Awaken Online (Book 3.5): Apathy

by Bagwell, Travis

  She didn’t have enough time.

  The creature continued its headlong charge – only a few feet away now and its paws thundering against the ground. Eliza closed her eyes, her heart beating frantically as she accepted her fate. This had been a stupid, stupid idea.

  A few seconds passed and... nothing happened. Eliza opened a single eye tentatively – half expecting to see the ephemeral blue motes of energy that signaled the game’s deathscape. Instead, she was still very much alive. The bear had fallen on its side, its chest heaving feebly, and its eyes focused straight ahead.

  A furtive glance at her combat screen confirmed that the bear was now afflicted with a paralysis debuff, and a small timer was counting down in her peripheral vision – indicating that she had sixty seconds until the paralysis wore off.

  “Oh, thank god,” Eliza murmured with a relieved sigh.

  However, the next question lingered in her mind – now what?

  This was an experiment, wasn’t it? Maybe she should move closer and observe the effects of the poison. She took a furtive step toward the bear, her mist drifting out of the way to make room for her as she examined the creature carefully. The paralysis had taken longer to take hold than with the rabbits. Maybe it was a product of the bear’s slower metabolism, its weight, or the delivery method? She had often fed the rabbits pellets drenched in poison instead of using the mist.

  The duration was also longer than she expected. That might be due to the dosage. So maybe the poison’s tooltip calculated the duration based on an “appropriate” dosage – which could vary wildly from creature to creature? That wasn’t really helpful, but she could live with it now that she knew that the tooltip was inaccurate.

  As she inspected the bear and stepped around its prone body, she also noticed that it was unable to move its eyes. Although, it seemed to be aware that she was there because its breathing quickened slightly as she neared. As she looked on, the bear’s paw twitched, spasming slightly and causing Eliza to jump back in surprise.

  The paralysis must wear off gradually, she thought, claws of fear clenching at her stomach.

  A glance at the debuff timer confirmed that she was running out of time. She needed to end this quickly. Eliza spared a glance back down at the bear as she began to cast Ice Bolt, the creature’s pitiful wheezing audible over the thrumming energy of her spell. She couldn’t help but feel a little bad about this – yet Alma’s words echoed in her head. She had no doubt that the bear would have torn her apart if she hadn’t paralyzed the creature.

  This was just the way of this world.

  Then she embedded the spear of ice into the creature’s eye, blood spurting from the wound. Eliza immediately followed up with another rapid-fire series of bolts, knowing from recent experience that the single attack wouldn’t be sufficient. With clinical precision, icy spikes punctured each of the bear’s weak points, its lifeblood leaking out onto the ground and staining the forest floor crimson.

  Just as the timer was about to expire and the bear’s limbs began to twitch more erratically, Eliza cast a final missile – ending the helpless bear’s life. Eliza stepped back, her water mana still coursing through her veins as she surveyed her opponent. Golden mist hung around her like a deadly halo, creating a single clear patch of ground around the bear’s corpse and Eliza.

  She could feel guilt coil in her stomach as she stared down at the bear.

  However, Eliza tamped down on the feeling, her water mana helping with that process. When the chill energy pulsed through her veins, it felt easier to accept the things she needed to do – even if she would normally have been wringing her hands right now. Her thoughts felt almost… clinical as she observed the bear’s body, noting that it had taken nearly five well-placed bolts to end its life.

  This had been necessary. She had confirmed that her poisons would work – even against larger or higher-level opponents. When her new wands were complete, she might even be able to handle other players. The only problem was the Silver Stag. She had no idea how she was going to tackle that creature, but she could already visualize the Hippie’s mocking expression if she showed up empty-handed.

  At this point, she didn’t want to give the irritating god the pleasure of seeing her fail.

  Chapter 16 - Malignant

  Eliza was sitting at the edge of a small glade, her thoughts gloomy. After slaying the bear, she had wandered the forest a bit to give herself some time to think. She had a problem. Even with the improvements to Obscuring Mist and her new wands, she suspected that she was going to face a challenge with the Silver Stag.

