We all like to say that we know when to quit, when the hand is just too bad and it's time to fold. That when the day comes to put down the bottle and throw away that half finished pack, we'll know it. That we'll be able to. The reality of it? None of us can. Not really. Not when it matters anyways.

We all think that one last puff, one last sip, one last hand, it can't hurt, right?

After all, I'm stronger than my addiction, I'm stronger than my compulsions.

No one can force me to do a single damn thing that I don't want to do.

We're all just animals at the whims of our baser instincts, guided by the nose down the path of ruination, just for a moment of satisfaction or pleasure.

Aincrad became little more than a guiding hand toward disaster, in the weeks that followed our initial capture.

At first it was drink, then cards and dice, sex, alchemical drugs…

In our comfort we had forgotten one crucial thing, that humans are cruel and, when provided opportunity, they become crueler still.

Damocles Shackle indeed.

Mikoto 'Cheshire' Arita, Date, Location & Prompting Unknown

Valia, The Verdant Fields, The Floating Castles of Aincrad, November 12th, 2022.

"Going somewhere specific in such a hurry, Arum?"

That ever present wind of the first floor whips around us, clinging to the walls of the alleyway, tossing paper and dust into the air, sending stray strands of long white hair flickering around my face. " What's it to you, Cheshire? I thought you liked to keep out of your clientele's business."

In the darkness I see what might have once been the ghost of a long dead smile flit across her face. "Well, normally I do, but with things the way they are, I don't have much of a choice."

"Oh, and what Exactly do you not have a choice in now, Cheshire? I really do have places to be and not much time to get there. We both know exactly where I need to take my current payload and why it needs to go there."

"My! I never thought you were one to be this blunt Arum, but fine, I'll cut to the chase. The, ahem, request… I have for you, is to hold off on the Charnam Cave quest until things have settled down a bit. Things are going to be a tich too dangerous in the coming weeks to allow that to get into circulation. Just freeze the quest for a couple of weeks."

The whistling of the wind fills the silence momentarily, "And, why should I do that, Cheshire? We both know how valuable that can be this early in the game. Why should I restrict myself, and everyone else for that matter. What are you willing to pay me, what price are you offering?"

In a single moment the wind stops. The rubbish in the air falls still, dust freezing in place. Both of us tense under our cloaks, weapons gripped tight, almost waiting for the crack of a starting pistol.

"So hostile to a friend, Arum? Are you sure this is the fight you want to pick? I've gotten a good bit better since that first month."

"Go ahead and shove that bullshit Cheshire, we both know that in a situation like this, friendship means jack fucking shit to either of us, what are you offering?"

A small, concerned, grimace finds its way to her lips, "... God you've gotten cold. Not the little boy pushing us on the swings anymore, are you."

A sneer rolls its way across my face, unbidden yet not unwarranted.

"And you're still the exact same little girl who cried wolf while stealing the sheep. Offer Now, or I walk."

Just as it came, the grimace leaves, "I suppose that was a waste of time, that look hasn't worked on you for years. I'll offer you 30% of the sales I make on all information pertaining to those quest lines or items until I give you the go ahead to unfreeze the Charnam Cave quest, sound good?"

"Ha, make it sixty and you have a deal. None of that info can be verified until I do the Charnam Cave questline anyways so you'll have no overhead to maintain on it."

"Tch, and my own expenses? What about those? Sixty is highway robbery, how about forty?"

With a snort I drop my blade the quarter inch back into its sheath, moving to lean against a wall, "How about sixty five and I don't just walk away here and now?"

"That's not how haggling works asshole, we're supposed to be finding a middle point. C'mon, at least leave me with fifty."

At this point, Cheshire is all but growling at me, pacing back and forth at her end of the alley.

"Nah, I think I'll take that seventy, thanks."

Running a hand through her hair, she gives me a sharp look, "How about fifty and three bits of free info, hm?"

My hand had found it's way to my potion stock at my waist, slipped a stippled amber vial of cheap health potion out of its bindings, and had almost fully uncorked it before I froze.

