The Curse of Hurlig Ridge_World Tree Online_1st Dive

by M. A. Carlson

  “Fear effect,” answered Rose. “The idiot was stupid enough to attack me first, which broke me lose from the fear. I used my ‘Command: Courage’ spell to break you all free. Let’s hope he doesn’t do that again any time soon though. My spell has a 2-minute cooldown.”

  “Okay, stop DPS at 27%,” ordered Baby. “We’ll only push past that mark if Rose’s spell is off cooldown.”

  It was a sound plan, I just had to hope it didn’t trigger more frequently than 25%.

  As it turned out, we didn’t need to worry about another ‘Fearsome Roar’ from the lion at the 25% mark, nothing happened. In fact, he didn’t do anything different until 10%, when he soft enraged. Normally in games when a player or boss ‘enrages,’ the damage is doubled or even tripled, as is the speed of attacks or spells being cast. A ‘soft enrage’ is a less powerful version, the damage is increased and so is the attack speed, but not to the degree of a true enrage.

  Still, I could see the beast started taking massive chunks of health from Rose, giving us a sense of urgency to kill it. It didn’t last long as between me, Olaf and Micaela, and it only took a few more hits to kill it.

  The kill was worth +200-Experience points, the most anything I’d killed so far had awarded me.

  “+500-Experience, sweet,” said Rose, grinning. It wasn’t uncommon for lower level players to get more experience than the higher-level players, a common balancing mechanic to help the lower-level players catch up to the higher-level players. It usually only affected killing things, quests were generally fixed for experience rewards based on the level and difficulty of it.

  “Yay, I got +20-Experience points,” cheered Baby jokingly. “Those are the first experience points I’ve gotten since we fought and killed the .” At level 9, it wasn’t surprising.

  “300 hundred for me,” added Micaela.

  “Me too,” said Olaf.

  “Now, the real question is, do we check out the cave?” asked Rose, grinning and pointing to the cave the beast snuck out of.

  “Sure, but not too deep,” said Olaf. “I want to get this guy back to town, so we can turn in the quest.

  “I can’t see in the dark,” I said.

  “Neither can we,” said Olaf, reaching into his bag and pulling out a helmet painted yellow and covered in scratches. The important part was the candle mounted on top of it. “Mining would be a might difficult if we couldn’t see where we were going or what we were hitting.”

  Olaf led the way with Micaela bringing up the rear with her own helmet and candle. The entrance to the cave was narrow, just wide enough and tall enough for Olaf to fit. I couldn’t see too far ahead but it seemed to go on for a while.

  “I’m surprised you’re not leading the way, Rose,” I commented, trying to be careful not to trip over the uneven cave floor.

  “I can’t see in the dark either. But I can see heat,” Rose replied. “The Goddess Lilith grants me the ability to see heat, same way snakes do. If I had signed on with Dracula, I would have gotten an echolocation ability.”

  I could see where both had their uses.

  The tunnel eventually opened into a slightly larger cavern. Inside was filled with bones, piled and fit together forming a demented birds nest, made with the skulls of animals and humanoids alike. I was about to turn back around and leave when I caught a flash of light to my left.

  As Olaf and Micaela’s combined candles seemed to be enough to light the small cave nest, I wasn’t worried about venturing away from the group. It was a good thing I did, too.

  I found a pool of water beneath a stalactite, steadily dripping water from above. It wasn’t the pool of water or the stalactite I found interesting. It was the bottom of the shallow pool below the dripping stalactite. It was filled with shiny metal disks of Copper, Silver and a few bright spots of Gold.

  “Jackpot!” I called, getting the attention of the group. They rushed over to see what I’d found.

  “Cha-ching,” said Rose cheerfully, seeing all the shiny metal.

  “Look, over there, another pool of water,” said Olaf, pointing toward the back of the bone nest. It was another pool of water, metal flashing from within.

  We found two more such pools. When we collected all the shiny metal coins, each of us ended up with 10-Gold, 4-Silver, and 56-Copper. A profitable endeavor indeed. After that, we collected the beast’s corpse and made a strong effort to get off the mountain before the sun set.

