Chapter 4: Discussion
The stained-glass window let the sun's rays enter the thrones room, coloring everything within in a faint ruby light. The walls were adorned with finely crafted tapestries, testament of epic battles of the past and depictions of epic challenges.
Primordial caryatids and atlantes were sustaining the immense dome, from which an equally enormous golden chandelier was hanging; however, it didn't produce any light, leaving the task to cast away darkness entirely to the sun.
The rays fell in the middle of the room, where six individuals were sitting in front of a round table.
Two of the eight seats were empty; one two seats to his right, while the other was right in front of him. That throne was different from the others. It was larger, more decorated and of an even darker tonality of black. It was the seat reserved for the guild master.
To its right, partially covered by the shadow projected by his own throne, Raal was sitting perfectly immobile. His arms crossed over his chest, the hood covering his head; hadn't it been for the white mask concealing his face, one might even doubt his very presence.
He was often amazed by how proficient Raal was in concealment; he was among the few in the guild able to stand his ground against him in a duel.
He wondered what was he doing now, he hadn't moved a single muscle ever since he arrived. Was he thinking about something? Was he trying to recover? Or was he observing them from under the mask?
Truth to be told, he had never been the social type; they had never met in real life and he knew little to noting about him. Raal worked together with them, completed the tasks he was given with great efficiency and occasionally discussed with them about various topics; however he sometimes used to have an unpleasant feeling whenever he was around him, as if he was keeping his distance from them. But now…
He shifted his attention to his right hand. It was pale, cold; just like the rest of his body.
About nine hours ago, he had died. His heart wasn't beating, his lungs served no purpose beyond making his vocal cords vibrate and his body was as cold as the marble round table he was sitting at.
When the game had ended he lost his home, his family, his world and his identity, as well as his life. He was now a vampire, a lord of the night, an undead.
He had no emotions, no fatigue, no sleepiness or anything else that a living body could feel. He would never be able to experience joy, he would never sleep, nor he could have dreams ever again. He was empty; he lost something so important to be considered a part of his very identity, yet he now had only a vague memory of what that even was. With every hour that passed he was less and less sure of what exactly he had lost.
It was ironic. As midnight was approaching he was ready to lose something, and he lost everything else instead.
He wasn't even sure to be the one that lost the most.
Two seats away from him, on the left side of the table, a man was holding his head in resignation.
He was Zaiho Jaali, an excellent crafter in their guild and a good friend in real life. He appeared to be in his late twenties, with a chiseled face and a robust build.
He was visibly shaken, with a blank expression on his face repeatedly alternating with one of despair and one of rage. He held his head in his right hand, struggling to maintain whatever calm he had left.
Unlike him, he was still human; but he had aged a decade overnight. The main focus of his attention however didn't seemed to be the years of life he had lost, but rather the condition his body was in.
His left arm, for lack of a better term, was an elaborate and balanced combination of metal and mana. It was very fascinating to look at; it was essential in its look, some might even call it crude, but there was something about it that inspired him. It mimicked the structure of the bones in a human arm, while at the same time strengthening it with additional support. Instead of the fingers there were three claws, long and sharp like the ones of a predator.
The metal arm followed Zaiho's every movement, responding to him as if it was a living part of his body. Its only problem was however the fact that it was actually replacing his arm. It wasn't an enhancement, it was a prosthesis.
As a crafter his performance in battle was limited, so he decided to acquire a fairly rare cash shop item meant for crafters in a situation similar to his. It was called [living metal], a one-use-only item that would permanently increase the stats of the one that used it.
It was restricted only to the ones possessing high-level crafter classes, and a player couldn't make use of it more then once. To identify crafters that made use of [living metal] their appearance was changed in the game, showing the metal covering many parts of their characters in an easily recognizable pattern. The game text mentioned the metal eating away the flesh and fusing to the soul, thus becoming one with the crafter.
Zaiho had lost all his limbs except for the right arm, as well as his right eye and most likely other parts of his body covered by his clothes; all replaced by the [living metal].
He looked at his friend, sorrowful over the loss of most of his body. Once he would have felt sadness for his condition, anger over how much their lives had been changed, desperation for what had happened to them… Now there was nothing.
He closed his eyes and searched within himself, searched for anything that resembled an emotion, anything that could make him feel human. In the barren emptiness of his soul, where only darkness and void seemed to exist, he found a single fragment of his past humanity.
Melancholy.
That was the most he could feel.
He looked in front of him, to the one seated at the left of the guild master's throne. It would seem that some amongst them were considerably more satisfied than others regarding their current situation.
If Raal, sitting to the right of the throne, was as silent as he was inscrutable, Shen, sitting to the other side, was the very opposite.
He had an overwhelming presence, hadn't he lost his emotions in the unlife he would have felt uneasy to be in the same room as him. He was gigantic, towering over everyone else in there with his massive body.
He would measure over two meters and thirty while standing; his shoulders were so large that he managed to occupy the entire width of the throne he was sitting on. His muscles were so hard and compact they offered the same degree of protection as legendary level armors. He was the biggest human he had ever seen.
According with how they customized the appearance of their characters some monks could be surprisingly muscular, but in Shen's case he might have brought it a little too far.
His hairs were short and messy; their intense red color was in strong contrast with the black karategi he was wearing. On his waist, a large golden chain was serving the function of a belt.
The karategi was only partially closed, proudly showing the muscular torso below. The sleeves had long been torn off as well, showing his trunk-like arms while at the same time removing handholds for grapples and other combat maneuvers he could face. The lower part of the karategi was also in similar condition, with the part below the knee being torn off as well.
His appearance was rather unconventional, but his avatar was the opposite of who he was in real life. A strong body able to do everything; the large smile he had kept on his face ever since he arrived was at the very least understandable.
He moved his attention to another of the few other people in the room.
Leisurely sat at his right, the most beautiful girl had had ever seen in his entire life was smiling as well.
She was young, an otherworldly beauty just out of her teens. She was comfortably sitting on her throne, her legs crossed, gently caressing one of her own tails.
Two white fox ears popped out of her hairs. Her golden eyes were hypnotizing to look at, with long irises reminding him of carnivores.
Ayaki didn't seem to have any problem with her new body either. As long as they remained in their human from, kitsunes were nearly identical to human, aside for the fox ears and the several tails.
What was she so enthusiastic for? He knew very little of her as well. She never told them anything about her private life, though unlike Raal she was much easier to get along with.
Her violin was nowhere to be seen, as was the case with his swords and everyone's weapons. When they were called for the meeting he perfectly understood the decision to not allow the "servants" to follow them inside, but what was the purpose behind them having to leave all their weapons outside as well? To prevent incidents from happening? To make them feel more safe? Or something else entirely?
He closed his eyes in contemplation. It wasn't like him to overthink something to that extent, but he just couldn't help to raise those questions.
Why wasn't the one that organized the meeting there with them? Why when he previously asked to see him, an NPC told him he couldn't be disturbed? Was there a reason for them being in such situation?
He kept those questions for himself. The atmosphere in the room was tense; no one had uttered a single word. They had remained there in absolute silence ever since they arrived.
Only one of them was breaking the oppressive quietness of the room, repeatedly tapping her fingers on the table.
He opened his eyes and looked at the girl sitting to his left.
She had a voluptuous body, covered in a long dark robe with light plated armor on her chest and forearms. An intricate silvery diadem kept her jet-black hairs from her face, while seven different holy symbols were hanging down from a necklace on her chest.
