by EA Hooper
“That’s it?” she asked. “What about if we use your Debuff Chains?” She held out her arms.
Vincent cast the spell to cut her levels in half before True Scanning her. Her level meters showed the original numbers in parentheses beside much smaller new numbers. Remembering that his Debuff Chains also turned the user’s magic against them, he True Scanned her again after a minute to find the meter for Spirit had already increased.
“It looks like Debuff Chains force the game to treat you as if you were a lower level,” Vincent told her. “There’s even a new total based on the XP needed for lower levels. Anything you gain to that bar gets multiplied over to your real XP.”
“So, if I fight a giant like this, I’ll get its huge challenge rating bonus, and then whatever points I get will be multiplied to my actual progress bar?”
“Yep, that’s right.”
Xan smiled. “Alright, here’s the plan. You’re going to debuff yourself, and we’ll both put on rune armor. You use your gun to shoot out its kneecaps to topple it, and then we’ll go in close range, fighting it while its down. I think the two of us can pick off lone giants while we’re traveling this world. If we come across two or more, we’ll break our chains. Got it?”
“Sounds like a plan, boss,” Vincent replied.
Chapter 6 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Wanderer
Location: Nokai (World) | The Isolation Mountains (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 195
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
After more than a week of traveling the icy world, Vincent and Xan had managed to slay twenty giants while wearing Debuff Chains, letting them level up a couple of stats each. On five other occasions, they’d been forced to break their chains and unleash their full power against groups of giants. They walked across miles of ice and snow through valleys, forests, canyons, and mountain passes. However, they couldn’t find any sign of the Jump Gate.
It’d been Xan’s idea to scout the mountain range of solid ice that created a circular pattern in the north-east hemisphere. Vincent thought it was a little too far from the opposite side of where they’d started, but he agreed the shape of the mountains made it an excellent spot to hide the Jump Gate.
They spent half a day trying to find a way up the steep ice slopes, but each failed attempt sent them sliding or rolling back to the bottom. Vincent and Xan even tried climbing with pickaxes, only to cause an avalanche that buried them under tons of ice.
They broke their Debuff Chains and tried a combination of Wall-Walking Boots with rope, but after half an hour of trial and error, one little slip sent them crashing back to the bottom. Vincent remained patient throughout the day, but he noticed Xan growing more irritable.
“Ugh, it just had to be a god damn ice wall standing in my way,” Xan grumbled. She looked up and down the towering ice, trying to figure out the best approach. “I’m starting to think these walls are impassable, but that only makes me think this is definitely the way to the Jump Gate.”
“When we first arrived, Scan said to stay underground and take our time,” Vincent recalled. “It’s likely that the way to reach the Jump Gate is through an underground tunnel.”
“Have you seen any tunnels?” Xan asked.
Vincent shook his head. “Not since we spotted those mammoths by that cave two days ago.”
“Are you sure you can’t throw me up and over with Zero Field?”
“It’s too tall. You know moving people costs me more mana. I’m working on an upgrade for that, but it’s only at sixty-one percent.”
“An upgrade, huh?” Xan said, pausing to think. “You just reminded me I’m working on an upgrade to make Barrier Wall moveable. Maybe I can use it to elevate us, then you can toss me.”
She cast Barrier Wall, creating a rectangular forcefield in front of herself. Unlike most forcefields, that spell was more rigid and didn’t even allow the user to pass through it. Xan waved to make the wall fall flat on the ground. Both players stepped onto the orange shield, and then the Cleric raised her hand, causing the wall to float into the air.
Vincent looked above, trying to find the easiest place to launch Xan. The only level spot on the ice wall looked like it was a hundred meters above them.
“My mana is draining really fast,” Xan said, her face straining as she lifted them higher.
They’d almost reached a height Vincent thought suitable, when the Barrier Wall slowed to a stop.
“I can’t go any higher,” Xan said. “I’m not even sure if I can equip a rope without dropping us.”
