Steel Wolves of Craedia (Realm of Arkon, Book 3) (2 page)

"What do you mean? I remember reading about them in the game's description."

"Before the War of the Great Rift, elves were a united people," the assassin expounded, taking a seat by the bonfire. "Not 'light elves' or 'dark elves,' but simply 'elves.' I don't remember the exact details, only that the gods turned away from the children of the forest when the war began, and all the mallorn trees withered as a result."

"Fascinating!" Masyanya took a break from grooming her bear pet, whom she'd summoned several minutes prior, and looked at the rogue. "What was the reason for the war?"

"I never claimed to be an expert on elven history," Donut smiled. "The legends mention something about the love of a beautiful princess for the heir to some Great House, but... I would guess it was no more than a banal power struggle."

"How do you know all this stuff?" with a wink to the rogue, Masyanya resumed grooming her pet.

"Before I start a new game, I like to read up on it. Learn its rules, review guides, stuff like that," he shrugged. "Incidentally, the epic quest for mallorn seeds and saplings is one of the few that's publicly available in both elven capitals. Only problem is, no one has come close to completing it in the four plus years since the game went live."

"I can only imagine what the reward must be..." Bonbon whistled, holding out his makeshift skewers over the smoldering embers.

"A small castle and admission into one of the Great Houses," the assassin sighed dreamily. "And the title of ryhn, at the very least."

"Title of what?" tearing away from contemplating the hypnotic flames, Max gave the rogue a quizzical look.

"Are y'all really this clueless?" Donut looked around at the bemused faces of his comrades sitting around the bonfire.

"You came here to play, but we ended up here for various reasons that have nothing to do with the game," Masyanya explained, taking a seat next to him. "So start spilling!"

"There's nothing to spill," the assassin shrugged. "The elven kingdom is governed by the king, who happens to be the Great Prince of the ruling house. Presently that's Larentyl—the Great Prince of the House of Morning Dew. The dark elves have seven such Houses, each of which is ruled by a Great Prince—a title of nobility roughly equivalent to an Erantian duke. I hope everyone here knows Erantia?"

"The human kingdom," Max nodded. "Go on."

"Down the line in the hierarchy are princes, most of whom rule the Lesser Houses. Below them are lords—typically, these are heads of separate branches loyal to one of the Great or Lesser Houses. And the lowest noble title is ryhn, which is the equivalent of what we'd call a knight. See, simple."

"Right, simple." Max shook his head dubiously. "But wait, then what are drow? Aren't they the dark elves from the books?"

"It's cute how you try to make sense of this stuff," the rogue grinned. "Even I would be hard-pressed to remember all the different types of elves introduced by the gaming industry over the years. Blood elves, night elves, high elves, wood elves... And that's just off the top of my head. But Arkon's developers wanted to carve their own path with these rift wars. And the differences in appearance between dark and light elves in the game really are minimal: skin color and ear shape. The more material difference lies in the magical talents available to them. Besides Nature magic, light elves can use certain spells from the Light school of magic, whereas dark elves dabble in Dark magic, naturally. That said, you're never going to meet a light elf paladin or a dark elf necromancer. As far as I know, these never existed even in books."

"What about drow?"

"What about them? Just as the books say, drow live below ground. Whatever their relation to elves, it is quite distant. Their race was introduced into the game as an antipode to dwarves. Haven't you noticed that every race here has a mortal enemy? Humans and orcs, dark and light elves. So are drow for dwarves. Especially since both races spend most of their lives underground."

"Gotcha," Max nodded to Donut, then shifted his eyes to the red-haired elven maiden. She hadn't uttered a word in the past hour. "So, any news from Roman, Alyona?"

"That's right! Don't keep us in suspense, girlfriend!" Masyanya echoed, making herself comfortable on a wooden log.

"You want what my aunt said verbatim?" Alyona gave an enigmatic smile.

"However you want to say it."

"All right, then," the girl smiled again. Then, with her eyes shut tight, she quoted: "'It doesn't look good, my dear girl. Either your brother has lost his mind, or he has sold his soul to the devil. According to him, he's teamed up with demons and is fighting against the living dead! I've been praying for you both every night, but clearly it isn't enough. I'll put extra money in the offering plate in church this Sunday." Alyona opened her eyes, taking in the smiles of her companions. "Our aunt was in the hospital—that's why her phone was off. I should have given her more credit."

"Is that all?" Max gave her an intent look.

"Not quite," the young woman winked at him. "Roman knew how absurd and blasphemous this would sound to a normal person, so he had her write down several more things."

"Well? Quit stalling, would you?" Max frowned.

"Fine, fine. Listen." Calling the crowd to attention, she raised her right hand. "I quote. 'I'm doing great. Just got level one forty nine. Raised my reputation with dark elves to respected. Also started a quest chain that will lead me above. So, expect me in three-four months with souvenirs.'"

A silence ensued, unbroken save for the light crackling of the bonfire and the hissing of meat roasting over the flames.

"God damn..." Bonbon was the first to speak. "One hundred forty nine!"

"Alyona," Max peered into the young woman's eyes. "Did Roman say anything else?"

"Well, yes," the priestess grounded her eyes sheepishly.

"And?" the warrior raised his brow at her.

"He said that we shouldn't go anywhere, but wait for him in Ellorian," she said with a sigh. "And he repeated this particular phrase three times. Finally, he said that we'll all decide our next step after he finds us."

"There it is!" Max chuckled. "Except not only did we leave the capital, we've managed to get ourselves into a hot mess along the way."

"I'm not fifteen years old anymore, Max. Don't forget that," the girl said curtly. "I'm old enough to decide for myself what I'm going to do. So let's drop the matter. Besides, we're safe now, and we can't get back to the capital even if we wanted to."

