Chapter 124 (Patreon)

Chapter 124

[15 attendant spots available, 600 Elysium Coins per month per active attendant are taxed by the system administrator.  You may either mentally link this guild hall to the nearest friendly Elysium Altar that you have access to in order to hire attendants from the general store, or may hire attendants from associated factions at that altar.]

The screen flared, and mentally linking his guild core to the altar he actually owned himself - he quickly saw a new set of messages along with a very long list and a search option.  There were also category checkmarks, with numerous options such as: Utility, Tank, Damage, Subterfuge, Crafting, Scouting, Magic-Based, Martial-Based, Miracle-Based, Long Range, Melee, Level, Guild Association, Corporation Association, Faction Association, Group-Contracts, Individual-Contracts, and others.  There were even categories that divided up into what type of pillar the attendants were associated with, and the lists could be divided up by hiring price from lowest to highest or vice versa.  Each of these categories had subcategories of their own, and the vast majority of listed groups were from the ‘General Elysium Store’ - while less than a twentieth of them were from Negrada or The Blood Moon Requiem.

[You are now accessing attendant listings from the following: General Elysium Store, The Blood Moon Requiem, Hellscape Dungeon Negrada.  You may organize choices based on category to narrow down the search function.]

“Alright, what do I put into the search?” Riven asked, looking up when Fay came over to sit on the bed next to him.

The succubus narrowed her eyes, then started pointing out category tags.  “He’ll be from the general store, so click that one.”

All of The Blood Moon Requiem and Negrada groups disappeared.

“Uhm… Click ‘demon’ for race, and type in ‘Sojavi Clan’ for ‘Faction Association.’”

Riven did as asked, and the list narrowed significantly from many tens of thousands of pages he could scroll through to only a handful of pages - each page having a couple dozen options.  “What’s the point of hiring off of The Blood Moon Requiem or Negrada here when I could just look their factions up?”

Fay smirked, then patted him on the head.  “Silly man.  It’s because doing it through the general store is much more expensive, you get a large discount of Elysium Coins by hiring through associated friendly channels at the altar.”

“But isn’t it only 600 coins per month?  That’s what my guild hall status page said.”

“Yes, but that's only for maintenance.  That doesn’t include the up front fee to hire, and it doesn’t include the personal fee that the person you’re hiring requires either.  The personal monthly fee that you’re paying them to be here isn’t taxed because you’re paying a maintenance fee to the system to keep that person attached to the guild hall, but the up front cost is always doubled as a tax for using the Elysium General Store.  If you hired the same group or individual from, let’s say, Negrada: You could either do it through your altar’s channel and disregard the fee entirely, or hire that same group or individual through the general store and pay the doubled up front cost.  And then there’s also the distance tax too, with longer distances costing more.  I have no doubt that both Negrada and The Blood Moon Requiem had to pay quite a bit of money just to send their trade communes and all their people here under the same principle, as neither one of them are in this vicinity of the multiverse.  We’re talking a LOT of money.”

Riven scratched his head.  “I see.  Interesting.  Alright, what’s next?”

They selected a few other options after that, and the list became smaller and smaller.  First they selected an area of the nether realms to pick from that was actually Fay’s homeland, then they cycled out group contracts and made them ‘individual contracts’ only.  After that, the race was further narrowed from ‘demon’ to ‘Incubus’, and then they picked ‘crafting’ as yet another category.

“What kind of craft does he do?”  Riven curiously pondered while scrolling through the list for Fay to look at.

The succubus kept her eyes on the screen, scanning the names that appeared one after the other.  “Well.. not any one thing in particular.  He’s… trying to figure out who he is as a person, but he doesn’t have any combat classes or even a class at all.  However, I did tell him to list himself as a cook or scribe… Aha!  Got him!”

She punched a name off the list, and a vision of a blue-skinned man appeared on screen.  Just like Fay, this man had sky-blue skin, black eyes, black wings, small black horns, and white hair past his shoulders.  He was far broader and taller than Fay was, obviously handsome, and had a thicker tail than his sister did.  His name appeared as ‘Tupper.’

