“Every time I got to that damn Water Temple, where you have to swim around and raise and lower the water levels—I quit. Tried finishing it like ten times but never did.”
“Well, that makes the decision easy,” Vayde replied. “This way leads down to the dungeons and the Horngrin Executioner.”
“And my sword.” I smiled.
“Did I say it was a sword?” Vayde replied. “Because I don’t remember saying that.”
“What is it then?” I protested, following him down the tunnel. “Armor? Because I already have this suit that Gehman made me, and it’s awesome.”
“I’m not gonna tell you,” Vayde replied. “Because if it doesn’t drop, you’re gonna be bummed out.”
The tunnel continued to slope down before leveling out into a passage way that had been paved with flat stones. On either wall were jail cells with bodies of dead prisoners inside.
“Gruesome,” I remarked as we passed one that was draped over a low wooden stool.
A Horngrin Guard paced back and forth in front of us.
“Level 18,” I whispered. It still had its back to us, and if we could get the drop on it, it wouldn’t stand a chance. I didn’t even have to explain my plan to Vayde and D.
I opened with my Charge, then a Broad Strike, and several more blows before the Horngrin was able to turn around. They all scored critical hits, as I was attacking from the back, and I ducked as D unleashed his arrows and Vayde fired Shockwaves.
I sliced at the Horngrin’s legs as its health plummeted, and as it hit critical, activated Execute, cutting away what was left of his health.
“Anything?” D asked as the monster burst from existence, dropping more garbage loot to the ground. I shook my head and D sighed. He’d been hoping one of them would drop a bow worth using, or at least a set of new daggers for him, but everything had been completely useless. At least we’d been getting good experience.
We continued on, using the same method of attack on four more Guards prowling the passageway. They were worth a lot more experience than we were used to and Vayde and D were closing in on 15. I could barely see the sliver of XP I needed to hit 21.
We turned a corner and the passage opened into a small antechamber lit by green torches that cast the room with an eerie glow. It was strangely devoid of any Horngrin, which made me suspicious, but then I saw it—a shoddy wooden door at the end of the room. Instantly, I knew what lay behind it.
The Horngrin Executioner.
17
The Executioner
“What level did you say this guy was?” I asked as we approached the door.
“He’s level 27,” Vayde replied.
“Jesus,” D exclaimed. “And he’s an elite?”
Vayde nodded. D glanced at me warily. “You failed to mention he’s almost level 30, Vayde. How are we supposed to deal with this guy?”
“Carefully,” Vayde replied. “Jack can go in and take the brunt of the damage, and you and I can plink away at him from the back.”
“Even Jack’s going to take a ton of damage from a level 27 Elite,” D replied. “You’re going to have to spend half the time healing him.”
“That’s fine,” Vayde replied.
“Have you even fought this guy before?” D asked.
“Well… no,” he admitted. D threw his hands into the air. “But some people in the guild have! And they said he’s not that bad!”
“Great,” I groaned, tossing my hands in the air.
“This is absurd,” D scoffed. “We need to turn around and get the Hell out of here. Now.”
“But we’ve come all this way!” I protested. D stepped up close to me and took me by the arm and pulled me back towards the door away from Vayde.
“Jack,” he said quietly. “You need to think about what you’re doing right now.”
“What are you talking about, D?”
“Getting involved in someone else’s war?” he went on. “The Mercenaries? Sinful? Cavey’s guild? What’s any of this have to do with us? We need to just get out of here, find a nice leveling spot, and grind like everyone else.”
It wasn’t like D to behave this way. In every other game we’d played he was always the reckless one, running into high-level areas he shouldn’t be, using bugs and exploits to his advantage, getting into PvP battles with players much higher than him—but now he was the one trying to be the voice of reason.
But I understood why.
This wasn’t any other game. The consequences were real now. Being reckless was the last thing we should be doing, and D knew that.
“He’s right, Vayde,” I admitted. “We just can’t risk something that high level. It’s not worth it.”
