Hunter's Choice

by C E Keene

  That was the last thing he needed to hear, and his anger came back as he minimized the message—and any others that might try to follow it—in his mind. Mira was already out of the encampment and heading for the Hackleback, though, and Arheis was left with her apprentice, whose hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the bundles of herbs.

  It took Vellis at least an hour to pack and dress all of his wounds, and that was only because Arheis relied on his First Aid ability to help. The apprentice had tried to pick at his curiosities, asking what happened with the Morditul, but Arheis’ near silence stopped him from continuing that line of questioning.

  By the time the apprentice was finished and Arheis was blissfully under the influence of a pain-killing potion, all those feelings he didn’t know how to even categorize had gnawed a hole through his stomach. It was frustration most of all. Helplessness. There was something about all of it that felt like it should be in his reach, but it wasn’t.

  Mira was hurt enough that it was upsetting their bond. He hadn’t even seen Zindar yet, but could assume the Pruvari wasn’t exactly his biggest fan right now, either. And the only person besides Vellis who was even still around was…

  Higrem.

  He’d been in earshot when the disagreement over Arheis’ actions turned into a shouting match. He must have been, because after Mira left he’d come over with a smirk on his face and sat himself down on the edge of a nearby cot. All the glowering in the world hadn’t gotten the man to leave, and when Vellis asked, he’d just said he was “doing his mayoral duty and checking in.”

  That had made the apprentice’s hands shake all the more, which was the point when Arheis had taken over.

  Now that everything was done and Vellis was free to go throw up or whatever he intended to do after this, Arheis was left alone with the only other player he’d met in Apex so far, that smug expression still on his face.

  “Trouble in paradise?” he asked.

  Arheis felt all of that helplessness fuse into anger. His fingers curled into his palm, his fingernails digging crescent shaped gashes into his skin. “You sat there this whole time, and all you have is a lame-ass one-liner?”

  “Oh, I’ve got more, if you want to hear ‘em,” he taunted, “but I figured you’d want to cut right to the chase.”

  “I’m not in the mood, Higrem,” Arheis said through gritted teeth, finally pushing himself up.

  He wobbled a little, his head feeling lighter than he expected. Searching around, he was able to find his shirt draped over a chair and he pulled it on over his head, thankful his shoulder at least had full range of motion back.

  “Yeah. It’s a raw deal not being able to use game logic with them, isn’t it?”

  Arheis had been prepared to walk away, but that made him stop and turn back to the man. So far Higrem had given him nothing but vague nonsense to go on. If he hadn’t seen the amulet around his neck, Arheis would have thought the man was just screwing with him.

  “They’re never going to understand it,” Higrem continued, his look of smug satisfaction changing into… something else. Something Arheis couldn’t place. “This world doesn’t run on that kind of logic. The sooner you get that through your head, the better off you’ll be.”

  The man’s eyes looked almost haunted, and some part of Arheis was tempted to ask. He still had no idea how Higrem had managed to be in this world long enough to have an adult child, and he wasn’t any closer to understanding what the man had meant by the “choice” he was going to have to make.

  But right now, he wasn’t exactly in the mood to untangle the web Higrem had woven around his secrets.

  “Spare me the cryptic bullshit,” Arheis muttered. “Just for today.”

  Higrem shrugged, pushing himself up from the cot. “Suit yourself. Not like you won’t learn it the hard way eventually.”

  And then he left, just like everyone else, leaving Arheis alone to try and figure out how he was going to fix this mess he’d apparently made.

  4

  Hours later, the potion was still keeping him pain-free and the herbs were doing their work beneath his bandages, but Arheis wasn’t any closer to having an apology ready.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t feel remorseful. He did. He just wasn’t sure how to explain himself to people who couldn’t understand—on a pure, logic-based, technical level—why he’d done what he’d done. In his mind, it was just game mechanics. Hidden numbers buried in a spreadsheet somewhere. He’d calculated the probability of them getting away from that fight with their lives intact, and he hadn’t liked the odds.

