《PARTY HARD》


 Chapter 1

    Alastair Coldblood paced through the cavernous space that he called his office. His agitated shadow stretched across the floor in the soft light of the moon crystals embedded in the ceiling as he walked. He spoke, with as much authority as he could summon, rehearsing a speech that he didn¡¯t want to give. Every now and then he paused to glance at the open door that led to the attached balcony as a cruel voice in his head urged him to go on out and have a peek. He attempted to ignore it, but each pause grew longer until he couldn¡¯t resist anymore.


    He abandoned his preparations altogether. He let out a defeated sigh and gave in to the nagging feeling that had been eating away at him for the last few days. He knew going out there wouldn''t make him happy, but still, he had to see for himself. Against his better judgment, he stepped out into the open night air to look down on the city below. As usual, the city of Valain sparkled brightly in the dark, its streets lined with lamplight and its windows abuzz with activity. Normally, the view filled him with a sense of pride and satisfaction, but now, the crowd gathering below ruined it. The flickering light of their torches added little to the cityscape.


    Of course, the people below, who were quickly becoming a mob, couldn''t get in, as the Citadel that housed his office was surrounded by a wide moat. It had been put in for decoration, but due to the recent controversy, it had come in handy. With the bridges raised, it cut off all access to the building from the outside. Unfortunately, it also made it impossible for his employees to leave the building through normal means. A fact that had forced Alastair to reassign a team of interns wielding various teleportation spells to allow the building¡¯s workers to go about their day uninterrupted.


    Technically, the moat wasn''t even necessary, since there wasn''t much that the crowd below could do to him even if they were to somehow get in. His position, allowing him access to a cleric armband, gave him control over abilities so powerful that it wouldn''t take much more than a few swipes of his hand to destroy the whole lot of them. But that would probably be going too far. He did seriously debate on summoning a light rainstorm to make things uncomfortable for them, though. He refrained.


    He wasn''t really mad at them. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He wanted to skip his next few meetings and go down there to tell them the truth about his actions over the last week. But that would probably get him in more trouble, especially with his legal team. Instead, he let out another sigh and resigned himself to be the villain of the day.


    He sunk his chin into one hand and leaned over the ornate stone railing of the balcony, squinting as hard as he could at the flickering lights below. From his perch high atop the Citadel''s towers, the torches reminded him of candles on a cake, ready to grant his every wish. It was a cute distraction, but the problem at hand forced him to shake his head, dislodging the unhelpful thought to make room for more productive lines of reason. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small leather-bound book with a decorative silver dragon coiled on its front. He flipped to the back where a small rectangular piece of glass rested in an indented space purposely built into its rear cover. He popped it out and held it in front of his right eye, activating an enchantment that allowed him to focus closer on the scene below.


    Looking down at the crowd, his fingers fumbled in surprise, almost dropping the tiny window over the edge. Recovering his grasp, he clenched his hand around the item, his expression changing to one of utter indignation.


    "Oh, come on, people. Really? Pitchforks? Isn''t that a bit much!"


    It had happened. The gathering below had become a fully-fledged angry mob, complete with torches and farming equipment. Upon further inspection, there was even a man holding up a paper sign with the words ¡®Coldblood is Cold Blooded¡¯ written in heavy red calligraphy.


    He knew the people outside couldn''t hear him vent his frustrations from the distance above, but that didn''t stop him from yelling at them anyway.


    "Where the hell did you even get pitchforks? Those aren''t even available to buy! You probably looted them from some poor farmer. His family will probably starve, you monsters!" He spat his words with as much disdain as he could muster.


    Then finally, he chuckled. He had to respect the effort.


    The fact that someone had made a paper sign in the first place was rather impressive. Sure, there were several types of books and scrolls that anyone could buy throughout the world of Noctem, but to get a sheet of what looked like card stock at poster size was a long process. First, they had to chop down a tree for some wood, then break it down into pulp, and then refine it several times before it would even function as something akin to paper. Not to mention that they would also have to make the ink for writing on top of all that. The range of crafting skills needed for the endeavor was immense. Actually, now that he thought about it, Alastair wasn''t even sure how to make ink. Crushed berries maybe? He would have to look into it later. Anyways, the point was, that a lot of work had gone into creating a stupid sign making fun of his already ridiculous name.


    Of course, Alastair Coldblood wasn''t his real name. It was just the one he was known by in the world of Noctem, and the world of Noctem was no more real than his name. His real name was Milo Parker, and Noctem was a fictional world existing across a complex network of servers as part of a game called Carpe Noctem. But nevertheless, to the millions of users that spent eight to ten hours inhabiting it every night, it was real enough. Or, at least, it was real enough to merit protesting, when Neal Carver, one of its creators, was fired by Checkpoint Systems, the company that ran it. And Milo, being the CEO of said company, was now the center of the controversy. It had gained him a reputation throughout the land as being kind of a dick.


    There was a time when playing a video game for eight to ten hours a night would have been considered far too much. There could even be health risks with that kind of sedentary living. And that would still be true if it were just a normal massively multiplayer online role-playing game, but Carpe Noctem was anything but normal. What made it unique was that the time its users spent in the game was the time they would normally spend doing nothing at all. Well, not nothing. To be more accurate, it was the time they spent sleeping. This was because the system that ran the game, dubbed Somno, the Latin word for sleep, created a sort of a shared dream. And among other things, it allowed players to enter the nighttime world of Noctem when they went to bed, and log out when they woke up in the morning.


    Surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t even a complex system, since most of the heavy lifting was done by the user''s brain. All the Somno had to do, was guide the visuals of the dream state and feed information in and out so that players could interact with each other. It didn''t even have to process much of the sensory information, since the player''s minds filled in the blanks. It could even populate most of the background elements using whatever it could find in the memories of its inhabitants.


    In that regard, if the system said, ¡®Hey, brain, we need a sunset!¡¯ the brain would respond with, ¡®Oh, I have one of those from last summer.¡¯ The result was a world nearly indistinguishable from the real one. Well, other than the fact that it had dragons.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    After its release three years ago, the Somno had taken over as the dominant entertainment system in the majority of households. Although, this was due to the device''s secondary benefit, which was the simple fact that, in Noctem, users gained back all of the time they lost to sleep. And when the average person spends a third of their life in bed, it wasn''t hard to see the value. There was no more wishing for more time to relax after work or waiting until the weekend to spend time with friends. In fact, for many people who were working two jobs just to get by, it was the escape that they needed. So, it wasn''t a surprise that, with over two hundred million units sold, and billions in monthly fees, Checkpoint Systems had become one of the most profitable companies in the world almost overnight.


    Back when Neal, who had been a classmate of Milo''s at MIT, had brought the early concept work to him for help in developing a business around it, he had recognized its potential right away. So, while Neal locked himself away in his lab - also known as his parents'' basement - Milo devoted himself to bringing Somno to the masses. After a few years of trying though, he had little to show for it. Milo had leveraged every resource he could find and even dropped out of school to focus on the company. He''d also ran up more debt than seemed possible in the process. The kind that could destroy him financially for the rest of his life if he failed. But regardless, he pushed forward, fueled only by a strong belief in what they were trying to create. Well, that and hot pockets.


    In the end, he risked everything to make things work. And just when it had started to feel hopeless, Neal brought Milo a simple unlabeled cardboard box. Inside of which had been a device that looked like something out of a low budget sci-fi movie. It was all wires and LEDs, with a part on the side that Neal had warned might shock him if he wasn''t careful. Some design streamlining was needed, but it worked.


    Milo had collapsed the first time he set foot in the testing platform of the system, a place that Neal had called the Sphere. His knees hit the ground, unable to support his artificial body under the weight of the emotions that had welled up inside him. It was just a bleak landscape of stone with crimson light punching through an overcast sky, but, despite Neal''s poor taste in design, it was remarkable nonetheless. The air tasted clean and dry as it filled Milo''s lungs. He''d actually gasped in disbelief at the feeling as his mind fed him all the sensations that went along with it. Crumbling bits of rock had dug into his knees and stuck to the skin of his palms as he supported himself on all fours. Even the crunching sound of the ground under Neal''s feet as he helped Milo back up, had been thoroughly, unmistakably real.


    "You''ve done it," Milo had said, meeting Neal''s eyes before his view shifted across the horizon, its slight curve indicating the shape of the blank canvas that they stood on back then. He''d wondered how far it went as he ran a virtual hand through his hair, letting out a whisper that surprised even him. "Nothing can stop us."


    After that, armed with a remodeled device wearing a sleek plastic shell to hide its exposed, shock-inducing guts, and an interactive demo featuring some more creative scenery, investors came in one after another. Milo got Neal out of his parents'' basement and into a facility that gave him everything he could possibly need. The lab grew and expanded until it took up an entire building. Then they just bought a bigger building. Articles were written about the company, about them, and about what the system meant for the future. So, from there, Checkpoint Systems rolled forward with near-unstoppable momentum. Milo stood at the helm, guiding the company onto the covers of hundreds of magazines, and Neal toiled away in the lab, always pushing the limits of the system to do more. Public interest grew to a fevered pitch by the time they were ready to launch. So, on day one, they were already on top of the gaming industry.


