Vale sighed just thinking about it. If the Lords of Finality showed up again, now they’d be a bunch of creepy fish men…things. On the other hand, they’d all be lower level, too, since they lost levels to switch races. Still, Vale hoped not to see them again.
“Okay, is that it?” asked Bart. “We pretty much know where to go, but we still don’t know anything about it, right?”
“More or less, yeah,” replied Vale. “If we run into any bad guys, let’s try to take them with blades first. Guns are too loud. We want to be as sneaky as possible.”
“I have something for that, actually,” Abigail said, smirking. “I’ve been working like crazy at this. I got so many new plans with my new subclass I didn’t even know where to start. I’ve spent all my free time on this stuff, and I was even able to make some improvements to the original plans.”
Abbey took her pack off and fished around, drawing out several weapons. Her big, pirate pistol-looking flintlock, the pepperbox revolver, and the little cartridge pistol were all weapons Vale recognized. However, Abigail also produced a long metal tube about two inches in diameter. Last, she withdrew an enormous pistol. It had two barrels, one over the other.
Abbey noticed Vale staring at her and she smiled. “This is a howdah pistol of my own design. It uses custom cartridges I also created from scratch. I had to scrap all my work on the other pepperbox and pretty much use up every rare component I had, but this sucker packs a punch.”
Vale blinked and shook his head. “That thing looks like a damn cannon. It probably makes enough noise to wake the dead.”
“Yeah, this baby is only for when things get scrappy. This, on the other hand,” she said, holding up the tube, “is what I’ll be using now.” With that, she screwed it onto the front of her smaller, single-cartridge pistol.
“Wait a minute,” said Bartholomew, scratching his head. “Silencers aren’t Victorian era, are they?”
Abbey shrugged. “No, not really, but the game makes a few exceptions, it seems. I’ve heard rumors that there is some really advanced tech and plans lying around in the game, but they’re rare. I actually found the basic plans for silencers in-game when I was like level four. I don’t think anyone knew how rare it was at the time. I accepted it and used it. It was bind on use, just like most other good schematics, so I can’t sell it now. I only know of like one or two other players that can make them.”
“So the plans were a rare drop?” asked Vale.
“Yup! I got lucky!” Abbey chuckled and tightened the tube by hand. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to make and use one of these. Until I had the cartridge pistol, I didn’t have a good gun for it. Now I do.”
“Why haven’t you been making them and selling them?” asked Bart.
“Are you kidding me? I don’t want many people to have these things. Maybe I’ll sell a few for a ton of money in the future, I dunno. It seems the others that have these plans feel the same way because I haven’t seen anyone using one yet.”
“Okay, okay whatever.” Vale rolled his eyes.
Abbey smiled. “I don’t care how you feel about guns. As soon as I get to Rainbow Ranch, I’m going to teach both of you guys how to shoot.”
“Don’t call it that,” Vale said absently, checking his own gear.
“What? Rainbow Ranch? Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud. It’s a cute name.”
“Whatever you say.” Vale turned to Bart and asked, “Are you ready?”
“Always,” his friend said, grinning.
Vale grunted, muttered, “Yeah, right,” and began leading the way to the target. They wound around the back of the hill they’d been standing on and crept over to the wall Vale had pointed out before. The three of them hunkered down and proceeded carefully, all of them keeping an eye out for enemies, or worse, other players.
They were effectively out in the middle of nowhere, and odds were low of seeing other players. Unfortunately, remote areas near buildings and quest locations were prime locations for an ambush. It wouldn’t hurt to be careful.
When nothing moved, the three of them crept up to the door. Vale was leaning heavily on his [Paranoia] skill. Without it, he probably would not have been so successful with solo questing in the past. It was still useful in a group, too. Nothing was popping up, which was a good sign.
Bart tried the door and the knob didn’t move. “Locked,” he whispered.
“Here, let me try,” said Abbey. She took a small contraption out of her bag and went to work on the door.