"Yeah, yeah," the warrior nodded agreeably, still chuckling. "Like I don't know who I'm dealing with here. I won't mention it again," he waved his hand and turned away from her.

"Come on, Max," Alyona's tone carried apologetic notes. "I'm not alone here, am I? It'll all work out... I really believe it!"

"Let's put it behind us and focus on the shrine. We'll figure out what to do afterwards."

"See, this is why I love you," she pecked him on the cheek. "You're a real sweetheart. What's happening with that barbecue, Bonbon?" Alyona changed the topic at once. "I'm about to start munching on tree bark from sheer hunger."

"Leave tree bark for bunny wabbits!" he shot back at her. "And don't disturb a pitmaster at work!"

"Listen, Alyona... Are you sure you got all that right?" Donut asked the girl. "Your brother only started the game one day before the patch, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Getting level one forty nine in only a few months is unheard of!" the rogue shook his head. "The current record is level one hundred in one month and twenty one days, set by a kid from Korea who was essentially power-leveled by his whole clan around the clock right from character creation."

"Do you think I'm lying?" the young woman frowned.

"It's not that!" the assassin dismissed the notion with a wave. "You mentioned that your brother worked for the corporation behind the game, right?"

"And?"

"Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't? Ask him about it next time you communicate through your aunt. In light of what's been happening to us, I really wouldn't mind some means of accelerating our leveling..."

"Get your plates ready!" the bald man clapped his hands, calling everyone's attention. "Why isn't the bread already cut and served? I'm looking at you, Masyanya!"

The conversation died down for some time, with only the crackling of the bonfire and the sounds of the forest awakening disturbing the silence.

"Donut, you're the most experienced player between all of us here," having finished her meal first, Masyanya put her bowl back into inventory and gave the rogue an intent look. "Tell me this," catching the latter's attention, the girl continued, "Alyona and I have leveled our cooking skill to almost sixty, whereas a certain bald-headed individual is barely past twenty. So why is it that when we cook barbecue, it doesn't come out near as tasty as his?"

"It's simple," wiping his hands on his sleeves, the assassin produced a flask of water and handed it to the huntress. "He was a good cook in real life. Let's say, equivalent to one to two hundred cooking skill in the game. And real-world skills don't simply disappear for your avatar. Provided you have the ingredients, you can cook any dish you knew how to cook in real life, and the taste will come out fairly similar. The same goes for any other skill subject to the local laws of physics."

"So, if the person was a good boxer or weapons expert in his past life, those will become advantages in the game?"

"Max..." the assassin sighed. "Your strength is close to two hundred now, right? With your equipment?"

"One ninety."

"So you can lift and carry close to eight hundred pounds. And twenty levels from now not even an Olympic champion from the real world will be a match for you. You would simply kill him with a single punch.  As for weapons expertise, I'm guessing that you've read a bunch of stupid books about folks who ended up in a game and, having been specialists in real life, began pwning everyone left and right. Sorry to burst your bubble, but all that is horseshit. Back in the Middle Ages warriors would pick up a sword very early in life, since their survival depended directly on their skill with a weapon. They had no television, no careers, no luxuries of the modern life. The point is, even the most pathetic swordsman from that time would wipe the floor with any modern weapons expert. Want proof? I've got a one-hander on me. Let's give it to Luffy and see how good he is at swinging it..."

"No need, you've convinced me," Max raised his hands in surrender. Then, looking around his sated companions, he continued. "Let's take an hour to rest and head back out. It is imperative we make it to our destination by midday." With that, he glanced at Alyona, who was saying something emphatically to Helliona, and braced himself mentally for the uneasy conversation he would need to have with her brother after his return from Demon Grounds.

Chapter 2

"A pleasant site, this is," sighed Rexar, who had been leading the way, when the group finally made it to their destination.

"Did you think we were headed to a resort?" Donut passed the still ranger and surveyed their surroundings carefully, shielding his eyes from the sun.

Kirana's shrine stood at the edge of the forest, on the bank of a small lake whose water was black as viscid tar. The lake's shores were sparsely populated by pines. Hanging over the water's surface, the trees looked so sickly that the faintest gust of wind seemed capable of toppling them. Some had already fallen into the lake, their crowns and bare branches sticking out of the water like fossils. A brown-green moss covered the shores and the ground underfoot as far as they could see. Where one would typically see sedge or reeds growing along the shorelines, they saw a mishmash of filthy weeds. The shrine itself was formed by the interweaving of withered trees running along its perimeter, trunks and boughs glimmering darkly from the fire that must have ravaged the place. Further evidence lay in the burnt frames of various wooden structures visible behind the shrine.

"If we do find a pool, I won't be going for a swim," Bonbon sat casually on a fallen trunk near the path. Taking out a rolled cigarette and a tinderbox, he lit up and took a deep drag. "Looks like things got sticky here," he said, pointing at the bones littering the ground.

"The temple probably had guards," Max observed. "Well, no use sitting on our thumbs—let's check this place out. Everybody stick together. No one goes inside just yet."

As the elves approached the structure, the full picture of the destruction was gradually revealed to them. It appeared that the attackers had attempted to raze the shrine to the ground, but hadn't quite managed it. Perhaps the trees had high fire and magic resistance, or the disavowed had simply lost patience. At any rate, the other structures—and Max counted at least ten—had been burned to a crisp.

"Are we looting the corpses?" Luffy paused near one of the skeletons lying on the ground, giving the commander a questioning look.

"No, we're just going to leave them here," Max snorted. "Of course we're looting them. But make it quick—we still need to see what's inside."

"That might be a problem," Helliona shook her head. "There must be at least a hundred of them." Walking over to a skeleton, its gray robe rotting, she leaned over and put her hand on the dead mob. "Not bad! Almost twenty copper and a piece of linen cloth."