We make our way across the nation of Anticor with a quick, forced march, but battling every little monster that comes across our path along the way makes the journey take a lot longer than any of us thought it would be. The sky turns to dusk as the log homes of Tiengen appear on the horizon. With a quick check of my map, I confirm that Dark Moon is still the ruling guild there, and we decide it’s safe for us to follow the sandy bay beach alongside the town. As we pass through the small harbor, there’s a few leads for fetch quests here but none of us want to trade time for gold right now. It might mean that coming up with the funds for more gear later on is a challenge, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take.

We push on as night strikes, reaching the forest that surrounds the Five Roses Keep and into the wooded northern peninsula of Anticore. As darkness takes control, we produce lanterns and torches, and weave our way between the trees. Occasional sounds, like the moaning of ancient trees in the wind or the snapping of sticks, is disconcerting. It’s hard to tell what sounds are mobs or just the environment. But there’s no stopping us. We even stumble across a den of low level pygmies and do a little spelunking. The endeavor grants the three of us an entire level, so it was worth the hour spent.

As step out of the cavern and back into the dark woods, Felix messages us and lets us know that he’s already at the dungeon. We begin to rush with renewed vigor, despite our lack of sleep, to the the clearing in the woods where the massive grey walls of the Five Roses Keep greet us coldly.

“About time,” Felix calls from the front gate. With a grunt, he pushes himself up from the ground. “My rear was getting wet and I was starting to worry you guys all wiped again.”

“We’re never wiping again,” I declare, shaking my head.

Felix chuckles, wipes the dirt off his cassock and smiles. “That’s a bold statement if I’ve ever heard one. I like it. But, it’s inevitable. Only thing we can do is get us that guild.” I take a quick second to examine him and notice that he is still at level fifteen, wearing the same armor as the last time I saw him in Sunshine Mines. His 3d modeling business must be taking a lot of his time if he hasn’t leveled once since the last time I saw him.

Felix and Rin only nod to each other, silently acknowledging one another’s presence without a word, and I’m not sure how to take it. If they have a thing for each other, I wonder why they not only barely show it, but at times seem indifferent or slightly hostile to one another. If they really do have a relationship, what’s wrong with a hug? It’s not like anyone here is going to care. Well, I would, but I really just want clarity, to know the truth about the two of them. Because I can’t be honest with Rin about my feelings for her until I know she’s truly available. Making a move on a taken woman probably wouldn’t be the smartest move.

“Now, I know that this is going to be easier than it was the last time you ran it,” Felix says, “So, Aiden, if you would so kindly, run us through everything from top to bottom. When we go in here, what can we expect?”

I let out a sigh as I try to remember everything as clearly as I can. “Honestly, I know the puzzles, so those aren’t going to be an issue. It’s the combat I’m worried about. First, we have to make it across the bailey.” I point through the open gates of the outer wall and to the massive rose-carved doors into the keep itself. “Those bones on the ground will re-assemble into skeleton guardians once we get about a third of the way into the yard. They’re low on hp, but they have the ability to drain you with every hit of their spears. Luckily though, we’re all at least level five so we can clear out the yard once and push right in.

“Once we actually get inside the Five Roses Keep, we will have to make for the kitchen. I know a trick that’ll make the mob that spawns there a little bit easier to see and kill, and after that will get the key to the great hall. In there, is where we’ll meet the first boss. Its name is Goliath and it packs a wallop. It has a move where it hatches young ones, and another where it webs you up.”

Rubble shudders and moans, and I’m glad I’m not the only one with a dislike for spiders.

“But after that it’s pretty much all easy. From there we just have two puzzles. One of which is easy peasy now that I know what we’re looking for.”

“And what about the second one?” Felix asks.

“Thats… where we need a sacrifice,” I say with a shrug. “One of you is going to need to be willing to die for me to get the sword again. I used a trap against Alloy when we were here and killed him. The dungeon rewarded me for it, so I think we just need to do that again.”

Rin taps the toes of her thigh-length boots against the dirt, pondering something. “So… which one of us three are going to die?”

