by Pavel Kornev
The magic that spread around Garth was scaldingly cold, there was the smell of an upturned grave and then the ravaged she-wolf rose from the ground, jerkily and awkwardly. Bloody drool sank to the ground from her open maw, as the black fire of darkness burned in her eyes.
“Excellent! Just excellent!” the necromancer breathed a sigh of relief. “We can now check out the lair of the wolf pack!”
We broke our way through the bushes and stopped at the entrance of the cave. The ghouls moved into the dungeon and one of them immediately exploded into chunks of rotten meat. A huge black werewolf tore his victim apart in a split second and immediately jumped on the second undead monster. Its terrible jaws clacked as its fangs crunched through the ghoul’s clawed hand and the beast jerked its head, tearing it from the ghoul’s body. An instant later it had already gutted the ghoul and crouched, preparing to leap to the attack again.
Garth threw an Orb of Cold and the paws of the werewolf got frozen to the ground. The beast twitched and tore one of its limbs away from the icy covering and then started to free another...
This was the moment that the zombie she-wolf struck. Her fangs pierced the neck of the werewolf, but it stood fast. I also rushed into the fray, using my impetus to smash the ribs of the beast, taking away 45 points of Health and raised my weapon again, but then missed and almost sent the morning star flying out of my hand.
THE ICE MELTED, so the blood-soaked werewolf threw the zombie she-wolf off himself and then bit me on my side. Thankfully, my chainmail blocked the damage. The zombie bounded up from the ground and sank its teeth into the werewolf’s back foot. As the beast turned, I smashed it in the back of the head, while Garth took a run-up to stab the terrible hook of his staff into its side.
Blood sprayed out of the wound.
Player Garth Deathblade has killed a werewolf!
The Wolf Pack quest is complete!
Experience: +205 [1403/1440]
You have gained a level!
So, here was level eight. I put the point into increasing Agility again. I was sick of being so clumsy.
It turned out that the experience we received was enough to raise both my level and that of the necromancer.
“Level 10!” he announced, unable to hide his satisfaction. “All right, John, it was nice to play with you, but it’s time to move on!”
A system notification about the completion of the task was displayed and Garth disappeared from the list of Allies. However, a new notification about a third quest which was the last in the chain immediately came up.
“Oh no!” the necromancer groaned. “I don’t have time for this!”
“I’ll turn it off right away,” I promised, as I opened the quest generation menu. “By the way, can every necromancer talk to me? It’s just that no one understands me apart from you.”
“Yes, any of them,” Garth confirmed. “They are going to launch a global update adding the Kingdom of the Dead in a week, so necromancers will be worth their weight in gold. Wait!”
“What?” I glanced back at him.
“One of the artifacts announced for the Kingdom of the Dead is the single use Scroll of Rebirth. It can bring any creature back to life. If your character is resurrected you might be able to quit the game.”
“Wow!” I burst out.
“However...” the necromancer paused. “No, it’s not an option. Resurrecting some sort of epic creature bears a heavy price and there is no way you will get into the Tower of Decay before the others.”
“But can this help?” I asked hopefully.
“It doesn’t matter,” Garth parried, as he wiped the blood off the staff. “What’s going on with that quest?”
“I can’t cancel it,” I lied. “Why don’t we do something else — take this skull outside the city and throw it into some deep hole.”
“What is this skull?” Garth asked with interest.
“I don’t know,” I lied again, “but it is somehow connected to the quest to kill me. If it no longer exists, the other players might leave me alone. I am so sick of dying.”
“What’s the reward?” the necromancer asked.
I put all of my gold in the quest generation menu, but the amount didn’t impress the necromancer.
“Add the boots and the Bracelet of Agility,” he demanded. “You must also let the reward be collected once the quest is completed, as I’m not planning to come back here.”
I did everything as he asked, remembering to set a minimum distance for the skull to be carried to get the reward.
Garth Deathblade has accepted your quest!
“See you, John!” the necromancer waved his hand and strode off towards the park gates. “It was nice to meet you!”
“Same to you,” I answered with complete honesty.
Now I had a goal. A goal in life and in the game.
My situation didn’t seem hopeless any more. Even if my attorney wouldn’t be able to get me out of the game, I could escape from this place into the real world. I would just have to get the Scroll of Rebirth by beating the highest level players in Towers of Power to it. Even if Garth would help me get out of the annoying park, I wouldn’t have a good time in the future. There was nothing much to do outside the playpen at a pathetic level 8.
I opened my Inventory, checked my Bone Dagger and resolutely set off towards the skeleton dungeon.
Why miss my chance to earn a bit of experience?
5
THE GOLD, Bracelet of Agility and the Boots of Stealth disappeared from the Inventory when I had already reached entrance to the lair of the Skeleton Lord and hidden myself under a fallen tree to avoid attention from players.
Garth Deathblade has completed your quest!
I read the system notification again and climbed out of the bushes into the clearing.
