HC:Pacifist | Ch. 88 - The Rescue Library (Patreon)

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Loki studied the different screens in front of him. Things had been going without a hitch until last night. He wished the game allowed him to have a safety margin. Still, he could only have ten special Parasitoid eggs activated at one time, and he needed all ten of them to reach the hatchling stage before he could finish transforming into an adult parasitoid.

Knowing it would be impossible to fight off the other guilds at ten different locations, he had tried a stealthier, more discreet approach. He'd thought of the most disgusting and inhospitable places where he could let the eggs finish their hatchling transformation requirements and hoped no one would stumble upon them. Just in case, he had spent a large sum securing the scramblers and had only used high-leveled rogues that could use stealth skills and hide, even if a straggler appeared.

There were indeed inhospitable, deserted places where it would be easier to secure privacy. But if he managed to have the ten eggs hatch under ten cities, the potential devastation he would cause was much greater. It had worked in nine cities. In nine!

Unfortunately, just before he could claim victory, Hilsford had failed. Loki read through the report again. Someone had unleashed a powerful attack knowing that there was an egg in that chamber. But how could they have known? He'd been careful to make sure the eggs were well-hidden and that they were camouflaged. There was only an explanation: Spies.

Loki felt an unquenchable anger build up in him. There had to be informants within the core members of the guild. He looked at the name on the screen. 'Pax.' That was the player who had killed Josh. Loki called his secretary on the screen.

"Yes, sir?"

"How goes the new site? Has the egg been activated?"

"Yes, sir. Our new patsy is in the sewers under one of the sky cities. No problems so far."

"Any movements on the side of the other guilds?"

"No, sir. Since there was nothing of interest found in Hilsford, they all have dropped the matter and are attributing it to some random quest or a fight between players." Loki took a deep breath.

"That's the best thing we could hope for. The last thing we need is for them to come looking at what we're doing in the sewers under the other cities. Tell all nine hatchlings to log out and only return in nine days."

"Very well."

"Send a message to all guild members in Hilsford. Tell them I want 'Pax' dead down to level 0. Also, find out what guild he belongs to."

"Consider it done."

"Also, have Zin do a purge. Tell him to be extra thorough."

The secretary went pale. Good. It was good that she knew what purging meant and was afraid of it.

"Sir, but is that...?"

"DOOOOO IT!!" roared Loki, making the secretary flee terrified. Loki hung up on her. The whole game had been within his grasp. With the Forest Fortress under his control and the ten surrounding cities, he could have created the core of his empire and grown from there.

Feeling frustration unsettle his thoughts, Loki's mind looked for an escape that would put him in a good mood again. It was too bad that his footage of the Slayer being tortured was not genuine. Thinking about how Brian and Shirley had dared betray him, his mood soured again.

He sent a message to Gary asking if there was any news about the Slayer's whereabouts. He needed a distraction, and it had been too long since he'd been denied the pleasure of playing with his favorite toy.

*

Off to a corner of the lab, Mario kept busily working away on one of the gatorbots. After a few minutes, he took the elevator to roam the sewers. If he were lucky, he wouldn't be back for several hours. So far, Roth hadn't seen Mario be away for more than twenty minutes. He was a highly coveted wild boss, and players lined up to hunt him.

All the while, all ten group members stuck around in the lab, typing away at the empty air in front of them. Drake had insisted they take the time to do this immediately after the briefing. This way, H could start putting their team's library together.

Roth did his best to create a document that was easy to read, and that would contain the information he had collected in his first month of gaming. He had unlocked many titles; hopefully, his experience would benefit the group.

At the same time, even as the group around him typed generously at the empty air before him, Roth looked reluctantly at his most treasured pieces of information.

There was the secret to unlocking the zoomorph race with all that entailed: A guide to befriending the different animals in Green Woods and then unlocking an audience with the Lord of the Woods.

There was also his most recent experience with unlocking light affinity. Roth visited the forums before putting the information in writing to see what information was available on the subject.

The first thing Roth searched for was light affinity. A few hits came up. As Roth went through each one, he saw that they all belonged to hopeful players asking for information on unlocking this affinity. Since there was no helpful information. Roth decided to write 'Affinity'—more of the same. Players were asking around for information, while others shared farfetched theories.

Roth expanded his search further and ticked the option to reveal paid guides. He found three hits, all for paid guides. They were for the fire affinity, earth affinity, and water affinity. Roth couldn't believe his eyes as he checked the prices on the posts. They were all priced at half a million gold! This was much more valuable than he had expected.

Roth gulped. If this was the case, how much would he be able to sell this information for? This also begged the question: did he feel comfortable sharing such precious information with the group? He was more than willing to trust Drake. He was like a father to him.

However, the truth was that the veterans were all strangers to him. He'd only met them a few times and had never seen them. Half a million gold was a lot of money. Even an honest person would feel tempted to take the information and run. It would be devastating if one of them got greedy and ran off with it.

On the other hand, Roth had to give it his all for this plan to work. He had to give 200%. If he held back, probably the others would too. His life was on the line. He bit his tongue. His thoughts were interrupted by a message from H.

H invites you to join a shared document: "Rescue Library." Would you like to accept it? [Y/N]

Roth glanced at H, who stood in the corner of the lab smiling. The man caught him looking and winked at him. The document's name was a reference to the mission of this group. Roth felt warmth springing from his heart.