"... You're putting too much effort into keeping that money Cheshire, why? You never trade like this if you can avoid it. It's always hard set costs with you, so why?" I finished uncorking the vial and knocked back the foul concoction, staring her dead in the eye.

"You know, for such a massive asshole, you're pretty observant. Fine. The Rat reached out to me and a few others a couple of hours before the… announcement. It was why I was so slow responding to your message. She wanted to make a guide book for new players, available for sale, that would teach them the basics and put some decent cash into our hands since we wouldn't be able to keep up with our networks perfectly while in here."

By this point she's found herself to the wall across from me, slipping a pack of the shitty brown cigarettes sold on this floor out of a belt pouch, offering one to me. With a nod I take it, pulling out a small Fire Crystal from my Surgical Kit to light the thing, after managing to get mine lit I hold the stone out to her.

"With the announcement and our… current condition, most of the brokers are going to pull out but I know for damn sure that Rat is going to keep at it and put the thing out. I intend on making sure that it's done right."

Taking a drag, she holds the smoke in for a moment before letting it out in a thin stream.

"For that we, I, will need a lot of initial capital. Enough to fund and produce the thing at minimal price. With how expensive NPC made paper, leather, and ink is, we won't have much wiggle room, especially if we want to make it free."

"You really aren't making it easy to demand fair payment here Chesh…"

With a soundless scoff she shakes her head, "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Normally I wouldn't choose to play the game like this but well… choice isn't much of a factor here, now is it."

Regretting my words before I can even say them, I let out a wordless sigh, "Haaah, fine. How much would it cost you to make it free?"

Seemingly taking a moment to go over the math in her head, she gives me a nod, "About 15k Col per copy, 7.5 billion col in total. Maybe less if we consider the 14k or so people who've already been turned into a shackle and were to remove the 50k beta testers from the number. Would probably be right around 6.5 billion if we produce only enough for the current active players. Maybe less still if we wait to see how many die before we release them."

A pained sigh leaves my lips, the coming decision having already been decided when I chose to hear her out, "And how much are you going to make from that information?"

"Well, there are twenty quests on this floor, five merchants, and ten dungeons… with my standard rates of 2k, 5k, and 2k respectively… multiplied by about a third of the player base… I'd say about… 14.6 billion or so Col? Give or take a few billion, that is "

For a moment I feel the air leave my lungs, pulling open my menu, I pop open the calculator and do the math, "So, let me get this straight. You're offering me 7.3 billion Col just to shut up and sit on a quest?"

"Yeah, that's about the gist of it."

"And you're going to be the only one financing this?"

A slow sigh slips from her lips, "Not completely but… You know how the Rat was in the beta. Too nice, too giving, always handing out freebies and discounts. I love that girl to death, Arum, but with how often she sells below market and how expensive the overhead is going to get for us brokers… I'll be lucky if she can even put up 10% and that's me being optimistic."

I take a drag off my own cigarette, letting the facts curl around in my mind for a moment, the decision all but made, but double checking my math nonetheless.

Letting the smoke in my lungs slip out with a sigh, I fully turn to look at the broker.

"Alright Chesh, here's my counter. Keep fifty two for production and split the remaining forty eight between the two of us. This way you don't have to bank on the Rat minding her coffers to be able to scrape up enough Col and you still profit a bit off of the sales, sound good?"

Silence rings through the alleyway as Cheshire looks at me, surprise plain on her face.

Amusement blossoms in me at the shock, "Ya good there Chesh, do I need to say it again?"

Shaking herself, she gives me a nod.

"Yeah, I'm here, It's just a bit of a shock, I wasn't expecting you to just…"

"Just what, Chesh? Have a heart?"

"I mean… Yeah? Kinda? You've never really been the most compassionate of people, Arum, and… well there's a reason none of us were really surprised when you went the way ya did after the orphanage."

I take another drag, letting out a puffing little laugh, "Gee thanks Chesh, so nice to know what you really feel about me."

