Oltrox continued to sit at his desk, meddling with the goblet-like contraption that had been enamoring him. He quickly took notice of the silence that had filled the library and began to put away both the book and goblet. His attention was caught by the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, it was a quarter till eight. The group had arrived a little under three hours ago at this point, and Oltrox quickly took notice of that. He spoke out loud,
"Not a word from any of them in almost three hours?"
His voice was rather deep and rough. He wasn't seeking an answer but simply wanted to fill the quietness of the room with some kind of noise, no matter how little it may be.
Frey awoke from his slumber, it appeared that his attempt to rest his eyes had quickly turned into a three-hour nap. He stared at the cuckoo clock that hangs over the bed. He was surprised he hadn't been noticed yet and began to make his way out of the room. He made his way through the passageway that he had discovered earlier, he more efficiently got through it within about 5 minutes; upon reaching the other side, and covering up the hole he made his way out of the room. Frey was the only person in the hallway. He was soon noticed by Oltrox who shouted down to him,
"Excuse me, your name was Frey correct?"
Frey quickly responded with a nervous "Yes!" Frey's nervous response did catch some confusion from Oltrox, but he didn't think too much of it,
"Alright, well Frey could you please tell the others to get ready? Oh, and make sure that they know where they're going in formal attire!"
Frey knocked on each of their doors to let them know, and each responded with a simple "Ok" except for S'kelt. Who questioned the reasons, before eventually agreeing.
Upon all of them getting ready and meeting within the large central room, where they were met with a strange sight. Frey wore his usual outfit except his nails were repainted, and he put on a new leather jacket. S'kelt continued on with his chainmail, but it was covered by some kind of incredible cloth and leather mix which was definitely of high quality, and probably rather expensive. Blut and Leo were both wearing strange red robes, with golden highlights. Oltrox was the center of attention; he had an incredibly large monocle, with it connecting via a chain to each of his eyestalks, as well as a top hat. The entire group just stood in confusion staring at each other before S'kelt finally spoke,
"Oltrox, I mean no offense but… What the hell are you wearing?"
Frey was the first to respond,
"Yeah, what is that?"
Oltrox's face became dejected,
"What, you all don't like it?"
The group all looked at one another again, before apologizing. Boot eventually exited her room, she continued to wear her previous clothing, with quite literally no change. She yelled as she ran up the stairs,
"Don't worry Oltrox, I think you look lovely!"
Oltroxs dejection faded and formed into a smile,
"Thank you, Boot, but are you going to dress like that?"
Boot responded with a smile and a head nod. With Frey returning the smile, however, the others were unsure of his actual opinions. S'kelt made his opinion quite apparent,
"Oh by the gods, I don't want to be seen with someone if they'll be looking so peasant-like."
It was finished with a scoff. This slight argument was ended by Blut, who asked
"So sir, why exactly did we need to be dressed in such formal attire?"
The argument ceased as everyone turned to Blut, and then Oltrox, who quickly responded, "Claukwith had decided that it would be best to get all of the students introduced to one another, and the rest of the academy in general."
A nod was given, and S'kelt said,
"Ah a ball, I haven't been to one of those in all my years."
Frey laughed, and said,
"How old are you, 30 or something?"
S'kelt stared at Frey with a straight face, "Yes." The group went silent, Frey just stared at him, and Boot was obviously preparing a snarky response. She responded with a smile, and a slight laugh,
"You're such an old man S'kelt! No wonder you're such a grouch.."
Frey seemed rather upset and shouted quickly quieting the entire party,
"WHY DOES NO ONE HAVE AN ISSUE WITH THIS!?, This guy is like… double all of our ages; why is he in this academy?"
Oltrox had a harsh response demanding him to be quiet and telling him that everyone is by technicality allowed to enroll. Leo looked at the clock, and then back at the party,
"Hey guys shouldn't we be on our way?"
Oltrox looked over and then nodded with his eyestalks. The group went up the spiral staircase rather quickly, as they soon reached the top the sound of music became more and more audible. The Door to the library stairs opened and revealed that the previously covered entranceway was now opened up to reveal a large ballroom. Filled with a copious amount of students, and instructors. Oltrox looked at the group,
"Now before you all go out and do your thing, just try to get along with everyone, and have fun!"
He lets out a laugh before floating over to another group of advisors that were standing around a table filled with food.
The group all looked at each other, in a form of awkward silence, which was eventually broken by Boot,
"Alright guys, you heard Oltrox. Let's go party!"
