Crimson Sands

by J. Arthur Klein

  “He’s lying! Let me kill him,” the Quetzl said and raised her sword, but the captain raised a hand and she lowered the blade.

  “Gods damn that stupid bastard.” Alfred cursed, earning a look from the Captain that said they would be having words later.

  The captain then turned to me and seemed to calm a bit. “My apologies. We have recently had some pretty aggravating interactions with the local Temple. They demand so much from us in return for their healing services that we were forced to choose to either pay their fees or feed our recruits. Alfred here and his apprentices do their best, but some things are the domain of the gods alone.”

  My anger slowly drained away and I took a deep breath. “I understand your anger. I keep running into people that others of my race and calling have wronged, and while I cannot control their actions, I can control my own.”

  *** You have gained reputation with the Mercenaries Guild of Tael’va! Unfriendly→ Neutral. ***

  “Thank you for your assistance,” he replied. “Who were you supposed to find for your training?”

  “Instructor Aku’a?” I said and the Quetzl woman started laughing behind my back.

  The captain was not amused. “Everyone out!”

  The other instructors and Alfred all headed towards the exit, pausing briefly when the captain added "and Check on Balin’s leg. If he gives you any lip remind him that his place here is contingent on my pleasure, and right now I am not pleased.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Alfred replied and continued on his way.

  I glanced back at the captain and saw him studying me. He beckoned me to follow, and headed out of the bridge area. “I will train you myself. Balin has been a thorn in my side for quite a while, and this may be the last straw. Hiding a wound, assigning a Saa to train with our one Quetzl instructor? Enough is enough, but that is not why you are here. What is it that you wanted training in?”

  I grabbed my things hurried to catch up as I answered, “Endurance and something to help me better utilize my spear.”

  “Endurance I can do, but you’ll need to be more specific for the spear. There are many ways to utilize it. I could teach you how to pierce armor, how to inflict a bleeding wound, how to strike to cripple a limb. The list goes on and on, multiple and single target, precision strikes, powerful strikes, and so on,” he stated.

  I glanced at my spear and shrugged. “What would you recommend? My stamina pool is limited, so even after the endurance training, I wouldn’t have a lot to work with.”

  He looked me up and down in consideration. “For you, I think I would recommend Precision Strike. It isn’t as flashy or powerful as some of the others but can be combined with the more advanced techniques once you learn them to create something truly powerful... although I’m not sure how far in your training you intend to go."

  "Precision Strike is similar to an archer’s aimed shot. You focus on your opponent, searching their defenses for a weak point for a few seconds and then aim for any that you find. When using the technique, you have a higher chance of landing a more lethal hit, and if you do manage to strike their weak points the damage will be even more devastating than a normal blow.”

  “That sounds perfect,” I said, thinking of how I could have used that sort of skill in the battle with the rock monster earlier in the day.

  He nodded and took me over to the wooden practice dummies, grabbing a spear of his own and walking me through the movements.

  At first, I didn’t quite get it, I would focus as instructed, looking for a weak spot on the wooden training golems, but all I saw was their wooden forms shifting around.

  After about an hour of shifting my stance by an inch, watching the minute movements of the golems, and listening to the Instructor drone on about timing and weight distribution and leverage something clicked .

  *** Would you like to spend 1 Combat Skill point and learn the ‘Precision Strike’ skill? (Y/N) ***

  If I had been playing on a keyboard, I would have mashed the Y key until it broke.

  ***Congratulations! You have learned the Precision Strike skill (Rank 1)! 1 Combat Skill Point used! ***

  With the message came a rush of understanding of the complete skill. I finally understood what the instructor had been droning on about.

  Using that newfound knowledge, I focused on the golem and watched its movement closely, waiting. Several seconds later a small section of the golem began to glow.

  I struck for that spot and watched as my spear sunk into a weak point in the wood.

  *** You critically strike Training Golem with Precision Strike inflicting a mortal wound! ***

  *** Training Golem is disabled and in need of repairs. ***

  “Good!” The captain said, “You've got it. So let's get started on your endurance. Put on your pack and give me a lap!”

  I groaned and followed his instructions.

  Endurance training involved running laps. A lot of laps. My stamina was drained to critical levels, over and over.

  Then he added in combat maneuvers. I would run until almost at my breaking point, and then dodge the captains attacks and retaliate. We repeated this pattern until I thought I would pass out, and then finally my efforts paid off.

  *** Would you like to spend 1 Combat Skill point and learn the ‘Endurance’ skill? (Y/N) ***

  I selected Yes and sighed.

  ***Congratulations! You have learned the Endurance skill (Rank 1)! 1 Combat Skill Point used! ***

  No rush of knowledge accompanied the skill but I did feel like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and my lungs felt much stronger; like I could run a marathon, or at least dance around in combat and not fall over, which was the point.

