by Dante Doom
Sang glanced up and saw that the clock had dropped down to 25 minutes. She nervously stood by, waiting for Van to finish translating the document. “What’s taking so long?” she asked.
“Hey, reading ancient magical languages isn’t easy—get off my back!” Van replied as he sat down on the edge of the well and mumbled some more.
“Hurry!”
“Alright, if you rush me, I’m going to turn this quest around and go home,” Van said. Sang grimaced and sat next to him, watching the clock drop down. They sat for a few more moments in silence as Van continued reading.
“Wait, this isn’t a ritual... it’s a shopping list,” Van said.
“What?” Sang gasped.
“I’m kidding,” he said, grinning. “Stand back; I gotta cast the spell,” Van said as he stood up and held the scroll up in front of himself. He cleared his throat for a moment, and then spoke.
Well To Well And Water Below
Where Will Any of Us Go?
With a Spell and with Grace
Take Us to Another Place
The waters began to contort and bubble at this point, creating a swirling portal. “Well, I hope it worked!” Van said as he dove into the portal without warning Sang.
“Hey, wait for me!” she said as she leapt in after him. She felt a warmth wash over her as she flew through some kind of strange dimension, and though she didn’t particularly understand where they were, in the blink of an eye, they were suddenly standing topside again. She shook her head and looked around, realizing that there were no Trolls in sight.
“Look out!” Sang cried to the Druids in the next second. “Run and hide! Trolls are coming!”
“Please, you must defend us!” said the leader Druid NPC. “We cannot defend ourselves, for we have taken vows of nonviolence!”
“Here they come!” Van said, pointing to the hole that they had been crawling around inside for quite some time. “Get ready!”
There was a horrible shrieking noise as the Trolls began to crawl out from the hole, screaming and roaring at the tops of their lungs. The blue monsters scrambled their way out of the tunnel and began to frantically hiss and charge at the Druids.
“Quick!” Sang shouted as she began firing arrows at the Trolls. They died quickly enough, but there were nearly thirty of them still coming out from the hole.
“Uhhh, I’ll use my flute to try and tame a bunch of them!” Van shouted as he pulled it out, and then he began to play. Sang shook her head, feeling the beads of sweat pour down her face as the Trolls scrambled towards them. She snapped off a few arrows at the big one charging at her, but the arrows said NULL DAMAGE! She didn’t know why that would be the case, but she pulled up the stats of the big one.
Troll Boss
Level: 11
Health: 200
Attack: Vicious Bite +50 damage
Immune: Fire
Immune: Piercing Damage
Weakness: Insufficient Knowledge
Ability: Rally—as long as other Trolls are nearby, the Troll Boss is able to spur them on to coordinate and attack.
“Van!” Sang screamed as she dodged the massive Troll’s jaws, rolling past him and shooting a few arrows into a Troll that had been about to grapple a Druid. “What kills a Troll Boss?”
“Troll Boss? Uhhh, magic! Or some kind of blunt weapon, like a club. Gotta crush their brains with brute force!”
“Isn’t that a Zombie?” Sang asked. “I’m pretty sure you have to kill a Zombie’s brain...”
“Most creatures... if you kill their brain, it kills them, so just bash it with something!” Van said, but then he picked up his flute and began to play again, causing eight of the Trolls to stop what they’d been doing and stare at him blankly, the word STUNNED appearing over their heads.
“Uhhhh...” Sang checked her inventory and found a grand total of zero blunt weapons. She had a sword, an arrow, and a dagger, but nothing blunt. She glanced around looking for some kind of powerful weapon, but there was nothing within reach.
“Van, a little help with this big guy!” she called out as she rolled out of the way of the boss Troll’s massive arms. She was fast and agile enough to keep leaping from his grasp and shoot other Trolls, but there were still dozens of them pouring into the jungle from the hole.
“Uhhh, man, what can I do? Don’t you have anything useful?” Van asked.