Vincent’s sharp eyes studied the distance. “If I put most of my mana into it, I might be able to throw you to the ledge, but then I won’t have a way up.”
“Actually, I have another spell I’m working on that will solve this problem,” Xan replied. “It’s at ninety-nine percent, but it works about half the time. Just throw me up there, and I’ll try it.”
Vincent sighed. “Alright, get ready.” He waited for a second before he cast Zero Field, pouring as much mana as possible into launching Xan upward toward the ledge. The powerful gravitational field caused him to knock himself off the Barrier Wall, but his Gravity Shield absorbed the damage of the fall at the bottom. When he glanced up, he saw Xan had stabbed an axe into the top of the ledge. Her feet kicked and slipped against the ice for a moment, but then she pulled herself up.
>Alexandria: Give me a second.
Xan created a spear of light that looked outlined with the frame of a barrier, then hurled it into the ground in front of Vincent. The light pierced through the ground, but orange lines formed a large square in the snow.
When Vincent glanced up, he saw Xan had disappeared from the ledge.
>Alexandria: Stand in the square and disable your Gravity Shield.
Vincent stood on the shape, and the square raised, forming a box-like barrier around him. He swapped his Gravity Shield for the old-fashioned Mana Shield, refilled his mana with a full thermos, and then Scanned the barrier
[Incomplete Spell] (Cleric-Warden Only) – Mana Usage: High | ???
So, it’s some kind of spell you have to be both a Cleric and a Warden to learn. It stabs into the ground like her World Fountain, too, so maybe there’s world magic involved? That explains why she told me to disable Gravity Shield.
Before Vincent could analyze the spell any further, a flash of white light enveloped everything in his sight. When it faded, he found himself standing on a massive plateau that filled the middle of the mountain range. The box around him twinkled and vanished, and then he looked up at Xan beside him.
“What the—” he muttered.
“My spell is complete!” Xan squealed. “I think I’ll call it… Box Teleport.”
Vincent reenabled his Gravity Shield and smiled at Xan. “What a fascinating power. Why didn’t you tell me you were developing something like that?”
“I wanted to have it completed before I showed you,” she replied. “I know interesting powers fascinate you. Not to mention, you were the one that got me into world magic in the first place. I wanted to impress you.”
“I’m impressed, alright. I thought only the mods—or just Valery now—could use teleportation spells like that.”
“And the mod powers are based in world magic,” Xan noted. “Don’t question it—just be glad it worked. Last time I tried it on Zhang, he wound up with his bottom half fused to the ground. That’s what caused the argument that finally sent us on our separate ways.”
“Ah, so that’s why you two broke up,” Vincent said, smirking.
“It wasn’t a—” Xan paused and smiled. “Yeah, that’s what triggered the breakup, but it was a long time coming. Even though I have a lifetime of experience in this game, the fifteen-year age difference in our brains was too much. I was too immature for him, and h
e was too set in his ways for me.”
“Well, you have a few more lifetimes in this game to meet a guy that’s compatible.”
Xan started to shrug at the comment, but she froze as the entire plateau began to tremble.
Vincent noticed near the center of the area there were stairs that ascended from a tunnel. The stairs wrapped around the Jump Gate they’d been looking for, but a blue barrier appeared around it.
“Looks like we just walked into a boss battle,” he remarked.
A monstrous roar shook the mountain range, and Vincent finally realized one of the peaks wasn’t a peak at all. The beast raised its stout head, and icy scales jutted outward, revealing the shape of a tremendous ice dragon.
Interested to test out True Scan on a boss, Vincent turned his spell on the monster, weeding out the useless information.
