GG put the lamp on the desk. He took out the bowstring and placed it next to the lamp. “Okay. We should be safe here. Show me the violin.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Argo asked.
“You’ll see soon enough. Show me the violin.”
Argo accessed his ghost pack and retrieved the violin. He held it tightly to his chest though, and was ready to put it away in a snap if needed. “This is it.”
GG’s hard features softened as he gazed at the instrument. Something almost close to love appeared in his pellet dark eyes. “It’s beautiful,” he said in a breathy voice. “I never thought I’d ever see it again. Thanks for bringing it.”
“It is beautiful,” Argo agreed, beginning to relax a little. GG didn’t seem as scary now as when he first met him. “What happens now?”
“There’s another part to the quest we got to carry out,” replied GG. “It’s not going to be easy or nice. I hope you’re ready for it.”
Argo didn’t like the sound of that, but he maintained an air of nonchalance. “What do we have to do?”
GG licked his lips and was looking decidedly nervous. He was about to speak again but something stopped him. He was looking up at the oak beamed ceiling behind Argo’s head and he bunched his hands into fists. “Oh no,” he groaned.
Confused, Argo turned round as four sleek figures jumped down from the rafters. They were short and wiry, covered in slick black hair, and each of them had long spindly arms that ended in vicious-looking claws. They were clad in loin cloths and they each had a stylized dagger symbol etched in red metal stamped on their spider-like foreheads. Each of them had eight red eyes and two huge black fangs that dripped with ooze.
One of them was holding a small metal cube, and it pointed it at Argo and GG. A crackle of lightning shot out of it and hit them both at the same time.
Struck by Cube of Astral Denial! Astral Cage inflicted!
Argo braced himself for some kind of pain or game death, but nothing happened and the lightning dissipated. Argo backed away and bumped into the desk as the spider creature with the cube advanced on him.
Argo’s HUD screen told him the monster and his companions were Skragog Street Toughs belonging to the Web Blade Gang.
Skragog Street Tough
Level
20
Health
500
Stamina
60
Mana
100
A quick tooltip told Argo that Skragogs were vile spider humanoids who came from the hostile swamp lands of the south and operated across the more dangerous regions of Drake Realm—working mostly as criminals and mercenaries. The tooltip went on to outline how a large number of Skragogs lived in Gorgevade and most of them belonged to the Web Blade Gang, a powerful crime syndicate.
All this looked really bad… especially if GG was putting on a show and was actually working with them. This had all been a trap and Argo had blundered straight into it.
“Give usss the violin,” the lead Skragog hissed. The max-level NPC glared at Argo with all eight of its eyes. Argo scanned the stats of the other three and saw that they were all max level as well. He was impossibly outmatched here, even with GG’s aid. Their chances of taking them all on, and surviving, were pretty slim. Argo had no idea how he was going to escape with his life.
The Skragog leader gestured to one of his comrades to come forward. “Get the bow ssstring!”
“No!” yelled GG. He snatched up the bow. “You’re not having it!”
So GG was as trapped as he was. That was some consolation. As the other Skragog moved around the desk to take the bow by force, Argo seized the opportunity to put the violin back into his ghost pack. That’s when he realized what the Astral Cage debuff was for.
Unable to access ghost pack due to Astral Cage! 171 seconds remaining!
Argo stared at his menu in horror. There was nothing in the game that should prevent him from using his ghost pack or logging out. But then he remembered where he was. Gorgevade was an end-game city for hardcore players with PvP in mind. It was designated a ‘dark zone,’ a place for adrenaline junkies to risk big and win big—always living their lives on a razor’s edge.
Struck with panic, Argo tried to log out.
Warning! Your character will remain behind in the Astra-Verse if you log out in the middle of combat. Continue logging out?
Yes
No
Argo inhaled sharply, still holding the Violin of Henrietta Sorzatia to his chest. Even if he logged out now, his avatar would remain behind in this exact location for as long as he was in combat. Dying wouldn’t be an issue if the violin was in his ghost back. Holding it like this though? It would be as good as giving the violin up to the toughs.
The Skragog leader with the cube let out a gurgling laugh. “No good. My little gadget here ssstops you from essscaping or keeping the inssstrument from me. The violin is mine… whether you hand it over or I take it from your cooling corpse!”
Argo clutched the violin for dear life, refusing to part with it. He knew it was pointless to resist. The max-level Skragogs could simply kill him. If he didn’t have the violin safely stowed in his ghost pack, it would remain behind after he had respawned back at the manor house or the travelling hub. He suspected he would never see it again once that happened.
