I let out a low whistle as I stared at the glowing array. So pricey, over half my EP in one go combined with the Raid Orders but what a huge move to use! I couldn’t say for sure but it looked like the more potent the base Gem, the more drastic the shift. What was especially scary was the fact there was still a slot open to amplify the effect even more.
The one thing I knew for certain was I wanted more Prime Gems!
As I hadn’t been having any real threat issues, seeing the power of vulnerabilities, and with the juicy resistance buff and heals, I kept the Light Gem where it was and returned the Fire Mod to Elemental Bastion and the Earth Gem I had originally connected to Shield Slam back into place, purely to leverage my Craggar Affinity to Earth abilities. My banner still had one socket left but the shield was at least fully loaded. While I was tempted to experiment more, the Herald was pinging, announcing Kayla’s login, a little earlier than I expected.
Kayla: Hey, Shale!
Shale: Hey, yourself! Got your message.
Kayla: Great! Haven’t heard anything from Burndall or Crys and nothing in the Herald outside of something from someone named ‘Nahma’. Sound familiar?
Shale: I got something from them too. Head of our ‘fan club’.
Kayla: Ah, okay. Still not sure how I feel about that. Where are you or should I guess?
I found myself blinking at that for a moment before answering and I couldn’t say why.
Shale: Uh, sure. Go ahead and guess.
Kayla: Right. Be right there!
Standing, I swept up the rest of my Gems back into inventory before picking up my new shield and my freshly-Gemmed banner. This was a fun, little game, one we technically didn’t have time for, but I was strangely thrilled to see if she would show. Not that it would be hard, at least I didn’t think it would be, but it would, well, it would prove Kayla was paying attention to me. While I waited, I absently fired up BoarRide and set it for recording. If Nahma’s fan club was as eager as they seemed, they would be happy with buying views of a recorded stream as much as a live one.
My wait wasn’t a long one. The clacking of hooves hit my ears through the ringing hammers behind me and I headed out into the foyer of the Smith’s Hall to meet Kayla part way, a stupid grin on my face. By the time I clanked past the clerk’s desk, the Sorceress had already passed through the door.
“So,” she smiled at me, stopping in the middle of the room, hands on her hips, “what do I win?”
I laughed and shrugged. “To be honest, I thought I was supposed to be getting a prize when I saw you and” – I have no idea where this horrible line came from – “I already have.”
Kayla’s eyebrow arched a hair but her smile widened … I think. She didn’t directly address the comment, though, as she said, “At least I know you read my message.” With a twist of her hand, she summoned up a multi-colored quartz as she stepped closer to me. “I think you’ll be able to get a lot of mileage out of this.”
Kayla wishes to trade with you!
Do you accept?
I gave the request my mental nod as I reached out to her outstretched hand, taking the Gem before holding it up to take a closer look.
Grade S Power Efficiency Gem (Modification)
Neutral Element
This focus increases the efficiency of Elemental Power used to activate other linked Gems. The Elemental Power cost of any attached Active Gem is reduced by 30%.
“Well, what do you think?” There was that lilt at the end of Kayla’s question, that sound people make when they’re worried a gift or a favor was about to fall flat.
I smiled as I popped the quartz into the four-socket array at the cross of my banner. All four Gems let off a rainbow glow and the links themselves blazed for a split-second. “Perfect!”
Her lips were smirking but, pardon my melodramatic, romantic pining, her eyes were smiling. “I have excellent taste in Gems.” She thumbed out through the door to the street beyond. “Are you ready to ride? The forest line is a bit away, especially with your Snowy.” Laughing, she shook her head. “We seriously need to get you a new mount.”
“Sure, if you’re buying.” I shrugged as I walked for the door, Kayla beside me. “I need to scrimp every coin for, well, up there.”
I tried not to let it show, but I deflated a bit inside. The moment of abandon I felt the other day when Kayla and I simply played the game was already gone. All I could focus on was my growing troubles above.
