Demon Lords (World-Tree Trilogy Book 2)

by EA Hooper

  Nokai – Classification: Nature-World | Size: Large | Fact #1: Nokai is the sixth-largest planet on the World-Tree. | Fact #2: Most common enemies are giants. | Warning #1: Follow the underground routes for your own safety. | Warning #2: Take your time navigating this harsh world.

  Vincent found himself diving toward a mountain range that overlooked an icy tundra. He thought he might collide with a circle of jagged peaks, but instead the gravitational field pulled him into a cavern hidden in the middle. A hundred meters of stone and ice zipped by him, and he landed beside Xan on a Jump Gate in an open cave.

  “Did you Scan this world?” Xan asked.

  “Yeah, this is the one with giants,” Vincent replied. “It warned me to stay underground and take our time traveling here.”

  “That sounds boring,” Xan said.

  “Yeah, but it’ll keep us alive. I’ve heard most giants are B-Plus, and they’re the most common enemy on this world. It’d be really tough to fight several at once with the chains.”

  Xan snapped her chains, sending a shockwave through the nearby tunnels. “Then we won’t use them.”

  “Even still, this’ll be a challenge. Let’s keep our heads low until we know more about them.”

  Xan raised her hands, sending Light Butterflies down the nearby passages. Vincent noticed his map taking shape on the HUD, something the butterflies hadn’t been able to do the last time he’d seen Xan, so he Scanned one of the light creations.

  Light Butterfly (Cleric Only | Upgraded) – Mana Usage: Minuscule | Creates a butterfly made of light that the user controls. The butterfly can sacrifice itself to provide a teammate with a minuscule amount of healing energy. | Upgrades – Swarm Mind: Increases the user’s level of control and ability to give orders to multiple groups of butterflies at the same time. | Light Mapping: The user can spend a very low amount of mana per second to have their light creations map out the nearby area. This ability may be used with different kinds of light creations simultaneously.

  “That’s a useful upgrade,” Vincent said.

  “It’s gotten popular with Clerics in recent years.”

  Vincent noticed most of the tunnels went deeper underground, but the one that caught his attention cut through the mountain and led outside. “This way,” he said, jogging along the path until he stepped onto a snow-covered ledge overhanging the mountainside. A wind that felt like it was sub-zero cut through his armor.

  Xan approached, shivering, and they both swapped the rune armor for thick coats.

  Vincent felt for the frequency used to make fire, something he’d learned decades ago but had never taken the time to master. The warming pads built into his coat charged with heat as he focused the frequency on them. “You have warming pads, too, right?” he asked Xan.

  Xan nodded. “I don’t know fire frequencies, though.”

  The Ranger held a hand toward his ally and heated up her coat. “If the runes in your coat are anything like mine, they should hold that heat for a few hours at a time. It doesn’t take much mana to reheat them, either.”

  He paused to drink ether from a large thermos to restore his mana.

  “By chance, did you hear where this world’s other Jump Gate was located?” Xan asked.

  Vincent shook his head. “No clue. With how big this world is, it might take us days or even weeks to find it. I’d assume it’s on the opposite hemisphere from here, so let’s move quickly but cautiously. Stay near areas with trees and big rocks to hide behind. That good with you?”

  Without a reply, Xan leapt from the ledge. Her shape disappeared into the snow and mist in the valley below. The Ranger jumped after her, landing moments later in a pile of snow.

  “Well, that was a soft landing,” Vincent commented, trudging ahead.

  Xan had already taken off, and Vincent had to hurry to catch her before she reached the end of the valley. She jumped onto the rise of jagged rocks, and when Vincent joined her, he found another large drop-off leading to an icy forest.

  The Cleric pointed at the heads bobbing between treetops about half a mile from their position. “I see the giants,” she said.

  “They’re big, but they have nothing on Rethin,” Vincent noted.

  Xan smiled. “Well, let’s go say hello.” She leapt off the rocks and into the forest, taking off into a sprint the moment she landed.

  “Wait!” Vincent called, but he knew the powerful winds would’ve drowned out his voice before it reached her. He followed, summoning the Guardian’s Blade he’d gotten from Fayros.

