It was an item that dropped from the infamous boss in the ‘March of Black Iron’ expansion we sold. There was a total of five new raid dungeons that was added, among them was a mechanical boss, a wargear, that used gunblades. Feared as one of the more difficult bosses because it moved fast and had a very small hitbox, while being as destructive with its burst dps.

Originally, I wanted to use it for item crafting to create a gunspear. Of course, they never existed in the game. Not at the time atleast, but by the time the new expansion rolled out, the ‘Blacksmiths of Chaos’, several weapon combinations with guns were finally added as end-game loot.

Fortunately, I forgot to craft one for myself.

I passed over the brass and engraved gunblade to Nis. She immediately took a liking to it and started doing mock exercises with the weapon. She started to load the gunblade with bullets using her magic, creating ethereal and transparent blocks of compressed magic on the gun’s six-chamber.

It was one of the skills of the Witch Hunter, an active ability called Witchcraft Autoload, that gave them the ability to auto-reload their pistols without having to use their sword-hand.

This was surprising. Wide-eyed, I asked her about it.

“Oh, it’s... instinctual, I guess? It’s like I already know how to do it. It’s hard to describe.” She explained, cocking her head to the side and placing a finger on her chin.

She was equally confused as I was, but if that was true, then it meant good things for us. I already tested that spent Civilian points worked with Appraiser, but now I’ve seen that spent Combat points also worked with Witchcraft Autoload. In other words, active skills worked just as they did in the game.

“I’ve never asked, but what class did you choose?” Nis asked as she was putting on her final preparations before we left for the Wanderer’s Lodge.

“Occultist and Slayer.”

In Adonis Online, it was possible to have two classes maxed at the level cap.

Occultist was a class dedicated to very powerful single-target curses that once cast, also affected them. Their effects were powerful and debilitating not only to the target but themselves. It was an arcane class dedicated to using curses and shadow magic.

There were three schools of practice for Occultist players. These were the Curse Bearer Occultist that decreased the effects of debuffs on them, the Shadow Dancer that specializes more on using shadow magic to complement their cursing, and the Plague Spreader Occultist that weakens all of their curses but lets them use it on multiple targets.

This was different from the Witch Hunter that was a middle between a martial class and an arcane class. They could cast curses but they were never stronger than even the average Occultist. They could use their weapons effectively, not as skilled as Slayer.

For the Witch Hunters, they had three professions they adhered to. These were the Warpact Witch Hunter that focuses on summoning, the Inquisitor Witch Hunter that focuses on the martial path, and the Scholar Witch Hunter that focuses on using the arcane.

The Slayer, on the other hand, was a class that specialized in using various weapons. They were agile and devastating, and could be considered the premiere damage dealer in any party. They were the definition of a glass cannon.

The Slayer chooses to learn from three fighting styles. The Steadfast Slayer could shrug off attacks with their resilience, the Pathfinder Slayer that focuses on their speed and agility, and the Warpath Slayer that heavily leans on increased sustained damage.

For reference, I chose to be a Curse Bearer Occultist and a Steadfast Slayer. Nis, from my understanding, chose to be a Warpact and Scholar Witch Hunter.

“That’s an... interesting combination. Aren’t you pretty weak then?” Nis smirked and started pestering me by patting me on the shoulder with a condescending look. “It’s alright, bad choices here and there are normal.” She said so while nodding to herself.

“Oh, eat shit.” Annoyed, I stood up from the bed and walked out of the room.

Nis laughed and followed after me.

~ - ~

It was already early morning by the time we left the inn. The sun was already rising from the horizon, and businesses were starting to open one after the other. The relaxing thing was that there were very little wagons moving in the streets.

It was tranquility itself, walking in the urbanscape of Blaine under the yellow-blue tint of the sky.

I followed the city layout quite faithfully and reached the entrance of the Wanderer’s Lodge. Just like the game, it was as large as a frontier castle, only it was dead-set in the center of a city.

It made sense though. Blaine was also known as the headquarters of the Wanderer’s Lodge, and was the main reason why Blaine was such a powerful city-state that other factions have found too costly to invade. Just the fact that they could call on an order for all affiliated adventurers around the continent and arrive as a mercenary force was a headache most nations wanted nothing to do with.

For the most part, it fit the bill of a very powerful organization.

I looked at the stately building on front me. It was created in the same white stones that created the walls, and it was a building that reminded me of a large greek temple, but turned up to 11.

Even so early in the morning, there were already quite a lot of adventurers entering the building with their groups. This was a normal sight in the game, but there was a difference. In the game, they were all players with only a scant amount of adventuring NPCs.

Here though, was a sight to behold.

I guess it made sense. In the lore, there were several hundred adventurers that would visit the HQ of Wanderer’s Lodge daily. This was a lore tidbit we added.

Discrepancy. The building followed the game faithfully, down to the smallest detail, but the actual organization followed the lore extensively.

So, did the world’s lore take precedence over the game? Was it the other way around considering our mode of transportation being the game’s portal? Or was there a special circumstance? Either way, I couldn’t answer it, not yet. I’ve only seen a handful of samples. I needed more to form a conclusion.

“You blank out a lot, bad habits.” Nis pinched me by the forearm. I jerked and nearly elbowed her.

“I was thinking. About our circumstances, about this world.” I didn’t really want to explain it to her when my mind was muddled by other thoughts.

In the end, I couldn’t make sense of anything yet so I gave up trying. I shrugged. “Let’s go inside.” I said and walked off.

Just like in the game, the interior was huge. Made of marble and white stone, it gave off a feeling of affluence. The ceiling was high, and the second and third floors were open in the center, making me feel even smaller. This was pretty much the same in the game, except now, a lot of people were actually loitering around the place.

Nis was looking around, even staring at the very high ceiling. I had to pinch her the same way she did before she would actually respond to me.

“The outside world, being human...” she mumbled under her breath, but I heard it clearly.

“Still can’t believe it?”

“Yes! I can’t. But it’s fine, I have you. I’ll have you bring me everywhere, and I will enjoy it... as a human.” She kept nodding to herself as she spoke, delivering the last word with a bit more emotion. She stared at me, her eyes glazed over.

It was uncomfortable to have her looking at me like that, so I covered her eyes with my palm, forcing it shut.