The Cheater's Return

by Brian McGoldrick

  El is one of the Theran names for the sun. In Primacy Online V , The Church of the Sun was sometimes called the Church of El, but it was only a few of the most extremist factions among the Church's dogs that did so. I doubt it will be any different in this version of Primacy Online . If this thug is calling it the Church of El, he has come into contact with some hardcore fanatic 'missionaries' from the Church of the Sun.

  Ooff!

  I bury the tip of my staff in the 'big' man's gut, and he bends over like he is bowing to me and pukes up his breakfast. As I withdraw my weapon, he falls to his knees in the puddle of his own puke, and I wipe my staff off on his shoulders.

  Primacy Online is an artificial world, but its basic laws of physics and anatomy are nearly carbon copies of real world. It has the wonderful feature where it will apply status effects, similar to what happens in real life, based where you hit a target. The only caveat is that you need to do enough damage to get past the target's applicable defenses. If my Skill Expression was not exceeding 100%, I would probably not have been able to do enough damage to put the big man into his current state.

  The other Level 8 among the Common Humans stares nervously at the blade of Raven Goddess' sword, which is pricking a millimeter or two into the flesh of his throat.

  "We can kill you anytime we want to. Get the fuck out of our way."

  With the big man clutching his stomach and gasping, the rest of the Common Humans move to the sides and let us pass.

  Reaching the edge of the cleared land, I find multiple not too well worn trails leading into the brush, and we make our way further west. We see some of the villagers dragging corpses or making their way back toward their fields and use the cover provided by the heavy brush to keep them from seeing us. A few times we change trails to avoid the villagers, moving further away from the mountain each time.

  The total population of the village is only around 150 people, and it looks like around a third of them are dragging the zombie corpses.

  The trail wends an irregular path through the scrubland, and after we follow it for about five kilometers, a large clearing is visible ahead of us.

  Looking back toward the village, I do not think that this clearing would be visible from the plateau. The village's plateau has steep, high cliffs on its west side, which leaves the village proper in heavy shade for nearly half the day.

  "Let's circle to the south."

  When we get close enough to have a good view of the clearing, the big man is there reporting to three humanoid figures that do not appear to be breathing. The rest of his Common Human buddies stand huddled in a group not far from him.

  "They are just barely too far away for Identify Monster to work, but those three should be ghouls." Raven Goddess' eyes are narrowed, and an air of imminent violence radiates from her.

  When other villagers enter the clearing, they quickly drag their corpses to a pile of dead zombies, and after dumping their burdens, they practically run in their haste to leave the clearing, while maintaining wooden expressions.

  On the far west side of the clearing, a barn-like building stands next to a dock on the bank of a small river estuary.

  "The vision of Sine being butchered might have been inside that barn. The building was bigger than anything in the village, and I think the walls were made from actual planks and not logs like the huts and cabins in the village."

  While we observe the situation in the clearing, the leaden clouds above open up, and a heavy downpour drenches everything. After looking up at the sky, the lead ghoul points toward the village and heads for the barn, with the other two in tow, and the Common Humans sullenly head back in the direction of their village.

  "This may be our best chance to see what's inside that barn before we get into a fight."

  After Raven Goddess examines the clouds overhead and the eastern horizon, where they are coming from, she gives a slight nod. "I agree."

  The barn has two sets of doors. The closed set faces the south and opens on the docks, and the open set faces the east, the direction of the village. There are no windows. With the level of technology in the village, glass would have to be imported from elsewhere, and this does not exactly look like the kind of place where someone would put in the investment. Even the cut lumber, which the barn is built from, must have been brought from elsewhere.

  Rising from our crouches in the brush, we silently move toward the water. The slope of the shoreline will give us a bit more cover to approach the barn unseen. Even without having any stealth Skills listed on your character sheet, you can still sneak effectively around in Primacy Online , assuming you know what you are doing. The various stealth Skills just improve your chances, some of them by multiple orders of magnitude.

  We reach the dock, without any apparent signs that we have been spotted, and peek over the top of it. The south doors are still closed, and we cannot see the east wall with the open doors. It is as quiet as tomb.

