by John L. Monk
We were now “outlaws,” Rita explained. Players who’d turned on their fellow heroes—similar to “turncoats,” except we hadn’t sided with any lucids.
My mind drifted to the Crimson Sigil and their new interest in me. They wanted the secret to beating Myrialla and had employed Greenie Red to discover it. The troublesome assassin, I figured, was also an outlaw.
“We’re pretty far now, right?” I said hopefully.
“You always whine,” Rita said. “Just a little more. They might have trackers.”
Divination was pretty rare, in that it took a Hard Mode player to even receive the Curse of Knowledge.
I said as much.
“Not that kind of tracker,” she said. “Shapeshifters can track. Rangers can too—even through the air, at higher levels. Jaddow told me.”
“Did you two talk about everything, or just hruuk magi and kitchen sinks and things like that?”
“Someone sounds jealous…”
I immediately regretted my comment. From what I knew of Rita, she regretted hers, too.
I was jealous, dammit.
We were flying over the most beautiful vistas I’d ever seen: white-capped mountains, shining rivers, and sky-blue lakes tucked away like precious secrets. The Everlife designers had outdone themselves with this part of the world.
When I’d gotten too cold and couldn’t stand it anymore, I said, “Can we please land? I’d almost welcome an attack, so long as it’s a red dragon with plenty of fire.”
Rita made an exasperated sound and slowed. A minute later, she said, “Jackpot! Ethan, look!”
“Great,” I said. “I love jackpots.”
We landed on the shore of one of those lovely mountain lakes—this one in the caldera of a dormant volcano, judging by the lack of snow and the faint steam coming off the water.
Rita said, “I wonder if there’s fish in there!”
She ran laughing over the black sand, leaned down, and put her hands in the crystal-clear water.
“It’s warm! Ethan, come feel!”
I joined her at the lakeside and touched the water. It was definitely warm—a shade lower than body temperature. As an added bonus, it didn’t smell like sulphur.
“I’m going in,” she said, then suddenly blushed. “Um. Uh…”
“I’ll turn around,” I said.
“You can go after.”
“Maybe,” I said, already walking away in search of a good campsite. I almost turned back to yell be careful, but then didn’t. Hard to know if I was actually concerned or if I simply wanted to peek.
Of course you want to peek. Because you’re stupid.
The caldera, despite the heated lake, was slightly chilly, though not windy. No trees, so no firewood, but I had an idea.
The ground was a hard pack of black volcanic sand, and crumbly when I dragged my heel through it.
Perfect.
Reaching inside the bag I’d stolen from that miner, I thought gems. Turns out he had quite a collection of garnets, as well as a few diamonds. I poked through everything and found 435,622 gold, as well as equipment for non-caster classes.
“Kandoo! I summon thee!”
The sky darkened briefly, then a bumpy frog creature about three feet tall appeared. I was familiar with this one, having used it when traveling with Melody.
“Kandoo, dig me a hole four feet deep and three feet wide.”
The demon issued a burping sound similar to a toad’s and set to work. It was strong, fast, and industrious, and it completed its task quicker than I could have. While it was digging, I did sort of peek over at Rita. She was swimming breaststroke across the lake. If there were muck monsters down there they would have gotten her by now. Or maybe they were watching, too.
“Okay, out of the hole,” I told the demon. “Just sit next to it.”
It croaked and did as told.
“Ignis, I summon thee!”
Why I kept saying “thee” I had no idea, but the phrasing seemed strangely appropriate.
This lowish-level attack demon required a blood-red ruby, which I still had after confronting the miners. I’d never summoned Ignis before, but the spell description had it pegged: a mostly formless demon completely engulfed in fire. As usual with demons, it was unhappy looking.
“Okay,” I told it. “In you go—jump in the hole.”
Ignis’s sizzling reply sounded like steak landing in a pan of hot oil. Then it jumped in the hole.
“Kandoo,” I said. “Fill the hole.”
After the hole was filled, I dismissed Kandoo and waited next to the mound to see if my plan worked. Five minutes later, I distinctly felt heat emanating from the mound.
Happy with my success, I set about looking for stones to place around our makeshift stove. By the time Rita got back, the mound was hot to the point we could cook something if we wanted to.
“What did you do?” she said.
Her hair was slicked back like an otter’s, and she’d never looked so radiant. I couldn’t tell if she’d snuck more points into comeliness or if my appreciation had grown with time. The latter, if true, worried me immensely.
“Witness Mythian’s first electric stove,” I said. “There’s food, too. That miner had baguettes and wine in his bag.”
Rita giggled. “Quite the little Parisian.”
“Sí.”
Rita dug out our camp chairs, and we huddled close to the mound for warmth. Very comfortable. Downright toasty.
“What else did he have?” she said around a mouthful of baguette.
“Armor,” I said. “Strength, agility, vitality … Nothing fancy. Lots of gold, and gems of course. After that thing we killed, I’ll probably never run out.”
“Speaking of which, we need to go through the treasure. Definitely good stuff in there.”
“You’d think,” I said, more to be a good companion than from any interest in treasure.