Silence stretches between us, interrupted only by the sound of wind whistling through the alleyway. I raise my left hand to take another drag, only to see Cheshires eyes lock onto the small black bangle on my left wrist.

With a bit of a guarded look, she gestures to the thing, "... Getting an early start on the market?"

I take a final drag, letting the ember burn right up to my fingertips before dropping it, stamping it out on the damp alley floor.

"... No."

"... Any info I can buy about it?"

"No."

I slowly wrapped my hand back around the hilt of my saber.

Letting out a long sigh, Cheshire pushes herself off the wall.

"Sorry if I hit a sore spot there Arum, I'll keep you informed about the Guidebook and I'll start funneling the Col you're owed into your account. Can I count on you to help me with the weapon and combat sections?"

Slowly releasing my grip, I give her a nod, "Yeah, I'll help. Be seeing you Chesh."

With that we turned, Cheshire to the city and myself towards the plains.

"Be seeing you Arum."

'Time to start Grinding, things aren't going to be getting any easier from here on out.'

Eastern Plains, The Verdant Fields, The Floating Castles of Aincrad, November 20th, 2022.

Time has a way of falling out of frame when you're running for hours on end. You don't notice it at first, how the rhythmic thumping of your feet on the ground, of your heart in your chest, lull you into a trance.

Breathe In, Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe Out, Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe In, Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe Out, Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe In, Left Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe Out.

On and on for hours and hours.

Back when I first entered Aincrad, all the way back in the beta, killing or drinking used to pull me out of that rhythm, leaving me victim to the aches and pains that would form over an hour or so. Now, little distractions were nothing.

A thrust here, an arrow there, a sip of endurance potion to keep me going, all of it was part of the rhythm now, and thankfully so, at that.

Charnam Village is one of the more… isolated locations on the first floor, tucked all the way up at the top right hand corner of the map, on top of a towering mountain that overlooks the first floor. Frankly, if it weren't for the fact that I'd gotten bored one day later on in the beta, I don't think we'd even properly know it was there.

Kayaba, the absolute cockbite that he is, not only put the smoldering little shithole on top of a mountain but also filled the roads leading up to said shithole with so many traps, creatures, and labyrinthine paths that it took me a better part of the day to reach it in the beta.

Worst of all was that you couldn't even unlock the village's warp gate without having a piece of magically imbued stone. The first time I spent hours searching the caves that filled the mountainside to find enough shards of the shit to power up the Gate, only to find out that If I had looked into a burnt manor house you see from a distance in the tutorial mission there was a quest item that leads you to Charnam and a chunk of imbued stone large enough to repair five fucking gates.

Over the beta we'd had to make long journeys back and forth between the Hub towns and the more Isolated ones because we could never find a reliable source of Imbued Stone. An occasional advanced mob would drop a sliver or two and larger dungeons were bound to have a stone occasionally in the loot pool, but until Charnam was found no one had found anywhere to grind or buy the shit.

Thankfully, once I get the Charnam Gate up and running I'd be able to buy Shards from the town's Arcana Vendor.

Now if only that fucking prick hadn't changed the location of the goddamned paths!

Charred Mountain, The Verdant Fields, The Floating Castles of Aincrad, November 21th, 2022.

I'll admit.

I'm a bit of a bastard.

I'm a titch cruel and cold.

But this shit is fucking rediculous even for me.

Log traps, pitfalls, knee breakers, fucking alchemical landmines!?

I brace myself against the ragged stone of the passageway around me, panting from the frankly ridiculous amount of acrobatics I'd had to do to get past the massive pitfall behind me. 'I can't believe I forgot to pack fucking rope. Of all the rookie mistakes to make, the only one that could've gotten me killed is the one I make. For fucks sake…'

With a final heaving breath I push up off the wall and start forward again, palming my last Endurance potion and downing it, ignoring the vile taste as I do.

'Shouldn't be too long now, my cursor is nearing the peak.'

