Sheveret Troop Encampment, Fander Field

"Late today," Angelus' voice greets me the moment I log in, after successfully fending off Sherry back in Reality.

"Missed my bus," I yawn, pushing my stiff body upright, "Thanks for looking over the statement earlier, by the way."

"No problem," Angelus shrugs, sitting cross-legged on his cot and rubbing a damp cloth over his talons, "Didn't really do much besides condense it down."

"Remind me to pick up a copy of one of your books some time," I smile, "Just you today, is it?"

"Windy went off to check out the Quests being given out at City Hall," he replies, flexing his talons and setting aside the cloth rag, "No Jupiter or Jade though."

"Jade's working today, ran afoul of her on the way in," I stretch, "I expect after getting caught out by his parent yesterday Jupiter decided to go to school for the sake of appeasement."

"Perhaps. If you don't mind me asking, why did you invite Jade into the Guild?" Angelus quirks an inquisitive eyebrow, "Not to be rude to her, but I haven't really gotten the impression the two of you mix well."

"Three reasons, really," I narrow it down, "First is that she's a competent markswoman with a high ceiling for growth. High enough that I'm willing to put up with her attitude to an extent. Second, is that despite that attitude, she still does what she's asked and doesn't half-ass it - not counting her executing the adds from Miner's Nightmare by shooting them point-blank with her bow."

Angelus considers it, "I see. And the third reason?"

"I'm not a very competent or experienced leader," I admit, "I'm choosing to trust in Windy's assessment of Jade as someone who ultimately means well. So, as caustic as she can be, if she can be convinced to reign it in, Jade will be able to provide a perspective I can't. Even if I do have the final say, I value an honest critic over a tight-lipped sycophant."

"Remarkably tolerant of you," Angelus notes, "I still question whether you'll be vindicated in the end, though. People like her have a tendency to drag down morale and cause drama for the sake of it. As we've already seen."

Inhaling, I concede the point, "If she pulls a similar stunt again, there will be consequences, but even so, I don't want to just give up on her entirely."

"Like I said, it's remarkably tolerant of you," the healer stands, "Most raid leads I know would have benched her on the spot, if not outright kicked her from the team."

"I'm not a raid lead," I joke, following suit, "Do you have any specific plans for today?"

"Not particularly," Angelus shrugs, "Was thinking of checking out the City Hall Quests as well. I hear that they've brought in an Architect Mentor NPC to help with the reconstruction effort."

"Donglas. Yes, I saw the buzz on social media," I nod, "Thinking of taking up a hammer and chisel?"

He shakes his head, "Not my thing, really. Just idle curiosity, since the Alchemy Mentor and the other crafter NPCs are apparently refusing to leave the Alliance building. Otherwise, I'd be over there figuring out how to break the alchemy system."

"There isn't much you can do with the crafting system as it stands in terms of experimentation, unfortunately, and you have to wait until you achieve Master before you can make custom Schematics and Recipes," I warn, "Even then you only get a few limited slots for it and you won't get the slot back if the product is an abject failure."

Angelus shrugs, "I'd like to get a start on it at the very least. I once found a bug in Justicar that let me make a potion which granted 6007% increased Magiko and Cora which lasted half the expected lifespan of the universe."

I blink, "Those are some impressive-sounding words you just spoke."

"You never played Justicar, I take it?" Angelus queries.

"No," I deny, "Before my time, so to speak."

"It's a classic, but it died for a reason. Nautical Mind didn't really handle the success all that well, and they just made bad decision after bad decision," Angelus explains, "Most of the problem was how exploitable the code was. Or the biggest draw, depending on who you asked. Either way, the more they tried to patch up the problem, the more vulnerabilities they introduced."

"Until someone glitched into the server cache and went comatose for close to a year," I finish for him, "I'm familiar with the story, just not the game itself. Besides, it was more or less all the news was talking about back then - it's been close to 50 years, and people are still looking for excuses to shut down the technology, after all."

Even if the design choices from Hectic Works Ideaware are questionable, such as the implementation of the Class system, at the very least the technical side of things is fairly stable, if you ignore the input delay. I recall seeing a bug report rant on the forum from one unfortunate bastard over in Nostraza Town that ran afoul of a portal into the Land of Exile at some point last night though. Fortunately for them, they ended up in the Meolhg region, which is about three hours walk from a fixed exit point in the Scrollwork Kingdom.

"The Crash didn't help," Angelus waves it off, "Lots of bad feelings still left over. But I digress; What about you? What are you going to do today?"

