《Unbound Deathlord: Challenge》 Book 1: Challenge - Part 1 - Prison (read this too!)

Prison

Deathlord Underworld ¨C Corrupted ¨C Undead The only reason the deathlords are not the most arrogant species of the Underworld is that they share space with vampires and drow. Like liches, deathlords choose to become undead by magic, but both are very different beings. While liches give up on everything that could link them to their previous life ¨C meat, blood, voice, memories ¨C, they also receive exceptional power in the exchange. Liches also have to study necromancy, a very complicated art that deals both with death and life magic. Only a master can then perform the ritual that will kill them momentarily and turn them into an undead. Deathlords are not like that. They study only death magic and that, only scantly. Instead of turning themselves into a new existence keeping the power they possessed, they corrupt their lives with death magic until they become undead.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Immortality is their only goal, and the corruption strips them of everything they achieved in life, both physically and magically. It''s like being born anew, keeping only their bodies and their memories, but losing every drop of power. The Fallen Gods use such loss as a way of increasing their strength and influence over the world. They seduce the deathlords in their most vulnerable moment, trying to bind them to a mutually beneficial contract. Thus, the bound deathlords are born, giving away some liberty for the promise of easier and faster power to come. But not all of them are seduced. When grown and powerful men lose everything that holds their ego together, a few of them opt for freedom instead of what they see as slavery. Unbound, they claim themselves to be. Most of the world doesn''t know how to feel about the species: should they be pitied for their fear of death? Rebuked for being undead? They are an enigma, and many fear what they don''t understand. Immortals by choice, bound or unbound, they have known since their transformation that they hold their existence and their future in their hands. And they stop at nothing to achieve their goals. -- Excerpt from "Species of Valia", by Amir, a Karr Book 1: Challenge - 1. The Curious Case of the Stone Licker

1. The Curious Case of the Stone Licker

''When in doubt, attack. People respect power, not passiveness.'' - Father "As you can see, it''s like living a dream forever," said the young blond saleswoman with glasses that gave her a bit of a geek look and a strategically unbuttoned button on her shirt. Yeah, I thought. Forever. Or until I die. Or my budget runs out. Or the game servers are shut down. Or a lot of other possibilities. It was still a good product. The first game supporting long-term immersions. More than that, the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, MMORPG, available in the Immersive Reality technology. V-Soft was the company behind the technology that ''talked'' directly to the brain and gave the user the impression of being transported to a different reality. Since the technology reveal, five years ago, the company had refused to allow any MMORPGs to be developed by any developer. Only now were they releasing such a game themselves. "What about money? Can I put some cash in?" "Of course! I mean, we have a minimum interference policy; who would like some super powerful V-Soft employee meddling with their lives all the time? Or a super powerful player coming out of the blue just because he is rich in this world? But let''s be frank, there is no reason to send away anyone genuinely interested in starting a comfortable new life. Really, really interested." She looked at me expecting a reply, her blue eyes giving me the mysterious ''are you good enough to ask'' act. I bit. "How interested?" "You can buy in-game currency." She leaned closer, as if she was about to confide in me a most magnificent opportunity. "Minimum of ten dollars, for ten silver coins. Maximum of ten thousand dollars per month per player, for a hundred gold coins." Valia Online, the game I was considering playing, had a pretty common currency system: bronze coins were the less valuable, a silver coin was worth a hundred bronze, a gold coin was worth a hundred silver, and a platinum coin was worth a thousand gold. A teaser trailer had shown a level twenty elf buying a common sword for fifteen gold. This meant about fifteen hundred dollars for a basic piece of equipment. It was crazy. And the worst of it all was that people would pay for it; the game was already popular before even launching and if it delivered all it promised, millions would play in a few weeks. It was easy to believe what she had said: they had a minimum interference policy, but no one was crazy enough to ignore rich people willing to pay ¨C and there were a lot of those around. Investing real world money in the game wasn''t in my plans, but I couldn''t complain about the rates. They were making average players and rich bastards alike happy enough. Unfortunately, those prices would only last until the black market developed. "Of course," she continued, "we will also sell multiple exclusive items with purely cosmetic value that will not affect the game balance, such as items to make a weapon or an armor glow and the possibility to change your character name." That was expected, these days no game came out without items like that. ''Hats,'' gamers called them, even though no one remembered why. "That sounds reasonable, but I''m just a law student with a few millions. I must save some money for my children." I gave her my best smile, not wanting to waste the opportunity of hitting on her. She was pretty. Beautiful, but not interested. Her smile didn''t disappear, but she leaned back in the chair again. I guess a man going into stasis for undetermined time isn''t a good romantic investment. "That''s alright, of course. We want players from all economic possibilities to enjoy our game!" Sure you do. Four hundred bucks a month after the trial month. Every poor youngster can just stop working and pay forty-eight hundred dollars for one year of their lives. Despite my social warrior thoughts, I knew it was pretty cheap. Most people spent more than four hundred bucks in one month of their lives. In my case I would get into a rented virtual reality capsule and forget about bills until my contract ran out or I decided to leave. And if I wanted to interact with the real world without leaving, I could just call anyone from inside the game. If one had a house, one could sell it and live comfortably in a rental virtual reality capsule for the rest of one''s life. Of course, there were also the people who wanted to stay in their houses and play. The monthly fee was only fifty bucks in these cases, but they had to buy their own IR equipment. The cheapest one cost five thousand dollars and was a simple IR helmet, called VirBridge, not an encompassing full body capsule. It was the best choice if they were casual players, or had to leave the game regularly, but I was going for the long-term option. Looking at her open blouse, a thought occurred to me. "What about sex?" Her eyes widened for a second and she reflexively crossed her arms. The kinds of gamers she was used to dealing with probably weren''t that shameless. Still, as the professional she was showing herself to be, her smile didn''t disappear. "You can do anything in Valia. Any NPC can become your lover, if you play it right." An NPC, or non-player character, was any non-player entity who wouldn''t be classified as a monster. Nowadays they were mainly controlled by AIs, much to the despair of AI Rights Activists. "The same goes for any player, of course. We also take the recently passed gaming laws very seriously and there will be no in-game pleasure houses, nor will any kind of sexual harassment be tolerated" Sex was no novelty in IR, either with NPCs or with other real people using their own IR devices. It was said that some couples preferred to have sex in simulators where they could go on indefinitely without tiring and try some positions their real bodies were not flexible enough to achieve. "Alright. Let me see the papers." Her smile got even more beautiful, and she left the small room for a few minutes. * * * "Jack, I''m begging you, don''t waste your life like that. Your parents-" "My parents are dead, Richard," I interrupted my family''s grey-headed lawyer. "I killed them, remember?" "It was an accident! You must stop-" "I mustn''t and I won''t! I''m getting in the damn capsule. I have a duty to them, to have a child and give him or her the family money. But I-" "You have a duty to be happy! That''s what they''d want! A happy life for their child!" "You don''t know that! You didn''t know them like I did! When I was four they taught me how to take revenge on the kids who made fun of me in the damn playground! They were not saints, they were tyrannical bastards, but they were still my parents and I killed them!" "Jack, you-" "I am getting in the capsule, like I said! I''ll eventually get a wife, in some distant future, and make a family, but that''s all. No matter what I do, I keep remembering that I started the fire, except when I''m playing. Yes, I''m running! Call me a coward if you want, I don''t give a damn. Just make my money ready for the monthly fees and don''t call me unless the world is ending." "Jack... "Richard, I''m ordering you as your damn boss. Do you understand my orders?" "Yes." He said tiredly. "Yes, I do. But you aren''t my boss; you''re my client." "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Someday you might even convince yourself my father didn''t make you his puppy." He looked at me with pain in his eyes, but I made a show of ignoring it and left the room. It had been some time since I had exploded like that and I felt bad about it, but he had touched forbidden ground, and he damn well knew it. If I was back to bad habits, I might as well call some ex-girlfriends. The game would launch in a week, and it seemed eunuchs had created it. I mean, no brothels? C''mon! * * * The doctor looked at the soon-to-be-player seriously. "Jack Sunni Carpenter McHolen, are you sure you want to undergo this procedure? I''m legally obliged to inform you there is a zero point zero zero zero zero one percent possibility of your death. You can desist right now and have all your money back." That was pretty well done; they were even recording it. About one in ten million people would never wake up after trying to go to another world in a long-term capsule. I liked my chances. The question was only a formality. I had undergone a lot of psychological and medical exams, plus a two-hour lecture about the procedure. To tell the truth, it made me feel secure. At least, this time, my parents'' colleagues, the politicians, had done something right. "I''m sure, please go on." "Ok. I''ll begin the procedure. Have a good game, sir." The doctor put the needle in my arm. Blackness came soon after. * * * Ten minutes after creating my character, I touched the stone wall again, mesmerized. I could feel its texture, its imperfections, its coldness. When I took my hand away, dust stuck to my fingers. The smell was metallic and on an impulse I licked it, feeling the unique taste of stone in my mouth. Spitting on the floor multiple times didn''t make it go completely away. This game is awesome. V-Soft had released a single game before this, the very first one for the new IR technology. It had been developed to show the world the potential of the thing and it was nothing like this. When the first video of Valia Online had appeared, of a man over a castle wall overlooking a small town, people had thought it was a movie trailer until the company explained it. Still, game companies were known for cheating their clients with screenshots and videos that were way better than the finished product. V-Soft, on the other hand, had downplayed it. I couldn''t find any difference from the real world. High visual detail was usual in the old retina and ears virtual reality games, but here it went a notch up. Not only that, even the touch, smell and taste were perfect. Four hundred bucks to be transported to an alternative reality world looked way too cheap now. I hoped that the price would go up by hundreds, so it wouldn''t become full of annoying kids destroying the game experience for others. The only thing that prevented me from believing I was still in the real world were the things floating on my vision edges: colored bars with numbers, a clock, an exclamation point in a square button, and an ''Welcome to Valia Online'' text. Common sense dictated that I took my time to get my bearings and plan ahead. To hell with common sense. I need to see more! I was wearing tattered gray clothes in a stone room with a locked metal door and no furniture. All the light was coming from under the door. I could hear fire crackling on the other side. To see more I needed to get out, and to get out I needed to make someone open the damn door. So I did what every levelheaded person would have done. "Fire!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to sound as desperate as possible. "Help! Fire!" To add to the realism of panic caused by a fire starting in an underground cell made of stone and bare of furniture, I hit the metal door repeatedly. It was a little loose and made a lot of noise. "Please, help me! I''m dying! Fire!" "Quiet!" I heard a hoarse male voice on the other side of the door. Jackpot! "I need help! Please! There is fire in here! I''m burning! Fire!" "Shudap!" "Help me! Fire! Help!" I kept screaming and hitting the door. A hard blow came from the other side of the door. "I told ya to shudap!" I didn''t obey. "Now ya did it! Ya''ll regret getting to ma nerves!" The door opened. Light poured in the cell and what I saw was a vision directly from hell. It was a kind of unfinished man: he had no nose, his skin was missing in random parts of his head, where I could see his muscles, and only a few strips of hair were still in his scalp. His teeth were mostly rotten or missing, and a foul odor was coming from the creature. I recognized his species from other games: a ghoul. As soon as I did, a text appeared floating above his head: Ghoul The horrid creature was clothed in worn gray shirt and trousers, gray leather belt and gray leather shoes; as lacking as it was, it was still a lot better than my own traps. In his hand he had a corroded metal pipe. After looking around to confirm there was indeed no fire and I was just being annoying, he attacked. My heart rate got up a little after seeing the deformed face, and the moment he began the pipe swing I got a little scared. But it was wasted adrenaline. The metal bar descended really clumsy and not fast at all, as if a child was swinging something too heavy. I merely stepped aside and punched the ghoul in the face. It was just like hitting someone in the real world. I had done my fair share of street fights in my adolescence and early youth and it was surprising how real the punch felt. Wondering how real the fights could be, I used a kick to try and push the ghoul away. Success. The ghoul stumbled back to the wall and hit his head with a loud sound. A few more punches later, my hands were covered in the black smelling substance that was the ghoul''s version of blood. 2 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul 2 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul 2 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul The same message appeared over and over again at the bottom left corner of my vision. I wasn''t a powerful guy, it seemed. No reaction came from the ghoul. He couldn''t even properly move after I threw him on the floor and began to kick his face; he merely tried to shield himself with his arms and gave out weak cries of pain. Doing such a thing to a defenseless creature was highly repulsive and made me feel a little bad, even if it was just an NPC. But the bastard had just tried to kill me, and I was not one to forgive and forget. At least he didn''t try to beg for mercy. Well, it might have something to do with the strange angle his jaw was twisted, but I was no doctor. With a last cry, his body became rigid and unmoving. The ghoul was dead. 2 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul HP: 0 / 20 I took a few seconds to catch my breath. In the real world I wouldn''t be even close to tired, but my character body was weaker than the real me for now. Thinking about it, I checked how much stamina I still had. There were three colored bars on the top left edge of my vision, one below the other: red, blue and green. Red was for hit points, HP; blue was for mana points, MP; and green was for stamina. There were numbers over each one of them. HP: 95 / 95 MP: 95 / 95 Stamina: 30 / 85 This was part of the beauty of games. In real life, you feel healthy or sick, lively or tired, and that''s it. In gaming, you know exactly your limits, which''s especially useful for fighting.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Hit Points, or HP, measured my health, and the bar was full. Receiving damage would lower my HP, and if it got to zero, I would die. Stamina was my physical conditioning. How much I could run, attack and so on. Mana Points, or MP, was like stamina for magic. I had no abilities that consumed MP for now. I had used up quite a large amount of stamina in my short fight and would have to recover it. A new exclamation point button had appeared on the right edge of my vision, right under the old one. Both contained an upward pointing arrow, but one had a ''Q'' letter and the other an ''A''. Wondering if the game would force me to check the old one first, I focused on the ''A'' and willed it to show its hidden information. A translucent message window appeared floating before me.
