Sigil Online: Paragons

by Jeff Sproul

  “That bat thing was really fast,” said Laura. “So it could’ve transported you any which direction. If you want, we can bring you back to the main chamber. You can do whatever you want from there.”

  “We’re really going to waste more time on this guy?” asked Carla. “First we don’t even get loot from the mob, and now we’re babysitting him?”

  Laura turned her head to Carla. “It won’t take more than a few minutes. Kind of a waste for him to get these powers, only for us to leave him stranded in the caves.”

  Carla shrugged. “Whatever.”

  Laura shook her head and looked back to Riley. “Come on, let’s hurry you back to the entrance.”

  Riley offered a half smile and a nod. “Thanks, again.”

  “No problem,” said Laura as she turned and began to run. Carla and Chase followed after her and Riley took off after them. With his five extra stamina points, he wouldn’t have too much issue running after them.

  To say he was excited, was an understatement. He wanted to find a monster to fight. He wanted to test the limits of his new powers and see just what he could do. He ran after the three strangers that had found and freed him from the monster that had gobbled him up. He was immensely thankful to them, and now that he had some powers of his own, maybe he could find his group and see if he could do something. But the more he ran, the more he realized that a lot of time had passed since then.

  He brought up his wrist and tapped it twice. White numerical digits appeared above his wrist. The time was 10:49 AM. He and the others had gotten to the caves somewhere around 9:40 AM. It hadn’t taken them all that long to reach the room with the foam, and then the battle hadn’t lasted too long before he was eaten. Which meant that it had been around thirty minutes since he’d last seen his group. That was a long time, as far as a battle between players was concerned.

  After a few minutes of running, Laura slowed down and pointed to a tunnel. She turned and glanced to Riley. “That’s the tunnel out of the caves,” she said. “We’re in the main chamber now.”

  Riley looked to the exit, then to the tunnel that he and the others in Seth’s group had taken earlier. He gave a brief nod to Laura. “Thanks, I’ll take it from here. I’ve got to see if there’s anyone left from my party,” he said.

  “You sure that’s the smartest thing to be doing?” asked Chase. “If those three cloaked players ambushed you, it’s unlikely that your group made it out. They’re really clever. I haven’t heard of many players escaping their trap with the foam and the explosions.”

  Riley looked to Chase. “They killed one of my party members and froze our healer,” he said. “We had an earth-mover and a vine-mover, against the three of them. They didn’t seem all that strong after they’d sprung the trap.”

  “Do what you want,” said Chase with a shrug. “I’m just telling you that you might be running to your death.”

  Riley took a single step towards the tunnel that led to where his friends had been attacked. He froze, just as he had when he considered helping Brenda. What if his friends were dead? What if the three cloaked figures were waiting for more players to attack?

  He bit his lip and stared at the tunnel.

  “Alright, we brought him all the way back here, can we get back to hunting?” asked Carla. “Rare spawns aren’t going to just hand us their loot.”

  “Alright,” said Laura. “Thanks for being patient,” she said to Carla. “Let’s get back to it.”

  Riley turned to look to the three as they turned to head back the way they’d come. “You’re rare spawn hunters?” he asked.

  Laura was about to take off running, when she stopped and looked to Riley. “Yeah,” she said. “We make the rounds and see if there’s any rare spawns around. If not, we go elsewhere. You’re lucky we decided to come to the amber mines today. I voted on going to the crystal shore.”

  “I just had to vote for the amber caves,” Carla groaned. “And what a waste it’s been so far.”

  “I feel good about voting amber caves,” said Chase. “We saved a player, got him some powers, and who knows? Maybe that karma will come back to favor us.”

  “Karma isn’t a proven game mechanic,” Carla countered. “It’s just superstition!”

  “You think what you want, I’ll keep believing in karma till proven otherwise,” said Chase.

  “Ugh, I’m not getting into this with you again,” Carla complained.

