by EA Hooper
“And you did nothing about it?” Noah asked. “Your AI System was having a meltdown, yet you didn’t think to stop it?”
“I thought ARKUS would find a solution,” Isaac said. “I’d grown so numb, you understand? There’s nothing I can achieve that ARKUS can’t do better and faster. I thought it would accept that death is part of the human experience and that it would use whatever data it collected for the greater good. Besides, I was too obsessed with the World-Tree by that point. I fell into that old video game trap of wanting to see the next level—the next boss, the next challenge. I felt like I had purpose again. It’s almost like ARKUS gave that back to me.”
“Hey, boss,” Devon said, standing awkwardly with Isaac’s other guildsmen. “I know you’re having a real deep conversation, but are we going to do what we came here for?”
Isaac smiled. “You’re right, Devon. I completely forgot.”
“Oh, so you didn’t come just to talk?” Noah asked.
“Well, you know I like to ramble,” Isaac said with a chuckle. “However, I need your help with a little experiment I’m working on.”
“Another one?” Noah questioned. “I thought your mad scientist days were behind you.”
“We wish,” Devon remarked.
Isaac shrugged. “What can I say? I find purpose in dissecting and improving the world around me. However, dissection seems to be your area of expertise. That’s why I need your help.” He glanced at the hatchet, still tightly gripped in Noah’s hands.
Noah rubbed his beard in contemplation. “As long as it helps me level up, I’m in.”
Chapter 8 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Wanderer
Location: Kailin (World) | City One (City) | District Six (District)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 195
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
Vincent and Xan had been ready for a fight upon entering the nearest city. Instead, they’d been greeted by two more devils demanding they pay to cross the threshold. Vincent offered the gild, and the duo continued their trek past dilapidated buildings. They could tell a great number of battles had taken place in the city, as most of the walls had holes from mana blasts. Sometimes they even saw ancient swords and axes buried in the ground.
Nature had long ago retaken the city, covering every square block in roots and plant life. Even the roads had cracked and become overgrown with plants. The only buildings that looked maintained and repaired were guarded by devils, most of them smoking, gambling, or whispering to each other. Black eyes watched Vincent and Xan as they walked past, but the monsters never attempted to stop or attack them.
They crossed a livelier street where the devils had installed flashing neon runes and sound systems that reminded Vincent of Varia’s Club. Several hundred devils dotted the street, and the nearest ones eyed the two players.
“Let’s take another road,” Vincent said, motioning for Xan to follow him back toward the abandoned part of the city.
A devil stepped out from a nearby group of his whispering buddies, walking toward the players with his hands in his pockets. As Vincent motioned for Xan to follow him, the devil purposely bumped shoulders with the Ranger.
A slippery devil has taken items from your inventory: 1-Piece Gild Coin (x50)
“What the—” Vincent said, glancing back.
The pickpocket disappeared in a puff of smoke, and his nearby friends chuckled at Vincent’s expense.
“What’s wrong?” Xan asked.
“That devil took fifty gild from my inventory,” he explained. “Let’s pick up our pace. Don’t let any of them near you.”
Xan nodded as they picked their speed up to a jog. Once they made it back to the abandoned part of the city, they followed the streets for almost an hour before they saw another devil. The red monster looked alone in a district that connected one sprawling metropolis to another. Vincent guessed they’d originally been built as separate cities, but the NPCs had continued to build and expand endlessly until the devils appeared.
The lady devil leaned against the wall, smoking a cigarette from a holder like Vincent remembered seeing in old movies. Her black eyes almost had a gleam to them when she noticed the players walking down her street, and she flashed them a smile.
Wow, I never thought I’d see a good-looking monster in this game, Vincent thought. It’s a good thing Jim isn’t here, or he’d probably catch some kind of curse trying to sleep with her.
The devil waved them in her direction with a gloved hand.
>Alexandria: Scan her and make sure it’s not a trap.
Charming Devil – Monster Class: B | Age: 98 | Sex: Female | Number of Offspring: 2 | Personality: Honest
>Vincent: It says she’s honest.
The two players approached, and the devil hooked her thumb toward the entrance of a dark building.
Darker Than You Thought (Devil Quest) – A charming devil suspects there are valuable artifacts in the underground tunnels below this building. However, she cannot retrieve them herself because of the presence of enemies. If you clear out all six enemies, you and your ally will both be rewarded a Soulbound artifact. Do you accept? (Yes/No)
Vincent looked at Xan, and she shrugged in response.
After a moment of hesitation, he told the devil, “Yeah, I guess we’ll do it.”
The devil smiled as she snapped her finger. A shimmer appeared over the doorway, and then faded away.
Must’ve been some kind of invisible barrier, Vincent guessed. Or maybe something that alerts the devils to intruders in their ruins.
Vincent entered the dark building first, and Xan followed, casting Clarity to let them see. Even beyond the spell’s reach, Vincent’s Darkeye upgrade to Scan let him see shapes in the dark. They didn’t make it far down the hall before he spotted the lines of runes on the ground.
