by Paul Kite
“Lsae-ero-os?” I muttered through clenched teeth inquiringly.
“Wait! Not yet!” he replied.
The first rows of gnolls and goblins descended onto the stone slab and immediately met the scorpions prepared to attack as An-Har decided to use them as the first line of defense. The Queen of the scorpions and her chitinous army stood still waiting, for she knew perfectly well, what was happening on the surface at the moment.
The small, nimble gnolls, with the support of fast creatures saddled by the goblins, attacked our four scorpions and almost instantly tore those unfortunate creatures to pieces! This happened despite their crappy weapons! That was awesome! Even violent and strong orcs needed more time to destroy the enemy scorpions. However, if you remembered who destroyed the scorpion nest, it became clear that she was only trying to keep us on this seemingly safe piece of stone. It seemed to me that the domesticated scorpions, in comparison with their wild counterparts, were slower and clumsier.
“Wah-ah Gra-a!” shouted An-Gal, the orc warrior riding a varan, as he waved his scimitar - and three reptiles darted off into the crowd of cave creatures.
The varans scattered the gnolls and goblins with their hefty paws, the orcs chopped them down with scimitars, but... about a dozen of dead enemy riders and even fewer creatures they were riding on were a drop in the sea!
The enraged zergod, who had lost his rider, knocked one of the orcs down with and, despite a deep wound in its side, bit the defeated enemy, and a couple of cave predators followed him immediately. An-Gal tried to shake off the five gnolls, which stuck to him like bees to honey. The third warrior and his varan couldn’t be seen anywhere.
Lsaeros assumed that sooner or later someone, either the orcs or the goblins or the gnolls, would step on the sand in the heat of battle and provoke the nearest to the slab scorpions to attack. It all happened exactly as the wizard predicted. A goblin, sitting on the back of the beast, like a six-legged bear, flew out of the saddle, rolled down the mound and stretched out on a sandy surface just five feet from the safe stone.
A sharp blow from under the sandy depths came instantly, and the poor fellow’s body was strung on the scorpion’s thin sting. Wildly screaming in pain, the goblin was squirming violently and trying to hit the scorpion with his stick! There frail creatures were surprisingly strong.
Either this race was completely stupid, or they had absolutely no instinct for self-preservation, but a dozen of its relatives responded to the call for help and rushed towards him. Of course, they turned off the path onto the sand and instantly came under attack from the scorpions hiding there. Another fight ensued, it was a monstrous jumble of claws, stings, rusty swords and grinning mouths of monsters from the cave’s depths.
But all this was nothing compared to a loud deafening roar that resounded about a hundred yards from the mountains, the growl was filled with fierce unbridled power and strength.
Chapter 32
“Let’s go!” a familiar voice spoke in my ear and I ran away from the battle, which, however, didn’t even reach me — the gnolls and goblins got stuck in a fight with the orcs just a few feet from me.
I jumped on the back of the scorpion after Lsaeros, and our transport instantly darted off. The wizard threw off all the excess baggage, he left only a little food and water, as well as the unconscious elf, rolled into a dirty rag.
Seconds later we were two hundred yards away from the battlefield. Our scorpion seemed too frisky. I understood that the shaman might have given him special magic potions, but the wizard apparently also upgraded its speed. The wild scorpion rushed after us but soon fell behind, and no one else pursued us.
I wanted to scream with joy, but I restrained myself. Then I decided to turn around and see what was happening behind my back. I wish I didn’t do this!
I wonder if our scorpion can move faster?
A huge pile of sand was rising up to a height of two or three feet, like a giant bubble. When it burst, the queen of scorpions appeared in all her glory before the orcs, goblins, and gnolls. It was a creature the size of a five-story building, with claws that could grip and crush a fortress tower into dust.
The surviving orcs were stunned, and the crazy cave-creatures rushed at their enemy with loud cries and an insane clamor. It was a picture worthy of a mad fantasy artist — rational ants were attacking a huge and almost invulnerable monster.
