by Kyle Johnson
A tortured, horror-stricken face that almost looked like a human woman’s swam into view on the creature’s face, and Aranos quickly called up a wave of sonic mana. “It’s screaming!” he shouted, unleashing a blast of sound directed at the Mage just as a piercing wail of despair echoed from its throat. Rhys and Longfellow had covered their ears, but despite the muting effect of Aranos’ Sonic Blast, the scream caused Saphielle to falter for a moment and McBane to rush away from the draegs as panic struck them both. Saphielle recovered quickly and let out a War Cry that restored McBane’s wits, but the damage had been done and the undead were moving to flank the armored Avenger.
Aranos fired a single Restorative bolt at the Mage – he’d discovered that when it screamed, it couldn’t cast Spells for a few seconds, and the Bolt tore into its necrotic core, weakening it significantly – then unleashed a Life Blast at the undead near Saphielle. A golden beam of power swept across the twisted creatures, burning their flesh and weakening them while barely affecting Saphielle at all. The advance halted for a moment, and in that moment, Longfellow’s bolts tore into the undead flanking the tank, pushing them back and holding them until McBane returned to the front line.
That had gone much better than the first time the creature had screamed; then, only Aranos wasn’t affected by panic, since his Fortitude Skill gave him near immunity to mind-affecting magic. The others had almost bolted from the encounter, and only Saphielle’s War Cry had kept their attack from faltering completely. Even with the Warrior’s shouted buff, Longfellow and McBane were shaky for a while and suffered from Attack and damage penalties.
A pulse from the Radiance of Life Spell hanging overhead swept through the battlefield, and the undead wilted visibly beneath it while the party regained a bit of vigor. The Spell restored some of McBane’s lost Strength each time it flashed and empowered the rest of the party; heartened, they renewed the attack on the creatures. Saphielle’s spear flashed, stabbing a draeg in the throat, while wicked thorns erupted from her shield and impaled another draeg’s chest. She dropped the thorn Ability and kicked the draeg off her shield; once the thorns had been exposed to draeg blood, they became brittle and snapped easily, meaning she had to keep renewing the Ability.
McBane targeted the nearest nurhuin, slashing through it with his blades. The creature let out an agonizing scream, but rather than slipping away from the Rogue, it seemed almost to boil into a black mist. Another quickly fell to his attacks, and the last vaporized as one of Longfellow’s mana bolts passed through its head.
Without the shadowy creatures to hold McBane back, the draegs weren’t as great a threat, and Aranos was able to turn his full intention to the Void Mage. Rather than trying to counter its Spells, he went on the offensive, blasting its newest shield apart with his Radiant Blast, summoning a spray of light mana that burned through the shield. Once he’d penetrated it, he multicast a Light Barrage and a Life Blast at it. The creature’s misty form seemed to churn and writhe beneath the twin attacks, and as its face started to swim to the surface, Aranos directed both attacks precisely in the middle of its visage. The monster shuddered and started to collapse into itself, and his Inspection Skill told him that its LP had fallen into the gravely wounded category. Before it could expire, Aranos activated his Flight Spell and raced across the battlefield to hover near it.
He hadn’t had a chance to use his Final Rest Ability, yet; it worked best on weakened targets, and he wasn’t about to try and have the party battle a group of undead until the creatures were helpless and nearly destroyed. That would require them to fight too cautiously and hold back on their strikes; those sorts of tactics would eventually get someone killed.
Now, though, the Void Mage was weakened, its LP at least below 25% and the perfect target for his Ability. He linked to it with his Soulmending Skill and Mana Vampire Perk at once, connecting to its necrotic core. Unlike the vangolor, this creature was literally composed of void mana; in his senses, it was just a cloud of void mana surrounding a necrotic core. Thin filaments of energy extended from deep in the core out into the cloud, probably holding it together and allowing the creature to cast Spells and use its scream Ability.