  Why’s she being so reckless? This isn’t like her.

  With the snow slowing his running speed, Vincent felt almost like he was back on Eramar. He ran past thick trees, most ten to twelve meters tall, and realized the giants might’ve been larger than he originally thought. As he slowly closed the distance to Xan, his sharp eyes caught sight of the first giant through a gap in the trees.

  The monster’s protruding—and almost shark-like—face made him look less human than Vincent had expected. His eyes were even close to the sides of his head, giving the behemoth a dull expression.

  Before Vincent could warn Xan, the giant gave a sideways glance. The monster’s big eye—the only part of his face that looked remotely human—stared in their direction.

  >Vincent: It sees us.

  The giant opened his mouth with a guttural and incoherent muttering, but his deep voice carried over the wind. Footsteps sounded from two directions, shaking the ground.

  Xan summoned two Light-Drain Longswords to her hands as she sprinted for the first giant’s legs.

  >Vincent: Xan, wait—

  The giant kicked Xan in the chest, sending her flying through the air until she slammed into a tree. A second giant knocked trees out of his way as he stomped toward them. Vincent aimed his finger upward and fired Void Gun. The bolt of negative energy expanded as it struck and tore a hole through the giant’s head. He expected the monster to topple to the ground, but instead he shambled onward in an almost zombielike fashion, gripping his bleeding face.

  The injured giant fell forward as he tried to swat Vincent like a fly, but the man raised his hand, casting Zero Field to stop the attack. Vincent could feel the giant’s strength slowly pushing downward on his field, and he knew it wouldn’t last long. He swung the Guardian’s Blade, spending the mana to send a wave of ghostfire at the monster’s neck.

  The phantom flames burned partially through the exposed neck, and the giant reeled backward, screaming in pain. Vincent readied himself to finish off the towering monster, but he saw that a third giant—this one a woman—had joined the first, and both monsters lurched for him. He leapt backward, throwing himself a dozen meters away with Zero Field before the giants crashed into the ground, digging their fat fingers through the dirt and snow where he’d stood.

  Xan didn’t seem too injured from getting tossed—or maybe it was just her high Vitality keeping her going—and she dove for the injured giant. She swiped her phantom blades along the monster’s back as he curled in self-defense. Vincent knew well how quickly those blades could drain someone’s lifeforce, and within seconds, the giant reached out a dying hand for his brethren as he crumbled into dust.

  The two remaining giants roared with anger, sending out shockwaves that blasted bark off the nearby trees. The impact sent Xan rolling through the snow toward Vincent, giving the giants time to stand and charge at them.

  As he downed a thermos of mega-ether, Vincent raised a hand and cast Black Cinder. He directed the void embers at the legs of the giants, and they both crumpled and fell with a hard landing in front of the players.

  One giant took a swing at them mid-fall, only to hit a forcefield raised by Xan. The spell shattered upon impact, but Vincent had time to drink more ether and cast another Black Cinder over both monsters’ heads. The giants convulsed as embers poked holes through their brains, killing them.

  Vincent sighed, flashing a sideways glance at Xan. “That was a little reckless.”

&nbs
p; “It was fun,” she replied, letting her blades vanish. She hurried and collected items from all three giants. “Look at the mead they dropped!”

  Xan held a small barrel that looked like it probably took up at least two inventory slots. Before Vincent could reply, the girl opened the container and started to chug it.

  “It might not be a good idea to get drunk on a world this dangerous,” Vincent said.

  Xan ignored him and drank nonstop for half a minute. After catching her breath, she smiled and put the rest in her inventory. “Oh, come on. If Jim was here, you know he’d be drunk too.”

  “And I’d complain to him about it,” Vincent said. “Xan, what’s going on? I noticed your messages the last year have been a little off, but I thought maybe I had been imagining it.”

  “Jeez, nothing’s wrong,” she said. “I’m just tired of people taking everything so seriously. It seems like everyone’s forgotten this is a game. You’ve always been one of the fun ones, but right now, you sound too much like Zhang. ‘Don’t fight that monster till I say so, Xan. Don’t have too much fun, Xan. Wait till I decide what we’re doing, Xan.’”