“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking for help, would I?” she demanded as she narrowly avoided his attack again. Her stamina bar was decreasing to the point where it was almost completely gone. Each time she had to dodge or jump out of the way was going to cost her valuable stamina at this point. She felt herself slowing down, and she knew that the next time the Troll tried to grab her, it would probably succeed.
“Okay, I’ve got an idea!” Van said as he grabbed a stone and threw it to Sang. She instinctively caught it in her hand. “What now?” she asked, expecting some kind of brilliant plan from him.
“Kill it with a rock!” Van said.
“That’s idio—ahhh!” she screamed as the Troll leapt on her and pinned her to the ground with one arm. It brought its ugly, snarling face close to hers and hissed loudly at her. Her right arm was free enough for her to bring the rock up to the creature’s head, though, and with one swift move, she smashed it right in the eye. 10 damage! said the display as Sang nailed him square in the face over and over again. It howled and leapt off of her, holding its eye and staggering around.
The nearby Trolls all stopped moving at the same time and watched their boss, waiting for his instructions. He was hissing and howling, though, stunned by the violent attack that Sang had surprised him with.
“Hurry!” Van yelled as he grabbed his bagpipes and began to play “The Warrior’s Dance Song”—filling Sang with a powerful boost to her strength and accuracy. She rushed forward, her stone still in hand, and smacked the Troll right in the face with it. This caused the Troll boss to shriek in pain again, and it fell backwards. The word CRITICAL hovered right over Sang’s rock. She couldn’t believe that this was actually working... that beating a Troll in the face with a rock was a viable strategy, but it was functioning perfectly! The Trolls were now in a state of chaos, a few even attacking each other while some were running in opposite directions and Van was throwing his darts into the rest, picking them off one at a time.
“Haha!” Van said. “We’re doing it! You hurt the boss, they lose control over their own ranks!”
Sang smiled as she watched the Troll boss run back toward its cave. It dove straight into the tunnel and vanished from sight.
And the rest of the Trolls were pretty easy to mop up without a leader after that. They had lost all cohesion and, in a matter of minutes, they had all either fled or gotten killed.
“Nice work, Sang!” Van said. “Normally, when I don’t have a relevant weapon, I just get killed instantly.”
“Well, that’s the difference between you and I,” Sang said. “I’m actually good at this game.”
Van laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Alright, well, it looks like we finished this quest up! That means we should talk to the lead Druid and then get the hell out of here.”
“Yeah, perfect!” Sang said. She expected that, now combat was over, the Druids would be coming back... but she didn’t see any of them around. “Where are they?”
Van glanced around. “Dunno... give them a minute; they probably need to repopulate from the server or something,” Van said as he sat down by a rock.
“Something’s wrong,” Sang said. “Normally, we get some kind of experience after combat’s over, if just a little bit. But I didn’t get anything.”
“Well, maybe we should check the area? A Troll might have gotten stuck on something and still be nearby,” Van said as he glanced around, poking his head behind a few bushes and trees.
“No… something’s… wait, what was the original quest’s purpose?”
“I dunno... kill some stuff?”
“Wasn’t
it to kill the Troll Lord?” Sang asked.
“Oh yeah, I think it was. I just assumed that the Troll Lord didn’t exist,” Van said. Sang glanced at her quest log and saw the following objectives.
Investigate Tunnels
Find Troll Lair
Defeat Evil Druidess
Save Druids
Kill Troll Lord
She grimaced when she realized that the ‘Kill Troll Lord’ part was still active. The ground began to shake violently then, and she felt herself losing her footling a little as she stumbled forward.
“Wow, I completely forgot about the Troll Lord!” Van said as the tunnel emitted a deep bellowing sound. A massive blue hand came out from the hole and crashed into the ground. Another hand came out behind it, landing on the tunnel’s other side, and then the appendages hoisted the enormous Troll Lord of out the ground, causing the dirt to erupt as its body emerged. It stood nearly 10 feet high and stared down at them, its eyes full of hatred and rage.
“How was something that big underground?” Sang asked.
