Lucas Hutchins
Investigator
Level 6
HP: 166
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 6
Perception: 9
Endurance: 6
Resilience: 6
Fortitude: 7
"What the hell is this?" Ellie asked. She stood next to the Matriarch's corpse. She held up a rubber ball that was covered in chew marks. "This was on the loot table."
"Loot table?" I asked.
"Yeah, you can actually search through the corpses for gear if you want, or just open up the loot table. Anyway, this is something called Dagwood's Chew Toy, but there aren't any stats on it, and I don't think I can equip it."
There was movement behind Ellie.
A small shape, much smaller than anything we'd seen so far. Even smaller than the Roach Hound Swarmers. A long body punctuated by four short stubby legs. Small plates of chitin interrupted the black and tan fur that covered the dog's body. It was another roach hound, but this one didn't look like it was gearing up to attack us. Its tongue lolled out the side of its misshapen roach-like mouthparts and its little tail wagged at the end of its long body. Half Goliath Cockroach, half Dachshund.
It was so ugly that it was cute.
A roach hound puppy.
I motioned behind Ellie. "At your six," I said.
She turned, then recoiled from the sight of the tiny roach hound pup. Her heel caught on the uneven ground and Ellie lost her balance. She toppled backward.
The roach hound pup must have seen the ball in Ellie's hand, and it bounded towards her. The puppy yipped at the ball.
"Ugh! It's so disgusting!" Ellie tried to crawl backward, but the puppy was relentless. It wanted that ball.
"It just wants to play fetch!" I said. "Come on, throw the ball!"
Ellie shot me a withering glare as though I'd just delivered the news that her mother was dead, then squeezed her eyes closed.
"Kill it!" she said.
"What? No way! That's your puppy, Ellie! What did you say its name was? Dagwood?" I grinned.
"No! No, I am not having this! Come on, James! Help me kill this disgusting thing!"
Dagwood whined.
James smiled down at Ellie "I've already incinerated the nest. There are no puppies here."
Ellie and I looked at each other, then Ellie pointed at Dagwood.
"Right there. It's literally right there."
James raised an eyebrow, but I realized what was happening.
"He can't see it, Ellie."
"What? How is that possible?"
"Watch this," I said. "Hey James!" James looked at me expectantly. "You can't see this pet, because it's a non-summonable non-combat pet, isn't that right? It would break the game if you were able to see it, or the people up in Eldin. It’d cause a panic, isn't that right? So you can't hear a word I'm saying right now."
James's eyes glazed over, like he was deep in thought.
"See?" I said. "He can't see it. It's like how game mechanic discussion is filtered out from the non-player character's perception."
"Holy shit," Ellie said.
"Dagwood's all yours now." I grinned.
"I don't want it. Can you kill it?"
"I'm not going to kill a puppy!"
"It's not real!" Ellie shrieked.
"Come on, he's so cute!"
"If he's so cute, then you take his damned chew toy!" Ellie held out the small rubber ball to me.
I took it gladly, then threw it across the room in the opposite direction from the matriarch's broken body. Dagwood didn't seem to care that we had just slain its brood mother. The little pup bounded after the ball as fast as his stumpy little legs would carry him. He carried the ball awkwardly in a set of jaws that weren't built for the task. He curled his thick tongue around the bottom of the ball, holding it in place. When Dagwood came back, he didn't come to me. He came back to Ellie and dropped the ball at her feet.
"No!" she shrieked at him. "No, I don't want you! Go to Lucas! Just not me!"
I hunkered down and slapped my hand on my knee. "Come on over here, Dagwood!" I said, my voice growing sickly sweet in that way it only did when I was talking to doggos. "I'll play fetch with you!"
Dagwood looked at me, then back at Ellie, then back to me, then whimpered. He nudged the ball with his wet nose towards Ellie.
"Oh you are so gross!" Ellie made a face as she picked up the ball, then held it out towards me. "I don't want it! You take this gross thing!"
