Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Although Kaizen tried to ignore for the rest of the day the things said by Linus Farwynn, he couldn’t.

Curiosity about who this man who came into his store really was, about how he would find out who Kaizen really is, and what the words ‘Order of Dalamyr’ meant, took away Kaizen’s practically unwavering focus.

Moreover, how was all this connecting to a tavern in Holinda? What was the connection between all this?

Two possible answers appeared in Kaizen’s mind as he thought about this.

The first was that somehow all the information that the Royal Family had about Kaizen had leaked out, including what only Ravastine knew, which was that Kaizen was the Psyker.𝗈𝚟𝗅xt.𝒸𝐎𝑚

The second possible answer was that Korgrak, the Leader of the Metallic Dragons Guild, had finally decided to put her mouth on the stand and expose everything she knew about Kaizen in exchange for something.

Considering that in those two cases, the people mentioned already had all the same information that Linus proved to have, there was no reason why it couldn’t be one of those two cases.

Still, Kaizen knew that there was the remote possibility that Linus belonged to a third group of individuals with access to this information, and if this was the case, he could get into trouble if he tried to question the Royal Family or the Metal Dragons about an information leak. This being the case, the best of options for Kaizen at the moment was, as the saying goes, to play the game and go to the location mentioned by Linus Farwynn. This was probably the only way for Kaizen to find out what was going on.

With that in mind, late in the afternoon Kaizen warned Og’tharoz that he was leaving, took an empty teleportation crystal from his inventory, put on his black cloak and uttered:

“Teleport to Holinda in the Tretidian Kingdom.”

The feeling of being sucked into another world took over Kaizen’s body and the next second he was already in Holinda, in the main square of the city to be exact.

Holinda was bustling as usual during the late afternoon.

The sky was clear and the sound of chatter from the players and street vendors echoed through the streets.

Kaizen looked around and felt nostalgic. About a month ago he stood in this very square when he created his avatar.

At that time he was just a newcomer who was experiencing a deep immersion game for the first time in his life and who intended to return the game as soon as the weekend was over. He just didn’t expect that so many things would happen and that his life, which seemed to be taking a poor turn, would change completely thanks to this game.

As Kaizen walked through the cobblestone streets and felt this sense of nostalgia, he remembered that he had an old colleague in town, the grumpy dwarf named Zahir.

‘I can’t forget to visit him before I go back to the Capital.’ Kaizen thought.

Finding the tavern mentioned by Linus was not an easy task.

Since the Three Spells Tavern was not marked on the map, Kaizen had to ask for help from NPCs and even then most of them didn’t even know where this place was.

After the sun went down, Kaizen finally found the place. The entrance to the tavern was in a dead end alley and in a part of town that the streets stank of piss.

Rats scavenged through the garbage lying on the alley floor, and the clamor of players’ and NPCs’ voices had completely disappeared, as this tavern was so far away from the normal centers.

Kaizen did not yet know what awaited him inside the tavern. So before entering, he took a deep breath, made sure to release the lock of the new scabbard in which he carried the Eye of Storm Sword, and then pushed open the door of the establishment.

The tavern he found was bright, poorly ventilated and was practically empty. Most of the people in the place turned their heads in Kaizen’s direction when he entered, and he could tell by their faces that this was not a tavern for socializing like the others. All the people had grumpy looks on their faces, and Kaizen could smell the bloodlust in the air.

There were no waitresses and waiters to serve the Psyker, only the tavern keeper at the counter near the entrance.

The tavern keeper was a middle-aged black woman who had a large mole on her chin and an expression of as kind as her customers stamped on her face.

Kaizen approached the counter, and when the tavernkeeper saw him, she said:

“We don’t serve food, only drinks.”

“I am here neither to eat nor to drink. I am looking for a woman named Nairo. Do you know where she is?”

The woman looked at Kaizen with a frown, turned her back to him, picked up two large wooden mugs, filled them with the beer that was in one of the barrels behind her, and placed the two full glasses on the counter in front of Kaizen.

“One silver coin…if you would be so kind.” She charged him.

“I didn’t ask for it.”

The woman’s expression of indifference did not change. In response to Kaizen, she merely pointed with her chin to her right corner and said:

“If you are going to talk to her, I would not advise you to go even without a drop of alcohol.”

Then Kaizen looked over his left shoulder and saw that in the corner the tavernkeeper pointed to was a thin figure sitting alone at a table. This figure had his back turned and a black hood covered his head. Moreover, there were many wooden mugs in front of this person at the table.

In light of this, Kaizen decided to heed the tavernkeeper’s advice, paid for the beer, and made his way calmly to the table. When he sat down, he dragged one of the mugs to Nairo and the other remained for himself.

Because of the hood, Kaizen could only see that she had skin as dark as night, sparkling green eyes and fine facial features like those of a noblewoman.

“Who are you?” The hooded woman asked, took without hesitation the mug Kaizen brought and began to drink.

“I am Kaizen.”

Nairo finished all the beer in his mug in a single gulp and placed the empty mug on the table again before answering.

“That doesn’t mean shit to me.” Nairo stated. “Are you going to drink that?” She asked, pointing to his mug.

Kaizen denied with her head, so she took his mug and started drinking it too.

Seriously, Kaizen looked around him to make sure no one was snooping into their conversation and when he realized everything was okay, he revealed:

“I am Psyker.”

For the first time in a long time, Nairo stopped drinking a mug of beer halfway through, because his eyes went wide at what Kaizen said.

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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