Afterwards, he opened the shadow maze mission prompt. It required him to run through a maze and kill a few other NPCs that were lurking in the shadows. After reading up on the description of Stealth Walk, he decided his class had an inherent advantage in the maze.
He loaded up the prompt and clicked accept. With a mission difficulty of B-, he even loosened up before his stomach seemed to flip inside of him. When he reopened up his eyes, he was standing in a circle with four men and one woman. A man in a black cloak looked at the five individuals, and then pulled out his dagger before tossing it into the muddied water.
“You six…. Pick a path and go forward… If you happen to run into a person on that path, you either kill him or die… Last one to drop dead gets bragging rights in hell… get out of here…”
“Wait…” a girl said, angst apparent in her voice, “I thought you told me you’d let my father go if I completed the maze… You never said anyone would die because of it…”
Typical game dialog, Alfred thought, ignoring the conversation.
All I have to do is kill these five NPCs and they can respawn for the next group. However, if I die, I guess I’ll end up in a real pile of corpses.
Still, they certainly have more life like personalities then I thought… The girl even looks terrified… Never seen a game with such realism..
Alfred cracked his neck before a gate opened up. He charged into the gate and traveled quickly into the shadows. The six opponents branched out and clambered down their own paths. After two turns, Alfred already ran into someone.
His head was completely bald, and he had on a black tunic with red overalls that made him stand out. With Stealth Walk already activated, Alfred crept up behind him and put his knife against his throat and pulled. A streak of blood burst into the air as the man tumbled and tried to cover the gaping wound. He fell into the water before Alfred sighed and wiped off the blood on his blade. He sheathed his dagger and quickly pulled the body into the vines.
The cooldown for his Stealth Walk skill started. He skulked in the shadows for one minute before the skill once again activated. He heard a scream in the brambles ahead, and darted into the water with Stealth Walk again activated. The girl he’d just heard fighting for her life had a wound in the center of her breast plate.
She laid down on the ground with a man kicking her repeatedly in the face. Alfred gently sneaked up to the man as he tossed his fingers through the girl’s hair. A rampant, deranged expression appeared on his face. He slid his hands underneath her skirt with a blade etching a mark against her stockings.
Her eye lids tightened before Alfred hesitated and couldn’t get himself to stab forward. The man thrust down with his knife and stabbed the girl in the chest. Blood spurted onto Alfred’s shadow, causing it to mark his location.
The man turned around with a mad expression as a knife cut across his throat.
You’ve inflicted 350 damage (Vitalx8), Black cloak has died.
Alfred wiped off his blade as the lady screamed and looked at him with fear. Her eyes started to turn white as if life had disappeared from her crystalline orbs. He pondered if he should try and save her before she slowly lost her life. A look of gratitude manifested on her eyes before she slowly drifted away. A small tear fell down Alfred’s face as he stared forward.
The maze was in a room that seemed to be roughly the size of a football stadium. There were dozens of dead ends, and at least three people remaining. Besides for the rich plant life, the most obvious scent was that of flesh and blood.
It could’ve doubled as a swamp with the minor flow of water touching against Alfred’s legs. He closed the girl’s eyes before rushing further into the dreary blackness. Another two screams sounded sharply before Alfred did the math and figured one man remained.
He rushed to the location of the last scream and a small man, perhaps five feet tall, crawled towards him with a sword in his back. Alfred went into the vines omnipresent against the dark passageways. A man laughed and kicked into the sword. He stood above him at nearly six feet five, and waved the sword at Alfred’s location before a series of knives shot out of his arm.
Alfred barely dodged five of them in time before one lodged into his shoulder. He activated shadow walk before the NPC sprinted towards his location and slammed down his hand. A series of chains shot out of his arms and went in all directions. Alfred jumped into the air before he flipped and landed on his back.
With a single swipe, blood contaminated the passageway as the brute fumbled down onto his feet from taking a knife to the throat. That was Alfred’s first run in with a weapon’s expert.
Players like Alfred and NPCs alike could use classes. The reason this mission had been a hell mission was because of this NPC and his ability to use hidden weapons. If Alfred didn’t have Stealth walk to counteract his attacks, he might’ve died without even having a chance to blink.
“You’re not a bad for a lunatic,” The man in black who’d started the mission walked towards him with a dagger in his hand. “I’m also a shadow walker, and have seen a few talents… I’d put you in the top twenty percent of talents, but your balls…. I’d say there bigger than everyone’s I’ve met!”
“Thanks for the compliment,” Alfred wiped off his dagger, sloshing in the water as he backed away from the red eyes approaching his position. “However, don’t think because you’re complimenting me, I Won’t attack you…”
“oh, you’re afraid of me?” The man laughed, kicking through the two bodies before he stopped right in front of Alfred. “I’m just going to give you a little bit of a warning because I like you… If you want to be a real shadow walker, you’re going to have to visit Old Bird in the city… You see… as I told you… I’m a Shadow Walker myself…”
“How do I know it isn’t a trap?” Alfred sighed, trying to keep off the feeling of sickness rising in his gut. “You just made me murder five different people?”
