The road in question cut through the forest, disappearing by some cliffs which marked the beginning of the bordering location.
And the sky... I didn’t like it at all. Cloudless on our side, it was gloomy and overcast with thunderclouds on the other. Gusts of strong cold wind rippled the water on the opposite bank.
“Go back,” I told Dimian.
He looked around him uncomfortably. “How about you?”
“We’ll check the area. Come on, quick, go back to the portal!”
“Do you want me to send someone to help you?”
I gave it some thought. Enea’s father had left the castle early that morning in search of his group, having promised to be back before nightfall. Archie had taken the clan’s combat section to the moors for a bit of leveling. There were no players left in the castle, only NPCs.
“It’s all right,” I said. “We’ll manage.”
“I’ll be off, then,” Dimian warily hurried over to the portal.
The only street of the village was equally deserted. A biting wind was raising dust, rustling the leaves and swinging the creaky sign saying The Ford Inn.
Enea let Alpha out. The Black Mantis had no problem in finding a crack in one of the inn’s still-locked doors and shutters. He crawled inside and began streaming us his vision of the place. The weird-colored mosaic picture wasn’t easy to work out but the main thing was clear: the inn was empty and in perfect order.
We found the same scenario in the other houses. No trace of fighting, furniture undisturbed — but all the village NPCs had vanished without a trace.
In the meantime, the weather on the other bank had grown worse. The heavy thunderclouds flashed with unusual discharges which didn’t resemble lightning. Could it be magic?
Enea and I exchanged glances. There was no cheerful curiosity in her eyes this time, only a fleeting trace of fear.
“We need to take a closer look,” she said.
I remembered my Blood Ties ability which allowed me to instantly transport to Rion once every seven days. “If the going gets tough, grab my hand and hold it tight. Whatever you do, don’t let it go,” I told her.
“Very well. Let’s just wait till Alpha comes back.”
Unlike ordinary pets, Alpha the Black Mantis couldn’t be summoned or unsummoned. He was always by his mistress’ side.
This time we called him twice — but to no avail. Alpha hovered around the village’s well, stubbornly refusing to come. We had to go and get him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Enea began.
Alpha didn’t even turn his head. He kept peeking into the well, scratching his legs nervously against the stonework.
“Alex, look! This is players’ stuff!”
The grass around the well was wilted and trampled down by constant use. Several identical pieces of white cloth lay trodden into it.
Those were players’ bundles, empty.
Normally when a player is killed, he or she goes back to their respawn point leaving a bundle with their possessions behind. The player then has twelve hours to return to the scene and pick up the bundle before it disappears. The only exception is during PvP fights when the winner gets access to the loser’s possessions straight away.
Whatever had happened here? I counted seven empty bundles.
Enea looked into the well and turned pale. “Alex!”
I was next to her in a flash. “What is it?”
“Help...” a weak voice echoed inside the well.
I looked down but couldn’t see anything at first. The taut rope of the well disappeared into the clouds of thick swirling fog.
The rope jolted. The faint sound of metal hitting stone came from below.
“Pull!” Enea grabbed the broken handle of the withered old crank.
“No! Wait! Can’t you see the rope is almost worn through? We’d better cast Levitation!”
The spell didn’t work, though. It shattered against the swirling haze, exploding in cascades of special effects.
I lay on my stomach on the edge of the well and tried to reach out for the part of the rope which hadn’t rubbed against the stone. I grabbed it with both my hands and pulled hard.
It was heavy. The sounds of metal screeching against stone grew closer. Finally, a disheveled head appeared from the mist, followed by its shoulders.
The player’s deformed steel suit of armor was rather plain — the kind preferred by newb warriors — and already touched by rust. How long had he spent there — two days, three? Or was the mist so corrosive?
All these thoughts flashed through my mind as I tugged at the rope praying it wouldn’t break.
Enea did well. She kept her cool. The moment the torso of the newb knight peeked through the mist, she cast another Levitation. This time it sort of worked, taking some of the weight off the rope. The kid, too, cheered up and tried to help us, fending himself off the walls of the well with his steel greaves.
We pulled him out.
The player rolled over the well’s edge and collapsed heavily onto the wilted grass. He lay there groaning, unable to move with fatigue.
Lloyd. Level 10. Warrior
We turned him over on his back. The kid’s face was pale, his eyes hollow, his lips chapped. The Exhaustion icon flashed red in his name tag.
“I’m cold,” he wheezed.
Enea moistened his lips with a healing elixir. The kid gulped. Color began to return to his cheeks.
“That’s better,” Enea supported his head. “Drink it slowly... that’s good.”
I perched myself on the edge of the well. “Who did this to you?”
“You’d better get down, man...”
“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna fall in.”
“It’s the mist... it syphons your strength...”
“Okay, okay,” I rose, tied some string around the neck of an empty vial and lowered it into the mist, then pulled it out and put the stopper in. Platinus would know what to do with it.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said. “What happened here?”
