by Brian Simons
Daniel fought the urge to keep shaking his whole arm. He stilled himself. The worm worked its way over his last finger and then swallowed his whole hand. It inched up his wrist, his forearm, then it began to engulf Lyla’s finger too.
She hooked her finger under the advancing lip of the creature’s mouth and tore her finger down the length of its body, ripping the worm open like a manila envelope.
The worm looked like no more than a torn piece of parchment. Daniel brushed its body off himself with his other hand.
“It was young,” Lyla said, “and fragile. We were lucky.” She started to walk away.
“What do you mean, lucky?” Daniel asked. “What would have happened if it was less fragile?”
“It would have eaten you whole. It would have been more difficult to extract you without slicing you open too. But I’m a healer, you’d have been mostly fine.”
Daniel couldn’t believe he’d just been bait for something that might actually have killed him. “Where are you going?”
“Back to my people,” Lyla said. “They need to know this danger has returned to the desert.”
“We have friends,” Daniel said, “who are lost in the desert. Would you help us find them first? If so we can escort you back to your people.”
Lyla looked interested at first, but her expression changed quickly. “You flatter me. I can’t be of any real help to you though. I’m just an orc.”
“You’re a healer, and you know the desert better than we do, even if it’s just from oral tradition. Besides, if the desert is so dangerous, you shouldn’t cross it alone.”
She paused again. She was clearly amenable to joining them, but something was holding her back.
“No,” she said. “Life is hard enough without missing more time away from my post. Healing our wounded is the only way I earn my keep.”
“I can pay you,” Daniel said, activating his Body Guard skill. Daniel could hire an NPC whose level was half his Diplomacy or less. At Level 7, Lyla made the cut. Now he just hoped Body Guard worked on non-human NPCs.
“Fine,” Lyla said, “but don’t get angry when I fail to be of use.”
Daniel paid Lyla her first day’s wage of 70 gold and the group walked further through the desert. Lyla stopped every so often to inspect the ground, but the walk was otherwise fairly uneventful. Until Sybil caught sight something in the distance.
“There’s a building out there,” she said, pointing toward the horizon. Daniel could just make out the shape of a large mound.
“Hold on,” Daniel said, peering at the strange shape. He didn’t get a chance to Surveil it before Lyla interrupted him.
“His temple,” Lyla said. Her voice was breathy, awestruck.
“Whose temple?” Daniel asked.
“Sagma!” Lyla started to run, but she only got so far away before she stopped and waited for Daniel to catch up. Since she was a hireling, she must not be able to leave the 25 foot radius set by Daniel’s Body Guard ability. At least, not voluntarily.
Daniel jogged ahead, spending stamina points to help Lyla get closer to the building. He broke out into a sprint when he saw four people lying on the ground, roasting under the sun. He’d recognize that pale freckled face and long brown hair anywhere.
“It’s Coral!” he yelled.
“And Marco,” Sal added, “and Alua, and Chauncey!”
“Wyverns have them,” Lyla said, hacking at the serpentine monsters.
One mob dislodged from Chauncey and leapt from the ground toward Daniel, baring its fangs. It hovered in the air, flapping paper-thin wings that seemed to unfurl from nowhere.
Daniel swung his sword at the airborne snake, but it dodged out of the way.
>> You missed!
It struck at Daniel, but he blocked the attack with his sword, glad that Parry had finally come in handy.
>> Miss!
They couldn’t go back and forth like this all day. Not while dozens of other snakes were sucking the life out of his friends. Daniel lunged at the snake and shoved the blade of his sword right down the monster’s throat.
>> Wyvern takes 490 Damage. [CRITICAL].
Its HP bar was only halfway gone. Daniel withdrew his blade from the beast’s scabbard mouth and squinted at its face. Its hood bore markings like a sinister smile.
>> Level 19 Wyvern.
The others were sparring with flying snakes of their own. More and more wyverns were dislodging from their victims and joining the fray. Sal swung a mallet in the air and slammed two of the snakes to the ground.
“Some of them are stronger than others,” Sal said.
“That’s because,” Lyla said, slicing the head off a snake near her, “they suck XP from their victims. The ones that have been feeding longer have leveled up more. The longer we take to kill them, the stronger they’ll become.”
Daniel jabbed at his snake again. He chipped a fang, but didn’t do much damage.
>> Wyvern takes 62 Damage. [GLANCING BLOW].
Then the monster dove at him and tried to bite into his arm. Daniel’s armor protected him from the snake’s contact.
>> Miss!
Daniel knelt down and pointed his blade upward, driving it into the snake’s bottom jaw and out through the top of its skull. If he had unlocked Up-Thrust, the attack would have done even more damage, but he didn’t need the extra boost this time.
>> Wyvern takes 682 Damage. [CRITICAL]. Wyvern dies. You receive 31 XP.
