Chapter 9

It took several minutes of calling and threats of going around the men/women divider to get Alison to disentangle herself from the bath house. She was not very pleased that her soak time was cut into by Mal and Omega hurrying her along. Mal reminded her that daylight was wasting and promised to make it up to her with a strong drink later on when they had hit everything on Mal’s checklist. With a harrumph and a shake of her wet hair Alison followed the other two members of their 3 person and 1 golem party out into the bright daylight.

The streets were full in this part of town, the central district, with people jostling past one another each with their own little mission or place to be heading to. SI NPCs and PCs alike filtered among the cobbled streets hardly distinguishable which was which. Mal was taking it all in as he strode along beside Omega and Alison, grumbling still about the baths, bringing up the rear with Sylvester the stalwart golem.

One thing Mal was doing as he engaged Omega in small talk about the city was that he was comparing his gear he had acquired thus far with other players. He seemed to be doing quite alright because most of the average players had far less in the way of gear than he had managed to scrape together at this point. Now Mal did see the occasional player with comparable gear but Mal would feel pretty comfortable betting that they were in the alpha or beta phases testing the game. Then Mal considered on top of it all he had formed a powerful adventuring party that he led with a golem under his control as icing on the cake.

Mal smiled broadly at the noobs as they passed.

Omega chatted Mal up about the different districts of Clear Waters and let him know he had lived here since the early alpha days. Omega stuttered some when he mentioned the alpha days and Mal didn’t press him. Mal figured whoever Svetlana was and what had happened to her had been during that time. Mal was about to ask Omega a question for further detail on the soldiers of the city and if they could be hired when a sight stopped him dead in his tracks.

A giant shadow crossed over them and Mal craned his head back with many other players as they watched an airship dock with the city keep. Mal didn’t know things like that were in this game but there it was right in front of his eyes. A ship floating on the wind with balloons above the central mast keeping it afloat. Several ballista and archers manned the sides of the deadly and cutting profile of the ship. There was also clearly magic involved because Mal saw glowing runes and symbols on the back where the dual propellers were that gave it propulsion faster than the billowing sails naturally could.

“What? Never seen an airship before?” Omega said in response to Mal’s sudden rapt attention on the ship.

“Huh? No, that’s amazing! We have to get one of those!” Mal exclaimed excitedly thinking of the numerous useful ways such a ship would help a traveling adventurer.

“Good luck with that haha!” Alison said catching up to them. “The building of airships is a tightly guarded secret by the Royal Air Corps. See their crest? The sword represents men, The hammer for the dwarves, and the arrow the elves.”

Mal looked closer and did see the banner of golden sword, crossed with golden hammer over a golden arrow, on a field of blue. Recollection dawned in Mal who had been trolling through the forums quite a bit in his downtime. The Royal Guard was the military arm of the three main races here on this eastern side of Planus.

“Well I don’t care, I don’t care if I have to join up or what, I’m going to command one of those ships one day. Mark my words!” Mal said to her.

“Sure sure. How about we get you a decent non chipped and non rusty sword first!” Omega teased him observing their current state of affairs.

Mal smiled ruefully but was undeterred as he added “Yeah yeah, and a couple of spellbooks eh?”

They began moving again back towards the industry and craftsmen district. The sounds of hammers ringing off of metal intensified when they entered the blacksmith quarter of the industrial district. Omega led them on knowing from prior knowledge which smiths were fair and honest. They stopped in front of one of the smaller less fancy forges and Mal glanced around wondering if maybe they should be at one the more established places. Omega reassured him though this small forge had the best bang for your gold piece in the whole city.

The group of adventurers and their golem walked up to the forge. The front was very openly designed with half a wall that allowed air flow into the hot smithy and also doubled as a open area to display their wares. Mal wandered along the displayed weapons and armor and was quite impressed by the quality of the work. He inspected a helmet that had caught his eye.

