Absalom’s Trials

by J. D. L. Rosell

  But what else could I do but try? I was stuck. Here in this backwater village, here on this faraway continent, hell, here in the Everlands. Trapped by Absalom on a whimsy of his to have self-aware company. But if that was so, why had he let me go? And why put me through all this? It didn't add up.

  I didn't want to jump through his hoops. I was tired of it. In normal video games — Dead Souls and others like it — you were expected to die multiple times when you arrived at difficult sections. But this wasn't like other games. Here, you felt each death. You carried it with you long after the penalty had dissipated. I wasn't sure how many more deaths I could take before I started to lose it. Who knew, maybe I'd start flinging my crap at NPCs, or try and become a Fralishk myself. The whole town was a madhouse.

  Wallowing like I was, I was annoyed when my pity party was interrupted. Sarai had walked up to the edge of the resurrection shrine. “You died again?” she asked. Disappointment was plain in her tone.

  “Oh, did I?” I said sarcastically. “I just thought being naked and shivering on the floor of a shrine was my normal wake up routine.”

  "Apparently grumpiness is too." The priestess stared at me like she was looking for something more than what she saw. "Are you sure you're to be the Champion? That there wasn't a mix-up or something?"

  “Oh, there's definitely been a mix-up.” But it wasn't just me trying to be the Champion. This whole AI-awakening thing was a mix-up, and way bigger than I could wrap my head around.

  “Maybe if I pray to Isvalla, she’ll…” Sarai trailed off.

  Did I want that? To have the trials end? But I’d lose out on what seemed my best chance to even the playing field. I had to gain the ability to fight gods or I’d never work my way free.

  And maybe there was part of me that couldn't stand the thought of Abe beating me. I could overcome anything he put in front of me. I had to.

  “No. No, I’m going to beat this.”

  Sarai's eyebrows shot up. “Your grave, I guess. Or graveyard at the rate you’re going.”

  I rose to my feet. All I had was the scratchy underwear I wore, but I didn't let that stop me from confidently striding past her and back toward town. Sarai’s eyes followed me the whole way wearing an inscrutable expression.

  “What are you doing now?” she called after me.

  "Getting my stuff back,” I responded, then muttered to myself, “and getting some revenge."

  I headed for the well.

  I'd decided going in this alternate route was my best option, seeing as the bakery had clearly been watched for Kerak to ambush me so thoroughly. Hopefully, they'd believe I was dead and have relaxed their guard, so I could sneak past and nab my stuff with them none the wiser. Then I'd systematically tear them apart from the inside out, taking them out one at a time rather than all at once.

  Without armor, it was much easier to sneak, though my stamina drained quicker in the chill air. I had to stop often and chafe my arms and legs and warm up my skin. I hoped to find a coil of rope along the way, but I didn’t come across any. I had no money and no items, so unless I started breaking into homes, I was going without one. Engaging in criminal activities was probably not the best idea at the moment anyway, seeing as I now was 184 points in the hole with my Fralishk reputation, and that could only decrease it.

  Reaching the well, I approached the stone lip and gazed down. Despite my Autumn Eyes, I couldn't see all the way to the bottom. Hoping it wasn’t a far drop, I moved one foot then the other over the abyss, fitting my toes and fingers into the gaps between the stones. They were smooth, which wasn't a good sign, but I had little other choice at this point. Sucking in a deep breath, I started to descend.

  With each change in foot- and handhold, my danger grew. My fingers and toes fumbled on the stones, their smoothness interrupted only by rough, dry lichen. To make matters worse, I saw my stamina slowing decreasing in the corner of my vision. I was barely 20 feet from the top and it had already fallen by a quarter. My death penalty didn't help matters. Now that I was stuck on the side of the well, I realized should have waited for it to expire. I'd been too intent on getting on with things to stop and think, and once again, it had gotten me in trouble.

