AlterWorld

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New quest alert! Dark Brotherhood II.

Quest type: secret, rare

Find the Fallen One's secret supporters in the cities of the Lands of Light. Every new worshipper will double your reward.

Would you like to accept the quest?

Good. Time to breathe a sigh of relief. That guy Gu

The unexpected piece of gold doubled my property. My i

And I couldn't even have hoped for Fame points. Normally, to get them, you had to either engage in some back-breaking farming, earning weird achievements like Rat Catcher that you got for every ten thousand rats trapped. Alternatively, you could get them for some truly rare, if not unique, achievements in a particular location or city, if not in the whole world. Without Fame points, you couldn't even dream of having access to the elite game content open only to the Top 5% of all players.

In the meantime, Gu

Warning! You're hungry and thirsty. Your body can't regenerate Life points or mana any longer. You need to eat and drink ASAP!

The Elf guffawed. "You must be starving, brother. Do me the honor. Here in this rathole of Light one has nobody to share a drink with."

He proved to be a convivial type. He drank and chatted non-stop, mixing city gossip with his own elaborate war stories. He asked me to come again soon promising all sorts of discounts for his Dark brother. When I asked him for some Necro gear, he gave me a skeptical look and shook his head.

"I'm dealing mainly in heavy steel armor. Chainmail is the limit. But you casters, you don't even wear leather, only rag shit. Same with weapons. A shield, a long sword, a mace—all this I can get you. Had you been a Death Knight, we'd have equipped you like you wouldn't believe it. It wouldn't cost you that much, either. I've got some interesting things here."

To prove his point, he jumped from the table and disappeared into a store room. He came out almost straight away with a weird-looking bone staff, all carved and plated with gold and silver—or it could have been solid gold, I wouldn't know. Gu

I peered at the object:

Staff of Dark Flame

Item Class: Rare

Effect 1: +5 to Intellect, +3 to Strength, +3 to Constitution

Effect 2: +3 to the raised creature's level when hand-held.

Effect 3: The raised creature deals +10% fire damage.

Effect 4: Each of the raised creature's attacks has 2% chance to ignite the target, adding 210 points Damage.

Class restrictions: Only Death Knight

What a beauty. Wish I had two of them. Actually, if you had indeed had two, would their effects add up?

"Oh wow. How much?"

Gu

I shook my head, disappointed, and hurled my flat wallet onto the table. Dammit. A Nec would kill for a staff like that while a Death Knight wouldn't even know what to do with it. A Knight's pet is too weak, so raising it even ten levels wouldn't make much difference. And the Knight would be stupid to use up one hand holding it instead of holding a shield or a two-handed sword. What a shame.

Overall, we'd enjoyed each other's company and parted almost as friends. I double-checked my directions for the Three Little Pigs and, swaying, continued on my way. It was getting dark and I really had to find somewhere to spend the night.

The i

The door opened into a brightly-lit main room. Large and clean, it was crowded with tables and what looked like quite comfortable seats. About forty people—groups and singles—were busy chewing, drinking, talking and laughing. And there was enough space left for three times as many patrons.

No one paid much attention to me, even though my shabby appearance stood out in this roomful of high-level players. I approached the bar and addressed the imposing i

"Good evening, Sir. I was wondering if I could rent a room for the night."

He cast me an ironic glance and went on polishing a beer mug, waiting for me to go on.

I raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

The i

"I don't think so… Sir. You can always hire a Chinese android to do your chores. They will wash your dishes for a night, chop your wood for a week or stab a dummy with a wooden sword for a month. Doesn't interest me in the slightest. I'd rather pay you."

The i

"In all honesty, Sir, I'm often too lazy to take my coffee cup to the sink. Not that I'm proud of it but just to give you some idea of my opinion of that sort of quest, if you know what I mean."

"Absolutely. I've got just the room for you. Plain but clean. Perfect for a night or to drop one's bag in. One gold per night. With all respect, can't afford to let it any cheaper."

I shook my head in disbelief. He didn't want much, did he?

Seeing I was on the fence, the host stepped up on his persuasion skills. "Di

All right, all right, he won. I produced my gold piece and slammed it on the bar.

In return, I received a smallish key and some advice. "Room ten. Second floor. No going upstairs. Floors three and four don't like being disturbed. In case you don't know, The Pigs are owned by the Olders. The digitized clan, like most of our customers. So show some understanding. They don't play: they live here. Go sit at the table. Di

Great timing. I nodded my complete understanding and took a place at an empty table.

A couple minutes later, a cute waitress brought me a beer and a bowl of pickles. I wasn't hungry at all after Gu