by ilo man
Her crimson lips were so close to his tip, her hot breath wafted over him, teasing.
“Leave him be, Annalisa,” Bryony barked. “He’s had one hell of a day, what with the rats, nearly drowning and then killing that cursed nymph. Use your perception. His health needs building up else you’ll harm him. We’ll get some broth in him, and then ask the good knight his pleasure.”
Annalisa gently closed Vinnie’s legs, patting his twitching cock, before giving him a wink and asking, “Wine or ale?”
Vinnie asked for ale, and while Annalisa went away and poured, he tried to make head or tails of what was happening. Surely if the girl’s wanted to fuck him to death, they wouldn’t be feeding him up? Who was lying?
Bryony served the broth, and a hearty broth it was too, packed with vegetables and meat and fatty gravy. Annalisa set a mug of ale down on the floor next to him and a pack of cigarillos on the other side.
“There, kind sir. You rest and recoup. I’m going to have a little bath and get ready for your pleasure.”
Vinnie narrowed his eyes. Something didn’t sit right with him. He spooned in his broth, his gaze darting around the room, suspicion coursing through him. Annalisa had vanished. Bryony was occupying herself over the other side of the room, humming softly.
Finishing up his broth, Vinnie carefully set the bowl aside, stood and unholstered the concealed crystal cone. He crept over to the pile of his freshly washed and dried clothes, pulled his pants on, donned his shirt too, and finally slipped into his boots. There was no sign of his sword or his scabbard. He furtively hid the crystal in his pocket.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked, nonchalantly.
Bryony turned, she had a fire in her eyes. “You can start by telling me the truth.”
Her voice had an edge to it, suspicion coloring its tone.
“Truth?” said Vinnie. His had a differing edge, about ten octaves too high and shaky.
“You’re level 3, Vinnie; the nymph is level 19, there is no way you could have killed her, unless…”
“Unless?” He hoped for an easy out.
“Unless by some fluke she slipped and fell and gashed herself on one of those crystals that line her lair.”
“Slipped, yes slipped. She had a mighty gash, a great big one, all bloody and raw.” Vinnie latched on to the story and ran with it.
“He lies,” Annalisa growled as she burst through the front door, her arm all cut and bleeding. “I dove in the pool and swum up the tunnel, the bitch was sat on the rock shelf preening her hair, saw me surface and attacked like a banshee from the Iron Tower.”
Annalisa had murder in her cold steel eyes. She marched towards Vinnie and punched him square on the jaw. Vinnie staggered back, crashing over the chair he’d just got up from, tumbling to the floor by the hearth in a heap. Annalisa and Bryony closed. Reaching out, Vinnie grabbed an iron poker, ready to defend himself.
Bryony sneered and pointed to his crotch, to the crystal cone secreted in his front pocket. “The horny idiot is about to die over and over, and he’s still got a boner.”
“Let’s show him what we really look like, that should shrivel the thing up to the size of a maggot.” Annalisa thrust out her hand, turning it into an upturned claw and sparkles of purple magic burst upward like a firework, exploding above the twin’s and showering them in magical glitter. They morphed into hideous, twisted beings with crooked backs and jutting chins, not unlike Vinnie when he’d ducked into negative esteem.
“See, see what you were going to make love to,” said Bryony. “Our esteem is irrelevant; prestige is all we seek. It feeds us like blood to a vampire. Esteem is nothing, look at the power we wield.” She pulled her arm back, making ready to cast some dire bolt of magic. Vinnie shut his eyes, cursing his luck, ready to die over and over, but the darkness was even worse, so he glared back, wide-eyed instead, and watched in morbid fascination as she cast her hand towards him.
As fast as light, a blur of blue shot across the old hag’s neck, followed by a line of crimson that then belched bubbly blood as a huge rent opened up across her scrawny neck. Bryony dropped to the floor stone dead. Lavender stood in her place, holding a jagged, blood-splattered crystal, which she dropped to the floor. A shivering wreck, she was clearly in shock.
