by Rick Scar
Congratulations! You’ve made the impossible!
You are the first player in the history of Ascension to beat a Viscount singlehandedly.
Awarded the title: Titan Fall.
+4 Luck
+7% Damage dealt to Viscounts
+10% Physical resistance to Viscount rank monsters
+3% Chance of unique drops when killing Viscounts
Skill level upgrade: At gunpoint is upgraded to Journeyman.
+4% Chance to deal critical damage with ranged weapons.”
“Wow! Three levels and four Luck! I’ll need that. If that ladder was two inches shorter, I’d be dead for real.”
Then he turned to the most rewarding part—picking up loot. The jump off the roof only took 7% and got Will a four hour sprained ankle debuff. That was a valuable lesson, in case he was going to scurry away from someone, in the future.
He searched the boss’s corpse first and then returned to the warehouse. When he was done emptying the bags, he walked out of the warehouse, and logged out. All Will wanted was to go to bed and fall asleep, as soon as possible. It seemed like he was killing those rats for too long.
He slept through the whole day and the following night. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, of course, he started examining his trophies. Smaller rats dropped teeth, bones, skulls, two pieces of solidified ruby-like drops of cursed blood, several dozen silver coins, one Gold item and one Silver, and a rare recipe.
“Cursed Blood (Rare). Alchemic ingredient.
Cursed Aura (Rare). Alchemic recipe for the potion that casts Cursed Aura on you to protect against attacking enemies.
-20% Slowdown
-13% Physical and Magic damage.
Duration: 3 minutes.”
One of the two items from the rat boss (both level forty) was completely useless to RAVen, and he was going to sell it; the other one was exactly what he needed.
“Flying Dagger (Gold).
This dagger was forged by Salar the gnome for a reputable rogue from the South, who never came back for his order.
Damage: 106-158
+18% Dodge
+24% Chance to stun the target for 5 seconds
+3% Chance to instant kill the target when attacking from the back
Skill: Deadeye’s Toss (Active) lets you throw the dagger at enemies not being afraid to lose it. The dagger comes back to the owner.
Damage: 103-135
Weapon range: 33 feet
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Level requirement: level 40
Class Requirement: Rogue.”
And, finally, the last item—a cloudy purple stone that was emitting some bad energy. Inspect.
“Cursed Shard (Unique).
This shard is mere a piece of something big. Find someone who would tell you more.
Secret chain quest Secret of the Shards.
Find someone who would tell you the secret.
Reward: 1000 XP, a unique skill book.
Accept? Yes/No.”
Secret quests were almost as important as epic ones—you could get a lot of XP, rare and unique skills and items. RAVen wasn’t going to pass on something like this. He accepted the quest. Not knowing who or where he was supposed to look didn’t stop him, there was no hurry.
Chapter 11. Find him!
The room in a small building, Mollie Houns and her closest clan mates were renting, filled with silence.
None of them could afford buying their own space, and the RMT wasn’t there yet (the developers were not clear on whether it was going to be introduced in Ascension), so they had to pay pretty penny for renting one.
This dead silence was affecting everyone in the room, they were all tensed. There was a good reason for that—a unique quest, one of their clan members accidentally stumbled on. The task was incredibly hard though. They were supposed to find an old mage, named Ricky Armastrus, since he was the only person, who knew the way to a secret cave. The endgame was an aiguiere, that once belonged to one of the nine Light Knights. The problem was, no one knew where to look for this Ricky Armastrus guy. They didn’t even know the Floor he could be on.
“Alright, that’s it! The quest is ours either way. It’s unique, for crying out loud. We just have to be patient; he’ll turn up sooner or later. Let’s not get carried away here. Chameleon,” Kingmaker addressed the guy, who found the quest, “you hear me? Work on your lev-vel.” She couldn’t pronounce that last word right.
“Unknown player for your thought?” asked someone.
Yes, she remembered that mysterious player. When she had seen him leveling up like crazy, she almost dropped the coffee mug she was holding.
“Who do you have to sleep with, to get all this XP? It’s not even funny anymore. Goddamn! Can anyone explain this? Because all I can think of is that this dude, somehow, managed to kill a monster well above his level.” said Mollie, demanding an answer.
She got a reply from everyone present, if a puzzled look counts as one. The mysterious player was going up fast. Level thirty… Crimson Berserker was level nineteen, and Mollie with her crew just made it past level fifteen. It was an outrage.
“Right. Listen up! The first one to find this guy gets an item of their choosing. Skill book or a weapon, I don’t care, just find him! I need a video as proof. Tainirk, spread the word.” she paused for a moment, and then continued “OK, let’s adjourn then. Anyone has anything about the key?”
“Nope, forums are empty. No videos, no comments, no nothing. It hasn’t come up yet, but our people are on it.”
“I see. We have to lay our hands on it before anyone else does. Dismissed, see you at the next one.”
Everyone left, except Catalia—a good old friend, and a rogue.
“Mollie, are you alright?” asked the girl, and patted Mollie on the shoulder.
“Mhm.” When they were alone, Mollie would always turn into a simple girl, without a clan, her parents’ wealth, and connections. It seemed like it was Catherene, who was nourishing the good in her.
