OhmN

by M J Conlon

  Derick went over possible plans in his mind and realized he would need to be up higher for any of his survival plans to work properly. With that in mind Derick reached into his bag of holding and quickly removed one of the spears he just acquired. Derick held out the spear tip as far out from his body as he could, letting the tip fall into the golden nest. With a quick drop, Derick let the tip dig into the nest, providing resistance. Once it had a slight chance of friction Derick used psychic-telekinesis to hold the tip still, while pulling the top of the spear straight up with him still clinging on desperately. Derick had never moved an object with him still hanging onto the object and wasn’t entirely sure it would work, but necessity is the mother of all fuck ups Derick thought to himself, as his little body began flying through the air like a flag that waved crazily at the end of the spear. Once at the top of its arc, Derick activated levitation. Once activated, Derick’s momentum was halted. He was now a good eight feet up, above the ground with his spear still stuck in the ground ensuring that he would not slide any closer to the ground, before the Dragon’s approach. Good, the hard part is over, all down hill, or stick, from here. Derick thought to himself as he stared at the dragon that was approaching incredibly quickly.

  When the dragon began its final approach at Derick with a lunge that was meant to capture and pin him to the ground Derick did what he considered probably the stupidest part of his plan. With his left hand grabbing the top of the spear but and his right hanging onto the side, Derick pushed down on the shaft, feeling his weightless body begin to fly upward slowly.

  Derick never letting go of the spear, instead waited until it was only being held in his hands, since this was a game and the spear now seemed to be governed by the same game mechanics as Derick, the spear now felt weightless in Derick’s hands as well. Derick swung the now weightless item up so its end was pointing right towards the incoming dragon.

  Quickly, Derick reached into his bag with his right hand and pulled out the second spear until it too was pointing at the incoming dragon. Derick watched, seeing the dragon begin to gather black energy together in its mouth, before letting the stream out in a beam that was on a direct collision course with Derick who was now floating a good 12 feet off of the ground. Derick watched the stream approach for what felt like hours, before Derick could feel the beam of black death begin to cause a slight burning sensation covering the exterior of his body.

  Finally, Derick activated phase. One second Derick could feel the black beam of energy heating up the pain receptors of his body, the next, he couldn’t feel anything. Instead he saw the black beam of energy pass right through him, knowing that if he was to phase out right now he would be instantly obliterated by not only the stream but by the fragments of debris that would cause his internal organs to rupture. It was that same principle that Derick was hoping for.

  Derick began moving the two spears towards the head of where he thought the dragon would be, but the dragon much like the Matriarch Chag began to instantly try to retreat from Derick while he was phased. The beast stumbled, collapsing in on itself, then began rolling away and to its right. Derick seeing this began turning to his left, towards the rolling black monster, trying to keep his spears pointing towards the beast’s head. I only have one chance at this, Derick thought. Finally after a quick five steps forward, Derick saw the tips of his phased spears begin to pierce the top of the dragon’s head.

  Derick kept running forward, but finally Derick’s momentum and body jerked forward, as the spears stopped their descent. Seven seconds are up. Derick thought to himself, as he now began the next step of his stupid plan, running away. Derick felt his weightless body begin to slide down the two spear shaft, towards the inevitable explosion that was to occur, the same one that took off his hand, because he didn’t get it out of the way quickly enough. Derick, grabbed onto the two shafts, then threw himself backwards. Seeing that he was weightless, the entire action was easier than Derick had anticipated. His body spun around 180 degrees as he was almost instantly in a sprint. He could hear the dragon shake and scream violently, as it no doubt knew what was going to happen next. It had to know, it ducked out of the way like it was staring down death.

  Rather than running away from the beast, Derick decided the best way to survive the oncoming explosion was to get behind the beast. Derick felt himself running toward the dragon’s tail, seeing the beast’s giant wings swinging forward desperately trying to claw at the spears that were protruding from its skull. Derick ran forward, timing his jump just right, before jumping over the wing that was flying forward toward him. As it swung under his awkward running flight, Derick continued to run forward, even as he felt a wave of energy begin to amass and grow behind him.

