Chapter Twenty-Four - Enter the Castle

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She was ready to go... and yet. Rosario hesitated. Was she really going to do this?

It could very well jeopardize everything. 

Then again, there might not be much to jeopardize, and she was increasingly excited to test herself, to see how far she could go. 

She walked to the edge of the North City just in time to see the first ferry leaving the docks. It was already a dozen metres out. So, she paused by one of the other ferry’s and politely enquired with the [Pilot] about when it would depart.

The answer didn’t satisfy.

Rosario looked at the gap. The river ran wide between North City and Alpta proper. The main walls of the city didn’t run up against the river’s edge, instead there was another dock called the North Docks--ironically not the docks next to the North City. Those extended out into the river a little and out into Lake Aplta. 

It was a solid eighty metres from the Glass Docks all the way across the river to the North Docks.

That kind of distance was impossible to traverse in a jump.

For a normal person.

Rosario licked her lips, then turned around and scanned the area. One of the docks had a straight run...

“This is not WWMD,” she muttered as she moved back, then she lowered herself into a sprinter’s stance, shifting her hips and feet and touching the dirty road with her fingertips. A few people stopped to stare. This was, as she had said, not maidly behaviour.

She took a deep breath and gathered her magical strength around her.

In the game, she had taken a specific path towards [Archmage]. First starting as an [Apprentice Mage] which came with some basic abilities, some useful utility spells, and some starting abilities. Then she dipped into [Generalist Mage]. It was a rather boring ‘do everything poorly’ kind of job, it had given her the opportunity to dip her toes into multiple disciplines.

Which led to [Green Mage]. She wasn’t particularly nature-aligned, but the class had a surprising number of very potent spells. 

“[Verdant Endurance]

[Forest's Breath]

[Quickening Sap]

[Flexible Reed]

[Blessing of Feronie]

[Leaf on the Wind]

[Flourish]”

The spells came quick, and if people had been idly curious before, they were actively staring now. 

She pressed her foot into the ground a little harder. The flagstone cracked with a snap.

Then she was off. The biggest restriction wasn’t her own strength, but rather the drag that came with wearing a rather un-areodynamic maid’s dress. Each step, taken in what felt to her like extreme slow motion, was aimed in a crack on the road, or along the edge of a wooden board. There was a wave of wind pushed out behind her as she lowered herself until she was nearly parallel with the ground, her hands holding up her skirts so that they’d be out of the way.

Then she was on the edge of the docks and she launched herself across.

The arc was rather low, but that didn’t matter. She shot across the gap, missed the North Docks entirely, and had to spin herself around in mid-air like a falling cat to land on her feet on the road beyond. Dust and gravel scraped up behind her before she finally came to a stop.

Standing, she let some of the buffs fall, then she patted down her skirts and cleared her throat.

A pair of youngsters were staring at her, mouths agape. She curtsied, then spun and walked away.

The Castle wasn’t far. It was just within the city. She decided against trying to jump over the city walls. She may have grabbed enough attention as it was. So instead she moved around and entered the city proper via one of the gates nearest to Darkchurch hill. From there, there was a straight path to the Castle.

“[Find Item: Master],” she said. The spell moved out, and again, it returned a signal within the Castle. And again, she suspected that it set off some sort of alarm, but what did that matter? 

As she moved closer, she activated several of her [Rogue] skills. She wasn’t too invested in that job, though she did plan on having that line be her third fully-maxed job... she was also hoping that she was going to be one of the first players with three maxed jobs, but she was a little behind the curve for that. 

In any case, the skills came on. She hadn’t had the opportunity to truly test them, but in theory they were designed to make people, NPCs, ignore her and forget her presence. That worked into KingBreaker’s original ‘crime’ system. Here, it seemed to be working in about the same way.

A man pushing a cart almost ran into it. A group of guards loitering around and eyeing every person that passed had their gazes sweep past her without recognition.