-Steel Half Helm with coif, quality fine, +12 defense rating

Mal didn’t have a helmet yet so he asked the teenager managing the stall how much. The youth had on a heavy leather blacksmith apron to protect from stray hot sparks and looked to be an apprentice of the shop.

The apprentice smith brusquely haggled with him for a short minute.

“I’ll take it!” Mal said happily counting out the silvers and promptly putting the armor on. It fit perfectly. Mal felt particularly wealthy thanks to the purse of gold Atish had given him so a transaction like this felt like a drop in the bucket. “I’m also looking for some blades.”

The teenager merely gestured at the displayed work and Mal found himself wishing for Apple store type service from back in the real world. Thankfully Omega knew what the score was and had engaged the head smith in conversation. They appeared to know each other.

“Over here Mal, I found the perfect longsword!” Omega called from the on down the line.

“Hey give me some gold.” Alison said suddenly and poked Mal in the side.

“What? Uhh sure, but why?” Mal said to her pulling out an expensive gem and some gold for her. No use being tight like she had said earlier and besides if Alison wanted something Mal had a feeling it would probably be pretty useful or even save his life someday.

“A girl’s gotta shop!” She said with a bright grin when she saw how much Mal was doling out for her. “Let me borrow Sylvester too.”

“Damn, you ask a lot of me!” Mal said smiling back at her.

“Oh stop, you know I’m worth it.” Alison countered as she moved off with Sly.

Mal enjoyed the saunter she put on as she walked away then turned to Omega and the smith who were watching him with smirks on their faces. With a hearty laugh Mal joined them.

“My wife is always draining my purse too, if you know what I mean!” The smith said as a friendly way of greeting.

“They aren’t married! I’m not even sure if he has bedded her yet!” Omega laughed with the blacksmith.

“Ok, Ok, lets see the weapons.” Mal said in a hurry to change the subject.

“Show him the stuff, Hagrad.”

Hagrad the blacksmith held out a large wooden tray with several blades on it. A longsword, a hatchet, and 3 throwing knives were arrayed on display for Mal. Mal looked at them closely with his examine skill.

Blessed Darksteel Longsword, damage 15-20(depending on skill level), quality, Excellent

“Whoa, Nice!” Mal said without thinking and was immediately kicking himself internally because he had just given away his position in the bartering that was surely about to take place. He wished Alison was here to help with her higher trading skill. But thankfully for Mal, Omega began bartering hard on his behalf.

Mal bit his tongue when Omega said they may have to go to the other shops to see what they offered. Mal wanted that sword and he didn’t care how much Hagrad was going to charge for it. After a few minutes of back and forth they settled on a price for the long sword.

“How about it Mal? 32 gold pieces for this decent, I guess, blade.” Omega said with a pointed glance at Hagrad who grunted at the jab.

“That’s great Omega, ummm how much for the whole tray?” Mal said noting that the hatchet and throwing knives were also the swirling grey of Blessed Darksteel. Mal started to worry that maybe he was spending too much but he figured may as well have the best gear I can buy rather than dying out in the wild with a sword that breaks or won’t pierce armor.

After another round of bartering, that Mal participated in this time, made him 50 gold pieces lighter which felt like he was getting a bargain. Mal was careful not to let Hagrad get a good look at his magical coin pouch.

Congratulations! You have progressed to Trading lvl 3! Supply and Demand adventurer!

“Excellent!” Mal said as he traded his old knives and old iron longsword over to Hagrad as per their deal. Mal strapped and stowed his new weapons in place with the knives going across his chest on a simple bandolier for easy access and the hatchet strapped tight to his left thigh. They stated their thanks and farewells to Hagrad.

Mal was thrilled at his new purchases but then when he looked over at Omega and his appearance tamed Mal’s excitement. Omega was looking pleased with his haggling job he had done but as Mal looked him up and down he was wearing pretty much rags. They had washed his shabby clothes at the bathhouse but rags were rags.

