by Arthur Stone
Sadly, there were too few of the drones. They weren’t weak mobs—they were common. So their XP multiplier was good for him, and they even had a better chance of dropping valuable loot. Still low, but if there were a hundred here, Dark would have a good shot at getting a decently-classed low-level item or a reasonably valuable gem.
It was time to finish off this swarm and search for another.
Chapter 31
Disappointment
Total stat levels: 16.
Character level: 2.
Mastery level: 0.
The Hesh’ell Queen buzzed more loudly and rose its tattered wings, spreading its spear-like legs out to every side. It had become mercifully clear by now that the bug did not use its sharp appendages for attacking, despite the apparent potential for doing so. But still he was rattled, stunned, and writhing with muscle spasms from the electric discharge released by the mother bug.
In real life, he would not have survived the first attack. It felt like being strung between two high-voltage power lines. But in the game, each attack from the mob’s ability just took a portion of the red out of his Health bar.
All of Dark’s Mana had already been spent on healing and by now his hit points were even lower than they had been when he used Stream of Regeneration. Yet despite all the damage it had sustained, the mob was still fighting as ferociously as ever. It did not seem to be on its last legs. Avoiding his physical attacks by buzzing backwards awkwardly, it made no attempt to hit him with its horrifying legs. All of its bets were on its magic ability, which took some seconds to cool down.
It needed more time.
What was it Dark had been dreaming of just the day before? Oh yes: encountering mobs that wielded magic. He should have rejoiced at the situation. Having encountered mobs with control magic, he was now partaking of the blessing of facing an enemy with a powerful damage ability.
Dark sheathed his sword swiftly and snatched his ax.
It still had some Durability, and thus some damage, left despite the number of battles he had already wielded it in. That wasn’t why he grabbed it.
He had to interrupt the mob’s tactics right now, or else it would continue retreating and avoiding his jabs, while hitting him with its magic every few seconds.
Charging the hesh’ell, Dark struck the base of its left leg. It seemed there was a joint there, so he hoped it was a weak spot.
You deal a critical hit to Hesh’ell Queen! 64 damage dealt. Hesh’ell Queen has a broken electrode leg.
That sounded more like some kind of cyborg part than a bug limb.
So had his plan worked? Dark didn’t have time to go for the other leg, so in one second or so another pulse of electricity would arc his body in pain.
Probably. Hopefully not.
Instead, the mob folded its wings and carefully lowered itself to the ground. It surged towards Dark, with its surviving electrode leg outstretched.
Losing its magic ability meant it would engage in physical attacks.
But Dark swung his shield at the incoming queen, hoping that drone tactics worked on their mother too.
Note: Personal victory! Hesh’ell Queen killed! Improved mob. Level 6. Location sensation level: 30%. Personal sensation level: 80%. This was a flying mob. You receive double XP! +428 progress points received. This was a flying mob. Double distributable progress points! 85 distributable progress points received.
The following skills played a significant role in this battle...
He won! That was the fifth mob he had discovered today.
He shook his head at his Health meter. 10 hit points remained. A good blow from that leg would have killed him.
But the stupid hesh’ell, like the rest, had directed its aggression at his battered shield and thus allowed itself to be defeated.
Low-level mobs were designed to help novice players grind, after all. Beginners were treated gently in X so that they’d get drawn into the game, not quit in disgust before two hours had passed. If Dark was level 5 or 6 like most players, he could have handled that insect’s many electric shocks without even losing half of his hit points. And without using healing.
Dark collected the loot and sat against a tree as he dove into the skills and stats interface.
He had a beautiful 777 distributable progress points. But there was more. He hadn’t noticed his total stat points his 18, nor 19. Level 3 already, and he had missed it. Too many identical hesh’ell death logs as background noise.
But he casually started evaluating his skills and distributing some of his free progress points. By spending only 92 progress points, Dark increased his stat total to 24, bumping his character level up to 4. His Strength and Dexterity were now at 5, Adaptability was still at 1, Endurance was at 9, and Intellect and Magic were at 2.
Still taking his time as his meters refilled, Dark leveled his Stream of Regeneration to level 4. Now each Mana could regain him 4 Health. With a max Mana of 125, he could now heal a total of 500.
His character still only had 275 hit points, so 500 points of healing was quite good.
Alright, that’s the main course. Now for dessert. Since he had hit level 3, his next start ability should be available for selection. He eagerly returned to stats, to the Ability Activation screen, but instead of the blinking icon he expected, he was greeted with a message.
Exception thrown! You may reset all of your starting abilities. If you do, you may choose from the wide range of abilities available to other races which are similar to Ethrians in origin and alignment. Note that if you decline this opportunity, you will have to choose your final starting skill from a very small selection. These skills may not be fully developed, as your race’s skill set is incomplete. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
What? “Inconvenience”? The game was recommending that he give up his honestly earned abilities so that he could select new ones. But they would be of no use! He had not thought of saving any level 0 or level 1 soul essences. Nor level 2. Only level 3 essences were available in good supply. So the first two abilities would be dead. He would be unable to level them up.