Izora had begun tapping her fingers on the table shortly after she arrived. She was clearly doing so out of nervousness; the quietness of the thrones room was too much for her to handle, especially under the current circumstances. That however didn't change the fact it only made the silence feel even more oppressive.
He looked at the overly large table in front of them. It was created to host all the guild members at once, a round table for over one hundred and fifty people. Now there were only eight seats, two of which were empty.
The several meters of distance between them, as well as the imposing decorations of the room, were an obstacle sufficient to discourage any conversation. They also had no privacy; the others would immediately notice whatever they did or said. The round table was meant to facilitate conversation, but with so few people it just contributed to the unpleasant atmosphere.
The sound of the door behind him slowly opening brought him back from his thoughts. Everyone else's attention shifted on the one entering the room, following his slow steps as he moved toward his seat.
When the newcomer finally entered his field of view, he was able to identify him as Govan. He was wearing long dark robes, the kind commonly associated with wizards, covering the entirety of his body save for his face and hands. His forehead was partially covered by a hood that, combined with the rest of his clothes, made identifying the correct shape of his body rather hard.
His head was extremely similar to the one of a crow, with little to no resemblance to human ones. Attached to his belt there were several scrolls and potions, as well as small pouches and many other useful items ready for use. On the few exposed areas of his body he could see a couple of magical symbols shining in a faint light, result of a class he picked a long time ago.
He slowly walked to his place and sat upon the throne without saying a word, another victim to the atmosphere formed in the room.
Abelkin disliked the position of his throne. Aside for having the light directly in his eyes, since he was giving his back to the door he couldn't see who was entering the room until they reached his side. One would think everyone to be equal at a round table, but there always were positions better than others regardless of the context. Even the guild master's throne was different from theirs.
As they all waited in silence for the guild master to arrive, Abelkin thought about the light entering the room.
Setting his emotions aside, how would the vampirization affect him?
Low leveled vampires suffered substantial penalties under the sun's light. Would he have problems to walk under the sun? It shouldn't affect him at his level, but there was much he did not knew about his body.
Another thing he was oblivious of was his alimentation. Undeads don't require nourishment, but vampires were infamous in literature for their constant blood thirst. Given the attention he built his character with, few players knew as well as him how a vampire was affected by blood. His doubts however resided in whether he would have been forced to hunt down for blood, as vampires did in literature, or if he could have spent the rest of his existence without sustenance, as was the case with the undeads of the game.
He currently felt no urge to feed; but he constantly made his character prey on his enemies, so he might have been sated only for the time being.
The sound of heavy steps slowly approaching from outside the room brought him back to reality. The one advancing toward them ought to have an enormous body to be heard even from the outside, and the one they were waiting for did have his size as one of his most noticeable characteristics.
The door slowly opened, allowing the last arriver to finally join them.
"All hail the arrival of the king of kings, lord Azul Val Khan, master of the flying castle and grand ruler of Azoth."
The unknown voice, even if for just a second, managed to give him something he had tried desperately to achieve for hours. Fear, shock, confusion; he had a brief taste of the powerful emotions he thought lost forever.
The awareness of the fact didn't however overshadow the presence of an unknown individual entering their private meeting.
Azul slowly proceeded toward his throne; his steps echoed throughout the entirety of the room, a hard and metallic sound that reminded him of hammers striking the floor. Izora had stopped tapping her fingers on the table the very moment the door opened; she was now avoiding direct eye contact, visibly unsettled. Ayaki had also lost part of her relaxed attitude.
Azul was over two and a half meters tall, able to look at them from the top down with ease. His body was even more impressive than Shen's, with muscles so powerful no one would have ever believed existed before personally seeing them. He was covered in bone plates that granted an enhanced natural armor, with sharp horns coming out from multiple places of his body.
A pair of large bat-like wings was closed on his back in a posture that resembled a large mantle. He was wearing a golden crown that mixed perfectly with the several horns on his head. His eyes were like embers on fire, piercing through them at every gaze.
He gave the mental image of a barbarian king, regal and brutal at the same time.
Following the demon there was a slim humanoid figure floating in the air. His long silver hairs reached the height of his waist, gently fluctuating along with his movements. A black blindfold covered his eyes, while his hands were shining in an intense red light.
Etched in his skin there were several lines covering the entirety of his body, channeling the red light all over him. He seemed incredibly fragile, so weak that it felt like a single gust of wind would be enough to blow him away.
The voice that spoke earlier belonged to him, an NPC.
The guild contained hundreds of custom made NPCs; it was impossible to remember them all, and he didn't cared much for them in the first place. As the vice-guild master the only noteworthy ones were the NPCs placed in key locations, especially the lv 100 ones.
He quickly went trough his mental list to find out the identity of the man following Azul like a shadow.
The answer came quickly, but it gave him no comfort. He was Alkadeias, a lv 100 NPC usually kept in the great hall. Other than protecting the area from potential invaders, he had the task to help manage the entirety of the guild base. They used him to operate the other NPCs remotely; during previous invasions he had proven extremely useful also in locating the invaders and coordinating the white capes' attacks.
The reason for what had now weakened to the point of just being concern was his presence in the thrones room, especially considering the circumstances they were currently in. They had been asked to leave all the NPCs outside, and they all did so as it would allow them to talk freely with each other; but not only had Azul brought an NPC with him, he had brought one specialized in mind magic with a great focus on telepathy. For all they knew he could have already read their minds and figured out everything.
The demon sat on his giant throne, towering over them even while sitting, the psion floating to his right.
How many of them were protected against telepathic investigation? He and Azul were both pro-players with racial immunity and resistance from mind affecting abilities; they were safe.
Under the right circumstances Raal was also considerable a pro player, and even though his defenses were very bad there was no way he would fall for it either.
Govan, Shen and Zaiho all kept always equipped items to shield them from mind manipulation, while Izora worshiped a deity that gave her protection against it.
This only left out Ayaki; as far as he knew, without first buffing herself with a song she was defenseless against mind-based abilities. If Alkadeias wanted to read her mind, there would be nothing to stop him.
He looked at his right. She was visibly nervous, understandable considering the situation. She was vulnerable, and she knew it.
There wasn't any visible evidence of her mind being invaded, but if it had happened and she didn't manage to give them a signal then they were all compromised.
He looked at the opposite side of the table. Alkadeias was between Azul and Raal, if need be one could activate his flaming aura while the other strikes at a vital area. Even if they were unarmed they remained heteromorphic creatures specialized in physical combat, and they were flaking him. They could end him before any damage was done.
He looked at the guild master in his fiery eyes, trying to make him understand what he was thinking. The two looked at each other for a moment that seemed to go on forever, none of them blinking once.
In the end the demon calmly looked at his right, where the psion was floating.
"That would be sufficient, you may now return to perform your duties."
The man looked back at Azul with a complex expression on his face.
"My lord, please, let me remain and assist you. It is my duty as the hand of the kings to aid, support and advice the kings in everything. How can I do so if I am not allowed to remain at your presence in this time of need?"
Azul smiled at him. Even though the razor-sharp fangs made him look like a predator about to devour a defenseless animal, he somehow managed to not make his demonic expression seem utterly terrifying.
"Your devotion is noticed and appreciated, but what we are about to discuss is a secret that can be shared only between the kings. We cannot make exceptions, not even for you."
