BlackFlame Online Vol 1

by A P Gore

  A clank of metal against metal attracted Noah’s attention. He tilted his head to face the direction of the sound. Something hard cracked beneath him, shattering into pieces that pinched his naked flesh. The bastard who’d brought him here had removed his armor and shirt. A demon wearing a dark black hood, black tunic, and gray pants was heading toward him. For the first time, Noah spotted a scar running above the demon’s left eye.

  Panic slid across his spine as he realized it was the same demon that had killed him many times.

  This is bad. Why does he have to kill me? What did I do wrong?

  Two knives flashed in his view as the last rays of sunlight passed over the metal, and then the sun dimmed like a dying candle. He understood how the dying candle felt at the last stretch of its life. He felt the same.

  But why did I end up like this?

  It was a new day, bright and shiny. Noah was whistling an old tune while he played with Thia in their room. After meeting Rihala the day before, he was hoping to meet her again. She would be hunting in the forest. He hated to admit it but meeting the only known female demon tickled something in his heart. Maybe an attraction for the opposite sex, but he enjoyed her quirky company too. By the time he got out of town, from the south gate, it was noon, and the sun was beating down on the road. But to him it was as chilly as walking in winter evening air.

  After moving into the forest, he spotted a snake. He crushed it under his foot with the evilest smile he could conjure. It was the same animal that had almost killed him a few days back, and now he was crushing it like a soft, rotten potato.

  The snake under his feet vanished, and a piece of meat and skin took its place.

  A new setting popped up in his vision, offering to let him choose what would happen when a monster died. He chooses to retain the monster’s body.

  A new option, Raise Zombie, also popped up. With a grin that rivaled Sumara’s, Noah raised his first zombie.

  The meat piece and skin of the snake swirled around, forming a thick cloud of black smoke and giving off the foul odor of decayed meat. The mist thickened and materialized into a snake with black patches all over its length. The snake hissed at him with an animosity Noah had never seen before. The snake sprang at Noah, but as soon as it got close, its aggressiveness faded and it froze on the spot. So, his zombie couldn’t harm him by any means. That was a good thing to know. A small snake face icon appeared in the left corner of his vision. He cast perception on the snake.

  Level 2 snake zombie

  Life 20 (Low level penalty)

  Damage 2 (Low level penalty)

  Time 20 minutes (Low level penalty)

  Damn! What level of monster would I need to raise to get a full power zombie?

  The snake’s low level had resulted in the low-level zombie. At level 4 of the spell, his zombie should have had 180 life, 25 damage and 60 minutes of uptime, but all he got was crickets. “I need to test this extensively.”

  Noah quickened his pace and traveled deeper into the forest, ignoring the other snakes. The zombie snake followed him and died when its timer ran out. Noah stopped when the rat territory began. With a pounding heart, he killed and raised one rat. This time he got better results.

  Zombie Rat

  Level 4

  Life 100 (Low level penalty)

  Damage 15 (Low level penalty)

  Time 40 minutes (Low level penalty)

  He was almost there. He needed something level 5 to test his theory on. He killed two more rats, gaining negligible experience, and raised them as zombies. He needed something better, and he found it: a lone goblin warrior with a weird ball in his hand. He let his zombies attack… well, his zombies were already on the target even before he commanded them to. They didn’t wait for his instruction.

  The goblin, wearing only red pants, was startled for a moment when three zombie rats jumped him out of nowhere, but soon he recovered and started firing ice shots at them. Noah regretted not having a crystal handy to capture the spell.

  Noah watched the battle from a distance. The zombie rats were latching onto the goblin’s skin with a ferocity he had not seen before. The goblin was constantly shooting ice spells at the rats.

  Noah laughed hard when one of the zombies latched onto the goblin’s private parts and bit off a chunk of it. The goblin looked at the rat, and then at his bloody groin in horror before screaming bloody murder.

  Seeing him in pain, Noah got an idea. He had a perfect curse for this situation. He cast his curse of pain on the goblin. A black circle appeared around the goblin briefly. A black debuff icon appeared over the goblin’s head, a black icon of physical pain. A debuff of physical pain. Now with every chomping attack by a rat zombie, the goblin roared louder, feeling more pain.

