Treachery (The Terra Trials Book 1)

by Dan Thomas

  A smile grew across Max’s face, he did like the sound of that, but any cool abilities were some way down the line. “As much as I want that, too, I don’t think it’s a priority right now.”

  “You sure about that?” Chopsticks said through a grin.

  “He is,” Sam said. “Right, Max?”

  Max quickly closed the Agility tab and opened the Primal Trait Tree. There were two options available here as well.

  Recuperate I: Regain Stamina at x1.5 rate after a chase

  Hotfoot: Move 15% faster when fleeing

  “Ah, a classic choice between predator and prey,” Chopsticks said.

  Max wasn’t surprised to see that the only options available were agility based. He had been doing a lot of running around, and it often wasn’t until later on the Primal Traits were more combat orientated.

  “Hm, the extra movement speed would be useful, especially considering all you’re going to be doing is running away,” Sam mused.

  “So that’s a yes then?” Chopsticks said eagerly. “Just think, in like, twenty levels, you’ll be ripping throats out with your bare teeth!”

  “Uh, I don’t know about that.” Max laughed nervously. “So, we’re agreed? Being able to run away fast is never a bad thing?”

  “You might as well get Dash at this point,” Sam paused. “All right, it’s not the worst Trait, and it doesn’t come with any extra stamina drain, so it’s free movement speed. If you two think it’s a good choice, who am I to argue?”

  “Hell, yeah!” Chopsticks agreed.

  “All right.” Max selected Hotfoot, saying yes to the prompt to spend his Agility Trait Point and being greeted by the WUTT Trait Learned message which quickly disappeared, leaving him looking at his one Primal Trait, everything else grayed out until he gained more points.

  Max nodded. “It’s not much, but it’s progress.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Sam gave him a verbal pat on the back. “Now, let’s get you at least a little kitted out.”

  Max closed his character screen. “I just wish I’d done something to level up my Dexterity. I still can’t craft anything at the moment. Or use a bow. I guess I could get away with using that pistol for now, but even that’s going to be a struggle. If it even works.”

  “You’ll get there soon enough,” Sam said. “As I said, just forage as you go, and you’ll be bashing rocks together again in no time. Now let’s get you some gear.”

  They spent the next half an hour trawling through the various shops of the Hub, firstly looking for off-world traders and scrap stores to sell off the items that Max had leftover. By the end of it, Max could afford to swap out his sail for a small cloth backpack, which he used to store away a couple of small ration packs, in the form of nuts and dried fruits packed together, as well as a waterskin and the sail itself. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford any rations made with the Staple plants, missing out on the experience bonus they would have given him. He’d had to dip into both his water and food right off the bat to satiate his character’s growing needs and regain a lost portion of his stamina. He had also picked up a crude spear with a flint tip. It was surprising how far coins didn’t go.

  He smiled wryly at the cheap weapon’s stats.

  Item Type: Crude Flint Spear

  Type: Weapon, Polearm

  Damage type: Piercing

  Base Damage: 45

  Durability: 100/100

  While he had been swapping over the stuff from the sail to the backpack, he made sure to surreptitiously remove the Concealer from Jag’s box, hastily stuffing it into his new backpack, along with the laser pistol.

  “Well, I’ll be honest, it’s not much, but it’s good to at least have some progress,” Max said as he walked his way down the busy high street, shifting his almost weightless backpack. It was a single strap pack, which was standard in most Terra Verse worlds so that it could be pulled around the body and accessed easily without taking it off. The spear was slung around his free shoulder with a small length of rope.

  “It’s more progress than you’d made an hour ago,” Chopsticks pointed out.

  “You’re really into your motivation tonight, Chopsticks,” Sam said.

  Chopsticks chuckled. “I’m excited, all right, I’m getting nostalgic about when we started the game.”

  “Hm.”

