“Ithiel.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“What does the exchange do?”
“It, uh, switches places between the real and the fake gem.”
“When did you want me to ask the Foreigners for a favor? Which gem is up?”
“The fake one, obviously.”
“The reward for the quest is?”
“The fake one.”
“Where will the fake one be after the quest?”
With the player, or thrown away, of course. Bloody audibly facepalmed.
With the fake gem being out of the way, there’d be an empty space in the image. Obviously, a “new fake” would have to be put in by the elves - just that it could be the real gem this time.
Just one exchange, then.
Sometimes, people were exceptionally stupid even when the answer was right in front of them.
“As for the first exchange… It would depend on how well your people see in the dark”, the teacher mused, tapping a finger against the windowframe next to him. “There is a way to make all lights disappear momentarily - not more than thirty or forty seconds, but due to the way this city has grown, it will be pitch-black if it happens during the night.”
The canopy of leaves blocked out even sunlight effectively, let alone moonlight. If the trees - the tree - stopped glowing, it would indeed be pretty dark.
Ice bit his tongue to stop himself from asking about the other bioluminescent things living here.
Instead he tried to imagine the situation. They’d not have much longer than thirty seconds for sure, because that was about how long people would be stunned before they’d start using fire to illuminate the area.
Not to mention that this happening would be very suspicious. They’d need a good explanation for why the lights would disappear, or players would start noticing that something was up.
Ithiel looked from his teacher to Ice and back, making it clear that he didn’t want to lead this conversation.
The teacher gave a wry smile and finally looked at Ice. He motioned for him to come closer. “You there. Tell me what exactly you need and what your issues are.”
“Yes.” Relieved, Ice took one step forward.
A lot of time passed in which the two of them exchanged quick words, working their way through the plan. Bloody felt he was dying - he couldn’t stand still, not at all. Even Huntsman was affected, uncomfortably leaning from one leg to the other.
Dead Rabbit managed best of the three, blatantly leaning against his older brother’s shoulder to relax a bit. As annoyed as Bloody was, he didn’t shake his little brother off.
The time spent wasn’t wasted, though.
It was possible to cause all lights in the forest to go off for a short time, including bioluminescent beings and plants not connected to the tree. Apparently this was a sort of chain reaction, with the other creatures being shocked into darkness.
The concept must have been created for a yet undiscovered quest. It was linked to the monster sitting underground, as the darkness would appear if you cut off a piece of one of the tree’s main roots. A sort of panic reaction from the tree would cause all lights to go out, making it a warning signal for the elves.
By using their chat, they could time the moment perfectly. If Ithiel and a player were in the library at that time, they could exchange the gem.
Harder was stopping the players from suspicion. Ithiel begged his teacher for help again and the old elf gave in - either due to being soft-hearted or because he, too, preferred to keep the piece safe.
They’d need to use another quest to cover this up. This time, a whole series.
Some high-ranking elf would have to use the blackout to declare an issue with the roots, and then send players on a questline to fix it.
They couldn’t go around creating one lie after the next.
Luckily, Ithiel was reminded of a ritual that actually worked perfectly for their cause.
Once in a while, some vermin might bypass the Rootwatcher and gnaw at the tree’s roots. If that happened, the darkness would alert the elves, who would send someone down to knock out the Rootwatcher - in order to calm it - and then use a special procedure to fix the broken area.
It was likely that this was supposed to happen at some point, and players would gather all the materials and then go down to do exactly that.
It was a beautiful excuse for the darkness, but the problem remained that this quest would repeat at some point.
On hearing that worry, the teacher shrugged. “This happened just last year. So far, we did not see any reason to rely on your Foreigners to take part in such an important ritual. I am still doubtful, but it might be acceptable to only allow you to gather the materials and accompany a specialist, rather than fix it yourself. If it works out well, we can ask you lot to do it in the future.”
He then sighed deeply.
“To think the day would come that we have to cut the roots ourselves…”
They didn’t have time to lament the situation. In order to not let anything appear too odd, Ithiel started moving in and out of the library and the rest of the group split up to manage things.
Ice stayed in contact with Blackstone and arranged the last materials she needed for the fake gem. In between, he worked together with some NPCs to find out how to create the exact type of quest that they were going to need. Bloody got his guild moving and prepared a group of trustworthy people that would enter the dungeon and attack the Rootwatcher at the right time together with Huntsman.
Dead Rabbit, as an assassin, started accompanying Ithiel. He’d be the one to exchange the real and fake, and Ithiel made sure to explain exactly what was where and how it was connected.
Originally, Bloody had planned on joining Huntsman down in the dungeon, but things didn’t go as planned.
Wanting to cry, Bloody kept a straight face as he stood in front of a team from another guild. He and his friends were staring the other side down warily, neither side willing to back down from right below the library.
Where just a couple of days ago people had been sneaking around the edge of the town, they were now circling around the library like hungry wolves. The NPCs around were getting nervous and the atmosphere was tense.
He wasn’t good at acting overbearing, so all he could do was make a stand and hope that that’d keep people from deciding to launch an attack on the library.
“What a great surprise, seeing you here”, the other side said fakely.
No surprise.
Several of the top guilds were roaming around, although thankfully not all. Not every top guild and player felt like hunting for the necklace pieces, and not everyone would try going for the same piece. There were two more pieces, after all.
“It really is”, a calm voice came from the side.
Bloody’s ears perked up. His eyebrows raised, he focused on White Light, who had appeared as a proxy for his own guild leader. It sure made a nice guild triangle, the way they were standing.
White Light didn’t look at Bloody directly. The beastman couldn’t tell if this was good or bad, but whatever helped them gain time was good. It was a rushed job to get everything done in only a few days and he’d go nuts if it all went down the drain because the guilds snapped the evening right before they put their plan into motion.
But his worry ended up being unfounded.
White Light was indeed a player from an enemy guild.
But in the end, he was a player. Enjoyment was what drove him to play this game, and speaking from experience, Ice seemed to be caught up in a lot of interesting things all the time. Even if he couldn’t show it openly in order to avoid the wrath of his guild leader… White Light didn’t mind subtly supporting Bloody and whatever plan his party had thought up.
Maybe afterwards they could get together for lunch and tell him the story. That would be nice.
Tha k you for the chapter