Bang! The body of the queen fell down, turning everyone who was there into minced meat mixed with pieces of iron, bones and chitin. They were all dead. The mistress of scorpions had turned them into a giant cutlet.
What a surreal spectacle!
Our scorpion turned sharply to the left and, not losing speed, headed for the forest. Half an hour later, it stopped five yards from the forest, and then sat down wearily on the sandy ground. The animal was completely exhausted or might have already died, unable to withstand the exorbitant stress.
Lsaeros took the unconscious slave and jumped off the scorpion. Unfolding the rags, the wizard caught the elf under his arms and dragged him closer to the trees. He didn’t ask me for help, although I myself wasn’t eager to help him. I would have refused, not only because I didn’t like to sacrifice someone — you know, freedom was worth it — I just was not in a mood to get my hands dirty with the blood of an intelligent being unable to defend himself! Lsaeros was interested in the magical source, so let him perform the ritual himself. I had my plan, which I now intended to follow!
I didn’t turn away when the wizard began a long and tedious spell while drawing magic spells on the elf’s bare chest. Finishing the first part of the ritual, Lsaeros brought the elf back to life, and... a kind of bloody bacchanalia began. Feeling nausea, I turned away. However, I could clearly hear the terrible, inhuman cries, but I wasn’t going to show weakness by plugging my ears.
Maybe I shouldn’t have thought that the prison executioner was a monster... Didn’t I realize I knew a worse monster? What else is the wizard capable of after regaining his former power? He had killed only villains before — thieves, murderers, but now Lsaeros was performing a terrible, bloody and cruel ritual on an innocent victim. The elf could have been just an ordinary resident of the Light Forest, captured by the orcs and forced into slavery.
The game was no longer just a game... Was the ‘Life’ Corporation aware of what was going on in here?
What about me? After all, I calmly watched the ritual and perfectly knew the elf's fate. Was I better than Lsaeros at that moment? I came up with an excuse to sacrifice someone, I kept silent for my own benefit... or rather not benefit — but freedom! I was different before, completely different. The game gradually changed me... and in the end... learning about the possibilities of the source, I stepped over the line that separated heroes from villains.
Who am I now?
The bloody ritual ended in a scream that ended abruptly, and I turned around. With a slightly dumbfounded look, I saw the elf, far from unharmed, but certainly alive, get to his feet and, like a doll under the control of an unknown puppeteer, walk off between the trees deep into the forest. The wizard was returning back.
“Take that bag of provisions,” Lsaeros said calmly, as if there was no bloody ritual. “Well go on foot. They accepted my sacrifice and allowed us to go through the forest. Hurry up, Kraven!”
Who were these ‘they’? How did he know that ‘they’ took his offering? I wanted to ask the wizard all that, but it was wiser for me to keep quiet.
There was one stage left, just one more step to my freedom! Then... no one could prevent me from perishing in the forest to appear at the nearest rebirth point after some time. No one would find me! I was going to hide so deep and so far...
Who was I? I had become the one whom this cruel game turned me into — I was a slave and a murderer!
* * *
“Stop,” a man dressed in matte black armor ordered an orc squad that accompanied him through the desert from the Tir-Dom oasis.
Arenar had fulfilled the
oath and offered Dazrael a dozen of his best fighters, who, of course, had absolutely no idea who they were guarding. The elf was currently disguised as a man and wasn’t going to take the mask off, at least not until he found Kraven.
The warriors stopped obediently. The order of the head of the guild sounded extremely accurate — the orcs were supposed to help and obey the client only if he didn’t compromise the security of the detachment. Sha-Zan, who was appointed a senior warrior, didn’t see anything dangerous in the request to stop where one of the caravans was destroyed — they were constantly scurrying through the desert between oases.
The man got off the varan, straightened a sash behind his back, and quickly approached the first scorpion’s corpse. There was a crumpled cage next to it and bodies torn to pieces, and among them he noticed a couple of elves.
