The fight with the second troll and the goblins finished much faster and easier than the previous ones. It also didn't cause any casualties which was unexpected. They quickly made their way to the right most end of the semi-circular passage, where the spectre was waiting for them.
"You have quite a large and capable team," said Rozarius as he looked at the others. "Which place did you all come from?" it asked looking at Rudra.
"White Heart City," said Rudra uneasily. It was his first time conversing with a spectral NPC. Despite him playing quite a few games before and meeting spectral NPCs before, the experience in vita-nova was quite different. When one came near spectres, they feel a slight could and nausea. Shadow was used to the feeling in his past life and it didn't bother him much, but it was evident from the others' expressions that they didn't like it very much.
"Any relation to Col. Asmodeus Whiteheart?" it continued to ask Rudra. Rudra had no clue what it was talking about, but Balthazar knew the lore of the game and was able to answer.
"That would be the founder of the White Heart Kingdom," answered Shadow.
"Hmm. I guess, it is fine if the fort went into the hands of his successors," it muttered out loud looking at a distance.
"Here take this," said the spectre handing him a square shaped token with a silver "S" printed diagonally on it. "This is the lord's token. I am willing to show you how to enter the core area under two conditions. Either you destroy the outer part of the fort or you go to your king and let him guard this fort under his jurisdiction," said Rozarius looking at him.
This put all of the player around him in a shock. The quest didn't allow them to occupy the fort and had a ridiculous requirement. Rudra and the other were very excited at the prospect of obtaining a new base and the spectre's words broke down these hopes.
"What? What do you mean by that?" asked Rudra unable to accept this sudden turn of events.
"The lord always informed me that the shrine should be in worthy hands. If possible, I wouldn't have let you occupy the fort at all. If not for the goblins, I would have kept this a secret. But now, fate had brought you all here and you already have an idea of the core region," said Rozarius looking at them.
"I am not left with much options. So, I am offering you the chance to enter the shrine and claim the power if you are lucky. But it comes at a price. Else, you can occupy the fort and I don't care," it continued. "Remember, it is quite hard to find what you want in the shrine. I have only heard of one person who managed to get out alive."
With that the spectre turned back to Shadow. "You are the one who led them here. So, I leave the responsibility of their choice to you. But you have only a couple of hours to accept or decline after that I will not entertain you," said the spectre as floated away to a wall and rested against it as if it was a living being.
Everyone turned towards Shadow hoping to get some answers from him. He was the one who had found the quest. So, they all expected him to have a clue about what it was about. They didn't know enough about the entire quest of the place and were hoping to get some answers from him.
"Let us wait for the others the come, we still haven't opened another vault. It might be filled with more armaments," said Shadow looking at them.
"We are not looking at you for that," said Merlin who was irritated due to being in the dark about the entire quest. He was also under the assumption that they could occupy the fort after clearing the monsters and use it as a base. "I want to know what the shrine is about and why you led us here."
"I haven't the foggiest idea," said Shadow putting on a bewildered expression as he shrugged his shoulders. "I was just exploring the forest when I came across the fort. I was unable to scale the walls and was looking for some easier way when I came across the spectre NPC. I provided him a bit of help against the goblins, later fought the spectre and before I killed it, it stopped me and provided the quest."
"You were attacking the NPC and it gave you the quest?" asked Merlin. The more Shadow told about it, the more confusing it was. NPCs don't give quests if they have a bad impression of the players and attacking an NPC was the easiest way to give it a bad impression.
"Helping it didn't work and it attacked me. So, I decided to attack back," said Shadow.
"Look. Just this small part of the fort isn't really worth much. Moreover, from my fight with the spectre, it seemed to be guarding the shrine even after death and it looks like it would very important. At the very least, we would get some decent equipment inside. We have two hours and we can plunder the inner region before the time is up. I think it is best we agree to it. If, we give it to the kingdom, we could at least get some reputation or contribution points from them," suggested Shadow.
"Not a bad suggestion actually. Maybe, it is better this way," agreed Slaine.
"Fine, let us first collect the weapons from the other vault," accepted both Rudra and Merlin.
The members which Lizzie was leading were about 10 minutes away from the fort. By this time, they have used the Colosseum points to gather a couple more dynamite designs and were busy making them. With the dynamites, they had they would be able to easily get through the forest to the fort.
During this time, the others also decided to go back to the city. They had their bags full and they had no work. Almost everyone except Rudra, Shadow and a few others stayed behind. Rudra was a guild leader and he decided to stay behind so that he could make a proper evaluation of all the things that would be found in the new vault. Due to the chaos, he couldn't do that the last time.
Shadow stayed back as he was mostly concerned about the shrine and the chance to obtain unique weapons. He also stayed back as he was supposed to open the vault. Roll had tried to open the previous vault and failed. He was the only one who managed to do it.
During this time, Rudra and others went to the gate to make sure it was secure and Slaine positioned him on top of one of the wooden towers. He was observing the surrounding through his scope.
At this time, Shadow was free and decided to check his mail. He had to ones which he had to pay attention to. One was from the Elias Edgerton, Ellie's uncle who asked him to contact him on phone. He was working using the somnium technology overnight in conjuction with Leon in creating virtual armaments and wanted to check if he could actually use a whip which he asked Ellie for.
"Wow! Either Winston is too fast, or Elias was already working with Leon," thought Balthazar as he saw the mail. If he could convince Leon, he definitely would be able to procure a decent mid-range weapon from Ellie.
