Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  “We don’t know that.” Suri crossed her arms, and shot me a thoughtful look.

  “I beg to differ,” Andrik said. He gestured to Karalti. “Your dragon’s blood is almost pure mana. If there is one resource the silverskins covet, it is that. Seid, they call it. Mana is what they use to breed as well as create their artifacts. It represents wealth in a way that gold never can. A Mercurion terrorist cell would have everything to gain from capturing Karalti. They’d lock her in a cage and farm her for her blood.”

  Just the suggestion made me sick. “I guess? But the guys that attacked us were Ilian.”

  “They could be hirelings from Ilia who do not care whether the hands giving them money are human or not. In any case, we shall find out tomorrow.” Andrik pushed his plate aside and leaned back, drumming his fingers on his knee. “There is a fundraiser tomorrow night at the Kobayaz Auction House. We’d planned it to raise money and supplies for our troops, but we are now using the event to raise money for the widows and children who have been orphaned by the Slayer. I was scheduled to attend, but my attendance was cancelled after the murder of Brother Orban. However, I am going to reinstate my presence and deploy criers to inform the citizens that I will, in fact, be at Kobayaz tomorrow night. This means that High Forgemaster Agoston Toth, the Voivode Janos Lanz of Czongrad and I shall all be in attendance. The three of us are the most likely targets for the Slayer.”

  “What makes you say that?” I frowned. So did Suri.

  “One moment.” Andrik leaned forward, and picked up a wine jug. He filled Suri’s empty glass, picked it up, and held it out to her. “You are looking dry, my lady.”

  “Uhh… cheers.” Suri accepted the glass awkwardly. She clearly didn’t want it. I felt my hackles lift a bit, and Karalti shifted restlessly as Suri had a small sip.

  “As for what makes me say that we are the most likely targets… well, Toth and I are obvious enough.” Andrik’s gaze lingered on Suri for a moment, before turning to me and Karalti. “As for the duke, Janos Lanz is perhaps the greatest financier of church projects in Vlachia. He has a missionary fire in his belly, a powerful desire to help our people by promoting the Forge Father’s gifts and principles. All three of us in a single location will be a tempting proposition for our terrorists.”

  My P.M. notification icon beeped. It was from Suri. “This is the dumbest shit I ever heard.”

  Yes. Yes, it was. I cleared my throat politely. “Your Majesty, the uh, security logistics are going to be a nightmare. We’re going to be scrambling like-”

  “Like weasels chasing after a rabbit. Yes, but so will our enemies,” the Volod said, smiling from ear to ear. “We are laying out irresistible bait.”

  Suri sighed through her nose. “Yeah, no. Not only is this a huge risk, but more likely than not, the Slayer’ll use the event for cover while he murders someone on the other side of town.”

  “Add me to that chorus of ‘no way’, Your Majesty,” I said.

  Andrik lifted his chin, and his pale eyes turned hard and arrogant. It was an expression I was all too familiar with from my days in the Army. I called it ‘Resting Colonel Face’. “Do either of you have a better idea?”

  “Use a body double,” Suri replied. “Or make an announcement that you want to parlay with the Slayer and will grant him mercy, so that you can lure him out. If he’s being blackmailed-”

  “Even if he were being blackmailed, it is of no consequence to me.” Andrik gripped the arms of his chair. “And I will not show mercy to this silverskin bastard who is slaughtering our sages, philanthropists, and sacred smiths. As for body-doubles, it is unbecoming for a monarch to hide quivering in his palace while his people are being killed. I lead by example. You two shall attend and prowl the crowd, aiding my security and searching for suspicious activity. I will arrange for some suitable disguises.”

  I got a notification, and winced to myself as I pulled it across and confirmed that, yes, really, this was something the game was inflicting on us.

  Quest Update: The Slayer of Taltos

  Volod Andrik Corvinus has concocted what could politely be referred to as a ‘harebrained scheme’ to lure out the Slayer and any of his remaining accomplices with a juicy target: a church fundraiser attended by the people most likely to be the Slayer’s next victims. He insists that you attend the fundraiser and protect him, Voivoide Janos Lanz, and High Forgemaster Agoston Toth.

