The Cheater's Return

by Brian McGoldrick

  I sigh and shake my head. "Someone just had to scream like a banshee, and it drew the attention of more yard trash. If this was inside a dungeon, imagine how bad it would be. What kind of noob princess would do something like that?"

  "You were bullying me!" Chin-Sun's scream is just as loud as before.

  "Child, you are endangering us all. If you do not learn to leash your emotions and treat this as a real life and death situation, people will die because of you. I have no intention of dying because of you." Serena's stare is cold enough to freeze the air between them.

  "I'm sorry. But he's bullying me." As she points at me, Chin-Sun unconsciously shrinks back from Serena.

  "Stop making excuses. You have an excuse for everything that you do not do well. Accept your mistakes, and learn from them." Serena's icy demeanor does not thaw in the least.

  I shrug. "At least it's an open zone. We just have some bigger yard trash to deal with."

  Cavallo laughs. "I like your definition of yard trash."

  "What do you mean?"

  Cavallo points at the ghouls. "Identify the big one."

  "Huh?" I look over my shoulder at the ghouls with Identify Monster .

  Common Ghoul (Fighter) Level 10

  » HP 2400/2400

  Elite Ghoul (Elite) (Fighter) Level 10

  » HP 9000/9000

  Ghoul Boss Chomper (Lord) (Fighter) Level 15

  » HP 250,000/250,000

  "What the fuck?"

  Six of the ghouls are elites, and twelve are common ghouls, for a total of eighteen-yard trash and the big one. The big one is on par with a 10-man dungeon's end boss. Even if this is an Extermination x10 zone, there should not be something like that running around.

  I look at Raven Goddess. "Do you think the QCP is fucking with us again?"

  Raven Goddess shakes her head and smiles ironically. "This is Toraigh, and there has been no initial clearing. Other than their own internal conflicts, the monsters and other inhabitants of these lands have thousands of years of development that has only been observed by the Quantum Control Program. The rules you saw in Avalon do not apply here."

  "Well, shit. I guess we hit the jackpot."

  I take a close look at Ghoul Boss Chomper's spear. It has not been well-maintained, but there is nothing remotely crude about its construction. It might be something usable for a while, and it should hit a lot harder than my staff. I wonder if it will be better than the earth spears I can conjure with Earthen Spear .

  "If I take the boss, do you all think you can clean up the trash?"

  Raven Goddess smiles. "Of course, we can."

  I feel like a cold, clammy hand grabs onto my heart and turn around to face the ghouls.

  "Food talk and talk. Food ignore Ghoul Boss Chomper. Ghoul Boss Chomper eat food alive. Take food alive!" Ghoul Boss Chomper sounds pissed.

  "{Earthen Spear} .

  " As I focus on the spell and verbalize the short chant, I conjure another earth spear.

  Earthen Spear: Spell Expression 69%

  Shit. I need to get better at casting Earth Elementalism spells. If this was Darkness or Blood magic, my Spell Expression would be in the nineties.

  "Domina, cast Shield on yourself and stay in the back! If there is an opportunity, you can use Mana Dart to attack. These ghouls are far beyond the level that you can deal with." Serena delivers her commands in a brusque, no-nonsense tone.

  They rush at us in a loose pack. They are not in any kind of formation. In life, they might have been warriors or soldiers, but now, they are nothing more than instinct-driven carrion eaters. They just happen to be disproportionately strong for ghouls.

  The other four form up in a diamond shape, with Cavallo at the point, and Cavallo nods his head.

  Holding my earth spear just below my waist, I charge into the ghoul pack and attack a Common Ghoul with a Sliding Thrust. The thing's head practically explodes as my earth spear goes through its wide-open mouth, its palate, and the back of its skull. Black blood, desiccated brain matter, and bone fragments spray everywhere.

  With more ghouls grabbing at me, I sweep my earth spear in 90° arc to the left and back 180° to the right. The force of my attacks shatters the shoulders and collar bones, or crushes the heads of four more Common Ghouls, and knocks down one of the Elite Ghouls.

  Following behind its ghouls, like an officer staying safe in the rear echelons, Ghoul Boss Chomper glares at me. There is no fear in its eyes, but being a boss, it probably thinks it is much stronger than I am.

  Clang!