Step after trudging step takes me higher and higher in the thin air of the mountain. Grey wall after grey wall greets me and, with every step I feel just a bit more of the air leave my sails, but eventually, finally, I see it in the distance. Past a line of thin silvery wires, denoting arrow and explosive traps, is the bright light of morning.

With hasty but careful steps, I push up, exhaustion burning hotter every second, towards the light.

With a sigh of relief I clamber up out of the ground, taking the last few steps up onto the plateau on top of the mountain.

Off in the distance I can see the smouldering wreck of Charnam, the large pair of Obsidian obelisks marking its gate in sight.

But there's just one tiny problem…

There might just be a Red Armored Knight with a flaming lance walking out of said smouldering wreck… and said Knight might just be looking at yours truly… and said Knight might just have a boss bar and a Name.

[ Sivala, Outrider Knight of the Crimson Order ]

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Well Shit.

Now, this might seem like an obvious statement, but fire hurts.

Allot.

Sooooo fucking much.

It's something you don't really think about all that often, what with burns being a pretty rare injury in the modern world, but a real burn, one made by fire hot enough to bubble and char one's skin to black carbon chunks, is a damn uncommon sight.

Sure, we might burn ourselves on a hotplate or a match, but with cold water and burn cream, no one, that I've met at least, has ever really been burnt.

Frankly, this is a line of thought I'd never imagined having today, or any day for that matter.

Yet, seeing as there's currently a red hot flaming lance embedded where my left arm should be, IT REALLY ISN'T ALL THAT SURPRISING.

Gritting my teeth, nearly snapping the shaft of my spear in my right hand, I throw myself to the right, scrambling up off the ground, ignoring the light tinkling sound of carbon crystals clattering from my stump, leaving the half incinerated arm on the tip of the red hot lance.

As I make it to my feet my instincts scream, forcing me into an explosive and excruciating shoulder roll as, with the force of a comet and the heat of a thousand suns, Sivala slams into the ground from on high, right fist spearing through where my head was only seconds prior, left clasped around the haft of their lance.

Backpedaling further, teeth rending through my lower lip in a pain filled grimace.

'Think Arum THINK! We've got no crystals, Healing or otherwise, battle healing is a no go, no magic, bow isn't an option now, needles are on the arm, can't message or heal without dropping my lance, so what do I do here.'

With a sweeping flourish, Sivala rips the lance out of the ground, casting my arm off across the plateau, and, with an almost imperceptible shift, kicked off of the charred basalt of the mountain, launched towards me, lance aimed for my heart.

'Guess it's time to Get Fucking Good.', with a grimace and a growl, the pain of straining muscles filling my body, I slam my lance butt first into the stone, using my grip on the spear as a fulcrum, and throw myself into the air in a feat of agility almost unbelievable to even myself.

The rippling heat of Sivalas armor passes below me as I barely manage to pull my spear from the ground mid vault.

For mere moments I can almost feel time stop, myself entering a midair corkscrew Sivala tearing across the ground below me, head twisting up to follow my arc, momentum forcing the Outrider to continue forward.

Yet, just as all things must, the moment passes, the flaming Outrider slams into where I was, while I throw my entire body, or rather what remains of it, into a near perfect lunge, impacting the ground with a loud crack, before launching forward, thrusting my spear into the lightly armored left shoulder of of Sivala and, with a wrenching twist, sever the arm, armor and all, launching the blistering metal coated limb across the clearing.

"Eye for an Eye, Bitch."

[ Sivala, Outrider Knight of the Crimson Order ]

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Twirling my lance away from the fiery stump, slamming the now red hot tip into the dirt, I rip a trio of healing potions from my belt, not bothering to uncork them, I crush them above my mouth, swallowing down the rush of sewage water and glass shards, casting aside the remnants, and ripping my spear back out of the mountain.

Rolling my now unbroken ankle, I slip into a low stance, bracing the spear atop my right shoulder.

"Let's dance."

