Inside the Fortress, the much tougher Hobgoblin elites and mages began to make their appearances. Armed with battleaxes and powerful fire magic, the rate at which Lortan was clearing the monsters noticeably slowed. Still, Beast did not make a move to help. What he was preoccupied with was the appearances of these strange -yet-readable symbols located all over the fort interior. Many of them had already faded away with the passage of time but what could be made out all spoke of the same thing.

To flee. To escape. To run away.

From something.

It could be quite unnerving to keep seeing them when what he was doing was the contrary but what wass more curious was the fact that Lortan before him did not even seem to acknowledge them. Many a times the warrior had come face to face with the symbols and yet had shown no sign of recognition or otherwise.

What if he could not read them at all and they appeared only as gibberish writings to him? Beast entertained the thought of such a possibility. But there was still a slight chance that the man was feigning ignorance of the warnings all so that he could bring Beast deeper into the dungeon where he could kill him off like the time before.

“Hey,” Beast spoke, catching the attention of the currently meditating warrior. “Do you know who these guys are?”

Beast was pointing at a handful of corpses that lay haphazardly on the ground on the campsite they had gotten to and were now resting at. These were definitely players, because only players leave behind a body when they die for the player killing and looting mechanism. Lortan opened an eye to see what Beast was talking about and coldly shrugged. It seemed that he was not as deep in meditation that he had appeared to be.

“Nope, no idea. Fools need to learn to avoid getting killed by monsters.”

Lies. There had been clearly a look of recognition that flitted across the warrior’s face for that split-second. Lortan had definitely known of the dead players around them and if Beast were to hazard a guess, he might have also been the one who gutted them all in cold blood in their sleep. Besides, Lortan had demonstrated his inability to handle the Hobgoblin Tamer by himself, reinforcing the notion that to enter here he must have come with a party.

Now he was getting desperate to meet another player within the ruins as soon as possible. If anything, having someone else around might deter Lortan from his less than friendly intentions. Two versus one would also give Beast a higher chance of winning.

At first Beast toyed with the idea that the symbols had been written by Lortan’s previous party to warn others of the warrior’s intentions but when the two of them went deeper and the messages kept recurring, it threw Beast’s hypothesis out of the window. The only logical explanation left was that for some reason Beast was able to read them while others could not. A skill perhaps, that Beast had a faint impression of getting some time back when he job-changed.

It did not take long for him to sift through the handful of skills he had to determine the cause.

Skill: Scribe

Being a well-learned historian allows you to read and write in every known languages of the world

If Beast had come alone, he might not have noticed the discrepancy that he was the only person able to decipher these glyphs and thus not discover them to be of a different language. This brought a whole new perspective to the Fort of Lanos and showed it to be more than just a dungeon for people to level up in.

Namely, the fortress was of a much older origin than Beast had first expected, possibly belong to an ancient empire. The first time he obtained the Ceremonial Sword, its description did mention something called the Age of Conquest and the fort’s decline but unless Beast’s definition of ‘decline’ was wrong, the state of the fortress indicated that it was not merely declined as much as being destroyed by an unknown force. What could have happened to cause something like this to happen? What did the description not tell that warranted those messages?

Suddenly a notification window appeared, accompanied by a ringing sound.

The Secret of Lanos

Class Quest

The Fortress of Lanos seems to hold a secret to an event in the past which not many historical records detailed. Find out what happened to the Fortress and uncover the truth that had been buried beneath the ruined stone for ages.

Class Limitation: Historian

Difficulty: C

A quest had appeared, and it was a vague one at that. He had no idea what exactly triggered this but what held Beast’s attention was that it was the first C difficulty quest he had ever received. Even the Troll-slaying quest was only a D+ difficulty and that required the killing of level 50 trolls to accomplish. At this point of time, Beast had to rein in a bitter smile. He was going down a dangerous path and he had no idea what would befall him in the near future.

Uncertainty. Beast did not like the word a single bit. What he liked was planning his choice of actions properly, knowing what to expect and what to react. It was a little ironic, given how his in-game circumstances in Ages Online had been uncertain since forever.

The only consolation he could get was that it was a class exclusive quest that only he and a select few others who had the balls to become a historian would be able to take.

“Pesky human! Die!!” Came a hobgoblin shriek, alerting Beast to a sudden incoming attack. To his front, Lortan had mysteriously disappeared after killing a group of monsters and a group of two hobgoblin elites followed by a hobgoblin mage were charging down the hallway to aid their fellow brethren. Seeing Beast as the only invader in their vicinity, they immediately made a beeline for him, brandishing their axes and casting a powerful fireball spell that hurtle across the air.

Beast had no chance to think of anything else as he took the fireball straight in the chest and was blasted a few meters backwards.

