Part #3 — Differences in Opinion
“You have heard the rumors about what got released in the newest patch haven’t you?” Asked the man in while robes. They were all sitting around a table in a small room. Perfect Zanth was his name and he was the core healer of the Forgotten Saviors.
“Some new skills and zones got released right?” Said Gardenia. She was now a member of the Forgotten Saviors. It had taken her a while to join and she was the newest member of the team. Still, she had already been a member for almost a month now so the others had gotten used to her.
“Not just any skills!” Said Zanth with a tone of awe in his voice. He spent a lot of time on the forums, probably more than was health and he was a notorious gossip. “Legacy skills, They are skills that fundamentally change how you play your character. I’ve already heard that somebody has found the Dwarven Kingdom and is planning on attempting to join them.”
The larger woman next to the two of them leaned in to join the conversation. She had large muscles and a bright smile, “Do you know if they are intermediate or expert skills? If they are expert skills it will be a while before people with legacy skills become common. Compared to the general population we have pretty high skill levels and only Drake has managed to get an expert skill.”
She is Steela, one of the DPS members of the team and renowned for her ability to deal with monsters that have high defenses.
“From the rumors they are intermediate skills. Although…” He leaned in close and whispers to his audience, “The hard part is completing the quest required to teach you the skill. One anonymous source said their team of high intermediate players got completely wiped during the quest.”
“That isn’t that uncommon” Said Gardenia, “A lot of groups get wiped the first time they attempt a boss. Even we don’t win every boss fight on the first attempt.”
“While that is true, the source said that after they failed the third time they failed the quest and were told to come back in a few months in they wanted to try again.”
“Oouch.” Said Steela. “That is a harsh requirement. Do you know what legacy skill they were trying to acquire?”
Zanth shook hit head, “No, they were keeping it secret. Knowledge is a valuable commodity and they didn’t want to give away too much for free.”
The chat was interrupted at one of the other DPS members of the team arrived. He was the two sword wielding warrior of the team. Arthur Ironheart was his name.
“Good morning everyone. Already discussing the topics of the day?”
There were nods around the table before Zanth spoke, “We were discussing the rumors about Legacy skills. Have you heard anything about them?”
“Nothing, you know I don’t pay attention to that stuff.” Said Arthur.
Steela shrugged her shoulders and said, “We should have figured. Not even I managed to measure up to you in muscle-headedness.” There was some laughing that even Arthur joined in on.
Gardenia said, “I am sure that Vanishing will know more information. He is probably gathering information about the legacy skills even now. I know he loves it when new skills are added.”
Vanishing Doubt was the lightning mage. He had a hobby of collecting information about skills. Gardenia had heard that several other parties had consulted him about the location and method of acquiring certain skills. If there was anybody who knew information about skills then it was Vanishing Doubt. Even Gardenia knew how useful he was. Without him she would be missing several of the skills she now had.
There were several other members of Forgotten Saviors but the team that had been described were the core members. At least if you included Drake, the leader of the group. He hadn’t arrived yet but that wasn’t surprising, he always arrived later than all of the other members. Nobody minded because they had a chance to socialize. Once Drake arrived it was all serious gaming business.
When he did finally show up he was flanked by Vanishing Doubt. That brought everybody’s attention to the bare. Rampade speculation had already begun to happen in all of their minds.
“Alright everybody, take your places.” Said Drake.
Immediately everybody moved to make space for both Drake and Vanishing Doubt to take their place at the table. Once they did Drake spoke again, “I expect everybody has already head about the Legacy skills that were just released?”
There were nods around the table before Perfect Zanth said, “Yes, we were just talking about them.”
“Good, Vanishing, please explain what you learned.” Said Drake.
“I’ve been collecting as much data as I can. As part of the patch the libraries got updated with new books. While some talk directly about legacies whose that are directly mentioned are not too unusual. The elves and the dwarves both make appearances commonly in media and are equally commonly mentioned in those records. You might already know but joined a legacy is in theory easy. You just need to find an elder of the legacy and convince them to bring you into the legacy.
“Now this is the part that is interesting. There are more lore and legend books that have been added to the library. Specifically those regarding more rare legacies. Legends of demons, vampires, and dragons.”
“Wait do you mean…” said Gardenia hesitantly.
Drake nodded, “Indeed, I intend to join the legacy of the dragon.” Everybody already knew Drake’s interest in dragons, you could easily tell it from his name. However to boldly announce that he would be joining a legacy that they basically knew nothing about was even more bold.
“You said this was in the legends section. Does that mean we don’t know exactly how to join this legacy or did you managed to find a clue?” Asked Zanth.
Vanishing Doubt, “We do have a clue. While I mentioned the normal way to join a legacy, find an elder, there are mentions of other methods of joining one. Specifically for the Dragonic legacy there is a extremely special method of joining it that was mentioned in the legends.”
Steela placed her hand against her head before saying, “Why do I have a feeling I can see where this is going.”
Vanishing nodded, “Indeed, the method is to slay a dragon. Drinking the blood of a dragon can grant you access to the draconic legacy.”
