Origin ARS 4 (3 page)

“The guy we are looking for doesn’t live in the city proper, right?” asked Scott. They had discussed the situation a little on the way to town. Eizen seemed like it would be an interesting place, but the truth was that they were not planning to stay in the area for long. They needed to complete their current assignment and settle things in this world. Unfortunately, sight-seeing would have to be put on hold.

Shade, the ninja who had been assigned to guide their way, nodded his head once. “Correct. The slave master lives on the outskirts of town where he sells rare monsters and humanoid non-citizens of Eizen to the highest bidder.”

“Do you know if he has sold the mermaids, yet?” asked Scott.

Shade glanced toward the city then looked back to Scott. “The people who we have in place have not seen any mermaids leave the area, but we cannot be one hundred percent certain. At the very least there are eighteen of them currently held at the slave master’s tent.”

Rhea frowned down at the city. “Unfortunately, enslavement of monsters and demi-humans is considered improper in Eizen, but is still legal. We can choose to rescue them by force, but we would definitely have to leave the kingdom if we did so.”

“So, let’s save that for the final option.” said Scott.

“Right, we should just see how much the slave master wants for them. If he is willing to sell, we can just buy their freedom and maintain access to Eizen.” she said.

Scott was not thrilled with the idea of paying a man who had basically purchased kidnapped girls, but the important thing was to get those girls out of there. Though, if pressed he would admit that he had a strong desire to just kill the man and be done with it. Whatever process had caused the growing bloodlust within him, he did not mind it in this instance. Anyone who would buy and sell young girls as a business was a horrible person who deserved whatever happened to them.

Ero, currently seated within his mind, piped up, “Scott, it will be alright. We’ll save those mermaids.”

“Yes, you’re right Ero.” he thought strongly. He could feel the warmth of his fairy friend’s response to his agreement. She loved it when he agreed with her confident statements.

“Let’s get going.” said Scott.

“I will take you to the slave master’s quarter, and show you the proper tent. However, Crimson Shadow has not been paid to directly intervene.” said Shade.

“That would be fine, thank you.” replied Scott. He had not expected the mercenary ninja to get involved in any conflicts. They ran a business. Killing would cost extra. Though, Sharde had offered a twelve percent discount on assassinations for the rest of the month. When pressed about the reason for a twelve percent discount, she had simply said that it was less common than ten percent and not as good as fifteen. In short, she had chosen to be arbitrary. Scott suspected that she thought that it would make her sound witty and mysterious.

Shade led the trio down the hill and then helped them to cross the road by using a specialized aura to cause people to step aside without even realizing what they were doing. It was an assassin’s secret skill that allowed them to move through crowds without being noticed or running into someone.

Scott could not help but notice the man’s professional nature as they moved swiftly. The entire time that he had been in this world, all he had done was murder wild animals and worry about his ability point advancement.

However, the ninja who carefully moved before them was definitely a creature of the world despite the fact that he was a player. Was that the result of actually becoming part of the world instead of treating it like a game, or did level increases slow down so considerably after level one hundred that mission based guild assignments were simply more interesting?

The sorcerer considered those thoughts carefully while his group moved through the busy roadway. They eventually joined a small crowd on a side road and continued forward on leisurely course along the side of the walled city.

It took the better part of an hour to navigate the lengthy road as Eizen was a massive town with a large and powerful wall. Such a thing was to be expected of a capital city.

Eventually, they came within sight of the slave master’s quarter. It was a place where various people sold various other people for fun and profit. It was surprisingly cheerful and had a festive atmosphere. Scott thought that he might be sick after he had spent a few minutes walking through the area.

He glared hotly at a man who lashed a whip across the back of a small child. Said child had a golden ring through his nose and the horns of a bull, but he was still a child.

Rhea reached over and squeezed his shoulder. Scott glanced at her and saw that she had a grim expression, but after a moment she shook her head. Now was not the time to cause a scene.

His expression became sour and he resigned himself to the task at hand. It would be problematic enough to rescue eighteen mermaids, much less every other slave in the quarter. Had they a small army and a way to move rapidly, they might have at least tried. At present there were only three of them who would fight a battle here. The ninja who led them was just a guide after all.

After spending a few minutes witnessing the horrors of slavery in a fantasy world, Shade had led them to a large tent in the center of the area. Dozens of heavily armed and armored guards were seen throughout the area, only a few of which were human.

“I should caution you, as a favor to the guild master. The guards here number a minimum of thirty-seven at any given time. Each of them is at least level one hundred twenty and is assumed to have reincarnated at least four times according to their stat distribution. Further, their equipment matches their level on average.” said Shade in a casual, yet still professional, manner.

Scott had to fight down a hiss of annoyance. Even Rhea would not be able to simply cut them down if that was true. She had managed to reach level twenty-five, like she had thought that she would, but that would only help her go so far. Even her overpowered equipment would not allow for that.

Unlike monsters, players and playable race locals had powerful mitigating factors that dropped the damage dealt to them by a large margin in order to make player-versus-player events more interesting. Those factors were also in place to keep too many local people from dying from collateral damage when players fought in the streets. Between the levels, stats, and gear of those guards, Rhea would have a severe issue attempting to even survive a fight with one of them in a one-on-one battle. An attempt to fight thirty plus guards of that caliber with their current resources and capacity would be nothing short of suicide.

