Everlast Online

"So, it's decided then?" Liz asked after she and Nina had met back up.

"Yeah, it'll be too dangerous otherwise." Nina responded.

They had both come to a decision to complete the quest here. Since the quest had no definitive upper limit, Liz figured it was a quest where they would be rewarded based on a 'completion rate', or something similar.

The 2 had talked in detail about trying to raid the final location: The Archduke's mansion.

They both understood that taking such an action would be extremely risky, more so than either of the other raids they had pulled off; but the incident at the Holy Grail trading firm showed them something.

While yes, they had gotten what they needed fairly easily, they were still quite close to being caught. Liz found the guard's response time to their crimes to be absurdly quick, especially with such a large force. This allowed for only one possibility in her mind:

They knew we were coming. Liz thought.

If this were true it would mean that Kilgard had expected them and prepared to take them that night. Luckily he was lacking information and didn't account for Nina, however it did show that he knew about Liz. Someone managed to feed information about them back to Kilgard.

The 2 girls understood that making an attempt of the mansion would be a suicide mission and planned to finish the quest with what they had.

But first it was time for Liz to eat dinner. Both she and Nina went to a safe place to log out, promising to meet up with each other soon; Nina even told Liz that the company who had created ELO had come up with a new app she could download that emulated some of the features that could be accessed in ELO.

It essentially acted the same as the game's website did, but had a much improved interface. Players could access it and seamlessly go between money conversion, selling items in their inventory and chatting with those they had friended. Compared to the previous app Liz had access too, which could only be used to transfer money - acting closer to an extension of her bank app - this new app was much more useful.

Liz listened to Nina and promised to download the app, it supposedly even worked on such outdated tech as her phone. 

So, Liz said her goodbyes and logged out.

She had missed breakfast in order to finish the quest and so was starved. For a moment she felt worried at the lack of sounds and smells as she exited her 'gaming coma', before remembering she now had her own room, having separated from Piper before logging back in.

She made her way out of the room while downloading [ELO] off of the app store and headed towards the kitchen. There was a distinct sound of clattering, more so than usual anyway.

Rounding the corner Liz could see that Piper was acting much more frantically as she cooked and obviously making more than normal.

"Hey Pip." Liz called out, "What's wrong, you look worried."

"Miss Moretti is coming to talk with us." Piper said, not looking away from her cooking, "She wants to talk about what you said, the entire Moretti family's coming."

"Oh and Jess said she was bringing her stuff to move in. I'm cooking for seven people here!"

She sounded panicked.

"Calm down, just breathe slowly. Everything will be fine." Liz soothed her sister, worrying she may have another panic attack.

Piper stopped for a moment, letting out a deep breath, feeling slight discomfort as she did so, but it was enough to calm her down.

"Okay, that better?" Liz asked, rubbing her sister's back gently, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

As she asked that, Piper gave her some task to do in order to take a load off her back.

"Yes chef!" Liz called out, causing her sister to giggle. 

While Piper was the one who cooked most of the meals, Liz understood how to cook well enough not to get in her way. For a while after her parents left Liz was the one in charge of cooking and while Piper had taken it upon herself  to do in depth research on cooking, making her significantly better at it than her sister, Liz was at the very least competent in the kitchen.

The 2 easily got what they needed done and with time to spare. Bailey's mother had originally come from the European Federation, specifically from the parts that had once been Italy, so Piper and Liz made an effort to prepare Italian food.

Over the years as resources became scarce and the land became uninhabitable, nations put aside their bias and united together to ensure as many people survived as possible, one of the very few humane actions taken by those in charge.

Europe that was once made up of a myriad of countries was now united as one, in a semi-peaceful coalition. The country is led by a council who vote on important topics. In its founding the European council was formed with one representative from each unified country, but as memories of their cultures and differences began to blur, the council just became 1 member from every livable city in the country.

Most continents did similar things, unifying into one country. It was different depending on which country it was, but ultimately they were all the same.

America and Canada became one as civil war made most of the land uninhabitable.

Europe came together as they could no longer individually provide food for themselves any longer.

China essentially conquered all of Asia.

South America was in turmoil as it split into warring factions, led by warlords. Their greatest asset, the amazon, having been completely destroyed.

Australia remained exactly the same as it was due to not having the capacity to expand and no other country wanting it.

Antarctica had mostly melted.

The only outlier was Russia, they had abundant land and were no stranger to unaccommodating environments. As such they remained mostly the same; not having much incentive to expand as others had after failing to take a country they claimed was theirs.

Right as the 2 girls finished there was a buzz, indicating someone was at the gate.

"That'll be them." Liz remarked, "I'll go let them in."

She and Piper were done with cooking and all that was left was to put the food onto plates, something Piper could do on her own, so Liz left to see who was at their gate.

As expected, there were 5 people waiting just outside the building. One older looking woman, a daughter to whom the older woman had a striking resemblance, a girl carrying a pair of suitcases and 2 young boys who looked almost identical to one another. 

These were obviously Bailey and Jess, along with Bailey's family - Isabella and the twins Bruno and Carlo.