“The villagers...” Lloyd said thickly. “They seized all the players who were in the inn and threw them down the well. I grabbed at the rope... No idea how long I spent there. I tried to climb out bracing my legs against the walls but I couldn’t.”
“How about the others?”
“They’re all down there. The fog has bled them dry.”
“Why did the NPCs attack you?”
“No idea! They wanted to sacrifice us to some Reapers, whatever that’s supposed to mean. That’s all I understood from it. This is one hell of a glitch. They seemed completely deranged. They said, ‘Let’s throw them in the well and head over to the Ogres Road. If the Reapers accept the sacrifice, they’ll meet us in the forest and escort us.’ ”
“Escort them where?”
“No idea. The location ends there by the cliffs, doesn’t it? Also, they mentioned some guy called Dietrich. Apparently, whoever wants to join his army has to offer a sacrifice first.”
* * *
“Do you have a place to stay?” Enea asked.
“No idea. The inn is closed. The Logout button is blocked, just as the in-mode rental contract says,” he cast a look around. “I’m not in the mood to seek new adventures, to tell you the truth. Could I stay with you for a while?” he asked, apparently impressed by our levels.
“You think we could take him to Rion?” Enea whispered in my ear.
“I don’t know. What if he’s a Reaper agent? Or, God forbid, a Harvester?”
“I don’t think so. He’s only level 10. He seems okay.”
“How lucky does one need to be to grab at a conveniently hanging rope to stop one’s fall?”
“Please don’t be so... so uncharitable. The kid is what, fifteen years old? Not even.”
“Very well. Let’s go back to the castle and bring reinforcements. It’s too dangerous to continue on our own.”
“Do you want to call up a raid?”
&nbs
p; “Oh, no. Raids are too loud. A small group will be enough.”
“Are you talking about me?” Lloyd asked bluntly.
He was standing aside, crestfallen. Even Alpha seemed to cast sympathetic glances at him. The kid had had it tough. I wouldn’t have survived one hour down that well.
“Have you ever heard of Rion Castle?” I asked him.
He perked up. “Sure!”
“You can come with us. We have strict discipline, though. You’ll have to spend some time in a tent by the castle wall. No one can get inside without a thorough vetting.”
“I don’t mind. I’ve got nowhere to go, anyway. All I need is grab a bite to eat, get warm and get some sleep.”
How quickly things had changed in the virtual world! Before, no one used to give a damn about neither food nor sleep.
Enea smiled. “This I can promise. Let’s go to the portal now. Don’t be afraid.”
“You’re talking to me as if I’m a little kid,” he said.
“Sorry. How old are you, fifteen?”
“I’m twelve. So what?”
Enea frowned like a schoolteacher. “And where are your parents?”
The preteen warrior sniffled. “They’re on an expedition studying Jupiter’s moons. They rented this in-mode for me. Tell me, is it true that Rion Castle is ruled by an uncategorized wizard? Do you know him?”
Enea gave me a wink. “Yeah, sort of. We met him a few times.”
“Aren’t you afraid of him? They say his girlfriend is a shapeshifter!”
She frowned. “Who told you that?”
“A cleric told us in the inn. This Rion wizard, he fought the Ravens’ clan leader. And when he was cornered, she turned into a demon and healed him with Dark Regeneration. There was a battle on the moors like you can’t imagine! Demons, goblins, humans... they were all fighting each other.”
Enea sniffed. “They don’t know what they’re talking about! Wretched gossips. Alex is okay, I assure you. He fought an honest fight.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m that demon they’re talking about!”
“No way!” Lloyd slowed down.
“Joke. But you, my friend, are a bit too gullible. Do you really believe everything you hear?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. There was a demon fighting there. Only it was a different girl entirely.”
“Wow. Does he have two girlfriends?”
“You talk too much,” I took him down a peg.
I still couldn’t bring myself to think of that battle. My use of Dark Regeneration had cost me dearly. A sliver of darkness had stuck in my chest like a block of ice, and nothing I could do could melt it. As for the arrival of Christa, that was a different subject entirely.
“Oh, come on,” the kid said. “Everybody’s talking about them. Lots of people say Alexatis is an NPC. He doesn’t belong to any known class!”
Enea frowned. “You meet him first before you speak.”
“If you say so. Thanks for saving me.”
We stopped a few paces away from the village portal.
The weird weather on the other bank had grown worse. Greenish bolts of lightning forked through the darkness overhanging the old Ogres Road. Snowflakes danced in the unrelenting wind.
“Come on, then, let’s go before we freeze to death.”
The flash of the portal swallowed us.
* * *
Two hours later, we returned to Warblerford.
This time we’d come prepared. The danger here was much more serious than a couple of stone giants or a gang of highwaymen.
This time we’d taken along only those we could trust.
That meant we couldn’t take Arwan with us, unfortunately. He was an NPC himself. As it was, he’d already received a couple of neurograms during my battle with Reguar the Arch Demon. Too risky.
Iskandar caught up with me. “How do we cross the river?”
“We could use the ford, I suppose. But I’d rather take a boat.”
“Are there any boats there?”