  “Good job, Priest,” he congratulated me. “Next time you need training, ask the guards at the gate for Captain Volksburge and they will send you to me. I appreciate what you did for our man, and if we didn’t sorely need the money, I’d offer you a refund, but alas…”

  I chuckled. “No worries Captain, I understand, and I hope that your guild has better times ahead.”

  He escorted me out of the guild and we parted ways. The gate guards saluted him and then retook their positions.

  Wondering if I had time for any other progress this session, I checked the clock. It was minutes before my first alarm was set to go off, meaning I had just over two hours remaining in this play session.

  Just enough time to get my armor repaired, pick up some additional supplies and make my way back to the inn before logging off for the night.

  The first armorer I found had repair kits for sale at five silver a piece, which seemed like a reasonable price. One of the kits had been enough materials to repair both Kjara’s and my armor the last time it was damaged, so I figured three would keep my armor in good shape for a while.

  The armorer had whetstones for sale as well, so I picked up one to sharpen my spear for another three silver.

  I made a few more stops, picking up a few odds and ends I thought might be useful later on before heading back to the inn.

  On route to the Stone Serpent my second alarm went off, causing a bright red message to flash across my entire field of view. There was no chance someone would miss one of these alarms when they went off.

  I cleared the alarm text and finished my journey the inn. After stowing my gear in my room, I decided to spend the remains of my evening enjoying some virtual fare in the common room.

  Business was booming so there were no tables available but there were some openings at the bar.

  Sajeev saw me sit from the other end of the bar and headed over. “You missed our normal mealtime, but we do have some stew left in the back if you are hungry”

  “That would be amazing Sajeev. I’d love a bowl of stew, and one of those ales your big human friend picked for me last time.”

  He nodded and headed through the door to the kitchen. I took the opportunity to glance around the room, seeing a lot of the same patrons that were here yesterday. I caught Mooney staring a
t me, so I gave him a smile and a nod, and he scowled and looked away.

  I had hoped that the djinden from the caravan had made their way here, but I didn’t see them in the common room. I caught some angry glares from some of the newcomers, but no one seemed inclined to take it further than looks, which was a relief.

  Sajeev returned with a steaming bowl of stew, a loaf of bread, and tankard of ale. I took a whiff of the stew and my mouth began to water. It smelled delicious.

  “Hey Sajeev,” I said, taking one of the stone coins from my purse and putting it on the bar in front of me. “Could you tell me what this is?”

  He glanced down at the strange coin and gasped. He reached down and covered the coin, glancing up and down the bar to see if anyone else had seen it.

  “Where did you get this?” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

  I told him about our encounter with the bandits and the djinden wagon, and how the driver had tossed me a bag with the coins for myself and my companion.

  “These travelers… describe them to me,” he said, more than a hint of desperation in his voice.

  I described the travelers as best I could remember and watched him as he teetered on the brink of some sort of breakdown.

  His eyes were conflicted, switching between hope and fear almost as quickly as I could register.

  I waited for him to speak but he had frozen, his gaze locked on to something behind me as tears began to fall from his wide, emerald eyes.

  I turned and saw the djinden travelers standing in the entryway. The woman's expression was an almost exact mirror of Sajeev’s.

  The younger male was holding the toddler, looking around nervously while the caravan driver was actively scanning the common room for signs of danger.

  “Yasamin?” Sajeev whispered.

  The woman smiled, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks as Sajeev climbed over the bar, knocking my stew and ale to the floor in his haste to reach the new arrivals and picked the woman up in a tight embrace.

  I snatched the stone coin from the bar top and tucked it back into my pouch and watched as the two wept and held each other.

  The wagon driver was still scanning the crowd, who were all now staring in silence; their eyes glued to the djinden arrivals.

  Mareej came out of the back carrying a tray of food and stopped dead about two steps from the kitchen door.

  Her eyes immediately focused on the scene in front of her and then, with much more poise than her husband, she set her tray down on the bar and headed over to the travelers.

  She greeted the newcomers and whispering something to them in their native tongue. Sajeev nodded and then ushered them towards the back, pretty much ignorant of anything else in the world at this point.

  They continued to talk as they moved and when they were partway there, I saw the woman point to me.

  I nodded in return and Sajeev met my gaze and performed a complicated gesture that I understood to be one of profound thanks. It was pretty much the first sign of anything other than tolerance the man had ever shown me.

  *** You have gained reputation with the Stone Serpent Djinden! Suspicious → Friendly. ***

  Mareej continued about her business of delivering the meals on her tray, but as soon as that was done, she ducked back into the kitchen.

  A moment later, the big human barkeep from the other day came out and took over the front-end operation.

  I glanced at the game clock and saw it was time for me to log out and looked down at the remains of my meal splattered on the floor.

  My dreams of digging into the hearty bowl of digital stew crushed, I headed back to my room and started the logout sequence.

