it said while in deep thought.

“What do you mean? Stable mana? You won’t be affected?” Kyle asked out of curiosity, he also noticed Sly was lost in some menu in front of him.

Jior re-entered lecturer form “Your soul’s form effects your mana and vice versa, the combat nutcase’s mana is overloaded with aura due to his magic while your mana is very basic with almost no difference from ambient mana which tells me you haven’t learned any magic yet” the fairy flew over to Sly who seemed to be taking notes “If I contracted with him, his mana would affect both my own and my appearance which would be a pain to get used to! It’s why most contracts are between similar beings or one party having little affinity in their mana, imagine having to relearn all your magic and abilities after having mastered so many! It would be a nightmare!” Jior shuddered.

“Wait, what is aura exactly? I have abilities titled as auras but do not make use of my aura resource and use mana instead!” Sly exclaimed.

Jior turned to face him “Your mana and aura are the same resource silly, its just that one is processed and the other is unprocessed. Aura is processed mana, your aura abilities can utilize either you just have to learn how to pick”.

Kyle scratched his head “Wait…so how many other types of mana is there? Is stamina counted as processed mana too?” he asked with a confused tone.

Jior shook their head “No no, stamina is a physical resource while mana is spiritual in nature. Resources are split into three types, Physical, Astral and Spiritual. Physical include your stamina and health along with any other physical trait an ability or skill can use as resource, an example would be blood magic that uses the casters mana and blood. Astral is solely magic that relies on a worshiped Deity, said Deity provides the power resource for the caster to reform into magic. Lastly is spiritual which has the most resource types that all come from a single one, mana. Mana can be processed into many different forms, most of which are called elements such as fire, water, earth, wind, light and dark which can be combined to create even more elements called sub elements. There are other forms of processed mana but the only three I know of are Aura which is completely based on Aurei magic, Dread based on both death magic and necromancy ending with Rage that is class based but most commonly used by berserkers and such.”

Jior twirled their finger in the air as they continued to explain “When contracting the differences in each party’s magic collide and change, normally the adventurer remains the least effected but for us fae…we are affected maybe a bit too much!” Jior exclaimed in annoyance “I’d much rather not lose my beautiful wings for others!”.

Sly had completely lost interest after noticing the fairy was done with it’s explanation and was now completely focused on his notes, Kyle on the other hand looked completely confused.

“So…does that mean we can form a contract…or?...” Jior had lost him somewhere between Astral and Spiritual.

Jior frowned down at him “We can but first I’d like to confirm something”. The fairy glanced around the hideout “I may be living around these unsavoury individuals but that is because I’ve had no other choice until now, your reputation may not be as bad as combat nutcase over there but it still is a killer’s” Jior fluttered down to Kyle’s shoulder, “All adventurers have a reason to be here in our world, I’d like to know yours. Why exactly are you in Chaoz?” the fairy looked Kyle straight in the eye as it asked the question.