Sweet! That’d make this next quest easier. Now where to allocate my new status and attribute points? I pulled up my character stats to take a look.
Though I hadn’t done much in the game yet, I still had that dark cleric assassin in mind, so I allocated 2 AP to dexterity. I also knew I was going to a dungeon next, so perception — looking for traps and discerning hidden doors and such — would be good to boost. I put a point there. As for my last point, I had in mind all the snarky characters I was dealing with, and how tricky it already was getting what I needed from them. Hoping I wouldn’t regret it later, I put it in charisma. As for the SP, I knew I’d eventually need more health, so investing the 10 points there (you invested them as a lump sum, so I couldn’t split them up) seemed a good call.
As I invested the points, I felt each respective attribute actively improving inside of me. I suddenly felt much more nimble, both of hand and foot. My senses were keener, sharper. All the witty lines spinning through my head suddenly seemed that much closer to perfect execution. And my body felt haler and healthy.
I grinned. It was awesome to suddenly progress and feel every bit of the change.
Another bit of welcome news was that as soon as I’d opened my status table, the level up had been confirmed, and my meters all jumped back up to full. At least for now, that was a simple way
I also had a bit of gold now, so it was past time for some shopping. My map feature still didn’t work, so I wandered until I found shops that served my needs. Most of it was way too expensive for my shallow pockets, but I did manage to snag some bandages, which would stop bleeding and boost health, as well as some food for my journey, as from my rumbling stomach, I could tell that would be a concern going forward.
Minor Bandages (x5)
Quality: Fair
Rarity: Common
Use: Cure the Bleeding (Minor) status. Gain 1 health every 5 seconds for 5 minutes.
Travel Rations (x10)
Quality: Poor
Rarity: Common
Use: Cure the Hunger (Minor) status. Gain 1 health every 30 seconds for 10 minutes.
Solving that concern for now, I finished off the trip with a nice, hot meal. I was flush out of money, but that’s what coins were for, right?
Satisfied and full of energy, I practically ran through the streets to get to the dungeon. It was on the outskirts of Stalburgh, the Night Sisters being a bit shunned among the regular people of the Everlands. The town had faded to trees and wild lands by the time I reached the marker I’d been instructed to look for: a crucifix in front of a broken down brick edifice that was built off a burrow. There was a single door by which to enter on its side.
I checked my weapons and armor — particularly those pesky buckles on the graves — and breathed in deep. Then I heaved open the rusty door and stepped inside.
It wasn’t pitch black like I’d expected, but illuminated by blue torches mounted on columns that ran down the center of the room. The entrance hall was tall, the ceiling rising into gloom, but a hallway forward greeted me a short ways on the opposite side. I stepped in cautiously and cast my gaze about to the shadowy corners, the place reminding me too much of the temple from the beginning of the game, but nothing moved that I could see in the darkness. Despite Malik’s warnings of monsters, I was in the clear for now.
Dungeons always seemed to have loot in the most obscure places, so I combed the room for urns, chests, crates, or anything else that might hide items. I scrounged up 3 coins and plenty of useless trinkets for my efforts, then passed into the next room.
This one had the same unknowably high ceilings, and the same columns running down the middle, but it extended wide into either direction, like the burial hall of a great dwarven king. I hoped it was. I wasn’t above grave robbing, in a game anyway.
I cautiously stepped around the edge of the room, knowing the middle, straightforward passages were often riddled with traps (that’s Darwinism for you). I hoped my increased perception would help me out here, or at least my dexterity for setting off traps, but I was probably too low a level in either for it to count. Still, I went slowly, trying my best not to trip anything—
My foot snagged on a tripwire, and the clang that followed nearly stopped my heart. I froze as the echoes died off in the far end of the great hall, hoping it was just a loud noise and nothing more, like a low-tech burglar alarm. But then I heard the rumbling of stone against stone. Around the walls were tombs I hadn’t noticed before, rows upon rows of them. They had been closed before, but now many of the sarcophagi were opening. One, three, seven — I quickly lost count of their numbers.
The only number in my head was one. Only one of us was about to be fucked.
Skeletons rose from the tombs, ancient weapons clutched in their hands, somehow rusted and ravaged by time. But I didn’t doubt they’d cut me to the quick all the same. I abandoned all dignity and scrambled for the door, but though I heaved with all my strength, it wouldn’t budge. My eyes went towards the other end of the hall, where I could see a door between two blue sconces. Perhaps if I could reach that one, I’d stand a chance.
I set off running down the middle, heedless of my earlier apprehension. What happened if I died here? I hadn’t thought to ask, optimistic as I was about my prospects. How had I not asked after that first incident with the spiders? That time, Ava had saved me … Would she come again?
“Ava!” I bellowed as I ran, skeletons rising up all around me and coming towards me, red lights in the sockets of their skulls. “Ava, help!”
But my spectral helper didn’t come. She either had her glitch still, or I was always on my own. Neither were comforting thoughts.
