Dragon Kings of the New World

by Dante Doom

  A LITTLE HELP! Van sent to Sang via private message. There was no reply. She hadn’t abandoned him, had she? That would suck... especially when it was her fault that he was in this mess.

  “I’m gonna kill you!” Kraggoth shouted. “Back off!” he snapped as an arrow barely missed Van. He turned to face his companions and stopped them from advancing. “No one mess with him but me! He’s weak enough to chop into pieces!”

  “Hey, hey, hey, listen, I know you’re mad at me!” Van said as he narrowly avoided an axe to the head. “But trust me, that crazy ranger was holding me hostage! I’m a slave to her! You know there are slaves in this game!”

  “Quit your yapping—slave or no, I don’t care! You mess with the Kraggoth, you get the rage!” he shouted as he continued slashing.

  Van grabbed his flute and began to play it in the middle of the fight. It was the only thing he could do to avoid getting chopped in half. The word STUN! appeared around Kraggoth’s head. The stun wouldn’t last very long against an actual player, but it would give Van enough time to escape. He turned and sloshed his way toward the landmass at the base of the tree. In his panic, though, he completely forgot that the tree was actually a monster in disguise. The Noose Tree immediately turned red and its vines began to whip around, slapping and splashing at the water as Van narrowly avoided the attacks.

  “Are you kidding me?” Van shouted as he felt a vine wrap around his leg and pull him up into the air. The razors dug into his leg and he saw the phrase 10 damage! appear over him. His Health dropped down from 150 to 140 points. Sang was still nowhere to be found.

  “Hey, put him down!” screamed Kraggoth as he splashed towards the tree and delivered a blow to its trunk. “I’m the only one who can kill him!”

  “Kraggoth, stop raging!” Savorn yelled out as she fired a few arrows at the tree. “You’re just wasting time now! That tree’s tough!”

  “Screw you, Savorn! I told you guys someone killed me! Why weren’t you looking to avenge me?”

  “You said it was two people, not one,” Pullmin replied.

  “I said it was a bard and some kind of stupid ranger!” said Kraggoth. “You didn’t think that this freaking bard was working with her?”

  “Really? He’s a bard with a charisma of 9!” shouted Pullmin. “And you’re saying that he of all people killed you?”

  “His companion did!” Kraggoth replied in between swings against the tree. Fortunately for Van, the tree was busy focusing on trying to kill the major barbarian below him, and so he was left hanging by his leg. He had quickly pulled out his knife and was trying to saw the vine from his leg, but the problem was that he had a beginner’s knife, and it wasn’t particularly strong.

  “Right, but we haven’t seen anyone with him; he’s not a threat, so why don’t you leave the moron alone?” Pullmin asked as he waded up to the tree and began to hack at the vines which had restrained Kraggoth’s arms.

  Van finally cut himself loose and hit the ground with a thump. He grabbed his flute and began to play it once again, but instead of just stunning the tree, he changed the options of the flute so that it would stun everyone who could hear. He played the tune successfully and watched as Kraggoth and Pullmin were both stunned for a few moments. The tree wrapped its vines around both of their necks and began to strangle them. While Van wasn’t particularly wanting to see them harmed, it was a good distraction to allow him to hightail it out of there. He rushed as fast as he could away from the tree, but since the water wouldn’t allow him to move all that quickly, a long vine reached out and snagged him by the leg again, causing him to fall to the water. His face splashed into the water as it began to drag him again across the murky ground.

  Before the vine could hoist him into the air, though, an arrow whistled by and snapped the vine off of his leg. Van quickly dove into the water, avoiding more of the vines as they tried to snag him. The water slowed them down enough for him to dodge and roll out of the way. Yet, the water wasn’t deep enough for him to swim to safety; the further he swam, the more shallow the water became, and eventually it forced him to surface. As he came up from the water, he realized that he was in point blank range of Savorn’s bow.