  They all fell quiet, their thoughts turning to long-ago memories of adventure and anticipation. Max zoned out as he walked down the street, with visions of new conquests and exploration that he hoped would await him and his friends after they had dealt with the Ravagers.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “This is definitely the North gate, right?” Max stood on the edge of a large group of players wearing mixed quality of equipment milling around in the courtyard in front of the gate. There were a few animals mixed in with the players, two people had a few small Velociraptors gathered with them, while a couple of others were leading around herbivores which looked like Iguanodons that were rigged with full saddlebags, probably filled with off-world items that had just been bought.

  Max glanced up at the sun. He was facing pretty much north. “This is it, I’m going out.”

  “You’ll be fine. You’ve got this, you’re just gonna knock ‘em dead, chief.” Chopsticks talked as if Max were a boxer sitting in his corner of the ring between rounds. “Just follow this group out. Stick with them along the main road for as long as possible and then duck into the undergrowth and activate the Concealer.”

  “So simple,” Sam said sarcastically.

  “It is simple.” Chopsticks sounded so optimistic. “Go for it!”

  A horn sounded and the reinforced log gates creaked loudly as they swung open, revealing the wide road leading from the Hub into the wilderness beyond.

  “Everyone gather up!” Someone wearing articulated metal armor at the front of the group waved their arms to get everyone’s attention. “We’re leaving now, stick to the road and stick together!”

  The sparse shrubbery populating the plains surrounding the Hub looked as though it couldn’t conceal anything, but the waist-high, thick straw grass was a different story. In the quiet of the day, the track cutting toward the dense forest in the distance seemed a peaceful walk.

  The illusion of a serene grassland was shattered when a not-too-distant screech pierced the air, followed moments later by a chorus of cries and shrieks from hidden creatures. The local predators, namely the Unenlagia, knew there was fresh meat coming their way.

  A shudder passed through Max. He’d already been mauled to death once today, and from the way everyone talked about the dinos, and Chopsticks’ seemingly endless trivia, these creatures were voracious and brutal. To make them more intimidating, they hunted in packs. If they caught him, he’d be torn limb from limb within seconds.

  “Come on!” Chopsticks urged him on.

  Max hefted the spear in his hand. Its newness was obvious in the roughly carved shaft that would only wear smooth with use if he didn’t break it on the hide of some dinosaur first. Testing the weight, he lifted it above his head and swung his arm back and forth. He might not be able to throw it far, but he could throw it hard enough to get himself off the menu of most carnivores he might encounter.

  “Watch what you’re doing with that spear.” A tall player, wearing armor made of individual thick dino scales tied together, with a bow slung over his back and a long, wicked-looking dagger sheathed across his chest, leaned away from him as the group began to advance. Max’s eyes were drawn to the colored beads that were tied into braids in his long hair, which were almost as dark as his eyes.

  “Sorry. It’s new.” At least he didn’t need to practice sounding like a complete beginner, he’d gotten that down to a fine art.

  “You want to hold it like this.” The guy grabbed hold of the shaft of the spear and repositioned Max’s hand, much to the amusement of Chopsticks by the sounds of his snickering.

  “Thanks.” Max coughed.

  “No problem. I
like to pay it forward, you know?” He looked up and squinted into the distance as they passed through the gates.

  “Pay it forward?” Max asked, rolling his shoulder to shift his pack again.

  “Yeah, add a little positivity into the world,” he said, pulling the engraved bow off his shoulder, dark blue feathers tied to either end of the wood catching the soft wind.

  “What a wet blanket.” Chopsticks sighed. “Why is everyone so helpful here?”

  “Hey, he’s just trying to be a nice guy,” Sam retorted. Max could hear the daggers Sam was staring into Chopsticks.

  “I’ll give it a try.” Max gave the stranger a sideways glance.

  The stranger gave a small nod. “I’m glad to hear.”

  Max glanced over his shoulder as he heard the gates creaking shut, the guards atop the spiked wall watched the group of around thirty players, along with thirteen dinos, as they headed into the wilderness.

  “I feel like I’m leaving a castle under siege,” Max said to Chopsticks and Sam as he scanned the long, stalky grass that hemmed the wide road in.

