Unbound Deathlord: Challenge

by Edward Castle

  "Sorry," I said, and I could swear her eyes popped even more, now full of shock. "I was just looking at your wounds... It's... Disheartening." Remembering the A-6 prisoner, who had said the torturer had keys to the cell, I searched the remains looking for it. I found three keys of different sizes in a small bag on its belt.

  Small Copper Key

  A small key to small locks.

  Medium-Sized Silver Key

  Looks like a key to a door.

  Big Gold Key

  It's big and made of gold. Seems important.

  I took the small one and tested it on the chains on her foot.

  They opened with a click and the woman sighed, then resumed crying. I had never been good at emotional stuff, and it made me feel very awkward.

  "Hey," I tried to speak softly, but my undead voice didn't seem to have soft tones, sounding deep and scratchy instead. "Everything is alright now. I'll get you out of here." She cried even more. "I will have to hug you, OK?" I said carefully, afraid of the sexual abuse rules of the game. V-Soft forbid this kind of things on NPCs too, and they were very strict about it. "If I don't, your body will be suspended only by one arm and it might hurt more."

  After waiting a few seconds for an answer that didn't come, I hugged her body as delicately as possible. I unlocked the cuffs and gently put her sitting on the floor. She was crying even more now. "I'll get some clothes for you, just a second." I went outside and stripped one of the ghouls, entered the room again and put the clothes on the floor next to her. "Take your time. I'll explore the rest of the corridor. I'll be right back." I left.

  What about that time? What if I had got to them earlier? Would I had been able to save them? The autopsy said... But what if it was wrong? What if I could've...

  Taking a deep breath, I focused on checking the corridor, or rather at not thinking about that long past morning. That was a road of no return and the reason I played games was exactly not to think about the past.

  All the other cells were empty. When I went back to the woman, she had put the clothes on and was sitting outside the cell, next to a ghoul corpse, her back to the wall and hugging her legs. She looked at me as I came back and silent tears were still pouring from her eyes.

  "It was impossible for me to stand in that foul place a second more..." Her voice was hoarse and weak; I wouldn't have heard her if it wasn't completely silent. "You made me so full of terror and pain that even the little gentleness you showed in this obvious scheme of yours has broken me." She had a dignified way about her speech. "Just ask and I shall tell you all my secrets, deathlord." She hugged herself even harder. "I shall do whatever you want. Please, don't put me in there anymore. Please."

  Damn, these game characters are well-made. I'm feeling a lot of compassion, and I knew she's just code. No, not 'she', 'it'. I put my hands on my head. This level of realism could mess with one's mind.

  "That's very considerate of you, milady, but this is no scheme. I don't know how everyone seems to know I'm a deathlord, but I'm an unbound one. I'm an escaping prisoner."

  For a few seconds, she just looked at me, then nodded her head slightly. "It makes sense; you want me to lead the way to the Resistance myself, to avoid suspicions. Will you allow me to heal first or shall we go now? I beg your pardon, but in this frail condition my body will not readily comply with a fast pace." And she added with a whisper. "My master."

  A shiver ran through my spine. Her voice was devoid of emotion, and it made me full of compassion. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to comfort her. Well, I knew a way of doing it, but she didn't seem in the right state of mind for that.

  "Ok... Look, miss, I'm a prisoner too. I'm escaping. I'll just get the stuff from the dead bodies, and we can go and rescue another guy. He said he has life magic to kill me, so maybe he can heal you. Alright?"

  She nodded again. "As you wish, my master," she said, then put her head between the legs and began to hit her back against the wall.

  This shit is so messed up.

  First I took the stuff from the ghouls, then from the torturer. I had to take all my destroyed shirts off before wearing another one, and it hurt a little on the burnt area, albeit a lot less than before. It was now hurting like a heavy sunburn.

  Worn Torturer Leather Pants

  » +4 defense

  » +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only)

  Worn Torturer Leather Armor

  » +5 defense

  » +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only)

  Old Torturer Leather Boots

  » +3 defense

  » +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only)

  Old Torturer Leather Whip

  » 65 (+4 [Strength]) damage

  » +200% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only)

  The items description explained the extra pain I had felt on my arm, and it was very smart of V-Soft to only allow it to have effect on PvE – player versus environment – situations, as opposed to PvP – player versus player. I put the sleeveless armor on and had to take out four of my five cotton pants to be able to wear the leather pants and still move freely. I also swapped my shoes for the boots.

  I tried to use the whip, but I didn't have the ability to do that nor the time to practice, so I just left it coiled on my waist.

  With everything ready, I left the room. As I did so, the woman looked at me with empty eyes. My heart sunk and I took her in my arms; she shivered but didn't complain.

  In the room near to the great hall, I stopped again to take more stuff. As I created a second makeshift bag using a shirt, I got another exclamation point.

  Trait received: Crafter

  You have tapped in the secrets of crafting objects.

  » +1 dexterity when crafting items

  The makeshift bag became a proper item, named 'Trash-Quality Makeshift Bag'. I liked it a lot.