  As I descended lower and my stamina descended with it, I wondered if that wasn't my biggest problem. I'd stumbled my way through things my whole time in the Everlands, and time after time, people had to rescue me from myself. Ava, Farelle, Sheika, even Absalom — I'd grown used to moving forward and expecting everything to work itself out. Now I had no safety net. Now I had to suffer my consequences. It sucked, but there was something powerful about knowing you were the master of your own fate. Sure, there were deific puppet masters still watching and directing. But it was up to me to face the challenges and overcome them.

  My epiphany was small comfort when my stamina hit 10% and I still wasn't at the bottom. My hands shook, my shoulders ached, and my tortured toes were torn and raw. I kept peering down, but the further I went, the less I could see. Only a black hole like the gullet of a massive python greeted me below.

  Then the inevitable happened — I missed the foothold. My other foothold slipped, both handholds giving out quickly after. My stomach lurched as I fell, and my heart was in my throat.

  It goes to show that my relentless optimism wasn't dead yet, as I half-expected the floor to be right there below me.

  It wasn't.

  You have died.

  All your items remain at the location of your death. You or any other player may retrieve them at any time.

  You are also weakened by your resurrection. While weakened, you receive a -25% penalty to all attributes and meters, which will cease at the end of 3 hours. This penalty will become more severe with subsequent deaths.

  Next time, don’t suck, Marrow.

  I had one thing to be grateful for when I awoke this time: the death penalty didn't stack. Otherwise, I was as cold and miserable as before in my rough underwear.

  Though, as I rose from the stone floor of the resurrection shrine, I barely felt the usual moroseness that came with respawning. Sure, I felt like hell, but I had a purpose. I had a drive. And best of all, I had a plan.

  The plan? To use the hours that my death penalty lasted to make a plan.

  So it wasn't the ideal start to a grand scheme to overcome Boss Kerak, but I was no less determined. I marched inside the temple and bummed a blanket off Sarai. Ignoring her look of pity, I hunkered down at the top of the temple stairs and stared at the vague outlines of Urandal. I stared, I thought, I planned, but nothing seemed to stick. They were pieces of a plan, and none of them big enough to take out Kerak.

  My death penalty was nearly up when the twilight before dawn, the time that Devalyn were supposed to thrive, arrived. But for my three hours of sitting, I had little to show. I glanced up at the sky, still starless with dark clouds, to see another light had joined the coming dawn. Rising above the far-off hills was a full moon. I remembered from the barrow that the moon was the autumn elves' symbol. Well, hopefully, it would bring me luck.

  It hit me a moment later. I looked back up at the moon, amazed I hadn't thought of it before. The plan finally crystallized, and I knew it was going to work.

  You have learned a skill: Strategy. Not all problems can be approached head-on; sometimes, you must come up with a plan. Advance in strategy whenever you attempt to devise your way around a difficult problem. Leveling up this skill may result in bonuses and access to select specialty skills.

  About time! It felt as if gaining this new skill was a sign I was on the right path. I grinned and rose. It was time to kick some fox-rat ass.

  8

  Boss Bagging

  As the penalty lifted, my movements became much easier, and I felt stronger, sharper, more alive. I hadn't realized how my increased attributes had made me feel better until they'd been stripped away from me. I wouldn't forget it again. I breathed in the cool night air deeply, then let it out.

  I went back to the temple first t
o drop off the blanket. I wouldn't need it from now on. When Sarai rose from her prayers to greet me, she stared at me. “You looked different.”

  "Different how? I'm as naked as before," I replied cheerily.

  “Your attitude.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you figure something out?”

  “Maybe. I guess you'll just have to wait and see.” We both would. I had no delusions that this plan might be as much of a bust as the last ones. But at least I'd thought things through this time and knew what I was up against.

  I jogged down the steps to town but slipped off the path before I reached Urandal. I snuck the rest of the way down, keeping to the tall brush where it grew and shadows where there was nothing else. The horizon was beginning to grow a lighter blue. Twilight had fully arrived.