The Skeleton Dungeon was considered to be one of the most difficult locations in the playpen. The players had to get together in large teams to storm it and it was sparsely populated the rest of the time. The owner of a bone dagger didn’t have any advantages compared to anyone else — no newbie would be able to get to the bottom level by themselves. But a plague-ridden corpse wouldn’t need to use strength to get through! I just hoped that the skeletons wouldn’t remember my last visit here...
I was quite reticent as I approached my old friend the skeleton spearman, who stood frozen in the doorway, but I gathered my courage and squeezed past him into the underground hall full of crossbowmen.
Undead: Neutral
None of the skeletons made a move when I appeared. Encouraged by this, I set off to look for the descent to the next level, but then heard the sound of running feet and the excited shouts of players by the entrance.
As soon as I’d hidden behind one of the stone pillars, the skeleton gatekeeper fell with its head crushed and three half-naked barbarians burst into the hall. The pyromancer that appeared in the doorway threw a fireball at the crossbowmen, but only three skeletons were destroyed by the flames because of the many pillars.
There was the whistle of flying crossbow bolts and one of the barbarians fell. The guards dropped their empty weapons and met the players in hand to hand combat. They were armed with bucklers and hand axes as well as their crossbows.
I took advantage of the commotion to slip towards the stairway, descended a floor and immediately sprung a trap — the rusty spike that protruded out of the wall was just a handbreadth away from my belly, otherwise it would have pierced right through me.
The sound of battle continued above so I threw caution to the wind and carried on moving along the corridor, managing to somehow reach the next stairway without getting caught in yet another trap. It was way more dark and gloomy below. There were shackles hanging down from the walls everywhere, while the floor was littered with bones and the gray wisps of cobwebs peered out from every corner. Three skeleton guardians passed by, their chainmail clinking, with halberds resting upon their shoulders and the shape of a ghost floating alongside.
The rag-clad shape of a conjurer stood still and waited at the descent to the last level, with orange flames burning inside its skull. It seemed that its empty eye sockets were watching my approach with a malign interest. He even almost made a move towards me, and I could immediately make out that there were no legs under the torn cloak — the skeleton floated in the air.
As I passed by, I felt a gust of hot air, with the dead conjurer turning his head and clacking his teeth, as if he suspected some sort of deceit, but he didn’t do anything else.
And then I fell and rapidly rolled down the steps into the lair of the Skeleton Lord!
The hall turned out to be small, with burning torches on its stone walls. The Lord sat upon a high throne, with an immense two-handed flamberge that had an undulating blade resting on his knees. Even though the blade had been eaten by rust, it looked impressive and fearsome, as did its owner. An open helmet was on the Lord’s skull, his body was covered by intricately woven chainmail and his shinbones were hidden in a tall pair of boots with iron toecaps.
Four skeleton bodyguards with normal two-handed longswords stood at attention in the corners of the hall, but they made no move at my appearance, unlike the conjurer up above. The Lord also sat there unmoving, yet I still didn’t risk approaching him, choosing to go around the throne and crouch by a dusty chest that stood there instead. To my great regret, it turned out to be locked.
There was nothing else I could do other than step up to the Lord and stab him with the Bone Dagger. The skeleton shuddered and dissolved into a cloud of gray dust. The helmet that fell off the skull bounced off the armrest, flew through the air and then rolled towards the wall. Only the chainmail and the sword remained on the throne. A heavy money pouch also fell on the floor by the empty boots.
The Skeleton Lord has been killed!
Experience:+250 [1653/1730]
You have gained a level!
Without spending time to improve my stats, I threw the two-handed flamberge, chainmail hauberk and boots into my inventory and rushed to the chest behind the throne. I never even managed to get the key out of the looted money pouch. A skeleton bodyguard stopped me by slicing into my legs, with the heavy blade of the two-handed longsword crunching through my bones under the knees. I collapsed to the floor and never managed to rise again. The skeleton raised his two-handed longsword above its head and slashed downwards, nailing me to the stone-flagged floor.
You have been killed!
Darkness, the viscous weight of refuse and the unbearable stench of the gutter.
Garth hadn’t bothered overmuch and immediately threw the skull away as soon as he’d left the confines of Old Gardens.
Covered in filth from head to foot, I climbed out of the gutter, swore angrily and looked around. The city walls could be seen nearby, but the sun had already set and the guards couldn’t see me properly, while newbies would usually never risk going out for nocturnal walks. There were no more favors for those of a low level in the open world anymore, so it was easy as anything to get into serious trouble.
That also applied to me.
The first thing I did was leave the road towards some mysterious ruins, cleaned the skull with the edge of my cloak and stuffed it into a hole in the partially crumbled masonry. Next, I added the stat point I earned by reaching level 9 to Agility and started to look through my loot.
I discovered a hundred gold coins in the Skeleton Lord’s pouch, as well as an emerald and the key to the treasure chest which was of no value to me anymore. The rusty long chainmail hauberk turned out to lack any magical abilities and I put it on instead of the one ruined by the strike of the skeleton bodyguard. However, the boots and the double-handed flamberge made me whistle in surprise.
