When that was done I delved back into the Wards. The Lesser variants of the explosive wards all had increased damage values but added the variable of an explosion that affected creatures within three meters. The explosive effects varied depending on the ward. Fire was a simple explosion. Acid sprayed everything and caused a damage over time effect. Cold debuffed a creature’s ability to hit. Electricity arced to two targets and potentially stunned them.
Dropping two of each of the wards into my crafting queue I reached up and pulled my dive helmet up and off my head.
“Lydia,” I stretched and swung my feet out of the rig, “let me know if anything jumps my avatar while I am taking a break.”
“You got it sugar,” she said sweetly before continuing, “Olivia is getting ready to leave. She has been working hard all day.”
I took in a deep breath as I made my way upstairs, applying my smile as I swung open the door. Olivia was carefully putting a bucket and mop into the hall closet when she saw me and beamed a smile of her own, “Hey Mr. Voss, I was just finishing up.”
Recoiling at the light change and raising my hand to my eyes I walked to the fridge, “You can call me Malcolm. It’s not a problem. Hell, even Mal would be better than Mr. Voss.”
She leaned around the corner and gave me a worried look, “I’m sorry Malcolm, I forgot you told me that.”
Dismissing her apology with a wave, I downed a bottle of water before looking to the darkened windows, “I wanted to thank you for helping out.”
“It’s really no problem. My mom is losing her shit over the fact that I’m working. Pedro is leaving me alone. It’s been great.”
Nodding and rubbing my temples, I closed my eyes. There were studies that said too much VR could affect your mental health. I’d never had a problem before but I had gone pretty hard on the testing the last few days.
Olivia’s voice shocked me out of my thoughts, “Malcolm?”
I looked up and smiled at the concerned looking girl. She put a gentle hand on my shoulder and asked, “Are you ok? You look a little sick.”
“No, not sick. I’m just suffering from dive room fatigue I think. I might go out to a park tomorrow and get some sun,” I said with a shake of my head.
“I think that would be a great idea. Whatever that game is, it must be pretty great,” she said with a smile.
“It’s been a wild ride,” I said as I washed my hands. The truth was that the game was an escape. It was keeping me from interfacing with the world and dealing with the trials and tribulations of Malcolm Voss. At that thought I furrowed my brow and checked my patch phone. The readout indicated that it was… April 27th. The first trial was on May 10th so… Was I losing days? It should easily be at least May 1st.
Shaking my head again, I chuckled.
She was slinging her backpack over her shoulder and asked, “What’s up?”
I gave her a reassuring smile and shook my head again, “I think I’m just letting time get away from me. Do you need me to help you carry your stuff or anything?”
She shook her head as she grabbed her bag of supplies and gave me a thumbs up, “See you in a couple of days. Don’t forget to get some sun.”
Nodding, I watched her go, leaving me there in the sickly glow of the kitchen lights. Looking at the blood red glow of the door back down to the dive room, I sighed before striding over and descending again, swinging the door shut behind me.
When I emerged back into the dark ramshackle camp with its glowing white torches I noted Valerie, Mystal, Sakurai and Nomura chatting at the center of the yard. Dispelling my blades to my inventory, I picked up my newly crafted wards and slipped them into a slender pouch at my waist.
Jumping to my feet, I made my way over to them. I noted, not for the first time, how every single one of them towered at least a foot above me in height.
Sakurai bowed and Nomura winked at me as Valerie gave me a greeting nod.
Nomura inquired, “Valerie was just saying that you guys found a spot relevant to our quest?”
Mystal cut me off, bouncing on her toes and clapping her hands as she said, “We found a scary building full of people wearing spooky robes.”
Smirking, I added, “Almost certainly some kind of cultist outpost. We didn’t get anywhere close to the mesa where the noble district is. I figured we need to grind a few patrols with you guys to get you caught up and then wipe out this place for intelligence, and to be sure that the main force can’t call them in for reinforcements.”