She pushed her preparations to the next level. It was time for her full suite of PVP buffs.

“[Mage Armour]

[Minor Ward]

[Elemental Shield]

[Deflection Field]

[Spellguard]

[Aegis]

[Nature's Resilience]

[Second Spring]

[Continuity of Self]

[Death Refused]

[Archmage's Privilege]”

Well over a dozen magical glowing effects appeared and flashed away just as quickly. She did pause a little at the end, frowning as she felt that some of the buffs were interfering with the earlier ones she’d used to cross the river. Magic was... strange. It was tangling itself up in some spaces in a way that she couldn’t quite explain.

She might have found a different way to tie the figurative knots so that they didn’t rub so hard, but the simpler solution was to simply brute force her way past it. It drained more mana per second. She was losing a solid ten thousand points of mana every blink, but her reserves replenished almost as rapidly.

She could keep this up for an hour or two, more if she cut out some non-essentials.

It would have to do.

The Castle’s outer walls rose tall above her, weather-darkened stone serving as the roosting spot for a thousand gormless pigeons and clever crows. 

Rosario bent her knees then launched herself up and over the wall, the apex of her leap brought her right to the edge where she tapped her foot down and pushed herself towards a second floor window.

There was no subtlety with her landing. She crashed through wood and glass, arms raised above her to protect herself.

Someone, a servant of some sort, screamed while Rosario landed in a roll.

She stood and walked over. The serving woman was older, dressed in a rather plain gown with a white apron on. Rosario categorized the style of maid in a blink, then she bowed politely. “Pardon me, which way would I have to go to find my way down to the basement levels?”

The woman pointed.

“Thank you. Love the dress.”

Rosario continued. She found the stairs and climbed down, then down once more until she was on the ground floor. She suspected that an alarm had gone off because at one point she stepped aside and lowered her head as a group of guards ran past.

Pressing onwards, she searched for a way down, in the direction where she had sensed her master. 

She found it in the middle of the castle.

The room had, at one time, been some sort of small ballroom, or perhaps a throne room? It had evenly space pillars along the edges and a tall, arched roof. The floor was a smooth, polished stone.

Whatever beauty the space once held had been done away with in favour of practicality. The room was bare except for racks of weapons, and she could see what looked like a barracks down an adjoining corridors. 

Most importantly was the gated entrance at the far end of the room. In the direction of her master.

That, and the two figures standing guard before that gate. There were more. A scattering of men in plate and fancy dress, but other than inspecting them to confirm that they were all [Aerie Royal Guardsmen] she easily ignored them.

The two were far more interesting.

“You can let go of your cowardly abilities,” one said. “We can perceive you through them. They’ll do nothing to stop what is about to happen.”

“[Inspect],” she muttered.

Liam Erville

The Whipsword of Gazebrook

[Master Bladedancer] - Level 8

He was a man a little past his middle ages, but he was thin and even just reaching for the sword at his hip was done gracefully.

“It doesn’t look like the idiot wants to listen, Liam,” the second man said.

He was half a head shorter, but he made up for it by being incredibly well-muscled. His hands were covered in complex, ornate gauntlets inscribed with fine runes. He wore opened robed, cinched at the waist, and armoured boots and greaves. 

Saul Lawton

The Mage Of Fists

[Hex Pugilist] - Level 4

Rosario considered what to do for a moment before dismissing her [Rogue] skills, but not before she activated her own title.

After all, it was only fair.

She smiled at them, then bowed while pinching up the edges of her skirts. “Gentlemen. I don’t mean to be a bother, but I heard my master calling. Would you be so kind as to step aside?”

[Scullery Maid] has leveled up!

[Scullery Maid] level 5

Charisma +1

Skill Unlocked: [Sweep]

She felt her grin blossom into something even greater. 

“It will only take a moment?”

[Hidden]

The Faithful Maid

[Scullery Maid] - Level 5

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