Chapter 177 - The Shattered Sky Update

"Alright, I'm gonna call it there," Merlin said, turning to his stream camera. "Thanks for tuning in, I'll be streaming at the same time tomorrow."

"I'm thinking we'll pay a visit to the wizard college tomorrow," He said, "I'm sure some of you are dying to see magic in action. It'll be fun."

He spent a few minutes reading the chat and answering a couple of questions. He even gave the audience a backflip due to receiving many requests, but he eventually ended the stream and made his way into the city of Macedonia.

He walked through the city, making his way down a side street that was both uninhabited and had an entrance into the sewer system.

After picking the lock on the iron bar door, Merlin slowly opened it and entered the sewer. The stench of bodily waste flooded his senses, but he summoned his little ball of light before setting out in search of the correct entrance.

The sewer system was a confusing maze of a structure, and finding the correct ladder was proving rather difficult, but he eventually spotted the marking that he took notice of earlier.

'Oh thank god.' Merlin thought to himself. He didn't want to spend even a second more in the sewer.

Merlin quickly climbed the ladder and started knocking on the manhole cover in the rhythm of the secret code that he was taught before leaving last time.

After a few moments, a set of knocks came through from the other side. Merlin returned the last part of the code before he heard a loud clunk sound as the manhole swung open.

"Ahh, Ghost, welcome." A man looming over the manhole said in a cheerful voice.

Merlin climbed up into the dark basement and quickly cast cleanse on himself.

"God, I would do anything for the power to teleport," Merlin muttered to himself while staring at the manhole that was being slowly closed by the man on guard.

"Yeah, it's not the most pleasant of entrances, I agree with you there." The guard said as he wandered back over to his chair. "But it's better than jail, or a guillotine..."

"Not by much." Merlin retorted, getting a chuckle out of the guard.

He waved goodbye as he made his way up the staircase into the mansion, he caused his ball of light to vanish before reaching the next room.

The inside of the building was pleasant. Which was quite the contrast when compared to their makeshift entrance.

Merlin made his way upstairs again, where he saw the usual faces sitting around at the various tables, all of them drinking or gambling.

He weaved through the sea of tables and chairs, greeting everyone as he made his way towards his usual conversation partner, the thief lord.

There was an unfamiliar sight at the thief lord's table this time around, his daughter Fae had joined him for a drink.

"Oh, Hello there Merlin. I haven't got any tasks for you to do if that's why you've come today." The thief lord spoke up. "But you're welcome to join us for a drink."

Merlin shook his head and took a seat at the table.

"I'm here because I've got information." He said, "I encountered a situation similar to the one you described to me when I first joined. The sky started to shatter, and a dark void revealed itself underneath."

The elf's expression hardened, and Fae started listening into the conversation.

"Go on..." The elf muttered.

Merlin went on to describe the events that had occurred during his latest quest, but when he mentioned the monstrous noises that drove the undead into an aggressive state, the roars that struck fear into all that heard it and the maddening effect, the elf seemed lost in thought.

"I'm not sure if that monster is the cause of these phenomenons or just an inhabitant of that void. Either way, it likely has some part to play in at least some of the strange things happening in this world." Merlin explained.

"It does seem that way," The elf muttered, still lost in thought.

"Is that... the thing that took mother?" Fae spoke up and turned to her father. "Can we get her back now that we know this? Do we have to kill that monster?"

"We'd have gotten her back, even without this." The elf lord rested his hand on his daughter's shoulder, pulling her closer to him. "We'll get her back soon, just stay strong."

「The quest "The shattered sky." has been updated.」

"Thanks for this." The elf lord turned to Merlin once more, "We've tracked down a couple of the biggest dealers in the city, it won't be long until we can locate and identify Ashen. We'll contact you when we have more information."

Merlin gave the man a nod before standing up and making his way back towards the basement.