>> Congratulations! You have improved your Swordfighting combat skill to 4. +7% damage when using a sword.
A handful of other snakes were dead on the ground, but more still were in the air or slithering underfoot looking for exposed skin to latch onto. Everyone fought in a flurry of sword, mallet, and spear until the wyverns were immobilized. Daniel had killed ten of them himself.
He stood there, surrounded by mutilated serpents, wondering how much XP the fiends had drained from his friends. Sure, it was Coral who suggested to the Regent that they go to Diardenna, and it was probably the elves that took out the bridge over the river, but it was Daniel that had received the quest to investigate the elves’ army. He was the Knight in charge of this expedition. He blamed himself for all of this. Was this quest worth putting everyone in danger for?
7
Travail Online Master System Log.
Analyzing game-wide economy…
Total player currency change over 24-hours:
-311,894,914
Total player currency change in U.S. dollars:
-$31,189,491.40
In-game economy approaching recession status.
8
Someone slapped Coral across the face, lightly at first, then harder.
“Wake up, already.” It was Sybil.
Once Coral opened her eyes, reality came crashing in. She swatted at the phantom memory of winged snakes sucking the XP out of her.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“It took us a long time,” Daniel said, “but we managed to kill all of the wyverns. See?” He gestured toward the twisted green bodies and outstretched black wings that littered the surrounding area. In many cases, the bodies had been decapitated.
“They tricked us,” Coral said, realizing how dumb it sounded. “We were doing a side quest for the woman that runs the temple and they showed up with food. Chauncey tested it. Not only was it fine, it cured Dehydration. Then they offered a second round of food, which must have been poisoned.”
“You had quite the Stupor debuff going,” Sybil said.
“Deceit is returning to the desert,” said a short woman with dark gray skin. She wore the strangest clothing. Her shirt was made from black strips of lizard skin with what looked like horsehair woven in. Coral caught herself approving of the exotic design. “The wyverns earned your trust first, before abusing it.”
“Exactly,” Coral replied. “And who are you?”
“Lyla,” she said, reaching down to help Coral to her feet. “I’m a healer, hired to jo
in your party for the time being.”
“But you’ve already hired two people,” Chauncey said, craning his neck to look past Daniel. “Where is Ivan?”
Daniel lowered his eyes. “We were attacked. Ivan didn’t make it.”
Chauncey jumped to his feet, his face boiling with rage. He held his tongue, but anyone could see that he blamed Daniel for Ivan’s death. Ivan would likely respawn, but he’d have to start over again from scratch, same as any slain player would.
“I’m back down to Level 1,” Marco said, cradling his face in his hands. “Those awful snakes drained all of my XP away. I’m never going to get my levels back.”
“On the contrary!” Sal said. He had five inches of snake tail dangling from his mouth. “When they eat you, you lose XP. But when you eat them you gain it! From what I gather, it only works once per day though, so if you eat more than that, it’s just for the taste.” Sal held a dead snake out to see if anyone wanted it, but no one did.
Coral was a little nauseated by the idea of eating the very snakes that had been sucking the life out of her. It was like self-cannibalism, once removed. The thought of losing her XP permanently though was also troublesome.
Sal slurped down the rest of the snake hanging from his face. “We should take these with us,” he said, pointing at the ophidian corpses. It wasn’t a bad idea. Coral stooped down to help gather up the bodies.
“They don’t stack,” she said, frustrated that each wyvern took up an entire spot in her inventory bag. Some items did stack, allowing her to carry as many of them as she wanted while only using up one of the 12 item slots in her bag. When items didn’t stack, it didn’t seem to matter how big or how heavy they were. They just took up one slot. Three slots were already taken: one for her sewing kit, one for her leather armor set, and one for an Arena teleport orb she had received the week before.
Now, each of her other free slots had a dead snake in it. She made a pile of the wyverns that wouldn’t fit so they could carry them by hand if necessary.
“Did you say there’s a woman in this rubble?” Sybil asked.
“Vernagi,” Marco answered. “She’s rebuilding the temple. We were digging for crystals that were part of the original tower.”
“We only found two. Let’s turn them in and get out of here,” Coral said. “With all these snakes around, this place is giving me the creeps.”
“I can’t believe there are wyverns here now,” Lyla said.
“Me neither,” said Alua. “They were purely mythological, until now. And you are an orc?” Lyla nodded. “I would very much like to speak with you at some point.”
The group filed into the temple and found Vernagi praying at the altar. She got up from her knees to greet the visitors.
“Alms for my master?” Vernagi asked. “Please share your gold so that Sagma’s temple may be rebuilt.”
In the faint light cast by Vernagi’s glowing staff, Coral saw Sybil’s facial expression. Incredulity didn’t even begin to describe it.