  She had kept mentally reviewing the battle she had witnessed between the creature and the band of players – the scene repeating on an endless loop. The difficulty was that the Silver Stag was just too damned fast. Even the bear had been a problem, with her poison barely taking hold before it made it through her mist. What would she do with the deer? The creature had moved so quickly, she hadn’t even been able to follow it with her eyes.

  Sneaking up on the deer seemed like a possibility. A quick online search revealed that a few people had unlocked the Sneak skill – which she assumed was how the group of players had managed to get so close to the Silver Stag before alerting the creature to their presence. However, as the incident with both the bear and the players had demonstrated, her stealth abilities left something to be desired.

  Eliza’s brow furrowed in thought. She could linger around the edge of the lake until the Silver Stag showed up again and then try to cast her Obscuring Mist from a distance. That might work, assuming the creature lingered in the mist. However, she really hadn’t tested the range on the spell.

  Curious, Eliza’s hands began twining through the gestures of Obscuring Mist – a ball of moisture forming in front of her and then exploding outward in an expanding wave of fog. She mentally directed the mist to travel to the other side of the glade. It complied slowly, the haze of moisture creeping forward along the ground. However, it only made it about halfway across the open area before stopping short, the fog beginning to thin and dissipate.

  “Damn it,” Eliza murmured. The range seemed to be about ten yards. That wasn’t bad, but it meant she would have to get close to the stag – very close.

  x1 Spell Rank Up: Obscuring Mist

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 5

  Effect: Increased range and fog density by 5%.

  Eliza sighed as she reviewed the spell rank-up notification. She hadn’t really focused on the notification before, but it clearly indicated that the range would increase as she kept casting. However, it was only a 1% increase – which meant that she would need to practice a lot to dramatically increase her range. She couldn’t afford to wait that long or the other players might manage to slay the stag before her.

  She needed to try another tactic.

  Eliza stood abruptly and began pacing around a tree. Okay, so ranged missiles were out. There was no way she could hit the stag with Ice Bolt since her aim was terrible. Unless the creature was on the ground or incapacitated like the troll, she didn’t have much faith in her abilities. Besides, the stag was unbelievably fast – she wasn’t even going to try. Obscuring Mist’s range was also too short to sneak up on the creature.

  That only left Cold Grasp.

  A frown creased her lips. With a few gestures, she tried casting the spell on the forest floor. A glowing azure ring formed on the ground, and, as she completed the spell, spikes of ice abruptly shot into the air. Some experimentation showed that she could cast the ring rather far away – at least twenty yards by her estimate. That might work…

  “Except for the glowing blue circle on the ground,” she muttered. The spell took at least four seconds to cast, and she doubted that the Silver Stag would hang around to figure out what the azure ring did. Like most creatures, she was guessing that the deer would be a bit suspicious of an ominously glowing circle.

  What she really needed was a trap.

  She hesitated at that thought. That actually mi
ght work. If she had something that she could cast and then conceal, that would remove her range problem, and she wouldn’t need to be sneaky. She could just set up the trap and then walk away to a safe distance and wait – preferably hidden behind something solid.

  Eliza’s gaze shifted to the ice spikes that were slowly melting in the warm sunlight that streamed down around the glade. Was there a way that she could delay Cold Grasp so that it didn’t trigger immediately? She had accomplished something similar with Obscuring Mist – which must mean that the game’s spells were somewhat malleable.

  She supposed the only way to find out was to experiment.

  With at least the semblance of a plan, Eliza began casting Cold Grasp again and again along the forest floor. After nearly an hour, she slumped back against a tree in defeat. The glade was now riddled with icy spikes, the lances glinting in the sunlight. It looked like some sort of angry, frigid god had decided he hated this small clearing in particular.

  “Damn it,” Eliza muttered in frustration.

