by Charles Dean
Dungeon Master Notification: Due to the dungeon not being fully cleared of enemies, the limiter on the number of guards and monsters per room has been temporarily suspended. All rooms may now hold all potential guards or monsters.
Lucas didn’t mind that the dungeon wasn’t considered fully his. He had what he came for, so he thankfully didn’t need to carry on with the charade. He dropped the former hotel owner’s hand, grabbed his staff, and stood up when a thought crossed his mind: the vampire quest chain. Lucas wanted every advantage he could get going into this major fight, and a unique racial bonus, one he hadn’t ever seen before on the boards--like being a vampire--seemed like a good place to start. It says four out of five requirements have been met to start the chain, but maybe it’s something as simple as drinking a certain amount of blood? Lucas looked at the man at his feet. He had slouched onto the floor and curled up in a ball, whimpering and crying and clutching his shattered finger.
“Lilith,” Lucas said. “You might not want to watch.”
“Watch what?” she asked, suddenly perking up.
“I need to finish a quest; it’s going to be a bit ugly,” Lucas explained. He squatted down over the man he was going to kill soon. He expected Lilith to heed his warning and turn away, but her gaze remained locked on him as he reached down and ripped the man’s eyeball out. He popped it into his mouth just like he had with the others. As soon as his teeth squished down on the little eyeball, a system message appeared in front of him.
An event has occurred. You have completed the requirements to begin the Vampire quest chain.
Chapter 8
Character Name: Lucas
Level: 31
Hit Points: 5040
Arcane Energy: 2600
Stamina: 200
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]: 10
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 Resistance
Arcane Resistance: 2%
Combat Proficiencies:
None
Racial Quest Chain Progress:
Vampire: Started.
The Heritage Racial Quest “Blood Lord of the Night” has begun.
One mind, One people, One land, One steeple,
Two hearts, two parts, too many for us.
Members of the Imperium repeated these words in their thoughts and prayers as they broke away from the Golden City of Light and set out into the world on what they knew might very well be an unnecessary venture into the gates of the abyss. The founder, Rakuul, knew long ago that his kind would not survive the cities. Thanks to the sustaining power of the gods’ blessing granted to the racial rulers of the city, he watched for generations as his people were bred out, pushed to the lower rungs of society, and destroyed little by little.
He knew it was inevitable. The gods had blessed each of the other races, but forgotten his own. They were not faster than the water tribes, stronger than the beastkin, smarter than the underdwellers, or more magical than the Alfar. They had no innate ability to specialize in anything, and when compared to the other races, they were simply an inferior product. And he wasn’t the only one who knew it. Anyone with a set of eyes and the patience to watch would see the inevitable: his people were destined to die out in an age of peace. His sons and daughters, who should have been the princes and princesses of an entire race of people, were instead treated like jokes by even the lowliest merchants and soldiers. The age of Humanity had come and gone. The winners of the Great War were simply waiting for extinction, and Rakuul could take no more of it.
Unwilling to watch his people meet their end, he devised a plan. He began by going to the slums, the detestable warren that most of his race was forced to call home, and preaching his plan. Day in and day out, he labored to convince his people of his strategy and to procure what he would need. He spent six generations’ worth of his family's fortune buying resources, acquiring horses, and purchasing arms from blacksmiths who hadn’t made a sword in decades. He rallied those still loyal to Humanity around him with the cry for unity, the one advantage he believed his kind possessed above all others. As far as he was concerned, their ability to work together, their unerring and single-minded obsession toward victory was what had bound mankind together for a thousand years and pushed them to sacrifice everything for one another during the First Great War in a way no other race was capable of. But purpose and the willingness to aid one another, that had been lost the moment the war ended. In its place, they had been left with nothing but internal bickering. Unity, he told them, could only be achieved again in the harsh world outside the golden city.
And so, with freshly forged weapons in hand, he prepared to lead his people out of the city. Yet they didn’t go quietly. His forefathers were the ones who had built the temple where all the races prayed, his kind had laid the bricks for the roads that everyone in the city walked across, and his family had funded the construction of the public works. Before leaving, Rakuul went to the temple to make one final appeal and demanded a blessing from the gods that had for so long ignored his people’s prayers, leaving them to suffer. However, the gods were silent. Angered by their rejection, he tore down the altar of the gods. Seething with hatred and animosity, his people destroyed the temples. They tore down the monuments dedicated to the gods and desecrated the works of art built in their names.
When the other races and the Humans who didn’t agree with Rakuul realized what was happening, they raised up arms and fought back. It was a pitched and bloody battle, as even though the other residents greatly outnumbered Rakuul’s forces, they were ill-prepared for a long and drawn-out conflict. They had become complacent and comfortable with their peace, and they had no arms or training to fall back on. By the time they forced Rakuul and his people out of the city, the damage was done. The temples were wrecked, the priests were killed, and only rubble remained where once-great statues stood.