The Nix’s cool hand caressed my shoulder as we walked out into the afternoon sun. “Hey,” she said softly, “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
I glanced over at her as I brought out my whistle. “Why? You don’t even know what ‘it’ is.”
After a brief squeeze, she let go but the smile never stopped. “Maybe I don’t. The Filter won’t let me, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.” She pointed up as she summoned her Sea Horse. “Everything up there is.”
I stared at her as she hopped gracefully atop her regal mount. It wasn’t that she summed up the truth of, well, everything so perfectly. Everything in the real world was important, even the little things, but that should be obvious to anyone (even though it patently wasn’t). It was that it was even more obvious that she cared.
Yes, there were a lot of things that EO did to try to conceal every telling fact about you from the other players. The Filter was an incredible, monstrous thing, but there were things it couldn’t stop. It couldn’t stop those little twists of the lip, those subtle gestures, and those little glances that told you a lot more about someone than their words.
Kayla settled in her saddle before noticing my stare. She quirked her head as she looked down at me. “Shale, are you okay?”
I blinked and shook my head, embarrassed. “Uh, yes. Let me get Snowy, and we’ll go.” As I blew my whistle and summoned up my faithful steed, I wondered if it would be better for me to clam up more and focus on the prize or take the risk to open up, well, as best as I could.
Before the Sundering, the Four Kingdoms were unified in a practical utopia, brimming with advances in technology and magic that would be unbelievable in our modern times. Rumors persist that a few of these artifacts remain undiscovered to this day, such as the great airships that link our sundered continents and sparkshooters and sparkcannons far beyond what we have today.
From the Technology section, EO internal wiki
Why would any of us, born from the natural, harmonious elements, ever give into the veneration of the Elements of Conflict? What allure does destruction, strife, and corruption have for our fellow Elementborn? Sadly, the answer is a simple one, and it is the obvious answer that forms the core of all suffering on Elementalis, from the fighting of children to the savage act of war. Base greed, the desire for the things that others have and you do not.
Alizhard Forshan, philosopher to the Fire Sultan’s court
16
It was the guttering, smoky torches placed haphazardly along the forest trails that presented the first clue something was wrong. Now, I hadn’t been in the Tangleheart for twenty levels, but I sure would have remembered those. Back then, the way had been lit by sturdy brass waylaterns powered by minor Fire Gems, clean-burning things that made the way clear, a stark contrast from these guttering flames that cast the weirdest shadows all about.
The wildlife was scarce, even the Flint Ravens were only the occasional fluttering nuisance overhead, leaving an eerie silence with their absence.
“I normally wouldn’t complain about a quiet ride in a beautiful forest like this,” Kayla said softly, peering from side to side atop her saddle, “but the whole thing is just creepy.”
I nodded slowly. “I guess I’m not the only who noticed that the music has dropped off entirely.”
Though we hadn’t gone into any of the side trails leading deeper into the woods, there hadn’t been a single guard patrol for ten minutes or more. So much for keeping an eye out for bandit activity and keeping the roads safe. Not that I could fault them.
Even if they were NPCs, they had gotten shot to pieces by sparkshooters, just a few days before. Worse, it represented another deviation from the normal zone set-up.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that your hunch was right.” I slowed Snowy as we passed another of the crude flames, planted straight into the mossy ground like a tiki torch. Taking a big whiff of the greasy smoke, I coughed. “Same stomach-churning smell, same blackness at the core of it.”
“The Flames of Conflict.” She said it as a definitive statement, and I didn’t argue. “Which means the million-gold-piece question is where are the bandits themselves?”
It was a good question, I had to admit, but I had an idea. “Well, call this metagaming if you want, but if they wanted one of these quest encounters in a common area but make it of appropriately uncommon difficulty, they would want to pull back the mobs from the edges of the zone. You wouldn't want low-level questers running into tough, scaling quest content.”