  "I do not sense any movement." Raven Goddess' voice is barely more than a whisper.

  "What do you have against using party chat?"

  Raven Goddess smiles at me. "If we use party chat, I will only hear a simulation of your voice in my mind. I want to hear the real thing."

  "You're one strange ass woman."

  Raven Goddess chuckles softly.

  We wait until there are no more villagers in the clearing to move. When I stand up, the dock barely reaches my waist, and soundlessly, I step onto it. Behind me, Raven Goddess scrambles up onto the dock; being a Half-Giant has its advantages.

  Moving to the east side of the barn, I peek around the edge of the doorway and see five figures deep in the shadows. Three are four Common Ghouls and one is an Elite Ghoul.

  Elite Ghoul (Elite) (Fighter) Level 7

  » HP 5000/5000

  Near the middle of the barn, a crudely built, four legged table is surrounded by scattered, gnawed bones. Its surface is stained with blood and perforated with the holes from the hundreds of nails that have been used to hold down still living victims. There is no question that it is the table from my vision.

  I pull back from the doorway, and crouching down, I keep my voice to a low whisper. "There are four Common Ghouls and one Elite Ghoul. It's the place where Sine was butchered."

  "Living food. There is no point in hiding. I hear your words. I smell your fresh flesh and blood." The Elite Ghoul's sepulchral voice reaches us from inside the barn.

  Her face flushed from righteous anger, Raven Goddess boldly steps into the open door. "A villager butchered his daughter here. Where are her remains?"

  The Elite Ghoul laughs nastily. "Many villagers have butchered their children here. They have the pleasure of feasting on the flesh of their own loins, a true treat. I was never able to feast on the flesh of my own loins, but I will feast on your tits, while you scream and beg for death."

  Raven Goddess glares at the Elite Ghoul. "You will not live long enough."

  "What do you think you can do, human food? You are just one weak Outlander woman."

  I step into the open doorway of the barn.

  Crackle-boom!

  Every now and then, nature gets its timing right. A huge bolt of lightning strikes the mountain to the north and lights up the dim afternoon sky.

  "I have a better idea. I always wanted to know if a ghoul felt pain when you ripped its balls off."

  The five ghouls stare at me, and except for the Elite Ghoul, there is obvious fear on their warped human-like faces.

  "Child of the Gods, why are you with the food?" The Elite Ghoul stares at me in consternation.

  Child of the Gods? What the fuck does it mean by that? Caught off-guard by the ghouls' reactions, I do not keep the surprise off my face.

  "No. You are not a real Child of the Gods. You are an Outlander. How does an Outlander have the body of a Child of the Gods?"

  "You'll never know. Die mother fucker!" Making sure I do not bang my head on the top of the doorway, I charge into the barn.


  "Take them alive!"

  Hiss! Hiss! Grr! Grr!

  With the other ghouls right on its heels, the Elite Ghoul springs toward me.

  With a sliding step, I lung at the Elite Ghoul, and the tip of my staff hammers into its abdomen right over its bladder. With enough strength to lift more than a thousand kilograms, speed that rivals the fastest of Earth's martial artists, and a mass of 360kg, the force of my stab is enormous. If the Elite Ghoul was a living human in the real world, my attack would have punched a hole through its abdomen, but all that I manage to do is send it flying.

  Crack! Splash!

  The Elite Ghoul tears a hole through the back wall of the barn and falls into the river estuary.

  "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Raven Goddess' unnatural sounding laughter echoes inside the barn, as she tears into a Common Ghoul with her blades. Even though her speed is close to half again faster than my own, her attacks have nowhere near the force of my own, but she does not need it. Her blades slice through a Common Ghoul's face, destroying its eyes.

  "Raaaarrrrrrr!"

  The Common Ghoul flails wildly, and its claws tear into anther of the Common Ghouls, instead of Raven Goddess.

  "Raaaarrrrrrr!"

  The two Common Ghouls fall to the ground, clawing and biting at one another like rabid animals. Droplets of thick black blood spatter the area around them, but being dead already, their wounds do not bleed.