S'kelt belted out laughing, not of humor but of what seemed to be a form of happiness,
"I agree! We should go and have some fun, I'd love to try the cuisine."
He soon made his way over to another one of the food tables, which had varying types of foods with things like elk, and even types of more exotic meats like Kuo-toa. The rest agreed and decided to make their way over to the tables; everyone grabbed different types of food and made their way to a large square table, which was filled with a group of people. One was a warforged, a being made of pure metal, another was a strange feminine girl that was wearing an exotic leather coat, yet strangely enough, she had a plague doctor mask on. Finally, there was a satyr sitting there, a pale man with goat-like legs. The group sat down around the table and introduced themselves. The warforged introduced itself as Theta, the strange girl in the plague doctor mask was Elryn, and the satyr was revealed to be named, Saat. The parties both got introduced to one another. It turned out that both parties were filled with new adventurers that sought to make the world a better place. The parties' conversations were interrupted as two figures walked over.
The first figure was a girl, with skin as white as paper, and eerily enough no mouth, which caused Frey to believe that she was a changeling, a race of people that had limited shapeshifting. This theory however was immediately put to rest as the girl's arm was completely covered in blue scales, similar to that of a Dragonborn. Her eyes were motioned to the point where if she had a mouth it would be obvious that she was smiling; she looked at Frey and leaned forward before speaking,
"Why Elryn, you didn't tell me that we had new friends."
Elryn immediately said something in another monotone, low voice
"Uvy, don't be like that. These nice people were telling us about their aspirations."
Uvy's eyes went back down as if she were annoyed,
"I was just teasing Elryn!"
Saat soon spoke, with an accent that seemed foreign,
"Oh Uvy ya can't be comin up to us like that. Anyhow, who is this feller?"
Saat pointed towards the Human guy that was standing next to her, He had black hair and fair skin, the hair wasn't necessarily long, but it covered his right eye entirely; he was dressed in an orange leather jacket, which was opened, revealing a black sweater below. He also wore similar leather gloves that were fingerless. He had a smile and reached out one of his hands before finally speaking,
"Oh you must be the rest of Uvy's party. You all seem like lovely people."
He grinned, showing a toothy smile however no one else was smiling. There was an air of awkwardness; this random girl had just appeared with a strange man. Uvy once again broke the tension,
"He's cute isn't he?"
The tone of her voice seemed harsher than anything; Frey was able to tell that something wasn't right like she wasn't being entirely truthful with her words, but that wasn't important right now, as the conversation had quickly shifted gears,
"So, Uvy didn't tell me how big her party was."
The guy's sentence was interrupted by Boot,
"Actually we're our own group, under Oltrox."
Uvy's group gave Boot a look of confusion; a response quickly formed from Elryn,
"Oltrox eh? I don't think I've heard of him."
The boy that had been next to Uvy's side until this point was now directly next to Boot, he looked the party over in an attempt to scan them. The boy bowed, causing confusion amongst everyone. S'kelt threw in a statement,
"Well I wasn't expecting anyone to bow to me just yet."
The boy quickly responded,
"I am happy to meet the rest of my party's acquaintances."
There was an audible sigh of confusion, The boy went on to introduce himself as EJ, and he didn't know where to find Oltroxs' room, so had decided to just wait to find the rest of the group during the ball. Now while this plan did seem foolproof, there were a couple of issues with it. This school had at the very least three hundred to five hundred students, so that could mean there were anywhere between sixty, and one hundred different groups. It just didn't seem smart to attempt and find the group during the ball. Unless of course, this was a lie, or in the case that he wasn't lying then he just hadn't fully thought it through; all of these thoughts had raced throughout Frey's mind, and he was unable to tell what the rest of the party thought of this. S'kelt seemed at least a little arrogant, but he at least seemed to be rather intelligent, and Blut had seemed to have quite the analytical mind and was probably able to determine that EJ was at the very least a little suspicious of the way that he was acting. Boot and Leo though were a bit harder for Frey to read.
Uvy and the remainder of her party decided that it would be best to head out and dance; this left the rest of the group alone with EJ for once, which was actually incredibly awkward. Boot spoke up,
"Hey, Leo, Frey do you wanna go grab some more food?"
They both agreed and made their way over to a nearby platter of food. The table was filled with strange exotic foods, well exotic enough for Frey, such as Cockatrice. Boot seemed to be enthralled by some kind of large bowl that was filled with a strange blue liquid, and little chunks of meat. Leo noticed this and began to look around, then looking up to Boot,
"It's Bumbleberry soup, and looks like some other vegetables, oh there's also some meat, probably boar."