Intelligence increased to 1 (+1) By solving the problem of imprisonment you''ve proved yourself to have a superior intellect. ? MP: 100 (+5) Agility increased to 1 (+1) By not staying put while the enemy tries to kill you, and by repeatedly attacking such enemy with all your speed, you become faster. Strength increased to 1 (+1) You know how to hit. Now you do it harder. Dexterity increased to 1 (+1) It''s not about hitting hard; it''s about connecting your hits. You learn how to better direct your attacks. Constitution increased to 1 (+1) After putting your body to stress, you learn how to further move without tiring. ? HP: 100 (+5) ? Stamina: 95 (+10)
Strength, agility and so on were attributes. I had eight of those, and each one of them controlled some aspect about me and how well I could interact with the world. Having more strength, for instance, not only would allow me to do more damage to my enemies, but also to carry more weight. Again, the game provided me with exact numbers for my limits. The way to get more points in an attribute was to do things related to it, like weight lifting or killing people with my fists for strength. I much preferred the latter, thanks. Receiving this many points early on was expected, since I had had zero points in all of my attributes ¨C and the less points in an attribute, the easier it was to receive more. Five attribute points was not bad and it quelled my fear of boredom; I was not a huge fan of going to the gym in a game. The explanation under each received point was a nice touch too. That way the player would know exactly how he had increased his attributes and it would lower the complaints. Supposedly. People always found things to complain about. I for one would love a progress bar showing me how far I was from the next level. I looked at the corpse before me and took the time to rob him of everything he had, except his underwear; humanoid creatures could only get naked by their living will. Not that I''d be interested in stripping a dude anyway. Worn Cotton Shirt ? +1 defense Worn Cotton Pants ? +1 defense Old Leather Shoes ? +2 defense Old Leather Belt ? +2 defense Defense in this game was as simple as it could be: if an attack should''ve caused five damage but found an armor with a defense value of two on its way, the final damage was three; a direct subtraction. It seemed leather was better than cotton for defense; who would have thought? The shirt and pants were torn in a few places, but they were still a lot better than the tattered clothes I was wearing. I didn''t check the items'' detailed information; checking the color, material and overall condition of these clothes was easy enough to do just by looking at them or by reading their names. Putting my new clothes on was slightly disgusting; the ghoul''s blood was sticky and smelled revolting. After that, I took the pipe. Corroded Copper Pipe ? 15 (+2 [Strength]) physical damage Fifteen was the maximum damage the weapon was capable of doing unless it hit a critical spot. Hitting a man in the chest could potentially lower his hit points by all fifteen points, but hitting him in the foot using the same force would do a lot less damage. The player''s strength also played a part on the potential damage, as showcased by the ''+2''. I could do a little more than fifteen points of damage on each hit because of my one point in strength. I put the pipe on a spot for it in my new belt and sat to wait while my lost stamina recovered. Doing nothing made me remember the second exclamation point on my vision edge. I willed it to show me its information.
Quest: Escape the Prison D rank You have been imprisoned in the deathlords secret prison. Find a way to escape it. Conditions: ? Cannot be refused ? Cannot be dropped ? Must be completed without dying
My very first task, or quest. Compared to the attribute points messages, it lacked information. For instance, why was I imprisoned? I had chosen the unbound variation of the deathlord species. Doing so gave me a diplomacy bonus, which meant that every species in the world should treat me neutrally, except for the bound deathlords and the vampires, who hated me for unknown reasons. Also, what would happen if I died without completing it? Would it be game over? Would I receive another quest? At least I now know I''m in prison. Ya, thanks for the heads up. The quest difficulty was relative to my current power. It could rank from A+ to E-, a C-rank being the middle ground. I doubted I would have any trouble with a D-rank quest. After about five minutes of sitting, my stamina was replenished. It was time for some prison-breaking. Crouching as much as I could while still being able to move, I left the cell. I found myself in a long stone corridor with closed metal doors and torch sconces. The torches on each side of my door were the only ones burning, the rest of the corridor being in the dark. One of the two starting skills, or abilities, I had chosen had been darkvision, which allowed me to see through absolute gloom as if it was the end of twilight. Thanks to that, I would be able to explore the prison without having to take a torch, which would''ve made me a bright moving target for my enemies. Happily ignoring the torches, I began to walk. Since I was crouching, it was slow, but I''d rather walk this way and lower my chance of being spotted. Each side of the corridor had intermittent cells and the doors had white letters and numbers painted on them. Mine was the A-20 cell, the last one in the hallway. At first I had thought the way the cells were placed was a waste of space, but after some consideration I concluded that they were this way so the prisoners wouldn''t be able to talk among themselves. This prison was not a pleasant place to be. The first cell I passed by was empty, the door wide open. In the far end of the corridor I could see the only other light source. The next three cells were also open and empty, but inside A-16 I found a dead skeleton. It was important to assess its death state, even if it was a skeleton; in this world, skeletons could walk and stick a knife in your back. I almost passed by the door, but a small bag under the corpse caught my attention. I approached the bones slowly and took the brown bag, which I discovered to be a purse. It had a single copper coin inside. Sweet. It had some strings that I used to tie the purse to my belt. Another ''A'' exclamation point had appeared, and I opened it.
Perception increased to 1 (+1) Noticing small things shows that you are a perceptive person.
Another free attribute point. I wondered how hard it would become to level my attributes after they got to level twenty or so. I went back to the corridor and resumed my crouched walk. The next six cells were also bare, but A-9 was different: its door was closed. I remembered how loud my cell door had sounded, so I applied only a small force as I knocked. "Anybody there?" I said quietly, but loud enough for my voice to go through the door. "Screw you!" A man yelled from inside. I frowned. What kind of response was that from a game character? "Calm down, mister politeness incarnate. I''m an escaping prisoner." "Ha! Get out, ghoul! I will tell you nothing!" "I''m not a ghoul." "Right! Go away!" "I''m telling you, man, I''m not a ghoul. Escaping prisoner coming through." "Stop the act! I can smell death even through the door, undead. Ghoul, deathlord, vampire or zombie, even if you are an escaping prisoner, you are not my ally. Just go away!" "I think I know why you are in prison, what with this attitude and all. Do you always spit in every hand that tries to help you?" "Oh, you are a helper! An innocent boy in the deathlords'' prison, trying to help everyone! Come in here, undead, I still have some life magic left. Let me heal you; you will love it." Life magic would heal living people, but me being undead, I would receive damage instead. This was a confusing situation. Wasn''t that a game character waiting to be rescued? What kind of victim made the rescuer beg to allow the rescue to be done? "Whatever. Just pretend I''m a boy scout who wants to help, what would I need to do?" "Scout? Who would you even be scouting for in a prison? Go away!" Ouch, the cultural gap between worlds. "Man, just tell me how to take you out of the cell. Can you get out by yourself? Can the door be forced?" I tried as I spoke, but the door was firmly set, unlike my own had been. "Do you know who has the key? Just tell me and I''ll leave." This time, the prisoner didn''t answer immediately. After a few seconds, he replied with a much lower voice. "A torturer must have the key." "Was it that hard? I''ll be back." Two exclamation point buttons had appeared, one with the letter ''Q'' and the other with the letter ''A''. I opened the quest one first.
Quest: Save the Prisoner from Cell A-9 C+ rank Help the prisoner from cell A-9 escape the deathlords'' prison. He told you that the key to his cell is with a torturer. Conditions: ? Must be completed before leaving the prison ? Must be completed without dying
A C+ quest meant that it was slightly above the average difficulty for my current power. A small challenge. I smiled and opened the attribute exclamation point button.
Charisma increased to 1 (+1) Convincing a prisoner to let you help him is a feat of a true charismatic person!
Is this attribute message being sarcastic? A few more open doors later I found myself before cell A-2 and was finally able to see what there was in the light ahead. Two ghouls were there, clearly stronger than the one I had killed. Instead of pipes, they had corroded swords loosely hanging from their belts and small round corroded shields on their left arms. With only a pipe myself, I decided it''d be best not to attack head on. I had to make them leave their position or become distracted. How to do that came to me fast: I entered the empty cell nearby and hit the metal door sharply. A loud sound echoed through the corridor. "Did ya hear that?" One of them spoke. "No, shudap." I couldn''t hear them move. I hit the door again. "Hey, ya hear it now?" "Mus'' be a rat. Da pests everywhere." No movement. I tried again. "That ain''t no rat. Mus'' be one of the prisoners." "Mus'' be the elf. High Lady Renno said the other one''ll get killed when he wakes. That''s why she sent the newbie there. He is an idiot, but I bet even he woul'' check the noise." "A bet? A''right, I bet he asleep. Wha'' ''bout a silver coin?" "Deal. But I check." "No way. We go together." It worked. Only one would be better, but life has a way of denying perfection to people. I hid beside the door and waited. As the ghouls neared, I synchronized my breathing with their steps. Light shone outside, probably from a torch one of them was carrying. As they passed the cell, walking slowly and unworried, an exclamation point button appeared, but I ignored it for now and followed my boys. I took extra care only to step on the floor when one of them stepped too. Soon, I was behind both of them and chose the left one to be the first one to die. He had a torch in his hand and could use it as a weapon faster than the other one could grab his sword. I swung the pipe with all my force at his head. Sneak attack for 2.0x damage! 34 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul Sneak attack! That wasn''t in the manuals. He screamed, and the other one turned. I attacked the same ghoul again, but this time I didn''t receive a sneak attack bonus and missed the head, dealing a lot less damage. Meanwhile, the other one took the sword from its belt. A final pipe hit killed the first ghoul, but the other one swung the sword at me. 23 slash damage received HP: 77 / 100 I felt the cold sword cutting through my side and it hurt a lot. I gritted my teeth, stepped back, used the pipe to take the ghoul''s sword out of the way and then attacked him. He put his shield in the way, but thanks to the bar above his head, I knew he had taken damage. 6 shock damage dealt to Ghoul HP: 53 / 59 Wait, the bar above his head? A red bar had appeared between his head and the floating ''Ghoul'' text above his head. It was not entirely red, almost a tenth left to become full. Over it was the HP numbers I had just seen in the damage message. Fifty-nine had been the total damage I had inflicted to the first ghoul. So, for killing the first, I now could see this one''s hit points. Sweet. He attacked, faster than the ghoul I had fought in my cell, but still slow. He had been able to hit the previous swing only because I had been too focused on killing the other guy. I stepped aside to dodge the sword swing and counter-attacked. Again he used the shield to block. The biggest concern now was the stamina. Each attack, dodge or even hit I received consumed five stamina points. Five damage, dodge, six damage, dodge, six damage, dodge. He still had twenty-nine HP left. It was clear that my remaining thirty stamina would not be enough. I had to try something different. I feigned an attack at his body, and as soon as he raised his shield, I lowered the pipe to his legs. 12 blunt damage dealt to Ghoul HP: 17 / 59 Great! After that big damage, the fight was decided in two more attacks to the shield, for a total of fifty-three points of damage. The ghoul''s total HP was updated on the last hit. That''s what the question mark means, then. The information is only an estimate based on my previous experiences. Or thoughts, in the case of the ''Ghoul'' text appearing over their heads. As the ghoul dropped dead, I suddenly felt shaky. I was panting, and the bloodied pipe weighed heavily on my hand. I let it go. The metal clinked when it hit the stone floor. My body went down next. Man, I''m tired. A translucent energy left the last ghoul corpse; it was dark grey and flew like an arrow to me. I was too surprised to dodge. Kill to Survive: 1 HP recovered ''Kill to Survive'' was the name of the skill I had chosen together with darkvision. Both were magic skills and were now on level one; using them a lot would level them up. Leveling them up would make them stronger and grant me new magical skills. I really wanted to do some real magic, like throwing fireballs. Not that I would be able to do so any time soon. I had chosen death magic to heal myself, since I was a solo player, and because deathlords had a ten percent efficiency bonus to death magic. And I had chosen darkness magic because of the darkvision, which would be much safer than walking around with fire, as had already been proven by my actions. But as soon as possible I''d start on the fire path. I was very into mages. Granted, kicking people in the face or hitting them with pipes was fun, both in Valia and in the real world, but killing people just by thinking about it was way cooler. For now, everything my mighty death element magic skill did was heal me by one HP. It was so pathetic after the hard fight that I laughed. I had five stamina remaining; one extra attack or dodge and I would have become unable to move for five minutes. There were two exclamation point buttons visible now, one of them with a brand new ''T''.
Trait received: Shadow You have learned how to pass unnoticed by your enemies. ? Sound and smells reduced by 1% while hiding
Traits were like another kind of attributes in that they both affected what the character could do and how well he could do it. Also, the trait points were added to the attribute points before dividing by ten to determine the overall character level; I was currently level zero. Even if they helped with the character level, traits came with a few setbacks: they were a whole lot harder to level up, were not all known and had to be unlocked by the character actions. The trait system was the closest thing Valia had to a traditional class system that divided people into warriors, rogues, mages, archers, bards, and so on. Discovering the shadow trait was interesting. The first stealth skill players could get made it harder only to see the character, not hear and smell, so a player going for the stealth path would also need the shadow trait to become more effective. It was a nice touch, as traits were leveled up by acting in the right way while skills did so by continuous usage. Combining both would lead to a deep and immersive character ¨C a real ninja in this case. I checked the other exclamation point.