  “Ah crap—come on and give me a break! I didn’t hurt anyone ever! I’m just a dumbass bard!” Van pleaded, raising his hands in surrender. Savorn didn’t seem to be too pleased with him. Before she could release her arrow from the bow, however, several flaming streaks crashed into the side of her leather armor, causing her to burst into flames instantaneously.

  “Ahhhhh!” she screamed as she leapt into the water and began to slosh around. Van could see Sang was hiding in a tree, well above him.

  “Get moving!” Sang shouted as Van stepped past Savorn and rushed through the water. He could hear the screams and shouts of the other players, all of them cursing Van’s name. He glanced back to see that the two near the tree had broken free, but that they were still battling the tree, and Savorn’s attention had turned to aiding her allies in the fight. He chuckled at the chaos of the scene and made a mad dash for dry land.

  Sang quickly caught up with Van, landing on the ground next to him gracefully. “Alright, we need to get out of this godforsaken jungle as soon as we possibly can!” she said.

  “This day keeps getting worse and worse!” Van grumbled as he looked at his Health. He was pretty banged up from the entire ordeal, and on top of that he was feeling frustrated with Sang’s choices. “Why do I have to pay for all of your terrible decision?”

  “Terrible decisions? We got the root, we avoided fighting that powerful tree, we survived a band of angry adventurers... we’re doing awesome!” Sang said. “The only terrible decision that happened today was you opening that chest!”

  “Look, we’re going to freaking die if we stick around, but I’m too mixed up to tell where we are. How do we get out of here?” Van asked, ignoring Sang’s clear disconnection from reality.

  Sang paused as she looked at her menu. “Okay, the fastest way out of here is through some kind of… fortress. Called, uh, Junglefoot Fortress.”

  “What’s the second fastest way out of here?” Van asked.

  “Back the way we came,” Sang replied, “but this whole area is kind of their territory from the looks of it.”

  “This whole forest is going to be crawling with these guild guys!” Van groaned. “They’re gonna be combing through this place to kill us.”

  “So? Don’t we get experience for successfully avoiding being brutally stabbed by a ton of people?” Sang asked cheerfully. It seemed that she was embracing the sportsmanship of playing a game, but definitely at the wrong time and definitely in the wrong circumstances.

  “Look, Sang, if we die, we lose all progress from the last three days. All of our gear is gonna be gone. We’re losing a ton of time and effort. It’s not worth dying here. So, we need to focus as hard as we can on surviving.”

  Sang shrugged. “If things get bad for us, we can always just log out.”

  “You can’t log out during combat,” Van replied as he nervously glanced around.

  “I can, and I might be able to get you out, too, but it would take a few minutes.”

  “But how do we get out of this without cheating?” Van asked as he heard some rustling far off in the distance.

  “Follow me!” Sang said as she rushed off, turning translucent again. This particular encounter had really highlighted the differences between Sang’s and Van’s characters. He had worked so hard when he’d put the ranger together, but the bard had been so poorly slapped together that even a relatively useful class felt almost completely useless. Now he was definitely paying the price for his tomfoolery. Between his poor character choices and Sang’s poor game choices, he wondered if they’d even be able to make it to the Cave of Visions at this rate.

  Still, he followed on her heels as they rushed through a thick underbrush, then stopping for a moment to get their bearings. Sang was grimacing as she looked over her map.

  �
�Why are you frowning?” Van asked.

  “Well, there’s something wrong with the map. Look,” she said as she shared her map view with Van. He could see about fifteen red dots swarming the forest.

  “Are you kidding me?” Van groaned. “Those are companion NPCS. Guilds can hire companions, one per player, to guard an area. NPCs like these aren’t usually that powerful, but they’ll alert their owners of trouble and give an exact pinpoint of their location.”

  Sang nodded in acceptance of what they were facing. Finally, Van could see the frustration of their situation starting to creep over her face. “Okay, I’m not going to admit any wrongdoing yet, but… but maybe this is a bit harder than I thought it was going to be.”

  “I’m totally counting that as an admission of wrongdoing, Sang.”

