Fantasy World Online I: New Roads

New Roads! Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Sendrix

I had been traveling throughout Braeen for more than six months now, connecting as soon as I returned from work and sleeping only for a minimum of five hours a day.

In the in-game time that meant more than two years had passed since the launch.

Normally a player would directly go to the capital and arrive after around 2 weeks of travels but I had purposely avoided Fridol county and taken my time to explore the rest of the Kingdom.

I wanted my plan to be perfect.

I was now finally ready to create my own Guild, all that was left to do was go to the Capital, meet an administration clerk and register.

But before I did so I had to capture Sendrix, find enough proof of his immorality to allow the king to search his properties without raising questions.

When I logged back into New Roads! the next day, I set a small booth and started selling my wares, taking the time to chat with a maximum number of people. I had found that it was the easiest and fastest way to make profits while raising familiarity and gathering information. At the end of the day, I took the time to visit the town and talk to some more people.

I found Merchant Fred in Vendro's inn. It was already dark, he was drinking with a few of his men. A quick talk with him after a few more alcoholic drinks later and I knew everything I wanted about Sendrix's and Jerry's personal issues, from their hostility during court gathering to their cold war through the means of stopping trade with each others people. But the most interesting thing was that the party of players that had gone after Sendrix had been bought the rooms opposite to mine for a whole week.

As soon as I knew this I seemingly left to my own room to repeatedly and accidentally enter the wrong ones using the Spirit of the Wolf skill to memorize the smells the players had left behind.

Once this was done I took human form again and left the village on my own. Since Vendro only confided in me I felt that I should not receive help tracking Sendrix. Moreover, my contracts with Arnold and Patrick only included the safety of the cart, not my own. It was only thanks to my high leadership and respect stats and my familiarity with them that they had accepted to defend the village in the first place. Asking them for another favor would lower my influence on them.

I left the village alone, once far from it I transformed into a wolf again. It took me less than thirty minutes to find the players' scent then I followed it through the valleys for the rest of the day. They had made many detours while searching for Sendrix hideout, I saw several places were they had stopped to fight mobs or enter a house. Every time this happened I would get back to human form and chat with the people inside the houses, learning what they had learned.

By midnight I arrived where the party was. All seven of them were elves. This was my first time meeting an elfique race player. Their ears were long and pointy, their clothes were not made of metal and decorated with carved leaves and plants and animals yet it seemed as efficient as mine.

They were armed with delicate but razor-sharp blades or sturdy and beautiful bows, one of them, a female elf dressed in soft mage robes, had a golden staff with a quartz stone on top. A green orb floating above her indicated her as the party leader.

They were watching a cavern entrance in a large hill a hundred meters away. It was guarded by four men dressed in full sets of heavy red iron armors and large claymores. On top of their heads, in red, the words Sendrix's Private Soldier confirmed that they were Sendrix's men and that this was his current hideout.

Last night's attackers were around level 40 but those men, looking at their outfits were at least 70.

It did not surprise me that the Elves had not attacked. Looking at them I knew they were between levels 50 and 60. For them attacking from the front would be suicidal.