He quickly escaped into the sewers after saying goodbye to the man on guard duty. He summoned his ball of light as he plunged into the stinky hellhole that was the sewer system.

While making his way out of the sewers, he quickly pulled up his quest sheet to see what had changed.

┌───────────────────

[Hidden Epic Quest]

The shattered sky.

A strange phenomenon occurred only months prior to your arrival, causing various world-changing events to occur.

If you figure out the cause, perhaps you could discover a way to reverse it or at the very least quell some of the issues it has caused.

Some major events in the world seem to have been caused by the shattered sky event. Perhaps assisting in solving the issues they've caused will uncover a solution for preventing more phenomena from occurring.

A monstrous creature seems to lurk within the void. It seems to be capable of manipulating monsters and sending them into a frenzy. This is a power that matches some of the previous events caused by the phenomenon, perhaps this creature is pulling the strings behind the entire situation, but for what reason?

• Warning: Accepting this quest will increase the possibility of strange phenomena occurring around you, this could potentially interrupt other quests.

• Reward: ???

• Failure: ???

└───────────────────

"So, not much I didn't already know." Merlin muttered to himself, "But it now has text pointing out that I'm likely on the right track, so that's good to know."

Merlin wandered the sewers for a few moments before finding a suitable location to escape the sewers from.

He cleaned himself off with the cleanse spell before making his way into the more populated areas of the city. 

At some point, he received the usual red alert box, telling him that his playtime was coming to an end.

┌───────────────────

[Message from the devs!]

Group one, your session will end in five minutes, please find a safe place and log out.

The server will forcibly disconnect those who do not log out in time. Thank you.

└───────────────────

Merlin made his way over to the temple's park, finding a comfortable place in the shade before logging out.

His body went through the usual procedure of being thrown into the dark void, then into the virtual hub.

Once he escaped the virtual world, he made his way over to the briefing room, greeting the developers as he took a seat in his usual spot.

His friends started to arrive after a couple of minutes, and once everyone was present, they all started talking about their raid on the Necropolis.

"We should do it next week, you guys need to all get the cleric soul and preferably level up to at least level six or seven," Arthur said. "But out of all of that, we absolutely need the cleric soul for it. That two times damage bonus against the undead is incredibly helpful, especially when we'd be pretty under levelled for the area."

Everyone nodded in agreement, but Maria seemed to realise something and was now conflicted.

"Ah, but Holly is joining next week..." Maria said in a disappointed tone.

"Well, it'll be more fun if she can experience the world for herself first, rather than being power levelled from day one." Arthur said, "Give them tips, but don't take away the first experience from them."

That seemed to convince her. So with that, everyone was on board with the plan. 

"What will you be doing tomorrow while we're doing the cleric quests?" Alvira asked Arthur.

"I'll be heading over to Megalopolis to get the wizard soul tomorrow. I've already got the cleric soul, but I don't meet any of the requirements to get a god's blessing just yet, so I'll just be using the base version." Arthur said.

"God's blessing?" Several people in the group asked.

"Yeah, the cleric soul has a mechanic where you can worship a god for bonuses," Arthur explained. "If you meet the requirements you can get a god's blessing. It comes with some themed abilities and stuff depending on which god you pick, so I think it's the most unique class so far." 

The group continued chatting until the rest of the first wave's players had finally all entered the briefing room, allowing the end of session briefing to start.

The briefing ended several minutes later without many overly important topics to cover. The same set of names appeared during the leaderboard segment, with Rowan taking the fifth seat.

The group continued talking as they made their way out of the building before eventually splitting off and going their separate ways.

Arthur made his way over to Donovan's car, where he noticed that Donovan seemed to have fallen asleep in his vehicle.

Deciding that he didn't want to wake the guy up, Arthur entered the vehicle as quietly as he could.  Closing the door was slightly louder than he had hoped, but Donovan was either extremely tired or a deep sleeper. 

Arthur decided to just sit quietly in the car while waiting for Donovan to wake up on his own.