  One of the other two Common Ghouls claws at me, and I batter its arms aside. Even with the Talents and Abilities pushing them to the strength of Extermination Difficulty monsters, they still do not have the strength of a Half-Giant.

  Crack!

  As Raven Goddess engages the other Common Ghoul from the side, I ignore it and kick mine into the bloodstained butchering table. The table breaks into pieces, and I slam the ghoul into the floor with an overhand swing of my staff. Not giving it the chance to rise to its feet, I repeatedly hammer with my staff.

  Crack! Snap!

  The Elite Ghoul plows through the back wall of the barn and glares at me, but I hit the Common Ghoul in the wreckage of the table another time. As the Elite Ghoul springs at me again, I duck under its leap, and with a final blow from my staff, the head of the Common Ghoul on the floor splits like melon.

  I activate my QCP vision for a second and see a cloud of little golden ovals, which look like links from a chain, floating around the dead Common Ghoul. That is the loose experience that normally does not go to anyone. If there were more than just the two of us, there would be far fewer of those links, as they would have been linked to other players. It usually takes a few seconds for the clouds of experience links to dissipate. The quicker you suck them up, the more you can get.

  While thinking of my hand as a sponge that will soak up the golden cloud, I sweep it through the densest part of the cloud, before turning to engage the Elite Ghoul.

  "Stop fighting! Capture the food!" The Elite Ghoul turns its glare on the two Common Ghouls tearing at one another with tooth and claw. Its eyes glow with a very faint, putrid green luminescence that is just barely visible in the dimly lit barn.

  This Elite Ghoul is different from normal ghouls. Ghouls are not brain dead like zombies, but they are extremely animalistic. However, this Elite Ghoul strikes me as cunning. It clearly intends to use the two Common Ghouls to make it easier to kill us. Normal ghouls do not reason things out in that manner.

  The Elite Ghoul is also bound with the QCP's Shackles, strong ones. Not all quest mobs have Shackles. Sometimes quest monsters have none, but this Elite Ghoul has an obvious blackish-blue thread attached to it and a thick one at that.

  I glance at Raven Goddess. The Common Ghoul that she was fighting lies on the ground at her feet, with more holes than a pin cushion. Nearly, the entire cloud of loose experience is being sucked into her hand like it is a vacuum cleaner.

  "Damn. You're a better cheater than I am." I repress a shiver of awe at Raven Goddess' efficiency.

  "I have fifteen millennia of practice. Every time you kill something, there is always so much wasted experience." Raven Goddess smiles at me, but there is a darkness behind her eyes that hints at loss and sorrow.

  As the two Common Ghouls disentangle themselves from one another and rise to their feet, the Elite Ghoul's eyes shift back and forth between Raven Goddess and myself. From the confusion in its eyes, while it understands our words, it has no clue what we mean.

  As the Common Ghoul that can still see pounces at Raven Goddess, the Elite Ghoul glances at the shadowed corners of the barn, and I lunge at it.

  The Elite Ghoul tries to deflect my staff with its claws but only partially succeeds. As the tip of my staff slams into its shoulder instead of the center of its chest, its eyes open wide in shock, and the force of the impact spins it halfway around. Trying to get inside the reach of my staff, it lunges at me, but I swing the other end of my staff up into its balls.

  Slashing open my forearm, the Elite Ghoul jumps back and looks at me with what might be a smirk. The Elite Ghoul thinks that it has already won.

  I glance at my arm. White bone peeks out from the eight inch long tears in the back of my forearm, and traces of black sink into my flesh The claws of ghouls synthesize a magic poison that induces paralysis, but a Half-Giant is not the easiest thing in the world to poison or paralyze.

  "Nice try." I smirk at the Elite Ghoul and take a quick glance in Raven Goddess' direction.

  While the blinded Common Ghoul follows the sounds of battle and fruitlessly swings at empty air, Raven Goddess stabs the last Common Ghoul and retreats, leading them both by the nose and circling around the warehouse.

