That night Amelia logged in and met Aidan. They pushed together with everyone else through the remainder of the second floor and were on their way down to the third. Amelia had no real reason for thinking there were five floors, but she and everyone else seemed to be expecting it. The levels they were meeting were about what one would expect on the 3rd floor of 5.
"This seems more like the first floor." Aidan had commented.
"Yes," Amelia agreed. After the stairs leading down, they had entered another cavernous area with a large stone shore and a lake. Crystals over the lake illuminated the area, creating an artificial light source that gleamed over the shores and water. In her thoughts there was darkness.
The group had moved no further than 20 meters on the shore when the danger presented itself. Sinkholes appeared, and from them, crawling their way out, a large high level 200 fish beast type and its cohorts presented themselves. They wielded spears and started to throw themselves at the front line of shields that were closest to them. Amelia hastily cast her aura, and shouts of gratitude rained down on her from the frontlines. They were powerful fish people, with large open gaping mouths that seemed more suited to the water but with the legs and arms of men. They carried clubs and spears for the most part, though one or two would try to throw nets over the men and drag them to the water. For the most part, this was thwarted when people slashed at the nets or set them on fire.
The ambush wasn't just to the front though. As Aidan and Amelia followed the front group sinkholes began to appear around them and fishmen leaped out and started attacking the middle group of healers and wizards. They were quickly routed through sheer number, but it did cause the General of the Residents to send shieldmen to the middle in case an attack occurred.
"They won you know," Amelia said finally. She was unable to be silent any longer.
Aidan glanced at Amelia, having just finished off one of the spear fishermen. "Pardon?"
"Raven and Forsythe. They were winning." Amelia said.
"I don't think they ever lose." He admitted and then peered at her curiously. "What are you trying to ask me?"
"Did you..?" Amelia began and stopped herself. She realized she hadn't ever really been angry with anyone before, and even now she was spinning him up and getting ready to be angry. She had this image of him appearing before two hopeless people and recruiting them to die. But Aidan didn't do that. He even wanted the Residents to live. Right? "When they went with you, did you think you were using them?"
Amelia paused while Aidan considered the question. She could see from his face and his silence that he was surprised, and trying to decide if he was angry. She took the moment to recast Aura, and on a whim once the silence continued, opened up her spell menu options and after a long hesitation, chose the command that would sacrifice the flame school. A prompt appeared telling her the details but she minimized it. She would look later.
"I was using them. I was lonely, and they were lonely, and I couldn't leave them. They followed me after that and we had a great time for almost 150 levels." Aidan mused. He had obviously decided he wasn't offended. "I left them, you know?" Aidan commented.
"Left them?" Amelia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I was getting obsessed. I had been trying to think of a way to kill the last boss. I mean it was a long shot, but I had been testing out ways to survive its death. I couldn't think of anything. There was no way around that thing exploding at death and killing us. I don't know what the game designers were thinking!" Aidan laughed. "So I got up one morning, or I should say I set my timer to wake me earlier than them by three hours. Those fools found me about 20 minutes before I was going to attack the thing." Aidan turned and waved his hand, eyes looking up as he remembered. "Did you know they were more angry about that than anything? I spent the whole day camping with them and neither one of them spoke to me. After a while, they started to refer to me as an object."
Aidan straightened his shoulders and looked to his left. "Raven, do you think that Aidan is our friend?" Aidan stooped slightly and made a face. "No Forsythe, friends don't just abandon friends in the middle of the night and go off to their deaths. Not friends that complain all the time about never giving up hope, never committing suicide, a friend who might have rules that he demanded you live by, a friend who in one night spit on you…" Aidan laughed. "It went on and on and on. The next day we went to a waterfall and they did the same thing to me. The day after that, after I had apologized til I was blue in the face they finally forgave me and told me that if I went they were going too. That if they weren't part of the Devil's plan they would probably just die around me before the boss did, so they might as well be part of it."
"Yes. That sounds like the mad banter of which you three are capable." Amelia smiled.
"Sounds like fun." A new voice interjected. Amelia turned in surprise and then felt foolish. Of course, they were in the middle of a huge group of people and just because everyone seemed to be talking at once didn't mean they couldn't be overheard. The stranger was a man wearing an odd smile, with dark hair and a clean-shaven face. He looked incredibly young but wore his hair back under a skullcap making the color indeterminable and wore two blades on his hips. No, a blade the size of a shortsword and a long-handled two-pronged fork. Her immediate fear was that he had heard a bit about suicide. No one would ever suspect that Aidan was an LS survivor given his age.