Chapter Thirty-One
We couldn’t use any of the swords, at least not skillfully. The rings and amulets were all keepers, though. Most buffed major stats. Others had special properties.
“You can finally get rid of those robes,” Rita said, and tossed me one of the amulets. “Check this out.”
Item Name: Bird’s Eye Amulet
Major Perks: Flight (35), Eagle Eyes
Description:
Those who wear this magic necklace can see far away things as if they were up close. Oh yeah, and you can fly. Pretty fast, too. Because birds…
“Some of these descriptions,” I said. “It’s like they’re not even trying.”
“Look at this one.”
She chucked a green ring at me a little too fast, but I caught it anyway.
“Would you stop that?” I said.
Fresh from her swim and a little too happy, Rita just laughed.
Item Name: Band of Karma
Description:
Be glad, for ye are truly blessed! Wearers of this ring can expect help in small, yet significant, ways as they travel the world of Mythian.
WARNING: Gambling or playing games of chance while wearing this ring will backfire most spectacularly.
“You gonna wear it?” Rita said.
The ring on my left hand was gold, with useless stats. High in a tower in Heroes’ Landing, Melody wore a matching ring. I put the new ring on my right hand, which was still bare.
“Well?” she said.
“I don’t feel lucky.”
“Wanna bet?”
“No.”
“Why don’t you try on the amulet?” she said.
I put that on, too.
“Feels normal, but…” I peered intently at the distant ridge of the caldera and the view changed. “It’s like looking through binoculars.”
“Now try flying,” she said.
“Should I take off my robes? Wait, never mind…”
Rita giggled. “Don’t worry. It’ll probably take the faster value. Just fly.”
I got up and looked for a like
ly place a hundred feet out. Then I willed myself that way. Unlike with my robes, which would have taken me there at the pace of a light jog, I flew a little faster than the magic carpet’s thirty miles an hour. Still slower than Rita, but not by much.
When I got back she said, “Very nice. Too bad there weren’t better robes in there.”
“So what about the rest?” I said.
She held up rings and amulets one after the other, noting their various properties. In addition to stat bonuses, most granted bonuses to class abilities: sword skills, sneaking skills, spell bonuses for wizards … One amulet protected the wearer with a 10,000-point shield. Upon expiring, it would regenerate at 1000 points an hour.
“Wow,” I said. “You should wear that. Then we can both be more equally shielded next time we’re in trouble.”
“If you’re sure…”
“I already have an amulet. And I can only wear one, remember?”
Rita took the amulet with a certain amount of relief. When she put it on, the air around her briefly sparkled like a glittery rainbow, then faded.
Rita grinned. “Pretty.”
“If I had a nickel every time someone told me that.”
“Not you,” she said. “Funny you mention—I used to have some nickels. I had a coin collection when I was a little girl. Nothing fancy.”
“I had one too.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “It was very fancy.”
The lake did have fish, even though it made no ecological sense. There were no streams leaving the lake, so there was nothing for fish to swim up. Rita thought the designer, who’d taken such special care with the location, wanted to make sure people actually stayed here a bit to enjoy it. And enjoy it we did—one shining trout at a time, courtesy of a Lightning Bolt into the water.
Later on, after extracting promises that she wouldn’t peek at me, I even went swimming.
Years fell away as I waded into the soothing water, soaking up its warmth as the aches, pains, itches, and general unpleasantness of being human evaporated. I wanted to stay there forever—which, of course, felt like a betrayal.
Another check of Melody’s status showed she was safe. As I stroked back and forth across the lake, I fantasized about bringing her here. In a place like this, we could reignite what we’d lost in the real world. Likely she’d want to be a tad closer to town. A few miles closer. Otherwise, I knew, she’d feel stuck.
With me.
Now my mind turned to Rita, who was with me. As a friend. For the first time in a long while, I looked at that head-on. Just what was it between this strange ex-gamer and me? Yes, there was some physical attraction, but not overly so. We also got along great. She was here, I was here, and it didn’t mean any more than that. Proximity without implication. Whereas marriage was Till death do us part.
Melody said she’d been willing to live and die with me in the old world, but had balked at spending our immortality together. With Rita, such things were never a consideration. We killed monsters, went fishing, laughed, joked … And yeah, sometimes we peeked at each other swimming.
Why couldn’t Melody and I have that?
Cipher’s plan seemed as promising as it was improbable—leaving the game, contacting that ex-employee and getting her out … What if this person couldn’t do what Cipher expected? What if Melody wandered off again instead of waiting for me?
If I thought about it too long, I’d drop into a black mood with no bottom. I needed a distraction. Thankfully, Rita was good at that.
“I totally didn’t peek,” Rita said impishly when I sat by the mound to dry in my Mythian underwear.
“Then you’re dumber than you look,” I said.
We enjoyed more wine and cheese and read each other descriptions for monk abilities and sorcerer spells. During a lull, I got brave and asked what she’d seen in the Trial of Pain—the part after jumping through the wall of fog—but she balked. A “nightmare” was all she’d say, and I left it at that.