    Now, he stood cowering in his virtual office, unable to set foot in the world he helped create after some real-world problems had invaded his fantasy. He hated the situation. Even more, he hated that he could do nothing about it other than attending meetings and working with his publicist to try to turn things around. He wondered how long it would take for the whole thing to just blow over. A year maybe?


    A system chime sounded in his ear.


    Alastair glanced at the spine of his journal where an icon of a feathered quill overlapping a scroll faded into existence on its leather surface, indicating that he had a new message. Back during testing, they had originally used a system similar to augmented reality to display the game menu. Though in practice, they found it too distracting to see people wandering around with a bunch of glowing text boxes hovering around their heads and breaking the illusion they were trying to create. They had tried making the windows invisible to other players, but that just left them waving their hands around in the air like a bunch of mimes. And really, nobody likes mimes. In the end, they decided to center Noctem''s system messages and menus around a physical journal, while using a player¡¯s own skin to give them quick access to the more important information in the form of complex tattoos of digital ink.


    He opened the small book and placed the rectangular piece of glass, which they had called an inspector, back into the indent in the back cover. It snapped into place as if magnetic. Then he flipped to the page that displayed his inbox. Columns of text ran down the paper, displayed in a delicate cursive script that he''d chosen in his preferences as his default font. At the top of the list was a message in bold, seemingly written with a heavy pen to indicate that it was unread. The sender read Neal Carver. The subject was HARD FEELINGS, all in caps. He groaned at seeing the name, expecting nothing good as he touched the line with his finger. The text on the page faded away irregularly as if staining the paper in reverse, then it reformed to show the selected message.


    There was no text, just a decorative icon of a frame with a triangle inside representing a video attachment. Alastair tapped it and flipped back to his inspector embedded in the back cover, which among other things, was the only screen that players had access to in-game. He popped it out again, this time tossing it into his office where it floated into the air as if ignoring gravity altogether. Thanks to an upgrade that came with his cleric armband, the glass grew to the size of a large monitor. His eyes narrowed into slits as Carver''s face took over the portal. Then his jaw dropped, as the horror of the video''s contents slammed into him. His forehead burned, and his legs shook as he raised one hand to his mouth in disbelief. He took a step backward as if trying to get away from it, but the window followed, tracking his movement and reinforcing the video¡¯s message. Escape was impossible.


    The video ended, and he held out his hand, prompting the glass to return to normal and float back to him. He slapped it back into his journal, shoving down the fear and nausea bubbling up inside him. He took three deep breaths and gradually calmed down, calling back some of the determination that he had shown years ago in creating the game. Then, he flipped to a page showing his schedule and slid a small silver pen from a slot in the book''s binding. He crossed out everything for the next two days, confirming their deletion with a simple check-mark as the page went blank. It was not the time for meetings.


    Closing the book, he raised his caster. The elegant bracelet hugged his right wrist tightly, a braid of silver serpents along its surface with a rectangular chamber underneath. It was a custom design, made just for him. He snapped it open, revealing a glowing crystal, its deep crimson light reminding him of the sky from his first trip into the system''s virtual environment. He swiped his hand up to open his spell-craft menu, which appeared before him as a curved field of glowing glyphs, their animation making them look more mystical than anything produced by technology.


    He swiped the rows of symbols from left to right, aligning the teleportation spell he wanted into the vertical selection column in the center. From the top down, each glyph identified a different part. It was a travel spell, with an air element that targeted only himself to send him to a specific destination without any additional bonuses or combos. The last symbol selected set its use as immediate rather than adding it to his quick-cast queue for later.


    Once finished, he raised his hand and swiped down with a decisive flourish, activating the spell and striking a rather cool pose that had become habit for him. He stood motionless as an orange glow came from below his feet. Threads of energy climbed and swirled around him before expanding into a solid sphere. Then, starting at the bottom, the shell dispersed, flaking apart into shimmering particles of energy that glowed a bit brighter just before vanishing. Then the light faded, and he was gone.

 Chapter 2.1

    MaxDamage24¡¯s eye twitched in sync with the discordant sound of a harp having its strings plucked in random order.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing that on purpose, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Kirabell didn¡¯t answer. Instead, she continued to walk ahead of him in a comical manner, raising her legs higher than necessary and plucking away at the small instrument with each step. It reminded Max of an old cartoon. She wasn''t so much playing a song as she was adding background notes to her movement.


    Max kicked at the dusty ground, knocking a small rock off the edge of the wide ledge they traveled. An echo sounded as it bounced down the wall of Hunter¡¯s Canyon. "Could you knock that off? It''s annoying."


    She glanced back with a mischievous grin. "It wouldn''t be fun for me if it wasn''t.¡±


    He retaliated by dragging out a loud groan for as long as he could, his voice droning on for almost a full minute.


    Kira plucked her next few notes louder.


    Unsatisfied with her reaction, he gave up trying to beat her at her own game and turned his attention to his journal, holding the book at an angle to catch the light of Noctem¡¯s eternally full moon. "I have a message from someone that needs help with the Fire Tomb. We''re way over-leveled, so we could pop on by and do a quick run through to give them a hand." He raised his eyebrows and held his journal to face her as he pointed to the message like it was a prize on a game show.


    "Nope," Kira chirped without even looking back.


    Max flipped the book back around and tried again. "We haven''t done that last quest for the Devil Born expansion yet. We could check that out,"


    "Nope," Kira plucked another string louder than the rest.


    "Or maybe we could¡ª"


    "Nope!" She cut him off. "Tonight, is farming night, and we have northern cavefangs to murder."


    Max let out another groan and dragged his feet in protest, allowing his arms to dangle limply at his sides. "But they suck and take so many bullets!" he complained, putting in as much effort as he could to sound like a guy who had been forced to go shopping. Kira was his sidekick after all, so he wasn¡¯t used to following.


    She stopped short and turned to face him, forcing him to stop as well. She held her harp at her hip with one hand and poked him in the chest with the other. "You''ll wish we spent the night farming cavefangs when I get killed by something stupid because I don''t have the materials to craft bone charms. But at least I''ll have the comfort in knowing that I won''t be alone in my grave - because your ass will be joining me soon after if I''m not there to keep you alive. So, to avoid that, we will need the Bones of Predatory Beasts and lots of them."


    "Yeah, I know." He craned his neck to look down at her finger stabbing at him and held in a laugh. The fact that she was almost a foot and a half shorter than him hindered her attempt to seem intimidating.


    She spun back around, her silver hair flipping around her head so that a few locks landed across her face. She blew them away with a huff and shoved the rest behind a slightly pointed ear bearing a pearl earring. "Might I remind you that this arrangement was your idea."


    "Yes, dear," he said in a tone appropriate for responding to a nagging girlfriend, just as a cavefang shot out of a small opening in the rock wall to the side of the sloping path that they traveled. It''s scaled form, the size of a large dog, lunged at Kira, its eyes trained on her throat. The creature''s mane of feathers fluttered as it moved, making it look like one of those renderings of a dinosaur based on the theory that they were related to birds.


    On reflex, Max drew his pistols and pumped three rounds into the beast before it could make contact. Smoke and flame roared from their muzzles as the cavefang landed with a thud at Kira''s feet. He swept one gun around the scene, following its iron sights with one eye to secure their perimeter while making a point of keeping his other gun trained on the dead beast just in case. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, he slid his weapons back into the drop leg holsters he wore strapped to his thighs.


    Kira released a breath she¡¯d been holding almost as tightly as she clutched her harp against her chest. "I knew I kept you around for a reason.¡±


    Max watched her for a moment as she glanced around at the other openings in the canyon wall further down their path. "Maybe you should put that harp away and pay attention to your surroundings," he jabbed as if to say ¡®I told you so¡¯.


    She groaned as she tapped a small tattoo of a keyhole that sat just below her caster on the underside of her left wrist. From it, blossomed an elegant design of filigree that spread, wrapping around her forearm to form what most players referred to as their stat-sleeve. The design varied from player to player depending on what they had chosen. In Kira''s case, she had picked something delicate. Max, on the other hand, had chosen a skull surrounded by flames that he thought looked badass. Either way, it framed their party''s status readout with style. Kira ran her eyes over the numbers.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    MaxDamage24


    Hit points: 2,960 out of 2,960


    Skill points: 275 out of 275


    Kirabell


    Hit points: 50 out of 50


    Mana: 1,420, out of 1,420


    She frowned at the readout and flipped her arm to the other side where her menu options ran down her forearm woven into the pattern of curled line work. Her class emblem, a small feather, capped off the design where it ended on back of her hand. She tapped an option that read, inventory, and the design shifted to display a short list which showed everything she carried on her person in the small item bag she wore attached to her belt. Below that was a longer list that contained everything stored in her virtual inventory. At the bottom, near her elbow, she touched a word that read, transfer. The harp she held in her other hand dematerialized as if it had been made of nothing but air. The words Harp of Ending appeared on the list. Afterward, she continued walking, only glancing back to Max for a moment. ¡°You coming?¡±


    He shrugged and got moving.


