Unbound Deathlord: Challenge

by Edward Castle

  "Don' ya tell me 'bout ya Sanith tities! Ya cheat!" The second ghoul stood up and took his sword from the ground. The first one stopped taking the coins and did the same.

  I took the opportunity to get quickly inside and close the door. Both ghouls looked at me with eyes wide open before yelling 'intruder' and attacking. They didn't last long.

  After collecting the goodies, I explored the corridor. Two more ghouls were right down the stairs, and I found the second ghoul with a pipe in the whole prison by the end of the hallway. The last door was closed, and the torch beside it was the only one lit in the entire corridor.

  The layout was too similar to be a coincidence; it was probably another possible starting point for a player.

  For the first time I noticed another difference to the last door: instead of a keyhole, it had a sliding lock at it, which explained the sound I had heard when the ghoul opened my cell.

  The lock was ridiculously rusty and looked fragile. It wasn't hard to believe that if I had got my strength level to one or two, I could've forced the door from the inside. Which was another break to the realism of the game, since the NPC prisoners were much better guarded.

  There was a woman there, petite and blond. When she looked at me I finally understood how everybody knew I was a deathlord: her eyes were completely black, even what should've been white.

  "Finally, the NPC is here. Stupid game, made me wait for twenty minutes. Let's go."

  I watched dumbfounded as she left the room, looked at the dead ghoul and ran. She stopped a little ahead and yelled. "Come on you bugged game code. Laggy shit."

  I frowned. What the hell was that? She was a player, but that level of immaturity... Weren't the Underworld species and races supposed to be only played by people of age?

  More than that, she was an unbound deathlord just like me. Having a person with that kind of attitude in the same category as me was annoying and embarrassing.

  Which meant one thing: miss sunshine had to die.

  I wasn't sure what would be consequence of killing another player, but after a quick thinking, an idea bloomed on my mind. Yes, that will be good enough for her. I ran.

  Before the end of the corridor, just as she began to climb the stairs, I put my plan in motion. If she believed this game was poorly-made, I'd just use that against her.

  "Oh, noble lady," I said in the most 'forced act' way I could, "we are near the end of the escapade. My comrades have dominated some nearby enemies, and there is good equipment waiting for you! Come! I will guide you!"

  "Holy crap, look at this voice acting. Is this even artificial intelligence or just poor recording?"

  I climbed upstairs. She yelled a 'wait', but I ignored her, and she ended up accompanying me. I led her to the front of the H-door, the last unopened door on the first floor.

  "Oh, noble lady, behind this door is the right equipment for your mighty existence. Please, go ahead."

  "No, you go ahead," she said, looking suspiciously at me.

  I didn't answer and after a few seconds repeated: "Oh, noble lady, behind this door is the equipment for your mighty existence. Please, go ahead."

  She rolled her eyes. "I haven't seen such bad characters since the sixty-four bit games." She opened the door.

  I pushed her inside, closed the door and held the doorknob firmly.

  "Intruder!" I heard a ghoul yell.

  "What the hell?!" She began to hit the door repeatedly. "Open the door, idiot! Oh, freaking hell, open the door! Ahhh! My back hurts! Open it! Oh, god, it hurts! Open! Damn it; I'm out of this shitty starting point. Force logout!"

  A few seconds later I heard a ghoul speak. "She dead."

  "Look at she clothes. She a prisoner."

  "We tell the High Lady?"

  "Na, come back to da game, prisoners always die anyways."

  I smiled from ear to ear.

  Jack Thorn

  Unbound Deathlord

  Level 2

  Hit Points:110 / 110

  Mana Points:125 / 125

  Stamina:120 / 120

  Attributes:

  Strength:2

  Agility:3

  Dexterity:3

  Constitution:2

  Intelligence:3

  Perception:2

  Willpower:3

  Charisma:2

  Traits:

  Antimage:1

  Crafter:1

  Nitpicker:1

  Shadow:1

  3. Boy Finds Girl

  'Democracy's a funny concept. It expects people to know what's better for them.'

