by Jake Bible
“Fight or run?” I asked Kip.
He took a second to turn and glare at me.
“Don’t give me that look,” I said. “We still have the others to find.”
“We stop Jeremy,” Kip said. “Or it spreads.”
Crap. He was right. If we didn’t put down the undead, then EverRealm could be overrun and fast. There were creatures in the Domain that weren’t exactly alive, but they were different than the undead from our world. If the infection Jeremy brought to the game spread too far, then the entire Domain could collapse.
“Then let’s get to work,” I said and released my arrow.
It stuck in the right eye of an undead woman. She dropped to the ground, but her place in the quickly growing horde was taken by a shirtless man that must have been on steroids. He hissed at me and started to run, matching Jeremy’s pace.
Kip let fiery missiles fly from each of his palms and they collided with Jeremy’s chest, knocking our former friend back into the horde, taking down a dozen of the undead with him. Those undead quickly caught fire and started bumbling about as their bodies burned, baby burned.
Kip was a Level 235 Magic User. It was kind of like a Wizard, but more general. Think of it as a highly skilled cook compared to a formally trained French chef. There were plenty of Wizards in EverRealm, and that formal training and specialization had its advantages, but Kip didn’t want to be held to guild rules and etiquette. He didn’t want to rely on staves and wands or spell books. He liked the freedom of being an all-around Magic User.
I fired off three more arrows, taking out three more of the undead. I was about to knock another arrow when my hands froze. My mind couldn’t quite grasp what I was seeing.
“How?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Kip replied as we both watched Jeremy struggle up onto his feet.
He should have been down and out for good. Those missiles did a ton of damage to his body. Undead or not, there was no reason he should have been capable of getting up. The other undead that were on fire had dropped and were lying there moaning as they burned. So why wasn’t Jeremy?
Kip glanced over his shoulder at the save point altar.
“Shoot him,” Kip ordered. “Magic arrow. Head shot.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked as I looked back at the save point altar as well. “No, wait, hold on.”
“He can’t get to it,” Kip said and faced the altar full on, his hands pressed together like he was praying. A bright, white light began to emanate from between his palms.
“Kip, no!” I said. “The others!”
“No choice,” Kip said as the light grew so bright I had to turn away.
Good thing, too, because Jeremy was sprinting right for us, his body unbelievably agile as he clambered over the blackened ruins.
As I watched him move, and knocked a magic arrow, I realized Kip was right. Jeremy had been good at EverRealm. His character was an Elven Warrior, Level 152. If he was agile and dangerous now, he would be ten times worse once he touched the save point altar. If the game allowed him to become his character, all bets were off on how things worked.
The arrow flew from my bow and he dodged it. A sickening smile crept across his gray-skinned face.
Well, shit, that wasn’t good.
“Kip!” I cried as I knocked another arrow and fired. “He dodged a magic arrow!”
Jeremy dodged that arrow as well and kept on coming.
I didn’t dare turn around to see what Kip was doing. Jeremy was going to be on me in seconds. I slung my bow and pulled out my long sword again. Bracing my feet in the rubble, I got ready to swing for Jeremy’s neck.
Then he stopped as a high-pitched whine began to build. The undead villagers behind him fell to their knees, their mouths open in silent moans. Jeremy hissed at us, his hands going to his ears. He tried to take a couple more steps, but collapsed along with the villagers, his knees sending up huge puffs of ash.
“Run,” Kip said and grabbed my shoulder.
I did not question that bit of wisdom. I didn’t even take the time to sheath my sword. We were running around the altar, which was glowing a color red that was hard to define, and climbing over the collapsed back wall of the church as the whine grew and grew. My head felt like it would split open, but I didn’t dare slow down as we sprinted from the village and back into the rolling hills.
Then everything went silent. I mean absolutely silent. Not quiet, but silent. The total absence of sound.
Kip tackled me about the waist and we fell into the tall grass as a wave of energy washed over us. It was like my skin had been burned off then grew back all in the space of nothing. We lay there and gasped as sound slowly came back into the world.
Kip sat up, checked himself, checked me, nodded, and stood. He shook his head.
I got up and swore. I made up a few words when I saw what was coming.
“How?” I asked after I’d exhausted my vocabulary.
The village was toast. Not even the burned-out husks of the buildings were left. You could kind of make out a foundation here and there, but other than that, it was completely gone.
But Jeremy wasn’t.
There was no sign of the undead villagers, or the save point altar, but Jeremy was clear as day. He stood there in the middle of what had been the village, his eyes glowing red and staring right at us.
“He already touched the save point,” Kip said then turned and ran.
“Ya think?” I called after him.
I watched Jeremy for a second. He didn’t move from his spot even though I knew he was staring right at me.
Things in EverRealm just got really, really bad.
Twelve
Kip’s character had some legs on him and it took me a while to catch up.
“Slow down,” I said as I caught my breath. “Kip! Slow the hell down!”
