by Jesse Wilson
“You see, every time this game updates, it doesn’t delete the old stuff. It’s like an old city that just keeps building layers on top of layers. All the old stuff is still there. The airship quest, the legendary weapon and the soul vault, all still hidden away in these mountains from the launch day. No one was ever able to win,” she explained and crossed her arms in annoyance.
“So what kind of problem can keep all of you away?” he asked and she looked at him.
“Onlig, the balefire demon lord. It’s a super high leveled demon that feeds on the near infinite power of the airship’s power source. We can’t touch it,” she said and sighed. “Anyway. Maybe you can be of some use to us. I’m taking you to Malf, he’ll decide what to do with you,” she said and held out her hand. “Come with me Devon, level five nobody. You might be young, but I think you and us could have a bright future,” she said and stared into him with those dead, black and empty eyes.
Derek didn’t trust anyone here but he didn’t want to be completely alone. “Fine,” he said reached out with his left hand, and retracted his plasma cannon with his right. The second he had it in his hand, the both of them disappeared.
When they reappeared, they were in a dark, torch lit chamber. However, it was more like an underground throne room. “Well, what have you brought me today, Lucy?” a voice said from the dark. “A level five neophyte that stole weapons and armor,” she replied. With that there was only silence in return.
“Well, if you wanted to waste my time, you succeeded. Put the small fanged nobody into the mines and take his stuff,” Malf replied and Derek prepared to fight. She must have sensed it and put her hand on his shoulder to keep him in place.
“Malf, this one remained in the game after the server shutdown. He had free reign of the whole town, the whole world. That could be very useful to us,” Lucy replied to him and then two red eyes burned in the darkness.
“Glitch, you say,” his voice said and the man walked out of the dark. It was another vampire but this one looked and felt powerful. He wore a suit and even with all the torches in the room he cast no shadow.
“Well, how lucky for you,” he said and with a twitch of his hand, Derek was levitated off the ground. “And how do I know that you won’t come back here after the next shut down and steal all of my stuff? My idiot manager was stupid enough to bring you here. You can come here any time you want. How can I trust you?” Malf asked and looked at him. Derek felt as if electricity was flowing through his body but he needed to talk.
“You can’t trust me, but really, as long as I remain here there isn’t much you can do to me. You can kill me and I’ll be back in Pick’s Town. Lock me up and eventually I’ll get out and make you pay for it. If I can’t log out, there isn’t much else for me to think about,” Derek said and Malf raised an eyebrow.
“Why don’t you let me join this little clan of yours and maybe we can build trust instead of trying to force it,” Derek finished. Malf set him down.
"You are small but you raise good points. Fine, you can be in the clan. I am the leader of the clan in the Pit. So, for now, you can be a member of the clan, but you must leave any parties you’re in. Delwrath can only ally with Delwrath members,” Malf said and Derek felt a twinge of guilt. “Fine, but there is something I need to do,” he replied. Malf let him down with a thought. “Fine, get it done, but make it quick,” Malf said and Derek opened his menu and pushed a button, disappearing.
Chapter Eighteen
Derek reappeared on the outland of the Pit. Something about being in Malf’s lair was unsettling. Being under the star filled sky with the moon lighting everything made him breathe easier. Players were about, looking for the golem and their coveted heart stones. Derek had only been here for a few hours but already he felt like he knew more than most people should. Glitches had their advantages, but all he wanted was to get out of this world and never come back. His plasma cannon appeared in his hand and he started walking.
Derek wondered just how much there was to this game. Clans, and buried secrets. What kind of game didn’t delete old content when new stuff came out? This world was as big as it was chaotic. He was most afraid of finding a library. Every game like this was filled to the brim with lore, magic and nightmares. Thousands of hours of just reading alone could be spent in a place like this. Yeah, a library was scarier than any monster right now.
