TQG 43. Aftermath

The popular item of this boss was another vanity pet; a miniature wardrobe according to the item description.  The argument about its distribution was fierce.  Finally it was decided that Father would hold onto it until a guild meeting could be held to determine its fate.  The second most popular item was a [Wardrobe Key], a large skeleton key shaped amulet with impressive bonus dexterity.  And, for some reason, there was a pair of [Blue Royal Undergarments] as well.  It was my turn to blush.

And, of course, [Malkios’s Spare Cloak].  What that was doing in my wardrobe I’ll never know, but one had dropped from every single boss.  A number of the survivors were already wearing the blue cloak because the raid version was apparently very Bee Eye Ess as well.  Malkios wasn’t going to be happy, but at least closing the raid would stem the tide of blue cloaks making their way into the world.

“It is time to start looking for the core, Hail,” Grandfather said, stepping over to me.  “You believed that it would be inside the wardrobe monster when this place was a dungeon, but that may not be the case.  Still, it is where we will start.  Come with me.”

Nervously, I followed my grandfather over to the shattered wooden planks of the final boss.  Together, with Tarisha of Miami watching over us, we searched the ruined wardrobe, and in the shattered base, I found it.  The choices to evolve the Raid were numerous and scrolling through them was somewhat overwhelming, yet I finally reached the end.

You have reached the Raid Core of Zhesa Castle Raid!

[Blue Boxes]

“Here it is, Grandfather,” I said, hesitating before I chose the option.  “We want to destroy it, right?  Not reclaim it?”

“To possess a Raid Core would violate several treaties,” Grandfather confirmed.  “Do the honors, Hail.  End what you have started.”

Nervously, I selected the option to destroy the raid.  The raid core, a large red crystal the size of a melon, let out a bright light and then crumbled into dust.

Zhesa Castle Raid has been cleared

Calculating Rewards

Kill Percentage

100%

Time

8 hours (1.15 RT)

Hail’s New Practice Dummy

Killed

Nightmare Stallion

Killed

Ignatius the Emberheart

Killed

The False King

Killed

The Feast

Killed

Royal Library Gauntlet

Completed

Hail’s Monstrous Wardrobe (Unlocked)

Killed

Rating

S+

Zhesa Castle Raid Has Been Destroyed
Rewards Increased

Rewards (All Members)

Gold

1,000,007

Experience

70,000

Title

Castle Buster

Reputation with the Kingdom of Yuikon

10,000

Additional Rewards (Hail Jeoran)

Dungeon Daughter Core

100

Wind Up Malkios

9,000

Wind Up King Rain Teoran

5,000

Wind Up Hail Jeoran

500

“See that, boys and girls!  We’ve earned ourselves a new title!” Father shouted jubilantly.  “Yes I realize it’s unfair to those who died along the way.  I’ll open a ticket and see if we can’t have the title applied to everyone who took part.  Leave it to me, folks, I have a better relationship with the admins than any of you combined.  And I’ll really turn up the charm.  Just be patient, we’ll get you the title you deserve,” Father said over raid chat, and I realized that he was talking to the raiders lingering between worlds after having perished in this one.

This Raid Has Been Destroyed

Teleporting All Parties To Last Visited Safe Zone In 9:43

“Grandfather, did you earn any ‘additional rewards?’” I inquired.

“No.  Only another title, a significant amount of experience, and a bit of pocket change,” Grandfather answered.  “You, however, should have received a significant bonus as the one who actually destroyed the raid.  Were there any Dungeon or Raid Cores among your rewards?”

“No Raid Cores,” I answered quickly.  “But there were a lot of Dungeon Cores, and I think that the other items are vanity pets.”

“How many?” My father asked, having made his way over to us.  “Remember the agreement, Rain.  I am owed the first, third, fourth, and every third core after that.”

I opened my mouth to answer, but paused.  “I received ten of them,” I said.  I managed to hide the wicked grin on my face as I lied.

