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John paid the necessary price and took out the NorthStar Compass. He used it to check the location of Heaven’s Shield, and when he got his bearings he returned it to Void Storage. It was pretty much a straight line and he began to set off in that direction, keeping his eye out for NPCs and players. He found that he was in a range of hills, and as he began to descend them he soon started to hear the sounds of gunfire and battle.
He crouched down and moved forward cautiously, using the rugged landscape as cover. Coming to the end of the hills, he took cover behind some rocks and looked out towards where the fighting sounded heaviest. In the distance, he saw a group of Holy Seal engaged in battle with a cluster of Enlightened gunslingers. The gunslingers were riding mechanical horses similar to the rides he and Kate had used to get into Seven Paths territory and launching volleys of gunfire at the oncoming knights who fought on foot. Despite the apparent disparity between the two opposing factions, the knights seemed mostly impervious to the bullets and John saw flashes of gold appear around many of the warriors as the Enlightened attack seemed to trigger some kind of magical shielding that they possessed.
“For honor and glory!” yelled one of the knights wearing a magnificent suit of armor of gleaming steel worked through with exquisite gold filigree. He rushed at the nearest gunslinger, hacking at the legs of the player’s horse with his huge broadsword. Each blow caused sparks to flash and the blade seemed to be sheathed in flame. The mechanical horse let out a distressed whinny as its front legs were sliced clean off by the powerful blade. The gunslinger screamed a string of swear words as he toppled forward over his ride and landed on the charred landscape. The knight howled in victory and set upon the Enlightened without mercy.
The brutal attack spurred on the rest of the knights; they threw themselves at the other gunslingers, despite having significantly inferior gear compared to their gung-ho leader. The battle became a savage slugfest as the knights attempted to bring down the horses while the gunslingers pummeled them with their pistols and rifles.
John—remaining perfectly still in his hiding place—watched the battle with keen interest, noting the gear both sides were wielding. The casualties were beginning to pile up on both sides, and John considered moving closer to check what he could salvage. The lead knight though was holding his own, chopping through gunslingers with wild abandon.
“Glory! Death! Honor!” he screamed hysterically in a distinctively upper-class British accent. “Show no mercy! Show no quarter! Death to all murderers and thieves! Glory! Glory! Glory!”
Geez! That guy really got into the role and that broadsword of his was cutting through horses and Enlightened players like they were made of cardboard. Though he was in the very thick of the action, he didn’t seem to be taking much damage. John had a nasty feeling that if the knight caught him searching through the belongings of any nearby dead players, he would take it upon himself to extract retribution, and John wasn’t sure if he’d be able to talk his way out of being gutted. That sword of his sure looked sweet, and it was sure to be worth some coin. Sadly, it seemed like getting hold of it was not going to happen, and he didn’t want to hang around, watching the battle, in case he attracted unwanted attention. Fortunately, it was raging in the opposite direction to where he wanted to go, so, getting slowly to his feet he carried on with his journey to Heaven’s Shield.
John had gone a little ways when he spotted a prostrate figure a few yards ahead. He sharked in on it, seeing it was the corpse of an Enlightened player. His eyes lit up when he saw the fancy-looking rifle the man was clutching in his dead hand, and he hurried over and crouched down over the fallen avatar. He reached out and snatched the weapon from the player’s dead fingers.
Item: LVL 76 Silver Blaze Rifle
Currently Equipped: NONE
Minimum LVL: 76
Durability: 83%
Faction Specific: The Enlightened
Soul-Bound Item: Yes
↑ Attack + 240
↑ Defense + 215
Current LVL: 05
Speed: 100/100
Attack: 85/85
Defense: 90/90
When equipped, the Silver Blaze Rifle improves line of sight by 6% and increases chance of a killing shot by 12%.
Must be LVL 76 or higher and a member of The Enlightened to equip this item.
You do not meet the requirements to equip this item.
John ran his fingers along the weapon, impressed with its sleekness and how comfortable it felt in his hands, and decided to put it in Void Storage. He noticed the gun belt of black leather around the player’s waist and unbuckled it.
Item: LVL 76 Silver Blaze Rifle Gun Belt
Currently Equipped: NONE
Minimum LVL: 76
Durability: 96%
Faction Specific: No
Soul-Bound Item: No
(Silver Blaze Bullets Remaining 14/20 Damage Capacity + 5 – 7%)
Current LVL: 05
Speed: 100/100
Attack: 85/85
Defense: 90/90
Gun Belt for the Silver Blaze Rifle, capacity for 20 Silver Blaze bullets.
You do not meet the requirements to equip this item.
“I’ll have that too, thank you very much,” John said. He removed the belt and slipped it into his backpack. There was also a saddlebag strapped on the corpse’s back. Rather than go to the trouble of trying to pull the bag free, John touched the back of the dead player’s neck to see what else he had on him.
