Chapter 14: Chapter 12: Proper Introduction

The chest shimmered in the face of Veronica and her group. Every handful of gold they took revealed more of it underneath.

“This. Is. Beautiful!” Cardinal said excited as he practically dove into the chest.

“Hey, wait a second!” Veronica said, pulling him by his collar, causing the chest to slightly tip forward before falling back. The trail of dropped coins was followed by Cardinal’s complaints.

“What?” he asked in annoyance.

Veronica dropped him, “Isn’t this supposed to be for that guy?” she pointed to the blue-haired boy.

The boy sighed a bit. He had finished collecting everything he could from his party. “It’s okay, take whatever you want. I don’t think there would be enough to repay you guys for saving my ass.”

“See, he’s on board, now let me back in there!” Cardinal said as he lunged back onto the chest.

Bike laughed nervously, “He uh, really loves gold.” He had walked back to the area of the chest after he finished praying for the fallen party.

“Fitting for a thief,” The Elven Archer said with one hand on her hip.

Cardinal got his share of gold before leaving the rest of the items to everyone else, aside from the Tooth Dagger. Veronica took the Golem Scroll, Stat Awaken Tome, and the Skill Enhancement Tome. Griffa took the Green Diamond, a valued resource in the Elven Isles, leaving the remaining resources for Bike.

The group left the dungeon, dissipating after they made their final steps outside. They traveled to Archibald’s village, in which they were met with the excitement of everyone.

“Archie is back!” a child yelled as they he ran to Archibald to hug him.

“Really?” another asked.

The commotion drew the attention of Archibald’s grandmother, who slowly made her way through the quickly growing crowd.

“Is that really my boy?” she asked.

“It’s me, Gran,” Archibald said with a nod.

“Oh, thank you all so much!” she said as she turned to Veronica and the group. “Just a second,” she said, followed by her going into her home and coming out with a bag of gold. She handed it to The Elven Archer, seeing as she was the one who accepted the quest to find Archibald in the first place. The crowd has followed Archibald to the local tavern, greatly lessening the noise pollution his return created.

“Thank you,” Griffa said as she accepted the reward. She took some of the gold out of the bag, and threw it to Veronica.

“Uh, thanks?” Veronica asked after she caught it. She had no idea on what to call the Elven Archer

A small smile appeared on the Elven Archer’s face, “As a thanks for helping me with this quest. And my name, it’s Griffa.”

“Thank you, Griffa.” Veronica finished her gratitude.

Bike added on, “But, aren’t you a part of our group now?” He asked Griffa.

She looked confused, “I thought you just wanted to know my name,” she said pensively.

“A name is nice, but a member of the team would be even cooler,” Cardinal said, leaning on the lamplight he had made in his temporary resting quarters.

“I agree,” Veronica said. When Griffa had turned, she already saw the Ally Stone in hand.

“Hmm,” she started, ‘I do have a lot of time in between my plans to go home… Fine.”

“Awesome!” Veronica thought to herself. She had gotten a new team member, completed a quest, and gotten new items. She saw nothing but the positives for the moment.

The group took a moment to rest in the tavern once the celebration of Archibald’s return had dimmed. They had more than enough gold to rent two rooms, each with a decent amount of room and comfortable bedding. Veronica and Griffa had their room, while Cardinal and Bike had their own too.

“So, what is that to you?” Veronica asked while laying back on her bed. She had just seen Griffa admiring the Green Diamond they obtained earlier.

Griffa turned after sitting on her bed, “It represents the Regal House of the Elven Isles, the house I come from,” she put the diamond back in her bag.

That had pulled in the interest of Veronica. She was further amazed at how this world took after Goblet of Lacritia, even down to the small worldbuilding of patch notes. The Elven Isles were never a part of the actual game, it was a long-rumored planned DLC.

“I’m guessing that has something to do with your future plans,” Veronica said.

“Yes,” Griffa said.

“Well, goodnight,” Veronica said, followed by a nod from Griffa. Griffa slept, but Veronica stayed awake the majority of the night, an aspect of her undead nature that she was getting used to.