"His name is Dagwood," I said, and Dagwood's tail started wagging. "Yeah, you know your name don't you little guy?"
Dagwood yipped at me, then turned around in a little circle. His eyes never left the ball I held in my hand.
I had gotten non-combat pets in other games before. Most of the time you could dismiss them when you didn't want to see them anymore. I looked at the ball in my hand, hoping to open the item description. If Ellie didn't want him, then I'd take Dagwood. He was gross, sure, but he was half puppy. Half-puppy trumped the half-cockroach part of him any day of the week.
I concentrated on the ball, but nothing appeared. It just looked like a ball, and I didn't have any unique ways of interacting with it. No information panel. No stats. Nothing.
I tried to slip it into my pocket, but an invisible barrier stopped me.
A message appeared in the bottom of my view, explaining why.
You are unable to take possession of Fatewoven items that belong to other players.
Oh. What the heck did Fatewoven mean? It was weird that I couldn't even see the flavor text of the item.
"Um, looks like Dagwood is all yours. I can't take ownership of him."
"What? Why?" Ellie asked, aghast.
"That chew toy is Fatewoven," I said.
"What does that even mean?" Ellie asked.
"Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that we didn't ask for," James said. Both Ellie and I looked at him in confusion. "The bonds of fate take us all down roads we did not intend to travel, and once fate deigns to weave something into the tapestry of your life, you are bound by it."
"Wait, so can he hear what we're talking about or not?" Ellie asked.
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe he just heard Fatewoven and had a pre-scripted little sound bite ready to go."
Ellie looked back at Dagwood and shuddered. "Bleh. It's so gross!" Ellie said, but she still took the chew toy when I handed it to her.
"Try and dismiss him," I said. "You can usually do that with non-combat pets."
"Okay, I'll try." Ellie's eyes unfocused, and Dagwood whimpered.
Then, he started to fade away.
"Oh, thank you," she said. "Thank you thank you thank you. I can't take it. I'm putting this ball away and never using it again." She shuddered.
I grinned at her. "You didn't have a problem with the roach hounds we killed. Not like this, anyway. What's different about Dagwood?" I asked.
"That's different! They were trying to kill us, and because they were so gross it made it so much easier to kill them! That thing, though -"
"Dagwood," I said, amused.
"That thing - I just can't." Ellie shuddered.
"He's gone now. Hey, we make a pretty good team though, don't we?" I asked.
"Yeah, I guess we do," Ellie said.
"I can concede that point," James said as he joined back into the conversation. "You know I had my doubts about you when you showed up at LSI this morning, kid. I'm glad I was wrong. Anyway, you kids see if you can find anything of value on the matriarch's corpse. I need to make sure we find every single little bit of Bleed-tainted corruption."
"Sure!" I said.
Loot. When you defeated a boss of a dungeon like this, there was always loot, and I hadn't actually looted the corpse yet.
As I got closer, I tried to open the loot table like Ellie said. It was simple. I just focused on the matriarch's corpse and a box appeared in front
of me. It contained a single item, and some cash.
"Interesting," I said. "So I can only see the loot table if I'm within a certain radius of the dead monster. Can we both see the same list?"
"I don't know," Ellie said. "Why don't you tell me what's on yours?"
I looked at the list and read it out to her in order. "25 silver pieces, and a Simple Ring."
"No. I didn't see the ring. Just the 25 silver and Dagwood's Chew Toy."
"Oh, weird. So, this game must use personal loot, then. We each get a certain item after killing a boss. Hey, this ring is Fatewoven too."
I reached out and the ring appeared in my hand, held between my thumb and index finger. It was gorgeous. Made of silver with a blue stone set in the center.
"It might be a magical item," Ellie said.
I inspected the ring.
Simple Ring
Fatewoven
You do not possess the necessary skill to identify this item.
"Yeah, I'd say you're right," I said. "It says I don't have the skill to identify the item."
