Legends of Tarthirious: The Complete Collection

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  I pulled it out of my knapsack and flicked through the pages until I found the entry.

  Swamp Lurkers: Swamp Lurkers are a type of amphibious-undead creature that were once from the race of Men but now serve the will of the spirit of the swamp they inhabit. Their minds are tortured and are filled with unnatural parasites that can only be killed if the heart of the swamp is found and destroyed with silver, else the creatures will continue to pursue the swamp’s prey.

  “Gerry, can you see anything that could possibly be a ‘heart of the swamp’!?”

  “What? No! I can’t see anything in here!”

  I rolled my eyes, only stopping when I nearly slipped off the boulder onto the clambering monsters, “Use Life Detect!”

  “Oooh… Right. Two ticks!”

  Grand Gerry the Good cast Life Detect.

  “Okay, there’s definitely something near the middle of the swamp! But I don’t think you can make it through!”

  “Thanks for the support!” I shouted crossly.

  He was right, as they were I might’ve been able to run around them and get to the swamp, but the second they hit the water I’d be a goner.

  That’s when I had an idea and jumped off the boulder. It was risky, no doubt about that, but the only other option would’ve been to wait until my class showed up and tried to help which, if I’m being completely honest, I hadn’t thought about ‘til after I was off the boulder.

  Didn’t matter though, the first of the creatures was lumbering toward me and I was able to take a swing, dropping to a knee and slicing at the lurker’s thigh.

  Critical Hit!

  +1 Singlehanded Blade Skill.

  Progress: 11/100.

  +10 XP.

  Progress: 1930/3000.

  Its HP barely took a hit at all, dropping to a measly 1185/1200, but the sword had clearly done enough to mess up its leg to the point that it looked about ready to fall off, turning the lurker’s shambling gait into more of a continuous, controlled fall.

  To my great irritation, it took a good three hits to manage the same on the other leg. On the plus side that made it all the more glorious when my pattern of backwards step, slice, backwards step finally paid off and made the monster fall on its face, its health pretty much fully regenerated but its limbs still trailing behind it like loose shopping bags full of meat.

  One down, five to go.

  I continued my pattern for a while to great success, getting to the last one with significantly more confidence that what I’d started with.

  Bad move.

  The lurker grabbed me and, before I could react, took a big ol’ bite out of my left arm.

  Swamp Lurker used bite.

  50 damage inflicted.

  -10 bleeding damage per minute.

  -5 poison damage per minute.

  HP: 2950/3000.

  I snarled in pain and managed to push the twat off me and take a slice at his arm, lopping it clean off.

  +1 Singlehanded Blade Skill.

  Progress: 19/100.

  +10 XP.

  Progress: 2010/3000.

  Without thinking I charged the thing, hacking and slashing wildly, stopping only when a horrible pain ripped from my ankle to my lower back and I fell over.

  Swamp Lurker used bite.

  Right leg wounded.

  50 damage inflicted.

  -20 bleeding damage per minute.

  -10 poison damage per minute.

  HP: 2900/3000.

  My overzealousness had made me forget about the ones I’d left all over the damn floor, and suddenly they were all over me, taking bites out of my flesh as I desperately tried to fight back or at least get to my feet. The creatures rolled me onto my back so they could start ripping into my gut and, right as the pain reached the point of truly unbearable, the message appeared.

  You have fallen.

  Armelia: Chapter 3

  I’m going to skip over the part where I chucked the biggest temper tantrum I’d had since I was twelve and get right to the point five minutes later where I opened my eyes and discovered I was in my bed at the mage’s college.

  The blue glow that signified my resurrection faded and I got to look over my naked body in utter anguish. My items, my knapsack, everything, they were still sitting on my body by the swamp.

  You have one new message. Open chat?

  Opening chatroom.

  Grand Gerry the Good: ‘Where are you?’

  …

  …

  Armelia Fireheart: ‘Dead. But I’ll be right back.’

  …

  …

  Grand Gerry the Good: ‘Thank God, I was worried I was going to have to kill myself.’

  …

  …

  Armelia Fireheart: ‘Lol. Don’t worry. I’ll be right there.’

  Left chatroom.

  I got back into it and started searching all the drawers in the room, but had no luck.

  Not so much as a bloody hat.

  I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, and made the rational decision that the only thing to do was to streak through town and get back to the swamp. Besides, it was a good time to get another look at the amazing tattoos I had all over my body.

  It took no small amount of working myself up to step out into the street, and when I did I discovered a lot more players than had been typical in Girit. As I passed through I got a lot of lewd looks and dancing in my general direction and figured that they must’ve been teenagers who lied on their registration so that they could get a look at the uncensored, titty flapping, ding-dong waggling, decapitation having version of the game.

  But, to be fair, I probably would’ve done much the same if a player walked around naked, Hell, the amount of games I’d done with the guys from work where we’d all done strip shows… Now that I think about it, they may have been taking it a bit more seriously than me and the rest of girls were, or, you know, just me.

  What can I say? I like naked bodies but I also like to laugh.

  Anyway, it wasn’t the pervs that had me worried, it was the guard that was eyeballing me from across the way that made me think getting out fast would be in my best interests.

  I started my tactical espionage routine of running as fast as fraking possible as soon as he started to move toward me, and I was sure I was going to get away too, but then the unthinkable happened.

  You have one new message. Open chat?

  The prompt popping up made me run smack-bang into a knee-high shrubbery, giving the guard enough time to catch up and lock me in verbal combat.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Running around without any clothes on, that’s a crime here in Girit you know.”

  My first instinct was to be snippy at the authority figure, mostly because the way he’d caught me had already pissed me off, but I managed to cool myself down and shook my head, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware.”

  The guard frowned and looked me up and down, “That may be so, but I can’t have you gettin’ away with breaking the law. The fine’s fifteen gold pieces.”

  ‘Pocket change,’ I scoffed internally, ‘I’m going to the dungeons for something that I could’ve avoided with pocket change.’

  That’s when an idea occurred to me, “But surely there’s some concession for the hero of Girit?”

  “Hero of Girit? What are you on about?”

  “Wolves? I stopped them from their continued attacks on Girit.”

  “Hmm…” the guard pondered as he scratched his chin and gave me another look, “Alright, I suppose you can leave, but that excuse won’t save you next time.”

  I nodded politely and walked away, silently cursing myself for wasting a perfectly good excuse. I could’ve used that to get away with murder for crying out loud.

  Stopping in town seemed like a bad idea, last thing I needed was another guard running up to me for ‘freeing the nipple and fuzz’, so I went right to the edge of town where the only the afternoon light graced me.

  Opening chatroom.
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  Grand Gerry the Good: ‘Bril, see you when you get here.’

  Left chatroom.

  Not gonna lie, found that pretty damn mind breaking, and it successfully helped me develop an eye twitch that lasted all the way to the swamp where I got to look judgingly at Shadow-Stal who seemed perfectly content standing as far away from the lurkers as possible.

  It wasn’t a fantastic feeling watching my corpse getting ripped to shreds not thirty feet from me, it was like the worst outer body experience ever, and I still had to grab all my crap off my body. The only good news that came from the whole ordeal was that my sword was a good stone’s throw from the salad bar that was my innards.

  I tiptoed as best as I could over to the glinting weapon and picked it up.

  Acquired Silver Iron Sword: Weight: 10, Damage: 25, Durability: 43/100.

  Equipped Silver Iron Sword.

  My heart was in my throat, but that didn’t stop me from creeping my way backwards so I could figure out a plan of attack. The one with the legs was my target, but he was on the opposite side of me, eating my face like a depressed man eats roast chicken over the sink on Valentine’s Day.

  Took me a while to have the incredibly complex idea of going around the swamp and coming up behind him. Yeah, annoyance and anger were pretty much all I was running on, so I was prone to a few brain farts here and there.

