Rogue Games

by Angie A Huxley

  The bank teller, sadly not the gnome from the KLISTER-DALLEN TRADING POST but a bored looking orc. He gave Alejander the once over and held out his hand. “Token.”

  Friendly sort. Alejander handed over the token he’d been given, and the orc did something behind the desk that Alejander couldn’t see. “Third door from the right down there.”

  Without saying thanks, in retaliation for the brash manner, Alejander followed the orc’s pointed finger down into the hallway. Vaults lined either side of the corridor, but none were numbered, and Alejander didn’t know how they could tell. Unless it was one of those game mechanics like dungeons, where they changed depending upon who requested them.

  Opening the door, Alejander peered around and wasn’t surprised to find it empty. It wasn’t an overly large room, the size of his hotel bathroom, so he supposed he would have to be careful with how he organized everything in here. Not right now, given that he only had a few things to leave behind. Leaving the lockbox, a couple of the scrolls and everything he’d gained from the first lockbox, he shut the door behind him.

  Back at the desk, the orc handed back his coin. “Thanks for your custom.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Alejander said, with a tight smile.

  Coin safely stowed back in his satchel, Alejander was ready to get out of GRANGE TOWN and find somewhere else to gain the two levels he needed for the Urbane Bank. He was so close, he could taste the potential. It was like the more high-profile jobs, cracking a safe or robbing a corporation. The thrill, the want. It was his for the taking; he just had to find the means.

  Back at the stable, Naki waved him down the corridor on his own, and he headed straight for Greta. He hadn’t seen her in a few days and she was just as happy to see him, sticking her head out over the stable door and nudging at his shoulder. In the next stall, Hera was howling, head back and chest heaving, and she started off a chain, something yowling a few down, another barking.

  “Hey,” Alejander said, afraid Naki would yell. “Cut it out.”

  Hera immediately dropped her head, but pushed up onto her hind legs, hanging onto the door and whining.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, thankful when the other animals quieted down. “You’re lucky.”

  Opening the door to Hera’s stall, she immediately started winding her way through his legs, almost making him fall. She was a little bigger than she had been, and he wondered if every time she gained a level, she increased in size as well.

  Greta’s bridle, reins, and saddle were hanging on the wall of her stall, and Naki had groomed her. She looked as shiny as she had that first day, and Alejander quickly put the gear on, grabbing the stakes for the shelter that Naki had left in the stall with the rest of Greta’s things.

  “What’s say we get out of here?”

  Hera was content to follow as Alejander led Greta out of the stable. Naki shook her head and he shrugged in apology, glad the animals had stopped their noise.

  “Sorry.”

  “Yeah,” Naki said with a laugh. “Don’t hurry back.”

  “Such nice friends,” Alejander said, with a mock sigh. Naki laughed again, shoving at his shoulder.

  “Get out of here, Alejander. Rise up those levels.”

  Alejander made a face. “I’ll try.”

  “I expect you to be level fifteen by the time you come back.” Naki’s face was all challenge and Alejander found that he wanted to match it.

  “Fine,” he said easily. “See you in seven levels.”

  Mounting Greta quickly, he clicked his tongue, and Hera immediately fell into step. Again, as they approached, the South Gates were already opening. Alejander didn’t pause to look behind him, nothing else for him in GRANGE TOWN; everything else was out there, on the rest of the continent.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The plains in the South, almost as if GRANGE TOWN had an invisible line going through it, were a little less open. There was a scattering of treelines, and the horizon dipped and rose depending upon which direction Alejander was traveling. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was going, part of him wanting to find another dungeon immediately, and another wanting to explore a little bit more.

  Most of his leveling up had been done in one dungeon, so he decided to do that again, this time choosing one a little further out of the way. A quick look at the map helped him orient himself against the map of dungeons he had looked at back in the hotel room. There was a forest, another little hamlet and then another dungeon just beyond that.

