by Cheek, Jason
‘Told you we had to hurry if we wanted to get a piece of the action,’ Fiona mentally sniffed, as she began licking a paw and meticulously cleaning her bloody muzzle. By now, Jodi was used to the Blink Lynx’s fastidiousness about having blood on her fur, but even so, it was quite the sight after a savage battle like this.
‘Any idea where all of those troopers and undead came from?’ Jodi asked, as she numbly went about the process of looting Snufu’s corpse. The clink of coins brought a smile to her lips as she put the sword she looted into her inventory without checking its stats.
‘The outer four tents on each side of the camp,’ Fiona replied without stopping with her cleaning. ‘The Rogues and Rangers were in groups hidden in Stealth on the outside of the camp’s periphery.’
‘Odd,” Jodi mentally said, as she looted a bloody robe from the Fire mage’s corpse and a staff with healing bonuses from the Priest. Once again, she was amazed at the amount of coinage that dropped into her bags. Humming happily, she put everything in her inventory as she continued thoughtfully. ‘You’d have thought that those players would’ve known what they were up against before they attacked these guys.’
‘Possibly,’ Fiona said, as she cocked her head to the side in thought. ‘Unless the House of Kayden Troopers had their people in Stealth the whole time they were encamped here.’ They traded a curious look with one another, before the Blink Lynx went back to her cleaning with a mental shrug of approval. ‘Deviously sneaky of them.’
Jodi understood Fiona’s unspoken meaning. If the NPCs had kept their numbers hidden the whole time they were here, the players would’ve thought they were easy pickings for the taking. Had they done that to make a point or was it just how they handled their security. Either way, they weren’t acting like any of the NPCs she was familiar with. Making sure to look as unthreatening as possible, she began picking her way through the still feeding zombies as she started making her way over to Bialaer, the Ranger Assault Leader.
‘Stay where you are,’ Jodi said, doing her best to ignore the gruesome sounds coming from the zombies feeding on the corpses. ‘I’m going to speak with Bialaer. Maybe he knows where this White Unicorn place is that I’m supposed to meet Elandorr at.’
‘Try not to start a fight,’ Fiona said, as she began working on her paws. ‘I wouldn’t want to get any zombie giblets on my freshly cleaned fur.’
The mental gagging that came over their shared link nearly made Jodi puke as she forcibly pushed the nauseating feeling away. Not that she blamed the Blink Lynx for feeling that way. She didn’t even want to think about how bad biting into a rotting zombie corpse must taste, if they smelt this bad, as she held her breath around the largest concentration of undead. While utterly disgusting, she had to admit that they’d been more than formidable in the fight.
As she neared the line of twenty zombies and rangers now loosely guarding the encampment, Jodi realized that the rest of the House of Kayden Rogues and Rangers had already disappeared back into Stealth. In her experience with the NPC guards around Nren Unarith, none of the soldiers had traveled in Stealth when they were in the town on patrol. It was just another curious difference between the NPCs in this sleepy country town of Delonshire and the fortress on the edge of the Plains of Atoll where she’d leveled up at.
“I am Bialaer Holaynore,” a strong voice suddenly announced, before she’d come within five yards of the camp. It caught her by surprise so much so that it knocked Jodi out of her internal contemplation. Looking up, she realized that the Ranger Assault Leader was approaching her with a friendly smile on his face. “How might I be of service to a sister of the House of Kayden?”
“Um, yeah,” Jodi said somewhat awkwardly, before holding out her hand. “I’m Jodi Tempest, um, a new member of-“
“The House of Kayden,” Bialaer confirmed with a broad smile. “Well met.”
The man’s intimidating look was offset by his warm smile as he gave her hand a solid shake. Jodi swore it was like he’d stepped off the set of the Viking Series with his rough leathers, unkempt beard, and the long blonde braid going down the side of his head. That is, if the Vikings had pointed ears, she thought, with a silent laugh as the big man continued.
