Guild Anonymous

[Emrin]

*So as not to spoil anything all I gotta say is read at your own risk. There are some spoilers but the content is what I am most worried about. Things will get strange in these stories but it's up to you whether you want to read them or not.*

I've been wanting to write for a long time now. I've had time to create little drafts here and there but I didn't want to rush things and post them here yet. I had posted this on another website before and I really liked how it was going. I had some great ideas so I want to continue it. Something different lol The title of this thread is what it is because this story is just one of the many I plan to write. They will all be short stories about adventurers in either Etria, Lagaard, or Armoroad... although the latter won't happen until sometime later on. They're like pages out of a journal/diary so they should hopefully sound as if they're in past tense.

Guild Anonymous 1.1

Last night was a... a very interesting night in Etria.

Everything played out like it always did. But on that day one of the stronger guilds had taken down Cernunos so everyone swarmed the 3rd stratum and tried to map out as much as they could. They dubbed it "The Azure Rainforest". Great name for such a mysteriously cerulean stratum. My guild went in and we managed to map a good portion of the 11th floor. The guild leader, Ricky, was so excited about the new stratum and about how much we had mapped that when we got back to town he decided to treat us to anything we wanted over at the Golden Deer Pub.

We got back to town around 11 pm and everything was so quiet. A few homes were lit and some of the windows in the inns were lit as well. That chilly night I would actually hear the wind rustle the leaves on the Yggdrasil Tree overlooking Etria. The streetlights were on but Etria seemed so lonely for once. A few adventurers were around but this change in the atmosphere was one that I had never been in before. The town was actually quiet for once and nothing bad had occurred yet. Well as far as I knew nothing bad had occurred. They had said that with each new stratum sadness, loneliness, and death were all welcomed. They said that sometimes you got used to it. But at other times it's was if the entire town was destined to fall into a dark pit where we would all meet our ends. But I had yet to hear about any deaths since the discovery of the 3rd stratum a few hours earlier.

We walked into the Golden Deer Pub and I half expected it to be somewhat full but only about seven adventurers were there. Valerie, the publican, was at the front counter talking to one of the seven. She saw us, waved at us and greeted us with a smile. Her smile could cheer up the worst of feelings and attitudes. She was like a mother to us all and there was no one she didn't care for. She took care of each and every adventurer as if they were her own children. Everyone loved her and I couldn't think of anyone who did or would want to dislike her. When some of the other adventurers needed advice or just someone to talk to they sometimes went to Valerie and she always knew exactly what to say. It was because of who she was and how she handled things that made me admire and enjoy her company. I had never talked to her about things bothering me, because I usually kept my problems to myself, but I knew I would go to her someday.

We walked over to her but as we made our way her smile began to fade and she seemed to get sad. She excused the guy she was talking to and began talking to us. "I'm really glad to see you guys. After I heard about the new stratum being discovered I began to worry for the lives of all the adventurers risking their lives. I grew very tenacious of the idea that many of them would die. And after about 10 minutes of the discovery of the 3rd stratum, the first casualty had already occurred. Soon after many more occurred. Some of the luckier adventurers only got injured but nonetheless the hospital is bustling with doctors and nurses and Medics. There weren't enough doctors and nurses available so Radha Hall sent out an order that any able bodied Medics still in town had to report to the Ceft Apothecary and help out." She turned to me and said "You just got here so I won't make you go. But rest a while and when you're ready head over there and help as much as you can." I nodded and she went back to talking to us all. "I honestly just wish that so many adventurers didn't rush into the Labyrinth so carelessly. I feel like many of these casualties can be avoided if they payed more attention to where they are and what they surrounded themselves with. It would be better to have only responsible guilds go in so as to avoid all these deaths." She sighed and stood there looking down at the counter before her. Her brown eyes seemed to be lost in thought. She seemed likely to begin to cry at any moment but then Ricky called out to her. She regained herself, smiled and apologized.

