Chapter Seven – Black Robes and Whispered Words

Too many wolves died.

If he were stronger more could have been saved.

He didn't beat an eyelid at the hundreds of dead players but with the wolves he felt responsible. Not even bothering to tell Burka he wasn't coming, he entered the tall tower of the mages guild. It was the

third tallest building in the citadel.

The mages’ guild was the only guild that offered personal rooms to its members. Hundreds of mages stayed in it at any given moment.

Jon didn't have time for sightseeing and didn't bother sparing a glance to the magical contraptions displayed everywhere inside.

He headed straight to the man sitting behind a huge book, like the one the bookkeeper had. He slammed five gold coins on the desk, startling the old Npc and attracting the attention of players around him.

His demeanor was intimidating and the fact that he was the only person there who was wearing armor and not robes didn't help the image he was giving off.

"You need to know magic mastery to join…" said the Npc very slowly as if he was trying to remember each and every word he used.

Showing the skill menu to him, Jon waited for the Npc who seemed to do everything slowly.

"Welcome…" he said at last.

You Have Joined the Mages Guild

The guild is a place for forming friendship and gaining knowledge.

Some guilds have their own teachers and libraries, where guild members can learn the arcane arts.

The message board in each guild has many quests and jobs to choose from.

As a member of the guild you can get free food and lodging in every city that has a branch of it.

Notice: All mage guild related Npcs now like you.

"Would you like to register your name for the room list? Where are you going?"

Jon left in the middle of the sentence. He needed only one thing and he knew where he would find it.

He ran up the stairs and entered the arcane library.

"Healing magic," he demanded from the bookkeeper.

"I'm sorry sir, but all the books on the subject are currently in use."

Jon stared at the Npc.

"She took the last book I had. You can join her." He pointed at a girl sitting at one of the many tables. "She joined yesterday, so she shouldn't be too far ahead. She can help you if you don't understand something."

"…"

"It's better to study the arcane together. It's safer this way."

Looking at the library he could see it was true, everyone was sitting in groups. Even the girl was a part of a pair.

He walked up and stood behind her. Looking down he read the titles of the books on the table. They were what he was looking for.

"Can I help you?"

He lifted an empty seat and moved it closer to the girls’ table. Sitting down he picked up one of the books from the table.

"We're sharing," he stated.

"He's hot."

"I know," they whispered to each other.

"Hi. I'm Romune. Are you planning to become a cleric?"

"…" He ignored her and skimmed through the book.

"This is Irene. She's a little shy."

"No, I'm not!" She blurted out with her cheeks turning red fast.

"See." She laughed.

"Romune!"

"Relax, relax. Irene wants to become a priestess so, you guys, should work together. I'll go back to my book."

Everyone became silent.

"Go on," she kicked Irene in the leg, "explain to him the basics."

"Will you stop it already? I was just thinking how to better explain it…"

"Hi." She turned to Jon.

"Is this your first time learning spells?"

"Yes."

"Ok." She straightened her back. "Just so you know, I'm not shy or anything. Rumone is just too friendly sometimes." She glanced at her and Romune winked back.

Jon didn't care. He didn't come here to make friends. He needed to learn some healing spells and go back to the wolves.

"I'm just a beginner myself and I still don't know everything but I'll tell you what I know, okay?"

"…"

"Just explain it already…"

"Be quiet, you!"

"Anyways…" she was blushing again. ”A mages’ main attributes are wisdom and intelligence. Wisdom affects the power of your spells while intelligence affects the amount of mana you have and what spells you can use."

"To learn a spell all you need to do is have the affinity related to the spell."

"I'm gonna be a fire mage so I'm reading about fire affinity at the moment," Romune held up her book.

"Do you want to do it yourself?"

"No, no. I'm sorry, please, continue."

"Once you have the affinity, you can use every spell you want from that affinity. But if you try a spell that requires a high level magic mastery or more Mp than you have, the casting is likely to fail and explode in your face.

"That's what happened to the guy with the bandages." She pointed at an overweight player sitting near the window.