"Khiafin?" Aidan asked; he was looking at the man's information pane. "Why is your name a lighter blue than normal?"
Amelia looked up, and if he hadn't pointed it out she might have attributed it to the poor light of the dungeon. His name DID appear to be lighter, almost gray.
"It takes time to lose murder counts in this game. You have to spend lots of money, kill a lot of evil monsters, etcetera ad nauseam." He grinned. He pulled his sword and stepped into a march with them, looking like he would be absolutely ready should they get ambushed in the middle again.
"Murderer?" Aidan asked in surprise, then he nodded. "That makes sense."
"It does?" Khiafin and Amelia asked both different degrees of surprised. Amelia had no idea why that made sense and Khiafin sounded more curious than surprised.
"Well yes. I mean you're using Gilduirn's sword." Aidan pointed out.
Khiafin stopped for a moment then resumed walking. "You're sharp. You know Gilduirn?"
"I met him once," Aidan confessed.
"Yes, I saw. You laughed at him in the Silf Kingdom." Khiafin cast that charming smile at him. "He sends his love."
"Are you really telling me he hired a PK to kill me?" Aidan sounded disgusted. "Do you want to do it here or can we wait?"
"Tried my friend, he tried to hire me to kill you. When we met he had very strict standards on how we would meet. Alas, I did not get to record it. Poor Gilduirn's reputation might never have recovered." Khiafin sounded maliciously gleeful, not sorry at all.
"So what are you here for then?" Aidan asked, and Amelia didn't like that smile that was crossing his face. It was the smile he used when he was about to deceive someone into suiting his purposes.
"To join your crusade. I love hopeless crusades." Khiafin said. He was grinning, and Amelia had no doubt that was the very least of truth.
"Why did you turn down Gilduirn?" Aidan asked. "Not enough reward?"
"Oh, exorbitant. He really hates you." Khiafin was laughing. "I don't do that though. No one hires me, I hire people. Frankly, he offended me with his audacity. He came into my guild hall without knowing anything about me. Complaining about how expensive his campaign was, wearing all that loot. So we ganked them." Khiafin said it casually. He even used that time-honored murderer lingo.
"You ganked his guild?" Amelia asked in surprise.
"Oh, there were only 15 of them." Khiafin shrugged. "I told them they could go if their guild leader beat me. Yes, well, they were most displeased when he died. Is your friend quite alright? She smiles like some of my guild members when they're listening to braggarts about to die?"
"I think she didn't care for Gilduirn much." Aidan grinned.
"No! I'm sorry. I was just thinking about 15 players from that guild appearing naked in a resurrection field." Amelia was grinning.
Khiafin barked a quick laugh. "I think I made the right choice."
"How do you hire people again?" Aidan asked. "I mean not that I wouldn't trust a red-named player killing charming bastard such as yourself?"
"Oh, your long list of fancy words is lost on me. I have a permanent forum advertisement for players wishing to raise their reputation as guardsman for caravans and adventuring groups. I pay them 30k if they can make it from one city to the next without me killing them. It's a pretty profitable return if they make it, and they can honestly say that Ignoble couldn't kill them." Khiafin said cheerfully. "Might you be that wizard with the incredible buffs?" Khiafin turned to Amelia, raising his eyebrow. "Could you cast it on me? I just got here."
"Aura Forceful Awakening," Amelia said, and then frowned. Khiafin looked up expectantly and then back down at her. "Uhh? Hold on. I just sacrificed fire."
"You did what?" Aidan asked incredulously.
"Examine."
---------------------------------
DING.
Only a wizard of the order of the black has the recklessness, the abandon, and the sheer audacity to sacrifice all the schools of her power.
Class Prestige earned: "Order of the Black." With the knowledge that destruction is not the true essence of magic, the Black Wizard becomes open to the idea of balance. Counters will be available to all schools, types, and levels of this class.
Requirements: Level 100. Sacrifice All Schools.
Changes have occurred to the following spell. [Aura - Forceful Awakening] has been replaced by [Aura].
[Aura] - 125% stat increase while active. 300 Mana, radius - wide, duration long: 30 minutes.
Spells Added: Where x is please substitute the desired school.
[Direct Counter - Schoolx] - If cast in time, negates the offensive ability of enemy.
[Field Counter - Schoolx] - If cast in time, negates the offensive ability of enemy.
[Mass Counter - Schoolx] - If cast in time, negates the offensive ability of enemy.
[Reflect - Schoolx] - If the enemy spell is perfectly understood - reflect 100% of damage to enemy
[Reflect - Schoolx] - If the enemy spell is perfectly understood - reflect 100% of damage from each attack.
