A Slave in the Locked Lands

by Arthur Stone

  They kept going, entering scrum territory. The first pack soon came to investigate the sound of pickaxe hitting rock. The party was already expecting the slower leader of the pack to arrive last, hurrying to dispatch the underlings quickly and efficiently. They were down to two by the time the giant scrum entered the hall. Ros and Danger Babe used their abilities to keep the mob still while Tangh drew aggro, and the shadowcrawler tore into the beast from behind. They didn’t even break a sweat.

  Ros leveled after the battle with the scrum lord.

  They raised a lot of noise as they went on, stopping at virtually every vein of gold and other valuable ore. Loud noises and screams had scrums rushing to investigate from afar, stretching their formation. The smaller ones came first, and would typically croak by the time the leader reached the skirmish, making the fight with their big brother much easier. The only irritating thing was the mob’s penchant for stripping buffs and blinding, which it could do even from a distance.

  Ros devoted much of his attention to gathering resources, and was the first to notice the changes.

  “This is odd—I don’t see any copper at all. Or tin. There hasn’t been any lead for a while, either. On the other hand, there’s plenty of mercury, and I’ve never seen it before.”

  “Is it expensive?” asked Danger Babe.

  “Not particularly. Alchemists use it, for the most part—to smelt gold and do gilding.”

  Tangh pointed at the dome of the cave.

  “I see red moss. The farther we go, the more there is of it. There are red stains on the rocks, too.”

  “That might be the mercury. Notice anything wrong, Danger Babe?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mercury miners lose HP quickly, and can get debuffs while they work. At least, that’s what I heard. You’re a flighting, so maybe you can feel danger.”

  “I’m too low—not even a hundred. But I see nothing suspicious so far.”

  “Let’s take a break. My Vigor is down,” Tangh proposed. “I have a feeling there might be trouble ahead, and we need to be in our best shape.”

  Ros sat down on a mossy rock, and carried on with his Jewelry and Enchanting experiments. Curious as ever about everything, Danger Babe asked him:

  “So, how is it going? Any good stuff?”

  “It appears my luck has abandoned me after your mail shirt.”

  “That sucks…”

  “I’m surprised myself. With Luck this high, I should be crafting legendaries every other time, and yet, having wasted around two tons of ore, I’ve nothing to show for it but a single excellent and two good pieces.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while—how high is your Luck, exactly?” the norder asked. “You keep boasting about it, but you never told us the exact stat. If it’s no secret, of course.”

  “No secret at all. It’s 96.”

  “How much?!” Tangh and Danger Babe exclaimed in unison.

  “Ninety-six. A lot, I know, but a fat lot of good it does.”

  “Ros! Just how did you get a secondary stat leveled that high?!”

  “Achievements, mostly. There was an episode where I got a bunch of levels in a single day, and got rewarded with a bunch of Luck points.”

  “You should be getting a legendary from every mob!”

  “A friend of mine told me the exact same thing once.”

  “Let me check the forum for a minute,” said Tangh. His eyes became glassy.

  Danger Babe kept going. “There’s something wrong with your Luck. I was in a party with a guy who had his at 26, including equipment bonuses. I spent less than a day with them and ended up earning more than I had in a week with any other party I’d been with. A ton of stuff would drop, and we used the round-robin loot setting. I can’t say I got better drops than others, but it still ran up to a lot.”

  “I also get my fair share of drops.”

  “Yeah, but not much more than the guy, and your Luck is nearly four times higher. Also, his was raised with equipment, which isn’t the case with you. Am I right?”

  “You are. But where do I find equipment that raises it?”

  “How about enchanting something?”

  “You need a soul crystal with that stat to enchant an item. The relation is simple: 77.5% soul crystal stats are primary. Around 0.4% are secondary. 0.1% are auxiliary—and just the ones that whoever obtains the crystal has already unlocked. The remaining 21.5% are usually things of little value. The gamers compiled the statistics themselves—there’s a whole forum thread with all the data. Many sly necromancers level one or two of their own auxiliary stats which are the most valuable, and kill low-level mobs by the thousands just to get a crystal or two. It’s worth it—those crytals net a ton of money, even with the stat only being raised by a point or two due to the mobs’ low level. It’s been five days now in this mine, but so far I have only gotten crystals with base stats and all sorts of junk.”

  “I’m back,” Tangh came to. “So, this is how it goes. There are, to date, around a few hundred players who had crossed the threshold of 50 in any secondary stat. The record is held by a Chinese player, which doesn’t surprise me. He seems to have it at 91. Most interestingly, nearly all of them used Shadow Art to level up Disguise. It is vital to them, so they do anything they can to raise it—and that’s easier than the other stats, too. Anyway, no one has managed to get anything but Disguise beefed up that much. And you nearly have 100 Luck. Even the Chinese guy has been left in the dust, and he’s pretty confident he’ll be the first to get into three figures. It’s a pity how few points of 100 you’re short. They say you get some really amazing bonuses once you get there, but the stat will work unevenly until you do. It is said that this affects the interval between roughly 75 and 99. Works just fine below it, and once you get above, you’re in for some miracles. Of course, none of this information has been verified—it’s all but vague rumors and conjecture. You were saying your actual luck does not correspond to the stat. Could that be the reason?”

