Chương 25: CHAPTER 25 [An Earring for every Sister]
I expected another boom or whoosh, but I was mistaken. The dryad nodded her head, returned to earth, and sat down next to me.
"Look, hero." There wasn't a smidgeon of irony or sarcasm in her voice. Apparently, that's just who I was to her. For the first time in my life, at least for someone… "The first thing you have to do is find my sister, Ogina the East. She'll give you your next instructions."
You unlocked Find Ogina the East.
This is the first in the Children of the Goddess series of hidden quests.
Task: Find and save the Keeper of the Eastern Ranges.
Reward:
7500 experience
Piece of dryad armor: variable
Wolf Soul ability
Accept?
I agreed and immediately asked, "But how do I find her?"
"I marked the spot on your map. Look for her. And hurry—the goddess is waiting for us."
And with that, the dryad evaporated. Naturally. One second she was there, and the next there was just a light haze and a "psh-sh-sh" sound.
"Well," I said to myself, "that wasn't too bad. All right, let's see what we have here before we go looking for dryad number two."
I opened my inventory to check out the sword and was struck dumb, first from elation and then from anger.
Hrolf the Walker's Sword
Belonged to a great warrior known for his strength and valor.
Legendary item
Damage: 320-360
+38 to strength
+32 to stamina
+18% to critical strike chance
+15% gold looted from dead enemies
+56% damage done by the Triple Blade ability
+24% of damage done is added to the health of the sword's owner
Durability: 760/760
Minimum level to use: 110
For class: warrior
The sword becomes a personal belonging as soon as it is received.
It cannot be stolen, lost, broken, sold, or given to anyone else.
It is not lost when the owner dies.
It is destroyed when removed from the owner's inventory or personal room.
What, you don't get it? I had a super-sword, but I couldn't use it or cash in on it. I imagine that I would have been able to get good money for it at the auction—it had great attributes, and would have gone quickly and for a high price. But it was only mine! And I doubted I'd play long enough to reach Level 100. I was almost positive.
Nice job, developers. Well played…
I sat there for a few minutes watching the darkening sky, then headed back across the plain. I'd done everything I could do in the forest, though I wished I hadn't gone in at all…
I'd gone a good distance when, for some reason, I turned and saw a figure running toward the forest in his underwear—probably Gvegory trying to find me.
"Go ahead, go ahead, you're a dead man. Good luck! I doubt the dryad will let you chop her up anymore this time," I chuckled.
And sure enough, a minute after the figure ran into the forest, I saw a burst of flame.
"Well, there's some justice in the world, at least," I said. I spat and turned back toward the ruins.
It was already dark by the time I got to the castle ruins. Enormous stars littered the sky, and the moon was as large and flat as a pancake. Cicadas chattered away in the grass—or whatever it is that chatters away in the grass at night—beauty and splendor, in a word.
But I couldn't care less. I was dog tired. It had been fifteen years since the last time I'd walked so much. But even there, we didn't walk that much. Back then, my friends and I went on hikes. We just trekked along until we found a spot we liked, pulled out our fishing rods and vodka, and plopped down. That was it.
I walked through the archway, exhaled, and said, "Finally! I'll sit here for 10 minutes and then head for the trees. I can sleep there."
Rattling bones and chattering teeth I remembered so well from our trip to Grinvort told me someone was happy to see me. And, yep, there it was. From a pile of boulders that probably once made up the entrance to the castle, came a Level 22 skeleton, its bony knees happily banging together and its rusty sword waving in the air. In its eye sockets, cheerful, inviting green lights shined.
"One-way ticket coming right up," I said, pulling out my mace in a smooth, already practised gesture that covered my right side at forearm level. "I jinxed it. Figured they'd come out at night, the restless buggers. I just hope a leech doesn't come check to see who's visiting."
The skeleton got to me and swung its sword with all its might. I reacted automatically, catching the blow with my shield, and smashed my mace first into its ribs from left to right. In the same motion, I swung upwards, catching its wobbling jaw. The double strike took off about 60 percent of its health and knocked it backward. From there, however, it quickly jumped back to attack me again, this time, taking a wild swing at my head. I ducked, the sword whistled overhead, and I buried my mace in its hip. The skeleton crunched and collapsed.
"I'm getting better—that just took me three hits!" I grinned happily and looked around. "Anyone else?"
There were no takers, and the quiet night above the ruins remained undisturbed.
I was just bending over to see what I could scavenge from the last watcher in the proud and daring (if dead) landlord's castle when the silence was interrupted.
From behind the wall dividing the castle from the graveyard, cries rang out, "I'll attract them!"
"Cast, cast!"
"Vitya, you idiot, what are you waiting for?"
"What are you running all around the graves for? You woke them all!"
"Be afraid! Be very afraid!"
A minute later, I saw what there was to be afraid of.
The reflections told me that the voices had cast a fire-ball—and a big one, by the looks of it. It had exploded, apparently, somewhere in the middle of the graveyard. The sky exploded into all the colors of the rainbow.
"It's like Victory Day," I said, grabbing what the skeleton had without even looking at it and running for the breach in the wall.
I looked through it to see exactly what I expected—a group of players had come to put the restless to rest. Three tanks, a hunter, a mage, and a cleric standing off by himself, the latter of which was apparently healing the rest. The group seemed to be playing the Evil Dead, with the only difference being that they were the ones scaring the dead.
"Three to the left! One leech!"
"Tanks!"
"One down!"
"Two down!"
"Heal the tanks!" the mage yelled to the cleric. The mage was apparently in charge of the group. "Take out the leech!"
A bonfire, the remains of the fireball, blazed in the center of the graveyard. There were quite a few skeletons writhing in its flames—at least a dozen. It looked like they'd done a great job awakening the local undead.
On the other side, farther away from my wall, the tanks were finishing off the leech, the last of the three skeletons. It didn't appear to be putting up much of a fight, just grinding its teeth and rolling its burning red eyes as if to complain about its difficult bony life and say, "There was no life in life, and there will be no life after life!"
"Hey, guys!" I yelled, remembering that the local undead fauna would respawn in five or seven minutes and figuring that I should use that time to get out of the graveyard. "Don't shoot—friendly!"
I moved along the wall with my hands in the air.
"Who are you?" the mage asked in surprise. His name, or so said the label above his head, was Grigor.
"I'm the golden fish, and I'm here to give you three wishes!" I couldn't resist. "A player, who else? I was walking along the plain and got held up. My plan was to sneak through here quietly, but then you came along and started throwing fireballs at everything."
"You wouldn't have snuck through," the archer jumped in.
"They'd have shredded you. You didn't know this was a cursed graveyard? As soon as night falls, the dead lords come out of their graves and wander around under the moon. They even say that one day, the graveyard will be visited by the Master of the Dead, himself, and that he'll start building his empire from this spot."
There was backstory everywhere you turned. And it would have been interesting to clap eyes on the Master of the Dead—probably an interesting guy to look at.
"Well, I was going to go around the edge," I said with a wave of my hand.
"They still would've eaten you alive," the mage answered.
"So can I go?"
~ ~ ~
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực