To avoid further discussion I ducked into the room that the Guard Captain had come from, a simple stone cell with a single desk and long decayed bed. Most everything in the room was completely useless. Someone had embossed the same symbol of fire I had seen surrounding the heart laced with vines on the front of the desk.
Walking around the desk, I found a small footlocker and I kicked it open with a brash disregard for possible traps. Snapping open, it revealed a pouch, a folded leather vest, and a bundle of papers that had somehow not decayed. Before Theodora could approach I added the bundle of papers to my inventory. The pouch turned out to contain four hundred gold, twenty three silver, and sixty nine coppers. The vest was a clear upgrade.
“Garb of the Heartrose
Type: Light
Slot: Chest
Armor Value: 11
Requirement: Agility 11
Rarity: Rare
Tier: F
This armor amplifies a vampire creature’s ability to regenerate by allowing them to regenerate faster within shadows (5 per second). In addition if the wearer has the Withered debuff they maintain regular regeneration while in shadow.”
Holding it up, I looked it over. It was a rather small vest made of thin leather material that was uniform black in color. The leather had intricate designs carved into it. The vest was covered in scrolls of writhing thorny vines that all flowed into a bloomed rose at the center of its back. I slipped it over the tattered and stained white shirt I’d awoken in.
Slumping down next to the chest I checked my statistics and smiled as my regeneration reactivated. The Withered debuff was still there but my health was on its way back up. When I blinked Theodora was sitting on the desk with her crossed legs dangling in front of me. She raised an eyebrow and, for the first time, showed an emotion that was not ambivalence or flirtatiousness… It was sadness.
Unable to help myself I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“That’s Anaya’s armor. The foolish girl must have infiltrated this place to save me and got herself killed. She was always so loyal.”
Remaining slumped against the wall I grumbled at her, “Forgive me for finding it strange that you inspired loyalty in someone.”
She eyed me for a long long moment before her smile started to return, “She was sent by a mad warlord to kill me. The girl was well aware it was a suicide mission, but was so hopelessly in love with her master that she would follow any order he gave. He obviously did not return her feelings.”
She swung her legs and eyed me with a flirtatious smirk, “I gave her the option of becoming my spawn to escape him after she was defeated and her comrades were dead.”
She continued, her eyes taking on a distant look as her smile twisted into a frown, “She resisted at first, but when I showed her that her ‘great love’ had sacrificed dozens of the members of her order to destroy me, she welcomed my kiss.”
Glancing at my statistics to see that my hp was almost at one hundred percent I asked, “Are you this Heartrose?”
She smirked and looked back toward the door, “Storytime is over my sweet beautiful Malcolm. Do be a dear and get me free of this place,” she raised her hands and clapped them together, “chop, chop.”
Sighing, I bit my lip as I asked, “I know I am going to regret this but would you do me a favor?”
She looked bemused as the strange AI creature once again seemed to read my mind, “It’s not my color.”
Sighing, I twisted my lips at the faux mental intrusion. Whatever predictive algorithm it was using was pretty sophisticated. I muttered, “You suggested you know that I’m here playing a game.”
She just stared at me, her smirk not fading.
“Do you know anything about gamers?”
Before she could respond I said, “Not just gamers, the people here for this Beta are pro gamers. A couple of them are streaming for an audience. If they see a vampire lady who is obviously a badass NPC they are going to try to kill you.”
She cocked her head, “Then you will attempt to kill them to guard me and when you fail, I will tear those who remain apart.”
Raising my hands I put on a fake smile and said in a slightly saccharine tone, “Or, we could just skip all that shit and keep your existence on the downlow. If they analyze you they won’t be able to read your stats, because you are obviously really high level, and they will just assume you are another player.”
She studied me with her ever present seductive smile and said, “Ok Malcolm, give me the robe.”
Fishing the simple robe out of my inventory I handed it to her. My eyes widened slightly when she pulled her dark red dress free leaving her slender pale body exposed. She hung it from a black nail in my direction and said, “Put this in your inventory.”
I did so, and she quickly slid the robe over her form. How the hell did she make some moth eaten wool robe from an ancient dungeon look sexy?
She smoothed it out and spoke without looking at me, “I am still reading your mind.”
Sighing, I rubbed my temples as I berated myself internally for ogling the pixels of a computer generated sprite. Theodora just smirked as I activated my notifications and listened to Lydia read them out as I set out noting an even longer string of updates than my last check. There were a few developments of note:
“You are now Trained in the Bludgeoning skill.
