Chapter 97 - The Shrine - 1 (2/2)

Reward: Experience +2000. Revealed the path to the shrine in the Silvannus' Fort.

The sudden experience again put him up another level. He was now at level 14 whereas most of his companions were still at level 12. He was happy about it as he had to collect more experience than the other players since he put on the mask of shadows, but he knew that this wouldn't persist long. Once, he took the unique weapon, his level would be reduced again. Luckily, even if his level reduced, there wouldn't be much change in attributes and he probably would get better skills.

Rozarius, the spectre quickly led him to centre of the semi-circular pathway. It passed through the ground at the midpoint of the pathway and a few seconds later, a bunch of sounds were being heard from deep within the mountain. The sounds were similar to those of a bunch levers being turned when suddenly a portion of the wall about 8 feet long and 10 feet wide broke off and slid back into the mountain revealing a long path. The path started to shake as it slowly began to move down forming steps that led into the depths of the hill.

As the steps were still forming Rozarius suddenly popped up through the floor. ”I have done my part of the job. Now, I need you to adhere to your part of the bargain and take an oath on the heavens that you would do as I requested,” said Rozarius.

”System Notification: You need to inform the royalty of the White Heart city about the shrine or destroy the fort after you finish exploring it. Else, you would lose 10 levels for breaking the heavenly oath.”

At the same time, his character Shadow moved all on its own and he lost control as he swore with one hand pointing to heavens and the other hand on his heart. ”I take the heavenly oath that I would inform the White Heart kingdom of the shrine or destroy the fort after my visit of the shrine,” he said looking above him. There were a bunch of thunder and lightning in the sky as if the heavens were responding to his oath after which he regained control.

”I hoped it wasn't one of these,” thought Balthazar. He had already heard about heavenly oaths in his previous life being asked by an NPC. These were ways to make sure that the players follow through the bargain with the NPC and doesn't renege on his deal. Else, it would break the structure of the game. Though there are ways that players managed to find to break the heavenly oath without following through, these methods are extremely costly.

Though he mainly came to the fort for the unique equipment, a part of him also wished to occupy the fort and use it as a base. They didn't yet manage to get enough reputation to find a guild headquarters and he also thought that the fort would be a suitable place to establish one.

”Are you all right in the head?” asked Merlin. ”You seemed to be a bit too involved in the game,” he continued as he wondered if the guy was insane. Though Balthazar display good instincts, tactics and was already known to be a real-life expert, he heard that some of these experts tend not to be mentally sane and began to fear if the player Shadow was one of those. Even the others were looking at him a bit oddly as if they were sceptical of his mental health

”I am not crazy. It was out of my control and my character did it automatically like some kind of cut-scene,” replied Shadow giving him an angry look. He immediately took a snapshot of the notification and showed it to Rudra and Merlin.

”Wow. There go all our plans. We can't expect him to not follow through the options now,” said Rudra.

”Let us just, inform that the members that this is a quest that would enable us to get rights over the fort and that we failed after we finish exploring the shrine. We don't need to put out this information,” said Merlin.

”Fine. Moreover, we aren't even sure if we would be able to use it effectively. Once, we get enough to create a guild headquarters in the city, this would be wasted,” said Rudra as he stepped on to the steps leading downward ready to explore the new area. As soon as he stepped on to the stairs, Rozarius started to speak again.

”The Shrine will test you before it allows to get the power left behind. I shall warn you again that failure to complete the test will lead to loss of life. I hope that if you are successful, you would use the power wisely,” said Rozarius and then moved to the side waving his hands towards the staircase indicating them to go forward.

”That is what we shall do then. Let us talk about what we shall do about exploring the shrine. This seems quite similar to the Cave of Wargs quest that I did,” said Balthazar. Though it wasn't true, the others didn't know of the details so he could use it to command them appropriately.

”I think the strongest of each class would better make the first trip. There might be situations where different skills belonging to different occupations would be useful. From the second attempt onwards, we can plan based on our previous experience,” suggested Shadow.

”Yes, it is best we do it that way. There seem to be no restrictions that are apparent. It is best if we are able to gather most information with the first scouting group,” said Tetsujin.

They discussed among themselves and decided the first group of twelve people that were to attempt the first scouting of the core region. The group consisted of Shadow, Merlin, Rudra, Tetsujin, Quiet Fire, Slaine, Blinding White, Rick, Tang and Spice, Perrenial Light, Little White Feet and Lizzie. Due to lack of a summoner, they decided to have two healers, Lizzie and Little White Feet. Lizzie used the ID, Holy Radiance for her character.

Duck 'n' Roll took charge of guarding the fort in this time. There were quite a few players from the guild already exploring the forest around the fort who would serve as lookouts. Apart from that he had a few sit down at the entrance to inner fort guarding the area. Rudra had also had the secret path which they used to enter fort closed during the time when Shadow was logged out. Thus, the gate was the only way currently to enter the fort for any other players not in the team.

They also already called for the other players than entered the city to temporarily explore the forest near to fort, so that they would have quick reinforcements in case some guild tried anything as they knew that it wouldn't take long for the other guilds to get players into city and try to stop them from seizing the fort.

Most guilds who reached the White Heart City were already concerned about the Crimson Realm guild as they were the first to reach the city. They already had made a decent amount of gold from the shop in the Blackrock Town and were afraid that with occupation of a fort, they would become very strong force in the White Heart City.

So, Roll considered it best, if they had as many players close the fort as possible. Moreover, the fort was in a forest allowing them to explore and hunt monsters while being close to it and wasn't detrimental for the growth of the players.