    The path they traveled ran down the side of Hunter¡¯s Canyon - the bottom of which was lined with a number of caves to explore. Most were filled with northern cavefangs, obviously. Max used to like the place back when his level was down in the mid-forties. It had been a great area to grind. But ever since Checkpoint Systems had decided to add an event called The Culling to the area, it had become more of a pain in the ass. Sure, it had been fun the first few times, but considering that the event called every cavefang out every two hours to attack anyone on the canyon floor, it had gotten old fast. Not to mention that it spawned an annoying boss named One-Eye, who was missing one of his eyes, again, obviously.


    Kira stopped short and spun around. ¡°You hear that?¡±


    Max held his breath and listened. The sound of shouting mixed with growling drifted up the stone walls toward him. ¡°The hell?¡±


    Together they stepped to the edge of the path and peered over the side to find a party chipping away at a pair of cavefangs that they had lured out into the open.


    Kira blew out a low whistle. ¡°That¡¯s kinda risky. Didn¡¯t the message boards say that The Culling was overdue? The place should be empty.¡±


    Max whipped out his journal. ¡°Crap! We better not have missed it. I¡¯m so not waiting another two hours.¡± He flipped to his inspector in the back, bringing up a simple text screen without bothering to remove the glass window from the cover. He exhaled a second later. ¡°Nope, still says overdue.¡±


    Kira looked back down at the party below. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re here to farm like us.¡±


    ¡°No way. Look at their gear.¡± Max pointed down at a man wearing a set of plate armor covered in golden spikes. ¡°No self-respecting high-level would be caught dead in something that flashy.¡±


    Kira tilted her head for a second, then shrugged. ¡°Maybe they just don¡¯t understand fashion?¡±


    Max looked at her sideways, pointing with his eyes at her outfit. It consisted of a gray dress with high slits on the sides that would have displayed her hips if she hadn¡¯t added a pair of short pants that covered her legs down to her knees. The mismatched garments left her looking like she wasn¡¯t sure if she was trying to be elegant or punk rock.


    She glowered back at him, clearly receiving his nonverbal jab. Then she looked down at her outfit and nodded, accepting his point. She shrugged it off and spun back to the scene below, her item bag bouncing on the heavy leather belt that hung from her waist.


    Max rested his hands on the butts of his guns. ¡°Well, fashion sense or not, they¡¯re going to die down there.¡±


    Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, a low growl echoed through the canyon, followed by a dozen shorter growls emanating from the caves that lined the rock walls. Then, in unison, dozens of drooling mouths emerged from the shadowed openings and closed in on the unsuspecting party. The Culling had begun.


    Max watched as the players below were forced into a tight group, its members taking hits left and right. Their healer began panic-casting their strongest spells to keep them alive, which never ended well since it painted a target on the mage¡¯s back from the overuse of their magic.


    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re doomed.¡± Max nodded, folding his arms across his chest.


    Kira spun back to him. ¡°We can¡¯t just watch.¡±


    Max attempted to hold his ground, her huge blue eyes glistening at him in the moonlight. He let out a sigh. ¡°Fine,¡± was the only word he could get out since she was gone before he even had time to close his mouth. A swirl of lingering sparkles circled around the spot where she''d stood as a faint trail of magic followed behind her. ¡°Don¡¯t get yourself killed!¡± he called up to her as she darted twenty feet into the air above him.


    She redirected and shot back down past him without saying anything.


    ¡°Show off,¡± he mumbled to himself.


    It would have been easy to mistake her for a run of the mill flight magic user, but Max knew better. Her agility and the sparkling trail that followed her every move as she plummeted toward the ground made it clear what she was - a fairy. The difference between the average flight spell and hers was that it wasn''t a spell at all. The soft hum of wings was barely audible, and they were only visible during brief moments where the moonlight caught them at just the right angle. Max remembered her telling him once that learning to use the four individually controlled dragonfly wings had been like learning how to use a set of new appendages with no instinct for them. But now he had to admit she¡¯d been getting good, especially considering that she¡¯d spent her first few weeks after unlocking the ability, crashing into everything from the ground to other players. Hell, thanks to the learning curve, few in Noctem had even seen a fairy in flight.


    Max shook his head and stepped away from the edge. There wasn¡¯t time to hang around and watch. Kira¡¯s fifty hit points weren¡¯t going to go far down there in the fray. He had to get moving. That was when a low chittering came from behind him. His breathing froze as quiet footsteps approached his back, the ruffling of feathers meeting his ears. It wasn¡¯t Kira he should have been worried about. He was just as good a target as any.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this.¡± He spun, drawing his pistols on reflex as a pair of reptilian jaws streaked towards him in the dark.

 Chapter 2.2

    Kirabell couldn¡¯t help but grin as she tucked her wings back, using them to guide her descent. Wind rushed through her hair as she let gravity take her. She could never get sick of that feeling. She flexed the virtual spellwork that ran through her body, and it twitched like a muscle tethered to her mana, sending her wings into motion. She leveled off and darted towards the party, who were still clinging to life in the chaos.


    A mixture of surprise and confusion met her from the ground as she passed by overhead. She snapped open a caster and tossed out a couple of Pulse spells that she always kept ready in her quick-cast queue. The spell delivered almost no real damage, but it carried enough force to shove the beasts away from her landing zone. She didn¡¯t want them pouncing on her the moment she touched down. That would be embarrassing.


    Kira darted back up in a spiral that sent the canyon spinning around her. She tensed the imaginary muscle in her shoulders and released a wave of energy into her skin that erupted from her wings in a burst of shining energy, like a sprinkler watering a dying lawn. The sparkling dust fell like rain across the lucky party. The act cost twenty percent of her mana, but because she couldn¡¯t open her spell-craft menu while airborne, it was the only way to get their health out of the red fast enough. She cut off the flow of mana, and her wings winked out of existence with a sound like wind chimes in the breeze. She dropped. ¡°Make a hole!¡±


    Eyes widened as the players all dove to the side to give her some space.


    Kira twitched her spellwork one last time, flicking a single point of mana into the magical constructs that grew from her back. Her wings only blinked for a fraction of a second, but it was more than enough to stop her fall. She came to a graceful stop as if she¡¯d weighed nothing at all, which was close to accurate since, as a fairy, Kira was not only small but also weighed about half as much as a normal person her size.


    The instant her bare feet made contact with the ground, she swiped open her spell-craft menu and set up her strongest area effect heal. She combined it with a heavy protection bonus, sending a cloud of energy through the group that brought each of them back up to full health and boosted their defense stats. It was a powerful mix of spells that she almost never used together, not because it was hard to set up on the fly, but more because it was as bad as panic-casting in terms of how much attention it drew. But that wasn''t the problem right now. One thing at a time.


    A few cavefangs chittered and squawked as they prowled closer. Kira responded by emptying the three remaining pulse spells from her quick-cast queue to buy a few more seconds. Of course, it would have been nice if the party surrounding her had helped out a bit, but they were too busy staring at her with their dumb mouths hanging open. They acted as if she was their savior. Like she was some kind of high-level badass that had already rescued them simply by showing up. Kira glanced at the fifty hit points inked across the underside of her wrist and swallowed. They didn¡¯t know how wrong they were. She took in a breath and tried to live up to their expectations. Of course, she started by stumbling her first step. It was always hard to adjust back to using her feet after flying. She shifted what little weight she had and clutched at the small bone charm that hung from her item bag. A sigh escaped her, putting an end to the illusion that she knew what she was doing. Sure, if she had Max to lean on, things would have been different. But alone, well, there was a reason why not many players chose to play as the fairy race, though that didn''t matter right now. The first wave of cavefangs was already closing back in, outnumbering the group three to one.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Kira gave up on trying to impress, settling for limping along until Max could get his ass down to her. "I didn''t fly down here just to get killed. You¡¯re gonna have to do some fighting here, people!" She held out her hands to draw attention to the fact that she wasn¡¯t even carrying a weapon, not that she could anyways with her body being too weak to even lift one, let alone wield something. But that didn¡¯t mean she was out of options.


    She raised both arms, revealing not one but two casters. They snapped open in unison, a tranquil white glow coming from both that almost seemed soothing. Or at least it would have if the group wasn''t about to be torn apart by ferocious slobbering mouths. Numerous sets of teeth lunged at her all at once. She avoided three with some quick footwork. Considering she could be one-shotted by everything in the world, she¡¯d gotten good at dodging. She set up another five Pulse spells at the first opening and dropped them all into her queue. They were gone in under a minute since she was still receiving the focus of every cavefang in the canyon.


