Chapter 14

  How to trap the Rat.

  ..............

  I much appreciate the activity in the pool guys , much luv to all of you

  Now without further delay here Chapter 14

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  Just as Craig got under the shower and was about to turn on the water his cell phone rang. He sighed loudly and knew who it was.

  " Celu , i was already under the shower. " Craig said after picking up his cell phone.

  " Soooo , your telling me your naked? " Celu tried to cheer him up.

  Craigs voice sounded rasp and lacked the energy it usually had , so she thought of the worst outcome and wanted him to look at the bright side of the quest and maybe distract him from it.

  " No you just want to think im talking with you while im naked , maybe im a 5 foot guy with 240 pounds on his ribs. Who knows we can change our appeareance in > New Beginning < remember? " Craig told her.

  At first Celus brain had a short blackout but no matter how hard she thought about it she lacked the ' smartness ' to counter such brazen declarations.

  " Don't worry , i knew since the first time i talked to you that you are more of a visual person. You don't give to much of a damn about how your boyfriends behave as long as they are good looking. " Craig said with his drained voice.

  " Thats ... not ... true .... " She said while grinding her teeth.

  Celu was furious at his declaration , as she never had a boyfriend in her life out of .... certain reasons ...

  " Hey Celu , im really sorry i shouldn't have said that. I am a little stressed and taking a shower is the ONLY way i can really relax. It's been the only method to calm myself down , ever since my senior year in High-school. Everything is good i already got a plan and everything but i just needed a little break and something to eat in real life. "

  Smart as Craig was he first told her sorry and directly brought a related topic combined with some good news up that distracted Celu from the mistake he made. As Craig knew her mind instantly went into her gaming mode and they ended the call , with a promise that Grim will return in 2 hours , game time.

  ....................

  With the new plan in his head Grim started to once again level up. He still had to cool his head of and Celu was mainly avoiding him. Viena had her dutys to train the new commers that still gathered every day. Albertos was still supervising Viena whenever he could while training the more advanced ' greens'

  Crow trained the left wing of the vanguard while Bulky trained the right vanguard. The squadron of knights and priests gifted from Grims foster father and Celus foster parents were off training in the surrounding area.

  Thalia and Grim were completly alone. Grim still hadn't told anybody his plan or reported what happend inside of the golbin city underground , as he did not want people to loose hope , which he had for a while.

  But after the shower his plan took shape and if he could say so himself Grim thought it was brilliant. A factor that caused Craigs panic attacks to manifest even in this virtual world was still there , like a thorn in a horses hooves which he just can't reach hisself. The traitor.

  He thought and thought , then he became more and more distressed every day at that thorn he just couldn't remove. At first he thought what could a single person do? But his realization came soon. He could do everything.

  If one operation gets sabotaged , of the manifold plan Grim thought out , the Quest would fail.

  Some people voluntereed to hunt with Grim to gain some levels , mostly girls , but he declined everyone of them as he needed time to think. But the main reason was this.

  Grim just simply beat a newly spawned pack of 10 Goblins of lvl 120. Sure there was no healer in their group but the teamwork of him and Thalia was enough to face a even larger group , as Grims health was still beyond the 50 % mark where his bar turned yellow.

  " AHHH I FORGOT! " Grim shouted out as he thougth about how strong he actually is and ever since he joined the group he hid his true ability.

  This was the way out! The best possible solution that had just slipped his mind.

  " OY PALANTHALOS YOU SHITTY EXCUSE FOR A GOD! " Grim roared on top of his lungs.

  Thalia giggled as a thunderbolt struck the ground right in-front of Grims feet. A huge crater was created and earth particles rose up into the air that created a dust cloud.

  While Grim was coughing because of the dust cloud a angered and pissed of God was hovering in mid-air right before Grim.

  " I am very entertained by your actions , MORTAL. But just because you are a momentary distrction from my dutys as a GOD , you should stop trying to get on my bad side. " The god spoke to Grim.

  A warm smile was directed at Palanthalos before Grim opened his mouth.

  " Well i got your attention now so that we can speak , i would call this plan a success not trying to get on your bad side. " Grim declared jokingly.

  Even Palanthalos could do nothing else then smile at this so he commanded Grim to speak already.

  " Okay okay . Now you gave me this quest. Can we change the contents a little bit ? " Grim asked full of confidence.

  Palanthalos was surprised that this mortal even knew that the quest was from him , but what surprised him even more that this puny little Elf was trying to haggle about the contents of the quest. But before outright denying it , since it humored the god , he decided to at least listen.

  " I know you don't want to give me more benefits so i thought to myself , HEY why not make the quest alot harder , since its already way to easy. " Grim stated in a matter of fact tone. " It is just too easy , a few goblins to kill some machines to destroy and some other creatures the goblins are keeping prisoners , i know you can do better. "

  Grim succeded in making Palanthalos even angrier then he was when he first arrived as thunderbolts were crackling from the gods entire body. Now Grim knew he had him hook , line and sinker.