Despite the cold facts of the situation, he still refused to give in to the hopelessness of his position. He shot a helpless look at GG, and their eyes locked together just as the level 20 Rogue pulled a small glass jar from the pouch hanging from his belt.
Argo’s gazed fixed on it and the small glowing orb bouncing around inside it. He had seen something like this before—a Summoning Jar. It contained the spirit of a summoned entity that could be released when the jar was smashed and would fight on your side. The Summoning Jar was a one-time weapon that could never be used again and they were difficult to find across the game world. Very expensive, but very effective for emergency situations.
Once again, it came as little surprise that a player who spent time in Gorgevade happened to have one handy.
The Skragog advancing on GG to obtain the bowstring hissed in alarm and pulled a dagger from its belt. Before it could attack him, GG backed into a corner and threw the Summoning Jar down in front of him. It shattered into a myriad glass pieces on the floor and a huge plume of grey smoke came rising up to conceal the player.
A few moments later, the smoke coalesced into the lumbering bulky shape of a Rock Elemental.
Superior Rock Elemental
Level
20
Health
3,000
Stamina
999
Three thousand hit points… the Elemental possessed enough health to serve as a mini-boss in its own right. All eight eyes of the Skragog that had been going for GG widened as the Rock Elemental’s boulder-like fist came crashing down, flinging the evil monster across the room and robbing the Skragog of a good 100 of its 500 health points.
So it wasn’t just tough, but hit like a rock slide as well.
Argo darted out of the way as the Elemental smashed down on the desk, splitting it in two. Scooting over to the far side of the office, he watched as the summoned creature laid into the Skragog leader. Though it looked like the tables had turned on the gangsters, they began nimbly darting this way and that to avoid the crushing blows of their much-slower opponent. Three Skragogs also worked as a team, stabbing their daggers at the Elemental and chipping away at its health by 4 to 5 points at a time. The Elemental missed many of its blows now that the Skragogs knew what they were dealing with, but it gave GG enough time to rush forward and head for the staircase.
He had only gotten a few feet when the fourth Skragog, the one that had been punched by the Elemental, was back on its feet again. It lunged at h
im with its dagger, the weapon glowing a blood red color.
Enchanted Obsidian Dagger (Life Drain)
No wonder the blades did so little damage to the Rock Elemental. Being a spirit construct, there was no life for the blade’s enchantment to pull out. A human like GG though…
GG activated Finesse, increasing evasion and reducing threat!
GG activated Duelist’s Dance, increasing evasion and attack speed!
GG activated Spartan Step, increasing evasion and parry chance!
Skragog Tough uses Web Spin, reducing GG’s evasion and movement speed!
Skragog Tough activated Eight-Eyed Focus, increasing accuracy and parry chance!
Skragog Tough activated Arachnid Instincts, increasing accuracy and evasion!
Skragog Tough spits Skragog Venom! Skragog Venom lands true, paralyzing GG for 5 seconds!
GG activates Furious Ascendance, removing all negative stat effects!
Skragog Tough activated Endocrinal Overdrive, refreshing the cooldown of all Skragog racial skills!
Skragog Tough uses Web Spin, reducing GG’s evasion and movement speed!
Skragog Tough spits Skragog Venom! Skragog Venom lands true, paralyzing GG for 5 seconds!
Argo’s eyes swam as he watched the two high-level characters blitz through their special skills, one eye on their fight and another on the combat log. GG, however, ultimately found himself unable to cope with his enemy’s consecutive debuffs.
The Skragog shoved the blade deep between GG’s shoulder blades in a lethal backstab maneuver, allowing the life drain to start doing its deadly work. GG fell to his knees as 10, 20, 30 points were leeched out by the enchanted blade. The Skragog brought up another blade, this one longer and curved, and drove it into the Rogue’s flank. This blade was also worked through with a life drain, and began eating away GG’s limited stockpile of HP. He was dead within a matter of heartbeats.
Argo watched in fear as GG’s avatar slumped to the ground. The Skragog clicked and snickered as it snatched the bowstring from his lifeless corpse. The monster’s spidery mouth split into a grin when it spotted Argo and it advanced upon the Spy.
Argo uses Irrelevance on Skragog Tough!
Skragog Tough resists Irrelevance!
The Skragog snickered as Argo whimpered in despair. It was a long shot, with plenty of factors going against the odds: the Skragog was already aware of his presence, significantly higher in level when compared to him, and probably possessed high Willpower scores.
