by Tom Gallier
"How about you, Asha? You always have lots of treasure. I'll fight, you wager on me, and we'll split the winnings 50-50," Zeta said. "Easy money."
Asha gave her a condescending look. "Actually, I don't play with the minions of Darkness. Find another patsy."
"Oooh, you learned a new word," Zeta said, giving the high elf sorceress a dirty look. "Who taught you 'patsy'? Killy? Tiana?"
Asha muttered something as her eyes narrowed. The fingers of her right hand curled clawlike as blue light began to glow. Zeta pulled her sword, and the crowd quickly began forming a circle around them. Killum threw his arm out, putting himself between the two women as some spectators began making bets on the outcome.
"Now, now, ladies. It's a beautiful day to kill mobs, not each other," Killum said. "Good luck, Zeta. We're going now."
"Of course. Asha wouldn't want to get her outfit dirty," Zeta said. Then mimicking Asha's voice, "Actually, I like being a pretty little Princess of Light. Ain't that right, cousin?"
"There it is," Rand whispered. "They're going to fight now."
Killum groaned. Why did Zeta have to mock her speech? And calling her "cousin" was uncalled for. But then, he never really understood why simply calling each other cousin pissed off the elves and the drow so much. Everyone knew they were just different ethnic groups within the Elven Race. Just don't remind them of it.
Asha moved into a fighting stance, ready to throw her spell at the drow. Zeta was ready with her drow sword in hand, and a wild look in her eyes. The two women continued to glare at each other.
"Asha. Don't waste all of your resources on her. You'll need them later," Killum said. Asha was the more rational of the two, though both women were hotheads. "We're going to need our sorceress at full strength. Please."
"Here comes the City Watch," Tiana warned. Leave it to the thief to spot the cops first.
The sorceress's brown eyes cut toward Killum, and then Tiana, and finally she sighed and relaxed. The conjured light in her hand slowly faded away. The drow relaxed and sheathed her sword.
"I might be Dark," Zeta said, eyes locked with Asha's. "But your Royal Lightness has three times more player kills than me."
With that, the drow warrior spun on a heel and vanished into the disappointed crowd. Killum glanced at Asha, who was flushed and cutting her eyes back and forth. The sorceress didn't like to kill other players, but she had a badass reputation so newbs sometimes challenged her. Since she was a level 40 elven sorceress, she easily killed them, much to her chagrin.
"Don't ask her to fight with us again," Asha said.
"I agree with Asha," Fergus said. "The drow are all Dark, and will stab you in the back."
Killum wondered if the Game somehow influenced all elven characters to hate the drow, and vice versa, or if they chose their character's race based on their prejudices. He'd never met an elf or drow who liked anyone in the other group.
The elfmaid turned and pushed into the grumbling crowd before the Watch was close enough to identity them. Killum shrugged at Tiana, Rand, and Fergus, before following her. He was glad to get out of there without getting into trouble with the city. They were already banned from two other cities for brawling too much. Specifically, Asha and Rand.
Asha turned on the Street of Charms to buy some healing herbs from a street vendor. Killum and Tiana also bought some of the herbs, but Fergus and Rand never would pay for them.
Uhrs had the largest shantytown outside of its walls of any city Killum knew. There were more players and mobs there than inside the city proper. Of course, every structure looked to be on the verge of collapse. He still didn't know why it didn't burn down once a week, other than the Game didn't want it to burn down.
"Okay, Rand, lead the way to this secret dungeon," Killum said.
Rand gave a quick nod, and took off toward the swamp. The city was atop a hill, with thick forests on three sides. Deadman's Swamp bordered the river and stretched out west of the city. Few players entered the swamp, mainly because it wasn't fun being all wet and hindered by knee deep water while fighting monsters. Killum agreed, but it would be worth the effort if Rand was right about this dungeon.
It took an hour to reach the swamp. While the city and forest were all cloudless blue skies, Deadman's Swamp was always dark and cloudy. As they approached, Killum noticed it was drizzling over the swamp. The biggest problem with playing the full immersion VRMMORPG version of Realm of Battle was having to suffer the cold wet misery before them.
Maybe a little less realism in certain aspects would be nice.
Once there, Fergus moved up behind Rand. The elven ranger could spot ambushes better than any of them. Asha followed him, with Tiana next and Killum bringing up the rear.
They marched into Deadman's Swamp with weapons in hand. Killum noticed Tiana activate the enchantment on her hooded mantle, and she got a bluish glow around her. Everyone in their group could see her, though she'd flicker in and out of vision, but other players and mobs would find it difficult to spot her. Of course, any spellcaster, whether mob or player, could see her just fine, too.
Fergus stepped off the trail to pull up an herb. The ranger's herb lore was insanely high. He stuffed the herb into his inventory, which Killum understood to have an amazing one hundred slots. The battle-mage couldn't imagine how much Fergus paid for it.
Probably a month's pay for me, he thought. I seriously need to score some treasure.
"Hobgoblins!" Fergus shouted.