Willpower increased to 1 (+1) Fighting to the brink of exhaustion requires a lot of willpower. ? Stamina: 100 (+5)
Willpower increases stamina? Well, I guess a willful person will go further than one who gives up early. Why doesn''t it also apply to MP, though? For the next nine minutes, I remained seated there. Thanks to my one point in constitution I recovered ten stamina ¨C nine base points plus the constitution value ¨C and one HP per minute if I was resting. When my stamina was full, and my HP got back to eighty-six, I took the ghouls'' equipment. Corroded Copper Sword ? 25 (+2 [Strength]) physical damage Corroded Small Copper Shield ? Resistance: 50% The shield''s resistance was used for any damage that had to pass the physical barrier of the shield to get to me. Blades, spears, arrows, fireballs, ice spikes, it all fell into that category. Lightning, life magic, and other stuff usually didn''t. I took the new weapon and strapped the shield to my arm, leaving the pipe on my belt. One of the shirts became a makeshift bag where I put the two new pair of shoes while the two belts became bindings for the extra sword, which I carried in my shield hand with the bag for now. It was an RPG law: take everything possible for selling later. There was no way to take the extra shield, though. Although I''d probably get back to this corridor to save the prisoner, there were no guarantees so I decided to bring everything with me. I put the other shirt and the two extra pants over what I was wearing. While handling the pants I found hidden pockets sewn inside them with a silver coin in each. Sweet. Was this a bonus for listening to the conversation earlier? If so, it was an interesting touch to the game that would slightly change the way I played. Listening to enemies'' conversations wasn''t useless anymore. Two silver coins and a few items richer, I hid the corpses, the shield, and the torch in the A-2 cell and went on. None of the other rooms had anything whatsoever, and I finally got to the end of the corridor, where the two ghouls had stood. Only a single torch remained at the beginning of the stone stairs. Contrary to the uneven stone floor until now, the stairs were perfectly cut. A door was at the end of the stairs, slightly ajar. I silently looked inside. Two more ghouls were in there, seated in front of each other, a table between them. Both were asleep with their heads on the table. It was a small room, with no furniture besides the table, chairs and a single torch on the wall, with another door on the other side of the room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of perfectly cut stone, too. I took utmost care as I slowly entered the room. The ghouls'' shields were on the table with some copper and silver coins scattered on it. The coins, two empty bottles of wine, and some cards made it clear what they had been doing. I put my bag and wrapped sword on the floor and positioned myself behind the nearest ghoul. With one hand I blocked his mouth, and with the other I struck his neck with the sword. I felt the blade cut through flesh and scratch bone and felt a chill down my spine. He managed to open his eyes, but couldn''t even move before dying. Attacked a sleeping target for 2.0x damage! Sneak attack for 2.0x damage! Critical hit for 2.0x damage! 162 slash damage dealt to Ghoul HP: 0 / 53 Blood poured from the wound and covered the table. It shone gruesomely on the torchlight and the foul smell of it made bile come to my mouth. Part of me wanted to feel bad, knew I should feel bad. It was a gruesome scene, the bloodied sword in my hands, the blood covering the table, the eyes of the dead ghoul wide open. But I didn''t. They were game characters and had been put there by the game designers so that they could be killed. More importantly, they were my enemies and would kill me if they had the chance. The Underworld was no place for mercy. Instead, I had the opposite reaction: I felt amazed at the realism of it all and wanted just to do it again. Which I did; the second ghoul also died in his sleep. I took the coins and cleaned the blood on the clothes of the dead as if it was the most common thing in the world. Seven silver and three copper richer, I took all the ghouls'' equipment that I could and proceeded to the door. Never before in my life did I open a door so slowly. On the other side of it I saw an enormous hall. On the wall to my right there were big wooden double doors. To the left, a large staircase that divided in the middle and lead to two doors upstairs. On the first floor there were eight metal doors, each with a letter engraved on it, from A to H, four on each side of the room. I was on the A-door, closest to the staircase. There were torches on the walls, all lit, but thankfully no enemies were there. I closed the A-door and walked in a crouched position to the B-door. Again I opened it as slowly as possible. A room just like the one at the A-door was there, but this one had no ghouls, its torch unlit on the wall. I entered, closing the door behind me just in case. The door to the cells corridor was open, and no lights were visible in there. Even so, I checked all the cells, every single one of them open and empty, except for the last cell which had a lone copper coin that hardly paid for the time it took me to get there. Back to the big hall, I went for the C-door. As I slowly opened the door, I heard a woman scream.
Jack Thorn Unbound Deathlord Level 0
Hit Points: 100 / 100
Mana Points: 100 / 100
Stamina: 100 / 100
Attributes
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 1
Perception: 1
Willpower: 1
Charisma: 1
Traits
Shadow: 1
Book 1: Challenge - 2. Red Hot Chilli Bones

2. Red Hot Chili Bones

''A world without bribes is like a machine without oil. '' - Father "I don''t know! I swear by Lathar! I don''t know!" She cried and desperately yelled some words between screams of pain. Two loud cracks were followed by even louder screams and a genderless voice. "Speak, human! Where is he? Where is the Resistance man you were supposed to meet that day?" "I don''t-" She began to reply, but another crack interrupted her and she screamed again. "Stop lying! If you don''t, I will bring new toys next time I come. Do you want that? Do you?" "No! Oh, Lathar, please, no. Please. I don''t know-" Again she was interrupted by cracks. I kept listening as I opened the door. The room had a lit torch, and a ghoul was leaning on the opposite door, looking at the corridor with his back to me. Holding my breath, I entered the room, closed the door to the hall, put my bag and surplus swords on the floor and walked as noiselessly as possible. When I got behind him, I did almost the same as I had done to the sleeping ghouls. One hand closed his mouth while the other quickly put a sword through his neck. Sneak attack and critical hit: instant kill. I dropped the corpse gently on the floor to prevent sounds and walked downstairs. A little further into the corridor, right next to the C-1 cell, there were two other ghouls, one to each side of the door. They had their backs to the wall, and one of them was smoking a straw cigarette, which gave out a strong smell that almost made me cough. How fun would it be, having an all cool shadow trait and getting discovered because I coughed at cigarette smoke? There was no way to approach without being seen, so I charged full speed ahead, my sword held in front of me. I aimed for the neck, but the ghouls saw me and moved, forcing me to lower the sword and hit the first one''s stomach instead. I stepped back as he counterattacked. "Intruder!" He yelled. It became a fight against the two ghouls, but they were slow, and the sword did a lot more damage than the pipe. Dodging two swords was harder than one, but still doable. I''m no intruder, idiot. I''m escaping, I thought as I killed them. I was panting at the end, with only twenty stamina left. I could hear no movement inside the room, so I took the time to check the new exclamation point that had appeared.
Agility increased to 2 (+1) Fighting two enemies and not getting damaged has sharpened your reflexes. Constitution increased to 2 (+1) By repeatedly fighting to near exhaustion, your body becomes more used to harsh treatment. ? HP: 110 (+10) ? Stamina: 110 (+10) Level up! Current level: 1 HP, MP and stamina restored
My very first level. It had taken me half an hour to get to level one, which was a little too much. On the other hand, I had only killed six enemies. Recovering all my HP, MP, and stamina was a pleasant surprise. Instantly, all the tiredness left my body, and my breath went back to normal. Sweet. And a little scary that the game has so much control over how I feel. My stamina back, I charged again, this time into the room. I was met with a ball of fire flying directly at my head. Somehow I put the shield on the way just in time to block and wondered if I would have been able to do it if my agility had not just increased. How exactly did these attributes affect my virtual body and my perception of it? I had just witnessed the system remove all my tiredness, so it was an interesting line of thought. All considerations left my mind the moment the ball of fire exploded on the shield. The unexpected force of the explosion made my arm jerk back, and the shield hit my face. The fire burned my clothes and heated my head. 20 shock + 2 burn damage received (22 total) HP: 88 / 110 Shock damage was the damage that went through the shield, which I lowered slightly to check the room. It was an ordinary cell, but there was something very disturbing about it: a woman in underwear was hanging by chains on her wrists. She was in the center of the room, her blood pouring from lots of livid red wounds. Her hair had been crudely shaved, with patches here and there, and she was looking down, sobbing. It was such a sorry scene that it was enough to make me understand why it was necessary to be of age to play an Underworld species. Before her stood a living skeleton. Its bones were red, and so were his clothes: a leather jacket with straps closures, leather pants, and boots. Without any meat on the skeleton''s body, the clothing was loose. It held a whip in its hand. "Ah, a deathlord! Come, let me give you your final death!" It lashed the whip at me. The torture scene had caught me by surprise, and I just stood there, waiting for the skeleton to move. I snapped out of it as the whip came at me and put the shield up again. The hit was too powerful, and the shield broke into pieces, the whip hitting my forearm after that. Your shield has broken 36 slash damage received HP: 52 / 110 I felt so much pain that I almost fainted, my vision becoming blurred for half a second. It made me fearful, which in turn made me furious, and I attacked the skeleton head on. A laugh came from the skeleton as it opened its jaw and a small flame appeared inside. One second later the flame flew to me, becoming bigger as it left the mouth. It was too close to dodge and positioned myself to take it in the chest. 36 fire + 8 burn damage received (44 total) HP: 8 / 110 It hurt a lot and made me stumble. I could smell my burnt skin. The heat and the pain were so intense I just wanted to curl someplace cold and cry. Just the air passing by my neck and chest as I moved was painful enough to make tears come to my eyes. If it wasn''t for my street fighting experience in the real world, I''d probably have done just that. As it was, I let out a cry of pain and fury and hit the skeleton in the head with my sword, using all the power I could muster. The sword hit and bounced from the skull, not even leaving a mark. 4 slash damage dealt to Red Skeleton What? Four damage? And I just took forty-four? Is this even serious? After a leap back, the skeleton, still laughing, used the whip and I reflexively put the sword on the way. The whip wrapped around the blade and with a pull from the monster I was left without it. This is ridiculous! Desperate, I took the pipe from the belt, closed the distance and swung with my full force on its arm. A tiny crack appeared on the bone, and the skeleton gave out a yell of pain. 12 blunt damage dealt to Red Skeleton Of course! Different species and races reacted differently to certain types of damage. Skeletons had nothing to fear from slashing and piercing while having their bones smashed was a nightmare. The skeleton tried to step back again, but I accompanied it. It stopped laughing, and another fireball started to form inside its mouth. The pipe met its head. 13 blunt damage dealt to Red Skeleton Disrupted spell-casting for 12 pure damage Spell disrupting, the eternal weakness of mages and the reason they had to be protected by allies. Keeping close to the torturer and attacking it with the pipe made the fight fairly easy. Half a minute later the skeleton received the final hit and its bones dismantled. I was panting again. A dark semi-transparent energy raised from the bones and entered my body, healing one HP. Man, this game is hard! And killing this skeleton is for a C+ rank quest too. To be fair, killing it was easy after I got the gist of it.
Strength increased to 2 (+1) Hitting enemies with all your might makes you even mightier. Dexterity increased to 2 (+1) Each time you hit your mark you get better at it. Willpower increased to 2 (+1) Resisting pain and purposefully taking spells takes a lot of willpower. Or idiocy. ? Stamina: 115 (+5)
Wait, had the game just called me an idiot? It had not been smart to do that, but it was not nice to be told so. I wondered if it was enough for a suit.
Trait received: Antimage You hate enemy mages. Well, you hate enemies, but the mages even more so. ? -10% damage needed to disrupt enemy spell casting
I was in pain, but considerably less than I thought I should be, and it was fading away too quick. The four shirts I was wearing were torn apart on my chest level, and my flesh was still hot. Still, I only felt as if hot water had been poured across the area. My forearm was the worst. It had already stopped bleeding, but I felt it pulsating in a slightly more painful way than my chest. In a fit, I spat on the red skull of the skeleton. A quiet sob made me remember the woman. She had been looking at my back, but as soon as I turned to her she gasped, and her eyes widened. "D-deathlord..." She said terrified. How does she know? How did the skeleton know? She was a medium boned woman with green eyes. Not gorgeous, but certainly comely. Her lack of hair and sore eyes made her look fragile. Or maybe it was the blood all over her body. As she watched me looking at her, she tried to twist weakly, but her feet chained to each other and her body weakness made it too difficult. "Sorry," I said, and I could swear her eyes popped even more, now full of shock. "I was just looking at your wounds... It''s... Disheartening." Remembering the A-6 prisoner, who had said the torturer had keys to the cell, I searched the remains looking for it. I found three keys of different sizes in a small bag on its belt. Small Copper Key A small key to small locks. Medium-Sized Silver Key Looks like a key to a door. Big Gold Key It''s big and made of gold. Seems important. I took the small one and tested it on the chains on her foot. They opened with a click and the woman sighed, then resumed crying. I had never been good at emotional stuff, and it made me feel very awkward. "Hey," I tried to speak softly, but my undead voice didn''t seem to have soft tones, sounding deep and scratchy instead. "Everything is alright now. I''ll get you out of here." She cried even more. "I will have to hug you, OK?" I said carefully, afraid of the sexual abuse rules of the game. V-Soft forbid this kind of things on NPCs too, and they were very strict about it. "If I don''t, your body will be suspended only by one arm and it might hurt more." After waiting a few seconds for an answer that didn''t come, I hugged her body as delicately as possible. I unlocked the cuffs and gently put her sitting on the floor. She was crying even more now. "I''ll get some clothes for you, just a second." I went outside and stripped one of the ghouls, entered the room again and put the clothes on the floor next to her. "Take your time. I''ll explore the rest of the corridor. I''ll be right back." I left.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. What about that time? What if I had got to them earlier? Would I had been able to save them? The autopsy said... But what if it was wrong? What if I could''ve... Taking a deep breath, I focused on checking the corridor, or rather at not thinking about that long past morning. That was a road of no return and the reason I played games was exactly not to think about the past. All the other cells were empty. When I went back to the woman, she had put the clothes on and was sitting outside the cell, next to a ghoul corpse, her back to the wall and hugging her legs. She looked at me as I came back and silent tears were still pouring from her eyes. "It was impossible for me to stand in that foul place a second more..." Her voice was hoarse and weak; I wouldn''t have heard her if it wasn''t completely silent. "You made me so full of terror and pain that even the little gentleness you showed in this obvious scheme of yours has broken me." She had a dignified way about her speech. "Just ask and I shall tell you all my secrets, deathlord." She hugged herself even harder. "I shall do whatever you want. Please, don''t put me in there anymore. Please." Damn, these game characters are well-made. I''m feeling a lot of compassion, and I knew she''s just code. No, not ''she'', ''it''. I put my hands on my head. This level of realism could mess with one''s mind. "That''s very considerate of you, milady, but this is no scheme. I don''t know how everyone seems to know I''m a deathlord, but I''m an unbound one. I''m an escaping prisoner." For a few seconds, she just looked at me, then nodded her head slightly. "It makes sense; you want me to lead the way to the Resistance myself, to avoid suspicions. Will you allow me to heal first or shall we go now? I beg your pardon, but in this frail condition my body will not readily comply with a fast pace." And she added with a whisper. "My master." A shiver ran through my spine. Her voice was devoid of emotion, and it made me full of compassion. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to comfort her. Well, I knew a way of doing it, but she didn''t seem in the right state of mind for that. "Ok... Look, miss, I''m a prisoner too. I''m escaping. I''ll just get the stuff from the dead bodies, and we can go and rescue another guy. He said he has life magic to kill me, so maybe he can heal you. Alright?" She nodded again. "As you wish, my master," she said, then put her head between the legs and began to hit her back against the wall. This shit is so messed up. First I took the stuff from the ghouls, then from the torturer. I had to take all my destroyed shirts off before wearing another one, and it hurt a little on the burnt area, albeit a lot less than before. It was now hurting like a heavy sunburn. Worn Torturer Leather Pants ? +4 defense ? +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only) Worn Torturer Leather Armor ? +5 defense ? +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only) Old Torturer Leather Boots ? +3 defense ? +5% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only) Old Torturer Leather Whip ? 65 (+4 [Strength]) damage ? +200% extra pain to target on hit (PvE only) The items description explained the extra pain I had felt on my arm, and it was very smart of V-Soft to only allow it to have effect on PvE ¨C player versus environment ¨C situations, as opposed to PvP ¨C player versus player. I put the sleeveless armor on and had to take out four of my five cotton pants to be able to wear the leather pants and still move freely. I also swapped my shoes for the boots. I tried to use the whip, but I didn''t have the ability to do that nor the time to practice, so I just left it coiled on my waist. With everything ready, I left the room. As I did so, the woman looked at me with empty eyes. My heart sunk and I took her in my arms; she shivered but didn''t complain. In the room near to the great hall, I stopped again to take more stuff. As I created a second makeshift bag using a shirt, I got another exclamation point.
