Riley didn’t hesitate. She leaped forward, using the last of her small mana pool to cast Blood Mist on both of her daggers. Her blades sank into the mage’s exposed flesh. His flaming armor burned the skin on her hands and caused it to bubble and peel away. Her remaining health shrank rapidly as a blood mist erupted from the mage’s wounds, expanding to fill the circle of flames. The droplets of blood landed on Riley’s broken skin like cooling aloe, swiftly repairing her broken and burnt flesh.
She could see that her health was beginning to stabilize even as the mage continued to lose hit points. He struggled to reach for his staff, and Riley twisted her blades viciously. She raised one dagger and stabbed down again and again and again. The man let out a tortured scream that echoed through the forest. As his health finally failed, his fiery armor began to fade, flicker, and die.
Then a prompt appeared in Riley’s vision, signaling her victory.
Yet Riley wasn’t ready to stop. This man deserved worse than this for enslaving the undead. She looked down and saw Alex’s taunting face looking back at her. She could feel those horrible dead eyes boring into her – mocking her. She ripped one of her blades from the mage’s chest and raised it. She was ready to kill the bastard.
“Riley!” Lucas grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “That’s enough. You’ve won. This isn’t the place to kill a fire guild Prefect,” he added in a whisper as he eyed the other mages.
Riley came back to herself and glanced around the road. Her dark leather armor was singed and splattered with the Prefect’s blood. She kneeled inside a ring of scorched dirt, and her dagger was still embedded in the man’s chest, causing a bloody mist to drift and swirl through the roadway.
The other fire mages watched her with wide eyes. Then, as a group, they raised their fists to their chests in salute. A young woman with short-cropped hair approached Riley, flame tattoos encircling her eyes.
“You have defeated our Prefect. We are honor bound to uphold his promise since he is no longer able to do so.” The mage glanced contemptuously at the man’s body. His bloodied form lay still on the dirt road, his chest rising and falling feebly. His skin had been torn open in multiple places, and his blood drenched the ground.
Riley turned back to the woman. “Good,” she said shortly, her dark eyes examining the fire mage. “Release the undead and remove their collars. Then get the hell out of here. If I see you back inside the Twilight Throne’s area of influence, I will kill you.”
The woman nodded respectfully. “As you command, Challenger.” Then she hesitated, turning back to Riley. “Not all of us agree with the Prefect’s actions. You should not judge us all by his conduct.”
Riley looked at the woman in surprise. Perhaps she had been too quick to judge the mages. “What’s your name?” Riley asked.
“My name is Flare,” the woman responded, bowing her head. “Your strength would be honored in our guild, Challenger. If you are traveling to Vaerwald, do not hesitate to call upon me if you need assistance.”
Riley nodded curtly in response, noting the mages hurrying to unbind the undead. Then she turned back to her teammates who stood watching her with an odd mixture of reactions. They seemed uncertain what to say as Riley pulled a health potion from her pack and chugged the contents.
Ethan was the first one to finally speak up, a wide grin on his face. “You’re a freaking badass!” he exclaimed with a laugh. “To think we were traveling with a celebrity this whole time!”
Chapter 8- Convoluted
After the fire guild mages freed the undead, Riley’s small group guided them deeper into the forest. The former slaves were shell-shocked and uncommunicative – not that Riley could blame them. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to escort them all the way back to the Twilight Throne. She also didn’t feel confident that she could defend the group against the Sibald slavers on her own, even if she did accompany them back to the city.
With few options, she had messaged Frank and asked him to send a few squads of the Twilight Throne’s forces to come and retrieve the undead. She also gave him a brief rundown on what had happened to the former slaves so that he could warn the soldiers. The last thing she wanted was to have the whole group end up being sold to the highest bidder. That still left the matter of how to handle Sibald and the other slavers. However, they would have to wait until Jason logged back in to address that issue.
A few hours later, Riley and her small group were making their way farther south toward Vaerwald. The group was marching against an incline, and the forest floor had become rocky and uneven. It had grown colder and more humid. Droplets of water occasionally breached the canopy above them, spattering against Riley’s hood and running off her cloak.
For a brief moment, Riley had seen sunlight peek through the clouds before the sky was again obscured. The sun was now tucked behind the large branches of the immensely-thick trees that grew along the road. The only thing she could compare them to were redwoods in the real world. Moss grew thick and green at the base of each tree, and the ground was dotted with ferns in this new moist climate.
She noticed a few waiting notifications in her peripheral vision. Following Jason’s example, Riley had deactivated most of the system notifications while she was in combat. They were simply too distracting in the middle of a fight, especially when she was taking on multiple opponents. With a tap of her finger, Riley pulled up her system window and was bombarded by several messages:
x1 Level Up!
You have (5) undistributed stat points.
x1 Skill Rank Up: Sprint
Skill Level: Beginner Level 7
Effect: 8% Increased movement speed.
Cost: 5 Stamina / Second.
x1 Skill Rank Up: Void Arrow
Skill Level: Beginner Level 7
Effect: Charge levels increased to 7. Damage and radius increases by 5% per charge level.
Odd. I didn’t realize I could level off of duels.