As far as I was concerned, all of Mythian was a nightmare if you stared at it long enough. Which lent more credence to Cipher’s plan and the motivation behind it. A fifth ward—a place where everyone could be happy and safe.
As if driving home the point that nowhere was truly safe, a dragon soared overhead on enormous bat wings.
Thank goodness we didn’t have a real fire going. We’d only seen the thing by the way it blotted out the wash of stars above. Compared to the young dragons we’d fought, this one seemed downright grandfatherly.
That night, I summoned my largest guardian to protect us. By unspoken agreement, we slept next to the mound rather than in the tent. We gazed at the stars, imagining constellations that never were in the unfamiliar sky until sleep dragged us down and away.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The snow angel’s dot on my map was a mere twenty miles away. The caption, when I focused on it, read: Seek Target 46. Way to the southwest, there were forty-five other seek targets.
“That is one hell of a huge mountain,” Rita said
We were standing on a rocky defile atop a more respectable, normal-sized mountain.
“Must be as tall as Everest,” I said in wonder. “That’s where the trail ends, by the way. Up near the top.”
Between Eureka and here, the elevation had risen from something like the Rockies to the Alps, and then to the Himalayans over the course of a day. Even though I could fly faster now, it had gotten so cold that speedy flight quickly overwhelmed my Ice Guard. Our only recourse was to keep using the carpet, which at least gave us something to lie down on. In a stroke of brilliance, Rita set up the tent by lashing the guylines to the rungs along the edges. This allowed us to take turns warming up inside.
“The air’s getting thinner,” she said.
“This might help.” I placed my bottomless bag over my face. “There’s tons of air in them.”
“You sure we’re supposed to use them like that? Our karma…”
I wanted to curse. Jaddow’s paranoia had infected her, too.
In a tone of confidence, I said, “This is just an extension of what we did with the slime. Also, it’s not cheating if the designers put air in the bags. They’re the cheaters, not us.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Normally, I’d agree. But a lot of Mythian doesn’t seem all that thought out. Probably tons of bugs in it, and no push to fix them. If you ask me, that’s why they put in the karma system. They want us to police ourselves—do their jobs for them.”
“Think of it this way,” I said. “We’re not doing something that’ll get us billions of points for nothing. That’s what they’re mainly worried about. I mean, we can’t even see our karma. Also, remember, I have this.”
I held up my hand and waggled my fingers to show off my new green ring.
“That only helps you,” she said. “We’re not even sure what it does.”
I thought for a moment. “Tell you what: we’ll only use the bags if we feel lightheaded. That’ll limit any possible cheating to the barest minimum.”
Rita nodded. “Sure. I guess. I mean, what else can we do?”
We could acclimatize ourselves, like real mountaineers.
No, I didn’t voice that thought, and yes, I felt guilty about it. I wanted to reach the Hall of Heroes now. Not weeks from now.
We flew onward until we reached the base of the mountain, which was called “Mount Rage.” Then we flew upward—at a snail’s pace, due to intense snow and heavy winds.
Despite the isolated remoteness, the region was populated by monsters. Along the mountainsides walked creatures resembling the abominable snowmen of legend, and there were dragons flying around distant peaks.
“I wonder why it’s called Mount Rage,” I said to Rita during a tent swap. We’d been switching in and out every ten minutes to warm up.
“Because Mount Cranky was already taken?”
Though my face felt almost numb from the cold, I smiled. Neither of us was in a particularly joking m
ood, but I appreciated the attempt.
Shortly before the next tent swap, the carpet jolted mightily, bouncing me off the top of the tent before smoothing out again.
I poked my head out. “What was that?”
“Wind!” Rita yelled. “Too much! We have to land!”
I ducked back in and held onto the fabric. More bucking and heaving followed, though not as severe as that first blast. A minute later, I felt the ground through the carpet as we touched down.
“How far down did you go?” I said when I came out. We were on a rocky section mostly free of snow, and level.
“About five … hundred feet,” Rita said, gasping between words. “Can barely … breathe.”
“Use your bag,” I said.
I’d been using mine for the last hour and felt fine. Karma be damned.
Rita nodded, cupped her bag over her mouth, and breathed deeply. I could almost feel her relief. She caught my eye and nodded.
A minute later, she said, “I think we have to climb on foot. Or maybe fly in small hops. Not with the carpet. It’s like a big sail out there.”
“We’re almost halfway up.”
“Has to be forty-thousand feet,” she said. “How big is Everest?”
“Super big,” I said.
Rita snorted. “You ready to try?”
I stared upward at the haze of swirling white. “Yeah.”
We folded the tent and put it away—a surprisingly difficult task in the thin mountain air, but then everything was tiring.
While flying, we kept a lookout for a cave or tunnel or however we were supposed to enter the Hall of Heroes. Meanwhile, the wind grew more violent—rage-like, I wanted to say, though she’d never hear me. At one point, I started losing health points. Something was definitely wrong.
I got Rita’s attention and told her.
“Me too!” she yelled over the wind. “Can’t feel my toes!”
“Let’s land!”
We landed in the hollow of an overhanging cliff. I called up Ignis to hover nearby and helped remove her boots.