-358 HP

You are on fire! – 20 HP /second

Iron Body has increased to Basic 8

“Goddamnit!” cursed Beast as he dropped to the ground and rolled in an attempt to squash out the flames on his body. It did not hurt as much as in real life because of the dampened pain senses of Ages Online, but if nothing was done about it he would die sooner or later from the stacked damage. He barely got the fire out when the first of the elites reach him and swung its axe down.

The fire on you had been put out.

-425 HP

In desperation Beast kicked out with all his might, activating the power of Desperado Backlash. The blow struck the elite on the abdomen, causing critical damage and knocking the hobgoblin off its feet. Just when Beast was about to pounce on the downed hobgoblin and give it a thorough bashing, the second elite came into range accompanied by a fireball that barely grazed the side of Beast’s torso.

The situation was deteriorating by the second. His gamer instincts told him that the mage needed to die fast for there to be a chance of victory. Breaking off engagement with the hobgoblin elites, Beast rushed at the goblin mage in an attempt to interrupt the next spell before it was fully cast.

To hell with keeping up pretenses.

“Prime: Bloodline Aura!”

In that full ten seconds of power the aura provided him with, Beast closed the gap between the mage and himself in three strides and whacked the living daylights out of it. Being a spell caster with generally low armour and health, it went down in no more than a total of seven hits dealt in quick succession. Then, the Lore Keeper turned his attention to the remaining two hobgoblins and launched himself into the fray. With his increased dexterity and strength, the level 46 hobgoblin elites could not keep up with Beast as he continued to circle and land blows on them. Another ten seconds of aura time was enough to finish them off completely with minimal damages suffered.

Beast anxiously uncorked a potion to replenish his health. So Lortan had begun his plan.

It was then, Lortan stepped out of the shadows.

“It seems that you have tricks up your sleeve after all.” The warrior sneered. “For a merchant I guess that’s quite praiseworthy. It seems to have a short duration though?”

Beast found himself suppressing a groan. Really now, he has to deal with a smack talking warrior right after a battle encounter?

“Where were you?” Beast resignedly demanded, conveniently dodging the question and trying to drag for time. His eyes scanned the entire hallway they were in for any escape routes, only to find none. The only way out was back through Lortan, or forward through mobs they had not cleared.

“Off to the side killing a bunch of mobs.”

It was a blatant lie that Beast could not even bother calling him out on. He just pointedly asked the warrior. “So what are you going to do now?”

A smirk was all the warrior gave for an answer. In an instant, the blood red name that defined chaotic PKers revealed itself over Lortan’s head. He then burst into combat, swinging his claymore with a wild frenzy, thinking that a hit was all he needed to incapacitate the wounded Beast. However what he did not count on was Beast taking action as well, first by dropping to the ground to avoid his sword and then kicking out at his solar plexus. Clang, the silver armor resounded, echoing through the now empty halls.

A dull pain ached at Beast’s foot.

“Hahahahahaha, is that all you got?” Lortan laughed. “C’mon! Use that skill you used just now. Your attack barely damaged me.”

Beast only spat indignantly. The armour defense was much higher than he had thought; a miscalculation. He would just have to aim for the man’s exposed head instead.

“A merchant acting big. Now I have seen everything!”

Throughout the conversation, Lortan never once let up on his attacks. It took everything that Beast had to avoid them. Now that he was on the receiving end of Lortan’s blows proper, what he once saw as random swings and thrusts actually have a degree of discipline to them. Even though Lortan had missed most of his attacks for now, Beast could still feel himself slowly being cornered and pressured by the reach of the blade. The only saving grace was that the claymore was painfully slow.

Even that has to come to an end. Suddenly, Beast felt a sharp kick on his knees when he had dodged the claymore’s strike a moment before. Falling painfully onto the ground, he looked up in horror as Lortan pulled out a dagger and instantaneously impaled his left hand onto the gravel.

-145HP

You have been disabled!

You have been immobilized!

The knife had lower attack stats and thus dealt a lower damage, but what it actually did to him has far worse consequences. Goddamnit. Beast silently cursed. PVP was totally different from normal mob hunting entirely! Now that it had come down to this, he had no other choice but to step up the ante.

“Prime! Bloodline Aura!”

A flood of power pulsed through Beast’s body and he pulled the knife impaling his hand out of the ground with a single tug before turning to face Lortan. He charged, just as Lortan also readied his sword. Beast ran straight towards the incoming attack, not caring as he put his all into his one punch. However, right as he was about to impaled himself onto Lortan’s claymore, Beast abruptly made himself miss a step.

-12 HP

The sword harmlessly bypassed over him. That was not all though. Just before the damage window ended, he quickly pulled himself up and lashed out with an uppercut right to the warrior's face.

