6 The Roundtable Hold

Max POV:

I looked around and the first thing which caught my eye was the enormous golden ray of light in the middle of the Roundtable. After a while, I diverted my eyes, as I recognized a few familiar faces. I saw Gideon entering the room. He wore his usual armor, however as I looked at him, I must admit that his helmet, which resembles the Witch-king from Lord of the Rings, is actually very creepy and somehow cool, because when you look at him, you could only see darkness.

Once his noticed me, he made his way towards my position .

"Oh, this is a rare occasion. I can't remember the last time a new tarnished made their way to the Roundtable. Very well. As your senior, I bid you welcome. It is safe here. You may let down your guard."

I thanked Gideon, but then suddenly his aura became colder as he continued to speak with a deeper voice.

"Allow me a word of advice, as your senior. You are a mere visitor to the Roundtable, nothing more. A house guest, yet to earn their keep. Remember your place, newcomer."

I nodded with a serious expression and said: "I understood senior."

"There is nothing left to say. Be at your leisure."

He didn't have to tell me this twice as I made my way to Diallos, because he was the closest one and introduced myself.

"Hello, my name is Max how are you doing?"

"Ah, hello you must be new here. I'm... well just call me Diallos. The honor of one's house holds little import in these lands. To be honest I feel troubled. By the way have you met a young woman named Lanya on your travels?"

"A woman named Lanya? No unfortunately I haven't. If I may ask, who is she?"

I could tell Diallos the location of her death in the future, so he could maybe save her. However, how would this benefit me? And I actually doubt that he would even be able to do that. In fact, from my point of view, Diallos is one of the most useless and pathetic NPCs in the game. But he might be useful later on, once I join Volcano Manor, therefore Lanya has to die. Only time will tell, if I made the right decision.

"Thats unfortunate. Well, she is my servant, but fickle as the wind. Take my eyes of her for but a moment and she's good as gone. She has been my companion since childhood. I have lost count of the number of times I had to find her like this. Honestly, she is such a little tomboy. If you find her, please be sure to tell me."

I nodded and then looked for Brother Corhyn. He is the reason I didn't use my runes with Melina, because it's more important to learn some incantations at the moment. If his prices are the same, I won't be able to afford them but knowing his character I should be able to get on his good side to lower to price. Sadly, he wasn't here at the moment, therefore I decided to pay the blacksmith a visit.

When I arrived before him, he was currently smithing, so he didn't notice me, but once he did Master Hewg spoke with his deep voice:

"You are a new face. No matter, it's all the same. Lay out your arms. Let's get smithing."

My face flushed red a little bit in embarrassment as I answered:

"Actually, I currently have no need to strengthen my weapon. May I ask for your name?" I decided to befriend Hewg, so that in the future, he would be willing to teach Roderika spirit tuning once I suggest it.

He looked at me strangely and spoke:

"My name is Hewg"

"Nice to meet you Master Hewg. What are these chains on your legs?"

"I see you've noticed the chains. Nothing special, I'm a prisoner and these are my chains. I'm trapped by the Hold, undying, smithing for you fools." I could hear a little bit of anger in his voice, and he chuckled as he continued: "Thats all there is to it."

"You are a prisoner?"

"Nah, don't read too much into it. I've no grudge against you. My being a prisoner is no fault of yours. Besides, I don't mind smithing. Despite my differences, the weapons get stronger, all the same. Given time, technique never fails. Besides, it helps me forget. The sheer terror of her...", said Hewg with a shaking voice at the end.

Seeing that he didn't want to continue the conversation I left him alone. As I wondered about his words, I made up my mind to find out what sin he committed, in order to confirm my theory. I walked past Fias room, without even taking a look, because I didn't want to deal with this evil woman who wants to hug me and take a portion of my health, for the moment.

Then, I made my way to the Twin Maiden Husks, meeting Ensha on the way. He didn't want to talk to me, but instead just stared at me. This made me feel uncomfortable, so I just ignored him.

When I stood before the Twin Maidens, I was momentarily stunned and disgusted. The sight of two small figures, whose face is full of wrinkles and furthermore with no eyes, isn't a lovely sight to see. Their goods were on the ground around them. After searching for a while, I found the object I was looking for, the Finger Seal. I took it and asked for the price and one of them answered: "400".

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Authors Note:

I lowered the price of the seal by 400 runes

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I gave them the runes, which only left me with around 150 runes. Then I put the seal in my pocket and went back to the Roundtable. Luckily Brother Corhyn arrived, so I went straight to him and introduced myself.

"Oh, I see you have just arrived. Welcome to the Roundtable Hold. I'm Corhyn, a man of the cloth. I teach incantations, the strength granted us by the two Fingers and explore secrets of the Golden Order. So that one day, if a Tarnished of the Roundtable Hold should become Elden Lord, I might counsel them, ensuring order regains its proper from, righting rule over man. By the way, do you still see it? The guidance of grace? "

"Yes, I can see it."

"You do! Wonderful news. Most tarnished are blind to it these days. You are something of a rare breed. Well, what do you say? Care to learn an incantation of the two fingers? Since you are guided by grace, I won't ask for many runes in return."

"Thank you very much for your offer, Brother Corhyn, but could you please tell me more about the Golden Order and its secrets? "

As Corhyn heard me ask this question, his eyes lit up and he started fanatically talking about how perfect the golden order is. Meanwhile I asked myself, how could I get a hypocrite to like me and treat me as one of his own, in order to get an additional discount?

The answer is simple. You just have to convince the hypocrite that you are also a hypocrite with the exact same worldviews. Or even better, to give the targeted person the feeling that they successfully managed to force their believes upon you. Brother Corhyn is without a doubt a known hypocrite who fanatically believes in the golden order and prefers blind devotion, and won't accept any other way. Much unlike his future Master, the Ever Brilliant "Chad" Goldmask who confronted the flaws in the system and believed that change was necessary.

After around 10 minutes of Brother Corhyn praising the Golden Order, I decided it was time:

"Thank you Brother Corhyn, you have opened my eyes, I finally understand. Please teach me some incantations of the two Fingers"

Brother Corhyn looked at the tarnished with a completely different look then before. From his point of view, he finally found someone who also shared his belief in the Golden Order. He then showed me the incantations and I already knew which one I wanted, the Catch Flame incantation. When I asked for the price, he told me 300 runes, which is half the original price. Furthermore, I told him that I didn't bring enough runes with me, so I asked him whether I could pay him 150 runes now and the rest later.

"I can sense that the Golden Order shines through you. Very well, I accept"