I picked a leather set. There were no [Limberness] penalties, and my armor-wearing skill was limited. Pulling items out of inventory was allowed. [Wild Bill] went on my head, and my weapons slid into the cheap belt provided with my leather armor.
“Once the gate drops down, it’s your turn to go in! Staying out here for more than an item turn-in will result in death! Trying to kill any of the guards will get you riddled with arrows.” Knight Middleton pointed at a barred area in front of us. It was the same entrance that the first group had gone through. “Dying will bring you back here, where you may enter without the staggered timer!” Knight Middleton nearly shouted the words at us.
I wondered about [Blink]ing past everything. How far away could I get before magical system nonsense sealed my abilities again? The gate dropped, signifying our turn in this delayed dungeon-entry process. Viper walked ahead a little ways while I prepped my gear. Squisks was content to hang back a little. He didn’t even have any gear on.
Numbers ran through my head, patterning to the sound of music as I waved in time to the song. I wanted so badly to find Xin and just dance away a night with her. Not in this dungeon, not worrying about what might have happened to [Haven Valley]. A slight hum accompanied my walk to the dungeon entrance.
Session Seventy — How does it feel?
Two months before Xin passed away, I went in for laser eye surgery. Clients walked into a kiosk-sized stall and placed their head on the chin rest. From there, the process had been simplified to a machine that scanned through layers of skin and flesh before putting up the results. To check my eyesight, a series of polished glass globes would slide close to the eyeball, then the machine said, “Number one, or number two?”. The machine then zapped my eyes without a human even talking to me.
Walking into the dungeon was a lot like that experience.
Number one belonged to a clear and sunny day above ground. Flipping to the second lens turned our surroundings sharper, but in a disturbing way. Darkness swallowed us up. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust. After a minute, the pulses of light from above were visible. They dripped like water or falling stars through the earthen walls. In the distance was the sound of a river, or something liquid, traveling onward toward destinations unknown. The passageway wasn’t wide as it spiraled around corners and downward.
I liked the feel of this dungeon, but the person in front of me looked creepy in the pattern of light. Multiple shadows slid off the player, rolling in waves as the drops of falling starlight passed. The white of their eyes and teeth glowed. Viper’s serene smile sat off-kilter. Squisks barged ahead, then sent shifty glances back at me, which made his eyes go from glowing white to pitch black instantly.
I activated the [Sight of Mercari] and groaned as it overlapped my vision. A month in Advance Online had been long enough to forget how this ability impacted me. Along with the headache was a disconnection, as though I was myself and a creature floating above my own head.
Before the abrupt vacation, I had been using the Sight for seconds at a time, almost like a quick scan of the region to pick out needed names. It allowed me to avoid asking strangers for directions. I also felt neat and mysterious using [Blink] to get into weird places and say, “Delivery from the Voices.”
“You okay, Hermess? No dying until you earn uss pointss.” Viper didn’t sound concerned.
“An ability. Hold on.” All around, I saw a map that displayed a lot of detail. This place was big enough to take days of game time to explore. A quick scan revealed an enemy group right around the corner. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“I haven’t been here before,” Viper hissed while surveying.
“Okay.” The throb in my head hadn’t died down. This game already pushed mortal minds to the limit with time compression. Adding in extra sensory feedback that extended in multiple directions could easily overload a person.
“Have you been here?” the snake man asked me.
“No. I assume the final boss is down, and if we want that, we follow the path.” I waved and tried to focus on where the other players were. There were so many possibilities to focus on, but none of them did any good without knowing how long this place took to complete.
“Wait. Sshussh,” Viper said and put up a hand. “Sshit. Ssomeone iss close.”
“Three other players,” I muttered, which made Viper look at me. My shrug didn’t clarify anything.
This ability didn’t show monsters unless they were intelligent enough. Treasure chests and floor slants were invisible. I got dots, relative distance, and colors.
