by Jesse Wilson
“Fine, I’ll do it,” she said and Derek was confused, everything about this place was confusing so far. He watched her bring up her menu and press three buttons on it. At the push of the third one the three of them found themselves in front of the recovery building. There were people coming out of the double doors and none of them looked too happy. Derek supposed that made sense as people only came here after they died.
“Every room is created for a player as they die, it’s better if we just wait for him to come out,” Cyren said and crossed her arms.
“I just, well, okay if you say so,” Derek replied and opened his menu, pushing the log out button. Again, nothing but an error sign. “Oh, come on you’ve got to be kidding me, it’s not fixed yet?” he asked himself and sighed. He could only imagine the panic Jenny was going through right now as he lay on that bed.
“Hey man, relax, the servers reset in about four hours so even if the log out button isn’t working, everyone is forced out of the world so maintenance can happen. You’re not going to be trapped here forever,” Tavon said to him as Derek closed his menu. “Yeah, I suppose,” Derek replied and there was no reason for him to panic, not yet.
It was only a few more seconds before Otham came storming out of the doors. “God damned vampire Obsidian Armor wearing trash,” he yelled out to no one. Now he was just wearing basic street clothes.
“Well, what do you expect? You keep going up against someone who out levels you fifty times at least; you’re a special kind of stupid,” Cyren said and walked forward. “It’s just too bad you’re just the kind of stupid I’m looking for,” she said to him.
“Cyren, is that you? Who are the two tagalongs you picked up?” he asked and stopped in his tracks. “Oh, just two newbies who need to see what happens when you party up to try and take on a golem,” she replied and Otham laughed, walking up to the others.
“Hey, I’m Otham, who are you two?” he asked. “I’m Tavon, and this is Devon, it’s his first day and I want out of this pit worse than anyone I’ve ever met,” Tavon replied and Derek nodded.
“Strange, the quiet one is a level two, and you say it’s his first day?” Otham asked, tilting his head. “Uh, yeah. This is my sister’s sub account. It’s my first time playing the game. I lost a bet,” he said and lied.
“Oh yeah, and who’s your sister?” Otham asked. Derek remembered the rules, no real names. “Her name is Sandrine in game,” he said and everyone stared at him like he just grew a second head.
“You’re kidding, right?” Tavon asked him. “No, why?” Derek asked was confused. “Your sister is the Queen of the Loric clan of Night World, that’s amazing,” Tavon replied and this still didn’t mean anything to Derek.
“Yeah, well I’m Devon, level two nobody, let’s not forget why we came here,” he replied to them.
“Yes, stupid lizard brained me. So, you want to party up and kill us a bone golem. Don’t you know that the more people that fight, the stronger it gets. It’s a game mechanic to keep things balanced,” Otham said and continued. “Sounds like a plan, let’s get it done,” he finished with a smile. He opened up his menu and requested to join their party. Tavon approved with his own menu.
“Awesome, let’s go get ourselves a heart stone, or die trying,” Otham said and he opened his menu and reequipped his broadsword and gold armor. “What, did you think I just only had one sword and set of armor, not a chance. Only an idiot plays this game with one set of armor and a weapon,” he said and Derek looked away. He only had the armor and sword he started with. It could be lost, but he didn’t care. Sooner or later he was getting out of this place.
Chapter Nine
“The golems aren’t ever too far outside of town, we have three hours before the system reset. Do you want to stock up on potions or anything before we do this?” Otham asked and Cyren shrugged. “I’m short on gold,” she said.
Tavon just raised his hands. “Don’t look at me,” he said and put his hands down in a hurry. Derek never bothered to check how much money he had in his account, he didn’t even know how. “Open your menu, click on inventory and up there at the top it should say how much gold you have,” Tavon said to him.
Derek opened his menu and clicked on the inventory. It was then he realized what the sub account was for. “Holy hell,” he said quietly to himself. “Can you transfer money from one account to another?” Derek asked them. “Sure, if both parties agree to the transfer,” Tavon answered him.
