Cursemancer

by A P Gore

  “Okay, how about this? This one can carry you back to the city of Ampethia. Consider it repayment for this one trying to kill you. Do you want to come, human friend Noah?”

  Noah’s jaw dropped practically to the ground. Before him was the opportunity of a lifetime. How could he say no?

  28. The Answer

  S hui looked like a guardian angel offering him the path to heaven. His offer was extremely generous and impossible to decline. All the struggle, the pain, the need of grinding would end once he reached the human town. He’d been working for this and only this for so long.

  Noah closed his eyes as a flood of happiness washed over his brain. But a pair of brown eyes popped up in his mind’s eye, reminding him he had another responsibility too, and the game wasn't just a piece of digital code anymore. It was frigging real for him, and Thia was waiting for him somewhere.

  No' I can't run away from my responsibility.

  “No.” Noah shook his head firmly. It wasn't an option. The word came out heavy. Something equally heavy settled at the bottom of his stomach and pained him more than anything. Saying no was impossible and terribly painful.

  “What? This one doesn’t understand your answer. This one thought you wanted to get out of here and go to a human town.”

  “That sums up my goal, but right now I have to find the little demon depending on me. I can't leave her alone like this.” The weight in his stomach got heavier, but there was a silver lining. Standing up for someone he cared about was its own kind of reward.

  Shui eyed him dubiously. “She is just an NPC, Mr. Noah. They don't have minds like us.”

  “Maybe you are right. But— I don’t know how to express it in words, but I can't leave her alone in trouble. If she was safe in town, I would have thought about it.”

  “But this one doesn’t have that much time. This one will be pulled back in less than five minutes.”

  Noah blew out a resigned sigh sigh. “I know that, friend, and it sucks. Big time. Like the dark dimension stealing your magic sucks. But I can’t come with you. I'll have to find a way out of this myself. And I will. Someday, I will.” He had a goal: to get back with his daughter ,and no matter what, he would achieve it in a year’s time.

  “Okay, listen Mr. Noah. This one thinks you should get your priorities straight and come back to town with me.” Shui’s voice turned impatient.

  “I said I can’t, Shui. I can’t leave the four-year-old girl alone. She might be in danger.”

  And she was. They were just around the corner from the goblin hideout. Five goblins were present near a small clearing between a few huge trees. It was a perfect spot to hide, and if not for Shui's tracking skill, Noah may not have found this place by himself.

  Noah's heart skipped two beats when he saw what was happening at the hideout: Thia was lashed to a pole with thick vines, and a cauldron was set up over a fire next to the pole. A couple of goblins were moving around, picking some herbs from the ground and dropping them in the boiling water.

  “What the heck are they doing with her?” Noah was about to jump in before Shui stopped him.

  “Don’t rush in there without checking their levels. They all are level 5+ and outnumber you 5 to 1. And there's one level 6 fat goblin commander too.”

  “I thought I had a level 45 friend who can help me by wiping out a bunch of goblins easily.” Noah was counting on Shui. Seeing four level 4 goblins didn’t scare him because he had a level 45 badass with him.

  “They are low levels so this one can’t. This one vowed to his deity that he would take care of the low level ones.”

  Noah watched Shui's face in horror. “And now you are being a dick.” Noah threw his hands in the air. What the heck was up with this man? He thought Shui was a generous friend who would help him. “You’ll let a level 3 girl die just because of a stupid promise to your god?”

  “You won’t understand it right now, but breaking a promise to a deity is a big no-no in this game. This one is allowed to hurt low levels only when their collective level is higher than 40.”

  That sucked big time for Noah. He cast his perception on Thia, since she was not in his party anymore. The glass-man zapping him to the white room had ended their party connection. She was at half life but wasn’t losing any. At least that was good. He looked up and cursed the glass-man for taking him away from the girl. If the bastard had waited for one more hour, Thia would have been safe in the inn.

  “Can you at least help me with something? Do you have anything I can use to kill these bastards?” Noah wasn’t sure how much longer he could mind his temper.