“Ok,” Sal said, fishing in his gold pouch for some coins. Sybil placed a hand on his arm to stop him. “No, Sal. No.”
“We have the crystals,” Coral said, turning in her quest.
Vernagi held Coral’s crystal shard close to her face. “This is a good size,” she said, “no mere chip or fragment.” She handed Coral an XP potion.
When Alua brought out the large round crystal she found, Vernagi got very excited. She snatched it from Alua’s hand and pressed it up against her cheek. She rolled it down the length of her neck before she opened her eyes again and looked back at Alua.
“There is power left in this,” Vernagi said. “This requires a special reward.” She walked behind the altar and reached down. After a short clanking of glass bottles, she turned to Alua and held out a small vial. “Sooth syrup.”
Marco looked dejected. He hadn’t found any crystals to turn in.
“Here,” Coral said, handing her XP potion to Marco.
“Really?” he said. “Thank you!” Coral had lost XP, but not a whole level. She couldn’t imagine losing three like Marco had. She wasn’t sure how much XP it was worth, but he clearly needed it more than anyone. He chugged the potion the second it left Coral’s hand.
Vernagi took a long stride toward Marco and cupped his chin with her hand. She traced his lower lip with her thumb, wiping away a small drop of potion before Marco could even lick his lips. She pressed her thumb into her own dry, puckered mouth and made a smacking sound with her tongue.
“You beautiful boy,” she said, “you are a Level 5 Votary!”
“Yes,” Marco said, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “That potion leveled me up a bit.”
“You have not pledged yourself at a temple?”
Marco shook his head.
“As a Devotee, I must remain here at the temple, but you could serve our lord as an Acolyte. Oh yes, you’ll do. Here, take my staff.” She thrust her staff toward Marco.
He seemed shocked. “This has +5% XP gain,” he said.
“No, the percentage is equal to your level. At Level 10, it will be +10%,” she said, “and so on. You will pledge yourself here, and then seek alms the world over, earning XP for every person you convert to our cause. We will teach the world to praise Sagma and finance the construction in no time!” She grabbed his head with both hands and kissed his forehead.
Marco turned toward the others. “I would level up so much faster with this staff,” he said.
“But you’d be all by yourself,” Sal said. “Wouldn’t that be lonely?”
“Being the weakest member of the team is lonely too, in its own way,” Marco said.
“We wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” Daniel said, “if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Marco paused for a moment, then turned and bowed his head slightly toward Vernagi. “I’ll do it. I’ll pledge here.”
“It warms my old heart to have some young blood in here,” Vernagi said. “The initiation ceremony may take all night. Don’t make any plans.”
“Sybil—” Marco started, but she held a hand to stop him.
“Say nothing. I understand why you need to do this. We’ll catch up soon.”
“Vernagi,” Lyla said, stepping out from behind the group, “I am a simple healer. I would have pledged myself to Sagma long ago if I had known he had returned. Please accept me into the temple as his Acolyte.”
The old woman hissed at Lyla, a long sibilant sound that filled the small temple room with hostility. “Not you, never you!” she said. “Sagma deserves wise servants, not incompetent orcs. Your kind have let your prowess devolve into stupidity. You live like philistines in crude dirt houses. You have nothing to offer the king of all knowledge!”
Coral was taken aback by the vehemence with which the old woman rejected Lyla. It was like she had a Ring of Force in her throat and used it to launch insults at the orc. Lyla simply bowed her head and walked out of the temple. “My people have fallen, never to stand,” she said as she left, barely audible.
Vernagi folded her hands in front of her, attempting to compose herself. “I’m sorry you had to witness that,” she said. “If there is one thing an orc should know it is her place, and that one knew not even that. Witless creatures, those orcs.”
Marco stood with his head bowed. After Vernagi’s outburst, maybe he was embarrassed. Or maybe he was ashamed that he wanted to stay despite the hatred she showed toward Lyla.
The group began to file out of the crumbled temple single file through the narrow rock passage to the outside world. Coral looked around the altar room one last time. The glowing orb sat atop the staff in Marco’s hand now, adding a faint light to the dilapidated chamber.
“Be well, Marco,” Coral said. She wouldn’t pretend they were friends, but she also wouldn’t deny that she felt uncomfortable leaving him behind. This Vernagi seemed too eager to put him to use, and Marco too vulnerable.
“Thanks, Coral,” he said. “I can see wh
y he likes you so much.”
Coral smiled at him, unsure how to respond. He who? Daniel? She stepped out into the setting desert sun and gave her eyes a moment to adjust.
“What was that about?” Daniel asked.
Lyla had tears in her eyes. “We always believed that Sagma had no choice when he left us behind. It was the last bit of dignity we clung to. Now I see he has cast us aside for good. An entire race, forsaken.”