Rakuul had achieved his goal. He had made an enemy of the world and even the heavens themselves. His people had no home to return to, no friends to assist them, no land to farm or call their own, and they lived under the looming threat that the other races would exact their retribution at any day. In this forge, they were united. They were one people, one body of men, dedicated to becoming great again. He believed that he’d accomplished all he could hope for and that he would merely lead his people to the sea, where they would build a new city and create a new way of life. That was Rakuul’s vision. His master plan held no greater complexity.
Then the one prayer he had held in his heart for decades was finally answered: a god came down and bestowed a blessing upon his people. Pleased by the carnage, the Blood Goddess sent her avatar to him in the night and promised Rakuul that Humanity would rise to become the greatest of all the races if he could concede to her one request: war. So long as his people propagated war, so long as they created an endless cycle of conquest until they covered the lands with strife, his people would be blessed as the greatest among all other races, and he would be their undying leader.
Desperate for a deity to grant his people a boon, for his race to stand tall once more, Rakuul signed the blood pact without hesitation and became the first and only Blood Lord.
Now, generations later, you have been given the chance to take up his mantle. Reject all other gods before the Blood Goddess. Prove that your hunger is as great as Rakuul’s and that your thirst for blood and vengeance is as great as his. Only
then will the Blood Goddess name you as his successor. Only then will you become a Vampire and be given the chance to magnify your reign. Take your spot as the second Blood Lord and rule all until you betray the Blood Goddess or until you perish beneath the blades of your enemies.
Choose now: Do you wish to accept the Blood Goddess’s blessing?
[Yes / No]
Lucas stared at the text. Great war? Golden City of Light? He was genuinely interested in this history and lore. He wanted to learn more about it and why the gods had ignored Humanity and what this great city was or where it might be, but he didn’t have time to read it over or log off and look up the game’s history. He didn’t even think he had time to hesitate with the choice, so he instantly accepted the blessing.
Congratulations! You have taken your first step in becoming the chosen of the Blood Goddess. Now, you must complete the following quest: The Fated Son. Your race shall then be upgraded from Human to Vampire.
Quest: The Fated Son
Even among mankind today, the Blood Goddess is hated by all. Her heritage is one carved from the lives of loved ones, built upon the death of hopes and dreams and summoned from the corpses of one’s brothers on the battlefield. No man, woman, or god can easily tolerate her presence, for it harkens the potential end of their own, and as such, only the most charismatic of rulers has ever managed to build a following in her name.
Your quest, however, is not to build her following. Instead, since all forms of men and women and all gods and devils will know of your treacherous betrayal of peace and life in this world, your quest is to survive. You must overcome the throngs that will be sent by even the gods themselves to kill you. Survive until night falls and the Vampiric transformation process is complete.
Notification: In 15 minutes, the Quest to Kill Lucas will be generated by all nearby non-affiliated NPCs and given to all players in the vicinity who serve the Gods of Light.
Notification: Each individual killed by either you or your affiliates will increase your Reputation with the Blood Goddess.
Warning: Death will cause this quest to fail.
Warning: If less than a hundred individuals die before the sun sets, the quest will automatically fail.
Warning: If less than 250 individuals die before the sun sets, the bonus reward will be forfeited.
Warning: Logging out after the system begins generating quests will forfeit the quest and count as a death.
Warning: This quest is not repeatable.
What the hell? Lucas fumed as he read through the stream of ridiculous notifications. They hit him like a blow to the chest as he realized how much tougher the fight was about to become. He had hoped that he might have gotten a bonus by completing the Vampiric racial quest, which would, in turn, mean that this next fight would become easier, but he was met with the opposite instead. He didn’t get the bonus he wanted, and he was about to face literally hundreds of enemies even as he tried to clear out his newly acquired tower. You just want me to die, don’t you? Kill 250 people? Clear the dungeon? Survive from a little past noon all the way into the night as both players and NPCs are sent to kill me? Just to come out of this alive, I’ll have to draw a literal blood bath.
“That’s cute,” Lilith giggled from Lucas’s side.
“What?” Lucas asked, his internal rant disrupted.
“Your smile,” she answered. “It’s cute. I didn’t realize you could look so happy outside of a fight.”
Huh. Lucas wondered at the woman. “Did I look happy?” he muttered. “Things are about to get really tense around here. We’re going to have to kill a lot more than just the people in the building. You still coming along for the ride?”