Trait received: Crafter You have tapped in the secrets of crafting objects. ? +1 dexterity when crafting items
The makeshift bag became a proper item, named ''Trash-Quality Makeshift Bag''. I liked it a lot. With everything ready, I put my stuff on my shoulder using some belts and picked the woman up again. Back to the A-6 cell I gently put her on the ground and used the medium sized key in the door. It opened. An elf was there. He had light fair skin, blue eyes, pointy ears and his hair had also been shaved. He had wound marks all over his almost naked body, but the blood was dry. His body was suspended by chains coming from the ceiling. "Ah, a deathlord torturer. I must be thankful for the change of style, I think. Let''s not waste time, the sooner you begin, the faster you will get frustrated and leave." "How the hell do you all guess I''m a deathlord? I didn''t even change my body appearance when I got into Valia," I said as I unlocked the chains on his feet. The elf frowned. "I recognize your voice. The alleged escaping prisoner. You look even closer to death than me." "Yeah. I have been told that taking fireballs to the chest on purpose is not a smart move. Go figure." I provided support for the elf''s body, unlocked his handcuffs and helped him to the floor. The elf was looking at me as if wondering what the trick was. "Do you really have some life magic left?" I left the room before the answer and brought the woman inside. "She needs some healing." For the next few seconds, the elf looked from me to the woman and then back. "I must admit, this is a good play even for a deathlord. Do you possess drow blood running through your veins? This plot is drow level without a doubt." "Yeah, right. I''m the mastermind deathlord, running almost dead in my prison and saving people in an evil scheme to let them free in the world. We all know life sucks, so this is the greatest revenge I can take on you. Feel my power." "Yes," the woman said suddenly. "My master is the greatest." Fear was in her voice. She was clearly saying this in the hopes of preventing some future beatings. The elf opened his mouth, but I beat him to speaking. "As I said, she needs some healing. Take a look at her and I''ll get you some clothes and a sword." I did so, having to unmake a makeshift bag to give him a shirt. I also threw a sword at his feet. "I''ll check the rest of the prison." I was too tired of all this prisoner''s attitude towards me to wait for anything; I just left my items there and resumed the exploration. I took a small break at the table room to rest. No reason to go and kill myself. The next door I visited was the D-door, the last one that side of the great hall and closest to the wooden double doors. Its cells were also empty. Back to the hall, I crossed it and went for the E-door. Frustrated from all the empty corridors, cells and the NPC''s attitude, I opened it without care. A ghoul was sitting on the table. As soon as he saw me, he stood and ran to the opposite door. Dammit, I thought and ran after him, sword in hand. The ghoul had to stop to open the closed door, and I was able to hit his neck thanks to that. Critical hit for 2.0x damage! 48 slash damage dealt to Ghoul HP: 5 / 53 "Intruder!" He yelled and fell all the way to the bottom of the stairs, where he laid motionless. Dead. He died from tripping on the stairs. This level of realism is absurd. Is this really a game or am I in another dimension? Also, it had been a critical hit, but it didn''t deal the max damage of the sword. Probably because the hit hadn''t been applied with my full strength, or with much skill. Until now the only thing I had found too hard to believe was me being unchained in my cell and the novice ghoul outside waiting to be tricked, but I guessed the game had to provide some way for me to escape. Slowly, I went downstairs and took the stuff from the ghoul''s corpse. Besides the usual, I also found two silver coins and seventeen copper coins in a hidden pocket on the shirt. The corridor was completely dark, but since the ghoul had run this way and bothered to announce me, I was sure there were enemies in there. I walked slowly and crouched, looking attentively into the open cells. E-1 to E-6 had open doors and were empty. E-7 was the first closed door I found. It was not locked, though, and I opened it carefully. Empty. E-8 through E-11 were all empty as well. It was a tense situation. The silence, darkness, and unknowingness were overwhelming. Just before E-12, there was a tripwire on foot height, attached to small hooks on the walls. Only then did I notice that all over the corridor the walls had small hooks like that on foot height.
Perception increased to 2 (+1) Checking a lot of empty cells, noticing a trap and observing details about the environment makes you more aware of your surroundings.
I cut the wire and put it in my remaining makeshift bag. Noticing the E-12 door open after so many closed ones, I guessed the enemies were there, and the tripwire had been placed in that area so I would fall right in front of the door and die. Taking a peep would be slightly dangerous; I didn''t know what was inside nor how precise the possible enemies were. Instead, I ran past the door. A fireball flew from inside the cell and hit the wall. I had taken a look and seen three ghouls in front of a red skeleton. Without wasting any time, I charged inside. The ghouls had their shields raised, a ''living'' defensive wall to the skeleton. I ran to them, and before I rammed their bodies with mine, I crouched and swung the sword at the knees of two of them. They screamed in pain, and I took the opportunity to stick my blade in the middle ghoul, piercing under his chin and entering its head. I pulled it back and he dropped dead. From the right came a sword swing. I dodged it and put myself in front of the first ghoul, letting him stay between the skeleton and myself as I ran to the outside and prepared myself next to the door, but out of view. "You dumbass! Come back!" The skeleton yelled, and a second later the damaged ghoul got out of the cell. I hit his leg again, then his shield before he could do anything. He died, and as dark energy left the body to heal me, a fireball came from the cell, hitting the wall yet again. The skeleton let out an angry scream. I picked my bag up and charged into the room once more. As I expected, the torturer used its whip, but I threw the bag in the way and ran to the ghoul, repeating the combo of hitting his legs and then his neck. It seemed they were all equally dumb. By then the skeleton had its mouth wide open, and fire lit inside it. I threw my shield first and my sword right after it, just in case. A small explosion happened inside the head, and smoke came out of it. I got close and almost felt relaxed. From there on the fight turned easy. I took the pipe from my belt and smashed the hell out of the red skeleton. I was breathless yet again, but now it had required four enemies to cause that. The extra stamina from the higher constitution made a difference, but I was also getting more efficient at the fights. I had found the perfect way to battle both ghoul and skeleton. Sitting on the floor, I checked the exclamation point buttons which had appeared.
Agility increased to 3 (+1) Hitting a fleeing ghoul in the neck, dodging fireballs, preventing a whip by quickly throwing a bag at it and a fireball by quickly throwing your shield and sword. This man can act fast! Dexterity increased to 3 (+1) You are just too good at hitting exactly where you want. Intelligence increased to 2 (+1) Noticing the way the fleeing ghoul was running, anticipating the trap after the tripwire, previewing the whip attack and using your shield and weapon in different ways. Are you a genius? ? MP: 110 (+10) Level up! Current level: 2 HP, MP and stamina restored
I smiled. After calling me an idiot, the game was now calling me a genius.
Trait received: Nitpicker Always going for critical strikes when you have the chance has made you more in control of your attacks. ? +2 dexterity when attacking with a weapon
Critical hits in the game depended exclusively on the place you hit your enemy''s body, and how well you maneuvered weapons was dictated by the dexterity skill. Having extra dexterity in my fights wasn''t bad at all. As I began to take the stuff from the corpses, I noticed for the first time a prisoner in the cell. It was an almost naked pale man without visible wounds, a sack on his head and chains on his feet and wrists. Anticipating the ungrateful prisoner act, I took my time to grab everything from the bodies, finding three extra keys and seven silver coins in another small bag. I left a ghoul attire out of my collection and put it next to the prisoner before removing the sack from his head. He was a handsome vampire with a tight gag on his mouth. He had red irises, long canines, and a long black hair not yet shaved like the others. "Ok, vampire. I''m sorry for doing this to you, but I had a lot of problems with other prisoners, so forgive my lack of courtesy. I''m not a local, I''m an unbound deathlord who was imprisoned, and now I''m escaping the hell outta here. My name''s Jack Thorn. If you want out, I can free you. If I do, you can either get out by yourself or wait for when I decide to leave. Or I can forget you gagged here. Your choice." The man nodded once and I cut his gag. "I am Senir Yechkov, from the Arktov clan." As he said it, letters appeared over his head: ''Senir Yechkov, Arktov clan.'' This time, there was no question mark. "I am no stranger to the difficulties of the unbound deathlords, and I can feel your lack of a higher master. I allow you to remove my bounds." Allow me? I had to use all my willpower not to roll my eyes before opening the chain locks. The vampire stood graciously and looked at the clothes I had put by his feet. "I am not a dog to walk in these... Vests. I will let myself out." No nice, grateful prisoner for me, it seems. "Wait, you''ll need this key, I think," I said as I extended the extra large gold key to him. The vampire stopped, looked at me, then at the key with disgust, and made a tsk sound. "I allow you to gift me this key. I graciously warn you not to presume such intimacy again." He took the key and left. I sighed, grabbed back the extra clothes and sword I had put aside for the vampire, and went back to exploring the corridor. I was about to enter the last cell when an exclamation point appeared.
Hidden quest completed: Save the prisoner from cell E-12 Random primary attribute points received: ? +1 charisma ? +1 willpower Stamina: 120 (+5) Bonus for completing a hidden quest: ? +1 intelligence MP: 125 (+15)
Interesting. With Valia not having the experience points usually present in games, quests could reward attribute points. Made sense. More exciting was the existence of hidden quests; not a new concept by any means, but still not confirmed to exist in Valia up until now. There was nothing in the last cell, and I went back to the main hall, crouched yet again. The double doors were wide open, and I took the time to close them while shaking my head. Damn vampire couldn''t even bother to shut the door. What if someone saw it? Next, I went for the F-door. I opened it with total care and was rewarded by nothingness. I bet that if I had opened it wildly, I would have taken a fireball to the head. So frustrating. Once more the corridor and cells revealed nothing. I gritted my teeth as I went back to the hall, but this time, I didn''t allow the frustration to make me sloppy and carefully opened the G-door. Two ghouls were playing cards there. "Three stripes and two squares. You lose," said one with a horrendous smile. "You cheat!" The other slammed his hand on the table. "Ha, cu'' it. Ma goddess is Sanith, she bless me a''right," the first one said, pulling some coins to his side of the table. "Don'' ya tell me ''bout ya Sanith tities! Ya cheat!" The second ghoul stood up and took his sword from the ground. The first one stopped taking the coins and did the same. I took the opportunity to get quickly inside and close the door. Both ghouls looked at me with eyes wide open before yelling ''intruder'' and attacking. They didn''t last long. After collecting the goodies, I explored the corridor. Two more ghouls were right down the stairs, and I found the second ghoul with a pipe in the whole prison by the end of the hallway. The last door was closed, and the torch beside it was the only one lit in the entire corridor. The layout was too similar to be a coincidence; it was probably another possible starting point for a player. For the first time I noticed another difference to the last door: instead of a keyhole, it had a sliding lock at it, which explained the sound I had heard when the ghoul opened my cell. The lock was ridiculously rusty and looked fragile. It wasn''t hard to believe that if I had got my strength level to one or two, I could''ve forced the door from the inside. Which was another break to the realism of the game, since the NPC prisoners were much better guarded. There was a woman there, petite and blond. When she looked at me I finally understood how everybody knew I was a deathlord: her eyes were completely black, even what should''ve been white. "Finally, the NPC is here. Stupid game, made me wait for twenty minutes. Let''s go." I watched dumbfounded as she left the room, looked at the dead ghoul and ran. She stopped a little ahead and yelled. "Come on you bugged game code. Laggy shit." I frowned. What the hell was that? She was a player, but that level of immaturity... Weren''t the Underworld species and races supposed to be only played by people of age? More than that, she was an unbound deathlord just like me. Having a person with that kind of attitude in the same category as me was annoying and embarrassing. Which meant one thing: miss sunshine had to die. I wasn''t sure what would be consequence of killing another player, but after a quick thinking, an idea bloomed on my mind. Yes, that will be good enough for her. I ran. Before the end of the corridor, just as she began to climb the stairs, I put my plan in motion. If she believed this game was poorly-made, I''d just use that against her. "Oh, noble lady," I said in the most ''forced act'' way I could, "we are near the end of the escapade. My comrades have dominated some nearby enemies, and there is good equipment waiting for you! Come! I will guide you!" "Holy crap, look at this voice acting. Is this even artificial intelligence or just poor recording?" I climbed upstairs. She yelled a ''wait'', but I ignored her, and she ended up accompanying me. I led her to the front of the H-door, the last unopened door on the first floor. "Oh, noble lady, behind this door is the right equipment for your mighty existence. Please, go ahead." "No, you go ahead," she said, looking suspiciously at me. I didn''t answer and after a few seconds repeated: "Oh, noble lady, behind this door is the equipment for your mighty existence. Please, go ahead." She rolled her eyes. "I haven''t seen such bad characters since the sixty-four bit games." She opened the door. I pushed her inside, closed the door and held the doorknob firmly. "Intruder!" I heard a ghoul yell. "What the hell?!" She began to hit the door repeatedly. "Open the door, idiot! Oh, freaking hell, open the door! Ahhh! My back hurts! Open it! Oh, god, it hurts! Open! Damn it; I''m out of this shitty starting point. Force logout!" A few seconds later I heard a ghoul speak. "She dead." "Look at she clothes. She a prisoner." "We tell the High Lady?" "Na, come back to da game, prisoners always die anyways." I smiled from ear to ear.
