The Arcade Series

I looked over Terance from behind the counter with concern on my face, though I wasn't only looking at his body that was tense and nervous about something. I was looking at his mana releases, the color being a huge mix of colors practically shooting out of him in a chaotic storm. I also could see his emotions plain as day from the Mind Scape, I didn't even need to make any sort of connection to see that.

Confusion was plain as day while he was in the Hub at first, and while I couldn't see what exactly was going on inside the VR I could guess from Terances emotional reactions. The only problem is that trying to read the emotions of someone was like an art form however, so I was a bit… unsure on if I was reading it right or not.

When he first entered into the Hub, he was confused and definitely scared. I was honestly sorry about that and I knew that it was definitely my fault. Then he was… this one was probably amazed as far as I could tell. After that, well his emotions were all in a jumble. Confusion was definitely still there, along with some fear, but there was odd little tidbits of other emotions that I couldn't quite identify. One seemed like.. Well, reverence. I think I got that one wrong. Then urgency once he left the Hub. And nervousness.

He did seem in a rush to leave. I just hoped that it wasn't just to get away… I really hope that I didn't really scare him that bad. I was guilty enough as it was…

Terance and the other two walked up to my counter where I smiled at them, through the concern I felt for Terance. He seemed calm though, so my worries were a little mollified for now.

“You here for your prize then?” I asked the group, seeing the large collection of tickets in their hands. “Yes…” The girl, Isabela, said stepping forwards with the pile of tickets in her hands “We have a hundred and forty tickets, that's enough for two tier one Artifacts isn't it?” She asked me, and causing me to frown. “Well… not quite. Our original deal was that you guys could get one artifact at a forty percent discount.” I said slowly, “So you are about twenty tickets off…” I told them, making them all look disappointed.

“But…” I said slowly, “I need to apologize to Terance, for not telling you what to expect…” I told them, looking to Terance specifically who was standing with an expression of… I couldn't really tell. He looked conflicted. “So, as an apology let's just forget about it.” I said, with a small smile.

Terance just gave a nod, but both Isabela and Gary looked happy, but a little confused and they sent a glance to Terance that he didn't really notice. I took the tickets from Isabela quickly, and I went over to the little section under the counter where I kept the Artifact makers, and I slid the first batch of tickets into the faintly glowing magical box’s ticket slot.

As I slid in the strips of tickets I watched the box eat them up, just like all the other times I activated it, and I could feel the hum coming from the box and it started glowing brighter, before a slight thud and the box went quiet and the glow died down. I opened a small hatch in the box and I took out the first artifact.

This Artifact was a strange pendant, in the shape of a circular spiral, and it was made of a bright reflective metal. It wasn't obviously magical just by how it looked, and it didn't softly glow like several other Artifacts that the generator had made. The system then made a screen appear with a Pop! and text started appearing on the small blue tag of a system screen.

“Spiral of Mana Regeneration. This Artifact attracts ambient mana and bestows the wearer with the mana it collects, giving a higher mana regeneration dependent on the mana density of an area.” The system said, giving me a description of the pendant.

I smiled over at the young girl, who I believed was a mage and I brought up the spiral shaped Artifact. “I believe that this will be of use to you.” I told the girl, “This is called the Spiral of Mana Regeneration, and it will give you a higher mana regeneration by collecting some ambient mana for you.” I explained to the young mage, whose jaw dropped as she took the new Artifact reverently.

I then repeated the process once more, putting in the remainder of the tickets and taking out the second Artifact that Terances group got. This Artifact looked completely different from the first, as this time it is a pendant in the shape of a smooth shield but is still made of metal, and this time it does glow a bit with a golden light.

The system screen blinked and changed into a new set of text, and I started reading the description of the Artifact.

“Shield of Honor. This pendant passively stores a percentage of natural mana generation, which can be activated once a day, creating a magical barrier to prevent an attack on a single ally or small group of allies close together.” The system provided and I read it out with a nod before handing the Artifact over to the taller guy, Gary.

“This is an artifact that can be used to create a magical barrier to protect someone from a single atack, once a day.” I told him, and handed it to the guy who looked amazed at his new Artifact, but slightly less so then Isabela.

With that done, I sat down in my desk chair and relaxed. “Now you put those to good use.” I told them with a light smile as I looked over the dumbstruck friends and the nervous stance of Terance as he stood with them.

It looked like Gary and Isabela wanted to say something, but Terance started dragging them away without giving them a chance and I gave a light laugh and a wave while they got escorted out the front doors. Terance doesn't really seem to say goodbye often.