  Vincent raised an eyebrow. “Oh, this is about Zhang? Quinn told me you two had a breakup or something.”

  “Oh my god,” Xan replied. “It wasn’t a break up. We never made anything official because he’s too cold for any kind of real relationship. It’s no wonder his old teammates stopped talking to him.”

  Vincent stood in the snow, awkwardly trying to think of something to say. “Uh, I’ll just follow your lead, then. How about that?”

  “That sounds fantastic,” Xan replied with a tipsy smile.

  She led them on a trek across the snow-covered forest, and they walked for about an hour without seeing giants. Just when he thought Xan was starting to sober a little, she downed the rest of the barrel.

  Vincent wanted to say something, but he held his tongue.

  I need to remember she’s only nineteen outside this game. Even though she’s been here for decades, her brain can’t really mature when only minutes have passed in the real world. I just have to let her learn through experience.

  “Look!” Xan shouted, hurrying ahead.

  A greenish glow caught Vincent’s attention, and he followed her to a crater at the edge of the forest. A warped, emerald-colored hunk of glass the size of a minivan sat at the bottom of the pit. Vincent noticed the snow melting the moment it touched or landed around the glass object, and he thought about warning Xan before remembering he was letting her take charge.

  Xan stood at the edge of the pit, eyeing the subtle glow of the glass. “Looks radioactive,” she said. “Is that even a thing in this game?”

  “I don’t know,” Vincent replied.

  “Scan it,” Xan commanded.

  Vincent Scanned the green glass.

  Skyglass – Glass that fell from the heavens. Attributes unknown.

  “It doesn’t tell me much,” he told Xan. “Only that it’s called skyglass and that it fell from the heavens.”

  Xan drunkenly gazed at the skyglass. “Did you ever get that new Scan working? The one you were developing on Eramar?”

  “I never finished it,” Vincent said. “It’s been stuck at ninety-nine percent for over twenty years. I don’t think it’s possible.”

  “Just try it!” Xan said, looking far too optimistic.

  Vincent stared at the skyglass. He activated Scan, and once he felt the frequency being directed from his eyes, he tried to zero it out like he did with his void spells. His hope with the spell had been to dissect the game’s mechanics in greater detail by breaking apart the normal limitations with negative energy, but he’d never gotten it to work.

  A long string of numbers and error messages appeared in Vincent’s field of view.

  “Still doesn’t work,” he replied.

  Xan slouched. “Aw, come on. How have you not figured that one out by now? You’re like a genius at breaking this game.”

  “I can’t just combine everything with negative energy—it doesn’t work that way,” he told her. “The game world is built around frequencies. When you zero them out, it breaks down the physics. Most the time that leads to messing up spells so badly they don’t work at all. Sometimes, it produces a brokenly useful power.”

  Xan put her fingers together, and it looked like she was struggling to think. “You have two eyes.”

  “Okay, you might’ve had too much to drink.”

  “No, hear me out,” Xan said. “Scan works from both your eyes, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “But I’ve seen you Scan stuff when missing an eye. Remember Bloodmark Cave? You ran half that dungeon with a missing eye, but you still Scanned the boss.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So, Scan must produce frequencies from both your eyes. What if one eye Scans for information, and you use the other to disrupt the game’s physics with negative energy?”

  Vincent flashed a surprised look at the drunken woman. “That’s not a terrible idea. It probably won’t work, but it’s worth a shot.”

  He shut one eye and turned his open one to the skyglass. Vincent started Scanning, but he zeroed out the frequency. When he opened the other eye, he found himself using Scan with the frequency zeroed out.

  “I’m not sure how to get this to work,” Vincent said, trying to use the normal Scan without interrupting the other eye. He tried to close and open one eye, but they synced together and ended up using the basic Scan.

  Xan flashed a drunken smile. “Is it working?”

  “No,” he replied. “It’s a lot harder than casting two different spells with my hands. My eyes naturally want to mimic each other.”