“There must be. There’s a jetty just next to it. You think you could help me? Do you know how to row?”
“Sure.”
The village was still deserted, all the NPCs gone without a trace. Three boats rocked on the waves by the jetty.
Rodrigo eyed them with suspicion. “They’re falling apart!”
He picked the strongest one and cast a durability spell on it. Lately, we’d been constantly forced to adlib, seeking ways out of a multitude of petty but annoying household problems.
“It doesn’t work,” he said. “It’s still leaking.”
“Let me try,” Platinus said, climbing into the boat. “We need to bail the water out first.”
Archie and I removed our helmets and began helping him scoop out the murky sludge covering the bottom.
“I can see it!” Platinus peered at the bottom, then poured one of his vials onto the damaged place. “Now it’ll work!”
While we were fixing the boat, Raoul and Iskandar had fetched some oars and a long pole.
“What’s wrong with porting over there?” Togien grumbled. “It’s not as if we don’t have any scrolls!”
“They’ll notice it,” Enea replied. “Quite a few wizards can sense the disturbances in the air.”
“There’s nobody there!” Togien muttered. Grumbling for a dwarf is his life’s bread. “I know the Ogres Road. It runs parallel to the river bank. Where the forest ends, there are some cliffs that mark the end of the location. There’re a couple of caves there but they’re tiny. You can’t hide an army in them.”
“We’ll see,” I sat down on the wide bench and inserted the oar into the rowlock.
Iskandar picked up the other oar. Raoul stood on the stern holding the pole. Enea and Rodrigo sat on the bow behind a wicker shield which could serve to protect us from arrows in case of any emergency. Togien and Archie looked watchfully around, crossbows at the ready.
Platinus pushed the boat away from the bank, then jumped in.
We began to row. The current was fast and strong here, so it was quite a challenge. The bank slipped by slowly.
“So what’s there?” Iskandar asked nervously when we were halfway through. He didn’t feel comfortable sitting with his back to a potential danger.
“Seems okay,” Enea replied, peering at the riverside vegetation. “Keep slightly to the left.”
Finally, the boat’s stern lodged softly in the sand.
Trying to move noiselessly, we climbed out. A nut grove ran along the narrow bank.
Everything was drowned in a thick gray fog. The rubbery silence was unsettling. No birds singing, no leaves rustling. The light breeze seemed unable to shift the heavy, unyielding layers of fog.
The sky shimmered with acid green sheets of dubious light.
“Gosh it’s spooky,” Enea said, releasing Alpha into the air.
The Black Mantis dashed for the trees but was back almost straight away. He flitted out onto the sandy bank and ran along the water’s edge, shaking the droplets of fog off his wings.
“Let’s find the road,” I peered at the location map. “We’ve been drifting downstream. We need to walk another couple hundred feet or so.”
* * *
The old Ogres Road started right there by the ford. It crossed the little wood, then turned off toward the first banks of cliffs.
The visibility was better here. The fog was gradually thinning out, separating into layers.
Togien, Archie and myself walked in front.
Aha. A signpost!
Two signs were nailed to an old stake cracked with age and overgrown with moss.
—> To the Ford
<— Port, 15 miles
Someone had scribbled a handwritten note below,
Roadway checked. No ogres. The caves are farm-worthy, lvl 20-25.
Archie stopped. “Let’s take the road?”
“I suggest we check the caves first,”
I said, consulting the map. “We’ll see a tall cliff in a minute. The entrance to the caves is just behind it.”
That’s exactly what we did. A barely visible trail took us in the right direction.
“Look,” Iskandar pointed at some tree stumps by the roadside. “They’ve been cut recently. Look at the moss, how it’s stripped off the wood. I think they dragged the trees over there,” he pointed to the cliffs.
Rare snowflakes fell from the sky. This was weird. It had never snowed in our region before.
“What’s going on?” Togien stopped. “The cliff is gone! But I remember it very well! Gwain and I were here together looking for some ore deposits! You just can’t miss it!”
“The trail goes that way,” Archie said in surprise. “This is also a road! It’s been used recently!”
Platinus sniffed in the cold air. “Can you smell the smoke?”
“Someone’s got a fire going?” Raoul suggested. “Alex, can’t you launch a Magic Eye?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said. “We shouldn’t attract attention to ourselves. We can’t see anything in the fog, anyway. And if I try to fly the Eye higher, they might see it.”
“Who they?” Togien snickered.
“This is what we’re going to find out,” I stepped forward.
Nothing happened. Even though, according to my map, I’d just crossed into the neighboring location.
The others seemed to understand this too.
“Could it be an update?” Enea tentatively offered.
About thirty feet further on, the fog began to thicken, then dissipated completely. It felt as if we’d walked through a thick wall of cotton wool out into a boundless distorted space.
This was a different reality altogether. There was no sun here. A diffused light seemed to be seeping from everywhere at once.
Сracked barren ground lay underfoot. No sight of vegetation anywhere, but plenty of fire and ice.
The Reapers (The Neuro 3) Page 9