  “This one is sorry, but this one doesn’t usually carry items around. Right now, this one only has these potions.” Shui pulled out a bunch of potions.

  Noah grabbed a greater healing potion, but he couldn't lift it. He looked at Shui in silent question.

  “Yes, you are too low level to hold that one. But this one can feed it to you if you want.”

  “That's a damn bug.”

  Shui shrugged.

  Noah handled a couple more potions, but the only one he could pick up was the potion of reputation.

  Potion of Reputation

  Drink this potion to gain neutral reputation with any being for thirty minutes. Only works with 3 or fewer beings.

  While reading the description, an idea popped into his mind. “I'll take this. Thanks.” Noah picked it up and slid it into his bag of holding. It was too bad that he couldn't pick up the health potion. It would have proved useful.

  “This one has one more piece of advise. This one recognizes what the goblins are doing. It is called the ritual of taste in their culture. Boiling an enemy female and eating her increases their sex drive. At least they think it does. But the ritual is complex and time consuming. So, you have at least 30 minutes before they boil your friend there.” He paused and sighed. “This one is extremely sorry and will pray for your friend’s safety four hundred times in my deity’s temple. But this one has to leave now. Time is up, my friend. Farewell. If you come to my town, search for the Guild of Polaris and this one shall repay his debt to you.”

  A purple light appeared from the sky and wrapped around Shui. He waved his hand and vanished.

  Noah stared furiously at the now empty space. Shui could have helped him. If his one spell was enough to nearly obliterate Noah’s 370 life in a second, then he could have killed all five goblins. But no, he had to give some lame excuse about not killing lower level creatures. What a dick!

  Noah turned back to check on the goblins, who were adding more water to the cauldron. He didn’t have much time left, but he couldn’t rush in without a strategy. That would be suicide. For both of them. He would have chosen death if it would save Thia, but that wouldn’t cut it here. Strategy was his best option.

  Noah circled around the goblins, trying to find something that could help him. He had an idea of what he was looking for, an orc or a creature that would buy him some time to free Thia.

  He was moving around a tree when a notification popped up.

  Warning: -60% to fire resistance due to proximity to the Bones of Fire Dragon Expansion site.

  What the heck?

  Noah accessed his character sheet, but he saw no resistance value.

  Is it hidden? Damn!

  A crackling noise caught his attention. Seeing the creature who made that sound made his heart race. He took a step back as a pair of snakes revealed themselves in front of him. They weren’t any grass snakes. They were six-foot-tall and two-foot-wide snakes, and they were glaring at him. With every bad intention.

  29. Curse of the Boiling Blood

  T he snakes hissed, sending waves of fear inside Noah’s gut. They reminded him of the grass snakes he’d fought for the first time outside the town. Gray scales starting from the bottom of their mouths covered one third of their bodies and flared into larger scales that covered their remaining bodies. The gigantic snakes looked like five steroid injections were pumped into a grass sna
ke to make it look enormous.

  He hated steroids.

  Noah cast perception on the snakes. Surprisingly, it resulted in some information.

  Guardian Snake of the Dragon Bones

  An overgrown snake due to corruption of the expansion site.

  Level 5

  Health 1000/1000

  Poison Resistance: 60%

  Fire Resistance: -60%

  “1000 life, are you kidding me?” He glared at the sky in frustration. Every wasted second moved Thia closer to death, and she wouldn’t come back from it. And yet, the challenge before him looked impossible to beat. His blood was near boiling, and the damn snakes had poison resistance, so he couldn’t even use his poison orb.

  The snakes gradually pressed forward, watching him.

  Noah hit them with everything he had. He cast all his spells, starting with a poison orb—which hit the snakes for 1 damage—and the curse of fire orb—which dealt 164 damage.

  This is odd. Is this because of the fire resistance?

  Noah cast his poison shield as one of the snakes charged him with its mouth open. Noah’s shield took the hit, yet he received 150 damage and a nasty debuff icon below his health. His blood felt like it had been set on fire. The pain was so intense that he dropped to all fours for a moment.

