22 days remain of contest A, Sunday.

I log in and get a notification.

REGION NOTIFICATION

Clan [Art of War] claims The Leviathan Fortress.

I feel my resolve grow seeing this news; I need to finish the story instance and set things in motion in the game to halt Josie’s progress. This changes the whole game; [Art of War] don’t have time to take the Jade Fortress today, hopefully. They will surely try to take it Friday night, as soon as the conquest period begins. I scan through the channels and see there is a lot of talk that they are planning to make an attempt on the Jade fortress.

With pops and electric snaps, Briar and Kian both log in.

“Morning. I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” I look at each in turn. “I was thinking, you guys, can you swap between your classes as needed? We might need some stealth coming up later in here,” I ask.

“Sure, haven’t you tried yet?” asks Briar. Then, seeing my look, he continues, “You just need to equip a weapon type for the class you want to use. If we can use the weapons for more than one class, it will give you a choice of which one you want to use. You really haven’t tried another weapon?”

“Okay,” I say. “So if I want to level my fighter class right now, I could just pick up a sword and shield and I would be a level-one fighter?”

Briar nods and stows his gear, then pulls out his cloak and knife and I see he chose Nightblade as his level fifteen advanced class. Kian retrieves his gear, and he has chosen Strider, which is a combination of Ranger and Outrider. We stop and discuss the advanced class quest, which was different for each of us.

The other players log in with their brilliant snaps of light. Each look at us in turn.

“Whoa, you guys got all emo,” Roll laughs. “I like it, and it might come in handy to have you stealthy lot handling some of these issues. This instance doesn’t seem to be a hack and slash. This place is a lot more about using your head.”

I nod at his insight—it was what I was thinking as well—and say “This valley is huge, and I have a pretty good idea what we need to do. I think—I don’t know for certain, but I think—that the crystal in the cave back there is one many we will encounter. I think there are crystals around in this valley and surrounding areas, we need to find them all, then I think we need to destroy each of them. I want to test that theory by destroying the one back there in cave first.” I give Roll a smile. “If you could get your Colossus summons to go smash it, I think I can prove my theory.”

“U-Uhh, sure, okay,” Roll says and begins his summoning spell.

We all stand back and watch the Colossus smash on the crystal. With each hit it causes a thud that resonates like a deep drum. Louder and louder the sound gets as the summoned creatures finally smashes the crystal shard. A release of power, like a breath of air held for an eternity, empties forth. The smoke clouds that were inside the crystal dissipate into the air just like steam would rise from a kettle.

Fenmalain Soul Crystal destroyed (1/6)

We hear a loud roaring sound and I sense that Morrigan is agitated. Rapidly, I look through her eyes and see a brilliant blue-and-gold-scaled dragon emerging from the lake in the center of the valley.

“Oh no! Run to the tunnel! A dragon is coming,” I yell as I take off, my feet blurring below me.

“Ginga,” yips Briar, as he is the last who crashes into the tunnel.

“We need to move back farther. That thing might have a breath weapon.” I maneuver the whole party back and I say, “I have a teleport, so I’ll go and look and try to get some information on it. If you see me come back, move back farther, there may be a wall of flame right behind me.”

I dip into the shadows as I start back, I can hear my team on the voice channel maneuvering away from the tunnel entrance. Still in the tunnel entrance and hidden, I switch to Morrigan’s eyes. She has climbed higher into the sky and I see the dragon flying toward the cave. I swap back to my vision just in time to see the dragon enter the cave. It is enormous, and my inspect skill is far too low for this creature—I only see question marks for every field in the display. Its scales are brilliant, but a little worn. Its claws, like daggers, scrape the dirt. This cannot possibly be a young dragon. This is a fully mature and intelligent animal. Being this close to it makes me have an almost uncontrollable desire to run. I know if it even looks in my direction, hidden or not, I will flee in terror.

This is absolutely not a creature that we can hope to fight. I see it looking around at the ground, dipping its head here and there, and then sticks its head into the crystal shard room. It emits a low growl and a short snort. It turns its head and sniffs the air with a series of short inhalations. Luckily for me the stone giants recently left, and their campfire remains lit, still with the entire half-burnt cow on it spewing smoke. I see the dragon sniff at the pit where the bard was, and then it turns and exits the cave. I follow to see it, noticing that it stops at the monument, snorts, and takes flight.

“We don’t ever want to fight that thing,” I say in the party voice chat. “It makes Frostcracker look like a kitten,”

“I guess your plan worked,” Roll says, stepping up next to me. “How did you know to do that with the crystal?”

“Just a hunch,” I lie.

“We need to find the other crystals. I think there will be two or three more in this valley, probably. I would guess there is one in the with the Goblins and probably one near the lake and then at the end of the valley. I can scout with Morrigan, but this is going to be really slow going.”

I go and lay down next to the fire and notifications all start scrolling.

Resting: Experience gain 200, Goblins.

Resting: Experience gain 2000, Worgs, Goblins

You have reached level 16!

Resting: Experience gain 3500, Giant alliance.

Resting: Experience gain 2000 shard destroyed (1/6)

You have reached level 17!

Hide skill +2

“Hey, guys, come over here and rest,” I say. “Think you might like this.”

Once we are all rested, we determine that we should split up. Two of the rogues will go into the goblin den to find and destroy the shard, and the other three will explore the valley.

I request that Kian comes with me into the goblin den. As a Strider advanced class, he can use a bow with an ability that should allow us to destroy any shard we find from a safe distance. Then, we can watch the dragon eat the goblins.

We say goodbye to the others and start our trek back along the ledge and into the goblins’ den. We stay hidden in shadows as best we can, but the worgs have an excellent sense of smell, so we have to maintain a distance from them. We also have to find the shard, as it likely won’t be out in the open with a light on it. Taking our time scouting around the den, I don’t see anything that stands out. There is one structure, however, near the back of the cavern, that looks almost like a shrine. The structure has what looks like it could be a goblin holy symbol over the door. There are two pits of burning sage to either side of the door, and it usually has multiple goblins around it.

“What you wanna bet is in there?” asks Kian.

“Almost anything, but we need to come back when they are asleep. It’s dark outside now and they are going to be up for hours,” I say.

We retreat back the way we came to the cavern and rest at the fire and log out for a break.