Do you accept these changes and the Prestige change to Wizard Order of the Black? (Black Wizard)
(Yes/No) (Accept/Decline) Verbal acknowledgment required.
------------------------------------
"Yes, accept." Amelia stuttered. Aidan was looking at her queerly and Khiafin was waiting patiently. He had the strangest look on his face like he was trying to decide if she was daft or not. Nothing to do but try now. "[Aura]."
The entire group stumbled to a halt, and panicked cries began emerging from everyone ahead of and behind her. Aidan was starting to babble and she lost whatever he said in the tumultuous cacophony of voices. Khiafin didn't say a word. The smile had left his face and he was looking up silently. His weapons hung uselessly at his side. "3rd release? I can see 4th release but can't use it. 200?"
That got Aidan's attention, and while he was staring at Amelia and obviously dying to ask her questions, he turned to Khiafin instead. "3rd release? I only see 2nd."
"Yes well, I'm level 176," Khiafin explained. He laughed when both Amelia and Aidan stared at him, hard. "There is one creature on the Northern Continent that exceeds level 100, and it often provides experience even if you are several levels above it. Can you tell me what it is?"
"People!" Aidan decided. "You fight groups of them and were leveling from that?"
"More of a side-product really. I like fighting players. I try not to make them mad when I do so, you know? Thus the monetary obligation." He sighed. "Though so many people do not get that reward."
"The gentleman killer," Aidan said, his face unreadable.
Khiafin graced him with a flourish and a bow. "Retired. I left my guild, Ignoble, to join your endeavor. What you people were doing looked so much more interesting!" He turned to Amelia and smiled widely at her. If he hadn't been so young looking it would have been really off-putting. "Amelia was it? I have enjoyed our meet. I shall leave you in your own company, I wish to intrude no longer. You can be said to be the most powerful player in AA right now. I congratulate you!" He turned and wordlessly sauntered, like a cat Amelia decided, through the lines of Transients and Residents who were trying to figure out why they were almost half again more powerful than they were moments before.
"I found one," Aidan said over the party channel. Raven didn't answer but Forsythe and Hunter mumbled that they were listening. "One of us."
"Oh! Is he fun?" Raven was suddenly there.
"Can he cook?" Forsythe demanded.
"He's desperately, and badly, working his way toward the most interesting parts of the game with no regard to how he gets there. He's interesting, insane, and may turn on us near the end because it might be more enjoyable than the fights we have coming up." Aidan explained.
"Keeper!" Raven said. Forsythe grunted what might have been agreement.
"What? Was I based on these standards?" Hunter demanded.
"No, no… We adopted you!" Aidan assured her. "But he killed Gilduirn and took his sword. I even imagine he killed his horse. He REALLY seemed upset by his encounter with the man."
"Oh. Well, I suppose it's fine." Hunter said grudgingly. Hunter didn't have a very good view of Gilduirn anymore. There had been some quiet guild political drama when Gilduirn had publicly accused Hunter of poaching some of his members, over ratings of all things.
"We based Elisha by these standards though." Forsythe chimed in.
"WHAT?" Elisha sputtered. "Stop it, Forsythe, I'm trying to eat your delicious food and you're making me spit it out all over you."
"I know," Forsythe said in a pained voice.
"We had the most amazing breakfast," Amelia said, realizing with a blush that her voice was starting to get dreamy. She couldn't help it. "The lunch was amazing too."
"What'd you have?" Hunter asked she sounded the tiniest bit envious.
"Good one Amelia!" Raven congratulated her. Amelia vaguely recalled that she had agreed to help Forsythe get romantically involved with Hunter. SHE at least had been kidding.
"Tortillas with breakfasty bits, all fresh. Then sandwiches with provolone and pepperoni and…" Amelia was interrupted.
"STOP! I'm the one in Silf Kingdom without a Cook." Hunter complained.
"When this is over I will cook for you," Forsythe promised. "I have to go defeat my Brack rival anyway." His voice was grim, ominous. Completely unsuited for what came next. "It's time."
"Is this a cooking battle to the death? Is that why you sound like that?" Raven wanted to know.
"It may be Raven," Forsythe said seriously.
"That's so metal," Raven replied.
Khiafin has joined the party.
"Hello," Khiafin said experimentally. "There are quite a lot of you. Some of you are in other cities. Fascinating. Hunter? Rank 5?"
"So I am told." Hunter replied grimly. "You're the kid I have to thank for the deaths of a few of my members huh?" She sounded amused.
"Perhaps." Was his answer.