  It wasn't hard to find the first of Kerak’s lackeys. The threat supposedly eliminated, they had come off high alert and were slouching about the streets like they owned the place. Well, maybe they did, but only for a little while longer. I snuck up behind one who was lighting the end of a pipe and held out my hands. I hadn't channeled Align Ally before, but no time like the present. As I concentrated on the channel, a warm feeling of goodwill suffused me, filling me to the point that I poured forth and into the Fralishk before me.

  A white glow appeared around him. He stiffened, the pipe falling from his hands, before looking around at me with a slack grin on his face. “Hi,” he said in his rough voice.

  I pointed at a pair of his fellow lackeys. “If you'd be so kind, go attack those two.”

  The Fralishk followed my finger and stared blankly for a second. Then he shrugged. “Hate them anyway.” He ambled off toward them, drawing his sword as he went. As I slipped away, I heard the screams of combat start up.

  I used the same ruse elsewhere in town with similar success, but it drained me of most of my spirit. Time for the second part of my plan. I found another loner lackey — they really should have stuck together tonight — but this one was in an exposed area where sneaking up from either side would be difficult. Good thing my excursion to the well had started a new skill for me: climbing. I scurried up the building behind the Fralishk and, ignoring the cold slime I had to crawl through, came up to the lip of the roof. The lackey was sitting and whittling away at a sliver of wood, forming something that vaguely resembled a flower. I wondered if it was for some nice Fralishk girl. Too bad for her. I leaned over and channeled Siphon Essence. Seconds later, the lackey collapsed, too drained of spirit to move for the moment. Looking to make sure the coast was clear, I leaped down from the roof and finished him off with his own knife, then took it with me as I went.

  I had to take out another lackey in a similar way before my spirit was back to full. By this point, the town was stirring. Lights had appeared in the arrow slits of Kerak’s manor, and lackeys moved in knots of three or four, patrolling the streets with lanterns and interrogating anyone whom they thought looked suspicious. That wouldn't be a problem as long as the third part of my plan worked like I hoped.

  Scrambling up another house, I settled down onto a relatively flat part of the roof and took a breath, then focused on my next channel. This one started deep within me, touching on a primal side I'd barely been aware of. That flame grew and grew until it warmed, then burned, everything inside of me. As I fed it more fuel, it began to reshape me — bones, organs, muscles. My face elongated. My teeth extended and sharpened. My skin blossomed with fur. I grew strong, quick, deadly.

  The transformation complete, I tried to grin, but it came out as a snarl. Wolves only smile after the kill. I had a feeling I was going to like Aspect of the Wolf.

  Other than my change in stats, it looked like I switched out my old skills for temporary new ones:

  They looked useful at least. But no more delays. Time to put this form to the test.

  In my powerful wolf body, it was easy to spring from the top of the roof to the street below. I didn’t even take damage from the jump. I felt the stat changes as I loped along, the increased strength and agility especially. My vision had notably sharpened, and the world had come alive in hearing and, most of all, smell. The last bit was unfortunate, as now I smelled every bit of grime in the town. But I also smelled Fralishk, a stink that was surprisingly delicious. Good thing they were on the menu tonight.

  I ghosted along the streets, hunting for my prey. Where I found knots of lackeys, I struck from the shadows, fangs hamstringing my victims and cutting out their jugulars. When they struck back at all and didn't just flee, my thick, shaggy hide stopped most of the damage, and in three encounters, I lost a mere 20 health.

  But I didn't stop there. I knew there were at least a dozen more lackeys lurking about from what I had counted during my ambush. I had to take them out before facing Kerak. Time was another variable; I had to hurry, lest the channel expire and I was left defenseless and mostly naked among enemies.

  But no matter how I combed the streets, I didn't find any more Fralishk by themselves. My nose picked up where they had gone. A group of the creatures had gathered in the central square, just outside Kerak's manor and the fighting pit. The boss had wised up and consolidated his forces. He wasn't going to lose any more men to stealth attacks. With no other choice, I slunk toward the square.