[Emrin]

Guild Anonymous 1.1(continued)

Being the responsible one I knew that in the end I would have to be the one making sure that everyone made it back home safely, so as we were ordering our drinks I chose the simplest thing that was on the menu: Mandrake Juice. It's sweet and it always went well with a nice hot bowl of Clawbug Soup. Although there were many other things I could have chosen I went with this as my meal because every time our guild leader offered to buy us anything, everyone present in the party went crazy and ordered the most expensive things on the menu. And so we were always left with a very small amount of en by the end of the day. (I would think that Ricky might have already seen where the problem was. He always blamed the fact that we were usually short on money on the monsters in the labyrinth and or the Dark Hunter in the guild. I mean Eric wasn't that much of a jerk to steal money from the guild. He may have given us hard times in the beginning but he was better now... or at least that's what I told everyone each time he went ahead and swung his whip in the wrong direction. But nonetheless he was a good kid.)

After we all received our drinks from Valerie we went ahead and took a table at one of the corners in the pub. Ricky continued to fuss over why I had chosen such a "light" meal and why I hadn't picked something that would "actually stuff" me. I gave him the simplest answer I had "Because I'm not that hungry" and strangely enough it stopped him from annoying me more. Ten minutes later Valerie arrived with our food. Everything smelled great and it even made my mouth water. The Clawbug Soup was steaming hot and I could see some of those delicious pieces of Clawbug meat that I loved so much. I grabbed my spoon and dived in for a small sample and took a small piece of Clawbug meat. The meat was so tender and the soup was a bit spicy: just the way I liked it. I looked around the table at the others and they were barely touching their food. Everyone had ordered some Spider Cider and it seemed as though they had payed extra for a bit of Scorpion Venom. That stuff could take the most innocent person and cause them to try and fight just about anything. And I mean anything. Seeing as everyone else in the party had already had a lot of Spider Cider in the past it took a while before it's side effects were apparent. And judging by the ways that they were acting, I could tell that they each had at least already had 3 to 4 cups.

Valerie once told me that when Spider Cider was first discovered it was a great drink, but when a Landsknecht accidentally poured in some Scorpion Venom, Etria was never the same. From that point on everyone demanded some Scorpion Venom to be put into their Spider Cider. Although many of the people at Radha Hall had issues with the side effects, they couldn't say no to the people of Etria so they made it legal. No one fusses too much anymore. Fights ensue from time to time but Valerie is always there to knock some sense into those who would be stupid enough to fight in her pub. Speaking of which, she was always tense around Ricky. She knew how bad he got when he drank some S.C. and so was always on her toes. Every time he drank too much he tended to get a bit crazy. And as if Landsknecktes weren't a bit crazy to begin with, Ricky took it to a whole new level. When Valerie came around he tried hard to get her to kiss him. But Valerie always met his lips with her fist or her foot. And when that happened he just shook it off and went right back to trying to kiss her. He never quite learned his lesson.

So that night everyone was laughing at how stupid Ricky was being and I'll admit that I too was laughing a bit. Then a guy walked in. I felt a change in the atmosphere and I stopped laughing. I looked at him and my eyes were glued from that moment on. He had the figure of a Landsknecht: strong and mighty, but had the armor of a Protector. Or what seemed like Protector armor because I had never seen armor like his before. He had brown hair and there was a strange feel to him. A presence that I had never felt before in someone. He seemed so different. He also had a sword at the left side of his waist. He looked left and right and when Valeria noticed him she called out to him. She kicked Ricky one final time, which finally caused him to stop, cleaned herself up and walked over to the counter where she met the guy. He handed her a piece of paper and I recognized what it was. Those pieces of paper were only given by the Radha to the guilds who had just finished their initiation. He was part of a new guild. I'll admit I did smile a bit but if only I had realized where I was and who I was around...

[Emrin]

Guild Anonymous 2.1

It's nothing really. Nothing to think of. Nothing to ponder. Nothing to wonder about. Nothing useful to make you waste your precious time dwindling through your fingers. Nothing that won't seep through you and melt away. Nothing that you'll ever see again. Nothing worth mentioning. Nothing important. To you. But to me. It hurts. It pains me to have to see me telling you what I must. It hurts to have to see myself standing there on that final day, in that final hour, in those last few minutes, at that single moment when I tell what you mean to me. It hurts. But it must be done. I told myself that I would tell you how I felt. I didn't promise it to anyone because it isn't something worth promising about. My heart wasn't made for promises. And neither was yours. So in the end I'll say what I must. Then turn around. Walk away. And hope to never see your face ever again. I know what I'll do. I know what I'll say. I just hope you'll understand.