Jho’ron of the Infinite Freeze (World Boss) – Monster Class: A | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: One In-Game Day | Personality: Spiteful (Additional Traits: Curious, Angry if injured, and Sorrowful if dying). | Challenge Rating: +6,700% | Trigger #1: Awakens when players approach the nearby Jump Gate without taking the underground route. Trigger #2: Fights defensively if struck by fire spells. | Weakness: Fire (52% more effective), Ghostfire (61% more effective) | Unique Players Slain: 102 | Times Defeated: 0 (Unique Token still available) | Death Triggers: Brain (if 10% damaged), Heart (if 15% damaged), Blood (if 20% lost), Full Body Total (if 20% damaged), Lifeforce (if 100% lost). Scale Rating: 200 | Bone Rating: 300 | Magical Protection: 150 (all other body parts). Flight: No.
Vincent sorted through the information as the boss climbed down. As he finished reading, the dragon opened his mouth and unleashed an icy breath that froze the entire plateau.
Both players had to break their feet off the frozen ground, and Vincent noticed the ice crawling up his legs and coat. His body felt cold even though he’d reheated the pads in the coat just an hour earlier.
Jho’ron stomped across the plateau, his mouth opened wide to devour them. Without a thought, Vincent released four rapid-fire Void Guns through the dragon’s head, but it didn’t look like he’d dealt enough damage to slay the dragon.
The World Boss hesitated for a moment, roaring with anger and pain as blood poured down his face. Within those brief seconds, Xan waved her hand, sending beams of light at the ground between them and the boss. A wave of white magic appeared from the ground a second later, rising higher than the dragon.
World Wall (Cleric-Warden Only) – Mana Usage: High | Sends beams of light into the ground. After a one-second delay, a wall of world magic rises from the earth. This wall is stabilized for thirty seconds before collapsing.
The ice dragon slashed at the white wall to no avail, and even its ice breath had no effect.
Vincent and Xan used the reprieve to replenish their mana.
“Use the Guardian’s Blade you got from Fayros,” Vincent told Xan, equipping his own. “True Scan showed me that he’s weak against ghostfire.”
Xan nodded, two-handing the sword as the World Boss circled around the wall. Waves of ghostly flames flew from their blades, directed at the dragon’s snout as the beast turned the corner. The World Boss reeled back in pain, hissing just before he unleashed a chilling blast.
The dragon’s attack hit Xan directly, freezing her entire body and the surrounding ground in several meters of ice. Vincent saw her sword glowing with ghostfire as she tried to melt herself free, and he blasted the outside with another wave. Before he could finish, however, the boss stampeded forward.
Vincent swung his blade, using ghostfire to melt a path he could run on without sliding. He hurried along, leading the dragon away from Xan as she worked to escape, but the beast soon caught up with Vincent.
Jho’ron snapped his teeth at the player, trying to swallow the man in an instant. The dragon had a look of surprise as the man unequipped his sword and grabbed the monster’s teeth, stopping Jho’ron mid-bite. Several teeth pressed hard against Vincent’s body, but his Gravity Shield held them back.
Vincent struggled as the jaw clenched harder. Teeth dug into his sides, tearing through his cloak and heated gear, and then the dragon lifted him off the ground. Vincent thought Jho’ron might try to swallow him whole, but that notion disappeared in an instant as the beast hurled him across the plateau.
Vincent bounced off the stone surface once before colliding with an ice peak a hundred meters from the dragon. A pained groan escaped his lips, and he struggled to stand, realizing he’d broken more than a few bones. He crumpled to his knees as the World Boss stomped across the arena.
Having escaped from her ice prison, Xan intercepted the dragon and stabbed her Guardian’s Blade into its underbelly. She unleashed waves of ghostfire as she slashed across Jho’ron’s chest. Blood rained from the opening, and the dragon roared, knocking Xan away with the swipe of his talon.
Xan rolled across the ground, caught herself, and swung her blade once more. Another wave of ghostfire caught the dragon in the stomach, burning a gaping hole into his body. Jho’ron toppled over and crashed near the Jump Gate as blood gushed from him.
The beast snarled, hissed, and even snapped his teeth defensively. However, the blood continued to flow from his injuries, and the dragon seemed to lose the strength to fight back. After a few seconds of whimpering, Jho’ron laid his head down and crumbled into dust.
The barrier around the Jump Gate flickered and faded away.
