by Jeff Sproul
Riley grinned back at him. “I think I need to see what I can do about buying stuff in Gargantuan. The city took a big hit economically with that attack. If everyone starts taking their business to the outskirts of the city, or outside of it entirely, it’s going to end up like Uber City.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Aaron. “I know I wouldn’t want that happening to Mega City. Uber is a tough place now. Full of PKers and PVP-centric guilds.”
“It used to be a nice place,” said Riley. “I remember hunting monsters there, in some of the sewer regions. But after several invasion events, the city took too much damage. The PKers in the area, realized that they could attack the players fighting the invasion monsters, and then no one fought the monsters. Uber was Sigil’s first lesson in what happens when we don’t take care of the world around us, even if it is virtual.”
Aaron took a bite full of blueberry pancakes and looked back over to the television. He chewed a bit and swallowed. “So the White Weevil really made a mess of things, huh?” he asked.
Riley looked over to the television. One of the news reporters, Susan Graff, was talking about the incident. He decided to listen for a minute.
“Paladin and the monster known as the White Weevil, fought tooth and nail until the monster gained the upper hand, after intercepting an incoming buff, from the player known as Riley. Riley’s powers allow him to steal a monster’s essence, and empower those around him. The White Weevil used this to its advantage and turned the tables on Paladin, which then allowed it to take control of Saros, the Interdimensional Monster. Uncontested, it used Saros’s power to cut into the streets, even killing some of the players below. According to eyewitness reports, there hadn’t been any casualties in the invasion event, until the Weevil arrived on the scene.”
Riley turned his attention back to Aaron. “And there it is, everyone knows I was the one who tipped the balance in the Weevil’s favor and got a bunch of players killed.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Aaron. He then pointed up to the screen. “They showed that Paladin and the Weevil were pretty evenly matched, until you empowered Paladin. They also showed Paladin getting knocked back and drinking something. Did you see what it was? Whatever it was, it boosted Paladin to be able to fight evenly with the Weevil. So really...Paladin would’ve probably lost once the consumable buff wore off. You were buying him extra time.”
Riley shook his head. “No, I spoke with him a little after the battle, but I don’t know what consumables he was using. It still sucks, knowing that I was the direct cause, purposeful or not, of those players getting killed. I mean, it really sucked when that thing killed me as Radiance. What if those players were supporting themselves like I was? And then this Weevil comes around and kills them. All because I couldn’t help stop it.”
Aaron poked at his pancakes. “It sucks, I’m sure,” he said. “Lots of people pay their bills by playing Sigil. Just like us.”
“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” said Riley. “I’m sure there’s less-legal methods of getting by, but who wants to risk The Dungeon?” Riley shook his head. “Not me, that’s for sure. I’ll take my chances with Sigil.”
Aaron tensed at the mention of The Dungeon. “I’m with you there,” he murmured. “So, how did your friends do yesterday?” he asked. “Did everyone survive the invasion?”
“Yeah, luckily,” he said. “Everyone made it out in one piece. There were plenty of players that were killed in the beam attack but I didn’t know any of them personally.
“That’s good at least,” said Aaron as he took a bite of his pancakes and reached for his glass of orange juice.
Riley tipped the mug to his lips and drained the last of its contents. He swallowed and set it back down. “Yeah.” He looked back over to the news, watching as another video segment started up, depicting the paragon known as ‘Snow’ freezing sections of Saros’s hand.
“I better get back,” said Riley. “I wanna check my messages and see if there’s anything important. I haven’t even put a full day of playtime into boss-bashing, since I got these new powers.”
“Have fun,” Aaron said with a smile. “Don’t go triggering anymore of those invasion events!”
Riley stood and gave Aaron a half smile. “Like I have any choice,” he said before heading over to the counter to pay his bill.
Riley returned to his apartment without issue. Before jumping back into Sigil Online, he decided to sit at his computer desk and run some numbers on his finances, while also glancing at his emails. The messages that the in-game ‘Riley’ got, were forwarded to his computer, so he could review them and respond to them from his keyboard. He saw that there was a ‘Parcel Waiting’ message. Which meant that he had an item waiting for him in-game, from someone. If a player wanted to contact another player in-game, they could send them an instant message, but those messages would arrive to their ‘mailbox’ in-game, and not their actual character. It prevented instant communication between players running around the game, but if you were at your home, you could instantly communicate with another player who was also at their home, or at their computer outside of the game, like Riley was.
Riley checked his bank account. He had a loose idea of how much the junk items were worth, that he’d built-up in his storage at his in-game apartment. Which, wasn’t very much. He stared at his funds, which included the money he’d made from the Q&A, as well as the video segments he’d submitted. He decided to start a transfer, to send a third of his recent earnings to his Sigil character. Which meant, that it would be converted into Sigil Credits. There was a small two percent fee for the transfer, which barely affected the amount. He needed more funds in-game to work with. Especially if he was going to buy one of those teleportation cubes to send to Red, Paladin, and Laura. Of course, he planned on hunting with Laura whenever he could, but he also wanted to help Seth get back on his feet.
