More Than A Game (Epic LitRPG adventure)

Chapter 6: Gringvort part 1

After creating the curse, the Great Dragon went missing, and there were no more mentions of him in the lore. Maybe he died, or maybe he went into hiding. But most likely, the developers pulled him out of the game and saved him on a backup copy somewhere on a backup hard drive.

So if Wanderer actually did get the quest, it wasn't surprising that he'd try to get as far away from everyone as he could. If I were him, I'd have gone off into some desert or cave for a hundred years or so. And if that were true, it wouldn't have been surprising that the Gray Witch was gunning for him either—but how did he get it in the first place?

And then I read some about her, as well. The Hounds of Death were a great, exacting, and merciless clan that came about when two earlier clans joined forces: the Gray Kittens and the Jets. The Gray Witch was the leader of the Gray Kittens and took over the newly formed clan. She was clever, vindictive, unscrupulous, and vengeful, though she was also rational and calculating. She never allowed emotion to get the better of her, and she could ferret out benefits for herself and her clan even when they were hidden behind seven brick walls. She personally compromised the leader of the Jets, who also wanted to be the leader of the new clan, with a detailed and brutally devious plan. It ended in him being denounced as a rat and, based on the clan charter, getting kicked out by a council resolution. Whenever anyone (generally from the old Jets clan) objected, she loftily asked, "And who said you have the right to go against the clan and demand anything contrary to the decisions of the council?"

Still, under her leadership, the clan became the game's best by a number of metrics.

Anyway, judging by all of that, it was logical to assume that Wanderer had uncovered something there. Otherwise, the Gray Witch wouldn't have deigned to go after him personally with an offer. There wasn't anything in the forums about Wanderer, on the other hand, or at least I couldn't find anything.

What I found about Rivenholm was much simpler. When the game began, there was just one continent—Rattermark, the one I was currently on. A year and a half before I joined, however, a global update was released that included an entirely new one called Rivenholm. There were two ways to get there: either you could list it as your starting location (apparently I missed that option when I registered) or you could sail across the ocean, which was much tougher. The problem wasn't even that ships were expensive. It was that getting there was hard and dangerous—so much so that a small convoy didn't stand a chance.

Convoys faced harpies, garudas, and stymphalides from the air, while a Kraken of immense size and monstrous strength ravaged them from below. Anyone left swimming in the water after their ships were destroyed were eaten by sharks. After all, it was an ocean. But the highlight of the trip were the pirates lurking in the waters surrounding the extensive Tigali Archipelago, smack dab in the middle between Rattermark and Rivenholm. They did what pirates always do—steal and kill, eat and drink, and make everyone they took captive walk the plank. Interestingly, they were all NPCs, as there wasn't a "pirate" class, players could choose to be. So, they were our Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow. Sorry. Captain Jack Sparrow.

Incidentally, if you were killed while at sea, you were sent to the nearest respawn point. By default, that was in Rattermark, as there aren't any respawn points at sea, and players respawned there without their ships. A dozen clans had lost their fleets that way.

So, just see if you can get there. And it was so tempting; there was almost nobody there since new players much preferred the settled continent. It had strong clans, guides, and a settled way of life. Sure, there were pioneers and enthusiasts who wanted to try new dungeons, new spells, and new quests... Clans also started sending scouts there, but while those scouts did have some time to level-up and explore...they still wouldn't stand much chance against a landing of high-level players. So all the top clans started readying fleets. The rest simply didn't have the resources. The Hounds of Death had theirs ready, and it was no surprise that Elina wanted to join them.

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