by Sam Ferguson
He had caught himself just in time though and had managed to make it to tonight’s meeting before any of the other students. His apologies delivered in-person this time, he had only needed to endure a short, though scathing lecture from Meredith before a no-show from Barry took the pressure off of him.
The rest of the meeting had essentially been a quick list of items sent to Meredith for inclusion in the 3D virtual model, and then a corresponding list of game tasks and questlines each person was planning to complete in exchange.
Brian tossed out the first quest that came to his mind so it would seem like he had something to contribute. “I’m going to locate a lost family heirloom for Freya, the shopkeeper at The Finer Points.”
“Ooooh, does Bob have a girly-friend?” Mike teased.
“A girlfriend?” Rhonda said with such obvious confusion in her voice that Brian wanted to melt out of the game and escape the conversation.
“Oh yeah, do enough good deeds for an NPC and you can initiate romantic relationships. Sometimes it can come in handy. Like if you’re a warrior and you marry a powerful wizard NPC so you always have a partner to watch your back, or in Brian’s case, a shopkeeper might give steep discounts or even profit sharing.”
“Interesting...” Rhonda commented. Her tone wasn’t judgmental per se, but it wasn’t exactly approving either.
“I don’t know how it is in the United States, but in Chile, we prefer our relationships with real people,” Augustin teased.
“It’s just a quest, I assure you,” Brian declared. “The pay is good.”
“Riiiight,” Mike said, his avatar making an overly dramatic winking face.
“I’m headed to assassinate someone right after,” Brian added. “You know, in case you want to accuse me of romancing the assassins next.”
“Hey, who am I to judge?” Mike asked. “An assassin wife could be very useful.”
He could see there was no way to win the argument. The group continued to laugh and chatter for a few minutes, but Brian sensed the meeting was winding down and it was now socially appropriate for him to offer a wave to the professor and be about his business. Brian exited the Drunk Imp without another word. Instead of heading for the docks in the east, he activated the Misguided Blade Quest for the Morr’Tai.
A map marker appeared some five miles west of Konji, a town listed on the map to the southeast of Fezhik. Brian went to the southern gates, but instead of walking the rest of the way, he located a stable off to the west of the gate. The stable owner was busy moving from horse to horse offering a feedbag and then brushing them down.
Having given all of his gold to Mike, Brian didn’t have anything with which to pay for the horse. He couldn’t exactly borrow one either, but he really didn’t feel like walking, jogging, or sprinting the twenty some odd miles to the map marker. Plus, if he encountered some higher-level monsters, he wanted to be able to either outrun them or offer them something besides himself to chew on.
Fortunately, as he started around the other side of the large log cabin, he found another set of stables with five more stalls. There were two horses there, but no one was watching them. Activating his sneak mode, he crept up toward the horse, a method he soon realized was useless, because the horses had already seen him and there was no way to approach their stalls without remaining seen. He exited sneak mode and moved up to the horse farthest away. He checked once more for witnesses, then jumped atop the horse and galloped off to the southwest, heading directly for the tree line as quickly as possible.
A saddle and bridle appeared on the horse as soon as he had mounted it, but he didn’t mind that aspect. After all, even VR games couldn’t be too realistic. After he traveled for about a quarter mile and no bounty appeared, he figured he was home free. He set the horse to an easy, sustainable run through the woods, careful to avoid trees or large rocks.
He jumped small streams and easily outpaced the two wild dogs that saw him from a distance and tried to catch up to attack. After a while he rejoined the road leading from Fezhik to Konji. The road made travel much faster. There were also the occasional patrol guards on foot or on horse. They would wave or call out to him as he rode past, but none of them seemed aware of the horse theft.
Once, he saw a pair of guards on foot fighting a medium-sized bear with quills jutting up from its shoulders and spine. He slowed the horse and equipped his bow. He fired at the monster and hit it. It continued fighting the two guards, but ultimately was put down with relative ease after a few more moments.
[+100 XP]
“Good thing it was a juvenile!” one of the guards said.
Brian smiled. He hadn’t done much in the fight, but all he’d needed was a successful action during the battle and to stay within range in order to split the XP value. Too bad it forces you to split XP with NPCS though. Brian thought. He mentally thanked the two guards for giving him an easy boost, but then took his silent thanks back when the guards managed to loot the spiked bear before he could dismount and do it himself.
He rode on, the rest of the trip uneventful, though he did see some frilled dinosaurs in the woods chasing an elk. Eventually he came to Konji and found the gate closed. He rode just close enough to it to have the city officially register for his map.
[KONJI DISCOVERED]
[+100 XP]
Brian then turned around and saw that his marker pointed him still five or so miles westward from the city. “All right horsey, this is what you get paid the big bucks for. You keep me a step ahead of the big nasty dinos and I will try to get you back to your stables alive.”
The horse didn’t respond, but as he urged the horse on into the woods it took off with tremendous speed.