He didn’t slow down. He didn’t have to. It wasn’t like he was a middle-aged fat guy that had been living off cola and anything coated in salt he could get his hands on. I mean, yeah, he was still that guy to my eyes, but in EverRealm, he was a badass Magic User. He’d probably cast a spell that gave him extra endurance. Endurance that was beating my Ranger legs, which wasn’t easy to do despite the difference in our levels.
“Kip!” I shouted.
He stopped and shushed me. It was a natural reaction, one that we all instinctually did because of the undead, but the look in his eye said it was way more than that.
“You made the right choice,” I said. “Destroying the save point was a good idea.”
“No,” Kip said and started to move again. I grabbed him hard and shook his arm. “Let go.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not letting go until you listen to me. Rules have changed. Jeremy is an Othersider like us. He’s also an undead Othersider, which has never happened in the Domains. None of us can know what that means here. This is uncharted territory, man. It’s not your fault.”
He glared at me then glared at my hand on his arm. I let go and took a step back.
“We need to think this through,” I said. “Okay? Take a second and think with me. Can you do that?”
He hesitated then nodded. “Yeah.”
“Good,” I said.
I brought up my heads-up display.
Character class: Ranger
Character alignment: Chaotic Good
Character level: 8
Health: 53%
Strength: 80%
Agility: 87%
Magic: 15%
Armor: leather, no bonus
Coin: 200 gold pieces, 155 silver pieces, 0 copper pieces
Inventory: Long bow with 14 regular arrows, 4 magical. 1 regular short sword. 1 long sword of Breaking (Level 16). 2 tunics. 1 pair of breeches. 1 hooded cloak. 1 satchel with 1 wine skin, full, 1 8 pieces of jerky and 1 muffin, moldy.
I took the wine skin out of my satchel and handed it to him.
“Have a drink,” I said. “It’ll help.”
He did
and I watched him relax a little. Just a little. I took the wine back and drank more than I should have, but shit, I needed it.
“Ahhh,” I said and tucked the skin back into my satchel. “Hungry?”
“No,” he said.
“Me neither,” I said. “Come on. Let’s walk. Not run, walk.”
He nodded, and we walked our way up the hill and down the other side.
“Let’s ignore Jeremy for now,” I said. “We have to focus on the others.”
“Yeah,” Kip replied.
“Please tell me you have a spell or something that can locate them,” I said.
“A locator spell?” he asked.
“Yes! Exactly!”
“No.”
“Dammit, Kip,” I said. “Why’d you get my hopes up?”
“I can make one,” he said. “Have to find ingredients.”
Then he started walking again and all I could do was follow. We walked up and down hills for most of the day before he stopped and pointed to a dark spot in the next hill.
“What’s that?” I asked, squinting against the sun. It didn’t help.
“Hollow,” he said.
“What’s in the hollow?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.
“Gnomes,” he said. “We’ll trade.”
“Trade what?” I asked.
He shrugged and changed directions, heading straight for the hollow.
It turned out a hollow was simply a small cave. Too small for us to get inside, but large enough for creatures, such as gnomes, that were only a foot tall.
Kip held out a hand and I stopped while he kept going, moving slowly towards the entrance of the hollow. He stood there for a long time before a small, white-bearded face appeared from the hollow, its eyes blinking up at him.
They started conversing, but I was too far away to hear what they were saying. After a few minutes, the gnome disappeared back into the hollow and Kip joined me.
“Well?” I asked.
“They’ll trade,” Kip said.
“What exactly are we trading?” I asked.
He grimaced and held out his hand. A single jewel appeared in his palm. It seemed to shimmer way brighter than they should have in the daylight.
“Hold the hell on,” I said, recognizing the jewel. “That’s a power jewel. You need that to power your spells and other magicky things.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Empty now. Used it to destroy altar.”
“Wait a damn minute,” I said. “Are you saying you’re out of spells?”
“Out of power,” Kip said. “I can get more.”
“How will you work the locator spell when you have the ingredients?”
“Need the ingredients because I’m out of power,” Kip said.
“Oh, sure, okay,” I said, finally catching on.
Before we could continue, a gnome came rushing out of the hollow, tossed a small bag at Kip’s feet and waited. Kip tossed him the jewel and the little bugger was gone in a blink. Kip bent over and picked up the bag, which was small enough it could fit in the palm of his hand.
“Gnomes always have ingredients,” Kip said. “They hoard.”
He opened the bag, sniffed it, stared in at the contents, then closed the bag and tucked it inside his robes.
“One more stop,” he said.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Neiva,” he said. “Need ash.”
“That freaky witch?” I said, but he didn’t reply.
We were walking again.
Up and down the hills, up and down the hills. The suns were setting by the time we reached the cottage.
Except there was no cottage. The remnants of last night’s fire, along with the stump where Neiva had set the tray on, were there, but no sign of there having ever been a cottage or the woman.
I was going to mention how messed up that was, but Kip didn’t seem to be surprised at all, so I let it drop.
He walked over to the remains of the fire and scooped as much ash as he could into the small bag, filling it to the top. He cinched it closed then sneezed as ash puffed out into his face.
“Now where?” I asked as Kip turned his face up to the sky and closed his eyes. “Kip? You have your ash, so now where do we go?”
