Thirteenth Chapter

Ragnar

            There were as short fifteen minutes before his shift at the bank.  He was looking for a quick fight.   Ragnar entered the level four “Every man for himself Battle” for the first time. Excited for the frantic chaos that waited for him.  The level three battle had been where the skills started to really shine and the fighting had been brutal and challenging.  Truly thrilling.

            “RAGNAR!!!”  He bellowed as he ran into the sun dappled arena, his axe held over his head.  The battle cry was answered by perfect silence.  He stood alone in the middle of a large grass field surround by a thick forest, feeling a little foolish. If someone made a fool of themselves and no one saw, was his still a fool? It felt like yes.  Ragnar turned a full circle to make sure no one was sneaking up on him.  But as far as he could see, he was completely alone.  Maybe he was the first to reach level four.  Or more likely everyone else who had reached level four was spending all their time in the main world.  Which is what he turned to do, heading back the way he’d come.

            Walking into the town Ragnar was greeted with a noise, a buzz, the sound of massed people all talking at once.  Turning before he entered the bank to start his shift, he looked out onto the main street.  The street was packed, for the most part full of people milling about in small groups.  There were two places where bodies had formed rings around fights, cheering on the combatants.  It was of little surprise to Ragnar that both fights were taking place in front of the two buildings that had opened as bars or gathering houses.  Other than the bank these buildings that had any sign of activity. 

            It was then that Ragnar noticed that the building across from the bank had its door open.   A sign now hung off the awning, Workshop, Ragnar read with a thrill, was this an indication of a system of crafting? He started to cross the street to check it out.  It was at this inopportune moment that the alarm that signified the start of his shift went off.  Sadly he turned his back to the alluring newness of the workshop and headed into the bank. 

As he approached the bank he was confronted with a massive line.  When he had left his last shift, there had been a constant line but that had never exceeded four people waiting.   This was a wholly different kind of line.  A Black Friday line.  He had been so focused looking at the town, avoiding thinking about the bank, he had completely over looked the line that extending out the bank door and around the corner of the building.  Inside the bank the line snaked back and forth across the empty room.  AsLionsMain, standing behind the desk looked up as Ragnar approached.  AsLionsMain was tall and mostly naked, with only a tan leather loin cloth and a massive head of blond hair.  He was well muscled and tan, a black paw print was tattooed on his chest above his heart.   The hair was teased out to resemble a lion’s mane and hung on to his back and over his shoulders on to his chest.  A golden beard without a mustache completed the effect of surrounding his face with hair.

 “Great you’re here. It has been like this since I got here. Totally insane” He said using his head to gesture toward the line.  Then pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at very thin small girl with pink hair and butterfly wings. “This is PoorChoices. Because of the uptick in business we are going to have two people working all shifts.” 

PoorChoices was helping a stone gargoyle, so she only nodded to Ragnar, he nodded back as he walked behind the desk.

 “I can’t wait to get out there.  Check out that flyer when, if, you get a moment, it a game changer.”  With that AsLionsMain walked out of the bank leaving Ragnar and PoorChoices with the endless line.  There is a benefit of working with a long line, the shift goes by fast.  The variety in the line was impressive, though after an hour or so, every interaction began to blur together.  

Three and a half hours into the shift after PoorChoices came back from her brake, Ragnar took his break.  He placed a sign on the desk and turning his back to the line, staring at the wall.  There was one sign on the wall, the flyer that AsLionsMain indicated as he left.

Treasure!!

DocZed Inc. has donated 2,000,000ngs

The Money has been placed in many chest

Then scattered throughout the land

Happy Hunting!

Ragnar felt a thrill start in his stomach, then spread to his head.  AsLionsMain was right this was a game changer.   It would empty out the cities and spread people out over the whole world.  It would also put money in a lot of peoples’ pockets.  Once back to work the time really slowed down.  PoorChoices left and was replaced, Ragnar never got the name of her replacement he was too excited for the end of his shift.  Suddenly his replacement arrived, marking the end of his shift.

Ragnar walked out of the bank into the hustle and noise of the town.   He tried to judge if the street had more or less people then before his shift.  It looked about the same, including the fighting pits outside of the bars. He steeled himself to cross the street through the throng.  Before he had step into the street a flash of sliver in the alley caught his eye.  A shadow dropped off the Workshops roof on to a tall willowy Elvin figure.  The flash of sliver had to be a blade as the shadow stabbed the elf.  Ragnar tried to peer into the shadow, as if sensing Ragnar’s attention the shadow looked up from its victim.  Ragnar found himself quite uncomfortable as he was confronted with to black eye holes in a gray mask.  He looked away for just a moment.

When Ragnar looked back, the shadow was gone.  He thought of going into the alley and trying to find the shadow, but instead headed across the street and entered the workshop.   The single room was full of workbenches shadows danced on the walls. The only light came from a candle in each corner of the room. 