[Tupper.  Level 2 Incubus Demon.  Classless.  Crafts listed by participant:  Cooking.  Combat abilities listed by participant: Not available.  Affiliations: Not available.]

*THUD*

Riven startled slightly when a huge, saddled bird with golden feathers and a hooked beak landed outside on his balcony.  Not getting up but turning his head with an expression of bewilderment, he and his two nearby demons watched in confusion as a human knight in heavily decorated, gold-trimmed plate armor stepped of the gigantic bird with the chink of metal plates.  The visored, white-plumed helm shifted - staring straight at Riven before the knight gave him an odd salute and bowed respectively.

The voice that was produced from that helm was deep and masculine, but not confident.

“Forgive my rudeness!  My name is Veswuad Morandium, and I am a messenger representing the Kingdom of Dawn not far from here.  I was told that this is the place to find Riven or Allie Thane?  Is that correct?”  The man waited in that posture expectantly, and Riven hesitantly stood up to walk over to the balcony doors where they’d been left wide open.

Looking up into the darkening sky to make sure there weren’t any other monstrous birds flying about and carrying fully armored knights on their backs, he actually spotted two others.  Both were circling the mansion overhead, but they didn’t appear to be hostile and kept a distance.  Most likely they were just trying to make sure this man who’d landed came back safe.

He identified the bird cleaning its feathers nearby.

[Great Golden Roc]

Hmmm.  The identification information called the massive, elephant-sized bird a Roc, something he’d read about in fantasy books as a kid, and it made Riven wonder just how much of his childhood readings were based in myth versus reality after these odd coincidences kept happening.  Someone from the outer multiverse other than his parents must have visited Earth in the past to spread these legends in the first place.

Riven looked down at the bowing man with an unamused expression, shielding his eyes from the last rays of the sun as it began dipping below the horizon.  “Yeah I’m Riven thane.”

His expression became all the more irritated when the bird spewed a white stream all over the balcony floor, and he let out a long, audible, exasperated sigh that caused the knight to wince slightly.  “Who are you and why did you come here?  Other than to let your bird shit all over my stuff anyways.  I don’t like having strangers land their gigantic pets on my stuff, you’re lucky I didn’t think you were an enemy.  I could have accidentally killed you.”

“Uh - My most sincere apologies!” The fancy armored knight straightened and chastised the bird with a tisk, to which he got a squawk and ruffled feathers.  The knight shook his head and grumbled to himself, then pulled out a letter from a satchel at his waist.  “I was just in a rush… you see, I am in need of assistance.  More accurately, my country is in need of assistance, and from scouting reports it appears that your faction is one of the few in the area that could help us.  Others are dealing with their own problems and cannot assist, unfortunately.”

The letter was exchanged, and Riven took the paper envelope to examine a wax seal in the image of a bird very similar to the one this man was riding.  Riven’s glowing red eyes glanced up to the bird, then back to the knight, and he ripped the letter open a moment later.  “I’m surprised you’re not either afraid of me or trying to kill me.  That’s usually what I get from most humans or elves here.”

The knight cleared his throat, drawing Riven’s attention back from the parchment he was unfolding and to the man behind the decorated visored helmet.  “Truthfully it is very off putting to be in your presence, yes.  But our agents told us that although you’ve had your conflicts with some of the locals, you also are allowing humans to become fully fledged citizens of your newly growing faction.  It was enough to persuade my king to ask a favor of you, and as neighbors we hope that you and yours will oblige to solidify a relationship.  Of course, terms of payment can also be discussed.”

Without looking down at the parchment, Riven continued to evaluate the man more thoroughly.  A longsword was at his waist, a very long lance was attached to the roc’s saddle along the side, along with a couple of large round canisters, and Riven could feel trickles of mana from the man fluctuate every couple seconds; though this was the case for all people who were casters that Riven had met and it likely only meant that this knight could use some sort of magic.