“So if you were going into battle back in the day, what weapons or armor would you be using Omega?” Mal asked as they moved away from the blacksmiths shop.

“An interesting question you ask me, young pup.” Omega said with a raised eyebrow. “What is my opponent then in this hypothetical scenario? For example hunting rock trolls on the backs of their great wooly mammoths I would for certain want something with a long reach or perhaps even a portable ballista.” He said seriously.

“Ballista? Wha? Umm no.” Mal said. “Here let me put it to you like this. If you were going on a quest what would you bring given the choice.” Mal said more to the point. “Oh and you’d be training, hopefully, a great spellsword enroute to said quest.”

Omega laughed hard for a moment “Haha, I thought you were serious for a second about back in the day. I sometimes can be thick, probably from too much booze.” Omega smiled at Mal good naturedly. “You think that I need armor or a blade to be of service to you in this quest is it then? Observe young pup.”

Omega spoke some quick words of power under his breath and gestured with his right hand out before him. With a purple flash like a small firework going off, that caused Mal to blink the brightness away, there appeared in Omega’s hand a fine short sword with a dimly glowing purple crystal blade. Omega took a few light chops at the air with and nodded at the looks he received from some of the passersby that took note of his magic.

“Ah, I see.” Mal said quite impressed. “Do you at least want to get out of those rags my man? We could hit up a clothing shop before darkness fully sets here.”

Omega didn’t answer right away and tilted his head as he eyed his blade and ran his thumb lightly over the edge. Then with a flourish and puff of purple smoke the blade vanished and he turned to Mal.

“No, I think not, at least not right away. These rags will remind me of how far I had fallen in my grief.” Omega said then he paused again looking up at the setting sun for another long moment. “Thank you though for the offer but your mission and your words, from Atish himself no less, has awoken something within me. For that I am truly thankful and further charity shan’t be needed.” He finished.

“Alright then.” Mal said accepting his wishes. “Now some spellbooks, where to for that?” Mal queried Omega.

“Ah, well our best bet is the Mage’s Guild outpost here in Clear Waters. This place is just big enough to have some representation from the Triple Towers in Imperial City. Come this way.” Omega took the lead.

“Triple Towers?” Mal said as he fell in alongside him.

“The headquarters of the Mage’s Guild. It’s where magic is taught and young mage’s, warlock’s and wizard’s go through their apprenticeship. Each tower houses each branch of training you can go down.”

“And which tower did you study in?” Mal asked curiously.

“Mage’s tower of course.” Omega glanced over at Mal as they walked “I’m a Dynamic Mage.”

“Oh, awesome.” Mal replied. They walked a little while longer and Mal couldn’t help but ask. “And what’s a Dynamic Mage?”

“You don’t know too much about Magic do you young pup.” Omega said and Mal shook his head chagrined at being called pup again. “Which is surprising since you are in possession of such a powerful magical artifact with Sylvester.”

“Well without going into too much detail a Dynamic Mage is fluid. For example a Pyro Mage will eventually have a in depth mastery of all fire spells where as a Dynamic Mage can pull off some decent mid level fire spells. But the saving grace of a Dynamic Mage is that I can change my chakras and also cast Ice spells that a Pyro Mage will never be able to master. Or I can change my chakras to be attuned to the Spellsword school of magic, and thus teach you the basics. Make sense pup?”

Mal absorbed the lesson as they walked. “I wish you wouldn’t call me young pup.”

Omega raised an eyebrow and the corners of his mouth showed the hints of a smile.

“You aren’t that old bro and I’m not that young either.” Mal continued.

“I know, young pup.” Omega replied breaking out into full smile to Mal’s minor annoyance. “But truly you are a young pup to this world and also to magic.”

Mal sighed. “Yes when you look at it like that it’s kinda true. Hey! Is that the place?” Mal said pointing ahead to a squat round tower that dominated one section of the wall here on the western side of town. There were glowing runes rotating around the top of the 3 story tower. The runes hopped from battlement to battlement changing colors as they rotated and it was an impressive sight. The same could be said for the great door that was the entrance to the Mage’s base here that glowed bright green as if the wood or paint of the door was radioactive.