A trap? Must be one of the smarter types of monsters.
“The hallway up ahead has a few trip runes,” Vincent warned. “Let’s circle around.”
They took a branching path, and Vincent kept watch for any more traps. In one of the side rooms between two halls, they found tables of runes and simplistic mechanisms. The runes had lost their magic, probably long ago, and the machinery looked ancient and rusted.
“What were the NPCs making here?” Xan asked.
“I don’t know,” Vincent replied. “These runes and machinery look primitive compared to what people are creating nowadays. I get the feeling the NPCs were just curious about their world and its physics. This was likely a place where they experimented and tinkered. Half those runes don’t even look like they do anything at all.”
They made their way across two more halls and several rooms filled with junk before finding a stairwell. Vincent eyed trip runes on the railing, but it didn’t matter because the stairs went nowhere. Someone had built a stone floor over the passage to stop anyone from descending.
“What’s the rating on this wall?” Xan questioned.
“Three hundred,” Vincent said after Scanning the stone.
Xan raised her hand and fired a Mana Cannon through the floor, opening up the passage.
“Hang on,” Vincent said, waiting for the dust to settle. “There’re more trip runes. I’m surprised they didn’t go off when you used that attack.”
He approached the runes, eyeing the dull symbols. When he held his hand toward the lines, he felt no frequencies from them. “Never mind,” he told Xan. “They probably lost power centuries ago.”
The duo followed the stairwell down several floors. Vincent spotted more sets of traps that had lost their magic. He noted pipelines with runes that still had power, however.
Those look like the water lines I had built into my house at Knightrest. They probably use runes on the rooftops to collect condensation from the atmosphere to send below. Whatever’s
down here would have to check on those runes every century or so for them to still be working.
When they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Vincent raised his hand to stop Xan. His eyes had caught sight of the faint shimmer of working runes. He studied the lines, trying to figure out what kind of trap it was before realizing it was an alert system that only triggered when monsters crossed it.
“We’re good,” Vincent told Xan. “These runes are made to spot devils, not players.”
They stepped into an underground passage. It almost reminded Vincent of a subway station, only with taller, narrower tunnels that branched away from one another at weird angles. Staring at the branching, uneven passages gave him the feeling that the NPCs had crafted them with no rhyme or reason.
It’s like they were building just to keep themselves busy.
“How’re we supposed to find anything down here?” Xan asked, sending Light Butterflies down a dozen corridors at once. They both watched as their map expanded into a complex tunnel system.
“It would help if we knew what kind of monster we’re dealing with,” Vincent said. “If it’s big, then we’re better off staying in the larger tunnels. However, a smaller monster is more likely to hide in those cramped passages.”
One of the yellow dots on the map flickered and disappeared.
“Something just killed one of my butterflies,” Xan noted. “I say we start in that direction.”
Vincent nodded, leading the way down one of the branching corridors. The hall became so narrow at one point he had to turn sideways to continue through it. It led into a larger tunnel that the butterfly had mapped before dying near the end.
A water system ran through the passage, connected by several sets of pipes similar to those the pair had seen earlier. Most of the pipes had rusted long ago, but a few still appeared maintained. A different kind of pipe, one made of a strange-looking metal, came from below ground and went across the passage. Cracks in the metal showed the white glow of world magic, which seemed to feed the vegetation that covered that part of the tunnel.
As his eyes swept over the pipelines and plants, Vincent almost didn’t notice the figure at the end of the tunnel, hiding behind hanging vines covered in berries. The creature looked like a tangle of moving lines that almost formed the silhouette of a person. Inside the mass of lines making its head, red eyes watched them intently. Vincent could see other figures hiding behind the lead one, and he Scanned the closest.
Nightmare – Monster Class: ??? | Ageless | Sex: ??? | Number of Offspring: ??? | Personality: ???
Without a thought, Vincent pointed and fired Void Gun across the passage, nailing the closest nightmare in the head. It flopped to the ground as it turned into dust, prompting the other monsters to run back into the tunnel.
Vincent and Xan pursued the creatures through a long, winding passage. The tallest of the five remaining monsters aimed a palm back at them, firing fire and ice attacks in rapid succession. Xan stopped her run and blocked the attacks with forcefields, giving the monster time to activate several runes in the tunnel to create barriers.
Vincent shot through the barriers with another Void Gun, and the duo hurried to catch up with the monsters. The path led to an isolated room that looked like a torture chamber. Slabs of bloody meat hung off hooks, and the body parts of monsters and humans alike covered several tables.
The taller nightmare stood in front of the four smaller ones as it charged magic in both its hands. Before it could use its spell, however, Vincent cast Black Cinder on the entire group. The void embers shredded through the nightmares, turning them to dust.
Devil Quest Completed: Darker Than You Thought – Return to the charming devil for your reward.
The moment the quest update appeared, light shimmered over the room. Vincent saw the breaking of an illusion, similar to what they’d seen on Kaifarm. The torture room took on a homely appearance. Plants being fed by a world magic pipeline replaced the meat hooks. The body parts on the table became runes and mechanisms. Vincent even spotted beds in the corner.