"He tried a levitation spell. And just when he thought it worked and he began to rise, all around him be…" Irene gave her a stare that was worth a thousand words. She stopped talking and went back to reading.

"All you need for casting a spell is the incantation. However, simply memorizing the words and repeating them will cast the weakest version of the spell possible." She relaxed a little and the tension in her voice started to disappear. "That's where the wisdom stat comes in."

"If you want the spell to be more powerful you need to understand what you are casting and how the spell works."

"For example, the book I'm reading now teaches me the healing spell. I can skip to the end and memorize the incantation, but that way, the spell will only heal twenty HP. If I want to make it more powerful, I need to read all these books about how the healing magic works and how it affects the human body. If I learn the human anatomy and learn about diagnosing wounds and how they need to be mended I can even heal a player completely, with one spell, no matter how much Hp he has." She sighed. "But that is impossible. If only I were a med student…"

Jon was listening attentively. Most of the things he was hearing were a surprise to him.

"Say, what level are you?" She interrupted again.

This time, Irene didn't get angry as she was interested in the answer as well.

"Thirteen." He answered a bit annoyed.

"Woah." Both of their levels were one as they haven't been playing the game for more than a couple of game days.

"What class do you play as? I like your armor."

"Assasin."

"Good one." The girls laughed. "Seriously though, what class are you?"

Jon said no more.

The girls stopped laughing and went silent. The mysterious aura Jon seemed to emanate no longer seemed attractive.

"Irene, let's go sit somewhere else." They were getting scared.

Jon's penetrating stare frightened them more and more.

"But what about the books?"

"Leave them and let’s go."

They left the library in a hurry.

-'Finally.'-

He took out the flask Unknownadd gave him and took a small sip.

You drank "Scholars’ Brew"

You feel reenergized.

Your reading speed is quadrupled.

Affect lasts for 12 hours.

The concentrated doze had a strong kick to it.

He didn't know if he was feeling pleasure or was in pain. The only certain thing was that he could no longer keep his eyes closed.

The book he had to start with was the one that taught him how to use holy power. He opened it and began reading.

You Have Completed the Book "Channeling the Holy Power"

Wisdom Rises By 1(+1Wis)

Holy affinity

You have learned to channel holy power through your body and to your spells.

Increasing your affinity with the element will raise the efficiency and power of holy spells.

Affinity: 1%

You Have Completed the Book: "Basic Healing Spells"

Wisdom Rises By 1 (+1 Wis)

You Have Completed the Book: "Healing Both Friend and Foe"

Wisdom Rises By 1 (+1 Wis)

You drank "Scholars Brew"

You feel reenergized.

Your reading speed is quadrupled.

Affect lasts for 12 hours.

You Have Completed the Book: "Closing Wounds and Vanishing Bruises"

Wisdom Rises By 1 (+1 Wis)

You Have Completed the Book: "Mana & Animal Anatomy"

Wisdom Rises By 1 (+1 Wis)

He took out his knife and cut his arm open.

Chanting the words of the healing spell he weaved the magic through the wound. As he chanted, he concentrated on what he read and applied what he needed for that specific wound.

As his mana began to disappear, the blood stopped, after which the nerves and muscle fiber began to reattach themselves and in the end a new layer of skin grew over the closed wound. All that was left was an area on his arm that was hairless and red.

His Hp bar was healed completely.

Heal Spell Learned

By channeling the holy element through your magic you can apply your mana to heal yourself and others.

For the spell to take affect you must touch the target directly.

He cut himself again in the same spot, and used the healing spell again. This time he let the spell work on its own power and only twenty five HP out of the thirty he had lost, were healed back.

What Irene said was true. Simply knowing how to cast the spell was not the same as knowing how to use the spell.

He had enough time for one more book and as he couldn’t find an animal anatomy book, he decided to go with a small book, that explained how healing magic worked on the human body and taught the male and female anatomy.

You Have Completed the Book: "Healing the Human Machine"

Wisdom Rises By 1 (+1 Wis)

He came to work early that morning.

He knew he'd get yelled at, but not for the reason Burka screamed at him..