  “Oh, what a beautiful sight,” a voice spoke up from beside her. Eliza did her best not to let out a frustrated sigh as the Hippie came into sight, Fluffy trotting out from behind a nearby tree. The sheep immediately walked up to an icy lance and began licking its surface.

  The god hesitated for a moment as he surveyed the frozen glade before glancing at Eliza. “Actually, it seems sort of dangerous to just leave all these sharp things lying around. Someone could get hurt!”

  Eliza stared at him incredulously. “Are you seriously lecturing me about responsibility?” she asked in irritation. “You?”

  The god put a hand to his chest in mock offense. “I would never…,” he began before hesitating. “Huh, actually, you know what? I am pretty irresponsible when it comes to leaving things lying about. This one time, I left Fluffy in a hydra’s den…”

  This earned him a huff from the sheep, who had stopped licking the ice to glare at the mad god. “See! Fluffy still won’t let it go. It was just the one time!

  “Anyway,” the god said, trying to change the subject as Fluffy continued to side-eye him. “What are we up to here? Picking up ice sculpting as a new hobby?”

  “Not exactly,” Eliza muttered. “I was trying to figure out how to complete your stupid quest. You sort of forgot to mention that the Silver Stag is super-fast – or that it was being hunted by most of the players in this area.” She had meant to deck the god for omitting those details, but, now, in the moment, she just felt tired and irritable.

  “Huh, that does sound familiar,” the Hippie said. “So… erm… are we now trying to attract the deer with ice lances. I mean, they’re pretty and all…”

  “No,” Eliza snapped, rubbing at her temple with one hand. “I was trying to use Cold Grasp as a type of trap. You know, cast it on the ground, but delay the spikes from appearing until someone steps onto the circle.” She waved a hand at the ice-covered glade. “As you can see, I haven’t figured it out yet.”

  “Oh, that’s really easy,” the god said in an animated voice. “Here, let me show.” With a snap of his fingers, a huge circular ring appeared in the glade, stretching nearly ten feet across. As several seconds ticked by, the spell didn’t trigger, and the glowing outline began to fade to a more muted dark blue line.

  Fluffy approached the circle with tentative steps, sniffing at it curiously. Then he reached out a hoof, barely scratching the edge of the circle. A massive crescendo of ice spikes suddenly erupted from the ground, shattering Eliza’s puny little spears and towering nearly ten feet above the glade. A spike had also sliced through the air near Fluffy face, sheering off the hair around his eyes and making it look like he now had bangs.

  The sheep turned slowly to look at the Hippie, deadly intent in its eyes. “That’s not a bad look on you Fluffy!” The hippie commented, tapping his lips with a finger. “It gives you a hipster sort of vibe. Now we just need some glasses…” As he trailed off, the god materialized a pair of sunglasses out of thin air and began chasing the sheep around the edge of the glade, trying his best to put them on Fluffy’s face.

  Eliza ignored the god’s antics, staring open-mouthed at the glade. “That seems like overkill,” she said to herself, but at least it demonstrated that her plan was possible.

  “Hmm, yeah,” the Hippie murmured, stopping abruptly and staring at the field. “I might have overdone it a bit. But it is super easy.”

  “Maybe for a god…” Eliza muttered. Then she hesitated. Hadn’t the Hippie taught her how to cast the other spells. Why couldn’t he teach her how to modify the Cold Grasp spell the same way? The only trouble would be convincing the irritating man.

  “Can you teach me that variation of the spell,” Eliza ventured tentatively, gesturing at the glade.

  The Hippie frowned, tapping at his lips with his fingers once again. “I could… but that seems like cheating. Don’t you want to feel the flush of victory when you figure it out yourself?”

  “No, not really,” Eliza replied evenly. “Plus, you never gave me a reward for finishing that first quest…”

  “What about all of that loot! Those piles of misappropriated goodies should have been enough!” the Hippie exclaimed.