“Elandorr said we’d be escorting you back to BrokenFang Hold. If you’re looking for him, he’s already left for The White Unicorn.” Leaning in close to her, Bialaer nodded towards the zombies that had started to make their way back to the four tents spaced out around the perimeter. “We appreciate the help with those Syndicate thugs. Those newfar just won’t give it a rest with the attacks whenever we come into Delonshire, but at least we can’t complain with the XP we get from killing them.”
Jodi couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips as the Ranger guffawed at his own joke. She was honestly surprised at the warm greeting. Looking around at the handful of players passing by and entering the city, she leaned in towards the Ranger and lowered her voice.
“Are those … newfar,” Jodi said, sounding out the new word hoping she got it right. “Going to be coming back to attack the camp again?”
“Doubtful, they don’t bother respawning at their gravestones anymore,” Bialaer said, nodding towards the white gravestones around them, before pointing towards the graveyard at the edge of the forest. “And they’ve stopped respawning at the graveyard outside of town after we started siccing the zombies on them. The only safe spot for them to respawn at is inside Delonshire and, by now, the Delonshire guards have probably rounded most of them up to put into prison.” Seeing the shocked look on her face, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, by the time they get released I expect we’ll be well on our way back to BrokenFang Hold.”
“Ah, yeah,” Jodi said, somewhat confused at the casual way Bialaer acted about players respawning. Once again, she’d never heard the NPCs acknowledge such a thing before. Though, it made sense in its own way. More so than the NPCs just ignoring that players respawned around them. Feeling a bit more at ease, she nodded back towards the city’s gates. “Mind giving me some quick directions to The White Unicorn?”
The directions were pretty straight forward, Jodi thought, as she gave a friendly wave to the Ranger, before making her way back to Fiona. Glancing at the mini-field of gravestones, she shook her head in bemusement. Bet that had come as a shock to all of those players the first time the NPCs were waiting for them to respawn, when Fiona’s voice sounded in her mind.
‘Ain’t that curious as all get out?’ The Blink Lynx said, as Jodi frowned.
‘Do we need to have another discussion about pawing through my memories?’ Jodi thought back, as Fiona gave a lazy flick of her tail. While they both knew it was an empty threat, she still didn’t like the liberties her combat pet took at times even if the use of her earthly colloquialisms were hilarious. Taking off towards the city’s gates, she mentally called out. ‘Come on, the inn isn’t too far away.’
Studying the odd construction of the Delonshire gates, it looked to Jodi like the atrocious conglomeration of heavy wooden barricades had been haphazardly stuck together. She questioned if they even had hinges as she neared the opening. Oddly enough, the city guards gave her a nod of respect as she approached and didn’t even bat an eye at the large Blink Lynx striding by her side. Again, just one more oddness in a whole sea of strangeness with this town. Normally, she’d be questioned about her monstrous combat pet.
Passing through the gate, Jodi’s eyes took in the city ahead of her. There was a fifty yard gap to the town itself between the gate and the first structures where a group of twenty guardsmen were busy training with one another while players and townspeople went about their business. The troopers were well equipped and had a surprisingly high-level for a starting town with regular guards in the low thirties and the officers around level forty. Even odder, the training they seemed to be doing was more akin to a players’ strategy, focused on taking out the Priests and Mages first. Jodi wasn’t sure what to think about that as she made her way along the m
ain street entering the town.
The buildings here were built with airy designs with curving lines and large openings. Many buildings even had small trees and flowers growing throughout their structures. It was a completely different feel than the squat solid-stone structures of Nren Unarith. Kind of what she would’ve expected Light Elves to be. The NPC civilians wore flowing robes of cloth with heavy coats to keep away the chill, while intermixed amongst them were the beginning players going about their business like you’d expect in any MMO’s town. Oddly enough, she was greeted with a nod or a pleasant “good day” by the NPCs she passed.
While none of the NPCs gave her any problems, she did get a number of nasty looks from the players around her. Jodi figured that was mostly due to Fiona who was glued to her side. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help the grin that lit up her face. How much more jealous would they be if they knew she was a Blink Lynx? Not that she wasn’t used to that attitude by the player base by now. So far, she’d yet to meet anyone with their own combat pet in-game.
