The Crystal Crusade

by Mars Dorian

  “Have you done this quest before?”

  “Every quest is unique.”

  “Yeah, but some do get regurgitated.”

  “No offense, but you’re talking too much. Let’s focus on the goal, shall we?”

  We stepped lower into the ragged ground of the cave. The outside light from the entrance had vanished long ago, and the darkness surrounded us like a demonic mist, ready to strike at will. Only Azzam’s lantern saved us from the perfect black. The noise of the tapping grew louder.

  “Eleven o’clock,” he said like a military captain.

  Three critters crawled from the stony pillars, their sharp front claws raised to pierce our skins. They looked like the ugly lovechild between crabs and spiders.

  Enemy: Cave critter

  Type: Reepotile

  HP: 40

  Armor: Very light chitin (+1 protection)

  Weakness: Blunt weapons; Fire

  Drops: Shells, critter meat

  I readied my axe and struck without thinking. The blade pierced the first creeper in vertical strikes.

  “Stay in the light,” Azzam said and swung his saw blade at the two critters jumping at him. The mechanized weapon tore like a chainsaw through the crawling monsters and splattered them into bloody fragments. Three creepers cracked open in no time. I left the critter meat and shells laying. No use for that organic garbage.

  “Your blade is the bomb.”

  “Not yet,” Azzam said.

  Too bad the mech-axe required both of my hands. I would have gladly helped him carry the lantern to support his attacks, after everything Azzam had done for me.

  “Don’t get cocky yet, Dash. This cave will contain more dangers.”

  He sounded as if he did play a similar level before. We neared the appropriate area from where the distress message was sent. A spacious part of the cave opened before our eyes. And still, no sight of the lost traveler.

  “This is weird,” I said.

  “Not really,” Azzam said. “The quests are context dynamic, do you know what that means?”

  “That they adapt to the player’s actions?”

  “Exactly. So a quest is never as straightforward as the briefing makes it out to be.” He winked at me. “I think you should have realized that by now.”

  He probably hinted at my failed Finsterland Forest and Lynchburg protection quests. Didn’t bother me; they had taught me valuable lessons about the gameplay. As long as we had nothing to lose but time, everything was A-Okay.

  We stayed closer together and scouted the rest of the lower cave. The low amount of creatures surprised me—I expected wave after wave of critters, but this VR game was unlike any other.

  I did however find lots of webs, hanging from the stalactites like haunting curtains. I followed the way of the web.

  “The amount of spider webs seem to increase from that direction,” I said, trying to add my value to the quest.

  “You’re right,” Azzam said. “Let’s check it out.”

  The path guided us to another open space near the rocky corner of the cave. A cluster of spider webs spanned the area and made moving forward so much harder. My senses tingled.

  “Mmmmm.”

  A mumbled voice echoed from nearby. Azzam and I turned our heads and tried to the find the origin of the muttering. A human NPC, glued to the cave wall, was engulfed by an onslaught of web. The grayish white strings coated the poor fellow like a cocoon.

  Quest update: You have found the lost traveler. Cut him loose and guide him back outside to a safety zone.

  I quickly readied my axe and cut through the strings of web. The blade sliced the NPC from the wall. He fell to the ground so I helped him up. His eyes shone with a mix of fear and gratefulness. “Thank the Aeons somebody came. I was worried I’d die in this rotten cave.”

  “Who did this to you?” I said before regretting the word choice.

  The tap-taps of a hundred legs haunted from all directions. The sound increased with every shallow breath. The saved NPC pointed his shivering finger at the dark distance of the cave and winced.

  “They did.”

  17

  Azzam’s lantern created a warm circle around us. Silhouettes of critter shapes crept toward us. I counted two dozen, no, three dozen crawling in our direction. I didn’t suffer from arachnophobia yet, but this sight terrified me. Hairy legs? Check. Chitin-limbs with glossy liquid? Check. The worst nightmare in physical form.