I was halfway across when I felt the sudden burn in my leg, and I was brought to a sudden halt. Pain washed over me unlike anything I’d experienced thus far, and I looked down in horror at my leg. Something like a bear trap had closed over my leg, its teeth buried deep in my flesh, its jaws crushing the bone. I wasn’t prying myself free. I was stuck.
I’ll admit it: tears stung my eyes as I watched the skeletons approach. I sobbed. I was afraid. I begged the undead not to kill me, though I knew it was the only way it could end. I thought about logging off just to escape it, even though it would mean the end of the Everlands for me. In real life, there weren’t monsters like this, and there was always a chance for mercy. But here, implacable horrors walked.
I tried to fight back, but shaking with terror and one leg stuck fast, and my health bar rapidly depleting, it didn’t take long for the ancient weapons to stab through me and end my existence.
7
Angel or Devil
You have died.
All your items remain at the location of your death. You or any other player may retrieve them at any time.
You are also weakened from your resurrection. While weakened, you receive a -10% penalty to all attributes and meters, which will cease at the end of an hour. This penalty will become more severe with subsequent deaths.
Next time, don’t suck, Marrow.
I blinked away the overlay, the words not yet sinking in. Behind it was a starlit sky. I smiled. How often did I look up at the night sky? I didn’t see any familiar constellations, but then, this was…
This was…
Everything came flooding back to me, the serenity of rebirth lost. The pain of my death almost crushed me. I could feel the skeletons’ stabbing swords in my body once more, lances of fire driven in again and again, long after I was dead. I shivered and tears came to my eyes again, and I clutched my arms about me.
Naked arms on a naked torso. I looked down at myself and noticed I was almost completely devoid of clothes, except for a pair of rough underpants that looked like a leather diaper, and felt much, much worse. This game just couldn’t cut me a break, could it?
“Sucks, doesn’t it?”
I bolted upright at the sound of the voice — a female voice — quickly wiping the tears from my eyes. And here I was, sobbing like a baby, not to mention dre
ssed like one. What a first impression.
I looked around. I was at the bottom of what looked like a small amphitheater, with rows of stairs leading up from me, and large columns behind me. A cool glow suffused the area, though I couldn’t tell where the light came from.
But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t see the woman who’d spoken. “Where are you?” I asked loudly as I stood.
“Up here.”
My gaze traveled up to the top of one column, and I gasped as my eyes found her. She was perched at the top of one of them, heedless of the fifty foot drop below her. She stared at me with large, slightly luminous yellow eyes.
She was a cat. A large, humanoid cat. Considering what I’d just gone through, and that I didn’t have any weapons or armor, I started with fear.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice quavering more than I liked.
“My, my, we have a lot of questions, don’t we?” The cat lady suddenly somersaulted from her position down the back of the column and off the edge. My breath hissed in, thinking she must have fallen, when she appeared at the base of it in a few moments later.
How had she done that? Who was she? Ava hadn’t shown me this race in the tutorial. And there was something … different about her. Perhaps a faint glow? A notification popped up in the corner of my vision, but before I could check it, the cat-lady spoke again.
“You don’t know who I am, but I know exactly who you are.” She jabbed a finger in my chest. “A noob.”
Noob?! I may be Level 2, and just died in my first dungeon, but—
Well, maybe she had a point. Still, I wasn’t going to admit that. “Yeah, right. I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you? Is that why you just died? And you’re just Level 2?” Her smile looked all the more sly for her cat-like face.
“How did you…?” Finally, I thought to check the notification. It explained it all. This mysterious cat woman who knew so much about me and my game stats was another player! Some of her basic stats appeared for me as well:
Sheika
Level: 34
Alignments: Cerulean Empire
You must be similarly aligned or in the same party to view more information about this player.
Nice name — I’d always been a Legend of Zelda fan. But on the more holy shit side of things… she was level 34. I couldn’t believe I was seeing someone that high already. Before I could play the game, during the hours when I’d obsessed over it, I had trolled the forums and followed the most experienced players. The highest level I’d seen was 37. While it was rumored you could go up to 100, the game was still new, and leveling quickly became hard unless you found really good ways of gaining experience, like succeeding at quests that affected all of the Everlands, or building up your own town or village sufficiently, or discovering some hidden secret lair with good monsters to farm, etc. Her being 34 meant she either played this constantly, or she was good. Or both, I guess.
Of course, her appearance could have told me that. First off, she’d somehow made her character into an unspecified race. Then there was the matter than her gear looked unreal. She was covered from paw-foot to paw-hand in some sort of scaly material, which was a dark green that looked almost black, and it didn’t reflect one bit of light from around us. Her hands, which were mostly human but for a bit more fur, bore jeweled rings and bracelets, which were no doubt magic. At her hips were two ornate hilts of daggers, while a short bow was slung across her back.
I would have been in love, or flustered, or both, if she hadn’t come off so condescendingly and insulting. But she did have a point about me.
“Alright, I’m a noob,” I admitted. “And yes, I died for the first time just now. So sue me.”