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Seconds grew into minutes, then hours, until the day had come. Veronica was the first to “wake up”. Veronica woke the others up with simple gestures, all except for Griffa. She had woken up by herself, Veronica likened it to her internal clock, or maybe she was just that organized.

“We heading off?” Cardinal asked as the group arrived to the door, waiting for the others to respond with action.

“Just a second,” Bike said. He quickly scurried out of the Inn, leaving no time to question him about his intended destination.

“Um, okay…” Veronica said. She saw no reason to question it, Bike was pretty good alone anyways.

“That one always seems to be going off somewhere,” Griffa said with a small laugh to Veronica.

“Yeah,” she said as she nodded in agreement.

The group finished saying goodbye to the Inn Keeper. He told them of a carriage that could take them to a vast amount of areas, with Veronica and Cardinal making sure one of those destinations of Wistagardia- or at least, someplace close to it. Without hesitation, they made their way to the Carriage site, not too far away from the rest of the area and nestled between two decently sized trees.

“Where is that guy?” Cardinal Asked. They had arrived to the carriage but Bike was still nowhere to be found. He leaned against a tree in his usual manner while tapping his foot.

“I’m a bit concerned too,” Griffa added as she stood near the carriage, having just finished establishing the travel route and payment with the carriage rider. Her lineage from the Elven Isles had some pull with people in this area. Added with the clout of saving one of their beloved adventurers, they had gotten themselves a very good discounted price on the journey.

“I’m sure he will be okay,” Veronica said, not seeing the issue with the allotted wait time. After a few minutes, Bike could be heard yelling.

“Wait for me!” He yelled, he ran towards the carriage before stopping to rest his hands on his knees while catching his breath. “I finally made it!”

“Where did you finish running from, dude?” Cardinal asked as he went to check on him.

“We could say the same,” Veronica said as Griffa nodded.

Bike looked up at them, “I was talking to Archibald about some things, his grandmother was actually an active Druid back in the day, so I wanted to learn some new tricks!” Bike said excitedly.

“I figured so,” Griffa started as she moved her pointer finger to her chin, “With Classes being a life-long path, it’s inevitable that someone who joined one earlier in life would carry those ways later in life, even if they are no longer active.”

“Meaning?” Cardinal asked with visible confusion.

Griffa smirked, “Archibald’s grandmother excluded the life choices of a Druid, with her generosity and compassion.”

Veronica was about to respond, but was interrupted by an impatient voice, ‘That’s really great you all, but I have things to do, and if I’m gonna risk my horses taking you to your destination, you better hurry the realms up!”

With that demand, everyone jolted up, threw their things into the back of the carriage and began to climb aboard. “Someone’s strict, huh?” Cardinal said as the carriage started to go forward.

“I heard that!” the carriage rider said as he began to steer, causing Cardinal to mope.

The group had begun traversing the path in a straight line. The galloping of horses was heard in intervals, taking turns with the sound whistling birds that flew past them. They took minor breaks in between the wooded areas, all seemed to be going smoothly.

The galloping slowed suddenly, causing the group to be alert. “Why are we slowing down, sir?” Veronica asked. As she quickly glanced out of the carriage.

Cardinal slowly pulled his dagger handle up, “Yeah, what’s the deal?”

Bike and Griffa assumed their semi-ready stances as well. They had all known that something could go awry. The path to Wistgardia was littered with dangerous beings, Trolls, primal orcs, and an assortment of other terrors.

The carriage rider cleared his throat, “I’m going to let you know, if anything tells me that me and my horses are in danger, I won’t hesitate to leave you to your own vices,” he finished as he slowly began to pick up speed.

“Got it,” Cardinal said, followed by him and Bike slowly lowering their tension. They had survived a fair bit of danger up until this point, surely they could manage.

Veronica stayed alert, as did Griffa. The ride went on for 5 more minutes. The galloping had made the horrific sounds heard beyond the trees bearable, but not in any way delightful. After 6 more minutes, the sounds worsened.

“God damn it!” Cardinal started as he sighed, “It’s going to be the damn Wither shit all over again!”

