City of the Dead

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Dividing loot…

  Items in the storeroom are subject to immediate disposal…

  Partners was compensated for items removed from circulation.

  Valia Levor receives OGM-III outfit.

  Valia Levor receives Jungle Call epic card.

  Valia Levor receives Cold Ring-I rare card.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives OGM-III outfit.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Dragon legendary card.

  Tailyn Vlashich receives Lavr Nalin’s Notebook.

  ***

  If you’re reading this text, I’m no longer in the land of the living. But that’s fine—I found a good spot to hide the containers of blood. The mission the commander entrusted to me has been completed. I encrypted the coordinates of the stash to make sure any enemy who happens across this isn’t able to get to it, and the only ones who have the key are me, General Isr Kale, and Mark Derwin, the absorber. For anyone else, good luck! No matter how strong the white order is, regardless of the fact that the game gave them their power, they will never become gods without the dragon’s blood. Earth will be ours!

  ***

  Mission update: Search for Coordinates. You found Lavr Nalin’s notebook, but everything written in it is encrypted. Find a way to decode it.

  ***

  You took another step on a difficult journey and earned a reward.

  Your group receives a reward: +1 to a random skill.

  Card Saturation +1 (3).

  “Tailyn, I know what the white order is,” Valia whispered in horror once she finished reading the ancient’s message. “Our teacher told us all about it in our lessons on magic history. Dragon’s blood is a mythical source of magic power everyone knows about, only nobody’s ever seen it. And the white order is the ancient name for the group of mages who founded the academy a few thousand years ago! The immortal provost and his deputies are the leaders of the order. The ancients weren’t just fighting monsters; they were fighting mages, too!”

  Mission updated: Ancient History. You learned that the white order is a group of ancient mages who founded the academy, and that they fought regular humans for Dragon’s Blood. This is a secret mission, so you can’t discuss it with anyone besides level 5 lix Ka-Do-Gir and level 9 human Valia Levor.

  “Oh, I just leveled-up… Tailyn, I have that mission, too!” the girl cried excitedly when she read the update. “Hey, since we’re allowed to now, can we tell each other what we know? I think I might have a surprise or two up my sleeve.”

  Chapter 18

  OGM-III outfit. Description: rare item. Outdoor garb for mages that lets them survive the hardships of life outside their tower. Adjustable slots and pockets can change their size depending on the height of the wearer. Waterproof boots. Can regenerate when less than 50% of the surface area is damaged. Includes mimicry and can adjust to look like any clothing you’ve worn previously. Does not include OHM (outdoor headgear for mages). Shield level: +80 * (level + Enhancement); mana level: +80 * (level + Enhancement); magic attack: +10 * (level + Enhancement); Mysticism +1; Armor +1. All parameters increased by 3 for each 10 levels the wearer reaches.

  AFTER TAILYN HAD READ through the description, he couldn’t bring himself to put the outfit on. It was a fairy tale. After all, it went beyond boosting his mana, shield, and magic attack, as it was even fully charged. The moment he put it on, he was going to have 1,260 of his 1,720 mana available. The boy couldn’t believe his good fortune. And judging by Valia’s gaping mouth, even the preparation she’d gone through for the academy hadn’t prepared her for such a generous gift from the god. She got over her shock much faster than Tailyn, of course. Looking around the room and realizing there was nowhere to hide, she blushed and muttered over at the boy.

  “Turn around! I need to change.”

  “Okay!” Tailyn spun around sharply, his face also turning beet red. And when he heard the clothing rustling behind him, his embarrassment level shot upward, reaching through the city levels, the metro, even the mountain.

  “What, are you not going to get changed?” the girl asked in surprise when she was done. She would never have suspected the outfit could be so comfortable, and that was despite the fact that her father had never skimped on her clothing. Tailyn began stripping off the old model. When he got down to his underwear, he realized in a daze that Valia wasn’t planning on turning around. He wanted to sink down through the floor to One’s level, maybe farther.

  “Oh, aren’t we such a fading lily,” the girl snorted when she figured out why the boy had turned to stone. Making a point of spinning on her heel, she began digging through everything else she’d gotten. The cold ring formed a thick ring of cold air around her that did marginal damage while pinning opponents to the ground for thirty seconds. It was a great option for a quick getaway, the only problem being that her wisdom was only at level one. With a heavy heart, she did her best not to look at her mysticism or intellect, adding the free point she’d gotten for leveling-up to her wisdom. That let her use the card. Sadly, it was only that one, as the second required eight wisdom.

  Jungle Call card. Description: an epic magic card that summons an army of monsters from the depths of the jungle to attack the summoner’s opponent. The level and number of the summoned creatures depends on the card owner’s level and magic attack. Duration: Magic Attack seconds. Includes 5 charges. Charges remaining: 5. Time between uses: 48 hours. Double requirement for Wisdom (minimum required for use: 8). Can be recharged.

