Chapter 17

I had woken up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world and win. Then I crawled out of the bed and had a look out the window. Wet and misty with low layers of fog covering the streets. I loved the wet smell with just a hint of pine in the air and the smell of fresh wood smoke coming from the chimneys. It was the kind of weather made for someone who would be sneaking around, someone like me.

My plan was simple, go to the House of Pain, enter and make my way to the officer’s lounge and deposit the book. All I had to do was not get caught. I hated this house and what represented, the cruelty and pain it inflicted on others. If my plan worked and I knew it would this house would not be around for much longer.

Making my way down the stairs I entered the hall that led to the wash area, taking my time I washed up and made myself look presentable. Walking slowly, I entered the dining area and sat down to order breakfast. In a recent patch the menu items had been changed to earth style with many different cultural foods available to enjoy.

This morning I decided to have a Full Monty British breakfast. Washed down with about a liter of Earl Grey tea. This fry up comprises of bacon and sausages(bangers) eggs, fried bread, toast, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, black and white puddings, kidneys, kippers, mushrooms. It was delicious.

As I sat drinking my tea I began to review my plan for the day, the first thing was to gain entry to the House of Pain. Once inside I would find the officers lounge, and leave my gift. Then to escape back to the street. I left the Inn and began walking along the streets slowly making my way up to the level that held the guild house. The fog wrapped around me silently masking my slow approach and deadening my footsteps.

Eventually I arrived and stared across the street at the house. It was three stories high and had a large fence that went around the house in closing a back yard. The style was common in the area; these homes were at least three hundred years old. That knowledge was going to be useful to me.

In my discussions with Kamasut she had mentioned that most of these old homes had hidden passageways and secret rooms. I was hoping to find just such a thing and use it to scout out the house.

As I waited and watched I noticed a strange change in the light of the day. It was a wet foggy day with the color an off white. Yet as I waited the color changed and almost seemed to have a yellow tint to it. It reminded me of stories that I had read about tornadoes, and how the color in the sky would often change just before the tornado hit.

As I was thinking about these things the door across from me suddenly opened and two members of the House of Pain stepped out. As I observed them I noted that they were both level 20 players and that while they had on respectable gear it was green quality. I thought briefly of following them and seeing what they were up to when it happened.

There was a sudden muted flash of light that seemed to come from the air, and everything froze. I was stunned but kept observing the two players who were literally frozen in mid step. What the hell. I glanced at my interface and was shocked to discover that the clock was frozen also.

This was supposed to be impossible. Nothing could stop time like this, even patches to game content did not stop time. After waiting for several minutes I took a breath and made my way across the street. I stopped once I was at the door and observed the two, they were indeed frozen in time and space. Shrugging my shoulders, I relieved them of the coins they each carried and then made my way into the House of Pain.

As I began to search through each of the rooms I noted that most of the players were between the levels 20 and 40 with the officers all above level 55. Not that it was important but these little tidbits of information often came in handy at some point. It was on the third floor that I eventually found what I was looking for.

With about a dozen officers all gathered in a large room frozen in the act of eating and drinking while gathered around what could only be described as a throne. Sitting on the throne with three naked NPC girls chained at his feet was the Little Shit. Just off to the side was the Kritiq. I had forgotten what an ugly little bastard that thing was. I guess he had bonded to the Little Shit during their time imprisoned together.

Opening my bag, I placed the Big Book of Mischief on the Little Shits lap and then proceeded to make my way through the room stopping here and there to help myself to the gold, silver and jewels that the officers had. It was quite the haul and I would count it back at my Inn. I had no idea how long time would be stopped and I still wanted to find the hidden passageways within this house.

I might have to return here someday and having an edge was what I wanted. Back in the main hallway I walked into the room at the far end. It was clearly the master bedroom and judging by the filthy clothing scattered around and the garbage and food thrown on the floor it was being used. I did not need to worry about someone finding me in here I could hide under some of this garbage and remain unseen. I am not a clean freak, but to leave the place where you sleep looking like this, it bothered me.