  Finally, Derick felt the energy ball behind him get to a bursting point and finally begin to race out and around his tiny body. While weightless, Derick felt a slight burning sensation as the blast caught up with him, but then began pushing him and his weightless form forward.

  Derick saw the flow of energies surround his body, then disappear almost as quickly as they had appeared. A quick look at Derick’s health bar showed that the blast, had taken off less damage than the previous explosion had, that said Derick’s health bar was now flashing red. 12 hit points left.

  Derick checked his body for status effects, but found none. It was then that Derick turned around, still floating in the air and saw the destruction that was the top of the dragon nest. He saw two wings that had been completely obliterated by a powerful blast and saw the top of the Dragon’s head was missing. Yet, even with all of that damage, something was off about the image of the massive beast’s body. It took a few seconds of him staring at the beast, during which time his body began to float gently down to the ground. Just before he fell to the ground, just past the lip of the nest Derick saw it.

  Derick saw the stomach of the dragon slightly rise up and down gently. The damn thing is still alive?

  Derick thought as he landed gently on the ground and collapsed into a pile of bone on the floor, letting his body begin to heal quicker, while his mind could rest and take in all of the events that had happened recently. While resting Derick brought up his recent logs.

  Awareness has increased to 42.

  OhmN has killed Psychic Dragon egg.

  Experience gained. Experience Deferred until entering the actual servers.

  OhmN has killed Death Magic Dragon Egg.

  Experience gained. Experience deferred until entering the actual servers.

  Wow, thankfully my combat settings still apply, even while HAIL isn’t talking to me. Perhaps this is the best thing, yet. No HAIL, and I don’t have to view the stream of skill increases, it is a win-win for me. Derick thought to himself, knowing that HAIL would likely hear the barb and wouldn’t be able to respond. While thinking about that Derick noticed a glowing gold minimized box in his periphery. Knowing he still needed time to heal up, Derick opened the box and was surprised to see what happened next.

  The second box was a separate log that explained the knowledge gained from the mental memories of the Portal Master.

  Skill Celestial Vision increased to 78.

  Skill Celestial Correspondence increased to 82.

  Skill Celestial Travel increased to 76.

  All skills of profession class exceed 75, Master status available seek a trainer.

  You have received training. Skill progression to 100 is now unlocked.

  Experience gained. Experience Deferred until entering the actual servers.

  Derick searched around in his bag for any vials that he might have missed earlier. He saw a few sacks that he he had looted from other players and began searching through those bags as well. He saw a few food items, which were instantly discarded, then finally in a secondary bag that Derick vaguely remembered looting from one of the elite assassins that were trying to collect his bounty, Derick found a few healing vials. Derick began drinking the first vial like he had been stuck in the middle of a Mexican heatwave wit
hout water for a two day exercise. God how I hated those exercises. Derick thought, realizing how almost everyone that went on those exercises with him were either dead, or likely uploaded to this game.

  I doubt they made the cut of who was acceptable to keep around. Derick thought angrily to himself, knowing that it was anger that he could use to force him onward. Finally after the last red vial had been drunk and his health points now near 80%, Derick felt ready to proceed.

  Though, before he did, Derick saw a glowing blue box, one of the boxes that indicated that he had a possible power available, but from where? Derick mentally opened the blue pop up and saw the following message:

  Greetings traveler, you have defeated and absorbed the energy of a black dragon egg. You now have one of three possible options available to you. You can either gain an extra respawn, gain a 50% invulnerability to black magic, or +10 spell power points.

  The want of an extra respawn would be nice, though Derick knew that having a respawn wouldn’t mean anything if he died here. The 50% invulnerability to Black magic seemed interesting, though he already had a 75% resistance, would they work together? Were they on separate tables entirely and invulnerability would be worth more in the future?

