He immediately rushed Val, slamming out with his shield and whipping his practice blade in a deadly arc to his temple, but Val was already pivoting, shield against shield, twisting so his opponent's blade wrapped against the rim of both their shields before Val abruptly twisted and slammed himself forward, pinning the larger Chris's shield close and wrapping the back of the man's legs with his blade.
With a surprising burst of strength, Chris powered out of the pin, and Val had to shift and give ground as Chris hammered his blade against Val's shield, Val pivoting and slamming forth once more, this time definitely winning the bind, wrapping his blade in a V-snap that smacked the back of Chris's helmet.
Val immediately darted back. "Hold. Good match, Chris, are you okay?"
Chris nodded. "You're all good, nice blow. I can tell you've danced this dance before. Anyway, the Dominion loves keeping their contractors happy, since they employ most of the mercs in the galaxy to fight and die in their wars. That's how Dirk puts it, anyway. So when the Council found out that the former governor had promised us indefinite residence as a reward, the Dominion actually offered us the right of first refusal!"
Val blinked. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means we have a chance to buy this territory outright!" said none other than an intent looking Dirk, striding up to them both. Eyes flashing with excitement and intensity locked with Val's own. "It means we have a chance to become the first Guild to rule, with territory of our own! We can earn tax revenue to fill our coffers and the Highlord Council will demand only a fractional tribute! In other words, we split revenue, fifty-fifty, whatever it is, and we never have to worry about what they do to other administrators who fail to meet their quotas."
Val winced. "Yeah, silently shrieking in agony as a decapitated head in a pain vat isn't how I want to spend my next hundred years."
"Exactly," Dirk grinned, his bemused smile instantly hardening. "And how the hell do you know that, Val? Almost no one does. Not even Chris here, until you said it. Good sparring there, Chris, but you still need to learn to control the center line better with your shield. Val, who's not even your size, was trapping your sword and shield with his own, and wrapping your skull. We're going to have to work on that."
"Yes, sir," Chris all but saluted, Dirk's glare immediately focusing on Val once more.
"Not even on Readit, Val. Certain parties scrub it, the minute even a whisper gets out. Your level and special class skills are a mystery, you can boost your spells on the fly, you learn exotic techniques in a fraction of the time you should be able to, and you actually managed to repair a rejuvenation center that was completely fried."
"What?" Chris furrowed his brows.
Dirk flashed a cold smile, eyes never leaving Val. "That's right. The rebels somehow managed to get a hold of an EMP bomb, or the equivalent. Hell, since explosives are death around here, I didn't even think they had anything to fry circuits in an area, but apparently they do. It not only fries all electromana couplings, it frazzles normal circuit boards and computer hardware as well. It's even larger and bulkier than Earthbound ones, and of course to be caught in possession or transporting such a thing is death by torture eternal via pain vat. So our dear Val here did the impossible. He didn't just flip a switch. He repaired an entire building whose circuits were all completely fried."
"But that makes no sense, Dirk. He's a wizard. Just casting magics should be short-circuiting those electro whatever switches, right? And he's a noob. How the hell could he know how to repair Dominion tech? These programmers weren't shitting when they said they had made an alternate world. I'm guessing it's all just advanced Chinese electronics, but still, you need skills to master that. I should know, considering how bad my intro to electronics course went."
"All good points, Chris," Dirk said, measuring Val with his gaze.
Val swallowed and held the man's stare, feeling the pressure of his eyes. Dirk was content to let the tension build, but Val had played this game many times before."
Intimidation skill check made! Will save made! You resist the urge to blab and fill the silence!
Val silently willed the less important message prompts away.
"So tell me, Val, how the hell do you know what you do?" Dirk asked at last.
Val tilted his head thoughtfully, taking off his helmet. "I have no idea how I know what I know. I just do." Val hid nothing, not cloaking his emotions, not blunting his affect, letting the truth of his words shine through.
Dirk frowned. "Damn. Either you're being totally up and up, or you're a hell of a pro."
