Hero
Page 13
“Nay, Avatar, Delios is overseen by his twin sister, Artemis. The Priestess will receive you.”
As he left, Acron turned to the statue of Apollo and fell to his knees. Speaking to his God, he said “Oh Lord of Light. What is happening that the world needs such Heroes as these Avatars?” Shuddering with his thoughts, he began praying.
As he left the Temple, Duros, while outwardly smiling at everyone he met, was snarling inside.
“Insolent whelp! Who does he think he is! I cannot allow this Avatar to threaten plans years in the making!”
Fuming about what to do, he paused as he reached his house. Sitting on the front porch, he considered his options.
None of the other Village leaders would consider taking any action against the Avatar – they were all struck with awe at the bastard.
“What to do……I cannot let him expose us!” His thoughts were a whirlwind on the verge of panic – decades of work had been laid to this point. Duros had not really expected the Avatar to best the Alpha wolf. He was counting on more attacks and drain on the village resources so that, eventually, they would be willing to turn away from Apollo and towards his own master. With no danger, the peasants here would continue to worship Apollo! That idiot Acron was already writing the speeches praising the Avatar and the way that Apollo had chosen him.
But perhaps if this Avatar would simply disappear……
Duros got to his feet and strode quickly away from his home. He had a man to contact.
Jaxx strode away from the Village of Triada. He had stopped by the house of Spiros to say goodbye to the kind man who had provided him shelter. Spiros’ wife, Agariste, had been cordial and packed him traveling rations. She was also, Jaxx reflected, glad to see him go.
He had opened the small scroll given to him by Duros to see the name of the Village, Delios, along with directions. It seemed Delios was a few weeks journey to the south and east. If Jaxx followed the roads, he should be fine, according to the note.
Jaxx hefted his bag, put his spear on his shoulder, and began walking. His wolfskin cloak, swept back behind his shoulders, drifted in the wind as he walked.
Name
Jaxx
Jaxx
Race
Human
Human
Level
6
3
Total XP
1810
XP to Next Level
1790
100
Strength
11
1
Intellect
0
0
Agility
6
1
Stamina
6
1
Constitution
11
1
Charisma
5
1
Rage Capacity
16
10
Skills
Dodge – 11
2H Spear – 12
Improvisation – 4
1H Sword – 3
Shield – 1
Fire Starting – 1
Fortification – 1
Stealth – 4
Weapon Repair – 1
Unarmed Combat – 1
1H Axes - 1
None
Skills
Dodge – Level 10
Dodge is the ability to avoid blows in combat. Each successful combat session where you successfully dodge at least one attack will raise this by +1. Only one level will be achieved per combat session. Current affect – 11% more likely to dodge an attack by an attacker of the same or lower level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to dodge by 5%. Agility level increases Dodge.
2H Spear – Level 11
Your chance to land a blow with a 2H spear is increased by 12% against an attacker of the same or lower level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to hit by 5%. Agility increases chance to hit with a weapon.
Improvisation – Level 4
Improvisation is the ability to make something from nothing. 4% increased chance to put together a viable item from raw materials.
1H Sword – Level 3
Your chance to land a blow with a 1H sword is increased by 3% against an attacker of the same or lower level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to hit by 5%. Agility increases chance to hit with a weapon.
Fire Starting – Level 1
The ability to start fires is a gift straight from Prometheus himself. Higher levels allow you to start fires in adverse conditions. 1% increased chance to start fires.
1H Sword – Level 3
You chance to land a blow with a 1H sword is increased by 3% against an attacker of the same or lower level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to hit by 5%. Agility increases the chance to hit with a weapon.
Shield – Level 3
Your chance to block a blow with an equipped shield increased by 3% from an enemy at or below your level. Your chance to land a blow with a shield increased by 3% against an attacker at or below your level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to block and hit by 5%. Agility increases chance to hit and block with shields.
Stealth – Level 4
You move silently, grasshoppah! 4% chance to move unnoticed while sneaking around. You are slightly ashamed as a Barbarian shouldn’t be sneaking, but here we are.
Fortification – Level 1
You begin to appreciate the value of a well-fortified position. You do 1% more damage and receive 1% less damage when fighting from a fortified position.
Unarmed Combat – Level 1
You are a barbarian! 1% more base damage dealt when using your fists in combat.
1H Axes – Level 1
You chance to land a blow with a 1H axe is increased by 1% against an attacker of the same or lower level. Each enemy level above yours reduces the chance to hit by 5%. Agility increases the chance to hit with a weapon.
Blessings
Apollo’s Light (Cloak)
+2 to Agility
+2 to HP regeneration (5 per minute)
+2 to Stamina regeneration (5 per minute)
Chapter 11
Jaxx paused. He was 5 days out from Triada and so far, the journey had been fairly boring. The reason he was pausing was the notification that had just popped up. It was unusual and expressed a complexity to the game that he hadn’t expected.
