Pursuers and Test
Treech and Prince flew through the Star-Dust forest at a brisk pace. Prince asked a few questions about Treech's planning process and about World Class Items. It was the first time he and many of the casual players of Yggdrasil heard about these items. The items were forged from the 200 eaten worlds of the World Tree by the World Eater. They were the pinnacle of the game's Item Tier system. After spending about an hour of flying through the woods, they stopped to get their bearings and Treech wanted to check to see if they had any pursuers, despite him knowing he wasn't trackable directly with divination magic, he was a naturally cautious strategist.
Treech landed quickly onto the ground, followed by Prince. He took out a blue mana potion and drank it, restoring him a decent amount of MP. The problem with Health and Mana potions was that the developers made sure you could not use them in combat. When players complained about this on the forums, the developers justified the decision as a way to prevent 'hp drinking contests' and more actual skill would be involved in fights.
After drinking a Greater MP Potion, Treech recovered more than half his mana. He then cast the 9th Tier Spell: [Agarthan Treehouse]. A black-barked redwood tree sprouted and grew up to the same height as the other trees. It was the exact same Agarthan Tree that he had used to overlook Forth Rite city a few hours ago. But this one would only last temporarily for 48 hours and would disappear unless he reinforced the spell on the tree. After the tree has lasted more than a week, it would remain permanently. It was a perfect spell for temporary residence.
"Let's go up, I want to take a look at our surroundings," said Treech.
Prince nodded his blob head and followed him up. His sensei talked a bit about the history of World Items in Yggdrasil Lore while they flew here. Needless to say, Prince was still curious about seeing a World-Class Item. From what his sensei said, he considered them 'game-changing' items making war and fights nearly impossible to predict.
His teacher's exact words:
`The mere existence of World Class Items is a threat in and of itself, changing the nature of the entire game to be one of cautious advancement. `
He wrote that exact quote on another scroll he had started, which he titled: Teacher's Grand Wisdom Part 4: Items of Power. He wanted to detail all of his teacher's thoughts for himself on World Items and how to approach dealing with them.
He broke himself out of his thoughts as they both arrived in front of the treehouse. It was constructed in the exact same manner as the previous one. It even had the garden that was out front previously. They both entered the main living room area of the house and Treech then took out [Conqueror's Merit] and a belt item from his inventory. He threw the [Conqueror's Merit] out and activated it in the center of the room, while he held the belt in his left hand.
[Conqueror's Merit] sprung out and its obsidian table form appeared. Treech looked across the table and used it to map the surroundings and note any forces around the area. He quickly noticed a group of players who were about 30 miles behind them. He watched as their figurines flew through the redwood trees of the Star-Dust forest, following the same path that they had just taken. He mentally focused on the figurine at the front and got the player's information to appear on his HUD. It appeared as if the player were being identified right in front of him. It even showed additional information about their Guild Affiliation, which was normally not displayed like a title.
========***++++***========
[DemiDemi]
Name: Tonks
[Race]: Wood-Elf
Level: 44
Hp: 36
Mp: 48
========***++++***========
'I was correct. This World Class Item is a top-class strategic item, it essentially clears the fog of war for me. I can even get accurate player HP, Level, and energy information from one look.' Treech was very pleased with this World Item's abilities. For a Commander type player like him, who focused on strategy this item takes away all needs for scout units among his forces.
'But perhaps this isn't even a fraction of what it can truly be used for. I can already see many possibilities where this item is used purely to scout for Hidden Dungeons and resources. Its uses are perfect for strategic resource gathering, war planning, and information gathering. If I had another World Item to compare it to, perhaps I could give it a value ranking compared to others.' He thought.
"Sensei, is this the World-Class Item Conqueror's Merit?" Prince was having a hard time taking in the fact that they could look into another person's stats from so far away so perfectly. And the World-Item does not even count as divination magic. The only defense against it was to carry your own World Item.
Treech nodded his head.
"Yes, this is the true power of World Class Items. Though I am a bit surprised at the versatility this one has, I can't make a comparison as I have never seen any others yet." Treech explained his thoughts as he ran his hands along his branches over his shoulders out of habit.
"Sensei, how would you fight against someone with this item?" Prince asked with his scroll in hand.
"Hmm. I would probably deal with the user by flying my army above the 25-mile sky limit Conqueror's Merit has." Treech answered with a thoughtful look.
They both watched as the figurines on the board continued to move closer to their location.
"Sensei, they seem to be tracking us. What should we do?" Prince asked.
Treech glanced at Prince's level quickly and sized up his stats information.
========***++++***========
Name: Starlight Prince
[Race]: Star-Dust
Level: 32
Hp: 38
Mp: 56
========***++++***========
Treech stayed in thought for a while before finally coming to a decision. He was going to offer Prince to join his clan, but first, he needed to test him. He didn't want to have a dead weight in his group. He was stuck in this world and his heart wouldn't let him have peace unless he was pushing himself into exciting situations. Adventuring beyond his past self and seeing what else this world could show him. It takes a strong will and sharp mind to do this and in Treech's heart even if the entire world rose up to stop him one day, he would smile at the challenge.
"Kid, have you thought about this game? Taking it seriously and joining a clan?" Treech asked,
"Yes, sensei. I want to be strong in Yggdrasil. I don't have anyone else in the real world and my life is not the best. But here I met you, sensei. Since I first joined Yggdrasil till now, I've wanted strength here. Because I can't get strength in the real world. So here, I don't have to be weak anymore." Prince responded with a serious answer.