  With everything ready, I put my stuff on my shoulder using some belts and picked the woman up again. Back to the A-6 cell I gently put her on the ground and used the medium sized key in the door. It opened.

  An elf was there. He had light fair skin, blue eyes, pointy ears and his hair had also been shaved. He had wound marks all over his almost naked body, but the blood was dry. His body was suspended by chains coming from the ceiling.

  "Ah, a deathlord torturer. I must be thankful for the change of style, I think. Let's not waste time, the sooner you begin, the faster you will get frustrated and leave."

  "How the hell do you all guess I'm a deathlord? I didn't even change my body appearance when I got into Valia," I said as I unlocked the chains on his feet.

  The elf frowned. "I recognize your voice. The alleged escaping prisoner. You look even closer to death than me."

  "Yeah. I have been told that taking fireballs to the chest on purpose is not a smart move. Go figure." I provided support for the elf's body, unlocked his handcuffs and helped him to the floor. The elf was looking at me as if wondering what the trick was. "Do you really have some life magic left?" I left the room before the answer and brought the woman inside. "She needs some healing."

  For the next few seconds, the elf looked from me to the woman and then back. "I must admit, this is a good play even for a deathlord. Do you possess drow blood running through your veins? This plot is drow level without a doubt."

  "Yeah, right. I'm the mastermind deathlord, running almost dead in my prison and saving people in an evil scheme to let them free in the world. We all know life sucks, so this is the greatest revenge I can take on you. Feel my power."

  "Yes," the woman said suddenly. "My master is the greatest." Fear was in her voice. She was clearly saying this in the hopes of preventing some future beatings.

  The elf opened his mouth, but I beat him to speaking. "As I said, she needs some healing. Take a look at her and I'll get you some clothes and a sword." I did so, having to unmake a makeshift bag to give him a shirt. I also threw a sword at his feet. "I'll check the rest of the prison."

  I was too tired of all this p
risoner's attitude towards me to wait for anything; I just left my items there and resumed the exploration. I took a small break at the table room to rest. No reason to go and kill myself. The next door I visited was the D-door, the last one that side of the great hall and closest to the wooden double doors.

  Its cells were also empty.

  Back to the hall, I crossed it and went for the E-door. Frustrated from all the empty corridors, cells and the NPC's attitude, I opened it without care. A ghoul was sitting on the table. As soon as he saw me, he stood and ran to the opposite door.

  Dammit, I thought and ran after him, sword in hand. The ghoul had to stop to open the closed door, and I was able to hit his neck thanks to that.

  Critical hit for 2.0x damage!

  48 slash damage dealt to Ghoul

  HP: 5 / 53 <?>

  "Intruder!" He yelled and fell all the way to the bottom of the stairs, where he laid motionless. Dead.

  He died from tripping on the stairs. This level of realism is absurd. Is this really a game or am I in another dimension?

  Also, it had been a critical hit, but it didn't deal the max damage of the sword. Probably because the hit hadn't been applied with my full strength, or with much skill.

  Until now the only thing I had found too hard to believe was me being unchained in my cell and the novice ghoul outside waiting to be tricked, but I guessed the game had to provide some way for me to escape.

  Slowly, I went downstairs and took the stuff from the ghoul's corpse. Besides the usual, I also found two silver coins and seventeen copper coins in a hidden pocket on the shirt. The corridor was completely dark, but since the ghoul had run this way and bothered to announce me, I was sure there were enemies in there. I walked slowly and crouched, looking attentively into the open cells.

  E-1 to E-6 had open doors and were empty. E-7 was the first closed door I found. It was not locked, though, and I opened it carefully. Empty.

  E-8 through E-11 were all empty as well. It was a tense situation. The silence, darkness, and unknowingness were overwhelming. Just before E-12, there was a tripwire on foot height, attached to small hooks on the walls. Only then did I notice that all over the corridor the walls had small hooks like that on foot height.

  Perception increased to 2 (+1)

  Checking a lot of empty cells, noticing a trap and observing details about the environment makes you more aware of your surroundings.

  I cut the wire and put it in my remaining makeshift bag. Noticing the E-12 door open after so many closed ones, I guessed the enemies were there, and the tripwire had been placed in that area so I would fall right in front of the door and die.

  Taking a peep would be slightly dangerous; I didn't know what was inside nor how precise the possible enemies were. Instead, I ran past the door.

  A fireball flew from inside the cell and hit the wall. I had taken a look and seen three ghouls in front of a red skeleton. Without wasting any time, I charged inside.

  The ghouls had their shields raised, a 'living' defensive wall to the skeleton. I ran to them, and before I rammed their bodies with mine, I crouched and swung the sword at the knees of two of them. They screamed in pain, and I took the opportunity to stick my blade in the middle ghoul, piercing under his chin and entering its head. I pulled it back and he dropped dead.

  From the right came a sword swing. I dodged it and put myself in front of the first ghoul, letting him stay between the skeleton and myself as I ran to the outside and prepared myself next to the door, but out of view.

  "You dumbass! Come back!" The skeleton yelled, and a second later the damaged ghoul got out of the cell. I hit his leg again, then his shield before he could do anything. He died, and as dark energy left the body to heal me, a fireball came from the cell, hitting the wall yet again. The skeleton let out an angry scream.