Using the haft like a handhold, I tear forward, closing the gap, whipping my lance's buttspike out towards Sivalas head, only for the blow to be redirected to the left as, showing the same speed as earlier, the outrider whips around, managing to catch my blow on their own haft.

Using the force of the parry, I whip myself in a circle, building up momentum, all focused to one point, the still glowing needle tip of my lance.

Completing the turn, I see the outrider pulling back their arm for a thrust towards my heart once more.

Praying that I'll be fast enough, I throw my weight into my own thrust even further, shifting all of my mass to the right, exerting all of the biomechanical force I can muster.

I can feel my tendons straining and popping.

My bones cracking and splintering.

Then, all at once, the world seems to freeze once more..

On one side is Sivala, mid thrust, actively adjusting to follow my heart, inching closer by the second.

To the other is myself, lance coming up diagonally, screaming through the air, red hot, with all of the force I could possibly muster.

In that moment my eyes locked with the crimson beads behind Sivala's visored helm.

There's not a moment to spare for a nod of acknowledgement or acceptance, but we both know.

In that frozen spec of time, we both see it.

This will be the end.

One of us will land the final strike.

One of us will have their heart torn asunder.

One of us will walk away from this mountaintop.

One of us will be snuffed out.

Then, once again.

As all things must.

Movement resumes.

It was an explosion of pain, of fire and steel.

Sivala and I stood face to face, chest to chest.

With a wet rasping sound, I forced myself to move.

Twisting my wrist, I snap off the tip of my now molten lance into Sivalas heart, allowing the charred shaft to clatter to the ground.

With a shaky step, I pull my carbonized left side off of Sivala's Crimson spear, feeling all of the organs in the left side of my torso crumble and shatter, leaving my esophagus, spine, and heart bare to the mountain air.

Molten chunks of black steel drip off of my body, the leather of my armor having long since been cut and burnt away over the course of the fight.

A shambling, gasping, step takes me forward, my right hand coming up to clasp the Knight by the back of their armor, guiding them gently to the ground, the blisters forming up and down my newly exposed arm being a faint, ignored, afterthought.

[ Sivala, Outrider Knight of the Crimson Order ]

— — — — — —

Laying the outrider flat on the ground, I snake my hand up to their head, finding the gilded silver clasp for their helm.

Clumsily, I manage to unlatch it and, with Sivala's assistance I pull Her helmet off.

It's odd to put a face to the woman that, mere moments prior, had been trying to murder me, odder still to see remorse and respect in the near infernal crimson eyes of said woman.

Slipping back to my knees, resting on my shins, I reach a shaky hand to my back pulling my waterskin from its clasps, taking a long pull from it myself, washing the still stuck shards of glass down my throat, rinsing the fermenting taste of ash, blood, sewage, and my own cooking sking from my mouth, then holding it out to the Knight before me.

With a nod of thanks, she takes it, pulling a draught from it herself letting out a faint hiss of pain as she does so.

Twisting myself fully, I clasp her lance by the shaft, pulling it out of the stone it had embedded itself in with a grunt.

The maroon shaft seared my palm but I soldiered on nonetheless, twisting myself back around to face Sivala, just in time to see the rage and indignation cross her face at the thought of being finished by her own spear.

Such thoughts were quickly silenced as I placed the spear into her weakened hand laying on the ground.

"No warrior as fine as yourself deserves to die without a weapon in their hand, Dame Sivala."

The sentence comes out in a wet, rasping, gasp, but in the quiet of the mountain top, broken only by the crackling of flames across the village of Charnam, the words were like the ring of a bell.

With a resolute nod and a thankful nod, Dame Sivala, gripped the haft of her spear as I reached around to my other side and began to slowly draw my saber.

[ Sivala, Outrider Knight of the Crimson Order ]

— — —

"Your name, Good Sir?"

Her voice was melodic, quiet, but strong, filled with pain and satisfaction.

Fully drawing my blade, I lowered it to rest above her throat, before rasping out my own reply, "Arum, Good Dame."