  “It’s about to get ugly,” my partner said as he pointed his saw blade toward the incoming brood. The weapon’s humming sound attracted a squad of spiderlings as the icon pointer revealed:

  Enemy: Spiderlings

  HP: 25

  Weakness: Sharp weaponry

  Drops: Poison sample for antidote, web coat

  “Try to find a choke point where you can take them out one at a time,” Azzam said.

  “I thought I was supposed to stay near you.”

  Azzam rushed toward the first wave of spiderlings and pierced the little suckers with his saw blade. He swiped a 180 degree cut and killed three in one go. Impressive.

  It looked studied, as if he wiped out critters for a living. When they ventured too far away, he returned to the NPC while I dealt with the few spiderlings that escaped Azzam’s wrath. In the middle of the skirmish, he said to the NPC, “Do you have any valuable items?”

  The man hesitated but offered Azzam to take a look.

  “But we’re not safe yet,” the NPC said with a stutter.

  “Only a matter of time.”

  “Maybe now is not the time to make deals,” I said, my eyes focused on the spiderlings splitting up.

  Four new critters with extra skin armor targeted me. I aimed my axe and chose the crimson blade’s forward slash option, which used an extra amount of the battery power to double the swing’s intensity. Lo and behold, the move worked. A single swipe killed three spiderlings upon impact and sent the farthest flying over the cave floor. Their innards and blood splattered the rugged ground. This was almost fun. I kept my eyes on my close perimeter to avoid a spiderling army from surrounding me.

  I slashed and dashed.

  To my left, it looked like Azzam was bargaining with the NPC. A sharp hiss caught my attention. Dozens of meters in the distance, a silhouette of a curvy body twice my size scuttled forward. My worst instincts revealed the new enemy.

  “Azzam,” I said and pointed my axe at the direction. “Big mofo incoming.”

  Of course, the cave harbored more than low-level critters. Azzam swung his lantern around and illuminated the incoming culprit. A giant, spider-like creature with hairy legs, crimson eyes, and an abdomen the size of a compact car. The sight alone froze my stance.

  “It’s their queen,” Azzam said like it was the most normal realization in the world.

  Enemy: Brood mother

  Type: Reepotile

  HP: 275 base/Armor: +2 (Medium chitin armor)

  Weakness: Sharp weaponry, fire

  Drops: Chitin armor, web coating

  The giant creature had to be the biggest foe I had seen since the beginning of the game. An ugly-ass Creepo creature from the darkest corner of the cave.

  “Aeons, have mercy on me,” I said, which the NPC repeated. “Me, too.”

  The brood mother rotated her enormous body and pointed her spinnerets toward me. I knew what was coming and tried to evade to the right, but a new wave of spiderlings blocked my advance. The queen unleashed a liquid-like web. The glue-like coating slammed into my ribcage and threw me against the rocky wall. The impact choked my breath and bound me to the rocky surface. I couldn’t move my mech-axe or limbs. The analyzer updated my status effect:

  Warning. You’re paralyzed.

  75% movement reduction for at least 15 seconds.

  Tip: Ask squad member to cut strings to nullify effect.

  75% reduction? More like 99%.

  I guess that was the game’s equal of getting slimed. I tried to move my limbs but the
y stayed glued together. In the distance, Azzam finished four spiderlings with his saw blade like a National Spiderling Stabber Champion. Perfect timing because I needed his skill more than ever.

  “Azzam, I really could use some help over here.”

  He shot toward my direction. Man, was I glad I had teamed up with him. “Give me your axe so I can cut you down.”

  “Use your saw blade.”

  “Your mech-axe is better, trust me.”

  We both looked at the incoming brood mother inching toward our location.

  “Hurry.”

  I accepted the trade and released the mech-axe. Azzam thanked me with a smile. “You’re the best.”

  “Save the compliments and release me.”