Rubble rubs the back of his neck. “Well, Felix is level fifteen, so that’s not gonna happen,”

“Appreciated,” Felix says, relieved.

“So, me or you?” Rin asks.

“Well,” Rubble grumbles, “I’m not one to let a lady take a man’s hit, so I’ll go ahead and take this bullet.”

“Aww,” Rin says with a playful punch to the brute’s shoulder. “You do care about me.”

Rubble rolls his eyes. “Can it.”

“Thanks, Rubble,” I say. “We’ll get you caught back up to us in no time.”

“Your a bigger man than I,” Felix adds.

“Let’s party up, then,” Rin says, smiling.

Felix sends out the invites, and upon everyone joining up, I’m surprised to learn that the game has automatically capped his level to eight. It must know that we’re about to run this dungeon, and having a level fifteen character would break the experience and challenge.

We step through the rusting gate with quick and eager steps. On cue, the skeletons begin to reassemble in front of us as we cross the inner yard. We try to only engage two of them but end up accidentally facing three at once, followed immediately by a fourth skeleton. The fight ends up being harder than diamond, but we pull through, heal up, and work our way into the guardhouse beneath the keep walls. Inside, it’s full of more generic starter gear, and the others give it to me to equip since Rubble has to die anyways.

Without wasting any more time, we head inside the keep, and I can’t believe I forgot about all the impressive architecture of this place. The arches, the carvings, the rose pillars, the art on the ceiling. It is like taking ancient Greece and throwing a basket of roses on it. Whoever designed the art for this place is incredible.

We move into the kitchen, and it’s exactly the same as before, too. The others aren’t too impressed with my ‘trick’ when I spill flour all over the place, but when the invisible Ghast comes to attack us, they are pretty grateful and we get through it well enough. I take the key to the front room and have to take a deep breath before I lead us through and into the great hall.

And there are the spiderwebs, covering absolutely everything. Just the all the webbing is enough to make me shiver. I give everyone a quick run down of what’s about to happen and we head in there with our heads held high. Goliath proves to be as much of a challenge as he was the last time, but we still get through him alive, and make our way down into the cellars.

The first puzzle is a piece of cake, and when we step on through the portal to the next one, I second guess our plan and wonder if the person that I sacrifice has to be a magic user. That would mean Rin would have to die, but we already agreed on Rubble so I just stick to the plan. Just like last time, I end up being the one atop the platform above the puzzle. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I’m the only character with a sword, and it makes me curious what would happen if a party got this far without a warrior. Would a dagger or wand be sufficient? Or would the dungeon automatically make adjustments that didn’t require a blade to operate the statues below?

It must, but regardless, we get a majority of the puzzle set up by coordinating the statues with their images on the wall. I make a specific point of not moving the necromancer statue at all, and the time comes that Rubble has to die.

Leaning over the stone railing, I shout, “I want you to pick up that wand and head over to the other square that’s indented on the floor. It’s in front of the carving of the necromancer.”

Rubble nods and navigates his way through the maze, picks up the wand, then goes to where I told him.

“Now, point the wand at the carving, just like the other statues are, and I’ll hit the button to use the puzzle against you.”

“Okay,” Rubble says. He lifts the wand. “Now, how do I die here, exactly?”

“Uh,” I begin, and turn back towards the control panel. “It’s better if you just find out. I hope you don’t have any issues with your pod’s pain receptions.”

“What is that supposed to mea—“

I flip the switch, and the trap’s billowing fire lights up the wall all the way up where I am. I rush to the handrail, and while Rubble isn’t exactly screaming or cussing me out, he isn’t entirely quiet either.

Looking up towards the sky, he bellows, “FLAME ON!” as his character burns. He raises his fist like he’s about to fly away and the others laugh at his superhero reference. If he feels any discomfort from literally being on fire, he doesn’t show it. In no time, his HP hits 0 and that familiar booming voice fills the puzzle chamber:

“The warrior stands stronger than the rest!”

“That was it!” I exclaim over the handrail to Felix and Rin. “Go ahead and leave the dungeon. I’ll meet you guys on the outside and we can go get Rubble.”