He finished up his banking activities and double-checked his email for any new offers for his video footage or a Q&A. There wasn’t any. Which was to be expected, since the real value for the news agencies was in the ‘exclusive.’ He really lucked out financially with the invasion event, but he figured he shouldn’t expect it to happen again. He needed to put hard work into the game, now that he had powers again. It was time to return to the grind. Or make the donuts, as some people called it.
Riley’s eyes opened. He was back in his in-game apartment. It was just as he’d left it. Which, was a good thing. It meant that no new giant-monster had come through the game and destroyed Bunker 7.
He went over to a compartment beside his door. It was a small metal lid, which he could slide open. When he did, he saw a square box inside. He reached in and grabbed it. He heard something rattling around inside and brought it up to his ear and gave it a little shake. He then looked down at the box. Despite the fact that anyone could send him a message, only people who knew his exact address code, could send him mail. That list wasn’t very long.
He opened up the box, which was roughly three inches by three inches square. When he did, he saw a note on top. He pulled it out and read the writing.
Your friendship has been worth more to me than you’ll ever know.
But my debt can only be paid with sacrifice. You know what to do.
-W
Riley’s lips curled into a soft smile. He stared at the words and read it again. He looked down into the box and reached in. He pulled out a small green cube. It was roughly the size of a golf ball and had green-glowing edges. His eyes widened.
“How expensive was this?” he whispered. He shook his head, but couldn’t keep from smiling. He then opened his inventory and saw the icons for the two separate white cubes. He sent the green one to join it. On the item description, the two white ones read ‘Red Shotgun’ and ‘Paladin.’ For the green one, it read ‘The Rooks of War.’
Chapter 21: Underground
Riley stood in a dark room, lit only by flickering phosphorescent lights. V
isibility wasn’t great. The smell was even worse. It was as if a hundred different things had died down in the Gargantuan City Underground, and the smell never got any better. You just learned to deal with it as best you could.
Two weeks had gone by since the invasion event. Laura, Chase, Carla and himself, had just beaten a large mutant minotaur boss and the experience gain had just boosted him past level 40. He tapped on ‘dexterity’ to place his new stat point, and then took a moment to review his overall stats.
-
Riley
Level: 40
Tier: One
Status: Healthy
Hit points: 100%
Buffs: x / Debuffs: x
Stats:
Power: 5
Constitution: 18
Toughness: 18
Mind: 5
Stamina: 12
Dexterity: 25
Luck: 5
-
He wasn’t getting as much experience as he would’ve liked, since hunting rare spawns with Laura’s group, generally had them bypassing other monsters. The tradeoff was the opportunity for better loot. He felt that once he was level 45, he’d be able to round out constitution and toughness to twenty, and maybe sink another point into stamina. Then, he’d try and balance his new stats to get Dexterity to 30, while also adding in more stamina to reach 20.
The status screen didn’t show the bonuses from his gear, which was something many players had complained about in the past. The developers had answered a while back, saying that some stats may be hidden or altered, based on ‘certain circumstances.’ Whatever that meant. But they assured players that otherwise, gear would attribute the points it said it would.
A hand smacked hard against his back.
“Hey, you interested in this?” asked Carla, from beside him.
Riley looked up and over to her. She was holding a necklace.
“Oh, that’s right, you got that sweet thing from that guy who tried to kill you,” Carla sighed as she lowered her hand. “Yours is better.” She looked over to Laura. “I vote that we sell it,” she said as she watched Laura merge with her last duplicate.
“Riley doesn’t want it?” Laura asked from across the room, her voice faintly echoing. The ground was an almost muddy dirt, while the walls were dark gray concrete, sometimes with trickles of water running down them from rusty pipes.
“He’s got that shield pendant,” said Carla.
“Oh, right. I forgot he’s a tank,” Laura teased.
Riley shook his head and reached up to tug the bronze-looking shield pendant from his shirt. Upon touching it, its details appeared.
-
Bolstering Shield Pendant
Upon taking damage, reduce the next damaging attack by 50%
(This effect can occur 5 times within the first 60 seconds of taking damage. A 10 minute cooldown will occur if the effect triggers 5 times, or the 60 seconds passes. Whichever happens first.)
Increase Toughness by 5
Increase Luck by 2
-
When he thought back to the incident with the red-fisted PKer, it made sense that he was able to absorb so many of Red Shotgun’s direct blasts, when he was wearing something nice like this. It was definitely an item suited for tanks, but it was also decent for PvPers. It had been an amazing addition to his gear, and he didn’t envision replacing it anytime soon.
“We moving to the next room?” asked Chase from nearby. “I wanna wrap this up so we can head back. I promised my wife I’d make her favorite tonight.”
“Whatcha making?” asked Carla.
“A mushroom risotto,” said Chase.
“Oooh, can I come over?” asked Laura. “I love Italian, and your wife loves me. So let's wrap this up!”
“No you can’t come over,” Chase grumbled.
“Ugh, I hate mushrooms. Not sure how people stand them,” said Carla.
“Do you usually eat nice stuff like that?” asked Riley, as Laura turned and headed towards the passageway to the next room. Carla followed after her, while Chase hung back to walk beside Riley.