“It was sleeping... Troll Lords usually just sleep until something wakes them up!” Van said. “And probably, killing all of its children woke it up. And if I am not mistaken... you, not I, were the one who killed most of them… soooo...” he trailed off as he looked at her with big eyes.
Sang slapped him in the arm and ran for cover as the massive creature howled and hissed, slashing its massive claws at her. She barely avoided its attack as she rolled out of the way. She glanced back and took a look at its stats.
Troll Lord
Health: 1,000
Strength: 28
Claw Attack: 35 damage per hand
Acid Spit: 50 damage +10 damage over time
None of those stats looked appealing, and especially considering the fact that Van wasn’t particularly adept at actual fighting. The Troll Lord roared angrily as it swung its hands at Van, throwing him back against a tree.
“Ooof! That hurts!” Van cried out as he scrambled to stand back up.
“Distract it!” Sang called out as she fired a few arrows at the massive, lumbering blue monster. The arrows ignited in midair and the words 100 damage! floated above the monster’s head for a moment. It was down to 900 hit points now, but it would take more than just a few arrows to fell the creature. The words +5 in green appeared over the creature then. She watched as his Health rose from 900 to 950.
“He’s regenerating!” Van cried out as he scrambled underneath the Troll Lord’s legs. “You’ve got to deal damage that blocks regen!”
“What type of damage does that?” Sang demanded as she fired another arrow at the creature. This arrow missed, but immediately vanished and reappeared in her quiver—at least she still had their magic on her side.
“You’ve got to aim for vitals! See the big glowing sections on its body?” Van asked as a claw crashed into his face, knocking him to the ground. Sang looked back at the Troll King and saw that it did indeed have yellow glowing areas on its chest, legs, and neck.
“Shoot those!”
“Why are those areas glowing?” Sang asked even as she complied, firing her arrows at the brightly glowing weak spots.
“It’s how bosses work!” Van replied as the arrows crashed into the side of the Troll Lord, causing him to howl and scream. The words CRITICAL 150 damage! appeared then and, unlike the last amount of damage, this wasn’t regenerating.
“Perfect!” Sang cheered as she drew her bow back again. The Troll Lord promptly forgot about Van and turned to look at Sang with more focus. With a deep, angry hissing, he spat out a stream of green liquid. She tried to dodge, but couldn’t because the liquid was seemingly everywhere. She felt the hot burning splash of acid on her skin.
“Ahhhh!” she cried out in sheer pain as she felt it begin to burn, her Health dropping down by 50 points. The good news was that Van’s anti-damage over time buffer was still active, meaning that the acid wouldn’t do anymore damage to her. Still, it sucked to feel so much pain in an instant. In fact, Sang realized that she would have preferred to be cut or stabbed rather than experience the acid again.
“Sang! Shoot my lantern!” Van shouted as he threw his lantern right at the creature. It bounced off of the monster and Sang waited a split second more so that she could aim properly, and then she shot the lantern right out of the sky. The lantern shattered immediately, causing oil to burst everywhere, soaking part of the Troll.
“Haha, brilliant!” Van screamed out as he grabbed a rock and whispered a spell into it, causing the stone to erupt into flames. “Watch this!” he called, and with that he threw the rock as hard as he could—right into the gasoline-soaked stomach of the Troll. The flaming stone immediately ignited the lantern oil and the words 10 damage! 10 damage! 10 damage! began to appear over the Troll’s head.
“Nice shot!” Sang yelled as she fired a few more arrows at the Troll’s legs. It seemed that each time she damaged a leg, it would slow down even more. This meant that it wouldn’t be able to rush up as close to them and use its claw attacks on them. The creature was now snarling and howling as its Health rapidly dropped from 800 down to 300.
“We’re killing it!” Van called out as he grabbed his bagpipes and began to play “The Song of Fire, Fury, and Thunder”, and the music, while still wretched, inspired Sang to aim at the Troll’s neck; she snapped off a quick shot, hitting it square in the glowing center of its neck. The word CRITICAL! appeared again, and Sang grinned as she watched its Health drop down to only 150 points.