    She glanced around the party, checking the emblems on their hands to see what classes might be helpful to her. Their leader seemed to be a blade, though he wasn¡¯t doing much damage, probably due to his low level. Let¡¯s change that. She swiped a caster up and set up an Infusion spell with a spark element that carried a buff to his strength stat. The annoying thing about northern cavefangs was that they had the ability to change their elemental affinity. She didn¡¯t have time to check, but she assumed at least some of them would be too weak to spark. Infusing the blade class with it was better than nothing. The spell activated with a swirl of yellow energy that trailed around his body. It got her a thumbs-up in return.


    Eventually, a shield class player, the one whose gaudy gear made him look like a golden blowfish, got his act together. He slammed his armored fist against his chest to activate his Taunt skill and yelled a string of obscenities at the cavefangs that would have made a sailor blush. The words he used didn¡¯t matter, but the skill added more weight to them regardless, drawing the attention of a couple enemies.


    Kira cringed at the man¡¯s use of vocabulary. It wasn¡¯t that she was bothered by swearing. Sometimes she loved it. A well-placed F-bomb or an interesting combination could be pretty funny, if timed right. But more often than not, it showed a lack of creativity and throwing away such a great opportunity like a taunt seemed like a waste. Even worse, was that most of the cavefangs ignored the player altogether, still focusing on her.


    Jaws snapped shut, missing Kira¡¯s toes by less than an inch as she hopped out of the way. She might have stood a better chance if she had at least picked a combat mage class such as a venom or a cauldron. But had she picked either of those? Nope. She had gone with breath mage, which could heal. And that was pretty much it.


    "Any time now, Max," she grumbled through her teeth as she swiped open her spell-craft menu and set up a Mirage with one hand while casting another pulse at a hungry cavefang with the other. Two transparent versions of herself appeared, bracketing her on both sides and mimicking her every move. They were taken out after a couple more attacks, buying her precious little time. That was when a drooling mouth clamped down on her left arm. A dull, simulated pain spread through her wrist, followed by a numbness that radiated from her elbow to her hand to keep it bearable. She pivoted using the beast''s momentum to swing her attacker off. She looked to her forearm where teeth marks glowed red across the digital ink of her stat-sleeve before fading away. The bone charm at her side did the same, taking the hit for her and leaving her feeling vulnerable without it. It was an item that only worked once, meaning that the next hit would be her last.


    "Crap!" She regretted her decision to jump into the situation alone. Without some reliable back up, it was only a matter of time.

 Chapter 2.3

    MaxDamage24 shoved with one hand at a cavefang as it pinned him to the ground. The beast¡¯s jaws scraped against the underside of the pistol he gripped in his other hand. He would have shot the thing, but the angle was bad, and the muzzle stuck out the side of its mouth like a cigar. Oh well. At least, it wasn¡¯t biting him. There had been a second cavefang, but he¡¯d pushed that jerk off the ledge. Granted, he¡¯d also dropped his other gun in the process. Now it lay on the ground just out of reach.


    He shoved again at the beast above him, its over muscled neck holding steady as it pushed back in attempt to eat his face. A droplet of drool fell from its tongue. It would have landed in his mouth if Max¡¯s scarf hadn¡¯t slipped up over his chin a moment before. He blew a puff of air at the fabric with a frustrated grunt to clear it away from his face. Then another drop of drool fell.


    ¡°Blah! Right in my mouth.¡± Max spat right back at the creature.


    The cavefang didn¡¯t seem to care.


    ¡°Get off me, you damn lizard thing!¡± he growled through his teeth. He was glad Kira wasn¡¯t around. She¡¯d never let him live down such a bland insult, or for that matter, the fact that he had been caught off guard a minute after he¡¯d jabbed her for not paying attention to her surroundings. Thinking of her, he glanced at his party readout roasting in the tattooed flames on his wrist. She didn¡¯t have time to wait for him.


    Max wasn¡¯t any stronger than he was in the real world. Sure, his stats were high enough but that only affected his weapon damage. He reached for his other gun, fingertips falling just short. He groaned. He almost would rather it be further away, as if it was teasing him by being so close, yet so far. In the end, he ignored it and opted to punch the cavefang in the neck. It let out a growl, but his bare fists couldn¡¯t do much more than chip damage. He cursed Noctem¡¯s developers for prioritizing the game¡¯s realism over giving players enhanced physical capabilities to match their character build. Although, it could be worse. He could be Kira. She¡¯d hit him more than enough times to know how limited a fairy¡¯s physical strength was.


    He punched the beast again hoping to make it flinch. Then he got a brilliant idea. He shoved his wrist into the creature¡¯s mouth and held it in place while he yanked his pistol free. Teeth clamped down, illuminating his arm in a glow of crimson puncture marks. ¡°Bite me.¡± He shoved the gun into the thing¡¯s side and fired.


    The cavefang reeled backward, letting Max roll out from under its weight. He snatched his other pistol from the ground and fired twice to put down the threat.


    Max stood as the red glow faded from his wrist, and he spat out his scarf which had somehow gotten back in his mouth during the struggle. The light scrap of fabric hung halfway off his shoulder, leaving him looking disheveled. He pulled the accessory off and stuffed it down the front of his leather armor to keep the bump to his dexterity that it provided. He could equip it properly later. Right now, he had to get moving.


    Max raced down the canyons zigzagging path, catching a glimpse of the party below. Kira was at its center, dodging cavefangs and casting every spell she could to stay alive. He still had some way to go when she took a hit. He checked his stat-sleeve for her health, hoping she still had a bone charm equipped to take the damage for her. He exhaled when he saw her meager fifty points, right where they belonged. But, even with that, he couldn¡¯t slow down. No, worse. He had to move faster. The next attack would kill her.


    He examined the path, finding a place where it doubled back further down. He was still over thirty feet above the canyon floor, but the ledge below was halfway in the middle. It sparked an idea. He glanced at his own health and ran the numbers, estimating the fall damage against his defense and remaining health. He nodded to himself, then took a running leap.


    His boots hit the ledge with a crunch of crumbling rock, and he lost track of which direction was up for a moment. Then it was obvious. The ground met his feet with a sudden jolt of simulated pain that faded as he tucked his body into a ball. From there, damage registered all over. He rolled, working with the momentum until he found his footing and slid to a stop on one knee between Kira and a few hungry mouths. He drew his pistols in the same motion and opened fire.


    A cacophony of sound and smoke erupted from his hands, his eyes darting between enemies to make each bullet count. It was his turn to catch the cavefangs by surprise. Swirls of smoke trailed around him until his magazines ran dry, the slides of his pistols locking back empty. The first wave of The Culling was finished, lifeless reptilian bodies littered the ground around him. He stood motionless for a moment, still aiming his guns in opposite directions. A satisfied smirk grew on his face while his dumbfounded audience took in the scene. He gave Kira his most annoying wink. ¡°Sorry, I had to do my class justice. Wouldn¡¯t be much of a fury if I didn¡¯t know how to make an entrance.¡±


    She narrowed her eyes back at him.


    He responded with a bow, twirling the tip of one empty gun as if it were a top hat. Having made the right impression, he stood back up and tossed one pistol into his other hand to hold it next to its twin and ejected their magazines. He shoved in a fresh pair just as the next group of cavefangs got into position.


    "Nice of you to show up. Did you log out and use the bathroom on your way down?" Kira spouted in an obvious attempt to hide how relieved she must have been as she took up her position at his side.


    "Yeah, that''s exactly what I did, you jackass," he replied through a thick layer of sarcasm.


    "That''s good. I''d hate to repeat that night you ate all those tacos before logging on," she added with a musical laugh at the end that was entirely out of place in such a tense situation.


    "God, you''re never gonna let me live that down, are you?"


    She laughed again. "Nope, it was hilarious. I¡¯m just glad I don¡¯t have to do your laundry."


    Noticing the party''s unease at their banter, Max got serious again. "You ready for this?"


    "It''s what we came for." She turned back to the party. "We''re gonna need some space for this. Before I landed, I released enough pixie dust to give you all a few minutes of flight. You should have a little left, use it to get clear."


    The group did a double take at their stat-sleeves to find a tiny feather icon next to each of their names. Before Max could say good luck, they were already gone. He let out a low whistle. "Damn, they cleared out fast.¡±


    "Yeah, I¡¯m kinda glad I didn''t mention the effects of my pixie dust earlier."


    Max brushed a lock of dirty blond hair off his cheek with a thumb. "Did you ever think you would use the words ¡®pixie dust¡¯ in a serious conversation?"


    Kira snorted. "No. No, I did not."


    Then, almost on cue, the next wave of cavefangs began to close in, now outnumbering them ten to two. Kira and Max turned to face each other and stepped in close, their backs to the creatures.


    He gave her a smirk. "May I have this dance?"


    She rolled her eyes as hard as possible and swiped her hands up to open her spell-craft menu for both casters at once, surrounding herself with glowing glyphs on either side.