Boots of Silence (Deadman’s Set: 2 out of 13)
Armor: 2
Damage: 2
Noise in stealth mode: -10%
Restrictions: Undead, Necromancers
Bloody Flamberge (Deadman’s Set: 2 out of 13)
Damage: 6-12
Accuracy: +10%
Chance of causing critical damage: +10%
Chance of causing bleeding damage: 4% for each wave of the blade used in the strike
Bleeding damage: 2 points of Health per second over 2 seconds
Status: Very Rare
Restrictions: Undead, Necromancers
I respectfully tested the weight of the flamberge in my hands, admiring its undulating blade, which would be an unpleasant surprise for any opponent at the early stages of the game and then put on my boots. I paused to admire my character’s stats.
Health: 207
Stamina: 184
Energy: 45
Damage: 48-96
Wow, that damage wasn’t bad! A level 9 player would usually only have around a hundred points of Health, unless they concentrated on their physical stats. I sliced through the air with the flamberge a few times, but then immediately got distracted by a strange ball of light that cut through the darkness by the city gates. The light stayed still for a moment and then set off to rapidly approach the ruins, or, to be more precise, approach was the gutter where I was resurrected this time around.
I went cold inside from an unpleasant premonition, but I didn’t run away, hiding behind the crumbling wall and adjusting my grip to be more comfortable on the hilt of the flamberge.
The magical light approach and I could then make out that the shining ball hung in the air above a man who was running along the road. My low perception didn’t let me work out who the player was and a hint with their name never appeared.
The stranger spent a while standing by the gutter and then jumped down inside, digging around enthusiastically. I immediately took the enchanted skull out of the hole in the masonry and put it away in my inventory. Whoever it was scrabbling around in the filth had to have come here especially to get hold of it.
I was already carefully falling back around the ruins, when the player that climbed out of the gutter waved his hand. Bright energy flowed in waves in all directions from the dark figure, making the trees shine with a pearly light as the waves reached them and the darkness of the night receding to make it clear as day.
I could no longer make a run for it, but I couldn’t be seen in the ruins.
That was what I thought, until I lowered my eyes and discovered that I shone like a burning brand.
“Come out, Johnny!” I heard from outside. “Come out, we need to talk.”
The mage swept his hood back from his head and ran his fingers through the white hair of an albino.
Garth Deathblade. A level 11 necromancer.
Eleven already! That was quick...
It was stupid to keep hiding. I rested the wavy blade of the flamberge upon my right shoulder and walked out of the ruins to stand before the necromancer.
“Long time no see, Garth.”
“Where’s the skull, Johnny?”
“What business is that of yours?”
“Just answer me. You’ve got it on you, right?”
I shook my head and cracked my back.
“So what?” I asked again.
“You lied to me!” Garth shouted. “You never told me that your resurrection point was tied to this artifact!”
“I told you that it’s a quest item. Isn’t it?”
“I need it!”
“What for?”
“None of your business!”
“Oh yes, it is.”
“Give it back, or I’ll take it by force!” the necromancer threatened.
“Tell me what’s changed, and I’ll think about it.”
Garth looked at me as if he was aiming to strike, but then held back and told me reluctantly, “I was offered fifty thousand for it. Euros, not game gold! Fifty thousand euros! I’d have to work for that money for two years. I’ll haggle with them for it, too!”
I was taken aback.
“How did someone find out that you had the skull?”
The necromancer sneered.
“The offer came
from the address you gave me. You know what that means?”
That meant that I was in trouble.
My very own attorney had offered money for the skull. It was him that advised me to relax and have fun playing for a while. Damn it! He must have been working for Kogan! The technical support complaint meant that the hacker was banned from the game for three months, so there was only one way left to shut my mouth — throw my resurrection point into the desert or the mouth of a volcano. Somewhere where I could not talk to anyone and where I’d die again and again until my real body was taken off life support.
“And you, Garth. Do you understand what this means?” I answered his question with one of my own. “They want to kill me, and you are asking for me to give you the skull!”
“You’re a dead man already anyway! You won’t get out of the game in any case. You’re more likely to see the back of your own head than a Scroll of Rebirth! So why don’t I earn myself 50 K?”
The necromancer had managed to convince himself that he was doing nothing wrong and maybe he just didn’t give a damn, so I shook my head and retreated from the circle of light.
“Just leave me alone, and no one gets hurt.”
The necromancer threw a cloud of bone spears at me and charged into the attack.
Death Magic: Immunity
Garth had no idea about my protection from death magic and bet on the wrong card. The bone spears didn’t pierce me, paralyze me, or drain my will. They just broke on my chest in streams of gray dust.
However, the hooked staff was a dangerous weapon even in the hands of a necromancer, which was why I stepped forward to meet my opponent and hacked down from my shoulder with the flamberge. The undulating blade sliced downwards, cutting through the flesh and throwing the necromancer to his knees.