  As Ghoul Boss Chomper blocks my stab at its lower abdomen, the impact jars my hands. That thing is stronger than I am by a wide margin.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  With a quick exchange of blows, I get a measure of Ghoul Boss Chomper's strength and speed. It has probably close to twice my strength, but it is no faster than the Elite Ghouls. The only problem is that it actually knows how to use a spear. At least, it is not an expert. I can break through its defense, and it lacks the skill to easily hit me.

  "Crom, look out!" Raven's shout reaches my ears.

  Feeling a chill in the middle of my back, I dive to the side and roll back to my feet.

  The Elite Ghoul that turned around to attack stares hungrily at me. As it charges toward me, Ghoul Boss Chomper circles to my right.

  By springing to the left, I get the Elite Ghoul between me and Ghoul Boss Chomper. Deflecting the Elite Ghoul's claws with my earth spear, I kick it in the stomach and knock it back into Ghoul Boss Chomper. Snarling in anger, Ghoul Boss Chomper slaps the Elite Ghoul in the head and sends it tumbling across the ground.

  Seeing that display of strength, I revise my opinion of Ghoul Boss Chomper's strength upward a few notches. It probably has close to two and half times my strength. When I first engaged it, it must have been holding back. This ghoul boss is too smart by half.

  After looking at me, Ghoul Boss Chomper glances at the Elite Ghoul it sent flying with a slap, and its expression fills with rage. Snarling, it leaps at me. Its speed is at least equal to my own.

  Lunging forward at an angle, I stab at Ghoul Boss Chomper with the point of my earth spear. It tries to block my attack but only partially deflects it, and I tear open a furrow along its floating ribs.

  Ghoul Boss Chomper: -444 Untyped Damage: Partial Parry (70% Total Damage Reduction): (156% Skill Expression (+660% Damage): 69% Spell Expression)

  The instant its own feet hit the ground, Ghoul Boss Chomper spins and sweeps at my legs with its spear. Jumping over the attack, I stab at its eyes, but it twists its head to the side. My earth spear tears open its cheek and rips off its ear. That kind of damage is barely a paper cut to that monster.

  As soon as the balls of my feet hit the ground, I spring backward to get a little more range and stab at Ghoul Boss Chomper again. Our battle turns into a game of cat and mouse. Ghoul Boss Chomper keeps trying to get into a close range fight, where it can use its greater strength to its advantage in horizontal sweeps and slashes, and I keep moving to the outside, while stabbing at it.

  Ghoul Boss Chomper: -770 Untyped Damage: Partial Parry (50% Total Damage Reduction): (159% Skill Expression (+690% Damage): 69% Spell Expression)

  Ghoul Boss Chomper: -339 Untyped Damage: Partial Parry (80% Total Damage Reduction): (167% Skill Expression (+770% Damage): 69% Spell Expression)

  Ghoul Boss Chomper: -1010 Untyped Damage: Partial Parry (20% Total Damage Reduction): (161% Skill Expression (+710% Damage): 69% Spell Expression)

  After another thirty or so attacks, I leap backward and hurl my earth spear at Ghoul Boss Chomper. He batters it aside, taking no damage, but it keeps him from immediately chasing me.

  "{Earthen Spear} ."

  I replace the earth spear that was getting close to its duration.

  Earthen Spear: Spell Expression 71%

  Ghoul Boss Chomper's ability to partially deflect nearly all my attacks seriously cuts into my damage output. By the time the rest of the part
y finishes off the yard trash ghouls, I have barely managed to chew off a fifth of Ghoul Boss Chomper's hit points.

  With the rest of the ghouls dead, Raven Goddess moves around to Ghoul Boss Chomper's back, and the other three spread out in a loose line. Cavallo and Serena take bows and quivers out of their inventories.

  As Raven Goddess repeatedly darts in and out to attack Ghoul Boss Chomper, the others attack with arrows and Mana Dart in the case of Chin-Sun.

  With all four us working on him, Ghoul Boss Chomper's hit points start to drop like a rock. It does not dare to show me its back, so Raven Goddess especially wreaks havoc on it.

  "Foul food. My master will eat you!" Ghoul Boss Chomper falls over dead.

  I scratch my head. "So, what do you call a dead undead? Re-dead? Real dead?"

  For a few moments, everyone just stares at me.

