When there was no immediate response I screamed and finally reached up and yanked off my helmet.
I was immediately bathed in the suffusing crimson glow of the dive room. Just like that the pain was gone. Yanking down the zipper on the wrist of the suit I surveyed my flesh for signs of damage and saw none. Looking up at the screen above I saw my avatar laying on the gore covered grating in front of the machine.
He had undergone quite the change. He looked much more like the stereotypical vampire with pale marble like skin, perfectly curled short onyx black hair that flowed down to his shoulders like a mane. His body was all lithe well defined violaceous muscle. Because of his Haithan origins he remained short. Perhaps one meter and fifty or sixty centimeters. Despite the agony I had just suffered he didn’t appear to have suffered any damage.
Running my hands through my hair I grumbled harshly, “Lydia, did you not hear me calling a Code Blue?”
She answered immediately, “No, I did not Malcolm. Is there an emergency?”
Looking up at the screen and then toward the stairs toward the kitchen there was only the typical empty silence of the house. The air was stale and heavy but there were no dangers threatening to leap out of the shadows.
I finally cleared my throat and rasped, “No… no…”
After a long moment I took a deep breath and said, “Try and call Mr. Speers at Catacomb again.”
While she did so I typed out messages to KKG and Sakurai asking about their situation.
Halfway through my typing she said, “No response. I have left a message requesting he contact you at first convenience.”
“What did the Japanese police say?”
“Translation: Thank you Mr. Voss. We will dispatch officers to the home of these individuals. We thank you for your concern.”
Nodding, I grumbled, “Call Sydney.”
"There was no answer," she intoned as I finished my messages and sent them off.
Frowning, I looked up at the clock on the monitors. It was just past 10 pm. I suppose it was possible that all of them just chose to log off for the night? KKG and Sakurai were pro gamers though, and were veterans of VRMMOs. Would they leave something like a Tier E race evolution just to get some rest? Not when it was right there in front of them, surely?
Was that really a scream I heard over Sakurai’s mic?
For perhaps the tenth time I looked up at my avatar on the screen above and back down at my unmarred arm. Was my medication causing all these hallucinations? I thought of my terrifying nightmares, seeing my mother in the kitchen and the hallucination at the real estate office. And those crazy nightmares…
Could I just as easily have imagined something happening to Nomura and Sakurai that wasn’t?
The smart thing was to give up this fucking game.
"What about Valerie?," a smooth and familiar voice I recognized as my own whispered in my ear.
Ignoring the madness of it I spoke out loud, “She is a fucking digital sprite. This is hurting my real life. I’m going mad. I’ve gotta get… I need help.”
That voice returned dripping with venom, “Who cares what you need? Let’s just ride this train into the dark, Killer. Saving a digital character might be the last decent thing you do.”
“Besides,” the voice sounded practically giddy, “we both know you care…”
Ignoring my own dark thoughts I gave my helmet a baleful look. I reached a shaky hand toward it. Lifting it again, I pulled it over my ears slowly. When the burning sensation in my arm didn’t return I pulled it back down.
In the depths of the laboratory I opened my eyes again and shifted to try and stand. The changes in my statistics were evident immediately.
As I stood smoothly I felt faster... more solid somehow. Lighter on my feet.
Looking around the empty chamber bathed in the sickly orange glow of the machine, I summoned a basic dagger into my hand I flipped it in rapid but easy movements. Summoning four more I started to juggle them into the air with ease. As each reached my left hand I returned it to my inventory.
Sighing needlessly I nodded before pulling the Item Spike from my inventory. Spinning the slender metal spike between my fingers I considered all of the items I had equipped. If I raised the Sanguine Sisters to a higher tier I could have an insane weapon at what seemed like a very low level. However, of all my equipment The Garb of the Heartrose offered the best passive ability and the lowest bonuses of all my armor.
Resolved, I aimed the spike at the chest of the armor and slowly pushed the tip against it. There was a flash of golden light as the spike dissolved into my chest with a flash. Warmth washed across my chest and the vest repaired and became black leather with brass buttons and a raised collar that ensconced my entire neck. Lydia read me the armor’s new statistics:
“Garb of the Heartrose
Slot: Chest
Armor Value: 125
Requirement: Agility 90
Rarity: Very Rare
Tier: E
Agility +30, Charm +15, Vitality +9
This armor amplifies a vampire creature’s ability to regenerate by allowing them to regenerate faster within shadows (50 per second). In addition if the wearer has the Withered debuff they maintain regular regeneration while in shadow.