  I saw them before they saw me. The odds were more favorable than I'd hoped for, with only seven lackeys about the boss. But eyeing Kerak’s spiked mace, I was leery of going head to head against him again, especially when he had backup.

  I slunk back, hoping to strike from behind and take out a few before fleeing again when one of the Fralishk screeched and pointed at me. I wouldn't be getting any surprise advantage now. Padding forth, I stepped into the light of the square.

  “Beast!” Kerak called to me. “You have good hunting this night! But it time to leave my men alone now. You leave, or die.”

  We had some thirty feet between us, but his lackeys huddled around their master and watched me carefully. Bonfires were lit at each corner of the square. They feared to find me in every shadow. I would have smiled had I been able.

  “Beast!” the boss addressed me again. “What you want? You not eat our meat. You kill and leave rot. Why not leave? We kill you else.” He lifted and slammed his mace into the dirt for emphasis.

  I slowly started moving forward like I stalked them still. Some of his men started to tremble but were slapped back to courage by their peers. We'd see how long that lasted. I inched closer.

  “Beast! This your last warning!” Kerak sounded confident, but I saw the way his hands twitched on his mace’s handle. His lackeys were in even worse shape.

  I sprang forward and put every bit of myself into my wolf skill Snarl. From my throat came a terrible menacing sound, like a monster in a dark forest. The Fralishk seemed to hear the same thing, for all but the boss scattered and bolted for safety.

  “Cowards!” Kerak roared after them, never taking his eyes from me. He raised his mace to his shoulder, keeping it ready for a swing. “Now, beast. You and me.”

  I didn't bother trying another Snarl but padded forward. Time to do this the old-fashioned way. Darting in and around him, I easily slipped by his slow mace to get behind him and nip at his heel, then sprang back out of range of his punching gauntlet. The Fralishk boss roared in anger more than pain. I had a long ways to go before bringing him down.

  I carried on my guerrilla attacks, snipping and biting and slashing at every opportunity and wearing down his stamina. My stamina refilled quickly and was substantial in this wolf form, so I had little fear of wearing out myself. Kerak only got in one lucky kick. He was too big and too slow, and his mace too clunky a weapon for a quick enemy. It wasn't long before he was on his knees, legs bleeding from his many wounds, and defeat looming large in his eyes.

  His mace slipped from his hands, and the big Fralishk prostrated himself before me. “Surrender!” he gasped. “I surrender. Please, beast, mercy for me. Spare Kerak. He go away, he hide, he do whatever you are wanting. But please,
mercy.”

  I paused midway through readying to pounce and tear out his throat. Mercy… was that the Champion way of doing things? Sarai was right; I hadn’t really considered the other alternatives to take care of the Kerak problem, and I didn't know Urandal politics except what Helge had told me. Perhaps this man wasn't as much of a brute as he looked. Perhaps I could spare him and still succeed in the quest.

  But something had changed in me. Hardened. I didn't want half measures. I didn't want loose ends. I was done taking unnecessary risks, and leaving Kerak alive was a big one.

  He lifted his eyes, and I think he knew my intentions then. His eyes widened, but that was as far as he got before I leaped.

  +1500 XP!

  -5 Alignment: Moral

  A minute later, I loosened my jaw from his neck and padded to the center of the square. Though I couldn't see them, I sensed the Fralishk lingering all around. Despite their fear of me, the killing of the boss was too great an event to miss. It played right into my hands. I licked the blood of their dead boss from my jaws and grinned.

  But that part of the plan was done. With reluctance, I let go of the primal part of me and felt the transformation slip away. Once again, I stood upright as a Devalyn. Hisses and gasps sounded from all around me. I took a deep breath. Time to put my ridiculous charisma score to work.

  “Urandal!” I shouted. “My name is Marrow. Some of you have met me throughout this town as I have attempted to understand who you are as a people.”

  The Fralishk who had been lurking in the shadows of houses started inching forward into the light, though they kept their distance. Encouraged I was reaching them, I pressed on, letting words I didn't know I had in me flow out.