  “You’re overthinking it,” Xan said, equipping a new barrel of mead. “Here, gulp this down and relax.”

  Vincent sighed, drank a bunch of mead, and then tried again with his head feeling lighter. He started with one eye zeroing out the frequency while the other remained closed.

  “Open the other eye real fast,” Xan suggested. “Like snapping a picture with an old camera.”

  Vincent opened and closed his other eye several times in a row, trying to use Scan. His mana drained away from using negative energy, and just when he thought he’d run out, a flood of information appeared on his HUD.

  “Woah,” Vincent said, gaping at the wall of text. He willed away most of the useless information, trying to narrow it down to only what looked helpful.

  Skyglass – Early composition model 524. Radio Effect (Low-Range | High-Frequency | Safe Designation). Cannot store items or respawn at this material. Material Rating: 600 (cannot be hardened, enchanted, or enhanced). Material Rating is reduced to 100 (and made more malleable) when exposed to world magic. Alchemic Rating 99%.

  Ranger-Only Spell Created (???) – Mana Usage: Medium | Allows the user to uncover hidden information about a target.

  Vincent struggled to think for a few seconds and then named the spell True Scan.

  “It worked?” Xan asked excitedly.

  “Yeah, I could see a lot of information,” Vincent replied. “It looks like the glass is safe. It has a powerful, short-range frequency that’s probably melting the snow. It has a strong material rating, but it can be made more malleable if exposed to world magic.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” Xan said, casting World Fountain. “Let’s break it down and take the pieces with us.”

  Rainbow rain fell over the crater, and Vincent felt his mana replenishing at a much faster rate. Out of curiosity, he True Scanned Xan as she used a hardened-verasteel pickaxe to break chunks off the meteorite. This time he didn’t need to close either eye, and several pages of text appeared.

  Vincent focused on the stats, noticing level bars that showed how close each stat was to increasing. Xan’s closest was Spirit, which only needed about fifty thousand points, compared to a couple that needed tens of millions.

  He noticed something else listed near her levels:

 
Pale Alexandria’s Challenge Rating

  Intent Level 1: +510%

  Intent Level 2: +1020%

  Intent Level 3: +2040%

  In his tipsy state, Vincent struggled to do the math in his head, but he figured out the second Intent Level was equal to the combined levels of all Xan’s stats.

  I’ve always known this game increases your level growth when you encounter more dangerous enemies. The intent levels must depend on how seriously she’s taking the fight. I wonder how hers compares to monsters?

  “Are you going to help me or not?” Xan asked, still hacking away at the skyglass.

  Vincent jumped into the pit next to her, equipped a pickaxe, and knocked off sections of the skyglass small enough to store in his inventory. “Sorry, my new spell lets me see a lot more than I expected. I could actually see the points you need to level up your stats, and the challenge rating boost someone gets when fighting you.”

  “Did it seem pretty good?” Xan asked.

  “The maximum percent is just a combination of your levels times two,” he explained. “I don’t think someone will get that much unless you’re seriously trying to kill them, though. There’s decreased levels too.”

  Vincent True Scanned her again, noticing her strength was a few points closer to leveling after hacking away at the skyglass for over a minute.

  No wonder it takes so long to grow stronger at our level. If you aren’t facing monsters with high challenge ratings or increasing the difficulty with stuff like my Debuff Chains, then it’d take years to get enough experience points to level up.

  After several minutes, they had completely dismantled the skyglass and stored it in their inventory. Vincent jumped out of the pit first, curious to test his new ability on monsters. “Let’s find a giant so I can see its challenge rating—I mean, if that’s okay with you, Xan. You’re still in charge of this adventure.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Xan said. “Let’s go fight more giants, and you can look at all those boring numbers. We can do it more cautiously, though, and try to pick them off one at a time.”

  They followed several rolling hilltops and paths of ice walls for almost an hour before finding another giant. With his tipsiness wearing off, Vincent True Scanned it and took more time sifting through the information. “This giant gives us more than a thirty times bonus to stat gains,” he told Xan.