Do you remember where and when we met? I don't know the exact date but I know it was in the Porcelain Forest.

I was always afraid to go past the Abyssal Shrine because I didn't know what I would find in the 5th stratum. I'm good with change but it was just so hard for me. I mean I had been in the 4th stratum for quite some time and I was nowhere near bored. I didn't want to leave the place I had grown so much in. I had memories, a lot of memories, in the Abyssal Shrine but sadly enough it had to end. One day I grew quite courageous. I had finally built up enough courage to take that step into the teleportation devise and go into the 5th stratum. I didn't know what came over me but I did it. I walked into the light and closed my eyes. How it feels to get teleported is really an interesting feeling. Half of you feels asleep while the other half is screaming out is terror and trying to reassure itself that at one point everything will come to an end. And it did. Finally.

I opened my eyes and the I took my first breathe of air. Flowers. Sweet. Quite strong, quite nostalgic, quite distinguishable. Fresh. New. Crystal-like. The Porcelain Forest. The 5th stratum. The place where we met for the first time. And the place where I was to say my last goodbye.

[Emrin]

Guild Anonymous 2.2

Everything was peaceful. No disturbances. No distress calls. No blood stained clothing. No deaths. This new stratum was completely different than the rest. I felt at ease. I could lay here, fall asleep, and still wake up in one piece. I wanted to as well. But I couldn't for all of a sudden I saw movement. The equilibrium was lost and I became nervous. But I was prepared. I had been in the labyrinth countless times before and I knew what to expect. Well I did before. This time around I wasn't prepared for you. I didn't know that the special training that you Arbalists had been talking about actually took place in the Porcelain Forest. I never knew. In the moment it took me to think that process through you disappeared. But I wanted to know more. Not about you though. I wanted to see this special training and I wanted to be a part of it as well.

The hall I had been teleported into was pretty big. It wasn't huge but it was nice and spacey. All around me there were trees. Some with white trunks and others with your average brown. And all of them had the same green leaves and something on the trees caught my eyes. On most of them there seemed to be a faint green glow. They looked like fruit but I knew that fruit didn't glow. With not normal fruit. Then again I wasn't in a normal place to begin with and so it was possible that those green things were fruits of some kind. Below the trees there bushes as well. They had small pink flowers growing on them and they looked safe. From a distance. Some of the bushes just lay in the middle of the hall as if waiting for someone. They stood there. I was aware that there was no soil here and I wondered as to how those bushes managed to stay alive. I could understand that the bushes around the trees surrounding me could stay alive because the tree could provide nourshiment but how were the bushes that just lay in the middle of nowhere get the power to continue to live? One of the many questions that the labyrinth was capable of presenting but all which were unanswerable. No human could decipher any of those unexplainable questions and many tried. In the end though, just as we live on with our own secrets, the labyrinth will too.

I began to walk and when my foot hit the ground I heard a strange sound. I looked below and I could see my own reflection in the crystal-like floor. Water? It looked like water but was solid. Ice? No it wasn't cold here. It was pleasant and warm. I tapped it with my knuckles and the sound resonated pretty far. Glass? If it indeed was glass then I was afraid that at any moment it would give way and I would plunge to me death. Weird how after being in the labyrinth so many times that's the very first thing that comes to your mind. Regardless of where you are. I found myself thinking that I could die even in the bathrooms back at Armoroad sometimes. Nonetheless I lost interest in the floor after seeing another figure zoom by. One of the stupidest things you can do in the labyrinth is follow something that you know nothing of. With that in mind I followed the figure.

It had gone down the passage to my left and so I went ahead in that direction. As I kept walking I noticed that the trees were strange. They swayed from time to time and it was a while before I realized that I was so far down in the labyrinth that no wind could blow. I was curious but not curious enough to pay anymore attention to them. I mean the trees looked nice and everything but I wanted to know more about this training I had heard about. Ahead I could clearly see that the path I was on would lead me to the right and grew a bit nervous again. Each new stratum comes fully packed with it's new monsters and mysteries. I wasn't prepared for much to be honest. Nor was I prepared to hear you speak to me for the first time. Do you remember what you first told? I bet you forgot. It doesn't surprise me. You tend to forget a lot of things. Or maybe you just don't care? I don't know. Nonetheless your first words to me were: "Hey! Move out of the way!" Not really love at first sight but it was start.