by Kyle Johnson
When she was finally arrested, Livia led the police to fourteen bodies scattered across the country, and it was suspected that she never told them about at least that many more. She didn’t even fight in court and pled guilty to all fourteen counts of murder. She’d been caught in one of the last handful of states that still used the death penalty, and they’d fast-tracked her to death row. She hadn’t even attempted an appeal.
A cold realization started to wash over Aranos, and he logged back into the network, pulling up the Ultra file and going through the names of the participants. One by one, he looked them up on the public network, hiding his searches as best he could, although he knew that Veronica and the AIs had to be aware of what he was doing. Each name got a hit; every participant was a criminal, but more importantly, they were all on death row.
He sat back, stunned, as the implications unfolded before him. “They were all going to be killed,” he reasoned aloud, his mind spinning. “The company probably figured they were perfect candidates for the Mark-I pods, since if something had gone wrong, the subjects wouldn’t have to live with the consequences. Rather than sitting on death row, waiting for execution, they got to spend their final days in game.”
Aranos realized that this probably explained the hostility the elves had toward Travelers. If all the first group were violent criminals, Aranos could understand that there might have been some issues. He was honest enough to admit that he had no idea how prisoners behaved, but he could see a prison population having a higher-than-average percentage of people who thought violence was the best and simplest answer to problems. That might be unfair, of course; for all he knew, the current group of players was behaving exactly the same way, just not in Eredain.
He logged out and closed his eyes. While that didn’t explain how Lily was still in the game, things made more sense to him, now. He’d have to do more research into the woman the next time he was here. He was certain now that both Livia and Lily were insane, but the more he understood her, the better he could anticipate her and maybe outmaneuver her. She’d played him this time, using his overconfidence against him, and he admitted that. She’d gotten played, too, though, and now she’d gotten more than she’d bargained for, basically becoming a slave to an undead overlord.
Thinking of Zoridos made Aranos’ thoughts grind to a halt. The lich-king, or whatever it was, was ridiculously powerful. There was no way Aranos would be able to beat it, not even with his whole party. The thing had taken the players out with a single Spell, cast in a fit of pique, and it controlled the thousands of undead that still roamed Antas. Aranos had taken out a sizable chunk of them with his Spell, but there were probably still four or five times that number roaming the city. Casting the super bomb – there had to be a better name for it – had reduced Aranos’ LP, Str, and End to about 10%. There was no way he could go around the city, casting it repeatedly.
He went back and pulled up the video of his death, analyzing it more closely. As he watched, he realized that Zoridos hadn’t just been upset; it’d been enraged. The lich had unloaded a massive blast of power, eradicating everyone in the room, but Aranos suspected that had been it going full-out. It was still far beyond his ability to shield, of course, but it gave the Sorcerer hope; if they could survive another attack like that, it might be possible for them to beat the creature.
“Anything’s possible,” Veronica’s voice roused Aranos from his reverie, and he turned to see the tall, slim woman standing before him, immaculately dressed as always, this time in a matching light gray jacket and skirt with a faded, orangish blouse beneath. Her dark blonde hair was pinned back against the sides of her head, and a pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on her slightly roman nose.
“Veronica,” he said tiredly, rubbing his eyes. “I’ve got a few questions for you.”
“You know I won’t answer any questions about Lily, Jeff,” the woman said a bit reprovingly.
“No, no, I think I have a handle on that. I’ve got some more digging to do, but…” He shook his head. “I wanted to ask you about the Battlesense Skill. You agreed not to mess with my head, but somehow, I’ve become really great at tactics. I mean, I was always good at strategy, but tactics is something else again. How are you doing that?”
“We’re not,” she replied simply. “Not directly, anyway. All we’re doing is giving you the feel of how the battle is going. It’s the training you’re doing in your mindscape that’s letting you put all that together into battle tactics.”
