by Pavel Kornev
A miss!
The ghoul swatted at me with its fearsome claws but didn’t manage to penetrate the chainmail. I struck again but there was no result. It was even worse than that — the claws of my opponent sliced through my arm and cut it to the bone. Thankfully, the damage was not high and I was protected from the corpse poison by my immunity.
A moment later, Garth stabbed the hook on his staff into the ghoul and literally tore it in half.
Garth Deathblade has killed the Old Ghoul.
Experience received: +55 [844/1000]
You have gained a level!
Level 6! I used the stat point I’d received to raise my Agility and caught the thoughtful eye of the necromancer.
“The experience is split between the two of us?” he frowned, but then waved his hand and strode out of the graveyard. Four ghouls ambled along after him, whining quietly because of the bright sunlight.
“The ghouls won’t last long!” I warned as I caught up with the sorcerer.
“I won’t be able to hold onto them long myself!” Garth replied angrily and drunk an Elixir of Mana to restore the Energy he’d spent on the spell. “It’ll be fine. They won’t have time to rot. The skeleton dungeon is nearby.”
A skeleton dungeon? Well, if the experience keeps trickling in, why not?
We met several other players on the road to the cave. Some looked at Garth with respect and others with apprehension. No one paid any attention to me. Just another of the undead under the control of a necromancer and that was all.
There was no one by the entrance to the dungeon — the players would usually descend there in groups of ten to fifteen people, as there was no other way to get to the lower levels afterwards.
“You’re going first!” Garth ordered.
I remembered about the neutrality of the undead towards me so I made no argument. The ghouls had also been quite severely burned by the sun, so they needed to be preserved.
“If one of us dies, we’ll meet by the graveyard!” the sorcerer warned.
“All right, necromancer,” I replied as I went ahead of him to go down the stairs.
The darkness was kept at bay by the burning torches on the walls and the floor was flagged with cracked stone slabs. A Skeleton Spearman stood at the far end of the corridor by the entrance to the hall. I fearlessly walked right up to it and tried to hit it with the morning star on the top of its skull but missed unexpectedly. The skeleton stepped back and stabbed out with its spear.
Damned creature!
I caught hold of the shaft to prevent my opponent from using its weapon and started to smash it over the head. Most of the attacks missed, but I eventually managed to knock off its helmet as a ghoul appeared by my side and broke the skeleton’s spine with a swing of its clawed hand.
Screwing up my face from the unpleasant feeling in my chest as it had been pierced by the spearhead, I stepped over the pile of bones and got completely shocked by the surprise. Ten Skeleton Crossbowmen awaited their uninvited guests among the stone pillars. I retreated, but my plague-ridden corpse moved slowly. Way too slowly...
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three or four crossbow bolts immediately sent me to be regenerated.
DARKNESS, ROCKS and the nearby splash of water.
I got out of the pile of rocks and curled up in the niche, unable to rise to my feet. The pain in my chest soon went away, but the durability of the chainmail hauberk which had been pierced by many bolts obviously didn’t come back. One or two hits and I would have no armor anymore.
When I scrolled the game log back a little I discovered a notification that Garth Deathblade had left the game. Suddenly, I heard the ringing sound of chains and a loud thud. A moment later, the body of yet another simpleton that had visited the ruins on the hill splashed into the river, but it turned out that the one that got caught by the trap was a truly lucky devil. Judging by his loud cursing, the player had enough Health to survive the attack without their heavy armor dragging them down to the bottom.
There was a series of squelching sounds as the dim light became even darker and the lithe figure of a dark elf appeared in the opening.
Iss El-Morten, Drow. Rogue, Level 10.
“Unbelievable!” the dark elf exclaimed and rushed straight towards the chest.
Without looking around the dungeon, he immediately fell to his knees in front of the lock and started to dig around inside it using his picks. As soon the click of an open mechanism rang out, I stepped out of the niche and moved towards the thief. He strained to open the massive lid of the chest and only noticed my presence when we were but a couple of paces away from each other. I decided against attacking with the morning star as I was not at all sure of my own accuracy, grabbing the drow instead and dragging him down the dark flooded stairway instead of the floor. We fell into the water and rolled down the stairs into the depths.
The rogue twisted around and stabbed me in the hip with a curved dagger, while I activated my Deathgrip. The dark elf jerked around but didn’t manage to get free, so he started to feverishly stab me with his blade. He only managed to take away half of my Health before his own Health bar shook and started to rapidly decrease.
Air. His lungs had run out of air!
The thief let go of his dagger and started to convulse, but I only gripped him tighter, preventing him from rising to the surface.
Player Iss El-Morten has been killed!
Experience: +259 [1103/1200]
You have gained a level!
Wow, I was already at level 7! It was far quicker to level on players than the puny local monsters.