  It was a great card for an advanced mage and a useless one for uneducated children yet to enroll in the academy. With a rueful look on her face, Valia dropped it into her inventory. Perhaps, it would come in handy one day. The rustling had stopped, she noticed just then, and so she turned to look at Tailyn. The new outfit looked great on him, turning a country bumpkin into capital dandy. He was suddenly the kind of guy she could take to a reception without everyone at court laughing at her. But where did that thought come from?

  “What kind of card did you get?” Valia asked as she tried to clear her head. “I’ve never been this close to anything legendary. Can you show me the description?”

  “If I could…” Tailyn sighed. He himself was shocked he’d gotten a reward like that, only there wasn’t much point in it. Decades were going to pass before he could use it.

  Wisdom level insufficient to read this card. Required: 8.

  And that was just to read the description, which meant it was going to take at least sixteen to use it. What could have been so amazing about the dragon? Did the card really summon one to burn all things living? It certainly sounded great…

  There was also a hitch in their plan to exchange what they knew about the ancients. Tailyn wasn’t able to put together a packet of information and send it to Valia, not because he didn’t want to, but because he just couldn’t. He still didn’t have the mission functionality despite the many the god had sent him. Clearly, it wasn’t always a benefit to be incompletely initiated. Valia thought for a long while before looking at Tailyn guiltily and declining to send over what she knew. The girl didn’t want to give it up for free, so they decided to put off the exchange until they both joined the academy a year and a half later.

  “Wait here. Please,” Tailyn said as he opened the door. There was no fire, and nobody shot anything at the boy. That was a good sign. Taking a step forward into the corridor, he was immediately noticed.

  Verifying access…

  A couple nerve-wracking seconds ticked by that felt like an eternity, though whoever was doing the check didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Tailyn had every right to be on that level.

  Finally, the boy was able to take a moment to look around. He’d never seen a corridor like that one. Instead of stone or even wood or plaster, the walls were made out of metal. Tailyn tried to calculate how much the whole thing was worth, but he gave up. The numbers he came up with were too high to point to anything but an error in his accounting.

  But Tailyn wasn’t about to head b
ack to the horrifying room or One’s tomb. Valia definitely wasn’t getting out that way. Remembering his plan, the boy headed in the opposite direction as the shower, looking around as he went and stopped to hold his cards up to his mouth every time he heard a sound. Of course, he’d recharged them all, already. There had even been mana to spare—a whole 308—thanks to the timely bump to his card saturation skill. But there were no opponents to be seen. Nobody was in any hurry to punish the boy for venturing doing into the heart of the city, and it didn’t seem like anyone besides One was even alive down there. Where was Lirhart? Climbing up a set of stairs, the boy carefully made his way to the next level up, but that didn’t help anything. Everything there was quiet and empty, too. The rooms Tailyn checked was all completely bare. Of course, he knew very well that all the valuables were hidden behind the locked doors, but he couldn’t do anything about that.

  No access to player Carlin Del’s personal room.

  Each successive room gave Tailyn a similar message, the only difference being the names. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get through the steel barriers.

  But the level wasn’t as empty as the boy had initially suspected. After tramping through yet another hallway with no sign of Lirhart, whoever he was, Tailyn suddenly saw a break in the metal wall. And the gap opened up into a tiny stone cave. The bottom was slightly lower, and so he had to use a set of ledges serving as stairs to get down into the cave. But what had captured the boy’s attention? In the very middle of the cave, a large crystal was shining with a blue flame.

  When he’d told Valia about his adventures, Tailyn hadn’t bothered to hide how he’d picked up his first parameters. It took her a second to get over the shock, too—throughout her ten years, it had been beaten into her head that possession of a crystal was punishable by death with no chance of appeal. But Tailyn had been able to convince her that he didn’t have a choice. He really had wanted to hand the blue stones over to the city elder, he just hadn’t gotten that far. And the lix had used the other crystal himself. Tailyn hadn’t had anything to do with that.

  But right there in front of him was yet another wonder of the world. With a crystal there capable of giving him another parameter, the boy knew all too well that he wasn’t going to just let it be. But was he going to tell Valia about what he was about to grab? Probably not. There was no need to get her worked up about it.

  His mind made up, Tailyn headed down and touched the crystal. The lix had slashed at it with his claws, but the boy had neither the tools nor the skill. All he could do was hope for the god’s mercy and his own good luck.

  You don’t have the Crystal Miner skill.

  If you destroy this deposit, you will only receive 1 crystal.

  Would you like to destroy this crystal deposit?

  That was an intriguing bit of information. Apparently, if the boy picked up the right skill, he would get multiple crystals each time. Everything in him wanted to go find a remote terminal and buy himself the parameter, especially since he had enough gold for it, but the problem was that there weren’t any terminals. So yes, he was going to destroy it.

  The cave was dipped into darkness only to have something smaller and less bright push the gloom back a second later.

  Dividing loot…

  Tailyn Vlashich receives 1 crystal.

  Would you like to boost an attribute or a skill?