Consumable Inventory
Chicory Root x 6
Loose Black Powder x 5
Salted Meat x 7
Well Water x 3
There wasn’t much there that interested John, so he didn’t bother taking anything else. He browsed at the player’s outfit, but it looked pretty similar to what he was wearing and it wasn’t worth stripping the body just for an extra set of clothes or to sell on. He would settle on the rifle and the belt. He could sell them on to the Black Powder Boys if he couldn’t find another buyer willing to pay more.
Done with his salvaging, John set off along the desolate landscape. It wasn’t long before he came across two Holy Seal players in light armor sprawled on the ground, along with an Empire of the Seven Paths swordswoman wearing a dark blue colored tunic and pants.
John went over to investigate, starting with the Holy Seal players. Both were armed with short swords which were a bit too awkward to carry, and one had a large kite shield similar in design to the other one he’d found during his first day in the game.
Item: LVL 85 Templar Kite Shield
Currently Equipped: NONE
Minimum LVL: 85
Durability: 56%
Faction Specific: The Holy Seal
Soul-Bound Item: Yes
↑ Attack + 140
↑ Defense + 260
Current LVL: 05
Speed: 100/100
Attack: 85/85
Defense: 90/90
Item is used primarily as an off-hand shield, but can also inflict melee damage.
Must be LVL 85 or higher and a member of The Holy Seal to equip this item.
You do not meet the requirements to equip this item.
As John was heading into Holy Seal territory, he thought it best to have a collection of Holy Seal weapons to sell. He placed the shield in Void Storage and touched the back of one of the Holy Seal warriors’ neck to access the consumable inventory.
Consumable Inventory
Ale x 5
Prayer of Boost Swordsmanship
Prayer of Sacred Healing
Prayer of Wild Frenzy
Salted Meat x 7
Scroll of
Renewed Vigor x 1
Scroll of Fleet Foot x3
John searched the body and found the scrolls and prayers, and decided to take them. A quick look at the other player’s inventory wielded even less of any use, apart from three regular health potions and two major restore ones which he pocketed for himself.
He moved over to the Seven Paths player. The player had a pair of elegant fighting knives with ornate hilts carved to resemble snarling dragon heads. John immediately liked the look of them and slipped them into his pack. The player’s other weapon which had fallen from her hand when she fell was a hefty Jian sword with a sturdy guard of black leather. John picked it up to examine more closely.
Item: LVL 77 Two-Handed Jian Sword (Spell Eater Upgrade)
Currently Equipped: NONE
Minimum LVL: 77
Durability: 69%
Faction Specific: The Empire of the Seven Paths
Soul-Bound Item: Yes
↑ Attack + 542
↑ Defense + 480
Current LVL: 05
Speed: 100/100
Attack: 85/85
Defense: 90/90
Two-Handed Great Sword enchanted with Spell Eater Upgrade - each successful blow to a magic user opponent drains 6 points from their mana pool.
Must be LVL 77 or higher to equip this item.
You do not meet the requirements to equip this item.
John placed the sword into Void Storage. Enchanted or enhanced weapons were sure to fetch a higher price than regular gear. An idea suddenly struck him at that moment. If he could use his Analyst ability to make his own specially designed equipment, he could charge a lot more than selling standard gear, and if he was the only supplier of items and weapons that were in high demand he could make his fortune in no time.
With the sword stored away, he noticed the traveling satchel the swordswoman strapped to her belt and checked her consumable inventory. She had nothing of interest apart from one item that caught his eye. He opened the satchel and took out the small glass vial containing a thick white liquid.
Item: Milk of the Twelve Eyed Moon Cat
Minimum LVL: N/A
Durability: N/A
Faction Specific: No
Soul-Bound Item: No
Powerful narcotic ingested orally that enhances the taker’s perceptions and allows them to commune with spirits.
Reduces Health by 25%
Reduces Speed by 50%
Reduces Attack by 50%
Reduces Charisma by 40%
Reduces Weapon skill by 30%
Increases Mana by 10%
60% increase in possibility of communing with disembodied spirits
Effects last 18 hours
John was uncomfortable with experimenting with drugs or anything else that could impair his abilities either in the game world or the real one, but he figured there would be players interested in trying it to speak to the supernatural beings that inhabited EWO, so he placed it in his backpack just in case. Salvaging done, he set off for Heaven’s Shield again.
In the distance, he could see more fights going on between various faction players. Most of the battles were between small groups of between two to six opponents. There were no more bodies to be searched nearby, so John pressed on.
A range of hills came into sight in the direction he was heading, and a loud explosion came from beyond it. John could hear the sounds of a large battle raging and pressed on toward the hills. A narrow path moved up toward the sound of the fighting, and John followed it, moving cautiously until he crested the hill he was climbing. On the other side was a wide valley where a huge clockwork town was stalking across the land. More explosions came as the cannons on its walls roared at the large army of Empire of Seven Path swordsmen that had assembled at the other end of the valley. John saw a bright flash of mana from their position and five sleek Chinese style dragons with glittering green and red scales appeared in midair above the Empire forces and surged toward the town. The dragons bellowed with fury, and unleashed streams of fires at the town’s defenses. Several cannons melted under the onslaught, and a number of the players on the walls scrambled for cover. The dragons swooped down and launched another attack on the town’s spider-like legs. The town shuddered to a halt and the legs sagged as the flames licked at the metal. Huge gouts of steam surged from the joints in the mechanism.