  Difficulty: Very Hard

  Reward: 50 gold Olbia, 100 EXP, renown, ???.

  Special: You will fail the Slayer of Taltos questline if Andrik is killed. If one or both of the other targets are lost, you will lose all rewards and lose -50 Renown in Vlachia (max -100).

  “Christ on a crutch,” Suri muttered. “Look, no. I’m not wearing a stupid disguise for this stupid fucking quest.”

  Andrik blinked several times. “Such foul language from such a lovely mouth is somewhat unbecoming of a lady of your beauty, Suri. I believe I just told you how the plan will go ahead.”

  Suri got the same look I often saw on Cutthroat’s face just before she got ready to jump someone. She put her hands against the table, leaning forward as she stood up. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, you can take your lady-this and lovely-that and go bugger yourself with it.”

  The Volod turned white, then red as he glanced down at Suri’s cleavage. I had to choke myself on my own tongue to stop from laughing.

  “Why do human men get so funny over those bouncy things?” Karalti asked me.

  I patted her on the leg. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

  Suri straightened up, hands on hips. “No. If I have to do this, I’m not dressing up like some fucking castle stormtrooper, okay? We want these guys to think we’re letting our guards down, right? Fuck incognito. Let those town criers know that the Starborn who are going to stop the Slayer are in attendance. Make us part of the show. Hector’s holy fuckin’ dragon will be there. I’ll be there in a dress. He’ll be there in a doublet and hose, or whatever the fuck he wants to wear.”

  “In your dreams,” I said, grinning at her across the table.

  She wrinkled her nose at me. “Nightmares, more like it. Point being, that if we look like we’re there to party, then Kanzo’s gonna be more likely to act. If we’re not there because we’re disguised or whatever, that raises a big red flag over the whole thing. Now, speaking of dresses, Your Majesty needs to pay up for tonight. We went with you to Stefin’s.”

  “Fair enough. The lady speaks true.” The Volod held up a hand and concentrated.

  [You and Karalti have each received 75 EXP!]

  [You have received 50 gold Olbia!]

  “That amount ought to provide for you,” he said. “You have tomorrow morning and afternoon to ready yourselves. Be at Kobayaz by six p.m., and make sure that you are prepared. I don’t think our terrorists will pass up the opportunity to cause mayhem.”

  Resigned to my fate, I swiped the quest update back into the minimized HUD. Given this was a videogame and Andrik was our key NPC, he was probably right.

  Chapter 23

  A servant led Karalti and I to our rooms in the Keep after dinner, navigating us through spacious marble hallways to a pair of wooden double doors. He opened them ahead of us. “Your rooms, honored guests. The staff took the liberty of arranging food for Her Holiness.”

  “Thanks.” I was getting ready to tip him, but he glided away in a swish of silk and leather.

  “Guess they pay well here.” I let out a tense breath. “Come on, Tidbit. Let’s go-”

  “I smell meat!” My dragon rammed me into the doorjamb, crushing the air out of my lungs as she squeezed in past me. “Meat meat meat!”

  The room was panelled in dark wood, lit by tassel-edged gas lamps that wouldn’t have been out of place in Victorian Britain. The suite had a regal air, with a smoky, old-books-and-tobacco smell currently overridden by the stench of blood. The servants who’d prepared the room left us a huge silver platter on a round wooden table. A
freshly-killed doe lay there, her tongue hanging loose.

  “Yeah! Real food!” Karalti bounded across, snatched the doe by the neck, and dragged the corpse to the ground. The silver plate slid off and clanged to the floor with an ear-splitting clatter.

  “Just keep it off the carpets, you little psycho.” Wincing, I shucked my pack off and went to check the rest of the place out.

  The bedroom had a huge round bed covered in furs, like a four-poster nest. A smaller table in the room was laid out with drinks and a plate of small fancy sandwiches for me. God, what was it with this place and late-night sandwiches? Eating was about the last thing on my mind, now that my dragon was disemboweling a deer on the living room flagstones.

  I was tired and dirty, restless after the events of the night, and in desperate need for some ‘me time’. Fortunately, this place had an awesome bathroom. I stuck my head in and saw a big stone hot tub sunken into the floor. A pipe in the wall trickled a fresh supply of water in, and another pipe in the tub carried it away.