  That unpleasant message elicited a frown from the boy—Valia was going to know that he’d gotten his hands on a forbidden crystal, and by all rights he was supposed to stick it in his inventory so he could hand it over to the authorities at the first possible opportunity. The boy stood there for a while, turning the crystal over in his hands as he decided what to do. Of course, he knew which parameter to boost. But was that the right moment for it? Finally, he decided it was. The stronger he became, the better their chances were of getting back to the city. But what would the girl say? For some reason, Tailyn cared about her opinion. With a heavy heart, he accepted the offer and selected the right line. If Valia turned him in, so be it.

  Enhancement +1 (7).

  His parameters all jumped up to drive the fear away. First came surviving; there would be time enough to worry later. After heading back up to the hallway and wandering around for a little while longer, Tailyn came to the conclusion that there was nothing else for him there. Lirhart had to be higher up.

  Another staircase led the boy into a cold room. His OGM-III began to heat up, warming his body, and the boy stopped short in surprise. There hadn’t been anything about that in the description, though he was absolutely a fan. No longer was he going to have to worry about the winter cold—the blizzards in their parts could be particularly bitter.

  His ears and nose began to tingle. The temperature was falling to the point that it felt like the coldest night of the year, and Tailyn did his best to stagger his breathing for fear of something freezing up inside him. Life without the headgear was difficult, but he pushed onward with dogged determination, checking room after room. They were all locked and belonged to players with strange names. Judging by the projection, there was supposed to be a big hall ahead, and that’s what Tailyn was braving the cold to get to.

  One more turn, a doorway, and the boy finally reached his goal. He was barely breathing, his palms protecting his face as he peered out between his fingers. The boy had never felt anything so cold. And with his ears and nose already beyond feeling, he hoped his regeneration would take care of him.

  But no sooner did Tailyn see what was in the room, than his hands let go of his face and grabbed hold of his cards. In the center of the enormous hall, there was a desk holding a remote terminal. And above it, there was a box so hot it was glowing. It was surrounded by four devices generating the cold that had turned the level into an icy wilderness. But the strangest part was that the glowing box had its own name.

  Lirhart (mechanism). One’s senior minion. Age 3508. Level 230.

  “How did you get here?” an odd, lifeless voice asked. It was coming from the workstation. “Actually, that doesn’t matter. You will be destroyed, the master will be reborn, and humankind will fall. The black lixes will restore everything you destroyed.”

  On that pleasant note, Tailyn decided to act. Something moved behind him, but he was too busy to pay any attention.

  Ka-Li.

  The wave of fire ripped forward to drive away the fierce cold. Already glowing, the box got even hotter, though it was able to withstand the blow. Even the freezers next to it survived, beginning to pump out even more cold. And that was a problem. Tailyn had been very much hoping to do some kind of damage, but he’d come up more or less empty.

  That’s when things took an unexpected turn. A hand slammed down on the boy’s right shoulder and began to press him into the ground. Tailyn tried to turn quickly, but it didn’t work—he was being held so tightly that he was left nearly immobile. By twisting his neck, he was finally able to see who his opponent was, though he almost wished he hadn’t. His perception gave him a bit of awfully unpleasant news.

  Protective Golem (mechanism). Guard. Level 180.

  The creature, which looked like an enormous snowman made out of three spheres stuck one to another, had stepped right out of the wall. The doorway was visible behind it. And while the monster moved slowly, that didn’t impact its grip in the least. Tailyn screamed in pain as he dug his legs in to try and get away. But the giant’s icy fingers crushed down with such power that all the boy earned himself was a crunch that left his right arm dangling uselessly. A wave of pain rushed through his body, followed quickly by a surge of rage. He hadn’t come that far just to die at the hands of some slowpoke monster.

  Ka-Li.

  You used Fireball-II.

  You did 162 damage to Protective Golem.

  Mana -1 (537).

  The fireball drove away the bitter cold for a few seconds, but that was all it did. The golem wasn’t even staggered when it took the hit to the face. Instead, it kept pressing Tailyn in
to the ground, its fingers tearing through the boy’s outfit and ripping into his body. Happily, that dulled the pain. Cold air flooded the costume, freezing Tailyn’s shoulder, and while the OGM-III still held up, it didn’t look like that was going to remain the case for long. It was moments away from shutting down. Tailyn panicked, not sure what to do. His cards were useless against the monsters. Fire did nothing…

  But then it hit him. Would something else do the trick?

  Ka-Li.

  You used Electric Strike-I.

  You did 162 damage to Lirhart, One’s senior minion, a level 230 creature, and stunned it for 30 seconds due to its weakness against electricity.

  Charges remaining: 49 of 50.

  The golem’s grip weakened as it suddenly turned motionless. Tailyn wrenched himself loose with a wild cry, barely able to pull the creature’s arms apart. His right arm was completely useless. Doing his best to ignore the pain, the boy cheered himself up with a mental pat on the back for guessing correctly. In just a second, he’d figured out what was going on and identified who his main target was. The golem was merely a machine. It was Lirhart. The combat status told Tailyn there was only one opponent to reckon with, not two, and that meant Lirhart was wielding the golem much as Tailyn himself might have wielded a sword. That’s why the boy’s bolt of lightning had been sent right at the glowing box rather than the monster holding his shoulder.