Raven- The Beginning
Page 5
“Hmph, those look adequate for my purposes, for now,” I replied to her as I equipped the bracers. I didn’t want to spend much time talking with her, since I was getting excited at the idea that I would be able to go into my first dungeon with this character. With the bracers, I now had 9 armor. The gloves, boots, and each bracer giving 1 point of armor each. I was also looking forward to getting rid of this rusted dagger that I was using. With an upgraded weapon, I would finally start to do some decent damage.
After this quest, I would try speaking with Moleari about starting the quests to become an alchemist and herbalist, since it was extremely beneficial to be able to create both poisons that could be applied to my weapons for various detrimental effects, as well as healing, regenerating, and buff potions. Not only was being an alchemist beneficial to me as a solo player, but I could also sell the excess for some really good money. The quest itself should finish in the main city of this region, which I would need to speak with the alchemist there as well.
As I stepped towards the door, Moire called out to me before I left, “Raven, before you set out towards the mine, if you want some advice, I would recommend not going there alone.”
I looked behind me and just smiled, replying, “Moire, you haven’t heard? I’m an assassin now, so if there is anyone you need to take care of, all you need to do is let me know.”
Moire just stood there and shook her head as she said under her breath, “If you say so Raven, if you say so.”
I stepped out of the blacksmith and thought about her words. I wasn’t sure if she knew I was able to hear her, but I thought it was a curious thing for an NPC to say to a player, even though I didn’t dwell on it for that long as I walked towards the exit of the village.
When I finally arrived at the exit of the village, I asked the guard that gave me one of my first quests if he knew where the abandoned mine was located at, and if he could give me directions.
“Sure, I can give you directions. The mine is located roughly a mile outside of the village. If you follow the path down, you’ll come to a rope bridge that crosses a crevice. The mine will be just past that. There’s a path that leads up to it,” the guard kindly informed me.
“I heard it was over-run by goblins though. You might want to take some friends up there with you, veil-walker,” he added.
I looked at him and sighed before giving him my thanks. Why did it seem like all of these NPCs were forcing me to group up? It was starting to get on my nerves and I had to wonder if it was because I was now playing as a female character instead of a male character. If that was the case, then the developers were just as sexist as most of the guys that I’ve met in the game, and I would need to talk to Tom about it.
I left the entrance, now able to walk comfortably along the road with the boots that I had finally equipped. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the crevice that the guard mentioned since I didn’t run across any wolves or other aggressive creatures on the way. The rope bridge looked, unsteady could be one word for it. Decrepit and rotted could be another. I had to wonder why the developers made it look like that, since I knew it wouldn’t collapse. Shrugging, I crossed the bridge and continued walking down the path.
Just as the guard said, there was a foot path that looked like the foliage around it was overgrown, and I went along this path. A few minutes later, I arrived at the entrance of the mine, my first dungeon! The mine entrance didn’t look like much, just a hole into the side of the mountain, where it went straight up. The door to the mine was surrounded by large wooden logs, as if it was preventing the side of the mountain from collapsing, however the door looked to be in shambles, with some of it breaking apart.
Before entering the mine, I silently casted my Apply Poisons ability, which gave me the Poisoned Weapons buff. Now, with each attack, I would poison my prey, whether from my dagger or my Throw Magical Dagger attack. The poison damage itself would cause 3% poison damage each second. Combined with the damage from Eviscerate, it could devastate an opponent depending on their resists.
My other ability, Assassinate, would cause over 250% weapon damage to the target, and while it was wildly known, but not in the description, was that it had a chance, albeit a small chance, to instantly kill the target. That chance only being 1%, which in the grand scheme of things, hardly ever happened.
“Well, no time like the present,” I thought to herself, as I opened the wooden door to the mine. As I stepped through the door however, I instantly got a migraine, and the dungeon itself started to waver as my vision blurred. The migraine was extremely painful, and it felt as if my head was going to burst open. However, as instantly as it happened, my head cleared and the pain vanished.
“What the hell,” I said out loud as I shook my head, wondering what that was about and if it was another bug in the equipment I was using. If it was, it might be due to the fact that the dungeon’s instance was being opened. Just something else I would need to bring to Wuang’s attention once I was pulled out of the game.
Now that I was in the dungeon, I looked around the interior of the mine’s entrance. To my left, it looked like there was a small campsite, with a few burnt logs under a kettle that was on small, metal legs. The kettle and the legs were rusted through though, evidence that it hadn’t been used in an extremely long time. The mine itself was also extremely damp and had a mildew like smell that permeated the air, the walls covered in dew and what looked like sickly brown and green moss. There were also mushrooms growing from the walls in several spots, both on the walls and on the ground.