Kayla glanced over at me with a grin. “Of course, it makes perfect sense, especially if it was a hidden lead-in to part of the Crystalfire questline.” She shrugged slightly. “They do have nearly a month of time to eat before the dungeon actually launches, right? With this kind of hidden quest aspect, we should have realized they wouldn’t limit this kind of thing to having us simply go from questgiver to questgiver. They needed to spice things up and eat up time.”
“Bingo.” As our mounts clopped up to the next branch in the trail, I pulled on the reins to take Snowy down the gloomier of the two, deeper into the Tangleheart. “So we go deeper and follow the torches?”
“Agreed.” She brought her Sea Horse in behind Snowy, and we moved on in silence.
The canopy was now so entangled that the only light remaining was cast by the corrupted flames, the only sounds being the echo of our steeds’ hooves and the occasional snapping twig or rustling leaf. Maybe it was my imagination, but I swore I kept seeing movement in the overgrowth all around us. Even the branches of the trees seemed to move, twining together and slowly reaching down for us.
What was certain was that we were riding into a real heart of darkness, and I almost stopped Snowy in his tracks. The smart thing to do would have been to wait for the morning, get our group together, and come back in full force. For the record, I was honestly about to do just that when the air was split asunder by the crash of falling trees behind us.
Kayla looked at me and I looked at her. No words were needed as we both dismounted in unison and summoned up our weapons. Though it was obvious our retreat was blocked (even if we couldn’t see the deadfall of logs in the dim light), we planted ourselves back-to-back, fully expecting that bandits or worse might come out of the trees from every side.
The devs didn’t disappoint us … but they did surprise us, well, me at any rate.
Through the twisted boughs behind us, humanoid figures pushed into view, four of them altogether. They matched the basic look of the Dark Riders that had chased us, dusk-colored robes trimmed with deep red pulled over metal armor, hoods pulled tightly over shadowed faces, and each one armed with a sparkshooter, fiery embers glowing in their cones.
Further down the trail, hammering hoof beats and shuddering snorts materialized into the shape of a massive Scorch Boar. Smoke roiled off its short-haired flanks as the Dark Rider mounted atop it, kicked its heels into the creature’s sides.
Not only was this rider more richly dressed, silver embroidery shot through the grey robes and gold accents added to the red edging, but he was taller as well. Unlike the others that were obviously Craggar from their bulk, the lead bandit was lanky, and the fiery glow emanating from under the hood made me think Ember. A raised lance rested easily against his hip, held in one hand, with a massive sparkshooter holstered in the saddle on his other side.
The NPC interaction UI shifted, causing the rest of the forest to blur out of focus alongside the rank-and-file Riders behind us as attention shifted to the leader atop his massive boar. He leaned forward in his saddle, tall enough to loom over us even if we had still been mounted. As his eyes narrowed, my heart started hammering in my chest. The fires in his eyes had a definite black core, a match for the Flames of Conflict and a clear sign of corruption.
“You have made a massive mistake traipsing into our lands, especially with such pitiful numbers,” he said in a throaty, gravelly voice. “Do you lapdogs for the king have anything to say for yourselves before you die?”
The focus slipped over to me, and I had no idea what to say. The usually abundant suggestions that should be next to the leader were non-existent with only a very unhelpful ‘?????’ floating by his head. I glanced anxiously over at Kayla, praying she had an idea. I sure as heck didn’t want to blow this opportunity; it was obvious now this interaction had to be important to the questline.
Kayla: I don’t think we’re getting out of here without a fight, but maybe you can prod him into a villain monologue or something. What writer can avoid scripting a grand bad-guy speech?
Shale: Huh, worth a shot.
The big problem was that while I might be a good player, I had the social experience of the shut-in that I was. Sure, I was okay at picking out the right phrases or ways to take a conversation based on choices, but I had nothing to go on here but hundreds of hours of bad TriVid action flicks. Taking a fortifying breath, I jumped in before the AI decided I was taking too long.
“We managed to make it this far, managed to stop you once already,” I began. “Twice, if you count the Needle, and don’t try to deny that you aren’t involved with those beast tribes up there. If we’re going to die here, don’t we deserve to know why you’re doing this?”