"I think I'll go check in on Windy, then go see what I can do to help Henna clean up Stone Arsenal," I intend to take things a little easy today, but I'm not going to be lazy, "Oh, and we should stop by the Warehouse to unload all the Terrorstone we're carrying around."

"Why don't we get Windy first then dump our inventory all together?" Angelus suggests, which I accept.

"Sounds like a plan."

---

 

Tridor Plaza, Meteo City

Winfrey

It's not been all that long since the Siege ended, but the majority of the looted junk has already been cleaned out by enterprising players on the behalf of City Hall. The rewards for what is essentially trash collection aren't exactly fantastic, but for people who've barely had anything to do but stand around talking to one another, such low-effort employment is probably something of a godsend, really. If nothing else, it's of limited availability and it does give out a small amount of reputation as part of the rewards, so I decided to chip in. The ten Stone Silver aren't really anything special, but reputation is worth as much and more, to hear Alex talk.

Not that I don't believe him, but as I stare at the crushed remains of a chair in my arms, I can't help but wonder if I'm wasting my time. I mean, sure, if I wanted to I could have picked up one of the more involved Quests, like the ones that involve becoming a construction worker subclass. But that doesn't really appeal to me, if I'm to be honest. I've never been big on crafting, to begin with - too clumsy for one thing.

Around the place is close to two dozen people with cloth sacks, the same as me, and near to a hundred crowding the steps leading up to the entrance of City Hall, looking to pick up Quests of their own. Since I took off my armour and stored it away on account of it being basically scrap metal at this point, I've been able to blend in with the crowd, for the most part. One or two people seem to recognise my face since I hate walking around with that silly helmet on, but they don't kick up a fuss about it.

Out of the armour, I'm just a nobody.

Chuckling under my breath, I figure this is where I'm supposed to get all philosophical about that, but I find it hard to care in light of the, admittedly small, boost to my self-esteem after yesterday. I'm definitely not there yet on the 'this is my life's purpose' train - not by a long shot - but I have to admit that it's been a lot of fun, and more satisfying than beating my head against the ranking system in VA with Sher.

With the meta being pretty entrenched at the moment, it was starting to get pretty stale, really, but after 6 years, that's not exactly surprising for a PvP-focused game. The 'living world' genre Astral Reckoning comes under is refreshing by comparison, even if it's by no means perfect - average at an optimistic best, really.

Regardless of whether the game dies or not, I'll come away from it with a few extra friends, so I count that as a win, overall.

Hah, speak of the devil. A bored-looking Silver and Angelus weave between the piles of unsorted crap and trash pickers towards me. Straightening my back and tying off the mouth of the sack of junk I was told to fill, I give the serious pair a wave, "Hey, wondered when you were going to show up."

"I missed my bus then had to wait an hour and a half for the next one because that one was late," Silver grumbles, waving dismissively, "I see you've been keeping yourself busy in the meantime."

"Yup, 'slike I'm back in high school again, learning about the environment and our impact blah blah blah...by being hired out by the school to do community service," I laugh bitterly, "Major difference being that I'm actually getting paid for this."

"Schools still pull that crap?" Angelus snorts, "The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose."

"Gotta learn to appreciate the sanctity of nature and the beauty of conscientious hard work~" I explain sarcastically, "It'd be better than regular class, except for the part where this was near the Florida coast and there were a shitload of used hypodermics from junkies shooting heroin and shit. Gee, thanks Mr Wilkes, I sure do love me an HIV risk as an alternative to normal schooling."

"...They got away with that?" Silver frowns, folding his arms and radiating disapproval.

"Yeah, for a while," I nod, "Then some kid tested positive for Tetanus after cutting open their hand on the side of a rusty dumpster and the PTA kicked up a massive stink."

"I can imagine. What ended up happening to the kid?" Angelus leans in.

"Lost the hand and part of his forearm due to a related infection, but he survived," I sigh, my heart going out to the poor thing, "Teacher on duty got the sack for negligence and endangerment, which served them right, but the school got off with a slap on the wrist and a 'fine'. Which is to say, they bribed the authorities to look the other way most likely."

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Silver echoes, "How much longer until you're finished with your Quest?"

"Teeeechnically I finished ten minutes ago," I cough, "I've just been going for the optional objective. I didn't really give it a whole lot of thought when we were fighting from street to street, but slowing working my way through all...."

I spread my arms wide for emphasis, "...This. Kinda put it into perspective how badly the city got messed up by the Event. Figured I ought to do a little extra out of the goodness of my heart."

"I've seen worse," Silver mutters with a faraway look to his eyes, before snapping out of some sort of flashback, "We're going to stop by the City Warehouse to alleviate our inventory burdens, do you want to come with us?"

