39Player 6243, Chapter 6
Novermber 3, 2023. Floor 43
Harry was waiting for more people to arrive at the inn in the main city of floor 43. While exploring he had found an area that required a party to access and thought it might be worth checking into. He had to stop himself from reacting as Argo the Rat took her seat between eye blinks.
"Well Squire, you sure know how to make a name for yourself." the hooded information broker remarked as Asuna and her squad of defenders from the Knights of Blood took their places at his table.
"Good morning Argo, Lady Asuna, and members of the Knights of Blood." Harry said as he signaled the waitress. "What have I done now that has people talking?"
One of the Knights spoke before Argo could answer. "The story goes that you forced a player out of a safe zone on the last floor and killed him. Lady Asuna and many of the Knights of Blood who have meet you have done their best to dispel that rumor, but hearing your side of the story would be helpful."
Argo just nodded. "We need something to spread around to keep some of the more excitable players from coming after you." She thanked the waitress as drinks were handed out. "While you are well known on the front lines for you skill the mid-tier players are starting to worry that your going around killing everyone."
Harry gave his story about Halloween, as well as explaining several other events that happened on that day. "The last I saw of that pervert was him running away. Several of his friend were laughing as they chased after him."
Asuna and the Knights all made agreement noises. "After so long in this game he should have known better than to comment on any loses from a Floor Boss fight. Elan may have been an NPC but she saved my life during that fight." One of the Knights said angrily.
Harry took over the conversation at this point. "I found a Keep out in the wilderness that seems to have been abandoned. I sent the messages out because you need to be in a full party to enter. We have been on this floor for a couple of days now and I was wondering if anyone more interested in the story behind this game knows anything about it. Asuna brought you all here so you might have an idea."
Argo just shook her head. "I'm here to spread the information that you all put together and offer a third viewpoint. Sorry, I do have a rumor for you, Squire, when we are finished though."
"Historically the various abandoned keeps have been connected to a war in Aincrad history before the world was made into the 100 floors that we know." Asuna pulled a large tome from her inventory. "We know that there are several races that have worked with the Humans before and even more that are still hostile. If the keep has a party requirement it may be a non-repeatable adventure for your account. It could also just be what has been called a leveling dungeon. Most players avoid those now since they are historically know to require designated healers and more than one attempt to get through until the tricks are know."
"I remember one game that had a tough instance that gave people of its level a problem until they figured out the mechanics of the boss fight." one of the Knights spoke up. "Since this is a death game, very few people are willing to take on those kind of risk. For information about this floor I have found that several forest dwelling non-humans were pushed farther into the forests during the Great Wars. What you have found may only be one of their abandoned fortresses."
Asuna gave the Knight a light glare "You wish to explore this Keep don't you Squire." She waved away Harry's rebuttal. "I can see your determination in your expression. Let me contact some of the higher leveled players to see who will go with you."
After a quick meal the Knights of Blood left and Argo leaned into Harry. "I have a very, very risky bit of news for you. I cannot be confident about this yet and will keep looking but I know you would want as much time as possible so I'm giving it to you early. From sundown on December 24th until sunrise on the 25th a Holiday boss should appear in Aincrad. You have to find a large Fir tree and place a plate of cookied and a glass of milk to summon the Instance entrance."
"I really don't think fighting Santa Claus is something I want to do Argo." Harry laughed lightly.
"If you defeat the boss Nicholas the Renegade he will drop you an item that can be used to revive anyone in Aincrad." Argo whispered. "You lost your girl on the first day, Squire. You lost Elan, your hard won companion, on the 40th floor. Squire, death seems to follow you around whenever someone gets close to you. Every person that is part of the Clearing Group has joined a Guild or has a strong group to help them, except for two. I know you won't join a guild but please don't go after Nicholas alone."
Harry nodded
November 4, 2023. Floor 43 Abandoned Keep Entrance.
Harry was surprised to see eight Knights of Blood and their Commander Heathcliff waiting for him as he approached the Keep. Several of the Knights glowered at Harry's Red icon but a cough from Heathcliff kept them from saying anything.
