Beryl bit her lip and stared at the map of Yamato while she listened to Lerya’s report on the state of the known undead dungeons; very few of them had any specific event-related content, so it was safe to put them all on the ‘ignore’ list and move on, but others…
“—and Therra says that the Black Forest Tombs are starting to show signs of increased activity, so it’s likely that we’ll need to head out soon in order to confront the boss if we want to keep that area under control,” Lerya was saying as she placed a marker on the map in the approximate location.
“Black Forest is a level sixty dungeon, we can take it without issue,” Beryl decided after a moment, slanting a gaze at her gathered Guild. “Anyone disagree?”
“So long as it doesn’t turn into a full invasion like the goblin one,” Shiva muttered grumpily as he crossed his arms over his chest and glowered down at the map. “That’s, what… a week and a half to get there? We got enough time?”
Beryl sighed and reached up to run a hand through her hair, considering what she remembered about the Black Forest Tombs event; the dungeon had been a popular one back when Elder Tales was a game, and the frequent visits by Adventurers had kept its event from fully triggering. As far as she knew, it had happened exactly twice back when the dungeon was first implemented, and never again after that.
And without the internet to look up exactly how the event worked, well…
“I have no idea,” she said truthfully. “I don’t remember its size or what its timetable actually is, so… there’s a chance we could arrive and find a gigantic undead hoard taking over the area even if we leave today.”
“We could always use the fairy rings,” Krakal suggested with a bright grin, then swayed aside with a laugh when Shiva growled and swatted at her. “It’s a serious suggestion!” she protested, amusement sparkling in her eyes. “We’ve got the start of a timetable now, thanks to several guilds looking into it, and it seems pretty stable. If we go to the ring just outside the Bear Tunnels, we’ll be transported to a ring close to Black Forest.”
Beryl exchanged a thoughtful look with Lerya at the suggestion; relying on the fairy rings would chop off a week’s worth of travel… if they were transported to the correct place.
If their gamble fell through, they could end up practically anywhere in the world and at the mercy of fairy ring transportation to bring them back; fairy rings were never exactly one-to-one in their destinations, so it could take them anywhere from weeks to months to find their way back in a worst case scenario.
(Was that a risk she wanted to take?)
(Was that a risk any of them wanted to take?)
(She… didn’t know.)
“Are there any objections to using the fairy rings instead of traveling by horse?” Beryl asked, putting the question back on her Guild instead of deciding it herself.
A murmur started up amongst her guild-mates as they discussed it, and Beryl left them to it; either they’d come to an agreement or they wouldn’t, but it was up to them now. She was more worried about the event itself, if she was being honest.
“Do any of you remember anything about this one?” Beryl asked softly, looking between the members of her usual party in question.
Michiyo grimaced and shook his head, his vulpine ears flattening a bit in distress as he said, “No, sorry Beryl. Level sixty dungeons were… a long time ago.”
“What he said,” Varix agreed with a huff, then glanced side-long at Shiva and Krakal and prompted, “Don’t suppose either of you memorized this event?”
Krakal lifted a hand and swayed it back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Something about a necromancer raising the buried dead, I think,” she answered. “Not that I’m sure how that works given how bodies in Theldesia tend to disintegrate within minutes… er, anyway, uh… something-something, ancient war, buried dead throughout the entire Black Forest, necromancer with a grudge. That’s all I remember.”
“Same,” Shiva agreed when everyone focused on him, his whiskers twitching at the attention. “You know how little I pay attention to lore, Beryl,” he teased warmly.
Beryl snorted at Shiva’s words and gave him the exasperated look that statement deserved, her exasperation only growing at the sharp-bright-teasing smile Shiva shot her.
Shiva was a roleplayer at heart, making lore arguably one of the things he cared about the most, but Michiyo was correct; level sixty dungeons and their associated lore had been years ago, and it was no surprise that no one could really put their finger on what this rarely-triggered event actually was.
Either way, she supposed it didn’t matter; their job was to get out there, deal with the event, and get back to Akiba, hopefully in one piece.
“Right, I think we’ve all made our decision,” Stormyl announced before Beryl could ask her party anything else. When she turned towards him and gestured for him to continue, he nodded and said, “We’re good with trying the fairy rings. Ryothen knows a player who recently used the ring we’re talking about, and they ended up at the zone just to the south of the Black Forest.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then I see no reason to avoid it,” Beryl said with a touch of relief. She straightened up and settled her hands on her hips, elf ears twitching as she scanned her guild-mates one last time. “With that in mind, I want everyone to finish prepping and meet at the gate in an hour. The sooner we get there the sooner we can put the event behind us.”
A chorus of agreements answered her statement, followed by people beginning to file out one by one in order to finish grabbing everything they needed.