  Keeping Greta at a brisk canter across most of the plain, the mare enjoying the chance to stretch her legs, and Hera happily bounding along beside them. Alejander felt free for the first time in a long time, with nothing around to give him nervousness, no expectation beyond those he set for himself. He was enjoying himself in the game and made it to the forest before midday. It looked a little bigger than he had been expecting, but it wasn’t a problem.

  If he happened to run into something dangerous, he had Hera and his own daggers. Greta still had the space to trot and Alejander let her, keeping his eyes on the trees either side. Hera wasn’t concerned, sniffing and yipping at various things as they walked, only once pausing, ears pricked forward, but she quickly went back to sniffing the underbrush.

  “Hey!”

  Alejander turned in his saddle to see an elf standing in the trees, bow drawn and a hood covering their face. Hera was low to the ground, hopefully low enough that the elf hadn’t seen him. They were tilting their head.

  “Dismount.”

  “You must be crazy,” Alejander said.

  An arrow whizzed past his ear and just as fast, the elf had reloaded. “Dis. Mount.”

  Alejander gave Greta a pat to the neck and tried not to look down at Hera, who was carefully picking her way through the underbrush. “I don’t have anything of worth on me.”

  “Then you’ll be nice experience when I kill you,” the elf said, and the hood dropped back to reveal a masculine face, with high cheekbones and a wicked scar across one eye.

  The forest was clearly not an amnesty zone and was a free-for-all for character fighting. Alejander tilted his head, resting one hand on his belt. The elf immediately drew his bow a little tighter, but he didn’t let an arrow fly. “Hands down.”

  “No,” Alejander said, resting his other hand on his belt. He immediately darted to the side as the elf fired again. Alejander hit the ground, jarring his shoulder, and rolled up into a crouch.

  You have lost: 10HP.

  Unsheathing a dagger, Alejander let it fly, watching it imbed itself in the elf’s arm before he could dart away. With a shout of rage, the elf winced as he pulled on his triceps, but he had another arrow nocked and ready to fly. It hit Alejander’s knee and he cursed, afraid to pull it out right away.

  You have lost: 20HP.

  What was on these arrows?

  “Nice, aren’t they?” The elf laughed and wrapped a hand around Alejander’s dagger. Alejander narrowed his eyes and lunged, but was beaten to the elf by Hera, who pounced. The elf let out a strangled cry as Hera’s jaws snapped down on his hand and wrenched, sending him tumbling to the floor.

  “Nice, isn’t she?” Alejander said, standing over the elf. Hera still had the elf’s wrist in her jaws, butt wiggling as if she wanted to finish him off, but Alejander rested a hand on her neck and she growled instead, loosening her jaw and then tightening it again.

  “Call her off!” The elf snarled. “This isn’t a fair fight.”

  “Should have thought of that,” Alejander said, reaching down and plucking the bow from the floor, where the elf had dropped it. “Think I’ll take this.”

  The elf looked outraged. “I worked hard for that! Give it back!”

  “I’m sure you fought someone hard for it,” Alejander said, and brought the handle of his dagger down on the elf’s head. He wasn’t out to kill anyone, not even for the experience, when he could just knock them out and take their stuff. It wasn’t th
eft if he had been attacked first. With the elf unconscious, Alejander dug around in his satchel, tossing Hera a piece of meat. She released the elf’s arm and snapped it out of the air.

  You have defeated Jakast Terain, Ranger, congratulations!

  You have obtained experience and a store token for your first player defeat.

  You have lost: 10 stamina.

  Current Stamina: 85/120

  Current HP: 105/235

  Alejander had no idea what a store token was and would have to find out the next time he left the game. Rooting around Jakast’s clothes and the bag he had over one shoulder, revealed a couple of items of worth. Alejander doubted he would have anything of real value on his person, not if he did this often, which Alejander suspected. His stealth was impressive if he’d slid under Alejander’s radar. Then again, he didn’t know what level Jakast was. It didn’t overly matter, thankfully, given that Alejander had still managed to knock him out.

