Weaving past the dragons, Leafa made as direct of a route as possible to turn in her quest. The difficulty in this zone was intense, but the rewards made up for it. With those she had already paid for a small piece of property in the Valley of the Butterflies. It was very small, but given the limited amount of land available that plot had gone for the cost of a full set of legendary armor.
Now she just needed to make enough to hire an NPC to build a house on it, which is why she was out here.
As a renegade Leafa didn't have a capital city to call her own. Ever since the ice giants came from below, and not long after that the fire giants, the cities within the ring of mountains had become dangerous. At any point an entire city could be attacked and caught between the two opposing forces.
On her property she was safe however. Standard mobs and PKers couldn't kill her there. The same rules applied to her as if she was the current leader of the sylphs in Sylvain. For some reason the Giants were an exception to the rule, but they weren't interested in anything near the mountains.
Why did she still play? Feeling a small thrill as she performed a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding a gout of dragon fire, she had her answer. Flying was everything.
Recon hadn't found it enjoyable enough, or anything else in the game, to continue playing regularly. His timid nature couldn't handle the constant attacks by random mobs and PKers on all sides. If he was the same man within the game as he had become outside it probably would have been different. He'd become so much more confident outside the game. Inside it was like he'd never grown at all.
Of course if the mobs, giants, and over the top quest objecties ever became too much she could go back to sylph territory where the quests were simpler. The giants seemed to be ignoring those territories in favor of battling for control of Arun and the world tree.
She could, but beyond the mountains had become a constant war zone between the races. PKing had always been part of the game, but out there it was more brutal. Ever since the salamanders had made that run for the world tree and nearly succeeded the game had become unbalanced.
The salamanders had attacked a meeting between the cait sith and the sylphs, killing both leaders and gaining an incredible amount of power over both territories for a limited time. The amount of money they earned from their taxing of the lands easily equipped an enormous raid group with armor and weapons that would make a god weep.
They cleared the first area of the world tree easily after that, only to be stopped by the door after the guardians. Apparently the door glitched, not unlocking for the raid group. After trying for a half hour the constantly increasing number of guardians overwhelmed the group.
Since they hadn't beaten the tree, the salamanders didn't ascend, but the admins did make a consolatory gesture, giving them the ability to fly twice as far, and only need to rest half as long before they could continue.
After that everyone wanted to become a salamander to gain this new ability, especially Leafa. To try preventing the balance from becoming so skewed the race had become restricted. There was a quest that was needed to be completed first before the race became available to the player's account. The quest disappeared when someone completed it, and a new quest would take its place, and then it was a quest in itself to find what the quest was.
The problem of finding and completing the quest was compounded by the fact it was always in salamander lands, and they didn't want any new players to join their ranks. The reasons why ranged from paranoid to petty. Flying there was a death sentence. Not that the rest of the map was much safer. Using their air superiority they constantly raided the other lands, maintaining the organization they created to make their run at the World Tree.
The other races could have created alliances to keep them in check, but of course they ended up fighting every time they tried. Like the salamanders it was for reasons ranging from paranoid to petty. Given the bad blood from the destroyed treaty talks two years ago the fighting between the Cait Sith and the Sylphs was particularly contentious.
Leafa had already been sick of all the politics and infighting. The constant warring with those who should have been allies clinched it.
Of course all of the races made more runs at the tree, but only when the Admins told them the glitch had been fixed. By then the giants had manifested and getting there involved getting past them. It was a mess.
It was possible to become friendly with one side of giants, but that only made the other side hunt you down more vehemently. Leafa didn't understand the system behind it entirely. There wasn't any settings in the menu to show where you sat with either side, and some players seemed to have a natural affinity and became friends with them quicker.
Both sides were treacherous however, and friends was a loose word to be using. More like valued tools. Leafa didn't want any part of it. She'd become a renegade to avoid politics and infighting. She wasn't going to jump back into it with NPCs.
The content updates that brought first the ice giants and then the fire giants hadn't been announced, which was odd. Until then updates were always announced well in advance. Leafa was suspicious it was added to stop more attempts at the tree.
While questing gave great rewards, when one of the giants went down their loot was impressive. Taking one on however was always a group effort of at least ten players. They were tougher than any other NPC in the game except for boss battles, and even then it was close. If giants could fly the game would have been impossible to play.