    Both Max and Kira were level one hundred and fourteen, but that didn''t mean they were strong enough to survive with only the two of them. They could win if they had a party of five or six, but alone it would take some strategy.


    Max held his guns up in front of his forehead and breathed the words, Custom Rounds, followed by, Low Velocity. He didn¡¯t need much range for what was coming, but the fifteen bullets in each magazine weren¡¯t enough to kill a wave of cavefangs before being overtaken. There was no margin for error and reducing the recoil on his guns would help him land his hits. Of course, he could have used the same skill to add an element to his bullets, but he couldn¡¯t change them a second time, and besides, that wasn¡¯t his job.


    Kira spun the rows of glyphs without needing to look, skipping past the one that started Infusion. That spell would have worked to buff Max¡¯s hits, but it was too slow, and the cavefangs¡¯ ability to change their affinity made them versatile. She needed to be, too. Her fingers aligned three low-level spells instead, Flame Touch, Spark Touch and Wind Touch. Most players forgot about this little group of spells as soon as they got new ones because they required the caster to actually touch a player¡¯s weapon. She dropped two of each into her queue and finished off with a Guidance spell, which let her see the elemental weakness of each target as a colored aura around them.


    Max swept the scene with his eyes as the feathered lizards closed off any possible route of escape. He took a breath and raised his pistols to a pre-planned height to allow the fairy to reach them with her short stature.


    Kira turned to face the creatures and reached back over her shoulders, tapping each gun with her fingertips. Then it started.


    A cavefang lunged as the pair darted in opposite directions, causing it to stumble between them. Then turning in unison, Kira pointed at it with her right hand, telling Max to use his right gun. He fired a single round, ending the creature. He looked back to his partner. She had already selected two more targets for elimination before the ejected bullet casing hit the ground.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    The cavefangs swarmed, leaping two and three at a time as Max dodged and ducked attacks. Kira matched him, weaving past without ever getting in the way. She pointed. He fired. Together they took out the closest threats to make some room. They left alive the ones that didn''t match their current set up. Kira ducked past him, close to his side. He responded by lowering one pistol for her to touch on her way by and she spun across his back like a dancer to update his other weapon. With both guns set to spark, he cleaned up the last of the wave, electricity arching off each kill.


    Max ejected his near-empty magazines as a new wave of enemies moved into position. Normally he would keep firing until they were spent, but he had to make efficient use of the moment available. He didn¡¯t bother reloading; there wasn¡¯t time to get a new mag from his pouch. Instead, he held both pistols sideways so that the openings at the base of their grips faced the same direction. He didn¡¯t even have to wait, Kira was already sliding in two fresh magazines from the stock she carried as a backup.


    From there, Max continued to fight while Kira pranced around him, speeding up as his confidence grew, which led to an almost cocky attitude. ¡°Hey, scaly dumbass,¡± he called as he took out another.


    ¡°Oh, if you¡¯re doing wisecracks you can do better than that.¡± Kira pointed out a new target.


    He fired. ¡°I think that one had a reptile dysfunction.¡±


    ¡°Really? A dick joke?¡± Kira slapped one hand to her face and pointed to another cavefang with her other.


    ¡°Toothy handbag?¡± Max fired.


    That one got a snort out of her.


    ¡°Feathers McBiteface?¡± he offered, pulling a trigger.


    The fairy laughed and twirled past him, becoming more excessive with her movements for added style. She leapt backward and materialized her wings to float over his head. At the same time, he raised his guns for her to update. Shimmering particles fell from her wings, mixing with the swirls of smoke that drifted around him. It was impressive, but her landing put her in the path of a lunging cavefang, which forced Max to dash between them to take the hit.


    He grunted with the impact and lost his balance, going down on one knee hard enough to take damage to his leg. He took a few more hits before regaining his stance. His health plummeted. Kira cast a frantic mid-level heal in an attempt to fill him back up without drawing too much attention. He recovered, but the near loss reminded him of what they were up against. From there, he quit screwing around and pushed on with renewed focus, leaving few openings for the rest of the beasts.


    The whole fight, which seemed to last forever, only took about a minute. After which, he was left standing with her at his back in the middle of a circle of corpses. There was no blood, as that would have been more graphic than what the game intended for its audience, but the sheer number of bodies still gave the scene a macabre feeling.


    Max took a moment to catch his breath as the same deep growl that signaled the start of the event echoed from the largest cave in the canyon. They both looked in its direction, making contact with a single massive green eye that glowed in the dark of the shadowed entrance. A glance at the shifting ink on his wrist showed him the boss''s health bar as it appeared, running down the edge of his forearms to the side of his party status.


    One-eye stalked into the bright light of the moon, his size being several times that of the cavefangs that they had finished off, his feathered mane fanned out like razor blades. Despite being nothing more than a construct of the system, his low growl seemed full of contempt and rage for the ones that had put his brothers to death. He charged. Max and Kira did the same.


    The fairy darted into the air, casting a pulse with both casters. White puffs of energy hit the beast in the face and neck, bursting on impact. His massive scaled body faltered for a moment. He recovered and spun his head to face the fairy for a killing blow as she landed on the ground in front of him within reach. It would only take seconds for him to end her. Then, the sound of a bullet being chambered came from beside the huge cavefang.


    The boss hadn''t seen Max approach since Kira''s distraction had kept the beast''s blind spot turned towards him. There was no time for it to turn or run. Instead, it just froze. And for a moment, Max almost pitied the artificial beast. But only for a moment. He unloaded one pistol into the scarred indent where the creature''s missing eye should''ve been, landing several critical hits before switching hands and emptying his other gun for good measure. Max ejected the magazines while saying one line as the beast fell. He kept his voice low as he quoted a bad action movie. "Rest in Pieces."


    Kira hopped over to him, grinning like a goon. There was a sharp contrast to the intensity she had carried just seconds before.


    Max chuckled at the sudden cheerfulness. It suited her better. Although, he would never actually tell her that.


    "That was quick. Didn''t have to wait around at all," she stated, drawing a small doodle on the dusty ground with her foot.


    Max''s heart lifted, excitement rushing into him. "That''s true. We still have a few hours before logout. We could do something else . . . something that¡¯s actually fun."


    Kira navigated through her stat-sleeve''s options again, this time selecting the word, loot. It redrew itself into a list of the items gained by the fight.


    Five cavefang scales


    Twelve cavefang teeth


    One large claw


    Fifteen bones of predatory beasts


    "Nice! This should cover me for a couple of weeks at least." Kira bounced on the balls of her feet as she tapped ¡®collect all¡¯. The bodies faded to bones, which would disappear as well over the next hour, erasing the evidence of the last few minutes of cavefang murder from the landscape.


    Max checked his progress bar in his journal, finding his level hovering at 95 percent, even after the 51,634 experience points gained from the fight. Most of the time, he didn¡¯t bother looking because the bar took so long to fill at his level. But he had been close to advancing for the last few days, and he needed the upgrade points to rank up his custom rounds skill. His attention was drawn away when he noticed a blade class player standing behind them. It was the leader of the party that they¡¯d rescued.


    ¡°Umm, thanks.¡± The blade seemed to be making an effort to stand tall.


    Kira returned to drawing on the ground, so Max did the talking as usual. ¡°No problem, we were here anyways.¡±


    The blade¡¯s eyes shifted from Max to Kira, then down to her drawing. ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Why were you here with The Culling overdue like that?¡± Max asked as he pulled his scarf out from the place he had shoved it earlier and held it out straight, so he could fold it back into a triangle.


    The blade¡¯s eyes snapped back to him, and he scratched at the back of his head. ¡°A friend told me that it had already happened, so we were trying to get a level.¡± He gestured towards the rest of his party hiding up on one of the ledges.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d probably have a chat with that friend. I think they just tried to get you killed.¡± Max wrapped his scarf around his neck and tied it back on.


    The blade¡¯s eye widened. ¡°Oh, damn; you might be right. Anyways, my name is DarkAssassin. Thanks for the rescue.¡±


    Max shot Kira a look, hoping she¡¯d refrain from snorting or making a joke about the kid¡¯s name. As it was, he was pretty sure her mind was already shortening it down to DarkAss. ¡°No problem, I¡¯m MaxDamage24, and this thing here is Kirabell.¡±


    She waved and went back to drawing.


    Assassin gave her an awkward wave back. ¡°I have to ask. How the hell did you do that?¡± He looked past them at the bones on the ground.


    ¡°It¡¯s a farming spot for us. We come here a lot.¡±


    ¡°Sure, but I mean, the fury class isn¡¯t really known for being that strong, and there¡¯s no aim assist or anything, so how did you learn all the¡­¡± Assassin finished the question by making finger guns and shooting them in all directions.