They nod, and activate their HUD’s with motions of their wrists as I make my way up the magically levitating steps of stone and into the room above the ceiling. The smokey sword sits on the altar just as before, begging me to take it. Now that I know what it’s worth, the edge I think it can give me, I’m even more excited than ever to get to level ten and try to use it. When I pick it up, the big voice returns and says:

“Only a warrior willing to betray his party may find this sword.”

“Congratulations. You’ve proven yourself stronger than your allies.”

“Take this sword. May you master it and conquer in the name of the Rose.”

I plan on it.

After I put the weapon away into my inventory, I’m immediately teleported out of the Five Roses Keep. My vision fades to black for about five seconds, then seems to only slightly return to me. For a moment, I’m confused as I stare at the dark outline of massive hewn stones and the crumbling iron portcullis. I think my vision is experiencing a glitch until I realize it’s still just before dawn. The stars and moon are only now starting to be drowned out by the light of the rising sun. Rin and Felix appear on the other side of the gatehouse, and I can barely hear them talking to one another in hushed tones as I walk to them.

At the slightest sound of my approach, they notice me and stop talking. Rin has her fists clenched at her side, and Felix’s cheeks are red. Something tells me they were just arguing about something, so I try not to make it awkward and act like I didn’t catch a thing.

“Hey guys,” I say. “Thanks again for your help.”

“Not a problem,” Rin says, and just like that the tension in her shoulders seems to relax. “Now we can get on to more important things, right? Like finding out if this thing with the Shield is a rumor, or actually happening.”

Felix turns to her, his cheeks still a little flush. “I would like to know the truth to that as well,” he says. “But there are still quite a few things in our way. We need to get to level ten, then you need to converge with that sword of yours. After that, we need to get to level twenty, take a village or some small town, and form the guild. Then, we can get our spies out and running while we investigate any leads.”

I give him the thumbs up. “Its quite the list, but it sounds like a plan to me. This is already going so much faster than last time. You said in the group chat that you had a lead on a village that might be ripe for the taking. Which was it?”

Felix stutters in thought for a moment, then finally says, “Starlight, on the south-west corner of Anticore a short jaunt away from Cutter’s Cry. It isn’t an ideal spot, considering that it is a constant target of creature raids, and a few guilds from the neighboring nation of Eastenport like to loot it every now and again, but it is the only option that will be easy to overtake and give us enough of a head start to be worth it.”

“Why will it be easier to overtake?” I ask.

“Well, because as of right now it has no owning guild. It’s an NPC town.”

“Yeah,” Rin says. “NPC’s are a lot more predictable than players, both offensively and defensively.”

I shrug. “Makes sense. But for now can we just go to sleep? Or at least go to Tiengen for some ale?”

Rin throws her head up and exasperatedly shouts, “Yaaas!”

Felix laughs at her over-enthusiasm. “I’ll tell Rubble about the plan for now, and in the morning we will partner up.”

#

The morning goes about as well as burger left on high heat. By the end of it all, I’m just a tired, crispy hunk of meat. We make our way to Cutter’s Cry and partner up with Rubble, who managed to sneak his way out of the tutorial through a tunnel that apparently even Rin knew about.

From there, we pick small fights on our way to Birch Castle, only ones we know we can win with absolute certainty, like creatures at our level and nothing higher—and definitely not players. As we train, I’m being very particular about where I spend my attribute points, putting almost every point I can into sway and dexterity. While Felix spends a fair amount of time out of party and off investigating or working on his modeling like he does, Rubble, Rin, and I spend a lot of time around the Twin Sisters lakes killing Saberfish.

Rubble is the last of us to hit level ten, and when he does, a sudden pang of fear hits me because I know what time it is now. The worrying returns to me. It’s only been about a day and half, but what if I’m about to throw away all this time we spent on this run? What if I try to converge with this sword and fail again?

“Hey,” Rin says. She walks up to me and places a hand on my shoulder, those dazzling violet eyes locking gazes with mine. She must sense my worry, because she grins and we just look at one another for a moment. I feel connected to her, like there’s something between us. All I want to be able to confirm or disprove the fact that it’s there. Rin says, “You’ll do fine, greeny. After this, only ten levels to go.”