They were nearly to the first intersection that would lead her to The White Unicorn inn, when Jodi noticed a commotion going on from a group of five players racing down the main avenue headed their way. They were all in their basic clothing with low health and rudely shoving people out of their way in their haste. To Jodi, it was as if they were running from someone. Noticing several of the teams around her curiously drawing their weapons and getting into a tighter formation, Jodi unslung her bow and nocked an arrow just in case. Not that she was expecting any problems, when she saw Snufu leading the group.
‘Well … well,’ Jodi happily murmured to Fiona, running an Identify on the group. ‘It looks like our Syndicate buddies somehow managed to get away from the guards at the graveyard and now have a Bounty on their heads.’
‘Does that mean we can kill them?’ Fiona asked, as her ears perked up hopefully.
‘I believe that means we can,’ Jodi affirmed, as she nodded towards the top of the next building further down the street. ‘Sneak Attack the Priest as soon as you have the shot.’
Letting out a short roar, Fiona disappeared in a pop of displaced air as the two teams of players nearest to them jumped in surprise. Bringing a long finger to her lips in the universal signal for silence, Jodi gave them a sly wink, before ducking behind the building that the Blink Lynx appeared on top of.
Jodi couldn’t help the rush of excitement thrumming through her veins as she waited for Fiona’s signal to attack. While they’d used this tactic many times before for taking on groups of Elite Orc Scouts, this was the first time she was trying it out as a Bounty Hunter. She couldn’t help the excited giggle that escaped her lips as she momentarily pictured herself as being like The Mandalorian. Her nerdgasm was suddenly interrupted by a woman’s shriek of fear.
“Gah!” Gougeous howled. “Get it off of me … get it off of me!”
Whipping around the corner, Jodi already had her bow nocked and ready as she saw the Priest collapse dead to the ground. While the rest of the team froze at the sight of the Blink Lynx teleporting away from their teammate, she Sneaked Attacked the Fire mage who currently held a glowing orb of flames in his palm. Due to the magic nature of the Multi-Shot attack, all three arrows crit’d for ten times their normal damage as the player’s lifeless body crumpled between the Warrior and the Rogues. As the remaining three spun back around to face her, Jodi had another arrow nocked and ready as she called out in a gruff voice.
“I can bring you in warm… Or I can bring you in cold,” Jodi couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that split her lips, “which will it be?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, two system messages flashed before her eyes.
Congratulations! You have earned a bounty from the city of Delonshire for Gougeous Syndicate. To collect your reward, speak with the Captain Miya Faelwen at the city’s garrison.
Congratulations! You have earned a bounty from the city of Delonshire for Lamaraldor Syndicate. To collect your reward, speak with the Captain Miya Faelwen at the city’s garrison.
Mentally dismissing the messages, her eyes focused back on the trio ahead of her.
“Do you know who the fuck we are?” Snufu snapped, as he glared at Jodi like she was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Before either one of them could say more, a commotion further down the street from where they’d run from caught everyone’s attention. A quick glance beyond them let Jodi know that it was a large group of city guards hurrying towards them. Knowing what she’d seen without even looking, Snufu continued with a snarl. “You might want to think this through, little girl, because I doubt you want to have The Syndicate as your enemy.”
What a complete and utter cocksucker, Jodi thought, as she gave the trio a smug look. It was even better when one of the Rogues whispered a little too loud into Snufu’s ear that she was part of The Revenants. Obviously, the name meant something to him since his face paled at the message. Doing her best to act cool, her hundred-yard stare didn’t even flinch as she said in her best gravelly tone.
“That’s not saying much,” Jodi barely held in her giggles at the Mandalorian act she was putting on, “especially from a group of chump monkeys that I keep killing every time I see them.” As if to emphasize her point, the trio flinched at the pop of displaced air that came from behind them as Fiona let out a short roar. That seemed to take the wind out of their sails as she did her best to keep her face deadpanned. “Trust me when I say, I plan to get the bounty on your heads one way or another.”
