OhmN

by M J Conlon

  Derick saw signs of giant claws that ripped a body out of the bent and broken metal shards that littered the floor. Derick looked back to see that it was a long wooden spear with a giant piece of metal that tripped him. The mess of litter on the floor seemed odd to Derick at first, but he could not identify what exactly was causing his concern. What am I missing?

  “You aren’t missing anything, but the slain heroes seem to be missing all their body parts, even their bones.” HAIL replied.

  Derick took a second to reevaluate the scene and indeed HAIL was correct - the pile of metal was missing all signs of having been worn by a living being. Not even blood splatter signs could be seen, almost as if the metal was licked clean before being completely discarded. What could do this? Derick thought, but didn’t have to wait long as three bright red dots filled his psychic-vision as if his question had summoned the offending beasts in question. Derick grabbed the spear, thinking that an extra weapon would always be needed particularly with him already being one blade down on his telekinetic attack form.

  Derick ran back toward the open cave that opened up to a wide chasm down below. Worse comes to worst I drop down, grab the wall using climbing and wait for levitation to reset. I could phase letting the beasts travel through me, or I could use… Derick went over possible attack plans and strategies in the short five stride jog to the edge of the cave. Once at the edge, Derick could finally see the forms of three dog like chameleon creatures lazily spreading out to fill the cave that he just left. They are trapping me, clever. Derick thought as he realized the attack the chameleon-dogs, Chogs? Chags? Were implementing would be perfect for this environment. Under normal circumstances I would either have to jump to my death or attempt running past the Chags where two would be able to jump and intercept me regardless of where I chose to go. What was worse was that Derick knew that if the piles of scrap metal was any indication, then his being Undead wouldn’t be a reason for these Chags to stop with their pursuit of him.

  Derick held the spear at a little over halfway down the shaft. Derick knew this wasn’t proper form, but the damn thing was awkward in his short arms. Derick waited until the three Chags were right at the edge of the cave, before he made his move. He held rolled the spear tip from right to left, keeping the Chags at bay long enough for him to mentally prepare himself for what needed to be done.

  Derick could see the shoulder muscles of the Chags tighten as they each dipped their shoulders down slightly, having seen this in his dog Ranger, Derick knew that the Chags were only a second away from jumping at him. Derick waited till all three Chags reared back before unleashing his plan. In less than a second the Chags were airborne flying on an impossibly high attack vector, no doubt designed to pin him to the ground.

  Derick mentally grabbed all three Chags with his psychic-telekinesis and lifted all three beasts up and out over top of him, using their own momentum to fuel their movement up and over Derick towards the deep chasm below. Derick kept the beasts flying upward and out until he felt his reserves begin to plummet.

  “Mental Reserves at 10% Master.” HAIL said.

  In a second Derick shook his head and let the three beasts drop, hoping the height and momentum would be enough to cause them to either crash into the far wall, or find a rocky surface to crash their bodies against. Last thing Derick wanted was the three beasts to land in water and be able to climb back up the cliff so they could continue this fight. Derick waited, then finally he heard it, three piercing yelps of pain that echoed throughout the chasm then disappeared in the darkness of the cave. Even with Derick’s dark vision, he was not able to see the end of the chasm. How long of a fall did they have?

  “Are you referring to distance of the arc, height, or time?” HAIL asked.

  Never mind. Derick thought, they have to be dead right?

  “That is a good assessment, but I would be more worried about their mother.” HAIL replied mentally, tapping at the giant red blip that filled up Derick’s psychic-viewing.

  shit. Derick was mentally exhausted, perhaps wasting too much energy on what were clearly pups, compared to the large lumbering Chag that single handedly blocked the entire cave. Fuck. Derick thought to himself, knowing that he didn’t have anywhere enough mental energy to psychically throw this monster. Additionally this monster was so massive that there was likely no way Derick could even provide enough mental energy to throw beast over him. The beast snorted angrily, Derick could swear that he saw steam coming from the creature’s nose. Derick almost began wondering if this meant that the beast could hit him with some sort of fire attack, but didn’t have enough time to think about that, as the beast started charging right at him.

  For a second his muscles tightened up and Derick was back in the streets of Zapopan, the headlights of the vehicle that struck him and left him for dead now replaced by the glowing mouth of this monster. Derick froze for a second and then remembered he created this character to survive. With that thought in mind Derick raised up the spear as high as he could, aiming the spear for the beast’s head. Derick waited until the last second, then cast phase. In a second Derick’s body and the spear he was holding turned incorporeal. He could see the big beast stumbling and falling over itself trying to stop. Did it know what I did? Does it know that it can’t hurt me like this? Derick thought watching the beast frantically dropping to the ground, causing it to trip over its own feet then roll towards Derick and the edge of the cliff that Derick stood against. Reflexively Derick kept the point of the spear pointed at the beast’s head. Derick made a mental note not to back up, as he knew he was close to the edge of the cliff and was only a foot or two away from the edge at best. The beast skidded to a stop right on top of Derick’s spear. Derick tried to pull the spear back, but was instantly hit with resistance, as both he and the spear shaft became corporeal. It took a second for Derick to register that his once incorporeal spear was now completely jutting through the head of the beast that had been charging at him.