  "You need to work on your jokes." Cavallo turns his back on me and starts searching the ghoul corpses.

  "It wasn't exactly a joke."

  "Insufferable man." Raven Goddess shakes her head.

  Seeing Raven Goddess' reaction, Serena smirks and winks at me, before turning to Chin-Sun. "Come, child. Time to loot the corpses."

  "Yuck." Chin-Sun looks at the dead ghouls and shivers.

  I pick up Ghoul Boss Chomper's spear.

  Ghoul Boss Chomper's Spear

  » (Unique)

  » 25 Piercing Damage OR 15-25 Slashing Damage OR 10-20 Blunt Damage

  » Minimum Level 10

  » This spear was given to Ghoul Boss Chomper by his master in the Underworld. When Ghoul Boss Chomper ascended from the Underworld, he brought this spear with him.

  "Raven, take a look at this."

  When she turns toward me, I toss Raven Goddess the spear.

  After examining the spear, Raven Goddess frowns. "There must be a rift to the Underworld in this area that is stable enough to allow boss level monsters through. At these low Levels, a weapon like this would never be given to anything less than a boss level monster."

  I grin. "That's a bonus for us. We might be able to turn up something better to fight. That ghoul boss was a decent warmup, but it wasn't good enough to touch me. I need something tougher to practice on."

  Raven Goddess smiles and shakes her head. "Do you ever get enough of fighting?"

  I shrug.

  "Insufferable man."

  Cavallo walks over. "We got a big jackpot of 73 silver and 189 copper coins in I don't know how many different mintages. There have to be, at least, five or six languages on them."

  Following behind him, Serena has a faint smile on her lips, as she watches Chin-Sun fastidiously wipe her hands with a piece of not so clean cloth. "This girl will never make it as a necromancer."

  Chin-Sun looks over her shoulder at the ghoul corpses and shudders. "Yuck. I don't like playing with dead things."

  Looking back at me, Chin-Sun glares. "What was with your bullshit about being in danger? You were toying with that big ghoul. You're nothing but a lying pig."

  I scoff at Chin-Sun. "Just because Chomper was a joke, it doesn't change the fact that your screaming drew him to us. He was just a low-Level boss. He was about on par with a 10-man dungeon end boss. I used to solo 10-man dungeons, but he could have just as easily been a fifty-man or hundred-man boss. What would we have done, then? We don't have a real healer. We would have been killed."

  "You are such an asshole!" Chin-Sun's volume goes up, but this time, she does not full-out scream at me. Maybe the girl is not too dumb to learn, after all.

  Raven Goddess gives the spear back to me. She uses a lance when mounted, but I have never seen her use any form of spear or polearm on foot.

  I try out a few katas with the spear, but I do not like the length.

  "Cavallo, do you want this spear? It's at least 50cm shorter than I like. With my spear style, 350cm is the minimum length I need to use it comfortably. This is barely 300cm, and I would prefer a 380-390cm spear."

  Cavallo shakes his head. "No, thanks. I like halberds and Lucerne hammers. I'm not a spear user."

  I shrug, and with a frown, I examine the spear, again. "I guess I'll hang onto it for now."

  Squatting next to Ghoul Boss Chomp's corpse, Raven Goddess almost caresses the loot shackle attached to the corpse. When she stands up, she holds up a gold coin and a tome with a black cover on it.

  "A Talent tome?"

  Raven Goddess smiles. "Of course."

  Raven Goddess links the tome information into party chat, and we look at it.

  Feign Death

  » An active Talent that allows the user to enter a death-like state. To an observer, the user will appear to have suddenly died.

  » When the user is carefully examined, it is possible to determine that the user is not actually dead, but the chance is dependent on the Perception and Reason of the examiner. The user's Willpower will directly contest any attempts to determine their living state.

  » Talents, Abilities, and Spells that can detect life can see though Feign Death, but the Willpower of the user will increase the difficulty of successfully detecting the user's life force.

  After reading the description, everyone looks at Chin-Sun.

  Chin-Sun takes a step back. "What?"

  Raven Goddess hands Chin-Sun the Feign Death tome. "Learn this. If you can be safely removed from battle when needed, it will result in less work for everyone else."

  After flipping through the tome, Chin-Sun looks at Raven Goddess. "I don't understand the language."

  "Noob."