“Yeah,” I murmur weakly, “fingers crossed.” I open up my inventory and stare blankly at the sword called ‘???’. I hesitate and say, “I just don’t want to waste any more time. It’s taken us, what, over a week now since we met and I overhead the conversation in that Inn? It’s been too long and I’m afraid someone’s going to pay the price because of it.”

Rubble shakes his head. “Quit that thinking, Aiden. You can’t know if you’ll successfully converge with this sword or not till it’s over. Just like we won’t know if there really is someone conspiring a mutiny on your ship until we catch, or don’t catch that someone. Shoot, if we don’t, maybe we’ll never find out and we’ll have to decide if it’s really worth keeping up the—”

Rin rolls her eyes, waves a hand and cuts Rubble off. “What he’s trying to say is that we won’t know the truth until the very end. You can’t let your past failures drag you down so much. Just do your best.”

I nod. She’s right. I needed a little reminder of why I’m doing this, and I know I need to relax and just keep moving forward. It’s just hard keeping up a positive attitude when you’re standing right before a cliff and about to jump off.

“Now,” she says with a smile, “have you been putting points into sway?”

“Yeah. I’m up to thirty-two sway, which is ten more than the last time I tried.”

“And you’ve been taking more damage-dealing abilities right?”

“Yeah. Here, I’ll send them to you.”

Level 3:

Unrelenting Strikes: Increase damage and class speed by 25% for 10 seconds

Level 5:

Imbue Weapon: Charge your weapon with energy of your deity. Add Sway to Damage for 20 seconds.

Level 8:

Bloodbath: Your patron deity awards your next kill by transferring their total HP to you.

Rubble sends a fist-sized meat-meteor slamming into my back, staggering me. I know he means well, but dang does he hit hard! He says, “Well, what are you waiting for, then? Seems to me the big thing that’s holding you back is your fear. You know this is the best plan we have available to us, so go on. Converge with the thing.”

“Yeah,” I say, sighing. “Here goes!”

I pull up the sword’s details and focus on activating my convergence ability. I’m greeted, yet again, by all the splendor of the Five Roses Keep before it was completely destroyed by whoever that white-eyed wizard is supposed to be.

He blasts the crowned king with his white energy bolt just like last time. I watch the keep burst into flames, and the people scatter as the king turns into the skeleton I’m about to fight. I draw the gleaming Rose Sabre without a thought, then leave my body to watch the fight.

From the beginning, things are looking different than last time. Instead of avoiding the king’s first attack with a roll, I parry and counter. Instead of stumbling over burning husks of tables and chairs, I’m leaping over them and swiping away his strikes with lightning reflexes. My character rolls, twists, pivots, and swings from the hips in ways that makes my own swordplay probably look like a toddler with a stick. I make moves in combat I don’t think I’d even be physically capable of doing.

I knick the swordsman king across the arm and swear that I saw the bone splinter. Then again, across his temple, and a third sends his left foot flying off into the air. My heart is racing. The king trips, crumbling onto the burning remains of a table and snapping what’s left of it. I step onto his shimmering breastplate and loom over him. The flames of his ruined hall come broiling through the eye sockets of his skull.

I flip the grip of the Rose Sabre in my hands, pointing the tip down towards the king. The sword magically extends, shattering his skull into a thousand shards of bone.

Congratulations! You have out-willed the Rose King of the Keep, who lay dormant inside his sword for eons.

You may now wield it in battle, and it has become bound to your character.

Slay and conquer in his name!

I let out a cheer as I return to my body on the beach of Little Sister. Rin grabs ahold of my shoulders and shakes me in excitement. Rubble wraps his beefy arms around me from behind and lifts me into the air like I’m a child. I materialize the sword in my hand, hold it outstretched above me and watch the sunlight gleam against the silver blade, the golden hand guard made of leafy vines, and the rose ruby in the pommel. For the first time in a long while, I feel relieved. There’s actually a chance now. With this sword, something tells me Alloy and the River Raiders won’t be an issue anymore.