by Pavel Kornev
“Two hundred grand,” I reminded him, then wailed in pain as he took a swing and sank the hook into my left shoulder. “Daaaaamn! Two hundred and fifty!”
Rob left the rusty hook sticking out of my flesh, walked back to his tools and chose a serrated knife. “The skull is in Inferno now. The portal to it is in the lab which isn’t mine anymore. But that’s not the problem. The portal can only be activated by a paladin level 75-plus. And as you can see, I’m only level 59. Lots of work still. But if you tell me...”
The reed curtain on the window twitched. The dead phoenix poked his head into the room and stared at me with his unseeing eyes which — I kid you not! — twinkled with laughter. The wretched creature seemed to be rather enjoying his ex-master’s wretched situation.
Neo stepped into the doorway. The paladin uncoiled like a spring, taking a swing with his knife. But before he could use it, Neo transformed into a smeared shadow and rammed the renegade, sending him flying to the wall.
“I’ll get it anyway,” Rob forced a grin, scrambling to his feet.
Neo raised his hand and clenched a fist. I heard something snap in the paladin’s chest. His skin turned gray; a thin web of cracks ran over his petrified body which then collapsed to the floor in a heap of dust.
“Great timing,” I wheezed.
The lad drew his dagger and gingerly cut through my leather bonds. It took all of my strength to stay on my feet. When I reached to pull out the hook still stuck in my shoulder I discovered I couldn’t do it because my numb fingers refused to bend.
Numb? As in, pinched circulation? That wasn’t normal!
Gnashing my teeth with the pain, I somehow managed to pull out the rusty hook and flung it into a corner.
“I’m so sorry, Uncle John,” the boy lowered his head. “I had no idea who he was.”
“I believe you, Neo. I know. This bastard outwitted us all.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
I gave it some thought. “Think you could port me to Lloyd’s back yard? That’s one thing you could do.”
Neo nodded. “What else?”
“Listen, this shadow thing... I mean I saw you turn into shadow. What is it, some sort of stealth skill? Think you could teach me how to do it?”
He shrugged in hesitation. “I might try, I suppose. I’ve never done it before.”
He reached out his hand and touched me. Oh miracle!
Status received: a Disciple of the Path of Darkness school of combat.
Maximum stealth level: 25
Stealth in combat: 1 sec per every 10 pt. of the skill
True Shadow skill: 1 sec per every 5 pt. of the skill
I whistled in amazement. “That’s cool, man!”
Not only could I continue leveling stealth now, I also received a new skill. I checked its description. Apparently, True Shadow allowed me to stay invisible even in brightly lit spaces.
Then I finally remembered. “How did it go with the lighthouse? You had no problems with Shadow Puppeteer, did you?”
Neo smiled. “Everything went according to plan. Thanks a lot for helping us, Uncle John. We won’t be able to set up a new sanctuary there, not for a while anyway. But at least the power of the Grand Master is in my hands now. It’s gonna be easier now.”
He didn’t say what exactly was going to be easier, though. “You want me to open the portal?” he repeated.
“Shoot it!”
WHEN I SWUNG the shop’s door open, Ulrich very nearly dropped his false eye onto the counter. So amazed was he that he couldn’t even say anything intelligible in reply to my question whether his boss was in. He just nodded.
I headed toward Lloyd’s hole, knocked on the door and poked my head in. “You mind?”
He sat bolt upright, pushed his green eyeglasses up to his head, hooking them to his little horns, and drawled, “Well, well, well. Talk about bravery bordering on madness.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come in first,” he said. “How did you get here?”
“Neo ported me to your yard,” I said, perching on a chair. “Why?”
He chuckled meaningfully, pushed aside a strange-looking amulet and his magnifying glass on a stand, and chuckled. “You’ve got a contract on your head.”
My eyes opened wide. “Meaning?”
“You heard it. The Spawn are offering five grand to anyone who kills you. Effective indefinitely. You’re not just a blacklisted player anymore: you’re the enemy of the clan. Anyone can claim the reward, even a Light player. Even a Chaosite.”
I gulped. “Those bastards...”
Mr. Lloyd shrugged. “Well, what did you expect? That bone dragon of yours, how many people do you think he slayed?”
“A lot, I suppose.”
I pressed my burned hands to my face, wincing with the pain. By now, my health had almost restored but the scars covering my hands were still there. My fingers ached and refused to bend.
Shit! First my scarred cheek that had never really healed, and now this!
Life is a bitch!
Don’t get me wrong, I had no problem with it, but the price on my head was quite an issue. On the one hand, five grand was too little money to encourage anyone to go looking for me on purpose — apart from the most motivated among the Spawn themselves, of course — but anyone who just chanced upon me in a dark alley would be more than happy to zap me, unflinchingly and without hesitation. And now it wasn’t just my XP that was at stake but my levels too!