“Look over there! There are more corpses,” Sha-Zan pointed to a stone slab stained with blood, at the foot of a steep slope of high rocky mountains.
“This is Omu-Og-Gash, the abode…”
“I know,” the man interrupted him rudely. “I know who lives in the very center of the ‘Dead Spirits’. Let’s come closer,” the man demanded, jumping into the saddle.
Sha-Zan thought for a while, but he allowed his soldiers to follow the man with a gesture of his hand. Of course, there was no danger in approaching the mountains. The gnolls and goblins stayed out of the light during the day. But if the man tried to look into their cave, well, Sha-Zan wouldn’t stand in his way, if he wanted to kill himself.
The unbearable stench of corpses decomposing under the burning sun stopped the detachment a dozen yards from the stone slab.
One of the orcs cursed and spat on the hot sand,
“What can you see there? The caravan was out of luck. They ran into wild scorpions, they drove them to the mountains.”
“I see that,” the man said, looking for something or someone that only he knew among the corpses. “OK, let’s move on!”
Dazrael turned his varan away from the stone slab, which turned into a graveyard for more than a dozen sentient beings. You couldn’t count the number of bodies of different races, mostly orcs, that were scattered in the sand. Sha-Zan’s detachment set off and started to move away from the recent battle, and none of them paid any attention to the lonely dot high in the sky.
They didn’t notice a sight rarely seen in those parts — an Alkher pterod was flying over the desert with a dryad on its back.
* * *
Dreadful and terrible sounds followed us throughout our trip through this seemingly ordinary forest. They were lodged in my brain, causing me to fear every new step and turn my head looking for a threat. But no one was about to attack us and tear us to pieces. There were scary monsters, I even saw them myself — strange obscure shadows flashed here and there, but they hadn’t attacked us yet.
However, I wasn’t the only one concerned by what was happening around us. I noticed the wizard’s hands were trembling each time he stumbled and grabbed a branch or my shoulder. Lsaeros was afraid. He was very afraid of those creatures to which he had recently sacrificed the light elf, despite all his assurances that the monsters wouldn’t touch us. However, the wizard didn’t get lost and led us to the goal quite confidently.
“The Gran-al-Hron,” the wizard uttered in a dry, unemotional voice, seeing a gap between the trees close by.
The creatures had kept their word.
The forest ended abruptly and completely unexpectedly, and a huge unnaturally round lake appeared before us. There wasn’t a single wave on the surface, it looked like a mirror. The perfectly flat sandy surface was under our feet: there was neither debris, nor black or gray grains of sand. The lake shore looked great as if someone had surrounded the lake with a golden circle especially for us.
There was a long mound on the left, about twenty yards from where we came out of the forest. It led from the shore to the middle of the lake and was made of the same golden sand. The wizard was looking at that spot, in the middle of the lake.
Lsaeros resembled the mythical vampire — he had turned so pale during the short journey through this forest. The wizard took a step, then a second and suddenly broke into a run. I didn’t intend to fall behind and ran after him.
It looked weird, because just minutes earlier he was barely been wading through all those ravines, holes and potholes, he didn’t refuse my help, and he sometimes stumbled and fell, but now... Lsaeros seemed furious, I couldn’t catch up with him no matter how hard I tried!
We were in the middle of the lake and I finally saw what the wizard was running for. An unbearably bright pillar of light playing with all shades of rainbow colors was rising three feet high from under the surface! Even though I was about thirty feet from the light, I felt the power emanating from this divine source of magic.
Lsaeros ran into the light column at full speed and instantly dissolved into it. This effect of disappearance was extraordinary, I couldn’t see him at all. Approaching the divine source, I resolutely took the last step and... found myself engulfed in a warm and dense substance. At first, the sensations were pleasant, until the peculiar stuff began to envelop me, penetrating under my clothes, closer to my body, into my eyes, reaching my nostrils and ears...
