by A P Gore
Why didn’t I notice this back when I fought with the goblins?
Noah accessed the menu of the expansion site, but it was worthless. He didn’t know what BP was or how to get them. He had none, and he had no worker, so it was useless to him right now. He decided to walk around and map the area. He started walking around the stone circle he had prepared. The stone circle wasn’t a big one, maybe 10 meters in diameter. Along with the silence, there was one other strange thing about the expansion site: the trees. There were no trees around the border of the expansion site, nor within a one-meter ring around the area. It was like someone had cut down the forest and placed the expansion site. He kneeled down, rubbing the soil between his fingers, smelling it. There was no difference. The soil was the same in the empty space as it was below the trees. There was something he could find that should prevent the trees growing around the expansion site.
Noah crossed the boundary again and walked toward the center of the expansion site. The trees got thicker as he advanced, and eventually becoming so dense that Noah couldn’t see what was beyond them. The trees literally formed a wall of branches and trunks. Noah tried to slash a couple with his knife, but with his low score in strength and dexterity he could only scratch the surface of the wood.
With frustration he threw his knife down and looked around, trying to find something to do. The wall of wood wouldn’t allow him to enter, and he had come here in hope of solving the mystery of his expansion site. There was something at its heart, and he wanted to see it with his own eyes.
Something rustled behind him. He spun, readying a poison orb. A demon in black leather armor walked toward him. Her hips swayed with every step, and so did his eyes, focused on the perfect legs that were heading toward him.
“Rihala, what are you doing here?” He lifted his eyes to her face, stopping for a brief moment on her breasts. There was something in her that he found attractive on a primal level.
“Human. I didn’t expect to see you on the sacred site of the fire dragon. My mom says to stay away from any dragon site.”
“Fire Dragon?” Noah’s wandering eyes jumped back to her face. She wore a sweet smile. But below that smile, on her long neck, there was a thin black collar that didn’t suit her looks.
“Yes,” she said. “Didn’t your companion tell you about this?”
“This is an expansion site, which I claimed.”
Her lavender eyes widened. “You claimed this one? How foolish can you be, human?” Fear lurked in her voice. “In the name of Zedusa, what have you done, human? My mom says don’t ever step inside the dragon site. They are cursed. And you claimed it? Why?” Her tail sprang at Noah like a snake. She grabbed it and pulled it back, wrapping it around her waist.
“First, call me Noah,” Noah said.
“Naha.” She fumbled with the pronunciation of his name in a cute way.
“N-o-a-a-h.”
“Noha,” she repeated.
“No-ah.” He chuckled. “Anyway, about claiming the site, what’s the problem?” He quickly went through his character sheet, but everything looked okay. There was no debuff.
She pointed at a big stone sitting nearby, below a thick pine tree. “Come outside of the boundary, and we’ll talk.”
Noah realized she’d been standing outside the boundary all along. Noah nodded and joined her.
“Tell me now.” Noah grabbed a place next to her on the makeshift bench. She smelled exotic today, and the fresh smell of the forest couldn’t mask it. Or maybe it was because he was sitting just inches away from the she demon. He was getting a close look at her features now, specially her face and cherry red lips. “Do you use lip shades?”
She tilted her head, staring in his eyes. “What is lip shades?”
“Nothing, a traveler’s term.”
“Let me apologize for the incident yesterday.” Her sad eyes lowered. “I don’t have a good control of my body. When I went back to Xynnar, I couldn’t sleep for few hours thinking that I killed you. I’m sorry human.”
“That’s okay,” Noah said. His most recent death was actually a funny and sensual moment for him. His eyes automatically went to her breasts, imagining how soft they were.