He sent a trickle of restorative mana into the core, using it to shear through the tangle of necrotic energy and freeing the soul trapped within. The weave of vile, purple-black power shuddered and began to fray, and Aranos had the presence of mind to grab the loose ends with his mana tendrils. Rather than tearing the necrotic energy apart, he started absorbing the component mana as it flew free from the revolting tangle, refilling his expended soul mana and taking a bit of damage as the void mana coursed through his channels. Once he’d absorbed enough of the dissolving energy to completely release the soul beneath, he let go of the waning necrotic core and connected to the shattered, torn soul instead.
It took more soul mana than he liked to repair the horrifically damaged soul, but once it was healed, Aranos sent waves of calming, peaceful emotions to it, easing its terror and pain. As he felt a wave of energy rush into him from the soul, he released it and allowed it to continue its journey to whatever awaited it next. He was gratified to see that the Soul Point gain from the caster bumped his pool to 34, enough to gain a point to his Mental Stats. He’d burned through his reserve of Soul Points dealing with the creature that attacked them outside the waystation, and he hadn’t had much opportunity to refill that since.
Aranos turned back to see the last of the draegs fall to Saphielle’s spear. The woman withdrew her weapon and took out a rag, dousing it with warm water. She began cautiously removing the deep blue blood that had crystallized on her weapon and armor while McBane did the same. They’d learned that the blue-skinned, mouthless draegs had mildly acidic blood that froze solid on contact with air, and if they didn’t get the crystallized ichor off their metal items quickly enough, the blood would pit and etch them. Aranos could repair the damage, but doing so used up his dwindling supply of jewelry as he transmuted the noble metals into arcane silver or truesilver. Hopefully, Antas would have a trove similar to Haerobel’s and he’d be able to restock a bit.
“That was the hardest group we’ve met so far,” McBane spoke up as he cleaned his twin short swords. “You think it’ll just get tougher as we get closer to the city?”
“I am certain this is true,” Saphielle affirmed. “We have pushed steadily closer with our raids for the past two days; we must assume that the masters of the city know of our presence and are setting more difficult encounters in our path. Yet, they have not come out in force, which I admit puzzles me. Should they descend upon us with the weight of their armies, they could crush us easily.”
“There’s no good reason for them to do that,” Aranos said absently, scanning through his notifications. He’d been using his Elemental Weapon Spell a lot the past two days, giving whoever he was traveling with the ability to do light damage to the undead, and it had finally leveled up:
Spell Boost: Elemental Weapon has gained a level!
Rank: Student 1
Coat your weapon in primary mana, causing it to do extra damage of that aspect type.
Effect: Choose one aspect of primary or composite mana you have unlocked and apply it to a weapon. This weapon will now do 8-18 extra LP damage of this type on a hit. The weapon can be used to harm creatures that are immune to nonmagical weapons. Damage increased 2% per Spell level
Duration: 10 mins + 30 s / Spell level.
Cost: 60 SP
Have I got a surprise for you…
“Care to explain that a bit?” Longfellow asked archly, pulling Aranos’ thoughts from his notification. “Or do you just prefer we take it on faith? Not that we wouldn’t; you’ve been right so far, and I hope that doesn’t start changing anytime soon.”
“Thanks to my undoing the wards, whoever’s in the city probably doesn’t know where we are at any given moment or how many of us there are, just that we’re out here,” Aranos explained, focusing on the somewhat snarky Archer. The man was ce
rtainly sarcastic, but he was also laid-back enough that he took it as well as he gave it. It was hard not to like him, Aranos had found.
“If it were me, I’d assume that we were a scouting or raiding party sent in advance of a larger group. I don’t think that the urukkai are friendly with the undead, so if another elven army is on the way, the undead probably have no way to track it. If the city sends out a sortie in force and it turns out we’re a larger or more formidable group than they expected, that weakens them against the inevitable assault from the invading army.
“Right now, all we’re doing is killing some of their patrols and inching toward the walls. It’s not likely that we’re getting over those walls if they’re manned and patrolled adequately; whoever’s in charge has to know that. So, they keep sending out more powerful patrols to test us. My guess is, at some point, they’ll make a larger strike against us, probably at night when we’re weaker and they’re stronger, but that won’t happen until they feel like we’re a real danger.”
