by Charles Dean
That sack of potatoes? The Dark Knight that was partied with Lucas? The one everyone claims to be one of the best tanks on noob island? Thomas found it odd that an Alfar would address someone in the Imperium with such disdain while still serving an Imperium noble.
“So, I kill them, and then I outrank you?” Lilith asked.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Well, that’s going to be worth a penny on the forums,” Janet replied, turning to look at Lilith.
Halfway through the turn, however, she stopped. Her face paled with fear and dread for one brief instant before she choked off a scream and started coughing up bright red blood. The attack had been so fast that Thomas had barely seen it. Lilith had practically teleported behind Janet before digging her dagger into her back and then jamming it in again twice more for good measure.
Lilith grabbed Janet, hugging her from behind, and then slit her throat while giving Janet’s scaly cheek a little kiss. “Don’t take it personally,” she said matter-of-factly before pushing the corpse to the ground. “I have nothing against you, but I have to see Lucas.”
“What are you doing, lass?” Derrick’s accent was slightly more convincing this time.
Lilith reached down and wiped Janet’s blood off on her shirt, leaving it stained with a smear of red.
“This can be quick, or this can be slow,” Lilith said. “But you’re going to die here, so you can pick how.”
“Thomas . . .” Derrick looked over at him, obviously questioning what he should do.
Thomas quickly weighed his options and then turned to the maid and asked, “If she joins the Imperium, will you tell her where Lucas is?”
“I will,” the maid replied. “She can choose to share it with you or not. That’s her choice to make.”
Thomas turned back to Derrick and shook his head solemnly. “I’m sorry. I have to find out where that villain is.” Thomas clutched his knife to his chest and began channeling Backstab so that he could position himself behind the Dwarf, bypassing the little man’s shield. “I have to know where he is so that I can kill him. I have to rescue my princess!”
Thomas felt a familiar suction on his body like he was being pulled through a vacuum cleaner, and then he appeared behind the Dwarf. Unsure whether he should be facing Lilith or Thomas, Derrick stood rooted in place as Thomas executed an undefended Backstab and killed him.
You have killed Derrick, another player. You have been awarded 175 EXP. A pair of leather boots, 1 gold, and 158 copper have dropped upon death.
Due to killing another player outside of a player-versus-player event, you have been flagged red. Players will easily be able to identify you as a player killer by the red halo above your head for 24 in-game hours or until you die. This is something that only players will be able to identify, not NPCs. You will also drop twice as much loot and lose twice as much experience upon death. Any player who kills you will not suffer this penalty.
For killing your first player, you have been awarded the suffix “the Murderer.” This suffix has no effect. It is simply added to one’s name.
“That was cold,” the maid said. “I suppose you’re the perfect type for the Imperium then, and you have fulfilled the conditions. I would like to formally welcome you the Imperium. I will draft you the proper documents as proof of your joining. If you choose to remain here, I can still offer you a ring of nobility. You can become a Knight under Baron Lucas and be in charge of managing Lucas’s estate on the island of Hesse.”
“No,” Lilith answered, shaking her head. “I just need to know where he’s going and how to reach him.”
“Right. I have to kill him,” Thomas said, walking over and standing beside Lilith. “That filthy mongrel needs to be put dow-- AH!”
Lilith turned on him. She shoved her knife into his stomach, dragged the blade downward, and then ripped it out and repeated the process a second time horizontally, creating a cross. Then, before Thomas could so much as raise a dagger in defense, she leaned forward and smashed her forehead into his face, leaving him completely disoriented. Thomas’s world spun as he tried to process what was going on, and then his legs were swept out from underneath him. He landed hard on his back on the cold floor, and Lilith pounced on top of him almost instantly. She shoved her hands into the open wound that she had created in his stomach and grabbed giant handfuls of his intestines. She wrapped them around his wrists first like handcuffs, ripped more out, and then tied them around her backpack. Thomas’s health practically disintegrated, and he was preparing himself for the death sequence when a warm light flooded over him.
Huh? He looked up to see Lilith healing him. Apparently, she kept a Healer’s rod on her. His health jumped up but wasn’t fully restored. It couldn’t be. The spell closed up the wound in his stomach, but since his intestines were wrapped around the backpack and his wrists, they couldn’t be pulled back inside him. “What the . . .” Thomas managed. “Just kill me already you--”
He couldn’t finish his curses as Lilith pulled something out of her backpack and stuffed it in his mouth. Thomas gagged as a ball of peppers was stuffed into his throat. His tongue felt like a hot brand was being dragged across it, and he could practically feel his throat swelling the moment it touched him. He desperately tried to scream in pain, but Lilith kept her hand pressed against his mouth, preventing him from prying his jaws open. She started digging around in her backpack again with her free hand, and she pulled out a cloth, which she then wrapped around his head, securing the peppers in his mouth.
Thomas tried to struggle against her, but every movement only yanked out more of his intestines. His body was wracked with so much pain that he was having trouble processing it.
“Nuh uh,” Lilith said, waving a now-free hand back and forth in front of him. “You don’t get to die that easily. You need to suffer first.”