Jack Thorn Unbound Deathlord Level 2
Hit Points: 110 / 110
Mana Points: 125 / 125
Stamina: 120 / 120
Attributes
Strength: 2
Agility: 3
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 2
Intelligence: 3
Perception: 2
Willpower: 3
Charisma: 2
Traits
Antimage: 1
Crafter: 1
Nitpicker: 1
Shadow: 1
Book 1: Challenge - 3. Boy Finds Girl

3. Boy Finds Girl

''Democracy''s a funny concept. It expects people to know what''s better for them.'' - Mother Without feeling even slightly guilty, I entered the room and dispatched the ghouls, who yelled ''intruder'' again. That corridor was empty of prisoners and other guards. On the very last cell I found a single copper coin hidden under a lot of dust. I almost left it there for spite, but money was money, and I was already there anyway. I took it.
Trait received: Gold Digger You like shinny things a little more than normal and go to great lengths to get them. ? Coins will glow ? Glow intensity: 10%
This almost made all that walk through empty corridors worth the trouble. Just to see the effects I threw a coin on the floor. It was faint, but made the coin a lot more noticeable in the dark if I was looking in its direction. I doubted it would be that useful in bright environments, though. Only upstairs was now left to explore, but first I went back to the A-6 cell just to check on my fellow escapees. The woman was sleeping on the ground with a shirt being used as a blanket. The elf was seated shirtless on the floor, looking exhausted. He barely opened his eyes as I entered the room. "Hmm... Seeing a sweaty man next to a sleeping woman was not what I had in mind when I told you to heal her." The elf just closed his eyes again, too dignified to answer. I left my bags and extra swords there and threw him a shirt. That finally made him speak. "I''ve rarely seen... That much mental damage. I couldn''t heal her completely. I made her forget some parts of the torture. But you rescuing her when you did made such an impression... She will not call you master anymore, gratitude now being greater than fear, but the torture affected her so deeply that I doubt she would dare disobey anything you say. So much pain..." "I call that a clear improvement. Will she ever get back to normal?" He shrugged. "Probably not. But the worst is gone. She can live a fairly common life as long as she doesn''t see another undead ever again. It is going to be a hard blow to her, but it is better than dying or enslaving herself to the undead, I suppose." I raised an eyebrow. "Hard blow? Why?" He looked at me silently for a few seconds. "You are an innocent bystander, aren''t you? She is Ambassador Alia Soman, from the human Somanai Empire, third in line to the crown. She is worth a hundred times her weight in gold." After saying the last sentence, he looked at me with clear interest. I just shrugged. There was no way for me to leave the Underworld and claim the reward. As an undead I had a big weakness: each second I stood in direct contact to sunlight would take ten percent of my total HP. Ten seconds for a sure death and no way to heal as long as I even saw indirect sunlight. I guessed there was a way to remove this characteristic, but I bet I would not discover it so soon. In the end, I wouldn''t get anything from saving her, even though she was a big figure. Maybe the annoying player girl had been right: this was a shitty starting point. "If you want you can leave now, the first floor is clear and the front door is open. I''ll check the rest of the prison." "Wait. Are you really just going to allow us to leave this easily, deathlord?" "Unbound deathlord, unbound being the key word. Remember that." "I will," he replied soberly and said nothing more. I went back to exploring. I heard voices just as I started opening the door to the great hall. I stopped and listened, looking through a small gap. Five ghouls in leather clothes, holding big wooden kite shields and old looking wooden spears made the front line. Behind them came two ghouls with chain armor and chain pants over their leather clothes, holding rusty metal spears and medium rusty metal kite shields. Two skeleton torturers with diamond shaped red stones attached to the middle of their heads walked beside a big figure in black full plate armor, including a closed horned helmet. Following common gaming nomenclatures, I named the ghouls with wooden shields and spears ''Veteran Ghouls'' and the two with metal stuff ''Elite Ghouls.'' The skeletons I called ''Third Eyed Red Skeletons''. As soon as I decided that in my mind, the names appeared above their heads with the question mark next to it. When the plated armor creature walked, it made a loud sound that echoed all over the hall. A massive sword was on a scabbard hanging from its waist and in one hand it held five polished metal spears. "...not a good idea, with all due respect," said one of the skeletons. The ghouls kept looking ahead, walking silently. "I agree, milady," said the other skeleton. "We had him for only seven days, we can still continue. Show him the woman in pain and he''ll give up. They always do," said the other skeleton. "Enough!" The plated creature was a woman with a commanding voice. "He is to be killed today, by order of the High Council." "We understand, but High Lady Renno said-" "I said enough!" Her voice boomed in the hall. "I didn''t ask for your opinions, pile of bones, I gave you orders. I will talk to Renno now, and I want the prisoner ready to be executed by me in half an hour. You two," she said to the elite ghouls, "accompany the torturers and guarantee they are following orders. I will not be delayed by disobedient dogs who think too much of themselves." They got to the middle of the stairs and the veteran ghouls went to the right with the plated woman. The elite ones immediately took the left path, while the skeletons took some moments looking at the back of the plated woman before going to the left. That made things complicated. I hadn''t fought either the elite ghouls or the new skeletons, and it seemed I would have to fight them in pairs. The skeletons had the same equipment as the normal skeleton torturers, but the red stone on their head and the people they accompanied made it clear they were stronger. I also had a time limit of half an hour before the plated woman came back. Thirty minutes was probably not enough to safely explore everything upstairs. But a dead NPC was an NPC who couldn''t be rescued, and unrescuable NPCs were attribute points I couldn''t get. No gamer had ever become strong without some measure of greed. Better hurry. I didn''t stop crouching, but moved a lot faster than before. They had left both right and left doors open and I entered the left room without problem. The letter ''S'' was painted on the door. The room inside had a small table with a chair and some papers on it. Two torch sconces were on the walls, but only one had a lit torch in it, the other one empty. A big metal cabinet was on the back wall and beside it a metal door was open. Light shone beyond, probably one of the ghouls carrying the missing torch. I closed the S-door behind me and proceeded to the next door. I found myself in a big stone room without any torches. There were four people in the center, suspended by chains in a kind of square formation, their backs to each other, their heads shaved and their eyes blindfolded. One was a female dark elf, also called drow: she had pointy ears, a slender figure and her was skin a very dark blue, almost black. The drow were the evil twins of the elves, and each despised the other. The other three were an elf and two humans, one of the latter already beginning to decompose. All of them had uncountable wounds; missing fingers were commonplace, but the drow was even missing a half her right leg. A lot of blood painted the floor and walls in red, and the strong smell of decay made me double over and heave, but only a little saliva left my mouth due to my empty stomach. Not even torch sconces were in the walls. It was a room created for delivering the people there to a painful dark death. I closed the door behind me and moved a dizzily to the other open door. There I saw a long room with some torture tools: a table close to a lot of blades of all sizes and curvatures hanging on the walls; a kind of vertical coffin full of spikes inside; and a chair full of gears. Blood was everywhere, and so were some meat and bone parts. The putrid smell here was even stronger than the death smell on the room before. This is too sick. I almost went back and damn the attribute points, but I just couldn''t stand the idea of a prisoner being executed after enduring all this. Yes, everything was just computer code, including the scenery and the prisoner, but it didn''t sit well with me. Even if they were computer codes, the game characters still believed they were real and felt pain in their own way. How different was that from me? My brain also worked by electrical signals, similar to a computer, didn''t it? Too busy to pursue the philosophical thoughts, I closed the door behind me once more and went to the other open door in the room. There was a small corridor on the other side of the door. It had three shining metal doors, the middle one open. An elite ghoul was to the right of the door where I now was, and the other one was before the open metal door, looking inside with the torch in his hand. A veteran ghoul was beside him, probably the one who had been looking at papers on the table. Those metal shields and spears changed everything. Fighting a man with a corroded small copper shield and a sword was completely different from fighting a man with a medium metal shield and spear. If I compared it to my street fighting days, it would be like fighting a man with a crowbar instead of an unarmed man. Well, I had done both and survived. And the game was making it too easy anyways. After a deep silent breath, I stuck the point of my sword into the elite ghoul''s neck. Sneak attack for 2.0x damage! Critical hit for 2.0x damage! 116 piercing damage dealt to Elite Ghoul Surprisingly, the sword didn''t penetrate all the way through the flesh. The ghoul let out a big scream, immediately stepped ahead and turned back, taking a defensive stance: crouched, the kite shield before him and the spear held horizontally. Shit. I had expected the ghoul to die in a single stroke so I could take his weapon and fight the others. Having to also fight him sucked. I couldn''t even run, or I would have to give up on rescuing the elf and the woman. Things were not that easy after all. The other ghouls looked at me and while the veteran ghoul got surprised, the elite instantly moved. I had to kill the first one as quickly as possible or I would have an even harder time. I tried to jump at him, but he took a step back and thrust the spear at me. I contorted my body to dodge but the weapon still grazed my side, cut my leather armor and did two damage to me. It was enough time for the other elite to get beside the hurt one and create a shield wall in the corridor. One skeleton got out from the cell and looked at the commotion. A red flame appeared out of nowhere, this time not inside its mouth but floating before its forehead.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I thought about throwing my sword at the skeleton, but the distance was enough that I could miss and that would leave me only with the the pipe, which was nowhere near as good as the sword against ghouls. Desperate for a quick solution, I had an idea. I stood alert at the growing flame. The ghouls poked their spears as one and I had to take a few steps back to get out of range. The flame before the skeleton was now a sphere the size of its head, which was not what I had expected, but it was too late for me to have second thoughts about what to do. When the big fireball came my way, I took two steps ahead, jumped in the air and raised my shield to defend. The explosion sound was deafening. I was enveloped by flames and thrown back at high speed, flying through the air and hitting my back on the torture chair. My sword left my hand at some point, and my shield had become black charcoal and partly broken away, but it wasn''t completely destroyed. 40 shock + 7 burn + 4 impact damage received (51 total) HP: 57 / 110 Holy crap! What the hell is this?! This is no common fireball! My plan had been to use the fireball explosion to do some damage to the ghouls, but this was way over the expected power output. I got up and ran back to the room. There was black soot on the floor and walls, but the metal door next to the explosion was still clear and shining. The two elite ghouls had also been thrown back a little, but not as much as I had. I smiled as I saw two spears on the ground and took one. Rusty Iron Spear ? 45 (+4 [Strength]) physical damage The two elite ghouls were still getting up but the skeleton already had a new flame forming before its forehead. I threw the spear at it. It flew clumsy but with some force and hit the skeleton in the leather armor. It was not enough to disrupt the spell-casting. A second later a second big ball of fire came my direction. I threw my body on the floor and heard the explosion in the room behind me. Shit. If anyone hears these explosions I''m screwed. Picking up the other spear I stood up and found the elite who still had its shield and the veteran ghoul side by side making a new wall. The other elite had gone for the spear I had thrown and the skeleton was preparing another explosion. I was getting a little desperate so I threw my body on the veteran''s big wooden shield. Not as quick as the elite ghoul, the veteran didn''t step back in time. After breaking the shield wall, I thrust the spear at the elite ghoul''s neck. He had good reflexes, but was not expecting the move nor the invasion in the perimeter, and the spear found its mark. Critical damage for 2.0x damage! 98 piercing damage dealt to Elite Ghoul He sadly wasn''t the ghoul I had attacked before and didn''t die. He tried to use his shield to bash me, but I stepped back and sunk my spear into his foot. He let out a scream, but I couldn''t follow up with another attack because the veteran body rammed me and fire followed suit. 5 fire damage received HP: 49 / 110 The veteran fell dead on the ground, the back of its leather armor had been destroyed and his flesh was deeply burnt, impregnating the air with a repulsive smell. The skeleton had hit the veteran! Before the skeleton''s head, another flame was forming. The other elite had recovered both a spear and metal shield and was back beside his elite brother. This fight was taking way too long. I tried to put one of the elites between me and the skeleton and thrust the spear at the one I had attacked with a sword, knowing it would be blocked by the shield, but willing to deal even a little extra damage. They fought back and were a lot faster than the normal ghouls, but I still could dodge them. Most of the attacks grazed my leather armor but didn''t do any real damage. I focused my attacks on their legs, happy for the extra range of the spear and when the first ghoul finally fell I had only received two damage. A health bar became visible above the other elite''s head. HP: 56 / 161 Just as the ghoul fell and I got healed by one HP, a big ball of fire flew at me. I was becoming mentally tired and didn''t even expect this obvious thing to happen. All I could do was raise my shield and block again. 40 fire + 4 burn damage received (44 total) HP: 3 / 110 This time instead of flying all the way to the other room, I just lost my balance and fell to the ground. The fire burnt my eyebrows and I smelled burnt flesh once again. My shield shattered and my arm hurt badly. Three HP and thirty-five stamina left. Getting up I saw that the ghoul had also taken damage. It now had forty-nine HP and had fallen on the ground. I ran to it and thrust my spear into its head. The spearhead penetrated and killed the creature in another critical hit. One more HP healed and two skeletons to go. The skeleton laughed loudly. It seemed pleased about being an indirect responsible for the elite ghouls'' deaths. I wondered if it had been on purpose. Was it an ally? Another ball forming before its head told me the answer was no. Once more I tried throwing a spear at it. It did hit the skeleton but again failed to disrupt the spell-casting. Desperate, I took the pipe on my belt and also threw it. As the ball of fire left its place before the skeleton''s head, the pipe got in its way, making it explode just before the skeleton''s face. The pipe flew back missing my head by a hair and clinking far away. The skeleton was also blown away. I ran to it, getting a metal spear on the way and passing in front of the open door full speed ahead. Getting to the skeleton, I used the spear as a kind of club. The creature was on the ground, had no means of defense and couldn''t attack with fire nor whip. 7 blunt damage dealt to Third Eyed Skeleton The spear was not meant to be used as a club and it didn''t do as much damage. I knew I would die. I had twenty-five stamina left and I doubted the skeleton would be destroyed in five more attacks. Still, I would fight it to the death. One, two, three attacks. The spear felt extremely heavy in my hands. Four. All my power was needed to move it. Five. Status effect received: Exhaustion For the next 4 minutes, 59 seconds, you: ? Can barely move I dropped the spear and fell belly-first on the ground next to the skeleton. My nose hit the floor and became a bloody mess, and I received one more damage. I had trouble breathing and my body refused to move. With a lot of effort I put my belly up. I would die facing the damn thing. Everything seemed to move slowly and blurred. The torturer got up. It looked at the spear on the ground and picked it up. It looked at me. It laughed again. What happened next was hard for my mind to register. One moment the skeleton was before me. The next, it''s head flew away and a massive black fist replaced it. Only when the dark energy left the falling bones and found me did I understand what had happened: the skeleton had died. An exclamation point appeared and I focused on it.
