by M J Conlon
“This game is a lot more learn as you go than others.” Leandra said, looking somewhat defeated.
“With that, I pronounce you all portalist neophites. You will now have access to the three main skills celestial vision, celestial correspondence, and celestial travel. Each skill is unique, each skill is important, and it is only the average of all three skills that will determine your future ranks and progressions in this noblest of professions, if I do say so myself.” I added the last part with a slight bow, before pulling my hood back up over my head and turning toward the city. I kept a mental window behind me, showing what the group did, as I made my way slowly toward the city.
“A bit theatrical there at the end, but overall a good performance. You really are pulling off the enigmatic portalist NPC quite well.” HAIL said, offering a much needed opinion of Derick’s progression so far. Derick knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep his status as a player secret forever, and the cosmic hair, purple eyes, and short stature would make him an easy target to note anywhere. Derick saw a prompt once again asking if he would like to assign the quest, Tracing Your Roots a quest that required the five different travelers to carve their meteorite pendants to show the astrological runes of correspondence. Then to find a way for them to depict their origin city of Jalindan from the runic combinations possible? Yes or no.
Derick mentally confirmed Yes. Before continuing on his journey.
“All right, portal mastery here I come.” Pennywise yelled with a cheer as he began leading the way back to the city.
“Well I know I need a nap before we go out again. Want to meet up at the Library at 3?” Leandra asked the others. The others all seemed to agree in various ways as they all began running towards the city. In past games Derick would have asked to join the group, even knowing that he was almost twice the level of every player there. Yet, Derick knew that in order for him to succeed at making his way up the resurrection board, he would have to beat out 75 million other players that were currently above him in the resurrection standings.
Derick made a mental list to check out his active quests and was happy to see that a check next to Aquarnia’s name had been applied to his quest of training a portalist. With that Derick noticed a pop-up box below and instantly accepted it.
You have completed the training of a portalist for Aquarnia.
You have gained 5,000 experience.
Derick looked, but was surprised to see that he was still over 37 thousand experience away from reaching the next level. It was then that Derick looked to see that the experience points required for each level doubled. So it only too 100 experience to get to level 1. Then to get to level 2 it cost 200. Then 400 for level 3 and so on. So while 5,000 experience might be more than enough to go from level 1 to level 6, it did next to nothing at Derick’s current level. Well I have to start somewhere I guess.
“You are actually doing quite well for yourself. You are also one traveler death away from getting a free respawn. So you might want to keep an eye out for any stragglers.” HAIL said, again offering nothing but helpful advice and details, which caused Derick to pause. We are still good, right?
“Oh yes.” HAIL answered back as if he was caught in the middle of a thought.
What is really going on? Derick mentally asked, coming to a sudden and complete stop, a stop that was so quick that Derick barely noticed when a weight tackled into him from the back side. Instantly Derick’s radar showed a giant red dot pulsing on top of his location in his psychic-viewing map. Without even thinking about it, Derick began to roll with the momentum, while mentally grabbing the weighted object with his psychic-telekinesis and pulling it off of him and into the air. Derick instantly realized who he saw before him, it was the rogue from the day before. No doubt he heard about my path and decided to wait for my return. Derick thought.
“If you kill me, I will tell everyone your secret.” TrickeryDickery12 said.
Derick mentally turned the would-be rogue around, began piercing the level 1 attacker with three different daggers, until the rogue’s health was flashing red and was bleeding out hit points quickly.
“You mean, like knowing that I can teleport to the underworld and kill you upon respawn?” Derick asked in a slow silent tone behind the man’s head. “Now I would suggest that you leave this alone, but something tells me you are too stupid to listen to a good thing.” Derick said, before plucking one of the blades out of the air and striking it into the man’s back. With that the body fell limp then fell to the ground. In a second Derick had mentally re-sheathed his blades and looked at his pop-up menus.
OhmN has killed TrickeryDickery12 Spell Power increased. +1 for Player kill. One unspent Spell Power Points.
Congratulations! You have killed 20 fellow players and have been awarded with an extra respawn.
Derick thought about trading in one of his two respawns to either get rid of a flaw, or to get more Abilities, but instead opted to do neither. Instead Derick touched the body, where a total of six silver, three copper and two bronze daggers were looted. Derick took the two daggers and stuck them to his belts then continued onto the city. It wasn’t until he made his turn that he saw one of his disciples Scarlet PuffingTon188 staring at him in awe and wonder. Derick took the extra spell power point and added it to his psychic-viewing knowing that until that skill was at 100%, he would not be able to rest easily. While 77% was nothing to sneeze at, there were times when he would still be vulnerable to ambushes. Derick seeing that Scarlet had just witnessed everything, simply nodded his head, and then began walking at his casual pace back to the city gates.
“That was amazing.” Scarlet said, quickly running to my side, before falling into step with me. “What power was that?” She asked excitedly.
“A portalist power.” I answered, never losing stride, though I might have been trying to escape a little more quickly from her questions.