  Ros shrugged.

  “I’m not sure, but there’s definitely something off about my luck. The stat is up the wazoo, but it might as well be twenty or thirty in practice. I have eighteen undistributed points, though. Do you think I should add four to Luck to get to 100?”

  “Undistributed secondary stats?” Danger Babe asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “Wicked cool! How did you manage to get them?!”

  “All sorts of stuff. Heroic deeds, mostly. I should try to raise it, then. Four points isn’t that much, and I don’t even know which of the secondary stats to prioritize.”

  “Hold on! Can’t you redistribute your stats? You could have done it long ago and removed all the points you don’t need.”

  “I can’t. Only the primary stats are made redistributable, although the Clean Slate description claims it should affect the secondary ones as well.”

  “It could be a simple typo. These things often happen here—you can’t rely on anything.”

  “I’ve gathered as much.”

  Ros opened the stat distribution interface and added four points to Luck with a firm hand.

  “Attention! Your Luck is now at 100! You’ve reached a bonus value! You receive a bonus. The probability of any negative event is reduced by 55% of the base value. The probability of any positive event is increased by 55% of the base value. The probability of sustaining a critical hit is reduced by a further 25%. The probability of dealing a critical hit is increased by a further 25%. The probability of sustaining maximum damage is reduced by 25%. The probability of dealing maximum damage is increased by 25%. Congratulations! This is your first secondary stat that has reached a bonus value. You receive a reward: -3% to any damage sustained (of any kind). Attention! You are the first person alive to have raised a secondary stat to the bonus value. You receive a heroic bonus: the title of King of Luck. Title bonus: +4 to every primary base stat, +2 to every secondary stat, +10% to XP, all positive effects cast on you
become 12% more effective and last 20% longer; the amount of HP restored by healing is increased by 20%. When you join a guild, a party, or a raid, all the members of the respective guild, party, or raid receive half the bonus. The bonus is permanent or lasts until the title is renounced. Congratulations! You are the greatest of heroes known to date! Keep at it! The gods are watching you! The gods have faith in you! The gods have hopes for you! You receive a bonus from the gods: 4 undistributed auxiliary stat points, Clean Slate cooldown time is reduced to 5 days, an extra option of locking level progress, +2 to Charisma and Leadership.”

  “I’ll be damned,” said Danger Babe in Russian, which only happened to her in a state of total shock.

  As Ros read the messages in big red letters in the global chat, he felt like using a few saltier words, but managed to restrain himself.

  Tangh smiled and asked in mock surprise:

  “Say, was there any point in hiding so thoroughly if you keep announcing yourself to the whole world?”

  “Did you know this could happen if I got my Luck to 100? And you still advised me to do it?!” Ros was nearly shouting.

  “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t possibly predict such public consequences. You should also realize that you didn’t hide well enough. It was pretty easy for perfect strangers like ourselves identify you.”

  “I see… But it still came as a surprise. Sorry, I nearly lost my temper for a moment there.”

  “What’s wrong with you? Ros?” Danger Babe looked surprised. “You must have scored a whole bunch of stuff. I got some bonuses myself. As well as Tangh—I can see it from his HP.”

  “I’ll be in as much demand as a pork pie at a beggar convention. Thank God chats don’t work here, or I’d have been flooded with messages by now.”

  “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain,” said Tangh gently.

  “They do work, but only between players in this zone,” Danger Babe added.

  “It’s fine. They’ll know where I am soon enough now, and start sending players here to hound me. I don’t need any hype, and I don’t feel like getting involved with any serious clans. I have already said as much.”

  “It’s all up to you. Don’t get involved if you don’t want to. You can just turn off private messages, and that’s that. Or blacklist them, and they’ll no longer be able to message you.”

  “It will take half my time to blacklist them all…”

  “Ros? Would you like to try and craft something?” asked Tangh.

  “To test my new Luck?”

  “Aren’t you curious yourself?”

  Ros sighed, crafted three rings, and announced his verdict:

  “Junk. Nothing lower than enhanced, but nothing extraordinary, either.”

  “That’s a pity. All right, then, let’s keep going and test it on mobs.”

  Right at that moment there was a rumble above, the walls of the cave started to shake, and the dome gave an ominous crack.

  “Run!” Ros yelled as he jumped up. “It’s a rockfall!”

  He winced as he got clipped by a heavy rock while rounding a corner, then froze in his tracks at the sight of an enormous shadowcrawler swooping down right onto Danger Babe’s head—half again as big as the one he’d been using as a pet. He raised his staff, fully realizing that his noobish shield would not save the girl.