“Oh good! The door is green, it means they are still open for business.” Omega said and Mal noted that it was fully into dusk now with just the traces of pink and orange in the sky marking the sun set fading on the horizon.

Mal followed Omega through the door that swung open of its own accord when they approached. The first thing that caught Mal’s attention was how blue everything was. The walls were blue, the furniture arrayed in the central area in a lounge like set up was all blue, and even the lights suspended from the ceiling emitted blue flames adding to the effect.

“Hiyo! Omega!” A spellcaster in green robes saluted Omega from his spot next to a hookah giving off rainbow smoke. Omega saluted him right back.

“Omega! What are you doing here?!?” A woman called out from the far side of the large circular room causing the several people there to pause and take notice of the new comers. She was young and beautiful in scarlet red robes and headed straight over to them.

Mal saw a group in black robes get up and leave via the staircase in the northern wall. He distinctly caught the words “...this isn’t a booze house.” coming from one of the men. He looked over at Omega and by the stern expression on his face Mal knew he had heard them as well.

“Oh warlocks! Pay them no mind.” The beautiful woman in red said just before she threw a great hug on Omega. Omega seemed surprised at first then returned the hug. “I was so worried about you! After…..well you know.”

Omega disentangled himself from the woman placing his hands on her shoulders and holding her at arm's length. “Camilla it is great to see you and I beg your forgiveness that it has been too long since I have been here.”

“Oh, you should beg my forgiveness! I’ve had to hire out a lot of work that would have been perfectly suited to a Dynamic Mage! Cost me quite a bit of gold. And! I’ve missed you! You great oaf!” Camilla said with a laugh giving him a slight shove full of playfulness.

“I’ve missed you too.” Omega said simply smiling at his old friend.

“I’m sure you have. Now tell me what brings you here at this late hour? And who is this?” Camilla said taking Mal into the conversation.

“Well, this young pup Mal, is my new apprentice. He dragged me from the slums and away from the bottle to teach him magic. So we are in need of a couple of spellbooks.” Omega replied.

“I see. Well welcome adventurer Mal.” She said showing her nature as an NPC with the strange and formal phrasing. Then she leaned in smelling of sweet lavender and kissed him on the cheek and whispered “Thank you.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Mal said a little surprised by the kiss.

“Well, right over here let’s see what we have for you two.” Camilla said leading them to the southern wall which was full of bookshelves and tables.

Mal saw what he was sure was another player watching them closely from the lounge area. He could tell it was a player because he wasn’t wearing the rich flowing robes as the other spellcasters wandering about. This player had on cheap rough spun clothes and had a long staff for a weapon by his side. They locked eyes for a moment and the other player looked away from Mal pretending to be interested in the blue lights above.

Camilla unlocked a small chest that was set in the center of the main bookcase and pulled out several spellbooks. Some were rather plain while others were ornate and gaudy with gems encrusted in them. She handed one multicolored one to Omega.

“One Dynamic Mage spellbook.” Camilla said happily “And what for Mal here? An Ice Mage in the making perhaps?” She handed a spellbook that appeared to literally be made of ice to Mal who quickly handed it back since it was so cold.

“No? How about an aspiring Nature Mage!” Camilla exclaimed and handed Mal a spell book that seemed to be made out of tree bark. When he grasped it Mal had an image appear in his mind of a gentle forest clearing with a giant oak in the center. Then to his shock in his mind he saw the oak open a pair of great weeping eyes and look at him.

Mal dropped the book like it was on fire.

Omega and Camilla shared a laugh as she scooped up the book. Mal saw that the player with the staff had drifted over to their side of the room and was doing a poor job of eavesdropping.

“I want to become a Spellsword.” Mal said firmly. “Do you have a spellbook for that?” he said hoping the book would be a fit for him.

