Arcane kingdom online co.., p.111
Arcane Kingdom Online: Complete Box Set, page 111
Aha—so if I conjured the dream blade before I created the phantasm, they’d be holding a clone of the sword as well.
I did a quick inspection and saw that the phantasmal defender didn’t have any signs of my summoner staff or my ranger gear—so this rule only applied to the dream blade not to other gear. Interesting.
The phantasmal defender lifted up the dream blade defensively as the moon goat slammed its horns into the blazing energy of the magical sword.
I electric blinked behind the enemy trash mob. It didn’t even notice. It was so focused on destroying the phantasmal defender. I swung the dream blade down on the goat in a crushing blow, getting a critical hit stack due to hitting it from behind. The creature crumpled to the ground.
+333 EXP!
“Nice,” I said and lifted my hand to high five the phantasmal defender. Its face was blank. It moved towards me and stood on guard around me.
“Way to leave me hanging bro,” I said.
The phantasmal defender’s response was to shatter into a million pieces. Its minute-long lifespan was over.
I crouched down and looted the remains of the moon goat and considered the two phantasmal moves. They were very simple clones, like goofy automatons or even really basic trash mobs. They stuck to their one task and that’s all they did: the duelist attacked and the defender defended. They didn’t do anything else. Yet, despite their simplicity, they were very powerful tools. It was wrong to view the phantasms as the same as summons like Gryph or Chip. They weren’t quite as sentient. What they did though was they created control over the area. So you didn’t summon the phantasmal duelist to fight and kill trash mobs, you summoned him to distract, confuse, and misdirect your enemy. These two phantasms were tools of psychological warfare.
My MP regenerated back to max and I peered around the valley. I had two more abilities to test out.
I walked over to another moon goat and triggered leaping illusion. My ears popped as a phantasmal clone leapt out from me, shooting in the air, dream blade raised above its arms, arcing downward towards the moon goat and smashing the dream blade into the trash mob. The attack took out 15% of the moon goat’s HP. The phantasm shattered seconds after the blade made contact with the creature.
The moon goat rushed me.
I clenched my fists and conjured clone blade. A phantasmal version of the dream blade appeared floating beside me. It rushed towards the incoming moon goat, attacking it like a phantasmal duelist—except it was just a floating sword.
I electric blinked towards the cloned sword and grabbed its hilt. It stopped its automated hostile movements and relaxed into my grip. Aha! The cloned blade had the sentience to fight freestyle on its own or let itself be equipped in my other hand for some vicious dual-wielding opportunities.
This. Was. Awesome.
I slashed the moon goat with my two blades in a frenzy. When it turned around to face me, I electric blinked behind it and stabbed it in the back—twice, for good measure.
The moon goat crumpled to the ground.
+333 EXP!
I looted the moon goat’s remains and contemplated the new moves.
I practiced them on a few more clusters of moon goats, getting to level 9 and almost level 10 in the class.
I was ready to synergize them. I just needed the right enemy to test it on.
Beyond the mountain valley was a wooded area. A forest. Amidst the trees was a large red troll with large horns. Above its status bars was its name: [Devil Troll]. It held its large club in its hands. For such a large disturbing creature, it walked with a quiet elegance. It was hunting at night, killing other trash mobs as they slept. It came upon a family of squirrels resting in a tree. It crouched down and reached its large oversize hands into the small hole where the family of squirrels lived. Just closing and opening his fist would be enough to crush the little squirrel bones. It was about to do such a thing when a rock knocked it in the head.
It turned around to face me.
I didn’t waste a second. It was time to unleash my new combo.
I triggered dream dance. I stepped into the dream realm for mere moments, conjuring the dream blade and stepping out. Next I conjured clone blade and dual-wielded the two dream swords. Then I triggered phantasmal defender, then duelist. They both appeared dual-wielding the dream blade. I then charged the devil troll. Before we made impact, I conjured leaping illusion. From devil troll’s point of view: there were four versions of myself attacking it. Right as the leaping illusion landed into its forehead with two flaming dream blades, I triggered shatter phantasms.
All the clones surrounding the devil troll shattered into a million different shards. These shards materialized into an explosive material delivering an AoE blast of crystal shards slicing all across the devil troll. The impact of the blast flew it backwards as well.
When the smoke cleared, the devil troll slumped over, dead and defeated.
+650 EXP!
Congratulations! Your primary class (Dream Druid) has leveled up (Level 10). You have gained (1) class skill point for your primary class.
I grinned. Heck, yeah. Dream druid was awesome.
Two more abilities were now available for me: bind dream spirit and mind explosion. I unlocked mind explosion which was the same as shatter phantasms, only it had a 20% chance to land a confusion debuff on those hit and a 5% chance to land a nightmare insanity debuff.
Awesome.
Two hands clapped behind me.
“Well done,” said a cool feminine voice.
I realized the wind had completely stopped. There was no breeze. The leaves in the trees didn’t sway. The minor movements of reality and existence—sounds and motions you took for granted—had suddenly stopped.
I turned around. Betina was standing behind me.
“You’re training with your new class, I see,” said the ghost girl.
“I am,” I said.