A cheer went up from the Seven Paths players, and a group of about five hundred of them rushed towards the underside of the town and began throwing up grappling hooks onto the maze of gantries and walkways that ran along its bottom. They began snaking up the ropes at an alarming speed as they attempted to breech the town from below. As John watched, hatchways began opening all over the under surface of the town and Enlightenment players poured molten lead onto the walkways to repel the invaders. Gunfire split the air and John saw the flash of steel as the Empire warriors clashed hard with the defenders.
Up above, the dragons were now bombarding the buildings on the upper surface of the town with their fiery blasts. John watched the creatures with a mixture of fascination and excitement, impressed by their destructive capabilities. From defensive towers gunfire erupted as the town fought back and John saw a glint of silver light come from a tall spindly tower made of metal that sat at the far end of the town. The tower crackled with electrical energy, and a huge cobalt blue lightning bolt shot out from its spiked tip straight at the nearest dragon. The behemoth bellowed as the bolt hit, consuming it with deadly energy. The gleaming beautiful scales blackened and it disintegrated into black ash in a matter of seconds.
The other two dragons circled in the air and began launching fire balls at the metallic tower, seeking to destroy it before it could charge up again. John watched the aerial battle a little while longer and then started to descend. He kept close to the hill range and moved eastward, planning to take a circuitous route around the fighting. He was sure there would be rich pickings for the taking from fallen players, but he didn’t want to get caught up in the battle. His chances of surviving were less than none and it angered him a little that he wasn’t a high enough level to hold his own on the battlefield.
He had to remind himself that he was here purely to make money and not to enjoy the action and adventure of a virtual reality simulator, though he was surprised at how easy it was to get caught up in the gaming aspect and the world in general. Perhaps if he got out of this mess he was in and obtained his brand new identity, he would return to the game purely for recreational purposes. That prospect seemed a long way off at the moment and he fixed his mind on the business at hand. These types of games were for thrill seeking kids like Kate and Mark, not a calculating assassin like him. He had to keep his priorities straight.
Hugging the rugged landscape, he made his way around the rear of the clockwork town. Another huge explosion came from its direction and he looked over to see its legs buckle. The structure tottered dangerously forward and the whole town began to slowly descend to the ground at a sharp angle. John heard cheers and screams rise up from the settlement in equal ferocity. He shook his head, amazed by how brutal this place was and picked his way through a narrow defile of jagged stones, the hills on one side now hiding him from the battlefield. When the ground started to rise again and he followed the defile upwards, he came to a gap in the hills and spotted a huge city of grey stone spread out about ten kilometers away from his position. The city was encompassed by a grim curtain wall and packed full of half-timbered houses and stone buildings. A foreboding castle straight out of Medieval Europe stood proud and majestic in the center of the city.
That must be Heaven’s Shield, John thought to himself. It was exactly how he imagined it. The only thing now was how to get inside without any problems. He’d been turning over in his mind how exactly he was going to be able to do that with no real plan of action forming, but as he looked down at the main gates leading into the city, he saw that it might not be as bi
g a challenge as he suspected. The gates were standing wide open, and on the flat apron of ground in front of the entrance was a large encampment. Conical-roofed tents were arranged in neat lines and brightly colored banners fluttered in the breezes. Hundreds of Holy Seal players milled about the camp, dressed in medieval outfits and armor, laughing and chatting brightly. On a raised platform on the left hand side of the camp, there was a large banquet table where a group of players dressed in fine robes and flowing gowns were eating and drinking and watching the jousting tourney that was going on beneath their position. There were also acrobats, dancers and fire eaters performing for the crowd, and a group of NPC minstrels were nearby playing a jaunty tune. A carnival atmosphere pervaded the whole scene.
John drank in the spectacle, realizing that amongst all these people he could move around without being noticed. He remained cautious though, and kept the hood of his cloak low over his face. As he neared the outskirts of the camp, a large group of knights—riding powerful armor-plated destrier horses—thundered out of the gates and galloped through the wide pathway that ran through the center of the camp. Players moved out of the way and cheered the knights as they went past. John noted that they were heading in the direction of the battle between the Empire and the clockwork town.
“Hot pie, sire?” a grubby-looking boy holding a tray of hot pies accosted him. The boy had a nasty collection of boils on his face and brown teeth. John realized he was an NPC and backed away.
“No.”
The boy nodded idiotically and ambled over to a girl in dark red leather armor and offered her one of his pies. She took two and noticed John. A look of curiosity crossed her face, but before she could initiate any kind of contact, he moved away and lost himself in the maze of tents.
Merchant of Death Page 12