“My sister was using this account to hide money, or hoard it,” he said and continued. “I have about eight hundred thousand gold in here,” he finished. The others were staring at him in disbelief.
“That’s more money than any new player in the Pit has, we could buy the Bone yard with that,” Otham said and his eyes widened.
“No, this, this isn’t my money. We’ll use what we need for supplies and that’s it. I’m not going to steal from my sister, even if she is a witch,” Derek said that last part under his breath.
“Alright, fine, let’s go to the shop and pick up what we need, this way. Oh, by the way. Keep that amount to yourself. If you make it out of here and die, and if the one who kills you is a player, they can take half of your stuff,” Otham said to him, and smiled. “But don’t worry. I won’t do that to you. We lizard people are an honorable people,” he said with a strange sense of pride.
“Yeah, lizard people are about as honorable as a thief in a store, don’t trust him, kid. He stole my Elixir,” Cyren said to him.
“I borrowed it, I always intended on giving it back, you know? You just need to wait longer is all,” he replied. “They are a thousand gold a piece, do you know how long I saved up for that?” she asked him bitterly from under her hood. “Hey, it’s not my fault you gave it to me, you shouldn’t have done that if it was so precious to you,” he replied with a hiss.
“Guys, enough. Stop. Let’s go to the shop and get what we need so we can fight the golem. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?” Derek said and he made a mental note to not trust the lizard person.
“Yeah, its fine. We can go to the shop. I’ve been there so we can just zip there,” Cyren said and without anyone giving a chance for an objection or another thought, she opened her menu and the four of them disappeared in a flash of white light.
When they reappeared, they were at what they called the shop. Derek was expecting something small but this was not small. This was massive, he supposed, having nothing to compare it to. There were players on both sides of them. There were booths that were selling weapons, armors, items of all kinds on both sides of him as far as he could see. “Follow me,” Cyren said to them.
“Who made you party leader?” Otham asked and Cyren stopped in her tracks. “I did,” she said and kept walking forward. “Fine,” Otham replied. Derek and Tavon just looked at one another but said nothing.
The trip wasn’t very long. They made it to a booth with a banner over it that said “Welcome to Snake Oil Sam’s” on it in bright red letters. Derek didn’t quite understand why it was called this but he didn’t know one shop from the next. Experience counted for something he supposed.
“Hey Sam, how are you doing, man?” Cyren asked the man behind the counter.
“Business is good, how are you today?” Sam asked and walked into the dim light. Sam was hard to look at, he was every zombie from a horror movie Derek had ever seen. The look on his face said it all. “Ah, we have a newbie in the ranks, what’s the matter kid, never seen a zombie class player before?” Sam asked him in a rasping, altered voice.
“No, I, uh, no I, I’m new,” Derek said in a hurry and did his best to not look at him, even now. It wasn’t real, none of this was but right now this was the only reality that he had.
“Well, get used to it kid. Lots of players in this game that don’t like to play by any, what you might call, normal standards,” Sam said and continued. “So, time is money and time is running out for today, what can I get for you?” he asked and Cyren reached
around and her arm seemed to stretch as it did. She pushed Derek forward from behind.
“We need supplies, we’re going to go golem hunting and get ourselves a heart stone,” she said as she did this.
“Healing potions and buffs, good to know. I have just what you need,” Sam said and pulled up a menu. Derek looked at it and saw all kinds of things. Fifty kinds of potions, each their own color and name attached.
“Only the basics, friend. We don’t need anything fancy,” Cyren said and Derek looked at the menu. He pressed the item that was on the top. Healing potion. He moved his finger to the item quantity menu and pressed the up arrow to forty. Ten for each of them. He hoped that would be enough. Do you accept the transfer? The menu flashed with a red box. Derek pressed Yes. He watched as the items were quickly transferred to his own menu.