  The other snake charged Noah. He rolled to his left and dodged the attack. The other snake circled around him, trying to get a clear shot.

  Fire resistance. I’ve seen it somewhere, but where?

  Noah tried to think, but the poison in his blood was dulling his senses.

  The curse of boiling blood! That’s it.

  Noah pulled up its description after dodging the next blow. His life was draining, one point every five seconds. It was the debuff icon he had spotted like five seconds ago.

  Curse of boiling blood: Boil the blood of target. Animosity toward caster increases by 50%. Chance to set blood on fire: 1%. Fire chance can be increased by negative fire resistance. Spirit Cost: 20. Cast Range: 3 feet.

  Noah dodged the next striking snake and spotted a hint of fire coming out of one the snake’s heads. It was the same snake he had hit with his fire orb curse.

  That's it.

  He had found his winner.

  Noah chanted his curse of boiling blood and targeted the same snake. The snake literally burst into flames. His life drained like a water from a floodgate. But despite being on fire, the snake’s eyes turned red, and it charged Noah. Noah took the hit for 100 damage, but at the same time the attacking snake turned into ash. Noah had 172 life remaining, less than half. But he wasn’t worried anymore. He had hit the jackpot.

  Noah quickly applied the curse of fire orb on the second snake, then followed it with the curse of boiling blood, setting it on fire. The second snake turned red-eyed and rushed him.

  Noah was careful this time; he dodged its attack and jumped a few feet away. The snake’s remaining life burned away, and it too turned to ash.

  Two notifications appeared. Noah opened one after downing one small healing potion, recovering almost all of his life back.

  You have been hit by a corrupted snake. Poison debuff applied. -40 life per five seconds for 30 minutes.

  “What?” But he was losing only 1 life. “Ah, yes.” Shui had proved to be useful after all. The 39 health regen he’d received from the greater healing potion was coming in handy.

  You have killed a corrupted guardian level 5 snake *2. You have received 600 experience.

  Your experience gain is negated by the unclaimed expansion site. Do you want to claim it? Yes/No?

  Access the expansion site menu.

  Noah suppressed a cry of outrage and disbelief. The game was unfair. It took 600 experience away like it meant nothing. Suppressing the urge to shout at the game designer, he accessed unclaimed site menu. He couldn't risk a sound getting out and making goblins aware of his presence.

  Fire Dragon Bones Expansion Site.

  Claim the site to receive intended bonuses.

  Unclaimed site side effect: -60% fire resistance.

  Wait. This is it.

  The site, or whatever it was, provided a debuff of -60% fire resistance. That meant his boiling blood had a chance of 61% success. Wow. This was his trump card to kill the five goblins. Now he just had to get the goblins here, somehow.

  Despite his curiosity compelling him to go for it, he chose not to claim the site.

  He scanned the area, marking a boundary of the expansion site effect by dropping small stones at the border which would mean something only to him. If anyone else came by, the stones wouldn’t make any sense—or even be remarkable—to them. When finished, he realized it wasn't a large area. The area was few meters in diameter around a densely packed copse of trees—so dense that he couldn't get inside it and check the center of the expansion site. The center of the expansion site held a mystery to uncover, but he didn't have time for it. Once he had a complete boundary of stones placed around the dense area, he returned to the goblin hideout. It was time to put his plan into action.

  The remaining question was how to lure the goblins in the boundary, and he needed to lure only 2-3 of them, excluding the goblin commander. The commander had 400 life and might have an attack that would prove dangerous. And Noah didn't have enough life to pull that stunt off. “Okay what should I do now to pull only 2-3 goblins here?”

  Drinking the reputation potion, walking directly into the hide out, and making up some reason for them to follow him was one of the options. But the potion didn't work on more than three goblins, and there was a risk that one of them would attack and kill him even before he reached the leader. The other option that came to mind was throwing a stone at them and running back, but he wasn't sure of his own speed.

  Can you manage outrunning them?