Derek didn’t have to walk very long until he saw a lumbering bone golem in the distance. “Yep, you’ll do,” he said and his plasma cannon appeared in his hand. He didn’t want anyone seeing his Obsidian Armor so he switched it out for his original iron armor. He wasn’t worried about this fight lasting very long.
“Hey, bone head, over here,” Derek yelled at it and the thing ignored him. “Oh right,” Derek remembered and started to run in its direction. He closed the distance much faster this time and soon the golem was standing there; the second it saw him it was starting its attack pattern. Derek lifted his cannon and pulled the trigger. The extremely bright, blue beam struck forward and blasted the golem in half with one strike. The white bones fell into ash.
‘Congratulations, you’ve defeated a Bone Golem. You’ve found one heart stone and gained twenty five experience points. Heart stones can be shared with party members, do you wish to share the heart stones now?’ it read and Derek pressed the yes button. ‘Heart stone successfully shared, they will appear in your party’s inventory now,’ it read and he closed that menu and opened another one. ‘Disband party?’ it read. Derek sighed and pressed yes. “Thanks guys,” he said and watched as the party members disappeared from his list.
“Fancy weapon you got there, mister,” a voice said to him and Derek jumped, turned around to see a man shorter than him approaching wearing black clothes, but a white hat. “Too bad it doesn’t belong to you,” he finished with a strange southern accent.
Derek figured this must be the Dwarf Sheriff due to the glowing green badge on his black clothes. “Well, it does now,” Derek said and turned, still wearing his iron armor; he didn’t feel safe. Also, he forgot that he was an orange status player. Everyone could see that he stole something.
Derek was going to shift into the Obsidian Armor when the sheriff pulled out a silver gun and fired it. The bullet struck him in the chest and a green pulse of energy covered him. Derek fell to the ground, paralyzed. “Sometimes, boy, it doesn’t mean much to have the stronger weapon, speed usually wins,” the dwarf said and watched as the plasma rifle disappeared. “No matter, I’ll get you back to the jail and we’ll have a seer relieve you of all your stolen goods,” Holt said and walked to him. Derek couldn’t even talk.
The green light was like a web of energy around him. This is what being nice got you in the end, captured, exposed. He didn’t think he would be doing this anymore and if he got the chance to get even with the so-called cop, he would. This wasn’t real life. Here you could be anything you wanted.
Chapter Nineteen
Sheriff Holt picked Derek up as if he were a weightless ragdoll and the two of them disappeared. Derek’s vision returned to him and he found himself behind the crude looking bars he saw from the other side earlier. He tried to activate his weapons but nothing happened. “First time in a cell, rookie?” The sheriff asked and hit the bars with the back of his hand causing Derek to flinch and back off. “Top of the line peace aura around this cage. No weapons allowed of kind. Enjoy your stay, boy,” the dwarf said and laughed.
Derek looked around but there wasn’t even a bench in here “How much is the plasma cannon worth to you?” Derek asked the man. The sheriff stopped in his tracks. “You couldn’t afford it,” the man replied and got serious, his laugh vanishing in a hurry. “Try me, what’s it worth?” Derek asked again and Holt turned around.
“It was fashioned out of the dead body of my wife, her…character was retired after she died in an accident. It’s all I have left of her,” he said and his character faded away replaced by something entirely too human and real for a game
.
“Hey man, I didn’t know. I’ll give it back. Just let me out and I’ll give it back. All will be forgiven,” Derek said and the sheriff shook his head. “I’ll get it back. I don’t trust you,” he said and walked away. Now he was feeling bad about taking it. He had no idea such a thing was possible.
“Hey man, you want out of here?” a voice said to him from the next cage and Derek turned to see a woman who appeared to be wearing just leaves for clothes. He had to gather his senses before talking again to not sound like an idiot.
“Yeah. I kind of want to leave before the seer gets here,” he replied and she laughed. “Listen, you’re a level five right, you put some points in the power aspect I assume?” she asked him and he nodded.
