Chapter 107: Shell of a castle

The next day, Eldrian logged in right after coming back from class. Waking up inside the game world Eldrian reflected on how strange it still felt.

He felt it a bit jarring with how logging in and out worked. His character would simply appear in the place it had been, or a 1-meter radius from there if something was in his way.

If something blocked his entire spawn area he would then get a message to choose to wait or risk spawning inside the area still. Strangely this 1-meter radius counted laterally too, people could even spawn in the air. This spawn area had been added to help the players adventure more, while still being quite restrictive.

To log off a player needed to first fall asleep, as such his avatar was lying down next to one of the trees he had logged off under. This together with how the headset worked still gave Eldrian the feeling that he was waking and coming to reality.

He knew that this was the actual fake reality, but he had been starting to lose this filter with time. Making him understand again why the developers do not want people to play longer than 16 hours at a time. With a hard limit of 18 hours.

Standing up Eldrian stretched his stiff body and looked at the castle. Seeing that it seemed to still be closed he breathed a sigh of relief. He had skipped his normal forum browsing time to ensure he did not miss the army moving out.

Feeling refreshed from his stretching Eldrian took out his spear and started some training to warm up for the day. While at it he also practiced using Floga with the spear. Instead of simply using it like before he tried different methods.

First, he practiced keeping the flame in front of his spearhead, after a few successes he moved to try and hide the flame. Either under his arms, behind the spearhead, or behinds his back. He also practiced flinging it and bringing it back to him, trying to find the speed limit at which he could do it.

This is kinda like a whip. Eldrian commented to himself as he practiced the last part. Finding it interesting that he could feel resistance when he called the flame back. Is there magic inertia? Eldrian wondered, not thinking that a flame should have much momentum.

Eldrian was practicing this not for Floga but rather for Velona Pa. He had no idea how the ice needle was going to work, but if he could also control it like he did Floga, then Eldrian had dreams. Big dreams.

After around an hour of practice, the sun finally rising, Eldrian took a break. For this break he took out some of yesterday's meat and started walking towards the city gate as he enjoyed the cold steaks.

Instead of saying he had a delivery he planned to try a different approach. "Good morning, I would like to sign up," Eldrian said as soon as he reached the gate.

Two sleepy guards leaning against the closed gate gave him a weird look after hearing his greeting.

"Were you just doing that fire show?" One asked as he rubbed his neck which had become sore from wearing the chainmail for an entire night.

"Fire show?" Eldrian asked in confusion.

The guard struggled to find the words, "That, twirling light."

Taking a few seconds to understand the guard's words Eldrian replied. "Oh that, I was trying something. Don't mind that, can I sign up?"

"Sign up? For what? And how did you do that?"

"The Taurus relief mission of course. I want to join as an adventurer. I did confirm that I can join later on before coming." Eldrian replied, skipping the guard's last question.

Stuttering the one guard simply gave up on answering, turning the duty to his partner who said a single word. "Proof?"

"Not this again, I am a Chosen. And I would like to join the mission. Do not make this more difficult." Eldrian said, straining the last part. If they still wanted to deny him access he was going to flip.

While he did not need to enter the place, he really wanted to set a new spawn point. Which was why he was pressuring these two. While waiting for one of them to answer Eldrian cast Inspect, making sure to keep the spell active. Last time he had only cast it with a predetermined intention, now he kept his intention vague.

Having hoped to get their details, Eldrian instead got the details of their arms and armor.

Tier 4 normal grade weapons, around 15 damage and Tier 2 chainmail with around 5 armor. I think I can take them. They shouldn't be too strong. Eldrian thought to himself, feeling that their arms and armor were a bit weak.

Luckily the guards seemed to sense that Eldrian was not going to take no for an answer.

"We will go get our captain. We can't allow you to enter." One said, quickly entering the gate and leaving his friend alone.

"Please, do-n't" The other stuttered.

Seeing this guard's fear Eldrian wondered just why they were like that. If they used Observe on him then they should know he was not all that strong. Do they think I am really strong due to my practice earlier? Eldrian wondered, feeling that it was the only thing that made sense.

A few minutes later the other guard came back with the female leader Eldrian had helped the day before.

"You! Do you think I will allow you to enter?" She asked, immediately becoming aggressive.

"Seriously, why the hell are you so aggressive?" Eldrian asked in amazement.

"Because you Chosen are nothing but trouble!"

"Really, and who was it that saved your asses?"

"Who was it who got us into that mess?"

"Not me, you can't blame an entire population on the act of a few."

"Try me." She said, turning her back to Eldrian and yelling at the guards that they were not to let him in.

Taking a deep breath Eldrian turned to the guards. "Who is she, what is her name, station and rank?"

"W-why?" One of the guards asked while stuttering.

"Simple, I am going to make sure she gets what is coming for her. Now, her name rank and station?" Eldrian asked again, not even knowing if his questions were proper ones. He actually just wanted her name, but felt the guards rest would make him seem more informed. If he was correct in his questioning that is.

"She is Lucy and she is a hothead." Someone other than the guards answered. Turning around Eldrian saw a man in worn out fancy battle armor. It was clear that the armor had once been an artwork, but now it had become little more than metal used to protect its wearer.

Patchwork repairs were clear on the armor, fitting well with this guy's dark look. His dark hair, black eyes and now grey armor fit well.

The guards, seeing the new person, immediately moved towards the side and kept as quiet as they could.

"I don't blame you if you want to make it hard for her. It will be hard though. She is a scouting party leader, which is already a terrible job."

"Her rank, as you asked, is around the same as a veteran soldier's. So she does not have any real power. But she is strong, much stronger than you."

"Most people are, aren't they." Eldrian countered jokingly. He had had less than a month in-game of course he was still going to be quite weak.

"Yet something tells me you will be able to beat her in a fight. Or it will be really close."

"Really?" Eldrian asked in shock, not having expected such high praise.

"Sure, I saw you practicing. If you have a spell stronger than Floga then you will certainly win. Else it will be close."

"Oh, I actually haven't learned something stronger yet."

"Isn't that something?" The man mumbled before continuing to introduced himself, "I am Rhall by the way, and you are?"

"Haru, nice to meet you," Eldrian said as he shook Rhall's hand.

"Come let me show you around."

"Thank you, may I ask what rank you are?"

"Sure, but why do you want to know?"

"I want to sign up to join the Taurus mission," Eldrian replied straightforwardly.

"I can't do that for you, you will have to go to the location of the adventurers guild," Rhall said as he led Eldrian past the gate. Eldrian was shocked by what he saw as he passed the gate.

The castle was actually just a shell, with only the walls having been completed. There was almost no building inside of it. The only building being the keep in the middle of the castle. Tents filled the rest of the open space which was all really muddy.

Eldrian could feel the mud clinging to his boots as he walked, informing him that this was not a pleasant place to stay at.

"Don't be so surprised, you can't expect us to build an entire castle in two days. We only did the walls, the rest will come with time. Oh, and to your question from before. I am a unit leader."

Hearing this Eldrian was quite happy, as it meant Rhall would likely be able to help him contact Vivian or Old Sword.

He knew that a unit leader would likely be part of most decision making. At least he expected something like that, seeing that they were really high up in the military ranking.