“I’ll be frank.” Riven said, waving the letter in the air.  “I haven’t read this yet, but I can already tell you that after our experiences with the other ‘enlightened’ races in this area - I’m already wary of some kind of trap.”

The knight hesitated, considering Riven’s words.  “Understandable.  However you must consider that my colleagues up above - as well as myself, could have dropped bombs on your manor from the clouds without ever having known we were here.  To present myself to you is a sign of trust, and I am hoping you take it at face value.”

***

The letter sat unfolded on his desk a half hour later, the black ink being illuminated in the yellow light of the mana-lantern attached to his wall, and Riven tapped his fingers along the wooden surface with his legs crossed while pondering what to do next.  He’d no doubt have to talk to Allie about this change of pace, and he was more than a little unnerved by the idea that these knights from the Kingdom of Dawn could have bombed his guild hall into oblivion without even the slightest warning.  He’d have to correct that somehow, and sometime soon, but it appeared they weren’t hostile and genuinely did need his help.

That would be a discussion for tomorrow morning before he set out to meet the rat man snagger at the designated spot within the underdark.

At his right, Athela was in her humanoid form and curled up under the blankets of his bed - yawning comfortably now that night had fallen and having already claimed the bed for her own while declaring that he sleep on the floor.

He snorted in amusement, remembering her proclamation, and said he’d just go to another room before she’d denied him and physically stopped him from doing so by dragging him back into the room by his legs.

“Master?”

Fay’s voice reached him and brought him out of his thoughts.

He gave her an apologetic wave of the hand and reached out to grasp the guild core again.  “Sorry, let’s resume things.”

“Thank you!”

[Tupper.  Level 2 Incubus Demon.  Classless.  Crafts listed by participant:  Cooking.  Combat abilities listed by participant: Not available.  Affiliations: Not available.]

Her brother’s information populated the screen again, and the image of the blue-skinned succubus came on screen.  He selected the option, and another notification appeared.

[This attendant will cost you 1 Elysium Coin up front, with a matching tax of 1 Elysium Coin, and a distance tax of 78,924 Elysium Coins.  Maintenance fees for this guild hall are set at 600 Elysium Coins per month per active attendant, with 0 of 15 Attendant Spots already being filled.  Do you wish to hire this attendant?]

Riven slowly shifted his gaze to the large pile of coins that Azmoth had brought up to his closet, then to Fay who was giving him a sheepish smile.  “78,924?  Really?”

Fay lowered her eyes apologetically.  “Sorry.  Is that too much?  I wasn’t sure what the distance fee would be, the nether realms shift positions relative to physical realms all the time, so if you need to wait it might reduce the price.  Or it might increase the price…”

Her voice trailed off in disappointment, and she looked sideways at the wall - almost as if embarrassed by her oversight.

“What are the odds it’ll decrease versus increase?” Riven asked, knowing full well he could afford it but also knowing that was still a lot for an attendant based on other prices he’d seen.

“Uhm… It’ll probably increase in the immediate future, but if you wait a year or two it may decrease.  The nether realms are huge.”

Riven could see she was obviously disappointed.  Whatever was going on with her brother, it was affecting her as well.  “Then let’s just get it over with.”

He selected the ‘yes’ in relation to the prompt for hiring an attendant, and a final notification popped up right before a portal appeared in the middle of the room - and a large chunk of money vanished off the top of his closet-stash nearby.

[Tupper, Level 2 Incubus Demon, has been added as an attendant to this guild hall.  78,926 Elysium Coins have been taken from your belongings.  1 of 15 Attendant Slots filled.  Current monthly cost for all attendants: 600 Elysium Coins.  Tupper has been imbued with permanence as long as the guild hall core remains intact.  Upon death, Tupper will be resurrected as long as guild hall core remains intact.  Tupper has been restricted to a 3 mile exploration radius surrounding the guild hall before forced retrieval back to guild hall.  Tupper can now utilize the ability ‘Homeward Teleportation’ to teleport back to this guild hall after a channel time based on distance.]