Sakurai looked down at me with her head leaning to the side, “What kind of creatures can we expect in the city?”
Wincing, I let out a long breath as I said, “Mutants. They are level nineteen to twenty five.”
Seeing the surprise on both their faces I raised my hands to forestall their objections, “Don’t worry. We are going to lure them in and ambush them like Mystal and I did earlier. We should be able to scale you guys up quickly.”
Valerie regarded me with a raised eyebrow as if confused.
Smiling, I asked, “What?”
She looked away and sighed, “I will never understand the strange terminology used by Remnants.”
Nomura gave her a huge grin displaying his avatar’s jagged black teeth as he said, “We are a strange bunch.”
I held up a hand to forestall anymore banter and gestured over my shoulder, “Let’s get to it. I only have so many hours before I’m completely useless.”
Nomura and Mystal managed to offer a mocking salute at the same time. Shaking my head, I turned to head back into the sprawling dark city.
Nomura caught up with me and asked, “So, is it possible you managed to make yourself look more like Aladdin?”
“I don’t…,” I looked down at my knee length baggy pants, bare chest and vest and winced, “damnit.”
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Even Sakurai giggled at that one.
Mystal asked a confused Valerie, “Who is Aladdin?”
And for the next few hours we worked our way through the districts of the city getting a much better feel for ourselves as a group as we laid waste to small patrols of mutant Branded. Sakurai and Nomura indicated that their levels and skills were skyrocketing. I passed on the pieces of gear I had held in reserve from my grinding in the hours before, with Valerie being the greatest beneficiary after struggling with the basic equipment I had traded her back at the vineyard when we first met.
Compared to my first encounters with the much higher level Brutes I now toyed with them and ultimately left them in bleeding heeps. As for the smaller Hunters, Nomura had recently developed a larger arsenal of area of effect spells that consisted of swarms of ravaging birds which, in tandem with my explosive runic wards, handled them nicely.
Sakurai, Valerie and Mystal’s loyal mist drone guards served as the lightning rods for the bulk of the attacking enemies. The giant skeleton warrior drew the monsters in with a taunt skill that she had recently developed and she and Valerie operated as a frightening team.
I spent my time dancing from place to place picking up stragglers and protecting Nomura and the much less powerful guards. With the added debuff of Mesmerizing Dance not only was I rarely wounded but my allies were never in true danger. In the hours that we grinded our way through the city only one of Mystal’s guards was killed.
We investigated a number of structures on our way through the city. Most were macabre tableaus of unfortunate citizens who hadn’t been turned by Sevrin and his brand.
Of those, one was of particular note. I discovered it while ranging ahead of the group looking for more packs of mutants to continue our grind. It was an alley a lot like that first one where I’d fought my first Brute. It was choked with the long dead corpses of mutants, which even Mystal refused to eat. The alley was a dead end of empty black stone, collapsed crates and empty long dead planters.
Finding nothing at first I was turning to depart when I noted something strange. A slightly discolored outline flashed in the wall of one of the buildings in the shape of a door. It was in the right hand wall right in front of the corpse of a decayed Hunter.
I muttered, “Thanks Alertness,” and started searching the wall for a way to open it. I found a small brick that stuck out suspiciously from the wall near its base and depressed it. There was a soft cracking sound and the stones separated revealing a dark and narrow stairwell.
Bodies of unmutated Braithans lay strewn on the stairs, their skin of purple hues turning black from rot. Each of them was wearing tattered and ravaged leather or mail armor. I paused to loot each of the corpses as I went, wincing and muttering, “Sorry about this guys. Going to a good cause.”
At the base of the stairs I paused to take in the scene. A poker table was set up in the center of the room. There was only one dead man here and he sat at the table with his head laid back on his high back chair. He was in remarkably good condition with plum colored skin and long sharp ears clipped along their length with golden clasps. Even in death he somehow had a huge smile on his face. There were deep wounds dug into the leather armor on his chest, the blood long since blackened and dried.