Beryl cast one last glance at the map in front of her, taking in the various markers indicating undead dungeons scattered across it, then shook her head and looked away.
(One problem at a time.)
(They could do this.)
Krakal ran a thumb over the pommel of her dagger and considered what they were about to walk into; with the dungeon being over thirty levels below all of them, even her summoned creatures would be able to take out monsters on their own. Which meant that realistically she had nothing to worry about — they’d faced worse in the couple of years they’d been trapped in Theldesia — but at the same time…
She grimaced and stepped closer to Beryl and Lerya, even though the proximity to the two didn’t do a single thing to dispel the growing unease crawling down her spine.
Something was off.
Something was off and she couldn’t put her damn finger on it, which meant she couldn’t protest this plan, but—
“Krakal?” Beryl asked quietly, her eyes worried as she broke off her conversation with Lerya and looked over. “Something wrong?”
“Just a feeling,” Krakal answered a touch helplessly, unable to verbalize the dread creeping down her spine and curling around her heart; she didn’t even know what was causing it, whether it was the dungeon they were about to invade or the fairy ring in front of them or something else she wasn’t even aware of—
Beryl’s hand settled around the back of her neck, fingers squeezing gently. “Enough to call this off?” she asked, tone serious and gaze probing.
Krakal closed her eyes and leaned into Beryl’s touch, trying to pull some of Beryl’s calm confidence into herself; she’d always admired how steady her Guildmaster was, unflappable even in the face of the unexpected, and her admiration had only grown when they’d all been thrown headfirst into Theldesia and Beryl hadn’t blinked.
Whatever happened next, Beryl would keep them safe.
Just like always.
“Better?” Beryl murmured as she squeezed a touch tighter and then let go, her hand threading briefly through Krakal’s hair before dropping back to her side. “Anything you can pin down?”
“Just a feeling,” Krakal repeated with a grimace, already missing the warmth of Beryl’s hand on her neck. “If no one else is feeling anything, then it’s… probably just me.”
Beryl hummed softly and swayed closer, bumping her armored shoulder against Krakal’s in reassurance. “I’ll keep an eye out just to be safe.”
Krakal shot Beryl a thankful look, then rocked up onto the balls of her feet to peer around at the area, double-checking that everyone was still nearby and that nothing had snuck up on them; the area was mostly safe, but boss mobs did exist even in low level zones like this and they rarely avoided Adventurers no matter how powerful. It wouldn’t do for them to be surprised, and a boss mob’s attention would explain her unease, but… Shiva wasn’t showing any signs of unease, and his subclass gave him an advantage at discovering enemies in hiding.
No, she was probably just worrying needlessly because of the unknown they were about to face.
It would be fine.
Beryl and Lerya would keep them safe.
She tapped her fingers against her chest, focusing on the sensation and using it to ground herself as she tried to settle her mind into something a bit calmer; they were about to head into a potentially dangerous situation, after all, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by some nebulous feeling.
“Alright, everyone ready to go?” Beryl asked loudly, cutting through the quiet chatter of their Guild. Silence descended on the clearing as their Guildmates sorted themselves out into their parties and turned to face Beryl fully. “Right then, my party will go through first, followed by Stormyl’s, Cryo’s, Tetra’s, Astamo’s, and then finally Flea’s. Be ready for anything on the other side; I’ll try to call you when we get there, but we might end up in combat soon after leaving the ring.”
“We’ll be ready,” Stormyl promised, tapping his gauntlet against the hilt of his sword as he did. “Lead the way, Beryl!”
Beryl flashed a bright grin and spun to face the fairy ring, gesturing for her party to form up around her.
Krakal slid back to settle into her usual position a few feet behind Beryl, right next to Lerya, while Varix and Michiyo stepped up to flank Beryl on either side and Shiva took rearguard. Her unease didn’t quite vanish but… she was ready for whatever they would find on the other side.
Nothing would stand in their way.
Nothing at all.
Shiva knew the instant he set foot inside the fairy ring that something was truly, deeply wrong.
He could feel the way the fairy ring’s power rose, curling around them in a relentless hold. Could feel the way the world went sideways, the ground falling away-away-away until it felt like he was in free-fall, felt like he was tumbling—
Frantic, he struggled forward against the blank nothingness, reaching out-out-out until—
His hand latched onto a shoulder, fingers flexing and claws digging through cloth to the skin beneath, and Krakal yelped in surprise and yanked his hand free of her shoulder.
“Don’t do that!” Krakal snarled at him through the darkness, her voice echoing oddly.
“Sorry, sorry,” Shiva tried to placate, gripping her hand as tight as he dared and dragging himself closer. “The others…?”