  " So i thought , how about , lets say ... uhm ... Ahh got it. Since i am the prince of the elfs and all lets add some spice. While the quest is underway , if i die the permanent barrier you , the god Palanthalos has placed so we gain some time to prepare , created will break and the goblin hordes can swarm out and just kill everything. Resulting in the failure of the quest and the balance of the powers tipping in favour of the evil side. "

  Palanthalos jaws dropped at the ridicioulus game this puny little elf was playing. He couldn't understand what Grim was planning but the god KNEW he was planning something , so he answered as every god would answer.

  " You do know of the consquence to ... bargain ... with a god correct? "

  Now Grims facial expression underwent a quick and rapid transformation , first it was shock then it was disbelieve then it went to horror but it soon went back to its matter of fact , bored , expression.

  " I knew i couldn't trick a god ... * sigh*. " Grim said resigning to his fate.

  " Now tell me everything , there seems more to this quest then you let me believe. " Palanthalos commanded.

  Grim told everything besides one thing , the source of the information about the traitor in their ranks.

  Palanthalos understood the plan Grim was telling him everything about and even though the god thought it was idiotic , knew the plan was brilliant. He agreed to the change of the quest but this Grim knew , would cost him dearly.

  The god disappeared and as Grim looked at the questlog , he knew as soon as the timer hit 1 month exactly his fate was settled. He had no one to rely on , he would be alone and shunned by all , except his loyal Fae. Especially Celu ... she would need to be kept in the dark , widening the rift Grim himself had ripped open.

  .......................

  Grim , for 3 days without rest or sleep , killed the newly spawned Goblins to the south of the fissure. Not alot of other people would be able to even scratch a whole group of Goblins alone , at their own level.

  But Grim was fighting mobs with a 20 level advantage in groups. With his inflated stats he reached , attribute wise , level 115 while his character window said level 80. Sure most of this was actually possible to the little fae , as she covered Grims death angles.

  If Thalia wasn't around Grim would have already died quite a few times , so he indulged in spoiling the little Mothra alot during these 3 days while hunting the Goblin packs.

  These goblin packs were at least lvl 100 with 4 warriors 3 archers 1 mage and either a priest or a shaman. But Grim ,unleashing his inflated Stats combined with Thalias ingenious idea of tripping enemys with a searing hot beam of holy energy , defeated one of those groups while still in the green area of his health. ( Over 50%. )

  This was just at the start directly after he spoke with Palanthalos. Now with each passing day more Goblins started to spawn if one would go further south.

  Grim guessed it had to do with the quest timmer ticking down , as the goblins were getting restless more and stronger goblins would appear. It worked quite well for his plans , as he told nobody that there were higher mobs in another area , where one could grind more effectivly.

  But after 3 days his supply of food reached close to zero , which he carefully watched to leave at least 1 meal over for his trip back. Without food he could not regenerate mana and hp fast enough and his stamina would be low. But to top it of you could also die from hunger in this game.

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  Grim uttered curses when he read that , during a quick real life break for food , on the internet directly after he spoke with Palanthalos. He even checked the rankings of the top 100 of the > New beginning<. The top 100 was ruled again by orcs and draconians and just at the last bit he saw and Elf named Crow with a level of 85.

  The more Grim thought about the change in the quest and the traitor overall , especially after he saw that Crow had left behind everybody else level wise , his gut feeling literally shouted , ITS HIM!

  But Grim knew he just couldn't go ahead and tell the Npcs to cut of his head , sure if he was right that would solve the problem , but if not an even worse fate would befall the players now. After all the quests objective had already changed , but the players that had the quest couldn't see it yet. Palanthalos put a spell over quest and hid the change from the players themselves.

  So if worse came to worse and Grim killed Crow and he was not the traitor , the elven council would take Grims head , and the Goblins would start swarming the elfen kingdom. Grim couldn't let that happen.

  Grim deleted his name from the ranking of the new beginning and started to power level from there on out , combining his in-flated stats , Thalia and the practice he had from beating and duelling guards and even the best swordsman of the elfen kingdom.

  It sure had its perks to be the son of the King. But as even a Prince could die from hunger he ate the wolfs sausages , that viena made , on his way back. This one way trip alone cost him 16 hours as he was way south now , where the mobs had lvl 115.

  ....................

  He arrived in the middle of the night and without greeting anybody he walked straight to the Inn.

  But he went past the door , that he had rented for himself , and walked to the last door. As he took a deep breath he knocked firmly.

  A few seconds after he knocked Viena , dressed in a negligee opened the door while rubbing her eyes. This was something every playerd did , sleeping wear. If one slept in a iron armor or some stiff reinforced leather , wouldnt be much of a good rest , right?