“Do you like the power of it? The skills I’ve granted you. There is no other player with this class in the game and there never will be. Unless, I choose another arbiter to fight on my behalf, of course.”
She giggled and something about it was frightening. More frightening and disconcerting than I’d been used to with Betina.
She didn’t respond to my clear sense of unease.
“You must keep training your abilities. To defeat Konrad and his combined chronomancer and guardian powers, you’ll need the higher level dream druid abilities, particularly, dream dive.”
I nodded my head at Betina’s advice. At the sound of Konrad’s name, I was instantly reminded of the dream druid trial. Of the squirming old man I’d fought. “You cannot trust my daughter. Betina, she’s—” It was like I hadn’t been fighting an imaginary Konrad, but it was actually him, there in my dream druid trial.
Betina tilted her head. “Is something bothering you?”
“Yeah,” I said, not sure where to start or whether I should be sharing this information with Betina in the first place. “During the dream druid trial, is it possible Konrad could’ve penetrated the dream realm? Either through his guardian or chronomancer powers?”
Betina’s face completely shifted. She was taken aback. “Do you think he did that?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
Betina’s look of concern slowly lifted from her face. “Don’t let the dream trial get into your head. That’s what it tries to do. Trick you with its illusions. Don’t let it shoot you off course.”
I nodded my head. She was right. Why was I even thinking about what Konrad said to me? He had killed my brother, mercilessly. He was behind so much evil in this world. I had to stop him.
Betina smiled. “Keep training. We’ll talk more once you’re in Ryr’s Ascension.”
The ghost girl faded away and time flew back into motion with the gentle quiet of the forest in the middle of the night.
I looted the devil troll and made my way out of the forest. It had been a good evening of training. I’d learned new moves and gained some experience. I was pleased.
As I made my way back to the sleepy valley village, Konrad Takeshimi’s squirming eyes reappeared in my mind. I then thought of my dead brother who he’d murdered.
I looked forward to seeing Konrad’s scared eyes once more.
9
We left the village early the next morning. Shades of nighttime lingered in the dawn sky above. Artemis had organized a wagon for us to travel in. She would drive it up front while Shade, Serena, and I would sit in the back hidden amongst large trees and plotted plants. If anyone stopped us, we were very well hidden from view.
“I just want to point out,” said Shade. “That this so called expert smuggler is employing the exact same plan I’d set up when we left Iron Citadel.”
“True, but you didn’t conceal us in the back very well. These plants are a nice touch.”
The little fox smuggler grinned. “You’ll learn in time, Shade darling, it’s those little flourishes that matter.”
“Clay! Are you listening to this outrageous talk? I demand we leave this carriage at once and make our own way to Ryr’s Ascension. We don’t need this charlatan!”
I sighed. “You’re a great thief and a great friend, Shade—”
“Why do I sense a big massive ‘but’ coming my way?” said the Lirana thief, crossing his arms.
“But,” I smiled. “We’ve already paid Artemis and she knows the lay of the land here in Arethkar and Ryr’s Ascension a lot better than you. All of which is to say—if we were smuggling ourselves into Land’s Shield, Arondale, or Claren’s Crossing—you’d be my number one pick. Without a doubt.”
“You hear that?” said Shade, gesturing to Artemis. “Try sneaking us into Land’s Shield! I bet you can’t!”
Artemis whipped the horses and the carriage started to move. “Here’s a tip honey: when you’re sneaking around under cover, it’s good to keep the noise level down.”
Shade clenched his fists with annoyance.
“Oh by the way,” said Artemis, “I spoke to one of the village butchers this morning, said there was a huge haul of raw moon goat meat waiting for him, littered across the valley. Said there must’ve been some goat slayer roaming the fields last night.”
Serena nudged me in the ribs. “Goat slayer, huh? Is that your new nickname?”
I smirked and shook my head. I lowered my head deeper into the shadows of the carriage. Now was good a time as ever to go quiet. We’d need every advantage possible when sneaking into the Arethkarian capital.
A demonic hare hopped across the forest floor. The gray-haired bunnies had bright glowing red eyes and small little devil horns. For such a tiny trash mob, they were incredibly vicious. They quite often fought, killed, and ate amongst their own litter or other rabbit colonies. They were also very tasty.
I released an arrow from my bow above. It sliced through the demon hair, hurling it off its trail and onto its stomach. Dead.
+130 EXP!
I power jumped down from the air and snatched the dead rabbit and materialized it back into my inventory. It was my fourth rabbit for the evening. The supper preparations were almost complete.
The orange twilight sky grew darker as I moved through the forest, collecting a few mushroom monsters for our dinner. The last bits of sunshine were gone by the time I returned to our campsite.
Serena and Shade had set up a nice crackling bonfire while Artemis had set up some noise traps in the area.
“This, darlings, will keep us alert if anyone sneaks up on us,” she said.
She moved over to the campsite, laying out a small blanket on the ground and sat down.
“Hey cat-boy, how about you crack me open one of those beers?”
“Don’t call me boy, grandma!”
Artemis’ one eyeball bulged so large I was worried it was going to pop out of her socket.
“You scoundrel! Don’t you know you should never refer to a lady’s age!”