“Ten?  That is wonderful!  In that case I am owed five for the efforts of my raid today, and I have plans for each of them.”

“Remember the agreement.  Their use must be sanctioned,” Grandfather said.

“I’ve maxed out my reputation just about everywhere that I have in mind.  I’m quite certain that won’t be a problem,” Father responded.  “I really wasn’t expecting to be able to have the rights to select the next five dungeons!  Oh man am I looking forward to this!  Hand them over please, Hail.”

“Hail, do not take them out of your inventory,” Grandfather interrupted immediately.  “Not until the raid has closed, and even then only one at a time!  It has never been an issue before, but if the same resonance that occurred between the mother and daughter cores occurs with sister cores, then you are potentially a walking disaster.  The cores should be safe in your [Storage], but do not remove them without explicit instructions from myself.”

“I understand, Grandfather.  I’m sorry, Father, but Grandfather is right.  Besides, Travelers can’t interact with them at all.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you couldn’t even place them in your inventory.  That’s how it worked with Lair—Larissa.  I showed her once and she couldn’t even do that.”

“I bow to your wisdom, King Rain,” Father said.  “I shall seek your guidance and support in deciding the disposition of these cores as well, since it seems I need a Native proxy to set up my new dungeons.  I also must thank you for your assistance in completing this Raid.  While the majority of the instance was standard, I believe it is unlikely that we could have taken down the final boss without your assistance.”

“Do not come to expect it in the future, Gideon,” Grandfather said sternly.  “My aid was with the self-serving purpose of reclaiming my home.  I will not be following you out to the frontiers anytime soon.  I will not help you slay worldbosses or clear standard raids, even if I could enter them without being directed to the core instance.”

“A pity, but I understand.  Truthfully I would be unwilling to risk losing you to anything but Raid Busting anyway.  It would be fun to shatter a few records, but I’m fairly certain that our clear times would earn an asterisk for having you in the instance with us,” Father said.  Then he turned to me.

“Hail, I’ve been thinking.  I’m still a little troubled by what the administrator said about you, about you having an actual consciousness instead of simply being a set of algorithms.  And that your consciousness comes from me, somehow.  If that is true, then I apologize for the way I’ve treated you in the past.  I still don’t think that I’m cut out to be anyone’s father, not even digitally.  But I do know a thing or two about swordsmanship.  How would you like me to show you a thing or two, if I have some downtime between raids?”

“I-I don’t know,” I admitted.  “I’ll have to think about it.”

Gideon Lachlann has sent you a friend request

Accept?

Yes

No

Surprised, I clicked accept, and my Father’s name populated on my small but growing friends list.

“I’m really pretty busy, but maybe I’ll send you a party invite sometime when I’m free and we can talk?”

“I-I,” I was a little overwhelmed.  The last few hours, the last two days for that matter, had been the most intense days of my life.  “Father, I don’t know what to say.”

“Yeah, I sucked at talking to my dad too.  He was a total asshole,” Father said.  “I guess we do have that in common.  I’ve got administration things to take care of now, Hail, so I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” I said, and watched as he walked away.

I checked the timer on the closing of the instance, and there were three minutes left.  Looking over to the ruins of the wardrobe, I realized I was forgetting to do something very important.  I sprinted over to it and performed the funerary ritual, not even bothering moving the splintered wood into position, as I wasn’t sure what the proper position would be for a wardrobe anyway.

“May you return to the light of Thedum,” I said.  But nothing happened.