    Max laughed at the gesture. It had been a while since he¡¯d had a chance to brag, so he decided to give the guy a lesson. ¡°It¡¯s true that fury isn¡¯t a popular class, but it is versatile, and it can deal respectable damage, provided you can hit your targets. That¡¯s the part that¡¯s easier said than done. I mean, stats like strength and dexterity matter for damage output, but if you want to run, jump, aim or dodge, the system can¡¯t help you there. That would mean the game would have to control your movement somehow, and honestly, I don¡¯t think the technology has come that far. So, you have to do all that on your own, like in the real world.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡± Assassin raised his eyebrows, clearly expecting some kind of sage advice to come next.


    ¡°Now the higher your level gets, the harder the enemies get. Which, means that the only way to play at higher levels is to learn to fight. In short, git-gud.¡±


    Assassin¡¯s eyebrows fell back down. ¡°Oh.¡±


    Max rested his hands on his guns. ¡°Sorry. Wish I had something better to tell you. Just keep playing. Eventually, things will just click into place.¡±


    Kira stepped in, now finished with her drawing - which looked like a cartoon purse with a mouth. She¡¯d written the words ¡®toothy handbag¡¯ beside it. "Tell your shield thanks for protecting me while we waited for this ass to take his sweet time getting down here."


    "Hey! I ran as fast as I could," Max said before realizing something important. "Actually, why the hell didn''t you just dust me up before jumping down here? I could have just flown down with you."


    "Ahhhh¡­" she started to say, but then she closed her mouth and shrugged while making a sound that suggested the words ¡®I don''t know.¡¯


    DarkAssassin gave her a look that seemed to ask the same question, but he said nothing.


    After that, they said their goodbyes and sent him on his way, getting a friend request from the player almost as soon as he was out of view.


    Kira groaned as soon as she opened it. The kid had replaced each S in his name with the number 5, making him DarkA55a55in. ¡°I hate it when people use numbers in the place of letters."


    "Oh, God. Not this again," Max sighed.


    "I mean, it''s so hard to read." She held her journal close to re-read the friend request. "The only thing worse is when they alternate between upper and lower case, cause that''s completely illegible."


    Max rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers as if he had a headache. "I know. I''ve heard this rant so many times."


    "Well, it merits repeating. Is it too much to ask to just come up with something original enough not to require alternate spellings and numbers?" She walked backward in front of him.


    Max sighed again. "Anyways, what you want to do next?"


    She shrugged, falling back into sidekick mode. "I don''t care. You pick."


    He opened his journal and held it so they both could see as she slid up to his side. "Let''s see if that guy still needs help with the Fire Temple."


    "Tomb," she corrected.


    "What?"


    "I thought it was the Fire Tomb that he needed help with."


    "Temple, Tomb, what''s the difference?" Max argued.


    Kira leaned her head to one side. "Well, one is a place of worship, and the other is a place to lay the dead to rest."


    He groaned. "Thank you, Miss Dictionary."


    "Hey, you got a new message." She leaned in close, so their shoulders touched and pointed to a line of text at the top of the page.


    "That''s odd; I must have missed the system chime during the fight," he said, looking at the page.


    The subject column read one word: Important. If that wasn''t enough to encourage him to open the message, it was also written in red ink to signify that the sender had marked the contents as urgent.


    "That''s odd. The sender''s unknown," Max commented.


    Kira scrunched up her nose as if smelling something. "That''s fishy."


    "Better not be spam." Max selected the red text and read aloud. "Meet me in the back room of the Hanging Frederick tavern in the city of Valain. Bring the fairy. Cannot wait until tomorrow. Must be before logout. I have a mission for you. I repeat, come ASAP!"


    "I hate when people say ASAP. It makes me feel like I''m at work reading emails. Also, I do have a name." Kira squinted her eyes as if somehow glaring at the unknown sender of the message.


    Max tapped a finger on the back of his journal. "Might be interesting though. I mean, it''s piquedmy curiosity."


    She chuckled. ¡°What''s that they say about cats?¡± She drew in a breath then frowned. ¡°Oh, yeah. Curiosity kills them."


    Max snapped his journal shut. "True, but I don''t think I''ve heard anything about it killing fairies."


    "I guess so." She opened her spell-craft menu and set up a teleport. "I didn''t wanna do the Fire Tomb again anyways. It''s too easy."

 Chapter 3

    Water poured from the mouths of the decorative stone dragons that frolicked in the fountain at the center of the large circular park in the heart of the city of Valain. An orange sphere appeared, sparkling flakes dissipating from its surface to reveal Max and Kira standing casually as if they were used to it, which they were.


    Max began making his way in the direction of the tavern, holding his journal open to a map of the city. A line highlighted the path to the new waypoint that came in the anonymous message. That was when he realized that his partner was no longer by his side. With a quick glance, he spotted her buying some form of meat on a stick at a strip of food stands lining the side of the park.


    How the hell did she get over there so fast? he wondered. "Hey!" he called to her.


    She turned in his direction, chewing on a skewer of chicken.


    Max tried to look annoyed, but in truth, it was a kind of adorable in an unintentional sort of way. He chuckled to himself before calling to her again. "ASAP doesn''t mean, ¡®After you buy all the food in the park.¡¯"


    She pulled the skewer from her mouth, taking a bite in the process. "That''s what they get for saying ASAP. I have to rebel a bit."


    Max joined her, understanding from experience that there was little point in arguing. She forced one of four sticks of food into his hand. He grumbled but took a bite without further protest. Then they sat in silence, just enjoying the atmosphere and watching players pass by.


    Amongst the six major cities in Noctem, Valain was easily the largest. And since it was the only city under the direct control of Checkpoint Systems, it - and the territories that it ruled over - remained peaceful no matter what was going on in the game. Even when wars broke out between one house of players or another - which was more common than one might think. Like most of the cities in the game, Valain had an overall fantasy look to it but with larger buildings covered in Gothic architecture that towered overhead like skyscrapers. And though Noctem might have been a world of magic, the city also had elements of technology and present-day life mixed in. A stroll through its medieval streets would find taverns full of players taking time off from questing, as well as cleverly disguised nightclubs and malls catering to the less adventurous inhabitants of the world. After all, some people just used the system to take back the night while they slept, which had always caused a crowd in the heart of the city.


    Airships drifted through the sky, transporting people across a world that begged to be explored. Joining them, were a number of private transport shuttles, mostly carrying the city¡¯s workaholics, who spent their nighttime hours making deals and racking up more money than Max would ever see in his lifetime. In fact, business was booming in the city of Valain. So much so, that it had become something like Noctem''s unofficial capital of commerce, with corporations renting entire buildings of virtual space for their online operations. With a system like Somno out there, things like international travel had become a thing of the past. Hell, Max had even heard of large corporations holding entire trade shows and conferences right there in the city. Not that he would ever be invited to one. And, thanks to Checkpoint, it was all kept hidden within the well-designed towers that reached high into Noctem''s sky. Business was good and all, but that didn''t mean it was allowed to interfere with the game. That would have gone against everything that Carpe Noctem seemed to stand for.


    Amidst all the activity, Kira finished off her three skewers and stood before Max could finish his one. She left him on the bench while she stretched out her limbs. It might have seemed needless since her body wasn''t actually real. But one interesting thing about the way the system interacted with the user''s mind was that it included subtle things, such as stiff shoulders and sore legs.


    She raised her arms above her head and leaned to each side, inadvertently allowing the slits on both sides of her dress to shift upwards to show a perfectly formed hip just above the low waistline of her pants. Her delicate pale skin, peeking out to say, hey!


    Kira''s age was a little hard to judge, standing at only four and a half feet tall, but depending on who you asked, most would put her at around twenty. She was cute, that much was obvious. Granted, that wasn''t really saying much, since most of the users, especially the ones in the city, had designed their avatars to be easy on the eyes. This, of course, created an overall population that was pretty damn hot, but it also made the more unique characters like her stand out. The features of the fairy race made Kira seem a little more magical than the rest, with her large eyes and slightly pointed ears adding something special into the mix. On top of that, the fact that she weighed so little compared to others, infused her movements with a subtle grace that just didn''t exist in the real world. Combine all that with her somewhat goofball personality, and she gained a sort of perfect storm of appeal, making it seem like a night with her in your bed might be more fun than most could imagine. A fact that had proved dangerous for Max, as it was occasionally hard for him to stop staring.


    He watched absentmindedly as her back arched exquisitely. She stretched her arms behind herself and let out a quiet sound, a little moan to express her transition into relaxation. That was when Max caught himself eyeing her bare skin visible through the opening in the back of her dress meant for her wings, in what most would call an inappropriate manner. At least he wasn''t drooling. Unfortunately, he realized he was leering a second too late, averting his eyes only to meet hers as she looked down at him over her shoulder. Her hair hung down, hiding half of her face and giving her a look that inadvertently radiated sex appeal.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "Don''t make it weird, bro. Don''t make it weird." She shook her head at him.


    Max sunk into the bench, bringing one hand up to rake through his stylish yet messy hair as if trying to hide. His skin prickled hot.


    She laughed at his discomfort.