She laughed prettily. I wondered if her voice mimicked her real one like mine did, or if she was really some middle-aged dude in a basement looking to troll some scrubs. “We’ve all been there at one point. Well, I didn’t die until Level 15, but I guess some of us are slower learners…”
“So. Are you just here to mock me or what?”
“So testy!” She started pacing around me, moving smoothly with feline grace. “I’m starting to question what I’d intended.”
“Which was?”
“Helping you not paint the floor of some monster’s lair.”
My mood instantly lifted, but with it came a gamer’s natural skepticism. “Why would you help me?” I didn’t have anything she could steal off me, but maybe this Sheika just got off to fucking with people.
“So suspicious. Maybe I’m just a good person, did you think of that?” Sheika reached out and tapped me on the nose, making me jerk away in surprise. She smiled mischievously. “Or maybe I’ll call in the favor some time down the road. Who knows?”
I had a feeling I knew. But if that’s what she was looking for, she’d be sorely disappointed. I might have managed to stay on The Everlands far longer than I’d dreamed possible, but I knew there was no way in hell I’d manage to get on it after today. And looking down at myself, I didn’t really have much of a choice.
“I guess help would be good at this point.”
“Excellent! Shall we be off then?”
She took me by the arm and waltzed me away, leading me apparently in the direction of Stalburgh. Despite the late hour, she insisted some shops would be open, particularly the ones she liked to frequent. I quickly picked up that she meant the back alley stands and other black markets.
She also explained how death worked here. The place I’d just appeared was a resurrection shrine. These were placed sporadically throughout the Everlands, with most congregated around large populaces like Stalburgh. As explained in the message, when you died, you lost all your stuff and received a penalty from the Weakness status. You could recover your items, however, if you managed to get back to where you died and survive this time. I was hoping her help would include taking me back there, even though we were on the other side of the city from the Black Sisters’ dungeon at this point.
One thing she warned me about with deaths were that they had increasing penalties as you died more and as you leveled up. One player she heard about had in-game amnesia he died so many times, and couldn’t remember his abilities or skills for a week. It was something best avoided. I knew that well enough. The pain of dying was blanketed like I watched it through a monitor screen, so I knew it wouldn’t haunt me. Probably. But it still hurt like a mother to get stabbed that much, and I wasn’t eager for a repeat visit.
Finally we made it to her illicit markets, and, waving off my discomfort at not being able to pay, proceeded to buy me some basic clothes that had nothing in the way of stats, as well as a pair of nicer felt boots, which were designed for softly treading the ground. Then, from a stand with a guy who kept looking up and down the alley like the city watch would be on him any moment, she gave me a set of Thief’s Tools, a ring of tools that contained things such as a lock pick, a wire cutter, and other trap-dismantling items.
Felt Boots
Quality: Fine (50/50)
Rarity: Uncommon
Attribute: The skill Sneak gains a 50% boost in effectiveness and experience gain.
Thief’s Tools
Quality: Fine
Rarity: Uncommon
Use: Dismantle basic traps and unlock basic locks.
I thought her generosity had come to an end at that point, but still she held onto me, pulling me into a small shack on the outskirts of town. There lived an old crone so ancient I could only distinguish her from the furniture because of her bright, angry eyes. Despite my misgivings, Sheika paid the crone to teach me two things, and the old woman begrudgingly obliged. First, she taught me Turn Undead, a Wardic channel that would protect me from the skeletons. Then she taught me the channel Minor Healing, allowing me to heal myself so long as I had spirit enough to do so.
Turn Undead (Lvl 1)
Affinity: White
Faith: —
Cost: 40 spirit
Effect: Cause undead creatures up to lev
el 6 to flee from you. Radius of effect is 30 feet, travels with the caster, and lasts for 2 minutes.
Minor Healing (Lvl 1)
Affinity: White
Faith: —
Cost: 30 spirit
Effect: After 5 seconds of uninterrupted channeling, gain 50 health.
I was floorstruck by all Sheika was doing for me. What kind of favor was she expecting? I started feeling a bit guilty about my deception, and wondered if I should tell her that I probably couldn’t pay her back for nearly four years, when I could legally access the game. But the fear that I might lose all that I’d just gained was too strong for me to confess, and I just meekly followed behind.
“Well you’re at least a bit better off,” she said, appraising me from head to foot. “Now we just need to get you your old stuff back.”
My hopes lifted. She was going to help me back to the dungeon after all! We set off for the Night Sisters’ lair, and all the while, I wondered who was the player behind this feline guardian angel I’d somehow acquired, and what all this help would cost me.
8
Round 2
When we arrived at the Night Sisters’ dungeon, Sheika stopped me. “Okay, so how did you do this last time?”
With a bit of apprehension, I told her step-by-step how I’d proceeded, expecting to be told I’d done everything wrong. But she just nodded.
“Okay, not bad. You're really just fresh, and not an idiot, so that's good news. Couple things for this time. One, we’ll want to teach you to properly sneak, as you might have still avoided detection had you known how. And two, you obviously need to know how to watch for traps.”
“Properly sneak? How do you know I wasn't?”
Absalom’s Fate Page 5