Val shrugged. "I am. But I'm also telling you the truth. I only tried to jump in the game to be with someone I care about. I didn't even think it would work. But it did, and from the second I woke up, things about my character were skewed, and I was fighting for my life before I had even left the starter vats."
Chris's eyes widened. "No shit. Were you the one that Ice Speared those Dominion guards at the Eerie plant?"
Val tried to hide the jolt he felt, but knew from Dirk's tight smile that the man had already read him.
"Yeah," he admitted, realizing there was no point in denying it. "I didn't know the name of the facility, but I guess that was me."
Dirk smirked. "Well shit, I think I believe you. Only a noob would try to PvP in that starter zone, kill a fellow player, then work on the local NPCs for fun. A noob who didn't know what he was doing, didn't know the stakes, didn't know how close he came to basically committing suicide."
Val lowered his head. Feeling an odd sense of shame. "I didn't realize it was real. I had no idea what I was doing. But the guy's death throes, when my spear pinned him to those 60's era computer banks... that shook me. And I felt so angry. At the game, at myself, that I just lashed out with the spell I had learned while dodging Hankro's own spells." He shook his head and sighed. "I was enjoying the practice. I didn't mean to kill him, just... impress him, I guess, but it didn't stop my shot from spearing him right through the sternum. Pretty much instant death."
Dirk's brow furrowed. "Wait, you're saying you learned that spell just on the fly? Just from seeing him use it against you, and you were actually parrying his spells?"
Val nodded. "It was more like pushing the streams of magic forming a link between us before the core of the spell fired. Once the spear was in the air and only inches away, blocking with the Arcane Ward wouldn't do that much. The spear snaps free of the magic strands directing it, and it will plunge right through. His spear cut my arm when I tried to block it directly. After that? I just used my Arcane Ward to shove the strands away."
"No, Val. Arcane Wards, even Synergized Wards, can't bend aside the flow of magic, only counter it directly."
Val shrugged. "It can, if paired up with Personal Resonance Mastery, as long as you're focused on your aggressor. But I get the feeling that there is a contest of skills involved, and if his magical art ranks had been higher than mine, if he hadn't been a beginner, or if I just had to worry about multiple opponents, I wouldn't have been able to bend them as well as I had."
Dirk spent a long moment measuring Val with his gaze.
Val swallowed, wondering if he should just yell 'parachute' and make a quick getaway while he could. He didn't want trouble if fights were for real, but Dirk's gaze was that of a professional getting a bead on uncertain prey.
"Is it time for me to make my exit?" Val half flippantly asked.
Dirk tilted his head. "Show me," he said at last.
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm going to cast a spell at you. Low order. It's an ice dagger. It shouldn't penetrate the toughened training armor you're using, but I'm aiming for your lower leg, just in case. Make it shoot wide."
Val blinked, slowly nodded, carefully summoning forth his Arcane Ward. He frowned. In his stress he had summoned the basic version. He took a deep breath, ignored the increasingly impatient stare, and felt a sense of satisfaction as it shimmered into being once more, this time with strands of obsidian and gold.
"
Impressive," Dirk allowed. "Now get about ten paces back, and ward my daggers without letting them strike your shield."
Val nodded, feeling a certain sense of exhilaration despite the tension of the moment, peering closely at Dirk, feeling the man subtly weaving together a summoning for an ice dagger. Val grinned as he felt the pressure of the arcane strands against his leg, pushing them away as Dirk shouted the trigger word, Val feeling the spell arc along the bent path, pushing out with his will for good measure against the summoned dagger itself. It didn't get close to touching his leg.
Chris whistled. "Damn. Sweet trick!"
Their guild leader blinked, then nodded. "It certainly is." He gave an approving smile. "Alright, Val. Color me damn impressed. You might just be one of those rare savants whose brain just has a knack for synergizing an understanding of this game."
"Maybe," Val allowed.
Dirk's grin widened. "And what complements inherent talent more than anything else?"
Chris groaned.
Val said, "I'm guessing practice?"
"That's right, kid. You're going to practice bending aside all the magic attacks Julia and I can throw at you. We'll use low order, of course, but if you can do this in the heat of combat, it just might save all our hides."