  So he’d sacrificed himself to make sure his friends—who couldn’t come back to life—stayed safe.

  He wasn’t holding himself up as some bastion of selflessness. He knew he would respawn. He knew if he could do enough damage, Zindar and Mira would finish the beast off.

  What he’d done was just… necessary. But trying to rationalize that to someone who’d obviously been deeply affected by his demise would just make him come across as an insensitive asshole.

  So he avoided Mira and Zindar, taking the easier route for now. There were other things that needed mending. Things like his armor, which he’d found in a heap near his cot, the leather completely eaten through by stomach acid.

  He’d brought it to Siv in the hopes he could at least get some money for any materials that might see use, but the smith had practically laughed in his face.

  “I can’t sell this. Can’t use it, either. Goddess above.” He’d grabbed a long metal pole and used it to lift one of the pieces off the table. “It looks like it was swallowed, spat out, and swallowed again.”

  “Close,” Arheis answered glumly, facing the fact that he was going to have to spend his credits on an entirely new set of armor.

  Evening was approaching now, and Arheis was still looking through the smith’s catalogue. At some point Siv had just gone back to his work, so the sound of a hammer shaping metal was the soundtrack to Arheis’ thoughts as he tried to decide.

  Killing the Nepondus Queen had given him plenty of credits as part of his share, but he only had a hodge-podge of materials to speak of. He hadn’t really taken the time to hunt specifically for an armor set—the Guild had given him the last one.

  Now he regretted it, because almost every set he could ask the smith to make required specific beast parts. Molclept, Occasa, Nepondus, and everything else he’d slain before the Queen.

  He could have just bought something pre-made. The smith had a few full armor sets to choose from if he went that route. But the stats on them were nothing to write home about when compared to the custom builds.

  No closer to finding an armor set he actually had the materials to make, Arheis finally asked, “Can I substitute some parts in these lists?”

  “What?” Siv stilled his hammer and dunked the piece of metal he was working into a basin of water, steam hissing instantly from the surface.

  “I don’t have all the materials,” Arheis said, pointing to a page in the catalog. “Will you take, say… a tusk in place of a claw?”

  Siv came over to look at the catalog, his large, gloved hand coming up to cup his chin as he considered. “I suppose I could try.”

  Outside, Arheis heard Brahm’s muffled voice say something that was only comprehensible to Siv.

  “Aye, I’ll tell him, Dad,” he called back to the man. “It’s going to be a risk.”

  “A risk how?”

  Siv gestured to the book. “All these sets follow blueprints. I know the materials work together because I designed them myself, and I’ve built enough to hammer out the dents as I’ve gone along, if you understand what I’m saying?”

  Arheis nodded, “I get it. They’re designed a specific way. But if it’s a similar enough material…”

  “I can try it. That’s all I can do,” the man said, his voice firm but still kinder than his father’s. “Go ahead and pick out the set you want and let me know the substitutions you’re making. If it works,
great. I’ll add that to the recipe. But if it doesn’t…”

  “You’ll still get your money,” Arheis assured him.

  That at least seemed to appease the smith. He clapped Arheis gently on the shoulder and went back to his work.

  While the Morditul was a lot higher level—something he hadn’t even benefited from, since the XP for the kill hadn’t shown up in his logs—it really drove home the point that he needed something sturdy to mitigate a lot of raw damage. That would serve him better for now than a super specialized set that was exceptional against one type of beast but only mediocre against every other.

  He flipped through the pages and eventually settled on what looked like a well-rounded set. It even had a small set bonus attached to it, though he didn’t know if changing the materials would change that, too.

  > Pathfinder Armor

  Armor Type: Medium

  Protection: 50

  Bonus: Trailblazer

  “Let’s try this one,” Arheis said, catching the smith’s attention again and pointing to the Pathfinder set.