  “There’s got to be some kind of way to escape, Van. Just think. You’re the gamer here... you probably know some kind of special thing that will help us avoid all these guild people!” Sang insisted. It was clear that whatever adventuring high she had been riding was now over. The cold reality of risk was sinking in. This wasn’t particularly uncommon for an adventurer, Van knew.

  Truthfully, he could count more than enough times where he had gotten caught up in the excitement of an adventure and completely lost touch with reality. One time, back when he’d been playing Sivlander, he’d gotten so excited about his chance to fight a boss that he’d rushed well ahead of his teammates, assuming that they were following him. This triggered all of the enemies to Aggro, and they swarmed Sivlander, killing him and then taking his team down with him. It was a common enough mistake, and while he didn’t want to get too angry at Sang, it was only that he’d expected her to act with a little bit more professionalism since she was a CIA agent and all.

  “Alright, relax. You can use your Stealth and I…” Van trailed off with a glance at his inventory.

  The Potion of Invisibility… when had he gotten that? Van read it with curiosity.

  Potion of Invisibility: Allows a player to remain invisible for up to 10 minutes. Player cannot speak nor use any kind of chat or the effects end immediately. Allies cannot see you and nor can they register you on the mini-map. Any violent action will end the potion’s effects immediately.

  He didn’t remember getting the item, so he figured it had to have been automatically given to him when Sang had looted Kraggoth and his buddy earlier.

  “Alright, I’ve got a Potion of Invisibility, but it means we won’t be able to communicate at all while we’re using it,” Van said. “I’m going to drink and then leave. Have fun getting out of here.”

  “What? You can’t do that!” Sang argued as Van quaffed the potion and vanished from sight. He didn’t feel particularly bad about leaving her alone, either. She was resourceful enough to survive, and her Stealth skill should be high enough for her to avoid being spotted by more than a few NPCS. The only danger was from any player who might have higher level Spotting skills. The enemy ranger hadn’t seemed to have enough points in it, though, or else she would have spotted Sang while she’d been creeping around to begin with, so that was a plus.

  Van chuckled to himself as he scuttled away from the scene. He could see a few Dwarven NPCs patrolling the area, and he was cautious not to make any noise as he walked. While he was invisible, he could still trigger them by stepping on branches or twigs, so he made certain to watch his step. As he walked, he saw Kraggoth and Savorn running through the underbrush.

  “We’ll find them!” Kraggoth shouted as he ran right past an invisible Van. Van grinned, knowing that ten minutes was more than enough time for him to escape. He didn’t need to get to any specific place, after all—he just needed to walk until his map told him that he was no longer in a wild zone.

  Almost out! came a private message from Sang. Van grinned; he’d been right. She had been able to sufficiently navigate without much of a problem. He took pride in knowing that the reason she was so successful was partially because he had worked so very hard on her character design. It was good to see that she could go totally Rambo and still survive.

  As Van reached a massive, hollow log, he noticed the red edge of his map. A few more steps and he’d be free from all of this chaos. He rushed forward, through the hollow log and out the other side. There was a small river on the other side, with a rickety old wooden bridge hanging over it. Van let out a sigh of relief and sat down by the water. His invisibility wore off quickly once he began resting, and he sent his coordinates to Sang. Hopefully, she’d be able to show up and help him figure out where to go next. In all of the chaos, he had completely lost his bearings, and his Map skill was too low for him to even get an overland view of the area. The only view that he had was of his mini-map, and it didn’t seem to tell him anything interesting other than the fact that he was safe from the wild zone.

  “Seriously?” asked a voice from behind Van. It was Kraggoth. Van turned around and took a deep breath. Technically, Kraggoth could still kill Van, but he’d be labelled as an outlaw if he did, which was usually suicide for a character.

  “Oh, uh, hi,” Van said as he took a step back. He could run across the bridge if the man tried to kill him, but maybe he could smooth the whole thing over somehow.

  “You kill me and my teammate, you steal our valuable root, you lie to my team, you almost get me killed by that stupid Noose tree, and then you just run out and hide? You’re a terrible player!” Kraggoth said, shaking his head.