  Then a miracle happened.

  “Danger Babe! Get to the wall!”

  The girl heard him through the rumble behind them, and even obeyed.

  “Above you!”

  Danger Babe yelped in fear as she looked to where Ros was pointing. And she had every reason to. Ros was shocked himself—he’d never seen anything like it before.

  Sleep spells all worked the same way—the mob or player would freeze right where they were. The enormous shadowcrawler hovered in mid-air, like in a freeze frame. The flat body looked like a furry blanket, and its paws, talons at the ready, were thrust toward the girl. The tail had a flat tassel and curved nervously, correcting the direction of the drop.

  “Sleep it as soon as it drops, and I’ll use Roots!” At least one of those should work.

  Danger Babe’s ability missed, but Ros with his obscenely high Intellect lucked out again. As soon as the mob touched the ground, it hissed like an angry cat, trying to free its entangled paws from the roots that had appeared out of nowhere.

  The very next moment, the pet crashed into the attacker, fortunate enough to hit it in the back. The attack caused a serious Bleeding effect. The mob instantly lost interest in Danger Babe, turned around, and started slashing at the undead fellow member of his species. All Ros needed to do was heal it periodically, and assist with Chaos Arrows.

  “Danger Babe! Get him! Don’t heal the pet!”

  “Why!?”

  “You don’t restore enough HP—flightings get penalties for healing creatures of darkness! I can do better! Focus on attacking!”

  “I’ll barely do more than a scratch!”

  “Then scratch it! And keep your Shield on, as well as a bunch of regens! It will kill you in two seconds if it breaks free!”

  “Make a soul crystal out of it! It would make some pet!”

  As the shadowcrawler’s HP dwindled almost to nothing, the mob got nervous and hit everyone with a mass sleep spell. Ros watched his pet get killed, and could do nothing about it. Once done with his adversary, the mob made the mistake of attacking Ros instead of Danger Babe, taking off a third of his health. Upon coming to, Ros cast Sleep on the enemy, ran off to the side, healed himself, and dispelled Danger Babe.

  “Shield and a regen, and keep heals on me. I’ll finish it off—the pet will take too long to raise!”

  It was anything but pleasant to be attacked by a mob of its level, but Ros pulled through. If it weren’t for the resisted Entangling Roots, he would have finished it off without a hitch.

  “You kill the Moss Shadowcrawler Patriarch. XP received: 13,898. Points left until the next level: 401,523. Attention! You have found a creature that has not yet been added to the world bestiary! You receive a reward: +1 to Strength. You can receive the reward for discovering a new creature at the Academy of Magic. Your Stamina grows by 1. Your Summoning grows by 1. You steal the following ability: Mass Sleep. The Mass Sleepability has been recorded in the pet’s spellbook.”

  “What happened to Tangh?” Danger Babe cried. “His icon is still in color, but he’s nowhere to be found!”

  “Don’t shout, or we’ll have another uninvited guest. Tangh got buried under the rockfall. He’s slow, after all, so he didn’t get out fast enough. But he seems to have sustained no major damage, having lost less than a third of his HP. I’m messaging him right now. He says he’s alive. You can see as much for yourself—he’s speaking in party chat. I’ll try to dig him out.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  “You better watch my back. I’ll raise a new pet, but don’t count on it much—shadowcrawlers always attack unexpectedly, and always drop down from above.”

  “Summon this one. It’s a strong one. His attacks hurt like hell.”

  “All shadowcrawlers have high Attack. And this one is high-level, and so he’ll deal more damage than the rest. Buff the pet, and I’ll get to work.”

  An hour and a half later Ros reached Tangh’s foot, but it took almost as long to set the norder free.

  He didn’t look well—his cuirass and helmet were dented, and his left arm was broken in two places. Danger Babe started to heal him, bewailing his condition, to which Tangh responded gruffly:

  “I wonder how long I would have stayed there without you?”

  “Normally, you don’t last more than two or three hours buried under a rockfall before your health runs out. That’s what the miners told me,” Ros replied.

  “Lord have mercy! Every demon in hell is eagerly waiting for this game’s developers to join them! I would have gone insane in another hour, let alone two or three! I could barely breathe under there. Did the rocks hit you, too? I saw your HP go down, Ros
.”

  “No, we got attacked by a shadowcrawler. There he is, right around the corner. A real monster—we’ve never seen them this big before. Haven’t you checked the logs?”

  “I haven’t. Didn’t really feel like reading, lying under all that rock.”

  “Take off your cuirass and your helmet. I need to repair them.”

  Tangh complied, and then complained as he sat down next to a wall:

  “We nearly got wasted, and we haven’t even reached the boss yet.”

  “You can’t predict a rockfall,” observed Ros.

  “That much is true. But if Danger Babe logged off during the shadowcrawler battle, I would have died under those rocks. Isn’t that fun?”