Annalisa screamed like a harpy and attacked the timid nymph, her fists flying ten to the dozen fueled by her terrible rage. Vinnie cried, “No!” and scrambled up himself, darting towards Annalisa. He yanked the crystal cone from his front pocket and gripped it like a dagger. Lavender had stumbled backward under the relentless pounding that Annalisa was giving her. Rage filled Vinnie, and his arm rose, dropping sharply, plunging the crystal shard into the hag’s back. Annalisa vanished with a poof of smoke. The burst of gray dust filled the room. Vinnie stared at the blood-smeared crystal shard and wondered what kind of power it harbored.
He knelt by Lavender’s whimpering, shaking body. Her bloodied face had already dried. Her skin was shriveling too. Understanding immediately, he scooped her up into his strong arms and ran from the dreaded cottage, pelting through the conifer forest and to the pool by the waterfall. He jumped right in, still holding Lavender in his arms and cradled her there, hoping beyond all hope that he’d made it fast enough.
He stood chest deep in the water as the sun set. He still stood as the night fell. Lavender finally woke around midnight, and she slipped away under the water and into her cave. Exhausted, Vinnie hauled himself up on to the bank. Wet and cold, he shivered the rest of the night away.
He drifted off at some point, only to be woken up by the renewed sun beating down on him. His clothes had dried as the sun was already a quarter high in the sky. Lavender stood at the pool’s bank, her arms folded, her chin resting on them. Wide eyes shone out, and Vinnie knew she now idolized him—he’d seen that look before. But why, he had no clue. She’d saved him from certain death. He’d merely taken Annalisa by surprise.
“Annalisa,” he let slip. Her name had promised so much but delivered so little.
“Why do you say her name?” Lavender asked.
“I was just wondering when she turned so horrible.”
“A rotten egg is a rotten egg in any land,” Lavender pushed herself away from the water’s edge, swimming backward, her smile inviting.
Vinnie spied a little notification blinking. He looked closer and saw it was his quest’s tab.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Free her from her watery prison, and send the evil twins to an early grave. The land awards you 1000 XP.
Pro Tip: You killed another player. While this is perfectly acceptable in XdCeX Online, there are rules. Firstly, you must be in dispute with the intended target, either by way of contract or through quarrel.
If you are under contract, this negates all other rules, as the contract has to be approved by the Guild of Assassins and your nefarious reasons given at that time. If through quarrel, and the escalation thereof, that is acceptable too.
Secondly, you must give notice through agro or by the agro of others. Cold-blooded killing for vengeance sake is contrary to the rules.
Any infringement of these rules will result in a loss of esteem. In this case, the twins aggrieved Lavender, and so she was entitled to her kill, but, she gave no notice. However, as she was captive, her status with the twins was constant agro, and therefore she was entitled to act. You were already in dispute with both twins and therefore entitled to defend yourself too. In this instance, neither of you will suffer a loss of esteem.
Congratulations! You have leveled up. You are now level 4. You have 1800 XP. You need 3200 XP to get to the next level. You have two unallocated attribute points.
Vinnie blinked.
“You got your quest,” said Lavender. “I was worried that you wouldn’t because I killed Bryony.”
“You saved my life,” Vinnie told her, and he began undoing his top, his smile glinting in the morning sun.
Lavender shook her head. “Uh-ah, no
fun times. I was about to wake you. You need to loot the twin’s body before the spoils fade, and then we must get going.”
“Why such a hurry?” Vinnie asked.
“We killed two members of Doom n’ Dread. They’ll come for us now, especially if they let the hags respawn.”
Chapter Eleven
Vinnie left Lavender in the pool. She appeared to have recovered from her bout of post-fight dehydration. He didn’t quite know what he felt for her, or more how he felt for her, and he also wondered if she wasn’t just using him. “Yep,” he scoffed to himself. “She’s using me.” Everyone used him, that was just the way his life was, he knew that. It came with the territory. It was part and parcel of being a rock star.