He didn’t respond.
We stood there until the sun had set and the landscape became awash in the deep blue of twilight. Then Kip nodded, opened the small bag, and a pink cloud came out. It hung there before us, waiting.
“Friends,” Kip said.
The cloud pulsated then began to float off in a direction I didn’t know. Maybe it was south, maybe it was north. No clue. But it wasn’t back towards the orchard or back towards the destroyed village. New ground.
“This is going to help us find the others?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Kip said.
We followed the pink cloud.
Thirteen
The hills diminished after about an hour of following the pink cloud. But the grass remained. We were soon on open plains that stretched for as far as I could see by the Galac moons.
My stomach growled, and I took out some jerky for me and Kip to gnaw on while we walked. In that EverRealm way, my tired legs became less tired and I perked up with each bite of jerky. Part of the game mechanics of replenishing energy. Not that the jerky filled me up; I was still hungry as hell when we’d finished it all off, but at least I wasn’t sleeping on my feet.
Across the grassy plains we walked, our senses alert for threats, but the place was pretty innocuous. It was going to be hard for anything major to sneak up on us.
“Who goes there?” a voice boomed.
I stopped and drew my sword, but Kip kept on walking, following the pink cloud as it continued floating over the tall grass.
“I say, who goes there?” the voice boomed again, coming from the opposite direction the cloud was headed.
The cloud hesitated then dropped into the grass.
“What the hell? Get this shit off me!”
Coz.
He popped up out of the grass, twisting and swatting at the pink cloud that had wrapped itself around his body like translucent cotton candy.
“Kip! Get it off, goddammit!” Coz shouted.
“Shhh,” Kip said as he waved a hand and the cloud disengaged from Coz.
“Man, it’s good to see you,” I said as I jogged over to him, my sword sheathed and hand out. “Nice misdirection with your voice.”
He shrugged and took my hand, giving it a firm shake. Then he stared at me.
“Hold on. You guys went to the save point already?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Kip said.
“Why are you heading this way then?” he asked. “Why didn’t you wait there for us to arrive?”
“That wouldn’t have been a good idea,” I said and filled him in on our little disaster.
“Are you kidding me?” he nearly shouted. “Gone? Like totally gone?”
“Totally gone,” I said. “All except for eternally undead Jeremy.”
Kip cocked his head and looked at me then nodded.
“Yeah,” he said.
He must have agreed with my eternally undead assessment.
“Shit,” Coz said and plopped back down into the grass.
He was dressed in tight-fitting, black leather. Being a Master Thief, the outfit helped him blend into the dark. If he’d been able to get to the save point, then we’d have walked right by him without even noticing. The leather was enchanted and kept him hidden from all eyes. Not sure if the cloud would have missed him or not. The voice misdirection was just something Coz could do. It saved his ass more than a few times back in our world.
He shifted on the ground and his leather creaked.
“This shit chafes,” he said. “I need to get to another save point or my thighs are going to be rubbed raw.”
“You haven’t found any of the others?” I asked. He gave me a blank stare. “Right. No. Obviously.”
“The closest save point is w
hat?” Coz asked, turning to look at Kip. “Ten leagues from here? Twenty?”
“Yeah,” Kip said.
“Great,” Coz replied and stood back up. “We better get walking. You got anything to eat?”
I pulled out the moldy muffin. He stared at it, shrugged, took it, and popped it into his mouth.
“Oh, God, this is awful,” he said as he struggled to swallow it.
It wouldn’t give him any EverRealm energy, but it would help with his empty belly as we hiked our way across the plains to find the others. Which is what we did, the pink cloud again leading the way.
Once we were out of the tall grass, the cloud hung a left and took us through a loose thicket of berry bushes. Kip shook his head as I started to pluck one of the bright blue berries from a bush.
“You don’t want to do that, dude,” Coz said.
I didn’t recognize the bushes, so I asked, “Why not?”
“Those aren’t bushes,” Coz said. “They’re koda. Spirits that burrow into the ground. That’s their back hair. You don’t want to know what the berries are.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said, yanking my hand back. “And we’re just walking right through them?”
“They won’t bug us if we don’t bug them,” Coz said. “Right, Kip?”
“Yeah,” Kip agreed.
“I hate EverRealm,” I muttered.
“No,” Coz said and stopped.
I looked around at the back hair bushes and grimaced.
“No what?” I asked. “And can we keep moving while you explain?”
“Do not badmouth EverRealm,” Coz said.
“Yeah,” Kip agreed.
“I wasn’t badmouthing it, I was only expressing my feelings,” I said.
“Dude, EverRealm doesn’t give a shit if you are expressing anything,” Coz said. “The place takes offense to any criticism.”
“Seriously?” I asked. “How is that even possible?”
“It’s in the original framework,” Coz said. “Ming’s great grandwhatever that built this game had very thin skin when it came to bad reviews. And this place got a lot of bad reviews way back then until his son or daughter, can’t remember which, fixed the glitches and turned EverRealm into the powerhouse it would become. But, the framework to harass critics is still in here.”