There was a brief moment of silence; he couldn't interpret at all the expression the telepath assumed. Then the floating man silently bowed and them, tilting the upper half of his body while placing his right hand on the chest. He finally floated outside the room without saying a word, leaving the eight of them sitting alone around the table.
When the door shut at his back, the demon looked once more at him in the eyes. The two of them kept staring at each other in absolute silence for an interminable moment, none of them averting the gaze.
Once again, it was the demon the one to break the silence.
"Abelkin, is there something you wish to say?"
The vampire gestured at his back with his head, breaking eye contact in the process.
"What was that?"
The demon leaned toward him, laying his massive right forearm on the table.
"Alkadeias, I though you knew about him."
His voice was calm, clear. He didn't show any concern about the situation.
"You brought a telepath in this room. Do you realize the consequences this could lead to?"
Azul didn't move an inch; his calm was causing him to get annoyed. Apparently his emotions weren't as hard to find and he had previously thought.
"I brought no one here. I came and he followed me inside. If you are so scared about these "consequences", know the reason of my delay was I verifying whether he was trustworthy or not. I questioned him for hours and he himself defined reading our minds as an "unforgivable sin against the kings". There is no need to worry about him, he is loyal."
Abelkin stared once more at the demon in the eyes. It took a while for his emotions to be suppressed; the irritation he felt was surprisingly strong. Once his mind had returned in a state of calm, he looked away.
"Whatever, let's get on with this."
The demon quickly looked at all of them, just the time to make a quick estimation of everyone's condition.
"We should start by addressing the most important issue first. Can we all agree that what has happened is real?"
They all nodded in affirmation. None of them could deny what was happening as a dream or a virtual reality.
"Very well. Now that we have agreed this is real, what is "this"? We are in the bodies of our characters, inside our guild base and all the NPCs have come to life."
At his left, Shen leaned forward and expressed his thoughts.
"I think we entered the game. It's the first thing that comes to mind."
"It's not that simple."
The monk looked at his left. Govan was shaking his head.
"Shortly after we arrived I went to the library and made the weavers perform a scan of the surrounding area. They couldn't identify this place as any of the nine worlds or known sub-maps. I think that rather than us being trapped in the game, we have been dragged to a third unknown location with our avatars and equipment from the game."
Shen looked at the wizard with a puzzled expression.
"How is that different?"
"For instance" he answered, "While we were experts of the game layout, here we now have limited knowledge even of what is in our immediate surroundings."
The two of them looked at Azul. He pondered for a few seconds while observing the others; no one had anything else to add.
"Is there anyone that opposes to the hypothesis of we being dragged in a different real world with characters, equipment and everything else from the game?"
None of them objected that reasoning. Personally, nothing of what he had seen thus far suggested otherwise and he had already formed analogue theories in his mind.
Before the demon could continue, Zaiho stepped in.
"Ok, we are all on the same page. But what do we do now?"
His friend was looking at the guild master on the verge of a crisis, his metal claw on the table for everyone to see.
"Our first step would be putting together everything we have discovered thus far and trying to see what we can make out of that; so let's go around the table. Shen, have you found anything out?"
The monk wore a confidant expression.
"Yes. From when we arrived to before being called for the meeting I have been using my new body non-stop. It is superior in everything compared to the real world."
He looked at his right hand closed in a fist, his lips curved into a smile.
"I have been pushing myself to the limit for hours without even getting tired. It's simply amazing; I can move my body exactly the way I want to. If I can think of something, my body can easily do it."
The demon nodded.
"I see. What about your game skills? Are you able to use your Ki?"
The smile grew even larger.
"I received your message when I was beginning to use it, but I did manage to test a few Ki powers."
"Very well. We will discuss this further later on. Govan, have you discovered anything else?"
The crow-faced wizard nodded affirmatively.
"Yes. The NPCs I have met thus far referred to me as if I were some kind of noble. They did everything I asked them to do without questioning. They are able to use their game abilities, for example I saw the head librarian use one of his skills. That aside, I am able to cast the same spells I was able to use in the game, though some of them behave slightly differently. As I mentioned earlier, I also went to the library and made the weavers perform a scan of the surrounding area."
The tengu moved his hands up in the air and the space bent in a circle around them. He then grabbed something within it with both hands and pulled it out of the inventory; it was a sizable tapestry roll.
He placed it on the table and pushed away with both hands to unroll it. Even tough it couldn't even reach the middle of the table; everyone could see the giant map of the area.
"The spell's radius was large enough to cover the entirety of a single world from Yggdrasil, but here it's enough for just a portion of one."
He looked at the map the wizard brought with great interest. The nine worlds were massive maps, storing all the contents created in over a decade. One could constantly explore the game for years and he would still have seen but a fraction of it. For their current world to be larger than the game's ones, its size must be comparable to the real one.
"This map marks our location roughly an hour ago. The flying castle is here, while Raal was there."
Govan spoke while indicating at two points on the map far away from each other.
Seeing the map's level of detail, the area it described and the speed they had been able to produce one, Abelkin voiced the course of action that appeared obvious in his mind.
"We should make some more."
The avian wizard's eyes left the map and went on him.
"Mapping the territory is a long, dangerous and tedious process, but we have a way to quickly and safely do so. We should repeat this process using other spells to obtain better maps, though we should avoid using spells like [detect life] and other bases that might trigger the aggro of everyone in thousands of kilometers strong enough to sense our detection. Govan, what was the base for this map?"
Govan brought his attention back at the map, indicating the larger point he previously stated to represent the castle.
"The base spell was [Locate named object], cast on our medallions to pinpoint our position. I just wanted to see how many of us were here, the other information weren't required; however we can still see the division between land and sea, as well as the approximate location of the taller mountains."
They gave another look at the map. Even if basic, it would still be extremely useful in the short future.
"Very well." Intervened the demon. "Excellent job, Govan. Having a map is certainly useful in our situation. After this meeting we can proceed with Abelkin's suggestion and start producing maps with the specific information we need. For now let's continue with the previous topic. Ayaki, do you have anything to add?"
The kitsune looked at the demon, seemingly more used to her unholy interlocutor than she was a few minutes ago.
"Only a few details."
All those whom had spoken thus far did so with a voice different than their true one. The voices they gained along with their new bodies had little resemblance to their old ones, but regardless of how guttural and hoarse they were, way more striking characteristics were attracting the others' attention.
Ayaki was a stunningly beautiful demi-human, with white fox ears, golden feral eyes and nine long tails, yet her voice was by far the most spectacular thing about her new body. It was simply hypnotizing, her every word seized their attention in a vortex of charm and attraction. Rather than speaking, it was like if she was singing the most beautiful song they had ever heard.
"I have left the castle for a few minutes and scouted our immediate surroundings. We are currently flying above a mountainous forest. Several creatures were charmed by one of my passive abilities, more than monsters they seemed to be regular animals."
Silence, Azul remained immobile for a while before finally snapping back to reality.
"I see. Have you got an idea of their average levels?"
Ayaki nodded graciously.
"They were primarily small animals; squirrels and other rodents, as well as owls and wild cats. A few wolves arrived as well. Nothing of what I saw was above level five; most of them probably don't even have a level."
Abelkin though about the implications of what had just been shared. Ecosystems exist in an extremely precarious balance formed over decades. If wolves were part of an ecosystem they were most likely at its peak, another stronger predator would only compete with them over food. Even though she had only done a quick examination, it was unlikely for any noteworthy species to be in their immediate surroundings.
"There is also the matter of the white capes."