Brian ducked under the low branches as they wove their way through the network of trees and over the ferns and thicker bushes. Exotic birds sang overhead, and a couple of brightly colored, lizard-like creatures with feathered frills darted away as Brian came thundering across the forest on his horse, but there were no dinos. There weren’t even any bandits. The trip was almost... boring.
After crossing a small stream where a pair of deer sporting armadillo-style segmented plates were lazily drinking, Brian charged up a hill and found himself emerging from the tree line to face a cleared valley leading to an even taller hill. Atop the hill was a small tower made of wood and a single hut. Smoke rose from a single chimney. As he studied what little he could see, his eyes caught the form of a sentry standing and turning atop the platform on the tower. Brian was too far away to tell what race the humanoid was, other than to say it was too tall for a dwarf, but he could just make out the bow slung over the person’s shoulder.
He couldn’t see anyone else though, and that gave him reason for doubt. Could he assault a hill that had no cover leading up to it? Certainly not by horse. He’d have to dismount and circle around while sticking to the tree line and look for a way up.
No sooner had he hit the ground, then the horse turned and started a lazy trot. Judging by its direction, the horse was headed straight back to the stable from which it had been stolen. “Traitor,” Brian said.
He started walking along the northern side of the clearing, but all he found was more of the same. The trees had been cleared down to short stumps, and the bushes were kept trimmed. There was no clear path upward. He finished making the circle without finding an advantageous approach. His next best option would be to approach from an angle that put the hut between him and the tower and kept the tower on the farthest side of the hill. Perhaps if he crept up that way, he could get close enough to strike without being seen.
He equipped his dagger, made his way to the right spot while staying hidden in the trees, and then he went into sneak mode and slowly crept out from the forest’s protection.
He could see the archer’s head over the top of the hut, but after moving in about twenty yards, the hut entirely eclipsed the tower from view. Now he just had to hope no one would come around the back of the hut.
Luck was not with
him, however. As he moved between two stumps, a man came around the corner of the hut holding a bottle in his left hand. Brian froze.
The man stared out over the clearing, then dumped the bottle’s contents onto the ground. The eye icon stayed closed and dim. Somehow, Brian remained unseen. The NPC turned around and disappeared back behind the hut.
Maybe luck is with me. Brian said as he recalled that he now had the three luck blossoms. He had never really figured out how much luck played a part in Terramyr Online games, but it was conceivable that this scenario might have had the balance tipped in Brian’s favor because of them.
Not wanting to risk a second possible discovery, Brian hurried as fast as he could go while still sneaking. Up the hill he went and to the right side of the hut. He poked part of his head around the corner, just enough to see what there was on the hilltop. About fifty yards beyond the hut stood the tower with the archer. Roughly halfway between the hut and tower stood the NPC with the bottle. He was busy rustling through a crate full of them, sampling the contents of each and muttering to himself too quietly for Brian to make out what he was saying. A couple yards to his right was a large campfire with a spit roasting some sort of mid-sized animal.
Neither of them looked all that imposing. It was hard to believe that the Morr’Tai would want these two dead. Then again, it’s not like the Morr’Tai were excessively picky about their contracts.
There was a quick screech of metal hinges, followed by a heavy, dull thud. A second later a man strode into view. He wore chainmail armor and had a nice sword hanging from his side.
“You there, don’t waste all of the wine, we need to sell it!” the swordsman said.
“Just checking its quality,” the man at the crate replied.
Ah. There’s the target.
The archer on the tower looked back toward the swordsman but didn’t say anything or move from his post. He turned back to watching the eastern side of the clearing.
The swordsman turned and walked back into the hut. The door slammed a moment later.
“Picky, picky,” the man at the crate said over his shoulder. “Just a wee taste here and...” The NPC lifted a bottle to his mouth and then gagged and spewed liquid from his mouth. “See! That’s why I taste it! This tastes like rat piss!” The man turned and walked toward the hut.
Brian figured the NPC would travel the same path as before, so he moved behind the hut and sat waiting for his moment.
The man stepped right around the corner and went to the edge of the hill without so much as a glance at Brian, who was sitting just behind the corner. Brian reached up and slashed the man’s throat, then gently brought the body down to the side and out of view of the tower.
[+100 XP]
Stalking back to the right side of the hut, he peered around the corner once more. The archer looked back over his shoulder, and then picked up his foot and examined something on the sole of his boot.
Now to decide, assassinate the archer, or try to sneak into the hut and hope the swordsman wasn’t sitting facing the door?
There were no windows on the back of the hut, and none on the right side either, so it was impossible to get a fix on the swordsman’s location. The archer, however, was plainly visible and not about to go anywhere. Brian knew if he rushed into the hut and the swordsman called for help, he’d be sandwiched between the two and would have to fight his way out. He hadn’t caught what color the dot above the swordsman was.
Idiot. Should have looked at that first.
He was too far away to see the dot above the archer, but judging from the NPC’s lack of armor, it likely wasn’t going to be terribly hard to defeat him so long as Brian didn’t give the archer advance warning and allow himself to get stuffed full of arrows and turned into a proverbial pin cushion.