The Troll Lord hissed and shrieked at them both, spitting more acid, but Sang was able to dodge it. She realized that rolling forward would only get her hit, but that if she rolled backwards, she was able avoid the splash. The creature stepped forward and made a wild dive tackle for Sang, but she fired another well-timed arrow right into the creature’s throat, causing it to shriek in agony before it fell to the ground... finally dead.
“Oh, man! Did we actually kill that thing?” Van asked as he cautiously approached the corpse.
“I think we did!” Sang said, laughing a little. “Man, that was insane! I can’t believe we pulled it off! Van, that lantern idea was genius!”
“Well, yeah, but you were the one who had to shatter it for me. That was some good teamwork. Damage over time counters regen, so with it on fire and you shooting the vulnerable areas, we were able to make short work of the damn thing.”
They both looked at the corpse, causing Sang to grin. She couldn’t believe they had actually survived that encounter. And now, few Druids were starting to return to the area, including the lead Druid who had given them the quest.
“Noble heroes!” said the Druid as she approached them. “You have both worked so diligently to not only rid our village of these dreaded Trolls, but you have also stopped the evil advances of our wicked sister, Soara. You are truly the champions of this jungle, and we must thank you for rescuing us from such peril! Now then, you must be rewarded. I give to you both this token of my appreciation! A transportation twig! All you must do is snap it in half, and then you shall be taken straight to the edge of anywhere of the jungle that you wish!”
“Perfect!” Sang said as she took the twig in her hand. She had grown very tired of being in the dense, dark jungle, and was looking forward to the fresh air of the open country. As she held the stick in her hand, the words Quest Completed! appeared before her, summarizing her adventure.
Much to her excitement, this was another ticket to levelling up! She eagerly pulled up the screen, excited to see what new powers and abilities she would be able to unlock. It seemed that with each passing day she was getting more and more into the game.
“Alright, I’m all leveled up!” said Van as he walked up alongside Sang. “You ready to get out of this place for good?”
“Never more ready!” she replied once she’d finished optimizing her character some more. She glanced at the twig in her hand. “And I just need to snap it?” she asked.
“Yeah, go
for it!” Van said as he snapped his own. As Sang snapped the twig in half, a map appeared in front of her. It was a map of the entire jungle, and the entire border was glowing red. The words WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO FAST TRAVEL? appeared before her. She looked to the northwest side of the map to see the kingdom of Verrata’s borders. She reached her hand out and touched that edge of the map. The words FAST TRAVEL ENGAGED appeared over her as the wind behind the both of them began to pick up fiercely. It blew fiercely, and Sang felt herself losing her footing.
“What’s happening?” Sang screamed as the fierce winds picked her up in a kind of whirlwind.
“We’re fast travelling!” Van replied as they were both taken fully up by the winds. Sang bounced up and down, unable to control herself as the winds pushed them through the trees and over the dense jungle. She could feel the rush of fresh air as they floated high in the sky. It was crazy, but she could see just about everything around her and, as the wind blew, she felt it pushing her forward. Van was flapping his arms like a bird, joking about learning to fly as the winds pushed them.
“I can’t believe we’re flying!” Sang said, completely shocked at the sensation. This was a lot different from flying on the back of a Dragon. While the Dragon had been stable, smooth and controlled, flying on a whirlwind was hectic, chaotic, and crazy. At many points, she even felt as if she were falling, and sometimes she’d drop suddenly, but only to be lifted back up by another wind.
All in all, though, it was a fantastic experience. She couldn’t believe the view as the wind rushed them both quickly over the jungle, moving them at speeds faster than even the Dragon had flown.
As they flew together, Sang could see a massive set of spires and castle tops in the distance. They reached the jungle’s edge and the whirlwind gently landed them on open ground. Before them was a road with a fork that pointed toward the city. It read “Verrata, 1.2 miles.”