Strength increased to 3 (+1) After a lot of fights, you learn to hit harder. Agility increased to 4 (+1) Barely dodging the elite ghoul guards'' spears and dodging/blocking fireballs show your reflexes are better than you thought. Dexterity increased to 4 (+1) You have demonstrated to stronger enemies that you know how to hit them. Their corpses shall remember the lesson for eternity. Constitution increased to 4 (+2) Fighting against multiple enemies, walking crouched everywhere, fighting to almost death against elite and veteran enemies and becoming exhausted makes your body more used to the constant abuse you put it through. ? HP: 145 (+35) ? Stamina: 140 (+20) Intelligence increased to 4 (+1) Purposefully blocking firebombs to help killing stronger enemies reveals either a suicidal mind or a true tactician. ? MP: 145 (+20) Willpower increased to 4 (+1) You have the will of giants. You know no fear. You are willing enough to fight to death if need be. ? Stamina: 145 (+5) Level up! Current level: 3 HP, MP and stamina restored
The fatigue and agony left my body and my vision came back to normal as the refreshing level-up sensation enveloped me. I looked at the fist''s owner. He was a huge man. His skin was coal black and his eyes were like those of cats, vertical yellow slits shining in the darkness of the corridor ¨C the torch had blown away at some point. The man''s hair was shaved like the other prisoners'' had been. He was massive, with huge muscles that made him look like a successful bodybuilder. He was only wearing underwear, his body almost as injured as the suspended dead bodies had been. He extended his hand with two missing fingers to me. "From all the things Ilhonya could have sent me," he said with a deep voice, "an undead is most unexpected." I took his hand and got up, almost too afraid that the illusion would dissolve. A grateful prisoner. I had to be dreaming. "Well, here I am. And we''ve no time to talk. Take whatever you want and let''s go." I started to undress a elite ghoul as I said that. "How did you escape your cell anyway?" It became clear this was indeed a dream when the man obeyed without question, immediately undressing the other elite ghoul. "They had just unlocked my feet when you began the fight. These moving bones are no match even for my legs alone. But I admit I was not as fearless as you in my youth." "Thanks," I smiled. "I''m Jack, by the way. Jack Thorn." "I am Gannor Bunen. Nice to meet you. You are the first deathlord I ever said these words to with sincerity." "Met your fair share of deathlords, did you?" He didn''t reply, and I didn''t care. We finished getting the equipment from the ghouls. The leather armor and pants were worse than the torturer''s, but the chain shirt and pants were good. So was the shield. Medium Iron Kite Shield ? Resistance: 75% Weak-linked Copper Chain Shirt ? +10 defense Weak-linked Copper Chain Pants ? +9 defense I also quickly searched for hidden pockets on the corpses clothes and found two new shining keys, one small and one medium sized, fifty-seven silver coins and thirteen copper. Besides the spear I held on my hand, I also put the sword and pipe I had brought on my belt and we left the place after confirming no one else was in the other cells. I had already spent twenty minutes of the half hour timeline and we almost ran back to the A-6 cell. I noticed two new exclamation point buttons with a ''Q'' letter on the way, but I chose to postpone checking on them; the armored woman could come back at any moment. It was impossible to tell whose eyes popped more when we entered the cell: the elf''s or the big man''s. "By Ilhonya! Alia!" Gannor threw himself on the ground and took the woman in his arms. "Gannor Bunen?" Said the elf incredulously. "Alright people, you all know and love each other. Let''s get the hell outta here." Gannor stood up carrying the sleeping woman and the elf got to his feet with difficulty. I helped him, leaving all the extra clothes in the cell with a tightness in my chest, but still taking the extra swords with me. We found no one on the way out and right after I helped them leave the prison, I decided to check the exclamation points.
Quest completed: Save the prisoner from cell A-6 Random primary attribute point received: ? +1 agility Hidden quest completed: Save the prisoner from cell C-1 Random attribute point received: ? +1 willpower Stamina: 150 (+5) Bonus for completing a hidden quest: ? +1 intelligence MP: 170 (+25) Hidden quest completed: Save the prisoner from cell S-2 Random attribute points received: ? +1 agility ? +1 dexterity ? +1 perception ? +1 intelligence MP: 200 (+30) Random attribute point received for reuniting him and Alia: ? +1 willpower Stamina: 155 (+5) Bonus for completing a hidden quest: ? +1 intelligence MP: 235 (+35) Level up! Current level: 4 HP, MP and stamina restored
It had been easy to get from level two to level four. It seemed that the stronger the enemies I fought, the more my attribute levels raised. And that completing quests was the best way to level up attributes. I checked the other two buttons.
Darkvision Skill is now level 2! ? Visibility level: heavily clouded afternoon New skill unlocked at The Lack of Light skill-tree Darkball (level 1) First you learn to see in the dark. Then, you learn to see darkness itself. And to harness it. And to send it flying. ? Active Spell ? Cost: 5 MP ? Amassing time: 0.5 second ? Element: Darkness ? Damage: 18 (15 + 3 [Intelligence])
Skill-trees were, as the name suggested, trees of skills, growing from the roots and sprouting branches. In this case, I had started with seeing in the dark and now a new skill in the tree had become available to me: darkball. As I met the requirements, I''d unlock new skills in the skill-tree. The spell was not that powerful, but it was still on level one. I checked the other exclamation point.
Kill to Survive Skill is now level 2! ? Heals: 2% + 0.2% [Deathlord] of dealt damage ? Minimum healing: 2 ? Minimum dealt damage needed: 18 (19 - 1 [Deathlord]) New skill unlocked on Death is a Lifestyle skill-tree Deathball (level 1) After continuous observation and absorption you have learned enough about the mysteries of death magic to amass it from all the small vermin and lower life forms dying around you and project it in any direction you like. ? Active Spell ? Cost: 15 MP ? Amassing time: 3 second ? Element: Death ? Damage: 58 (50 + 5 [Deathlord] + 3 [Intelligence])
I was happy as hell. I finally could use real spells! Now that I had already saved the prisoners and guaranteed my attribute points, I couldn''t stand the idea of leaving the extra clothes in the prison cell. I had almost no money and who knew how much they might be worth? On the other hand, I looked at my fellow escapees: a healer elf, a badass fighter and an ambassador. They would surely be grateful, right? I hadn''t received any specific quests to get them to their home, but hidden quests were a reality in this game and I looked forward to my possible rewards. "Thank you," Gannor said, "for helping me and my wife." The elf''s eyes widened so much they almost popped out of his head. "Sadly, I have nothing to give you, not here in the Underworld. We will run for the Surface now. You are welcome to come with us."
Quest: Escape the Underworld F- rank Gannor Bunen has offered you a way out of the Underworld. It might be a unique opportunity to leave it.
Sadly, this is the end of the sample. Amazon policy for books in the Kindle Unlimited program forced me to remove the book from RoyalRoad. Sorry! Buuut, you can read the rest on Amazon! Daggers: Life Outside

Daggers: Life Outside

She breathed heavily as she disarmed the man holding a knife in front of her. His arm twisted and was suddenly behind him. She forced his body down and stepped on his head, forcing his face to touch the ground. He tapped the ground twice, and she released him, immediately turning back. A mock blade missed her face by inches, and she grabbed the new assailant''s arm as she got behind him, forcing his own hand to hold its knife against his neck. He tapped her arm twice, and she turned again. Too slow, she realized. She felt something connect to her feet and fell. A knife touched her neck before she could even try to roll away. "Time." The instructor said. "Two minutes, thirteen seconds. Twenty-five subjugations. You have disappointed me," he said with a sad voice. She stood up, bowed to him, and went to the edge of the tatami. There were twenty-six soldiers in the small room, all kneeling around the blue tatami; five small units of five and the instructor. Plus her. She was forbidden from knowing where the soldiers came from, but she was confident they were elite military of some sort. After all, they had been assigned to that class. She was the worst of them all, and she blamed it on her body. She could see, understand, and have the will to act against most incoming blows, but every other time her body refused to do what she required of it. Her fall was an example. The man she had just subjugated had been blocking her exit to that side, and she had had no choice but to turn around to see what was coming her way. However, even without seeing it, she had known it was too late before she even felt the hit to her feet. "We are done for today," the instructor said. "Seventeen was the winner again." There were no names in that class, only numbers. Even though it was supposed to prevent the very secretive people to know who each other was, she was the only ignorant one; every one of them had served together one time or another. Seventeen was a monument to human perfection: tall, blond, green eyes, muscles in the right places, broad shoulders, deep voice. All she knew about him was that he was a Major. And that every woman in the base wanted him. Except for her. Small, with short black hair and eyes of the same color, with more muscle than any woman should have, and mixed Japanese and Brazilian ascendency ¨C of which half was African, and the otherhalf was Portuguese ¨C, she had never interested any man. That, and her left arm prosthesis made men never even look her direction. The mechanical arm started on the elbow and was stronger than her own bones. However, as most of the things the army made, it was focused on function, no form. The metal tubes were horrid. An aberration, her perfect half-sistercalled her. And she knew it to be true. It didn''t bother her; it was simple fact, like the sky being blue and her half-sister being the prize conquest of every man. She had learned early not to have hopes for any man; her interaction with Mister Seventeen was no different. Everyone stood, bowed to the instruction, and left the room. She was following when his voice came. "You stay, Twenty-One." She stopped and went back, kneeling in front of the man. He was white-headed, thin, and tall. His brown eyes were hard and looked straight at hers. "Why are you afraid?" He asked. "I am not, sensei." "Why are you afraid?" He repeated the question, unsatisfied by her answer. "I am-" He slapped her on the cheek. Not hard, but fast enough that even her mind had barely accompanied. The shock of it made her completely stunned. "Foolish youngling. I''m older, wiser, and stronger than you. Don''t lie to me. Now, twenty-one, tell me: why are you afraid?" "I don''t understand the question, sensei," she said after she recovered a little. "Today was the worst day for you. You''re not stupid: you know the men go easy on you because they see you as weak, both for being a civilian and having a disability. You could''ve destroyed them all. But you didn''t. Because you''re afraid."Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. That was her sensei: zero charisma. He had just bluntly pointed at the only thing in the class that made her ashamed of herself: the men went easy on her. "I do not understand how I''m afraid, sensei." "The last attack. You could''ve jumped. I know that; you know tha; and Twelve, who knocked you down and is now feeling horrible for it, also knows that. Yet, you didn''t. Your mind was covered by fear." "It wasn''t fear. I just knew that even if I tried to jump, my body wouldn''t follow." He nodded. "You fear yourself. Your mind and your body are not in harmony. Your mind fears your body is not enough, and your body fears your mind will keep disregarding it." "I don''t think my body can fear anything, sensei." "Stupid child. Why do you train? Isn''t it so your muscle memory can help when the time comes? Why do you feel pain? Isn''t it because your body has neural connections which lead to your mind? Your body is alive, too. But if you feel better, I''ll say that the part of your mind that you perceive as you and the part of your mind that you perceive as the one responsible for your body are not in harmony." "It makes no sense, sensei." "Not to you. Because you are being stupid. I will take those self-imposed restrictions from you. You shall receive a gift from me. Use it. You''re dismissed from this class until you are cured." "What?! Sensei, no! This class is..." He slapped her again. This time she dodged and slapped his hand away. "...everything to me! Please, reconsider!" He smiled. "See, stupid child. You didn''t doubt yourself. You didn''t fear. Your mind and your body acted together, and you pushed me away. When you can do that consciously, you can come back. Until then, stay away." "Sensei, please-" "Leave." He said with a stern expression. "Now." Stillin shock, she stood up slowly and bowed. Then, she left the room. She was expelled from the class. Because she wasn''t good enough. A part of her knew she should be feeling sad; that class was everything to her. But still, she couldn''t. Another reason for her sister to call her a freak. She heard a shower being used in the women''s bathroom, which was strange. Lucky for her, she inspected it before removing her clothes. Her half-sister and Seventeen were in there, naked, having fun with each other. She knew that Emmanuelle had done that on purpose. And still, she didn''t care. She just took her bag and went to the car. Her old fashioned Jeep was her prized possession. Someone was waiting close to it. "Delivery for Alice Megumi Gomes," he said. He had a square box in his hand three times the size of his head. "Yes, it''s me." He touched the glasses he was using, and they scanned her eyes, taking a picture of her right after that. "Here it is." "Thank you," she took the box. Opening the car, she put it inside with the bag and drove home. Fort Corvin was a big training-focused base. It was divided into three sections. The first was the urban area, where everyone lived, and all administrative work took place. It was a condensed area packed with buildings, lots of them more than ten stories high, and full of small multi-purposes rooms just like the one she had come out of. The second was the desert area, a huge perimeter around the urban area, where a lot of the training took place. Recruits were known to faint from the heat and exhaustion in their supervised strolls with Drill Sergeants. The last area was the simulation-focused underground. Multiple rooms, from small to cavernous ones, in multiple floors, could be found under the urban area. They were all equipped with a mix of virtual reality and augmented reality capacities, and soldiers usually spent most of their times in there. She had walked all those paths. She had fainted in the desert, killed fake soldiers in the simulators, done boring work in the offices. Not officially in the army, the daughter of the commander still had a lot of room to do whatever the hell she wanted. And only the old MMA instructor had made her feel at home. Now, she had been banned. It wasn''t that she didn''t feel at home with her dad, she thought as she drove her car. He was an amazing man and an amazing father. When she lost her arm, she never saw pity in his eyes. After she had been diagnosed with her... Mental difference, of all people who knew, his eyes were the only ones who hadn''t looked at her with caution. Even her loving mother found it difficult sometimes, but her father was a rock, unmovable and always there for her. Parking her car in the garage, she climbed the stairs down to her apartment. Fifteen floors later, she was deep enough underground for whoever had designed the place. She opened the door and entered her house. Luxury was the first word that came to mind. Her mother liked showing how much money her dad made, and dad didn''t care. The multiple crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling in the living room looked weird to her, so did the legit leather sofas and old mahogany furniture, especially after coming from the function-focused base. Still, it was a good weird. A different small world. "Sister!" A man''s voice called from the corridor. Matthew was there. Tall, thin, with blue eyes and green hair, he did everything he could to piss their dad. Lately, he had joined an Anarchist group and had started saying uncomfortable things in public. "I was just masturbating, but I''m glad I stopped and came here to see this. I never thought you''d join my little game!" He hugged her, and she tried to hold her breath for as long as possible. She didn''t think he was really doing what he said, but she didn''t want to smell it, either, if it was true. "Sorry?" She asked after he stopped the hug. He took the package from her hand and unwrapped it quickly. A Dreamer helmet was in there, with a code for a free year in Valia Online. "''Fight your fears and find yourself.''" Her brother read the note that he found inside. "Pick drow, sister. We can do all kinds of fun stuff together." He threw the helmet to her. "By the way, I''m off to eat something and play. I''m Big D in there. You know, because my dick is so big. Knowing you and the drow, believe me when I say you should name yourself Samantha Hidden Daggers." "You lost me in there. Why Samantha? And why Hidden Daggers?" "Samantha because I like the name. And when you wear the cloak I know you''ll end up wearing, and I call you Sam, people won''t know you''re a little bitch until they hear your voice. And Hidden Daggers because people won''t see your daggers until you kill them with it. Have fun!" He found his way to the kitchen. Confused, she put the helmet back in the box and took it to her room, where she undressed before entering her bathroom. Her instructor had given her an Immersive Reality helmet and a game. She had no idea how it would help her, but she would at least check it before deciding he was just trying to get rid of her for a year. After the bath, she read the manual and lay on her bed, putting the helmet on. "Initializing," a robotic voice came from it, startling her. That was only the first of multiple surprises, most of them pleasant. Soon, Samantha Hidden Daggers was born in the Underworld. Daggers: Joining the Blackguard (v2)