"What in Frey's name are you doing?" Spit flew out of Burka's open mouth.

"We have dragon meat coming in a couple of days and you’re busy running with wolves?"

Word of last night’s battle had already spread.

"Have you completely lost it?" He was waving his chef's knife around and it was getting dangerously close to Jon's face.

If Dragon hadn’t interfered, Burka would have gone on yelling forever, or at least until the vain on his neck exploded.

He came to get meat for the wolves but under the watchful eye of Burka, he couldn't find a good time to run away. Since Burka's mood worsened as the day progressed, Jon accepted the fact that the soonest he could see the wolves was nighttime.

The day wasn’t wasted though.

Time and time again he cut himself open and healed himself to full. By evening he didn't even feel the pain that came with every slice.

Heal Spell Levels Up

Level 2: Amount of health points healed becomes higher.

Vitality Rises By 1 (+1Vit)

Cerberus was waiting for him.

He was almost as big as Jon now. A truly fearsome sight.

The other wolves soon joined as well. There were nine of them, one must have died from its wounds during the night. The nine that were left, including Cerberus, looked like they were about to pass away from their wounds at any moment.

Jon put meat in front of them and backed away not a second too soon.

They were starved. Luckily he brought more than enough meat for all of them.

Not wasting another moment he began working on them.

He started from bigger wounds, making sure they closed properly and later switched his attention to broken bones and bruises. The wolves snarled at him at first soon but understood his actions and even tried to bring to his attention the places that hurt more.

-'They're not only becoming stronger but smarter as well.'-

It took hours to heal them all back from critical health. He hadn’t finished completely yet but he had to wait for his MP to recharge again.

The wolves were done eating long ago and were now cuddled around Jon. Each of them tried to get as close as possible to him, some even lay in a way that some part of their bodies was touching Jon. Only Cerberus boldly lay down behind Jon and growled until Jon rested his back against him.

Looking at the starry sky, he felt at peace for the first time in years.

The night sky was covered with countless stars. There was no place in real life that you could see so many stars. Nowadays, even in the most remote places, humanities artificial lights blocked the stars.

The air was pleasantly cold, the wolves were pleasantly warm and the night view would soon cause Jon to doze off.

It wasn't meant to last.

The grassland was empty of players, who were too afraid of the wolf pack. Except for the night noises of the forest everything was silent.

So when people began gathering near the citadel gates their voices carried all the way to Jon. He rose to see what it was and saw hurried movement of torches in the dark.

Watching for some time he didn't like what he was seeing.

A company of twenty guards were heading their way.

-'A hunting party.'- He didn't know for sure but he assumed the worst.

Burka mentioned that the losers of yesterday battle, cried to the city guards that hunting on the western side of the grassland was impossible. The guards told them they would take care of it.

He wanted to send the wolves to hide in the forest but stopped before the words had a chance to come out..

-'It’s pointless,'- he thought.

The guards will search the forest until they find and kill them.

He waited for too long. The guards’ smell, carried by the night breeze, reached the wolves and they began to rise and ready for battle.

He watched, speechless, as the wolves ran on a suicide attack at the guards.

These were no low level players. The average level of a city guard was fifteen and a captain could even be at twenty-five. The "Wolf's Blood Thirst" buff, Cerberus used last time hasn't even finished recharging.

The wolves were stronger than any other wolf in the vicinity of Seraborg citadel, but it wasn't enough to overcome the combat experience of the guards.

"STOPPP!" He shouted in desperation.

To his surprise the wolves slowed down and turned around to look at him.

"Come back!" He yelled.

The wolves did.

"Fight inside the forest." He talked and they appeared to listen.

"Separate into two groups. Cerb with the three weakest are one group and the other five are the second." He was facing Cerberus but his words were aimed at the whole pack.

"Wait for them to scatter in the dark and pick them off one by one. Each group takes a side while I attack from behind. Go! Hide!"

He took out his bow and equipped a quiver of arrows. Next to him Cerberus growled and barked out his commands to the other wolves as they disappeared in the darkness of the forest.