Vayde nodded slowly. “I get it.”
“We can keep grinding in the dungeon,” I told him. “I’m almost 21, which isn’t bad, but, D, you’re only 14, and Vayde you’re still 13! There’s a good chance that thing could one-shot you both.”
None of us were happy to admit it, but going in there to fight the dungeon boss was just too reckless. Back when Call of Carrethen was just a game we would have been rushing in there without thinking twice, but that just wasn’t possible anymore.
“Come on,” I said before we sat there moping any longer. “Let’s get back to it.”
Grumbling, I turned around to head back up the passage, but as I did, my foot caught against something on the floor. I stumbled and looked back to see a metal ring that had been concealed beneath a small pile of broken stone.
Something shifted, and I watched in horror as a steel gate slammed down behind us, blocking our escape and sealing us in.
“A trap!” D cried out. I whirled around just in time to see the door in front of us shatter into pieces, followed by the biggest Horngrin I’d ever seen.
“It’s the Executioner!” Vayde shouted. It had to have been at least seven-feet tall, and although it was already stooping, its horns scraped against the ceiling of the room. It was wearing tattered rags, but in its hand, it clutched an enormous sword made from black steel, with one gleaming sharp edge and one serrated like a carving knife.
That’s what Vayde was talking about! I thought as the Executioner lunged at me.
I tried to deflect the blow, but the force of his blow knocked me off my feet and sent me crashing into the wall. I hit hard and collapsed onto my knees. My health bar was flashing critical. I tried to pop a health potion, but the Executioner was already on me.
“I got you, Jack!” Vayde cried out. A fuzzy sensation cascaded through me as a spiral of blue and white beads, almost like fireflies, swirled around me, restoring my health to full.
A healing spell!
I ducked and rolled as the Horngrin leapt at me, holding my sword out in front of me as D and Vayde began firing at him from across the room.
I still had the Jungle Sickness debuff, but it was blinking, which meant it only had seconds left before it faded. The Horngrin raced towards me, swinging his sword in a broad arc. I ducked and struck back, slicing my sword across his stomach.
The blow actually registered on his health pool, but just barely. Still, it was better than I was expecting. I activated Warrior’s Charge and drove my shoulder into his chest. It knocked him back, but of course the stun didn’t go off. I leapt back as it swung out again at me. The blow narrowly missed me, and I felt the air on my cheek as the blade cut through the air, just millimeters from my head.
“What do I do!?” I shouted to my group.
“Just keep distracting him!” D shouted back. “You’re keeping his attention off of us!”
“Oh, that’s great!” I replied, leaping over the fire at the center of the room as the Executioner took another swing at me. “I can’t do this forever! You guys are barely hurting him!”
D’s arrows struck the beast, but it was going to take more than he had left in his inventory to bring it down. Vayde’s Shockwaves weren’t doing much better. Another of D’s arrows chipped away at the Horngrin’s health, but he was st
ill basically full.
The Horngrin threw itself at me and swatted me out of the way like a fly. His enormous hand slammed into me and sent me sprawling through the door he’d come in from. I rolled onto my knees and quickly downed a Health Potion as I looked around. It was an enormous cavern with a simple fire at its center. My sword lay at my side and I snatched it up as the Executioner came charging in from the other room.
Vayde fired a shockwave but missed. The spell slammed against the wall of the cave. It was like a wrecking ball, and shards of stone cascaded down all around me.
“Watch out, Jack!” D shouted as he raced into the room.
Yeah, that thing almost killed me!
A lightbulb went off in my mind. I looked up at the ceiling as I circled the room, putting the fire between me and the boss of the dungeon. Countless stalactites, some as large as me, hung ominously from the ceiling. I looked at the Horngrin and grinned.
“All right, you big green turd,” I growled. “Bring it on!”
The Horngrin snarled and jumped at me, his sword held high. I leapt back as far as I could, making sure the blow wouldn’t hit me. I had everything planned out, but this time, as his sword came crashing down, something happened I never saw coming.