He was a little worried about Doom n’ Dread, though he also thought it was a cool name for a metal band and really shouldn’t be wasted on an imaginary guild in an imaginary land. As soon as their shadow crossed his mind the press of the trees grew tighter, the crunch of the needles underfoot became louder, and an ominous feeling someone or something was watching invaded his mind. He crept on, making the edge of the clearing, scampering to the well, and ducking down, watching and waiting.
After a few nervous moments, he darted for the cottage’s door, hurdling the stoop’s brief steps, and into the room’s half-light. Both bodies lay where they fell, mere bones now. He tiptoed over to Annalisa’s first. The instant he passed an unseen line, a golden glow appeared just above Annalisa’s painfully thin corpse, and, a gleaming egg hovering just above.
It hatched with a pop.
Loot! You have gained a Grand Sack of Holding. These are no ordinary sacks. You have a multitude of slots for items, up to six hundred. You can stow spare clothes inside sleeves, and weapons in quick draw holsters. A quick draw holster lets you pull a weapon from the sack to automatically appear in your preferred hand provided that hand is unarmed. You merely think Equip X to activate. You can also disarm the same way—Un-equip X.
It is soulbound and will stay with your soul in the event of your body’s death. Unlike usual sacks of holding, it is a one percenter, you will bear only 1% of the items stowed’s actual weight, and due to its internal inter-dimensional properties, it can carry objects of any size provided they can fit through its throat. No matter what you have in there, it will remain flat. You can fold it, tuck it into your belt, or stow it under Items, in your menus.
“Cool,” Vinnie muttered, and rolled it into a sausage, tucking into his pant’s pocket. “And it doubles as a rock-n’-roll-cock-sock.” He looked up. “Didn’t think of that, did you!” he shouted at the game.
Leaving poor Annalisa behind, he crept towards Bryony. Sure enough, another burst of gold rose up from her, a spinning, gleaming egg that soon popped in a burst of golden sparkles.
Loot! You have gained a book, but no ordinary book. This is The Little Book of Spells. At the moment, each of its ten pages is blank. As you are gifted or learn spells, they will appear on a page, and you will be able to use that spell as many times as you wish. Each spell uses an amount of mana and provided you have the mana you can use the spell. As you have the book, you need no arcane ability to cast the spell, but can only cast spells written in the book. Use wisely; all magic has a price, part of the learning of the arcane arts is the ability to understand the effects of a spell before you wield it. You will not have that knowledge, so cast carefully. You currently have 0 spells.
His first thought was: Well that’s a fat load of good, and his second was much the same. He spun around and ambled out of the cottage, all thoughts of player killers, evil twins, and prestige vanishing in favor of a sudden thirst and the need to piss, the irony of the double feeling not lost on him. Just as he got to the room’s threshold, he hesitated.
A peculiar sensation percolated through him. He felt drawn back into the shadowy gloom. Turning, ever so slowly, he glanced from the fireplace to the cook pot but could see nothing.
“Come n’ get me, mighty adventurer.”
The words rang in his mind, crisp, high-pitched and full of intrigue. He took a step in.
“That’s it, Vinnie, just a little farther.”
Another step, subliminal encouragement bolstering his courage. Silence reigned outside. Inside, the creak of a floorboard sent shivers through him, until he realized it was from his own weight.
“Just down here, Vinnie. Come on. You weren’t so shy when you used me to stab the old hag, or when you shoved me up your—”
“Where are you?” Vinnie interrupted.
A faint red glow bloomed up from Annalisa’s bones. Vinnie saw the conical crystal lodged in her ribs, and could only surmise the golden glow of the loot had concealed it. Gingerly, he reached out.
“That’s the spirit, Vinnie, just a little bit more.”
“How are you talking to me?” Vinnie asked. “You’re a crystal.”
“A magical crystal that will give you endless libido and the hardest boner in the land.”
Vinnie snatched the crystal up without a second thought.
Bonding!
Congratulations! You have bonded with a crystal core. As you grow, it grows. Your core houses a demon. The demon will blossom with you. She will build you a seat of power. You will become strong as she becomes strong. Plant the core and grow your kingdom, but be careful to find the right place, once sewn, you cannot replant the seed.