    Then, he sat up and slapped one hand down on the bench. "You know what? No. You''re the one making it weird, always wiggling that thing around in front of me." He gestured to her rear as the thing in question.


    She tilted her head and placed a finger to her chin. "True, but as you remember, you chose this body for me as part the deal. So, the root cause of said weirdness is still definitely you."


    The weirdness was due to the fact that in their twenty-seven years of life, they had been friends for almost all of it. Also, both of them were men. Not that there would be anything wrong with them finding love in each other¡¯s arms, but Max didn''t think of her like that, and he was pretty sure she didn''t either. It wasn''t on the table for them. They were bros, and that was just how it was.


    Back when MaxDamage24, whose real name was Wyatt Mathews, told Kirabell, also known as Seth Hase, that he wanted to get Carpe Noctem when it came out, they both decided that if they were going to play it, they were going to be the best. In the past, they had gravitated towards teamwork-based shooters. And over time, they¡®d learned each other''s tactics inside and out. So much, that they appeared to be able to read each other''s minds as they worked together in perfect sync. Hell, their friends even complained when the two of them were placed on the same team against them, claiming that it wasn''t fair. So, when they read that Noctem would offer a range of experiences, from fun and simple quests to near impossible boss fights referred to appropriately as Nightmares, they were sold.


    In the year before the game came out, Wyatt got a head start by looking over all the pre-release information to learn everything he could about their new world. And the first thing they''d needed to decide, had been the best combination of races and classes to give them the maximum potential possible - even if it meant that it might be difficult in the beginning. After all, they were far from casual gamers. In the end, it took some convincing and a number of spreadsheets, but they settled on a human fury and a fairy breath mage. The convincing needed was due to the fact that fairies only came in female. Meaning Seth would have to explore his feminine side since he had always preferred support classes. He''d tried to back out the deal a couple of times, but Wyatt had simply told him that ¡®he was being a baby¡¯ and ¡®not to worry about it.¡¯ Eventually, launch day came, and Kirabell was born. After that, it was too late to go back.


    When they had spawned in together in their new forms three years ago, the first thing Kira had said was an awkward, "This is new." Her words had been followed by a burst of uncontrolled giggles at the sound of her own voice, which neither of them ever expected to be so pretty. Max still remembered the judgmental stares that they received as she rolled around on the ground amongst the other new players at the spawn laughing her dumb little ass off.


    She wasn''t the only one to choose to play as the opposite sex. That had always been common in most MMOs. But since players actually had to inhabit the body they designed rather than just look at it on a screen. It did change things.


    For some, Noctem meant giving people an outlet where they could live as the gender that they felt matched their identity. For others, it was just part of living in a fantasy world and making it as different as possible. Of course, there were also those that chose it for, well, less pure reasons. Granted, most of them got bored with it once the novelty wore off. Kira though, never seemed to care about the difference, aside from getting used to being so short. Max had always assumed she had decided not to overthink it. And that seemed to allow her to continue her dual existence as both a well-adjusted adult male and an adorable fairy mage.


    As for relationships, Kira didn''t seem interested in dating while online and therefore avoided most of the issue altogether. Besides, back on Earth, Seth had always done okay at attracting women.


    Unfortunately, the same couldn''t be said for Max, who had been single longer than most. As impressive as he was on the battlefield, he seemed equally inept when talking to women in both worlds. A fact that made it even more painful to pal around Noctem with his bro in the form of a magical enchantress.


    "Arrgggg!" Max exclaimed, jumping up from the bench. "You know what? I''ve been single for like three years now. So, at this point, I don''t care. This whole thing you have going on here is hot." He waved his hand in a circular motion, to indicate her general area, highlighting what he referred to as ¡®this whole thing.¡¯


    Kira smirked, cracking a slight smile.


    He continued. "Now obviously, I don''t consider you an option because that would be weird. But yeah, I''d totally hit that. And by hit that, I mean, I would wreck that."


    Kira raised an eyebrow. "You done? Got that out of your system?"


    "Yes, thank you very much," Max responded, almost politely.


    "Okay then." A grin crept across her face. "Wanna touch my butt?" she joked in a sing-song tone as she pushed her rear in his direction.


    Max feigned annoyance to humor her. Then, without warning, he slapped her square on her left butt cheek. The fairy let out a surprised squeak, making his victory clear, and he started walking. "Come on; we''re late for a meeting," he added as she lagged behind, straightening her dress and stalling while she waited for the bright shade of pink to fade from her face. Max stopped to glance back. "You coming or what?"


    Finally, she jogged to catch up, taking her place by his side. "You will pay for that," She stared straight ahead. "Oh, yes; you will pay."


    "Oh, I know." He smirked.

 Chapter 4

    Max took a look at his map, examining the line that showed the shortest path to the tavern. He tilted his head to the side, making a dissatisfied groan before pulling out his pen and drawing in a few edits to alter the line. As leader of his two-person party, his map changes appeared in Kira''s journal as well. It was a detail that didn''t matter much, since, besides farming, which Max hated, she tended to follow his lead and trusted his judgment.


    The custom path set by Max was almost twice as long as what the system''s navigation had suggested moments before. He hoped that by taking a detour they could avoid some of the crowds that gathered in certain parts of the city. The worst being the entertainment district, which was essentially a long street lined with clubs, bars, and other distractions. For those users who didn''t care about questing, and just wanted to take advantage of a few extra nighttime hours, it was the place to be. Well, to be more accurate, it was party central. And with no risk of a hangover in the morning, it could get pretty crazy, which was why Max and Kira avoided it at all costs.


    It wasn''t that they didn''t like fun. There was just something about the crowd there that made them feel a little uncomfortable. It certainly didn''t help that last time Kira had set foot in the area she had been forced to activate her cage, which was a failsafe option that forbade other users from touching her by creating an invisible barrier just above her skin. Players under eighteen had this option locked in active status at all times to prevent certain activities that might be considered inappropriate. Hence, the reason why it had been referred to as a cage.


    Most of the party-people in question never ventured beyond the city''s walls. Hell, most of them were level one and didn''t even own a set of armor, so their impact on the game was minor, to say the least. They were background characters, not adventurers. And just like the world''s businesses, Checkpoint had gone through the trouble of designing Noctem''s cities in a way that kept that part of the world hidden as well, which made the crowds easier to avoid. But, hidden or not, they did still serve a valuable purpose, which was consuming virtual content like it was going out of style.


    The economic setup of the game world was pretty impressive. It offered two distinct types of products and operated on a dual currency system that kept everything balanced. All equipment and items that influenced the game could only be bought with virtual credits that could be earned by simply playing. And any transaction having no bearing on it, could be purchased at a reasonable price, with regular money. Checkpoint taking a percentage, of course. So, if a user wanted to see a movie, buy a beer, or purchase a new outfit for the club, they would pay for it just like they would anything in the real world. And since there was no way to exchange one currency for another, it ensured that players would never be left struggling to afford important things, like crafting items. Although that didn''t mean that it was impossible to purchase game items outside the system, the demand giving rise to a number of websites where users could post requests for help in exchange for real money. Sometimes it was something simple, like needing to purchase a transport shuttle to get around, and other times it was something more complex, like escorting users through high-level territories. It was a system that had funded a road trip up the east coast for Max and Kira just last year. It had been fun. They saw a deer.


    Now, the pair traveled away from the bustling streets of commerce and towards the dim corners of Valain on the outskirts of town. Being a virtual world, users were never in danger anywhere in Noctem, but since the game allowed for player versus player combat as well as friendly fire, fights were not uncommon. Player-killing happened from time to time, but for the most part, it tended to gravitate towards the places in the world where that kind of behavior was encouraged. So as long as you didn''t make a habit of provoking people, you could walk around most places without much worry. But nevertheless, the outskirts were rather spread out and getting around could be inconvenient. In the end, it was a place that didn''t draw much of a crowd, allowing the real players to enjoy their adventures without distraction. For Max, it felt like home. He belonged there, and he knew it.


    The outer districts branched out into a maze of side streets and alleyways. Lamplight flickered, casting a soft silhouette of the pair across the cobblestone path as they progressed towards the waypoint. Gone was the decorative stonework of the city''s high-rises, and in its place loomed simple wooden buildings with rickety shutters covering their uneven windows. Threads of light spilled from cracks here and there, lending an air of added mystery to their already intriguing night. Random barrels and crates cluttered the edges of the winding street, making the place seem like a functioning town with its own purpose.


    A lagopin, which was a sort of cross between a rabbit and a bird, but larger, plodded past them, pulling a cart full of freshly cut hay. The sweet grassy odor filled Max''s senses. Its driver, a hardened looking man, leered at him from under the brim of a floppy hat as he took up most of the narrow street, forcing them both to stand aside to let him pass. The animal in front shook its head as if to scratch an itch, its long ears flapping back and forth while it rustled its stubby wings. For a moment Max feared he might have to stop Kira from petting the fictional animal, but she refrained.