“I have one of Lerya’s hands,” Krakal said after a moment. “And I think… oh, Lerya has Varix, who… has Beryl, I think? And I think Beryl has Michiyo—”
The darkness around them shattered like glass, spilling them out into sharp-bright-golden sunlight as their weightless free-fall turned into a true fall.
Shiva had a moment to spot grass. Mountains. A giant lake or sea or something large-blue-reflective as gravity took hold and yanked at his limbs and—
Adventurer instinct took over.
He freed his hand from Krakal’s. Tucked his body and moved—
He hit the ground in a controlled tumble, barely registering the way his gear dug into his body, and sprang to his feet the moment his tumble had slowed enough. He spun. Drew his blade. Scanned the area for danger even as he tried to pinpoint where they’d landed, but…
Nothing looked familiar. The glimpse of the world that he’d gained from above matched nothing in his memories of Theldesia. Just grasslands as far as the eye could see, ending in the distant haze of mountains in three directions and unending on the fourth. There weren’t even any monsters that he could see or sense, his detection skills silent in the face of this strange landscape.
There wasn’t even a fairy ring nearby, he realized numbly as he finally took in the area around them.
That… that wasn’t possible. Fairy ring transport always took you to another fairy ring, not… not the middle of nowhere!
“Ow, fuck,” Beryl mumbled as she hauled herself to her feet and glowered around them. “Anyone get the make of the train that hit us?”
Michiyo gave a rough bark of laughter and reached down, offering his hand to Lerya to help her up as he dryly answered, “No, I think I missed it in all the darkness and endless falling that was happening. Which, in hindsight, I’m pretty sure was not what was supposed to happen.”
“Not from what I’ve heard,” Varix grumbled as he stalked around the area, tail swishing angrily and wolf ears swiveling to catch every sound. “This ain’t the area south of Black Forest, either. So whatever happened—”
“I… don’t think we’re in Theldesia anymore,” Krakal said softly. “Guys… pull up your menus…”
Shiva frowned, glanced around the area once more, then concentrated on bringing up his menu; ghostly, floating windows snapped into place in front of his eyes — player status, party status, equipped items, skills, and on and on — but what he wanted to know, what he wanted to see—
[Server: Nyracii]
[Location: Northern Plains]
“Has anyone ever heard of a Nyracii server?” Lerya asked with a measure of enforced calm that Shiva could almost taste.
Shiva shook his head and then glanced up at the sky, wondering if he was going to see the other members of their guild fall out of it any time soon.
(He wasn’t sure if he wanted that to happen or didn’t want that to happen.)
(On the one hand, the more of their guild in one place, the safer they were as a whole, but on the other…)
(On the other, they were currently trapped somewhere unknown, with no way back and no way to tell if there was any sort of civilization nearby.)
“Damn,” Beryl growled as she swiped her hand through the air in front of her face, likely batting away her player menus. “I can’t open a tele-chat with anyone, we really are on another server of some kind.”
A quick glance at his own friends list proved that Beryl was right: everyone on it except the five people around him were listed as offline.
“We need to get moving,” Varix said after he finished his second wide circuit around their party. “We ain’t gunna to find anything standing here, and so long as we try to stay in whatever server this is, we’ll know when or if the others arrive.”
Beryl grimaced and turned slowly to take in the endless sea of grass around them. “That’s great and all, but what direction? There’s basically nothing out here.”
“I saw a great big lake or inland sea that way,” Shiva said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at in the direction of the water. “Seems like a good place to start if we assume that this is another pre-industrial fantasy style… world?”
“It’s either that or we’re on steppes of some sort,” Beryl agreed as she dug through her magic bag and withdrew her horse whistle. “Right then, lets get moving before our luck turns worse.”
Shiva lifted his own horse whistle to his lips and blew, listening to the way the sound echoed outward across the grassland, and hoped that nothing else was attracted to the noise; there was something creepy about how empty the grasslands seemed to be, like there was a boss monster lurking nearby that had driven away all the common monsters. If the sound of their whistles caught its attention…
No. He couldn’t think like that.
He needed to keep his wits about him and his senses sharp in order to give warning, but Beryl would lead them true. If there was a boss monster lurking nearby, she’d keep them alive through the ensuing fight.
He tucked the whistle away and turned towards the sound of approaching hoof-beats, relief growing at the sight of their summoned mounts galloping towards them; there’d been a chance, however slim, that their whistles wouldn’t work on this unknown server.
Thank heavens for small mercies.
His mount came to a prancing stop right in front of him and Shiva reached out to pat the beast’s nose, then swung into the saddle and reined the beast around towards the lake he’d spotted while falling.
Hopefully they’d find something out that way.
Hopefully…