One red person was moving swiftly toward us. Their speed didn’t show any enchantments or skills. Soon their footsteps could be heard thudding along the floor. Dirt shook from the ceiling.
“Don’t kill me! I’m not a convict!” he yelled and his hands waved.
The shout confused me—I didn’t think of myself as a convict either, so what was the point of yelling? Plus they were red while wildly waving us out of the way. I delayed a few seconds too long and nearly missed the stream of monsters chasing the player. This man was trying to pull an entire group of hostile creatures into our path.
Squisks ran straight for the train of monsters while throwing rocks. They shifted targets while the guy who had been running smirked. I shook off a mild headache from [Sight of Mercari] and switched to [Awareness Heightening] then readied [Morrigu’s Gift] into a smaller sword form. Using the big two-hander would do more damage, but this hall didn’t have enough room.
Viper hissed and pulled a blade out of the strap across his chest. His arm pulled back to throw it at the running player. I went for Squisks—if he wanted to die, then I would make sure his passing got me an ally from group four.
Everything around us slowed down. The other player’s arms waved in a delayed dance. My heartbeat thumped at half time. A [Battle Hum] effect kicked in, helping my [Blade Dancer] with music. This messy scene of players running in different directions almost made me giddy.
Players, monsters, they were problems within my ability to solve now. Not like the me of months ago. Still, all of this would have been hectic to a normal person. With my elevated awareness, this was like a practice dance.
Viper missed. One hand yanked out [Morrigu’s Echo] and the second shapeshifting weapon turned into a long spear I promptly threw it toward the player with a train of monsters. A sickening squelch of noise was buried under a disorienting [Blink] as I appeared in front of our third team member. Viper hissed in confusion but loosed a second blade that flashed with green.
It sailed toward Squisks but embedded itself into a monster’s hide instead. Seal-like barking echoed through the room, accompanied by a player’s shout. I retained a sense of awareness and looked toward Squisks’s legs. Shadows cast from the rolling lights didn’t line up.
I closed my eyes briefly and activated the [Sight of Mercari] again. Squisks’s location according my skill didn’t line up with the visible fleeing goatee man and his illuminated eyes. I adjusted my aim and swung [Morrigu’s Gift] straight into a seemingly empty location. A largely camouflaged body that felt unreasonably solid went flying toward one wall.
[Weapon Focus: Bladed] Rank 4 adds 40% Damage
Defender failed awareness check, dodge check, reaction check: [Unexpected Strike] Adds 150% Damage
Attacking weapon exceeds defending armor value
My eyes drifted to the weapon before sliding to Squisks’s crumpled body near a cavern wall. We were lucky this room had opened up a little. His health bar was flashing red and critical. The Traveler’s autopilot symbol came up quickly, meaning my sudden shattering of his skills caused the man to log out.
Two more Travelers were slightly farther in, no doubt waiting to pick up the pieces after this train of monsters killed us. They would be in for a surprise at this rate. [Awareness Heightening] kept running as combat continued. I glanced at Viper for a moment. His mouth opened in slow motion as he gaped at Squisks’s suddenly appearing body.
My hat tilted back, and I held out my free hand to grasp [Morrigu’s Echo] as it [Recall]ed. The spear melted down to a shorter sword and got tucked back into my belt. I found two weapons hard to wield effectively.
I leapt toward the gathering of creatures that had been led into this room. They looked like shuffling, half-broken zombies. Huge arms pulled them along the ground. Bits of bone and detached eyeballs illuminated their bodies. They were slow, but those arms could easily crush the life from a player.
An arm twice the size of mine clawed out as my shoulder rolled down. My elbow slammed the creature in its face. Viper’s body moved amid the half-rotten creatures. I yanked out [Morrigu’s Echo], in dagger form, and slammed it into the creature’s face. The monster barked once like a seal, then gurgled as [Morrigu’s Echo] extended just enough to ruin its brain.
“What are you doing?” Viper’s voice was louder than the monsters being destroyed. Worst of all, he sounded so annoyingly slow. Each word threatened to escape my notice due to its drag.