Notice! You have gone 5 days without earning experience. Earn experience within 2 days or your stats will begin to lose experience daily. The rate of experience loss will accelerate daily and must be earned back at the normal rate.
Now this was something Jaxx had never seen before. Negative experience if you don’t earn any in a week? He supposed this was the developer’s way of forcing people to play the game and not just sit back and enjoy themselves forever in some game tavern. Jaxx knew lots of people that would probably do that, just log in to drink worry free and perhaps sample some companionship.
Not that he knew if you could even “sample,” but judging by his normal reactions and the occasional situation he found in the morning when he woke up, he thought that that particular portion of human existence was also present here. In fact, he was looking forward to it when and if he got the chance.
As he walked, he thought about the dialogue. There was definitely a premium placed on advancing in this game, he decided. The way that experience shrank as you got closer to out-leveling monsters, to the point where eventually you would earn nothing, along with the mechanic of losing experience if you were lazy, pointed to a game that was very fast paced. Either keep moving, or go backwards, he thought. There is no standing still.
As he walked, lost in thought, his barbarian senses began to notice things. Even though he walked pretty quietly and, on the road, he noticed that a lot of the sounds from the surrounding forest were quieter, even non-existent.
Just as he was slowing to take a longer look around, an arrow came whistling out of the
brush and slammed into his shoulder, taking a chunk of HP and causing him to emit a “whoof!” of surprise. He fell to one knee as another arrow went through the spot his chest had just occupied.
Arrow hits you for 15 damage!
“Ambush!” he thought as he threw himself off the road away from the direction that the arrows had come from. “Why? I know no one here!” He gritted his teeth and ripped the arrow out.
Bleeding! Lose 1 hp/sec for 20 sec!
Damn. With the 15 already gone, that would leave him with 80 hp, assuming that he didn’t get hurt. He did notice, however, that his rage meter was going up as he was damaged. It was at 30 and climbing.
He slipped into Stealth and began to crab-walk his way through the low brush on the side of the road. He knew there had to be more than one person, even if he was a kickass archer. Logic stated that at least one would be on either side of the road.
Jaxx paused in the shadow of a tree, assessing. He continued to bleed and his HP was at 90 and still falling. He listened and heard the sound of someone moving further ahead of him, towards the road. He waited, then moved perpendicular away from the road and into the forest, stopping about 20 yards into the forest. He paused, then moved left – hopefully he could circle around and surprise his attackers.
He came to a fallen log and crouched behind it – from here he had a look at the road through the brush. Sure enough, he spotted two figures crouched behind trees ahead of him. They were looking around, up and down the road, waiting for him. For whatever reason, they didn’t look behind them.
They were shorter than him, swarthy, with black curly hair and beards. They were wearing cheap, ragged clothing that had seen better days and were armed with low quality bronze short swords. Cheap sandals adorned their feet. He could see no armor or other weapons.
“Sneak attack or roaring charge?” thought Jaxx. He knew there was at least one archer on the other side but he was pretty confident in his ability to handle the two in front of him. He didn’t fancy taking an arrow in the back, however, so he figured that he should try deception instead.
Still in stealth, which had gone up two points since he started sneaking, he moved backwards until he was just out of sight of the road. He then gathered some rocks and began throwing them towards the men, making sure to stay out of line of sight. As he made noise, he heard the men arguing in low tones. Finally, one decided to come investigate.
Here he came, crouched in a fearful stance, hand tightly clutching his sword and his head moving almost continuously. He was obviously fearful, and Jaxx realized that rather than the professional killer he had imagined, this was a barely trained ruffian.
As the man came closer, Jaxx leaped out from his concealment, thrusting his spear directly into the man’s chest. Eyes wide in surprise and pain, the man stared at Jaxx, mouth moving but no voice coming out. He dropped his sword, falling to his knees with his arms loose at his sides in a kind of boneless collapse that signified imminent death. He continued to stare at Jaxx, mouth moving slightly, before the emptiness of death entered his eyes, and he slumped to the ground and off of Jaxx’s spear.
Human Bandit killed! 200 xp rewarded!
Jaxx stared down at the man. This was the first actual human that he had killed in the game – it seemed incredibly real. Jaxx knew that the man was an NPC, controlled by a simple program and rarely by the game AIs, but he was still shaken. Nothing he had ever done before prepared him for the reality of killing a human – even an electronic, created one. Everything felt real. The shock of his spear penetrating the chest of the man, the eyes wide open, staring, bloodshot eyes filming over in death, the smell of the man’s excrement as he fouled his pants in death, the dead weight of the man as he slid off of Jaxx’s spear – it all seemed real. Jaxx had no doubt that if he were to kill a man in the real world with a spear, it would duplicate what he had just experienced. He felt sick. No matter the man had been lying in wait for him – no matter he would have killed Jaxx if he had the opportunity – the feeling was…. wrong.