The ruined wardrobe wasn’t a worldboss.  It was just a pile of ruined cedar.

~~~~~~~~~

The core instance closed, and we were teleported outside.  As we watched, the swirling red motes of light that surrounded the castle intensified until it was impossible to see through them, then faded away to nothing, revealing the swath of destruction caused by the final battle with the wardrobe.  I choked up to see my childhood home destroyed, but Grandfather put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“It will be alright, Hail.  The price of simply one of the Dungeon Cores we have recovered will be sufficient to pay for the repairs, and even improvements to the castle.  We will hold an auction between our allies for one of the cores, and the price they will pay to expand their arsenal will be measured in carts filled with gold,” He informed me.  “While the rest of them will be added to our own collection.”

I looked around quickly.  We had materialized just outside of the command tent, and Malkios was rushing over to us quickly.

“Grandfather, forgive me, but I actually lied about the cores,” I said.  “I didn’t receive ten of them.”

He turned to me, his expression cross and growing furious.  “Hail, that is not a matter to be joking around about! I--”

“I received one hundred Dungeon Daughter Cores, Grandfather.  I’m sorry that I lied, it was to deceive my father, not you,” I said quickly.  “I wouldn’t have any idea what to do with so many of them, but I was certain that you would not want to honor the agreement with my father at that number.  I had only a second to think before the number slipped out of my mouth, or I might have said even fewer.”

King Rain looked stunned.  Then he embraced me as he had not done in years.  “Oh you clever little monster,” he laughed.  “Giving Gideon over thirty cores would have been a disaster!  Thank you for your swift thinking and deception!”

Blushing, I accepted the hug for a moment before extricating myself.  Malkios arrived a moment later and saluted my Grandfather with a fist over his chest.

“Sir, the castle is destroyed,” he said, “But the raid has been busted.  We will begin investigating the ruins immediately for structural damage.  I have already sent out word for--”

“Hey!  There you are, I’ve been looking all over for – oh shit it’s the king!”

It took me a moment to remember the voice, but when I turned I saw the random player who had come to my defense during the attempted kidnapping.  The axe-warrior nervously bowed at my grandfather, who looked at the unfamiliar player in confusion.

“Take it off!” Malkios growled, and I realized that the Traveler was wearing one of the many [Malkios Spare Cloaks] that had been spawned while Zhesa Castle was still a dungeon.

“What?” the Traveler asked.

“Twenty years!  It took me twenty years to earn the right to wear a blue cloak, and I’m not going to simply--”

“Grandfather, Malkios, this is the Traveler who aided me when a team of travelers attempted to kidnap me.  I mentioned him previously, weeks ago.  Do you still have my broach?  Oh, and what is your name?”

“My name is Randal,” the Traveler answered, and a broach appeared in his hand from his inventory.  “Yeah, I still have it.  Quest items are hard to get rid of, but I’ve been so busy grinding the dungeon that I never found time to turn it in, and the few times I thought of it, I couldn’t find the old guy.”

“Unfortunately, now is perhaps not the best time to see you rewarded for your heroism, Randal of the Travelers,” Grandfather said calmly.  “But you will be rewarded greatly.  All of those who stood with Yuikon in this time of crisis will see their rewards six weeks from now, and I declare now that I shall enter you into the numbers of the Royal Knights.”

“Ah yeah, that sounds awesome!” Randal exclaimed.  “Do I get a flag or something?”

“You may register a coat of arms, yes,” Grandfather said.  “But my seneschal will take care of the details before the ceremony.  Speaking of which, I must find the man, for there is much to discuss regarding the rebuilding of the castle.  We must find an architect, and--”

“Hey, I’m an architect,” Randal said.  “I mean, in the real world.  I’ve never designed a castle before, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a shot.”

“I am not certain that--” Grandfather began.

“Grandfather, the Travelers would compete fiercely for the ability to redesign our home,” I said, rudely interrupting him.  “Perhaps you could announce a contest, wherein we select the best proposal from a number of submissions?  Although I would personally weigh Randal’s submission quite highly, unless it was of poor quality.”

“Hey, I’m good at my day job,” Randal objected.

Grandfather considered the proposal, then nodded.  “When we find my seneschal, I shall tell him to make arrangements to begin accepting proposals.”

“Oh hell yeah!” Randal shouted.  “A royal knighthood anda leg up against the competition!  Best quest rewards ever!”