"Before we begin," Heathcliff cut Harry's greeting off. "Only you and I shall be entering this dungeon Squire. The rest are here to secure the area and find the closest random monster spawn points." Heathcliff glared at Harry. "It is only the Lightning Flash's confidence in you that we do this."
"That is very brave of you to think just the two of us can handle what Asuna and your other Knights all agreed was probably a death trap." Harry said with a shrug. "It is nice to formally meet the main leader of the Knights of Blood though."
Heathcliff just smile and sent Harry a party invite. "Make sure you have everything you need. I would like to finish this before too long."
Harry noticed that the knights were already pairing up to search the area. He guessed that this would be turned into a leveling if Heathcliff and he could clear it. Or that the three other knights would rush in to rescue the pair at a certain amount of Heathcliffs HP.
"Don't worry Squire. They are here to rescue us if my health drops into the yellow." Heathcliff confirmed Harry's thought. "I am certain that the two of us will be more than enough for this dungeon."
Harry and Heathcliff entered the Keep and after a few moments the heavy doors closed behind them. They saw the human remains leaning against a lever next to the doors. Harry tried to push the doors as Heathcliff checked the skeleton.
"There is a note here saying that you have to use the lever to open the doors to leave, or take the tunnel from the southernmost tower." Heathcliff paraphrased. "Also the mobs in here are probably diseased or poisonous based on his last words being poorly written."
"Do you have any potions or equipment to help you resist disease?" Harry asked as he pulled a blue vial from his inventory, as well as a red strip of cloth which he tied to his scythe handle. "Make sure you warn those outside about the poison."
The first enemy the duo encountered was a rather nasty zombie that had streams of vapor rising from it. It was also noticeably lower level than the pair Its death caused the creature to explode, coating the two of them in rotten flesh.
"Well that was distastful." Heathcliff complained. "I am glad that our armor doesn't stain."
Harry chuckled. "One of the problems wearing mostly white. However that explosion was acidic and caused damage to all of my equipped items. Double check yours to confirm."
Heathcliff nodded the sent off a message outside.
After killing their way through the stable and front court yard the pair went to pull open the barracks door when a large object slammed into it. Two more thuds happened while they each took a side of the door. A heavily armored zombie stomped into the courtyard with an axe held over its shoulder. The rotten man looked around before bellowing into the air.
Harry and Heathcliff wasted no time in killing the trio of soldiers that followed him out before confronting the named zombie.
"This is only an area boss." Heathcliff commented as he blocked an axe strike. "A rare spawn one at that."
Harry cut off the off-hand of the boss with a powerful swing of his scythe. "It seems simple enough to defeat." He said as he ducked the wild swing the monster made at him.
It didn't take the two long to defeat the boss monster. When the boss shattered it left Harry with a piece of set armor called the Plagueshroud Breastplate. "It seems that a set of armor may drop here." Harry commented. "Shall we flip a coin to see who gets to collect it first?"
Heathcliff chuckled in response. "You can have first choice of the drops once we clear this dungeon. My guild will most likely farm this out if anything significant drops on our pass through."
Each area had what Heathcliff remarked as a Mini-Boss. The Servants Quarters, Dungeons, Captains Suite, and each Tower had one and they all dropped pieces of the Plagueshroud set. It was only the southern tower that gave the pair trouble as it had hordes of the exploding zombies that came from every room. The Final boss monster appeared in the courtyard as they left the tower.
It was a tall man holding a lantern in one hand and a broadsword in the other. He was dressed in a sickly green armor and tattered blue cloak. "Face me Adventurers and burn!" With a wave of its lantern a fireball rushed at the pair.
"Split up!" Heathcliff ordered as he blocked the fireball with his shield, causing the flames to flow around him.
Harry rushed away from Heathcliff and circled the boss. "Over hear ugly." He used a taunt skill and parried the provoked attacks.
After a few seconds Heathcliff joined in with a shield slam that staggered the boss. "Don't taunt it anymore! Do the same trick as the Barracks Boss."
Harry kept up light attacks as he positioned himself to attack the arm holding the lantern. A ranged attack would be the most dangerous if the boss had a second phase. "This thing is our level. One swing may not be enough to remove its limb."