  - Mother

  Without feeling even slightly guilty, I entered the room and dispatched the ghouls, who yelled 'intruder' again.

  That corridor was empty of prisoners and other guards. On the very last cell I found a single copper coin hidden under a lot of dust. I almost left it there for spite, but money was money, and I was already there anyway. I took it.

  Trait received: Gold Digger

  You like shinny things a little more than normal and go to great lengths to get them.

  » Coins will glow

  » Glow intensity: 10%

  This almost made all that walk through empty corridors worth the trouble. Just to see the effects I threw a coin on the floor. It was faint, but made the coin a lot more noticeable in the dark if I was looking in its direction. I doubted it would be that useful in bright environments, though.

  Only upstairs was now left to explore, but first I went back to the A-6 cell just to check on my fellow escapees.

  The woman was sleeping on the ground with a shirt being used as a blanket. The elf was seated shirtless on the floor, looking exhausted. He barely opened his eyes as I entered the room.

  "Hmm... Seeing a sweaty man next to a sleeping woman was not what I had in mind when I told you to heal her."

  The elf just closed his eyes again, too dignified to answer. I left my bags and extra swords there and threw him a shirt. That finally made him speak.

  "I've rarely seen... That much mental damage. I couldn't heal her completely. I made her forget some parts of the torture. But you rescuing her when you did made such an impression... She will not call you master anymore, gratitude now being greater than fear, but the torture affected her so deeply that I doubt she would dare disobey anything you say. So much pain..."

  "I call that a clear improvement. Will she ever get back to normal?"

  He shrugged. "Probably not. But the worst is gone. She can live a fairly common life as long as she doesn't see another undead ever again. It is going to be a hard blow to her, but it is better than dying or enslaving herself to the undead, I suppose."

  I raised an eyebrow. "Hard blow? Why?"

  He looked at me silently for a few seconds. "You are an innocent bystander, aren't you? She is Ambassador Alia Soman, from the human Somanai Empire, third in line to the crown. She is worth a hundred times her weight in gold." After saying the last sentence, he looked at me with clear interest.

  I just shrugged. There was no way for me to leave the Underworld and claim the reward. As an undead I had a big weakness: each second I stood in direct contact to sunlight would take ten percent of my total HP. Ten seconds for a sure death and no way to heal as long as I even saw indirect sunlight. I guessed there was a way to remove this characteristic, but I bet I would not discover it so soon.

  In the end, I wouldn't get anything from saving her, even though she was a big figure. Maybe the annoying player girl had been right: this was a shitty starting point.

  "If you want you can leave now, the first floor is clear and the front door is open. I'll check the rest of the prison."

  "Wait. Are you really just going to allow us to leave this easily, deathlord?"

  "Unbound deathlord, unbound being the key word. Remember that."

  "I will," he replied soberly and said nothing more. I went back to exploring.

  I heard voices just as I started opening the door to the great hall. I stopped and listened, looking through a sma
ll gap.

  Five ghouls in leather clothes, holding big wooden kite shields and old looking wooden spears made the front line. Behind them came two ghouls with chain armor and chain pants over their leather clothes, holding rusty metal spears and medium rusty metal kite shields. Two skeleton torturers with diamond shaped red stones attached to the middle of their heads walked beside a big figure in black full plate armor, including a closed horned helmet.

  Following common gaming nomenclatures, I named the ghouls with wooden shields and spears 'Veteran Ghouls' and the two with metal stuff 'Elite Ghouls.' The skeletons I called 'Third Eyed Red Skeletons'. As soon as I decided that in my mind, the names appeared above their heads with the question mark next to it.

  When the plated armor creature walked, it made a loud sound that echoed all over the hall. A massive sword was on a scabbard hanging from its waist and in one hand it held five polished metal spears.