Boot licked her lips, and looked around as if to make sure that she wasn't being watched. She pulled out a cloth pouch, with the word "Catnip" poorly written on it. Frey raised an eyebrow upon seeing it,
"What the hell are you about to do Boot?"
Boot hastily looked over, as if she was shocked; she began speaking,
"This is just my special spice."
She pulled out a small bit of these strange grey pebbles, that she then placed into the soup, and then used her dagger to stir it. She took a bowl and poured herself a hearty serving of the bumbleberry soup, with newly added "spice". She took a sip, before purring, and then offering some to Frey, and then Leo, both of which declined to take a sip from this forbidden soup.
Boot had been standing at this table for about five or so minutes, which garnered some attention, and annoyance; she heard someone speak from behind her, in a low-cut voice that had a bit of annoyance within it,
"Ey love, you mind movin out of da way?"
Boot turned around, obviously surprised by this. She was met with a giant bald man, with grey skin, and blue stripes lining up and down his body; Boot was under five feet tall, almost five feet, but not quite there yet. This man however was an absolute behemoth when compared to her, absolutely destroying her in stature. Boot responded with a scoff, and turned back around to pour herself another bowl of the bumbleberry and catnip soup. This obviously caused anger to swell up within the goliath who responded questionably,
"Well then little lady."
He put his hand on Boot's head in an attempt to move her, Boot responded with a quick bite to his hand. The goliath let out a small shriek before once again responding with an aggressive comment,
"What in the hell! Alright, I'll give ya one last chance, move out of the damn line or I'll get myself a nice new pelt rug for my room!"
Boot turned around to face the goliath, looking right up at him, he was holding his now bleeding hand; Frey and Leo walked up next to Boot just to eye up the situation. The goliath went to grab at Boot again but was interrupted by her clawing right at his face, causing 3 large cuts to go right across the man's face. He yelled once again, causing notice from some of the other instructors, who began whispering. He was obviously pissed because he began to pull out a hidden short axe that he had hidden somewhere on his back. At this point, it became more, and more apparent that Frey and Leo needed to get involved, or a large amount of blood could be spilled; both of them stepped forward, Leo revealed a shortsword that he had hidden under his jacket, and Frey showed off brass knuckles that were equipped to his right hand.
The Goliath scoffed, giving the trio a death stare,
"What, do you folks not think that I can take 3 of you?"
He rolled his shoulders and then popped his neck. A crowd had begun to form around the group, and it was becoming increasingly more likely that a full-on brawl would break out. That was until a familiar stern voice shouted out,
"What do you think you're doing?"
The shouting and whispering came to an abrupt halt, as Claukwith made his presence known. The students noticed him standing above them as if he was floating; he jumped down landing directly behind the goliath, whose intimidating demeanor had shriveled upon Claukwiths arrival. Leo and Frey both put their weapons up, attempting to mask any potential involvement from him. He stared down the goliath before turning his stern gaze over to Boot, Frey, and Leo;
"Mind explaining yourselves?"
he furrowed his brow as he focused on Frey,
"I believe this is my second time directly speaking to you."
Frey immediately threw his hands up, as if to prove his innocence,
"We were just trying to get some of this delicious food, then this guy walked over and caused an issue."
Frey wasn't even allowed to finish before Boot spoke over him,
"Yeah! I was just trying to have some soup!"
Claukwith raised an eyebrow, and then turned his attention back to the goliath whose axe was still revealed to the entire room,
"Let's see."
Claukwith said, as he walked next to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Claukwith looked at the goliath and simply asked,
"Will you tell me exactly what happened?"
At this point the rest of the party had made their way over, S'kelt and EJ seemed especially invested, staring intently at the Goliath and Claukwith. The goliath visibly shook as Claukwiths hand rested upon his shoulder, and it appeared that his mouth was forced ever so slightly open upon all corners,
"Well I guess I got rather aggressive and tried attacking this girl. She defended herself."
Frey and Leo were visibly confused, and shared strange looks; they had both known that this wasn't exactly what happened; it was similar but certain things weren't brought up, such as Leo, and Frey drawing weapons, as well as Boots' partial aggressiveness. Claukwith had a slight smirk on his face before patting the goliath on the shoulder with a slight,
"tsk tsk tsk."
The Goliath's lips fully closed, and he was led by Claukwith through a door that he summoned.
