“What do you want?”
“I want to be out of this stupid game. I want to be free from having to work with Draco ever again, but quite frankly, that’s not going to happen until they’re satisfied. Problem is, I don’t know when they ever will be.”
“Are you trapped? Can’t you log out?”
“Oh, I can log out alright. But, when you’re a certain rank in the Draco pro world, if you don’t log in at least every day, they send someone to check on you. And I worry about that person being armed.”
Sang frowned. There was a somewhat cavalier attitude that Kenwar had; something about the way that he spoke so casually, so that it made her worry that perhaps he wasn’t telling her the truth at all. One thing was established, though: he was working with Draco. Now, whether it was of his own volition or not, she still knew she couldn’t trust anything that he had to say.
“So, you just want to be free from this game? For good?”
“Of course. I never wanted to be part of some crazy conspiracy; I just wanted to be a gamer. I did not sign up for any of this,” Kenwar said.
Sang couldn’t shake the feeling that Kenwar was absolutely lying to her. Or was she just being paranoid? There was only one way to find out.
“You know I’m connected with people, then,” she said. “Give me your home address and I’ll send a team to pick you up right away. You won’t have to worry about Draco bothering you again.”
“Really? You’ll do that?” Kenwar asked. His eyes had lit up and she could see genuine hope in them.
“Sure thing,” Sang said.
“Great—my real name is Kenneth Galber and I live in Scranton, Pennsylvania. My address is 1831 West Penn Street. But you better move fast. Draco can’t monitor our verbal communications due to the way the servers are designed, but they can read any messages that are sent. As soon as you send a message to your team, they’ll know about it.”
Sang was surprised at his cooperation, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The worst-case scenario was that he had laid out some sort of a trap, but she would alert her superiors of the chance. No one was going to be pulling anything funny over on her or her team. And this development would give her a little bit of breathing room. With Kenwar in CIA custody, her superiors would at least be able to focus on gaining information from him instead of pulling the plug on the program. She grinned as she began to type up a coded message to her task force. This was the best news that she had encountered all week.
Van looked at the small war-camp which had been assembled at the bottom of the hill. There was a large collection of peasants wearing militant clothing and wielding farming tools as weapons. There were about six hundred in total, but Van knew the peasants wouldn’t be a problem against his team of seven. Sang had rejoined their group shortly after they’d reached the Forlorn Valley. She’d been excited to tell him about a new development, but he didn’t want to talk about it until after they retrieved the gem. Sleep Time was right around the corner, and Van was dead set on getting his hands on the Gem of Rending before they were booted out of the game.
“Alright, team, what’s the plan?” Van asked, turning to face his compatriots. He, of course, had a great plan, but he wanted them to be able to feel as if they were contributing by coming up with suggestions. He knew a good leader should never look like they were the one calling all of the shots, or else followers would grow jealous of him hogging the spotlight.
“I think we should go in and see how many of them we can kill!” Capello said with a laugh. He brandished his twin axes and began hacking away at the air. “I’m guessing I can kill at least a hundred by myself.”
“Wow, you can kill one hundred poorly trained peasants armed with farming equipment fashioned into weapons? What a hero,” Bidane said. “I say we go and just convince them to stand down and return to their liege. We’ll probably get an experience points bonus for solving the issue without violence.”
“How is solving something without violence a good option?” Capello replied. “I say we just go down there and bathe in the blood of our enemies!”
“They’re peasants who are mad at the king, so they are bad guys,” Dolly said.
“Let’s not try to get into the political dichotomy of who’s right and who’s wrong,” Kylian said. “We’re mercenaries. Our job is to just do whatever it takes to get paid.”
“That counts as a vote in my favor,” Capello said.
“Alright, team, since we’re looking at a split in opinions, I say we put it to a vote,” Van said. “In addition to the plan of slaughtering a bunch of peasants or trying to negotiate, I would propose that we just send our stealthier team members down to steal the gem. It’ll be easy, and we won’t have to waste time in combat.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Dolly said. “Then, if we get attacked, the rest of the party can flank them from this side of the hill.”
“I like it,” Sang said. “We’ll be in and out in less than a few minutes.”
“Alright, let’s vote!” Van said. “All in favor of taking the loud and violent approach?” Capello and Dolly raised their hands.
“Okay, next, in favor of diplomacy?” Bidane raised her hand.
“And in favor of Stealth?” Van, Sang, and Kylian raised their hands.
“Sahara, aren’t you going to vote?” Van asked. The wizard had just been standing still, watching everyone without reacting to what they were saying or doing.
“Oh, I’m sorry, my mom just called on the phone,” Sahara said. “I gotta bail early, so good luck!” And with that, she vanished from their presence.
“Great, whatever are we going to do without an easily killable wizard with barely any useful spells?” Bidane asked.
“Hah, be nice, Bidane,” Van said. “She’s only five levels away from getting her first offensive spell. Fireball is incredibly powerful. If you aren’t careful, she might use it on you.”
“I’d put money on her dying before she hits Level 25,” Bidane replied.
“I’ll take that bet!” Capello said.
“We’re not betting on a party member dying!” Van said. “At least, not without a clear rule stating that those betting against her survival won’t try to hasten her death.”
“I’m a Cleric of the White Fox,” Bidane said. “We’re forbidden from harming our friends and allies!”
“But not against betting on their early deaths?”
“Definitely not,” she said with a smirk. “Come on, now—the vote has been passed, 3 votes in favor of the Stealth mission.”
“Okay, cool!” Dolly said, walking up to Sang. “You ready, Stealth sister?”
“Why are you so cheerful?” Sang asked. “I thought you wanted to vote in favor of the murderous route.”
“Oh, I’m just trying to play more to what my character would do. See, I’m a ruthless rogue who has no trouble slitting throats to get her way. So, I’m going to do whatever she would do.”
“You’re probably one of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” Sang replied.
“Hey, take that back!” Dolly said. “I’m a brutal cut-throat!”
“Just because you say it doesn’t mean that it’s true,” Sang said as she grabbed her bow and her satchel. “Alright, we’re going to head down to find the gem.”
“My Prayer of Clairvoyance has indicated that the gem is located within the center of the camp, inside of a crate near the fire pit,” Bidane said. “You might want to bring some water to douse the fire with so it doesn’t give away your cover.”
“I dunno,” Sang said as she looked up at the sky. “With this moon, we’ll be visible even if there are no other light sources.”
“Well, hopefully your Stealth skill isn’t too impacted by the light,” Van said. “Good luck down there!”
“Thanks,” Dolly said. “Alright, let’s go! First one to the bottom of the hill has to dig the latrines at the next campsite!” And with that, both Dolly and Sang became translucent as they rushed down the hill.