The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

Chapter 4 - The City

Amelia was grateful that the trek to the city had been largely uneventful, save a few instances where one or all three of her companions randomly tested out skills on the local wildlife. Forsythe had used something called [Intrepid Strike - Rapid] and stabbed a Bearok that had crossed their path. It would have attacked them anyway because it was hostile, but watching a level 20 creature getting annihilated with so many strikes from one skill was amazing.

Of course, then they had stopped to gather the loot, picking up a few claws that appraised as sellable and then skinned and stored the meat of the carcass into one of their bags. They all had one, a bag that they just stuffed things into. It was pretty amazing to watch things getting stuffed through this opening. It was like a bag with a mouth.

Amelia had never seen such a storage unit since players in Aspiration Awakened can call an inventory and store up to 100 items as they adventure. More if they reached certain milestones in level and achievements. She supposed she should be grateful that the trip hadn't been weirder.

At least she was grateful until they had started walking through the city. Amelia was an average player in her own opinion. A bit wiser than most of the Transients in this area since she was a relatively high-level player for the zone, but not enough to garner attention from the Residents or to get any decent discounts in the stores. That had apparently changed.

"Amelia, the Chronicler… Shh. Don't look her in the eyes."

"Who are those…"

"Strong, is the word I would have used."

"Do you think they will see the king?"

Things got even more complicated because the three with Amelia weren't concerned at all. They didn't read the mood in the slightest and popped left and right to vendors to check out what they were selling. Most of the Residents were so alarmed that they didn't even try to sell them anything. Their reputation was so incredibly high and their fame and notoriety so incredibly low that they had no idea how to treat these people other than as walking forces of nature; which was probably the best way to think of them, Amelia thought privately. If their fame was high they would be a hero. If their notoriety was high they would be a villain. They had neither. They were like neutral gods walking through a bazaar.

The majority of the shops along the way were thankfully open-air shops. Little stands, for the most part, canopy tents, that lined up on either side of the main road in and out of the city. There hadn't been any guards at the gate since a part of the land surrounding the city was a safe area. Like a short ring or moat, but invisible. Invisibility didn't stop it from keeping out monsters, however. Most of the guard patrols circled further than this area, making sure that monsters didn't spawn in too greater numbers. For the most part at this stage in the game, they didn't do much because Transients thinned the numbers significantly every single day.

They paused again as Forsythe had stopped in front of a stand that had an assortment of cooking knives and even a few of the larger pots. He pointed at a big knife, resembling a cleaver that was half and again the largest cleaver Amelia had ever seen. She didn't know what he'd use it on. A smaller knife would have been just as serviceable. Finally, she had asked him what he was planning on using that on and was immediately regretful when he had simply replied, "dinosaur maybe."

He stared at her for a long moment as if he was waiting for her to confirm there were dinosaurs in this game. Instead, he received a slackjawed stare from her, and after a moment of reluctantly staring at the huge cleaver, returned it to the stand. The grievance seemed to run deep for a moment as if she had personally destroyed his dream of dinosaurs. She almost felt bad.

"Do you even have any money?" She asked after a moment.

"Probably." Forsythe had said aloofly.

"I mean I could lend you some if you needed it." She offered hesitatingly. Amelia pulled on the side of her blue robes, feeling bad for some reason.

The look Forsythe gave her indicated he didn't need her damned money if there weren't any dinosaurs. She decided to let it drop when Raven, who had overheard the all-important 'money lending' part of the conversation butted in front of him and stared up at Amelia with puppy dog eyes.

"What..?" Amelia was suddenly on guard.

"How much money do you have?" Raven ventured as if trying to gauge Amelia's pocketbook. "...would you be willing to lend?" Raven smiled in what Amelia was sure she thought was a charming sort of way.

"It would be more convincing if you hadn't asked for the total amount first." Amelia laughed. "What were you wanting to buy?"

"How could I know that until I know how much I'd have?" Raven looked baffled.

Amelia was getting a headache trying to keep up, and looked over to see where the evil one was. It didn't take long to find him. In a gleaming and pristine white robe, Aidan certainly stood out. His short curly brown hair hit the sunlight in that weird sort of way that made it almost blond. He was laughing with a man standing behind a counter at a shop off to the side. They seemed to be sharing a great joke.

What really made Amelia's eyes dilate rapidly was the store seemed to be selling some sort of weird leather one-piece suits. A quick glance revealed that he had probably found a Transient owned shop that sold peculiar... clothes.

"And I was just about to compliment him on behaving." Amelia muttered.

"Prude." Raven beamed, having overheard Amelia. She had glanced over at Aidan to see what had spawned the comment.

Amelia squinted her eyes at Raven. "I'm broke, it seems."

"Aww, don't be like that..." Raven linked her arm around Amelia's waist, startling her again, trying to act like a good friend who just needed a little, just the smallest, amount of money. A proximity warning went off in a window only visible by Amelia asking if she was being harassed. Amelia ALMOST pressed yes, but rolled her eyes instead.

"Make way." Came shouts from the end of the street. Soon two soldiers stood huffing in front of Amelia, and to her surprise, addressed her directly. "The King will see you immediately. Word has come from Sleipnir. Please, this way Instructor Amelia."

The crowd practically started to riot at this point. No one knew who they were and the king had just sent for them the moment they got to town. It didn't take a genius to guess that they were involved in all those announcements a few hours ago. While the Resident NPC's may have alluded to the possibility, it had only been mere seconds before it had actually happened. The mood turned as everyone started paying attention in case something incredible was starting to happen. According to the forums Amelia had read, an audience with a leader of a kingdom didn't happen but on the rarest of occasions.

"Hey, I have an idea, Aidan. Watch this!" Without preamble, fear, or even anxiousness, Raven started working the crowd. She sashayed and moved her feet a little bit in a dance, and then she sang the most ridiculous song Amelia had ever heard about how she loved them, and they should love her. If they loved her she promised she would sing better than ever because it was through their attention that she would improve.

It was self-serving, greedy, incredible in its shameless brilliance. The worst part, Amelia thought grimly as she and her cohort(singing idiot too), was Raven's song kept going, and when the skill ended she started new songs. Worse than that, every song that she started making up after that sounded better than the one before. She must have been gaining net-mass experience from working for the crowd in this manner. The people, Aidan, Forsythe, and Amelia started to get temporary beneficial stat increases from the singing.

"Can you… get her to stop?" One of the guards said quietly to Amelia. He was getting nervous apparently by the sizeable crowd that was following them toward the gate… with buffs.

Aidan answered before Amelia could think of anything to say. "If she could have stopped her, she would have my friend."

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Party Gains -

24-hour bonus to morale (small). Effect: Less likely to be impaired by challenge and intimidation

Reputation 250

Fame 20

Notoriety 5

Several minstrels in the crowd felt their blood boil as all the attention turned toward Raven, the Singer.

Raven gains Intermediate Singing 1 - 54%

Raven learns Beginner Dancing 1 - 5%

Raven unlocks Job - Bard.

Raven learns Job - Bard Beginner 1 - 86%