Vale pursed his lips and nodded in appreciation. “That’s a neat trick,” he whispered. “You can’t actually pick locks, so you made a gizmo to do it for you?”
“You bet!” The steampunk girl grinned.
“I could have just picked it,” muttered Bart. Vale ignored him and let Abigail continue to do her thing. In another few seconds, the door was unlocked.
Luckily, the door didn’t make too much noise when it was opened, and the three of them snuck forward. None of them were that great at sneaking, but they all still had the in-game toggle for it. Without a real skill, though, their actual ability was more like a fraction of their real-world skill. It meant they didn’t make tons of racket, but they weren’t exactly noiseless, either.
Vale thought about it as he crept forward. How the hell had Abigail gotten on his coach and hidden so easily without stealth skills? It just made no sense.
Suddenly, Bart held a hand up from the front of their little group. After they were all still and silent, Vale heard it too—quiet chanting.
The group moved forward even more cautiously, and they saw what was making the noise. A man in a dark robe was facing away from them, holding something in his hands. The entire scene was illuminated by a single, sputtering candle. Vale shuffled closer, and suddenly, the man rose and turned in one motion. Vale’s hand was on his sword, but he didn’t draw. His eyes opened in shock.
The man’s eyes were gone, apparently clawed out long ago. He was holding a doll in his hand. It took a second for Vale to notice the doll was covered in blood. Behind the robed man, Vale could see a disturbing altar with asymmetrical measurements. The man spread his arms, crowing, “Yes, more have come to visit the master!” He cackled madly and abruptly spun around, going back to his knees.
Vale didn’t know what to think of the little performance. He stood still for a while longer, staring at the man and the altar. He’d noticed that the altar looked like it was dripping. A nearby bowl seemed to be full of liquid, and he assumed it was blood. The entire building was in shadow, but he saw strange designs and patterns written on the walls in what he also assumed to be blood. It was a gruesome sight.
Bart nudged Vale’s foot and pointed into a corner. Vale noticed that the pile of rags against the wall was actually the bodies of two children. He figured Abbey noticed as well when she gasped. She growled as the group moved forward.
The man in the robe, probably an unholy priest, was gibbering to himself and turned the doll in circles. “What do we do about this guy?” asked Bart.
A sudden dull pop to his side drew Vale’s eyes. The robed man collapsed, and Abigail reloaded her silenced pistol with another cartridge. She saw Vale’s expression and whispered, “What? There’s some stuff I’m not willing to tolerate, even in a game.”
Vale massaged between his eyes and said, “I hope there’re enough clues around to figure out what we’re supposed to do. It’ll be really awesome if we were supposed to talk to that guy for the next leg of the quest and now we can’t. Maybe if we’re really lucky, this can be a complete dead end.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
Abigail shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose, but he might have attacked us, too. I could have just done us a favor. Magic types are a lot easier to kill before they start with all the crazy stuff. Look at that knife.” She pointed to a rather ominous, barnacle-encrusted dagger near the altar. Vale didn’t want to go near it.
“Whatever, what’s done is done,” sighed Bart. “Just look around.”
&nb
sp; The group began searching the area. Abigail produced a little lamp from somewhere and Bart held aloft a glowing vial. Vale looked around for another light source and said, “Aha!” He’d found a couple torches.
He was tempted to ask Abigail to just shoot some holes in the wall of the building to let in light from outside, but he restrained himself. They were trying to be stealthy.
“Hey, I found something!” called out Bart. “I can’t read it, though.”
“Give it to me,” ordered Vale. His friend handed over a little journal and Vale frowned in distaste as he realized it was covered in human skin.
Abigail noticed too. “Yuck, is that what I think it is?”
“Yup.”
“Gross.”
Vale absently nodded and flipped through the little book. Most of it was insane rambling. He tried to make sense of it as Abbey and Bart talked behind them.
“Nothing is static in this game, right?” asked Abigail.