  It was a nice, mid-tier set that offered a lot more protection than his current Guild Initiate set. It also had a set bonus, though he wasn’t completely sure what Trailblazer did. Since the game didn’t offer any dialogue boxes or system messages, he guessed he wouldn’t find out until he equipped the set.

  Siv grabbed a sheaf of parchment and a grease pencil, marking down the details of the set along with some numbers Arheis guessed were his measurements from the previous armor.

  “And what’ll you be substituting?” he asked, pencil poised on the material list.

  “Well…”

  Accessing his inventory, Arheis went through everything he had and tried to match it up to the material lists. Pathfinder Armor used a variety of beast materials, but he was short a few of those. Specifically the Long Claws and Hollow Bones. Considering he had some materials from the Nepondus Queen, though, he thought the substitutions he was making might end up in a better set overall.

  Either that or the whole thing would be a massive failure, but it wasn’t like he had anything else to do with these materials.

  In the end, he handed over 6x Large Claws, 4x Large Nepondus Fronds, 3x Large Beast Bones, and a variety of lesser items. Siv gathered everything up, crossed out the materials he was substituting, and tacked the order to a beam before sweeping the various beast parts into a crate.

  “It’ll be 6,000GC for the set as-is, and…” he considered a moment, glancing at the list, “another 500 for the alterations.”

  That was a lot more than he’d paid for his starter set, but it made sense. With any luck he’d leave the tutorial area soon, and he needed better armor. Plus 6,000GC wasn’t as big of a dent as it would have been back then. Thanks to Guild bounties and reporting his kills, he still had a little over 22,000GC to his name.

  Fishing out a few rolls of credits, Arheis handed over the requested amount. The smith took the coins straight to a lockbox for safekeeping.

  “Come back tomorrow,” he said with a smile. “I’ll have something for you then.”

  “Thanks.” A thread of excitement coursed through Arheis as he realized he still had one key material he hadn’t done anything with. One of the Nepondus Queen’s tusks. “I don’t suppose your father is available for some augments?”

  Outside, Brahm grumbled something Arheis couldn’t hear. Judging from the man’s usual disposition, it was probably something unpleasant.

  “Nice try,” Siv said with a smirk. “If you want him to augment something, you’ll have to ask him yourself.”

  Arheis sighed, glanced toward Brahm’s station, then said, “Fair enough.”

  Thanking Siv again, he headed out to talk to Brahm. The older blacksmith was working on what looked like the mechanism for a crossbow. A surprising thing to Arheis, and something that sparked ideas for a peace offering.

  “I had no idea you could augment crossbows,” he mused.

  Brahm made a sound that was halfway between a grunt and a scoff. “I can augment any weapons, so long as they’re made of metal. And so long as you pay.”

  The smith gave him a side-eye that Arheis ignored. “And you’d have to have the weapon in hand, right? Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to purchase an augment for a friend…”

  “If you can get the measurements, I can work off of that to start with,” Brahm said, striking the corner of the firing mechanism with a small tool to lodge it in place. “I’ll need the weapon to make any adjustments, though. And it’ll cost you extra to split up my time like that.”

  “Dad,” Siv warned from inside.

  Brahm just waved him off. “I do things in a set order. I’m not breaking that order without being compensated for it.”

  “You will be,” Arheis assured him, “and I’ll get the measurements.”

  Somehow he didn’t think Mira was in the mood to just hand over her crossbow, but he’d figure out a way to get the proper measurements. Maybe he could use one of his abilities to sketch it. Crossbows couldn’t be that different, could they?

  “For now, I’d like to see if you can do anything with this,” he said, pulling the Nepondus Queen Tusk out of his pack.

  It was a good thing the world of Apex ran on video game logic, because the tusk was nearly as long as Arheis’ forearm, and easily as heavy as a sturdy pair of steel vambraces. He’d held it back when offering up alternatives for the armor because it didn’t seem like the kind of thing you just substituted in place of something way more common.