“Bullshit.” She said, “that was some form of blade magic, though I have never seen a spell like that before.” She said, before she got in my way and blocked my advancement. Derick looked up at the girl and debated what he should tell her, if anything. Then before he could do anything, he teleported ahead about 100 feet in front of the city gates.
“Wait!” A female voice yelled from behind him.
Derick turned and looked at Scarlet, waved goodbye, then teleported away to a vacant side alley. Derick could feel a number of blue dots start to circle around him.
“I’d back off, if I were you.” Derick said brandishing his staff in one hand, the other laying loosely by his side. Derick was already viewing the different angles around him, taking in all possible attack vectors and calculating math that would have been well beyond his associates level mathematics skill in the real world, in his past life.
A faint laugh came from behind Derick, though he didn’t move, instead he let it appear as though he was afraid of his would be attackers.
“I warn you now, leave and find an easier target from whom to steal.”
“Steal? You hear that boys? He thinks us to be a band of petty thieves.” Derick could see the man moving his hand to rest within inches of Derick’s hood. As the man moved his hand forward, Derick created a small portal the size of the man’s hand that opened directly behind his own hood, then quickly closed the portal severing the man’s hand clean off forcing the limb to fall onto his own hat. Instantly a spray of blood began to spray out, but rather than flying wildly onto the streets, the burst of blood sprayed forth from a second portal that appeared before one of his lackey’s faces. The twang of crossbow bolts sprang to life, but the arrows were redirected in mid flight through a portal that sent them back at the would be attacker. Derick waited, never turning his body.
“I warned you.” Derick said, finally turning around to see the face of his would-be attacker. Derick felt the red image of a person coming from a hidden blue room that was just behind a bush to the back. Derick created a portal that appeared before the person that conned red, meaning evi
l intentions. The person appeared before Derick, their back turned.
Derick pressed his walking stick into the person’s back and instantly the figure raised their hands up in surrender. It took Derick a second to realize that the hands and arms that rose up were far smaller than those Derick would associate with a male. Then Derick saw the flowing black hair and instantly knew why.
“Not so much fun when it is someone else who gets the drop on you?” Derick asked, still keeping an eye on everyone and everything around him. He could tell that the first assailant who was now missing a hand was still alive, though barely.
The female rogue turned slowly, her hands still up in a surrendering posture. It was then that she saw the small size and stature of her would be assailant.
“My my,” she said, licking her lips hungrily “you are the one who is causing a racket?” She asked.
Derick removed his hood, showing his cosmic hair and bright violet irises. Derick saw how she breathed in, biting her lip.
“So this is it, you’ve come to collect the bounty on our heads.” She said, in a more casual tone than one might expect based on the topic of conversation.
“No, I was merely traveling through, when your thugs tried to assault me.”
“So you killed them?”
“No, I merely gave unto them everything they wished to give to me.” Derick felt a flicker of movement from behind him and instinctively created a portal behind him that shorted to a point just in front of the first thief’s body. A sharp gasp of pain and the squirting of blood from a drying husk of a body could be heard coming from behind Derick. Derick took one step to his right to show the Thief who had been laying on the ground have his right sword arm stretched out, the sword he held in his hand went on about four inches, before disappearing and seemingly reappearing in a long gash that cut through the thief’s chest.
“Rather impressive.” She said, though it does seem to come at a cost. She said, gesturing towards Derick’s face.
Derick smelled something coppery rose his hand up and wiped at his nose. Instantly a feeling of sticky fluids clung to the back of Derick’s hand.
Derick had spent enough time in a combat zone to know that it was blood, and that it had more than likely come from his nose, a sign that he was stretching himself too thin. Instantly the portal around the thief on the ground stopped, and with it Derick was able to stand up a little straighter. Derick could feel more and more blue dots appearing in his mental image of the battle space. With his psychic-viewing able to show well over 100 yards Derick could see almost everything and everyone to the first market street that was only 180 feet away to the east.
“I have a business plan.” Derick began, the words flowing out of his mouth before HAIL or common sense could stop him.
“Oh, I am all ears.” She said, though it was only now that Derick noticed she did have the distinct ears of an elf. Yet she looked far too pale to be a forest or nature type elf, would they even stay in a city? Derick almost expected a response from HAIL, but it seemed that HAIL was going to let him succeed or fail on his own.
“Perhaps we should do this in a more private establishment.” Derick said, gesturing toward the hidden entrance the rogue before him had used to access the streets.
“We cannot go that way, it is a one way tunnel.” She said.