Aranos glanced at the woman curiously. “How do you do that, anyway?” he asked. “It’s like you’re using some sort of time dilation to make a week happen in 15 minutes. If you can do that, why aren’t you running at accelerated speed like that all the time? You could get two weeks’ data in half the time.”
Veronica hesitated. “We can’t do that,” she finally admitted. “Not without massively overclocking your brain, and we’re honestly concerned about the effects of something like that.” She smoothed the front of her skirt and took a deep breath.
“The human brain is limited by its chemical reactions,” she went on. “A neuron can only fire so quickly, and after that it needs a rest to regain its potential before it can fire again. That’s a hard limit for how quickly we can stimulate your brain, and even if we pushed that limit, we wouldn’t get a two-to-one time compression. Human brains already work just about as quickly as they can without causing problems.”
“But you’re giving me a week of training in fifteen minutes,” he protested. “So, you have to be able to do something like that.”
“No, we’re giving you the memories of a week of training, Jeff. You’re actually only getting about 15 minutes’ worth of real interaction.” She removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose in an all-too-human gesture.
“You can probably figure out when that is, too, if you think about it,” she said slowly. “Those are the times in your training when you’ve had to personally interact with your trainer; we give you several of those every session, because that’s when you’re able to move beyond the limits the trainers would normally set.
“You’ve been incredibly valuable this way, Jeff, because it’s helped our work with a lot of other players. A few others figured out how to use Skill books the way you do, and we’re much better at it with them thanks to you.” She gazed at him, her face a bit apprehensive. “Are you upset?”
Aranos sat, thinking for a few moments. “No, not really,” he said at last. “I’ll be paying better attention to the training, from now on, to see if I can spot the differences, but I’m not upset. It’s not really any different from how I got the memories from Lythienne, is it?”
“It’s almost exactly the same, including using the pod to stimulate your nervous system and actually build that muscle memory into you,” she agreed. “Your motor neurons are mostly limited by how fast your muscles can move; without that limitation, we can simulate you performing a movement nearly a thousand times per minute.”
Aranos nodded. “Phil and I guessed it was something like that,” he admitted. “We also figure that you can give us the rote skill to do things, but you can’t help us do them well. We have to practice for that.”
“That’s true, and that’s where those memories come in. When we’re adding them, we’re actually having your neurons fire as if you were performing the training routine over and over again. That way, you not only get the skill, you get actual practice in it.”
Aranos nodded. “So, it is possible to beat this Zoridos dude, right?”
“As you are now, in direct combat? Probably not, no. Even if you got incredibly lucky, I don’t think your entire party has a chance to beat him.” Veronica smiled. “But isn’t that the point? Now, you have to find a solution to the problem – or, you can just find the Vault, get the information you need, and leave. That’s a valid option, as well.”
“Yeah, you know I’m not doing that,” he grinned at her. “I’ve got some ideas on what we can do next.” A
shimmer caught his attention, and he saw the exit door pop into view. “Thanks, Veronica. I always enjoy our talks.”
“As do I,” she nodded, stepping to the side as he walked to the door, opened it, and stepped through.
The familiar feeling of falling embraced him, and when his motion slowed, he opened his eyes to see the familiar walls of the tower swim into view. The other players had already spawned, except for Longfellow; the lanky, brown-skinned Archer swam into view a moment later. “Last to die,” he shrugged as he looked around. “Hello, what do we have here?” The Archer’s eyebrows went up as he looked at something over Aranos’ shoulder, and the Sorcerer turned quickly to see two strange humans standing in the middle of the tower.
The man was short, broad, and well-muscled, with a huge, bright-red mustache and beard. He was dressed in dull, steel chainmail and carried a battered-looking battle axe, but his face was creased with a wide grin that made him seem oddly youthful. The woman was a tiny bit taller, with skin that was light brown and curiously translucent. Her hair and eyes were both jet black, and Aranos could see tiny traceries of dark veins beneath her skin. She was wearing simple, brown leather armor and had an unstrung bow slung across her back, and she seemed to be trying to hide behind her companion. This must be…
“Hector!” Phil boomed, confirming Aranos’ guess. The Spellsword strode over and wrapped the shorter man in a fierce hug, banging his fist on the Warrior’s shoulder. “Martina,” he added pleasantly, nodding to the woman, who bit her lip and nodded her head silently.
