New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Ad Astra (Short sword form):

Grade: Artifact

Attack Power: ???

ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

Special Ability: ???

Description: Little is known of this ancient-era weapon.

Attunement required.

Astaroth’s mind almost exploded.

‘An artifact!’

His head turned to the dragon in human form.

“Lord Aurexiar. This gift is worth so much. Are you sure I can have it?”

“Young mortal, this isn’t a gift. It is your reward for slaying a threat to the kingdom. And the only reason I picked out this one was that no one else present could have wielded it.”

Astaroth frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“He means no one was compatible to start with. This weapon is ancient and has been lost for a long time. But it isn’t something anyone can wield.”

The guild master was staring at the weapon. Even though he couldn’t wield it, he had a powerful urge to take it and hide it somewhere safe.

An artifact weapon was more than just a weapon, most times. Anyone wielding this would become exponentially powerful.

But the old man knew better than to cross the dragon sitting across the desk from him. Aurexiar was already staring at him with an unflinching gaze.

Astaroth tried equipping the weapon directly, but an error message popped up.

*Weapon cannot be equipped yet. Attunement required.*

He frowned again.

“Um. Excuse me. I can’t equip this weapon. It says I must attune to it.”

Astaroth’s words snapped Euclesias away from his greed.

“Ahh, yes. Artifacts must always be attuned to their users. This binds the user and the artifact, so that no one can steal it so long as the wielder is alive.”

“Okay. And how does one attune to an artifact?”

The dragon was the one to respond.

“You need to be in a place that is assuredly safe before you attempt it. Then you must reach out to the weapon with your soul to establish a bond. The process leaves you vulnerable to any outside intervention.”

“Isn’t here sa–”

“No. Someplace else. A place where you are sure you won’t be bothered.”

The insistence from the dragon almost scared Astaroth. But he could understand why he was being so assistant.

Astaroth could feel the greed oozing off the guild master. He knew nothing would happen for now, since the dragon was still here, but what of after?

Even if the guild master had protected him once, and given him political backing, that didn’t mean he was a trusted friend yet. And greed was a nasty sin.

He decided to wait until he was in the inn room to attune. The inn rooms automatically locked when players closed them, meaning they were safe.

Astaroth stored the weapon in his inventory for now. Carrying it in the open would be asking for trouble.

When the dragon saw the weapon disappear, he rose from his seat.

“My business here is done. I will now go back to my lair. Good luck, young mortal.”

Astaroth nodded as a flash of light enveloped the man, making him disappear.

Astaroth turned to face the guild master.

“I will take my leave as well, guild master. Thank you for arranging this meeting for me.”

“It was my duty,” the old man responded, his gaze slightly disappointed.

Astaroth bolted out of the room, closing the door behind him. He then immediately headed to the inn, messaging Phoenix and Violette on the way there.

‘If you need me, I will be in my inn room. I have something to do that requires me to be safe and alone. If you aren’t done with your quest when I’m done, I will join you then.’

The two girls responded shortly after, with Phoenix asking him what he had to do. Astaroth replied it was a secret.

He would prefer to show her once he was done, then spoil her the surprise already. As he reached the inn, a player that had seen him enter the side part of the adventurer’s guild saw him.

The player, an adolescent, probably sixteen years old, walked in front of Astaroth, trying to block his path.

“Hey, you! How did you enter that blocked zone? Tell me, please!”

“Bug off, kid. I’m busy.”

The player was angered at being called a kid and pulled out his weapon.

“Just tell me and I’ll leave you alone. If you don’t, I’ll just PK you until you do.”

He said the last phrase with a murderous grin. But Astaroth was far from impressed.

But before Astaroth could take out his weapon to teach the punk a lesson, someone else intervened.

A nearby patrolling soldier pushed the player down to the ground, holding him down with his shield. His comrades rapidly came to help as they arrested him.

“You are under arrest for threatening a Knight of Sunpeak. Resist and we will strike you down!”

Astaroth almost laughed at the turn of events.

‘I guess this title has some benefits, at least.’

He nodded to the guards, who were now cuffing the player. The player wasn’t resisting much, since he was scared of being banned from Sunpeak after being killed.

Losing a level scared him less than the loss of access to a major city. He stared at the leaving Astaroth with an angry gaze, as he was taken the other way, towards the prison.

Prison for players was bad. They couldn’t teleport out or log out to be transported away. Even if they logged out, their body was still stuck in the cell, until their sentence was served.

This meant a tremendous loss of time for most, and sometimes even resulted in more trouble for others.

Some players acted up while in prison, taking even more time to get out, or straight up getting killed by other inmates.

But some rumours spread that going to prison many times unlocked other factions for players. Factions that generally ended up having you wanted by the law.

But right now, that wasn’t important for Astaroth. He reached the inn he had a room at and headed upstairs.

As soon as the door locked behind him, he sat in the middle of the room.

‘Time to see what this weapon is all about.’

He grinned manically as he stretched his soul out to the weapon. When he contacted it, he felt himself get sucked into the weapon.

He opened his eyes to a dark surrounding.

“Where am I this time?”