She steered the conversation back to the expansion site. “Actually, no one, other than a high priest or higher, can claim it. I don't understand how you did it. Our land was ruled by gods many million years ago. Even before the humans and travelers came to our lands. History says that dragons too lived in that time period, and they used to walk on earth along with the gods. There were hundreds of them, and when the War of Faiths happened, dragons perished and god’s left the land. At the site of a dragon’s death, a sacred site emerged. This one is called the sacred site of the fire dragon. High Priest Jethro says these are cursed sites, and no one should claim them or live there.”
“Okay.” Noah pulled his eyes from her face and studied the thick wall of woods at the center of the expansion site. “What else do you know about the expansion site… sorry, the sacred site?”
“Nothing. We demons don’t visit this site, as we get a fire resistance penalty applied when we try to enter it.”
“Hmm. If you ask me, it’s a myth. Anyway, why do you have a collar around your neck?”
Rihala jumped to her feet and pulled out her bow, nocking an arrow and pointing it at his face. Her eyes turned dark too, and her tail jumped ahead, trying to hit him.
Noah jumped back, activating his poison shield. “What?”
Rihala pulled her tail back and tucked it inside a cloth wrapped around her waist. “Do not try to buy me, human. I'm not a pet.”
Anger coated her words, and then she vanished into the bushes.
12. Killing ground
A dreaded long metal pole stained in blood towered over him. The smell of death and rotten flesh made his stomach lurch, trying to push out the beef he had eaten that morning. But spitting it out now would mean spitting on his own body. That would have been disgusting, even though he was incapacitated by the ropes tying him to the metal hooks placed in the ground.
A clank of metal against metal attracted Noah’s attention. He tilted his head to face the direction of the sound. Something hard cracked beneath him, shattering into pieces that pinched his naked flesh. The bastard who’d brought him here had removed his armor and shirt. A demon wearing a dark black hood, black tunic, and gray pants was heading toward him. For the first time, Noah spotted a scar running above the demon’s left eye.
Panic slid across his spine as he realized it was the same demon that had killed him many times.
This is bad. Why does he have to kill me? What did I do wrong?
Two knives flashed in his view as the last rays of sunlight passed over the metal, and then the sun dimmed like a dying candle. He understood how the dying candle felt at the last stretch of its life. He felt the same.
But why did I end up like this?
It was a new day, bright and shiny. Noah was whistling an old tune while he played with Thia in their room. After meeting Rihala the day before, he was hoping to meet her again. She would be hunting in the forest. He hated to admit it but meeting the only known female demon tickled something in his heart. Maybe an attraction for the opposite sex, but he enjoyed her quirky company too. By the time he got out of town, from the south gate, it was noon, and the sun was beating down on the road. But to him it was as chilly as walking in winter evening air.
After moving into the forest, he spotted a snake. He crushed it under his foot with the evilest smile he could conjure. It was the same animal that had almost killed him a few days back, and now he was crushing it like a soft, rotten potato.
The snake under his feet vanished, and a piece of meat and skin took its place.
A new setting popped up in his vision, offering to let him choose what would happen when a monster died. He chooses to retain the monster’s body.
A new option, Raise Zombie, also popped up. With a grin that rivaled Sumara’s, Noah raised his firs
t zombie.
The meat piece and skin of the snake swirled around, forming a thick cloud of black smoke and giving off the foul odor of decayed meat. The mist thickened and materialized into a snake with black patches all over its length. The snake hissed at him with an animosity Noah had never seen before. The snake sprang at Noah, but as soon as it got close, its aggressiveness faded and it froze on the spot. So, his zombie couldn’t harm him by any means. That was a good thing to know. A small snake face icon appeared in the left corner of his vision. He cast perception on the snake.
Level 2 snake zombie
Life 20 (Low level penalty)
Damage 2 (Low level penalty)
Time 20 minutes (Low level penalty)
Damn! What level of monster would I need to raise to get a full power zombie?
The snake’s low level had resulted in the low-level zombie. At level 4 of the spell, his zombie should have had 180 life, 25 damage and 60 minutes of uptime, but all he got was crickets. “I need to test this extensively.”