The other mail was something completely unexpected. It was not a simple mail but a fairly large mail chain. It was from the military and included quite a few important names along with him. It was from Hector Constantine who presided over all the projects done by Scions of Minerva. It included names such as Victor Constantine, Evelyn Price, Xander Drake, Winston and a few others. The main content of the letter was to keep him secure and not give him any military assignments as he was considered an important test subject and is a necessary person for the biofeedback combat suit project that they are working on.
This was extremely shocking to him. Apart from him, Xander, Evelyn and Winston were also quite confused and immediately replied to it requesting the reason for that assessment of Balthazar. Winston not only sent mail back to Hector but replied on the same thread to Marcus Price for answers.
The only reply they got was to schedule a virtual meeting with Hector Constantine and Victor Constantine, where they could all discuss about it. It was scheduled early morning at 7 a.m that day. He was also asked by Winston and Evelyn on the same chain regarding his involvement in it.
The most surprised person was Balthazar. In his past life, it was a dream to people like him to come in contact with the Scions of Minerva. These were legends in both the scientific and military communities and were responsible for many innovations that simplified the lives and efforts of the military. But right now, he was confused and slightly even afraid of them as he didn't understand what they were talking about.
He immediately called Winston from the game. He was agitated and shocked by this sudden turn of events. He wanted to clear it up with his grandfather at the very least that he wasn't involved with them. Though the conversation was short, his grandfather realized that Balthazar was as shocked as him from the state of his voice on the call.
"Don't worry. If you are not involved, it isn't an issue. There might be a chance of these guys having made a mistake. Even in the worst case that they don't accept it, you can always refuse it. They don't have the rights to make you do something that you don't want to," said Winston comforting him.
Though he convinced his grandson in the call, Winston wasn't certain either. The Scions of Minerva were very famous and any such contact to people outside of their inner circle would be double and triple checked. They have to maintain their reputation and wouldn't make such mistakes easily. So, Winston believed that there was a high chance of Balthazar being monitored discreetly without his permission.
Even, if it was a mistake, the fact that it was sent at this time implied that someone who didn't want him working with Evelyn, discovered about his meet with Evelyn and Xander and tried to stop it. The part that Winston found most frightening in this case was that they had high level access to the workings of the Scions of Minerva and could have a modicum of control over them. Either way, Winston considered it to be, he couldn't deny that his grandson was being discreetly monitored by someone at the Blyth mansion and even they didn't manage to realize this.
On the other end, Balthazar who had just talked to his grandfather on the call was also confused and tensed. Since he saw the mail, he also had some thought which were similar to his grandfather and was worried and it could be seen clear on his face. Rudra who was right by him, noticed it and inquired.
"I just received an unexpected mail from the military, and it is a bit concerning," said Balthazar. He couldn't reveal the contents of the mail to Rudra as it was marked confidential. He simply sat down on the floor of the passage and began to think what it could be about. The most irritating thing about it was that it restricted his plans, if they took it seriously. He would have to make some changes in that scenario.
"Don't worry. Nothing I can't handle," said Balthazar as he noticed that Rudra was concerned about him. Rudra was obviously concerned for his friend whose life had been full of turmoil for the last month. His base was attacked by apes and then, his uncle died just two days ago. Such a situation would cause mental breakdown to most.
Balthazar immediately opened up the mail and began to read it again in case, he missed something. He was quite shocked the first time he read it and immediately made a call to Winston. He noticed that Victor Constantine, the CEO of the Metis Technologies was involved. This suddenly put him in thought.
"The somnium tech was originally a military initiative. There is a high chance that they would be monitoring our performance and other scientific things when playing the game," thought Balthazar. "I was good at the game, but I didn't do anything very astounding. I always limited it from going overboard. I didn't even use most of the skills that I learned in my previous life," he thought.
He pondered on it for a few more minutes and thought about some other alternatives, but none other than this made sense. "This is the most probable thing that happened," he murmured as he saw Lizzie, Tetsujin and other members from the guild come to the fort. He realized that it is best to consider his options after he actually comes to know why he is being considered by the Scions of Minerva and got up to open the vault. He still had to meet up with Leon and Elias for them to certify him to be able to use whips.
"Give me a minute, I need to compose a mail," he told them as he replied to Elias and Leon that he was ready to meet them right now for the certification and that he also intended to talk to Elias a bit more about the usage of samsara framework.
After he sent the mail, he went to the vault and started to pick the lock. These doors were also quite similar to the other vault, made of rock and 4 feet wide each. In a few seconds, the clicks of the tumblers being loosened was heard as the door unlocked. He helped them to push open the door and checked the vault inside, before he opened his mail again. Elias had already replied to him and provided a virtual address for him to go to where he could talk to them.
"I have something to do and would be absent for half-an-hour, maybe an hour," he said looking at Rudra, Tetsujin and Lizzie. "Will be logging out now."
"Now? We need you to talk to that spectre in less than two hours. That much time outside may make you lose the chance to accept it. Why don't you first accept the spectre's suggestion and then log out," said Tetsujin worriedly.
The time was three times faster in the game and Tetsujin assumed that him logging out of the game to mean, he had to do something in real-life. There were hardly few things that one could do while using somnium tech and none he knew would take that much time.
"It is a virtual meeting using the somnium tech. Just logging out, but will have the same sense of time," said Shadow as he logged out.