The lead bandit stared at me for a long moment before settling back in his saddle. The boar pawed at the earth, and for a moment, I thought he was about to launch into that predicted villain monologue. Instead, after a deep breath, the Ember began to laugh, a long, deep, insulting laugh.
“Do you think me a fool?” he managed between chortles. I immediately wanted to hunt down the voice actor and punch him on principal, he did that good of a job being a jerk. “I know your champions are so fortunate to have your essences bound to the Life Crystals. Death here is only a message, a reminder as to your weakness, and anything I tell you will stay trapped in your little, empty skulls to be reported to your betters.” His burning eyes shifted to Kayla.
“No, I think I will tell you nothing of our future plans.” He smiled eerily before licking his lips. “Though I would be remiss if I did not let the lady have her say before the violent conclusion of our discussion.” The Ember cast a mock bow. “Milady?”
Kayla gave me a sidelong glance before turning to address our ‘host’. “If not the ‘what’, then how about the ‘why’? Is it because you and your people don’t have a Life Crystal to keep you safe from harm?”
“The reasons behind action is almost always more interesting than the action itself,” the bandit mused, almost wistfully. “As you can do nothing to alleviate that cause, I have no reason not to tell you. Besides, you might see justice in that cause and decide to ignore your taskmasters.” His eyes cast heavenward as he let out a long breath.
“You have divined the major cause, milady,” the Ember explained, restless in his saddle. “The Life Crystals are one of the miracles of the previous age, offering boundless reincarnations to those allowed to bond their essences to it. One would think that this would be a gift freely given, allowed for all the Elementborn to make use of, but it is not, especially here in the Mountain Kingdom. Any deviance from the strict laws of the king and one can become exiled, outcast, and cut off from the Life Crystals’ rejuvenating benefits."
He gestured around him grandly as he continued. “Here under the boughs of the trees, we know all too well the finality of death, something you and your kind have no conception of.” He spat to one side and wiped his lips. “To give ourselves over to the Dark is a small price to pay a chance to have the life you take for granted.”
; Another four armed bandits emerged out of the woods behind their leader. He raised a hand to them, allowing them to squeeze past his immense boar while Kayla and I remained stuck in the freeze-frame of the NPC UI. All eight of our would-be assailants raised their sparkshooters and primed them.
“Send them back to their precious Crystal,” he commanded as he began to recede into the darkness. Raising his voice as he fixed his gaze on us, the bandit leader added, “If you defeat my men, consider it a stay of my hand, but I suggest you leave quickly in the aftermath. Good day, champions.”
As soon as the boar was enveloped by the cloying darkness, the NPC interface dropped away. That wasn’t a surprise, though, as I could see what way this was going before the bandit had gotten through his last statement. If there was ever a time for the defensive alpha strike Kayla had proposed, this was it.
Before the Riders could even finish aiming, I rose my banner high, pure light starting to pour out of the cross-shaped nexus of Gems along the crossbars. “For the Mountain King’s honor and by the Primal Light, we shall not fall on this sacred ground!” As I planted my standard into the loamy earth of the forest, brilliant energy covered both Kayla and me before rippling through the ground. Where it spread around us, plants and flowers sprang to life, roots uncurled, and the trees grew vibrant with renewed life.
You give the Order to activate Sacred Earth! All group and raid members gain +27% (reduced from 30%) to all Resistances, heal 4% (reduced from 5%) of their Health Points every 2 seconds for 27 (reduced from 30) seconds. In addition, all enemies within 9 (reduced from 10) units take 198-297 Light Damage every 2 seconds and suffer 9% Vulnerability.
The thing about sparkshooters, at least the ones the bandits preferred, was that they acted like shotguns and so they needed to be close to shoot the heck out of us, certainly close enough to put them within our circles of light. Their stony flesh began to smolder under the harsh glare, tearing 4% of their HP right off the top, but it didn’t stop them from pulling their triggers.
Ring of Promise: A LitRPG novel (Elements of Wrath Online Book 1) Page 18