"I might be able to help with that as we continue our investigation," James said. "Magical items are perilous if you are unable to identify them. Using one is a risk if you don't know what it does. We need to see an Arcanist who will be able to identify it. I know of one, and I can take you to her."
"What's the risk of using it before it's identified?" I asked.
"I once saw a magical ring turn a man to smoke, and he blew away, scattered on the breeze," James said.
"Oh. Yeah, let's identify it first," I said.
"Fatewoven..." Ellie mused. "So that's why."
"That's why what?" I asked.
Ellie lifted her hammer in front of her. "My hammer is Fatewoven too. Another player - an Enforcer with the Judiciary who started in the same areas as me - he tried to steal it from me, but he couldn't take possession of it. It's called Paragon's Might."
"Wow. It doesn't look like much, does it? I just thought it was a regular hammer, except it comes back like a boomerang," I said.
"All of the other Enforcers who started at the Judiciary at the same time as I did chose weapons that looked more impressive. Swords, axes, flails... You name it, they grabbed it. Everybody just took the weapons that looked good, but I don't think anyone even gave this simple looking hammer a second thought before walking by. The moment they led us into the armory I felt it calling out to me. It drew me in. I walked through rows upon rows of weaponry with no idea where I would end up, and I found it there waiting for me. As soon as I held it in my hand, I felt it suffuse me with strength. It was like it was waiting there for me."
"Wow. I just started out with a junk quality longsword and my default Antique Flintlock Pistol."
"Paragon's Might," Ellie repeated. "It's unique. The only weapon like it in the whole game. It will grow in power as I do."
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"It's a unique item. Unique with a capital U. It must be a pretty high level of rarity. All of my other items are static. They don't increase in damage or ability as I level up, but Paragon's Might does. It has its own skill tree. To unlock certain bonuses, I need to perform certain feats."
"Like what?"
"Um, hang on. Let me check."
Ellie's focus shifted to whatever menu she was looking at, biting her bottom lip in concentration.
"Oh, here we go. To power up Paragon's Might I've got two traits I can unlock first. One of them is to increase the effective range when I throw the weapon. To do that I need to score 100 critical hits with Paragon's Might at a distance of 25 yards or more. The other trait increases the effectiveness of crush damage, and to unlock that trait I need to get 100 killing blows on enemies using crush damage. Ugh. That sounds like a lot of work."
"You'll get your own Celestial Offering before you manage to unlock even a single trait for your weapon," I said.
Ellie smiled sadly. "I sure hope so."
"The hammer was just sitting there in the armory? That's crazy."
"Um, yeah. Just sitting there," Ellie said, but there was something in the uncertain, wavering tone of voice she used that made me think there was more to the story.
She still had her walls up, and I didn't blame her. Not in the slightest.
I was a little jealous of her hammer. A Unique item? The only one of its kind in the whole game, woven into Ellie's fate. I wished that I had been chosen for something like that. Instead, I found myself down here in the muck, covered in roach hound residue, wearing mostly junk quality armor.
"Have you searched the matriarch completely?" James asked.
"Yeah, we're done," I said.
"Good," James said. He summoned another fireball, wincing at the pain of it, and threw it at the matriarch's corpse.
"Let's keep moving," he said. "We'll do one final sweep of this place and ensure the corruption has been burned out of it. We'll head back towards civilization soon, or at least an approximation of it. I'm sure we'll find someone who can tell you what that ring is enchanted with."
Yes! We were finally getting out of the sewers!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dregswyk
We headed further into the sewers.
James led us on a winding path and refused to tell us exactly where he was taking us. We had one lead about the case: The Rat King's adviser, Mordio. There was also the matter of visiting the Arcanist to identify my new magic ring that I was a little bit terrified of.
"Come on, James. Give us something. We've been walking for half an hour now," I said.
James sighed. "Fine. I was hoping that the sight of Dregswyk would take your breath away, but now you're forcing me to ruin the surprise."