The crowd was soon broken up by the instructors, being dispersed. The trio made their way over to the remainder of the group, S'kelt and EJ leaned up against a table, with Blut standing nearby holding a plate of what looked to be fried frog legs. EJ was the first to speak as the group arrived,
"You all are already causing so much trouble?"
Frey raised an eyebrow, getting ready to repudiate the claim, but Boot was faster to the draw,
"What the hell does that mean? It wasn't even our fault, he attacked us!"
S'kelt stood up straight as if to exert pressure over Boot,
"You were placing some foreign material into it."
Frey intervened,
"It was a hundred percent that guy's fault, we were just minding our own business."
S'kelt walked over to Frey and pushed his chest against his, in an attempt to intimidate him. Leo was visibly annoyed, and walked over forcing a smile; he pushed the two apart,
"C'mon guys, no need to act in such an aggressive way!"
EJ relaxed, agreeing with Leo. Frey and S'kelt both backed up from one another, and Blut walked over;
"Yeah guys, we should be enjoying ourselves, grab a plate and have some fun."
Frey took a moment to recollect himself, and then made his way over to the table that Blut was standing next to, beginning to prepare himself a plate. It had dawned on Frey that throughout this entire party if you could even call it that; he hadn't once had a bite to eat. He stacked his plate high with many kinds of food, exotic fried Kuo toa legs, some mountain ox liver, as well as some sort of boiled vegetables. While he was finishing with this abomination that was forming upon his plate he bumped into something, and a voice responded,
"Oh I'm sorry."
Frey looked over to see the girl that had been dressed in that old-fashioned leather coat and the plague doctor mask. Frey quickly attempted to catch his bearings; he seemed rather surprised by the attire at first before swiftly remembering their earlier party-wide conversation. Frey had to think to himself about her name, this would be extremely awkward if he had already forgotten the identity of someone he had met just ten or so minutes ago, especially since she had such odd attire. It became more, and more obvious that the girl wasn't gonna be the first to make a move; this must've been a strategic move in a game of ethereal chess that the two are playing with one another. Frey thought to himself, "What in the name of the gods is this girl's name?"
He couldn't for the life of him remember, Frey could easily remember that the changeling, dragon girl was Uvy, she had given him a bad vibe from their short interaction; he could also remember Saat as the satyr considering his odd accent, and the warforged was easy as well Theta. As time continued Frey was visibly sweating, and soon the girl let out a sigh. She spoke in a defeated tone, "Elryn.'' Frey let out a sigh. Frey began to vocalize his thoughts of an apology before Elryn held her hand up as if to hush him,
"Don't bother, I understand that we all forget sometimes."
Frey was thoroughly embarrassed, and once again apologized; he wasn't able to tell, but he could assume by the tone of the voice she was more disheartened since he did this,
"Frey, once again it's fine. My name is Elryn, I understand your forgetfulness, especially after your little bout."
She giggled some after finishing, and then said farewell. Frey made his way back to a table that the remainder of his party was resting at, and began feasting on this food fit for a hero. As he was scarfing down his food he glanced around at the party and came to the realization that two of their scaly friends, as well as two humans, were missing, leaving him alone with Boot.
Blut, and Leo had both noticed that Frey had made his way over to a table housing food, and decided that now would be the best time to make a move. Both of them were rather strange looking to the passerby, their strange red and gold cloaks were reminiscent of that of a cult member. The duo had made their way to a distant corner of the massive ballroom, enveloping themselves in the shadows. They made sure no one had followed them before speaking to one another, Blut spoke first, and Leo listened intently, "Phenomenal work, Krimson. The Alias really do seem to be fooling them."
Krimson gave a sharp smirk,
"Those idiots really seemed to think that I was actually attempting to be friends with them."
This time Blut would give a grin,
"The plan is going almost perfectly, there are only two issues I can think of."
Krimson raised an eyebrow at this,
"I assume our little escapade with the hulking brute was one issue, but what's the other?"
Blut looked around once more before whispering,
"Uvy, I don't like how she acts, she seems like she knows too much."
Krimson nodded before entering a slightly defensive tone,
"I do feel the need to explain myself for the previous issue."
Now Blut entered a form of tentative listening, and Krimson began his monologue,
"It made the most sense for me to help our temporary allies, if they trust us, there's a higher chance that they won't have any suspicions."
Blut simply nodded his head, with a smile on his face,
"Don't worry old friend, I understand the intent."