  “You mean the loot I would have earned by killing the troll anyway,” Eliza said in a dry tone. “That isn’t a quest reward. Besides, you owe me anyway. You also lied to me about the deer, remember?”

  The god seemed a bit put off by this retort. Well, I didn’t technically lie…” he stopped speaking when he saw Eliza glaring at him. Even Fluffy was slowly shaking his head. “Fine. Fine. You can have your spell as a reward, but this is the last handout! People just won’t learn to take care of themselves if you coddle them.”

  “I’m not sure I need to worry about you coddling me,” Eliza replied in an exhausted voice.

  The Hippie snorted in disagreement as he approached her and rested a finger to her temple. A tendril of azure energy wound around his digit before eeking through Eliza’s skin. Immediately, she knew the requisite words and gestures to modify Cold Grasp – as though she had memorized the spell long ago.

  Cold Grasp Alternate Effect Unlocked

  At the cost of additional mana and casting time, Cold Grasp can be converted into a trap spell. Any movement inside the magic circle will trigger the trap. Use with caution!

  “I would have figured this out on my own?” Eliza asked in irritation. “This completely modifies the incantation, gestures, and the mana cost. This is basically a different spell entirely.”

  “Well, with time…” the Hippie began, looking a little embarrassed.

  “You mean like a decade of experimentation?” Eliza interrupted.

  “Ungrateful…,” the god muttered under his breath, glancing off to the side.

  Eliza glared at the Hippie. “What was that?”

  “Nothing. Nothing. Now that you have your reward, I guess we’ll be off.” With a snap of his fingers, the Hippie and Fluffy abruptly disappeared. Eliza could only stand there for a few moments fuming as she looked at the spot the irritating man had occupied only a moment before. Did other players have to put up with this nonsense?

  She took a deep breath, trying to refocus her attention. Now that she had managed to obtain the modified spell, she needed to test it. She began casting the spell on the ground nearby and then hesitated as a thought occurred to her. Instead of completing the spell, she stopped it halfway – the glowing blue ring just beginning to appear but not fully resolving yet. Then she stepped forward and placed a single poison vial in the center of the circle before completing the spell.

  A moment later, the ring solidified, and the glow disappeared, the outline almost impossible to see. Her small green poison vial still lingered in the center, the color of the vial blending in the with the leaves and grass scattered about the forest floor. Apparently, it didn’t trigger the trap if she placed something inside the ring before the spell completed.

  Acting cautiously, Eliza picked up a rock
and gently tossed it into the circle. The lances of ice immediately erupted from the ground, shattering the vial of poison. The ice was covered in the sticky green substance, and the liquid dripped down the frigid spears.

  “Huh, that might work…” Eliza said, her thoughts racing.

  If she could combine the Wasting Poison with this new variant of Cold Grasp, then any creature that stepped on the circle would be struck by the ice shards – which would also act as a vector for the poison. Between the trap and the damage over time effect of the poison, this might be sufficient to kill larger creatures. At least, she was hoping that her quick mental calculations were accurate.

  There was only one way to test her strategy. Eliza glanced into her pack and saw the dozens of green vials she had prepared the night before. They ranged considerably in damage – with some being on the weaker side. But there should still be plenty of poison to test her new traps. The only problem was going to be remembering where she had set the traps so that she could come back and check on them later. After some experimenting with her map, she soon discovered that she could place markers where she set each of the circles.

  With a shrug, Eliza got to work. She didn’t have long until she would need to log off and she had quite a few traps to set. She would be able to come back tomorrow to check on her circles. Her hope was that she would snag a bear or two. Although, she suspected she would probably return to find only empty traps.

  But it wasn’t like she had a better plan.

  Chapter 17 - Anti-Social

  Eliza was sitting in class, her fingers drumming against the surface of her desk, the sound making a staccato drumbeat against the fake wood. Their teacher droned in the background, his face projected on a screen that hovered near the front of the classroom as a series of images were scrolled across the nearby margin – the graphics showing basic cellular reproductive cycles.