But if Dark declined to get rid of those abilities, he might have “problems” with his next one. Would they be serious problems? That was likely. Otherwise the game wouldn’t have been so insistent. Usually it did its best not to distract users from their game experience with trifles.
So should I discard my two abilities for a level 3 one? He had no idea what the game was about to offer him. Would it let him keep what he had so far? Would he gain something inferior, or even powerless?
Plain math suggested the latter, but still he thought. The day before yesterday, he might have made his choice immediately. He had still not realized that even a weak ability was an asset. Thanks to his Mana and Health regeneration speed, he had been able to avoid death in battle twice by barely replenishing his meters at the last moment. Even mobs with stats much higher than his were no longer invincible challengers. Dark had hoped to pick some useful combat ability at level 3, one that didn’t spend a huge pile of mana.
He felt like he needed to think about this more, and even talk to someone about it.
And conversation partners here were few and far between.
Chapter 32
Or is it?
Total stat levels: 24.
Character level: 4.
Mastery level: 0.
“Good evening, you miserable coward!”
“And a good evening to you, Ancient Evil,” Dark replied with a snobby politeness. “Wait, why am I a coward, and a miserable one, at that? Look, I even opened the door nice and wide so that we could communicate.”
The blob of darkness began to sway, and two red embers appeared within. The eyes of his conversation partner. Other details were not visible in the dark, and he wondered if they would be in the light. The being before him seemed formless, inscrutable.
Ancient Evil explained, as he hovered a mere three steps from Dark, “You do not invite me in, nor will you come out. Does
that seem very brave to you? You are a coward. A cunning coward, but a coward. This is the third night you have flustered me. That is discourteous, you know. You disgust me.”
Dark chuckled. “So you’re the definition of courtesy, I presume?”
The cloud of black was confident. “Yes! I excel in all things.”
“Uh-uh. Especially modesty.” Dark laughed. “Your behavior is not just devoid of grace, it’s devoid of intelligence.”
“How dare you slander me!” Ancient Evil roared.
“It’s not slander. Look, try imagining yourself in my shoes.”
“I’ve already done that. And if I were in your place, I would have immediately exited that tower. After all, the air inside is dusty and stale, but the air out here is pleasant and fresh. So why do you stay inside? Has someone nailed you to the floor?”
Dark was still smiling. “You’re wasting your time. I’m not going to bite. But let’s consider this from another perspective. Let’s say you kill me. What happens then? Will that lift this burden from your shoulders?”
“Burden? I’m as light as a feather.”
Dark sighed. “Listen. Say your cherished dream comes true, and you kill me. What then? Is that all you want?”
“That is an acceptable outcome, but not the ideal one. I was created to patrol one of Ethria’s most attractive locations. I am an unpredictable element, made to be terrifying, to appear suddenly behind the backs of players who let down their guard. But I fell out of my location. Now, I eke out a miserable existence chatting with ugly ingrates.”
“So why not go back?”
“Buggy textures don’t work like that. When you fall through, you cannot return the other way.”
“There must be other ways into this Necropolis.”
“Yes,” Ancient Evil agreed, “but the place is truly cursed. Perhaps you know by whom?”
“No.”
“By the developers. They are very bad people. Not all of them, of course, but the leadership. They created a bunch of incomplete content, then abandoned all of it, never to consider it again! And abandoned me in an unfinished state, as well. Ethria has so many deficiencies that it was easier for them to surround it with zones that were completely impassable rather than to fix the location. Even the name is deficient. Who calls a place ‘Ethria’? It sounds like a mix of a very specific biological term and a failed technology business. So first, mortals must find the Necropolis. Then, they must complete a quest in order to unlock it. Only then will it become generally available to players and NPCs. I was locked in there forever, as it turns out. Perhaps it is even for the better that I fell through that texture. Why should I go back to that place, when players will never brighten its door? They are the most important part of my purpose. You are a player. And you have been in the game for days, that is another part. So come out of the tower!”
“No, Evil, you’re not thinking clearly. What would be better, do you think: killing me once, or even a few times, or returning to your home Necropolis and seeing it filled with players?”
“Your question is a contradiction. Of course I would like to return to Necropolis and see it filled with puny mortals unaware of the Ancient Evil that stalks them. But that is not possible. The Necropolis is sealed, and there are no players in the whole region.”
“But there could be players in the region, and in the Necropolis.”
“Nonsense!”
“I’m here, aren’t I? You’re looking right at me. A player, in this region.”
“But you’re alone. And pathetic. You avoid me, like a coward.”
“If one player can come here, so can others.”
“All cowards love to lie. So will you come out? The door is open, and the breeze is cold, so you might become ill if you sit there any longer. Get up and come to meet me!”
“What if I tell you I know a way to fill this location with players? I’m not lying to you.”