The hobgoblins attacked from both sides. Somehow they'd managed to stay submerged long enough to lure Killum's crew into their trap. Hobgoblins were human-sized cousins of goblins, scrawny and hairless. One and all carried round wooden shields and rusty cutlasses. And they attacked in eerie silence.
"Zombies!" Asha cried. She threw a blue fireball into one, and it incinerated the monster. "Beware their bites!"
That made Killum pause. Would a zombie bite kill him, or just turn his character into an undead battle-mage? If that happened, and he couldn't find a way to restore his character's "life" then he'd have to create a new battle-mage character and start from scratch.
That would suck big time.
Killum activated his Power Sword's magic, and noticed his mana start to deplete immediately. That sword would consume all of his mana in about ten minutes of use. He did have five potions to help restore his mana, but each dose only restored 25 points.
Fergus and Killum turned into the attack and charged off the trail. Killum slashed left and right, the awesome power of his blade shattering shields in a single strike, and usually took off the arm holding it. Undead hobgoblins dropped like flies around him.
He cleared out all of the zombies around him in just a few moments, and quickly killed the magic flowing into his Power Sword. Now it was just another fine steel blade, but good enough for slaughtering undead hobgoblins. He noticed Tiana winking in and out of sight, darting between the thick cypress trees to come up behind the hobgoblins. She was good at striking the undead mobs in the neck, severing their spine and killing them.
Rand and Fergus fought back to back, their blades purple with hobgoblin blood. The monsters were stacking up around the two fighters.
Asha suddenly claimed his attention by leaping ten feet into the air and hovering there, while she threw fireballs at her foes. There were three hobgoblins jumping up and down under her, their boney hands missing her feet by just inches. The spell only allowed her to hover about thirty seconds, so Killum charged them. He bellowed his battlelust as he slew them one by one.
"Thank you," she said as she dropped down beside him. "Come on, Rand and Fergus are on the move again."
There was only a pair of hobgoblins left. Killum wanted to take them out, but then one of them dropped his cutlass to claw at his throat. An invisible knife sliced it open, and severed the backbone. His head came off, and the undead bastard was dead.
"Well met, Tiana!" he called when she blinked into sight a second later. She picked up the dropped cutlass
and hacked off the last hobgoblin's head. "Quick. Catch up and get back into position!"
An undead troll appeared on their right flank. Killum stopped to gawk. It was the biggest troll he'd ever seen. The mob was easily ten feet tall. He concentrated on it.
Troll (Lvl 6). Undead.
He was only a level 6, but that was still going to be a hard NPC to kill. Killum steeled himself for a god-awful fight to the death, but Asha pulled her sword. She stopped, held the sword horizontal to the ground, and spoke a quick spell. The fine elven blade flew out of her hand, spinning like a buzz saw, and took the zombie troll's head off in three seconds flat. And then the sword returned to her hand, and she sheathed it.
"You have to teach me that spell," Killum said.
"Actually, you have to be Level 40 to use it," she said. "So level up, my friend."
Killum paused. Zeta was right. Asha did use the world "actually" a lot.
"I'm actually trying to level up," he said, but she just nodded acceptance. He sighed and shrugged, thinking, Once again, she didn't get the joke.
His eyes lingered on the beautiful olive-skinned sorceress. First on her breasts, and then on her butt when she turned away. He wanted to run his fingers through her thick, waist-length black hair so badly it hurt. Mostly, though, he wanted that sexy sorceress in the worst way. One day, when FIVR tech was advanced enough… God, I can't wait for the day I can take her to bed and show…
Killum noticed Tiana watching him with a knowing smirk. He felt his face heat up, knowing his character was blushing as well.
Stupid game designers, he thought, motioning for the thief to get moving. They don't have a problem shaming us, but can't let us have the fun, too.
Tiana barked a laugh and followed Asha. Killum's shoulders slumped, knowing the little thief would tell Asha what she saw. So embarrassing, but it wasn't the first time he’d been caught lusting at the sorceress. The only one to ogle her more was Rand, and he was the acknowledged perv of the group. That thought made him wonder if Asha and Tiana thought he was a perv, too.
Random undead goblins, hobgoblins, and even a pair of ork zombies attacked them along the way. They all earned some experience points. No PKs, so none of the zombies were players, so Killum didn't learn if he could be turned into a zombie. He resolved to check the manual after they finished with the dungeon.
Fergus held up a hand to stop everyone. "Shhhh."
They slowly crept up and dropped to a knee in the dark water to either side of Rand and Fergus. Killum found himself at the edge of an island. The dry ground was clear for about twenty-five feet between the shore and a yawning cave entrance. Only the cave was stone, roughly hewn in the shape of a vicious looking dragon skull, complete with stalactite fangs.
"That's actually quite cheesy," Asha said. "I expected more of a secret dungeon."
"Let's hold off and rest a moment before we go in," Killum said, and then checked his stats.
Current status:
Name: Killum
Race: Human
Class: Battle-mage
Level: 35 (96% to next level)
Alignment: Neutral
Health: 90/100
Strength: 180/230
Stamina: 90/150
Agility: 80
Intellect: 95
Spirit: 75
Constitution: 100
Mana: 103
Inventory: (Click to View/Hide)
Player Kills: 3
Killum pulled out a small vial, about the size of his thumb.
