Chapter 29: Spying on the players (2)
"I will lead you there. What is your name? I can't always say you are the guy from the streets can I?" He had a hint of sarcasm in his voice and started walking again towards the main street. There he had me take up his pile of books as a 'thank you for saving me' and carry it behind him. I was very curious about his order, I hadn't sent anybody to the four continents to spread my religion. How was it that it was here? "Hey Gero. I am uhm... I am Kish. Do you know who the order created and when that was?"
"Shush! You can't talk about it like that in the publicity! Will you be quiet?" Grumbling about my unsensitivity about holding a secret. And while Gero thought that I was just some random, lucky guy, barely being a peasant that was lucky that he had come by. The truth however would shock him to his deepest core. Fortunately for him, he didn't have a bad attitude towards me and that's why I won't let his order be kept in suspense and give them a sign to rise. At the tavern, he said goodbye to me and left with a wobbly pile of books which he balanced on his arms in front of his head. It was quite the amusing sight to watch.
Entering the tavern, I saw that nearly every table was already occupied and as I walked through the tables that stood near to each other, I received glances from the other customers showing that they were assessing my physical combat abilities since I didn't have a mage's robe on. Arriving at the table which was the furthest away, I sat down and a bunny-girl waitress appeared next to me, twitching at her ears. "Can I help you? Would you like to have some booze and some food? Some ramji?", she twinkled in my direction, "that's our house's special dish for the ignorant people under us."
"Sure, I would love to taste the 'ramji' and your best booze please." Not getting why she twinkled at me, I frowned at her but she didn't take it as a sign to explain herself and she walked away. She arrived at the counter, but suddenly at a table in another corner, three guys started fighting with each other because of some game they had played and had bet on with high input. They threw over the tables and transformed into their wolf-forms to fight each other. Apparently, to show to which faction and tribe one belonged, everybody stayed in their half-transformed form, where everybody saw how one looked like.
The boss of the tavern came from behind the counter with an apron and some knives in his hands. Irritated he cried: "Lin, Lu, Lo! Get out of my tavern! You aren't welcome here for another week!" The three fighters were scared of his knives and as it had happened often before, they just walked out as if nothing had happened and the last one said with a grin on his face: "See you next week." Then, he walked out and closed the door behind him. The cook immediately ran back into the kitchen and started swearing at these idiots for brawling. He now had to start anew with some of his menus. The other customers were accustomed to this as well and started laughing with each other. A few minutes later, a plate with no utensils but a juicy steak and some strange looking 'ramji' was brought to my table. The ramji was a drink with red streaks flowing through some muddy-looking fluid. And as I wanted to drink it, I realised that it had the same consistency as mud, which was quite disgusting to swallow. The drink itself was pretty satisfactory with a refreshing feeling and a sweet but sour taste for the tongue. Finishing the meal, I paid and left the tavern to search for some accommodation for the night. I didn't want to sleep in the tavern as it was too crowded and loud.
Lonely walking along the street, I once again observed the daily life of the citizens here. On the wall surrounding the area of the town stood a guard every five metres without any torches since they were able to see the into the surroundings and into the dark perfectly without light. The only reason I spectated them was, they seemed to have spotted a problem and were discussing what to do.
I however noticed that I seemed to have forgotten about their racial traits and headed back into the city to relish in the nightlife of the wolfmen.
The first row of houses was the only thing I was able to see before a blaring alarm bell sounded in my ears, causing me to wince, with my even more superior hearing than I had before the shapeshift. The trait that all beast men had, was really killing me here.
[Racial trait: Beasts's hearing
Description: Through long living in the pack before the time of living in a city came and changed everything, the beast men learned to hear multiple times better than other creatures
Effect: In half-transformed form, hearing is amplified by 100% and while in full form, hearing is amplified by 200%]
Meanwhile I was wincing and trying to get rid of the sound every man or woman that was fit for action came out of their houses and stopped the activities they were doing immediately. On the other side of the street, I saw the three adolescents from before again. They in comparison to their former expressions had sullen and serious expressions on their faces. Crossing the road, I intercepted them and as they looked at me with bewildered faces, I asked them quickly: "Guys, what's going on?" With incredulous faces they asked me: "Sir, have you skipped military service in your backwater town? Because you should at least know that much since you had to serve two years at least as guard. In every city or town, it doesn't matter which gender. But let's assume you really don't know; this is the highest security alarm bell where every citizen has to come and help defend the city." The other two nodded to him and then they departed towards the armoury to equip themselves with some equipment and go find out against what they had to defend themselves. I stayed behind and since I probably knew what there was coming for the capital, I ran into another direction towards some ladder, where I would be able to observe what happened outside of the wall but didn't have fight and show them who I really was. I couldn't really touch anybody or they would be probably pulverised. When I touch equipment it's pretty much ok with my problem that was similar to Midas's touch since it didn't really have a health bar but well, let's observe the battle that was probably about to start.
On top of the wall that defended the city stood tens of thousands alone at this side's gate. There were three further gates, one in each direction. In the distance, four enormous clouds gathered and came towards the city. Like frenzied animals the wolfs and were wolfs and sometimes even only humans ran towards the gates, wanting to first reach the gates and get the bonuses of first discovering a new city. They were the players! Some greedy bunch of them that still didn't take the game serious. At the front ran some of the beta gamers since they had better equipment from the start than the others. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have the same experience as Bo and still really didn't take the NPCs serious. Shortly before the first gamer reached the city, he was shot by an arrow directly in the chest and through his heart. It was an instant kill. This stopped the other players abruptly on each side as it happened there as well.
Immediately they retreated backwards, unwilling to lose further lives. The guilds that had theoretically, not practically, formed already, sent a representant to a circle in the middle of the players where they discussed the further actions. After a lot of talking and screaming at each other, approximately seven eight of the millions of players that stood in front of the gate came forward, without charging and asked about why they had shot one of them, when they only sought to be let into the capital.
The old general of the wolf kin shouted down with a raspy voice: "You all are a danger for our city. Just why did you charge like that? That's madness! And who said that all of you were allowed into the city?" After thinking for a bit, the player base said, almost in unison with a thundering voice, "your retired friend General Isho" For every player from a different village, it was a different name. And they were a lot. Shock was written upon the face of the old general, mumbling to himself: "so they are still alive." The wolfmen's general then gave the order for every gate to be opened. Standing in a line they were controlled by having to show them a badge which only a general can give out. Unfortunately for some of them they were given fake badges, made from players as they hadn't endured the test from the old general living in their starting village and had to live with the consequences of being banned for trying to scam the wolf kin. From atop my roof top, I observed the happening down there and remembered that I had to look up when the maximum of the players were gaming for my little trap to be successful. But next things next, I lay down and clicked mentally on the notifications icon.
[By disappearing from the planet of your pet, you made it mad and it is currently searching for you by flying on the world tree. Brace for a powerful impact when it is back...]
[The money that was promised had been delivered: 1'000'000 gold have been added to your inventory (changing rate 1 gold coin:1000 credits)]
[One of your subordinates has made suicide. Better look into it.]
[The fountain of life has been obtained (Item for upgrading Yggdrasil)]
[Shapeshift has been completed. New outfit has been added to your list of avatars]
Was the system getting sarcastic...?!
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