Heathcliff executed a perfect defense combination against the boss. "That's fine. It's damage is consistent with the other mobs so I might only be its stats and HP that are our level."
Harry stopped attacking, which caused Heathcliff to frown, and focused on building up a powerful swing. "Swing at the lantern to see if it pulls back."
"I see." Heathcliff used his shield to force the Boss away and stabbed his sword at the lantern.
When the Boss pulled the limb away Harry slashed the arm with his powerful attack. The Boss roared in pain as the lantern shattered at its feet. Harry and Heathcliff had to react quickly to avoid the explosion. It dropped down to one knee as the flames took away its remaining health.
Neither were surprised that it quickly got back up. The double size increase and the fact that a shield formed around its ruined arm did surprise them though. Working together they were able to take the boss down even in its larger form.
As they approached entrance to leave a spirit rose up from the corpse near the lever. "You have Slain the Captain of the Keep. Which among you shall receive the reward?"
Heathcliff once again let Harry have the reward. Harry was able to select a weapon of any type and received a scythe named The Barbed Sorrow which had a special ability to inflict both poison and disease effects with a critical hit. Its other stats were also an improvement on his current scythe.
The two left the dungeon even as a slight greenish fog started rising from the ground. Outside they found the eight Knights of Blood and several other adventurers. They shared the information and Harry passed over a couple of useless, to him, items to some of the other players. The Knights of Blood would secure the area until the Game was cleared and keep the piece in the area.
Harry, after some prompting from Heathcliff, equipped the full suit of Plagueshroud Armor and his new scythe. Now dressed in a fully enclosed suit of heavy plate and holding his scythe in one hand Harry struck a pose for the players.
One of the players in the crowd called out a decription. "You look like one of the Deathshroud Bodyguards from the Warhammer Games."
November 10th, 2023 44th Floor.
Harry glared at the player standing in his way. The young man, Harry refused to call anyone on the frontline levels a kid, was dressed in the Knights of Blood colors with a saber on his hip.
"I ask you again." Nautilus demanded. "Allow me to travel with you and learn. You arethe strongest solo player in the game and I need to be stronger."
"Go back to the Knights of Blood." Harry demanded. "You can get strong enough with them."
"I've quit the Knights of Blood." Nautilus drew his saber. "They refused to let me join in on THE boss fight and Yuna died. All she wanted to do was bring happiness to this game and they just let the boss kill her!"
Harry just shook his head. "You won't bring her back by following me around. Join another guild or get stronger on your own. You can come with me back to town and tell me about this Yuna so that two people remember her, okay."
November 18th, 2023 RECT Progress server area
"Alfheim is now online and the players are starting to log in." One of the server technicians commented. "All the races seem to be getting a fair share of their players."
"What of the special area? Is it stable?" Sugou Nobuyuki asked, leaning of the tech to look a the screen.
"Yes sir." the tech reported "The in-game GM and service area is fully online."
December 24th, 2023 Floor 46 Forested Area.
Harry placed a plate of cookies and glass of milk at the base of a decorated fir tree. "I feel stupid" he muttered.
After a few seconds a shimmering wall of frost appeared in front of him. Harry took a deep breath and went in. He found himself standing in front of a wooden house that had a livestock pen behind it. He walked up and knocked on the door. He stumbled back as it was hastily pushed open and a flour covered giant of a woman stomped out holding a rolling pin.
"Wrong boss." Harry lamented as the enraged boss 'Katarine the Klaus' attacked.
December 25th, 2023 Floor 46 Forested Area
Harry collapsed as the instance closed behind him. He took a moment to kick the plate of cookies as far from him as he could. Every step and movement dropped sparkles, wrapping paper bits, and the remains of holiday cookies from his battered form.
"What happened to you?" a player asked as her party stared in shock.
Harry tossed the cookie tray shaped shield and rolling pin club to the speaker and walked off in anger.
After Harry was gone several orange and red players came out of hiding. "What the hell Rosalia?" a large man asked. "I thought we were going to attack whoever came out of the event?"
Rosalia put the items into her inventory. "We would have died against him. That was the Death's Squire." She pulled her cloak tighter. "I know of several Pks that went up against him and they all died. He is not a target unless you want to commit suicide. Now lets go."