Restore Mana Potion. Will restore 25 mana points. Cooldown: 15 minutes. Can be used once an hour, up to 5 times in 24 hours.
He pulled the cork stopper and drank it. Warmth flooded his body, and he saw his mana start to tick up.
"We have company," Tiana whispered. "Ugh. Liches. I hate liches."
Two skeletal mobs had stepped out of the cave. Both were level 5 and carried cutlasses and round shields. One of them wore a horned helmet, too. They looked around, before taking up station to either wide of the entrance. And a moment later five more liches came out, one wearing an enchanter's robes.
"Well, no one said it would be easy," Rand said, eyes already bright with battlelust.
Chapter 3
Killum spread his team out in a semicircle. They all moved stealthily into position, with him in the middle and closest to the lich mage. He did a mental checklist of his available fighting spells. His Power Sword was still his best offensive weapon, though he needed to tie up the lich spellcaster long enough to reach him. So he concentrated on the lich mage.
Lich Mage (Lvl 15).
"Not bad for a mob," he muttered under his breath. He checked his stats, especially his health and mana. Not too bad. Then he noticed everyone was in position and waiting for him to start the show. He grinned. "I love this shit."
Pulling up the binding spell, Slow as Molasses, Killum held his green glowing right hand back. Asha nodded, and both of her hands began to glow blue up to her elbows. Tiana winked out of existence for a second, and reappeared with that blue glow of stealth. And Fergus' arrow began to glow red.
Rand grinned with wicked delight, lifted one leg, and let one rip. Killum shook his head. Sometimes his farts were funny, but sometimes…
The lich mage's head whipped around toward them. The lich's eyes flashed blood red, and then magic red fires engulfed his skeletal hands. He shouted, "Defend the Temple!"
Killum threw his spell. The lich mage dodged aside, but the spell hit one of the first two guards to come out. As one, the five players charged in screaming their battle cries. The battle-mage pulled his sword, and activated its power. And just in time.
"Burn!" shouted the lich mage, throwing a fireball at Killum.
He parried the fireball with the Power Sword's magic, but that still cost him a dozen mana points. Killum felt the loss physically, but it was no more debilitating than a single punch to the arm. And then he was upon the lich mage, swinging at the bony bastard's neck.
The lich mage parried his blow with the steel braces on his wrists, and then crossed his arms and shouted a word.
Ka-boom!
Killum was blasted back off the island to splash a good dozen feet away from the shoreline. He came up out of the water gasping and choking. Checking his health, he grimaced to see he'd lost thirty points. After drinking a healing potion, Killum charged back into the battle. He could see four liches were already reduced to piles of bones. It looked like the stealthy thief was doing the most damage, sneaking up behind liches engaged with her friends.
Ka-boom!
Asha had flown up into the air a fraction of a second before the lich mage tried to blast her. She started sending one fireball after another down at him at a rate that would deplete Killum's mana to nothing in less than a minute.
"I've gotta reach level 40 and get some of those spells," he muttered. Fireballs ate up ten mana points each at his level. "Sometimes a man's gotta eat it."
Killum cut right, and headed for the lich mage. Asha continued to rain fireballs upon the monster. The lich kept his arms cross before him, and Killum could see the faint outline of a barrier spell. So he called up fire, and launched a ball of it at the lich mage's back.
"Aagh!" the lich mage cried, spinning around a few times to put out his burning robes. "I will feast upon your soul!"
Killum reached him, activated his Power Sword, and swung with all his might. The lich mage tried to cross his arms, but the battle-mage's blade was faster.
"Yes!" he cried as the lich's skull shattered. The mob immediately collapsed into a pile of bones and smoldering robes. Killum looked around for another lich to fight, but they were all vanquished. "Well, that was fun."
"Speak for yourself," Rand muttered. Half of his glorious red beard had been sheared off in the fight. "Why do they always go for the beard?"
Killum grinned and clapped the dwarf on the back. "Jealousy, I suspect, my friend."
The battle-mage watched Asha and Tiana checking the li
ches they killed, looking to see if any treasure was dropped. Their weapons and gear were all old and rusty, and almost worthless. Little, if any of it, was worth taking. It would just be unnecessary weight to carry and steal from their stamina.
The battle-mage checked the lich mage's body. The steel braces looked promising. He picked those up.
Congratulations! You have won Braces of Abonan! Fight and defend, a mage's best friend!
"Magic braces. Win," Killum said, opening his weapons cache. He only had ten slots, all filled, so discarded a long knife and put the braces there. That made six of ten slots filled with enchanted weapons.
"Eat your healing herbs if you got them," Fergus said. "And any restorative potions. The monsters are only going to get tougher."
Killum checked the time. He would have to wait another forty minutes before he could take another mana restoring potion. But he drank another healing potion that restored twenty points to his health. And then he checked his stats.
Current status:
Race: Human
Class: Battle-mage
Level: 36 (4% to next level)
Alignment: Neutral
Health: 60/100
Strength: 160/230