  Having Hera around was getting more advantageous for him. She was licking at her muzzle, watching Alejander with mild interest as he pulled out Jakast’s coin purse. When he was certain he had everything, he whistled for her to follow.

  Greta was still where he had left her, munching on the grass at the side of the track, looking up as he approached. He leaned against her as he went through the items he’d taken from Jakast.

  You have acquired: Redwood Longbow {Rare}

  Damage: 30 {piercing, surefire arrows}

  Weapon Durability: 32/40

  Reach: Range

  Quality: Great

  You have acquired: 1 higher transmogrification stone

  Quality: Great

  You have acquired: Coin

  Inventory: 20 copper, 15 silver, 10 gold, 6 electrum

  Total Currency: 140 copper, 80 silver, 114 gold, 14 electrum

  You have acquired: Scroll of Sure Flight {Tradable} {Uncommon}

  Teaches the Ranger ability: Sure Flight

  Level: Level 15 Ranger only

  Description: Every arrow you fire has 100% accuracy for ten minutes providing the enemy’s deftness is 9 or less.

  Casting Time: 10 seconds.

  Cooldown: 1 hour.

  Pity Jakasta had to lose the scroll before he could use it, but it would be an added benefit for Alejander. Stowing the items away, he mounted Greta again and Hera followed sedately, still licking at her muzzle. He would have to find more meat if he was going to keep feeding it to her every time she did something praiseworthy, but it was a small price to pay for gaining experience through player on player combat. Not something he wanted to do again, but he doubted he could make it through the rest of the game without being attacked unless he spent all of his time in amnesty zones.

  The rest of the forest was eerily silent but Alejander didn’t mistake that for emptiness; Jakast had clearly had superior stealth to his perception, much like he could imagine if he was trying to hide, he could do so with ease. Hera was just as alert, ears pricked forward and sticking close to Greta’s forelegs, everything about her screaming attentive. Alejander felt as if he was holding his breath the entire way, until the forest’s edge came into view.

  Breaking out onto the plain didn’t make the apprehension go away, but there were less places for things to hide out here. Not far down the well-travelled path was a hamlet, surrounded with wooden staves in a primitive protection method. One good match and the whole thing would go up in smoke, Alejander through wryly. Instead of heading for it, he moved around to its left. It would have been safer, but he had little interest in getting anything.

  The forest had eaten into his travel time and it was growing dark. Either time was moving faster, or Alejander was getting slower with his pace. Probably the latter, given how easily Jakast had time to catch him unawares. Shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the ambush, he headed instead for a group of hills just beyond the hamlet. There was a stream coming down one, ending in a shallow pond. It wasn’t particularly green, looked as if it spent most of the time in the sun, but the stream was still partially there, and it would be enough for Hera and Greta to drink, and for Alejander to refill his bottles.

  There were a couple of foxes drinking from the stream when they finally made it to the pond, but they darted into the bushes halfway up the hill. Hera immediately followed, and Alejander hesitated. She could more than take care of herself and if she wasn’t back in a few minutes, he’d call for her. Releasing his grip on the reins, he concentrated on keeping his balance as Greta leaned down to take a drink.

  There was the sound of snarling and yelping, and then Hera re-appeared, fox hanging from her jaws. Alejander winced but couldn’t deny that his stomach was rumbling. Perhaps it was late enough to set up camp. He didn’t like being so open, especially with a hamlet so close, and cursed the fact that he’d left the forest.

  Instead, he decided to push on up the hill a little further, hoping there would be protection and somewhere to hide. Hera seemed content to hang on to her prize and Alejander took the reins back up, guiding Greta up the hill. It was steep, but Greta moved with ease, finally cresting the top, and Alejander was relieved to see that it was moorland and stretched on for miles. There were plenty of places for him and the animals to hide, and it looked like a good place for a dungeon or two to hide.

