Merrick stepped out onto the street and immediately had to step backward to avoid getting driven over by a herd of hurrying adventurers. Hurried was the general mood of Als Atbor, the main city of Dungeons Below. It was a city that bordered on being a fantasy metropolis.
Als Atbor could be divided into three groups of citizens and five districts that they could be found inside. The majority of the citizens of Als Atbor were considered non-player characters, or NPCs, though some of them could just be pretending as Dungeons Below did not have an obvious way to tell the difference. The NPCs worked as shopkeepers, porters, and other basic professions to keep the city going.
The next group was the found citizens of Als Atbor, the Adventurers. They were only there because they were playing the game Dungeons Below, but Als Atbor was their home within the game, their hub city. Despite the breadth of players in Als Atbor, they were still vastly outnumbered by the NPCs and they were all Adventurers. Not a single Guardian had been seen. Rumors had circulated among the community that either the Guardians never left their personal Dungeons, or they had their own hub city instead of Als Atbor.
Mouseion employees working on the game made up the last group of Als Atbor's residents. Whether they were testing random aspects of the game, providing helpful information to players, or monitoring progress there always seemed to be a Mouseion employee nearby. Most of the Adventurers found their presence comforting but it set Merrick on edge.
Once the hurried party had passed him by, Merrick was able to start off properly and leave the stoop of his Faction. The Curious Glades were based out of a decent sized manor in the middle of two distinct districts. To one side, the city's vast marketplace was always bustling as businesses did their best to entice buyers to do what buyers do best. To the other side, a hill stretched into the horizon and was covered in manors, mansions, and monstrosities that made the Curious Glades' home base look like a squat hovel.
Before he made his way up the hill toward his eventual goal, Merrick turned toward the market. There were no potions or preparations that he needed to spend money on, but he did have a piece of loot that he wanted to trade for something specific. His spoils from the last dungeon, the Chimera Horn, had excited him at first. However, he quickly realized that the magical buff from the item dropped by the magic-casting goat-head of the Chimera was less than his current gear.
There was nothing impressive that he could do without a few other rare drops, so the spoils would just spoil in his inventory. Instead of holding onto it, Merrick moved through the marketplace to meet up with an information broker. It had only taken a single notice about the item for the broker to reach out, they were looking for a magic-boosting item of any kind and needed it as soon as possible.
Merrick met the information broker in the space between two buildings. It was an alley that was big enough to be a courtyard but felt like a cemetery. The low light gave it the illusion of dusk and the dusty boxes around the edges leered like gravestones.
Despite the ominous location, the information broker seemed more like an accountant than a devilish being. They were dressed like a festive but all-together common merchant. Merrick got the impression that they were an Adventurer like him, but he had no way of knowing if the NPCs had a way to respond to in-game notices so he kept the assumption to himself.
The information broker cleared their throat, "It's not everyday I get to deal with a Faction Leader."
"Vice-leader," Merrick corrected, "and I'm not here on behalf of the Faction."
"Right… right.." The information broker nodded slowly and then pulled a scroll from behind their back. "I've compiled everything that you wanted. Not sure why you wanted some of this stuff but I did my best on short notice."
Merrick knew what he was holding onto and he knew exactly what he wanted. "Your best on short notice? I thought information brokers were supposed to be as good as god's spies."
The information broker fidgeted the scroll in their hands, "I mean that I will keep looking into it but for now all I have are some hints about the locations you wanted to know and a guide for using the Library Nodes. No Adventurer has found either the dungeon you mentioned or the Guardian though… and no one would admit to getting the nodes to work…"
Merrick drew the Chimera Horn from his satchel and turned it over a few times in his hands, "You know, now that I think about it, I could probably find a better use for this than just trading it off…"
"No! I need that!"
Merrick raised an eyebrow at the information broker.
"I've got a client that needs it, I mean. Look…" The information broker took a deep breath, "If we can do the trade still, I'll keep looking into the Elemental Cage and this Xerxes for you."
Merrick shook his head, "I'll take the hints on those and run with them myself. Instead, you owe me one."
The information broker nodded in agreement and they traded. Merrick got the scroll and the information broker got the magic-boosting item that they needed. However, a moment later, they both got a nasty surprise in the form of a system notification.
***
System Notification
An item has been used to seal the surrounding area and turn it into a PvP-enabled zone. If you do not wish to be caught in the PvP-enabled zone, you must leave the marked area within…
***
The notification ended in a thirty second timer. Merrick's eyes shot to the sky, he could see the vertical border of the zone. It was a hundred feet out, if he ran, he could make it to the horizontal border in time as long as it was similarly distanced. However, the information broker was frozen in panic. Beyond that the information broker was now holding a rare item, was clearly not spec'd for combat, and might be the intended victim of a PvP robbery. Merrick took a deep and readied himself for a warm up.