He took aim at the platoon of guards and fired, in a high arc, a volley of arrows.

The wind died off and the arrows fell exactly where he aimed.

Falling from the sky the arrows broke over the guards’ metal armor.

He expected that would happen, and the purpose of the arrows was not to harm, but put the guards on the defensive.

A voice reached Jon and soon after the platoon spread out, distancing one from another to minimize the risk of being hit.

-'Just as planned.'-

He kept shooting, waiting for them to get closer. There must have been a captain with them as the guards didn't run at Jon like the foolish players did. Instead, all of them walked calmly forward, with their shields raised over their heads.

He started shooting at them when they were more than six-hundred meters away and when they reached the three hundred meter mark; he lowered his angle and aimed at vitals.

The multitude of stars in the sky gave more than enough light for his special bow to be able to hit a vital point even at such a distance.

Only a few of the arrows scored a critical hit, leaving their recipient to cripple after his mates. The rest of the arrows shattered on the armor. They didn't get a direct hit, but the constant strikes left the whole platoon bruised and hurting.

Once they got close enough, he fell back and hid inside a bush. His sneak mastery did the rest of the job and the guards passed by him without noticing anything.

The guards knew who he was. They saw him yesterday and they would hunt him down. He couldn't allow any of the guards to return alive. Two guards staggered behind the rest.

Injured by Jon's arrows they slowly crippled passed him.

He took out his sword and drew his knife. Silently, he closed the distance between them.

From left and right sounds of fighting could be heard. The wolves have begun their coordinated attack.

-'Silent Strike'-

The first guard fell as the knife sliced his throat wide open.

-'Speed Stab'-

Critical Hit

Two quick stabs went through the gaps in the second guard's armor, sinking deep into his armpits. The short sword he held fell from his hand as his hand went limp.

Fighting for his life the guard bashed his shield at Jon, who took the blow head on and slipped his knife behind the shield and cut off the fingers that held it in place.

A yell of pain slipped through his lips but was silenced by Jon's sword before it had the chance to reach full volume.

He moved deeper into the forest, following the sound of fighting. He stepped over three dead guards and lost his balance as he tripped on the fourth in the darkness.

"Demon!" a guard crashed his way through some bushes. He was hurt badly and was missing his shield and helm. His sword arm stood away from his body in a weird angle.

Even in the darkness Jon could see the fear that covered his face.

Jon ended his misery and followed his tracks through the bushes.

He stepped out into a small clearing in the trees. There was just enough starlight shining through gaps in the trees to differentiate the shadows before him.

Four guards stood back to back while the wolves circled them. Three were missing, but the surviving ones didn't seem hurt.

One of the guards must have been the captain as it managed to shield Cerberuses’ attacks time after time. The rest of the remaining guards focused on protecting him from the other wolves.

Jon equipped his bow and let lose an arrow at the captain.

-'Power Shot.'-

Critical Hit

Power Shot Levels Up

Archery Mastery Levels Up

Even with the skill, his attack power was weak and it hardly left its mark on the captain’s HP.

He continued fighting with the arrow protruding from his mouth.

The game system didn't count an arrow going in, through the mouth and exiting from the other side, as a kill. It all came down to attack power, and "Star Piercer" just didn't have enough attack power to fight high leveled opponents.

However frustrating it was it mattered little at the moment. The guards couldn't do anything to him as long as the wolves surrounded them and it left Jon free to turn them into pin cushions.

They didn't last long and once all of them fell, the wolves ran off to deal with the rest of the guards.

Five wolves survived the night. Four wolves lay around Jon waiting for their turn at the healing magic. Cerberus walked in circles around them.

He was enjoying the new sensation of walking on two legs.

Standing on his hind legs he was taller than Jon and he liked showing it. The sun was shining when he finally stopped.

"Listen." Jon stopped him and looked up into his eyes. "Please try to understand."

"They won't stop hunting you. And next time there will be more of them."

"And if you survive the next time they'll send even more the time after that. How many will you kill before they manage to kill you?" He looked back at the wolves.

They lay on the ground, their heads raised to look at Jon.