“Hmm . . . Yeah, why not? I’m excited to see how the bloodthirsty Baron of Hesse handles himself. Will you tear a slaughterhouse line of carnage with blade and staff through a throng of people, or will you wittingly invite them to court their own end? You kill them, or you trick them into killing themselves . . . Surprise me. I can’t wait to see how you get out of this.”
Lucas paused and thought for a minute. How can I get out of this? I have fifteen in-game minutes to put together a plan. The entrances aren’t that large, so each door is basically a chokepoint that won’t allow more than two people through at a time, so unless one of the players breaks a wall . . . Lucas paused, remembering how players had assaulted his dungeon back on Hesse. No, it’s not “unless” a player destroys a wall, it’s “until” a player destroys a wall.
Lucas smiled to himself at the memory. Willmarth had become one of the richest NPCs in Hesse just selling his dungeon-wrecking explosive, the Shadow Sun, to players eager to skip challenges or open up the terrain for fights. The only saving grace was that, while a whole building could collapse, Lucas’s main chamber had been heavily fortified by the system itself, making its walls nearly indestructible. This was, after all, still a game, and it still needed to prevent players from cheating their way through to the end.
But until a player breaks a wall, the choke points shouldn’t be difficult. I can use magic, range, and good concave formations to handle the incoming enemies. Lucas wasn’t actually sure that he could pull off a victory, but he was already beginning to see ways in which it might be possible, especially if he could feed his team some levels in the process, especially his monsters and guards.
The whole time he was thinking of the plan though, he was thinking of one person he needed: Liu. The toughest fights he’d been in, such as the one against the evil Dray von Maidbanger, for instance, had been side by side with Liu. If he was going to complete some ridiculous strategy, rescue his team, and fight off a horde of enemies coming for his bounty, then he wanted her with him.
“That smile is growing bigger. You’re hatching a plan, aren’t you?” Lilith asked. “Is it going to involve a people barbecue? A torture square? No, you know, don’t tell me. The surprise makes things more fun! Although”--she bit her lower lip--“just barbecue a few people. One or two. I like the way they scream when they’re on fire.”
Lucas looked over at her and did his best to get rid of the smile he didn’t realize he was wearing. “Well, the first part of the plan is sadly going to involve you hanging out here without me for a while. Make whatever kill contraptions you want. I need to go fetch someone.” He opened up the system menu and logged out as quickly as he could without waiting for a response. He knew that it was a bit rude of him, but he was on a tight schedule. Those fifteen in-game minutes were only going to amount to five real-life minutes, so he didn’t have long to grab Liu and inform her of what was going on before logging back in.
-----
“You’re back sooner than I thought,” Liu said cheerfully as Lucas’s pod opened. She was sitting in front of a laptop loading what looked like data and reports into her GM account--reports that Lucas knew were all about him. “Did you miss me, or did you just forget to pack enough cheese to make it through the boring classes?”
“I thought you set that up in the room I gave you.” Lucas looked at her skeptically while grabbing a towel and covering himself to block Liu’s wandering gaze. He didn’t even bother with putting on pants since he’d have to take them back off soon enough, and trying to switch back and forth would only cost him a few of his already-limited seconds. It was also the reason he didn’t bother explaining to her that he had asked her to use her own space so he wouldn’t have to deal with privacy issues hopping out of his pod.
“I like the kitchen table better,” Liu answered. She clicked a few more things on her laptop and then folded it shut. “Especially since the reception is better, and your mom likes it when I call and update her about what’s been going on with you. You really should reach out on your own, though, and those infrequent text messages don’t count.”
“I don’t usually have time to give her more than a text. I’m usually busy with a project that this weird Asian girl, Xuan Guan or some such name, tricked me into,” Lucas grumbled. “But that’s not the point.”
Liu shook her head. “It’s not. You’re a grown man. You should know that family comes first, not random quests that some woman--whom I’m sure is incredibly attractive, alluring, mysterious and cool--gave you. You really need to take a little bit of time off and chat with that mother of yours. She’s always worried about you,” Liu said with a harrumph, crossing her arms and tilting her nose toward the ceiling with a smug look on her face.
“No, I mean that I’m pressed for time, and I need you for something else. We can deal with the family thing later,” Lucas explained.
“Good. Since you’ve agreed, we can get to the task at hand. Just know that you’re going to owe mom a dinner, and I’m tagging along to make sure you go.”
“Fine. Dinner tonight, and mom can choose where. But first, we have to handle something. We’ve got a big issue in the game, and I need you. Can you wrap this work up quickly and log back on?”
“Sure I can. What do you need from me?” Her spirits seeming unusually high for someone who had just spent a good bit of time doing office work.
“There’s a location in town, the merchants’ square. I’ll draw it for you on a map,” Lucas explained as he walked over to the kitchen table, pulled out a piece of paper and began roughly sketching the city, not bothering with the academy.