“Are we even prepared to fight a dragon?” Asked Gardenia, “I know we already kinda fought one but that was a juvenile and we didn’t even managed to kill it that time. From what I understand we are not prepared to fight an adult dragon. Do you have a plan?”
Drake simply said, “There are several leads I am following up on regarding dragons. I’ve assigned Pristallia to the research of those leads so none of you need to worry about it. This meeting was to inform all of you about the plan so you can get ready. Prepare and then get ready to leave at any time.
Author Note: These lists of skills is incomplete. It mostly just covers the list of skills used in this arc.
Gardena
Magic — Life: Physical Enhancement [Intermediate]: Lvl 47
Magic — Life: Healing [Intermediate]: Lvl 45
Magic — Fire: Infusion [Intermediate] : Lvl 34
Forest’s Blessing [Intermediate, Rare]: Lvl 31
Armor — Shield: Deflection [Intermediate]: Lvl 44
Casting Implement — Inner Focus [Intermediate]: Lvl 45
Refinement — Endurance [Intermediate]: Lvl 42
Arts — Guardian Shield [Intermediate]: Lvl 43
Lore — Monster Encyclopedia [Intermediate]: Lvl 39
Basic Skills
Armor — Shield [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Armor — Cloth [Basic]: Lvl 46 [Disabled]
Armor — Chain [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Sword [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Casting Implement — Rod [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Lore — Monster Identification [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Magic — Fire [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Magic — Life [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Style — Aggression: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Weapon — Mace [Basic]: Lvl 39 [Disabled]
Weapon — Sword [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Perfect Zanth
Magic — Life: Healing [Intermediate]
Magic — Life: Cleansing [Intermediate]
Refinement — Mana Well [Intermediate]
Basic Skills
Armor — Cloth [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Casting Implement — Staff [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Magic — Life [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Magic — Plant [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Steela
Refinement — Brawn [Intermediate]
Style — Zlamany Mace Style [Intermediate]
Basic Skills
Weapon — Mace [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Armor — Leather [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Mace [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arthur Ironheart
Arts — Twin Blades [Intermediate]: Lvl ??
Style — Trezy Dual Sword Style [Intermediate]
Basic Skills
Weapon — Sword [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Armor — Chain [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Sword [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Style — Duel Wielding [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Gathering — Mining [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Vanishing Doubt
Lore — Skill Identification [Intermediate]
Crafting — Tea Brewing [Intermediate]
Basic Skills
Armor — Cloth [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Casting Implement — Rod [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Magic — Lightning [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Crafting — Cooking [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Drake
Style — Nine Heavenly Spears Style [Expert]: Lvl 2
Weapon — Great Spear [Intermediate]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Great Spear [Intermediate]
Lore — Dragon Encyclopedia [Intermediate]
Equipment Affinity — Demon Great Spear [Intermediate, Unique]
Basic Skills
Weapon — Spear [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Spear [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Armor — Plate [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Pristallia
Lore — Cartography [Intermediate]
Weapon — Crossbow: Deadeye [Intermediate]
Basic Skills
Weapon — Crossbow [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Arts — Crossbow [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Armor — Leather [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Mana Reserve [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
Lore — Orienteering
Alertness
Lore — Monster Identification [Basic]: Lvl 50 [Mastered]
The Forgotten Saviors were certainly near the top of skilled players. While there were plenty of elites all over the game it would be difficult to assemble a team as good as them. That wasn’t even accounting for Drake who was in the apex of players.
In the large crowd of players that played the game all over the world the number of players who knew an expert skill was probably only in the hundreds. While that number would surely grow as more players master intermediate skills at the moment is was an astounding feat.
He had learned an apex spear style that was currently unique to him, at least amount spear users. It was a special style of spear fighting using the unusual weapon, the great spear. According to Drake that what he had learned was just the beginning, once he masteres Great Spear Arts the skill would also grant him access to several special arts.
The very fact that Drake had an expert skill at all made him the envy of practically everybody in Trezy. They even had to block most communication to the guild mailbox because it was getting overrun with people asking to join the guild.
Drake took that as a given. Of all the description that were made about Drake, nobody could deny that he had an ego. His other main defining element was that he kept his promises. He might charge heavily for the services of the Forgotten Saviors but he always delivered on the promise.
If Drake was the fame of the organization then Pristallia was the brains of the operation. She ran the day to day business of the guild, not that there was much of that since there were only 7 members. Still she was in charge of selling off all the materials that they found during their adventures and making sure everybody’s gear was proper.
Drake had left giving everybody time to prepare but really there was not much for any of them to do. Pristallia would certainly do all the special organizing that would actually need to be done. Everybody else just needed to make sure their personal supplies were in order.
Gardenia herself didn’t have much that she needed to do other than ensure that all her equipment was in working order and that her personal supply of potions was full. Her current weapon and armor were pretty high quality for the current standards. All of it had been commissioned through Equinox Smithing. He had been earning quite a name for himself and Gardenia was happy to be one of his loyal customers.