I panicked and got scared! I began to twitch, trying to escape, but it was all useless …
Then I noticed a flashing system message before my eyes.
Attention!
The divine power of the orcish god-patron, Mok-Natal, has made an impact on you
One of your three tags is destroyed
The slave Ansr-run collar is destroyed
The traces of runic sorcery or blood magic are destroyed
Your life, stamina, and mana is fully restored
The strength of the totem ‘Black Wolf Zurval un Ra’ is fully restored
Buffs received:
+30 Strength for a period of 24 hours
+30 Agility for a period of 24 hours
+30 Intellect for a period of 24 hours
+ 100% damage to creatures belonging to the world Aka-Kag-Gosh for a period of 24 hours
The speed of pumping all the characteristics is doubled
Before I could rejoice at the changes, another message appeared.
Attention!
The Daggers of Chaos cause Mok-Natal’s anger!
Everything went dark and my heart squeezed into a tight little ball, I thought it would never exoand again. My head throbbed, breathing became very painful! The system bombarded me with a series of alerts about countless divine and other debuffs. - 99% of Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence for a period of 24 hours were the most harmless.
The Daggers of Chaos are too closely resemble the weapons that the ancient shamans took from the world of Aka-Kag-Gosh before the portal was sealed. But God is merciful and offers you two solutions:
1 - destroy the weapons, this will entail the complete destruction of the character because the blades are bound to him;
2 - change the essence of the weapons and make a complete restructuring of their main characteristics such as damage and casting of spells.
You are obliged to make a choice within 12 hours, otherwise, the characteristics will be determined automatically, based on your level of development and the specification of the relevant combat skills.
Please, select an option!
I certainly chose the second option!
The change is complete.
I limply fell out of the bright pillar on the golden sand, with a corner of my mind noting that the bars of Life, Endurance and Mana were drained to a single point. I was lying on my back with a parched throat, not believing what had just happened.
I said aloud, “I’m free…”
Chapter 33
Livion was standing, puzzled, before a huge hole in the wall. The thief had managed not only to steal the safe, but also destroy part of thick brickwork, blowing it right open all the way to the street.
The leaves rustled loudly
under the necromancer’s feet as he approached the chair by the table and sank into it tiredly, slouching under the weight of his problems and troubles.
First, he lost Kraven, then he fell out with Lady Kiera, losing most of his money. Finally, Arthur disappeared into the real world and hasn’t returned to the game. The black bar changed to white when he remembered Dazrael and his ability to put tags on players and NPCs, which he confirmed in a personal conversation with him. The guy, Kraven, of course, had a special tag. Livion left his house, because the light elf had moved to the outskirts of the mainland, away from the members of his former guild. Moreover, after the meeting, the necromancer made sure to visit the temple of an ancient powerful god to conduct a full rite of purification, just in case. As soon as Livion returned home, the bad luck streak continued.
“What if someone put a curse on me?” the necromancer spoke thoughtfully.
“Eh, I’m an old fool! How could I still trust these stupid objects? Arthur warned me many times about the danger of keeping the documents at home, even in the best dwarven safe. It would have taken me a minute to send my papers to the nearest bank. It is the most perfect repository for the virtual gaming world, protected by the best magical technologies and other guarding systems!”
Livion was talking quietly to himself, it was his old habit. When he was a normal man in the real world, he was working with the latest developments in the field of biocrystals, neural interfaces, quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence. Many people considered him a genius and didn’t pay attention to his strange habit of talking to himself.
Memories of his latest project, which he never completed, surfaced in Livion’s mind. He was one of the oldest inhabitants of the planet. He was pushing a biological neural network that was completely based on the principles of the human brain. He proposed to use this particular project in creating the virtual world of Noria, instead of a mixture of bio-and electronic technologies, from which the artificial intelligence pyramid grew to control the game. But the project was cancelled due to its excessive cruelty.