  Noah stayed behind a thick palm tree, laughing, enjoying the passive attack strategy. It was best and suited him perfectly. Now he could wreak havoc on the opponent and enjoy it without worrying about death. Finally, both of his classes were meshing together. Cursemancer wasn’t a bad choice after all.

  The goblin finished off the rat zombies one by one with his magical spells, but the zombies had lowered his health from 400 to 300. When the last rat died, Noah cast a fire ball curse on the goblin, taking out 73 life. Thanks to Noah’s passive skill, the goblin took an extra 10% of 66 damage. It would have been double if Noah had scored a crit. The spirit cost of his spell hurt without a crit.

  The goblin startled at the sudden attack, but his small red eyes tracked the source of it pretty fast.

  Noah shot a poison orb, but the goblin dodged it easily. He was faster than Noah had imagined.

  Noah charged his legs with spirit and dashed forward, surprising the goblin with his speed. One moment of surprise was all Noah needed. He cursed the goblin with a fire ball curse, and aimed for the goblin’s head. The curse landed, hitting the goblin with a crit and scoring 146 damage. The goblin was down to 81 life, but he was shooting a constant stream of ice spells at Noah. Noah dodged a couple of spells, soaked a couple on his spirit shield, and hit the goblin with a pair of poison orbs, ending the goblin’s life once and for all.

  The goblin died, leaving a couple of items and a burnt corpse behind.

  Noah now understood why the game by default dissolved the corpses into pieces of meat and skin. The sight of scattered body parts or exposed internal organs with blood all over wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He could handle it, because he’d dissected various species for experimentation in real life. Not every player was a researcher in real life, though.

  At least the game developers did one good thing.

  He picked up the item lying on the ground and inspected it. It was a broken uncommon mana source. It was of no use to Noah, but he put it in his bag anyway and cast his new favorite spell on the dead meat, raising a goblin zombie. Thank God, it didn’t look like the dead body.

  The other item was a dirty bone that reeked.

  Unidentified bone of a goblin lord.

  Properties locked.

  Noah dropped it inside his bag of holding, which was now getting full. He needed to see if he could increase its space with some enhancements. Maybe he could put his enhancer profession to use. But how? That was a big question for which he had no answer. He could think about it later. Right now his focus was on the perfect zombie.

  Rihala would be impressed to see a zombie pet.

  A zombie goblin with battered skin and black eyes stood in front of him, waiting for his orders.

  Zombie Goblin

  Level 6

  Life 180

  Damage 25

  Time 60 minutes

  Noah jumped in the air, shouting in triumph. Finally, he got something useful. It was too bad that the spell had a timer, but when the spell level got high, he would be able to mitigate most of the negative effects. That’s what he planned to do. That’s what would bring him closer to his goal.

  That’s when the shit got real.

  A tail wrapped around his neck and dragged him dow
n. He pumped his neck with spirit strengthening, willing the zombie goblin to attack whoever was trying to kill him. The goblin moved and started clawing at the demon behind Noah.

  With the goblin distracting the demon, and his own spirit strengthening, Noah managed to pull the tail away from his neck. He spun on the balls of his feet, charging at the demon with two poison orbs, but the demon was faster than he expected. His goblin was already dead by the time he spun, and a tail flew at his neck once again. This time, the tail pierced deep inside his neck, paralyzing his whole body.

  The next thing he knew, he was lying on a stone bed, paralyzed, and a demon was heading toward him with a butcher knife in his hand. The only thing he spotted was the scar above the left eye, a scar Roderich had.

  Noah closed his eyes when the knife came too close to his eyes. Over the next ten minutes, the demon carved out his tongue, his stomach, and then his eyes. The pain only ended when his heart finally gave out.

