Chapter 3: Chapter 2: Helluva Price

Cardinal and I turned to where the woman’s voice came from, “Mill?” Cardinal asked while turning to the right of the storage room’s door.

The woman stepped out of the shadows and revealed herself. She had long orange hair, orangish-green eyes, purple robes, and a purple witch hat. “Card?” She asked.

“Yeah, what the fuck is this?” He said in a raised voice while motioning towards the bodies in the storage room.

“Oh,” The woman started midst chuckle, “It’s my way of “cutting loose ends.”

“Heh…” I said nervously while being left out of the conversation.

“Who is this?” Millie asked while turning to me with her left and positioned on her hip.

“This is Veronica,” Cardinal started. “She’s an outworlder like us.”

Millie pondered while placing her hand on her chin, “Hmm, interesting. When did you get here?”

“Uh, a few hours ago?” I had no memory of the exact time, everything happened so fast, not to mention I almost died.

“Interesting, I would not have thought that,” Millie said as she moved her hand away from her chin

“Why?” I asked.

“Same question she has,” Cardinal said.

Millie laughed a little, “Since I have the arcanist class skill set, when Lacritia became ‘real,’ I gained the ability to sense changes in mana. When people arrive, the air changes and the mana becomes slightly denser. At no point did I feel a shift today.” Millie went to a chair not too far from the storage room and sat down.

Met with that information, I didn’t even know where to start. “You mean, I’ve been here longer than I think?”

“Probably?”

I was about to ask another question, but I was interrupted by Cardinal.

“That’s super interesting and all, but you haven’t explained why you have dead bodies in your storage closet!” Cardinal had placed his palms on the small end table she sat behind.

“The Holy Knights are looking for outworlders,” Millie said while looking at the bodies in the storage room.

“Really?” I asked

“Yeah, a source told me the knights noticed the spike in reports of the undead, right around the time players started being teleported into this world.”

“So we are all targets now, not just undead or undead players?” Cardinal asked with worry in his voice.

Millie sighed, “Pretty much.”

I went to the area they were at, and stood awkwardly a little. “Who are the holy knights, and why do they hate the undead?”

Millie looked like she was about to laugh, “You didn’t read the update patch notes?”

Damn, my lore skipping behavior has caught me valuable information once again. “Uh… No.”

“Basically, the new update introduced a character known as ‘Saint Excella,’ a woman who rose in the ranks of the Gritzgaldr Church, took control of the Capital City, and then assumed power of the government during the end of the search for Lacritia’s Goblet,” Millie ended the explanation with another sigh. “That was a lot to get out.”

The realization had hit me even more, my lack of knowledge on the game could mean the difference between life or death now.

Cardinal chuckled while talking, “Now that she’s caught up, have you made any more advancements?’ Cardinal asked while Millie was still collecting her next thoughts.

“The main quest needs to be finished,” Millie said as she looked dead-serious.

“Main quest?” Cardinal asked in unison with me.

“Saint Excella needs to be killed, well, that’s what it’s starting to look like,” Millie continued, “It seems like this world still has some concepts of tasks that need to be finished, I think the task for this DLC is to kill the person in charge of everything, and the punishment looks like the stakes rise the longer said person is alive.”

“Like the Holy Knights suspecting you of being an outworlder and stuff?” I asked.

“Right on the point,” Millie started again, “You guys just have to find some way to get to the super heavily guarded Cathedral of the city where she resides.”

“And how do we do that?” Cardinal asked.

“Not by your selves, that’s for sure! You’d both be seared and cooked in a holy light barbecue!”

“That isn’t very reassuring,” I said while trying to figure out how it could be viewed as funny.

“Tell you what, I’m going to pack up shop and get out of here before that worrisome saint sends another group of knights, I was just barely able to take on those two, most of my potion inventory is gone,” Millie stood up and went over to the storage room.

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“And then?” Cardinal asked.

“I’ll help you guys if you manage to rally enough people to help you.”

“Where will you go?” I asked

“I have another spot me and my friends used to visit when the game was still a fictional; I will be fine for now.” Millie said whille picking up a sack off of the second rack of the storage room.

“Tell you what, If you two help me handle this mess, I’ll give you some useful stuff for your endeavors!”

“What would the-” I started.

“Deal!” Cardinal said as he stole my speaking time.

“Perfect!” Millie said while moving the bodies aside.

“You’re pretty casual about that…” I said

“Yeah, yeah, now let’s get to business!” Millie was way more excited than before.