  What happened next blew my mind for the wrong reasons. Instead of cutting the strings, Azzam took off with my axe. Like, thanks for the item, and goodbye.

  “Man, what the heck?”

  “No worries, mate, it’s just business.”

  “Business? I thought we teamed up. Those were the rules.”

  “Rules are for fools.”

  This backstabbing slime took his lantern and escaped the battle scene. I yelled after him. “Come back here.”

  He didn’t. Instead, he vanished from my sight without a word. A group of spiderlings crawled all over the wounded NPC who yelled in pain. He flailed his bruised arms like he was drowning in an invisible ocean. “Help me, help me.”

  “I want to,” I said in desperation, “but I’m kinda pinned down myself.”

  Too late.

  The tiny mouths of the spiderlings ripped through the NPC’s skin. They ate him alive, a few meters right next to me. The update hammered my vision.

  You failed to save the lost traveler.

  Worse, the light vanished from the cave. The spiderlings’ silhouettes turned into hissing noises. The last thing I saw was the ginormous shape of the brood mother creeping toward me while her army of spiderlings crawled all over my webbed body. I closed my eyes and suppressed the pain of a dozen creatures eating me alive.

  18

  My vision flooded blood-red and went dark.

  A small update sounded in the background. The ear-scratching noise of the critter-infested cave made way for a clear room. Game over and yet still alive. Seriously, this was the fantasy version of the Groundhog Day.

  I woke up in the Academy’s infirmary where the same old nurse treated me with her faux medical equipment. I wasn’t pissed that I had died; the cave mission still counted as a tutorial quest so no punishment occurred. But I was pissed at Azzam for abusing my trust and stealing my axe for his personal gain. The sucker acted like the quintessential con artist from the real world. Couldn’t people be at least decent here in Fourlando?

  “How are you feeling, Dash?” the nurse said.

  Well, I seethed with anger from the inside out, but I didn’t want to unleash my frustrations on a nice NPC nurse.

  “Let’s put it like this—I like teamwork, but teamwork doesn’t seem to like me.”

  The nurse nodded and patted my shoulder. She handed me two transparent, cylinder-shaped containers filled with a red liquid. “Here, have two free health potions for the future.”

  “Why free?”

  “We give it to all the patients that continuously visit our infirmary. Be careful out there, cadet, it’s a wragg-eat-wragg world.”

  I accepted her potions and hit the hallway outside the medical station. I wasn’t a superstitious person, but I started to believe a curse haunted my character. Every single time I started a quest with good intentions, something horrific happened and burned my experience. What happened to the good old times when you could just hack and slash and get rewarded with experience and money?

  Instead of jumping into the next quest, I needed to get my issues in order. But dwelling on frustrations never led to results, so I picked a live class on ‘foolproof tactics to gain rapid real-world experience’.

  The courses took place in the tactics and strategy section of the Academy, which I visited by using the mechanical lifts. Transparent walls curved around the hallway and allowed me to take a breathtaking view of the main continent of Fourlando. Exotic flowerbeds cut through the center of the hallway. Hundreds of player cadets buzzed around and ignored me.

  “Enjoying a time out?”

  I recognized that sweet and leveled voice. It belonged to L’ocean, the TechMage, my first player partner from the failed Finsterland Forest quest. I was more than delighted that she initiated a conversation. I had feared our relationship had frosted to level zero.

  “I’m just trying to work out some issues.”

  “What happened?”

  “You don’t know already? I thought news travel at the speed of light among players.”

  “Perhaps player gossip doesn’t just revolve around you.”

  She phrased the statement in a way that made me sound self-absorbed, and I wasn’t in the mood for arguing. “Have you ever been betrayed by a fellow player during a quest?”

  “Don’t tell me you have been Azzam’d.”

  “Oh, there’s already a term for it. Nice.”

  She tilted her head sideways. “He’s the sort of player who picks clueless newcomers with decent equipment and offers team support. Then, in the middle of the quest, he tricks you into giving him your equipment and takes off, only to sell his loot later in deals.”