  *** Congratulations! You have completed another session of Sosaku Online! ***

  *** Session Duration: 17:56:45.***

  *** Your character is currently within a designated safe logout area. As such, you may leave the game without a delay timer. While logged out, your inn room will be inaccessible to other players or NPCs. ***

  ***Would you like to log out of Sosaku Online at this time? (Y/N) ***

  I clicked yes and waited for the logout sequence to complete.

  ...

  Chapter 15

  I stepped out of the pod and stretched. This time it took a little less time to get used to my own skin again which was a relief. I made my way out of the pod room and over to the main desk to let the guys know I was done.

  The line of people waiting to use the new pods was still as long as it had been when I arrived. Confused, I checked the clock on my phone to confirm that it was in fact 1AM.

  One of the arcade's normal managers was there when I arrived at the main desk. I let him know I was done for the day and would be back for my normal 9AM slot tomorrow morning before summoning another automated taxi to take me home.

  When I opened the apartment door, I was surprised to see the kitchen light still on.

  Hoping nothing was wrong, I walked into the room and saw my sister sitting at the table with textbooks spread over its surface and a pot of coffee sitting empty to one side. She looked up as I entered and gave me a tired smile.

  “Hey bro, all done getting ganked by twelve year olds for the evening?” she asked, waving her hand in what I could only guess was an impression of someone using a wand.

  I chuckled and tossed some leftovers from the fridge into the microwave, taking a seat amongst the sea of books while it warmed up.

  “Nah. Gotta be at least thirteen to get one over on me nowadays. What are you doing up so late?”

  She sighed and let her head thud onto the book in front of her as she groaned, “Multivariable Calculus exam tomorrow and I really need to pass this class.”

  “Ouch,” I responded, “I’d offer to help, but you did say you wanted to pass.” and laughed as that got a smile.

  “Gah! I just wish I had my notes, but Derrek trashed them when we broke up,” she said, her smile turning into a frown as tears began to gather in her eyes.

  Derrek was a douchebag of the highest caliber, and if Amber hadn’t dumped him there was a good chance I would have been in jail after she came home one day with bruises on her wrists from where he had grabbed her.

  Luckily for him, she was a strong woman in her own right and that incident was the end of that relationship, and from what I heard from some of her friends, the full functionality of some of his more delicate parts.

  But if I ever were to encounter a certain ex-boyfriend in a dark alley one day, well…

  The ding of the microwave shook me out of my dark thoughts. I walked around and gave my sister a hug and whispered, “You’ve got this. Those variables won’t know what hit ‘em.”

  She chuckled and wiped the tears from her eyes, “Thanks James, even if you are the corniest person in the world, you’re still a great brother.”

  We said goodnight, and I headed to my room to finish off my food and dig through the day’s footage.

  Ignoring the boring delivery quest and most of the actual travel time, I made the clearing of the salt mine the main focus for my stream update.

  First, I cut together the full game experience, keeping all of the game mechanics and stats. The first boss fight and explanation of the dungeon boss loot chest mechanics were definitely the meat and potatoes of the new content and would interest the gamers who liked all the nuts and bolts.

  When that was done, I cut out all of the meta content, added some background music and some transitions between the different segments and made it into another cinematic style vid.

  I posted both up to my stream and read through some of my followers’ comments. There were a lot of them, but I had become pretty good at speed reading over the years, but still only managed to get through part of them before my eyes started to give out.

  Requests for more combat, more magic, more exploration. People were hungry for everything the game had to offer.

  I had to remind several people of the rules for my stream when the comments and suggestions regarding
Kjara took an inappropriate turn.

  A couple people showed some interest in how the crafting system worked, so I promised I’d look into exploring that more when I reached the next city.

  To keep them sated for the time being I posted a short clip of when I’d used the kits to repair our armor along with an apology. I had taken crafting skills after all. I should probably use them.

  I checked my subscriber numbers and saw I had a bunch of new subscribers, so I sent out a message to them all and thanked them for joining my stream.

  After that, I was beat. I finished up my scavenged meal, hit the bathroom, and set my alarm for the morning before collapsing into bed.

  …

  I woke the next morning a few minutes before my alarm and found a note from my mom tacked to my door.

  Don’t be a Stranger.

  Love Mom.

  P.S. Make sure to eat.

  I laughed, took a quick shower, grabbed another bagel from the kitchen and headed to the bus stop.

  Once on the bus I sent a message to my mother letting her know things were going well and I would try and make some time to see everyone soon.

  This wasn’t the first game that I had delved into deeply the week of release, but having to go to the arcade for this one cut out the brief time I usually had to see my family.

  I resolved to drop my play hours once my subscription base was enough to sustain for a bit.

  As I sent the message off to my mother, I noticed a series of messages coming in from a Kabishiyama email address.

  From the subject lines it appeared that they had finally gotten to my bug reports, and the responses were exactly what I had been hoping for.

  =RE: Bug 0.01:33-5a - Exhaustion Loop

  =Thank you for your report. We have examined the materials provided and determined that the current interaction of the Exhaustion Timer with effects that prevent the replenishment of your stamina pool is a valid bug.