Aranos sighed in resignation; this could get complicated fast. “What happened?” he asked in a deliberately neutral tone, looking at Martina carefully. His Scent Ability told him that there was something – off about her. She wasn’t fully human; in fact, she sort of smelled like one of the undead, although not exactly. “Specifically, what happened to you, Martina? Are you an undead?”
“Race change,” the woman said shortly. “Wasn’t my idea. I got a notification that there was too much necrotic and restorative mana in me, whatever that means, and it forced an Evolution. I’m a daywalker, now.”
Aranos nodded. He was pretty sure what must have happened; the knife Lily was using had to have been made of voidmetal, and it gave Martina a necrotic infection just as the lanohtar’s sword had with Saphielle. His super bomb must have tried to heal the wound, but the Ranger died before it could, and somehow that had given her an Evolution, one she didn’t seem happy about.
“So, how in tarnation did ya’ll end up here?” Meridian spoke up, once more putting on her exaggerated accent for the new folks, eliciting a groan from McBane. “Shouldn’t ya’ll have respawned way the heck out in bufu or something?”
“Bufu?” Martina asked curiously. “I haven’t been there.”
“It’s short for bum-fuck,” Hector snorted. “Old term for way the hell out in the middle of nowhere.” He looked Meridian up and down. “I like you, sister. What’s your name?”
“Friends call me Meridian,” the Shaman grinned at the man. “You can call me anytime.”
“I might just take you up on that,” he barked a laugh. He glanced at Martina, who shrugged her shoulders.
“Our last spawn point was occupied,” she said shortly. “This was the closest non-hostile spawn point, so we got sent here, instead. We can leave if you want us to.”
Phil glanced at Aranos, who shook his head. “I guess that remains to be seen, really,” he told her. “Why are you in Antas?”
“We’re here for a Quest, the same way you are,” she snapped, and Aranos caught the odor of prevarication as she spoke. “We’ve got just as much right…”
“I can tell when you lie,” Aranos interrupted softly. “You want to stay with us, you need to level with us. I’m fine letting Hector stay – Phil has vouched for him – but I’m not convinced about you, Martina, and I’m pretty sure Hector won’t stay without you.” The Warrior nodded his agreement. “So, convince me. Why are you here?”
Martina looked at Hector, who shrugged. “All you can do is tell the truth and let things fall where they will, girl. I think after seeing that fight, we both know he can kick us out of here if he wants to.”
The woman nodded and took a deep breath. “Back in Stoneleague, Phil and I had – a falling out,” she began. “Actually, that’s wrong. I treated him like shit, and he left to train his own party and join you.” She looked at Phil. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…” She shook her head. “No. I’m being honest. I knew you were keeping things together for me, and I hated it. I hated that I needed your help. I hated that things were going wrong, and it was my fault. I’m not used to failing like that, and I blamed you. I’m sorry.”
Phil nodded, and Aranos gestured for the woman to continue.
“So, needless to say, I was angry. Liam came and told me that he wanted me to lead a party to Antas.” She looked directly at Aranos. “We were going to come and steal your thunder. At first, that’s all it was, but as Liam – Lily, I guess – kept collecting more and more summons, I knew that he was doing it just to go after you, and…I didn’t care. I was excited to think that we’d be part of the group to take you down.”
She took another deep breath. “At least, until Hector set me straight. I don’t know if you’ve felt this, but there’s something about the Blightlands. It gets in your head, messes with you, and makes you the worst you can be.” She looked at Hector. “You kept me going the right way, though. Thank you.”