“Halt in the name of the Delonshire Guard!” A strong female voice shouted out from the head of a group of twenty-one guards that came running up.
The trio put their hands up in the universal sign of surrender as Jodi cast an Identify on the lead woman, Captain Miya Faelwen, level 42 Swordswoman. She’d heard that name somewhere before, Jodi thought, as she racked her brains while the guards went about securing the prisoners. Taking a glance back at Jodi and the two dead bodies at the boys’ feet, Miya turned back to the trio and shook her head in disgust.
“Snufu, PunkuGood, and Shankolots,” Miya said, eyeing each player individually. “Attacking a guest of the city of Delonshire, are you gentlemen looking to lose another level for your crimes?”
“Fuck y-” PunkuGood began to snarl, only to have Snufu cut him off with a hard elbow to the gut.
“We didn’t do anything to this, little bitch,” Snufu huffed in a barely concealed snarl, as a grin came to the Captain of the Guard’s face.
“Only because she thoroughly kicked your butts, I bet,” Miya said in amused tone, as both men frowned. “But, then again, that’s to be expected by a Revenant, is it not?” The trio glared at her words, refusing to take the bait as her grin widened. “I’ll have to thank Lord Ironwolf once again for showing us how to keep you gentlemen in line.” With that, she nodded to the troopers that had taken control of the players. “Take the newfar to their usual cells.”
It was curious to Jodi that even though the guys were pissed off, it was like they didn’t dare make too much of a fuss. That made Jodi wonder if there wasn’t something more going on with the punishment that the city guards could hand out for bad behavior that wasn’t listed in the Emergency Hot Fixes that had come out the last time she’d logged in. That was when her mind put together the name Lord Ironwolf and a certain Captain Miya Faelwen from the forums. Her flurry of thoughts were interrupted as the other woman addressed her directly.
“We appreciate your help with catching those outlaws, but it’s nothing less than expected from a member of the House of Kayden,” Miya said, as a series of system messages popped open before Jodi’s eyes.
Congratulations! You have earned a bounty from the city of Delonshire for Snufu Sevenfive. To collect your reward, speak with the Captain Miya Faelwen at the city’s garrison.
Congratulations! You have earned a bounty from the city of Delonshire for Shankolots Syndicate. To collect your reward, speak with the Captain Miya Faelwen a
t the city’s garrison.
Congratulations! You have earned a bounty from the city of Delonshire for PunkuGood Syndicate. To collect your reward, speak with the Captain Miya Faelwen at the city’s garrison.
Congratulations! For successfully taking down five outlaws, you have earned the title of Bounty Hunter. Plus 5% boost to damage and defense when fighting against outlaws. Plus 1% to all collected bounties.
It was hard not to read everything while trying to keep track of the conversation with the NPC. Before she knew it, Jodi had lost the fight as her eyes glazed over to quickly read through the multiple prompts. Listening with half an ear, Jodi silently cheered her first title of Bounty Hunter. It didn’t get much cooler than that, she excitedly thought, loving the whole Bounty Hunter concept that The World had initiated. Dismissing the system messages, Jodi refocused on the NPC woman only to realize she must have missed a good portion of what was being said, because the next thing she knew the Captain of the Guard was more or less excusing herself.
“Just swing by the garrison and we’ll get you situated with your reward for taking those guys down,” Miya said with a curious expression on her face, before officially ending the discussion. “Otherwise, until we meet again.”
“Pardon me,” Jodi apologetically said, stopping the NPC woman as she went to turn away. Seeing the flash of annoyance in the Captain’s eyes, she hurriedly continued in a rush of words. “I’m sorry for zoning off while you were talking, but,” she paused trying to pick her words carefully, “would you mind helping me to understand why the city guards of Delonshire are so enamored with Startum Ironwolf? I thought he slaughtered a bunch of play … err … I mean people here not too long ago?”