  The point is I try.

  That’s beside the point, I made my way around the swamp without much difficulty, but practically froze in place when I got to about ten feet from the lurker. Something about attacking a kneeling creature from behind felt wrong.

  It was going to be harder to hit his legs that way.

  So, stepping as close as I dared, I sliced across his upper back, spilling thick, watery blood from the wound as the creature rose to face me.

  2x Sneak Damage!

  +1 Singlehanded Blade Skill.

  Progress: 20/100.

  +10 XP.

  Progress: 2020/3000.

  As the lurker shifted toward me it took all the self-control I had not to run away, but that’s when the amazing happened.

  I dropped into what was basically a praying stance and swung my sword with all my strength, scoring a Critical Hit! and cleaving through both of the lurker’s legs like they were nothing at all.

  It stayed where it was a moment, wobbling on its detached legs, before he finally fell forward off the gooey stumps and landed face first in the mud in front of me, splattering my body in the brown, smelly goop.

  Why explain it like that when it so obviously sounds like I’m talking about faeces? Because that’s exactly what it felt like.

  Gross image out of the way, I got to my feet and started leading my six lurker mudskippers away from the swamp, stopping about a hundred feet from the water before running around them and back toward the stench.

  I’d beaten the bastards at their game, and was going to successfully complete the first class before it even started.

  Let me tell you, it takes a great deal of mental fortitude to step naked into what you’ve just seen water zombies come out of, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

  I jumped as a voice came from the shell in the swamp, “You get them all Armelia?”

  Chuckling under my breath, I nodded, “Mmhm, going after the heart now, then I’ll get you out. Sound good?”

  “Sounds awesome. Sorry you died.”

  I shrugged it off and then, cautiously and uncomfortably, went into the disgusting swamp, “Yeah, worse things have happened.” I said as I started to submerge myself.

  That’s when things went from zero to fucked up all over again.

  I’d barely been under three seconds when I noticed six enemies coming for me, and turned to see the lurkers coming at me like tiny baby frogs with their legs switched around.

  It’s more disturbing than it sounds.

  With the added urgency I started kicking wildly, abandoning the immersion I’d been going for and speaking to Gerry even with my head fully submerged, “Am I close!?”

  “Yeah, just ahead of you! Hurry!”

  The tension built up, no thanks to the heavy dubstep-orchestral music that seemed to be reaching ever higher for the bass drop, and it was only when I reached the point where I was sure I was going to die again that I saw the heart.

  I kicked as hard as I could toward the throbbing green thing that looked more like the core of a peach than a heart, my vision blurring as the inevitability of drowning started to set in.

  The lurkers were right behind me, I was seconds from death, and I kicked as hard as I could, driving my blade into the heart and watching as it beat wildly, its glowing green blood seeping out until it gave one final cacophonous beat and the lurkers behind me stopped.

  I half expected to drown down there, but once the heart shrivelled up I noticed the water draining away and smiled.

  Come the end of the process I was on my knees in the silt, covered in mud, seaweed, and Gods’ know what else that was in that swamp. All around me were dead lurkers, dozens even, that were bogged down, stuck in large lobster traps, or chained by the ankles to large rocks. The fact that there were so many of those last ones made me quite uncomfortable.

  I struggled to my feet, a combination of nearly drowning and uneven ground making it much more difficult than it had to be, and turned around to see that, not too far behind me, was the long pipe made of what appeared to be barnacles and bent wood that I was sure held Gerry.

  Getting him out was going to be a right bitch.

  End of Conflict Report:

  6x Level 22 Swamp Lurkers, 1x Swamp Heart.

  +1375 XP.

  Level 10 Completed!

  Level Up!

  Level 11 Progress: 395/3500.

  5 Skill Points awarded.

  Armelia: Chapter 4

  HP upgraded!

  HP: 3500/3500.

  Attributes upgraded!