Thomas tried to think, but the agony was too much. He had accepted that he might die, but this was past the point of right and wrong. Since he normally kept his pain sensors fairly high to make sure that he would be extra aware of what was going on in the environment around him, all of the torment and suffering she was putting him through was worse than it would have been in reality.
“You insulted Lucas right in front of me. Did you really think I would let you off the hook? Did you think your blasphemous mouth could run as it wanted, to and fro, and go unpunished? This is your punishment. This is the price you will pay. I will make sure you don’t get to die fast, easily, or painlessly. I’m going to leave you here to bleed out, one tiny point of health at a time.” She grabbed his face when he tried to look away and held it in place, forcing him to stare up at her for a long moment. Finally, she violently shoved his face away and then stood up and dusted herself off. Turning back to the maid, she said, “If you would be so kind, please tell me where my dearest Lucas has gone.”
“You . . . uhh . . . don’t want to make sure he can’t hear?” the maid asked, pointing to Thomas squirming on the ground.
“No,” Lilith said. “I want him to find Lucas. I want him to see what a real villain, a great and glorious man like our Lucas, is like. I want him to taste despair at Lucas’s hand and to know the true depths of his failures.”
“O . . . kay . . .” The maid’s features changed from timidity to horror as her tall Alfar ears pulled back with the top of her forehead, and her skin blanched. “Well, he has begun his journey to Dover, the capital city of the Imperium, with his cohorts. He took a ship from the main port just yesterday and will arrive soon.”
“Does the Imperium have a way for me to get there quickly?” Lilith asked. “I need to go be with my Lucas.”
“Uhh . . .” The maid clearly didn’t want to answer, and her eyes remained fixed on Thomas’s slowly dying figure. “Yeah. Umm . . . Linnaeus, could you come out?”
A massive six-winged, six-armed, six-tailed light-blue beast stalked out from behind another one of the pillars. “I can take you,” the multi-limbed primate said as he look
ed over at Thomas and the woman. “I can see your loyalty to my dearest brother is admirable, and I’d be happy to take you as far as the port, but I cannot leave with you until a replacement has been found for this keep. I have strict instructions to keep our dearest Hanna safe until then. My brother, the noble Lucas, whose generosity and manners know no bounds, does worry so about every person in his charge. He would sooner die than let any harm befall any creature in his care.”
“Oh no,” Lilith gulped. “I . . . Oh, my. I accidentally . . . I killed an octopus that attacked me on my way here. He won’t be mad, will he? He won’t be angry with me, will he?!” Lilith asked worriedly, showing a small bit of concern for the first time over what might be a perceived slight to Lucas.
“It’s fine. You have proven yourself worthy, and it was the monster’s fault for attacking you. Probably. Either way, brother is a forgiving kind. But”--Linnaeus looked over at the corpse--“if you don’t mind, as a traveler’s fee, can I have his eyes?”
The maid cringed visibly.
“Would you like me to carve them out for you?” Lilith asked.
Linnaeus nodded eagerly. “If it’s not too much of a hassle.”
“No problem at all,” Lilith answered casually. She crouched back down next to Thomas, grabbed his chin with one hand so that he couldn’t turn his head, and with a voice that was enchantingly sweet and dripping with malice, she said, “I’m sorry. I wanted to let you suffer enough to understand the error of your ways, but I can’t waste another minute on you. I’m sure you understand, right? Next time we meet, I’ll make sure you suffer worse.”
Then she plunged her fingers down into Thomas’s right eye socket. Thomas tried to scream again, but it only caused pure spice-coated saliva to travel down his throat and into his windpipe, burning every part of his chest and heightening his torment. The only thing he could do to defend himself was to try and squeeze his eyes shut defiantly, but she quickly dropped her hold on his chin and swapped to pressing down his forehead instead. Once she did that, she was able to hold his head in position and pry his eyelids open using her thumb and then pluck both of his eyeballs from their sockets using her free hand.
Mercifully, the damage was just enough to finally kill him and trigger the death sequence, sending him back to his rented tavern room in Borken.
-----
Moments later, after he respawned, Thomas went to the tavern in the town just outside of the manor. The old watering hole was supposed to be the meeting spot for everyone in the worst-case scenario if they were completely wiped out and decided that the dungeon wasn’t conquerable, and it looked like it might end up being where they would part ways.
“Welcome to my humble establishment,” Hermann, the NPC who manned the tavern, said when Thomas opened the door.
“Thank you, man.” Thomas extended his hand, trying to be polite as he greeted the NPC.
“Don’t mention it,” Hermann replied.
“Hey, boss! Or, well, I guess it’s just ‘old man’ now,” a cute female voice said from behind Thomas before he could even put his first foot through the door.
Thomas recognized that voice. His back stiffened, and his hand automatically reached for his weapon as he spun about and discovered the pretty young Alfar woman in a lecher’s dream of a maid outfit. He could still feel the phantom tracers of pain from his last death, something that he wasn’t going to forget any time soon, if ever.
“Is he forcing you to wear that?” Hermann asked, his voice filled with concern. “You can always run away.”
The girl pushed her way past him as if he wasn’t even there. As if she didn’t recognize him. As if she didn’t know what had happened to him only a short time ago.