“You aren’t supposed to listen to me... Do you want the mission or not?”
[Mission Request… Learn the Rruth!]
You’ve been tasked with going to see Old Bird in Larimar city… He can be found in Bird’s Pub in the darkest part of town. If you want to learn the truth of the shadow walker, this is probably the best place to start!
Mission difficulty: C
Mission Reward; Two skills of your choice
Multiple part mission 1 / x
Time Limit: one year
Do you wish to accept the mission?
“I accept,” Alfred didn’t hesitate… “I guess you can’t be lying if you gave me a mission about it!”
“Yup… now here… take this dagger while you’re at it! I’m too low a level to make it any use! If you ever want to learn how to train, find me in the black market and I’ll show you a move or two!”
“My name is Crow by the way… Show me the dagger when you’re in Downtown Larimar… It’s where people like us belong!”
Alfred grimaced before he accepted the dagger. The bright light whisked him away before he ended back up in his little box.
Mission Complete!
You’ve gained a status bonus for completing a hell mission
+3 agility
+2 Strength
+ 1 vitality
You’ve received a new dagger, Black Eye Knife (level 5)
Grade: Common
Attack 15
Durability: 25 / 25
You’ve learned one new passive skill, Dagger Novice
Skill level: 1
Effect: When wielding a dagger, you deal 1.5% more damage. Not bad for a novice…
You’ve gained 600 (+300) experience for completing the quest!
You’ve made it to the next level! (10 Stat points auto assigned)!
You’ve completed 2 / 3 hell missions in a row! Complete 3 / 3 hell missions in order to earn a 100 percent experience boost! Remember… limit of Hell missions is three a day!
Alfred took a deep breath and rubbed his stomach before clear
ing it in the toilet. He’d almost gotten over being squeamish from the teleportation, but still puked out what remained in his digestive tract. He hadn’t eaten in a while and went over to the refrigerator which was neatly nested right above the toilet in the wall. He wanted to give this place a redesign as quick as possible, but overall it wasn’t worth the experience.
“Welcome back Alfred…. I saw your battle… you definitely weren’t kidding about being a trained fighter, Rexam greeted, "however, aren’t you playing a little close to the edge.”
“I’m not a toddler,” Alfred took out a bottle of water, and drank half of it before tossing it against the wall. “I practiced a rare form of martial arts known as the Dragon Style… Only a few people have ever beaten me in a fight… and one named Green is a foot taller than me.”
“Sounds like a giant… How tall are you six feet?” Rexam responded, her voice sounding a mix of sweet and worried. “He’s not the one on the leader board is he?”
“He’s the same guy,” Alfred took a calming breath and closed his eyes. “His father and my father had a bit of competition growing up… He’s really only six three, but those extra three inches matter in the ring.”
“You’re going to need a lot of help,” Rexam sounded concerned. “I’ve seen all of his videos on the Forum. It’s a platform to which users upload requests, stream dungeons, and sell items. He’s ranked number 8 currently and has just reached level 35.”
“So… they pretty much set up an internet here for players to use… That’s nice,” Alfred sat back on the bed and closed his eyes. “Why don’t you tell me a little bit about it before…. Ugh… never mind,” Alfred turned and saw Vera’s hand pressed against the window.
He walked outside trying to hide the pallid look on his face. The sun had barely made it halfway into the sky making it seem like it was getting closer to noon. Vera looked at him up and down before she turned back and pointed over towards a box that was sitting outside of her much bigger box. She walked him over to it and smiled before kicking it and sending five objects floating into the air.
“Here… I got you five uncommon items from one of my guild mates for when you turned level 5… It wasn’t hard to sell them into sponsoring a former martial arts champion… When they heard that you and Green used to kick each other’s butts in the Juniper Dojo from dusk to dawn…. Let’s just say they bought it hook line and sinker!”
“I can’t accept this,” Alfred shook his head, mulling over what to say as Vera’s lips started to tremble. “If I accept this, they are going to expect me to join their guild… I told you I’m a solo player Vera… I can’t—”
“You have to! You can only complete Dungeons without a Guild or a party! People would literally kill to be in my guild too… It’s known as Chaos Road! It’s ranked in the top 70 of all guilds! There are over 30,000… please consider it!”
Alfred sighed before he asked Vera to explain why dungeons were so important. She summed it up that hard dungeons allowed parties to gain rare and sometimes dream weapons. However, the rewards would never be as good as the team that got a first clear or set a record.
The Game makers, or Light Bringers, as Vera liked to call them, would allow those who got a first clear of a hard, hell, or a dream dungeon to get certain rewards. Dream dungeons, by far, had the best rewards, and were only available with a team leader at level 35. Dream dungeons allowed for a player to request for a person from their world to be spawned into Heaven’s Gate.
Vera, of course, couldn’t explain anything about the technology, but even people who died in your previous life could be brought back into existence. The reward was almost too much for Alfred to bear. He took one look at the items and sighed before he picked up the set of uncommon items and stored them in his satchel.