  13. Dark Crystal orb

  Noah raced into the inn, ignoring the demon in blue pants sitting at the first table. Mathial wasn’t at the bar. Noah pressed on to the smithy. His anger swelled when he spotted Roderich sitting on the iron anvil, chatting with the blacksmith. That was the man who was responsible for his last eight hours of agony and pain in the respawn room. He had felt his organs being removed from his body again and again and again until he’d passed out. When he woke, the whole thing played in his mind once more.

  A few more hours of torture, and he would have lost his mind.

  Only the goddess, who offered him some solace and a healing drink, saved his mind from the brutal torture.

  Noah surged forward, grabbing Roderich’s collar. The petite demon didn’t resist until Noah shoved him against the wall.

  “Why did you do it?” The words sputtered out of Noah’s mouth along with a moan of remembered pain. It was crazy, to feel his eyes getting pulled out of his sockets with the butcher’s knife for the tenth time, and then feeling his arteries being cut as his kidney was removed. The bastard high mage had done it to him, and today he would pay the price for it.

  Mathial lifted his hammer and approached. “Human, put him down.”

  “Mathial, wait. Noah, what’s the matter?” Roderich asked in a calm voice.

  “Noah, get your filthy hands off the high mage.” Mathial moved closer, his hammer raised above his head.

  Noah conjured a poison orb on his left hand while still holding Roderich with his right. “You killed me, bastard! But why did you cut my organs out?

  A light violet notification popped up. Noah didn’t bother to open it.

  “I didn’t kill you, Noah.” Roderich was unbelievably calm. Didn’t he fear for his life?

  “And what proof do you have, human?” Mathial bellowed. “Let him down!” He swung his hammer at Noah, but Roderich caught the hammer with one hand, stopping it.

  Noah let Roderich go. Who he was kidding? The high mage had stopped a full force attack from Mathial. If it wasn’t for Roderich, that attack would have injured him badly. Maybe even killed him. Roderich was strong, and yet he let a level 5 player accost him. Noah dropped his butt on an anvil and rubbed his face with both hands. “But why?” He wanted to get rid of the memories and live in peace. But the demon that killed him didn’t want it to happen.

  “I didn’t kill you, Noah.”

  Noah’s eyes jumped up, focusing on the scar above Roderich’s left eye. “You have the same scar as the demon that killed me.”

  “I can introduce you to ten demons who have a scar above their left eyes in our town. We live in a time of violence, human, and a mere scar doesn’t represent the identity of a person.”

  Roderich was right. A scar wasn’t sufficient, but that meant the demon would kill him again. What if Sumara didn’t give him the magic drink next time?

  Roderich tapped on Noah’s shoulder. “Come with me.”

  “Why would I? You’ll just kill me again.” Noah could hear the hopelessness in his own voice.

  “Are you a child, human? Or do you lack intelligence? If I wanted to kill you, why would I help you?” Roderich’s voice turned serious. “Or do you want me to drag you to my house?”

  Noah stared at hostile Mathial, who had his hands wrapped around the dark brown hammer he used in the smithy. The afternoon sunlight bathed the smithy and the backyard, painting them a cheerful yellow. The scent of jasmine danced on the wind, but it had no affect on Noah. It couldn’t. Not until he got the pain of dying out of his mind.

  “How’s Thia?”

  “She is a pain in my ass!” Mathial growled. “She didn’t let me sleep last night and kept shouting your name in my ear. I put a sleeping herb in her morning tea. She is sleeping right now and won’t wake up for a few more hours.”

  “Thanks for taking care of her.” Noah realized he needed to speed up his herbalism training rather than messing around with zombies in the forest. Even though he’d gotten around 500 experience for killing rats and the goblin yesterday, he was far away from the next level. He should focus on making coffee. He was getting closer, because he’d smelled coffee from his killer’s pocket. Now he just had to find the demon—or if Roderich was the demon he suspected, he might be leading Noah into the demon’s den itself. Time would tell.

  Roderich took him to his house, and then to a room illuminated with a faint light. The washed-out light wasn’t enough for Noah to make shapes out of the contours, but he spotted weird objects hanging all over the room. In particular, a basin placed in the middle of the room with silver water inside it. There was also a softly glowing round orb sitting on a monkey skull cut in half. The darkness and death in the air made him quite uneasy. He looked over his shoulder, wondering if he should just run. What if Roderich decided to pull out his heart and put it in the monkey skull and drink the blood dripping out of the monkey’s mouth?