Scott had a higher level, thirty-six, but compared to those guards he was a gnat. Rescuing the mermaids through the use of force was not an option. Combat had been considered the final option before, but the truth was that it was no longer even an option. If the power of the guards was taken into consideration, it would be impossible to get the mermaids out while fighting. They did not have legs other than during the nights of the full moon, so they would have to be carried out one-by-one and transported.

Of course, he might just be thinking that. Rhea might be able to take out the guards. He asked her that very question through party chat. “Rhea, would you be able to take out one of these guards?”

She replied quickly. “No, not with what I have at the moment. If I had all of my best equipment, put all of my banked ability points into my combat oriented stats, and had the element of surprise...”

She thought for a moment then continued, “...there might be a small chance that I could at least survive the opening rounds of a fight with one of these guards. I don’t know if I could do enough damage to kill one at this level. Maybe, if I was fifty or sixty... Maybe.”

“Is the damage mitigation due to level differences the problem?” Every moment could be a teachable moment. Stats were not everything, and equipment could only take someone so far. A monster one hundred levels higher than someone’s current level would be a problem, no matter how many times that person had reincarnated.

“That’s a large portion of it. If I did damage at all it would be in the single or double digits, even with a sword that negates defense.” she said.

Scott thought for a moment then said, “It would be like swinging a butter knife at a stone wall, then? It might chip away at the wall, but it is going to take time to see the other side.”

“Exactly. Though, in this case the stone wall has a blazing bastard sword of exploding death that can deliver five digit damage numbers per swing.” replied Rhea.

Scott groaned inwardly upon hearing her clarification. He had forgotten that damage mitigation was less effective if you went backwards. The guards were at least three milestone levels ahead of her. She would have practically no special defense against them. Her stats would have to face off against their stats directly. She would be heavily nerfed, while they would have nearly their full power at their disposal.

It was one of the few attempts at fairness in the casual server. Items were not level-locked normally, so someone who reincarnated a lot might have a sword meant for someone who was level four hundred, but they would be level one. A level one player with such a weapon might be able to take out a level one hundred monster in one hit, but that monster could still do the same to that player even if they had armor to match their sword due to the mitigation effect. It would be like a glass cannon death match where the first strike wins.

Scott had already both benefitted and been partially-thwarted by those mitigating factors before. During his battle with Karsh the damage did not seem lessened due to how they were both low-level and did little damage in the first place. He was sure that they had been in place and caused the fight to drag out a little longer, even so. However, when he and Rhea had been captured by Corpse Rat he had been knocked into critical state by the single swing of a war hammer delivered by a higher level orc. Had those mitigating factors not been in place he would have taken several hundred, perhaps more than a thousand points of damage. In short, he would have popped like a balloon and been rendered into chunky salsa.

The interior of the tent was a strangely modern area. It was clean, well-lit, and somewhat cheerful. A rotund man stood behind a wooden counter complete with an old-timey looking cash register. He greeted them with a hearty wave when they walked in, and then called out, “Welcome honored guests. Whom can I find for you today?”

Scott cringed a little at the whom statement. It readily brought back to mind the fact that they were in a slave dealer’s tent.

Rhea spoke up, “We’ve come to discuss terms regarding a very special sort of purchase.”

“Oh? Have you?” asked the rotund man, a small smile on his lips.

Rhea started to speak again but the man’s eyes widened slightly then his mouth split apart in a soft ‘O’. “You. Would you be the lovely Rhea Ardente?”

The elf girl’s eyes widened slightly as well, and then narrowed. “Yes, I see...”

“Rhea, how do you know this guy?” asked Scott.

She looked to him then sighed. “He’s a player, I think.”

“Yes, yes indeed.” replied the slave dealer. He smiled at them in a jovial fashion then turned to look at Scott. He eyed the blue-haired sorcerer for a moment and then his eyes began to sparkle.

“This man... Is he the one?” asked the slave merchant.

Rhea’s face became slightly reddened at the implication but then she coughed once, “Who he is, is of no concern in the matters that we wish to discuss.”

“He is, isn’t he? He’s the legendary blue-haired boyfriend!” The fat man practically cackled in delight upon realizing who Scott was to Rhea.

Scott’s expression shifted to one of confusion and his nose rankled slightly as though he had smelled something terrible. Silently he mouthed the words, “Legendary blue-haired boyfriend?”

Ero giggled sweetly inside his mind then corrected him. “Shouldn’t that be Legen- wait for it-dary?”

Scott groaned mentally at his goofy little friend. She must have been watching television re-runs that were stored in his memory once more. “Thank you so much, Ero Stinson.”

Her laughter only grew after that. Soon Scott’s mental landscape was bombarded by images of Neil Patrick Harris. Of all of the shows that she could have chosen to review inside his mind, he had no idea why she had chosen the situation comedy How I Met Your Mother.

Rhea frowned at the overweight wholesale people redistributor. “We’ve come to discuss something, and it does not relate to our personal lives.”

“Ah, have you come to perhaps, make a purchase?” he asked.

“Yes.” said Rhea.

“Good, good. Whom are you seeking?” asked the man.

“Mermaids.” said Scott.

The corpulent man blinked then looked to him. “Oh? I did not advertise them for sale. Did my sister send you?”

“Sister?” asked Scott.

“Yes, she calls herself the mermaid queen. The mermaids generally go along with it.” replied the slave dealer.

“The queen of the mermaids is your sister? You’re selling her people into slavery?” asked Scott incredulously.

The fat man laughed jovially then shook his head. “No, I bought them off of those idiot Shar-Shar so that they would not be sold off. I sent that dumb ho several messages, even a few offline, but she never responded.”