“Hi, hello, hey there, are you here to be my bodyguard?”  A bent old elf stood next to one of the benches, dressed in the habit of a monk his white hair was pulled up in to a topknot. 

MoMony

Level 1

Wallet-0ng

Taking Ragnar’s silence as acceptance MoMony continued talking, his voice high and reedy.  “I can’t pay you right away.  But, but, but once I get my business up and running I will be able to.”

“Why do you need a bodyguard?” Ragnar asked.

“See this machine?  It takes what you find in the world and converts it into materials that you can use in all the other machines.”  MoMony gestured to the machine closest to Ragnar.  “That machine makes armor.   That one makes hand weapons, this one makes potions, and this one makes ranged weapons.  I plan to sell what I make here, I will open a shop in one of these empty buildings.”

“That sounds great, but why do you need a bodyguard?”

“Because to do this I need to collect supplies out in the wilds.  Every time I leave this building I get attacked.  I am just level one, and I have no interest in fighting, so I make an easy target.  With you, a level four, around they should think twice.  I mean you can obviously handle yourself, you’re the first level four I have seen.”

            “I see,” Ragnar replied, “you said that you couldn’t pay me.  Why should I spend my time helping you? Not to be a jerk or anything, but I just got off a shift at the bank and helping you sounds like work.”

            “It’s a good question, to be honest I’m not sure that I have an answer that will convince you.  But think of it this way.  It’s like going for walk, if we get attacked you will fight them off.  Any supplies that you find you can keep.  So instead of money from me you will gain experience and supplies that you can use to craft your own weapons and armor.  If that is not enough, if you help me now I will give you a lifetime twenty percent discount at any of my shops.  Are you in? Come on, it’s a great deal.  It will be a chance to explore out of town, have you done that yet?”  MoMony was out of breath and twisting his hands together by the time he was done talking.

            “I’m not sure that I would be a great bodyguard.  I have never had to protect someone else before.  But if you want me I guess I’m in.”

            “Yahooo! Yess!  My business starts now.  Yippy-Yah!”  MoMony grabbed Ragnar’s hand and started to pull him out the door.

            “Hey, wait.” Ragnar laughed as he pulled his hand free.  “Before we leave I wanted to check what I need to craft a new axe.”

            “Is that all.” MoMony was obviously anxious to get out of the building.  So anxious that Ragnar started to wonder how long he had been hiding in the workshop. 

            “You know what I would need?”

            “Of course, no let’s move, I will tell you as we walk.”

            “Sure.”

            “Huzzah.  Basic weapons are pretty easy.  They all require some amount of wood and a metal or an alloy.  Some require a little leather.”

            “Hey we shouldn’t go through the alley.  I saw someone ambushed in one earlier.”

            “See your already proving to be a good bodyguard.”

“Thanks, so what exactly would I need to make a battle axe?”

“Oh right, ok, for a battle axe you will need two wooden staves they will make up your handle.  You will also need three strips of leather, to make the grip I assume.   The amount of metal you need depends on what type of ax you want.   If you want a single blade you just need one brick, if want a spike or two blades like you have now you will need two bricks.”

“I got to ask, how much time did you spend in that workshop?  I mean to memorize”

“Ha, way too much.  Every time I tried to leave, I got attacked, so soon I stopped leaving.  I waited for someone like you to come in.”

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“Oh I tried.  I guess I am really bad.  I picked a bad power, and I only carry a small dagger.  Like I said I only came here to start a business.  I am a little older then you are, I think.  I have a family to support.”

“I see.”  Ragnar thought for a moment. “So what is your power?”

MoMony laughed.  Then he held up his palm, a small fireball hovered about three inches above it.  “I called the handheld fireball.  But as cool as it to be able to create this little fireball it is useless as a weapon.  I can think of very few good ways to use it to cause damage.”

“I have an idea, if you put your palm agents your enemies body or head then activated the fireball I bet that would do a bunch of damage.”

“That’s a pretty good idea, I will try it the next time I fight.  The real issue is that I just don’t like violence, so I’m not any good at fighting, even if it’s to defend myself.  Which is why I need you around.”

            “Ok.  I am happy to help.  But now that we are out of town help me keep an eye out for ambushes.  I am particularly worried about the trees, make sure your looking for people waiting to drop down on us.”

            The landscape out of town was breath taking.  The trees surrounding them had many branches, the whole tree was covered in branches forming and upside down cone.   Each branch had many smaller branches covered in uncountable millions of tiny green leaves.  Ragnar brushed his hand along one of these, and was surprised that each of these small leaves were hard and sharp. 

            “I bet you have never seen pine tree before.”

            Ragnar just shook his head.

            “They used to cover large parts of the world, before the cities grew to cover everything.”

            “Wow, you really must be old to remember that.”