Terance P.O.V.

“Come on!” I said quickly to my other two party members and pushed them slightly forwards down the street to the Adventurers Guild. “Terance, what are you doing?” I heard Gary ask me, in an impatient tone as he stopped, Isabela and turned to me. Gary was looking me over with concern on his face.

“We need to talk to the Guild Master.” I tell him, stepping back as they stared me down. “What happened to you?” Gary asked me, with concern evident in his voice, causing me to wither a bit and look away. “Ok…” I said slowly, trying to make what I was about to say less crazy in my head before I told them. “The thing that the old man wanted me to try out… it was… not normal.” I said haltingly.

Isabela scoffed at my statement however. “Nothing in that ‘Arcade’ is ‘normal’ Terance.” She told me with some measure of impatience. “I know…” I said softly, looking her in the eye with a serious expression. “The thing that the old man had me test… It was on a completely different level of impossibility.” I started, recalling with some measure of reverence as I recalled my time inside the Hub.

“The chair, the VR chair that I tested… it sent my mind into another world…” I told my friends seriously, and sighing as the expressions on my friends' faces told me plainly that they were unbelieving.

“Lissen!” I said loudly, trying to get them to understand, “When I sat in the chair, and the mask was on my face… my mind was sent inside the chair. There was a whole world that David told me was named the ‘Hub’ and it is incredible! I fought monsters inside the world as a game, and that's how I won all my tickets!” I said, waving my hands around manically.

Isabela and Gary both had different reactions to my words, Gary looking more concerned than ever, but I could see that Isabela looked conflicted. “I think that we might have just met a god.” I finished softly, the incredibility of that statement clear in my voice, “And I think that he is here to try to help us.”

Guild Master Augman P.O.V.

I gave a long sigh as I read the latest letter from the crown and I set it on top of the large pile of paperwork that I have had to contend with ever since I became the Guild Master of this branch of the Adventurer's Guild.

As the newest letter clearly stated… We were doomed. We couldn't leave to anywhere, the crown would label the whole town, especially anyone who was part of the adventurers guild, as deserters and we would be killed… But if we stayed here and fought the damn necromancer fanatics, we would be dead anyway.

Nobody could fight off a whole necromancer cult of this level of power, unless you had a thousand high leveled fighters or a lot of the royal knights. Which were staying at the capital to defend the king, despite what many people would like to believe…

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, with the rock being the sword of a skeleton and the hard place being the swing of an executioner's axe. We were fodder in this invasion, with no chance of backup, no way to retreat, and no chance of survival…

I let my tired and sore back slump against my wood chair, and I let my eyes close. I would need to try to train the militia in an hour, take them on a dungeon delve for some levels. I needed rest.

I heard a knock on the door, making me groan out loud as I heard the voice of my secretary talking just behind the door and I sat up straight behind my desk. “Come in.” I said firmly to the closed door and whoever decided to interrupt me this time.

The old wood door squeaked open slowly and a boy entered into my office, looking nervous and shifting around as he stood in the doorway. He looked scared.

I have been told that I was imposing before, something about my face and being bigger than most people while being simultaneously and instinctively always poised for a fight from my training in the wild of Oridon. But… I could see in this boy's eyes that my presence was not what had him scared. He looked like he had seen something incredible. I had seen it in the eyes of the others at the battle of Inderon all those years ago when the dragon that was terrorizing the continent was slain by the king at the start of his reign.

Whatever had happened to this boy was something important, something that he couldn't understand.

“Come and sit down.” I offered the young boy motioning to a chair in front of my desk that I used for interviews, recalling that he was in the militia. A decent rouge type like his mother, though a bit weaker than average in the town. The boy sat down, walking quickly over to my desk and sitting in the chair that I motioned to.

“What happened?” I asked quickly, not wasting any time and leaning towards the young boy.

The boy hesitated for a brief instant, then he started talking. He talked for over ten minutes, telling me of what he called an ‘Arcade’ that somehow had access to a supply of Artifacts that were used as a prize for playing an impossible enchanted devices that he called ‘Arcade Games’ and he showed me an Artifact that he had won from the shop.

The Artifact was… Interesting. It was genuine, which was a surprise, but the materials that it was made from I couldn't figure out, and even my fourth highest leveled skill, Identify, couldn't tell me.

Then he went on to explain what he had seen, and gave a proclamation that caused me to pause. “I think that the old man is a god.” The boy told me, with a look of fervency that I couldn't deny.

This… might just be our way out.