If a standard ice giant was that tough, Thrymm must be the Boss of bosses. Not that anyone had made it to him yet. Sitting at the gate for the world tree, he disappeared regularly inside. With his size he had to crawl to fit through the doors. After an hour he would respawn, sitting at the thrown he had started in.
After turning in the quest with the neutral quest giver, Leafa returned to her passion, trying to clear her mind of everything, especially thoughts of the real world. This was supposed to be an escape from that world. She had tried to use it that way when she first entered, but for the first time since Kazuto died it didn't. After that she had tried to get out the frustrations in the kill quest she had just finished, but again it didn't work.
She decided to give flying another try, but in a different manner. Before she had been sedate, trying to allow the gentle wind in her face to blow away her tears. Now she pushed herself to her top speed and allow the harsh air to force the tears out. As fast as she could go, faster than any other player, it was possible she'd run into another player before she knew he was there. That left only one direction. Up! Piercing the clouds, she saw the moon above, seeming so close she could touch it.
Yesterday the ones still trapped in that game, trapped like her brother, were free finally. Shouldn't their freedom have made her happy? Why had it only made her tears return, harder than before? Suku had thought she had finally healed from that loss. It wasn't like her and Kazuto had been that close after all.
Heck, they weren't even really siblings!
Stupid, so stupid. She had to have felt something still. She had put on the gear just to understand him better. She had learned kendo in his stead plus her own to appease their father. She cared. She'd loved her brother even if he had been such a insufferable pain.
Dead for two years now, and still she loved him. Loved him more than she should. Was it all in her head? She tried to convince herself of that again. That perhaps she was only in love with the memory, not the reality. It had to be! After all, he was a jerk, always shirking responsibility to hide in computers.
Well, she couldn't blame him for that now, given her own obsession with them. It was another way to try connecting with him, at least in spirit.
After ten minutes of pushing herself towards the heavens, the clouds a distant memory below her, she began to fall. The landing was going to kill her. Ten minutes of flight, and ten minutes between to recover before flying was possible again. Her wings had reminded her they were going to fail a minute before, but she had ignored them. Too late now. She might as well enjoy the trip back down.
The game's engine hadn't really changed since it started, but it was light years ahead of any other game. It took aerodynamics into account, allowing her to sky dive and direct her trajectory. The Valley of the Butterflies wasn't far. She angled herself in that general direction. If she got close enough she might even respawn on her land.
A distortion appeared above her as she fell. At first she disregarded it as lag until an item fell through it. Glinting black and silver, Leafa was surprised, to put it mildly, to realize it was a rapier. Why would a rapier form from nothing? The game was becoming way too glitch.
Leafa pulled her arms and legs together to make her fall as fast as possible as she aimed for the sword. It had already passed her while she tried to figure out what had just happened. No matter how aerodynamic she made herself there was no possibility to catch up with it, but she hoped she could get a lock on where it landed.
It could be trash to sell, or it could be an epic weapon, which she would also sell, but for a lot more. She had no training in rapier so it would be useless in her hands when compared to her skill with a katana. If she was extremely lucky the item might be the start of a quest. That could lead to the best rewards, from money to gear she could actually use.
Two minutes later she landed the hard way, dying instantly. She was very glad there was no pain in the game, but the fear of seeing the ground approach at terminal velocity was almost worse. It took her a few minutes for her heart to recover, which she did while still dead where she was safe.
She had been able to see where the sword landed at least, and it wasn't far from the respawn location. It wouldn't take long to grab it.
As she approached, she only saw its hilt with the blade completely buried beneath the ground. It had been moving fast, so that wasn't too surprising. Leaning down she grabbed it, preparing to put all of her strength into pulling it out. It wasn't necessary. When she touched the sword she fell backwards in surprise, her eyes wide as the sword became a dull black ball then again into a Katana identical to her own.
Identical in every way except color. She thought the blade looked sinister in it's black and silver, but if it was a good enough blade she'd put up with it. Picking it up she tapped it once to bring up the item info. She wasn't a blacksmith so she couldn't get all of its information, but she could get its stats and name at least.
"Lament Shadow, hmm?" she whispered to herself. "Well your stats aren't the most impressive, but they're not too bad either." She paused to think further, and thought about how it changed shape when she touched it. "There's more to you than just stats though, isn't there?"
It was definitely an item to bring to a trusted smith for appraisal. She knew just the man.
ns 15.158.61.17da2