He immediately began to pay more attention.
"Shortly after I left, they followed me below. They insisted I needed a proper escort when leaving the castle and then asked me to return here."
She looked at the guild master in his ember eyes.
"They can think independently. Should we trust them?"
The demon slowly nodded.
"Ascertaining the reliability of the NPCs is something we should all be doing in the coming days. For now I managed to verify Alkadeias'. He is loyal."
He paused a moment to make sure everyone was looking at him.
"I will share what I have discovered once everyone else has done so, but know that the NPCs doesn't constitute an immediate threat as long as we don't act rashly. Everyone seems to have instinctively done so, but keep sticking to your characters."
He once more waited a few seconds to verify everyone was agreeing. Then he looked at him.
"Good, let's continue. Abelkin, anything to say?"
Everyone's attention was on him. He thought about the last few hours. How he changed.
For a moment he wanted to let them know of his loss, of how he struggled to feel emotion. Then, with the clarity of mind he gained in the undeath, he discarded that thought. If the others knew his mind had changed along with his body, it would only bring problems later on.
"Just a few details to add about what Shen and Ayaki said."
The gigantic monk's expression suddenly became more interested.
"I have experimented with my body as well. Other than vastly superior physical abilities and game skills, I believe we have also gained all our character's other capabilities."
A puzzled expression appeared on some of their faces. He would need to be clearer.
"In the real world I was a fairly skilled fencer…" that was a preposterous understatement; he was a five times champion of the regionals and classified fourth at the nationals the previous year. "… but I was never able to efficiently dual wield during practice. My character however uses two swords at once, and now I can do so as well."
The tengu's eyes closed slightly in what probably was confusion.
"That is weird, I don't feel like I have gained any sword skill. Are you sure you actually learned how to dual wield?"
Govan had a point. Olympic champions would train most of their lives to reach a level far below the one he was currently able to perform at, but he had mastered the technique over night; anyone would find it hard to believe. However, after thinking back to his earlier stunning performance, it was undeniable he was now a better swordsman than anyone whom had ever lived in his world.
Still, not having his swords with him to give a demonstration as proof, he had to find a good way to explain it from another prospective.
"Earlier you mentioned to be able to use magic."
The avian wizard nodded to confirm his statement.
"Think about it. In the real world magic doesn't exist, but here you can use it. Swords aren't anything we cannot comprehend, and here I can use them. You have levels that make you able to properly use magic; I have levels that do the same with swords. From a certain point of view, it's more natural for me to be a swordsman than for you to be a wizard."
Assuming this was correct, they all possessed their character's complete array of abilities. Govan likely didn't improve his traditional fighting abilities because he didn't have non spell-casting job classes.
The feathered sorcerer massaged his beak with his right hand, evaluating the logic of his argument. His behavior still showed traces of doubt.
"Are you sure that's the case? The fighters in the game need to rely on their true world reflexes, while magic caster use a console. I think pushing a button with my mind is easier than moving my body at superhuman levels."
That was another good point, but there was a flaw; they were talking about a game, not a simulation.
First requirement of all games is to be enjoyable for their target audience. A game that cannot be fully played unless you are able to actually perform all of your character's actions would most likely be a terrible product. Games are designed to make highly difficult actions possible to perform for the average man, turning complex tasks in trivial activities.
Yggdrasil's developers, as hated as they were for the unreasonably high skill gate they forced the players through, still designed the game to be playable for normal people. The fighting system was yes reliant on real life reflexes, but most of the other dozens of factors required in a fight were ignored. In other words, fighting in the game was easier than in real life, and the system that made it so still affected them.
As Abelkin was about to voice his thoughts, a firm voice put the discussion to a halt before it could conclude.
"I believe there will be better occasions to discuss the theory behind the skill improvement, for now let's just focus on the facts."
Azul looked at him, hinting he should continue before the discussion resumed.
"Dual wield and similar swordsmanship improvements aside, I have only speculations. I think we should have a way to do everything our characters could, it's just a matter of understanding how."
The demon nodded.
"Anything else?"
"Nothing relevant." he lied. He wondered if he was the only one concealing possibly relevant information from the others.
"Very well. That's good to know, half of us fight primarily in melee. If we had to learn how to do it on our own we would be spending years training on the basis. Well then, let's continue. Izora, what can you tell us?"
The beautiful woman at his left quickly cleared her throat.
"I haven't actually been able to verify much about my body, however I have learned a lot about the NPCs."
That was the kind of information he was waiting for. Azul also seemed considerably interested in what she was about to say.
"I was in the temple shortly before the game shut down, and ever since we got here I have remained in it. I don't know if it's only for the ones over there or if this goes for everyone else as well, but they worship us."
He had already noticed that many of them showed an extremely deferential attitude, but "worshiping" sounded to him a little too strong.
"We talked about what they know, what they think. Their memory from the game is blurred; they remember a couple of things, but they have the absolute certainty it's reality."
"What do they remember?" Azul interrupted her with a question that needed immediate answering.
Izora hesitated a second before speaking.
"Not much. They know our names and are aware of our general behaviors. Some remember small fragments of things that happened next to them, and they all remember the most noteworthy moments of the guild. As a general rule, I would say that they remember everything that involved them directly."
Silence fell once more into the room. Abelkin was going through everything he did to the NPCs while they were in game, as the others were most likely doing as well. The first NPCs dated back to six years ago; there was no way to tell if they had ever been cruel to any of them.
In a game where the profanity filter prevented you from committing obscenities the fun was largely found in killing. Killing or harming your NPCs was both stupid and boring, as they would cost a lot of gold coins to resurrect and there were more interesting fights elsewhere. As far as he knew, there wasn't a single player that spent his time harming his own NPCs.
The problem then was when they caused them to die in other ways.
The guild had been conquered twice in the past, and in both occurrences several hundreds levels worth of NPCs had been slain in the process to defend the castle. In both circumstances they managed to get the guild back before the usurper could do too much damage, but the NPCs would most likely have memories of those periods.
"From the discussion I had with the angels in the temple they also all remember who created them. That aside, they are surprisingly more human than you would think."
The demon took a long breath. He was thinking about the implications of what she said. Abelkin could guess what he was pondering over; having a guild filled with hundreds of sentient individuals you know little about is already problematic, but if those individual also all have their memories and a history of relationships you never paid attention to, then the problem is exponentially more complex.
"Do they suspect anything about us? Have you told them anything about the game?"
She shook her head.
"I've already told you, they worship us. The angels I spoke with all spontaneously told me they would happily give their lives for me. Their loyalty is so high that's actually kind of creepy."
The demon nodded, an unreadable expression on his face.
"I see. Investigating their past was dangerous, but we would have eventually needed to do so anyway. Very well, that at least clarifies some doubts I had with what I gathered. Moving on, Zaiho, what do you bring us?"
The room was silent once more. The man was motionless, tired, broken. He closed his eyes for a few moments, loudly inhaling and exhaling a couple of times.
He then opened his eyes and looked at the demon with a conflicted expression on his face. Abelkin couldn't understand what he was thinking about.
"…Not much."
The words came out slowly from his mouth, it was clear he was having troubles maintaining his calm. He moved his large metal claw to the side, readjusting his position on the throne.
"At midnight I was in the forge. After we were dragged here I had some… difficulties with the new situation."
A shadow flashed over his face. Painful memories must have been crossing his mind.