“Him? No. He’s not forcing me to do anything. As much as I’d love to have a hand at toying with the new lord, he’s too clever, and he doesn’t pay attention to anything I do. He’s always just dead-eyed, staring off into space or thinking about something,” the girl responded.
“Th-then why are you wearing that?” Hermann stammered. “Is that all you have? Did he throw away all of your other clothes?”
“Of course not!” she protested. “It’s that stupid princess of his. She is constantly bossing me around, telling me that I have to learn my lines and play the victim better. UGH! She’s so annoying!”
Why is she here? Thomas’s eyes instantly swept the area behind her for any sign of her hulking monster friend, but he didn’t see a thing.
“What? Do you want to pull out a pen and draw yourself a picture?” she snapped at Thomas. “Go ahead. Keep leering, and I’ll gouge your eyes out and feed them to Linnaeus.”
Thomas involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut at the memory. Even if it was just a game, it felt incredibly real--and often at the worst of times.
“No, it’s just . . . I was . . . Hey, what princess are you referring to?” he asked, just blurting out his question. She can’t be talking about Viola, can she? Viola is such an angel, and there is no way a captive princess would ever have such authority over the staff, would she?
“Why that stuck up Miss Viola, of course! The only one who could manage to find a complicated, fancy way to say she wants me to sprinkle extra sugar on her blueberry-glazed pancakes. I have no idea why the lord spoils all those women, but at least I still get to toy with that poor male friend of his.”
“You really need to calm down,” Hermann said. “This isn’t like you at all. Here, let me pour you a glass of wine so you can relax.”
The maid marched across the tavern and up to the bar.
“Thanks. I need it after having to take care of those women. Katie is the only good one in the bunch; the others all drive me crazy! I still can’t believe Lucas left me in charge while they just sailed off into the sunset. I never knew I would appreciate being alone so much with nothing but monsters for company, but tending to the manor with them gone has been nothing but a relief.”
That . . . That . . . That can’t be right! Can it? Thomas stood frozen in place. Viola is an angel. Viola is my perfect, sweet, beautiful angel.
Then he remembered one of the videos that he had seen. He recalled the way she had been chained, had been yanked around like a dog by that bastard Lucas, and his mouth dropped open even farther as he thought of one of the lines she had said to him.
Then an idea crept into Thomas’s head. A chill ran down his spine, and he suddenly felt sick to his stomach as his insecurity flared. What if I was just too dense to understand what Viola meant? What if she didn’t reject me because of a future quest? What if she rejected me because she was putting on an act the whole time? What if she was just manipulating people so we would do dangerous quests for her? So that we would just die in her place? What if she was literally trying to send people to their grave?
No! Thomas violently shook his head, dispelling that thought and killing it before it could grow. No! She’s my angel. He had already come to terms with his first sin: he had fallen for an NPC. He would never believe that he had also fallen for a lie and that his precious princess was actually a wicked, scheming siren to a dungeon lord.
Chapter 1
Character Name: Lucas
Level: 30
Hit Points: 4995
Arcane Energy: 2600
Stamina: 100
Holy Energy: Class Locked
Current Class: Enchanter
Stats:
Arcanum [increases Arcane Energy by 10 per point]: 250
Holy [No Effect/Class Locked]: 0
Athletics [increases Stamina by 10 per point]: 0
Fortitude [increases Hit Points by 1% per point]: 350
Charisma: 350
Luck: 60
Unspent: 0
Current Elemental Attunement:
Lightning Affinity: 1.5%
Effects: +3% Lightning Element Damage
+6% Lightning Element Channeling Speed
-3% Non-Lightning Element Channeling Speed
+0.75% Lightning Element Damage Resista
nce
Arcane Resistance: 2%
Combat Proficiencies:
None
Racial Quest Chain Progress:
Vampire: 2 out of 5 requirements met to start chain.
“So, what exactly is this?” Lucas asked as he sat down at the small table in his kitchen.
“It’s a roasted grape crostini,” Liu answered. She picked up one of the small appetizers and then took a bite as if to prove that it was perfectly edible ahead of any objection he might have.
Lucas had watched her make them, and while it wasn’t anything overly complex, it was entirely new to him at the same time. She had essentially mixed together grapes with sea salt, olive oil, sherry, thyme, rosemary, and ground black pepper to create a spread which was then topped onto a baguette with some manchego cheese crumbled over it. It was simplistic in design, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around it.
“What? You don’t trust me?” Liu asked. “When have I ever led you wrong? Go on. Give it a bite.”
Lucas took a swallow of water to make sure his mouth was completely empty before doing just that.
“Good? Right? I mean, they’re amazing to me. I absolutely love them. My mother hates the recipe, tells me that I need to stick to more traditional Chinese dishes, but I just can’t. I love the combination of sweet and salty and savory. The Spanish really knew what they were doing with this one.”
Liu was right. They were delicious. Decadently so.
“Although, I do remember seeing a recipe that made something similar with lemon ricotta and honey, and I’ve been tempted to try that one out too.”
Lucas finished chewing his bite and said, “Yeah, but that still doesn’t explain why you’ve set up a dive device in my home.”