Although, as she considered it, Riley supposed that this made sense. That might not have been a life or death battle, but it had still been quite intense. She doubted people would be lining up to duel repeatedly. Much like experience from training, the system administrators had probably built in a limit on how much you could advance through duels.
Riley held up her bow as she continued her meandering march through the dense forest. Her fingers traced the petals of the crystalline roses, which glowed an eerie red in the gloom cast by the tree cover. Something had happened during the fight with the Prefect, and she suspected it had something to do with the bow.
Was that piercing pain and red energy its special ability? I haven’t unlocked it yet…
“That bow doesn’t seem ordinary,” Ethan said from beside her, peering over her shoulder. “The crystals glow, and I could have sworn I saw them pulse a moment ago.”
Riley started slightly and glanced at the burly warrior. “I agree. It isn’t normal. Actually, this bow is why I’m traveling to Vaerwald,” she replied, her eyes returning to the crimson crystals. “I have a quest there.”
“Great. The sooner we get there, the better,” Emma huffed. “It’s dangerous to be traveling with you.” She glanced back at Riley with an irritated look. “Do you know what kind of bounty is on your head?”
“Over $8,000 when I checked online,” Ethan supplied with a grin, not waiting for Riley to answer. “Jason is still beating you – by a lot – but yours is still pretty high.”
“That’s 8,000 reasons why we’re probably going to get attacked on a major road,” Emma replied. “Every player in the game would be hunting us if they knew we were traveling with her.”
Riley tugged on the hood of her cowl, further concealing her face. Maybe there was a way to dye her hair in-game. That might make it a bit more difficult to identify her. “There isn’t anything I can do about that. As I’ve suggested before, you all could go on without me,” Riley reminded softly.
“We aren’t going to do that,” Lucas replied with a si
gh, earning him another glare from Emma. “What?” he asked her. “It just doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. Riley freed a bunch of slaves. That’s hardly the work of some super villain.”
“Besides, that fight was epic!” Ethan added with a smile as he recalled the fight yet again.
“We know!” Emma and Lucas both said at the same time. “Jinx!” Lucas added quickly. Emma smiled at him in response and punched him in the shoulder. As Riley watched the couple, she couldn’t help but think that Emma would be pretty if she weren’t always scowling. Maybe Riley just brought out that side of her. She certainly didn’t seem to be getting along with other girls lately.
“Fine. Fine. I’ll shut it,” Ethan said defensively. “So, what’s the quest about?” he asked.
She was silent for a long moment, considering how to sugar coat it for them. Eventually, she gave up. There wasn’t a great way to soften a revenge story. “The family of the bow’s original owner was kidnapped and murdered by a group of cultists. The quest is to hunt down the rest of the group and eliminate them.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. “What happened to the owner?”
“Dead,” Riley said shortly. “Killed by the same cultists.”
Lucas shook his head. “That’s dark. Why do you think that these cultists are in Vaerwald? The last time we were there, it was just filled with crazy mages.”
“A friend suggested that I start there,” Riley said slowly, remembering Jerry’s advice. Now that she thought about it, his recommendation did seem odd. The undead thief always seemed to know quite a bit more than she expected. He had also been the one to send them to the cultist dungeon north of Peccavi. Perhaps it was just a coincidence.
“He mentioned something about a magical plague springing up within the city,” she continued. “It seemed like a decent lead.”
“A plague, huh?” Ethan asked. “I don’t remember seeing any sick people a few weeks ago.”
Riley shrugged. “Things change fast here. A couple of weeks ago, the Twilight Throne and the Crystal Reach didn’t even exist.”
“I guess that’s a fair point,” Ethan conceded.
The group lapsed into silence as they crested a hilltop. The forest on either side of them thinned noticeably, providing an unobstructed view of the valley that lay below. The tops of the tall trees were visible from their vantage point – their leaves illuminated in the murky gray light that filtered through the cloud cover. Yet, it was the structure floating above the treetops that caused Riley’s lips to part in surprise.
The city was composed of many circular layers that hovered in the sky, towering above them. The metallic edges of the discs glistened in the gloomy light, reflecting a dull bronze glow. Copper tubing connected the various levels – twisting and twining in erratic patterns between them.
“What is that?” Riley asked, already anticipating the answer.
“Vaerwald,” Ethan offered with some amusement at her reaction. “It’s pretty awesome, right?”
“How do you get up there?” Riley asked. From this distance, she couldn’t see how the bottom layer connected to the forest floor.
“Oh, you’re going to love that part,” Ethan said with a grin. Glancing at the group, Riley noticed that even Lucas and Emma looked a bit excited.
The other players led Riley down into the valley. Nearly thirty minutes later, they arrived at a clearing in the trees. Glancing up, she could see that they were standing directly below the floating city. A large podium had been constructed in the clearing. Players and NPCs were milling around the platform in huge crowds. A myriad of bronze tubes stretched into the sky from the podium and haphazardly connected to the city. Riley’s group added themselves to one of the long lines of people waiting in the clearing.
“What are we standing in line for?” Riley asked in confusion.
“Our turn,” Ethan responded as though that explained how they were going to get to the city.