"I have seen broken objects repairing on their own in front of me. I think the game system still affects us to some degree. The experience system might still be working, as well as the re-spawn one."
Why he knew it? Where had he found broken objects?
The answers to those questions were likely tied to the precarious mental state his friend was in. It appeared he hadn't accepted the new situation with the same ease of the others.
Beside, a game system still functioning in the new world had several implications. One active system implied the possibility that all of them could potentially function as well, and worse, some could function differently than what they were used to.
Azul remained in silence for a while, pondering over the new information.
"Anything else?"
Zaiho slowly shook his head. There was nothing more to be said.
"I see. Then it's Raal's turn."
Azul looked at his left, where their guild-mate had remained in silence the whole time.
"I know you have been outside as well. Anything to say?"
The assassin remained immobile; the mask prevented them from reading emotions on his face. Abelkin knew within himself Raal had been studying them the entire time.
"There is a lot that needs to be said."
He partially came out of the shadows that were covering his body and leaned his elbows on the table, slowly joining his hands in front of him.
"I will proceed with order."
His head moved to face the guild leader; his every movement was executed in absolute silence. Raal never explained too much about how he built his character, he shared with them only the general capabilities they needed to know when exploring a dungeon together; that aside, everything they knew about him were things they saw him doing and assumptions. In the game it wasn't necessary to know anything more, but now that he was in the same room as him he faintly regretted not having looked into his capabilities.
"Setting aside geographical and zoological related information, I came in contact with a settlement."
Everyone in the room reacted to that. Regardless of where they were, they now knew they weren't alone.
"It is a large city, fortified by walls and surrounded by farming fields, with streets leading to it from multiple directions. I observed it remotely to gather information. I estimate its inhabitants to be in the hundreds of thousands, though that it's just based on the size of the city and the density of people on the streets. Walls, buildings and structures are all reminiscent of the western-European middle ages. From what I have been able to observe, it would seem that their mechanical advancements and culture are also roughly of the same period."
The demon looked at him with an illegible expression on his face.
"You mean to say we are in the middle ages?"
"No. Rather than having travelled back in time, I would say our previous hypothesis was correct. We are in a different world with a less advanced civilization compared to our own."
The demon remained in silence for a moment, evaluating the implications of what was just reported. Then he gestured the assassin to continue.
"Within the city, the economy isn't dissimilar from our world's past. There is a currency system, markets in the streets and the goods are primarily food, with a minority of tools and accessories."
He paused for a second.
"Slavery also appears to be legalized."
Of the eight present, only three were humans. Abelkin couldn't yet read well the visages of inhuman people, but the faces of the ones that retained their humanity all expressed the same emotion. A mix of shock, fear and disgust.
"I observed the beginning of an auction. A satyr was being sold. Everyone else I had seen in the city was human, however they didn't seem too surprised. This is just an assumption, but I would say there are several beast-man in this world."
Beast-man; partially humans and partially animals. They were the most common type of demi-humans. If there was actually such species in this world, it would be a proof against time travel and in favor of them being in a different world.
"I have also found an individual of this world that seems able to perform basic divine spells from the game. According to the way people were talking about it, here using magic is something particularly exceptional; however I wouldn't trust the source too much, the information is likely to have been inflated."
Izora looked at him.
"Can you tell us more about the spell?"
"The spell was a [heal light wounds], the caster a human teenager, the target a cut from a short sword on the palm of a human hand. It would appear she came from a country called Slane Theocracy. There should be several more individuals able to use magic as well over there, yet this information also comes from the same unreliable source as before."
The demon nodded.
"Very well, you did an excellent job. Is there anything else to say?"
"Yes." answered Raal "And it is extremely important."
He had told them about the other inhabitants of that world, slavery, demi-humans and magic, yet he did not use the word "important" for any of them. Whatever he was going to say, he had the undivided attention of Abelkin and everyone else in the room.
"I had a face to face encounter with a dragon."
None of them commented on what he just said. They just remained in silence, waiting for him to continue.
"I was flying away from the city without having activated any concealment ability, I got spotted and intercepted. We had a brief conversation, though it was mostly he interrogating me; he was at least as intelligent as an average human. I think in the city they mentioned him to be something similar to a lord, he also referred to the surroundings as his territory."
Abelkin looked at the other's faces. They all seemed to be reacting differently from one another. Shen seemed to be excited; Zaiho depressed expression had worsened and Govan simply stared at Raal, waiting for him to continue.
Azul was the only one asking for more details
"What have you told him?"
Raal looked back at him. A brief instant of silence preceded his answer.
"I told him my full avatar's name and what species I am from. When he questioned me about where was I from and when I arrived I told him I came from Asgard and that I arrived at midnight. I found out that there shouldn't be onis around here and that his knowledge should be limited to what is inside his own territory."
Raal made another short pause.
"I was also forced to reveal the situation I was in. I explained it as vaguely as possible, I think the exact words were something close to "I have been dragged here without realizing how", I don't think he can get much from that. At least in return I found out that something similar happened a century ago."
Azul stared at Raal's mask, right where the eyes probably were. Through the fiendish lineaments, it was possible to see displeasure on his face.
"That was dangerous. Even if you basically told him nothing, he still managed to link us to a precedent. He might already know about us more than we do. What happened after that?"
Another pause. Abelkin was sure Raal was studying the demon from below the mask.
"He attacked me."
Azul face changed slightly, however he couldn't interpret what emotion the demonic visage was showing. Govan nervously massaged his beak with his anthropomorphic hand, it seemed like he was putting together the pieces of a puzzle in his mind.
"I managed to evade the first attack and attempted to escape, however I was trapped inside a top tier barrier. We battled quite intensely for about a dozen minutes, I was then greatly injured in a single attack and finally I managed to bring the fight to a stalemate. I wore him down for the rest of the fight and in the end I used a technique to finish him of in a single attack."
He paused a second.
"It didn't end well."
He gestured toward Govan on the other side of the table.
"I was about to die when he opened a [Gate] behind me and sent an NPC to help me out."
Azul was staring at the assassin with a dark expression on his face.
"So you lost."
Raal withstood his gaze. As he answered, his words were perfectly calm and measured.
"Technically? Yes."
The demon sighed profoundly.
"How could you loose? Even if alone, I though you would have been able to defeat a single dragon."
"Setting aside yesterday was supposed to be the last day of the game and most of my daily abilities weren't usable, let me clarify one thing. I guarantee that what I fought was everything but the average mob dragon from Yggdrasil. If I were to compare him with something in the game, he would be at least a dungeon boss."
Abelkin thought about the several implications of that statement. Having an entity on the level of a boss roaming the land would be extremely dangerous for them.
He knew Raal to be among the deadliest players in the guild, as well as the third strongest person in the room. If he couldn't defeat a monster in a 1vs1 battle, then the opponent was to be taken seriously. However, before starting to plan how to deal with such a threat, they first needed to assess the danger such dragon posed to them.
"Can you describe us his fighting capabilities?"
The assassin turned to face him.
"He is over twenty meters tall, with two pairs of bat-like wings and deer-like horns. His breath attack is fire based, with long range, adjustable cone size and high DPS. He is either extremely resistant or immune to fire, making him protected from his own attacks. He can use one roughly for up to thirty uninterrupted seconds, then the cool down is equal to the duration. Aside from this, he does not seem to have limits on the long range."
Raal turned his head to face the guild leader.