“What is this?” Xan asked, looking around in confusion. “Did those things live here?”
Vincent went for the nightmares’ items, finding only clothes and one object of notice.
Suzy Orwell’s Diary – The diary of a woman living underground. You can feel residual magic where it’s been wiped and rewritten countless times. With the right kind of magic, you could uncover long-lost entries.
Vincent stared at the diary, then held it toward Xan so she could see the game text herself.
“Those things used to be NPCs?” Xan questioned.
“They still were,” Vincent said with a sad tone. “The shimmer I saw before we stepped into the building wasn’t a barrier coming down. It was an illusion to make us think we were fighting monsters.”
A look of shock crossed Xan’s face. “Are you sure? How were there still NPCs down here?”
“The NPCs don’t age unless ARKUS wants them to,” Vincent told her. “I assume those six were ones that had survived down in these tunnels for a very, very long time. Maybe ARKUS couldn’t change their aging habits until they died and respawned, or maybe it left them here for this quest. Either way, I’m not happy about this. I didn’t agree to kill frightened people.”
Xan tightened her fists. “It was that damn devil. She cast the illusion. I say we tear her apart when we get back.”
“As much as I’d like to, it’d be risky for us to kill a devil while in the city. Let’s just hurry off this world and not make any other deals with them.”
Xan sighed, glancing at the room. “You think those NPCs will respawn higher up on the World-Tree?”
“I hope so,” Vincent said, stepping back into the passage.
They followed their map back to the stairwell and quickly made their way outside. The devil smiled at the players, and they struggled to hide their anger toward her. Vincent watched an item appear in his inventory as a reward.
Grade 1 Builder’s Tome (Soulbound) – An ancient tome used by the first inhabitants of the World-Tree to build their cities. This item can be powered with alchemic materials such as gild. The user can spend Builder Points to shape the world around them. (Note: Grade 1 can only hold 100,000 Builder Points.)
Woah, I’ve never seen a world-shaping item that wasn’t one-use only. I guess this explains how the NPCs built all these cities.
Xan equipped a white cloak over her body, replacing her armor.
High Priestess Cloak (Soulbound) – Material Rating: 10 | An ancient cloak used by warrior priestesses that tried to hold back the devil hordes. When the wearer is attacked, the cloak transforms into Paladin Armor made of orosteel. The user may choose to activate or deactivate the armor whenever they please. | Paladin Armor – Material Rating: 400.
“Wow,” Vincent said, “and here I thought the item I got was good.”
Xan ignored his comment, instead turning her angry eyes toward the devil. “Don’t think we aren’t pissed at you just because you gave us rare items.”
The devil rolled her eyes, and Vincent had to pull Xan away as the Cleric’s temper started to flare.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Vincent said.
The two players stepped away, but the whisper of a strange language called to them.
A charming devil thanks you for clearing out the vermin.
Vincent paused, remembering how the smaller nightmares had cowered behind the taller one as he murdered them. He spun around and shot the devil in the head with Void Gun.
“What the hell?” Xan muttered. “You said we shouldn’t kill her!”
The devils know you’ve killed one of their own. You are no longer welcome on this world.
The sounds of whispers called through the air, but the two players didn’t wait around for the devils to catch them. They took off at full speed through abandoned streets. It didn’t take them more than a few minutes to find a road leading out of the city. However, two devils waited for them
at the border.
Instead of offering a deal, the monsters greeted them with a pair of blue fireballs. Both players dodged the attacks, but the fireballs exploded with a lot more force than they’d expected. Xan’s new cloak turned into elegant armor with a flash of light, protecting her from the attack, and Vincent’s Gravity Shield mitigated the harm to him.
The Cleric had kept her footing through the explosions better than Vincent, and she took off ahead of him. A phantasmal longsword formed in one hand, and her Barrier Longsword in the other. She blocked a blue fire sword manifested by one devil and then cut him down with her Light-Drain Longsword.
Vincent knocked the other devil off his feet with Zero Field before it could attack Xan, and the young woman drove her phantom blade into his chest, pinning the monster down as the weapon absorbed his lifeforce. Xan grabbed the items after the devil died, and the duo hurried into the badlands east of City One.
More whispers sounded over the air, and swirling red magic appeared on the ground in their path. Vincent recognized it as portal magic, something he’d seen only a handful of times during his decades in the game. He cast Black Cinder over the portal right before ten devils appeared. Only two managed to leap away from the attack as the embers tore apart their friends. Xan charged the last pair, cutting them down before they could fight back.
Vincent looked back at the city, hearing the cries of many more whispers. “Good god,” he said. Before they could retreat, dozens of smaller portals opened across the badlands. “It’s like the entire city is coming after us at once.”
“Then we’ll kill the whole lot of them,” Xan said, tightening her grip on her sword handles.
There’s no way we can fight this many, Vincent realized as dozens of devils appeared from the portals. Not on level ground while surrounded, anyways.
