The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Kenzie was there with a number of soldiers gathered around her as she described some particularly action-packed scene from the battle. Thomas was leaning back enjoying the company of a few young ladies that looked to be swordswomen or guards. Fylreh, Tavon, Alanah, and Phoenix were in a deep discussion about something with a female Wolfkin that she seemed to be more than friendly with as all of them laughed and drained their mugs.

  Tinyr and Unalia were hanging out with Neristhana, Rayne, Brenna, and Ulia, while Ayda and Zinn played some new tune with a laughing dwarf named Norrid Silvercoat. Behind them were the rest of the brat pack happily talking and drinking beer. Mugorlorth especially looked happy and he animatedly talked with Tavon and Alanah. Seeing everyone so happy made my heart ache, especially after dealing with so much death.

  A ragged cheer rang out as we walked up. I accepted a full stein from Team Leader Runeschoff and a large kabob of meat from Team Leader Carnell, both of whom gave a quick salute that I waved away as they quickly handed out more of the same to my friends and the troopers behind them. As everyone went back to talking, I made my way through the crowd toasting friendly faces, before I found a quiet bench to sit down at a little bit away from everyone. Neysa and Helgath silently joined me deep in their own conversation as I sat back and thought over everything that happened.

  There’d been a lot of people I couldn’t resurrect. Mostly it was the higher level guards and soldiers that had been slaughtered when the Dread Pack had first taken over the city, but there were thousands of civilians I couldn’t cast my spell on. The handful I’d managed to save was barely a tenth of the city’s total population. I think this was due to the issue of decay and scavengers feeding on the bodies. If a corpse had lost too many of its essential internal organs, the resurrect spell couldn’t find anything to attach onto and couldn’t be cast.

  Also, I wasn’t sure if there was a time limit on when a person of The World could be resurrected, or if it was simply an issue with keeping the body from being fed upon for the spell to function. It was an issue I had to put on the mental back burner for now, until I had additional information to work on. The issues with the other corpses I couldn’t raise were more easily understood. They’d all been so hacked up that there weren’t enough essential pieces left of their corpses to piece back together for the resurrection spell to work. I guess that was the way the game limited the abuse of the spell. While Resurrect was powerful, it definitely had its limitations.

  It was one thing to try to save the dead and fail on a battlefield. It was another altogether when their families where anxiously watching to see if you could save their loved ones. The grief in the people’s eyes when they realized their loved one couldn’t be brought back to life was the worst. Their looks of desolation and anguish still haunted my thoughts whether I wanted them to or not. Sighing deeply, I leaned back and closed my eyes. I’d done the best I could, but sometimes that just wasn’t enough.

  Pushing those thoughts away, I mentally went over my fight with the Dread Pack guild leader, Apoxsee Neoauspex. The man had completely owned us. His attacks, advanced skills, and higher levels had been insane enough in their own right, but mixed with his nightmare quest’s profession, we’d been completely outmatched. Even an increase in stats hadn’t been enough to close the skill gap. If not for everyone’s teamwork and my trick with knocking down players’ levels, he would have beat us hands down. It made me not want to even think about our future fights with the other guild leaders we’d be facing off against in the Chaos Storm alliance.

  Honestly, now more than ever, not having a class quest was starting to really hold me back. If this fight was a warning of what was to come, I was seriously behind the eight ball on my character advancement. Not that my lower levels were helping either. I really needed to focus on getting my ass leveled up if I was going to stay competitive, I thought sourly.

  “What’s with the long face Star?” Kenzie asked, as she plopped down beside me and gave me a nudge. “You still got your panties in a knot from getting your ass kicked?”

  “I didn’t get my ass kicked,” I growled unhappily at the sassy rogue as my friends began to gather around.

  “Sure you did,” Kenzie chortled back, enjoying the annoyed look on my face. “Seriously, how many times did he cut you down?”

  “He was nine levels higher and had a nightmare start! Of course he slaughtered me!” I shot back, doing my best to ignore the twinkle in her eyes.

