Bloodline

(Authors note: Western union changed to Western Coalition)

Drake looked on at the crowd and sighed in exasperation, handing the crystal back to Minerva. He said to her,"Thank you Miss Minerva". Drake turned around back to the still reeling crowd, everyone was stunned at what had happened and in order to make a convincing performance Drake had given them indisputable proof. High grade Truth Crystals were rare but everyone knew that Truth Crystals did not fail, they were absolute and did not make mistakes. This was a huge benefit for the justice systems as roughly 2 years from now, the Western Coalition would start using Adella online and High Grade Truth crystals as part of their criminal investigations.

Drake said to everyone in a serious tone,"Now that I have cleared my name I must let you know that this power I have is very strange and I have not fully grasped how to pass on this information. So, with that being said, I will tell you now that I can't just randomly give you riddles when I feel like it, normally I have a vision of some sort and after seeing the person who needs the riddle to break through their bottleneck in progress, I have to figure how that person can break it. This brings me to a favor I need from Fern the Blacksmith and Ariana the Tailor!"

The crowd murmurs in anticipation. Arian and Fern slowly walk out from the crowd and stand in front of Drake. Drake continued on bringing out the four basilisk pelts he had gained as well as the three basilisk tails,"I recently went with my friend Loco here to an epic class dungeon which had a three tailed basilisk. I would like these three tails to be made into weapons for myself and Loco by our Blacksmith Fern."

Fern looked at Drake with a face of reverence and said,"Sir Drake! I would happily assist a man such as you with your equipment!" He looked over at Drake and Loco and said,"Hmm.. Scimitars and a Spear? Ok, this is good enough to work with, I can definitely make some rare items!"

Drake turned to Ariana the tailor and said,"Miss Ariana, I would ask that you do the same with our body worn equipment. I have four basilisk pelts here just for this occasion!" He pulled out the four basilisk pelts and three tails and handed them to their respective craftsperson.

Ariana looked on in awe at the quality of pelt that Drake had given her, this would surely give a ton of experience! She thought to herself,"Mom, I'm not far from you now! You better watch out!" She responded to Drake with a solemn bow and said,"I will do my utmost."

Drake looked on with a pleased smile and simply responded with,"What is a weapon without a soul?"

The two craftsmen looked at Drake with a confused expression and Fern spoke up saying,"Sir Drake, I don't exactly understand? What do you mean?"

Drake looked at the young blacksmith and chuckled lightly. He turned towards his master and bowed before him, saying as he did so,"Master you are now aware of the entire truth and I have fulfilled my vow. However, both Loco and I are still exhausted with all the events that have happened today, so I would like to sleep for a bit if that is alright with you?"

The chief said in a loud happy voice,"My boy you can do whatever you wish right now! You have proven time and time again that you are a righteous person who stands for justice. Yes, you have made mistakes, but that only made you a better person because of those experiences. You have nothing to be ashamed about, and your display of emotion up there is also one of the reasons why I have married Minerva. Drake, you have a very bright future ahead of you, don't let the sins of your past cloud your judgment on your journey on the path of justice."

Drake was slightly tearing up and before he could get emotional quickly grabbed Loco and headed out of the square. Leaving his master and the townsfolk to once again go about a normal day, well, as normal as things could get after a speech like that!

Loco and Drake went into the cottage that Drake was staying in and the two sat down. Loco had been quiet this whole time, not wanting to mess up whatever it was that Drake was trying to do with these NPC. Drake looked at Loco and said,"Ok, I guess it's time for an explanation huh?"

Loco chuckled a bit and said,"Well, it would be nice to be filled in, even just a little bit on what the hell all that was!"

Drake sighed and responded,"Ok, look, the NPC in this game are very responsive and dynamic as I am sure you have seen so far right? Well the reason for that is that every NPC is controlled by an individual Artificial Intelligence, who all believe everything they are seeing in this world is all real. This is their reality and we are only the visitors. I realized this very early on during playing and when I started treating them more like actual humans rather than just machines, it seemed like the A.I. in the NPC somehow recognized that and since then I have been able to grab a lot of information from them as they got more comfortable with me. Though sometimes I had to do a little bit of acting, like what you just saw."

Loco nodded his head and said,"Ok, and what of the potion we took before? What was it about that potion that made you break down in a panic attack?"

Drake looked seriously at Loco and said," This cannot leave this room, no one should ever be allowed to know that we have this power! The potion is called the "double bloodline" potion because it does exactly what it says, it gives you two bloodlines. At level 100, every player will gain the ability to obtain a 'bloodline' and it is basically a second class that can only be focused on the crafts. This bloodline ability that we were supposed to gain at level 100, well now we can have 2 of them! This basically means my friend, that you are one of only two people in the world who will have 3 classes!"

Loco was stunned and immediately went into thinking about the ramifications of having another class that no one else would have! Then he looked at Drake and asked the question,"Wait, how does this bloodline thing work?"

Drake then sighed and said,"Sadly, it is just as convoluted as the class system. Usually you would find a craftsman who you deem worthy enough and after being recognized by the craftsmen in question, you have to go to a local church to complete the "Oath of Bloodlines". I don't know much about it other than this though.

Loco was starting to question how Drake knew all of this information but then he remembered what Drake had told him about the NPC. How they got really close with him on a personal level and gave a ton of information.

Of course Drake could guess Locos thoughts as he had been preparing for this ever since he took the potion. He had to act his butt off in order to put on a convincing performance but it seemed like even really smart people like Loco couldn't tell that he was lying.

Drake thought to Eco in his mind,"Good job Eco! Your plan worked and I earned more prestige in the village! That was a great plan, in exchange you can start accessing the memories I have of my past life. I can tell you have been trying to get into those memories, but I had blocked certain things that I deemed too important. Have fun!"

Eco responded,"Thank you master! I love information collecting so this is the greatest reward you could give me!" Drake then felt like someone was rooting around in his head, and he sighed thinking about how he would never get used to that feeling.

Drake then tuned back into the conversation with Loco and said,"Alright, I need to take a break, I have a meeting with someone in like 3 hours, so I will depart first."

Loco laughed and said,"Ok, go ahead, I also have something that needs to be done in reality, so I will see you tomorrow!"

Drake and Loco shook hands and both young men logged off.

==

The chief dodged to the right, barely missing the attack. He dodged into an adjacent room, panting with nervousness as he did so. The person chasing him didn't let up though and kept throwing its hands at the chief, trying to grab him in any way possible.

The chief looked at the person attacking him and said,"Can't we do this any other way?! This is exactly why I didn't want to marry you, you damn succubus!"

The female slowly stepped into the light, she was beautiful and young and her exquisite black hair was draped behind her. She had a black tail that wriggled constantly and horns on her head that seemed to glow a deep crimson red. She suddenly attacked once more, catching the chief off guard and securing him to the ground.

He shouted,"Minerva! Get a hold of yourself!"

She smiled and said back to him,"Do you know how hard it is for us succubi to go without sex? Isaiah, I have waited for more than 30 years, keeping myself abstinent, waiting for you. Trust me, I am completely sane right now, however that doesn't mean you can escape!"

The chief thought to himself,'God shes hot and crazy, this is exactly why I didn't go after herrrr… oh…. Oh wow.."

Minerva had started her performance. Isaiah was now regretting not doing this with her before.