"A hundred? A thousand?"

"You need to leave!" He pointed at the mountains in the distance.

"Leave this forest and find another place to hunt. You're strong and smart, I know you'll survive."

The wolves whimpered and walked up to Jon and Cerberus. They touched their noses to him with their tails tucked between their legs.

"Go."

Cerberus straightened to his full height. It made Jon crane his neck even higher to see him shake his head in denial.

"Go, and never return." He walked away but was stopped by Cerberus who circled and stood before him.

He was surprised when the huge beast, turned werewolf, spread its arms and embraced him.

The wolves howled in a voice that sounded like crying and Cerberus tightened his hold.

Jon's face turned hard as stone. He didn't even return the wolf's hug. All he did was walk away, not even looking back. It was out of his hands now. He hoped they understood his words but there was nothing more he could do.

He stepped out into the grasslands when the howls reached him. They came from far away and although weak, they carried with them a goodbye to Jon.

"Goodbye."

The fields were empty. Players still refused to return to this hunting area. He walked slowly, pulling behind him a body of a guard.

Reaching the memorial for the wolves, he leaned the body on the sword stuck in the ground and walked away.

-'Good luck, Cerb.-

His face was facing the other way and he refused to turn around no matter what. So when the sword started giving off light he was already on his way back to the citadel.

He didn't see the ghostly apparitions of wolves materialize and devour the flesh off the corpse disappearing, when only a clean skeleton was left.

He also didn't see Cerberus and his pack reach the Boar Mountains after months of travel and wouldn't know Cerberus took the werewolves of the area under his control.

Only later would he hear rumors of a new area boss that appeared in those mountains. Alas, he would never associate this news with Cerberus and they would never see each other again.

However, they never forgot each other and it would be that memory that would eventually lead to Cerberus's death.

With a whole quest line surrounding him, Cerberus fought countless adventurers but was finally slain, when he dropped his guard and walked into an ambush only because one of the players smelled like Jon.

He will later be revived again, but that is a completely different story.

"Good to see you here on time for once!" Burka's angry voice washed over Jon.

His mood was spoiled ever since parting with the wolves. The few days that passed felt like a daydream and he would log in for work and log out when he was done.

A messenger arrived yesterday with word of the dragon meat nearing the citadel. It was supposed to arrive today.

Jon couldn't care less.

It came at noon. A huge caravan arrived, with dozens of people following it on horseback. Dragon went out to great them and embraced a man with a gigantic sword.

"That was his best student." Burka said. His voice was quiet and calm.

"He was the leader of the hunting party that took the dragon down."

"Burka!" the man shouted after he let go of Dragon.

Burka closed the distance and greeted him warmly.

"How went the hunt?"

"Come, I'll tell you all about it."

"We're done for today!" he shouted to the staff. "Tomorrow we'll distribute the meat."

"Jon, accompany us."

They walked through the street shouting and laughing. Jon trailed them from a couple of steps away, feeling bored.

They shared stories of adventures of previous dragon hunts. Each shared and commented on the other.

"So it turns out we've set camp on top of his head." They roared with laughter. "In the morning the thing wakens and raises its head, making me shit my pants and lose the breakfast I still didn't have! The blasted thing was as tall as a mountain!"

He wondered where they were going as the air was getting warmer and warmer.

"You brought it?"

"Could I ever forget?"

"Good, good. Hand it over to Burka." Dragon had a smile plastered on his face. "Orr, I'd like you to meat Jon, the only man alive that can learn under Burka."

"Watch it!"

"Relax, you old coot. Go get the fires blowing."

"Hi." Orr extended his hand to Jon. "You're lucky. I tried to have him teach me but we ended fighting more than cooking."

"Jon, you're going to learn the secret to cooking dragon meat, so it brings out its full potential."

Dragon put a hand over his shoulder and lowered his voice. "I don't know what has got you down lately but it's time to forget and move on."

"Go inside and help Burka, we'll join you after we buy some drinks in that tavern there."

Both of them walked away, the sound of them talking was heard even after they disappeared from sight.