“If this is true, they will soon be sending out bait,” Saphielle observed. “They will send creatures powerful enough to daunt a small group but that could be felled by a large and powerful one. When this happens, we should avoid engaging these creatures, as defeating them may lead the city to strike more directly against us.”
Aranos shook his head. “I’d actually like them to sortie in force,” he demurred. “The Elemental Ward should take out most of them and weaken their defenses to the point that we might find a gap to slip through. That’s our best option for making it into the city.”
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to getting inside the city, too,” McBane sighed. “All of us are stuck at level 10 until we finish this unless we want to take a crap Advanced Class. I for one am getting antsy to level up.”
“I don’t blame you,” Aranos nodded. “Judging from Geltheriel’s maps, I think we’ll be sight of the walls tomorrow. We’ll get a better feel for what we’re facing, then, and Silma can scout to see if there’s a weak point or a hidden entrance.”
“One wonders what we will do if there is not,” Rhys observed. “Will we assault the walls directly, leading to our heroic but ultimately useless deaths? Or will we retreat and keep up these attacks, hoping that we empty the city of undead at some point?”
“That’s not how these Quests work, is it?” Longfellow snorted. “There’s always a way to complete them, even though it might not be obvious. If we can’t find a way in, we’ll make one. Heck, for all we know, there’s a hidden escape tunnel leading right into the city somewhere nearby.” Longfellow looked at Aranos. “Which reminds me, has anyone thought to look for that? If it turns out we could have just walked into the city and not gone through all this, I’m going to be royally pissed off.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re right; there almost has to be an escape tunnel,” Aranos smiled. “This place was designed to house and safeguard knowledge, so I’m sure that the builders designed a way for whoever guarded that knowledge to get it out of the city if the worst happened. Phil’s had Silma scouting for it during their training periods, but there’s a lot of ground to cover. If there is one, it’ll probably exit out of sight of the walls, behind where a besieging army would camp, and toward elven lands.”
“And, as I informed you, it will likely be heavily defended,” Saphielle pointed out. “The undead have held this city for centuries and never tire; certainly they will have discovered any such tunnel and set a heavy guard upon it.”
“It’s still better than trying to storm the gates, isn’t it?” McBane pointed out tiredly. “Even if they’ve barricaded the tunnel, it probably won’t compare to the city’s defenses. I’ve seen what medieval fortifications look like; they’re built to keep people like us from doing what we want to do.”
Aranos shook his head as the arguments continued; they’d all had this same discussion any number of times over the past couple of days, days that had consisted mostly of the group slowly working their way closer to the city, trying to open a safe corridor for Silma to slip near and scout the place out using the new charm he’d crafted for her, while at the same time hoping she’d find a hidden exit in the forest beyond. Thinking about that made him reflect over the past couple of days and how they’d gotten to this place.
Logout had been uneventful, at least for Aranos. He’d been logged out at dawn, just as he had before, and awoke to find himself secured in the Mark-I pod, his vision filled with green goo that slowly drained away. The first time he’d awoken this way, he’d panicked and tried to break free; this time, he only felt a brief surge of disorientation that passed in a second or two. He’d been hosed down, allowing Neo-dyne, the company that produced both Singularity Online and the Akzam Mark-I pods that allowed such a perfect interface, to reclaim the nano-gel that still clung to Jeff’s skin. Since that gel was a proprietary substance and a big part of what allowed him to survive for a week in the pod, Jeff understood that the company wanted to salvage as much of it as possible.
He’d gone through his battery of medical tests, discovering as he did that just as before, he’d put on muscle and gained lung capacity while he’d been under. Apparently, the muscular and cardio stimulation the nano-gel performed to keep his body from atrophying in the pod was getting him into the best shape of his life. He’d grabbed a quick bite of artificial eggs and synthetic bacon from the cafeteria and come back to find a message waiting for him. The email came directly from David Newsome, the CEO of the company, and simply read, “92%. Keep it up. Newsome.”