“Wow, big spender for such a neophyte vampire, thanks for the business,” Sam said with a gross, twisted smile.
“Thanks,” he said and scrolled down the list to the E section. There it was. Elixir, one thousand gold pieces. Derek sighed and pressed the button, then he pressed yes again. Sam’s dead eyes were staring at him in disbelief.
“Kid are you a hacker, I don’t want none of that trouble. The mods can shut me down you know,” he said in a whisper. “I promise, I’m no hacker,” Derek said and took a step back. “I think that’ll be all we need today,” he said and the sale menu disappeared.
“Well, thank you kindly for shopping and your business. I’ll, uh, I’ll keep this between us as long as you promise to come back,” Sam said and looked directly at Derek.
“Yeah, no worries. I’ll be back,” he said, trying to smile as best as he could and walked away. “Did you see the look on his face? I thought he was going to rot away on the spot!” Tavon said.
“Yeah I saw it. Now ten potions for each of us and one Elixir for Cyren, to replace the one she lost,” Derek said. “You didn’t have to, you know, do that,” she said and looked at him. She was stunned. “No, you’re right I didn’t but you came with us when no one would. Win or lose, I felt like I needed to pay you, that’s customary. It’s not like we’re old friends or anything,” Derek replied to her and opened up his inventory menu.
From there he started to divide the potions out to the three of them. The process was easier than he expected it to be. Then when he was finished, he gave the Elixir to Cyren just like he said he would.
“Well god damn, the kid actually did it, do you even know what an Elixir does?” Tavon asked him. “No, and I don’t care,” Derek replied and closed his menu. “Now, let’s stop wasting time and kill a golem,” Derek said, and he took a breath. “You said it man, let’s go kill a golem,” Tavon said and they started to walk.
“We can go where we’ve been before, instantly?” Derek asked. “Yes, we can,” Tavon replied and caught on to what he was saying.
Tavon opened his map. “I’ve fought a golem seven times and lost seven times. I know it’s the same one because I marked it, now, let’s go kill it,” he said and his voice had a sinister edge to it. He was ready for some revenge and now he was finally going to get it.
“How come we need to kill your monster, how come we can’t kill any old one we find?” Otham asked. With that Tavon jumped at Otham and wrapped his pale hands around his green throat. “Because I can’t stand that thing. I need to kill it, we need to kill it. I don’t have a choice. Don’t ask me again,” he said and his eyes started to burn red with rage
“Okay little fang, I didn’t know you took it so personal,” Otham said quickly. Even if he was a higher level and had better chances of winning in a fight, he chose to back down. Tavon quickly returned to normal and let go.
“Thank you,” he said and took three steps back. Derek didn’t quite know what to think of the situation, but didn’t want to get involved. “Are we good to go now or does anyone else have to try and kill one another?” Cyren asked them.
“No, no more fighting,” Derek said and Tavon opened up his map again without another word. He pressed a button, the four of them disappeared with a white light.
Chapter Ten
The four of them found themselves in a desolate land. “Yep, this is the place,” Tavon said and looked around at all the places he died at before. “Where is the golem at?” Cyren asked as she looked around for any clues, or surprise attacks that might have been on the way.
“It, well, it’s usually lumbering around out here somewhere. Listen, can you hear it?” Tavon asked, and they listened. There was nothing but the wind out here. “Oh, screw this, just do an aura check and see if we can find it. Sometimes golems go inactive,” Otham said to them and looked at Cyren.
“Fine, I’ll spend a skill point, but you owe me,” she said and opened her menu, selected her skill menu, and selected Aura Scan. She pushed the button, her eyes burned bright blue under the hood for a few seconds. “Yes, it’s beyond that ridge over there. Two goblins are about four units to the west. One gargoyle, inactive, three units to the north and a Ludworm moving away from us to the south,” she said and closed her menu. Derek had no idea what any of those things might be.
“East it is, let’s move,” Tavon said and activated his black armor without opening his menu. “Hey, how’d you do that?” Derek asked him.