  “Duck down the cliff now. Grab the ledge, but get out of the blast radius!” HAIL screamed at Derick.

  Derick didn’t need much encouragement, as he let go of the spear, dropped to the ground and quickly grabbed the lip of the cave, before dropping his body off the side. Derick’s body swung for a second, feet flying over the side wildly, but Derick didn’t pause trusting in HAIL’s judgment as he tried to leave nothing of his body exposed above the lip of the chasm. No sooner had his right hand found purchase then a violent blast shook the ground and then caused a wave of heat and energy to soak Derick’s left hand that was still holding onto the edge of the cliff.

  Derick quickly let go with his left hand, and his body began to swing again. Derick pulled himself in, instinctively digging his toes into the cliff face, letting his bone structure take on the weight of his body and his bag of items and gear that he had amassed through his journey. Derick waited, trying to use his left hand to help carry his weight, but it appeared as though the bones of his fingers were burn away to little more than burnt nubs. Did I lose my hand forever? Derick thought, never having lost a hand or body part, he had healed damage taken, but he never healed damage to this extent.

  “You are suffering from the crippled debuff; once the debuff leaves you in an hour your body will be able to begin healing the damage you suffered. Though you need to be careful, any extra damage you take will not only reset the time but will add to the overall timer.” HAIL explained.

  Fuck. Derick thought, as even in a resting position against the wall, Derick noticed that his stamina was still slowly dropping.

  Derick looked around for a ledge or anything that he could easily drop down to, as he knew his debuff would not go away, allowing him to use his hand before his stamina was completely depleted. Then it hit him, I am a moron. Derick thought to himself, as he realized he might just be able to survive this, if he played his cards right.

  Derick realized that his cooldown timer for his levitation ability was almost complete with its cooldown time
r. Derick brought the cooldown timer for his Levitation in his periphery, while watching his stamina bar slowly deplete. HAIL, create a stamina drain timer for me and place it in my vision. Derick thought, in a second Derick saw that his Stamina bar only had a minute left, while his levitation cooldown timer still had five minutes. Suggestions HAIL. Derick demanded mentally.

  “You could discard all your items, allowing the base for you climbing ability to be met and cause your stamina to stop dropping.” HAIL informed Derick as if he were a moron.

  Won’t my items in the bag get damaged from such a fall?

  “Most likely, additionally there is no way of saying that you’re throwing the bag down here won’t fall in a bottomless pit or a place where monsters will eat the items that survive the fall. Though if the fall of the three Chags as you so liked to think of them was any indication I state that almost none of your items will survive the fall and your bag will likely be completely destroyed. A small price to pay for your one and only life here where we are both able to see our final death. If only there was a way to have left here earlier and avoid this complete loss of life or all our gear acquired so far. I guess it is just a small price to pay for being arrogant and thinking we knew better than our AI helpers.” Derick began filtering out the words of HAIL and instead brought up a list of all the items in his inventory, instantly Derick saw what he was thinking of the potion vials. Derick started drinking any and all vials that he could get his stub under. It took some effort and ultimately Derick resorted to using Psychic-Telekinesis to lift and pour every vial into his mouth that he could. He felt the warming red light from the Health vial fill him, causing what Derick could swear was a heart palpitation for a second, but Derick knew that he didn’t have a heart.

  Derick waited and looked at his hand, but still nothing. Finally down to 15 seconds on the stamina timer, Derick found a yellow vial and drank that. Instantly Derick’s stamina filled up to three quarters full, causing his timer to reset to three minutes.

  Derick looked, then saw that there would still be at least a three second difference from when his stamina ran out and when his levitation ability would reset. Derick searched the bag, finding the golden vials and drank them all greedily, then waited looking at his stamina bar expectantly, but nothing happened. Derick saw a glowing gold message, but nothing happened to his Stamina bar.

  Derick brought up the glowing gold pop-up box

  OhmN has killed Chag.

  OhmN has killed Chag.

  OhmN has killed Chag.

  OhmN has killed Chag Matriarch.

  Experience gained. Experience deferred until entering the actual servers.

  OhmN has drunk elixir of experience.

  Experience gained. Experience Deferred until entering the actual servers.

  So the golden vials from Taftinator were experience elixirs, good to know. Derick thought to himself as he began discarding junk sets of armor that he auto looted from a few Players who were on their last lives. Derick threw away the remaining set of bones that he had from a looted traveler. Then Derick finally began throwing away the green armor set that Gyrospoon7 had as a spare set apparently.

  Derick then discarded all his copper and silver pieces. He was close to throwing away his gold and platinum pieces when he looked at the two timers to see that now his stamina timer would end two seconds before his levitation timer reset. Derick thought about throwing away more, that the safe play would be to discard the purple, orange, and even blue armor pieces he had. That or he could throw away his gold pieces and would likely make the required weight to survive long enough, but Derick didn’t know how much a gold was, but figured it would always be better to have more later. Besides, Derick had a plan.