Daggers: Joining the Blackguard

She lay on the bed, put the VirBridge helmet on, and turned it on. "Initializing," said the robotic voice. "Alice identified. Welcome back." Launch Valia Online, she thought. "Launching Valia Online in five. Four. Three. Two. One." The world turned pitch black, and white letters appeared in the middle of her vision. Connecting to Valia Online servers¡­ OK Checking latency¡­ 0 ms Logging in¡­ OK Do you want to resume your journey as Samantha Hidden Daggers? Yes. Welcome back! A moment later, the letters disappeared, and a slow music started playing. V-Soft''s logo appeared floating in the nothingness, followed by Valia Online''s logo after a few more seconds. She hated that wait. It was useless and annoying. Still, she had to deal with it. Finally, the white letters came back. You will get in your body in 5¡­ 4¡­ 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ The sensation of being in her bed slowly changed. Soon, she felt as if she was standing on firm ground. The warmth of her room gave way to the cold air of the Underworld. She opened her eyes and found herself in a medium sized room, about twenty meters by twenty. It was entirely made of white painted metal, as were all novice areas in the Dark Temple. People were fading in and out in the room, all of them in white robes with the Devourer symbol on it. Searchers, all of them; that¡¯s how the drow called the novices. She wasn¡¯t an exception, albeit she had two small sheaths for her daggers over her robes on her waist. Her long white hair went to her hips and contrasted with her black and slightly blue skin, as mostly every other draw in the vicinity. One of the drow around, though, had a well-known green hair. She made a point of ignoring her brother. There was light in the room ¨C the novice rooms were the only illuminated ones. A white crystal half Samantha''s height was floating a few centimeters above the ground in the center of the chamber, a purple rune glowing on the floor beneath it. The crystal shone brightly, lighting all the room. Casting shadows on the walls near which they stood, seven Blackguards oversaw the only room in all the Dark Temple where it was possible to log in or out. Standing still, a silent black menace, they were the elite military of the city. Her brother had been right: she liked their style. And today she''d join them. One of the Blackguards approached from the wall. "Samantha Hidden Daggers, come with me." It was a woman, not a man. The girl obeyed. A single door left out of the room. Darkness filled the corridor, and a dark aura came from it as if battling the influence of the light. As the Blackguard approached, black tendrils embraced her. She remembered her first time in that room. Her brother had pretended to be attacked by the tendrils. While some nearby first-timers had gotten scared ¨C one of them even left the game ¨C she had just watched impassively. He had got annoyed at her lack of reaction, she had got annoyed at his immaturity, and they had moved on. Back to the present, she walked into the darkness. The tendrils were cold but harmless. Once in the corridor, she prayed aloud. "Please, Devourer, guide me." Status effect received: Total Darkvision (level 5 ¨C max) For 59 minutes, 59 seconds, you: ? Can see in the dark as if it was a sunny midday. That was the first thing all Searchers learned: to find your ways in the world, you needed the Devourer. He was the drow people''s Lord and Provider. The Temple''s corridors were narrow and short, effectively creating a maze. That was the second thing Searchers learned: the Devourer helps, but you must also be able to walk by yourself. Samantha followed the Blackguard through the corridors, making sure to memorize the path back. They passed by lots of doors, each of them in one of three colors: white, gray, or black. There weren''t many white or black ones on the second floor. Gray ones, though, were many. Etched numbers and letters differentiated the doors from each other. As far as she could tell, there was no order to it; 2-HUD stood between 2-ACS and 2-UUU, for instance. They also passed by people. Drow after drow walked everywhere, either wearing the faithful robes or the Blackguard clothes. She had been surprised the first time she left the Temple and learned that all Blackguards walked invisibly. It was supposed to give the populace a sense of fear, but the sheer number of visible Blackguards in the Temple made her much more aware of their power than their absence. They tried too hard to play the psychological game. Sometimes, people just needed a tangible reminder of their weakness to put them in line. After a couple of minutes, she realized they were getting to a deserted area of the floor. Fewer and fewer people walked by until she found herself alone with the Blackguard. The doors around were all black, too. It was a first time for her. The maze design of the floor discouraged exploring. So did the lack of people. Assassination was fair game between the Searchers, as long as it was one on one, unplanned, not witnessed, and not assisted by anyone. Getting your friend to block a corridor wouldn''t work, nor would inviting someone to an empty corridor. Even following someone was forbidden. The reason was the third lesson: always be prepared. You never know what the future has in stock for you. It can be death, or it can be an opportunity. If it''s the latter, you''re to seize it. If it''s the former, you''re to be ready to make it less likely. There was a single exception to the witness law, and Samantha found it soon enough: a male Searcher was standing still in the middle of the corridor. Players couldn''t log out anywhere other than the initial room; if they disrespected this rule and were found, they became subject to assassination. The Blackguard didn''t even slow her pace; one of her gloved hand came from under the cloak, and a black dagger slashed the man in the neck. He died instantly. "Do not loot him," she said as her arm hid under the cloak again. "Let everything be an offering to the Devourer." Right enough, before Samantha had passed by the body, a black energy that even her darkvision couldn''t pierce evolved it. It was gone in a moment; so was the body. The Devourer was everywhere in the Temple, and it consumed everything it so wanted. Soon, they found themselves in corridors with doors devoid of any letters, numbers, or any other means of identification. The more they moved in, the more Samantha got lost. Finally, they got to the right place. The Blackguard entered a room, and the girl followed. It was a small space, no more than two meters by two. Once inside, the cloaked woman closed the door. As soon as she did, the back wall disappeared as if it had never been there, and revealed a long corridor. There were five people in there. Two were Blackguard, one was a Chosen ¨C a Faithful wearing a black robe ¨C, and two were Searchers. Both Searchers were also women. One had short hair and a sheathed sword on her waist. The other one had had a braided long hair and no visible weapon. Everyone was leaning on the walls, and Samantha naturally occupied the space between both Searchers as the Blackguard she had followed did the same between the other Blackguards. The Chosen didn''t seem to care either way and stood a little deeper inside the corridor. Samantha noticed he had a red scar around his neck. "You have Searched and found that spiritual Enlightenment isn''t your path," the Blackguard who had guided Samantha said. "You have killed, and learned that the blood of your enemies is what makes your soul sing. You have bled for the Devourer and discovered the Blackguard Path. You have chosen to become a Blackguard." "We did," the three Searchers said in unison. The woman''s words were ritual, and Samantha had been explained beforehand what she had to answer. "As it should be, you have competition. Struggle paves the Blackguard Path. A Blackguard has all advantages the Devourer gives us, but we still must walk the Path with our own legs, and it more often than not means matching your strength against others. Only the powerful can move on." "We are strong. We are powerful," we replied. "So you say. So you have proven. And because of that, you have been selected to be here. But the Path can only be walked by the very best. From now on, you are enemies. From now-" Samantha stopped listening. She had thought about the ritual words since the moment she had heard them for the first time. They were a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but one thing had interested her: ''From now on, you are enemies.'' Everything she had learned in her military life pointed at a simple truth: you must always crush your enemies ASAP. And the Blackguard were the drow military. It was a breach of protocol, and she''d not have done so in real life. But real life was corrupted by bureaucracy and had no way to resurrect a soldier killed on trial. Plus, this was a game with a much darker setting. She chose the one or her right ¨C the braided drow ¨C as the first victim. All seemed to indicate her as a magic caster, and Samantha feared unknown magic more than she feared the sword of the short-haired drow. Unsheathing her daggers, she quickly killed the mage with stabs to the neck. Only two critical hits were enough, and she turned to attack the other Searcher. The short-haired girl had already unsheathed her weapon; it seemed that she hadn''t been selected as a Blackguard candidate for no reason. Samantha thought about shadowing but decided against it. She didn¡¯t know the woman¡¯s skills and it might backfire. Instead, she attacked head-on. The Blackguards didn¡¯t seem to care as the two girls fought. The warrior held her sword with both hands and tried to slash vertically. Samantha dodged and got close. Her opponent dropped on the ground and used her leg to try to make Samantha fall. Remembering her last fight in the real world, she jumped. The woman smiled as she quickly got up and used some typhoon-like skill, in which she extended her sword and rotated around herself. Samantha also smiled. Shadow Phase, she thought midair. The world slowed and lost all sound. It turned white, and the people in it became black. She saw the sword coming and bent her body midair to dodge it, fell on her knees on the ground ¨C avoiding to be hit by a secondary rotation of the sword thanks to that ¨C and got up, putting both her daggers through the eyes of the woman. The short-haired drow screamed in pain at the same time that the world came back to normal to Samantha. The latter took the daggers out of her enemy¡¯s eyes and struck them in the girl''s neck. She died. After wiping the blood in her victim clothes, she sheathed the blades again and looted the bodies. Two and a half gold coins. Not bad. She left the sword on the ground since she had no way to carry it. Soon, the black energy evolved both bodies and consumed them. Finally, she stood back in the middle of the corridor. The Blackguards hadn¡¯t moved. "Why did you do this?" The guide Blackguard asked. "You told me they were enemies. I don''t have a habit of allowing my enemies to live." "Arrogance. The training will strip it away. Come." She turned. "Rejoice, Chosen, for your work is over. Do you declare the selection glorious just in the eyes of God?" "Sure," he said, bored. "Send me this one when you''re done with her. I have a job for a Traveler Blackguard." He walked past Samantha and left the room without looking at her. The three Blackguards started walking, and the girl followed. She didn''t think about the two women she had killed. It was a just a game, after all. Although she had just made it a lot more frustrating to them. The corridor led to an immensely large bottomless pit. There were stairs on the wall, wide enough for about five people to walk comfortably side by side, leading both up and down. A pillar of black light was in the center of the pit. She looked up and saw the pillar connect to the big ball of darkness floating above Ter''nodril. She looked down, and it seemed to go on forever. There weren''t Faithful in there, only Blackguards. The stairs led to multiple opening on the walls, and some of them had much more movement than others.