“That’s how I understand it, yes.”
“So this nasty NPC priest guy has been wandering around, abducting and killing NPC people, possibly all kids, on this altar for…what, a year now?”
Bart sighed. “Probably, yes.”
“Wow. Any way you look at is, Yggdrasil Entertainment is a bunch of sick fucks, huh?”
“I can’t disagree, but I somehow doubt this conversation is going to make it to our stream edit,” Bartholomew chuckled.
Vale held up a hand. “Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate.”
After a few moments of silence, Vale nodded. “Most of it is gibberish, but this guy was definitely worshipping stuff he shouldn’t have been even thinking about. I have good news and bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” asked Bart.
“The good news is I’m pretty sure there’s a trapdoor nearby and that is where we’re supposed to go.”
“What the bad news?”
“The bad news,” Vale said, “is if this isn’t the end of the quest, and it probably isn’t, we’re going to be running up against some real nasty shit. Like…SAN checks like crazy.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Abbey.
Vale mutely held the book open to a page with a crude drawing of something horrible. It had several big, evil eyes and a number of tentacles.
“Oh, great,” sighed Abbey. “We are definitely going to need a priest or something.”
Vale ignored her and began looking around for the trapdoor. He eventually found it under a rug. “Found it!” he called out. “It has a lock on it, though. Weird.”
Abigail moved forward and was able to pick the lock just like she had earlier with the door. Then the group opened the trapdoor and slowly climbed down the ladder. Vale was extremely glad they’d found the torches.
At the bottom, Bart waved his torch around and whistled. “Looks like we know where that creep was dumping the bodies.” There were human skeletons everywhere. Some of the bones looked like they’d been cracked or gnawed on.
Suddenly, Vale’s [Paranoia] skill began throbbing at him. “Guys, get ready! We have incoming!”
Vale held his torch forward, trying to peer into the darkness. He heard strange noises down the tunnel.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” muttered Bart.
Rat-A-Tat-Tat
The noises in the darkness kept getting louder. It was obvious that whatever was hiding in the inky gloom, there were a lot of them. “Well, now we know why there was a lock on the trapdoor,” said Bart.
“Shut up, Bart. Actually, do you have anything that will help with the light situation?”
“Sure.”
“Why aren’t we running away?” asked Abigail.
“If we try to go up the ladder, whatever is down here will probably get us,” Vale replied in a deadpan voice. Abbey shivered and held her pepperbox revolver in one hand, her other hand on the barrels.
Vale had his rapier out. Rapiers weren’t always the most practical weapon for adventurers, but one thing they were good at was penetrating. Spears were better for killing monsters in SOO, but rapiers could be effective too. Luckily, the Rapier of Twilight was an especially sturdy, well-made weapon.
“Okay, got it,” announced Bart. It looked like he had added one more reagent to his glowing vial. “How far do you want the light?”
“Don’t throw it as far as you can, but get some distance on it.”
“Okay!” acknowledged Bart. He reared back and threw the vial. It flew down the tunnel, eventually breaking, creating a flash of light that quickly dimmed and flickered. The creatures in the tunnel hissed and Vale got his first look at them.
They were rats. Giant rats.
“Oh,” said Abigail, “it’s just giant rats.”
“Oh shit…” muttered Bartholomew. “We are so screwed.”
“But they’re just giant rats!” Abigail shook her head. “These things are, like, starter monsters in every role-playing game ever.”
“I don’t think you understand,” whispered Vale. “There’s a reason none of these things are in the newbie areas.”
“Yeah, I don’t get it. Why are you guys so freaked out?”
“This isn’t just any game,” said Bart. “SOO has a lot of realism. And in reality, what kind of standard, common monster in older games would actually be utterly terrifying in real life? What animal, for its size, has immense strength, aggression, climbing ability, reproduction rate, ability to eat anything, and huge, sharp teeth? What would really suck if it were the size of a mastiff?”
“Rats,” said Abbey in growing horror.