“A rare choice indeed.” Camilla said slyly. “Let’s see.” She dug into the bottom of the chest and Mal wasn’t sure but it looked like she removed a false bottom to pull out the spellbook that she then handed him.

It was weighty much like a weapon would be due to how much metal it was made out of. On the cover made out of some type of steel there was a sword crossed over a shield and at the center of the shield was a dusky gem that lit up a notch when Mal took the book in his hands and studied it.

“How come you haven’t offered me a spellbook?” A voice spoke up from behind them.

They turned to see the PC with the staff had crept even closer. Omega and Mal regarded him and Camilla let loose a sigh.

“Adventurer Turok you have a long way to go before you are ready to be able to handle a spellbook of your own. You don’t even have a master you have apprenticed to yet, unlike Mal here.” Camilla answered him.

“That’s because they all have impossible quests they want done before they will accept me! How am I going to do their crazy quests if they don’t teach me some of the advanced spells first?” Turok replied forcefully tugging at his manicured long black beard and gesturing with his staff.

“Hail and well met friend.” Mal said as way of greeting and he noticed he was falling into the pattern of speaking many of the NPCs had instead of just saying ‘What’s up’.

Turok gave him a friendly nod but kept his attention on Camilla waiting for an answer to his question. She sighed again before chiding him a bit more.

“Turok, dear, you are only level 3. You need to become more experienced to thusly boost your stats to handle a spell book.” Camilla explained patiently.

“What level are you man?” Turok said to Mal.

“7” Mal said feeling superior but didn’t let it show in his voice.

“Oh, damn! What’s your intelligence score at?” Turok went on.

“Over 20.” Mal said.

“Shit mine is still 13. I’ve had to boost endurance to be able to run away from tough fights and PKs.” Turok said a little sadly.

“No worries my man.” Mal had a thought of the blood forest. “I’ve done my share of running as well.”

“It’s so cool you are getting a spellbook.” Turok said looking greedily at all the spellbooks Camilla had pulled out. She noted his gaze and began gathering them back up.

“Not so fast. We don’t even know if he has the aptitude yet to even open a spellbook, level 7 and 20 plus intelligence or not.” Omega chimed in. “See if you can open the book Mal.”

They all turned their attention on Mal as he looked the book over some more. There was a platinum clasp holding the whole metal and leather book closed but no readily apparent way to open the clasp. Mal saw that the pages were made out of many different types of metal as well ranging from gold hues to silver and dark metals. He looked closely at the spellbook bringing up it’s stats.

Journeyman Spellbook of the school Spellsword

Well that didn’t help Mal thought. He focused in on the jewel that was lightly glowing in the center of the shield on the cover. He placed two fingers on the jewel and he felt a heat respond to him from within the jewel and the book itself grew warm and faintly glowed as well.

“That’s it.” Omega said almost in a hushed whisper.

Mal focused his thoughts on the jewel and the book as he held it. Images flashed through his mind of swordsmanship moves. Cut. Slash. Parry. Riposte. Then Mal thought kinda like at the book from his mind that he wanted it to open. With a loud click in response to Mal’s thought the clasp snapped open and the book flipped open for Mal.

“Yeah! You did it man.” Turok said enthusiastically.

Omega smiled at Mal and patted him on the back. “That was the easiest step young pup. The path of the Spellsword is an arduous and long journey and I will not be going easy on you. But well done nonetheless, you have passed the first test.”

“Now about my payment.” Camilla said. “Come to my office upstairs. Turok I’d like you to wait down here.” she said.

Turok looked crestfallen but wisely didn’t cause a fuss if he wanted her help someday in becoming a powerful mage. He made his way back into the lounge and watched them climb the stairs to Camilla’s office on the upper floors.

Mal followed Omega and Camilla up and was surprised to see the second floor was much larger than was possible from looking at the tower from the outside. That spatial magic again Mal thought and to be honest he wasn’t THAT surprised to see something like that here.