"Sure, just let me get this sack handed in," I spare a glance for the bulging bag, "If we leave the plaza with it we're flagged as thieves, even if we aren't actually trying to steal anything."

---

 

Empiric Vaultshare, Meteo City

The City Warehouse, operated on the behalf of the Empire by the Dossa family of merchants, isn't too far of a distance from Tridor Plaza. The building is still pristine - perhaps stained and in need of some maintenance, but no different than before the Siege. The protections afforded to the business aren't too far behind the City Bank, as one might imagine, but although they are notably inferior; since it's used primarily to keep the goods of travelling commodity merchants - in other words, grains and other raw, unprocessed goods - secure during their stay in the City, it's not worth the effort needed to crack it open.

"Not very impressive to look at," Windy notes as we approach the scratched and weathered double doors.

"Meteo City isn't a very impressive place," Angelus remarks, looking back over his shoulder, "Other than City Hall, and the Cathedral, at least."

"As I said before, the city was built cheaply and sturdily," I shrug, agreeing with their evaluation, "Aesthetic considerations are a distant worry when you're an independent city-state trying not to perish. Formerly independent, nowadays, though it's hard to tell the difference."

"So you keep mentioning," Angelus looks at me pointedly, "I assume you know the story behind that?"

"Nothing all that secretive," I defend myself, "The Empire's neighbours are more concerned with themselves than anything, while the Empire of Stone is in a constant war against the Truth Liberati to the Northeast and the City Gorgers to the Northwest."

"'City Gorgers'?" Windy questions, "'Truth Liberati'?"

"The City Gorgers are why The Enduring Empire kills Quirstics more or less on sight - their name is rather self-explanatory really. They're a large tribe of high-level Quirstics who eye the extremely valuable, durable materials used to make defensible structures such as forts and cities like a starving swarm of locusts do a wheat field," I elaborate, "The Truth Liberati are a bunch of quasi-anarcho-liberalist zealots who hate what The Empire of Stone did to The Starlight Truth Faith - long story - and have been throwing wave after wave of themselves at the Empire for a couple of centuries now."

"So, a war on two fronts?" Angelus nods in understanding, "Little wonder Meteo City is being neglected, but it's still odd to me. You'd think they'd push more of their non-combat interests down here while they fight."

"Perhaps, but I won't claim to know what's going through the heads of the upper echelons of the Empire," I push the doors open, revealing a similar interior - if shabbier - to that of City Hall.

"Maybe they didn't want to deal with Arevas?" Windy hypothesises.

Angelus thinks on it, then frowns deeply, "Assuming they're aware of his existence, if anything that would make them want to pay more attention, not less."

While the two of them argue about what is 'logical' and 'reasonable', I get the NPC manning the desk to start through the tutorial spiel. Which, naturally, I ignore.

The fact of the matter, is that the Empire is starting to fall apart, in much the same way that most empires do once sufficient time has passed. Though it is certainly still extraordinarily wealthy and powerful, the strain of maintaining two war fronts against two exceptionally stubborn opponents while the Government itself still remains divided from a civil war which caused the Wolf Lord's ultimate demise has drained much of its strength, and the rot has already long seeped in. If not for the arrival of the players and the looming Astral Eclipse, I'd give the Empire less than a century to live in its current state.

As it stands, by 2138, the Empire had already been dissolved for over a decade, and the continent Firmament was already firmly under the control of the players - in particular, CIG operated Guilds and the cream of the professional scene. If you weren't in an independent territory controlled by a Saint or Sage of Truth, your options for moving around and playing the game were extremely restricted. You want to go into a dungeon? Pay up. Do you want to go to a good hunting ground? Buy our premium membership package and we'll throw in a day's supplies! Otherwise, fuck off, peasant, go back to our sweatshop making Stamina Restoratives and armour sets with the company logo on designed by our pet Grandmaster crafters. Fair employment and anti-monopoly laws? Merrow is legally recognised as a separate world and we control the legislation here - get bent!

I exhale steadily to force myself to calm down. Remembering the state of Astral Reckoning before 2128 saw a massive hit to the status quo gets my blood boiling. Fortunately, my former Guild was a reputable mercenary outfit affiliated with a Saint through our Guildmaster and we were able to avoid most of the corporate bullshit with the strength of our combined reputation.

"Is there something the matter?" Windy asks out of concern, interrupting Angelus mid-sentence.

"Recalling unpleasant memories, pay me no mind," I half-smile at her.

This time around will be different. I'll make sure of it.