“Sounds very rock and roll.”
“…what?”
“Forget I said anything. Did you say something about dragons?” Joe sighed and read the blinking notification tab.
Faction Bonuses gained:
Dwarven Superiority. You have chosen to join the Dwarven Oligarchy and now understand that they are superior to Elves in every way. You will see them in a favorable light, and Elves unfavorably in every situation. This is a perception shift, and cannot be denied or changed without leaving the Dwarven faction.
Dwarven Currency. You now have access to the Dwarven currency system. Precious metals? Beautiful gems? None of that matters here. All that matters is your word. You are now able to trade reputation points gained from Dwarves for goods and services. Note: Any skills, titles, or classes that grant reputation bonuses will not function within Dwarven society.
Faction Quest Gained: Shatter the Elven Theocracy. Completing this quest will break the Elven Theocracy, leading to their eventual eradication or subservience to Dwarves. Reward: The Zone gains the designation ‘Svaltarheim’, Variable (Based on contribution). Failure: The Dwarven Oligarchy is shattered, leading to the eventual eradication or subservience of all Dwarves to Elves.
“Oh, come on!” Joe waved a hand at the faction quest. “Not this again!”
Chapter Four
“Don’t worry about dragons. There aren’t any in this Zone.” Captain pulled Joe up from the floor and brushed off his charred shoulders. Skin sloughed off, and Joe let out a sharp gasp of pain. “Yikes, that light magic really did a number on you. Gotta watch out for that; Elves are known for their ‘impressive’ ability to manipulate light, sound, and sensory input. Just one more reason you can never trust them.”
The Dwarf snorted, half-turned and took a few steps, then waved at Joe to follow after him. “What's all that impressive about creating things that aren't real? Solid? ‘Oh look, I tricked this person into tripping over their own feet. Look at how witty I am’. Ridiculous. What a waste of an existence.”
Joe healed himself with two spells in quick succession, then started to follow after Captain. A thought crossed his mind, and in the next instant, he activated his Exquisite Shell. It appeared that they would be walking for quite a while, so he was not worried about having to use his mana anytime soon. As soon as he could, Joe toggled Retaliation of Shadows to be on as well. He was almost kicking himself for not having these active, but to be fair, he had been devoting all of his mental energy to breaking the Mortal Limit. “Where are we going, Captain? What is going on in this Zone, and how can we move it along so that I can start doing what I want to be doing?”
“We are going to the spawning grounds of a minor fort,” Captain told the human without turning back to face him. Joe hoped that he was just focused and not nervous about what might be in the area. “As for what is going on? War! I’ll tell you now, human-”
“My name is Joe.”
“I'll remember your name when it matters.” Captain spoke the words with the same inflection as a hardcore gamer casually promising to do the dishes ‘later’. “Let me explain the rules of Svaltarheim for you. Reputation is everything. You buy things with it, sell things for it, you gain reputation for completing quests and for acts of service for all of Dwarvenkind. Things that will get you the most reputation: capturing minor forts, capturing major forts, and doing what your commanding Officer tells you to do.”
“What is this about forts? I don’t have any idea what that means.” Joe was starting to get grumpy; even though this Dwarf had much shorter legs than he did, his physical stats were likely insanely higher. He was practically running just to keep up, and still trying to ask questions? It was starting to become frustrating.
“Right, well, you know what happens when the people of Eternium die. It’s a little different here, because of the constant war. If we all respawned with opposing viewpoints every single time we died, we would have-”
“Wait.” Joe cut Captain off, his eyes wide. He had been seeking out this information, subconsciously or not, since he’d started the game. What did happen to NPCs when they died? “Captain, I don't know why you assume I would know what happened to the people of the world. Could you give me a quick rundown?”
“What?” Captain actually came to a halt, surprise clear on his face. “But you are here? You won the war for your Zone already; we all got the notification. Don't tell me you won your war, and you didn't even know what you were fighting for? Celestials, humans are kinda messed up… that means…”
“Your people are going to fit in with us just fine!” Unexpectedly, Captain burst into laughter. He clapped Joe on the shoulder hard enough to knock the man to the ground and got slapped by a shadow for his trouble, then continued walking, still chuckling. “Pretty big mosquitoes in here. Listen up, human. When a native of Eternium dies, they come back. Problem is, all of us made a deal so that we could live here. Part of the deal was that we would always come back. And…”
Captain hesitated for a breath of time, but he pressed forward after a long pause. “It was a dark time in our history. We had the option to live in peace and grow together, but too many people clamored for war. The System decided that if we were going to be at war all the time, we needed to really understand what we were doing to each other. Every