I didn’t spend long choosing the stat to increase and raised Agility to five points. I took fifty silver coins and a pair of unidentified boots off the body, picked up the dagger that the rogue dropped and started to climb back up the flooded stairway.
I needed to get out of here as soon as possible. If I was the drow, I would hurry back immediately after regeneration to pay back my assailant and take the items I lost. The dungeon could no longer serve as a safe harbor.
The first thing I did was find the skull hidden among the ruins and then took the gold which had appeared in the wooden chest again. I was already heading for the exit, when I remembered about the opened chest. Its lid was wide open, I looked inside and took out a strange looking dagger — it was white and very light, carved out of the shard of a gigantic bone.
Bone Dagger
Damage against Skeletons: 500
Durability: single use
A quest item to use against the Skeleton Lord? Whatever, I would work it out later. Right now, I had to head to the graveyard. The necromancer could already be waiting for me there. That’s what I really wanted to believe.
4
GARTH WAS NOT at our meeting place. I wandered around the forest for a while, looking at the cemetery gates and then went deeper into the forest, planning to hide the skull in a hole of some kind. It was shady among the elm trees, so being resurrected there wouldn’t put me on the fringe of destruction even if I lost my cloak.
Annoyingly, a pair of boars decided to pick on me almost immediately and only the Aura of Fear helped me to avoid a battle with the grizzled beasts. I only managed to get away from them when my Energy had almost run out, so I decided to return to the graveyard.
The necromancer and I noticed each other at the same time. We received a system message.
You have met Garth Deathblade!
Continue with your quest? [Yes/No]
I confirmed that I was ready to carry out my obligations and then a new message appeared.
Garth Deathblade has chosen to continue your quest!
Garth Deathblade is your temporary ally.
“Has the message been sent, necromancer?” I demanded, encouraged by his decision.
Garth swept the hood back from his head, ran his fingers through his white hair and then suddenly asked, “Are you really stuck in the game or is this a joke from a bored admin?”
“What?” I was taken aback.
“I put the message through an online translator,” the necromancer replied. “Then I checked out the email address online. I worked out the country and city, dug around in the news...”
“Have you sent the message, necromancer?” I interrupted him “Yes or no?”
“I sent it, calm down,” Garth reassured me. “Immediately after I quit the game. There’s been no reply so far.”
“When was that?”
“Five hours ago.”
Damn! I cursed to myself, but also felt an immense sense of relief. My attorney knew that I was trapped in this game. They would get me out of here soon.
“Now then,” Garth continued, “I dug around in the local news and came across a story about a man that fell into a coma while playing. The Towers of Power tech support department stated that the user isn’t online and the issue was deliberate damage to the gaming equipment for which they are not liable. They left the victim in the capsule and transported him to a hospital. A military hospital, for some reason. Is that what they do where you come from?”
A military hospital? Did they really put him under guard? Or was there a mistake in the translation and they just put him into a normal prison hospital?
“In any case, if that person is you, there’s nothing to worry about. As long as the medical insurance is in place, they won’t take you off life support,” Garth told me in a casual tone of voice, as if we weren’t talking about me being in a life and death situation.
“They’ll get me out of here!”
The necromancer chuckled strangely and offered, “I’m prepared to listen to your story and give you some advice if you gather the ghouls. I have a quest to destroy a pack of wolves.”
“And what about the skeleton dungeon?” I asked, noticing that Garth was still at level 9.
“It’s too difficult to solo,” the mage grimaced. “So are you in, or are we parting ways? I can’t waste my time!”
“I’m in, necromancer,” I decided against refusing the offer. “I have three magic items, can you find out their properties?”
“What will I get out of it?” Garth chuckled.
“You can choose one and take it for yourself.”
“Let’s have a look, then.”
I gave the mage access to part of my inventory. The necromancer had no problem with the boots and the bracelet, but had to use a spell to identify the dagger.
Bracelet of Agility (part of a set: 1 of 2)
Agility: +1
Boots of Stealth
Stealth: +10%
Movement speed in stealth mode: +5%
Durability: 20
Shadow Dagger
Damage: 1-3
Critical damage: x3
Chance of causing critical damage: +10%
“The dagger is mine,” Garth chose the most valuable item, as expected.
I didn’t argue. I put the bracelet on my wrist, put on the boots and set off to the graveyard. Luring the ghouls from the graves presented no problems — I knocked over the headstones as usual and then called the mage over. He did his job well, managing to control all five monsters at the same time.
“The wolf pack’s lair is nearby,” Garth told me and asked, “So what is it you’re saying happened to you? How did you manage to get stuck here?”
I told him what happened.
“Wait,” Garth replied with surprise. “So it wasn’t a bug? This was done by a hacker?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s really shit, my friend. Now I understand why the Enslave Undead spell didn’t work. You’re basically a player in the body of an NPC!” Garth laughed, as if he had found the solution for a riddle that had eluded him. “What’s your name?”