With a slight, resolute, nod and a faint smile, the Knight let loose her final words, "Tis a fine name for a fine Knight. In the next life, Lord Arum."

With a nod and smile of my own, I tensed my arm, "In the Next Life, Lady Sivala."

[ Sivala, Outrider Knight of the Crimson Order ]

Legend Ended

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

You have Leveled Up!

For Achieving the Last Hit on a Field Boss, You have received the Last Hit Bonus!

[Crimson Dame's Lance]

For Defeating a Field Boss by Yourself, You have been awarded an additional Bonus!

[Crimson Lancer's Armor]

You have been awarded a Title by a Field Boss!

[Knight of the Crimson Order]

{Hidden Quest Unlocked!}

Laid To Rest : The Crimson Dame

Accept :

Reject :

All Wounds Have Been Restored!

With a sigh of relief, I fall back to the cold mountain stone on my ass.

In the distance I can see the fires of Charnam slowly fading to nothing.

With a tired grunt I raise my water skin back to my lips, draining the last few swallows before dropping it to the ground.

I gave a cursory glance over the levels and rewards I'd attained by slaying Dame Silvala, swapping out the new crimson armor I'd received with my all but destroyed set.

It's a bit heavier than I'd like at my current Endurance, but I don't exactly have much choice besides walking around in charred jagged scraps or cheap leather that wouldn't stop a single hit all the way up here in the mountains.

With a sigh and a flick of my wrist, my Stat screen appeared.

Name : Lord Arum Xilris

Title : Knight of the Crimson Order

Race : Snow Elf

Element : Ice {Snow Elf Bloodline}, Fire {Crimson Order}, ?

Level : 22

XP : — — — — — — — — — — _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

HP : 420/420 [480/480]

MP : 510/510 [600/600]

SP : 18 {0}

Vigor : 18 [20]

Endurance : 10 [12]

Prana : 16 [20]

Strength : 14 [16]

Dexterity : 18 [20]

Intelligence : 18 [20]

Arcana : 16 [20]

Faith : 0 {Locked}

Encumberment : 60/ 150 {Medium Load} [60/180 {Light Load}]

My eyes caught momentarily on my… new Name, Title, and Elemental Specialization, but after a few moments observing the new armor and lance I'd received, things became notably clearer.

With a sigh I started off by dumping two points into Endurance.

I'd been hoping to put it off for a bit longer by just using lighter medium armor until I hit floor five or so but, well, the [Crimson Lancer's Armor] was damn fucking good for floor one out right, and with it's twenty upgrade slots I'd be using it for a while.

Continuing on two points went into Vigor, four into my Prana Capacity, two into my Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence, with the last four going into Arcana.

The rush of power, while not a new experience to me, was still exhilarating.

"Don't suppose it would be fitting of me to ignore the quest of the woman who enobled me, Would It?"

The blinking Quest window had nothing to say at that so, with a heavy mental sigh, I clicked yes on the Quest window.

Laid To Rest : The Crimson Dame

Accept : X

Reject :

Now time to go find an Inn to recover and take stock at.

Valia, The Verdant Fields, The Floating Castles of Aincrad, November 28th, 2022.

Being a broker is hard work. Constantly fielding calls and messages, having to organize piles of seemingly unrelated information into a coherent picture day in and day out, recruiting new sources and agents to find and verify info, making sure that you, your sources, your agents, and your clients are getting the right info, resources, and pay, it would honestly be thankless work if it weren't for how much money can be made doing it.

Honestly, even something as simple as 'Where can I buy a bow?' can net a broker hundreds of thousands in a single day.

After the initial surge of panic amongst the civies, they came running to the people who had answers, The Rat, The Cherub, The Viper, The Bear, The Fox, and me, naturally.

Now, ya might be thinking, 'But Chesh! How do they find ya?' and well, the answer is simple, we aren't hiding. A couple thousand Col to make an announcement on every job board in the city and a couple encouraging words to our old beta contacts, and the civies come runnin.

