Arlyth respawned back in the same graveyard she was just blown up in. She sighed to herself, exasperated.

“Kye, you got any explanation for that?” Arlyth asked.

There was no response. Arlyth was unsure of that, he had abruptly stopped talking when the rock started to explode, she wondered if that had something to do with why he wasn’t answering now. She shrugged to herself, and decided to continue on, she wanted to find an inn to rest at the very least.

Arlyth made it to the entrance of the cemetery with no further issues, a bit unsure of what triggered the stones explosion, if it was her leaving the cemetery or her questioning her logout. Whatever made it happen she hesitantly stepped out of the cemetery. To her relief, nothing happened. The cemetery was just outside the city walls to avoid any potential Zombies from getting into the city, the main road to Newgarde was a wide stone road, enough for two wagons to pass by each other with no issues. The city looked huge from where she was, the walls standing at least 15 feet tall. She got kind of lost in her revelry as she continued down the road into the city gates.

As she approached the gates of Newgarde she saw two men standing guard at the gate. They eyed her a bit more than she was used to and it made her feel uncomfortable, the city guards had never given her trouble and she wasn’t sure what would come of this as they were staring her down as if she was a mythical beast.

When she reached the gates one of the guards stopped her and asked “Excuse me, ma’am, where are you coming from?”

“I just respawned in the graveyard, I’m just looking for somewhere to sleep for the night.” Arlyth said.

The two guards eyed each other, then they focused back on Arlyth.

“Unfortunately, we cannot allow you into the city. You’re a sanguine elf, we saw that before you were even close to us and we don’t like your kind around here.” The guard stated, with a lot more heat in his voice.

“I mean no harm! I’m just looking for a place to rest.” Arlyth said while taking a step back.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what all you damned blood magicians say. Tell that to my mother who was killed by your people.”

Arlyth was stunned, blood magic? She had never heard of blood magic in EXO ever since she started playing. “Uh, I don’t have blood magic. I’ve never even heard-”

The guard cut her off with a sarcastic chortle. “Blasphemy! All of you people have that cursed power. I’ve seen it with my own damn eyes!”

Arlyth sighed heavily. “Is there anything I can do to prove to you I’m not who you say I am? I’m a traveller, I’m not sure what’s happening right now but I didn’t choose this race.”

The second guard finally piped up saying “Shut your lying mouth. We don’t like you ‘round these parts so bugger off.”

Arlyth started to protest, but before she could even get a word out she was hit upside the head with a gauntleted fist. She fell hard onto the ground, while seeing her health fall by 80 points.

The guard stood over her and said “I”ll give ya nice comfy cell to spend the night in, you blood elf maggot.”

After hearing the words come out of his mouth, Arlyth fell unconscious, unable to deal with the pain in her head.

Debuff Gained:

[Concussion] - Accuracy Reduced by 50%

Duration: 1 Hour

For the 3rd time that day, Arlyth had awoken in a strange place she didn’t know. As promised, the guards gave her a cell to sleep in, although it may as well have been used as a garbage dump. Looking around Arlyth saw that the place was filthy, there was barely any light. The stones were mossy, with water dripping in places, the ground was cracked and covered in muck and garbage, the bed, if you could call it that, was disgusting. and Arlyth had no intention of using it. There was also a sink with a mirror above it and toilet in one corner that were both fairly dirty in their own right.

Curious, Arlyth went to the mirror, it was dirty and she used her shirt to try and clean some of the muck off. She hadn’t seen herself since the new race happened. After cleaning off a sufficient space on the mirror she stared at her reflection. Her skin was a slightly pale shade, her facial features were much the same, excluding the pointy ears, bright blue eyes and fire engine red hair she now adorned. She was kind of stunned by the change, albeit minimal. She didn’t hate it, she was intrigued by her new look. After examining her face she took a moment to examine her whole body, looking down she saw that she had the same lean figure she did before, just with lighter skin. She didn’t like to think of it this way, but she had a nice hourglass frame, to which she credited her many years of gymnastics.

After spending a few moments analyzing her new body, she found a somewhat clean chair to sit on in the opposite corner of the cell. Arlyth closed her fist and in a fit of anger she punched a wall. She put her full force into it, which was not a good idea. She saw her health bar drop 5 points. Most of the damage she had taken from the guard had healed while she was unconscious and she was now sitting at 75 hp. The pain was absolutely insane. The game was supposed to dampen the feeling of pain but she concluded that wasn’t the case for her anymore, especially after the headache she woke up with.

“Kye, you back yet? I’m in need of some help here.” Arlyth asked in her mind. Again, no response. Under her breath Arlyth muttered, “what the hell is going on?” She was getting really irritated with what was happening, she couldn’t understand any of what had happened to her in the last six or so hours. There was just too much happening and Arlyth forced herself to breathe. She needed to figure out what she could do to get out of the situation she is in now.

Speaking to herself in a hushed voice Arlyth said, “So the guards don’t like Sanguine elfs, because of blood magic? I didn’t see any blood magic in my skill list as a racial ability so I’m not sure I’m a proper Sanguine Elf. Unless I for some reason need to unlock the ability, which could mean anything.” In the middle of her introspection she heard metal boots clanging against the stone floor. Not wanting to be punched or belittled again, Arlyth pretended to still be unconscious.

As she laid back down on the filthy floor, she reasoned that she was already dirty and a little more time on the floor wouldn’t break her. The foot falls got louder and louder and eventually she heard them right outside her cell.

“Ey, blood maggot, are you alive in there?” The guard said to her

Arlyth didn’t respond, she didn’t want him to know she was alive. She did everything she could to avoid her breathing being seen. Arlyth heard the clanging of keys against her cell door.

She thought to herself - “Shit! He’s coming in here and I have no way to protect myself.”

While she panicked internally the guard came into the cell and stood over her. She heard him set something down on the sink then he bent down and put two fingers on her neck to check if there was still a pulse. Arlyth almost yelped at the same moment his fingers touched her but she held firm. After about 2 seconds the guard grunted and stood up.

“I’m leaving some food for you, for when you wake up.” The guard stated as he left the cell and locked it.

After the door was locked, Arlyth heard the metal foot falls going away from her direction and she opened her eyes. She saw the mentioned tray of food on the sink and eyed it suspiciously. It was a piece of bread with a soup of some kind and some water. She tried looking for anything out of the ordinary, she wasn’t sure if these people would poison her but after the day she had, hesitancy was at an all time high.

After staring at the bowl of soup for what seemed like a minute two prompts appeared.

New Skill Gained!

[Analyze] - Gives the ability to analyze the statistics of equipment, people, ingredients and food items.

Analyze:

Chicken Soup and Bread, restores 30% health over 30 seconds.

Letting out a pained laugh, Arlyth thought - small wins, I guess. But, I need to get out of here, I need to come up with some sort of plan to escape this place. As she finished the thought, she began searching the room for anything she could use to hatch an escape plan.