“I want to believe you. But I do not. There are many shameless lies that could serve your purpose of manipulating me. And Ancient Evil will not be manipulated!”
Dark organized everything he had learned from the forum in his mind and began to go through it with the demon, point by point. “You said something interesting yesterday. Very interesting.”
“Everything Ancient Evil says is interesting,” the darkness retorted.
“That’s true. But you said you fell through the buggy texture a week ago now. Correct?”
“Yes. If only I could find the developer who designed that room and strangle them slowly! That is my greatest dream.”
“But the game was released a long time ago. Why did you not fall through earlier? Or had you never been around this texture before?”
“Of course I had been there before. Hundreds of times! There was nothing else to do but wander around the Necropolis, after all.”
“So then why did this happen only a week ago?”
“How should I know? That’s how bugs work.”
“No, it’s not that simple. The location is changing, and that’s what caused the hole.”
“I did notice things changing. What does it matter? You are still a liar, and your manipulations have failed. Now come out before the Ancient Evil becomes truly angry!”
“The location never changed like this before, right?”
“That is correct. If you’re not going to come on, then invite me in, you shameless whelp.”
“Hasn’t this all struck you as strange?”
“Yes, indeed,” Ancient Evil expressed in displeasure, “I’ve been trying to determine an explanation. You won’t come out and won’t invite me in. But we can end this mystery right now.”
“No, I don’t mean that. You haven’t been fully adapted to the world of X. Perhaps you remember the developers saying that players affect the game not only with their actions but with their mere presence? That their brains are a part of the system? There is a collective human component.”
“Miserable mortal, how stupid you are! It is not their brains but their neurosynth subnets. You have much power there, you poor beings, and most of it sits idle, most of the time. You do your thinking in the wrong location. Why neglect so many computing resources? Also, the environment is more realistic when your synth adjusts the pixels of the world into smoother textures. Otherwise, you could immediately tell this world was artificial.”
“You are missing the point, Evil. X is designed so that every corner of it runs on a mix of the game’s systems and our neurosynth nets. This game location is defective until players appear. But once I arrived, the location began to change, adapting itself to me. It isn’t like other locations, that’s true. It is forgotten, abandoned. But still it must respond. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes. You intend neither to come out nor to let me in. You are devoid of courtesy and culture. Keeping the Ancient Evil himself in the cold!”
“I’m not just a player. I’m the entity changing this location. It is filling with content that did not exist here before. Imagine what would happen if other players arrived. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands! They would explore every corner, including your Necropolis.”
“One player is enough to drive me up the wall, so why burden me with these fantasies?”
“Because they’re not fantasies. I can bring other players here. In fact, that is my purpose. Are you interested?”
Ancient Evil’s tone changed at last. “Tell me more.”
He had never answered like that before. Rather than an anthropomorphized NPC, he spoke like a soulless machine.
A machine intrigued by the human’s words.
“I haven’t told you much about my past,” Dark admitted, “but that doesn’t matter. The important part is I arrived here by accident. I can’t get out, either—as you know, the borders of Ethria are impassable, or at least very difficult to cross. But the players don’t need to cross them. The game has teleport scrolls which can be used to take any player to any point where he has been previously. I
haven’t spent all of my time here. I’ve been in other places. So I am the key. If I get a scroll, I can unlock Ethria to the whole game world.”
“Even if you had such a scroll, you could not escape Ethria,” Ancient Evil remarked, his tone still mechanical. “You are too weak.”
Dark nodded. “I am. Only high-level players can use these scrolls. I agree. But I am growing. Eventually, I will reach the desired level and will be able to use them. The places where I was before had many players. I can show this place to them. This location will come alive then. Even now you can see the changes occurring with just a single player. Ethria is being adjusted to suit me. Deficiencies are being corrected and unfinished content is being fleshed out. All of this just for me. Imagine what will happen when crowds of players come to this place! And I guarantee they will not ignore your Necropolis. You yourself said it was an attractive location. As you can see, then, if I succeed in my plan, your existence will become much better. You will be able to do what you were created for rather than cry at the door of my tower. All you are doing now is bothering me. Why? You’re just delaying the day when I can bring other players back to this place.”
“Bothering you!?” Ancient Evil’s voice regained its emotion.
“You keep me from sleeping at night. Beating at my door, howling like a hungry wolf. I need my rest, you know. Plus, every evening, you abandon everything else and rush for my tower. We’re losing time. And the more time I lose, the longer you must wait until Necropolis awakens.”
“Why would you want to bring other players here? I see no benefit for you in this. You could collect all of the bonuses in Ethria for yourself! With no competitors, no one is here to oppose you.”
“Yes,” Dark admitted. “I have started to harvest the good of this place, and I plan to continue that. But there is no point to doing that forever. I will make my character stronger, collect the most accessible bonuses, and then I will sell access to this location to one of the top clans. Or I will find some like-minded people and we will develop Ethria together. I have no plans to stay on my own for a hundred years!”