Choose a Specialty: Warhammers, Light Hammers, Maces/Clubs”
Navigating the menus, I read the descriptions of the Bludgeoning specialties and seeing that Light Hammers tended to key off of Agility I locked it in.
I gained the following modification to the Thump special ability:
“Successfully striking a target with Thump reduces the target’s chance to hit for 30 seconds.”
I had a whole host of new skills, at least one of which I seemed to have gotten just for getting burned during my machinations to kill the Eternal Guard. Lydia read them out in her chipper lilting drawl:
“Blades
Rarity: Common
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Agility
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Description
Every blademaster starts somewhere.
Slice: Once per minute you may use your blade to cause a damage over time effect.
Trapsmith
Rarity: Uncommon
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Spirit
Description
Do you want to play a game?
Quick Trap: You may quickly throw out a temporary trap that either slows an affected creature or causes a damage over time effect.
Fire Resistance
Rarity: Common
Requirements: None
Training Level: Novice 1
Key Ability: Vitality
Description
How will you know that the stove is too hot to touch unless you do it yourself?
Effect: 1% of Fire Resistance per skill level until Trained skill level”
Finally, I leveled up Brute from four to six gaining another two point boost that I pumped into Agility and Vitality once again prioritizing damage done, dodge, and health. Finally, I pulled myself up from the floor, pulling out my blackened dagger and hammer as I stalked to the door and led the way back toward the stairs I had initially climbed down. When we had made our way past the burned corpses of the priestesses that Sakurai and Nomura had destroyed, we started the long climb out of the vault.
Before long we were ascending level by level. We encountered a few laughable challenges. Two singular skeletal guards and a pair of feaster rats… nothing that threatened myself or the quest. I also managed to grab one of the Feaster Rats, replenishing a small amount of my Essence.
Luckily, we did encounter an entire swarm of feaster rats as we neared the apex of the great vault. For a moment I worried that one of them would bite Theodora and her quest would end when we were just on the cusp of finishing it. I spun through the tenacious little undead with my hammer and blade, crushing or cutting them apart and occasionally booting one of them off the stairs and down into the depths when it ran to take a bite out of the suspiciously silent vampire. I managed to feast on four of the vicious little snapping monsters this time. It was not enough to gain the Blooded buff my class mentioned, but it kept my avatar moving and functioning.
All she did as I climbed and bashed my way through minor foes was stand well away and watch. Her flirtatious expression had long since faded to be replaced by the scathing look of a teacher who is just waiting for you to misstep and subsequently ruin your future.
Not speaking from experience or anything.
When we had bested the last of the feaster rats and I had tossed aside the last of my meals, I looked at the last set of stairs, a large broad affair with bronze railings decorated with skulls, and then back to Theodora, “We probably have some tutorial boss up here and after that we will be in an area with a lot of players.”
She looked at me as if she had understood every word and then I just shrugged and led the way up the stairs.
I slowed my approach as I neared the apex moving as silently as I could. Peering over the top, I surveyed the area. This circular chamber was just as large as the great circular vault below and seemed to cap it. It appeared to have been appropriated as a workshop by a sculptor, namely coffin lids and tombstones.
The gray slabs of stone lay piled throughout the chamber cut into all shapes and sizes. Most of the individual tombstones were not in the shape I would immediately recognize but cut to resemble a single curling flame.
I heard heavy uneven footfalls somewhere within the stacked stone and looked down into the knowing half smile of Theodora as I whispered, “Please stay here.”
She cooed, “Ooo, a please?,” she giggled and pursed her damaged lips, “just this once sweet Malcolm, I will do as you ask.”
Sighing, I slipped the rest of the way up the stairs and into the chamber. Moving through the piles of stone with my hammer and dagger in hand, I listened for my quarry, hoping to manage an ambush.
A deep and pained feminine voice spoke up from somewhere within the forest of piled stones, halting me in my tracks, “Is someone there?”
Wincing, I knelt down, scooping up a piece of scrap stone and tossing it to the far side of the room. The shambling figure responded by starting in that direction her voice laden with desperation as she called out, “Why can’t you sleep?! Why must I keep returning you to your rightful places!?”