  I picked my bag up and charged into the room once more. As I expected, the torturer used its whip, but I threw the bag in the way and ran to the ghoul, repeating the combo of hitting his legs and then his neck. It seemed they were all equally dumb.

  By then the skeleton had its mouth wide open, and fire lit inside it. I threw my shield first and my sword right after it, just in case. A small explosion happened inside the head, and smoke came out of it. I got close and almost felt relaxed. From there on the fight turned easy. I took the pipe from my belt and smashed the hell out of the red skeleton.

  I was breathless yet again, but now it had required four enemies to cause that. The extra stamina from the higher constitution made a difference, but I was also getting more efficient at the fights. I had found the perfect way to battle both ghoul and skeleton.

  Sitting on the floor, I checked the exclamation point buttons which had appeared.

  Agility increased to 3 (+1)

  Hitting a fleeing ghoul in the neck, dodging fireballs, preventing a whip by quickly throwing a bag at it and a fireball by quickly throwing your shield and sword. This man can act fast!

  Dexterity increased to 3 (+1)

  You are just too good at hitting exactly where you want.

  Intelligence increased to 2 (+1)

  Noticing the way the fleeing ghoul was running, anticipating the trap after the tripwire, previewing the whip attack and using your shield and weapon in different ways.

  Are you a genius?

  » MP: 110 (+10)

  Level up!

  Current level: 2

  HP, MP and stamina restored

  I smiled. After calling me an idiot, the game was now calling me a genius.

  Trait received: Nitpicker

  Always going for critical strikes when you have the chance has made you more in control of your attacks.

  » +2 dexterity when attacking with a weapon

  Critical hits in the game depended exclusively on the place you hit your enemy's body, and how well you maneuvered weapons was dictated by the dexterity skill. Having extra dexterity in my fights wasn't bad at all.

  As I began to take the stuff from the corpses, I noticed for the first time a prisoner in the cell. It was an almost naked pale man without visible wounds, a sack on his head and chains on his feet and wrists. Anticipating the ungrateful prisoner act, I took my time to grab everything from the bodies, finding three extra keys and seven silver coins in another small bag.

  I left a ghoul attire out of my collection and put it next to the prisoner before removing the sack from his head. He was a handsome vampire with a tight gag on his mouth. He had red irises, long canines, and a long black hair not yet shaved like the others.

  "Ok, vampire. I'm sorry for doing this to you, but I had a lot of problems with other prisoners, so forgive my lack of courtesy. I'm not a local, I'm an unbound deathlord who was imprisoned, and now I'm escaping the hell outta here. My name's Jack Thorn. If you want out, I can free you. If I do, you can either get out by yourself or wait for when I decide to leave. Or I can forget you gagged here. Your choice."

  The man nodded once and I cut his gag.

  "I am Senir Yechkov, from the Arktov clan." As he said it, letters appeared over his head: 'Senir Yechkov, Arktov clan.' This time, there was no question mark. "I am no stranger to the difficulties of the unbound deathlords, and I can feel your lack of a higher master. I allow you to remove my bounds."

  Allow me? I had to use all my willpower not to roll my eyes before opening the chain locks. The vampire stood graciously and looked at the clothes I had put by his feet. "I am not a dog to walk in these... Vests. I will let myself out."

  No nice, grateful prisoner for me, it seems. "Wait, you'll need this key, I think," I said as I extended the extra large gold key to him.

  The vampire stopped, looked at me, then at the key with disgust, and made a tsk sound. "I allow you to gift me this key. I graciously warn you not to presume such intimacy again." He took the key and left.

  I sighed, grabbed back the extra clothes and sword I had put aside for the vampire, and went back to exploring the corridor. I was about to enter the last cell when an
exclamation point appeared.

  Hidden quest completed: Save the prisoner from cell E-12

  Random primary attribute points received:

  » +1 charisma

  » +1 willpower

  Stamina: 120 (+5)

  Bonus for completing a hidden quest:

  » +1 intelligence

  MP: 125 (+15)

  Interesting. With Valia not having the experience points usually present in games, quests could reward attribute points. Made sense. More exciting was the existence of hidden quests; not a new concept by any means, but still not confirmed to exist in Valia up until now.

  There was nothing in the last cell, and I went back to the main hall, crouched yet again. The double doors were wide open, and I took the time to close them while shaking my head.

  Damn vampire couldn't even bother to shut the door. What if someone saw it?

  Next, I went for the F-door.

  I opened it with total care and was rewarded by nothingness. I bet that if I had opened it wildly, I would have taken a fireball to the head. So frustrating. Once more the corridor and cells revealed nothing. I gritted my teeth as I went back to the hall, but this time, I didn't allow the frustration to make me sloppy and carefully opened the G-door.

  Two ghouls were playing cards there.

  "Three stripes and two squares. You lose," said one with a horrendous smile.

  "You cheat!" The other slammed his hand on the table.

  "Ha, cu' it. Ma goddess is Sanith, she bless me a'right," the first one said, pulling some coins to his side of the table.