"Dregswyk?" Ellie asked.
"Keen ears, Miss Rooker! Yes. Dregswyk. The city beneath the city, as it were."
"There's some kind of shanty town underneath Eldin?" I asked.
James turned on me with a look of pity. "Kid, you're about to have your provincial mind blown."
Ellie and I shared a look of confusion.
"Okay, so you both need to make sure that you follow my lead and do exactly as I say. The more important citizens of Dregswyk generally don't take kindly to outsiders," James said. "That is, unless you are introduced by someone they trust. In this case, that someone would be me. There are a few main rules to follow, and I think they're pretty simple." He raised a single finger. "Don't start any fights." He raised another finger. "Don't ask any questions." A third finger. "Whatever you do, don't eat anything unless you've prepared it yourself, and know exactly where it came from. You saw what happened happens when you keep something tainted with The Bleed, right?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares for weeks," I said.
An image flashed in my head, drawn forth from the deep abyss that I'd try to bury it in. I saw those multitudinous eyes, somewhere between mammal and cockroach, trying to be both but managing neither, from a dead Roach Hound's impossible face.
The skin under my right eye began to itch as my imagination worked overtime. I imagined tiny bubbles forming under my skin from my eyebrow to my cheekbone, swelling and popping as tiny new eyes emerged from under my skin. I lifted a hand to my cheek and prodded it experimentally, just to make sure that there were no new eyes forming there.
"Is that the only way to contract The Bleed?" Ellie asked. "By eating infected flesh? Does cooking the flesh burn the infection out, like cooking out the parasites in other wild game?"
"That is the only way to contract it, yes," James said. "It only passes on once The Bleed has manifested in the poor creature. If you happen to consume the flesh of something infected with The Bleed, but the change hasn't begun yet, there is still a chance that you might catch it. But there is also a chance that you might not. If you're ever going to eat the flesh of any creatures that you kill, my recommendation would be that you inspect them very carefully before starting to roast them over an open flame. But flames will not destroy the affliction in a
creature that is already tainted by it. Once it's in the meat, there's no getting rid of it."
"Duly noted," I said.
Ellie nodded.
"Are we in any danger right now?" Ellie asked. "From the denizens of Dregswyk?"
James smirked. "We were in danger from them the moment that we entered the sewers. This is their realm. Everyone down here answers to the Rat King, and safe passage is never guaranteed. Lucky for you, you've got one hell of an introduction. Just follow me, don't do anything stupid, don't make any sudden moves unless I tell you to, and you'll be just fine. Let me take the lead."
Ellie and I had no choice but to put our faith in James. He flashed that knowing smile of his, then continued leading us further into the sewers.
As we rounded the bend the brickwork that formed the tunnel stopped abruptly. The wastewater carried by the sewers fell over the edge of the abyss down into unknown depths. It was dark, but lights burned in the great chasm beyond. They flickered like torches or spot fires but appeared to be very far away.
As I stood on the precipice my eyes adapted to the gloom. I began to recognize the topography of meandering streets and expansive shantytowns. They were far below us, built into the basin of the giant hole beneath the streets of Eldin.
Ellie and I both gasped in shock at the sight in front of us. James grinned.
Right in the center of the crater was what could only be described as a castle built entirely out of garbage. Twisted spires of rusted metal reached up until they almost touched the chasm ceiling. Every structure had been cobbled together using junk, scraps, and scavenged resources discarded by the world above.
There was no sense of any singular architectural design, which led me to believe that every person living down here in Dregswyk could have been responsible for building and maintaining their own dwellings.
I pointed towards the cathedral-like spire that rose toward the shadowy roof of the cavern. "I'm guessing that's where the Rat King lives."
"You would be correct. That's the Trash Palace."
"Are you serious?" I asked. "It's actually called the Trash Palace?"
Rise of the Crimson Order: A Crematoria Online LitRPG Novel Page 21