  Serena softly sighs. "Child, you do not read a tome. Well, you can read it, but it could take weeks or months to understand the contents well enough to make use of it. By inserting a bit of your consciousness and Mana into the tome, you can directly absorb the knowledge contained within and acquire the Talent. It is the same for a Skill or Ability tome. When you received your draft notification, didn't you look up the information on the game's mechanics?"

  Chin-Sun raises her head proudly. "Of course, I read everything about the game. I just wasn't thinking about that."

  I look at Serena. "You know you don't need to insert your consciousness into a tome. Just a single Mana Point is enough to activate the absorption."

  Serena frowns. "I know, but the child needs to learn to insert her consciousness into an item, if she is to have any hope of advancing to Rank 1. If she cannot advance, she will hold us back."

  Once Chin-Sun absorbs the tome, no one makes any more comments about it, but Serena and Cavallo look at one another, with troubled expressions.

  "With your quests, is there any reason not to go south?"

  With slightly raised eyebrows, Cavallo glances toward the south, the direction the pack of ghouls came from. "It doesn't really matter. We're just collecting ghoul's eye teeth at this point. It's for a bounty quest, so there shouldn't be a turn-in limit. If you want to join in, it takes three other quests to open it up, but you should be able to just do the turn in after opening it up."

  I shrug. "Doesn't matter. You need to catch up on Levels. Let's go south."

  * * * * *

  As the last Elite, from the latest pack of ghouls, falls, I look in Chin-Sun's direction. The other three are standing around watching her fight a ghoul.

  Chin-Sun's movements are awkward and jerky. Well, they look that way to me, but to ninety percent of the player base, they would look fine. The System Assist Mode is fairly smooth in the way it adjusts a character sheathe's movements, but I am too experienced at fighting for it to be anything but awkward. Whenever I see someone in System Assist Mode, it makes them look like a marionette being jerked around on its strings. The system's attack lines are extremely basic and target the center of whatever body part the player aims for, and the abrupt changes to the lines of the attacks actually make System Assist Mode extremely effective in hitting something.

  Because of how the line of the attacks can abruptly change, it can be difficult to dodge System Assist Mode attacks, but there i
s a serious drawback. Any and all System Assist Mode attacks fall in between 50% and 60% Skill Expression. While you can get critical hit bonuses from targeting the head, the throat, the groin, and other specific areas, you will never get the bonus damage from going over 90% Skill Expression.

  Every time the ghoul is about to hit Chin-Sun, Serena deflects the undead's attacks for her. In System Assist Mode, she would be getting torn apart without the help. After about fifty seconds, Chin-Sun's Common Ghoul crumples to the ground, and she glares at all of us. "Why do you kill the ghouls so fast? What kind of cheats are you using?"

  After Serena and Cavallo glance at one another, Cavallo rolls his eyes and walks away. Serena hides her frustration and looks at Chin-Sun again. "Child, what we are doing is explained in dozens of wikis and hundreds of thousands of blog articles and player interviews."

  Chin-Sun winces and puts on a superior attitude. "I never saw anything about killing so fast, so it can't be very obvious what you're doing."

  Raven Goddess does not hide her disdain. "We do not use the System Assist Mode. All of our attacks rely on our personal skill. If you want to improve, turn off the System Assist Mode."

  Chin-Sun glares at Raven Goddess. "I already tried that and I miss more than half the time on everything but zombies and skeletons."

  Raven Goddess scoffs. "Practice more. If you practice long enough and are not completely incompetent, your Skill Expression will get into the nineties. That will get into the normal range of the expert players in the game. If you want to reach our level, you need to take your Skills to point where you exceed the normal limits of your mind and your sheathe.

  "A human's Earth body can achieve mental and physical performance rates of six to eight times their normal peak. It only happens during moments when one is under great stress and danger, but it does happen. There can be severe side effects in the form of muscle and joint damage or strokes and heart attacks, but it does not change the fact that the human body can reach those levels.

  "Character sheathes are superior to our Earth bodies by several orders of magnitude and can exceed their normal peak performance by ten to twelve times. When we fight, we are constantly pushing our sheathes over the normal limits of human capability, and that is why we do so much damage. I am at that point that I am almost hitting the absolute limits of my sheathe's strength capabilities. The rest, Crom included, still have a way to go before they reach my level."