"He used a limited yet powerful array of skills. He conjured a barrier the size of a mini map able to deal fire damage and prevent teleportation retreats, he could also make it steadily shrink. I assume he also used something analogue to a [complete restoration] to get his entire health back, as well as removing all the de-buffs I used on him. He then created a planar portal to escape one of my skills, used a self-resurrection in conjunction to an AOE post mortem trap, activated a detection ability able to bypass anything I could master in daylight and finally begun to use weak homing attacks in rapid succession that I couldn't outrun or dodge. I assume he also posses other abilities he did not show, but there seems to be a cost for each use."
Raal faced Abelkin once more, observing him from beyond the mask.
"All this on top of high level defensive abilities and almost endless HP. The only times I was able to bring him close to death were after I made him fall for thousands of meters and when I used an instant kill combination. I would estimate his level to be around one hundred and thirty."
They all looked at each other. The dragon was a threat on the level of a game boss, specialized in defense and with possibly a way to counteract every strategy they could use on him.
"Very well Raal, the information you brought us is extremely valuable. Now we have a better understanding of this world."
Azul placed his enormous hands on the table.
"It is now my turn to share what I have found out."
Most of them were still uneasy after hearing about the dangerous monster roaming the land, but they tried to calm down and listened to what their guild master had to say.
"First and foremost, the NPCs. As Izora told us before, they appear to be extremely loyal to us. Inside the castle there is a hierarchy where we stand at the top; the NPCs call us kings. I assume it's due to the guild complete name being "Kings of Azoth". Among ourselves we are all on the same level; the only exceptions are I, as the guild master, and Abelkin, as the vice guild master."
They all looked at each other once more. Being sure the NPCs won't attack them was a huge step forward; as for the internal hierarchy, it was something they could live with.
"Below us there are the custom-made NPCs. First is Alkadeias, then there are the ones we placed in key areas and gave important functions, finally all the others. Below them there are the mercenary NPCs, whose value is directly linked to their level. At the end there are the automatically spawned NPCs, also following the same rule."
The avian wizard raised an arm to catch Azul's attention.
"What about the castle maids?"
"They form a rather large group within the guild. They are custom made, but they shouldn't be any more important than the others we made. They now seem to be tasked with serving us in every way they can. Think of them as just normal humans trying to keep the castle tidy, although I doubt they will have other uses."
"And the white capes?"
The demon looked at Govan with annoyed eyes, he didn't appreciated being interrupted. He then answered the slightly scared wizard's question with firm voice.
"The white capes are the largest group within the guild. Since they served as the troupes we sent toward invaders that managed to pass through the outer defenses they are fairly strong, and now they keep serving as an internal militia and patrol system. They are mostly units summoned through the mercenary system, but some of us created NPCs to operate with the white capes and equipped them with similar items. We can think of them as troupes under our control."
"How much autonomy does the NPCs posses here?"
Abelkin asked the question he had been pondering over ever since he first spoke with one of them. They knew the NPCs would serve them and were loyal, but how human were they? The fact they had gained sentience didn't necessarily meant they would use it. Should they see them as people or tools?
"That remains to be seen. I am currently under the impression they would obey our every command, but we will need to better analyze the way they think."
After briefly checking no one else had anything to ask, he continued with the next point.
"Then there is the matter of the items we posses. Setting aside the ones we kept in the vault, most of the other guild members had left their items somewhere in the guild. I already ordered a few NPCs to collect them and bring everything to the vault. After this, we should all go there and see if there is anything we can use. Zaiho, do you think you could be able to re-forge some of them if the need arises?"
The metal covered human shook his head.
"I don't know. I never built anything in real life. Before trying to re-forge valuable items, I should first carry out tests with worthless ones. If Abelkin is right and we picked up skills based on our levels then it should be possible, I think."
The demon nodded.
"Very well then. What about the world items we conquered? Are they safe?"
Izora nodded.
"I am sure I saw the one we keep in the temple when I was there."
The demon then looked at the wizard, implying it was his turn to answer.
"I didn't actually checked whether it was in my room or not, but if the one in the temple is still there then the one I use should also be safe."
Azul sighed at those words.
"First thing you do after we are done here is checking if we still have it. Has any of you seen the other one?"
The giant monk sitting at his right nodded.
"I saw it when I went out in the garden. It's still there."
"Good. If we can use it, then the base is still defendable. Have you seen if the black crystal ring is intact?"
The incredibly tall human shook his head.
"I have seen it, but it goes all around the castle. I didn't saw fractures, but that doesn't mean there aren't."
Azul spent a brief moment thinking about those words.
"I see. Well, that's another thing we need to check."
In Yggdrasil there were several types of guild base one could conquer. They all had both advantages and disadvantages, which directed the guild controlling it toward different strategies.
For instance, a guild controlling a city-base was extremely weak to most styles of invasions, however they could tax the inhabitants of the city and thus receive extra gold to summon mercenaries. This meant they had higher leveled NPCs compared to other guilds and that they could summon specific ones to counteract the invaders.
Tomb-bases were especially weak against slow yet powerful attacks, such as super tier spells specialized for structure damage and floods. However they generally forced the invaders to follow a precise path, allowing the guild to fill it with traps and greatly cut down their numbers before even facing them. Their undead spawn didn't even consumed gold, considerably reducing the maintenance costs.
Flying-bases such as theirs were weak against invasion forces able to fly, as the enemies would be able to attack the base from all directions at once. This was balanced by the fact that flying bases were among the few that could move, making it exponentially harder for the enemies to carry out sieges.
Powerful guilds, especially the wealthiest ones, could use cash shop items to strengthen their bases. For instance, Abelkin had heard some time ago of a guild occupying a tomb-base strengthened to the point of being able to resist the largest scale alliance ever formed in a guild war without ever facing the invaders directly.
It would have been nice to live in such fortress, especially because their castle was targeted quite often.
After the second time they had to re-conquer their own guild, they decided to acquire as much [black crystal] as they could. They then forged a ring around the base and enchanted it with so many data crystals that their reserves were almost depleted. Now whoever attempted to enter the base from anywhere aside the gate would have his mana instantly drop to zero, all the spells affecting him dispelled and their entire equipment worth of usages discharged and deactivated for at least one minute.
[Black crystal] was an exceptionally rare material in the game, as it greatly interfered with all forms of magic and supernatural skills. If properly crafted, it could produce incredible results.
Considering how many data crystals had been used to make the artifact more resistant one could think of it as nearly indestructible, but it was important to remember that in its original state black crystal had hardness of 1. The black crystal ring breaking had been everyone's greatest fear even before it was completed.
As Abelkin was thinking about their past projects a question crossed his mind.
"We have the world item and the black crystal ring, what about the daily barrier? Can we activate it?"
The best way to defend a base was through redundancy; several layers of defense one after the other. If one failed, the next was there ready to step in.
If an invading force were to attack them, the first line of defense would be in the sky outside the castle; as such they had a black crystal ring, a world item and a barrier that could be used once a day. If the first two outer defense systems proved to be insufficient, they could manually trigger a barrier to earn ten minutes of breath to plan a countermeasure. To trigger the barrier they needed to access the base's control menu, and the only way to do so was through a game interface. If they couldn't, they lacked one layer between them and the enemies.
"Yes. I also verified it before coming here. I can still access the base's interface the same way I could before, the options are also the same."