  If he could somehow have it worked into his weapon, though…

  “Hm,” Brahm let out a huff of breath, stopping what he was doing to take the tusk from Arheis. His fingers ran over the smooth bone and he poked the tip of it, a drop of blood blooming on his skin. “I can do something with this. It’ll need to be shaved down and shaped, and it’ll replace any augments you’re already using on the spear-head.”

  No stacking bonuses for the same component, then. That was a bummer, though he hadn’t expected anything else. He’d lose the bonus he’d gained from Minor Sharp Spear, but this was bound to be a lot better.

  “How much do you want for it?” he asked, positive Brahm was going to hike up the price.

  The man didn’t miss a beat before trying to swindle him. “1,500GC.”

  Time to put his Haggle ability to use…

  “There’s no way it’s that much of an increase in cost from the last augments I got. I’ll give you 500, and I’m pretty sure that’s still over-paying.”

  Brahm snorted, his eyes filling with a dark mirth. “For 500 you can learn how to do it your damn self. Get out of my shop.”

  > Your Charisma isn’t high enough to make this deal. If you can’t reach a compromise, the blacksmith will refuse you entirely.

  Well, shit. That wasn’t good. Brahm was the only person in Lacerda who could do augments, and who knew when Arheis would come across another smith. He had to compromise, and fast.

  “Okay, okay. I can do 1,000GC for the augment.”

  Brahm sniffed, looked him over, then met Arheis’ eyes with a hard stare. In real life, he’d let men like his supervisor Brad intimidate him with looks like that, but he wasn’t going to do it here. It didn’t matter what his Charisma stat said. He was getting this damn augment, one way or another.

  “Fine,” Brahm finally said, holding out his hand. “Payment upfront.”

  “Of course.” Arheis wore a tight smile as he fished another roll of credits out of his pouch.

  He still had plenty. About 15,000GC left, in fact. But if everything was about to become exponentially more expensive, he had a feeling that surplus of funds wasn’t going to last long. And with Brahm, it was just the principle of the matter.

  “Do you think you can have it ready tomorrow?” Arheis asked, handing over the spear.

  “For another 500GC—”

  “Dad!” This time Siv’s admonishment was firmer, and Arheis bit his lip to keep from laughing.<
br />
  Brahm didn’t find it anywhere near as funny. He scowled, snatching the weapon away and placing it beside the tusk. “Come back tomorrow. I have work to do.”

  As tempting as it was to hang around someplace he wasn’t wanted, Arheis beat a hasty retreat. The second he stepped out of the forge, though, he realized he was almost completely unarmed. If a beast attacked the village, he had no way to defend himself except for the knife that was currently tucked into his belt. That and his shield, but he wasn’t going to get far without any armor or a weapon that had proper reach. Maybe he’d have to look into buying a backup for times like these.

  That was a problem he could focus on tomorrow, though. Today he was tired, and tempted to just buy a hot meal and a bath at the Hackleback. Maybe grab a book from the common room and call it an afternoon. But as he started that way, he saw an unexpectedly familiar form coming toward him. Even more unexpected—that person wore his typical, fanged grin.

  “There you are,” Zindar greeted him, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “Mira said you’d recovered, but she couldn’t tell me where you’d gone.”

  “I needed to commission new armor. Mine was destroyed by the Morditul,” Arheis explained.

  The Pruvari’s smile slipped and—like a picture frame disrupted by a sudden earthquake—it wasn’t quite the same after, no matter how he tried to fix it. “I should probably do that soon, too. The Initiate armor obviously isn’t strong enough. I mean, you…”

  His words trailed off, and for that brief moment, the mask came down. Arheis glimpsed the same things he’d seen in Mira’s eyes, though Zindar’s were mostly a mix of fear and sorrow. The Pruvari shook his head and returned to that sunny, optimistic demeanor Arheis expected from him. Somehow it felt wrong now.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Zindar said quickly. “I was heading over to the Guild Hall to report the kill and let that father know we avenged his daughter. I thought you’d like to come.”