  Satisfied, I went back out and called to Karalti from the bedroom door. “Okay, Tidbit. I’m going to take a bath, and I don’t want to be disturbed. Literally the only reason you need to call me for the next hour is if a ninja assassin appears in the living room. And even then, if you can take care of it, please do.”

  “Okay!” She clamped her jaws down on the deer’s skull, pulling it up and out of the carcass with the vertebrae still attached. Her eyes closed with pleasure as she used her tongue to pick through the gooey mess. “This is great!”

  Gross as it was, I couldn’t help but feel a touch of pride in how strong she’d become.

  A little voice in my head sobbed with relief as I retreated, closed the door to the bathroom, stripped, and then slid into the hot water. It was bubbly, like mineral water, and my lingering HP deficit began to rapidly recover.

  Once I was settled down, I pulled up my sheets and alerts and began sorting through the backlog of notifications, hoping I’d missed a reply from Rin. Nope. Chewing my lip, I crammed my worries back into their box, then brought up my sheet and did a double take. My Advanced Path was no longer ‘Dark Lancer’. It was now ‘Dark Dragoon’.

  I checked the relevant alert, curious to see what had caused my Advanced Path to change names:

  [Congratulations! Now that your bonded dragon has reached Level 5, she is eligible to take her first Path. To reflect her new abilities, your Advanced Path has been changed from Dark Lancer to Dark Dragoon!]

  [You have one new Ability Tree: Dark Dragoon]

  [You can learn new skills and abilities!]

  Awesome. This had to mean that Karalti was big enough to carry me in the air. Just.

  When I’d first started playing Archemi, my upload had been so weird, so chaotic, and so frenetic that I’d barely had time to get the hang of things. I’d only really looked at what abilities were available to me and picked the ones that had seemed the best at the time. Now that I wasn’t rushing around, I could get a better look at my Advanced Path menus and submenus and theory crafting beyond the ‘Hector Survives Dragon School and Doesn’t Get Raped to Death by a Giant Tentacled Frog’ build.

  My character menu had an Active Abilities Tree that allowed me to have up to ten abilities in play. There were grayed out circles on the tree that indicated I’d eventually be able to have fifteen once I hit Level 30. Each ‘sphere’ contained one of the abilities I’d selected to use as I’d leveled up: Blood Sprint, Shadow Dance, etc. The one at the bottom contained the one Ability I had to have: Jump, which was the core ability of the ‘Dark Dragoon’ and other Lancer classes.

  The Abilities were selected and managed in the Ability Submenus: Attack, Defense, Special, and now Dark Dragoon. They were fairly self-explanatory. Special contained status-effect and Area of Effect maneuvers, almost like magical abilities, which fit in generally with the Dark element part of the Dark Lancer class. I browsed over to the Dragoon submenu and groaned. Dammit. None of this had been there when I’d planned my build, and there were now ten more abilities to sponge up my precious ability points. And some of them were awesome.

  At Level 11, I had 25 ability points to spread out. I queried ‘Clear Character Abilities’ and got a prompt in reply:

  [Do you wish to cancel all your current abilities and return your ability points to your pool?]

  “Sure do,” I replied aloud.

  [Are you sure? This cannot be undone.]

  “Yep.”

  The Active Ability Tree glowed softly, and the glowing orbs that signified my abilities drained away. As they did, my vision blurred. I groaned as my head throbbed, and a nasty, creeping emptiness pushed in. Suddenly, the only thing I could remember how to do, both theoretically and in my body, was Jump.

  I drew a couple of deep breaths to recenter myself, and then dunked my head under the water. When I rose, I felt better.

  Okay. Time to get cracking.

  Each Ability Submenu had ten skills, for a total of forty available combat abilities. Each one could be leveled up to Level 10. Level 10 abilities were pretty insane: Jump X basically let me leap 50ft into the air and deal x10 damage to a single target. It also chained with several other Jump-related combo moves that made this ability ideal for mass combat and David-and-Goliath boss situations. I was going be to flying around like some wacked-out Chinese martial arts movie hero by endgame, which was 200% okay with me.