"But don't try to show off, kid," Chris cautioned. "Things go down fast and furious in the heat of combat, and your trick ain't no good if three people shoot ice spears at you at once and you end up dying when you'd be alive if you had only taken cover."
"Isn't that the truth," Val acknowledged. "How many kids fresh out of basic would be alive today, if they had just ducked and taken cover?"
"Too many," Dirk said. "Okay, enough bullshit, kid. We'll talk more later, you better believe we will. But for now? Practice. Because if we actually want a shot at claiming this territory for our Guild, becoming the Jordian equivalent of lesser nobles, we still need fifty million credits to pay these bastards off with. Of course, the odds of us making it are infinitely small, but the offer is valid, and this way the Dominion keeps its honor and if we can actually pull it off? Mercs galaxy-wide know there is no limit to how far they can go, serving the Highlords that make up this galaxy's ruling class.
Val smirked. "Of course, the administrator looking to take our villa is counting on us to fail spectacularly."
Dirk shrugged. "Of course. But the opportunity is there."
Val nodded. "From the way that captain was carrying on, my earning five thousand credits for fixing the rejuvenation facility was no joke. I get the feeling credits are worth more than a buck back home. So how the hell are we going to get fifty million of them?"
Dirk grinned. "By exploring and ransacking a lost dwarven stronghold, of course."
Chris whistled. "You don't think small, do you, boss. I take it your contacts got us a lead?"
"That they did. The Dominion thought picking through the scraps would be easy once the Dwarves were wiped out, so all the mechanized defense systems and traps they had in place are collectively known as the dwarves' revenge. What one might blast from space often has security systems designed specifically to short out Dominion gear when explorers get close, rendering them near helpless when automated defenses come into play, so a surprising number of cities still have treasures locked away. And considering how well those ruins were hidden, the original assault records lost in subsequent centuries of intrigue and power plays, a surprising number of them remain all but untouched, still filled with valuable minerals or Dwarven weapons that would be worth an absolute fortune, sold to the Dominion or the black market."
Chris nodded. "Especially Elementium. That shit is worth many times its weight in gold!"
Dirk grinned. "And can you imagine if we could actually find a Valorium core? Hundreds of millions worth of credit for that alone!" He chuckled good-naturedly. "Honestly, though, if we can explore even a fraction of these ruins, we will make our fortune. And whether or not we can actually make fifty million, we will have more than enough to purchase or afford the most luxurious of palaces or fortresses anywhere on this continent!"
Chris sighed. "But this is the only one that has a save point built right next to the foyer, and NPCs can't even see it!"
Dirk nodded. "I know, Chris. Warping into town isn't that big a deal, but I'd also hate to give up this spot, which is why we're fighting for it." He then turned to face Julia and Yin, both recently arrived. "But no matter what, should I give the code word, all of us will say P at once, and warp out. I won't risk even one of your lives, no matter how much loot we'd give up."
"What, oh, you mean parachute?" Yin said, then grimaced, instantly disappearing.
Val blinked, the others chuckling. "People always say it once," Julia explained. "Far better to have on the tip of your tongue, than die because you're stubborn or freeze."
An embarrassed Yin popped out of the obelisk a short time later. "Sorry, guys!" She said. "It's just that, well, never mind."
"It happens to everyone, Yin," Dirk assured, Yin smiling up at him gratefully.
Julia nodded. "The only drawback is, you only have the items you did when you last backed yourself up or exited. You keep your skills and experience earned, but any treasures we find? Drop to the ground where we left them."
"And don't think you can cheat the system and double up," Dirk said. "It will recognize when you have fewer items or more experience, but it won't let you pull out fresh items without first backing yourself up and loading memory of those items, so to speak, in an obelisk-like this one."
Chris grinned. "Damn, it'd be sweet if we could get past that glitch, but that's just reality, you know? Something about conservation of mass and energy. Wouldn't want some backlash to hurt our own world, right?"
Dirk glared daggers at Chris before laughing it off. "There you go again, my friend, taking this game too seriously!"