  “We all were slaughtered by that asshole.” Thomas agreed, giving me an apologetic salute as he joined the conversation. “But we took him down together in the end using tactics and strategy, which is all that matters.”

  “Star’s just not used to getting his ass handed to him,” Kenzie teased, as I shrugged off her comment.

  “What was those sliding and jumping attacks he was using?” I asked, pointedly annoying the leather clad Devil Dog.

  “DPS Warrior class tree,” Matt Cobra said without hesitation.

  “We’ve never seen that jumpy thing, but it fits the style of DPS Warrior combat tree.” Terry Cobra said, frowning at the memory. “But it sucked balls mixed in with that magic attack.” My eyes goggled at her choice of expletives.

  “What? You’ve never heard a marine cuss before?” The female Devil Dog asked, giving me a severe look.

  “Not quite in that way,” I said, holding my up palms. As she settled down, I gave her a wink. “But I like it.”

  “You ass!” she laughingly said, shoving me back in mock annoyance.

  “Hey, watch the alcohol abuse,” I squawked, doing my best to save as much of the sloshing beer as I could, while swaying back on the stone bench to catch my balance. Sitting up straight, my tone turned suddenly serious. “Nine levels higher or not, I hate feeling like I got completely owned.”

  “You might not suck so badly if you’d just complete a class quest.” Kenzie sarcastically commented in her patented mocking tone. Before I could verbally smack her down, Thomas cut in smoothly.

  “He’s actually following up on some unique class quest that,” he cocked his head at me questioningly, “is on this side of the map, right?”

  “Yeah, I was told to ask about it in the gnome capital of Tulduroc,” I said, giving Thomas a subtle nod of thanks.

  “What the hell kind of quest are you gonna get to not suck at combat in a gnome city?” Kenzie asked, completely floored.

  “The Battle Mage class,” both Neristhana and I said together. Before Kenzie could make a disparaging remark, the Gnomeling trader succinctly added. “I’m sure Hollysharp would be interested in what you think about gnome combat prowess.” The look on Kenzie’s face as she tried to take her foot out of her mouth was priceless.

  “It’s not like that, Neristhana.” The rogue hurriedly explained. “You have to admit, Star’s main bread and butter attacks-“

  “Is his magic.” Neristhana said in a deadpan voice. As if to reinforce the Gnomeling’s point, Helgath sprang onto Neysa’s back as the massive Silver Dire Wolf surged to her full height in front of Kenzie. The latest level she’d just gained had filled her muscular body out even more as her large triangle-shaped head silently looked down into the rogue’s wide eyes. Even though neither one of them had made a threatening sound, an open space seemed to magically form around the Devil Dog female.

  “That’s true, but … but-“ While everyone began laughing at Kenzie as she stuttered out a nervous apology, I couldn’t help but wonder at Helgath’s ability to climb onboard Neysa’s back. I thought riding only opened up at level 40?

  Hearing my mental conundrum, Helgath’s knowledge on the topic filled my thoughts. Demi-human and monster humanoid races had different rules than playable humanoid races. Goblinoids and Orcs in particular could start riding after level 5 if the mount was able to carry their weight. It explained how so many of the lower level monster races were capable of being raiders at such low levels.

  At her current level of 34 and riding build, Neysa was approa
ching the point where she could almost carry my big ass along with all of my armor, weapons, and gear. Meaning, she had no problem with the diminutive Half-Orc. While a small part of me was jealous that I had to wait until level 40 before could ride Neysa, it warmed my heart seeing the two most important women in my in-game-life getting along so well, when Sarka spoke up.

  “You know, what I don’t understand is how Apoxsee was so much higher of a level than the rest of us?” Sarka asked, looking at me pointedly. “Even the rest of the Dread Pack that were at our level were crazy overpowered. It’s like we weren’t even in the same ballpark. How can that be if we’re rocking the charts?”

  “While our accomplishments are rocking the charts as a group,” Tinyr said, jumping into the conversation for a change. “Individually, our levels are way behind the top tier guilds.” Seeing the confused look still on her face, I jumped in to explain.