So it looked like all my hopes of leveling up had just gone out the window. I’d either have to accept the terms of the Angel of Darkness and go cap in hand to the Spawn — who were sure to rip me off and get me into some kind of unsavory mess — or simply quit.
Level 30 gave me sixty grand, according to the contract I’d signed. It wasn’t even funny. This wasn’t the kind of money that could buy you a new life. Far from it.
“So whatcha gonna do?” Mr. Lloyd asked.
“I’ve no idea,” I replied in all honesty.
The Angel of Darkness had this own little game, and I had no intention of becoming his puppet. But by the same token, how long could I last surrounded by all the potential head hunters? I’d be down to level 25 before I knew it. Plus I really, really didn’t want to die. It just hurt too much for some reason.
“The bone dragon,” Lloyd reminded. “I could give you a million and a half for the skull. Possibly more, but I can’t guarantee that. You could then convert the game money into real-life stuff. Current rate is-”
“I know what the current rate is!”
I used to, rather. The problem was, in order to turn into a bone dragon I had to get my charmed skull back which was now kicking around Inferno somewhere. The portal to which was in the capital of the forces of Light. And the only person who could activate it was a level-75-plus paladin. I just couldn’t do it.
Or could I?
I frowned. Good old Garth had been remarkably talkative. And not just that, but he was also very well informed about things he wasn’t supposed to know. Like who might have told him that I was behind his “Barth” paladin character’s deletion? Good question, eh?
Apart from me, the only person that knew it was the Angel of Darkness himself.
It just didn’t sum up.
The white witch and her threats, the Angel of Darkness and his ultimatum, the Spawn creating more problems for me, Garth “accidentally” blabbing vital information... I felt like I’d been purposefully nudged from all sides, driven to run in a sole possible direction. And what was awaiting me at the end of the line — an ambush? Or was it all being done in order to introduce the skull of the last surviving bone dragon — the skull which had been so inopportunely listed in the game inventory with the unwitting help from yours truly?
There was no other way to conquer the Tower of Decay. And I was the only person capable of summoning the unique dragon. Or rather, I was the only person capable of turning into him.
On the other h
and, why couldn’t the devs simply change the rules for killing the Lord of Decay? They couldn’t or they wouldn’t? Hard to say.
“John?” Mr. Lloyd said. “So what do you say to that?”
I gave him a long look, wondering if he could have any connections with the Angel of Darkness, but immediately dismissed the idea. Lloyd worked with Isabella. And considering her line of work in real life, that spoke for itself.
A double agent? Give me a break. We shouldn’t be overthinking things, or we might end up cutting ourselves on this Occam’s razor. I knew I could trust Lloyd. But still...
“I don’t know,” I said, hesitant. “I really don’t.”
If I retrieved the skull, turned into a dragon and consequently jumped through levels, I’d be in breach of the contract. On the other hand, the reward Lloyd had offered me was infinitely more than the paltry sixty grand I was currently due. Should I risk it?
Lloyd wasn’t pushing me into it. He just sat there waiting.
Still, I just couldn’t make up my mind. Basically, I wanted to have my cake and eat it. The problem was, if I didn’t agree to his offer now, my game future would be rather bleak.
“Firstly,” I finally said, “I’m not at all sure I can summon the dragon.”
Lloyd nodded, encouraging me to continue.
“Secondly. I’ll need help from a high-level paladin.”
“How about Goar?”
“Sounds good. I’ll also need some portal scrolls in case I have to leg it.”
Lloyd’s demonic eyes lit up with curiosity. “Where from?” he asked nonchalantly.
“Amber Square in the capital of Light. There’s a mansion there that’s recently been auctioned. It used to belong to one Barth Firefist, or so I was told. If both the square and the mansion do exist, we might discuss a potential agreement...”
Lloyd nodded. His eyes glazed over as he focused on his interface, scrolling through various forums and wikis. Unwilling to disturb him, I opened my stats. Immediately the little box popped up again, inviting me to choose a specialization. I really needed to decide on my next development branch, but first I opened the little envelope icon blinking with new unread messages.
They were all from Arkha. In them, She who Dances with Spirits appeared to have dealt with all the five stages of grief, moving from open threats to a very polite and logical question: How much?
How much do you want for the Hand of Fury?
I chuckled. I wasn’t in a hurry to reply though. Instead, I opened the list of available specializations and spent some quality time studying. Still, unlike last time when a similar search had come up with Executioner, all the profession options were rather ordinary.
I even felt offended, to a degree. There was nothing there that could hold a candle to my unique hangman executioner. He used to be one hell of an awesome dude.