            “Yeah I am not that old, all the pine trees were in private parks by the time I was born.  But my grandfather remembers a time when there were still a few wild forests.  He used to show me pictures that he had taken.  That’s where I saw pine trees, the pictures looked just like this.  My grandfather said that you could actually sleep under one and the branches would keep you covered from the elements like rain or snow.  That’s not a bad place to look for supplies.  You can use pine wood for your axe I’m going to look under this tree, you should check under another.”

            With that MoMony picked up one of the big branches and stuck his head under.  “Hey yeah, look at all this wood.  This is great, I will grab you some.  Go look under another see what you find.”

            Lifting up a branch Ragnar found the space underneath to be quite and dark.  It was also surprisingly spacy.  In the darkest area, near the trunk of the tree Ragnar saw a twinkle.  Pushing the branch up higher Ragnar crouched down and moved further under the boughs.  With more light Ragnar could see a small box on the ground where the twinkle had originated.  He duck walked to the box, the branch dropping behind him, cloaking him in darkness.  He re found the box with his hands and flipped back the lid.  Light pored up out of box, illuminating the inside of tree.

“Whoa, what is that?”  Ragnar heard MoMoney exclaim from outside of the canopy. 

Looking into the light was a little painful as his eyes had to adjust from the dark.   What he found in the box made up for it.  First Ragnar pulled out a bunch of strips of leather, once removed they reviled a small cloth bag and three lumps of metal.  There was stitching on the bag but it was too dark to read it, but when opened, Ragnar saw the bag contained a large jewel.  He closed the bag and picked up the metal lumps, which were heavier than they looked.  He then backed out of the tree.

“What happened?”  MoMoney was partially bouncing up and down in his excitement.  “The tree just lit up, what did you find?  Look at all this wood I found, here is yours.”

“Great thanks,” Ragnar took the wood and stuck it in the wallet on his hip.  “I found a box, the light you saw came out of the box.  I think it was one of the treasure boxes that I read about on the flier in the bank.”

“A treasure box.  Cool.  What was inside?”

“A bunch of leather, a few lumps of metal, and this.”  Ragnar held up the bag.  “There is some writing on this and inside is a really big jewel.   Now let’s see what this bag says.   ‘The stone within, can be used to enhance weapons and armor with the power of Zeus.”

“That is amazing, what an incredible treasure.”

“I think so too, I think I want it.”

This was spoken by someone behind both Ragnar and MoMony.  Spinning to confront the new comers, Ragnar saw that the one who spoke was not alone. Three figures had entered the little clearing, two of them were level twos one was a level one.

“I think it would be better for you, to turn around and leave, go find your own treasure.”  Ragnar spoke while putting the supplies away and readying his axe off his back.

“Level wise we equal you and your treasure is just too good to pass up on.”

            “Then come at me.”

            The level two who had not spoken was the first to move.  He was a tall brawny man, holding a two handed sword in one hand.  He attacked with a lunge.  If the two other assailants had attacked at the same time, they may have had a chance.  As it was the other two were slow to attack, giving Ragnar to focus on the man with the sword.  He side stepped the lunge and with a short swing his axe took off the man’s leg.  The man crumpled with a scream. 

            Ragnar spun towards the level two who had spoken.  This man was armed with a bow, and he had just brought an arrow to the string when Ragnar was upon him.  The battle axe cut right though the bow and into its wielders chest.  He dropped without a sound.  1 kill +1 xp.    Ragnar stepped over the body, looking up to find the last assailant.  All he saw was the back of a shirt as the Level 1 ran away.  Ragnar then turned to finish off the tall man with a sword.  MoMony had beaten him to it.  He was crouched over the body with his hand on its chest.  Thin wisps of smoke trailed from the body’s nose and open mouth. 

            MoMony looked up.  “You were right the handheld fireball works very well when created inside of the body.”  He said sadly.  “That was an incredible display.  You took them apart.  I really appreciate you helping me.  I think between the wood I gave you and what you found in the treasure box you should have what you need to make an axe, right?”

            “I think so, if what you remember is correct.”

            “Right then, I think you should head back to town to craft yourself a new axe.”

            “Are you sure?  I thought you wanted a bodyguard?”
            “I did.  I really just needed help to get out of the workshop.  Now that you killed those thugs, I’m sure that there is no one around.  I feel safe enough.  Also if I die it will be with all the stuff I found under that tree, if I stay out here a little longer, I bet I will find all sorts of cool supplies.”

            “It would be no problem for me to stay with you till you are done looking.” Ragnar said this hoping that MoMony would say no.

            “Don’t worry about it, I’ll see you back in town.”  MoMony really wanted Ragnar to leave so that he wouldn’t be competition.  Secretly he was pissed that Ragnar had found the chest.

            “Ok see ya.”  Ragnar said over his shoulder, as he turned and started to walk back to town.