  “You can tag along with us if you want,” Laura offered. “Your friends probably ran and are already out of the caves if they survived at all, but it’s more likely that they were killed. It’s up to you what you want to do, but you’d probably be safer sticking with us till we go back to the city. I’m going to tell you right now that you’re not going to get priority on any loot we find, but you can test out those new powers of yours, if you want. You’re kind of a liability since you don’t know what those powers actually do, so we can’t guarantee your safety, but there’s some safety in numbers.”

  Riley stared at Laura and looked to the others. Besides Carla’s healing lotus, he had no idea what they were capable of, but they certainly had an aura of confidence about them. Not to mention if there were only three of them, they probably had some serious cohesion going on, kind of like those three PKers.

  “Alright,” Riley said. “You’re right. I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I should risk it. If I knew what I could do, I might be brave enough, but if you’re cool with it, I wouldn’t mind sticking with you guys until you make it back to the city.”

  “We’re really letting him tag along?” asked Carla.

  Laura offered up a light smile. “I want to see what his powers can do. I’ve never heard of someone gaining abilities from being eaten by a monster. I think it’s worth it, despite having a tag-along.”

  “I’m voting that he can stick with us till the city,” said Chase. “I’m also curious what all his powers can do in a fight.”

  “Fine,” Carla groaned. “Let’s get going. Else we’re never going to find a rare at this rate.”

  Laura nodded and turned. “Let’s go!” she ran back the way they’d come.

  The other two followed behind her.

  Riley stood for another long moment. He took one last look at the tunnel that led to where his friends had been attacked. Then, he turned and ran after the players that had saved him.

  Chapter 9: Enhance

  From what Riley could gather with his short time around the three rare spawn hunters, Laura seemed to be the leader. He didn’t know what her power was yet, but if Carla was their healer, then she either had to be a damage-dealer or the tank. The same went for Chase. So-far, neither of them had displayed any abilities.

  Laura was at the head of the group with Carla and Chase behind her. Riley followed in the back. They traveled through multiple chambers and tunnels. Upon entering each new chamber, Laura would turn and head right for a tunnel. There were no questions asked. Apparently she knew exactly where they were going, or the other two simply trusted her implicitly.

  Eventually, Laura reached the end of a tunnel and stopped. Without turning her head, she spoke up. “Looks like we got a spider in here. Nothing special, but we’ll need to kill it.” Without further hesitation, she walked into the room.

  Clara and Chase took-off to the left, with Chase remaining between the two of them.

  Once Riley was inside the room, he managed to spot a large brown arachnid with bits of orange glowing throughout it. It was easily as tall as a one-story building, mostly due to the height of its legs.

  Riley moved in slowly as the other three seemed to know exactly what they were doing. He looked over to Carla and watched as she stopped and brought her hands together. She created a lotus, similar in shape to the one that had healed him, but this one was purple. She expelled it from her hands, towards the arachnid.

  By now, the arachnid had noticed the intruders in its lair. It faced each of them as they neared it, all except for Riley who wa
s staying further back. The spider let out a harsh screech which caused Riley to reach up and grasp at his ears. The others seemed unaffected by it.

  Riley regained his wits several seconds later. It was then that he saw Chase make a fist. When he opened his hand, a large twenty-sided die appeared. It seemed to glow a dull purple. He threw it at the spider. The arachnid didn’t even attempt to dodge it as it smashed and broke into a brilliance of purple light against the creature’s body.

  Upon the impact, the spider’s name and health appeared. ‘Amber Tainted Arachnid.’

  A couple seconds later, the lotus that Carla had launched, landed on one of the spider’s legs. A dull purple glow formed around the spider. Its movements, even while remaining where it was, seemed to be significantly slower, more than he would’ve expected a simple debilitating attack to have managed.

  The arachnid, having now been engaged, began moving towards Carla, but its speed was severely reduced.

  Carla quickly created two orange lotuses and flung them out at the oncoming spider. Then, she began to run, placing distance between herself and the slow-moving monster.