My latest victim tried to roll over onto me. I let [Morrigu’s Echo] go and spun onward to another creature. [Battle Hum] kept me happy, a waltz tune carrying me through. Three beats per second for normal fights, so under [Awareness Heightening], the tempo was closer to six beats per second while still being functional.
I turned, found a new position, and [Blink]ed above a monster’s back. [Morrigu’s Gift], one of the only two weapons Hermes had ever earned, pointed down. My arms jerked to a halt as the sword slid through the beast’s body and dug into the dirt.
Touchdown!
Total health loss: 80%
My leg slipped and thudded hard on the kneecap. Landing wasn’t my best skill. I abused [Recall] again and shifted a giant blade to quickly swipe at the nearest half a shambler that was crawling toward me. A ripple of force vibrated my arm as the blade got stuck around halfway through the creature’s neck.
The fight continued for a handful of scrambling seconds. These monsters couldn’t be the toughest beings down here—none of them were bosses or [Elite]. My count ended up being both Travelers and six monsters, against Viper’s two.
The worst part of monster fighting was getting blood all over my new clothes. This game liked to bathe its players in sensations of gooey liquids getting into every crevice. Moments like this made things feel real.
I cleaned the edges of the Morrigu weapons off on Squisks’s dead body while Viper walked closer. The man could move quietly, but [Sight of Mercari] gave me full vision at the cost of mental focus.
“We’re clear, at least from the other teams,” I said through grinding teeth. My knee throbbed, and the rush of using [Awareness Heightening] left me doubly drained.
“You make no ssensse. Thosse sskillss sshould be impossssible,” the player said behind me. His feet were kicking at various corpses to ensure they were dead.
“Yeah.” I hadn’t found many players like myself either. Two shapeshifting weapons? Goodness no! Most players couldn’t even switch weapons in battle, yet with these, I could cruise through nearly any playstyle but a caster. Though my [Bow] skills were super low.
“You don’t look like a warrior or whatever that wass.”
That made me smile. I didn’t feel like one either. [Battle Hum] was still active as one finger poked through the combat log. The battle had been hectic and fast-paced. My mind could handle everything moving at just over ten times normal speeds but only because I got a lot of support from the game. I honestly didn’t do much more than pick a target and think of an ability. It was like dancing. One motion flew into the next.
“Me? No. I’m a lover, not a fighter,” I said.
I drove the two-handed sword version of [Morrigu’s Gift] downward with all the strength my excessive [Brawn] could manage into Squisks’s body. This time, a clear icon appeared denoting his deceased status.
Rank 8; Path [Pervert] killed + 20 [Redemption]
Rank 5; Path [Luckless Fool] killed + 13 [Redemption]
Teammate killed – 50 [Redemption]
Combat Contribution +15 [Redemption]
Voices above, that one scuffle had barely made me gain any points. Plus we wouldn’t get anything for these items if we couldn’t bring them back up top. We didn’t have enough time for me to sit around and calculate the numbers. I pulled out my paper and ink tied to the [Messenger’s Tube] kit and scrawled a message for Big O. There was only one path down, and would leave it attached to Squisks’ corpse.
“What’ss that?” Viper hissed. The poor guy was clearly puzzled.
“A message to get us an ally.” I closed my eyes and said a prayer to the Voices. Hopefully people honored deals down here, but there were ways to survive even if they didn’t.
The snake-eyed man laughed in a weird, drawn-out manner. He sounded delirious about our thrown-together group. We had maybe twenty more minutes before the next group came in behind us. The two people left from group one were much farther ahead in the dungeon, according to [Sight of Mercari].
I stood with a shudder before trying to put my [Acting] skills to the test. “Still think you could take me out?”
“Maybe. I can ssee that those movess left you drained.” Viper’s eyes pointed in different directions. The idea that any player could handle double vision threw me off.