  Derick didn’t know and not for the first time he found himself wanting HAIL’s help, but a stubbornness and refusal to admit he needed the annoying AI caused him to buckle down and choose a known quantity. Derick chose the +10 Spell Power Points. He didn’t want to get cocky and irrational with the knowledge that he had an extra respawn available, though he knew he had recently acquired a lot of powers and had many more that he desperately wanted to increase the capability of.

  Realizing that he needed more than psychic-telekinesis and that for the second fight in a row phase had saved his life, Derick put all ten points into phase. Instantly his time that he was allowed to phase shot up to 18 seconds. That made Derick a little happier, knowing that he would now only have theoretically 42 seconds of vulnerability between casts.

  Seeing that all his boxes had been checked, and seeing that the dragon at the top of the hill still lay unconscious, without most of its skull or the top of its wings, Derick made his way around the hill and found the seven remaining eggs.

  This time Derick went toward the white egg, and began absorbing the beast within. This one hurt far worse than anything Derick had experienced in the game, no doubt as a result of his extra damage taken by light magic, though Derick didn’t quite understand why that was. Yet, after the first two, Derick found that this version egg wasn’t as tough to absorb as the others.

  “It is because light magic is a subcategory of white magic. White being the umbrella that encompasses a whole range of spells and Light Magic being as specific attack variant of white magic.” HAIL answered, though he surprisingly said the entire statement without sounding condescending.

  Derick looked at his health and saw that the white egg had been attacking him both physically and mentally. It seemed that the egg was able to defend itself slightly with the light subgenre of the attack. Derick sat down, letting his body heal. He could see the energy draining from the eggs, knowing that they would all soon be dead since they were now out of the nest and out of the stream of energy that had been funneled to them. Derick clicked on the pop up, once again receiving the same three options, this time Derick chose the +50 invulnerability to white magic. While he didn’t feel anything special per say, he somehow knew intrinsically that he would be able to withstand white magic powers better.

  Not wanting to waste another second Derick ran over to the Green egg and began fighting for dominance of that egg as well. The attack didn’t last anywhere as long as the others that Derick had faced with the other eggs, but it was still taxing on his body physically. Derick looked at his health bar to see that it had once again dipped below the final 100 hit points and rested somewhere around 67 hit points.

  Derick opened the pop-up not knowing if it would disappear when the other eggs did, as if this was some special type of timed event, but Derick didn’t want to risk losing this chance. Derick opened the new blue pop-up menu and once again selected the +50% invulnerability to green magic. Green magic as Derick thought, contained the sub magic class of nature magic. As he waited for his hit points to return Derick thought, does this mean that there are other classes of magic that are not currently known?

  “Not only are there extra classes of each magic type, but there are also classes of magic that many species will not be able to use as they are inherently anathema to the way your bodies are designed.” HAIL once again responded, only answering the question posed, not offering any further insights or remarks.

  “Could I make a suggestion?” HAIL asked timidly.

  Sure.

  “Quickly absorb the two blue eggs before they all die. Your mental immunity is part of the blue magic family and will grant you a great resistance to all possible attacks those two eggs can pose. You must hurry though, as it looks like all of the eggs will die soon.” HAIL said, again keeping his opinion to the facts present.

  I could get used to this new helpful you, Derick thought to himself as he forced himself to his feet and began walking over to the first egg. As HAIL said, the first blue egg was much easier to absorb, then quickly Derick went over to the other blue egg and absorbed it as well. Derick paused for a second, wanting 100% invulnerability to all blue magic, but the want for a respawn was also big on his list.

  Derick thought about the choice for a while before bringing up the two different pop-ups. While he waited, he saw the remaining traces of energy die and fade away from the remaining three eggs. Derick looked at his health to see that after the last two eggs his health was only down to 58 hit points and climbing. Finally after what felt like an eternity of debating with himself, Derick decided to apply both bonuses to invulnerability as well. Being 100% immune to blue magic could be more beneficial in the long run, but Derick couldn’t help but wonder what if.