  "...not a good idea, with all due respect," said one of the skeletons. The ghouls kept looking ahead, walking silently.

  "I agree, milady," said the other skeleton. "We had him for only seven days, we can still continue. Show him the woman in pain and he'll give up. They always do," said the other skeleton.

  "Enough!" The plated creature was a woman with a commanding voice. "He is to be killed today, by order of the High Council."

  "We understand, but High Lady Renno said-"

  "I said enough!" Her voice boomed in the hall. "I didn't ask for your opinions, pile of bones, I gave you orders. I will talk to Renno now, and I want the prisoner ready to be executed by me in half an hour. You two," she said to the elite ghouls, "accompany the torturers and guarantee they are following orders. I will not be delayed by disobedient dogs who think too much of themselves."

  They got to the middle of the stairs and the veteran ghouls went to the right with the plated woman. The elite ones immediately took the left path, while the skeletons took some moments looking at the back of the plated woman before going to the left.

  That made things complicated. I hadn't fought either the elite ghouls or the new skeletons, and it seemed I would have to fight them in pairs. The skeletons had the same equipment as the normal skeleton torturers, but the red stone on their head and the people they accompanied made it clear they were stronger.

  I also had a time limit of half an hour before the plated woman came back. Thirty minutes was probably not enough to safely explore everything upstairs. But a dead NPC was an NPC who couldn't be rescued, and unrescuable NPCs were attribute points I couldn't get.

  No gamer had ever become strong without some measure of greed.

  Better hurry.

  I didn't stop crouching, but moved a lot faster than before. They had left both right and left doors open and I entered the left room without problem. The letter 'S' was painted on the door.

  The room inside had a small table with a chair and some papers on it. Two torch sconces were on the walls, but only one had a lit torch in it, the other one empty. A big metal cabinet was on the back wall and beside it a metal door was open. Light shone beyond, probably one of the ghouls carrying the missing torch. I closed the S-door behind me and proceeded to the next door.

  I found myself in a big stone room without any torches. There were four people in the center, suspended by chains in a kind of square formation, their backs to each other, their heads shaved and their eyes blindfolded.

  One was a female dark elf, also called drow: she had pointy ears, a slender figure and her was skin a very dark blue, almost black. The drow were the evil twins of the elves, and each despised the other.

  The other three were an elf and two humans, one of the latter already beginning to decompose. All of them had uncountable wounds; missing fingers were commonplace, but the drow was even missing a half her right leg. A lot of blood painted the floor and walls in red, and the strong smell of decay made me double over and heave, but only a little saliva left my mouth due to my empty stomach.

  Not even torch sconces were in the walls. It was a room created for delivering the people there to a painful dark death.

  I closed the door behind me and moved a dizzily to the other open door. There I saw a long room with some torture tools: a table close to a lot of blades of all sizes and curvatures hanging on the walls; a kind of vertical coffin full of spikes inside; and a chair full of gears. Blood was everywhere, and so were some meat and bone parts. The putrid smell here was even stronger than the death smell on the room before.

  This is too sick. I almost went back and damn the attribute points, but I just couldn't stand the idea of a prisoner being executed after enduring all this.

  Yes, everything was just computer code, including the scenery and the prisoner, but it didn't sit well with me. Even if they were computer codes, the game characters still believed they were real and felt pain in their own way. How different was that from me? My brain also worked by electrical signals, similar to a computer, didn't it?

  Too busy to pursue the philosophical thoughts, I closed the door behind me once more and went to the other open door in the room.

  There was a small corridor on the other side of the door. It had three shining metal doors, the middle one open. An elite ghoul was to the right of the door where I now was, and the other one was before the open metal door, looking inside with the torch in his hand. A veteran ghoul was beside him, probably the one who had been looking at papers on the table.

  Those metal shields and spears changed everything. Fighting a man with a corroded small copper shield and a sword was completely different from fighting a man with a medium metal shield and spear. If I compared it to my street fighting days, it would be like fighting a man with a crowbar instead of an unarmed man.