He walked inside the building and saw it was a blacksmith workshop.

It was like a sauna inside and when he noticed Burka through the steam he was shirtless and was putting on a leather apron.

"Start pumping the bellows." Burka pointed at a contraption near the furnace.

Jon did as he was told and began blowing air into the fire. The temperature in the room began to rise quickly.

"Not many people know this except for dragon slayers, but to cook dragon meat you need to treat it more like metal than meat." He lifted a beautiful slice of meat and slapped it on a huge anvil.

"A dragon's body temperature is many times higher than human’s, and cooking it over a normal fire won't even singe it." He was picking a hammer from the set of tools on the wall.

"Keep pumping," he said to Jon. "There are as many ways of dealing with dragon meat as there are dragons but there is one way that works on them all. And for that, blacksmiths are needed."

"Cook the meat as if you're forging a sword and you'll bring out the best it has to offer."

He lifted the meat with tongs and put it in the fire. When it glowed completely red he took it out and dumped it into a tub of water, releasing a wave of steam.

He put it back on the anvil and began to hammer it with intense concentration.

"Just like with iron, the heating and cooling followed by the hammering purifies the meat and gets rid of toxins and unneeded extras."

He put it inside the fire turning the meat red and cooling it before hammering every inch of it, over and over again.

"A blacksmith can do what I'm doing now, but a cook is needed to make the finishing touches. Luckily I'm both." He smiled at Jon and kept on hammering.

Strength Rises by 1(+1Str)

Pumping the bellows was hard work, and in the intense heat, Jon was getting woozy.

"We've brought beers!"

In Royal Road players eighteen and older could get drunk and even though Jon didn't want to, he was so hot he would've drunk piss as long as it was cold.

The threesome became gradually louder as the wooden barrel got emptier.

Burka left the meat in the fire and yelled at Jon to come over.

"Look here, I'm going to teach you how to repair your equipment." He seemed pleasantly buzzed and in a good mood. It was weird seeing him this happy.

"Orr, give me some broken gear."

Orr stumbled to Burka and put a cracked breast plate in his hands.

"You take this!" he pushed the breast plate in Jon's face. "And this?" he held up his mug and looked at it intently.

"That’s not right…" he looked around, "Quick! Call the dogs! My hammer ran away." He slammed through the doors waving around the breast plate and his mug.

Dragon splashed him with a bucket of water and watched him come back to his senses with a hysterical laugh.

After an hour, Burka resumed his presentation of the repair skill.

"WRONG!" he bellowed.

"Damn you, Burka. You've made me spill my mug!"

"Silence, or I'll spill your brains next." He yelled at Dragon before continuing to scream at Jon. "There's no crack there! Mend this place here!"

Repair Skill Learned

Applying this skill on a piece of equipment will return it to its maximum durability.

Low level skill will need more than one time to restore all durability while a high level of this skill can increase the durability over the maximum amount, thus strengthening the equipment.

Notice: Can only be applied to metal.

"If you ever learn the blacksmith skill, I'll take you along on one of my hunting expeditions." Orr spoke to Jon. "I could use a good cook and a blacksmith on months long dragon hunts."

The prospect of fighting a dragon blew any thought of the wolves out of his mind. He looked at the hammer in his hand and took out a sword from his inventory. He repaired it and his knife as well, and then proceeded to break and repair the sword until Burka ordered him to man the bellows once again.

In the dead of the night they sent him back to the restaurant to get ingredients and spices from the kitchen. The meat was almost done and only the seasoning was left.

Jon hurried, almost running. The smell of the meat was stuck to his clothes and he could smell it with every breath.

"Help…" through the empty streets a voice reached him.

He stopped to listen and heard it again.

It was coming from the direction he was heading so he doubled his steps.

There it was again. This time he could tell it was a female voice. As he got closer he no longer heard the voice, but the sound of running footsteps echoed through the alleys.

A woman fell out into the main street. Following her were two figures dressed in black.

Whatever she was holding spilled and scattered all around her.

"Help me!" she shouted to Jon.

The hooded figures turned around to face him.