“I usually do most of the cooking,” said Chase. “I try to make something different every day throughout the week. It’s important to eat a balanced diet of different things.”
“I think I’ve been eating oatmeal everyday for breakfast,” said Riley. “Lunch and dinner are a toss-up between ramen and a sandwich.”
Chase gave Riley a worried look. “You should really try altering your diet. Start small, try apples or soups, they’re pretty cheap.”
“I’ve mostly been focused on saving money,” said Riley. “I didn’t have a lot to work with until recently. I guess I didn’t want to spend too much on food, in case things didn’t work out.”
“Don’t underestimate how important your diet and exercise are,” said Chase. “Your brain needs both those things. I know it might seem useless to exercise when you spend most of your time in Sigil, but your brain is the one and only thing that carries over. A healthy diet and some light exercise, keeps your brain focused and alert, and helps with memory. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but it’s something you should definitely keep in mind.”
Riley looked ahead to Carla and Laura. “I walk to the cafe down the street and back, every morning.”
“Well, that’s better than nothing,” said Chase.
It took a few minutes to reach the end of the tunnel. When they did, Laura created a single copy of herself, which then moved cautiously into the next room.
“Hmm, I’m not seeing anything,” said the original Laura. “It’s a dead end. We’ll need to go back.”
“So how does that work exactly?” asked Riley, from behind. “I’ve never asked. How do you control your duplicates?”
The original Laura turned around to face Riley. “I can take direct control of any of my duplicates, but I find it easier to manage things when I’m able to watch them from my original body. I can switch to their eyes at will, and I can see small windows of their vision, which I can modify the size of in my visual spectrum. Think of it like...sitting at home, with twenty monitors in front of you. But you can enlarge any of those monitors with a mere thought, and then directly control any of them. I can instruct all my copies individually, or in mass. They’re pretty intelligent, so I’m able to do it quickly. I can also hear everything they hear, but sometimes I fluctuate how intense the sounds are that come from their ears.”
“Sounds overwhelming,” said Riley.
“It was at first,” said Laura. “But I got used to it. It’s a lot of fun.” She then went quiet, as her duplicate ran back to her side. She held out her hand and absorbed the duplicate, causing it to vanish. “The room’s empty,” she said, as she looked to the other three in her party. “What do we want to do? Find a boss in one of the other rooms to wrap up our day, or head back to the beginning and just fight anything we might find on our way out?”
“I vote that we head for the exit,” said Chase. “I’d like to get a head start on dinner.”
“I’m cool with heading to the exit as well,” said Riley.
“I wouldn’t mind staying and killing one more thing,” said Carla. “But we can head for the exit.”
“My vote is for the exit too, so let’s go,” said Laura, who turned and led the group back the way they’d went.
Laura remained at the front, but turned her head back to ask, “how’s Seth’s group doing?”
“They’re doing well,” said Riley. “He’s still using that clasp I gave him. I think he would’ve been bored out of his mind if he had to scavenge like I did.”
“He should be gaining experience faster, if he’s in the thick of the fight,” said Chase.
“Yeah, I think he is,” said Riley. “Thinking back, I wondered if I shouldn’t have tried getting the clasp from my friend sooner and using it for myself, but I also didn’t have a lot of gear to help boost my stats. Which was the main reason I didn’t, along with the fact that I forgot about it.
It was kind of nice playing from the scavenger perspective, and I probably made a little more pocket change that way, and also found some decent items.”
“Whatever works,” said Chase.
“Sounds boring as hell,” Carla groaned from the back of the group.
Laura was the first to reach the room they’d been in previously, where they fought the mutant minotaur. The lights continued to flicker in the room, where the ones that had been ran through the tunnel, were a steady stream of light. There was a soft trickling of water, and the echo of their voices.
Laura walked into the room, glancing around to see if any monsters had respawned since the few minutes they’d been gone. With her first two steps, a soft ‘poof poof,’ sounded from her feet.
She looked down and saw a dark glistening substance matting the floor. In the seconds it took her mind to register what she was seeing, a single orange ember had reached the floor near the tunnel entrance.
With a single explosion, the floor combusted in a sea of fire.
The fire rushed partway into the tunnel, encompassing Laura. She turned to the others, as her eyes flashed every second, as the fire damaged her health.
Riley and Chase rushed forward, partway into the fire, to pull her into the safety of the tunnel.
Without a word, three small green lotuses floated over to each of them.
“What happened?” Riley asked, now that Carla was out of the scorching flames, which continued to burn in the room beyond.
“It’s those PKers, the ones who use the combusting foam as a trap,” she said.
Riley and Chase’s health topped off, with the aid of the healing lotuses that Carla had created, but Laura’s was still working its way up from half.
Without sound or warning, a stream of foam descended from the ceiling, cascading down towards the tunnel entrance.
“Backup!” Riley yelled as he grabbed Laura’s arm and pulled her further away from the entrance of the room. The foam caught fire when it touched the already-burning floor, and then landed another five feet into the tunnel, preventing them from getting a good look into the next room.