  We managed to get off the mountain, but not much further before we collectively decided to set up camp for the night. I finally got to use my ‘Campsite Management’ skills, building a tent and bedding for myself. I built a second tent for Olaf and Micaela, but they had sleeping bags, I made a mental note to pick one up as well. With the tents put up, I started a campfire and put the wolf meat on a spit to cook. And finally, while it cooked, I put up a perimeter and a few traps for game. If we were lucky I’d catch us some breakfast.

  When I finished and sat down to wait for the meat to finish cooking, I checked my system messages. I’d gained a few skill levels in all the spells, I had been using today as well as my ‘Campsite Management’ and ‘Trap’ skills. Somehow, even ‘Lore’ gained a level. I also gained +2-Strength, +3-Dexterity, +4-Endurance, and +2-Stamina. It was a darned good day.

  Rose took a few tentative sniffs of the meet. “Smells edible,” she commented.

  “It is edible,” I replied.

  “No seasoning?” Rose commented.

  “I didn’t think to bring salt and pepper, sorry,” I retorted.

  “Did you happen to bring plates, forks, and knives?” Rose asked.

  I hadn’t even though about that.

  “We’ve got you covered,” said Micaela, pulling out a stack of tin plates and utensils. “We use these at the mines all the time.”

  Thank the goddess for her and Olaf. Thank the goddess she had enough for all of us. And thank the goddess for the look on Rose’s face.

  Grumbling, Rose sat and quietly glared at her wolf steak until hunger won out.

  With the meal done, Olaf and Micaela chose to retire first, saying they’d take the next watch. It was early but plenty dark enough to sleep. We agreed to split it into two 6-hour watches. Baby, Rose and I had first watch.

  Rose and Baby were occupied talking to each other, so I took the opportunity to take out my journal and start writing about the day. It wasn’t a super full day, and I was eager to work on my map, so I filled my journal for the day pretty quickly.

  I finally pulled out my map and got to work, intent on finishing the area we explored today. I did my best to put more detail into the river, making sure to notate deeper water from shallow and slower from faster. I added a note about the and packs we ran into, as well as, the beasts we encountered all along the mountain. I put more detail into the path up to the ridge. I added the path to the last, including the cave. I made note of the path to the north but had to leave a ‘?’ next to it as it was decided we just didn’t have enough time to go exploring.

  “That’s not bad,” said a voice right next to my ear. I was so startled, I almost threw my map into the fire when I jumped to my feet and away from the sneak attack.

  Instead of danger, I was greeted by a laughing Rose and Baby.

  “That’s not funny,” I said, feeling embarrassed by their sneaking up on me. More so, I didn’t notice. If I had been the only one on watch I’d already be dead.

  “Oh, but it was funny, so very funny,” said Rose, mirth still on her face and dancing in her eye.

  I was about to retort when the world took on a red tint.

  Enemies of Issara’s justice are nearby and must be punished

  “Shh,” I hissed, suddenly looking around us. I found them, three targets. The jangling of my perimeter rope telling me they were getting closer.

  “Damn, Whiz, you triggered a perimeter,” complained one of them too loudly.

  “Wake Olaf, and Mic, quietly,
” I warned Rose and Baby.

  “Baby, go,” whispered Rose, deciding to stand next to me and face the danger together.

  Baby didn’t hesitate, flying silently into the makeshift tent to wake the other members of our party.

  “Since when do noobs have the skill to set up a perimeter,” retorted another voice.

  “I don’t know, maybe they camp in RL,” the first complainer replied.

  “Both of you shut up!” shouted a third voice. Then softer I heard him speak again. “Why did I have to open my trap, now they know there are at least three of us.”

  Ah, he was trying to make it appear they had a bigger party. Not that they should have needed it. If he was an enemy of Issara then he was at least level 26 if not higher. On the other hand, maybe he didn’t know what he was approaching and thought maybe we were PK’ers too.

  “You may as well come out,” I shouted. I needed to draw all three of them in closer, my spell just didn’t have the range it used to.

  “What are you doing?” hissed Rose.