“Vampires got talents, see. Blood rage, flight and so on. You can’t use the blood rage without blood. Take some of mine, break the bars and let’s get the hell out of here,” she said to him and smiled. The green woman held out her arm while the sheriff was still distracted.
Derek hadn’t done this before. “I don’t know how. It’s my first day,” he replied in a whisper and she laughed at him.
“Silly neophyte. Click on your menu, go to the special skills setting and turn it on like anything else,” she replied to him and he shifted his eyes to the sheriff who was on the opposite side of the room. Derek didn’t care what he was doing and turned on his menu. He saw the special skills menu. It wasn’t there before, he supposed that was because he had no power points yet.
He quickly pushed it, there it was at the bottom of the list. Blood Rage. He clicked that and before closing the menu looked to see if there was an automatic setting, and there was. He pushed that too, then closed his menu. The second he did that he felt fangs form in his mouth, it wasn’t painful or anything, just weird. “Okay, now what?” he asked.
“Bite me, haven’t you ever watched a movie in your life?” she replied and he looked at her pale green arm and sighed. He was just about to do it when suddenly a voice boomed.
“Holt, why did you put the vampire in the cage next to the plant girl?” a man asked in a yell and Holt spun around. “Damn it she was in camo mode,” he said and his green eyes got big. The both of them started to rush in their direction.
Derek didn’t waste any more time and he grabbed her arm and quickly sunk his fangs into her flesh. The blood was sweet and reminded him of soda that lost its fizz a long time ago, and the second it entered him, he wanted more.
“Come on man, hurry up,” she yelled as she watched her own life bar go down slowly. Derek noticed a small red gauge in the corner of his vision that was filling up the more he drank, and it was filling up fast. In less than two seconds it was full and crackling with energy. He let go and stood up.
She backed off a little bit because even though he didn’t know it, his eyes were burning red. Derek took hold of the bars that separated them and with surprising ease, shattered them with the slightest movement. He pulled her close and flew straight up and through the roof of the cage. The sheriff was shooting those same green bullets from before. They were moving in slow motion, everything was and he smiled as he flew out of the way.
With his left hand he formed the plasma cannon and tossed it away. Then he shot through the roof of the building and made it into the night sky. Holt cursed his bad luck and was upset. Then he noticed the black plasma cannon on the floor. “Well, I’ll be damned. He gave it back,” Holt said as he picked it up, inspected it for damage. To his relief there was none to be found. “Good,” he said as it disappeared, back into his inventory.
The deputy walked up to Holt. “Look at the bright side. You got her back,” he said and the sheriff looked at him. “Not today, Murph. We need to find both of them before a vigilante does,” Holt said and turned to walk out the door.
Chapter Twenty
Derek and the stranger flew through the night sky and he was pretty sure no one was looking up. Or maybe flying things were normal around here so no one cared. “Thanks for the help back there but you need to put me down soon,” she said to him and he looked around and saw a place behind some building where nobody was. He landed there and the second he did his red gauge was depleted. He collapsed to his knees, out of breath.
“We can’t stay here very long. That dwarf cop has high level tracking magic and we’re both tagged. If we can avoid him for a couple of hours we should be okay,” she said and helped him stand up.
“Thanks,” he said, catching his breath and continued. “What are you?” he asked her and it was clear he had no idea how many races there were in this game.
“Florid. Basically, a plant person. We come from the Crimson Forest area, I’m just here on a loot run,” she replied and continued. “My name is Gerlach,” she said and smiled. “Nice to meet you, but if you don’t mind we need to go,” she said and started to run away.
Derek shifted from his grey armor into his Obsidian Armor and he was not going to make the same mistake twice. If this Dwarf wanted to come after him, him and anyone he brought was going to be in for the fight of their lives. It was time being part of the Delwrath clan started to have some benefits.