Abelkin felt as much relief as he could. The world item worked well against large groups but functioned poorly when the invaders came with reduced numbers, while the black crystal ring was useless against opponents that didn't relied on mana to fight and could fly using wings. If enemies were to penetrate the outer defenses, there still were both the traps in the gardens and the ones inside the castle itself, but if it came to that they could potentially suffer great losses. If they had another way to keep the enemy out it was a great advantage on their part, and if they could access the base interface then they could also maneuver the castle's flight and summon mercenaries.
"The last point I whish to rise is about the base's sustainability."
Some of them looked at him with a perplexed expression on their faces.
"Many of our NPCs, for instance all the white capes, are equipped with rings of sustenance. However we don't have many undead among them, and most of them still require nourishment."
Abelkin knew. Even though Azul was the guild leader, he had given less and less weight to his responsibilities ever since the shut down was announced. As such, it slowly begun to fall on him, as the vice guild leader, to manage the guild and everything related to it.
Grouping together all the undeads, the monster that didn't required nourishment, the ones equipped with rings of sustenance and the ones able to provide for themselves within the base, there still was over half of them that needed food to survive.
"We have a few NPCs with cook levels to solve that problem for us, but our food reserves are low. Since we all believed the game to end yesterday we didn't bothered to accumulate more than needed. We should still be able to go on for about a week, but by then we will need to find something for them to eat."
The white fox girl looked at the demon with a doubtful expression on her face.
"I have heard there are many guilds possessing magic items able to mass produce large quantities of food. Don't we have one of them?"
Abelkin and Azul looked at each other, silently checking if the other knew about such items being in their possession. In the end it was Abelkin to verbally provide the answer.
"The food produced by those items is a mere substitute. Regardless of how many cook levels you posses, it's impossible to obtain any buff with it. Since we all regularly grinded in many areas we are advantaged in, we ended up with a regular and abundant income of resources. As some of us often hunted down monsters that dropped several high level ingredients, we never had the need to quest for an item unable to do so."
The demon sighed once more.
"Our problem is exactly that. In the game we had over one hundred players regularly logging in every day, each contributing to our stable income. Now there are just eight of us, yet the base consumption hasn't diminished. The items we hoarded are still all in the vault, but the ones required to keep the base functioning are steadily going to run dry."
That was an extremely urgent problem. Abelkin quickly made a mental list of all the resources they needed and could only acquire from outside the base.
"The food is our first priority. The chefs are able to cook virtually anything as long as they have the ingredients. We have a week to generate a stable food income."
All eyes went on him. Azul intensely stared at him from the opposite side of the table.
"Then we need gold. Many of our guild's functions consume considerable amounts of it. We must verify if the game system that rewarded us with gold for killing monsters is still in place, otherwise we must either find another way to obtain gold or stop spending it."
Izora raised her hand, attracting his attention.
"We should also verify exactly what counts as gold. In the game it was a currency, but here we might be able to just spend any type of gold coin. If we can't, there might be a way to forge game money using this world's gold."
He nodded in agreement.
"You are right. We need to verify it as soon as possible. Then, after food and gold, we need to acquire other kinds of resources, though they aren't as urgent as these two."
Azul slowly placed both his hands on the table, producing a clean sound. They all looked back at him, waiting for what he wanted to say. Abelkin was always impressed by the guild leader's ability to quickly attract everyone's attention with a simple motion.
"Very well, it would seem we all have shared everything with the others. Is there anything we forgot to address?"
No one in the room responded affirmatively.
"Good, let's proceed then. First, we must prioritize our safety."
Azul pointed his fang toward the map, indicating the point where Raal encountered the dragon.
"Our main concern at the moment is the dragon roaming the land. I suggest we move in the opposite direction, toward the sea, to distance ourselves from him as much as possible."
The demon indicated the area southwest of the castle with a gesture, then he resumed talking.
"Once we reach the coast, we will fly over the sea. By Raal's description, the dragon appears to be a land creature; if we can go far enough from the land he won't be able to follow. We will then try to solve the food shortage by fishing. Security wise there shouldn't be problems, as we will be flying over the sea and water dwelling monsters rarely posses the ability to fly. Does anyone have a better suggestion?"
Evade, and the enemy will follow. Hide, and he will waste time searching while you execute your strategy. Abelkin looked at the man who once said those words after their first duel. Raal had made a character almost entirely focused on stealth, and now he remained silent.
He was expecting the best assassin in the guild to immediately propose to hide the castle rather than camping out in plain sight as far away from danger as possible, but Raal voiced no disagreement with the guild leader.
Azul's proposal had its merits, but trading a known danger for the unknown could potentially multiply their problems. If things went well they would simply delay the issue, while if it went badly they could encounter dangers even greater than the deer dragon. There was also the problem that none in that room was adequate for underwater fights, making defending themselves and acquiring resources harder than it already was. Wasn't there a better idea?
Then, a solution crossed his mind.
"How about we move toward the dragon?"
All eyes went on him.
"If we move northeast then we will enter a mountainous region. We already are at the maximum elevation from the ground our guild base allows, but if we go toward the mountains or elevation compared to the sea will greatly increase."
Azul was staring at him, his expression both unreadable and unmoving. Abelkin's words lacked to cause any visible reaction in his friend.
"If we move over there we can reach the same height as the clouds. Then we can use [weather control] to conceal the castle and hide among them. We will be closer to the dragon, but it would be a calculated risk rather than a blind bet."
Izora nodded with decision.
"I like the idea. If we were to fight we wouldn't be too disadvantaged, on land we have more alternatives and higher mobility. We would be closer to resources we know how to obtain and we would have better information over the entirety of our surroundings."
Signs of approval came from his guild mates. Abelkin had managed to convince them to follow his idea.
"Very well."
The demon nodded in agreement.
"We will conceal our base in a cloud and head northeast, for the mountains."
He quickly looked at the other occupants of the room.
"I will now assign tasks to everyone. We will divide our responsibilities in order to improve our performance. Govan."
The wizard reacted to his name being mentioned by straightening his back.
"You will use magic to conceal the base. Use a [widened weather control] to surround the castle with fog until we reach a safe zone, then switch to a [widened cloud control] and maintain it; you should have enough mana to manage to do this."
The avian spell-caster nodded decisively in affirmation.
"You are also to check if the [rings of arch-wizardry] are in your room or not. Keep them ready in case problems were to rise. While you are at it, you should also tell the weavers to make several different maps as we discussed before. They are to prioritize the ones with [detect water] and [detect metal: gold] as a base. If we are lucky, this world has way more gold than our."
Govan nodded.
"I will. Anything else?"
"Yes."
The answer came almost immediately.
"Among us, you are the one that makes the most out of the magic system. You should try to study it as much as possible. Magic in this world is real, and we will need an expert on the matter."
"Of course."
The tengu answered with a voice filled with pride and confidence. Hadn't a beak replaced his lips he would now be displaying the largest smile they ever had the occasion to see.
"Leave it to me."
"We will all be counting on you. Next, Zaiho."
The metal covered man raised his head. The wrecked expression on his face had slowly being vanishing during the conversation, leaving behind a resigned one.
"You are the only crafter among us, as such you need to be able to master your skills as soon as possible. Build anything, doesn't matter how simple it is, just do it. After a couple of times show me at what level you are. If you can't bring yourself at all to craft anything, then find at least a way to repair what breaks. Make sure to only use worthless material for your first tests."
The man didn't answered, limiting himself to slowly nod hid head.
"One of the most important requirements for system self-sustainability is the ability to self repair. If you aren't able to repair anything when required, our overall ability to survive will be reduced. Do you understand?"