  “Trust me,” I whispered to her. Then I yelled again, “Come on, I don’t have all night. If I’m going to be sent for respawn I’d rather just get it done and over with.”

  “Huh, how about that,” said the first voice.

  “I’ve never had a noob volunteer to die before,” said the third.

  A moment later, all three of them came in sight of the campfire. I also saw the outlines of two more enemies of Issara come into visual range, slowly creeping up from behind us. If not for the blessing of the goddess, I would probably have believed the guy about their only being three of them. Now I knew better.

  “You guys hungry?” I asked, motioning to the bit of meat still over the fire. “Might be a little dry by now, but it should still be edible.”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” said the guy in the middle, moving forward quickly, his dagger at the ready. , he had two daggers, maybe swords? They were bigger than daggers when compared with his short squat form. I think he was a dwarf, or maybe half-dwarf, half-gnome.

  “It might be poisoned you, idiot,” warned the third voice, probably the leader. appeared to be a mage carrying a gnarled wood staff and wearing black robes, a large hood covering his head from view. With so much of him covered up, I couldn’t tell what race he was.

  “It’s not poisoned,” I replied, not expecting them to believe me.

  “Even if it was, I’m resistant to poison,” said Shifty, eagerly cutting off a piece. “Meh, a little dry and could use some seasoning but not too shabby. Shame we have to kill you and your friends.”

  Rose snarled at him, I did my best to hold her back with one arm. The other two seemed to be trying to sneak around behind us.

  “Let’s just kill them already,” said the impatient voice of the second guy. looked the part of a barbarian, the massive battle ax held lightly in his two massive Orcish arms boasted a high strength stat.

  Baby had yet to return with Micaela and Olaf, hopefully, they snuck out the back of the tent and were preparing an ambush of their own.

  The other two were close enough now. “I suppose it would be rude of me, not to offer the five of you the chance to surrender,” I said, a small smirk at the corner of my mouth, confidence oozing as best I could make it.

  “Eh?” uttered a confused looking Burnie.

  “Ha,” laughed Wart loudly, it was completely fake. “You’re a comedian, are you?”

  “No, I’m a servant of the Goddess Issara,” I replied.

  “Issara, which god is that?” asked Shifty.

  “Issara,” mumbled Burnie a few times before his eyes went wide. “Oh, hell no! Run, run now!” Burnie suddenly turned and tried to flee.

  “Justice Bringer,” I chanted, a pulse of light burst forth from me.

  A second later, Burnie’s head exploded from a perfectly placed shot from Olaf.

  I turned to face the two who were trying to sneak up on us and smirked. I finally got to try my new spell. “Boar Charge,” I shouted, mentally targeting the area the two killers were trying to sneak through. I heard the charge before I saw it. It was beautiful to behold, as the drove of blue spectral swine plowed through the forest, stampeding through, gouging and knocking down the two dagger wielding men. I attacked the weakest man first, pouncing on him with ‘Justice Strike’, followed by ‘Lesser Holy Shock’ to stun him, then killing him with a ‘Power Thrust’.

  I looked to the next guy, who seemed to fair better than his dead friend. He attacked, leaping at me with both daggers high in the air. I simply dove forward, rolling past his attack and getting behind him. I struck with ‘Hamstring’ followed again by the rest of my favorite combo of skills. I added a pair of ‘Jab’ attacks, while he was still stunned, ending his life.

  I looked back to my friends planning to help them, only to see the barbarian looking fellow on his knees, begging for his life only to be ruthlessly snuffed out by one of Olaf’s hand-cannons.

  “Now how the devil, did that just happen?” asked Rose, looking at me with her piercing red eyes and a slightly amused grin.

  I guess I had some explaining to do.

  Chapter 28

  “That explains why my healing magic got weaker suddenly. I almost panicked when I thought someone snuck a debuff on me, or something,” complained Baby.

  “Sorry Baby, I didn’t have a chance to warn you or Rose,” I apologized.

  “I thought you said it went to the town priests,” asked Rose sharply, looking at me accusingly.