Noah quickened his pace and traveled deeper into the forest, ignoring the other snakes. The zombie snake followed him and died when its timer ran out. Noah stopped when the rat territory began. With a pounding heart, he killed and raised one rat. This time he got better results.
Zombie Rat
Level 4
Life 100 (Low level penalty)
Damage 15 (Low level penalty)
Time 40 minutes (Low level penalty)
He was almost there. He needed something level 5 to test his theory on. He killed two more rats, gaining negligible experience, and raised them as zombies. He needed something better, and he found it: a lone goblin warrior with a weird ball in his hand. He let his zombies attack… well, his zombies were already on the target even before he commanded them to. They didn’t wait for his instruction.
The goblin, wearing only red pants, was startled for a moment when three zombie rats jumped him out of nowhere, but soon he recovered and started firing ice shots at them. Noah regretted not having a crystal handy to capture the spell.
Noah watched the battle from a distance. The zombie rats were latching onto the goblin’s skin with a ferocity he had not seen before. The goblin was constantly shooting ice spells at the rats.
Noah laughed hard when one of the zombies latched onto the goblin’s private parts and bit off a chunk of it. The goblin looked at the rat, and then at his bloody groin in horror before screaming bloody murder.
Seeing him in pain, Noah got an idea. He had a perfect curse for this situation. He cast his curse of pain on the goblin. A black circle appeared around the goblin briefly. A black debuff icon appeared over the goblin’s head, a black icon of physical pain. A debuff of physical pain. Now with every chomping attack by a rat zombie, the goblin roared louder, feeling more pain.
Noah stayed behind a thick palm tree, laughing, enjoying the passive attack strategy. It was best and suited him perfectly. Now he could wreak havoc on the opponent and enjoy it without worrying about death. Finally, both of his classes were meshing together. Cursemancer wasn’t a bad choice after all.
The goblin finished off the rat zombies one by one with his magical spells, but the zombies had lowered his health from 400 to 300. When the last rat died, Noah cast a fire ball curse on the goblin, taking out 73 life. Thanks to Noah’s passive skill, the goblin took an extra 10% of 66 damage. It would have been double if Noah had scored a crit. The spirit cost of his spell hurt without a crit.
The goblin startled at the sudden attack, but his small red eyes tracked the source of it pretty fast.
Noah shot a poison orb, but the goblin dodged it easily. He was faster than Noah had imagined.
Noah charged his legs with spirit and dashed forward, surprising the goblin with his speed. One moment of surprise was all Noah needed. He cursed the goblin with a fire ball curse, and aimed for the goblin’s head. The curse landed, hitting the goblin with a crit and scoring 146 damage. The goblin was down to 81 life, but he was shooting a constant stream of ice spells at Noah. Noah dodged a couple of spells, soaked a couple on his spirit shield, and hit the goblin with a pair of poison orbs, ending the goblin’s life once and for all.
The goblin died, leaving a couple of items and a burnt corpse behind.
Noah now understood why the game by default dissolved the corpses into pieces of meat and skin. The sight of scattered body parts or exposed internal organs with blood all over wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He could handle it, because he’d dissected various species for experimentation in real life. Not every player was a researcher in real life, though.
At least the game developers did one good thing.
He picked up the item lying on the ground and inspected it. It was a broken uncommon mana source. It was of no use to Noah, but he put it in his bag anyway and cast his new favorite spell on the dead meat, raising a goblin zombie. Thank God, it didn’t look like the dead body.
The other item was a dirty bone that reeked.
Unidentified bone of a goblin lord.
Properties locked.
Noah dropped it inside his bag of holding, which was now getting full. He needed to see if he could increase its space with some enhancements. Maybe he could put his enhancer profession to use. But how? That was a big question for which he had no answer. He could think about it later. Right now his focus was on the perfect zombie.
Rihala would be impressed to see a zombie pet.
A zombie goblin with battered skin and black eyes stood in front of him, waiting for his orders.
