Chapter 81 - The temple of the Twelve (2/2)

”Yes, I heard of this. It is being used by the White Bane Corps at the barracks at the back of the town. The association could be put to good use. And as you said the required materials are easily procured. I am willing to provide you 200 contribution points for this design,” said George as he observed the design. He quickly called for someone and handed over the design as an announcement popped up.

”Forging Association Contribution points +200”

With that done, he went out and rented an intermediate forging room. He already had the materials from the bank which were stored by Rudra and his friend in the bank. He continued to craft more spears and halberds in the forging room. It was night-time in the game which would last for 18 hours in game time. It was the best time to spend forging weapons. He continued to create spears and halberds for 5 hours.

He managed to create enough equipment to earn half the amount required for level 13 by this time. Though these provided less experience due to them him being at level 12, the experience he gained from the quest along with the coupled with the crafting weapons for 5 hours finally make him level up.

He had created 15 halberds and 20 spears in these five hours. He put 5 of the spears and 5 halberds in the auction house to be sold one after the other for 5 hours. Though level 10 equipment are rare, if he put them all at once, they would lose their value.

Doing it in this manner would also increase fame of the weapons and would also gain the interest of guilds. If such weapons are repeatedly put in auction most guilds would realize that these weapons could be produced repeatedly. At such a time, putting a design of the spear would be quite profitable.

He gave the rest of them in the bank, so that Rudra could put them up in the shop when it opens. During this time, other players have tried to complete the quest of reaching the city, but the darkness of the night make it very easy for monsters to ambush the players. So, many guilds were still searching for stronger weapons at this time. Selling level 10 weapons when hardly anyone reached that level would entice many players to the shop.

Without any other new designs corresponding to his level, continuing to forge equipment would be a waste of his efforts. He could go and get a few designs from the forging association using contribution points, but to get resources he needed to explore the areas outside the city which is extremely dangerous at night.

He also had another quest he could initiate at the White Heart City. The deacon at the town temple had told him to go to the temple of the twelve in the White Heart City to meet the great priest, Luciophel. It was regarding the mask of the shadows, his unique equipment. He quickly teleported back to the White Heart City.

The temple of the twelve was located in the outer region. It was known for its large size and architecture. It occupied a large area and unlike the one in the city, its garden had twelve different statues one for each of the twelve lords.

The entire shrine was made of marble and had a sculptures of the twelve lords on it. The statues in the garden each were about 30 feet tall and gave a very life like feeling. The twelve gods each corresponded to the twelve occupations of the players.

These twelve idols also moved continuously posing or sometimes giving advice or commenting on the players who came to visit. Most of them just made actions with their weapons, but some like the lord of shadows kept using various disguises and the chimera king (druid) kept changing from one beast to other.

All twelve of the lords were mixed breeds between various races. They were never considered the leader of races but according to the lore of the game were responsible for achieving peace in the land. The temple advocates peace between all the races of the light and neutral factions which were native to the land.

The land in which they resided in the game was named Viridi Lovi. All the allied races of the light faction and the neutral races were original inhabitants of the plane of existence. The dark races invaded the land from another plane of existence called Rudrum orbis. They invaded this land under the leadership of thirteen generals called Abyss Warlords.

When the attack of the dark races occurred an unlikely group of thirteen outcasts joined hands to get rid of the forces of the dark races. The war resulted in the death of one of these outcasts who managed to kill all the Abyss Warlords. The remaining outcasts came to be known as the twelve lords who brought peace to the land. This was the main background of story of the game.

His unique mask had a requirement that the user must be an assassin or swordsman. With each of the lords corresponding to one of the occupations, the mask must have corresponded to the lords corresponding to the assassin or swordsman. The lord of shadows and the sword monarch were the only ones that it could have belonged to. The lords weren't even known to any one by their names only their titles.

He made his way into the temple. There were portraits of the lords and idol of all the twelve lords together at the far end of the shrine along an altar. The interior of the temple also had a lot of marble furniture. He went towards the altar where there were a few priests.

As he reached the altar, a deacon came to greet him. He was wearing a veil and a long flowing robe covering him from top of his head to his feet. One would hardly able to guess his race, color or even gender from looking at the deacon.

”Greeting adventurer,” said the deacon as he approached him. ”We could use your help for a lot of things in the city,” he continued ready to give a quest to Shadow Tyrant.

Shadow immediately pulled out the letter of introduction given to him by the deacon. ”I was asked by the deacon of the Blackrock town to meet the great priest, Luciophel. Could you please take me to him.”

”Priest Luciophel is currently in prayer please wait for a few minutes, while I go inform him,” said the deacon as he went back to the altar. A few minutes later, he came back and took towards the altar. There was another priest waiting at the altar. The new priest was a bit larger than Shadow and dressed just like the other deacon except for a few patterns on his garb and he bore a scepter.

”Adventurer, I hear that you have been looking for me. What can I do for you?” asked Luciophel as he took the letter from Shadow Tyrant. As soon as the NPC asked, he noticed that Mask of Shadows. It was having a reaction with the altar in the temple similar to what happened in the Blackrock Town.

Without even opening the letter, he realized why Shadow was sent to him. ”Ah! The Mask of Shadows. You gained its recognition. I suppose you came here to understand what it is?” asked Luciophel.

”Yes. That is the reason I have come to the temple in the White Heart City. The deacon at the temple of Blackrock Town suggested that you might be able to help me,” replied Shadow.