  “First off, don’t forget they were all Nightmare start players.” I paused for a second as I thought back to the fight. “Wait a minute. Those guys weren’t all Nightmare start players.” I sat up in sudden realization. Seeing the confused looks on my friends’ faces, I quickly explained.

  “Amron Bungholio lied about his guild being all Nightmare start players. Think back to the fighting. Some of those PKers went down way too easy for Nightmare players.” I said excitedly as my friends slowly started nodding in agreement. “Maybe their upper officers all took the Nightmare start option to help get their guild positioned with a unique Professional tree, but the rest of them-“

  “Are just Normal and Advanced players like any other guild,” Thomas exclaimed, suddenly getting my meaning.

  “So, that whole thing about them all being Nightmare players was just so we’d give up on attacking Darom.” Kenzie said, shaking her head with grudging respect. “That was actually a pretty smart move.”

  “Subtle,” Sarka agreed, before adding drolly. “Still doesn’t make him any less of an asshole.”

  “I’m sure he expected us to run.” I said, with a wicked grin. “Instead, we hunkered down and kicked their asses.”

  “And the rest of the Chaos Storm alliance?” Unalia hesitantly asked.

  “Probably more of the same,” Terry Cobra said, joining the conversation. Folding her arms across her chest, she continued as her analytical brain worked over the issue. “If you’re already paying out money for the scan, why not choose the Nightmare option instead of the Advanced? Wouldn’t it make more sense to shoot for the gold? Even if you don’t make it, you’d still be left over with your Nightmare stats.”

  “Unless you’re Hefe and get stuck being spawned camped to death.” I said, rolling my eyes. Seeing my friends’ questioning looks, I waved for them to ignore the comment and continue.

  “That, and seventy-five percent realism, Yun agreed. “I don’t know how much worse the jump is from fifty percent to seventy-five, but the one from twenty-five to fifty was pretty intense.”

  “Yeah, getting hit in the game at seventy-five percent is no joke,” I agreed, once I realized everyone was looking at me for an answer, since I was the only Nightmare start player in our group. “It definitely motivates you to not get hit.”

  “So, you’re saying a lot of these PKers could have gone for the Nightmare start just for the stats and not the fortress or unique spell tree?” Thomas asked, as he tried to figure out what kind of forces we were actually up against.

  “Why not? If you’re paying the money out for the one, why not go for the higher stat option if it costs the same?” Kenzie asked, following the logic. “Hell, I wish I’d thought of that. I’d have chosen the Nightmare option instead of Advance.” Most of our friends nodded in agreement at the Rogue’s words.

  “Platinum and Gold sized guilds don’t usually make the same decisions a single or a small group of players would.” I said, doing my best to explain how the larger guilds’ usually worked. “These guys are used to playing with their friends. They like going into new games with the numbers to dominate their competition. Usually, they come up with an efficient plan on how they’re going to get their entire guild ahead and then implement it together.”

  “Their main goal is to level up as quickly as possible. Being a high level in an MMORPG equates to power. So, once they get into a new game, the entire guild focuses on getting one person the special ability. Usually this would be their guild leader who then shares the skills out with the rest of the guild. Once they have their special magic tree, they can focus on grinding out levels and taking control over their local area by using their numbers to get where they want to be.”

  “That sounds cold as hell.” Sarka said, shaking her head. “Almost like a job.”

  “For players at that level, it is a job.” I agreed, giving the warrior a look. “It’s just something to keep in mind for guilds at that level.” Sarka blushed as she caught my meaning. It was basically the same thing we were doing, but at a much higher level.

  “Secondly,” I continued my original train of thought. “Larger guilds tend to do a lot of grinding. Whether that’s just killing everything in the same area over and over again or power leveling by slaughtering helpless guards and soldiers like the Dread Pack were doing here. Unlike us, there not traipsing around doing mini-wars, heading across the map to help their friends, or building up their clans and castles, unless it’s to bring in new players.”

  “Besides being extremely disturbing, that sounds boring as hell,” Unalia said, shaking her head.