  As the Elite Ghoul follows my glance and frowns at Raven Goddess' fight, I lunge at it, and the tip of my staff slams into its sternum. The Elite Ghouls flies backward, and leaping forward, I bring my staff down on its head with an overhead swing.

  "Grrrr!" While snarling, the Elite Ghoul charges me and gets sent flying by my kick.

  While Raven Goddess finishes off the Common Ghouls, I keep knocking the Elite Ghoul around the barn and chew off more than two-thirds of its HP in the process.

  "Raaaarrrrrrr!"

  As Raven Goddess attacks the Elite Ghoul from the flank, it roars and springs at her, but she ducks under its attack and gets behind it. A blue glow surrounds her swords, and spinning like a top, she tears up the Elite Ghouls back, taking off nearly half its remaining HP.

  The Elite Ghoul spins around to attack Raven Goddess, and I sweep my staff into its knees, flipping it head over heels. While the Elite Ghoul scrambles to get back to its feet, I hammer it in the face, with the butt end of my staff, and send it sprawling to the ground again. Taking advantage of the situation, Raven closes on the Elite Ghoul and drives both her blades into its groin.

  The poor bastard may be a vicious, nasty, flesh eating monster, but seeing a vicious, nasty woman emasculate it like that, my dick and balls shrivel up in sympathy.

  As the Elite Ghoul finally dies, a gold cloud of experience links fills the air around it.

  Raven Goddess looks at me and gets a queer look on her face. "What?"

  "You secretly hate men, don't you?"

  For a few seconds, Raven Goddess just stares at me with her mouth hanging open, and I take the opportunity to suck up as much loose experience as I can.

  "Hey, that is cheating." Raven Goddess laughs.

  "Isn't that why you wanted me, my cheating?"

  With a slightly pouting expression, Raven Goddess sucks up all the remaining free experience.

  "Why does this Elite Ghoul have a loot thread tied to it?"

  With a puzzled frown, Raven Goddess just stares at the corpse for a few second. "I do not know. There should not be one, but there Quantum Control Program might have inserted an intermediate loot drop. Though, I have no idea why it would do so."

  I reach out for the loot thread.

  "That Shackle has three distinct loot threads. Start with the smallest."

  "I know. I see them."<
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  Separating the smallest loot thread out, I tap on it and get a tile menu with mostly weapons and clothing.

  "There are four Ability tomes, but I can't get any names for them."

  Raven Goddess frowns. "I do not know how some people have managed to get the names for pieces of loot. I have never found a way to get names or descriptions for anything. You should just pick the one that you think will be the luckiest."

  After tapping one of the tome, I reach for the next loot thread, but I cannot open a menu.

  "There's no loot list."

  Raven Goddess thoughtfully purses her lips. "It should be something locked to the quest. What about the last?"

  "Same thing. I'm not getting a list."

  Raven Goddess searches the body and pulls out a tome, a suit of chainmail, and a letter. She tosses me the tome and holds up the suit of chainmail. The silver washed chainmail has a golden sun woven into the chest with gold washed links of mail.

  "That's the armor of Warrior Deacon from the Theran Church of the Sun."

  Raven Goddess smiles nastily. "I may have gone overboard by stabbing the ghoul in the groin. It has done the world at least one great favor."

  In every version of Primacy Online , the Theran Church of the Sun has been the tool of the Church of the Resurrection. It is a more or less open secret that the Church of the Resurrection has a force of cryogenic immortals called the Holy Crusaders that have been playing their games for centuries, and each version of the game's Church of the Sun was always their tool. If there is really only one Primacy Online , that would mean that it has always been the same Church of the Sun in every game. I wonder what the island empire of Thera is like.

  When I played Primacy Online V: Knights of the Mist , Raven Goddess' faction was at war with the Church of the Sun, but considering her hatred for the Church of the Resurrection, I can understand her enmity with the Church of the Sun.

  "What does the letter say?"

  While frowning, Raven Goddess opens the letter, and as she quickly reads it, her frown deepens.

  Quest: Deliver Claudius' Letter has been offered.

  Do you wish to accept? (Yes/No)

  Once she finishes, she passes the letter to me.