  Damn! Fear crawled inside his skin.

  “Can you place your hand on the dark crystal orb and think about the event that lead to your death?” Roderich asked.

  “Hmm…” Noah whispered and looked around, trying to figure out what was really going on here.

  Roderich grabbed his hand. “I said put your hand...” He tried to drag Noah’s hand to the orb.

  Noah stepped back, tugging his hand out of Roderich’s strong grip. “Okay, I get it. Give me a second please.”

  Roderich ignored him, grabbed his hand again, and dragged it toward the crystal. With every forceful step, Noah’s heart raced faster and faster and faster, so faster that he feared it would jump out, tearing open his rib cage at any moment. Roderich placed Noah’s hand on the crystal orb. Noah expected the light to suck him inside the orb, but nothing happened.

  “Now, don’t shiver. Just imagine the start of the event.”

  Noah closed his eyes, picturing the magnificent goblin zombie he had raised. A shock coursed through him as soon as he saw the zombie goblin in his mind. He opened his eyes and found a white pulse moving from his hand inside the crystal orb. The orb flared to life. The zombie goblin appeared in the orb. Yesterday’s scene unfolded in the crystal orb. A tail appearing near Noah’s neck. Noah’s zombie attacking something behind him. Noah loosening the tail. The tail piercing him. Him opening his eyes at the altar. The demon pulling out his eyes. Then everything went black.

  Noah’s body shuddered with fear as the whole event refolded in front of his eyes once again. To his agony, Roderich replayed the whole scene again, stopping it at the part where Noah spotted the scar on the demon’s forehead.

  “Now, let’s study this carefully.” Roderich waved his hand, and the picture zoomed in. “See the mark? It’s in a zig-zag shape. And now see my scar? It’s straight.” The high mage pointed to his own scar, which was indeed in a straight line.

  Noah nodded in agreement, but his insides were in complete disagreement.

  “Now, look at his walk. Did you notice he favored his right foot? Maybe an injury. I don’t limp like him. I walk normally.
”

  “Maybe you’re right, high mage. I apologize for my mistake and rude behavior.” Noah bowed deeply, but he wasn’t convinced.

  “Good. I have the second dose of antidote prepared for Thia.” Roderich handed him a glass vial filled with a brown, muddy colored liquid.

  Noah was instantly notified of a reputation increase, but he knew it was crap. It didn’t tell him if the person really helped him or not. The proof shown by Roderich was eye opening, but he’d flinched when he noticed the limp. And how in the world had he spotted the differences so easily without practicing ahead of time? Something was fishy, and Noah needed to find out what.

  14. New Quest

  Noah peered at the extra bright afternoon sunlight in confusion. He thought he’d spent hours inside Roderich’s house, but in reality, he had spent only one hour. The sun was on top of the town, providing unnecessary heat to the residents. In just two minutes of walking toward the inn, Noah’s gray tunic was drenched in sweat. An itching shirt and a dusty path made his journey super boring. There were no trees to offer any shade, nor was there anything to catch his attention for the twenty-minute walk. Even the air smelled stale and unyielding, and the sun was sucking the life out of everything around.

  Noah stopped after five minutes of walking and glanced at the path going toward the north gate of the town. He checked his map, and the cave looked closer from this location. It was an easy decision for him; he needed to gain 2 levels quickly and learn more about herbalism, and nothing was going to happen by sitting around the inn, scratching own ass. He was known for his efficient use of time in real life, and he’d better put those principles to work in this life too.

  This side of the forest was thicker than the one he visited from the south gate. The main difference was the denseness of the trees. There were so many different trees present on this side; pine, nut, palm, and many others he didn’t recognize—nor could his minimal herbalism skill give him any information about. There were vines present too, but thankfully they weren’t deadly and alive like the ones he’d seen near the goblin town.