To the right, across from the small campsite, was an overturned cart, also rusted. I could also hear the small squeaks of rats in the distance, probably hiding from the new presence that they sensed. Straight ahead of me though was a tunnel that went further into the mine, with wooden tracks that led into it. This area must be a safe-spot for players to zone into.
I activated Stealth, becoming invisible, unsheathed my dagger, and started walking down the tunnel. As I got further into the mine, there were several rusted, metal sconces that were mounted on the stone walls of the tunnel, lighting the way for players. The tunnel started sloping downwards, and I could start to hear the sound of a pick-axe banging against the stone.
“My first victim,” I thought to myself, feeling a vicious grin starting to form. I missed this feeling of being the predator, the thing that went bump in the night.
I continued walking down the tunnel, towards the sound of the pick-axe as I came across a bend. Before the bend was a wooden door, which after testing it, I found that it was barred from the other side. It must lead to the dungeon’s boss, since most dungeons had a short-cut back to the entrance once the main boss was defeated. I continued on, the sound of the pick-axe getting much louder than it had been, and if I guessed correctly, the first goblin would be just around it.
I continued walking down the tunnel, and as I suspected, after the bend, I came across a small creature that had greenish-gray skin. It was a skinny looking thing, with extremely large, malformed ears and a long face. The smell of the creature was as rancid as it looked, and it was wearing nothing but a tattered piece of cloth around its waist that went down to its knees. The creature, a goblin, was swinging the pick-axe wildly, banging it against the stone wall, small sparks appearing every time it it the wall.
As I inched closer to the goblin, it stopped banging the pick-axe against the wall and turned it’s head so that it could hear better. I could only guess that it could sense death approaching, as I was the bringer of death. I only wished that I could see what level the damned thing was, but I guessed that it was either level 4 or 5, but not any higher than that. Too bad I couldn’t see it’s health bar, but that wasn’t exactly a concern either. I did stop moving and hoped that it went back to what it was doing. Patience was definitely the prerequisite for being an assassin.
The goblin, now disinterested in what it had sensed, started working again, banging the pick-axe against the stone. I slowly crept tow
ards the goblin from the opposite side of the tunnel so that I could get behind it, which was much easier now that it started working again. As I got behind the creature and within range, I performed a quick movement with my dagger, sliding the edge across the goblin’s neck as I whispered, “Assassinate.”
The goblin made a screeching noise as it tried to alert others before it fell to it’s knees, dropping the pick-axe and grabbing it’s throat to stop the blood from spewing out from it’s wound which covered the wall in blood. The rotten smell made me gag as I backed away from the goblin, now in it’s death throes.
With the goblin now dead, I walked to the corpse, covering my nose with my left hand. Bending down over the corpse, I looted it, finding only 10 copper. Taking the coins and depositing them into my inventory, I backed away from the goblin and pulled up my character stats screen so that I could see how much xp it was worth.
Skimming over the other information, I saw that I now had 265/311 experience, which meant that each one of these goblin miners was worth 25xp, even if they didn’t drop anything decent as far as loot was concerned.
“Nice,” I thought, as I reactivated Stealth, continuing my descent into the mine. I left the corpse to despawn as I made my way further into the mine, following the bends and curves in the tunnel. I killed yet another goblin miner, using the same tactic of inching closer, letting it become disinterested in it’s surroundings, and then killing it. I was only rewarded with 17 copper this time though, although I did get some good experience from it.
A few more minutes walking down the tunnel, and I finally heard some real activity other than the sounds of rock being pounded against by pick-axes.
“Skrah el’ech! Skrah el’ech!” something screamed from in front of me, the sound reverberating on the walls of the tunnel. The sound of the screeching was like fingers scratching against one of those old style chalkboards. I would need to go around yet another bend through the tunnel to see what was making that awful sound.
Coming around the bend, I entered into a large, round cavern. I immediately saw that along the walls of the cavern were several goblins that were mining with the pick-axes, 8 in total. The cavern had two other tunnels that went further into the mine, on the opposite side of where I was now standing, hidden in the shadows.
Looking towards the sound of the screaming, which was in the center of the cavern, was a goblin that was wearing a leather tunic that looked as tattered as the cloth pants it was wearing. Both were covered in mud and other stuff that I didn’t want to even guess at, looking utterly disgusting. I could even swear that I could smell the wretched goblin from where I stood. It was also holding onto a rusted short sword, swinging it wildly as it shouted. Next to this goblin, which seemed like it was an overseer of some sorts, was a small cart with the iron ore that I needed, filling it.
I came up with a plan to kill the overseer first, since the damage it would do with it’s sword would be much higher than the goblins with their pick-axes. I was sure that this was an encounter that would involve all 8 of the goblin miners and the goblin overseer at once. I pulled out my dagger from it’s sheath, and stalked toward the overseer, making sure that I was behind it at all times.