Gerlach stopped in her tracks when she saw the shift. “Oh my, you’re the one who stole the Obsidian Armor?” she asked and he nodded in response. “Yeah, I did, and I like it. So, I’m going to keep it,” he said and waited for the sheriff to arrive.
“That’s great and all but are you sure you want to make a last stand here? Is the sheriff and this little town really worth it when there is so much more out there? You could have so much more than this. Come with me,” she pleaded with him. Derek considered it and decided that if he couldn’t log out, he might as well make the most of it.
“Alright, leaf, you have a point, let’s go,” he said and she glared at him with those yellow eyes of hers. “I’m not leaf, I’m Gerlach, that’s my name, you should try to remember it at least,” she said and shook her head.
“Fine, whatever,” Derek replied and the two of them started running away from town as fast as they could. She was faster than he was, but he was doing his best to keep up.
The two of them ran for what felt like forever to him, but soon the town was far enough away to the point where it couldn’t be seen anymore. Yet, no sheriff had come after them. Derek was beginning to think that this was some kind of set up. “Don’t worry, I sent spores to get him off our trail. He won’t find us out here,” she said and Derek didn’t know anything about that but for now he had to trust her.
“You must have your heart stone by now, what do you say we leave this place and I show you around a little bit. It’s the least I could do for getting us out of that place. It would have been really embarrassing to explain to the others how I got caught,” she said and Derek wondered. “Just how did you get caught anyway?” he asked her and she laughed.
“I ran out of energy at a bad time. I was just trying to score some easy elixirs from the shop and forgot to take one for myself. That’ll be the last time I make that mistake,” she said and he almost laughed.
“Cool, I wish I could go with you, but I can’t yet. I still need to meet up with Lucy,” Derek remembered. His little errand to get the heart stone had turned into quite the ordeal. This was not a good way to make a positive first impression.
“You want to join those blockheads? There are a lot of good things about this game, but clans generally aren’t one of them. The Delwraths and the Lorics are two of the biggest, if not the biggest ones in the game. But there are literally thousands of clans in Night World and that’s a low estimate. It’s nothing but trouble if you ask me,” she said and flipped the green hair out of her face.
“Maybe, but for now I don’t have a choice, I’m pretty much already accepted into the Delwrath clan and—” he was cut off when the earth around them exploded. That black serrated blade formed in his left hand at once.
“Ludworms,” she said and got close to him. The black dust cleared and sure enough there were four massive, golden w
orms that were surrounding them. “We need to kill them fast,” she said and her yellow eyes began to glow with energy.
“My name is Devon, by the way,” he said to her, realizing that he never told her his character name, a name he really didn’t like all that much but had no choice but to roll with it. “Nice, let’s take these worms out before they call on a big one,” she said and Derek swallowed. “Big one?” he asked but really didn’t want to know the answer to that.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ludworms, they might not have been very powerful, but they were ugly. They greatly reminded Derek of a lamprey. Their heads ended in giant mouths filled with teeth and they were twice his height, constantly in motion. “Don’t get bitten, let them attack then strike, don’t be aggressive.
The weak points are the back of their heads,” she said to him and Derek had no idea how he was going to hit them in the back of the head. He wanted to bring out the siege weapon but then again, he didn’t want to reveal all his secrets to her, or anyone if he could help it. The less they knew the better he figured. Derek quickly scanned it by pressing the blue dot and the read out appeared.
‘Basic Ludworm. Level Three. Weaknesses: Fire. Immunity: Earth Magic. Special Notes: Ludworms are blind, sensing prey by ground vibrations alone. One hundred and thirty hit points,’ it read. The worms weren’t attacking because now it occurred to him as long as they didn’t move, it couldn’t see them.
He carefully gripped his blade in two hands and took a deep breath and slammed his right foot on the ground. He was trusting that Miss Leaf, or whatever her name was, had his back. The worm on the right side of him dove in for the attack where he stomped. Then he leaped into the air a second before it got to him.