Treech was a bit surprised that a kid like him was so focused on this game. He would be lying if he said he didn't want to hear what caused the kid to want to be strong in Yggdrasil and about his situation in the real world. But he shouldn't ask about it too much. He can't have people asking him why he stays logged in all the time, so he should set the precedent to not ask about real life.
He also needed serious clan members the most if he planned to take on the World Bosses later. He knew that despite all his skill, he had limits when fighting Bosses designed to fight hundreds of level 100 players. He was not arrogant enough to believe that he could do what hundreds of max-level players were needed to do.
"Then I'll give you a test. Come find me in the 4th Zone in 3 weeks' time. If you can't defeat those who are pursuing you by then, you can forget about joining [Dark Reunion]." Treech said.
He took the belt he had taken out earlier and placed it around his waist. It adjusted to his size perfectly and a single purple chain dangled off it on the right side. He then summoned [Conqueror's Merit] back into its black globe form, before stashing it away onto the belt. It was a Relic-Class item he recently got from the ruins of Forth Rite city. It was called [Mana Engineer's Belt] and it could hold off-hand items for quick access. The black globe dangled from the purple chain attached to the [Mana Engineer's Belt], hanging from his waist.
"Sensei, I won't let you down." Prince bowed, offering his gratitude.
Treech had known that someone would try to track him down ever since he received the global announcement of his World-Item. He had been planning from the start to separate from Prince because right now, the kid would be dead weight. At least, Treech could survive with his [World Shelter] ability. He couldn't afford to contact too many people out of caution that they might track him through them. He knew that nobody could track him directly. His trait prevented most divination magic and detections from working on his HUD. It was because of this reason that he had already given up on most hiding spells and counter divination spells other than [Perfect Unknowable]. He knew that in order for the DemiDemi guild to have followed after them so thoroughly, they had to have been tracking Prince.
He then walked out of the treehouse and cast [Fly] on himself, preparing himself to leave. [Conqueror's Merit] was dangling on his right hip like a big key chain as he hovered in place. He had a few more plans for himself right now, and they involved capturing strategic resource points such as Ore Mines in the area. He also needed to further look through his loot from the city siege. He couldn't continue to babysit a kid. If he passed the test, he would welcome him as a skilled teammate, if not then he would have to leave him behind as he would be destined to fail to keep up with him.
"Meet me at the highest mountain 250 miles from here. I'll send you the coordinates via a message in 3 weeks' time. If you pass my test, I can finally call you a team member." Treech said with a slight smile in his voice all this as he sent a friend request before floating away from the tree slowly with the fly spell.
Prince watched him leave from the branch of the Agarthan Tree and was thinking seriously to himself.
'I swear I'll pass the test you gave me. I am not a useless or ungrateful student I want to be strong. I will repay you for everything.' Prince resolved to himself in his heart he would definitely not let Treech down. He then logged off for a bit. He had a lot to think about.
...
[DemiDemi] Hunting team, Star-Dust Forest.
"Tonks-sama, it seems I've lost track of Starlight Prince. Give me a moment." BBWolf said as he began to cast another spell [Remote Viewing] to view at Prince's last known location. It was a special skill that was given to the [Grand Seer] class, which would let someone view the surrounding area from an areal perspective of a drone. After looking through the area, all he saw was the large Agarthan Tree.
"It seems the last known location is the same kind of Tree that existed next to Treech during the Forth Rite massacre. I also checked his active information and it says that he is currently offline." BBWolf reported dutifully.
Treech's ability would even prevent his online status from being known. It had an (Unknown) to anyone checking, so Tonks could only make guesses about his online status.
"Hmm," Tonks thought to herself quietly.
"We keep an eye on the area, for now, set up a small base. Most likely, Treech has logged out for the day alongside Prince. It is getting close to the start of shift hours." she said after some thought.
"After we set up a logout location let's keep watch on the Tree for another hour. Continue to scout the area with Remote Viewing and if we don't find anything we should log out for the day. Make sure to use [True Sight] enhanced vision." She commanded again.
'Hehehe ah, I wish I could bring down a comet as he did to Forth Rite city! I bet his reaction would be really great! The irony of being killed by the attack that he had just used. It would be delicious ah, Hehe hehe,' Tonks thought to herself in her own little world.
DemiDemi continued flying until they finally reached within half a mile of the Agarthan Treehouse. They all landed on the ground and an arcane magic caster named [MagicHands] cast a simple [Create Camp] spell. It lasted for 48 hours and created 12 tents for players. It followed the same rules as the Agarthan Treehouse spell as well, where it would be made permanent after refreshing the spell duration over time. The players then all split up and entered different tents, with a few of the team members keeping watch over the treehouse with detection spells.
Very quickly an hour passed by, and they still had yet to see any movement from the treehouse. They had already searched the treehouse with divination and detection spells thoroughly to detect life, detect undead, detect monsters, but none of them returned any results.
"*Sigh, I guess they both really logged off for the day, " Tonks muttered to herself. Her shoulders slumped down in sadness.
'Oh well, we will continue tracking them tomorrow after the end of the corporate shifts.' She reassured herself in her thoughts.
Everyone was in the same boat in the real world. The Mega-Corporations all coordinated for global work hours that were mandatory for all adults, teens, and even children over the age of 8. She reassured herself in the knowledge that Treech would most definitely still be here when she got back. She didn't even entertain the thought that Treech could be a spoiled young master from one of the Mega-Corporations families, to whom the rules didn't apply. The odds of that were nearly zero as there were less than a thousand people in the ruling families.
Each of the members DemiDemi logged off for the day one by one, preparing for their day jobs. But unfortunately for Tonks, she would soon learn that Treech was already far far away from their 'trap'.
(Author's note: Man this chapter was hard for me, I kept having to rewrite it.)