In the end, I selected Eviscerator, just as I’d originally planned. Not a typical choice for a rogue — but it offered considerable advantages in fighting much stronger enemies. Its main skill was Cleaver.
An Eviscerator is capable of cleaving their victim from throat to the groin. No amount of armor can stop their furious attack.
The knowledge of the armor’s vulnerable spots adds 25% to Eviscerator’s chances of piercing it.
+10% to your chances of dealing a critical hit
+5% to your chances of dealing a crippling blow
It came with secondary skills such as Bare Knuckle, Slasher and Cold Calculation. The former allowed you to deal more damage with your bare hands, like by drawing the victim’s guts or gouging their eyes out. The second one increased your chances of not only dealing a crippling blow but also of chopping off an opponent’s limb.
Both required high Strength numbers which rendered them pretty useless to a rogue. But the last one... I studied it straight away, spending one of the five available skill points.
Cold Calculation
Some run amuck and fight like men possessed while others are never in a hurry, aiming their blows precisely at their opponent’s most vital spots. Eviscerators don’t waste time trying to pinpoint their enemy’s vulnerabilities as their good knowledge of anatomy allows them to do so in the heat of combat.
I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. My Eviscerator rogue was turning out to be not so run-of-the-mill at all! He was literally growing new injury-dealing skills, which was more than I could wish for.
I was just about to invest a few points into weapon skills when I noticed a new skill which had just come up. It was associated with both Dodge and Stealth — or rather, with disciple statuses in their respective schools.
Shadow Leap
You’re remarkably swift and can conceal yourself in the shadows better than anyone else. And now you yourself will become a shadow, immaterial and elusive, albeit for a brief moment.
Duration: 1 second
Yes, please! Although activating this skill would prevent me from dealing damage to everybody else, it was worth it simply because I became impervious to all weapons and magic!
I then selected one-weapon combat, receiving the status of Fencer, a 10% bonus to dodge, a 5% acceleration to attacks and the offer of an additional maneuver.
First of all, I wanted to study Rapid Strikes which would allow me to deal three blows instead of one, each dealing 50% damage. Taking into account all my other bonuses to speed, my dagger would simply vanish into thin air, but...
But then I saw Observer — one of the Perception skills — and reconsidered.
Your ability to focus allows you to see things which escape all others.
+100% to Perception
+100% to the calculation basis of the probability of dealing critical hits and crippling blows.
+300% to your chances of discovering traps, magic anomalies and hidden creatures.
Duration: 30 sec
Restriction: only when stealthed up or immobilized.
Initially, these restrictions could be a veritable fly in the ointment but as you leveled up, this ability became available even on the run and later, even in combat. Its duration grew progressively, although so did the required expenses of internal energy which, by the way, were quite substantial: a one-minute activation of Observer would have bled me dry.
After that, I didn’t hesitate much. I selected Accurate Blow which in turn gave me access to Maiming Blow. True, a dagger isn’t the best weapon to chop your enemies’ limbs off, but its thin sharp blade in combination with the bonus allowing you to pierce the opponent’s armor could become an unpleasant surprise for any heavily-armored enemy.
So what did we have now?
John Doe, Eviscerator
Human, Rogue. Level: 30
Experience: [52 429/56 900]
Strength: 13.
Agility: 29.
Constitution: 11.
Intellect: 10.
Perception: 16.
Health: 330.
Stamina: 360.
Internal Energy: 390.
Damage: 152–228.
Stealth: +15
Dodge: +15
Critical damage when attacking in stealth mode, backstabbing or attacking a paralyzed target.
Professional skills: “Cold Calculation”, “Shadow Leap”, “Observer”
Fencer: weapons in one hand, “Accurate Blow”, “Crippling Blow”
Enemies: The Swords of Chaos clan, the Spawn of Frost
Achievements: “Surgical Student”, “Anatomist” Grade 2, “Cutthroat”, an Apprentice of the Dance of Darkness school of combat, a Disciple of the Path of Darkness school of combat.
I studied my stats tab and cringed. This was a far cry from my Ancient Executioner Lich. Nowhere near it. Having said that, once I’d made another thirty levels or so...
Shut up, I told myself. You’ll never make it. Not a freakin’ chance.
I had no intention of going cap in hand to the Angel of Darkness and without that, my gaming future looked pretty bleak. Was it even worth staying here any
longer?
I pulled off my gauntlets and took in the state of my raw scarred hands. Jesus. First the white witch with her tough love, and now the Moon Grail which had burned my fingers right through. And what if the damage I might receive from regular gamers resulted in similar injuries?
What if my brain started perceiving the game as reality? And what if one day I believed my death enough to die for real? For good? For all eternity?