“Then I will wait for you there.” Derick said with a smile and bow before disappearing into the tunnels. The whole world was now spinning for Derick. He had made too many jumps, too many calculations in too short of a time and it was all catching up to him. Derick sat on the steps and was relieved to see that the woman had been correct, it was a one way passage. Derick waited, letting his body debuffs wear away. While he didn’t feel the mental problems from his over taxing of his mental abilities, he did feel a few status effects that were causing serious problems with his body. Fortunately it took the woman a good two minutes to run around to another entrance, then three more minutes to come to where Derick sat. By this time Derick had gathered the two dead bodies and let them sit in a pile in front of him. Derick then quickly looted both, seeing if anything of value or importance was available. Derick took two more daggers from the thief, which caused Derick to need to take a third belt. The third belt was woven into and around the first two belts before resting it around his waist.
Derick felt the woman’s mind approaching. A primal portion of his mind knew he could feed off of her mental energy, that there were abilities she possessed that he would be able to devour in time. Derick had a fierce mental debate with himself in a matter of seconds, on the one hand he could kill her, likely claim her abilities and turn in the bodies of her and the entire network to the authorities. Or, he could befriend her and eventually claim the spy network of thieves and assassins for his own.
The woman came up, saw the two dead thieves before me then let a snarl crest her lips, before her mask of pleasantries took over.
“So what is it you want?” The female elf asked angrily, no more feigned niceties. Though I was the one who was technically cornered she acted like I was the true threat. Truth be told she was correct, here I was unscratched in her dwelling and I took out two of her guards with ease. All without performing a single attack of my own.
“I want to join your group.” Derick said, having had time to think of what he actually wanted. Earlier he had used the tactic to stall, so he could rest and recover long enough to make an attack.
“You want to join us?”
“I assure you, I have all the skills you would need and want.”
“What type of skills?”
Derick smiled, she wants me to show more of my hand, so she could find a potential weakness that could be exploited.
“The true question you should be asking yourself is, how high should I promote him? That and does he want my job?” Derick replied, his smile stretching wider on his face though never reaching his eyes.
She laughed, a sound that if Derick didn’t know any better he would swear meant she agreed with the plan.
“So what could we truly offer one such as yourself? And do you want my position?”
“I want knowledge, all of it. And secondly no. I do not wish to deal with logistics, of spy placement and planning assassination attempts and the like. Instead I prefer to be the hammer that is brought in to keep the nails in line. I need to be the hand that distracts, while the other hand is pocketing coins. While I can do what you do, I realize it is not me.”
“So that’s it, no items? No untold wealth, just knowledge?”
Derick laughed, reaching out his hand that entered into a short portal that opened up in his inventory bag. From there Derick grabbed a large handful of gold coins which he piled around his feet. Finally after a few hundred coins clattered and jingled their way to the ground Derick stopped. “Money is fleeting, a small stepping stone to get what one truly needs to thrive in this world. If I cared about money, I would rob the city treasury now. While that would solve an immediate concern, it is a minor effect in the long run. In the end I will need people that I can trust to hold their own self-interests and motivations.”
“You want people to be selfish around you?”
“Greed is always a calculatable outcome, it is when altruism and morals come in that good plans go to pot. Give me a group of people that wish to get paid, to save their children, to sleep with a beautiful partner any day, as those are quick motivations that offer few complications.” Derick said a little more candidly than he expected.
“All this talk of greed from the person who turned down the third in line to the crown?”
“You have done your homework.” Derick said while clapping his hands in applause. “See more of my whole thing, give me someone who doesn’t favor altruism, and I will show you someone that I can predict the actions of any day. It is people who act by passions rather than logic that should be feared.”
“So, should I fear you?” She said, a faint smile cresting her lips as she moved closer.
/> “Without a doubt.” Derick replied, while also lowering his hood to reveal his cosmic hair and violet eyes.
“Perhaps I can do something with you yet.” She said coming up to me and moving her hand onto my neck. With a short quick movement, her hand began snaking its way down my collarbone and to my chest. Having felt much of the same seduction techniques used against him just the day before Derick grabbed her hand and stopped her movement.
“Do we have a deal?”
She paused thinking to herself, before smiling. “I think we have to go through an initiation process with you first.” She said, before leaning in for a kiss. After her lips touched mine for a few seconds, she leaned back then watched my eyes. I know she is up to something. Derick placed a hand on the wall, resting most of his weight against it, to prepare himself for the inevitable.
“What have you done to me?” Derick asked, placing his weight against his arm, then letting his body weight collapse onto the wall.
“The good night’s kiss.” She said with a wicked smile to her lips.
“You see and I thought we could be friends and play nice.” Derick said, pushing his weight off the wall and going straight back up to his feet. “Let me guess it would knock me out, you would throw me in a jail cell or try to kill me?”
The thief leaned back, fear now filling her eyes. “It is the deadliest poison known.”
“You know what, I take it all back.” Derick said, the phrase catching the female thief off guard as she did not know what to think.
“What?”
“I might have to take over this whole place.” Derick said, grabbing the thief with psychic-telekinesis and flinging her against the wall. Then Derick took out a dagger with his mind and let it dance in front of her eyes. Two guards rounded the corner. “Tell them to stand down.” Derick demanded.
“Stand down.” The female said, causing the two guards to stop their advancement.