“John,” I introduced myself using the English version of my name.
“John, do you have access to the log at the time of your murder?”
I could only spread my hands.
“Where from?”
“Just check. Have a look through the tabs.”
A young wolf jumped out of the bushes to be immediately torn apart by the ghouls.
“Keep looking for it, John, keep looking. We’ll manage by ourselves here.”
I opened the system window and started to check through all of the tabs available. Amazingly, Garth turned out to be right — the stats of my rogue showed up on one of the screens. It was just inactive.
“I see the stats of my old character,” I told the necromancer.
“Look through the game logs!” the mage demanded as he started the ritual to raise a zombie wolf. “They must have remained somewhere.”
“Oh! I just found them. What will that give me?”
“Send me the time of the murder in our group chat.”
“I can’t. The chat is read-only.”
Garth thought for a moment, ran his hand through his white hair and offered, “Open the Settings and tick the Special Options box and select “text to voice” and “voice to text”. You’ll be able to send messages to authorized players within your line of sight.”
I did it.
“Yep, it works!”
Shadow Snares: You are paralyzed!
Damage taken: 37 [73/110]
Damage taken: 37 [36/110]
Damage taken: 37 [0/110]
You have been killed by Player Someone Someone
The necromancer froze, as if he was some consulting some in-game resource and then whistled.
“Wow! Level ninety nine! Well, we’re going to spoil his cornflakes now!”
“What’re you doing?”
Garth laughed.
“I wrote a complaint. The PvP mode really does become available when a noob reaches level 10, but high level characters can’t enter the playpen. It’s a direct violation of the rules.”
“Won’t they ask why I didn’t make the complaint myself?”
The necromancer only laughed.
“I wrote that because of the emotional distress you suffered you still can’t make yourself log into the game. You’ll see — it’ll work. It always works.”
“And what will I get out of it?”
“Don’t you get it?” Garth sighed. “The game itself cannot be hacked, so there must have been some sort of hardware added to the capsule or some way of tapping into the connection. The hacker had to find your character here to shove you into the body of a dead man, so he’ll be unable to do anything for the duration of the ban. Stop! The lair is nearby!”
That was right — red lights started to appear on the map one after another.
“Damn!” the necromancer cursed. “There are more wolves than I thought!”
I armed myself with the morning star in the nick of time. The pack that rushed to the attack immediately tore one of the zombies raised by the necromancer apart and bit through the paws of two ghouls. The battle was on. I crushed the head of one wolf, smashed into the spine of another and then struck again — it was the effect of my increased Agility.
The necromancer was busy with his staff, trying to keep a huge she-wolf at bay, so the ghouls rushed to help him. They easily brought the animal which was the size of a small calf to the ground while I was left alone fighting four powerful wolves. I swung the spiked ball of my morning star into the ravening maw of the first wolf and immediately felt a bite on my hip and wrist. My Health bar immediately went yellow, but then there was a loud crack behind my back and bone shards flew all around, cutting down the predators like sorcerous shrapnel.
The ghouls quickly finished off the wounded wolves and Garth looked around in confusion.
“The quest isn’t complete!” he declared and suddenly looked alert. “Oh! There’s been a response to the complaint! Your hacker has been banned for three months!”
“Write about me! Write that I’m stuck in the game!”
“Have you lost your mind?” the necromancer was taken aback. “They’re just going to delete you! Erase your undead and say that this is the way it was!”
“But why?”
“The admins have already answered that you’re not in-game, that’s why! Just think about how much the share price of the company will crash if this story surfaces. A person trapped in a game is a developer’s nightmare!”
“But maybe that is a solution? They’ll delete my undead and I’ll wake up?”
Garth took out a mana potion and shook his head.
“I don’t think so. You just won’t pass the verification. You entered the game as a rogue and now you are undead. Who knows where you’ll be stuck. At least you can play like this.”
“Damn it!” I swore. “How could something like this even happen?”
The necromancer drew a line around the ravaged body of the she-wolf with his staff and suggested, “If you can see your old stats, the hacker probably used unimplemented code for the introduction of dual classes. They were planning this immediately after the game was launched. In the end, they decided to limit themselves to specializations and professions.
“How do you know?”
“I’m here since more or less the first few days!”
“And you’re still level nine?” I asked with disbelief.
“Oh! That?” Garth laughed. “I sell characters. I level them up to 24 and sell them. There are different options.”
Players got their specialization on level 25 but I didn’t ask how one was connected to the other and asked a question instead.
“Then why can’t I use my Rogue skills?”
“It will be like that until the level of your new class reaches the level of the old one. This will never happen to you. You’re an NPC.”
“I’m rising in level!”
“Seriously?” the necromancer sounded surprised as he added power to his Raise Undead spell. “Ah, yes! The difficulty of almost every quest depends on player level! The levels of the monsters rise as well...”