  “You made the correct choice, while resistances can be raised or lowered with powers or abilities, an invulnerability is applied before any damages or spells even hit your resistance. So if you are 100% invulnerable to blue magic, regardless of how many resistance debuffs you receive, you will never be affected by blue magic. Similarly the 50% invulnerability to both white and green magic will be applied before any damage takes effect. So say you are hit by a 100 point light spell. The damage would be reduced to 50 at the start, then your -25% resistance would kick in, raising the damage to 62. Additionally the 50% invulnerability would also grant you a 50% chance that the spell would be resisted entirely.”

  After hearing about the bonuses from even 50% invulnerability, Derick wished he had the choice with his dark magic egg back. Oh well, it was the best decision I could have made with the information present at the time. Derick waited for a much needed rebuke from HAIL about how reckless he had been, or how he had made a terrible decision without his help, but nothing.

  After what felt like an eternity, Derick’s health bar and energy bars were once again completely full and his cooldown timer for levitation had reset. With a quick breath to himself, Derick began going back up the hill to the nearly killed dragon.

  Derick got up to the top of the hill and saw the prone beast before him. Not hesitating with a defenseless enemy, Derick mentally drew his five daggers and the blade of his sixth dagger and began plunging them into the exposed brain matter of the beast before him. The beast let out a mental scream of pain and anguish, but Derick kept his blades spinning, cutting and slicing at every exposed piece of skin.

  Derick took the blade that didn’t have a hilt and let it slide all the way through the giant dragon’s skull, only stopping its momentum forward once it mentally clicked against he back of the dragon’s skull. Even then Derick just forced the blade to spin slowly, until it had turned around flat with the blade now pointing towards Derick. Once it was facing the right way, Derick began pulling it through the beast’s brain again. Derick saw that th
e beast was still moving, though his Awareness skill showed that the last of the beast’s life force had left it, leaving only the fine motor skills that caused the body to twitch once his blade struck a different nerve cluster in the brain. Derick was at once both intrigued by the discovery of what his mental prodding and poking of the Dragon’s brain could yield, while also sickened by the discovery. But ultimately Derick stopped his the movement of the broken blade and opted to leave it in the brain, rather than cause a violent reaction that caused dark energy to spew forth from the dead dragon in a violent reaction that could have easily been avoided. Derick watched the dead beast, while waiting for his mental energy to once again refill. Derick saw the combat box appear minimized in his periphery, showing that he was in fact out of combat again, but opted wait a few seconds longer, making sure that there wouldn’t be any violent magical reactions caused by the beasts muscles releasing tension on a possible magic attack.

  Finally after a few minutes, Derick went over and placed his hand upon the dead dragon’s skull. Instantly a pulse of energy began streaming forth from the beast, trying to overtake Derick’s consciousness. While this stream was powerful, Derick’s mind was well equipped to fend off the stream of energy that forced its way through his body. Derick could feel his resistance playing a roll in his mental battle with the beast, though he had no time to think about that. Instead he followed the stream up, till he saw the glowing sphere that was the beast’s consciousness. Derick not needing an invitation touched the giant black sphere and saw.

  Instantly Derick was on Draco, he saw a flock of dragons getting together and plotting revenge against the Celestial Gnomes capital of Atlantica. He saw the different dragons working together as a team, no, as a family. The dragons worked together to appease the grieving mother that had lost her brood. Together the dragons went from a friendly race to a race that should be feared and avoided. Derick saw the different portal gnomes coming in to evacuate the citizens, the dragons waited. They all bid their time, waiting for the time when the perpetrator would show himself. They didn’t have to wait long, finally at the center of all the portals was one celestial gnome that looked familiar, the dragons could see that his soul was stained with the spirit of many dragons.