S'kelt and EJ had remained posted up against the tables waiting for the others to leave. After close to ten minutes their wish had been granted, and they were the only two that remained within the area. Causing a sly chuckle to exhaust from S'kelt.
"So, EJ you said your name was?"
EJ let out a slight laugh; he gave a nod afterward. S'kelt looked around, it seemed as if he were looking for someone in specific instead of just doing a scout of the room. EJ had a look of bewilderment on his face as he did so, and S'kelt turned back to speak,
"So you have the same power as me, correct?"
EJ gave a blank stare as if he was staring into the eyes of something closer to a demon than that of a mortal being. S'kelts reaction to this was a grin,
"What? You look like you've seen a ghost EJ…"
S'kelt's jab at EJ left a tinge of uneasiness in the air, EJ's calm demeanor had entirely dropped from how it was before when he had introduced himself with S'kelt's wordless assault on the mind had reached its final stage as he had turned fully to stare down EJ, who responded with plainly with a nod. S'kelts attention was now behind EJ, as he took a deep breath. S'kelt, who continued analyzing the situation clearly chuckled and then stretched his hand out towards EJ, who was addled at the action. S'kelt quieted his tone and began to speak,
"Listen EJ, I would like people like you on my side. It will make my plan much more effortless."
Before EJ even had the chance to get a word in S'kelt was back to prattling,
"I propose a temporary alliance EJ, you'll need me moving forward."
S'kelt had a leer across his face as he spoke, further unnerving him. EJ thought to himself, what was his game here, was this a taunt? No that wouldn't make much sense, he clearly seemed confident in himself; there was no need for S'kelt to attempt to intimidate EJ any further than he already had. EJ simply nodded at the proposal., putting an end to this bout.
The four that had run off ultimately returned within a short period. At this point Frey had already scarfed down his meal, Boot on the other hand was fast asleep; it had looked like the party had tired her out. Upon the two separate groups returning Frey looked up at them, and gave a wave. The newly reunited party was now met with the sight of Oltrox who had somehow snuck up on them. He used an eye ray to float his tophat off of him, and into a form that one would see when a hat is tipped their way. EJ returned it with a bow of the head,
"My apologies sir, I don't believe we've yet met."
Oltroxs' primary eye grew to massive size, surprised by the courtesy that EJ appeared to be showing. However, Frey was less impressed, rolling his eyes at the sight of this, like a schoolboy being upset over not being complimented by their teacher. S'kelt placed a hand on EJs' back,
"This fellow is EJ, I believe he's the newest member of our entourage."
Frey looked in exasperation at S'kelt,
"Since when did you two become best friends?"
S'kelt simply sneered at Freys' comment,
"Well Frey, unlike you I'm just attempting to be on good terms with the entire party."
This comment specifically irked Frey, causing a shiver of anger to rise throughout his entire body. He was unable to make a comment, not wanting to gain the ire of Oltrox, who had been staring daggers at Frey up to now. He calmed himself with another deep breath and gave a nod, which caused Oltrox to smile. The ball had been coming to an end, and most of the instructors and their students had made their leave; Oltrox noticed this, and looked at the party giving a half smile. The party returned the gesture, all but Frey at least,
"Well, you may have shown up a bit later than the rest, but welcome nonetheless EJ."
Oltrox quickly pivoted in the opposite direction, in an attempt to lead the group back to the room where they would be staying. This of course meant that someone had to take one for the team, and wake Boot up; the one that decided to do this would be EJ, however, he just stood where he was, about five feet away, yet Boot reacted. She exploded upwards and began scratching around, hitting nothing but the still air around her. Still seemingly groggy she drowsily looked around, Krimson walked over, and gave her a pat on the back,
"We're just heading back to the room Boot, you can rest in a bit."
Boot gave a dazed response, and the party was taken down to the library that they would all soon call home; everyone made haste in getting to their rooms and finally getting some actual rest.
As S'kelt entered his room, he began to caress one of the needles that he had brought, he changed into more comfortable clothing as he laid down in his bed, and dozed off. Just next door to S'kelt was EJ, who had begun unpacking his clothing and other gear. Most of it was actually just from the nation that Claukwiths academy had presided in, Nyxis. There was one exception to this, a pair of two blades; they were akin to a scimitar from a distant land, fashioned in both obsidian and gold. EJ laid down on his bed before closing his eyes, drawing parallels to his homeland, what S'kelt had told him, and old myths.
162Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4vLnFs6Z3
然後按「加至主畫面」