  Not all of the abilities were able to be accessed at my current level. At every level, I unlocked one or two new abilities. There was a cap to how much I could raise the abilities I’d selected that depended on my Path level. At Level 11, I could learn Jump III, but not Jump IV. That would have to wait until Level 15. The cap increased by one for every five levels I gained.

  That meant that at key levels - 5, 10, 15, and so on - I faced the choice between leveling an old ability or selecting a new one – to a maximum of ten, because I only had ten active ability slots. No matter what I did, each one cost a single Combat Ability Point. I got a fixed two points to spend per level, plus the three I’d gotten at Level 1. That meant that my endgame build – Level 100 – would ideally comprise fifteen maxed-out abilities, with the spare points allocated to abilities that supported and enhanced my core set.

  I didn’t have to spend any points to acquire Jump I - that ability had been a freebie, thanks to the fetch quest I’d done for the librarian of the Eyrie back in Ilia. Surely I’d be able to gain other abilities the same way as my journey went on.

  I used three points to bring Jump I back up to Jump III. It was my core skill for a reason, allowing me to avoid attacks vertically and chain strikes in all directions.

  I had a look over the summary grid for my available combat abilities:

  Offense

  Dictum: Strike up to six targets and recover 2% of HP and AP.

  Blood Sprint: Strike up to 3 targets, deal +150 Bleeding damage over 10 seconds, boost attack speed for 5 seconds. Chains with Blood Storm.

  Blood Storm: Can only be used after Blood Sprint. Strike up to 5 targets, +10 HP recovered on good hits.

  Whirlwind Butcher: Hit up to 6 targets and recover 10 AP on every good hit.

  (New) Shattering Darkness: An attack that freezes and cracks an enemy’s (natural or man-made) armor. Reduces enemy DR by 5% every ability level.

  Defense

  Shadow Dance: Basic evasive dash reduces damage by 70% at the cost of HP (25 HP per dash). HP cost goes down with each ability level.

  (New) Lightning Reflexes: Damage received while evading is reduced by 5% per skill level.

  (New) Death by a Thousand Cuts: Chained with Blood Storm. Mark targets with a curse that lowers their attack power by 2% per skill level, and increases your attack by 2% and Damage Reduction by 5%. Percentages rise as you level the skill. Max 1 enemy per skill level (Max 10).

  Special

  Mantle of Night: Boost movement speed and special attack power 20% for 10 seconds.

  Bluster: Taunt your enemie
s and regen 5AP + 10HP per skill level.

  Umbra Burst: Draw Dark mana from the air and emit a chilling burst of enervation that deals Dark damage and has a chance to inflict the Frozen debuff.

  (New) Obscuring Veil: Chain combo from Jump. Deal x2 damage with a very high chance of inflicting the Blindness debuff.

  Dark Dragoon

  (New) Plunge: Your acquired resistance to g-forces has increased, even if your head is above your feet. You are able to withstand an additional 5 negative G’s per skill level.

  (New) Adrenaline Junkie: You and your dragon regain +10% AP during flight. Scales with skill level.

  (New) Leap of Faith: You gain the ability to better control your direction in the air if you fall off your mount, even while moving at high speeds. You experience time dilation of 1 sec per skill level while falling.

  I actually gasped out loud as I read over the last ability. Oh, the possibilities. One of the issues I’d had with the Dark Lancer/Dark Dragoon class so far was the question of how to integrate the flashy jumping and lunging lance attacks with aerial combat in any meaningful fashion. Jump, plus Plunge and Leap of Faith were the solution. The combat style I’d need to train for this was insane - literally insane. Death’s Head Mode level of difficulty, ‘jumping-off-dragons-flying-at-high-speed insane’.

  But it was possible, and I got a bit high just thinking about it.

  I forced myself to lay back in the bath and calm the fuck down before I went too crazy, then made some quick adjustments to my character plan and went back into the Path menu to assign my points.

  I dropped Doubletap, Power Attack, Bluster and Umbra Burst entirely. The first three were holdovers from my starting Warrior Path tree, and were now too weak to be of much use. I’d originally planned to keep Umbra Burst, but it was a basic damage attack and fairly Adrenaline Point-hungry, and I was better off spending the points on something else.

  I went for the Blood Sprint >