Any creature striking the wearer of this armor will take 20-30 pts of piercing damage from thorns that emerge from the expertly embossed rose vines that cover the vest.”
Part of me still expected one of my comrades to reappear on the platform. As the minutes dragged past, anxiety built on my shoulders and the back of my neck as I chewed my lip in the dive chair. It remained empty around me with the only accompanying sound the hum of the now darkening machine behind me.
Looking upward toward the many levels of the dungeon we had descended I spoke aloud, “I’ve got to get out of this place.” With an Agility statistic that had been adjusted from one hundred and three to one hundred and sixty three by my new chest piece and racial evolution I decided to test myself.
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Speaking out loud to the dive room I said, “Lydia, start a timer when I say ‘go’.”
“Understood, Mal.”
“Go!”
The world blurred past me as I jumped up the stairs taking ten steps at a time. In a matter of moments I was across the next level, jumping off of bulky machinery to dodge around them toward the next stairs. My avatar perceived everything differently. There was no longer a question in my mind whether I could parkour my way through the dark facility. Everything was a surface to vault off and despite how quickly I moved my avatar’s mind… and presumably the RIG chip connecting us, did not struggle to face the challenge.
I became aware of a new vague sense that seemed to come with my evolution. Somehow my hunger radiated outward in search of blood. The only thing it registered were the cold fetid pools left as remnants of our previous foes. The entire world hurtled past me as I crested the stairs on the third level. When I realized that zipping around a particularly large machine would impede me I activated Blood Mist and floated through it before rematerializing and bounding up the stairs to the second level.
As I rushed across the level, black machines blurring past I slid to a halt and peered upward toward the grated floor above. My sense was registering a radiation of heat and life. There were living beings above me.
Did we forget to kill all the mutants up here?
Voices echoed down from the upper levels at that point. Dull voices devoid of life that sparked a memory from my encounters at the vineyard and in Braithe.
“The shepherd said she saw them headed toward the mountain, there is really no other destination they could have been seeking,” muttered a deep male voice.
A reedy feminine voice added, “Perhaps they were killed by the wildlife?”
A pompous man answered, “Look at the remains there,” he paused and I heard the sound of heavily booted feet before he continued, “no, I think they were certainly here. I want you to take up positions in hiding. We shall strike them when they ascend, when their resources have been expended. We shall cut off the head of the Lady’s troubles here, and return to Lotz for our reward.”
They shuffled around and into their hiding places for several long moments as I knelt in the shadow of one of the machines. When they had settled in I rolled my shoulders and snuck past the stairwell up to the first level. Making my way behind the stairs I looked up to see a crouched figure in black robes. With a prompt, Lydia gave me a description:
“Cultist Enchanter Level 28
Tier F
Weakness: Radiant
Resistance: Fire
HP: 780
MP: 1400
Special Ability
Fire Spear: The basic tool of the Immolated Order caster, casting this spell sends a series of fire spears at up to three targets within range that have the ability to set targets on fire.”
Activating Blood Mist I rose through the air to pass through the grating behind the hidden cultist. Rematerializing, I looked down at the bald man who seemed to be running his hand over a silver symbol and muttering to himself softly. With blinding speed I slipped one of the Sisters around his neck and sawed through it in one smooth slash. My blade touched bone as blood burst from his neck and defied gravity to float back and worm its way through my armor to sink into my skin. Lydia announced the blooded buff and I smiled grimly as I turned to spot an oblivious young woman in armor hiding nearby.
I burst across the chamber toward her with the Sisters drawn in an X before me. Her eyes widened when she finally spotted me. She didn’t even get a chance to shout before I slashed her throat like her comrade. As she fell to her knees I was sprayed with more sweet boosting Essence. She wasn’t quite dead after the first strike and gurgled as she reached for her sword.
Kicking her to her back I hammered both blades down into her chest. The clatter of sound caused several voices to raise in surprise. Spying a man hiding across from me turning to look toward the disturbance I activated Blood Mist again, and sank through the grating at my feet.