It was slow going, since the overseer would turn as it shouted at the miners, but with the noise of the pick-axes banging against the walls, the overseer didn’t notice me, which made me grin. I would be able to kill this thing in two or three hits, making this encounter a cake-walk.
“Such a foul stench coming from these low level creatures,” I thought to myself as I neared the overseer, coming into melee range. I slipped my dagger across it’s neck and grabbed the overseer’s head and tilting it back as I came out of the shadows, no longer invisible.
“Assassinate,” I whispered in it’s ear, feeling my blade slice the goblin’s neck open. As expected though, it would take a few more hits for the goblin to die, since the goblin stumbled forward, screeching. A feint green glow surrounded the goblin, giving a visual notification that the goblin was now poisoned.
“Klah a’nack!” it yelled, causing all of the goblins that were mining to stop and turn around, their beady little eyes narrowing with hatred as they saw who attacked their overseer. With a group yell, they all started to run at me.
I lunged at the overseer who was still within melee range and performed Eviscerate, my dagger entering into its stomach, twisting it, and pulling it out, it’s blood now gushing from both wounds. The smell almost made me gagged as the goblin raised it’s sword and sliced into my left clavicle.
I could only scream as the immense pain shot through me as I stumbled and fell backwards on the hard rocks that littered the ground, which caused the goblin’s sword to rip out of my shoulder. The immense pain was more than I had ever experienced before, even in real life. Grasping my wounded shoulder, my dagger now forgotten, the cavern blurred as tears filled my eyes, the pain ravaging my mind. All thoughts of fighting were gone, and I could only think about running away from this thing that caused me such agony.
The damn thing was smiling wickedly, the predator was now the prey, and it walked towards me. Its rusted sword was dripping blood, my blood, each drop splashing on the ground. The other goblin’s were getting closer, and I could only close my eyes as I stood up… and ran.
I ran as fast as I could out of the cavern, knowing that there was now a 30 second countdown until I could reactivate Stealth. Hoping in vain that the goblins would stay inside the cavern, I could hear them yelling behind me, following me. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even keep a mental countdown, I just kept trying to reactivate Stealth in my mind, hoping that I would be covered in the shadows.
“This can’t be right, there is no way I should feel this amount of pain in a fucking game. It’s a FUCKING GAME!” I screamed internally. I continued to run away from the goblins that were chasing me, and looked behind me, only to see their shadows, growing closer to me. I looked ahead, trying to run faster, knowing that I was already going as fast as I could while holding onto my shoulder.
I ran around one of the bends in the tunnel, unsure how further the exit was when I saw a black mass of movement just ahead. “What now,” I thought as I got closer to the mass, still running as fast as I could.
I neared closer to the mass, I saw individual outlines and heard the noises that it was making. When I first entered the mine, I heard them, but making my way to that forsaken cavern, I didn’t see any. It was a massive horde of rats, sensing that I was wounded, all coming forward to finish me off. And yet I ran, hoping against all odds, tears freely falling from my eyes.
The horde of rats, which was roughly 10 of them, larger than I had seen before looked at me, hunger in their eyes. I looked back and still saw the shadows of the goblins behind me, and I stopped, knowing what would happen to me now.
“Help me, someone, please help,” I said softly as I dropped to my knees, my arms falling to my sides. The rats surrounded me, squeaking in glee that they found food in this wretched place. The rats jumped as one, each of them biting into my skin, each bite sending a stream of pain through me.
Two of the rats crawled up to my neck, one making it’s way onto my face, hanging on by digging it’s claws into my skin, continuing to bite, continuing to eat. All I could do was scream. Scream in pain, in sorrow, and in frustration.
After what felt like an eternity, my vision faded into red as I heard the manic laughter of goblins, enjoying watching me being eaten alive. My vision faded, darkness now enveloping me.
I opened my eyes, my vision clear. I screamed, yet again, as I sat up in the bed.
“No, no, no. This can’t be happening. No, fuck this,” I said, my voice still quivering, even though I couldn’t feel any pain at all.
“System, log out,” I yelled.
“Error,” the system’s voice resonated from around me.
“Log out,” I said, yet again, confused as why the command didn’t work.
“Error,” the voice repeated.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I waved my hand to the right, the gesture causing the window to close, and called out, “Contact GM.”
“Error.” the voice said once again.
Tears now running freely, I pulled my knees to my chest and started to rock back and forth in my bed. “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening,” I said, over and over, the empty room providing no comfort.
This had to be a dream, right? This couldn’t be real, I was just dreaming about this entire thing. In fact, I would wake up back in my apartment, and have to go back to Bob’s, back to my life. Back to being a waitress in the real world, and not some character in a game. I had to wake up.
Mentally exhausted, I fell to my side in the bed, still curled up as I made a wish, the wish to wake up in the real world. A wish that this was just a vicious and horrible dream. Making this wish, I closed my eyes, my face still wet from all of my tears.