“Automatic settings are useful. Just go to your inventory screen and set it up to activate with a mental command,” Tavon replied; it made sense to Derek. This was virtual reality, linked straight to the brain. “Thanks,” he said and opened up his menu at the same time.
“It’s up there in the corner. Some people like it, some don’t. It’s all a matter of how you play is all. I like things to move a little quicker, not that it’s done me any good,” Tavon said and Derek turned the automatic setting on. He didn’t feel any different when he did.
“Is the tutorial finished yet, I want to go kill a golem,” Otham said and was getting annoyed with the training wheels talk.
“Yeah, it’s done,” Derek replied and was annoyed at always being the one who had all the questions about stuff like this. All he really wanted to do right now was log out. Cyren and Tavon began walking towards the east. The bright, low hanging moon provided all the light they needed to see their way forward.
It didn’t take very long. They walked over the ridge and there it was. “Bone Golem,” Derek said as if he was saying it for the first time. The thing didn’t look any different than the one he fought, it could have been the same one. Then the thing began to move. Derek and the others watched as the green health bar it had above it began to extend.
“Like I said, the more people you bring to a fight, the stronger a monster becomes,” Tavon said again and raised his curved, thin sword in response.
“So, um, did anyone have a plan on taking this thing out or were we just going to wing it and hope for the best?” Derek asked and the others had no idea what he was talking about.
“What do you mean plan, we have our roles. If we stick to them we’ll be fine,” Otham said and stepped forward in front of them. “Roles, really. Just like cogs in a machine, wow. Now I have even more reasons to hate this VR garbage,” he said with disdain in his voice.
There was no more time to talk. The golem formed a bone axe in its left hand and swung its weapon in a large overhead swing. Otham leapt to the side and slashed at the arm at the same time. His broadsword made contact with the bone. Derek watched tiny red numbers he saw before pop up and the large green bar shrink by the smallest amount. “This is never going to work, we can’t inflict enough damage,” Derek said to all of them.
“No one cares about damage; this game is about critical hits. Everything has a weakness, is this your first game or what?” Tavon asked him and Derek remembered.
“It only has one weakness. Fire, did anyone bring a flame thrower by any chance or are we just going to chip away at it all day?” Derek asked as the golem came at him. It was slow as it had always been. He jumped back but the shockwave made by the impact knocked hi
m to the ground anyway. In his armor he didn’t feel any pain this time and his life bar didn’t go down at all.
Tavon rushed forward, leaped into the air an incredible distance. “Weaknesses aren’t always on the scanning menu, sometimes you need to be creative and make your own, like a sword to the neck,” he said as he swung his blade at the back of the neck of the golem. He managed to make impact.
“Yeah!” Otham yelled out, however that green bar beside the beast barely moved. “How did that not do more damage?” Otham asked himself. He knew the monsters got stronger, but this much; that seemed unfair.
The Bone Golem quickly reached around and grabbed Tavon around the waist to toss him to the ground with ease. Derek watched as Tavon’s life bar rapidly decreased to the halfway mark, turning from green to yellow. Cyren turned to him, pointed her bone thin hand in his direction. She shot a blue beam in his direction, and his life bar returned to normal. “Thanks,” Tavon said and stood up.
“We don’t have a chance here,” she said realizing that if it could take half a life bar just by throwing someone to the ground, this thing would kill any of them in one hit.
Otham smiled. “That’s never stopped me before,” he said and ran forward and into the swing of the golem. At the last second, he dodged to the left, avoiding the blade of the axe and jumped forward again. He grabbed on to the ribcage of the thing and stabbed his sword into the darkness inside. The golem roared in what Derek was sure had to be pain, if such a thing could feel it. Then it lurched back and stumbled around swinging the lizard from side to side.
“Hold on, man, I’m coming,” Tavon screamed and ran forward. Derek felt like he was wasting space here and ran forward with him, his sword in his hand.