He drew his sword and rushed to aid his comrade, stuttering, “Elitra is down!”
Rising up behind him I reformed from the cloud of misting blood. As Surging Blood was activated and time slowed I casually swiped the man’s lower back, the back of his knees and his ankles. So much blood burst from his body that my reserves burst back up to seventy five percent. As time resumed in full effect he fell at my feet with a clatter.
There were already three other cultists rushing to their aid. I wasted no time charging out amidst them. I wove my slender blades to deflect in attempted attacks and dodged amidst them at speeds they didn’t seem able to follow. My blades flashed out, activating Slice again and again turning the area into a hurricane of blood circling toward me. They did not die quickly. As they struggled to turn and make pursuit I rolled past them and charged what had to be the ‘belle of the ball’.
A tall man wearing a fine engraved breastplate on top of very thin mail armor was standing at the exit flanked by a very severe man in the black robes of the cult. As I sprinted toward them at high speed I activated my Blazing Boots to hasten my arrival. The ancient cultist raised his hand and brandished a symbol of the Lady at me.
My HUD burst with golden light and my avatar recoiled beyond my control. With no other recourse I jumped away and behind a nearby machine to kneel. The last of the three I had left bleeding at the center of the room fell to the grating with a pitiful gasp as the last dregs of his life left him.
The same pompous voice from earlier called out to me from the stairs exiting to the laboratory levels, “You truly are formidable. I might be terrified if your kind weren’t so predictably repelled.”
He continued, “Father Raiste? Find the creature and reduce it to ash!”
Hearing the priest advancing I once again activated Blood Mist to sink through the floor. Floating down and under the advancing priest I noted he was still brandishing his symbol and had pulled a wicked metal headed mace that seemed suffused with heat.
Crossing the distance I rose up behind the sneering noble. When I had fully solidified I immediately dropped a hand over the man’s mouth and felt him tense. I swore I could smell the scent of musk covered by lavender as he tried to scream through my glove. Simultaneously I drove my bone blade up to the hilt in his lower back and sank my teeth into his neck. My avatar consumed several gulps of the man’s blood before I yanked my blade free with a flourish as I kicked him out toward his priestly ally.
The black robed man turned and rushed toward me with the symbol raised threateningly. I started to recoil but quickly tossed the curved Sanguine Sisters at him. They arced through the air and one sliced into the priest’s arm, forcing him to drop the symbol with a very unholy curse. With the Returning Runes I’d inscribed into the Sisters they reappeared in my hands.
He cursed and swung his mace upward in an arc sending a wave of fire at me that rolled across the still struggling nobleman and set him ablaze. Despite rolling aside I took some damage in the process. Sprinting in an arc around the angry priest I jumped and jumped off another machine to launch myself at him.
He was bringing the mace down as I flew into range and it cracked off my shoulder solidly. Unfortunately for him, it did not stop my blades from sinking into his chest and stomach with ease. I ran my tongue across my fangs as I looked into the Priest’s eyes. He shuddered on my blade as I whispered to him, “Night bud, tell your fire wife that I’ll be seeing her soon.”
Slitting his throat I relaxed in the spray of his blood that sent my Blood Cloak creeping out to its full length. Looking around at the dead cultists I sighed without need as I made my way around and looted them. Most of their gear was common. Even out of the hands of the dangerous priest I wasn’t able to take his silver symbol and left it there on his corpse. The priest’s mace and the noble's breastplate were of particular note. I wasn’t sure I planned to continue using bludgeoning weapons but it was clearly an upgrade.
“Mace of the Righteous Flame
The penitent forge these maces when they ascend from the rabble of the cult as a sign of their station.
Type: Bludgeon
Requirement: Level 25, Vitality 50
Rarity: Rare
Tier: E
Strength +26, Vitality +17
Each strike with this weapon places a Kindling stack on a target. When a target reaches three Kindling stacks they catch on fire.
Once per day the wielder can send a wave of flames to a target within ten meters. There is a chance the target will catch fire.”
The breastplate wasn’t for me but I kept it either to sell or to give to one of the other players.
“Breastplate of High Society
Slot: Chest
Armor Value: 250
Requirement: Strength 90
Rarity: Rare
Tier: E
Once every hour you can activate the Breastplate of High Society to potentially blind all creatures within ten meters for five seconds.”