  39 Strength

  40 Dexterity

  39 Intelligence

  41 Wisdom

  “Heh. I don’t know if I can get you out of there.” I laughed as I pulled on my knapsack over my tattered and blood-soaked robes.

  “Stop kidding around and get me out of here. I’m starting to get a bit claustrophobic…”

  I wanted to keep making fun of him, but he actually seemed to be in genuine distress, “You think if I just bust it open it’ll fill back up with water and you’ll be able to swim out?”

  “I really hope so…”

  I walked across to the shell, a much more harrowing experience with the ability to see that just a few feet from where I could walk was a sheer drop, and started slashing as I had before, bringing my sword down to a dangerously low 19/100 before finally being given the option to pry it open.

  After a silent prayer, I opened the shell and watched with a massive amount relief as water filled the pit and Gerry was able to swim out to safety, at which point he immediately insulted me, “You look like shit.”

  I smiled and punched him in the arm, “Piss off, you went and left me to die, what’d you expect?”

  “Not my fault, is it? Bloody game made me jump into a hole.”

  “Sure,” I said with a long and condescending eye-roll, “it’s all the game’s fault. I believe you.”

  Gerry poked his tongue out at me then looked down into the drained swamp, “Nice job by the way, don’t think they’ll be a problem anytime soon.”

  I flushed with pride and nodded, “Yep, yep, yep. Can’t wait for the class to get here so I can rub it in Vilor’s smug face that I didn’t need him for the lesson.”

  “That’s right,” Gerry said, turning his gaze to the stars that were fast filling the sky, “they should be here soon.”

  “Yeah, and just imagine how Vilor’s going to react when he sees that the lurkers have already been defeated. I’m going to be a bloody legend. I wonder what’ll be on our door next…” I trailed off as Shadow-Stal finally joined us and we made our way to the less muddy
ground.

  We waited a while, enjoying the night air as it crept over us and a steady rain pattered down, washing our swamp covered skin until there was hardly a smell left at all. A few minutes past and the rain stopped, just in time for the class to arrive with Vilor at the front of the pack.

  Progress made in mission: First Class.

  Objective completed: Meet Your Class at the Girit Outskirt Swamp After Dark.

  Objective added: Complete Vilor’s Lesson.

  I puffed up my chest and looked at Vilor with the proudness of a child who’d drawn their first proper circle, “Good evening Vilor.”

  His nostrils flared in disgust as he took me in, “Quite. Glad to see you’re here early. Shall we begin?”

  “What?” I asked, gesturing to the dead lurkers, “I think I’ve already completed your lesson.”

  Vilor stalked his way over to the edge of the drained swamp and peeked in, “I believe what you mean is you’ve completed the task of making it more difficult. But no matter.” he said condescendingly before opening his palm at about waist height, then lifted it to above his head, raising foul smelling water from nothing in the process.

  I wanted to be amazed, I really did, but I couldn’t stand how much of a dick he was being, and the smell was a bit too unbearable to even consider amazement.

  “Now,” Vilor said smugly, “time for your first lesson. We’re going to start off with a relatively easy cleansing spell. This can be used to heal yours or another’s body of disease or poison, as well as to clean or enchant water so that you may drink it to quench your thirst or heal your ailments. You will each attempt to complete this task in different areas of the swamp, but be sure to do it properly, as you will be drinking it when you’re done.”

  “What is this spell called?” a voice from the small crowd asked.

  “Elven Cleanse, and it is performed like so.” he said before doing a series of over-the-top hand movements.

  Learned Elven Cleanse.

  I sighed in defeat and trudged over to the water, “This sucks,” I said as I fell to my knees and started moving my hands over the water, “here I thought I was going to be top of the class, but no, I’m stuck doing this stupi-”

  I stopped as I cast the spell and watched as the entire swamp turned into more of a pond. The foul smell was completely gone and the water was as clear as glass, a faint blue hue floating over the surface as the moonlight glanced off it beautifully.