Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

99. The Age of Raids

A/N

Hey Crew. 

It's my birthday today so I decided to post an additional chapter for you all. 

I hope you enjoy as the tension ramps up and the stakes get higher. 

And may the winds of fortune ever fill your sails. 

-The Captain.

** ** ** 

Kadoka came in and looked at the pile on Peter's desk, "Oh, a map of the Nodes, I don't think I've seen one of these in a hundred years. She scanned the map and frowned. "Peter... about those nodes... what is this?" She pointed at a spot on the map colored with all three dots located north of the city. All the big kingdoms had two nodes, Dragoonia was built on fortress and trade nodes. But there were only two places where there were three nodes in one spot, the south west point of the southern continent and the other was north of the Pearly City at the north east point of the northern continent.

"That is one of the two Seats of Power. Back in the day of the guilds there was a period of time called the age of raids. It was when there was a surge of power granted to the nodes causing then to develop new abilities that not only benefitted the citizens but the Great Ones who had claim on them. The Great Ones went crazy as war after war and raid after raid broke out. There was a theory that the entire world was built for a war and there was a race to conquer these two locations." He pointed at the two points.

"They are called the seats of power. The Great ones guessed that once both of them were claimed by one or two guilds it would trigger a world event, like a world war. And if both were controlled by the same guild..." Peter's pen stopped. "... the leader would become the literal king of the world..." Peter then started scrambling around the desk and pulled out a map. Then he compared it to the map of the node. "Gaia's mercy..."

"What's wrong?" Kadoka asked.

"So this is the real reason Cal conquered the Dravenkin." He started circling areas on the larger map.

Kadoka moved to stand behind him. "Peter what are you talking about?"

"The event was never triggered because of the North Wind guild held this advantageous fortress node and the Dravenkin were the people who maintained control of the area around the North Seat of power. Every major guild who wanted to be a part of the world war event wanted the North Seat, well they had to deal with patrols by Dravenkin and North Wind members who would grind levels and abilities in the dark forest. it pissed off enough Great Ones that they got together and decided the only way that would be able to truly claim the North Seat was to conquer the North Wind." Peter began speaking faster and faster.

He rose to his feet and continued to scramble to circle areas and draw lines on the map. "Every major guild threw themselves at us, several even joined forces with each other and other kingdoms armies. I remember wondering why we would go through so much and not claim the node for ourselves as my wife and I stared at oceans of enemies, time and time again. Who needed a world war when the unraidable city stood against the combined armies of the Great Ones as the pinnacle of defense."

"You and I both know the North Wind elves weren't peacekeepers, what happened?" Kadoka asked. She hadn't been summoned until the dwindling years of the Tales of Yggdrasil after the age of raids.

"No, it was all a game. While the armies beat at our doors on raids. Our Guild Raided their unguarded fortresses. The famous shield and spear of the North Wind. We were a Raid guild not a War guild. War guilds wanted in on a world war, but Raid guilds took advantage of the distracted guilds to monopolize raids and raided the war guilds. In the end it turned into an on-again-off-again war between the war and raid guilds instead of the theorized world war. For the North Wind it was all about gathering Loot and rare weapons... " Peter slammed his fist on the table. "... ugh now I know how Cal feels." He ran his fingers through his short hair.

"Peter. What is going on?" Kadoka's low voice was the serious growl of someone who knew trouble was coming.

"Look at this..." Peter pointed at the map. From the south Seat he connected a line of unmanned and weakly guarded fortress nodes leading up through the center of the southern continent bypassing the human kingdom and straight to the Pearly city. "An easy to grab, easy to hold defensible line of fortress nodes straight to us. Inside the locked vault of the Pearly city is an unclaimed hoard of high leveled weapons, armor, magic tools, and every other dangerous thing the North Wind and Cal gathered. Enough to stock several armies and upset the entire balance of the world. Once they clear us out they have a clear shot to the North Seat with a newly outfitted army of monsters."

"That is not good." Kadoka's eye's widened. "Peter do you have any idea how powerful Raid loot is compared to anything we can make? I heard Cal once flippantly gave a cursed sword that could soulbond and replicate itself 666 times to a noob NPC because he wasn't 'feeling' the way they looked and it would grant him a bonus on the quest. I saw him once throw a spear at a herd of monsters from the crow's nest just to see if he could hit a target on an island through them, it took out the monsters and SUNK THE ISLAND! Then he didn't even go back for it because he had dozens more 'collecting dust at home'!"

"That's bad. That's really bad."

"No, Peter, it gets worse. The human's levels are pitiful, their average citizen is between 5-15 and their soldiers are only packing steel weapons. They luck out if one is magical enough to give a little bit of fire damage." Kadoka met Peter's gaze with an icy resonance as they imagined the possibilities. "Even if we were at equal levels with them they still can't compare. I once saw a group of thugs down by the Calphian docks take out a dozen armed human soldiers for getting too handsy with a group of girls visiting from one of the other elven kingdoms. Our level 10 kids are stronger and faster then their level 30 trained soldiers. The humans can surprise you with their sheer numbers and tenacity but... never mind."

"Does Cal know about this?"

"Of course he does!" Squeaked a cute feminine voice behind them.

Peter and Kadoka nearly jumped out of their skin and spun around. Standing behind them was a teenage girl with soft purple silver hair.

"Calico! How long have you been standing there!" Kadoka shouted after smothering the fire ball forming in her hand.

"More importantly, we need to talk about what you just discovered." Calico rolled up the papers Peter had marked up. "And why you need to keep quiet about it."