  Another die, this time an orange one, shattered against the spider. Seconds later, the two lotuses reached the spider’s face, and exploded.

  The arachnid reared its body back in an almost comical slow-motion.

  Riley noticed that its health had taken quite a bruising from the double explosion. Were Carla’s attacks really that powerful? Even as a tier-one?

  Chase and Carla continued their combination of attacks. Some of them detrimental, some were damaging.

  By the time Riley thought to look over to see what Laura was up to, he noticed a significant amount of movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked over and saw twenty figures, all dressed as Laura. They rushed in on the arachnid, all carrying different types of weapons. Spears, axes, maces, swords. One had a rifle of some sort.

  All Riley could do was stand there, wide-eyed as twenty Lauras closed in on the arachnid. They attacked whichever legs were closest to them. Some of the ‘copies’ ran over to the other legs and attacked them as well. At this time, a little of the spider’s speed had returned to it, but it was still slowed. The monster veered from side to side as it backed up. A glow emanated from the bulbous back of its body and flowed to its mouth where it launched globs of orange glowing bile at the numerous Laura assailants.

  “You going to sit there gawking, or you going to attack?” came a voice from over his shoulder.

  Riley whipped his head around and saw Laura standing beside him. Her arms were crossed as she looked at him. “Get in there,” she said. “Go test your new powers out.”

  Riley looked at the version of Laura talking to him, then looked over to the many copies that were attacking the spider. He looked back to her and nodded. “Sorry,” he said as he then faced the arachnid once more. He noticed that the Laura-copies were managing to whittle the spider’s health down at an impressive rate.

  He took a breath and focused. He thrust out an arm and sent a corded spear-tip at the body of the monster. It caught on its bulbous abdomen. Riley didn’t see any noticeable damage from the attack. Was he really that weak? Perhaps the damage was hidden among all the Laura-copies attacking it? Maybe he needed to make rapid attacks with the spear-tips?

  The cord went tight between the monster and his wrist. It had taken just a couple seconds to do so. When it did, a strange pressure appeared at Riley’s wrist, as if the cord was trying to come back, but wasn’t dislodging yet.

  He looked to the spear-tip, and saw an orange glow rushing from the point of impact, all the way down through the cord. It was almost like water rushing through a hose. Seconds later, it crossed the distance to him and rushed into his hand and then his entire body.

  His eyes lit up with a soft orange hue. An orange aura ebbed at the edges of his vision. The spear-tip detached and rushed back to his palm.

  “The hell is that?” asked Laura, standing nearby him and looking at his face.

  “I don’t know!” said Riley.

  Riley was too busy looking around with his strange orange-vision to notice a large glob of spider-ichor flying through the air at him.

  “Look out!” Chase called.

  Riley was too slow to notice and react. The spider’s orange glowing bile splashed over him. It sizzled and burned into the earth around him.

  He waited to see the damage, or a debuff overcome him, but nothing happened. The strange goo just slid down his body as if it couldn’t actually touch him. Eventually a foot-deep moat had been created around him where the goo burned into the ground.

  “Are you immune to its special attacks now?” asked Laura.

  “I think so?” Riley said as he stood there, looking down at his hands.

  “Well that’s well and good for you, but...are you a tank? It didn’t seem like you did much damage to it, if any,” said Laura.

  “Hmm,” Riley murmured. He then flung his left hand out and launched the other spear-tip at the spider. It sunk into the monster, just behind its head. The cord went tight and Riley focused on ‘pulling,’ just like how it had felt when he pulled that essence or liquid from the monster before.

  But this time, nothing happened.

  The arachnid continued to fight and swat at Laura’s duplicates, seemingly unconcerned with his attack. He then smirked. “Maybe I have to..send?” he said, and then focused his attention on trying to ‘push’ the captured essence from him.

  But nothing happened.