“First, you need organize the potions, ingredients, cooking recipes, crafting recipes, now I have stuff to finish up front!” With those words, Millie left to do, whatever it was she was going to be doing.

“Ooh, nice!” Cardinal said while picking up a stamina potion.

“What are you gonna do with that? I asked, pretty sure he was about to steal it.

“Nothing at all,” As he said those words, his hand slowly moved the potion inside of his bag.

“Right…” I said.

While going through the first rack, I saw pink shards. “What are these?”

Cardinal got up and looked at the rack I was at. “Those are Glamour Shards, put them together and you’ll get a Glamour Crystal.”

‘Which?” I asked. I had seen them before, but my Bunny Beastkin account wasn’t high enough level to access the dungeons or towers that dropped them.

Cardinal moved the pieces together, “They capture the appearance of a worn set of armor, and when you put it on it makes your worn armor look like the saved set.”

“Oh, neat.” I said.

Cardinal went back to the floor to go through the bags of things he was “organizing.” I looked in the back of the rack and saw a troll claw. I moved the claw toward the section of the rack where I put crafting ingredients, and then moved further down.

I saw recipes Gritzgaldr dishes, hidden amongst general every day dishes. I moved all the recipes into a pile and reached the last inch of the rack. There was a mirror engraved with a red gemstone.

I tapped on the gemstone and before I could process the sensation, my head started to get blurry. I started hearing sounds I had never heard before.

Q̴̴̢͔̱̗̥̜͈̳͉͇̪͔̮̲̤͎ͩ̃̓̊́̔ͤ̒̈̎̓̊̃ͫ͌̎ͯͬ͝͝ͅu̗͙͆̆ͯȩ̨̢̯̠̘̹̼̱̼͎̭̭̽̄ͯ̆͆ͥ̄́̍̌̀͠s̊t̷͎̻̜̘͈ͨͧͩ̌͋̈̓ͤ̀͗̂͞͠͠ C̡̡̢̡̫̭̳̗͎̜̖̦̀̇́͒ͯ̏̇̌ͦͯ͛ͣ̾̅͘͢͢͢͠͡o̸̯̠̞̭͉̫͎̟ͥͬ͋̀̏ͤͬm̵̶̸̴̸̨̛͉̦͔͔̠̫̗͇̣̪͓͔̃̾̋͊̋̀̍̉̎́̈́ͣ̌̾ͤ̋ͨ͂͘͟͢p̧͙̟͚̎͛̕͠͡_̸̨̛̺̥̞̖͔͓̤̬͍̰̖͚̮̯̱̓ͥͤ̔͐͛͒̽̈́̐ͫ̀̆ͮ̊ͫ̀̕͢l̸̬̇͡ȩ̦̞̳̖̲̒̄ͫ͆̉̎t͉̗̝̩ͥ̌ͩ̎̆ͣ̀ͣ̔͜͡_̣̱͓̯̥͕̹̲͖͑͗̓̏̃͐̓͞ͅi͕̹̦͇ͩ̽͛_̝͖́́o̶̢̡̫̦̯͚̯̓ͤ͌ͦ͗ͫ͠ͅn̨̦̬̜̍̿̿̎ͯ̍: 1̷͈͈̙͈̭̩̥̬͕̳̋͛͊ͤ͗ͪ́͑̔̌͗2̪͇̈̍ͧ̽%̬͎́̏

The blurriness ended in abrupt blankness.

“H- Ar- Ake?”

“Ey! E! Wa!”

I still couldn’t understand anything I heard.

“Hey, are you good?” The voice asked. It was Cardinal and I was on the floor.

“Uh, I think so?” I said

“What happened?” Cardinal asked.

“Great, now regain your composure and help organize this stuff.”

I nodded and went back to organizing. I noticed that Card had organized all the rest of the racks, with neatly grouped piles of potions, all of which were color-coded. The blue potions were at the start, I’m guessing mana, with the health and stamina potions being last.

I moved the Banshee Cords into the pile of crafting ingredients, the minor mana potion recipe into the crafting recipe pile, and was finally finished with the first level of racks on my side of the storage room.

Cardinal helped me organize the last few stacks, in the middle of organizing the final stack, we heard a loud yell.

“I’m back! Did you guys finish?” It was Millie.

“Pretty much,” Cardinal said as he moved the last pile we finished aside.

“Yeah,” I said.

‘Great! You can stop now, the rest of that stuff is junk,” Millie said while readjusting her hat.