“Cool,” Vinnie muttered and walked out onto the cottage’s stoop. He held up the crystal core. It had a crimson hue as if Annalisa’s blood had leached into its lattices. A tiny glowing bug sat in its center, like an insect trapped in amber resin. The little bug waved.
“Hi Vinnie,” he heard in his mind.
“Err, hello?” Vinnie said, seeing it wasn’t a bug but a tiny demon with pale red skin and yellow eyes, two tiny black horns and little black lips. “How come I didn’t bond with you before?”
Laughter, like a million little knives falling onto jagged glass, echoed inside him. “Because I hadn’t spawned then, I was just a dormant crystal core, but then you fed me her blood, and I hatched and grew and finally woke just a few minutes ago.”
Vinnie scratched his head. “So, what do I do with you?”
“Anything you want, Vincent,” she said, seductively. “Though we’ve both gotta grow a little before that can happen.”
“Do you have a name?”
“Oh yes Vinnie, I’ve had a few, but, let’s keep our little relationship secret for now. We’re both too weak at the moment. Feed me, and I’ll grow. I grow, you grow and vice-versa.”
“But what should I call you?”
“For now? Call me Little Red, and remember, tell no one.” One of her cute yellow eyes winked, and her little black lips blew him a kiss, long pointed tongue licking them seductively.
“What do you eat?”
She giggled a little. Vinnie blushed. “Oh,” said Little Red, “you're serious. Blood, Vinnie, blood. Fresh human blood is best, but any will do.”
“Blood, got it.”
“Don’t forget to allocate your points.” She blew him another kiss and the tiny light she’d been emanating vanished. Vinnie shoved the core in his other pocket and walked back to the pool like he was packing a pair of six-shooter pistol-cocks.
Lavender was patiently waiting by the pool’s edge.
“What did you get?”
“A Grand Sack of Holding and a Little Book of Spells,” he replied, not quite catching her eye as the lie of omission kept the crystal core a secret.
“You haven’t allocated your points yet,” Lavender pointed out.
Vinnie sat on the ground, wishing he hadn’t tucked the core in his pant pocket. “Run through perception with me. Velvet told me, but I can’t remember.”
“Well, two points in perception lets you identify things. So, on the basest level, if you looked at me, you’d know I was a nymph and that my name was Lavender. If you’d looked at one of the twins, you’d have seen their names, but most everything else would have be
en grayed out.”
“So, two points wouldn’t have helped me?”
Lavender shrugged. “Not directly, the twins were concealing who they were. But, think about it, folk who have nothing to hide are quite happy to let you know what they are. So with just the one point, you can tell if someone is on the level or not. If you can’t see what they are, then you have to ask yourself what are they up to?”
“So, I should just put one point into perception and then another next time I level up?”
“You can’t at the moment, as health and stamina are linked to strength and agility, remember? The last thing you need is more intelligence.”
“Why?”
Lavender shrugged.
Pro Tip: Attributes are linked early on for your own good. A building will only endure if it has a strong foundation. Think of health and stamina as the foundation that holds up the more attractive attributes of strength and agility. If you piled all your points into strength but had no health to lift anything up, what’s the point? For instance, only an idiot would want a huge virility score without the stamina to use it, but at least that didn’t kill you. Think about what you need. Would perception have saved you from the twins? If it would have, then put your points there.
Vinnie nodded, pondered, and allocated his points.
Attribute (Value x Esteem modifier = True Value)
Health: 2 x 1.4 = 2.8
Stamina: 3 x 1.4 = 4.2
Strength: 2 x 1.4 = 2.8
Agility: 3 x 1.4 = 4.2
Intelligence: 6 x 1.4 = 8.4
Mana: 60 x 1.4 = 84
Virility [Cumulative True Value]: 5.88 x 1.4 = 8.23
Perception: 2 x 1.4 = 2.8
He checked his levels tab and saw it had altered to 4 and that his XP was currently 1800 with his next level, 5, achieved at 5000. The grayed out attribute of compassion would also become available then.