“Yeah,” growled Vale. “So how about we fucking shoot them or something?”
Abbey opened up with her pepperbox about the same time Bart threw a vial that shattered on impact, frosting the entire tunnel ahead. Vale nodded in approval as the rats slowed down, some of them jumping back. “Good job,” he said. “Don’t use fire.”
“Why not?” asked Bart while fishing out another vial from inside his coat.
“Because I’m not sure just how realistic this game is. In the real world, a large enough fire could steal all the oxygen and kill us.”
“Good point,” mumbled Bart.
It seemed to take a second for the rats to regroup, but once they did, they ran right through the ice and surged towards the player party. The giant vermin were incredibly fast.
Abbey fired all her pepperbox’s barrels. When the revolver was spent, she held up her large flintlock. The lead rat jumped forward and Abbey screamed as she fired. The flintlock created a thunderous roar and a huge cloud of smoke, blowing part of the rat’s head off. The next rat got a green vial in the face, courtesy of Bartholomew. The vial bubbled after it broke and the rat ran away, screeching so shrilly it hurt Vale’s ears.
Bart had his sword cane out at this point. He held the blade in one hand and the rest of the cane in the other. “Are they too close now to use vials and such?” asked Vale.
“Yeah, but I just took a potion that makes me stronger and faster. I figure I can go for their spine and their eyes. Me and you just have to hold them off for Abbey.”
“I agree,” said Vale. He concentrated and put a couple points of mana into his [Ancient Body Magic] spells,
Vale grumbled to himself. He couldn’t deny anymore that he needed more Willpower. It would also be nice if their group had a player to stand on the front lines and take punishment or keep enemies at bay; basically, a tank.
Still, he smiled as he cast his next spell. Rapiers usually weren’t great for cutting; they were a thrusting weapon, after all. However, he’d recently created a new spell. He used his [Elemental Magic: Air] skill to cast
He glanced at his stats. He’d used 16 points of mana, so he was at:
Mana: 74
/90
Keeping an eye on his mana was second nature at this point, especially during a fight. Players in SOO only regenerated about ten percent of their mana pool per hour.
His blade began howling like a hurricane. Air ripped and tore along the length of the rapier so fast, it felt like he was holding a chainsaw. Vale grinned, and the expression wasn’t pretty.
He and Bart ran forward, trying to hold the rats at bay while Abbey began methodically picking them off with her giant howdah pistol. Vale was moving much faster than normal, so fast that the rats could barely touch him. His spelled rapier was able to cut the creatures like a giant cleaver, delivering staggering blows and making the giant vermin screech in pain.
He made the mistake once during the fight of stabbing an enemy through the mouth. The huge rodent was so strong it almost ripped the rapier right out of his hand. Only Vale’s active wind spell kept him from being disarmed. The effect on the blade tore the rat apart from the inside so the blade didn’t get stuck.
“Yeah, not doing that again,” he muttered. Then, gasping for breath, he beat back another rat as it lunged at him. His cut cleaved its nose and part of its jaw off.
The battle seemed to go on forever. Vale was actually nearing the end of his spells’ durations when the remaining rats finally broke, running away in terror. There were over a dozen dead vermin on the ground, and Vale had a feeling his group had mortally wounded at least twice that number. It’d been a long fight. If not for the natural chokepoint of the tunnel, they would have been easily overwhelmed and killed.
In fact, if they hadn’t paused so long to study the bones on the floor, they probably would have started down the tunnel sooner and been surrounded.
Vale panted, trying to get his breath back. “Well, that went well,” he wheezed.
“I need to spend more time making ammo,” moaned Abbey. “You know, I’ve almost used as many bullets while grouping with you guys as I have in the last year of playing this game combined?”
“I believe it,” said Bart. He was gulping a potion that made him regain his energy and stamina. In a couple moments, he looked fresh again.
Luck Stat Strategy (Secret of the Old Ones Book 1) Page 9