Val raised a brow, sharing a look with Julia.
Yin frowned. "You guys are both starting to act all cloak and daggery. Please tell me we're not all trapped in some sort of government secret project?" Her cynical gaze broke into a grin at their flummoxed expressions. "Or if we are, awesome! Please tell me we get paid? I'd sure as shit rather be playing this than working the coffee shop counters and getting hit on by every idiot that thinks girls like the smell of stressed out boys who forget to bathe regularly come finals."
Dirk laughed at that, patting Yin's shoulder. "Sorry, Yin, as a guild leader I can only pay in-game currency. But I think I might have a toy that just might make up for that." At which point he presented with a flourish an exotic looking blaster of some exotic bronze gold alloy, Yin whistling in wonder.
"Oh wow, seriously? I can practice with this? It looks like something straight out of the movies." She smirked. "As does everything else around here. A very good super high CGI movie where you can actually smell the flowers and feel a stubbed toe. The latter I don't recommend." She then frowned. "But won't our mages fry this blaster with their first spell? Come to think of it, won't I? I know we were going to do our damnedest to see if I can finally learn that Firestream spell."
Dirk winked. "As a matter of fact, that won't be a problem. This, dear Yin, is dwarven tech."
Val felt a curious shiver with those words, somehow certain he had already known. It just looked familiar, somehow. As did so much else. Especially that chillingly awful blade of crackling oblivion that monster had held in Val's own home, and how utterly bizarre that had been. It struck him, then, how blazing-eyed tyrants with force fields and Psiblades were much more suited to this world than his own. Psiblades. As good a name as any, Val supposed. Somehow it just seemed to fit.
"No shit," Yin whispered. "Okay. Color me impressed."
Chris grinned "So that's the surprise he was getting ready. Yeah, we had managed to explore the ruins of one other dwarven stronghold, what, a month ago?"
Julia nodded. "Exactly a month back. And even though it was just a ruined shell some rebels had built over, there was still a cache of these things
. We sold half to grateful Dominion forces in York, the old outpost city we met up in, and kept half. And since you, Yin, are just starting out, this will allow you to stay in the fight long after your mana juice runs out."
Yin grinned. "Excellent!"
"But don't think you're getting out of some serious training today," Dirk warned. "One way or another, Yin, we'll have you learning that spell. Normally it takes a noob a week or so of regular practice to learn it if he's going the natural route and didn't start with it or buy it. But you? With your 17 scholarship and ability to learn even faster with a Spirit Link? Let's see if we can do it in a day."
Yin grinned. "Okay. Just like cram school! Only now I'm actually learning something cool!"
Dirk nodded, turning to include everyone in his gaze. "I take it we can all do some marathon playing this weekend?"
Yin grinned, nodding enthusiastically.
"I'm sure my mother will come around," Julia said, sharing a conspiratorial smile with Val.
Chris grinned. "I could always use the overtime."
Dirk frowned at that.
Yin smirked, sharing a look with Val. "So obviously a secret government project going on around here." She shrugged. "At least they had the sense to bribe the new girl. But I still think I should get paid."
Julia gave a throaty chuckle as Chris actually lowered his head and cleared his throat, Dirk glaring daggers at him.
"Oh come on, Dirk. I had a feeling even before Chris joined us. You take this game way too seriously." Yin's smile turned thoughtful. "Which is a damned good thing, since it seems we can really get hurt, and why wouldn't the government be interested, if they can train their favorite agents into supermen if they play their cards right?"
Val nodded. "Or at least those few able to infiltrate the game. As for payment, if I can actually boost my natural skills, talents, intelligence? That would be a priceless boon all in and of itself."
"You know it," Chris enthused, ignoring Dirk's glare. He flashed a disarming grin at a bemused looking Yin. "That's why I play. I'm not saying I'm some secret government agent, but the chance to reforge my body from decent athlete to incredible top performer? Giving me a shot at professional sports if I can keep growing like I am now? That, guys, is priceless! No pay needed."
Endless Online: Oblivion's Price: A LitRPG Adventure - Book 3 Page 21