What did leave his mouth hanging open in shock was a portal at the end of one of the long hallways with a rippling maw of teeth around the edge. There through the portal he saw a fiery hellscape with a red dragon in the distance sleeping on a pile of gold. Mal stopped dead in his tracks and stared. Then as if sensing his regard the dragon slowly raised its head and turned it toward the portal and Mal.

“Come along Mal, nevermind Qadienun, The Redeemer.” Camilla shepherded them into her roomy office. With a wave of her staff the teeth snapped shut on the portal.

“So how much we looking at here for these two spellbooks?” Mal said shaking off his shock of seeing the dragon and trying to kick off the bartering he figured was coming.

Camilla looked askance at Omega when Mal pulled up his coin purse. Omega started laughing heartily. Mal looked at the two of them thoroughly confused.

“No, no put that away young pup.” Omega gestured at the pouch. “A spellbook is like a contract.”

“Yes precisely. A contract between you and the Triple Towers.” Camilla added.

“Say what now?” Mal sat down in front of Camilla’s desk as she did the same.

“He knows so little about Magic are you sure Omega?” Camilla said ignoring Mal for a moment.

“Atish sent him.” Omega said ominously.

Camilla looked quite surprised at that remark and raised her eyebrows at Omega. Mal didn’t say a word as Camilla studied him with a newfound intensity. He calmly met her gaze and wondered how these NPCs viewed Atish. She finally glanced down at her desk and shuffled some papers around. Mal waited wondering what kind of contract he was going to have to agree to. He would most likely agree to almost anything within reason as he could feel the power radiating from the book he held in his lap.

“Well to put it simply if you accept a spellbook from the Triple Towers you become part of the reserves of the Royal Casters. Now you don’t have to follow orders like a full fledged Royal Caster would in the military would but you do have an obligation to help Mage’s, Wizard’s and Warlock’s that you see in trouble. Also in the event of war you can be called up to active duty by any ranking member of the Royal Casters. That’s basically it, any questions?” She said looking across her arcane desk at him. “Oh and you would have to pay dues normally but Omega has more than paid dues for the both of you for many years to come.”

“No, no questions, being a part of the Royal Casters sounds pretty rad to be honest.” Mal said truthfully.

“It’s not a commitment to be taken lightly. There is Magic involved after all.” Camilla said a little concerned at his flippant response.

“I’ll be sure to let him know what is at stake.” Omega assured her.

Mal thought to himself that THEY didn’t know what was at stake and the great quest he agreed to when he had met Atish. Freeing all the trapped humans here. It weighed heavy on his shoulders in that moment as he thought of it. Camilla saw his faraway look and mistook it for a look of taking this contract more seriously and she nodded encouragingly at him.

“Do you accept the contract?” Camilla said.

“Yes.” Mal said heavily thinking of the great quest given to him by Atish and knowing he was going to need all the help he could muster, Magical or otherwise.

Camilla reached across and took his dominant left hand and held it in hers than she began speaking in an arcane tongue very rapidly. She then took what appeared to be a cattle brander out of a drawer on her desk that started to glow blue in response to her continued fast cadence of speech.

Mal didn’t like the looks of what was happening. He’d seen cattle be branded before and it wasn’t a pretty sight. “Is this going to hurt?” He said just as she slammed the glowing blue metal home just below his wrist on his inner forearm.

It was strangely cool and Mal could feel the Magic seeping into him. Then just like that it was over and Camilla was leaning back in her chair. Mal looked at the symbol tattooed into his forearm it looked like a blue eye with flames around it. He quite liked it even though he had always been against getting tattooed back in the real world.

“Now a drink to toast the occasion?” Camilla said happily. She gestured and a decanter with liquid in it and three glasses floated over to her desk.

An incoming message flashing in the corner of Mal’s vision pulled him away from the moment. Checking it real fast he saw it was from Alison.

Where in the hell are you guys? Don’t you know it’s rude to keep a lady waiting!