I began to check the bookcases and the fireplace as those were the sort of traditional places where you might find a hidden door. Nothing was seen, and I prepared to leave the room, hoping I would have time to explore another room. Just as I was about to leave I glanced at the bed and noted that is seemed just a tad higher than it should be.

Stopping for a moment I examined the bed a little more carefully, noting that the head board was actual a mural painting on the wall. It showed the city from three hundred years ago. The palace on the top was much smaller and the library was much larger. The main entrance to the library was a dark doorway, and the way it was painted made it look slightly recessed into the wall.

I stared for a moment then put my finger tip on the door and pushed, with a soft click the mural swung inwards revealing enough space for a man to enter. I stepped into the passageway and watched the mural swing shut. After about 5 seconds a soft green glow appeared. I waited for several seconds more to let my eyes acclimatize to the lighting and then looked down the passageway. It was narrow and appeared to be made of bricks.

It seemed that every twenty feet was a small alcove and glancing in as I went down the passage I observed that they each had what appeared to be a doorway with a small lever attached. Stopping at one of them I noted several peepholes were cleverly built into the hidden door allowing whoever was in the passage a chance to make sure that the room they would enter was empty.

Continuing along the passage I saw it narrow and a ladder led downwards and another led up. The ladder going up interested me as I had thought I was on the top floor. Guessing that there might be an attic I decided to explore a bit before I made my way downwards, after all I was in the thief class now. Making my way up the ladder was not hard and the soft green glow followed me as I ascended.

I climbed into a long rectangular room that ran the length of the house. The floor was made of brick as were the walls, there were two large windows that l was surprised to see. I knew for a fact that the outside of the house did not have windows in an attic. At one time someone had left some strong magic here and I was now very curious to see why.

I starred and scanned the floors and the walls very carefully for any Runes or anything that might be some kind of magic trap. It all looked clean so I carefully stepped into the room proper and made my way to the far end where a desk and several shelfs were situated. I began to go through the books that were on the shelves, most dealt with elemental magic with a few dealing with politics and history and legends and myths.

Walking over to the desk I sat down and began to go through the drawers, a few gold coins and a small bag were all that I found. Opening the bag, I observed four rings of the epic quality. They crackled with energy. Putting them back in the bag I carefully added the bag to mine. Seeing nothing else of interest I walked over to the closest window and looked out, it was still foggy and dark with very limited visibility.

Glancing down I noted a park directly across the lane from the back of the house and in the park were three beings. They looked like energy contained within a cloud in a humanoid shape and they appeared to be fighting one another. As I observed them it became apparent that they were expending large amounts of energy of some kind, which came to a climax as all three seemed to merge together and then blow apart with a large white glow.

Once the glow faded I could see that there were several small pieces of the beings scattered around, and I watched as they began to flicker and then fade. In the end only three pieces were left and they were slowly dimming. I am not sure why I felt I had to get down there but it was almost a compulsion, I opened the window and stepped out onto a ledge.

Closing the window, I made my way to the corner of the house that was closest to the park and transformed, then with a jump I glided down to the park. Once I had landed I approached the three glowing energy clouds. After coming within a couple of feet of them I stopped and began to observe them, the only thing I could tell was that whatever powered them was fading.

Stepping a little closer I bent down to take a closer look, suddenly all three of the energy clouds converged on me and before I could back away they somehow merged with me. My body froze and then toppled over, but my interface remained open and a new window suddenly appeared. Lines of code began to scroll down and then stop and then slowly reverse itself but as the code went backwards it began to disappear.

Suddenly new code appeared and began to fill in the blank sections. This went on for a long time and then suddenly a new message opened up on the interface. It read

Due to changed wrought by the Powers you have begun the journey of ascension. Written into your very being are three aspects that have become one power. This power has become you, however be warned that while on this plane a Demigod will have very little power. Once you have returned to the Astral Heavens your powers will be revealed. To achieve true ascendency, you must collect 4 more lesser aspects of higher beings and three higher aspects of greater beings.

My thoughts tried to understand what had just happened, but between what I had just read and the changes that were happening to me it was too much. My last coherent thought was that I noticed the clock was running again, and then it all faded into blackness.