“Yess.” I accidently hissed back at him before feeling sheepish. “You can loot anything you want. Take first dibs, take it all. I don’t really care.” I waved at the pile of monsters and the two dead Travelers.
“You ssure you’re willing to trusst me?” he asked.
I shrugged. Too many of my abilities required a low weight in my inventory. Continue Online let us put everything into a magical pocket or flip through character screens on our display, but there was still a weight value assigned.
Viper looked away, and my chest lifted in the effort to take in steady breaths. A muscle in my shoulder screamed about how out of shape this virtual avatar was. Virtual sensations were powerful. I let myself express the discomfort for only a moment before trying to get back under control.
I had no time to take care of it. I had to figure out the means for summoning Dusk. The sooner my [Messenger’s Pet] and I were reunited, the quicker events would be easier to survive. Though thinking of him as a pet was weird. He was half friend, guide, lifesaver, and critter destroyer.
Trait: [Messenger’s Pet] – [Companion, Exotic]
Rank: 4, Unique Variant [Messenger’s Pet]
Details: Monster Companions are far different than a captured and trained Monster. Having one requires earning the trust of a creature and being patient. This process is not achieved overnight. Travelers with a Companion pet will:
See increased growth stats in the Companion (10% quicker gain to character points)
Receive additional information and prompts regarding the Companion
May receive “Blessings” or other “Gifts” depending on the Companion type. Not all changes are beneficial.
Companions also have the following differences:
Buffs are not shared between the Traveler and Companion. They are separate creatures
Companions may choose to ignore or even leave the Traveler depending on performance
Reading the Continue Online floating box confused me for a moment. This trait hadn’t been at rank four last time. For months of game time, it had been stuck at two.
I saw a button under the journal entry to initiate a summon. Dusk, would he be okay returning to Continue? Last time we had been together, the small critter was a four-armed space raptor with an insanely long tail.
I punched the button for [Summon: Companion] and received a system message. Most of my abilities were activated with mental imagery like [Blink] or my shapeshifting weapons, but calling Dusk back was more complicated. This was the first time he had died in-game in our months together.
My head turned to look at the other player. Our small room was safe enough for the moment. Viper was cutting away at one of th
e corpses and grumbling. I watched him pull out a small crystal and wave it over the corpse. A stream of light transferred to the hand-sized shard. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone gather monster essence. Even Shazam never bothered.
Viper could have all the loot, especially if doing so kept him working with me. I read through the messages presented by Continue Online’s game system.
System Help!
Summoning a companion requires the use of [Lithium] circle casting. Ritual assistance display is being provided to assist with the learning process. More complicated [Lithium] spells require memorization until rank four mastery of each individual spell is demonstrated.
I had decided a long time ago to leave spells to Beth and other players who cared to go that route. Still, the Voices above saw fit to help the clueless like me with a guide.
On the ground in front of me was a slightly blue glowing circle. The circle vanished then redrew itself. The hint was obvious enough for me. While Viper looted, I followed step after step to create a circle on the ground.
Summoning Dusk would not be a simple process while being rushed. I reproduced the outside circle, an inside one, seven triangles, and very careful squiggles from the instructions. Acceptable lines turned up green, poor ones were yellow, and the worst were red.
“What’ss that?” Viper got far too close while I was lost in tracing the images.
I ignored him and fixed one line with [Morrigu’s Gift] in staff form. This felt a lot like what TinkerHell had done months ago while we were trapped underground. This was kind of neat, but also a terrible time to learn.
Words appeared on my screen, citing the closing part of the ritual.
I stifled a laugh, then repeated the words. “I promise a dozen cupcakes at my earliest convenience.”
The words came out simply and without excessive volume. My mouth lifted to one side in a smile. I didn’t know if a Voice or if Dusk had created this requirement. The AI was insanely sophisticated, so both were possible.
Everything dimmed and the walls shook. A pit of golden illumination poured outward from the spell’s center. My arm came up to reduce the glare.
Continue Online The Complete Series Page 136