"Oh WOW. Khiafin the guy who hires people to try and stay alive? I heard you have the top PK guild on the East side of the Northern Continent. The murderer's town where you can attack people anytime you want." Elisha sounded surprised. "What are you doing there? I heard you couldn't go into town for some amazing amount of time until the kill counts went down. It's like, 24 hours per death and they said you couldn't lose your red name for 3 months?"
Khiafin didn't respond right away, and when he did he sounded surprised. "That's… mostly correct. If you kill monsters that threaten villages you can lower notoriety, and if you sneak into the churches you can donate money and eliminate the murder charges based on a donation."
"What price?" Elisha wanted to know.
"Uh, I think it was 15 Platinum per kill?" Khiafin said, though if he had to donate that many murder count atonements he should surely know for sure. Amelia was starting to think Khiafin was a little bit embarrassed.
"You donated 13,500 gold?" Elisha demanded. She was relentless. She really was like Raven in that regard.
"I donated 27,500 gold." Khiafin said slowly.
"Way more than 3 months!" She replied.
"Your mental math is excellent," Khiafin replied. "To whom am I addressing myself?"
"Elisha! Second in command of Shadow Fall, daughter of Hunter the Rank 5 Hall of Famer." Elisha said, hamming it up on purpose.
"How did you get passed the first floor?" Aidan said, and Amelia was grateful he was interrupting the kids. "Did it not respawn?"
"The boss had not. When I entered the dungeon it asked me if I wanted to reset the floor on hard, but I had no idea what that meant so I just killed spiders until I found the exit. Then there were those rats…" He sounded disgusted. "I didn't watch any streams with those rats in them."
"Welcome to front-line content," Amelia muttered.
"You cleared the 1st and 2nd floors?" Elisha was dogged in her persistence.
"Yes. Most of the large creatures were dealt with and I have a level advantage." Khiafin replied modestly.
"And you killed Gilduirn! What level was he?" Elisha asked.
"I don't know. I would guess level 150. He had a second release, you know, without the benefit of an Amelia." Khiafin speculated. "Not a fan of his? I have been receiving some unwanted attention. He hates me almost as much as he hates your Aidan now."
"Eh, he was a jerk to my mom," Elisha explained.
"To Hunter?" Khiafin sounded disgusted. "When he came to me asking me to kill Aidan all I could think was that I needed to take a shower. The slime."
Elisha began giggling.
Forsythe and Hunter both seemed to decide it was time to move the conversation in a different direction.
"Can you cook?" Forsythe asked.
"Why did you decide to donate that much money to join a dungeon mission? Aren't you a person who enjoys fighting people?" Hunter added.
"I can't cook. Is it a fun skill?" Khiafin paused and then seemed to mentally shrug. "I saw the streams of you at Port Laudable, and then of Aidan laughing at Syrxis. I watched your fight against the Treants with interest as well and I thought. That looks like so much fun." Khiafin sounded wistful. "My mates you see had other ideas. They thought I was going soft. So I killed them and then left the guild in the hands of my second in command. We're good friends you see."
"You killed your friend?" Amelia asked, shocked.
"Of course. He couldn't very well just let me leave, could he? We had a fantastic battle. Half the city was on fire." Khiafin sounded happy.
"Do you stream?" Elisha wanted to know.
"No. I don't want to embarrass people." Khiafin said. "People get embarrassed when they are killed. I don't know why. They fought very well or as hard as they wished. Some people magnificently, others less so."
"Khiafin." Raven suddenly asked. "What do you think about this game?"
"It's fantastic, isn't it? There is no other place where you can explore your strength, see amazing things, step in places no one else has ever been, and the best of all there is no other game where you can defeat those idiots who base their strength on the time they play. It is your strength and cunning versus their's." Khiafin sounded wistful again. "Sorry. That kind of talk usually gets me attacked."
"We'll attack you," Raven assured him. "But only if it's fun."
"You people are fantastic." Khiafin sounded excited.
"Hey, if I beat you can I have Gilduirn's sword?" Raven asked.
"If you beat me you can have his armor too. I can't wear it. His horse, however, met an unfortunate demise. He will be walking for the foreseeable future unless he is not as poor as he claims." Khiafin sounded satisfied. "We should probably be quiet now. My skill is telling me we are about to be attacked."
"Are we then?" Aidan sounded distracted. Amelia looked up and found that he was obviously modifying his spells again in some way.
"Yes. [Preternatural Sense] is a high level rogue skill. It's telling me danger from the water." Khiafin supplied.
Amelia turned her gaze to the lake but didn't see anything moving. That didn't mean that there wasn't something moving underneath the water though.
"Watch the lake!" Aidan at least was taking it seriously.