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, you’re kinda hung up on that guy. You think you can recruit him?”
“Absolutely,” said Mollie in a voice full of determination, “I want him to play for us. You know how badly we need talented players. He’s our ticket up.”
“What if he just got lucky?”
“We can’t know, until we find out who he is.”
“Assuming, we do, what good are we to him? What do you have to offer to a guy, whose rating is above all of ours put together?”
“That I don’t know… yet.”
Chapter 12. Ready to leave
When RAVen was done fiddling with the items, he looked at the money, and gave a long whistle of surprise. Thirty seven gold, twelve silver, and some copper change seemed a generous bounty. Most of this, if not all, came from the rat boss. RAVen dropped Pak a message to remind about the skill books he was asking for, and to let him know that he’s willing to double the money for the right skills. After that, he opened up the stats.
Ever since he had learned that last skill, he didn’t have a chance to upgrade or learn new ones. When such a chance presented itself—rat slaying spree brought him five Skill points—he upgraded Stealth, raising it to the next level, spent one on Dodge, and two on Parry. The last one he saved, till better days.
“Dodge. Passive skill (Apprentice).
Heightened sense of awareness allows to evade incoming attacks.
Requirements: none.”
“Parry. Active skill (Journeyman).
Use your weapon to deflect incoming attacks.
Energy required: 25
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Requirements: none.”
“Invisibility. Active skill (Journeyman).
Makes you invisible as long as you’re not under attack.
Energy required: 20
Duration: 45 seconds
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Class requirements: Rogue, Thief, Ghost Demon.”
When this part was done, Will headed to the tavern, where he was hoping to find Oldak. And he did find him there, drunk, of course. When RAVen showed him the skulls, ol’ Oldak got so excited, he almost tore RAVen’s hand off, shaking it. He was immensely grateful.
“Thank you so much, oh, mighty warrior! If it wasn’t for you… I, I don’t know how to thank you. Because… That’s a whole lot of skulls, I tell ya.”
“Fourteen.” emphasized Will, to make sure, he gets paid for all of them, and continued, “I also found out what they were looking for. Do you know what this is?” Will produced the purple stone, that, for some reason, stopped emanating and looked like a regular stone.
“Ah, yes, I recognize it. My old man brought this from a journey, about two years ago. He’s an adventurer, my old man is, much like yourself, oh, mighty warrior.” Oldak felt, obviously, proud of his father.
“Did he tell you what it is, or where he found it?”
“Hmm… No, he didn’t say what it was, but I remember he told me the place where he picked it up. The Vaald Canyon.”
“The Vaald Canyon? Do you know where it is?”
“Somewhere up north, that’s all I know. Here’s your reward, by the way. The sword I gave you. Keep it. And the stone too. It’s a gift from my old man, but if it causes trouble, take it.”
“Congratulations! Rat Slayer completed.
+10000 XP + 200XP (bonus Pathfinder)
+28 gold
Additional task completed: find out what the rats were looking for.
+5500 XP 200XP (bonus Pathfinder)
+Cursed Shard.”
“Glad I could help. So long!”
“Farewell, messenger of Gods!”
Will slowed down on his way out, and addressed the man,
“You knew who I was?”
“Everyone knows the prophecy, young man. Why do you think I wasn’t surprised to see you back from the warehouse? But, you know what?”
“What?”
“The gates may be closed for a reason, you know. The Gods, in their eternal wisdom, wouldn’t sacrifice their bodies for no reason…”
When Will walked outside, he had already forgotten Oldak’s words. What he needed was a map, big enough, to match the drawing of Alvian mountains with it.
Local library was not far from the central square. It was a two-story stone building, covered with fresco paintings. Inside, he found a young man, hovering over a book on a lectern.
“Hello, good sir.”
“Eh? Oh, a customer!” For a moment, the young man looked as if he had never seen other people. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to see you. How may I help you?”
“I need a detailed map of the lands.”
“Looking for something specific?”
“Alvian Mountains and the Vaald Canyon”
“I see. Here, take a seat. What is your name, sir?”
“White RAVen.” replied Will honestly.
“That’s an interesting name, messenger. How long have you been around?” His voice was coming from upstairs, where he was looking for the map.
“A week or so. Why?”
“So, the clock is ticking…”
“What clock?”
“On the gates, of course. Now you didn’t come alone, did you?”
“No, you’re right, there are a lot of us.”
“Right, I got the map.” The young man brought a roll of parchment, and handed it to Will. “Have you started looking for the key?”
“Do you know where it is?”
“I wish!” said he with a smile, and continued, “My name is Drak. So, you can stop calling me sir.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” said Will, looking at the map of the East Continent. “A little hand, Drak? It’ll take me forever to make sense of this map.”
“What’s there to make sense of? There’s your mountains, and there’s your canyon.” The young man pointed at the mountains near a small lake, and the canyon, almost without looking.
“Hmm. Mountains or canyon… If only there was a way to know what level the inhabitants are.” murmured Will, and then addressed Drak, “What do you know about the town in the mountains?”