That was heartening; it meant that he’d gone from 89% to 92% connectivity in the past week. As best as he understood, connectivity was a measure of how closely his brain and the Mark-I had adapted to one another. Since he knew that the ultimate goal of this project was to find a way to perfectly replicate a human mind in an artificial body – the “singularity” of Singularity Online – he was pretty certain that if you reached 100%, you would be able to successfully integrate yourself into an artificial intelligence. He didn’t think he’d be ready to actually do that, but it was cool to know that it might be possible.
Once he’d read the message, he strapped back into the pod and began the process of logging back into Singularity. He felt the now-familiar falling sensation that signaled he was being dropped into the game and opened his eyes to find himself standing in the reclaimed watchtower. He walked over to the window and peered out; there were his party members, three of them using Jhaeros’ training crystals while the fourth sat before the mana crystal Aranos had loaned him, cycling his mana.
The party had spent the morning training, the three melee fighters trading off using the three sets of crystals while Rhys worked on his Spells, Skills, and cycling mana. Admittedly, Silma had needed some help putting the crystals on her lupine body, but fortunately each crystal’s band had a sizing Enchantment that let it fit around just about any creature, even a 10’ long fenrin.
Rhys had similar difficulties, but none of the others could assist him. The Druid’s mana was different from Aranos’; it was divine in origin and came directly from nature, so it was already aspected and couldn’t be used for other purposes. Apparently, mana crystals had only limited effectiveness for him, but he could use one specifically to train his mana channels. The mana wouldn’t stay in his core, though, so it wouldn’t help his Mana Control Skill at all, and he’d had to practice channeling Spells to see any bonuses in that.
All of the elves were excited, though; it turned out, the speed boost the AIs gave them in leveling also applied to Stat and Skill training. They’d each seen huge growth, at least by their standards. Typically, they would have had to practice with the crystals an hour a day for a week to get a 2-point bonus; getting the same bonus in a single day astounded each of them. Silma was less impressed; as Aranos’ Companion, the fenrin’s Stats naturally grew at a faster pace than the elves’, and the boosts weren’t as big of a deal for her.
The party spent the rest of the day scouting
between the waystation and the city of Antas. Even with Silma ranging ahead and Aranos removing the occasional ward they encountered, they were still assaulted by undead with regularity. The giant, skeletal gasha Aranos had encountered in Haerobel had possessed an Ability like Aranos’, letting them sense living creatures without needing to see them. Apparently, some of these undead had the same Ability, allowing them to track the party through Stealth and drawing them to attack the elves.
Thus, Aranos’ education into the various types of undead began. Far from the city, they encountered primarily the stooped, deformed jangshie, who Aranos learned fed by draining life energy through their prehensile tongues. They also ran into packs of ghuls, which were the ghoul-like monsters they’d fought at the tower, and the occasional vangolor that ran with these packs.
He also found that the game had mindless undead, those that had to be raised and directed by a necromancer. Haigols were simply animated humanoid skeletons; they didn’t carry weapons or wear armor, and they simply charged any enemy they sensed and tried to bring them down with their bony claws. Jumbishes were basically zombies: rotting corpses that moved and attacked with fists. None of these creatures were dangerous individually, but the parties often ran into thirty or forty of them at once, and then they were a challenge.
These types of undead roamed freely throughout the forests, but according to both Aranos’ new Undead Lore Skill and Geltheriel, these were among the weakest types of undead and were generally created as fodder by necromancers. They were simple to raise in large numbers, needed no food or sleep, and would follow basic commands like, “Kill every living creature that moves near you.” In fact, Aranos didn’t really think these things were here to deal with the possibility of an elf or human assault; he had a feeling they were here to deal with the occasional incursion of the urukkai patrols from Cendarta. He remembered how the patrols they’d met were torn up and battered as they neared Antas; those patrols probably ran into creatures like this.