“DESPERADO BACKLASH!” Beast screamed, dealing an impact that caused even the heavily armored warrior to stagger backwards. Taking the opening generated by the powerful, Beast started to land blow after blow on the warrior by following his normal monster hunting routine.

Then, the ten seconds ended.

A large armoured hand came out of nowhere, smacking Beast across the face to the ground. It was subsequently followed by a cleaving of the claymore that tore through the paper thin rags of the default common clothes he was wearing the whole time.

-414HP

‘He counted the duration!' The thought flashed across Beast’s mind as he was sprawled on the dirt. After that last attack, it had left him on his last legs. With only a sliver of health left, there was no choice but to use his precious mana for emergency healing.

“Prime: Renew! Prime: Renew! Prime: Renew! Prime: Renew!”

That might hopefully last him for another blow.

“Oh? A healing spell? You are such a funny merchant.” Lortan cocked his head mockingly. “At least I give you credit for standing up to me. Others simply die in their sleep.”

“So that was you after all!” Indignation. For that one moment of time, Beast could feel the wrath of all the people who had died under Lortan's blade welling up from within him.

Such cruelty. Beast could only imagine the victims waking up to find themselves back in town missing items and money without even knowing why. Besides, they were hunting in a party, which meant they might never know exactly who the one who killed them was.

This man needed to die, or he will die trying to kill him.

“And so?” It was the sound of a person who did not give a damn. A whistling sound of a wooden spear rushing past his head and splintering on the stone behind him made Lortan gave one. “Little bastard!”

Back onto the battle at hand, Beast only have enough mana from his regeneration for another Prime left, which means a last ten seconds to bring down the warrior. However, Lortan did not seem to be noticeably hurt at all, most probably due to his high defense that protected him.

“Prime: Bloodline Aura!” It was his last stand.

Ten.

Beast dodged a right slash.

Nine.

He then smashed Lortan across the face with his fist.

Eight.

And another.

Seven.

And another.

Six.

A sudden kick from the warrior almost caught him unaware. Beast parried the blow just in time.

Five. Four. Three.

By this time, Lortan was content to simply wait it out. He was actively maintaining his distance while Beast tried to attack with much frustration.

Two.

One.

Time was up. As the power from the aura left him, Lortan closed in onto Beast with a swing strong enough to decapitate him. Beast could do nothing else but wait for his death in resignation. In the end his revenge scheme failed; it appeared that Beast would have to die again this day.

But the cold numbing of death did not come. A muffled cry later, Lortan was the one on the ground instead with a hooded female standing over him.

Beast blinked.

“What the? Who are you ?” demanded the wounded warrior. “What-“

The unknown stranger did not bother to wait for him to finish his sentence before stabbing her dagger into Lortan’s neck, killing him instantly. As his red name faded into nothingness and he was forcefully logged out, a gleaming silver chest piece fell onto the floor at the girl’s feet who then fished it up and pocketed it. She then kicked the skeleton left behind.

Beast blinked again.

“Uh…hello?” He stammered out, unsure of the person’s intentions. Was she another PKer? Would she kill him next after killing Lortan? At his greeting, the assassin turned towards Beast. “Hello there.” She then pushed the hood of her cloak back, revealing a smile and reminding him of a very familiar face.

He knew this person!

“Kiki?”

“Yep!” The girl chirped. “Thanks for your help by the way. I would not have been able to kill him in two hits if you have not damaged him some and had his attention beforehand.”

Trust fate to bring those who had a vengeance against Lortan back together again. Beast was so glad that the girl had not rage-quitted the game back then. Now she had saved his life and also dealt Lortan’s his due. Beast was about to carry on talking when he suddenly realize something.

“You… were following us all the way?”

A nod confirmed what he needed to know. “Actually,” Kiki continued. “I have been tailing him way before you came and trying to find an opportunity to kill him.”

He could not help but admire the girl’s tenacity and subtlety. To follow a person for so long and yet not give her presence away or be distracted was beyond him. Beast made a mental note never to offend her lest she comes back as an assassin to stalk him till his death, but what was more worrying was the fact that she also saw everything regarding his abilities without anyone realizing she was even there. His emotions must have showed, because Kiki said next.

“Don’t worry about your tricks. We all have our secrets, although I must admit I am a little curious about your current profession. You sure as hell aren’t a merchant like what that moron believed.” The petite girl strolled around Beast with a cat-like curiosity. “As for me you should already guessed that I am an assassin. Stealth and backstabs are my specialty.”

Making a complete round back to his front, Kiki extended a hand. “Anyway I won’t be able to make it on my own deeper in. So, how about going through the rest of the Fort with me?”

Beast never agreed to anything else faster than when he took the handshake.