  Why she choose a negligee instead of normal pyjamas , it would remain a mystery.

  As soon as she realized who it was she fidgeted around and tried to hide her well endowned proportions with her arms but Grim just grabbed her wrist. With a force of momentum he turned her arm around and , a little to roughly for Grims tastes , pushed her against a wall inside of her own room.

  With a kick of his leg the door slammed shut and Grim pressed himself heavily against Viena in her thin garments. Her body heated up but soon cooled down significantly.

  " You stink of Alcohol Grim .... " She stated while a depressing mood enveloped her demanor instead of the fire she showed seconds ago.

  " .... " But Grim remained silent.

  A long pause followed with Viena just glancing at him with a flushed face. But soon it changed.

  Grim closed the little distance they had slowly and was looking at her lips at the same time. With a loud echoing slap his approach was halted.

  " You are a god damn a**hole , Grim! I won't give my first kiss to somebody who comes DRUNK to a girls room and just pushes her to against the wall ... this should ... be romantic ... not some s**t ... like this ... " Viena brought out between sobs and tears rushing down her face.

  She slapped him a few more times before Grim left her room and she slammed the door shut right behind him.

  Now Grim was alone in the room he had rented for himself. He waited and soon heard what he was listening for.

  Viena cried so hearth breakingly that even Grim in his own room , that was at the other end of the hall , heard it. Another door opened and Clash knocked on Vienas door.

  After some soothing talk of Clash , whose room was directly besides Vienas , Grim heard 2 set of footsteps entering through the door and then the door being slammed shut. Viena started to cry again while Clash , in a low voice , tried to ease her pain.

  Grim knew exactly how this felt , the pain of being hearthbroken , but even though he loathed himself for doing so he had to stirr up mistrust between him and the rest of the world.

  As Grim had been scarred ( the leftovers of a wound) more times then anyone could imagine , not through some random girlfriends cheating on him , through Grims own hands he knew how it felt to feel hopeless and hearthbroken.

  Her crying didn't end for 4 hours and Grim listened to all of it while shedding tears himself at the despicable thing he had done to an innocent girl , that was just in the wrong group at the wrong time.

  After she had cried herself to sleep Grim extended his arm and took a good look at the metal gauntlet that protected his fingers and with a split second difference rammed his own hand directly into his lower jaw.

  It hurt like hell but Grim knew he deserved worse.

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  With bags under his eyes from lack of sleep , he waited for shortly after sunrise. It was around 9 am , the busiest time in Rothrien when most players logged on or had slept out. They entered the town at that time to restock on supplys or get their weapons fixed before heading out again to get ready for the raid.

  At the busiest time , Grim stood up and did the same. The rumour of Grim assaulting a poor maiden , while he was drunk , had already spread. And now under all these disgusted looks he would restock on food for next 3 weeks. Not because he wanted to avoid the circulating rumours but to further increase the gap he had created between Grim and Viena , between Grim and Celu , between Grim and the poor middleman Clash and last and most important intensifie the hatred Crow held against Grim.

  Grim had no idea why Crow hated him so much , maybe jealousy because all the girls give him attention , maybe jealousy that he took over the party lead , maybe because he was just such a nice guy or even just because out of greed at the prospect of gaining advantage in a game.

  But Grims gut told him something , it was CROW no doubt about it. Now he just needed to wait in ambush for the little rat to catch the big fat cheese after the quest had changed.

  ..............................

  6 more days had passed and Grim was still hunting Goblins like a maniac. With bread in his mouth , chewing relentlessly while swinging the Mace with a brutal force Grim had reached a new level of hunting.

  Now the mobs he faced were at least level 130 and always had a priest with them. But Grims rage blinded him a little. A few times he survived the fights with barely 5 % life left and Thalia told him everytime they took a 'rest' , when they charged at a new group of goblins , they should back-track a little and fight lower monsters.

  Grim just ignored her , Thalia knew Grims conciousness was filled with grief , regret , pain and anger so she forgave him. But what Thalia worried the most was the time Grim slept.

  After 18 - 19 hours a day of hunting Grim would just collapse on the spot and sleep. But you couldn't call that sleep. He tossed and turned , sometimes even shouted out names or very often a clear and loud NOOOOOOOOO!. But the worst times where when Grim craddled himself back and forth while sobbing or crying , all in his sleep.

  Thalia asked one day and said in the other world Grim had what is called ' panic attacks ' from a trauma he got during his ' senior high-school year ' but that was the longest conversation they had in those days.

  Now Thalia saw Grim behaving even stranger then before. She saw him standing perfecly still and he was looking at a ' window ' as he called the godly power the chosen ones and adventureres received from the gods.

  Thalia also noticed a timer just reaching 1 month as she heard a loud * tring*