That being said, not everything about starting back up is easy. Sure, with the ethics code in place we don't need to worry about anything as inane as bouncers or guards, but appearances do matter so, with what little Col I had left, I rented out a nice little tea shop off the center square for the next week.

The Wilted Rose is an… acceptable place to do business, but beggars can't be choosers, and I am most certainly the former as of the moment. Thankfully it at least has one of the things I need in a shop; an open front. No Doors. No Windows. Just a nice open room with some neat little chairs and tables and a long well kept counter.

Within twenty minutes of my announcement I had a line of customers winding around the block, ready to exchange contact info, Col, and learn what they want to learn. I had a few that tried to sell me info but well… they learned pretty quickly that I already know more than they do.

Some of those opportunistic people got added to a short list, if their info was clean enough, and some got blacklisted in the broker chats, no one wants to deal with an idiot who demands payment for false or useless info.

For a whole day it was all 'Where can I find This?' 'Where can I find That?', all the simple things like weapons, potions, armor, food, housing, etc. But eventually more… valuable questions started trickling in through my network, like where to find quests or certain key items. Where the best locations to find all of the amenities are. Where to find Magic.

Naturally I didn't tell them how to get to Charnam, only that I had an agent working on unlocking the Warp Gate to it and that they would be able to check out the vendor town themselves soon. What I did sell them was locations to the old magic quests, info about them, where the vendors for items are, where dungeons for said quests are, and all of the, frankly, useless info that can't even be acted upon till Charnam Tunnels has been completed.

But what they don't know can only hurt their pockets after all.

So, all in all, life was lookin up for Chesh. I had a decent operational base, a steady stream of new and old clients coming in wantin to buy info, new sources out in the field verifying old info for me, and a whole lot of Col sittin pretty in my account, though well over half of it was spoken for.

Things, frankly, couldn't be going better.

Is what I would say if I wanted to sound like a complete and utter moron.

In the first couple of days, the civies were, frankly, like chickens with their heads cut off.

The starting money of the average civie was enough to last them for about three days if they used it smart, subsisting off of potions instead of food, sleeping in public areas, and generally living up the homeless lifestyle.

The problem? None of the civies wanted or knew to do this. Who would want to sleep on a cold, exposed, small park bench when the inns only charge 2k Col. Who wants to drink shitty garbage flavored potions when you can get a decent meal for 1k. What's the importance of conserving money in an MMO? Grinding is free, comfort isn't, Right?

After the first day, most new players found themselves destitute. All of the money meant for their starting gear burnt through on food and board, left only with the shitty starter leathers and race weapon. Thus, rapidly, things deteriorated.

Amongst the civies there ended up being three groups. The mass populace found the relatively safe starter quests of Valia and began grinding them, sweeping gutters, washing tables, and killing rats. The brave of them roamed out past the edge of the safe zone, killing a boar here and there, getting a minor hand on the combat system, and ultimately earning more than the rest. Lastly were the… Dregs. These were the men and women who bought the game because they thought that magic and swords sounded cool and fun. They were the people who didn't know or care what an MMO was. It was these people who took to more… questionable means of employment.

The wise could see this development from a mile away.

The profession I am speaking of is, naturally, the oldest in the world, Prostitution.

Many of the dregs came to the easy conclusion that work is hard, death is scary, sex is easy, might as well become a fuckhole.

Well, I doubt that was their actual thought process, but then again, who's to say?

All it took for the debauchery to begin was a single day of hardship, a single day of work, and brothels were opened all over the city, The Cherub at the forefront taking a running leap out of broker work and into the skin trade.

Aincrad saw the fastest turnaround of sexwork in history and it was almost impressive.

But then came… other vices.

Cigarettes and other smoked products had already been found by the end of the 'tutorial' day and by the first, anyone who had smoked on the outside was already like a chimney.

Alcohol followed a near Identical path, though slightly slowed by the amount of time it took for people to find the Inebriation toggle.

On the Fourth day came gambling.

First it was drinking games over who would buy the next round after a hard day killing boars or clearing gutters.