  Well, I had done both and survived. And the game was making it too easy anyways. After a deep silent breath, I stuck the point of my sword into the elite ghoul's neck.

  Sneak attack for 2.0x damage!

  Critical hit for 2.0x damage!

  116 piercing damage dealt to Elite Ghoul

  Surprisingly, the sword didn't penetrate all the way through the flesh. The ghoul let out a big scream, immediately stepped ahead and turned back, taking a defensive stance: crouched, the kite shield before him and the spear held horizontally.

  Shit. I had expected the ghoul to die in a single stroke so I could take his weapon and fight the others. Having to also fight him sucked. I couldn't even run, or I would have to give up on rescuing the elf and the woman. Things were not that easy after all.

  The other ghouls looked at me and while the veteran ghoul got surprised, the elite instantly moved. I had to kill the first one as quickly as possible or I would have an even harder time.

  I tried to jump at him, but he took a step back and thrust the spear at me. I contorted my body to dodge but the weapon still grazed my side, cut my leather armor and did two damage to me.

  It was enough time for the other elite to get beside the hurt one and create a shield wall in the corridor. One skeleton got out from the cell and looked at the commotion. A red flame appeared out of nowhere, this time not inside its mouth but floating before its forehead.

  I thought about throwing my sword at the skeleton, but the distance was enough that I could miss and that would leave me only with the the pipe, which was nowhere near as good as the sword against ghouls. Desperate for a quick solution, I had an idea. I stood alert at the growing flame.

  The ghouls poked their spears as one and I had to take a few steps back to get out of range. The flame before the skeleton was now a sphere the size of its head, which was not what I had expected, but it was too late for me to have second thoughts about what to do.

  When the big fireball came my way, I took two steps ahead, jumped in the air and raised my shield to defend.

  The explosion sound was deafening. I was enveloped by flames and thrown back at high speed, flying through the air and hitting my back on the torture chair. My sword left my hand at some point, and my shield had become black
charcoal and partly broken away, but it wasn't completely destroyed.

  40 shock + 7 burn + 4 impact damage received (51 total)

  HP: 57 / 110

  Holy crap! What the hell is this?! This is no common fireball!

  My plan had been to use the fireball explosion to do some damage to the ghouls, but this was way over the expected power output. I got up and ran back to the room.

  There was black soot on the floor and walls, but the metal door next to the explosion was still clear and shining. The two elite ghouls had also been thrown back a little, but not as much as I had. I smiled as I saw two spears on the ground and took one.

  Rusty Iron Spear

  » 45 (+4 [Strength]) physical damage

  The two elite ghouls were still getting up but the skeleton already had a new flame forming before its forehead. I threw the spear at it.

  It flew clumsy but with some force and hit the skeleton in the leather armor. It was not enough to disrupt the spell-casting. A second later a second big ball of fire came my direction. I threw my body on the floor and heard the explosion in the room behind me.

  Shit. If anyone hears these explosions I'm screwed.

  Picking up the other spear I stood up and found the elite who still had its shield and the veteran ghoul side by side making a new wall. The other elite had gone for the spear I had thrown and the skeleton was preparing another explosion. I was getting a little desperate so I threw my body on the veteran's big wooden shield.

  Not as quick as the elite ghoul, the veteran didn't step back in time. After breaking the shield wall, I thrust the spear at the elite ghoul's neck. He had good reflexes, but was not expecting the move nor the invasion in the perimeter, and the spear found its mark.

  Critical damage for 2.0x damage!

  98 piercing damage dealt to Elite Ghoul

  He sadly wasn't the ghoul I had attacked before and didn't die. He tried to use his shield to bash me, but I stepped back and sunk my spear into his foot. He let out a scream, but I couldn't follow up with another attack because the veteran body rammed me and fire followed suit.