Zaiho nodded once more.
"Yes… I do."
His voice revealed just how close he was to a complete mental breakdown.
"Another thing. Among the NPCs, or servants as they call themselves, there are a few that posses crafting classes. Later you can go through the list of NPCs and select the ones you could need to carry out your duties."
Azul's voice softened a little as he offered support to their friend. Zaiho managed to show a faint and tired yet genuine smile.
"Thank you."
A smile appeared on the fiend's face.
"You are welcome. Izora."
Hearing her name being spoken, the cleric prepared herself to carefully store in her memory everything that was about to be said.
"You are in a similar situation as Zaiho. You are the only one among us able to heal others. We will be counting on you to heal any injury that could occur. Beside that, I would like if you could verify the loyalty and the way of thinking of the servants, as well as anything else that might be relevant; though, this task should be carried out by all of us to some extent."
She answered with a smile on her lips.
"I will speak with them."
"Very well. You should also pick the divine casters from the list and see how divine magic works over here."
She nodded once more with her head, accepting the task.
"Ayaki."
"Yes?"
The fox-girl answered in a calm manner, no more uncomfortable in the presence of the arch-demon.
"I would like you to also investigate the NPCs. As a bard you should be able to get any information from them with your charms. You should also focus on their way of thinking, as well as their loyalty. As Izora will be focusing on the ones within the temple, you should focus on the others."
The white kitsune slightly lowered her head in understanding.
Azul moved his attention toward his right, looking directly at the cape-covered assassin.
He opened his mouth, ready to give Raal his task, but those words never left his lips.
"If we are to live in this world, I think we should have a proper information network."
Abelkin could see the guild master blinking in confusion. Raal had unexpectedly spoken before he could say a word, and now Azul didn't know how to react.
"Whatever one is trying to do, the first step is to be well informed. Guild master, I believe that we need to know as much as possible about the outside world as quickly as we can. If one of us is outside gathering information directly from this world's inhabitants, we can prevent countless emergencies and obtain all manners of valuable intel. Though I admit it's dangerous, I wish to volunteer to create a team to monitor and observe the unknown. I believe my stealth abilities makes me the best candidate for the job, as being spotted would compromise us as a group."
Abelkin looked the fiend on the opposite side of the table unable to give an immediate answer.
Raal had gone off script shortly before being assigned his task, for then volunteering to form a group to gather information from the outside. There was a lot out of place in what just happened.
Aside for when he was directly asked, Raal had remained in silence the entirety of the meeting, neither commenting nor intervening in the conversation. And now he just interrupted Azul before he could speak.
Also, from a personal point of view, Raal never gave him the impression to be a self-sacrifice kind of guy. The only instances he spent real world money for the guild were the mandatory ones, and while playing he adamantly refused to take non-calculated risks. Now he was basically asking to go outside the safety of the guild base in an unknown world, to spy and steal information with dragons flying around the land for the sake of the group.
Unless he had somehow predicted Azul would give him a similar task and for some reasons decided to volunteer for it himself, there was no reason to even mention such dangerous job.
Abelkin couldn't come up with a reason that would push the calculative and cautious Raal to volunteer for such a genuinely dangerous mission. However, one thing was sure, Raal knew something he did not.
After ordering his thoughts, Azul finally gave his answer in a slightly wary tone.
"Yes, indeed. Create a intelligence gathering squad and bring us any relevant information you find."
Raal lowered his head in affirmation.
"It will be done. I guarantee you I will take the task seriously."
After he raised his head, he continued speaking following the short pause.
"Guild master, as secretly gathering information from the outside is a task that requires a rather large set of skills concentrated in as little individuals as possible, may I please pick the NPCs before the others do? It would be problematic if it turned out I needed someone that have already been assigned to someone else."
Azul sighed, then, showing the palm of his right hand, granted that request as well.
"Fine, if they are necessary for the intelligence network, you can pick anyone you want."
The pitch-black assassin lowered his head once more.
"Let's move on then."
The guild master turned his head to the other side, looking directly at Shen in the eyes.
The two gigantic players towered over everyone else in the room. Hadn't this world been one with magic and supernatural abilities, no one would have doubted the two of them together could have won against the other six occupants of the room without even breaking a sweat.
"Shen, first I would like you to verify if the last world item is safe, as well as carefully check if the black crystal ring has been damaged in any way."
He nodded without hesitation with a pleased smile on his face.
"Sure."
"Then I would also like to make you look for resources. If I remember correctly, we have natural sources of perfectly drinkable water within the castle; so our only preoccupations are food and gold. If we are fortunate, the gold will appear on the map after the weavers are done with their divinations; but food is different. You should go around the castle and see if there is anything we could eat. After Raal is done picking members for the intelligence network, get everyone with ranger levels and similar classes, as well as any other servant with good mobility, and generate a food income. Just remember we still know very little about the outside world, and it has been proved there are serious dangers, so remember to bring with you people skilled in a fight."
He nodded to show understanding.
"Another thing. You will be the most likely to enter a fight against monsters and other opponents. Try to verify which systems are still active and if they changed. The most important one to verify would be the game system that rewarded us with gold and items when we killed enemies. It would be great if it was still on."
Shen's smile turned almost cocky.
"Oh, I will."
Azul shifted his weight on the throne, assuming a more comfortable position.
"Very well. Now you have all been assigned a task. Abelkin and I will coordinate everyone's activities and take care of the overall management, as well as defending the castle should an emergency arise. The constant sharing of information will be a crucial factor to our survival, as such, until things have calmed down, we should have daily meetings. Do we agree?"
The demon looked once more at his right, where the shadow-melded assassin was sitting.
"I should be able to attend, distance is not a problem. As long as I know when the meeting is, I will be there."
"Good."
The demon continued speaking, concluding the meeting by giving the last directives to the other guild-mates.
"Also, we should all experiment with our abilities; practice with them so that we will be ready to face any situation. Identify possible differences with their game counterparts and create ways to work around them if you find some. You all should also go in the vault and see if our comrades have left behind anything we could use to strengthen ourselves; remember that there is no way to know what we might need, so prepare for everything."
Azul rose from his throne, his colossal body dwarfing everyone else in the room. He began to walk toward the room's exit with slow and heavy steps, marking the end of the meeting.
"One last thing."
Abelkin and the others had already begun to rise as well, but they were interrupted halfway through by the guild leader's conclusive words.
"I have already given this task to Ayaki and Izora, but you all should personally verify the loyalty of the servants that are following you."
As the arch-demon approached the exit, the massive door slowly begun to open.
"It would be problematic if we had to constantly watch our backs."
As Azul left the room, Abelkin could hear the sound of the several servants waiting outside kneeling behind him.
He looked at the other guild members, some of which were left with an uncomfortable expression on their faces after that final remark.
He rose from the throne, and saw others following his example. He headed toward the still opened door, leaving the thrones room to start carrying out his tasks.
Once he had crossed the door, he turned back to make sure no one remained behind.
Ayaki and Izora crossed the door walking side by side, followed by Shen close behind them. Zaiho left the room producing a metallic sound with his every step; still spiritually taxed, but apparently better than when he entered. The last to cross the door was Govan, whose decreased body size caused a slower pace.
Abelkin looked inside the room, searching for the last guild-mate that took part to the meeting.
Raal's throne was empty. His keen eyes, backed by several detection skills, couldn't locate anyone in the room.
The door closed, and in the thrones room returned the silence.