    The night air was crisp, feeling several degrees colder than it did in the city''s center. Kira wrapped her hands around her arms and shivered but held in any complaint. Instead, she padded along, her feet bare on the stone covered ground while Max strode comfortably, dressed in his armor and scarf. Obviously, it would be ridiculous for a fairy to wear shoes, or at least that seemed to be what the developers thought since they had made the race unable to equip any.


    Soon after, the pair arrived under a dangling wooden sign bearing an image depicting a stick figure game of hangman, the blank spaces below filled in with the words The Hanging Frederick.


    "Well that''s ominous," Max said matter-of-factly as he glanced around.


    Not a soul was in sight. Apparently, it wasn''t a popular spot. The door creaked as he pushed it open, causing them both to cringe at the sound. Inside, they were greeted with what they expected, a dim room with few patrons. Exposed beams ran along an uneven ceiling, which was held up by a series of rough wooden pillars, bearing a number of mismatched carvings. The walls were decorated with pictures of all kinds, ranging from wanted posters and maps to landscape paintings. Each one in a different style of frame, most of which weren''t anything fancy, but they did give the place an eclectic feel. A couple of parties occupied the tavern, taking a moment to unwind after a night of exploration and progress. Occasional laughter peppered the air while a lone guitar player sat on a stool in a corner singing a slow, acoustic version of ¡®Space Oddity.¡¯ Max wished they had come across the establishment sooner. The atmosphere was perfect.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    The obvious focal point of the room was a long dusty bar that ran along the full length of the space. A burly man stood behind, wiping a mug made of dark wood with a filthy rag. As Max and Kira approached, they triggered the NPC to cease his cleaning, if that was what you wanted to call it. He leaned on the bar and said in a gruff but friendly manner, crafted to match the atmosphere, "¡®Ello, my young travelers. What can I get you on this fine evening?" His accent could only be described as old-timey, and his words regarded them as welcomed guests.


    "Yes, We''re-" Max started to say but was cut off by his partner.


    "Could I get some food?" Kira asked, stepping on Max''s words and somehow sounding polite and rude at the same time as she glanced at the haphazardly carved menu hanging on the wall, a dagger sticking out of it as if placed there to add items later.


    The bartender stuttered for a moment like his programming was trying to figure out who to address. He started again, algorithm clicking into place. "What can I get for such a lovely young lady?" He lowered his head closer to Kira''s height, ignoring Max altogether.


    "Turkey leg please." She placed her right hand on the bar to allow a transaction of ten credits to process as she bounced on her toes. She elbowed Max in the ribs to inform him that the tavern worked off in-game credits, rather than dollars, which was almost unheard of. Most food items fell into the category of luxury items, so discovering a place that worked off credits was a rare find. It was the sort of secret that you only shared with your most trusted friends, which was probably why it was so quiet. Max would have to thank whoever had sent the urgent message that brought them there.


    "You just ate, like ten minutes ago." Max rubbed his side where she had elbowed him.


    Kira shrugged as if it couldn''t be helped, and the bartender walked away through one of two doors behind him, returning a moment later with a smoked leg of meat wrapped in wax paper. She took it from him with enthusiasm and raised it to her face, leaving Max to continue his conversation uninterrupted.


    He turned back to the bartender and started again. "Hi, we''re supposed to meet someone in the back room." He hoped there would be some kind of prompt in place to let them past the bar.


    "What can I get for you?" the bartender repeated since Max hadn''t waited for him to speak first in the interaction. The man''s tone was gruffer than the one he used when addressing Kira. Pretty young women must get better treatment from his algorithm.


    Max grumbled to himself and repeated his inquiry, growing impatient with each passing moment. "We''re supposed to meet someone in the back."


    There was either no prompt to proceed, or Max hadn¡¯t used the right words, because the bartender skipped back to the beginning of his dialog loop, repeating his question in the same unfriendly voice. "What can I get for you?"


    Max placed his hands on the bar and lowered his head as he let out the heaviest sigh ever produced by a human being.


    A snicker came from Kira.


    He looked at her sideways then up at the man again with narrowed eyes. "Okay, pal. My friend and I got a message to come here. You gonna let us back there or not?'' He pointed to the door behind the bar.


    The bartender paused for a moment as his algorithm tried to understand Max''s words, giving the appearance that he was considering it. Then he spoke. "What can I get for you?"


    "Arrrggghh," Max growled, giving new input to the NPC without meaning to.


    "What can I get for you?" the man repeated.


    Max stepped away from the bar and walked in a small circle before returning.


    "What can I get for you?"


    He tapped his fingers on the counter, then tried a different approach. "Hello, my good sir. I hope this evening finds you well. My compatriot and I were asked here to this fine establishment for a clandestine meeting with persons unknown. Would you be so kind as to allow us access to your back room?" He finished with a slight bow, which he held while awaiting a response.


    "What can I get for you?"


    "Okay, that''s it!" Max ground his teeth hard enough the break a filling if he¡¯d had any. For a moment, he let his hand travel to his pistols, the ridiculous urge to shoot something running through his head as he fingered the grips. He refrained. Instead, he hoisted himself onto the bar and stood upright on it before jumping down on the other side.


    The bartender didn''t seem to notice the intrusion, though several heads looked up at him from across the tables of the tavern as the lone musician ceased an acoustic rendition of ¡®Safety Dance¡¯ so that he could gawk properly.


    "What are you looking at?" Max barked. "Go about your business." He gestured a shooing motion with both hands, then turned away from the onlookers and banged on the unused door behind the bar. "Okay, we''re here. Let''s get this show on the road," he called out.


    Silence answered back, and Kira stopped chewing for a second to listen. Then a quiet click-clack came from the lock.


    Max twisted the knob. It turned. "You coming?" he asked, looking to Kira.


    She swallowed a mouth full of turkey before climbing onto a bar stool and hoisting herself onto the counter with an awkward motion, one hand still holding the large leg of salty meat. She slid her rear across the bar, dusting its surface with her dress, then dropped to the other side to join her partner.


    Max shook his head.


    "What?" she asked indignantly.


    "Nothing. Let''s go," he said with a smirk as they passed through the door and into a large shadowed room.


    Something was off. Like the space was somehow larger than it should''ve been. In fact, it was larger than the tavern itself. Decorative stonework lined the walls making it feel disjointed from the wooden beams of the previous space. It was as if the room wasn''t even part of the same building. Like he had walked through a door and into a different part of the city, which might have been possible. He wasn''t sure.


    A long stone table stretched into the empty space with several high-backed chairs lining its sides. A few small lanterns ran down the table''s imposing surface, causing the shadows cast by the chairs to reach across the floor and up onto the walls, the gaps of light and dark making the room feel like the rib cage of a giant skeleton.


    A lone hooded man rose from the furthest chair at the head of the table. He seemed to glide towards them without a sound in the darkness as he approached. The shadow of his hood twisted the features of his face in the dim but hard light of the lanterns.


    The door slammed behind them, making Max aware of the presence of two additional figures lying in wait. They were surrounded.


    Stupid, Max thought, walking into a room without thinking, So very stupid.


    The air grew thick with tension the second he realized the trap they had just stepped into. Max''s mind fired up to process the situation, his artificial muscles twitching in anticipation. That''s when the man in front of them pushed back his hood. Max recognized his face from many of the presentations he¡¯d watched online from gaming conventions.


    "Thank you for accepting my invitation," greeted Alastair Coldblood.

 News and Discounts!

    As all of you know, Party Hard was published last fall with Mountaindale Press, so I wanted to throw up a notification on where the book can be read. But more importantly, I wanted a place to let you all know of any discounts that might be available.


    So here''s where the book can be found: (Links below)


    Patreon The full book is available and I have begun posting chapters of book 2


    Amazon It''s available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimted as well as paperback (It''s free if you already have a Kindle Unlimited already)


    Audible I''m super proud to have the audiobook up. It''s narrated by Luke Daniels (one of my favorites)


    Message me At the moment I have some free review links available, so if you don''t mind writing a quick review on Amazon, then I''ll be happy to hook you up with a copy while my supply lasts. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    --------------


    SALES AND DISCOUNTS:


    As promised, here''s a heads up that Party Hard is currently discounted from $4.99 to .99 cents. The sale will continue until the 21st of April. To stay in the loop on future discounts and sales, signing up for my mailing list is a good bet since I can''t really send out alerts here on Royal Road. I''m pretty sure there will be another sale on book one when the next in the series drops, but I''m not sure when that will be at the moment.


    Also, there''s a free chapter that I deleted from the book that automatically gets sent to anyone that joins my mailing list. It''s a fun little chapter about how some of the party members met. It''s worth a read.


    EPIC LITRPG SALE: This is more of a public service announcement, but PARTY HARD is just one of many books on sale right now. I''ve actually banded together with some other great authors to help get more LitRPG out there in the world. Our books are all priced between free and .99 cents. So stop by and load up. There are some great books in there. (honestly, I kinda went on a shopping spree.)