Isabella Maritta was a rather attractive woman, especially considering her age. Despite being in her mid 40s she did not show it, besides a few wrinkles here and there. She, like her daughter, had black hair that cascaded down her back, curling naturally and creating a textured look.

The boys on the other hand, supposedly took after their late father. Brown hair with blue eyes, being twins, both aged 9.

"I'm opening the gate now." Liz said through the microphone, clicking the button to open the gate all 5 guests made their way to the house where Liz met them at the door.

"Hi, welcome. It's good to see you again Miss Maritta." Liz said welcoming in her first ever guests, though she intended for them to live with her.

"Oh, you know I've told you to call me Isabella already." Isabella chided, the boys running past her, clamouring about how nice the house was, "We need to talk later, but first we eat!"

Isabella went straight into the house as Liz helped Jess with her bags. As she, Jess and Bailey walked with each other they could hear Isabella talking with Piper and when they entered the dining room they could see her helping Piper set the table.

The boys were already seated and everyone else quickly joined them. 

Dinner was fun, the food was great and the people present were all quite close so it wasn't awkward. As dinner came to its end, Isabella told Bailey to take her brothers and go somewhere else. Understanding what was happening Piper and Jess followed them.

"I already know what you're going to say, and it's fine." Liz started talking before Isabella could even say anything.

"It absolutely is not fine." She responded, "Now, I don't know how you managed to get enough money together to buy something as lavish as this, but I can't possibly take advantage of that."

"You've already given my daughter a rather excessive gift lately, and now this! It's far too much."

"Nonsense." Liz replied, waving her off, "Pip's condition prevented her from ever going out and with me having to constantly be working I never get the opportunity to spend time with her, your daughter was one of the only things that prevented her life from being hellish."

"That alone is a debt I could never repay."

"Even so, I cannot simply hijack something that you've paid for." Isabella rebuked, "Doing so would be spitting in the face of all of your struggles."

The argument went back and forth like that for almost an hour, Liz's appointment with the Marquess was coming up, luckily Liz was able to somewhat convince her by using a similar tactic she had used on her daughter:

"Okay. Maybe you're right." Liz said, seeming to relent before doubling down, "But don't you think it's worth it?"

"Even if you have to take advantage of my kindness, isn't it fine? You can provide for your children, but don't they deserve to live well?"

"Isabella, it isn't just you I'm offering this to. Think about the good it'll do for your family."

Liz was really appealing to Isabella's emotions here. She loved her children, in the same way that Liz loved Piper; and this made it a perfect reason for her to stay here."

"Living in a place like this, you could save money for the boy's schooling, for Bailey." Liz explained, "I'm not saying you can live here scott-free, split the utilities with me and think about all the money you'll save for your kids' future."

Isabella was silent. Ultimately, Liz was right. This was the best move for her children, living in a place like this; where the air is cleaner and streets are safer would make their lives so much better. But was it worth giving up her morality and taking advantage of such an unfortunate child?

"I... I'll have to think about it." Isabella finally spoke, ending her contemplation knowing the answer wouldn't be that easy to find.

"Take all the time you need. But it's late, stay here tonight." Liz said, Isabella wanted to refuse this as well, but knew that the lower city became exponentially more dangerous at night.

The 2 then separated. Liz looked around the house quickly. The twins were asleep in a room together, while the girls were watching something on Jess' tablet.

A sleep over I presume... Liz thought, silently looking at them before leaving them alone.

Knowing that everything was fine, Liz checked the security procedures were in order and returned to ELO, quickly meeting back up with Nina.

"Hey." She called out to the catkin sitting nearby, "Did you wait long?"

"Nah, just five minutes or so." Nina replied.

Liz nodded and the pair began heading off to the Barview Capital mansion.

Thankfully, the girls didn't need to go all the way back to Barview in order to finish the quest as that would be irritating. After asking for directions, they swiftly located the mansion and were standing outside the gates as Nina stopped them.

"Wait!" She exclaimed loudly, spooking Liz, "We need a party name!"

"Huh?" Liz looked at Nina strangely, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"A party name. If we complete this quest we might get a world announcement for out party, we need a party name." Nina said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, bringing up their party menu, "I mean, come on - Smokey's Party - it doesn't exactly make us sound all that cool."

"Does it really matter all that much?" Liz asked, she really didn't care about her party name. Honestly, she didn't really want a world announcement, she knew from experience with Golden Raturds that it only opened her up to problems.

"Of course!" Nina responded quickly, "It's very important."

"Haah. Fine." Liz knew that Nina probably wasn't going to drop this any time soon, "What do you suggest?"

"Hmm... How about: xXxEPICGALSxXx" Nina said, completely serious. 

Liz looked at her like she was an idiot. Liz definitely didn't understand the use of a party name, but she luckily still had the good sense to know that was a horrible choice.

For a while the 2 of them went back and forth trying to pick a name before coming to a decision:

"How about... Nyx. Like the goddess from ancient Greek myth?" Liz had said, liking the sound of it.

"It sounds... Nice, but why?" Nina asked, she certainly liked the sound of it.