  “Look, man, I’m really sorry that my teammate went rogue and killed you,” Van said, “but I didn’t want anything to do with it. I genuinely thought we were helping you out.”

  “Well, it’s a funny way to help,” Kraggoth said. “I’d murder you here and now, but I’m not risking the outlaw brand. Don’t worry, though—I’ll be sure to send someone after you.”

  Van sighed. He genuinely felt bad for the barbarian. It wasn’t really fair for him to have lost all of his items, but then again, that was the sensibility of a player. Van had to admit that Sang was right... they had an important mission, and that mission came first. Still, he wished that there was some way he could apologize to Kraggoth, and more importantly avoid having a bounty hunter hired to go after them.

  “Hey, Kraggoth, what if I make you a deal?” Van asked. “What if I give you all of my gold right now and, in exchange, you don’t send anyone after us?”

  “I’d rather have all of my items back,” Kraggoth growled.

  “Yeah, but the problem is that my crazy teammate took all of the items, and I only got a Potion of Invisibility... that I just used. She’s nuts, and would be furious if she found out I was making this deal at all,” Van said.

  “Why help me at all?” Kraggoth asked.

  “Man, because I’ve played this game for a long time and this is just one of my alts. My teammate’s new and doesn’t understand that actions have consequences. I feel bad about it.” Van said, shrugging as he pulled out a bag containing all five hundred pieces of his gold. “I know it doesn’t really help, but it’s at least a peace offering. I’m sorry for all of this mess.”

  Kraggoth sighed and took the bag of gold. “You’re gonna be lucky if I decide not to send a hunter after you,” he said as he turned around and began to walk off. “But this gold might have just made you a bit luckier.”

  Van shrugged at that. Bounty hunters were pretty expensive, so unless the guild itself was going to chip in and invest in killing both Van and Sang, they’d probably be in the clear if Kraggoth was appeased. He hoped that his little effort to help would calm the man down enough, but he wouldn’t really know for sure until some elite player started hunting them for sport in a few days, or if enough time went by that he felt sure that the situation had passed by.

  As Van tried to get his bearings, Sang suddenly emerged from a tree line, prompting him to yelp in surprise.

  “Nice work, Van!” Sang said. Van could see that she was covered in blood and that most of her Heath was gone.

  “You, uh,
you okay?” Van asked as he realized that she was still slowly taking damage.

  “Oh, I’m fine,” Sang said, holding up an arrow. “But I think I was poisoned. Do you know what Manticore King Poison does?”

  “Yes, but luckily, we can cure it,” Van replied as he pulled the root out of his inventory. “You’re the one with the alchemy skill, so why don’t you brew the potion while I set up camp for the night?”

  Sang nodded as she walked over to the river and began to fill a few canteens with water. “So, I’m looking at our map, and I’m worried we’re a little off track.”

  “A little?” Van mumbled as he continued to collect firewood.

  “Yes,” Sang replied. “From my observation and this map that I have, we’re in the center of the jungle. Earlier we were close to Verrata, but now we’re looking at having to trudge through at least four to five differing wild zones.”

  “Thrilling. Can’t you find some kind of alternate route with your expert Map skills?” Van asked as he dug the firepit.

  “Well, there is a quest here,” Sang said, holding up the map for Van to see. He could see there was a quest indicator hovering not too far from them. It read:

  Quest: The Stone Troll’s Tunnels.

  A band of peaceful Druids have been trying to build their sanctum in the center of the jungle, but recently a band of feisty Stone Trolls has begun tunneling beneath their earth and raiding the Druids’ home. Aiding them will earn a hefty reward, as well as a favor from these peaceful Druids who can assist those who are lost.

  Recommended Level: 9

  Van grinned as he looked at the quest. Not only was it an easy way to enable fast travel from the Druids, but it would also give them more experience points. Perhaps this needless poisoning side quest had been exactly what they’d needed. This meant, of course, that his decision to open the chest had actually been a good choice on his part.