“Town? There are no towns up there.”
“Shadow Order then… Hiding, are we?” murmured Will again, “OK, I think I got all I needed. Thank you, and goodbye.”
“Anytime. Always happy to help.” Drak waved his hand, and resumed reading.
RAVen went outside and straight to the bulletin board. He felt he was ready to leave the town, and see what’s out there. Apparently, the rat thing was a onetime quest, and, judging by the commotion around the warehouse, and how everyone looked busy, the rats were gone for good. He took few assignments that didn’t look too hard: one kill quest and two gather quests. Kill ten wild Ligers—Will had no idea that they were, but their tusks cost three gold a piece. He also had to find some diaphanous web, that local spiders were spinning, and collect some herbs. All three led to Taargada Forest.
Chapter 13. A mysterious hunter
Before leaving, RAVen thought he’d take the Twilight Walker for a spin. There was no use trying it, when he was battling the rats, so he found a quiet alleyway, and activated the skill. His body became blurred, and dissolved in the nearest shadow. The world around him turned grey, like he was seeing it through some sort of filter. Will looked like a faint copy of himself, slowly moving from shadow to shadow.
“Hmm, I wonder…” said he, and put his foot against a shadowed wall. It didn’t say in the description, that the shadow on the ground is different from the shadow on the wall. And it worked! Then, he put both feet on the wall, and simply walked up its surface. The next moment, when the effect timed out, the grey world spat Will out, onto the real world’s ground. His brain wasn’t used to such kind of transitions, so the realization of colors came seconds delayed.
“Now we’re cooking with gas, ha-ha!”
Right after the experiment, Will left Skiavra, and headed to the forest, that was a mile away from the village. But Will felt hesitant to go there—he thought he wasn’t ready, and he certainly wasn’t going to rely on luck again. There were various monsters around, mostly in small groups of three to four individuals. A bunch of black fur goat-like creatures was grazing fairly close to him. Their twirled protruding horns looked like lethal pikes, and their cloven hoofs made the ground shake, every time they stepped on it. Will gulped, thinking of how hard one would have to stomp, to make the ground vibrate.
Inspect.
“Hammerhead: level 48.
Health: 7400.”
That last number was bad news—Will knew they weren’t going to go down that easy. If he had tried to hunt them like rats, they’d have razed the warehouse to the ground. This thought made him walk around them, and keep looking for easier targets.
“Slimy Worm: level 49.
Health: 8300.”
…
“Scintillant Viper: level 52.
Health: 9000. ”
…
“Smoke Hound: level 63.
Health: 10200”
The search didn’t go so well. Part avoiding, part hiding using Stealth and Twilight Walk, he eventually stumbled on relatively calm dogs. Their level was frightening, but, at least, they looked like dogs. Well, kind of. These dogs were six feet five tall, with eyes gleaming green, and bodies made of thick yellow smoke. Two of them were patrolling the territory around a small lake, with a stubby hut in the middle of it, approximately, a hundred and thirty feet from Will. Thinking about what kind of person would reside in a place like this with guard dogs, and whether he should beware of the monsters, Will started surveilling the house. He was cautious and patient.
Frequent deaths in Ascension had taught other players to take death matters seriously. Seven hour debuff and loss of 40% of last level’s XP seemed harsh and unattractive.
The sky was clear, and the sun cut off any chance to get around the hounds. Will was thinking if it was worth trying to approa
ch the hut, and who the monsters were actually guarding. He knew he was too weak to confront local fauna, and, just when he was going to take off, the door opened.
A robust man showed at the doorstep, wearing well crafted hunter clothing. In his hands, he was holding a big bowl. The man finger whistled, and put the bowl by his feet. The hounds left their post, following the command, and ran to their master, right across the lake.
“Sure, why not?” whispered Will.
Another dog emerged from a lean-to, and took their place. It started pacing back and forth, indicating that the perimeter was secure. Will felt it was enough just standing there, doing nothing—he made a deep breath, and yelled,
“Hey, there! Hello!”
The man looked at Will for a while, and then made a gesture with his hand, as he was going back in. RAVen started moving slowly toward the hut, hoping it wasn’t a trap, and that this weirdo wasn’t luring him in. The dog, that was orbiting the lake, stopped, and starred at the guest. RAVen stepped on the narrow wooden bridge, stretching across the lake. Unlike his dogs, the master was, apparently, incapable of walking on the water.
“At least, something is normal here.” said Will to the dogs that were munching on the meat from the bowl.
It was warm and cozy inside. The fire was burning in the fireplace, but there was no smoke. Will thought it was some sort of magic that kept him from being seen from afar. Trophy monster skulls were hanging on the walls. The man himself was sitting in the chair, petting another dog, or, rather, his hand was resting in the dog. Compared to the ones Will saw outside, this dog was much tougher. It sat by the chair, and looked relaxed, but it was clear, that the dog wouldn’t hesitate to bite anyone’s head off, if they were to act inappropriately.
“Well? Are you just going to stand there like a spare prick at a wedding? What do you want?” asked the man emotionlessly. He, so it seemed, was not a big guest lover.
“To ask you something.”