Then, as the masses found that they had a bit more Col to spend at the end of every day than they expected, dice, cup games, and even proper card games were soon to follow.

Soon, parts of brothels were being cut out and set up as gambling parlors.

New fronts were set up by The Bear, efficiently and quietly, another monopoly was formed by the surly Russian fuck, and another player stepped out of the game.

A rapidly growing Red Light district was taking over Valia, at blinding speed, with seemingly no intention of slowing down.

On the fourteenth day came narcotics.

As it turns out, some chemist with too much time on his hands had gotten into the beta and, in the natural cycle of life, allowed fiction to replicate reality.

He'd picked up an alchemy kit on the first day and went out of his way to see if any of the starter reagents had similarities to real world chemicals and, Shocker, they did.

A massive amount of the reagents that were sold in the apothecaries, that we'd just never found a use for in the Beta, turned out to be one to one replications of standard and complex chemical components, albeit in absurd formations.

Frankly, I'm pretty sure that Kayaba intended on us finding the shit way later on in the game, probably in some shitty dusty library in conjunction with an equally shitty and dusty quest, but I digress.

The Chemist had, understandably, kept his findings secret all throughout the beta, continuing to identify more and more reagents over the six month period, compiling a rather lengthy list of repped chemicals, from all over the first fifteen floors.

His intent had probably been to sell off the list to the highest bidder once the official game started, and coasting through the rest of the game with free top notch gear and easy levels.

Unfortunately he made one singular catastrophic mistake; He chose to bring said info to The Viper, better known by her real name Yamamura Kiyo, Grand-daughter of Tatsuo Yamamura, Shategashira of the Kyōsei-kai, and one of the main drug kingpins of Japan, currently serving the last of a five year sentence in Fuchū Prison.

Frankly, it always confused the absolute shit out of me how she managed to not only get her hands on a Nervegear in prison, but then had the audacity to play under her real name and moniker, but well the TMPD has never really been all that good at their jobs and, at the end of the day, Yakuza, at least the rich and powerful ones, never truly go to jail.

The subsequent capture and enslavement of said chemist was all but expected, given the facts.

He told her about the one to one representation, she had him black bagged and dragged out of the city, away from the safezone, and where he wouldn't be able to resist for fear of death, and the rest is history, the poor fuck probably didn't even have time to activate the anti harassment protocols.

By day fifteen she had dregs on every street corner selling all kinds of hard drugs. Meth, Crack, Coke, Heroin, she had em all.

Pumping poison is what she's good at, I suppose.

All in all, the City of Valia was well and truly turning into Hell.

Alcohol.

Drugs.

Gambling.

Prostitution.

At this point one would have to ask, can things actually get worse?

The unfortunate truth?

I don't know.

With every day, more and more of the civies fall into the red light district and don't crawl out.

And I can feel it.

Somethins Comin.

I don't know what.

I don't know when.

I don't know where

But I know.

Hell's comin to Valia.

And I don't know how to stop it.

All I know, Is that Arum needs to get his ass the fuck back here.

A.N.

I honestly don't have much to say this chapter. I had a MUCH longer fight scene written out for Dame Sivala but ended up cutting a good bit of it out in the end due to the simple fact that it made the chapter 10k words instead of about 7.

I'm less than happy about the Cheshire scene at the end but it felt like the correct place to slip it in. When I'm going to write the next chapter there'll be a decent chance that I might rewrite or completely redact the scene.

I'll have to wait and see what anyone has to say about it.

Name : Lord Arum Xilris

Title : Knight of the Crimson Order

Race : Snow Elf

Element : Ice {Snow Elf Bloodline}, Fire {Crimson Order}, ?

Level : 22

XP : — — — — — — — — — — _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

HP : 480/480

MP : 600/600

SP : 0

Vigor : 20

Endurance : 12

Prana : 20

Strength : 16

Dexterity : 20

Intelligence : 20

Arcana : 20

Faith : 0 {Locked}

Encumberment : 60/180 {Light Load}