Zombie Goblin
Level 6
Life 180
Damage 25
Time 60 minutes
Noah jumped in the air, shouting in triumph. Finally, he got something useful. It was too bad that the spell had a timer, but when the spell level got high, he would be able to mitigate most of the negative effects. That’s what he planned to do. That’s what would bring him closer to his goal.
That’s when the shit got real.
A tail wrapped around his neck and dragged him down. He pumped his neck with spirit strengthening, willing the zombie goblin to attack whoever was trying to kill him. The goblin moved and started clawing at the demon behind Noah.
With the goblin distracting the demon, and his own spirit strengthening, Noah managed to pull the tail away from his neck. He spun on the balls of his feet, charging at the demon with two poison orbs, but the demon was faster than he expected. His goblin was already dead by the time he spun, and a tail flew at his neck once again. This time, the tail pierced deep inside his neck, paralyzing his whole body.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on a stone bed, paralyzed, and a demon was heading toward him with a butcher knife in his hand. The only thing he spotted was the scar above the left eye, a scar Roderich had.
Noah closed his eyes when the knife came too close to his eyes. Over the next ten minutes, the demon carved out his tongue, his stomach, and then his eyes. The pain only ended when his heart finally gave out.
13. Dark Crystal orb
Noah raced into the inn, ignoring the demon in blue pants sitting at the first table. Mathial wasn’t at the bar. Noah pressed on to the smithy. His anger swelled when he spotted Roderich sitting on the iron anvil, chatting with the blacksmith. That was the man who was responsible for his last eight hours of agony and pain in the respawn room. He had felt his organs being removed from his body again and again and again until he’d passed out. When he woke, the whole thing played in his mind once more.
A few more hours of torture, and he would have lost his mind.
Only the goddess, who offered him some solace and a healing drink, saved his mind from the brutal torture.
Noah surged forward, grabbing Roderich’s collar. The petite demon didn’t resist until Noah shoved him against the wall.
“Why did you do it?” The words sputtered out of Noah’s mouth along with a moan of remembered pain. It was crazy, to feel his eyes getting pulled out of his soc
kets with the butcher’s knife for the tenth time, and then feeling his arteries being cut as his kidney was removed. The bastard high mage had done it to him, and today he would pay the price for it.
Mathial lifted his hammer and approached. “Human, put him down.”
“Mathial, wait. Noah, what’s the matter?” Roderich asked in a calm voice.
“Noah, get your filthy hands off the high mage.” Mathial moved closer, his hammer raised above his head.
Noah conjured a poison orb on his left hand while still holding Roderich with his right. “You killed me, bastard! But why did you cut my organs out?
A light violet notification popped up. Noah didn’t bother to open it.
“I didn’t kill you, Noah.” Roderich was unbelievably calm. Didn’t he fear for his life?
“And what proof do you have, human?” Mathial bellowed. “Let him down!” He swung his hammer at Noah, but Roderich caught the hammer with one hand, stopping it.
Noah let Roderich go. Who he was kidding? The high mage had stopped a full force attack from Mathial. If it wasn’t for Roderich, that attack would have injured him badly. Maybe even killed him. Roderich was strong, and yet he let a level 5 player accost him. Noah dropped his butt on an anvil and rubbed his face with both hands. “But why?” He wanted to get rid of the memories and live in peace. But the demon that killed him didn’t want it to happen.
“I didn’t kill you, Noah.”
Noah’s eyes jumped up, focusing on the scar above Roderich’s left eye. “You have the same scar as the demon that killed me.”
“I can introduce you to ten demons who have a scar above their left eyes in our town. We live in a time of violence, human, and a mere scar doesn’t represent the identity of a person.”
Roderich was right. A scar wasn’t sufficient, but that meant the demon would kill him again. What if Sumara didn’t give him the magic drink next time?
Roderich tapped on Noah’s shoulder. “Come with me.”