  One of the dips in the moorland, covered with a thick blanket of moss and a couple of bushes, would provide cover on the flank. He dismounted, treading through the moss to make sure there wasn’t anything dangerous in it, and Hera did the same, dropping the fox on the edge of the moss. Satisfied, Alejander took Greta’s tack off and laid it on the ground, keeping the reins around her neck and tethering her to one of the stakes that he drove into the ground. She hadn’t wandered off yet, but he didn’t want to take the chance that she would.

  Now that his stamina had increased, he had little qualms about taking his time setting up the shelter, working hard to make it as secure as possible with limited tree coverage and branches to hang things from.

  You have lost: 30 stamina.

  It was worth it – he’d replenish it anyway – and this way, he felt secure, glad that the sheet was green and blended well with the surroundings. There was room enough for Greta and Hera both, though Alejander guessed that Hera would wander off at some point. Still, he wanted to get a fire going, but given how thin on the ground his matches were becoming, he needed to learn how to start one without. Grabbing two fresh sticks and setting up a pile of kindling, he hoped that his survival skill would give him a boost in getting something started.

  Alejander was a little at a loss. He knew abstractly, from televisions shows Matthew had watched, how it worked when you set up a fire plough system, which was complicated but Alejander was sure he could make something work. As Matthew he probably wouldn’t have been able to imagine it, but Alejander’s hands were his best weapons, and most useful tool, and had more range of motion.

  With a fair bit of rubbing and elbow grease, eventually he got something started and the kindling was alight. Triumphant, he grinned and put a little bit of tinder on the fire, stoking it enough that it would keep them all warm. He had enough to keep it going for the entire night, and as if brought on by the idea of the fire, his stomach rumbled.

  “Guess we should cook something, huh?”

  Hera looked up from her fox, licking the blood off of her muzzle, and Alejander rolled his eyes.

  “Not that you care about that,” he muttered, digging into his satchel for some of the wolf meat. It still made him feel slightly uncomfortable cooking some wolf meat given Hera being a constant companion, but he wouldn’t turn down the experience of killing another wolf should it arrive.

  Greta was happy to munch down on the rest of the fruit. Alejander would have to buy some hay at the next town and keep it in a saddlebag, if he could find something to put it into. It was a headache, trying to account for everything, when he was so used to only needing a few tools when he’d been a thief. Still
, there was plenty to be said for the life he was currently living.

  When he was fed, watered, and Hera and Greta had both stretched out to sleep, Alejander settled down himself, using a bit of the water left to wash off his face and clean some of his body. It was nothing to a shower, but hopefully the hamlet would offer something in the way of comfort before he headed for the next dungeon.

  ...LOGGING OFF]

  Matthew shuffled towards the bathroom. Sitting for long periods of time still wasn’t doing much for his back, but he wasn’t about to stop playing when he was finally making progress. As he made something to eat and checked the calendar, hoping that it wasn’t at the point where he was wasting time every time he went into the game, he decided to find out what having a store token actually meant.

  With the online community helpful for things Matthew had no interest in learning, there was a whole breakdown of the store and what you could do with online currency – including coupons, tokens and goldcoin, which was apparently the highest form of in-game player earnings for the store. Tokens were only obtained through player-on-player fighting.

  You could trade them in for upgrades, in-game coin, or real-life currency. Matthew caught on the last and hurried to find out what it would give him. Unfortunately, not enough to set Matthew up, but it would pay for him to stay in the hotel another couple of days. Deciding to cash it in, Matthew set up his bank account and linked it to the game account, something he probably should have done at the beginning. He had built up trust with the game, however.

  When the token had been cashed in and he could physically see the moment it went into his account, Matthew blew out a breath. He hadn’t realized how tense he had been worrying about paying the hotel, but he decided now was as good a time as any at paying the manager before he was kicked out of the hotel. He didn’t want to risk going back into the game with the payment still waiting.