He would’ve equipped them, however, he didn’t want Vera to find out his level. He noticed the level 5 items, as she said, were all uncommon and part of the Grass Slime Set. He couldn’t imagine how many slimes had to be killed to earn these drops. He smiled at her before she grinned. He immediately received a request a second later to join a guild…
[Chaos Road has sent you a request to join. Current members 159 / 160… Would you like to enter into the fun of darkness?]
“Such a cliché entry request?” Alfred said, laughing as he clicked accept. He immediately joined the group before what sounded like a set of horns blaring sounded into his ears along with a “welcome” from a hoarse voice. Vera smiled before she dragged him into her little house and thrust him down onto the bed. With a smile on her face, she seemed to be hiding a fierce bout of rage.
“How the hell are you level 5?! That should’ve taken you two days not two hours!”
Chapter 5: Chaos Road
Alfred examined the guild window. There was a small portion of it dedicated to the level of the players. He was the last on the list by almost ten levels, but Vera was clearly surprised that he was already level 5. Her breasts slammed into his chest as she used a strength he could barely handle to grapple him down.
“I… I just did a lot of normal missions alright! I’m going with going for vitals, so it made it easy to—”
“Stop lying! There is no way to level up that fast! I think you’ve definitely beaten the record of turning into an idiot!” Vera’s hands gripped at his shoulders causing him to scream. She’d selected defender as her main class and put all her points into vitality and strength. Alfred grimaced in pain before she realized her hands were digging into his arms. Letting go, she threw her pillow bunny at him before she huffed out a loud of hot air.
Her skin had turned red and her hair seemed to mesh in with her body. She pulled him up and hugged him tightly before she went from angry to satisfied in half a second.
“Sorry… Don’t hate me for getting mad at you… I just… don’t do any more hard missions okay? Promise me you’ll stop!”
“I can’t do that!” Alfred said, throwing the bunny back at the side of the bed. “Listen… I want to get our families restored first before I throw in the towel…. I… I’ve been dying to see my mom again since I Was five years old… You… you’re special to me Vera, but I got to risk it.”
“Oh yes, well… risk your new found life for someone who was dead before you could even SPELL DEAD!” Vera picked up a pillow and squeezed it. “Alright…. Fine… I’ll trust you, but… for the ten days you weren’t in my life here… you won’t believe how hard it was… I didn’t even get a chance to tell you what happened in the future on Earth…”
“I feel like I should never learn that,” Alfred smiled at Vera, grinning as she pouted in a mix of disgust and hatred and hopelessness. “I talked to my AI, and made sure the odds were above 90 percent before I took any missions.”
“Didn’t your mom have a ninety percent chance of living?” Vera retorted covering her mouth… “I mean sorry… I just… I’ve known you since we were both the size of watermelons… Anyways… the guild will be over here in an hour to meet you… I hope you don’t mind staying alive till then?”
“Thank you vera, but I’m never going to die.” Alfred patted her on the head. “I feel stronger already… like I’ve gained three times the horsepower… I’ll be back in thirty then… Going to do a few more normal missions…”
Alfred walked out the doorway, leaving Vera on the bed. The guild window could be accessed at the bottom of his vision. When he thought the word ‘guild’ it appeared. He quickly hid his level before he walked back into his little crummy bungalow. He sat down calmly on the bed before looking at the two burning handprints that he’d got pressed into his arms from Vera’s dainty body. It made him feel weak. He couldn’t just give up on hell missions… not until he got the reward!
“Welcome back… did you have fun over at Vera’s house?” Rexam greeted, showering him with her sweet voice. “I can also see that you’ve joined a good guild… You’ll now gain an extra one percent experience every mission.”
“That’s great news,” Alfred walk
ed over to the mission table, and loaded the kill missions tab. How much longer until I can do story mode? What level do you have to be?”
“It will be unlocked at level 7… You up for another Hell mission?”
“You know me so well,” Alfred clicked on the kill prompts and read the new hell mission that had loaded. It was called [Forest Slaughter] (lvl 7), and he had to take out six Swamp Mercenaries. He didn’t hesitate for a second after confirming his success rate should still be in the ninety percentile. With a flash of blinding light, he ended up on a boat drifting through a river. Six men along the river were chasing after him with bows equipped… three on each side.
There were five boats between each side of the river and a waterfall that seemed ready to swallow him hole. He quickly jumped to the other side as a series of five arrows spun past him and whistled in the air. Suddenly a large pain blasted up his vertebrae.
An arrow had lodged itself into his lower shin, and he broke it off before the men loaded their second salvo. A window telling him he’d been poisoned appeared along with the fact he’d lost 50 health on that strike. With only 250 health remaining, he grunted off the pain and hopped over to the last boat separating him and three of the bandits.
The lead boat fell off the waterfall as Alfred jumped into the air and activated Stealth Walk. He disappeared in thin air before two arrows burst passed him. The three men formed a circle and tossed down a smoke bomb before Alfred charged directly into it.
Heaven's Gate: Volume 1 (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 3