With a frown, Riley decided to be patient. As the line slowly dwindled, she soon found herself standing in front of a rough metal tube. A hole had been carved in the surface, and it was large enough to fit several people standing side by side. A short man sat on a stool next to the tube wearing a pair of worn, orange overalls. He idly tapped a pedestal in front of him with various runes inscribed on its surface.
The small man glared at them with a surly expression. “Where to?” he grunted.
“The fountain,” Lucas replied.
The man snorted indifferently and motioned to the opening in the tube. Riley watched as the others filed inside and followed them with some trepidation. As she entered, her feet clanked on a metal grate mounted in the floor. Riley couldn’t help but glance up. The dark tunnel stretched into the sky, seemingly without end.
“How are we…?” she began but was immediately cut off.
A torrent of air rocketed from the bottom of the tube, and the group was sent hurtling up through the air. They flew through a dizzying series of tubes and turns – their bodies buffeted by the gale force winds. Riley realized she had been holding her breath, and she forced herself to exhale. As her initial shock faded, she noticed that she wasn’t slamming into the sides of the tube even though she could tell that the tunnel twisted and turned frequently.
As quickly as their journey began, it abruptly ended. The group was dumped from the tube, and Riley’s feet hit the ground with a thump. With her high Dexterity, she managed to stay standing but noticed that Ethan had not fared as well. He had landed hard on his butt and was pulling himself to his feet with an embarrassed expression.
Riley looked around herself in shock and then glanced up. She had been ejected out of the end of an open bronze tube and was now standing in a courtyard with a large group of other players and NPCs.
“Clear the area.” Another man in coveralls sat on a stool by the metal tube and groused at her as he motioned for her to move aside.
What is it about manning these tubes that turns people into such jerks? Riley wondered sourly, as she moved out of the way. A moment later, another group of people was unceremoniously deposited in the spot she had just occupied.
“So, what did you think?” Ethan asked with a grin. “It’s like riding a videogame roller coaster, right?”
Riley smiled. “That was pretty awesome.”
“See I told you!” Ethan replied, gesturing at his friends.
Riley took the opportunity to look around. They were standing in a large courtyard, and she could see the bottom side of the next city level floating above her, the metal gleaming in the dull sunlight. Throngs of people moved around her, sitting on benches scattered through the courtyard and buying food from various vendors. It looked much like a modern-day park except for the huge stone fountain that sat in the middle of the square.
Jets of water shot nearly forty feet into the air and then transformed into liquid globes. As Riley looked on in wonder, the spheres twisted and swirled in the air, swiftly creating the image of a horse. The creature neighed and then proceeded to gallop through the air above the courtyard. The equine form rushed near her and Riley reached out a hand, her fingers passing through the water and disturbing one of the globes. As the horse passed, the now misshapen orb she had touched immediately reformed and then the animal dove back into the base of the fountain. Riley watched with a stunned expression, and the cycle soon began again with a different animal forming at the top of the fountain.
“This is what a mage city looks like?” Riley asked in amazement. The amount of raw mana needed to power the city must be staggering. It wasn’t just the energy needed to keep the discs afloat but all the mechanisms that had been built into the city’s transportation and water systems. She didn’t know how it was possible.
“Pretty much,” Lucas replied, his eyes on the fountain. “I think this is my favorite part of the city.”
“Mine too,” Emma said, grabbing his skinny arm. She seemed a bit more relaxed now that they had made it to Vaerwald. “Why don’t we spli
t up from here? Lucas and I need to go check in with our guilds.”
Ethan shrugged, causing his mail to clink together. “That’s fine with me. I need to go find a weapon trainer. I’ve got a long way to go to catch up with Riley,” he said with a determined expression.
Riley glanced at the group and offered Ethan a half-smile. She wasn’t certain where to go from here, but she supposed she could figure it out on her own. She had already asked far too much from this group. “That sounds good. I’ll see you guys later,” Riley said.
They each waved at her as they headed off in different directions. Riley knew she should start moving, but she was still in shock at the magnitude of the city. Her eyes lingered on the fountain and the swarms of people that crowded the courtyard. She had come here to kill a band of cultists, but how exactly was she supposed to find them?
Chapter 9 - Thieving
Riley sat at a table outside a small café on one of Vaerwald’s lower levels. She had propped her bow against the table and was now nursing a drink as she considered what to do next. She had spent several hours wandering the city and its many levels. On multiple occasions, she had been forced to reveal how much of a tourist she really was by soliciting directions from random NPCs and players.
The city’s tube system was designed erratically and followed no discernable pattern. The only way to get to level eight from the fountain was to go down to level three and take a tube up to level seven. Then she had to go up another two levels to nine and back down to eight. The NPCs could rattle off these nonsensical instructions without hesitation. She might memorize the tube system eventually, assuming she had the misfortune of having to live there, but it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
Riley had quickly discovered that a caste system had developed among the various levels. In total, there were twelve discs. From what she had gleaned, the top levels contained the four elemental guilds and some type of palace for the city’s council. The middle levels were home to the city’s tradesman and merchants. Lastly, the lower levels were filled with the city’s slums and poorer districts.
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