Xan approached Vincent to heal him. She fixed his broken bones with Bone Reshape, used a spell Vincent wasn’t familiar with to stop his internal bleeding, and then finished the process with Healing Light. Within seconds, the Ranger was back on his feet.
“Maybe we should follow instructions on the next world,” Xan said, grinning. “As much fun as this was, it’ll be a waste of Jump Crystals if we have to go through these worlds again.”
“I think the next one is the last part of the Kai Run,” Vincent told her. “So, it must be the world with the devils.”
Xan walked over to Jho’ron’s remains and picked up the items left behind. When she grabbed the Unique Token, Vincent saw his copy appear in his inventory.
“Didn’t you say you got that World Core thing in your gun by trading these to an NPC?” Xan asked, turning her copy of the coin over in her fingers.
“Yeah, Archie,” Vincent replied. “Maybe you’ll meet him one day. He’s an interesting fellow.”
They both approached the Jump Gate, equipped the crystals, and watched the items vanish one by one. A gravitational field ripped them from the platform, sending them hurtling across space once more. They flew toward a small world that didn’t look unusual, except for ruined cities that covered almost half the planet. Vincent used True Scan, interested to see what kind of extra information he could find.
Kailin – Classification: Nature-World (Previous Designation: City-World) | Size: Medium (size and composition statistics minimized by the user) | Fact #1: The first NPC cities were built on Kailin. | Fact #2: Most common enemies are devils. | Warning #1: Many devils will accept offerings of gild. | Warning #2: Do not enter any ruins without permission. They belong to the devils now.
Kailin (Removed Information) – Note #1: Kailin is the original homeworld of most the World-Tree’s NPCs. | Note #2: Without natural predators on Kailin, the NPCs flourished, building cities too quickly during extended periods of time-dilation tests. | Note #3: Certain NPCs became unstable after uninterrupted growth. Devils were introduced to challenge and limit NPCs. | Note #4: First City-World a failure. Problem NPCs were removed, and the rest were split across numerous worlds. | Note #5: Primary Jump Gates were removed. Only players that follow a specific path will find this world.
Vincent’s feet touched the Jump Gate while he continued to read over the information.
Did ARKUS make these notes, or its developers? And what does it mean by NPCs becoming unstable? Couldn’t ARKUS just recode them if they acted out? I wonder if that’s why ARKUS slowly phas
ed out most of the NPCs once players arrived.
“So, what’s the deal with this one?” Xan asked. “You have to take your shoes off before entering buildings? Don’t run with weapons? The devils know every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done in-game, and they mock you the entire way?”
“We’re not supposed to enter the ruins,” Vincent told her. “Also, you can bribe devils with gild.”
“Jim says that doesn’t always work,” Xan noted.
Vincent shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out. Do you have much gild on you?”
Xan shook her head. “I try to keep it in storage, so I won’t be tempted to spend it on overpriced junk. Inflation’s been getting worse the last two decades, especially since players are farming again.”
“It won’t be once more people figure out alchemy,” Vincent said. “Jim says alchemy is really popular with higher-level players on Styxis, and gild is extremely alchemic. You can convert it into almost anything, but stronger materials require a lot.”
Vincent remembered his True Scan had showed him the alchemic rating of skyglass, so he took a gild coin from his inventory, True Scanned it, and filtered out everything but that one rating.
1-Piece Gild Coin – Alchemic Rating 90%
“Its rating is ninety percent,” Vincent told Xan. “Interestingly, that skyglass has ninety-nine percent.”
“Then I’m sure it’ll be worth a lot,” Xan said, eyeing the horizon. “So, which way?”
Vincent looked beyond the nearby fields, noticing ruins in almost every direction. “I don’t know. You wanted to lead, didn’t you?”
“I think I got that out of my system. Gutting that ice dragon felt like a nice, metaphorical way of telling myself to stop thinking about Zhang.”
“Just don’t make a habit of solving all your issues with video game violence,” Vincent told her.