  “It is,” I agreed wholeheartedly, “but it’s a valid method for quickly power leveling to the higher levels in a game. You’d see that all the time on the PVP servers in other games. Once they’re leveled up, they had the power to dominate most areas on the server.”

  “I personally don’t play that way.” I said with a shrug. Taking a swig of beer to gather my thoughts, I continued. “We’d actually be closer to level 40 by now if we’d stayed around BrokenFang Hold. The levels would’ve come by just following up the quest lines to deal with the coming invasion. Although it requires a lot of moving around, leveling like that tends to be more enjoyable with bigger payouts in loot at the end.”

  “Speaking about loot,” Phoenix said, coming to a stop in front of me with her hands behind her back as my friends gathered around expectantly. “Everyone told me how you were basically giving up the option to loot as a ‘thank you’ for coming along to help your friend with these PKers, but we talked about it and decided …,” she suddenly thrust her hands out, “here’s your portion of the loot from today’s run.”

  No one said a word as I looked up in shock at the overlarge two-handed blade in her hands. We all knew the fucker well, since it had hacked into all of our bodies multiple times throughout the day. Taking the blade from her hand, I gazed at the impressive weapon as its stats appeared before my eyes in blue script.

  Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter

  Item Quality: Superior

  Item Type: Special

  Attack: Two-hand Edge

  Weapon Type: Sword

  Damage: 190-215

  Durability: 190/200

  Weight: 15 kg

  +20 Strength

  +30 Stamina

  * Vampiric Touch (Type: Dark Magic) temporarily transfers 20% of damage per hit to wielder’s hit points for thirty seconds. The effect stacks with each hit and resets the 30 second time limit upon each successful hit.

  “Oh … my … fucking … god!” I exclaimed incredulously under my breath as I checked out the weapon’s stats. “No wonder he fucking slaughtered us all so easily.” My friends grinned at each other as they backed up so I could get the feel for the weight and balance of the weapon. Humming the phrase “It’s Your Birthday” and “let’s have a party” over and over again in my mind, I laughed like a kid on Christmas morning. “You know, the best part is how pissed off Apoxsee must be right now.”

  “I’m not about to take that bet,” Thomas said with a laugh and Kenzie spoke up grinning. />
  “Well, hopefully that will help you not suck so bad for the next fight.” Kenzie said, giving me a wink as I flipped her off. “Ah, come on now, you know you love me.”

  Everyone knew my preference for life leeching weapons, but this blade was in a category all of its own. Unstrapping the Great Sword of Corruption from my back, I tossed it over to a surprised Fylreh as I quickly strapped the new blade in place on my back, which was why I missed the appreciative flash that lit up her eyes. Twenty percent of two hundred might not sound like a lot, but if you were in some deep shit, this blade would give you a fighting chance to get your ass out of it.

  “Don’t forget this.” Phoenix said with a twinkle in her eyes as she tossed me the ring that had been in her other hand. I’d completely forgotten that there was more. While everyone was high-fiving each other at my reaction to the sword, I caught the ring and nearly dropped it as soon as I saw the red glowing text.

  Ring of the Elemental Shaman

  Item Quality: Rare

  Item Type: Crafted

  Slot: Ring

  Weight: .06 kg

  *Gives wearer +25% resistance to elemental magic.

  “You’re giving me both items?” I choked out after reading the ring’s stats, before looking at my friends unbelievingly. “I can’t take both of these items-“

  “Take them,” Thomas said, cutting me off as he clapped me around the shoulders. “Besides, we need you at the top of your game the next time we meet up with one of these bastards. Both items should help you step up your game nicely.”

  No shit, I thought, checking out my character sheet after slipping the twisted six-band ring on my finger. Between my armor and the ring, I now had a fifty percent resistance to elemental magic. That was some serious protection at this level. My attention was pulled back to my friends standing around me as they congratulated me on the loot. I got a bunch of hugs and back slaps as I thanked all of them for looking out for me. Seriously, that was what having friends was about.