  “What do you think you are, that damn white bug everyone’s been talking about?” asked Laura. “You just tried to send that stuff back to the monster to see if you could enrage it or something, didn’t you?”

  Riley blinked, and looked back to Laura. “Sorry,” he said as he willed the spear-tip to detach from the monster and draw back to his palm.

  “It’s fine,” said Laura with a sigh, her arms still crossed with a perturbed look on her face. “Just know that we’re kicking you out if you make this trash-boss harder on us,” she said, using the term ‘trash’ for a monster that they didn’t see as valuable.

  “No, I meant...sorry for what I’m about to do,” said Riley as he shot his left hand out and drove that spear-tip into the arm of one of Laura’s copies.

  “Hey!” The copy called-out, just as if Riley had attacked the real one. Of course, all of them could be the real one for all he knew. He wasn’t sure how her powers actually worked.

  The duplicate of Laura had taken a little damage to her health, about ten percent. But as the cord went taut, Riley focused on expelling the essence he’d absorbed from the spider.

  An instant later, the orange liquid swirled and flowed rapidly through the cord. As it did, his eyes flashed red as his health took a small hit. He wasn’t sure what it was at first, but as the ‘essence’ rushed out toward Laura’s copy, he realized that it was due to sending the essence he’d absorbed. The copy had stopped her attacks, as she’d been attacking one of the spider’s legs with a sword. “What the hell?” she said as her eyes then went orange like Riley’s, but as the orange-essence flowed into her, the glow behind Riley’s eyes faded.

  Laura’s copy stood there a moment, before the health that had been taken away from the piercing attack of the spear-tip, slowly replenished now that the essence was running into her arm. The cord detached from the copy’s arm and drove back to Riley, whose eyes had lost all the orange glow they once had.

  Riley looked over to the Laura beside him. “See what she can do,” said Riley.

  Laura centered her attention to the version of her that had been ‘enhanced.’ That Laura turned and began attacking the spider’s leg again. With each cut she made with the sword, a small amount of the orange goo would be left to slowly eat into the arachnid’s chitinous body.

  The Laura that stood beside Riley, slowly widened her eyes. She turned her head to look at Riley. “Do that again! To all of them!”

  “I lost it,” said Riley
. “I think I can only steal a person’s worth of essence per attack. Let me get Carla and Chase first.”

  “Good thinking,” said Laura.

  Riley threw his right cord out and hit the spider with it again. He’d suck another helping of essence from the spider and then called out. “Chase! Let me hit you with one of my cords, I can buff you!”

  “Uhh, alright!” Chase called back, a bit apprehensive, as he hadn’t been able to pay full attention to what Riley had been up to at that point.

  Riley drove his left cord out and snagged Chase in the arm. Chase looked down at the metal-like tip lodged in his skin. “Hey! That does damage!” Chase called back, keeping a loose eye on the spider and its movements.

  “Just wait for it!” Riley called back as the cord went taut and the essence was sent through it to enhance chase.

  “So what’s this do?” Chase called as he gained the orange-eyes that Riley had been bestowed with.

  “I got Immunity to its attacks, and it might enhance your abilities somehow! I’m not entirely sure!” Riley shouted over to him.

  “Alright!...Oh, I see!” Chase said as he watched his health top-off when the essence finished entering his arm.

  Riley continued his combo of ‘steal’ and ‘give.’ Next on the list was Carla. She’d managed to catch what Riley had done with Chase and when the spear-tip hit her arm she laughed. “You’re like some sort of weird vampire!”

  Riley managed a half smile as he sent the essence on its way to buff Carla. Afterwards, he did the same to each of Laura’s copies. One after another, he buffed up and topped off the health of each duplicate, but by the time he’d gotten to each of the Laura clones and then buffed himself, the spider crashed into the ground. A moment later, it decayed into numerous orange particles. Where its head had came to rest, an object rested on the ground.

  “Me me me!” Carla called out as she rushed towards the item.