Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

"Midgard?! The fantastical land outside the Floors?"

Jeff asked in surprise, then started to laugh out loud, leaving Kaizen confused.

"HAHAHAHA! Don't tell me you thought you were special because you were from Midgard, boy. Half of my men were born on Midgard and then brought here as children to be used as guinea pigs in experiments. Their parents, farmers, sold them as cattle for the wizards of the Citadel and the City of Tears to play God with."

"Um. I don't care about your little story or where you came from. You said you wanted to know more about me and I revealed something, if you are not satisfied with that, you might be surprised to hear that I came here today and on my own."

"Liar."

"I may or may not be lying, just answer me one question: do you even remember what Midgard is like?"

Kaizen noticed a fearful expression on the thief leader's face. He knew that Jeff only knew legends about Midgard, while Kaizen knew firsthand what an amazing place Midgard was.

"From your silence, I can deduce that you don't even remember the seas so vast that they cannot be seen from a single shore, and the mountains so high that they touch the clouds. Furthermore, I bet you have heard tales of forests so dense that they have never been fully explored. I can tell you that Midgard is still a land of magic and adventure, where fantastic creatures still roam the fields and forests. There are cities and realms where science and magic have come together to create things you can't even imagine. And yes, I know how to get there and back, anytime," Kaizen said with a confident air.

The thief leader listened carefully to Kaizen's description of Midgard, and a smile appeared on his face.

"I admit that this is a very tempting proposition. But how can you prove to me that what you say is true?"

"What do you think can only exist on Midgard and nowhere else?"

Jeff thought about it for a few seconds and said:

"Um. I don't know, it would have to be very impressive."

At that moment, it was Kaizen who had to think about it. He had a chance to deliver something unique to the thieves' leader, something that might surprise him, and this was the typical moment in a mission that determines which path the player will take. Kaizen had enough experience in RPGs to be sure of this. So he had to weigh all the factors before making a decision.

Kaizen had dozens of items in his inventory, and many of them were extremely valuable and would impress any player. But he was in a place full of mages who were used to finding powerful items, and more of the same would not work.

When Kaizen made his decision a minute later, a bright red orb appeared in the palm of his hand.

Kaizen immediately placed it on the table and Jeff inquired:

"What is it?"

"An apple."

The apple sat alone on the table, its skin a bright red under the dim light of the lamp. It was a perfect fruit, with a smooth, rounded shape and a sweet aroma that filled the air around it. To the touch, its skin was smooth and polished, with no marks or imperfections. The sound made when Kaizen's hand left it was subtle, almost like a whisper.

"And what is that? A fruit?" Jeff asked, eyebrows raised.

"Exactly. A fruit that cannot be grown in a hot forest like this, nor in the humidity of the City of Tears."

"What about the Citadel of the Kings? It could have come from there."

"I don't know. Could it be? All I can say is that if I had contact with someone on the second floor, I would not be trading information with a simple thief on the top floor." Kaizen said, looking into Jeff's eyes, who could sense the sincerity in Psyker's words.

The thief leader seemed to think about Kaizen's words and finally said:

"All right, I believe what you say, but I still don't completely trust you.... You will give me a way out of this place, and in exchange, I will tell you everything I know about the attack on the Library of the Magi. What do you want to know?" He held out his hand to seal the deal.

"That sounds good enough to me. All right, I promise to get you out of this forest." Kaizen said confidently, holding out his hand to Jeff.

The thief leader nodded and smiled. "So, what would you like to know first? Why is this mysterious library important to someone outside of Olaynore?"

"I already know that it was you who sold the information about the library's location to those who attacked it, so you must have a good relationship with them. Who are they? And what did they want?"

"I sold the information to an aristocrat in the City of Tears. He also used to live here in the Forest of the Lost, but he was powerful and got his freedom from this place his own way. Surprisingly, he is still a powerful man among the mages of the City of Tears and has become a rich and influential man there. Currently, he is my bridge for selling and exchanging the items we find or steal from the villages on this floor. When we found the library door, we couldn't imagine what it was, it could be anything, but the place was protected by a powerful magic and I had to tell him about it, he was the only one who could help me.

"What did you get in return for helping this guy?"

"A favor."

"A fucking favor?" Kaizen asked, a bit disgusted.

"Don't talk to me like that, all right? A favor may not mean as much as a mountain of gold or crates of food, but Adohorn has the potential to live in the Citadel of the Magi one day, and if that happens, he can give me anything, even my freedom from that place."

"Honestly... Come on, continue the story."

"Hm. When I told Adohorn about the door, he was surprised and, in a strange way, much happier than I had imagined. I thought he would resell the information and give me a percentage of the value, or he would tell me how to break the protection spell by some arrangement. But to my surprise, he was personally interested in what we found. So yesterday he came down here, broke the spell, and entered the library with six other powerful magicians. Imagine my reaction when that group came out of the library and there were only five men left, and one of them was still missing his arm. There was someone in the library, someone powerful."

"A mage..."

"Wait, how do you know that?"

Kaizen smiled mischievously. "I know a lot, my dear. But let's continue the story. Do you know who that magician was?"

"I have no idea. I only know that she was powerful, very powerful. Adohorn was almost finished after he defeated her and said she was the key to something he had been searching for a long time. He didn't tell me any more than that, just that he needed her to complete his goal, and said that I could have anything else that was in the library, but I still didn't have the courage to go into that place. After that, they disappeared, and I know that Adohorn is in the City of Tears and is probably still with her.

Kaizen nodded, thinking about everything that had been said. He had to find Adohorn and find out what he was planning, but first he had to get out of this forest.

"You need to give me a map of the area or show me where the City of Tears is." Psyker ordered.

"HAHA! Do you realize what you are asking me to do, boy? The City of Tears is one level up, there's no way to get there, and you can't think that if you had a map you could walk a path to get there. This place is called the Forest of the Forgotten for a reason, those who are condemned to live here are never allowed to leave, except in extremely rare cases like Adohorn's."

"What do you mean there is no way out? Then how was that man and the others able to leave and enter from this floor?"

At that moment, Jeff glanced at the entrance to the tent to make sure no one was spying through the crack, and then he pulled the gala of his shirt down a bit, revealing part of his chest.

On his left chest was a rune that basically meant City of Tears, except that the area around the rune was gray.

"When I said that most of us were sold like cattle by our parents, I wasn't kidding. Even the mages here didn't treat us much differently than cattle. They marked us with these magic runes. That's the way they found to classify the inhabitants of Olaynore, they call it Marks".

Kaizen noticed the pain in the man's eyes as he stared at the lantern, unwilling to look at the mark on his own chest.

"The mighty of the Citadel of Mages have a mark different from this one, which glows brightly like the flames of a bonfire. The people of the City of Tears have the same mark as I do, and are condemned to live there as I once did. But if your mark is gray like mine, you are condemned to live forever in the oblivion of this forest.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

Like it? Add to library!

Don't forget to vote with Powerstone to support the book if you like it...