  “I get that,” Chopsticks replied. “I don’t get why no one has taken the time to clear out the area if these Unenlagia cause so much hassle. I’d say there must be a reward for it, but I’ve checked some forums, and there doesn’t even seem to be a bounty or request for it.”

  “Maybe those that live in Cerribue like the Unenlagia being around,” Sam suggested. “Keeps the riff-raff and the lower-level players out.”

  “Maybe,” Chopsticks mused. “It did feel like there was some shady stuff going on in there.”

  “I dunno.” Max flinched as he heard something unseen rustle through a low shrub just by his feet. “This could just be a friendly place.”

  “Oh, come on.” Sam sounded like she was rolling her eyes. “That Oswald guy was up to something, and Indigo’s secret underground bunker? Even you came through that Hub with a Concealer, and something illegal that Jag gave you.”

  “Hey, that was your idea!” Max shot back as he watched a player in forest-colored garb up ahead pull out some sort of spyglass and point it across the plains.

  “Yeah, you really didn’t hesitate to green-light that one,” Chopsticks said.

  “Hm.” Sam went quiet for a moment. “All I’m saying is that even when I went to Cerribue, I found that it was a friendly enough place as long as you don’t ask too many questions.”

  As Max hiked on, he kept his eyes darting back and forth to each side of the road, but he couldn’t help them resting on the backs of the heads of two people in front of him, who were talking loudly about what rotation of crops they were going to use this time.

  He thought about sticking one of them in the back with the handle of his spear and asking them to keep it down so that they could listen out for predators. Max frowned as he realized that almost everyone who was talking had their voices raised, and he couldn’t hear anything over them.

  “Wait a minute,” Max said under his breath.

  “What’s that?” the pay-it-forward guy murmured back.

  Max realized he hadn’t muted his voice in-game.

  “Listen.” He glanced all around, twisting to look back at those walking behind him and the Hub walls in the distance. “Is it just me, or is there no sound here?”

  The stranger twitched his eyes left and right. “Only our voices, our footsteps, and the rattle of grass in the wind.” He pulled an arrow from a quiver around his belt, nocked it, and then held it in place with the hand holding his bow. “Be ready, they’ll be here soon.”

  “That’s ominous,” Chopsticks said. “I’ve just looked a little more into the Unenlagia, it looks like you just have to make it to the tree line. They’re not just ambushers, they’re sprinters, a lot like ostriches, so they’ll stick to the flat open ground.”

  “Right,” Max said, gazing at the distant tree line.

  A few more people had fallen quiet, their body language tense as they watched the sea of grass on either side of them, but many were still just chatting.

  This many players, most of them fairly well equipped, could easily be a good-sized war party. Max couldn’t see raptor-sized dinosaurs giving them that hard a time.

  “Sam, you said you’ve been here before, how did you and, uh, Jag handle these things?” Max asked.

  “We never actually had to deal with the Unenlagia,” Sam said after a moment.

  “No? How did you get to Cerribue then?”

  “Well, Jag had made up plans for a kind of ballista that fired a net.”

  “Oh! Like the one we used to take down that Albertosaurus!” Chopsticks cut in.

  “Yeah. Yeah, like that one, but a bit smaller. We spent all day building one on top of the Orona Cliffs, and then spent all night waiting for a Pterosaur big enough to ride...” Sam gave a soft laugh. “Jag tried to turn it into a romantic meal, but kept burning what food we brought with us, then tried serenading me instead. I think he was trying to keep me entertained because he felt bad for making me stay up all night.” Sam’s voice trailed away, then she started speaking again with her usual steely tone. “Anyway, we tamed a Pterosaur and flew to the Hub. The grass wasn’t so long then, so we could see a couple of packs of Unenlagia but didn’t have to fight them. And if you’re wondering why we didn’t bring the Pterosaur back with us, it didn’t survive a run-in with a flock of Pterodactylus. For how difficult they are to tame, they’re so fragile.”