In front of him two broad bladed carving knives had been driven into the table. Each of them had been driven into a small note, both of which had blood stains on them. I reached out and pulled the daggers free. One of the notes had the words, “For Evelyn Rasila,” written on the back and the other, “For the One Who Finds Me”.
The man was just an NPC but I still decided to leave the personally labeled note alone and open the other:
Buddy,
I don’t know who or what you had to kill to get to me but, cheers. I need you to take the other note to my sister Evelyn. I didn’t do right by her in life. I gambled everything that should be hers away in the very seat I’m dying in. Take the pouch of gold on my belt to her and tell her I’m sorry.
- Vantra Rasila
P.S: Use my daggers to slit that bastard Sevrin’s throat.
The letter prompted Lydia to announce several quests:
“New Quest
Have you seen my sister Evelyn?
XP Reward: 200
Reward: Accessory Tier E
Find Vantra Rasila’s sister Evelyn and return the Rasila wealth to her along with a note he wrote as he sat dying in a Braithan gambling den.
New Quest
Slit that bastard Sevrin’s throat!
XP Reward: 900
Reward: Tier D Artifact
You heard Vantra. Get out there and cut Sevrin’s throat!”
Taking the note to Evelyn and putting it into my inventory I proceeded to lift the two broad blades off the table and Lydia described them for my benefit:
“Right
Open’m up…
Type: Light Blades
Slot: Main Hand
Requirement: Agility 35
Rarity: Rare
Tier: F
+5 Agi, +5 Spirit
Bleed effects last 20% longer.
Left
…and dig deep!
Type: Light Blades
Slot: Main Hand
Requirement: Agility 35
Rarity: Rare
Tier: F
+5 Agi, +5 Charm
Left is 10% more likely to critically hit (15% more likely when striking a target with a bleed effect from its brother blade, Right.)”
Replacing my Cultist Shortsword and Ritual Dagger with the new weapons, I carefully removed the gold pouch from his belt and, unlike the others, chose not to loot the remainder of his gear. I muttered, “Not much for prayers, but I’ll do my best to do best by your last wishes.” I summoned up my standard suite of Striking, Returning and Doubling runes and started to apply them to the new blades.
Hearing footsteps on the stairs I turned to see Valerie emerging past the bodies. The towering woman had a grim look on her face and had her sword at the ready. Nodding from my place next to Vantra’s body, I sighed, “Far too many scenes like this.”
Her lips tightened into a frown as she said, “There are.”
Gesturing to the body next to me, I asked, “Have you heard of the Rasila family?”
Her brow furrowed in thought as she knelt and studied one of the bodies near the stairs, “A minor noble family. I believe their only house was in Braithe.”
Nodding, I said, “This fellow left a note for whoever found his body to return his wealth to his sister, Evelyn Rasila. It's possible that she is in the camp.”
She nodded, “I’ll inquire with them.”
Running a hand through my avatar’s thick hair, I sighed and said, “Let’s get back out there then.”
With that we rejoined the rest of the team who had taken up positions around the mouth of the alley.
Nomura inquired, “Find anything?”
I tossed Sakurai a ring that I had found on one of the bodies.
She studied it and smiled, “Thank you Florin-san.”
The mage asked, “Good stats?”
She nodded, “It is a clear upgrade. When I take a critical hit it increases my armor values by fifty percent for five seconds.”
He whistled and hopped off the low wall he had been sitting on, “So, are we near this fortress?”
Nodding and gesturing to the east, I said, “It’s about half a kilometer that way. We have been pretty close for about an hour.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance and I looked out across the crater city where ominous dark clouds blotted out the lights of the spiral. A shock of white lightning ran through the dark clouds and I added, “We can find somewhere to hunker down and rest until the storm fully hits. Then we’ll use the storm as cover for our attack.”
The small group nodded their assent and we set off to find somewhere safe to camp.