The situation illustrated – again – the difference between Olympus Online and anything else Jaxx had played before. In those games, slaughtering human NPCs was part of the game, and you never felt bad about it – just looted the bodies and moved on. Here, you were faced immediately with the consequences of your actions – you didn’t just loot the body and move on. Here, it was shoved into your face and you had to deal with it.
Jaxx knew that some people wouldn’t care, that no matter how real it was they would still treat the NPCs like NPCs…. that is, worthy of slaughter. But he couldn’t, at least not anymore. His interactions with the people of Triada had felt no more different than meeting someone in the real world – probably, it was better in the game because most of the people in the real world were apathetic douches, buried in their electronic games and headsets (the irony of this thought he chose not to explore right now). Jaxx couldn’t remember the last real conversation he’d had with someone in the real world, and his job allowed him to travel more than most.
“Georgi?” The voice snapped Jaxx out of reverie. He realized that he was standing in the open, staring down at the man’s body (apparently named Georgi) while his thoughts raced in a dozen directions. Jaxx crouched, and then stealthed back into the brush.
Georgi’s partner was slowing coming towards them, still saying his dead partner’s name every few seconds. From his view, Jaxx saw that he was probably more scared than Georgi had been, judging by the shaking sword and the sweat pouring down his face.
Jaxx readied himself, judging that distasteful as it was, he would be able to surprise this other man just the way that he had Georgi. As he was about to jump, WHAM an arrow slammed into his upper back, pushing him forward into the open in front of the astonished second bandit. The man was so startled, he dropped his sword and fell backwards, a yell escaping his lips.
Arrow hits you for 15 damage!
“Damn,” Jaxx thought. “That damned archer!” While Jaxx was killing Georgi and was distracted by the second bandit, the archer had apparently crossed the road and snuck around behind Jaxx.
Jaxx cursed his lack of focus – he had been so distracted by the two bandits that he had forgotten the original cause of his damage – he had naively assumed the archer would stay on the other side of the road. He reached back and pulled the arrow out – luckily it had not penetrated very deep. He once again sparked a bleeding debuff for another 20 seconds. He was still okay on HP – he had regenerated some thanks to the buff from Apollo’s cloak, but he couldn’t afford to take unlimited damage either.
He did notice his rage meter had spiked again.
“Take care of the guy in front, or go after the archer first?” Jaxx thought. Leaving the second swordsman at his back was a really bad idea, Jaxx decided. He jumped to his feet and charged forward, intent on skewering the man before he got back to his feet and grabbed his sword again. The man saw him coming and blanched, holding up his arms in a pleading gesture:
“Don’t! Don’t kill me! I won’t attack you just let me go please!” The words ran together in a hurried, primal scream, and Jaxx watched as the man curled up in a fetal position, sobbing the words “Don’t kill me” over and over.
“Not a threat,” Jaxx thought, and he stealthed away to the left around a large tree, hoping to put some distance between where the archer had shot him and where he was now. As he moved, he continued to lose health and gain rage, until the rage bar was hovering at about 80%. “Another good solid hit on me and I should hit max” Jaxx thought, chuckling at the dichotomy of his class. It was now apparent why the Barbarian gained both Strength and Constitution – his ability almost required him to take damage in order to maximize his damage output. The faster he took damage, the faster he could Enrage.
In certain circumstances, he was sure that it would be an amazing ability – such as, if he was supported by a healer, for instance. The rest of the time it was a roll of the dice that he could kill whatever he was fight
ing before Enrage wore off – the full stamina drain after it was over was a sure way to be killed if he was still in combat.
As he passed behind the tree, an arrow thudded into the edge of it. Jaxx kept low and kept circling, hoping to get out of the archer’s line of sight long enough to flank him. But this archer seemed to be no fool – he we likely moving himself or lying in wait as he rotated to keep Jaxx in line.
Just then Jaxx got a break – the other bandit who had begged for life and that Jaxx had left alone, suddenly jumped up and began running towards the road and away from Jaxx and, coincidentally, the archer. Immediately Jaxx stopped moving, waiting to see what the archer would do. Hearing a soft curse, he sensed the archer moving to his left, away from his hiding spot so that he could get a line on who he must have assumed to be Jaxx.
“Probably thought I killed the second bandit,” Jaxx thought as he smiled ferally. He slipped after the archer, keeping him in his view as the man chased the second bandit. The archer stopped and dropped to one knee, drawing his bow. “He’s seen him,” thought Jaxx as he readied his spear. He didn’t want to kill the archer, just disable him long enough to get some information. He hoped the man wouldn’t be difficult – even with an NPC, the idea of torture turned Jaxx’s stomach worse than killing people.