“Now, about that re-” Cardinal started.

“Yeah, yeah, your reward.”

“Glad you remembered,” Cardinal said while he excitedly smiled.

Millie opened up the sack and began looking around for something. After a few seconds of looking, she took out three items.

“What is that?” I asked after she took out a hand-sized, green, diamond-shaped orb with a gold ring around the top of it.

“Looks like it’s worth a lot!” Cardinal said, practically grasping at it.

“It kinda is, but don’t sell it. It’s an Ally Stone?”

“Ally what?” I asked

Millie started talking as she tapped the center of the gemstone, “An Ally Stone, it lets the group using it recognize themselves as friends, meaning they won’t take any damage from each other as long as they are registered.”

“For our “future endeavors,” I assume?” Cardinal asked.

“Yep,” Millie said. I took the Ally Stone and she reached into her hand for the next item. When presented with it, it was a crafting starter pack for minor mana, health, and stamina potions.

“I’ll be taking that,” Cardinal said as he snatched it from Millie.

“Watch it, little shit.” Millie said jokingly with a hint of seriousness.

Millie reached into the bag and took out the last item.

“Oooh! Gimme!” Cardinal said.

“Nope, not for you,” Millie said with the palm of her hand stopping Cardinal mid-flight.

Millie turned to me and presented the item. It was a light resistance potion. “You’ll need this for when you plan to deal with Saint Excella, don’t waist it unless you’re in a life or death situation.”

I nodded and took the potion. “Thank you so much.” I said.

“No problem, honest work for honest pay, not should you probably get out of here, since that’s what I’m about to do.” With those words, Millie snapped her fingers, causing the sack she had taken earlier to open and suck up all the piles we created.

“Wait! Where can I find a sack like that?” Cardinal yelled out.

Millie turned as she was walking towards the back door of her shop, “It was a side quest reward, probably not available, toodles!” She drank a stamina potion and stealth potion, before booking it down the street.

“Well, she’s a character,” I said.

“Understatement,” Cardinal said while taking all of the “junk” that Millie left and stuffing his bag to max capacity.

“Now we should imitate her and be out of here!” Cardinal drank one of the stolen stealth potions and a stamina potion, and then handed me a stealth potion.

“Right,” I said before drinking the stealth potion and taking his hand.

We ran through the same path we took to get to the store, made it to the crack in the dead end, and waited.

After a few seconds, we went inside the crack and were met with the stares of people around us.

“The hell have you been, Card?” A voice asked. I turned to my right and saw a Shadow Elf with long purple hair and darker purple skin.

“I went to Millie’s, you know how she can be, Starch.”

The man laughed and continued, “Alright, just give me a warning next time.

“A Shadow Elf thief? That must be a really effective combination!” I said, clearly geeking out over the game. I liked the aesthetic of races and classes, even if I skipped the lore and skill descriptions indiscriminately.

“Yeah, it was a pretty clever choice, if I do say so myself,” Starch said while laughing even more.

We laughed a bit, before the sound of our laughs was broken by the sound of violent gagging and coughing.

“Old Man!” A voice yelled out. It was a girl with pink braided hair in cleric attire. She ran to the old man who Cardinal seemed close with, and held him as he laid on the floor.

Everyone ran towards him, with Cardinal quickly taking out his health potions and pouring them into the mans mouth.

For a few seconds, the man was calm, but within the half second he was better his coughing started back up, even worse than before.

“Shit! What’s wrong?” Cardinal asked.

“Yeah, what’s happening?” The girl with pink hair called out in tears.

In the midst of the emotions I remembered, Lacritia had an aging option in the character creator, and the game world seems to be similar. “It looks like he’s dying,” I said solemnly as my head went down.

“Damn! If only Millie’s shop had a Life Span Potion!” Cardinal said loud with a pained voice. As he frantically searched his bag.

For a few more seconds, the man started coughing up blood, but used his hands to touch Cardinal’s face, “I don’t even know if any of this is real, but It feels like I’m dying, all because of a stupid scaler on a screen, ain’t that funny?” The man said as a smile formed on his face.

“Don’t talk like that!” The pink haired girl said as she grabbed his hand and rested it on her cheek.

“Cardinal, Marsa, just find answers and stay alive, okay?”

“Y-Yes!” The girl and Cardinal said, as the mans hand dropped and he stopped breathing.

The man didn’t dissipate like you would have in the video game. His body laid there without ever moving. This moment told me everything I needed to know, this was no longer a video game- It was a game of survival.