Roth opened it. The rescue library was a private post in the forums that could only be accessed by invited members. Even as Roth examined it, he saw that H was updating information on it with the group's collective wisdom. H seemed to have been the right man for the job. Everything was neatly cataloged and indexed.

Classes

Professions

Races

Titles

Quests

Items

Affinities

To be sold

Seeing affinity among the indexed options, Roth eagerly opened it. There was an entry saying 'air' and another saying 'water.' He checked the one about water. It was a tiny entry. It was more of a short paragraph. In it, it said that if one changed into an oceanling, the description for the race mentioned that someone could hear the ocean's voice. It went on to say that this might have something to do with the water affinity.

That was similar to the zoomorph's description: Nature speaks to you, and you listen. Did this mean that he might be close to unlocking a second affinity? If there was one affinity corresponding to each region, it stood to reason that nature could be the affinity unlocked in Green Country. Was it even possible to have two affinities inside the game?

He went to check the next entry under 'air.' It was a copy of the one on water, but it mentioned the skyling race. This was the first time Roth was hearing about this race. Roth paused to gather his thoughts. If there was a race called oceanling and another called skyling, it seemed to hint that every region in AstroTerra would have a region-specific race. Those races seemed to have an easier time unlocking affinities. Was his race the one corresponding to Green Country?

Roth reread the description of his [Martyr] title and his [Zoomorph] race. The [Martyr] title helped him gain affinity with the light element. And being a Zoomorph hinted at his ability to unlock affinity to the nature element down the road. That meant that the first step to unlocking affinity was to have a title, a race, or something else that gave a player sensitivity toward it. After having a relevant title or race, players had to find quests or situations that granted them affinity points, similar to the system in place, to gain a reputation.

If he were correct, there would be a Fireling race, an Earthling race, and so on. He wondered if the valuable information sold for half a million gold on the forums was as bare to the bone as what Pegasus had included in their database. If that was so, the information Roth had was priceless.

The question was whether he'd trust the team with it. What if they betrayed him? Roth decided to write an essential guide on how to unlock affinities based on his experience. He didn't add all the pieces to the puzzle. He left out the description of the [Martyr] title and the [Zoomorph] race. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach and beads of sweat on his forehead. He was disgusted by seeing the worst possible scenario, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Roth sent out the guide he'd written and left H to manage it for him. With that out of the way, he returned to the rescue library. He wanted to see what 'classes' Pegasus knew. To Roth's surprise, there were nine entries. Not only were there guides for warriors, rogues, medics, and espers but for some hidden classes.

There were two variations of the medical profession: Roboticians and Forcefielders; there was a guide to unlocking the hidden warrior class: Berserker; and finally, there was a guide for unlocking two specialized esper classes: Quakers and Magneticians.

Roth waved his head. How had Drake gotten Brian to share this precious information with him? This information was worth thousands of gold. He found it strange that there were only nine classes described here. Loki must have known of more classes but kept some of the information under tight wraps only to be shared with core members of the guild.

Even if he didn't have all of the information the Pegasus guild had, this was better than trying to piece together hints and clues in the public forums. Any description of how to unlock classes was precious to Roth, who was looking for a path that suited him. Roth had just gotten his hand on a bucketload of research material that might help him find his own special class.

Roth proceeded to visit the races section. There was less information available here. It had only six entries. Four of them were already known to Roth. There was information about lizardmen and oceanlings. These guides were more thorough than what Roth had read about the races in the forums and were very neatly put together. Additionally, it had a few notes written by experienced Pegasus players highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of changing into each race.

Then there was information on cyborgs. Drake had added it. Seeing that Drake had written the information down while he hadn't, caused another wave of guilt to run through Roth's mind. He tried to ignore it and pressed on.

The two remaining races were unknown to Roth. There were the skylings that he read about earlier and thumbers. Roth opened the entry on skylings. The race could be unlocked in Sky Island. It granted players benefits if they were above a certain altitude. The coolest thing about skylings, however, was that this race granted players the ability to fly as if they were Superman.

As for the thumbers, they were a specialized mutation within the human genome. They didn't look much different from a regular human. The more significant difference was that they had bigger eyes and two thumbs. This race gave a bonus to crafting and dexterity. If so, maybe this was a good fit for many of the players in the 14th. After all, they were all going to focus on their professions! Roth put a link to this entry and sent it to the group. Maybe one or two of them might consider changing to it. He got several thumbs-ups from everyone as he shared the information, only making him feel more guilty about not sharing what he knew about affinities.

As Roth kept browsing through the library, each team member started leaving one by one to go about their tasks. Roth suspected that many were heading toward the commercial district so they could unlock their relevant profession. Roth, too, would have to do that sometime soon.

He stopped H before he left.

"H, do you mind checking if the sewers are quieter now? Just so that I know it's safe for me to go back out there?"

"Sure thing, R." H only called people by the first letter in their name. It seemed to be his thing. Roth got a simple message with a thumbs-up from H a few minutes later. It was time to leave. He headed toward one of the elevators and activated the lever.

When Roth came out to the sewers, there was something different. He took a deep breath. The filthy, rotten smell of decay and sewage was now gone. Of course! The special effect of the plumber set! Perhaps this was a sign of better things to come.

Invigorated by the lack of a stench, Roth ran toward the Gazpachos' hideout. It was time to deal with those racketeers!

Ch. 87 - The First Briefing

INDEX

Ch. 89 - Breaking In