  I pondered her words. “So he’s like the reverse Robin Hood. He takes it from the poor and gives it to the rich.”

  She giggled. “That’s an astute way of putting it.”

  L’ocean knew everything about everyone. She must have sifted through player databases all day to know their weaknesses, strengths, and reputation.

  “If you know about that, how come he’s still able to pull it off?”

  “Because thousands of new players come in every day and don’t know about the ongoing schemes. That’s why Azzam picks rookies below Level Five.”

  “What a slimo.”

  “Agreed.”

  The silence settled in, but I didn’t want this conversation to end. L’ocean was a wealth of wisdom, but something else made me want to go on.

  “Well, it wasn’t like I could be picky. Everyone I asked refused to team up with me. When Azzam offered his help, I was more than pleased to have a partner do a quest with me.”

  L’ocean nodded. She had reached Level 6, and was now on the verge of hitting Level 7. I seemed to crawl forward in snail pace while everyone around me dashed toward Level 10.

  “Are you going to quit the game for good now?”

  Not in a million years. My goal was still to reach the job class selection and set my sights on the field mission to gain sponsor attention.

  “I guess I have to be even more careful from now on.”

  “Find a party with people you can trust. It’s much easier to survive in Fourlando with specialized co-players compensating for your character’s weaknesses.”

  If only joining a capable squad was that easy.

  “How’s your squad doing?”

  She hesitated. “Rokkit and I are still experimenting with co-players.”

  “So you have a free spot in your party?”

  I could have sworn she twitched at that proposal. For a second, her emerald green eyes focused on a distant spot on the hallway wall.

  “We’re very picky about who we let into the group.”

  Translation: We don’t want you. Stay the hell away.

  I didn’t want to say that to her though; despite everything, L’ocean treated me like a decent human being, and I respected that.

  She said, “If you really want to prepare for the field mission, learn more about Fourlando’s background story, join courses, do research about your partners, and select appropriate quests to level up your character. Slow and steady wins the race.”

  She smiled for the first time since our accidental encounter. “Once you hit Level Five and are able to choose your character class, a
new world opens up, trust me.”

  She swung her mecha-staff, now unfolded and in stand-by mode. Hope shone on the horizon, which L’ocean just fired up in me.

  “May the Aeons power up your path.”

  “Same,” I said and watched the TechMage elegantly walk away. What would I give to join her squad and survive the quests together. Maybe in the future, once I proved my worth.

  I watched her veer around the corner where she joined another group of players before my glaze drifted away.

  For a second, I pondered my next approach. I had around a few hundred credits, little armor, and no weapon, which did piss me off. The scornful part of me wanted to hunt down Azzam and teach him a lesson, but the reasonable side cooled me down. My goal wasn’t to persecute frauds that tricked me, it was to level up, gain equipment, and earn credits. Thanks to the tutorial setup, I still ranked around Level 3, on the verge of Level 4, so milestone Level 5 lurked around the corner.

  My plan sounded simple.

  19

  I chose the lowest ranking quests around Levels 1 to 3, bought a couple of extra potions, and punched—yeah, punched—my way through low-level creatures to earn more credits and maybe even find a weak but usable weapon. After a quick gig at the player hub, I chose the simplest, Level 1 quests I could find and slashed away.

  I punched the critters.

  Collected credits and minuscule experience.

  Drank my potions when the vision turned red and repeated the process again and again.

  Punch.

  Drink.

  Collect.

  Wince and repeat.

  Aside from a few moral questions during these quests (accept the NPCs deal or rob him, I accepted the deals because I didn’t want to end up like supreme slimo Azzam robbing NPCs or other players), I slowly but steadily improved. After what felt like half an eternity, I reached Level 5 and found a used, light melee chopper from a dead recruit—which I hadn’t killed myself, just to be clear.