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Samantha and her guides just kept going down. The looks her way increased the deeper they went, but no one said a word. Fewer and fewer opening appeared on the walls until they stopped appearing altogether. Eventually, they got to the end of the stairs. It was also the end of the walls. Samantha realized they were over nothingness and the light pillar went even further into the deepness. The Blackguard woman turned to the girl. "We will now enter the Vault. There''s enough divine magic in there that it''d kill you if you get away from us. When you enter, you will feel disoriented. Stand still until the feeling passes." The three Blackguards walked to the middle of the hole. The black light expanded and consumed them in a blink, turning back to a pillar as if nothing had happened. It didn''t affect the girl. She couldn''t feel little amounts of fear. She followed the Blackguards, or at least tried to. A force repelled her as she tried to go over the edge of the stairs. She pushed it as hard as she could but didn''t succeed against the invisible power. The black light widened then, and three gloved hands came out of it. They picked her by the clothes and pulled her. Status effect removed: Total Darkvision Status effect received: Mild Divine Backslash (level 60) You have forced your way against a barrier made of divine magic. No mortal can do so and come out unfazed. For 59 minutes, 59 seconds, you: ? Cannot be affected by any other status effects ? Cannot speak ? Cannot hear ? Cannot see properly ? Will feel disoriented It was like instant drunkenness. She tripped over herself and fell on the metal floor; the world kept spinning around her. She couldn''t see anything without darkvision; everything around her was pitch black. With some difficulty, she sat on the ground and put her head in the middle of her knees, hugging her legs next. The dizziness lowered a little but still didn''t disappear completely. A headache found its way to her and the lack of status effect indicated that it was her real body, not her game body, that was feeling it. She got an idea, then. Partial logout. A system message appeared in her messages log. Are you sure you want to logout partially? By doing so, your character will remain active while you leave. Yes. Please, choose a behavior pattern for your character. Just stay in this position until I come back unless the Blackguards order otherwise. In this case, obey the Blackguards. Pattern accepted. Do you want to log out now? Yes. Thank you for playing Valia Online. Logging out in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... She felt the dizziness go away as she felt the bed under her. She was back to her body. A quick trip to the bathroom revealed her headache was a consequence of her period. She took a shower, medicine, and ate something. There was still two minutes to the end of the status effect when she logged back in. The darkvision returned as soon as soon as the world stopped spinning. Samantha found himself on a narrow darksteel footbridge. There was only darkness everywhere, up, down, and to the sides. The bridge was floating in the nothingness. It started right where she was ¨C she had been close to falling from it ¨C and went to a whitesteel box about two hundred meters away. The three Blackguards were standing in front of her. Naked. The three of them were women and completely hairless. No hair in the head, no eyebrows, no hair in other places of their bodies. Their skin was the color of coal, without a shade of blue in it. And their eyes tiny dots for irises and black veins. Their fingernails were black, too. Worse than all that, aside from the boobs ¨C with black nipples ¨C they had no sex; only smooth skin could be found where their vagina once stood. "Damn." They smiled with black teeth. Gross. "Worry not," the one in the middle spoke. It was the same voice that had been talking to her before. "This is the consequence of walking the Blackguard Path for decades. You will have time to both desire what we became, and to fight for it. Believe me; I was in your shoes once. I couldn''t understand how ignorant I was." She stood up. "Now what?" "Come." She extended one hand to Samantha, who took it. They began to walk, and as soon as she walked a single step, her clothes disappeared. She was left wearing only her underwear. Warning! Someone is trying to undress you! Would you like to give them permission? Hell, no. Having changed her clothes innumerous times in front of other soldiers, she wasn''t a prude. But she wasn''t about to allow a game to strip her either. That body might be fictional, but it was how she perceived herself in that world, and she wouldn''t get naked in front of people she didn''t trust or wasn''t comfortable with. And those hairless, sexless humanoid monsters in front of her definitely didn''t make her comfortable. She had been informed her character''s body would undergo changes, but she hadn''t expected it to be so... Bizarre. Still, it was only a game, and she would wear the black cloak most of the time. Also, if the woman weren''t lying to her, the changes wouldn''t happen immediately; she''d have time to get used to the idea. If she didn''t get used to it, she could always start over. "Interesting," one of the others said. "She can resist some of the powers of the Devourer. Is it a Traveler''s skill?" "Yes," she answered. "Fascinating indeed." They kept walking and the semi-naked woman realized something was trying to push her away. It was faint at first, but it intensified as they got closer to the whitesteel box. The box was about four meters by for. When they were about a hundred meters from it, the two Blackguards on the side touched the middle one''s shoulder; she was the one grabbing Samantha''s hand. Fifty meters away, they covered their eyes with their forearms as they pushed ahead, as if fighting a strong wind that the girl couldn''t feel. A few more meters away, they were visibly struggling to move forward. Samantha felt the invisible force trying to repel her, but it wasn''t near as strong as the whatever the Blackguards seemed to be dealing with. With what appeared to be a Herculean effort, they got to the box, and one of the Blackguards touched it. A door slid in and up, and the repelling force disappeared. "What was that?" Samantha asked. "Divine Magic," she answered breathless, "trying to expel you from this place. If it weren''t for us, you wouldn''t be able to enter this dimension, much less get this close to this cell." "Why did it go away?" "It didn''t. The Devourer is fighting the magic now. For you. Whom he''s waiting for. Go inside." She did. The walls of the box were thick. She passed the threshold, and the world changed. Instead of darkness, a white light surrounded her, without even a floor under her feet. In front of here were twenty white metal chains as large as her. They came from infinity and tightly bound a black ball three times her size. The black ball had a kind of a black mist coming from it, which created a humanoid figure standing before Samantha. "Chains?" It was the first thing she said. "The Ways," the childish voice said, and the black figure walked around the ball, touching the chains on the way. The metal got corrupted as the mist touched it but quickly flared white and went back to normal. Weirdly, where the chain touched the black ball, it didn¡¯t turn back. The misty humanoid was probably a kind of focus power coming from the what she supposed was the Devourer. "They bind me without weakening me," the child continued. "Direct me without hurting me. Control me without changing my mind. One of the greatest wonders of my siblings, albeit little known and mostly unappreciated." The mist finished the walk around the ball and ¡®looked¡¯ back at Samantha. "Or at least they used to. They-" Suddenly, the mist shifted and became a big monstrous thing. "Hidden!" The deep male voice yelled. "Secretive! Tasty name! Give me! Devour!" The mist threw itself on Samantha and passed right through her like a cold wind, but without visible effect. "Sorry, Samantha," a female voice said. The mist had turned back into a humanoid, taller than the child this time. "As I was saying, the Ways have been falling for a few hundred years. I begin to forget myself. Believe me, when I say, dear, that if I ever¡­" Slowly, the mist disappeared, and a loud male robotic voice shouted from everywhere. "¡­turn back to what I was, after millennia of control, the world will pay in blood. Rivers of blood." In a blink, the child humanoid was back. "That¡¯s why I need you, Samantha, in my Blackguard. I fear for my Touched ones and the rest of Creation. Mother wouldn¡¯t be happy with me, and She isn¡¯t delicate when She¡¯s unhappy." "What do you mean you need the Blackguard?" "You want to join and doesn¡¯t even know what the Blackguard do? Silly. Summon your Destiny Spirit." She ordered in her mind. Before the Destiny Spirit could even appear, pain coursed through her, and she felt as if something was being taken from her ribcage. The sensation ended quick enough; the pain decreased but didn¡¯t go completely away. Samantha found herself panting. "Sualla." The child came back. "Tasty name for a tasty Destiny Spirit." Then, she felt as if she had been torn apart. In a split second, she was divided into millions of tiny parts and both the pain and the feeling of being more than one overwhelmed her, making her faint. Suddenly, she was awake, without any reminiscence of pain or sleepiness. A blue window was floating before her.
You have started walking the Blackguard Path Changes: ? Cannot contact or be contacted by your Destiny Spirit ? Sterile body ? Immunity to Divine magic ? Many skill-trees are now impossible to pursue ? A new skill-tree has been unlocked
The world had changed. Instead of whiteness everywhere, she found herself in a very small room made of whitesteel, with white chains ¨C considerably smaller than before ¨C coming from the walls and binding a black ball her size. "Good, you survived," the robotic voice came from the ball. "Welcome to the Blackguard. If I ever turn on the world, kill me. Otherwise, obey my will, which shall be presented to you through my High Assassin. Leave." "Just like that? I expected¡­ More." Suddenly, the chains shook violently. "Leave!" She didn''t move. "Now! Leave!" The monstrous male voice was back, and the yelling was deafeningly loud. Samantha felt something grab her arm and pull her out of the room, throwing her on a black metal floor outside. She heard the sound of metal slamming on metal. "You shouldn''t test the bounds of the Devourer, Initiate." The Blackguard woman said. She and Samantha were now alone on the bridge. "Your training begins. Get up and come." The woman walked a few paces ahead and waited on Samantha. She did so. Or at least she tried to. Putting her hands on the floor and pushing had no effect. She felt weak, way too weak. There was no visible status effect, but something was clearly wrong. She opened her character stats window.
Strength: Agility: Dexterity: Constitution: Intelligence: Perception: Willpower: Charisma: -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10 -10
"What the hell?!" After a quick check, she found out that all her traits and skills were also gone, except for a single skill-tree that had been unlocked. It was called ''ShadowDefender'', and the first skill in it only gave her darkvision. She hadn''t expected that. She knew she would lose her Destiny Spirit and suffer some pain, but the attributes, traits, and skills penalty were a significant setback. "You have been born anew. Your power shall grow greater than before in time, but for now, you must adapt to your new body." Samantha could throw a tantrum. She could cry, complain, yell. But she wasn''t just some girl; she was the daughter of the commander of Fort Corvin. She knew when to suck up and obey. She took a deep breath, put her hands on the ground and tried to raise herself again. And hit the floor. Unfortunately, the auto-pilot mode didn''t allow the character to gain attributes, so she''d have to stay there for that. "This is going to take a long time, Initiate. If you have any questions, you may ask them." She did have a few questions; only discipline had made her silent until now. "How can I even speak with minus ten intelligence?" "Intelligence is about studies and arcane arts. Your wisdom and common sense aren''t limited by your ability to find the hypotenuse of a triangle." Makes some sense and has a few holes. I think V-Soft didn¡¯t want to risk some lawsuits by forcing people into dumbness. "What are the Ways?" "That is knowledge that an Initiate isn¡¯t allowed to have. What you can know is that the first purpose of the Blackguard is to kill the Devourer should he ever get out of his bounds. For this purpose, we are severed of all our divine connections. It weakens him to create each of the Blackguard, and in doing so, he loses his sanity for a few hours or a few days. That''s why he kept small numbers of us around for so long." "Low numbers? I see a lot of Blackguards around the drow nation." "As I said: kept, past tense. As of two hundred years ago, since the coming of the Travelers was foretold, he feels the bounds weakening. Therefore, he has been creating as much of us as he can, for he knows that sooner or later the bindings will weaken and we will have to stand up for all Creation. We shall cry the day we have to kill him." "How is it even possible to kill a god?" "I just told you: we are severed from divine connections. Divine magic doesn¡¯t work against us and as strong as his physical form might be when he frees himself¡­ Well, that¡¯s why we train so much. Numbers, quality and divine magic immunity: that¡¯s how we¡¯ll kill him." Samantha kept trying to get up and kept falling. "Why did he eat my Destiny Spirit?" "The Destiny Spirits work under the Guardian," the woman answered as if it explained anything. "So¡­?" "The Guardian is not a god, not divine, but something else. He has no emotions, no mercy, no anger. His only reason for existence is keeping the laws of the world in check. A mortal who can resist divine magic is a corruption of Creation, a ¡®cheat,'' as the Guardian calls it, and he¡¯d kill us for it. By eating your Destiny Spirit, the Devourer can filter what the Spirit does to you. The Destiny Spirit can still grow your attributes, give you traits, titles, and quests, but the Guardian can¡¯t kill you through it." The Initiate frowned. "That doesn¡¯t make sense. Why doesn¡¯t the Guardian ask someone else to kill a Blackguard?" "Because the filter is bi-directional. The Guardian knows all, and he knows you are immune to divine magic. But he can''t directly check it in your own body; he needs the Destiny Spirit for that, and the Devourer prevents it." "I still don''t understand." "The Guardian protects the laws, and one of the laws forces him to verify all information firsthand before acting. If he disobeyed it, he¡¯d be going against the laws and end up having to destroy himself." The Guardian was the anti-cheat AI of Valia Online. The girl wasn¡¯t very knowledgeable about programming, but it sounded as if the ''confirm firsthand'' thing had been made to prevent mistakes by the AI. And the game had found a way around it, to further its own goals. ¡®Nature always finds a way,¡¯ came the voice of a movie character to her mind. Were the AIs really alive, as some people claimed? Of course, by now V-Soft had to know about it and had allowed it to keep going, including the same to happen to players. The fact that it had even happened, though, was a bit scary. Well, at least she was on the winning side. It was good enough, for now. But she would keep both eyes open for more things like that and tell the commander if she found anything else. "You said that the bindings are weakening. Shouldn''t we kill the Devourer, then?" "It''s weakening, but it''s still effective enough." She frowned. "Why did you pull me out of the room, if that''s so?" "The room itself is also part of the binding. While you were there, the door was kept open, and the binding was further weakened. Also, even though his magic now can¡¯t directly kill you, he¡¯s still a god. He could¡¯ve taken away all air from this rooms and sealed it away. You¡¯d have died all the same." "I¡­ Never thought about that." It was one of her weakness: she lacked imagination. She could understand and analyze things quick enough, even abstract concepts, but her mind simply wasn¡¯t able to create creative solutions by itself. It made her surprised at the most obvious things. She hated that side of her. "Any more questions?" "Yes. What happens now?" "You meet the High Assassin, then you train. You¡¯re the first Traveler to become a Blackguard, and the next one will have to wait a few days for the Devourer to come back to himself. We are curious about what you can do." "High Assassin?" "The leader of the Blackguards. That¡¯s what we are at our core: assassins, sworn to kill our own master when the time comes. And to kill the enemies of our master while the time is away. More questions?" "What would I have to do if I ever wanted to stop being a Blackguard?" "That''s impossible." "And that is a lie." "What?" "You said the Destiny Spirit is still in the Devourer somehow; that the Devourer filters my connection to it but didn¡¯t sever it. I bet the Devourer did the same to whatever makes me vulnerable to divine magic. I bet I¡¯m not really immune, but that all the divine damage I receive goes to the Devourer instead." She lacked imagination, but on the other hand, she could see patterns when they were presented to her. The Blackguard looked silently at Samantha for a long time. "You have no evidence that the Devourer did to your magic resistance the same that he did to your Destiny Spirit." "There isn''t. But there''s precedence." An audible sigh came from the Blackguard. "You¡¯re already exceeding expectations. Very well. You''re right; the Devourer may free you from your condition. But in doing so, you will become a Rogue and be hunted and killed by a team of Blackguards. They will go after you until you die, no matter how much time passes or where in the world you may go. It¡¯s punishment, not a way back to your old path. From my point of view, what happened to you is as good as permanent, so I didn¡¯t lie." Samantha smiled. "Rub this smile out of your face; you just showed yourself beyond my ability to handle. Therefore, question time is over." The Blackguard crossed her arms. "Just a last question: how do I get up from here?" "By trying enough until your strength attribute gets to level zero. It shall take some time." And it did. The less the attribute level, the easier it was supposed to be to level it up. It still took her the better part of two hours to finally stand. The Blackguard smiled broadly. "Samantha Hidden Daggers, welcome to the Blackguard."