"Well, we both have rather dark-aligned classes. Me as a necromancer and you as a thief." Liz explained, "And since Nyx was the goddess of night I felt it kind of fit in with the whole thing we had going on."

Nina nodded and thought about it before accepting the name.

Liz entered the party menu and quickly changed the name.

"Maybe we could make a guild with this name." Nina laughed, from what she could remember no other important players had taken the name 'Nyx', "Well, we'd need more players for that. And for someone to figure out how to create guilds."

Liz nodded and the 2 of them entered the mansion, being allowed to visit the Marquess after showing off some documents.

"Smokey." The Marquess called as he entered the room, though his eyes did wander as he noticed another person, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I've done what you asked." Her serious tone clued the Marquess into what she was talking about and ordered his servants to leave the room, excluding only 1 maid and 2 of his knights. It seemed he trusted these people enough.

"And who is this?" When the room was clear, the Marquess wanted to make extra sure there were no issues.

"She's my partner, Nina." Liz responded, Nina seemed to still be quite shocked at Barview's imposing presence, "I couldn't have done this without her."

He nodded solemnly, understanding what Liz wanted.

"You made quite the stir over the last few days." The Marquess leaned back in his chair and sighed, "Did it cause any problems."

"Some, but nothing we couldn't handle. Unfortunately, Kilgard knows someone's gathering information on him." Liz responded.

Barview nodded again, he had expected this kind of outcome. Archduke Kilgard was incredibly intelligent so he had not expected Liz to go completely under the radar, though he would have preferred if she did.

"Okay. Tell me what you found out." 

"It went like this-" Liz began explaining what they had discovered, presenting documents where necessary and allowing Nina to explain certain things.

Barview became distressed at the news, understanding the first 'phase' of Kilgard's plan was enough to make him anxious, especially when he knew this alone wasn't enough to completely stop him.

The Marquess picked up the list, one showing a number of nobles who were likely to be colluding with Kilgard.

"... Thank you for everything you've done." He finally spoke, looking up from the paper, "I will ensure you are properly compensated."

He wrote something down on another slip of paper and handed it to his maid, who quickly left the room. It was silent again as Barview looked over the documents for a while before the woman returned with a series of items.

Her appearance caused a system message to open up before them, showing they had accomplished their goal.

(A/N: Information on Blizz was around 15%. The slaves were 15%, noble list was 5%, tunnel info was 1% and uncovering entirety of phase 1 was worth 40%)

"Here are the items you deserve." Barview had the maid grant Nina and Liz their rewards.

Both received 2 scrolls, bothing being class scrolls that were placed into their inventories for the time being. They were then given individual items.

For Liz she was given a staff that was about as large as she was. It was made of smooth, varnished wood made from a type of tree that grows only in areas rich in dark mana. The head of the staff was like a lantern without any glass, housing a black gem.

[Onyx Shadow (C+)]

[A staff born in shadows, extending its darkness outwards. +25% Increase to spell damage. +40% proficiency increase to dark-aligned spells. +<Shadow Bind>]

• [Shadow bind (D): Infuse a target's shadow with mana, causing it to extend and bind the target. Binding lasts for up to 5 seconds, strength of binding scales with INT]

Liz's eyes shone with glee as she read through the description, this was the first time she had ever gotten equipment with a skill attached. She quickly equipped the staff, replacing her broom seeing one of the set effects disappear, namely the floating enchantment. She was slightly disappointed to see that she couldn't equip her broom to her offhand.

That's a shame, but it's worth it. Liz thought to herself.

Nina had a similar action as she took her items. She was given a pair of curved daggers, they had a single sided blade and were quite long with 10 inch blades. The metal was a purplish black with carvings of what looked to be flowers in the sides.

[Black Dahlia Blades (C+)]

[A set of daggers that were used to kill their own creator. +25% attack damage. Doubles damage upon using a sneak attack. +<Betrayal>, +<Sadness>]

• [Betrayal (D): When attacking with the right blade, grants 1% possibility of inflicting <Confusion> status effect]
• [Sadness (D): When attacking with the left blade, grants 1% possibility of inflicting <Sadness> status effect]

Nina placed her new weapons into her weapon slots quickly.

(A/N: I'm sure you understand <confusion. as a status effect, but for those who don't, it'll cause people to attack their allies. <Sadness> is not as clear, essentially it'll make people weep uncontrollably - think blue diamond from steven universe if you've seen that show

I used the floriography of black dahlia's to decided this btw)

Barview, seeing the girls be done looking over their items called them to attention.

"I know you have just finished a task, but there is something I require you to do." As he spoke Liz looked with rapt attention as this was likely the next part of the [Archduke's Plot] questline.

The Marquess went on to explain that the list they had acquired mentioned one Baron Anthe. He was one of Kilgard's supporters in the noble faction and the only noble on the list that had not yet arrived in the capital for the Queen's birthday ball.

The mission was to capture the baron and bring him here so that they could try and get some information on Kilgard's plan.

Liz and Nina were given his route and estimated time of arrival. All they had to do was capture him and bring him to a location he specified outside of the capital.

Liz had spent far too much time on this to not accept.