“That was nothing,” Hector scoffed. “You knew what to do; you just needed a reminder, is all. I’d be a crappy friend if I couldn’t do that for you.”
Martina smiled and turned back to Aranos. “That’s when we stopped working with Liam, and when things started going bad between us. Hector and I decided that Liam had some sort of plan, and that we didn’t want to be part of it, but we’d need your help. We were going to wait until we knew what was going on, then Hector would pass a message to Phil and let you know. We knew Liam’s plan had something to do with you, but we weren’t sure what.” Martina took another deep breath. “And,” she added, “we weren’t sure you’d trust us without some kind of proof. As I said, Phil and I hadn’t parted on the best of terms.”
Aranos nodded; everything the woman had said rang true to both his Scent Ability and his Sense Intent Skill. “I can see why you’d think that. What do you think, now?”
“Phil came for us,” Martina said simply. “You all did. You had to have known it was a trap, but you came anyway, and you all got sent to respawn for it.” She grimaced. “I wouldn’t blame you for turning us away, and if you do, we’ll make our way back to Stoneleague, but I’d like to stay. My new race has some really interesting Abilities, and I think I’ll be really useful in Antas. Plus, I owe you guys one.”
Aranos glanced at Phil, who shrugged. His eyes passed over the others, but none of them had much reaction, and he understood why. He’d known players like Martina before, ones who were just in it for the glory and the loot, and they weren’t always much fun to work with. Something had changed in the woman, though; Aranos had been expecting fire and attitude from Phil’s stories, but she was genuinely contrite, as far as he could tell.
“People deserve second chances,” Aranos nodded. “Welcome aboard.” He quickly sent a party invite to the pair and was relieved when they both accepted instantly. He looked seriously at Martina. “Just FYI, though, I don’t give third chances. If there’s a problem – any kind of problem – we can work it out. If we can’t, we can go our separate ways, no hard feelings. We need to count on each other, though; Zoridos is still in charge in the city, and come nightfall, we might find ourselves facing another army like the last one.” He looked at Hector. “Can we count on you?”
“So long as I can count on you,” the man replied with a smile.
“Fair enough.” He turned to Martina. “Same question.”
“I’ll treat you the way you treat me. I can’t think of anything
fairer than that.”
Aranos grinned. “Neither can I.” He turned to look at the others. “How badly did you guys get nailed with XP loss?”
The players grumbled and pulled up their notifications as Aranos did the same.
Spell Created: Nova Blast
Rank: Novice 1
Create an explosion of light and life mana that damages and blinds.
Effect: Choose a spot within sight range. A burst of brilliant light explodes from this point, doing 23 – 34 LP damage to all creatures within 60’ [205 – 313 LP]. Creatures must also make an Opposed Check: your [(Int – 10) + Spell level] versus creature’s [(End – 10) + Class level] or be blinded for 10 s.
Cost: 78 SP
They all were blinded by the light…
+250 XP
Congratulations!
Spell: Nova Blast has Ascended to become Vital Supernova!
Rank: Novice 2
Effect: Choose a spot within sight range. A massive explosion of restorative, light, and life mana fills an area up to 200’ in radius, doing damage as listed below to all creatures within. They must also make an Opposed Check or be permanently blinded: the creature’s [(End – 10) + Class Level] versus your [(90% of Str) + (90% of End) + (9% of current LP) + 20]. Any creature unharmed by restorative mana is immune to damage from the Spell but may still suffer blinding.
Damage: This Spell inflicts damage based on the caster’s Str, End, and LP scores. Damage is equal to your Str Stat x 9 + End Stat x 9 + 90% of your current LP. Because this Spell is based on vital and restorative mana, it does 50% more damage to barriers made of primary mana or to necrotic barriers.
Special: This Spell may only be cast when more than 100 creatures susceptible to restorative mana damage are nearby, and only when the caster feels a state of desperation or panic.