“Wither?” Griffa asked as she turned to Cardinal

“Yeah, we killed one,” Veronica said promptly. Completely leaving out the fact they had help

“Truthfully?” Griffa asked.

“Sure did!” Bike said in his usual fashion. “And we did it together, with the help of this super nice Fire Mage!” he added gleefully.

“I-I don’t know what to say!” Griffa said as her eyes widened. She had not seen what the team was capable of besides the Greater Golem, so this was a surprise to her of high frequencies.

“I-I think I might survive that then,” said the carriage driver, followed by another slowing movement of the horses. They started to neigh frantically and flared their nostrils.

“Survive what?” Bike asked him.

As the man was about to answer, Veronica said loudly, “Oh. Shit.”

[Barraging Troll: 100k/100k]

What stood before the carriage’s path was a humongous troll. In its ginormous form, it was made of 2 arms and 2 legs which it stood on, with assistance from its knuckles.

“Are you kidding me?” Cardinal yelled loudly.

“I-It looks stronger than the W-Wither…” Bike said as his shoulders slumped.

“Keep your heads on!” Griffa said as she readied her bow. She jumped out of the carriage, before grabbing the roof of it and throwing herself on top of the back.

“R-Right!” Veronica said as she started looking through her scroll inventory. “No,” She said as she flipped through her inventory, pushing the stat items aside. “No!” She said, pushing even more things aside, making a mess of her previously fairly organized collected things. “Ugh!” she let out. “What do I do?” She started to think. Before she could finish thinking, Griffa yelled.

“It’s coming!” she said.

And just as she announced, the health bar started moving closer as Veronica looked at it, the number haunting her every moment of her acknowledgment of it.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

{Enemy Status: Enraged}

The words read, adding to the stress of Veronica’s situation. “I need time to think, Bike, Move the carriage out of the way, and uh, blind it or something Griffa!” she yelled.

“Alright!” Bike yelled, followed by a nod from Griffa. The behemoth of a monster was nearly at the carriage, one foot away from the horses.

“Fwoom!” With quickness, Bike had sprinkled seeds and grown branches that yanked the carriage out of the line of the beast’s charge.

“Thoom!” Griffa shot an arrow that nearly hit the eye of the troll, but still caused it to have a small reaction. It growled in anger as it ran past its chosen target.

“Good! That’s good!” Veronica said as she excitedly used the opportunity to strategize. “Straight charge.. Charge? Vine… Tree Vine?” As Veronica started thinking, she saw letters again, but they were only floating in the air,

{Environment}

“Environment?” Veronica thought to herself. Then, it dawned on her, “Environment!” she yelled out loud as she finalized searching through her inventory.

“What?” Cardinal asked in confusion.

Trolls hate the smell of Elven lineage, one of the only things Veronica remembered from the game. Whenever she played with an Elf in her party for general content, her Elven party members were the first to be targeted by trolls.

“Griffa,” she yelled.

“Yes?” Griffa said, still keeping her eye and bow aimed on the slightly irregulated target.

“You mind being our living bait?” Veronica asked as she took a scroll out.

“I have not the slightest clue what you’re planning, but I’ll go along,” Griffa said. “What now?”

Veronica opened the scroll to prepare it, “You stay a little further in front of us, when the troll gets enraged, Bike will pull us out of the way. You got that Bike?” Veronica asked as she turned to Bike, who was still stretching his hands out to prepare the next Vine Swing.

“I understand!” He said.

Veronica Quickly tore into the scroll, creating a zigzag pattern in it, a strange one that had no clear path at first glance. “These undead, boney nails do come in handy!” she thought to herself.

“What are you doing?” Cardinal said slightly loud, appalled by the destruction of such an expensive item, regardless of which type of scroll it was.

“You’ll see,” she said. With that, she handed the scroll to Bike, motioned his eyes to a pattern she visualized. He nodded in agreement.

“It’s coming again!” The carriage rider said, followed by the disturbed sounds of his horses. They had been panicking the entire plan-creation process. Veronica set her eyes on the Troll, she was ready.