  I cringed. “In my defense, I didn’t know either of you very well yet. The spell is new for the town priestess, but only because of my goddess, the Goddess Issara, gave me the spell so ultimately, I would give it to the World Tree. I think it was a test from her,” I tried to explain. “One of many tests she has put before me actually,” I added as an afterthought. “And, as soon as I did give it to Trini, Issara nerfed the thing nearly to death. It just happened to benefit us this time.”

  “Is that why that guy Bernie panicked?” asked Baby.

  “I think so. I can only guess stories have started to spread about my ability. If they die while under the effect, it can knock them all the way back down to level 1.”

  “Woah, what the hax is that about?” asked Rose, clearly shocked.

  I explained the ‘Judgement’ mechanics which left Rose and Baby slightly stunned.

  “Rose, I know you wanted to think about this, but we have to join their order. Can you imagine how nice it will be if we don’t have to worry about player killers anymore?”

  “I’m not a guaranteed instant win ticket,” I warned quickly, the last thing I needed was them jumping to the wrong conclusion. “I can only even the playing field. I can only give us chance for it to be fair . . . well fairer. There are still going to be skills and spells that are seriously overpowered, just as there are in all games.”

  “Whatever you say, Mr. Fairplay,” said Rose, her arms crossed.

  “Ooh,” said Olaf, perking up suddenly. “I like that.”

  “Like what?” Rose and I asked at the same time.

  Please tell me he doesn’t like the nickname.

  “Mr. Fairplay is a pretty good nickname,” commented Micaela, a playful smirk on her face.

  “Not that,” said Olaf to my relief and Rose’s disappointment. “Fairplay. The Order of Fairplay, what do you guys think?”

  “Could be worse, but it doesn’t sound too adventurous,” said Rose with a shrug.

  “We’ll put it on the maybe list,” said Micaela, taking out a small pad of paper and flipping through a few pages then writing.

  “Just how many order names have you come up with?” I asked curiously.

  “With Fairplay, I have one-hundred and seventy-two possible names,” chirped Micaela happily.

  “Anyway, it’s close enough to our shift, why don’t you three try to get a little shuteye, sunrise will be here before you know
it,” suggested Olaf, ushering us off.

  I didn’t sleep well, the bedding of leaves I’d made was of poor quality and the darned things kept finding their way into places they didn’t belong. Morning couldn’t come soon enough as far as I was concerned.

  So, when the first light of dawn broke, I was up and out of my makeshift tent. I gave a quick greeting to Micaela and Olaf then went to check my traps. Unfortunately, I was skunked, not a single critter to speak of. It didn’t help that most of the traps had been destroyed by our late-night visitors.

  We ended up eating rations for breakfast before breaking camp and continuing our march back to town. We had to deal with packs of beasts until we crossed the river then it was just the occasional wolf or alpha.

  We were back through the gates a little after 8:00 AM according to my game clock.

  “Any plans today?” asked Rose, once we were back through the village gates.

  “Butters, Trini, Barnum, B&E,” I said shortly as possible.

  “B&E?” asked Baby, confused.

  “Breaking and Entering,” I answered. “I intend to test my luck against that evil house again today.”

  “Do you know if anyone in town sells popcorn?” asked Rose, smirking.

  I frowned and glared at her. “I am not here for your entertainment.”

  “Oh Jack, you say the silliest things,” quipped Rose, sounding more than a little amused.

  “Why me?” I grumbled.

  Rather than engage her further, I started walking toward the barracks. I had a simple plan today, learn the three ‘Two-Handed Polearms’ subskills for my ‘One-Handed Polearms’ skill set. After that, I’d see if I couldn’t use the practice dummies instead of going to Trinico’s, so I could start leveling up my magic. Which reminded me, I recast my buffs on my friends and myself.

  “Morning,” I greeted the sergeant ahead of my friends. “I’ll be working on the training dummies today,” I told him. “Actually, do you mind if I continue to work with the dummies, instead of going to see Trinico today?”

  “Sure, just give my men preference, if they need the dummies,” the sergeant replied, waving me along. It didn’t take long for me to learn all three subskills for ‘One-Handed Polearms’ and once I confirm I had learned them, I started working on my spells.