  “Right, that’s fine, I was just hoping to have some idea of what I was up against,” Max said.

  “You know what you’re up against, a pack of teeth and claws on legs.”

  “Very helpful, Chopsticks. Is that all the wisdom that the dino oracle has to offer?” Max asked.

  Chopsticks scoffed, feigning offense. “I’ve got all the advice you need; use everyone else as a meat shield, and you can pay them all forward by taking their stuff, instead of letting it go to waste.”

  Max laughed at his friend’s philosophy.

  “Have I missed out on a joke?” the stranger asked sardonically.

  “Uh, no, I just thought of a meme?” Max mumbled with a smirk.

  “He’s pretty astute, huh? Oh, shit! On your left!” Chopsticks yelled, Max wincing as the mic maxed out.

  “Huh?” Max snapped his eyes over to the grass to the side of him, and sure enough, only a few yards away he could see a trail of rustling grass keeping pace with the group. “Crap.”

  “You spotted something?” the stranger asked from Max’s shoulder.

  “Yeah, look there.” Max pointed with his spear to the moving grass.

  “Oh.” He furrowed his deep-set brows then stood upright, scanning the plains, squinting against the bright sun reflecting off the golden stalks of the thick grass. “Stay to the middle of the road.”

  Max then spun around at the sound of a scream. Between the bodies of everyone else turning to look, he saw a player lying flat on the ground, a creature covered in tan feathers standing on top of them. It leaped away and dashed off the road, its long and flat, blue-feathered tail disappearing back into the grass faster than anyone could take aim at it.

  Someone grabbed the fallen player’s arm and hauled them to their feet. They winced, holding their hand to a wide gash down their side.

  “Stay together and watch the flanks!” a heavily armored woman yelled as they heard another cry and commotion come from the front of the group.

  “Pull in!” someone else hollered, and Max fought to avoid being crushed as the thirty or so players stepped toward each other, trying to stay as close to the center of the road as they could. Some wrestled with their pack dinos whose wide eyes rolled around as they sensed danger.

  Max looked at the different players that surrounded them, all their faces tense, watching the grass for any sign of predators, though now the only movement he could see was the gentle sway of the plants in the breeze. But all the animals with them knew what was out there. The mix of eight of the slim Hadrosaurs, cousins of
Charlie’s species, and a handful of small Velociraptors were on edge, watching any movement around them with suspicion.

  “They’re testing us,” the stranger murmured.

  “What?” Max hissed.

  “Whenever a group of people leaves Cerribue-Prime, the Unenlagia packs that live here test the group, get a feel for how strong they are.”

  “Anything?” someone asked from the front of the group.

  “Can’t see any movement,” a fur-clad man near Max called back.

  “All right, everyone keep moving! Stay close and shout if you see one of the bastards!”

  The front of the group began stalking forward. Those around Max didn’t move right away. They stood their ground, watching the unassuming plains with intensity before someone murmured something about not wanting to be stuck here all day. One by one, they began to shuffle forward, all gripping their weapons tightly.

  “Testing us? I didn’t think dinosaurs had the capacity for that,” Max said dubiously.

  The stranger let out a deep chuckle. “If you want to survive longer than a day in this world, I’d change that mindset of yours. You’d be surprised.”

  “Hmph, what does he know?” Sam asked snarkily over the headset. “We’ve probably been doing this longer than him, without a problem.”

  “I think he’s got a point,” Chopsticks said. “Think about the Troodons at least. Even with our few encounters with them, I’m sure they’ve learned how to deal with players. They’re like little tacticians.”

  “Tacticians?” Sam snorted.

  “Do you think we’ll be all right in this group?” Max asked the player by his side, trying to stop a lengthy debate between Sam and Chopsticks.

  “Normally, I’d say yes, but the Unenlagia have been getting bolder, so I’m not so sure. And we have a lot of pack animals with us, and not many carnivores. I don’t know if I’d bet on our odds,” the stranger said.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Chopsticks said.

  “What are you going to do if they do attack?” Max asked.