A row of flames cascaded out from the blade, hissing across the floor towards me. It was almost instantaneous, giving me no time to react. I tried to hurl myself out of the way, but it was too late. The flames enveloped me, and I watched as my HP started to burn away.
“Help!” I gasped. Vayde hit me with a healing spell, restoring a good chunk of my health, but the attack had left me with a debuff, Clinging Flames, and I watched powerlessly as my health continued to fall—fast.
I gulped down another Health Potion and threw myself out of the way as the Horngrin swiped at me with his sword. My health was plummeting as Vayde cast another heal spell. But at this rate, Vayde would run out of mana, and I’d run out of potions and there would be nothing to save me.
“Goddamn it,” I cursed, turning back to face the Horngrin who was readying his next attack. It was now or never. There was no time left. It was him or me. “Come on!”
The Horngrin leapt at me, and I jumped in to meet him.
It will work, I thought. It has to!
I activated Warrior’s charge and hurtled towards the snarling beast. I slammed into him, but his sword caught me mid swing and I watched as a quarter of my health vanished.
But none of that mattered, because my stun had gone off.
The Horngrin crashed to the floor in a heap, immobilized for just a second. But a second was all I needed.
Summoning all my strength, I pulled my sword back and aimed for the largest stalactite I could see.
“Vayde! D!” I shouted as I hurled the blade. It cut through the air, its stainless steel shimmering as it soared, reflecting the flames at the center of the cavern. Vayde fired a Shockwave, and D loosed an arrow. All three of our attacks slammed into the enormous shard of rock at the same time.
A crack formed.
“Come on!” I shouted as the Horngrin began to stir. My stun had worn off, and I glanced down at my health. I was almost at critical and still ticking down.
This is it, I thought as I looked back at the ceiling. The crack in the stone widened and bits of rock fell to the ground. The Horngrin leapt to his feet and raised his sword at me.
I tried to use my Health Kit, but the debuff was too strong, and my health continued to fall.
This is it…
The Horngrin was about to cut me down. I was going to die. My mind was about to be torn from my body forever as I joined Gehman and the others in the electronic void…
But just as the Horngrin was about to bring down his sword for a killing blow, the massive rock shard came crashing down and embedded itself in his skull.
The huge beast howled as white light came spilling out of him and his body burst into countless glowing shards that swept through the cave and then vanished. Instantly, my debuff vanished. I looked down at my health.
5 HP remaining.
Ding!
All three of us leveled up.
“I did it…” I muttered in disbelief. Slowly, I raised my eyes to my companions, who were standing dumbfounded at the entrance to the chamber. “I did it!”
18
Flame Strike
The blue, yellow, and pink swirled around us as we all leveled up together. It seemed like the celebratory effect was greater than before, and when D spoke, I understood why.
“Holy shit!” he shouted. I’m level 17!”
“I’m 16!” Vayde gasped.
“I finally hit 21!” I couldn’t believe it. That Executioner was worth a ton of experience. I was already at least half of the way to 22.
“See?” Vayde laughed. “Told you we could do it!”
“Yeah, because we totally planned that,” D replied sarcastically.
I laughed and looked down at the enormous rock shard that had finished off the Horngrin Executioner. It was incredible that environmental kills were a thing in Call of Carrethen, but I guess that was part of a real virtual world. In most games you couldn’t really interact with the environment, but in Carrethen, I’d just used the environment to kill a dungeon boss.
Sick!
My sword lay at my feet, but as I moved to pick it up, I saw something else beside it. The enormous black blade the Executioner had been using. It was huge, almost as tall as I was. The metal was matte black and seemed to soak up the light, except for the cutting edges that gleamed and reflected the orange glow of the fire.
“That’s it,” Vayde said, stepping up beside me. “Crazy rare.”
I inspected it, and my jaw almost fell off. Not only was it rare, it was an Artifact Weapon. Artifact Weapons were the highest rarity items in the game. You could grind a spot for weeks and not find one.