Still, if Brian went for the archer, he could still find himself sandwiched if the swordsman emerged and caught him.
Brian shook his head. Better to go for the archer. Even if the swordsman came out, if he was already closing the distance between him and the archer, then the arrows would be less deadly the closer he got. Plus, he could always finish the archer, let the swordsman chase him, and then jump off the tower. It was only ten feet tall at the platform. He could live through that.
The decision made, Brian sneak-ran across the camp. Past the crate and across the hard packed dirt he ran. The archer didn’t turn around, and no one shouted from behind. He slowed just enough at the tower to go up the ladder without thumping his hands and feet along the wooden rungs. Once at the top, he moved in close and plunged his dagger into the archer’s left kidney while muffling the NPC’s mouth.
[+100 XP]
Thinking it wise to be prepared if the swordsman emerged from the hut, Brian took just enough time to loot the NPC’s longbow. It had two additional piercing damage base points compared to the shortbow, and every little bit helped.
He needn’t have worried though, because he made it to the hut’s door without incident. Unfortunately, there were no windows on the front either. The plaster building was topped with a thatch roof, and there was no way to ascertain where the swordsman was without opening the door.
Or was there?
Brian turned back to the campfire and hurried to grab one of the burning logs. Fortunately, it was only burning at one end and was easy enough to hold. He moved back to the hut and then held the flames to the thatch roof. Within a couple of seconds, a small flame leapt onto the roof and then grew to a great big blaze.
From inside the hut there was loud coughing and hacking.
Brian tossed the log aside and prepared his dagger.
Wham!! The wooden door flew open and out came the swordsman, followed by a thick cloud of silver and black smoke.
Brian didn’t waste his chance. He snuck up behind the person and went for the kill. Only this time, the attack didn’t go like the others. Instead, Brian’s avatar punched up into the swordsman’s groin from the crouching position, and then tackled him to the ground and stabbed him twice in the stomach before the swordsman kicked him off.
Brian put away his dagger and equipped his steel longsword. The swordsman jumped up and unsheathed his sword in a flash.
“You’re not the first one they’ve sent for me!” he said. Above his head was a yellow dot. His HP bar was half gone, but the NPC reached to his left waist and pulled a red bottle from a satchel that Brian hadn’t noticed before.
A health potion!
Brian lunged in and swung his sword. It broke the swordsman’s action and forced the NPC to fight back. Brian then tried Barry’s move and launched a front snap kick. The swordsman didn’t lose any HP, but he was knocked back a couple steps.
“For BASEI!” the swordsman called out, crying out for the demigod of war and death to give him strength.
Brian didn’t turn away or move to block. He rushed in, then dropped to his knees at the last minute, allowing the swordsman to harmlessly chop horizontally through the air above him as he chopped his own sword into the NPC’s stomach. The HP bar flashed and dropped to less than twenty-five percent.
Brian rolled to the side as the swordsman pressed the attack, chopping down at the ground over and over, forcing Brian to continue the roll for nearly ten yards before he got ahead of the man enough to jump to his feet.
Brian’s stamina bar was down to about half, but he had enough to try for a low-level power attack. He held his sword at the ready and then lunged back at the swordsman, just as the NPC tried to reach for his health potion again. This time the attack landed true and the NPC went down to the dirt, flinging the health potion far out to the side as his gurgling scream rang out in the air.
[+200 XP]
He smiled at how easily that fight went. Not bad for a level five. He checked his Morr’Tai ribbon and noted that it had three more scarlet tally marks on it. His excitement tempered a bit when he checked the stat screen and saw that he was only barely more than halfway to his next level. He had a total of seven thousand, three h
undred experience points, but he needed a total of fourteen thousand to reach level six.
Oof.
He moved to the swordsman and happily looted him.
“An iron ring, a steel sword, two loaves of bread, and a journal.” Brian opened the inventory and read the journal.
Them Greencaps are stoopid. Fussing about killing monsters. What good will that do anybody? The monsters keep breeding and killing, and we do all the dying! Just last week I lost my two bestest frendz. Saumrradin and Jebali. The Greencaps wouldn’t even give them a propur barial. I meen, I know we only found Jebali’s left foot cuz the monster ate the rest of them, but still. Frum now on, I make my own roolz and start making a retirement plan. Them Greencaps will roo the day they turned their back on me and my frendz!
There was only the one-page entry, but that was fairly typical. It wasn’t likely to find a whole book in the game, just a few small tales here and there to sprinkle some humor among all the murder and mayhem. The book was literally worthless, but Brian kept it anyway. Ever since he was a kid playing RPGs, he’d keep pretty much everything he found just in case it might come in handy. No use throwing it away until he was over-encumbered and couldn’t stuff another trinket into his inventory.
The ring would fetch two gold pieces, and the bread would help restore a bit of HP in a pinch. The sword was obnoxiously heavy. No real-world longsword would weigh ten pounds. But the game designers had to make some way for the system to make sense when the character was allowed to carry three hundred pounds everywhere they went, all while jumping, fighting, or climbing cliffs to boot.
