SWNOVELS Chapter 9
I carefully crawled through the wall, making sure not to scrape the rocks. I dropped down on the other side of the wall, making a soft thud sound. The kingdom Gateway stretched in front of me as I picked up the arrows that had fallen out of my quiver. I walked in the shadows of the buildings and vines, looking for anything I should report to Riley. I didn't want to do this but Riley was level one-hundred fifty whereas I was level forty-one.
And her stats were maxed out.
So...
I really didn't have a choice but to listen to her.
I watched as the players walked around the streets along with random NPCs. The players mostly ignored each other and the NPCs even if they talked to them. Eventually, I made my way to the castle where a bunch of NPCs and players were standing guard. Nothing weird seemed to be happening and Gateway actually seemed a lot more peaceful than Flared. It was full of life as well, with vines and trees lining most buildings and places.
The castle had no vines covering it. Instead, it had leaves hanging down in places and tall grass surrounding it. The grass was taller than me, making it a perfect place to hide.
I looked at the tower nearby. It was huge and very tall. It was probably the community dungeon because a bunch of players went in and out. I watched the people of Gateway for a while before heading back to the entrance.
*** PurrBox POV ***
I tapped my foot as Jac and Zelia tried to reason with the guards. It was very obviously not working but it was a bad idea to attack them seeing as me and Vennia were the only ones that could hurt them and we were level eleven and thirteen.
I saw Evra roll her eyes. A guard yelled at her but she ignored him. I passed the rock between my hands as I checked my stats.
Character Stats
Name: PurrBox
Level: 13
Experience: 500/1300
Health: 250
Damage: 10-15
Speed: 5
Mana: 250/250
Kingdom: Flared
Class: Fire Wizard
Yeah. Still worse than the guards. At level seventy-five they both had the same stats for the most part.
Chracter Stats
Name: Hail
Level: 75
Experience: 0/7500
Health: 900
Damage: 25-35
Speed: 7
Mana: 900/900
Kingdom: Gateway
Class: Paladin
Character Stats
Name: Zay
Level: 75
Experience: 400/7500
Health: 900
Damage: 25-35
Speed: 5
Mana: N/A
Kingdom: Gateway
Class: Warrior
Yeah... I'd die.
I'd very definitely die.
Anyways, I passed the rock between my hands slightly faster as the guards got more aggressive towards Jac and Zelia. I took a step closer to Vennia.
Vennia sighed. "If it's too much trouble then we can stay behi-"
"No," Zelia interrupted firmly.
"Well, we aren't letting you in." Zay crossed her arms.
I checked my skills just because I wanted to.
Chracter Skills
1. Fireball
Throw a ball of fire at the enemy that makes them burst into flames dealing minimum damage and 4 damage over time. No mana cost.
2. Circle of Fire
Put up a circle of flames around you within a three foot radius dealing 13 damage and 6 damage over time. Mana cost: 10
3. Locked
4. Locked
5. Locked
Passive
1. Fire Shield
Put up a shield that burns enemies and protects you from attacks for 5 seconds. Deals 1 damage over time. Cooldown of 30 seconds
2. Locked
3. Locked
4. Locked
5. Locked
My skills weren't bad but they didn't do nearly as much damage as the two guards.
So I decided not to attack.
I could've at least done my passive skill but Derec was standing too close to me.
I stopped passing the rock between my hands as Zelia looked at me. She turned back to Hail when I stopped.
I looked around as they argued with the two guards and waited for them to let us in. I saw a bird fly overhead and I watched it land in the tree closest to me. I looked back at the guards as they started yelling.
"How many times do we have to tell you? We aren't letting you in!" Zay yelled.
Zelia glared at her. "You have to let us in! We're trying to beat the game!"
"And you think going into Gateway will help you do that?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah, right!" Zay rolled her eyes.
Zelia's hands turned into fists. "Let us in!"
"No!"
"Fine." Zelia turned to the rest of us. "Come on."
She walked back into the forest, not looking to see if we followed. We ended up following because what else were we supposed to do?
When we were far out of earshot of the guards, Zelia said, "Ok. We need to find another way in."
"Where?" I countered. "There's no other w-"
"Actually," Vennia interrupted. "There is. Through the castle dungeon."
"But how do we get through it?" Zelia wondered. "Guards are everywhere down there."
"Then only a few of us go in? Or we go really sneaky."
"Yeah but most of us aren't very sneaky." Zelia looked at Derec.
I don't know why. It's not like he hadn't been sneaky this whole time. So why'd she looked at him...?
I didn't think about it too long. It wasn't really something I cared about.
We followed Vennia to the castle dungeon. The entrance was a hole to the ground with a small trapdoor over it. There was a ladder inside, leading down into the darkness below. Zelia went in first since no one else wanted to. When I went down the ladder all I saw was pitch black darkness.
So we couldn't see. Great.
If only we had a lantern or something.
We walked through the dungeon not actually knowing where we were going. I ended up losing where everyone else was, not that I cared, and trying to find my way out myself. It wasn't very easy. I walked for what seemed like hours until there was a light up ahead. As I got closer, I realized it was a guard. The light was coming from a lantern.
That's when I realized this whole time I could've used fire to see but like it mattered now.
I turned down another tunnel and walked down it until I ran straight into a wall. I lit a small fire in my hand and turns out, it was in fact a wall.
I turned around and started trying to find my way through the maze of tunnels. I don't know why it was called a dungeon. There was nothing in it.
Anyways, I walked through the tunnels until I finally caught up with Zelia's group and Vennia.
"PurrBox, where were you?" Vennia asked.
"Uh, I got lost..."
"Yeah, I gathered that."
I started leading with the fire in my hand which I didn't like. I didn't want to lead but I was the one with light so...
We walked around for a while longer before we found the way out. It was another ladder that lead into the basement of the castle. The basement was nothing much. Just a carpeted room with a few crates for storage. We walked quietly up the stairs and Zelia carefully opened the door before walking out into the hallway behind it. The hallway had a few doors but not too many. The hallway was wood with leaves and vines hanging down from the ceiling. As we navigated through the castle, I realized that there weren't many guards around.
Until we got to the entrance.
The inside of the castle had no guards at all but the outside had more than I could count.
Which made no sense but whatever.
"How are we supposed to get out?" Evra asked.
"Like I know that," Zelia said.
Well obviously she didn't have a plan.
So, if we couldn't just walk straight out, then how were we supposed to get out?