Executioner’s Blade—Damage 147-212 Slashing.
“No way,” I muttered. My Polished Bone Sword had a base damage of 54. This was light years beyond that. “
D…” I muttered in disbelief as I read the rest of the blade’s inscription. It had two special skills.
Bleeding Wound—When using the serrated edge of the Executioner’s Blade, applies a Bleeding Wound that continues to damage the target over time.
Flame Strike—Sends a cascading column of fire towards the target, dealing 454-524 damage.
“What is it?” D asked, stepping up beside me.
“Look at this…” I told him, handing him the sword. I watched his face as he inspected the item. His reaction was basically the same as mine.
“Let me see! Let me see!” Vayde was literally jumping up and down like a giddy little girl. D frowned at him, and he stopped but extended his hand. D passed him the sword and Vayde inspected it.
“Oh—my—God, Jack!” he exclaimed. “What is this thing!?”
“You said it was a rare drop, right?”
“I didn’t know it was an Artifact Weapon! This thing is awesome!” Vayde shouted, clumsily swinging it around in front of him. The serrated edge of the blade cut through the air, inches from D’s head.
“Okay, Conan,” D groaned, stepping back quickly. “Put that thing down before you accidentally kill someone.”
“Oh, relax,” Vayde laughed, handing the Executioner’s Blade back to me. “I’m a mage. I have ten Strength; you’d barely feel a thing.”
It was strange how light the enormous blade felt in my hands. In the real world, I’d never be able to lift such a thing, but here it was like holding a feather—a deadly feather.
“Hey, D,” I said with a smile. “Wanna guinea pig this Flame Strike for me?”
I raised the blade over my head, aiming in his direction. He just sneered and flipped me the bird. I chuckled.
D moved aside, and I brought the sword down with full force. The blade struck the stony floor and sent chips of rock spraying into the air. Instantly, a torrent of flames spewed from the tip, lighting the ground on fire in
a thick column in front of me. The flames roared and burst then quickly disappeared.
“Whoa…” D muttered.
“You know, I’m gonna start charging you for every time you quote the Matrix,” I replied, heaving my new sword over my shoulder. “This sword is insane! Let’s go find those Sinful pricks, right now!”
“The Force is with you, young Skywalker,” D said slyly. “But you are not a Jedi yet.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “You’re just jealous none of these guys dropped you a new bow.”
“Don’t forget to assign your XP,” D told me, bringing up his character sheet and assigning his.
“Ah, yes,” I replied, bringing up mine. “More strength and HP.”
“135 bow, baby!” D shouted triumphantly. “Elemental arrows, here I come!”
“115 health!” I replied. It wasn’t that dramatic of an increase from 110, but it was something. “I dunno about you guys, but I’m ready to head to the Catacombs.”
D scowled at me, and I tried not to laugh too hard. But I just couldn’t help myself. It was the first time I’d been legitimately more powerful than him in a game.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, pulling out my Bindstone.
“What are you doing?” D asked.
“What?”
“We can’t just recall,” he replied. “You may be Superman, but Vayde and me still need some levels.”
Vayde stifled a laugh. “True, true.”
“So, you wanna fight our way back out?” I asked, brandishing my new sword. “That’s fine with me!”
We made our way back up the way we’d come in. The Horngrin were significantly easier and I didn’t have to step in once to help Vayde and D. Of course, I had to test out my Flame Strike.
“Stand back!” I called out. “I don’t want to hit you guys too!”
Vayde and D moved out of the way as I aimed my strike at the group of 3 level 15 Horngrin Ravagers. I raised my sword high above my head and slammed it into the ground in front of them.
Flames shot out from the ground in a pillar of fire, engulfing the group. They screamed and turned to face me, but before any of them could make a move, their HP vanished.
“Daaaaayum.” D nodded, obviously impressed.
“That did way more damage than I’d anticipated.” I laughed as the Horngrin poofed out of existence.
Call of Carrethen: A LitRPG and GameLit novel (Wellspring Book 1) Page 8