Kneeling down beside a pile of stone lids, I heard the creature limp by and peered from my hiding place at her departing back. She was nearly three meters tall with a stooped posture and leaning heavily on a staff. She was wearing a tattered gray robe and staggering along due to a clear injury to her leg. When I activated Analyze, Lydia described the creature:
“Caretaker of the Damned
Elite Level 6
Weakness: Fire
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
Special Ability
Stone’s Throw - The Caretaker can use her magic to throw any stone object that she has personally modified.”
Taking a steadying breath, I moved to follow the creature as quietly as I could. She slowed to a stop, her entire body resting against her staff as she turned her head as if hearing something.
Wasting no time I drove the dagger toward the center of her back. As if by reflex a sheet of thin stone shot upward between us slowing my strike. The blade only scraped through the robes of the towering figure.
The Caretaker turned and howled in anger, her face was almost entirely covered by a tattered gray robe save a ragged hole revealing a jaundiced yellow eye glaring with wild eyed fury. The creature turned and brandished her staff, a massive stone finger bursting from the floor and into my chest.
The attack sent me flying backward and flew through a pile of flame shaped headstones. Her voice was filled with anguish and exhaustion as she almost weeped, “Why can’t you accept your punishment!? Why do you disturb the sleep of the rightful dead!?”
I rolled back to my feet and charged her, having to dodge aside as she gestured with her staff and a headstone hurtled toward me. I got back within range and brought my hammer to bear. While the stone shield returned, the hammer made short work of it. It tore a gap through it which I followed by driving my dagger into the monster’s stomach with a snarl.
Black blood poured over my glove before the giant woman snapped up the bottom of her staff into my stomach and threw me backward several feet. The haptic pressure pads of my dive suit drove into my chest under the tremendous power of the strike. I tumbled away and ran as fast as I could, activating my Quick Trap ability to try and hamper her pursuit. An azure glow formed on the ground behind me and solidified into a ramshackle wooden trap behind me as I rolled into cover behind a tower of coffin lids.
Behind the stone barricade I heard the Caretaker curse and tear the trap apart. I knelt and hoped for some of my diminished health to recover. The Withered debuff truly was a pain in the ass. The entire tower of stone beside me shook and started to fall. I was forced to run tumbling through the cloud of dust and cascading sheets of rock.
More headstones tore through the cloud of dust and flew past me exploding against other stone creations or the walls themselves. I activated Evade and rolled just as another tombstone blasted through my last position and chose to cut a wide arc across the room as I rushed back toward the creature.
My Essence plummeted as I jumped toward it and activated Thump bringing my hammer to bear on her right arm. The appendage buckled as I slashed my dagger across her chest twice. She wailed in anger and sadness, “Why won’t you let me rest!?”
Her stun faded and she staggered back as I waded toward the creature bashing and slashing at her upper body. My avatar started to struggle in the tell-tale motions of Essence depletion and my weapons drooped in my hands.
As my avatar’s obvious fatigue hit I cursed, “Fuck.”
The creature recovered howling in anguish as she pounded the butt of her staff into the stones at her feet. A wave of energy shot through the ground and sent me flying backward and into a stone pillar. Indicators in my HUD went red everywhere. Debuffs streamed into my notification tray. When I tried to move my avatar it staggered and was unresponsive. Lydia announced my condition like she was telling me my coffee had finished brewing:
“You are Partially Paralyzed!
Structural damage to your avatar has left you unable to fully utilize your limbs! Your left arm is unavailable. Your agility is temporarily reduced by ten!”
Looking down I grimaced when I saw that half my chest had been caved in.
The Caretaker stalked over to me and hefted her staff raising it to strike me. She seemed to be struggling to focus on me. Her eye blinked rapidly, unsure of its target. I realized that the secondary effect of Thump had triggered just as the staff came down and narrowly missed my stomach.
Hooking the head of my hammer on her leg, I pulled and yanked her off her feet and into a great clatter on the floor. A growl passed my lips as I shifted forward and climbed over her. She bashed the side of my face, blurring my avatar’s vision:
“You are Partially Blinded!
Your right eye is unavailable! All skills relying on sight have their effectiveness reduced by fifty percent!”
Despite the debuffs I still managed to kneel on her chest.
She rasped out a plea, “No, not again,” as I grimaced and bashed her face with my fist, hammering her skull with repeated strikes until she lay still but not destroyed.
I tried to catch my breath shaking my head to dispel the image of my enemy’s visceral terror and sadness as I struck her down.