Serena smiled at me. “She’s right, you know.”
“Who’s older: me or you?” I asked.
I knew we were born in the same year so we were practically the same age, but the months would make a difference.
“Listen to Artemis and leave it be, mister,” said Serena.
“I think you owe me a drink more than ever now,” said Artemis, regaining her composure and fluttering her one eyelash.
Shade grinned. “What would you like? I got all types of beer, including, Hero of Laergard Ale, stout from the Red Saloon—”
“Shh,” said Artemis. “Do not mention Laergard or his hero in these parts.” She then stared daggers into me. “Don’t think I don’t know who you are, young man. We must keep a low profile.”
“Fiiiine,” said Shade. “I have a bit of champagne. Fizzy drinks aren’t really my thing, but I have a feeling—”
“Oh darling, a bit of bubbly would be perfect,” swooned Artemis.
Shade handed her a glass and I got to work on our dinner. I lay out a kitchen cloth and materialized a chopping board, placed the slain demon rabbits on it, and a large cleaver that very much did not befit my spellcaster class.
I chopped off the feet and cut off the tails of the rabbits. I then flipped them over onto their backs and with a dagger, sliced open their bellies. I then focused on each one slowly pulling back the skin, exposing more and more demonic rabbit flesh. Once I was done skinning the rabbits, I made sure to draw an incision through the rabbits intestines and removed any digested bacterial-rich garbage the creature had filled itself with. I sprinkled some salt and pepper on the meat and then took some sticks and skewered each rabbit and positioned them each to grill overtop the fire.
Shade burped, then commented: “I don’t know if I always want to see how the sausage is made, you know?”
“Yeah, that’s some pretty crazy butchery right there, Clay?” said Serena. “Are you sure you’re not the demonic one?”
“You guys,” I smiled. “This is wild living. Fending for ourselves. Don't forget—the French don’t have a problem eating rabbit! And their cuisine is world-renowned!”
“Hmm,” said Serena. “I think you mean, was. I’d like to see if it catches on here.”
“Just wait,” I said, grinning at the roasting rabbit skewers.
I then materialized a pan and placed the small mushroom monsters to roast and caramelize on the pan.
We chatted and watched the food slowly cook until a bunch of messages chimed in my HUD.
Congratulations! You have cooked: Demon Rabbit Skewers! (+10 damage to all lupine creatures. Duration: 30 minutes)
Your cooking skill has increased by 0.7.
Congratulations! You have successfully cooked Caramelized Mushroom Monster (+10 damage to all mushroom creatures. Duration: 30 minutes)
Your cooking skill has increased by 0.4
“Looks like the food is ready,” I said. “Who needs a cooking timer when you have a head-up display.”
I handed a skewer to each of my party members and then took the last one. I poked a piece of mushroom and then pushed it down to the rabbit meat and took a bite out of each, combining the flavors. The meat was salty and rich and blended perfectly with the sweetened mushroom.
As I enjoyed the flavors, a silence overtook the campsite, interrupted only by the sounds of everyone “Mmm-ing” in delight. As the camp’s chef, it was a satisfying sound.
After finishing her last bite, Artemis placed her empty skewer on the ground and rested her hand on her stomach. “Clay, darling, that was delightful.”
“Agreed,” said Shade. “I’m still a bit peckish though. Have we managed to get any more unicorn-bat meat?”
I grinned and shook my head. “Nope. I got some chocolate in my inventory, if you’d like.”
“Are you able to keep it frozen in your inventory?”
I shook my head again.
“Not ideal,” said Shade. “But still: break me off a piece.”
I materialized the chocolate from my inventory and broke off a piece for everyone.
No meal was complete without desert.
“Well, my lovelies, we should call it a night,” said Artemis. “You fall asleep and I’ll keep an eye on the noise—”
At that very moment, one of Artemis’ bell traps rung out across the quiet forest.
The atmosphere around the fire instantly went tense.
“Throw your hoods up,” hissed Artemis.
All three of us threw our hoods and concealed our faces. Artemis stood up and dampened the fire. She held onto a short sword sheathed at her side.
A large shadow appeared in the distance. The figures came closer and closer. We all stood up, ready for a fight.
Appearing out of the darkness of the forest path was a middle-aged man driving a wagon with two horses and a young boy at his side. His son, presumably.
The man was portly and had a red vest with golden gilded pattern running alongside it. He had the twirling moustache of a villain in a kid’s TV show. His swoosh of black hair seemed slightly—I couldn’t quite put my finger on it—odd. Like it was askew. It was puzzling to look at. It made me feel awkward.
The little boy beside the man was dressed like a miniature version of his father, but with a normal head of hair and no moustache. He wore the same red vest with gold trimmings.
“Sorry to bother you,” said the man as he brought his carriage closer towards our campsite. “We had an accident with our carriage’s wheel earlier today and we expected to be at Ryr’s Ascension by now. We weren’t planning on spending another night on the road, otherwise we would’ve checked into an inn hours ago. Do you mind if we camp near you folks? I imagine the more of us there are, the less likely we will be attacked by any forest monsters, or worse, bandits.”