  “Good question,” he whispered to himself. But he couldn’t trust his own speed right now.

  The third option was a fight, which he would never win. First, they were one level higher than him, and second, they outnumbered him five to one. Maybe he could manage two goblins at a time, but three? or five? There was no way he’d pull that off.

  Think Noah, think. You have to find a way to save her. Failure is not an option here.

  He spent ten more minutes trying to come up with a solution, but none came to his mind. He had to trust his own running speed.

  Noah moved toward the goblins, who were almost done with their preparations and were untying Thia.

  Noah grabbed a stone and threw it at the cauldron. The stone hit the cauldron, producing a large clank. Chance or skill? He’d take either. The unnatural quiet of the forest amplified the echo of the stone.

  The goblins froze when the first echo of sound emerged. The fat goblin scanned the area. When he found nothing, he screamed at the other goblins in a high-pitched voice. The others continued with their tasks.

  With the next stone, Noah targeted the fat goblin. The stone hit the goblin’s tummy and vanished inside his clothes. It didn't make any sound, but the result was expected. The fat goblin rose and stared in the direction the stone had come from. He sat back down when he found nothing, as Noah had already moved to another place. The fat goblin cried out when the next stone hit his fat nose and drew blood. This time, he pointed in Noah's direction and three goblin warriors wielding spears moved toward it swiftly.

  Noah slowly moved in the opposite direction, avoiding detection. He stopped behind a tree to drink the reputation potion. Then, with a pounding heart, he revealed himself to the goblins.

  “Human,” one of them whispered, stopping in their tracks, staring at Noah.

  “Hello friends, how are you?” Noah asked with a friendly smile.

  “Human, what you do here?” A slender goblin with a white spear asked in a broken tone.

  “I'm here for you. Two snakes are behind me, would you help me?”

  “Goblin don't help human. Goblin kill human,” another goblin with a sharp nose said, but he didn't move as the reputati
on was stopping him from doing so.

  “Come with me. I'll show you the snakes,” Noah said and started walking toward the boundary.

  “Goblin don't help human,” The white-speared goblin said.

  This was a problem. They had to come with him, by hook or crook.

  Noah drew his dagger and threw it at the nearest goblin. He received a notification, and he knew what that would be.

  The goblin with the white spear charged Noah. Noah flipped him off and ran for the boundary with his heart in his throat. He heard footsteps following him, but that's what he wanted. It took him few seconds to reach the boundary line he had drawn around the expansion site. After crossing the boundary, he ran for the dense trees. Upon reaching them, he stopped in his tracks and spun around.

  It was showtime.

  The goblins stopped too, whispering amongst themselves, surprised.

  “Now, human kill goblins.” Noah laughed like a villain in horror shows he had watched in real life. He chanted his curse of boiling blood and covered all three goblins in the curse radius.

  Nothing happened. The goblins just shifted in place like they had a weird sensation, but they remained standing.

  “What the heck? Am I missing something?” Noah whispered to himself. The whole scenario in which he’d killed the snakes replayed inside his mind. Expansion site: check. Fire ball curse: no check.

  “Yes, that's it. The fire ball curse.”

  But he was late, and one of the goblins had charged him with his spear raised to strike. He was aiming for Noah's brain. An easy crit.

  Noah parried his attack using his poison shield but still received 35 damage, bringing his life to 120. While the goblin stumbled, Noah cursed it and its cohorts with his fire ball curse. He lost 200 spirit, but the goblins took around 130 damage each. The goblins must have had some fire resistance, so the -60% was partially mitigated.

  It didn’t matter. The curse did what Noah wanted it to do. It had opened a wound and exposed the blood of the goblins for him. At 20 spirit for each cast, he quickly cursed the goblins with the boiling blood curse. They burst in flames, their remaining 170ish health rapidly reducing. Noah spotted one of the goblins opening its mouth to shout, but the monster turned to ash before he could spit a single word out of his mouth. Noah’s body relaxed as the creature died because a squeal would have put him in trouble.