Focused completely on Argo, the Skragog Tough failed to notice the Rock Elemental rushing behind it—drawn to the excessive amounts of threat generated from killing GG. The Elemental swung one massive fist, throwing the Tough against the other wall and dealing 100 damage. That attack brought the Skragog Tough’s health down to 300 from its original 500. The Elemental wasn’t quite done yet, though. It bounded forward, activating a power attack and slamming its two fists into the dazed Skragog’s head.
Superior Rock Elemental used Seismic Slam! Vital organ struck! Critical damage registered, dealing 2x damage from the attack (600 damage)! 200% OVERKILL!!!
The Rock Elemental’s insane damage all focused on the squishy head of the Skragog Tough… suffice to say that it left only a pasty, gooey mess.
Absorbed 200 experience points (482/500 XP, 18 XP to next level)
Argo gasped at the huge experience bonanza. Players would need thousands upon thousands of experience to close the gap from level 19 to level 20. 200 experience was peanuts for players at that level.
At Argo’s level, though, that 200 experience was almost enough to boost him to level 3!
However, it was way too early to celebrate. The Elemental still possessed more than 2,500 health and went lumbering back to deal with the other three Skragogs. Though GG was now gone, the Elemental would remain in existence for the allotted time set by the Summoning Jar’s parameters. Kip used one before to summon a minor wind elemental, and it lasted for about 5 minutes before fading out of existence. Once the Rock Elemental disappeared, Argo would be finished.
Without a second thought, he hurried across the office and bolted down the steps, rushing headlong for the door they had come in through.
“Ssstop him!” yelled the Skragog leader, but the Rock Elemental refused to let go of its targets. It continued threatening them with superpowered punches and Seismic Slams.
Argo ran for all of his worth across the dusty floor of the warehouse, and burst through the door and out into daylight. He skidded to a halt and nearly fell into a pile of garbage, only narrowly avoiding going headfirst into it. Behind him came the sounds of the battle from the upstairs office. Two passing players, both as rough-looking and sinister as GG, gave him a curious look and started moving closer.
Unable to access ghost pack due to Astral Cage! 118 seconds remaining!
Still clutching the precious violin to his chest, Argo fled down the narrow street, away from them and the warehouse. He saw an alleyway lead off from it and dived down it, then down another turning and another until he was well and truly lost. He kept on running though, until he was certain no one was following him.
Panting hard and shaking with exhaustion, he finally came to a halt in a pokey little alcove and crouched down on his knees to get his breath back. The alley he was in was deserted, and he now had time to recover his stamina. By some miracle, the violin had not sustained any damage.
Unable to access ghost pack due to Astral Cage! 68 seconds remaining!
Argo inhaled several deep breaths to calm down. Things would be alright. He would just wait a minute longer, and he’d be able to stuff the violin into his inventory before heading back to the manor. Heck, he wouldn’t even mind dying since he already prepared himself for it.
3… 2… 1… Astral Cage debuff expired! You may now—
{
sys.admin_override
AstralCagetimer.setvalue[9999]
sys.admin_override
bind.key.command_exit_NULL
}
Unable to access ghost pack due to Astral Cage! 9997 seconds remaining!
Argo’s heart missed a beat as he looked on at his combat log. Sensing something wrong, he immediately brought up his HUD to log out—contact Astra-verse customer support.
Log Out from the Astra-Verse?
NULL_VAL
NULL_VAL
!!!BRAIN LOCK DETECTED!!!
Please stand by for assistance…
The Over Monitor will be with you shortly.
{
sys.admin_override
bind.key.command_exit_DEFAULT
priority.emergency.trigger_0
Over.Monitor_partition_8231a_status.IGNORE
}
Apologies for the interruption in your playtime!
Thank you for your understanding, and have a great day in the Astra-verse!
{
sys.admin_override
set_combattimer_[9999]
}
Warning! Your character will remain behind in the Astra-Verse if you log out in the middle of combat. Continue logging out?
Yes
No
“Combat? What combat! What the hell is going on!” Argo screamed out to no one in particular, his eyes darting all over the babble of text filling his chat log. He swung his head left and right, checking if something was attacking him. Nothing—he was safe and sound in the alley.
Warning! Your character will remain behind in the Astra-Verse if you log out in the middle of combat. Continue logging out?
Yes
No
“No… no, no, NO!!!”
Argo’s breaths came quick and shallow. This must be a bug of some kind, a glitch somewhere that prevented him from acces
sing his ghost pack and safely logging out. Well, he could force a logout, but his character would remain standing around where he was—still holding the Violin of Henrietta Sorzatia for all to see.
Anyone could just walk up and take the violin for themselves. Forcing himself to think, he figured he could maybe head to the central hub and call out for an in-game Admin to help him out. That was a workable plan… it had to be.
Spy: Reborn Page 23