  Derick prepared himself, no sooner had he started to prepare himself, than he heard the distinct sound of metal clanging against stone, followed by the clanging of weapons and finally coins. Good, my plan will easily work if the sound of the clanging items below was any indication. Derick waited, timing his movement perfectly, the second before his stamina hit zero, he jumped out away from the wall then his body began to plummet. Derick waited two seconds, then tried to engage his levitation ability, but nothing happened. It was only then that Derick noticed he suffered from a new debuff exhausted. Derick didn’t know how long the initial debuff lasted, but he would have guessed around 10 seconds based on the fact that he still had seven seconds left on the timer. Derick mentally spammed the ability button on his long way down. Derick felt the wind begin to pick up and whip past him, the faster he fell, the more he could feel his two belts being blown back and getting carried in the wind. Derick would have spread himself out if he could move, but he was helpless to the game’s mechanics. In what came as a feeling of both shock and awe, Derick saw the bottom of the chasm appear in his vision.

  At first it appeared to be a glowing field with green grass glowing, but as Derick approached, at a pace that was far too quick for his liking, he saw that the green blades of grass were actually glowing green crystals that jutted up from the bottom of the cave.

  Derick was almost caught off guard when his reflexive action of spamming the levitation ability finally took hold halting his descent in a second. From his now resting perch high above the valley below, Derick could see a large black mound of dirt surrounded by what appeared to be bands of gold and silver, thought Derick didn’t want to risk it at this point. Instead Derick ran over to the wall, grabbing hold of the wall with his now weightless frame and began quickly and methodically climbing his way back up the wall of the chasm to the cave that nearly took his life.

  Derick arrived at the top of the wall with nearly a minute left to spare on his levitation timer. Rather than risking a run across the chasm with only a minute left, Derick decided it would be best to try to loot his slain foe and see what other loot was available. There almost has to be a secret hiding area, as those Chags had to have been hiding somewhere. Derick thought to himself as he went to loot the slain Chag Matriarch. Derick was almost surprised to see that the entire head of the Chag Matriarch was now missing all the way down to a jagged stump of flesh that sat on the beast’s massive shoulders. Dang, mental note, do not get caught in an item when phase is about to end.

  “I did warn you about that.” HAIL chided Derick.

  Yes, HAIL you did. Derick thought through a mental sigh.

  Derick went to loot the beast and felt a strange breeze pass over him while at the same time feeling the intense push of a psychic burst heading through his right hand and up his shoulders.

  Derick quickly and easily fought back the surge of mental energy, pushing it back to a giant pulsing purple sphere of energy.

  Once Derick had enough leverage to both block the Matriarch’s power and touch the pulsing purple sphere Derick felt a rush of energy fill him as his body forced out a gasp. Derick felt the words of an old portal master explaining to a student the differences between the three skills required for portal mastery.

  “Celestial Vision,” The ancient portal master began speaking to Derick as if Derick were his pupil “this skill is needed to check a desired travel location. Vision is used to ensure that the desired location is clear of hidden or visible objects as two items occupying the same location at the same time will result in violently beautiful acts of destruction. The further the distance travelled, the greater the damage to each object occupying the same space and time as movement energy is factored into the overall destructive effect. This can be a particularly effective way of clearing out a problem area, but be warned when something can go down, something else can go up. Ensure that a proper one way portal is created if wishing to create explosive reactions.”

  “Celestial Correspondence,” The master’s words continued “this skill lets the celestial portalist determine lay lines and energy requirements required to connect one location to another. The more lay lines present at either the activation and arrival site, the less requirements the caster has to create. Additionally correspondence can he
lp determine an adequate exchange rate. If performed at a lay line or to a lay line, one of the objects that is exchanged for another can be a gaseous mixture. If performed at a location other than a lay line then traveling forward might cause the leaving location to be buried. A subsequent return trip from the arrival destination to the original departure destination by a being of the same size should result in an equilibrium of energy and mass, thus resetting everything to the same equilibrium.”

  “Celestial Travel, this skill lets the celestial portalist send himself, an item, or other people across the universe to a desired location. inanimate objects require half the mental energy associated with traveling as a sentient being of the same size, thought a bronze statue that is an exact replica of an individual could be used to help facilitate a successful travel, even though the weight of both the statue and replicated individual are two drastically different sizes.”

  In a second, Derick felt knowledge of formula that calculated the rotation of planets that helped ensure safe portal travels.

  Derick noticed a glowing gold box appear in the periphery of Derick’s vision. Derick clicked on the pop up and instantly let out a whoop of joy.

  Skill Celestial Vision increased to 26.

  Skill Celestial Correspondence increased to 26.

  Skill Celestial Travel increased to 26.

  All skills of profession class exceed 25, Journeyman status available seek a trainer.

  You have received training. Skill progression possible to 50 before another training session is required.

  It took Derick a second to realize but he was now a journeyman portal master. Then Derick quickly looked around to see if the Chag Patriarch was coming, thanks to both his gasp of pain and his whoop of joy. Knowing my luck it will come right now when I do not have any way of defending myself again. Derick waited, but nothing happened.